6o 



NATURE 



[November 17, 1904 



Cinchona, ant) has now secured a biological station, so that 

 it appears as If the Americans are rapidly getting the control 

 of the scientific interests of our western tropical possessions. 

 While we cannot but admire the interest shown in the 

 establishment of these stations by universities and colleges 

 in the United States, it is impossible not to regret the apathy 

 with which our home and colonial Governments regard 

 such matters. .Surely it is the duty of the Stale to encourage 

 the pursuit and cultivation of natural knowledge through- 

 out the Empire, and to realise the richness of its possessions 

 in material for scientific study as well as in precious 

 minerals. It is a reproach to our nation that a biological 

 station has not been established by us in the Bermudas ; 

 for now, instead of American investigators carrying on their 

 worlc in a British station, we have to face the fact that, 

 though the station will be on British soil, it will belong to 

 the United States, and our own countrymen will be guests 

 in it. So far as the interests of science are concerned, 

 probably this does not matter ; for, as Mr. Balfour wrote a 

 few days ago to the translator of his British Association 

 address, community of aim " binds together the scientific 

 men throughout the world into one international brother- 

 hofid." But it should be evident to some of our ministers, 

 at feast to Mr. Balfour, who has often expressed sympathy 

 with scientific progress, that it cannot be to the advantage 

 of the State for another nation to accept responsibilities 

 which belong to us. Mr. Balfour is gratified at the success 

 of the translation of his address into German, but apparently 

 he does not consider that the interest shown in scientific 

 matters in Germany is due to the active and practical part 

 played by the State in helping scientific education and re- 

 search. What we want here and in all parts of the Empire 

 is more practical help of the kind given by the United States 

 and Germany to save us from the future regret of lost 

 opportunities. 



Rfx-trr's Agency states that a long report has been re- 

 ceived from the members of the expedition of the Liverpool 

 School of Tropical .Medicine now investigating sleeping sick- 

 ness in the Congo. Complete observations have been made 

 on the spread and distribution of sleeping sickness along 

 the Congo River for a distance of nearly looo miles between 

 Stanley Pool and Stanley Falls. I-'rom Leopoldville to 

 Bumba cases of sleeping sickness were present in every town 

 visited, and a large percentage of the population harboured 

 trypanosomes. 1-rom Basoko to the falls only imported 

 cases were met with, with two exceptions, and trypano- 

 .somes were not found among the general population. 

 Observation seems to show that enlarged cervical glands are 

 an early sign of the disease, recognisable before trypano- 

 somes make their appearance in the general circulation, and 

 in a little fluid withdrawn from a gland with a hypodermic 

 needle trypanosomes may be detected. 'Jsetse files were 

 incessantly present up to Basoko, the species being Clossina 

 pulpalis, after which they became infrequent, their distri- 

 Ijiiiion thus corresponding with that of sleeping sickness. 



Mh, W. H. Pickering, late chief of the inspecting staff 

 for the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire mining districts, has 

 been appointed Chief Inspector of Mines in India. 



Dr. Catto has been awarded the Craggs prize of the 

 London School of Tropical Medicine for his discovery of a 

 new schistosomum parasite of man. The Craggs prize, of 

 the value of 50/., was founded some years ago by Sir John 

 Craggs, and is awarded annually in October to that student 

 of the London School who is considered to have carried out 

 the best piece of research work, or made an important dis- 

 'cvcrv, in tropir.-il medicine during lh<' preceding year. 

 No. 1629, VOL. 71] 



I.s- a letter to the Speaker of November 5, Mr. J. A. Reitf 

 urges that educationists should consider the desirability of 

 teaching children the principles of evolution in schools. In 

 considering how the subject might be taught. Prof. W. K. 

 Clifford remarked in 187S : " The teacher, knowing what 

 is to come in the end, may so select the portions of various 

 subjects which he teaches at an earlier stage that they shall 

 supply in a later stage a means of understanding and 

 estimating the evidence on some question of evolution." 



Tub inaugural meeting of the Association of Economic 

 Biologists was held at Burlington House on Tuesday, 

 November 8. .Mr. F. V. Theobald occupied the chair, and 

 in the course of his introductory remarks he detailed the- 

 steps taken by Mr. Walter E. Collinge to found the associ- 

 ation. He hoped that the association would welcome all 

 investigators in economic biology, whether agricultural, 

 medical, or commercial. The relationship between biology 

 and agriculture was apparent to all, but only recently had 

 the importance of its relationships with medicine and com- 

 merce been realised. Membership of the association wilt 

 be confined to workers in economic biology. The following 

 officers have been elected for 1904-5 : — president, Mr. F'red 

 V. Theobald; vice-president, Mr. A. E. Shipley, F.R.S. ; 

 council. Prof. G. S. Boulger, Prof. A. H. R. Buller, Prof. 

 Geo. II. Carpenter, Dr. Francis Marshall, Mr. Robert New- 

 stead, Major Ronald Ross, F.R.S., Mr. Eraser Storey, Mr. 

 Cecil Warburton ; hon. treasurer, Mr. Herbert Stone ; hon. 

 secretary, .Mr. Walter E. Collinge. The next meeting will 

 be held at Birmingham in April, 1905. 



O.N' December 4, 1804, Joseph Lebon, who is considered 

 in France as the inventor of lighting-gas, was found 

 murdered by an unknown hand in the Champs-Elysees, near 

 the site where is now the Grand Palais. In memory of this 

 sad tragedy, and to pay due honour to the celebrated in- 

 ventor, the Compagnie Parisienne du Gaz has given a 

 certain quantity of gas, free of charge, to the Ai-ro Club and 

 Soci<;t<S franfaise aerienne. Ascents will accordingly be 

 made on December 4 by members of these two societies. 

 On December 5 an exhibition will be held in the Grand 

 Palais by the .Automobile Club. 



At a meeting of the Soci^t^ astronomique de France held 

 in Paris on November 2, M. Lippmann being in the chair, 

 the Comte de la Baume-Pluvinel gave an address on the 

 forthcoming total eclipse of the sun on August 30, 1905. 

 He mentioned the intentions of American astronomers to 

 send expeditions to Labrador, Spain, and Upper Egypt. 

 After the address the society decided to appoint a committee 

 for determining the part which France should take in 

 observing the eclipse. It is fairly certain that the principal 

 work of this committee will be concerned with observations 

 in Algeria and Tunis, through which the line of totality 

 passes. This eclipse was also commented upon at the last 

 meeting of the .St. Petersburg Scientific Aeronautic Con- 

 gress, officially held in the rooms of the Imperial Academy 

 of Sciences under the chairmanship of the Grand Duke 

 Constantin Constantinovitch, president of the academy. 

 Colonel Vives y Vich has announced that he will make 

 an aeronautical ascent from Burgos on this occasion, for 

 the purpose of ascertaining the part the clouds may possibly 

 play in the apparent brightness and shade of the corona. 

 In addition, the international committee of baUons-sondes 

 has decided that atmospheric observations shall be made at 

 the great altitudes of the various observatories connected 

 with the institution during August 29, 30, and 31 for 

 ascertaining the changes the eclipse may introduce in the 

 prevailing winds and temperatures at different altitudes. 



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