September 3, 1908] 



NA TURE 



431 



of the sciences in which they are interested. But its 

 potentialities are not realised. Those of us who are most 

 anxious for the spread of the application of mathematics 

 and physics to the phenomena of astronomy, meteorology, 

 and geophysics have thought that this opportunity could 

 not properiv be utilised by crowding together all the papers 

 that deal with such subjects into one day, or possibly two 

 davs, so that they can be polished off with the rapidity of 

 an oriental execution. In fact, the opportunity to be 

 polished off is precisely not the opportunity that is wanted. 

 There are some of us who think that a British Association 

 week is not too long for the consideration of the subjects 

 f'f which a year's abstracts occupy a volume of six hundred 

 pages, and that, if we could extend the opportunity for the 

 consideration of these questions from one or two days to a 

 week, and let those members who are interested form a 

 separate committee to develop and extend these subjects, 

 the British Association, the country, and science would all 

 gain thereby. I venture from this place, in the name of 

 the advancement of science, to make an appeal for the 

 fiivourable consideration of this suggestion. It is not based 

 upon the depreciation, but upon the highest appreciation of 

 the service which mathematics and physics have rendered, 

 and can still render, to the observational sciences, and upon 

 the well-tried principle that close family ties are 

 strengthened, and not weakened, by making allowance for 

 natural development. 



The plea seems to me so natural, and the alternatives so 

 detrimental to the advancement of science in this country, 

 that I cannot believe the Association w-ill turn to it a deaf 

 ear. 



NOTES. 



We deeply regret to have to announce the death, at the 

 age of seventy-one, of M. E. E. Mascart. 



We much regret to have to record the death of the Earl 

 of Rosse, F.R.S., which took place on Saturday last. 



The death is announced of Mr. F. Kynaston Barnes, 

 formerly assistant constructor of the Navy and surveyor 

 of dockyards. He was the author of many papers in the 

 Transactions of the Institution of Naval .Architects, joint 

 author, with Prof. Rankin, of " Shipbuilding," and joint 

 editor for a number of years, with Lord Brassey, of " The 

 Naval Annual." Mr. Barnes, who at the time of his death 

 was in his eighty-first year, was the inventor of the 

 present method of calculating the stability of ships, which 

 is known as " Barnes's method," and was the designer 

 of the .Vi7c and the Trafalgar. 



The death is announced of M. J. F. Nery Delgado, 

 president of the Geological Survey of Portugal. M. Nery 

 Delgado was also inspector-general of mines and a member 

 of the Lisbon Royal Academy of Sciences. 



The death is announced of Mr. James D. Hague, the 

 eminent American mining geologist, at the age of seventy- 

 two. He became manager of the Lake .Superior copper 

 mine^ in 1863, and participated in the early development 

 of the Calumet and Hecla mine. His most important 

 work was his report on the mining industry of the fortieth 

 parallel, published in 1.S70. 



A citizens' committee has been formed to arrange for 

 the entertainment of the British .Association in Canada 

 next year, and various Western Governments and cities 

 will be requested to cooperate. The programme, so far, 

 provides for a trip through the west, and one through the 

 mountains to the Pacific coast. Transportation facilities 

 are being arranged, and a number of distinguished guests 

 from Canada and the United States will be invited. Pro- 

 vision will also be made for a limited number of ladies. 



.According to the Times, the Liverpool School of 

 Tropical Medicine is making arrangements to send an 



NO. 2027, VOL. 78] 



expedition to Jamaica to investigate tropical diseases there 

 and the insect life of the island, which is responsible for 

 carrying disease. It is intended to send Mr. Robert New- 

 stead, the lecturer in economic entomology and parasitology 

 of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, in the first 

 week of November to undertake the investigation of the 

 ticks there responsible for certain diseases in animals, and 

 of disease-bearing insects. It is possible that he may be 

 accompanied by a medical research investigator, whose 

 duties w-ould be to investigate indigenous diseases of the 

 island. 



A Reuter message from Simla, dated .August 28, states 

 that the servant of Dr. Sven Hcdin has reached Leh, 

 Kashmir, reporting that the explorer was four marches 

 from Gartok twenty-five days before, and was in good 

 health. A message from the Times correspondent at 

 Simla, dated August 31, reports that Dr. Sven Hedin is 

 expected at Simla next week. A letter dated Gartok, 

 August I, is the first direct news heard from the explorer 

 for several months. 



It is stated in Science that the department of meridian 

 astrometry of the Carnegie Institution, in charge of Prof. 

 Lewis Boss, of the Dudley Observatory at Albany, N.Y., 

 where the work of the department is carried on, is 

 dispatching an expedition to the Argentine Republic to 

 establish a branch observatory there. This observatory 

 will be established at San Luis, about 500 miles west from 

 Buenos Aires. This town, of about 10,000 inhabitants, is 

 located near the eastern edge of the Andean plateau at an 

 elevation of about 2500 feet. It is reported to have a fine 

 climate with remarkably clear skies. The principal instru- 

 ment will be the Olcott meridian circle of the Dudley 

 Observatory, which will be set up in its new location for 

 the purpose of making reciprocal observations upon stars 

 already observed at Albany, together with observations 

 upon all stars from south declination to the south pole 

 that are brighter than the seventh magnitude, or which 

 are included in LacaiUe's survey of the southern stars 

 made at the Cape of Good Hope in 1750. It is estiinated 

 that the work of observation in Argentina will last three 

 or four years. The object of these observations is to gather 

 material for facilitating the construction of a general 

 catalogue of about 25,000 stars, in which will be contained 

 accurately computed positions and motions of all the stars 

 included in it. 



.According to a Reuter message from Berlin, a wireless 

 telegram has been received from the steamer Kaiserin 

 .luguste Victoria stating that Dr. Polis, the director of 

 the meteorological observatory at Aachen, is con- 

 tinuing his experiments in transmitting meteorological 

 observations at sea between New York and England by 

 means of wireless telegraphy. Dr. Polis is reported to 

 have succeeded in receiving weather reports from America 

 at a distance of 800 nautical miles from the American 

 coast, while reports from Europe were picked up at a 

 distance of 1200 nautical miles from the English coast. 

 Daily weather charts were drawn up by using reports from 

 passing ships, which indicated the state of the weather on 

 the Atlantic Ocean over an extent of 800 nautical miles. 

 A message sent on August 27 to the Kaiserin .iuguste 

 Victoria from Aachen, via Ireland, took three hours to 

 reach the ship. 



The summary of the weather for the closing week of 

 .August issued by the Meteorological Office shows that the 

 rainfall was everywhere largely in excess of the average, 

 the total for the week exceeding 2 inches in several dis- 



