Apeil 17, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



637 



to employ it in establishing a ' traveling dis- 

 pensary' in the form of a tent, to suffice for 

 all purposes of operation and treatment, and 

 to work solely in the provinces. 



The annual meeting of the general board 

 of the National Physical Laboratory of Great 

 Britain was held on March 20, Lord Rayleigh, 

 the chairman of the board, presiding. Accord- 

 ing to a notice in the London Times the an- 

 nual report of the executive committee, giving 

 details of the work since the opening of the 

 laboratory, was approved. It appears from 

 the report that subscriptions and donations 

 amounting to nearly £1,000 a year have been 

 promised by the Institution of Civil Engi- 

 neers, the Iron and Steel Institute, the Insti- 

 tute of Chemical Industry, and various 

 private firms. Efforts are being made to ex- 

 tend the list and more especially to render 

 the laboratory self-supporting by increasing 

 the work done for firms and private individ- 

 uals. Examples of such work are given in the 

 report and in a lecture to the Students' Asso- 

 ciation of Mechanical Engineers recently de- 

 livered at the Institution of Mechanical Engi- 

 neers by the director and now being published 

 in Engineering. The scheme of work sug- 

 gested by the director for 1903 was also ap- 

 proved. After the meeting an inspection of 

 the laboratory took place, and in this the 

 board were accompanied by a number of gen- 

 tlemen who have assisted the laboratory by 

 serving on its various committees, or as donors 

 of apparatus. 



Cablegrams are no longer sent giving re- 

 ports of the plague in India, and the subject 

 has been practically forgotten by the general 

 public. For the last week, however, for which 

 reports are at hand, the deaths numbered 28,- 

 860, much more than at any corresponding 

 period of the year since the original outbreak 

 of the plague in 1896. 



The 'Annual Report of the Eield Opera- 

 tions of the Bureau of Soils ' for 1902, con- 

 taining the results of the soil survey work 

 of the bureau for the calendar year, has just 

 been completed and is now in press. It will 

 not, however, be available for distribution be- 

 fore October next, owing to the length of time 



necessary to lithograph the accompanying 

 maps. It will be issued in two parts, one 

 containing 44 lithograph soil maps drawn on 

 a scale of one mile to the inch, covering each 

 of the areas surveyed, indicating in colors the 

 location and extent of the various soil types, 

 and in addition, in western areas, the presence 

 and amount of alkali existing. The other 

 part, embracing about 800 pages, illustrated, 

 contains the reports of assistants in charge 

 of surveys. These reports treat each area in 

 detail, and contain valuable data relating to 

 the location and boundaries of the areas, his- 

 tory of settlement and agricultural develop- 

 ment, climatic conditions, physiography and 

 geology, descriptions of soil types with origin 

 and process of formation, crops grown and 

 yields, crops to which soils are especially 

 adapted, special soil problems, irrigation and 

 drainage, alkali conditions, agricultural meth- 

 ods in use, cultivation, cropping, and general 

 agricultural and economic conditions. Fif- 

 teen soil parties were maintained in the field 

 during the year, and there was surveyed and 

 mapped 1Y,911 square miles, or 11,463,040 

 acres, covering thirty-two areas in twenty-five 

 states and territories and in Porto Rico. 

 The area previously surveyed by the bureau 

 was 15,8Y1 square miles, making a total to 

 date of 33,Y82 square miles, or 21,620,480 

 acres. The total cost of the work, including 

 transportation, salaries, subsistence, supplies, 

 inspection, preparation of reports, etc., 

 amounts to an average of $2.88 per square 

 mile, or about thirty-three cents per one hun- 

 dred acres. During the current year the 

 number of soil survey parties has been in- 

 creased to twenty, which it is expected will 

 make surveys of about fifty areas in thirty- 

 two states and territories. 



The London Times states that a new asso- 

 ciation to be called the Ulster Fisheries and 

 Biology Association has been formed in Ire- 

 land. The object of the new association is 

 to investigate the flora and fauna of the 

 shores and fresh water loughs of Ulster, with 

 special reference to the fisheries. At a meet- 

 ing held at the museum. Lord Shaftesbury, 

 who presided, said the association had in view 



