468 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



A branch of the Ramsay Memorial Fund has been started in France under 

 the Presidency of Mr. Lloyd George. The Committee include leading French 

 scientists and politicians. A sum of 43,500 francs has already been collected. 

 The French Committee are aiming at founding one or more Fellowships to enable 

 French chemists to pursue research work in one of the British Universities. The 

 appeal in France is being directed specially to the British and American Colonies, 

 who are being asked to contribute to the fund as a testimony of their appreciation 

 of the wonderful scientific achievements of our ally, France, during the war. 



The details of several new expeditions have been reported in the Press. Mr. 

 D. B. MacMillan is leading a small party to the Arctic regions to carry out two 

 to three years' work for the National Geographic Society of the United States of 

 America. The expedition has been organised by the alumni of Bowdoin College. 

 The Duke of Abruzzi intends to explore the upper reaches of the Wady Scebel, a 

 stream running into the Fafan River from the outlying spurs of the Abyssinian 

 mountain ranges in north Italian Somaliland. Mr. E. Heller is leading an 

 expedition to collect African animals, plants, etc., for the Smithsonian Institute, 

 especially those of Central and South African origin. 



In Science (August 8, 1919) Prof. Millikan announces that he has succeeded in 

 extending the known ultra-violet spectrum to wave-lengths as short as 320 Angstrom 

 units. It will be remembered that, by using a vacuum spectroscope, Schumann 

 extended the spectrum from 1,850 A.U. to 1,220 A.U., and that Lyman afterwards 

 worked down to 510 A.U. Millikan's further success has been obtained by 

 running a zinc arc in a chamber in which the pressure is kept down to io -4 mm. 

 of mercury by means of a new and very efficient diffusion pump. At this low 

 pressure it is possible to use very high potentials (up to several hundred thousand 

 volts) to produce the sparks without obtaining any glow discharge. 



Sir Charles Parsons described several very interesting war-time inventions in 

 his presidential address to the British Association last September. Among them 

 was the Leader-Gear used, first by Germany and later by the Allies, to guide 

 their ships through their own mine-fields. An alternating current is passed 

 through an insulated cable laid at the bottom of the sea, and earthed at its 

 further end. Ships, furnished with suitable instruments, are able to follow the 

 track of the cable with great precision at any speed. Cables of as great a length 

 as 50 miles have been used, and the application of the system to assist in the 

 navigation of narrow channels, and as a guide in fogs, should be of very great 

 value. 



In his essay on " Adaptation and Adaptability " in the Eugenics Review (October 

 1919) Prof. Doncaster mentions some recent work on the effects of alcohol on the 

 offspring of the guinea-pig and of the fowl. In the former, even when the male 

 parent alone has been given a prolonged course of small doses of alcohol, the 

 offspring are defective, and so, too, are the great-grandchildren of the alcoholised 

 parents. On the other hand, Pearl finds in the fowl that fertility is reduced by 

 alcohol, but that the eggs which are fertile produce stronger and larger chicks. 

 In explanation of this apparent contradiction it is considered that, while in the 

 guinea-pig the germ-cells which produce the eggs and sperms may be injured 

 and still develop, in the fowl the susceptible germ-cells are rendered incapable of 

 development, so that only the stronger ones survive. 



In the same number of the Review Dr. H. H. O'Farrell discusses the state- 

 ment, first made by Sir Archibald Alison in his History of Europe, that, as a 

 result of the Napoleonic wars, the average height of the French population 

 lessened by one or more inches. It is shown quite conclusively that the state- 

 ment is incorrect. 



