October 26, IQ05] 



NATURE 



637 



where balloons can be filled, and it is the present intention 

 of the directors to make observations with balloons every 

 first Thursday in the month. 



Dk. Bathori Endre, writing from Kir;'ilyfalva, Hungary, 

 informs us that the B61yai international prize will be pre- 

 sented next December, for the first time, by the Hungarian 

 Academy of Sciences. The prize is ten thousand crowns, 

 and will be awarded every five years, in memory of John 

 B61yai, the celebrated Hungarian mathematician, to the 

 writer of the best mathematical work in the same period 

 of years. The committee concerned with the award of the 

 prize met on October 1 1 in Budapest. The members of 

 the committee are : — Prof. G. Darboux, Paris ; Prof. F. 

 Klein, Gottingen ; Prof. G. Konig, Budapest ; and Prof. 

 G. Rados, Budapest. The names of two mathematicians 

 were considered, viz. Prof. H. Poincar^ and Prof. D. 

 Hilbert. The committee awarded the prize to Poincar^, 

 and at the same time expressed its acknowledgment and 

 admiration of Prof. Hilbert's works. Profs. Darboux and 

 Klein gave lectures in Budapest on the teaching of mathe- 

 matics. 



The inaugural address of the Manchester Literary and 

 Philosophical Society was delivered, on October 17, by 

 Sir William H. Bailey, the president of the society. The 

 address took the form of an interesting historical account 

 of the society since its foundation in 1781, and included 

 appreciative references to the work of many distinguished 

 members whose names are to be found in early volumes 

 of memoirs. The founders were the chief scientific men 

 of Manchester. Among the honorary members were 

 Erasmus Darwin, Dr. Franklin, Lavoisier, Dr. Priestley, 

 William Roscoe, of Liverpool, the poet and grandfather 

 of Sir Henry Roscoe, Doming Ramsbottom, Josiah 

 Wedgwood, and others. The chief tools of the workshops 

 of the world, not only those where steam engines, loco- 

 motives, and steamships are built, but also of the textile 

 factories of the world, were invented in Manchester or 

 within thirty miles of it. The records of the society con- 

 tain the names of many of these inventors who were 

 members, for the men of Lancashire were the first to use 

 steam power for spinning and weaving, and for punching, 

 cutting, and shaping metal. Prominent among the inventors 

 was that genius Richard Roberts, who was always in the 

 front rank in advocating technical education. His chief 

 inventions were the slide lathe, planing machine, and self- 

 acting mule for spinning cotton. Then there was Nasmyth, 

 the inventor of the steam-hammer. Sir William Fairbairn 

 and Sir Joseph Whitworth. Finally, Sir William Bailey 

 referred to the great work of the illustrious members Dr. 

 Dalton and Dr. Joule, whose effigies in marble are in the 

 entrance to the Manchester Town Hall. 



Pl.-^xs have been formulated by Mr. Einar Mikkelsen, 

 a young Dane, for an expedition to the .Arctic regions, the 

 objective being that part of the Polar Ocean which lies 

 immediately to the west of the Parry Archipelago, north 

 of Canada. Interviewed by a representative of the Morn- 

 ing Post, Mr. Mikkelsen gave an outline of his programme. 

 He will be joined by Mr. Leffingwell, a young American 

 geologist, and Mr. Ditlevsen, a naturalist, who, like Mr. 

 Mikkelsen, accompanied Lieut. Amdrup to the east Green- 

 land coast in 1900. It is proposed to start from Canada 

 in the spring of 1906. Early in May the party hopes to 

 reach the upper waters of the Athabasca River, by way 

 of Edmonton, and to follow that stream, and the Slave 

 and Mackenzie Rivers, down to the northern coast of the 

 Dominion. It will be some time in July before the mouth 



of the Mackenzie River is reached. At the end of August 

 a whaler, which will have been brought north especially 

 for the use of the expedition, will be joined by the party. 

 Geological and zoological investigations and study of the 

 native Eskimo will occupy the time of waiting. .\t 

 Cape Kellet it is hoped that winter quarters will be estab- 

 lished. The winter is to be occupied with scientific investi- 

 gations. The plan is that about the end of February the 

 party, three white men, two Eskimo, and the dogs, shall 

 start out from Prince Albert Cape in a N.N.W. 

 direction, that is, more or less parallel to the mainland. 

 Ten days, it is calculated, should see an end of the bad 

 ice, and then Mr. Ditlevsen is to return, leaving Messrs. 

 Mikkelsen and Leffingwell to continue the journey alone. 

 They hope to keep on in the same direction as far as 

 latitude 76° N., in about 147° west longitude, before turn 

 ing south to reach the coast. 



The Tottenham Urban District Council has issued a 

 public appeal for subscriptions for the purpose of furnish- 

 ing a museum and for the donation of objects of interest. 

 ."Vn opportunity occurred during the present year for 

 securing a collection of minerals and other geological speci- 

 mens for a nominal sum, and at the same time an offer 

 was received from Mr. H. E. H. Smedley to lend his 

 museum collection to Tottenham and to give his services 

 as honorary curator. The council has accepted the offers. 

 The cost of furnishing the museum is estimated at 250!. 

 Any contributions in money, or suitable objects for exhibi- 

 tion, may be sent- to the librarian at the Central Public 

 Library, High Road, Tottenham. 



The increased sale of synthetic indigo promises, a 

 writer in the Journal of the Society of Arts states, to 

 destroy the old and important .Anglo-Indian industry of 

 indigo planting. Since 1895-6 the value of the exports has 

 fallen .from 3,569,700/. to 556,400/., and this is largely due 

 to synthetic indigo. Of the indigo imports of Japan last 

 year fully three-fourths was the artificial product, vegetable 

 indigo being increasingly unsalable. In the United States 

 the svnthetic dye came on the market in i8q8, and was held 

 at 44 cents per pound, about the value of vegetable indigo 

 on the indigotin basis. Now the price is down to 18 

 cents, and at this figure it is claimed to be much cheaper 

 than the lowest obtainable values in any vegetable indigo. 

 The artificial dye has already secured nearly 85 per cent, 

 of the world's consumption, and the price of indigo has 

 dropped about one-half. To-day Germany imports only 

 small quantities of natural indigo, while her exports of 

 synthetic indigo have increased enormously, and represented 

 last year a value of 25,000,000 marks. 



The study of the zoology of the Philippines is being 

 energetically carried on by the .Americans, one of the latest 

 contributions being the description of new Hymenoptera, 

 by Mr. W. H. .Ashmcad, published in the Proceedings of 

 the U.S. Nat. Miiseurti (No. 1416). 



The .Agricultural Society of Sapporo, Japan, is devoting 

 its energies to the study of the insects of the country and 

 the mischief they inflict on agriculture, forestry, Stc. 

 In the first and second parts of the second volume (the 

 first volume being at present apparently unpublished) of 

 the society's journal, of which we have been favoured 

 with copies, all the papers except one are, for instance, 

 devoted to insects and their life-history. The groups dis- 

 cussed include the Cercopidje, or lantern-flies, the fresh- 

 water Hemiptera, and the bark-boring beetles of the 

 family Scolytids. In the article referred to above, Mr. 

 S. Hashimoto takes into consideration tjie composition of 

 certain abnormal samples of milk. 



NO. 1878, VOL. 72] 



