134 



NATURE 



[June ii, 1903 



The Vega medal of the Stockholm Society of Anthropo- 

 logy and Geography has been awarded to Prof, von 

 Richthofen. of Berlin. 



A NEW serum department of the Jenner Institute, at 

 Elstree, will be opened on July 3. Dr. George Dean is the 

 bacteriologist in charge of the department. 



An expedition in charge of Dr. F. A. Cook, of Brooklyn, 

 is, says Science, to explore Mount McKinley and other 

 Alaskan mountains under the auspices of the Geographical 

 Society of Philadelphia and the Arctic Club, of New York. 



The Geological Society has made the first award of the 

 proceeds of the Daniel Pidgeon fund, founded by Mrs. 

 Pidgeon in accordance with the testamentary directions of 

 her husband, the late Mr. Daniel Pidgeon, to Dr. E. W. 

 Skeats, of the Royal College of Science. 



The Brussels Bulletin Commercial states that the 

 Municipal Council of Lorient has recently decided to 

 organise an International Exhibition of industry, agri- 

 culture, maritime defence, and fine arts, to be held from 

 July to October of this year. 



It is reported that a young Austrian doctor named Sachs 

 has fallen a victim to his scientific zeal, having accidentally 

 inoculated himself with plague, from the effects of which 

 he died after a short illness. Such regrettable incidents 

 will occur while scientific research is pursued, and cannot 

 be avoided even by the greatest foresight. There is no 

 likelihood that other cases will develop, as under good 

 hygienic conditions plague is not particularly infectious 

 from man to man, and European doctors and nurses tend- 

 ing the sick seldom contract the disease. 



The wide distribution of typhoid-infected blankets that 

 had been used in South Africa is another " regrettable 

 incident " of the campaign, though those who made use 

 of manifestly soiled blankets without washing them cannot 

 be held blameless. On moist fabrics it has been proved 

 that the typhoid bacillus retains its vitality for many weeks 

 or even months. 



Science announces that Prof. Florian Cajori, professor 

 of mathematics at Colorado College, has been appointed 

 representative of the United States on the international 

 committee of the Congress for the Study of the History 

 of the Sciences, which will make arrangements for the next 

 meeting of the Congress at Berlin in 1906. 



At a meeting of the German Chemical Society on June 4 

 the presentation of the Hofmann foundation gold medal 

 was made to Sir William Ramsay and to Prof. Moissan, 

 of Paris. This medal is to be awarded once in every five 

 years to a foreigner for distinguished chemical research 

 work. The medal awarded to Sir William Ramsay bears 

 on the obverse the effigy of Hofmann and on the reverse 

 the inscription " For distinguished work in the field of 

 general chemistry, and particularly for the discovery of 

 new ingredients of the air." 



By the death of M. Eugene Demarcay at the early age 

 of fifty-one, French science has suffered a severe loss. 

 Although his earlier work was in the field of organic 

 chemistry, his name is best known in connection with his 

 researches on the chemistry of the rare earths. The 

 magnificent specimens of pure salts of neodidymium, praseo- 

 didymium, samarium and europium shown bv him at the 

 NO. 1754, VOL. 68] 



Paris Exhibition of 1900 were the result of years of work 

 of the most painstaking and laborious kind in a field in 

 which he was one of the pioneers, and in which the 

 number of workers is still too few. 



An Engineering Conference in connection with the In- 

 stitution of Civil Engineers will commence on June 16 

 when Mr. W. H. Maw will deliver the eleventh " James 

 Forrest " lecture on " Some Unsolved Problems in 

 Engineering." On June 17 Mr. J. C. Hawkshaw, presi- 

 dent, will inaugurate the conference with a short address 

 to all the sections. The sections with their chairmen are 

 as follows : — (i) Railways, Sir Guilford Molesworth, 

 K.C.I.E. ; (2) harbours, docks, and canals. Sir Leader 

 Williams ; (3) machinery, Dr. Alexander B. W. Kennedy, 

 F.R.S. ; (4) mining and metallurgy, Mr. E. P. Martin; 

 (5) shipbuilding. Sir John I. Thornycroft, F.R.S. ; (6) 

 waterworks, sewerage, and gasworks, Sir Alexander 

 Binnie ; (7) applications of electricity, Mr. Alexander 

 Siemens. 



A PRACTICAL demonstration of the great power of the 

 Marconi Wireless Telegraph station at Poldhu was given 

 by Prof. Fleming during his lecture at the Royal Institu- 

 tion last week. A large mast had been erected above the 

 Institution, and a complete receiving station set up ; 

 messages were received from Mr. Marconi, signalling from 

 Poldhu, and also from a transmitting station at University 

 College. All the experiments passed off without the 

 slightest hitch. Prof. Fleming, in speaking of the future 

 prospects of wireless telegraphy, laid stress upon the fact 

 that there was a large sphere of usefulness open to it which 

 submarine cables and land telegraphs could not touch. 



In the House of Commons on Monday Mr. Austen 

 Chamberlain, speaking on the vote for the telegraph 

 Services, referred at some length to the relations between 

 the Post Office and the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co. 

 He said that the Post Office had no desire to check the 

 progress of wireless telegraphy, nor could they have done 

 so had they wished, as their monopoly did not extend beyond 

 the three-mile limit. The Marconi Co. had, however, 

 asked for too much ; in the first instance they asked to be 

 given a permanent and exclusive right to work wireless 

 telegraphy in this country, which he could not grant, 

 especially after the Post Office's experience with the 

 telephone system. He had, however, granted them a 

 private wire to Poldhu on the ordinary terms as soon as 

 they asked for it, but before undertaking to act as their 

 agents for the collection of messages, as was done for the 

 cable companies, the Post Office required that certain con- 

 ditions should be fulfilled in order to safeguard the 

 Admiralty, and also asked that their experts should be 

 satisfied that the company were able to carry on their 

 business and transmit messages across the Atlantic com- 

 mercially. He was still waiting an answer to this request, 

 which was made last March. This statement does not 

 quite tally with the accounts which were published last 

 February, and were allowed then to pass uncontradicted. 

 In any case there seems no reason why the Marconi Com- 

 pany should be required to pass an examination set by the 

 Post Office ; if people wish to risk sending messages by 

 wireless telegraphy to America, they ought to be allowed 

 full facilities for doing so ; the Post Office, by taking in 

 the messages need incur no responsibility, by refusing to 

 take them in it renders itself open to the charge of obstruct- 

 ing progress. 



Reuter's Agency is informed that a large number of 

 foreign Government and technical delegates will be present 



