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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVIII. No. 713 



meeting was by Sir William Kamsay on the 

 results of tis researches into radioactive sub- 

 stances. 



At the meeting of the Paris Academy of 

 Sciences on August 10, Mme. Curie stated 

 that working in collaboration with Mile. 

 Gleditch, she had been unable to confirm Sir 

 William Eamsay's experiment, by which cop- 

 per appeared to be transmuted into lithium 

 by radium emanations. With copper recep- 

 tacles containing distilled water absolutely 

 without any trace of lithium certain traces of 

 that metal made their appearance after 24 

 hours under the application of radium. The 

 same result took place in the case of a quartz 

 receptacle. Mme. Curie and Mile. Gleditch 

 thereupon used a platinum apparatus. They 

 placed in it distilled water and used copper 

 salts produced in the laboratory entirely free 

 from lithium. These copper salts were then 

 exposed to emanations of radium, and no trace 

 of lithium was discovered. 



Among guests from abroad who attended 

 the recent Sheffield meeting of the British 

 Medical Association were Professor Asenfeld 

 (Freiburg), Professor Bouchard (Paris), Dr. 

 Bossi (Genoa), Dr. Depage (Brussels), Pro- 

 fessor Puchs (Vienna), Dr. A. M. Gilchrist 

 (Nice), Professor Axel Hoist (Christiania), 

 Dr. Jacoby (Brussels), Professor KoUi 

 (Bern), Professor Von Ki-onig (Freiburg), 

 Dr. Just Lucas-Championniere (Paris), Pro- 

 fessor Luigi Mangiagalli (Milan), Professor 

 Alb. Neisser (Breslau), Dr. Noire (Paris), 

 Professor Onodi (Buda Pesth), Dr. Sabouraud 

 (Paris), Professor Zweifel (Leipzig), Pro- 

 fessor Tillmanns (Leipzig), Dr. C. Willems 

 (Ghent), Professor Ambrose Monprofit (An- 

 gers), Professor Alb. Plehn (Berlin), Dr. 

 Marc Armand Buffer (Alexandria), Dr. J. G. 

 Willmore (Alexandria), Dr. E. Marohoux 

 (Paris), Professor Pozzi (Paris), Professor 

 Gilchrist (Baltimore), Professor Garceau(San 

 Francisco), Professor Holt (New York), Dr. 

 Charles Leonard (Philadelphia), Dr. J. B. 

 Murphy (Chicago), Dr. H. H. Pratt (Balti- 

 more), Dr. Marcy Eivertoni (New Jersey), 

 Dr. Maurice Eichardson (Boston). 



At the International Zoological Congress, 

 to be held at Graz in 1910, the subject of the 

 Emperor Alexander III. prize is " The Inter- 

 vention of Mechanical Phenomena in the 

 Transformation of Animal Forms," and the 

 subject of the Emperor Nicholas II. prize, 

 " A Monographic Study of the Group of 

 Plathekninthes." The essays must be sent in 

 by June 1, 1910, to the general secretary, 

 M. Blanchard, 226 Boulevard St. Germain, 

 Paris. 



We have received from Dr. F. A. Bather 

 an announcement of a double index to the 

 generic and specific names in E. Desor's 

 " Synopsis des Echinides Fossiles," preceded 

 by a " Note sur les Dates de Publication," 

 by M. Jules Lambert. Further information 

 may be obtained from Dr. Bather at the 

 Natural History Museum, South Kensington, 

 S.W. 



Consul General Richard Guenthee, of 

 Frankfort, notes that at the annual meeting 

 of the Association of German Engineers lately 

 held at Dresden, announcement was made that 

 the great work of compiling and publishing 

 the new technical dictionary, which was con- 

 ducted under the auspices of the association, 

 had to be stopped because it was found that 

 the expenses would amount to more than four 

 times the estimates. Mr. Guenther adds: 

 " The great progress in science and indus- 

 tries had created a vast mass of new terms 

 and matter largely in excess of what had been 

 estimated at the beginning. This stoppage is 

 to be greatly regretted, as the want of a 

 new technical dictionary and encyclopedia is 

 acutely felt by thousands of persons engaged 

 in scientific research, in all lines of commerce 

 and production, in literature, journalism, and 

 in the administration of state and municipal 

 government. It is, however, satisfactory to 

 note that the executive board of the Associa- 

 tion of German Engineers has made strenuous 

 efforts to take up and complete this valuable 

 work, and has succeeded in obtaining therefor 

 the aid of the federal government of Germany 

 and of the ministry of education of the 

 Prussian kingdom." 



We learn from Terrestrial Magnetism and 

 Atmospherical Electricity that arrangements 



