October io, 1907] 



NA TURE 



595 



kindest of men, unassuming to a fault, with a cordial 

 detestation of everything false, presumptuous or sordid. 

 His cheery, youtliful manner and lively conversation 

 endeared him to many, even of those who had not 

 the privilege of seeing the deep sympathetic nature 

 beneath. 



NOTES. 



An extra meeting of the Chemical Society will be held 

 in the theatre of the Royal histitution on Friday, 

 October i8, at 9 p.m., when Prof. Emit Fischer, F.R.S., 

 will deliver the Faraday lecture, entitled " Organic 

 Synthesis and its Relation to Biology." 



The honorary secretary of the Hampstead Scientific 

 Society informs us that, by permission of the London 

 County Council, a meteorological station (in connection 

 with the Meteorological Office and the British Rainfall 

 Organisation, Camden Square) is to be established by the 

 society at the flagstaff on the summit of Hampstead Hill. 

 This being the highest point in the neighbourhood of 

 London, some interesting records should be obtained. A 

 small astronomical observatory is also to be placed at the 

 same spot, which it is hoped may be of educational value 

 to students and senior pupils of London County Council 

 schools. 



The British military airship travelled on Saturday last 

 from Aldershot to London at the rate of about twentv- 

 four miles an hour, and after circling round St. Paul's 

 Cathedral, headed against the wind on the return journey. 

 Owing to the strong wind prevailing, the descent was 

 made in the grounds of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. 

 The total distance covered was fifty miles, and the mean 

 altitude was 750 feet. 



An exhibition is to be held at the Royal Horticultural 

 Hall, Vincent Square, Westminster, on October 22-26, in 

 connection with the Model Engineer, and will include a 

 collection of engineering models of all kinds ; electrical, 

 optical, and scientific instruments; technical education 

 apparatus ; and lathes, tools, and workshop appliances. 

 Popular scientific lectures and demonstrations will be given 

 each day, and many of the models will be shown at work. 



Mr. F. Wood-Jones, Harley Lodge, Enfield, informs 

 us that on November 15, 1905, he set adrift several bottles 

 from the Cocos-Keeling atoll, Indian Ocean (12° 04' 24" S., 

 95° 55' 19" E.), containing messages requesting that the 

 finder would let him know the place and time of finding. 

 On May 27, 1906, one was picked up on the coast of 

 Brara, Italian Somaliland (1° 06' 08" N., 44° 01' 52" E.), 

 and on July ii, 1907, another turned up at exactly the 

 same spot. These facts point to a constant westward 

 current in this part of the Indian Ocean. For both com- 

 munications Mr. Wood-Jones is indebted to Captain Resi- 

 dent G. Piazza, of Italian Somaliland. 



The death is reported on September 22 of Prof. W. O. 

 .^twater, of the Wesleyan University, Middletown, Con- 

 necticut. He directed from 1875 to 1877 the Connecticut 

 Agricultural Experiment Station, the first institution of the 

 kind in the United States. In 1888 he founded the experi- 

 ment station of the Federal Department of Agriculture. 

 Of late years he had directed the special investigations of 

 that department into questions of nutrition. He was joint 

 inventor of the Atwater-Rosa calorimeter for experiments 

 on the metabolic changes going on in the human body ; 

 and was the author of a large number of articles and 

 reports on physiological and agricultural chemistry. Prof. 

 NO. 1980, VOL. 76] 



Atwater, who was si.xty-three years of age, had been prac- 

 tically helpless since he suffered from a stroke of apoplexy 

 two years ago. 



News has been received from Dr. Sven Hedin by the 

 Simla correspondent of the Pioneer Mail, the communi- 

 cation being dated July 25, from the Mansarowar Lake. 

 Dr. Hedin reports that this last journey from Shigatse 

 to Tok-chen, on the lake, has been richer in results than 

 his previous one from the Aksai Chin to Shigatse, as he 

 has been almost the whole time in inhabited country. His 

 message, of which the following is an extract, appears in 

 the Pioneer Mail of September 20 : — " The results are 

 1300 big pages in annotations, 203 sheets of maps, 410 

 specimens of rock in connection with geological profiles, 

 700 panoramas, twenty-six astronomical points, the meteor- 

 ological journal continued three times a day, and passes 

 and camps fixed by boiling-point thermometer ; at every 

 river crossing a detailed measurement of the volume of 

 water — the Brahmaputra — has been measured at seven 

 points, and most of the northern tributaries, as well as 

 some of the southern ; a collection of plants ; a great 

 number of sketches, especially types, the interior of 

 temples, and landscape sceneries. One lake, Amtchok- 

 Tso, has been carefully measured, and an isobathic map 

 made. The height of many peaks has been measured 

 with the theodolite at a couple of places ; the height of 

 old beach lines of lakes has been measured." 



.^N appeal for funds to secure the preservation of the 

 " Sarsen Stones " on the Marlborough Downs known as 

 the " Grey Wethers " has been issued jointly by the 

 National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural 

 Beauty, the Wiltshire Archseological and Natural History 

 Society, and the Marlborough College Natural History 

 Society. These sarsen stones are, geologically, the 

 hardened and solidified boulders of a stratum of Eocene 

 sand formerly covering the chalk, which in the course 

 of ages has been denuded of the softer portions. The 

 stones vary in size from small boulders to masses of 

 sixty or seventy tons. For many generations these 

 stones, scattered widely over the downs, have been broken 

 up and used for building and other purposes, mainly 

 of a local character. As there is every probability that 

 the work of breaking up the sarsens will be undertaken 

 soon on a greatly extended scale, an attempt is being made 

 to secure the preservation of some characteristic examples 

 of the stones in their natural condition. The sum of 

 about sooZ. is asked for in order to purchase about twenty 

 acres of land where there are many of the stones. If 

 the money is forthcoming, characteristic examples of a 

 unique geological phenomenon will be secured for the 

 nation. The donations already received or promised 

 amount to 164!. Subscriptions to the fund may be sent to 

 Mr. E. Meyrick, F.R.S., Thornhanger, Marlborough, or 

 to Mr. Nigel Bond, secretary, the National Trust, 25 

 Victoria Street, Westminster, S.W. 



To Spolia Zeylanica for August Mr. J. Llewellen 

 Thomas contributes further particulars on hybridising the 

 Ceylon jungle-fowl {Gallus stanleyi), a subject on which 

 a note appeared in our columns last year. The new 

 experiments demonstrate that in certain circumstances the 

 hybrids with domesticated fowls are fertile, both inter se 

 and with their parents, and under really favourable con- 

 ditions it is surmised that complete fertility could be 

 established. This being so, Darwin's argument from the 

 infertility of the hybrids that Gallus stanleyi cannot be the 

 parent stock of domesticated poultry no longer holds good. 

 The difiiculty, however, is to convert this negative evidence 



