45 6 



NATURE 



[October 5, 1911 



Council with the object of preventing the misuse of 

 sulphuric, nitric, and hydrochloric acids. These acids, and 

 also salt, of lemon, must now only be sold by retail in 

 bottles, distinguishable by touch from ordinary bottles, and 

 bearing on a label the name and address of the seller, 

 together with the words " Poisonous " and " Not to be 

 taken." Ammonia will also be subject to the same regula- 

 tions in four months' time. 



The popular science lectures which are given at the 

 Royal Victoria Hall, Waterloo Road, S.E., every Tuesday 

 evening from October to May, will commence on Tuesday, 

 October 10, when Prof. W. Flinders Petrie, F.R.S., will 

 lecture on " Life in Egypt 2000 Years Ago." Other 

 lectures during this month are : — October 17, " The Modern 

 Gun and Armour Plate," J. S. S. Brame ; October 24, 

 "Seeing Canada," Miss A. D. Cameron; and October 31, 

 " Mountaineering," Mr. H. V. Reade. 



We notice with regret the announcement of the death, 

 on September 26, of Mr. G. C. Donington, senior chemistry 

 master at the City of London School. Mr. Donington was 

 for a time demonstrator in chemistry at the Central Tech- 

 nical College, South Kensington, and was afterwards 

 successively science master at Highgate School, Christ's 

 Hospital, and Leeds Grammar School before his appoint- 

 ment to the City of London School. He was the author 

 of a laboratory manual entitled " Practical Exercises in 

 Chemistry," issued in 1906, and of a helpful " Class-book 

 of Chemistry," published a few months ago. His death 

 at the early age of thirty-seven will be deeply regretted 

 by many friends and pupils. 



An investigation of the disease known as " sprue " is to 

 be undertaken by the London School of Tropical Medicine. 

 It is hoped that funds to the amount of loooi. will be 

 available for this purpose, of which the Government of 

 Ceylon has provided 750/., and the remainder will probably 

 be subscribed by the Ceylon Tea Planters' Association. It 

 has not yet been decided what representative of the school 

 will undertake the investigation. The disease occurs in 

 Ceylon, Malaya, Indo-China, China, and other districts, 

 and is of considerable importance, causing a large 

 amount of sickness and disability, and in some instances 

 a fatal issue. At present little is known of the causation 

 of the malady. 



It is proposed to erect a memorial to Mungo Park and 

 Richard Lander. A committee has been formed consist- 

 ing of Lord Curzon, Sir George T. Goldie, Lord Scar- 

 brough, Major Leonard Darwin, Sir Walter Egerton, and 

 Sir Hesketh Ball to take the necessary steps to secure 

 funds for this purpose. Both explorers have been honoured 

 in their native towns of Selkirk and Truro, but no record 

 of any kind exists in the land to which their lives were 

 consecrated and sacrificed. In appealing for support, the 

 committee remarks : — " As the main object of their travels 

 was to discover where the Niger joined the ocean, the most 

 suitable site would seem to be its principal ocean port. 

 It is therefore proposed to erect an obelisk of similar 

 design and dimensions to Cleopatra's Needle on a project- 

 ing point of land at Forcados, where it would both attract 

 general attention and serve as a landmark to vessels 

 approaching the port. The total cost is estimated at 2000/., 

 •exclusive of the foundations, which it is understood will 

 be undertaken by the Government of Southern Nigeria." 

 Donations may be sent to the honorary treasurer of the 

 fund, Dr. J. Scott Keltie, 1 Savile Row, London. 



The new session of the Royal Geographical Society will 

 be opened on November 6, when Dr. Nansen will read a 

 paper on the Norsemen in America. On November 20 Dr. 

 NO. 2 1 88, VOL. 87] 



Tempest Anderson will give a paper on volcanic 1 1 

 and explosions. On December 4 Sir Alfred Sharpe, until 

 recently Governor of Nyasaland, will deal with the. geo- 

 graphy and economic development of British Central Africa. 

 On December iS Dr. T. McDougal, of the Carnegie Institu- 

 tion of Washington, will contribute a paper on American 

 deserts. In the new year Sir William Willcocks will deal 

 with his further researches on the Garden of Eden and its 

 restoration. Dr. Mackintosh Bell, late director of the 

 Geological Survey of New Zealand, will describe an un- 

 known corner of South Island. Mr. Douglas Carruthers 

 will describe, probably in March, his travels in Central 

 Asia. Mr. A. J. Sargent will deal with the commercial 

 geography of the Tyne Basin, and Mr. P. A. Talbot with 

 the journeys in the Central Sudan. In January or 

 February a course of three lectures will be given in the 

 afternoon on the desert of North Africa, by Captain H. G. 

 Lyons, F.R.S. The Christmas lectures this session will 

 be: — on January 5, by Mr. Julian Grande, on "Amongst 

 the Alps"; on January 8, by Mr. W. Herbert Garrison, 

 on "Our World-wide Empire"; and on January 11, "A 

 Lady's Journeys in the Central Sudan," by Miss Olive 

 MacLeod. 



A copy of the firi-t monthly number of the eighth volume 

 of The South African Journal of Science, being the issue 

 for August last, has been received. The periodical is the 

 organ of the South African Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, and the present issue is concerned with 

 the Bulawayo meeting of the association held in July last. 

 The presidential address of Prof. P. D. Hahn is printed, 

 and in it he dealt, we find, with the advance in the teach- 

 ing of science during the last forty years. "There was," 

 he said, " no professorship or lectureship for any branch 

 of science in existence in any of the schools or colleges 

 of South Africa forty years ago, whilst at the present time 

 we have over sixty professors and lecturers appointed to 

 teach certain branches of science in our colleges and 

 technical and agricultural schools." In Section A of the 

 association, concerned with astronomy, mathematics, 

 physics, meteorology, geodesy, surveying, engineering, 

 architecture, and geography, the Rev. E. Goetz was presi- 

 dent, and took " weather forecasting " for the subject of 

 his address, which is printed in part in this issue. The 

 South Africa Medal and Fund, which was raised by 

 members of the British Association in commemoration of 

 their visit to South Africa in 1905, were presented to Dr. 

 L. Peringuey, director of the South African Museum, in 

 recognition of his entomological research in South Africa. 

 The fund amounted to 50/. The 1912 meeting of the 

 association is to be held at Port Elizabeth. 



Mr. A. Hamilton, director of the Dominions Museum 

 at Wellington, New Zealand, has issued a useful hand-list 

 of pamphlets and papers containing information relating 

 more or less directly to the Maori race, supplementing the 

 earlier catalogue published by him in vol. zxxiii. of the 

 Transactions of the New Zealand Institute for 1900. He 

 has excluded from his collection anything which might 

 be called a " book," as these are to be found in various 

 library catalogues and bibliographies. The present list isl 

 therefore confined to detached articles, many found only 

 in obscure sources, which supply information on thisa 

 interesting people. The publication is thus of much valueJ 

 to students of sociology, ethnography, folk-lore, and com-M 

 parative religion and mythology. 



In his paper issued by the University of London Press onB 

 the pronunciation and orthography of the Chindau dialect,! 

 one of the Bantu group, spoken in that part of south-east* 

 Africa lying to the west of Sofala, Mr. D. Jones, lecturerB 



