NA TURE 



[July 19, 1894 



able conclusion is that she has been beset by the ice and pro- 

 bably foundered. It is hoped that Mr. Wellman and his parly 

 of fifieen men had left the vessel and started on their northward 

 journey before this happened; and if that be so, there is no 

 ceaion why they should not return safely to Danes Island. 

 Spiubergen is now visited so frequently during the summer 

 months, that little anxiety need be felt as to iheir return to civil- 

 isation should they be able to regain the island ; but since the 

 provisions in store are only sufficient to supply eight men for six 

 month.', it is important that additional supplies should be sent 

 to provide for emergencies. 



We have received from Prof. Guide Cora a copy of a short 

 paper communicated by him to the Italian Geographical Con- 

 gress of 1892, in which he strongly urges the importance of a 

 more complete and detailed study of the minute geography of 

 Italy, proposing the formation of a special committee to 

 elaborate and carry out the scheme. It is a subject no 

 less pressing in England than in Italy, for to a properly 

 qualified geographer there is no part of the world riper for 

 investigation and more deserving of study than those countries 

 of Europe in which the ground for a solid constructive geography 

 has been laid by complete topographical and geological 

 surveys. 



The Stale of Minas Geraes in Brazil has recently established 

 a Geographical and Geological Commission, entrusted with the 

 rectification of the topographical map and with the geological 

 survey of the State. The first Boletim of this Commission has 

 just been published at Rio de Janeiro by Senor A. de Abreu 

 Lacerda, chief engineer. It contains an account of the objects 

 of the Commission, which are to delimit the State and lay 

 down the boundaries of the subordinate political divisions, to 

 determine the nature of the rocks, minerals, and cultivable 

 soils, to fix the altitudes of important places, and to make a 

 triangulation of the State. The work is modelled on that 

 of the United States Coast and Geodetic and Geological 

 Surveys, and there are several Americans engaged on the 

 operations. 



The lectures to intending travellers on various aspects of 

 science, given at the Natural History Museum in Paris, continue, 

 and are reported fully in the Kcviie Scientifique. The most 

 recent were on Pala:ontology, by M. Marcellin Boule, and on 

 " Mctrophotography " by M. Laussedat. The latter is particu- 

 larly interesting, and shows that the use of photography in sur- 

 veying is a natur.il development of a method which lieautemps- 

 Beauprc introduced more than fifty years ago. He utilised 

 panoramas sketched by means of a camera lucida at opposite 

 ends of a measured base-line, and by an ingenious arrangement 

 of the two views on a plane-table plotted the map without any 

 calculations. In this method photograjihy simply facilitates the 

 production of the pictures, the rest of the process remaining the 

 same. The calculation of vertical heights from the photographs 

 is simple when the correct relative distances of the objects are 

 laid down on a map, and thus the simple operation of taking a 

 photograph of the same object from two points suffices for 

 the construction at any future time of a contoured map. 



From a circular receivad from Prof. Dr. Coloman Miiller, we 

 Dole that the preliminary arrangements of the Kighth Inter- 

 octional Congress of Hygiene and Demography, to be held at 

 Budapest from .Seplcmbcr I to 9, 1894, are nearly completed. The 

 Congress promises not only to be a worthy successor of its pre- 

 deceMors, but also to be in some respects superior to them. Up 

 (o the present lime a total of 725 papers have been notified, of 

 which 593 belong to the Hygienic, and 132 to the Demographic 

 groopi of the Congress. Besides this, 26 Governments with 92 

 delegate!, 91 Public Corporations with 163 delegates, 41 

 Uoireriilies with fy% delegates, and last, but not least, 132 



NO. 1290, VOL. 50] 



learned Societies with 300 delegates, have expressed their in- 

 tention of being represented at the Congress. The following 

 are among the subjects of promised communications: — Mr. 

 Ernest Hart, on protection against cholera in the Orient, and 

 the hypothesis of its epidemic diftasion ; Prof. Dr. E. Leyden 

 (Berlin), on provisions made by large towns for consumptives ; 

 Prof. Dr. George Mayr (Strassburg), on statistics and social 

 science ; Baurath Herzberg, C.E. (Berlin), the civil engineer's 

 work in hygiene ; Prof E. Levasseur (Paris), the history of 

 Demography; Prof Dr. E. T. Erisman (Moscow), the struggle 

 with death ; Prof. Dr. C. Lombroso (Turin), the criminal. 



The Congress of the British Institute of Public Health, to 

 be held in London from July 25 to 31, under the presidency of 

 Prof. W. K. Smith, promises to be an important one. .\bout 

 1500 delegates have already been appointed, and if two-thirds 

 of the number attend the meetings the organisers at King's 

 College will have a difficulty in accommodating them. The 

 Congress will be divided into five sections as follows : — (A) 

 Preventive Medicine; (B) Chemistry and Climatology; (C) 

 Municipal and Parliamentary; (D) Engineering and Building 

 Construction ; (E) Naval and Military Hygiene. Among the 

 subjects which will be brought up for discussion in the first 

 section are : — The mode of spread and methods of prevention 

 of diphtheria ; the dissemination of disease by river- water ; the 

 self-purification of rivers ; and the alleged aerial diffusion of 

 smallpox. In the second section the subjects for discussion 

 include the chemical and bacteriological examination of water ; 

 the purification of sewage ; and the micro-organisms in sewer 

 air. In Section I) discussions have been arranged on electric 

 lighting from the point of view of public health ; on a system of 

 softening public water supplies ; sewage disposal ; and other 

 matters. There will be conferences on "The Housing of the 

 Working Classes" and " The Provision of Isolation Hospitals," 

 and on Saturday, the 2Sth inst.. Prof. E. .M. Crookshank will 

 deliver a popular lecture on " Microbes and the Spread of 

 ' Infectious Diseases." A number of visits will be made to 

 places and institutions of interest from a public health point of 

 view. 



In a memorandum on the mitigation and prevention of insect 

 ravages in India, forwarded a short time ago to the Department 

 of Revenue and Agriculture of the Government of India, the 

 Hon. J. Buckingham, C.I.E., pointed out the necessity for a 

 slaflf of entomologists, and suggested a scheme for the organisa- 

 tion of an entomological department. Though crops to the 

 value of millions of rupees are destroyed annutlly in India by 

 insect pests, the Government had not until recently seriously 

 set to work to modify these ravages. In the United States, as 

 also in Canada and parts of Australia, the Government has 

 taken up the matter, with the result of the introduc;ion of new 

 methods of treatment which in some cases have effected .nn 

 enormous saving. The memorandum calls attention to the fai 

 lh.at in the United Slates, besides entomological advisci 

 attached to individjial Stales, a strong section of entomology ; 

 kept up as a branch of the Agricultural Department of the Ccn 

 iral Government. Attached to the entomological section :ii 

 some fourteen trained entomologists, who visit all parts of tin 

 country in order to study and report upon destructive insects. 

 The great importance of collecting inform.ation personally upon 

 the spot is so fully recognised that the traviMs of the investigator 

 arc not confined to the limits of the United States, but reprc 

 scntatives are even occasionally despatched to distant parts of the 

 world. At the time when the memorandum was drawn up, how- 

 ever, all that had been done w.as to empower one of the officers of 

 ihe Indian Museum in Calcutta to report upon insects which 

 were submitted by planters, ofiicials, and others, and to publish 

 the results. Doubtless in this way a considerable amount of 



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