June 25, 1908] 



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on from 1902 until it was temporarily suspended in 1905, 

 owing to the death in England of Lieut. TuUoch, who 

 contracted sleeping sickness during his researches in 

 Uganda. The new commission will be in charge of 

 Colonel David Bruce, C.B., F.R.S., and, on September 25, 

 will proceed from England, via Mombasa, to Lake Victoria, 

 on the northern shores of which the Uganda Protectorate 

 is preparing a laboratory in the province of Chagwe, two 

 miles from the lake, for the purposes of the investigation. 

 The spot chosen will be within five or six miles of one 

 of the concentration camps organised by the Government, 

 where sleeping sickness patients are under treatment. The 

 work of research will include the study of the natural 

 history of the fly, and also of Dr. Koch's theory that 

 crocodiles provide foodstuffs for the Glossina palftalis. The 

 commission will also investigate the question whether thr; 

 lower animals harbour the parasites, and the exact metliod 

 by which the fly transfers the parasite. 



•We regret to announce that Prof. W. R. Cassie, pro- 

 fessor of physics at the Royal Holloway College for 

 Women, Egham, and honorary secretary of the Physical 

 Society, died suddenly on June 22. Prof. Cassie, who was 

 born at Fraserburgh in 1861, was educated at Aberdeen 

 University and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was 

 Clerk-Maxwell student of experimental physics at the 

 Cavendish Laboratory from 1891-3 ; a Cambridge Uni- 

 versity extension lecturer from 1888-93 ; Thompson lecturer 

 on natural science. Free Church College, Aberdeen, 1893-4 '• 

 and in 1893 was appointed to the chair of physics occupied 

 by him at the time of his death. 



Mr. George Si.m, author of " The Vertebrate Fauna of 

 Dee," died at Aberdeen on June 15 at the age of seventy- 

 three. He was a fine type of the self-trained naturalist, 

 and made many interesting contributions to faunistic 

 zoology. His knowledge of British birds, fishes, and 

 crustaceans was very wide and accurate, and he was re- 

 markably disinterested and generous in placing both speci- 

 mens and information at the disposal of serious workers. 

 He pursued several lines of inquiry into great detail, 

 having, for instance, a quite extraordinary knowledge of 

 the specific characters of fisli-scales. He gave some of his 

 collections to the University of Aberdeen. 



The committee of the Lawes Agricultural Trust held its 

 annual meeting for the inspection of tlie Rothamsted Ex- 

 perimental Station on June 19. A vote of condolence was 

 addressed to Lady Evans expressing the sympathy of the 

 committee in the loss she had sustained through the death 

 of Sir John Evans, who had been chairman of the com- 

 mittee since the foundation of the trust, and to whose 

 endeavours the organisation and extension of its work had 

 been so largely due. In the afternoon the laboratory and 

 field experiments were inspected. 



The council of the Royal College of Surgeons has given 

 permission to Dr. Elliot Smith and Dr. Wood Jones, of 

 the Cairo Medical School, to carry out, in the museum of 

 the college, an examination of a collection of material 

 found during excavations in the Nile Valley. The material 

 is representative of peoples inhabiting Nubia in ancient 

 times, and is expected to throw light on their pathology 

 and the results of their surgery. The Egyptian Govern- 

 ment has expressed its willingness to present the collec- 

 tion of specimens to the museum of the Royal College of 

 Surgeons, and the council has accepted the offer. 



Queen's University, Ontario, has received as a gift 

 from Dr. J. P. Thomson, hon. secretary and treasurer of 

 the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, Brisbane, 



NO. 2017, VOL. 78] 



a large and valuable collection of specimens for its museum. 

 The collection, which is typical and widely representative, 

 consists of no fewer than 457 ethnological specimens and 

 140 shells of different kinds from Polynesia, New Guinea, 

 and Australia, many of the specimens being very rare. 

 Dr. Thomson is- also sending to the University a large 

 collection of economic minerals, a great number of addi- 

 tional ethnological specimens, some rare birds' skins from 

 New Guinea, and many Queensland butterflies and moths. 

 The thanks of the University have been conveyed to Dr. 

 Thomson, whose valuable gifts are deeply appreciated. 



The Society of Mineral Industry, the most important 

 mining and metallurgical institution in France, celebrated 

 at St. Etienne on June 14-20 its jubilee by a very successful 

 congress, which was attended by 436 engineers from the 

 various mining and metallurgical districts of France. Mr. 

 L. Tauzin, inspector-general of mines, presided ; and 

 papers were read by Messrs. Siegler, Vicaire, Bureau, 

 Marsaut, Laur, Fayol, Rateau, de Ren^viUe, and Lemifere. 

 Visits were paid to the principal collieries and steelworks 

 in the district. At the banquet on June 17 gold medals 

 were presented to Messrs. Marsaut, Rateau, Fayol, Pourcel, 

 and other distinguished members of the society who had 

 done most for mining and metallurgy during the past fifty 

 years, and congratulatory addresses were presented by Mr. 

 Bennett H. Brough on behalf of the Iron and Steel Insti- 

 tute, and by Mr. Hedley on behalf of the North of England 

 Institute of Mining Engineers. 



At the annual general meeting of the Linnean Society 

 of New South Wales, held in March last, Mr. A. H. S. 

 Lucas delivered his presidential address, taking as his 

 special subject the relations of science and government. 

 Having advanced to his present position in the provinces 

 of nature, man must, he said, fortify the position he has 

 won, and must advance by utilising the knowledge which 

 workers in science alone can provide. This essential fact, 

 he maintained, is not sufficiently recognised by the public 

 or by politicians. The appreciation by Australia of the 

 modern point of view is, he urged, of great importance, 

 because she has begun to learn through the pocket the 

 costliness of ignorance. The Government alone can watch 

 over the permanent interests of the State and see that 

 resources are not impoverished. The scientific method, 

 I he method of accurately informed common sense, is the 

 only efficient method in government as in everything else. 

 Science is the natural ally of government. In regard to 

 material questions, the man of science of the twentieth 

 century occupies the position of the prophets of old. 

 Without science no nation can keep its place in the van, 

 for " science is the golden guiding star of practice ; with- 

 out science there can only be a blind groping in the region 

 of undefined possibilities." 



We have to acknowledge the receipt of three papers 

 issued by the University of California, the first of which, 

 by Mr. J. C. Bradley, is devoted to two species of amphi- 

 pod crustaceans of the genus Corophium from the Pacific 

 coast. The other two, by Mr. C. A. Kofoid, deal with 

 the pelagic unicellular organism Ceratium, more especially 

 from the point of view of exuviation and regeneration. 



According to the " Aarsberetning " for 1907, the 

 authorities of the Bergen Museum are devoting special 

 attention to the exhibition series, which is being developed 

 much on the lines of our own Natural History Museum 

 Several of these new exhibits are illustrated by reproduc- 

 tions from photographs, and among them, judging from 

 these illustrations, may be specially commended a pair of 



