400 



NATURE 



[February 27, 1896 



thousands of miles from home, interchangeable. It is added, 

 moreover, that, if the way to this reform be once opened under 

 the lead of railways, private manufacturers may be confidently 

 expected to promptly follow suit. 



The spring meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute will be 

 held in London, at the Institution of Civil Engineers, on May 

 7 and 8 ; and the autumn meeting will be held at Bilbao at the 

 beginning of September, under the presidency of Sir David 

 Dale. Special arrangements are being made for the autumn 

 meeting, the programme for which will include visits to the im- 

 portant Spanish mines, from which so large a proportion of the 

 iron ore used in Great Britain is obtained. Owing to the 

 limited hotel accommodation at Bilbao, arrangements are being 

 made to secure one of the Orient Company's steamers to convey 

 the members to Bilbao and back, and to serve as a floating hotel. 

 It is proposed that the cruise should last a fortnight, and that 

 calls should be made at some of the Spanish and French water- 

 ing-places. 



In a letter to the Times, Admiral Richards briefly reviews 

 Dr. Nansen's expedition and the report of its having reached 

 the North Pole. It will be remembered that Nansen's intention 

 was to place his ship in the solid ice off" the coast of Siberia and 

 to drift with it across the Pole into the Greenland Sea, believing 

 it would be carried there by a current. Admiral Richards points 

 out, however, that in the Polar basin proper it is doubtful if the 

 ice ever finds an exit. The ships which entered on its confines 

 in Wellington Channel found it blocked there ; M'Clure also 

 found it blocked between Banksland and Melville Island. Nares 

 coald not get a mile north from the top of Smith Sound for very 

 heavy ice, and the only channel it could escape by is the Green- 

 land Sea, of which there is no evidence, while by Davis Strait 

 great numbers of bergs and enormous quantities of ice are con- 

 stantly passing down in the months of July and August, but 

 none of it from the Arctic basin proper. These facts, remarks 

 Admiral Richards, tell strongly against Nansen's succeeding in 

 his original project, but they need not have been an obstacle in 

 his reaching a certain distance north from the coast of Siberia. 



The anniversary meeting of the Geological Society of London 

 was held on Friday, when Dr. Henry Hicks, F.R.S., was 

 elected President for the ensuing year. The retiring President 

 (Dr. Edward Woodward) delivered his anniversary address, 

 which dealt with the life-history of the Crustacea in later 

 Palaeozoic and in Neozoic times. The following awards of medals 

 and funds were made : The Wollaston medal to Prof. E. Suess ; 

 the Murchison medal, and part of the proceeds of the Murchison 

 fund, to Mr. T. Mellard Reade ; the Lyell medal, and part of the 

 proceeds of the Lyell fund, to Mr. A. Smith Woodward ; 

 balance of the Wollaston fund, and part of the proceeds of the 

 Barlow-Jameson fund, to Mr. Alfred Harker ; balance of 

 the proceeds of the Murchison fund to Mr. Philip Lake ; 

 moiety of balance of proceeds of Lyell fund to Dr. W. F. 

 Hume ; moiety of balance of proceeds of Lyell fund to Mr. 

 C. W. Andrews ; moiety of balance of proceeds of Barlow- 

 Jameson fund to Mr. Joseph Wright ; moiety of balance of 

 proceeds of Barlow-Jameson fund to Mr. John Storrie. 



We understand from the Lancet that the arrangements for the 

 next International Congress, which will be held in Moscow in 

 August 1897, are now being worked out by the special Com- 

 mittee appointed for the purpose. There will be twelve sec- 

 tions, as follows : (i) anatomy, (2) physiology, (3) general 

 l^athology and pathological anatomy, (4) general therapeutics, 

 (5) internal diseases, (6) children's diseases, (7) nervous and 

 mental diseases, (8) dermatology, (9) surgery and diseases of the 



p, (10) midwifery and gynaecology, (11) hygiene, and (12) legal 



NO. 1374, VOL. 53] 



medicine. The Government has assigned 35,cxx) roubles for the 

 expenses of the congress. The official language of the congress 

 will be the French language, but in the general meetings, of 

 which there will be three, communications may be made in 

 any European tongue. In the sectional meetings only three 

 languages will be admitted — namely, French, German, and 

 Russian. Englishmen must regret that they will be debarred 

 from making communications in their own tongue to the sectional 

 meetings, and that their only opportunity of reading papers in 

 the English language will be in the three general meetings. 



The scientific study of the mental and physical condition of 

 children, carried out by Dr. Francis Warner in connection with 

 a Committee of the Congress of Hygiene, has led to results 

 which claim full consideration. Dr. Warner gave an account of 

 his investigations before the Royal Statistical Society last week. 

 It appears that defective development is more frequent in boys 

 than in girls, and more associated with nervous disorder in the 

 former and with delicacy and dulness in girls. Mental dulness 

 is found much associated with irregular movement and action, 

 especially among boys, showing that physical exercises should 

 form a part of brain culture in school. Dealing with the question 

 of mental dulness, Dr. Warner showed that the want of physical 

 training of the brain appears to be a more frequent cause than 

 defective development of the body. Defective physiognomy and 

 proportioning of the features and parts of the body is often 

 associated with mental dulness, but the occurrence of brain dis- 

 orderliness, indicated by observable signs, is a more general and 

 direct cause. Both defect in development and nerve disorder- 

 liness, either alone or in combination with low nutrition, are much 

 associated with mental dulness. From the facts collected, Dr. 

 Warner has been able to deduce the indications of some of the 

 physical causes of defect of body, defect of brain, and mental 

 dulness. It is to be hoped that it will be possible to continue 

 such research beyond the metropolitan area, and that a com. 

 mission might be appointed by the Government to consider the 

 many important recommendations on national education result- 

 ing from the investigation thus far completed. 



The ancient and familiar process used in the manufacture oi 

 linen, and known as the ' ' retting " of flax, has long eluded all 

 endeavours to place it upon a sound scientific basis. Prof. 

 Winogradsky, of St. Petersburg, has, however, recently shown 

 that it is directly dependent upon the action of particular bac- 

 teria. Considerable difficulty was experienced in discovering the 

 special microbes responsible for the process, and several different 

 varieties were isolated by means of gelatine plate culture from 

 the retted or fermented flax; but in no case, when inoculated on 

 to sterilised flax, did retting ensue. When, however, portions 

 of retted flax were added to the sterilised flax, vigorous fermen- 

 tation was set up in from twelve to fifteen hours. In the next 

 series of experiments pieces of sterilised flax were inoculated, 

 placed in tubes containing water, the surface of which was sealed 

 from the air by means of a film of oil. In this manner, after a 

 long series of successive inoculations, a somewhat large, spore- 

 forming bacillus was discovered, which subsequent experiments 

 proved to be the specific microbe responsible for the retting of 

 flax. It was obtained in a condition of undoubted purity by 

 anaerobic cultivation on slices of potato which were rubbed over 

 with chalk, and from these cultures the retting of sterilised flax 

 was accomplished with the greatest ease. Prof. Winogradsky 

 is of opinion that the so-called pectic fermentation, by which is 

 understood the transformation during retting of insoluble pectic 

 substances into soluble, must now be regarded as a fermentation 

 process in the strict bacteriological sense of the word. 



In the Meteorologische Zetischrift for December 1895, Prof. G. 

 Hellmann discusses the yearly period of storms in Europe, with 



