September to, 1908] 



NA TURE 



467 



includes visits to New York City, Narragansett Bay, 

 Wood's Hole, Boston, and Gloucester, at each of which 

 places local committees and individual residents will pro- 

 vide demonstrations of fishery methods and incidental 

 entertainment. The methods of oyster culture employed on 

 the great New England beds, the pound-net fishery, the 

 purse-seine fishery, inspection of fish markets and vessels, 

 the methods of deep-sea research, and other matters re- 

 lating to the fisheries will be shown. Special itineraries 

 will be arranged for members who may desire to visit 

 other fisheries and hatcheries, and letters of introduction 

 will be furnished. 



An International Rubber Exhibition (lasting a fortnight) 

 is to be held at Olympia, London, from September 14. 

 The exhibits will consist wholly of objects of interest to 

 members of the rubber and allied trades, and will com- 

 prise illustrations of the growth of the commodity and 

 examples of the machinery employed in its manipulation. 

 Rubber trees in all stages of their growth will be shown, 

 together with the raw material obtained from them, and 

 the varied forms into which it is manufactured. Demon- 

 strations will be given in a laboratory, and growers, manu- 

 facturers, and others will have an opportunity of discuss- 

 ing questions relating to the industry at an international 

 congress, to which delegates have been sent by many 

 •Continental countries. Borneo, Mexico, and other rubber- 

 producing countries are taking part in the enterprise. 



At the third International Congress of the History of 

 Religions, which is to be held on September 15-18 at 

 Oxford under the presidency of Sir Alfred Lyall (Prof. 

 E. B. Tylor, F.R.S., being honorary president), the 

 following papers will be communicated to general meet- 

 ings of the congress: — the address of the president; 

 religious wisdom cultivated in old Israel in common with 

 neighbouring peoples, by Prof, von Orelli ; I'lnfluence 

 religieuse de I'Astrologie dans le Monde Romain, by 

 Prof. Cumont ; Buddhistic religious art, by Prof. Mac- 

 donell ; some ethical developments of pre-Christian 

 Judaism, by Dr. Charles; totemism, by Dr. F. Boaz ; and 

 the Cretan religions, by Dr. Arthur Evans, F.R.S. 



Among the papers to be read at the International 

 •Congress of the Refrigerating Industries (which, as has 

 already been stated in these columns, is to take place 

 in Paris on October 5-12 next) we notice the follow- 

 ing : — the effects of low^ temperature, by Sir W. Ramsay, 

 K.C.B., F.R.S. ; liquid air, by Dr. L. A. Groth ; the 

 construction of cold stores, by Mr. Hal Williams ; notes 

 on methods and apparatus for ascertaining the heat, con- 

 ductivity, and insulating properties of materials, by Mr. 

 W. D. A. Bost ; the refrigeration of, and transport of 

 refrigerated, fruit, &c., Mr. C. M. Simons, Mr. F. W. J. 

 Moore, and Mr. H. J. Ward; ice-making and ice- 

 machinery, by Mr. T. F. Mead ; new industrial applica- 

 tions of cold, by Mr. H. Birkett ; the organisation of 

 ■cold-storage transport on railways — refrigerator-cars, 

 cold-storage warehouses, and charges, by Mr. T. N. 

 Wylie ; and the organisation of cold-storage transport by 

 sea, by Mr. J. T. Milton. 



A SOMEWHAT severe earthquake shock is reported to 

 have been felt at Shemakha (Transcaucasia) at 8 o'clock 

 in the evening of September i. The direction was from 

 south to north. 



A MONUMENT to Hermann von Wissmann, the German 

 African explorer, was unveiled at Lauterberg, in the 

 Harz, on Friday last. 



NO. 2028, VOL. 78] 



Mr. F. J. Se.wer, assistant botanist of the North 

 Dakota Agricultural College, has been appointed director 

 of laboratories in the New York Botanical Garden. 



Dr. K. Wegener has, according to Science, been 

 appointed director of the Observatory of Samoa. 



The new building of the medical college of Western 

 Reserve University (which will be devoted to experimental 

 medicine) is to be dedicated on November 20, when an 

 address will be delivered by Dr. W. H. Welch, of the 

 Johns Hopkins Medical School. 



The College of Physicians, Philadelphia, has awarded 

 the Alvarenga prize for 1908 to Dr. William T. Shoe- 

 maker, for his essay on " Retinitis Pigmentosa." 



The fourth field meeting (to Bisley) of the Cotteswold 

 Naturalists' Field Club will be held on Tuesday next, when 

 those attending will drive from Stroud to the Frith Quarry 

 and Worgan's Quarry to study the richly fossiliferous 

 Inferior-Oolite strata there exposed. 



ARR.4NGEMENTS are being made for the holding of 

 fungus forays under the auspices of the South-Eastern 

 Union of Scientific Societies in the neighbourhood of Tun- 

 bridge Wells on October 9 and 10. Full particulars re- 

 specting the same may be obtained from the honorary 

 secretary of the cryptogamic section, Dr. George .Abbott, 

 4 Rusthall Park, funbridge Wells. 



During the past week there has been much activity in 

 France in the interests of aerial navigation. On 

 September 5 the military dirigible balloon, the Rtpublique, 

 made the longest flight so far achieved by her. Leaving 

 her headquarters at Chalais-Mcudon at 8.40, she crossed 

 Paris, and proceeded by way of Senlis and Pont St. 

 Maxence to Compifegne, which was reached at 12.30. 

 Circling here, without stopping she returned to Paris by 

 a slightly more eastern route, and was back at Chalais- 

 Meudon by 3.10. The journey, which thus lasted six 

 hours and a half, is estimated at between 180 and 200 

 kilometres. The balloon attained a height of 650 metres, 

 and of the 420 kilograms of ballast with which she 

 started, 190 kilograms remained at the end of the journey. 

 At Le Mans, Mr. Wilbur Wright made at 7.30 in the 

 morning a flight of 19m. 48 2-5S., which is within a few 

 seconds of the " world's record " of Mr. Farman, namely, 

 20m. 9 3-Ss. The distance covered is estimated at 22 

 kilometres. In attempting a second flight, which lasted 

 3m. 2 IS., at a height of 12 to 15 metres, a violent gust 

 of wind drove the aeroplane so near the trees on the 

 edge of the ground that a sudden turn had to be made, 

 in the accomplishment of which the end of the left wing 

 came in contact with the earth and was broken. On 

 September 6 M. Delagrange made a flight lasting 

 29m. 53 4-5S., and covered a distance of 24 kilometres 

 727 metres. He was compelled to alight from want of 

 fuel, having started with only 24 litres. This flight con- 

 stitutes a new " world's record," both for time and 

 distance. 



According to the Pharmaceutical Journal, an important 

 step is being taken by the Commonwealth Government 

 in regard to the adoption of uniform food standards 

 throughout Australia. Under the present system each 

 State fixes its own standards, the result being con- 

 siderable variance, and consequent annoyance and expense 

 to manufacturers and importers. Now that a Common- 

 wealth analyst has been appointed, the way is cleared for 

 federal action, and the proposal is made for a conference 



