OcTOBER 30, 1902] 
NATURE 
659 
Engineers, and Mr. W. N. Atkinson and Mr. A. H. Stokes, 
H.M. Inspectors of Mines. The secretary of the committee is 
Captain A. Desborough, H.M. Inspector of Explosives. 
THE Berlin correspondent of the Stavdard announces that 
the International Conference on Wireless Telegraphy will be 
held in Berlin about the end of March or the beginning of 
April next. England, the United States, France, Austria- 
Hungary, Italy and Russia have all responded to the invitation 
from Germany, and have intimated that they will accept an 
invitation to a conference in Berlin on condition that the pro- 
gramme is fixed beforehand and sent with the invitation. It is 
hoped to draw up a programme shortly, if possible before the 
end of February. 
THE Paris correspondent of the Z7%mes reports that investiga- 
tions by the Lacroix expedition to Martinique have shown that 
the immense opening on the south-west side of the crest of 
Mont Pelée has grown to formidable dimensions, and the White 
River is choked near its source. The dangerous portion of the 
mountain is the south-west slope. 
Mr. A. W. CLAYDEN writes to direct attention to the close 
resemblance between recent sunset effects and those which 
followed the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883. At Exeter, on 
Friday last, he observed very high cirrus clouds which passed 
through the various shades of yellow and red to grey, and then 
changed to brown, golden yellow and vivid crimson. The 
double series was as pronounced as in any of the sunsets of 
1883. On Sunday evening, faint cirro-stratus became visible 
just before sunset, exactly resembling those seen at sunrise and 
sunset in 1883. The afterglow on Tuesday was richer in tone 
than any Mr. Clayden remembers since the Krakatoa effects. It 
will be remembered that similar observations of remarkable 
sunsets since the West Indian eruptions of May last have been 
made elsewhere and recorded in these columns (see pp. 199, 
221, 294, 390 and 540). 
THE third annual Huxley memorial lecture was delivered at 
the Anthropological Institute on October 21 by Prof. D. J. 
Cunningham, F.R.S. The subject was ‘‘ Right-handedness and 
Left-brainedness,” and Prof. Cunningham referred to the 
general interest which it presents to all students of anthropology. 
So far as available evidence goes, it seems probable that right- 
handedness was a characteristic of man at a very early period 
in his evolution. It is an inherited quality in the same sense 
that the potential power of articulate speech in man, and of song 
in the bird, are inherited possessions. Investigation shows 
that right-handedness is due to a transmitted functional pre- 
eminence of the left brain, and this factor prevents an oscillation 
of the condition from one side to the other in those curious 
cases in which the right and left sides of the body are reversed 
and the thoracic and abdominal viscera transposed. The 
greater part, if not the whole, of the motor incitations which 
lead to articulate speech go out from the speech centre which 
resides in the left cerebral hemisphere. In left-handed people, 
the predominance of the right cerebral hemisphere is accentuated 
by the transference to it of the active speech centre. Left- 
handed people, therefore, speak from the right brain. Prof. 
Cunningham concluded by pointing out that before definite con- 
clusions could be arrived at upon many aspects of the subject, 
it is necessary that detailed observations should be made of 
the development and growth-changes of the cerebral cortex of 
the ape and man. 
THE International Conference on Tuberculosis was held in 
Berlin on October 22-26, about four hundred members being 
present at the opening ceremony. At the final meeting, the 
following officers were elected for the international union against 
tuberculosis :—President, Prof. Brouardel, Paris; vice-presi- 
NO. 1722, vou, 66] 
dents, Prof. Andword, Christiania; Sir William Broadbent, 
London; Dr. Dewez, Mons; Prof. Espina y Cayo, Madrid ; 
Prof. von Leyden, Berlin; Prof. Linroth, Stockholm ; Prof. 
Margliano, Genoa; Prof. Schirwinsky, Moscow; and Prof. 
von Schrétter, Vienna. The executive committee consists of 
Dr. Althoff (president) ; Prof. Fraenkel, Berlin ; Dr. Calmette, 
Lille ; Dr. Chyzer, Budapest ; Dr. Noerdam, Copenhagen ; and 
Dr. Raw, Liverpool ; with Dr. Pannwitz, Berlin, as secretary. 
FROM a note in the 7%es we learn that a resolution of the 
Government of India on the report of the Imperial Bacteri- 
ologist for the past official year describes the chief work of the 
department for the year as the testing and production of the 
rinderpest serum. The experiments were directed to improving 
its protective quality and perfecting the process of manufacture. 
The results obtained at Jacobabad, Madras and Rangoon 
showed that the initial protective value of sera is materially 
diminished by exposure to high temperatures. Experiments 
relating to anthrax are said to have been brought to a successful 
issue by the discovery of a protective serum, and researches have 
been prosecuted into other'animal diseases. A scheme recently 
sanctioned for enlarging the laboratory will, it is hoped, lead to- 
the production of 100,000 doses of the serum per annum, while 
the plan for training veterinary assistants at the laboratory in the 
inoculation of cattle against rinderpest has been successful. It 
has been decided to discontinue the issue of fungus tubes for 
exterminating locusts, the results not having been successful in 
any of the provinces; meanwhile, investigations and experi- 
ments on the subject will be conducted in the agricultural 
department as well as by the bacteriologist. 
A List of the earthquakes and volcanic eruptions recorded 
from April to to September 23 of this year has been compiled 
by the Mew York Times and is reprinted in the Sczentzfic 
American of October 11. Serious disturbances of the earth’s 
crust have occurred on the following dates in various parts of 
the world :—April 10, 18; May 3, 7, 8, 12, 13, 15, 18, 20, 21, 
24, 28, 30, 31; June 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 14, 15, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24 > 
July 1, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 17, 27 ; August 13, 14, 15, 25, 27, 
30; September 1, 6, 8, 9, 16, 17, 22, 23. Reports have since 
been received of disturbances on September 25, October 4, 6 
and 16-25. With reference to the last of these records, when 
both Mont Pelée and the Soufriére of St. Vincent were in 
eruption, it is perhaps worth remark that a postcard posted at 
Greussen was received from Herr Nobbe on October 16 pre- 
dicting that disturbances would occur on October 17 and 18, 
not only at Martinique and St. Vincent, but also in Europe and 
America. 
THE Odessa correspondent of the Standard quotes from the 
Turkestan Gazette some further details with regard to the 
Kashgar earthquake of August 22. It appears that the earth- 
quake was far more disastrous than was supposed from the first 
accounts. The populous settlement of Nijni-Artish, lying to: 
the north-east of Kashgar, was practically razed, many of the 
houses were wholly ‘or partially engulfed in huge fissures, and 
1700 persons perished. In Kashgar itself and in the immediate 
neighbourhood, the earthquake was less destructive to property, 
but 600 persons were killed. The village of Besh-Kerim, con- 
sisting of eighty houses, was entirely destroyed, with the whole 
ofits inhabitants, in number about 550. The total loss of life is. 
estimated at a little above 3000. Undulations of the surface, 
like sea-waves, were observed in the Chatar-Kula Hills ; and 
the wooded banks of the Scharikhanskaia at Sultan-Abada are 
riven into immense chasms. 
IN a paper read before the Institution of Mining and Metal- 
lurgy on October 16, Messrs. T. H. Leggett and F. H. Hatch 
collate the facts on which estimates.can be based of the gold’ 
