302 



NATURE 



[July 30, 1903 



The Mackinnon research studentships of the Royal Society 

 have been awarded for the year 1903-4 to Mr. F. Horton 

 for physical research, and to Miss A. L. Embleton for 

 biological research. 



The French Association for the Advancement of Science 

 will hold its thirty-second annual meeting this year at 

 Angers from August 4 to 11, under the presidency of 

 M. Levasseur, Administrator of the College de France. 



Governor Lanham, of Texas, has, Science announces, 

 issued a proclamation oiTering a reward of 10,000?. from the 

 State to any person who discovers a practical method for 

 eradicating the cotton boll weevil. 



At an extraordinary general meeting of the members of 

 the Jenner Institute of Preventive Medicine on July 22, a 

 resolution to alter the name of the institute to " The Lister 

 Institute of Preventive Medicine," proposed by Sir Henry 

 Roscoe, seconded by Sir Joseph Fayrer, and supported by 

 Prof. W. J. Simpson, was unanimously adopted. A second 

 meeting will be held on August 7, when the resolution will 

 be submitted for confirmation. 



The council of the Society of Arts attended at Marl- 

 borough House on Monday, when the Prince of Wales, as 

 president of the society, presented the society's Albert medal 

 to Sir Charles A. Hartley, " in recognition of his services, 

 extending over forty years, as engineer to the International 

 Commission of the Danube, which have resulted in the 

 opening up of the navigation of that river to the ships of 

 all nations." 



An outline programme has been issued for the autumn 

 meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute to be held at Barrow- 

 in-Furness on September 1-4. The president, Mr. Andrew 

 Carnegie, will deliver a short address, and the papers down 

 for reading include the following : — Alloys of iron and 

 tungsten, Mr. R. A. Hadfield ; the restoration of danger- 

 ously crystalline steel by heat treatment, Mr. J. E. Stead 

 and Mr. A. Windsor Richards ; the influence of silicon on 

 iron, Mr. Thomas Baker ; the diffusion of sulphides through 

 steel, Prof. E. D. Campbell ; the heat treatment of steel, 

 Mr. W. Campbell ; the diseases of steel, Mr. C. H. Rids- 

 dale ; carbon in iron. Prof. A. Stansfield. 



Science announces that the Bufalini prize of the 

 University of Florence will be awarded at the end of 

 October, 1904. This prize is of the value of 240Z., and is 

 awarded once every twenty years. The subject is the value 

 of the experimental method in opposition to the speculative 

 method of scientific research. 



An international exhibition is to be opened at Arras, in 

 the north of France, on May i, 1904, and remain open until 

 the following October. It is under the patronage of the 

 President of the French Republic, the honorary president 

 of the automobile section being the King of the Belgians. 

 Industrial chemistry is dealt with in one of the classes, and 

 another is devoted to alcohol and its production. 



In reply to a question on the position of wireless tele- 

 graphy in the Navy, Mr. Arnold-Forster has stated that all 

 battleships, and a very large number of cruisers, are fitted 

 either with the Marconi system of wireless telegraphy or 

 with modifications of that system. The present average 

 expenditure upon wireless telegraphy is about 20,000/. per 

 annum, a considerable portion of this amount being paid 

 to the Marconi Company. An agreement with the Marconi 

 Company is now being concluded, and the use of wireless 

 telegraphy throughout the service will be greatly extended 

 in the future. 



NO. I 76 I, VOL. 68J 



Some additional particulars of the International Congress 

 of Science and Arts to be held at St. Louis next year were 

 published in Monday's Times. A body of men of learning 

 from all parts of the world will assemble at St. Louis in 

 connection with the congress, and it is hoped their deliber- 

 ations will stimulate thought, promote science, and thus 

 form a permanent contribution to the world's progress. 

 An administrative board has been entrusted with the 

 arrangements in connection with this new departure, and 

 Prof. Nicholas Murray Butler, of Columbia University, is 

 at the head of it. The main features of a plan proposed by 

 Prof. Miinsterberg, of Harvard University, for the conduct 

 of the proceedings of this section have been adopted. 



Reuter reports that on July 22, after a period of ex- 

 plosions, there was a flow of lava from Mount Vesuvius. 



The Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, will 

 be closed to the general public during the painting of the 

 interior from August i. The business of the Geological 

 Survey will, however, be carried on as usual, and visitors 

 requiring special information will be admitted to the 

 Museum. 



The Rev. G. W. Rawlings, of Osaka, Japan, sends us 

 an interesting example of the pertinacity and strength of 

 Japanese sparrows. A pair of sparrows he found flying 

 about his bedroom one morning had begun to build in a 

 corner of the room, and though the beginnings of the nest 

 were cleared away each morning, the sparrows repeated 

 their attempt three or four successive days. A clothes- 

 brush placed in the corner to keep the birds away was found 

 to have been moved by the sparrows, though it was six 

 inches long and two inches wide. 



Mr. F. W. Branson, of Leeds, sends us an account of 

 some experiments made by him with a mixture of radium 

 and barium chlorides in a dry and in a moist state. When 

 the substance was moistened with water and stirred, its 

 radio-activity was only slightly reduced, though thf 

 luminosity instantly disappeared, but it was restored by 

 drying for fifteen minutes at 150° C. When placed in ben- 

 zene the dried salt retained its phosphorescence. Benzene, 

 however, appeared to diminish somewhat the emission of 

 light rays. Exposure of the dried salt for a few hours to 

 a moist atmosphere caused a total cessation of phosphor- 

 escence, but not in a dry atmosphere. No action could be 

 observed on a photographic plate exposed to the radiations 

 from the moistened salt for thirty seconds, whereas the dry 

 salt gave a full image in the same time. A much longer 

 exposure of the moist salt gave a faint impression, about 

 equal in amount to that produced by an equivalent amount 

 of the dried salt, when the latter was covered with a thin 

 paper, opaque to light rays. 



At the beginning of this year Mr. A. E. Shipley directed 

 attention in these columns (vol. Ixvii. p. 205) to the widely 

 spread belief that a basil plant (Ocimum viride) provided a 

 means of protection against mosquitoes. Observations 

 made by Captain H. D. Larymore at Lokoja, Northern 

 Nigeria, seemed to show that the belief was well founded, 

 but Mr. Shipley pointed out that further experiments were 

 needed upon the subject. The article was reprinted in the 

 British Medical Journal, and was referred to by many other 

 periodicals ; and in consequence requests for seeds:, of the 

 plant were received at the Royal Gardens, Kew, from many 

 parts of the world. Sir William Thiselton-Dyer has, how- 

 ever, sent to the Times of July 27 a report of experiments 

 made on the basil plant in relation to its effect on mosqui- 

 toes by Dr. W. T. Prout, at Freetown, Sierra Leone, and 

 he remarks that it " appears to dispose conclusively of the 

 plant's possessing any real protective value." The con- 

 clusions arrived at by Dr. Prout as the result of his experi- 



