June 12, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



955 



cipal guests were Professors Clarke and van't 

 Hoff, Professor A. E. Armstrong, Mr. Brere- 

 ton Baker, Professor P. F. Prankland, Mr. 

 Vernon Harcourt, Dr. Harden, Sir James 

 Hoy, Professor Kipping, Dr. W. H. Perkin, 

 St., Sir William Ramsay, Professor Emerson 

 Eeynolds, Sir Henry Eoscoe, Professor Smith- 

 ells, Dr. Scott, Professor Thorpe and Pro- 

 fessor Tilden. 



In proposing the toast of the evening, the 

 ' "Wilde ' medallist — Professor Clarke — and the 

 Dalton medallist — Professor Osborne Reynolds 

 — Sir Henry Roscoe said that Dalton's atomic 

 theory and Joule's discovery of the mechan- 

 ical equivalent of heat reflected more distinc- 

 tion on Manchester than the city's association 

 with the cotton industry or with the Ship 

 Canal. 



On Wednesday morning a special meeting 

 of the Owens College Chemical Society was 

 held to offer an address to the great Dutch 

 chemist, J. H. van't Hoff, now professor at 

 the Berlin University. Professor Dixon was 

 in the chair. The address was presented by 

 Mr. Norman Smith, a former student under 

 Professor van't Hoff. The professor, who was 

 enthusiastically received, said the question was 

 often asked, nowadays, whether the atomic 

 theory had not outlived its utility. His reply 

 was that, in dealing with natural phenomena, 

 with states of unstable equilibrium, the atomic 

 theory was indispensable for essential explana- 

 tions. He had come to regard the conception 

 of the carbon atom as the center of a tetra- 

 hedron as childish, but it contained the germ 

 of a profound truth, the solution of which 

 must be left to the future. He suggested that 

 valency was due to an equilibrium. The four 

 mutually repellent ' electric atoms ' of Helm- 

 holtz were kept in equilibrium by their attrac- 

 tion for the carbon atom at the center. 



Later in the morning Earl Spencer, Chan- 

 cellor of the Victoria University, conferred 

 the honorary degree of Doctor of Science on 

 Professor Clarke and Professor van't Hoff, 

 who were presented by Professor Dixon. After 

 the conclusion of the ceremony Professor van't 

 Hoff laid the first stone of the proposed ex- 

 tension of the Owens College Chemical Labo- 



ratories, and was presented, as a memento of 

 the occasion, with a silver trowel by the Col- 

 lege Chemical Society. The celebrations were 

 concluded by a soiree held at the Owens Col- 

 lege on Thursday night, when Dr. Harden 

 ■gave an interesting account of John Dalton, 

 and many Dalton relics were exhibited by the 

 Manchester Literary and Philosophical So- 

 ciety, Professor H. B. Dixon, Mr. Theodore 

 Neild, Mr. G. W. Graham and Mr. G. S. 

 Woolley. 



TRIGONOMETRIC SURVEY OF BRAZIL. 



The Brazilian government has provided for 

 the mapping of its territory on a scientific 

 basis. Last year the congress appropriated 

 the necessary funds for commencing the work, 

 and a commission of which Colonel Francisco 

 de Abreu Lima is President, was to leave Rio 

 early in May for the state of Rio Grande do 

 Sul to make a reconnaissance of the first zone 

 to be triangulated. 



The scheme as far as at present outlined, 

 includes the measurement of bases at Porto 

 Alegre and Uruguayana, and the connection 

 of these two cities by triangulation. This 

 will give an arc of about six and one quarter 

 degrees of longitude in about latitude 30° 

 south. 



The Superintendent of the U. S. Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey has been requested by the 

 commission to supervise the preparation of 

 the necessary tapes and accessories for the 

 measurement of the bases. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 



Dr. W J McGee has been appointed chair- 

 man of the committee of the International 

 Geographical Congress of 1904, succeeding 

 General A. W. Greely, who has resigned owing 

 to ill health and the pressure of official duties. 



The University of Marburg has conferred 

 its honorary doctorate on Mr. Geo. F. Kunz, 

 of New York City. 



M. Henri Becquerel, Paris, and Professor 

 A. Righi, Bologna, have been elected honorary 

 fellows of the Physical Society of London. 



Dr. Max Noether, professor of mathematics 

 at Erlangen, has been elected a foreign mem- 

 ber of the Academy of Sciences at Buda Pesth. 



