June 29, 1893] 



NATURE 



205 



to Mr. John Henry Gilbert "for their joint services to scientific 

 agriculture, and notably for the researches which throughout a 

 period of fifty years have been carried on by them at the ex- 

 perimental farm, Rothamsted." 



Prof. W. H. Pickering, the Director of the Harvard 

 College Mountain Observatory at Arequipa, is expected to be 

 in London in the course of a few days. 



The distribution of prizes to the students of Charing Cross 

 Hospital Medical School will take place at the School on July 4, 

 at three o'clock precisely. The Right Hon. the Baron de Worms, 

 M.P., F.R.S., will occupy the chair. 



The Dental Hospital of London will hold a conversazione at 

 the Royal Institute Galleries, Piccadilly, on July 14. There will 

 be a distribution of prizes at 8.30 p.m. by Prof. Sir W. H. 

 Flower, K.C.B., F.R.S. 



According to Dalziel's agency, a cyclone passed over 

 Williamstown and its immediate vicinity on June 21. Its path 

 was six miles long by half a mile wide, and in this track not a 

 house, bain, or tree was left standing. The wind rush was 

 followed by a terrific downpour of rain. About twenty persons 

 lost their lives. 



Dr. Nansen and the members of his expedition to the North 

 Pole sailed from Christiania on Saturday, and arrived at 

 Laurvig on the following day. After taking on board two 

 covered boats, to be used incase the members of the expedition 

 are compelled to leave the From in the ice, the vessel pro- 

 ceeded on her voyage. Reuter says that intelligence has been 

 received from Siberia that twenty-six dogs, for service with the 

 expedition, have been brought down to the mouth of the River 

 Olensk. Parties have been sent out to leave stores of provi- 

 sions for twelve men at two places on the islands of Kotelnoi 

 and Liakow. These depots will be inspected in 1894 and 1895. 

 Sealers report that the sea around these islands was quite open 

 in 1888, 1889, and 1890, while in 1891 and 1892 there was little 

 ice in the vicinity. 



Information with regard to the social, physical, and mental 

 condition of children is being accumulated by the committee ap- 

 pointed by the International Congress of Hygiene and Demo- 

 graphy. Nearly3o,ooochildren,chieflyin London Board Schools, 

 have been inspected, and important facts have been obtained as 

 to the variation of educational requirements of boys and girls, 

 and the causes of low mental development. It is desired to 

 extend the inquiry among 100,000 children before submitting 

 the statistics to a complete investigation. For this purpose Sir 

 D ooglas Gallon, writing from the Parkes Museum, has made 

 an appeal for financial help. The deep importance of the work 

 is fully understood by educationalists, hence there should be no 

 difficulty in obtaining sufficient funds to render the investigation 

 as comprehensive as possible. 



A SPECIAL general meeting of the Royal Geographical Society 

 will be held on July 3 in the hall of the University of London, 

 Burlington Gardens, to consider the proposal that ladies should 

 be admitted as ordinary Fellows. On the evening of the same 

 day the Earl of Dunmore will give a paper on his "Journeys 

 in the Pamirs and Central Asia." 



Dr. M. Mcebius, of Heidelberg, has been appointed 

 Director of the Botanic Gardens at Frankfort-a-M., and Dr. F. 

 Pax, Director of the Botanic Garden at Breslau. 



The French Academy has awarded the -Prix Desmazieres 

 to M. P. Viala, for his researches on viticulture ; the Prix 

 Montagne to M. I'Abbe Hue, for his work in lichenology ; and 

 NO. 1235, VOL. 48] 



the Prix de la Fons Melicocq to M. Maseleff, for his work on the 

 Botanical Geography of the north of France. 



Some interesting scientific documents changed hands at the 

 sale this week of the library of the late Lord Brabourne. 

 Among the lots was a quantity of the coirespondence of Sir 

 Joseph Banks, to whom Sir Edward Knatchbull, Lord 

 Brabourne's father, was executor. An interesting autograph 

 letter from John Hunter, dated 1792, appears to be one cover- 

 ing the despatch to the Royal Society of his paper on the 

 natural history of the common bee. He hopes Sir Joseph and 

 his worthy council will think the results of twenty years of 

 observation and experiment suitable for publication in the 

 transactions, and details some of the obstacles which had pre- 

 vented an earlier forwarding of the paper. About 1830 the 

 Royal Society claimed and received from Sir Edward Knatch- 

 bull the letters and papers of Sir Joseph Banks, referring to the 

 society over which he so long presided, but evidently this par- 

 ticular letter was overlooked. A document, apparently in the 

 handwriting of Duhamel du Monceau, is an appeal to Sir Joseph 

 on behalf of Dolomieu, the French mineralogist, imprisoned at 

 Messina, by order of the Neapolitan Court, as he was returning 

 to Europe from serving on the scientific staff which accompanied 

 Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt. It is signed by thirty -nine 

 famous men of science of the time, including Cuvier, Lamarck, 

 Laplace and Lalande. 



The weather during the past week has been of a decidedly 

 unsettled type. On Thursday, the 22nd inst., a depression 

 advanced over Scotland and moved slowly to the North Sea and 

 Norway, causing some rain over most parts of these islands ; 

 in the north-east of Scotland the fall amounted to 2 '2 inches in 

 forty-eight hours, and a moderate gale blew from the north- 

 west on our northern coasts. During the early part of the pra- 

 sent week important depressions advanced over the western 

 parts of the country from off the Atlantic, causing exceptionally 

 heavy rain in the south of Ireland, the fall at Roche's Point on 

 Tuesday morning registering I'l inch, while the amount was 

 very considerable in many other parts of the kingdom. During 

 the first part of the period the temperature was from 25° to 

 30° lower than in the previous week ; the maxima rarely 

 reached 70° in any part of the country, while in the north the 

 highest daily readings were frequently below 60°, but on Tuesday 

 the temperature rose considerably in most parts, and reached 

 80° at Cambridge. The Weekly Weather Report of the 24th 

 inst. showed that the rainfall exceeded the mean in the east of 

 Scotland only. Bright sunshine was above the average in 

 Ireland and the greater part of England ; the percentage of 

 possible duration amounted to 77 in the Channel Islands. 



Mr. W. H. Preece, F. R. S., in giving evidence before the 

 joint committee of Lords and Commons on Electric Powers 

 Protective Clauses, is reported to have shown a series of dia- 

 grams illustrating the effect upon the earth of the City and South 

 London Electric Railway. That railway did not designedly use 

 the earth, but the return circuit was made by means of the rails, 

 and also by the tubes or tunnels. Currents were produced which 

 had disturbed the observing instruments at Greenwich, and 

 which had been traced as far as North Walsham, in Norfolk. 

 Last year the disturbances began to increase, and his attention 

 was called to the fact that in Clapham Road there was a chemist 

 who had in his shop window an instrument for recording the 

 passing movement of every train on the electric railway, the 

 instrument being connected on one side with gas-pipes, and on 

 the other with water-pipes in the house. He had caused the 

 currents to be measured, and they were found to be sufficient to 

 light a lamp or, as he had proved, to ring one of the division 

 bells of the House of Commons. Another difficulty had occurred 

 jU connection with the railway block system. Some years ago 



