126 



NA TURE 



[July 22, 1922 



about 1600 b.c, were due to the same physical cause. 

 The great earthquake of Knossos, in fact, sets a 

 term to a Minoan period." Even more dramatic 

 than this is the discovery on the South side of what 

 appeared to be the opening of an artificial cave, with 

 three roughly cut steps leading down to what can 

 only be described as a lair adapted for some great 

 beast. " But here perhaps," says Sir Arthur Evans, 

 " it is better for imagination to draw rein." Was 

 this really the abode of the Minotaur ? 



A biological expedition is leaving Antwerp for 

 Brazil during this month. It is under the direction 

 of Prof. C. Massart, of the department of botany 

 in the University of Brussels, and there are four other 

 members of the expedition, two of whom are students. 

 For several years before the war the universities of 

 Belgium and Holland organised expeditions to enable 

 students to go into the field under the guidance of 

 their professors, and it is one of these expeditions, to 

 Brazil, which has now been promoted by the 

 University of Brussels. The party will not aim at 

 exploring Brazil ; the object is rather to put the 

 young naturalists directly in touch with tropical 

 Nature ; they will have the opportunity of collecting 

 botanical and zoological material for study and 

 demonstration and of making ethnological observa- 

 tions. Brazil has been chosen on account of its 

 salubrity and also because, some twenty days' journey 

 from the starting-place, the party will be in the virgin 

 forest. The expedition will remain in Brazil from 

 August until January or February next, and visits 

 will be paid to the States of Rio de Janeiro and 

 Bahia, to the Campos de Minas Geraes, a region 

 in the State of Bahia which is almost deserted, and 

 to some of the peaks of the Serra de Mantiqueira. 

 The necessary financial support for the expedition 

 has been assured by the University of Brussels and 

 the Belgian Ministers of the Colonies and of Sciences 

 and Arts, while the Brazilian Government has promised 

 every assistance for the success of the expedition. 



The American Museum of Natural History has 

 recently received from Mr. J. D. Rockefeller, jr., a 

 gift of a million dollars — the largest single donation 

 that has ever come into its exchequer. It is the 

 result of a long and careful inquiry which the donor 

 has caused to be made into the value of the work 

 done by this institution in connexion with the public 

 schools. At the same time, Mr. George F. Baker, 

 a leading New York banker, has given a quarter of 

 a million dollars to the museum. The income from 

 these gifts may be used to extend the direct educa- 

 tional work of the museum, or to assist its research 

 expeditions. The most important of these enter- 

 prises being carried cm at present is the sending of a 

 party, with specially constructed automobiles, to 

 penetrate the Great Mongolian Desert, a tract which 

 is almost virgin soil for the archaeologist and 

 I ia laeontologist. 



A note is given in the Meteorological Magazine oi 

 June from Mr. R. C. Mossman on some recent remark- 

 able temperatures. A1 Buenos Aires, on the morning 

 NO. 275 1, VOL. 1 IO] 



of April 26, the shade minimum fell to 2j°-q F. and 

 the grass minimum to 20°-s: F. The previous April 

 shade minimum in the last 60 years was 33°- 4 F. On 

 March 10, at Grytviken (South Georgia), the shade 

 maximum rose to 83°-8 F., which is 13 above the 

 previous record. 



Sir William Pope has been elected president of 

 the International Union of Pureand Applied Chemistry 

 for the ensuing three years. The next meeting of 

 the Union will be held at Cambridge in June 1923. 



Prof. A. N. Whitehead has been elected president 

 of the Aristotelian Society for the coming session ; 

 he will deliver his inaugural address on November 6. 



The annual meeting of the French Association 

 for the Advancement of Science will be held at 

 Montpellier on July 24-29 under the presidency of 

 Prof. Mangin, director of the Paris Museum of 

 Natural History. 



At the annual general meeting of the Royal Society 

 of New South Wales on May 3, Mr. C. A. Sussmilch 

 was elected president. Mr. Sussmilch is principal of 

 the Newcastle Technical College (N.S.W.), and was for 

 many years lecturer-in-charge of the Department of 

 Geology and Mining, Sydney Technical College. 

 His contributions to science include an account of 

 the geology of New South Wales and a number of 

 papers on geology and physiography. 



A meeting of the Royal Meteorological Society will 

 be held in the Rooms of the Royal Society, Edinburgh, 

 on .Monday, July 24, at 3 o'clock, when the following 

 papers will be read : " Observations of Upper Cloud 

 Drift as an aid to Research and to Weather Fore- 

 casting," C. K. M. Douglas; "Note on the Effect 

 of a Coast Line on Precipitation," J. S. Dines ; and 

 " Note on Turbulence," illustrated by smoke and 

 cloud photographs, Dr. A. E. M. Geddes and G. A. 

 Clarke. 



In the Calendar of Industrial Pioneers in Nature 

 for June 24 it is stated that Singer, who died in 181 7, 

 was the inventor of the gold - leaf electrometer. 

 Singer's invention of this instrument may have been 

 independent, but the credit for its first invention 

 belongs to the Rev. Abraham Bennet, who in 1789 

 included a description of it in his " New Experiments 

 on Electricity." Mr. Shurlock, Principal of the 

 Technical College, Derby, who has kindly pointed 

 this out, says Bennet was a fellow of the Royal 

 Society and for twenty-five years was curate of 

 Wirksworth, Derbyshire, where he died, May 6. I799> 

 at the age of 49, but that little more is known of his 

 career. 



The death of the eminent anthropologist, Dr. W. 

 H. R. Rivers, has already been recorded in these 

 columns. It will be satisfactory to his many friends, 

 and to others who recognise his great services to 

 science, to know that a full biography, with a com- 

 plete list of his numerous books and articles, by 



