July 27, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



153 



Magnetic Observatory or Principal Magnetic 

 Base Station, near Washington, D. C, has been 

 selected, and the erection of the buildings is 

 now in progress. A temporary magnetic ob- 

 servatory, equipped with the Bschenhagen 

 magnetograph, is in operation at Baldwin, 

 Kansas. Sites for the magnetic observatories 

 in Alaska and Hawaiian Islands will also soon 

 be selected, and the erection of the necessary 

 buildings will begin within a year. At certain 

 specified times simultaneous observations, at 

 present simply of declination, are made by all 

 the magnetic parties, in which important work, 

 beginning with September, various universities 

 distributed over the entire country will co-oper- 

 ate. 



Magnetic Observatory at Tacubaya, Mexico. 

 — Senor Moreno sends us the following informa- 

 tion : "In the beginning of last year, having 

 finished our magnetic department we installed 

 the apparatus and began taking observations in 

 March. A little later we were obliged to take 

 out the apparatus on account of the excessive 

 humidity which appeared in two of the subter- 

 ranean rooms. After the rainy season had 

 passed some provisions were made to prevent 

 the recurrence of dampness in the future, and 

 we were successful to the extent that the two 

 rooms mentioned are entirely dry. On the 5th 

 of February of this year we began anew our ob. 

 servations with three direct reading instru- 

 ments. ' ' 



JENNEB INSTITUTE OF PREVENTIVE 

 MEDICINE.* 



The annual general meeting of the Jenner 

 Institute of Preventive Medicine was held at 

 Chelsea on June 29th last, under the chairman- 

 ship of Lord Lister. Among those present were 

 Sir Joseph Fayrer, Surgeon-General Hooper, 

 Professor Greenfield, Professor Simpson, Dr. 

 McCrury, Dr. Bridgwater, Colonel Addison, 

 and Mr. Shattock. The governing body re- 

 ported that the transference of Lord Iveagh's 

 gift for the promotion of the objects of the Insti- 

 tute had been effected, and a governing body 

 which would in future control its affairs had 

 been constituted. The Director (Dr. Allan 

 Macfadyen) reported satisfactory progress in 



* From the British Medical Journal. 



the work of the Institute during the past year. 

 The fitting up of the Institute buildings, with 

 the exception of the museum, was now com- 

 pleted. Among other additions during the year 

 were a physiological room, a room for incubat- 

 ing purposes, and a cold-storage room. 



Mr. Briggs had presented a Hansen apparatus 

 for yeast culture, and considerable additions 

 had been made to the library. The second 

 volume of the Transactions contained nineteen 

 contributions and included a paper by Professor 

 Ehrlich. Three papers had been communi- 

 cated to the Royal Society on the influence of 

 the temperature of liquid air and hydrogen 

 upon bacterial life. The experiments were con- 

 ducted with the kind co-operation of Professor 

 Dewar and a further series was contemplated. 

 In conjunction with Dr. Morris and Mr. Bow- 

 land a paper has been submitted to the Royal 

 Society on Expressed Yeast-cell Plasma (Buch- 

 ner's 'Zymase'), and the research had discov- 

 ered a new method for triturating organisms. 

 Systematic investigations were being carried 

 out in the bacteriological department upon en- 

 teric fever, tuberculosis, and the etiology of 

 cancer, with the co-operation of Dr. Hewlett 

 and Mr. Rowland. Various investigations had 

 been published during the year by Dr. Hewlett 

 and other members of the staflf. It was pro- 

 posed to set on foot a systematic inquiry into 

 the nature and origin of food poisons. A num- 

 ber of workers had utilized the laboratories for 

 purposes of research during the year. Special 

 investigations had been carried out for public 

 authorities during the year on tubercle in milk, 

 on glanders and anthrax, and other subjects. 



The illustrations for the Transactions had been 

 prepared by Mr. J. E. Barnard in the photo- 

 graphic department of the Institute. Dr. 

 Harden, chemist to the Institute, was continu- 

 ing his investigations on the chemical products 

 of pathogenic and other micro-organisms. Dr. 

 Harris Morris, lecturer on Technical Mycology, 

 reported that a number of students had made 

 use of the Hansen Laboratory, and that re- 

 searches on yeasts, diastases, zymase, and other 

 subjects of technical interest had been prose- 

 cuted. Dr. George Dean of the antitoxin de- 

 partment, had made experiments on the best 

 conditions for obtaining powerful toxins and 



