446 
NATURE 
[SEPTEMBER 4. 1902 
delegates, while the Colonial Governments will contribute 
7ooo/. towards the expenses of the voyage and of the stay in 
South Africa. 
A REUTER message from Barcelona, dated August 27, states 
that a severe storm has passed over Felanitz, Majorca, causing 
great damage in the town and district. The storm was accom- 
panied by a downpour of rain. 
and many houses were destroyed by lightning, by which several 
persons were killed. A south-easterly gale of exceptional 
violence was experienced on the southern coast of Cape Colony 
during Sunday evening, August 31, and Monday, September 1, 
causing much damage and loss of life. 
THE following reports of eruptions and earthquakes have 
appeared during the past week :— August 27. A telegram from 
General Chaffee, the Commander-in-Chief in the Philippines, to 
the U.S. War Department, states that a series of earthquakes 
has occurred in Lake Linao country, in the Moro section of the 
island of Mindanao. The rivers and mountains have been con- 
siderably disturbed, Four hundred shocks have been felt since 
August 21. August 26, St. Thomas. A despatch received 
from Dominica at 6 p.m. reports that since two o’clock rumbling 
noises in quick succession have been heard from the southward, 
and that there is every indication that Mont Pel€ée is in violent 
eruption. Azgust 30. A violent eruption of Mont Pelée de- 
stroyed Morne Rouge and Ajoupa Bouillon. About 1000 
persons were killed and several hundred injured. A wave 
caused much damage at Carbet. A violent earthquake shock 
was felt at Carupano, on the coast of Venezuela, at 9 p.m. 
The disturbance was accompanied by a noise which was heard 
along the whole shore of the Caribbean Sea. September 1. 
The vessel which was sent to Tori Shima to report on 
the results of the volcanic disaster in that island in the 
middle of August has returned to Yokohama, and reports 
that Tori Shima is in a state of utter ruin. More than 150 
lives were lost in the eruption, no one being left alive on the 
island.—A telegram from Castries states that Mont Pelée has 
been. in constant eruption since August 15. There was an 
enormous fall of ashes on the night of August 25, and a very 
severe eruption on the night of August 28. Three eruptions 
occurred on the night of August 30, and it was impossible to 
reach St. Pierre from the sea. 
AT the annual congress of the Royal Institute of Public 
Health, which concluded its sittings at Exeter last week under 
the presidency of the Earl of Iddesleigh, the necessity for teaching 
the principles of public health in rural districts was strongly 
urged, and the creation of a ‘* Ministry of Public Health ” advo- 
cated. Prof. Sims Woodhead directed attention to the need for 
further funds for the investigation of diseases such as cancer and 
tuberculosis, and pointed out what a good investment such 
expenditure would be as regards the national welfare. In the 
veterinary section, the deplorable condition of town and country 
stables and country cow-sheds and piggeries was alluded to by 
Mr. Eaton Jones in a paper on the ‘ Veterinary Supervision of 
Domesticated Animals,” and the meeting passed a resolution 
advocating the abolition of private slaughter houses, the appoint- 
ment of veterinary inspectors of all animals intended for food, 
the inspection of dairies and cow-sheds, and the providing of 
suitable provision for the disposal of the carcases of animals 
unfit for food. At a final meeting, Mr. Windley attempted to 
defend the course pursued by Leicester in its neglect of vaccina- 
tion, and Dr. Millard suggested that the danger of the spread of 
small-pox supposed to arise from the presence of a large un- 
vaccinated element in a community had been somewhat over- 
rated. Prof. Smith pointed out that even in Leicester the 
Several places were flooded | 
hospital staff had been vaccinated, and that in the London small- | 
NO. 1714, VOL. 66] 
pox hospitals the staffs were subjected to compulsory vaccination 
and not a single case of small-pox had occurred among them ; 
he believed that no one would attempt to establish a small-pox 
hospital and to officer it with an unvaccinated staff. The 
formation of a national water board, the new pharmacy bill and 
the construction of sanatoria for consumptives were the subjects 
of discussion in various sections. 
Pror. VircHOW, who has been lying extremely ill at Harz- 
| burg, has been moved to Berlin, where he arrived on Saturday 
last. His strength is said to be unmistakably failing. 
Lorp Curzon, the Viceroy of India, has ordered the heads 
of the Veterinary, Survey, Forest, Meteorological, Geological, 
Agricultural and Botanical Departments of India to form a 
board of economic inquiry, which shall meet twice annually to 
formulate a programme and to review past work. The board is 
also to act as an advisory committee to the Government. The 
Royal Society has promised its assistance. 
From the Dazly Mail we learn that as a result of the last 
| anti-tuberculosis conference held at Berlin a special organisation 
called the International Central Committee for the Prevention 
of Tuberculosis has now been established. The first meeting 
will be held under the patronage of the German Empress on 
her birthday, October 22, under the presidency of Prof. Von 
Leyden. Many prominent physicians from various countries 
will also be present. The organisation has already 120 members. 
THE sixth annual week’s fungus foray of the British Myco- 
logical Society will be held at Hereford, from Monday to 
Saturday, September 22-27. 
THE following papers will be read in the Section of Physio- 
logy at the British Association in Belfast, in addition to those 
already menticned (p. 377):—Prof. Symington and Dr. Cecil 
Shaw will show Edinger’s drawing apparatus for higher 
magnifications and stronger light; the functions of the rods 
and cones of the retina, Mr. F. W. Edridge-Green ; on the 
movements and innervation of the stomach, Dr. Page May ; 
a new method for demonstrating cholohzmatin in ox-bile, 
Dr. W. A. Osborne. 
THE Patent Office Gazette reports that patents on eleven 
different parts of wireless telegraphic apparatus have been granted 
by the U.S. Patent Office to Prof. Reginald A. Fessenden. 
Among the patents are included a device for signalling by 
magnetic waves, a current-actuated wave-responsive device, and 
also a conductor for wireless telegraphy apparatus. 
A REUTER message from Ferro] states that on Friday last 
Mr. Marconi received a number of Spanish telegraphists on 
board the Italian cruiser Carlo Adberto. In the course of con- 
versation, he stated that he was in daily communication with a 
receiving station near Plymouth and by this means had received 
news of the arrival of the King of Italy in Berlin. Referring to 
the prevention of interference of simultaneous messages, Mr. 
Marconi said that he was able recently to keep constantly in 
communication with England at the same time that men-of-war 
were communicating with each other and with the stations 
situated in the regions of the Hertzian waves. 
A New York contemporary states that the De Forest system 
of wireless telegraphy has now been in practical operation for 
some months between New York and Staten Island. In this 
system, an anticoherer of the electrolytic type is employed, its 
chief advantage lying in the fact that it requires no tapping 
back ; a telephone is used in conjunction with this instrument, 
and the Morse signals are read by ear. The induction coil is 
eliminated from the sending apparatus, the spark being produced 
