October 20, 1898J 



NATURE 



603 



Keigwin (Ashford), Harold Williams (Kingston), J. T. Morris 

 (London), H. C. Adams (Birmingham), H. O. Eurich (Brad- 

 ford), B. K. Adams (Colombo), A. B. E. Blackburn (Wednes- 

 bury), Thomas Carter (Newcastle), P. F. Story (Manchester), 

 D. E. Lloyd-Davies (Bewdley), and Wilfred Hall (Corbridge- 

 on-Tyne). 



The Hayden Memorial Award of the Philadelphia Academy 

 of Natural Sciences has been made to Prof. Otto Martin 

 Torell, formerly professor of zoology and geology at the Uni- 

 versity of Sweden, and late Chief of the Geological Survey of 

 Sweden. Of his works, those which treat of the ice period are 

 the most important. To these belong " Contribution to the 

 moUuscan fauna, with a general view of the natural state of the 

 Arctic regions," " Investigations of the Ice Period," and 

 "On the causes of glacial phenomena in the north-eastern por- 

 tion of North America." Partly by these works and partly by 

 lectures Torell has, in Sweden as abroad, actively assisted in 

 making known the theory that the territory of northern Europe, 

 where great blocks of Scandinavian rocks hive been found, was 

 formerly covered by land ice, extending from Scandinavia, like 

 the ice in Greenland at the present time, and not, as had been 

 formerly supposed, by a frozen sea (Eismeer). Dr. Torell is a 

 member of the Royal Society of Sciences of Sweden (1870), of 

 the Agricultural Academy (1872), and of many other scientific 

 societies in Sweden and abroad. He is Commander of the 

 Swedish " North Star," Grand Officer of the Italian Order of 

 the Crown, Knight of the second class of the Russian Order of 

 St. Anna, Commander of the Danish Dannebrog, Officer of 

 Public Instruction, and Officier de la Legion d'honneur. 



From the report of the Laboratories Committee, presented at 

 the quarterly meeting of the Council of the Royal College of 

 Surgeons of England, held on Tuesday, it appears that since 

 June 3 last 7050 doses of antitoxin, each containing 2000 units, 

 and 2325 doses, each containing 4cxx) units, for the treatment 

 of diphtheria in the hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums 

 Board, have been supplied, and all demands fully met. In defer- 

 ence to the researches in connection with the grant from the 

 Goldsmiths' Company, Dr. T. G- Brodie and Dr. Cartwright 

 Wood have continued their investigations and have planned out a 

 further series of experiments for the coming winter. The 

 Committee has awarded to each of them a further sum of 50/. 

 from the research grant, as a recognition of their valuable 

 work. Dr. T. G. Brodie is at present engaged on the che- 

 mistry of diphtheria antitoxin, and Dr. Cartwright on diph- 

 theria toxins and antitoj ins, and a method of examining water 

 bacteriologically. The demand for antitoxin supplied to general 

 and children's hospitals in London, in accordance with the con- 

 ditions of the grant from the Goldsmiths' Company for use 

 among the poorer classes of the community, is steadily 

 increasing. 



The death is announced of Prof. Andreas Arzruni, professor 

 of mineralogy and petrography in the Technical High School at 

 Aachen, and of Dr. C. G. Gibeli, professor o botany and 

 director of the Botanical Institute at Turin. 



A MEETING of the Physical Society will be held on Friday, 

 October 28. The papers down for reading are : An influence 

 machine, by Mr, W. R. Pidgeon ; the repetition of an experiment 

 on the magneto- optic phenomenon discovered by Righi, by Prof. 

 Silvanus V. Thompson, F.R.S. ; the magnetic fluxes in meters 

 and other electrical instruments, by Mr. Albert Campbell. 



The following meetings of the Royal Photographic Society 



are announced :— Technical meeting, Tuesday, October 25, 



" On the alleged discovery of photography in 1727," by R. B. 



Litchfield; "On the grain of photographic negatives," by 



NO. 15 I 2, VOL. 58] 



E. Duncan Stoney. On Monday, October 31, slides will be 

 shown by members of affiliated societies at the exhibition of 

 the Royal Photographic Society. 



The Athenatim states that the Vienna Academy of Sciences 

 has chartered the Swedish steamship Gottfried for its projected 

 scientific expedition to South Arabia. The ship is expected to 

 arrive in a few days at Trieste, where the members of the expe- 

 dition will go on board. The leader of the party is Count Carl 

 Landberg, the Bavarian Orientalist, who has already spent 

 several winters in the district. Dr. H. Mliller proposes to 

 devote his researches to the Sabrean inscriptions and the pre- 

 Arabic archaeology. Prof. Simony will accompany the expe- 

 dition as botanist. Dr. Cossmat as geologist, and Mr. Bury will 

 be the leader of the caravan. Dr. Jahn will take as his speciality 

 the study of the Mahra language. Dr. Layn goes as physician 

 to the expedition. 



We learn from Science that, through the generosity of Mr. 

 Cornelius Vanderbilt, the New York Botanical Garden is about 

 to undertake a botanical exploration of the island of Porto Rico. 

 The expedition, which is now being organised, will leave for the 

 new Colony within a few weeks, and will be occupied in collecting 

 museum and herbarium specimens and living plants for at least 

 six months. Inasmuch as very little is yet known concerning 

 the natural flora of the island, it is confidently expected that 

 much of value and interest will be secured, and the collections 

 will furnish the basis of a report on the botany and vegetable 

 productions of our newly-acquired territory. — During the past 

 summer much progress has been made in the New York 

 Botanical Garden, in Bronx Park. The construction of the 

 museum building has proceeded rapidly, three-fourths of its steel 

 frame being in place, the walls being completed as far as the 

 second story. The warm and wet summer has been favourable 

 to the plants. Much progress has been made in planting the 

 border, which will be completed during the autumn. It will be 

 about two miles in length, and will contain some three hundred 

 and fifty varieties of trees and shrubs. 



An instructive and interesting account of the cultivation of 

 plants yielding Park rubber, the collection and preparation of 

 the rubber, and other aspects of the industry, is given in the 

 Kew Bulletin for October. With regard to future prospects of 

 the rubber from the vast region drained by the Amazon, Mr. 

 Consul W. A. Churchill is quoted to have remarked as follows, 

 in a recent report to the Foreign Office :— " Some people suppose 

 that the supply of Amazonian rubber may become exhausted 

 in the near future. The most competent authorities are not at 

 all of this opinion, but maintain that the supply is inexhaustible, 

 because the Hevea is continually being reproduced by nature. 

 Certainly some areas become exhausted when overworked, but 

 when left alone for some time they recover. . . . The area that 

 is known to produce Para rubber amounts to at least 1,000,000 

 square miles. Further exploration will, no doubt, show that 

 this area is under-estimated." The introduction of the rubber- 

 yielding trees of tropical America to British Possessions in the 

 East was an enterprise in which, more than twenty years ago, 

 Kew took an active part, the expense being borne by the 

 Government of India. A survey of the results of experiments 

 carried out in various places in which the cultivation of rubber 

 has been attempted, is given in the present number of the 

 Bulletin. 



In a recent paper on " The accepted altitude of the Aurora 

 Borealis," read by Prof. Cleveland Abbe before the American 

 Philosophical Society, he stated that some observers have seen 

 the light in such positions between themselves and neighbouring 

 objects as to demonstrate that the aurora, like the lightning, 

 may be entirely confined to the lowest stratum. Others have 



