590 
NATORE 
[AucustT 6, 1914 
and is given under the auspices of the Royal Academy 
of Medicine of Turin. Names of competitors will be 
received until December 31, 1916. Entry forms may 
be obtained from Dr. V. Oliva, secretary of the Royal 
Academy of Medicine, 18 Via Po, Turin. 
LorpD SALVESEN, the president of the Scottish 
Zoological Society, has intimated his willingness to 
bear the cost (estimated at about roool.) of the erection 
of a house in the Zoological Park for the accommoda- 
tion of the smaller and more delicate mammals. 
A City GuiLp has been established at Coventry 
having as its object the preservation of historic build- 
ings and places of natural beauty. It will work upon 
the same lines as the society as Stratford-on-Avon 
which, though only two years old, has already done 
good work. 
WE have received from the British Association 
Committee for Radiotelegraphic Investigation copies 
of the programme of observations to be made during 
the total solar eclipse of August 21 next, and of the 
three forms, A, B, and C, which have been issued 
by the committee for use during the eclipse. Form A 
is for records of the measurement of signal strength; 
form B_ gives instructions and explanatory remarks 
concerning graphic records; and form C_ is for ob- 
servations on strays. It should be mentioned that on 
the occasi n of the eclipse, five high-power wireless 
telegraph stations in Europe will each make a series 
of special emissions to provide facilities for the obser- 
vation of strays, and for the measurement of the 
strength of signals—hence the issue of the above- 
named documents. It is requested that experimenters 
in wireless telegraphy possessing such apparatus of 
precision as will enable them to make accurate meas- 
urements will communicate with Mr. W. Duddell, 
56, Victoria Street, S.W. Prospective observers, 
willing to make aural estimates of signal strength, 
or to make observations on strays (either by the 
graphic record method, or by the method of register- 
ing the number heard during every thirty seconds), 
should intimate their willingness and state which 
portion of the observations they can undertake, to 
the honorary secretary, British Association Radio- 
telegraphic Committee, 88, Gower Street, W.C. 
They should also state the number and the names of 
the five sending stations with which it would be most 
convenient for them to work. 
THE report of the Astronomer-Royal to the Board of 
Visitors has been issued as a White Paper. In it it 
is stated that the old time ball at the Royal Observa- 
tory, Greenwich, is to be replaced by a new aluminium 
ball. The time ball was first erected in 1833. An 
electric current from the clock was first used to drop 
it at 1 o’clock in 1852. In 1855 the ball was blown 
down into the courtyard. Some repairs were made in 
1895, when the chain broke during winding, and 
again, in August, 1913, some temporary repairs were 
made to the ball. 
THE President of the Local Government Board has 
authorised the following researches to be paid for out 
of the annual grant voted by Parliament in aid of 
scientific investigations concerning the causes and 
NO. 2336, ‘VOL. 93] 
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processes of disease. 
These are in addition to the 
investigations already announced :— (1) an investiga- 
tion of the details of the technique in carrying out 
Wassermann’s reaction for the diagnosis of syphilis. 
Major Harrison, acting in collaboration with a sub- 
committee of the Pathological Section of the Royal 
Society of Medicine, will carry out this investigation. 
(2) An investigation by Mr. H. J. Gauvain, in collabora- 
tion with the Board’s pathological staff, into the 
cutaneous tuberculin reactions of cases of tuberculosis 
of bones and joints of bovine and human sources. 
(3) A continuance of the investigation of Drs. Twort 
and Mellanby on infantile diarrhoea, with special 
reference to. the conditions governing the absorption 
of toxic substances from the alimentary canal. (4) A 
further investigation into the causes of still-births by 
Drs. C. J. Lewis and Dale. 
An extremely interesting presidential address on 
“The Service of Medicine to Civilisation’? was de- 
livered by Prof. Victor Vaughan before the American 
Medical Association in June (see Science, July 3, 1914). 
One statement of importance is made, viz., that in- 
fectious disease picks out the fit rather than the unfit, 
and therefore does not benefit the race by the elimina- 
tion of the unfit. Prof. Vaughan claims increased 
state-aid for scientific investigation, and says that he 
has no sympathy with the idea that medical research 
should be largely relegated to special non-teaching 
institutions, for the man who is devoid of the spirit 
of scientific investigation should have no place in 
medicine as student, practitioner, or teacher! 
WE have received No. 4 of the Indian Journal of 
Medical Research, which completes the first volume 
of this important publication. It contains a number 
of papers on tropical research, and is well produced 
and illustrated. 
Two circulars which we have received serve as an 
illustration of what can be done, and is being done, 
in the study of nature in and around London. One 
is from Prof. Flinders Petrie, president of the Hamp- 
stead Scientific Society, pointing out the danger of 
extermination of the majority of the animals and 
plants in the parts of North London which are now 
being rapidly built over, and appealing for assistance 
from residents in and visitors to the district in the 
attempt of the Hampstead Scientific Society to compile 
a complete record of the natural species still to be 
found within three miles of the flagstaff on the sum- 
mit of Hampstead Heath, communications to be made 
with the secretaries of the society at 32 Willoughby 
Road, Hampstead. The second circular is from the 
curator of the Whitechapel Museum, 77 High Street, 
E., and consists in a description of the arrangements 
made for visits of school classes to this museum and 
to the Nature-Study Museum, both being controlled 
by the borough of Stepney. Nearly two thousand 
school classes have visited the museums mentioned 
during the last four years, while both are available 
for school visits, the Nature-Study Museum confines 
itself mainly to the display of living plants and 
animals, the grounds containing many fine trees and 
also a wild flower garden with a large collection of 
growing British plants labelled by their common 
