OOTOBEB 25, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



551- 



of solar heat reaching the earth, but also the 

 quantity of heat which would reach a body 

 like the moon, which has no atmosphere. 



The observations have indicated that the 

 sun is probably a variable star having a range 

 of variation amounting to from five to ten per 

 cent, within an irregular interval of from five 

 to ten days. Last year Mr. Abbot observed in 

 Algeria, while his colleague, Mr. Aldrich, ob- 

 served on Mt. Wilson, in California. The ob- 

 ject of thus duplicating the measurements was 

 to avoid being misled by any local atmos- 

 pheric conditions which might have afEected 

 Mt. Wilson observations. As nearly one third 

 of the circumference of the earth lies between 

 Mt. Wilson and Algeria, it could not be ex- 

 pected that a similar local disturbance could 

 affect both stations at the same day in the 

 same manner. The observations of 1911 

 strongly supported the belief that the sun is 

 variable, but owing to cloudiness their num- 

 ber was not sufficient to fully establish this 

 point. Hence, it was thought best to return 

 to Algeria this year. 



Mr. Abbot was assisted in Algeria by Mr. 

 Anders Knutson Angstrom, of Upsala, 

 Sweden. Mr. Angstrom comes from a dis- 

 tinguished family of scientists. His grand- 

 father, Anders Angstrom, is the one of whom 

 Kayser says in his great work on spectro- 

 scopy, " Now arose a man so great that his 

 name will be forever associated with the his- 

 tory of spectroscopy." Mr. Angstrom's father, 

 Knut Angstrom, was scarcely less distin- 

 guished than the grandfather, and invented 

 many valuable instruments for measuring the 

 radiation of the sun and earth. The present 

 Mr. Angstrom is much interested in the same 

 problems that occupied his father, and is now 

 pursuing advanced work at Cornell Univer- 

 sity. 



The observations made by the Smithsonian 

 party in Algeria this year were apparently 

 very satisfactory. They occupied sixty-four 

 days, and on more than fifty of these days Mr. 

 Fowle made similar observations on Mt. Wil- 

 son, in California. It can hardly be doubted 

 that the results of the work of 1911 and 1912 

 will thoroughly establish the supposed varia- 



bility of the sun, or will show conclusively 

 that this hypothesis can no longer be held. 



PSOFESSOS MOBBIS LOEB 

 At a special meeting of the board of trus- 

 tees of the Chemists' Club of New York City, 

 held October 8, the following resolutions 

 offered by committee consisting of Mr. Ell- 

 wood Hendrick, Mr. Clifford Richardson and 

 Mr. Walter E. Rowley, were adopted: 



Wheeeas Morris Loeb, the president of the 

 club, has been taken from us by death, and 



Whereas he was the leading spirit in bringing 

 to fulfillment ambitions and plans that had long 

 been ours, and 



Whereas he was always ready to shoulder bur- 

 dens and to give help, and 



Whereas he was a man of order, and of in- 

 tegrity in mind and in heart, sincere in scholar- 

 ship, living without malice or scorn, speaking no 

 evil, and generous in judgment, and 



Whereas we were drawn to him by ties of deep 

 and abiding affection, now, therefore, be it 



Besolved, that we make this minute of our 

 poignant grief at his passing, and that we cherish 

 his memory as another of his great gifts to science 

 and to humanity. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



The autumn meeting of the National Acad- 

 emy of Sciences will 'be held in New Haven, 

 beginning Tuesday, November 12, 1912, at 

 10 A.M. By invitation the sessions will be 

 held in Sloane Physics Laboratory of Tale 

 University. 



Sir William Ramsay lectured at the Johns 

 Hopkins University on October 18, when the 

 degree of doctor of laws was conferred on 

 him. 



Nature states that Sir George Darwin, 

 Plumian professor of astronomy at Cam- 

 bridge University, has undergone a severe 

 operation after which he is making good 

 progress toward recovery. 



The Eritz Schaudinn medal for work in 

 microbiology has been awarded by the inter- 

 national committee to Dr. Carlos Chagas, of 

 the Institute Oswaldo Cruz Manguinhos, Rio 

 de Janeiro. 



