May 24, 1900] 



NATURE 



83 



robably in the first instance proceed to Baltimore to confer 

 \ith the yellow fever experts at the Johns Hopkins University, 

 rtiterwards going to Para and other places on the South American 

 coast. 



An expedition, under the auspices of the Royal Dublin 

 Society and the Royal Irish Academy, conjointly, has left 

 Dublin for Spain, to observe the solar eclipse on May 28. The 

 party consists of Prof. C. J. Joly, Sir Howard Grubb, F.R.S., 

 Dr. A. Rambaut, F.R.S., Mr. W. E. Wilson, F.R.S., Prof. 

 \V. Bergin, Mr. S. Geoghegan and Mr. Rudolph Grubb. 

 The observers have selected as their station the hill of Berro- 

 ralillo at Placencia, near Madrid, and have already had 

 iluable assistance afforded them by Prof. Iniquez, director 

 ; the Observatory at Madrid, and his staff, who will them- 

 selves observe the eclipse at the same station. 



Pai-.kontologists will be glad to know that the King of the 

 Belgians has just made M. L. Dollo, Conservator of the 

 Brussels Museum, a Chevalier of the Order of Leopold, 



The annual meeting of the Italian Botanical Society will be 

 held at Venice on September 9-15, under the presidency of 

 Sig. Sommier. 



Thk committee of the International Botanical Congress, to 

 be held in Paris from O::tober i to 10, has issued a fresh invita- 

 tion to foreign botanists to enrol themselves as members. The 

 subscription fee of members has been fixed at 20 fr. , which will 

 include the cost of the publications of the Congress. The 

 following have already been fixed on as subjects for discussion 

 at the Congress : — Monographic studies ; species and hybrids ; 

 unification of micrometric measures ; influence of the nature of 

 the soil, and of the plants growing in it, on the development of 

 fungi ; and other suggestions are invited. The president of the 

 Congress will be M. E. Prillieux ; the general secretary, M. E. 

 Perrot ; and the treasurer, to whom subscriptions should be sent, 

 M. H. Hua, rue de Villersexel 2, Paris. 



A DEPART.MENTAL Committee has been appointed to inquire 

 into the conditions under which agricultural seeds are at present 

 sold, and to report whether any further measures can with 

 advantage be taken to secure the maintenance of adequate 

 standards of purity and germinating power. The committee 

 consists of the following mem bers, viz. :— The Earl of Onslow, 

 G.C.M.G., chairman; Sir W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, K.C.M.G., 

 C. I. E. ; Sir Jacob Wilson ; Mr. R. A. Anderson, secretary of 

 the Iri.sh Agricultural Organisation Society ; Mr. R. Stratton ; 

 Mr. Martin J. Sutton ; Mr. James Watt and Mr. David 

 Wilson. Mr. A. E. Brooke-Hunt, of the Board of Agriculture, 

 will act as secretary to the committee. 



An excursion to Malvern and district has been arranged by 

 the Geologists' Association for Whitsuntide. The director 

 will be Prof. T. T. Groom, and during the stay at Malvern, 

 from Saturday, June 2, to Tuesday, June 5, a number of inter- 

 esting geological sections and structures will be examined. 



The tenth International Congress of Hygiene and Demo- 

 graphy will be held in Paris this year, on August 10-17, 

 under the presidency of Dr. Brouardel, Dean of the Faculty 

 of Medicine of Paris. Programmes and forms of application 

 for membership can be obtained from the secretary of the 

 British Committee, Dr. Paul F. Moline, 42, Walton Street, 

 Chelsea, S.W. 



A .MEETING of the Institution of Mining Engineers will be 

 held in London on June 14-16, The members have been 

 invited to attend the International Congress of Mining and 

 Metallurgy which will be held in Paris on June 18-23, with 

 the object of collecting together engineers and others, who 



NO- ' 595- VOL. 62] 



in various parts of the world are engaged in forwarding the 

 progress of mining and metallurgy. The Congress, like that 

 of 1889, is under the direct patronage of the French. 

 Government. 



Swedish metallurgy has suffered a severe loss by the death,, 

 on May 12, of Mr. G. F. Goransson, at the age of eighty-one. 

 Without his help, the Bessemer process might perhaps never 

 have been perfected. In 1858, at Edsken, he increased the 

 area of the tuyeres, and succeeded in shortening the process so- 

 as to produce sufficient heat in the converter to allow of the 

 proper separation of the slag from the metal, and thus to con- 

 vert pig-iron into good steel, which having been exported 

 to England encouraged the capitalists who were supporting Sir 

 Henry Bessemer. At the Swedish meeting of the Iron and 

 Steel Institute in 1898, Mr. Goransson, although very infirm,, 

 welcomed the members, in an English speech, to the Sandvik. 

 works, of which he was chairman and founder. 



At the anniversary meeting of the Royal Geographical 

 Society, on Monday, the medals and other awards already an- 

 nounced (p. 34) were presented. The president, Sir Clements. 

 Markham, in the course of his anniversary address, said that a 

 committee has been formed to obtain funds for the erection of 

 a suitable memorial to Dr. Livingstone, on the spot where the 

 tree stood under which the heart of the great explorer was buried. 

 The materials will be conveyed, free of expense, from the 

 mouth of the Zambesi to Lake Bangweolo, by the kindness of the 

 African Lakes Corporation and the British South Africa Company. 

 The prospects of the Antarctic expedition, from a financial 

 point of view, have been somewhat clouded by the war. At 

 least 30,000/. more than has already been raised is required. 

 Apart from the finances, the affairs of the expedition are in a 

 flourishing state, and everything seems hopeful. The keel of 

 the exploring ship is now laid at Dundee. She will be the 

 best polar exploring vessel that has ever left these shores^ 

 and the first that has ever been built in this country specially 

 for scientific work in polar regions. 



We regret to record the death, at the age of seventy-seven,, 

 of Mr. James Thomson, F.G.S. , of Shawlands, Glasgow. 

 Among the many enthusiastic workers at Scottish geology, 

 none had plied his hammer with more zeal. He had been an. 

 active member of the Geological Society of Glasgow for up- 

 wards of forty years, and was a frequent attendant at the meet- 

 ings of the British Association. Although he had written on. 

 the geology of Islay, and on parts of Arran and the Outer 

 Hebrides, his special researches were on the Scottish Carboni- 

 ferous corals ; and his contributions on this subject, carried on. 

 partly in conjunction with the late Prof. H. A. Nicholson, 

 were numerous. He had formed an exceedingly fine collection, 

 of fossil corals, which he presented to his native town» 

 Kilmarnock. 



A POSSIBLE method of prevention of horse-sickness, which is 

 endemic in the Orange Free State, Transvaal, Natal, Rhodesia 

 and Bechuanaland, and also occasionally occurs in Cape Colony, 

 is described in the Cape Times (April 24) by Dr. G. C. Purvis. 

 Fortified serum, derived from immune horses, almost invariably 

 produces fatal hemoglobinuria when injected into horses suffer- 

 ing from horse-sickness. Dr. Purvis finds, however, that if the 

 animal is gradually accustomed to the toxin, until it can receive 

 an injection of 100 c.c. or 200 c.c. of serum, virulent blood can 

 be injected without danger. It appears that fortified serutrk 

 is a useful agent if used in a proper way, and that it is capable of 

 preventing the onset of horse-sickness. Moreover, if, in spite of 

 precautions, an animal acquires the disease, judicious treatment 

 with the serum will assist in bringing about a cure. 



