230 



NATURE 



[July 9, 1903 



NOTES. 



The visit of President Loubet to England, as a guest of 

 the British Court, is an event which should not pass un- 

 noticed in the scientific world ; he comes as the representa- 

 tive pf the French nation. On many occasions President 

 Loubet has shown interest in scientific meetings and con- 

 gresses held in France, and has extended the warmest 

 hospitality to the foreign members who attended them. 

 His country takes a place in the foremost rank of those 

 which are contributing to the advancement of science, and 

 th* flames of leading French investigators are familiar 

 words not only in the British Isles, but in all places where 

 scientific knowledge is cultivated. It is a pity that the 

 British associates and correspondants of the Academy of 

 Sciences have not taken the opportunity to welcome Presi- 

 dent Loubet, as the representatives of the scientific interests 

 of both nations. Such an act of simple courtesy ought not 

 to have been omitted. 



Lord Kelvin and Lord Lister have been elected honorary 

 members of the Royal Society of New South Wales. 



Lord Lister has been admitted to the honorary freedom 

 of. the Merchant Taylors' Company in recognition of his 

 ",lpng and valuable services to the country, and particularly 

 to surgery, by the discovery and application of the anti- 

 septic treatment." 



At a meeting held last week in the rooms of the Royal 

 Statistical Society, it was resolved to form a society for the 

 promotion of scientific and philosophical studies in sociology. 

 A: committee was appointed to consider the question of the 

 spbpe and aims of the society, and to draft a constitution 

 to be: submitted to a meeting in the autumn. 



'A' Paris correspondent writes : — On July 3 the Temps 

 resolved' to send a message round the world by telegraphy, 

 uiirig the Anglo-French system of transoceanic cables. The 

 rriessage was sent from Paris at 11 a.m., and consisted of 

 the two words Temps, Paris, with the indication of the 

 route, via Malta, Aden, Singapore, Brisbane, Vancouver, 

 and French Atlantic Cable. As the indication of the route 

 is not paid for, the cost of the experiment was only 13s. i^d. 

 No previous explanation or preliminary notice had been 

 served to the several companies, but the organisation of the 

 Anglo-French system is so perfect that the message arrived 

 at the Temps office at 5.30 p.m. The time spent had been 

 six hours for travelling about 40,000 miles, a measure of 

 th'> commercial speed of electricity on the occasion of the 

 inauguration of the American, Sandwich, Philippine, and 

 Hqng Kong system. 



The automobile races in Ireland last week give remark- 

 a\)\e evidence of the power and perfection of modern motors. 

 The race for the Gordon Bennett Cup, over a course of 

 37of miles, was won by a German car, driven by a Belgian, 

 M. Jenatzy. The net time spent in covering this distance 

 was 6h. 39m., which gives an average of nearly 56 miles per 

 hour on ordinary roads. The second place was taken by a 

 French car, the time being 6h. 50m. 40s. Three other 

 competitors finished the race, two of them driving French 

 cars, while the fifth place was taken bv an English car. 

 Some extraordinary speeds were attained by automobiles 

 over a course in Phoenix Park, Dublin, on Saturday. For 

 racing purposes the programme was divided into three 

 sections, one for motor cycles, one for touring cars, and 

 one for racing cars. The fastest motor cycle travelled at 

 the rate of 48-2 miles an hour, and the fastest touring car 

 at 46-5 miles an hour. In the racing section a D^cauville 

 light racer covered the course in im. ^t, 1-5S., at the rate 



of 62J miles an hour ; a 6o-h.p. Merc^d^s at the rate of 

 7S miles an hour ; a 70-h.p. Mors at the rate of 83 miles an 

 hour, and also at 859 miles an hour. 



Reuter's Agency is informed that Commander Irizar, the 

 Argentine naval officer who will command the relief ex- 

 pedition which is being sent out by the Argentine Govern- 

 ment in search of Dr. Otto Nordenskjold's South Polar 

 Expedition, will leave for Buenos Ayres in a few \yeeks. 

 The ship — the Uruguay — will be in charge of Argentine 

 officers and crew, and will be provisioned for two years. 

 It is not, however, probable that she will winter in the 

 Antarctic. 



The eighty-sixth annual meeting of the Soci^t6 helv^tique 

 des Sciences naturelles will be held at Locarno on September 

 2-5. At the same time and place the annual meetings will 

 be held of the Swiss societies of geology, botany, zoology, 

 and chemistry, and the Zurich Physical Society. In addition 

 to the general and special meetings, there will be several 

 receptions, banquets, and excursions to places of interest. 

 The officers of the annual committee are M. A. Pioda, presi- 

 dent, Prof. G. Mariani, vice-president. Dr. R. Natoli and 

 M. C. Orelli, secretaries. 



An expedition recently left Baltimore for the purpose of 

 making an exhaustive study of the Bahama Islands, and 

 presenting reports upon them to the United States Govern- 

 ment. We learn from the Scientific American that the 

 expedition originated with Prof. George B. Shattuck, of 

 the Johns Hopkins University, and is under the auspices 

 of the Geographical Society of Baltimore, which defrays a 

 portion of its expenses. Some of the principal lines of in- 

 vestigation will be concerned with the animal and plant 

 life of the islands. The geology of the group will also 

 be examined, and a bench mark will be left with the view 

 of ascertaining to what extent, if any, the Bahamas are 

 sinking or rising above sea level. The industries will be 

 made the subject of a special chapter of the reports, as 

 well as the physical condition of the inhabitants, the extent 

 of the commerce of the principal towns, and any other 

 economic features which may suggest themselves. An 

 elaborate outfit of scientific apparatus for studying the 

 meteorology and climatic conditions, for microscopic ex- 

 amination, and for photographic work has been provided. 

 The diseases which may be prevalent and general sanitary 

 conditions will be included in the investigation. This 

 portion of the work will be in charge of Dr. Clement A. 

 Penrose, of Baltimore, assistant director of the expedition. 



In Nature of April 30 (vol. Ixvii. p. 601) Prof. J. J. 

 Thomson put forward the view that the energy of the 

 Becquerel radiation given out by radio-active substances is 

 produced by a change in the configuration of the atom. Dr. 

 J. Stark writes from Gottingen to state that this view was 

 suggested by him in his book " Die Elektrizitat in Gasen " 

 (Leipzig, 1902, p. 34), and later in the Naturwissenschaft- 

 liche Rundschau (January, 1903). Dr. Stark adds : — " As 

 the transformation of atoms in some elements is still going 

 on, it may be supposed that there was a time when our 

 chemical atoms did not exist in the present amount, while 

 other types of matter were more common. In the later 

 change of the arrangement of the positive and negative 

 electrons, or in the genesis of the present chemical atoms, a 

 very large amount of the potential energy of their electrons 

 was transformed to kinetic energy. The energy liberated 

 in the change of chemical atoms is of a higher order of 

 magnitude than that produced in known chemical reactions. 

 Therefore it is reasonable to suppose that the temperature 

 of the sun and stars is partly due to the genesis of chemical 

 atoms." 



NO. 1758, VOL. 68] 



