APEIL 30, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



695 



London Times, the raw material is chiefly ob- 

 tained from the north of Africa, Algiers being 

 the center of distribution. The plant producing 

 it, Stipa tenacissima, is capable of living under 

 the most adverse conditions, being often found 

 flourishing in the deserts in places where no 

 other vegetable life can exist. It was suggested 

 by the lecturer that this would be a most suita- 

 ble plant by means of which the deserts of Sa- 

 hara might not only be reclaimed, but turned 

 into a source of profit. For many years past 

 esparto grass has very largely superseded rags 

 and similar substances in the manufacture of 

 paper, and enormous quantities are annually 

 imported to England for the purpose. Sam- 

 ples of paper made of esparto, in various stages 

 of its manufacture, were shown by Mr. Lay ton, 

 from the mills of Messrs. Weir, of Alloa, who 

 consume over 7,000 tons of this material per 

 annum. 



SiE Benjamin Stone, M.P., has been in cor- 

 respondence with the authorities of the British 

 Museum on the subject of a proposal to estab- 

 lish a national photographic record collection. 

 In a letter to the Board of Trustees of the Brit- 

 ish Museum, Sir Benjamin Stone offered for ac- 

 ceptance a series of 100 platinotype photographic 

 views of Westminster Abbey, hoping that this 

 would be the commencement of a national pho- 

 tographic record and survey collection to be 

 under the direction and in charge of the British 

 Museum authorities. In replying to Sir Benja- 

 min Stone the Trustees state that they are in 

 full agreement with him that such a record sur- 

 vey collection, if carefully and systematically 

 brought together, cannot fail to be of the great- 

 est value and interest both to the present and 

 to future generations, and they are most willing 

 to take charge of the photographs which from 

 time to time may be deposited with them. It 

 is proposed to form a preliminary committee to 

 organize the work and to invite to act upon it, 

 representatives of the Royal Society, the Society 

 of Antiquaries, the Royal Photographic Society, 

 the Royal Institute of British Architects, the 

 Royal Archseological Institute, the Royal Geo- 

 graphical Society, the Trustees of the British 

 Museum, and others. The Council of the War- 

 wickshire Photographic Survey have promised 

 a first contribution of 100 pictures of that county. 



A COMMITTEE of the House of Commons, con- 

 sisting of Sir E. Hamilton, Sir A. Godley and 

 Mr. G. H. Murray has been appointed to in- 

 quire into the organization, pay and duties of 

 the staff of the British Museum, including the 

 system under which the staff is recruited and 

 the reasons for or against competitive examina- 

 tion, either limited or otherwise ; the classifica- 

 tion, scale of salary, and hours of attendance 

 required to insure the efiicient and proper dis- 

 charge of the duties of the establishment, and 

 whether it is practicable to assign clerical and 

 routine work wholly or in part to clerks of the 

 second division ; and, generally, any matters 

 connected with the Museum establishment in 

 regard to which they may be of opinion that 

 alteration of existing regulations is desirable. 



An exhibition of agriculture and forestry will 

 be held in Vienna by the Imperial and Royal 

 Agricultural Society from May 7 to October 9, 

 1898. The following sections are intended to 

 be of an international character : (1) Machinery 

 and implements for agriculture and forestry. 

 (2) Machinery and implements for agricultural 

 industry. (3) Dairy machinery and appliances. 

 (4) Fertilizers, feeding stuffs, and chemical prod- 

 ucts for agricultural and forest purposes. (5} 

 Veterinary science. (6) Agricultural improve- 

 ments, building and engineering. (7) Agricul- 

 tural and forest education, research work,, 

 statistics and literature. 



Me. C. T. Heycoce, F. R. S., lectured be- 

 fore the Royal Institution on April 8th on ' Me- 

 tallic Alloys and the Theory of Solution.' Ac- 

 cording to the London Times the lecturer showed 

 a number of experiments which established an 

 analogy between the solution of a substance 

 such as sugar in water and the solution of met- 

 als in each other. Just as the freezing point of 

 a solution of a salt in water was lower than 

 that of pure water, so the freezing point of a 

 solution of a metal, such as thallium, in mer- 

 cury was lower than that of pure mercury. 

 After explaining that there was no essential 

 difierence between the two phenomena he stated 

 that the remarkable theory of Van t'Hoff", to the 

 effect that a substance in dilute solution ex- 

 isted within the liquid in a state resembling 

 a gas, afforded the best clue to the interpreta- 



