252 



NATURE 



[July 12, 190 j 



:a cordial reception, anfl are providing a r«ception room, and 

 ^making arrangements for special visits and excursions for the 

 'benefit of members attending. 



A Public Health Congress will be held at Aberdeen from 

 August 2 to 7, under the auspices of the Royal Institute of 

 ^Public Health. Among the papers promised may be mentioned 

 the following :— " Disinfection," by Prof. Delepine ; " Sewage," 

 by Prof. Percy Frankland, F.R.S. ; and "The Origin and 

 Treatment of Malarial Fever," by Dr. Patrick Manson. There 

 will also be submitted and discussed a report on the inquiry 

 made into the chemical and bacteriological condition of the air 

 T in the London Board Schools. 



The Home Secretary has appointed a committee to inquire 

 ' into the working of the method of identification of criminals by 

 measurements and finger prints, and the administrative arrange- 

 . ments for carrying on the same, and to report whether any and 

 •what changes are desirable. The members of the committee are 

 Lord Helper (Chairman), Mr. F. A, Bosanquet, Q.C., Common 

 ■Serjeant, Mr. A. De Rutzen, Metropolrtan Police Magistrate, 

 and Mr. C. S. Murdoch, C.B., and Mr. C. E. Troup, C.B., of 

 the Home Office, with Mr. C. Lubbock, of the Home Office, 

 ; as secretary. 



Among the Civil List pensions granted during the year ended 

 on June 20, we notice the following : — Mr. Benjamin Harrison, 

 in consideration of his researches in the subject of pre-historic 

 flint implements, 26/. ; Mr. Thomas Whittaker, in considera- 

 tion of his philosophical writings, 50/. ; Mr. Charles James 

 Wollaston, in recognition of his services in connection with the 

 > introduction of submarine telegraphy, 100/. ; Mr. Robert Tucker, 

 in consideration of his services in promoting the study of mathe- 

 matics, 40/. ; Mrs. Eliza Arlidge, in consideration of the labours 

 of her late husband. Dr. John Thomas Arlidge, in the cause of 

 industrial hygiene, 50/. ; Miss Emily Victoria Biscoe, in con- 

 sideration of the services rendered to Antarctic exploration, by 

 ' her late father, Captain John Biscoe, 30/. 



Some molluscan remains found in a sandstone from the Malay 

 Peninsula were described by Mr. R. Bullen Newton at the May 

 meeting of the Malacological Society of London. The shells 

 • consist of Lamellibranch casts and impressions, many of them 

 being sufficiently well defined to point conclusively to their 

 Triassic origin. The most abundant genus represented is 

 myophoria, so characteristic of the Trias period, Chlamys 

 valoniensis also occurs, together with other bivalves. These 

 1 fossils, the first recorded from this area of south-eastern Asia, 

 were collected by Mr. H. F. Bellamy, and subsequently pre- 

 sented by him to the Geological Department of the British 

 Museum. They were obtained from the Pahang Trunk Road, 

 on the Lipis River. 



The annual meeting of the Museums Association was opened 

 at Canterbury on Monday. In an address, Dr. Henry Wood- 

 ward, F.R.S. , the president-elect, referred to his forty-two 



■years' association with the British Museum and to the many 

 changes and improvements which had taken place there during 

 that period. He advocated the publication by the association of 

 a handbook giving an account of every provincial museum 

 throughout the country, with full particulars as to. each, not 

 only as to its officers, organisation, and its plan of arrangement, 

 but also what were the chief features of its exhibits and especially 

 any records concerning types and figured specimens preserved in 

 its collections and any other particulars of general public in- 



' terest. Papers upon museums and related subjects were 



■ subsequently read. 



A new medical institute, having for its object the placing at 

 the disposal of doctors the aids to diagnosis required in many 

 1 forms of disease, has just been opened in Berlin. The institute 

 NO. 1602. VOL. 62] 



will place at the disposal of the medical profession its labora- 

 tories, instruments and apparatus, and its officers will undertake 

 the carrying out of special researches and examinations. It has 

 departments devoted to the study of bacteriology, chemical 

 microscopy, pathological anatomy, and physiology. To the. 

 last-named is attached a Rcintgen ray room. 



General Sir R. Murdoch Smith, K.C.M.G., Director- 

 General of the Museum of Science and Art, Edinburgh, since 

 1885, died on July 3, after a brief illness. He was born in 

 1835, and was the executive officer with Sir Charles Newton's 

 archceological expedition in Asia Minor in 1856-59. He ex- 

 plored the Cyrenaice- and made successful explanations at 

 Cyrene in 1860-61. Subsequently he became director-in-chief 

 of the Government Indo-European Telegraph Department. He 

 was the author of a "History of the Recent Discoveries at 

 Cyrene," and of a " Handbook of Persian Art." 



A permanent committee for the study of tuberculosis as a 

 national scourge has been formed in Russia. The president is 

 Prof. W. D. Scherwinsky, of Moscow. The committee, which 

 has met twice a month since the beginning of April, has, says 

 the British Medical Journal, drawn up for itself the following 

 programme of work : (i) Reports on the communications made 

 on tuberculosis to the PirogofF Congress and other medical 

 societies in Russia ; (2) reports of foreign congresses on tuber- 

 culosis; (3) reports on tuberculosis as an infectious disease 

 (diagnosis, etiology — heredity, individual predisposition, external 

 influences, mode of diffusion, economic and social factors) ; (4) 

 statistical data respecting tuberculosis in Russia ; (5) legislative 

 measures and ordinances in regard to tuberculosis of human 

 beings and beasts ; (6) sanatoria, koumiss establishments, &c. ; 



(7) the means actually in use, and which should be used, for the 

 prevention of tuberculosis in the different provinces of Russia ; 



(8) tuberculosis in animals and its relation to the disease in 

 human beings. 



The new number of the Geographical Journal gives further 

 particulars as to the preparations that have been made for the 

 forthcoming National Antarctic Expedition. An executive 

 officer, Lieut. Charles Royds, R.N., of H.M.S. Crescent, has 

 been appointed ; and Mr. T. V. Hodgson (of the Marine 

 Biological Station of Plymouth) and Dr. R. Koettlitz (of the 

 Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition) will form part of the scientific 

 staff, which Prof. Pollock (the holder of the chair of physics in 

 the University of Sydney) will, it is stated, be invited to join. 

 The name of the vessel used will be the Discovery. As was 

 mentioned in our issue of May 31, the commanding officer of 

 the expedition will be Lieut. R. F. Scott, R.N., and the leader 

 of the scientific staff will be Prof. J. W. Gregory. 



. From information that has reached us from Mr. Rotch's 

 Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory we learn that a kite used 

 in the exploration of the air was on June 19 sent up to the 

 height of 14,000 feet, thus exceeding the greatest height 

 previously obtained there by 1440 feet. The temperature at 

 this height was fifteen degrees below freezing point, the wind 

 velocity was about twenty-five miles an hour from the north- 

 east, and the air was extremely dry, although clouds floated 

 above and below that level. The kites remained near the 

 highest point from 5 to 8 p.m. On the way down the kites 

 passed through a stratum of thin ragged clouds at the height of 

 i^ miles. These were moving with a velocity of about 30 miles 

 an hour. At this time the wind at the observatory, about 600 

 feet above the general level of the surrounding country, had 

 fallen to a calm. The highest point was reached with 44 miles 

 of music wire as a flying line supported by five kites attached 

 to the line at intervals of about \ miles. The kites were Har- 

 grave or box kites of the improved form devised at the 



