NA TURE 



[June 



1904 



At the Ro)'al Agricultural Society's show, which was 

 opened on Tuesday, there were in the building devoted to 

 agricultural education and forestry a number of exhibits 

 of interest. These came, for the most part, from the 

 colleges where agricultural matters are taught. The 

 Rothamsted Experiment Station sent a series of specimens 

 of wheat and of loaves made from the flour of various 

 samples. The results obtained, though illustrating the 

 general experience that wheat containing much gluten 

 yields " strong " flour that makes a big loaf, served rather 

 to disprove the view that the quantity of nitrogenous matter 

 present which is soluble in alcohol, or the ripeness or green- 

 ness of the corn, hpd any particular effect. In the bacterio- 

 logical exhibit from the Midland Agricultural Institute 

 were specimens which showed that Mr. John Golding has 

 been able to confirm Mr. Charles Marshall's discovery 

 (Centralb. fur Bakteriologie, vol. xi., April) that if in a 



milk starter " an alkali-forming germ is associated with 

 one that produces lactic acid, " ripening " of the cream 

 takes place much more rapidly. From the same institution 

 came a large number of hybrid potato seedlings raised by 

 Mr. E. Miles. The agricultural section of the Essex 

 Technical Laboratories showed some charts proving that 

 even if the application of sulphates to the soil does not 

 result in a larger crop, it increases its feeding value, the 

 result being due to the larger proportion of amides which 

 are formed. There were also specirnens illustrating some 

 new experiments showing the beneficial effects of manures 

 upon " clover-sick " and derelict land. Very striking were 

 the results of applying pinches of sulphate of ammonium 

 to a lawn containing plantains ; while the latter were killed, 

 the grass and clover were affected for the better. The chief 

 feature of the Wye College exhibits were living specimens 

 of plants infested with fungoid and insect pests. The 

 Agricultural Department of Cambridge, Reading College, 

 and Harper-Adams College were also well represented, as 

 was the Royal Agricultural Society itself. The forestry 

 exhibition was a new feature, and in it was a representative 

 series of specimens of timber illustrating the healing of 

 wounds and the life-history of plants and animals injurious 

 to trees. There were also a large number of photographs 

 illustrating various points in forestry, together with the 

 examples of the tools used and plots laid out with young 

 trees. 



In the- Harveian Oration delivered on Tuesdav at the 

 Royal College of Physicians, Dr. Richard Caton described 

 some results of an inquiry into the earliest records of 

 medicine in ancient Egypt, particularly as regards the 

 circulation of the blood and diseases of the circulation. 

 The most interesting figure among the early physicians of 

 Egypt was a priest of Ra, the sun god, named I-em-hotep, 

 who lived during the third dynasty, nearly 6000 years ago, 

 and was succeeded by a cult of priest-physicians who carried 

 en his work of healing. Temples for the worship of 

 I-em-hotep, which were also hospitals for the sick, arose 

 first at Memphis, and then extended to other parts of Egvpt. 

 Here the priests not only treated the sick, but also em- 

 balmed the bodies of men and the sacred animals. In this 

 process the heart and viscera were removed, and the priests 

 had thus an opportunity of learning something of anatomy 

 and of the changes produced by disease. These priest- 

 physicians were probably the first to acquire a rudimentary 

 knowledge of the movement of the blood. It was clear that 

 medical science was cultivated and had advanced consider- 

 ably in Egypt long before it arose in Greece. In Egypt the 

 evidence of this fact was decisive, and in the writings of the 

 pseudo-Apuleius it was interesting to note that Hermes 

 NO. 1808, vol. 70] 



told the youthful Asklepios of his predecessor, the first 

 inventor of medicine, the Egyptian god I-em-hotep. When, 

 in later times, Greek colonists came to Egypt, they recog- 

 nised I-em-hotep as a sort of pre-existing Asklepios, and 

 spoke of his temples as Asklepieia. The views of the 

 circulation of the blood entertained by the Greeks were 

 almost exactly those of their predecessors, the Egyptians ; 

 and, in view of the frequent intercourse between the two 

 countries at that time, it was highly probable that the 

 Greek physicians obtained their knowledge of the circula- 

 tion, such as it was, from the Egyptians. The Egyptian 

 priests seemed, in fact, to have been the first to engage irk 

 that momentous inquiry which was finally solved by Harvey, 

 and on which the progress of medicine depended. 



In the article on geodesy which appeared in N.^Tl•Rl; of 

 June 2, referring to a contribution on the subject in the 

 Revue ginirale des Sciences, it appears that, inadvertently, 

 the author hardly did justice to the scientific investigations 

 of MM. Benoit and Guillaume, the director and assistant 

 director of the Bureau international des Poids et Mesures. 

 The apparatus represented in Fig. i of our article is entirely 

 new, and is due to the inventive faculty of those gentlemen, 

 and not to that of M. Jaderin. That useful combination 

 of metals known as invar is also the result of researches 

 instituted at the Bureau International, the officers of which 

 department may well congratulate themselves on the 

 successful results of those investigations which they have 

 initiated in all branches of research connected with geodesy. 



The British Journal of Photography has just completed 

 its fiftieth year. To mark this occasion, the editor has 

 issued a special (jubilee) number of the journal, containing 

 not only " the story " of the journal from its commence- 

 ment to the present time, written by himself, but a series 

 of most interesting articles by different authors on a great 

 number of photographic topics. The British Journal of 

 Photography is the outcome of the photographic energy 

 displayed in Liverpool in the 'fifties, the first number, 

 entitled the Liverpool Photographic Journal, appearing on 

 January 14, 1854. In the " story " are given facsimiles 

 of the title-page and the first page of this journal, and also 

 that of the first page under the present title. Short bio- 

 graphical sketches of the editors and assistant editors are 

 also included. 



Dr. J. Hann recently submitted to the Vienna .Academy 

 of Sciences a work on the decrease of temperature with 

 height up to 10 kilometres, deduced from the results of the 

 international balloon ascents so far as they have been pub- 

 lished. He found that the monthly means were too much 

 influenced by the weather conditions of the days on which 

 the ascents were made to show a tolerably trustworthy 

 yearly range. But dealing with the differences of tempera- 

 ture for intervals of i kilometre, that is, with the values 

 of the decrease of temperature with height, he was able 

 to obtain more satisfactory and somewhat striking results. 

 The yearly range of the differences for i to 3 kilometres 

 exhibited the quickest decrease of temperature between May 

 and June. At altitudes of 3 to 5 and 5 to 7 kilometres, the 

 quickest decrease occurred in March and April, while at the 

 height of 7 to 9 kilometres it occurred quite unexpectedly 

 about the beginning of July. As first pointed out by >L 

 Teisserenc de Bort, the decrease of temperature with height 

 in the lower strata of air is slower in anticyclones than in 

 cyclones, while at great heights these conditions are re- 

 versed. 



Dr. Vidi, in a popular article, gives some interesting 

 details with regard to cancer houses and districts (Le Journal. 



