372 



NATURE 



[August 20, 1903 



all learning t.urns the steps, of students in the same 

 direction, and a .Government which fosters such a 

 policy is deserving of its country. Germany has 

 offered to take upon her shoulders a burden which 

 others shirk, and if this can be achieved to the satis- 

 faction of those concerned, she deserves great praise. 



While this no doubt is one view of the situation, it 

 must not be overlooked that Governments, particularly 

 those that do not feel justified in giving support to 

 seismological investigation within their own territory, 

 may hesitate in offering support to such investigation 

 in a foreign State. To suggest that a powerful 

 empire needed looo^ a year to carry on the proposed 

 work would be v^anting in good taste. Neither can it 

 be suggested that delegates at the conference have 

 carried away with them the impression that they are 

 to receive something greater than a nuid. pro quo. 

 Should the proposed convention be ratified, what they 

 may possibly discover is that a birthright has been ex- 

 changed for a mess of pottage, and for a period of 

 twelve long years a suzerainty has to be acknow- 

 ledged. Truly enough the movement is called inter- 

 national, but at the same time it bears the character 

 of absorption and crystallisation at a centre, and it is 

 not every country that will care to add to its neigh- 

 bour's prestige at the expense of its own, plav second 

 fiddle, and pay for the privilege. That sei'smologv 

 will benefit by cooperation there is but little doubt, 

 but whether Germany can carry out what has been 

 proposed, and whether the scheme has been presented 

 in its best form are matters open to discussion. 



NOTES. 



We are informed that Mr. A. S. le Souef has been 

 appointed director of the zoological garden at Sydney in 

 succession to the late Mr. Catlett. Mr. Dudley le Souef, 

 his elder brother, has been director of the gardens of the 

 Zoological and Acclimatisation Society at Melbourne for 

 several years, and a younger brother is director of the 

 newly established garden at Perth, in Western Australia, 

 so that the three brothers occupy three corresponding posi- 

 tions in the three Australian capitals. 



For the study of bird migration, Mr. W. Eagle Clarke, 

 assistant keeper in the Natural History Department of the 

 Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art, has obtained per- 

 mission from the Elder Brethren of Trinity House to 

 spend a month upon the Kentish Knock Lightship, 

 situated off the mouth of the Thames, and about twenty-one 

 miles from the nearest point of land. The position of the 

 vessel affords exceptional opportunities for observing the 

 east to west autumnal movements of birds across the 

 southern waters of the North Sea. 



The meeting this year of the French Association for 

 the Advancement of Science was held at Angers under the 

 presidency of M; Emile Levasseur, who, in his presidential 

 address, dealt with one of those economic questions around 

 which, at the present time, many controversies are being 

 raised. "Wages," said M. Levasseur, "have furnished 

 the material for hundreds of volumes and millions of 

 fugitive leaflets which daily discuss the subject in all 

 civilised countries," and he went on to devote his address 

 to a consideration of three main questions affecting the 

 wage-earner. These may be stated in the following words. 

 "What causes determine the rate of wages?" "Have 

 wages increased?" "Is the wage-earner a permanent 

 factor in the organisation of labour?" In discussing the 

 first question, the president recognised a number of causes 

 for the variations in the rate of wages ; among these factors 

 NO. 1764, VOL. 68] 



are the productivity of the worker, the cost of living for 

 the workman and his family, the general prosperity of the 

 country, the special abundance of capital in each industry, 

 the opposition between workers and employers, and political 

 institutions and customs. After examining his second 

 question, M. Levasseur concluded that wages have risen 

 in F"rance and in other civilised countries, and that the 

 cause of it is the growth of riches, the progress of in- 

 dustry, the development of machinery, and the greater in- 

 dividual and collective value of the worker. The grants 

 for scientific research made by the association amount this 

 year to about 760/., and this sum was divided among some 

 fifty recipients, including certain scientific associations as 

 well as men of science. 



A Reuter telegram from Buenos Ayres states that severe 

 shocks of earthquake were felt on August 12 at Mendoza. 

 A number of houses and the tower of a church were de- 

 stroyed. 



Vesuvius is in a state of active eruption. The Rome 

 correspondent of the Daily Chronicle says a stream of boil- 

 ing lava is flowing in a north-easterly direction towards 

 San Giuseppe and the village of Ottajano, and has already 

 reached a length of 800 metres. 



A severe hurricane passed over the island of Jamaica 

 during the night of August 10-11, causing serious damage 

 and loss of life. On August 8 the U.S. Weather Bureau 

 notified its local agent at Kingston that a disturbance 

 north-east of Barbados was moving to the north-west over 

 the Windward Islands, and would probably develop a 

 dangerous strength. Little notice, however, was taken of 

 the warning. The storm was most severe in the early 

 morning hours of August 11, and the whole of the eastern 

 and north-eastern half of Jamaica has been desolated by it. 



The preliminary international conference on wireless 

 telegraphy came to an end on August 13. The results of 

 the conference have been embodied in draft regulations for 

 the control of wireless telegraphy which it is proposed to 

 submit to the various Governments concerned. A further 

 conference may then be summoned to enter into an inter- 

 national convention based on these regulations ; it is said 

 that Germany intends before long to invite the European 

 sea Powers and the United States to take part in a more 

 general conference with this object. The conclusions at 

 which the delegates at the preliminary conference arrived 

 have not yet been made public. 



An instance of the practical advantages of wireless tele- 

 graphy at sea -was given by the Observer last Sunday. A 

 gentleman crossing to New York by the Campania dis- 

 covered in the middle of the voyage that he had not 

 sufficient money to pay his customs dues on arrival, nor 

 did he know anyone on board from whom to borrow. He 

 remembered, however, that his mother was crossing from 

 New York by the Lucania, and the two vessels having got 

 into communication by wireless telegraphy, he transmitted 

 a request to her to pay the purser loL, asking him to 

 advise the purser of the Campania to pay the sum to him. 

 The- transaction was successfully accomplished within an 

 hour; it seems that with the spread of wireless telegraphy 

 on ships, all the business that we are accustomed to trans- 

 act on land will be able to be carried on with equal facility 

 at sea. 



An account of some further experiments on the heat 

 radiating power of radium, carried out by M. Curie in con- 

 junction with Prof. Dewar at the Royal Institution at the 

 time of M. Curie's lecture last June, is given in the Times 

 of August 13. The facilities for accurate research at low 



