228 



NA TURE 



[July 9, 190S 



request the Council to take such steps as may appear 

 desirable to ascertain the wishes of the Society as a whole 

 in regard to this question. 



We understand that there is now an appreciable and 

 increasing number of women of University training 

 engaged in advanced teaching, and in original investigation 

 in chemistry, who desire admission to the privileges of the 

 Fellowship, and as the Chemical Society was founded for 

 the advancement of Science, it seems to us neither just 

 nor expedient that a body of highly qualified workers 

 should be excluded solely by reason of sex. 



From the following table, compiled from, the Society's 

 journal of the past 35 years, it will be seen that the 

 number of Papers contributed either alone, or jointly, by 

 women is increasing rapidly : — 



Nn. of papers pub'i«:hed in 

 Proceedings Transactions 



1873-82 2 2 



l8Si-92 7 7 



ii>93-o2 4S 33 



1903-07 66 ... ... 61 



We may further point out that not only have women 

 contributed original memoirs to these publications, but 

 they have rendered valuable service to the Society as 

 abstractors and in the compilation of the Indexes. 



.\s is well known, the Chemical Societies of Berlin and 

 .\merica, the Society of Chemical Industry and the 

 Faraday Society, admit women on the same terms as men, 

 and our Society has found a place for Madame Curie 

 .'imong the Honorary and Foreign Members : we consider, 

 therefore, that the restriction should be removed under 

 which the Chemical Society denies to women chemists the 

 advantages extended to them by the sister Societies at 

 home and abroad. 



We are, Gentlemen, 



Your obedient Servants. 



Here follow the names of the 312 Fellows (including 

 10 Past Presidents, 12 \'ice-Presidents and 29 Members of 

 Council, past and present), among whom are 33 Fellows 

 of the Roval Societv rmd the Professors of Chemistry or 

 Heads of Chemical Departments of nearly all the most 

 important Universities and Colleges in the country. 



In connection with the celebration of the tercentenary of 

 the birth of Evangelista Torricelli, an exhibition will be 

 held at Faenza from August 15 to October 15. Included 

 in the programme, and associated with an international 

 section for physical apparatus, in celebration of Torricelli, 

 a prize of 2000 lire is offered for an instrument in con- 

 nection with meteorology or physics of the earth. The 

 instrument must be exhibited, and show real novelty, either 

 in its princijile or in its application of a principle already 

 known. For further particulars application should be made 

 to Dr. W. N. Shaw, F.R.S., Meteorological Office, 63 

 Victoria Street, London, S.W. 



From July i the morning hour of observation in the 

 British Isles for the Daily Weather Report of the Meteor- 

 ological OflSce has been changed from 8 a.m. to 7 a.m., 

 and that of the midday observation from 2 p.m. to i p.m. 

 .'\t only two of the twenty-nine stations have the earlier 

 observations been found impracticable. Simultaneously, 

 arrangements have been made for the transmission of the 

 telegraphic reports from all the stations, except one, at 

 which the early observations are made, and for attend- 

 ance at the office in Victoria Street at the same hour to 

 receive the messages. It is anticipated that the revised 

 arrangements, by which the observations in this country 

 become synchronous with those of France, Belgium, 

 Holland, Germany, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and 

 Sweden will lead, when fairly established, to a consider- 

 able acceleration of the morning reports. 



NO. 2019, VOL. 78] 



Brilli..\nt sky-glows were observed in many different 

 parts of the United Kingdom on the night of June 30 

 and on several succeeding nights, the phenomenon being 

 apparently at its maximum intensity on the night of July i. 

 The whole of the northern part of the sky, from the 

 horizon to an altitude of about 45°, and extending to the 

 west, was suffused with a reddish hue, the colour varying 

 from a pink to an Indian red, whilst to the eastward of 

 north the colouring was distinctly a pale green. No 

 flickering or scintillation was observed on the reddened 

 sky, nor was there any tendency to the formation of the 

 streamers or luminous arch characteristic of aurorae. 

 Cirro-stratus clouds near the horizon were tinged with the 

 same colour as the surrounding sky. A special feature in 

 connection with the phenomenon was the prolongation of 

 twilight, extending almost to the following daybreak, and 

 from the experience cited by many observers in various 

 parts of Great Britain the light at midnight was sufficient 

 to allow of fairly small print being read without any aid 

 from artificial light. These nocturnal glows were preceded 

 by a drouglit extending in London, as well as in several 

 other parts of England, to about sixteen days, and it was 

 followed by severe thunderstorms on the night of July 3 

 and on the succeeding day. The fine weather in many 

 parts of the country has, however, remained unbroken, so 

 that no relation between the display and disturbed weather 

 can be claimed. Miss C. O. Stevens, who describes a 

 long-sustained solar halo in our correspondence columns, 

 made observations of the coloured skies on the nights of 

 June 30, and July i and 2, until daybreak obliterated them. 

 She says ; — " The naked-eye evidence favours the view that 

 the phenomenon was due, in part at least, to auroral dis- 

 play, both in the brilliant white and delicate green patches 

 of light that were of rather inconstant brilliance, and in 

 the spreading of the rosy light into the far south and south- 

 west at 1.45 a.m. on July i." We are informed, how- 

 ever, that spectroscopic observations failed to give any 

 evidence that the phenomenon was auroral in character. 



The death is announced, at the age of eighty-four, of 

 Prof. J. V. Barbosa du Bocage, director of the Zoological 

 Institute at Lisbon. 



The death is announced, in his seventy-third year, of 

 Prof. C. Schrader, the leading authority in Germany on 

 the .Assyrian language and .Assyrian civilisation. 



The prize of 10,000 francs (400/.) offered by M. Armen- 

 gaud to the first aeroplane to remain in the air for a 

 quarter of an hour was won by Mr. Farman on Monday, 

 at a competition held at Issy-les-Moulineaux, under the 

 auspices of the A^ro Club. Mr. Farman made a flight 

 with his apparatus which lasted 20m. 20s. according to 

 the official timing. He covered a distance of about eleven 

 miles. 



Count Zeppelin last week made a remarkably successful 

 flight in his new airship. The airship started on its 

 voyage from Friedrichshafen at 8.30 a.m. on July i, and 

 headed for Switzerland. After executing evolutions over 

 Lake Constance, the airship proceeded in the direction of 

 Lucerne, where it was seen at 12.30 p.m. The return 

 northwards was over lakes Zug and Zurich, and the air- 

 ship was observed over the town of Zurich at 2.20 p.m. 

 The airship's floating shed on Lake Constance was reached 

 at 8.30 p.m. The distance covered is estimated at 250 

 miles, and the journey lasted twelve hours. The greatest 

 height reached by the airship's own engine-power is stated 

 to be some 750 metres, and the highest speed 15-3 metres 

 per second. It will be remembered that the previous record 



