NOVEMBER 17, 1899.] 
meeting of the Anthropological Institute and 
the Folk-Lore Society. 
THE valuable library relating to American 
Indians collected by the eminent scholar, the 
late J. Hammond Trumbull, of Hartford, has 
been acquired by the Reference Library of 
Watkinson, Conn. 
Ir is stated in Nature that a British exploring 
expedition to Abyssinia has been arranged and 
will leave England at once. The members are 
Mr. James J. Harrison, Mr. Powell Cotton, 
Mr. W. Fitzhugh Whitehouse (of Newport, 
Rhode Island), and Mr. A. E. Butter. Mr. 
Donald Clarke will go as surveyor and geog- 
rapher, and a taxidermist will accompany the 
party. The objects of the expedition are sci- 
entific and sporting, and it is expected that the 
journey will occupy about nine months. 
THE first meeting of the new session of the 
Royal Geographical Society, was held on Mon- 
day, November 13th, when the President, Sir 
Clements Markham was expected to give a 
short opening address, to be followed by a 
paper by Mr. W. Rickmer Rickmers on his 
‘Travels in Bokhara,’ illustrated by numerous 
lantern slides. The paper at the following 
meeting, November 27th, will be by Mr. Vaug- 
han Cornish on ‘Desert Sand Dunes.’ At the 
December meeting Colonel Sir John Farquhar- 
son will probably give ‘An Account of the Past 
Twelve Years’ Work of the Ordinance Survey,’ 
from the directorship of which he has recently 
retired. Other papers expected to be given 
during the session are: ‘An Ascent of Mount 
Kenya,’ by Mr. H. J. Mackinder; ‘The 
Work of the Yermak Ice-Breaker in the Spits- 
bergen Seas,’ by Admiral Makaroff; ‘Travels 
, in Central Asia,’ by Captain H. H. P. Deasy ; 
‘Travels in the Region of Lake Rudolf and the 
Sobat River,’ by Captain Wellby; ‘ Travels in 
Abyssinia,’ by Mr. H. Weld Blundell; ‘An- 
thropogeography of British New Guinea,’ by 
Professor Haddon. 
THE Council of the Institution of Mechanical 
Engineers having decided to hold monthly gen- 
eral meetings during the ensuing session, the 
first of such gatherings took place on October 
27th in the new buildings of the institution at 
Storey’s-gate, St. James’s Park. The London 
SCIENCE. 
743 
Times states that the chair was taken by the 
president, Sir W. H. White, and there was a 
full attendance of members. In opening the 
proceedings the president referred to the new 
arrangements made by the Council. He said 
that the alteration in their meetings had been 
decided upon only after the very fullest consid- 
eration. The feeling of the Council was that, hav- 
ing entered into their new house, they ought to 
make full use of it, and that a good beginning 
would be made by arranging monthly meetings 
during the winter. It has also been decided 
to hold their meetings on a single evening rather 
than, as had been the custom hitherto, on two 
three evenings in succession. By that means 
they hoped to get a better discussion. He 
could only appeal to the members to help in 
every way they could to make the new arrange- 
ment work successfully. They hoped to begin 
the graduates’ meetings to-day. They looked 
to members to help them also in this new de- 
parture. A paper was then read by Mr. W. 
Ingham on ‘ The Incrustation of Pipes at the 
Torquay Waterworks.’ He described the me- 
chanical action of the scrapers constructed to re- 
move the incrustation of the water pipes at 
Torquay, and the increase in the discharging 
power of the main affected by their use. 
Speaking generally he said it might be 
laid down with a fair approximation to the 
truth that well waters had not as great an 
action on pipes as those from upland gather- 
ing grounds, but where the water was soft the 
corrosive action would be greater. Filtered 
water had also a less corrosive power than un- 
filtered water. Much had been done to get a 
satisfactory coating to pipes, but there was still 
considerable room for improvement. It was 
hardly necessary to point out that a fortune 
awaited the man who could invent something 
that would withstand the action of soft waters. 
A discussion followed, and the meeting was ad- 
journed until Friday, November 24th, when 
Lord Charles Beresford will read a paper on 
the opening for English engineers in China. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 
As the result of a competition in which six 
invited forms of architects and three architec- 
tural firms in the city of St. Louis competed, 
