132 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 56. 



have been sent to Vienna and are in the hands 

 of Prof. Bolzmann, who has, it is said, accepted 

 the discovery, though he has not succeeded in 

 his attempt to repeat the experiment. In spite 

 of apparently absurd statements concerning the 

 action of the ultra violet rays, it is not impossi- 

 ble that substances such as metals, which are 

 good conductors of heat, should absorb the ultra 

 violet rays, while substances such as wood, which 

 are bad conductors of heat, should transmit 

 them. Prof Eontgen is professor of physics at 

 Wiirzburg, and any experiments published by 

 him would be accepted without hesitation. 



We learn from the International Medical Mag- 

 azine that the Royal Academy of Medicine of 

 Belgium ofiers prizes of 5000, 8,000 and 2.5,000 

 francs for the best researches on the diseases of 

 the central nervous system with special refer- 

 ence to epilepsy. The competition closes on 

 the 15th of September, 1899. Smaller prizes 

 are offered in 1896 on subjects pertaining to 

 pharmacology and the blood. 



Prof. Camillb Flammaeion reported to the 

 Paris Academy on December 30th further ex- 

 periments on the effects of colored glass on the 

 growth of plants ; he found the order in the de- 

 velopment of height iu sensitive plants for 

 different glasses to be: red, green, transparent, 

 blue. The plants grown under the transparent 

 glass, however, surpassed in vigor those grown 

 under the green glass. He secured similar re- 

 sults, but less marked, with geraniums, straw- 

 berry plants, pansies, etc. In the discussion 

 that followed, M. Armand Gautier stated that 

 he had found that vegetables grew well under 

 red light, less well under yellow light, still worse 

 under violet light and that they died under 

 green light. He had placed pots of flowers in 

 a current equal to that from three Bunsen 

 cells for two and a-half months, and had found 

 that the plants growing in the soil through 

 which the currents passed had grown twice as 

 as much as those placed under the same condi- 

 tion, but without the current. 



It is stated that it is proposed to build a rail- 

 way or elevator to the summit of Mount Blanc 

 in a manner similar to that planned for the 

 Jungfrau. A tunnel would be built beginning 

 at a height of 2,200 meters above the sea level 



and the length of the shaft would be 2,539 

 meters. A hotel would be built at the summit 

 and the entire ascent would occupy only thirty 

 minutes. 



The capital necessary for the purpose of send- 

 ing an expedition to the Antarctic regions with 

 a view to carrying on whale and sea fishing has 

 been subscribed in London. It is proposed 

 to send out two whaling steam vessels of 300 

 or 400 tons, and, we understand, also one 

 or more of the smaller steamboats which are 

 used by the Norwegians for the capture of the 

 blue whale. If £5,000 can be collected to de- 

 fray the expenses Mr. Borchgrevink with eight 

 or ten companions will accompany the expedi- 

 tion with a view to scientific research. 



It appears that in the French expedition to 

 Madagascar the mortality from fever amounted 

 to 5,000 or one-fourth of all who took part in the 

 expedition; fifty per cent, of the whole num- 

 ber were seriously ill, and of twenty-five per 

 cent, remaining, scarcely any entirely escaped. 

 Only seven men were killed in battle. In the 

 Japanese-Chinese War 3,148 of the 200,000 

 Japanese soldiers engaged in the contest died 

 as the result of disease, and 969 as the result of 

 injury in battle. 



A COEEESPONDENT of the London Times states 

 that the war against rabbits in Australia seems 

 to have had but little result. Since 1883 New 

 South Wales, alone, has spent over $5,000,000 

 in the attempt to subdue or exterminate them, 

 but apparently without effect. A reward of 

 $125,000 has been offered by the New South 

 Wales government for an eflScient method of 

 getting rid of the pest. The final outcome of 

 Royal Commissions, of intercolonial confer- 

 ences, and of the testing of every practical 

 method of extermination, is that the most 

 effectual method of dealing with the evil is 

 found to be the construction of rabbit-proof 

 netting, by means of which the animals can be 

 kept from areas not yet infested; can be shut 

 off from food supplies; and can be more effec- 

 tually dealt with locally. In New South Wales 

 alone 15,000 miles of rabbit-proof netting has 

 been erected, but in this colony 7,000,000 acres 

 have been abandoned largely owing to the 

 gravity of the pest. 



