5o6 



SCIENCE- G OSSIP. 



Messrs. Sandhurst & Crowhurst are issuing 

 a series of lantern slides of birds and animals, 

 taken while living. Nests, eggs, and young of the 

 former have been taken by Mr. Oliver G. Pike. 

 They are most suitable for illustrating papers or 

 remarks at the meetings of natural history societies 

 or elsewhere. 



The Department of Agriculture in Queens- 

 land has resolved to offer the substantial reward 

 of £5,000 for the discovery of a means of eradi- 

 cating the prickly pear pest. A proviso will be 

 made that the cost must not exceed a certain sum 

 per acre, and the Department will have to be 

 satisfied that the means adopted are efficacious. 



The eighteenth anniversary meeting of the 

 Eoyal Scottish Geographical Society was held on 

 January 2.3rd in the Synod Hall, Edinburgh, when 

 Sir Harry Johnston delivered an address on the 

 British Protectorates in Africa, from the geo- 

 graphical, political, and commercial points of view. 

 The Society, prior to this, had presented him with 

 the Livingstone Gold Medal, founded by Mrs. 

 Livingstone Macleod in commemoration of her 

 illustrious brother. 



Dr. T. J. Mays has introduced a new treatment for 

 tuberculosis at the Rush Hospital for Consumption 

 in Philadelphia. Instead of a lymph or serum, a 

 solution of silver is the agent employed. Dr. Mays, 

 who has been conducting his investigation for the 

 past three years, does not contend that it is a cure 

 for tuberculosis in its last stages, but is convinced 

 •of the importance of his discover}'. That the treat- 

 ment prolongs the life of a patient when the 

 •disease is advanced has been established. 



On Friday, February 14th, at the annual general 

 meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society, the 

 gold medal of the Society was presented to Pro- 

 fessor J. C. Kapteyn, of the University of Groningen, 

 Holland, as a recognition, in some part, of an 

 arduous piece of w'ork done by him voluntarily to 

 help British science. Dr. Kapteyn in 1882 under- 

 took the important and difficult work of measuring 

 the photographic plates taken at the Cape Observa- 

 tory by Sir David Gill, and tabulating the stars. 

 The award was also connected with his researches 

 on stellar distribution and parallax. The Jackson- 

 Gwilt (bronze) medal and gift was presented to 

 Dr. T. D. Anderson for his discoveries of Nova 

 Aurigae and Nova Persei. 



Examples of the "bow-fin" or American mud- 

 fish (Anita oalvci) are exhibited now for the first 

 time in the Zoological Society's Gardens. These 

 fish belong to a family which has no other living 

 representative, and are now confined to North 

 America, though their remains have been met with 

 in France, Germany, and the Hampshire Basin. 

 Their method of respiration in some respects 

 resembles that of the higher vertebrates. The air- 

 hladder communicates with the throat, and they 

 come to the surface to breathe, when carbon 

 dioxide is given off and oxygen taken into the 

 system, as in the lungs of air-breathing animals. 

 They are also nest-builders, but as the conditions 

 necessary for public exhibition render the intro- 

 duction of much aquatic vegetation inadvisible, 

 this habit will scarcely be shown in the tanks at the 

 fish house. In another tank in the same house are 

 a number of the small species {Lejjornis auritiis) 

 which are allied to the perch. 



Messrs. Nicholson, C. C. Hurst, and W. 

 Bateson, F.R.S., have been appointed to represent 

 the Royal Horticultural Society at the second 

 Conference on Hybridisation to be held this 

 autumn in New York. It will be remembered 

 that it was inaugurated at the Chiswick Gardens 

 of the Royal Horticultural Society, and extended 

 over two days. 



On January 28th, at a meeting of the Ro3'al 

 Geographical Society, Mr. J. S. Gardiner gave an 

 account of his expedition in 1899 and 1900 to the 

 Maldwes to investigate the interdependence of 

 physical and biological factors in the formation of 

 atolls. He compared the charts made by Moresby 

 in 1836 with his own results, and claimed that the 

 comparison yielded absolute examples and proofs 

 of one method of the formation of atolls from 

 small surface reefs ; that is, by the outward growth 

 of such reefs and the breaking-down of the central 

 part, enlarging the lagoon. 



"The Nineteenth Century and After"' con- 

 tains a paper by the Hon. Rollo Russell on " The 

 Reduction of Town Fogs." He classifies them as 

 being of four kinds. (1) Damp fog or mist from 

 the ground, up to about 1,000 feet, with dust 

 particles, not numerous. (2) Damp fog or mist, 

 dense in the country, but possibly slight in' 

 London ; tends to dissolve in the country during 

 day, and to thicken in town. (3) Dense dry fog, 

 w'ith low temperature, following a very cold night ; 

 such fogs are most frequent in London. (4) Occa- 

 sional fogs after severe frost ; this is the densest 

 kind of fog, but the least dangerous to health. 



The new report on the London Water Supply, by 

 Sir W. Crookes and Professor Dewar, contains a 

 summary of their observations during the last five 

 years on bacteiia present in the water before and 

 after filtration. The amount varies, especially in 

 the former case, in the several months and in 

 different rivers. Unfiltered Thames water is richest 

 in bacteiia, and they are most abundant in February 

 and July ; the months next to these are January' 

 and December. In May, September, and October 

 its waters are most sterile, for then they contain 

 only one for about six in the first two months. 

 The Lea and New River contain a much smaller 

 number per cubic centimetre, both agreeing nearly 

 with the Thames in their maxima and minima, 

 excepting the percentage in the former is less 

 marked in July. 



The Agricultural Education Committee has 

 been singulaiiy successful in attaining the objects 

 for which it was formed. With one exception each 

 of these has been achieved during a comparatively 

 short existence. What is still wanting is the 

 placing of the educational work of the Board of 

 Agriculture in the hands of the Board of Education. 

 Still, the members of the Agricultural Education 

 Committee need not complain, for their x3ro- 

 gress has been great. It was announced at a 

 late meeting that twenty-seven County Councils 

 have undertaken the training of elementary school 

 teachers with a view to carrying out Nature study 

 in schools. This system was recommended by the 

 Board of Education as a result of the Committee's 

 investigation and advice. It is an important stride 

 in the course of education in rural schools, in view 

 of interesting the children by practising observa- 

 tion of their surroundings, and so tending to stop 

 them from centralising in the towns. 



