PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. ciii. 



early date at which the compass was used. The circumference 

 is marked with the cardinal points and also inscribed in such a 

 way as to lead to the belief that the variation of the compass 

 was also known at that period, though the fact does not appear 

 to have been known to Columbus until forced upon his attention 

 in the course of his great voyage of discovery in 1492. A mag- 

 netic survey of the globe has been begun by the Carnegie 

 Institution of Washington, and it is hoped that it may be 

 completed in about 15 years. Though England cannot boast of 

 the main share in the discovery of wireless telegraphy, we 

 may yet feel some satisfaction in the fact that the first fore- 

 shadowings of it were due to an Englishman, Clerk Maxwell, 

 who by his theory gave rise to the experiments made by Hertz, 

 which, after further advances made by Sir Oliver Lodge, have 

 been developed into the present wonderful system by Signor 

 Marconi. The necessity for international control in such a 

 matter has been fully recognised, and certain rules were made at 

 the second International Conference held at Berlin in November 

 last. In connection with this subject it has been demonstrated 

 in Bombay that the presence of higher mountains between two 

 lower- lying stations does not interfere with wireless telegraphic 

 communications. Both at Plymouth and Berlin experiments 

 have lately been made with success in wireless telephony, in 

 which extraneous noises seem to have hitherto caused failure. 

 'Sounds of various kinds, speech, phonographic records, and 

 music were clearly transmitted n miles and 40 kilometres 

 respectively, so that we shall probably before long have wireless 

 telephones as well as wireless telegraphs. The general electric 

 supply of London is agitating the minds of the County Council 

 and others, but no decisive steps have yet been taken. 



CHEMISTRY. 



Radium still occupies a foremost position among the subjects of 

 chemical interest, as might be anticipated from its extraordinary 

 and unexpected properties, and a great controversy has been 



