5i6 



NATURE 



[September 24, 1903 



NOTES. 



Prof. Graham Kerr has just received a letter from Mr. 

 J. S. Budgett in which the latter announces that he has 

 solved^ the important problem of the development of Poly- 

 pterus. The letter is written from southern Nigeria and 

 dated August 28. It appears that Mr. Budgett has been 

 able to fertilise a large quantity of eggs of Polypterus 

 Senegalus, and that the early development is " astoundingly 

 frog-like " — segmentation being complete and fairly equal, 

 and the process of invagination resembling that of the 

 frog's egg. Prominent neural folds are formed which arch 

 over in the normal fashion. Mr. Budgett had already made 

 three expeditions to various parts of tropical Africa in his 

 endeavour to obtain material for studying the development 

 of Polypterus, and zoologists will rejoice that his efforts 

 have been at last attended with success. The Crossop- 

 terygians have been for some time the most important 

 vertebrate group awaiting the investigation of the embry- 

 ologist, and the results gained by Mr. Budgett in the work- 

 ing out of his material in the laboratory will be looked 

 forward to with the greatest interest by all vertebrate 

 morphologists. 



A MOVEMENT is in progress for erecting a memorial of 

 James Watt, and at a meeting recently held it was decided 

 that the form the memorial should take should be an in- 

 stitution for scientific research, and an appeal is now being 

 made for funds to carry out the project. Mr. Andrew 

 Carnegie, who is the secretary for America, has promised 

 a subscription of lo.oooZ. towards the object. 



The Bombay University Syndicate announces that the 

 subject selected for the Dr. Theodore Cooke memorial prize 

 for 1905 is " Electric Traction and the Application of 

 Electricity to the Requirements of Cities in India." Com- 

 petitors for the prize should be graduates in engineering 

 of the University of Bombay of not more than seven years' 

 standing. 



The second International Congress of Philosophy is to be 

 held in September of next year in Geneva. 



The fourth International Congress of Psychology will, it 

 is stated, meet in Rome in the spring of 1905, instead of 

 in the autumn of 1904, as had been arranged. 



Dr. Louis Parkes has been appointed to succeed the late 

 Prof. Corfield as consulting sanitary adviser to H.M. Office 

 of Works. 



The forty-eighth annual exhibition of the Royal Photo- 

 graphic Society opens to-day at the New Gallery, Regent 

 Street. The exhibition will remain open until October 31. 



Further trials on the electric railway at Zossen have 

 resulted in a speed of nearly 114 miles an hour being 

 attained. 



An exhibition of the pathological specimens which have 

 been added to the St. George's Hospital Museum during the 

 past year will take place at the museum from October i 

 to 17. 



The death is announced of Mr. Washington Teasdale, of 

 Leeds, at the age of seventy-three. He was a fellow of 

 several scientific societies, and president of the Leeds Astro- 

 nomical Society. 



A Reuter telegram from Santiago de Cuba announces 

 that a shock of earthquake, the most violent since 1885, 

 occurred there on the morning of September 19, and lasted 

 fifteen seconds. 



NO. 1769, VOL. 68] 



The death, at the advanced age of eighty-five, is 

 announced of Dr. Alexander Bain, who for twenty years 

 occupied the chair of logic in the University of Aberdeen, 

 and was a voluminous writer on language, logic, 

 psychology, and kindred subjects. 



It is stated by Reuter that the private subscriptions 

 towards Captain Bernier's projected North Pole expedition 

 amount to i2,oooZ., of which Lord Strathcona has given 

 1000/. It is also stated that the Canadian Government 

 will probably build and equip the vessel for the expedition. 



A provincial sessional meeting of the Sanitary Institute 

 will be held at the University of Birmingham on Saturday 

 next, September 26. A discussion 'on some practical con- 

 siderations in connection with modern methods of treating 

 sewage will be opened by Prof. A. Bostock Hill and Mr. 

 J. E. Willcox. 



The Colonial Economic Committee of Berlin announces 

 that the utility of the gutta-percha discovered by the ex- 

 pedition which was undertaken to New Guinea under the 

 leadership of Herr Schlechter has so far been established that 

 the gutta-percha from the low-lying country may be re- 

 garded as suitable for cable purposes as an admixture, and, 

 ■if carefully obtained, be fit for cables in a pure condition. 

 Large quantities of gutta-percha have been obtained from 

 New Guinea, and are at present being tested, the Secretary 

 of State for the Imperial Post Office having granted a large 

 sum of money for the purpose. It is proposed by the 

 Colonial Economic Committee to establish a gutta-percha 

 enterprise for the education of the native population of New 

 Guinea in the cultivation of gutta-percha and its winning. 

 This will take the form of a fresh expedition under Herr 

 Schlechter for a period of three years. Assistance will be 

 given by natives of Borneo and others familiar with the 

 question of rubber production. 



A successful journey through eastern Mongolia (supple- 

 menting a more extended journey accomplished last year 

 by Mr. Campbell, Chinese Secretary of the British Lega- 

 tion) has, says a Peking correspondent of the Times, just 

 been completed by Mr. Claude Russell and Mr. Hicks Beach. 

 The party left Peking on July 20, and, passing through 

 Jehol, struck north to the Manchurian Railway at Tsitsihar, 

 which was reached in forty-eight days. Their route lay 

 east of the Khingan Mountains, the distance covered, 1000 

 miles, being to a considerable extent, so far as is known, 

 through country not previously visited by any European. 

 The travellers rode on ponies, with pack mules for their 

 baggage. They had four servants, but no escort. They 

 met with unfailing courtesy from all classes, both Mongols 

 and Chinese. The country is thinly peopled, but is being 

 gradually colonised by Chinese from within the Great Wall. 



A British and International Aeronautical Exhibition, 

 organised by the Aeronautical Institute, was opened at the 

 Alexandra Palace on Thursday last. Among the exhibits 

 are a model balloon, and kites and specimens of 

 balloon accessories sent by the German Government, ex- 

 amples of Mr. S. F. Cody's kites and his gear for flying 

 them, various flying machines either full size or in model 

 form, and the large machine which Dr. Barton is con- 

 structing. In connection with the exhibition three com- 

 petitions are to be held, silver and bronze medals being 

 awarded to the two winners in each. The first is for kites, 

 and iu judging consideration will be taken of the way in 

 which the kite leaves the ground, the manner in which it 

 ascends, its steadiness, the time required to let out the 

 whole mile of wire or string, the altitude attained, and the 



