July 7, 1923] 



NA TURE 



17 



The first presentation of the Paterno medal was 

 made on July 19 during the meeting of the Inter- 

 national Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry in 

 Cambridge. The chairman, Sir William Pope, 

 explained that subscriptions had recently been 

 collected to form a foundation to commemorate the 

 many contributions made to chemistry in so many 

 of its fields by Prof. Emanuele Paterno. It had 

 been decided that the memorial should take the form 

 of a gold medal to be awarded every three years 

 for the most noteworthy discovery made in chemistry. 

 Prince Ginori Conti, the president of the Italian 

 Chemical Society, announced that at a recent meeting 

 in Rome the committee appointed had unanimously 

 nominated Dr. F. W. Aston as the recipient of the 

 first award for his work in theoretical chemistry in 

 connexion with the mass-spectrograph and isotopes. 

 Prof. Paterno then presented the medal. Dr. Aston 

 in replying expressed his sincere thanks for the great 

 honour done to Cambridge and to himself by the 

 award. He emphasised the importance of such 

 international prizes as promoting goodwill between 

 nation and nation, and expressed the hope that the 

 distinguished chemist who made the presentation 

 would be spared to assist at many similar occasions 

 in the future. Although the work for which the 

 award was made was almost entirely physical, he 

 reminded the chemists present that his first published 

 researches were in the domain of organic chemistry, 

 and that to-day all definite distinction between 

 physics and chemistry had been swept away by the 

 discovery of the electrical constitution of matter. 



News of jNIr. K. Rasmussen's researches in Arctic 

 Canada have been published in the Times in a dispatch 

 written in December 1922. The east coast of Melville 

 Peninsula from Repulse Bay to Fury and Hecla 

 Straits was charted, and extensive studies were made 

 of the little-known Eskimo tribes in that region. 

 These tribes, the Aiviliks and Igdluliks, have been 

 largely influenced by the whalers who used to visit the 

 coast in the latter half of last century. The whalers 

 took the Aiviliks into their service as boatmen, finding 

 them far superior for this purpose to the Eskimo of 

 Greenland. The result was that the kayak fell into 

 disuse and there are now no kayaks on this coast. 

 Hunting sea animals plays a small part in the lives of 

 these Eskimo, and the use of modern hunting gear, 

 which alone is employed, will die out with the dis- 

 appearance of the men trained by the whalers. Seal- 

 hunting is not widely pursued, and consequently 

 there is a shortage of blubber. In winter the snow 

 huts are generally unheated, and Eskimo have to rely 

 on good furs for warmth. Mr. Rasmussen found them 

 hardy to an incredible degree. ^During summer many 

 families move inland for trout-fishing and reindeer- 

 hunting, but reindeer are scattered and not numerous. 

 Hunting begins in July or August, which is the earliest 

 time that the skins are fit for clothing. During the 

 present summer Mr. Rasmussen, with one Eskimo 

 companion, proposed to travel across Arctic Canada 

 to Alaska and over Bering Strait to visit the Eskimo 

 in Siberia. Other members of his expedition were to 

 study the tribes of Melville Peninsula, and cross the 



NO. 2801, VOL. I 12] 



interior of Baffin Land to the Hudson Bay Co.'s post 

 on Home Bay. The result of all these researches 

 promises to elucidate the problem of Eskimo origins. 

 On Monday, July 2, the Prince of Wales opened 

 the new anatomy, biology, and physics department 

 of Guy's Hospital Medical School. The new building, 

 which completes the rebuilding scheme started some 

 twenty-seven years ago, consists of five floors. It 

 provides accommodation for the teaching of embryo- 

 logy and histology in connexion with anatomy and 

 for surgical research work, while close at hand is 

 the new biology department. The transference of 

 the physics department to the new building has 

 provided increased space for the organic and bio- 

 chemical side of the chemistry department. 



The twenty-fifth anniversary of the graduation. 

 honoris causa, of Prof. F. A. H. Schreinemakers m 

 the University of Leyden on July 7 is being marked 

 by the issue of a special number of the Reciieil des 

 travaux chimiques des Pays-Bas which will contain 

 more than sixty articles in English, French, German, 

 and Itahan by various colleagues, pupils, and friends, 

 in Holland and elsewhere, of Prof. Schreinemakers. 

 Copies of this number (price 8s. 6^.) can be obtained 

 from Miss W. C. de Baat, Leyden (Holland), Jan 

 van Goyenkade 30. 



According to the Chemiker Zeitung, Prof. A. 

 Einstein has been elected a member of the order 

 Pour le Merite. 



Lord Crawford and Balcarres has been elected a 

 trustee of the British Museum, in succession to Lord 

 Rosebery, who has resigned. 



It is stated by the Ottawa correspondent of the 

 Times that the Canadian Parhament has unanimously 

 voted an annuity of 1500/. for Dr. Banting, the 

 discoverer of the insulin treatment of diabetes, to 

 enable him to carry on his scientific work. 



The French Association for the Advancement of 

 Science is holding its annual meeting at Bordeaux 

 on July 30- August 4. Communications regarding 

 the meeting should be addressed to the secretariat 

 of the Association at 28 rue Serpente, Paris, 6e. 



Prof. F. Gowland Hopkins has been awarded the 

 gold medal of the Royal Society of Medicine, which 

 is given triennially to a scientific worker, man or 

 woman, " who has made valuable contributions to 

 the science and art of medicine." 



At a meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 

 held on July 2 the following foreign honorary fellows 

 were elected : Prof. E. B. Wilson, professor of zoology, 

 Columbia University, New York ; M. M. Boule, director 

 of the Institute of Human Palaeontology, Paris; 

 Prof. A. F. Holleman, professor of organic chemistry 

 at the University of Amsterdam ; Dr. A. A. Noyes, 

 Institute of California, Pasadena; Prof.T.W. Richards, 

 professor of chemistry. Harvard University, Cam- 

 bridge, Mass. ; Prof. Tullio Levi-Civita, professor of 

 mathematics (higher analysis) at the University of 

 Rome ; Prof. Henri Bergson, honorary professor of 

 the College of France ; and M. Alfred Angot, late 

 director of the Central Bureau of Meteorology, Paris. 



