AUuGUST 24, 1899| 
NATURE 399 
Pror. GEORGE FORBES, F.R.S., has just visited the Niagara 
Falls Company, and he describes in the Z¢mes the remarkable 
success which the Company has attained in the use of the Falls 
to develop electric energy. An enormous number of factories 
has been established on the Company’s land, and they use 
between them no less than 34,590 horse-power. Additions 
are to be made in October, and two new works, the 
Atchison Graphite Company and the Lead Reduction 
Company (Litharge), will be supplied, bringing the total up to 
45,190 horse-power contracted for, with an income of over 
150,000/. The operating expenses do not exceed 25,000/. per 
annum. The result indicates, among other matters, the strides 
which have been taken of late years in electro-chemical and 
metallurgical processes. With regard to the machinery, the 
dynamos, which were totally new, not only in size but in their 
general design, never give the slightest trouble; and the trans- 
formers, ranging up to 2500 horse-power, have answered their 
purpose perfectly, even with the low trequency of alternations, 
which was generally condemned when Prof. Forbes introduced 
it, but is recognised now by every one at Niagara as contributing 
largely to the success of the scheme. 
THE Wellman Polar expedition, which left Tromsé, Norway, 
on June 26, 1898, returned there from Franz Josef Land on 
August 17, on the s.s. Cafe//a, which took the party on board at 
Cape Tegetthof. Mr. Walter Wellman’s intention was to make 
a rush to the North Pole. According to the Reuter telegram 
received on Saturday last, an outpost was established as far 
north as latitude 81°, and two men were left in it to spend the 
winter, while the main party returned to Cape Tegetthof (lat. 
80°). In the middle of February last, in the depth of winter, Mr. 
Wellman, with three Norwegians and forty-five dogs, started 
northwards. On reaching the outpost the two men were found, 
but one had been dead for two months. Pushing northwards 
the party discovered land north of the Freeden Islands, where 
Nansen landed in 1895. Inthe middle of March, when all 
hands were confident of reaching latitude 87° or 88°, if not the 
Pole itself, Mr. Wellman, while leading the party, fell into a 
snow-covered crevasse, seriously injuring his leg, and the party 
was therefore compelled to retreat. Two days later they were 
roused at midnight by an earthquake, and in a few moments 
many dogs were crushed and sledges destroyed. Mr. Well- 
man’s condition became alarming on account o. inflamma- 
tion, but his companions dragged him on a sledge, making 
forced marches for nearly 200 miles to the headquarters of 
the expedition, where they arrived early in April. The 
Capella arrived at Cape Tegetthof on July 27, and sailed 
homeward with the party on August 10. Though the ex- 
pedition has thus ended in failure so far as reaching the North 
Pole is concerned, it is stated that important scientific observ- 
ations have been made by Dr. Hoffmann (naturalist), Mr. 
Harlan (physicist), and Mr. W. B. Baldwin, of the U.S. 
Weather Bureau, who accompanied the expedition as meteor- 
ologist and second in command. 
PrRor. BALBIANT has just diedat Meudon at the age of seventy- 
five years. The following particulars of his career are given in the 
Lancet: As Professor of Comparative Embryology at the 
College of France he was formerly assistant to Claude Bernard 
at the Museum. Although descended from an Italian family 
he was born at Havana, and pursued his medical studies at 
Frankfort-on-the-Main before going to Paris. His reputation 
was world-wide, and he leaves a considerable number of works, 
of which the best known deal with the constitution of the egg, 
the embryonic vesicle, cellular division, the reproductive 
process in infusoria and aphides, and silkworm disease. He 
had been many times a laureate of the Institute, but, despite 
most pressing invitations on all hands, he never presented him- 
NO. 1556, VOL. 60] 
self as a candidate at the Institute or Academy of Medicine 
where he would certainly have been elected. He wished only 
to be a member of the Society of Biology, of which he was one 
of the oldest and most industrious members. Besides, for many 
years past he did not himself lecture, but devoted his time 
more and more exclusively to the laboratory, leaving his 
lecture work to his assistant, Dr. Hennegy. Prof. Balbiani 
was, with Prof. Ranvier, editor of the Archives @ Anatomie 
Microscopique. 
THE Z7zmes correspondent at St. Petersburg announces that 
a new regulation on Russian weights and measures was officially 
published on August 18. The Russian pound is fixed as the 
standard of mass and declared to be equal to 409°512 grams, 
a pail or vedro is to hold 30 pounds of distilled water at 
16°°6 C., and a garnietz 8 pounds of water. The unit of 
length is the arshin, equal to 71°12 centimetres. The metric 
system is to be optional, and may be used with the Russian 
in commerce in dealing with contracts, accounts, &c., and after 
mutual agreement by State and municipal authorities. Private 
persons are, however, to be under no compulsion to use the 
metric system when dealing with the above-named aut horities. 
THE Sczentific American states that the creation of a great 
national forestry and game preserve in northern Minnesota, 
embracing 7,000,000 acres around the headwaters of the 
Mississippi River, with many lakes of rare beauty, well stocked 
with fish, will be advocated before the U.S. Congress next winter 
by prominent citizens of Chicago and Minnesota. It is believed 
that the promoters of the plan will not experience much 
difficulty in interesting Congress. The game and the virgin 
forests of the United States are disappearing so rapidly that it 
is exceedingly important that measures be taken, before it is 
too late, to save some of the great wooded areas of the 
continent. 
UNDER the auspices of the Philadelphia Commercial Museum 
and the Franklin Institute, a National Export Exposition for 
the advancement of American manufactures and the extension 
of the export trade will be held from September 14 to 
November 30. At the end of last year the U.S. Congress 
voted 350,000 dollars in support of the exposition, and other 
funds, amounting to 100,000 dollars, have been provided by the 
City Councils of Philadelphia and private subscriptions. The 
exposition grounds comprise a tract of land, fifty-six acres in 
extent, granted to the Philadelphia museums by the city of 
Philadelphia, and another tract of six acres secured for the uses 
of the exposition. Of the five structures comprising the main 
exhibition buildings three are permanent, but will only be com- 
pleted at the present time sufficiently for the purposes of the 
exposition. These three permanent pavilions will have two 
stories. They will each be 380 feet long and 90 feet wide. 
The space between them will be covered by temporary build- 
ings connected with the pavilions, the whole forming a single 
harmonious edifice. The permanent buildings will eventually 
become the home of the Philadelphia museums. One of the 
chief events to take place in connection with the exposition 
will be the International Industrial and Commercial Congress, 
which will assemble in Philadelpnia, beginning on October Io, 
A number of foreign Governments have accepted the invitation 
to send official envoys, and almost every city of the United 
States and Canada -with a population over 10,000 will be repre- 
sented by delegates from their Boards of Trade, Chambers of 
Commerce, &c. Of special interest to the members of the 
Franklin Institute will be the ceremonies in commemoration of 
the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Society, which will be held 
in one of the exposition buildings. The arrangements for 
this event contemplate a series of commemorative meetings, 
