io6 



NATURE 



[June i, 1905 



The history of British administration in this wild 

 tract, up to the time of the Santai rebellion of 1856, 

 can scarcely be held up as a great example. As fo/ 

 the patriarchal system which still prevails, Mr. Risley, 

 in an introduction which, from the pen of so great an 

 ethnological authority, is somewhat disappointing, 

 throws some doubts on its superiority to other 

 methods of dealing with aboriginal tribes. Perhaps, 

 in later years, Mr. Bradley-Birt's entliusiastic admira- 

 tion of it may cool. As matters stand,, his enthusiasm, 

 and his evident sympathy with the simple peoples he 

 cj^scribes, serve to enhance the charm of his work. 



To the Anglo-Indian this volume will recall, much 

 t.ljat is pleasant; to the tourist, and even to the stay- 

 a>hdme Englishman, it will afford a bright glimpse 

 of native country life wJiich is not, to,, be found on the- 

 beaten track. •. ' 



NOTES. 



At the meeting of the Royal Society on May 18 the 

 following were elected foreign members : — Prof. L. Her- 

 mann, Koenigsberg ; Prof. H. A. Lorentz, Leyden ; Prof. 

 H. Moissan, Paris ; and Prof. Hugo de Vries, Amsterdam. 



The annual visitation of the Royal Observatory, 

 Greenwich, will take place on Saturday next, June 3. 



The international conference having for its object the 

 establishment of an international institute of agriculture 

 was opened in Rome on Sunday, May 28, in the presence 

 of the King of Italy. On Monday the conference held a 

 sitting at the Accademia dei Lincei, and the Foreign 

 Minister, Signor Tittoni, opened the proceedings with an 

 address. 



The English Arboricultural Society has been granted 

 permission by the King to change its name to the " Royal 

 English Arboricultural Society." 



Prof. J. N. Langley, F.R.S., will give one of the 

 general lectures at the meeting of the Association of 

 German Naturalists and Physicians, which will open at 

 Meran on September 24. His subject will be " Recent 

 Researches on the Nervous System." , 



A Reuter telegram from Portici states that Vesuvius 

 has for some days been in active eruption. At 7 p.m. on 

 May 27 the western side of the small terminal cone 

 collapsed, and a large quantity of lava burst forth, which 

 m an hour's time reached the base of the great cone, at 

 Atrio Cavallo, one kilometer distant. 



We learn from the Board of Trade Journal that the 

 Gaceta de Madrid for May 11 contained the text of a 

 Royal Order providing for the duty-free admission into 

 Spam of instruments and accessories carried by foreign 

 men of science deputed to observe the eclipse of the sun 

 on August 30. 



According to a Reuter telegram, dated New York, 

 iMay 27, the Cunard liner Campania reports that she was 

 in continuous communication with land, by wireless tele- 

 graphy, throughout her entire voyage from Liverpool. In 

 mid-ocean she had simultaneous communication with 

 America and Europe, a feat which had not previously been 

 accomplished. 



A correspondent of the Times states that in the early 

 part of May enormous shoals of dead fish were thrown up 

 for a considerable distance along the sea coast by Karachi 

 The whole beach was strewn with dead fish, lying in some 

 places five or six inches deep. The Port Trust authorities 

 had to make arrangements for the removal and burial of 

 these millions of fish. Captain Belton, of the steamship 



^o. 1857, VOL. 72] 



; City of Dundee, on arriving at Karachi reported some very 

 : curious electrical phenomena about a hundred miles out to 

 I sea, repeated flashes of light being observed to pass over 

 the surface of the ocean in a curious way. 



An international congress for the study of radiology and 

 ionisation will be held at Li^ge on September 12-14 '"- 

 elusive. The congress will be divided into a physical 

 section and a biological section. The former will be con- 

 cerned with the physics of electrons, radio-activity and 

 dependent transformations, meteorological and astro- 

 nomical phenomena and their relation to ionisation and 

 radio-activity. In the biological section the subjects to be 

 considered will include the physiological properties of 

 various radiations and of radio-activity, and their medical 

 value and application. The method of procedure in this 

 section will be determined upon by a special committee 

 presided over by Profs. Bouchard and, d'Arsonval. The 

 other members of this committee are Drs. B^cl^re, 

 Bergoni^, Broca, Charpentier, Charrin, Danysz, and Oudin. 

 There will also be a general committee, presided over by 

 M. Henri Becquerel, to examine, classify, and decide upon 

 such reports, papers, and notes as may be offered. The 

 acting president of the congress is to be Prof. H. Kuborn, 

 president of the Royal Medical Society of Belgium, and 

 the general secretary, to whom all communications or con- 

 tributions should be sent as soon as possible, is Dr. J. 

 Daniel, rue de la Pr^vot^, i, Brussels. 



Mention has already been made of the recent visit of 

 British physicians and surgeons to Paris, and the cordial 

 and enthusiastic welcome extended to them by French men 

 of science, as well as by the State and municipal authori- 

 ties. Further particulars of the visit are given in the 

 British Medical Journal of May 20. Among the numerous 

 receptions arranged by the scientific and medical societies 

 and by civil bodies of every kind to do honour and give 

 pleasure to the British visitors, no meeting was more 

 appreciated than that which gave the British men of 

 science the opportunity of paying homage to the memory 

 of Pasteur. On May 11 the visitors attended at the Pasteur 

 Institute to witness the ceremony of placing a wreath upon 

 the tomb of Pasteur in the crypt of the institute by DY. 

 J. Kingston Fowler, dean of the medical faculty of the 

 University of London. Dr. Roux, the director of the Insti- 

 tute, conducted the visitors and a distinguished party of 

 French medical men to the gates of the crypt, where Dr. 

 Fowler delivered in French the speech referred to in Nature ^ 

 of May 18 (p. 63), in which he craved permission to place 

 a wreath on the tomb of the master, who accomplished go 

 much for science and for humanity, and to whose labours 

 the institute is a fitting memorial. Dr. A. Waller, dean 

 of the faculty of science of the University of London, 

 followed with an eloquent eulogy, also delivered in French. 

 He laid great stress upon the value to humanity of 

 Pasteur's work in the direction of the infinitely little, and 

 spoke of Pasteur as le midicin de la midecine. Dr. 

 Waller maintained that in a thousand years' time historians 

 will not speak much of the nineteenth century as remark- 

 able for the invention of the locomotive and other 

 mechanisms, but rather as the epoch in which Pasteur 

 inaugurated so brilliantly the study of the infinitely small. 

 The earnest speeches, and the impressive scene as the 

 visitors passed before Pasteur's tomb in respectful homage 

 to their master, made the occasion a memorable one. The 

 evidence thus given of the reverence in which Pasteur's 

 memory is held should help to cement the friendly relations 

 existing between France and Britain, and to foster that 

 spirit of mutual confidence— that comity of nations— which 

 already exists in the world of science. 



