October 27, 1904] 



NA TURE 



631 



Or. Doven is stated by the Paris correspondent of the 

 Diii/y Chronicle to have succeeded in isolating a micro- 

 orjjanism in cancer, and to have prepared a curative serum 

 for the disease. It is proposed to institute a committee to 

 investigate Dr. Doyen "s claims and reputed cures. 



.\x appeal to the Danish people was issued at Copenhagen 

 on October i8 for contributions to defray the cost of a 

 monument to the late Prof. Niels Finsen, the discoverer of 

 the light cure, and also for the establishment of a fund to 

 be devoted to scientific and humanitarian purposes in accord- 

 ance with his wishes. 



.\ccoRDixG to the Daily Chronidc of October 17, a speci- 

 men of the water-warbler {Acrocephalus aquaticus) has been 

 taken at Clay-next-the-Sea, Norfolk. Up to the year 1894, 

 at any rate, only three specimens of this warbler were 

 definitely known to "have been taken in Britain, one of 

 these being now in the museum at Dover. 



.\Ir. a. W. Itter informs the Tidics that while an 

 artesian well was being sunk on his property near Ayles- 

 bury, at a depth approaching 500 feet, the whole tackle was 

 blown out of the bore-hole, and after a " noise like thunder," 

 lasting for several minutes, natural g.TS rushed out, and on 

 being ignited burnt with a brilliant light. He states that 

 when he wrote, on October 19, the gas had been issuing 

 for forty-eight hours, and was still pouring out at a pressure 

 of more than 50 lb. to the square inch. 



The Times correspondent at Copenhagen reports that 

 shocks of earthquake were felt at 11. 15 a.m. on October 23 

 throughout the Scandinavian countries. Disturbances 

 occurred almost simultaneously at Stockholm, Christiania, 

 Gothenburg, the northern part of Jutland, Malmo, and 

 Copenhagen. The severest shock was in the Danish town 

 of Aalborg. The earthquake was felt at Skagen, 

 Krederikshavn, Hjorring, and Bronderslev, and in the 

 Island of Laeso, but no serious damage was done. Tele- 

 grams from Christiania show that there was a great panic 

 in the city. 



Tmk British Fire Prevention Committee's programme for 

 the new winter session, which has just commenced, in- 

 cludes the preparation and issue of a report on the great 

 Baltimore conflagration. Further reports will be issued on 

 various tests with sprinklers, lamps, and different forms of 

 partitions. Arrangements are also being made for the 

 organisation of branches of the committee in Canada, 

 .Vustralia, and New Zealand. The committee will assist in 

 the preparation of the " International Technical Dictionary," 

 which is being issued by the German Institution of 

 Engineers, so far as technical terms regarding fire preven- 

 tit)n are concerned. 



.Major Powell Cotton is about to start on another 

 .African expedition. The object of the journey, which is 

 expected to occupy eighteen months, is to explore the ex- 

 tensive country lying between the Nile and the Zambesi. 

 .\fter investigating the Great Forest and the district to the 

 west of Lake Kivu, the region to the west of Tanganyika 



<will be traversed, and the expedition will then proceed south 

 towards Katauga. Major Cotton expects to come out in 

 British territory in Nyasaland, whence he will travel to the 



. coast by the Zambesi. Every facility will be given to Major 

 Cotton by the Belgian Government, and as he will travel 

 the entire length of the Congo State, there is every reason 

 to hope that much may be added to the knowledge of the 

 natural history of this part of -Africa. 

 NO. 1826, VOL. 70] 



.\ coKRESPOXDENT suggests a means of obviating, in 

 the ordinary form of Atwood's machine, the difficulty that 

 the acceleration of the moving system is not constant, but 

 increases continuously as more and more of the string passes 

 over the pulley to the descending side. He proposes to 

 connect the masses on both sides of the pulley to an endless 

 cord, and so to ensure that the total length of string remains 

 the same throughout. 



A REPORT has been received from the members of the 

 sleeping sickness expedition of the Liverpool School of 

 Tropical Medicine. Writing from Lisala, on the Upper 

 Congo, they state that they believe they are leaving the 

 districts where sleeping sickness is rife. Investigations 

 have been made into cattle disease in the Congo Free State, 

 and measures have been devised which, it is hoped, will 

 enable stock to be raised there without difficulty. 



It is stated that craw-craw, a common skin affection on 

 the west coast of .Africa, has made its appearance in 

 Birmingham. The disease is due to a nematode worm 

 allied to the filaria, and it is reported that Mr. J. D. Whittles, 

 lecturer on dental histology and pathology in the University 

 of Birmingham, has detected the worm in the blood of several 

 persons. Confirmation of this observation will be awaited 

 with interest. 



We have received the report of the Glasgow Municipal 

 Commission on the Housing of the Poor. Among the many 

 recommendations contained in it, one suggests that, with 

 the view of encouraging private enterprise to erect suitable, 

 sanitary, and cheap rented houses for the poorer classes, 

 some relaxation of the provisions of the Building Regu- 

 lations Act should be favourably considered by the corpor- 

 ation under proper safeguards. 



In the Scientific Memoirs of the Government of India 

 (No. 11) Lieut. Christophers, I. M.S., gives additional 

 particulars respecting the Leishman-Donovan body or 

 parasite (see Nature, vol. Ixx. p. 534). He states that the 

 bodies described by Wright in tropical ulcer are indis- 

 tinguishable from those found in cases of enlarged spleen 

 in Madras. The bodies may occur in the leucocytes in the 

 peripheral blood, but have not been detected in the red blood 

 cells. 



The " General Report and Statistics of Mines and 

 Quarries," part ii., for 1903, is in many respects interesting 

 reading. The general death rate from accidents of those 

 employed in coal and metalliferous mines shows a steady 

 decrease, having fallen from an average of about 225 per 

 thousand during the years 1873-82 to 1-25 per thousand 

 during the years 1S98-1903. On the other hand, in the 

 Cornish mines, and probably elsewhere, the death rate from 

 phthisis among men from twenty-five to forty-five has very 

 "■reatly increased during the last few years, and is attribu- 

 table to the use of rock drills, which cause much dust. 

 Reference is also made to the outbreak of ankylostomiasis 

 in the Cornish mines. 



From Mr. J. Wheldon, of Great Queen Street, we have 

 received a catalogue of books and papers on invertebrates 

 (other than insects). 



In the October number of Nature Notes the editor com- 

 mences a series of papers on the geology of scenery, dealing 

 in this instance with stratification. 



According to the annual report for 1903-4, the rate of 

 additions to the industrial section (inclusive of ethnology) 

 of the Indian Museum, Calcutta, is such that it is in- 

 creasingly difficult to find space for the accommodation of 



