August q, 1900J 



NATURE 



349 



several reflections had to be considered. It has been 

 completed for three reflections, and Mr. Max Mason, of 

 Madison, to whom I am greatly indebted for his patient 

 work in assisting me, is going on with the series. As 

 will be seen, the wave has already become quite com- 

 plicated, and it will be interesting to see what further 

 changes result after three or four more reflections. I am 

 also under obligations to Prof .A.. B. Porter, of Chicago, 

 who prepared the set of drawings illustrating the passage 

 of a wave out from the principal focus of a hemispherical 

 mirror. R. W. Wood. 



NOTES. 



Many friends and admirers of the late Sir William Flower 

 will be glad to know that a committee has been formed, with 

 Lord Avebury as chairman, to secure the erection of a memorial 

 to him. It is proposed that the memorial shall consist of a bust 

 and a commemorative brass tablet to be placed in the Whale 

 Room of the Natural History Museum — one of the departments 

 in which he was most interested, and to which he devoted special 

 care and attention. There should be a ready response to the 

 invitation for subscriptions to carry out this scheme, for Sir 

 William Flower's services to science are appreciated by every 

 one interested in the extension of natural knowledge. The 

 Natural History Museum ought not, indeed, to be without a 

 memorial of the man who took such an active part in its 

 development. Subscriptions (which must not exceed two 

 guineas) should be paid to Dr. P. L. Sclater, treasurer of 

 the Flower Memorial Fund, 3, Hanover Square, W. 



In the House of Commons on Tuesday, Mr. Goschen gave 

 some particulars with regard to the Committee to inquire into 

 the boilers of her Majesty's ships. The Committee will consist 

 of seven members, and the president will be Vice-Admiral Sir 

 Compton Domvile. The other members of the Committee 

 already chosen are Mr. List, superintending engineer of the 

 Castle Company ; Mr. Bain, superintending engineer of the 

 Cunard Line ; Mr. Milton, chief engineer surveyor of Lloyd's 

 Registry of Shipping ; Prof. Kennedy, formerly professor of 

 engineering at University College ; and, sixthly, an engineer of 

 the Royal Navy holding the rank of an inspector of machinery. 

 The seventh P'ember of the Committee has not yet been selected. 

 The instructions to the Committee are : — To ascertain practi- 

 cally and experimentally the relative advantages and dis- 

 advantages of the Belleville boiler for naval purposes as com- 

 pared with the cylindrical boiler. To investigate the causes of 

 the defects which have occurred in these boilers and in the 

 machinery of ships fitted with them, and to report how far they 

 are preventable either by modifications of details or by difference 

 of treatment, or how far they are inherent in the system. 

 Also to report generally on the suitability of the pro- 

 pelling and auxiliary machinery fitted in recent war 

 vessels, and to offer any suggestions for improvement, 

 stating at the same time the effect as regards weight 

 and space of any alterations proposed. To report on the 

 advantages and disadvantages of the Niclausse and Babcock 

 and Wilcox boilers compared with the Belleville, as far as the 

 n:eans at the disposal of the Committee permit, and also 10 

 report whether any other description of boiler has sufficient 

 advantages over the Belleville or the other two types men- 

 tioned, as a boiler for large cruisers and battleships, to make 

 it advisable to fit it in any of her Majesty's ships for trial. 

 For the purpose of making direct experiments between ships 

 fitted with Belleville and cylindrical boilers respectively, the 

 Hyacinth, fitted with Belleville boilers, will be placed at the 

 disposal of the Committee. A cruiser of similar type fitted 

 with cylindrical boilers will also be placed at the disposal of 

 the Committee when required for the purpose of comparison. 

 NO. 1606. VOL. 62] 



Mr. Goschen added that it is particularly desired that any 

 conclusions the Committee may arrive at should be supported 

 by experimental proof as far as possille, and that they should 

 propose any further experiments which may be considered 

 necessary for this purpose. 



We learn from the Electrician that a prize of looo francs (40' ) 

 is being offered by the Association des Industriels de France 

 contre les Accidents du Travail, 3, Rue de Lutece, Paris, for 

 the most efficacious insulating gloves for electrical workmen.: 

 They should be strong enough to resist not only the electric 

 pressure, but also accidental perforations by copper wires, &c. , 

 and must, in addition, be easy to wear by hands of any size and 

 allow the workmen's fingers sufficient freedom to execute their 

 work. The competition is international, and competitors must 

 send two pairs of gloves, accompanied by an explanatory note, to- 

 the president of the Association before December 31, 1900. 

 The Association reserves to itself the right to publish descriptions 

 of samples submitted to it, and inventors should therefore take 

 the precaution of protecting their inventions previously. 



A GLANCE through the addresses delivered at the meeting of 

 the British Medical Association held at Ipswich last week, and 

 published in the Britiih Medical Journal, shows that leading 

 members of the medical profession recognise the close relationship 

 between medicine and other sciences. The president, Dr. 

 W. A. EUiston, in an address in which he traced the develop- 

 ments of the science of British medicine and the evolution of 

 the modern physician, remarked : " I am not unmindful of the 

 up-to-date requirements of general culture — of an accurate know- 

 ledge of anatomy, chemistry, physiology, biology, bacteriology, 

 pathology, physics, optics, mechanics, electricity and photo- 

 graphy, which are all essential to the well-educated physician ; 

 they are daily called into requisition in order to diagnose and 

 to direct the eye and hand in the treatment of disease." Similar 

 acknowledgment of the dependence of medicine upon other 

 sciences was made by Dr. Pye-Smith in his address abridged 

 in another part of the present number. Mr. Frederick Treves, 

 however, in his address on the progress of surgery during the 

 last hundred years, ended his remarks with a sketch of the 

 surgeon's place in the future, and expressed the hope that 

 surgery might remain a handicraft, and that before all things 

 the surgeon would strive to render his own hands self-sufficing, 

 and not trust too much to diagnoses made for him in the 

 laboratory. Short addresses were delivered by some of the 

 presidents of the thirteen sections of the Association. In the 

 section of pathology, Dr. E. E. Klein spoke upon bacteriology 

 in relation to pathology, giving as illustrations of his theme the 

 bacteriological work bearing upon inflammation, necrosis and 

 cell secretions. Dr. Howard Marsh, in his address to the 

 section of surgery, remarked : " Long a mere matter of routine, 

 the treatment of fractures has lately felt the influence of modern 

 advance in other departments of surgery. The Rdntgen pro- 

 cess secures an accuracy of diagnosis which formerly was often 

 impossible." Dr. W. G. Smith made some suggestive remarks 

 upon the teaching of pharmacology, pointing out some of the 

 relationships between physiological action and chemical con- 

 stitution. This fascinating subject has occupied the attention 

 of several physiological chemists, and it offers numerous interest- 

 ing problems for investigation. 



We learn from the Athenaeum that the 83rd Annual Meeting 

 of the Swiss Natural Science Society will be held at Thiisis, 

 Canton Grisons, from September 2-4. Three other Swiss 

 scientific societies — the geological, the zoological, and the 

 botanical — will hold their annual meetings at the same time and 

 place. Intending guests are asked to communicate with the 

 president. Dr. Lorenz, at Coire, as soon as possible. Prof. 

 Forel, of Merges, will lecture at the general meeting of the 



