February 8, i960] 



NATURE 



351 



reported that the difficulty was due to the iron in the hills, but, 

 as a matter of fact, iron has no more destructive effect on 

 these Hertzian waves than any other metal, and Mr. Marconi 

 has been able to transmit messages across the high buildings of 

 New York, the upper stories of which are iron. However, 

 when kites were provided, it was easy to communicate from De 

 Aar to Orange River— some 70 miles— and now there are 

 stations at Modder River, Enslin, Belmont, Orange River, 

 and De Aar. Two of the assistants volunteered to take instru- 

 ments through the Boer lines to Kimberley, but the military 

 •horities would not grant them permission, as probably too 

 : cat risk was involved. It seemed to Mr. Marconi regrettable 

 (hat installations were not established in Ladysmith, Mafeking, 

 and Kimberley before the commencement of hostilities, but he 

 found it hard to believe that the Boers had any workable 

 instruments. Some intended for them, which were seized at 

 Cape Town, were of German manufacture, and not workable, 

 and Mr. Marconi said that as he had supplied no apparatus to 

 any one, the Boers could not possibly have any of his instru- 

 ments. In conclusion, he said he did not like to dwell on what 

 might be done in the immediate or distant future. But he was 

 sure that the progress iuade thi? year would greatly surpass 

 what had been accomplished during the last twelve months, 

 and, speaking what he believed to be sober sense, he said that 

 by means of wireless telegraphy telegrams^ would become as 

 common and as much in daily use on the sea as they are at 

 present on the land. 



The Government have placed a number of commissions in 

 cho army at the disposal of the Chancellors of all the British 

 and Irish Universities, and some of the Colleges of University 

 rank. 



The Turin Academy of Sciences has awarded the Bressa 

 jirize of 10,000 lire (400/.), for the best scientific work pub- 

 lished during the past four years, to Prof. Ernst Haeckel, of 

 Jena. 



Prof. Mittag-Lekfler has been elected a correspondant of 

 the Paris Academy of Sciences in the section of geometry, and 

 M. Bienayme has been elected a correspondant in the section of 

 i^raphy and navigation. 



The two candidates whose names have been submitted to the 

 Minister of Public Instruction by the Paris Academy of Sciences 

 for the chair of comparative embryology at the College de 

 France, are M. Henneguy and M. Roule, the former occupying 

 the first place. 



Prof. Rontgen, who has accepted the call to the University 

 of Munich, has been appointed director of the State institute of 

 physics and metrology. 



Announcement is made in the London Gazette that, after 

 the expiration of forty days from February 6, it is proposed to 

 submit to Her Majesty in Council the draft of an Order in 

 Council providing that acetylene, when in admixture with 

 atmospheric air or with oxygen, shall be deemed to be an ex- 

 plosive within the meaning of the Explosives Act, 1875, ^"d 

 that it shall not be manufactured, imported, kept, conveyed, or 

 sold. 



The New York correspondent of the Times announces that 

 the British Ambassador and the Secretary of State signed 

 the new Nicaragua Canal Convention on Monday, and it 

 will be sent to the Senate at once for ratification. In con- 

 nection with the Convention, England asks for nothing for her 

 concession of the right of objection to the canal. Both nations 

 treat the matter as of deep importance to the whole world. 

 The canal is to be neutral. The United States will build and 

 manage it, but their position will be much the same as that of 

 luigland in reference to the Suez Canal. 

 NO. 1580, VOL. 61] 



The sixty-eighth annual meeting of the British Medical 

 Association will be held at Ipswich on July 31-August 3. The 

 president-elect is Dr. W. A. Elliston. An address in medicine 

 will be delivered by Dr. P. H. Pyfl-Smith, F R.S., and one in 

 surgery by Mr. F. Treves. The scientific business of the 

 meeting will be conducted in thirteen sections as usual. 



The British Medical Journal states that the sum of 98,000 

 dollars left by Mrs. C. B. Croft for the furtherance of the 

 systematic study of cancer has now been paid to the Harvard 

 University, and will be administered by the Department of 

 Surgery of the Medical School of that University. Dr. E. H. 

 Nichols has been appointed to an office under the trust, and 

 will shortly visit English and continental laboratories for the 

 purpose of investigating the work now being done in them. 



Through the enterprise of Prof. Conway M'Millan, a 

 Botanical Art Gallery has been commenced during the past 

 season in connection with the University of Minnesota. It 

 consists of a collection of photographs from nature intended 

 to illustrate the flora of the State, and is at present limited to 

 portraits of the plants themselves in their habitats, and ecolo* 

 gical groups. 



Largely through the exertions of Mr. Thomas Meehan, we 

 learn from the Botanical Gazette, the City of Philadelphia has 

 acquired the dwelling and a part of the grounds which belonged 

 to James Logan, one of the founders, along with William Penn, 

 of the State of Pennsylvania. Logan was a distinguished 

 botanist, the genus Logania (and natural order Loganiaceae) 

 having been named after him. The property will be known as 

 Stenton Park. 



The Herbarium of the New York Botanic Gard'ens has 

 acquired a collection of plants made in the Yukon Territory 

 by Mr. R. S. Williams, which is believed to be the first made 

 in the Klondike region. 



Four botanical organisations will meet in New York during 

 the last week in June :— the Botanical Society of America, the 

 Botanical Section of the American Association for the advance- 

 ment of Science, the Botanical Club of the same Association, 

 and the Society for Plant Physiology and Morphology. 



Ox Friday last Mr. William Whitaker, F.R.S., President of 

 the Geological Society, was elected President of the Geologists' 

 Association. Never before have the two presidential chairs 

 been occupied by the same individual. It is announced also that 

 the ex- President of the Geologists' Association, Mr. J. J. H. 

 Teall, F.R.S., is the President-elect of the Geological Society, 



The replies which the Duke of Devonshire and Mr. Ritchie 

 gave to the deputation which waited upon them on Monday, to 

 present a memorial asking for the continued maintenance of the 

 Buckland Museum of Economic Fish Culture, were as satisfactory 

 as could be expected. The deputation had two main objects ; 

 first, to ask that the museum should be permitted to remain 

 where it is now, in the Victoria and Albert Museum at South 

 Kensington ; and next, that it should be placed under the Fishery 

 Department of the Board of Trade. With regard to the first 

 point, the Committee appointed by the Treasury, and the more 

 recent Select Committee of the House of Commons, reported 

 against the retention of the museum in its present position. 

 There is no question as to the value of the collection — the only 

 doubt is whether it is rightly situated ; and in replying to the 

 deputation, the Duke of Devonshire expressed the opinion that 

 a change of position would be desirable. The place in which 

 the museum is situated is, however, not such an important con- 

 sideration as the means for keeping it in good condition, adding 

 to it from time to time, and making it a scientific laboratory in 

 which experimental pisciculture can be systematically carried 



