September 19, 1901] 



NA TURE 



521 



A TELEGRAM from Berlin, through Reuter's agency, states 

 that the Chinese astronomical instruments which the Germans 

 carried off from Peking have now been placed in the orangery 

 in Sans Souci Park. The instruments were packed in fifty-six 

 cases, and weighed 26,000 kilogrammes. It is stated in the 

 Cologne Gazette that the German Government authorised their 

 purchase by the German Minister in Peking, after the ofier of 

 the Chinese Government to make the German Emperor a present 

 of them had been declined. 



The governors of the Bristol General Hospital have been 

 authorised by Sir William Henry Wills to draw on him up to 

 600/. for the provision of the Finsen apparatus for the treat- 

 ment of lupus. 



The Philosophical Society of Glasgow will in future be 

 known as the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow, the 

 change taking place by the King's pleasure in respect of the 

 near approach of the hundredth anniversary of the foundation of 

 the Society. 



A MISSION, consisting of three or four members, which will 

 be under the direction of the Pasteur Institute, will start 

 ne.xt month from France for the study of yellow fever. The sum 

 of 100,000 francs has been voted by the Chamber of Deputies 

 and the Senate towards the cost of the expedition. Operations 

 will, if possible, be begun first in Brazil. 



A Special Commission to inquire into the subject of irriga- 

 tion in India will meet in Simla in October under the presidency 

 of Sir Colin Scott Moncrieff. The Commission, which will take 

 evidence, examine proposed projects and formulate conclusions 

 for the guidance of the Government, will visit the Punjab and 

 the irrigation colonies in Sindh, Gujarat, the Deccan, Madras, 

 the Central Provinces, and Upper India. 



Owing to losses in the staff' by death and retirement, the fol- 

 lowing appointments have been made on the Geological Survey 

 of the United Kingdom. Dr. J. S. Flett has been selected to 

 assist in the petrographical work of the Survey, Mr. J. Allen 

 Howe and Mr. H. H. Thomas have been appointed geologists 

 on the English staff, Mr. H. B. Muff on the Scottish staff, and 

 Mr. W. B. Wright on the Irish staff. 



Realising, from the experience gained on the steamship 

 Lucania, the value of the Marconi system of wireless telegraphy, 

 the Cunard Company have decided to fit three more of their 

 vessels with the same apparatus, viz. the Campania, the Umbria 

 and the Etruria. 



On Saturday last, at Dundee, a granite monument was un- 

 veiled to the memory of James Bowman Lindsay, an investigator 

 and inventor whose experiments in connection with wireless 

 telegraphy and other scientific advances fifty years ago ought 

 not to be forgotten. Sir William Preece, in unveiling the 

 monument, remarked that Bowman Lindsay was long before his 

 time. He was a prophet who would compare with any prophet, 

 for in 1834 he wrote that houses and towns would in a short 

 time be lighted by electricity instead of gas, and heated by it 

 instead of coal, and machinery would be worked by it instead of 

 by steam. Sir William Preece recollected that while he was 

 attached to the electrical department of the Electric Tele- 

 graphs Company there came from Dundee to London a gentle- 

 man with a proposal to dispense with wires and communicate 

 across water. He was attached to Mr. Lind.say, and he 

 made all the arrangements and conducted all the experi- 

 ments to illustrate his system in London. Unfortunately 

 there was really no necessity for the invention in those days. 

 An invention to be of use must come at the proper time. There 

 must be the want for it, otherwise it died. This accounted for 

 the fact that the system of wireless telegraphy which was now 

 associated with the name of Lindsay had been neglected. 

 NO. 1664, VOL. 64] 



The Electrician states that a proposal has been submitted 

 to the municipal authorities at Rouen, by the chief of the fire de- 

 partment, for the utilisation of the tramway trolley wires in con- 

 nection with the extinguishing of fires. All the principal 

 thoroughfares of the town are provided with electric tramways, 

 and the proposal is that pumps capable of being electrically 

 driven should be installed in a number of suitable positions on 

 the tramway route, to be switched on to the trolley wires, so 

 that the pumps may be used as occasion necessitates. The pro- 

 posal is said to have been favourably received, and is now under 

 the consideration of the authorities. 



An experimental test of Prof. Koch's theory that bovine 

 tuberculosis is not transmissible to human beings is, says the 

 British Medical Journal, about to be undertaken under the 

 direction of the Chicago Health Department. 



An earthquake shock was experienced at Inverness at 1.25 on 

 Wednesday morning, and a lighter shock was also felt at four 

 o'clock. A rumbling sound was heard during the first disturb- 

 ance, and buildings were shaken to such an extent that windows 

 rattled, objects were thrown down, a few chimney-pots were 

 toppled over, and bells were set ringing. The movement 

 appeared to travel from south to north, and reports of its occur- 

 rence have been received from Ava, Invergordon, Kildary, 

 Alness, Newtonmore, Pitlochry, Loch Errich, Aberdeen, and 

 other places. 



A Research Institute has been opened by the Government 

 of the Malay States at Kuala Lumpur, near Singapore. The 

 medical department is fully equipped for special and general 

 pathological work for the scientific study of .clinical medicine, 

 experimental physiology, and bacteriology. The chemistry 

 department is arranged for both organic and inorganic research. 

 There are, in addition, a well-stocked photographic department, 

 facilities for biological research, and a good library. To 

 members of scientific commissions visiting the Malay Peninsula 

 the Institute affords an excellent opportunity for working up and 

 preparing collected material. The Institute is open to all workers 

 irrespective of nationality. 



The council of the University of Bordeaux is, with the 

 approval of the French Minister of Public Instruction, founding 

 a diploma in colonial medicine. The diploma, says the Lancet, 

 will be granted, after keeping of terms and passing an examina- 

 tion, (l) to doctors in medicine of a French university; (2) to 

 doctors in medicine of foreign universities ; and (3) to foreigners 

 having a medical diploma which is recognised as equivalent to a 

 French doctorate of medicine. The examination will comprise 

 (a) a clinical examination in tropical pathology ; (b) a practical 

 examination in the demonstrations and manipulations which 

 have been gone through during the terms ; and (c) a viva voce 

 examination upon the subjects taken up during the course of 

 study. 



A Central News telegram from New York, dated Septem- 

 ber 13, states that Mrs. Peary, the wife of the Arctic explorer, 

 has arrived at Sydney, Cape Breton, from the Polar regions. 

 She reported that she met her husband in the vicinity of Cape 

 Sabine on May 6. Lieutenant Peary informed her that he spent 

 the winter of 1900 at Fort Conger. This summer he marched 

 northward to Independence Bay, but was then compelled to 

 return to Fort Conger, where h^ will again spend the winter. 

 A. Reuter telegram states that the explorer had rounded the 

 northern limit of the Greenland archipelago, and had reached 

 latitude 83° 50'. He proposes to resume his attempts to reach 

 the Pole in the spring of 1902. 



The twenty-ninth annual meeting of the American Public 

 Health Association was to be opened at Buffalo on Monday last, 

 and to continue in session, under the presidency of Dr. Benjamin 



