September 15, 1923] 



NA TURE 



401 



natural that a district like the Awa-Kazusa peninsula^ 

 where small shocks are taking place so frequently, 

 does not give rise to a destructive earthquake ; while 

 a neighbouring region like the Uraga channel, which 

 belongs to the same seismic zone, but is subject for 

 the time to a low seismic frequency, may become the 



source of a strong shock." So far as the evidence at 

 our disposal will allow us to judge, it seems to me very 

 probable that the recent earthquake originated in 

 the Uraga channel portion of this seismic zone and at 

 a great depth — perhaps from 20 to 30 miles or more— 

 below the surface. 



Current Topics 



Several matters of interest are referred to in the 

 report of the Council of the British Association 

 presented at the Liverpool meeting now in session. 

 Major-General Sir David Bruce has been unanimously 

 nominated by the Council to fill the office of president 

 of the Association for the year 1924-25 (Toronto 

 Meeting). The grateful thanks of the Association 

 has been expressed by the Council to Sir Robert 

 Hadfield for his generous gift designed to enable 

 necessitous students to obtain scientific books. The 

 gift is of 50/. in each of three years, and that sum, 

 for the first year, has been distributed in grants of 

 10/. to each of five universities or colleges selected 

 by lot, namely. University College of Bangor, North 

 Wales ; University College, Cardiff ; Universities of 

 Leeds, Liverpool, and Manchester. The Council, on 

 behalf of the Association, joined in protesting against 

 proposed changes in the Egyptian laws relating to 

 antiquities, and received, through the Foreign Office 

 and the High Commissioner, the assurance that the 

 Egyptian Government would not modify the existing 

 law without further careful consideration of protests 

 received. The third grant of 250/. from the Caird 

 Gift for research in radioactivity (for the year ending 

 March 24, 1924) has been made to Prof. F. Soddy. 

 In conformity with the rules, the Council has nomin- 

 ated the following new members to fill vacancies 

 caused by retirement : Prof. W. Dalby, Dr. J. S. 

 Flett, and Mr. C. T. Heycock, leaving two vacancies 

 to be filled by the General Committee. The Council 

 has nominated M. le Comte de St. Perier to be an 

 honorary corresponding member of the Association. 

 Arrangements for the meeting in Toronto, 1924, are 

 in progress, and the Council has appointed a com- 

 mittee to assist the General Officers in this matter, 

 including Sir D. Bruce, Sir Richard Gregory, Sir 

 William Herdman, Prof. A. W. Kirkaldy, Prof. 

 J. C. McLennan, Sir Ernest Rutherford, Sir Charles 

 Sherrington, and Prof. A. Smithells. The General 

 Committee at Hull desired the Council to consider 

 the possibility of a meeting being held in England 

 in 1924, following and supplementary to the Toronto 

 Meeting. The Council does not, however, see the 

 way clear for carrying out the suggestion. 



In an article on the magnetic work carried out at 

 the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, which appeared 

 in Nature of September i, p. 345, reference was 

 made to the need for the removal of the record- 

 ing instruments from Greenwich. The proposal to 

 electrify railway routes in the vicinity of the observa- 

 tory rendered this course necessary, and a site on 

 the lower slopes of Holmbury Hill, Surrey, was chosen 

 as meeting the requirements for the new station. 

 NO. 281 I, VOL. I 12] 



and Events. 



Considerable opposition to the scheme was aroused 

 on the plea that the site was on common land and 

 that the necessary buildings would deface one of the 

 best known view-points in Surrey. We now under- 

 stand from Mr. L. W. Chubb, secretary of the Commons 

 and Footpaths Preservation Society, that an alterna- 

 tive site has been found near Abinger Bottom, \\ 

 miles from Holmbury Hill. The position is on private 

 land and is protected from interference by building 

 operations by Abinger and Wotton commons. It is 

 only 2 J miles from a railway, but the Astronomer 

 Royal and the technical advisers of the Admiralty 

 have accepted the site as meeting the needs of a 

 permanent magnetic observatory where the records 

 commenced in 1840 at Greenwich may be continued. 



According to the Calcutta correspondent of the 

 Times, a severe earthquake shock, lasting several 

 minutes, was felt in Calcutta at 4 o'clock on the 

 morning of September 10. The direction of the 

 shock was from north - east to south-west and it 

 extended over a wide area, slight damage to buildings 

 being reported at Dacca, and from various stations 

 in Assam. It is stated that the shock was the most 

 severe since the great earthquake of 1897. 



We regret to announce the death on August 23, 

 at the age of forty-nine, of Dr. E. F. Bashford, the 

 first director of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. 



Prof. Bohuslav Brauner, professor of chemistry 

 in the Bohemian University, Prague, has been 

 elected an honorary foreign member of the French 

 Chemical Society. 



The Times correspondent at Cairo reports that the 

 Ministry of Public Works has decided to construct 

 a special wing to the Cairo Museum, to cost 28,000/., 

 for the purpose of housing the objects taken from the 

 tomb of Tutankhamen. 



Summer Time will cease in Great Britain, and 

 normal time will be restored, at 3 a.m. (Summer Time) 

 in the morning of Sunday, September 16, when the 

 clock will be put back to 2 a.m. 



Dr. Raul Gautier, director of the Observatory 

 and professor of astronomy and meteorology in the 

 University of Geneva, has been elected an honorary 

 member of the Washington Academy of Sciences, in 

 recognition of his prominence in geodesy and his inti- 

 mate connexion with scientific work in Washington. 



Dr. C. M. Wenyon has been appointed director-in- 

 chief of the Wellcome Bureau of Scientific Research 

 in succession to Dr. Andrew Balfour, who has held 

 that post for the past ten years. Dr. Wenyon was 

 previously director of research in the Tropics at the 

 institution. 



