14 



NATURE 



[May 7, 1908 



position in regard to the great and fruitful con- 

 troversies of half a century ago out of which modern 

 bacteriological doctrine has sprung, will ensure him 

 an honourable place among the founders of biological 

 chemistry. 



On the creation of the Faculty of Medicine at Lille, 

 Bechnmp accepted the offer of a chair, and he re- 

 mained there, as Dean, until his resignation in 1887, 

 when he retired to Paris, and, accepting the hospitality 

 of Friedel's laboratory in the rue Michelet, continued 

 his biological inquiries, occupying himself to the end 

 in searching for support for the comprehensive 

 generalisation of organic change on which his fame 

 will ultimately rest. 



ATOTES. 



The Croonian lecture of the Royal Society will be 

 delivered on Thursday next, May 14, by Prof. G. Retzius, 

 upon the subject of " The Structure of the Central Nervous 

 System of the Higher and Lower Animals." 



The President of the Board of Trade has appointed a 

 committee to prepare a programme for the consideration of 

 the delegates to the International Conference on Electrical 

 Units and Standards to be held in London in the ensuing 

 autumn, and to m.nke arrangements for the reception and 

 assembly of the delegates attending the conference. The 

 members of the committee are Mr. G. R. .^skwith, K.C., 

 Sir John Gavey, C.B., Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, F.R.S., 

 Major P. A. MacMahon, F.R.S., Major W. A. J. O'Meara, 

 R.E., C.M.G., and Mr. A. P. Trotter. Mr. M. J. Collins, 

 of the Board of Trade, will act as secretary to the com- 

 mittee. 



M. BiGOURDAN read a paper at the meeting of the Paris 

 Academy of Sciences on April 27 on the use of wireless 

 telegraphy for weather forecasting. He pointed out that 

 our weather is associated with the passage of atmospheric 

 depressions arriving from the west, and generally from 

 parts of the Atlantic situated north of 35° N. latitude, and 

 it is estimated that about one-half of these depressions 

 come from North America, whilst the others form in the 

 open Atlantic. To forecast the arrh'al of depressions it is 

 necessary to have observations from the open ocean. Float- 

 ing observatories have been suggested, coupled with the 

 continents on either side of the Atlantic. M. Bigourdan 

 suggests that steamships should communicate, to thte re- 

 sponsible authorities, their position and meteorological 

 observations by wireless telegraphy, and by this means 

 modify and improve our conditions for weather forecasting 

 to the benefit of the general community. For some time 

 past our English Meteorological Office has published in 

 its Daily Weather Report wireless telegrams from ships 

 of His Majesty's Navy. 



The sixteenth Cor%ress of German Electrotechnica! 

 Engineers will be held at Erfurt on June 11-14. 



The Entomological Society will hold a conversazione on 

 Friday, May 15, in the rooms of the Civil Service Com- 

 mission, Burlington Gardens. 



The Rumford medal of the American Academy of Arts 

 and Sciences has been awarded to Dr. E. G. Acheson, of 

 Niagara Falls, for his work with the electric furnace. 



The Chemical Society of Rome, the Chemical Society 

 of Milan, and the Association of Industrial Chemists of 

 Turin will, from January i, 1909, be united under the 

 name of the Italian Chemical Society. 



Prof. W. H. Walker, professor of technical chemistry 

 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been 



NO. 2010, VOL. 78] 



awarded the Nichols medal by the New York Section of 

 the American Chemical Society. 



Messages from Catania report that dense clouds of 

 vapour issued from the central crater of Mount Etna on 

 April 29. The crater of 1852 in the Valle del Bove was 

 also in eruption. On May 2 the volcano was again in 

 active eruption, and a stream of lava was slowly advancing. 



A CONVERSAZIONE will Be given by the Medical Society 

 of London on Monday, May 18, in the rooms of the society, 

 Chandos Street, Cavendish Square. After the reception by 

 the president, the Fothergillian medal will be presented to 

 Sir Almroth Wright, F.R.S. An oration will be given by 

 Mr. T. Clinton Dent on the subject of the after results of 

 injuries. 



On Tuesday next. May 12, Prof. F. T. Trouton will , 

 begin a course of two lectures at the Royal Institution on > 

 (i) "Why Light is believed to be a Vibration"; 

 (2) "What it is which Vibrates." The Friday evening 

 discourse on May 15 will be delivered by Dr. H. T. 

 Bulstrode on " The Past and Future of Tuberculosis," 

 and on May 22 by Prof. J. C. Kapteyn on " Recent Re- 

 searches in the Structure of the Universe." 



At the Institution of Electrical Engineers on April 30 

 Prof. Silvanus P. Thompson, F.R.S. , gave the first Kelvin 

 memorial lecture, his subject being " The Life and Worlc 

 of Lord Kelvin." Before the lecture was delivered Mr. 

 H. F. Parshall presented the institution with a bust of 

 Benjamin Franklin on behalf of the American Institute of 

 Electrical Engineers as a souvenir of their visit to England 

 about a year and a half ago. The gift was acknowledged 

 by Lieut. -Colonel R. E. Crompton, the president of the 

 institution. 



The sixteenth International Congress of Americanists 

 will be held under the presidency of Baron Weckbecker at 

 the University of Vienna on September 9-14. The object 

 of the congress is to promote scientific inquiries into the 

 history of both Americas and of their inhabitants. Com- 

 munications may be oral or written, and may be in one 

 of several languages, English included. For further in- 

 formation application should be made to Herr Franz 

 Heger, Vienna (.-Austria), I. Burgring 7. A programme 

 will be issued early in the summer. 



Prof. Angelo Mosso, of Turin, writes to remind us of 

 the fact, to which attention was directed in an article by 

 the late Sir Michael Foster in Nature of March 9, 1905 

 (vol. Ixxi., p. 44S), that the Royal Society has the right 

 to nominate two investigators to occupy tables in the 

 Monte Rosa and Col D'Olen international laboratories. 

 The tables are available for the study of botany, bacteri- 

 ology, zoology, physiology, terrestrial physics, and meteor- 

 ology. The two tables at the disposal of the Royal Society 

 are, it will be remembered, due to the generosity of Dr. 

 Ludwig Mond, F.R.S. 



At the annual general meeting of the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers on April 28, Mr. J. C. Inglis was elected presi- 

 dent of the institution. The council has made the follow- 

 ing awards for papers read and discussed during the past 

 session : — a Telford gold medal to Mr. W. Barclay Parsons 

 (New York) ; a Watt gold medal to Sir Whately Eliot ; 

 George Stephenson gold medals to Sir John Ottley, K.C.I.E., 

 Dr. .'\. W. Brightmore, and Messrs. J. S. Wilson and W. 

 Gore ; Telford premiums to Messrs. F. W. Davis (Darling- 

 ton), C. R. S. Kirkpatrick (Newcastle-on-Tyne), Hugh T. 

 Ker (Glasgow), G. H. Scott, R. R. Gales (India), and 

 S. H. Ellis. 



