I30 



NA TURE 



[December iS, 1904 



public life of what men of science are thinking, what they 

 are doing, and what they hope and mean to accomplish 

 in all the great departments of scientific life throughout the 

 globe. There is absolutely infinite opportunity for the work 

 of trained minds in that important department of our 

 national life, the public service. Even in his short official 

 life he had lived to see some progress made in the direction 

 in which he wished to see this nation travel. Sir William 

 Huggins responded ; and among other speakers were Lord 

 Strathcona, Sir J. W. Swan, Mr. W. Bateson, and Mr. 

 Leonard Courtney. 



The annual dinner of the Institution of Electrical 

 Engineers was held on Thursday last, December i, Mr. 

 Alexander Siemens, the president, being in the chair. In 

 proposing the toast of the institution. Lord Alverstone re- 

 marked that its high standing among scientific organisa- 

 tions was due to the fact that it had kept pace with the 

 times, had been the first to promulgate and promote among 

 its members all the information about electrical science 

 that could be obtained, had been willing to welcome 

 electricians from all parts of the world, had kept its students 

 and its members acquainted with every modern develop- 

 ment, and had given them the means of cultivating the 

 technical knowledge of their science to the highest extent. 

 In the course of his response to the toast, the president 

 announced that telegrams of congratulation and sympathy 

 had been received from the Belgian and Italian Societies 

 of Electrical Engineers. In their visits to foreign countries 

 the international character of electrical engineering had 

 come out, and it was this which had contributed not a' little 

 to the development of electricity throughout the world. 



The death is announced of Dr. T. M. Drown, president 

 of Lehigh University, and previously professor of chemistry 

 at Lafayette College and the Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology. 



It is reported in the Pioneer Mail that the Secretary 

 of State for India has sanctioned the creation of the appoint- 

 ment of electrical adviser to the Government of India, with 

 headquarters at Calcutta. The present post of electrical 

 engineer to the Government of Bengal will be abolished. 



According to the correspondent of the Daily Chronicle 

 (November 25) the German Commission that is investi- 

 gating tuberculosis has come to the conclusion that two 

 distinct forms of tubercle bacilli exist, the human and the 

 bovine. Out of fifty-six cases of human tuberculosis ex- 

 amined fifty showed human bacilli only, five (three beino- 

 children) showed bovine bacilli, while the remaining one 

 showed both human and bovine bacilli. 



A MOVEMENT has been initiated in Denmark for the 

 erection of a monument to the late Prof. Finsen, the in- 

 ventor of the light cure for lupus. It has been thought that 

 many outside Denmark would desire to join in doing honour 

 to one who did so much for his fellow-men, and a British 

 committee has been formed for the furtherance of the 

 scheme. The Hon. Sydney Holland, Sir Francis Laking, 

 Sir Frederick Treves, and Mr. Malcolm Morris, members 

 of this committee, announce that subscriptions may be paid 

 to the Finsen Memorial Fund at the National Provincial 

 Bank, 112 Bishopsgate Street, E.C. 



The Bradshaw lecture was delivered at the Royal College 

 of Surgeons on December i by Mr. Mayo Robson, who 

 took for his subject the treatment of cancer. He pointed 

 out that in many instances, perhaps in all if we only knew 

 it, there was a pre-cancerous stage in which operation ought 

 to be performed, and would be the means of .=aving many 

 NO. 1832, VOL. 71] 



lives. In early operation with complete removal of disease, 

 together with a wide margin of healthy tissue, our hope of 

 cure must depend. Medical treatment could not cure, and 

 could do little to prolong life. There was hardly any 

 situation in the body in which an operation for removal 

 could not be performed provided the disease were recognised 

 sufficiently early, and the results of surgical treatment were 

 by no means so hopeless as generally supposed. 



We learn from the Athenaeurn that M. Paul Tannery, 

 whose death is announced, was born at Mantes on December 

 20, 1843, was president of the Congres d'Histoire G^n^rale 

 des Sciences held at Paris in 1900, and had written ex- 

 tensively on philosophical subjects since 1876. His principal 

 works include " Pour I'Histoire de la Science Hellene," 

 1887, and " Recherches sur I'Histoire de I'Astronomie 

 Ancienne, " 1893; he edited with M. Ch. Henry the works 

 of Fermat, and with M. Ch. Adam an edition of Descartes. 



Prince Roland Bon.4p.'vrte has resumed the presidency 

 of the committee of the Aero Club of Paris, which he had 

 previously to relinquish on account of ill-health. At the 

 meeting of the club on November 28, the report of the St. 

 Petersburg congress was read. The suggestion was made 

 to ask the Government to lend a torpedo-boat for experi- 

 ments in starting sounding-balloons over the Mediterranean 

 when the scientific congress meets at Algiers next April. 

 In connection with proposed ascents during the solar eclipse 

 of August 30, 1905, it is unfortunate that one of the towns 

 having the best situation on the line of totality — from 

 Philippeville to Sfax — Batna, with a population of 6000 

 or 7000, is lighted by electricity, and there is no gas 

 reservoir. It will therefore be necessary for the aeronauts 

 to manufacture hydrogen on the spot, or else to bring it 

 from a distance. 



The following are among the lecture arrangements at 

 the Royal Institution, before Easter : — a Christmas course 

 of lectures (experimentally illustrated and adapted to a 

 juvenile auditory) on ancient and modern methods of 

 measuring time, by Mr. Henry Cunynghame ; Prof. L. C. 

 Miall, adaptation and history in the structure and life of 

 animals ; Prof. Karl Pearson, some recent biometric studies ; 

 Prof. W. E. Dalby, engineering ; Mr. A. H. Savage Landor, 

 exploration in the Philippines ; Prof. W. Schlich, forestry 

 in the British Empire ; Mr. J. J. H. Teall, recent work of 

 the Geological Survey; Prof. H. H. Turner, recent astro- 

 nomical progress ; Prof. R. Meldola, synthetic chemistry 

 (experimental) ; Mr. D. G. Hogarth, arch;Eology ; Prof. 

 J. J. Thomson, electrical properties of radio-active sub- 

 stances ; and Lord Rayleigh, some controverted questions 

 of optics. The Friday evening meetings will begin on 

 January 20, when a discourse will be delivered by Sir James 

 Dewar on new low temperature phenomena ; succeeding 

 discourses will probably be given by Dr. E. A. Wilson, Mr. 

 Cecil Smith, Mr. J. W. Gordon, Prof. H. Marshall Ward, 

 Chevalier G. Marconi, Prof. J. J. Thomson, Prof. G. H. 

 Bryan, Prof. J. Wright, Prof. T. Clifford Allbutt, Lord 

 Rayleigh, and other gentlemen. 



The new board of anthropological studies in Cambridge 

 is now organised, and commenced work last October with 

 nine courses of lectures. Sir Richard Temple, Bart., CLE., 

 delivered an inaugural address at Cambridge in the museum 

 of archjEology and ethnology on " The Practical Value of 

 .Anthropology." In the course of his most interesting and 

 suggestive address he said : — " Now, when we are started 

 on a new line of research, when we add a new course of 

 studies to a university curriculum, there is a question that 



