February 26, 1903] 



NA TURE 



597 



The Royal Academy of Sciences of Turin announces that 

 one of the Vallauri prizes will be awarded by the Academy 

 to the man of science, without distinction of nationality, 

 who, from January i, 1907, to December 31, 1910, shall 

 have published the most important and most celebrated work 

 in the domain of the physical sciences — these words being 

 used in their broadest sense. The amount of the prize is 

 30,000 Italian pounds net. The prize will be awarded a year 

 after the result has been announced. Works submitted to 

 the Academy will not be returned, and manuscripts will not 

 be considered. 



Speaking at Dorchester on Monday, at the opening of a 

 new operating theatre, Sir Frederick Treves said that the 

 ceremony that day represented a movement the magnitude 

 of which it was not at first easy to appreciate. Twenty-five 

 years- ago that part of surgery which dealt with operations 

 was more or less discredited. It was singularly disappoint- 

 ing and, he was sorry to say, singularly unsuccessful. The 

 amount of work that was then done through operations was 

 comparatively small. The great development that had taken 

 place was all due to the introduction, by Lord Lister, of 

 antiseptic surgery, which had rendered operative treatment 

 possible. The result had been the saving of many thousands 

 of lives annually, and the rescue of still more thousands 

 from a state of hopeless illness. The performance of im- 

 portant operative surgery was no longer limited to London 

 and a few great cities ; operative surgery had spread all over 

 the country, and now nearly every provincial hospital had 

 its own operating theatre. It was all part of a general 

 movement which would result in bringing medical and 

 surgical science to a higher level than had ever before been 

 attained in this country. 



The Natal Mercury of January 9 last states that a 

 meteorological institute has been established at Bloemfon- 

 tein. Substations are being started in Harrismith, Kroon- 

 stad, Heilbron, Bethlehem and Bethulie, and records from 

 all points will be sent to Bloemfontein. Observations taken 

 so far promise very interesting study, and show remarkable 

 variations of conditions throughout the Orange River 

 Colony, both as regards one part in relation to others, and 

 in daily changes at some stations. Such systematic study of 

 meteorological conditions as this will very soon be of prac- 

 tical benefit to agriculture in this colony. 



A Reuter message from .St. Petersburg states that the 

 Imperial Academy of Science has decided to dispatch an 

 expedition to search for Baron Toll, who left Siberia in 

 June last with a few companions to explore Bennett Island, 

 and has not been heard of since. The search expedition, 

 which will be headed by Lieutenant Koltchak, who was with 

 Baron Toll before he left the Siberian coast, will proceed 

 shortly to New Siberia and, if necessary, to Bennett Island, 

 as there is reason to believe that the baron, seeing his road 

 back to New Siberia cut off by the breaking up of the ice 

 towards the middle of July last, remained in the island to 

 pass the winter. 



The New York correspondent of the Daily Mail reports 

 that the first detailed announcement of the plans of the 

 Rockefeller Institute, founded by Mr. John D. Rockefeller 

 with an endowment of 40,000?. two years ago, has been made 

 public. Mr. Rockefeller added 200,000/. to the endowment 

 last summer. It is expected that his contributions will 

 ultimately reach a total of two and a half million pounds. 

 Mr. Simon Flexner, of the University of Pennsylvania, has 

 been chosen to take charge of the work, which will be 

 centred in New York. A research laboratory will be opened 

 in October. Then will follow a hospital, where special 

 groups of patients will be treated in order to develop new 

 NO. 1739, VOL. 67] 



methods of practice. The programme also includes the 

 publication of a journal of experimental medicine and the 

 creation of a popular hygienic museum. Several physicians 

 have already been sent to Europe to make special researches. 



The Savage Club entertained Mr. Marconi on Saturday 

 evening, February 21. Mr. Henniker Heaton, M.P., 

 occupied the chair, and among the visitors were the Marquis 

 of Dufferin and Ava, the Earl of Malmesbury and Sir Charles 

 Boxall. In responding to the toast of his health, Mr. 

 Marconi said he demurred to the statement of the chairman 

 that he had been neglected in England. Like the King of 

 Italy, the King of England had been most kind to him, and 

 for three weeks he, by desire of His Majesty, carried on 

 experiments in His Majesty's yacht Osborne which greatly 

 advanced the development of wireless telegraphy. He then 

 traced his work and the opposition he had met with, step by 

 step, from the cable companies. The Canadian Govern- 

 ment had given him substantial assistance and a grant of 

 money to carry on his work. The Italian Government had 

 just passed a Bill to erect the largest Marconi wireless tele- 

 graph station in the world, to communicate with America. 

 In conclusion, he made the announcement that he had just 

 made an arrangement with a great daily newspaper in 

 London to supply it with a wireless message every day from 

 Canada. 



The Postmaster-General, in reply to a question on wire- 

 less telegraphy put by Mr. H. Samuel last Thursday, stated 

 that the effect of recent progress on the commercial and 

 strategic interests of the country was receiving careful atten- 

 tion, and that he was in communication with the Marconi 

 Wireless Telegraph Co. on the subject of its relations with 

 the Post Office. " I am not at present in a position," he 

 added, " to make any final statement on the subject, but I 

 have no doubt it will be possible to secure for the public of 

 this country the use of this method of communication when 

 it is sufficiently developed for commercial purposes." Con- 

 trast with this the attitude of the Italian Government, which 

 has just passed a Bill for establishing a powerful wireless 

 telegraphic station in Rome, which was introduced by the 

 Minister of Posts and Telegraphs. The Senate passed a 

 resolution expressing its great satisfaction -with the state- 

 ment of the Minister, and conveying congratulations to Mr. 

 Marconi. It is proposed to make this new station the largest 

 yet built, and it is hoped by its means to establish communi- 

 cation with Argentina and with all the existing long-distance 

 stations. 



A new form of electric heating apparatus has been in- 

 vented by Mr. E. G. Rivers, of H.M. Office of Works. The 

 radiator is constructed of a layer of finely powdered retort 

 carbon held between enamelled iron plates and kept in posi- 

 tion by asbestos cardboard. Three copper strips are led in, 

 one at the centre and one at each end, and continuous current 

 passed from the centre strip to the outer two. The current 

 taken is about eight amperes at 200 volts, and with this a 

 heating surface of 25 square feet can be maintained at an 

 average temperature of 190 F. The manufacture of this 

 radiator is, we understand, to be undertaken by the Electric 

 and Ordnance Accessories Co., of Birmingham. 



According to last week's Daily Mail, the sharp frost in 

 New York produced some startling effects on the elevated 

 electric railway. There had been rain before the frost, as a 

 result of which the centre rail had become coated with ice, 

 and this led to sparking on a large scale. The effect 

 appears to have been somewhat extraordinary if we may 

 judge from the account given by the Daily Mail's corre- 

 spondent, who writes as follows : — " Dazzling flashes of 

 flame shot high into the air, the reflection in the sky strongly 



