September 15, 1892] 



NATURE 



477 



The explorer then again descended to the coast, covering thirty 

 miles a day. He met the Kite, with the relief party, on August 

 4, near the head of McCormick's Bay, having completed his 

 original programme to the very letter. The geographical dis- 

 coveries made by the expedition include the tracing of the 

 Greenland coasts above the 79th parallel, the termination of the 

 continental ice-cap below Victoria Inlet, and the existence of 

 glaciers on all the northern fiords. Many valuable tidal and 

 meteorological observations were also obtained, as well as a 

 quantity of material for the ethnological study of the northern 

 Eskimo, including specimens of their costumes, tents, and 

 sledges. The expedition brings home, besides a number of 

 photographs of natives and of Arctic scenery, a large collection 

 of the flora and fauna of the high latitudes visited. 



The four Dundee whaling vessels, whose intended voyage to 

 the Antarctic seas has been already referred to in these notes, 

 sailed from Dundee last week. Three of the vessels carry 

 surgeons who have been specially instructed in making meteoro- 

 logical and biological observations. They are fully equipped 

 with appliances for collecting specimens of every kind. The 

 more strictly geographical conditions will be observed by the 

 captains, who have been supplied with additional instruments to 

 enable them to lay down their track with a greater degree of 

 accuracy than would be necessary in ordinary circumstances. 

 Their long Arctic experience fits them for navigating the ice- 

 hampered waters of the South and for comparing the conditions 

 found there with those of the better-known North Polar zone. 



The railway from Jaffa to Jerusalem is now practically com- 

 pleted, and will be opened for traffic before the end of this 

 month. Recent events in Russia have caused a great increase 

 in the Jewish population of Jerusalem, leading to the extension 

 of the city beyond the walls. The railway will do much to pro- 

 mote the prosperity of Palestine and will probably be largely 

 utilized. 



The Gilbert Islands, in the Central Pacific, have been 

 definitely brought under British protection. The group is 

 bisected by the equator, and forms the central link in the long 

 chain of coral and volcanic islands which stretches from the 

 northern to the southern tropic between the meridians of 160° 

 and 180° E. The Marshall Islands, which are the most 

 northerly of this chain, are under German control. 



The Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society for 

 September publishes an interesting account of a journey in 

 Sikkim undertaken by Mr. C. White and Mr. Hoffman in July 

 189 1, with the purpose of exploring and photographing the sur- 

 roundings of Kanchinjinga. The travellers crossed by the 

 Zeumtso La pass into the Tremu Valley, the magnificent glacier 

 in which was visited for the first time by Europeans. The main 

 glacier — fifteen miles long — is joined by the union of six smaller 

 glaciers, and several others were observed which, could not be 

 approached. The Tremu Valley was proved to be only a fort- 

 night's journey from Darjiling, a fact which makes the almost 

 entire ignorance of the existence of glaciers in it very remark- 

 able. 



In the course of his travels into the interior of Iceland 

 {Petermann's Mitteilungen, vol. 38), Th. Thoroddsen dis- 

 covered an unknown lake in the unexplored region of Vatna- 

 Jokull. "The greatest part of the western edge of the Vatna- 

 JokuU is formed by a mighty glacier, whose margin stretches 

 with faint curvature towards the southern horizon. The moun- 

 tain chains which reach the glacier are powerless to influence 

 its shape. We were surprised by the discovery of a very long 

 lake, stretching from the margin of the glacier close to us to- 

 wards the south-west as far as the eye could see, and filling up 

 the valley between us and a parallel mountain chain. The narrow 

 lake is of a milk-white colour, formed as it is by glacier ice. I 

 named it Langisjor. The glacier reaches with its steep flank to 

 the north end of the lake, and as it is riddled with clefts it is 

 impossible to ride round on this side. The landscape round the 

 lake is of magnificent beauty, only vegetation is quite absent. 

 The greenish-white lake is surrounded by red and yellow tuff 

 hills, with innumerable fantastic points and summits. On the 

 other side of the chain which terminates the lake in the south 

 stretches an extensive flat plateau, in which glitters a large 

 watercourse, probably the Skapta, and far to the south are seen 

 some great lava streams, dating probably from the 1783 

 eruption." 



NO. I 194, VOL. 46] 



INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF 

 PHYSIOLOGISTS. 

 'T'HE second International Congress of Physiologists, which 

 took place at Liege on August 29, 30, and 31, was 

 attended by more than 100 physiologists, including among 

 others :— Prof. F. Holmgren (Upsala), President of the Con- 

 gress, Profs. Hensen, Hiirthle, Kiihne, Rosenthal, Cybulski, 

 Kronecker, Miescher, Fredericq, H^er, Heymans, Arloing, 

 Chauveau, Dastre, Grehant, Hedon, Langlois, Laulanie, Morat, 

 VVertheimer, Hamburger, Grigorescu, Wedensky, and the 

 following English members : Profs. Foster, Burdon Sanderson, 

 Schafer, Allen, Gotch, Halliburton, Horsley, Purser, Way- 

 mouth Reid, Stirling, Waller, Drs. Adami, Beevor, Paton, 

 Martin, Mott, Pye-Smith, Sherrington, Starling, Shore, Sims 

 Woodhead ; Messrs. Bayliss, Burch, and Parsons. 



The work of the Congress was carried on in the Institutes of 

 Zoology and Physiology, these institutions being placed at the 

 disposal of the members by the kind courtesy of the two direct- 

 ing professors, whilst in addition the whole arrangements were 

 excellently organized through the energy of the Professor of 

 Physiology, Prof. Leon Fredericq. 



The work of each day was so arranged that the mornings only 

 need be devoted to the formal hearing of communications in th<i 

 large lecture hall of the Zoological Institute, and the afternoons- 

 were thus left entirely free for informal meetings in the Physio- 

 logical Institute, when demonstrations of special interest were 

 shown in the rooms of the laboratory, thus adding very 

 materially to the interest and utility of the proceedings. The 

 following list of the various communications and demonstrations 

 will at least serve to show the large extent of ground covered by- 

 the subject-matter brought forward, and the activity with whicli' 

 physiological research is now being pursued. 



Monday, August 29.— Presidents : Prof. Chauveau 

 (Paris), Prof. Burdon Sanderson (Oxford). 



A. Communications. 



1. Hermann. — Phonophotography. 



2. Rosenthal. — Results of observations with improved 

 calorimetric methods. 



3. Halliburton. — Nucleo-albumins. 



4. Starling. — The fate of peptones in the blood and the 

 lymph. 



5. Max Cremer. — Experiments on the effects of feeding 

 animals with certain sugars. 



6. Langlois. — The functions of the suprarenal bodies. 



7. Morat. — The innervation of the tensor tympani. 



8. Hamburger.— The effect of different salts upon the 

 properties of red blood corpuscles. 



9. Celine Muro. — Physiological evolution. 



B. Demonstrations. 



1. Hiirthle. — A new method of registering the sounds of the 

 heart in man by means of a microphone. 



2. Wertheimer. — {a) The excretion by the liver of bile intro- 



duced into the blood. 

 (b) Vaso-dilatation effects of strychnia. 



3. Laulanie. — The cardiograph (needle method). 



4. Wedensky. — Demonstration by the telephone of the 

 electrical changes which accompany the passage of nerve im- 

 pulses, and the influence upon these of electrotonic alterations 

 in nerve excitability. 



5. Sherrington. — The cortical representation of the move- 

 ments of the hallux and especially of the anus in the Macaque 

 monkey. 



6. Langlois. — The variations in the discharge of heat during 

 ' ' la maladie pyocyanique. " 



Tuesday, August 30. — Presidents : Prof. KOhne 



(Heidelberg), Prof, H^ger (Brussels). 



A. Communications. 



1. Bowditch. — Composite photography. 



2. Olivier. — Protoplasmic continuity. 



3. Schafer. — The structure of the insect's wing muscles. 



4. Schafer. — The negative effects of severance of the frontal 

 lobes of the cerebrum. 



5. Vitzou. — (a) The visual centres of the dog and monkey. 



{b) The effects of total ablation of a cerebral) 

 hemisphere. 



