444 
IMA EO Tee 
| MAxcH 7, 1907 
and the circumstances which affect their health and utility, 
and therefore this cannot be an unimportant thing. It is 
very desirable to avoid any impression that a sort of 
experiment is to be practised upon the poor children in 
the common schools. Whatever is done to the poor ought 
to be done also to the rich, and the application of the 
system ought to be universal. In fact, it will cease to 
have its proper value if it is confined to the poor schools, 
which are a little more at the disposal of the Government 
and the authorities than the great schools, such as West- 
minster and others. Results are wanted referring to the 
whole population, so that comparison may be made 
between different districts and different occupations. The 
sum mentioned for the survey is a modest amount, but a 
great many modest sums make up a large sum. But the 
mere question of cost is not likely to stand in the way of 
a great scheme of this sort if the Government is satisfied 
on full consideration—which shall be given to it—that the 
time is ripe for this new enterprise. 
Tue Goldsmiths’ Company has contributed the sum of 
1oool. to the research fund of the Chemical Society. 
Tue 134th anniversary dinner of the Medical Society of 
London will be held on Wednesday, March 13, at the 
Whitehall Rooms, Hotel Metropole. 
Tue death is announced of Mr. C. A. Witchell, author 
of “ The Evolution of Bird Song, with Observations on 
the Influence of Heredity and Influence,’’ and 
works on natural history. 
of other 
A MEETING of the Institution of Naval Architects will 
be held on March 20-22. At the opening meeting Lord 
Glasgow, president, will deliver the presidential address, 
and the gold medal of the institution will be presented to 
Prof. R. L. Weighton. 
Tue British Medical Journal states that the Periuguese 
Minister of Marine has decided to send a scientific mission 
to the Ilha do Principe, in the Gulf of Guinea, for the 
purpose of trying the effect of measures of general pro- 
phylaxis against sleeping sickness, the prevalence of which 
on the island continues to increase. 
On Thursday next, March 14, Dr. C. W. Saleeby will 
begin a course of two lectures at the Royal Institution on 
““ Biology and Progress.’’ The Friday evening discourse 
on March 15 will be delivered by Prof. Lunge, on 
“Problems of Applied Chemistry,’’ and on March 22 by 
Prof. J. J. Thomson, on ‘‘ Rays of Positive Electricity.” 
At the meeting of the Anthropological Institute to be 
held on March 12 in the theatre of the Civii S2rvice 
Commission, Burlington Gardens, W., Dr. C. G. Selig- 
mann will exhibit a series of kinematograph pictures 
illustrating New Guinea native dances. Persons desirous 
of being present can obtain cards of admission on appli- 
cation to the secretary of the Anthropological Institute, 
3 Hanover Square, W. 
In reply to a question asked in the House of Commons 
on Monday as to the cause of the recent explosion in the 
research laboratory at Woolwich, Mr. Haldane said :— 
“Tt is doubtful whether cordite can be detonated; but if 
it is possible the circumstances must be exceptional. 
Dynamite, if lighted, cannot be detonated unless it is 
confined. There was no iodide of nitrogen in the research 
laboratory in the chemical research magazine. It can be 
detonated under water, and cannot be kept in a dry state. 
An inquiry is being held as to the cause of the explosion 
at Woolwich.” 
NO 1949, VOL. 75] 
IN January the American Museum of Natural History 
sent over a party, under Prof. H. F. Osborn, to the 
Fayim desert of northern Egypt to explore and collect 
fossil vertebrates in the Upper Eocene formations made 
famous by the discoveries of Beadnell and Andrews. 
Captain H. G. Lyons, director-general of the Egyptian 
Survey Department, rendered material assistance in out- 
fitting the expedition, and detailed Mr. H. I. Ferrar, of 
the survey, for a three weeks’ tour of the formations with 
Prof. Osborn. As a result of this tour, it was decided 
to confine the search principally to the Upper Eocene. The 
party reached the Fayim on February 5, and at once 
began the work of prospecting and excavating, which 
will be continued for two or three months under the 
direction of Messrs. Granger and Olsen, of the American 
Museum. The chief objects of the party are first to secure 
a representative collection of the extinct animals already 
known; second, to extend our knowledge of the small 
fauna of the period. The first step in the latter direction 
has been the discovery of Rodentia apparently of the 
myomorph group. 
Mr. W. Burpett-Coutts has decided to arrange for the 
publication in due course of a life of the late Baroness 
Burdett-Coutts. He informs us that he is anxious that 
those persons who possess letters of interest from the 
Baroness, addressed to them or thrir forbears, should 
send correspondence (after May 1 next) to him at 1 Stratton 
Street, London, W., or communicate with him on the 
subject. All documents will be treated with great care, 
and returned as soon as practicable, intact to their owners, 
after the necessary extracts have been made from them. 
At a general monthly meeting of the members of the 
Royal Institution on Monday, March 4, a letter from 
Mr. Burdett-Coutts was read expressing appreciation of 
the terms of a resolution, with reference to the death of 
the Baroness Burdett-Coutts, sent to him by the Royal 
Institution. In the course of his letter, Mr. Burdett-Coutts 
says:—The Baroness’s social relationships to science, 
her friendships with many, her acquaintance with nearly 
all, of its eminent professors for the past seventy years, 
are well known; her efforts to encourage and aid those 
who were struggling in the same path, not so well: as 
was her custom. . . . If a scholarship was to be established 
at Oxford, not classics or history, or even theology, but 
claimed her aid. Such things were not done at 
haphazard. She would spare no trouble to search out both 
the need and the means. With a touch of characteristic 
humour she inquired of Sir Wm. Hooker whether Kew 
Gardens, so far up the Thames, was not poor in sea- 
weeds. She had already found out the fact, and had 
secured the Griffiths collection, so rare and extensive that, 
without impairing the central completeness, it provided 
duplicates for six other botanical establishments. | She 
probably had not read Schimper’s monograph on the genus 
Sphagnum, and did not know the details of the musco- 
logical collection of Bruch; but she found out that Kew 
also wanted mosses, and that Schimper’s great herbarium 
could be acquired. Thus, not so much by wealth as by 
thoughtful insight, special departments of British science 
were enriched at her hands. 
science 
At the annual general meeting of the Geological Society 
on February 22, Sir Archibald Geikie, the president, de- 
scribed the arrangements contemplated for the celebration’ 
of the society’s centenary next September. Invitations to 
attend the meetings will be sent to all the foreign members 
and foreign correspondents of the society, and geological 
' societies, geological surveys, and learned institutions which 
i 
