Jury 6, 1899] 
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Prof, Angelo Mosso to deliver a lecture on a subject specially 
chosen for the occasion, and dealing with a scientific problem 
of present and universal interest, and Italy, to judge from her 
leading organs, professional and lay, is deeply sensible of the 
honour. Prof. Mosso started for the United States on June 20, 
and has chosen as his theme ‘‘I Processi Psichici ed il Movi- 
mento” (the Psychic Processes and Movement). 
Tue death is announced of Mr. Henry Wollaston Blake, 
F.R.S., at eighty-four years of age. Mr. Blake was an original 
member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, of the Institution 
of Mechanical Engineers, and of the British Association. He 
was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1843. 
THE forty-eighth meeting of the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science will be held at Columbus, Ohio, 
on August 21-26, under the presidency of Prof. Edward 
Orton. The first general session will as usual be held on 
Monday morning, August 21, when the president-elect will be 
introduced by the retiring president, Prof. F. W. Putnam, 
and addresses of welcome will be made by the Governor of 
Ohio and the Mayor of Columbus. The addresses of the vice- 
presidents will be given on Monday afternoon, and the address 
of the retiring president in the evening. The several sections 
will meet as usual during the week, and Saturday will be 
devoted to an excursion, probably to the mounds at Fort 
Ancient, the coal mines in Hocking Valley, and the natural- 
gas fields. Further information may be obtained from the 
permanent secretary of the Association, Dr. L. O. Howard, 
Cosmos Club, Washington, D.C., and from the local secretary, 
Prof. B. F. Thomas, Ohio State University. 
THe annual general meeting of the Marine Biological 
Association was held in the rooms of the Royal Society on June 
28. The president, Prof. E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S., occupied 
thechair. The Council reported that the laboratory at Plymouth 
continued in a state of efficiency, and was adequately equipped 
with the most modern requirements for marine biological re- 
search. The investigation of the natural history of the mackerel, 
commenced last year by Mr. Garstang, had been continued, and 
a report on the variations, races and migrations of this fish had 
been published. A systematic study of the physical and bio- 
logical conditions prevailing in the waters at the mouth of the 
English Channel had also been commenced, which it was hoped 
would throw light on the causes which determine the move- 
ments of migratory fishes. The examination of the fauna and 
bottom deposits between the Eddystone and Start Point had 
been concluded by Mr. Allen, the director of the laboratory, 
and a report on the subject had appeared in the /ozrna/ of the 
Association. Seventeen naturalists and eleven students had 
worked in the laboratory, in addition to the members of the 
regular staff. The following were elected members of Council 
for the year:—President, Prof. E. Ray Lankester ; hon. 
treasurer, J. A, Travers; hon. secretary, E. J. Allen; Council, 
F, E. Beddard, Prof. F. Jeffrey Bell, G. P. Bidder, G. C. 
Bourne, G. H. Fowler, S. F. Harmer, Prof. W. A. Herdman, 
Prof. S. J. Hickson, Prof. T. Johnson, J. J. Lister, D. H. 
Scott, Prof. C. Stewart, Prof. D'Arcy Thompson, Prof. W. F. R. 
Weldon. 
Ir is the opinion of many meteorologists that daily telegraphic 
reports from Iceland would be of inestimable value in weather 
predictions for Great Britain and northern Europe. The com- 
mercial intercourse with Iceland would, however, evidently not 
pay the interest on the cost of the cable, and it is only quite 
lately that the Danish meteorologists have received from business 
men a proposition, already mentioned in these columns, that 
makes the project seem at all feasible. The proposition is 
NO. 1549, VOL. 60] 
referred to by Prof. Cleveland Abbe in the Monthly Weather 
Review. It is as follows:—The ‘‘ Grande Compagnie des 
Télégraphes du Nord,” having its centre at Copenhagen, has 
undertaken to build and to maintain a line from Shetland, 
touching the Faroe Islands and ending at Iceland, if an 
annual revenue of 13,500/. is guaranteed for the first twenty 
years only. The Government of Denmark and Iceland will 
establish and maintain the meteorological stations and the 
expense of daily telegraphic bulletins, and will perform the 
hydrographic work necessary in connection with the laying of 
the cable, and will also guarantee an annual subvention of 5000/7. 
for twenty years. Therefore, all that now remains to be done 
in order to secure telegraphic communication with Iceland for 
commercial and meteorological purposes is to secure the re- 
maining annual income of 8500/. It is hoped that a large 
portion and perhaps all of this may be secured by national 
legislation in the States of Europe and America that are 
interested in this subject. 
It is announced in Scéence that Mr. Charles H. Senff has given 
5000 dollars to the zoological department of Columbia University 
for purposes of exploration and publication. Mr. Harrington 
and Mr. Sumner expect, with the assistance of this fund, to 
make a second expedition to the Nile in search of Polypterus. 
The fund will also be used for the publication of a memoir 
on the anatomy of Polyfterus, to be undertaken conjointly by 
Messrs. Dean, Harrington, McGregor, Strong, Herrick and 
Prof. Wheeler, of the University of Chicago. 
THE inaugural lecture on the possibility of extirpating malaria 
from certain localities by a new method, delivered by Major 
Ronald Ross at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, is 
published in the Brétish Medical Journal. According to Major 
Ross’s observations in India, human malaria isnot conveyed by 
mosquitos of the genus Culex, but by members of the genus 
Anopheles. Species of the former genus are generally able to 
breed in pots and tubs of water, cisterns, wells, and drains— 
that is, they seem to prefer artificial collections of water of this 
character to natural collections, such as rainwater, puddles, and 
ponds. In the case of the other genus, Anopheles, however, 
the larvee are scarcely ever to be found in vessels and other 
artificial collections of water, but only in natural ponds and 
puddles. But whether the dangerous mosquitos prove to be 
confined to the genus Anopheles or not, it appears certain that 
they breed in puddles, and are not of the common domestic 
kind. The practicability of eradicating malaria in a locality by 
the extermination of the dangerous mosquitos in it thus depends 
on a single question—Do these mosquitos breed in spots suf- 
ficiently isolated and rare to be dealt with by public measures of 
repression? It isto obtain information upon this subject that 
an expedition to the West African coast is being organised. If 
it can be shown by accurate investigation that all the malaria 
in a large town arises from a few small puddles which can be 
obliterated at small expense, the value of the discovery could 
not easily be over-estimated. 
THE Meteorologische Zeitschrift for June contains a brief note 
of the results of some important observations made by Dr. J. 
Tuma in seven balloon ascents, for the purpose of obtaining 
measurements of the distribution of atmospheric electricity in 
clear weather, and of determining whether the balloon itself re- 
ceived electrical charges. The first question is of purely scien- 
tific importance, and the second is of practical interest, as lately 
the burning of some balloons has been attributed to electrical 
discharges. The observations show that the positive potential 
decreases with increasing height; the positive charges are, 
therefore, accumulated in the lower strata of the atmosphere. 
During the four last ascents, Dr. Tuma was unable to find that 
