576 



-NA TURE 



[OCTOIUR 8, IQ08 



8 a.m. on September 30. During it the declination range 

 was about 73', while the ranges in horizontal and vertical 

 force were each appro.ximately 330 y. On September 29 

 there was a remarkably fine oscillation in declination com- 

 mencing at 6 p.m. In the course of eleven minutes the 

 magnet swung 39' to the west, with a return movement 

 of 46' to the east. In the course of this day, both in the 

 morning and afternoon, there were a number of smaller 

 but very rapid oscillations of the type usually associated 

 with aurora. It is thus of interest to note that the Daily 

 Weather Report of September 30 announces aurora as 

 having been observed in various parts of Britain on the 

 previous day, whilst the newspapers report the occurrence 

 of unusually vivid aurora in the United States. It will be 

 remembered that a large magnetic storm was recorded at 

 Kew on September 11-12; it is unusual for disturbances so 

 large as those of September 12 and 30 to occur in such 

 rapid succession. 



The Harveian oration of the Royal College of Physicians 

 of London will be delivered by Dr. J. k. Ormerod on 

 Monday, October 19, at 4 p.m. 



The Italian Society of Sciences (.'\ccademia dei XL) 

 has awarded its biennial mathematical prize to M. Giuseppe 

 Picciati, of the University of Padua, for his series of 

 mathematical works. 



Prof. E. C. Pickering, of Harvard University, has 

 been elected president for the ensuing year of the Astro- 

 nomical and Astrophysical Society of America, and Prof. 

 \V. J. Hussey, of the University of Michigan, the secre- 

 tary of the society. 



Ox October 6, at Le Mans, Mr. Wilbur Wright accom- 

 plished a flight of ih. 4m. 26s. in duration, carrying a 

 passenger. The nearest approach to this flight with a 

 passenger, was Mr. Wright's record of thirty-five miles in 

 55m. 35-6s. on October 3. 



.\ CONFERENCE of members of the Museums' Association 

 and others interested will be held at Rochdale on Thurs- 

 dav, November 5, for the purpose of discussing subjects 

 of interest to those concerned in the work of museums, 

 art galleries, and kindred institutions. 



The death of M. Alphonse Boistel, at the age of seventy- 

 one years, is announced. M. Boistel was known as the 

 author of a " Nouvelle Flore des Lichens," and as 

 treasurer, and subsequently president, of the Geological 

 Societv of France. Science was a leisure-hour pursuit 

 with M. Boistel, who for forty years was professor of 

 commercial law in the University of Paris. 



At the meeting of the German Meteorological Society 

 in Hamburg, to celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary, the 

 following were elected honorary members : — Dr. W. N. 

 Shaw, F.R.S., director of the Meteorological Office, 

 London ; M. A. .Angot. director of the Bureau Central 

 M^teorologique, Paris ; M. L. Teisserenc de Bort, director 

 of the Observatoire de M^t^orologie dynamique, Trappes 

 (France); and Prof. A. L. Rotch, director of Blue Hill 

 M' teorological Observatory, U.S..\. 



Ox Saturday, October 10, the Essex Field Club will 

 hold a conference and demonstration at the Franco-British 

 Exhibition. The main object of the meeting will be to 

 demonstrate the value of some of the exhibits as illustra- 

 tions of the methods which may be employed in promoting 

 and encouraging nature-study in schools, and to discuss 

 the best mode of utilising local museums as centres and 

 standards of reference in such instruction. All interested 



NO. 2032, VOL. 78] 



in these subjects are invited to attend. Applications for 

 programmes and other information should be made to the 

 hon. secretary, Mr. W. Cole, Buckhurst Hill, Essex. 



The death is announced, in his sixty-ninth year, of Dr. 

 Francis Huntington Snow, who took a prominent part in 

 scientific teaching in the University of Kansas from its 

 establishment in 1866. He was Chancellor of that 

 University from iSqo to 1901, and after his retirement 

 from that post continued to hold the chair of systematic 

 entomology. In recognition of his services the Kansas 

 Legislature built several years ago the Snow Hall, to 

 hold his valuable collection of 22,000 insects, made during 

 twenty-six expeditions in Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, 

 Texas, and .Arizona. American farmers owe much to his 

 experiments in the artificial application of fungus diseases 

 to the destruction of chinch bugs, especially in the wheat 

 fields. 



The latest development of the policy of the Forest 

 Service at Washington is the projected establishment in 

 the west of a number of forest experiment stations, which, 

 it is anticipated, will do for American forestry what the 

 agricultural experiment stations have done for the country's 

 farms. The first station of the series has been established 

 in the Coconino national forest, with headquarters at 

 Flagstaff, Arizona. Here special attention will be paid to 

 a study of the reproduction of the western yellow pine 

 and the causes of its success and failure. One of the 

 most important functions of these stations- will be the 

 maintenance of model forests, typical of the region, as 

 object-lessons for professional foresters, lumbermen, &c. 



Writing to the Times of October i, Mr. R. Burnard, 

 hon. secretary, Dartmoor Preservation Association, states 

 that the most serious destruction of antiquities, and one 

 for which, apparently, there can be no excuse, has just 

 been reported to him. It appears that the War Office 

 recently acquired a large tract of country at Willsworthy, 

 near Lydford, for training purposes, and on this stands 

 White Hill, an eminence of nearly 1300 feet, recently 

 crowned by thirteen tumuli ; these have been swept away, 

 in order, so it appears, that a flagstaff may be set up. 

 Mr. Burnard adds : — " The ignorance of a country road- 

 mender helping himself to what is handiest in the way of 

 stone may be excused, but this last destruction is at pre- 

 sent inexplicable, for assurances were given when the 

 property was acquired that all the antiquities would be 

 respected as far as the exigencies of the service would 

 permit." 



A BRILLIANT assembly, organised by the committee for 

 the erection of a monument to the late Prof. Marcelin 

 Berthelot, the founder of synthetic chemistry and of 

 thermochemistry, met at the Sorbonne on Sunday night. 

 M. Falli^res, President of the French Republic, was pre- 

 sent, and also M. Clemenceau, the Prime Minister, and 

 M. Doumergue, Minister of Education. We learn from 

 the Times that in an eulogy upon the great savant M. 

 Raymond Poincar^ said : — " After his death there was 

 found on his table, indicative of his last thoughts, a 

 memoir on the alkaline compounds in vegetables, an old 

 .Arab manuscript on alchemy, which he had only just 

 managed to obtain from the Mosque of Fez, and an 

 address to the French of the Argentine Republic. He had 

 thus, for the last time, united in his final preoccupations 

 truth and the fatherland." M. Falli^res also spoke 

 eloquently of Berthelot, who, he remarked, remained to 

 the last one of the noblest apostles of science, of in- 

 dependent thought, of justice, and of truth. 



