580 
NATURE 
[OCTOBER 9, 1902 
A TELEGRAM from the Governor of Martinique states that 
Mont Pelée is again emitting clouds and that rumblings are 
being heard. There has been an overflow of hot water from 
the crater in the region of Basse-Pointe, and slight earthquake 
shocks have been felt at Bourg Sainte Marie and at Bourg 
Trinité. A telegram from Kingstown, St. Vincent, reports 
that a slight eruption of the Soufricre occurred on the evening 
of October I after a week’s tranquillity. The volcano was quiet 
on October 2. 
Av the opening ceremony of the new session of the Royal 
College of Science, held in the lecture theatre of the Victoria 
and Albert Museum on October 2, the Huxley gold medal was 
for the first time awarded to Mr. J. E. S. Moore, associate of 
the College, in recognition of work which he has already carried 
through and is still continuing in the Huxley Research Labo- 
ratory, in connection with his investigations into the African 
lake fauna and his studies in cytology and nuclear meta- 
morphosis, commenced at the Naples Zoological Station. The 
medal is intended as an award for research carried out in the 
Huxley Laboratory in some branch of natural science in which 
Huxley was distinguished. The recipient has the option of a 
silver-gilt medal, and the award is in either case accompanied 
by the balance of the interest on the capital sum invested for 
the purchase of books, instruments or as an aid to research. 
THE Official Reports of the Belgian Antarctic Expedition have 
been presented by the Belgian Government to the Scottish 
Antarctic Expedition, which is shortly to take its departure. 
Mr. W. S. Bruce, the leader of the expedition, has also received 
a telegram from Lieut. G. Lecointe, of the recent Belgian 
expedition, wishing him success. 
CAPTAIN,SVERDRUP and the other members of his recent 
expedition were entertained by the Geographical Society at 
Christiania last week. It was announced at the gathering that 
the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Olaf had been conferred 
upon Captain Sverdrup, that the Fram medal in gold was 
to be bestowed upon Peter Henriksen, and that the other 
members of the expedition were to receive the same in silver. 
AT a meeting of the local Society for the Prevention of Con- 
sumption held in Newcastle-upon-Tyne on Thursday last under 
the chairmanship of Mr. Watson Armstrong, it was decided to 
build a sanatorium for fifty patients at a cost of 50,0007, towards 
which the sum of 8000/. was subscribed at the meeting. Of this 
amount the chairman contributed 4000/. 
ARRANGEMENTS are already in progress for the next meeting 
of the Australasian Medical Congress, which is to be held at 
Adelaide in 1905 under the presidency of Prof. E. C. Stirling, 
F.R.S. The business is to be conducted in seven sections, as 
follows :—Medicine ; surgery; gynzecology; diseases of eye, 
ear and throat ; anatomy, physiology, pathology and pharma- 
cology ; public health ; State medicine and medical ethics. 
Dr. LoGan Taytor set sail last week in charge of an 
expedition which has been sent by the Liverpool School of 
Tropical Medicine to inquire into the health conditions of the 
Gold Coast, reports having from time to time during the past 
year reached this country as to the ill-health which has been 
prevalent in the colony. The expedition will not be occupied 
so much with research work as with practical operations against 
the unhealthy conditions of the principal towns, and it will, so 
far as possible, work in conjunction with the medical staff of the 
colony. 
IN continuation of the announcement made a few weeks ago 
(September 4, p. 446), we learn from the Z%mes that a resolution 
has been published stating that the Government of India has 
come to the conclusion that central authority is needed to 
ensure that the work of scientific research in India is distributed 
NO. 1719, VOL. 66] 
to the best advantage, that each investigator confines his re- 
searches to the subject with which he is most capable of dealing, 
and that energy is not wasted by the useless duplication of in- 
quiries or misdirected by lack of cooperation amongst the 
various departments. Hence a board of scientific advice is 
to be formed, comprising the heads of the Meteorological, 
Geological, Botanical, Forest, Survey, Agricultural and 
Veterinary departments, and other scientific officers of special 
attainments. This board is to prepare every year a general 
programme of research and a report describing what has been 
done. The main object of the scheme is to promote the 
economic development of the country. The resolution mentions 
the various scientific officers appointed in recent years, and says 
that the development of machinery in the different departments 
has rendered more essential than ever the coordination of 
scientific inquiry. The special Indian correspondent of the 
Lancet points out that to complete the scheme of the Govern- 
ment another advisory board, similarly constituted to that 
already referred to, is required for the original investigation of 
human diseases. There are many complaints, he says, towards 
the understanding of which clinical observation has done little, 
and more scientific research upon them is wanted. 
WE learn from the Zs/e of Man Times that on Saturday last 
the Isle of Man Natural History and Antiquarian Society paid 
a visit to the new buildings at Port Erin utilised by the Insular 
Government and the Liverpool Marine Biology Committee for 
the purposes of a biological laboratory and museum, and also as 
a fish hatchery. An interesting address was given by Prof. 
Herdman, director of the biological station, who explained the 
purpose the laboratory was intended to serve in the way of 
education and scientific research, and referred to the advantage 
of bringing students into contact with the living animals as they 
were enabled to do in an institution of this character. He 
thought the principal work of the fish hatchery would be the 
breeding and rearing of lobsters and flat fish. Mr. P. M. C. 
Kermode, the hon. sec. of the Society, unveiled a bust of 
Edward Forbes, which he has presented to the new institution, 
and gavea brief address on the life and work of this illustrious 
biologist, who was born in the Isle of Man and accomplished — 
considerable work in Manx natural history. Mr. Isaac 
Thompson also spoke in receiving the bust on behalf of the 
Liverpool Marine Biology Committee, and made an appeal for 
scientific publications for the station library ; and Sir James 
Gell (the acting governor) alluded to the part which the Tynwald 
Court had taken in providing the new building and the support 
given to the project by Deemster Kneen. The proceedings 
terminated with an inspection of the tanks in the aquarium, the 
microscopic specimens in the gallery and the local type collection 
in the museum gallery, all arranged by Mr. .H. C. Chadwick, 
the resident curator of the institution. In the afternoon the 
Society paid a visit to the Neolithic Stone Circle on the Meayll 
hill. ; 
Tue New South Wales Government has recently made am 
experiment with the object of introducing European flat-fishes 
to the colony. At the time of arrival of the consignment of 
fishes, there were alive 560 plaice, twenty English soles, three 
Mediterranean soles and one female lobster. The experimen 
is reported to have quite come up to the expectations of the 
fisheries commissioners, as, although some of the fish dispatched 
died on the voyage out, they were looked upon only as of 
secondary importance in the experiment, all the special arrange- 
ments having been made to suit the plaice. 
Ir is stated in the Scéentific American that Prof. R. 
Fessenden, whose system of wireless telegraphy is at present 
receiving the attention of the United States Government, has 
announced his intention of resigning his position in the 
