622 
NATORE 
[OcToBER 26, 1899 
The plans of the party at the date of the despatch are reported 
to have been as follows :—At the end of this month Captains 
‘Quicke and Hamilton will travel east to the Kafukwe, while 
Major Gibbons will make a journey up the Zambesi with canoes 
to Nanakandundu, returning by river as far as the Kabompo 
-confluence, whence he will make a line to the Kafukwe. 
Captain Hamilton will then travel down that river to its con- 
fluence with the Zambesi, where an aluminium boat awaits 
him, in which he will descend the river to Zumbo, and return 
home wa the east coast. Major Gibbons with Captain Quicke 
will travel up the Kafukwe, and, after following the Zambesi 
from its source to Nanakandundu, will make for St. Paul de 
Loanda on the west coast. All three hope to reach the coast in 
December by their respective routes. 
THE long-standing question as to the admittance of women 
into full fellowship of scientific societies was brought before a 
meeting of the Lady Warwick Agricultural Association for 
Women on Thursday last, and the following resolution, sup- 
ported by a paper by Mrs. Farquharson, was adopted: ‘‘ That 
it is desirable and important that duly qualified women should 
have the advantages of full fellowship in scientific and other 
learned societies, e.g. the Royal, the Linnean and the Royal 
Microscopical.” The arguments in favour of and in opposition 
to this proposal have been stated so many times that most 
members of scientific societies are familiar with them. Six 
years ago the Council of the Royal Geographical Society elected 
several ladies as fellows, but their action was disapproved at 
two special meetings, and resolutions to the effect that it was 
inexpedient to admit ladies as ordinary fellows were carried by 
conclusive votes. Ladies are, however, admitted to the meet- 
ings of the Society, and papers are accepted from them. In 
the case of the Royal Astronomical Society, ladies are only 
admitted to the ordinary evening meetings by special invitation 
of the president, sanctioned by the Council, the invitations 
being issued at the commencement of each session. The time 
may of course come when women will be equally eligible with 
amen for membership of the learned societies, but facts such as 
those cited show that there is distinct opposition to the admit- 
tance of women at present, and no sudden change of feeling 
can be expected, though individual cases of ‘‘ duly qualified” 
women might be considered. 
In a review which appeared in NATURE of September 7 
(p. 433), reference was made to the hair of a ‘‘ Panyan woman,” 
figured as a ‘‘ Negrito type, India,” in Prof. A. H. Keane’s 
work on ‘‘ Man, Past and Present.’’ Mr. Thurston’s original 
photograph, from which the illustration was reproduced, shows 
the hair of the woman as of a distinctly curly character, ‘* which 
feature,” the writer of the review remarked, ‘‘ is unfortunately 
lost in Keane’s reproduction.’” Prof. Keane writes to say that 
his picture is a facsimile of Mr. Thurston’s photograph, and 
shows the curly hair portrayed in the original. In support of 
his case he has submitted the portrait and the reproduction to 
us, and we must confess our inability to distinguish any obvious 
difference between them. The writer of the notice maintains, 
however, that the hair is not quite the same in the two, and he 
unites with Prof. Keane in the hope that every one interested in 
the {matter will compare the illustrations for themselves before 
accepting either view. 
Dr. C. Le NEVE Foster reports, in a Blue Book just 
issued (‘‘ Mines and Quarries: General Report and Statistics 
for 1898,” part iii.), that the total value of all minerals 
raised in the United Kingdom in 1898 exceeded 77,000,000/., 
being an increase of five millions compared with the previous 
year. The output of coal during the year exceeded 202 
million tons, of which 364 million tons were exported. This 
darge export of coal induces Dr. Foster to call attention to the 
NO. 1565, VOL. 60] 
' runs within ten or twelve miles of that sanatorium. 
plain warning contained in Mr. T. Forster Brown’s paper on 
‘© Our Coal Supplies” (Journal Society of Arts, 1899, p. 508), 
in which it is emphatically stated that in another fifty years the 
dearth of cheap coal will begin to be felt. Referring to this, 
Dr. Foster says: ‘‘We are already dependent upon foreign 
countries for much of our iron ore, and it will be an evil 
day when we feel the pinch of poverty in coal. The proper 
husbanding of the coal resources of the kingdom is therefore a 
question of national importance.” 
THE great success of the installations for the development of 
electricity by power obtained from Niagara Falls is naturally 
leading enterprising capitalists in many other parts of the world 
to consider similar projects. We learn, for instance, from the 
Pioneer Mazl that within the last few months schemes have 
been ventilated for utilising the Nerbudda at the Marble Rocks 
for supplying power to the new gun-carriage factory to be 
erected near Jubbulpore. There is also a project for running 
the Kashmir railway by electricity, the power being taken from 
the Chenab. Then there is another plan for supplying electrical 
power to Murree, deriving the energy from the Jhelum, which 
For Simla 
there are no less than two schemes for obtaining electrical power 
by hydraulic means : one from the Sutlej, and another from a pro- 
posed lake to be made in the nullah below the station. Assuming 
that the majority of these schemes are practical, the point which 
remains somewhat obscure for the present is whether the demand 
for electricity in any of the places named would be sufficiently 
great to make the undertaking a commercial success. 
THE Experiment Station Record (No. 5) of the U.S. De- 
partment of Agriculture contains a description of the biological 
and dairy building recently completed by the New York State 
experiment station at Geneva. The building has been con- 
structed and equipped by the State for the study of dairy 
problems, and especially those concerned with cheese-making. 
The changes which take place during the curing of cheese, and 
the conditions which influence them, are still so imperfectly 
understood that the work carried on in the new laboratories 
is sure to lead to valuable results. Arrangements are provided 
for studying the ripening process in all its phases; and a 
bacteriologist is attached to the staff. 
A NUMBER of excellent photographs obtained with a tele- 
photo lens, by Mr. D. L. Elmendorf, are reproduced in the 
current number of Scrébner’s Magazine. A telephoto attach- 
ment, consisting of a negative lens, with a rack and pinion 
mounting, was used upon an ordinary rectilinear lens to take 
the pictures. With this attachment eight inches from the plate, 
the image obtained was equal to that formed by an ordinary lens 
of twenty-four inches focus ; while at twenty-four inches from 
the plate, this being the greatest extension of the camera em- 
ployed, the combination was equivalent toa lens of sixty-four 
inches focus. Among the striking pictures which accompany 
Mr. Elmendorf’s article are views of the Jungfrau, obtained at 
a distance of sixteen miles, and of the cone of Popocatepetl, 
Mexico, taken at a distance of thirty miles. 
THE Pilot Chart of the North Atlantic Ocean for the current 
month contains some further interesting particulars respecting 
the track of the destructive West India hurricane of August 3- 
September 12. After leaving the American coast it at first 
moved eastward with increased velocity. During the week of 
August 24-30 it remained almost stationary in the mid-Atlantic, 
the centre of the disturbance shifting to the northward, from 
where it took an almost due easterly course to about longi- 
tude 20°, traversing the Azores on September 3 ; it then curved 
to the N.E. until it reached the vicinity of Brest on September 
7, when it bent in a S.E. direction and reached the north of 
