September 28. 191 1] 



NATURE 



4i7 



Habits of Dogs. 



In reply to Dr. Kidd's question as to the disposition of 

 dogs to carry hedgehogs in their mouths, I may say that 

 a smooth-haired Irish terrier, " Tim," of which I had 

 charge for some weeks in the early spring of the present 

 speedily became an expert hunter of hedgehogs, and 

 carried home five living ones in the course of a month. 

 1 am inclined to think that he came upon the first one 

 in its winter cjuarters quite by chance; but on almost 

 ■ very subsequent occasion, when taken out for a run after 

 dark, he quickly disappeared amongst the gorse and ling. 

 and, eluding my daughters, returned home alone with 

 a hedgehog in his mouth. On one occasion he had 

 cunningly bitten off the ends of a number of the spines 

 on the back of his captive, and on only one occasion did 

 I see blood upon his lips. H. C. Chadwick. 



The Biological Station, Port Erin, Isle of Man, 

 September 16. 



With reference to ! r ol Mr. Venables in Nature 



of September 21. it may interest your correspondent to 

 know that tin* stimulation from formic acid taken by the 

 mouth is " out of proportion to the effect which one would 

 expect from the mere acidity." 



Formic acid is given in medicine for states of debility, 

 e.g. following influenza, and a tincture made from the 

 whole ant (Formica rufa) is given in homoeopathy for 

 1 nervous and rheumatic states. 



H. Fergie Woods. 

 " Appledore," Park Drive, Golders Hill, N.W., 

 September 25. 



THE TURIN MEETING OF THE INTER- 

 NATIONAL ELECT ROTECHNICAL 

 COMMISSION. 

 'THE fourth meeting of the International Electro- 

 -*■ technical Commission was held at Turin, and 

 came to a close on September 16. For several reasons 

 this meeting has established an international interest, 

 not only for electrical engineers, but for mathe- 

 maticians, engineers, and all interested in the 

 standardisation of symbols used in mathematical 

 literature and formula?. 



The opening business of the meeting consisted in 

 the election of a new president ; Dr. Budde, until 

 recently the head of Messrs. Siemens and Halske, of 

 Berlin, and probably the best known of the electrical 

 engineers of Germany, was unanimously elected to fill 

 the position in place of the retiring president, the 

 eminent American physicist, Prof. Elihu Thomson. 

 Colonel Crompton was re-elected as honorary secre- 

 tary on the proposal of Prof. Feldmann, of Holland, 

 who. in putting forward his proposal, referred to the 

 St. Louis Congress of 1004, and the part Colonel 

 Crompton took in urging the advisability of inter- 

 national cooperation in matters electrical. He said 

 that Colonel Crompton was, in fact, the father of 

 the International Electrotcchnical Commission. 



It was extremely satisfactory to note that Dr. 

 Budde's election was proposed by the French dele- 

 gates, which shows that at any rate any political 

 differences which may exist between France and 

 Germany do not extend to the more serene atmosphere 

 of the scientific world. 



The proceedings were formally opened by the read- 

 ing- of a report by the honorary secretary, Colonel 

 Crompton, on the progress of the work since the last 

 fotmal meeting, and more particularly since the in- 

 formal meeting: which took place at Brussels last year. 

 He pointed out that whereas in 1908 there were only 

 ten countries taking part in the Commission there 

 were now twentv-one countries subscribing, each of 

 which had formed its own local electrotechnical com- 

 mittee, in most cases with the direct aid of their 

 respective Governments, and he thought it practically 

 NO. 2l8;, VOL. S^ 



certain that at least three or four other countries were 

 on the way to join, so that the movement might be 

 called practically universal. 



Prof. Elihu Thomson then gave an address as retir- 

 ing president, and described the work carried out at 

 the Brussels informal conference, and advocated that 

 tho work of the central office in London would be 

 much lightened by the formation of a few international 

 subcommittees additional to the one which already 

 existed. He pointed out that the subject which re- 

 quired such continuous treatment by an international 

 subcommittee was that of the standardisation of 

 nomenclature and symbols used by mathematician--, 

 engineers, and others, dealing with electrical ques- 

 tions, and he thought that the same might apply to 

 the question of illumination as it was most desirable 

 that the engineers engaged in illumination, not only 

 by electricity, but by other means, should also 

 standardise the expressions and formulas thev use. 

 He emphasised the need of conducting the work of 

 the Commission so that it may be a material assist- 

 ance to the electrical industry, and so as not to retard 

 progress or design in any way. 



Two days were occupied by unofficial meetings deal- 

 ing with the business in hand. A report on nomen- 

 clature was presented by Dr. Budde, the newly elected 

 president, and after considerable discussion the 

 amended list of terms and definitions drawn up in the 

 two official languages of the Commission— English 

 and French — was provisionally adopted. This list had 

 been prepared by a subcommittee at a conference held 

 at Cologne last May. and was thoroughly discussed 

 and finally adopted at this meeting. 



The next and verv important matter was that of 

 mathematical symbol's. Here again the proposals put 

 forward at the unofficial congress held at Brussels in 

 iqio were discussed, somewhat modified, and provi- 

 sionally adopted; and a resolution was proposed by 

 Dr. Budde, and seconded bv Mr. Alexander Siemens, 

 the president of the Institution of Civil Engineers of 

 London, that the letters "1," " E," and "R" should 

 be i.lopted to represent current, electromotive force, 

 and resistance respectively in the simple algebraic 

 expression of Ohm's law. It will be seen that in 

 coming to this decision concessions were made bv 

 Germany dropping the letter "W" for resistance, and 

 be Great Britain discontinuing the letter "C" for 

 current. It is evident that this agreement on the 

 symbols employed in Ohm's law will be a great 

 convenience to all electrical students. 



The discussion on symbols was a very thorough 

 one. and the difficulties that appear likely to arise, at 

 any rate amongst electrical engineers, are compara- 

 tively small compared with the difficulties of selecting 

 suitable signs on account of the limited range of the 

 type letters suitable for the purpose. For magnetic 

 quantities either Gothic, Script, heavy-faced, or any 

 special tvoe was decided upon. 



Although the matter was not in any wav discussed 

 at the conference, it appears likelv that this difficulty 

 could best be met by the substitution of a number of 

 new symbols not necessarily representing letters of any 

 tvne, 'but of a form and shape that thev could be 

 easily remembered and recognised, and which would 

 be free from the present existing difficulty of causing 

 oreat trouble to the composer in setting up his type 

 and spacing his lines. 



Evenfualb- a subcommittee, consisting of one mem- 

 ber each from Belgium. France. Germany, Great 

 Britain. Holland, Spain, Switzerland, and the LInited 

 States was appointed to continue the study of these 

 international symbols. 



The next interesting point dealt with was the_ vector 

 diagrams in use for alternating-current quantities. It 



