September 17, 1908J 



NA TURE 



48: 



macy, and the pauperism with which such persons 

 already burden the ratepayer— is l^ept in view, it is 

 doubtful if the expense of their maintenance in decent 

 surroundings can much exceed the wastage resulting 

 from their present condition of so-called freedom. 



nOTES. 



At the meeting of the Paris Academy of Sciences on 

 Monday last a letter was read from M. Jean Becquerel 

 stating that his father, the late M. Henri Becquerel, had 

 left the sum of 100,000 francs to the academy in the follow- 

 ing terms : — " I bequeath to the Academy of Sciences the 

 sum of 100,000 francs (4000/.) in memory of my grand- 

 father and father, who were, like myself, members of your 

 academy. I leave to it the responsibility of determining 

 the best use which it can make of the interest on this 

 capital, whether by creating an endowment or prize, or by 

 distributing this income in a manner calculated to 

 encourage the progress of science." 



Colonel Sir David Bruce, C.B., F.R.S., accompanied 

 by Captains H. R. Bateman and A. E. Hamerton, 

 Sergeant A. Gibbons and Mr. James Wilson, is about to 

 sail for Uganda to investigate further the pathology of 

 sleeping sickness. On arriving at Mombasa, the com- 

 mission will travel by the Uganda Railway to the terminus 

 at Port Florence, whence the lake will be crossed to 

 Kampala. The headquarters of the work will be selected 

 two miles from the lake shore in a wild and depopulated 

 region in the province of Chagwe. Here the Uganda 

 Government has been preparing a laboratory and station 

 for the purposes of the mission. It is expected that the 

 work will occupy about nine months. 



A Reuter telegram from Simla, dated September 14, 

 states that Dr. Sven Hedin has arrived at Fagu, twelve 

 miles from Simla, in excellent health. During his travels 

 he has been quite isolated in the wilds, and saw no 

 white face until he reached Poo, in September, 1907, 

 where the Moravian Mission offered him hospitality. Dr. 

 Sven Hedin has, it is stated, travelled more than 4000 

 miles, mainly in western Tibet, and has made some note- 

 worthy discoveries, regarding which he is very reticent 

 for the present. He made extensive geological maps 

 during his journey, the cost of which he estimates at more 

 than 50ooi. Dr. Hedin intends halting at Simla for ten 

 days, and will then proceed direct to -Sweden, and thence 

 to London, where he has been invited to lecture by the 

 Royal Geographical Society. 



Since the time of going to press with our last number 

 several successful flights have been made in America by 

 Mr. Orville Wright in his aeroplane, the records of M. 

 Delagrange and other competitors being easily beaten. 

 On the morning of September g he stayed in the air 

 57m. 3 IS., and later In the day he flew for ih. 2m. 15s., 

 while on September 10 and 11 respectively he made new 

 " world's records " by flying for ih. 5m. 52s. and for 

 ih. lom. 24s. On September 12 he was accompanied by 

 Major George Squier, the acting chief signal officer, as 

 a passenger, and remained in the air for 9m. 6s., flying 

 at a speed of thirty-eight miles per hour. Major Gross, in 

 the German military airship, made a circular tour on 

 September 11 from Tegel, by way of Rathenow and 

 Stendal, to Magdeburg, and thence back to Berlin, the 

 trip lasting i3h. 2m. The previous longest flight — that of 

 the Zeppelin IV. — lasted, it will be remembered, iih. 50m. 



The death is announced, at the age of sixty-eight years, 

 of Mr. John T. Taylor, I.S.O., for many years assistant- 



NO. 2029, VOL. 78] 



secretary to the principal librarian of the British Museum. 

 Mr. Taylor superintended the arrangements for the 

 removal of the natural history collections to South 

 Kensington, and was on special service at the Natural 

 History Museum from 1880-4. 



By the death on September 2 of Dr. Theodor Peters, the 

 Society of German Engineers has lost its director. 

 During the greater part of his connection with the society, 

 extending over a period of twenty-five years. Dr. Peters 

 was identified with all the changes made in the important 

 institute under his guidance, and notably with the improve- 

 ment and augmentation of the journal, the Zeitschrift des 

 Vereines deuischer Ingenieure, the prosecution of system- 

 atic researches on points of mechanical and engineering 

 interest, and the publication of such reports, not only in 

 the current numbers of the journal, but as independent 

 pamphlets, making the results accessible at merely 

 nominal cost. 



The Huxley lecture of the Charing Cross Hospital 

 Medical College, on " Recent .Advances in Science and 

 their Bearing on Medicine and Surgery," will be delivered 

 on October i by Sir Patrick ALinson, K.C.M.G., F.R.S. 



The medals, prizes, &c., will be distributed to the 

 successful students of the Imperial College of Science and 

 Technology. South Kensington, on Wednesday, October 7, 

 by Sir William H. White, K.C.B., F.R.S. The rector, 

 Dr. Henry T. Bovey, F.R.S., will deliver an address. 



The third International Congress for the Care of the 

 Insane will be held on October 7-11 at Vienna. The 

 subjects to be brought under consideration will be divided 

 up into nine sections as follow : — (i) collective descriptions 

 of the present state of the care of the Insane in different 

 countries ; (2) the medical treatment of the insane : {3) pro- 

 vision for the insane from the building or architectural 

 point of view ; (4) administration ; (5) insanity and in- 

 surance ; (6) comparative lunacy law ; (7) the care of idiots, 

 epileptics, and the feeble-minded ; (8) report of the Inter- 

 national Committee upon the proposed establishment of 

 an international institution for the study of the causes 

 of insanity; and (9) the insane in the army. 



The eighth Australian Medical Congress will meet ia 

 Melbourne on October 17-24 next. 



The third International Congress of School Hygiene is 

 to be held in Paris from March 29 to April 2, 1910. In 

 connection with it there is to be an exhibition of every- 

 thing concerned with school hygiene. Information re- 

 specting the congress can be obtained from M. Dinet, 

 II bis Rue Cernuschi, Paris, but inquiries concerning 

 the exhibition should be addressed to M. Friedel, Mus^e 

 Pedagogique, 41 Rue Gay-Lussac, Paris. 



An International Industrial Exhibition is to be held at 

 Turin from April to October, 1911, and will be divided 

 into the following sections : — education, mechanics, elec- 

 tricity, photography, colonisation, national defences, 

 measuring instruments and apparatus, public works, trans- 

 portation (railways and tramways), mercantile navigation 

 (sea, river, and lake), aerial navigation, postal services, 

 sporting industries, modern town (dwelling, decoration, 

 furniture), agricultural and forest industries, food indus- 

 tries and products, wearing apparel and leather industries, 

 jewellery, printing, &c. 



In addition to the papers announced for reading at the 



autumn meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute (see 



Nature, August 27, p. 398), a paper will be read by Mr. 



, William Hawdon on the progress in the Cleveland iron 



