April 19, iii94] 



NA TURE 



581 



been confirmed by the experience gained during the last tour 

 of inspection. The Commission therefore recommends that 

 the general light house authorities be invited to consider the 

 subject with the view of instituting a universal system of visual 

 and sound signals at all the various light stations on the coasts 

 of Great Britain and Ireland. Appended to these recom- 

 mendations is a report by Sir Edward Birkbeck on the system 

 of coast communication in Canada and the United States, from 

 which it appears that while both these countries possess an 

 efficient system of electrical communication round their coasts, 

 none of the light-vessels are electrically connected with the 

 main-land. 



The Franklin Institute, through its Committee on Science 

 and the Arts, has recommended the award of John Scott medals 

 and premiums to Mr. F. Pontrichet, of New York, for his im- 

 proved "black-print" process; Herr S. Riefler, of Munich, 

 for the invention of a pendulum escapement for clocks of pre- 

 cision ; and Mr. E. G. Acheson, of Monongahela City, for his 

 invention of carborundum. 



The Technical Instruction Committee of the Cheshire County 

 Council have set aside ;^5ooo towards an agricultural college in 

 Cheshire, and^i,ooo for the furnishing of it. The Royal Agri- 

 cultural Society of England have promised the sum of ^looo 

 towards the fund, and an offer of ;i{^5oo has been received from 

 a private donor. It is thought that ;^ii,ooo would be required 

 for the college, and ;!^iooo for its equipment. 



Dr. a. H. Hassall died at San Remo, on April 9, at the 

 age of seventy-six. He was the author of a work on British 

 freshwater algre, published in 1^45, and of one on the micro- 

 scopic anatomy of the human body, published in 1852. In 1850 

 he took up the question of food adulteration, and made a series 

 of analytical reports, which led to a parliamentary inquiry into 

 the pernicious and systematic adulteration that had been going 

 on. He also assisted in the microscopical investigation of the 

 water supply of London, especially during the cholera outbreak 

 of 1854. In 1877 Dr, Hassall removed to San Remo, and there 

 passed the remainder of a busy and useful life. 



The Council of the Royal Society of Edinburgh have recently 

 made the following awards : — The Gunning Victoria Jubilee 

 Prize for 1891-94 to Dr. Alexander Buchan, for his varied, exten- 

 sive, and extremely important contributions to meteorology, many 

 of which have appeared in the Society's publications. The Keith 

 Prize for 1891-93 to Prof. T. R. Eraser, F.R. S., for his papers on 

 Strophaiithus hispidiis, Strophanthin, and Strophanthidin, read 

 to the Society in February and June 1889 and in December 

 1891, and printed in vols. xxxv. xxxvi. and xxxvii. of the 

 Society's Transactions. The Makdougall-Brisbane Prize for 

 1890-92 to Dr. H. R. Mill, for his papers on the Physical 

 Conditions of the Clyde Sea Area, the first part of which was 

 published in vol. xxxvi. of the Society's Transactions. The 

 Neill Prize for the period 1889-92 to Mr. John Home, for his 

 investigations into the Geological Structure and Petrology of 

 the North-West Highlands. 



A VERY interesting series of experiments were lately made by 

 Mr. Charles A. Stevenson, with a view to proving that it is 

 possible to communicate between lighthouses and lightships 

 without a submarine cable requiring to be laid. After a number 

 of laboratory experiments, made with a view to ascertaining 

 the size of the coils and the number of turns necessary to give 

 workable results with the ordinary commercial telephones, some 

 experiments on a large scale were tried near Edinburgh. Two 

 coils, 200 yards in diameter, and each containing nine turns of 

 ordinary telegraph wire, were erected on poles, a distance of 

 800 yards intervening between the two. So well did the system 

 act that it was possible to read, by induction, the messages 



NO. 1277, VOL, 49] 



passing in the ordinary telegraph wires which were situated at 

 a distance of 200 yards. After the sending of messages along 

 this telegraph wire was stopped, it was found possible to send 

 messages from one coil to the other with great ease. 



The official report of the cases treated for hydrophobia at the 

 Institut Pasteur during the past year has been drawn up by M. 

 Henri Poltevin, and appears in the current number of the 

 Annales de V Institut Pasteur. The mortality fable issued by 

 the institute only includes those deaths from hydrophobia which 

 occurred after the lapse of fifteen days from the date of the last 

 inoculation, such deaths being regarded as taking place in spite 

 of the treatment. Any deaths which happen within this pre- 

 scribed period are excluded. Last year two such deaths 

 occurred, and as three other cases ended fatally during the 

 treatment, and one other in consequence of the patient refusing 

 to permit the completion of the inoculations, these also are ex- 

 cluded. Out of the 1648 persons treated at the institute during 

 the past year, observing the above reservations, only four died. 

 Of these cases, 135 were admitted suffering from bites on the 

 head, 857 from bites on the hands, and 656 from bites on the limbs. 

 Since the commencement of the inoculations, in 1886, 14,430 

 persons have been treated at the institute, and out of this num- 

 ber only seventy-two deaths are recorded. The following table 

 shows the nationality of the 188 foreigners who presented them- 

 selves for treatment at the institute. It is significant that Eng- 

 land again has been by no means loth to avail herself of the 

 benefits of the anti-rabic treatment in Paris, although the opposi- 

 tion to the establishment of a similar institute in this country 

 remains unabated. 



Nationality of the Foreigners treated at the Pasteur Instittite in 

 1893. 



Germany 2 Greece ... ... 35 



England 23 i Holland 9 



Austria i India 14 



Belgium ... ... 22 Morocco ... ... i 



Brazil ... ... i Portugal ... ... 6 



Egypt ... ... i8 ; Russia ... ... i 



Spain ... ... 43 Switzerland ... 9 



United States ... i \ Turkey 2 



The last number of Dr. Danckelman's I\Iitteihingen von 

 Forschungsrdsenden und Gelehrten aus den Deutschen Schtitz- 

 gehieien bears evidence to the energy with which the officials 

 of the German protectorates in Africa set themselves to the 

 scientific study of the lands which they administer. Sets of 

 meteorological observations for 1891 and 1892 at Bismarckburg 

 in the Togo district, and at two stations in the Camaroons, are 

 published with a partial discussion. The magnetic constants 

 of the Togo district are also given, together with long lists of 

 astronomically-determined positions in both West and East 

 Africa. Dr. C. Lent gives a report on the scientific station on 

 Kilimanjaro, which stands at 1560 metres above sea-level on the 

 southern slope of the mountain.. The work in progress at this 

 station is the exact mapping of the immediate neighbourhood, 

 which is being done by triangulation. A geological survey is 

 being carried on simultaneously, with special reference to the 

 character of the superficial soil, but including the determination 

 of the volcanic and sedimentary rocks as well. Complete 

 meteorological observations have been set on foot, and before 

 long the scientific geography of this island of temperate climate, 

 rising above the hot plains of East Africa, will be sufficiently 

 known to allow the question of its suitability for permanent 

 colonisation by Europeans to be put to a practical test in the 

 conditions best likely to ensure success. 



Dr. Oscar Baumann, whose successful journeys in Eastern 

 Equatorial Africa we have frequently referred to, has written a 

 short but valuable article on topographical surveying for travellers 



