ISO 



NA TURE 



[December 25, 1902 



communication which is not only of the highest scientific 

 interest, but also of practical importance. 



The following messages and particulars referring to 

 them appeared in the Times of December 22 and 

 December 23 : — 



Ottawa, December 21. 



The first message to be sent across the Atlantic Ocean by 

 wireless telegraphy was despatched today to King Edward by 

 Lord Minto. Notice of its successful transmission was received 

 to-night by the Governor in the following message : — 



" Glace Bay, Cape Breton. 



" I have the honour to inform your Excellency that your 

 message 10 his Majesty has now been transmitted by me Irom 

 Cape Breton to Cornwall by wireless telegraphy, and has been 

 forwarded to its destination.— G. Marconi." 



Lord Minto replied as follows : — 



" I am delighted at your message, which I have just received. 

 My warmest congratulations on your spendid success." 



December 22. 



King Edward has replied to Lord Minto's telegram sent to 

 His IVIajesty by Signor Marconi's apparatus, as follows : — 



" I am much interested by the wireless message which you 

 have sent me, and am delighted at the success of Signor Marconi's 

 great invention, which brings Great Britain and Canada into still 

 closer connection. — EDWARD." 



On Monday, the Times published the' following 

 message from its correspondent at Glace Bay : — 



"Being present at its transmission in Signor Marconi's 

 Canadian station, I have the honour to send through the Times 

 the inventor's first wireless Transatlantic message of greeting to 

 England and Italy." 



The following message, also transmitted by wireless 

 telegraphy, was published on Tuesday : — 



The Government of Canada, through the Times, desires to 

 congratulate the British people on the accomplishment by 

 Marconi of the greatest feat which modern science has yet 

 achieved. 



" Cartwright, Acting Premier, 

 "Ottawa, December 21." 



NOTES. 



The King of Denmark has conferred upon Lord Lister the 

 honour of Knighthood of the Grand Cross of the Order of 

 Dannebrog. 



M. Darboux, permanent secretary of the Paris Academy of 

 Sciences, has been appointed a member of the Bureau des 

 Longitudes in succession to the late Prof. Cornu. 



Mr. C. A. Angot, of the Bureau central meteorologique de 

 France, and Prof. W. L. Moore, of the United States Weather 

 Bureau, have been elected honorary members of the Royal 

 Meteorological Society. 



The council of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical 

 Society has awarded the Wilde gold medal for 1903 to Prof. 

 F. YV. Clarke, of the United States Geological Survey, and a 

 Dalton medal to Prof. Osborne Reynolds, F.R.S. In view of 

 the fact that next year will mark the centenary of the discovery 

 by Dalton of the atomic theory, Prof. Clarke (whose writings 

 on the atomic weights are well known) has also been invited 

 and has consented to deliver the Wilde lecture for 1903. The 

 presentation of the medals and the delivery of the lecture will 

 probably take place in May, 1903. 



A 1 the general meeting of the Zoological Society of London 

 on December 18, it was announced that Mr. William Lutley 

 Sclater had been selected by the council out of twenty-two ap- 

 plicants for the vacant post of secretary. Mr. Sclater is now 

 director of the South African Museum, Cape Town, and has 

 previously held appointments as science master at Eton and as 

 assistant director of the Indian Museum, Calcutta. He is a 



NO. I/30, VOL. 67] 



well known authority on the mammals and birds of India and 

 Africa, and on other zoological subjects, and is at present edit- 

 ing a series of volumes on the fauna of South Africa, of which 

 four have already been published. 



We regret to record ihe death, on December 13, of Dr. 

 John Young, late professor of natural history in Glasgow 

 University since 1866. 



The death is announced of Prof. Zaayer, professor of 

 anatomy in the University of Leyden. The death is also 

 announced of Prof. Leonard Landois, professor of physiology 

 at the University of Greifswald (Pomerania). 



Mr. T. Brice PHlLLirs, of Uckfield, has been awarded the 

 prize of fifty pounds, together with a silver medal, offered by 

 the council of the Society of Arts for his essay on " Existing 

 Laws, By-laws and Regulations Relating to Protection from 

 Fire, with Criticisms and Suggestions." Prizes of ten pounds 

 with a bronze medal have also been awarded to Mr. George H. 

 Paul and to Dr. W. C. Henderson. 



It is announced in Science that the Section of Geology and 

 Geography of the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, which will meet at Washington on December 27, has 

 arranged to devote a session of the meeting to the discussion of 

 the recent eruptions of Mont Pelee and La Soufriere by Messrs. 

 Russell, Hill, Heilprin, Jaggar, Curtis and Hovey, who visited 

 the islands of Martinique and St. Vincent a few months ago. 



The Coats family have given 10,000/. between them to the 

 cancer research scheme, 5000/. being from Sir Thomas 

 Coats and family, and 5000/. from Mr. Archibald Coats and his 

 two brothers. The Times states that a few more such contri- 

 butions would bring the fund up to the required amount, and 

 would enable the investigations to be carried through on the 

 comprehensive lines indicatedjn the scheme which was form- 

 ulated and is being directed by the Royal Colleges of Physicians 

 and Surgeons. 



A Reuter message states that at 9.30 a.m. on December 16, 

 Andijan, in the province of Fergana, Russian Central Asia, 

 was totally destroyed by an earthquake. Andijan is a town of 

 about 50,000 inhabitants. According to a rough estimate, 16,000 

 houses have been destroyed and 2500 persons killed as a result 

 of the earthquake. Subterranean rumblings and tremblings of 

 the earth continue. At New Marghelan, the capital of Fergana 

 province, the shock lasted nearly three minutes. The direction 

 was from north-east to south-west. 



A telegram to the Paris Petit Journal, dated December 17, 

 states that for several days past Mount Vesuvius has been 

 throwing out rock masses, vapour and dust. 



We learn from the Times that news has been received at 

 Stockholm that the Swedish Antarctic exploration ship Ant- 

 arctic left Tierra del Fuego at the beginning of November on 

 its second summer expedition. It was expected that the expe- 

 dition, after some cartographic work and natural historical 

 research in the northern and western portions of the Dirck 

 Gerritz Archipelago, would arrive about December 10 at the 

 winter quarter; in Snow Hill Land, where Dr. Nordenskjold 

 would resume the leadership of the entire expedition. The 

 Antarctic will probably return to Port Stanley (Falkland Is- 

 lands) at the end of February or the beginning of March. 



In the House of Commons on December 16, the President of 

 the Board of Trade was asked whether he was aware that three 

 dangerous varieties of colour-blindness escaped detection by the 

 Boaid of Trade test, whilst many normal-sighted persons were 

 rejected by it. In reply, Mr. Gerald Balfour said the present 



