648 



NArrUkE 



[February ii, 191 5 



tionists to induce men to object to inoculation by 

 which such protection is secured. Replying to scfme 

 carping criticisms against inoculation made by Mr. 

 Chancellor in the House of Commons on February 9, 

 Dr. Addison pointed out that in the South African 

 war there were 58,000 cases of typhoid — more than 

 an Army Corps — whereas in our great force now in 

 France and Belgium, and after six months, including 

 three months of atrocious weather, there have only 

 been 421 cases among our troops. The total losses 

 in South Africa were 22,000, of which about 14,000 

 deaths were from diseases and 8000 of these were 

 from typhoid. When we compare this immense 

 sacrifice of human life from preventible disease with 

 the record stated above, we can only wonder at the 

 patience of the British people in permitting a pre- 

 judiced faction to urge men not to subject themselves 

 to a treatment bj^ which they save others and them- 

 selves from suffering and death. 



Prof. G. O. Sars, professor of zoology, University 

 of Christiania, has been elected an honorary member 

 of the Challenger Societj\ 



Sir W. Watson Cheyne will deliver the Hunterian 

 oration at the Royal College of Surgeons, Lincoln's 

 Inn Fields, on February 15, taking as his subject 

 "The Treatment of Wounds in War." 



Dr. Sidney Coupland has been appointed Harveian 

 orator (of the Royal College of Physicians) for 1915 ; 

 Dr. J. Michell Clarke Bradshaw lecturer for 1915, and 

 Dr. Samson G. Moore Milroy lecturer for 19 16. 



The Secretary of the Admiralty announces that the 

 King has approved the award of the Polar Medal to 

 the officers and men who took part in the Australasian 

 Antarctic Expedition of 1911-14, under the leadership 

 of Sir Douglas Mawson. 



It is announced in the issue of Science for January 

 29 that the city of Philadelphia, acting on the recom- 

 mendation of the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, 

 Pa., has awarded the John Scott legacy medal and 

 premium to Dr, C. E. Giiillaume, of Sevres, France, 

 for the invention of his alloy invar. 



According to the Southern Times of February 6 

 the monument on the grave of the late Dr. Alfred 

 Russel Wallace in the cemetery at Broadstone, Dorset, 

 is a fine specimen of fossil tree from Portland, seven 

 feet in height and weighing some two tons. The 

 specimen stands on a foundation of Purbeck stone, 

 and an inscription on it indicates merely Dr. Wallace's 

 name and dates of birth and death. 



Dr. W. H. Hadow, principal of Armstrong College, 

 Newcastle-upon-Tyne ; and Engineer \'ice-Admiral Sir 

 Henry J. Oram, K.C.B., F.R.S., Engineer-in-Chief 

 of the Fleet, have been elected members of the 

 Athenaeum Club, under the provisions of the rule 

 which empowers the annual election by the committee 

 of three persons "of distinguished eminence in science, 

 literature, the arts, or for public service." 



The death is announced, in his fifty-eighth year, 

 of Prof. L. L. Dyche, of the University of Kansas. 

 NO. 2363, VOL. 94] 



He was a graduate of that institution, at which he 

 was appointed in 1885 assistant professor of zoology, 

 in 1886 professor of anatomy, in 1890 professor of 

 zoology, and in 1900 professor of systematic zoology. 

 He had made twenty-three scientific expeditions in 

 various parts of North America, as well as Greenland 

 and the Arctic regions, and had thereby secured for 

 the University of Kansas one of the most valuable 

 collections of mammals in the United States. 



Dr. Benjamin Sharp, who had charge of the depart- 

 ment of zoology in Peary's first Arctic expedition, 

 has died at Morehead, North Carolina, at the age of 

 fifty-six. For a time he was professor of invertebrate 

 zoology' at the Philadelphia Academy of Na(ural 

 Sciences, and afterwards at the University of Penn- 

 sylvania. He was then appointed corresponding secre- 

 tary of the former institution, in whose interests he 

 made collecting expeditions to the Caribbee Islands, 

 Hawaii, and elsewhere. He was an industrious 

 lecturer and writer on zoological subjects. 



The occurrence of frost-bitten feet among the troops 

 has been reported from time to time. According to 

 the Morning Post, February 5, Dr. Temoin, of 

 Bourges, has investigated the subject, and concludes 

 that the affection is not due to frost-bite, but is a 

 gangrenous condition caused by arrest of the circula- 

 tion through pressure, cold being a contributing but 

 secondary factor. Wet causes the puttees to contract 

 and retard the circulation, and the feet swell in con- 

 sequence in the boots, which also somewhat contract. 

 The remedy is to induce the soldiers frequentlv to 

 take off their boots, and to reduce the period in the 

 trenches. 



In a paper read before the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers on February 9, Mr. F. D, Evans dealt with 

 engineering operations for the prevention of malaria, 

 as carried out in the Federated Malay States. Drain- 

 age is all-important, and an inexpensive and 

 thoroughly efficient typo of drain has been evolved 

 to meet the conditions, formed of concrete blocks of 

 half-egg shape, laid close but unjointed. The blocks 

 are laid without foundations even on bad ground in 

 flowing water. Should they move out of line or 

 gradient, it is easy to re-set them correctly when the 

 surrounding ground has settled, after which they give 

 no trouble ; but re-setting is rarely necessary. 



A FEW weeks ago it was reported by cable that Sir 

 Ernest Shackleton would not reach the base from 

 which he intends to start his crossing of the Antarctic 

 continent, in the Weddell Sea, in time to proceed this 

 season. Letters and a diary now published in the 

 Daily Chronicle confirm this. The ice has been very 

 late in breaking. Sir Ernest now hopes to get away 

 from the base at the beginning of November next, 

 after wintering there. His present communications have 

 come from South Georgia, and an interesting and 

 Useful piece of scientific work has already been done 

 there in the erection of true meridian posts, which 

 will enable whaling and other ships to test their 

 compasses. The vovage to South Georgia appears 

 to have been prosperous,, and the expedition has 



I 



I 



J 



