FEBRUARY 18, 1904] 
NATURE 
375 
At the fourth monthly dinner of the London Chamber of 
Commerce on February 10, a discussion took place on 
“British Industrial Neglect of Applied Science.’’ Sir 
Arthur Riicker occupied the chair; and in opening the de- 
bate said it was no doubt true that there had been in the 
past a certain want of appreciation on the part of English 
commerce, of that careful scientific training for those who 
were to take the leading parts in it, which was characteristic 
of education in some other countries. They had to ask 
themselves why it was that in this country the trained uni- 
versity man was not in the same demand in industrial circles 
as he was, for instance, in America; why it was that the 
- right article was not asked for; and whose was the fault 
that it was not supplied. The matter of crucial importance 
was the fact that it was absolutely necessary to draw the 
educationist and the business man closer together. Among 
the subsequent speakers were Sir William Anson, Sir 
William Ramsay, Prof. Armstrong, and Prof. Meldola. 
IN connection with the centenary of the Royal Philo- 
sophical Society of Glasgow, Mr. G. T. Beilby delivered a 
lecture on ‘“‘ Advances in Chemical Industry during the 
Nineteenth Century ’’ in the hall of the society on February 
10. Summing up the position of chemical industry, Mr. 
Beilby remarked that it was evident that its widely inter- 
national character, and its close touch with the most recent 
advances in chemistry, physics, engineering, and even with 
certain branches of biology, was making the position of its 
leaders a more and more exacting one. It was therefore 
imperative that the men who were to take the lead in the 
immediate future should be prepared with an equipment 
which would enable them to work, either in alliance or in 
competition, with the best men of any other nation. Re- 
ferring to Mr. Chamberlain’s recent injunction to the 
financiers in the City of London “*‘ to think Imperially,’’ Mr. 
Beilby proposed to his fellow-workers in applied science that 
they should strive ‘‘to think scientifically and _ inter- 
nationally,’ in order that they might be prepared to measure 
themselves, not against the men of any narrow class or 
nationality, but against the best workers of the world. 
Tue Great Northern and City Railway was opened to 
traffic at the beginning of this week. We gave a few 
particulars of this new tube on the occasion of its comple: 
tion a few weeks ago. Certain alterations in connection 
with the signalling arrangements which were required by 
the Board of Trade had, however, to be made before the 
railway could be thrown open to the public. 
A CORRESPONDENT sends us a cutting from the Homeo- 
pathic World of January 1 in which it is stated that Prof. 
Wm. Harvey King, of New York, and Mr. Hammer have 
found that if a tube containing radium is immersed in water 
for a time, the water becomes radio-active and is capable 
of affecting a photographic plate. Prof. King is said to be 
testing the therapeutic value of water that has thus been 
subjected to the action of radium. 
In Nature of October 22, 1903 (vol. Ixviii. p. 599), a 
peculiar kind of lightning was described by Prof. W. H. 
Everett, its remarkable feature being that it ascended in 
rocket fashion from a cloud into clear sky. Referring to 
the observations of flashes of ordinary character described 
by Mr. W. A. Lee in Nature of January 7 (p. 224), Prof. 
Everett writes to say there could be no mistake about the 
rocket-like flashes seen by Prof. P. Bruhl and himself. 
Prof. Bruhl, in confirming the observations, says :—‘‘ The 
three main characteristics of those flashes were that they 
were unbranched, that they passed upwards into the clear 
sky, and, what is probably connected therewith, their dura- 
tion was undoubtedly longer than that of ordinary flashes.”’ 
NO. 1790, VOL. 69] 
A MEETING of the Nagri Sabha, Benares, for the com- 
pilation of an authoritative Hindi dictionary of scientific 
terms was held, the Pioneer Mail states, early in January. 
| The glossaries prepared by the Sabha of the mathematical, 
| died in 1557 
the astronomical, the philosophical, and the chemical 
terminologies were revised and finished. The revision of 
the first three was, comparatively, an easy task, on account 
of the existence of suitable Sanskrit equivalents, but the dis- 
cussion on the chemical glossary was more protracted. 
| Most of the English names of elements were adopted with 
slight Hindised forms, as, for instance, Karb for carbon, 
Sphur {cr phosphorus. The committee could not come to 
an agreement as regards a suitable Hindi term for oxygen. 
More than seven names were suggested, but each one was 
considered unsuitable and was rejected. It was finally re- 
solved to consult Drs. J. C. Bose and P. C. Ray, of Calcutta, 
and Prof. Deshmukh, of Bombay, on the point. 
THE report of the medical officer of health for the City 
of London for the six weeks ending December 31 is mainly 
occupied with a review of the fourth report of the Royal 
Commission on Sewage. Dr. Collingridge is in general 
agreement with the remedial measures there suggested for 
dealing with polluted shell-fish, but considers that the con- 
trolling authority for the Thames should be the Corpor- 
ation of London as Port Sanitary Authority so far as their 
jurisdiction over the river now extends, The remainder of 
the report contains the statistical data and records of the 
seizures of sewage-polluted shell-fish. 
In addition to the articles of a more technical character 
| in the December (1903) number of the Johns Hopkins 
Hospital Bulletin (vol. xiv., No. 153), Dr. C. A. Herter 
writes pleasantly of the influence of Pasteur on medical 
science. He remarks that the most significant feature 
perhaps of Pasteur’s contributions to medicine is their direct 
dependence on the principles of physics and chemistry, and 
that sound medicine must rest on sound biological concep- 
tions. It is also announced that it is proposed to found a 
memorial to Major Walter Reed, to whom in a large degree 
is due the discovery of the mode in which yellow fever is 
spread by the mosquito. 
Or new journals there would seem to be no end, two of 
the latest additions being the Archivio di Fisiologia, edited 
by Prof. Fano, of Florence, and the Journal of Infectious 
Diseases, edited by Dr. Hektoen and Mr. Jordan. The 
former will deal especially with experimental physiology. 
| The Journal of Infectious Diseases has been established in 
connection with the Memorial Institute for Infectious 
Diseases, Chicago, by the munificence of Mr. and Mrs. 
Harold F. McCormick. It will be devoted to the publi- 
cation of original investigations dealing with the general 
phenomena, causation and prevention of infective diseases. 
The first number (January) is a volume of 200 pages, ex- 
cellently printed and well illustrated, and contains a number 
of papers interest and the 
cultivation of Trypanosoma Brucei, by Messrs. Novy and 
McNeal; spotted fever, by Messrs. Wilson and Chowning ; 
a study of thyrotoxic serum, by Mr. Portis; changes in the 
bacterial flora of by Messrs. Winslow and 
Belcher, &c. 
An addition to the fragmentary information now exist- 
ing concerning the life of Nicold Tartaglia is discussed by 
M. V. Yonni-Bazza in the Atti dei Lincei. Tartaglia, who 
at the age of fifty-seven, is best known to modern 
mathematicians for the part he played in the resolution of 
the cubic equation, and the document in question is an 
application for the copyright of the work which Tartaglia 
issued in 1546 entitled ‘‘ Quesiti et inuentioni diverse.” 
of considerable value, e.g. 
sewage, 
