6o6 



NA TURE 



[October 17, 1901 



The death is announced in the Allahabad Pioneer Mail of 

 Dr. Vonkrafift, of the Geological Survey of India, who was 

 appointed to India by the Secretary of State and has, since 

 January, 1899, been mainly employed in the Himalayas. 



The fiftieth scientific anniversary of M. Berthelot (he began 

 his career as a chemist in 1S51) is to be commemorated, says 

 the Chemist and Drugs;ist, by the presentation to him next 

 month of a metal plaquette by his colleagues of the 

 Institute of France. On the front of the plate, which is the 

 work of Chaplin, the engraver, the recipient's portrait will be 

 reproduced in profile, and on the back M. Berthelot will be 

 portrayed seated at his laboratory table, " Truth " illuminating 

 him with a torch, and " Patrie " protecting him under a flag 

 and offering him a crown of laurels. 



The first Egyptian Medical Congress will be held in Cairo, 

 under the presidency of Dr. Ibrahim Pacha Hassan, from 

 December 10 to 14 next. 



An Industrial and Art Exhibition will be held at Diisseldorf 

 next year, and already the intending exhibitors number about 

 2300. The exhibition will embrace the following groups : — 

 mines and saltworks ; smelting works ; the metal industry ; 

 machinery and electrical engineering ; transport ; chemical in- 

 dustry ; articles of food, &c., and apparatus for preparing them ; 

 stone, earthenware, porcelain, cement and glassware ; the wood 

 and furniture industries, house decoration, &c. ; fancy goods 

 and small wares ; the textile industry ; clothing trades ; leather, 

 indiarubber and asbestos goods ; the paper trade ; the printing 

 trade ; scientific instruments ; building and engineering ; educa- 

 tion ; hygiene and benevolent institutions ; sport ; horticulture ; 

 agriculture and forestry ; and art. As was the case with the 

 Paris Exhibition of 1900, a large number of international and 

 other congresses will be held at Diisseldorf during the exhibition. 



The general committee of the Photographic Salon will hold 

 an "At Home" at the Dudley Gallery, Egyptian Hall, on 

 Tuesday next, at 8.30 p.m. 



The next meeting of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers 

 will be held to-morrow, the 1 8th inst., when Prof. Burstall will 

 present the -second report to the Gas-Engine Research Com- 

 mittee. At the November meeting of the Institution a paper 

 will be read by Prof. Dalby on the balancing of loco- 

 motives. 



A Reuter telegram from St. Petersburg states that a letter has 

 been published in the Tttrkestanskiya Viedomosti giving the fol- 

 lowing information concerning Dr. Sven Hedin, the Swedish 

 traveller, based upon a letter from him, dated July 10. It appears 

 that Dr. Sven Hedin, at the time of the despatch of the letter, was 

 at the foot of the Akka Tagh, in Northern Tibet, and intended to 

 proceed in the direction of Ladak in order to survey accurately the 

 region about the source of the Indus. Next spring he proposes 

 to return to Osh via Kashgar. Meanwhile, a caravan of fifteen 

 horses has arrived at Kashgar bringing the results of two years 

 of the traveller's work in the shape of scientific collections, 

 anaps, photographs and diaries. Dr. Sven Hedin speaks in the 

 highest terms of his Cossack escort and extols their courage, 

 endurance and resource in critical situations. Up to the time of 

 writing he had been in no way molested by the Chinese. 



The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, according to a 

 Reuter telegram, has now completed the necessary arrangements 

 for the despatch of an expedition at once to the Gold Coast, and 

 to the mining districts there. Dr. Charles Balfour Stewart, 

 under whose leadership the expedition will be, leaves for West 

 Africa this month. He first proceeds to Sierra Leone in 

 order to study the methods now being employed there with such 

 success by Dr. Logan T.aylor. .\fter leaving Freetown, Dr. 

 NO. 1668, VOL. 64] 



Stewart will go at' once to Cape Coast Castjeto attack the 

 insanitary conditions there, as the mortality amongst the 

 Europeans in that town is at present most serious. He is to 

 adopt, under Major Ross's general direction, the latest methods 

 known to science for obtaining the end in view, and will employ 

 large gangs of workmen for draining the ground and clearing 

 the houses of broken water vessels and otherwise attacking the 

 breeding-grounds of the mosquitoes. As regards the movements 

 of the expedition, these, to a great extent, will be determined by 

 the Governor, Major Nathan, with whom Major Ross had a 

 personal interview on the Gold Coast two months ago, when 

 the Governor promised the expedition most valuable assistance. 

 The expedition has been rendered possible owing to the generosity 

 of a private individual who desires to remain anonymous. Anti- 

 malarial operations will shortly be in full swing in the Gambia, 

 Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast, and Lagos, the operations in the 

 three first named colonies being organised by and under the 

 complete control of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. 



It has been decided that the house which Proi. O. C. Marsh 

 bequeathed to Vale University shall in future be known officially 

 as Marsh Hall, and the grounds in connection with it as the Vale 

 Botanical Garden. 



The subject of the Fiske Fund Prize Essay (value 200 

 dollars) for the year 1902 is, says Science, " Serumtherapy in 

 the Light of the most recent Investigations." The secretary of 

 the board of trustees of the Fund, from whom all necessary 

 information may be obtained, is Dr. H. De Wolf, 212, Benefit- 

 street, Providence, R. I., U.S.A. 



The following awards have been made by the Institution of 

 Civil Engineers for papers dealt with in 1900-1901 : — .A 

 Telford Medal and Premium to R. P. Bolton ; a Watt Medal 

 and a Telford Premium to J. E. Dowson ; a George Stephenson 

 Medal and a Telford Premium to W. T. C. Beckett ; a Manby 

 Premium to E. K. Scott ; a Trevithick Premium to T. A. 

 Hearson ; a Telford Premium to J. A. W. Peacock. For 

 students' papers the awards are : — .A Miller Scholarship (tenable 

 for three years) and the James Forrest Medal to E. V. Clark ; 

 Miller Prizes to C. E. Inglis, H. E. Wimperis, J. L. Cridlan, 

 F. K. Peach, G. H. Whigham, F. Taylor, A. C. Walsh and 

 H. O. Jones. 



.\ number of awards are to be made by the Industrial 

 Society of Miilhausen, in 1902, among which the following may 

 be noted ; — \ medal of honour and 400-Soo marks, according 

 to the value, for a handbook consisting of tables giving the 

 density of the greatest possible number of mineral and organic 

 combinations in crystal form and in saturated cold solutions. 

 The solution-capacity at other temperatures is to be added to 

 the work as a supplement. A silver medal for the synthesis of 

 a product possessing the most important qualities of Senegal 

 gum capable of use in textile industries. A medal of honour 

 and 800 marks for a substance which may be used as a cheaper, 

 substitute for dry egg-albumen in the printing of fabrics. A 

 medal of honour and Soo marks for a colourless blood-albumen 

 which will not become coloured when steamed. A silver medal 

 for a handbook treating of the analysis of the drugs used in 

 calico-printing and in dyeing. A silver medal for an ink which 

 can be used for marking woollen fabrics to be dyed red, brown, 

 or any other dark colour. This ink must remain visible after 

 all the dyeing processes. A silver medal for a practical process 

 of removing spots of mineral-fat from fabrics. A silver medal 

 for a treatise on the preparation of hydrogen peroxide, and its 

 application for bleaching textile fabrics. For these prizes 

 foreigners are allowed to compete. All drawings, samples, &c. 

 should be marked with a motto and sent before February 15, 



