298 



NA TURE 



[July 27, 1905 



French, who by the cross-fertilisation of the hardy 

 Citrus triptera and an ordinary orange have succeeded 

 in producing- a hardy variety of that fruit. Matters 

 are as yet only in the experimental stage, but the 

 possibility of success has been demonstrated. There 

 is no reason whatever why our own experimentalists 

 should not succeed with apples and plums. Earlier 

 varieties, later varieties, hardier varieties, are all well 

 within the range of possibility, and would be certainly 

 forthcoming if we abandoned our present methods of 

 chance selection and haphazard cross-breeding in 

 favour of careful experiment and rational procedure. 



Not only are experimental farms wanted for local 

 purposes, but research stations wherein results might 

 be obtained of universal application. 



The Royal Horticultural Society has in its new 

 garden at Wisley, presented by Sir Thomas Hanbury, 

 a splendid opportunity before it, and it is to be hoped 

 that it will not be backward in turning it to account. 

 The fruit farm at Woburn, to which allusion has 

 already been made, sets an example which might be 

 followed and extended with advantage. Already 

 important results with reference to the employment 

 of manures have been obtained there which, though 

 of a negative character, are none the less valuable. 



NOTES. 

 The annual meeting of the British Medical Association 

 began at Leicester on Monday last. On Tuesday, Dr. 

 G. Cooper Franklin, the president for the year, delivered 

 his address, and the association's gold medal of merit 

 was presented to Sir Constantine Holman and Dr. Andrew 

 Clark. The Stewart prize was presented to Mr. W. H. 

 Power, C.B. 



The British Electro-Therapeutic Society is holding a three 

 days' meeting at Leicester this week. The following sub- 

 jects are announced for consideration : — the present position 

 of the treatment of carcinoma and sarcoma by electrical 

 methods, neurasthenia, the X-rays in the diagnosis of 

 pulmonary disease, and stereoscopic radiography, while a 

 report will be given on the millianiperemeter as a measure 

 of X-ray production. 



The forty-second annual meeting of the British Pharma- 

 ceutical Conference was opened at Brighton on Tuesday 

 last. The organisation, it will be remembered, is distinct 

 from the Pharmaceutical Society, and is solely concerned 

 with " the encouragement of pharmaceutical research, and 

 the promotion of friendly intercourse and union amongst 

 pharmacists." The president, Mr. W. A. H. Naylor, 

 delivered his address, and the reading and consideration 

 of papers took place. The meeting terminates to-day. 



Several earthquake disturbances are reported, .■\ccord- 

 ing to a Central News telegram from Vienna, the seismo- 

 graph at the Pola Hydrographic Station registered between 

 3.55 a.m. and 4.17 a.m. on Sunday last the occurrence 

 of a severe and protracted seismic disturbance at an 

 estimated distance of some 3720 miles, and telegrams from 

 St. Petersburg, through Reuter's Agency, state that earth- 

 quakes occurred in Siberia at the following places and 

 times : — at Chita at 10.25 on Sunday morning last ; at 

 Mariinsk, in the Government of Tomsk, at about 9 a.m. 

 of the .same day; and at Kiakhta at 10 o'clock on the 

 morning of Tuesday last. An earthquake is stated also 

 to have taken place at Menstrie and Blair-Logie, and to 

 have been felt in other parts of Scotland, shortly after 

 midnight of Sunday last. 



NO 1865, V<^'- 72] 



The committee appointed in .April last to consider the 

 advisability or otherwise of confederating the principal 

 London medical societies has now presented its report (one 

 favourable to confederation), which, with certain minor 

 alterations and additions, has been adopted. .According 

 to the British Medical Journal, it is suggested that the 

 new society should be known as either the Royal Society of 

 Medicine or the Royal Academy of Medicine, and that at 

 first it should comprise the following sixteen sections : — 

 (i) anaesthetic ; (2) clinical ; (3) dermatological ; (4) diseases 

 of children ; (5) epidemiological ; (6) laryngological, 

 otological, and rhinological ; (7) medical ; (8) mental 

 medicine (psychiatry) ; (9) neurological ; (10) obstetrical and 

 gynaecological; (ii) odontological ; (12) ophthalmological ; 

 (13) pathological; (14) State medicine; (15) surgical; 

 (16) therapeutical, including general therapeutics, pharma- 

 cology, electrotherapeutics, balneology, and climatology. 

 The hope is expressed that in the early future an 

 anatomical and physiological section may be formed. 



The arrangements for the meeting in London of the 

 International Statistical Institute, which is to take place 

 from July 31 to August 4, are now practically complete. 

 The proceedings will be opened at the Imperial Institute 

 by the Prince of Wales, who will deliver an address. 

 Addresses will also be given by the president of the insti- 

 tute. Dr. von Inama-Sterncgg, and by the president of the 

 RQyal Statistical Society, the Earl of Onslow, after which 

 the following communications will be presented and dis- 

 cussed : — superficie et population du monde ; balance 

 ^conomique des nations ; mortality des grandes villes ; 

 statistique de la tuberculose ; f^condit^ des mariages ; 

 statistique des transports internationaux ; accidents du 

 travail; international comparison of w-orkmen's wages; 

 recensements industriels et statistique du chomage ; 

 I'enseignement superieur ; import and export statistics; 

 repercussion des droits de douanes ; international agri- 

 cultural statistics ; valeurs mobilieres ; some subjects con- 

 nected with pauperism; and discours sur I'avenir de la 

 statistique. 



P.ARTicuL.ARS have been issued as to the arrangements 

 which have been made for the autumn meeting of the Iron 

 and Steel Institute. The meeting will be held at Sheffield 

 from September 26 to 29, and the following papers have 

 been offered for reading : — On the metallurgical depart- 

 ment of Sheffield University, by Prof. J. O. Arnold ; on 

 the thermal transformation of carbon steels, bv Prof. J. O. 

 Arnold and A. McWilliam ; on the nature of troostite, by 

 Dr. C. Benedicks ; on the occurrence of copper, cobalt 

 and nickel in American pig ironsi by Prof. E. D. Camp- 

 bell ; on pipe in steel ingots, by J. E. Fletcher; on steel 

 for motor-car construction, by L. Guillet ; on the presence 

 of greenish-coloured markings in the fractured surface of 

 test pieces, by Captain H. G. Howorth, R..\. ; on over- 

 heated steel, by A. W. Richards and J. E. Stead, F.R.S. ; 

 on segregation in steel ingots, by B. Talbot ; on a 

 manipulator for steel bars, by D. Upton ; on machinery 

 for breaking pig iron, by C. Walton ; on the influence 

 of carbon on nickel and iron, by G. B. Waterhousc. 



The congress of the International Society of Surgery 

 will this year be held in Brussels. The meetings will take 

 place from Monday, September 18, to Saturday, 

 September 23, and will be under the presidency of Prof. 

 Theodor Kocher, of the University of Berne. Among the 

 subjects to be discussed are : — the value of the examination 

 of the blood in surgery ; the treatment of prostatic hyper- 

 trophy ; surgical intervention in non-cancerous diseases of 



