64 



NA TURE 



[November 20, 1902 



been officially announced. It is as yet unknown what sum of 

 money is likely to be set aside for the p"rpose of the S'. Louis 

 exhibit, but from assurances given by the Emperor that every 

 branch of German artistic, manufacturing, agricultural and 

 industrial developments will be represented, it is supposed that 

 200,000/. will be devoted to the objects o( the exhibit. 



A MEETING of the executive committee of the Cancer 

 Research Fund, under the direction of the Royal Colleges of 

 Physicians and Surgeons, was held last week. Dr. Bashford, 

 who has been appointed to the post of superintendent of cancer 

 reseaich, has decided to proceed at once to Germany to inquire 

 into the present lines of investigation in that country, and to 

 cooperate, as far as possible, with the German committee, 

 especially in the direction of statistical investigation. The 

 statistical committee which has been appointed will at once 

 enter into correspondence with scientific workers in the United 

 Stales, and Prof, Gilman, principal of the Carnegie Fund in 

 Washington, has already expressed his willingness, through the 

 chairman of the executive committee, to lake joint action with 

 the British committee, both in regard to statistical and labora 

 lory investigation. 



The death of Mr. William II. Barlow, F.R.S., at the age of 

 ninety, is announced in the Times. He was a distinguished 

 civil engineer, well known as the designer of the St. Pancras 

 Station and other large works upon the Midland Railway, to 

 which he was consulting engineer. He was the son of Peter 

 Barlow, F.R.S., who was professor of mathematics at the 

 Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. Mr. Barlow inherited 

 much ol his father's mathematical ability, and his chief 

 claim lo recognition is that in the early days of railway en- 

 gineering In endeavoured to introduce more scientific pre- 

 cision into the design of engineering structures. lie was the 

 inventor of a form of rail intended to dispense with the use of 

 cross-sleepers. Jointly with Sir John Hawkshaw, he was 

 engineer for the Clilton Suspension Bridge over the Avon. Mr. 

 Barlow was the engineer of the new bridge over the Tay, built 

 to replace the structure blown down in December, I.S79, and 

 was one of the committee of selection appointed to consider the 

 designs lor the new forth Bridge. 



The Society ol Arts commenced its 149th session on 

 Novembei 10 with a meeting at which an address was delivered 

 by Sir William 11. l'rcece, the chairman of the council, and 

 the medals awarded by the Society during the past session were 

 presented. At. the next meeting, on November 26, !>r. Goegg 

 will read .1 paper in French on the Simplon Tunnel and its 

 effects on railway traffic to the Fast. At the oilier meetings 

 before Christmas, there are to be pipers on "Photographic 

 Development," by Mr. Watkins ; on " French Education," by 

 Mr. I'. Brerelon : and on the " Russian Iron Industry," by Mr. 

 Head. There will also lie a meeting of the Indian Section, a' 

 which a paper on " Domestic I.ife in Persia " will be read by 

 Miss Ella Sykes, who, with her brother, Major Molesworth 

 Sykes, lias had much experience of Persian travel. The 

 Mond.n evenings up lo Christmas will be devoted to a course 

 ot Cantor lectures on " Gas and Allied llluminants," by Prof. 

 Vivian Lewes. 



We learn from ilie Times that a meeting of the Stonehenge 

 Committee, consisting of Lord Dillon, the Bishop of Bristol, 

 Mr. Thackeray Turner, Mr. John Carruthers, the Rev. F. II. 

 Goddard, Mr. N. Story Maskelyne, Mr. W. Gowland and Mr. 

 C. H. Read, representing the Society of Antiquaries of London, 

 the Wilis Archaeological Society and the Society for the Pro- 

 tection of Ancient Buildings, was held at Burlington House this 

 week. The committee received a report of the operations that 

 had taken place under its advice, with the sanction and at the 



NO. 1725, VOL. 67] 



cost of Sir Edmund Antrobus, expressed approval of the steps 

 already taken towards ensuring the safety of Stonehenge, and 

 repeated its resolve that further steps must be guided by the 

 determination to do as little as possible in order to save the 

 monument for posterity. The committee is anxiously conscious 

 of the fact that in the present state of Stonehenge there is 

 grave danger of further accident. To meet the dangers of the 

 present winter, it has now recommended the immediate applica- 

 tion of wooden props to the stones about which the chief 

 anxiety is felt. 



Under the title The Foreigner in Italy, a new weekly paper 

 has been started under the auspices of a new organisation founded 

 last spring and styled the " National Association favouring the 

 Foreign Element in Italy,'' 1 1 Piazza Barberini, Rome. The first 

 number, bearing the date November 1, contains a notice of 

 the ships which have been submerged in the lake of Nemi since 

 the time of the Romans, and which it is proposed to raise by 

 artificially draining the lake for the purpose. These ships, which 

 were of the nature of floating palaces, have been examined on 

 one or two occasions (1535, 1S27, 1S95), and explored by means 

 of diving bells. One is 64 metres long and 20m. broad, and 

 slopes down from 5111. to 12m. in depth at a distance of 20m. 

 from the shore; the second is 71m. long, 21 '4m. broad, and 

 its depth is from 16m. to 22m., its distance from the shore 

 being 50m. and from the first 200111. further particulars have 

 been given in numbers which hive since appeared. The second 

 number contains a short note upon the legendary origin of the 

 name Pelce. The original l'elce is said by tradition to have been 

 a maiden who was pursued by a giant and lied to the crater of the 

 volcano for refuge. The gods of the volcano came to her 

 assistance and overwhelmed the giant with lava, burying him 

 beneath the rocks. 



An account of the mathematical work of Ernest de Jon- 

 quieres is given in the Bibliolheca mathemati a, iii. 3, by Prof. 

 l.ino I.oria, of Genoa, who has also contributed a list of his 

 papers and notes to the mathematical Bolletiuo ill bibliografia, 

 published by Clausen, of Turin. Jean Philippe Ernest F'auque 

 de Jonquieres was born at Carpentras on July 3, 1820, and 

 died on August 12, 190F. Ilis earliest recorded notes bear the 

 .l.ii. 1S55, but from 1S60 onwards he devoted himself for some 

 time to the line of study .opened up by l'oncelet and Chasles, 

 andin 1862 he was awarded two-thirds of the prize offered in 

 connection with the study of curves of the fourth order. His 

 mathematical writings, of which, including solutions to ques- 

 tions, 155 are enumerated, deal mainly with the following 

 points : the higher geometry of Chasles, the theory of algebraic 

 plane curves and systems, properties of algebraic gauche curves 

 and surfaces, geometrical transformations and Eulerian poly- 

 hedra, theory of equations and theory of numbers. 



In the Bulletin of the Tokio Mathematico- Physical Society, 

 Mr T. Hayashi discusses the so-called "isosceles trapezium 

 problem," according to which, if an ellipse be inscribed in an 

 isosceles trapezium and circles are inscribed in the four corners, 

 each circle touching the ellipse and two sides of the trapezium, 

 then the radii of the four circles form a proportion. This 

 problem has previously received attention from Japanese 

 mathematicians. It looks as if a proof ought to be possible 

 based on the property that tangents to an ellipse are pro- 

 portional to the parallel diameters. Incidentally, it is proved 

 that the points of contact of the inscribed ellipse divide the 

 parallel sides proportionally ; this is a simple corollary of the 

 anharmonic property of four tangents. 



REFERRING toa recent fatal accident caused by the unfortunate 

 opening of one of the carriage doors of a train in motion, Sir 

 Oliver Lodge, F. R.S., gives some sensible advice to passengers 



