no 



SCIENCE 



[X. S. Vol. XXXII. No. 812 



The joint summer meeting of the Institu- 

 tion of Mechanical Engineers and the Ameri- 

 can Society of Mechanical Engineers will 

 take place in Birmingham and London on 

 July 26 to 30. Nature states that the follow- 

 ing papers are to be read and discussed: In 

 Birmingham : " English Running-shed Prac- 

 tise," by Mr. C. W. Paget ; " Engine-house 

 Practise, or the Handling of Locomotives at 

 Terminals to Secure Continuous Operation," 

 by Mr. F. H. Clark ; " Handling Locomotives at 

 Terminals," by Mr. F. M. Whyte ; " Handling 

 Locomotives," by Mr. H. H. Yaughan; 

 " American Locomotive Terminals," by Mr. 

 W. Forsyth ; " High-speed Tools, and Ma- 

 chines to Fit Them," by Mr. H. I. Bracken- 

 bury ; " Tooth-gearing," by Mr. J. D. Steven ; 

 " Interchangeable Involute Gearing," a joint 

 paper by members of the Committee of the 

 A.S.M.E. on standards for involute gears. 

 In London : " Electrification of Suburban 

 Railways," by Mr. F. W. Carter ; " Cost of 

 Electrically-propelled Suburban Trains," by 

 Mr. H. M. Hobart ; " Economics of Railway 

 Electrification," by Mr. W. B. Potter ; " Elec- 

 trification of Trunk Lines," by Mr. L. R. 

 Pomeroy ; " Electrification of Railways," by 

 Mr. G. Westinghouse. 



The program of the annual meeting of the 

 British Medical Association has been pub- 

 lished. The meeting will be held in the Uni- 

 versity of London and the adjacent collegiate 

 buildings at South Kensington on July 22 

 and 23 and during the following week. 

 The general meeting wiU open on July 22, 

 under the presidency of Sir William Whitla, 

 and will be adjourned until July 26, when 

 the president-elect, Mr. H. T. Butlin, will 

 be inducted and will deliver his address. 

 The representative meeting will assemble in 

 the Guildhall on July 22, 23, 25 and 26. The 

 council meeting will be held on July 26 and 

 July 27. On the latter date and the two days 

 which follow the scientific business of the 

 meeting will be conducted in 21 sections. The 

 address in medicine will be delivered on July 

 27 by Dr. J. Mitchell Bruce, of London, and 

 the address in surgery on July 28, by Mr. H. 

 <j. Barling, of Birmingham. The annual 



service will be held on the afternoon of July 

 27 in Westminster Abbey, and in the evening 

 of that day the lord mayor and corporation 

 will give a conversazione at the Guildhall. 

 The annual dinner will take place on July 28. 

 The sections, with their presidents, are as fol- 

 lows: Anesthetics, Dr. F. W. Hewitt; Anat- 

 omy, Professor Arthur Keith; Bacteriology, 

 Dr. C. J. Martin; Dermatology, Dr. Phineas 

 Abraham; Diseases of Children, Dr. A. E. 

 Garrod; Gynecology and Obstetrics, Dr. Mary 

 A. D. Scharlieb; Laryngology, Mr. Herbert 

 Tilley; Medical Sociology, Dr. J. A. Macdon- 

 ald (Taunton); Medicine, Dr. R. W. Philip 

 (Edinburgh) ; Navy, Army and Ambulance, 

 Colonel Andrew Clark; Odontology, Mr. J. H. 

 Mummery; Ophthalmology, Mr. Charles Hig- 

 gens; Otology, Dr. Edward Law; Pathology, 

 Mr. S. G. Shattoek ; Pharmacology and Thera- 

 peutics; Professor A. R. Cushny; Physiology, 

 Professor W. H. Thomson (Dublin) ; Psycho- 

 logical Medicine and Neurology, Dr. T. B. 

 Hyslop; Radiology and Medical Electricity, 

 Mr. J. M. Davison; State Medicine, Sir Wal- 

 ter Foster; Surgery, Sir Victor Horsley; 

 Tropical Medicine, Dr. F. M. Sandwith. 



We learn from Nature that Lord Crewe, 

 secretary of state for the British Colonies, has 

 appointed a committee, formed of representa- 

 tives of the Colonial Office and of the Natural 

 History Branch of the British Museum, to 

 consider the protection of plumage-birds. The 

 main object in view is to consider to what ex- 

 tent it may be practicable to prevent, either 

 by legislation or by departmental control, the 

 indiscriminate slaughter of such birds now 

 prevalent in certain parts of the empire. Ac- 

 tion of this nature can be effectual only by the 

 cooperation of the governments of all the 

 countries included in the British Empire, and 

 it is hoped that this may be obtained. 



A FIRST circular concerning the tenth In- 

 ternational Geographical Congress to be held 

 next year in Rome has been issued by the 

 organizing committee and is summarized in 

 the Geographical Journal. The date fixed is 

 the week from October 15 to 22, in which 

 month it is thought that the business of the 

 meeting can be carried on without undue 



