NA TURE 



677 



SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1923. 



CONTENTS. 



The Imperial Institute and the Development of Over- 

 seas Resources ....... 677 



Field Natural History. (Illustrated.) By the Right 



Hon. Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart, F.R.S. . . 679 



Earth and Sun. By S. C 681 



Biology and Sociology. By F. S. Marvin . . 682 



The Petroleum Industry. By H. B. Milner . . 683 



Our Bookshelf 6S4 



Letters to the Editor :— 



The Relation between Solar Activity and Atmospheric 



Electricity.— Dr. Louis A. Bauer . . . 686 

 Long-range Particles from Radium-active Deposit. — 



Dr. Gerhard Kirsch and Dr. Hans Pettersson 687 

 Colour Visicin and Colour Vision Theories.— Dr. 



F. W. Edridge-Green, C.B E. . . . 687 

 .Sex Chromosomes in I'lants. {IVitk Diagram.)— 



Miss Kathleen Bever Blackburn . .687 



Powers of Perception of Birds.— Chas. W. Palmer 688 

 Population and Unemployment. — Dr. Marie C. 



Slopes 688 



A Possible Cure for Cancer.— Dr. J. H. Orton . 688 

 Science and the .State.— Philip Farrer . . 689 

 A Representative Scientific Council. — Hugh Richard- 

 son 689 



Radio Direction Finding by Reception. By O. F. B. 690 

 The Education of the People. By Prof. T. Percy 



Nunn 692 



New Discoveries and Paintings of Palaeolithic Date 



in the Department of the Lot (France). By M. C. B. 695 

 An African Chalicothere. By Dr. Chas. W. Andrews, 



F R.S 696 



Obituary : 



The Hon N. C Rothschild. By E. E. A. . 697 



Mr. William Thomson 697 



Sir William Rice Edwards, K.C.B., K.C.LE., 



C.M.G 698 



Current Topics and Events 699 



Our Astronomical Column 702 



Research Items ....... 703 



Scientific Activities in Birmingham. By J. N. F. . 705 



Aeroplane Performances ..... 706 



The Floor of the North Sea. By J. S. G. . . 706 

 The Physicist in the Textile Industries . -707 

 University and Educational Intelhgence . . .708 



Societies and Academies 7^9 



Official Publications Received . • • 7" 



Diary of Societies 7 '2 



Advertisements and business letters should be 



addressed to the Publishers. 



Ediiofial communicAtions to the Editor. 



Editorial and Publishing OJfiies : 



MACMILLAN 6- CO , LTD., 

 ST. MARTIN- S STREET, LONDON, W.C.2. 



Telegraphic Address: PHUSIS, LONDON. 

 Telephone Number : GERRARD 8830. 



The Imperial Institute and the Develop- 

 ment of Overseas Resources. 



THE Imperial Economic Cofifcrence has approved 

 a scheme whereby the Imperial Institute is to 

 be reconstituted ; a representative of the Department 

 of Scientific and Industrial Research is to be one of a 

 committee of three appointed to see that the Institute 

 laboratories limit their work to preliminary inquiries, 

 and the Galleries are to be closed; in spite of the protest 

 of New Zealand, on the score of economy. The detailed 

 account which has just been issued by the Imperial 

 Institute (Bulletin of the Imperial Institute, vol. xxi., 

 No. I, pp. iv + 289, price 35. 6</.) of its work in recent 

 years has been published at a very convenient time. The 

 Institute was founded in 1887, but until 1903 the work 

 for which it was established was subordinated to the 

 effort to run it as a social club attached to a ballet. It 

 was reorganised in 1903, and in that year it began the 

 publication of its quarterly Bulletin, which now has a 

 circulation of 3000 copies, and also issued the first report 

 by its Mineral Surveys. Its efforts then to undertake 

 the work for which it was founded were handicapped 

 by restrictions, burdens, and prejudices inherited from 

 the former regime. The Institute has, however, been 

 steadily surmounting these difficulties and building up 

 an organisation by which to help the utilisation of the 

 varied materials still lying unused in the Empire Over- 

 seas. It works by three main branches. Its Depart- 

 ment of Scientific and Technical Research investigates 

 all kinds of raw materials and advises as to their 

 profitable employment. Its Intelligence Department 

 gives information and advice, and is aided by com- 

 mittees of commercial, technical, and scientific experts, 

 which deal with raw materials, silk production, rubber 

 research, timber, and the mineral resources of the 

 Empire. The extensive museum attractively displays 

 the chief raw materials and illustrates the geographical 

 conditions under which they are produced and the 

 processes by which they are utilised. 



The work already achieved by the Institute is clearly 

 of high value. The discovery of the Udi coalfield by 

 one of its Mineral Surveys would alone repay all the 

 expenditure on the Institute ; for that coalfield, in the 

 event of any serious war in north-west Africa, would 

 be invaluable in the defence of our colonies there, and 

 it will probably develop into a coaling station of high 

 importance from its position on the tropical Atlantic. 

 The discover)' of the monazite sands of Ceylon has 

 destroyed the former German monopoly based on 

 Brazilian material. Several of the Mineral Surveys 

 organised by the Institute have now passed away 

 from it, as they have developed into independent 

 geological surveys. 



As to other natural products, investigations in the 



NO. 2819, VOL. I I 2] 



