DECEMBER 20, 1906 | 
NATURE 
179 
exhibited and explained, and there was a notable series of 
large photographs of Vesuvius taken during the recent 
eruption. 
In the speech of the Secretary for Scotland 
December 14, during the debate in committee of the House 
of Commons on the National Galleries of Scotland Bill, 
the following passage describes his final proposals regard- 
ing the accommodation and grant to the Royal Society 
on 
of Edinburgh :—* He had now to mention the arrange- | 
ments proposed for the housing of the Royal Society. For 
that purpose it was proposed to expend 28,o0ol. of the 
capital in the hands of the Board of Manufactures. A sum 
of 25,0001. would go to the purchase of a building, and 
30001. would cover the expenses of fitting up, re-decorating 
the new premises, and transferring the library and other 
effects of the Royal Society from the Royal Institution. 
The Treasury were giving the Royal Society a grant of 
not more than 6001. a year. At present the Royal Society 
received a grant of 3001. a year, which grant was paid by 
them as rent for the part of the Royal Institution which 
they now occupied. In future the Royal Society would be 
placed in occupation of their new premises, and they would 
also have the grant of 6ool. a year for scientific purposes, 
and would be free from any obligation to pay rent. He 
thought it would be conceded that the Treasury had been, 
not extravagant in this matter, but generous.”’ 
By permission of the Lord Mayor, the annual meeting 
of the British Science Guild will be held at the Mansion 
House on January 28 at 4 p.m. Mr. Haldane, the presi- 
dent of the Guild, and others to be announced later, will 
speak. The Lord Mayor will preside. 
To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of its foundation 
the Geographical Society of Vienna held a meeting on 
December 15 under the presidency of the Archduke Rainer, 
patron of the society. 
Tue gold medal offered by the National Geographic 
Society, Washington, for extraordinary achievements, was 
presented to Commander Peary by the President of the 
United States at a banquet on December 15. 
Tue Berlin correspondent of the Times states that on 
December 14 the German Wireless Telegraphy Company 
succeeded in establishing wireless telephonic communication 
between its offices in Berlin and the wireless telegraph 
station at Nauen, a distance of about twenty-five miles. 
It is claimed that the apparatus can be adapted to any 
wireless telegraph installation. 
In the House of Commons on Tuesday a discussion took 
place on the wireless telegraphy convention signed at the 
recent conference in Berlin, an account of which was 
given in Nature of November 15 (p. 59). Sir E. Sassoon 
moved :—*‘ That, in view of the experimental and un- 
developed condition of radio-telegraphy, this House regards 
with apprehension any engagements hampering the com- 
plete freedom of action of the State, and asks His 
Majesty’s Government to grant a Select Committee to 
inquire into the proposals embodied in the Berlin Conven- 
tion previous to ratification.’’ The resolution was with- 
drawn after Mr. Buxton, Postmaster-General, had 
announced, in the course of a detailed reply to the 
criticisms passed upon the convention, that a select com- 
mittee of inquiry would be appointed by the Government 
at an early period of next session. 
On Friday last, December 14, there was opened in the 
Alexandra Park, in Manchester, a range of houses erected 
by the Manchester City Council fer the unique collection 
NO. 1938, VOL. 75] 
| of cacti made by the late Mr. Charles Darrah, of Heaton 
Mersey, and presented to the town of Manchester by his 
widow and sons. The houses, which were erected at the 
cost of 2500l., are admirably suited for the purpose, and 
provide a suitable building for this splendid collection, 
which comprises about 1200 species and varieties of 
Cactacee, and about 400 specimens of other succulent 
plants. 
A CORRESPONDENT in Osaka sends us a cutting from the 
Japan Chronicle of October 20 in which it is reported that 
‘“a remarkable piece of crystal has been discovered on a 
hill at Masutomi-mura, Kita-Koma district, Yamanashi 
Prefecture. It is 43 feet long and 14 feet thick, weighing 
more than 10,000 lb.’’ The information is not definite 
enough to be of much value, but it may be pointed out 
that a quartz crystal of the size mentioned (43 feet by 
11 feet) would weigh about 1000 lb., not 10,000 1b. In 
the collection at the British Museum (Natural History) 
there is a crystal from Madagascar which is 3 feet long 
and more than 1 foot thick. A crystal in Milan, 3} feet 
in length and 53 feet in circumference, is estimated to 
weigh 870 lb. 
SPEAKING at the eighth annual dinner of the members of 
the Medical Graduates’ College and Polyclinic, held in 
London on December 12, Prof. Clifford Allbutt, who pre- 
sided, said it is quite impossible for teachers, however 
eminent they may be, to teach undergraduates and post- 
graduates at the same time, hence the necessity for a post- 
graduate society of this kind. The science of medicine is 
living, and the sciences on which medicine was founded 
are living, and post-graduates must move forward with 
the rest. Prof. Allbutt suggested that the institution 
should not rest until it has succeeded in bringing about in 
this country the establishment of a Ministry of Health. 
Tue report and balance-sheet for 1906 of the Armstrong 
College Marine Laboratory, Cullercoats, shows that the 
sum of 2048]. has been received as donations in aid of 
the scheme to provide a completely equipped laboratory. 
A marine laboratory is to be erected forthwith at a cost 
of 3000]., and Mr. Hudleston, the owner, has agreed to 
let the laboratory to Armstrong College at a yearly rental 
of 3 per cent. on his outlay. An appeal is made for funds 
to furnish and equip the laboratory when erected, and 
these may be sent either to Mr. A. Meek at Armstrong 
College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, or to Mr. George Wilkinson, 
t Mosley Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 
On December 6 Mr. Alfred Hands delivered a lecture 
before the Royal Engineers at Chatham on ‘“‘ The Protec- 
tion of Buildings from Lightning.’’ He showed the extent 
of damage by lightning by means of a chart of England 
and Wales on which the positions and nature of objects 
damaged during a period of about nine years were in- 
dicated by coloured spots. This included 2485 buildings, 
of which 148 were churches. Mr. Hands showed that it 
is impossible to protect buildings efficiently by means of 
set rules; each case has to be studied separately, and the 
system of protection applied which the complications of 
metal in and about the structure show to be necessary. 
Hitherto too much importance has been attached to the 
form and composition of the conductor, and too little to 
the fact that its efficiency depends almost entirely on the 
way in which it is applied, and very little on what it is. 
As regards the relative value of iron and copper for con- 
ductors, so far as the matter concerns conductivity and 
the dissipation of energy, Mr. Hands holds it to be of 
such trifling importance that it sinks into insignificance 
