414 



NATURE 



[January 26, 191 1 



by Mr. J. S. Gamble, new orchids by Mr. R. A. Rolfe, 

 and. a new genus of Leguminosa?, Leptoderris, by Mr. 

 S. T. Dunn. The new genus is practically a segregate 

 from Derris, which it resembles in fruit, and comprises 

 fourteen species, all derived from tropical .Africa. An 

 article by Mr. W. J. Bean provides a fourth set of garden 

 notes on new trees and shrubs. An Alpine variety of 

 Erica arborea is noted for its hardiness. Chinese intro- 

 ductions include Acer griseum, a striking trifoliate maple, 

 Bcrberis parvifolia, a distinct species, and Sarcococca 

 ruscifolia, a euphorbiaceous evergreen with habit recall- 

 ing Butcher's broom. Two illustrations depict Fothergilla 

 major, an American shrub highly decorative when in 

 flower, and Pistacia chinensis. 



The starting of the Australian Antarctic Expedition 

 seems now assured by the subsidies promised by the 

 Australian Association for the Advancement of Science. 

 The expedition will be under the command of Dr. Mawson, 

 and it will enter the Antarctic field which now promises 

 the most useful results. Many attempts have been made 

 to discredit the existence of Wilkes Land, and it is obvious 

 that Wilkes reported land farther to the north than it 

 exists ; nevertheless, his narrative offers convincing 

 evidence that his expedition met land in that part of the 

 Antarctic region. The Shackleton expedition has proved 

 the extension of the land further west from Cape Adair 

 than any other expedition, and Dr. Mawson proposes to 

 follow this coast-line further to the west, which was one 

 of the unfulfilled parts of the programme of the Discovery 

 expedition. The German .Antarctic Expedition, under 

 Prof, von Drygalski, established the existence of con- 

 tinental land south of Kerguelen. No accessible part of 

 Antarctica offers such promising results as that selected 

 by Dr. Mawson. The development of wireless telegraphy 

 has already led to the suggested establishment of an 

 Australian meteorological station on that part of the 

 Antarctic coast, and this observatory may be hoped for 

 ultimately. 



Foreign newspapers announce several losses that 

 various scientific institutions have just sustained by the 

 death of members on their respective staffs. Foremost 

 among these is M. Gustave Leveau, by whose death the 

 Paris Observatory loses its oldest oflficial, who for more 

 than half a century participated in its work and shared 

 its renown. He had served under Le Verrier, Delaunay, 

 Mouchez, Tisserand, Loewy, and Baillaud, a long list 

 recalling the various changes in the direction of activity 

 pursued at the national observatory. M. Leveau, who 

 rendered important services in various departments of 

 celestial mechanics, will be best remembered for his re- 

 searches into the motion of the comet of D 'Arrest, the 

 perturbations of which he regularly calculated, and at 

 each return prepared an ephemeris. He belonged to the 

 school of Le Verrier, and his tables of Vesta and other 

 researches show the effect of his master's influence. Not- 

 withstanding his mathematical work, he gave assiduous 

 attention to the routine of the observatory, taking part 

 mainly in the meridian observations. The director of the 

 Leipzig Observatory announces the death of F. W. 

 Hermann Leppig, who since 1867 has worked strenuously 

 to forward the interests of that institution. The work of 

 the deceased astronomer was mainly confined to meridian 

 observations, time distribution, and in the meteorological 

 service. The death of M. Roz^, astronomical lecturer at 

 the Ecole Polytechnique and professor of mathematics in 

 Ihe Ecole de physique et chimie, is also announced. 

 Since 1859 he had been attached to the Ecole Poly- 



NO. 2152, VOL. 85] 



technique, and for more than forty years, had taken part 

 in the tutorial work. 



The conference on sleeping sickness recently held :, 

 the Foreign Office was convened. Router's Agency learn- 

 by the British Government as a result of representatioi 

 made of the danger of the spread of sleeping sickness i 

 consequence of the construction of the Rhodesia-Katan^ 

 Railway, which runs from the north of Broken Hill to l! 

 Congo frontier and beyond. The delegates to the confr; 

 ence were M. Melot, representing the Belgian Governmet 

 Dr. van Campenhout, of the Colonial Office in Bruss< 1 

 Dr. Sheffield Neave, representing the Rhodesia-Katant 

 Railway, Dr. Aylmer May, representing the Charten 

 Company, Dr, Bagshawe, of the Sleeping Sickness Bureau, 

 and representatives of the British Foreign and Colonial | 

 Offices. As the result of its deliberations, the conferem 

 concluded, with regard to the necessary precautions y 

 the case of new railway extensions, that it is essential 

 that the route of these lines should be inspected for j 

 Glossina palpalis, that maps of the fly areas be prepari >! 

 that railways should cross the fly belt at the narrow 

 points and not follow them, that there shall be no static 

 buildings, or stopping-places in the G. palpalis area, m 

 that labourers on the railways should be recruited und 

 such condition as to avoid infection. During the workii 

 of railways, it is recommended that, there shall be constant 

 supervision and inspection, that passenger carriages, I 

 trucks, &c., shall, so far as possible, have openings coven '• 

 with fly-proof gauze, and that as G. palpalis probal 

 does not exist south of the Congo-Zambezi watershed, t' 

 Rhodesia-Katanga Railway shall be* worked in tv 

 sections with" the view of avoiding the possibility of can 

 ing the fly from one area to another. 



Mr. C. B. Holman-Hunt, curator of the Selangor f 

 Museum, has been appointed assistant entomologist in tl 

 agricultural department of the Federated Malay States. 



We learn from the Revue scientifique that Bar. 

 Reinach has provided the Frankfort Physical Society wi 

 the funds necessary to establish a seismological obser\. 

 tory on the Feldberg, in the Taunus range. Dr. F. Link 

 will be the director of the observatory. 



The Belgian Royal Academy of Sciences, Letters, ai 

 Arts has awarded to Dr. L. A. Bauer the Charles Lagraiu 

 Prize for the period 1905-8, of 1200 francs, on account 

 his various researches in terrestrial magnetism. T 

 academy has also awarded the decennial prize of 50. 

 francs for researches in physics and chemistry to M. \ an , 

 der Mensbrugghe, for his work on the molecular physics | 

 of liquids. 



According to the Revue scientifique, the Krupp Socii : 

 has given Prof. Emil Wiechert, of the University ■ 

 Gottingen, 10,000 marks to enable him to conduct exp* ; 

 ments in aerodynamics ; and also 6000 marks to Pr< 

 Leopold Ambronn, of the same university, for the c<> 

 struction of a new photographic apparatus. 



The Geological Society of London will this year aw;i 

 its medals and funds as follows : — Wollaston medal, Pr. 

 Waldemar C. Brogger ; Murchison medal, Mr. R. 1 

 Tiddeman ; Lyell medals, Dr. F. A. Bather and Dr. A. V 

 Rowe; Bigsby medal. Dr. O. Abel; Wollaston fund, Pn 

 O. T. Jones; Murchison fund, Mr. E. S. Cobbold ; :i^ 

 the Lyell fund, Prof. C. G. Cullis and Mr. J. F. 

 Green. 



