May 17, 1900] 



NA TURE 



6t 



The King of the Belguris his created \fr. E. Windsor 

 Richards, past president of the Iron and Steel Institute of Great 

 Britain, a Knight Commander of the Order of Leopold. 



The Royal Commissioners who were recently appointed to 

 inquire into and report upon the condition of the salmon 

 fisheries of England, Wales and Scotland, commenced their 

 inquiry on Tuesday. 



Forty-six of the sixty-five automobile vehicles which left 

 London on April 23 for a 1000-mile trial, returned on Saturday 

 last From a report in the Times, we gather that the mechanical 

 results of the trial have been very much what they were expected 

 to be. That is to say, the established type of machine has 

 proved itself entirely trustworthy, and between the Daimler, 

 Napier and Panhard motors there has been, in the matter of 

 "staying power," practically nothing to choose. Of the cars 

 which entered, only four were driven by any other motive 

 power than petroleum spirit, and of these one steamer only 

 survived. 



Lettbrs received from Mr. Moore and Mr. Fergusson 

 announce that the Tanganyika Expedition arrived at Lake Kivu 

 on December 7, 1899, having left two of their party (Messrs. 

 Berridge and Mathews) at the head of Lake Tanganyika. They 

 had ascended the active volcano of Karunga, north of Lake 

 Kivu (11,350 feet), but found only steam without lava issuing 

 from the orifice. They arrived on the shores of Lake Albert- 

 Edward on January 21, and on February 12 were at Fort Gerry, 

 the English post in Zoru, near Mount Ruwenzori, which they 

 were proposing to ascend. 



Some living specimens oi the very curious blind fish oi the 

 caves of Kentucky, U.S.A. {Ainblyopsis spelaea), may now be 

 seen in the Zoological Society's fish-house, where they have 

 been deposited by the Hon. Walter Rothschild. They are of a 

 nearly uniform pale flesh colour. When exposed to the light 

 these creatures hide themselves among the stones in the tank 

 in which they are placed, though when shaded they seem to 

 swim about pretty freely like other fishes, but usually keep near 

 the surface. 



The Ancient Monuments Protection Bill was read a second 

 time in the House of Lords on Tuesday. The measure extends 

 the provisions of the Ancient Monument Act of 1882, and pro- 

 poses that local authorities should be empowered to take over 

 the charge of national monuments and to receive voluntary con- 

 tributions towards the cost of maintaining and preserving them. 

 Some of the London open spaces had been preserved in this 

 manner, and there seemed no reason why the same principle 

 should not be applied to monuments of archaeological interest. 



The U.S. Congress has under consideration a Bill for the 

 conversion of the present Office of Standard Weights and 

 Measures into a National Standardising Bureau similar to the 

 Reichsanstalt at Charlottenburg, and the National Physical 

 Laboratory. The clause dealing with the work of the bureau 

 reads as follows : — The functions of the bureau shall consist in 

 the custody of the standards ; the comparison of the standards 

 used in scientific investigations, engineering, manufacturing, 

 commerce, and educational institutions with the standards 

 adopted or recognised by the Government ; the construction 

 when necessary of standards, their multiples and subdivisions ; 

 the testing and calibration of standard measuring apparatus ; the 

 solution of problems which arise in connection with standards ; 

 the determination of physical constants, and the properties of 

 NO. 1594, VOL. 62] 



materials when such data are of great importance to scientific or 

 manufacturing interests, and are not to be obtained of sufficient 

 accuracy elsewhere. 



The gold medal of the Linnean So;iety of London, which 

 is annually presented alternately to a zoologist and to a botanist* 

 has this year been awarded to Prof. Alfred Newton, F. R.S., in 

 recognitian of his important contributions to zoological science. 

 To the general public Prof. Newton's name will be best known 

 in connection with the latest addition of Varrell's " British 

 Birds" (vols. i. and ii. of which were revised and edited by 

 him), and the " Dictionary of Birds," an admirable compendium 

 of ornithology. As editor of the Ibis (1865-70), and of the 

 "Zoological Record" (1870-72), to which for some years 

 previously he had supplied the annual record of the literature 

 relating to Aves, he has placed ornithologists of all nations 

 under great obligations to him, as he has done, also, by his 

 publications on the avifauna of Iceland, Greenland, the West 

 Indies, the Mascareneand Sandwich Islands, and by his articles 

 in the "Encyclopaedia Britannica " and the "Dictionary of 

 National Biography." As chairman tor many years of a com- 

 mittee of the British Association he has been instrumental in 

 securing the publication of valuable reports on the migration of 

 birds and in obtaining legislative protection for the more useful 

 species by the .appointment of a close time. The medal will be 

 presented at the Anniversary Meeting of the Linnean S )ciety. 



The Academic Royale de Belgique announces the following 

 prize subjects for 1900 : — Mathematical and Physiciii Sciences : 

 A description of researches on critical phenomena in physics, 

 together with new researches upon this subject ; new re- 

 searches on the viscosity of liquids ; study of the de- 

 rived carbonates of an element of which the compounds 

 are still little known ; the variation of latitude, together with a 

 discussion of the reasons which have been put forward to account 

 for it ; a contribution to the algebraic and geometric study of 

 n linear forms, n being greater than 3 ; new researches on the 

 thermal conductivities of liquids and solutions. Natural 

 Sciences : The determination of the limits of the Comblain-au- 

 Pont formation, and the place it should occupy in geological 

 classification. Is it Devonian or Carboniferous ? ; researches on 

 the modifications produced in minerals by pressure ; researches on 

 the organisation and development of a flit- worm with the object 

 of determining whether there exist any phylogenic relationships 

 between Platyhelminthes and Enterocoela ; does a nucleus 

 exist in Schizophytes(Schizomycetes) ? if so, what is its structure 

 and mode of division ? ; researches on Devonian plants of Bel- 

 gium, from the point of view of description, stratigraphical posi- 

 tion, and, if possible, anatomical characters. The value of the 

 gold medal to be awarded for each subject is six hundred francs. 

 Memoirs may be written in French or in Flemish, and must be 

 sent to the secretary of the Academy by August i. 



We learn rom the Electrician that an instrument called the 

 telephonograph, which is a modification of the phonograph, 

 was recently inspected and tested by the German Postmaster- 

 General and several engineers. Its inventor, Herr Paulsen, a 

 Dane, has replaced the wax cylinder of the Edison phonograph 

 by a steel band, and the style by a magnet energised by a tele- 

 phone. Currents transmitted by the telephone pass through 

 the electromagnet and create consequent poles on the steel band, 

 and more or less the converse operation is employed for repro- 

 ducing the sound. A long line can, of course, intervene between 

 the transmitting telephone and the phonograph itself, and it is 

 suggested that a telephone subscriber on leaving his office can 

 set such a telephonograph to receive telephoned messages during 

 his absence. 



