838 



SCIENCE. 



[X. S. Vol. XVIII. No. 469. 



livered, after which the prize-winners present, 

 MM. Becquerel, Arrhenius and Bjornsen re- 

 ceived their prizes, with the diploma and 

 Nobel gold medal, from the hands of the King. 

 The absent prize-winners, Professor Finsen 

 and M. and Mme. Curie, were represented by 

 the Danish and French Ministers. It may 

 seem somewhat ungracious to call attention 

 to the fact that three of the four recipients 

 are Scandinavians, whereas Nobel wrote in 

 his will ' I expressly direct that in the award 

 of prizes no attention whatever shall be paid 

 to nationality, so that only the most worthy 

 shall receive the prize, whether he be a Scan- 

 dinavian or not.' It is also the case that, 

 contrary to the express directions of Nobel's 

 will, about half the income of the fund has 

 been diverted to local uses. 



Sir William Eamsay, of London, will give 

 a course of lectures during the summer session 

 at the University of California on ' The Con- 

 stituents of the Atmosphere and the Emana- 

 tions from Radium.' 



Professoe George W. Hough, of North- 

 western University, has been elected an asso- 

 ciate member of the Royal Astronomical So- 

 ciety. 



Professors Boveri (Wiirzburg), Fiirbringer 

 (Heidelberg), Hilbert (Gottingen), Graf zu 

 Solms-Laubach (Strassburg), Weber (Strass- 

 burg) and Wiesner (Vienna), have been 

 elected corresponding members of the Munich 

 Academy of Sciences. 



We regret to learn that Dr. Finsen, of 

 Copenhagen, well-known for the discovery of 

 the light treatment of lupus, is dangerously 

 ill. 



Professor L. C. Miall has been elected Ful- 

 lerian professor of physiology at the Royal 

 Institution, London. 



Dr. H. a. Bumstead, assistant professor of 

 physics at Yale University, will spend a year 

 at Cambridge working in the laboratory of 

 Professor J. J. Thomson. 



Professor W. D. Halliburton, F.R.S., of 

 London University, will give the Herter lec- 

 tures at New York LTniversity in the coming 

 year. He has chosen as his subject ' The 



biochemistry of muscle and nerve.' The lec- 

 tures will commence on January 4, 1904. 



The second Phipps lecture, delivered by Dr. 

 Osier, of the Johns Hopkins University, on 

 December 3, had for its subject ' The Home in 

 its Relation to the Tuberculosis Problem.' 



Dr. Alexander Humphreys, president of 

 the Stevens Institute of Technology, gave an 

 address on ' The College Graduate as Engi- 

 neer,' in the College of the City of New York, 

 on December 15. 



Dr. Nordenskjold gave a lecture at Buenos 

 Ayres, on December 9, at the Teatro 

 Politeama, in which by the aid of a magic 

 lantern he gave a detailed account of his 

 Antarctic expedition. He stated that he 

 would make known the scientific results of 

 his expedition later, having as yet had no 

 time to coordinate them. M. Skottsberg, the 

 naturalist of the party, gave a full description 

 of the loss of the Antarctic. 



We learn from Nature that the Rev. T. R. 

 R. Stebbing, F.R.S., has been elected zoolog- 

 ical secretary, and a member of the council, 

 of the Liarnean Society in succession to Pro- 

 fessor G. B. Howes, F.R.S., who has had to 

 retire on account of ill health. 



The tercentenary of the death of William 

 Gilbert, which occurred on November 30, 1903, 

 was celebrated by the British Institution of 

 Electrical Engineers. Papers were read by 

 M. Hospitaller, and Dr. Belin-Esclienburg, 

 and a picture was presented to the city of Col- 

 chester, where he was born. 



The body of Herbert Spencer was cremated 

 at Hampstead, on December 14. The Hon. 

 Leonhard Courtney, M.P., made an address. 

 The trustees under Spencer's will are the Hon. 

 Auberon Herbert, Dr. Charlton Bastian and 

 Dr. David Duncan. The executore are Mr. 

 Charles Holme, proprietor of the Studio, and 

 Mr. Frank Lott, of Burton-on-Trent. As is 

 generally known, Spencer's autobiography was 

 left stereotyped and ready for the press, and 

 its early publication may be expected. 



Ben.tamin Franklin Koons, professor of 

 natural history and curator of the Museum of 

 the Connecticut Agricultural College, died at 



