April 11, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



599 



School of Tropical Medicine has been issued. 

 The despatch of Major Ross to Sierra Leone 

 brings up the number of expeditions sent out 

 by the school for purposes of medical research 

 and sanitary measures in the tropics to eight. 

 Among the students trained at the school in 

 the past year were medical men from Canada, 

 India, East Africa, Penang, Sierra Leone, 

 Uganda, Germany, Belgium and Sweden. 

 More than 130 cases of tropical diseases were 

 treated at the school. 



It appears that Germany has determined to 

 regard in the light of a 'present' from the 

 Chinese government the astronomical instru- 

 ments stolen by her soldiers from the Chinese 

 observatory at Pekin. This view was set forth 

 by Count von Billow, the imperial German 

 chancellor, in a speech delivered in the Ger- 

 man Reichstag, a copy of which has been 

 received in Washington. Count von Biilow 

 said : " The instruments have not been restored 

 because the Chinese government attaches no 

 importance to their possession, and in reply to 

 German inquiries it placed them at the dis- 

 position of the German government. Another 

 consideration is that, in accordance with the 

 peculiar views of the Chinese, the great mass 

 of that people would have supposed that the 

 instruments were restored by order of the 

 Chinese government, which would have dam- 

 aged German prestige in East Asia. The 

 Dowager Empress of China, a very clever 

 woman who understands the political situa- 

 tion, would have been distinctly offended, while 

 the masses would have thought that Germany 

 had sustained some terrible defeats. The 

 instruments ought now to be placed in the 

 category of presents from government to gov- 

 ernment, which has long been customary on 

 both sides in the intercourse with the Chinese 

 government." 



Mr. Stevens sold recently in London the 

 collection of British lepidoptera formed by the 

 late Mr. Philip Crowley. Among the more 

 important lots were nine specimens of Dispar, 

 or large copper, the now extinct British 

 butterfly. These averaged £5 apiece, one 

 female realizing £7. An assortment of exotic 

 butterflies also realized good prices. 



The London Times says : There is on view 

 in the library of the Royal Institution, an 

 exhibit of the artificial dye stuffs produced by 

 the Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik, together 

 with specimens of a great number of fabrics 

 and materials, from silk to sealing-wax, to 

 which they can be applied. Those who are 

 interested in the bearing of technical progress 

 abroad upon British industry will note the 

 extraordinary range of colors produced from 

 raw materials which are abundant in this 

 country and of which English chemists first 

 discovered the value. They will be not less 

 painfiilly impressed by the excellence and 

 variety of the artificial indigo dyes, the pro- 

 duction of which now equals one fifth of the 

 world's consumption and constitutes a very 

 pressing danger for a great Indian in- 

 dustry. 



It is said that after prolonged experiments 

 in sending four telegraphic messages each way 

 simultaneously over a single wire, the German 

 postal department has accepted the octuple 

 transmitter invented by the late Professor 

 Henry A. Rowland, of the Johns Hopkins 

 University. The experiments were conducted 

 between Berlin and Hamburg. Between 300 

 and 350 words were transmitted a minute. It 

 is understood that the German postal depart- 

 ment intends to introduce the Rowland system 

 between Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Leipzig 

 and Erankfort. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



The daily papers have reported the remark- 

 able bequest of the late Cecil Rhodes for edu- 

 cation and the promotion of a good under- 

 standing between Great Britain, Germany and 

 the United States. It appears that Mr. Rhodes 

 has provided two scholarships for each state 

 and territory of the United States and from 

 each British colony, and for fifteen from Ger- 

 many, the students to study at Oxford. The 

 amount of the bequest is reported to be about 

 $10,000,000, and the value of each scholarship 

 about $1,500, but this appears to be uncertain. 

 Mr. Rhodes also left £100,000 to Oriol Col- 

 lege, Oxford. 



