140 
that much might be done with the powers now 
possessed by local authorities but rarely exercised by 
them, and that in many cases small areas might be 
secured as nature reserves by public-spirited persons 
interested in the local flora before such areas were 
destroyed as plant habitats. 
Dr. J. Mitcuett Bruce will deliver the Harveian 
oration at the Royal College of Physicians of London 
on Saturday, October 18. 
Unper the auspices of the National Association for 
the Feeble-Minded, a conference of public authorities 
upon the subject dealt with by the association will be 
held at the Guildhall, London, on October 23. 
. Tue first Italian congress of radiology will be held 
at Milan on October 12-13. In connection with the 
congress there will be an exhibition of apparatus con- 
nected with Réntgen rays and investigations in radio- 
activity. 
Tue twenty-first James Forrest lecture of the 
Institution of Civil Engineers will be delivered in the 
lecture theatre of the new building of the institution, 
Great George Street, Westminster, on Thursday, 
October 23, at 9 p.m., by Mr. Alexander Gracie, upon 
the subject of ‘‘ Progress of Marine Construction.” 
Tue death is reported, at the early age of forty-two, 
of Mr. E. L. Morris, the biologist and curator in 
natural science in the museum of the Brooklyn 
Institute of Arts and Sciences. In addition to holding 
this office, Mr. Morris was one of the special plant 
experts of the U.S. Herbarium and the U.S. Depart- 
ment of Agriculture. 
Mr. W. A. Tookey is to lecture to the Junior In- 
stitution of Engineers to-morrow—October 3—on 
gas-engine testing. On October 20 a paper is to be 
read by Mr. G. S. Cooper on modern coke-ovens. The 
new president of the institution, Sir Boverton Red- 
wood, will deliver his presidential address on 
December 5, taking as his subject ‘‘The Future of 
Oil Fuel.” 
Tue Russian Government, reports The Japan 
Chronicle (September 11), has decided to establish a 
physical observatory at Vladivostok and experimental 
stations on the Pacific coast with the view of co- 
operating with the authorities of meteorological 
stations in China and Japan. Mr. S. D. Griboyedov, 
a prominent meteorologist, has been commissioned to 
investigate suitable sites for the proposed structures 
and to submit a report thereon. 
Ir was announced in The Times of September 22 
that a Malay python (Python reticulatus) in the 
Zoological Society’s Garden had laid a number of eggs 
some days previously, which, after a considerable 
delay, she eventually brooded in the manner distinctive 
of this group of snakes. Unfortunately, there is 
every reason to believe that the eggs were not fer- 
tilised. A similar event took place in the Tower 
Menagerie so long ago as 1828, a second at the Jardin 
des Plantes in 1841, a third in the Society’s Gardens in 
1881, and a fourth in the Colombo Gardens in the 
autumn of 1904. 
NO. 2292, VOL. 92] 
NATURE 
[OcToBER 2, 1913. 
In The Times of September 25 it is stated, on the 
authority of a local correspondent, that steps are being 
taken, under the auspices of the Resident-General of 
France and of his Highness the Bey of Tunis, to 
establish in Tunisia a reserve in which the fast 
disappearing fauna of the country may find immunity 
from persecution. For this purpose some 4000 acres 
o: wild mountainous country, with an adjoining marsh 
of 5000 acres, have been secured; and as this area 
already contains representatives of many of the wild 
animals of the country, the work of stocking the 
reserve will be much less heavy than would otherwise 
have been the case. 
Tue first general meeting of the London Wireless 
Club was held on Tuesday of last week at the City 
of Westminster School, Mr. F. Hope Jones in the 
chair. Prof. Silvanus P. Thompson, F.R.S., Mr. 
A, A. Campbell Swinton, and Sir John Macpherson- 
Grant, Bart., have consented to become  vice- 
presidents of the club. The honorary secretary 
is Mr. R. H. Klein, 18 Crediton Road, West 
Hampstead, N.W. The objects of the society 
were explained by the chairman to be the guarding 
of the interests of all experimenters in wireless tele- 
graphy and telephony, and the organisation of desul- 
tory and for the most part useless work into co- 
operative scientific research. The committee was 
authorised to negotiate for the acquisition of suitable 
club-rooms, and their equipment with suitable aérial 
and instruments. A letter was read from Sir A. F. 
King, K.C.B., on behalf of the Postmaster-General, 
welcoming the formation of such a society, and 
indicating that certificates of its advisory committee 
would be accepted by him as qualification for the 
granting of licences. There will be two classes of 
members and full membership will be limited to 
persons having scientific qualifications. The subscrip- 
tions are at present tos. 6d. for London members, and 
5s. for members living outside a 25 miles’ radius. 
The entrance fee is fixed at 2s. 6d. 
A NationaL Gas Congress and Exhibition will be 
held at Shepherd’s Bush, London, during the whole of 
October, under the presidency of Sir Corbet Woodall. 
Space will be devoted in the exhibition to special 
exhibits related to hygienic and scientific lighting, 
the raw materials used in gas manufacture, the pre- 
paration and uses of residual products, the application 
of scientific apparatus, and to engineering in relation 
to gas manufacture, gas distribution, and gas measure- 
ment. A comprehensive series of conferences and 
popular lectures has been arranged. Among the sub- 
jects of the conferences are smoke abatement, to dis- 
cuss the use of gas for fuel in relation to the problenr 
of the smoke nuisance; food and cookery, to consider 
means for increasing knowledge of economical and 
correct methods of preparing and cooking food; the 
hygienic aspect of gas for lighting, heating, cook- 
ing, and ventilation; the lighting, heating, and 
ventilation of schools; the physiological and mental 
disadvantages of unscientific illumination; the teach- 
ing of cooking in schools; the economic value of 
adequate illumination; the use of gas as a fuel for 
industrial purposes; the use of gas for power; and 
