.".oo 



NA TURE 



[July 28, 1898 



"already been noticed in the press. In further pursuance of this 

 policy, Mr. Chamberlain has invited the Royal Society to co- 

 operate with the Colonial Office in undertaking a thorough 

 investigation into the origin, transmission, and possible pre- 

 vention of such diseases, and especially of the malarial fevers 

 which are responsible for such a high rate of mortality and 

 disablement among European officers serving in tropical Africa. 

 The Royal Society has accordingly appointed a Committee to 

 ■deal with the subject, and has voted a money grant, which will 

 be supplemented by a contribution from the Colonial Office 

 funds, for the purposes of the inquiry. Expert investigators 

 will probably be sent out to Africa to study the diseases on the 

 spot, and the Committee will, at the same time, no doubt take 

 ■note of the work which has been carried out by Surgeon- Major 

 Ross in Calcutta, in reference to the supposed activity of the 

 miosquito in relation to malaria. 



A Congress of the Royal Institute of Public Health will be 

 held in Dublin from August i8 to 23, under the presidency of 

 Sir Charles Cameron. The presidential address will be 

 ■delivered on the opening day, and during the meeting there will 

 be conferences of naval and army medical officers, of medical 

 officers of health, of sanitary inspectors, and of veterinarians. 

 The Section of Preventive Medicine and Vital Statistics will 

 be presided over by Dr. Grimshavv ; that of Chemistry and 

 Meteorology by Prof. Moore ; and that of Engineering and 

 Building Construction by Mr. Cotton, of the Local Government 

 Board. There will also be an exhibition of sanitary appliances. 



Among the subjects proposed for discussion at the forthcoming 

 Congress of the Sanitary Institute, to be held at Birmingham, are : 

 Antiseptics in food ; prevention of tuberculosis in relation to meat 

 and milk supply ; central cooking stations ; bacteriological and 

 clinical diagnosis in relation to the notifiable infectious diseases ; 

 prevention of measles in reference to school attendance ; the 

 soil in relation to typhoid ; vital statistics ; dwellings of the 

 working classes ; Birmingham water scheme ; water supply for 

 rural districts, and the means of protecting it from contamina- 

 tion ; the qualities of sewage as affecting the method of disposal ; 

 recent advances in sewage treatment : [a) towns, {b) country 

 houses ; the natural purification of sewage ; the flora of sewage ; 

 purification of trade effluents and utilisation of factory waste 

 products ; ventilation of sewers and drains ; construction and 

 ventilation of house drainage ; the drainage of buildings pos- 

 sessing no open space ; the geology of the Midlands in relation 

 to water supply ; female occupations in relation to health ; the 

 hygiene of infancy ; the waste of infant life ; village nursing of 

 infectious disease ; influence of women in regard to household 

 sanitation ; woman's share in sanitary administration ; hygiene 

 of dress ; teaching of sanitation in elementary schools. 



The Yorkshire Naturalists' Union announce a three days' 

 excursion to Easington, for Spurn and Kilnsea, from July 30 to 

 August I. 



It is expected that the German Tiefsee Expedition will start 

 from Hamburg at the beginning of August. The steamer 

 Valdivia is being fitted out with all the necessary appliances. 



A DEPARTMENT for the treatment of hydrophobia by Pasteur's 

 method, and for scientific research on the subject of hydrophobia, 

 has, says the British Medical Journal, just been opened in the 

 Berlin Institute for Infectious Diseases (Koch Institute). This 

 •establishment is the first of its kind in Germany. Apparently, 

 rabies is becoming more frequent in that country. In spite of 

 the stringent legislation on muzzling, five persons died of 

 hydrophobia in Prussia during the year 1897. 



Mr. Alexander Whyte has been appointed, by the 

 Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, curator of the Botanic 

 NO. 1500, VOL. 58] 



Garden, Uganda, which is about to be established for the better 

 examination and development of the agricultural resources of 

 the Protectorate. It will be reinembered that Mr. Whyte 

 started a similar enterprise in British Central Africa, in which 

 he was, from 1891-97, head of the Scientific Department. 



The Gottingen Academy of Sciences is reported to have 

 received from the Emperor of Germany's special fund 50CX5/. 

 for gravity determinations in East Africa. 



In a lecture recently delivered at Copenhagen, Prof. la Cour 

 communicated some of the results of the numerous State-aided 

 experiments and tests in connection with the utilisation of the 

 wind's power, which have been carried on by himself over a 

 number of years. After speaking on the historical side of the 

 question, the lecturer referred to the construction of a windmill, 

 and pointed out the fallacy of the opinion that the greatest effect 

 was obtained by horizontally moving wings. Reference was made 

 to the various ways in which the problem of turning the mill ac- 

 cording to the wind had been solved, and the lecturer then dealt 

 with the construction of the wings. The question of the effect 

 of the wind's pressure upon a flat surface is a complicated one, 

 but it has been demonstrated that the suction on the ' lee side 

 is a very important factor. Prof, la Cour had in his experiments 

 measured the effect of an artificial wind upon various models at 

 different speeds, and these experiments pointed to the correct- 

 ness of some of the ordinarily accepted rules in the construction 

 of windmills ; as, for instance, the number of wings. A mill 

 with sixteen wings had only i^ times as much power as one 

 with four wings. In measuring the percentage of the power 

 of the wind striking the wings, he had arrived at the some- 

 what startling result of 1437 per cent. This unlooked-for 

 conclusion was owing to the above-mentioned suction on the 

 lee side of the wind passing between the wings. That the 

 wings should not be plane, but have a bent or a concave 

 shape, was an old-established truism ; and the shape of the 

 wings has in reality much influence upon the suction caused 

 more especially by the wind, which just passes the edges of 

 the wing. In measuring the percentage of the wind-power 

 utilised, the wind passing between the wings was taken into 

 account, and instead of 1437 per cent, the result was 21 per 

 cent. The absolutely best shape for wings has, however, not 

 yet been ascertained. The most important practical point in 

 connection with windmills is the solution of the problem, how 

 best to neutralise the inconveniences caused by the irregularity 

 of the wind. Prof, la Cour has for this purpose constructed an 

 original regulator, called the Kratostate, by means of which a 

 windmill can be used for working a dynamo. 



The St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists has lately opened 

 a fresh-water biological station at Lake Bologoye, on the Valdai 

 plateau, near to a railway junction of the same name. The 

 station was opened after only the sum of 120/. had been sub- 

 scribed, chiefly by M. Voronin, " who made also the gift of 

 three microscopes, a rich algologic library, and a flag." A 

 house on the shores of the lake, and surrounded by a garden, 

 was rented, and the station was well provided with scientific 

 instruments, boats, &c. No fees for housing and work at 

 the station are paid, while the boarding, which is excellent, 

 having been organised on co-operative principles, costs, washing 

 included, only 17 roubles (i/. 14^.) per month to each visitor. 

 The lake is very shallow, having a uniform depth of 5 metres, 

 A narrow isthmus separates it from Lake Glubokoye, 14 metres 

 deep. The aquatic vegetation of the two lakes is very rich, 

 and two interesting plants have already been discovered : the 

 Najas minor [Caiilinia fragilis), characteristic of the Steppe 

 region, and Najas flexilis {Caulina flexilis), characteristic of 

 Scandinavia and Finland. The neighbourhood of the station 

 has a rich flora — such rarities as Viola nrnbrosa, Lttztila albida. 



