616 
NATURE 
[APRIL 28, 1904 
On April 23 papers were read by Mr. Boveri, on the steam 
turbine, and by Mr. R. M. Daelen, on the continuous 
open-hearth process. On April 24 Mr. E. Schrédter traced 
the progress of the German iron trade during the twenty- 
five years of the society’s existence. The announcement 
was then made that a gold medal had been instituted, to 
be called the Carl Lueg medal, and to be awarded for con- 
spicuous services to German metallurgy. The first award 
was made to Mr. Lueg. Congratulatory addresses were 
then delivered by representatives of the Government and of 
numerous kindred societies. The Iron and Steel Institute 
was represented by a deputation of the council consisting 
of Mr. A. Tannett-Walker, Mr. A. Greiner, and Mr. B. H. 
Brough. In presenting the illuminated address from the 
institute, Mr. Tannett-Walker made a graceful reference 
to the hospitality received from the German society in 1880 
and in 1902, and read a characteristic letter of congratu- 
lation sent by Mr. Carnegie. 
M. DE FONVIELLE writes :—The fourth congress held by 
the International Committee of Scientific Aérostatics will 
be held at St. Petersburg from Monday, August 29, to 
Saturday, September 3. Prof. Hergesell has sent an 
intimation of the congress to the various delegates of 
France, Italy, Austria, and England. The official invita- 
tions will be sent through the Russian Foreign Office, in 
the name of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, which is to 
make arrangements for the meetings. The object of the 
conference, as resolved at the Berlin session, is to establish 
a permanent office with a regular budget paid by the various 
Governments, similar to the Berne bureau for telegraphy 
and that at Paris for meteorology. The bureau of the com- 
mission is controlling the monthly ascents which are taking 
place at about fourteen different stations situated in France, 
Germany, Russia, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, and Italy. 
Kite ascents are taking place at Boston and in England. 
The results are discussed regularly in a.special publication, 
frequently noticed in Narure, printed at the expense of 
the German Government, which has spent for this purpose 
not less than 18,000 marks, and will continue its work up to 
the end of the forthcoming meeting. 
THE first German congress for experimental psychology 
was held in Giessen on April 18-21. About 130 persons 
accepted the invitation to attend the congress, including 
most of the prominent psychologists of Germany, besides 
physiologists, philosophers, alienists and teachers attached 
to various institutions, and about one hundred attended the 
sittings. Nearly fifty papers were read and discussed, and 
in order to get through this large programme the sittings 
were continued far into the evenings. There was an ex- 
cellent exhibition of apparatus arranged by Dr. Sommer, 
the distinguished professor of psychiatry, who has done so 
much to apply the methods of experimental psychology to 
the investigation of mental diseases. Prof. G. E. Miller, 
of Gottingen, so well known for his accurate investigations 
of the memory, presided over the sittings, and one of the 
most interesting features of the congress was his demon- 
stration and exposition of a case of exceptionally good 
memory. The subject, who is an intelligent and well 
educated man, has, in addition to a remarkable memory, 
principally visual in type, a power of seizing very rapidly 
various arithmetical relations between groups of figures 
presented to him, and this combination of faculties enables 
him to excel all the achievements of Diamanti, Inaudi, and 
the other ‘‘ arithmetical prodigies ’’ that have been investi- 
gated from time to time. It is proposed to institute a 
German association for experimental psychology for the 
NO. 1800, VOL. 69] 
organisation of annual 
research. 
congresses and of cooperative 
Sir WiLi1AM Wuite, the president of the Institution of 
Civil Engineers, and a number of other ‘engineers and 
persons interested in the manufacture and uses of steel, paid 
a visit on April 20 to Hadfield’s Steel Foundry at Sheffield. 
The object of the visit was to inspect the processes adopted 
and to enable the visitors to acquaint themselves with the 
work carried on by the Hadfield Company. The Times. 
of the following day published an appreciative description 
of the enterprise exhibited by the company in numerous. 
directions. In this report great prominence is given to the 
value placed by the Hadfield Company upon scientific labor- 
atory research and upon experimental tests, and this part 
of the article in particular deserves to be read widely. As 
the Times says, ‘‘ Abroad manufacturers have been quick | 
to recognise the need for a fully staffed and equipped re- 
search department, and the amounts expended annually for 
this purpose in some foreign works appear almost incredible. 
It is only by enterprise of this nature, however, that manu- 
facturers can keep in the van of progress, and, properly | 
directed, this so-called * non-productive ’ expenditure brings. 
a rich reward. In Great Britain we have been somewhat 
apt to relegate research work to the laboratories of pro- 
fessors, the manufacturers devoting themselves to what are \ 
styled * practical results.” This divorce of practice and 
theory does not lead to industrial success.’’ We hope with 
Sir William White soon ‘‘ to see the time when the example | 
of Mr. Hadfield will be more widely followed in this. 
country, and when inquiries, both scientific and practical, 
will be carried out on a very large scale in the works of | 
manufacturers all over the country.” 
Tue Weights and Measures Committee of the Hereford— 
shire County Council has had under consideration the Bill | 
introduced in the House of Lords early this session to 
provide for the introduction of the metric system into this. 
country. The committee does not recommend the County 
Council to support the Bill. The report states that the 
committee is of opinion that the subject is so difficult and 
important that it should be dealt with by the Government 
of the day and not by private legislation; that as it stands, 
the Bill does not attempt to meet the serious inconvenience 
and expense necessarily attendant upon the compulsory 
adoption throughout the country of metric weights and— 
measures; that the decimalisation of our coinage is as. 
important as that of our weights and measures, and that 
either without the other is robbed of more than half its 
value., At the same time the committee believes that well 
drawn up and well thought out measures dealing with the 
metric system and with the coinage, and brought in by the 
Government, would command the confidence of the 
country, go through Parliament by a large majority, and 
ultimately benefit both our home and foreign trade. ‘* We 
lag far in the rear of all civilised nations on these 
questions,’’ to quote the report, ‘‘ and all that is wanted, 
to remove from us the stigma of marching a century behind 
the rest of the world, is skilful and thorough treatment of 
them by the Government of the day.”’ 
An address delivered by Dr. R. T. Glazebrook on April. 
21 as president of the Optical Society is printed in the 
Optician and Photographic Trades Review. Dr. Glaze- 
brook pointed out that the success of German manufacturers. 
of optical and other scientific instruments is due to the 
fact that the value of science as a commercial factor is. 
more fully realised there than with us. What the Optical 
Society has to do in order to advance the industry which it 
tae 
