April 20, 1Q05] 



NA TURE 



5S9 



Mr. C. H. Hamilton records in Science that tlip world- 

 renauned volcano Kilauea, in the Hawaiian Islands, has 

 again become active, after a rest of thirteen years. Fresh 

 lava appeared the last week of February, heralded by a 

 slight earthquake. On March lo the Volcano House re- 

 ported the existence of a large lake of lava. " Heavy 

 rumblings and explosions indicate that another outbreak 

 is imminent." Thus there seems to be a restoration of 

 the old-time activity — such as will cause a large increase 

 in the number of visitors. 



Dr. D.xvison states in a letter to the Tiiucs that a do- 

 tailed record of the Indian earthquake was given by a hori- 

 zontal pendulum at Birmingham. The first tremors were 

 registered at ih. 6m. i8s. a.m., and were succeeded at 

 ih. 29m. 2S. by long-period undulations lasting for more 

 than an hour and a half. The more prominent of these 

 undulations were in two series, separated by a few 

 minutes, and little more than two hours later the diagram 

 showed another double group of waves. The early tremors 

 took a direct course through the body of the earth ; the 

 first double series travelled along the surface by the shortest 

 way to Birmingham, while the second double series 

 followed the longest possible route, through the antipodes, 

 and back again to Birmingham. 



It is announced in Science that Dr. Frank Schlesinger 

 has been elected director of the New Allegheny Observ- 

 atory. The observatory has an endowment fund, and a 

 regular income from the time service, besides owning a 

 large and valuable property in the City of .'Mlegheny, which 

 will become a source of income in the near future. Work 

 has not been suspended on account of lack of funds, and 

 much has been accomplished toward the instrumental 

 equipment during the past year. The Keeler memorial 

 telescope of 30-inch aperture is now ready to be set up, 

 and the large (Porter) spectroheliograph is almost com- 

 pleted. The 30-inch objective is well under way, and other 

 instruments will be installed during the year under the 

 directorate of Dr. Schlesinger. 



At the meeting of the Royal Colonial Institute, held on 

 April II, Sir Frederick Pollock read a paper on Imperial 

 Organisation. He deprecated the national faculty of com- 

 promise, and asked, could we go on trusting to com- 

 promises and accidents? It is necessary to look, he con- 

 tinued, for some plan which will avoid elaborate legislature 

 and formal change in the Constitution. We must be 

 content for the present with a council of advice which will 

 have only "persuasive authority." A permanent secre- 

 tary's office is required, independent of any existing de- 

 partment, but immediately under the president of the 

 Imperial council. The best living information ought to 

 be at the service of this Imperial council through its 

 secretariat ; and this can be most effectively done, without 

 ostentation and with very little expense, by the constitution 

 of a permanent Imperial commission the members of which 

 will represent all branches of knowledge and research, out- 

 side the art of war. most likely to be profitable in Imperial 

 affairs. Not only learned and official persons would be 

 included in such a body, but men of widespread business, 

 travellers, ethnologists, comparative students of politics 

 might all find scope for excellent work. It need not be 

 paid work. It would be as willingly done without 

 pecuniary reward as the more formal and laborious work 

 of Royal Commissions, as to which there has never been 

 any difficulty. Of the need for some such advisory council 

 to secure national efiiciency there can be no doubt, and it 

 is earnestly to be desired that hopes and schemes, like 

 NO. I 85 I, VOL. 71] 



that of Sir F. Pollock, will soon fructify in accomplished 

 fact. .\ select advisory council on which men of science 

 familiar with the scientific advances of recent years took 

 a prominent place would assist statesmen to secure national 

 efficiency mare than any other expedient. 



Reports of the annual general meeting of the Chemical 

 Society and of the anniversary dinner are given in the 

 Proceedings of the society, just issued. The following 

 extracts from the official account of remarks made at the 

 dinner by Mr. R. B. Haldane, as to the neglect of science 

 by the British nation in the past, and the promise of an 

 improved position in the future, are of interest ; — The 

 problem which lay in front of the British nation was how 

 to develop what he might call the grey matter of the 

 executive brain. .All the things spoken of that night re- 

 presented something new in the nation, and not only some- 

 thing new, but something of which they would have to 

 see a great deal more if the nation was to hold its own in 

 these days. Science counted for more than ever it did. The 

 West had had a rude awakening at the hands of the East. 

 The controversies which agitated the minds of politicians 

 were of less importance than the great question of how to 

 make the permanent element in politics more powerful and 

 better than it was. There was too little science in the 

 present day, although one or two things had been done for 

 which they were very grateful, in connection with the 

 Navy and the Army and the Defence Committee. If they 

 turned to the different departments of the Government there 

 was hardly one which did not require science, if its policy 

 was to be an effective policy. Wherever thev turned science 

 was needed, and yet there was not sufficient attraction to 

 a man of high attainments to put himself at the disposition 

 of the State. Foreign Governments held out careers far in 

 excess of any rewards and honours which the British 

 Government could afford. Was it impossible to see an era 

 in which the head of the Government could have at his 

 disposition the first intelligejice and the best brains which 

 the nation could command? If we were to hold our own 

 we must not be behind Berlin, the United States, or the 

 French nation. Science never stands still, and if science 

 does not stand still, Governments cannot afford to stand 

 still in their use of science. These were speculations which, 

 perhaps, went beyond the moment, but he had a strong 

 feeling that the time was very nearly, if not quite, ripe 

 for them. They would see what was the mind of the 

 nation on this point, and doubtless they would be subjected 

 to the acute disappointment to which all were usually 

 subjected when they formed great expectations. He hoped 

 to see the position of science raised in the next few years, 

 and he looked to the time when brute force would count 

 for little, and knowledge for more. 



Wf. have received from Messrs. R. Friedlander and 

 .Sons, of Berlin, a priced catalogue of books and papers 

 dealing with \'erlebrate anatomy and physiology. 



P.VRT xxxi. of the Transactions of the Yorkshire 

 Naturalists' Union contains the reports of that body for 

 the years 1903 and 1904, and also a reprint of the excursion 

 circulars for the same period. A satisfactory feature in 

 the work of the union is the care devoted to the collection 

 of photographs of import^mt geological section? within its 

 sphere of influence. 



Proi-'. J. .S. KiNGSi.i!v discusses in the February number 

 of the American Naturalist the current nomenclature and 

 homology of the component bones of the lower jaw of 

 reptiles, pointing out that there is still some uncertainty 

 with regard to the proper determination of one of these 



