August 22, 1895] 



NA TURE 



39; 



liicuorological observatory on the Brocken, have at last been 

 crowned with success, and, if unforeseen difticuhies do not 

 arise, it is expecte<l that this important station will be in working 

 order during the coming autumn. This successful issue is mostly 

 owing to the support given to the undertaking by the Ministry of 

 I'ublic Worship and the Meteorological Institute of Berlin, and 

 l)y the Brunswick and Hanover sections of the German and 

 Austrian Alpine Club. There can be no doubt that observations 

 from this mountain observatory will be of considerable value for 

 the progress of meteorological science. 



As already announced in these columns, the sixty-seventh 

 meeting of (jerman physicians and men of science will take 

 place at Liibeck on September l6 to 21. Members and visitors 

 will be received at the Town Hall on .Sunday, the 15th, at 8 p.m. 

 Business will commence on Monday at II a.m. in the Gymnastic 

 Hall with a presidential address, followed by some medical 

 papers. At 3 p.m. the sections will be formed, and at 7 p.m. 

 there will be a social gathering at the Tivoli. .\mong the 

 entertainments of the following days, are a garden party given by 

 the Senate of the Free Hansa City of Liibeck on Tuesday, a 

 grand ball in the theatre on Thursday, and an excursion to the 

 lakes of East Holstein on the Saturday. >redical papers are 

 announced by Drs. Klebs, Behring, Riedel, and Rindfleisch, and 

 general scientific papers by Drs. Victor Meyer, Ostwald, and 

 others. .Senator Ur. Brehmer and Dr. Theodor Eschenburg are 

 the secretaries of the meeting. 



The Board of Trade fouriial reports that an industrial 

 exhibition, to celebrate the jubilee of the recognition of Berlin 

 as the capital of the German Empire, is to be held next year in 

 the Treptow Park, near that town, from May to October. 

 The exhibition will embrace the following groups: — (l) 

 Textile industries ; (2) Clothing industries ; (3) Building and 

 engineering; (4) Wood industries (cabinet-making, iVc); (5) 

 Porcelain, glass and fire-brick industry ; (6) Smallwares and 

 fancy goods ; (7) Metal industr)' ; (8) Engraving, the decorative 

 arts, and the book trades; (9) Chemical industry; (10) Food 

 products (including tobacco, spirits, tic.) : (ii) Scientific instru- 

 ments ; (12) Musical instruments; (13) Machine-construction, 

 shipljuilding, an<l transport trade; (14) A|>plied cleclricity ; 

 (15) I.eaiher and india-rubber industry; (16) Paper industry; 

 (17) Photography; (18) Hygiene, and sanitary dwellings; 

 (19I Education and instruction; (20) P'ishing and boating, as 

 industries and sports; (21) Riding and racing, aquatic sport ; 

 cycling, shooting and hunting, pleasure-boating ; (22) Horti- 

 culture ; (23 German colonial exhibition: (24) Hotel and 

 resl.aurant trades. 



The Council of the Federated Institution of Mining Engineers 

 have had for some time under their consideration the holding of 

 meetings of the student members, and the first meeting of 

 students was successfully held in the North of England district 

 on .\ugust 13, 14, and 15. With a view to interest the students 

 more especially in the proceedings of the first meeting, a prize 

 was offered by the Institution for the best essay on " The Pre- 

 vention of .\ccidents in Mines."' The prize was obtained by 

 Mr. .\ustin Kirkuj), whose essay deals concisely with the com- 

 monest forms of mining accidents, and sets forth the results of 

 the experience of practical men on their prevention. .Mr. Kirkup 

 has based his facts almost entirely on the knowledge which 

 ])ractical experience and observation have afforded him, so 

 his essay possesses a real value, and we regret that pressure upon 

 our space prevents us from doing more than refer to it. In order 

 that the meeting in connectiim with which the paper was pre- 

 pared might be of a thoroughly practical character, the students 

 who look part in the proceedings made lengthy underground 

 visits to the Wearmouth and Epplelon Collieries, and were given 

 every information as to the mode of working, haulage, venti- 



NO. 1347, VOL. 52] 



lation, &c., practised at these extensive collieries. The Institu- 

 tion is to be congratulated upon its new departure, which is 

 certainly calculated to give the students a wider knowledge of 

 mining than they would otherwise obtain. 



We have received the official progranmie of the prizes offered 

 for 1896 by the Societe Industrielle de Mulhouse. A prize of 

 1250 francs is offered for a complete history of one of the 

 principal branches of Alsatian industry, such as spinning and 

 weaving cotton and wool, printing woollen and cotton fabrics, 

 machinery, &:c. The Hubner prize, represented by a nUdaitle 

 iT honiteur an<\ 1000 francs, is offered for the best memoir on the 

 carding of spun textile materials during the period which has 

 elapsed since the last publication on the subject, or for the im- 

 provement which, in the opinion of the Society, shall have con- 

 tributed most to the development of carding operations. Similar 

 prizes are offered for a substance which, in the coloured cloth 

 industr)', can replace the dry albumen of eggs, and is cheaper 

 than this substance ; and for a colourless blood albumen which 

 does not colour on steaming. Silver medals and prizes of 500 

 francs each are offered for a new and simple means of 

 determining the amount of priming in steam boilers ; for 

 a new and advantageous mode of constructing buildings 

 suitable for cotton and wool spinning and weaving, or the 

 manufacture of dyed cloth ; new and practical researches 

 on the movement and cooling of steam in long conduits ; 

 a registering pyrometer for steam boiler fires ; a memoir on 

 the spinning of carded wool ; and for a complete memoir on 

 the drying of tissues. Besides these prizes, medals of various 

 grades are offered in some 140 subjects connected with chemical 

 and mechanical arts, agriculture, commerce, histor)-, and fine arts. 

 The competitions are international, but it does not appear from 

 the programme whether French is to be the only language per- 

 mitted. The memoirs, designs, samples, &c. , must be marked by 

 a device or motto chosen by the author, and addressed to the 

 President of the Society before February 15, 1896, together with 

 a sealed envelope containing the exact name and address of the 

 competitor. 



Mr. T. H. Bicker ion pointed out, at the recent meeting of 

 the British Medical Association, that when the inquiry was 

 arranged into the disastrous collision between the Elbe and the 

 Crathic, it was stated that "the question of the powers of vision 

 will be carefully borne in mind in the Board of Trade inquirj' 

 into the cause of the collision." The inquiry has now been con- 

 cluded, but it appears that the witnesses were not examined as 

 to their eyesight. This act of negligence will need a de.al of ex- 

 plaining. The reading of Mr. Bickerton's paper was followed 

 by the adoption, on the proposal of Dr. Farquharson, M.P., of a 

 resolution that the matter should at an early date be brought to 

 the notice of Parliament, which should be asked to insist that 

 adequate tests should be compulsorily apjilied before a lad is 

 a]iprenticed to the sea ; that the Royal Society's recommenda- 

 tions should be acted on by the Board of Trade in their entirety ; 

 and that officers already holding certificates, and now by the in- 

 stitution of adequate tests found colour blind, should have shore 

 berths given them in Government offices. 



The morphological place of moulds and yeasts, respectively, 

 has long been the subject of speculation and research, some 

 authorities regarding yeasts as having an independent existence, 

 others considering them as only transitory forms in the life- 

 history of moulds. Most important and interesting contribu- 

 tions to this subject have recently been furnished by the experi- 

 ments carried on in Dr. Jorgensen's laboratory in Copenhagen. 

 In the course of some researches on the diastatic power of the 

 well-known Japanese mould Aspergillus oryruc, juhler found 

 that in the flasks in which this mycelium had converted rice- 

 starch into sugar, it had produced a growth of typical alcohol 



