132 



A^A TURE 



[December 2, 1909 



of the maintenance fund. Towards the end of the year 

 this committee informed the executive committee of the 

 laboratory that about half the funds required had been 

 promised, and that it was anticipated that the remainder 

 would be forthcoming in due course ; they also asked for 

 an expression of the views of the executive committee and 

 a statement of the conditions under which the tank could 

 be worked as a department of the laboratory. The 

 executive committee replied that if the guarantee fund 

 were now raised to at least 1200!. a year, and if the 

 experimental tank committee would undertake to continue 

 their endeavours to increase it further with the view of 

 research, the executive committee would be willing to 

 take the responsibility for tlie expenses of working the 

 tank in accordance with Mr. Yarrow's proposal. The 

 governing body of the laboratory have thus made them- 

 selves responsible for an expenditure which may amount 

 to 8ooi. per annum for ten years, and will receive in 

 return the fees which are expected to come from tests 

 carried out for ship-builders. On his part, Mr. Yarrow 

 has paid over cash and securities to the value of at least 

 20,000;. to the treasurer of the Royal Society, and the 

 president and council have conveyed to him the cordial 

 thanks of the society for his most generous action. 



During the year the executive committee have also, at 

 the request of H.M. Government, undertaken important 

 and onerous responsibilities on the scientific side of the 

 experimental study and improvement of the conditions 

 governing artificial flight. 



Iiilernalional Catalogue of Scienlific Literature. 



The whole of the seventh annual issue of the catalogue 

 has been published with the exception of D (chemistry), 

 M (botany), O (anatomy), P (anthropology), and Q (physio- 

 logy). These five volumes, as well as several volumes of 

 the eighth issue, are in the press. 



The International Council of the Catalogue, which had 

 held meetings previously in 1900, 1904, and 1907, met again 

 this year on June 3 and 4 in the rooms of tlie Royal 

 Society. 



The International Council made arrangements with the 

 view of diminishing the cost of production of the cata- 

 logue, and also passed the following resolution : — 



" That the regional bureaus be requested to confer, 

 before April, 1910, with scientific workers in their several 

 countries, so jthat any opinions and proposals of those to 

 whom the catalogue is of consequence may be laid before 

 the International Convention in 1910." 



At the meeting of that convention important decisions 

 must be made regarding the future of the catalogue ; 

 accordingly, the council of the Royal Society has appointed 

 a committee to consider and report upon their relation to 

 this undertaking. 



Research on Tropical Diseases. 



The Investigations of the action of drugs upon trypano- 

 somes, referred to in previous council reports, have been 

 continued under the direction of a subcommittee, and 

 accounts of the principal results of these investigations have 

 been published from time to time. The latest progress 

 report, by Mr. H. G. Plimmer and Captain Fry, " On the 

 Experimental Treatment of Trypanosomiasis," appeared in 

 Proceedings, B, No. 549, October g. 



During the present year the inquiry into sleeping sick- 

 ness in Uganda has been actively pursued by the Royal 

 Society's commission, which left England in October, 

 1908, under the direction of Colonel Sir David Bruce. 

 Three papers on the work of the commission have been 

 received from him during his stay in Uganda, and have 

 been published in the Proceedings, viz. : — (i) " Trypano- 

 soma inge.ns, n.sp."; (2) "The Development of Trypano- 

 soma gambiensc in Glossina palpalis " ; (3) " A Note on 

 the Occurrence of a Trypanosome in the .African Elephant." 



The second of these papers contains an account of an 

 experiment carried out by the Commission, the results of 

 which confirm the important conclusion arrived at by Dr. 

 Kleine in German East Africa, that the tsetse-fly Glossina 

 palpalis may be infective for a considerable period after 

 the fly has fed on an infected animal. Previously it had 

 been believed that the carrying of infection from a sleep- 

 ing-sickness patient to a healthy person by the Glossina 

 NO. 2092, VOL. 82] 



palpalis was a mechanical act, and that the power of 

 transferring the disease was lost to the fly forty-eight hours 

 after it had fed on an infected person. Dr. Kleine, how- 

 ever, has recorded observations of the fly remaining in- 

 fecti\e for much longer periods, extending up to sixty-six 

 days, and now Sir David Bruce has reported further experi- 

 ments, carrying the duration of infectivity as far as 

 seventy-five days. This confirmation of Dr. Kleine 's 

 observations makes it necessary to revise previous con- 

 clusions on this point, the importance of which is obvious 

 owing to its bearing on the nature of such preventive 

 measures as have been hitherto attempted. 



At the suggestion of Colonel Sir David Bruce, a con- 

 ference, composed of medical (including veterinary) officers 

 in British East Africa and Uganda, together with repre- 

 sentatives of the administration of those protectorates, was 

 held at Nairobi, in May, under the presidency of Sir 

 David Bruce, to discuss and make recommendations as 

 tj preventive and remedial measures in regard to both 

 human and animal trypanosomiasis. 



Sir David Bruce is leaving Uganda this month, but 

 arrangements have been made which will admit of the 

 work of the commission being carried on after his 

 departure. 



Tyndall Donation. 



During the current year Mrs. Tyndall, in pursuance of 

 a wish expressed by her husband, the late Prof. Tyndall, 

 has entrusted to the Royal Society the sum of looo/., to 

 be administered at the discretion of the president and 

 council for the purpose of encouraging and furthering re- 

 search in all matters pertaining to mining, including such 

 questions as ventilation, temperature, diseases incident to 

 miners, and any other lines of scientific inquiry conducive 

 to the improvement of mining and the lot of the miners. 



Prf.side\ti.\l Address. 



In his presidential address. Sir Archibald Geikie 

 referred first to the losses by death of distinguished 

 fellows of the society since the last anniversary meet- 

 ing. On the foreign list he had to record the decease 

 of five men of wide reputation, namely, Albert 

 Gaudry, Simon Newcomb, Anton Dohrn, Georg von 

 Neumayer, and Julius Thomsen. The society also 

 lost by death during the year the following fellows on 

 the home list : — Daniel John Cunningham, David 

 James Hamilton, Rev. W. H. Dallinger, Wilfrid 

 Hudleston Hudleston, Harry Govier Seeley, Arthur 

 Gamgee, Gerald Francis Yeo, Thomas William 

 Bridge, Sir George King, Francis Elgar, Bindon 

 Blood Stoney, George Gore, and William James 

 Russell. 



The special subject to which the president's address 

 was devoted was the work in which the Royal Societv 

 is engaged. It is not commonly known that the 

 weekly meetings and the publications to which thev 

 give rise, though they constitute the most important 

 part of the labours of the society, so far as relates 

 to the progress of discovery, form only a portion of a 

 programme which is every year becoming fuller and 

 demanding more time, thought, and funds for its 

 accomplishment. Sir Archibald Geikie gave, there- 

 fore, a brief outline of the various directions in which 

 the energies of the society arc employed, in the hope 

 that when some of the difficulties become more widelv 

 known, means may be found for adequately coping 

 with them. 



When the Royal Society was founded it was the onlv 

 learned body in this country specially devoted to the 

 prosecution of scientific inquiry, and such it continued to 

 be for generations ; but the rapid growth of science during 

 the last century has shown that no single society can now 

 serve to supply the needs of the whole vast field of in- 

 vestigation in every department of nature. Most of these 

 departments, one after the other, have had special societies 

 created for their exclusive cultivation, each of which 

 records the progress of research in its own territorv. At 

 first the Royal Society, long accustomed to reign with 



