734 



NATURE 



[Nu\ tMHhk 17, 1923 



rrlin(jiiislir(l in iKi,| lun! (i\c \t;ir^ 1 it< r ! >r. I.iitliam 



\-(.iiintnril'.- rcsit-nr,! \\<^\^\ ilit- .i.v.- IiM ■'! \.i(|. 11 



in 



I ^ ■ : '• was 



cduratt-d 111' j)[)rfntir( . i.iltr 



l,i- I iiiiTi il ' ,ilv t>f ( i! . illf 



I ,imi .11. ■ tli<- 



; ,, , .,,,,... I I Ijli r , , lllnll 



■A.i I II n-liiu ilic liiii.iiii I . Ill 1 1m t..li -.x \w. 



u,l> ill I Inl ti) a IclliiU .lil|) .ll I 'iiUIilIlL' .iliM |MiH , rdrri 

 111 ilur I nlllM' III llii i|(-I<.< > nt M.I'., aiui M.l>. I|i 



al-i. ^llllll^(i .ll ,^t, r>.irtliolomew'.s llu-.|iil,il aiui in 

 ( il I man\ . 



I )|-. i ,at liai! ' ( hilt ific ii it I- rest alter In^ return 



til ( ainlirid'ji ■ i> iiln.^i-., Imt in time lie |);t.>>ed 



t(i the I (iIlMilelal lull nt a wide lailL'e i)t pathologicul 



>tudie^ and In eliemii al ])li\ >iii1iil:\ . His Croonian 

 Lertures in iSS() ,liiiued lii.s leaiiiiii: tnuardN tlie.^e 

 aspects ot niedieal -^1 u in c : while in the liarscian 

 Oration (leli\-eretl tun \ear> later he lent lli^ >iippiirt 

 to the advocacy ol such tlicorics as those ol Korh and 

 \li II iiiukoff which were rapidly leading to the lornmla- 

 iiiiii III modern views concerninLr disease and tissue 

 reaitiiMi. Many of the proljlem- ol that tinu' have 

 since been solved ; for example, the place of caseous 

 tubercles in the disease complex associated with 

 infection In- tubercle bacilli : and some, like that of 

 the tian^htrinability of organisms one into another. 



• en set aside o. in. Dr.! 



eoncerninfi tl dar stni' 



pr»<loplasn). turther. ,'..1-. not a' 

 assisted notalil) in lln' disseminat; 

 of disease and contributed in 

 lifiealK . to current discussions, 



i'.N the i:> 'imetz, t! 



' ■ ' .i.^Tioii 1./.^.^ will uf its nno 



lie was ix)m at Breslau 1 

 i.^'i 1 1 . it Hrcslau, Berlin, and Z 



he w( nt to 1903 he was elected pn 



of elei trieal < n-mctrm;4 ut the Union Univer 

 \'ork. lie was a voluminous author, and hi 

 matlu-matii al < lectrical engineering are well km- 

 over tin world, lie was also chief consulting en. 

 to the General Electric Co. of America and carried 01 

 main successful researelu s. We mention specially \\ 

 resean he.> on the e'^ 

 magnetite .w ^ ■ 

 read, hut hi 



to liel]) the I niiiii .--i.iii - 



eountr\ in the world in luLih-ti 



ngth of air and on t! 

 itician he was not wi'i- 1 

 iginality. He did 



• ' me the Uamo 



trieal engineer 



ing. On hearing of his deatii tnc i-.nglish Instit 

 of i;Ui trieal Engineers in England cabled a nv 

 of condolence to the In.stit ■ that 



work lives and will continue i ■ 



Current Topics and Events. 



Mi?. Robert Hutchinson, president of the 

 N.itiDiial Association of British and Irish .Millers, 

 read a paper on " The Economic liasis of W heat- 

 growing in England " at the annual meeting of the 

 fellows of the National Institute of Agricultural 

 Botany on November 2. The only way, he said, of 

 preventing the area under wheat from being further 

 reduced was to raise the price to a protitable level. 

 This is not impossible if a wheat is obtainable which 

 combines with the productivity, the stiffness of straw 

 and the resistance to disease of the best English 

 wheats, the " strength " which puts so high a 

 premium on the best Canadian wheats. " Strength " 

 is the mysterious factor wdiich determines the size, 

 shape, and palatability of a loaf. For many years 

 it was believed that a strong wheat cutild not be 

 grown on English soils or in the moist English climate. 

 Wheats imported for experimental purposes from 

 Canada, Russia, Hungary and Turkey all lost their 

 quality within a few years. But one wheat, Canadian 

 Red Fife, has been proved to retain its strength 

 unimpaired after 21 successive years' growth in 

 England. Prof. R. H. Bitien, working on Mendelian 

 lines, has proved that strength is a. dominant char- 

 acteristic, and by crossing Red Fife with high- 

 yielding English wheats has already given the 

 farmer Yeoman wheat, which without admixture of 

 foreign wheats will yield satisfactory bread. But, 

 in Prof. Biffen's own words, the sooner Yeoman is 

 oli the market the better, for a series of new wheats 

 believed to combine the best characteristics of 

 Canadian and English varieties, and adapted to 

 different types of sods, are now growing at the 



NO. 2820. VOL. 112] 



! ( ,imliriil.Lie Plant I ireeding Institute, and it is hof>e?l 

 til market the tir^i nt tiiese through the National 

 institute of .\f4ru iiltiiral Botany in the autumn of 

 1924. If the promise of these wheats materialises, 

 English wheat will he lifted from the category < • 

 kinds to be bought for breadmaking only whe: 

 the price is low into the category of kinds desire 

 and essential. This change v.ould revolutionise th 

 financial prospects of Engli.~-h w lieai-i;rowing. 



Of recent years the great development of agri- 

 cultural education and research in Great Britai'^ 

 has attr.ti ted 1 nnsiderahle attention throughout tli 

 Empire. The number of research workers spending 

 some time at centres such as the Rothamsted Experi- 

 mental Station is ra])uily increasing. In the majority 

 of cases thev are sent officially by the Dominion 

 Government concerned. A further example of this 

 co-operation is furnished by the recent departure of 

 Sir John Russell, Director of the Rothamsted Ex- 

 perimental Station, on a special mission to the Sudan. 

 He will be associated with l>r. H. Martin Leake 

 Director of Agriculture for the United Provinces c 

 India, in advising the Sudan Government on it 

 agricultural policy. In view of the enormous possi- 

 bdities for growing cotton in the Sudan, agricultural 

 research work will be mainly concerned with cotton. 

 The first instalment of the great irrigation scheme in 

 the Gezira plain south of Khartoum is expected to 

 come into operation in the autumn of 1925. At this 

 stage 300,000 acres will be put under irrigation, of 

 which 100,000 acres will be under cotton ; but the 

 total scheme is capable of development over an area 



