July 9, 1908] 



NA TURE 



>29 



voyage of Count Zeppelin was in September last, when 

 the airship was in the air for eight hours and a half. We 

 notice that Count Zeppelin has received a telegram of con- 

 gratulation from the German Emperor. 



The Institution of Electrical Engineers has bought the 

 unexpired lease of seventy-six years of the Medical 

 Examination Hall, on the Victoria Embankment, from the 

 Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of 

 Surgeons. The purchase price agreed upon is 50,000/., 

 the annual ground rent being 220ii. The Institution of 

 Electrical Engineers will take possession of their new 

 premises on June i, 1909. It is expected that the building 

 will provide adequately for the needs of the institution, and 

 afford suitable accommodation for its library. 



The Antarctic Expedition, which is to leave shortly under 

 the leadership of Dr. Jean Charcot, has, according to the 

 Globe, been granted a subsidy of 24,000/. by the French 

 Government. Dr. Charcot's vessel, the Pourquoi Pas, has 

 been specially built for ice work. The party will include 

 a biologist, a meteorologist, two astronomers, and several 

 naval officers. Dr. Charcot expects to be away two years. 

 Coal will be taken in at Punta Arenas, and the base of the 

 operations in case of need will be the island of Port 

 Charcot, where the leader spent a year in 1903. It is 

 interesting to note that it is intended to take two motor 

 sledges on the expedition. 



A Reuter telegram states that Commander Peary left 

 in the Roosevelt on his expedition to the North Pole on 

 July 7. The Roosevelt has been provisioned for three 

 years, although her commander hopes to accomplish the 

 journey to the Pole and back in half that time. At 

 Whale Sound Commander Peary will take on board 

 twenty-five Eskimo hunters and dog drivers with their 

 families, making between forty and fifty persons. The 

 expedition will require from 200 to 250 dogs. Commander 

 Peary hopes to accomplish the object of the expedition 

 and return by October, 1909. For winter quarters he will 

 endeavour, a Times correspondent states, to force the 

 Roosevelt to the same point on the north shore of Grant 

 Land that he occupied in the winter of 1905-6. Com- 

 mander Peary only lacks 1000/. of the io,oooi. needed to 

 equip the ship adequately for a two years' voyage. 



The first international congress concerned with ques- 

 tions of the production of low temperatures and their 

 application to industrial and sanitary purposes is to be 

 held in Paris from October 5-10 next. The congress is 

 being assisted by the French Government, by several 

 municipalities, by commercial companies, and other bodies. 

 The programme which has reached us shows that the 

 business of the meetings will be transacted in six sections, 

 dealing respectively with the following subjects : — 

 section i., low temperatures and their general effects, 

 president. Prof. d'Arsonval ; section ii., freezing mixtures 

 and machines, president, Prof. H. Leaut6 ; section iii., 

 application of low temperatures to foods, president, M. .'\. 

 Gautier ; section iv., application of low temperatures to 

 other industries, president, M. E. Tisserand ; section v., 

 applications of low temperatures to commerce and trans- 

 port, president, M. Levasseur ; and section vi., legislation, 

 president, M. J. Cruppi. The sections are subdivided 

 somewhat minutely, and the specialist will have every 

 opportunity of acquainting himself with modern views of 

 every aspect of the subject. The general president of the 

 congress is M. Andr^ Lebon, and the general secretary 

 M. J. de Loverdo, 10 rue Denis-Poisson, Paris (17®). 



NO. 2019, VOL. 78] 



In the House of Commons on Monday, Sir E. Sassoon 

 asked the President of the Board of Trade whether his 

 attention had been directed to the issue of the repmrt of 

 the Select Committee on the Daylight Saving Bill, and, 

 if so, whether the department had expressed any opinion 

 relative thereto. In reply, Mr. Churchill said : — " I have 

 read the report of this committee with much interest and 

 with a lively recognition of the advantages which the Bill 

 in question appears at first sight to offer to all classes, 

 and especially to the working classes. I have arranged 

 for the whole subject to be carefully examined by the 

 Board of Trade in consultation with representatives of 

 trade, labour, and transport interests. Pending the result 

 of this exammation it is not possible for me to express an 

 opinion." We refer elsewhere in the present issue to some 

 of the objections to this proposal to juggle with time- 

 keepers. In rural industries the hours of work are adapted 

 to hours of daylight at different seasons of the year, and 

 this is also the case with workers in building and engineer- 

 ing trades. The proposal to legislate for national self- 

 decrption in time reckoning because of the late hours now 

 kept in cities is as ifiiscientific as it would be unworkable. 

 It would be just as reasonable for Parliament to decide 

 that a temperature of, say, 50° should be called 40° in 

 summer and 60° in winter. 



The death is announced, from Berlin, of Prof. Oskar 

 Liebreich, the pharmacologist, in his seventieth year. We 

 learn from the Times that Prof. Liebreich early devoted 

 himself to the study of technical chemistry under Fresenius 

 at Wiesbaden. At the age of twenty-seven he was 

 appointed to the department of the Pathological Institute 

 bv the late Prof. Virchow, who formed a high opinion of 

 his abilities. In 1872 Dr. Liebreich became director of the 

 Pharmacological Institute in Berlin. His name will always 

 be associated with the introduction, in 1872, of hydrate of 

 chloral as a therapeutic agent, which has since been used 

 widelv as an anodyne and narcotic. He was an authority 

 on the treatment of lupus, and published a number of works 

 and special articles on this and other questions of thera- 

 peutics. 



The seventh International Congress of .Xpplied Chem- 

 istry is to be held in London from May 27 to June 2, igog, 

 under the hon. presidency of Sir Henry Roscoe, F.R.S., 

 he himself being the acting president. It is hoped 

 that the Prince of Wales will open the congress. The 

 meetings will be held in the L'niversity Buildings, 

 in the Imperial College of Science, and in the Central 

 Technical College. The special sections and their presi- 

 dents will be as follows : — analytical chemistry. Dr. 

 T. E. Thorpe, C.B., F.R.S. ; inorganic chemistry and 

 allied industries. Dr. Ludwig Mond, F.R.S. ; (a) metal- 

 lurgy and mining, Sir Hugh Bell, Bart., {&) ex- 

 plosives. Sir -Andrew Noble, Bart., K.C.B., F.R.S. ; 

 organic chemistry and allied industries : (a) organic pro- 

 ducts, Prof. W. H. Perkin, F.R.S., (6) colouring sub- 

 stances and their uses. Prof. Meldola, F.R.S. ; industry 

 and chemistry of sugar, Mr. Richard Garton ; starch in- 

 dustry : (o) starch industry. Dr. Horace T. Brown, F.R.S., 

 (6) fermentation, Mr. John Gretton, M.P. ; agricultural 

 chemistry, Lord Blyth ; hygiene, medical and pharma- 

 ceutical chemistry — bromatology, respectively. Sir J. 

 Crichton Brown, F.R.S., Mr. N. H. Martin, and Mr. 

 R. R. Tatlock ; photographic chemistry, Sir W. de W. 

 .'\bney, K.C.B., F.R.S. ; electrical and physical chemistry, 

 Sir John Brunner, M.P. ; and law, political economics, 

 and legislation with reference to chemical industries. Lord 

 .■\Iverstone. The provisional programme has been drawn 



