November 8, 1900] 



NATURE 



35 



presented at the anniversary meeting on St. Andrew's Day 

 (November 30). The Society will dine together at the White- 

 hall Rooms on the evening of the same day. 



To commemorate Huxley's anthropological work, the Council 

 of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 

 has decided to found a public lecture, which will be called the 

 *' Huxley Memorial Lecture," and will be given annually at the 

 opening of the winter session of the institute. The first Huxley 

 lecture will be delivered by the Right Hon. Lord Avebury, 

 F.R.S., and is announced for Tuesday, November 13, at 8.30 

 p.m., in the lecture theatre of the Museum of Practical 

 Geology, Jermyn Street, S.W., which, as the scene of so much 

 of Huxley's most impressive teaching, was felt to be the most 

 appropriate place for such a ceremony, and has been placed for 

 the occasion at the disposal of the Anthropological Institute. 

 Applications for tickets of admission should be addressed to the 

 Secretary, the Anthropological Institute, 3, Hanover Square, 

 W., as early as possible. 



Many aspects of the subject of water supply were considered 

 by Mr. James Mansergh in his presidential address to the In- 

 stitution of Civil Engineers on Tuesday. First and foremost is 

 the question of rainfall and its accurate registration, as providing 

 the prime factor in ascertaining the capability of supply of any 

 given drainage area, with the flow off watersheds of varying 

 form and geological structure, the losses by evaporation, and 

 the discharge by floods. From the point of view of the water- 

 works engineer, this information is of the highest importance, 

 and has been dealt with by previous presidents of the Institution. 

 On the question of purity, which means, according to the now 

 generally accepted opinion, the absence from the water— as 

 delivered to its consumers — of any pathogenic organisms, the 

 responsibilities of the water engineer are daily becoming more 

 exacting. The best methods of examining and purifying waters 

 for drinking purposes are scientific problems which have not 

 yet been completely answered ; and Mr. Mansergh showed in 

 his address that water engineers are awaiting the expression of 

 a definite opinion as to what organisms are actually harmful and 

 what means should be used to remove them. 



A PRIVATE conference was held at the Board of Trade last 

 week to consider the protection of the delicate instruments in 

 use at Kew and Greenwich Observatories from magnetic dis- 

 turbance, through the [working of tramways and railways in the 

 metropolis by electricity. Sir Courtenay Boyle presided, and 

 among the officials of the Board of Trade present were Mr. 

 F. J. S. Hopwood, Sir Thomas Blomfield and Mr. Trotter. 

 The observatories and kindred public departments were repre- 

 sented by Mr. Christie (the Astronomer-Royal), Prof. Riicker, 

 Mr. Glazebrook (Director of the National Physical Laboratory), 

 Lieut. -Colonel Raban (Director of Works at the Admiralty), 

 Admiral Sir W. J. Wharton (Hydrographer to the Admiralty), 

 and Profs. Ayrton and Perry. Among those who attended as 

 representatives of the railway and tramway interests concerned 

 were Mr. George White (chairman) and Mr. J. Clifton Robinson 

 (engineer) of the London United Tramways Company, Sir 

 Benjamin Baker and Sir W. Preece. The conference is 

 mentioned in Prof. Perry's address, on p. 46 of the present 

 issue. 



A METHOD of diminishing the disturbing eff^ects of electric 

 tramways on magnetic observatories forms the subject of 

 a note by M. Th. Moureaux in a recent number of the 

 Comptes rendtis. The observatory of Pare Saint Maur is 

 at a distance of about 3 '2 kilometres from a line of electric 

 trams between Vincennes and Nogent sur Marne, and the 

 disturbances are due chiefly to erratic currents, which ex- 

 hibit their influence, not in the form of permanent displace- I 

 ments, but in series of vibrations, symmetrical with respect to 

 NO. I 6 19, VOL. 63] 



the axis of the curves. The eflfect attains a maximum corre- 

 sponding apparently to the starting of the cars after stoppages. 

 M. Moureaux recommends as a remedy (i) the use of powerfully 

 magnetised bars of rectangular or square section, (2) the addi- 

 tion of masses of copper with the object of increasing the m )ment 

 of inertia of the oscillating system, (3) the use of a damper. 

 The author has introduced these modifications into a declino- 

 meter and a bifilar magnet, and observations have been made 

 with the new instruments, not only at Pare Saint Maur but 

 also at the forts of Vincennes and Nogent, which are situated 

 in much closer proximity to the tram-line. The general result 

 was a decrease of the disturbing effects of the electric currents to 

 about one-tenth of their former value. It was found that the 

 efficiency of the instruments in recording natural disturbances 

 was in no way impaired by the modifications in question, the 

 records of a small disturbance made with two of the new bifilar 

 instruments at Nogent coinciding in every detail with those 

 taken at Pare Saint Maur. 



In recognition of the .services rendered to chemical science 

 by Prof. A. W. Hofmann, new premises have been erected in 

 Berlin for the occupation of the German Chemical Society, 

 and the building has been named " Hofmann Haus." We 

 learn from the Pharmaceutical Journal that the formal opening 

 of the building took place on October 20, in the presence of a 

 large number of Government officials and many representatives 

 of the universities and other scientific institutions of Germany. 

 The first step towards the establishment of this memorial was 

 taken in 1888 at the celebration of Hpfmann's seventieth birth- 

 day, when a sum of 300,000 marks was subscribed for the 

 foundation of an Institute that, besides providing a laboratory 

 for chemical investigation, would serve as a home for scientific 

 societies and a place for meetings, lectures or exhibitions, &c. 

 After Hofmann's death in 1892 the scheme was warmly taken 

 up; the Empress Frederick, who had been a pupil of Hofmann's, 

 supported it by accepting the position of patroness, and with the 

 aid of Dr. J. F. Holtz it has now been successfully carried out, 

 so that the Hofmann Haus could be handed over to Prof. Vol- 

 hard, the president of the German Chemical Society. The same 

 evening the first meeting was held in the new premises, when 

 addresses were delivered by Prof. v. Bieyerof Munich, and Dr. 

 Brunck, the Director of the Badischen Aniline and Soda Factory, 

 describing the synthesis of indigotinand the development of its 

 manufacture at Ludwigshafen. 



At a meeting of the Council and Members of the Victoria 

 Institute held on Monday, November 5, the president, Sir 

 George G. Stokes, F.R.S., in the chair. Prof. Edward Hull, 

 F. R.S., was elected secretary of the Institute in succession to 

 the late Captain Francis Petrie. 



The annual course of Christmas lectures, specially adapted 

 to young people, at the Royal Institution, will be delivered by 

 Sir Robert S. Ball, F.R.S., whose subject is "Great Chapters 

 in the Book of Nature." The first lecture will take place on 

 Thursday, December 27, at three o'oclock. 



A Reuter message from Simla states that since the Pasteur 

 Institute was opened at Kasauli under the direction of Major 

 Semple, seventy-five patients have sought admission, sixty-two 

 of whom completed the course. In no case has the treatment 

 ended in failure, though several of the patients had been 

 bitten on the face by dogs and jackals. Seven British officers, 

 twenty-five soldiers, and twelve European civilians have been 

 treated. The rest of the patients were natives. It is evident 

 that the institute continues to supply a pressing need. 



Overhead wires conveying electric currents for tramway 

 traction are certainly unsightly, and an accident which a Time 

 correspondent reports from Vienna reminds us of their danger. 



