JANUARY 31, 1907] 
NATURE 323 
that diamonds that have been cut by the lapidary’s 
wheel lack some of the brilliancy found in gems that 
have been simply cleaved. It appears, too, that the 
diamonds of different districts differ to a very marked 
extent in their degree of hardness; the diamonds of 
New South Wales, indeed, are so much harder than 
those from other districts that they can only be cut 
and polished with their own powder. 
Rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and other coloured 
stones are of less hardness than diamonds, and their 
cutting and polishing can be effected by means of 
diamond dust, carborundum, corundum, or emery. 
But in the case of these softer gems great delicacy 
of touch, rather heavy pressure and friction are re- 
quired for their successful facetting. The gems to be 
polished are cemented on the end of a holder made 
of hard wood about the size of a short penholder, and 
are cut and polished by being held against metal discs 
(‘‘laps’’) supplied with the abrasive and polishing 
powders (Fig. 3). 
The latter portion of the book, which deals with the 
nature, localities, and treatment of the various kinds 
of gem-stones, presents few features of interest as 
compared with other works of the kind. On some 
points, as, for example, in the remarks on the artificial 
production of precious stones, the information given 
is neither very complete nor very exact; but even in 
this part of the work there are occasional observations 
which are of considerable interest to the mineralogist. 
Neo S\How A fe 
NOTES. 
At the moment of going to press we learn with the 
deepest regret of the sudden death of Sir Michael Foster. 
Tue fourteenth International Congress for Hygiene and 
Demography will be held at Berlin on September 23-209. 
All papers and particulars referring to the congress may 
be obtained from the general secretary, Berlin 9 W., 
Eichhornstr. 9. 
Herr E. L. Beyer, the founder of the world-famed 
colour factory at Chemnitz fifty years ago, died at San 
Remo on January 2 at the age of eighty-two years. The 
direction of the factory has for some time’ now been in 
the hands of his son-in-law, Herr Th. Korner. 
THE organisations committee of the sixth International 
Congress held at Rome finds itself with a balance 
of about 20,000 francs. This sum of money it is pro- 
posed to divide into honoraria of 1000 francs each, to be 
given to young Italian chemists to enable them to be 
present at the next international congress, to be held in 
London in 1909. 
A REUTER message from Brussels reports that at a 
meeting held on January 29 at the residence of M. 
Beernaert, Minister of State, it was decided in principle 
to organise a new Belgian South Polar Expedition. <A 
scientific committee will determine the programme. 
meeting appeared to be in favour of the scheme of oceano- 
graphic research submitted to the Mons Congress by M. 
Arctowski. 
At the recent annual meeting of the Royal Microscopical 
Society, the following officers were elected for the ensuing 
year :—-President, Lord Avebury; vice-presidents, Mr. 
Conrad Beck, Mr. A. N. Disney, Dr. J. W. H. Eyre, 
Dr, Dukinfield H. Scott; treasurer, Mr. Wynne E. Baxter; 
secretaries, Rev. Dr. W. H. Dallinger and Dr. R. G. 
Hebb. 
At the annual meeting of the Entomological Society on 
January 23 it was announced that the following officers 
NO. 1944, VOL. 75] 
The. 
had been elected for the session 1907-8 :—President, Mr. 
C. O.° Waterhouse; treasurer, Mr. A. H. Jones; secre- 
taries, Mr. H. Rowland-Brown and Commander J. J. 
Walker, R.N. The outgoing president, Mr. F. Merrifield, 
delivered an address in which he discussed some of the 
causes of the persistent abundance or scarcity, generally 
or locally, of species and varieties of insects, and the 
relative importance of the consumption of their food and 
the attacks of their enemies. Reference was made to 
striking characters that seem of no biological importance, 
to habits and activities not directly concerned with nutri- 
tion or reproduction, and the manner in which they are 
affected by external conditions, and to structure and fixed 
habits indicating their ancestral history and affecting their 
present capabilities. 
Pror. M. I. Konowatorr, professor of chemistry in, and 
at one time director of, the Polytechnikum in Kiev, died 
in his forty-ninth year as the result of an accident on 
December 24, 1906. After passing through the~ physico- 
mathematical faculty of the. Moscow University, he became 
first an assistant and then a docent of chemistry in’ the 
same university; in 1896 he was appointed professor of 
inorganic chemistry at the Petrowshoje-Rasumowskoje 
Agricultural Academy, near Moscow, leaving there in 1899 
for the new polytechnic at. Kiev, in the building and 
equipment of which he had taken an active interest. In 
1902 he was elected director, but owing to a number of 
unpleasantnesses having arisen he resigned in 1904. His 
most important scientific investigations dealt with the com- 
position of the Caucasian petroleums; the nitration of 
various organic compounds; preparations of aldehydes and 
ketones ; syntheses of aluminium haloids and their isomers ; 
refractivity of nitrogenous organic compounds; nitrogen 
compounds of the terpene group and the methane series, 
&c.; the similarity between the iron salts of organic acids 
and the nitro-compounds. In addition to having displayed 
great Scientific activity, Prof. Konowaloff was always a 
strong advocate of public lectures, especially for the work- 
ing classes. 
An Association for the Promotion of Flight is in course 
of formation. The association will aim at assisting in- 
ventors -and investigators to carry out experiments in 
artificial flight. In order to secure that no funds shall 
be subscribed by speculators with any hope of return, it 
is proposed that, in the case of its ultimate success in its 
object, the valuable assets, such as a facility for construct- 
ing practicable flight machines, should be handed, free of 
cost, to the nation. A provisional committee has been 
appointed, which includes the Hon. C. A.. Parsons, F.R.S., 
Sir William) Crookes, F.R.S., Major. B. F. S. Baden- 
Powell, and others. Major Baden-Powell, who is the 
president of the Aéronautical Society, in a letter to the 
Times explains how the new association differs from the 
Aéronautical Society and the Aéro Club. He points out 
that the newly-formed association has for its main object 
the acquisition of a fund to be devoted to the purpose 
already explained. The intention is to make a public 
appeal, and it has been considered that this could be done 
better by an independent body than by the existing society. 
It is, however, clearly understood that the association shall 
work in entire accord, not only with the Aéronautical 
Society, but also with the Aéro Club. 
Tue birds of Irene, near Pretoria, by Mr. L. E. Taylor, 
illustrated by a plate of the eggs and nest of the black 
duck, and notes on a collection from N.E. Rhodesia, by 
Messrs. W. E. Stoehr and W. L. Selater, form the sub- 
