'6i8 



NA TURE 



[October 28, 1897 



W. p. Evans.— The first meeting of the Linnean Society for the 

 new session will take place on November 4. Papers will be 

 ■read by the Right Hon. Sir John Lubbock, Bart, F.R.S., on 

 the attraction of flowers for insects; and by Mr. W. C. 

 Worsdell, on transfusion-tissue, its origin and function in the 

 leaves of gymnospermous plants ; Mr. F. G. Jackson will 

 show some zoological and botanical exhibits collected by the 

 Jackson-Harmsworth Polar Expedition ; and Mr. Reginald 

 Lodge will exhibit lantern -slides of marsh-birds and their nests, 

 from photographs recently taken in Spain and Holland. — The 

 •Geologists' Association will hold a conversazioni at University 

 'College on Friday, November 5, when a number of interesting 

 objects will be exhibited by some of the members. — The open- 

 ing meeting of the new session of the Rontgen Society will 

 be held at St. Martin's Town Hall on November 5. Prof. 

 Sylvanus Thompson will deliver the presidential address. 



The new session of the Royal Geographical Society will open 

 on November 8 with a brief introductory address by the Pre- 

 sident, and a paper on the Jackson-Harmsworth Arctic Ex- 

 pedition, by Mr.Frederick J. Jackson. On Novembar 22 Dr. 

 Sven Hedin will give an account of four years' exploration in 



•Central Asia. Other papers which may be expected during the 

 session are the following : —Exploration in Spitsbergen, 1897, 

 by Sir W. Martin Conway ; exploration in the Chilian Andes, 

 by Mr. E. A. FitzGerald ; explorations in Greenland, by Lieut. 

 Peary ; researches in the Scottish Lakes, by Dr. John Murray, 

 F. R.S. ; the Eastern Malay Provinces of Siam, by Mr. H. 

 Warrington Smyth ; a trip in Northern Somaliland, by Mr. 

 F. B. Parkinson and Lieut. Brander-Dunbar. During the ses- 

 sion it is probable that a special meeting will be held in con- 



.nection with the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the Cape 

 route to India by Vasco da Gama. Under the joint auspices of 

 the Society and the London University Extension Committee, 

 Mr. H. J. Mackinder is giving a course of twenty-five lectures 

 on the geography of Britain and the British Seas, at Gresham 



•College, Basinghall Street, E.C. It is probable that arrange- 

 ments will be made for two Christmas lectures to young people, 

 by Dr. H. R. Mill. 



On the 17th, i8th and 19th inst., the Liege Association of 

 Engineers, a society composed exclusively of graduates of the 

 Liege School of Mines, celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. Six 

 hundred members took part in the celebration, as well as 

 delegates bearing addresses of congratulation from the Iron and 

 Steel Institute, the French Society of Engineers, the German 

 Ironmasters' Association, and numerous other continental 

 technical societies. The guests were received by Mr. R. Paquot, 

 the President, who was one of the founders of the Association. 

 After a brief presidential address, Prof. A. Habets, the inde- 

 fatigable secretary, read a paper summarising the history of the 

 first fifty years of the Association. The meeting was then 

 divided into two sections, one dealing with mining and the 

 other with metallurgy. In the former the following papers were 

 read : ( i) The development of the mining industry of Belgium 

 since 183 1, by Mr. E. Harze ; (2) a contribution to the geology 

 of the Charleroi district, by Mr. J. Smeysters ; (3) winding 

 from great depths at the Harpen Collieries, by Mr. E. Tomson ; 

 (4) the economy due to steam compression, by Mr. V. Dwel- : 

 shauvers-Dery and Mr. E. Hubert ; and (5) continuous breaks, 

 by Mr. A. Kapteyn. In the metallurgical section the papers 

 ■dealt with were: (i) a study of the blast-furnace, by Mr. G. J 

 Rocour ; (2) the progress accomplished in the knowledge of steel, \ 

 t>y Mr. A. Greiner, of the Cockerill Company ; (3) the direct 

 utilisation of the gas of blast-furnace for the production of 

 motive power ; and (4) notes on steel, by Mr. J. Magery, of 

 Aix-la-Chapelle. In the evening a banquet was held at the 

 Royal Conservatoire, at which the Belgian Minister of Public 

 NO. 1 46 1. VOL. 56] 



Works and the Minister of Foreign Affairs were present. 

 October 18 was devoted to excursions to Cockerill's Works, 

 to the Small Arms Factory at Herstal, and to the University 

 laboratories, a concert being held in the evening. October 19 

 was devoted to a visit to the Brussels Exhibition, where a 

 farewell luncheon was held. 



In view of assertions which have been published, with some 

 appearance of authority, as to the efficacy of sanitation as a 

 substitute for vaccination in dealing with small-pox, the follow- 

 ing opinions, from a declaration, signed by upwards of 850 

 medical officers of health in Great Britain, India, and the 

 Colonies, and issued by the Jenner Society, are worth putting on 

 record: (i) As responsible sanitary officials, to whom the care 

 of the health and lives of the community is especially entrusted, 

 we have every inducement to give due weight to the value 

 of *' sanitation " in the widest sense of the term for the pre- 

 vention of small-pox as of other forms of infectious disease. 

 We include in that term good drainage, the removal of refuse, 

 the supply of pure air and water, and all other conditions which 

 are calculated to fortify the body against disease in general. 



(2) We are no less alive to the importance of those special pre- 

 cautionary measures which experience has shown to be so valu- 

 able, when effectively used, to arrest the spread of infectious 

 disease, such as the immediate notification of illness, the efficient 

 isolation of the sick and of those who have been exposed to 

 infection, and thorough disinfection of persons and things. 



(3) While thus fully appreciating the value of these agencies for 

 such purposes, we unhesitatingly declare our belief that they 

 cannot alone be relied on either to prevent or to stamp out 

 epidemics of small-pox. (4) We believe that the only trust- 

 worthy protection at present known against small-pox, alike for 

 the individual and the community, is efficient vaccination in 

 infancy and subsequent re-vaccination, and that the only effective 

 way of stamping out epidemics of this disease lies in the free 

 use of these agencies. 



Whether X-rays exist in the kathodic pencil which produces 

 them is a question that forms the subject of some interesting 

 experiments at the hands of Prof. A. \Voiii{Altidei Lincei, vi. 5), 

 To put the matter briefly, a discharge-tube was closed at one 

 end by a plate of aluminium covered by a diaphragm of lead with 

 a central aperture, in such a way that when kathodic rays fell 

 on the central portion, the X-rays given off illuminated an acti- 

 nometer. On placing the tube in the field of a powerful magnet, 

 so as to deflect the kathodic rays to one side, the actinometer 

 appeared almost dark. By inserting a tube of lead inside the 

 discharge tube, so as to prevent any reflected rays from the side 

 of the tube from reaching the central portion of the aluminium, 

 complete extinction of the X-rays was obtained. The author 

 concludes that indeflectable kathodic rays either are non- 

 existent, or else, if they exist, are not transformable into Rontgen 

 rays. Prof. Roiti also describes experiments establishing the 

 law that metals of greatest atomic weight emit rays of greatest 

 intensity. 



The Commission appointed to inquire into the practicability 

 of effecting electrical communication between light-houses and 

 light-vessels and the shore, have issued their fifth and final 

 report. They state that the system which has been in use for 

 connecting the Sunk light-vessel with the shore is the best 

 system of continuous connection which has been brought to 

 their notice, but they do not consider it as affording an entirely 

 satisfactory solution of the difficulty of maintaining in an 

 efficient manner, and at a reasonable cost, electrical com- 

 munication with light-vessel.s anchored in deep water and in 

 exposed positions. Attention has been directed to the method of 

 signalling without wires on the system used by Signor Marconi, 

 but the Commissioners have not thought it desirable to make 



