October 8, 1895] 



A^A TURE 



549 



NOTES. 

 The Council of ihe British Medical Associalion are prepared 

 to receive applications for one of ihe three Research Scholarships 

 which is vacant, of the value of ;^IS0 per annum, tenable for 

 one year, and subject to renewal by the Council for another 

 year. Applications should be sent to the General Secretary on 

 or before Saturday, October lo, slating the particulars of the 

 intended research, qualifications, and work done. 



Follow im; the usual custom, the winter .session was com- 

 menced on Thursday last, in many of the medical schools in 

 London and the provinces, by the delivery of addresses to the 

 students. At Middlesex Hospital, Dr. W. Essex Wynter 

 alluded to the rapid multiplication of books in modern times, 

 and to [he tendency that existed to go to them for information 

 which should be gained at first hand, by direct observation. He 

 described ideas gained from mere verbal accounts as artificial 

 and spurious, and suggested that books should be used to 

 complete and coordinate knowledge previously obtained by 

 practical work. Prof. Sidney Martin inspired the students at 

 University College Medical School with the spirit of investiga- 

 tion by giving a sketch of the advantages which medicine has 

 obtained from the study of bacteriology. He pointed out that 

 development of the experimental method has greatly aided the 

 progress of medical science, and has been the means of im- 

 proving the treatment of disease. It cannot be too strongly 

 stated that the more that is known of the prime causes of dis- 

 ease, the more is it likely that measures will be discovered to 

 prevent or counteract them. Mr. Morton Smale, at St. Mary's 

 Hospital, dealt largely with quack medicines; and Mr. W. 

 -\danis Frost, at St. George's Hospital, discoursed chiefly uj^on 

 medicine as a career. In the course of his address he referred 

 to the appointment of the Royal Commission on vaccination, 

 and said that, to people knowing the facts, it seemed about as 

 reasonable to appoint a Commission to inquire into the truth of 

 the law of gravitation. The introductory address at Westminster 

 Hospital was given by Dr Wills, who took for his subject 

 medical practice and practitioners as depicted in the literature 

 of the last two centuries. Mr. Boyce Barrow discoursed upon 

 some of the endowments of the human body, at the London 

 School of -Medicine for Women ; Sir Henry Littlejohn addressed 

 the students at Sheffield Medical School, on the advantages of a 

 provincial medical school ; while Mr. X'ictor Horsley urged upon 

 the students at the Leeds .Medical School the fund-imeiital 

 importance of chemistry in medicine work in all its stages, and 

 discussed matters of medical education, ethics, and politics. 

 Mr. Jonathan Hutchinson delivered the introductory address at 

 (Jwens College, Manchester, where he pleaded for a wide scope 

 in medical education, and urged the reformation of the examina- 

 tional system. These and many more were the points dwelt 

 upon at the various medical schools ; and if the students pay 

 regard to but a tithe of the advice given them, a high standard 

 of professional ethics will be secured, and future practitioners 

 will abundantly add lo the knowledge of the causes of disease 

 and the means of prevention. 



We regret to record the death of Mr. W. C. Winlock, known 

 for his contributions to astronomy. Mr. Winlock was assistant 

 in charge of the office of the Smithsonian Institution. The death 

 is also announced of Dr. J. 1'. E. Liesgang, a voluminous writer 

 on photographic matters, and the founder of the Photographisihc 

 Anhiv : and of Dr. J. A. Moloney, who took a prominent part 

 in the Stairs expedition to Katanga. 



Lord Selborne took the chair at a meeting, held on 



Tuesday, to discuss the establishment of an International 



Submarine Telegraph Memorial. It is proposed to connect the 



memorial especially with the names of Mr. Cyrus Field, Sir 



NO. 1406, VOL. 54] 



John Pender, and Sir James ' .\nderson. An executive 

 committee was appointed to consider the form which the 

 memorial shall take. 



The South African JIuseum has recently received 3 fine 

 mounted specimen of the white or square-mouthed Rhinoceros 

 {R/iinoieros siiinis) which was shot in the Mazoc district of 

 Mashonaland, in June last year, by Mr. A. Eyre. The skin and 

 skeleton were purchased by Mr. C. J. Rhodes, and, after having 

 been sent to England to be set up, were presented by him to the 

 South African Museum. 



The motor-car r.ace from Paris to Marseilles and back, a 

 total distance of 105 1 miles, was finished on Saturday last. 

 Twenty-seven of the vehicles which started from Paris on 

 Thursday, September 24, were petroleum carriages, and five 

 were tricycles driven by petroleum motors. There were also 

 four steam carriages. The race was organised by the -Auto- 

 mobile Club of France, and was intended entirely as a test of 

 speed. On each day of the ten days the times occupied by the 

 carriages in covering the several stages have been taken, and 

 the winner is the car which travelled the whole distance in the 

 least time. Details of the race have not yet come to hand, but 

 owing to bad roads and obstructions by trees and telegraph-poles- 

 blown down by the gale which prevailed early in the contest, 

 the journey w-as not accomplished under the best conditions. 



The first number has been issued, on September i, of a new- 

 natural history periodical, 11 Natiiralista Siciliano, the organ of 

 the newly-formed Society of Sicilian Naturalists, of which Prof. 

 E. Ragusa is the president, and Sig. T. De Stefani the secretary. 

 The Society is intended to meet monthly in Palermo, and once 

 a year in some other city of Sicily. The first number contains 

 articles, in Italian and in French, on Entomology, Malacology, 

 Botany, and Crustacea. The proposed biological station at 

 Palermo, mentioned in our last number, will be under the 

 management of the Society. 



An interesting note on the influence of the male parent in 

 crossing varieties of carnations, appears in the current number 

 (August) of the fouriml of the Royal Horticultural Society. 

 Evidence in favour of this prepotency is afforded by experi- 

 ments, carried out by Mr. Martin Smith, on the fertilisation of 

 " Germania." This is a flower of strong individuality, yet, 

 says Mr. Smith, "Germania (yellow) is swamped by the pre- 

 potency of the pollen parent in the great majority of cases. I 

 hardly ever get a yellow worth having ; but when I do I 

 find them, as a rule, pure reproductions on a most feeble scale 

 of the mother ; and I always regard them as products of 

 Germania fertilised by pollen of flowers on the same plant, or 

 from one in the immediate vicinity." On the other hand, wher» 

 the pollen of Germania was used to fertilise other plants, 

 extremely few yellow flowers resulted from the cross. It 

 seems to be easy enough in a cross for other colours to overcome 

 yellow, but difl^cult for yellow to be masterful. Mr. Smith adds 

 the interesting fact that when he crossed violent contrasts of 

 colour, such as purple and yellow, or scarlet and yellow, a large 

 proportion of white flowers appeared among the offspring. 



By common agreement the wasp is accepted as emblematical 

 of irritability and petty malignity ; but even this much-abused 

 hymenopterous in.sect plays a beneficial part in the work of 

 nature, as a note in the Irish Naturalist testifies. -A number of 

 wasps were seen by Mr. R. M. Barrington, of Bray, buzzing about 

 his cows. Closer inspection revealed that they were all busy 

 catching flies, and pouncing with the rapidity of hawks after 

 birds on the flies as they tried to settle or rest on some favourite 

 |)art of the cow. One white cow drew more wasps than any of 

 the others, because the moment a fly alighted it was seen at once 

 against the skin. When a wasp catches a fly it immediately 



