March S, 1906] 



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United States Bureau of Standards, and is in a command- 

 ing position, overlooking the entire city. The purchase 

 price was 700Z. an acre, and a building to cost 20,000!. 

 will be erected at once. 



The great horticultural exhibition, to be held in the 

 gardens of the Royal Botanic Society on Wednesday, 

 June 13, will be opened by Princess Alexander of Teck. 



The Badische Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik, of Ludwigs- 

 hafen, proposes to lay down a hydraulic power plant for 

 the preparation of nitric acid from atmospheric nitrogen by 

 the Birkeland process. Instead, however, of preparing 

 calcium and sodium nitrate for artificial manures, as in 

 the Norwegian installations, it is intended, in the first place 

 at least, to make potassium nitrate for explosive purposes. 



According to the Chemiker Zeitung, the proposed new 

 offshoot of the General Electrical Company, Berlin (p. 421), 

 for the manufacture of mercury lamps in Europe is to be 

 known as the " Quarzlampengesellschaft." The great 

 advantage of the lamps will be the possibility of preparing 

 them for all voltages up to 500 volts, and, in addition to 

 the fact that no carbons are required, the lamps should be 

 usable for 1000 hours without attention ; it is expected that 

 the lamps will in many cases replace arc-lamps. 



At the meeting in the Aula of the Berlin University on 

 February 21, which was held at the invitation of the pre- 

 liminary committee appointed last year to investigate the 

 question of the formation of a Chemische Reichsanstalt, 

 there were present some 150 of the most eminent repre- 

 sentatives of German academic and industrial chemists, as 

 well as several representatives of the Prussian Board of 

 Education. After a few remarks by the president, Prof. 

 Emil Fischer, the report of the preliminary committee was 

 presented by Prof. Nernst. The great majority of the 

 scientific and industrial societies consulted were decidedly 

 in favour of such an institution ; sympathetic answers were 

 also received from most of the different German States and 

 from the Imperial Government offices. Prof. Ostwald, who 

 referred to the experiences gained during his recent stay in 

 America, spoke of the necessity of the proposed institute 

 from a scientific point of view, while Prof. Duisberg spoke 

 from the technical side. After further discussion, the meet- 

 ing unanimously agreed to the plans submitted by the pre- 

 liminary committee, and moved that the Imperial Treasurer 

 be approached on the subject. It is proposed that the in- 

 stitution be placed either in Berlin or in one of the suburbs ; 

 further particulars and details of the proposed scheme will 

 be given in a subsequent issue. 



A Reuter message from Rome states that the convention 

 for the establishment of an International Institute of Agri- 

 culture has been signed by Italy, Russia, Servia, Belgium, 

 San Salvador, Portugal, Mexico, Luxemburg, Switzerland, 

 Persia, Japan, Ecuador, Bulgaria, Spain, France, Den- 

 mark, Greece, Sweden, Holland, Uruguay, Germany, 

 Nicaragua, Austria-Hungary, Great Britain, Egypt, the 

 United States, and Cuba. Other Powers have notified 

 their intention of signing the convention. The creation of 

 the International Institute of Agriculture is therefore 

 assured, and it will be able to begin its labours next year. 

 King Victor Emmanuel has determined that the palace of 

 the institute shall be completely finished by 1907. His 

 Majesty has presented the funds necessary for this enter- 

 prise, and the work will be started very shortly. 



The twenty-eighth annual general meeting of the Insti- 

 tute of Chemistry of Great Britain and Ireland was held 

 on March i, Mr. David Howard, the retiring president, in 

 NO. 1897, VOL - 73j 



the chair. In his address, Mr. Howard referred, among 

 other matters, to the great advances in chemistry that had 

 been due to the work of private practitioners, giving his 

 opinion that any action which tends to interfere with the 

 individual practitioners would be fatal to progress. With 

 greater facilities for training, and, consequently, a larger 

 supply of chemists, it was evident that only the most 

 efficient could hope to be successful. In conclusion, Mr. 

 Howard referred to the new president, Prof. Percy F. 

 Frankland, F.R.S., who had long been associated with 

 the institute, and whose father, Sir Edward Frankland, 

 was the founder and first president of the institute. 



The annual meeting of the Liverpool School of Tropical 

 Medicine, which was held last week in the Liverpool Town 

 Hall, under the presidency of the Lord Mayor (Alderman J. 

 Ball), was attended by a large number of prominent 

 citizens, including Sir Alfred Jones (chairman of the 

 school), Mr. William Adamson (vice-chairman of the 

 school), Prof. Carter, Prof. Ronald Ross, C.B., Dr. Caton, 

 Mr. Charles Booth, jun., and Mr. Philip Davey. Princess 

 Christian wrote expressing her constant warm personal 

 interest in the progress of the school, and sympathetic 

 messages were received from other prominent persons. The 

 report shows that excellent work is being done by the 

 school. The committee acknowledges the continued 

 generous support of the public, but further funds are 

 needed in view of the great development of research work. 

 A sympathetic reference was made to the regretted death 

 of Dr. J. E. Dutton, who lost his life while engaged in the 

 investigation of trypanosomiasis and tick fever on the 

 Congo. 



An agricultural conference was held in Bombay on 

 February 5 and following days. In opening the meet- 

 ings, Mr. Muir MacKenzie, the president, said that 

 important beginnings had been made in the department of 

 agricultural research and education. It was the late Mr. 

 Ozanne who gave the first effective impetus to the scientific 

 development of agriculture in the west of India. He 

 established the Kirkee demonstration farm and dairy. This 

 dairy has developed into an industry which has spread all 

 over India. Referring to the agricultural colleges, the 

 president said that by a course of study at the colleges it 

 was not expected to make a man into a scientific and 

 practical farmer. The colleges give an agricultural bent 

 to the student's mind, and enable him to think correctly 

 about agriculture and to bring to bear upon agri- 

 cultural problems in India the information thus acquired. 

 Referring to the experiments with Egyptian cotton made 

 in Sind, he said this year the crop was estimated at 1200 

 bales, and next year 4000 bales were expected. They were 

 justified, he continued, in entertaining some confidence 

 that the establishment of that valuable product in Sind 

 would be an accomplished fact, and would prove a sub- 

 stantial addition to the agricultural resources of the 

 country. 



Natural for February contains an article by Prof. G. 

 Guldberg on the pigmies of the Congo forest. 



We have received a copy of a paper by Mr. C. O. 

 Esterly on the nervous system of copepod crustaceans, 

 issued in the Zoological Publications of the University of 

 California. 



Among the contents of the February Zoologist reference 

 may be made to an article by Mr. G. Renshaw on the 

 extinct Mauritius dove, or " pigeon hollandais " (Alector- 

 aenas nitidissima). Discovered between 1774 and 1781, 

 it was still common in 1790, but when it was exterminated 



