APRIL 14, 1904] 
likely to return to England before the autumn. It is ex- 
pected that the relief ships Morning and Terra Nova will 
sail direct for home. 
A REeEvuTEeR message from Montreal, dated April 7, states 
that “‘ The Board of Trade has decided to take steps to 
second the proposal of the London Chamber of Commerce 
to organise tours throughout Canada for English university 
graduates, as moved at the Congress of Chambers of Com- 
merce held last summer.’’ 
THE opening meeting of the Sociological Society will be 
held at the School of Economics and Political Science, Clare 
Market, W.C., on Monday next, April 18, when Dr. E. 
Westermarck will read a paper on woman in early civilisa- 
tion. The following papers have also been arranged :— 
May 16, Mr. Francis Galton, F.R.S., on eugenics: its 
definition, scope and aims; June 20, Prof. E. Durkheim 
and Mr. V. Branford, on sociology and the social sciences ; 
July 18, Mr. Patrick Geddes, on _ civics applied 
sociology. 
as 
M. ve FONVIELLE writes that at a recent meeting of French 
meteorologists in Paris M. Bouquet de la Grye delivered an 
address in which he referred to the extent of the work: of the 
French meteorological service. The number of stations in 
connection with the service sending observations twice daily 
to Paris is 126, of which 72 are in foreign parts and 7 are 
mountain observatories. During 1903 it appears that sixty 
storms visited the coasts of France, of which fifty were 
announced by telegrams. Ninety per cent. of the storm 
warnings published in the Press were verified. During the 
same year the meteorological kites reached the great height 
of 5960 metres. The conclusion of the speech of M. Bouquet 
de la Grye was devoted to the work of Sir Norman Lockyer 
on the connection between solar and terrestrial phenomena. 
Some of the effects produced by the high altitudes 
traversed by the Tibet expedition were referred to last 
week (p. 540). Imperfectly cooked food caused indigestion 
among the troops, and congealed oil led to difficulties with 
the magazines of the rifles. Commenting upon these points 
a correspondent of the Times remarks :—‘ Any tiro 
physical science could have told the military authorities 
that at 15,000 feet above the sea oil ceases to be a lubricant 
and becomes a clog. Also that the temperature of water 
boiling in an open vessel falls roughly two degrees Fahren- 
heit for every 1000 feet you ascend. He could also have 
given the remedy in both cases. Our men ought to have 
had pure glycerine to lubricate the locks of their rifles and 
Maxims. They ought to have had cooking-pots with air- 
tight lids furnished with simple safety valves blowing off 
at a pressure of 15 lb. on the square inch. Then they would 
have had no trouble either with rifles or cooking. The 
tiro could also have pointed out that the elasticity of springs, 
and especially of certain kinds of spring, is greatly affected 
by temperature, and that it would have been well to test 
the Maxims at such temperatures as they would certainly 
laave to encounter.”’ 
in 
Tue Deutsche Seewarte has made a very useful addition 
to its international ten-day weather report by the issue 
of charts showing, for 8h. a.m. each day, the dis- 
tribution of atmospheric pressure over the North Atlantic 
between the continents of North America and Europe by 
means of isobaric lines, with arrows denoting wind direc- 
tion and force. The positions of the areas of high and low 
barometric pressure are plainly shown, and are the more 
interesting and valuable from the fact of the publication 
of the charts so soon after date. The supplement to the 
NO. 1798, Vol.. 69] 
NATURE 
565 
weather report of April 1 last, for instance, contains the 
daily isobaric charts for March 1-10, together with tabular 
statements as hitherto of the ten-day results of pressure, 
temperature, and rainfall at stations in. North America, 
Europe, and intermediate islands. 
IN several papers descriptions have recently appeared of 
a ‘* novel method of electric traction,’’ in which the current 
is employed to generate steam in an ordinary locomotive 
boiler by means of an electric furnace. The system is 
obviously very wasteful of power from a thermodynamic 
point of view, and those who wish to learn what the waste 
would amount to under actual conditions will find a letter 
on the subject, by Mr. Arnold G. Hansard, in Knowledge 
and Scientific News for April. 
AN interesting account of the Imperial University of 
Tokyo is contributed to a recent number of the Popular 
Science Monthly by Mr. Naohidé Yatsu. It will probably 
interest European readers to learn that “‘in so remote a 
time as the eighth century a university had already been 
established in Japan that included such modern divisions as 
schools of medicine, ethics, mathematics, history, and that 
some of the text-books employed at that remote period dealt 
with such subjects as the diseases of women, materia medica 
and veterinary surgery, types of text-books which appear to 
have been unknown in European countries until about 1000 
years later.’” 
A RECENT number of the Revue générale des Sciences con- 
tains a short note on the Arnold electropneumatic system of 
traction, the object of which is to overcome the difficulties 
connected with electric traction by alternating currents con- 
sequent on the variable velocity of the train. The motor 
in this case consists of a stator and a rotor, of which the 
latter is directly fixed to the axle of the wheel. The stator 
is, however, free to rotate, but by doing so it operates on 
a condensing pump connected with an air engine, which 
in its turn works on the wheels. When the train is running 
at a speed corresponding to synchronism, the stator remains 
at rest, and the apparatus then works like an ordinary 
alternate current motor. In starting the train, on the other 
hand, the pneumatic action is brought into play, the 
necessary synchronism being maintained by the rotation of 
the stator. 
A paper has been communicated to the Vienna Academy 
by Dr. N. Herz on a generalisation of the so-called 
‘‘ problem of eight points.’ The problem may be stated 
as follows:—If from any four points the twelve angles 
subtended by four objects are measured, or if from any 
three points the twelve angles subtended by five points 
are measured, then the relative positions of the eight points 
are completely determined. “The importance of the problem 
is obvious in connection with the photographic survey of 
unexplored districts, as by comparing the relative positions 
of the same five objects on three different plates, a plan of 
the region can be constructed with greater precision than 
is possible with sketches. 
Tue catalogue of additions to the library of the Botanic 
Gardens, Kew, received during 1903, forms appendix ii. to 
the Bulletin and is printed as usual on one side of the paper 
only, so that the titles may be cut out if desired. 
A paMpuLet dealing with diseases of the sugar cane has 
been received from the Imperial Department of Agriculture 
for the West Indies. This contains the substance of three 
lectures delivered by Mr. Lewton-Brain, the official 
mycologist in Barbados, in which special consideration was 
given to the rind and root diseases. As Sir Daniel Morris 
