Ianuary 1 6. 1902 



NA TURE 



255 



We regret to see the announcement that Mr. Clarence King, 

 the eminent geologist, died at Phoenix, Arizona, on December 24, 

 1901. Mr. King was born in Newport, R.I., and graduated 

 from the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University in 1852. 

 He was instrumental in the organisation of the U.S. Geological 

 Survey, of which he was director from 1S7S to 1 88 1. 



We learn from the Victorian Naturalist that the monument 

 erected over the grave, in the St. Kilda Cemetery, of the late 

 Baron Sir F. von Mueller, K.C.M.G., for nearly forty-five 

 years Government Botanist of Victoria, was unveiled on 

 November 26, 1901, by His Excellency the Govenor-General, 

 Lord Hopetoun, in the presence of a large gathering of public 

 and scientific men and personal friends. The monument is in 

 the form of a tall column of polished stone, surmounted by an 

 urn, and resting on a broad pedestal. A medallion in copper 

 of the profile of the late Baron is let into the stone above the 

 inscription. 



It is reported from Paris that M. Ducretet is engaged in 

 carrying out experiments on wireless telephony from which 

 he has already obtained results which he considers are very 

 promising. M. Ducretet's name has been associated with that 

 of M. Popoff in connection with some very successful work 

 in the development of wireless telegraphy. His present ex- 

 periments do not seem to have gone beyond the laboratory 

 stage, the distance over which speaking has been conducted 

 being only thirty yards. The telephone currents pass through 

 the ground, and it is said that M. Ducretet is about to in- 

 vestigate the conduction through different soils. We hope' that 

 he will meet with success, though we are inclined to doubt the 

 practical utility of such a telephonic system, as it is difficult to 

 see in what way, except as a scientific curiosity, it is likely to be 

 superior to present methods. 



It is announced in Science that Dr. Ales Hrdlicka is about to 

 start on his fourth expedition among the Indians of the south- 

 western United States and northern Mexico. These expeditions 

 are a part of the system of anthropological exploration and 

 investigation known as the Hyde Expedition, and are carried on 

 under the direction of Prof. F. W. Putnam for the American 

 Museum of Natural History. The expenses of the present 

 undertaking are generously provided for by Mr. F. E. Hyde, 

 jun., of New York City. Dr. Hrdlicka is in charge of the 

 somatological work of the Hyde Expedition, and his plan, now 

 more than half fulfilled, is, in the main, to ascertain the physical 

 characteristics of the extinct as well as the living peoples in that 

 area which has once been occupied by the Cliff-Dwellers and 

 Pueblos, and by the Toltec, Aztec and Chechemec peoples. It 

 is hoped that on the present journey the somatological part of 

 the research in the field will be completed. 



Dr. J. Everett Duttox, of the Liverpool Malaria Expedi- 

 tion to the Gambia River, gives in a short report a few details 

 of a peculiar case of fever in which he found a parasite re- 

 sembling that of "tsetse fly disease" of cattle. The case was 

 that of a European, who presented peculiar symptoms, namely : 

 " Irregular attacks of fever lasting over a few days, the tem- 

 perature not exceeding 101°. The attacks occurred irregularly 

 for a period of some months ; abnormal frequent pulse ; an 

 increased frequency of respiration, especially on exertion, were 

 noticed. Besides general weakness there was a peculiar oedema 

 of the eyelids and a puffiness about the face, as well as redema 

 of the legs. The spleen was enlarged, but there were no 

 organic lesions of the heart or kidney, and the urine was 

 normal. An examination of the blood revealed, in somewhat 

 scanty numbers, a parasite, which actively travelled across the 

 field of the microscope backwards or forwards, butting against 

 the red corpuscles, and which was roughly determined to measure 

 NO. 1 68 I, VOL. 65] 



20^ long and 3// broad. The anterior end tapered off into a 

 long cilium ; the lateral membrane was distinct. A drop of 

 blood under a cover glass contained some four to fifteen or- 

 ganisms." The organism is certainly a Trypanosome, but 

 whether Trypanosoma lewisi or T. brucei or a new species is 

 not yet certain. A single stained blood specimen accompanying 

 the report shows an organism having a long anterior cilium and 

 a rather blunt posterior end. The case was seen and the blood 

 examined several times at the Royal Southern Hospital in Sep- 

 tember last, but no parasite of any sort could then be demonstrated 

 in the blood. The fever on that occasion was also peculiar. 



Some observations on the seiches of the lake of Lucerne, 

 by M. Ed. Sarasin, of Geneva, are described in the recently 

 issued Comptes rendus de la Sociiti kelvitique, containing the 

 proceedings for 1899. These observations, which were made at 

 Lucerne, Fluelen and near Vitznau, showed that the period of 

 the uninodal oscillation was 44 minutes, and of the binodal 

 24 minutes. 



A Civil Service examination in statistics was held for the 

 first time in June, 1901, in connection with an open competi- 

 tion for the situation of assistant to the head of the statistical 

 branch of the Board of Agriculture. It has been, therefore, 

 considered of interest to reprint the papers both in this subject 

 and in political economy in the Journal of the Royal Statistical 

 Society for 1901. 



The preliminary report as to the population of England 

 and Wales in 1901 is discussed by Mr. Thomas A. Welton, 

 in the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society for December 

 31. In the ten years 1891-1901 the increase has been about 

 12 '1 5 percent. The large towns have more than held their 

 own, and the new places noted in 1 89 1 have maintained an 

 average high rate of increase. This has been shared by many 

 places which, though they had but from 1000 to 2000 inhabitants 

 in 1801, were nevertheless classed as "progressive." On the 

 other hand, all the towns treated as " unprogressive " in 1801- 

 189 1 have shown poor rates of increase, as have also many 

 "progressive" towns which numbered from 2000 to 4000 

 inhabitants in 1801. 



The Journal de Physique for January contains a short 

 abstract of a paper by P. van der VHeth on an apparatus for 

 demonstrating the linear conduction of heat, the original paper 

 being in the Journal of the Russian Physico-Chemical Society. 

 A bar of iron of section 5x5 cm. is heated by a jet of steam at 

 one end and cooled at the other by a stream of water. Its 

 lateral surface is covered by a thick coating of felt and cork, 

 and a series of six thermometers is placed in holes made in the 

 bar. After about half an hour the distribution of heat is 

 stationary, and the temperature gradient as shown by the 

 thermometers is almost exactly a straight line. 



Prof. P. Zeeman, writing in the Archives neerlandaises, 

 describes an experiment relating to the change of phase which 

 occurs when a pencil of light-waves passes through a focus or 

 focal line, a phenomenon to which Gouy has given the name of 

 anomalous propagation. The experiments were made with a 

 plano-convex lens of Iceland spar placed between two crossed 

 nicols, and consisted in observing the rings produced by inter- 

 ference of the ordinary and extraordinary rays. When the 

 centre of the system is black or white between the two foci, 

 M. Gouy's theorem shows that it must be white or black respec- 

 tively beyond the foci. Prof. Zeeman also gives an independent 

 mathematical investigation of the phenomenon based on treat- 

 ing the focus as a doublet. 



A historical and critical essay of considerable length, on 

 the definitions of the Bernouillan function, has been published 

 by Prof. H. Renfer, of St. Gallen, in the Mittkeilungen der 



