February 14, 1901 J 



NA TURE 



:8[ 



The French Association for the Advancement of Science will 

 hold its annual meeting this year at Ajaccio in Corsica, probably 

 about the middle of September, under the presidency of Dr. 

 Hamy. 



We deeply regret to see the announcement that Prof. Max 

 von Pettenkofer, of Munich, distinguished for his work in 

 hygiene and metabolism, shot himself on Sunday in a fit of 

 depression. He was eighty-three years of age. 



The Institution of Naval Architects has awarded a gold 

 medal to Prof. G. H. Bryan, F.R.S., for his paper on "Bilge 

 Keels," read last year, and printed in abstract in Nature of 

 June II, 1900 (vol. Ixii. p. i86). 



Wk learn through the Lancet that a disastrous fire has oc- 

 curred at the Pathological Institute in Berlin, and that the most 

 valuable portion of Prof. Virchow's private museum has been 

 destroyed. The loss of the anthropological collection made in 

 the Philippine Islands by Prof. Jagor is especially regretted. 



At the annual general meeting of the Royal Astronomical 

 Society on Friday last, it was decided by a large majority to 

 hold future meetings at five o'clock instead of eight o'clock as 

 hitherto. Dr. J. W. L. Glaisher, F.R.S., was elected president 

 of the Society. Mr. Choate, the American Ambassador* was 

 present at the meeting, and received the gold medal awarded 

 to Prof. E. C Pickering. 



The Brussels Academy of Sciences has awarded a gold 

 medal, of the value of six hundred francs, to M. F. Swarts, for 

 a memoir on the subject of carbonates of an element the com- 

 pounds of which are little known. A similar award has been 

 made to Prof. J. Massart, for a memoir on the nucleus of 

 Schizophytes, and the Edouard Mailey prize of one thousand 

 francs, for assistance in the extension of the knowledge of astro- 

 nomy in Belgium, has been awarded to M. F. Jacobs, the 

 founder of the Societe Beige d'Astronomie. 



A COMMUNICATION from Prof. A. Newton, F.R.S., relating 

 to some bones of the crane found in excavating the Lynn Docks 

 in the year 1867 or 1868, and now in the Gunn collection in 

 the Castle Museum, was read at the last meeting of the Norfolk 

 and Norwich Naturalists' Society. Prof. Newton gave some 

 interesting information as to the remains of this bird which have 

 been found in the peat of the Fen district, and mentioned other 

 bones in the collections at Cambridge. Mr. Southwell read a 

 paper on the crane in East Anglia, giving a summary of what 

 is known from old authors with regard to the bird as a resident 

 in the Fens, and tracing, as far as he was able, its extinction 

 as an inhabitant. The crane now only visits Norfolk on very 

 rare occasions, at the time of its periodic migrations, the last 

 occurrence being in 1898, when four of these birds visited the 

 neighbourhood of Cley and Runton. 



A DEVELOPMENT of Mr. Marconi's system of wireless tele- 

 graphy was announced by Prof. J. A. Fleming, F. R.S., on 

 Tuesday, in the course of an address to the members of the 

 Liverpool Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Marconi's private work 

 is carried on chiefly between stations at St. Catherine's, Isle of 

 Wight, and Poole, in Hampshire. The line joining these 

 stations is crossed by the Admiralty line between Portsmouth 

 and Portland, but Mr. Marconi has been able to send and 

 receive two messages simultaneously between his stations with- 

 out in the least interfering with the Admiralty tests. He has 

 also established a station at the Lizard, in Cornwall, which is 

 200 miles over sea in a direct line from St. Catherine's. Prof. 

 Fleming said he had Mr. Marconi's permission to announce in 

 public for the first time the result of the latest experiments. 

 Setting up his improved apparatus and a mast 160 feet high, 

 Mr. Marconi accomplished the astonishing feat of sending wire- 



NO. 1633, VOL. 63] 



less messages between those two places on the fir^t day of the 

 reign of King Edward VII. Since then Mr. Marconi has 

 established perfect communication without wires between the 

 Lizard and St. Catharine's in both directions, and he can now 

 receive two or more messages at once at each place. 



To give men of science and others the opportunity of visiting 

 lands and places of particular interest, a number of cruises have 

 been made in connection with our contemporary, the Revue 

 g^nerale des Sciences. The eleventh excursion will be to Sicily, 

 Naples, Pompeii, Salerno, the ruins of ancient Paestum, and 

 neighbouring places, at Easter, the party leaving Marseilles on 

 March 31 and returning on April 16. The scientific guides of 

 the party will be MM. G. Perrot and E. Bertaux, and at each 

 place other distinguished men specially familiar with the 

 objects, buildings, monuments and natural phenomena of 

 interest will cooperate with them. The object of these excur- 

 sions is more the study of lands and peoples, ancient and modern 

 civilisation, scientific institutions and objects of archseolcgical 

 importance, than casual sight-seeing, and every effort is made to 

 enable the members of each party to derive the fullest advantage 

 from the visits. A programme of the Easter arrangements can 

 be obtained from M. Louis Olivier, Revue genirale des Sciences, 

 22, rue du General-Foy, Paris. 



The accompanying illus' ration shows the arms recentl 

 granted to the University of Birmingham. The two-headed 

 lion is taken from the arms borne by Sir Josiah Mason, the 

 founder of Mason College, now absorbed in the University, 

 and the mermaid was his crest. The University, having no 

 helmet, needs no crest. Following the usual university pre- 



cedent, the motto is placed on an open book, and not on 

 a ribbon below the shield. The arms are thus descril^ed in 

 the grant : — Per Chevron the Chief per pale Gules and Azure 

 in dexter a Lion rampant with two heads in sinister, a 

 Mermaid holding in the dexter hand a Mirror and in the 

 sinister a Comb Or the base Sable charged with an open 

 book proper with two buckles and straps and edges of the 

 third inscribed " PER ARDUA AD ALTA " of the fourth. 



A Reuter correspondent at Cairo reports that Sir John Aird 

 and Sir Benjamin Baker have completed their visit of inspection 

 to the great engineering works at Assuan, where the immense 

 dam to hold up the waters of the Nile is being constructed. The 

 total extent of the dam is one mile and a quarter, of which one mile 

 and an eighth of the foundation is finished. Temporary dams 

 enabling the remaining section to be put in are now carried across 

 the channel. The dam is pierced with 180 openings, about 23 feet 

 high and 7 feet wide, which openings are controlled by steel 

 sluices. The work for the latter is now well advanced. The 

 discharge through these sluices at high Nile may reach 15,000 

 tons of water per second. The navigation channel and chain 

 of locks are equally advanced with the dam itself, and the lock 

 gates will also be in course of construction in about three 



