January ib, 19 19] 



NATURE 



397 



li nts entering the third year of the curriculum 

 who hate given promise of distinction in the lirst and 

 iminations. 

 The same professor has also established a prize of 

 . to be awarded every three years, for an 

 ii distinction (worthy to be published) on some 

 subject relating to the history of medicine. Candi- 

 dates must I)'- graduates in medicine of the University 



Intimation has also been given of substantial gifts 

 for the foundation of lectureships in diseases of infants 

 children in connection with the Royal Hospital for 

 Sirk Children on Yorkhill, adjoining the- University, 

 which was opened by his Majesty the King in Jury, 

 1914. 

 The number oi students attending the classes in 

 ce and medicine has increased so greatly that, 

 in order to provide accommodation for men refea 

 from war service, who have the first claim on the 

 University, it has been intimated that admission to 

 the I: the beginning of the summer 



On in April cannot be guaranteed to freshmen not 

 alread\ matriculated. 



Mrs. Alice Jackson has bequeathed 1000/. to the 

 University of Shi t'ti. Id lor the Arthur Jackson chair 

 of anatomy. 



I hi examination for the 1919 scholarship of the 

 North-East Coast Institution of Engineers and Ship- 

 builders (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) will he held in Septem- 

 ber next, and copies of the regulations and other par- 

 ticulars may be had on application to the secretary of 

 the institution, Bolbec Hall, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 

 The scholarship is of the annual value of 50L, and 

 tenable for two years. 



'['11: Bureau of Education (Department of the 



ior) of the United States, with a view to a com- 

 cai ipaign for the support of the schools 



tir the maintenance upon them, has arran^i d 

 since July last to issue bi-monthly a journal entitled 

 School Life, llv second number contains a letter 

 from the President, in the course of which he savs : 

 "That there should be no falling-off in attendance in 

 elementary schools, high schools, or colleges is a 

 matter of the ven greatest importance affecting both 

 our strength in war and our national efficiency when 

 the war is over." "After the war," he goes on to 

 "there will be urgent need, not onlv for trained 

 ■ ship in all lines of industrial, commercial, social, 

 and civic life, but for a very high average of intel- 

 ligence and preparation on the part of all the people " ; 

 and he urges " the people to continue to give generous 

 support to their schools of all grades, and that the 

 schools adjust themselves as wiselj as possible to the 

 new conditions, to the end that no boy or girl shall 

 have less opportunity for education because of the 

 war, and tl n maj be strengthened, as it 



nh be, through the light education of all its 

 people." These are wise and weighty words such as 

 may he expected from President Wilson in this 

 supreme hour of his country's history, and indicate the 

 faith which the nation firmly holds in the place ami 

 value of education as the bedrock of its progress 



Is the realisation of its ideals. "Germany," savs 

 the U.S. Com Foj Education, " has made herself 



a composite, compact, purposeful nation by methods 

 of education, as well as by authority. We can make 

 ourselves a compact, purposeful nation and impose 

 no authority other than the compelling influence of 

 affection, sympathy, understanding, and education." 

 Th»> journal is full of interesting matter, both 



NO. 2568, VOL. I02] 



domestic and foreign, dealing with various aspects of 

 education. It is mailed free to all administrative 

 officials throughout the States, and furnished to the 

 schools, single or in quantities, at 50 cents per annum. 

 Free libraries in this country would be well advised 

 to supply their reading-rooms with copi.s. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Physical Society, November 22, 1918. — Prof. C. H. 



Lees, president, in the chair. — A. Campbell; (9 The 

 linguistic nomenclature of scientific writers. The note 

 insists on the importance of clear and urn istent 

 nomenclature and the avoidance of foreign plural 

 forms, such as media, genera, radiivectores , etc. The 

 term pulsatance is suggested as a suitable name for 

 2.tX frequency. (2) Low-frequency microphone hum- 

 mers. The note describes the conditions of mechanical 

 loading, capacitance, and position which the author 

 has found give successful working at low frequencies. 

 (;,) A simple tuning-fork generator for sine-wave alter- 

 nating currents. The arrangement consists of an 

 electrically maintained tuning-fork, to one prong of 

 which is attached a small thin coil with its axis per- 

 pendicular to the direction of motion of the prong. 

 As the fork vibrates the coil oscillates in the field of 

 .1 fixed horseshoe magnet, and an approximated sinu- 

 soidal E.M.F. is set up in the coil. The frequency 

 with the apparatus shown was io 1/1 per second. 

 (4) A method of comparing tuning-forks of low fre- 

 quency and of determining their damping decrements. 

 The method consists in putting the windings of the 

 maintaining magnets in series with each other and 

 with a sensitive vibration galvanometer. The beats 

 are clearly shown by the pulsations of the band of 

 light on the scale. 



Royal Microscopical Society, December iS, 1918. — Mr. 

 J. E. Barnard, president, in the chair. — Lt.-Col. Aldo 

 Castellani : Tropical diseases in the Balkanic war zone. 

 (1) Tropical diseases are quite common in the Balkanic 

 zone. (2) The most important and the commonest of 

 all is malaria, which is often of a very malignant type, 

 and may simulate many other diseases. (3) Next to 

 malaria, the amoebic and bacillarv dysenteries are the 

 most common affections. Causes of enteritis due to 

 flagellates, and rarely to ciliates, occur. Coccidiosis 

 has been observed. Cholera and paracholera have 

 been rare. (4) Camp jaundice detents castrensis) is 

 common. (5) Fevers of the enteric group are fairly 

 frequent in the Balkans, but during the last three 

 years have never assumed an epidemic type. Para- 

 typhoid A and B are in certain districts more fre- 

 quently met with than true typhoid. Paratyphoid and 

 similar fevers due to intermediate germs are not rare. 

 (6) Malta fever is rare in Macedonia and the interior 

 of the Balkanic zone; it is more frequently met with 

 on the coast and in the islands. (7) Kala-azar of 

 adults is absent in the Balkans ; of the infantile type 

 many cases are seen in, certain islands of the Adriatic 

 and /Egean Seas. Tn Macedonia it is rare. (8) Re- 

 lapsing fever is quite common. In the treatment of 

 the malady the best results were obtained by using a 

 combined salvarsan-tartar emetic treatment, (q) Typhus 

 exanthema! ieus is at the present moment vi rv rare, 

 whereas a terrible epidemic raged in 1014-15. Trench 

 fever is occasionally met with; both the types described 

 in France have also occurred in the Balkans. (10) Pap- 

 pataci fever is extremely common in certain parts of 

 the Balkans, especially in the late summer and early 

 autumn. (11) Bronchomvcosis and bronchospiro- 

 chaetosis are far from rare. (12) Pellagra is quite 



