September 21, 191 1] 



NATURE 



389 



been appointed professor of astronomy and geodesy in the 

 Isiilui.) Idrografico della K. Marina at Genoa, to which 

 Eldress he desires all communications to him to be sent. 



The new session (the seventieth) of the Pharmaceutical 

 Society's School of Pharmacy is to be opened on October 4, 

 when the inaugural address will be delivered by Dr. J. 

 Macdonald Brown. The Hanbury gold medal will be 

 presented on the occasion to M. Eugene Leger, of the 

 H6pital St. Louis, Paris. 



A Recter message from Adelaide states that Mr. 

 Brown, the South Australian Government geologist, re- 

 ports that the uranium ores recently discovered in the 

 northern portion of South Australia possess great import- 

 ance, owing to the limited extent of the world's supply of 

 radium-producing ore. He also reports the existence of 

 extensive deposits of corundum in the same district, and 

 recommends prospecting there for rare gems. 



The third exhibition of small power engineering appli- 

 ances, models, and scientific apparatus will be held at the 

 Royal Horticultural Hall, Vincent Square, Westminster, 

 on October 13 to 21. It will comprise working and 

 stationary engineering models of all kinds, small power 

 steam, gas, and oil engines, lathes and light machine tools. 

 electrical appliances, &c. There will also be a completely 

 equipped model engineering workshop, in which demonstra- 

 tions of metal-working processes and small engine building 

 will be given daily. 



An agreement has been signed by the representatives of 

 the United Kingdom and Germany, the carrying into 

 effect of which will mean a thorough investigation into the 

 extent of sleeping sickness in the Gold Coast Colony, the 

 Ashanti and Northern Territory Protectorates, and Togo- 

 land. Each Government will keep the other informed of 

 the incidence, extent, and possible spread of the disease 

 in its territory, and will treat the other's native subjects 

 free of charge ; but each may impose restrictions on the 

 frontier traffic and may prevent suspected sufferers from 

 crossing its border. The agreement is for three years 

 certain from December 1, 191 1, and continues thereafter 

 for yearly periods, unless denounced at least six months 

 before the close of a year. 



It is reported in The Lancet that the chief medical 

 officer of one of the Austrian army corps has recently 

 ordered the use of Calmette's serum against serpent-bites, 

 and a fairly large stock of it has now been issued to each 

 regiment in the south of the Empire. The men and the 

 medical officers are instructed in the use of it, and regular 

 inspections of the stock, as well as lectures on the natural 

 history of the poisonous kinds of serpents, are provided 

 for. In addition to the serum, the various appliances 

 necessary for its proper application have been supplied to 

 the army hospitals. Hitherto much dependence has been 

 placed on the treatment of such injuries by alcohol and the 

 application of permanganate of potash. 



Is May last great excitement was created in Turkey 

 and throughout the Mohammedan world by the rumour 

 that -a party of English archaeologists had profaned the 

 Mosque of Omar at Jerusalem in search of the regalia of 

 Solomon, the Ark of the Covenant, and the Tables of the 

 Law. A full account of the results of this expedition 

 appear in The Field of September 16, of which a summary 

 is given by The Times of the previous day. The excava- 

 tions were chiefly devoted to what is known as the Virgin's 

 Well and the maze of tunnels and chambers connected 

 with it. Many fragments of Jewish and Hellenistic pottery 

 were found. While some of it may be attributed to 

 NO. 2l86, VOL. 87] 



Canaanitish potters, none can be safely dated so late as 

 the ninth century B.C. One Israelitish lamp, in almost per- 

 fect condition, is certainly as old as the eleventh century 

 B.C. The Hellenistic pottery betrays indubitable evidence 

 of that school of pottery which was transformed in the 

 eighth and ninth centuries B.C. by Cypriote or Rhodian 

 influence. 



The mediaeval belief that the neuro-hystero-psychic 

 manifestations known as Tarantism, because they were 

 attributed to the bite of the Tarantula spider (Lycosa 

 tarantula), has again appeared in the Troad, according to 

 an interesting account given by a correspondent of The 

 Times in its issue of September 9. The ecstatic dances, 

 now said to be due to the promptings of the spirit of St. 

 George, are similar to those which prevailed in Europe 

 from 1374 to the beginning of the sixteenth century, the 

 only difference being that in the present case the excite- 

 ment is shared by men as well as women. The corre- 

 spondent quotes two instances, which may probably be 

 attributed to automatic suggestion, in which spider bites 

 were said to be the cause of similar phenomena in one of 

 the Troad villages. Similar manifestations are said to 

 incurred recently in the small island of Marmora, and 

 at Balouki, a suburb of Constantinople. It is suggested 

 that the investigation of these phenomena should be under- 

 taken by medical experts and by the societies devoted to 

 psychical research. 



Dr. Max Ohnefalsch-Richter publishes in The Times 

 of September 11 an interesting letter on the discoveries of 

 the Prussian Academy's archaeological expedition to 

 Paphos, in Cyprus. We appear to allow the Germans to 

 excavate as they please in one of our colonies. That is 

 very good of us, and it is all to the good of science ; but 

 it is a pity that our archaeologists cannot be digging in the 

 kingdom of Cyprus too. That little island-realm, which 

 owns the sway of George V. (in succession to Richard 

 Lionheart. who was the first English King of Cyprus) 

 is full of archaeological treasures which only await the 

 spade. Witness the fine collections of Minoan antiquities 

 from Enkomi in the British Museum. Dr. Ohnefalsch- 

 Richter describes antiquities of a later period, chiefly 

 Greek inscriptions, written in the peculiar Cypriote syllabic 

 script, from Paphos. A discovery of his own at Rantidi 

 last year gave the impetus to the Prussian work which 

 has resulted in so great an addition to our knowledge of 

 Cypriote inscriptions. The site on which they have been 

 found by Dr. Zahn is that of the ancient high-place of 

 Aphrodite at Paphos. 



Information has been received of the arrival of the 

 magnetic survey vessel, the Carnegie, at Mauritius on 



• 6, having been thirty-one days out from Colombo, 

 ■ on. The exceptionally large chart errors (approximat- 

 ing in magnetic declination to four degrees for one exten- 

 sivelv used chart and for another even to six degrees) 

 which were shown on the portion of the cruise from 

 ( api Town to Colombo, via St. Paul I., April-June, have 



confirmed by the cruise from Colombo to Mauritius. 

 The Carnegie also arranged her route so as to intersect the 



i of the Gauss (1901-3), and thus has been able 

 to secure valuable secular variation data. A fuller account 

 is published in the September issue of Terrestrial Magnetism 

 and Atmospheric Electricity. Dr. Bauer, during his visit 

 to Australian institutions, was able to set afoot a general 

 magnetic survey of Australia, one of the largest land areas 

 remaining to be explored in this respect. The survey is to 

 be conducted under the joint auspices of local organisations 

 and of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, the 



