100 YEARS AGO

Smithson died in Genoa in 1829, having bequeathed all his property to a nephew, Henry James Hungerford by name, and after him to any child of this nephew, “legitimate or illegitimate”; but in case of the said nephew dying and leaving no child, then all the property was, as mentioned above, to go “to the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.” Henry Hungerford died unmarried and without heirs in 1835, and Smithson's solicitors forthwith communicated with the United States Embassy in London. Then followed discussions in Senate and House of Representatives. Some senators considered that it would be beneath the dignity of the nation to receive benefits from a foreigner. Other senators considered that it would not. The House of Representatives referred the matter to a select committee, and finally the legacy was accepted, and Richard Rush, a lawyer of high standing, at one time United States Minister at the Court of St. James's, was selected to prosecute the claim in Chancery. When Mr Rush arrived in London he found that there were eight hundred cases in Chancery ahead of his, yet he managed to get the suit settled in less than two years, a matter “which gave rise to no little surprise,” seeing that “the English lawyers themselves admitted that a Chancery suit was a thing which might begin with a man's life, and its termination be his epitaph.”

From Nature 21 July 1898.

50 YEARS AGO

Mr. J. T. Sorenson included a petrosal [bone] from a blackfish (Globicephala melœna) in the collection which he made in his second stay at Campbell Island in the New Zealand subantarctic group. The extraordinary density of this specimen is striking and immediately apparent when the bone is handled. Although the specimen measures only 40 mm.×28 mm.×18 mm. in its major dimensions, the dry weight is 17.5 gm. After boiling in water to expel air, the volume measured by immersion is 5.0 c.c.; accordingly, the physical density is 3.5, considerably exceeding the range given in the Smithsonian “Physical Tables”.

From Nature 24 July 1948.