June iS, 1903] 



NATURE 



165 



but I do not remember ever hearing this wonderful growth 

 attributed to what I believe to be its real cause, namely, 

 that from the moment that the practical application of 

 electricity became one of the branches of our profession, 

 engineers and physicists have worked closely hand in hand 

 to overcome its difficulties, and to elucidate the questions 

 to which it gives rise. The growth of electrical engineer- 

 ing thus constitutes a great object-lesson, sufficient in itself 

 -abundantly to emphasise the fact that the future progress 

 of engineering is indissolubly bound up with the progress 

 1 physical research. 



THE SOUTH AFRICAN ASSOCIATION. 

 ■p EVIEWIN'G the brief history of the events which 

 '^ culminated in the first annual meeting of the South 



rican Association for the Advancement of Science, the 

 lily proceedings of which were described in our issue for 

 May 21, Sir David Gill, the president, announced some of 

 the facilities which had been offered to induce the British 

 Association to visit South Africa in 1905. The president 

 read a letter he had received from Sir Gordon Sprigg, the 

 Prime Minister of Cape Colony, stating that free railway 

 passes will be granted over the Cape Railway system for 

 all officials of the British Association, and a limited number 

 of invited eruests ; and that a sum not exceeding 6000/. 

 will be guaranteed towards the cost of passages to_ and 

 from the Cape for the above-mentioned officials and visitors. 

 This amount will be shared by the Governments of the 

 Transvaal, Natal and the Cape. Sir David Gill went on 

 to say that the other Governments had undertaken to share 

 one-half of this responsibility, and to grant similar free use 

 of their railways. There will be no lack of private hospi- 

 tality, and the' council of the British Association will re- 

 commend to the general committee of the. Association at 

 the Southport meeting next September that the invitation 

 to hold the annual meeting in 1905 in South Africa be 

 accepted. 



Reference was also made to the value of a closer alliance 

 between the results of scientific research and everyday 

 piactice in commercial pursuits, the classical works of 

 several of the earlier investigators being mentioned as 

 examples of the far-reaching effects of thorough and precise 

 researches into common everyday phenomena. Sir David 

 Gill then proceeded to enlarge upon the practical value of 

 scientific research, and the reasons for its encouragement in 

 the universities and colleges, and mentioned the unselfish 

 work of Profs. Beattie and Morrison in undertaking the 

 magnetic survey of South Africa, during 1897 and subse- 

 quent years, entirely at their own cost. He strongly urged 

 that facilities should now be granted to them for completing 

 this most important work, which fills a gap in the observ- 

 ations that are now being carried out in various parts of 

 the world simultaneously with those being made by the 

 various Antarctic expeditions in the South Polar regions. 



Two papers read before Section A of the South African 

 Association contained interesting statistics as to different 

 aspects of the mining industries of the new colonies. In 

 a paper on " Nitro-Glycerine Explosives : their Influence 

 on Industrial Development," Mr. William Cullen, of the 

 Modderfontein Dynamite Factory, stated that by means of 

 ■explosives alone above 12,000,000 tons of ore had been 

 milled in the Transvaal in the year prior to the war, but 

 no estimate could be formed of the many million additional 

 tons removed in developing shaft-sinking and so on. The 

 old dynamite is rapidly becoming a thing of the past, and 

 the rnore modern blasting gelatin has gradually supplanted 

 everything else. Perhaps the most interesting part of the 

 paper was that where the final triumph of nitro-glycerine 

 in cordite and many similar powders was demonstrated, 

 proving it to be not only the strongest disruptive agent, 

 but also the mildest and easiest managed impellent. 



Mr. W. A. Caldecott, in a paper on the " Cyanide Process 

 ■from its Introduction into the Rand to the Present Day," 

 said the immense importance of the process was shown by 

 the fact that just before the war half the gold from the 

 Rand was obtained by the cyanide process. By way of 

 comparison, the writer stated that the Rand gold output 

 in 1890 was 494,523 ounces milled, and only 286 ounces 

 obtained by cyanide process. In three years the pro- 



portion grew to 1,147,960 ounces milled, and 330,510 ounces 

 by cyanidation. 



The records of meteorological observations made at the 

 dynamite factory of Modderfontein, which extend over a 

 large number of years, and form probably the most com- 

 plete Transvaal meteorological record available, were dis- 

 cussed by Mr. William Cullen in Section A. Rainfall, 

 barometric pressure, temperature (maximum, minimum and 

 average), atmospheric moisture, wind velocity and wind 

 diiection were some of the meteorological data passed in 

 review. All were illustrated by diagrams. The rainfall 

 for the various years was analysed, and it was pointed out 

 where a departure from the normal had great influence on 

 the agricultural interests of the Transvaal, and on the pre- 

 valence of cattle diseases. The average rainfall for the 

 past five years was 25 inches, the highest being 306, and 

 the lowest 20- 1, and the observations seemed to show that 

 it was on the increase. The barometric readings showed 

 a very slight variation all through the year, the maximum 

 difference of about 14 generally coming in June, but every 

 twenty-four hours the maximum and the minimum records 

 always occurred at the same time. 



Prof. S. Schonland, in a paper to Section B on stone 

 implements in the Albany Museum, emphasised the per- 

 sistence of the Palaeolithic age in South Africa as compared 

 with other countries. While, he said, the manufacturers 

 of stone implements in South Africa were not devoid of 

 skill which must excite our admiration, while their arrow- 

 heads of perforated stone, their rolling-pins, their stone 

 lings, indicated that there was not only skill, but an in- 

 heritance of trade tricks handed down from generation to 

 generation, which were faithfully adhered to by the masters 

 of the craft, it was astonishing that so far it had been 

 impossible to find any evidence of progress in the manu- 

 facture of stone implements in South Africa, such as we 

 knew had taken place in other countries from Palaeolithic 

 times to the time when stone implements were given up. 

 Generally speaking, it could be seen that not only had the 

 Stone age persisted in South Africa until comparatively 

 tecent times, but that the Palaeolithic age had persisted 

 there to the same extent. This was especially shown in the 

 entire absence of polished stone implements. 



Dr. J. D. F. Gilchrist dealt in the same section with the 

 development of some South African fishes. It has been 

 commonly alleged that the practice of netting, as carried 

 on in the Zwartkops, the Buffalo, and other tidal rivers of 

 South Africa, has proved destructive to the eggs and spawn 

 of fish. On the commencement of trawling by the Govern- 

 ment steamer in False Bay and on the Agulhas Bank, it 

 was urged that the dragging of the net along the bottom 

 of the sea caused the destruction of great quantities of the 

 eggs and young of food fishes. The evidence obtained by 

 an inquiry held by a Parliamentary Commission seems to 

 indicate that many of the common fishes may deposit their 

 eggs on the bottom of the sea. On the other hand, in all 

 the instances where the mature eggs had been procured and 

 successfully fertilised on the Government steamer Pieter 

 Faure, they were found to float on the surface of the water, 

 and only after the larvae had been hatched out some time 

 did they begin to sink to the bottom. It was also brought 

 to the notice of the Commission that it had already been 

 demonstrated in northern waters that there was only one 

 fish of practical economic importance depositing its eggs 

 on the bottom — the herring — and only a small species of 

 herring of little value to the present fishermen occurs in 

 the Cape seas. Recently facilities have been afforded by 

 Government for more careful examination on shore of the 

 eggs and larvae procured by means of fine nets and from the 

 mature fish. The eggs and larvae were described of the 

 white stumpnose, red stumpnose, silver fish, sand fish, 

 zeverrim or zee-basje, kabeljaauw, horse fish, red gurnard, 

 klip-fish (two species), sole (two species), and the blaasop, 

 and the ova and larvae of fish as yet unknown. The general 

 effect of the investigations so far carried out was to confirm 

 that the trawling did not interfere with the eggs of fishes 

 that were of practical commercial value. 



At a concluding general meeting of the Association on 

 the last day of the proceedings, the council of the Associa- 

 tion for the present year was elected in accordance with 

 nominations received from the chief centres in Cape Colony, 

 Rhodesia, Transvaal, Natal, and Orange River Colony. 



NO. 1755, VOL. 68] 



