November i8, 1897] 



NA TURE 



57 



Science announces that the Austrian steamship Pola has again 

 gone to the Red Sea for scientific explorations, and will this 

 year cover the ground between Dschedda and Aden. Dr. Franz 

 Steindachner, the ichthyologist, has charge of the zoological 

 work, and observations will also be made in physical oceano- 

 graphy. 



The meeting of the American Psychological A.ssociation will 

 be held this year at Cornell University, Ithaca, under the 

 presidency of Prof. Baldwin, the sessions beginning on 

 December 28. 



According to the Allahabad Pioneer Mail, the Ceylon 

 Survey Department is about to start on a cadastral survey of 

 the Crown lands and lands of doubtful ownership in the island, 

 on a scale of ten inches to the mile, and a topographical survey 

 on a scale of one inch to the mile. It is estimated that the 

 cadastral survey will occupy the ordinary staff for about twenty- 

 five years. The triangulation and topographical survey, which 

 will embrace the whole island, will, it is expected, be completed 

 in five or six years. It is stated that at the present time there 

 is no trustworthy map of Ceylon in existence ; that there is no 

 contour map of the island of any description, and that the present 

 so-called map is a compilation from Colonel Eraser's map (now 

 nearly 1 00 years old), and contains errors so numerous and gross 

 as to make it useless. Hence the new surveys to which re- 

 ference is made. 



The Indian Section of the Pasteur International Memorial 

 Fund has just forwarded a further contribution to the above of 

 17/. y. 6d., bringing the total amount subscribed in India up 

 to the handsome sum of 460/. In a letter to Prof. Percy 

 Frankland, F.R.S., Surgeon Major-General Cleghorn mentions 

 that " the original subscription list contains the names of a 

 goodly number of natives who have subscribed small sums." 



We are glad to notice that Surgeon- Major A. M. Davis is to 

 be attached to the office of the Principal Medical Officer in 

 India, as a tentative measure, for one year, for the purpose of 

 carrying out bacteriological and sanitary investigations. We 

 hope the office of bacteriologist and sanitary investigator will 

 soon be a permanent one. It is also stated that the Madras 

 Government has applied to the supreme Government for the ap- 

 pointment of a bacteriologist, and has received a sympathetic 

 answer, the suggestion of the Government of India being that 

 the present Professor of Hygiene at the Medical College should 

 be appointed Professor of Bacteriology. 



Further particulars of the arrangements for the forthcoming 

 meeting of the Australasian Association have reached us. Sir 

 James Hector, the president of the geographical section, has 

 announced as the probable subject of his presidential address — 

 " Submarine Geography," and that the title of his popular 

 lecture will be " Antarctica and the Islands of the Far South." 

 A lecture to working men will be given by Prof. Threlfall and 

 Mr. J. A. Pollock, who will speak on "Electric Signalling 

 without Wires." The following papers, in addition to those 

 already noted in Nature, have been promised :—'• On the 

 Magnetic Force, at Right Angles to the Axis in the Interior of 

 Solenoids," by C. Coleridge Farr ; "The Work of High Level 

 Stations in Australasia, with special reference to Mount 

 Kosciusko and Mount Wellington,' by Clement L. Wragge ; 

 "Milk Analysis in its relation to the Butter and Cheese In- 

 dustries," by H, W. Potts; "Suggestions for a New Classifica- 

 tion of the Eucalyptus," by Prof. Ralph Tate ; " On the Occur- 

 rence of Etualypltts ptilverukata in Victoria," by A. W. 

 Howitt ; "Notes on the Flora of the Mallee Districts of 

 Victoria," by St. Elroy D' Alton ; " On the Growth of Galls 

 and Gall Insects," by W. W. Froggatt ; " Notes on the Dis- 



NO. 1464, VOL. 57] 



appearance of Native Races in general, and of Fijians in par- 

 ticular," by H. H. Thiele ; "The Colour of Flowers, and its 

 Influence on Bee Life," by Albert Gale ; " Notes on the Wax 

 of Ceioplastcs rubens,"' and " On the Colouring Matter of 

 Eris cocci eucalypti" by E. H. Gurney. A long list of ex- 

 cursions has been prepared, and at a recent meeting of t'.ie 

 Council it was unanimously decided that scientific societies i> 

 other colonies should be invited to send nonresident delegat<.^> 

 to the Sydney session ; and that members of the British, 

 American and foreign associations, non-resident in Australasia, 

 who attend, should be admitted free. 



The following science lectures will be delivered at the 

 Imperial Institute on the dates mentioned : — On November 19, 

 '• Three Years in the Arctic," by Mr. F. G. Jackson ; or> 

 November 22, "Electric Balloon Signalling applied to Scientific 

 Exploration in Arctic and Antarctic Expeditions," by Mr. Eric 

 Bruce ; on November 29, " The Wild Kafirs of the Hindu Kush," 

 by Sir G. S. Robertson ; on December 6, "The Mineral Re- 

 sources of British Columbia and the Yukon," by Mr. A. I. 

 McMillan; on December 13, "Canada's Metals," by Prof. W. 

 C. Roberts- Austen ; on December 20, "The Petroleum Sources 

 of the British Empire," by Mr. Boverton Redwood. 



The International Congress on the Protection of Birds, 

 opened at Aix-en-Provence on November 9, and arranged by 

 the Ligue Ornithophile Fran9aise, of which M. Louis-Adrien 

 Levat is the president, was concluded on Saturday last. The 

 protection of insectivorous birds useful to agriculture was the 

 chief matter discussed, and it was decided to forward to the 

 Governments of Europe, through the French Minister of 

 Foreign Affairs, the resolutions which were formulated. Public 

 educational bodies are also to be approached in order to obtain, 

 if possible, the serious consideration of this important subject 

 by schoolmasters and Government school inspectors. Numerous 

 French and Italian agricultural, horticultural, and sporting 

 societies were represented at the Congress, and delegates from 

 the Selborne Society and the Society for the Protection of 

 Birds were also present. 



The late Mr. W. Bolitho of Penzance, for thirty-five years 

 treasurer of the Royal Geological Society of Corn wall, bequeathed 

 500/. to the trustees of that Society, the yearly income accruing 

 from which was to be applied to the purchase of a gold medal, 

 "to be called the William Bolitho Medal, to be awarded to 

 such member of the said Society, whether Ordinary, Honorary, 

 or Associate, whose attainments, labours, and discoveries in 

 Geological or Mineralogical Science shall, in the opinion of the 

 President and Council of the said Society, best deserve re- 

 cognition." The first award of this medal was made in 

 November, 1896, to Prof. Robert Etheridge, in recognition of 

 "his age, his great attainments, and his life-long labours for 

 the benefit of science." The second award was made on the 

 9th inst. to Mr. Howard Fox, of Falmouth, in recognition of 

 his various discoveries in the field geology of Cornwall, and 

 of his having brought to light the radiolarian beds of the south- 

 west of England. 



The Electrical World (New York) states that the National 

 Museum at Washington has just been enriched by a very valu- 

 able and interesting collection, comprising the private papers of 

 the late Mr. Cyrus W. Field relating to the laying of the first 

 Atlantic cable, cable despatches first sent, objects with which 

 Mr Field worked out the idea of laying the cable, and many 

 other things of interest pertaining to the project. The cor- 

 respondence and autograph copies of telegrams sent by Mr. 

 Field to the President of the United States and other eminent 

 persons are included. The globe, which was constructed in 

 London, and on which Mr. Field traced the course of the cable 



