December 4, 1896.] 



ISGIENCE. 



835 



utilization of these. It is prepared to answer 

 questions and furnish information on this sub- 

 ject. Investigations are ah-eady in progress on 

 the comparative value of Indian coal deposits 

 and iron ores, of Indian and colonial timbers, 

 fibres, dye-stuflfs and tanning materials, and es- 

 pecial attention will be given to the study of 

 medicinal plants. The department is intended 

 to become an imperial bureau of scientific and 

 technical investigation and advice. 



We regret to announce the deaths of Dr. Karl 

 Cornelius, docent iu physics and meteorology 

 in the University of Halle, and of Dr. Hanot, 

 the French physician, well known for his nu- 

 merous and important researches in path- 

 ology. 



A LETTER from Mr. S. A. Thompsom, at 

 Santa Catalin, Venezuela, published in the daily 

 papers, states that in the course of explorations 

 for the Orinoco Company he, with Mr. Leslie 

 O. Dart, discovered in the Imataca Mountains 

 a waterfall that must rank as one of the greatest 

 in the world. A large river falls over an almost 

 perpendicular cliff from a height estimated at 

 1,600 feet, not, however, in one body, but 

 breaking into many separate streams. 



The American Economic Association will 

 hold its annual meeting in Baltimore from Sep- 

 tember 28th to 30th. The President, Prof. H. 

 C. Adams, will give an address on the relation 

 of jurisprudence to economics. The organiza- 

 tion of the census for 1900 will be especially 

 discussed. 



Among industrial expositions announced for 

 1897 is one at Stockholm, at which special at- 

 tention will be given to machinery and applied 

 science. There will also be expositions at Brus- 

 sels and Kief, and an electrical and engineer- 

 ing exposition will be held at Newcastle-on- 

 Tyne. 



Nature states that it has received a circular 

 announcing the formation of a British Mycologi- 

 cal Society, having for its objects the study of 

 mycology in all its branches, systematic, mor- 

 phological and pathological, the publication of 

 annual reports recording all recent discoveries 

 in any branch of mycology, and more especially 

 giving a brief synopsis of the work of European 

 mycologists and the recent additions to the 



British Fungus Flora. An annual week's 

 meeting or foray will be held at some place pre- 

 viously determined at the annual meeting. Mr. 

 George Massee, Royal Herbarium, Kew, has 

 been elected first President, and Mr. Carleton 

 Eea, 34 Foregate street, Worcester, is the Secre- 

 tary. The first meeting of the Society will be 

 held in Sherwood Forest, commencing on the 

 third Monday in September, 1897. 



We announced recently that Prof. Koch was 

 on his way to South Africa in order to investi- 

 gate the rinderpest. The British Medical Journal 

 calls attention to the fact that an elaborate in- 

 quiry into the nature, origin, method of treat- 

 ment and pathological status of this disease was 

 undertaken in 1868 by a Royal Commission in 

 which Sir Richard Quain, Dr. Burdon Sander- 

 son, Lord Play fair and others took an active 

 part. At that time, however, bacteriological 

 science, which has of recent years made such 

 rapid and important progress, was hardly yet in 

 its infancy, and the present methods of investi- 

 gation, the perfection of which we owe so 

 largely to Dr. Koch himself, did not ex- 

 ist. Elaborate and careful as was the in- 

 quiry, it did little more than prove the in- 

 tense contagiousness of the malady, and the 

 hopelessness of any available method of 

 treatment except by the pole-axe. The policy 

 of stamping out was urgently recommended, to- 

 gether with a system of liberal compensation. 

 These measures had decisive and successful re- 

 sults within their limits, and the epidemic has 

 not since been able to extend itself within these 

 islands. No subsequent information of a scien- 

 tific or curative kind has since been obtained, 

 and Dr. Koch's investigation into its possible 

 bacterial origin will be awaited with much in- 

 terest. 



The British Medical Journal states that M. 

 Lemoine, of Rheims, has exhibited before the 

 Biological Society the cliches of photographs, ob- 

 tained by Rontgen's rays, of fossils embedded 

 in the chalk strata of Rheims. The Rdntgen 

 rays pass imperfectly through phosphates ; the 

 bones of the fossils are clearly indicated in all 

 their details. M. Lemoine has thus photo- 

 graphed a series of birds, reptiles and mam- 

 mals. 



