332 



NA TURE 



[August 3, 1905 



Mr. W. D. Spanton (Leeds) lonsidered that the most 

 prominent causes of physical degeneration were- — efforts to 

 rear premature and diseased infants, absurd educational 

 high pressure, cigarette smoking in the younger gener- 

 ation, and late hours at night ; in fact, the love of pleasure, 

 and ergophobia in all classes of society. He considered 

 that there was too much cheap philanthropy, that life 

 was made too easy for the young poor, and that by 

 modern educational methods proper parental discipline was 

 rendered almost impossible. 



Mrs. F. M. Dickinson Berry (London) said that in 

 her opinion children in London schools were not underfed 

 so much as improperly fed, and that they preferred to eat 

 bread and pickles, dried fish, &c., and had to be forced 

 to eat a proper dinner. She quite endorsed Mr. Hall's 

 remarks about Jewish children. 



In the section of pathology, a discussion on the relation- 

 ship of heredity to disease was opened by the president, 

 Dr. Mott (London), in an interesting and suggestive paper. 

 He exhibited charts of hereditary haemophilia and ataxy 

 with statistics of longevity, presenility, psychoses, and 

 neuroses bearing on these and other diseases. 



Mr. Charles Bond contributed a paper on sex-corre- 

 lation and disease, with special reference to deaf-mutism. 

 While deaf-mutism occurs almost equally in males and 

 females, in any given family the incidence is almost limited 

 to the members of one sex, and when members of both 

 sexes in one family suffered the births were either twin 

 or contiguous. 



Mr. C. Hurst described experiments on the correlation 

 of sex. When black and yellow cats were crossed, all 

 male kittens were yellow, all female kittens tortoiseshell, 

 but in the second generation the colours were uniformly 

 distributed between the two sexes. 



In the section of tropical diseases, an important paper 

 on human tick fever in the Congo Free State by Dr. Todd 

 and the late Mr. Everett Dutton was read. The con- 

 clusions arrived at were: — (i) that tick fever is clinically 

 identical with relapsing fever, and has for a pathogenic 

 agent a spirillum ; (2) the spirillum is probably the Spirn- 

 chaele Obermeieri ; (3) a tick, the Ornithodoriis monhaia, 

 can transmit the spirillum from animal to animal ; (4) the 

 transmission is probably not simply mechanical, but a 

 developmental cycle is passed in the body of the tick. 



In the naval and military section, Fleet-Surgeon Bead- 

 nell read an interesting paper on some dynamical and 

 hydrodynamical effects of the modern small-bore bullet, in 

 which he claimed that the so-called " explosive " effects 

 of the modern bullet were due to sudden enlargement of 

 the " impact area " resulting from a modification either 

 in the form or in the motion of the projectile. Many of 

 the " explosive " phenomena were due to eccentricities of 

 flight such as the various " spinning-top " and 

 " pirouetting " motions of the bullet. 



An invitation to hold the annual meeting of the British 

 Medical Association next year in Toronto was cordially 

 accepted. 



SOLAR AND TERRESTRIAL CHANGES. 

 TN a recent article we referred to the formation of an 

 ■^ International Commission to deal with the important 

 question of the possible action of solar changes on the 

 earth's atmosphere. We stated that a meeting is to be 

 held at Innsbruck in September. We are now enabled to 

 give some details of the meeting at Cambridge last year. 



The members assembled in the Old Library of Pem- 

 broke College on Thursday, August iS, and letters were 

 read from the following : — Prof. H. H. Hildebrandsson, 

 Prof. H. Mohn, General M. Rykatcheff, Prof. G. Hell- 

 mann. Dr. A. Paulsen, Hofrath J. M. Pernter, Prof. S. P. 

 Langley, M. A. Angot, Prof. J. Violle, Prof. J. Hann, 

 Mr. A. S. Steen, Prof. W. Koppen, Prof. A. Ricco, Prof. 

 G. E. Hale, Prof. F. H. Bigelow, Mr. W. G. Davis, Prof. 

 K. Angstrom, Mr. A. R. Hinks. 



The members present proceeded to the election of a 

 president and secretary, and it was unanimously resolved 

 that Sir Norman Lockyer, director of the Solar Physics 

 Observatory, South Kensington, be elected president, and 



NO. 1866, VOL. 72] 



Sir John Eliot, of Bon Porto, Cavalaire, formerly meteor- 

 ological reporter to the Government of India, secretary. 



It was resolved to add the names of MM. Max Wolf, 

 Scheiner, Julius, and Wolfer to the commission if they 

 should be willing to serve. 



At the next meeting the name of Sir .Arthur Riicker was 

 added to the commission. 



The following question was considered : — 



" (i) The selection of (a) meteorological, and (b) mag- 

 netic elements, which should be collated for the purpose 

 of comparison with solar observations, and the form in 

 which the observations might be presented with the greatest 

 advantage for the purposes of comparison. The prepar- 

 ation of a list of meteorological and magnetic observatories 

 which should be asked to contribute observations for the 

 purpose." 



It was resolved 



(i) That, in the first instance, for the purpose of com- 

 parison with solar phenomena, the meteorological observ- 

 ations to be considered should be monthly means of 

 pressure, rainfall and temperature (including maximum 

 temperature and minimum temperature). 



(2) That the members of the commission be requested 

 to communicate to the secretary a short report on the 

 data available in their respective countries, and the number 

 of years over which they extend. 



(3) That the members of the commission be requested to 

 make suggestions with regard to additional stations from 

 which it is desirable that data should be obtained in view 

 of the comparison of solar and terrestrial data. 



(4) That the secretary be requested to consult Dr. Chree 

 as to the stations from which magnetic data are at present 

 available, and to refer to a paper by Prof, von Bezold as 

 to additional magnetic stations from which information is 

 desirable, and to circulate the information among the 

 members of the commission, it being understood that the 

 data appropriate for the purposes of comparison are 

 monthlv means of the three magnetic elements for the 

 quiet days and data as to magnetic storms. 



.A letter from Prof. Hale was laid before the commission. 



At the third meeting the questions of the selection of 

 meteorological stations and of the establishment of 

 additional meteorological stations were again considered, 

 and it was resolved that the members of the commission 

 should hand in their list of selected stations to the secre- 

 tary after the close of the British Association meeting, and 

 that it would be desirable that observations should be 

 obtained from two stations in the Pacific. The stations 

 selected were Tahiti and Numea, to be established by the 

 French Meteorological Bureau. 



The name of Mr. A. L. Rotch was added to the com- 

 mission. 



The letter rrceived from Prof. Hale suggesting cooper- 

 ation of the commission with the committee on solar 

 research of the National Academy of .Sciences was read. 

 It was resolved that the commission thank Prof. Hale for 

 his letter, and express their desire to cooperate with the 

 committee on solar research of the National Academy of 

 Sciences on questions of common interest. 



Mr. Rotch was requested to communicate this resolution 

 personally to Prof. Hale at the conference at St. Louis. 



The question of the selection of solar observations for the 

 comparison of data was taken into consideration. 



A scheme prepared by Messrs. Ricco and W. J. S. 

 Lockyer was read and provisionally approved. 



(i) Suggested ohseyvaiions of the sun for direction, 

 intensity, and amplitude of " boiling of the limb." 



Present observations : — • 



Twenty years' observations made in Palermo and 

 Catania, and (?) many years' observations in Madrid. 



(2) Number, area, and position of spots. Existing 

 arrangements suffice. 



(3) For visual observations of prominences on limb, it is 

 suggested that America or Japan be invited to contribute. 

 (Places widely separated in longitude required.) 



Monthly values of the percentage frequency of promin- 

 ences for every 5° of latitude north and south. 



(4) Sun-spot spectra. 



Available observations are taken at the Solar Physics 

 Observatory, South Kensington ; Poona in India ; Stony- 



