JULT 28, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



109 



the thermal relations of spectra of gases and 

 on cognate suhjects. 



We learn from The Olservatory that Mr. 

 T. F. Claxton, late director of the Eoyal 

 AKred Observatory, Mauritius, has been ap- 

 pointed director of the British Colonial Ob- 

 servatory at Hongkong. Dr. Doberek retired 

 from the directorship of the Hongkong Ob- 

 servatory in 1907, and was succeeded by Mr. 

 F. G. Figg. Mr. Claxton was appointed first 

 assistant at Mauritius in December, 1895, and 

 succeeded to the directorship on the retire- 

 ment of Dr. Meldrum at the end of 1896. 



The International Commission on the 

 Teaching of Mathematics will hold its meet- 

 ing this year at Milan, September 18-20, 

 under the presidency of Professor F. Klein. 



Dr. William R. Brooks, director of the 

 Smith Observatory and professor of astronomy 

 at Hobart College, Geneva, N. T., discovered 

 a comet on the night of July 20. Its position 

 at 15 hours G. M. T. being E. A. 22 hours, 13 

 minutes and 40 seconds; declination north 20 

 degrees 57 minutes. Motion slow northwest. 

 The comet is a fairly bright telescopic object 

 in a lOJ refractor, and is visible in the 3-inch 

 finder. 



Col. M. F. Ward,-F.R.S., of Slough, writes 

 to The Observatory that the church of that 

 parish has lately been enlarged, biit that funds 

 are needed to complete the building by the 

 addition of a tower and spire. He thinks that 

 as Sir William Herschel's large telescope stood 

 within 100 yards of the existing church as- 

 tronomers might like to erect this spire to the 

 memory of the celebrated observer. 



Among eighteen civil list pensions granted 

 by the British government during the past 

 year are the following: Lady Huggins, in 

 consideration of the services to science rend- 

 ered by her, in collaboration with her hus- 

 band, the late Sir WiUiam Huggins, O.M., 

 £100. Mrs. Sharpe and her daughters, in con- 

 sideration of the valuable contributions to 

 ornithology made by Dr. Eichard Bowdler 

 Sharpe, and of their straitened circumstances, 

 £90. Mrs. Conder, in consideration of 

 the important services rendered to geograph- 



ical knowledge by her husband, the late Col- 

 onel Claude Eeignier Conder, and of her in- 

 adequate means of support, £75. Mrs. Fysh, 

 in consideration of the services to chemical 

 and physical science of her father, the late 

 Dr. George Gore, F.E.S., and of the circum- 

 stances in which she has been placed by his 

 disposal of his fortune for the furtherance of 

 science, £50. Miss Fanny Hind, Miss Flora 

 Hind and Miss Emma Hind, in consideration 

 of the services of their father, the late Dr. 

 John EnsseU Hind, F.R.S., superintendent 

 of the Nautical Almanac Ofiice, to the 

 science of astronomy, and of their straitened 

 circumstances, £60. Dr. Charles Creighton, 

 M.D., in consideration of his medical and 

 biological researches, and of his inadequate 

 means of support, in addition to his existing 

 pension, £45. Mr. Thomas Whittaker, in con- 

 sideration of his philosophical writings, in 

 addition to his existing pension, £30. 



Mrs. Helena B. Walcott, wife of Dr. 

 Charles D. Walcott, formerly director of the 

 United States Geological Survey, now secre- 

 tary of the Smithsonian Institution, was in- 

 stantly killed in the railway wreck at Bridge- 

 port, Conn., on July 11. A correspondent 

 writes : " Mrs. Walcott had been ardently and 

 actively interested in the scientific work of 

 her husband. In 1888 she accompanied him 

 to Newfoundland where they worked out to- 

 gether the key to the succession of the Cam- 

 brian formations of the North American con- 

 tinent. They then crossed to Wales and 

 studied the classical Cambrian sections. For 

 eighteen seasons she accompanied Mr. Wal- 

 cott on his expeditions in connection with 

 geological researches in various regions of 

 eastern and western United States and Can- 

 ada. She was a most energetic collector, and 

 was at all times an enthusiastic assistant in 

 the scientific activities in which Mr. Walcott 

 was engaged. Since Mr. Walcott's appoint- 

 ment as secretary of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, she had been greatly interested in the 

 development of the United States National 

 Museum and in the general study of museum 

 systems. She was planning to take a still 

 more active part during the coming winter in 



