590 



NATURE 



[June 29, 191 1 



usuallv add much to the distinction of the man of 

 M-ience upon whom it is conferred, but it indicates 

 I hat th»- State regards his work as worthy of public 

 honour and encouragement. No greater services can 

 be rendered to the nation than those represented by 

 contributions to natural knowledfiife, but judging from 

 the list of honours they are least esteemed. The 

 reason is probably that men of science of distinguished 

 eminence are as' unknown in the political world as 

 most of the names in the list are unknown outside 

 particular circles. It is apparently necessary to apply 

 science to some art or profession before the State can 

 understand its value. Many members of the medical 

 profession are rightly included in the honours list, 

 and we offer all of them our congratulations. Educa- 

 tion also receives some recognition. We notice in 

 the list the names of the following Fellows of the 

 Royal Society : — 



Dr. \V. Osier, Regius professor of medicine in the 

 University of O.xford, has been made a baronet; Dr. .'\. J. 

 Evans, honorary keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, has been 

 kni}ihted ; the Hon. C. A. Parsons, C.B., has been pro- 

 moted to K.C.B., and the same title has been conferred 

 upon Major Ronald Ross, professor of tropical medicine in 

 thf University of Liverpool, Vice-Admiral A. M. Field, 

 lately hydrographer of the Navy, and Prof. J. A. Ewing. 

 director of naval education. Mr. R. E. Froude, super- 

 intondent of the Admiralty F^xperimental Works ; and Prof. 

 A. W. Reinold, late professor of physics in the Royal Naval 

 College, Greenwich, and Colonel H. C. L. Holden, super- 

 intendent. Royal Gun and Carriage Factories, Woolwich 

 Arsenal, have been created C.B.'s. Dr. J. Rose Bradford, 

 secretary of the Royal Society, has been appointed a 

 K.C.M.G. 



Omitting representatives of medicine in its various 

 branches, other names familiar to many of our readers 

 are : — 



Sir John Rhys (Privy Councillor) ; Sir Boverton 

 Redwood (Baronetcy) ; l5r. A. W. W. Dale, Vice- 

 Chancellor of the University of Liverpool, Mr. G. H. 

 Ryan, president of the Institute of Actuaries, Dr. J. E. 

 Sandys, Public Orator in the University of Cambridge, 

 and Prof. R. P. Wright, lately professor of agriculture 

 and principal of the West of Scotland Agricultural College 

 (Knighthoods); Prof. M. E. Sadler, professor of education. 

 University of Manchester (C.B.) ; Dr. R. S.. Falconer, 

 president of the University of Toronto, Mr. H. N. Ridley. 

 Director of Gardens and Forests, Straits Settlements, and 

 Dr. T. Zammit, Government analyst. Public Health 

 Department, Malta (C.M.G.'s). 



JVOT£:S. 



It is now an open secret that the intentions of Parlia- 

 ment for the investigation and cultivation of the local 

 fisheries are being greatly delayed by the apparent reluct- 

 ance of the Board of .Agriculture and Fisheries to cooperate 

 with the Development Fund Commissioners. Questions 

 asked in the House of Commons during the last few 

 months have elicited replies which show that a carefully 

 drafted application, made more than a year ago, by the 

 Lancashire and Western Counties Fisheries Committee, 

 containing definite proposals for the improvement of the 

 local fisheries, has not yet been submitted to the com- 

 missioners. On June 20 Sir E. Strachey, replying to Mr. 

 N. Buxton and Mr. Whitehouse, assured the House of 

 Commons that the Board is not neglecting the fisheries. 

 It has applied to the Development Fund Commissioners for 

 a loan of 50,000?., and an annual grant of 8000/. for the 

 purpose of coast patrol vessels. It is also asking for a 

 sum of money to enable a special commission to investigate 

 the condition of the inshore fisheries. The secretary to the 

 Board should also have stated that, during the last nine 

 years, two Departmental Committees have made exhaustive 

 reports with regard to the inshore fisheries, and that the 

 NO. 2174, VOL. 86] 



Board has now full control of the staff, funds, amJ 

 sources for fishery investigation enjoyed by the Marine 

 Biolog'tcal Association until about a year ago. Further, it 

 was not made clear that the subjects mentioned by Mr. 

 Buxton — the investigation of the shell-fisheries and the 

 pollution of tidal waters, the scientific investigation of the 

 territorial water fisheries, and the organisation of the re- 

 search societies — have all been considered by the fishery 

 committees wherever these things are important enough to 

 require consideration. The urgent need of the present tinie 

 is that the Development Commissioners should assist the 

 local committees in the prosecution of investigation and 

 cultivation of the inshore fisheries. 



The annual report of the Society for the Astronomical 

 .Study of Ancient Stone Monuments, Cornwall Branch. 

 shows increasing membership and funds. The report con- 

 sists mainly of a paper read by Mr. Henry Thomas, one 

 of the secretaries, reviewing. , f observations made at 

 Boscawen-un, Tregaseal, Wendron, and Boskednan circles. 

 In each case the typical circle " does not constitute or 

 comprise in itself a system, but that it is rather the centre 

 of a system, and that the number of stone monuments 

 and barrows which stand at various distances and in 

 various directions, but all within sight of the circle, were 

 not erected and constructed in those positions by mere 

 accident " is " one thing about which there can be no 

 division in our opinions." The circles are never exactly 

 alike, and it seems that not one of those examined is a 

 true circle. It is confessed that no rule has been found to 

 explain the varying distances between the stones in a 

 circle. The apparent irregularity suggests the direction in 

 which a rule might be found, namely, testing the astro- 

 nomical use of each stone from all available view-points. 

 The next meeting of the society is announced to be held 

 at Rosemoddress Circle, St. Buryan, on June 30. 



The late Prof. His, of Leipzig, conceived the idea of 

 establishing in each country a central institute which 

 should have for its chief aim the organisation and the 

 coordination of biologfical research in its own territory, and 

 serve as a means of cooperation with similar institutions 

 in other countries. In other words, his far-reaching scheme 

 implied the establishment of a regular organised army to 

 attack the problems of living matter, which are being 

 assailed at present only by the wasteful methods of guerilla 

 warfare. Durinfjf the last decade this proposal has been 

 put to a practical test in the United States and Europe 

 (excepting Great Britain) by the establishment, or the 

 recofjnition, of certain institutions as centres for coordinat- 

 ing researches upon the brain, under the direction of the 

 " Brain Commission " of the International .Association of 

 .Academies. The success already attained in this domain 

 of biology has encourag^ed others to follow in the footsteps 

 of the neurologists. During Whit-week a conference was 

 held in the zoological laboratory of the University of 

 Utrecht for the purpose of founding an International 

 Embryological Institute. .Austria, Belgium, England, 

 France, Germany, and Holland were represented at the 

 meeting by workers in the domain of vertebrate embryo- 

 logy ; and letters were received from -Switzerland and the 

 United States in support of the scheme adumbrated by the 

 conveners of the meeting. Prof, R. Bonnet, of Bonn, was 

 elected first president of the institute, and it was decided 

 that the first aims of the new institution should be (i) the 

 collection of complete series of well-preserved embryos of 

 every mammalian order, and (2) a more intimate coopera- 

 tion between embryologists, for the purpose of attaining a 

 uniformity in nomenclature and the solution of the special 

 difficulties in this field of investigation. 



