NATIONAL PHYSICAL LABORATORY. OPENING OF NEW BUILDINGS FOR ELECTROTECHNICS AND PHOTOMETRY.

TH HE new buildings of the National Physical Laboratory for electrotechnics and photometry were opened on Monday, June 25, by Mr. Haldane, Secretary of State for War. A large company assembled at the invitation of Lord Rayleigh and the general board, and among those on the platform were Lord Rosse, Lord Kelvin, Sir John Wolfe Barry, Sir J. Lawrence, M.P., Sir John Brunner, M.P., Sir William White, Mr. Gavey, M. Hospitalier, Herr W. von Siemens, Prof. Semenza, M. Gerard, Sir Thos. Wrightson, and Sir Chas. Tupper.

Among the audience, numbering nearly six hundred, were representatives to the International Electrical Congress, now being held in London, from the American, German, French, Swiss, Italian, and other lectrotechnical societies.

Lord Rayleigh presided, and in opening the proceedings said that the gathering marked another stage in the evolution of the institution, and they all hoped the new buildings would play a considerable part in the science of electrotechnics in this country.

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The director, Dr. Glazebrook, then made a statement concerning the new extensions, and detailed the gifts which had been made towards equipment by numerous firms and individuals. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had asked Parliament for a grant of 5000l. last session for new buildings, and and this year's grant towards the cost of the further extensions in the engineering, chemical, and metrological departments was 10,000l. The building in which they were assembled had cost only about 7000l., largely owing to the liberal treatment accorded to laboratory by the contractors, Messrs. Mowlem, and by Messrs. Mott and Hay, who gave their services as architects. The director expressed his indebtedness to the members of the staff, who had helped in designing and fitting up the building, especially to Mr. Paterson, Mr. Rayner, and Mr. Melsom, who had all given much time and careful thought to the plans. Mr. Haldane then addressed the meeting and declared the laboratory open. The meeting terminated with votes of thanks to Mr. Haldane, proposed by Sir John Wolfe Barry and seconded by Sir John Brunner, M.P., and to the chairman, proposed by Mr. Gavey.

bed-plates are provided for machine testing, and arrangements have also been made for addition of a travelling

crane.

The large bay to the north side, in which the ceremony was held, is for general electrotechnical testing. At the west end of this is the main switchboard, receiving power from the dynamo room, and also from the mains of the supply company, and distributing it to the machines in the building and to the batteries.

Near by is provided space for the special electrotechnical machine equipment. This includes à 5 kilo-watt motorgenerator set for single or three-phase current, the frequency of which can be widely varied, another motorgenerator of specially high efficiency for life-tests on lamps, and a third for transformer and high-tension experiments. The rest of the bay is assigned to experimental work, the western portion being reserved for alternating-current exThe periments, and the eastern portion for direct-current. batteries are on the top floor of an annexe to the east of the main block, above the rooms reserved for photometry; thus the direct-current work requiring heavy currents will go on in the extreme eastern portion of the main bay. Four new accumulator batteries are provided, and to charge these and furnish the additional power necessary for general work a 50 kilo-watt motor-generator has been provided in the power-house, driven from the supply mains of the local company. For ammeter-testing, currents up to 6000 amperes for an hour can be obtained by paralleling periods. A special 300-volt battery is reserved for photoof one of these batteries, and 10,000 amperes for short metric experiments.

The remainder of the new building is intended for photometry. On the ground floor is a large room for life

The objects of the new building are the provision of suitable accommodation for the rapidly extending work of the laboratory in electrotechnics and photometry. In the old building will remain all the fundamental-standard work relating to measurements of current, electromotive force, resistance, capacity, and inductance. The main portion of the new extension consists of a top-lighted shed, 120 feet by 50 feet, divided into two bays, each 25 feet wide. The southern bay is divided transversely, forming two rooms, each 60 feet by 25 feet. The inner of these has a glass ceiling, and the lights above are glazed with double glass, and face north. The space between the ceiling and the roof can be heated, and by means of a large fan artificial ventilation is provided. It is hoped by this means to maintain the temperature fairly uniform. This internal room is intended for resistance measurements. The other half of the same bay is designed for heavy-test work. Two

tests of electric and gas lamps, and, above, a room for standard photometry and a specially arranged gallery for arc-lamp testing. A length of 90 feet is available for photometry of specially high candle-powers, and in the arclamp room a height of nearly 35 feet.

the buildings, marble and granite being conspicuous by their absence, but already the grounds have been planted with flowers and creepers, and the exterior, though plain, is by no means an eyesore.

No money has been spent on unnecessary adornment of

After the opening ceremony the visitors proceeded to the old buildings and the garden, and inspected the various laboratories, where the assistants in charge explained the work of their own departments. The objects which appeared to attract most attention were the new ampere balance in the main electrical room, the various electric furnaces, the radiation pyrometers in the thermometric department, and the new measuring machines in the department of weights and measures.

A summary of the Times report of Mr. Haldane's address is subjoined.

The Government is keenly interested in the development of science, and a donation by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on a scale of double what was anticipated last year is an earnest of what it means. A contrast

may be made between the German and the British attitude towards science. Prussia began her emancipation by founding a university as an answer to the conqueror. Germany became the victor by the sheer might of thought and by the wonderful organisation which that might of thought enabled her to make the foundation of her future power. We, on the contrary, have always made the effort after material prosperity first, and when prosperity has been attained have strained after science. This is rather an outcome of the Anglo-Saxon temperament. There is an aversion in this land from anything that is abstract, a desire to do as much as possible by individual effort, and finally to turn to science and to the aid of thought and organisation for the completion rather than the foundation of the edifice. It is a good sign that brotherhood of science brings men of different races and different temperaments together. The possession of common conceptions and intellectual instruments, the passion for, and fascination of, common problems, the fact that the minds of men of the most varying temperaments and the most differing races are making toward a common point, has brought about a great intellectual common ground, and united men for the effort to accomplish a common task. The functions of the State are becoming more and more recognised, and more and more people in different parts of the world are beginning to feel that it is not merely the State, but the great individualities of which we are proud-individualities which form a common heritage. It is not merely Frenchmen who are proud of Laplace and Lavoisier, nor merely Germans who rejoice in the names of Weber, Helmholtz, Gauss, and Riemann, nor merely Englishmen who speak with pride of Newton and of Darwin. These and many other names belong to the world at large, are the inheritance of those who have drawn in the breath of the Time-Spirit to see it come forth again in the concentrated form of genius in conspicuous individuals too great to be the representatives of any one race, satisfied with being nothing less than the embodiment of the finest genius of humanity. In an ideal State, the ruler would take thought, not merely for the day, but for the morrow; but there is very little thought taken for the morrow in the government of almost any nation. What an infinite amount of friction would have been avoided, what an enormous quantity of waste would have been obviated, had there been only thinking organisation, plain principles not hurriedly to be departed from, at the root of policy! In the National Physical Laboratory we have a sign, a portent of the times, the evidence that we are advancing. But a few years ago and such an institution would have been impossible. We may look at it as a sign that we are coming into line with the rest of the world, and recognising that it is to science, and science in the main, that we must look for the means of maintaining ourselves in the vast competition of the world.

NOTES.

THE programme of events in connection with the international celebration of the coal-tar colour jubilee has now been definitely arranged. The steps leading up to the celebration have been described in these columns already (vol. xxiii., p. 419). The celebration will be held on July 26 and 27. On the first day a meeting will take place at 11 a.m. at the Royal Institution for the presentation to Dr. W. H. Perkin of his portrait and bust, and in the evening a banquet has been arranged at the Whitehall Rooms, Hotel Metropole, when many distinguished guests are expected to be present. On July 27 a visit will be paid to the original works at Greenford Green, where mauve was first manufactured, and a garden-party will be held at Dr. Perkin's house. In the evening a soirée will take place at the Leathersellers' Hall, at the invitation of Dr. and Mrs. Perkin. The international committee arranging the ceremony includes distinguished representatives of science, especially chemical science, in France, Germany, and Switzerland, as well as in this

country. Applications for tickets and invitations should be made to Dr. J. C. Cain, 28 Pembury Road, Clapton, N.E., who is acting as assistant honorary.secretary to the executive committee.

WE learn from the Chemist and Druggist that the Chemists' Club of New York has also decided to honour Dr. Perkin. At a meeting held on May 28 the committee (of which Prof. Chandler is chairman) reported in favour of the establishment of a library, probably to be known as the Perkin Library, and to cost 10,00ol.; the appropriation of 100ol. for a Perkin medal and a token to Dr. Perkin; and a dinner on October 6, at which Dr. Perkin is expected to be present. The proposals were adopted. The Perkin medal is to be awarded annually to an American chemist for distinguished work in technical chemistry.

MUCH correspondence has appeared in the Times and other journals during the past week with reference to the Wireless Telegraphy Bill which has just passed its third reading in the House of Lords. The Bill is merely to extend the Act of 1904, a summary of which appeared in our columns at the time (vol. lxx., p. 349). The original Act expires in July of this year, but will now be extended to 1909. The extreme importance of wireless telegraphy for the purpose of national defence has been recognised from the very first, and in consequence exercise of control had to be placed in the hands of the Government, especially in view of the fact that-all claims to the contrary notwithstanding-it cannot be said that any system has yet been perfected which is completely immune from interference or cannot interfere with other systems. It is outside our province to enter into the legal dispute between the Marconi Company and Lloyd's, but it is to be hoped that a settlement will be arrived at which will give the public the full advantages in connection with shipping that wireless telegraphy affords.

PARAGRAPHS have appeared in the daily papers alluding to a "new disease" which was said to have appeared in Essex about ten days ago. Some children at Highwood, near Chelmsford, were found to be suffering from a rash on the hands, face, and neck, accompanied with great irritation of the eyes and skin. On inquiry it was found that the children had been playing with some caterpillars taken from the hawthorn hedges. Much amusing "newspaper science" has appeared, and the name Plusia gama (sic) has been applied to the insect. The caterpillars were undoubtedly those of the Gold-tail Moth (Liparis auriflua), which is now common on the hedges. It is a pretty creature, but the hairs which cover its body are very easily detached, and, being exceedingly fine, readily enter the soft skin of children, and thus set up inflammation. It is doubtful whether any poisonous secretion accompanies the hairs, or whether the painful injury is purely mechanical. The malady is well known to practical entomologists, most of whom have learnt by experience to banish Liparis from their breeding-cages. An allied species, Liparis chrysorrhoea (the Brown-tail Moth) is in some seasons abun dant on bushes on the Essex, coast, and is even a greater irritant than its congener, but it is one of our immigrant moths, and is not seen every year.

A VIOLENT shock of earthquake was felt yesterday, June 27, at 9.45 a.m. over the whole of South Wales. At Swansea a chimney was thrown down, while at Cardiff the Exchange and other big buildings were shaken. The shock lasted about three seconds. The earthquake was felt at Knighton at 9.46 a.m., and tremors were also experi enced at Llandrindod Wells and in South Shropshire. A slight shock was felt at Abergavenny and Carmarthen,

and at Bridgend people walking in the street were nearly thrown down. At Newport (Mon.) also the disturbance was felt distinctly.

A BANQUET was given by the Institution of Electrical Engineers on Monday night in honour of the delegates from kindred institutions in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and the United States who are visiting this country. Mr. John Gavey, C.B., president of the institution, presided, and there were about 450 guests and delegates present. The toast of the visiting delegates, proposed by the president, was responded to by Prof. J. L. Farny, representing the Association Suisse des Electriciens; Mr. P. J. B. E. Auzépy, Consul-General of France; Prof. E. Budde, president, Verband Deutscher Elektrotechniker; Dr. Emil Naglo, representing the president of the Elektrotechnischer Verein; Mr. S. S. Wheeler, president of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers; and Mr. Guido Semenza, hon. general secretary of the Associazione Elettrotecnica Italiana, who during his response presented to the institution, in the name of the Associazione Elettrotecnica, a bust of Alessandro Volta. A conversazione in honour of the visitors was held at the Natural History Museum on Tuesday evening.

DR. T. P. ANDERSON STUART has been elected president of the Royal Society of New South Wales for the current year.

THE Guy medal in silver of the Royal Statistical Society has been awarded to Dr. W. N. Shaw, F.R.S., for his paper entitled "The Seasons in the British Isles since 1878," read before the society in March, 1905.

THE presidency of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union for 1907 has been offered to, and accepted by, Mr. C. Crossland, of Halifax, joint author of the recently-published "Fungus Flora of East Yorkshire."

A SPECIAL meeting of the Faraday Society, to which the public is invited, will be held at the Society of Arts on Monday, July 2, when Prof. Kr. Birkeland, of Christiania, who is at present on a visit to England, will read a paper on the oxidation of atmospheric nitrogen in electric arcs. At the same meeting Mr. F. W. Harbord will communicate a paper, by Dr. Eugen Haanel, of Ottawa, describing the recent experiments on electric iron and steel smelting that were made at Sault Ste. Marie on behalf of the Canadian Government.

SIR DANIEL MORRIS, K.C.M.G., the Imperial Commissioner of Agriculture for the West Indies, has arrived in this country on a short visit, and will attend the forthcoming International Conference on Hybridisation and Plant Breeding to be held in London under the auspices of the Royal Horticultural Society at the end of July. Sir Daniel will read a paper on the hybridisation of the sugar cane, a subject with which he has been actively associated for many years.

By the regretted death of Lieut. Forbes Tulloch, R.A.M.C., last week, another name is added to the honoured roll of the martyrs of science. Lieut. Tulloch, in association with Lieut. Grey, had been for the past year investigating sleeping sickness at Entebbe, Uganda. In March, while making a post-mortem on an inoculated rat, he accidentally scratched his finger. In a short time fever developed, and an examination of his blood showed the presence of the dreaded trypanosome. Although at once invalided home, the disease ran a very acute course and ended fatally as stated. Lieut. Tulloch had, in cooperation with Lieut. Grey, made the important observation

that trypanosomes multiply in the tsetse fly, and was regarded as a worker of great promise. His untimely death is much to be deplored.

ON Thursday last, June 21, a paper was read before the Royal Society of Antiquaries by Dr. Jonathan Hutchinson, F.R.S., and Mr. E. W. Swanton, on prehistoric remains found during recent years in the neighbourhood of Haslemere. The authors commented on the large number of Neolithic implements which had been found, chiefly by Mr. Allen Chandler. Many were obtained from the site of a Neolithic flint factory on Blackdown, 912 feet above sea-level, and ten miles away from the nearest chalk-with-flints bed. Among the objects from this spot were rubbing stones and perforated circular hammer stones of quartzite, also a very fine series of the so-called "pigmy flints." The second part of the paper detailed the discovery of a Celtic urn-field adjacent to Haslemere Crude flint chips, and in one case a fragment of a bronze fibula, occurred among the fragments of calcined bone in the cineraries. No iron was found, and but one piece of bronze. A hole in the base of one of the cineraries had been repaired by inserting a plug of lead. Many accessory vessels had been placed around some of the urns ; several in almost perfect condition were exhibited, they were of various shapes and sizes, and the paste was of several qualities. In the discussion which followed it was agreed that the pottery belonged to the later Celtic period or early Iron age, B.C. 50 approximately. The vessels and flints from this urn-field have been presented to the Haslemere Museum.

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MR. GEORGE JAMES SNELUS, F.R.S., who died on June 18, was the first to eliminate phosphorus during the Bessemer process by the use of a basic lining to the converter. He took out a patent for the idea in 1872, and subsequently made five tons of steel by this method. The process was, however, not brought into commercial operation until after the work of Thomas and Gilchrist. Mr. Snelus's share in the invention was recognised by the Iron and Steel Institute, which in 1883 awarded him, jointly with Sidney Thomas, the Bessemer gold medal. Mr. Snelus, who was born on June 25, 1837, in London, was educated at St. John's College, Battersea, and at Owens College, and subsequently obtained a scholarship at the Royal School of Mines, where he took the associateship in metallurgy and in mining, and received the De la Beche medal for mining. His first appointment was as chemist to the Dowlais Ironworks. In 1871 he went as expert for the Iron and Steel Institute to the United States to report on the Danks rotatory puddling furnace. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1887. He wrote a large number of papers on the metallurgy of iron, which were contributed to the Proceedings of the Iron and Steel Institute, of which society he was an original member, and at the time of his death occupied the position of vice-president. He possessed unusual talents for experimental research.

IN place of the usual autumn meeting, the Iron and Steel Institute will this year hold a joint meeting with the American Institute of Mining Engineers in London on July 23-26. Under the chairmanship of the Lord Mayor, an influential reception committee has arranged an attractive programme of entertainments, visits, and excursions. The King will receive a deputation of the institute's American guests. There will be a banquet in the Guildhall of the City of London, evening receptions by the president and by the Lord Mayor, and entertainments at

the Earl's Court Exhibition and at the Crystal Palace. Technical interests have not been neglected, the programme including visits to the National Physical Laboratory, to the power stations at Greenwich and Chelsea, to the Wellingborough blast-furnaces, to the Dover Harbour works, and to various engineering, shipbuilding, and cement-manufacturing works. The Iron and Steel Institute has down on the programme for reading a list of twelve papers, and the American society eleven more. These have all to be dealt with in three morning sessions. The papers likely to prove of chief interest are communications on blast-furnace gas engines, by Prof. H. Hubert (Liége), Mr. K. Reinhardt (Dortmund), and Mr. T. Westgarth (Middlesbrough); on the crystallography of iron, by Mr. F. Osmond (Paris); on high-speed tool steels, by Dr. H. C. H. Carpenter (National Physical Laboratory); and on segregation in steel ingots, by Mr. H. M. Howe (New York). For the week following the London meeting a tour to York, Middlesbrough, Durham, Newcastleupon-Tyne, Glasgow, and Edinburgh has been arranged for the institute's American guests by a committee which Mr. R. A. Hadfield, president of the institute, is chairman, and Mr. Bennett H. Brough secretary.

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THE latest issue to hand (March) of the Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy contains the completion of Dr. B. Smith's communication on the phylogeny of Volutilithes petrosus (already noticed in our columns), and an article by Mr. H. W. Fowler on the fishes and reptiles of the Florida keys.

Two papers bearing on the Mendelian doctrine, more especially as regards the theory of pure gametes, have been recently published by the Carnegie Institution, one, by Messrs. Castle and Forbes, on the heredity of hairlength in guinea-pigs, and the other, by Mr. W. E. Castle, on the origin of a polydactylous race of these rodents. Considerations of space alone prevent fuller notice.

LIMITATIONS of space must likewise be our excuse for not noticing in detail an important paper on the germcells of Aphides, by Mr. N. M. Stevens, also published by the Carnegie Institution. The present classification of aphides is considered imperfect, and reference to the cytology of the germ-cells will probably be necessary before an improvement can be made. Special attention is directed to the fact that while in some species parthenogenetic and sexual modes of reproduction alternate irregularly, in others parthenogenesis continues throughout

the summer.

THE Contents of the fourth part of vol. lxxxi. of the Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Zoologie are entirely devoted to invertebrates. In the first article Mr. W. Mayer discusses the dermal sense-organs of leeches; spermatogenesis in earthworms forms the subject of the second article, by Mr. Depdolla; in the third Dr. M. Nowikoff has remarks on the median eye and frontal organ of the crustacean Artemia; while in the fourth Mr. E. Martini describes certain superficial structures in nematode worms.

THE report for 1905 of the Marine Biological Association of the West of Scotland has just been received. "At no time has the station been so efficient as an instrument of research, of organised education, or of general instruction as it now is. At no time, either, have its prospects of growth in usefulness and efficiency on all these lines been so promising." At the same time, if the work is to be properly carried on, a large increase in the endowment

fund is essential, and for this a special appeal is made in the report. Provision must likewise be made for the upkeep and working of the Mermaid, the five years' fund generously provided by Mr. J. Coates having now come to an end. An increase of the staff by the addition of a trained assistant is also a matter of urgency, but for this no funds are at present available.

IN the Oregon University Bulletin (vol. iii., Supp., No. 3, May) Mr. T. Condon describes, under the new generic and specific title of Desmatophoca oregonensis, the skull of a seal, referable to the family Otariidae, from the Miocene of the Oregon coast. The author claims this as the first Miocene seal yet described. Evidently he is unacquainted with the seal-skull, referable to the same family and from the same formation (at Empire City), described by Mr. True in the quarterly issue of the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections for May, 1905, under the name of Pantoleon magnus. Although Mr. True's specimen is considerably the larger of the two, there is no apparent reason why it should not be the male of the skull described by Mr. Condon. The latter author urges that the Miocene age of the Oregon seal is a bar to the view that the Pinnipedia are descended from the bears.

VERTEBRATE Osteology constitutes the main item in the contents of the first three parts (issued in one fasciculus) of vol. xix. of the Bulletin of the Imperial Society of Naturalists of Moscow. In the first article, for instance, Mr. L. P. Kravetz discusses the development of the mammalian sternum and presternum, more especially in relation to the conflicting views which have been expressed in regard to the origin of these structures. The skeleton of the cat-fishes (Siluridae), as exemplified by the skull of the Old-World genus Clarias, forms the subject of a long communication by Mr. G. Schelaputin, in which the author revives the view that the fully ossified and sculptured cranial roof indicates some kind of affinity with the Palæozoic Coccosteus. The skeleton of the cat-fishes (inclusive of the American Loricariidae) forms the subject of another article, by Mr. D. N. Koschkaroff, constituting a portion of a dissertation on teleostean osteology in general. A phylogenetic tree of the silurids and loricarids is included in this paper.

THE results of experiments in Barbados for the seasons 1903-5 with new seedling canes and manurial experiments series, No. 40, issued by the Imperial Department of Agrion sugar-cane plots have been published in the pamphlet culture for the West Indies. One or two of the varieties have now been under trial for six years, while others are newer and have only been tried for two or three seasons: one of the latter is B 1529, that with the highest quotient of purity takes the first place among plant canes. The manurial experiments confirm the results obtained in previous years, pointing to the value of nitrogen and potash and to the detrimental effects of phosphatic fertilisers.

MR. H. H. COUSINS contributes a third article on cassava trials at the Hope Experiment Station to the Bulletin (April) of the Department of Agriculture, Jamaica. The object has been to compare the yields of different varieties when grown for different periods. It was found in one instance that the yield of starch per acre was increased from 3 tons at the end of a year to 71 tons after cultivation for twenty-one months, so that as far as cultivation alone is concerned a biennial crop would be the most profitable. On the subject of oranges, Mr. Fawcett offers some

practical advice on the treatment of trees to produce early ripening of the fruit, recommending root pruning and timely clearance of all fruit at the end of the season.

THE regulations governing the training of probationers at Oxford for the Imperial staff of the Indian Forest Service naturally arouse keen interest in India, and an editorial article in the Indian Forester (April) compares the course of studies prescribed at Oxford with the course given to recruits for the subordinate executive service at the Imperial Forest School, Dehra Dun. The opinion is expressed that the course at Oxford requires stiffening, and the immense advantage of obtaining practical experience at Dehra Dun under Indian forestry conditions as contrasted with those in European forests is emphasised. An article on felling timber in Bashahr, contributed by Mr. G. S. Hart, in which the felling of trees uphill is advocated, is accompanied by some interesting photographs.

Is the Naturwissenschaftliche Wochenschrift (June 17) there is an excellent summary of what is known respecting the structure of the reproductive cells, illustrated with a number of particularly good figures. The author is Dr. C. Thesing.

THE Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital for June (xvii., No. 183) contains articles on the use of quinine during the Civil War, by Dr. J. W. Churchman; on an experimental study on the regeneration of lymphatic vessels, by Dr. A. W. Meyer; and various medical papers.

THE Livingstone College "Year-book" for the current year contains the annual report, extracts from letters of former students, &c. The college is doing a useful work in giving to those about to become missionaries elementary training in medicine, surgery, and hygiene.

THE New Jersey State Legislature has recently passed an Act for the extermination of mosquitoes. The title of the Act is as follows:-"An Act to provide for locating and abolishing mosquito-breeding salt-marsh areas within the State, for assistance in dealing with certain inland breeding places, and appropriating money to carry its provisions into effect." The full text is given in Science (June 1).

THE preservation of brains for anatomical and anthropological investigations is the subject of an elaborate paper by Mr. Ales Hrdlicka (Proc. U.S. National Museum, xxx., P. 245). It is found that the best preservative is a mixture of formalin, water, and 95 per cent. alcohol in varying proportions according to size: formalin 3 parts, distilled water 45-25 parts, alcohol 52-75 parts; less water and more alcohol being used for the larger sized brains.

THE Local Government Board has published a further report on the destruction of rats and disinfection on shipboard with sulphur dioxide, by Dr. John Wade (No. 232). It is found that rats and insects are destroyed in less than two hours by air containing 0.5 per cent. of sulphur dioxide, a condition easily realised in cabins, empty holds, spaces round cargo, &c., but for adequate penetration of closely packed cargo, air containing 3 per cent. of the gas must be circulated around the cargo for eight to twelve hours. Non-sporing pathogenic bacteria are also killed by this treatment. Textile fibres and fabrics, metal and furniture, are not affected by sulphur dioxide, but are liable to injury by the accompanying sulphuric acid when the gas is generated by burning sulphur, unless they are protected. Meat, fruit, vegetables, and wheat in bags are deleteriously affected. Liquid sulphur dioxide may be employed as a

source of the gas, but burning sulphur, as in the Clayton process, is on the whole preferable on the ground both of convenience and of economy.

IN the Engineering Magazine (vol. xxxi., No. 3) Mr. J. A. Macdonald gives an interesting account of twelve months' prospecting and surveying in northern Ontario, and also a detailed account of the occurrence of cobalt ore and of the development of the deposits. These deposits, which contain silver, cobalt, nickel, and arsenic, are among the most remarkable now engaging the attention of the mining world.

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WE have received from the director, Prof. G. Gerland, a circular summarising the work of the Central Bureau at Strassburg of the International Seismological Association. The bureau was founded in 1903 by the second International Conference of Seismology. The observatory or central station in connection with the bureau is furnished with a triple horizontal pendulum with photographic registration, a Rebeur pendulum for recording photographically two components, a Milne pendulum, Wiechert pendulum, a Vicentini microseismograph, Omori and Bosch horizontal pendulums, and a trifilar gravimeter. The apparatus and records are always at the service of foreign observers. The bureau and the station have distinct organisations, but work together. The director hopes that seismologists in other countries will transmit regularly to the central bureau accurate observations of any seismological disturbances in their respective districts. The most practical way, Prof. Gerland suggests, would be for observers at the various stations to send copies of important earthquake records to the bureau at Strassburg, where they would be available for inspection by students of seismology.

WITH the advance of refractometry in chemistry, Messrs. Carl Zeiss, of Jena, have introduced several forms of refractometers suitable for special purposes, and have issued pamphlets descriptive of these. Their " dipping refractometer is specially applicable in analysis, particularly in ascertaining the proportion of alcohol and extract in beer. For scientific purposes it gives very accurate values between the ranges of μ = 1.325 and 1.366, and is especially adapted for the examination of aqueous solutions. The firm has issued in pamphlet form a bibliography of papers dealing with their well-known Abbe refractometer, and the refractometers used in examining milk and butter respectively.

IN continuing their studies in luminescence, Messrs. E. L. Nichols and Ernest Merritt in No. 5 of the Physical Review investigate the law of decay of the phosphorescence of Sidot blende. In previous experiments in this connection the decay of the total light has been measured, the assumption being made that all portions of the light decay at the same rate. In the present investigation the decay of light of a definite wave-length in the phosphorescence spectrum has been observed, and it is shown that in such a case the intensity of the light diminishes according to the law originally proposed by H. Becquerel, I-=a+bt, where a and b are constants. This law can be deduced from different theoretical conceptions from those originally suggested by Becquerel. It is only necessary to apply Wiedemann's hypothesis of the cause of photoluminescence and to assume a law of recombination of the dissociated parts of the substance similar to that which has been applied to the case of ionisation of gases. With such an assumption it is deduced that the quotient a/b should be the same for different wave-lengths when the excitation and other