JANUARY 29, 1914] 
NATURE 
613 
Royal Institution on types and causes of earth crust 
folds. The Friday evening discourse on February 6 
will be delivered by Dr. H. S. Hele-Shaw on the 
mechanics of muscular effort, and on February 13 by 
Prof. J. Norman Collie on production of neon and 
helium by electric discharge. © © 
Mr. H. Lamstey, writing from Watford, states that 
a queen wasp was seen by him upon his desk in an 
office on January 22, although the weather was very cold. 
This early date for a queen wasp to appear is worth 
putting on record. Curiously enough, we notice that 
two wasps are recorded in The Times of January 24 
as having been among the finds reported from the old 
Roman city of Silchester, Berkshire, during the past 
week. 
_ Ar the last monthly general meeting of the Zoo- 
logical Society it was announced in the monthly report 
read by the secretary that the number of visitors to 
the society’s gardens during the month of December 
was 29,820. The total number admitted during the 
year was 1,157,974, being an increase of 145,076, as 
compared with the total for the year 1912. The 
money received for admission at the gates was 28,223I., 
or an increase of 44791. as compared with the total 
for the year 1912. The total number of fellows on the 
roll at the close of the year 1913 amounted to 4733. 
WE learn from The British Medical Journal that 
arrangements have nearly been completed for the 
establishment, as a memorial to Lord Lister in Edin- 
burgh, of a- Lister Institute. It is proposed that the 
institute, which will be devoted mainly to research in 
bacteriology and pathology, shall work in connection 
with the University, but that it shall be managed by 
an independent board consisting of representatives of 
the Royal Colleges of Physicians and: Surgeons, and 
of the University, and probably of the Carnegie 
trustees, who have recently become interested in the 
laboratories of the Royal College of Physicians. 
ANOTHER Antarctic expedition is announced, for de- 
parture in 1915, and an absence of five years. The 
Swedish Antarctic Committee, which includes Admiral 
Palander, Profs. Nordenskjéld, and Gunnar Andersson, 
and Dr. Nathorst, has secured the financial support of 
the Government to the extent of half the estimated 
cost of 15,000l.. It is proposed to equip a station in 
Graham Land, with a scientific personnel ten in num- 
ber, which will be supplied during the long sojourn in 
contemplation by whaling ships, and will carry a wire- 
less telegraphic installation. This appears to be one 
of those expeditions which will be the logical corollary 
to the attainment of the south pole, including no sensa- 
tional feat of travel, and making, therefore, no direct 
popular appeal, but attempting substantially to extend 
the scope of scientific research in the Antarctic. 
THE annual general meeting of the French Physical 
Society was held in Paris on January 16. The officers 
for the new year were elected, and the accounts for 
the past year presented to the members. From the 
figures given in the report it is evident that the society 
is in a most flourishing condition. More than 100 new 
members joined during the session, the membership 
NO. 2309, VOL. 92] 
now being more than 1600; Paris, the rest of France, 
and countries outside France each providing about a 
third of the total. It possesses more than 10,0001. 
of invested capital, and its income for the past year 
exceeded 1700l. The expenses for the year were 
slightly less, the principal items being the printing of 
the Journal de Physique, 570l., and other books and 
reports issued to members, 300!. A series of six lectures 
on recent advances in physics is to be given during 
the next three months, the lecturers being Profs. 
Madame Curie, Mauguin, Mouton, Cotton, Fabry, and 
Becquerel. 
A PHYTOPATHOLOGICAL Congress, commencing on 
February 24, will be held at the International Institute 
of Agriculture, Rome, to which all the chief Powers 
are invited to send representatives. The object of the 
congress is the devising of an international system for 
the control of plant diseases, and based upon the sug- 
gestions made in 1912 by M. Louis Dop and Prof. G. 
Cuboni, on the occasion of the general assembly of the 
delegates of the above institute. Prof. Cuboni has set 
forth his views on this subject very clearly in an 
apercu which he contributed to the Bulletin of Agri- 
cultural Intelligence and Plant Diseases (November, 
1912). In this he states that, though the protection 
of agricultural plants from disease is a matter of the 
most vital importance for all civilised nations, little 
has hitherto been done to obtain any concerted action 
in this direction. The sole exception is afforded by 
the Berne Antiphylloxera Convention, established in 
1878, and modified in 1881. This, as it stands, is only 
of interest to vine-growing countries. If, however, its 
scope were enlarged, so as to include the control of 
all other contagious or parasitic plant diseases, whether 
due to the attacks of fungi; or insects, it could be 
expanded into an International Phytopathological Con- 
vention. ; 
A new X-ray tube invented by Mr. W. Coolidge, of 
New York, marks an important step in the progress 
of radiography and possibly radio-therapy. The prin- 
cipal feature of the apparatus consists in a small spiral 
of tungsten wire which, when strongly heated by an 
electric current, becomes a source of electrons, and 
thus serves as the kathode of the tube.—Surrounding 
the spiral there is a tungsten ring connected with the 
negative pole of an induction coil or static machine. 
This electrified ring repels the electrons from the hot 
wire so as to bring them to an approximate focus 
upon a tungsten target (antikathode), where X-rays of 
varying degrees of penetration are produced. The 
vacuum within the tube is extremely high, and com- 
paratively wide variations of it do not appear to affect 
the working of the apparatus. Perhaps the most 
striking advantage of Mr. Coolidge’s tube over the 
usual kind lies in the readiness with which it can be 
controlled. The output of X-rays is simply a function 
of the temperature of the hot kathode, all other factors 
remaining the same. When once set in action the 
bulb requires little attention. Thus a tube of this 
design has been run continuously for about an hour, 
taking 25 milliamperes of current through it for the 
whole time, and emitting a uniform radiation of 
intense penetration. The idea underlying the invention 
