278 



NATURE 



[January 23, 1902 



falling off of its power in this direction after twenty years 

 of age. 



With regard to the value of and necessity for re- 

 vaccination, the experience of the committee confirms 

 thatof a similar committee which reported upon the small- 

 pox epidemic of 1870-72. " No greater argument to 

 prove the efficacy of this precaution,'' says this report, 

 " can be adduced than the fact that out of upwards of 

 14,000 cases received into the hospitals only four well- 

 authenticated ones were treated, in which revaccination 

 had been properly performed, and these were slight 

 attacks." 



NOTES. 

 The work of preparing Hushy House for the National 

 Physical Laboratory is now approaching completion, and. His 

 Royal Highness the Prince of Wales has fixed Wednesday, 

 March 19, for the opening ceremony. The object of the 

 Laboratory is to encourage the applications of physical science 

 to manufactures and industry. This it will do by undertaking 

 researches into questions of importance to either, and by testing 

 apparatus and material used in trade. 



Prof. J. W. Gregory, F.R.S., has been temporarily ap- 

 pointed head of the Geological Survey of Victoria, with a view 

 to its complete reorganisation and the substitution of a staff 

 engaged on a permanent basis instead of the present temporary 

 plan. The Victorian Government is paying for extra assist- 

 ance in the geological department of the University while 

 Prof. Gregory is engaged upon this work. 



An expedition to Lake Eyre, the great depression in Central 

 Australia sinking below sea-level, has recently left Melbourne. 

 The party consists of Prof. J. W. Gregory, his assistant, Mr. 

 H. J. Grayson, and five students^ of the geological depart- 

 ment of the Melbourne University. The main objects of the 

 expedition are the study of the physical history of the Lake 

 Eyre basin and the collection of fossils, especially the extinct 

 giant vertebrates. The camel caravan starts from Hergott 

 Springs, a station 440 miles north of Adelaide. It is hoped 

 that the collections will throw light on some unexplained native 

 traditions as to former giant animals that inhabited the Lake 

 Eyre basin. 



The annual congress of the Sanitary Institute will be held 

 in Manchester on September 9-13, when Earl Egerton of Tatton 

 will preside. Section I. (Sanitary Science and Preventive 

 Medicine) will be presided over by .Sir J. Crichton Browne, 

 F.R.S. ; Section II. (Engineering and Architecture) by Sir 

 Alexander Binnie ; and Section III. (Physics, Chemistry and 

 Biology) by Prof. A. Sheridan Delpeine. Eight technical 

 conferences will also be held in connection with the congress. 



In the House of Commons on Monday, in reply to Mr. Field, 

 who asked a question in regard to the proposed erection of a 

 suitable College of Science in DubUn, Mr. Austen Chamberlain 

 said: — "Thirteen thousand pounds was voted in 1899-1900 

 and applied towards the purchase of part of the site for a new 

 college. I hope shortly to introduce a Bill for the acquisition 

 of the rest of the site, for the provision of funds for the new 

 building, and other purposes. I have satisfied myself by personal 

 inspection of the existing college that that building is quite 

 inadequate to the work which it is intended to perform." 



The American Society of Naturalists held a successful 



meeting at Chicago at the commencement of this month. There 



was a discussion on the relation of the Society to other 



scientific societies, an address by the president, Prof. Sedgwick, 



NO. 1682, VOL. 65] 



on the modern subjection of science and education to propa- 

 ganda, dealing largely with attempts to prevent the experi- 

 mental study of physiology, a lecture by Dr. Howard on 

 international work with beneficial insects, and 244 papers on 

 scientific subjects. The society will meet next winter at 

 Washington, in conjunction with the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science. A committee was appointed to 

 confer with a similar committee to be appointed by the 

 naturalists of the central and western States in regard to the 

 relations of the two societies. At the meeting to be held next 

 year the president will be Prof. J. McKeen Cattell, and the 

 vice-presidents Messrs. C. D. Wolcott, L. O. Howard and 

 D. P. Penhallow. 



We learn from Science that Mr. Andrew Carnegie's gift of 

 ten million dollars for scientific research has been transferred to 

 a corporation to be known as "The Carnegie Institution." 

 The original incorporators include Dr. D. C. Gilman, lately 

 president of Johns Hopkins University, the Hon. Chas. D. 

 Walcott, Director of the U.S. Geological Survey, Dr. John S. 

 Billings, and the Hon. Edward D. White. The objects of the 

 Institution, in addition to the promotion of research, are set 

 forth as follows : — To acquire, hold and convey real estate and 

 other' property necessary for the purpose of the Institution and 

 to establish general and specific funds. To conduct, endow 

 and assist investigation in any department of scientific literature 

 or art, and to this end to cooperate with Governments, univer- 

 sities, colleges, technical schools, learned societies and indi- 

 viduals. To appoint committees of experts to direct special 

 Hues of research. To publish and distribute documents, to 

 conduct lectures and to hold meetings. To acquire and main- 

 tain a library and, in general, to do and perform all things 

 necessary to promote the objects of the Institution. 



On January 17 Lord Rayleigh opened this season's Friday 

 evening meetings at the Royal Institution with a discourse 

 on the interference of sound. In the course of his remarks he 

 described some of his recent experiments with fog-horns, made 

 for Trinity House. Fog-horns with elliptic cones instead of 

 circular ones were tried, the major axis being abcut four times 

 longer than the minor one. The experiments showed that the 

 sound was best spread in a horizontal direction when the long 

 axis w.as exactly vertical. It appears to be doubtful whether 

 the phenomenon of the silent area is really due to interference 

 between waves of sound reaching the spot direct and those 

 reflected from the sea. If the effect were merely due to in- 

 terference in this way, it ought to be possible to recover the 

 sound by the listener changing his altitude above the sea surface, 

 but Lord Rayleigh has on several occasions tried this on board 

 the Irene and has not recovered the sound. When two or 

 more fog-horns are used at one station, it sometimes happens 

 that owing to the different sound waves being out of phase they 

 more or less neutralise one another at certain distances, so that 

 one source of sound is sometimes better than several. At the 

 close of Lord Rayleigh"s discourse, the Duke of Northumberland, 

 as president of the Institution, unveiled a bust of Sir Frederick 

 Bramwell, formerly honorary secretary of the Institution, and 

 formally presented it to the members on behalf of the managers 

 and their friends as a token of esteem. 



The death is announced of Prof. H. von Ziemssen, professor 

 of pathology and therapeutics in the University of Munich. 



Commissarv-General G. D. Lardner, whose death at 

 the age of eighty-four we regret to see announced, was the eldest 

 son of the renowned Dr. Dionysius Lardner, and, like his father, 

 he did much to encourage the study of astronomy, though his 

 writings and lessons did not reach so large a public. He was a 

 Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and devoted his 



