January 3, 1901] 



NATURE 



237 



NOTES. 

 Science is represented in the list of New Year's honours by 

 Sir William Turner, F.R.S., professor of anatomy in the Uni- 

 versity of Edinburgh, who has been made a K.C.B. Other 

 names familiar in various branches of the scientific world are : — 

 Dr. Thomas Barlow, physician extraordinary to the Queen, and 

 Dr. W. S. Church, who have each received the dignity of a 

 baronetcy ; Mr. Hiram Maxim, the well-known inventor, has 

 been knighted ; Mr. F. Victor Dickins, Registrar to the Univer- 

 sity ot London, and Lieut. -Colonel G. T. Plunkett, director of 

 the Department of Science and Art, Dublin, have been ap- 

 pointed to the Order of the Bath(C.B.); and Captain F. E. 

 Younghusband, known for his journeys in China and India, has 

 been granted the Kaiser-i-Hind medal. 



The Times of Tuesday, December 25, contains an article 

 on the dispute between the London United Tramways Com- 

 pany and the managers of Kew Observatory. It is written very 

 much from the point of view of the Tramways Company, and 

 contains several misstatements to which Prof. Rucker calls 

 attention in a subsequent letter. The question, as Prof. RUcker 

 rightly points out, is not whether it is possible to obtain " per- 

 fect" insulation, but whether the insulation, which every one 

 knows can be obtained, should not be insisted upon when the 

 interests of so valuable an institution as Kew Observatory 

 maybe preserved by doing so. The engineers of the Tramways 

 Company originally proposed to limit the maximum potential 

 difference between the rails and earth to one-fifth of a volt, a 

 condition which was accepted by Kew, but they have since 

 found that, by the system they proposed to adopt, they are un- 

 able to keep within this limit. There are, however, other 

 systems which could be used, and it rests with the Board of 

 Trade to decide whether some other system should be adopted 

 or not. It is to be hoped that the final decision will enforce 

 everything being done that can be done to prevent interference 

 with the very important magnetic work carried on at Kew, or, 

 if protection is considered impossible, that adequate compensa- 

 tion will be insisted upon. Quite apart from the particular point 

 at issue, it is an anachronism which ought to be remedied as 

 quickly as possible that electrical engineers should be allowed 

 to let their waste current flow into the soil. The evils of the 

 system are apparent in many instances already ; they will be- 

 come intolerable when electric traction is developed on a large 

 scale in London. 



At the fourth International Zoological Congress, held at 

 Cambridge in 1898, it was decided that the fifth Congress, in 

 1901, should be held in Germany ; the selection of the town 

 and president being left to the German Zoological Society, 

 acting in conjunction with the Permanent Committee of the 

 Zoological Congress at Paris. Announcement has now been 

 made that the meeting place will be Berlin, on Aug. 12-16, and 

 the president Prof K. Moebius, director of the zoological collec- 

 tion of the Natural History Museum, with Prof. F. E. Schulze, 

 director of the Zoological Institute, as vice-president. The secre- 

 taries of the Congress will be Herr P. Matschie, Dr. M. Meissner 

 and Dr. R. Hartmeyer. The treasurers will be Herr H. Schalow 

 and Herr Otto Stutzbach. Arrangements as to meetings and 

 papers will be in charge of Prof. L. H. Plate, apartments and 

 receptions will be under the care of Dr. L. Heck, and the lighter 

 pleasures of the meeting will be managed by Dr. O. Jaekel. The 

 meetings will be held in the Natural History Museum and neigh- 

 bouring rooms of the University. Among the subjects to be 

 brought before the Congress are the following : — Fossil remains 

 of man, Prof. Branco (Berlin) ; vitalism and mechanism. Prof. 

 Blitschli (Heidelberg) ; theories of fertilisation, Prof. Yves Delage 

 (Paris); the psychologicil attributes of ants. Prof. A. Forel 

 (Morges) ; the malarial problem from a zoological point of view, 

 NO. 1627, VOL. 6 3j 



Prof. Grassi (Rome) ; mimicry and natural selection, Prof. E. B. 

 Poulton (Oxford). After the conclusion of the Congress an 

 excursion will be made to Hamburg for the purpose of visit,ing 

 the Natural History Museum and Zoological Garden there, and 

 also to Heligoland, Communications concerning the Congress 

 should be made to the president, 43, Invalidenstrasse, Berlin, 

 N. 4. Admission to the Congress will be free to all zoologists 

 and all friends of zoology. 



In connection with the remeasurement of the Peru arc of 

 meridian by a French Commission, M. F. Gonnessiat, of the 

 Lyons Observatory, has been appointed director of the Obser- 

 vatory at Quito for a period of five years. 



The committee of the U.S. House of Representatives in 

 charge of the Bill to substitute, in 1903, the metric system of 

 weights and measures for the common system in use, has re- 

 ported in favour of the change, and there is reason to believe 

 that the Bill will become a law. 



It has been found necessary to postpone the opening of the 

 Exhibition of Modern Illustration in the Indian Section (Imperial 

 Institute Road) of the Victoria and Albert Museum, from 

 January 7 until January 14. The Exhibition will be open free 

 every day, and will remain open about three months. 



At the annual meeting of the Geographical Association on 

 January 9, at the College of Preceptors, Mr. Douglas W. Fresh- 

 field, president of the Association, will show a series of lantern 

 slides illustrating his recent journey in the Sikhim and Nepalese 

 Himalaya. 



We are informed that the inaujjuril meeting of the Birming- 

 ham Local Section of the Institution of Electrical Engineers 

 will be held in the buildings of the Birmingham University at 

 8 p.m., on Wednesday, January 23. Dr. Oliver Lodge, the 

 chairman of the Section, will then deliver his address. The 

 president and secretary of the Institution have accepted an 

 invitation to be present. 



We learn from Science that Mr. D. O. Mills, of New York, 

 has promised the University of California about 24,000 dollars, 

 to defray the expenses of a two years' astronomical expedition 

 from the Lick Observatory to South America or Australia, with 

 the object of studying, under good conditions, the movements of 

 stars in the line of sight. 



The monthly record of anthropological science, which has 

 just appeared under the title of Man, ought to prove an excellent 

 recruiting agent for the Anthropological Institute, under the 

 direction of which it is published. The first number contains 

 several articles and reviews on anthropology understood in its 

 widest sense, and provides all who are interested in the study of 

 man with a /r,fc/j- of important contributions to various branches 

 of the science. A coloured picture of a Buddhist wheel of life 

 from Japan forms a frontispiece, and is described by Mr. N. W, 

 Thomas. 



The death of Major Serpa Pinto, the African explorer, is 

 announced from Lisbon. He was leader of an expedition 

 organised by the Lisbon Geographical Society and the Geo- 

 graphical Commission of the Ministry of Marine, for the pur- 

 pose of exploring the hydrographical conditions between the 

 basin of the Congo and that of the Zambesi, and generally to 

 explore the whole region between the provinces of Angola and 

 Mozambique. The expedition started from Benguella in 

 November, 1877, and reached Durban in 1879. Little new 

 country was opened up by the journey, as Africa had previously 

 been crossed by Livingstone and other explorers. His contri- 

 butions to a knowledge of the hydrography of the country be- 

 tween the coast and the Kwando were, however, of importance, 

 and he was able to describe the large tableland that characterises 



