FrerRuarRyY 11, 1904} 
NATURE 347 
o 
toms, so far as it is possible to judge, resembling those 
in man, at any rate with identical changes found in the 
brain after death. The problem of the nature of the 
disease was thus solved in a very short space of time 
by this brilliant piece of work. 
Of the treatment of sleeping sickness there is nothing 
to be said. No drug or other mode of treatment has any 
effect; the disease is always fatal. It is possible that 
in prevention more hope may be put; for the tsetse flies 
irequent thick jungle and shun open ground. A com- 
plete study of their habits will be necessary before one 
can express a definite opinion; but here, as in the 
problem of mosquito extermination, the task will prob- 
ably be no easy one. 
The illustrations represent (Fig. 1) trypanosomes 
from a case of sleeping sickness, after Bruce; (Fig. 2) a 
tsetse fly (Glossina palpalis) x 3, after Austen. 
J. W. W. STEPHENS. 
RADIO-TELLURIUM. 
CCORDING to a Press account of a recent lecture 
in Vienna, Prof. Marckwald illustrated in many 
striking and novel ways the intense activity of the body 
isolated by him from the Joachimsthal pitchblende and 
named radio-tellurium. The ionisation of the air in the 
immediate vicinity of the active substance is so intense 
that a current sufficiently strong to ring an electric 
bell was enabled to pass through it, the air forming 
part of the circuit. If a sheet of paper is interposed to 
screen the air from the rays of the preparation the effect 
ceases immediately and the bell stops ringing. Leyden 
jars were discharged without sparking by the sub- 
stance, and other evidences of its great discharging 
power shown. All these effects were produced by a 
few hundredths of a milligram of the substance. Even 
the most active preparations of radio-tellurium, it is 
stated, are not self-luminous. 
Prof. Marckwald obtained less than four milligrams 
of his substance from two tons of pitchblende. At first 
electrolytic methods were employed, but afterwards it 
was found that the active substance is completely de- 
posited on a plate of bismuth or copper immersed for 
some days in the solution. The actual deposit consists 
almost entirely of ordinary tellurium, which possesses 
the power, so common in similar cases, of carrying 
down with it during the deposition the minute trace of 
active matter which is responsible for the radio-activity. 
The active constituent is separated from the tellurium 
by precipitating the solution with hydrazin hydrate. 
The tellurium precipitated is inactive, and the new body 
remains in the solution. 
Prof. Marckwald is, however, alone in considering it 
to be a new substance. The radiations from it consist 
only of the « or non-penetrating variety, and this is the 
characteristic feature of polonium, discovered by Mme. 
Curie, who has protested against the name radio- 
tellurium being given to the body described by Prof. 
Marckwald. The activity of polonium, however, 
gradually decays, diminishing to half-value in about a 
year, whereas Prof. Marckwald states that the activity 
of his body is permanent. He also states, however, that 
the « radiation of the body is so powerful that he 
obtained sufficient light by the impact of the rays on a 
screen of phosphorescent zinc sulphide to be plainly 
visible to an audience of several hundred people. These 
two statements seem to be physically irreconcilable 
according to our present knowledge of the nature of 
the a rays, and it is to be hoped that Prof. Marckwald 
will give some account of the measurements by which 
he has concluded that the activity of radio-tellurium is 
permanent. Without in any way detracting from the 
NO. 1789, VOL. 69] 
merit of his splendid researches on the nature of the 
active substance, most men of science will agree with 
Mme. Curie in protesting against a new name being 
given to it in the present state of our knowledge. The 
practice of rechristening well-known bodies and send- 
ing them back to the country of their origin with new 
names and as new discoveries, which seems to be pre- 
valent among some German organic chemists, would, 
if adopted in the case of the radio-active bodies, lead to 
the recognised number being exactly doubled. 
FREDERICK SODDY. 
NOTES. 
Tur article on the new education authority for London, 
which we print elsewhere in this issue, directs attention to 
a matter of vital importance to the educational interests of 
London. The County Council has approved a scheme by 
which the Education Committee concerned with the whole 
of the work of secondary education in London is to be made 
up practically of county councillors, without any persons 
possessing expert knowledge of science, art, literature, or 
education upon it, selected from outside the council. This 
committee, if approved by the Board of Education, would 
differ from the educational authorities appointed by county 
councils in most parts of the country, and appears contrary 
to the intentions of the Act under which it is constituted. 
Doubtless expert opinion will be obtained by the council, 
but the danger is that a committee constituted like that pro- 
posed for London may not know when expert guidance 
is necessary, and can certainly not be in sympathetic touch 
with all the lines along which educational progress should 
be made. The only way by which the interests of higher 
education in London can be satisfactorily represented is by 
the appointment of persons with special knowledge upon the 
committee ; and by neglecting this factor of success in order 
to avoid the sectarian difficulty which might be involved in 
the selection of men and women outside the council to serve 
upon the committee is in our opinion a serious mistake. 
Tue gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society has 
this year been awarded to Prof. G. E. Hale, director of 
the Yerkes Observatory, for his method of photographing 
the solar surface and other astronomical work. The presi- 
dent of the society, Prof. H. H. Turner, will deliver the 
address at the anniversary meeting on Friday, February 12. 
The American Ambassador will be present at the meeting, 
and receive the medal on behalf of Prof. Hale. 
Tue sudden death of Mr. W. G. McMillan, the secretary 
of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, announced last 
week, will be widely regretted. Mr. McMillan was laid 
up with a chill a short time ago, which developed into an 
attack of pleurisy, but he seemed to be well on the way to 
recovery when his sudden death from heart failure took 
place on January 31. Mr. McMillan, after a distinguished 
career at King’s College, was appointed to a post under 
the Indian Government as chemist and metallurgist to the 
Ordnance Factories near Calcutta. This position he held 
for five years, and on his return to England he was elected 
to the lectureship in metallurgy at Mason College, Birming- 
which position he held until 1897, when he was 
secretary of the Institution of Electrical 
Mr. McMillan has written largely on electro- 
subjects, his ‘‘ Treatise on Electrometal- 
lurgy ’’ and his translation of Dr. Borcher’s ‘‘ Electro- 
metallurgy ’’ being the standard English works on this 
branch; he recently contributed the articles on electro- 
chemistry and electrometallurgy to the new volumes of the 
ham, 
appointed 
Engineers. 
metallurgical 
” 
