30° 
NALORE 
For several years the need of greater facilities for the public- 
ation of mathematical investigations has been strongly felt by 
the members of the American Mathematical Society. This 
Society has maintained during the past eight years an historical 
and critical review, known as the Azd/etin of the American 
Mathematical Society, and throughout the whole of this period 
there has been a constantly growing demand for the publication 
in the pages of that journal of articles not properly falling within 
its scope. The co-operation of several American colleges and 
universities was therefore recently invited in a plan whereby 
such articles may be afforded suitable means of publication. 
The necessary co-operation has now been secured, and the 
publication of a quarterly number of the Zyazsactzons of the 
American Mathematical Society has been definjtely undertaken 
to begin January 1, 1900. The Zyazsactzons will be devoted 
primarily to research in pure and applied mathematics. The 
editors will welcome all papers containing investigations of 
sufficient mathematical interest and value. Such papers, in 
many cases, will be necessarily of considerable length ; but the 
editors will be very glad to receive, also, short contributions 
which are of such a character as to fall within the scope of the 
Transactions. Papers from mathematicians not belonging to 
the Society will be welcomed; such papers, if accepted for 
publication, will be presented to the Society by the editors. 
Manuscripts intended for publication in the 7yazsactzons should 
be addressed either to Prof. E. H. Moore, University of 
Chicago, Chicago, IIl., or to Prof. E. W. Brown, Haverford 
College, Haverford, Pa., or to Prof. T. S. Fiske, Columbia 
University, New York, N.Y. 
By the will of the late Dr. Jules Maringer, the Pasteur Institute 
at Paris is bequeathed the sum of one hundred thousand francs. 
THE death is announced at Olten, Switzerland, of M. N. 
Rieggenbach, Correspondant of the Paris Academy of Sciences, 
in the Section of Mechanics. 
Scéence announces the death of Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson, of 
Stamford, Conn., who made many gifts for benevolent and 
scientific purposes. She contributed towards the telescope for 
Vassar College, was one of three ‘* patrons” of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, and endowed the 
Elizabeth Thompson Science Fund, the income of which is now 
being so advantageously used for the promotion of scientific 
research. 
A REvTER despatch from St. Petersburg, dated August 2, 
says: — ‘‘News has been received here that the Russian 
members of the Russo-Swedish Scientific Expedition to Spits- 
bergen have arrived safely at Horn Sound, where they will 
winter. Later on they will proceed by land to the western side 
of the Stor Fiord, where they will engage in geodetic work. 
Some of the members will not remain over the winter, return- 
ing to St. Petersburg in October, but the others will stay in 
Spitsbergen until the autumn of next year. The Russian 
members of the expedition have not yet met with their Swedish 
colleagues; but Prof. Baklund has gone to meet them on 
board an ice-breaker.” 
REFERRING to the progress of vaccination, Mr. Chaplin said, 
in the House of Commons on Thursday last, that the returns 
which he had obtained showed that the total number of 
certificates of successful primary vaccination received by the 
vaccination officers during the first six months of the present 
year was 353,992 as against 277,821 in the first six months of 
1898 ; that is to say, there has been an increase of upwards of 
76,000 primary vaccinations or of more than 27 per cent. in the 
first six months of the present year as compared with the corre- 
sponding period of 1898. These results have been obtained in 
the first six months of the Act, notwithstanding the difficulty of 
NO. 1554, VOL. 60] 
[AucustT 10, 1899 
giving effect to an entire change of method throughout the 
country from stational to domiciliary vaccination ; and also in 
spite of the fact that in numerous cases there was very con- 
siderable delay in the fixing of fees and the appointment of 
officers. 
From a note in the Zmes we learn that the section of the 
famous mpundu tree at Chitambo’s, which marked the place 
where Dr. Livingstone died, has been successfully removed 
by Mr. Codrington, the Deputy-Administrator of Northern 
Rhodesia, and will be sent to England for preservation. It will 
be remembered that two or three years ago Mr. Poulett 
Weatherley, while exploring in the neighbourhood of Lake 
Bangweolo, visited Chitambo’s and reported that the mpundu 
tree was in an advanced stage of decay and would probably 
disappear altogether ina very short time. After careful con- 
sideration, the Royal Geographical Society decided that the 
best course to pursue would be to cut out the section of the 
tree which bears the inscription and have it sent over to London 
for preservation at the rooms of the Society. To mark the 
place where the tree stood, a large cairn has been erected with 
a staff made of two telegraph poles in the centre, held in place 
by stays of telegraph wire. This temporary memorial will 
serve the purpose of preserving the identity of Dr. Livingstone’s 
deathplace until such time as a more permanent memorial is 
erected. 
THE sixth international otological congress was opened on 
Tuesday at the Examination Hall, Victoria Embankment. 
Prof. U. Pritchard, the. president-elect, was in the chair, and 
about three hundred aural surgeons from many parts of the 
world were present. In his presidential address, Prof. 
Pritchard traced the birth and growth of otological science. 
Although an ancient Egyptian papyrus had been found on 
which was written a monograph on deafness and ear 
diseases, otology, except perhaps with regard to its anatomy 
and physiology, did not make itself of great importance until 
the second half of the present century. Between 1840 and 
1860 this branch of medical science was vigorously taken up 
by Sir William Wilde and Toynbee. Since then the means 
of diagnosis have been considerably improved, while in treat~ 
ment there has been immense strides, due to the adoption of 
antiseptic surgery. At the commencement of the present 
century the ear was regarded almost as a “erra incognita, 
scarcely worth consideration except as the seat of one affection 
only—that which was generally known as ‘‘a deafness”—now, 
at its close, this organ is fully-explored ground, and has been 
proved well worth the exploration. Otology has been raised 
from the rank of pseudo-quackery to an honourable position in 
scientific surgery, and its importance and bearing upon the body 
as a whole is now fully recognised. 
THE results of experiments on the ignition of fire-damp and 
coal-dust by means of electricity were given in a paper by Herr 
Heise and Dr. Theim, recently read before the Institution of 
Mining Engineers. The object of the experiments was to deter- 
mine to what extent electrically driven machinery is dangerous 
in fiery or dusty mines. In brief, the sum of the results obtained 
show that in general the amount of electrical energy which is 
capable in certain circumstances of igniting fire-damp need only 
be extremely small. This amount cannot be definitely fixed, 
however, as it depends not only on the quantity of energy but on 
the mode of its application and other attendant circumstances. 
It is only in the case of a current the conditions of which are 
exactly known that quantitative statements can be made as to 
the limits of safety for certain classes of transformation of energy. 
In any case, all visible sparks may be looked upon as dangerous. 
Experiment alone can decide whether certain classes of sparks 
