414 



NA TURE 



[August 26, 1897 



and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, 

 and Dr. Jules Bernard Luys, member of the Paris Academy of 

 Medicine. 



The National Photographic and allied Trades Exhibition 

 will be held in the Portman Rooms, Baker Street, London, W., 

 in April next. It is to be a manufacturers' exhibition of photo- 

 graphic, lantern and optical apparatus and accessories, and it 

 will be open to the public as well as to dealers. Mr. Arthur 

 C. Brookes is the acting secretary to the exhibition, and ap- 

 plications for space should be addressed to him at Temple House, 

 Temple Avenue, London, E.G. 



The State of Indiana has undertaken to defray the expense 

 of publishing annually the Proceedhtgs of the Indiana Academy 

 of Science, and the two reports, for the years 1894 and 1895, 

 for the printing and publication of which the State has paid, 

 have just come to hand. By publishing the proceedings of the 

 Academy the State secures, without further expenditure, the 

 service of a number of investigators working in various depart- 

 ments of science, and spending a large portion of their time 

 upon new problems the solution of which is of importance to 

 the development of the Indiana commonwealth. These in- 

 vestigators, who constitute the best authority in the State upon 

 their several subjects, "will act without pecuniary compensation 

 with the legislative body of Indiana, just as the National 

 Academy of Sciences acts in conjunction with the U.S. Gon- 

 gress ; they will freely advise the legislators when consulted 

 upon scientific subjects, and assist in giving direction to scientific 

 investigations undertaken by the Legislature as a basis for logical 

 laws. The work of an Academy like the Indiana Academy is an 

 important factor in developing mineral, vegetable, and animal 

 resources, and it greatly strengthens educational agencies. The 

 State has thus acted wisely in giving encouragement to the 

 ■scientific workers within its borders, and doubtless the funds it 

 has undertaken to provide will be returned a thousand-fold. 



The recent meeting of the Association of Agricultural 

 -Colleges and Experiment Stations in the United States cannot 

 fail to be productive of good. " It brings out forcibly," says the 

 Anierican Naturalist, " the endeavours of Americans as a people 

 to ameliorate the conditions of the agricultural classes, remind- 

 ing us, as it does, that some 1,890,000 dols. were granted by 

 Gongress for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1898, for agri- 

 culture. Of this, something like 1,170,000 dols. is for scientific 

 investigations under the direct supervision of the Department 

 of Agriculture, and the rest (720,000 dols.) for maintaining the 

 experiment stations. The departmental divisions falling within 

 the domains covered by the American naturalist receive various 

 amounts as follows : botany, 23,800 dols. ; agrostology, 18,100 

 dols. ; forestry, 28,520 dols. ; pomology, 14,500 dols. ; physi- 

 ology and vegetable pathology, 26,500 dols. ; biological survey, 

 27,560 dols. ; entomology, 29,500 dols. ; the bureau of animal 

 industry, 755,640 dols. ; and for special investigations in 

 nutrition, under the auspices of the ofifice of experiment stations, 

 15,000 dols." 



Fourteen electric cabs commenced to " ply for hire " in the 

 streets of London as ordinary licensed hackney carriages on 

 Friday last. The Electrician gives the following particulars of 

 the new vehicles : — The battery used on each of the vehicles 

 consists of a set of 40 accumulator cells having a capacity of 

 1 70 ampere-hours when discharged at a rate of 30 amperes. It 

 is estimated that on the level the current required, when the 

 controller is placed at " full speed," is 24 amperes, and that on 

 a fair incline, at about one-third that speed, this current is not 

 exceeded. Steeper gradients require up to 30 or 35 amperes. 

 The battery is carried in a tray, which is slung under the 

 bottom of the cab by four suspension links supported by springs 

 under compression, and the ordinary carriage springs again 



NO- 1452, VOL. 56] 



separate the cells from the vibration to which the carriage wheels 

 are exposed. The motors have been specially designed for these 

 cabs. They are of the Johnson- Lundell type, and supplied from 

 America. The fields have two similar windings, and the arma- 

 tures have also two similar sets of windings and two com- 

 mutators. This doubly-wound motor is connected to a series- 

 parallel controller of the usual American pattern in exactly the 

 same way as the two motors of a tramcar would be connected 

 to it. The cabs can be made to run at about one, three, seven, 

 or nine miles an hour, and can move backwards. The whole 

 of the movements are produced by the use of one lever placed 

 at one side of the driver's b«. It was originally estimated that 

 two sets of cells would be required to enable the cab to do an 

 ordinary day's work in the streets of London, it being considered 

 that one set would propel it about thirty-five miles. The economy 

 of the motor and controller arrangements, however, is so con- 

 siderable that it is now found the cabs will do at least fifty miles 

 with one set of cells without recharging, and the economy in the 

 use of current thus experienced will make the running of the 

 cabs cheaper than was originally expected. The cells are now 

 charged at a central station ; but as the service increases, 

 charging stations in several parts of London will be required. 



We learn from the British Medical Journal that a Bill has 

 been introduced into the Legislature of Brazil offering a prize of 

 220,000 dollars (44,000/.), to be divided into two equal parts, 

 which are to be awarded to the author of a work demonstrating 

 the existence of a bacillus of yellow fever and the method ot 

 recognising it, and to the discoverer of an efficacious means of 

 treating the disease. The Medical Institute of Rio Janeiro, 

 the Hygienic Institute of Berlin, and the Pasteur Institute of 

 Paris are to decide as to the award of the prizes. The Bill 

 further provides for the reservation of a sum of 110,000 dollars 

 (22,000/.) to be applied to the creation of an establishment for 

 the preparation of a curative serum, the discoverer of which will 

 be appointed organising director of the institute. The former 

 of these prizes will probably be awarded to Dr. Sanarelli, an 

 account of whose researches on the etiology of yellow fever was 

 given in Nature of July 15 (p. 249). In the meantime, the 

 Uruguay Legislature has conferred honorary citizenship on Dr. 

 Sanarelli in recognition of his discovery of the microbe of yellow 

 fever, and has voted him a grant of 10,000 dollars. 



The view advanced by Gervais and Lucas, that the reproduc- 

 tion of Scolopendra is ovo-viviparous, has remained uncontradicted 

 up to the present time. Signor Filippo Silvestri, writing in the 

 Atti dei Lincei, now states that on July 3 of last year he dis- 

 covered a specimen of Scolopendra cingulata carefully guarding 

 its eggs under a stone, and in June of this year he has found 

 several specimens with their eggs. It is thus proved that 

 S. cingulata is truly oviparous. The centipede protects its eggs 

 by covering them with its body, and does not abandon them 

 unless violently molested. The ova are pale yellow and of 

 ellipsoidal shape, measuring 3 mm. by 2*5 mm., and the state- 

 ments of Gervais and Lucas were probably based on the ob- 

 servations of others, who were led to infer that the Scolopendrce 

 were viviparous by the careful way these had concealed their ova. 



The Meteorologische Zeitschrift for July contains an interest- 

 ing article by Dr. J. Maurer, of Zurich, on the periodicity ot 

 cold and warm summers, based upon a discussion of the Berlin 

 temperatures since 1728, and other trustworthy data. Among the 

 most important papers bearing upon this subject in recent years, 

 and to which due attention has been given in the present 

 investigation, are (i) Koppen's eleven -year period of temper- 

 ature; (2) Hellmann's uniformity of weather changes in 

 successive seasons ; (3) Lang's secular weather conditions as 

 causes of glacier movements ; and (4) Briickner's variations of 

 climate since the year 1700. The author considers that the 

 investigation decidedly shows that in the secular variations of 



