DECEMBER 1, 1899.] 
took place at its house, 3 Hanover Square, on 
Tuesday, November 14th. 
A MEETING of the Fellows of the Royal 
Botanic Society was held in the museum at the 
Royal Botanic Gardens, Regent’s Park, Lon- 
don, on November 11th, Major Cotton presid- 
ing. He stated that the number of Fellows 
elected this year had been greater than in any 
previous year since the foundation of the 
Society. He added that the club, which was 
founded at the beginning of the year, had been 
very successful, and the members, limited as 
they were to Fellows of the Society, now num- 
bered over 600. The series of dinners that had 
taken place in the summer were so largely at- 
tended that many had had to be turned away, 
and steps were consequently being taken to in- 
crease the accommodation. In connection with 
the club dinners, entertainments were now be- 
ing given every Wednesday evening and the 
Fellows were cordially invited. 
Dr. TIESSEN’S scientific notices state that a 
bacteriological institute has been established by 
the Russian government in Wladiwostok, East 
Asia, and that one is planned for Merw in Cen- 
tral Asia. 
It is reported that the Russian Astronomical 
Society has finally given up its attempt to revise 
the Julian calendar. The reason assigned for its 
failure by the Society is ‘‘ the impossibility of es- 
tablishing an agreement hetween the dates of the 
religious festivals appearing in both calendars.’’ 
ACTING SUPERINTENDENT WILCOX, of the 
Yosemite National Park, in his annual report, 
recommends that the government buy out the 
owners of patented lands within the park 
limits. Other recommendations are the fixing 
of penalties for violation of the park regula- 
tions; obtaining authority from the state of 
California to establish a camp for troops within 
the Yosemite valley for patrol purposes, a per- 
manent camp to be constructed at Wawona; a 
systematic burning of fallen and dead timber, 
to prevent forest fires ; and some decisive action 
to prevent diverting the waters flowing into 
the park. The report says the deer are fairly 
plentiful and tame, bear, quail, squirrels and 
trout are numerous, and mountain lions and 
lynx are to be found. 
SCIENCE. 
823 
A PRESS despatch from Washington states 
that the War Department is at work on the 
problem of wireless telegraphy for the signal 
service. The Signal Corps has been handi- 
capped recently both by lack of funds and offi- 
cers to experiment on an extensive scale, but 
Capt. Reiber, at Governor’s Island, New York, 
is carrying on a series of experiments between 
that point and Tompkinsville, with a view to 
adapting the army apparatus for communication 
between fortified points and in any other loca- 
tions where the wireless system might prove 
superior in practice to the older form of teleg- 
raphy. The army is not dependent on Marconi 
for instruments, having developed a system of 
its own, and the work will be pushed with 
vigor when Congress furnishes the necessary 
means. 
COMMENTING on the failure of the British Gov- 
ernment to use wireless telegraphy in South Af- 
rica Nature says: Science, and especially the 
latest developments of science, are the last things 
to interest our government and the government 
departments; they do not believe in science, 
they care to know very little about it, and the 
scientific spirit is absent from too many of their 
plans and doings. Hence we have now to be 
thankful that they have reached the level of 
the pigeon post, which has been the only offi- 
cial means, and that on the part of one or two 
birds, to keep us in touch with our beleaguered 
forces. It is stated that even the Commander- 
in-Chief, Lord Wolseley, has expressed some 
surprise that the so-called ‘Intelligence De- 
partment’ of the army allowed the Ladysmith 
force to go to the front with mountain guns 
against a Boer force which they should have 
known might be armed with Schneider-Canet 
cannons of large calibre; and it would seem 
that probably a terrible disaster has been. pre- 
vented, not by our Intelligence Department, not 
by the outfit of our army, but by the apparently 
. accidental arrival of naval guns and personnel 
at the last moment. Why is there not a Scien- 
tific Committee to do what it can in advis- 
ing the military authorities? If they could do 
nothing, nobody would be the worse, but they 
might be able to do much to the nation’s ad- 
vantage. 
