The Norman Lockyer Observatory

IN presenting the annual report and accounts (1936–37) of the Norman Lockyer Observatory, the council thanks the new director (Mr. D. L. Edwards) and his small staff for the work carried out

under the difficult conditions consequent upon the death of the late director, Dr. W. J. S. Lockyer. Reference is made to the new sensitometer recently added to the equipment of the

Observatory, which will make possible the development of quantitative work at Sidmouth over a wide range of the spectrum. Through the generosity of Sir Robert Mond, Prof. F. I. Blumbach is

working at the Observatory as a research associate. The council expresses its view that the best tribute that could be paid to Dr. Lockyer's devoted services would be in the development of

the Observatory, which retains so many marks of his attention, care and vision. Acquisitions of the British Museum (Natural History) THE Department of Geology has recently acquired, through

the generosity of the Medical Committee of the Royal Dental Hospital, a molar tooth of Neanderthal man discovered in Genista Cave, Gibraltar, in 1865 by Capt. F. Brome, governor of the

Military Prison. The most interesting recent acquisition in the Department of Minerals is a gilt brass model of a gold nugget from the foot of Croghan, Kinshela, near Arklow in County

Wicklow. The original nugget was found in 1795. It was said to have weighed 22 ounces and to have been given to King George III by Abraham Coates in 1796. A model is preserved in Trinity

College, Dublin, and a plaster model was presented to the British Museum in 1910. The new model is presented by Lord Seaton. Two fine specimens of hydromuscovite with pyrite and arsenopyrite

from the Roman Deep Mine, Ogofau, Carmarthenshire, and specimens of a New British mineral, russellite, a mixed crystal of bismuth and tungstic oxides, from Cornwall, are the most

interesting of the other British additions. Natural glasses of problematical origin generally classed as tektites continue to appear in various parts of the world. Through Dr. Spencer,

forty-eight specimens of natural glass from Java have been presented by Dr. G. H. R. von Koenigswald. Prof. Suess of Vienna has presented a piece of the so-called kofelsiteâ a fused gneiss

from the supposed meteorite crater at Kofels in the Austrian Tyrol. The Department has acquired by purchase some fine groups of cassiterite from Bolivia from Messrs. Gregory and Bottley and

has also secured the greater part of the collection of Hugh Septimus Gordon, who specialized in collecting and studying the minerals of the rare earths.

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