398 



NATURE 



[September 15, 1923 



The British Association at I.ivcrpool. 



Sir Ernkst Rriiii !• 



I- !•'.>. 



ill'', ninfty-lii^t 

 Association Ini tin 

 ipcni'd on W'ediK-'' ' • • ' 

 1)\' tin- president. " 

 -;tni(tnre of matu i 



I'"!!!'", ninfty-lii^t amm.ii ■■ i the l'>ritish 



Assoriiition lor the Aii\ .niMiiunt nt S( ictn c 

 Min ■ Willi u Ijnlliant address 

 l< Mill ! I urd, on the electrical 

 i.JK I lo which he has made 

 man\ notable contributions and on wIik h he is a 

 leading exponent. lie is, we believe, the youngest 

 president appointed by the Council since the founda- 

 tion of the Association in 1831. The average age of 

 the presidents of the 

 Association is nearly 

 sixty-two years; and 

 until this year the 

 youngest presidents 

 were Sir Arthur 

 Rucker, Sir Joseph 

 Thomson, and Dr. 

 Bateson, each of 

 whom was fifty-three 

 years of age when 

 holding the office. 



Sir Ernest Ruther- 

 ford was born at Nel- 

 son, New Zealand, on 

 August 30, i87i,and, 

 after graduating in 

 the University of New 

 Zealand, proceeded 

 with an 1851 Exhibi- 

 tion Science Scholar- 

 ship to Trinity Col- 

 lege, Cambridge, 

 where he at once took 

 up research at the 

 Cavendish Labora- 

 tory, leading in 1897 

 to a research degree 

 and the Coutts- 

 Trotter Scholarship. 

 In the following year, 

 and on the advice of 

 Sir Joseph Thomson, 

 he was appointed 

 Macdonald professor 

 of physics in McGill 

 University, Montreal, where he remained until 1907 

 and continued with such remarkable success the 

 studies of the properties of radioactive substances 

 in which he had shown great originality and insight 

 at Cambridge. It was while he was at Montreal 

 that Sir Ernest Rutherford was joined by Prof. 

 Soddy from Oxford, and together they proved by 

 experimental evidence that radioactivity is an atomic 

 phenomenon accompanied by chemical changes in 

 which new types of matter are produced, that the 

 changes must occur within the atom, and that the radio- 

 active substances must be undergoing transformation. 

 It was twenty-one years ago when this theory of the 

 cause and nature of radioactivity was published in the 

 Philosophical Magazine, and the advances in atomic 



NO. 281 I, VOL. I 12] 



), ■ ii have hern !>"t!i 



.slarlli liinuliiliiig. Tlic distn 



atteri ' Ernest Rutherford's u 



beenextriiiH < aw m \crifyinL; (•\<t'. t> j) ■<■. tt 



experiini iit.il \r~\, .ind it \-. on tin.-, uituunl ::._: 



theory uln' li it ht-t pr- ah adverse criticih; 



has be< ((Hi' ■" ■ ' • ' ■ ■ ..ri,,, ,,.1- 

 The uiu i 



fii a field whidi 1 growing 



extent aiitl im r<a>inL' in fcrlilils- e\tr iin 



I^angworth 

 of physics m li 

 versity of Man' 

 from 1907 to 191 

 and a> ra'.md: 



( anibridgedur 

 past four yea: 

 and his pupil- 

 cultivated thi 

 with astonishii.^ 

 (CSS. Attention 1.. 

 l)een gi\en parti* 

 larly to the a-parti< i 

 which is liberat< 

 spontaneously in 

 radioactive transfor- 

 mations and h> 

 proved of special sc 

 \ice in elucidatir 

 the structure of the 

 atom. Bombardment 

 of the lighter ele- 

 ments, particularly 

 of nitrogen and al 

 minium, by the 

 swift projectiles, li 

 disclosed the preseiT 

 of hydroL;en lun '. 

 within the nuclei • 

 some of these el= 

 nu-nts. and this work 

 has j)layed an im- 

 portant in 

 modem t of 

 the structure of matter, with whirh Sir Ernest Ruther- 

 ford deals in his presidential address, reproduced in 

 this week's Supplement to Xature. 



Arr.xnc.kments for the Meeting. 



The mcetinu of the British Association 

 held in Liverpool is of particular imporiaim.. u>.u. 

 by reason of the large attendance and through 

 the weighty scientific matters under discussion. In 

 other respects also it is noteworthy, on account of 

 departure from what are traditional habits of the 

 Association. 



The president's address in the Philharmonic Hall 

 was not a mere reading of written matter. The 



