3q3 



NATURE 



[May 5, 192 1 



From a recent copy of the North China Herald we 

 learn with pleasure of the award by the French 

 Government of the Cross of the Legion of Honour 

 to Father Froc, S.J., who for more than a quarter 

 of a century has been connected with the meteoro- 

 logical work at Siccawei Observatory. It was at the 

 Jesuit observatory in Manila that Father Faura in 

 1879 for the first time predicted the existence, dura- 

 tion, and course of a typhoon in the Far East, and 

 the work at both Manila and Siccawei has been of 

 the greatest importance to those who sail the China 

 seas. Siccawei, which stands about four miles from 

 the international settlement of Shanghai, derives its 

 name from a distinguished Chinese who was con- 

 verted to the Christian faith by Matthew Ricci three 

 hundred years ago, and whose grave lies close to 

 the observatory. Besides the observatory the Jesuit 

 Mission has here a fine cathedral, a college, an 

 orphanage, a convent, and a natural history museum. 

 Thie work of Father Froc and of his colleagues. 

 Fathers Chevalier and Gauthier, has the support of 

 the community at Shanghai, and the observatory 

 at Siccawei and those at Zose and Liu-ka-pong con- 

 nected with it are an object-lesson to the Chinese 

 Government. 



The Danish explorer Mr. Knud Rasmussen is 

 planning to leave Copenhagen on May 25 in his motor 

 schooner Sea King for the Canadian Arctic Archi- 

 pelago in order to continue his researches in Eskimo 

 ethnography and migrations. Mr. Rasmussen recently 

 laid his plans before the Royal Geographical Society 

 of Denmark. According to the Times, he proposes 

 to sail for the station of Thule, in north-western 

 Greenland, where several Eskimo and a number of 

 dogs vi^ill be embarked. From there he will go to 

 Hudson Bay and establish his base at Lyon Inlet, in 

 Melville Peninsula. During autumn and winter the 

 tribes around Fury and Hecla Straits will be visited. 

 In the spring of 1922 the expedition will go 'south to 

 Chesterfield Inlet, where arrangements have been 

 made with the Hudson Bay Co. to form a food 

 dep6t. The winter of 1922-23 will be spent among 

 the Kinipetu tribes in the Barren Lands, and other 

 tribes along Maud Sea and Dease Strait. The Sea 

 King will take the collections back to Denmark in 

 1923, while Mr. Rasmussen with a sledge party hopes 

 to reach Thule, travelling via Baffin Land, Lancaster 

 Sound, Jones Sound, Ellesmere Sound, and Smith 

 Sound. This journey is expected to throw light on 

 the ancient Eskimo migrations from Bering Strait via 

 Coronation Gulf and Baffin Land to Greenland. Mr. 

 Rasmussen's companions will be Messrs. P. Freuchen, 

 Mathiessen, and Birket-Smith. 



The Research Defence Society has issued a pamphlet 

 entitled "The Fight against Disease" (Macmillan 

 and Co., 6d.). The pamphlet gives a summary of 

 important current researches on the prevention of 

 human diseases, such as those of Nathan Raw and 

 Calmette on immunisation against tuberculosis, an 

 abstract of Bassett-Smith's lecture on Malta fever 

 at the Middlesex Hospital and quotations from Sir 

 Charters Symond's Hunterian oration on the import- 

 NO. 2688, VOL. 107] 



ance and value of experiments upon animals. The 

 advantages gained by animals from experiments on 

 animals are also emphasised, notably in the case of 

 glanders. Prof. Hobday points out that in 1901 some 

 2370 horses were destroyed for glanders in Great 

 Britain, whereas during 1920 only 22 animals were 

 destroyed, and this after the sate and distribution of 

 150,000 Army horses and mules. This result is due 

 to the use of mallein, a sure test for the presence of 

 the disease. The extraordinary mistakes and mis- 

 statements of anti-vivisection publications are also 

 referred to and exposed. 



The Report of the Director-General of Public 

 Health, New South Wales, for the year ending 

 December 31, 1919, contains a useful summary of 

 the influenza epidemic which raged in the State 

 during that year. In Sydney itself it is estimated 

 that . 290,000 persons were attacked, or 36 per cent, 

 of the population, and from January-Septenjber 

 6244 deaths due to influenza were recorded in the 

 State. As in this country, males of working age 

 had the highest death-rates, and the disease was 

 frequently accompanied with haemorrhages. The pre- 

 cautionary measures taken included restrictions upon 

 travelling, the provision of hospital accommodation 

 and of medical and nursing assistance in the homes of 

 the sick, notification, isolation of patients and con- 

 tacts, restriction of public assemblies and closure of 

 schools, and the wearing of masks in certain circum- 

 stances. These measures, however, did not appear to 

 limit the spread of infection. Inoculation was also 

 applied to a limited extent, and the death-rate among 

 the inoculated seemed to be decidedly reduced. Exten- 

 sive bacteriological and pathological investigations 

 were carried out by Dr. Cleland, who thinks that the 

 balance of evidence is in favour of the disease being 

 caused by a filter-passing organism, although no 

 definite experimental evidence in favour of this view 

 was obtained. 



The Natural History Society of Rugby School has 

 recently issued its annual report for 1920, which we 

 note is the fifty-fourth issue of this record. In all, 

 nine general lectures were given during the year on 

 a variety of subjects ; brief abstracts of each are 

 printed, and if we are to judge by the attendances 

 recorded, that by Dr. Fournier d'Albe on the opto- 

 phone was by far the most popular. The report also 

 contains a list of birds of Rugby by Mr. J. F. 

 Madden, compiled chiefly from the society's reports of 

 the last six years ; one hundred birds are mentioned, 

 and remarks are added indicating where and how 

 often each has been seen. The botanical section has 

 contributed a list of some three hundred plants which 

 have been found locally, and their dates of flowering 

 are given. The entomological and the ornithological 

 sections also supply lists which will be useful to 

 students of local natural history, while the contribu- 

 tion of the latter is illustrated by some good repro- 

 ductions from photographs of birds' nests and young 

 sparrowhawks. Other groups, such as the geological, 

 meteorological, photographic, and agricultural sec- 

 tions, have also provided brief reports of their activi- 



