84 



NA TURE 



[May 24, 1906 



The anniversary meeting of the Royal Geographical 

 Society was held on Monday, May 21, when the medals 

 and other awards announced in Nature of April 5 (p. 541) 

 were presented. 



A FEATURE of the " Country in Town " Exhibition which 

 will be held on July 5-19 in the Whitechapel Art Gallery 

 will be photographs illustrating what can be done to 

 beautify urban gardens, streets, and parks. Photographic 

 prints for the exhibition will be gladly received by the 

 honorary secretary, Mr. Wilfred Mark Webb, at Toynbee 

 Hall, Whitechapel, E. 



The death of Mr. Charles Eugene De Ranee occurred 

 on May 9, after eleven days' illness, the result of an un- 

 fortunate accident. Although Mr. De Ranee began and 

 ended his professional career as a civil engineer, he was 

 for thirty years an officer of the Geological Survey of 

 England and Wales. During this period he was engaged 

 in the south of England and upon the Coal-measures of 

 Flintshire and elsewhere, but most of his work was among 

 the Triassic rocks of Lancashire and Cheshire, and the 

 Glacial deposits of the same districts. He contributed to 

 several memoirs of the Geological Survey, but his principal 

 published work was the " Water Supply of England and 

 Wales " (1882). For sixteen years he acted as secretary 

 of a committee of the British Association on the circulation 

 ol underground waters ; he was associated also with a com- 

 mittee on coast erosion. Problems of water supply always 

 enlisted his attention ; one of his last acts was an appeal 

 for information as to the influence of the recent earth- 

 quakes on the flow of water in wells. 



We notice with regrr-t the announcement of the death 

 on May i of Prof. T. C. Russell, head of the Department 

 of Geology at the University of Michigan. He was for a 

 short time assistant professor of geology at Columbia Uni- 

 versity, and became geologist in the U.S. Geological Survey 

 in i88o. In 1892 he became professor of geology in the 

 University of Michigan. Prof. Russell was vice-president 

 of the .'\merican Association in 1904, and was president of 

 the American Geological Association at the time of his 

 death. 



Messrs. C. Venkataraman and V. .Apparan, of the Presi- 

 dency College, Madras, write to describe a modification of 

 Melde's experiment with a weighted string attached to the 

 prong of a tuning-fork. When the string to which the 

 pulley is attached is held so as to be neither parallel nor 

 perpendicular to the vibration of the tuning-fork, then, if 

 the tension is properly adjusted, the string takes up a 

 stationary form of vibration capable of simple explanation. 



Referring to the correspondence on " Sounding Stones " 

 published in our issue for January 4 (vol. Ixxii., p. 222), 

 Mr. E. M. Buchanan, writing from Henzada, Burma, 

 directs attention to the resonant properties of fossilised 

 wood and a long established custom in Upper Burma, 

 where such wood is common. The natives collect pieces 

 of a kind with even grain, obtainable in lengths of 4 feet 

 to 6 feet, and convert them into gongs by polishing them 

 slightly. In the monasteries or shrines the monks accom- 

 pany their recitations at matins and vespers with the music 

 of their stone gongs, which are usually well attuned and 

 give a pleasing effect. 



We learn from the Times that the Government has 

 given its sanction to a scheme for the organisation of the 

 .-Archaeological Department of India on a permanent and 

 improved footing. .Although much has been done since a 

 Director-General of Archaeology was appointed in 1902 for 

 NO. 1908, VOL. 74] 



a period of five years, the experience gained has proved 

 that the task of restoring and conserving the antiquities 

 of India will always require trained ability for its adequate 

 discharge. The present Director-General of Archaeology is 

 confirmed in his appointment. In lieu of the present 

 Government epigraphist for Madras, the scheme provides 

 for the appointment of a Government epigraphist for the 

 whole of India, whose duty it will be to organise and 

 collate the results of the epigraphical work of the pro- 

 vincial surveys. At the same time, the importance of 

 Madras for this form of research and its special linguistic 

 conditions necessitate the retention of a special epigraphical 

 expert in that presidency. 



The chief annual meeting of the Verein Dcutscher 

 Chemiker will be held this year at Nurnberg on June 6-9. 

 Prof. C. Duisberg, of Elberfeld, will report on the work 

 of the commission appointed by the Gesellschaft Deutscher 

 Naturforscher und Aertze to consider the science teaching 

 in German schools ; Herr A. von Baeyer will lecture on 

 the anilin dyes ; Dr. Lehner, of Zurich, on artificial silk ; 

 Prof. Stockmeier, of Nurnberg, on explosions in the 

 aluminium bronze colour industries ; Prof. F. Haber, of 

 Karlsruhe, on the optical analysis of coal gas ; Prof. 

 A. Werner, of Ziirich, on valency ; Dr. F. Raschig, of 

 Ludwigshafen, on catalysis ; Prof. M. Busch, of Erlangen, 

 on new methods of determining the amount of nitrogen 

 in nitrocellulose ; Dr. Ed. Jordis, of Erlangen, on the 

 chemistry of silicates ; Dr. L. Eger, of Munich, on the 

 examination and evaluation of railway materials ; Dr. O. 

 Rohm, on the manufacture of illuminating gas ; and Dr. 

 M. Neumann, of Cronberg, on the theory of the Glover 

 process and the manufacture of sulphuric acid in towers. 

 Visits will be paid to several chemical works and large 

 engineering works in the neighbourhood, including Messrs. 

 Siemens and Schuckert's, while excursions to Erlangen 

 on June 8, to Rothenburg a.T. (Wiirttemberg) on June 10, 

 and to the Jubilee exhibition on June q are to be arranged. 



The Connecticut .Agricultural College has been authorised 

 to accept the Edwin Gilbert bequest consisting of a farm 

 of 350 acres at Georgetown, Conn., together with a fund 

 of 12,000!. for the maintenance of the farm. The tract 

 of land is, according to Science, to be used for experimental 

 purposes in connection with the work of the agricultural 

 college, but it is not intended to establish a branch of the 

 college at Georgetown. From the same source we learn 

 that the additional appropriation of 1000!. for the agri- 

 cultural experiment stations, provided by the Adams Bill, 

 has now been paid. This Bill increased the present 

 appropriation of the agricultural stations under the Hatch 

 and Morrill Acts by loooZ. for the year ending next June, 

 and by an additional 400/. annually above the amount of 

 the preceding year for the next five years. At the end of 

 the five years this will amount to an increase of 3000!., 

 bringing the total appropriation to each experiment station 

 to 6000!. annually. The funds are to be applied only to 

 original researches or experiments bearing directly on the 

 agricultural industry of the United States, with due regard 

 to the varying conditions and needs of the States in which 

 the stations are located. 



The contents of the May number of Xatiiren include 

 articles on mosquitoes and gnats, on the Yangtse-kiang 

 district and its products, and on dogs — prehistoric and 

 modern — the last of these being by Dr. Reinhardt. 



Owing to the advent of abnormally high temperatures 

 at an unusually early period, which rendered collecting 

 in the desert practically impossible, Dr. C. W. .Andrews, 



