484 
submitted a great project to the Government of India and the 
Secretary of State for sanction in order to grapple with the ex- 
pected outbreak of plague during the coming winter. The 
disease has rapidly grown in intensity in the province. Com- 
mencing in 1899-1900 with two districts and one native State 
affected and. 530 deaths, followed by the next year with seven 
districts and two native States affected and 6399 deaths, it had 
last year no less than twenty-three districts and nine native States 
attacked and more than 200,000 deaths. Experience has shown 
that segregation of the sick is out of the question, that evacuation 
of dwellings even in villages can only be partial, and that dis- 
nfection is practically useless. This being so, the Punjab 
Government now proposes to offer universal voluntary inocu- 
lation. * Arrangements are to be made to perform six and a half 
million inoculations between now and January next. The 
scheme is expected to cost more than Rs. 8 lakhs. 
INFORMATION has been received through Reuter’s Agency 
concerning the progress which has been made by the com- 
mission sent out to inquire into the mysterious ‘sleeping sick- 
ness” of Uganda. The three members of the commission— 
Drs. Low, Christy and Castellani—arrived in Uganda on July ro. 
Drs. Castellani and Low proceeded direct to the Government 
headquarters at Entebbe, where they arrived on July 12, 
but Dr. Christy, at the request of the Sub-Commissioner, made 
a detour in order to proceed by land through Busoga, where the 
disease is very severe. Dr. Christy arrived at Entebbe on July 27, 
and intended leaving in a few days for Buddu, on the west 
shore of the lake. Everything is being done by the authorities 
to assist the doctors in their investigations, and the Commissioner 
has ordered the erection of a laboratory at Entebbe. All the 
scientific apparatus has reached Uganda in good condition. A 
complete ‘‘sleeping sickness’’ hospital has been prepared, and 
on July 29 there were ten cases under close study, three fost 
mortem examinations having also been obtained. Dr. Castellani 
had then got all his #ed/a prepared and the laboratory in order 
for complete bacteriological examination. Dr. Low has exam- 
ined the blood of about 600 individuals, with interesting results, 
AN International Fishery Exhibition, the first ever held in 
Austria, was opened on Saturday last in Vienna by the Arch- 
duke Franz Ferdinand. The exhibitors are mainly Germans, 
but France, Italy, Norway and Roumania are represented. 
England is taking no part in the exhibition. 
ACCORDING to the Ashenaeum, the committee of the fund 
which was formed in honour of the eightieth birthday of Prof. 
Virchow has now ended its work, and reports that it has col- 
rected 53,652 marks. This, added to the -subscriptions to the 
‘and from other sources, will put the Virchow Stiftung in the 
possession of a sum of nearly 150,000 marks. The yearly interest 
of the fund was to have been expended on scientific objects 
specially indicated by Prof. Virchow. 
Mr. Sanros DuMoN?7’s new balloon, the construction of 
which has been ‘begun, will be 25 metres long by 11 metres in 
diameter, and will carry two aéronauts and eight passengers. 
A REUTER telegram from Budapest states that the electric 
railway, about 100 kilometres in length, along the shore of Lake 
Como was opened on September 4. The electrical power, 
mounting to 20,000 volts, is obtained from the Falls of the 
Adda. At the stations, the current is reduced to 3000 volts and 
transmitted through overhead contact wires. The power derived 
from this source will also be applied shortly to working the 
motors and electric carriages on the Lecco-Colico line. The 
new work, which is supplied with a full high-tension electrical 
system, has been carried out in accordance with the Kando 
system. 
NO. 1715. VOL. 66] 
NATURE 
[SEPTEMBER 11, 1902, 
Mr. GREGG WILSON has been appointed by the President of 
the Board of Trade an inspector of fisheries in England and 
Wales, in succession to Mr. Henry Noel Malan. 
A’DESPATCH from Carupano, Venezuela, to the Fzgaro states 
that violent detonations were heard there between ten o’clock 
on the night of September 3 and four o’clock on the following 
morning. They came from the north and were identical in 
character with those which were heard on the night of August 30 
during the eruption of Mont Pelée. A message from the 
St. Thomas correspondent of the 7zes, sent on September 7, 
states that a slight eruption of the St. Vincent Soufricre 
took place at noon on September 3, and the inhabitants left 
Georgetown and Chateau Belair. At ten o’clock at night there 
were loud thundering noises and electrical discharges from the 
volcano, while from one o'clock until four o’clock in the 
morning there was a continuous roar. Afterwards there were 
murmurings for two hours. On the morning of September 4 
the sky was obscured by dust and smoke, and the scene is 
described as terrible. Pebbles and dust fell at Barrouallie, and 
at Chateau Belair there was a heavy fall of sand. A telegram 
from Paris on September 7 states that the French Colonial 
Office has directed M. Lacroix, the head of the scientific 
mission which was sent to Martinique, to organise the per- 
manent station of operations which is to be established there, 
and M. Lacroix will start as soon as he has collected the neces- 
sary apparatus. 
AN earthquake of six seconds’ duration was experienced at 
Pau (Pyrenees) at 2.30 on the morning of September 8. 
THE Athens correspondent of the 7zmes has called attention 
to some very destructive forest fires which have recently taken 
place in Greece, due mainly, it is said, to human agency. In 
some cases the woods are deliberately set on fire by the peasants 
for the purpose of making clearances for arable land, or by 
the shepherds in order to increase the extent of pasturage; in 
other cases, conflicts between neighbouring communes over the 
right of cutting timber have led to wanton aets of incendiarism, 
while lighted matches or cigarettes thrown carelessly into the 
thickets or sparks from the fires in the shepherds’ cantonments 
are often productive of widespread destruction. As our con- 
temporary remarks, these calamities demand the serious atten- 
tion of the Greek Government, the loss to the country being 
very great. Although in recent years the matter has attracted 
some notice, not much has beenfdone to remedy the evil. True, 
a society for the reafforestation® of the country has been formed, 
but it is doubtful whether any great success will be attained by 
voluntary agencies. The matter of the protection of the 
national forests rests with the Greek Government, which does 
not appear to be fully alive to the serious condition of things. 
THE August issue of the Llektrochemische Zeitschrift con- 
tains an article by Th. Gross which seems to suggest that silicon 
is not an element. The author has been investigating the 
behaviour of silica when exposed to long-continued electrolysis, 
and in his opinion has proved that some second element is 
present in the resulting fused mixture. Starting with 15 grams 
of pure silica, and using 30 grams of pure caustic potash as 
solvent, an electric current was led through the molten mass for 
some hours, and the unaltered silica was then removed from the 
product by the usual chemical methods. The experiment was - 
carried out in a silver crucible. The silica recovered showed a 
deficiency on the origina] weight, and the balance was found in 
28 grams of a substance possessing different physical and 
chemical properties. This substance was easily soluble in 
hydrochloric acid. When heated in a porcelain crucible, it 
melted and yielded a brown mass, which, on treatment with 
