472 



NATURE 



[March 20, 1902 



as follows: — The Murchison grant to Mr. J. Stanley Gardiner, 

 for his researches in Funafuti Island in the Pacific and the 

 Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean ; the Gill memorial to Mr. 

 G. G. Chisholm, for the services he has rendered during twenty- 

 five years to geographical education by text-books of various 

 kinds, atlases and lectures, all of a high standard of value, as 

 well as for his geographical investigations, among other subjects 

 into cataracts and waterfalls, and on the sites of towns ; the 

 Back grant to Lieut. Amdrup, of the Danish navy, for his two 

 voyages of exploration to the east coast of Greenland, during 

 which he surveyed and mapped in detail much of the coast 

 hitherto unknown or imperfectly mapped ; the Peek award to 

 Mr. J. P. Thomson, the founder of the Queensland branch of 

 the Australian Geographical Society, who, by his writinf;s and 

 in other ways, has done much to promote the intercuts of 

 geography in Queensland. 



The Naples Academy (mathematical and physical section) 

 has awarded the prize for natural sciences for 1901 to Dr. 

 Marussia Bikunin, the authoress of six printed papers dealing 

 with stereochemistry. The subject announced for the next 

 award (entries closing June 30, 1903) is the formation of urea in 

 the animal organism. 



The prize awards of the Reale Istituto Lombardo for the 

 year 1901 are as follows : — Triennial medals to Prof. Giuseppe 

 Sartori, of Brescia, for preparation of butter with acidified cream, 

 and to Pietro Gamberini, of Milan, for photographic apparatus. 

 Under the Brambilla foundation, a gold medal and 1000 lire 

 to the Societa del Laminatojo di Malavedo for the production 

 of soft steel, a similar award to Franchi e Griffin for the 

 wheels of tempered iron (suitable for tramcars and other rolling 

 stock) made by the Griffin process, and a gold medal and 

 500 lire to Turrinelli and Company for their introduction into 

 Milan of a service of public automobiles worked by electricity. 

 A Fossati foundation award of 1000 lire to Dr. Carlo Martinotti, 

 of Turin, for his macro- and micro-scopic researches on the 

 encephalus of the higher animals. Pizzamiglio foundation prizes 

 of 1500 lire to Dr. Alfredo Piazzi, of the University of Turin, 

 and of 750 lire to Dr. Guido Jona, of Savona, for essays on 

 secondary education. Under the Tommasoni foundation, for 

 studies of the life and works of Leonardo da Vinci, awards of 

 1000 lire to each of the three competitors, comprising Dr. N. S. 

 Scognamiglio, Prof. G. B. de Toni and Edmondo Solmi. 



The number of the lii-iiJiconti of the Lombardy Institution 

 containing the announcements of prize awards also gives a list of 

 future subjects for prizes. Of the prizes of the Institution, that 

 for the present year (entries closing March 31, 3 p.m.) is for a 

 toponomastic exploration of some district of Lombardy ; that 

 for 1 903 is for some original contribution to our knowledge of the 

 theory of transformation-groups as founded more particularly by 

 Lie. The two triennial medals for 1903 will be offered, as usual, 

 for improvements in the agriculture and in the manufacturing 

 industries in Lombardy. For the Cagnola prizes, the subjects 

 • selected by the Institution are, for 1902 (entries closing A])ril i), 

 the study of the effects of the gases emanating from various 

 manufactories on the growth of cultivated plants, and for 1903, 

 a monographic study of hypophysis. The four subjects selected 

 by the founder for the remaining Cagnola prizes deal with the 

 the cure of pellagra, the nature of miasma and contagion, aerial 

 navigation, and the prevention of forgery, and in connection 

 with the second subject it is suggested in a footnote that com- 

 petitors might deal with prophylactic measures against malaria 

 considered in connection with our present knowledge of the 

 biology and mode of diffusion of the microbe of this disease. 

 The Brambilla prize is ofl^ered for improvements in the manu- 

 factories of Lombardy. The Fossati prize for 1902 is for macro- 

 and micro-scopic researches on the encephalus of the higher 

 NO. 1690, VOL. 65] 



animals, for 1903 on the nuclei of origin or termination of the 

 cranial nerves, and for 1904 on the localisation of certain cerebral 

 centres. The Kramer prize, confined to Italian engineers, is 

 offered for a report on systems of electric traction. The Secco- 

 Comneno prize is for a description of the Italian natural 

 phosphatic deposits and their practical uses (entries closing 

 April 30, 3 p.m.). A prize is offered under the Pizzamiglio 

 foundation to Italians for an unpublished manuscript on the 

 influence of modern socialistic doctrines on private rights. 

 Ciani prizes are offered for popular Italian literary works, a 

 triennial Zanetti prize (entries closing March 31) is offered to 

 an Italian pharmaceutical chemist who shall obtain a result 

 which is considered of use in the progress of ))harmaceutical 

 and medical chemistry, and a Tommasoni prize for 1905 for a 

 study of the life and works of Leonardo da Vinci. 



The thirteenth session of the International Congress of 

 Americanists will be held in the American .Museum of Natural 

 History, New York City, October 20-25. The object of the 

 Congress is to bring together students of the arch;eology, eth- 

 nology and early history of the two Americas, and by the reading 

 of papers and by discussions to advance knowledge of these 

 subjects. Communications may be oral or written, and in 

 French, German, Spanish, Italian or English. The papers 

 presented to the Congress will, on the approval of the Bureau, 

 be printed in the volume of the Proceedings. The subjects to 

 be discussed by the Congress relate to : — (l) The native races 

 of America, their origin, distribution, history, physical character- 

 istics, language, inventions, customs and religions ; (2) the 

 history of the early contact between America and the Old 

 World. All persons interested in the study of the archeology, 

 ethnology and early history of the two Americas may become 

 members of the Congress by signifying their desire to Mr. 

 Marshall Saville, general secretary of the Commission of 

 Organisation, American Museum of Natural History, New 

 York, and remitting either direct to the treasurer (Mr. Harlan I. 

 Smith, American Museum of Natural History) or 'through 

 the general secretary, the subscription of three dollars. Mr. 

 Morris K. Jesup is president and the Duke of Loubat vice- 

 president of the Commission of Organisation. 



The Government Report of the Committee on Acetylene 

 Generators, which has just been issued by II. M. Chief Inspector 

 of Explosives, shows that the acetylene industry ha? attained a 

 position of no little importance. Consisting of some thirty 

 pages, the Report, which is the outcome of the work of a strong 

 committee, contains some valuable tabulated results of tests on 

 forty-six specified generators, showing their gas production, 

 efficiency, and maximum pressure in the generating chamber 

 and in other parts of the plant. It speaks very highly for the 

 industry that every one of these generators sent in for examin- 

 ation has been reported by the Committee to be satisfactory. 

 We share the opinion of the Committee that many of the 

 generators on the market are too complex in construction, and 

 when prime cost, space, loss of water and of gas by solution 

 are not important considerations, we agree with the view that 

 the non-automatic generator, on account of its certainty and 

 simplicity, is to be preferred to the automatic type. A. list of 

 what the Committee consider the conditions which a generator 

 should fulfil in order to be considered safe should be of great 

 value to those engaged in the design of acetylene plant. The 

 only thing to which exception may be taken is a limit of five 

 inches water pressure suggested for the gas in the service mains ; 

 by raising this limit to six or seven inches, the possibilities of 

 using the gas for heating purposes would be greatly increased, 

 and, as we believe that it is generally admitted that under pres- 

 sures of less than two atmospheres there is no danger of 

 spontaneous decomposition, such an increase does not seem 



