426 
to enable the inscription to be carved, and it has now grown 
over part of the letter ‘‘E” in Livingstone and over the 
number ‘3” in 1873.  Livingstone’s A/pundu tree was 
too old to give seeds, so it was not possible for Mr. Cod- 
rington to bring away any of these. After the tree had been 
cut down, and the section containing the inscription care- 
fully removed, a tall iron telegraph pole was erected in the 
entre of the stump and carefully secured. This, together with 
the various observations taken, will suffice to mark the exact 
spot until a suitable monument may be erected. The altitude 
(by boiling point) at the AZpundu tree was found to be 3877 
feet above sea level. 
Mr. W. WELLMAN and the American members of his polar 
expedition arrived at Hull on Tuesday from Tromso. In 
addition to the information published in last week’s NATURE 
(p. 399) concerning the results of the expedition, the following 
particulars were given by Mr. Wellman to a representative of 
Reuter’s Agency :—‘‘ The point at which we turned back was 
about twenty-five miles north-west of the Freeden Islands, 
where Dr. Nansen landed in 1895, and north of these islands we 
saw and took the bearings and photographs of three islands and 
a large land, none of which had been seen by either Payer or 
Nansen. We were also able wholly to clear up the mystery of 
Payers so called Dove glacier, which simply does not exist, as 
Dr. Nansen had in part shown. In addition to this useful geo- 
graphical work, greatly augmented by subsequent journeys 
under Messrs. Baldwin and Harlan, these two gentlemen and Dr. 
Hoffmann, the naturalist, did some valuable scientific work which 
will, I feel sure, attract much attention when elaborated and 
reported in proper form, I still believe it possible to reach the 
North Pole by Franz Josef Land, but whether or not I shall 
make another effort in that field I am unable to say.” After 
Mr. Wellman’s return to headquarters on April 9 Mr. Baldwin 
again took the field, leaving camp on April 26, accompanied by 
the four Norwegians, this party having twenty-six" dogs and two 
sledges, carrying provisions for three weeks, Their object 
was to examine the unknown region to the eastward of Wilczek 
Land. They were enabled to chart the entire eastern as well 
as north coasts of that land. Thirteen miles further east they 
discovered a large ice-covered island nearly as large as Wilczek 
Land and extending to 64° E. longitude. Several 
islands were also discovered during this journey. The newly- 
discovered land was named Graham Bell Land, after the 
president of the National Geographical Society of America. 
Another exploring journey was made by Mr. Harlan, and later 
a trip by steamer, the result being a fairly complete survey of 
the unknown and unmapped parts of the archipelago. 
smaller 
THE practical application of the Rontgen rays to the needs 
of medicine and surgery formed the subject of the presidential 
address recently delivered before the Rontgen Society by Dr. 
C. M. Moullin. There is no branch of medicine or surgery 
which does not afford abundant evidence of the improvements 
which have taken place in the production and utilisation of the 
Rontgen rays in the course of the past year. Dr. Moullin points 
out that the fluorescent screen has now reached such a degree 
of perfection that with suitable apparatus the minutest move- 
ment of the heart and lungs, and the least change in the action 
of the diaphragm, can be watched and studied at leisure in the 
living subject. In short, Dr. Moullin testifies that there is 
scarcely any change in connection with the lungs and the heart 
and great vessels which cannot now be seen and photographed, 
scarcely a disease of the chest or of the organs which it contains 
concerning which the most valuable information cannot be 
obtained. To such an extent has the fluorescent screen been 
improved, and so easy has investigation with it been made, that 
it is probable that some day the examination of a patient’s chest 
NO. 1557, VOL. 60] 
DETER 
[AucustT 31, 1899 
with it will be considered as much a matter of routine and as 
little to be neglected in all doubtful cases as an examination 
with the stethoscope is at the present time. Valuable as are 
the indications given by the ophthalmoscope in obscure diseases 
of the brain, they are not to be compared with those which can 
be obtained by systematic and skilled use of the fluorescent 
screen in diseases of the heart and lungs. 
THE benefit which surgery has derived from the improvements 
which have been effected in the use of the Réntgen rays during 
the past year is, Dr. Moullin states, no less striking than that 
gained by medicine. As might be expected, the largest pro- 
portion and the most striking cases have been furnished by the 
injuries and diseases of bones and joints. With a well-lit 
fluorescent screen the nature of an injury can be seen at once, 
and, what is even more valuable, it is no less easy to ascertain 
whether a fracture is properly set or a dislocation completely 
reduced. If the screen is of service to physicians in the diagnosis 
of intra-thoracic disease, the records of the past year have shown 
by numberless instances that it is no less valuable to surgeons 
by enabling them to make sure at a glance that the bones are in 
their proper relative situation without touching the splints or 
giving the patient a moment’s pain. So far as surgery is con- 
cerned, Dr. Moullin remarks, nothing illustrates the immense 
improvement which has been made in radiography in the course 
of the past year better than the detection of renal calculi. Until 
this year the instances in which they had been photographed 
and verified by operation were few and far between. Now, 
thanks more particularly to the work of Mr. Mackenzie David- 
son in this direction, the detection of renal calculi can be looked 
forward to with a fair degree of certainty, and, what is even 
more valuable, as saving patients from unnecessary operation, 
the evidence can be trusted equally well when it is negative. In 
all ordinary cases it may be said that if no calculus is seen there 
is no calculus there to see. 
FROM reports in the Agrica/tural Journal, published by the 
Cape Department of Agriculture, it appears that much success 
in exterminating locusts by inoculation with the locust disease 
fungus has been attained in many districts. The fungus is pre- 
pared and supplied by the Director of the Bacteriological In- 
stitule, Graham’s Town, at a cost of sixpence per tube to all 
applicants residing in Cape Colony. One of the reports upon 
its use states that over a hundred locusts which were inoculated 
with fungus disease were distributed amongst a swarm, and on 
the next morning and the following days large numbers of dead 
ones were in the sand dunes, being killed by the fungus, as 
microscopical examination and further experiments with the 
bodies proved. The growth of fungus from the dead locusts 
produced a fungus more rapid in growth but smaller in size 
than the Government fungus. In another case, the fungus was 
mixed in lukewarm water, and young locusts were released after 
immersion in the liquid. After three days rain fell, and on the 
afternoon of the fourth day locusts were found in heaps in the 
bushes about three miles from where they were immersed. 
Districts in which no such measures are being taken are much 
more infested with locusts than those where the fungus treatment 
is adopted. 
SEVERAL articles and notes upon india-rubber and the india- 
rubber industry in various parts of the world are contained in 
Nos. 147-150 of the Budleten of the Royal Gardens, Kew, just 
published. A paper by Prof. Tilden on the spontaneous con- 
version of isoprene into caoutchouc is reprinted, and it is pointed 
out that the result represents a step towards the artificial pro- 
duction of india-rubber commercially. Prof. Tilden has not yet 
been able to bring about this change at will. His observations 
show that the polymerisation proceeds very slowly, occupying 
several years, and all attempts to hurry it have resulted in the 
ee ee eae oe ae 
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