April 30, 1903] 



NA TURE 



61s 



We learn from the Times that the first annual meeting 

 of the South African Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, which already has 762 ordinary and 30 associate 

 members, was opened on Monday at Cape Town, the 

 Governor, Sir Walter Hely-Hutchinson, being among those 

 present. Sir David Gill, K.C.B., F.R.S., delivered the 

 presidential address. He urged the special claims of science 

 upon the colonies and colonial Governments, and referred to 

 the duties of the Association and to the prospects of scien- 

 tific progress in South Africa. He also referred to the 

 proposed visit to Soulh Africa of the British Association in 

 [905, and the great good which would result from such a 

 visit of scientific men. 



We regret to see the announcement of the death of Prof. 

 J. YVillard Gibbs, of Vale University, where he had filled 

 the chair of mathematical physics since 1871. Prof. Gibbs 

 was in his sixty-fifth year, and was elected a Foreign 

 Member of the Royal Society in 1S97. 



The death is announced of Mr. A. F. Osier, F.R.S., dis- 

 tinguished by his meteorological studies and the self- 

 registering anemometer which bears his name. Mr. Osier 

 was ninety-five years of age, and was elected a fellow of 

 the Royal Society in 1855. 



The governing body of the Jenner Institute of Preventive 

 Medicine will shortly appoint a director of the Institute, 

 and applications are invited for the post. 



The subject of the Silliman lectures to be given at Vale 

 University by Prof. J. J. Thomson, F.R.S., will be " The 

 Present Development of Our Ideas of Electricity." The 

 lectures, eight in number, begin on May 14. 



An International Kite Competition has been arranged for 

 June 25 to be held on the Sussex Downs. Amongst the 

 "jury are Mr. C. V. Boys, F.R.S., Dr. W. N. Shaw, F.R.S., 

 Sir Hiram Maxim, and Dr. H. R. Mill. 



It is reported by the Times correspondent at Sofia that 

 preparations are being made at Odessa for the establish- 

 menl of telegraphic communication with Varna by the 

 Marconi system. The Russian authorities will thus be able 

 to avoid the use of the telegraphic lines traversing Rumania. 



There will be extra meetings of the Institution of Elec- 

 trical Engineers on April 30 and May 7. It is expected that 

 Mr. Aitken's paper on " Divided Multiple Switchboards : an 

 Efficient Telephone System for the World's Capitals," will 

 be read and discussed at the former meeting. 



A Reuter telegram from Cape Town states that Dr. 

 Rubin is about to leave there for Chinde, with a party of 

 observers and native carriers, for the purpose of measuring 

 an arc of meridian into North-eastern Rhodesia, from the 

 Zambesi to Lake Tanganyika. The expedition will be 

 away three years. 



On Monday next, May 4, the Berlin Gesellschaft fur 

 Erdkunde will celebrate the seventy-fifth year of its existence 

 by a special meeting and a banquet. At the meeting a re- 

 port will be read on the scientific activity of the Society 

 during the past five years, Dr. Sven Hedin will give an 

 address on his explorations in Tibet, and Prof. K. Sapper 

 one on his studies of volcanic eruptions in the West Indies 

 and Central America. 



It is stated in Science that the Swedish Government 

 has voted 4000/. for the publication of the scientific 

 results of Dr. Sven Hedin 's journey through Central Asia. 

 The work will comprise an atlas of two large volumes, while 

 a third volume will contain Dr. Hedin's report on the 

 geography of the country. Further volumes will be devoted 

 to tin 1 meteorological, the astronomical, and the geological 



NO. 1748, VOL. 67] 



observations, and to the botanical and zoological collec- 

 tions. The work will be published in English. 



Is reply to a question asked in the House of Commons 

 on Tuesday, Mr. Gerald Balfour said that up to the present 

 time, in spite of careful negotiation, the 'Board of Trade 

 has been unable to effect arrangements for a system of 

 wireless telegraphy from shore to ship and ship to shore. 

 The same difficulties have not arisen in the case of com- 

 munication between ships at sea. Mr. Arnold-Forster in- 

 formed the House on the same Hay that the present average 

 expenditure upon wireless telegraphy in the Navy is about 

 20,000/. per annum. 



I 111 council of the Institution of Civil Engineers has 

 made the following awards for papers read and discussed 

 before the Institution during the past session : — A Telford 

 gold medal to Mr. Maurice Fitzmaurice, C.M.G., a Watt 

 gold medal to Mr. B. Hopkinson, and a George Stephenson 

 gold medal to Mr. P. J. Cowan. Telford premiums to 

 Messrs. C. Hopkinson, E. Talbot, F. W. S. Stokes, P. J. 

 Cowan, J. T. Milton, and W. J. Larke. The presentation 

 of these awards, together with those fur papers which have 

 not been subject to discussion and will be announced later, 

 will take place at the inaugural meeting of next session. 



A recent cablegram from Captain Colbeck brings the 

 information, says the Times, that, when he discovered the 

 position of the winter quarters of the National Antarctic 

 expedition, the ice prevented him from bringing the Morn- 

 ing nearer than eight miles to the Discovery. The trans- 

 shipment of coals and provisions had, therefore, to be done 

 by means of sledges dragged over that distance. The 

 Discovery is only provisioned until next January, so that 

 the despatch of the Morning for her relief a second time 

 is an absolute necessity in order to avoid a catastrophe. 

 For the additional expense a sum of 12,000/. is urgently 

 needed, 6000Z. this year and the rest next year. 



Tin: Tageblatt publishes a wireless telegram transmitted 

 by iis correspondent from a train running between Rangs- 

 dorf and Zossen. The message states that experiments 

 with wireless telegraphy were made from a train in motion 

 on the Berlin-Zossen section of the military railway by a 

 wireless telegraph company using the Braun-Siemens 

 system. During the journey active communication was 

 maintained between Marienfeld and Rangsdorf stations and 

 the train, and trustworthiness in transmission was found in 

 every case. 



Mr. C. C. Paterson has been appointed to take charge 

 of the electrotechnical work, including photometry, at the 

 National Physical Laboratory. Under an arrangement with 

 (lie Indian Government the laboratory is about to take over 

 the work of preparing the tide tables for Indian ports. 

 In this it will have, for the present, the assistance of 

 Mr. Roberts, of the " Nautical Almanac " Office, in whose 

 hands the work has been for many years. The committee 

 has appointed Mr. F. J. Selby, formerly scholar of Trinity- 

 College, Cambridge, as assistant in charge of the work. 



The fourteenth International Congress of Medicine is 

 being held at Madrid. In reality a series of congresses has 

 been arranged. The first, that of the medical Press, com- 

 menced on April 20 in the Madrid University, and concluded 

 on April 22. On April 23 the International Congress of 

 Medicine proper was opened, the first meeting being held 

 in the Theatre Royal, the King, the Queen Mother, and the 

 Ministers being present. This main conference concludes 

 to-day. On May 1 a third congress of Spanish-speaking 

 European and American medical men commences and lasts 

 for two days. On May 3 the fourth and last medical con- 

 gress meets, and is to be purely a Spanish congress. 



