42 



NA TURE 



[July 8, 1909 



may drnv an analogy from the moon. The real 

 existence of a term with coefficient nearly three 

 seconds and period sixty-four years is now generally 

 admitted in the motion of the moon. This term was 

 first defined in 1904, and the case for its real existence 

 was not a strong one until Prof. Newcomb arrived 

 in 1909 at an almost identical conclusion from the 

 totally different evidence of occultations. The term 

 in the motion of Uranus must therefore be doubtful 

 for the present. We are not entitled to do more at 

 present than hope that it is real, and that a corre- 

 sponding planet will reward M. Galliot's admirable 

 work. This doubt is fully admitted by M. Gaillot. 



" Ces r^sultats ne doivent etre accepters d'ailleurs 

 qu'avec une extreme reserve. En effet, les differences 

 entre les positions observ^es d'Uranus et celles qui 

 sont calculees a I'aide de nos Tables ne depassent 

 guire les limites des erreurs probables des observa- 

 tions augmentees de celles qui r^sultent des imper- 

 fections de la th6orie. ..." 



It is roteworthv that, like Prof. Pickering, M. 

 Gaillot bases his hypothetical planet upon Uranus and 

 not upon Neptune. It appears, therefore, that the 

 motion of Neptune is in good agreement with the 

 tables, and that no extra-Neptunian planet can exist 

 of a mass and epoch to produce sensible inequalities 

 in the motion of Neptune since its discovery. This is 

 an important negative result; in fact, if it be assumed 

 that the unknown planet has a mass at least one-third 

 that of Neptune, a considerable part of the ecliptic 

 is excluded from vhe domain where this planet can 

 possibly be found. 



TllE SORBY RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP. 



IT will be remembered that the late Dr. H. C. Sorby, 

 F.R.S., of Sheffield, bequeathed a sum of 15,000^. 

 to the Royal Society of London to be held in trust for 

 the establishment of a professorship or fellowship for 

 original scientific research, the testator expressly de- 

 siring the professorship or fellowship thus founded to 

 be associated with the University of Sheffield. -Ac- 

 cepting this trust, the council of the Royal Society 

 appointed a committee to confer with representatives 

 of the University of Sheffield with the view of drawing 

 up a scheme for giving effect to the intentions of Dr. 

 Sorby's will. 



A scheme, prepared by this committee for the estab- 

 lishment of a " Sorby Fellowship for Scientific Re- 

 search " to be associated with the University of 

 Sheffield, has now been approved and adopted by the 

 council of the Royal Society, and by the senate and 

 council of the University of Sheffield. This scheme 

 provides for the administration of the income of the 

 fund by a joint committee consisting of four persons 

 appointed by the council of the Royal Society, one 

 person appointed by the council of the University of 

 Sheffield, and two by the senate of that University. 



The object of the fellowship is not to train students 

 for original research, but to obtain advances in natural 

 knowledge by enabling men of proved ability to devote 

 themselves to research ; and in making an appoint- 

 ment the committee will pay special attention to the 

 capacity for original work of a candidate, as shown 

 by the work already done by him, and to the 

 likelihood that he will continue to do valuable work. 

 Each appointment will be in the first instance for five 

 years, subject to the control of the committee, but may 

 in special circumstances be prolonged for further 

 periods if the committee is satisfied with the fellow's 

 work. 



The fellow will be required to carry out his re- 

 search, when possible, in one of the laboratories of the 

 University of Sheffield, and provision is made under 

 NO. 2071, VOL. Si] 



the regulations for the setting aside of a sum not 

 exceeding 50/. a year to form an apparatus fund, from 

 which grants may be made from time to time to the 

 fellow for the purchase of special apparatus and 

 material required in his research. The stipend of the 

 Sorby Research Fellow will probably be about 500/. 

 per annum, and it is hoped that the committee w-ill 

 be in a position to make the first appointment to the 

 fellowship early in the coming autumn. 



PROF. T. 11'. BRIDGE. F.R.S. 



WE regret to record the death, on June 30, of Dr. 

 T. W. Bridge, Mason professor of zoology in 

 the University of Birmingham. By his death the Uni- 

 versity is deprived of one of its oldest and most 

 experienced teachers, and zoological science has lost 

 one of those workers who, under the influence of 

 Balfour and the Cambridge school, have contributed 

 largely both by example and precept to our knowledge 

 of vertebrate morphology-. 



Prof. Bridge was born in Birmingham in 1848, and 

 after studying science at the Birmingham and Midland 

 Institute, went in 1870 to Cambridge as assistant to 

 Mr. J. W. Clark, then director of the Museum of 

 Zoology. In 1S72 he was elected to a foundation 

 scholarship at Trinity College, and appointed 

 demonstrator in zoology under the late Prof. Newton. 

 After his graduation in 1S75, he spent six months at 

 Naples working in the zoological station, where, on 

 the advice of F. M. Balfour, he carried out research 

 into the " abdominal pores " of fishes. In 1879 he 

 was appointed professor of zoology in the Royal 

 College of Science at Dublin. In 1880 he became one 

 of the original professors at the Mason College, Bir- 

 mingham, holding the chair of biology ; and when this 

 chair was divided in 1882 he retained the title of 

 Mason professor of zoology and comparative anatomy, 

 and kept the same position when the Mason College 

 became a University in 1900. 



The original work carried out by Prof. Bridge dealt 

 chiefly with the osteology of ganoid fish, the " pori- 

 abdominales " of vertebrates, and the air-bladder of 

 Teleosts. The most important of these memoirs are 

 undoubtedly those dealing with the last subject, and 

 the large paper by Profs. Bridge and Haddon, pub- 

 lished in the Philosophical Transactions in 1893, on 

 the air-bladder of Siluroids, has become a classic. This 

 work was the first thorough investigation dealing with 

 the structure and physiology of this organ which had 

 appeared since Weber's original discovery and funda- 

 mental treatise on the air-bladder published in 1820. 

 In certain Siluroids, Weber found that extraordinary 

 apparatus which still bears his name. He described 

 in a few families the vertebral elements that link the 

 air-bladder with the ear, and concluded that the ap- 

 paratus subserved the function of hearing in these 

 fish. What was now required was a systematic in- 

 quiry into the variation of this mechanism and into 

 the use or uses of it ; and it is this monographic treat- 

 ment that we ow-e to Prof. Bridge and his collaborator. 

 They investigated 100 species of Siluroids, and con- 

 cluded that this highly specialised mechanism w^as 

 employed, not for audition, but for the registration of 

 varying hydrostatic pressures. These memoirs not 

 only advanced our knowledge of this interesting struc- 

 ture, but threw light on many points of ecological 

 interest in connection with other physostomatous 

 Teleosts. 



Prof. Bridge's most recent work was his article on 

 fishes in the " Cambridge Natural Histon,' " (1904). 

 This article has proved one of the most useful treatises 

 on this subject both to teachers and students. The 



