126 
NATURE 
Though we may yet have to wait a little time for 
cheaper gas and electricity, there is no doubt that 
much more might be done by the authorities to 
mitigate the smoke nuisance. We have only to con- 
sider the fact that not more than 1o per cent of the 
local authorities in the United Kingdom administer 
the law against smoke, and not more than twenty- 
five authorities have special smoke inspectors. 
In conclusion, a word of acknowledgment is due 
to the London Coal Smoke Abatement Society and 
the Smoke Abatement League of Great Britain for 
their praiseworthy and persistent efforts to enlighten 
the British public on the methods available for the 
economic and cleanly utilisation of fuel. ee 
RAE SURV EY. OF VEG YPTt 
\\/ HERE. the region is not too large there is a 
certain convenience in treating the various 
branches of study relating to the earth’s surface in 
a single organisation, and in Egypt this arrangement 
has given good results. The report of the Survey 
Department on the work done in igio has recently 
appeared, and in the same way as in former years 
geodetic triangulation and precise levelling furnish 
the primary control for topographical surveys, cadastral 
surveys, and to some extent for the geological survey, 
which has to cover a wider area than that which has 
been accurately mapped up to the present time. 
Astronomical work at Helwan Observatory was car- 
ried on regularly, Reynolds’s 30-inch reflector being 
used to expose 249 plates, principally on Halley’s 
comet. The geodetic triangulation has been carried 
southwards, reconnaissance having reached Tema, 
about 450 kilometres south of Cairo, while angular 
measurements and latitude observations were com- 
pleted as far as Etsa, about halfway. Precise levelling 
in the delta is nearly complete, and is being pushed 
on towards Aswan, up the Nile Valley, Assiut having 
been reached, and a branch line having been carried into 
the Fayum to the Birket Qurun. The gravity survey of 
the Nile Valley has been commenced, and observations | f f 
| attainment of definite results. 
were being made at a series of stations between Cairo 
and Khartoum. The magnetic survey of the Nile 
Valley up to Wadi Halfa_ was completed, and in rort 
its extension into the Sudan was to be undertaken. 
Topographical surveying added considerably to the 
material which is utilised for the publication of maps 
of the Nile Valley and Delta on 1:50,000 and 
1: 10,000, and completed the survey of Alexandria 
town on the scale of 1: 
considerably advanced. The cadastral survey was 
occupied in the re-survey of Beheira Province, since 
the original survey was made without any controlling 
triangulation, and hence left much to be desired. 
In geology .the department’s labours were mainly 
directed to the Red Sea coast, and especially that part 
lying round about the petroleum region at the south 
end of the Gulf of Suez, where much accurate survey- 
ing, as well as tr iangulation, was carried out. 
Besides the normal series of cadastral maps on the 
scale of 1: 
of 1: 10,000 
Egypt on 1: 
published. Their early appearance will be welcomed. 
The report shows clear evidence of a large amount 
of work carefully and scientifically controlled, and 
the report sets an example which might well be more 
generally followed in showing not only the progress 
made, but also the rate of worl: and the cost of worl: 
in every branch, as well as the accuracy attained. 
HG oie. 
A Report on the Work of the Survey Department in rgro. 
Price &T10. 
NO. 2214, VOL. 89] 
and 1: 50,000, others of the whole of 
(Cairo, 1911.) 
1000, that of Cairo being also | 
2500, and topographical maps on the scales | 
250,000 are in hand and should soon be | DE ‘ 
| climate during the past two or three thousand years 
| laboration with the 
[APRIL 4, 1912 
PROMOTION OF RESEARCH , BY Eip 
CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASH- 
INGTON. 
*HE Year Book for 1911 of the Carnegie Institu- 
tion at Washington has reached us, and is, 
as usual, full of evidences of unremitting activity in 
the encouragement of research in science. 
The following list shows the departments of in- 
vestigation to which the larger grants were made by 
the Trustees of the Institution and the amounts 
allotted from these grants by the executive committee 
during the year :— 
& 
Department of Botanical Research 75330 
Department of Economics and Sociology 2,000 
Department of Experimental Evolution 6,747 
Geophysical Laboratory 10,896 
Department of Historical Research 4,700 
Department of Marine Biology 6,596 
Department of Meridian Astrometry 6,296 
Nutrition Laboratory 6,076 
Division of Publication 1,800 
Solar Observatory .. 27,211 
Department of Terrestrial Magnetism 18,902 
£98,560 
Numerous minor grants were made amounting to 
18,863/., and the grants made to research associates 
for their investigations amounted to 48401. Grants 
for publication authorised during the year amounted 
to 11,2001. During the year 1911 the income of the 
institution was 201,114l., and the expenditure reached 
134,3201. 
The president of the institution, Dr. Robert S. 
Woodward, says in his réswmé of the investigations 
of the year 1911 that it has been, on the whole, the 
most fruitful year on record for the various specially 
organised departments of research in the institution. 
Although some of these are not yet fully equipped, 
they are all so well organised and provided for that 
their energies may now be chiefly directed to the 
Among the more salient aspects of the affairs and 
researches of the various great departments, the 
following may be mentioned. 
The investigations of the Department of Botanical 
Research during the year have embraced, among 
others, studies of the evaporation, the increasing 
salinity, and the changes in vegetation following close 
after the receding shores of the Salton Sea; of the 
influences of temperature, ‘rainfall, sunlight,  soil- 
moisture, &c., on plant organisms; of the effects 
following transplantation from low to high altitudes 
and from arid to humid localities; of the variations 
in water and acid content of plants; of the chemical 
effects induced in plant tissue by light and heat; and 
of the physiological functions of leaves in plant life. 
One of the most interesting investigations under 
way during the year is that of Dr. Ellsworth Hunt- 
ington, research associate of the department, on the 
secular variations of climate of the south-west desert 
area in recent geologic time. From this work it is 
believed that some of the salient fluctuations in 
mav be clearly made out. Another noteworthy in- 
vestigation of the year is that of the respiration of 
cacti, undertaken by Prof. H. M. Richards in col- 
‘department. This has developed 
the remarkable fact of a definite diurnal periodicity 
in the acid content of the sap of the cacti under 
| obseqyation: 
One of the most promising investigations of the 
year in the Department of Experimental Evolution is 
i. 
7 
* 
- ie 
