Jury 3, 1902] 
NOTES. 
Iris announced that Signor Schiaparelli_has been elected an 
associate of the Paris Academy of Sciences in succession to the 
late Baron Nordenskiold. 
THE Albert medal of the Society of Arts for the present year 
has, with the approval of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, presi- 
dent of the Society, been awarded to Prof. Alexander Graham 
Bell, ‘‘ for his invention of the telephone.” 
THE Panama Canal Bill, which was adopted by the United 
States Senate a few days ago (p. 205), has been accepted by the 
House of Representatives and signed by President Roosevelt, 
so that it has now become law. 
THE summer excursion of the Geologists’ Association this 
year will be to the Ipswich and Norwich districts, the directors 
being Mr. W. Whitaker, F.R.S.,and Mr. F. W. Harmer. The 
party will leave London on Saturday, July 26, for Ipswich, 
which will be the headquarters until July 31. Norwich will then 
be the centre until August 5, when the party will return to 
London. 
THE council of the Society of Arts offers the Fothergill prize 
of 50/. and a silver medal for a paper on ‘‘ Existing Laws, By- 
Jaws and Regulations relating to Protection from Fire, with 
Criticisms and Suggestions.”” The paper should consist of about 
eight to ten thousand words, and be written with a view to its 
being read and discussed at an ordinary meeting of the Society. 
Papers submitted for the prize must be sent to the secretary on 
or before October 1. Each paper must be typewritten, and bear 
a motto, the name of the writer being enclosed in a sealed 
envelope with a similar motto. The judges will be appointed 
by the council. 
Reports of recent volcanic disturbances and related effects 
continue to be published. A despatch from Honolulu says that 
‘a violent eruption from the Kilauea volcano took place on June 3. 
It is further stated that when the Mont Pelée eruption was 
at its height, and during the six hours St. Pierre was over- 
whelmed, there were marked magnetic disturbances in the 
observatory on Oahu Island. A telegram from Fort de France 
to the French Minister of the Colonies, dated June 26, says that 
the scientific expedition which was sent to Martinique considers 
that the destruction of St. Pierre was caused by a rush of gas 
at a very high temperature, travelling from north to south. . The 
destruction of Le Précheur and Ste. Philoméne is attributed to 
torrents of mud, which overwhelmed them. No appreciable 
sinking of the sea bottom near the coast has been found. 
EVIDENCE of the assistance given to agriculture by the 
Technical Instruction Committee of the Essex County Council 
is afforded by the report just published on the various branches 
of work carried on. Farmers within the administrative County 
of Essex can obtain from the County Laboratories, for a nominal 
fee, reports upon chemical, botanical and entomological speci- 
mens and materials. Thus, for the fee of one shilling for each 
subject, reports can be obtained upon the germinating power and 
purity of seed; the species of a weed or other plant, with a 
report on its nature and habits and any means of checking or 
destroying its growth ; any disease affecting farm or garden crops; 
any insect or other pest affecting farm or garden crops, or stock, 
with advice as to its prevention or destruction. Work of this 
kind forms a very valuable part of the functions of Technical 
Instruction Committees in agricultural districts. The biological 
NATURE | 
229 
selected for systematic treatment was plant-life, considered in 
its broadest sense, so as to give the teacher-students a fairly 
interesting introduction to the wider subject of nature-study. 
AT the meeting of the French Society for the Encourage- 
ment of National Industry held on June 13, the Minister of 
Marine announced that, following the recommendation made at 
the congress held at Zurich in October, 1900, as to the adoption 
of an international system of screw gauges, he had, with the 
concurrence of his technical advisers, decided to render the new 
system a service regulation so far as it concerned the heads 
and worms of screws. He had accordingly given instructions that 
for all sizes used in the French-navy the length should be made 
equal to 1°4 diameters plus 4 millimetres (L = 1-4d. + 4mm.) ; 
so that from any one part every bolt could be distinguished at 
first sight from the bolts of other dimensions, either by the head 
or by the body of the screw; and that, leaving out exceptional 
cases, the sizes should be determined by the above simple 
formula. 
THE twelfth international congress of the International Tram- 
ways Union and the second International Tramways and Light 
Railways Exhibition were opened at the Agricultural Hall, 
Islington, on Monday, by Mr. Gerald Balfour, President of the 
Board of Trade. Mr. Gerald Balfour, m proposing ‘‘ The 
Union Internationale Permanante de Tramways,” at the subse- 
quent luncheon, remarked that in the industry represented by 
their own international union, he was afraid that this country 
had probably more to learn from distinguished friends who had 
come from the other side of the Channel than they had to learn 
from us. He hoped that this inferiority, of which he was pain- 
fully conscious, was not going to last for ever. In this country we 
had been taking a nap, but he thought he saw some signs of 
an awakening. It was with the introduction of the overhead 
trolley system that the supremacy of electric traction and light 
railways was established. He believed that this system was not 
so quickly appreciated in the United Kingdom as it was by our 
neighbours. The consequence was that we had undoubtedly got 
a little behind. 
THE annual general meeting of the Marine Biological 
Association of the United Kingdom was held in the rooms of 
the Royal Society on June 25. The officers and council elected 
for the year 1902-3 were as follows :—President, Prof. E. Ray 
Lankester, F.R.S.; hon. treasurer, Mr. J. A. Travers ;- hon. 
secretary, Dr. E. J. Allen; council,,Mr. G. P. Bidder, Mr. 
G. C. Bourne, Mr. Francis Darwin, Prof. J. B. Farmer, Dr. 
G. H. Fowler, Dr. S. F. Harmer, Prof. W. A. Herdman, Prof. 
G. B. Howes, Mr. J. J. Lister, Prof. E. A. Minchin, Prof. C. 
Stewart, Prof. D'Arcy W. Thompson and Dr. R. N. 
Wolfenden. The following governors are also members of 
council:—Mr. J. P. Thomasson (the prime warden of the 
Fishmongers’ Compiny), Mr. E. L. Beckwith (Fishmongers’ 
Company), Sir J. Burdon Sanderson, Bart. (University of 
| Oxford), Mr. A. E. Shipley (University of Cambridge), Prof. 
W. F. R. Weldon (British Association for the Advancement of 
Science). Special reference was made in the report of the 
| council to the loss sustained by the Association through the 
death of Mr. Robert Bayly, one of the governors of the Associa- 
tion, whose generous support and valued assistance contributed 
very largely to the successful establishment of the laboratory at 
| Plymouth. 
A 2 = | 
work carried on under the auspices of the committee has been 
of a very helpful character. To enable teachers in rural schools 
to obtain a knowledge of natural history sufficient to inspire in- 
terest in it in their pupils, class and field meetings were held 
during the year and. proved very successful. The subject 
NO. 1705, VOL. 66] 
DEAN HOLE presided at the conference on roses organised 
by the Royal Horticultural Society in connection with the 
Coronation Show at Holland House on Tuesday, June 24. He 
had much to say in praise of the blossoms with which his name 
is associated, and having commented on the value of the papers 
| to be read, called upon Mr. J. G. Baker, F.R.S., to give an 
