aa Se 
NOVEMBER 15, 1906] 
NATURE 
61 
2 p.m. on the same day, having crossed Mont Blane. The 
Milano, which was piloted by Signori Murillo and Cresti, 
rose to an altitude of upwards of 6000 metres while cross- 
ing the Alps. 
Tue Board of Agriculture and Fisheries announces thai 
a horticultural exhibition will be held at Mannheim, in thc 
Grand Duchy of Baden, from May to October, 1907. 
Exhibits from this country will be admitted to the fruit, 
vegetable, orchid, and cactus shows. Applications for in- 
formation should be addressed to the office of the exhibi- 
tion, Friedrichsplatz 14, Mannheim, Germany. 
Ar the annual general meeting of the Mathematical 
Society on November 8 the council and officers for the 
ensuing session were elected. The list is as follows :— 
president, Prof. W. Burnside; vice-presidents, Sir Wm. 
Niven, Prof. A. R. Forsyth; treasurer, Prof. J. Larmor ; 
secretaries, Prof. A. E. H. Love,.Mr. J. H. Grace; other 
members of the council, Dr. H. F. Baker, Mr. A. Berry, 
MreAcmeen Dison, Prot. Bs Bs Elliott, Dr. Ji. WwW. L. 
Glaisher, Mr. G. H. Hardy, Dr. E. W. Hobson, Prof. 
H. M. Macdonald, Mr. A. E. Western, Mr. A. Young. 
Tue ‘Athenaeum announces the death, in his sixty-sixth 
year, of Prof. A. K. Christomanos, professor of general 
chemistry in the University of Athens. In 1889 Prof. 
Christomanos became director of the chemical laboratory in 
the University, and by his efforts it was brought to a 
high standard of perfection. He was the author of a 
number of works dealing with his special subjects, and 
also did good work in geology and mineralogy. 
Tue Prince of Monaco is, La Nature reports, arranging 
for a first international conference on oceanography and 
marine meteorology to be held, if possible, at the time of 
the inauguration of the museum of oceanography. The 
latter date is not yet fixed, but foreign men of science are 
being invited to take part in the proposed conference. 
Inguiries and other communications should be addressed to 
Dr. Jules Richard, at Monaco. 
Mr. Joun DeEvonsuirRE Ettis, who died at his residence 
at Worksop on Sunday, November 11, was one of the 
makers of modern Sheffield, and a pioneer in the develop- 
ment of British metallurgy. He was the first to adopt the 
Bessemer process of steel making, and introduced many 
important inventions in the manufacture of armour-plates. 
He was vice-president of the Iron and Steel Institute, and 
in 1889 received from that body the Bessemer gold medal 
in recognition of the value of his services to the metallurgy 
of iron. 
Crreutars of invitation have just been issued to the 
ninth International Congress of Geography, to be held at 
Geneva on July 27-August 6, 1908. The president of 
the congress will be Dr. A. de Claparéde, president of the 
Geographical Society of Geneva; vice-presidents, Profs. 
R. Gautier and R. Chodat; and general secretary, M. 
Fernand Tavel. Most of the sections of the congress will 
meet in rooms at the University of Geneva. Four 
languages—German, French, Italian, and English—will be 
recognised at the congress, and memoirs should be written 
in one of these languages or in Latin. Papers and 
abstracts should be sent in by November 30, 1907. 
Art the annual general meeting of the Cambridge Philo- 
sophical Society on October 29, Dr. Fenton, vice-president, 
in the chair, the following were elected officers of the 
society for the ensuing session :—president, Dr. Hobson ; 
vice-presidents, Dr. Baker, Dr. Fenton, Mr. D. Sharp; 
NO. 1933. VOL. 75| 
| 
treasurer, Mr. H. F. Newall; secretaries, Mrs VAS VE- 
Shipley, Rev. E. W. Barnes, Mr. P. V. Bevan; new 
members of the council, Prof. Larmor, Prof. Thomson, 
Dr. Duckworth, Mr. W. G. Fearnsides. 
A REUTER from Paris states that M. Santos 
Dumont made further trials of his airship on Monday in 
the presence of members of the committee of the Aéro 
Club. and numerous spectators. At the second trial two 
wheels of the apparatus left the ground, and ‘in five and 
one-fifth seconds the machine travelled a distance of about 
500 metres, in the course of which it rose four times. At 
another trial the started off, followed by a 
motor-car conveying the members of the committee. It 
rapidly covered 500 metres, proceeding by successive bounds 
the The committee, 
measuring afterwards the distances traversed, found that 
a height of between four 
message 
aéroplane 
and soon outpacing motor-car. on 
the aéroplane, after reaching 
and five metres, had traversed in level flight a distance of 
220 without touching the ground, in twenty-one 
and one-fifth seconds, thus travelling at the rate of about 
ten metres a The best time recorded was seven 
and one-fifth a distance of 
representing a speed of about 40 kilometres an hour. 
metres, 
second. 
seconds over 82-60 metres; 
Matarta in Greece was the subject of a paper read by 
Major Ronald Ross, F.R.S., before the Oxford Medical 
Society on November 9. Prof. Ross described the valley 
of Lake Kopais, in Boeotia, the scene of his recent study 
The locality was the dried-up bed 
of a large lake, drained in remote times, but:in the Middle 
Ages reverting to marsh once more owing to’ the drainage 
works falling out of repair. Recently, restoration has 
been taken in hand, and the bed of the ancient lake is now 
a fertile plain covered with crops of all kinds, but the 
inhabitants are decimated by malaria, the type of disease 
being very severe, pernicious attacks common, and black- 
water fever extremely common. In five localities the 
minimum malaria-rate among children was found to range 
between 25-5 per cent. and 40-9 per cent. Prof. Ross 
considers that the country is eminently suited to the appli- 
cation of drainage measures for the eradication of the 
disease. A Grecian malaria society has commenced the 
work with energy,-and an appeal for funds on behalf of 
the scheme has been issued by the Liverpool School of 
Tropical Medicine, and is under the patronage of Princess 
Christian. 
of malaria in Greece. 
Tue Daily Chronicle’s correspondent at Rome reports 
that Prof. Waldstein’s international project for the excava- 
tion of Herculaneum has gained the unanimous adhesion 
of the Royal Commission of Antiquities and Fine Arts in 
Rome, under the following conditions among others :— 
(1) Subscriptions are to be of a private character, without 
the official intervention of foreign States, and the funds 
are to be administered by an International Committee 
centred in Rome. (2) An executive commission is to be 
constituted of foreign members representing the contributing 
countries and Italian representatives. (3) All scientific 
material to be published first of all under the supervision 
and at the expense of the Italian Government, the Minister 
of Public Instruction being empowered to invite the co- 
operation of national and foreign publishing houses. (4) All 
objects excavated to be the absolute property of the Italian 
Government, which, however, will retain the faculty of 
conceding to foreign States, according to the measure of 
their respective generosity as contributors to the explor- 
ation fund, duplicates and other finds, where this can be 
done without prejudice to Italy’s national collections. 
