278 



NA TURE 



[July 23, 1896 



in science and their bearing on medicine and surgery. The first 

 of these Huxley lectures will be delivered in the anatomical 

 theatre of the Medical School on Monday, October 5, by Dr. 

 Michael Foster. 



The Berlillon system of anthropological measurements has 

 just been adopted at the Sing Sing States Prison. 



The 126th meeting of the VorUshire Naturalists' Union will 

 be held at Staithes, for the investigation of the neighbouring 

 coast, and the Kasington and Roxby Woods, on Bank Holiday 

 Monday, August 3, 1896, 



The annual meeting of the Society of Chemical Industry was 

 held as we went to press last week. In the course of his 

 presidential address, Mr. Thomas Tyrer compared the German 

 and English chemical industries, and remarked : " The real 

 cause of the progress and prosperity of the former is to be found 

 in the superior qualifications of the directing minds. Germany 

 ■ does not owe her progress alone to protective tarifls, nor to the 

 superior discipline of her workmen, but to her thorough system 

 of education, elementary and secondary. Dr. Seth Low's 

 definition of a college as a place for liberal culture and a 

 university as a place for specialisation based on liberal culture, 

 is true of Germany, and should be so for Britain. The agitation 

 for a teaching university for London is, therefore, a good thing. 

 Moreover, no scheme of education will approach perfection 

 unless it provides for the graduated affiliation of schools and 

 colleges with universities. The City Companies and Guilds of 

 London are taking a prominent part in supplying the great need 

 for scientific training ; and with all the resources of this wealthy 

 country, the practicality of its people, and the public spirit of 

 its citizens, we ought to remain very little longer in a state of 

 educational backwardness. It is but necessary that the State 

 shall define the need, and the steps Ijy which that need shall be 

 met, and then resolutely carry them out." The Council 

 recently instituted medals to be awarded at intervals of not less 

 than two years for conspicuous services rendered to applied 

 chemistry by research, discovery, invention, or improvement in 

 processes. The first award was made, at last week's meeting, to 

 Mr. John Glover, inventor of the " Glover" tower, the intro- 

 duction of which marks an important development in alkali 

 manufacture. The newly-elected President of the Society is 

 Dr. Edward Schunck, F.R.S. 



The naturalists of the Marine Biological Association have 

 recently been paying particular attention to the question of the 

 collection of fishery statistics, and an important report on the 

 subject has just been received by the Council of the Association. 

 In this report an account is first given of the statistics at present 

 collected and published by the Board of Trade relating to sea- 

 fisheries in England. It is pointed out that the methods at 

 present adopted for collecting the statistics are not such as to 

 give confidence in the accuracy of the returns, whilst their in- 

 adequacy in plan and extent cannot be questioned. The defects 

 upon which emphasis is principally laid are the want of sufficient 

 discrimination between the species of fish landed, the lack of 

 all information as to the locality of capture of the fish, and the 

 fact that no attempt is made to distinguish between the products 

 of different methods of fishing. \'arious suggestions are made 

 as to the methods by which the statistics could be improved, 

 and it is maintained that the only really satisfactory course 

 would be to require the master of each fishing vessel to supply 

 the Board of Trade with correct returns of the fish caught, and 

 of the locality of their capture. In the case of the larger 

 vessels, at any rate, such records already exist, and are supplied 

 by the master to his owners. All that is required is that copies 

 of these records should be furnished to the proper officers, so 

 that the information may be utilised for the general benefit of 



NO. 1395, VOL. 54] 



the pulilic and of the fishing industry. The report will be pub- 

 lished, in full, in the forthcoming number of the founial oi the 

 Association. 



As previously announced, the autumn meeting of the Iron 

 and Steel Institute will be held at Bilbao on September 1-4. 

 The Local Reception Committee, which comprises all the various- 

 local authorities, corporations, ironmasters and miners, with 

 Don Julio de Lazurtegui as honorary secretary, has now drawn 

 up an outline programme of the meeting. The Orient Com- 

 pany's s.s. Ormuz, which has been detailed to convey the 

 members to Spain, and to serve as a " floating hotel," will 

 leave Tilbury for Portugalete at noon on Saturday, August 29. 

 On the arrival of the Ormttz at Portugalete, the Reception 

 Committee will go out to meet the steamer, and will welcome 

 the visitors. Immediately after this visit the members will visit 

 the new harbour and breakwater now in course of construction, 

 and continue up the river Nervion to Bilbao, inspecting on their 

 way the electric installation of MM. Coiseau Couvreux et 

 Felix AUard, for making the mammoth concrete blocks used in 

 the construction of the breakwater. On Tuesday, September 

 I, the members will formally visit Bilbao, where they will be 

 welcomed by the Alcalde in the Salon de Ados of the Provincial 

 College. The general meeting for the reading and discussion 

 of papers will then be held. In the afternoon the members 

 will visit the steel works of the Sociedad de Altos Homos ; and 

 in the evening, there will be a reception by the Alcalde in the 

 new Municipal Buildings. On Wednesday, September 2, after 

 the general meeting and luncheon, the members will visit the 

 steel works and coke ovens of the Sociedad La Vizcaya, and 

 afterwards the tin-plate works of the Sociedad La Yberia. 

 In the evening, there will be a grand tennis match (the basque 

 ball game of Pelota) in the Euskalduna Tennis Court, and also 

 a fete champetrc and concert, at which the Bilbao Orpheon 

 of 100 members have consented to sing, in the Campos Eliseos. 

 There will be no general meeting on Thursday, September 3, 

 the whole of the morning being devoted to visiting the mines. 

 The Ormuz will leave Portugalete on the following day for 

 Santander, where the mines will be visited. Short stays will be 

 made at San Sebastian and St. Jean de Lux on the way back to 

 London, which will be reached on Saturday, September 12. 



The sixty-fourth annual meeting of the British Medical 

 Association will be held at Carlisle, on July 28-31. The 

 President-elect is Dr. Henry Barnes. An address in medicine 

 will be delivered by Sir Dyce Duckworth, and one in surgery 

 by Dr. R. Maclaren. The scientific business of the meeting 

 will be conducted in nine Sections. The President of .Section A 

 (Medicine) is Dr. George F. Duffey ; and among the subjects 

 down for discussion are : the treatment of cardiac failure, witb 

 special reference to the methods of passive exercise, active 

 exercise and baths ; anasmia, ils varieties, causation, associated 

 pathology, and treatment ; tuberculosis, its prevention and 

 cure. In Section B (Surgery), presided over by Dr. A. Ogston, 

 Dr. Macintyre will demonstrate the use of Riintgen rays in 

 surgery, with special reference to the cavities of the body, 

 instantaneous photographs, and fluorescent screens. Section C 

 is devoted to obstetrics and gymiecology ; the President is Dr. 

 J. H. Croom. Sir Joseph Ewart, President of Section D 

 (Public Medicine), will open the Section with an address. 

 Among the subjects to be brought forward are : Medical 

 research in relation to hygiene, vaccination and revaccination 

 with animal vaccine in Germany, and diphtheria in town and 

 country. Section E (Psychology) will be opened by the President, 

 Dr. J. A. Campbell, with an address. Most of the papers down 

 for reading and discussion in this Section belong to pathological 

 psychology. An introductory address will be delivered to 

 Section F ( Pathology and Bacteriology) by the President, Dr. 



