March 20, 19 13] 



NATURE 



f>% 



in the administration of the Cruelty to Animals Act, 

 1876. The members of the committee, who have been 

 selected from names submitted by the Royal Society 

 and the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons, 

 are: — Sir Anthony Bowlby, C.M.G., Sir J. Rose Brad- 

 ford, K.C.M.G., F.R.S., Sir H. Bryan Donkin, Mr. 

 G. H. Makins, C.B., the Lord Moulton of Bank. Dr. 

 S. J. Sharkey, and Dr. C. J. Symonds. 



We learn from Science that the National Academy 

 of Sciences will hold, on April 22-24, an adjourned 

 meeting to celebrate the semi-centennial anniversary 

 of its foundation. The academy held its first meeting 

 in New York on April 22, 1863. In addition to the 

 American speakers, there will be three speakers from 

 Europe — Prof. J. C. Kapteyn, Holland, on the struc- 

 ture of the universe; Prof. A. Schuster, London, on 

 international cooperation in research ; and Prof. Theo- 

 dor Boveri, Wiirzburg, on the material basis of 

 heredity. 



The Times of March 10 devotes an article to the 

 recent attempts to introduce, as mosquito-destroyers, 

 into various tropical countries, the tiny fresh-water 

 Barbados fish, locally known as "milliones," and 

 the unsatisfactory results by which such attempts 

 have been attended. In India and Burma more pro- 

 mising results, as pointed out in a paper by Capt. 

 Sewell and Mr. Chaundhuri, recently published in 

 vol. vii. of the Records of the Indian Museum, are 

 likely to attend the cultivation in pools and ponds 

 infested with mosquito larva; of native species of 

 cyprinodonts, such as several of those of the genus 

 Haplochilus. 



The founder's royal medal of the Royal Geograph- 

 ical Society is not awarded this year, but, with the 

 approval of the King, a casket with a suitable in- 

 scription will be presented to Lady Scott, to contain 

 the patron's medal and the special Antarctic medal 

 awarded to her late husband, Capt. R. F. Scott, in 

 1904. The patron's medal has been awarded to the 

 late Dr. E. A. Wilson, of the National Antarctic 

 expedition, and a gold watch to Lieut. Campbell, who 

 led the northern party of the same expedition. The 

 Victoria medal is awarded to Col. S. G. Burrard, 

 F.R.S. ; the Gill memorial to Miss Lowthian Bell; 

 the Murchison award to Major H. D. Pearson; 

 the Cuthbert Peek grant to Dr. Felix Oswald ; and 

 the Back bequest to Mr. W. S. Barclay. 



According to a Reuter message from Hobart, the 

 Aurora, the ship of the Mawson Antarctic expedition, 

 returned there on March 14, without Dr. Mawson and 

 the party of six who were left with him in Adelie 

 Land. After leaving the six men behind, the Aurora 

 left on February 8. Eight hours after her departure 

 a wireless message was received stating that Dr. 

 Mawson was safe, and the latter afterwards himself 

 sent a message instructing the Aurora to return to 

 Commonwealth Bay. A hurricane, however, prevented 

 all communication with the land, and the captain left 

 for Wilde's base. The Aurora reached Wilde's base 

 on February 23. Mr. Wilde reported that he had 

 taken possession for Great Britain of the whole area of 

 land from Kaiser Wilhelm II. Land to longitude roi c 

 NO. 2264. VOL. 91] 



30' east, and as far south as 67 30'. The trend of 

 the land is almost due east and west, and the coast-line 

 almost on the Antarctic circle. The land is named 

 King George V. Land. 



At the twenty-second annual meeting of the Royal 

 Society for the Protection of Birds, held at the West- 

 minster Palace Hotel, on March 6, Lord Curzon, as 

 reported in The Times of March 7, strongly depre- 

 cated the continuance of the practice of wearing 

 feathers (other than those of birds used as food) by 

 ladies, and referred to the appalling slaughter of 

 certain kinds of birds of brilliant plumage. In 191 1 

 his lordship stated that in three sales in London no 

 fewer than 41,000 skins of humming-birds, 20,700 of 

 birds of 'paradise, and 129,000 egret plumes were sold. 

 After adverting to the fact that the egrets are killed 

 while in the breeding plumage, and that certain 

 species or races of birds of paradise are reported to 

 have been exterminated by the plumage-hunters, the 

 speaker observed that although much had been done 

 to stop the trade, yet there were weak links in the 

 prohibitory chain, among these being the lack of 

 prohibition of the import and sale of feathers and 

 skins in this country. 



The International Congress of Historical Studies 

 is to be held in London on April 3-9. The proceed- 

 ings will consist of general meetings and sectional 

 meetings. Already some 600 members and associates, 

 coming from all parts of Europe, have signified their 

 intention to take part in the proceedings, and dele- 

 gates from a very large number of universities and 

 learned societies will be present. Readers of Nature 

 will be interested most in the subsection of Sec- 

 tion VII (History of Mediaeval and Modern Civilisa- 

 tion), which deals with the exact sciences, natural 

 history, and medicine. In this subsection the follow- 

 ing papers have been promised : — "The Annals of the 

 Royal College of Physicians in London," Dr. Norman 

 Moore; "Origin and Development of the Compass 

 Card," Prof. Silvanus Thompson; "Scientific Research 

 in the Early Seventeenth Century exemplified by the 

 Life of Peirese," Prof. L. C. Miall ; "Aristarchus of 

 Samos," Prof. H. H. Turner; "Newton's Principia " 

 and "Magic," Mr. W. W. Rouse Ball; "The Mathe- 

 matical Glories of Great Britain," Prof. G. Loria ; 

 " Palissy, Bacon, and the Revival of Natural Science," 

 Sir Clifford Allbutt ; and "Historical Method in 

 Science," Mr. W. C. D. Whetham. Every person 

 wishing to become a member of the congress is re- 

 quested to send to the secretary of the congress, Prof. 

 I. Gollancz, The British Academy, Burlington House, 

 London, W., as soon as possible, name, title, office, 

 and postal address ; also, the section or sections with 

 which he desires to be associated. 



We regret to see the announcement of the death of 

 the distinguished cartographer. Dr. E. G. Ravenstein. 

 For the following particulars of his career we are in- 

 debted to an obituary notice in yesterday's Times : — 

 Dr. Ravenstein was born at Frankfurt-on-Main on 

 December 30, 1834, and belonged to a family who for 

 many years have been known as cartographers of 

 high rank. He came to England when he was about 

 twenty years of age, and his capacity as a carto- 



