February 28, 1901] 



NATURE 



423 



The Berlin correspondent of the Times ^ives some of the 

 results of the German census of December, 1900, which have 

 just been published. The population of the German Empire 

 has increased from 52,279,901 in 1895 to 56,345,014. Of this 

 population 27,731,067 are males and 28,613,947 females. 

 Over 83 per cent, of the whole population is contained in the 

 four kingdoms ; of these Prussia comes first with (in round 

 figures) 34,500,000 inhabitants, and Bavaria second with 

 6,200,000. The figures for Saxony and Wiirttemberg are 

 4,200,000 and 2,300,000 respectively. More than 16 per cent, 

 of the population is resident in the thirty-three towns of over 

 100,000 inhabitants. Of these thirty-three towns the largest 

 is Berlin, with a population of 1,884,151, 



A Reuter telegram from Calcutta states that at a meeting of 

 planters and agents interested in the indigo trade, held on 

 February 20, it was decided to appoint a committee to wait 

 on the Lieutenant-Governor in order to request him to grant a 

 subsidy for further researches, as the results reported by the 

 experts, Messrs. Hancock and Rawson, were highly promising. 

 In the course of the meeting Mr. Karpeles said that Dr. Brunck's 

 advice to Indian planters to give up the indigo trade was not 

 likely to be followed. No reduction in planting was con- 

 templated, and an increased output was expected from the 

 manuring and blower processes. 



At the Wilts County Council's meeting on Friday last, refer- 

 ence was made to the fall of stones at Stonehenge, and a dis- 

 cussion ensued as to the taking of steps for the preservation of 

 the remains. Prof. Story Maskelyne suggested the appointment 

 of a small committee, not necessarily composed entirely of mem- 

 bers of the council, but Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice, M.P. (the 

 chairman of the council), explained that the matter was already 

 being dealt with by the Charities and Records Committee, to 

 whom the question of ancient monuments had been referred. 

 It was also stated that the committee was in communication 

 with the landowner and with the Society of Antiquaries, and 

 hoped to report definitely at the next meeting. 



We have to regret the death, on February 15, at twenty-six 

 years of age, of Mr. Fred. Pullar, son of Mr. L. Pullar of Bridge 

 of Allan. In conjunction with Sir John Murray he had recently 

 published an admirable survey of the depths of many Scottish 

 freshwater lochs, illustrated with beautifully engraved charts. 

 The manner of his death was heroic. While skating on Airthrey 

 Loch, near Bridge of Allan, a young lady fell through the ice, 

 and he at once skated to her assistance and plunged in with his 

 skates on. He kept her afloat for ten minutes, but in spite of 

 determined efforts to save them, both perished. Eye-witnesses 

 testify that he might have saved himself but for his devotion to 

 duty. He was an only son, and the warmest sympathy is felt 

 and expressed for his family. 



The Reale Istituto Lombardo has made the following awards 

 of prizes : — Under the Brambilla foundation for improvements 

 in industries or manufactures in Lombardy, a gold medal and 

 1000 lire to Gadda and Co., of Milan, for electrical machinery ; 

 a gold medal and 500 lire to Reiser, Cattoretti, Gola, Norsa 

 and Co., for their manufacture of embroidery with new 

 shuttle machinery ; and the same to Carlo Fino for the prepara- 

 tion of cattle food in which blood and molasses are used ; and a 

 premium of 300 lire to Virginio Rimoldi for machinery for 

 sewing gloves. Under the Fossati foundation a prize of 2000 

 lire has been awarded to Prof. A. Stefani for his papers on the 

 regeneration of the peripheric nervous fibres. A number of 

 other prizes remain unawarded. The prizes now offered include 

 a prize of the Institution for the best essay on the differential 

 equations of applied electricity to be sent in by April i, 1901 ; a 

 similar prize for 1902 for a toponomastic exploration of a 



NO. 1635. VOL. 63) 



district of Lombardy ; two triennial medals for agricultural and 

 industrial improvements in Lombardy ; a Cagnola prize and 

 gold medal for the best report dealing with hailstorms on the 

 two sides of the Alpine chain, due April 1901 ; and a similar 

 prize and medal for 1902, for an essay on the effects of gaseous 

 emanations from manufactories on cultivated plants ; another 

 Cagnola prize for a discovery dealing with the cure of pellagra, 

 the nature of miasms and contagion, the direction of balloons, or 

 the prevention of forgery ; a Brambilla prize for industrial 

 improvements in Lombardy ; Fossati prizes for 1901 and 1902 

 for essays on the anatomy of the encephalus of the higher 

 animals ; and for 1903, on the so-called nuclei of origin and 

 termination of cranial nerves ; a Kramer prize awarded to 

 Italian engineers ; a Secco-Comneno prize on the Italian phos- 

 phatic deposits ; a Zanetti prize, open to Italian pharmaceutical 

 chemists ; and Pizzamiglio and Ciani prizes for educational and 

 literary writings. 



A CIRCULAR letter has been sent out. seeking an expression of 

 opinion from experts as to the advisability of founding a journal 

 for the statistical study of biological problems. The letter is 

 signed by Profs. Karl Pearson and Weldon, pioneers in this 

 country in the line of work it is desired to encourage. 

 Biotnelrika is the proposed title of the journal ; thirty shillings 

 the estimated cost of the first volume, to consist of four parts ; 

 and the proffered programme is an embodiment of memoirs on 

 variation, inheritance and selection based on statistical examina- 

 tion, the development of statistical theory as applied to 

 biological problems, and abstracts of memoirs on these subjects 

 appearing elsewhere in each of the four leading European 

 tongues. The proposal to found this journal is a natural sequel 

 to the appearance during the last few years of the Archiv f. 

 Entivicklungs Mechanik a.x\di, later, of the American Journal of 

 Physiology, so largely devoted to the work of experiment on 

 the living organism. The founders claim for statistical inquiry 

 into biological phenomena a now established position, and give 

 it as their opinion that " many persons are deterred from the 

 collection of such data by the difficulty of finding such a means 

 of publishing their results as this journal would afford." 

 Statistical work in biology, to be of service, must be far-reaching 

 and extensive, and it cannot be well dissociated from 

 morphological inquiry of the better kind. A mere shot here 

 and there at a miscellaneous collection of objects will not 

 suffice now that the experimental stage has been passed, but 

 upon prolonged work of an order involving laborious investiga- 

 tion with a fixed purpose, often with extended experiment, to 

 be made, when possible, over a large area, can reliance alone be 

 placed. Progress must necessarily be slow, and the accumu- 

 lation of results worth publishing can only be expected after 

 protracted research ; and in these circumstances we are doubt- 

 ful if the desire to burden the already over-crowded literature 

 of biology with a new serial is not somewhat premature. It 

 may be borne in mind that existing periodicals and the organs 

 of societies are available for purposes of publication ; and we 

 could well desire for some of these that much of the so-called 

 "systematic" work and quibbling over priority in nomen- 

 clature, fast becoming intolerable, might be replaced in work of 

 the statistical and experimental order. 



Mr. W. a. Hickman, New Brunswick Government Com- 

 missioner, delivered a lecture on " New Brunswick " at the 

 Imperial Institute on Monday. Like the rest of the maritime 

 provinces of Canada, New Brunswick is situated much nearer 

 Great Britain than any other of the important food-producing 

 areas of the Empire. St. John, the capital, situated at the 

 head of the Bay of Fundy, is the chief winter port of Canada, 

 and the first lumber-shipping port in the world. The province 

 contains 10,000,000 acres covered with heavy forests valuable 



