AUGUST 21, 1902] 
Banyuvangi to the west, and has the appearance of being much 
closer, is, as a rule, very quiescent, only a-very slight column of 
smoke being visible. On May 1 it commenced to throw up 
large columns alternately of black and white cloud, the whole 
mountain being at times quite hidden with the cloud. This con- 
tinued until May 4, when it again assumed its usual’ peaceful 
appearance. It is curious that this should have occurred about 
the same time as the big affair in the West Indies.” Since 
about the end of April, reports of volcanic eruptions, earth- 
quakes and other disturbances apparently connected with them 
have been received almost every day. It is suggested by the 
Newcastle Daily Chronicle that the numerous colliery explosions 
which have recently been recorded may have some relationship 
with the seismic disturbances, and that a commission should be 
appointed to bring together the records of eruptions and earth- 
quakes with a view to determine whether they have any 
connection with the occurrence of explosions in coal mines. 
Whatever may be the result of such an inquiry, there are 
many indications that the present be is an abnormal one in 
several respects. 
THE death is announced, from Vienna, of Dr. Leopold Schenk, 
formerly professor of embryology and author of a work on the 
artificial determination of sex by means of diet. 
A REUTER message from Bulawayo states that further dis- 
coveries have been made in the great ruins at Zimbabye. 
Two ancient ascents leading up to the citadel have been found, 
and the citadel itself has been cleared. An old stairway was 
also discovered, and various objects, including gold bangles and 
pieces of pottery, were found. One of the passages which was 
penetrated for the first time is 994 feet in length. 
WE learn from the Zzmes that Prof. Barbosa Rodrigues, 
director of the Botanical Garden of Rio de Janeiro, has arrived 
in England on a short visit. The Brazilian Congress has voted 
a considerable sum for the printing of his work ‘* Sertum 
Palmarum,” in which he describes 160 species of palm trees, 
entirely new and discovered by himself in his journeys in the 
interior of Brazil for more than thirty years, the. letterpress to 
be accompanied by large coloured plates. drawn in the places 
where each species grows spontaneously. 
SOME time ago it was decided by some of Mr. Nicholson’s 
friends and colleagues to offer him, privately, on the occasion of 
his retirement from the Curatorship of the Royal Gardens, Kew, 
some tangible evidence of the high regard in which he is held. 
We now learn from the Gardeners’ Chronicle that the committee 
formed to carry out the proposal received contributions sufficient 
to purchase several articles to remind Mr. Nicholson of his old 
friends, among them being a salver bearing this inscription :— 
** Presented to George Nicholson, V.M.H., late Curator of the 
Royal Gardens, Kew, by his friends and colleagues, who, while 
admiring his qualifications as a man of science and a gardener, 
have a warm appreciation of his worth asa friend. 1902.” 
The Z%mes announces that the following prizes have been 
awarded for essays on subjects connected with tropical diseases :-— 
(1) A prize of the value of 1o/., entitled the Sivewright prize» 
presented by Sir James Sivewright for the best article on ‘‘ The 
Duration of the Latency of Malaria after Primary Infection, as 
proved by Tertian or Quartan Periodicity or Demonstration of 
the Parasite in the Blood,” awarded to Dr. Attilio Caccini, 
assistant physician, Hospital of Santo Spirito in Sassia, Rome. 
(2) A prize of the value of 1o/., entitled the Belilios prize, pre- 
sented by the Hon. E. R. Belilios, C.M.G., for the best article 
mn ‘‘ The Spread of Plague from Rat to Rat, and from Rat to 
Man by the Rat-flea,” awarded to Dr. Bruno Galli- Valerio, 
professor in the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. The 
NO. 1712, VOL. 66] 
NATURE 207 
prize of the value of 10/. entitled the Lady Macgregor prize, 
presented by Lady Macgregor for the best article on ‘* The best 
Method of the Administration of Quinine’as a Preventive of 
Malarial Fever,” was not awarded. The judges were Surgeon- 
General Roe Hooper, president Medical Board, India Office, 
Colonel Kenneth MacLeod and Mr. Patrick Manson, F.R.S. 
AT the forthcoming meeting of the British Association the 
address of the president of the Section of Anthropology, Dr. 
A. C. Haddon, F.R.S., will deal with the wide subject of 
totemism, and may be expected to lead to discussion ; other 
folklore papers are offered by Mr. T. N. Annandale, on the 
popular religion of the Malays of Patani; by Rev. J. H. Holmes, 
on the religious ideas and initiation ceremonies of the natives of 
the Papuan Gulf ; by Mr. E. S. Hartland, on the stone of destiny 
at Jara, and the appointment of a king by augury ; and by Mr. 
F. T. Elworthy, on perforated amulets. Archzology, especially 
British, will be well represented. Mr. W. J. Knowles has a 
paper on plateau-implements from interglacial gravels, and a 
series of exhibits illustrating the manufacture of stone imple- 
ments ; Miss Layard describes a new Paleolithic site at Ipswich ; 
Messrs. Clinch, Fennell and MacRitchie discuss the significance 
of British underground dwellings of Neolithic and later periods ; 
and Mr. Coffey describes the Irish equivalents of the Hallstatt 
period of culture, in relation to the introduction of iron in 
western Europe. There is an important paper on the types of 
British Neolithic pottery by the Hon. John Abercromby, and a 
full report of this year’s excavations at Silchester and in Crete. 
Physical anthropology will be represented only by Prof. D. J. 
Cunningham’s paper on the Irish giant, whose skeleton will be 
present, and by a few minor exhibits of an anatomical kind ; 
but there will be several important papers in descriptive ethno- 
graphy ; on the Lolos of Szechuan, by, Mr. Augustine Henry ; 
on the Nagas, by Dr. Furness, of Philadelphia ; and on the races 
of the Malay Peninsula, by Messrs. Annandale and Robinson. 
A paper by Dr. Graham on the mental and moral characteristics 
of the people of Ulster is likely to lead to some discussion. 
Important reports will be presented by the committees on the 
age of stone circles, on Canadian ethnography, and on the 
teaching of anthropology in Great Britain and elsewhere. 
WE are glad to note the formation of an Imperial Vaccination 
League. The Vaccination Act of 1898 will expire at the end 
of 1903, and from this it follows that legislation of some kind 
will be necessary next year. The League desires mainly to 
assist the community to study carefully certain possible amend- 
ments of the 1898 Act.- Foremost of these is the necessity for 
obligatory revaccination of school children at a specified age. 
This practice is universal in Germany, and to it the freedom of 
that country in recent years from epidemic small-pox must be 
assigned. . The League will also consider the question whether 
the entire supply of glycerinated calf-lymph should not be 
guaranteed and regulated by some public authority. In Germany 
fifty-five millions of people are supplied by twenty-two State 
laboratories ; Great Britain and Ireland, with forty millions of 
people, have but one. The League intends to put its views 
upon these subjects before members of both Houses of Parlia- 
ment and to circulate literature. For this purpose it appeals 
for funds, which may be sent zvter alia to Dr. Edwardes, at 
the offices, 53 Berners Street, W. 
AN interesting address was given by Sir James Crichton 
Browne, the president of the Sanitary Inspectors’ Association 
assembled last week at Middlesbrough. Sir James referred to the 
réle played by flies in the propagation of disease. Leaving aside 
the researches concerning the part played by-the Anopheles in 
malarial infection, he confined his attention to the common. 
house-fly. ‘* This most fearless and audacious of all creatures” 
is probably the carrier of many varieties of bacterial infection. | 
