432 



NATURE 



[September 3, 1908 



tricts, and amounting to 2-30 inches in the soulh-west of 

 England. Over the western portion of the kingdom, as 

 well as in the south of England, rain fell each day. The 

 mean temperature was nowhere very different from the 

 average, and notwithstanding the heavy rain there was a 

 slight excess of bright sunshine. The aggregate rainfall 

 for the summer, as comprised by the thirteen weeks end- 

 ing August 29, was everywhere in defect of the average 

 except in the south and north-west of England. In the 

 east of Scotland, the north-east of England, the south of 

 Ireland, and in the Channel Islands the deficiency of rain 

 was more than 2 inches. The rainy days were also 

 deficient, except in the north of Scotland, where there was 

 a deficiency of bright sunshine, all other districts showing 

 a larger amount of sunshine than usual. In London, June 

 was the only summer month with a deficiency of rain, and 

 the total excess for the three months is o-6 inch, the 

 aggregate measurement being 7-14 inches; the wettest 

 month was July, with a rainfall measuring 3-42 inches. 



Major W. A. J. O'Me.ara, R.E., C.M.G., has been 

 appointed by the President of the Board of Trade an 

 additional British delegate to the International Conference 

 on Electrical Units and Standards, which is to meet in 

 London on October 12 next. 



Prof. C. O. Whit.max, who has for the past twenty 

 years been director of the Marine Biological Laboratory, 

 Wood's Hole, Mass., has resigned that position, and the 

 assistant director, Prof. F. R. Lillie, of the University of 

 Chicago, has been elected in his stead. 



At the celebration of the jubilee of the British Ornitho- 

 logists' Union, which is to take place in London in 

 December next, gold medals will be presented to each of 

 the four original members— Dr. F. Du Cane Godman, 

 F.R.S., Mr. P. S. Godman, Mr. \V. H. Hudleston, 

 F.R.S., and Dr. P. L. Sclater, F.R.S. 



His Majesty the King has accorded his patronage to 

 the Royal Society of Medicine, and has intimated his 

 intention to sign the roll of the society in the autumn. 

 During the past three months the Society of Anaesthetists 

 and the Society for the Study of Disease in Children have 

 joined the Royal Society of Medicine as sections for the 

 study of the subjects in which they are especially interested. 



The fifty-third annual exhibition of the Royal Photo- 

 graphic Society of Great Britain will be held in London 

 from September 17 to October 24. 



According to Science, the assistants of Prof. Novarro, 

 of Genoa, have decided to endow a Novarro prize to be 

 awarded for work in general pathology. 



Notice is given by the council of the Royal Society of 

 Arts that the next award of the Swiney prize (consisting 

 of a cup of the value of looZ. and money to the same 

 amount) will be awarded in January next. The award 

 will be for a work on medical jurisprudence. Anv person 

 desiring to submit a work in competition, or to recommend 

 any work for the consideration of the judges, should do 

 so by letter, addressed to the secretary of the Royal Society 

 of Arts. 



The New York .Academy of .Medicine offers a prize of 

 200i. for the best essay on " The Etiology, Pathology, and 

 Treatment of the Diseases of the Kidney." The papers 

 submitted must reach the academy on or before October i, 

 1909. 



The Academy of Sciences of Stockholm has undertaken 

 the publication of the scientific works of Swedenborg, and 



NO. 2027; VOL. 78] 



vol. i. of the series, dealing with geology, and containing 

 a number of Swedenborg's letters, has recently been issued. 

 Vol. ii. will contain treatises on chemistry, physics, and 

 mechanics, and vol. iii. treatises on cosmology. Four 

 further volumes are planned, and will deal respectively with 

 the brain and general physiology. 



The provisional programme of the Incorporated Institu- 

 tion of .Automobile Engineers for the session 1908-9 has 

 been issued, and comprises the following items : — On 

 October 14 the presidential address by Mr. Dugald Clerk, 

 on some problems of the motor-car ; on November 11 a 

 paper by Mr. B. Hopkinson, on a complete test of a 

 modern petrol engine — power, thermal and mechanical 

 eflSciency, exhaust products at various powers and speeds ; 

 and on December 9 a paper entitled " How the Weight 

 of the Motor-car is made up " will be read by Mr. Mervyn 

 O 'Gorman. The following papers and discussions havt 

 been arranged for the general meetings of the institution 

 in 1909 : — Mr. F. H. Royce, causes of wear in motor 

 machinery ; Mr. G. H. Baillie, carburettor experiments ; 

 Mr. Horatio Ballantyne, the chemistry of petrol ; Mr. 

 Bertram Btount, on specifying the quality of petrol ; Mr. 

 F. R. S. Bircham, the use of small internal combustion 

 engines for marine work ; Mr. L. A. Legros, transmission ; 

 Mr. E. H. Cozens-Hardy, motor cabs; Dr. W. Watson, 

 F.R.S. , petrol engine experiments; and a discussion on 

 valve setting, introduced by Mr. Max R. Lawrence. 



A RECENTLY issued Consular report from Tahiti states 

 that among the innovations in agriculture to which the 

 soil of some of the uninhabited valley lands of Tahiti and 

 of other neighbouring islands would be propitious is the 

 planting of rubber, which, it is believed, would give excel- 

 lent results. The variety which appears to be specially 

 recommended for the valleys of Tahiti is the Castilloa 

 elastica, which has been experimented upon on a small 

 scale with such encouraging results that a local company 

 has been floated for the purpose of planting rubber on an 

 extensive scale. 



A DESCRIPTIVE account of the new aeroplane of Mr. 

 Henry Farman appears in La Nature, and is abstracted by 

 the Paris correspondent of the Times. The apparatus 

 differs entirely in construction from Mr. Farman 's two 

 previous machines. Instead of having double planes, con- 

 nected by ties and stays, which are regarded as offering 

 undue resistance to the air, the new machine has, on 

 either side, three wing-like single planes, giving it the 

 appearance which has suggested its name — the Flying 

 Fish. The body, made of ash, has, indeed, the exact shape 

 of a long and slender fish, tapering backwards with a 

 gentle dropping curve. It is 46 feet long, square in 

 section, and comes somewhat sharply to a point in front, 

 where a plate of aluminium supports the shaft of the pro- 

 peller. Its four members are connected by wooden ties 

 and steel stays, producing a girder of perfect rigidity. 

 The machine is mounted on two wheels placed well for- 

 ward under the motor. The steel framework which carries 

 these wheels, as well as that of a third wheel placed near 

 the tail, is provided with strong spiral springs intended 

 to reduce the shock of alighting on the ground. The six 

 rectangular " wings " are fixed towards the head of the 

 machine, and are each 8 feet 8j inches long and i foot 

 3^ inches wide. They consist of wooden frames rising 

 towards the extremity, slightly curved and tapering on 

 the same lines as the body of the " fish " itself. They 

 are covered by a double layer of thin fabric. The second 

 plane on each side is placed somewhat lower than the 

 first, and the third somewhat lower than the second. At 



