A VIOLENT shock of earthquake occurred at Monteleone

at 3.40 p.m. on October 14.. The shock was felt at Messina at 3.42 p.m.; and a shock is reported to have occurred at Reggio di Calabria at 2.45 p.m.

WE learn from the Times that the Royal Prussian Aeronautic Observatory, recently completed, was opened on Monday, October 16, at Lindenberg, in the province of Brandenburg, in the presence of the Emperor William and the Prince of Monaco. The Emperor, in a speech, eulogised the many services rendered by the Prince of Monaco to science, and conferred upon him the large golden medal for science.

THE post-graduate college, West London Hospital, was opened on October 12 with an introductory address by Mr. Tweedy, the president of the Royal College of Surgeons, who emphasised the need for post-graduate training in medicine, and suggested that a post-graduate course should be made compulsory after a certain period in a man's career.

MR. WYNDHAM, M.P., was present at the annual conversazione of the Chester Society of National Science and Literature on October 12, and delivered an address. He accompanied Lady Grosvenor, who made a presentation to Mr. Robert Newstead, formerly curator of the Grosvenor Museum and now attached to the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. The gift consisted of a lifesize carbon portrait of himself and a purse of more than two hundred guineas. Lady Grosvenor also presented the Kingsley medal to Dr. C. Theodore Green.

AN interesting account is given in the Times (October 10) of the cancer department and cancer research at the Middlesex Hospital. Since 1792 the hospital has maintained a separate cancer department by an endowment which first came through John Howard from Samuel Whitbread. The cancer wards, which now contain fortynine beds, combine the functions of an almshouse or asylum with those of a hospital, for, in accordance with the purpose of the original foundation, the stay of patients is not limited. Howard also contemplated new discoveries from the investigation of a large number of patients and from the accumulated records of these.

THE programme of the London Institution for the session 1905-6 includes the following lectures among others :-The origin of the elephant, Prof. E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S.; submarines, Sir W. H. White, K.C.B., F.R.S.; geographical botany interpreted by direct response to the conditions of life, Rev. George Henslow; the Upper Nile, Sir Charles Eliot, K.C.M.G.; variation in man and woman, Prof. Kar! Pearson, F.R.S.; our atmosphere and its wonders, Prof. Vivian B. Lewes.

THE Sociological Society has now issued its programme of meetings arranged for the winter session, along with a list of papers to be delivered before its affiliated societies in the universities of Oxford and Manchester. It is noticeable that a new departure has been made by the Sociological Society in the holding of research meetings (at which papers of interest to specialists only will be read and discussed) in addition to its ordinary monthly meetings for the reading and discussion of papers of general interest. The following papers have been arranged for the ordinary monthly meetings:-The biological foundations of sociology, Dr. Archdall Reid; the origin and function of religion, Mr. A. E. Crawley; and the Institut de Sociologie, its equipment and work, M. Waxweiler. The papers to be

delivered at the research meetings are:-1 he study of the individual, Dr. J. L. Tayler; and biological methods in application to social problems, M. Waxweiler.

AN address of considerable importance from the standpoint of the connection between scientific training and industrial development was recently delivered by Mr. W Burton on the occasion of the prize distribution to students of the county pottery classes at Tunstall, Staffordshire. At the outset Mr. Burton emphasised the fact that manufacturers in Staffordshire are beginning to realise the value of technical schools as a means of training students to be of real service to them. But, looking backwards, few industries in this country have during the past thirty years drawn so little aid from the resources of science as the pottery industry. The methods employed in pottery at the present day do not differ very greatly from these in use at the time of Josiah Wedgwood. But in science there has been an almost phenomenal advance since the early discoveries of Priestley, the contemporary and frierd of Wedgwood. In taking up the study of pottery to-day, the student has to commence for himself almost entirely from the beginning; there is no accumulated store knowledge and experience, such as exists in all branches of science, from which he may draw. The supreme gift of scientific training in methed, Mr. Burton continues, is the power to see. "How many problems are there that present themselves to us every day in our businesses that really disappear-are no longer problems-if we once see them clearly?" The commercial organiser of a busthe has two problems always facing him, first economic production of his goods, and secondly the dis posal of these goods in the market. A scientific training, in so far as it gives knowledge tending to the solution of these problems, is of direct value to the commercial sid of business; many problems can be solved only by scientific methods. But, Mr. Burton urges in conclusion, manufacturers should not look for too immediate results from the employment of a scientifically trained man. "Remember, he must have time to apply his science to your industry. He must have time for experiment, and must be given both leisure and the fullest opportunity to follow out those lines of prolonged and systematic investigation on which alone scientific knowledge has been built."

ness

THE September issue of the Proceedings of the Phili delphia Academy contains the first portion of a long paper by Mr. C. S. Sargent on the species of thorns of the genus Crataegus found in eastern Pennsylvania, mainly based on collections and notes made by several local botanists.

THE Irish Naturalist for October opens with an illu trated paper by that enthusiastic ornithologist Mr. L Williams on the recent occurrence in Ireland of a number of specimens of the Greenland and Iceland falcons, more especially the former. Previous records of the occurrenc in Ireland of the Greenlard falcon included ninete n instances, now raised to twenty-eight by the occurrence ef no less than nine examples during the present year. On the other hand, only two previous records of the occurrence of the Iceland falcon were known, this number being raised to three by the capture of an immature female in Galwas in March. The author speculates why the Iceland falcor should be so much more rare in Ireland than the far mor distant Greenland species.

THE Halifax Courier of September 30 contains a full report of a long paper, read at the first meeting for the present session of the Halifax Scientific Society, on the educational value of the Bankfield Museum, by Mr L

Roth, the hon. curator. This institution, which is under the control of the Halifax municipality, is devoted to art, local history, numismatics, and ethnology, and it has been the object of the present curator during his whole term of office to make these collections thoroughly representative and of real educational value. Consequently he has rigorously excluded from the exhibition cases all specimens coming merely under the designation of " curios," and devoid of special local or educational interest-an example which might, by the way, be followed by the authorities of at least one rate-supported local museum we could name. Whether this rigid censorship has aroused ill-feeling we cannot say, but at the conclusion of his address Mr. Roth referred in somewhat bitter terms to the apathy displayed by the municipal authorities towards his efforts. Certainly thirty-six guineas a year is not a lavish sum for the needs of such a museum, and the committee appear to have funds at their disposal which they refuse to spend.

No. 13 B. of the Publications de Circonstance, recently issued in Copenhagen by the International Council for the Study of the Sea, contains an account of the present condition of the German fisheries in the Baltic, and is a continuation of the publication already issued (No. 13 A) on the Danish and Swedish fisheries in that sea. The present work has been prepared for the German SeaFisheries Association by Dr. E. Fischer in cooperation with Prof. H. Henking. It gives in a concise form information as to the different kinds of fishing practised in the area, as well as an account of the boats, nets, and other fishing gear employed, and of the quantities and values of the fish landed. The fluctuations of the various fisheries from year to year for the last ten years are shown in a series of tables and curves, and a number of lithographed charts illustrate the relative local abundance of different species of fish along the German coasts of the Baltic.

THE second part of the first volume of the useful little flora of the upper Gangetic plain, by Mr. J. F. Duthie, has been published recently; it includes the orders Caprifoliaceæ to Campanulacea, and the index to the volume.

THE late Prof. L. Errera showed a marked preference for physiological problems, and one of his last papers, which is published in vol. xlii. of the Bulletin de la Société royale de botanique de Belge, takes up the difficult subject of the ultimate cause behind reaction in plants. The paper deals with dominance and inhibitory action, as exemplified in the correlation existing between the directions assumed by the main vertical shoot of a tree and its branches under the influence of geotropic stimulus. Nutrition or polarity has generally been invoked to furnish an explanation, but Prof. Errera argues in favour of inhibiting action, possibly due to internal secretions.

REPORTS for 1904-5 on the botanic stations at Antigua and St. Kitts have been received. Owing to the want of uniformity in the amount of fuzz on the cotton seed imported from the Sea Islands into Antigua, some doubt was expressed as to its purity. To test the matter some of the seed was graded, and each grade was sown on a separate plot; however, on reaping the cotton, the lint from the different plots did not present any marked difference, and the seed was no more uniform than before. The conclusion is drawn that the character of the lint is fixed, and does not alter with variations in the character of the seed. In St. Kitts and Nevis interest attaches to the cacao and rubber plantations which have been recently

started; the rubber plants consist of Castilloa and Funtumia. The work at the agricultural school in St. Kitts is worthy of mention; the practical course includes the cultivation of vegetables, the application of manures to pine and cotton crops, and the propagation of plants by budding and cuttings.

WE have received from the Minister of the Interior the twenty-fourth Bulletin issued by the Peruvian Corps of Mining Engineers. It contains the mineral statistics of Peru for 1904. The production in that year included 59,920 tons of coal, 38,683 tons of petroleum, 2209 tons of lead, 9503 tons of copper, 2675 tons of borates, 18,544 tons of rock salt, 21 tons of sulphur, 145, 165 kilograms of silver, and 601 kilograms of gold. Compared with the production in the previous year, noteworthy increases are shown.

THE interesting paper on some phenomena of permanent deformation in metals read by Mr. G. H. Gulliver, of Edinburgh University, before the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in February has now been published in pamphlet form. In making a tension test of a metal bar as soon as the yield-point is reached, the deformation becomes visible to the naked eye as the well known Lüder's lines. Hitherto the lines occurring at the yield-point have been confused with the two straight depressions known as the contractile cross." The author shows that the two phenomena are quite distinct. In his experiments flat

steel bars were used inch in thickness and of various widths from inch to 4 inches.

THE second part of the mines and quarries general report for 1904 has been issued by the Home Office. It contains statistics of the persons employed and of the accidents that occurred. The total number of persons employed at mines and quarries in the United Kingdom and in the Isle of Man in 1904 was 974,634, of whom 877,057 were employed at mines. The death rate from accidents was 1.243 per 1000 persons employed at mines and 1-15 per 1000 at quarries. By the Act of 1903, the value of scientific training in mining is now shown to be appreciated by the Government, the holders of diplomas at institutions approved by the Secretary of State for the Home Department being eligible for managers' certificates after three years' practical experience instead of five as was formerly the case. The list of institutions that have been approved is given in the report, and comprises the Royal School of Mines, the universities of Birmingham, Cambridge, Durham, Glasgow, Leeds, London, Oxford, Sheffield and Wales, the University College, Bristol, the Glasgow Technical College, and the Wigan Mining College.

IN the American Journal of Science (vol. xx., No. 118) Mr. Bertram B. Boltwood quotes a number of analyses of minerals containing uranium and thorium, and interprets them by assuming that the ultimate disintegration products of the radio-active elements may include lead, barium, bismuth, the rare earths, argon, and hydrogen. The question is raised whether the quantities of these elements actually existing in nature have not been produced wholly by some such process of disintegration.

IN the Atti dei Lincei (vol. xiv. p. 188) B. Gosio describes how the decomposition of exceedingly dilute sclutions of alkaline selenites, or, better, of alkaline tellurites, may be utilised as a delicate test for living bacterial contamination. Most living bacteria are capable of decomposing potassium tellurite with the production of a blackish precipitate, becoming themselves, when viewed under the microscope, tinged blackish grey. Dead bac

teria or spores not undergoing actual development are totally without action on a solution of the tellurite. The test seems to be especially useful for ensuring sterility in the case of liquids or therapeutic sera destined for hypodermic injection.

THE many thermoelectric methods which have been devised during the past few years for the measurement of very high and of very low temperatures have proved themselves of a wide and general utility. But hitherto no instrument of a similar type has been made available for the accurate measurement of temperatures between o° C. and 200° C. In the Physical Review (vol. xxi. p. 65) Mr. A. de Forest Palmer describes a thermojunction consisting of a soft iron wire in conjunction with an "advance wire containing copper, nickel, and iron, by means of which temperatures within the extremes named may be determined with an error not exceeding 0-04 per cent. Such an instrument is easily calibrated, and in certain circumstances can profitably replace a mercury thermometer of a corresponding degree of accuracy.

Le Radium for September (20 année, No. 9) contains articles on the influence of the connections on the action of vacuum tubes, by M. Charbonneau, on the treatment of cancer with radium, by M. Darier, and a summary of current work connected with radio-activity.

THE Journal of the Royal Sanitary Institute for October (xxvi., No. 9) contains articles on the administration of the Food and Drugs Act, by Mr. Wellesley Harris, on the waste of infant life, by Dr. Nash, on hygiene in education, by Mr. White Wallis, and notes on common parasites found in bodies of animals used for food, by Mr. King.

WE have received "Contributions from the Research Laboratory and Sewage Experimental Station," Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, vol. i., 1905. It contains several valuable papers, e.g. the mode of action of the contact filter in sewage purification, by Messrs. Phelps and Farrell, determination of organic nitrogen in sewage by the Kjeldahl process, by Mr. Phelps, a study of the methods in current use for the determination of free and albumenoid ammonia in sewage, by Mr. Phelps, and determination of the number of bacteria in sewage, &c., by Mr. Winslow.

MESSRS. F. VIEWEG AND SON, Brunswick, have published a fourth edition of Hauptsätze der Differential- und Integral-rechnung," by Prof. R. Fricke.

MR. W. B. CLIVE has published a third edition of Dr. G. H. Bailey's "Second Stage Inorganic Chemistry (Theoretical)." This edition has been re-written and enlarged.

THE third, revised edition of " Leitfaden für das zoologische Praktikum," by Prof. W. Kükenthal, has been published by Mr. Gustav Fischer, Jena. The second edition of this work was reviewed in NATURE of April 24, 1902 (vol. lxv. p. 581).

THE first part of a work on "Die ätherischen Öle," by Dr. F. W. Semmler, has just been received from the publishers, Messrs. Veit and Co., Leipzig. It is proposed to issue the work in twelve parts which will make up three volumes, to be completed during next year. The work will be noticed when the whole of the parts have been received.

A THIRD edition of Mr. Tyson Sewell's "Elements of Electrical Engineering has been published by Messrs. Crosby Lockwood and Son. The book was reviewed in

NATURE of November 20, 1902 (vol. lxvii. p. 53), and it is only necessary to mention that more examples have been added to the appendix, and that particulars of the Wright" and other electrolytic meters have been

inserted.

A SECOND edition of Mr. J. W. Russell's "Elementary Treatise on Pure Geometry has been published by the Clarendon Press. The first edition of the book was noticed in our issue of June 1, 1893 (vol. xlviii. p. 101). Besides numerous small improvements throughout, other changes have been made in the revised edition, and among these may be mentioned the re-arrangement of the examples and the omission of redundant ones. Each chapter has been made independent of following chapters; more use bas been made of projection in proofs of theorems, and corre lative theorems have been proved by reciprocation. An index has been added.

MESSRS. FLATTERS AND GARNETT, LTD., Deansgate, Manchester, have sent us a specimen of new storage cabinets made by them for lantern slides. Each drawer of the cabinet will hold 100 slides in five divisions, and is fitted with brass handle and space for movable card label. Single drawers are supplied, and cabinets are made with four, six, twelve, and twenty-four drawers. There are no grooves in the drawers, but the top edges are cut down a little, so that the slides rise above the edges and can readily be lifted out. The cabinets provide a convenient and neat means of storing lantern slides. A despatch box also submitted by Messrs. Flatters and Garnett is fitted at each end with a strip of brass which clasps the cover when the slides are in transit, and can be swung off immediately the slides are required. This box has the usual rubber packing to prevent shock and breakage.

OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. ANOTHER LARGE SUN-SPOT.-Another large group of sunspots, the fourth or fifth this year to be visible to the protected naked-eye, is now to be seen on the solar disc not very far from the centre. The group, which consists of a large number of separate small nuclei, is, roughly, 100,000 miles across its longest diameter, and was first seen coming round the limb on Saturday, October 14.

M. BIGOURDAN'S ECLIPSE RESULTS.-M. Bigourdan, who was placed in charge of the Bureau des Longitudes expedition to Sfax (Tunis) to observe the recent total eclipse of the sun, communicated the preliminary results of his observations to a meeting of the Paris Academy of Sciences held on October 2. The greater part of his communication consisted of descriptions of the instruments employed and the conditions they were employed under.

A coronagraph, designed to take numerous large-scale photographs, in order to show the relation between the details of the inner corona and those on the corresponding regions of the solar disc, became deranged after the second plate was exposed, but the two plates obtained show numerous details of the inner corona. In a second coronagraph, of 0.05 m. focal length and 0.15 m. aperture, a green glass screen, transmitting only those wave-lengths near to λ 530, was placed in front of the plate, and the exposure made to last throughout totality. The negative obtained shows the corona extending for about 30' from the moon's limb.

Two spectroscopes having slits much longer than the diameter of the solar image were employed, the slits being so arranged that the spectrum of the coronal radiations at points situated at the ends of the sun's axis and equator respectively might be photographed. Photometric observ ations of the corona, both visual and photographic, wyre also made.

Observations of the terrestrial magnetic elements showed that the variations caused by the interposition of the moon were but small. The shadow bands formed a very striking

feature of this eclipse, and were recorded by many observers at Sfax as being sinuous, undulating, and nearly parallel. They travelled at a rate equal to the average walking pace of a man (Comptes rendus, No. 14).

ATMOSPHERIC ORIGIN OF "SHADOW BANDS."-In No. 4049 of the Astronomische Nachrichten Signor T. Zona, of Palermo, suggests that the shadow bands observed during a total eclipse of the sun are of a purely atmospheric origin. He has observed that the rays of light projected from a man-of-war's searchlight on to a wall several kilometres from the ship exhibit just the same kind of light and dark bands that he observed at Sfax during the recent solar eclipse.

Similarly, he noticed that the light from Venus projected through a small window on to the opposite wall of the room in which he was seated exhibited the same appear

ance.

Signor Zona suggests that the atmospheric vibrations which cause the agitation seen at the sun's limb, when the latter is observed directly, are the cause of the oscillating bands seen during total eclipses.

THE

A SPECTROGRAPHIC DETERMINATION OF SOLAR PARALLAX. In Nos. 4048-9 of the Astronomische Nachrichten Herr F. Küstner describes in detail a method which he has employed to determine the sun's parallax spectrographically, from measurements of sixteen lines on each of eighteen spectrograms of Arcturus, obtained during the period June 24, 1904-January 15, 1905. with the Bonn spectrograph. From these measurements he found the radial velocity of Arcturus relative to the sun to be -4830-27 km. for the epoch 1904-8, and the value for the mean velocity of the earth to be 29.617±0.057 km., the accepted value for the velocity of light in vacuo being 29986526 km. per second.

As the solar parallax previously accepted, viz. 8".800, is based on the assumption that the earth's velocity is 29.765 km., and as these two quantities vary proportionally, it follows that with a more correct value for the latter a more refined value for the former may be determined.

Having made the determination, Herr Küstner arrives at the quantity 8".844 +0"-017 as his final result for the value of the solar parallax.

NOVA AQUILE No. 2.-The results of several recent observations of the Fleming Nova are published in No. 4049 of the Astronomische Nachrichten.

Prof. Wolf, observing on September 17 at Sh. 4.3m. (Konigstühl M.T.), found the Nova's magnitude to be 9.6, showing a decrease of not quite 0-3 mag. since September 4.

Dr. Guthnick, observing at Bothkamp, obtained the photometric results shown in the following table :

The magnitudes are based on those given for the comparison stars in the Harvard photometric revision of the B.D. catalogue.

LIGHT-VARIATION OF SATURN'S SATELLITES.-From observations made on twelve evenings, Dr. P. Guthnick, of Bothkamp Observatory, has determined the phases of the magnitude changes of Tethys, Dione, Rhea, and Titan.

The

He found that the first named is brightest when at easterly elongation (90°) and faintest at about 330°. Dione reaches its maximum brightness at 90° and its minimum at about 40°. Rhea apparently has two maxima, one at 40°-120° and a fainter one at 240, the corresponding minima occurring at 180° and 330° respectively. maximum brightness of Titan occurs at 240°, its minimum brightness at 20°. In regard to Japetus, Dr. Guthnick's observations confirm the results obtained by Prof. Pickering, viz. that the maximum brightness of that satellite occurs at the western, and the minimum at the eastern, elongation. The range of light-variation for each of the satellites Tethys, Dione, and Titan is about 0.75 mag., for Rhea about 1-0 mag., and for Japetus about 1-75 mag. (Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 4049).

INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON RADIOLOGY AND IONISATION.

THE first international congress for the study of radiology and ionisation, organised under the auspices of the Belgian Government, was held at Liége on September 12-14. The work of the congress was divided into two sections, devoted respectively to physical and biological science. The first section dealt with the following questions:-(1) physics of electrons, comprising also radiations of all kinds; (2) radio-activity and the accompanying transformations; (3) meteorological and astronomical phenomena attributable to ionisation, radio-activity, and to radiations of different kinds. The second section had for its scope the study of the physiological properties of the radiations and their application in medicine.

The opening session of the congress was held in the physics theatre of the University of Liége on September 12 under the presidency of Prof. Kuborn, member of the Royal Belgian Academy of Medicine. Among the members present may be named Profs. Becquerel, Bouchard, and Bergonié, representing the French Republic, Señor J. Muñoz del Castillo, officially representing Spain, Drs. E. F. Nichols and W. Dieffenbach (United States), Prof. Hurmuzescu (Roumania), Prof. Gillon (Italy), Dr. Yankorits (Servia), Lion Sy Thang (China), Dr. Arrago (Guatemala), Dr. Ortiz (Argentine). Prof. Lassar represented the Röntgen Association of Berlin, Prof. Onnen the Royal Society of Batavia, and Mr. Wilton the University of Adelaide, South Australia. The following were also present :-Messrs. Birkeland, Himstedt (Freiburg in B.), Gariel (Paris), and Legge (London).

Sir William Ramsay had intended to present an address on radio-thorium, but in his unavoidable absence it was read on his behalf. M. Becquerel gave a lecture on the analysis of the radiations of radio-active substances. The address will be published in the Comptes rendus of the congress, shortly to be issued by the organising committee (general offices, No. 1 Rue de la Prévôté, Brussels). On September 13 a general meeting was held. Prof. communication Wind, of Utrecht, presented a on the diffraction and wave-length of the n-rays, and demonstrated the character of the apparatus designed by his colleague M. Haga and himself for the study of this much controverted question. Prof. Lassar, of Berlin, gave an account of the practical application of the new radiations. M. Tommasina, of Geneva, described a study of the radioactivity produced by atmospheric air (Elster and Geitel's phenomenon), and papers relating to the therapeutic action of the X-rays and of radium were read by Drs. Bergonié (Bordeaux), Dieffenbach (New York), and Kassabian (Philadelphia). The latter's hands, owing to their frequent exposure to the radiations used for therapeutic treatment, have during the past few years undergone characteristic changes.

The following papers of noteworthy interest were presented at later meetings :-Remarks relative to the terminology of ionisation, Prof. de Hemptinne (Louvain); disruptive discharge in gases at high pressures, Prof. Guye (Geneva); the spectroscopic study of radium light, Prof. Himstedt (Freiburg in B.); the kinetic theory of the electron serving as a basis for the electronic theory of radiation, Dr. Tommasina (Geneva); on the radio-active constituents of sediments from Echaillon and SalinsMoutiers, Dr. Blanc (Rome); a new apparatus for determining the radio-activity of spring-waters, Dr. H. Sieveking (Karlsruhe); Moser's radiations, Prof. Piltschikoff (Kharkoff): discharge phenomena caused by X-rays and radium radiations, and the transformation of these rays, Prof. Hurmuzescu; critical observations on the theories of atomic disintegration and chemicophysical dissociation, Prof. Muñoz del Castillo; the method of transmission of excited activity to the kathode, Mr. Makower (Manchester); radio-activity of the lava from Vesuvius (eruption of 1904), Dr. Tommasina; on the change of properties of the chemical elements, Prof. Fabinyi (Kolozsvar, Hungary); (1) the experimental methods of studying the transformations of the X-rays and the secondary rays resulting therefrom, (2) classification and mechanism of the different electric phenomena caused by the X-rays, Prof. Sagnac (Paris); absorption phenomena of radium and polonium

rays, Prof. Riecke (Göttingen), paper presented by Dr. Emil Bose.

Limitations of space prevent the enumeration of papers not read at the congress but accepted for insertion in the Comptes rendus, as well as of the communications read before the biological section. The final meeting of the congress was held on September 14. After several interesting communications had been read, including one from Sir William Huggins, presented by Prof. Becquerel, the following motion was put before the meeting by the executive of the congress, acting at the wish of Prof. Jose Muñoz del Castillo :

The International Congress for the Study of Radiology and Ionisation assembled in plenary session at Liége on September 14, 1905, considers that, although State regulation and protection may sometimes impede free research among men of science, it is, however, necessary that Governments should, without creating monopolies, be brought to apply to radio-active substances the same legislative measures that prevent the monopolisation of other useful substances, and should guarantee by the play of economic laws free scientific research and the application of these substances to the treatment of the sick; and considers also that it is desirable to be able to advise or remind the Governments of the importance of these measures and that a permanent commission invested with powers by the actual congress, an assembly of men of science devoted to the study of these questions and belonging to different countries, would carry weight in discussing with public authorities matters appertaining to the needs of science or the requirements of the sick. It has therefore decided

(1) That an international commission for examining all questions of general interest relative to radio-active substances shall be instituted.

(2) That the commission shall meet regularly each year, and may be convened on any exceptional occasion by the president, acting with the majority of the executive.

(3) That it shall organise periodically international congresses, to meet every five years, and shall also be empowered to convene the congress in extraordinary session.

(4) That the members of this commission shall be subject to re-election at each meeting of the International Congress.

THE COALFIELDS OF NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE.

1

THE memoir described below contains detailed accounts of the coalfields of North Staffordshire, especially those of the Pottery and Cheadle Coalfields. The re-survey on the 6-inch scale was commenced in 1898 and completed in 1901. The present volume, which contains detailed descriptions furnished by each geologist of the area surveyed by himself, has been largely written and edited by Mr. Gibson, who personally carried out the greater part of the field-work. It was pointed out by Beete Jukes long ago that, so far as the higher portions of the Coal-measures were concerned, North Staffordshire provided the type development of the Midlands. Mr. Gibson has now established in that region a definite stratigraphical sequence in the comparatively barren strata which conformably overlie the productive Coal-measures, and he has also proved that the same sequence may be recognised in the other coalfields of the Midland area.

The chief points of interest are contained in chapter iv., which describes fully the determination of the Newcastleunder-Lyme group, the Etruria Marl group, and the Black Band group, and more particularly the removal of Hull's "Salopian Permian into the Carboniferous. A full account of the paleontological and stratigraphical evidence on which this change is based is given at pp. 53 to 55. The evidence shows that the Salopian Permian of Staffordshire, Denbighshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, and in all probability Lancashire, occurs as the highest group of a definite sequence everywhere overlying the higher beds of the true Coal-measures, but never discordant to them, 1 "Memoirs of the Geological Survey of England and Wales. The North Staffordshire Coalfields." By W. Gibson. With Contributions by G. Barrow, C. B. Wedd, and J. Ward. Pp. vii+494; with 1 Coloured Map and Plates. (London: Edward Stanford, 1905.) Price 65.

and that the Salopian Permian on either side of the Pennine Chain conforms to the Coal-measures, but is unconformably overlain on the eastern side by the Magnesian Limestone series.

It has been found advisable to adopt purely descriptive terms for various subdivisions, and for similar reasons the expressions Upper, Middle, and Lower Coal-measures have not been adopted, since the positions of the palæontological boundary lines which give a definite significance to the terms have not been determined with accuracy. Since the memoir was written, Mr. R. Kidston has contributed a paper to the Geological Society on the divisions and corre lation of the upper portions of the Coal-measures, in which he proposes the name Staffordian" for the series included between the Black Band group and the Newcastleunder-Lyme group, while the Keele group and similar beds in the Midland coalfields, hitherto referred to the Permian system, are classed with the Radstock group, previously called Upper Coal-measures. The distribution of the plants certainly favours such a classification, but there is evidence which seems to show a gradual passage of one group into another, and Dr. Hind, who has devoted considerable attention to the study of the lamellibranchs, is not in favour of the proposed subdivision.

One of the most pleasing features is the accurate and complete description of the palæontology, which is treated in detail by Mr. John Ward, and is accompanied by full lists, with six plates, of the common fossils of the Coalmeasures. The Pottery Coalfield has long been recognised as an unrivalled field for the study of Carboniferous fishes, the study of which has to some extent overshadowed the examination of a numerous and varied series of molluscan remains and the equally abundant flora it has yielded. In this section Dr. W. Hind has given Mr. Ward a great deal of assistance. The fossil fishes have been named by Dr. Traquair and Dr. Smith Woodward, while the plants have been dealt with by Mr. Kidston. A complete grological bibliography of the North Staffordshire coalfields, covering fifteen pages, forms a valuable appendix.

The Triassic and Glacial deposits are described in separate chapters, and the economic products of the Potters Coalfields are treated in chapter xii. The latter account includes the consideration of the future coal supply of the district from the concealed coalfield, to which considerable attention is paid. In addition descriptions are added of the local building stones, clays, and marls, supplemented by an enumeration of the chief source of water.

H. W. HUGHES.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF POWER.'

TWENTY-SIX years ago, at the meeting of the British

Association at Sheffield, August, 1879, a lecture, on Electricity as a Motive Power, was delivered to some thousands of working men, and, for the first time, they realised that forks and spoons could not only be plated with the electric current, but could also be polished with a brush made to spin with the same agency.

The sea of upturned faces beamed with delight when Jack, their popular comrade, stepped on to the platform, took the newly plated spoon in his hands, and burnished it -a pair of thin wires tied to a church steeple being the only connecting link between the dynamo machine in a neighbouring works-ordinarily used there for electroplating-and the electro-motor driving the polishing brush in the Albert Hall, Sheffield.

But an electro-motor is only a toy, thought my audience. nobody could construct an electro-motor that we could not stop with our hands; and at the end of my lecture they actually tried, and-wondered.

As far as I am aware, it was at that lecture that the following composite suggestion was first put forward-t obtain economy in electric transmission of power the current must be kept small, while to transmit much power the electric pressure between the conducting wires must be made large; and, lastly, to secure safety and convenience 1 Lecture delivered on Tuesday, August 29 at a meeting of the British Association in Johannesburg, by Prof. W. F. Ayrton, F.R.S., and ill trated with many experiments in moving machinery, diagrams and lantern slides, two lanterns being used, in the American fashian. for enabling pictures to be contrasted on the screen.