324 



NATURE 



\Feb. 6, 1879 



At the last meeting of the Berlin Geographical Society 

 several interesting communications were read. Gerhard 

 Rohlfs had left Tripolis about Christmas, and proceeded 

 southwards for twelve days' journey, there awaiting the 

 presents intended for the Sultan of Wadai, sent by the 

 German Emperor. The Society has also received news 

 from Count Szechenyi, who has undertaken the task of 

 investigating the Lo-floa. He arrived at Pekin in October 

 last, and succeeded in obtaining passes for his journey to 

 Thibet, a favour which has never before been bestowed 

 upon any European by the Celestials. 



Herr J. M. HiLDEBRANDT is about to Start on a 

 scientific tour through Madagascar, at the request of the 

 Berlin Academy of Sciences. He will direct his principal 

 attentions to the botany, zoology, and topography of the 

 island. A report has reached Bremen through the French 

 Secretary for the Navy, that the young Bremen traveller. 

 Dr. Rutenberg, who is also investigating Madagascar, has 

 been murdered there. Direct news from Nossi-Bd, how- 

 ever, states that Dr. Rutenberg stayed there till Novem- 

 ber 29 last. He was then about to start on a tour through 

 the interior in a southerly direction, and hoped eventually 

 to reach Fort Dauphin, near the southern extremity of 

 the island. 



The Paris Geographical Society intend holding a 

 meeting in commemoration of Capt. Cook on the 14th 

 inst., that being the hundredth anniversary of his death. 

 M. W. Huber, Dr. E. H. T. Hamy, and M. Crosnier de 

 Varigny have agreed to address the meeting respectively 

 on Capt. Cook's life, the ethnographical results of his 

 voyages, and the present state of the countries discovered 

 by him. Mr. J. Jackson has taken charge of the biblio- 

 graphical researches, and Mr. W. Blakeney, R.N., secre- 

 tary to the hydrographer, has been requested to lend the 

 assistance of his knowledge concerning the great voyager. 

 The Royal Geographical Society have been invited to be 

 represented at the meeting. It seems strange that it 

 should be left to a foreign society to commemorate the 

 death of England's greatest scientific voyager. 



A PHENOMENON causing much anxiety amongst the 

 inhabitants of the shores of the Amazon is the continued 

 rapid decrease of that generally colossal river. It appears 

 that navigation above Manaos has become an impossi- 

 bility. The cause of the continued decrease of the 

 quantity of water is entirely unknown at present, and it is 

 most desirable that men of science should thoroughly 

 investigate the matter. 



The " Berlin Central Union for Commercial Geography 

 and for the Furthering of German Interests Abroad" has 

 just issued its first publication under the title " Geogra- 

 phische Nachrichten fiir Welthandel and Volkswirth- 

 schaft ;" the editor is Dr. O. Kersten, and the publishers 

 Herren Puttkammer and Miihlbrecht of Berlin. 



A Singapore paper states that the suitability of the 

 soil of Perak for planting enterprise is exciting more and 

 more attention. Five or six more planters from Ceylon 

 are now there engaged in examining the soil. A similar 

 remark applies to Johore, where the Maharajah has 

 invited an ex-planter in Ceylon to become a sort of 

 Minister of Lands ; he is expected to arrive early this 

 year, accompanied by several planters, who intend to 

 explore Johore. 



The position of the missionary settlement at Blantyre 

 which lies to the east of the Murchison Falls on the 

 Shir^, East Africa, has never hitherto been known within 

 several miles. It will, therefore, be interesting to record 

 that as the result of a series of observations taken some 

 five months since, Mr. Louis Carr has determined it to 

 be in S. lat. 15° 45' 25", and E. long. 35° 14' 11". 



ENGINEERING RESEARCH 



n^HE Institution of Mechanical Engineers have de- 

 •*- cided to take a step which must meet with the 

 approval of all who have the progress of engineering at 

 heart. Like all other arts, that of the engineer, to be 

 fully efficient, must be based on the laws which govern 

 matter ; and it is evident that the better we know these 

 laws the more efficiently will our engineers be able to do 

 their work. The only method of discovering these laws 

 and their action under all the conditions with which 

 engineering has to deal, is by systematic and thorough 

 research ; and since in this country our Government are 

 so slow to see its true interests, the work, as far as pos- 

 sible, must be undertaken by individuals and bodies such 

 as the Society of Mechanical Engineers. That Society 

 is to be congratulated on its enterprise and the clear per- 

 ception possessed by its members of the foundation on 

 which their all-important art should be established. At 

 a recent meeting of the Society it was resolved that the 

 Council should be empowered to expend during the present 

 year a sum of not more than 300/. " for the purpose of 

 promoting practical research in mechanical subjects." 

 What the nature and aims of this research are likely to 

 be we learn from a circular which has been distributed 

 among the members for the purpose of eliciting sugges- 

 tions. 



It is proposed that a Research Committee, consisting of 

 five Members of Council, be appointed by the Council 

 annually, and that a sum be voted at each annual general 

 meeting to be expended by the Committee. The first 

 duty of this Committee, when appointed, will be to pre- 

 pare a list of subjects on which further research is desir- 

 able, and present it to the Council, recommending certain 

 subjects to be first investigated. The Research Commit- 

 tee will then appoint a Sub-Committee for each of the 

 selected subjects, and invite gentlemen (not necessarily 

 members of the Institution), to give assistance to such 

 Sub-Committees. This proposed condition we think ex- 

 ceedingly praiseworthy and liberal, and augurs well for 

 the comprehensiveness and thoroughness of any research 

 that may be undertaken. 



The circular referred to proposes that each Sub-Com- 

 mittee be instructed that its first duty is to collect and 

 collate all the records of experiments and other informa- 

 tion already existing on the subject ; then to determine 

 what further experiments, if any, are needed, and ascer- 

 tain their probable cost ; and to present a report to the 

 Research Committee, embodying a summary of the in- 

 formation so obtained, a description of the experiments 

 proposed to be made, and an application for the requisite 

 funds. Upon the approval of any report of a Sub-Com- 

 mittee by the Research Committee, the latter, it is pro- 

 posed, will apply to the Council for a suitable sum for 

 the use of the Sub-Committee in carrying out their 

 investigations. 



Then it is proposed that ample provision be made for 

 the publication of the results of any research, and for the 

 continuation of investigations as far as circumstances 

 seem to demand. The whole scheme seems to us to be 

 conceived in a thoroughly liberal spirit, and with a true 

 idea of the value of scientific research, and of the con- 

 ditions under which it can be carried out with efficiency. 

 That the scheme is likely to be carried out in as intelligent 

 a manner as it has been devised will be evident from the 

 names of those who have been appointed in the first 

 instance as a Research Committee. These are : Dr. 

 Siemens, Mr. Wm. Anderson of Erith, Mr. E. A. Cow- 

 per, Mr. A. Paget, and Mr. F. W. Webb. "The names 

 4of these gentlemen," as the Engineer rightly remarks, 

 ' are a sufficient guarantee that the work will be 

 carried out both with energy and discretion ; and we 

 can only conclude by wishing them success in their 

 labours." 



