August 6. 190, 



NATURE 



327 



and in the latter year took up the work in celestial photo- 

 graphy which has rendered their name famous. It is not 

 too much to say that in many ways they have been the 

 real founders of La Carte du Ciel. 



An International Conference on Wireless Telegraphy was 

 opened at Berlin on Tuesday. We learn from the Times 

 that Great Britain is represented by Mr. J. C. Lamb, Mr. 

 J. Gavey, and Mr. R. J. Mackay, of the General Post 

 Office, Captain H. L. Heath, R.N., Lieut. C. R. Payne, 

 R.N., and Colonel R. L. Hippisiey. Herr Kraetke, the 

 Imperial Secretary of State for the Post Office, who opened 

 the conference, said that it was intended " to make a clear 

 road for the further extension of wireless telegraphy in 

 order that, all special interests being set aside, the new 

 means cf communication might gradually develop to the 

 common benefit of all seafaring peoples. This could only 

 be brought about by the harmonious cooperation of the 

 "states interested in the shipping trade." The business 

 t the conference is, however, only preliminary, the 

 main object being to fix upon matter for discussion 

 at a subsequent international conference. This later 

 conference will probably be l^gely occupied in con- 

 sidering the possibility of standardisation with a view to 

 intercommunication between different systems. We have 

 often pointed out in these columns the extreme desirability 

 of such intercommunication from the point of view of public 

 safety and convenience. When the problem of syntonisation 

 is solved, it will no doubt be possible for one system to 

 work entirely independently of all others, but until that 

 time it is practically necessary that some working arrange- 

 ment should be made between the different systems which 

 will allow the public to derive from wireless telegraphy the 

 full advantage that it can, as yet, bestow. 



Mr. R. Lydekker, F.R.S., has been elected a foreign 

 member of the R. Accademia dei Lincei, Rome. 



Mr. W'. R. Ogilvie-Grant, of the Natural History 

 Museum, has returned from his trip to the Azores with a 

 large collection of birds, insects, and land molluscs, the 

 latter including some forms of special interest. 



We learn from the Times that Dr. Ludwig Mond, F.R.S., 

 whose death was incorrectly announced by some papers last 

 Saturday, is approaching complete recovery from a nervous 

 breakdown on the shores of Lake Leman. 



The Civil Service Supplementary Estimates include the 

 sum of 45,000/. to pay the expenses of the two reliei ships 

 Morning and Terra Nova, which are being sent out by the 

 Admiralty to the relief of the Discovery. The estimate 

 includes provision for the purchase of the Terra Nova and 

 for the wages of the crews of both vessels ; also for stores, 

 ( oals, provisions, &c. 



Severe earthquake shocks were experienced in several 

 parts of Italy and Spain last week. Renter's correspondent 

 at Rome states that several houses and churches at 

 I'iJattiera and Mulazzo were destroyed by an earthquake on 

 July 31, and a message from Madrid states that at Albunon, 

 in the province of Granada, severe earthquake shocks, 

 followed by loud and prolonged subterranean rumblings, 

 were felt on July 26, 27 and 28. 



The council of the Institution of Electrical Engineers has 

 now, with the approval of the Physical Society, undertaken 

 the publication of Science Abstracts as an Institution 

 publication. In connection with this work, Mr. Louis H. 

 Walter has been appointed editorial assistant to the secre- 

 tary, and will take up his duties in the autumn. 



NO. 1762, VOL. 68] 



The death is announced of Prof. Edmond Nocard in his 

 fifty-fourth year. Prof. Nocard, who was principal of the 

 Veterinary School at Alfort, near Paris, had a world-wide 

 reputation as a veterinary pathologist, and was the author 

 of several important works, of which his " Maladies micro- 

 biennes des Animaux " (written in collaboration with Prof. 

 Leclainche) has just reached a third edition. He was also 

 one of the co-editors of the Pasteur's Annals. He attended 

 the Tuberculosis Congress in London in 1901, and was a 

 strenuous opponent of Koch's view of the non-transmiss- 

 ibility of bovine tuberculosis to man. 



A meeting of the general committee of the Cancer Re- 

 search Fund was held on Friday last, July 30, Mr. Balfour, 

 one of the vice-presidents, occupying the chair in the absence 

 of the president, the Prince of Wales. The first annual re- 

 port, which was submitted, showed that a large amount of 

 preliminary work had already been accomplished during 

 the few months the Cancer Research Fund has been in 

 existence. It was deemed premature to make any detailed 

 statement of the experimental work in progress, but an 

 indication was given that considerable importance is 

 attached to the study of cancer as it occurs spontaneously 

 in the lower animals. For the purposes of this branch of 

 the inquiry, it is sought to secure adequate farm accom- 

 modation. Certain statistical data are also in progress of 

 compilation with regard to the proportion of cases in which 

 the clinical diagnosis is verified by the pathological find- 

 ings, in order that the value of the data upon which exist- 

 ing statistical conclusions are based may be determined 

 and sources of fallacy obviated in future. Sir William 

 Broadbent, in moving a vote of thanks to Mr. Balfour, 

 stated that he thought that in the course of the work now 

 being inaugurated, the nature, cause, and cure of cancer 

 would be arrived at. Whatever method of cure might be 

 proposed, it would receive careful investigation. Mr. 

 Balfour, in his reply, alluding to the interest which every- 

 one must take in the cancer problem, said he was surprised 

 that only 213 persons had contributed to the fund. One 

 anonymous donor had promised 5000/. if thirteen other 

 individuals, or groups of persons, would each contribute 

 a like amount, but up to the present this appeal had not 

 been successful. Considering the progress that had been 

 made in all departments of medical science during the last 

 century, he believed that there was every reason to hope 

 that the investigations of the committee would ultimately 

 prove successful. The Cancer Research Fund now amounts 

 to about 52,000/., but in order to pay the expenses of the 

 work out of the income of the fund, the amount originally 

 estimated, viz. 100,000/., will be necessary. 



A CORRESPONDENT of the Times states that Lieut. Kolchak 

 has started from the Arctic coast for the New Siberian 

 Islands in search of Baron Toll, the head of the Russian 

 Polar expedition which left St. Petersburg three years ago 

 in the yacht Zaria. If Baron Toll be not found on the New 

 Siberian Islands, then Lieut. Kolchak will endeavour to 

 reach Bennett Island, about eighty miles further north-west. 

 A year ago last May Baron Toll, with the astronomer 

 Seeberg and two native Yakuts, left the Zaria off Kotlin 

 Island with a view of reaching Bennett Island over the ice. 

 In case the Zaria should not be able to follow them, which 

 eventually turned out to be the case, the party hoped to 

 be able to return independently to the New Siberian Islands ; 

 but it is supposed that . Baron Toll had not dogs enough 

 with him for this purpose, and was therefore obliged to 

 winter on Bennett Island. In regard to food, all the 

 members of his party are e.xcellent hunters, and in case 



