April i6, 1896] 



NATURE 



56: 



deceased husband, Henry D. Polhemus. The building will be 

 eight stories high, 67 by 92 feet in dimension, with the top 

 coping 116 feet above the street. The land and building cost 

 over 300,000 dollars, and apparatus and equipment will bring 

 the total cost up to about 500,000 dollars ; being, with perhaps 

 one exception, the largest individual contribution to one charity 

 ever made in Brooklyn. The admirable Hoagland Bacterio- 

 logical Laboratory is in immediate proximity." 



I We learn from Science that a Bill has been passed by the 

 Legislature of Maryland, and signed by the Governor, entitled 

 An Act to establish a State Geological and Economic Survey, 

 1 to make provision for the preparation and publication of 

 reports and maps to illustrate the natural resources of the State, 

 together with the necessary investigations preparatory thereto." 

 10,000 dols. annually is appropriated for carrying out the pro- 

 visions of the Act, and a Commission has been established, com- 

 \ posed of the Governor of the State, the Comptroller, the 

 •■- President of the Johns Hopkins University, and the President 

 of the Maryland Agricultural College. At a meeting of the 

 Commission, on March 25, Prof. William Bullock Clark was 

 apppointed State Geologist. He will at once begin work in the 

 field. 



A MEETING of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers will 

 . c held on Wednesday, April 29, and Friday, May i. The 

 President, Mr. E. Windsor Richards, will deliver his inaugural 

 address on Wednesday evening. The adjourned discussion will 

 be resumed on the same evening upon the paper, "Notes on 

 Steam Superheating," by Mr. William H. Patchell, read at the 

 last meeting. The following papers will be read and discussed 

 on Friday evening : "Steel Steam- Pipes and Fittings, and 

 Benardos Arc Welding in connection therewith," by Mr. Samuel 

 MacCarthy, of London ; " Research Committee on the Value of 

 the Steam-Jacket — Experiment on a Locomotive Engine," by 

 Prof. T. Hudson Beare and Mr. Bryan Donkin. The anniversary 

 dinner will take place on Thursday, April 30, 



The spring meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute of Great 

 Britain will be held on Thursday and Friday, May 7 and 8 

 next, at the Institution of Civil Engineers, Westminster, under 

 the presidency of Sir David Dale. Upon that occasion the 

 Bessemer Gold Medal, which is awarded annually in recognition 

 of meritorious services in advancing the science or practice of 

 the metallurgy of iron and steel, will be presented to Dr. Her- 

 mann Wedding, of BerHn. The list of papers down for reading 

 and discussion is a full and comprehensive one, there being no 

 fewer than ten communications on a variety of metallurgical 

 subjects. Prof. Roberts- Austen, C.B., will contribute a paper 

 on the rate of diffusion of carbon in iron, whilst Mr. J. S. de 

 Benneville, of Philadelphia, will read one on some alloys with 

 iron carbides. The application of Mond gas to steel-making 

 will be described by Mr. John H. Darby, and Mr. B. J. Hall 

 will discuss the subject of hot-blast stones. The Baron von 

 Jonstorff, of Neuberg, will read a paper on standard methods 

 of analysis, whilst the hardening of steel will be dealt with by 

 Mr. H. M. Howe, of Boston, and M. F. Osmond, of Paris. 

 Mr. Perry F. Nursey will read a paper on a new process for 

 the production of metallic bars of any section by extrusion at 

 high temperature. The treatment of magnetic iron sand will 

 be brought under notice by Mr. E. Metcalf Smith, of New 

 Zealand, and the iron ores of Oxfordshire will be dealt with by 

 Mr. E. A. Walford. 



The sixty-fourth annual meeting of the British Medical 

 Association will be held at Carlisle on Tuesday, Wednesday, 

 Thursday, and Friday, July 28-31. The officers are as 

 follows :— President : Sir J. Russell Reynolds, Bart., F.R.S., 

 President of the Royal College of Physicians. President-Elect : 

 NO. I 38 I, VOL. 53] 



Dr. Henr)' Barnes. President of the Council : Dr. J. Ward 

 Cousins. Treasurer : Dr. Henry T. Butlin. The scientific busi- 

 ness of the meeting will be conducted in nine sections, of which 

 the respective Presidents are as follows, namely :— (A) Medicine, 

 Dr. George F. Duffey ; (B) Surgery, Dr. Alexander Ogston ; 

 (C) Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Dr. J. Halliday Croom ; (D) 

 Public Medicine, Sir Joseph Ewart ; (E) Psychology, Dr. J. A. 

 Campbell ; (F) Pathology and Bacteriology, Mr. Sheridan 

 Delepine ; (G) Ophthalmology, Dr. David Little ; (H) Diseases 

 of Children, Dr. James Finlayson ; (I) Ethics, Dr. T. F. 

 I'Anson. An address in Medicine will be delivered by Sir Dyce 

 Duckworth, and one in Surgery by Dr. R. Maclaren. 



An instructive article on "The General Bearings of Magnetic 

 Observation," contributed to the current number of Science 

 Progress by Captain E. W. Creak, should be read by all who 

 are interested in terrestrial magnetism. What the article chiefly 

 aims at showing is the great importance of magnetic observa- 

 tions. As an example of the application of the same, it is 

 remarked : " We have now heavily armed, protected steel cruisers 

 steaming over all parts of the world with less change of devia- 

 tion of the compass than the wood-built Erebus and Terror of 

 Ross's Antarctic expedition, and this remarkable result could 

 not have been achieved if the terrestrial magnetic observer had 

 not done his work." Still, much more remains to be done 

 before sufficient is known about the secular change of terrestrial 

 magnetism to enable magnetic charts to be provided to navigators 

 for years in advance, just as the tides can now be tabulated for 

 his use. 



The Council of the Physical Society, in a circular issued to 

 the members, call attention to the expense attending the pub- 

 lication of abstracts of physical papers, which has been so success- 

 fully undertaken by the Society for a little over a year. The 

 proposals now submitted to the consideration of members with 

 a view to meeting this expense are, firstly, that the annual sub- 

 scription should be raised to two guineas ; secondly, that existing 

 life members should pay an annual subscription of one guinea, or 

 an additional composition-of fifteen guineas ; and, lastly, that an 

 annual guarantee fund should be raised for the next five years to 

 cover the probable deficit. Towards this latter fund nearly 

 ;^ioo per annum has been already promised. It is universally 

 admitted that these abstracts have proved an incalculable boon to 

 physicists all over the world, and we therefore hope that the last 

 proposal will commend itself to all, whether members or non- 

 members, who appreciate this useful and important work. 



A FINE series of photographs of flying bullets, both in free air 

 and in different stages of penetrating through a pane of glass, 

 have been taken in Italy by Dr. Q. Majorana Calatabiano and 

 Dr. A. Fontana, of the Italian Artillery. The apparatus de- 

 scribed is a modification of that employed by Prof. C. V. Boys, 

 and these photographs might, perhaps, more correctly be de- 

 scribed as skiagraphs, since they are shadow-pictures produced 

 on the photographic plate by the light from an electric spark 

 produced by the discharge of a condenser. The chief peculiarity 

 of the present figures is that, in addition to the anterior wave 

 produced by the advance of the aerial disturbance, they exhibit 

 dark stria' just in front of the projectile — a result not previously 

 observed, and which the authors account for by supposing that 

 the sudden compression of the air causes condensation of moisture 

 producing an opaque cloud. In support of this theory, it is 

 stated that the experiments were performed in a moist atmosphere. 

 This blurred appearance is very similar to that which would be 

 produced by the sparks arising from an oscillatory discharge of 

 the condenser, but the careful precautions adopted by the ex- 

 perimenters to prevent any secondary discharge negative this 

 explanation. 



