12 NATURE 
[MarcH 5, 1914 
miles of the base, when Mertz succumbed, and 
Mawson was only saved by the discovery of a 
cache of food left by a search party, after he had 
made a long and dreadful solitary journey. 
Dr. Mawson’s principal object was to explore 
that section of Antarctica which lies due south of 
Australia (Fig. 1). To the east of his own field of 
operations lies the region opened up by the work 
of Scott and Shackleton; to the west of the base 
established by his colleague, Mr, Frank Wild, a 
thousand miles distant in a direct line from his 
own, the German Gauss expedition was at 
work in 1902-03, and gave the name of Kaiser 
Wilhelm II. Land to its sphere of action. The 
intervening area was very little known; landings 
had not been previously made in either of the 
districts covered. by Dr. Mawson and Mr. Wild, 
and the coast-line was only known—and that, as 
the present expedition has proved, by no means 
certainly—at a few points reported by expeditions 
western: base. From the ship valuable results 
have been obtained by deep-sea dredging and 
other means, and the antarctic continental shelf 
has been traced through 55 degrees of longitude. 
It must also be remembered that the work of the 
general scientific programme has been continued 
at the main base through two complete years, 
though through one only at the western base. 
NOTES. 
Tue following fifteen candidates have been selected 
by the council of the Royal Society to be recommended 
for election into the society:—Dr. E. J. Allen, Mr. 
R. Assheton, Mr. G. T. Bennett, Prof. R. H. Biffen, 
Dr. A. E. Boycott, Mr Clive Cuthbertson, Dr. H. H. 
Dale, Prof. A. S. Eddington, Prof. E. J. Garwood, 
Mr. T. H. Havelock, Dr. T. M. Lowry, Prof. D. Noél 
Paton, Mr. S. Ruhemann, Dr. S. W. J. Smith, and 
Dede... Stanton. 
Mr. J. DewRrance has presented 
: eb) te Ox, seas 
’ of governors of the hospital on 
February 26, Prince Alexander of 
Teck announced that the donor was 
Sir John Bland-Sutton. 
Scale of Nautical Miles 
# 0 400 200 wo 
Fic. 1.—Field of operations of the Mawson Antarctic expedition. 
made more than seventy years ago, by Balleny, by 
Dumont D’Urville, and by Wilkes. 
The data are, of course, insufficient to attempt 
as yet any detailed estimate of the scientific value 
of the work of Dr. Mawson’s expedition. But it 
must be substantial. We know something of it 
already from the reports of Mr. Wild and Captain 
J. K. Davis (who commanded the ship of the 
expedition), which they made on returning from 
the Antarctic last March. 
The wireless telegraphic station established on 
Macquarie Island has already proved its worth, 
and may form the first step in a system of 
weather-forecasting, important not only to ship- 
ping in Australian waters, but to agriculturists 
and others in Australia. We hear of the dis- 
covery of minerals, including coal and copper. 
Exploratory journeys over the sea-ice and the con- 
tinental plateau are stated to have covered 2400 
miles from the main base and 800 miles from the 
NO. 2397 VOL. 103 | 
the sum of 20001. to the donation 
fund of the Royal Society. The in- 
come arising from this fund is used 
mainly for the promotion of experi- 
mental researches. 
A YEAR ago announcement was 
made of a gift of 15,0001. to the 
Middlesex Hospital for the purpose 
of building an institute of pathology, 
a department greatly needed in 
order to raise the hospital to the 
standard required by modern scien- 
tific medicine. At the annual court 
In our issue of February 12 
(p. 667) particulars were given of 
the conference of persons interested 
Atkinson, R.N., 
Towrdegmae: if the physical aspects of the study 
of the air, the earth, and the sea, 
to be held in Edinburgh next Sep- 
tember. Sir John Murray is to be the president of the 
conference. We have since received information that 
arrangements are in progress for a Meteorological 
Congress to be held in Venice in the same month, and 
that meteorologists of all countries are to be invited to 
it. The president of the executive committee of this 
proposed congress is Prof, S. Urbani, director of the 
Patriarcal Meteorological Observatory, Venice. 
Tue London School of Tropical Medicine has sent 
an expedition to China to study the mode of dissemina- 
tion of human diseases caused by trematode parasites, 
especially bilharziosis, and the relation of such diseases 
to those occurring in domestic animals. Investiga- 
tions into. ankylostomiasis will also be carried on. 
The members of the expedition are Dr. R. T. Leiper, 
helminthologist of the Tropical School, Surgeon E. L. 
and Mr. Cherry-Garrard. The two last- 
named were members of Scott’s Antarctic Expedition, 
and the name of Surgeon Atkinson is familiar to the 
