August i, 1901] 



NA TURE 



jji 



The Harben medal of the Royal Institute of Public Health 

 was presented to Prof. Koch at the annual dinner of the Insti- 

 tute on July 24. The medal is awarded in recognition of ser- 

 vices rendered to the public health, and is conferred irrespective 

 of nationality. In presenting the medal, the president of the 

 Institute, Prof. W. R. Smith, described Prof. Koch's career of 

 scientific activity. In reply. Prof. Koch remarked that when, 

 as a yuung doctor, he went to take up his practice at Wallstein 

 he founJ himself in a country where anthrax was to be seen on 

 every hand, and he was naturally led to make the matter one of 

 research. In that research he was greatly assisted by the per- 

 fection to which the microscope had been brought, and this gave 

 the key to the wider discoveries in bacteriology that followed. 

 He was gratified to receive the medal as a testimony' of their 

 concurrence with the scientific methods which he had followed, 

 and he was all the more pleased to have such an honour from 

 an English institute, because it was in England that his re- 

 searches in reference to anthrax 'and the treatment of wounds 

 met with the first appreciation. 



I'ROK. W. A. Herdman has received letters and natural 

 history notes from Mr. Nelson Annandale and Mr. H. Robinson, 

 who left Liverpool University College a short time ago for a 

 year's exploration in the Siamese Malay States. Some of the 

 observations made and material collected will be described at 

 the forthcoming meeting of the British Association at Glasgow. 

 Meanwhile, it is interesting to read the following notes from the 

 naturalists :— ' ' We have obtained what is either a second species 

 of Periophthalmus or a genus closely allied to it, and we have 

 to-day ourselves collected a series of young specimens, which 

 sho>v that in extreme youth the eyes are normally placed on the 

 sides of the head, and only migrate to the top later ii> life. We 

 also got in water less than a fathom a most interesting case of 

 comniensalism, in which a small crab, with a very soft back, 

 has the two last pairs of legs specially modified for holding on a 

 sea-anemone, which it grasps by the foot. ... A good many 

 cases of mimicry between different orders and families, princi- 

 pally between spiders and ants, homoptera and beetles, were 

 noted — in at least ten cases the mimicked animal being an ant." 



The programme of the seventy-third meeting of German Men 

 of Science and Physicians, to be held at Hamburg on September 

 22-2S, has been issued. As there are eleven sections dealing 

 with different departments of natural philosophy, and twenty- 

 seven sections in the group of medical sciences, it is easy for 

 all who are engaged in scientific work to find a section in which 

 they are particularly interested. The general science sections 

 are: — (i) mathematics, astronomy and geodesy; (2) physics, 

 including instrument making and scientific photography ; (3) 

 mixed mathematics and physics (electrotechnics and scientific 

 engineering) ; (4) chemistry, including electrochemistry ; (5) 

 general chemistry, including agricultural chemistry and food 

 inves;igations ; (6) geophysics, including meteorology and 

 terrestrial magnetism ; {7) geography, hydrography and carto- 

 graphy ; (S) mineralogy and geology ; (9) botany ; (to) zoology ; 

 and (11) anthropology and ethnology. On September 23 and 

 27 there will be general meetings at which lectures will be 

 given. On the former date the lectures to be delivered will be 

 on Hertz electric waves and their further development, by Dr. 

 E. Lecher ; the chemical possessions of the cell, by Dr. F. Hof- 

 meister ; and the problem of fertilisation, by Prof. T. Boveri. 

 On September 27 the lectures will be on medicine and maritime 

 intercourse, by Prof. H. Curschmann ; the significance of 

 electrical methods and theories in chemistry, by Prof. W. 

 Nernst ; and on the natural energy of organisms, by Prof. J. 

 Reinke. There will be a joint meeting on September 25 for 

 the discussion on atoms, from the point of view of recent in- 

 vestigations and conclusions on ions and electrons. The presi- 

 NO. 1657, VOL. 64] 



dent of the meeting is Prof. R. Hertwig, of Munich. Prof, van 

 't Hoff is the president of the group of natural philosophy 

 sections, and Prof. Naunyn the president of the sections of 

 medical sciences. 



The presidential address delivered by Mr. G. C. Druce at 

 Dublin on Tuesday, at the opening meeting of the British 

 Pharmaceutical Conference, was a survey of the important 

 scientific discoveries made during last century, and their 

 relation to the art and practice of pharmacy. In pharmaceutical 

 chemistry, the active principles which have been isolated are 

 now appalling in number, and have assisted in making great 

 changes in the character of dispensing. In addition, a stream of 

 artificial compounds, many of which possess marked therapeutic 

 action, has flowed from the laboratory of the chemist. 

 Referring to botany and systems of classification, Mr. Druce 

 >said : " One marked change has taken place during the past 

 century so far as the professional teaching of botany is con- 

 cerned, for in the early years of last century all the important 

 botanical chairs in Britain were held by systematists, now not a 

 single one is so occupied. This is not an unalloyed advantage. 

 That systematic botany alone should be taught to the almost 

 •absolute neglect of histology or physiology was doubtless an 

 evil, and it has been said that taxonomic teaching was choked 

 by its own nomenclature ; but the whirligig of time brings its 

 revenges, and now we may without injustice retort that laboratory 

 botany is being strangled by the exuberance of its terminology. 

 And the positive evil exists that with the neglect of systematic 

 teaching in Britain our continental and transatlantic coiifiira are 

 occupying the ground in which Britain for long held a foremost 

 position, and which, from the extent of our colonial possessions, 

 should be especially its own." 



Dr. Carl Peters has returned to London, after an extended 

 journey from the Zambesi to the Sabi rivers, and has brought 

 home news of interesting archaeological discoveries 011 the 

 frontier of Mashonaland. One of these is a small female figure of 

 Egyptian workmanship, which is believed to date back to 2500 

 years before the Christian era. There have also been found 

 thirty-three copper and six silver coins and a couple of stones 

 bearing inscriptions. It is hoped that a scientific expedition 

 will be sent out to make further investigations. 



We learn from the U.S. Monthly Weather Review that the 

 German South Polar Expedition will systematically make kite 

 ascensions in the trade winds from aboard ship during the 

 southward journey, and continue the work in the Antarctic 

 regions. The expedition is fully equipped with suitable apparatus, 

 all substantially of the Weather Bureau pattern, and the scheme 

 will be that followed at Washington, with modifications required 

 by the conditions and resulting from extensive experiments at 

 the Deutsche Seewarte. The kites are of three sizes, the large 

 Marvin of 63 square metres surface, Ilargrave kites of 4 and 

 2^ square metres surface and light Eddy kites of 2\ square 

 metres, which are very advantageously employed in lifting and 

 sustaining the larger kites with the instruments in light winds. 

 This appears to be the first occasion on which preparations 

 have been made for the systematic exploration of the upper air 

 conditions in the polar regions. 



After a protracted spell of dry weather, London was visited 

 by a violent thunderstorm about noon on July 25. The weather 

 chart issued by the Meteorological Office on that day showed 

 that a shallow depression lay over the south-eastern parts of 

 England, and this moved very slowly to the westward during 

 the next few days. Except that the conditions were very un- 

 settled there was nothing to indicate the occurrence of a storm 

 of unusual violence. The rainfall was of great intensity, 

 amounting to nearly an inch and three-quarters in about an hour 



