I".^ 



NA TURE 



[June i i, 1908 



reason was convinced, his strong and masterful dis- 

 position made liim a leader of men, and thus he 

 became in due course president or chairman of almost 

 every society, association, or public body of whicli he 

 was a member. His delig-htful humour and inex- 

 haustible fund of good stories made him the best of 

 companions. Time dealt with him kindly; he bore 

 lightly his burden of more than four-score years, and 

 to the' last his mind retained its youthful spring. The 

 sturdy old oak continued green and vigorous until 

 the axe was laid to its root. His genial presence will 

 long be missed at the British Association and number- 

 less other bodies at which he has been a familiar 

 figure for more than half a century. W. R. 



A'OTiiS. 



The Albert medal of the Royal Society of .Arts for the 

 present year has been awarded to Sir James Dewar, 

 F.R.S. 



On May 30 Her Majesty the Queen of Holland 

 nominated Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B., as a member of 

 the Dutch Academy of Amsterdam in succession to the 

 late Lord Kelvin. 



In the House of Commons on June 3 Sir William Anson 

 asked the President of the Board of Education whether, 

 having regard to the insufificiency of the present temporary 

 buildings at South Kensington for the housing and display 

 of the collections of scientific instruments and apparatus 

 belonging to the Government, and to the importance of 

 making these collections useful to teachers and students 

 of science, and to the Imperial College of Science and 

 Technology, he would consider the advisability of erecting 

 a suitable building for a science museum on the site of 

 the existing temporary galleries. In reply, Mr. McKinnon 

 Wood said ; — " I think it would be eminently desirable 

 that there should be a science museum properly housed 

 in immediate propinquity to the Imperial College of Science 

 and Technology, and if the Commissionefs of the 185 1 

 Exhibition feel themselves in a position to cooperate, I 

 should be happy to bring the matter under the notice of 

 the Chancellor of the Exchequer ; but it is obvious that 

 any steps requiring the financial assistance of the Govern- 

 ment could only be undertaken with due regard to the 

 general calls upon the E.xchequer." 



It was announced some time ago that the Zoological 

 Society of London was arranging for a special exhibition 

 of Australian and New Zealand animals in the society's 

 gardens. Dr. P. Chalmers Mitchell, F.R.S., now informs 

 us that the Governments of New Zealand and New South 

 Wales have each made presents to the society of some of 

 their peculiar birds, mammals, and reptiles, and a very 

 fine collection has been got together from the various 

 .'Vustralian colonies. Mr. Seth-Smith, a member of the 

 council of the society, proceeded to Australia last December 

 to make the final arrangements for getting the collection 

 together, and two keepers followed him early in the year 

 to take out a number of animals from the gardens in 

 Regent's Park for the Australian gardens, and to take 

 charge of the returning collection under the direction of 

 Mr. Seth-Smith. The animals left Australia in the White 

 .Star liner Persic in April, and arrived at Tilbury on 

 Saturday evening. The detailed list is not yet to hand, 

 but from advices the society has received it is certain that 

 the collection will be the most representative one of mar- 

 supial mammals and peculiar birds and reptiles of Australia 

 ever got together either in Australia or in Europe. 



NO. 2015, VOL. 7S] 



Bv the death of Admiralitasrath Carl Koldeway, which 

 occurred at Hamburg on May 19, Germany has lost a 

 distinguished seaman whose scientific investigations have 

 proved of great practical value. Captain Koldeway was 

 born on October 20, 1837, at Biicken, Hanover, and com- 

 menced his career as a sailor in 1853. In i856 he studied 

 at the polytechnic at Hanover, and in 1867 at Gottingen. 

 He commanded two German North Polar Expeditions 

 during the years 1868-70, the first to Spitsbergen, and the 

 second, with two ships, to north Greenland, where he 

 wintered and made important discoveries. In 1871 Cap- 

 tain Koldeway was appointed first assistant to the 

 Seewarte at Hamburg, and four years later became 

 director of the second section for magnetism, and for 

 the testing of nautical and meteorological instruments. 

 He was specially interested in magnetism, and was 

 entrusted with the compensation of compasses for devia- 

 tion on board ships of the mercantile marine. In addition 

 to the accounts he published in reference to his voyages 

 to the Arctic regions, he was the author of many valuable 

 papers on magnetism, meteorology, and oceanography, 

 among which may be mentioned " Change of Magnetism 

 in Iron Ships, based on Observations for Deviation " 

 (Deutsche Seewarte Arch., 1879), " Results of Meteor- 

 ological Observations at Spitsbergen and East Greenland " 

 (Zeitschrift liletcorol. Vienna, 1876), " Surface Tempera- 

 ture in the Equatorial Regions of the Atlantic Ocean " 

 (Annalen Hydrogr., 1875). 



A LETTER by Dr. W. N. Shaw, F.R.S., in Saturday's 

 Times contains some cogent reasons against the adoption 

 of the proposals in the Daylight Saving Bill, to which 

 reference has been made in these columns on several 

 occasions. In the first place, Dr. Shaw remarks that a 

 large number of meteorological instruments in many parts 

 of the country are designed to record continuously day and 

 night. .Are these instruments to run an hour wrong for 

 six months or are meteorologists to use a time system 

 different from that in use in the country? .AH the opera- 

 tions of meteorological observers would be affected by the 

 change contemplated by the promoters of the Bill, and 

 the passing of an Act to change the standard time twice 

 a year would have to be followed by an instruction to 

 meteorological observers to adhere to the old times for 

 their observations, whatever it might be called according 

 to the clocks. Part of the work of the Meteorological 

 Office, Dr. Shaw points out, is represented by a system of 

 daily telegraphic reports of synchronous observations upon 

 which the weather reports are based. The system is an 

 international one, and this year an important step is 

 being made towards the ideal of international as well as 

 national synchronism. It is important, therefore, that 

 there should be no misunderstanding as to the time 

 standards employed. Dr. Shaw writes feelingly when he 

 says that no one who is concerned with the preservation 

 of records for long series of years to be consulted when 

 all possibility of clearing up ambiguities has passed away 

 can regard the idea of a dual time system with anything 

 but blank dismay. It is curious that in this connection 

 he does not refer to the impossibility of comparing thermo- 

 meter readings in summer and winter if the change were 

 adopted. The seasonal meddling with the clocks cannot, in 

 fact, be justified from a scientific point of view, and would 

 lead to hopeless confusion in records in which time is a 

 factor. There is no reason why individuals should not prac- 

 tise self-deception to the extent of putting their clocks back 

 or forward as they wish, but for a nation to be compelled 

 to do this by legislation would be the height of folly. It 

 is too much to expect that men of science busy with their 



