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‘of Marco Polo. 
May 11, 1899] 
NATURE 35 
WViOIEE Si. 
Tue Bakerian Lecture of the Royal Society will be delivered 
next Thursday, May 18. The subject is ‘‘ The Crystalline 
Structure of Metals,” by Prof. Ewing, F.R.S., and Mr. W. 
Rosenhain. 
A DINNER of the Royal Institute of Public Health will be 
held at the Hotel Cecil on June 7 to meet Lord Lister, IPERS: 
who will be presented with the Harben gold medal, and other 
distinguished guests, who will receive the Honorary Fellowship 
of the Institute. 
THE Council of the Royal Geographical Society has awarded 
the founder’s gold medal for this year to Captain Binger, who 
in the years 1887-89 carried out an extensive series of explor- 
ations in the vast area included in the bend of the Niger. The 
patron’s medal has been awarded to M. Foureau for his explor- 
ations in the Sahara during the last twelve years. The Murchi- 
son award has been given to Mr. Albert Armitage for 
his valuable scientific observations made during the Jackson- 
Harmsworth Arctic expeditions; the Gill memorial to the 
Hon. David Carnegie for his journey across the Western Aus- 
tralian desert ; the Cuthbert Peek grant to Dr. Nathorst for his 
important scientific exploration of the Spitsbergen Islands and 
the seas between Spitsbergen and Greenland ; the Back grant 
to Captain Sykes for his three journeys through Persia, during 
which he has made important corrections and additions to the 
map of that country, and done much to clear up the geography 
These honours will be awarded at the anni- 
versary meeting of the Society on June 5, and at the same time 
the American Ambassador will present to Sir John Murray 
the gold medal of the American Geographical Society for his 
contributions to scientific geography. 
THE Duke of the Abruzzi has left Rome for Turin, whence he 
will start on his journey to the Arctic regions. 
A LECTURE on ‘* London Fog and Smoke,” delivered by the 
Hon. F. A. Rollo Russell at the Building Trades Exhibition, is 
published in the Public Health Engineer of May 4. From the 
tables given it appears that during the five months November 
1898 to March of the present year, London had rather less than 
half the amount of sunshine of inland stations, and little more 
than one-third of the sunshine of the stations on the south coast 
—all the stations with which comparison was made being 
within a hundred miles of the metropolis. Mr. Russell thinks 
that drastic measures should be taken to reduce the smoke 
nuisance from which London suffers. Apparatus conforming to 
certain stipulations are now enforced upon owners of house 
property by the local authorities, and there is no reason why 
similar rules for the public advantage should not be imposed 
upon builders and owners in relation to the consumption of fuel. 
Mr. Russell remarks in conclusion: ‘‘If any serious difficulty 
presents itself in bringing into practice the suggested taxes and 
remissions, the same principle of compulsion which is adopted 
for drainage, sanitary appliances, and building materials, might 
be put into force for the sake of atmospheric purity. There is 
nothing more important for the welfare of the race than good 
air, and we know that largely owing to the want of it, the 
populations of the central parts of our big towns decline and 
perish, unless continually recruited from the country, And 
thousands are ever flocking from country to town. Only bya 
return to the country, or by great improvements in the condi- 
tions of urban life, can the nation maintain its prosperity.” 
THE annual conversazione of the Society of Arts will take 
place at the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, on 
Tuesday, June 20, 
NO. 1541, VOL. 60] 
News has reached us of the death of Mr. Mariano de la 
Barcena, director of the Central Meteorological Observatory, 
Mexico. 
Tue fourth annual congress of the South-Eastern Union of 
Scientific Societies will be held in the Mathematical School, 
Rochester, on May 25-27, under the presidency of Prof. G. S. 
Boulger. 
On Tuesday next, May 16, Prof. W. J. Sollas, F.R.S., will 
deliver the first of a course of three lectures at the Royal Insti- 
tution on ‘Recent Advances in Geology”; and on Thursday, 
May 25, Prof. L. C. Miall, F.R.S., will begin a course of two: 
lectures on ‘* Water Weeds.” 
REFERRING to the recent celebration of the centenary of 
Spallanzani, the Rome correspondent of the Lave? says :— 
Nature study, up to its most refined developments in clinical 
observation and research, was largely represented at Scandiano, 
where the great naturalist, physiologist, and scholar, Lazzaro 
Spallanzani, died one hundred years ago. Prof. Todaro (Rome), 
Prof. Mosso (Turin), Prof. Bertolini (Bologna), Prof. Pavesi 
(Pavia), and many others hardly less distinguished, met to do 
honour to his memory and to inaugurate the gabinettd scicretifict 
erected in the neighbouring Reggio Emilia to continue and 
commemorate his work. The Minister of Public Instruction 
was represented by Moleschott’s successor in the Roman chair 
of Physiology, Prof. Luciani, whose speech at the tomb of the 
hero of the day was in all respects worthy of his reputation. 
TuE first statutory general meeting of the National Asso- 
ciation for the Prevention of Consumption and other Forms 
of Tuberculosis, of which the Prince of Wales is president, was 
held on Thursday last. The Association has made much pro- 
gress, no less than 1252 members having been enrolled. The 
members of the Council include Sir W. Broadbent, Sir J. Blyth, 
Sir G. T. Brown, Sir J. Crichton Browne, Sir J. T. Brunner, 
M.P., Sir A. Christison, Sir Ernest Clarke, Prof. Corfield, Sir 
R. G. Wyndham Herbert, Prof. McFadyean, Sir H. Maxwell, 
and Sir Frederick Wills. Dr. Clifford Allbutt, in moving a vote 
of thanks to the organising committee, said that since the last 
generation England had been losing the leading position which 
she had attained in preventive medicine, and he suggested the 
advisability of chairs of comparative pathology being established- 
Dr. Church, the president of the Royal College of Physicians, 
in seconding the motion, pointed out that the movement against 
tuberculosis was not a matter in which the medical profession 
alone were interested, or in which they should take a leading 
part. 
THE short paper on “ Aetheric Telegraphy ” read before the 
Society of Arts on May 3, by Mr. W. H. Preece, C.B., F.R:S., 
and printed in the current number of the Society’s Journal, 
constitutes an instructive statement as to what has been 
accomplished in wireless telegraphy by Mr. Marconi and before 
him, and what can be expected from it in the near future. As 
to the practical value of wireless telegraphy at present, Mr. 
Preece remarks : ‘‘ There can be no question of the commercial 
value of the system for lightships, isolated lighthouses, shipping 
generally, and for {naval and military purposes, but for com- 
mercial uses, such as telegraphic communication with France, the 
system is at present nowhere. A single cable to France could 
transmit 2500 words a minute without any difficulty. A single 
Marconi circuit could not transmit more than twenty words a 
minute.” 
In connection with the subject of electrical signalling without 
intervening wires, an interesting letter by Prof. D. E. Hughes 
appears in the current number of the Ziectréczan. Prof. Hughes 
describes experiments made by him in 1879, and witnessed by 
several distinguished Fellows of the Royal Society, on 
