856 



SCIENCE. 



IN. S. Vol. XXIII. No. 596. 



exhibited a portable pack-transport ' wireless ' 

 telegraphy apparatus for military field pur- 

 poses, available for communications across 

 country up to 50 miles, or 150 miles over sea. 

 Perhaps one of the most important exhibits, 

 from both a scientific and a practical point 

 of vievc, vpas Dr. P. E. Shaw's electrical meas- 

 uring instrument. This machine gets rid of 

 several objections to those ordinarily in use. 

 From the director of the Imperial Institute 

 came a large and varied exhibit which may 

 be taken as a substantial evidence of the use- 

 ful practical as well as scientific work which 

 is being done under Professor Wyndham 

 Dunstan's direction. The exhibit included a 

 variety of new and rare minerals from Ceylon 

 and several minerals from Canada, as also 

 specimens of cyanogenetic plants, illustrating 

 an investigation which has been conducted by 

 Professor Dunstan and Dr. T. A. Henry, to 

 throw light on the origin of the prussic acid 

 which is produced by certain plants. 



As usual, from the Marine Biological Asso- 

 ciation came quite an interesting exhibit, con- 

 sisting of a small collection of living fishes 

 from the shore and from shallow water, to 

 illustrate the differences in habit and mode 

 of life adopted by different species. Mr. J. 

 Stanley Gardiner showed some of the many 

 valuable results obtained by his recent very 

 successful expedition for the investigation of 

 the Indian Ocean. These consisted of photo- 

 graphs illustrative of the vegetation of the 

 Seychelles Islands, and some rocks dredged 

 off Providence Coral Eeef, 844 fathoms. 

 From the director of Kew Gardens came an 

 attractive exhibit in the shape of some speci- 

 mens showing the precocious flowering of 

 plants, and some exalbuminous grass seeds. 

 The exhibit by Mr. J. E. S. Moore and Mr. 

 C. E. Walker, showing recent researches in 

 cell-division, was evidence of the good work 

 which continues to be done at Liverpool Uni- 

 versity. Two of the most notable, attractive 

 and suggestive exhibits were Mr. K. A. Tar- 

 rant's photographs of electric discharges and 

 Dr. Albert A. Gray's spectroscopic photo- 

 graphs of the membranous labyrinth of the 

 ear in different animals. There were many 

 other exhibits of solid scientific interest, but 



we have only space to refer to the varied speci- 

 mens of work from the National Physical 

 Laboratory, including a great variety of photo- 

 micrographs, an apparatus for the test of the 

 strength of materials at very high tempera- 

 tures, the Picou permeameter designed for 

 testing the magnetic permeability of rods or 

 strips and a bifilar galvanometer, free from 

 zero creep. Sir William Crookes exhibited 

 ultra-violet spectra of the metals photographed 

 with a quartz train of five double prisms and 

 some remarkable stereoscopic photographs 

 taken in South Africa. The demonstrations 

 in the meeting-room by means of the electric 

 lantern proved, as usual, to be the great at- 

 traction of the evening. Mr. G. W. Lam- 

 plugh showed some very striking photographic 

 slides of the Batoka Gorge of the Zambesi 

 River, while the slides and miniature demon- 

 strations by Professor Silvanus Thompson of 

 the electric production of nitrates from the 

 atmosphere were remarkably brilliant and 

 striking. They were intended to illustrate a 

 process for obtaining from the air products 

 of great value for agriculture and in the dye- 

 stuff industry. 



TBE MIKKELSEN EXPEDITION TO THE 

 BEAUFORT 8EA> 



We have received from Mr. Mikkelsen a de- 

 tailed statement of his plans for the expedi- 

 tion to the Beaufort sea, to which frequent 

 reference has already been made in the Jour- 

 nal, and on which he proposes to sail from 

 Victoria about the middle of May. The vessel 

 which he has acquired for that purpose has 

 been renamed the Duchess of Bedford, in 

 honor of a prominent supporter of the expedi- 

 tion. She is a sailing craft of 66 tons, with 

 a length of 67j feet, 18 feet 9 inches beam, 

 and 7j feet depth of hold, and is built of cam- 

 phor wood, the outside planking being of heart 

 quakewood, which again is sheathed with gum- 

 wood above and below the water-line, and with 

 iron plating at the bows. The ship was built 

 as a sealer, and is specially strengthened by 

 bulkheads, etc., to withstand ice-pressure. As 

 already mentioned, Messrs. Leffing-well, Ste- 

 fansson, and Ditlevsen will proceed down the 



' From the Geographical Journal. 



