May 16, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



749 



First Vice-president — J. C. Wheelon, Garland. 



Second Vice-president — Dr. Fred Taylor, Provo. 



Secretary and Treaswrer — Dr. E. G. Titus, 

 Logan. 



Members of the Council — Mrs. Martha C. Jen- 

 nings; Professor Jacob Bolin, Salt Lake City; 

 Dr. E. G. Gowans, Ogden. 



It is stated in foreign journals that the 

 scheme for a canal to open through communi- 

 cation between the Black Sea and Baltic by 

 linking the systems of the Dneiper and Duna 

 seems now in a way to be realized. It is said 

 that the necessary capital of 450 million 

 roubles will be supplied by a foreign cotmtry, 

 and that official permission for the commence- 

 ment of operations will at once be given. 

 Great hopes are entertained of the commercial 

 development likely to ensue from the making 

 of the canal, which will open up an important 

 route for the export not only of Russian com, 

 but of timber, ores, petroleum, etc., as well as 

 for the import of coal. It is pointed out that 

 the railway freight across Russia is at present 

 Bome 20 kopeks per pood, to which some 4 or 

 5 kopeks must be added as sea-freight to Ham- 

 burg or England; that the southern sea-route 

 from Odessa involves a freight of Y or 8 

 kopeks, with an additional sum of anything up 

 to 6 kopeks for railway transport to Odessa; 

 whereas the freight from Kherson to Riga is 

 reckoned at only 3 to 5 kopeks per pood by the 

 canal now to be constructed. Another im- 

 portant scheme lately put forward is for a 

 canal to open communication between Cen- 

 tral Russia and Siberia by linking the systems 

 of the Volga and Obi-Irtish. The proposed 

 route would make use of the Chusov and a 

 tributary, on the west of the water-parting; 

 and the Reshotka, Isset and Tobol on the east, 

 thus entering the Irtish close to Tobolsk. 

 The length is 1,100 miles, and the waterway 

 is designed to take vessels of 5J feet draught 

 and a length of 350 feet. The general question 

 of the development of Siberian waterways will 

 shortly, it is said, be investigated on the spot 

 by a commission of engineers. 



According to The British Medical Jour- 

 nal an institute for Medical Research in 

 South Africa is being established at Johannes- 



burg on the southern portion of the ground 

 lying to the west of the general hospital and 

 to the south of the fort. There has hitherto 

 been no medical research institute in South 

 Africa. A veterinary institute was erected 

 and equipped by the government some time 

 ago at Dasbort, eight miles from Pretoria, but 

 though the need for a medical research insti- 

 tute has been pressed by members of the med- 

 ical profession, financial objections have pre- 

 vented any forward movement. Recently, 

 however, the government and the leaders of 

 the mining industry collaborated, with the 

 result that generosity on both sides has pro- 

 vided not alone for the building and equip- 

 ment, but also its maintenance. The new in- 

 stitute at Johannesburg is to serve the whole 

 of South Africa and will be called the South 

 African Institute for Medical Research. The 

 industrial diseases of the Transvaal will prob- 

 ably first call for consideration, owing to the 

 mortality ■which they have occasioned, but the 

 work will not be limited to these diseases, and 

 it is hoped to attract skilled workers from 

 Europe to aid the director in his researches; 

 it is probable that research fellowships wiU be 

 available for suitably qualified medical men 

 desirous to carry out special lines of research. 

 The proximity of the institute to the general 

 hospital, which is the largest in South Africa, 

 and the fact that it will be equipped with four 

 wards, with twenty or thirty beds for the 

 treatment of patients, will serve to associate 

 the institute with medical work in Johannes- 

 burg. When the institute is in full working 

 order it is probable that courses in bacteriol- 

 ogy and pathology will be arranged for med- 

 ical students. Two appointments have already 

 been made to the staff. The director of the 

 institute is Dr. Watkins-Pitchford, and the 

 statistician. Dr. G. D. Maynard. Dr. Wat- 

 kins-Pitchford was formerly house-physician 

 to St. Thomas's Hospital, London; he studied 

 plague in India, enteric fever in South Africa 

 during the war, smallpox in London. For the 

 last ten years he has been government pathol- 

 ogist and analyst for Natal, and last year was 

 transferred by the union government to 



