October 6, 1904] 



NATURE 



557 



it not for the elTcct of contrast; it is well known 

 that a grey object lying on a vividly green ground 

 appears to be of a reddish or purplish hue. It may 

 here be remarked that this phenomenon yet awaits 

 explanation ; it was at one time thought that the 

 eye insensibly travelled over the green expanse, the 

 green colour sensation became fatigued, and faint 

 white light afterwards provoked the complementary 

 sensation. It has been found, however, that the 

 same colour phenomena are observed when the 

 illumination is instantaneous, so that this theory 

 falls to the ground. 



Finallv, it may be stated that Sir Montagu 

 Pollock's book is throughout of absorbing interest; 

 the excellence of the illustrations can be inferred 

 from an inspection of those used to illustrate this 

 short notice, and the printing is everything that could 

 be desired. Edwin Edser. 



nOTES. 



We understand that the second Intprnation.d Wireless 

 Telegraph Conference, which was to have been held in 

 Berlin on October 6, has been postponed until next spring. 

 It will be remembered that the Wireless Telegraph Act 

 which was passed at the end of last session was rushed 

 through the House partly that the Government repre- 

 sentatives might have a better basis for making agreements 

 at this conference. It is stated that a considerable number 

 of applications for licences under this .Act have been received 

 by the Postmaster-General. Some of these applications 

 come from the submarine cable companies. 



The funeral of Prof. Niels Finsen at Copenhagen on 

 September 29 was attended in person by King Christian, 

 King George of Greece, Queen Alexandra, and all the other 

 Royalties now in Copenhagen, as well as by the Danish 

 Ministers of State, members of the Diplomatic Corps, the 

 president of the Danish Parliament, the Burgomasters of 

 Copenhagen and the chief provincial towns, and numerous 

 representatives of foreign scientific institutions, universities, 

 and societies. King Edward was represented by the 

 British Minister, Sir W. E. Goschen. .A number of Danish 

 medical men have issued an appeal for the erection of a 

 monument to Prof. Finsen by voluntary contributions. 



A NEW association, the Institute of Hygiene, has been 

 formed having for its object the dissemination of know- 

 ledge on the subject of personal and domestic hygiene. It 

 aims to be self-supporting, and in order to accomplish this 

 has organised a permanent exhibition of hygienic products 

 and appliances, e.g. foods, clothing, filters, stoves, &c., 

 open free to the general public, and a special section devoted 

 to drugs and medical and surgical appliances to which 

 medical men alone are admitted. The revenue gained from 

 the rents paid bv exhibitors will be devoted to educational 

 work, which will take the form of local lectures, with ex- 

 aminations and certificates. The exhibition, which was 

 formally opened by Sir Joseph Fayrer on .September 30, is 

 housed at 34 Devonshire Street, W. 



A VISIT by a party of French physicians and surgeons is 

 about to be paid to London. The party is to arrive on 

 October 10, and will comprise some 150 gentlemen. A com- 

 mittee, of which .Sir William Broadbent is president and 

 Sir Thomas Barlow treasurer, has been organised to make 

 arrangements for their reception and entertainment, Dr. 

 Dawson W'illiams and Dr. Jobson Home being the honorary 

 secretaries. They will be entertained at a banquet at the 

 Hotel Cecil on October 12. 



NO. 1S33. \MI.. 7 d] 



Prof. Koch has retired from the post of director of the 

 Institute for Infectious Diseases at Berlin owing to the 

 increasing demands which other bacteriological work make 

 upon his time and energies. The Berlin correspondent of the 

 Times slates that in the course of the winter Prof. Koch will 

 proceed to German East Africa in order to continue those 

 studies of tropical and other diseases which he had not 

 completed during his recent visit to Rhodesia. In particular 

 he will continue to investigate the part played by ticks in 

 conveying the infection of various cattle diseases. 



A CONFERENCE On agricultural education will be held in 

 the Shire Hall, Gloucester, on Saturday, October 15, under 

 the presidency of Sir John Dorington, M.P. At the morn- 

 ing session Lord Onslow will deliver an address, and the 

 other speakers will include Sir W. Hart Dyke, Prof. T. H. 

 Middleton, and Lord Monteagle. At the afternoon session 

 Sir T. Dyke-.\cland, Sir John Cockburn, Mr. A. D. Hall, 

 and others will address the conference. 



The deaths are announced of Prof. E. von Martens, vice- 

 director of the Berlin Zoological Museum, and Dr. P. 

 van der Vliet, formerly professor of physics at the Uni- 

 versity of St. Petersburg. 



The Physico-Mathematical Society of Kazan has awarded 

 the Lobatchewsky prize to Prof. D. Hilbert, of Gottingen, 

 for his book on " Die Grundlagen der Geometric " and other 

 researches. The Lobatchewsky gold medal has been con- 

 ferred on Prof. Poincar^, and Profs. Mansion, Laisant, and 

 Peano have been elected honorary meinbers of the society. 



The twenty-fifth annual " Fungus Foray " of the Essex 

 Field Club will be held on Saturday, October 15, at High 

 Beach, Epping Forest. The referees will be Dr. M. C. 

 Cooke and Mr. George Massee, of the Kew Herbarium. 

 .Mr. Massee will read a paper on some diseases of trees. 

 .Any botanists wishing to attend should communicate with 

 the secretary, Buckhurst Hill, Essex. 



Prof. Fehr, of Geneva, editor of L'Enseigiiemenl mathe- 

 inatique, is circulating among mathematicians an inquiry 

 form containing a number of questions relating to their 

 manner of working. These questions refer to such points 

 as when and where the mathematician answering them 

 acquired his taste for matheinatics, whether his researches 

 are suggested by the study of mathematical literature or 

 the ideas come to him spontaneously, whether he publishes 

 his ideas immediately or leaves them for a time, whether 

 he observes regular rules in his living, whether he finds 

 the morning or evening best for work, and so forth. The 

 answers are to be analysed by Prof. Th. Flournoy and Dr. 

 E. Clapar^de, both experienced psychologists. 



TiH-; system of " normal piling " which forms the basis 

 of Prof. Osborne Reynolds's " Theory of the L'niverse, " is 

 discussed by the late Prof. J. D. Everett in the Philosophical 

 Magazine for July. In the review of Prof. Reynolds's 

 work, which appeared in Nature, attention was directed to 

 the fact that the arrangement of spheres consistent with 

 minimum volume is not unique. Prof. Everett's paper states 

 that every system of maximum compactness consists of 

 parallel tiers in triangular arrangement, but each tier can 

 be fitted over the one below in two ways. When two tiers 

 have been placed the piling will be normal if the spheres 

 of the third tier are not vertically above those of the first ; 

 but another arrangement, giving rise to what Prof. Everett 

 called antinormal piling, may be obtained by placing the 

 third tier in the spaces above the first. 



