APRIL 5, 1901.] 
8s. 1d., while the expenditure was £8,595 11s. 
id., leaving a balance of revenue over expendi- 
ture of £409 17s. The total investments and 
other assets at the end of the year amounted to 
£70,117 1s. 5d., and, deducting therefrom the 
£25,000 of debentures and the total remaining 
liabilities, £4,211 15s. 6d., the capital of the 
institution amounted to £40,905 5s. 11d. Of 
this sum £5,000 was set aside in 1897 and 1898 
for the redemption of the debentures. The 
sum of £6,850 4s. 8d. still remained invested 
in railway debenture stocks and Consols, reg- 
istered in the name of the institution. A total 
of £60,270 2s. 10d. had now been expended 
upon the institution-house. The award of the 
Willans Premium had been for the first time in 
the gift of the council, and, from the papers 
read before the institution since the foundation 
of the fund in January, 1895, they had selected 
that read in April, 1895, by Captain H. Riall 
Sankey, on ‘Governing of Steam-engines by 
Throttling and by Variable Expansion,’ as the 
most suitable for the award. With a view to 
the formation of a historical museum, relating 
to mechanical engineering progress, several 
gifts of value had been promised. The numer- 
ous letters which had been received from the 
United States evinced a thorough appreciation 
of the reception accorded to the members of 
the American Society of Mechanical Engineers 
by the institution at itssummer meeting. The 
work of the graduates has been carried on with 
considerable success, and a number of visits 
were made by the graduates to works in the 
neighborhood of London. The council had 
awarded prizes to Mr. W. B. Cleverly and Mr. 
Brees van Homan for their papers on ‘ Works 
Management, Methods of Quick Production of 
Repetition Work’ and ‘Steel Skeleton Con- 
struction, as applied to Buildings on the Amer- 
can System’ respectively. In consequence of 
a desire expressed by several members of the 
institution, the council communicated with the 
War Office in February, asking if it would be 
of any advantage to the Government to have 
the assistance in South Africa of the engineering 
experience of members of the institution ; the 
reply indicated the high appreciation of the 
Secretary of State for War, and stated that, 
although arrangements had already been made, 
SCIENCE. 
559 
the offer would certainly be borne in mind in 
case circumstances should alter. The council, 
after consultation with officers of other institu- 
tions, had consented to take charge of the 
mechanical section of the Glasgow International 
Engineering Congress, the meetings of which 
would be held during the first week of Septem- 
ber of this year. These arrangements would 
not interfere with the ordinary summer meeting 
of the institution, which would be held during 
the last week of July at Barrow-in-Furness. 
THE home department of the Government of 
India has made a report of deaths from wild 
animals and snakes which are summarized in 
the London Times. During 1899 the number of 
deaths among human beings attributed to wild 
animals was 2,966. Fortunately, however, the 
number is below the average of the last four 
years and much lower than the number (4,283) 
reported in 1897. In 1899 tigers caused the 
death of 899, wolves of 338, and leopards of 
327 human beings, while bears, elephants, 
hyenas, jackals and crocodiles were account- 
able for a large proportion of the remainder. 
The tiger is most destructive in Bengal, about 
half of the whole number of the victims of this 
animal being reported from that province. Man- 
eaters have especially troubled certain districts, 
and liberal rewards have been offered for their 
destruction. In the Bhamo district of Upper 
Burma a single man-eating tiger killed about 
20 people. A special reward of 100 rupees was 
paid for its destruction. More than half of the 
deaths from leopards occurred in Bengal, while 
more than three-fourths of those from wolves 
occurred in the Northwestern Provinces and 
Oudh. Special measures were taken to hunt 
down a particularly destructive pack near 
Cawnpur. High rewards were offered, and 
hunting parties organized, but without much 
success. The loss of human life from snakes 
reached the high total of 24,621 a greater 
mortality than in any of the four preceding years. 
Nearly half the deaths occurred in Bengal, 
while the Northwestern Provinces and Oudh 
came next with nearly one-fourth of the total, 
In Bengal the relatively high mortality is attri- 
buted to floods, which drove the snakes to the 
highlands on which village homesteads are 
built. As will be observed, snakes are more 
