January 30, 1896] 



NATURE 



303 



tries," the Chairman commented upon the relation of peace and 

 monetary matters, and showed how the School of Mines was of 

 the highest importance in training men to open up gold and 

 other mining centres. Profs. Roberts-Austen and Le Neve 

 Foster replied for metallurgy and mining, respectively. The toast 

 of *' The Professors " was proposed by Prof. Page, and replied to 

 by Prof. Judd. Mr. G. T. Holloway proposed "The Learned 

 Societies," and Prof. Tilden responded. " The Health of the 

 Old Students " was dealt with by Mr. B. H. Brough and Mr. 

 S. H. Cox. The question of the formation of a register of the 

 old students was referred to by several of the speakers, and 

 a guarantee fund for its publication was raised. 



A NOTE received from Mr. John Plummer, Sydney, New 

 South Wales, calls attention to the way in which science is repre- 

 sented in the colony. The Royal Society of New South Wales 

 originated in 182 1 as the Philosophical Society of Australasia, 

 the present name being adopted, by Royal sanction, in 1856. 

 The Linnean Society of New South Wales was established 

 mainly by the efforts of the late Sir William Macleay, a devoted 

 naturalist, in 1875, and has numbered among its members 

 many of the leading scientific men in Australasia. The Royal 

 (jeographical Association, established in 1883, has branches in 

 Victoria, South Australia, and Queensland. The headquarters 

 of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 based on the lines of the British Association, are in Sydney. 

 The meetings of the Association are held alternately in the 

 various colonies. Among other scientific associations in Sydney 

 are the New South Wales Zoological Society, branches of the 

 British Astronomical and British Medical Associations, Australian 

 Economical Association, Pharmaceutical Society, Engineering 

 Association, Insurance Institute, Institute of Architects, Institute 

 of Bankers, Electric Club, Institute of Surveyors, &c. ; not a bad 

 record for a country which has but recently completed the first 

 century of its existence, and is yet practically in its infancy as a 

 nation. 



A Hygienic Exhibition will be held at Warsaw during the 

 present year. The Journal of the Society of Arts says that 

 there are nine Committees at work, to whom have been assigned 

 the following subjects : ( i ) Air, water, light ; food in general, 

 and articles connected with the above ; also kitchen utensils> 

 paints, wall-paper, and poisonous vegetables. (2) The question 

 of sterilisation ; also the utensils used for the culture of bacilli, 

 showing exhaustively the method of ascertaining their presence 

 and the means for their destruction. (3) Human dwellings in 

 general, past and present, and the latest improvement in 

 hygienic building. (4) The hygienic mode of caring for children ; 

 construction of school-houses, all systems of school education, 

 and school-rooms and furniture. (5) The hygiene of industry; 

 the hygienic conditions prevailing in the homes of labourers, 

 shops, and factories ; also food, and drink, and vital statistics. 

 (6) The history and statistics of hygiene and the modern hos- 

 pitals of the world. (7) The literature and history of pharmacy, 

 f)atent medicines, furniture, and medical instruments, and all 

 pharmaceutical utensils. (8) Statistical plans, diagrams, draw- 

 ings, and all printed matter on the subject of hygiene, meteor- 

 olc^y, geology, hydrography, and anthropology, in all their 

 detail, and all sciences connected therewith. (9) The manner 

 of living, dwellings, tSic. , of all classes of the population from a 

 sanitary point of view. Awards of gold, silver, and bronze 

 medals will be made, and also diplomas and letters of honour. 



The French Meteorological Office has recently issued its 

 Annaks for the year 1893, consisting of three parts : (l) memoirs, 

 containing discussions on thunderstorms, distribution of hail, 

 terrestrial magnetism, &c.; (2) observations made at stations in 

 France and its colonies ; and {3) a very detailed account of the 

 distribution of rainfall. From the introductory text we see that 



NO. 1370, VOL. 53] 



weather forecasts are r^ularly issued to seaports and to agri- 

 culturists, and also warnings of storms. In both of these de- 

 partments a large amount of success has been achieved, part of 

 which is attributed to the regular receipt of telegrams from the 

 Azores and from America, a comparison of these data allowing 

 a more accurate idea to be formed of the changes which approach 

 from the Atlantic Ocean. Observations are regularly collected 

 from ships, and the observers, both on land and at sea, are 

 encouraged in their work by the presentation of medals to those 

 who have kept the best registers. Comparative observations are 

 made at the Central Office and on the Eiffel Tower ; the next 

 year will complete a series of five years' observations, when a 

 discussion of the more important results obtained will be under- 

 taken, with especial reference to the influence of altitude on the 

 various meteorological elements. 



A SIMPLE instrument for recording the time of occurrence 

 of an earthquake is described by Prof. C. F. Marvin in the 

 U.S. Monthly Weather Review. A heavy lead weight is sus- 

 pended on a short steel link, to which it is pivoted by means of 

 a sharp-pointed screw, the point being just above the centre of 

 gravity of the weight. A similar pointed support is provided 

 for the top of the link, which hangs from a small projection in 

 the frame of the instrument. The link is prolonged upwards as 

 a needle about 6 inches long, the top of which passes through a 

 small hole in a plate connected with the frame. The plate is 

 electrically insulated from the rest of the instrument. A move- 

 ment of the ground is magnified by the end of the needle, and 

 the contact of the needle with the sides of the hole in the plaite 

 can, by connection with suitable electrical apparatus, be made 

 to stop a clock or produce an automatic record on a sheet of 

 paper. The instrument is a modification of one devised by 

 Prof. Marvin in 1885, and has been in operation at the U.S. 

 Weather Bureau since the winter of 1892-93. The recording 

 apparatus used with it is the so-called " weekly anemometer 

 register," and the time of a disturbance can be read to less than 

 half a minute. It will be seen from this brief description that 

 Prof. Marvin's seismoscope is almost identical with that used to 

 start the revolving plate in Prof. Ewing's well-known seismo- 

 graph. 



The first number of The Scalpel contains an article, by Mr. 

 Lennox-Browne, on the new serum treatment of diphtheria, in 

 which the writer comments upon the statistics derived from its 

 application here and on the continent respectively, and attempts 

 to explain the great discrepancy which so far exists between 

 British and foreign results. Without entering into all the 

 details of the controversy, there is one point which may be of 

 some significance in the discussion ; and this is the complaint 

 made to the Clinical Society, that with the English serum 

 supplied, no indication was given of the varying strength with 

 which it was endowed. It may be of interest to know that in 

 Germany the antitoxic serum is subject to State control as 

 regards its preparation, the estimation of its activity, and its 

 sterility, and that each phial which is issued, bears as a guarantee 

 the official control number, as well as the date of the official test 

 of the serum. The fact that in England such striking results 

 have not so far beea obtained as on the continent and in 

 America, cannot alter the fact that we have undoubtedly in the 

 serum-treatment of diphtheria a new departure in therapeutics, 

 the far-reaching importance of which can hardly be exaggerated, 

 and certainly not denied. 



The numl>er of icebergs met between the Cape of Good 

 Hope and Australia are vastly greater in some years than 

 in others. Within the past few years, for instance, an ex- 

 traordinary accession of enormous icebergs has occurred. As 

 an explanation of this, it has been suggested that unusual falls 



