472 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



The Percentage of Liars 



We have heard that there is a good method extant for estimating the 

 proportion of hars to the general community. A large number of men are 

 now under treatment for a disease acquired during the war. The treatment 

 involves daily dosage of a specific medicine, and the men are told to take it 

 regularly. When they return to see their doctors most of them declare with 

 the most perfect candour that they have taken the prescribed dose ; but they 

 are ignorant of the fact that their statement can be immediately tested by a 

 very simple and valuable chemical procedure. It has been found, we under- 

 stand, that something like 75 per cent, of the men who have been brought 

 to this test have been proved to be liars. Fortunately this does not give the 

 accurate percentage of liars among the population, because it naturally 

 happens that it is only the more doubtful men who are examined ; but it 

 shows scientifically that, in spite of our costly system of education, the liar is 

 a very frequent phenomenon. 



Eels 



Dr. Johannes Schmidt, who has taken up the Eel question for the Inter- 

 national Council, was the leader of the recent Danish marine research expedi- 

 tion across the Atlantic, and has discovered the breeding place of the European 

 eel. By means of successive trawls of the larvae, the region where they were 

 youngest and most abundant was found to be about 27 deg. N. and 6odeg.W., 

 not far south of Bermuda. This interesting discovery has as yet only been 

 briefly referred to in the Press, but Dr. Schmidt's report on the subject will 

 be looked forward to with great interest. 



Notes and News 



The President and Council of the Royal Society have, with the approval 

 of H.M. the King, awarded Royal medals to Mr. W. Bateson for his con- 

 tributions to biological science, and to Prof. G. H. Hardy for his researches 

 in pure mathematics. The Copley medal has been presented to Mr. H. T. 

 Brown for his work on biochemistry ; the Rumford medal to Lord Rayleigh 

 for researches into the properties of gases at high vacua ; the Davy medal 

 to Mr. C. T. Heycock for his work on the composition and constitution of 

 alloys ; the Darwin medal to Prof. R. H. Bifien for his work on the application 

 of scientific principles to plant breeding ; and the Hughes medal to Prof. 

 O. W. Richardson for his work on thermionics. 



The following is the list of the new Council of the Society : President, 

 Prof. C. S. Sherrington, M.A., M.D., Sc.D. ; Treasurer, Sir David Prain, C.M.G., 

 CLE., M.A., LL.D. ; Secretaries, Mr. W. B. Hardy, M.A., and Mr. J. H. 

 Jeans, M.A. ; Foreign Secretary, Sir Arthur Schuster, Ph.D., Sc.D., LL.D. 



Other members of Council : Mr. J. Barcroft, C.B.E., Sir William Bragg, 

 K.B.E., Dr. A. W. Crossley, C.M.G., Prof. J. B. Farmer, M.A., Sir Walter 

 Fletcher, K.B.E., Prof. A. Fowler, Dr. A. C. Haddon, M.A., Sir Robert Had- 

 field, Bt., D.Sc, Sir Thomas Heath, K.C.B., K.C.V.O., Prof. J. Graham 

 Kerr, M.A., Prof. H. Lamb, M.A., Sir Wilham Leishman, K.C.M.G., C.B., 

 Dr. S. H. C. Martin, Prof. J. W. Nicholson, M.A., Mr. R. D. Oldham, and 

 Prof. W. P. Wynne, D.Sc. 



Sir Edward Thorpe has been elected President of the British Association 

 for the 192 1 meeting at Edinburgh. For 1922 the Association has accepted 

 an invitation to visit Hull, and 1923 will, most probably, see it in Canada. 



Dr. A. W. Porter, F.R.S., has been elected President of the Faraday Society 

 for the current session, and Dr. R. Knox, M.D., President of the Rontgen 

 Society. 



