October 3, 1912] 



NATURE 



137 



its extended use in photometry. But in a sense 

 it iippears fortunate, since it sug'g'ests that one 

 might conceivably prepare selenium in such a 

 wav as to follow out almost exactly the behaviour 

 of the eye as regards the perception of luminous 

 energy. 



-NOTES. 



T}IE tvphoon which recently visited Japan, isolated 

 Tokyo telegraphically from September 22 to 24, and 

 carried widespread devastation, is said to have been 

 the severest experienced in half a century, .'\ccounts 

 so far are meagre, but according to reports already 

 received the loss of life and damage to property afioat 

 and on shore are appalling. The storm appears to 

 have been most violent in the middle of the south 

 coast. Typhoons are revolving storms of tropical 

 origin that may occur in Far Eastern seas — the North 

 Pacific or the China Seas — during any month of the 

 year. In Japan and its neighbourhood they are, as a 

 rule, confined to the months of June to September 

 inclusive, and are most frequent in September. In 

 general, all tropical revolving storms follow a para- 

 bolic track. The typhoons that visit Japan in Sep- 

 tember usually originate in the Pacific south-eastward 

 of Formosa, move N.W. by W., recurve when abreast 

 of that island, and then take the direction of the Japan 

 Sea. -Mgue divides the tracks of typhoons in the Far 

 East into two classes — those of the Pacific, which do 

 not cross the meridian of 124 E., and those of the 

 China Sea. K typhoon is said to travel rapidly when 

 its rate of motion exceeds twelve nautical miles an 

 hour; if its rate of motion be less than si.x miles an 

 hour it is said to travel slowly. The September 

 typhoons come under the former category. 



During the recent meeting at Geneva of the four- 

 teenth International Congress of Prehistoric .Anthro- 

 pology and .Archeeology, an important piece of work 

 was carried out by the Committee for the Unification 

 •of .Anthropometric Measurements. The committee 

 (or commission) included representatives of most of 

 the European countries, as \yell as of the United 

 States of .America, and the number amounted to 

 about thirty. Dr. Duckworth (of the Cambridge 

 Anthropological Laboratory) was one of the three 

 secretaries appointed to prepare a report of the pro- 

 ■ceedings. The secretaries made out a report, which 

 was adopted at the final meeting of the commission, 

 and was confirmed at the concluding meeting of the 

 •congress. The official report will be published in 

 French, but it is' intended to issue translations in 

 English and in German simultaneously, if [Xissible, 

 with the official version. The illustrations are to be 

 uniform in all three publications. Dr. Duckworth is 

 at present engaged (for the third year in succession) 

 upon excavations at Gibraltar, but he will be pleased 

 to give further information as to the above-mentioned 

 report after his return to England early this month. 

 Communications should be addressed to the .Anthro- 

 pological Laboratory, New Museums, Cambridge. 



.A CONFERENCE of members of the Museums .Asso- 

 ciation and of others interested in similar work will 

 be held on the afternoon of Thursday, November 7, 



NO. 2240, VOL. go] 



at the Manchester Museum, for the purpose of dis- 

 cussing subjects of common interest to those concerned 

 in the work of museums, art galleries, and kindred 

 institutions. 



The Huxley lecture will be delivered at Charing 

 Cross Hospital Medical College on Thursday, October 

 31, by Prof. Simon Flexner, of the New York Rocke- 

 feller Institute, on "Recent .Advances in Science in 

 relation to Practical Medicine." On the same dav the 

 extensive new laboratories of public health and bac- 

 teriology, recently formed by the school and taken 

 over by the L'niversity of London as the public health 

 and bacteriological departments of King's College, 

 will be formally opened and handed over to the 

 University. 



On the suggestion of Mr. Mark .Svkes, M.P., Sir 

 Tatton Sykes has kindly sent for exhibition in the 

 Hull Museum the objects of prehistoric date in his 

 possession. These include the contents of the famous 

 Dugglebv Howe burial mound, which contained flint 

 and bone weapons and implements of exceptional in- 

 terest ; a prehistoric jet necklace containing several 

 hundred beads ; a fine series of prehistoric implements 

 in flint, sandstone, bronze, &-c., and some earthenware 

 vases taken from British burials on the A'orkshire 

 Wolds. 



The e.-itensive collection of east Yorkshire and north 

 Lincolnshire diatoms, made by the late R. H. Philip, 

 of Hull, also the specimens which have been figured 

 and described in the well-known work by Mills and 

 Philip, together with his microscope, a fine collection 

 of microscopical slides (including several inade by 

 Robt. Harrison, a former Hull microscopist), and his 

 scientific books, have been presented by Mrs. Philip 

 and family to the Hull Museum. The collection of 

 slides contains more than 3000 specimens, and among 

 the books are such important works as " Diatomees 

 Marines de France," by MM. H. et M. Peragallo; ".A 

 Treatise on the Diatomaceae," by Van Heurck ; 

 " Diatomacese Germanics," by H. von Schonfeldt ; 

 " British Desmidiacese," by VV. West, and numerous 

 other volumes dealing with microscopy. 



The British Fire Prevention Committee opened its 

 autumn session on September 25 with two important 

 series of official fire tests, namely, (i) a series of 

 twenty tests with ordinary celluloid kinematograph 

 films versus a non-inflammable celluloid film; and 

 (2) an extensive series of some twenty-five fire tests 

 as to the possibility of extinguishing petrol fires, 

 celluloid fires, and similar outbreaks by the applica- 

 tion of chemical foam. Reports upon the tests, which 

 were witnessed by representatives of about thirty 

 Government departments and other institutions, will 

 be published by the committee later. 



The next meeting of the Australasian Association 

 for the .Advancement of Science is to be held at Mel- 

 bourne in the University, from January 7 to 14, 19:3, 

 under the presidency of Prof. T. W. E. David, C.M.G., 

 F.R.S., Sydney. The presidents of the various sec- 

 tions are as follows : — A, .Astronomy, Mathematics, and 

 Phvsics, Prof. H. S. Carslaw, Sydney; B, Chemistry, 



