134 
NATURE 
[DECEMBER 10, 1896 
menced at Montreal, and giving valuable details as to ways of 
reaching the Dominion, and the cost of the journey. It may be 
remembered that the Association will meet on Tuesday, August 
31, and three following days. 
for several reasons, the most important being that the British 
Association meets in Toronto from August 18 to 27. It will 
thus be possible for those who can spare the time to attend both 
meetings. 
Ir is proposed to hold an international electrical exhibition at 
Turin in 1898. The Executive Committee and the Special Com- 
mission invite exhibits from all parts of the world, and the 
exhibition will comprise the following classes : (1) Apparatus for 
teaching electro-technics ; (2) materials for the conduction of 
electricity ; (3) instruments for electric and magnetic measure- 
ments; (4) telegraphs and telephones ; (5) signalling apparatus 
and safety appliances on railways, lighting and heating of 
carriages ; (6) dynamos and motors ; (7) mechanical appliances 
and electric traction’; (8) electric lighting ; (9) electro-chemistry 
and electro-metallurgy ; (10) miscellaneous ; (11) apparatus of 
historic interest. Signor Galileo Ferraris has been appointed 
President of the Commission. 
DwRING the past week this country has been visited with 
very severe gales, the greatest violence of which seems to have 
been felt on the South Coast. The reports issued by the 
Meteorological Office show that on the morning of the 4th 
instant the centre of a very deep depression suddenly 
appeared near the mouth of the English Channel, and 
advanced eastwards to the Channel Islands, where the 
barometer fell as low as 28°32 inches. During the night the 
storm changed its direction and moyed northwards over 
England, while the wind increased to a whole gale from the 
southward, accompanied with heavy rain, and very high seas. 
In the neighbourhood of London the maximum wind force 
was registered at about I a.m. on the 5th, or between two 
and three hours after the time of the destruction of the Chain 
Pier at Brighton. The pressure recorded by the anemometer 
at the Royal Observatory was 18 lbs. on the square foot, which 
is equivalent to a velocity of about seventy-eight miles in 
the hour. 
Tue death of Prof. Emil von Wolff, in his seventy-eighth 
year, has just taken place at Stuttgart. The Zzwes gives the 
following particulars of his career: ‘* Born at Flensburg in 1818, 
he took his doctor’s degree in the University of Berlin in 1843, 
and in the same year he was appointed assistant in the chemical 
laboratory in the University of Halle. Four years later he 
became instructor in chemistry at the agricultural institute at 
Brésa, near Bautzen. After passing some years at Mockern, 
near Leipzig, at the first agricultural experiment station ever 
founded in Germany, he was in 1854 called to the chair of 
Agricultural Chemistry at the Royal Agricultural College, 
Hohenheim, Wurtemberg. This post he retained for the rest 
of his life, so that he occupied the chair for a period of forty- 
two years. In 1868 he published a work dealing with practical 
systems of manuring, and six years later appeared the work 
which has made his name known throughout the world ; this 
was his ‘ Landwirtschaftliche Fiitterungslehre,’ in which he 
dealt with farm foods and the rational feeding of farm animals. 
Since then the work has run through half-a-dozen editions, and 
has been translated into various languages, though long before 
any complete translation was attempted his tables of analyses of 
foods had been adapted to and incorporated with many volumes 
published in England, France, and the United States. As an 
authority on animal nutrition and the composition of foods Wolff 
stood pre-eminent, and all of the methods of the so-called 
rational feeding of live stock trace their origin to him and to the 
enthusiasm of the many students whom he trained during the 
last half-century.” 
NO. [415, VOL. 55] 
This date has been decided upon. 
A COMPETITION between heavy vehicles propelled by auto- 
matic traction is being organised by the Automobile Club of 
Paris; and in order that the makers of all kinds of cars, 
waggons, and similar vehicles should have plenty of time to pre- 
pare for the contest, which is open to all the world, the official 
programme has already been issued. The contest is to be for 
vehicles transporting passengers and goods on the high roads 
not in direct communication with railways, and it is to be held 
over roads in the vicinity of Paris on July 1, and five following 
A committee will be appointed to see how the competing 
vehicles work, whether they stop readily on the inclines, what 
speed they attain up and down hill, and, in a word, to judge 
how far they are likely to be of practical use. The prizes will 
be awarded with special reference to these qualifications. In 
order further to encourage makers of motors to compete, the 
Automobile Club will prepare an official report of the trials, 
and send it to all the civil engineers, industrial companies, and) 
mayors in France. Entries may be made, and full particulars 
obtained from the Secretary of the Automobile Club, Place de 
VOpéra, Paris. 
days. 
Ar the Royal Institution, on Monday, the special thanks of 
the members were returned to the Duke of Northumberland, 
K.G., President of the Institution, for a donation of 200/. to 
the fund for the promotion of experimental research at low 
temperatures ; to Colonel Coleridge Grove for a bust of his 
father, the late Sir William Grove ; and also to Prof. Dewar, 
for a marble pedestal for the bust. The following are among 
the lecture arrangements at the Institution before Easter :— 
Prof. S. P. Thompson, six lectures (adapted to a juvenile 
auditory) on light, visible and invisible ; Prof. Augustus D. 
Waller, twelve lectures on animal electricity ; Prof. Henry A. 
Miers, three lectures on some secrets of crystals; Dr. J. W. 
Gregory, three lectures on the problems of Arctic geology ;: 
Prof, Perey Gardner, three lectures on Greek history and ex- 
tant monuments ; Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins, three lectures on 
the relation of geology to history; Mr. Walter Frewen Lord, 
three lectures on the growth of the Mediterranean route to the 
East ; and the Right Hon. Lord Rayleigh, six lectures on 
electricity and electrical vibrations. The Friday evening meet- 
ings will begin on January 22, when a discourse will be given 
by Prof. Dewar ; succeeding discourses will probably be given 
by the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of London, Prof. Jagadis 
| Chunder Bose, Prof. John Milne, Dr. G. Johnstone Stoney,. 
Lieut.-Colonel C. R. Conder, R.E., Mr. Shelford Bidwell, Prof. 
Arthur Smithells, Sir Edward Maunde Thompson, Sir William 
Turner, Mr. Charles T. Heycock, and the Right Hon. Lord 
Rayleigh. 
SOME interesting information regarding the effects of inocula- 
tion for cholera is to be found, according to the Pzoneer Maz/, 
in the report on the railway reconnaissance from Assam to 
Burmah 77é the Hukong valley. Mr. Way, the engineer-in- 
chief, had to engage coolie transport, and 357 Khasias were col- 
lected at Margherita. Cholera was raging in the neighbourhood. 
at the time, and, in spite of all precautions, the coolies were 
attacked. Fortunately, Surgeon-Captain Hare was at Dibrugarh, 
engaged in the special duty of inoculating labourers on the tea 
gardens, a work which had been begun by Dr. Haffkine some 
time before. He willingly agreed to deal with the Khasias, and 
the majority of them submitted to inoculation. The effect was 
very marked ; the deaths among the inoculated were only 2°55. 
per cent., while among the uninoculated they came to nearly 19 
per cent. The disease made such ravages among the latter that 
the coolies themselves became thoroughly convinced of the 
efficacy of inoculation, and finally all agreed to undergo the 
treatment. From that time onward no fresh cases of cholera 
occurred. Dr. Hare states that the 52 men first dealt with, 
