January 17, 1901] 



NATURE 



281 



The Council of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical 

 Society have awarded the Wilde Medal for 1901 to Dr. Elias 

 MetchnikofF, of the Institut Pasteur, Paris, for his researches in 

 comparative embryology, comparative -anatomy, and the study 

 of inflammation and phagocytosis ; and the Wilde premium to 

 Mr. Thomas Thorp, for his paper on grating films and their 

 application to colour photography, and other communications 

 made to the Society. The Dalton Medal for 1901 has not 

 been awarded. The presentation of the Wilde medal and pre- 

 mium will take place on February 5, when Dr. MetchnikofF 

 will deliver the Wilde Lecture on "La Flore microbienne du 

 Corps humain." 



In connection with the dispute between the Kew Observatory 

 and the London United Tramways Company, it was mentioned 

 in a note in our last issue that the double trolley system was in 

 successful operation in America. The tramways referred to are 

 at Cincinnati, and they were originally compelled to adopt this 

 system by the Telephone Company, which successfully opposed 

 their allowing waste current to leak into the earth. Over two 

 hundred miles of track are thus equipped, and the managers find, 

 after ten years running, that the cost of maintenance is con- 

 siderably reduced in consequence. This seems in itself a suffi- 

 cient answer to the London United Tramways Company, who 

 urge that it is impossible to adopt the double trolley system. 

 It is interesting to note that the advocates of earth returns %re 

 not in agreement amongst themselves. On the one hand, the 

 London United Tramways Company claims that there is already 

 a potential difference between their rails and earth, greater than 

 the maximum accepted by Kew, due to leakage currents from 

 the Central London Railway. On the other hand, the Elec- 

 trician, in a note in the issue of January 11, maintains that the 

 return current in a deep level railway cannot escape from 

 the tunnel and rise to the surface in sufficient quantity to be 

 observable by any but a mathematician. We are afraid the 

 engineers of the Tramways Company will not regard this as a 

 very welcome contribution to their side of the argument. 



The twenty-eighth annual dinner of old students of the Royal 

 School of Mines will be held at the Hotel Cecil on Wednesday, 

 February 6. The chair will be taken by Sir G. Stokes, senior 

 past professor of the Royal School of Mines, and Sir W. 

 Roberts- Austen will act as vice-chairman. In view of the fact 

 that this year is the jubilee year of the School, it is expected 

 that a large number of old students, as well as past and present 

 professors, will be present at the dinner. 



The president of the Rontgen Society has placed at the 

 disposal of the Council a gold medal to be awarded to the 

 maker of the best practical X-ray tube for both photographic 

 and screen work. The competition is open to makers in any 

 country. Tubes intended for competition must be sent in 

 addressed to the Rontgen Society, 20 Hanover Square, London, 

 W. The package should contain the full name and address of 

 the sender, and must reach the Society not later than May i . 



The Turin Academie royale des Sciences announces that a 

 Prix Bressa of 9600 francs (384/.) is open to competition among 

 investigators and inventors of all nationalities. The prize will 

 be awarded to the person who, in the opinion of the Academy, 

 made tbe most brilliant or useful discovery in the four years 

 1 897- 1 900, or who produced the most celebrated work in pure 

 or applied science. Works intended for consideration in con- 

 nection with the prize must be sent to the President of the 

 Academy before the end of next year. The right is reserved to 

 award the prize to an investigator whose work is considered to 

 be the most distinguished, even though he does not submit an 

 account of it. 



NO. 1629. VOL. 63] 



The Rome correspondent of the Titnes states that under the 

 auspices of the Italian Geographical Society, and in the presence 

 of the King and Queen of Italy, the members of the Royal 

 Family, the Diplomatic Corps, the Ministry, and an audience 

 composed of the principal personages of Roman society, his 

 Royal Highness the Duke of the Abruzzi delivered a lecture on 

 Monday upon his Polar expedition, in the great hall of the 

 Collegio Romano. Captain Cagni, who commanded the sledge 

 party, then succeeded the Duke of the Abruzzi at the desk, and 

 related the story of the dangers and difficulties successfully over- 

 come in planting the Italian colours furthest north at 86° 33' 

 north latitude. 



A Royal Commission has been appointed to make investiga- 

 tions respecting the beer-poisoning epidemic. The Commis- 

 sioners are : — Lord Kelvin, Sir W. Hart Dyke, Sir W. S. 

 Church, president of the Royal College of Physicians, Prof. 

 T. E. Thorpe, Mr. H. Cosmo Bonsor, and Dr. B. A. Wite- 

 legge. Dr. G. S. Buchanan, one of the medical inspectors of 

 the Local Government Board, is the secretary to the Commis- 

 sion. The instructions to the Commissioners are : — To ascer- 

 tain with respect to England and Wales (i) The amount of 

 recent exceptional sickness and death attributable to poisoning 

 by arsenic ; (2) Whether such exceptional sickness and death 

 have been due to arsenic in beer or in other articles of food or 

 drink, and, if so, {a) To what extent ; {b) By what ingredients 

 or in what manner the arsenic was conveyed ; and (c) In what 

 way any such ingredients became arsenicated ; and (3) If it is 

 found that exceptional sickness and death have been due to 

 arsenic in beer or in other articles of food or drink, by what 

 safeguards the introduction of arsenic therein can be prevented. 



It is to the credit of the members of the medical profession 

 at Colchester that they have decided to show how they honour 

 the memory of Dr. William Gilbert, the famous physician to 

 Queen Elizabeth, whose work, *' De Magnete," published three 

 hundred years ago, constitutes the bed-rock of modern know- 

 ledge of magnetism. The intention is to erect a full-length 

 marble statUe of Gilbert in a niche in the main fa9ade of the 

 new Town Hall at Colchester, the city in which he was born, 

 and where his remains are buried. Already the sum of 130/. 

 has been contributed by the medical men of the borough, and 

 as the minimum amount required is only 150/., it will no doubt 

 soon be subscribed. Gilbert's work is, however, so widely 

 known and appreciated that it is almost a pity to neglect the 

 opportunity to make the memorial a national one. The medical 

 men of Colchester are to be congratulated upon the initiative 

 they have taken, but there are many other men of science who 

 would like to see that the memorial to be erected is a worthy 

 testimony of the regard in which Gilbert's work is held in the 

 whole scientific world. The treasurer pf the Colchester com- 

 mittee is Mr. Henry Laver. 



A British Congress on Tuberculosis will be held in London 

 on July 22-26, and will be opened by the Prince of Wales. 

 There will be four sections, .with presidents as follows : — I. 

 State and Municipal, Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart. II. Medical, 

 including Climatology and Sanatoria, Sir R. Douglas Powell, 

 Bart. III. Pathology, including Bacteriology, Prof. Sims 

 Woodhead. IV. Veterinary (Tuberculosis in Animals), Sir 

 George Brown, C.B. Every British Colony and Dependency 

 is invited to participate by sending delegates ; while the Govern- 

 ments of countries in Europe, Asia and America are invited to 

 send representative men of science, and others, who will be the 

 distinguished guests of the Congress. The information already 

 gained, both at home and abroad, shows that consumption and 

 other forms of tuberculosis, although preventable and con- 

 trollable by intelligent precautions, still remains the direct cause 

 of a high rate of death and sickness. In the United Kingdom 



