848 



NATURE 



[i>r.\.r..%ihr.K 8, 19^3 



order of "f professorial function. By 



this invi I -ty of set puroose desires to 



recoil KM .i> a definite prolesHion and to 



adviii tc» nuiintain, the »rinciplf that the 



hiboiiK I !•> »<'rthy of his hire no le-ss wli"" ••' •' -"fd 

 in research tlmn when engaged in chiss in 



Yet one word more tipon this subject. cut 



as the Rifts are which the S<x:iety has received, 

 enabling it to do what it is doing toward this end 

 it has at heart, may we not venture to hope that 

 the funds already to hand for that purpose will 

 prove but the auspicious starting-point for yet others 

 of similar destination. To say this is but to echo 

 the concluding sentence of Sir Alfred Yarrow's 

 memorable letter. With such aspirations, our desire 

 is that in due course either the Koyal Society or other 

 bodies may have it in their power to endow the 

 research of all those individuals whose life ought, 

 in the best interests of the community, to be devoted 

 to scientit' - rch as the innin purpose of their 

 life-career 



The Medallists. 



Copley Medal. Prof. Horace I.amb. — For forty 

 years Prof. Lamb has been recognised as one of the 

 most prominent and successful workers in applied 

 mathematics in Great Britain. He is the foremost 

 authority on hydrodynamics, not only in Great Britain 

 but the world over. Prof. Lamb's scientific activity, 

 originally centring around the subject of hydro- 

 dvnamics, has radiated thence into most branches 

 o\ physical science and he may be regarded as the 

 outstanding representative to-day of the school 

 founded by Stokes, Kelvin, Clerk Maxwell, and 

 Rayleigh. In recent years he has made important 

 contributions to seismology, the theory of tides, 

 and other branches of geophysics. Specially perhaps 

 should be mentioned the assistance he has given of 

 recent years to the Aeronautical Research Committee. 

 Mathematical questions involved in ^the flow of air 

 round aircraft, in the action of propellers, and the 

 stresses in aeroplane structure, are of fundamental 

 importance, but are exceedingly difficult ; and here, 

 as elsewhere. Prof. Lamb's mathematical skill and 

 power of clear exposition have proved of the highest 

 value. 



Royal Medal. Prof. Charles James Martin. — Prof. 

 Martin is distinguished for contributions both to 

 physiology and to pathology. Investigating snake 

 venoms, he differentiated two groups in virtue of 

 their action, one nervous, the other, so to say, humoral. 

 His work on heat-regulation in monotremes threw 

 light on the evolution of the thermotaxis of warm- 

 blood animals. More recently his researches have 

 lain in the colloidal chemistry of proteins, and in 



frotein- metabolism. As Director of the Lister 

 nstitute he has contributed to many investigations, 

 in addition to those actually issued in his name. 

 Thus he has been intimately associated with the 

 inquiry into the influence of accessory food factors of 

 diet in the prevention and remedying of " deficiency" 

 diseases, such as scurvy and rickets, an inquiry 

 the succe.ss of which may be regarded as one of the 

 recent triumphs of preventive medicine. 



Royal Medal, bir William Napier Shaw. — In the 

 great advances made during the last twenty-five 

 years in the science of meteorology. Sir Napier Shaw 

 has been amongst the foremost pioneers. During 

 his twenty years' administration at the Meteoro- 

 logical Office, that Office saw three marked steps 

 forward : two of these were changes in its quarters ; 

 the third and greatest was the change in outlook 

 of the work of the OflSce, whereby it assumed, 

 under Sir Napier Shaw's stimulating influence, 



NO. 2823, VOL. 112] 



the ■ « r of a scientific in^r 



int< I of meteorological pi 



the .1-.M t.iiice of his .scientifi' 



veloped the physical and <1 .< 



the subject, and luus df^e : 



attention uix)n the thermodvn 



wherein the motions of the 



interpretc<l as the action of a if :i<- 



His contributions to kn()wl((! i-, 



ways have been largely -le for < 



the basis of meteorology ii of cmpir: 



one of science. 



Davy Medal. Prof, Herbert Breretoa I'. ; r 

 Prof. Baker's researches in various fields of « 

 investigation, his examination of highly 

 tellurium from various sources for the po.s;»ible 

 presence of higher members of the same group of 

 elements, and the redetermination of its atomic 

 weight, are of outstanding merit. It is, however. 

 his remarkable researches on the influence of traces 

 of water in modifying chemical change, whether 

 of the nature of combination or of decomposition, 

 which constitute perhaps his especial distinction. 

 The results obtained by complete drying were as 

 remarkable as they were unexpected, because they 

 were in direct opposition to those which followed 

 careful drying by usual methods. The bearing of 

 Prof. Baker's researches on theories of chemical 

 change is as important as his conclusive experimental 

 demonstrations of the phenomena themselves. 



Hughes Medal. Dr. Robert Andrews MilUkan. — 

 Dr. Millikan has long been regarded as one of the 

 most skilful experimenters in physical science. He 

 is awarded the Hughes medal especially for his 

 determinations of the electronic charge e and of 

 Planck's constant h. When physicists were still 

 ignorant of the value of the electronic charge to 

 within 5 per cent.. Dr. Millikan, by a metho<l of the 

 utmost ingenuity, arrived at the value 4*774 x 10*'* 

 E.S.U., for which he claimed an accuracy of one part 

 in a thousand, a claim which has stood the test of 

 time. His determination of h was not only remark- 

 able in itself, but was of still greater value as finally 

 vindicating the Einstein-Bohr view of the nature of 

 the photo-electric phenomenon. 



University and Educational Intelligence. 



Edinburgh. — Dr. Theobald Smith, of the Rocke- 

 feller Institute for Medical Research, New York, 

 United States, gave an address in the University,' on 

 Tuesday, November 27, on comparative pathologfy. 

 He emphasised the common basis — theoretical and 

 biological — of human and animal patholog\- ; the 

 divergence in methods of treatment of human and of 

 animal patients is determined in the case of the latter 

 by economic considerations. He urged that individual 

 treatment of animals should be replaced more and 

 more by preventive measures, and that future stock- 

 owners should be brought to realise this by p • - > 

 education in the principles underlying diseasr 



Liverpool. — Sir Heath Harrison, Bart., founder of 

 the chair of organic chemistry in the Universitj', has 

 generously contributed a further sum of 2500/. to- 

 wards the endowment of the chair. 



Dr. C. E. Weatherburn, of Ormond College, 

 Melbourne, has been appointed professor of mathe- 

 matics at Canterbury- University College, Christ- 

 church, New Zealand. 



