April 26, 1900 J 



NATURE 



617 



be reminded that such a conference is of deep importance, and it 

 s sincerely to be hoped that a definite plan of action will be 

 decided upon as a result of its deliberations. A leader in 

 Tuesday's Times directs attention to the necessity of an inter- 

 nitional agreement to restrain the extermination of many of the 

 nummals, birds and fishes in Africa. It is useless to preserve 

 wi.d animals in one part of Africa while they are killed off 

 without restriction in neighbouring districts by people accre- 

 dited as citizens of another European State. This is why an 

 international agreement is sought for. It is needless to dwell 

 upon the unnecessary slaughter of elephants, rhinoceroses, hip- 



fpopotami, and the larger kinds of antelopes, elands, koodoos, 

 sables and others since the Cape Colony, the Boer States, and 

 the Rhodesian territories have been opened up to colonisation. 

 Haifa century ago, as the Times points out, the whole of South 

 Africa below the Zambesi swarmed with antelopes and other 

 game, including lions and leopards. Now, except in a few rare 

 districts, there is nothing more of the kind to be found than in 

 Hampshire or Devonshire. To remedy this state of things, the 

 Times advocates the establishment of large reserves, like the 

 Yellowstone Park in the United States, where wild animals can 

 be allowed to live their natural life. It is easier to biing this 

 to pass in Central Africa, where so much land is practically 

 waste, than in countries where civilisation has made its way. 

 The experiment has been tried, on a small scale, in many places, 

 and with considerable success. In a narrow strip of forest 

 country on the South Coast the Government of the Cape 

 Colony preserves some herds of elephants. Mr. Rhodes has 

 done much for the preservation of antelopes both on his property 

 near Cape Town and in Rhodesia. There appears to be no 

 reason why very large areas in Central Africa should not be set 

 apart as refuges in which all the rich animal life of the continent 

 might be permitted to propagate and develop under something 

 approaching to natural conditions. Ten or twelve of these great 

 reserves would keep alive, for a time at least, the striking 

 types of animal life in which Africa is so extraordinarily fertile. 



In connection with the subject of the foregoing note, some 

 remarks made by Prof. S. P. Langley in the latest report of the 

 Smithsonian Institution are of interest. It is pointed out that 

 the National Zoological Park at Washington was established 

 with the object of preserving the fast vanishing species of 

 American animals. The changes which were noticed in the 

 western part of America some years ago are now occurring in 

 Alaska. With the advent of the settler and the railroad in the 

 \V'est, the great herds of animals which ranged over the western 

 territory of the United Slates were practically exterminated, 

 though by strenuous efforts here and there small collections of 

 the buffalo and other large interesting mammals, like those in 

 the National Zoological Park, have been kept alive. Whether 

 a race can be made to survive in this way is open to question, 

 but the effort at least should be made, and the Smithsonian 

 Institution is trying to promote this survival. The United 

 States still possesses at Kadiak Island, on the south-east coast 

 of Alaska, a few living specimens of the largest carnivorous 

 animal now in the world— a monster bear — which has not at any 

 time been brought into captivity. Prof. Langley has been trying 

 for two years, through American companies on the island, to 

 obtain live specimens of this and other great mammals of Alaska 

 with the hope of preserving the species before the inevitable 

 opening of all that distant territory of the United States to 

 civilisation and settlement will have resulted in the extermination 

 of its large fauna, but these efforts have hitherto been wholly 

 unsuccessful. 



The summer meeting of the Institution of Mechanical 

 Engineers will be held in London during the last week in 



June. 



NO. 1591, VOL. 61] 



I The Bruce gold medal of the Astronomical Society of the 

 Pacific has been awarded to Dr. Dav^d Gill, C.B., F.R.S. 



The Daily News announces the death of Prof. A. Milne- 

 Edwards, director of the Natural Histoiry Museum at Paris. 



Sir J. Barry Tuke, well-known for his works on mental 

 diseases, has consented to become a candidate for the vacancy 

 in the parliamentary representation of the Universities of Edin- 

 burgh and St. Andrews, caused by the death of Sir William 

 Priestley. 



We learn from the Chemical News that an international 

 banquet will be held by the Chemical Society of Paris in honour 

 of those gentlemen who, by their presence at the Universal 

 Exhibition, will represent pure and applied chemistry. The 

 date fixed for the banquet is Thursday, July 19, when the chair 

 will be taken by M. Berthelot, honorary president. 



The economic position of the German Empire in 1900 forms 

 the subject of a report by Mr. Gastrell, commercial attache to 

 Her Majesty's Embassy at Berlin, which has been issued by the 

 Foreign Office. It is instructive to trace the steps in the pro- 

 gress of the German Empire towards the important position it 

 holds to-day. Mr. Gastrell points out that, in industrial and 

 commercial matters, the first twenty years of the existence of 

 the German Empire— from 1871 to 1890 — were devoted to the 

 elementary education of its people ; the following ten years — 

 1891 to 1900— have been spent on their higher education ; and 

 the end of the century sees in them a body of men each an ex- 

 pert in his own trade or profession. The bases on which 

 Germany's power stands are primarily its trade and, in a minor 

 degree, its agricultural resources. The population of Germany 

 to-day is probably larger than that of the United Kingdom by 

 some 15,000,000, and greater than that of France by about 

 17,000,000. 



The facilities which will be granted by the Portuguese 

 Government to foreign astronomers visiting Portugal in May, 

 for the purpose of viewing the total eclipse of the sun, have been 

 made the subject of an official announcement by the Foreign 

 Office. Astronomers from abroad will be exempt from pay- 

 ment of the usual Customs duties on production at the 

 Custom House, on arrival, of a certificate drawn up by the 

 astronomical society to which they may belong, setting forth 

 their names, and describing the instruments and books which 

 are to be imported. This certificate, however, should be 

 legalised by the nearest Portuguese Consulate before starting. 

 Further, it is announced that the Ministry of War has in- 

 formed the Ministry of Education that all the military 

 authorities of the districts of Vizen, Aveira, Guarda, Castello 

 Branco and Coimbra will afford any possible assistance to 

 astronomers during the observations, and that tents will be 

 lent to observers, on a request being addressed to the Ministry 

 of War in Lisbon to that effect. A Government notice has 

 now been published in the Official GazeUe, stating that the 

 King has nominated a Royal Commission for the purpose of 

 assisting in every way those who may come from abroad for 

 scientific observations, and for superintending astronomical 

 arrangements generally. This commission will sit either at 

 the Royal Observatory, Lisbon, or at the Geographical 

 Society, Lisbon ; its president is his F^xcellency Senhor 

 Marianno de Carvalho. If any British astronomers going to 

 Portugal will communicate with her Majesty's Minister shortly 

 before their arrival, he wijl be able to take steps to facilitate 

 the object of their visit. 



The annual meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute will be 

 held on Wednesday and Thursday, May 9 and 10, under the 

 presidency of Sir William Roberts-Austen, K.C.B., F.R.S. 



