June i6, 19 «o] 



NA TURE 



465 



The death is announced, at the age of eighty-four years, 

 of Prof. W. P. Blake, emeritus professor of metallurgj-, 

 geology, and mining, and director of the School of Mines 

 '^'f the University of Arizona. 



A CORRESPONDENT says he " would like to ask Messrs. 

 Cowell and Crommelin whether it is not highly probable 

 that the Star of Bethlehem was, after all, nothing else 

 n Halley's comet "? We submitted the inquiry to Dr. 

 well, who has been good enough to reply that he does 

 not consider it " highly probable " that the two objects 

 are identical. 



It is proposed to establish, under the title of the India 

 iety, an association to promote the study and apprecia- 

 1 of Indian culture in its cesthetic aspects. The new 

 iety will publish, for distribution to its members, works 

 wing the best examples of Indian architecture, sculp- 

 ture, and painting, and will assist in the preservation of 

 the traditional arts and handicrafts of the Empire. The 

 honorary secretary is Mr. T. W. Rolleston, Ardeevin, 

 Christ Church Road, Hampstead, N.W. 



The National Association for the Prevention of Con- 

 sumption is inaugurating an educational campaign against 

 tuberculosis. So great has been the success of the 

 Travelling Tuberculosis Exhibition that the council is con- 

 vinced that the time has come for a vigorous and wide- 

 spread effort. A special appeal committee has been 

 appointed, over which the Earl of Derby will preside, to raise 

 funds. Its object is to raise an annual income of 5000/. 

 for the purpose of spreading information on the question 

 of the cure and prevention of consumption. This cam- 

 paign is to be carried out by means of travelling tubercu- 

 losis exhibitions : caravans, with lantern-slides, for small 

 towns and villages ; popular lectures ; an information 

 bureau ; and the distribution of literature. The coopera- 

 tion of all persons is solicited to aid in raising the fund, 

 which will be applied entirely to educational purposes, as 

 the committee feels that if the countn.- can be aroused to 

 a compreiiension of the loss in life and money occasioned 

 by tuberculosis, and the methods by which the disease can 

 be controlled, ultimate conquest is assured. 



The Italian earthquake of June 7, referred to last week, 



occurred in a district which is frequently disturbed by 



shocks from more or less distant centres, but in which 



they rarely originate. Avellino, where the recent shock 



was strongly felt, is thirtA' miles east of Naples. The 



epicentre of the earthquake was, however, about thirty 



'"i!es still farther to the east, including the villages of 



uitri and San Fele, at both of which there was much 



:nage to property and some loss of life. The only 



portant earthquake which is known to have occurred in 



uie same centre is that of September 8, 1694, when more 



than four thousand lives were lost. Calitri was then 



ntirely destroyed, and at least 700 persons were killed. 



e epicentre of both earthquakes lies only a few miles 



the north-west of that of the great Neapolitan earth- 



ake of 1857, and not far from the continuation of the 



isoseismal lines drawn by Mallet in his well-known report. 



Prof. Ronald Ross, in an address to representatives of 



missionary societies of the world meeting at Living- 



ne College on Commemoration Day, June 11, urged 



at missionaries, like the priests of old, should be healers 

 'h of the mind and of the body. He suggested that 

 ssionaries might ascertain, by the examination of the 

 een. whether children in the tropics were affected by 



ilaria, and that this would give a rough indication of 



V amount of malaria in the district. He suggested that 

 XO. 2120, VOL. 83] 



quinine might then be administered to the children in the 

 district, and that this would tend to check the spread of 

 the disease. He also hoped that they would be able to 

 assist in drainage schemes, so that the breeding places of 

 mosquitoes might be eradicated. He thought all mission- 

 aries should have such training as that given at Living- 

 stone College, in order to be enabled to share in these 

 sanitary precautions. 



Many meteorologists will be glad to learn that the 

 activity of the British Rainfall Organisation, founded some 

 fifty years ago by the late Mr. G. J. Symons, has been 

 placed upon a permanent footing by the transfer of the 

 management by the director. Dr. H. R. Mill, to a strong 

 representative board of trustees interested in rainfall work. 

 The board will consist of Dr. Mill (as chairman), Mr. F. 

 Druce (treasurer), Mr. R. M. Harrington, Sir Alexander 

 Binnie, Mr. C. L. Brook, Mr. C. J. P. Cave, Mr. D. W. 

 Freshfield, Dr. H. Mellish, Sir John Murray, and Mr. 

 J. G. Wood. The board, with the aid of other obeservers, 

 will form an endowment fund for the continuance of the 

 work, which hitherto has been dependent on the efforts 

 of its promoters and voluntary contributions. The 

 observers now number nearh- 5000, and the accumulated 

 records are quite unique. Dr. Mill now makes over the 

 whole of the documents and the lease of the headquarters 

 in Camden Square to the board of trustees as a free gift 

 for the benefit of meteorological science. 



The fifteenth annual congress of the South-eastern L'nion 

 of Scientific Societies was held at Guildford from June 

 8 to II. Dr. D. H. Scott, F.R.S., was succeeded as presi- 

 dent by Prof. Ernest Gardner, who delivered a discourse 

 on the evolution of classical art. Some of the papers read 

 were of much local interest, notably one by Mr. H. Bury 

 on the relation of the River Wey to the Blackwater and 

 the Arun — a study of river-development on the lines laid 

 down by Prof. W. M. Davis. Another local paper dealt 

 with the Pilgrims' Way between Farnham and Albury, in 

 which Mr. J. G. N. Clift discussed the question whether the 

 route was along the higher or the lower road. Mr. E. A. 

 Martin explained his experiments on dew-ponds, made with 

 the view of determining the way in which the supply of 

 water was maintained. Dr. W. Martin showed in a 

 learned paper how the bird's-eye views and maps of the 

 sixteenth and seventeenth centuries should be interpreted. 

 A lecture on colour in insects was given by Mr. J. W. 

 Tutt, in which he pointed out the need of obtaining definite 

 information respecting the changes which bring about 

 differences of coloration. Dr. Vaughan Cornish lectured 

 on waves in sand and snow, and Mr. A. R. Horwood, of 

 Leicester, referred to the extinction of cryptogams. The 

 Rev. R. Ashington Bullen is succeeded as honorary secre- 

 tary of the union by Dr. William Martin, who wiU be 

 assisted by Mr. Norman Gray. Next year's congress will 

 be held at St. Albans, under Sir David Gill, K.C.B. 



The University of California, continuing the investiga- 

 tion of the numerous shell-mounds on the shores of San 

 Francisco Bay, publishes in the fifth part of vol. vii. of 

 its Proceedings a report on that at Ellis Landing, by Mr. 

 N. C. Nelson. This is one of the largest of the series, 

 and the period required for its accumulation is estimated 

 at more than three thousand years. From the very 

 beginning it was used both as a dwelling site and place 

 of burial, and it was occupied by the Californian abori- 

 gines up to a time not long antecedent to the European 

 discovery and occupation of the country-. The earliest 

 occupants were not savages of the lowest grade, and there 

 is throughout the strata distinct evidence of the evolu- 



