374 



NATURE 



[August i6, 1900 



organisations of the United Kingdom on matters of origina 

 research in Australasia. He will give an address at the Conven- 

 tion of Mining Institutes of Cornwall during August, and 

 subsequently at Manchester, Bristol and other centres. 



Some interesting information as to the actual experience of 

 nations who have adopted the metric system is given in a 

 number of reports from Her Majesty's consular and other officers 

 in Europe, which have just been brought together and published 

 by the Foreign Office. H.M. representatives in twenty-two 

 States were asked to give information upon the following points. 

 (i) The ease or difficulty with which the change of systems was 

 made, the manner of introduction of the metric system, and 

 the time occupied in making the change ; (2) How far the 

 metric system is satisfactory in its practical operation, and 

 whether there is any desire to return to former systems ; (3) As 

 to the effect the adoption of the metric system has had upon the 

 commerce of the nations adopting it. The answers received to 

 these questions go to show that the best way to introduce the 

 metric system is to make it compulsory afcer a specified period. 

 The change from the old to the new system is slow in country 

 districts, but as new generations come on familiar with the 

 metric measures the old measures gradually drop out of use. In 

 Turkey, the difficulties of enforcing the system upon an ignorant 

 and illiterate people have proved insurmountable ; but in the 

 majority of States from which information has been received, 

 the system is becoming more extensively used every day. Once 

 the system has been adopted there is no desire to return to the 

 old measures, and the effect upon commerce is always bene- 

 ficial. In fact, the reports greatly strengthen the position of 

 those who urge that the metric system should be adopted in 

 England, if only for the sake of British trade. 



It was mentioned in these columns some time ago that the 

 wire fencing of great sheep farms in some parts of Australia was 

 used as telephone wires. A recent report from H.M. Consul at 

 Philadephia states that this system of communication is being 

 employed by farmers between the towns of Anderson, Pendleton 

 and Ingalls, in Indiana. The top wire of a barb-wire fence is 

 used as the conductor, the continuity of the line beuig assured 

 by special devices at highways and railway crossings. The line 

 is fourteen miles in length with five stations, two at Anderson, 

 two in Pendleton, and one at Ingalls. Local farmers state that 

 they have used the " fence-line" to converse with friends eight 

 miles distant, and this at a time when the fence posts were still 

 saturated with the morning dew, a condition under which the 

 line is supposed to work with least satisfaction. It is stated that 

 the line has been such a practical success that the farmers of the 

 neighbourhood are organising companies for the purpose of 

 placing themselves in telephonic communication throughout the 

 whole district. 



An excellent article dealing with the photographic side of 

 the suggestions as to analytical portraiture made by Mr. F. 

 Galton in Nature of August 2 appears in Photography of 

 August 9. Illustrations are given of results obtained by com- 

 bining two portraits of a single person in the same pose, but 

 having different expressions during the two exposures. In one 

 picture the sitter has a normal expression ; in the other he is 

 smiling. A transparency was made from the normal negative ; 

 and when this positive and its negative were superimposed 

 they neutralised one another. But by placing the positive of 

 the normal expression of face upon the negative of the smiling 

 expression, the two do not, of course, exactly obliterate one 

 another. Certain parts of the features are common to both, and 

 these disappear when the different positive and negative are | 

 superimposed, leaving only portions which represent the smile 

 of the sitter's features. In a similar way, by superimposing the 

 positive of a glum portrait upon the negative of a normal 

 NO. 1607, VOL. 62] 



expression, it is possible to obtain differences representing an 

 individual's glumness. Readers of "Alice in Wonderland" 

 will remember that the Cheshire cat gradually disappeared and 

 left only its grin behind. This facetious idea has now been 

 realised, for as our enterprising contemporary points out, Mr. 

 Galton's analytical portraiture shows how the factors of a grin 

 or a scowl can actually be discriminated, so that a grin can be 

 obtained without the face upon which it appeared. 



A Reuter telegram from Liverpool, dated August 12, makes 

 the following announcement :— -The second malarial expeditior> 

 of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine has just wired 

 home from Bonny, in Nigeria, news of a most important 

 discovery — viz. that the parasite which causes elephantiasis has, 

 like that which causes malaria, been found in the proboscis of 

 the mosquito. Oddly enough, the same discovery has just been 

 simultaneously made by Dr. Low in England in mosquitoes 

 brought from Australia, and by Captain James in India. 

 Elephantiasis is a disease which causes hideous deformity in 

 thousands, or rather millions, of natives in tropical countries, 

 and sometimes in European residents. It is due to a small worm 

 which lives in the lymphatic vessels and occludes them. The 

 fact that this worm can live also in the mosquito has long been 

 known, but the discovery of it in the insect's proboscis shows 

 that it enters the human body by the bites of these pests. 

 Europeans in the tropics are indebted to mosquitoes, not only for 

 much discomfort, but for two dread maladies — malaria and 

 elephantiasis ; and it is high time that the authorities should 

 begin seriously to consider Major Ross's advice to destroy these 

 insects or their breeding-places wherever practicable. 



The medical papers contain detailed reports of the Thirteenth 

 International Congress of Medicine, which was held in Paris at 

 the beginning of this month under the presidency of Prof. O. M. 

 Lannelongue. Among the representatives of Great Britain were 

 Sir William MacCormac, Sir T. Lauder Brunton, Sir J. Burdon 

 Sanderson, Sir Dyce Duckworth, Sir Felix Semon, and Prof. 

 Simpson. A banquet in honour of Lord Lister was arranged by 

 Prof. Charles Richet and the " Scientia " social society. Speeches 

 expressing admiration of Lord Lister's work, and describing 

 the influence it has had upon various branches of medical and 

 surgical science, were made by Prof. Richet, Dr. Bouchard, Prof. 

 Guyon. Dr. Lucas Championniere, and Dr. Pinard. In his 

 reply. Lord Lister said he regarded the banquet as being in 

 honour of the noble science of surgery and the Royal Society of 

 London, of which he was the president. It showed that the 

 scientific world knew nothing of the misunderstandings between 

 peoples of different nationalities, and that men of science had 

 mutual respect for one another at all times. Lord Lister added : 

 "I have often said, and it gives me pleasure to repeat it this 

 evening, that I owe much to Pasteur. It is true that I was 

 passionately fond of physiology and surgery. The nature of in- 

 flammation was the subject of my first investigations. As a 

 surgeon, I deplored the disastrous results which often followed 

 the most skilful operations, and I saw, what many others had 

 doubtless remarked before me, that the most important troubles 

 of a wound were due to changes in the tissues of the body after 

 the operation, and had an external origin. But all my efforts to 

 avoid these complications were unavailing until Pasteur threw a 

 new and strong light upon the subject, and indicated a possible 

 course of action which I have done my best to follow. That is 

 all. If my efforts have been followed by such beneficial results 

 as have been generously described by speakers this evening, the 

 success must, in a great measure, be ascribed to the fortunate 

 chance of my time." 



The report of the Zoological Gardens of Ghizeh, near Cairo, 

 for the year 1899, gives a good account of the progress of this 

 Institution, which, under the rule of its present director. Captain 



