May 25, 1899] 
NATURE 
85 
tain the sanitary condition of oyster layings within the county 
or borough, and for that purpose enables the inspector to pro- 
hibit the removal of oysters from insanitary layings. Power 
is given to the Local Government Board to act in the event of 
default by the local authority, and another clause provides that 
Her Majesty in Council may in certain circumstances prohibit 
the importation of oysters from foreign countries and British 
possessions. The Bill was read a second time. 
THE Technical Education Board of the London County 
Council is co-operating with the Asylums Committee in offering 
a valuable scholarship of 150/. a year, tenable for two years, for 
students of either sex (preferably qualified practitioners) to 
enable them to carry on investigations into the preventable 
causes of insanity. The lady or gentleman appointed to the 
scholarship will carry on investigations in the Pathological 
Laboratory attached to Claybury Asylum. A similar scholarship 
has been held during the past two years by Dr. J. O. W. 
Barratt, who has carried on valuable original investigations into 
the causes of insanity, many of which have been recently pub- 
lished. Dr. Barratt has recently been appointed pathologist at 
the Wakefield Asylum, and the scholarship which he has 
held is therefore vacant. Candidates must be resident in 
London. Application should be made to the Secretary of 
the Technical Education Board, 116 St. Martin’s Lane, 
W.C., not later than Wednesday, June 7. 
THE second engineering conference of the Institution of Civil 
Engineers will be held on June 7-9. The proceedings will be 
opened with an address by the president, Mr. W. H. Preece, 
C.B., F.R.S., in the theatre of the Institution, and the pro- 
gramme includes meetings of sections for the discussion of 
important engineering subjects, and visits to various works. 
There will be seven sections, dealing respectively with rail- 
ways, harbours, docks, and canals; machinery ; mining and 
metallurgy ; shipbuilding ; waterworks, sewerage and gasworks ; 
and applications of electricity. Among the subjects to be dis- 
cussed are the following :—Systems of fog-signalling ; causes 
of earth-slips in the slopes of cuttings and embankments of rail- 
ways, and how to prevent or remedy them ; machine tools, with 
special reference to American and German practice as com- 
pared with English; recent advances in locomotive practice ; 
the relative advantages of different kinds of power for tram- 
ways, light railways and motor-car traffic; bye-product coke 
ovens; the influence of casting temperature on steel; the 
purification of gas and the conversion of chemical residuals 
therefrom, including the preparation of cyanogen; effect of 
waves on breakwaters in different depths of water; the 
design of breakwaters; modern improvements in coal mining : 
winding from deep mines ; modern practice in gold mining ; 
comparative advantages of electricity, compressed air and 
steam for mining and manufacturing purposes generally ; the 
use of filtered flood-water ; sewage-sludge disposal by natural 
agencies, including the purification of sewage by means of 
artificial filters; mechanical traction by electricity ; economical 
transmission and distribution of electricity from a distance ; 
methods of electrical transformation; some non-integrating 
electric meters. 
IN reference to the scientific commission which was appointed 
a short time ago by the Colonial Office and the Royal Society 
to investigate the mode of dissemination of malaria, with a view to 
devising means of preventing the terrible mortality which now 
takes place among Europeans resident in tropical and sub- 
tropical climates, Dr. Patrick Manson, chief medical adviser to 
the Colonial Office, has made a statement to a representative of 
the Exchange Telegraph Company. Dr. Manson states that 
Dr. C. W. Daniels, of the Colonial Medical Service, British 
NO. 1543, VOL. 60} 
Guiana (who first proceeded to Calcutta to familiarise himself 
with the work which had been carried’ on by Surgeon-Major 
Ross for determining the relation of mosquitoes to the dissem- 
ination of malaria), has now arrived at Blantyre in the Central 
African Protectorate, where he has been joined by Dr. J. W. W. 
Stephens and Dr. R. S. Christophers. At Blantyre, all the 
resources of the Protectorate will be placed at the disposal of 
the commissioners, who, before their return to London, will 
probably pay a visit to the West Coast of Africa. 
THE Meteorological Council have notified by a special circular 
that they have determined that the issue of forecasts for 
the hay and corn harvests, which have been distributed during 
the last twenty years, can no longer be made gratuitously, 
but they will be supplied in the usual form to persons desirous of 
receiving them, on payment of the cost of the daily telegrams 
(including porterage) during the period over which the forecasts 
are issued. These special forecasts are issued in the afternoon, 
and refer to the following day; the results in previous years have 
been very satisfactory, the success reaching in some cases over 
go per cent. 
OwiNcG to the public improvements in the neighbourhood o. 
Parliament Street, the Royal Meteorological Society has been 
obliged to vacate its offices in Great George Street and find 
accommodation elsewhere. The Council have taken rooms 
at Princes Mansions, 10 Victoria Street, which have been 
fitted up to meet the requirements of the Society. On Tuesday 
evening, May 16, the president, Mr. F. C. Bayard, held an ‘‘at 
home” in these new rooms, which was largely attended by the 
Fellows. An interesting exhibition of instruments, photo- 
graphs, &c., was arranged in the various rooms, and there were 
also several demonstrations by the optical lantern, At the 
monthly meeting of the Society, held on Wednesday, May 
17, Mr. H. N. Dickson read a paper entitled “The mean 
temperature of the surface waters of the sea round the British 
Isles, and its relation to that of the air.” A paper by Major- 
General Schaw, C.B., on some phenomena connected with the 
vertical circulation of the atmosphere, was also read. 
Four pieces of a meteorite which exploded and fell on the 
eastern slopes of Mount Zomba, British Central Africa, on 
January 25, have recently been added to the British Museum 
collection. The stones weigh respectively 14, 17, 19 and 29 
ounces. The Zzmes states that when the meteorite fell, an ex- 
plosion was heard at Zomba, the reverberations lasting for a few 
minutes afterwards. The detonation was also heard at Chiromo, 
situated about ninety miles south of Zomba, and at Fort John- 
ston and beyond, a distance of about seventy miles in the op- 
posite direction. Zomba was thus roughly the centre of the 
district over which the actual explosion of the meteorite took 
place. Ten fragments in all were found, the largest weighing 
5lbs. 12h0zs. As far as at present known, the area over which 
the Zomba stones fell represents about nine miles long by about 
three wide, but, inasmuch as the fragments collected are only 
those which were seen to fall close to people or houses, it 
appears probable that a large number of stones may have reached 
the earth. 
AN ingenious arrangement, invented by Mr. Walter Jamieson 
and Mr. John Trotter, for controlling the direction of torpedoes 
by means of ether waves is described in the current number of 
the Zlectrictan. The apparatus takes several forms, although 
the method of utilising Hertz waves is more or less the same in 
various models, the difference being in the method of applying 
opposing currents to the rudder or steering mechanism. A 
satisfactory arrangement appears to be obtained by means of 
two solenoids, into which are sucked iron cores, attached to 
