484 



NATURE 



[September 15, 1904 



December, iqni, was brtiug-ht by the relief ship .l/oi-mjii,', 

 which arrived at Lytlelton in March, 1903. From the in- 

 formation then received, described in Nature of April 2, 

 1903 (vol. Ixvii. p. 516), it was evident that the expedition 

 had already achieved great success, both in the way of 

 exploration and of scientific observation. Further details 

 of the first vear's work of the expedition, especially with 

 regard to the great southern ice barrier and the nature of 

 the lands discovered, are contained in Captain Scott's 

 official report communicated to the presidents of the Royal 

 and the Royal Geographical Societies, summarised in these 

 columns on July 30, 1903 (vol. Ixviii. p. 307). Upon the 

 return of the Discovery to Lyttelton at the beginning of 

 last .\pril, accompanied by the relief ships Morning and 

 Terra Nova, it became known that many specimens of great 

 scientific interest had been collected, including fossil remains 

 of dicotyledonous plants from nn altitude of Sooo feet. 1 he 

 material thus accumulated, as well as the continuous 

 magnetic records and other observations in terrestrial 

 physics, will be of the greatest value to science, and the 

 study of it will engage the attention of naturalists and 

 phvsicists for some time to come. The specimens brought 

 home include the emperor penguin and other rare Arctic 

 birds and their eggs, geological and other specimens, 

 a large number of photographs of Antarctic scenes, some 

 of which were taken by moonlight ; and a set of coloured 

 drawings of parhelions observed when the sun rose. 



The report of the council of the Society of Chemical 

 Industry was presented to the annual general meeting 

 opened in New York on Thursday, September 8. From this 

 report we learn that the number of members on the register 

 on July 31 was 4134, as compared with 30^0 at the previous 

 annual meeting. The council urges that Government, 

 through a department, should be in closer touch with com- 

 merce and industries. In Germany the functions of the 

 Ministry of Commerce comprise the control of " all matters 

 affecting handicrafts," and to it, as a consultative body, is 

 attached the technical committee for industry, which 

 studies the scientific progress of industries, and keeps the 

 minister in touch with them. America has recently estab- 

 lished a department of commerce and labour, and France 

 has had a Minister of Commerce for some years. The 

 council two years ago appointed a committee to cooperate 

 with members of Parliament and others who are in favour 

 of this reform. The council has given its support to a peti- 

 tion asking the Treasury that the National Physical Labor- 

 atory may be placed in a position to do its important inter- 

 national work by means of a grant for capital expenditure 

 and an increased annual subvention. Among the more 

 important researches carried out by the laboratory during 

 the past year may be mentioned those on pure iron-carbon 

 allovs, certain nickel-steel alloys, mercury standards of 

 resistance, a comparison of thermometers up to 1100° C, 

 and measurements of the specific heat of superheated steam 

 up to a pressure of 200 lb. to the square inch. The society's 

 medal, founded in 1896, and awarded by the council once in 

 every two years for conspicuous service rendered to applied 

 chemistry by research, discovery, invention, or improvements 

 in processes, has this year been awarded to Prof. Ira 

 Remsen, president of the Johns Hopkins University of Balti- 

 more. 



.\ L.\RGE party of members of the Lif^ge .Association of 

 Engineers, the leading technical society in Belgium, visited 

 London on September 12 and 13. On September 12 they 

 proceeded to Teddington and visited the National Phvsical 

 Laboratory, where they were received by Sir Edward 

 NO. 1820, VOL. 70] 



Carbutt on behalf of the executive comniitlee. On 

 September 13 they were entertained at dinner at the Hotel 

 Cecil l.iy the Iron and Steel Institute. Mr. E. Windsor 

 Richards, who was president when the institute visited 

 Li(5ge in 1894, occupied the chair, and an eloquent speech 

 of welcome was delivered by Sir James Kitson, past-presi- 

 dent of the Iron and Steel Institute, and ably responded to 

 by .Mr. Jules Magery, the president of the Belgian society. 



TiiF. second International Philosophical Congress was held 

 at the L'niversity of Geneva under the presidency of -.. 

 Ernest Naville on September 4-8, and was attended by 500 

 members, representative of every school of philosophic 

 thought in Europe. We learn from the Times that the 

 following papers were read : — Prof. Boutroux, of I'lnstitut 

 Paris, on the role of the history of philosophy in the study 

 of philosophy ; Profs. Stein (of the University of Bern) and 

 Gourd (of the L'niversitv of Geneva), the definition of 

 philosophy ; Prof. Windelband (of Heidelberg), the present 

 task of logic and philosophical inquiry in relation to natural 

 science and culture : Profs. Vifredo Pareto (of Lausanne) 

 and De Greef (of Brussels), the individual and society ; and 

 Profs. Reinke (of Kiel) and Giard (of Paris), neovitalism 

 and finality in biology. .At the sectional meetings the sub- 

 jects under discussion were the history of philosophy, general 

 philosophv and psychology, applied philosophy, logic and 

 philosophy of the sciences, and history of the sciences. 



In connection with the reception given by the United 

 States Naval Observatory to the eighth Internationa! Geo- 

 graphic Congress at Washington on Thursday, September 8, 

 a special set of time signals was sent over the Western 

 LTnion Telegraph Company's system from Washington to 

 England for transmission over the lines of the Government, 

 the Eastern Telegraph Company, and the Great Northern 

 and Western Telegraph Companies to observatories in 

 various parts of the world. The object of the signals was 

 to mark the actual passing of midnight at Washington, and 

 accompanying the signals was the following message : — 

 " The eighth International Geographic Congress now in 

 session in Washington sends with this midnight signal its 

 greeting to the nations of the world through the courtesy 

 of the various telegraph and cable companies." The Tinies 

 states that the observatories at the following places sent 

 complimentarv responses in most cases immediately on 

 receipt of the foregoing messages and signals : — Greenwich, 

 Pulkowa (Russia), Helsingfors, Madrid, Lisbon, Rome, ' 

 Madras. Mauritius, Cape Town, Melbourne, Adelaide, 

 Sydney, Wellington, N.Z., Rio de Janeiro, and Cocos. It 

 was hoped that the signals would have a favourable influence 

 on the movement to secure the imiversal adoption of standard 

 time, based on the meridian of Greenwich. 



Si'ience announces that the Department of Agriculture at 

 Washington is making definite arrangements concerning 

 the work which will be carried on with the Guatemalan 

 ants found by Mr. O. F. Cook in Guatemala to kill the 

 cotton boll weevil. Mr. Cook has authority under the chief 

 of the Bureau of Entomology to carry to completion the 

 study of the life-history of the Guatemalan ant, and of such 

 other species of ants as may be involved, in order properly 

 to understand the life-history of this species. He will also 

 direct and superintend the further introduction of the kelep 

 ant from Guatemala if the same is deemed necessary, and 

 will supervise and carry out the work connected with the 

 colonisation of the ant in the southern United States. 



;\n exceptional rainfall in Cuba is reported in the Times 

 of September 10 as having occurred on June 13. Mr. 

 W. A. Wilson, of the Public Works Office at Santiago, 



