534 



NATURE 



[September 29, 1904 



The following papers will be read at the autumn meeting 

 of the Iron and Steel Institute to be held in New York on 

 October 24 and 26 : — Iron and steel at the St. Louis Ex- 

 position : Prof. H. Bauerman ; a West African smelting- 

 house : C. V. Bellamy and F. W. Harbord ; the influence of 

 carbon and phosphorus upon the strength of iron and steel : 

 H. H. Campbell ; the Rateau low-pressure turbine at steel- 

 works and collieries : E. Demenge ; a dry air blast 

 apparatus: J. Gayley ; high-speed tool-steels: J. M. Gled- 

 hill ; the determination of carbon and phosphorus in steel : 

 Baron H. Jiiptner von Jonstorff, A. A. Blair, G. Dillner, 

 and J. E. Stead, F.R.S. ; acid open hearth manipulation : 

 Andrew McWilliam and W. H. Hatfield ; a power gas plant 

 for Johannesburg : P. J. Mallmann. 



The fourth general meeting of the International Fire 

 Service Council was recently held at Budapest on the occasion 

 of the International Fire Congress, which was organised 

 under its auspices. The meeting was presided over by M. 

 G. de Marie, of Luxemburg. All the European countries 

 were represented, with the exception of Portugal, Turkey, 

 and the Balkan States. It was decided that the seat of the 

 council remain at Luxemburg for the next four years. Mr. 

 Edwin O. Sachs, chairman of the British Fire Prevention 

 Committee, was re-elected vice-president for the impending 

 four years. The work of the council for this period will 

 deal to a considerable extent with technical questions, with 

 statistical questions in respect to fire losses, and with the 

 preparation of a fire technical dictionary in the German, 

 French, and English languages. The next general meeting 

 of the council will be held at Milan in 1906. Among the 

 resolutions adopted by the recent conference at Budapest 

 were the following : — (i) That it is absolutely essential that 

 all stage scenery and properties be rendered non-inflammable 

 in a trustworthy and permanent manner, and that all the 

 constructional parts of a stage be of a fire-resisting character. 

 (2) That the greatest attention should be accorded to the 

 chemistry of fire protection in the interests of fire prevention. 



The twelfth annual report of the Sonnblick Society for 

 the year 1903 contains a very interesting description by 

 Dr. O. Szlavik, an assistant at the Vienna Meteorological 

 Oflice, of a winter passed by two observers and himself on 

 the summit of that mountain, at an altitude of 10,190 feet 

 above the sea. For various reasons, including the want of 

 educated companions and the difliculties of locomotion, Dr. 

 .Szlavik considers that a winter passed at such a station 

 compares unfavourably with the privations endured at a 

 Polar station. The meteorological summary for 1903 shows 

 that the mean monthly temperature only rose above the 

 freezing point in the month of August. The maximum 

 (46° 8) occurred in September, and the minimum (— 14°-4) 

 in February. Snow or rain fell on 205 days. The pamphlet 

 also contains an illustrated article on optical phenomena 

 observed at the station, the results of observations at several 

 high-level stations in the neighbourhood of the Sonnblick, 

 and other useful information relating to mountain meteor- 

 ology. We are glad to learn that the society has decided 

 to combine the results of the last twelve years in one handy 

 volume. 



The Journal of the Sanitary Institute for August (xxv., 

 part ii.) contains the addresses delivered to the congress 

 of the Sanitary Institute at Glasgow, and Sir Douglas 

 Powell's lecture to the congress on " The Prevention of 

 Consumption." 



We have received the September number of Our Hospitals 

 and Charities, an illustrated monthly journal which gives 

 NO. 1822, VOL. 70] 



interesting particulars of the various London and provincial 

 hospitals, convalescent homes, and other charitable insti- 

 tutions. 



Several papers have recently been published on the 

 morphology and occurrence of the Leishman-Donovan body 

 or parasite (see Nature, Ixix. pp. 167 and 495, and Ixx. 

 p. 85). This parasite occurs in certain cases of irregular 

 tropical fever of long duration, associated with enlarged 

 spleen and marked cachexia. Major Donovan, I. M.S., in 

 the Lancet (September 10, p. 744) describes fully the cases 

 in which he has detected the parasite, and gives a number 

 of coloured drawings of the latter. In the British Medical 

 Journal (September 17, p. 642) the discussion on this parasite 

 at the meeting of the British Medical Association is re- 

 ported. Major Leishman, R.A.M.C., in opening it, stated 

 that he had expressed the opinion that this parasite was a 

 stage in the life-cycle of a flagellate protozoon, probably 

 a trypanosome. Prof. Leonard Rogers described experi- 

 ments he had performed on the cultivation of the organism, 

 and stated that undoubted trypanosomes had appeared in two 

 of his cultures. 



The report of the departmental committee appointed to 

 investigate e.xperimentally and to report upon certain 

 questions connected with the dipping and treatment of 

 sheep has recently been issued. The composition of 

 efificient dips, their method of use, and their effects upon 

 the animals, the wool, and the parasites for which they are 

 employed, and the life-history of the sheep-scab acarus and 

 other parasites, are some of the subjects dealt with, and 

 a series of recommendations is given for the periodical 

 dipping of sheep. All the dips tested proved efficient ; they 

 consisted of arsenic and alkali, arsenic and sulphur, pre- 

 parations of tar, tobacco and sulphur, and carbolic acid. 

 The tobacco and sulphur, preparations seemed to be the 

 most active, rapidly killing the parasites, and having no 

 injurious action on the wool ; they are, however, somewhat 

 costly. The arsenical preparations have to be used with 

 care, or the animals may suffer. Some of the tar pre- 

 parations had a deleterious action on the wool. 



In the Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital for July 

 (.XV., Nos. 160-161), Dr. Harvey Cushing surveys the sensory 

 distribution of the fifth cranial nerve. Dr. Percy Dawson 

 continues his biography of the Rev. Stephen Hales, and 

 Dr. SchmoU discusses the chemical origin of leucocytes. In 

 the last named the question is discussed whether the 

 organism is able to synthesise the nuclein of its tissue 

 cells, or is obliged to build them out of the cell material 

 contained in its food. From a study of cases of leuc^mia, 

 and the influence on the leucocytes of ordinary mixed diet 

 and of a purin-free diet, the conclusion is arrived at that, 

 while the organism prefers to draw upon preformed nuclein 

 material, it is perfectly able to synthesise this if necessary. 



Dragon-flv " nymphs " form the subject of a paper by 

 Mr. J. G. Needham published in the Proceedings of the U.S. 

 National Museum (No. 1371). The examination of a large 

 series of the immature stages of these insects has tended 

 to throw light on the mutual relationships of the forms to 

 which they severally belong. 



Considerable interest attaches to an article by Messrs. 

 Castellani and Willey in the August issue of Spolia 

 Zcylanica on the parasites found in the blood of vertebrates 

 in Ceylon. The only trypanosome detected by the authors 

 in the island is Trypanosoma lewisi, which infests at least 

 25 per cent, of the rats in millions, but without doing any 

 appreciable harm to its hosts. Although the trypanosome 



