October 31, 1901] 



NA TURE 



655 



meeting : — "British Association for the Advancement of Science : 

 the Section of Anthropoloijy to Prof. Rudolph Virchow ; — It 

 seldoin falls to the lot of one man to establish a position, as you 

 have done, as a leader in two great branches of science. 

 Throughout the world you are generally recognised as the 

 founder of modern pathology, whilst in the domain of anthro- 

 pology your services have been hardly less remarkable. When- 

 ever anthropologists meet together, your name is mentioned with 

 the respect a d reverence that are due to a great master. At 

 the present moment the British Association for the Advancement 

 of Science is holding its annual meeting in Glasgow, and the 

 membersof the Anthropological Section, aware that you celebrate 

 your eightieth birthday on October 14, desire to convey to you 

 their affectionate greetings, and to express the hope that you 

 may be spared to add yet further to the indebtedness which 

 they owe to you as a worker in the same field. Signed 

 on behalf of the committee of the Anthropological Section, 

 D. J. Cunningham, president, J. L. Myers, recorder. Glasgow, 

 September 11, 1901." The address, richly engrossed, was pre- 

 sented personally to Prof. Virchow by Lord Lister in the course 

 of the celebration ceremony at Berlin. 



To remove any misapprehension as to his opinion upon the 

 result of M. Santos Dumont's recent aerial performance, M. 

 Deutsch has written him a letter stating that he considers the 

 trip to have been completely successful and that the prize has 

 been won. JL Deutsch sent M. Santos Dumont at the same 

 time the sum of 1000/., which the latter has handed to the 

 Prefect of Police for distribution among the poor of Paris. The 

 committee's decision concerning the prize of 4000/. has not yet 

 been announced. 



Sir H. Trueman Wood will deliver the next Christmas 

 Juvenile Lectures at the Society of Arts, the subject being 

 " Photography and its Applications.'' The idea will be to show 

 in what a large number of cases photography has been applied 

 to scientific observation, and how varied are the applications. 

 The subject is an interesting one and ought to prove very attrac- 

 tive. The dates of the lectures are January i and 8. 



Sir Hiram S. Ma.\im confirms the observation mentioned 

 in our issue of October 17 (p. 607) of the attraction which 

 certain sounds havecfor mosquitoes. Writing to the Times, he 

 states that one of the electric lamps which he put up at Sara- 

 toga Springs, New York, in 1878, emitted a musical note ; 

 or rather the note proceeded from the box containing the 

 dynamo machine under the lamp. One evening whilst exam- 

 ining the lamp he found that everything in the immediate 

 vicinity was covered w-ith small insects. They did not appear 

 to be attempting to get into the globe, but into the box that 

 was giving out the musical note. A close examination of these 

 insects showed that they were all male mosquitoes. Although 

 there were certainly 200 times as many female mo.squitoes on the 

 ground as males, not a single female mosquito was found to have 

 been attracted in the least by the sound. Sir Hiram Maxim re- 

 marks that " when the lamps were started in the beginning of the 

 evening every male mosquito would at once turn in the direction 

 of the lamp, and, as it were, face the music, and then fly off 

 in the direction from which the sound proceeded. It then 

 occurred to me that the two little feathers on the head of the 

 male mosquito acted as ears, that they vibrated in unison with 

 the music of the lamp, and as the pitch of the note was almost* 

 identical with the buzzing of the female mosquito the male took 

 the music to be the buzzing of the female." 



Prok. E. Ray Lankester has been elected a corresponding 

 member of the Royal Society of Sciences of Gcittingen. 



The exhibits of the German Chemical Industry' Section at the 

 Paris Exposition, valued at 30,000/., have, it is said, been pre- 

 sented to the Technological Institute of the Berlin University. 

 NO. 1670, VOL. 64] 



Mr. G. W. de Tunzelmann has been appointed editor of 

 Science Abstracts in succession to Mr. W. R. Cooper, and will 

 take over the duties of the office on January i next. 



A Sicilian agricultural exhibition is, according to a Consular 

 Report, to be held at Palermo from March to May next. 

 There will be a class for international agricultural machinery. 



The new specimens added to the Museum of Anatomy and 

 Pathology at University College, Gower Street, will be on view 

 until November 2. 



The Bradshaw lecture will be given before the Royal College 

 of Physicians on November S at 5 p.m., by Dr. J. S. Bury. 

 The subject will be " Prognosis in Relation to Disease of the 

 Nervous System." 



On Tuesday next, November 5, the president of the 

 Institution of Civil Engineers will deliver his inaugural address, 

 distribute the council's awards, and hold a reception. The 

 meeting will take place at 8 p.m. 



The Lettsomian lectures of the Medical Society of London 

 will be delivered on February 17 and March 3 and 17 next, ati 

 9 p.m., by Mr. A. Pearce Gould, who will take as his subject 

 " Certain Diseases of the Blood Vessels." The annual oration 

 will be delivered on May 26 by Dr. Stephen Mackenzie. 



According to the British Medical Journal, Surgeon-Gen. 

 Wyman, of the U.S. Marine Hospital Service, proposes to 

 establish an institute for the study of yellow fever. The 

 worlc will be divided into four departments or sections, viz., 

 history and statistics, etiology, transmission, quarantine and 

 treatment. An executive board is to have general charge of the 

 investigations and the publication of reports. 



A detailed account of the relationship between mosquitoes 

 and the spread of yellow fever is given in the Paris Btilletiit 

 Medical by Dr. H. de Gouvea, who studied the subject for many 

 years in Brazil. Dr. Gouvea shows that the conditions of pro- 

 pagation of the disease have always been such as to fulfil the 

 requirements of the mosquito hypothesis, and to afford abundant 

 indirect evidence in favour of the belief which has now been 

 reached by more direct methods. In conclusion, he formulates 

 a series of propositions — namely, that yellow fever is never con- 

 veyed by either direct or indirect contagion ; that the actual 

 cause of it, at present unknown, will in all probability be 

 discovered in the human blood ; that it is diffused only by the 

 agency of the mosquito, Ciilex toeniattn at fasciatus ; and that 

 immunity from it may be secured by the destruction of these 

 insects, or by avoidance of their haunts during the periods of 

 their activity. 



A difficulty has arisen concerning the site on which the 

 new Pasteur statue in Paris shall be erected. The use of a 

 space in the Square Medicis in the Quartier Latin has been 

 granted, but this spot is being tunnelled for a railway, and it is 

 feared, in consequence, that the statue may be too weighty for 

 it. Other places, such as the Place du Pantheon, the Place de 

 la Sorbonne, and the entrance of the Avenue de I'Observatoire, 

 are under consideration. 



A com.mittee of the -Association of Chambers of Commerce 

 meeting recently unanimously adopted the following resolu- 

 tions : — ''(') That, after considering various suggestions, this 

 committee is unanimously of opinion that the Chambers should 

 unite in urging upon the Government the compulsory adoption 

 of the metrical system of weights and measures, leaving matters 

 of detail to be considered later. (2) That the committee is 

 unanimously of opinion that a British decimal system of coinage 

 must be on the basis of retaining the sovereign, with the florin 

 as a unit, divided into a hundred cents or farthings. (3) The 



