SEPTEMBER 7, 1916] 
writings and by his experimental work. His investi- 
gations have been concerned chiefly with problems 
connected with solid and gaseous fuel, with the 
examination of water supplies, and with the analytical 
control of the Le Blane soda and other industrial 
processes. In association with these inquiries he 
designed the many forms of apparatus which bear his 
name, of which that for accurate gas analysis, his 
‘modification of the Orsat apparatus, and his calori- 
meters for gaseous and for liquid fuel are the best 
‘known. Although these are, to a considerable extent, 
superseded to-day, they each mark. an important 
advance in the construction of the apparatus used for 
‘these purposes, and successfully fulfilled the special 
objects for which they were designed. It is, how- 
ever, principally as an author and as an editor that 
Fischer rendered his greatest service to the advance- 
ment of chemical technology. He revised and edited 
‘several editions of R. v. Wagner’s standard text- 
book on chemical technology, which has been trans- 
lated into many languages, including English, and 
from 1887 to 1910 he acted as editor, in succession 
‘to Wagner, of the invaluable ‘‘Jahresberichte der 
chemischen Technologie.’’ Fischer’s well-known 
treatise, ‘‘Die chemische Technologie der Brenn- 
stoffe,’’ which was first published in 1880, and has 
passed through many editions since then, has always 
stood as an authoritative work on this branch of 
chemical technology, and his ‘‘Taschenbuch fir 
Feuerungstechniker,’’ which has also passed through 
many editions, has served as a most useful guide to 
technologists. Other publications have dealt with a 
variety of fuel problems and allied subjects, with the 
technology of water supplies, and with the study of 
chemical technology. Fischer also acted as editor of 
Dingler’s polytechnisches Journal and of the Zeit- 
schrift fiir angewandte Chemie for a number of 
years, and in 1887 he founded and edited the Zeit- 
schrift fiir die chemische Industrie. Apart from these 
contributions to chemical literature, Fischer took a 
leading part in the establishment of the German 
Society for Applied Chemistry, which has_ since 
developed into the important Association of German 
Chemists. 
Important developments have taken place recently in 
connection with the work of the Corrosion Committee 
_of the Institute of Metals, which for the last six years 
has been investigating the causes of corrosion 
of marine condenser tubes. In the first place the 
committee has been recognised by the Privy Council 
Committee for Scientific and Industrial Research, and 
has been enlarged so as to include representatives of 
several Government departments, including the Ad- 
miralty, Lloyd’s Register, and the Board of Trade, 
and some of the leading engineering societies. As 
from October 1 next it will receive a grant of gool. 
in aid of its work for the forthcoming year. Hitherto 
the experimental work has been under the charge of 
Dr: Bengough at the University of Liverpool. In 
future the experimental condenser plant will be in- 
stalled and worked at the Southwick Electricity Generat- 
ing Station of the Brighton Corporation, an arrange- 
ment which is due to the initiative and good offices 
of Mr, J. Christie, their municipal electrical engineer, 
and will enable the plant to be worked under 
conditions much more nearly approximating to “ prac- 
tical’” than has been possible hitherto. Laboratory 
research work in connection with the same problem 
will be carried out by Drs. Bengough and Hudson 
in the metallurgical laboratories of the Royal School of 
Mines, South Kensington, which have been gratui- 
tously placed at the disposal of the committee by the 
authorities. 
NO. 2445, VOL. 98| 
NATURE 
1g 
Ix 1902 Mr. A. Hrdliéka published an account of 
all the crania of the Tenape or Delaware Indians 
which at that time were preserved in American 
museums. Since then fifty-seven skeletons have been 
discovered in the Upper Delaware River valley, and 
the same writer publishes in Bulletin No. 62 of the 
Bureau of American Ethnology an elaborate mono- 
graph describing this fresh material. To this he has 
added a general sketch of Eastern Indian crania in 
general. The most interesting result of the survey 
is that, while the Iroquois are regarded as a linguistic 
stock distinct from the Algonquian, the measurements 
of skulls of representatives ot the two stocks show 
no such distinction. It is also evident that the 
eastern Algonquian and Iroquois Indians, while 
essentially of one type, approached purity of type 
much more in the north-eastern Atlantic States and 
in south-eastern Canada than further south. The 
Iroquois group was a complex of tribes, some of 
which are still poorly represented in American collec- 
tions, and it is possible that more abundant material 
will exhibit some differences between these tribes 
owing to their varied earlier associations, and per- 
haps to other agencies, among which we may suspect 
that varieties of environment played an important 
part. 
Wituram Wiiperrorce, who played such an impor- 
tant part in the abolition of slavery, was born in the fine 
old Elizabethan mansion in High Street, Hull, now 
known as Wilberforce House, which has been con- 
verted into a public museum and memorial of 
Wilberforce. Mr. T. Sheppard, the energetic curator, 
has succeeded in collecting a fine series of the 
numerous medals issued in connection with the aboli- 
tion of slavery, and he describes them in No. tog of 
the useful series of Hull Museum Publications. The 
first exhibit in the collection was issued in 1807, 
immediately on the abolition of the slave trade in 
the British Dominions, this being the precursor of 
the abolition of slavery itself in England some years 
later. The series closes with the medal issued by 
the Hull Corporation in 1906, when the museum was 
opened. The portrait of Wilberforce, a very pleasing 
one, was taken from a miniature in the possession 
of the Rev. J. B. Harford, son of the author of the 
Life of the statesman. 
Tue July issue of the National Geographic 
Magazine is entirely devoted to a description of 
Mexico, as usual illustrated by a fine series of photo- 
graphs. The most interesting contribution is that by 
Mr. F. H. Probert, ‘‘The Treasure Chest of Mer- 
curial Mexico,” a description of the mining centre at 
Guanajuato, where silver was discovered by a peon 
at La Luz in 1554. Rayas, a few years later,’ dis- 
covered the mine which still bears his name, and in 
1557 the Rayas and Mellado workings led to the 
recognition of the Veta Madre, the mother lode of 
Guanajuato, which has yielded untold riches. Cecil 
Rhodes prophesied of Mexico that “from her hidden 
vaults, her subterranean treasure-houses, will come 
the gold, silver, copper, and precious stones that will 
build the empires of to-morrow and make future 
cities of this world veritable New Jerusalems."” The 
Veta Madre has already produced gold and silver to 
the value of more than a billion dollars, and, given 
the possibility of decent government, the prediction 
of Rhodes is sure to be fulfilled. The worst feature 
of the situation is the poverty and social degradation 
of the mining population. 
An interesting addition to the exhibits in the Insect 
Gallery of the Natural History Museum, South Ken- 
sington, has been made in the shape of a collection of 
