372 



NATURE 



[SEPTEMhER 23, 1909 



pared with the previous records made by Mr. Orville 

 Wright in Berlin, 172 metres, and M. Latham at Rheims, 

 155 metres. 



The following is a list of the awards made in connec- 

 tion with the Brescia aviation meeting : — grand prize of 

 Brescia (international) for a speed test over 50 kilometres : 

 1st, Mr. Curtiss, 2nd, Lieut. Calderara, 3rd, M. Rougier ; 

 Modigliani prize (international) for height : ist, ^L 

 Rougier, 2nd, Mr. Curtiss ; prize for carrying passenger 

 (international) : Lieut. Calderara ; prize for starting in 

 shortest time : ist, Mr. Curtiss, 2nd, M. Leblanc ; world's 

 record for height : M. Rougier ; Oldofredi prize (national) 

 ■ for I kilometre : Lieut. Calderara ; prize given by the 

 Corriere della Sera (national) for 20-kilometre flight : 

 Lieut. Calderara; King's -cup : Lieut. Calderara. The 

 gold medal given by the King has been awarded to Buzio 

 and Restilli, the engineers who constructed the Rebus 

 engine of Lieut. Calderara's machine. 



.Aviation meetings, according to the Times, are to take 

 place at Johannisthal, Berlin, from September 26 to 

 October 3, and at Issy-les-Moulineaux, near Paris, from 

 October 30 to November i. 



According to a New York correspondent of the Times 

 great damage to property and some loss of life has been 

 caused in the neighbourhood of the Mexican Gulf by a 

 hurricane. On September 21 the waters of the Gulf and 

 of the Mississippi were reported to be still rising, and 

 trains were water-bound in many places. 



TuF. thirteenth annual fungus foray of the British 

 Mycological Society will be held at Baslow, Derbyshire, 

 from Monday next until the following Saturday. In the 

 evening of \\'ednesday the president of the society — Prof. 

 M. C. Potter — will deliver an address on bacteria in their 

 relation to plant pathology, and on Thursday Prof. R. H. 

 Biffen will read a paper on the Laboulbeniaceoe, and Mr. 

 A. D. Cotton will present some notes on new or critical 

 British Clavaris. 



The Allahabad Pioneer Mail announces that an agri- 

 cultural association is in course of formation in Poona 

 which has as its object the development of agriculture in 

 the Deccan. The programme of work laid down by the 

 promoters is a large one. It embraces an annual show 

 in one of the Deccan districts, the publication of up-to- 

 date agricultural information, chiefly, if not entirely, in 

 the vernacular, the encouragement of better cattle breed- 

 ing, the pressing of the importance of agricultural educa- 

 tion, especially in the vernacular schools, and many other 

 departments. 



In connection with the Hudson-Fulton celebration 

 (September 25 to October g), a list has been issued by 

 the committee of the celebration commission of the 

 museums, institutions, and societies which have prepared 

 free exhibitions relating to Henry Hudson, Robert Fulton, 

 and the history of steam navigation ; paintings, objects of 

 art, archaeological specimens, and other things relating to 

 the three centuries of New York's history; the discovery 

 of the Hudson River and the introduction of steam naviga- 

 tion ; plants, fish, and animals indigenous to the Hudson 

 River valley. 



An expedition, consisting of members of the Uta^ 

 Archaeological Society, is reported to have made important 

 discoveries along the Colorado River, in northern Arizona 

 and southern Utah. The most important is a natural 

 bridge, which spans 274 feet and is more than 300 feet 

 high. On the top of it several fossils of remarkable size 

 Were found embedded. 



NO. 2082, VOL. 81] 



-According to Science, the palaiontological expedition of 

 the University of Chicago to the Permian of northern 

 Texas has leturned from a successful trip. Numerous 

 skulls and skeletons of small reptiles and amphibians were 

 secured, giving to the University of Chicago, with its 

 previous collections from that formation, an e.vcellent re- 

 presentation of Permian vertebrates. 



Mr. Henry Ad.ims has been elected president of the 

 Association of Engineers-in-Charge, in succession to Mr. 

 James Swinburne, F.R.S. 



Lieut. Sh.^ckleton has been invited to deliver a lecture 

 on October 9 before the Danish Ro>al Geographical 

 Society. 



Dr. E. a. Wilson, who served under Captain R. F. 

 Scott in that e.xplorer's former Antarctic expedition, has 

 accepted the post of medical officer for the projected ex- 

 pedition of Captain Scott to the South Pole. 



QtJESTioNED as to the truth or otherwise of the state- 

 ment that he was to lead an expedition to the Antarctic 

 regions. Commander Peary has replied :— " My work in 

 the field of either the Arctic or the Antarctic is at an end, 

 although my services will always be available if desired 

 in promoting organisation or other work in those regions." 



The death of Mr. Bryan Cookson has robbed astronomy 

 of one who, during but a short life, had already achieved 

 much, and who g.ave promise of still further advancing 

 our knowledge of that science. Mr. Bryan Cookson was 

 a son of the late Mr. N. C. Cookson, of Wylam-on-Tyne. 

 He was educated at Harrow, and at Magdalen College, 

 Oxford. After some time spent in travelling he took up 

 his residence at Cambridge, where he designed a new 

 form of -floating photographic zenith-telescope for the pur- 

 pose of making original investigations on change of lati- 

 tude and the constant of aberration. Later he worked 

 for two years at Cape Town under Sir David Gill, His 

 Majesty's astronomer at the Royal Observatory, Cape 

 of Good Hope, and some of his results were published 

 in a paper on the determination of the mass of Jupiter 

 and ■ the elements of the orbits of the satellites of that 

 planet. On his return to Cambridge he erected his zenith- 

 telescope, with which he continued his observations, many 

 of which still await publication. About a year ago Mr. 

 Cookson was appointed assistant at the Cambridge 

 Observatory. He was a man of the highest character and 

 of singular charm of manner, and his death, at the com- 

 paratively early age of thirty-six, is keenly felt amongst 

 a large circle of acquaintances. 



The death is announced of Mr. T. Currie Gregory, a 

 civil and mining engineer who was concerned in the build- 

 ing of the Great Western Railway of Canada, now merged 

 in the Grand Trunk line. 



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

 Mr. Peter Barr, well known as a horticulturist, to whom 

 in 1897 the Victoria medal of honour was awarded by the 

 Royal Horticultural Societv. 



An exceptionally ^ool September is being experienced 

 this year, and the entire absence of really warm days is 

 very unusual. At Greenwich during the first twenty-two 

 days of the month the thermometer has only once exceeded 

 70°, the absolutely highest reading being 71°. The mean 

 of all the maximum day temperatures is 64°, which is 5° 

 below the average, and the mean of the minimum night 

 temperatures is 48°, which is 2° below the average, the 

 mean result for the first three weeks being 3.5° belcw the 

 average. During the corresponding period last year there 



