hundred feet higher than Kiyanja and situated north-west of it. They have no connection with the Mubuku Glacier." Mr. Freshfield finds that a rough sketch plan of the snowy group, sent by Signor Sella, coincides closely with the diagram of Lieut. Behrens, R.E., published in the Geographical Journal for July last, and concludes that ** there seems little doubt that the highest summits measured by our engineers are identical with the Duke of the Abruzzi's Ruwenzori." Hence the height of the Ruwenzori range may be taken as 16,625 feet.

The chief topographical discovery made by the Italian expedition, apart from its mountaineering successes, seems to be that the northern fork of the Mubuku, called by Signor Sella the Bugiogo, is of hitherto unsuspected importance. Its stream flows round a bend, which conceals its sources from the lower valley. Beyond this lies a basin penetrating far into the heart of the chain, at the head of which, and on the actual watershed, the highest peaks stand.

THE TORONTO MEETING OF THE BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION.

THE annual meeting of the British Medical Association, held on August 21-25 at Toronto by invitation of the Canadian Branch, under the presidency of Dr. Reeve, the dean of the medical faculty of the university, was a marked success. The city is a fine one, and the university buildings in the Queen's Park are admirably adapted for the work of a congress, combining convenience and beautiful surroundings. About 1600 members and visitors attended, the British contingent numbering 200 or thereabouts. Canadian hospitality was lavish, and we all carry back pleasant memories of our visit to this great country. In addition, good work was done, and the attendance at the numerous sections was well maintained.

A combined meeting of the sections of physiology and pathology discussed the pathology and physiology of the cell nucleus. The discussion was opened by Prof. Adami, of McGill, in a paper giving an excellent survey of the subject. The conclusions formulated were that (1) the nuclear matter conveys and determines, or controls, the inherited peculiarities of the individual, this conveyance being through matter contained in the chromatin loops or chromosomes, while it may be that these individual loops, varying among themselves, determine particular conditions; (2) the nucleus is essential, not merely for the vegetative activities, but also for the higher metabolic activities of the cell and their due coordination; (3) the nucleus is not merely the vegetative centre of the cell, but is involved in its functional activities; (4) the higher syntheses, those associated with growth and those governing specific cellular enzyme actions, are determined and initiated by the nuclear matter; (5) the nucleus is the centre or source of the higher cellular activities, and the nuclear material possesses in itself potentialities superior to those of any ordinary constituent of the cell body; (6) the presence of preformed cytoplasm is essential for the continued existence and growth of the nucleus-each becomes essential for the continued existence of the cell as a whole.

Dr. Ford (Johns Hopkins University) read a paper on an antitoxin for poisonous fungi. He concluded that the toxic agent of the amonita was of the nature of a glucoside, and that an antitoxic serum could be prepared with it. It was pointed out in the discussion that this idea was somewhat revolutionary, as hitherto it had been impossible to obtain with glucosides an antitoxic substance. Several papers were read on cancer. Dr. Clowes (Buffalo) had found that in experimental cancer in mice spontaneous recovery often occurred, and that such animals are immune to further inoculation. This was confirmed by Dr. Bashford (London), who stated that there is no evidence that cancer is on the increase, nor that it is endemic in districts. He had never obtained any transference by mere contact, i.e. cancer is not contagious. Prof. Gaylord (Buffalo) detailed some remarkable instances which seemed to show that certain malignant tumours in rats and mice are contagious. As a result of the discussions on cancer, it is noteworthy that the parasitic theory of the origin of cancer seems almost to have been abandoned by pathologists.

Prof. Hewlett and Dr. de Korté (London) read a paper on a beri-beri-like disease occurring in monkeys. The facts observed suggested that beri-beri is an infective disease due to a protozoan parasite, and conveyed by urinary infection. Dr. Ruffer (Egypt) detailed observations on the occurrence of organisms indistinguishable from the cholera vibrio in persons who had not been in contact with cholera.

Prof. Woodhead (Cambridge) stated that he had found opsonins in varying quantity in different milks, facts suggestive of certain lines with regard to treatment.

A combined discussion between the sections of physiology and medicine on over-nutrition and under-nutrition, with special reference to proteid metabolism, was opened by Prof. Chittenden (Yale). As is well known, Prof. Chittenden suggests that half the proteid usually regarded as necessary to support physiological equilibrium is all that is required. Prof. Halliburton (London) did not think that the experiments were conclusive, and suggested that the minimum diet of Prof. Chittenden did not leave any

margin for that "reserve force" so necessary to ward off attacks of disease. It might be that in the excess of proteid beyond that required to maintain physiological equilibrium there might be traces of substances which yielded this reserve force. Dr. Robert Hutchison (London) considered that the proteid question could only be solved by cooperation between physiologists and physicians. We wanted to know, not the proteid minimum, but the proteid optimum. There was a danger in sailing too near the wind; we could get along with one lung or one kidney, but two of either organ were preferable. High feeding is responsible for cure in tuberculosis and neurasthenia.

The address in surgery was delivered by Sir Victor Horsley, who took as his subject the technique of operations on the central nervous system. He showed how, by means of Prof. Vernon Harcourt's inhaler, chloroform could be administered in known amount up to 2 per cent.. that during some period of the operation the amount of chloroform could be reduced to 0.5 per cent., and that the administration of oxygen stopped venous oozing.

The Senate of Toronto University conferred the honorary degree of LL.D. on, among others, Sir W. Broadbent, Bart., Sir Thomas Barlow, Bart., Sir James Barr, Sir Victor Horsley, Prof. Clifford Allbutt, Prof. Halliburton, Dr. Donald Macalister, and Prof. Aschoff, of Freiburg. R. T. HEWLETT.

A LARCH SAWFLY IN CUMBERLAND. THE Board of Agriculture and Fisheries recently directed attention in the Press and its journal to the attack of the sawfly (Nematus erichsoni, Hartmann) upon larches. So far, serious damage has only been reported to the Board from Cumberland, where the health, if not the life, of an extensive plantation is said to be in danger. This insect is commoner than is supposed, but does not, as a rule, occur in large numbers in this country. There are very few collectors of these insects, hence we are apt to look upon species as rare which really have a wide distribution.

Cameron, in his work on British Phytophagous Hymenoptera (vol. ii., p. 51, 1885), only records the insect from an unknown locality. Dale mentions it as occurring at Glanvilles Wootton. It has also been seen on larches near Esher, at Wye, Great Staughton, and Budleigh Salterton. It is widely distributed over Europe, where it is now and then sufficiently abundant to become harmful, especially in Germany. Hagen also records it from the United States.

The adult sawfly has a black thorax, the abdomen red, with the basal seventh and ninth segments black. The legs are dull reddish, with most of the tibiæ white, and the posterior feet and apex of the femora black. In length it is about half an inch. The male has not, apparently, been described.

The larvæ are nearly three-quarters of an inch long when mature, and feed upon the leaves from the beginning of July to the end of August. In colour they are shiny grey or dark grey, with the back darker grey except on the second segment. The skin is covered with short, black

The

tubercles, and the spiracles show as brown spots. The legs are spotted with black, and the head is shiny black. When mature the larvæ fall to the ground and spin their cocoons amongst moss, grass, &c., beneath the trees. cocoons are more or less cylindrical in form and brown in colour. Many may occur close together. Fortunately these larvæ are preyed upon by several hymenopterous parasites. It is probably these that cause its sudden disappearance in localities where it has occurred. theless, as the Board of Agriculture advises, of the utmost importance that outbreaks should be discovered at an early stage so that they may be suppressed while still of restricted extent -an axiom that applies to all insects and fungi that are likely to cause harm to man's crops, trees, or stock.

66

It is, never

The Board is preparing an illustrated account of this insect, which will be published in the October issue of its journal. Many such isolated outbreaks of insect pests of greater importance might with advantage be treated in a similar manner. F. V. T.

SOME RECENT PALEONTOLOGICAL

PAPERS.

DURING the wide range of field-observation covered by the Austrian Geological Survey, numerous new localities for fossils come to light, while the collections brought to Vienna from outside the Empire furnish the members of the Reichsanstalt with rich material for com

parison. R. J. Schubert (Jahrbuch der k.k. geol. Reichsanstalt, 1905, p. 613) has continued his comprehensive research on the otoliths of fishes, which is finely illustrated with photographic plates. In the Verhandlungen of the same body (1906, p. 124) he summarises his results, which are shown to have a bearing on the geographical conditions of Miocene and Pliocene times in Europe. For instance, in accordance with what we know of the Congeria-beds, the otoliths in these strata are found to belong to the Scianidæ, a family haunting especially the mouths of large rivers, and even penetrating into fresh

water.

Franz Toula (Jahrbuch der Reichsanstalt, 1905, p. 51) also throws new light on the Congeria-beds of Vienna by describing Pelamycybium, a new genus of fish, which has been discovered in them. He discusses a wide range of literature on allied forms of tunny. In the current volume for 1906, p. 1, O. Abel investigates the fishes with greatly developed fins that have been recorded from various formations, and states that the Triassic genera Thoracopterus, Bronn., Gigantopterus, and Dollopterus are the only ones that can be referred with certainty to the flyingfish. The two last-named genera are new to science. All these fossil forms are constructed outwardly on the type of the modern Exocœtus. The species of Chirothrix with large fins, and other members of Smith Woodward's Chirothricidæ, are believed by Abel to have been incapable of flight. It is hard, moreover, to have to note that a species known as Engraulis evolans is similarly rejected. Zoologists will be interested in the general discussion of the flight of fishes and its origin (pp. 55-84), and the comparison between true flying-fish and others with expanded pectoral or ventral fins. The author, to avoid misconception, would prefer to speak of "parachute-fish" rather than of "flying-fish." There is no indication that any fossil example used its pectoral fins more effectively for flight than is the case in modern times. The memoir is fully illustrated; and the realisation of flying-fish gleaming in the Triassic sunlight adds a new fascination to the ancient European sea.

G. Stache (Verhandlungen, ibid., 1905, p. 292) directs the attention of zoologists as well as palæontologists to his Sontiochelys, a new chelonian from the Cretaceous of Görz, the affinities of which are with living forms in Australia and Brazil, rather than with fossil Jurassic forms in Europe.

O. Abel (Jahrbuch, ibid., 1905, p. 375) has described a cetacean, Palaeophocaena andrussovi, from the Middle Miocene of the Taman peninsula in the Black Sea. This early form has led him to examine the living Phocæna of

the Black Sea, and to assign to it the specific name relicta. The author points out the differences between it and Ph. communis, and urges that it arose in the Black Sea area as a direct descendant of the Miocene type. Phocæns is absent from the Mediterranean, while the two dolphins found with it in the Black Sea, Tursiops tursio and Delphinus delphis, abound there, and Herr Abel is thus supplied with additional grounds for his contention. He also describes (p. 393) a Miocene transitional form between Halitherium and Metaxytherium.

Passing to the primates, we note that Prof. Rzehas (Verhandlungen, ibid., 1905, p. 329) gives a preliminary account of a lower jaw belonging to a being of the Spr and Krapina type, from Ochos, near Brünn in Moravia Every addition to our knowledge of this early type of man in Europe, Wilser's Homo primigenius, is to b welcomed, especially as it seems not so long ago when the Neanderthal calvarium was the sole representative of the race. The features shown by the lower jaw of a child found in a cave at Shipka, and hitherto regarded as exceptional, are interestingly repeated in that of the adult from the Ochos cave.

T. Fuchs (ibid., p. 198) defends the organic character of the honeycomb-markings known as Palæodictyon, in opposition to the views of Capeder in 1904, who reproduced artificially a fairly similar structure.

Prof. Yokoyama sends a paper on Mesozoic plants from Nagato and Bitchu (Journal of the College of Science, Imperial University, Tokyo), illustrated by three beautifully executed plates. The work confirms the author's previously expressed opinion that a Rhætic flora occurs af Yamanoi.

Survey of India is mainly concerned with paleontology Part iii. of vol. xxxii. of the Records of the Geological Prof. Diener, of Vienna, describes the permo-CarboniferousS fauna of the Subansiri valley in Assam, adopting Waagen's term "Anthracolithic " for beds of the tw systems considered jointly. Mr. G. E. Pilgrim reviews the distribution of Elephas antiquus, which he regards ac having originated in the Pliocene of Europe, reaching India somewhat later in geological time, as glacial con ditions set in across Europe. In neither area, however P. 218), did it leave any direct descendants. The paper is accompanied by five handsome plates. Prof. Diener, in a second paper, points out that a bed of Triassic limestone in Byans, 3 feet thick, represents the Noric and Carnic faunas, the forms from distinct horizons becoming mixed in so small a thickness of sediment.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL

INTELLIGENCE.

PROF. WILHELM WIEN, professor of physics in the University of Berlin, has been invited to occupy the physics chair in the University of Berlin, in succession to the late Prof. Drude.

Science states that by the will of the late Mr. T. Kearney, of Freno, his entire estate, amounting to about 200,000l., is bequeathed to the department of agriculture of the University of California.

THE authorities of the Leland Stanford University, which suffered severely through the San Francisco earthquake. are reported to have decided to sell the jewels of Mrs. Leland Stanford, bequeathed to them by their late owner, for the purpose of restoring the University library; the value of the jewels is estimated at a million dollars.

BIRKBECK COLLEGE will commence its eighty-fourth session on Wednesday, September 26, when Sir Edward H. Busk, Vice-Chancellor of the University of London, will give the opening address. The college has added considerably to its appliances in recent years, and the physical, chemical, biological, and metallurgical laboratories are well equipped. Courses in mining, metallurgy, and assaying are given both in the day and evening.

THE Council of University College, Bristol, has offered the chair of chemistry, just vacated by Dr. Travers, F.R.S., to Dr. Francis Francis. Dr. Francis studied at

University College, Liverpool (now the University), and at Erlangen, and has been assistant professor at University College, Bristol, since 1903. He has published many papers in journals of chemical societies, both in England and Germany, among his most recent papers being one on benzoyl nitrate, which describes a new method for the nitration of organic compounds.

I HE annual report of the South Australian School of Mines and Industries for 1905 shows that excellent progress in technical education is being made at Adelaide. The number of students enrolled was 1507, and the number of subjects taught was forty-five, courses having been started during the year in agriculture, building drawing, dairy work, motor management, veterinary science, and flower culture. The report contains a detailed account of the laying of the foundation-stone of the new metallurgical building on October 3, 1905.

FROM among recently made foreign appointments we note the following:-Dr. Emil Bose, lecturer in physics of Göttingen University, to be professor of physical chemistry in the Danzig Technical High School; Dr. Alfred Kalähne, of Heidelberg University, to the physics chair of the same institution; Dr. Taddäus Godlewski to be extraordinary professor of general and technical physics in the Technical High School, Lemberg; Dr. K. Fries to a departmental director of the chemical institute of Marburg University in succession to Prof. R. Schenck, who has received an appointment in Aachen; Dr. Franz Waterstradt, scientific assistant to the German Agricultural Society, to be extraordinary professor in the University of Breslau; the lecture courses on inorganic and analytical chemistry of the Faculté des Sciences of Paris University, which Prof. Ribau is giving up on his retirement from active academic life, have been deputed to MM. Paul Lebeau and G. Urbain, while M. L. Ouvrard has been appointed director des laboratoire d'enseignement et de recherches chimiques of the same faculty.

THE new laboratory of physical and electrochemistry which has been presented to the University of Liverpool by Mr. E. K. Muspratt will be formally opened on Saturday, October 13, by Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B., F.R.S. Besides many eminent English chemists, the following distinguished foreign men of science have accepted invitations to be present :-Profs. Ostwald

(Leipzig), Abegg (Breslau), Cohen (Utrecht), Goldschmidt (Christiania); also Prof. Lash Miller (Toronto). Addresses will be delivered by Sir William Ramsay and Prof. Ostwald. The distinguished guests will be entertained to dinner by the University Association on October 12, and by the Liverpool section of the Society of Chemical Industry on October 13. The new laboratory contains twenty-one rooms, and has been specially built and fitted for work in physical and electrochemistry. Its electrical equipment includes an 80-kilowatt motor alternator, a 30-kilowatt motor generator for direct current, a 10-kilowatt charging set tall by Messrs. Siemens Bros.), and a 36-cell Tudor accumulator battery. The name of the new laboratory is to be "The Muspratt Laboratory of Physical and Electrochemistry."

44

ON Wednesday, October 3, Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B., will give a public lecture at University College, London, on The Chemical Nature of Electricity, and on October 4 Prof. L. W. Lyde will give an introductory lecture on "Geography as a Corollating' Subject in School Work." These two lectures are open to the public without payment or ticket. Among the courses of free lectures shortly to be commenced at the college are the following:-Six lectures, open to the public without payment or ticket, on the History of Statistics and the Nature and Aims of Modern Statistical Methods," by Mr. 6. U. Yule, on Wednesdays at 5.30, commencing Wednesday, October 10; ten lectures on "Recent Development in the Teaching of Arithmetic and Elementary Mathematics,' by Mr. F. L. Grant, on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m., beginning on Saturday, October 13; ten lectures on "The Hygienic Needs of the Scholar," by Prof. Henry Kenwood, on Thursday evenings at 7.30 p.m., beginning on Thursday, October 11. This course and that on mathematics

are open, without fee, to all teachers in London schools. Teachers wishing to attend should apply for forms to the Executive Officer, London County Council Education Offices, Victoria Embankment, W.C. Forms must be returned not later than Saturday, September 22.

SPEAKING at Hawarden on Monday on the objects and advantages of education, Mr. Wyndham remarked that "it was right to include science in the curriculum because we are now living in an age of science. In the sixteenth century people lived in an age of literature, and the minds of men were attracted toward the old books written in Greek and Latin." This difference between the needs of the two ages was pointed out by Sir Norman Lockyer in an address at the Borough Polytechnic Institute last December, printed in NATURE of March 29 (vol. lxxiii., P. 521), as the following extract from the address clearly shows:-"We must arrange our education in some way in relation to the crying needs of the time. The least little dip into the history of the old universities will prick the bubble of classical education as it is presented to us to-day. Latin was not learned because it had the most learned in consequence of the transcendental sublimity of magnificent grammar of known languages. Greek was not ancient Greek civilisation. Both these things were learned because people had to learn them to get their daily bread, either as theologians or doctors or lawyers, and while they learned them the nature of things was not forgotten. Now what is the problem of to-day? We are in a world which has been entirely changed by the advent of modern science, modern nations, and modern industries, and it is therefore perfectly obvious that if we wish to do the best for our education it must be in some relation to those three

great changes which have come on the world since the old days."

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.

LONDON.

Royal Society, May 31.-"On the Main Source of 'Precipitable Substance and on the Rôle of the Homologous Proteid in Precipitin Reactions." By Prof. D. A., Welsh and Dr. H. G. Chapman. Communicated by Dr. C. J. Martin, F.R.S.

Conclusions. (1) The homologous proteid is not wholly removed from the superfluid of a precipitin interaction, whether it is more than sufficient or less than sufficient to neutralise all the precipitin present.

(2) Conclusive evidence that the homologous proteid is sensibly diminished in similar circumstances has not been obtained.

(3) The substance that is thrown out of solution is derived mainly from the anti-serum.

(4) The character of an anti-serum depends upon two factors which are mutually independent, (a) the precipitable content, (b) its precipitability.

(5) The precipitable content is indicated by the maximum precipitum obtainable from a given amount of the anti

serum.

(6) Its precipitability is indicated by the minimum amount of homologous proteid that will completely neutralise the precipitin in a given amount of the anti

serum.

(7) The solid content of precipitin anti-sera is increased relatively to that of natural sera.

June 28. On the Kew' Scale of Temperature and its Relation to the International Hydrogen Scale." By Dr. J. A. Harker.

In 1887 the International Committee of Weights and Measures adopted as the standard thermometric scale the constant-volume hydrogen thermometer. By far the majority of temperature measurements are made by means of mercury thermometers. The ideal mercury thermometer would be one which, when subjected to any steady temperature, would assume immediately a steady reading identical with that given by the hydrogen thermometer at the same temperature. This ideal is, as might be expected, not attained by any known mercury-in-glass thermometer, and the amount of the departure from the ideal at different

temperatures depends on the particular kind of glass employed.

For many years thermometers have been verified at Kew Observatory in large numbers annually, their indications being referred to the Kew Scale of temperature. It has recently become a matter of interest to determine to what degree of accuracy the Kew Scale may be considered as identical with that of the hydrogen thermometer, and this memoir gives an account of some experiments undertaken at the National Physical Laboratory with a view to elucidate this question.

The usual type of Kew standard thermometer is an instrument having a range from below 32° to above 212° F., and is usually divided only to 1° F.

For the purpose of this research it was thought desirable, after studying the behaviour of a number of these old thermometers, to construct new standards, having a more open scale and capable of being read to higher accuracy, and to treat these from the beginning in a definite and systematic manner.

The readings of a Kew standard are always understood to apply to the thermometer in a vertical position when immersed in water up to the reading, and the instruments are always intended to be used as fixed " rather than as "movable zero instruments. That is, the normal procedure to measure any temperature on the Kew scale would be first to determine the zero and afterwards the temperature in question, applying to the latter a constant correction for any deviation of the zero point from its nominal correct value, o° C. or 32° F., and ignoring all subsequent zero changes.

The main conclusions of the work are:

(1) The departure of the natural scale of the "Kew" mercury-in-glass thermometer from the international hydrogen scale is very small at all temperatures.

(2) For measurement of temperature differences over ordinary ranges, such as in calorimetry, the results obtained directly or indirectly from a Kew standard may be considered as hydrogen temperatures without application of any correction.

(3) In some instances when defining the temperature at which certain standards have their definite value, such as, for example, the temperature 62° F. for the British standard yard, the temperature scale to which the measurement referred was not definitely specified. This research renders it probable that if the instrument were a good English glass thermometer approximating to a Kew standard, the error made in considering its indications as identical with the hydrogen scale would be within the limits of accuracy of length measurements.

(4) For the ordinary ranges of meteorological and clinical thermometers reading to o°.1 F., many thousands of which have been verified at Kew annually for many years past, the temperatures as given on the Kew certificate may be considered as hydrogen temperatures.

(5) The table appended gives the mean departure from the hydrogen scale of the "Kew" scale of temperature as

Academy of Sciences, September 10.-M. A. Chauveau in the chair.-Variations in the gravitation constant in the Simplon Tunnel: Marcel Brillouin. A resume of the various corrections required by the crude readings of the instrument used. The complete work will be published in the Recueil des Savants étrangers.-The experiments o M. Villard and his theory of the aurora borealis: Cari Störmer. In his memoir published in 1004 on the motion of a material point carrying a charge of electricity, and continued in two recent notes in the Comptes rendus, the author has developed a theory which not only explains the phenomena experimentally observed by M. Villard, but also predicts others not yet observed, and renders doubtfas certain of M. Villard's conclusions regarding the aurers borealis. The experiment of M. Villard, in which the magnetic field is due to two equal and opposite magnetic poles, is considered in detail in the present note, and the trajectories worked out for several cases, diagrams beir given. The author draws the conclusion that Birkeland's theory is not shaken by M. Villard's paper.-The atomo weight of silver: P. A. Guye and G. Ter-Gazarain. Reasons are given for showing that the atomic weight silver should be lowered from 107-93 to 107-89.-A tase oʻ formation of anthocyanine under the influence of the pu ture of an insect (Eurrhipara urticata): Marcel Mirande.

Verre dur.

Jena glass.

Tro - Thyd.