November 23, 1899] 



NATURE 



85 



M. Tannery in the name of the Ecole Normale ; M. Bigourdan 

 fur old pupils; and M. Loewy, the director of the Paris 

 Observatory, as the representative of the Government and the 

 Observatory. The French dehght to honour their men of 

 intellect ; but it is not often that a memorial of the kind erected 

 to Tisserand is unveiled in honour of a man who has devoted 

 his life to science in England. 



Four years ago a scheme was drawn up by the late Dr. E. 

 von Rebeur-Paschwitz for the organisation of the study of earth- 

 quakes over the whole globe. He obtained for it the support of 

 all the leading seismologists, but his early death unfortunately 

 delayed its execution. Prof. Gerland, on whom Von Rebeur's 

 mantle has fallen in Germany, continues to support the scheme, 

 and, having secured the approval of the Geographical Congress 

 at Berlin, has issued a pamphlet in which he suggests the found- 

 ation of an international seismological society. The objects of 

 the society would be to diffuse as far as possible the study of 

 earthquakes in all countries, and especially in those which do 

 not yet possess seismological stations ; to create a methodical 

 organisation of microseismic observations ; and to centralise the 

 publication of reports, which would appear in the form of 

 supplements to the Beitrdge zur Geophysik. It is also proposed 

 that the Society should hold its general meeting conjointly with 

 the International Congress of Geography. 



Major S. J. Rennie describes in the British Medical Journal 

 a grave case of snake-bite treated successfully with Calmette's 

 antivenene serum. In concluding his account, he remarks : 

 " That we have in Calmette's antivenene serum a most powerful 

 remedy against the bites of venomous reptiles has been fully 

 proved both in the laboratory, and also, in a few instances, in 

 actual practice. In the year 1896 it fell to my lot to treat the 

 first case in which this serum was used in India, and since then 

 other successful cases have been reported. The case under 

 consideration is, however, of especial interest, in that it proves, 

 first, that no matter how acute the symptoms, or how far 

 advanced the effects of the poison, it is never too late to use the 

 antidote ; for, as will have been noted, the boy, in this instance, 

 was, to all intents and purposes, dead at one time ; and, 

 secondly, that the "antivenene" will keep for an almost in- 

 definite period, and exposed to all vicissitudes of climate, as I 

 had the serum used in this case in my possession in the plains of 

 India for nearly four years." 



The annual report by the Board of Trade on their pro- 

 ceedings under the Weights and Measures Acts has just been 

 issued as a Parliamentary paper. The report refers to the 

 biennial meeting of the International Committee of Weights and 

 Measures, which was held in Paris in April last, to consider the 

 work undertaken at the bureau of the committee since the year 

 1897, and also to arrange the future proceedings at the bureau 

 for the years 1899-1901. The committee was attended by 

 representatives from various countries, including Great Britain, 

 and was presided over by the president. Prof. W. FiJrster, 

 director of the observatory at Berlin. The discussions at the 

 numerous meetings of the committee, and the results of the 

 inquiries by the committee into the administration of the bureau 

 and the scientific investigations undertaken there by the director 

 of the bureau. Dr. J. Rene-Benoit, have been published under 

 the directions of the committee in the " Proccs-Verbaux des 

 Seances de 1899," and also in the " Travaux et Memoires du 

 Bureau International des Poids et Mesures." The report states 

 that the Board of Trade are in communication with some 

 Government departments with the view of ascertaining how far 

 the metric system of weights and measures might be officially 

 adopted in contracts. The Standards Department have in 

 course of preparation, for the purpose of explaining the 

 NO 1569, VOL. 61] 



principles of the metric system in schools, a set of education 

 models of metric weights, measures, and weighing and measur- 

 ing instruments similar to tho^e used in trade. 



Two papers, dealing with the construction and equipment of 

 the Waterloo and City Railway, were read at last week's meeting 

 of the Institution of Civil Engineers. The first paper, by Mr. H. 

 H. Dalrymple-Hay, was devoted to a description of the general 

 features of the line, and the methods used in its construction. The 

 new line is one and a half miles long, and, with the exception of a 

 short length at Waterloo. consists of two iron tunnels with a station 

 at each end, approached by stairs and inclines. The method of 

 tunnelling in the London clay and in water-bearing strata was the 

 well-known Grealhead system, except in the case of a short length 

 of tunnel which was driven by a new method not requiring the 

 employment of a heading or timbers outside the shield. The 

 average rate of working in the small tunnels was ten feet every 

 twenty-four hours where the tunnels were in the clay. In the 

 larger tunnels at the City Station, which were also in the clay, six 

 feet was completed regularly in the same time. In water-bearing 

 strata, however, the speed varied greatly, depending upon the 

 character of the ground and the depth of ballast and head of 

 water at the face. 



The second paper, referred to above, by Mr. Bernard M. 

 Jenkin, gave an account of the electrical equipment of the line, 

 which is the second underground railway that has been built to 

 be worked electrically. The electric energy is generated at the 

 Power Station, at the Waterloo end of the line, by high-speed 

 engines coupled direct to two-pole dynamos. The energy is 

 transmitted to the trains by feeders connected to an insulated 

 rail, or conductor, placed between the two running rails of the 

 permanent way. Experiments and tests were made on completion 

 of the line to ascertain the time and power taken to drive a train 

 from one station to the other under different conditions and with 

 different limits of speed on the sharp curves. The time in which 

 a train could traverse the whole of the distance from one station 

 to the other depends mainly upon the maximum speed which 

 could be allowed on the sharpest curves. There are some very 

 sharp curves at the bottom of the dip in the line where it passes 

 under the river, and it was originally intended that the speed on 

 these curves should be limited to twenty-four miles an hour. 

 Before the line could be opened it was inspected by the Board of 

 Trade, and Sir Francis Marindin decided to limit the speed round 

 the sharpest curves to fifteen miles an hour instead of twenty-four 

 miles an hour, for which the whole of the electrical equipment 

 of the line was designed. This alteration has had naturally a 

 very great effect on the whole working of the traffic on the line, 

 the brakes having to be applied to the train on the down gradients, 

 as the speed which would be attained by gravity alone would 

 very much exceed the limit of fifteen miles an hour by the time 

 the curves were reached. The switchback principle of working 

 the line cannot, therefore, be adopted as it might otherwise 

 have been with the particular arrangements of gradients and 

 the absence of intermediate stations which is the peculiarity of 

 the line described. 



In the few years that have intervened since the water of 

 Niagara was first turned into the wheel-pit of the Niagara Falls 

 Power Plant, a large number of entirely new industries have 

 sprung up around, or within easy touch of, the power station. 

 That the tendency is for the industries to gravitate to the power 

 rather than the power to be transmitted to the industries 

 is shown in an account given in the Scientijic American, from 

 which it appears that out of a total of 35,000 horse-power 

 delivered from the station, over three-fourths are consumed in 

 its vicinity, as against less than one-fourth that is transmitted to 

 a distance— the principal long distance transmission being that 



