April 15, 1909] 



NA TURE 



197 



must have been accompanied by an elongation of the soft 

 face, as the mastodonts increased in size in successive 

 geological periods. In the latest genus, Mastodon proper, 

 this elongated soft face, no longer supported by an 

 extension of the lower jaw, must have formed a hanging 

 proboscis, as in the true elephants. 



We regret to announce the death, at the age of sixty- 

 eight years, of Prof. F. E. Hulme, author of several 

 works on botany of a popular character. 



The annual meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute will 

 be held at the Institution of Civil Engineers on May 13 

 and 14, when the following papers may be expected to be 

 submitted : — On the production of iron sheet and tubes 

 in one operation, by S. Cowper-Coles ; on the preservation 

 of iron and steel, by A. S. Cushman ; on the manufacture 

 of peat fuel, by Dr. M. Ekenberg ; on the chemical physics 

 involved in the decarburisation of iron-carbon alloys, by 

 W. H. Hatfield ; on the relation of the solubility of iron 

 and steel in sulphuric acid to its heat treatment, by Prof. 

 E. Heyn and O. Bauer ; on high-tension steels, by P. 

 Longmuir ; on the Bristol recording pyrometer, by P. 

 Longmuir and T. Swinden ; on a heat-treatment study of 

 Bessemer steels, by Prof. A. McWilliam and E. J. Barnes ; 

 on the Roechling-Rodenhauser electric furnace, by W. 

 Rodenhauser; on the value of physical tests in the selec- 

 tion and testing of protective coatings for iron and steel, 

 by J. Cruickshank Smith ; on further e.xperiments on the 

 ageing of mild steel, by C. E. Stromeyer ; on a comparison 

 of the methods of determining the hardness of iron and 

 steel, by Prof. T. Turner ; on the rusting of iron, and 

 modern methods for its prevention, by Prof. W. H. 

 Walker. A supplement to the report on the determina- 

 tion of carbon and phosphorus in steel, presented by the 

 special committee appointed in 1901, will be submitted by 

 Mr. A. A. Blair. The autumn meeting of the institute will 

 be held in London on September 28, 29, and 30. 



On Tuesday next, April 20, Prof. F. W. Mott, F.R.S., 

 will begin a course of two lectures at the Royal Institu- 

 tion on " The Brain in Relation to Righthandedness and 

 Speech," and on Thursday, April 22, Mr. J. Paterson will 

 deliver a lecture on " How a True Art Instinct may be 

 best Developed," being the first of three lectures on 

 "Aspects of Applied Esthetics." On Saturday, April 24, 

 Mr. R. T. Gunther will begin a course of two lectures on 

 " The Earth Movements of the Italian Coast, and their 

 Effects." The Friday evening discourse on April 23 will 

 be delivered by Mr. Alexander Siemens on " Tantalum and 

 its Industrial Applications," and on April 30 by Dr. 

 Edmund Gosse on " Pitfalls of Biography." 



O.M April 7 the Guernsey States or legislative assembly 

 rejected a proposal to introduce daylight-saving legisla- 

 tion by a practically unanimous vote. A proposal that 

 Guernsey standard time should be Greenwich mean time 

 was adopted. 



A CONFERENCE of members of the Museums' Association 

 and others interested will be held at Towneley Hall, 

 Burnley, on Saturday afternoon, May 15, for the purpose 

 of discussing subjects of interest to those concerned in the' 

 work of museums, art galleries, and kindred institutions. 

 Offers of papers or suggestions of suitable subjects for 

 discussion should be "sent to the hon. secretary, The 

 Sycamores, Burnley. 



\ COMMITTEE, consisting of the members of the scientific 



staff of the Royal Observatory of Belgium at Uccle, is 



undertaking the preparation and publication of a list of 



magnetic and seismological observatories, and this list is 



NO. 2059, VOL. 80] 



to be followed by another dealing with the societies and 

 periodicals particularly concerned with magnetism, seismo- 

 logy, and atmospheric electricity. Such lists will prove of 

 great assistance to physicists occupied with these subjects, 

 since by their aid reference to the researches of other 

 workers will be facilitated greatly. To assist in the work 

 which has been undertaken, the Belgian committee would 

 be glad to receive information from the officials of scien- 

 tific societies concerned with the physics of the globe. 

 The committee desires to be informed as to the rules of 

 such societies, the date of their foundation, the place of 

 meeting, the subscription, the number of members, the 

 frequency of the meetings, the names of the executive 

 committee, and the publications of the society, and would 

 be greatly assisted by receiving specimen numbers of these. 

 Communications should be addressed to the committee at 

 the observatory. 



For some time past very alarming reports have been 

 in circulation as to the work on the Panama Canal, and 

 especially as to the stability of the proposed great dam at 

 Gatun. Three years ago it was settled, after an 

 exhaustive inquiry by a commission of engineers, that, 

 taking everything into consideration, and under the special 

 conditions that prevail on the Isthmus of Panama, it was 

 desirable that the canal should have locks in preference 

 to being made throughout at sea-level. There has, how- 

 ever, since that decision was arrived at, been a continuous 

 agitation kept up in the American Press impugning the 

 recommendation of the commission, and alarmist reports 

 have been circulated, especially with reference to the 

 safety of the Gatun dam. About three months ago 

 another commission was appointed by President Roosevelt 

 to inquire into this matter and generally to report as to 

 the works. The main findings of this commission are a 

 full endorsement of the scheme and works as now being 

 carried out, and an expression of confidence in the 

 engineers entrusted with the work. The dimensions of 

 the locks as finally settled are to be 1000 feet in length 

 and no feet in width. It is now estimated that the cost 

 of the canal will be seventy-two millions sterling, whereas 

 a sea-level waterway woitld cost upwards of one hundred 

 millions. It is anticipated that the lock canal will be 

 completed in five years' time, whereas a sea-level canal 

 would take several years longer. From 40,000 to 50,000 

 men are now employed on the canal. Owing to the very 

 efficient sanitary arrangements that have been carried 

 out, the district has now become fairly healthy, and yellow 

 fever and other diseases common to a tropical swamp, 

 which formerly prevailed, have almost entirely been 

 stamped out. 



Among the contents of No. 5 of the Bulletin of the 

 Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg for 1909. 

 is an article, by Dr. W. Salensky, on the development of 

 the nemertine worm TrosorocTnmus viviparus { = Monopora 

 vivipara). As the result of the author's investigations, it 

 appears that the proboscis is in no wise concerned with 

 the formation of the oesophagus ; the proboscis and the 

 oesophagus are, in fact, developed independently of one 

 another, and only later coine into mutual connection ; and, 

 finally, the atrium of the proboscis in Prosorochmus (and 

 very probably also in all metanemertines, in which the 

 mouth-opening lies in a so-called rhynchodseum) forms, not 

 only a portion of the proboscis, but also a part of the 

 oesophagus. 



The parasites of the cotton-worm are under investiga- 

 tion in the West Indies, and a report of some of Mr. 

 Jemmett's work thereon appears in a recent issue of the 



