August i i, 1898J 



MATURE 



351 



fortune to meteorological science has for the present 

 been averted. 



Scottish Meteorological Society, 122 George Street, 

 Edinburgh, July 27, 1898. 



It was announced last week in your columns that the Ben 

 Nevis Observatories were to be closed in October next for want 

 of funds. It gives me much pleasure to announce now that this 

 will not be the case. I have received a letter from Mr. J. 

 Mackay Bernard, Kippenross, in which he promises to give 

 500/. " in order that the Observatories may be carried on for 

 another year." The record of observations for one whole year 

 will thus be the result of Mr. Bernard's great generosity. 



He expresses a hope in his letter that before the end of that 

 year arrangements may have been made for the permanent 

 carrying on of the work by State aid, -and his very liberal and 

 prompt action makes the Directors more hopeful than they 

 were that this desirable end may yet be reached. But if the 

 State does not charge itself with the maintenance of these Ob- 

 servatories, then Mr. Bernard's example may perhaps be fol- 

 lowed by others, so that the Directors may at least be able to 

 obtain continuous and complete observations for the eleven 

 years of a sun spot period. This would mean the making of an 

 important addition to knowledge by Scotland, and in that 

 aspect Mr. Bernard is patriotic as well as liberal. 



In conclusion, allow me to thank you, and the press gen- 

 erally, in the name of the Directors, for the sympathetic attitude 

 which has been taken by the newspapers towards the work 

 carried on by the Scottish Meteorological Society. 



Arthur Mitchell, Hon. Sec. 



The question of the position of the Ben Nevis Observ- 

 atories came up in the House of Commons on Friday 

 last in connection with the annual vote of 15,300/. to the 

 Meteorological Council for meteorological observations. 

 As this sum (nearly 3000/. of which is annually ex- 

 pended upon telegraphic reports and storm warnings) is 

 for observations throughout the United Kingdom, Scot- 

 land at present receives a proportional part of it, and a 

 grant of 350/. is made annually for the two Ben Nevis 

 Observatories— the high level observatory receiving 100/. 

 and the low level observatory 250/. Mr. Hanbury, 

 Financial Secretary to the Treasury, has undertaken to 

 ascertain whether a larger amount could not be granted 

 to Scotland out of the Parliamentary vote in respect of 

 the observatory on the summit of Ben Nevis, the sugges- 

 tion being that a grant of 500/. a year should be made 

 for five years. In a leading article in Monday's Times, 

 the valuable work carried on at the observatory is pointed 

 out, and the hope is expressed that Mr. Hanbury will 

 succeed in effecting such a redistribution of the grant to 

 the Meteorological Council as will provide for its further 

 prosecution and development. The value of the ob- 

 servatory as a meteorological station is beyond question, 

 and something should certainly be done to place its 

 work upon a permanent footing. 



NOTES. 



The Standard of Friday last contained the following telegram 

 from its Vienna correspondent : — " On the closing day of the 

 International Congress for Applied Chemistry, an interesting 

 paper was read by Dr. Leo Lilienfeld on the synthesis of 

 albuminous substances. By means of the condensation of 

 phenol and amido-acetic acid with phosphoric oxychloride, the 

 lecturer has succeeded in producing pepton, a substance which, 

 it had hitherto been believed, could be obtained only from 

 organic substances. In order to dispel any doubt as to the 

 possibility of thus making artificial albumen, the lecturer car- 

 ried out the entire process in the presence of the assembled 

 chemists, and then demonstrated the identity of artificial and 

 natural albumen by means of reactions." This announcement 

 is of great interest to chemists, and we shall give an account of 

 the synthesis next week, when further details will probably be 

 available. 



NO. 1502, VOL. 58] 



News has just been received of the death of Prof. James 

 Hall, the veteran State Geologist of Albany, New York. 



Upon the recent retirement from the Indian Medical Service 

 of Brigade-Surgeon Lieutenant-Colonel D. D. Cunningham, 

 F.R.S., Professor of Physiology, Medical College, Calcutta, 

 the Government of India have placed on record their high 

 appreciation of the eminent services rendered by him to the 

 State. Dr. Cunningham was appointed to the chair of Physio- 

 logy in the Medical College at Calcutta in 1879— a post which 

 he continued to occupy till he was compelled to take sick leave 

 last year. By his real and devotion to his work he introduced 

 a high standard of efficiency in the teaching of physiology in 

 the College. He was the first professor to demonstrate histo- 

 logical prejjarations to the students in a systematic way, and 

 also the first to teach them the practical use of the microscope. 

 He twice received the thanks of the Government of India 

 for reports submitted by him in collaboration with the late 

 Dr. Lewis. Dr. Cunningham's most recent investigations 

 have been connected with snake-bite and the discovery of a 

 remedy. In a letter to the Director-General of the Indian 

 Medical Service, the Governor-General writes : — " By the 

 retirement of Dr. Cunningham the Government of India 

 lose the services of one of the most distinguished of the 

 scientific men who have served them, the Indian Medical 

 service one of its most eminent members, and yourself an 

 invaluable adviser. He carries with him on his retirement the 

 warmest thanks of the Government of India for his long and 

 distingushed services." 



Some of the objections to the system of granting indulgences 

 to anti-vaccinationists were pointed out in last week's Nature. 

 Since then the Vaccination Bill has had an eventful history. It 

 came before the House of Lords in Committee on Thursday last, 

 and the second clause — the conscience clause — providing parents 

 with a means of exemption from penalties for the non-vaccina- 

 tion of their children, was rejected. The amended Bill had 

 therefore to go back to the House of Commons, where it was 

 considered on Friday, and a motion to disagree with the Lords' 

 decision to leave out the conscience clause was carried. In 

 consequence of this vote, the Bill again came before the Upper 

 House on Monday, with the result that the conscience clause 

 was reinstated — the Lords reversing on Monday their decision of 

 Thursday last. It may be expedient to pass the Bill in its 

 complete form, but the principle of permitting conscientious 

 anti-vaccinationists to put themselves beyond penalties other 

 than those which their neglect will bring upon them, is unsound 

 and dangerous. 



In view of the proposed alterations in the laws relating to 

 vaccination now contemplated in the Bill before Parliament, 

 the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England have 

 reaffirmed the following resolution adopted by them in 1893 

 and forwarded to the Royal Commission on Vaccination, viz.: — 

 "We, the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 

 desire to put on record at the present time our opinion of the 

 value of vaccination as a protection against small-pox. We 

 consider the evidence in favour of its life-saving power to be 

 overwhelming, and we believe, from evidence equally strong, 

 that the dangers incidental to the operation, when properly 

 performed, are infinitesimal. Experience has satisfied us that, 

 even when vaccination fails to afford complete exemption from 

 small-pox, it so modifies the severity of the disease as not only 

 to greatly reduce its mortality but to lessen the frequency of 

 blindness, disfigurement, and other grave injuries. We should 

 therefore regard as a national calamity any alteration in the law 

 which now makes vaccination compulsory. We are, moreover, 

 firmly convinced that re- vaccination is an additional safeguard 

 and should be universally practised." 



