SEPTEMBER 18, 1902] 
NA TORE 
511 
NOTES. 
A NOTE in the 7Z%es states that the continuance of the 
meteorological work at Ben Nevis Observatory is practically 
assured. The staff had received notice that their services 
would not be required longer than October, but so satisfactory 
have been the offers of support that this order has been can- 
celled and winter stores have already been conveyed to the 
summit. The composition of the departmental committee of 
inquiry promised by Mr. Balfour willbe announced shortly. So 
great has been the clamour’ against the threatened stoppage of the 
valuable work at the Observatory that it is confidently believed 
that the Treasury, guided by the advice of the committee, will 
enable the governing body to place the institution on a satis- 
factory financial footing of a permanent kind. 
THE thirteenth annual general meeting of the Mining Institute 
of Great Britain was opened on Tuesday last at Newcastle-upon- 
Tyne, and at the same time the jubilee meeting of the North of 
England Institution of Mining and Mechanical Engineers, upon 
the foundation of which the Mining Institute was laid, was 
held. 
THE Pioneer Mail, Allahabad, states that a donation of 
50,000 rupees has been made by the Government of India to the 
Pasteur Institute of India at Kasauli, and the Punjab Govern- 
ment has handed over to the central committee of the Institute 
as a free gift Drumbar House at Kasauli for the accommoda- 
tion of the poorer class of European and Eurasian patients, 
while Sir Charles Rivas has given 10,000 rupees to the Institute 
for the years 1902-3; grants have also been made by the 
Governments of Burma and the United Provinces of Agra and 
Oudh, and the chief commissioners of the Central Provinces and 
Assam. It is pointed out by our contemporary that no grants 
have been made by the Governments of Bombay and Madras. 
THE next international conference on tuberculosis will be 
held in Berlin from October 22 to 26, and a provisional pro- 
gramme of the proceedings has just been issued. The subjects 
suggested for debate are the position of Governments with 
regard to the prevention of consumption; obligation to give 
information to the police ; organisation of dispensaries ; the 
task of schools with regard to the prevention of consumption ; 
precautions against the dangers of milk; tuberculosis during 
infancy ; protection of labour and prevention of consumption ; 
classification and different modes of accommodating consump- 
tives. In addition to the consideration of the foregoing 
questions, the members of the congress will inspect various 
establishments for the treatment of tuberculosis, and prepara- 
tions are being made for a number of social functions. 
THE sixth International Congress of Hydrology, Climatology 
and Geology will be opened at Grenoble on Monday, September 
29, and continue in session until the following Saturday. 
THE ninth expedition of the Liverpool School of Tropical 
Medicine has just proceeded to the Suez Canal to institute pre- 
ventive measures against malaria. Major Ronald Ross, F.R.S., 
the leader of the expedition, will be joined at Brindisi by Sir 
William MacGregor, the Governor of Lagos, who has expressed 
a desire to witness the operations at Ismailia. The work will 
be begun immediately on the arrival of the expedition, and 
extensive operations commenced against mosquitoes. 
AN archzeological expedition, composed of seven Japanese, 
has just started for Central Asia, under the leadership of Count 
Otani Kozui and M. Watanabe Tetsushin. The object of the 
expedition is to search for the Buddhistic remains in Central 
Asia, India and China, and to trace so far as is possible the 
course of Buddhism from its source northwards and eastwards 
to Japan. 
NO. 1716, VOL. 66] 
WE have to report the death of Dr. H. von Wild at Ziirich 
on September 5, in his sixty-ninth year. He was director of the 
Central Meteorological Station at Berne from 1863-5, director 
of the Russian Meteorological Service from 1868-1895, and 
president of the International Meteorological Committee from 
1882-1892. He was the author of numerous works on meteor- 
ology and terrestrial magnetism, and the inventor of a wind- 
vane with a simple swinging wind-force plate which was much 
used in Switzerland. Prof. von Wild was probably best known 
to our readers as the editor of the Russian Resertorium der 
Meteorologie, which contained valuable elaborate discussions of 
scientific subjects. His greatest work was ‘‘ Temperatur- 
Verhaltnisse des russischen Reiches,’’ which embraced 349 
pages of text and 271 plates. 
THE death is announced of Prof. J. J. Hummel, principal of 
the dyeing department of the Yorkshire College, Leeds ; also of 
Mr. Alexander Sutherland, registrar of the University of 
Melbourne, and author of, among other works, ‘‘ The Origin 
and Growth of the Moral Instinct.” 
LETTERS received from Uganda give a good account of the 
progress of Mr. Budgett, Balfour travelling student of Cam- 
bridge, on his zoological mission to the Semliki. On July 13, 
he writes that he was proposing to start next day from Kampala 
for Lake Albert, where he would probably stay at Batyaba, 
near the Nile end, the Polypterus which he was in quest of 
being stated to be abundant at this spot. Afterwards his plans 
were to proceed southward to Fort Portal and thence to the 
Semliki valley, where he would make a general collection and 
look after the okapi in the neighbouring forest. Mr. Jackson 
has most kindly allowed Mr. Budgett to have the assistance of 
one of his trained taxidermists. 
A COMMISSION will shortly leave England to settle the 
boundary line between the western portion of northern Rho- 
desia and the Portuguese territory. The commissioners selected 
for the purpose are Lieut.-Colonel Jackson and Lieut.-Colonel 
J. M. Woodward, of the Intelligence Department of the War 
Office, and Colonel Harding, the resident of the British South 
Africa Company in Barotse-land, will probably accompany the 
party. As the country to be traversed is very little known, it 
is much to be desired that a naturalist should be attached to 
this expedition, and we are informed that the authorities of the 
Natural History Museum have been consulted on the subject. 
The commissioners, it is said, are quite favourable to this being 
done, if the necessary arrangements can be made. 
A DESPATCH has been received at New York from Lieutenant 
Peary, dated from Chateau Bay, Labrador, stating that he is 
homeward bound on board the /Vzzdward and that all is well. 
AN international marine laboratory is, it is stated, to be 
established at Christiania under the direction of Dr. Fridtjof 
Nansen. 
Sczence announces that Mr. William H. Wright, of the Lick 
Observatory, has been selected to take charge of the D. O. 
Mills expedition, which is at present being got ready for a two 
years’ stay in Chile to make a special study of the stars of the 
southern hemisphere. The superintendence of the erection of 
the observing station and the inauguration of the work of the 
expedition will be undertaken by Director W. W. Campbell. 
A FUNGUS foray in connection with the Yorkshire 
Naturalists’ Union will take place in Armecliffe Woods and 
other portions of Eskdale from Saturday, September 27, to 
Thursday, October 2. 
DURING the past week, Vesuvius has been showing a certain 
amount of activity and Stromboli has also been active, fre- 
quent explosions and detonations having taken place and much 
