596 



JVA TURE 



[October 19, 1893 



cause an impression in printer's ink of the ends of the first three 

 fingers of the right hand of each recruit passed by them as fit 

 for the service, to be made on^the Nominal Roll opposite the 

 name of the recruit ; and in the case of the Army Hospital 

 Corps, in the Verification Roll. 

 A specimen of the required impression is shown below. 

 By order. 

 (Signed) C. H. Pearson, Surgeon-Major, 

 Secretary to the P.M.O., H.M.'s Forces in India. 

 [Here follows the specimen impression.] 



I trust that the medical officers who will have to take 

 these prints, understand the importance of using so 

 little ink that the impression shall be clear, though 

 its tint may be only brown and not black ; also that 

 when comparing two prints they will use a low power 

 lens and four pointers, two for each print. I have lately 

 been using a watchmaker's glass of two-inch focus, 

 secured to the end of a long and counterpoised arm, 

 which turns, not too easily, round the screw by which it 

 is attached to its support. The lens can be brought into 

 focus with great ease, and it remains steady when 

 left alone. I use at least two pointers for each print. 

 They are T-shaped ; their long arms are six or seven 

 inches long, they are roughly made of wood as thick 

 as the thumb, so that they are purposely not over 

 light. Each pointer stands on three supports, 

 viz. on the point of a bent pin, whose headless 

 body has been thrust into the end of the long arm of the 

 T, and on the ends of two nails, or better on staples, one 

 of which is driven under either end of the cross-arm. 

 It is most easy to adjust the point of the bent pin upon 

 any desired character in the finger-print. Both hands 

 of the observer are thus left free to manipulate other 

 pointers, when desired. The stationary pointers are a 

 great help in steadying the eye while pursuing a step by 

 step comparison between two finger-prints. 



Francis Galton. 



NOTES. 

 The collected works of Jean Servais Stas, which it is pro- 

 posed to publish as a mark of honour to his memory, form three 

 quarto volumes of about 500 or 600 p.ages each. The first volume 

 contains the memoirs and papers relating particularly to the deter- 

 mination of atomic weights ; the second comprises notes, reports, 

 and lectures ; and the third, posthumous works, which especially 

 refer to spectroscopic researches. The edition is under the 

 direction of MM. Spring and Defaire, and it will probably be 

 completed in about a year. The three volumes will be published 

 simultaneously at the uniform price of thirty francs. Sub- 

 scribers of twenty francs or more to the Stas memorial fund 

 will each receive a copy of the work, and contributors of less 

 than twenty francs may increase their contributions to that sum, 

 and so become a recipient. The names of subscribers will be 

 published in an appendix to the third volume. After the com- 

 pletion of publication, the balance of the fund will be used for 

 the erection of a monument. Stas' scientific work is more than 

 sufficient to perpetuate his name among men of science, and the 

 monument which it is proposed to erect will make it "known 

 to all people." 



At the second day's meeting of the Photographic Congress, 

 the opening of which was noted in our last issue, Mr. Andrew 

 Pringle read a paper on "The Present Position of Micro- 

 Photography," and W. Weissenberger contributed one on " A 

 Process of Photo-Mechanical Printing in Natural Colours." The 

 president, Capt. Abney, read a paper dealing with " Exposure 

 and Chemical Action," in which he showed that the sum of 

 excessively small exposures is not equivalent to the same 

 exposure given at one time, and further, that very feeble inten- 

 sity of light fails to produce the calculated amount of chemical 



NO. I 25 I, VOL. 48 J 



action. Capt. R. II. Hills followed with a description of the 

 instruments employed and the results obtained during the 

 recent solar eclipse. At the final meeting of the congress, on 

 October 12, Dr. A. Miethe read a paper on "The Practical 

 Testing of Photographic Objectives," and Dr. P. Rudolph one 

 on " The Measure and Numeration of the Stops of Photo- 

 graphic Lenses." 



A STATUE of Duhamel-Dumonceau was unveiled at Pith- 

 iviers, on October I. The French Minister of Agriculture, who 

 performed the ceremony, claimed that Dumonceau was the first 

 to institute agricultural experiments in the field. 



Dr. H. MtiLLER has been appointed Professor of Botany in 

 the University of GreifswalJ. 



At the meeting of the International Geodetic Association, re- 

 cently held at Geneva, a Commission, composed of M. Tisserand, 

 with Profs. Foerster and Schiaparelli, was appointed to draw 

 up a programme of observations to be made permanently at a 

 number of different places in order to elucidate the question of 

 latitudinal variations. The association will hold its annual 

 meeting in Austria next year. 



The Lancet says that the Apothecaries' Society are about to 

 apply to the courts for powers to sell their Botanical Gardens at 

 Chelsea, the money value of which has been fixed at about 

 £tP,ooo. The removal of this historic garden would be a 

 source of keen regret to the many who have profited by the 

 instruction conveyed by its means. 



We are informed that the fund raised for paying the costs o( 

 Dr.Wallis Budge in the recent action of Rassam v. Budge has 

 been fully subscribed. The list of the contributors, which is too 

 long to print in its entirety, includes the following names ; — 

 Miss H. M. Adair, the Duke of Argyll, K.G., K.T., Lord 

 Armstrong, C.B., the Marquis of Bath, Walter Besant, Dr. C. 

 Bezold, Rev. H. Blunt, E. A. Bond, C.B., the Earl Cadogan, 

 K.G., the Earl of Carlisle, Somers Clarke, N. G. Ckyton, 

 Miss Clendinning, Alfred Cock, Messrs. Thos. Cook and Son, 

 Sir John Evans, K.C.B., F.R.S., Sir W. II. Flower, K.C.B., 

 F.R.S., C. Drury Fortnum, A. W. Franks, C.B., F.R.S., 

 Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P., Rev. Canon Greenwell 

 F.R.S., Major-General Sir F. Grenfell, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., 

 H. Rider Haggard, Lawrence Harrison, Thomas Harrison, 

 James Hilton, Thomas Hodgkin, Sir H. H. Howorth, 

 K.C.LE., M.P., F.R.S., Right Hon. Thomas Huxley, F.R.S., 

 Sir Frederick Leighton, Bart., P.R.A., William Lethbridge, 

 Rev. W. J. Loftie, Right Hon. Sir John Lubbock, Bart., 

 M.P., F.R.S., Lady Meux, F. D. Mocatta, Walter Morrison, 

 Sir Frank Mowatt, K.C.B., Sir Charles Nicholson, Bart., 

 D.C.L., the Duke of Northumberland, K.G., F. G. Hilton 

 Price, Hon. W. F. D. Smith, M.P., E. Maunde Thompson, 

 C.B., Cecil Torr, Sir Reginald Welby, G.C.B., John White. 



New and extensive electrical works were inaugurated at Black- 

 pool at the end of last week. In the course of a speech made 

 during the celebrations. Lord Kelvin expressed the opinion that 

 municipal corporations were right to take into their hands 

 everything calculated to further the general good of the borough. 

 It seemed to him that the Government ought to take up the 

 whole business of telegraphs and telephones, and it would not 

 be an improper thing if the whole railway system of the country 

 were placed under the same management. 



An International Congress on Aerial Navigation formed one 

 of the series of congresses which have recently been held at 

 Chicago. The papers read on that occasion are being published 

 in the form of a supplement to the American Engineer, 

 together with other information relating to aeronautical en- 

 gineering. The new publication is given a distinctive title, 

 Aeronautics, but whether it will be continued after the whole ol 



