APRIL 7, 1904 | 
MacDougal, and a very interesting and copiously 
illustrated report it is. 
As some of our readers may care to see this 
publication, we may add that it is issued by the 
‘Carnegie Institution of Washington, U.S.A. (publica- 
tion No. 6). 
Vast as is their territory, and numerous as are their 
experimental stations and like institutions, our cousins 
are not yet satisfied. They have invaded British 
territory, in a most genial and friendly manner it is 
true, but still they have annexed, with our consent, a 
portion of the island of Jamaica, and_ there 
they have established, at ‘“‘Cinchona,’’ a botanical 
laboratory and research station open to the students of 
all countries. The direction is in the hands of Dr. 
Britton, of the New York Botanical Garden, in 
cooperation with Mr. Fawcett, the Director of Public 
Gardens and Plantations in the island. The policy 
of the ‘‘open door ’’ pursued by the Americans in 
these matters prevents us from doing anything but 
acquiesce in their proceedings. But why what should 
have been a plain duty for us should “have been 
allowed to be undertaken by others is a mystery. 
We do not question the utility of ironclads and 
‘cruisers as protectors of our commerce, but it is 
obvious to those who are watching the proceedings of 
‘our neighbours and of our rivals that if we do not 
largely extend our scientific training and induce our 
wealthy citizens to follow the example of their 
American brethren in endowing science, the necessity 
for protection will vanish, and that not slowly. 
NOTES. 
RECOGNISING the great and immediate importance of in- 
vestigation of the nature and properties of radium and radio- 
active bodies, the court of the Goldsmiths’ Company recently 
signified its willingness to hand over a sum of rooo0l. to 
the Royal Society to constitute a radium research fund. 
The council of the Royal Society at once accepted the duty 
of administering this grant, and ordered the cordial thanks 
of the society to be transmitted to the Goldsmiths’ Company 
Tor its generous and timely subvention to scientific re- 
search. Proposals relating to the method of utilising the 
fund for the assistance of scientific investigation have at the 
same time been communicated to the company for its 
approval. 
Tue fiftieth anniversary of Sir H. E. Roscoe’s graduation 
at Heidelberg is to be celebrated on April 22 by a reception 
at the Whitworth Hall, Manchester, at which a congratu- 
latory address will be presented from his old pupils, as well 
as addresses from a number of universities, colleges and 
learned societies. In connection with this occasion efforts 
have been made to communicate with as many as possible 
ot the chemical students of the Owens College from 1856- 
1886. If any of these have been inadvertently overlooked 
- they are requested to send their addresses as soon as possible 
to Dr. G. H. Bailey, the Owens College, Manchester. 
Tue second annual meeting of the South African Associ- 
ation for the Advancement of Science was opened at 
Johannesburg on Monday, when Sir Charles Metcalfe de- 
livered the inaugural address. Lord Milner occupied the 
chair. 
WE learn from the Times that the Canadian Government 
has purchased the steamer Gauss, which was built three 
years ago for the German Antarctic Expedition, and the 
vessel is now in Bremen Harbour. The Gauss is to be 
commanded by Captain Bernier and a picked Canadian 
crew, and is to be employed at once in conveying relief 
NO. 1797, VOL. 69] 
‘NATURE 
569 
stores and coal to. the Government steamer Neptune, at pre- 
sent wintering in Hudson Bay. Subsequently she will be 
engaged in survey work on the coast of Labrador. Captain 
Bernier hopes to be able to utilise the Gauss in 1905 in an 
attempt to reach the North Pole from Canada, 
Tue annual meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute of 
Great Britain will be held on Thursday and Friday, May 
5 and 6. Upon that occasion the Bessemer gold medal for 
1904 will be presented to Mr. R. A. Hadfield, vice-president, 
and the awards of the Andrew Carnegie gold medal and 
research scholarships for 1904 will be announced. 
On Tuesday next, April 12, Prof. L. C. Miall will deliver 
the first of three lectures at the Royal Institution on the 
transformations of animals, and on Thursday, April 14, 
Prof. Dewar will commence a course of three lectures on 
dissociation. The Friday evening discourse on April 15 will 
be delivered by Count Way de Vaya on Korea and the 
Koreans, and on April 22 by Colonel David Bruce on sleep- 
ing sickness in Uganda. 
Tue foundation stone of a library which will be erected 
the British School at Athens as a 
memorial to the late Mr. F. C. Penrose, F.R.S., says the 
Athens correspondent of the Daily Chronicle, was laid last 
week by Lady Evans, in the presence of a distinguished 
gathering of diplomats and savants. The Greek Archz- 
ological Society has offered to present the Penrose Library 
with a bust of Mr. Penrose, in recognition of his great 
scrvices to architecture and archeology. 
in connection with 
Tue death is announced of Prof. Arthur Greeley, professor 
of biology at Washington University, St. Louis. 
M. Jean Deprousse has bequeathed an annual revenue 
of thirty thousand francs to the Institute of France “in the 
interests of letters, sciences and arts.’’ At a recent special 
meeting the institute decided, says La Nature, to devote 
five thousand francs to the publication of lunar tables. 
Tur British Medical Journal states that Sir Michael 
Foster, F.R.S., has given notice that on April 12, the day 
on which Parliament reassembles after the Easter recess, 
he will ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether oppor- 
tunity will be given to discuss in the House of Commons, 
before action is taken, the portion of the report of the War 
Office (Reconstitution) Committee which bears on the health 
of the army. 
REUTER reports that repeated slight shocks of earthquakes 
were felt at Belgrade during the morning of April 4. A 
message from Philippopolis states that three earthquake 
shocks, the severest experienced during the last fifty years, 
were felt there between midday and 1 p.m. on April 4. 
The disturbance, which was from west to east, was accom- 
panied by a loud rumbling noise; little damage was done 
to buildings in the city. Earthquake shocks are also re- 
ported to have occurred at several places in Greece on 
April 5 
Mr. Joun Paterson writes to the Times that on a voyage 
from New York to Plymouth on Bete 29, 1903, in lati- 
tude N. 49° 43’, longitude W. 25° 35/, he threw into the 
Atlantic a mineral water bottle in which a note was en- 
closed. In a letter dated March 23 Mr. Paterson was in- 
formed that the bottle was found on the shore of the bay 
of Trevignon, near Concarneau, in Brittany, at high-water 
mark of the ordinary tides. Concarneau is in latitude 
° so! N. and longitude 4° W., so that the bottle travelled 
in an easterly direction 21° 35! of longitude and went south 
1° 53/ of latitude from the place where thrown into the 
sea. 
