September i, 1921] 



NATURE 



Notes. 



Friends of the late Sir Norman Lockyer will be 

 glad to know that loo/. has already been received 

 for the portrait medallion which is to be placed at 

 the observat(My on Salcombe Regis Hill, but a 

 further sum of looi. is still required to complete the 

 memorial. It is hoped that the medallion will be 

 unveiled in the autumn, and donors will be notified 

 of the date. Contributions should be sent to the 

 hon. secretary of the Observatory Corporation, Capt. 

 W. N. McClean, i Onslow Gardens, London, S.W.y. 



A PRELIMINARY meeting in connection with the visit 

 of the British Association for the Advancement of 

 Science to Hull in 1922 has been convened by the 

 Lord Mayor of the cit}-. There was a representative 

 gathering and a strong committee was formed. The 

 town clerk, Mr. H. A. Learoyd, and the museums 

 curator, Mr. T. Sheppard, were nominated as local 

 honorary- secretaries for the meeting, and the cit\- 

 treasurer, Mr. T. G. Milner, as hon. treasurer. 



Ix recent years an exhibition of botanical material 

 has been a feature of the Section of Botany at meet- 

 ings of the British Association. The recorder of the 

 Section asks us to say that contributors who have 

 material to exhibit during the forthcoming Edinburgh 

 meeting should communicate their requirements at 

 once to the local secretary-, Mr. W. Wright Smith, 

 the Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh. 



A PUBUC meeting has been arranged by the 

 National Union of Scientific Workers to take place 

 at 5.30 on Tuesday, September 13, in the new build- 

 ings of the Medical School, Edinburgh University, 

 for the delivery of an address by Prof. H. Levy on 

 "The Function of the Man of Science in Organised 

 Research." The address wiU be followed by a dis- 

 cussion to be opened by Prof. H. H. Turner. The 

 meeting will be presided over by Sir Richard Gregor}'. 



A MEETING of the Royal Metec«-ological Society will 

 be held in the Natural Philosophy Department of 

 Edinburgh Universit},- on Wednesday, September 7, 

 at 2.30, when the following papers will be read : — 

 "The Functions of a Scientific Society, with Special 

 Reference to Meteorology," R. H. Hooker; "Meteoro- 

 logy in Medicine," Dr. A. Macdonald ; "Some Notes 

 on Meteorology in War-time," C. J. P. Cave; "The 

 Diurnal Variation of Pressure at Eskdalemuir, igii- 

 20," Dr. A. Crichton Mitchell; and "The Natural 

 Tendency towards S\Tnmetry of Motion and its Ap- 

 plication as a Principle in Meteorology," Dr. S. 

 Fujiwhara. 



The annual general meeting of the Institution of 

 Mining Engineers will be held at Stoke-on-Trent on 

 \\'ednesday, September 14, when the following papers 

 will be read or taken as read: — "The Adsorption or 

 SolubilitN" of Methane and other Gases in Coal, Char- 

 coal, and other Substances," by J. I. Graham; 

 " Suggestions for the Standardisation of Geological 

 Sections of Strata proved in Boreholes, Shafts, etc.," 

 by H. Roscoe ; and "Coal-mining by Steam Shovel 

 in Alberta, Canada," by G. Sheppard. The foUow- 

 NO. 2705, VOL. 108] 



ing papers, which have already appeared in the 

 Transactions, will be open for discussion : — "Third 

 Report of the Committee on ' The Control of Atmo- 

 spheric Conditions in Hot and Deep Mines ' : Ob- 

 servations of Temperature and Moisture in Deep 

 Coal-mines," by J. P. Rees ; and "Characteristics of 

 Outbursts of Gas in Mines," by Prof. H. Briggs. 



Sir C. H. Bedford has been appointed honorary 

 adviser to the Secretary- of State for the Colonies on 

 questions relating to power and industrial alcohol in 

 the Colonies and Protectorates. 



Mr. B. a. Keen, head of the Soil Physics Depart- 

 ment, Rothamsted Experimental Station, has been 

 awarded a travelling fellowship by the Ministry of 

 Agriculture. He has left for America to inspect 

 general agricultural conditions in that countrv', with 

 special reference to problems on soil cultivation. 



Messrs. S. A. Hodges and T. A. Davies, of H.M. 

 Dockyard, Portsmouth, have respectively been 

 awarded the scholarship for 192 1 of the Institution of 

 Naval Architects and the Earl of Durham prize of the 

 same institution. 



France is already preparing to celebrate on 

 November 22, 1922, the centenarv of the birth of 

 Pasteur. England probably, in her old insular way 

 and her usual indifference toward men of genius not 

 her own, will let the sacred day pass without much 

 notice. But Pasteur's work lives and moves and 

 has its being in every countrv* of the world. If every 

 Englishman and Englishwoman who has cause to be 

 grateful to him and his followers would subscribe 

 sixpence, we should obtain enough money for a life- 

 size golden image of him, and more than enough. 

 It is one of our national disgraces that there is no 

 memorial to him in London. Why should we not 

 next year wipe that disgrace off our national slate? 

 Poor London, weighted with so many dull and grimv 

 statues of lesser men whose life and work are not to 

 be named in the same breath with his I There is a 

 good bust of him at the Pasteur Institute : so let us 

 have a replica of it, and let it stand betv\'een Miss 

 Nightingale and Lord Herbert, in front of the Guards' 

 Memorial. These three monuments bear witness to- 

 the days when our sick and wounded in war — and in 

 peace likewise — died like flies for lack of protective 

 treatments against disease and of antiseptic and 

 aseptic surgery and nursing. Pasteur shall bear 

 witness to our redemption out of our ignorance. 



The Ministrv- of Agriculture and Fisheries and the 

 Royal Horticultural Society have arranged to hold 

 an International Potato Conference in London on 

 November 16-18 next. During the conference, which 

 will take place at the hall of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society, Vincent Square, the National Potato Society 

 will hold its annual show, at which it is expected 

 that most British varieties of potatoes will be ex- 

 hibited. An exhibit dealing with the scientific aspect 

 of potato problems is also being arranged, and it is 

 hoped that workers engaged on potato problems in 



