396 



NA TURE 



[February 26, 1903 



NOTES. 

 In several districts of the south of England and Wales, 

 coloured dust or sand accompanied a fall of rain on Sunday 

 last, February 22. At Etchingham (Sussex), twelve miles 

 from the sea, particles of dust deposited by the raindrops 

 were left on the trees. At Swansea and other places in 

 South Wales the puddles left by the rain were reddish in 

 colour. Mr. A. E. Brunsden, the piermaster at Swanage, 

 Dorset, noticed that a thick fog which occurred with the 

 rain on Sunday morning had a peculiar yellowish tinge. 

 On Monday morning the ironwork on the pier was found 

 to be covered with a fine, salmon-coloured dust. Some 

 specimens of dust collected after the fall have been sent to 

 us by Mrs. Neville Ward, and are being examined. 



In reply to a question referring to afforestation in Ireland, 

 Mr. Wyndham remarked in the House of Commons on Tues- 

 day " Some of the recommendations in the report of the 

 Committee on British Forestry are applicable, in principle, 

 to Ireland. The Irish Department is at present conducting 

 a special survey of existing woodlands and lands suitable 

 for forestry operations. Such a survey is necessary to en- 

 able the Department to consider the measures to be adopted 

 to give effect to the recommendations of the report in 

 question." 



Dr. C. W. Andrews, of the British Museum, has arrived 

 in Cairo, and started for the Fayum Desert, where, in con- 

 junction with the officers of the Egyptian Geological Survev, 

 it is hoped that he may be able to add largely to the collec- 

 tion of Eocene vertebrate remains from that district." 



The anniversary meeting of the Geological Society was 

 held at Burlington House on Friday, February 20. The 

 medals and funds, of which the awards have already been 

 announced, (p. 250) were presented. The president delivered 

 his anniversary address, which dealt with the relations of 

 geology to its fellow-sciences. 



Reuter reports that the following telegram from Honolulu 

 has been received at San Francisco : — " Mr. Schroeder, 

 Governor of Guam, Ladrones Archipelago, is here on his 

 way home. He reports the occurrence of a severe and pro- 

 longed series of earthquakes, accompanied by loud rumb- 

 lings, which have raised the level of the island by six inches." 



At the annual general meeting of the Physical Society on 

 February 13, Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, F.R.S., was elected 

 president for the ensuing year. Mr. H. M. Elder has found 

 it necessary to resign the office of secretary, and Mr. W. R. 

 Cooper has been appointed his successor. In the course of 

 an address delivered upon taking the presidential chair, Dr. 

 Glazebrook said that the Society should have a wider range 

 of activity, and technical papers should not necessarily be 

 excluded. Interest might also be aroused by arranging at 

 times for set discussions. Attempts should be made to give 

 advice and guidance to physicists in isolated positions about 

 the country having time to carry out research. The address 

 also dealt with the history of theoretical optics during the 

 last sixty years, ami the part taken by the late Sir George 

 G. Stokes in its development. 



At the meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society on 

 February 13, the Society's gold medal was awarded to Prof. 

 Hermann Struve, director of the Konigsberg Observatory, 

 for his work on the satellites of Saturn, published in 1898 

 in the publications of the Central Nicolas Observatory, 

 Pulkowa. Prof. Turner delivered an address describing the 

 long series of observations and the complex and laborious 

 calculations by which Prof. Struve had determined the 

 Kiutiiins and masses of the satellites, the position of the 

 equator of Saturn, the compression of the body of the planet, 

 NO. 1739, VOL. 67] 



the mass of the ring, &c. The address concluded with a 

 mention of the fact that half a century ago the gold medal 

 had been awarded to Prof. Struve 's grandfather, and a 

 quarter of a century ago to his father, who still lives, one of 

 the Society's oldest associates. At the conclusion of the 

 address the chairman handed the medal to Count von Bern- 

 storff, Councillor of the German Legation, for transmission 

 to the medallist. 



The annual general meeting of the Institution of 

 Mechanical Engineers was held on February 20, when the 

 annual report of the council was presented. The report 

 points out that the completion of his sixth report to the 

 alloys research committee has been delayed by the death 

 of Sir William Roberts-Austen, but a large amount of his 

 experimental work, dealing with the tempering of steel, and 

 also with alloys of the industrial metals, is available, and is 

 now being dealt with by the committee. No further report 

 will be made by the gas-engine research committee until 

 the large experimental engine has been put to work at the 

 Birmingham University. Prof. T. Hudson Beare has been 

 occupied at the University of Edinburgh in perfecting the 

 apparatus for testing the value of the steam-jacket. Prof. 

 David S. Capper has now concluded his experiments at 

 King's College upon jacketed and unjacketed steam cylin- 

 ders, and a report upon his comprehensive experiments is 

 almost completed. The question of the standardisation of 

 flanges has received the attention of the council, and was 

 dealt with at the April meeting in a paper by Mr. R. E. 

 Atkinson. A considerable number of members and others 

 have since sent in contributions bearing on the best forms 

 to be adopted as standards. The engineering standards 

 committee, the constitution of which was explained in the 

 last annual report, has held frequent meetings during the 

 year, and its recommendations relating to standard sizes for 

 rolled sections will be published shortly. 



Mr. Hanbury, Minister of Agriculture, addressing the 

 Lancashire Farmers' Association at Preston on February 21, 

 said he understood that the Department of Fisheries was to 

 be added to the Board of Agriculture. 



Dr. Dempwolff, who succeeded Prof. Koch as head of 

 the German expedition for the investigation of malaria in* 

 German New Guinea, states, according to the Berlin corre- 

 spondent of the Standard, that he has discovered an aquatic 

 insect which destroys the Anopheles mosquito. He proposes 

 to cultivate these insects by artificial means, and in this way 

 hopes to exterminate the malaria mosquito. 



The French Chamber of Deputies has recently adopted a 

 Bill intended to create a nickel coin in France. La Nature 

 states that to prevent confusion with the silver franc the 

 new nickel coin of 25 centimes will weigh seven as against 

 the five grammes of the franc ; the edge of the nickel coin 

 will not be fluted like the silver franc ; the new coin will be 

 half as thick again as the franc. At first 16 million pieces 

 will be struck off, and this will require 112,000 kilograms 

 of nickel. 



The " Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley," by 

 his son, Mr. Leonard Huxley, first published by Messrs. 

 Macmillan and Co., Ltd., in 1900, and reviewed by Sir 

 W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, K.C.M.G., in Nature for June 13, 

 1901, has been reissued in three volumes in the well-known 

 " Eversley " series at 125. net. The opportunity afforded 

 by the publication of a second edition has been taken to 

 correct various misprints, and to rectify a few errors and 

 omissions in the first edition. In its cheaper form the book 

 is sure to renew its popularity, and to reach a wider circle 

 <>f Huxley's admirers. 



