NA TURE 



fJUNE 20, I9OI 



The fifth malarial expedition of the Liverpool School of 

 Tropical Medicine, consisting of Major Ronald Ross, F. R.S., 

 and Dr. Logan Taylor, left Liverpool for Freetown, Sierra Leone, 

 on Saturday morning in the steamship Axiiii. It is proposed 

 to attempt the extermination of the Anopheles mosquito on the 

 West African Coast. The expedition has been equipped, free 

 of expense, with large quantities of cement, petroleum, creosote 

 and other means of attacking the Anopheles' breeding-grounds. 

 The most dangerous time of the year, when the rainy season is 

 at its worst, has been chosen as the most likely to test the 

 efficacy of the intended operations. 



At a meeting of the subscribers to the Symons Memorial Fund, 

 held on Tuesday, June 11, the executive committee reported 

 that the proposal that the memorial to Mr. G. J. Symons, 

 F.R.S., should take the form of a gold medal had been 

 approved, and that the sum of 713/. 14^. Td. had been sub- 

 scribed for that purpose. After paying for the dies for the 

 medal and the expenses of printing and postage, there remained 

 a balance of 621/. 14J. ^d., which the treasurer was instructed 

 to hand over to the Royal Meteorological Society for the interest 

 on the same to be used for the awards of the medal. It was 

 resolved that the medal should be awarded biennially for dis- 

 tinguished work done in connection with meteorological science, 

 irrespective of sex or nationality. 



At the summer meeting of the Institution of Naval Architects, 

 to be held at Glasgow on June 25-27, Lord Glasgow, president 

 of the Institution, will occupy the chair. Among the papers to 

 be read are : — " On the Limit of Economical Speed of Ships," 

 by Mr. E. T. D'Eyncourt ; " On Screw Propellers" (abstracts 

 of two papers by M. Drzewiecki) ; and "The Adoption of a 

 Rational System of Units in Questions of Naval Construction," 

 by M. Hauser, chief engineer in the French Navy (retired). 

 The dinner of the Institution will be held on June 26 in the 

 grounds of the Glasgow Exhibition, and will only be open to 

 members and the official guests. The festivities include a 

 conversazione at the invitation of the Lord Provost and the 

 Corporation, a garden p.arty at Kelburne, Lord Glasgow's seat, 

 a reception at the University at the invitation of Principal Story 

 and the Senate, and a cruise on the Firth of Clyde. 



We are indebted to Science for the following items of news : — 

 Prof. Ira Remsen, professor of chemistry in the Johns Hopkins 

 University since its foundation in 1876, has been elected presi- 

 dent of the University. — A committee consisting of Prof. Ira 

 Remsen, J. S. Ames and W. H. Welch has been appointed to 

 arrange a memorial to the late Prof. Henry A. Rowland. — It is 

 announced that Mr. John D. Rockefeller has given 200,000 

 dollars for the foundation of an institute for medical research, 

 and it is understood that this fund will be increased as needed. 

 At present America lacks an institution corresponding to the 

 Pasteur Institute in Paris or the Jenner Institute in London. It 

 appears that this need will be met by Mr. Rockefeller's gift, 

 though the exact scope of the institution is still under con- 

 sideration. 



The Council of the Society of Arts attended on Friday last 

 at Marlborough House to present the King with the Albert 

 medal of the society, which, as already announced, had been 

 awarded to His Majesty " in recognition of the aid rendered by 

 His Majesty to arts, manufactures- and commerce during thirty- 

 eight years' presidency of the Society of Arts, by undertaking 

 the direction of important exhibitions in this country and the 

 executive control of British representation at international e.xhibi ■ 

 tions abroad, and also by !many other services to the cause of 

 British industry." The King said that he accepted the interesting 

 medal, founded in memory of his lamented father, with much 

 pleasure, because, during his long association with the Society 



NO. 165 I, VOL. 64] 



of Arts as its president he had always taken a warm interest in 

 its proceedings and its success. A special reason which en- 

 hanced the gratification with which he accepted the medal was 

 that not many years ago he had himself, as president of the 

 Society, presented it to his beloved mother, her late Majesty 

 Queen Victoria. His Majesty added that, although he had 

 retired from the active duties of the presidentship, he would 

 continue to take a warm interest in the Society as its patron. 



Prof. Ray Lankester has now received the case shipped 

 at Mombasa on April 19, containing the skin and two skulls of 

 the remarkable new girafife-like animal obtained from the 

 Semliki forest by Sir Harry Johnston, and sent by him for 

 preservation in the Natural History Department of the British 

 Museum. Writing to the Times with reference to the specimens. 

 Prof. Lankester says : " The animal is a giraffe-like creature 

 devoid of horns, with relatively short neck and with colour 

 stripes on the limbs, but nowhere showing spots or areola; like 

 those of the giraffe. Sir Harry Johnston was amply justified in 

 assimilating the animal to the extinct Helladotherium, but after 

 an examination of the skulls I am of opinion that the ' Okapi ' 

 (the native name by which the new animal is known) cannot be 

 referred to the genus of the Helladotherium, but must be placed 

 in a new genus. I must say that, although the horny hoofs 

 are not present, yet the double bony supports of the hoofs are 

 preserved with the skin, and leave no doubt, even without 

 reference to the accompanying skulls, that the animal which bore 

 the skin was not a horse-like creature, but one with cloven 

 hoofs." 



It is proposed to hold an exhibition on an extensive scale at 

 Bendigo at the end of this year, under the auspices of the 

 Government of Victoria, to commemorate the discovery of gold 

 in 1851, and to celebrate the jubilee in a manner that will rank 

 as a fitting memorial of the first anniversary of the Australian 

 Commonwealth. Prominence will be given to the gold-mining 

 and other mineral resources, and phases of mining in Victoria 

 and other States, and special courts will be erected for the dis- 

 play of manufactures and industries, wool, agriculture, dairying 

 machinery, &c. The Bendigo School of Mines will pro- 

 vide a model laboratory for the Exhibition, equipped with 

 furnaces and apparatus for metallurgical and chemical work. 

 There will be five main divisions of the exhibits and twenty- 

 five sections, in which the applications of science to mining 

 and to the development of other natural resources will be 

 well represented. 



During the past week the use of wireless telegraphy upon 

 ocean liners has been satisfactorily demonstrated. A series of 

 messages were despatched and received by passengers on the 

 Cunard liner Liicania, Avhich sailed from Liverpool on Saturday, 

 and also by passengers on the Elder Dempster liner Lal;e 

 Ciiamplain, which reached the Mersey from Montreal on Monday 

 afternoon. Stations have been established by the Marconi 

 Company in connection with the Post Office wires, so that 

 telegraphic messages can be received or despatched by passengers 

 en voyage, the communication between the station and the vessel 

 being by wireless telegraphy. The number of these stations 

 is, as yet, not large, but there are enough of them to enable 

 communication to be maintained, though with considerable 

 intervals, from the time the vessel leaves Liverpool till she is 

 an hour or so past the Fastnet. While in the Mersey she can 

 speak with the training-ship Cnmuay. As she steams along the 

 north coast of Wales she gradually becomes within range of the 

 station at Holyhead, which is about sixty-four miles from 

 Liverpool. The next station is at Rosslare, in the south-east 

 corner of Ireland, about ninety miles from Holyhead, and the 

 last station is Crookhaven. Homeward bound vessels can pick 

 up the stations in the reverse order. On Monday communica- 



