204 



NA TURE 



[June 29, 1905 



the winter sei in. In January the vessel was turned 

 north again past the Biscoe Islands, the expedition com- 

 pleting its survey as it went, and finally reached Puerto 

 Madryn on March 4. Dr. Charcot expressed himself 

 thoroughly satisfied with the results of the work of the 

 expedition in hydrography, astronomy, biology, the 

 measurement of tides, the analysis of colour and density 

 of sea-water, and gravity, which was measured by means 

 of one of M. Bouquet de la Grye's comparison pendulums. 

 The exterior contour of the Biscoe Islands has been fixed 

 and their breadth determined ; the survey of the exterior 

 coasts of the Palmer Archipelago completes the geography 

 of that region, and the bearings of Alexander I. Land 

 have been found by astronomical observation. 



The International Congress of Mining and Metallurgy 

 at Li^ge, which began on June 25, and will continue until 

 July 2, is proving a most successful gathering. Nearly 

 fifteen hundred members have registered, and an attractive 

 programme of papers, visits and excursions, and social 

 functions has been arranged. Mr. Alfred Habets was 

 elected president, and the official representatives nominated 

 by seventeen foreign Governments were elected honorary 

 presidents. Great Britain, though not included in this 

 list, was represented by a strong contingent of members 

 of the Iron and Steel Institute, and by a number of leading 

 mining engineers. The congress was divided into four 

 sections, dealing respectively with mining, metallurgv, 

 applied geology, and mechanics. In the metallurgical 

 section the first paper read was by Mr. R. A. Hadfield, 

 who gave an account of his recent investigations of the 

 properties of steel at the temperature of liquid air. Papers 

 were also read on the influence of arsenic and titanium 

 on pig iron, on the use of coals poor in agglutinating 

 material for the manufacture of coke, and on the cutting 

 of metals by oxygen. In the mining section several papers 

 on shaft-sinking were read, and in the applied geology 

 section attention was chiefly devoted to the recent coal 

 discoveries in the north of Belgium. 



We regret to see the announcement in the TimQs that 

 Sir Augustus Gregory, K.C.M.G., the Australian explorer, 

 died a few days ago. Sir Augustus was born in Notting- 

 hamshire in i8iq, and entered the Civil Service of Western 

 Australia in 1S41. Five years later he began the series 

 of explorations which were afterwards to make him 

 famous. In 1846 he started with two brothers into the 

 interior from Bolgart Spring, but their eastward progress 

 was stopped by an immense salt lake which compelled 

 them to turn north-west. The deviation led to the discovery 

 by the party of some fine seams of coal in the country at 

 the mouth of the Arrowsmith. . Two years later he was 

 sent northwards to explore the Gascoyne River, and he 

 succeeded in reaching a point 350 miles north of Perth. 

 A third exploring expedition was undertaken in 1855, this 

 time under the auspices of the Royal Geographical Society 

 of London. The expedition had the dual object of exploring 

 the interior and of searching for traces of the lost explorer 

 Leichhardt. The party was absent for nearly a year and 

 a half, and though sure traces of Leichhardt were not 

 found, much rich country and new watersheds were dis- 

 covered. Under the auspices of the New South Wales 

 Government, the search for Leichhardt was renewed in 

 1858, but again little success rewarded the efforts of the 

 explorer. The Royal Geographical Society, however, 

 showed its appreciation of his labours by conferring upon 

 him the gold medal. In the following year he w-as 

 appointed Surveyor-General of Queensland, and he after- 



No. 1 86 1, VOL. 72] 



wards held several posts of distinction under the Queens- 

 land Government. He was the author of several papers 

 on Australian geology and geography. 



The editor of the Berlin Posi has been kind enough to 

 bring under our notice some flagrant instances of the 

 publication in German newspapers, without acknowledg- 

 ment, of translations of articles and other contributions which 

 originally appeared in our columns. These translations 

 have been published under the title of " Allgemeine wissen- 

 schaftliche Berichte," and the editor of the Berlin Post 

 has supplied us with a list of no less than twenty cases in 

 which articles have been taken from N.iture and trans- 

 lated into German without any indication of their source. 

 The free use which has thus been made of contributions 

 to our pages may doubtless be regarded as a flattering 

 testimony to their scientific interest and precision ; but 

 at the same time, we must express regret that the morality 

 of some writers on scientific subjects in Germany should 

 have sunk so low that they can calmly render our con- 

 tributions into their own language and offer the translations 

 to newspapers as original descriptive matter. We are glad 

 to know that this iniquitous practice has been discovered 

 by the editor of the Berlin Post, and we trust that it will 

 be exposed by the newspapers which have unknowingly 

 printed translations of contributions to our pages. 



Among the biological contents of the second part of the 

 ninth volume of the Bulletin International issued at 

 Prague by the Academic des Sciences de I'Emp^reur 

 Francois Joseph is an article by Mr. F. Brabenec on a 

 new discovery of fossil plants in the Tertiary deposits of 

 Holedec, Bohemia. In addition to a new acacia, the 

 author records remains of two species of the S. European 

 aquatic genus Salvinia, one of which is very rare. In 

 another article Dr. B. Nemec discusses the influence of 

 light on the position of the leaves in Vacciniuin myrlilus, 

 while in a third Mr. J. SmoMk records the existence of 

 multinuclear cells in certain euphorbias. The European 

 representatives of the insect family Dictyopterygidae form 

 the subject of the one article, by Prof. F. Klapalek, 

 relating to morphological zoology. 



Regener.mion and development constitute the leading 

 features of the second part of vol. Ixxix. of the Zeitschrift 

 fiir wissenschaftliche Zoologie, which contains three 

 articles. The first of these subjects is discussed by Prof. 

 J. Nusbaum, of Lemberg University, who takes as his 

 text the polychajte annelids Amphigene mcditerranea and 

 Nerine cirratulus, and shows how almost every part of the 

 organism may be reproduced. As regards development. Dr. 

 E. V. Zeller discusses the vesiculas seminales in newts, and 

 Dr. E. Zander contributes an article on the male generative 

 organs of the Microlepidoptera of the family Butalidfe. 

 The latter communication has an interest not indicated in 

 the title, since it discusses the statement that these insects 

 depart from the normal type in possessing only nine (in 

 place of ten) abdominal segments. According to the 

 author, this is an error, due to the wrong orientation of 

 preparations and the consequent mistaking of a true seg- 

 ment for part of the generative apparatus. 



I.N honour of the International Ornithological Congress, 

 the current issue of Bird Notes and News forms a double 

 number, of which the contents include a four-page supple- 

 ment dealing with protective legislation for birds through- 

 out the British Empire, and likewise an article on inter- 

 national bird-protection, in which attention is directed to 

 the urgency of international agreement on the subject, 

 more especially in regard to rare species, migratory birds. 



