380 
NATURE 
[JUNE 13, 1902 
In reality, however, there is but little foundation 
for such a reproach. A correct observation is one 
thing; the interpretation of it is another. Inter- 
pretation must almost necessarily change as new 
facts become known, and a mere clinging to 
exploded theories affords no claim to distinction. 
But no one has ever accused Strasburger of care- 
lessness in observation. His scientific memoirs 
are repositories of facts many of which as yet 
cannot be fully utilised. He, no less than others, 
strove to fit the facts into their place, but unlike 
many people, he was always ready to reconsider 
the grouping. 
Amongst his many contributions to our know- 
ledge of important problems of wide biological 
importance, special allusion may be perhaps made 
to a paper that appeared in the Biologisches Cen- 
tralblatt about twelve years ago, in which he 
traced the effect of Ustilago violacea in causing 
the normally latent stamens in Lychnis dioica to 
develop within the female flower. In this paper 
are also detailed many experiments on the possi- 
bility of influencing the numerical ratio of the 
sexes in dicecious plants. 
Limitations of space, however, quite forbid any 
attempt to do justice here to Strasburger’s 
scientific work. That will be more appropriately 
dealt with in another place. It is rather of the 
man and of his personality that one would speak, 
even though briefly. 
He was possessed of a singular charm of 
manner, which also makes itself felt in many of 
his writings. In controversy he was always a 
courteous opponent, and set in this respect an 
example which is unfortunately not always fol- 
lowed. 
He attracted to his laboratory students from all 
parts of the world, and many who have studied 
at Bonn will recall the respectful affection in which 
the Geheimrath, as he was generally spoken of, 
was held. A country walk with him was a delight 
not easily forgotten; he would talk deeply and 
lucidly on many  subjects—the philosophy of 
science and of politics, of art and of literature— 
and there was always abundant food for reflection 
in what he said. 
In his later years Prof. Strasburger was an 
occasional visitor to this country, where he was 
always sure of a warm welcome from a wide circle 
of scientific confréres. He was a foreign member 
of the Royal and the Linnean Societies. His loss 
will be felt as a very real and a very personal 
one by those who were privileged to count him as 
a friend. Jeobe Ee 
NOTES. 
We are asked to say that Lady Hooker will be 
grateful if any of her friends who possess letters 
written by her late husband, Sir Joseph Hooker, will 
lend them to her for the purposes of a biography | 
| Orange Free State, and Natal). 
which Messrs. Smith, Elder and Co. will publish. 
The letters, which should be forwarded to Lady 
Hooker at The Camp, Sunningdale, will be carefully 
returned, 
Ir is officially announced that Captain H. G,. 
Lyons, F.R.S., has been appointed assistant director 
of the Science Museum, South Kensington. 
D. Srenguist, Frejgatan 69, Stockholm, Sweden, 
asks us to say that he will be glad to receive papers 
or unpublished observations of terrestrial magnetism 
and electricity, meteorological phenomena, and optical 
effects such as halos, luminous night-clouds, aurora, 
&c., for the following dates:—r1go8, June 30 to 
July 1; 1909, September 25; 1910, May 19. 
Tue Albert medal of the Royal Society of Arts for 
the current year has been awarded by the council, 
with the approval of the president, H.R.H. the Duke 
of Connaught, to the Right Hon. Lord Strathcona 
and Mount Royal, G.C.M.G., F.R.S., for his services 
in improving the railway communications, develop- 
ing the resources, and promoting the commerce and 
industry of Canada and other parts of the British 
Empire. 
Tue death is reported of Dr. W. McMichael Wood- 
worth, assistant in the Harvard Museum of Com- 
parative Zoology. He had been a member of the 
teaching staff of Harvard for more than twenty years. 
His researches were devoted chiefly to the study of 
worms. Dr. Woodworth was a close friend of the 
late Prof. Alexander Agassiz, whom he had accom- 
panied on several of his explorations in Pacific 
islands. 
In the course of his address at the annual general 
meeting of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 
on March 27, the president, Mr. W. W. Froggart, 
reported that the fellowships endowment capital has 
increased to 40,000]. In response to the invitation 
of the council of the society for applications for two 
fellowships for the period 1912-13, Mr. E. F. Hall- 
| mann and Mr. A. B. Walkom have been appointed. 
Mr. Hallmann has selected zoology as his branch of 
study, and will devote his attention particularly to 
the further elucidation of the characters of the 
Monaxonellid sponges. Mr. Walkom has_ been 
appointed in geology, and will proceed to a detailed 
study of the stratigraphical relations of the Permo- 
Carboniferous areas of Australia and Tasmania, with 
special reference to the paleogeography of that 
| period. 
A circucar letter from Mr. R. T. A. Innes informs 
us that the Transvaal Observatory at Johannesburg 
is now renamed ‘“‘The Union Observatory,” and its 
activities will be mainly of an astronomical nature, 
but the first-order meteorological observations will be 
continued, and the observatory will also collect 
seismological data for the Union. The Natal 
Observatory at Durban has been closed, and the Cape 
Meteorological Commission dissolved. On April 1 a 
new Department of Meteorology was formed in 
Pretoria, which will embrace the meteorology of the 
four provinces of the Union (Cape Colony, Transvaal, 
In future, com- 
munications relating to meteorological affairs should 
be addressed to the Chief Meteorologist, Department 
of Irrigation, P.O. Box 390, Pretoria, Union of South 
\ 
