250 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. No. 12 



give a course of Lowell Lectures and the Cut- 

 ter Lectures in Preventive Medicine for the 

 coming year. These lectures will be given 

 under the auspices of the school of public 

 health of Harvard University, the division of 

 industrial hygiene and the Massachusetts In- 

 stitute of Technology. Dr. Legge will lecture 

 in Boston on November 18 and ensuing dates 

 upon the following subjects: 



' ' Twenty years ' experience of the notification, of 

 industrial disease." 



' ' Twelve years ' experience of workman 's compen- 

 sation act and industrial diseases. ' ' 



"Medical supervision in factories." 



"Industrial poisons and their prevention." 



' ' Anthrax. ' ' 



"Eumes and gases." 



' ' Industrial fatigue. ' ' 



' ' Industry as a subject for art. ' ' 



"Manufacture under the medieval . trade guilds." 



It is stated in Nature that a conference of 

 representatives of the Meteorological Services 

 of the British Dominions is to be held in 

 London on September 23-27, when the sub- 

 jects to be considered will include the meteoro- 

 logical arrangements for the exchange of ob- 

 servations by wireless at comparatively long 

 distances; specification of observations for the 

 surface and the upper air with the codes for 

 transmission; the consideration of instru- 

 ments and material for the investigation of 

 the upper air; the selection of stations of the 

 " Reseau Mondial " for the purpose of the 

 general climatology of the globe ; the provision 

 of current meteorological information for the 

 main air routes of the world; cooperation in 

 the investigation of the meteorological condi- 

 tions of aerial navigation; and the trade 

 routes and the meteorological svirvey of the 

 oceans by observations transmitted by radio- 

 telegraphy from ships. The following official 

 meteorologists of the Dominions beyond the 

 seas are expected to be present: Captain A. J. 

 Bamford (director of the Meteorological Serv- 

 ice of Ceylon), the Rev. D. C. Bates (director 

 of the Meteorological Office of New Zealand), 

 Mr. H. A. Hunt (director of the Weather 

 Bureau of the Commonwealth of Australia, 



Melbourne), Mr. H. Knox Shaw (director of 

 the Meteorological Service of the Public 

 Works Ministry, Egypt), Mr. C. Stewart 

 (chief meteorologist of the Union of South 

 Africa), Sir Frederick Stupart (director of 

 the Meteorological Service of Canada), and 

 Dr. 6. T. Walker (director-general of Indian 

 Observatories) . 



The publication of annual or semiannual 

 vital statistics reports was suspended in 

 France during the war. We learn from the 

 Journal of the American Medical Association 

 that the Journal ojficiel has now printed the 

 official statistics for 1915, 1916 and 1917 of 

 seventy-seven departments, and the figures for 

 1913 are given for purposes of comparison. 

 For the seventy-seven departments concerned, 

 the number of births and deaths was as fol- 

 lows: 



Births Deaths 



1913 604,811 587,445 



1914 594,222 647,549 



1915 387,806 655,146 



1916 315,087 607,742 



1917 343,310 613,148 



These statistics show that while in 1913 the 

 number of births exceeded the number of 

 deaths by 17,366, the deaths in 1917 exceeded 

 the births by 269,838. It should be noted 

 that these statistics do not include the eleven 

 invaded departments in which war was waged 

 for fifty-two months and in which the losses 

 caused by the war were not counted, but which 

 officially have been stated as being 1,400,000 

 men. 



The Journal of the American Medical As- 

 sociation states that an elaborate scheme for 

 graduate medical education in Great Britain 

 has been formed, and it is hoped will receive 

 support from the government. Graduate teach- 

 ing is required for the following classes: (1) 

 physicians in Great Britain who would like to 

 si)end a portion of their holidays in getting up 

 to date in all branches of their work, or who 

 wish to spend a few months in learning all 

 that they can about some particular subject in 

 which they desire to specialize, either com- 

 pletely or in conjunction with general practise; 



