October 22, 1903J 



NATURE 



603 



be of vital importance to the traders, move so exceed- 

 ingly slow. The fact is, we require a Minister of 

 Commerce with a competent staff, and the sooner the 

 Government awakes to the fact the better for the 

 country. F. Mollwo Perkin. 



liOTES. 



It is probably known to some that a project has been 

 started, and is already well advanced, to found a prize for 

 physics at St. Peter's College, Cambridge, as a tribute to 

 the memory of the late Prof. Tait, of Edinburgh, honorary 

 fellow of the college. Besides members of the college who 

 have heartily taken part in the enterprise, many friends of 

 Prof. Tait, both in Belfast and Edinburgh, have recorded 

 their appreciation of him and of his great services to the 

 advancement of science by joining in this memorial of him 

 at the college of which he was so brilliant a member ; and 

 it is believed that others, if they were made aware of the 

 proposal, would desire, for a like reason, to be associated 

 with it. Mr. I. D. H. Dickson, St. Peter's College, Cam- 

 bridge, will reply to any inquiries, and until more formal 

 thanks are made by the college, will gratefully receive and 

 acknowledge any donations that may be sent to him for the 

 purpose of the memorial. 



It is expected that a monument to the electrician, Zenobe 

 Gramme, will shortly be raised in Brussels. Owing to the 

 efforts of M. L^on Janssen, the general manager of the 

 tramways of Brussels, a committee has been appointed to 

 accomplish this purpose. 



We learn from the British Medical Journal that the pro- 

 posal of the German committee of the Virchow memorial 

 to erect a statue of Virchow in one of the public streets of 

 Berlin, near the place where his scientific work was con- 

 ducted, will be carried out. Contributions towards this 

 memorial should be sent to the Bankhaus Mendelssohn und 

 Cie, Berlin, W., Jagerstr. 49, 50. An obelisk of unpolished 

 grey granite has been placed over Virchow 's grave in the 

 old Matthiiikirchof, Berlin. It bears on one side a black 

 marble tablet, on which is inscribed " Rudolph Virchow," 

 and the date of his birth and death. 



We regret to see the announcement of the death, in his 

 -pventy-first year, of Prof. Rudolf Lipschitz, the professor 

 f mathematics at the University of Bonn. 



The death is announced of Prof. Alexander RoUet, of 

 ' iraz, in his seventieth year. He was educated at Vienna, 

 ut was deeply influenced by Ludwig, and devoted himself 

 • specially to the physiology of the blood and muscles. He 

 was called to Graz in 1863, and was four times rector of 

 that university. 



A MESSAGE from Rome, through Laffan's Agency, dated 

 October 20, states that Mount Vesuvius is again active, 

 ' normous globes of steam being emitted from the principal 

 rater, accompanied by incessant subterranean rumblings 

 and explosions. A stream of lava is flowing down one side 



f the volcano. 



The Odontological Society of Great Britain announces 

 that it is prepared to receive applications for grants in aid 

 ■ if the furtherance of scientific research in connection with 

 dentistry. For particulars and forms of application inquiry 



NO. 1773, VOL. 68] 



should be made of the honorary secretary. Scientific Re- 

 search Committee, Odontological Society, 20 Hanover 

 Square, London, W. 



The new college farm established at Madryn, midway 

 between Aber and Llanfairfechan, in connection with the 

 Agricultural Department of the University College of North 

 Wales, was formally opened on October 17 by the Earl of 

 Onslow, President of the Board of Agriculture. In the 

 course of his inaugural address, Lord Onslow advocated 

 the desirability of giving greater attention to forestry in this 

 country. 



For a long time plague has been endemic in Hong Kong, 

 the disease reappearing after a period of intermission in 

 an inexplicable manner. Prof. Simpson has lately pointed 

 out in a report to the Colonial Office that domestic animals 

 and poultry may contract plague in a latent form from 

 feeding upon plague-infected material, and has suggested 

 that infected food may be a potent source in disseminating 

 the disease. According to the Times (October 17) Sir 

 Henry Blake, the Governor, has recently instituted an in- 

 vestigation of the inhabitants and vermin of a large native 

 quarter in the colony certified to be free from plague. This 

 has revealed that a considerable number of the bugs, fleas, 

 spiders and cockroaches contain plague bacilli. Samples 

 of blood from supposed healthy natives upon examination 

 showed the presence of plague bacilli in 5 per cent, of the 

 specimens. Under favourable conditions such infected 

 persons and vermin become possible sources of danger, and 

 sporadic outbreaks must be expected while they are present. 

 It is difficult also to see what measures can be taken to 

 eradicate the disease in these circumstances. 



Is the course of the Harveian oration delivered before 

 the Royal College of Physicians on Monday, Dr. W. H. 

 AUchin referred to recent work on radio-activity and the 

 constitution of matter, and its bearing on biological pro- 

 cesses. He remarked that as the atomic and molecular 

 theory was utilised to furnish an explanation of that 

 flux of chemical activity which is denominated bioplasm, so 

 have speculations on ionic action been pressed into the 

 same service, and with some promise, wholly hypothetica! 

 as they may be. Nerve action is simply electrical action, 

 negative ions being released where nerve blends with 

 muscle or where systems of concatenated neurons come into 

 connection. Ion after ion is precipitated, and thus neural 

 conduction takes place. This play of ions is excited or in- 

 hibited by the character of the fluids with which the proto- 

 plasm is bathed— by the nature, that is, of the ions which 

 these fluids contain. Most effective in stimulating proto- 

 plasmic action are such substances as sodium salts, as those 

 of lime restrain it, and since such inorganic bodies are 

 among the products of tissue waste, it may be that in the 

 ions of metabolism are to be found the causes of that 

 rhythmic tendency to activity which nerve cell and muscle 

 fibre alike exhibit. If normal neuro-muscular action may be 

 thus induced, the theory offers a clue to the comprehension 

 of some of the most obscure morbid manifestations of these 

 tissues. In many departments of physiology, notably in 

 that concerned with nerve and muscle and with secretion, 

 a large mass of information has been acquired as the result 

 of experiments, whilst but little has been done towards 

 ascertaining the ultimate structure of the tissues concerned 

 —little, that is, beyond what was known a score of years 

 ago or more. In respect to such tissues as these, micro- 

 scopic examination would seem almost to have reached its 

 limits, and for the complete comprehension of the physico- 



