470 



NA TURE 



[March 19, 1899 



Thk LaiucI states that the late Prof. Rutherford has be- 

 queathed to Kdinburgh University his valuable medical library 

 and his physiological and microscopical specimens and diagrams. 



I.v consequence of the forthcoming international geographical 

 congress at Berlin, the thirteenth German Geographentag, 

 which was to be held at Breslau this Easter, has been postponed 

 until Easter of next year. 



Sir Norman Lockyer, K.C.B.,has been nominated by the 

 Royal Society to succeed the late Rev Bartholomew Price as a 

 member of the Board of Visitors of» the Royal Observatory, 

 Greenwich. 



The third Congres des Socieles savantes will be held at 

 Toulouse on April 4. 



The next Congress of the South-East Union of Scientific 

 Societies will be held at Rochester on May 25, 26 and 27. 



The death is announced of Dr. Wilhelm Hankel, professor 

 of physics in the University of Leipzig. 



Major J. Evans, professor of pathology in the Calcutta 

 Medical College, died on Monday from the plague. 



The death is announced of Dr. Francis N. Macnaniara, 

 formerly professor of chemistry at the Calcutta Medical 

 College, and chemical examiner to the Government of India. 

 Upon his return to England after leaving the Indian Medical 

 Service, he was appointed by the Secretary of State Examiner 

 of Medical Stores at the India Office. He was about to 

 relinquish this appointment when death overtook him, on 

 March 5, at the .ige of sixty-seven. Dr. Macnam.ira was the 

 author of a number of works and papers on hygiene and 

 medical chemistry. 



In connection with the second International Acetylene Con- 

 gress, an international exhibition of acetylene gas will be held 

 in Budapest in May next, when gold and silver medals will be 

 awarded. 



We learn that the physics garden of the Society of Apothe- 

 caries in Chelsea, founded by Sir Hans Sloane in 1722, is 

 about to enter upon a new period of activity and usefulness. 

 A physiological laboratory is to be built, a scientific curator 

 appointed, and courses of lectures on different branches of 

 botany are to be given. 



It is stated in the British Alcdiia! founial that a laboratory 

 for the application of the Rbntgen rays has recently been opened 

 in Madrid, under the name of Inslituto Radiografico de Espano. 

 The Institute, the installation and equipment of which are on 

 a magnificent scale, is said to have cost some two million 

 pesetas (80,000/.). It is reported that the impression produced 

 by the size of the place, the luxurious manner in which it is fitted 

 up, and the wealth of apparatus which it contains, on the large 

 assembly of medical men and journalists who were present at 

 the opening, was one akin to stupefaction. The director of the 

 Institute is Dr. Mezquita. 



It is announced in the Eledridan that E. P. KaiiflTer, a member 

 of the Verein Deutscher Ingenieure, who died in 1897, left 

 this society a legacy, from which a first prize of 3000 marks, 

 and a second of 1500 marks (about 150/. and 75/. respectively) 

 are to be awarded for the best essay in reply to the question : 

 " What practical and useful processes are available to trans- 

 form heat directly (without motors) into electro-dynamical 

 energy?" Herr Bissingcr, Prof. Borchers, Prof. Dietrich, 

 Ilerr Kapp and Dr. Kohlrausch have been chosen as judges. 

 The competition is international, and is nut confined to members 

 of the Verein. Essays are to be written in German, and must 

 be sent in before December 31, 1899, to the Verein Deutscher 

 Ing<;nicure, 43 Charlotlenstrasse, Berlin, N.W. 



NO. 1533, VOL. 59] 



The St. Petersburg correspondent of the Times reports that 

 the Russian Geographical Society is fitting out, with the aid of 

 funds supplied by the Tsar, a new expedition for the exploration 

 of Central Asia. The expedition, the work of which is intended 

 to cover two years, is to be under the command of Lieutenant 

 Koslow, and will leave St. Petersburg at the end of the presem 

 month. It will make its way through West Mongolia and the 

 Desert of Gobi, will cross the Nan-shan Mountains by LakaLi 

 Ivoko nor, and penetrate into the region lying round the upp«fl 

 waters of the Vellow River. " 



The Department of Science and .\rt has received through 

 the Foreign Oftice a communication from the Director of the 

 Commercial Museum, Philadelphia, calling attention to a 

 Universal Commercial Congress and Exposition to be held 

 there, under its auspices, during the autumn of the present 

 year. There is being erected for the purposes of the Exposition 

 a series of buildings in which will be displayed such American 

 manufactures as are most representative and best adapted to 

 foreign requirements; but it is intended also to accept as 

 e.xhibits similar articles from European manufacturers, in order 

 to afford an opportunity for a thorough and comparative study 

 of the world's industries. The Congress will be presided over 

 by the President of the United States at the opening Session on 

 October 10, and all nations will have an opportunity of being 

 represented, and having a voice and vote in its deliberations, 

 through duly accredited delegates sent by the various Govern- 

 ments and commercial organisations. 



A NEW incandescent lamp, in which a filament consisting of 

 the carbide of silicon, coated with silicon and carbon by means 

 of a modification of the usual flashing process, has been invented 

 by Herr Langh.ans. Particulars of the process of manufacture 

 are given in the EUilriiiaii, from which we learn that owing to 

 the refraclnry nature of the material used for the filaments, 

 lamps thus ma<le will stand being run at a higher etticiency than 

 is possible with any carbon filament. As is only too well known 

 by users of the glow lamp, its two great faults, which become 

 more marked with every increase in the efficiency when ;;<ti', are 

 falling off in the light and the blackening of the bulbs as time 

 goes on. Both these faults, notwithstanding the high efficiency, 

 are said to l)e practically absent from the carbide of silicon lamp. 

 It is claimed that the nesv lamp, .starting at an efliciency of 2'8 

 watts per amyi-acetate candle {i.e. about 31 watts per English 

 candle), will run from 600 to 800 hours without any material 

 decrease in the light emitted, increase in the watts consumed per 

 candle, or any blackening of the glass bulbs. So that, apart 

 from the g.^in in appeaiance and comfort from the lamps 

 remaining bright and clean, the user of this lamp should save, 

 on this estimate, some 25 per cent, on his lighting bills, as com- 

 pared with the expenses of the use of the ordinary carbon 

 filament lamp. 



The Proit-.dings of the Swedish .\cademy 01 Science, 

 vol. xxxi., contains a discussion of the mean atmospheric 

 pressure in Sweden for the years 1S60 1S95, by Dr. H. E. 

 Hamberg. The work forms one of a series of valuable papers 

 by the Meteorological Ofiice at Stockholm, in commemoration 

 of its twcnty-fifih anniversary, and includes both tables of 

 monthly and yearly mean values for thirty-four stations, and 

 mean isobaric charts for the same periods. .\n examination of 

 the annual variation shows that there are no less than four 

 maxima and four minima. The first maximum, that of mid- 

 winter, occurs in January and February, and is most pronounced 

 in the south of Sweden. It is prmluced by the deviation of the 

 Asiatic high-pressure, which extends over parts of Europe. 

 The second maximum occurs in spring, and is most marked in 

 the north ; it is apparently caused by the polar anticyclone, in 



