February 2, 191 1] 



NATURE 



449 



limited areas in the neighbourhbod of water, but is dis- 

 tributed over large districts. 



According to a Times correspondent at Tiensin, a slight 

 earthquake shock was experienced there at 8.45 a.m. on 

 January 25. .\ Reuter message says that on January 28 

 the eruption of a volcano at Taal caused at Manila three 

 strong earthquakes, and nearly a hundred lesser shocks. 

 A later message states that towns for a radius of twenty 

 miles are suffering from a rain of mud and stones, due to 

 the volcanic eruption at Taal. Five small villages in the 

 Taal district appear to have been destroyed by a great 

 wave, and no fewer than 400 lives were lost in that region. 



The preliminary reading of the Bill fc«- making official 

 time in France coincide with Greenwich time was accepted 

 in the French Senate on January 26, on the understand- 

 ing that the Paris meridian should still be adopted for 

 naval, astronomical, and cartographical requirements. 

 Decided advantage will accrue from the introduction of 

 uniform time in western Europe, and the Bill before the 

 Senate will be widely welcomed. The essential article of 

 the Bill reads : — " Official time in France and in Algeria 

 shall be Paris mean time put back nine minutes and 

 twenty-one seconds." 



On Thursday next, February 9, Dr. P. Chalmers 

 Mitchell will begin a course of three lectures at the Royal 

 Institution on " Problems of Animals in Captivity," and 

 on Saturday, February 11, Dr. Thomas G. Jackson will 

 deliver the first of three lectures on " Architecture : the 

 Byzantine and Romanesque Period." The Friday evening 

 discourse on February 10 will be delivered by Sir Sidney 

 Colvin on " Robert Louis Stevenson," on February 17 by 

 Prof. Henry E. Armstrong on " The Stimulation of 

 Digestive .Activity," and on February 24 by Prof. Jean 

 Perrin on " Mouvement Brownien et Reality Moleculaire " 

 (in French). 



The theatre of the Museum of the Yorkshire Philo- 

 sophical Society in York has for several years been a 

 subject of concern to the council. Though larger than 

 most of the theatres belonging to the principal London 

 societies, it is often inconveniently overcrowded. This 

 state of things, we learn from the Yorkshire Herald of 

 January 19, is now in a fair way of being remedied. The 

 president of the societ}-. Dr. Tempest .Anderson, has 

 decided to apply to the building of a new theatre a sum 

 of money left to him by his sister, the late Mrs. Percy 

 Siaden, to be used for some scientific purpose. The well 

 of the present theatre will be boarded over with either a 

 permanent or movable floor, and this hall will thus become 

 available as a reception room for use before or after the 

 lectures, and also for smaller meetings. The new theatre 

 will be built at the west side of the present building, space 

 being reserved in front of it for a further enlargement 

 of the museum. The proposed theatre will be about 

 79 feet long and 47 feet wide, and will comfortably seat 

 nearly 400 people. Between the higher tiers of the seat- 

 ing and the basement hall a workroom (39 feet by 26 feet) 

 will be provided. 



The Research Defence Society was founded three years 

 ago to make generally known the facts as to experiments 

 on animals in this country, and the regulations under 

 which they are conducted : the immense importance of 

 such experiments to the welfare of mankind, and the great 

 saving of human and animal life and health which is 

 already due to them. Under the presidency of Lord 

 Cromer, and by ihe untiring efforts of the honorary secre- 

 tar}-, Mr. Stephen Paget, the society has done and is doing 

 NO. 2153, VOL. 85] 



excellent educational service in the cause of science and 

 humanity. From a short statement just issued of its work 

 during the past year, it appears that since January last 

 twenty-one pamphlets and leaflets have been published by 

 the society upon such subjects as Pasteur, science, and 

 medicine ; plague in India ; diphtheria and antitoxin ; 

 sleeping sickness; Malta fever ; and humanity and science. 

 There has been a very great increase during the year in 

 the quantity of pamphlets and leaflets distributed, and in 

 the number of addresses and popular lectures, and lantern 

 lectures, given by members of. the society in all parts of 

 the country. A large number of the publications has been 

 distributed among public libraries and similar institutes, 

 and also sold in the ordinary way of publication. There 

 are now nearly four thousand members, but it is hoped 

 that many more people in sympathy with its aims will 

 become members or associates of the society, and help to 

 extend its educational work. 



M.\NY attempts have been made to synchronise the 

 phonograph or gramophone with the kinematc^raph, so as 

 to be able to reproduce simultaneously the sounds of the 

 voice, as in singing and speech, while the movements of 

 the face and the bodily gestures of the singer or speaker 

 are depicted on the screen. The difficulty has been two- 

 fold : how to obtain the exact synchronism and how so to 

 intensify the vocal sounds, or rather the mechanism for 

 recording the vocal sounds, as to allow the sound-recorder 

 to be placed at something like the same distance from the 

 speaker as that between the speaker and the kinemato- 

 graph. The difficulties, however, appear to have been 

 surmounted by M. Gaumont. In La Nature of December 

 31 last, an interesting description is given of a meeting, 

 on December 27, of the Paris Academy of Sciences, at 

 which, by means of M. Gaumont 's method, there appeared 

 on the screen an image of M. d'.Arsonval which made 

 gestures and delivered an explanatory speech. The details 

 of the method are not fully developed, but they are to be 

 made public without delay. It appears that M. Gaumont 

 has been struggling with experimental difficulties for more 

 than eight years. We may soon have in our homes the 

 chefs-d'oeuvre of our theatres played by our best actors, 

 and even lectures by famous professors may not be 

 restricted to their class-rooms, but the speakers may be 

 both seen and heard at so much a yard. Such reproduc- 

 tions are to be called phonoscenes. We may well say 

 with Dominie Sampson — ^"prodigious"! 



The syllabus for the first half of the present year of 

 the North London Natural History Society provides plentj' 

 of opportunities for those members who wish to do serious 

 out-door work in their subject, as well as to attend lectures 

 and meetings for discussion. The session opened on 

 January 10, when Mr. M. Greenwood, the president, 

 delivered his presidential address, taking for his subject 

 " Science from the Non-professional Standpoint." He 

 laid great emphasis on the value of amateur science, and 

 reminded the members that it has been said the amateur 

 is the glory of British research. " Remember that the 

 greatest biol<^ist our country has produced, Charles 

 Darwin, was an amateur." Mr. Greenwood summarised 

 the leading principles of a great man of science as patience 

 in labouring, impartiality in judging, absolute candour in 

 stating the conclusions to which his researches lead him, 

 and a resolute scorn of the idols of the market-place. The 

 function of science in the life of a non-professional student 

 is of high importance, he said, and that to draw the 

 utmost advantage from his work it is well for such a 

 student to concentrate his energies upon a limited number 

 of subjects, and, above all, to devote original, independent 



