September 17, 1903] 



NATURE 



489 



: An exposition is to be held in Baltimore under the auspices 

 of the Maryland Public Health Association and the Tubercu- 

 losis Commission appointed by the Governor. of that State, 

 the object of which is to arouse public and professional 

 interest in the subject of tuberculosis. The basis for the 

 exposition will, says the Lancet, be the investigations of 

 the Tuberculosis Commission into the cause, the prevalence, 

 and the distribution of human tuberculosis in that State, 

 its influence on the public welfare, and the best methods of 

 restricting and controlling the disease. The medical 

 questions involved, the importance of habits, occupation, 

 and housing conditions will receive consideration. The 

 ultimate purpose of the exposition is to determine the proper 

 legislation, municipal, State, and national, to be recom- 

 mended, some definite line of prophylaxis, as well as 

 measures relating to the care and cure of both advanced 

 and incipient cases of pulmonary tuberculosis. 



It is stated in the British Medical Journal that a number 

 of consumptive patients have been taken by Dr. Kuss, of 

 Paris, to the Vallot Observatory, near the summit of 

 Mont Blanc, for the purpose of ascertaining the effect of 

 rarefied air on their lungs. The patients remain in the 

 open for the greater part of the twenty-four hours in every 

 kind of weather. 



The next meeting of the International Congress of 

 Ophthalmology is to take place at Lucerne from September 

 19 to 21 of next year, under the presidency of Prof. Dufour. 

 According to the official circular which has recently been 

 distributed, no papers are to be read, but such, if written 

 in English, French, German, or Italian, and sent with the 

 admittance fee before May i next to Prof. Mellinger, of 

 Basle, will be printed and grouped according to their sub- 

 jects, and this printed report will be sent to each member 

 with his admission card at least two weeks before the date 

 appointed for the opening of the congress. At the meetings 

 the authors of the papers will have the opportunity of stating 

 the conclusion of their respective papers in a few words, and 

 the discussion will then commence. Members present who 

 are interested in the subject of the paper will, of course, 

 have had the opportunity of reading the paper before the 

 opening of the congress. The discussions will be printed 

 and published at the close of the congress, and possibly 

 papers received too. late to be printed before the opening of 

 the congress will also be discussed and printed with the 

 discussions. The afternoons of the congress will be devoted 

 to practical demonstrations. 



The Paris Society of Pharmacy is to celebrate its 

 centenary on October 17, and in connection with it an 

 historical account of the Society has been prepared and will 

 be read by Prof. E. M. Bourquelot, the general secretary, 

 at a public meeting. This history, together with other 

 original matter that may be supplied by members of the 

 Society, will, says the Chemist and Druggist, form the 

 material of a book which will be published later. The 

 work will also contain the portraits and biographies of 

 leading pharmacists and chemists who have been connected 

 with the Society, such as Nicolas Hoiiel, the founder, the 

 " Citizen " Trusson, one of the last directors of the Free 

 Society of Pharmacists, Parmentier, Vauquelin, Bouillon- 

 Lagrange, and others. 



A MEETING was recently held in America, under the chair- 

 manship of Dn D. C. Gilman, to promote a proposed 

 memorial to the late Major Reed, M.D., well known for his 

 work in connection with the discovery of the mode by 

 which yellow fever has been spread, and the suppression 

 of the disease. According to Science the meeting decided 

 NO. 17-68. VOL. 68] 



that an effort should be made to raise a memorial fund o£ 

 25,000 dollars or more, the income to be given to the widow; 

 and daughter of Dr. Reed, and that after their decease the 

 principal shall be appropriated either to the promotion of re- 

 searches in Dr. Reed's special field, or to the erection o£ 

 a memorial in his honour at Washington. 



Particulars, according to the Lancet, have been received 

 of the medical results of the expedition of investigation to 

 the Bahamas which was sent out some time ago by the 

 Johns Hopkins University and the Baltimore Geographical 

 Society, from which we glean the follov/ing. Skin diseases, 

 and especially leprosy, were found to be very prevalent. No 

 effort is made to prevent the spread of leprosy, and many 

 instances were noted where persons suffering from that 

 disease were engaged in the sale of provisions, in piloting 

 vessels, and in other pursuits. -No cases of yellow fever 

 were discovered, and but two cases of malaria were recog- 

 nised. Many species of mosquito were secured for subse- 

 quent study. A special feature of the work of the medical 

 department was the study of the degenerates of Abaco, 

 descendants of the Torys, who closely intermarry. 



According to the Times a prehistoric British barrow has 

 just been opened at Martinstown, Dorset. The barrow 

 contained worked flints, a quantity of pottery, and a large 

 British urn inverted on a slab of stone, covering some 

 cremated remains which had been wrapped in a rough 

 material of cloth or rushes, the texture of the weaving of 

 which was still traceable. In another barrow close by have 

 been found a vase and a bronze knife with a portion of a 

 willow handle. 



On this day week, September 10, a storm of unusual 

 violence advanced over the central portion of the British 

 Islands, causing enormous damage in its passage over sea 

 and land. The Daily Weather Report issued by the Meteor- 

 ological Office for 8h. a.m. of that day showed that a de- 

 pression lay to. the westward of the Irish coasts ; by 6h. 

 p.m. the disturbance reached the Irish Sea, and had 

 advanced at the rate of about fifty miles an hour, while 

 by the evening it had spread over nearly the whole country. 

 So rapid was its rate of progression that the Daily Weather 

 Report of the morning of September 11 showed that the 

 centre of the storm had reached the north of Holland. 

 The destruction was so general that it seems somewhat 

 invidious to refer to individual instances. We merely quote 

 two cases to illustrate its violence — the demolition of the 

 solid breakwater at Dover, and the uprooting of trees in 

 the vicinity of London that had withstood the storms of a 

 hundred years. During the passage of the gale the baro- 

 meter fell at the unusual rate of more than 01 inch an 

 hour. The velocity of the wind to the southward of the 

 centre of the storm was much greater than to the north- 

 ward ; near the mouth of the Channel on the evening of 

 September 10 it reached nearly 70 miles an hour. The 

 rainfall measured in the twenty-four hours ending on Friday 

 exceeded an inch and a half in the north-west, aftd an inch 

 and a quarter in fhe east of England. 



The September issue of the Meteorological Office pilot 

 chart contains, in addition to the twelve maps showing the 

 tidal streams round the British Isles, a reproduction of Dr. 

 Hermann Berghaus's chart of cotidal lines round our own 

 and the North Sea coasts, with explanatory remarks by Prof. 

 G. H, Darwin. To render the information more complete 

 to the mariner, there is a table giving the times of high 

 water at Dover throughout the month. Another addition 

 deals with a proposal to alter the steamship route between 

 the Bristol Channel and Jamaica. A comparison has been 



