September 29, 1923] 



NA TURE 



483 



of firing, and we understand that to-day more than 

 1,000,000 tons per annum is being burnt under steam 

 boilers on the " Lopulco " system, while in the next 



Iew months, as soon as plants now in course of erection 

 ir conversion are completed, the figure will exceed 

 [,500,000 tons. The pioneer large boiler plant 

 tistallation for pulverised fuel is the " Lakeside " 

 tation of the Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light 

 xO. on Lake IVIichigan, 40,000 kw. of which was 

 started up in December 1920. This boiler plant is 

 held to be the most efficient in the world, running all 

 the year round at 85-86 per cent, efficiency. The 

 first large pulverised fuel boiler plant in Europe is 

 now being erected at the Vitry power station, Paris. 



Just forty years ago, on September 29, 1883, Prof. 

 Dr. Carl Duisberg entered the employment of the 

 Farbenfabriken Bayer and Co. in Elberfeld, and the 

 influence he has exerted upon the development of 

 the German industry of coal-tar dyestuffs and pharma- 

 ceutical products has made his name renowned 

 throughout the world of appHed chemistry. Prof. 

 Duisberg received his doctorate at Jena ; he then 

 went to Munich in order to complete his education 

 under Adolf von Baeyer, and at that time laid the 

 foundation of the great friendship which for the future 

 connected him with that eminent chemist and with a 

 large number of his pupils. Shortly after he entered 

 the Farbenfabriken, and succeeded in making essential 

 improvements in the manufacture of substantive 

 cotton dyestuffs. He thereupon became the head 

 of the firm's scientific laboratory, in which he mainly 

 endeavoured to put the purely chemical work on a 

 broader basis than heretofore. At the same time 

 he began to organise the whole business, first by 

 dividing the work of the chemists according to 

 the different kinds and classes of dyestuffs, etc., and 

 then by uniting in one working concern the four 

 principal German firms which make direct cotton 

 dyestuffs. This was the first step in the formation, 

 later on, of the " LG.," the large concern of German 

 coal-tar dye makers. The site of the works in the 

 narrow Wupper valley of Elberfeld having become 

 isufficient for the rapidly increasing manufacture, 

 jt was resolved to build large modern works, and 

 Itmder Prof. Duisberg's direction a magnificent plant 

 ,^as erected at Leverkusen, near Cologne. During 

 |thc \\'ar, after some years of keen competition, the 

 remaining dye-making firms joined this first 

 amalgamation, chiefly through Prof. Duisberg's in- 

 luence, thus forming one large combine in which the 

 irms preserve their individualities but, at the same 

 time, all proceedings are directed by a uniform 

 jrogramme, and each firm partakes of the profits 

 |of the whole concern according to its share in the 

 iwork. In addition to his activities at the Farben- 

 ifabriken, Prof. Duisberg is well known by many 

 |other achievements in chemistry, while his great 

 versatility is manifest from the volume containing 

 lis essays and speeches published by the Farben- 

 fabriken on the occasion mI hi . jubilee. 



Tin iiiti 11. I ; ii.il 1 iiimliis to China of the revolution 

 [Ol Kjii IS aull nuuiilCsl by increased scientific and 



NO. 2813, VOL. I 12] 



intellectual activity. Despite the political disturb- 

 ances of the last two years, the scientific institutions 

 are growing in number and usefulness. The Geological 

 Society of China was founded last year, and held its 

 first annual meeting at Pekin in January under the 

 presidency of Dr. V. K. Ting. This year has also 

 seen the establishment of " the China Society of 

 Science and Arts," of which the China Journal of 

 Science and Arts is the official organ. It is also the 

 journal of the Shanghai Chemical Society. The 

 fourth number, issued in Shanghai in July (price 

 2 dollars, pp. 303-424), edited by Mr. A. de C. Sowerby 

 and Dr. J. C. Ferguson, includes an interesting series 

 of papers and notes on scientific and artistic work 

 in China. The articles deal with the Chinese fisheries 

 of Amphioxus, which in places is a food-fish ; the 

 Chinese " Mudskipper," Periophthalmus cantonensis, 

 which Mr. Sowerby suggests is not merely in the 

 process of evolution to a terrestrial life but may give 

 rise to a race that may replace the higher vertebrates ; 

 " The Dragon Mines," by Dr. J. Gunnar Andersson, 

 who describes the ancient Chinese excavations for 

 fossil vertebrates for use as medicine, and also the 

 recent research on Chinese vertebrate palaeontology ; 

 the war on insect pests, and on the role of bacteria ; 

 ancient Chinese coins, by E. F. S. Newan ; Chinese 

 female names, by J. C. Arlington ; Chinese landscape 

 gardening, by Miss Ayscough ; a recent exhibition of 

 Chinese pictures ; a journey to the Yangtze gorges 

 for photographic work, by H. F. Carey ; the dis- 

 sociation of prehnite, zoisite, and epidote, by E. 

 Norin ; the conditions of the Chinese soap manu- 

 facture, by Mr. Hsu ; and the aborigines of Western 

 China. There are also various reviews and notices 

 of the work of the Chinese scientific societies. The 

 Journal is well illustrated, and deserves the support 

 of all interested in China, as it gives a useful general 

 review of scientific, artistic, and literary work in and 

 in connexion with China. 



Sir Humphry Rolleston will deliver an inaugural 

 address on " The Problem of Success for Medical 

 Women " at the London (Royal Free Hospital) School 

 of Medicine for Women on October i, at 3.30 p.m. 



The Research Association of British Flour Millers 

 has been approved by the Department of Scientific 

 and Industrial Research as complying with the con- 

 ditions laid down in the government scheme for the 

 encouragement of industrial research. The secretary 

 of this Association is Mr. G. H. Ball, 40 Trinity- 

 Square, E.C. 



The British Medical Journal announces that the 

 Canadian Medical Association is arranging for a Lister 

 Oration to be given once every three years. The 

 first of these will be given next year at the annual 

 meeting in Ottawa by Dr. John Stewart, of Halifax. 

 Dr. Stewart was one of Lister's house-surgeons in the 

 early days of the latter's work in Edinburgh. 



.\( ( MKi>iN(; to the New York correspondent of the 

 Tiiih s, .1 luiinber of fires broke out in many counties 



of Calilorni.i on Sci)tcinlier 17, one of which spread 

 to the rcsiiicntial district of Beri<elcy. Some six 



