JuNE 22, 1899] 
NATURE 
183 
water, and it is peculiarly unfortunate that Chicago, the 
largest city on the lakes, stands on a sinking plain that 
is now but little above the high-water level of Lake 
Michigan. 
The two volumes on mineral resources contain a large 
amount of valuable information, much of it statistical. 
The products for 1896 showed only a slight increase in 
value over those for 1895. There are lengthy reports on 
iron-ores, on the iron and steel industries of all countries, 
and on the Witwatersrand banket and other gold- 
bearing conglomerates, most of which appear to be 
marine. The evidence given in reference to these 
auriferous deposits shows that in ancient formations the 
detrital gold is most likely to be found in. marine shore 
deposits. There are shorter reports on copper, lead and 
zinc, on aluminium with references to bauxite from 
Georgia and Alabama, on quicksilver, manganese, nickel, 
cobalt, antimony, and platinum ; 163 ounces of platinum 
were obtained in the United States, and it is mentioned 
that a nugget weighing 20 ounces was found in Columbia, 
South America. Coal and coke are treated very fully, 
so also are petroleum and natural gas. Building-stones, 
clays, cement, precious stones, phosphates, mineral 
paints, and a variety of other substences are dealt with. 
It is noted that black shale is ground for the pigment 
known as mineral black. Fuller’s earth has been re- 
ported from a number of localities. Observations have 
been made on various limestones considered likely to be 
useful for lithography, and it is reported that South 
Dakota promises to furnish suitable stone. The final 
report is devoted to mineral waters. 
THE REPORT OF THE INTERNATIONAL 
AERONAUTICAL SOCIETY. 
= International Meteorological Conference of Paris, 
1896 (NATURE, vol. liv. p. 523) appointed various 
committees te discuss and report on certain scientific 
questions. One of these committees was entrusted with 
all questions connected with the science of. aeronautics, 
such as the scientific use of balloons and kites. 
Of this committee, Dr. H. Hergesell of Strassburg was 
the chairman, and Dr. W. de Fonvielle the secretary. 
The committee held a meeting at Strassburg, March 
31-April 4, 1898, and the report of this meeting, in two 
languages—German and French—has just appeared. 
_ The meeting was attended by some twenty-five gentle- 
men, for the most part original or co-opted members of 
the committee. 
During the interval of eighteen months between the 
meeting in Paris and that at Strassburg, several con- 
certed balloon ascents had been organised and carried 
out. The area over which balloons, either manned or 
simply fitted with registering apparatus, had been sent 
up, extended from St. Petersburg to Paris, and a fair 
aumber of balloons took part on each occasion. 
The chief business of the Strassburg meeting was to 
receive and consider the reports of these concerted ex- 
periments, and from the experience gained to arrive, if 
possible, at improvements in apparatus and arrangements 
for future work. 
Among other matters, the preparation of sufficiently 
sensitive thermographs, to register sudden alternations of 
temperature, was especially recommended, and also the 
use of liquid air for the purpose of testing thermometers 
liable to exposure to extreme temperatures in unmanned 
balloons. 
An interesting paper by Mr. Rotch on his kite work at 
Blue Hill Observatory, Massachusetts, was also handed 
in and included in the report. 
Various special reports will be found in the appendices. 
NO. 1547, VOL. 60] 
NOTES. 
A DEPUTATION will wait upon Mr. Balfour to-day to place 
before him reasons why national support should be given to an 
Antarctic expedition. It is understood that the Government 
is favourably inclined to the views of the deputation, and that 
the intention to make a grant towards the cost of the proposed 
expedition will be announced. 
Pror. E. A. SCHAFER, F.R.S., has been elected successor 
to the late Prof. Rutherford in the chair of physiology in the 
University of Edinburgh. Prof. Schafer is forty-three years of 
age, and he has been Jodrell professor of physiology in University 
College, London, since 1863, when he succeeded Sir J. S. 
Burdon Sanderson. 
THE annual conversazione of the Royal Society took place 
yesterday evening as we went to press. 
Sir W. H, Wuire, K.C.B., F.R.S., will receive the freedom 
of the borough of Devonport on July 20, and will unveil, at 
the Technical School, a window descriptive of naval archi- 
tecture. 
Dr. W. F. Hume, who during the last eight months has 
been carrying out a geological and topographical survey of 
the peninsula of Sinai, under the auspices of the Egyptian 
Government, has returned to Cairo with his survey party. 
Dr. Cyrus ADLER contributes to Sczenzce of June 2 and 9 
a detailed account of the proceedings of the second conference 
on the International Catalogue of Scientific Literature, held at 
the Royal Society last October. The official Acta of the con- 
ference appeared in NatuRE of October 27, 1898 (vol. lviii- 
p: 623). 
M. PH. VAN TIEGHEM, Professor at the Museum of Natural 
History and President of the French Academy of Sciences, has 
been appointed to the chair of Biology of plants cultivated in 
France and the Colonies at the National Agronomic Institute, 
Paris; and M. G. Poirault succeeds the late M. Naudin as 
Director of the Laboratory for Higher Instruction at the Villa 
Thuret, Antibes. 
Pror. ALFRED GIARD, the president of the section of 
zoology, anatomy, and physiology of the French Association for 
the Advancement of Science, has issued a circular in which he 
points out that as zoological members of the British Association 
will visit Boulogne, and attend some of the meetings of the 
French Association, the meeting will afford a good opportunity 
of discussing questions referring to pisciculture and marine 
fisheries. Papers dealing with the special zoology of the 
Channel or of the North Sea are therefore especially invited. 
Tue International Hydrographic and Biological Congress, 
which is to discuss the arrangement of periodical researches into 
the conditions of the North Sea and North Atlantic, was 
opened at Stockholm on Thursday last. M. Krusenstjerna, 
Minister of the Interior, delivered a speech, in which he wel- 
comed the delegates in the name of the King of Sweden and 
Norway. Director-General Akermann (Sweden) was chosen 
president of the congress. 
THE Liverpool School of Tropical Diseases is sending out to 
the West African coast a special expedition to investigate the 
causes of malaria and other diseases. The expedition will be 
headed by Major Ross, the recently-appointed lecturer, and 
will include Dr. Sunnett, the demonstrator to the Liverpool 
School. The party will start for Sierra Leone early in August, 
when the malarial season is at its height, and the conditions are 
most favourable for research. The expedition hopes to de- 
termine, by the methods which Major Ross employed in India, 
