6.^,6 



NATURE 



[October 24, 1901 



The Athenaeum gives the following particulars respecting 

 the new meteorological station which has just been established 

 at Achariach, in Glen Nevis. The situation is such that a spur 

 of Ben Nevis shuts in the valley to the west, and the height 

 above sea-level is only 165 feet. The intention of the founder 

 of the station— Mr. R. C. Mossman, of Edinburgh— is " to study 

 the thermal conditions in the valley and on the adjacent hillsides 

 during anticyclones in winter." It seems that in calm, cold 

 weather and with a high barometer it not seldom happens that 

 the mountain summits are much warmer than the valleys, which 

 are filled with cold air chilled by radiation from the surrounding 

 hills. The height to which this lake of cold air extends is to be 

 the principal subject of investigation. The station is well 

 equipped with a complete set of the best instruments. 



In addressing the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce on 

 Monday last, Major Ronald Ross gave an encouraging account 

 of the progress in sanitary matters which is taking place in West 

 Africa. The governors of the coast were, he said, doing 

 everj thing in their power for the great cause of sanitation, and 

 their efforts were supported by the Colonial Office, but this 

 sudden and delightful reform was due principally to the action 

 of I he Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. He was still 

 convinced that for practical purposes as a rule drainage was the 

 proper way of dealing with malaria in large towns. In spite of 

 letters in the papers, the fact that mosquitoes carried malaria 

 was an absolute one. They did not propose to destroy every 

 mosquito throughout the continent of Africa, but to reduce them 

 in towns by getting rid of the innumerable breeding places. 

 From six years' special study of mosquitoes he assured them 

 that this measure would have the desired effect. Apart from 

 malaria they proposed to do everything in their power to im- 

 prove the health of the West Coast in every way. Already 

 they had opened with the British Bank of West Africa a tropical 

 sanitation fund, and they would begin a campaign in Nigeria 

 when they were able to open an account for that work. In his 

 opinion the West Coast of Africa was not so unhealthy as it had 

 been painted by some, and his own experience proved that those 

 who lived carefully there would most likely succeed in avoiding 

 severe diseases. The country was opening up every day, and 

 as it opened up so would disease tend to diminish, as it did in 

 India and Burma before the advance of civilisation. 



The Nordenskjold South Polar Expedition left Gothenburg 

 on the i6th inst. on board the Antaiclic. 



' Dr. D. Morris, the Imperial Commissioner o. Agriculture 

 for the West Indies, who has been in London for the past few 

 weeks, has now returned to Barbados. 



At the recently held annual meeting of the Royal College of 

 Surgeons, Edinburgh, the following prizes were awarded : — The 

 Victoria Jubilee Lister prize of the value of 100/., founded by 

 the late Dr. R. H. Gunning " for the greatest benefit done to 

 practical surgery by any Fellow or Licentiate of the College during 

 the quadrennial period ending June 20, 1901," to F. Mitchell 

 Caird, of Edinburgh ; the Surgical Essay prize of 100 guineas, 

 ottered by the College for " an original unpublished essay on 

 surgery, in any of its branches on anatomy, physiology, thera- 

 peutics, or pathology, in their relations to surgery," to J. Veitch 

 Paterson, of Edinburgh, the title of whose essay was " The 

 Lymph Flow through the Eyeball." 



The Lecture List Calendar of the London Institution for the 

 coming session is now ready, and includes the following 

 addresses : — " On the Senses and Intelligence of Animals," by 

 Lord Avebury ; "The Life Period of Mountains," by Prof. 

 G. A. J. Cole ; " Optical Properties of Diamonds and Rubies," 

 by Prof. S. P. Thompson ; " Nourishment and Protection of 

 NO. 1669, VOL. 64] 



the Young of some Animals," by Prof. C. Stewart ; " Photo- 

 graphic Study of Clouds," by Mr. A. W. Clayden ; " Convey- 

 ance of Malaria by the Mosquito," by Dr. P. Manson ; " Recent 

 Work among the MoUusca," by Prof. G. B. Howes; "The 

 Heart," by Dr. H. Power; "The Mammoth Cave of Ken- 

 tucky," by Mr. F. Lambert; "The Development of the 

 Human Brain as an Organ of Mind," by Dr. F. W. Mott ; 

 "Colour Vision," by Mr. G. J. Burch ; "Protection by Shape 

 and Colour in Amphibia and Reptiles," by Dr. H. F. Gadow ; 

 "Inert Gases of the Atmosphere," by Prof. W. Ramsay. 



According to the daily papers a new principle in wireless 

 signalling has been discovered by Mr. A. Orling and Mr. T. 

 Armstrong, who last Friday gave a demonstration of the system 

 which they have worked out. So far as we know, no description 

 of Messrs. Orling and Armstrong's method has as yet appeared 

 in the technical Press, and the details given by the news- 

 papers being somewhat scanty it is difficult to form any definite 

 idea of the probable utility of the system. We gather that the 

 inventors rely partly, if not entirely, on earth conduction, and 

 that they have been successful in transmitting speech in this 

 manner. By using relays buried in the earth the range of sig- 

 nalling has been increased up to two and a half miles overland, 

 a distance which, it must be admitted, is insignificant compared 

 with Mr. Marconi's results. The system is, however, said to 

 offer great facilities for tuning and thus to avoid the interference 

 of messages, an advantage which should be of great benefit 

 to it. The inventors appear to have devoted most of their at- 

 tention to working out a method of controlling torpedoes or 

 submarine boats from the shore. It may be recollected that in 

 1899 an account of some experiments made by Messrs. Jamieson 

 and Trotter with this object appeared in the technical papers. 

 These inventors used Hertz waves acting on a coherer on board 

 the torpedo ; although at the time it was said that the apparatus 

 worked without a hitch, we have not since heard of its develop- 

 ment or practical adoption. Messrs. Orling and Armstrong are 

 said to have successfully guided a torpedo at a distance of six 

 miles from shore. 



A.\ excerpt from the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical 

 Society of Australasia (Queensland) contains an illustration of 

 the recently instituted " Thomson Foundation Gold Medal " 

 of the Society. The medal, which is the work of Wyon, is 

 to be awarded annually, or at such times as the council may 

 approve, to the author of the best original contribution to 

 geographical literature, preferential consideration being given 

 to the geography of Australasia, provided it be, in the opinion 

 of the council, of sufficient merit. The subject of the compe- 

 tition for the award of 1902 is " The Pastoral Industry ol 

 Australia, Past, Present and Probable Future," and essays must 

 reach the Society not later than June 15 next. 



At the meeting of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy 

 held on Thursday last, an interesting paper was read by Mr. 

 C. J. Alford on " Gold Mining in Egypt," in the course o. 

 which he said that the exposure of the crystalline rocks in 

 which the ancient gold mines of Egypt were worked, and in 

 which search for deposits of metalliferous minerals might be 

 undertaken with prospects of success, commenced about Jebel 

 Zeit, at the south end of the Gulf of Suez, and extended in 

 varying width along the coast line of the Red Sea, with few 

 and slight interruptions for 700 miles, until it joined the moun- 

 tains of Abyssinia. At Um Rus the mountain chain of crystal- 

 line rocks was about 60 miles in width from east to west, whilst 

 100 miles south it decreases to about 30 miles ; then, in latitude 

 22° N., the boundary line between Egypt and the Sudan, it 

 extended from the coast westward for fully 200 miles, and, with 

 occasional covers of sand, all the way to the Nile. During the 

 last twelve months the work of exploring the country and the 



