NA rURE 



[May 6, 1909 



A Reutbr message from Ottawa states that the Govern- 

 ment has established a geodetic survey department for 

 Canada under Dr. VV. F. King, chief astronomer of the 

 Dominion. 



At a meeting of the Aeronautical Society of Great 

 Britain held on Monday, the gold medal of the society 

 was presented to Messrs. Wilbur and Orville Wright in 

 recognition of their distinguished services to aeronautical 

 science. 



At a special general meeting of the Zoological Society 

 on April 29 it was decided to dispose of the site of the 

 society's freehold premises in Hanover Square, and to 

 expend the proceeds upon the erection of new ofifices, 

 library, and meeting-room at the Zoological Gardens in 

 Regent's Park, and on the general improvement of the 

 gardens. 



A DESPATCH to the iVc'w \orh Evening Post from a 

 correspondent in the West reports the discovery, near 

 Esperanza, Mexico, of a stone inscription believed to have 

 been carved by the Mayas of Yucatan, and to be more 

 than a thousand years old. Some pottery of the Mayas 

 was found at the same time. There had previously been 

 no evidence of their having come so far north. The dis- 

 coveries have been made by Major F. R. Burnham, 

 D.S.O., and Mr. C. F. Holder, of Pasadena. 



The Royal Society of London invites applications for 

 two Mackinnon studentships, each of the annual value of 

 150Z. These studentships, which are restricted to British 

 subjects, are awarded for the purpose of conducting re- 

 searches, one in the group of the physical sciences, in- 

 cluding astronomy, chemistry, geology, mineralogy, and 

 phj'sics, the other in the group of the biological sciences, 

 including anatomy, botany, palaeontology, pathology, 

 phvsiology, and zoology. The present holder of the 

 studentship in biology offers himself for re-election. 

 Applications must be sent in to the Royal Society not 

 later than June i on forms which can be obtained from 

 the assistant secretary of the Royal Society, Burlington 

 House, W. 



Statements have been made in the medical and general 

 Press that the electric waves used in wireless telegraphy 

 are injurious to the operators and produce various diseases, 

 such as conjunctivitis, corneal ulceration, and leukoma. 

 Mr. Marconi writes to the Times to deny these sugges- 

 tions, for which, he says, there is no evidence whatever. 

 He adds ; — " During the twelve years or so of our opera- 

 tions we have had to deal with no single ca.se of com- 

 pensation for any injury of this origin, nor, so far as I 

 can ascertain, has any such injury been suffered. Speak- 

 ing for myself, I may remark that my own good health 

 has never been better than during the often extended 

 periods when I have been exposed for many hours daily 

 to the conditions now challenged, and in the constant 

 neighbourhood of electrical discharges at our Transatlantic 

 stations, which I believe are the most powerful in the 

 world." 



The annua! meeting of the Naples Table Association 

 for Promoting Scientific Research by Women was held on 

 April 24 at the . American Museum of Natural History. 

 Miss Caroline McGill, of the University of Missouri, was 

 appointed a scholar of the association at the Naples 

 station. We are informed that the award of the prize of 

 one thousand dollars offered every second year for the 

 best thesis written by a woman on a scientific subject, 

 embodying new observations and new conclusions based on 



NO. 2062, VOL. 80] 



an independent laboratory research in biological, chemical, 

 or physical science, was made to Miss Florence Buchanan, 

 D.Sc, of London University, fellow of LIniversity College, 

 London, for a thesis entitled " The Time Taken in the 

 Transmission of Reflex Impulses in the Spinal Cord of 

 the Frog." Miss Buchanan has been engaged in research 

 work at the University Museum, Oxford, since 1896, and 

 has published sixteen papers. It is worthy of remark 

 that, of the eleven theses presented in competition, five 

 were sent from England and one from Canada. The 

 subjects of four were morphological, of t:wo bacteriological, 

 of two zoological, one physiological, one was in the domain 

 of physical chemistry, and one in parasitology. The 

 general average of these investigations was very high, dis- 

 tinctly above those of the three previous competitions. A 

 fifth prize will be offered in 191 1. 



The year 1911 will be the centenary of the publication 

 of Avogadro's celebrated memoir on the molecular con- 

 stitution of gases. In that memoir he arrived at the 

 generalisation that equal volumes of gases at the same 

 temperature and pressure contain the same number of 

 molecules — a law which has borne rich fruit both in 

 chemistry and physics. To commemorate the discovery 

 of Avogadro's law, a committee has been formed by the 

 Roval Academy of Sciences of Turin to obtain subscrip- 

 tions for the publication of the most important of 

 .'\vogadro's works in one volume, and the erection of a 

 monument to him at Turin, where he was born in 1776, 

 and died, while still professor of physics there, in 1856. 

 An appeal is made to chemists and physicists for contri- 

 butions to the fund being raised. The committee is inter- 

 national in its constitution, and includes the names of 

 many men of distinguished eminence in the world of 

 physical science. Subscriptions should be sent to the 

 treasurer. Royal .Academy of Sciences, Via Maria Vittoria 

 3, Turin. 



The seventy-seventh annual meeting of the British 

 Medical Association will be held in Belfast on July 23-31- 

 The president-elect is Sir William Whitla, professor of 

 materia modica and therapeutics. Queen's College, Belfast. 

 The address in medicine will be delivered by Dr. R. W. 

 Philip, that in surgery by Prof. A. E. J. Barker, and 

 that in obstetrics by Sir John W. Byers. The popular 

 lecture will be delivered by Dr. J. A. Macdonald. The 

 scientific business of the meeting will be conducted in 

 fifteen sections, which will meet on Wednesday, July 28, 

 Thursday, July 29, and Friday, July 30. The presidents 

 of the sections are as follows : — Anatomy and physiology. 

 Prof. C. S. Sherrington, F.R.S. ; dermatology and electro- 

 therapeutics, Dr. W. Calwell ; diseases of children, Mr. 

 H. J. Stiles ; hrematology and vaccine therapy. Sir Alm- 

 roth Wright, F.R.S. ; hygiene and public health. Dr. 

 L. C. Parkes ; laryngology, otology, and rhinology. Dr. 

 St. Clair Thomson ; medicine, Prof. J. A. Lindsay ; navy, 

 army, and ambulance, Fleet-Surgeon J. Lloyd Thomas, 

 R.N. ; obstetrics and gynaecology. Dr. J. Campbell; 

 ophthalmology. Dr. J. W. Browne ; pathology. Prof. Wm. 

 St. Clair Symmers ; pharmacology and therapeutics. Prof. 

 R. Stockman ; psychological medicine. Dr. T. Outterson 

 Wood ; surgery. Prof. T. Sinclair ; tropical medicine, 

 Mr. C. W. Daniels. 



The Liverpool Marine Biological Station at Port Erin, 

 in the Isle of Man, has been utilised, in all its depart- 

 ments, to the fullest possible extent during the past Easter 

 vacation. A class of senior students from the University 

 of Liverpool occupied the large upper laboratory, and 

 went through a course of practical marine biology under 



