FEBRUARY 4, 1904] 
NATURE 
327 
optical method of radio-actively produced condensation, 4ol. ; 
to Mr. J. A. Dunne, for his research on fluctuations in solar 
activity as evinced by changes in the difference between 
maximum and minimum temperature, 4ol. 
Av the ordinary quarterly meeting of the Royal College 
of Physicians held on January 30, Sir William Church 
announced that Dr. Horace Dobell, of Parkstone Heights, 
Dorset, had presented a sum of 5o0ol. to the college for the 
promotion of original research into the ultimate origin, 
evolution, and life-history of bacilli and other pathogenetic 
micro-organisms. The conditions are that the president 
and censors of the college shall select a lecturer once in 
every two years, who shall give a record of original re- 
searches on the above subject, made by others and himself, 
and that he shall receive a fee of sol. for so doing. These 
lectures are to be continued biennially, as long as a sufficient 
amount of the 5ool. and its accumulated interest remains. 
The first lecture will be delivered during this year. 
Tue death is announced of Mr. William Vicary, of Exeter, 
who had an intimate acquaintance with the local geology 
and possessed a fine collection of fossils, chiefly from the 
Upper Greensand of Haldon and Blackdown. He first 
directed attention to the occurrence of fossils in the 
quartzites of the Triassic pebble-bed of Budleigh Salterton. 
The death is also announced of Mr. Alfred Gillett, of Street, 
near Glastonbury, in his ninetieth year. He gathered 
together a fine collection of fossils, which he presented in 
1887 to the Crispin Institute at Street. One of the gems, 
however, an almost entire skeleton of Ichthyosaurus 
tenutrostris, obtained from the Lower Lias of Street, and 
personally developed by Mr. Gillett, was presented to the 
British Museum (Natural History). 
News of the sudden death of Miss Anna Winlock, a 
member of the staff of the Harvard College Observatory, 
has reached us from Boston. Miss Winlock’s first official 
computing work at the observatory was done in 1875. Later 
she passed to more advanced work, as she was conversant 
with most branches of mathematics as applied to astronomy, 
had studied various methods of star reduction, and under- 
stood the use of the theory of probabilities. She did a large 
part of the computation for Prof. Rogers’s zone work, of 
which a description is given in vol. xv. of the Annals of 
the observatory. In 1886 Miss Winlock was joint author 
with Prof. Rogers of a paper on ‘‘ The Limitations in the 
Use of Taylor’s Theorem.’’ In connection with the photo- 
graphic worl of the observatory a conyenient catalogue of 
close polar stars was needed, and this work was carried 
out by Miss Winlock for both the north and south poles. 
The result of this work was the most complete catalogue 
of close polar stars ever made, and the best means of com- 
parison of different observations. The next important piece 
of work done by Miss Winlock was the catalogue published 
in the Annals of the observatory of the positions of five 
hundred stars near the North Pole, which had been observed 
photographically. After the discovery of the minor planet 
Eros, some work of the same nature was done by Miss 
Winlock, in determining its precise position from photo- 
graphic plates. Her death deprives astronomy of one whose 
faithful and exact work has a permanent value. 
Messrs. BurrouGHS, WELLCOME AND Co. have issued a 
reprint of the historical souvenir on ‘‘ Antient Cymric 
Medicine ’’ prepared by Mr. Wellcome on the occasion of 
the meeting of the British Medical Association at Swansea, 
1903. The pamphlet, which is profusely illustrated, contains 
much interesting information. 
NO. 1788, VOL. 69] 
Last autumn a commission of the American Marine 
Hospital Service reported that it had discovered a proto- 
zoan parasite, the so-called 
in the yellow fever mosquito, Stegomyia fasciata, that had 
bitten yellow fever patients. Dr. James Carrol now states 
(Journ. Amer. Med. Assoc., November 28, 1903) that this 
Supposed protozoon is merely a yeast fungus accidentally 
infecting the mosquitoes, and has nothing to do with the 
transmission of yellow fever. 
Myxococcidium stegomyiae, 
PopuLar confirmation of the value of scientific methods 
and advice is always welcome. In a letter to the secretary 
of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, the Booth 
Steamship Company gives an extract from the log of its 
steamship /avary. Her captain reports that the mosquito 
nets supplied by the company have been a great boon to the 
men, and that whereas cases of malaria were formerly fre- 
quent, sometimes resulting fatally, since the introduction 
of the nets and their general adoption the crews have 
enjoyed a wonderful immunity from sickness. 
Tue January number of the Journal of Anatomy and 
Physiology (part ii., vol. xviii.) contains a number of papers 
of anthropological, anatomical, physiological, and embryo- 
logical interest, and is illustrated with several plates. Mr. 
Wright describes a number of skulls obtained from the 
round barrows of east Yorkshire, Mr. Lewis discusses the 
functions of the spleen and other h:zemolymph glands, and 
Prof. Elliot Smith publishes a note on an exceptional human 
brain presenting pithecoid abnormality. Prof. Arthur 
Robinson’s first Hunterian lecture on the early stages in the 
development of mammalian ova is printed in extenso, and 
Dr. Beard gives another instalment of his article on the 
germ cells. 
Messrs. A. E. StaLEy AND Co., of 35 Aldermanbury, E.C.. 
have sent us a prism binocular which magnifies eight 
times, and costs five guineas complete in a solid leather 
case. It is strongly made, weighs barely 12 ounces, and 
has a fairly large field of view. It differs from many other 
glasses of this construction in that there is no means of 
altering simultaneously the focus of the two sets of lenses. 
It is intended that each eye-piece should, in the first place, 
be focused carefully on an object situated at a distance 
of about 300 yards, the divisions on each of the eye- 
pieces being carefully noted. For all objects distant 100 
yards or further from the user the glasses are in focus 
without any other manipulation, and are therefore always 
ready and in adjustment. If the glass be employed for 
nearer objects this principle is not satisfactory, for then each 
eye-piece would have to be focused separately, which would 
entail time. The general use of such binoculars is thus 
somewhat restricted, but for those who would employ them 
for such purposes as stalking, yachting, shooting, Xc., and 
who thus do not require shorter ranges than 100 yards or 
so, they should be of service. The elimination of the 
arrangement for focusing both eye-pieces together renders 
it possible to make the glasses lighter, stronger, and more 
secure from derangement. An examination of their interior 
the simplicity of construction, and the definition 
iittle to be desired. 
shows 
leaves 
Tue Atti dei Lincet, xii. (2), 12, contains a biographical 
notice of the late Prof. Luigi Cremona, by Prof. G. 
Veronese, together with a list of his principal writings, 
eighty in number. 
IN a supplement to the Communications from the Leyden 
Physical Laboratory, Dr. J. E. Verschaffelt discusses, with 
a diagram, the form of the Van der Waals Psi surface in 
