June 30, 1904] 



NA TURE 



councils and county boroughs, have already appointed 

 delegates to the congress, and as there are more than 3300 

 members and associates in the institute, there will probably 

 be a large attendance in addition to the local members. In 

 connection with the congress, a health exhibition of 

 apparatus and appliances relating to health and domestic 

 use will be held as practical illustration of the application 

 and carrying out of the principles and methods discussed 

 at the meetings. Popular lectures will be given in the 

 e.xhibition on physical development, by Dr. P. Boobbyer ; 

 care of eyesight, by Dr. James Kerr; care of the teeth, 

 by Mr. G. Cunningham ; feeding and digestion, by Prof. 

 A. Bostock Hill ; and healthy houses, by Prof. H. R. 

 Kenwood. The sections and their presidents are : — 

 (i) Sanitary science and preventive medicine. Prof. J. 

 Glaister ; (2) engineering and architecture, Prof. H. Robin- 

 son ; (3) physics, chemistry, and biology. Prof. Frank 

 Clowes. There will be eight special conferences, the sub- 

 jects and presidents of which will be as follows : — Municipal 

 representatives, Mr. \V. F. Anderson ; industrial hygiene, 

 Mr. J. Steele ; medical officers of health. Sir C. A. Cameron, 

 C.B. ; engineers and surveyors to county and other sanitary 

 authorities, Mr. W. Weaver ; veterinary inspectors. Prof. 

 James McCall ; sanitary inspectors, Mr. T. F. Strutt ; 

 women on hygiene, the Duchess of Montrose ; the hygiene 

 of school life. Prof. John Edgar. 



The death is announced of Lieut. -General Dubrovin, who 

 was for a long time secretary of the Imperial .Academy of 

 Sciences at St. Petersburg. 



Prof. \V. Kaufm.ann, of Bonn, has been awarded the 

 Von Baumgartner prize of the Vienna Academy. 



Prof, v.in 't Hoff has been appointed honorary director 

 of the medical faculty of Utrecht, and the newly erected 

 chemical laboratory there has been named the \'an 't Hoflf 

 Laboratory in his honour. 



The Imperial Academy of Sciences of Vienna announces 

 the following grants : — To the Vienna Society for Solar 

 Observation, 1600 krone for observations on climatic 

 changes in the Goldberg glacier, and to Prof. Ritter Beck 

 von Managetta (Prague) 600 krone for studies of plant dis- 

 tribution in the Julian Alps. From the Wedl bequest, to 

 Drs. Obermayer and Pick (Vienna) 600 krone for the 

 chemistry of immune substances, to Dr. Moritz Probst 800 

 krone for continuation of work on the brain, to Dr. Karl 

 Camillo Schneider 400 krone for a zoological e.xpedition to 

 Grado, to Prof. Julius Tandler looo krone for studies in 

 the development of birds. The committee of the Treitel 

 legacy awards the following grants : — To Prof. Hans 

 Skraup (Graz) 1500 krone for studies on albumens, to Dr. 

 Franz Werner 6000 krone for a zoological expedition to the 

 Egyptian Soudan, to Prof. Julius Wiesner 4000 krone for 

 effects of light on plant life in the Yellowstone district, to 

 the Austrian Meteorological Society 4000 krone for investi- 

 gations of the upper atmosphere, and to the Earthquake 

 Commission 5465 krone 39 heller. 



That the depopulation of rural districts is a social problem 

 of the times in France no less than in this country is evident 

 from the report presented by Dr. A. F. Plicque to the 

 BtiUetin de la Society d' Encouragement for April. The 

 author makes a special study of the conditions prevailing 

 in the canton of Donnemarie-en-Montois (Seine et Marne). 

 This canton is situated in the midst of a fertile agricultural 

 district possessing an excellent climate, and within moderate 

 distance of Paris, and from 1869 to 1891 there was a 

 falling off in the population of from 9764 to 7683 inhabitants. 

 NO. T809, VOL. 70] 



It is also noteworthy that an inquiry in 1893 in the same 

 district showed that 63 per cent, of the farm labour was 

 imported from outside, and that without this imported 

 labour agriculture in this fertile region would come to a 

 standstill. The author traces the causes of the depopula- 

 tion to ignorance of sanitary precautions leading to a high 

 rate of infant mortality, emigration of young people to 

 towns, effects of conscription, alcoholism, &c., and he 

 considers the remedy to consist in improvements in primary 

 and technical education, which should, in his opinion, " not 

 merely give the child verbal forms, devoid of ideas, which he 

 cannot understand, but should give children of rural com- 

 munities an instruction suited to the surroundings in which 

 thev ought to live, and should develop, from their earliest 

 years, a taste for agriculture." M. Plicque instances the 

 success of this method in Belgium. In other words, the 

 successful and contented ploughboy should not be en- 

 couraged to leave his plough in order to become an un- 

 successful and discontented teacher. 



Would life be possible if the nitrogen of the atmosphere 

 were replaced by hydrogen? This is a question discussed 

 by Regnault and Reiset, who gave an affirmative answer 

 in their well known treatise on respiration. .\ fresh in- 

 vestigation of the question is now given by Dr. Arturo 

 Marcacci in the Lombardy Rcndiconti, xxxvii., 9, whose 

 experiments were conducted at Palermo. The author found 

 that animals introduced into such an atmosphere soon died, 

 the symptoms all indicating thaf the death was due to cold, 

 caused by the high thermal conductivity of the hydrogen. 

 Another phenomenon was the marl-ced increase in the absorp- 

 tion of oxygen and evolution of carbonic anhydride. 



In 1902 the Zeitschrift fiir Krystallographic tan] Miiicr- 

 alogie, founded by Prof. P. Groth, completed the twenty- 

 fifth year of its publication. Many mineralogists in various 

 countries felt the occasion provided a fitting opportunity 

 to commemorate the services rendered to mineralogy and 

 ciystallography by Prof. Groth by initiating and editing 

 that journal. Profs. M. H. N. Story-Maskelyne, W. J. 

 Lewis, H. A. Miers, and Mr. L. Fletcher formed themselves 

 into a committee, and in response to an appeal a sufficient 

 sum of money was obtained to secure the services of Prof. 

 E. Griitzner, of Munich, to paint a portrait of Prof. Groth. 

 The picture was formally presented to Prof. Groth on 

 April 30 last, and was accompanied by a letter from Prof. 

 Story-.Maskelyne expressing the appreciation of Prof. Groth 's 

 work on the part of the subscribers. A photogravure of the 

 portrait, e.^ecuted by Dr. E. Albert and Co., of Munich, 

 and a statement of receipts and expenses, will be forwarded 

 shortly to each subscriber to the testimonial. 



A NEW scheme for a North Polar expedition was described 

 by M. Charles B^nard at a meeting of about fifty men of 

 science held in the house of the Prince of Monaco, in Paris, 

 on June 19. According to the Paris correspondent of the 

 Times, M. B^nard explained at length why the only feasible 

 and rational route of penetration of the Polar Sea was one 

 a little north of that followed by the From. The expedition 

 ought to start from a Norwegian port, cross the southern 

 portion of Barents Sea, take in dogs at Karabora, coast 

 along Yalmal, ship its coal at Port Dickson, transported 

 thither by special steamer, pass at the end of the summer 

 along the Peninsula of Taimyr, arrive by the end of the 

 autumn at the islands of New Siberia, and then, instead 

 of going northward, as did the Fram, manage at all costs, 

 even if it be necessary to winter in the Liakhoff or Bennett 

 Islands, to reach a point on the 150th degree of east longi- 

 tude. Thence the ship or ships need only drift with the 



