May 23, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



839 



ley, president, in the chair, the result of the 

 ballot for the election of officerswas declared as 

 follows: President, Mr. J. C. Hawkshaw, M. A. ; 

 Vice-Presidents, Sir William White, K.C.B., 

 Mr. F. W. Webb, Sir Guilford Moles worth, 

 K.C.I.E., and Sir Alexander Binnie. The 

 council have made the following awards for 

 papers read and discussed before the institu- 

 tion during the past session: A Telford gold 

 medal to Mr. W. M. Mordey, and a George 

 Stephenson gold medal to Mr. B. M. Jenkin, 

 M.Inst.C.E., a Watt gold medal to Mr. J. A. 

 P. Aspinall, M.Inst.C.E., and Telford prem- 

 iums to Messrs. W. C. Copperthwaite, A. H. 

 Haigh, B.Sc, and J. Davis, M.Inst.C.E. 

 The council have also awarded the Howard 

 quinquennial prize of the institution to Mr. 

 E. A. Hadfield, M.Inst.C.E. (of Sheffield), for 

 his scientific work in investigating methods 

 of treatment and new alloys of steel and on 

 account of the importance in industry of some 

 of the new products introduced by him. 



The forty-fifth meeting of the American 

 Society of Mechanical Engineers will be held 

 in Huntington Hall, Boston, from May 27 to 

 30 inclusive. 



An extra meeting of the American Institute 

 of Electrical Engineers will be held on 

 Wednesday, May 28, at 8 :15 p.m., at the house 

 of the American Society of Civil Engineers, 

 New York City. It will be devoted to the 

 general subject of electricity in the army and 

 navy. 



The seventh annual congress of the South- 

 eastern Union of Scientific Societies, as we 

 learn from Nature, will be held at Canterbury 

 on June 5-7. On Thursday, June 5, the presi- 

 dent-elect. Dr. Jonathan Hutchinson, P.R.S., 

 will deliver the annual address. The following 

 papers will be read during the meeting: 'The 

 Marine Aquarium, without Circulation or 

 ■Change of Water,' by Mr. Sibert Saunders; 

 'Recent Researches on Mimicry in Insects,' 

 by Professor E. B. Poulton, F.R.S. ; 'The Pres- 

 ervation of our Indigenous Flora, its Neces- 

 sity, and the Means of accomplishing it,' by 

 Professor G. S. Boulger and Mr. E. A. Martin ; 

 'Borings in the Neighborhood of Canterbury,' 

 V Mr. W. Whitaker, F.R.S. ; 'Mycorhiza, the 



Root Fungus,' by Miss Annie Lorrain Smith. 

 There will be an excursion to the Southeastern 

 Agricultural College, Wye, by the kind invi- 

 tation of the principal. Professor A. D. Hall, 

 who will explain the valuable experimental 

 work now being carried on in connection with 

 the college. 



A CONVERSAZIONE of the British Institution 

 of Electrical Engineers will be held in the 

 Natural History Museum, South Kensington, 

 on Tuesday, July 1. 



The British Medical Journal reports that 

 Dr. Verneau, president of the Anthropological 

 Society of Paris, has examined four sets of 

 human remains discovered in the grottos near 

 Mentone during the researches lately ordered 

 by the Prince of Monaco. They are stated to 

 have belonged to the quaternary period, and 

 they were found at no great distance from the 

 surface. The skeletons are small, and the 

 skulls are described as strongly developed, and 

 of the dolichocephalic type. There were large 

 nasal orifices. The race they represent is be- 

 lieved to have had low-pointed features. The 

 arms were long and distinctly negroid. The 

 summary of the examination so far by Dr. 

 Verneau seems to favor the idea that these 

 human remains belonged to creatures holding 

 a place between the baboons and negroes. 



A REPORT on the brake tests by the Automo- 

 bile Club on May 1 has been published. The 

 action of seventeen different types of auto- 

 mobile, of a victoria drawn by horses, a four- 

 in-hand coach and a bicycle ridden by an 

 expert, a member of the police bicycle squad, 

 was compared. The results were as follows, 

 speed and distance covered in stop being 

 taken : 



Vehicle. Speed. Distance. 



Automobile 8 to 9 m. per hr. 9 feet, average. 



Victoria ditto 17 " 



Four-in-hand ditto 26 " 



Bicycle ditto 8 " 



Automobiles 1-5 miles 29 feet. 



Victoria ditto 37 " 



Four-in-Hand ditto 77^2 " 



Automobiles 20 miles 53 feet. 



Four-in-hand ditto 91 " 



Bicycle ditto 61l^ " 



