June 4, 1903] 



NATURE 



109 



The twenty-first congress of the Sanitary Institute will 

 be held at Bradford on July 6-11. The inaugural address 

 10 the congress will be delivered by the president, the Right 

 Hon. the Earl Stamford. Numerous sectional meetings will 

 be held, the sections with their presidents being as follows :— 

 (i) Sanitary science and preventive medicine, Prof. T. 

 Clifford Allbutt, F.R.S. ; (2) engineering and architecture, 

 Mr. Maurice Fitzmaurice, C.M.G. ; (3) physics, chemistry 

 and biology. Prof. C. Hunter Stewart. On July 8 there 

 will be conferences of those engaged in the various branches 

 of practical sanitary science, and in the evening a con- 

 versazione and reception by the Mayor of Bradford. The 

 >ncluding day will be devoted to excursions. 



f* The Physical Society has for several years held its meet- 

 'ings at Burlington House, but the fellows have been given 

 notice that a change is contemplated. It is proposed to 

 hold meetings on the second and fourth Fridays of the 

 month alternately in the afternoon and the evening at the 

 Royal College of Science, South Kensington. The council 

 trusts that convenience and equipment available when the 

 Society meets in a physical laboratory will encourage fellows 

 10 illustrate their papers by experiments, and thus add to 

 the interest of the meetings. The council has also under 

 consideration the formation of a student class in the Society. 

 This matter will shortly be brought forward at a special 

 j,^eneral meeting.. 



Mr. R. S. Earp writes from Buckfastleigh, South Devon, 

 to say that on comparing the results of Prof. Thorpe's 

 ;malysis of the dust of " red rain " (p. 53) with his own, 

 the chief dissimilarity was found in the amount of organic 

 matter. This may be explained by the fact of Prof. Thorpe's 

 analysis being of the sediment only of the rain, whereas 

 Mr. Earp's was of the rain itself, or rather of the solid 

 constituents of the rain. The rain collected did not clear 

 itself even on long standing, the supernatant liquid being 

 emulsion-liiie in appearance. Mr. Earp concludes " that 

 the greater portion of the organic matter would exist 

 suspended in the fallen rain, and so would not appear in 

 the result of Prof. Thorpe's analysis." 



The scientific balloon ascents on April 2 were participated 

 in by Prance, Germany, Austria, Russia, and Blue Hill, 

 L .S., and were made by means of manned and registering 

 balloons, and kites. At Trappes the registering balloon 

 burst at 8550 metres; minimum temperature — 47°o C. (at 

 starting 6°-8). At Itteville (Paris) the ascent was made in 

 the evening; temperature — 54°o at 9560 metres (at start- 

 ing 8°o) ; an altitude of 12,760 metres was reached. At 

 Strassburg a height of 10,000 metres was attained ; mini- 

 mum temperature — 44°-4, at starting (sh. a.m.) 5°-7. At 

 Berlin one of the several balloons dispatched reached 10,400 

 niptres ; at 8380 metres the temperature was — 42°o (at 

 starting 2°o), while another, started two hours earlier 

 (4h. 57m. a.m.), recorded — 47°-8 at 8670 metres. At Blue 

 Hill a kite reached 3067 metres, temperature — 6°-2 ; at the 

 --ame time the temperature at the observatory was 8°-i 

 (height 159 metres). Atmospheric pressure was fairly 

 uniform over Europe on the day of the ascents, and the type 

 of weather was generally cyclonic in character. 



In a paper read before the R. Accademia delle Scienze 

 (leir Istituto di Bologna on January 11, Prof. A. Righi 

 describes experiments on the ionisation of air by an elec- 

 trified point. Some striking results depending on the 

 motion of the ions along the electric lines of force were 

 obtained. A sheet of ebonite backed by a metal plate was 

 fixed in front of a point discharge, and between them was 

 placed a wire gauze screen, which closed an aperture in a 



NO. 1753, VOL. 681 



metal case surrounding the discharge. A spark from a 

 Leyden jar to the metal plate produced for a short time 

 a powerful electric field traversing the ebonite plate and 

 the air space between it and the gauze. A well-defined 

 image of the wire gauze was then developed upon the 

 ebonite by treating it with a mixture of powdered sulphur 

 and red lead, which made visible the portions of the ebonite 

 to which the ions had imparted a charge. The " electric 

 shadow " of the wire remains free from charge. 



A NEW form of stereoscope for X-ray work is described 

 by M. T. Guilloz in a recent number of the Journal de 

 Physique. A single X-ray tube is used, being so mounted 

 that it can be rapidly oscillated between two positions. A 

 cam rotating at a speed of about 300 revolutions per minute 

 is used to oscillate the tube ; this cam is cut so that the time 

 taken in moving from one position of rest to the other is 

 about i/ioth of the time of rotation. Two radiographic 

 images of the object under examination are thus formed on 

 the screen which are displaced by an amount varying as 

 the amplitude of oscillation of the tube and its distance 

 from the screen. Two shutters, controlled electromagnetic- 

 ally by the oscillating apparatus, allow the right eye to 

 view one image and the left the other, vision being entirely 

 cut off during the time the tube is changing its positipn. 

 There results, naturally, from the combination of these 

 images an apparently solid reproduction of the object. It 

 is claimed that the method is superior to those employing 

 two tubes, or a tube with two anti-kathodes, as in these 

 cases it is always difficult to obtain equal effects from both 

 lubes or anti-kathodes. It is also stated that the tubes 

 used by the author were not injuriously affected by the 

 vibration. 



The Canadian Department of the Interior has issued a 

 clearly printed map of Manitoba on the scale of an inch to 

 12^ miles. It will be useful to those desirous of taking up 

 land in the country. 



P.4RTICULARS of the mode of occurrence and removal of a 

 carcase of the mammoth which had been discovered 

 in 1901 in the province of lakousk, in Siberia, are con- 

 tributed with illustrations by M. L. Elb^e {La Nature, May 

 23). The remains were half embedded in the snow and 

 ice, and there were still preserved the eyes, the mouth, and 

 even the stomach. Measurements showed that the animal 

 was about 3 metres in length and 2 metres in height, and 

 must have weighed about 1000 kg. The specimen has not 

 yet been exhibited in public owing to the great difficulties 

 experienced in preserving the skin. 



In the annual report for 1902 of the State Geologist of 

 New Jersey, Mr. H. B. Kummel, there is an account of the 

 copper deposits of the State, by Mr. W. H. Weed. Copper 

 minerals occur at many localities in the crystalline rocks 

 and in the Triassic Red Sandstones, but only in the Red 

 Sandstones are they of economic value. In these rocks the 

 ores are almost always associated with basalt, dolerite, and 

 diabase of very uniform chemical composition, and from 

 these basic igneous rocks, in the opinion of Mr. Weed, the 

 copper ores have been derived. 



In the account of the embryogeny of Zamia which Profs. 

 Coulter and Chamberlain present in the Botanical Gazette. 

 they show that during this stage of development the features 

 of Zamia are intermediate between those presented by Cycas 

 and the Conifers. 



In the Philippine Islands Government laboratories were 

 organised by the United States authorities in 1901, and Dr. 

 R. P. Strong was appointed director. The first annual 

 report gives evidence of much work carried out under uo- 



