JVA TURE 



[May 30, 1901 



imagination, we have allowed ourselves to lag in the glorious 

 race run now by civilised countries in pursuit of knowledge, and 

 we have permitted ourselves to far too large an extent to depend 

 upon others for those additions to our knowledge which surely 

 we might have made for ourselves." Unfortunately there seems 

 little hope of improvement in this depressing condition of 

 afifairs. We would ask, however, how comes it that the members 

 of the Government, knowing the position of things and express- 

 ing belief in the salvation of the nation through science, neglects 

 to take up the responsibilities which are overlooked by private 

 benefactors ? If we have to look to private sources for the 

 provision for scientific research furnished by the State in other 

 countries, the outlook is not encouraging to contemplate. We 

 lag behind other nations now ; and, applying the natural law to 

 the political world, steady progress in the growth of scientific 

 knowledge will only be possible when the conditions for de- 

 velopment are made more favourable than they are at present. 



The annual visitation of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, 

 will be held on Saturday, June I. 



At the annual meeting of the Institution of Electrical 

 Engineers to be held this evening, an illuminated address 

 received from the American Institute of Electrical Engineers 

 will be presented. The address has been sent as an expression 

 of thanks for courtesies extended to members of the American 

 Institute during their visit to London last year, and in connec- 

 tion with the joint meeting at Paris. It is a pleasant token of the 

 cordial relationship existing between British and American elec- 

 trical engineers, and the feeling which prompted the resolutions 

 embodied in the address will doubtless be much appreciated. 



The success of the visit of members of the Institution of 

 Electrical Engineers to Switzerland in 1899 has led to arrange- 

 ments being made for a visit to Germany next month. There 

 will be three parties, one visiting Berlin only, another visiting 

 Berlin and Dresden, and a third visiting Berlin, Dresden, 

 Nuremberg, Frankfurt-a-Main and other places. The whole 

 party will leave London on Saturday, June 22, and upon their 

 arrival at Hanover on Sunday evening will be entertained at 

 dinner by the town authorities. At Berlin, in addition to visits 

 to works, a visit will be paid to the Technical High School, 

 where Prof. .Slaby will show the college to the members. 

 Several dinners and receptions will be given to the visitors in 

 Berlin and elsewhere by electro-technical societies and other 

 bodies. Ladies may accompany the members, and the visit 

 promises to be pleasant and profitable to all who take part in it. 



As may well be imagined from the wealth of blossoms now 

 to be seen in our gardens, the flowers exhibited at the Temple 

 Show of the Royal Horticultural Society last week were very 

 fine. Those, however, who looked for novelties met, for the 

 most part, with disappointment. There was nothing of startling 

 popular interest or of extraordinary scientific significance, 

 while new garden plants were not very notable and seemed few 

 and far between. Mr. H. J. Elwes, F.R.S., showed Cypri- 

 Jtediiim guttata in bloom, a plant which he obtained a year or 

 two ago on the Altai Mountains. Its habitat was in a dense 

 forest that was almost impenetrable. The markings on the 

 perianth were of a very pleasing red, and the specimens did 

 credit to their treatment, which included their being kept on ice 

 during the winter. The series of insectivorous plants hard by, 

 sent by Mr. A. J. Bruce, of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, was very fine, 

 and the Sarracenias may be particularly mentioned. One 

 flippant visitor likened the leaves of some to steamboat venti- 

 lators which had been twisted. A similar collection belonging 

 to Mr. R. R. J. Measures wasalso worthy of careful examination. 

 Very suggestive of the balance that must be maintained between 

 roots and foliage were the trees artificially dwarfed by the 

 NO, 1648, VOL. 64] 



Japanese. These were quite plentiful, being exhibited by pro- 

 fessional and amateur horticulturists alike. Here the skilful 

 grower has so limited the root system and so cunningly reduced 

 the number of leaves that, practically speaking, only sufficient 

 food is manufactured to maintain the plant in health, there being 

 hardly any surplus to provide the material necessary if growth 

 is to continue. It does continue, but so slowly that we may not 

 get a tree more than two feet high after three hundred years 

 have passed over its head. 



In recent years there has been much progress in the processes of 

 preparing sulphur for use in the prevention of diseases of plants, 

 and the demand, in consequence, has greatly increased. The 

 methods actually employed for estimating the quality of these 

 preparations are, however, now out of date and leave much to 

 be desired, especially as regards the mixtures of sulphur and 

 copper sulphate. With the view to encourage special studies on 

 this subject, the Federation of the Agricultural Unions of Italy, 

 together with the Agricultural Unions of Padua and Florence, 

 has therefore decided to open an International Prize Competition' 

 for the sum of 1000 francs in gold, to be awarded to the person 

 who discovers and makes public the best method for obtaining 

 exact and trustworthy results in the determination of the quality 

 of flowers of sulphur and of mixtures of sulphur and copper 

 sulphate. Competitors must send in their papers in a sealed 

 envelope to the head office of the Federation (Uflicio direttivo 

 della Federazione italiana dei Consorzi agrari, Piacenza, Italy) 

 before March i, 1902. The papers will be examined by a 

 special commission to be named by the Reale Accademia dei 

 Lincei, Rome. 



All those who knew Mr. Anthony Wilkin will regret to 

 learn that he died of dysentery in Cairo, in the twenty-fourth 

 year of his age, on May 17. In his early undergraduate days 

 Wilkin published a bright little book, "On the Nile with a 

 Camera," and while still an undergraduate he accompanied 

 the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits and 

 New Guinea. His historical and sociological studies in Cam- 

 bridge prepared him for the investigations he made on the land 

 tenure, laws of inheritance and other social questions. He also 

 made notes on the various kinds of habitations in the districts he 

 visited. All these observations will be duly published in the 

 Reports of the Expedition. Immediately after his first winter's 

 digging in Egypt with Prof. Flinders Petrie, he went with 

 Mr. D. Randall-Maciver to Algeria to study the problem of 

 the supposed relationship, actual or cultural, of the Berbers with 

 the ancient Egyptians. An interesting exhibition of the objects 

 then collected was displayed at the Anthropological Institute in 

 the summer, and later on in the year Wilkin published a well- 

 written and richly illustrated popular account of their experiences 

 entitled " Among the Berbers of Algeria." Quite recently the 

 scientific results were published in a sumptuously illustrated 

 joint work entitled " Lybian Notes." Mr. Wilkin was an 

 enthusiastic traveller and was projecting important schemes for 

 future work. There is little doubt that had he lived he would 

 have distinguished himself as a thoroughly trained field- 

 ethnologist and scientific explorer. 



The National Home-Reading Union has arranged to hold a 

 summer meeting at Winchester on June 22-29, when lectures 

 will be given on various aspects of King Alfred, whose millenary 

 will be celebrated this year. In connection with the meeting, 

 Mr. T. E. Marr, F.R.S., will give four lectures on " The Ap- 

 plication of Geology to Scenery," a secondary purpose of the 

 meeting being the study of the geology and botany of the district 

 as well as its archa;ology. 



The Simla correspondent of the Times reports that the 

 Secretary of State has sanctioned a scheme for an ethnographical 

 survey of British India in accordance with the suggestions made 



