INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF APPLIED CHEMLSTRV. II5 



Similar invitations to take part in the deliberations and 

 work of the Congress have been sent to all the Governments of 

 the world, and all chemists, whether nidividually, or collectively 

 as Societies, should, as a duty to their science and profession, 

 put forth every possible effort for the complete success of the 

 Congress, and they are asked to demonstrate to their respective 

 Governments and to their fellow-countrymen that, in accepting 

 this invitation of the President of the United States, the confi- 

 dence reposed in them by their Governments has been fully 

 justified. To this end the hearty and enthusiastic co-operation 

 of chemists' and allied professional and business men, and par- 

 ticularlv of chemical and allied societies, is earnestlv solicited. 



TRAXSACnONS OF SOCIETIES- 



South African Institute of Electrical Engineers- — Thursday, 

 July 27th : J. H- Rider. V-P-I-E-E-, President, in the chair- — "Atmospheric 

 phenomena and their relation to the production of over-voltages in over- 

 head electric transmission lines'": G. V- Adendorff. The author 

 dealt firstly with the varieties of atmospheric phenomena capable of 

 causing disturbances, and then with the probable effect of such phe- 

 nomena on overhead lines- Under the first head were comprised tem- 

 perature effects, altitude eft'ects, rain, snoAv. aiid hail storms, wind and 

 dust storms, atmospheric electrification, and thunderstorms- Over-voltages 

 were then considered, grouped under the heads of direct strokes, steady 

 electrostatic stress, impulses or travelling waves, and standing waves or 

 oscillations. Finally, the methods of protecting lines from over-voltages 

 were enquired into- 



SouTH African Institute of Engineers- — Saturday, August 12th: 

 F- H- Davis, President, in the chair- — " The metering of compressed air " : 

 J. L- Hodgson. Until recently the metering of compressed air had 

 involved considerable difficulties, accuracy of measurement to within one 

 per cent- had been attained by means of Messrs- Eckstein's calibration 

 plant, erected at Ferreira, and serving as a permanent air standard for 

 the Rand. The author proceeded to describe this plant- A detailed 

 description of the method of measuring air flows by the orifice and 

 manometer method was given, as well as the mechanism of the Venturi 

 tube meter, and that of the weighted door t\'pe- 



Royal Society of South Africa. — Wednesday, August i6th : S- S- 

 Hough. M-A., F-R-S-. President, in the chair- — "Note on the Heidie 



Eibib, or stone mound of Namaqualand " : Dr- L. Peringue^. The 

 name is usually given to mounds of stone occurring in Namaqualand and 

 elsewhere, the erection of which is ascribed to Hottentots- One such 

 mound, recently opened, was found to contain portions of a skeleton. 

 It is stated that these mounds are of two kinds- — " The secular acceleration 

 of the orbital motion of the moon " : E- N- NevilJ. The principal 

 recorded ancient total eclipses of the sun were critically examined, and 

 the conditions of each eclipse calculated. It was not found possible to 

 bring all these recorded eclipses into accord with the tables. Assuming 

 a secular acceleration in the orbital motion of the earth, the origin 

 thereof, and its effects on the motion of the members of the solar sys- 

 tem were considered — ■" Some observations concerning the transmission 

 of East Coast fever by ticks": Dr- A- Theiler. It has been proved 

 experimentally that (i) the brown tick imago, infected as larva, by which, 

 in the nymphal stage, the disease had been transmitted, ceased to be 

 infective for susceptible cattle; (2) ticks fed on animals rendered im- 

 mune by inoculation were found to have been thus cleaned, and no longer 

 transmitted the disease; (3) ticks infected in the larval stage, and passed 



