August ii, 1904] 



NA TURE 



359 



irrigation for the purpose of preventing the recurrence of 

 these terrible disasters. 



As the result of its investigation, the commission found 

 that in the several districts it visited a programme of 

 works had been prepared for work in such proportion of 

 the population as is likely to be affected by famine, and 

 that it was claimed that most of these works would be of 

 a useful character ; but the commissioners were of opinion 

 that the degree of utility likely to be attained must for the 

 present be regarded as uncertain, many of the works having 

 been hurriedly selected. In addition to irrigation, the works 

 included roads and railways. 



The commissioners also recommended a very e.xtensive 

 programme of protective irrigation works to be constructed 

 as rapidly as may be practicable in the tracts that are most 

 likely to suffer from famine. They also endorse the recom- 

 mendation of the F'amine Commission of iqoi. that greater 

 reliance should be placed in future on village works as a 

 means of employing relief labour than has been the practice 

 in recent famines. They, however, advise the use of 

 caution, and express the opinion that no relief labour can 

 be more useless than that expended on works which, how- 

 ever useful if eventually completed, will probably remain 

 as a famine follv, incomplete for ever. 



They strongly recommend that a central board should be 

 constituted, and invested with the responsibility of regularly 

 watching and reporting progress as to works set out in 

 the programme laid down, and of guarding against material 

 deviations from the working plans of each province being 

 niade without the e.xpress sanction of the Government. 



For the prosecution of their programme of new State 

 irrigation works, it is pointed out that a large and 

 permanent increase will have to be made in ihe strength of 

 the engineering establishment. 



The general conclusion arrived at is that there is a wide 

 but not unlimited field in which the engineers and civil 

 officers can work together for the protection of the country 

 from famine, partly by the construction of new State irriga- 

 tion works, and partly by encouraging and stimulating the 

 extension of irrigation by means of private works. Both 

 methods will involve heavy expenditure on the part of the 

 Slate, upon which there may not be anv direct return, 

 although it may be justified by the value of the protection 

 afforded. While the whole of India can never be protected 

 from famine by irrigation alone, yet much can be done 

 to restrict the area and to mitigate the intensity of famine. 

 .Any enduring success of works carried out will depend no 

 less on their effect in evolving a spirit of self-help and thrift 

 among the people than in their efficiency in securing crops 

 from drought. 



.Mr. Wilson's report is of considerable value to engineers 

 engaged in irrigation works, as it contains a great deal 

 of information relating to constructive works, such as 

 weirs, sluices, and dams, and also descriptions, accompanied 

 by illustrations, of many of the principal irrigation works 

 carried out in India. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 

 Oxford. — The following re-appointments for three years 

 have been made: — Dr. A. J. Herbertson, to be lecturer in 

 regional geography and curator of the School of Geography ; 

 Dr. (i. B. Grundy, to be lecturer on ancient geography ; 

 Mr. C. R. Beazley, to be lecturer on the history of 

 geography. 



Dr. Reginwm) Blller, lecturer on botanv in the 

 I'niversity of Birmingham, has been appointed professor 

 of botany in the University of Manitoba. 



The Sailers' fellowship of the Pharmaceutical Societv 

 has again been conferred on Mr. J. Stuart Hills, who since 

 October, 1003, has devoted himself entirely to research work. 



Dr. a. W. Crosslev, lecturer in chemistry at St. 

 Thomas's Hospital Medical School, has been appointed to 

 succeed Trof. W. P. Wynne, F.R.S., in the chair of 

 ( hemistry in the School of Pharmacy of the Pharmaceutical 

 Society of Great Britain, and the following demonstrators 

 have also been appointed in the latter school : — Mr. F'. G. C. 

 Walker in chemistrv, .Mr. J. T. Cart in pharmaceutics, and 

 Mr. T. (i. Hill in botany. 



NO. 18 I 5, VOL. 70] 



The Drapers' Company has discharged the debt of 

 University College, London, to the bankers to the amount 

 of 30,000/. The treasurer has received from Messrs. 

 Wernher, Beit and Co. their cheque for 10,000/., promised 

 to promote the incorporation of the college in the university. 

 F'or the completion of the incorporation scheme, there yet 

 remains the sum of 18,000/. to be raised. Prof. Oliver has 

 been re-appointed to the Ouain chair of botany. Dr. F. J. 

 Poynton has been appointed sub-dean of the faculty of 

 medicine in succession to Prof. G. D. Thane, resigned. 

 The session 1904-5 will begin, in the faculties of arts and 

 laws and of science, on Tuesday, October 4, and in the 

 faculty of medicine on Monday, October 3. The intro- 

 ductory lecture will be given by Prof. J. Norman Collie, 

 F'.R.S., on October 3, at 4 o'clock. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, June 2. — "The Advancing Front of the 

 Train of Waves Emitted by a Theoretical Hertzian 

 Oscillator." By A. E. H. Love, F.R.S., Sedleian Professor 

 of Natural Philosophy in the University of Oxford. 



The waves emitted by Hertz's oscillator have been 

 identified with those due to a vibrating electric doublet. 

 The field due to a variable doublet is expressed by equations 

 of the form 



d.vd/' 



' ' ' '\dxdz dydz dx^ dy^J r 



-y- 



in which c is the velocity of radiation, and ^(cf) is the 

 moment of the doublet at time /. When there is damping 

 1^ has the form 



^^ = Ae 



"-(ct ->■+.), 



where A is the wave-length, A a constant depending upon 

 the amplitude of the vibrations, t a constant expressing the 

 phase, and v a constant expressing the damping. Accord- 

 ing to the experiments of Bjerknes, v may be taken to 

 be about 04 when the wave-length \ is about 10 m. 

 The constant 6 is determined by the conditions which 

 hold at the front of the waves {r = i:l). The field outside 



Fig. I. 



this surface is that which is established at the instant when 



the vibrations begin. .At this instant the brass balls of the 



oscillator are so highly charged that the electric strength 



of the air between them gives way. The initial field is 



that due to the charges at this instant, so that it can most 



appropriately be represented as the electrostatic field of a 



fixed doublet. 



It is shown that the moment of the initial doublet is the 



maximum moment of the vibrating doublet, and that € is 



, , 2irf 27r 

 given by tan — = — . 



