496 



NA TURE 



[March 27, 1902 



Engine," which was from his pen, was published by 

 Messrs. Griffin and Co. He also translated Diesel's 

 work, "The Theory and Construction of the Rational 

 Heat Motor." During; the whole of his career he was 

 constantly engaged in experiments of various kinds, one 

 of the principal series being the tests he made, in con- 

 junction with Prof. Kennedy, on the steam boiler. In 

 i8g8 a work which he had written on the subject was 

 published by Messrs. Griffin and Co. 



Mr. Donkin was a member of the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers, from which society he received the Watt 

 medal and Telford and Manby premiums ; a vice- 

 president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 

 and a member of various other scientific and technical 

 societies. 



NOTES. 



M. Vermoloki' has been elected a correspondant of the 

 Section of Rural Economy of the Paris Academy of Sciences, 

 in succession to the late Sir J. B. Lawes. 



In connection with the survey of British lakes provided for 

 by the PuUar Trust, Sir John Murray has rented Rannoch 

 Lodge, standing at the west end of Loch Rannoch, from now 

 until the commencement of the shooting season. In the first 

 week of April the following gentlemen will join him and will be 

 afsociated with him in the work, viz., Mr. R. M. Clark, Aber- 

 deen, Mr. T. N. Johnston, Edinburgh, Mr. James Parsons, 

 London, and Mr. James Chumley, Edinburgh. Other appoint- 

 ments will be made later in the season. Sir Robert Menries, 

 who has taken a great interest in these investigations, and has 

 placed boats, &c., at Sir John Murray's disposal for carrying on 

 the work, has said that all Highland proprietors should render 

 any assistance in their power to the survey by offering the use 

 of boats. It is intended to include within the scope of the 

 survey, in addition to the systematic physical and biological in- 

 vestigations, observations regarding the oscillations in the level 

 of the water (phenomena called "seiches" by Prof Forel) by 

 means of self-registering " limnographs," which will be set up 

 on the shores of the larger lakes. The first limnograph is now 

 in process of construction in Geneva under the personal super- 

 vision of Prof. Ed. Sarasin, of Geneva. It will be remembered 

 that Mr. Laurence Pullar, of Bridge of Allan, has set aside funds 

 to aid in carrying out this survey, as a memorial to his son, the 

 late Mr. Fred. P. Pullar, who was engaged (in collaboration 

 with .Sir John Murray) in a systematic survey of the Scottish 

 lakes at the time of his accidental death in February of last year. 



Mr. J. Hutchinson, F.R.S., went to South Africa recently 

 to study the local diffusion of leprosy there. The limes 

 announces that he has now returned ; and the conclusion to 

 which he has arrived is that the primary cause of the disease is 

 the use as food of badly-cured salt-fish. Whilst believing that 

 this has been by far the chief agent in its didfusion, Mr. 

 Hutchinson thinks he has obtained conclusive evidence that 

 the malady may, in very exceptional circumstances, be com- 

 municated from person to person. He does not believe that it is 

 either infectious or contagious in the proper sense of these 

 words, but that it may be communicated by eating food contam- 

 inated by a leper's hands. The measures suggested for the 

 prevention of the disease are, first (and by far the most important), 

 the legislative control of the fish-curing establishments ; secondly, 

 the diffusion of information as to danger of communication ; and 

 thirdly, the establishment of small isolation homes into which 

 lepers should be induced to go during the stage involving risk. 



It is stated that Prof. E. von Behring intends to give ihe 

 amount of the Nobel prize recently awarded him (8400/.) to the 

 Prussian State for the permanent endowment of the Institute of 

 NO. 1 69 1, VOL. 65] 



Experimental Therapeutics founded by him in the University of 

 Marburg. The gift is to be devoted to the prosecution on a 

 large scale of the researches on serum initiated by Prof Behring. 

 The British Medical fournal appropriately recalls the fact that 

 several years ago Prof von Behring gave the half of a French 

 prize awarded to him, equivalent to a sum of 1000/., in further- 

 ance of serum research. 



A NEW city branch of the Imperial Institute will he opened 

 early in May for the display, to merchants, manufacturers, &c., 

 of raw and manufactured products received, from time to time, 

 from the colonies and from India, and for which it is desired to 

 find openings in the British markets. Curators and other 

 members of the Imperial Institute staff will attend at the office 

 at stated times and by special appointment, to deal with in- 

 quiries and to assist in establishing or facilitating business 

 relations with mercantile houses, &c., in the colonies and in 

 India. The city branch will be in constant communication, by 

 telephone and messengers, with the Imperial Institute, South 

 Kensington. 



Early in April, students of the Institution of Electrical 

 Engineers will visit the Newcastle-on-Tyne district and inspect 

 several works there. Among the places to be visited are the 

 works and substations of the Newcastle Electric Supply Co. 

 and of the Sunbeam Electric Lamp Co., the Elswick Works of 

 Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth and Co., the three-phase 

 tramway system at Stockton-on-Tees, and the works of Messrs 

 Palmer's Shipbuilding and Iron Co. 



We are informed that at the meeting of the Connecticut 

 Academy of Sciences on February 12, Prof. A. E. Verrill 

 exhibited several remarkable photographs in natural colours 

 taken direct from nature by a new process, just invented by 

 Mr. A. Hyatt Verrill, of New Haven. One of these was a 

 Bermuda landscape, in which the beautiful blue .and green tints 

 of the water, as well as the soft, creamy colour of the old stone 

 Walsingham residence and the natural grey of the rocks, were 

 well brought out. Three other plates were copies of water- 

 colour drawings of groups of bright-coloured Bermuda fishes, 

 taken from life by Mr. Verrill. The photographs were on 

 paper, and were said to have been obtained by a purely photo- 

 chemical process. 



The report of the council of the Scottish Meteorological 

 Society, read at the general meeting of the Society on March 

 20, announces that the second volume of the Ben Nevis obser- 

 vations is approaching completion. This is the first of the three 

 volumes, for the printing of which the Royal Societies of 

 London and Edinburgh have each voted 500/. It contains the 

 observations made at the Ben Nevis and Fort William Obser- 

 vatories from January 1SS8 to December 1S92, and discussions 

 connected with them. One of these discussions is by Mr. J. 

 Aitken, F. R.S., on the dust of the atmosphere as observed on 

 Ben Nevis and at various places in Scotland. For several 

 years experiments with kites for meteorological purposes have 

 been carried on near Edinburgh by Mr. John Anderson. He 

 has now obtained a complete outfit, including an oil-engine of 

 two and a quarter (2|) horse-power. It is proposed to test this 

 kite, which in some respects has new features to recommend it, 

 very thoroughly in the early summer. The outfit will be handed 

 over to the ship of the Scottish Antarctic Expedition for use in 

 the South Polar regions. 



We have received a reprint of a letter from Prof. A. Agassiz 

 to Prof E. S. Dana, dated Colombo, January 29, in which 

 Prof. Agassiz announces the return of his expedition from an 

 exploration of the Maldives, extending over several weeks. The 

 general form of the plateau on which the atolls are situated has 

 been determined and the channels between the lagoons care- 

 fully studied. The principal atolls in the middle of the group 



