30 
on 
Mr. C.'B. Ropinson, an American botanist, who 
was holding a temporary appointment under the 
Philippine Government, is reported to have been 
killed by natives of Amboyna Island, where he was 
engaged on a study of the local flora. He was forty- 
one years of age, and had been connected for some 
time with the New York Botanical Gardens. 
A meETING of members of the Wireless Society of 
London will be held at the Institution of Electrical 
Engineers on January 21, when an address, illustrated 
by experiments, will be given by the president, Mr. 
A. A. Campbell! Swinton. By the courtesy of Le 
Commandant Ferrio, a vice-president of the society, 
the radio-telegraphic station of the Eiffel Tower, Paris, 
will send a special wireless message to the society 
during the meeting, and arrangements are being made 
to render the message audible to all present. 
Pror. A. Garpasso informs us that Mr. A. Lo 
Surdo, assistant professor in the R. Istituto di Studi 
Superiori, Florence, has succeeded in observing the 
Zeeman effect in an electric field announced by Prof. 
Stark in Nature of December 4, 1913 (p. 401). Mr. 
Lo Surdo has observed that the effect is present in 
all vacuum tubes, but in a very short space imme- 
diately in front of the kathode. A photograph sent by 
Prof. Garbasso shows the line Hy resolved into five 
components, but it is unsuitable for satisfactory repro- 
duction. Two papers upon the subject have been pre- 
sented to the R. Accademia dei Lincei, and will be 
published in the Rendiconti of the academy. 
In spite of appeals from several distinguished 
Americans, the Bill giving San Francisco extensive 
water supply and power rights in the Hetch-Hetchy 
Valley has passed both Houses of Congress, and 
becomes law by the signature of the President. One 
effect of the new Act will be to remove from the use 
and enjoyment of the general public the valley of the 
Tuolumne River in the north-western part of the 
Yosemite National Park. It is estimated that the 
provision prohibiting any refuse of men or animals 
from being deposited within 300 ft. of running water 
or of lakes tributary to the Tuolumne River above 
Hetch-Hetchy will exclude the public from one-half of 
the park. The Tuolumne Cajion, in particular, is 
described as containing some of the finest scenery in 
America, excelled only, if at all, by the Grand Cafion 
of the Colorado in Arizona. 
THE eighty-second annual meeting of the British 
Medical Association is to be held next July at Aber- 
deen. The president-elect, who succeeds Dr. W. A. 
Hollis, of Brighton, is Sir Alexander Ogston, of Aber- 
deen. The annual representative meeting will begin 
on Friday, July 24; the president’s address will be 
delivered on July 28, and the sections will meet on the 
three days following. The address in medicine is to 
be delivered by Dr. Archibald E. Garrod, and the 
popular lecture by Prof. J. Arthur Thomson. The 
sections of the council of the association with their 
presidents -are:—Anatomy and Physiology, Prof. 
Robert W. Reid; Dermatology and Syphilology, Dr. 
Alfred Eddowes; Diseases of Children, including 
Orthopedics, Dr. John Thomson; Electro-Therapeutics 
NO. 2306, VOL. 92] 
NATURE 
[January 8, 1914 
and Radiology, Dr. Samuel Sloan; Gynzcology and 
Obstetrics, Dr. Francis W. N. Haultain; Laryngo-: 
logy, Rhinology, and Otology, Dr. Harry L. Lack; 
Medical Sociology, Dr. John Gordon; Medicine, Dr. 
F. J. Smith; Naval and Military Medicine and Sur- 
gery, Deputy-Surgeon-General M. Craig; Neurology 
and Psychological Medicine, Dr. F. W. Mott; Oph- 
thalmology, Dr. C. H. Usher; Pathology and Bac- 
teriology, Dr. W. S. Lazarus-Barlow; Pharmacology, 
Therapeutics, and Dietetics, Prof. J. T. Cash; State 
Medicine and Medical Jurisprudence, Prof. Matthew 
Hay; Surgery, Mr. John S. Riddell; Tropical Medi- 
cine, Prof. W. J. R. Simpson. 
THE reports for the fifty-two weeks ended Decem- 
ber 27, issued by the Meteorological Office, show that 
the mean temperature for 1913 was in excess of the 
average over the whole of the British Isles; the 
greatest excess was in the midland counties and the 
east of England, where it amounted for the whole 
year to nearly 2°. The rainfall was in agreement 
with the average in the south-east of England, and 
was in excess in Ireland and in the south-west of 
England; in all other districts there was a deficiency. 
The greatest deficiency of rain was 5:37 in. in the 
west of Scotland, and in the east of Scotland it was 
453 in. In the English districts the greatest de- 
ficiency was 3-32 in. in the north-eastern district, and 
in the east of England the deficiency was 2-58 in. 
The rainy days were generally deficient in the eastern 
section of the kingdom and in excess in the western 
section. The duration of bright sunshine was below 
the average over the whole of the British Isles. The 
Greenwich observations give 51:5° as the mean tem- 
perature for the year, which is 1-5° in excess of the 
average. April, July, and August were the only 
months with a deficiency of temperature, the defect 
for the several months being respectively 0-4°, 3:8°, 
and 11°. The highest monthly mean was 61-8° in 
August. In July the highest temperature was 76°, 
and there was only one day with the temperature above 
the average, whilst the duration of bright sunshine 
was only ninety-five hours, which is ninety-one hours 
less than the average. There were in all only thirty- 
three nights with frost. The rainfall for the year 
was 22-00 in., which is 2-13 in. less than the average. 
The wettest month was October, with 3-58 in., the 
driest June, with 0-61 in. Rain fell on 169 days during 
the year, and January, March, and April each had 
twenty days with rain. The aggregate sunshine for 
the year was 1329 hours, which is twenty-two hours 
fewer than the average. 
In the sixth part of ‘‘ Visvakarma,’’ edited by Mr. 
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, a number of interesting 
photographs of examples of Indian sculpture are re. 
produced. Perhaps the finest specimens are the 
elephants, a favourite study of the native artist, from 
Mamallapuram, on the western coast, and a remark- 
able bronze figure of the monkey god, Hanuman, 
from Ceylon, and of a mongoose from Nipal. This 
cheap and well-illustrated periodical furnishes valuable 
material for the study of Oriental sculpture. _ 
Ir is a good sign of the interest now felt among 
Anglo-Indian officials in local beliefs and folklore, 
