112 



NA rURE 



[December 2, 1897 



In view of the resolutions of the Conference, it appeared 

 desirable to establish a (provisional) British Catalogue Com- 

 mittee, which might be consulted by the Committee of the 

 Royal Society on questions relating to the collection and pre- 

 paration of the material supplied by the scientific literature of 

 Great Britain and Ireland, and might ultimately develop into 

 the National Bureau for the United Kingdom contemplated by 

 the Conference. 



An appeal was, therefore, made by the Royal Society's 

 Committee to the chief Societies representative of the sciences 

 to be included in the Catalogue, and to certain important 

 libraries, requesting the appointment of representatives. 



Excepting in two cases, in which the nominations are delayed, 

 all the societies and libraries applied to nominated representa- 

 tives as requested. 



At the first meeting of the British Committee thus constituted, 

 representatives of nearly all the sciences included in the invita- 

 tion attended, and expressed the willingness of the bodies they 

 represented to co-operate in the work of the International 

 Catalogue, though in some cases it was stated that they would 

 not be able to contribute towards the expenses. 



The further action to be taken by the various societies towards 

 carrying out the work indicated above, will be considered by 

 committees specially appointed by them for the purpose, and 

 will form the subject of reports to be made to the British 

 Committee. 



With the object of keeping the delegates to the International 

 Conference informed as to the work of the Committee, and of 

 eliciting from them suggestions and criticisms upon the matters 

 still under discussion, an ad interim statement of the progress so 

 far made in its deliberations has been sent confidentially to all 

 the delegates. 



Progress continues to be made with the " Catalogue of 

 Scientific Papers " and with the classified Index thereto. 



As regards the supplementary portion of the Catalogue, 

 the transcription of the copy is now approaching completion, 

 and the Council hope that the first instalment of copy may be 

 ready for the printer early in the new year. During the year 

 ending on October 31, about 130 serials have been indexed for 

 the purposes of the Catalogue, representing approximately 

 774 volumes, and involving the transcription of about 41,000 

 titles. 



Of the classified Index to the Catalogue, about 275,000 slips 

 have now been prepared, of which about 100,000 have been 

 translated. An experimental classification of these slips is being 

 made, in the course of which about 53,000 have already been 

 classified under the eleven divisions sanctioned by the Catalogue 

 Committee. During the past year about 65,000 slips have been 

 prepared, of which about 13,000 have been revised, or translated, 

 as occasion required. 



Under the regulations for the administration of the Govern- 

 ment Grant Fund, the Council have, upon the recommendation 

 of the Government Grant Committee, made grants amounting 

 to 3115/., in addition to a grant of 1500/. made to the Joint 

 Permanent Eclipse Committee out of the Reserve Fund towards 

 the expenses of observing the approaching solar eclipse. 



Early in the year, the Council appointed a Committee, called 

 the Government Grant Review Committee, to report upon the 

 manner in which the grants made from the Government Grant 

 have been expended, and on the scientific results thereby at- 

 tained. The Committee has met, but has not yet reported to 

 the Council. The question of the reappointment of the Com- 

 mittee to make an annual report on the subject referred to them 

 is under consideration. 



The Report upon the results of the expedition sent out last 

 year, under the direction of a Committee of the Royal Society, 

 to investigate the structure of a Coral Reef by boring, was pre- 

 sented to the Society in a paper which was printed in the Pro- 

 <:eedings of February 18, 1897 (vol. Ix. p. 502). In that report, 

 the Chairman of the Committee expressed the opinion that 

 a more successful attempt would probably be made from 

 Australia, and the Council therefore heard with satisfaction 

 early in March that the authorities at Sydney would probably be 

 willing to renew the attempt at boring with some assistance 

 in money and influence from the Royal Society. Later, the 

 Council was informed that a second expedition had been 

 despatched from Sydney with the assistance of the Royal 

 Geographical Society of Australasia on the agreement that the 

 core, when recovered, should be sent to the Royal Society, and 



that all scientific details of the results of the expedition should 

 be reserved for the Royal Society to publish. On the recom- 

 mendation of the Coral Reef Committee, the balance remaining 

 in hand from last year's expedition was voted in aid of the 

 Australian expedition. 



Early in the present month, the Secretaries received a pre- 

 liminary report from Prof. David, in which he informed them 

 that on September 6 the boring had attained a depth of 

 557 feet, and in the lower part had pierced more than one mass 

 of coral limestone, one — about 20 feet thick — ending at 550 feet ; 

 they have also been informed that the boring was continued after 

 the above-named date, and was still proceeding in generally 

 similar material to that above, at a depth of 643 feet. 



The Joint Permanent Eclipse Committee has organised expe- 

 ditions for the observation of the Total Solar Eclipse in January 

 next ; and, at the request of the Committee, applications have 

 been made to the War Office for leave of absence for Capt. Hills, 

 R.E., in order that he may take part in the observation of the 

 Eclipse ; to the India Office, for facilities for the landing 

 of instruments free of duty ; to the Admiralty, for the convey- 

 ance of one of the observing parties to and from their observing 

 station in one of H.M.'s ships ; and to the Colonial Office, for 

 facilities for the transhipment of that party from a passenger 

 steamer to the ship of war at Colombo. 



All these requests have been acceded to by the authorities. 

 The Committee appointed last year at the request of Her 

 Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies, to investigate the 

 subject of the Tsetse Fly Disease in South Africa has, in the 

 course of the year, through Drs. Kanthack and Durham, and 

 Mr. Blandford, conducted a careful investigation into the disease 

 so far as it can be studied in this country, in subjects inoculated 

 from a dog sent over from South Africa by Surgeon-Major Bruce. 

 The Committee have, at the same time, been in communication 

 with Surgeon-Major Bruce, keeping him informed of the pro- 

 gress of the inquiry here, and offering him suggestions for further 

 investigation in South Africa. The experimental investigations, 

 under Dr. Kanthack, are being pursued at Cambridge, with the 

 aid of a grant of 200/., generously placed at the disposal of the 

 Council by Mr. A. Beit for this purpose. A letter, however, 

 has recently been received from the Colonial Office, stating that 

 Surgeon-Major Bruce's investigations have, for the present, been 

 suspended, and he himself has been directed to return to military 

 duty. The investigations have, so far, not resulted in the indi- 

 cation of any practical preventive treatment of the disease, but 

 the life-history of the hsematozoon, discovered by Surgeon- Major 

 Bruce and shown by him to be the essential cause of the disease, 

 has been carefully studied, and still presents problems of great 

 interest. 



Acting upon the recommendations lof the Scientific Relief 

 Committee, the Council has during the year granted 545/. to 

 assist scientific men or their relatives in distress. Early in 

 the year the Council found it expedient to codify the practice 

 and original regulations, which had been modified from time to 

 time since the formation of the Scientific Relief Fund, in a 

 series of regulations for the guidance of the Committee in the 

 administration of the fund. The revised regulations will be 

 printed in the new edition of the "Year-Book." 



In January the Council received a letter from the Royal 

 Society of Canada urging them to move the Government to 

 give their adhesion to a scheme for the unification of time at 

 sea by the assimilation of the astronomical and civil day, with 

 a view to the necessary alteration being made in the Nautical 

 Almanac for 1901. The Council appointed an influential com- 

 mittee to consider the question, and received from them the 

 following report : — 



"The Committee report that as there is a great diversity of 

 opinion amongst astronomers and sailors as to the advisability 

 of the adoption of civil reckoning for astronomical purposes, 

 and as it is impossible to carry out such a change in the 

 Nautical Almanac for the year 1901, they do not recommend 

 that the Royal Society should at present take any steps in 

 support of the suggested change of reckoning." 



Acting upon this advice, the Council have for the present 

 refrained from taking any steps in support of the suggested 

 change of reckoning. 



The biennial election to the Joule Studentship was, under the 

 terms of the Trust, placed by the Council last year in the hands 

 of the Academie des Sciences, Paris, which has conferred the 

 award on M. Jules Perrin, Doctor of Sciences, of the Ecole 

 Normale. 



NO. 1466, VOL. 57] 



