SEPTEMBER 21, 1916] 
Anatomy, and Physiology, .vrof. J. Nielsen; V1., 
Anthropology, M. J. B. Ambrosetti; VII., Physical 
and Chemical Sciences, Prof. E. H. Ducloux; VIII1., 
Applied Natural Sciences, M. T. Amadeo; IX., Educa- 
tion in the Natural Sciences, Prof. V. Mercante. The 
general secretary of the Congress is Prof. M. Doello- 
Jurado, to whom communications should be addressed 
at rue Peri No. 222, Buenos Aires. 
THE Morning Post of September 13 gives a brief 
account of a ship constructed of concrete with steel 
ribs, ordered by M. Brostrém, the Swedish Minister 
of Marine. The ship appears to be about one thousand 
tons in displacement, and resembles a large barge It 
is said that it is proposed to construct concrete ships 
of from 15,000 to 20,000 tons displacement, and a vessel 
of 3000 tons is now under construction. Our contem- 
porary is not correct in describing this ship as the 
first stone vessel ever floated. Thus Engineering of 
June 14, 1912, gives a description and drawings of the 
first reinforced-concrete pontoon built in this country 
and used for sludge pumping on the Manchester Ship 
Canal. This vessel was constructed on the Hennebique 
system, designed by L.G. Mouchel and Partners, of West- 
minster, and was too ft. long by 28 ft. wide by 8-5 ft. 
deep; there were four transverse and two longitudinal 
bulkheads, and a complete installation of steam-pump- 
ing machinery. The first reinforeed-cement boat 
appears to have been built by M. Lambot-Miravel in 
1849, and was exhibited at the Exposition Universelle 
of 1855. An early example of ferro-concrete barge- 
building is the vessel completed in 1906 for M. 
Grancher, of Aveyron, in France, and employed regu- 
larly for sand dredging. Numerous other barges and 
pontoons of this type of construction have been built 
for use on the Tiber, Panama Canal, and elsewhere. 
There are, no doubt, possibilities in the development 
of ferro-concrete vessels, but we do not expect to hear 
is the near future of Transatlantic liners built on this 
plan. 
In the autumn of 1815, the year of Napoleon’s final 
downfall, the Société helvétique des Sciences naturelles 
was founded at Geneva. It may, however, be called 
the offspring of two earlier societies, one representing 
the physical, the other the biological side of science, 
the older of which dated from 1791, and had thus 
survived the troubles inflicted by the French revolution. 
Small at first, it grew rapidly, and among the foreigners 
who attended its jubilee were Frankland and Tyndall. 
From the first it was a publishing society, and has 
now issued a fiftieth volume, in commmoration of its 
centenary, which was celebrated last year. This con- 
sists of reports from leading members of the society, 
which cover every branch of its work in the past and 
at the present time, together with short biographical 
notices of the workers themselves, many of them never 
to be forgotten by any scientific lovers of the Alps. 
The result is a very interesting volume, which will 
also have a permanent value in facilitating reference to 
the more important papers—and these are not few— 
which have been published by the Society. It has 
dealt with almost every branch of natural knowledge, 
for a mountain chain like the Alps propounds to the 
physical geologist not a few difficult problems, and as 
its climatic zones range from temperate to polar 
regions, it affords successive illustrations of their flora 
and fauna. The volume, in short, summarises the 
work of at least three generations of enthusiastic 
naturalists, workers at geology, physical geography, 
and meteorology, botany and zoology, past and present, 
and archzology (among whom we must not forget the 
earliest investigators of pile dwellings). One of the 
NO. 2447, VOL. 98] 
Zoology, Dr. E. L. Holmberg; V., General biology, 
NATURE 
53 
society’s committees has also greatly aided in the, 
systematic study of glaciers. It is interesting to 
learn that the idea of these having once extended far 
beyond their present limit occurred independently, in 
the year of the society’s birth, to an engineer, Ignace 
Venetz, and to a chamois hunter of the Val de Bagnes 
named Perraudin. 
Tue Electrician was started as a weekly journal in 
1861, when telegraphy was almost the only electrical 
industry. It came to an end in 1864, but was revived 
in 1878, at a time when the applications of electricity 
were becoming more numerous, and since then has 
always occupied a leading place amongst the electro- 
technical journals. In commemoration of the appear- 
ance of the 2000th number, which was issued on Sep- 
tember 15, special articles are included in the number 
dealing with the development of the various branches 
of the electrical industry, and written by experts. As 
they touch on the principal events only, they are not 
too long for the general reader, and should prove of 
great value to the worker in one branch who wishes 
to know something of the history of those parts of the 
industry with which he is not immediately brought into 
contact. In addition to these historical articles there 
are others dealing with the present position of affairs 
in the industry and in the country which deserve 
careful consideration. Dr. Walmsley, as a teacher, 
urges the authorities to stop depleting the universities 
and technical colleges of the engineering and chemical 
students whose services will be so much needed by the 
country when the war is over. While on one hand 
the report of the Committee of the Privy Council for 
Scientific and Industrial Research expresses the pious 
hope that ‘‘voluntary efforts of manufacturers in 
friendly union ’’ will succeed in raising the general level 
of manufacture in this country, on the other we find 
Mr. Swinburne putting forward the view that the 
manufacturer should be left to worl: out his problems 
in his own way. 
In the September issue of Man Prof. Seligman illus- 
trates and describes a primitive form of reaping knife 
used by the sedentary Arab tribes of northern Kordo- 
fan. It can scarcely be called a sickle, consisting of 
an iron blade, more or less razor-shaped, and having 
at right angles at each end a small tang, which is 
thrust into a wooden handle. The blades are said to 
be made by the Arabised descendants of the pre-Arab: 
iron-working Nuba, who still dwell on the hills which 
dot the plains of northern Kordofan. In reaping the 
dura the heads are cut off, with only a few inches of 
stalk, the stems being left in the ground until thor- 
oughly dry, when they are pulled up and used for 
thatching, fencing, and other purposes. He remarks 
that this example may possibly indicate the purpose 
of a form of stone knife found in Europe in Neolithic 
times, as in the pile dwellings of Locras, whence 
comes the specimen now in the Sturge collection. 
Mr. W. H. D. Le Souer has reprinted from the 
Journal of the Royal Geographical’ Society of Aus- 
tralasia an interesting paper on “ Aboriginals’ Culinary 
Methods and Kitchen Middens."’ He remarks that, 
as regards food, little came amiss to them that was 
not absolutely poisonous. They did not eat any 
animal or bird they found dead unless they knew how 
it had been killed, and not even then unless it was 
fairly fresh, as they objected to meat that was much 
fly-blown. Slightly tainted meat did not trouble them 
much; they only cooked it a little more. Some of the 
mounds at which they used to cook their food are of 
large extent, as much as too ft. in diameter. Un- 
fortunately many of these have been occupied by 
rabbits, and have thus suffered much injury. As 
