49 8 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



Its fir9t general meeting was held at the Manchester School of Technology on 

 November 10, about 500 chemists being present. The Provisional Committee 

 obtained the support of the meeting for the main objects, but is to endeavour to 

 persuade the Council of the Institute of Chemists to adopt their programme before 

 proceeding to definite incorporation. 



In Sweden a Chemical Industries' Bureau has been formed for the purpose of 

 bringing together Swedish chemical industrial interests. 



The Ramsay Memorial Fund, which was inaugurated at a meeting held at 

 University College, London, in October 1916, has made substantial progress 

 towards the raising of a sum of £100,000, which is the object of the appeal. The 

 actual sum contributed up to date in promises or donations is £21,798 iSs. 6d. 

 Steps have already been taken to form Co-operative Committees in Glasgow, in 

 other parts of the British Empire, and in certain foreign countries. For this 

 purpose the following have accepted the position of representative and correspond- 

 ing member of the Ramsay Memorial Committee in their respective countries : 

 Prof. Charles Baskerville in the United States of America, Prof. D. Orme Masson 

 in Australia, Prof. J. H. K. Inglis in New Zealand, Sefior Augusto Villanueva in 

 Chile, Prof. Philippe A. Guye in Switzerland, Prof. H. Kamerlingh Onnes in 

 Holland, Prof. J. N. Bronsted in Denmark. In Glasgow a strong Committee 

 is being formed under the chairmanship of the Lord Provost. The fund will be 

 devoted to the two following objects : 



1. The provision of Ramsay Research Fellowships, tenable wherever the 



necessary equipment may be found ; and 



2. The establishment of a Ramsay Memorial Laboratory of Engineering 



Chemistry in connection with University College, London. 



Those who desire to do so can earmark their gifts for either of these objects. 

 Donations can be addressed to the Joint Honorary Treasurers, Lord Glenconner 

 and Prof. Norman J. Collie, at University College, London, W.C.I. 



Science reports that Dr. T. Brailsford Robertson, Professor of Biochemistry and 

 Pharmacology in the University of California, has donated to the University, for 

 the endowment of medical research, all his rights in the growth-controlling sub- 

 stance "Tethelin," which he has isolated from the anterior lobe of the pituitary 

 body. Tests of this substance in military hospitals in Europe have confirmed its 

 remarkable property of causing wounds to heal promptly which have for months, 

 and even years, refused to yield to treatment. 



In the August number of the New East Dr. Futaki, of Tokyo, gives an account 

 of his discovery of the virus of typhus fever, which he calls Spirochete exanthema- 

 totyphi. The spirochetes were first located in the kidneys of patients who had 

 died from typhus and have since been found in the blood, urine, etc. They 

 resemble the Spirochata pallida in their form, and show somewhat vigorous and 

 characteristic movement under dark field illumination. Their length varies from 

 6 to 8 microns and they have short cilia at both ends. 



Mr. J. E. Wodsedalek describes some remarkable experiments he has made 

 on the starvation of various kinds of larvae {Science, October 12, 1917)- The first 

 experiments were made on the larva of the Trogoderma tarsale (a small beetle). 

 Newly hatched larvae lived four months without ever having eaten at all, and this 

 period increased with the size of the larvse at the commencement of the experiment, 

 full-grown larvae living as long as five years without food. During this time they 

 shrank to about nU of their maximum larval mass ! If the starved specimen is 

 fed it starts growing again, dwindling when restarved, and so on. 



In a letter to Nature (October 25, 1917) Prof. Strutt mentions an interesting 



