February 7, 1901] 



KTATURE 



353 



the estate to relatives for life. On their death the entire 

 property, increased by 15 per cent, of the income to be laid by 

 each year, is held in trust for twenty years, and then reverts to 

 the Smithsonian Institution. One-half of the annual income is 

 then to be added to the principal each year, and the other half 

 is to be used for the advanpement of the physical sciences by 

 prizes, lectures or original research. It is estimated that the 

 fund now is worth 200,000 dollars, and that it will be available 

 in about fifty years. 



Dr. Normax Moore will deliver the Harveian Oration of 

 the Royal College of Physicians of London on St. Luke's Day, 

 October 18, and Dr. Judson S. Bury, of Manchester, the Brad- 

 shaw Lecture in November. Dr. W. II. Corfield has been 

 appointed the Milroy Lecturer for 1902. A subscription of 

 fifteen guineas has been voted by the College to the fund'for 

 erecting a statue of Dr. William Gilbert, a former president, 

 in the new Town Hall of Colchester. The adjudicators of the 

 Weber- Parkes Prize for 1900 have reported that they have been 

 unable to find any original work, published since the last award, 

 which in their judgment would satisfy the conditions of the 

 trust. Dr. J. F. J. Sykes will deliver the Milroy Lectures on 

 February 28 and on March 5 and 7, on "The Influence of the 

 Dwelling upon Health"; Dr. H. Head, F.R.S., the Goul- 

 stonian Lectures on March 12, 14 and 19, on "Certain Mental 

 States associated with Visceral Diseases in the Sane " ; and 

 Dr. J. Frank Payne the Lumleian Lectures on March 21, 26 

 and 28, on "Cancer, especially of the Internal Organs." 



Free railway transport is granted to members of the staff of 

 the New Mexico Agricultural Station engaged in experimental 

 work and investigation, by the principal railway companies of 

 the territory. This, remarks Dr. F. W. Sanders in a report 

 just to hand, will enable the station to serve the public interests 

 more perfectly than it has been possible to do in the past. Mr. 

 A. Goss concludes, from results obtained during three years, 

 that a number of districts in New Mexico can produce remark- 

 ably good beets, both as to sugar content and purity. Prof. 

 T. D. A. Cockerel!, the Station entomologist, who has for a 

 number of years interested himself in the pigments of insects and 

 plants, refers to a red colouring matter of the roots of the 

 small borraginaceous plant Eremocarya micrantha, which may 

 prove of service the properties of the pigment. The pigment 

 belongs to the anthocyan series, and behaves exactly like litmus, 

 turning red in the presence of acids, blue in the presence of 

 alkalies. It is superficial on the roots, and readily soluble in 

 cold alcohol. This pigment is thus an excellent native subs itute 

 for litmus, and might possess commercial value. Not only is it 

 purer than commercial litmus, but its preparation is very much 

 simpler, and the roots are easily obtained. The matter is now 

 being further investigated by the Division of Botany of the U.S. 

 Department of Agriculture, and we shall doubtless be informed 

 of the results before very long. 



We have received from Dr. Hergesell, President of the 

 International Aeronautical Committee, an account of some pre- 

 liminary results of. the balloon ascents made on January 10. 

 There were 15 ascents, including both manned and unmanned 

 balloons ; of these three started from Vienna, four from Berlin, 

 and four from Strassburg. Altitudes varying from 4500 to 12,000 

 metres were attained by the unmanned balloons and some very 

 low temperatures were registered. Three of the manned balloons 

 ascended above 3000 metres. Several inversions of temperature 

 with height were recorded — e.g. Vienna, 23° 7 at 500 metres, 

 34°2 at 1000 metres, 32°'4 at 2000 metres ; at Berlin, 25°'5 at 

 starting, 32°o at 790 metres, 4i°'0 at 1460 metres, 32°'4 at 

 2825 metres, while at 6670 metres the temperature had fallen 

 to - 22''"0. Ascents were also made at London and Bath, but the 



NO. 1632, VOL. 63] 



results are not given in Prof. Hergesell's summary. One of the 

 balloons from Berlin, with Messrs. Berson and Hildebrandt, 

 descended in Sweden after a flight of nearly fourteen hours. 



A curious optical illusion is produced by the accompanying 

 figure from La Nature. At the places where the white strips 

 separating the black squares cross one another, a hazy penumbra 

 can be seen. If, however, attention is concentrated upon one 



of these spots it disappears, though the others remain visible. 



It would be interesting to vary the dimensions of the squares 



and intervening white spaces, and thus determine when the 

 effect ceases to be seen. 



The thermal death-point of the tubercle bacillus is the sub- 

 ject of an important paper by Messrs. Russell and Hastings 

 in the " Seventeenth Report of Wisconsin Agricultural Experi- 

 mental Station." The general results obtained entirely confirm 

 the experiments of Prof. Theobild Smith (see Nature, vol. Ixiii. 

 pp. 166 and 205), and are as follows: — "(i) Exposure of 

 tuberculous milk in a tightly closed commercial pasteuriser for 

 a period of ten minutes destroyed in every case the tubercle 

 bacillus, as determined by inoculation experiments {i.e. at a 

 temperature not exceeding 68° C. ). (2) When milk is exposed 

 under conditions which would enable a pellicle to form on the 

 surface, the tubercle bacillus may resist the action of heat at 

 60° C. for considerable periods. (3) In order to thoroughly 

 pasteurise milk without injuring its creaming properties or con- 

 sistency, it should be heated in closed pasteurisers for a period 

 of not less than twenty minutes at 60° C. Under these con- 

 ditions, it is certain that disease bacteria such as the tubercle 

 bacillus will be destroyed without the milk or cream being 

 injured in any way." 



There has been considerable diversity of opinion concerning 

 the ethnic affinities of the Slavs, and Zaborowski returns to the 

 subject in a recent number of the Bulletins et Mimoires de la 

 Socidtd d' Anthtopologie (5), I., 1900. His view is that the 

 Slavs belong to the same race as the Celts of French anthropo- 

 logists, that is, being brunet brachycephals, they are members 

 of the Alpine race. Their original home was that which is 

 still occupied by the southern Slavs between the Danube and 

 the Adriatic, and they were allied to the inhabitants of the 

 Terramara of Emilia. The northern Slavs migrated along the 

 valley of the Vistula and reached the shores of the Baltic, 

 where they developed a civilisation and introduced in this region 

 the practice of burning their dead, which was previously un- 

 known there ; they also brought with them metals and glass. 



