JULY 7, 1899. ] 
INVITATIONS have been sent for the Fourth 
International Congress of Psychology, which 
will be held at Paris from the 20th to the 25th 
_ of August, 1900. The organization is left to 
the French members, the following being the 
officers: President, Th. Ribot, professor of ex- 
perimental and comparative psychology in the 
Collége de France; Vice-President, Charles 
Richet, professor of physiology in the Paris 
Faculty of Medicine; General Secretary, Pierre 
Janet, Director of the Laboratory of Psychology 
in the Collége de France. The seven Sections 
and the Presidents are as follows: (1) Psychol- 
ogy in its relations to physiology and anatomy, 
Professor Matthias Duval; (2) Introspective 
psychology and its relations to philosophy, Pro- 
fessor G. Séailles ; (8) Experimental psychol- 
ogy and psycho-physics, M. A. Binet; (4) 
Pathological psychology and psychiatrie, Dr. 
Magnan ; (5) Psychology of hypnotism and re- 
lated questions, Dr. Bernheim ; (6) Social and 
criminal psychology, M. Tarde ; (7) Compara- 
tive psychology and anthropology, Professor 
Ives Delage. Those wishing to attend the 
Congress should apply to the Secretary, and 
those wishing to present papers should forward 
abstracts not later than January Ist, next. 
Tue Eighteenth Congress of the British Sani- 
tary Institute will be held at Southampton from 
August 29th to September 2d, under the presi- 
dency of Sir William H. Preece. There will 
be three sections meeting for two days each, 
dealing with: (1) Sanitary Science and Preven- 
tive Medicine, presided over by Sir Joseph 
Ewart, M.D., F.R.C.P.; (2) Engineering and 
Architecture, presided over by Mr. James 
Lemon, M.Inst.C.E., F.R.1I.B.A ; (8) Physics, 
Chemistry and Biology, presided over by Pro- 
fessor Percy F. Frankland, F.R.S. There will 
also be special conferences of municipal repre- 
sentatives, port sanitary authorities, medical 
officers of health, medical officers of schools, 
engineers and surveyors to county and other 
sanitary authorities, veterinary inspectors and 
sanitary inspectors, and a conference on do- 
mestic hygiene. 
Nature, quoting from the Allahabad Pioneer 
Mail, states that some important changes are 
being made in the meteorological department 
_ SCIENCE. 3] 
of the government of India. These comprise 
the abolition of a number of observing stations 
which have not proved worth keeping up, and 
the substitution for them of others in more 
favorable localities. Of the latter, most im- 
portant are stations which are to be established 
at Cherapunji and one or two other places in 
Assam, which will enable a more careful watch 
to be kept over the meteorology of the tea dis- 
tricts, also regarding the periodical rise and fall 
of the rivers which are so important for the jute 
trade. Arrangements are also being made, but 
are not yet concluded, for the establishment of 
an observatory on Dodabatta Peak, the highest 
point in the Nilgiris, which is likely to be valu- 
able in connection with the warnings of the 
monsoon. 
ACCORDING to The Medical Record, a young 
man of Newport, Vt., a student of the Univer- 
sity of Vermont, has brought suit against the 
professor of mathematics in the University for 
damages for the sum of $10,000. He says that 
he sustained an injury of the leg as the result 
of the taking of ten X-ray photographs of his 
leg soon after the bone had been fractured and 
while it was healing. 
THE French naval authorities, acting in con- 
junction with Signor Marconi, on June 17th 
conducted some successful experiments with 
wireless telegraphy between a ship and the 
shore in the English Channel. We learn from 
the London Times that the French storeship 
Vienne was used for the purpose. One of 
Signor Marconi’s installations was fitted up 
on board, and the inventor was present. 
Wimereaux, near Boulogne, and the South 
Foreland lighthouse, on the Kentish coast, 
were used as the land stations. Up to June. 
17th the distance between the South Foreland 
and Boulogne, about 28 miles, was the greatest 
space through which the messages have been 
transmitted. On June 17th messages were sent 
between the vessel and the English coast from 
off Boulogne, and afterwards at intervals, until 
the vessel was 12 or 14 miles away from that 
port. The greatest distance through which the 
messages were telegraphed were 42 miles. The 
increased distance appeared to have no effect, 
the messages being recorded at the receiving 
