514 



NATURE 



[September 21, 1905 



by means of suitable sportaclcs. With tactful 

 handlinR- it is said that the Uviol lamp ran be used 

 for 1000 working hours without loss of rflicitmry. 

 The cost of a 400- trt 800-candlc lamp is id. to id. 

 per hour. It thus appears to be a very economical 

 methr)d of converting electrical energy into efficient 

 r.idi.iling energy of short wave-length. 



JVOTES. 



'I'mk oponintJ of the bridfje over (lie Vliloria Falls on 

 Sc|)lcinber 12, and the visit of tlic British Association, 

 W(5re celebrated by a banquet, nl which Mr. Newton, 

 representing the Drilish .South Africa Company, in pro- 

 posing the health of Prof. D.uwin, welcomed the 

 association on the anniversary of the first occupation of 

 Mashonaland by pioneers fifteen years ago, fifty years 

 after Dr. Livingstone first saw the falls. Prof. Darwin 

 proposed the lo.ist of Sir Charles Metcalfe, representing 

 the great enterprise which lo-day marks an important step 

 in advance. Reuler's Agency reports that Sir Charles 

 Melc.ilfe, in the course of his reply, read congratulatory 

 telegrams from Lord Oey and the directors of the British 

 South Africa Company, and a telegram from Mr. Reunert, 

 president of the South African Association of Sciences, 

 conveying his congratulations lh.it more links had been 

 formed in the chain of civilisation. On September ij the 

 association received a hearty wiUcinic at Salisbury 

 (Rhodesia). The town was decorated, .-uul the trains were 

 met at the station by the local authorities, headed by the 

 M;iyor, the .Acting A<lniinistrator, and the Resident Com- 

 missioner. .At a subsequent luncheon the Mayor, in 

 welcoming the members of the asso<iation to the most 

 northern part of their tour in .South Africa, directed 

 attention to the progress made since the occupation 

 of Rhodesia fifteen years ago. When the many diseases 

 which affect the cattle of the country have been 

 conquered, it is hoped that stock-raising will develop 

 very r.'q)idly. In the course of his reply, Prof. Darwin 

 remarked that when the papers and lectures deal- 

 ing with the special features of .South African scientific 

 work arc published, it will be seen that serious efforts have 

 been made to grapple with those problems. Sir Thomas 

 .Scanlen welcomed the association on behalf of the 

 <'h.u-Iered Company ; and Lord Rosso and .Sir William 

 Crookes .ilso spoke. On Septenilier 16, at Unitali, a 

 <leputalion hciided by .Senhor de .Sousji, secretary of the 

 Governor of Mozambique, met llie section of the British 

 Association proceeding to Beira. Senlior de Sousa 

 welcomed the members of the association to Portuguese 

 territory in the name of the Governor, the Mozambique 

 Company, and the inhabitants of Beira. On September 17, 

 at Beira, the visitors attended .1 reception given by the 

 Governor, and were entertained at luncheon. At 4 p.m. 

 <in the same day the party left for home on the steamer 

 lltitham Caslle. We regret to learn that Sir William 

 Wharton, a member of the British Association party which 

 is returning home viA Cape Town, is lying ill at the 

 observatory there, having contracted a serious chill. 



I'OK the past two years cholera has steadily been pro- 

 ceeding westward, and during 1904 had manifested itself 

 in Asiatic Turkey, Persia, and Russia. Since then cases 

 have been recognised in Germany and Austria, and already 

 179 cases, with 65 deaths, have been recorded in Prussia. 

 A considerable responsibility, therefore, rests on our 

 frontier guards, the port sanitary authorities throughout 

 the kingdom, particularly in view of the number of aliens 

 NO. 1873, VOL. 72] 



who reach our shores from the region of the infected 

 districts. If cholera unhappily should reach us, it is not 

 likely to cause any serious epidemic. The last epidemics 

 of note in this country were in 1828, 1848, and 1859. 



It is announced in the Bulletin de la Sociiti d'Encourage- 

 menl that next month a museum of industrial hygiene will 

 be opened in Paris by the President of the Republic. The 

 creation of the museum was authorised by a decree of 

 December 24, 1904. Accommodation for the museum has 

 been found at the Conservatoire dcs Arts et Metiers, and 

 the simi of 41,000 francs considered necessary for the 

 installation has been collected, as well as subscriptions to 

 cover the annual cost of upkeep. The exhibition will be 

 a permanent one, .ind, being .1 loan collection, will be 

 constantly renewed. 



Tiui sixth congress of criminal anthropology will meet 

 at Turin on April 28, 1906, under the presidency of Prof. 

 Lombroso. An exhibition of criminal anthropology will 

 be held in connection with the congress. 



Dr. Oscar Mav died at I'"rankfort-on-the-Main on 

 August 25 at the age of fifty. Dr. May (says the 

 Elcclrician) was one of the fomiders of the Elektro- 

 technlsche Lehr- und Untersuchungs-.Xnstalt of Frankfort, 

 and was until 1895 instructor in electric lighting at that 

 institution. At the F'rankfort ICxhibition in iXyi he was 

 a member of the presiding committee and one of the 

 secretaries of the scientific commission. 



Wk learn from the Victoriaii Nnluralisl that the 

 estimates recently presented to the council of the University 

 of Melbourne contain, among other proposals of a scientific 

 nature, provision for the erection of a botanical laboratory 

 and the appointment of a professor of botany, who, it is 

 proposed, shall also act as Government botanist. This 

 arrangement, remarks our contemporary, should ensure 

 the best use being made of the valuable collection of 

 .Australian plants in the National Herbarium. 



A LETTER from Prof. David Todd, dated September 8, 

 informs us that the print of the solar corona of August 30 

 which was reproduced in last week's Nature (p. 484) was 

 from an early developed negative done during the heat of 

 the Sahara giblcli, and was inferior to others developed 

 after the weather turned cool again. Me sends us one 

 of these original negatives, which shows a large amount 

 of detail that did not appear in the print reproduced in 

 Nature. The automatic machine with which these ex- 

 posures were made took about seventy-five negatives 

 during totality, of which sixty-three proved to be useful 

 for executing drawings of the corona. 



During the past few days earthquake shocks have been 

 felt in various parts of Italy. The following is a summary 

 of Reuter messages published in the daily papers : — 

 Scplemher 13, /(iHstrHcfc.— Severe shock felt in the Arlberg 

 district at 1.30 a.m. Duration, from six to ten seconds, 

 and direction from south to north. September 14. 

 Shock felt at 10.10 a.m. at Racidena, Messina, Reggio 

 di Calabria, and Mineo; recorded on the seismic instru- 

 ments at all the observatories in Italy. Another shock 

 felt at Reggio (Calabria) at 12.33. Seplcnihcr 15. — 

 Mount Vesuvius is becoming increasingly active. During 

 the day frequent undulatory shocks were felt in the region 

 around the volcano. The activity of Stromboli is also 

 very remarkable. September 16, Innsbruck. — Severe 

 shocks felt in the Arlberg district at 4.3 a.m. and 

 4.37 a.m. First shock lasted five seconds and the other 

 four. The shocks were accompanied by loud rumblings. 

 September 17, il/oHfc/coiic— Shock felt :it i.^o p.m. 



