selves. I was in hiding behind a tree about fifteen yards from them looking at them, when I saw an elephant with four tusks as roughly represented in the attached sketch.

The left tusk was the bigger and had the usual direction, but the direction of the small tusk was downwards and came out from under the big one. It was round, and its thickness was about 21 inches.

The direction of the right tusk was downwards and the small tusk came out from under it in the usual direction, but it was small like the other one.

I did not know that this elephant was so valuable and for this reason I did not try to shoot it, although the Ombashi and the soldier who were with me told me to shoot it, but I refused. This is all the story.

YAMBIO,

February 17, 1919

ABD EL-FARAG ALI, M.A.

QUOTATIONS

THE WORK OF THE BRITISH

ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE

YOUR leading article of this morning expresses some dissatisfaction which even those who have best cause to be satisfied with the recent meeting will readily share. You sneer at the "vast sum" of £1,300 provided for research at the outcome of the meeting. We all share your obvious wish that it were much larger, and the treasurer especially made that desire clear at one of the evening meetings. Any hint you may give us how it may be increased will be gratefully received. Meanwhile it is possible that its exact significance is not fully understood. It represents, so to speak, the extra charges for heating and lighting when a big factory is run overtime by voluntary workers. The main expenses of the scientific organization of the country, including the salaries of professors and demonstrators, are met in quite other ways. Some members of ths large staff find that they have time and energy to work overtme-to conduct some research which has occurred to them as desirable if only a piece of apparatus can be provided or the expenses of a series of computations met. They ask for no addition to their salaries for this work, though such additions could in many cases be reasonably

defended. They come to the British Association only for out-of-pocket expenses. The value of the work thus done is enormous, and if fully remunerated would represent a sum many times greater than that actually devoted to it.

It follows that there is a limit to possible expenditure of this kind. I do not mean to suggest that has been reached, but clearly the unpaid overtime obtained from a given staff has its limits. There comes a point at which more work can be got only by adding to the staff, and at this point the British Association generally hands over the matter to some other body. Thus the beginnings of our Great National Physical Laboratory, now added to the scientific resources of the nation, may be traced in the earnest but unassuming work done by the British Association many years ago when in your own words "some of the best brains in Great Britain met in solemn conclave to allot the vast sum" of about £1,000, only a fraction of which could be devoted to the fundamental work of fixing accurately the electrical and other standards. The war has accustomed us to the huge sums which are apparently available for destruction: it is a commonplace that the beginnings of the most important constructive work are usually small. Is your sneer altogether appropriate?

With your suggestions that the camp followers should be dismissed and the discussions specially directed to the "technical methods on which the progress of science depends" I do not find myself altogether in sympathy. We owe much to the camp followers, even beyond the money they provide for research; and the experts can meet at the Royal Society for technical discussions. But I scarcely know whether you would welcome a reconsideration of the declared objects of the British Association in your columns: at any rate, I hesitate to enter on so large a field without some indication of permission. On the point you consider most vital, that the Association should "insist on the advancement of science simply as knowledge, and not merely as a means to practical utilities," we are all fully agreed, as a glance

EXPLANATION OF FIGURES

FIG. 1. Steam Generator and Boiler. A, boiler, 15-liter capacity, copper; A', dash plate; B, trap with removable lid, copper; C, lead to condenser, -inch diameter, block tin; D, condenser-tube, 6 feet long, 1 inch inside diameter, block tin; D, outlet for escaping gases, block tin; D", outlet for condensed water, block tin; E, inlet for washed air, block tin; F, soda-lime tower and H2SO, in pumice tower (the figure shows but one jar); F', outlet to out-of-doors; G, upper condenser jacket, 12 inches

long, 4 inches diameter, copper; H, lower condenser jacket, 18 inches long, 4 inches diameter, copper; I, rubber connection serving as expansion joint. FIG. 2. Air Pump and Wash Train J, aspirator; J', air inlet from out-of-doors; J", water and air outlet of aspirator sealed into top of jar; K, pressure jar; K', water outlet of pressure jar K; K", air outlet of pressure jar K; L, wash jar containing commercial H.SO.; M,M, soda-lime towers; N, dust filter of cotton-wool; O, washed air outlet connecting with E of Fig. 1.

Bourdillon.1 It was first used in this university by Mr. M. Meacham in 1914-15 in the laboratory of Dr. S. F. Acree. With this apparatus slightly modified from the original the writers have been able to secure a very good grade of water by a single distillation of laboratory tap water.

Referring to the accompanying illustration, Fig. 1 consists of a boiler and condenser and Fig. 2 of an air-washing apparatus. The essential feature of the operation of the still is the washing with a stream of purified air of steam and of hot condensed water while spread out over the large interior surface of the consenser-tube. During operation the steam passes from the boiler A (Fig. 1) through the trap B and upward through the condensertube D. At the upper end of D it is condensed and runs while still hot down the sides of D to the bottom where it is further cooled before being discharged into the receiving vessel. During the passage through D the steam and hot water are washed by a stream of purified air which is forced into D at the bottom and passes upward and out at the top carrying with it volatile impurities from the steam and hot water. The nonvolatile impurities are retained in the boiler.

It is usual to put about one gram of KHSO or H,PO into the boiler for each two or three liters of water, although this may not be essential. In the construction of the condenser it is better to have the workman use muriatic acid rather than rosin as a flux for soldering, because the latter substance may be difficult to remove from the interior after completion. In the arrangement of the airwashing system it is essential to have the soda-lime towers between the acid jar and the condenser to prevent any volatile fumes from the acid passing into the condenser. It is better that air be forced rather than drawn through the apparatus, because this avoids the possibility of contaminating the air stream by leakage of laboratory gases inward. The air pressure obtained from the pump may be regulated by varying the height of the water outlet K' as well as by regulating the water

1 Trans. Chem. Soc., 103, 791, 1913.

supply to the aspirator. Contamination of the interior of the condenser tube D from the outside is prevented by inserting absorbing chambers F of soda-lime and H2SO, in pumice between D' and the out-of-door outlet F".

By using special care and after continued use for some time, water with a specific conductivity of 0.4 X 10-6 mhos has been obtained from tap water by a single distillation. With a fifteen-liter boiler on an ordinary gas-range burner, no difficulty has been encountered in securing eight to ten liters of water per day having a specific conductivity of from 1 to 2 X 10-6 mhos. After the apparatus has been started and regulated, it requires very little attention. The following data are offered as an example of what may ordinarily be expected of this still.

GEOPHYSICS AT THE BRUSSELS
MEETINGS, JULY 18-28, 19191

UNDER the auspices of the International Research Council, which met at Brussels in the Palais des Académies, July 18-28, 1919, there was established, besides other international unions of astronomy, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, scientific radiotelegraphy, etc., the International Geodetic and Geophysical Union, consisting of the following sections and officers:

Since there were represented at Brussels this time only the countries of the Allies, it was concluded to defer complete organization of the sections until the entrance into the Union of other countries to be invited by the International Research Council. In the case of Section (b) (Seismology), since the agreement among nations belonging to the International Seismological Association, formed before the war, does not expire until April 1, 1920, it was necessary to postpone any organization, whatsoever, of the section. However, as the central office of the association is at Strasburg, it is fitting that it continue there when the Section of Seismology is organized. Professor E. Rothé has been appointed to the chair of geophysics, at the University of Strasburg, France. The rector of the university invited the delegates at Brussels to attend the opening, on November 11, 1919, of the university, now under French auspices.

The Executive Committees of the Sections were for the present limited to the president, vice-president and secretary, excepting in the case of (e) (Physical Oceanography) where Sir Charles Close (British Ordnance Survey)

1 Basis of an account which the writer was requested to give before the combined meeting at Ann Arbor, September 4, 1919, of the American Astronomical Society, American Mathematical Society, and the Mathematical Association of America.

and Mr. G. W. Littlehales (U. S. Hydrographic Office) were made additional members of the executive committee of that section.

The officers of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics are: President, M. Charles Lallemand (director, Levelling Service, France); general secretary, Colonel H. G. Lyons (Army Meteorological Service, Great Britain). These two officers, with the addition of the presidents of the Sections, who are the vice-presidents of the Union, constitute the Executive Committee of the Union.

According to the method of organization and the interpretation put upon the office of secretary, it is expected that the affairs of the unions and sections, between the triennial meetings of the General Assembly, will be largely conducted by the respective secretaries, as is the case also with regard to the general secretaryship of the International Research Council, to which Professor Arthur Schuster was reelected. Thus, according to the official or French version of the statutes of the Union, which were made to conform to those of the council, the secretary's duties are defined as follows:

The secretary of a section shall act as director of its central bureau. He shall be responsible for the conduct of correspondence, the management of the resources, the custody of the documents, the preparation and issue of publications and such other matters as the General Assembly may refer to him.

Organization of Work.-In section (a) (Geodesy), which is to take the place of the

former International Geodetic Association, it was decided to defer the appointment of committees and the organization of international research work in geodesy until the next general meeting (1922) of the Union, or until some previous special meeting. At a joint meeting of geophysicists and astronomers it was finally decided to leave to the International Astronomical Union the future international variation-of-latitude observations.

Section (c) (Meteorology) it was generally agreed could usefully and effectively supplement, by confining its work to research and fundamental problems in meteorology, the functions and work of the pre-war International Meteorological Committee. The latter, as it consisted of official weather-bureau directors, necessarily had to concern itself primarily with administrative and official meteorological questions. In the unavoidable absence of the elected president, Sir Napier Shaw, no organization of work was attempted except the passing of two resolutions to the following effect:

(a) That there be appointed a Joint Committee of the International Astronomical Union and of the Section of Meteorology of the International Geodetic and Geophysical Union for investigational work on solar radiation.

(b) That international work in atmospheric electricity, as far as possible, be placed under the direction of a committee nominated partly by the Section of Terrestrial Magnetism and Electricity and partly by the Section of Meteorology.

The work of section (d) (Terrestrial Magnetism and Electricity) could be more com