September 5, 1907] 



NA TURE 



A7: 



by Mr. Bateson, on facts limiting our theories of in- 

 heritance; by Prof. C. O. Whitman, on orthogenesis 

 in pigeons and on the relations of ontogeny and 

 phylogeny ; by Dr. L. O. Howard, on the recent pro- 

 gress of economic zoology; and by Prof. H. F. Osborn. 

 on evolution from a pala?ontologist"s point of view — all 

 of them very remarkable and memorable expositions. 



At the formal close of the congress it was announced 

 that the 1910 meeting would be held at Graz under the 

 presidency of Prof, von Graff. A welcome announce- 

 ment was made that the committee on nomenclature 

 had at last arrived unanimously at a code of rules 

 which would cover 90 per cent, of all possible difficul- 

 ties. Dr. Stiles further said that the committee would 

 continue to sit in judgment on the remaining 10 per 

 cent, of intricate difficulties, and that they had resolved 

 to prepare a check-list of some thousands of common 

 animals the names of which were not henceforth to be 

 changed on any pretext whatsoever. As Prof. 

 .\gassiz remarked, the only difficulty remaining was 

 the cheque. Prof. Blanchard announced that a third 

 prize had been offered by Russia for adjudication by 

 the congress and by representatives of the Zoological 

 Society of St. Petersburg. It was offered to per- 

 petuate the memory of the great Russian zoologist, 

 .Mexander Kowalewsky. In a verv neat speech Prof. 

 Hubrecht, of .Amsterdam, thanked the local com- 

 mittee, the organisers, and the president for their 

 indefatigable labours in making the congress a con- 

 spicuous success, and Prof. Blanchard, of Paris, 

 eloquently expressed the gratitude of the ladies for 

 the hospitality which had been shown them by the 

 ladies of Boston. 



NOTES. 



The weather conditions for the three summer months, 

 June to August, have proved very disappointing, and the 

 principal characteristic has been the entire absence of 

 warm days. At Greenwich there have only been forty 

 days during the whole period with a temperature of 70° 

 and above. This is precisely the same number as in the 

 phenomenally wet summer of 1903, but it is very greatly 

 below the average. In i860 there were only twenty-three 

 days with a temperature of 70° or above, and in 1879 

 twenty-six such warm days, so that the past summer is 

 not unique. There has not been, however, a single day 

 this summer with a temperature of 80°, whilst in 1903 

 the thermometer touched that reading on six days. The 

 aggregate rainfall at Greenwich for che three months was 

 5-29 inches, which is i'37 inches less than the average 

 of the past sixty years. In 1903 the aggregate for the 

 corresponding three months was i6'i7 inches, which is 

 the wettest summer on record. At the London observing 

 station of the Meteorological Office the aggregate rain- 

 fall for the three months was 4-76 inches, which is 

 2-13 inches below the normal, and the only month with 

 an excess so far this year is .April. June was generally 

 wet over nearly the whole country, July was mostly dry, 

 whilst in August the rainfall varied considerably in 

 different parts of the kingdom. At Jersey the total 

 measurement in August was o-6o inch, whilst the average 

 is 248 inches ; at Valencia the measurement was 5-67 

 inches. The sunshine has not varied much from the 

 average. In London there was a slight deficiency in each 

 month, but in the aggregate for the three months it only 

 amounts to thirty-eight hours. September has commenced 

 with exceptionally cold weather, and the thermometer for 

 the first four days has averaged about 30° lower than 

 at the corresponding time last year. 

 NO. 1975, VOL. 76] 



A Reuter telegram from Rome states that it is ex- 

 pected that ratifications will be received by the end of the 

 present year from all the Powers of the convention of 

 June 7, 1905, for the establishment of the proposed Inter- 

 national Agricultural Institute. If the expectations are 

 realised the committee of the institute will be able to 

 meet early in 1908, enabling the institute itself to assemble 

 in the autumn of that year, and to be in working order 

 in 1909. In connection with the new institute, the Italian 

 Government is taking steps for the scientific organisation 

 of a system of agricultural statistics which existed until 

 about ten years ago, when it was abolished by Count 

 Guicciardini, Minister of .Agriculture, on the ground that 

 it did not afford sufficient guarantees of correctness. By 

 way of experiment, agricultural statistics will be collected 

 this year in fifteen provinces of Italy, with ihe view of 

 extending the new system to the whole of the country, 

 with any reforms that may be suggested by the experi- 

 ment. .At the same time a count will be taken of the 

 livestock in the country, which has not been done for a 

 considerable time. In this way Italy will in 1909 appear 

 before the International Institute with complete agri- 

 cultural returns. 



The installation of the first electric irrigation system 

 in southern British Columbia has just taken place. It is 

 considered that by this means the problem of the irrigation 

 of several thousand acres of fruit lands will in a great 

 measure be solved. 



.An organisation to be known as the Universal Society 

 of the White Cross of Geneva has been formed at Geneva. 

 It has for its object the coordination of the work being 

 carried on throughout the world in combating tuberculosis, 

 cancer, epidemic and infectious diseases, and social evils 

 such as alcoholism, &c. 



According to the Engineer, an Inter-Ministerial 

 Technical Commission has been appointed by the French 

 Minister of Public Works to organise the whole system of 

 wireless telegraphy in all its branches in the country, 

 and it is expected that the commission will be able to 

 arrive at results which will furnish France with a very 

 complete and properly coordinated service of wireless 

 telegraphy for land and sea service, both in peace and, 

 war. 



In 1859 Mr. U. A. Boydon, of Boston, deposited with 

 the Franklin Institute the sum of 1000 dollars, to be 

 awarded as a premium to any resident of North America 

 who should show by experiment that light and other rays 

 travel with the same velocity. According to the August 

 number of the Journal of the Franklin Institute, the 

 premium has just been awarded to Dr. P. R. Heyl, who 

 has taken photographs in the blue and ultra-violet of the 

 variable star Algol in the neighbourhood of its minima, 

 and has shown that the time of minimum intensity of the 

 blue photographs is so nearly identical with that of the 

 ultra-violet that the speeds of the two radiations across 

 the space between Algol and the earth cannot differ so 

 much as one part in a quarter of a million. 



The following arrangements have been made for the 

 opening of the winter session of certain of the London 

 medical schools : — at the Guy's Hospital Physical Society, 

 on October 4, Dr. G. A. Gibson will read a paper entitled 

 " Past and Present "; at King's College, on October i, Dr. 

 W. H. Allchin will give " Some Observations on the Pre- 

 sent State of Medical Education in London " ; at the 

 Middlesex Hospital Mr. A. G. R. Foulerton will, on the 

 same date, speak on " The Development of Preventive 



