December 7, 1905] 



NA TURE 



recent trials of the Cunarder Carmania with turbine 

 engines, and her sister ship, Caronia, with reciprocating 

 engines, the latter being one of the most economical vessels 

 ever built. The Carmania beat the Caronia by one knot, 

 and was at least 16 per cent, more economical than her 

 sister vessel driven by reciprocating engines. The 

 Carmania is the first example on so large a scale, and 

 it may be reasonably expected that improvements in detail 

 will increase still further the excellent results she realised. 



Major Moodie, Governor of Hudson Bay, has received 

 a communication, dated May 22 last, from Captain R. 

 Amundsen's Norwegian Expedition to the North Pole. 

 The Gjoa, with the expedition on board, spent last winter 

 in Simpson Strait, King William's Land, 400 miles north 

 of Fullerton. Captain Amundsen dispatched letters from 

 Fullerton in November, 1004, reporting the expedition well', 

 but short of dogs. The messenger reached Governor 

 Moodie's headquarters on March iS of this year, and on 

 March 26 he started back with ten dogs. The messenger 

 reached Captain Amundsen's party on May 22, and then 

 returned to Fullerton with a second letter. This reported 

 that the observations of the party had been conducted 

 undisturbed since the establishment of the magnetic station 

 in October, 1903. 



At a meeting of the council of the Invalid Children's 

 Aid Association, held last week. Sir William Broadbent 

 delivered an address on the tuberculous children of the 

 metropolis, in which he pointed out that while consump- 

 tion, the most prevalent form of tuberculous disease, has 

 steadily diminished year by year for the la-.t thirty years, 

 there has been no corresponding diminution in the death- 

 rate of tuberculous affections specially incident to infancy 

 and early childhood. He strongly urged the establishment 

 of country and sea-side homes where delicate children in 

 1 In. pre-tuberculous stage, or those actually suffering from 

 tuberculosis, could receive the benefits of the open-air treat- 

 ment. After alluding to the sanitary defects of tenements 

 in which the poor too often have to live, he pointed out 

 that the greatest safeguard against tuberculosis in early 

 life, and against infantile mortality generally, is that the 

 child should be suckled by the mother. 



The council of the Iron and Steel Institute has arranged 

 that the annual general meeting of the institute shall be 

 held in London on May 10-11, 1906. In place of the usual 

 autumn meeting, a joint meeting with the American Insti- 

 tute of Mining Engineers will be held in London on July 

 23-28. It is intended during the week following to give 

 the American visitors an opportunity of seeing some of 

 the iron-making districts. It is anticipated that the visit- 

 mi; party will include many of the leading ironmasters who 

 entertained the Iron and Steel Institute in America in 

 1S90 and 1904. The Lord Mayor of London has consented 

 to act as chairman of the London reception committee, and 

 to give an evening reception at the Mansion House. 



Lectures on agricultural subjects are given in connec- 

 tion with the County Technical Laboratories, Chelmsford, 

 on Friday afternoons, which is the market day of the 

 town. The lectures last about half an hour, and arc- 

 intended for farmers and others interested in agriculture. 

 A discussion follows the lecture. The subjects for the 

 December meetings, with the lecturers dealing with them, 

 are as follows : — The field culture of the potato, by Mr. 

 A. Steel ; England as a producer of sugar from home- 

 grown sugar beetroot, by Mr. Sigmund Stein ; some agri- 

 cultural facts and figures, by Mr. R. H. Rew. This 

 excellent plan of making it easy for farmers to hear of 

 NO. 1884, VOL. 73] 



the results of modern agricultural research deserves to be 

 successful, and could be adopted with advantage in other 

 agricultural centres. 



At a general monthly meeting of the members of the 

 Royal Institution, held on Monday, special thanks were 

 returned to Dr. Ludwig Mond, F.R.S., for his donation 

 of 500L to the fund for the promotion of experimental 

 research at low temperatures. It was announced that the 

 managers had elected Prof. W. Stirling Fullerian professor 

 of physiology. The following are among the lecture 

 arrangements at the Royal Institution before Easter : — 

 A Christmas course of six illustrated lectures, adapted to 

 a juvenile auditory, by Prof. H. H. Turner, on astronomy ; 

 Prof. E. H. Parker, three lectures on impressions of travel 

 in China and the Far East ; Prof. William Stirling, six 

 lectures on a physiological subject; Dr. J. E. Marr, three 

 lectures on the influence of geology on scenery (the Tyndall 

 lectures) ; Mr. Benjamin Kidd, two lectures on the signifi- 

 cance of the future in the theory of evolution ; Mr. Francis 

 Darwin, three lectures on the physiology of plants ; Prof. 

 B. Hopkinson, three lectures on internal combustion 

 engines; Mr. J. W. Gordon, two lectures on advances in 

 microscopy; and Prof. J. J. Thomson, six lectures on the 

 corpuscular theory of matter. The Friday evening meet- 

 ings will commence on January 19, when Prof. J. J. 

 Thomson will deliver a discourse on some applications of 

 the theory of electric discharge to spectroscopy. Succeed- 

 ing discourses will probably be given by Prof. S. P. 

 Thompson, Mr. H. F. X, wall, Mr. W. C. D. Whetham, 

 Dr. R. Caton, Dr. Hutchison, Sir Andrew Noble, Bart., 

 Prof. P. Zeemann, Mr. W. B. Hardy, and others. 



The Russian physiologist, Prof. Iwan Michaelowitsch 

 Ssetschenoff, emeritus professor of the University of 

 Moscow, who died on November 15, was born in 1829. 

 He first attended an engineering school in St. Petersburg, 

 but subsequently took up medicine, and, after passing his 

 final examination in Moscow in 1S56, studied for some 

 time in Germany. By his interesting paper on brain reflex 

 he first attracted the serious attention of his colleagues of 

 the Medico-chirurgical Academy in St. Petersburg, in which 

 he was appointed an assistant professor of physiology in 

 i860, but on account of the strict censure to which his 

 further work was submitted, Ssetschenoff published the 

 results of his scientific investigations in Germany. A pupil 

 of Du Bois-Reymond, Helmholtz, Hoppe-Seyler, and Lud- 

 wig, he always remained in direct connection with Euro- 

 pean scientific circles. The greatest services which 

 Ssetschenoff rendered to science lie in the province of 

 physiological chemistry, as, for instance, his works on the 

 absorption of carbon dioxide by the blood. A complete list 

 of his numerous researches would clearly testify to his 

 many-sidedness and breadth of view. Moreover, he 

 earnestly endeavoured to popularise his special science to 

 the Russian mind by presenting it in an easily intelligible 

 form in such well written and well reviewed works as his 

 "Physiological Studies," "Physiology of the Vegetable 

 Processes," "Psychological Studies," &c. In 1870 

 Ssetschenoff was appointed professor of physiology in the 

 University of Odessa, and in 1S76 to a similar post in St. 

 Petersburg, which he held until 1889. He then went to 

 Moscow, where he first acted as privatdocent and after- 

 wards (1891) as professor, retiring in 1S96. 



In the second part of his article on the histology of 

 cartilage and kindred tissues, published in vol. lxxx., 

 part ii., of the Zeitschrift far wissenschaftliche Zoologie, 

 Mr. J. Schaffer discusses these structures in the hag-fish 

 (Myxine), with special reference to the cranial skeleton 

 of that genus, adding an appendix on the cartilage of the 



