Septembek 10, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



337 



Owing to the increasing demand, on the part 

 of astronomers, chemists and physicists, for 

 accurate values of the wave-lengths of the 

 lines in the spectra of iron and other elements, 

 the Bureau of Standards has taken up the 

 work of determining standards of wave length. 

 This work is heing done in accordance with 

 the recommendations of the International 

 Wave-length Committee. The spectrograms 

 were obtained in Marseilles in the laboratories 

 of Buisson and Faby, the pioneers in this 

 work. The plates were measured at the Bureau 

 of Standards. This is rather a difficult re- 

 gion of the spectrum to observe, lying entirely 

 in the ultra-violet. Apparatus necessary to do 

 this work has recently been installed in the 

 Bureau of Standards, and wave-length deter- 

 minations of the highest accuracy are being 

 made throughout the spectrum, including those 

 rays which are too short to be visible and also 

 those which are longer than any that the eye 

 can see. A pamphlet upon this subject has 

 just been issued as Scientific Paper No. 251, 

 copies of which may be obtained without 

 charge from the Bureau of Standards, Wash- 

 ington, D. C. 



The Paris correspondent of the London 

 Times writes that the Pasteur Institute pre- 

 sents rather a dead appearance at present. 

 Most of the laboratory assistants have de- 

 parted for the front, where, indeed, two doc- 

 tors have met their death. There has been in 

 consequence a slackening of experimental 

 work, as well as a corresponding diminution 

 in the running expenses of the establishment. 

 A large part of the famous menagerie has dis- 

 appeared. Quantities of rabbits, rats and mice 

 still exist, but the ourang-outangs, amongst 

 others, have ceased to be, as they were expen- 

 sive to keep as prospective fields for experi- 

 ment after the war. A large department of 

 the institute is now engaged in cultures for 

 serums for use on the battlefield. 



The annual grants made by parliament 

 specifically for scientific investigations and re- 

 lated services amount to about £100,000, and 

 the details of the estimates for 1915-16 are 

 shown in the subjoined table which we repro- 

 duce from Nature. 



Eoyal Society: 



(i) (a) Scientifie Investigations £4,000 



(6) Scientifie Publications 1,000 



(U) Magnetic Observatory at Eskdale- 



muir 1,000 



(in) National Physical Laboratory 7,000 



(_iv) Aeronautical Section of the National 



Physical Laboratory 9,425 



Meteorological Office 22,500 



Eoyal Geographical Society 1,250 



Royal Academy of Music 500 



Eoyal College of Music 500 



Marine Biological Association of the 



United Kingdom 500 



Eoyal Society of Edinburgh 600 



■Scottish Meteorological Society 100 



Eoyal Irish Academy 1,600 



Eoyal Irish Academy of Music '. . . . 300 



Eoyal Zoological Society of Ireland 500 



Eoyal Hiberian Academy 300 



British School at Athens 500 



British School at Eome 500 



Eoyal Scottish Geographical Society 200 



National Library of Wales 8,200 



National Museum of Wales 17,300 



Solar Physics Observatory 3,000 



British Academy 400 



School of Oriental Studies 1,500 



North Sea Fisheries Investigation 1,250 



Transantarctic Expedition, 1914-15 5,000 



Edinburgh Observatory 1,657 



£90,582 

 The Dominion of Canada has, as we learn 

 from the Experiment Station Record, appro- 

 priated $3,308,000 for agriculture for the year 

 1915-16, $785,000 of which is for the mainte- 

 nance of experiment farms, $550,000 for the 

 development of the live-stock industry, $540,- 

 000 for the " health of animals," $280,000 for 

 exhibitions, $275,000 for the administration 

 and enforcement of the meat and canned-foods 

 act, and $200,000 for the encouragement of 

 cold-storage warehouses. The appropriation 

 includes $150,000 for the development of the 

 dairying industries and the improvement in 

 transportation, sale and trade of food and 

 other agricultural products, $140,000 to enforce 

 the seed act, $113,000 for the fruit branch, 

 $100,000 for the administration and enforce- 

 ment of the destructive insect and pest act, 

 $25,000 for the administration and carrying 

 out of the provisions of the agricultural-in- 



