468 



NA TURE 



[March 19, 1903 



The discoverers suggest that the hypothesis of stellar 

 variability, which best seems to explain this light 

 curve, is that which involves two bright bodies re- 

 volving at a small distance round their centre of 

 gravity, the plane of revolution being nearly in the line 

 of sight. It will be interesting, therefore, to examine 

 this variable spectroscopicallv and see whether the 

 spectrum changes and if so in what manner. 



William J. S. Lockyer. 



NOTES. 



The French Congress of Scientific Societies will hold its 

 forty-first annual meeting at Bordeaux on April 14-18. 



The deaths are announced of Prof. C. Dufour, professor 

 of astronomy at the University of Lausanne, and of Prof. 

 Rene 1 Mamert, professor of chemistry at the University of 

 Freiberg. 



It is announced in Science that Prof. George B. Shattuck, 

 professor of physiographic geology of the Johns Hopkins 

 University, has been authorised to organise an expedition 

 for a systematic scientific survey of the Bahama Islands. 



The executive committee of the Carnegie Institution has 

 approved a grant of 300/. to Mr. G. R. Wieland, of the 

 Yale University Museum, for the continuation during the 

 year 1903 of his researches on the structure of the living 

 and fossil cycads. 



Prof. J. B. Tingle, professor of chemistry at Illinois 

 College, Jacksonville, 111., has received a grant of 100/. from 

 the Carnegie Institution to enable him to continue his in- 

 vestigations of derivatives of camphor and allied compounds. 



The Academy of Sciences at Berlin has made grants of 

 200I. to Prof. Landolt and of 150!. to Dr. Marckwald, both 

 of Berlin, for work in chemistry ; of 100/. to Dr. Danneberg, 

 of Aachen, for work in mineralogy ; and of 80/. to Prof. 

 Robert, of Rostock, for work in pharmacology. 



The council of the Iron and Steel Institute has resolved 

 to award the Bessemer gold medal for this year to Sir 

 James Kitson, M.P., past-president, in recognition of his 

 great services to the iron and steel industry of Great Britain. 

 The presentation of the medal will be made by Mr. Andrew 

 Carnegie at the annual meeting on May 7. 



The Paris Natural History Museum has received a gift 

 of an important collection of Lepidoptera, containing about 

 twenty thousand specimens, from M. E. Boullet. The donor 

 desires that his collection be incorporated with the specimens 

 already possessed by the Museum, so that in this way a 

 series worthy of the Paris museum may be formed. 



The Lucy Wharton Drexel medal of the University of 

 Pennsylvania has been presented to Prof. F. W. Putnam. 

 The medal was established four years ago, but no awards 

 were made until this year, when four were awarded at one 

 time, the other recipients being Prof. Petrie, for his work 

 at Abydos ; Dr. Evans, for his excavations at Crete ; and 

 Prof. Hilprecht, for work in Babylonia. 



We learn from Science that the Bill creating a department 

 of commerce in the United States, with a secretary in the 

 Cabinet, has passed the House and Senate. The new de- 

 partment will include, with other departments, the Light- 

 house Board, the Lighthouse Establishment, the Bureau of 

 Navigation, the Bureau of Standards, the Coast and Geo- 

 detic Survey and the Bureau of Foreign Commerce (now 

 in the Department of State). 



NO. 1742, VOL. 67] 



It was reported last week that Vesuvius was in eruption. 

 The following messages have since been received : — 

 Wednesday, March 11. — Eruption increased in intensity. 

 Huge columns of vapour emitted from the crater with blocks 

 of incandescent lava. Friday, March 13. — Eruption con- 

 tinues, but with decreased intensity. Two rents have 

 opened in the central crater, and from these molten lava 

 and pumice are ejected at half-minute intervals. The 

 bombs are sometimes thrown to a height of 1000 feet. 



A Division of Hydrology has recently been added to the 

 Hydrographic Branch of the United States Geological 

 Survey. The work of the division will include the gather- 

 ing and filing of well records of all kinds, the study of 

 artesian and other problems relating to underground waters, 

 and the investigation of the stratigraphy of the water- 

 bearing and associated rocks. In addition to the gathering 

 of statistics relating to the flow, cost, &c, of the wells, it 

 is hoped in the future to give especial attention to the geo- 

 logical features which govern, or which are related in any 

 way to, the supply of water. 



M. Bialynitsky-Biroulin, the zoologist of Baron Toll's 

 Arctic expedition, has stated to the Irkutsk branch of the 

 Russian Imperial Geographical Society that Baron Toll left 

 the yacht Sarja on June 9 on the islands of the north coast 

 and proceeded to Cape Wyssoki, where he arrived on July 10. 

 Here he deposited a statement to the effect that all was 

 well with him and his followers, and that the dogs were in 

 good condition. Baron Toll started for Bennett Land on 

 July 13 with three sleighs and forty-five dogs. If a passage 

 through the ice to the Sarja should not be open, M. Biroulin 

 says that Baron Toll intended wintering in Bennett Land. 



The fourth annual general meeting of the National 

 Association for the Prevention of Consumption and other 

 forms of tuberculosis was held on Tuesday. Lord Derby 

 occupied the chair, and in moving the adoption of the report, 

 he referred to the interest which was taken by foreign 

 countries through communication with the association in 

 connection with the International Bureau. The report 

 showed that the death rate from tuberculosis in Prussia had 

 decreased since 18S6, and, although a decrease had occurred 

 in England, and the death rate was still lower than that of 

 Germany, the decrease had not been so great as that in 

 Prussia. The council expressed the opinion that the greater 

 drop in the death rate from tuberculosis in Prussia was due 

 to the widespread knowledge of tuberculosis, the preventive 

 measures taken in that country, and the large number of 

 sanatoria established during recent years. In Germany the 

 individual was taken care of, and was watched by the State 

 through all periods of the existence of the disease. 



A Reuter telegram from Vienna states that Prof. Hanos 

 Molisi h, of Prague, " has reported to the Vienna Academy 

 of Sciences the discovery of a lamp lighted by means of 

 bai teria." It will be remembered that, at the Royal Society 

 conversazione in May, 1901, Mr. J. E. Barnard and Dr. 

 Allan Macfadyen exhibited several striking experiments 

 with luminous bacteria from the bacteriological laboratory 

 of the Jenner Institute of Preventive Medicine. A year ago 

 (April 10, 1902) Mr. Barnard contributed an account of 

 luminous bacteria to these columns, and his remarks were 

 illustrated by reproductions of cultures of these organisms. 

 Prof. Molisch's lamp would seem to offer another instance 

 of the industrial application of the results of research in 

 pure science. According to the Reuter message, " the 

 I. imp consists of a glass vessel, in which a lining of saltpetre 

 and gelatine inoculated with bacteria i^ placed. Two davs 



