304 



NA TURE 



[July 28, 1904 



thousand pounds. His Majesty received congratulatory 

 addresses on behalf of the society. Dr. Maxwell Masters 

 presented those from the Soci^t6 Royale d'Agriculture et de 

 Botanique de Gande and from the Horticultural Society of 

 Prussia ; Mr. Edwin Mawley that from the National Rose 

 Society. His Majesty then declared the hall open. It is, 

 we understand, the intention of the society to provide scien- 

 tific instruction as well as practical training in connection 

 with the gardens at Wisley. 



Arrangements have been made which will make it un- 

 necessary to close the Museum of Practical Geology, 

 Jermyn Street, for a month in autumn as heretofore ; the 

 museum will therefore remain open to students and visitors 

 daily. 



The International Astronomical Congress will begin its 

 meetings at Lund, Sweden, on September 5. 



The tenth International Congress of Navigation is to 

 be held at Milan from September 24 to 30, 1905. Appli- 

 cations for the local organising committee's letter of 

 invitation to the congress, and for the programme of the 

 arrangements made, should be addressed to the general 

 secretary of the congress, Signor E. Sanjust di Teulada, 

 3 Via Sala, Milan, or to Prof. L. F. Vernon Harcourt, 

 6 Queen Anne's Gate, Westminster. 



.An interesting exhibition of about 700 incandescent electric 

 lamps, including the first experimental lamps made by Mr. 

 Edison, is about to take place at the St. Louis E.xposition. 

 The collection is stated to be complete and unique, and to 

 include a specimen of every kind of filament lamp ever made 

 in Europe or America. 



According to the Indian correspondent of the Lancet, Mr. 

 Tata left a will by which his heirs and trustees are 

 required to carry out his intentions with reference to the 

 research institute in which he took so great an interest. 



The Paris Academy of Sciences has awarded the Lecomte 

 prize of fifty thousand francs for the most interesting work 

 in physical science to Prof. Blondlot for his researches on 

 the It-rays. 



A GOLD medal has been awarded to Commander Peary 

 by the Soci^t^ de Gtographie, Paris, in recognition of his 

 work in the North Polar regions. 



The Elliott-Cresson medal is to be conferred on Dr. Hans 

 Goldschmidt, of Essen (Ruhr), Germany, by the Franklin 

 Institute, Philadelphia. 



After an absence of a year and eight months the 

 Scottish National Antarctic E.xpedition has returned to 

 Scotland, leaving, however, Mr. R. C. Mossman, the 

 meteorologist, in the South Orkney Islands to continue his 

 research work. At the meeting held to welcome home the 

 expedition, Sir John Murray, as president of the Royal 

 Scottish Geographical Society, read the following message 

 of congratulation which had been telegraphed to Mr. Bruce, 

 the leader, by Lord Knollys : — " I am commanded by the 

 King to congratulate you and the officers and crew of the 

 Scotia on your and their safe return and on the completion 

 of your addition to scientific knowledge and discovery in 

 the south-eastern part of Weddell Sea. — Knollys." A 

 number of other congratulatory messages were also read, 

 the gold medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society 

 was conferred on Mr. Bruce, and a gold watch-seal pre- 

 sented to Captain Robertson. 



According to the Electrical Review, the United States 

 Naval Wireless Telegraph Commission will shortly 

 NO. 18 I 3, VOL. 70] 



mend the establishment of wireless telegraph 

 stations at various strategical points on the sea coast. 

 These stations will transmit all Government messages, in- 

 cluding weather bureau information, and it is probable 

 that commercial telegrams will also be accepted. The 

 Treasury proposes to provide revenue cutters with wireless 

 telegraph apparatus. It is also stated that a contract 

 has been signed between the United States Government 

 and the De Forrest Wireless Telegraph Co., by 

 the terms of which it will ultimately be possible to send 

 wireless messages between New York and Japan. The 

 Government, which will defray the cost of the various equip- 

 ments, will have the use of the various installations for 

 naval and other purposes, and the company will be bound 

 to maintain them in good working order with the right to 

 transmit commercial messages. 



We have received from the secretary a programme of the 

 proceedings of the sixth International Zoological Congress 

 to be held at Berne from August 14 to 19. Up to the pre- 

 sent 250 persons have joined the congress, and a number 

 of countries and scientific societies will be represented, while 

 no less than seventy communications have been announced 

 to be read at the various sections. These sections are six 

 in number, and in them the study of geographical dis- 

 tribution is assigned an important position. The proceed- 

 ings will commence by a meeting in the great market-hall 

 on the evening of Sunday, August 14. 



Mr. J. G. MiLLAls is to be congratulated on his good 

 fortune in having been able to add an entirely new mammal 

 to the British fauna in the form of a vole (Microtus 

 orcadciisis), of which the description appears in the July 

 number of the Zoologist. In a postscript by Mr. O. 

 Thomas it is stated that the new species is totally distinct 

 from all other known forms, differing from the common 

 short-tailed field-mouse {M. agrestis) not only in external 

 characters, but in the number of folds in the second molar, 

 and being apparently equally distinct from the Continental 

 field-mouse {M. arvalis) and the eastern M. ralticeps and 

 their immediate relatives. It forms, in fact, a small 

 zoological and geographical puzzle. In the same number 

 Mr. R. J. Howard describes an instance of the long-eared 

 owl nesting on the ground. 



A note in the Scientific American directs attention to a 

 communication which was recently addressed to the 

 French National Society of Agriculture by M. Bignon on 

 the efficacy of artificial clouds in preventing late frosts. 

 M. Bignon has for many years successfully protected his 

 vineyard by the method he describes. The vineyard is 

 divided into five parts, separated from east to west by 

 walks of from 12 to 15 feet wide, and is encircled by an 

 avenue of equal width. These walks facilitate the placing 

 of the fires, which are built in small basins sunk into the 

 earth some 50 feet apart, and filled with 15 or 20 pounds 

 of resinous matter and some pieces of pine and other 

 vegetable debris. During 1903 (in one week of which the 

 frosts were very heavy) the method saved, it is reported, 

 25 per cent, of the harvest, or some 125 to 150 barrels of 

 wine. It is stated that any substance can be burnt which 

 gives a thick and abundant smoke, such as green herbs, 

 moss, damp straw, tufts of grass, &c., but best results 

 have been obtained by the heavy oils which are the residues 

 of gas. 



M. Elis£e Reclus is preparing for the Belgian Society 

 of Astronomy, Meteorology and Physical Geography a 

 monograph descriptive of the volcanoes of the world and 

 maps showing their distribution. One map. in colours, will 



