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In 1844 the young artillery officer was appointed to the important post of Superintendent of the Artillery workshops, and in 1847 he became a member of the commission then instituted for introducing the electric telegraph into Prussia. Next year his military duties called him to Kiel, where in conjunction with his brother-in-law, Prof. Himly, he protected that port against the attack of the Danish fleet, by means of submerged mines connected with the shore by cables, at once the precursor of the submarine cable and the torpedo. In the summer of 1848, as commandant of Friederichsort, he built the fortifications for the protection of the harbour of Eckenförde, which afterwards became so celebrated. In the same year he was recalled to Berlin in order to erect a line of telegraph from Berlin to Frankfort-on-the-Maine, the first electric line laid in Germany, and with this his official military career terminated, and he devoted his attention altogether to those scientific discoveries and

inventions which have made the name of Siemens a household word in every region of the globe.

In 1874 Dr. Werner Siemens was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Berlin, and the speech he made upon that occasion enables one to understand and appreciate his connexion with physical science. He was professionally connected with the application of science, which unfortunately left him but little leisure for those purely scientific investigations to which he always felt specially attracted. He says, to quote his own words in the speech just referred to, "My problems were generally prescribed by the demands of my profession, because the filling up of scientific voids which I met with presented itself as a technical necessity. I will only here mention cursorily my method of measuring high velocities by means of electric sparks, the discovery of the electrostatic charge of telegraph conductors and its laws, the deduction of methods and formulæ for testing underground and submarine cables, as well as for determining the position of faults occurring in their insulation,

my experimental observations on electrostatic induction, and the retardation of the electric current thereby, the conception and realization of a reproducible basis of measurement for electrical resistance, the proof of the heating of the dielectric of a condenser by sudden discharge, the discovery and explanation of the dynamo electric machine. I think I may claim that many of my technica contributions are not without scientific value, among which I may mention the differential regulator, the manufacture of insulated conductors by pressing gutta percha around them, telegraphic duplex, diplex, induction and automatic recording instruments, the ozone apparatus and measuring instruments of different kinds. I had the honour of seeing these recognized by receiving from the Berlin University the distinction of Doctor of Philosophy, honoris causa."

The reply to this speech was made on behalf of the Berlin Academy by Prof. du Bois Reymond, the Secretary of the Physical and Mathematical Section, and some of the words he then spoke will show how Germany appreciated one of her ablest sons, one whom we also may claim, for when Werner Siemens was born. the King of England was Elector of Hanover." By appropriating such a scientific form as yours, my dear Siemens, no Academy need be untrue to the laws of its foundation. Yours is the talent of mechanical discovery, which primitive people not improperly described as divine, and the cultivation of which constitutes the ascendancy of modern culture. Without having yourself worked with your hands in practical mechanics, you have reached the highest point in that art as creating and organizing head. With clear view and daring mind you soon grasped the great practical problems of electric telegraphy, and thus secured to Germany an advantage which Gauss, Wilhelm Weber, and Steinheil could not have procured for it. Your labours were for electricity what Frauenhofer's were for light, and you are the James Watt of electro-magnetism. Now you rule over a world which you created. Your telegraph lines surround the globe. Your cable ships navigate the ocean Under the tents of nomads using bows and arrows, through whose hunting grounds your messages pass your name is mentioned with superstitious awe."

This poetical description is fully justified by the great undertakings that have been carried out by the Siemens firm. The Indo-European telegraph, 2750 miles in length, passes across Europe, through a part of Russia to Tabreez and Teheran in Persia, and thence to India But for the international character of the firm this work could probably never have been accomplished. But with Mr. Carl Siemens in St. Petersburg, Dr. Werner in Berlin, and Mr. William in London, to carry out the necessary negotiations, the tender was accepted in June, 1869, and the work was completed in December of the same year. Since then eighteen cables of a total length exceeding 21,000 miles have been constructed at their Woolwich works and laid in the Atlantic by the Faraday, by the firm of Messrs. Siemens Brothers and Co., Limited, of which firm Dr. Werner von Siemens was Chairman and Mr. Alexander Siemens is the Director in London.

In a single line of the speech just alluded to Dr. Werner refers to the dynamo machine. On this machine the whole supply of electricity for lighting, transmission of power, and other large purposes is dependent; and it is interesting in this connexion to note that the only rival to the electric light for large effects is the regenerative gas lamp invented by Dr. Werner's youngest brother, Mr. Frederick Siemens, the inventor, with Sir William Siemens, of the regenerative gas furnace.

Dr. von Siemens was a Knight of the Prussian order pour le mérite, an honour conferred only on those who have been distinguished for their services to science and industry. The honorary degree conferred upon him by the University of Berlin, and his membership of the

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Royal Academy of Sciences of Berlin, have already been referred to. Dr. von Siemens was a member of many learned societies, and only in the spring of this year he was elected one of the sixteen honorary members of the Institution of Civil Engineers. The late Emperor Frederick III. of Germany conferred upon him the patent of obility in 1888, and the present Emperor has expressed his sympathy with his sorrowing widow and family.

Dr. Siemens was unfortunately one of those attacked luring the influenza epidemic, and although he recovered rom it, it left him weak, and he has since been ailing nore than once. A work on which he has been spending is spare moments was an autobiography, giving reminisences of himself and of the firm of Siemens and falske. This was published in Berlin a fortnight ago. On Tuesday, the 6th inst., Dr. Werner breathed his last at halfast six in the evening, just within a week of completing is seventy-sixth year. It may truly be said of him that, Ithough he has passed from us, his life's labours will ver endure, having left an indelible mark on the world's

rogress.

The funeral took place on Saturday. The London, Belfort, Vienna, and St. Petersburg factories of the firm of which the deceased was a member, sent officials and yorkmen; the many thousands following the hearse, and he respectful attitude of the bystanders in the streets hrough which the funeral procession passed testifying to he regard in which he was held. The Emperor William as represented by Prince Leopold, the Empress Fredeick by Count Seckendorff, and the German Empire by hancellor Caprivi. Science and art and industry, the ity of Berlin and the town of Charlottenburg were epresented by deputies and deputations, all combining > do honour to one esteemed of all.

NOTES.

E. F. B.

WE are glad to announce that Sir Archibald Geikie has underken to write the Life of Sir Andrew C. Ramsay, his predeessor in the Geological Survey. Sir Andrew Ramsay spent early the whole of his scientific career in the service, so that the cord of his life and the story of the progress of the Survey are osely bound together. This is the third member of the staff the Survey whose memoirs Sir Archibald Geikie will have ritten, the two others being Edward Forbes (whose Life he rote in conjunction with the late Prof. George Wilson) and Sir oderick Murchison. Sir Archibald joined the staff under amsay, and grew into the closest relations of friendship with

m.

WE regret to have to record the death of Mr. H. T. Stainton, He died on December 2 at the age of seventy.

R.S.

He 5 indefatigable in his study of entomology, to which he made ny important contributions. His chief work is "Natural story of the Tineina," in four languages, with many plates. s "Manual of British Butterflies and Moths" is also well own. Mr. Stainton was one of the founders of the tomologists' Monthly Magazine, and remained to the end of life one of its editors. He was for many years secretary of Ray Society and of the Zoological Record Association, and : of the secretaries of Section D of the British Association. >m 1848 he was a Fellow of the Entomological Society, of ich he was at one time president; and from 1859 he was a low of the Linnean Society, of which he was at one time :-president. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society 867.

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THE new Victoria buildings of University College, Liverpool, which include the Jubilee Tower, were formally opened on Tuesday. Lord Spencer, as Chancellor of the Victoria University, took part in the ceremony. At a banquet held in the evening, Mr. Bryce announced that the Queen, out of certain funds belonging to the Duchy of Lancaster, had been pleased to bestow upon the two great Lancashire Colleges a sum of £4000, to be applied in some permanent form, such as might be agreed upon by the authorities of the Colleges, particularly the principals, to commemorate the event of that day, and Her Majesty's interest in the growth of the institution.

ON Monday, at Merchant Taylors' Hall, Dr. William Anderson presented the prizes in connection with the City and Guilds of London Institute for the Advancement of Technical Education. Afterwards, addressing the students, Dr. Anderson called attention to the extraordinary advantages enjoyed by students of the present day in comparison with those within the reach of students of the past generation. In nearly all towns men and women were improving their knowledge in almost every branch of art and science to which their necessities or their inclinations led them. He had come to the conclusion that the aids given nowadays to manufactures and commerce were absolutely indispensable if England was to hold her own, and to overcome the difficulties which high-priced labour, the restrictions of the Legislature, and the interference of trade organizations imposed. DR. T. JEFFREY PARKER, F.R.S., of Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand, who is now in this country, will read a paper on the cranial osteology, classification, and phylogeny of the Moas (Dinornithidae) at the Zoological Society's meeting on the 14th of February.

THE Committee appointed by the Board of Agriculture to inquire into the plague of field voles in Scotland have declined for the present to recommend the adoption of the plan lately carried out in Thessaly by Prof. Loeffler, who claims to have got rid of voles in that district by feeding them with prepared bait containing the germs of mouse typhus. It is thought that Prof. Loeffler may not have attached sufficient weight to other causes which have doubtless operated to reduce the swarms of voles in Thessaly, such as the heavy rains which on the low ground would flood the holes and runs of the mice. The chairman of the committee, Sir Herbert Maxwell, and the secretary, Mr. J. E. Harting, with the sanction of the Board of Agriculture and of the Treasury, are about to proceed to Thessaly for the purpose of taking evidence there and reporting.

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A NEW edition of M. Alphonse Bertillon's important book "Identification Anthropométrique " will be published in January. The book has been entirely recast and considerably enlarged. It is the result of ten years of observation, and has been prepared, not merely for the anthropometric service directed by the author, but for all who desire to have a proper comprehension of man's physical qualities. In addition to the copies intended for the use of the penal administration of the French Ministry of the Interior, a small number of copies will be reserved for persons who may desire to subscribe for them.

ON the evening of Thursday the 8th instant a deep barometric depression advanced upon our north-west coasts, and proceeded with considerable rapidity in a south-easterly direc tion, completely traversing Great Britain, as far as Dover, and travelling throughout its course at the rate of about 36 miles an hour. Its passage was accompanied by gales and by heavy rain or sleet, with severe snowstorms on the east coast. This disturbance passed away to the eastward, and was followed on Saturday by a fresh depression which appeared in the northwest, causing a strong gale in that district, and heavy squalls in most other parts. The changes of temperature were very

irregular, the air being warm and moist under the influence of the cyclonic systems, but cold and relatively drier in the rear of the disturbances; in Scotland the frost was at times severe, the lowest of the minima being as low as 8° in the east of Scotland. In the early part of the present week a temporary improvement took place, with a generally rising barometer and falling thermometer, but these conditions soon gave place to a fresh disturbance in the north-west, accompanied by south-westerly winds generally. The Weekly Weather Report for the period ending the 10th instant showed that the temperature was below the mean in all districts, the greatest deficiency being about 7° over the northern parts of the kingdom. Rainfall exceeded the mean in the north-west of England and the north of Ireland, but in all other districts it differed little from the average amount. Bright sunshine was more prevalent than for many weeks past, except in the north of Scotland, where only 5 per cent. of the possible amount was registered.

A FOREIGN OFFICE "Report on the Social and Economical Condition of the Canary Islands" (No. 246, 1892) contains some details with respect to the climate. There is no record of the freezing point having been touched at Laguna (Teneriffe), 1840 feet above the sea. At Vila Flor, also in Teneriffe, 4335 feet above the sea, the highest point where cultivation exists, the lowest temperature recorded in 1890-91 was 28°; the lowest reading at the sea level during the same period was 49°. The highest summer reading at Laguna was 104°9 in 1885. The average maximum temperature near the sea in the summer is about 82°. The annual rainfall at Laguna is 29'4 inches, but at Santa Cruz (Teneriffe), at the sea level, it is only about 11 inches, and at Las Palmas it is as low as 8.4 inches. The greater part of the rain falls in the Monte Verde, where the vapour is carried from the sea by the trade wind. The rain generally begins early in October and ceases early in May.

THE country between the Nile and the Red Sea has not always been so barren as it is to-day. There is ample evidence that in former times bodies of cavalry from three to five hundred in number ranged without commissariat difficulties over districts which are now deserts. The Arabic names of the valleys are names for trees, and there can be little doubt that at one time the valleys abounded with the trees after which they were called. How is the change to be explained? Much light is thrown on the problem by a most interesting paper printed in the new number of the Kew Bulletin, to which it has been communicated by Mr. E. A. Floyer, F. L. S., Inspector-General of Egyptian Telegraphs. It is an extract from the report (which will be published in French by the Egyptian Government) of the expedition despatched by the Khedive to this region in 1891. The writer believes that the mischief has been done during the last twelve hundred years, and that it is to be attributed to the Arab and his camel; the camel having eaten the leaves and shoots of the trees, the Arab having converted into charcoal the stem, root, and branch. The writer is inclined to state the matter thus: So long as the valleys were all the Arab had to depend on for feeding his camels, so long he preserved his trees for his camels. But by degrees some Arabs got a footing in the Nile Valley. They hired their camels to the farmer to carry their harvest. They went back to their deserted valley and brought away the trees in form of charcoal. Thus the land was gradually made bare. If this explanation is correct--and there is evidently much to be said for it-the writer points out that a like cause may be invoked over large areas to explain, for example, the disappearance of the frankincense and spices from Southern Arabia, to explain the thousands of chariots and horsemen in Palestine, and to explain how in early times a greater fertility and population existed in many countries whose history, like that of Palestine, seems out of proportion to their present circumstances. It is a pity, by the way, that in so good

a paper nature should be spoken of as having produced in 2 camel "a Frankenstein." Frankenstein in the story was the monster, but the monster's creator.

IT is by no means certain that the harm which the came capable of doing in Egyptian territory has even yet been T hausted. The writer of the report considers it possible that i prosperity in Egypt in which all Englishmen are rejoicing = seal the destruction of the remaining trees, and leave the comm bare save of Calotropis procera and the plants which nounst few sheep and donkeys, attended by herdsmen, fed by g from the Nile Valley. "The camel," he says, "will the having so to speak burnt its boats, be domesticated in the Valley. And it is interesting to speculate as to how he w develop there. Already the massive Cairo camel is a distinct from other camels, surpassing all in its cumbr massive proportions."

THE December number of the Kew Bulletin contains, be the paper on the disappearance of desert plants in Egypt, esting sections on the Taj Gardens, Agra ; Indian gutta-peris the Gold Coast botanical station; Ramie machine trials at Orleans; Lord Bute's "Botanical Tables"; and miscellane notes. Reference was made to the "Botanical Tables" historical account of Kew, printed in the Bulletin in 1891, p.2 Since that was written the authorities at the Royal Gardens to had an opportunity, through the gracious permission e Queen, of examining the copy in the Royal Library at Wi which formerly belonged to Queen Charlotte, to whom the was dedicated. On the fly-leaf of the first volume of the Wi copy is the following note in pencil, written by the John Glover (appointed Royal Librarian by William IV. "Of this work only sixteen copies were printed for presents a cost, it is said, of more than £10,000. This copy bel to Queen Charlotte, and was purchased at the sale of 2. Majesty's Library for, I believe, £100." There seem, to have been only twelve copies. The general nature contents is indicated in the Bulletin. There are nine vol and the work contains 654 plates, all of them apparently dr and engraved by John Miller, an excellent German artist-JoSebastian Mueller, who thus anglicised his name.

hower

CEYLON is sending to the Chicago Exhibition a comp reproduction of a Buddhist temple and many interesting st mens of ancient Sinhalese art, including, according to the Ch Observer, "exquisitely carved pillars, massive doorways z dados, beautiful windows and frescoed panellings of There will also be, among other things, a display of jewellace, and pottery. It is hoped that these treasures will do thing to further in America "the interests of the most product of Ceylon, tea."

AT the recent meeting of the Congress of Americans Huelva, Mrs. Zelia Nuttall, of the Peabody Museum of Ate Archæology and Ethnology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, sented a preliminary note on the calendar system of the Aztecs. Guided by a statement in a Hispano-Mexican which she has recently discovered in the National Ca Library of Florence, Mrs. Nuttall claims to have found the to the Aztec calendar system. She exhibited tables show that the Mexican cycle was 13,515 days, and that it com 52 ritual years (less five days at the end of the cycle, days each, or 51 lunar years of 265 days each, based on moons, or 37 solar years each of 365 days. At the end fifty-first lunar year 10 intercalary days placed the solar ye agreement with the lunar years in such a manner that thi cycle recommenced in the same solar and lunar positions 2 13,515 preceding days. Each period commenced with bearing one of the four names: acatl, tecpatl, call, The calendar system and tables, 14 metres long, desig

strate this communication, were subsequently placed on ibition in the Spanish section of the Historical Exhibition at idrid. Her Majesty the Queen of Spain commanded that s. Zelia Nuttall should be presented to her, and expressed ch interest in her work.

No one expects to see the corncrake in Great Britain after the mer months. According to the Llangollen Advertiser, a cimen was caught last Thursday in the neighbourhood of trefelin, Llangollen. Several local naturalists have seen the , and agree that it is a corncrake.

A NEW luminous fungus has been forwarded to Europe from anti. It is said to emit, at night, a light resembling that of glowworm, which it retains for a period of twenty-four irs after having been gathered, and it is used, by the native men, in bouquets of flowers for personal adornment in the r and dress. It belongs to the section "dimidiati" of the as Pleurotus, in which no luminous species has been hitherto own, although there are several in the genus, and has been med by M. Hariot Pleurotus lux. It is believed to grow on e trunks of trees.

A THEORETICAL investigation of the conditions under which ppmann's coloured photographs are produced is given by M. Meslin in the Ann. de Chim. et de Phys. for November. e maintains that the colours produced are complex, and belong the higher orders of Newton's scale. This is illustrated by : change in colour observed when the thickness of the film reases. When moist air is blown upon it the film swells, 1 the bright colours give way to others consisting principally red and green. The impure nature of the spectrum ordinarily tained would account for its "metallic" appearance. Besides, ere is a blue or greenish-blue region which extends beyond the 1 end of the spectrum. The composite nature of the colours lected from the surface of the spectrum photograph may be own by projecting a similar spectrum upon the film. The lours will then appear very brilliant. But if, for instance, the een is projected upon the red of the film, green is reflected all e same, although less distinctly than before. The same thing ppens in other parts of the spectrum. On moving it from the blet towards the red, the violet, arriving at the green portion,

interrupted by a broad band. On further displacement this

nd, the breadth of which is about equal to the distance between e E and the b lines, moves through the green and yellow and aches the red. At this moment the blue and violet regions ow the greatest brightness. There is only one band observed -oughout. This observation is in accordance with the thickss attributed to the layers, viz. between 200 and 350μμ. ence the paths traversed by the light will range from 400μμ to 3 Juu, giving for none of the colours, = 600μμ for the 2 2

2

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ctrum. There we shall have a black band in the red, while blue is at its maximum, owing to the retardation being equal two wave-lengths. Hence the blue region beyond the red responds to the infra-red region of the incident spectrum, ich in long exposures is able to produce a photographic effect. DURING the year 1891 about 450 more persons were killed by d beasts in India than during the preceding year. The num in 1890, however, was abnormally low, and the Pioneer til calculates that last year's figures were about 250 in excess he mean. In one district of Bengal-Hazaribagh-no fewer n 205 deaths were due to a single brood of man-eating The yearly average of persons destroyed by wild beasts our Eastern dependency is between 2500 and 3000. The

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AN excellent account of the Experiment Stations established in the United States in the interest of agriculture is given by Mr. R. Warington, F.R.S., in a paper issued by the National Association for the Promotion of Technical and Secondary Education. A fully equipped Experiment Station, he says, is a large and costly piece of machinery, embracing many departments of work. There is one in every State of the Union, and in some States there are more than one; the total number is fifty-four. These Stations are endowed by Congress, £3000 a If the year being paid to the Station or Stations of each State. income derived from the State Legislatures, and from other sources, be included, the average income of each Station is nearly £4000. In nearly every instance the station is connected with the States Agricultural College, and the Station buildings are in its immediate vicinity. The publications of the Stations are made in the form of periodical bulletins and annual reports; for the printing of these a special grant is made by the State, and they are distributed by the Federal Government post free. The issues are very large: 60,000 copies of each Station bulletin are printed in Ohio. Any farmer in the State can at his request receive the bulletins regularly without payment. Mr. Warington expresses a hope that our own County Councils may be encouraged to try to do for agriculture in Great Britain what is so energetically done for it in America by the various States.

land Agricultural Experiment Station, in co-operation with the A SERIES of investigations on soils is in progress at the MaryU.S. Department of Agriculture and the Johns Hopkins University. So far the work has been on the physical structure of the soil and its relation to the circulation of soil water, and the physical effect of fertilizers on soils as related to crop production. The surface tension of various solutions was first of all determined. The solutions chosen included common salt, kainit, superphosphate of lime, soil extract, and ammonia. The soil extract was made by shaking up a little soil with just sufficient water to cover it. The water was afterwards filtered off and used for the determination. This operation reduced the surfacetension of water considerably, but the experiments do not appear sufficiently complete to indicate reasons for this. Analyses of the soils are not given. Ammonia and urine lowered the surface-tension of water considerably below that of the soil extract, and still more below that of pure water. Common salt and kainit increase the surface tension of water, and no doubt this is the reason why the application of these substances to the soil tends to keep it moist, whereas the excessive use of nitrogenous manure has the reverse effect.

THE Chamber of Commerce at Reims has published the statistics of the trade in champagne since 1844. In 1844-45 the value of the trade was 6,635,000 francs, and in the following year it exceeded seven millions. In 1868-69 it amounted to nearly sixteen millions, but fell to nine millions in 1870-71, and then rose in 1871-72 to twenty millions. The value in 1872 73 was twenty-two millions, and it oscillated between this sum and seventeen millions until 1889-90, when it became twenty-three millions. The figures were 25,776,000 in 1890-91; 24,243,996 in 1891-92. The number of bottles used in France rose from 2,225,000 in 1844-45 to 4,558,000 in 1891-92, while the number exported rose during the same period from 4,380,000 to 16,685,900. The year in which most bottles were sent abroad was 1890-91 (nearly twenty-two millions).

MESSRS. SWAN, SONNENSCHEIN AND Co. have issued a translation, by Dr. E. L. Mark, Professor of Anatomy in Harvard University, of the third edition of Dr. Oscar Hertwig's

"Lehrbuch der Entwicklungsgeschichte des Menschen und der Wirbelthiere." The volume is entitled "Text-Book of the Embryology of Man and Mammals." The translator, in his preface, expresses his belief that the work "covers the field of vertebrate embryology in a more complete and satisfactory way than any book hitherto published in English."

THE latest instalment of the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia contains a valuable paper, by Prof. E. D. Cope, on the Batrachia and Reptilia of North Western Texas. The statements presented in the paper are based on collections made along the eastern border of the Staked Plain of Texas, between Big Spring (on the Texas Pacific R. R.) on the south, and the Salt Fork of the Red River, near Clarendon (on the Denver and Fort Worth R. R.) on the north, a distance of about 250 miles. The collections were made incidentally to geological and palæontological explorations conducted by a party of the Geological Survey of Texas, which was under the direction of Mr. William F. Cummins. While attached to this party Prof. Cope picked up such specimens as came in his way, and a good many others were obtained by Mr. Cummins and by Mr. William L. Black of the party. total number of species enumerated is thirty-three. The paper may be regarded as supplementary to one published as Bulletin 17 of the U.S. National Museum in 1880, on the Zoological position of Texas.

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THE following are the lecture arrangements at the Royal Institution before Easter:-Sir Robert Stawell Ball, six lectures (adapted to a juvenile auditory) on astronomy; Prof. Victor Horsley, ten lectures on the brain; the Rev. Canon Ainger, three lectures on Tennyson; Prof. Patrick Geddes, four lectures on the factors of organic evolution; the Rev. Augustus Jessopp, three lectures on the great revival-a study in mediæval history; Prof. C. Hubert H. Parry, four lectures on expression and design in music (with musical illustrations); the Right Hon. Lord Rayleigh, six lectures on sound and vibrations. The Friday evening meetings will begin on January 20, when a discourse will be given by Prof. Dewar on liquid atmospheric air; succeeding discourses will probably be given by Mr. Francis Galton, Mr. Alexander Siemens, Prof. Charles Stewart, Prof. A. H. Church, Mr. Edward Hopkinson, Mr. George Simonds, Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart., the Right Hon. Lord Rayleigh, and other gentlemen.

THE micro-organism which has been shown to be the exciting cause of tetanus or lockjaw is just now especially attracting the attention of bacteriological investigators. Kitasato, who it will be remembered was the first who successfully isolated the bacillus of tetanus, has been continuing his researches on the protective inoculation of animals against this malady. In the current number of the Zeitschrift für Hygiene appears an account of some extremely interesting results which he has obtained with mice and guinea-pigs. In his experiments Kitasato introduced subcutaneously into these animals small splinters of wood which had been previously soaked in bouillon-cultures of tetanus, so prepared that only the spores were present. He wished in this way to imitate as nearly as possible the actual manner in which tetanus is communicated, and which in consequence of the sensitiveness of the bacillar form to heat and light and the extremely refractory nature of the spores, is almost invariably due to the accidental introduction of the latter. This theory is also supported by the fact that between the infliction of the wound and the development of symptoms of tetanus there is invariably a distinct lapse of time, during which the spores grow into bacilli and elaborate their toxic products within the system of the animal affected, after which the typical appearances of tetanus arise. The protective material used in these investiga

tions was the serum of a horse artificially rendered i against tetanus, and in every case out of those mice which s received a small wood-splinter two were put aside .. subsequently inoculated with the protective serum. K found, as he had expected, that a definite period of time ele between the introduction of the splinter and the developme tetanus symptoms; but with hardly an exception, all those subsequently treated with the serum recovered, whils which had received no protective treatment died exhibiting typical characteristics of tetanus. Moreover, it was found. the earlier the application of the serum took place after he fection and quite irrespective of the appearance of any si tetanus, the more successful was the result and the smal dose of serum necessary, whilst when the wood-splinte the serum were introduced together no symptoms where tetanus declared themselves. The same successful results obtained in the case of guinea-pigs. In connection w excessively hardy nature of the spore-form of tetanus, He jean (Ann. de la Soc. méd-chir. de Liége, 1891) has found even after eleven years such spores still retain their pose mischief. A small fragment of wood was extracted fre ankle of a child who had died of tetanus, and after being ke for nearly eleven years part of it was introduced under the of a rabbit, which afterwards died of tetanus. The inte was further confirmed by the discovery of tetanus bacilli pus of the wound.

THE chloraurates and bromaurates of cæsium and h have been prepared by Messrs. Wells and Wheeler, a described in the current number of the Zeitschrift für & A ganische Chemie. They are all four beautifully crystalline! stances. The crystals, which have been measured by Penfield, belong to the monoclinic system, and form an isc phous series of identical habitus. These salts are so cotively insoluble in water that they are obtained in the fre crystalline precipitates when concentrated solutions of c or bromides of cæsium or rubidium are mixed with strong tions of chloride or bromide of gold. They are, hows sufficiently soluble to admit of recrystallization from water crystals of cæsium chloraurate, CsAuCl, exhibit an e yellow colour; those of the corresponding rubidiam RbAuCl, possess a more deeply orange tint; while the bromides, CsAuBr, and RbAuBr, are jet-black bet a dark red powder upon pulverization. The cæsium comp are much less soluble than the rubidium ones, so tha crystals are usually much smaller. The more soluble ru salts readily form very large crystals; the chloride in par yields crystals whose size appears only to be limited by the crystallizing vessel and the depth of the solution crystals, however, whether large or small, all partake same character; they are elongated prisms terminated b basal plane, orthodome, clinodome, and small pyramidal The faces are usually extremely brilliant, but those bromides are often singularly hollow or cavernous. In 21: to this well-defined series, another chloraurate of caS.?? been obtained containing water of crystallization. Th 2CsAuC. HO, is formed when a large excess of gold c is present compared with the amount of cæsium chloric separates in the form of light orange-coloured tabular en belonging to the rhombic system, which exhibit the per property of undergoing an internal change accompanie elimination of the water of crystallization, within a few m of their removal from the mother liquor. The change is pro due to the passage of this hydrated salt into the relatively. stable anhydrous chloraurate described above. It betrays in a most interesting manner under the microscope, in p light. When a crystal plate is removed from the mother...)

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