September 22, 1923] 



NA TURE 



453 



is to focus public attention for one week in the year 

 on matters of health, and to arouse that personal 

 responsibility for health-, without which all public 

 work, whether by Government or by Local Authorities, 

 must fall far short of its aims. It is suggested that 

 the dominant idea should be " Self Help in Health," 

 and the consideration of what every individual can 

 do for himself and his neighbour in securing a healthy 

 life. While there is this central Health Week Com- 

 mittee, local celebrations in each centre are organised 

 and controlled by local committees, and a circular 

 has been issued for the formation and guidance of 

 the latter, containing suggestions for the pro- 

 gramme of events and subjects for lectures. The 

 Health Week Committee is working in cordial co- 

 operation with the National Baby Week Council 

 (already referred to in these columns), and it has been 

 found convenient in several instances to combine the 

 celebrations of Health Week and Baby Week. 



An Empire Mining and Metallurgical Congress is to 

 be held at the British Empire Exhibition in London 

 during the first week in June 1924. The Institution 

 of Mining and Metallurgy, the Institution of Mining 

 Engineers, the Institution of Petroleum Technologists, 

 the Iron and Steel Institute and the Institute of 

 Metals, representing the scientific and technical 

 interests of the mineral and metal industries, with the 

 Mining Association of Great Britain and the National 

 Federation of Iron and Steel Manufacturers, are 

 co-operating as conveners of the Congress. This is 

 the first such Congress to be held, and it is anticipated 

 that succeeding sessions will be held in the Dominions 

 under the auspices of an Empire Council of Mining 

 and Metallurgical Engineering Institutions, which it 

 is hoped will be constituted as a result of the inaugural 

 Congress. Viscount Long of Wraxall will deliver 

 the Sir Julius Wernher Memorial Lecture of the 

 Institution of Mining and Metallurgy at the opening 

 session of the Congress, taking mineral resources and 

 their relation to the prosperity and development of 

 the Empire as his subject. The May Lecture of 

 the Institute of Metals to be delivered by Dr. F. W. 

 Aston, on " Atoms and Isotopes," will also form part 

 of the programme of the Congress. 



An unusual insurance claim is recorded by the 

 New York correspondent of the Times in a message 

 dated September 13. The University of Indiana took 

 out a policy at a cost of about 30/. to insure against 

 possible failure of the party from the University sent 

 to Ensenada, Mexico, to take good photographs of the 

 total solar eclipse of September 10. The expedition 

 was unsuccessful, and the insurance company duly 

 paid out about 300/., which is to go towards the cost 

 of the expedition. A similar insurance policy, but 

 for 2000/., was taken out by the Swarthmore College 

 party, which was also in Mexico. The compensation 

 in tliis case was to be inversely as the success of the 

 expedition in obtaining photographs. It is stated 

 that good photographs of the solar corona were 

 obtained. 



I p to July 2, no less than 826 broadcasting stations 

 had been licensed in the United States. For various 



KO. 2812, VOL. 112] 



reasons, however, chiefly financial, 376 of them have 

 ceased to operate. Nearly half the total number 

 of working stations are run by radio and electrical 

 companies. The rest are run by newspapers, stores, 

 colleges, churches, etc. That the art of broadcasting 

 has come to stay is proved by the fact that only a 

 small percentage of the stations were discontinued 

 because their service was unsatisfactory to the 

 public. In a few cases stations were closed down 

 because of the competition of neighbouring rival 

 stations. In Great Britain there is only a single 

 organisation for broadcasting, and so the public does 

 not get the benefit of improved service owing to 

 competition. On the other hand, however, it is 

 imperative that the industry be in a sound financial 

 position if it is to work satisfactorily. 



A MEMORANDUM On the rainfall in India during 

 June and July and the probable amount during 

 August and September has recently been issued by 

 the Indian Meteorological Department. The mon- 

 soon was late in arriving on the shores of India, and 

 was weak throughout the month of June. There 

 was a general strengthening of the monsoon currents 

 in the early part of July, and during the month well- 

 distributed rain fell over most of India. For the two 

 months of June and July the rainfall over the plains 

 of India was about 6 per cent, above normal. The 

 excess was large in Lower Burma and in the North- 

 West Frontier Province and Rajputana West. The 

 amount was short of the normal by more than 20 

 per cent, in most of the Madras Presidency, Orissa, 

 the East Central Provinces, Berar, the West United 

 Provinces, and mostly along the western frontier. 

 The forecast issued in the early part of August states 

 that there is no reason to expect any large departure 

 from the normal in the rainfall of India generally 

 in August and September. Reports received from 

 India by the India Office show for the mid-week in 

 September that there was an excess of rain in west 

 Central India, north Hyderabad, and south-east 

 Madras ; normal amounts in Lower Burma, Orissa, 

 west Central Provinces, and north Madras ; else- 

 where rains were scanty. 



Prof. A. R. Forsyth recently delivered a lecture 

 on the life and work of Sir Isaac Newton, under the 

 auspices of the London County Council, and it is 

 published as an article in the Empire Review for 

 September. This is an opportune moment to refresh 

 the public memory on Newton's life and achievement, 

 when so much interest is being taken in Einstein's 

 modification of the Newtonian law of gravitation. In 

 addition to a biographical sketch, the article gives a 

 summary of the state of mathematics and astronomy 

 when Newton was at Cambridge, and the preparatory 

 work done by Copernicus, Tycho Brahd, Kepler, and 

 Galileo in leading up to the Principia. It is explained 

 that the geometrical methods of the Principia were 

 adopted, because the validity of the infinitesimal 

 method, which Newton had himself employed, was 

 still a matter of controversy. Comment is made on 

 the curioiis fact that Newton took a degree of the 

 earth's circumference as 60 miles in his first abortive 



