394- 



NATURE 



[August 27, 1903 



Senators, and his reports and speeches reveal a man of 

 • frankly liberal views and of firm and stable character 

 He was, for a short time, Minister of Public Instruc- 

 tion in one of the ministries of the Marchese di Rudini. 



The fame of Luigi Cremona is world-wide. Almost 

 all the foreign academies elected him a fellow. His 

 death (which happened on June lo last) has been a 

 loss not only for Italy, but for science universal, in 

 which his discoveries will long secure him a place of 

 honour. 



In the course of a note appended to Prof., Blaserna's 

 valuable statement of facts as to Cremona's career, 

 Prof. Chrystal remarks : — 



In the year 1884, Cremona, along with Hermite and 

 his son-in-law Emile Picard, was my guest during 

 the tercentenary festival of the University of Edin- 

 burgh. Besides these three distinguished mathe- 

 maticians, the following were present at the festival : — 

 Helmholtz, Bierens de Haan, Cayley, Sylvester, Lord 

 Kelvin, Stokes, Salmon, Lord Rayleigh, and Tait. 

 The majority of these dined one evening with Lord 

 M'Laren, and it is scarcely probable that there ever 

 was such a feast of mathematicians before or since. 

 Of this brilliant band of nineteenth century men of 

 science, there remain with us now only Kelvin, Ray- 

 leigh, and Picard. 



NOTES. 



The ninth International Geological Congress was opened 

 at Vienna on Thursday last, when Dr. Tietze, director of 

 the Imperial Institute of Geology, was elected president. 



A Reuter telegram from Cape Town, states that the Cape 

 Legislative Council has agreed to a motion in favour of 

 addressing a communication to the Imperial Government on 

 the subject of the adoption of the metric system. 



According to the Athenaeum, a resolution was passed at 

 the conclusion of the recent geodetic congress at Amsterdam 

 requesting the various nations to carry out extensive 

 measurements of gravity from the Atlantic towards the 

 east through the lowlands of Europe and Asia, as well as 

 in the plateau around Thibet. A clear conception of the 

 variations of weight and of the distribution of bulk in the 

 crust of the earth would be gained thereby in connection 

 with astronomical determinations of longitude and latitude. 



Science states that the commission sent by the U.S. 

 Marine Hospital Service to Vera Cruz reports three proposi- 

 tions as having been demonstrated beyond doubt, namely, 

 (i) that the cause of yellow fever is an animal parasite, and 

 not a vegetable germ or bacterium ; (2) that the disease is 

 communicated only by the bite of mosquitoes ; (3) that only 

 one genus of mosquitoes, Stegomyia Fasciata, is the host 

 of the yellow fever parasite. 



The British Medical Journal states that Dr. S. R. 

 Christophers, who was associated with Dr. Stephens in the 

 investigation as to malaria conducted on the west coast 

 of .A.frica and in the Indian cantonments, has been notified 

 by the Indian Government that the medical authorities 

 desire him to proceed at once to India, with the view of 

 his again taking up special work relating to malarial in- 

 fection. Dr. Christophers is, it is stated, leaving almost 

 immediately to enter upon his duties. 



According to a Stockholm correspondent of the Times, 

 the Swedish steamer Frithjof, which on August 17 started 

 from Stockholm for the relief of Dr. Otto Nordenskjold's 

 South Polar Expedition, will take on board at Bremerhaven 

 provisions for three years and wireless telegraphy apparatus. 

 NO. 1765, VOL. 68] 



Such apparatus is also, it is stated, to be fitted on board 

 the Argentine gunboat Uruguay, and it is thought that this 

 vessel, which is iron built, will remain outside the ice 

 while the Frithjof will push on as far south as possible. 

 From Bremerhaven the Frithjof will go to Plymouth to 

 coal, and then via Madeira to Buenos Ayres, where possibly 

 an Argentine naval officer will join her. She will then go 

 to Punta Arenas, whence her commander proposes to reach 

 Snowhill, the supposed winter station of the Antarctic. 



On Saturday last the Canadian Government steamer 

 Neptune sailed from Halifax, Nova Scotia, for Hudson 

 Bay and Arctic waters on an expedition to last a year and 

 a half. The object of the expedition is to conduct, on 

 behalf of the Government, a botanical, geological, and 

 natural history investigation. The party will take formal 

 possession of the Arctic Islands and the shore of Baffin's 

 Bay. The commander of the expedition will report on the 

 alleged extensive American poaching in the Hudson Bay 

 fisheries. The importance of the cod and halibut fisheries 

 will be reported on. 



A MESSAGE from Naples, dated August 22, states that the 

 explosions of Mount Vesuvius are increasing in violence, 

 and quantities of volcanic matter have been thrown to a 

 height of about 200 yards. At half past 6 o'clock of the 

 morning referred to, a slight earthquake shock was felt. 



The arrangements for the eighth International Geo- 

 graphical Congress, to be held next year at Washington, 

 are, says the Times, taking shape under the care of a 

 committee representing the ten geographical societies and 

 mountaineering clubs of the United States, which have 

 united to welcome the geographers of all nations to 

 American soil. The congress will meet in Washington on 

 September 8, 1904, and will hold daily sessions on 

 September 9, 10, 12, 13, and 14. The subjects for treat- 

 ment and discussion during the meeting at Washington are 

 classified under the following heads -.—(i) Physical geo- 

 graphy, including geomorphology, meteorology, hydrology, 

 &c. ; (2) mathematical geography, including geodesy and 

 geophysics ; (3) biogeography, including botany and zoology 

 in their geographical aspects; (4) anthropogeography, in- 

 cluding ethnology ; (5) descriptive geography, including 

 explorations and surveys ; (6) geographical technology, in- 

 cluding cartography, bibliography, orthography of place- 

 names, &c. ; (7) commercial and industrial geography ; (8) 

 history of geography; (9) geographical education. The 

 committee urges that early notice be given by those desirous 

 of presenting communications of 'proposing subjects for dis- 

 cussion, July I, 1904, being fixed as the latest date for sub- 

 mitting communications designed for printing in connection 

 with the congress, and August i in the case of abstracts 

 (not exceeding 1000 words in length) designed for insertion 

 in the daily bulletin. 



An International Electrical Congress will be held at St. 

 Louis, Mo., from September 12 to 17 of next year. The 

 secti6ns which have been proposed for the main body of the 

 congress are : — General Theory. — Section A, mathematical 

 and experimental. Applications. — Section B, general 

 applications ; Section C, electrochemistry ; Section D, 

 electric power transmission ; Section E, electric light and 

 distribution ; Section F, electric transportation ; Section G, 

 electric communication ; Section H, electrotherapeutics. 

 Prof. Elihu Thomson has been elected president of the 

 committee of organisation, and the general secretary is Dr. 

 A. E. Kennelly, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 



