Marcu 19, 1914] 
‘A PARAGRAPH in the Times of March 12 records the 
arrival at the Natural History Branch of the British 
Museum of a consignment of specimens illustrating 
the whales of the Antarctic. They were obtained by 
the museum taxidermist who accompanied the late 
Major Barrett-Hamilton to South Georgia, and were 
brought home gratis by Messrs, Salvesan, of Leith, 
their united weight being about 8 tons. The speci- 
mens—which represent three species, namely, the blue 
or Sibbald’s rorqual (Balaenoptera sibbaldi), the 
common finner (B. musculus), and the southern hump- 
back (Megaptera lalandei)—include the whalebone, 
flippers, a trunk-vertebra, and ear-bones. Plaster 
casts of the flippers are now being made, which will 
in due course be placed on exhibition. The blue 
rorqual was the second largest specimen on record, 
measuring close on too ft. in total length. To this 
species pertains the aforesaid vertebra, which is of 
enormous dimensions, largely exceeding those of the 
vertebrae of the sauropod dinosaurs from the Wealden 
of the Isle of Wight. 
THERE is something reminiscent of a Latin-American 
frontier dispute in the controversy which has arisen 
regarding the base in the Weddell Sea of the respec- 
tive Antarctic expeditions of Sir Ernest Shackleton 
and Dr. Koenig, but the parallel unfortunately does 
not hold good so far as to suggest arbitration by an 
impartial umpire. It is admitted on Dr. Koenig’s 
side that, before his expedition was spoken of, Sir E. 
Shackleton had expressed in general terms his hope 
of undertaking a journey from the Weddell Sea to the 
pole. Dr. Koenig, on the other hand, produced de- 
tailed plans before Sir E. Shackleton did so, and the 
question turns simply on a point of opinion whether 
the latter’s previous general statement gives him a 
basis of claim to priority, or not. The Royal and 
Imperial Geographical Society in Vienna has com- 
mitted itself to the negative opinion, and there the 
matter appears likely to rest: either side may claim 
what it will but cannot enforce any claim upon the 
other; so that so far as concerns work in the Weddell 
Sea area (for the published statements do not make 
it clear that a crossing of the Antarctic continent is 
part of the Austrian, as it is of the British, scheme) 
science may be compelled to fall back upon any satis- 
faction and value which it may be possible to derive 
from a comparison between independent sets of ob- 
servations in the same field. 
Tue concluding meeting of the Optical Convention 
was held on Thursday, March 12, in connection with 
the meeting of the Optical Society of that date. The 
report presented contained many points of special 
interest, Conspicuous among which was an experiment 
made by the Board of Education in accommodating 
the exhibition of the Optical Convention in the build- 
ings of the Science Museum at South Kensington. 
The experiment appears to have given complete satis- 
faction to the committee and members of the conven- 
tion. We believe that it is regarded as having been 
successful by the authorities of the museum, and as 
it is very evident that such an employment, when 
practicable, of our public museums must tend mate- 
NO-w2aTo, VOL. 93) 
NATURE 
05 
rially to enlarge their usefulness, it may be hoped that 
the precedent will not be lost sight of in the future. 
From another point of view the report must have 
been equally satisfactory to the members of the con- 
vention, for it appears that in the result the commit- 
tee has been able to wind up the business without 
making any formal call upon its guarantors. The 
most important outcome of the convention was the 
formation of a technical committee charged with the 
duty of establishing an effective cooperation between 
the users of scientific instruments on one_ hand, 
and the manufacturers of such instruments on the 
other. The report of that committee, which was the 
most interesting feature of the proceedings, shows 
that the committee found some very useful work ready 
to its hand in connection with a communication from 
the War Office referring to the standardisation of 
the cells and other parts of telescopes and binoculars. 
A sub-committee has been formed to consider the 
matter, and it is hoped that through the instru- 
mentality of the Optical Society, and with the coopera- 
tion of British manufacturers of telescopes and bino- 
culars, the necessary work of standardisation will soon 
be carried out. 
In connection with the Panama-Pacific International 
Exposition in San Francisco next year, there will be 
an International Engineering Congress, during the 
week September 20-25, 1915, in which engineers 
throughout the world, representing all branches of the 
profession, are invited to participate. The congress 
is to be conducted under the auspices of five engineer- 
ing societies, namely, the American Society of Civil 
Engineers, the American Institute of Mining 
Engineers, the American Society of Mechanical 
Engineers, the American Institute of Electrical 
Engineers, and the Society of Naval Architects and 
Marine Engineers. Colonel G. W. Goethals, chair- 
man and chief engineer of the Isthmian Canal Com- 
mission, has consented to act as honorary president 
of the congress. The general field of engineering to 
be covered by the congress has been divided into ten 
groups or branches, which, together with the special 
field of the Panama Canal, will constitute eleven divi- 
sions or sections, as follows :—(1) The Panama Canal; 
(2) Waterways and Irrigation; (3) Railways; (4) Muni- 
cipal Engineering; (5) Materials of Engineering Con- 
struction; (6) Mechanical Engineering; (7) Electrical 
Engineering ; (8) Mining Engineering and Metallurgy ; 
(9) Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering; (10) 
Military Engineering ; (11) Miscellaneous. The offices 
of the committee of management of the congress are 
at Foxcroft Buildings, San Francisco, Cal., U.S.A. 
Mr. B. Quaritcu, of 11 Grafton Street, London, 
W., is about to publish an elaborate worl entitled 
‘British Flowering Plants,” in four volumes, royal 
quarto, at twelve guineas if ordered before the date 
of publication, March 28, or fifteen guineas after that 
date. The main feature of the work consists in three 
hundred coloured plates, reproduced from water-colour 
drawings by Mrs. Perrin. Copies of the first volume 
of the work, together with the original drawings, and 
the plates for the book, are on view (March 13-27) at 
the Dudley Gallery, 169 Piccadilly, where we inspected 
