OcroHKR I, 189^1 



NA TURE 



525 



surgical operation under ether was performed on October 16, 

 1846. The Society of Anaesthetists, of London, is also taking 

 steps to celebrate the occasion in a fitting manner. 



The I'ear)' expedition has returned to Sydney, Cape Breton, 

 from Greenland, but without the great meteorite which it hoped 

 to firing back. This enormous block of metal, which Lieut. 

 Peary set out to fetch, weighs about forty tons, and is situated 

 on an island twenty miles inside Cape York. The jackscrews 

 designed to lift the mass upon shipboard proved not to be 

 strong enough, so another journey will have to be undertaken to 

 secure it. Meanwhile we trust that the Esquimaux, who have 

 used the meteorite as a source of workable iron for many years, 

 will not greatly reduce the mass before another attempt is made 

 to remove it. In spite of this disappointment, the members of the 

 expedition have not returned empty-handed ; for their collections 

 and observations appear to be valuable and varied. 



The meeting of the American Public Health Association was 

 held at Bufl'alo, September 15-18, the President, Dr. Eduardo 

 Liceaga, of Mexico, in the chair. Delegates, thirty-five in all, 

 were present from nearly every State in Mexico, from most 

 of the United States, and from Canada. The work of sanita- 

 tion thus received an impetus throughout the American con- 

 tinent ; and such diseases as yellow fever, small-pox, diphtheria, 

 iV:c. , are waning under the vigilant efi'orts of the coinbined army 

 of health officers. Diligent attention to business, and rigid 

 enforcement of time limits, enabled the Association to complete 

 a long and valuable programme of reports and papers, besides 

 adopting several important resolutions. As to the place of 

 meeting next year, the advisory council recommended Toronto. 

 Motions were made to substitute Nashville and Philadelphia, 

 and the final vote favoured the latter, which will accordingly be 

 the place of the next (being the twenty-fifth) meeting of the 

 Association. The officers elected are : — President, Dr. If. B. 

 Hornbeck, of Charleston, S.C. ; first Vice-President, Dr. Peter 

 H. Bryce, of Toronto, Canada ; second Vice-President, Dr. 

 Ernest Wende, of Buffalo, N.V. ; Treasurer, Dr. Henry H. 

 Holton, of Bratlleboro', Vt. 



We regret to record the death of Sir John Erichsen, the dis- 

 tinguished surgeon, at the age of seventy-eight. He was elected 

 a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1S76, and since 1887 had been 

 President of University College, London. 



Sir Georce M. Humphry, F.R.S., Professor of Surgery in 

 the University of Cambridge, died on Thursday last, and by his 

 death the University is deprived of one through whose exertions 

 the medical school has been brought to the present high position. 

 He became Professor of Anatomy in the University in 1866, and 

 Professor of Surgery in 1883. His life affords an instance of the 

 manner in which the development of a subject is dependent upon 

 the bearing of University authorities towards it. When he was 

 appointed to the chair in the University, he set to work, in con- 

 junction with the late Sir George Paget, with the object of plac- 

 ing the study of medicine and surgery in a more prominent and 

 satisfactory i^osition. To quote the Times: " It was a task of 

 great difficulty, for, although as far back as 1851 the Natural- 

 Science Tripos had been in existence, yet it attracted but a 

 handful of students for the first twenty years. The first real im- 

 petus given to the work was when some of the colleges recog- 

 nised the Natural-Science Tripos as one avenue to a fellowship. 

 The standard of the examinations, both for the Tripos and for 

 medical degrees, was raised, examiners not connected with the 

 University were appointed, and open scholarships for Natural 

 Science were offered. The result is thai at the present time the 

 Natural-Science Tripos attracts more students than any other of 

 the honour examinations in the University, the medical school is 



NO. 1405, VOL. 54] 



one of the largest in the country, and the medical degrees of the 

 University are held in the highest estimation by the profession. 

 He has left behind him an array of excellent professors and 

 teachers, and has placed the study of medicine and surgery in 

 the front rank at the University. His exertions entitle him to 

 be regarded as one of the greatest benefactors to the University 

 in modern times." His chief scientific work was in comparative 

 anatomy, to which branch of knowledge he made some im- 

 portant contributions. Among his best-known works are " A 

 Treatise on the Human Skeleton," 1858 ; " On Myology," 1872 ; 

 " Old Age, and Changes incidental to it," 1889. 



With reference to the recent disastrous gales and torrential 

 rainfall over the British Islands, the Weekly Weather Report of 

 September 26 shows that the changes brought about in barometric 

 pressure were very great, amounting to considerably over an 

 inch in twenty-four hours at many places. The rainfall was 

 much in excess in all districts, especially in the western parts of 

 the country ; falls exceeding an inch in tsventy-four hours have 

 been reported on several days. The total rainfall since the 

 beginning of the year is still below the average, except in the 

 north of Scotland and the north of Ireland. The greatest 

 deficiency is in the south-west of England, where it amounts to 

 nearly seven inches. 



A LUNAR bow, in which the various prismatic colours could 

 be distinguished without difficulty, was observed at Portmadoc, 

 North Wales, last Sunday evening, by Mr. Walter Williams, who 

 has sent us a description of the phenomenon. The time at 

 which the bow was seen was 9.40 p.m. The colours appeared 

 on the western edge of a dark rain-cloud, which was moving 

 rapidly towards the east. This cloud was apparently very much 

 in advance of another thin cloud, of pearly whiteness, surround- 

 ing the moon's disc ; nevertheless the two clouds seemed 

 continuous, and the soft silky whiteness of the one formed a 

 sharp contrast to the coloured bow on the edge of the other. 

 There were no more clouds in the immediate vicinity of the 

 moon. The bow was visible for a length about twelve times 

 greater than the moon's apparent diameter. Violet was the 

 innermost colour, and there was a sharp contrast between it 

 and the white cloudiness. Tlie whole phenomenon only lasted 

 four minutes. 



In a valuable memoir recently published in the Annali of 

 the Central Meteorological Office of Rome. Prof. Arcidiacono 

 describes the Syracuse earthquake of April 13, 1895, which dis- 

 turbed the whole of the south-east corner of Sicily. The centre 

 of the epicentral area is at the village of Vizzini, and its longer 

 axis lies along a line joining this place with Cape Passero. It is 

 interesting to notice that this line coincides nearly with the axis 

 of the ridge of Monte Lauro, and also joins the two principal 

 volcanic centres (now extinct) of the Val di Noto. At the epi- 

 centre the intensity was 9, according to the Rossi-Forel scale ; 

 in other words, the shock was sufficiently strong to damage 

 buildings, but not to destroy them entirely. On the map which 

 illustrates his paper. Prof. Arcidiacono shows the course of eight 

 isoseismal lines, and, using the method of Dutton and Hayden, 

 estimates the depth of the seismic focus to be about 7 "4 km. 



In the Revue Scicntifique (No. 11) will be found the com- 

 munication made by M. Stokvis to the International Colonial 

 Institute on the question of colonisation in tropical regions. 

 The author speaks strongly in favour of successful colonisation 

 by Europeans in low latitudes, and brings evidence together 

 showing that with due regard to hygiene the European is 

 practically as well off as the native. The conclusions which 

 he eventually arrives at are: (l) That the establishment and 

 prosperity of European colonies, whether they be for purposes 

 of "exploitation" or agriculture, are perfectly possible in both 



