October 27, 1921] 



NATURE 



287 



Notes. 



The president and council of the Royal Society 

 announce that, in view of the economic condition of 

 the country, the anniversary dinner of the society will 

 not be held this year. 



The discovery of a fossil forest is reported at 

 Anglon, Sardinia. Petrified palms, with well-pre- 

 served structure, are already known from a Miocene 

 formation in the island, and details of the new find 

 will be awaited with interest. 



The Daily Mail Imperial Fruit Show will be opened 

 by the Right Hon. Sir Arthur Griffith-Boscawen, 

 Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, at the Crystal 

 Palace on Friday, October 28, at 3 p.m. 



A NEW series of geophysical discussions, to be held 

 in the rooms of the Royal Astronomical Society, will 

 be opened on Friday, November 4, at 5 p.m., with a 

 discussion on "'The Eotvos Gravity Balance." The 

 chair will be taken by Col. Sir C. F. Close. Col. 

 H. G. Lyons will open the discussion, which will be 

 P continued by Prof. C. V. Boys, Col. E. H. Grove- 

 Hills, and Col. Sir G. P. Lenox-Conyngham. 



The i68th session of the Royal Society of Arts 

 will be opened on Wednesday, November 2, at 8 p.m., 

 when Mr. Alan A. Campbell Swinton, chairman of the 

 council, will deliver an experimental address on 

 "Wireless Telegraphy." Among the papers fixed 

 for the meetings up to Christmas are the follow- 

 ing : The Work of the Industrial Fatigue Research 

 Board, by D. R. Wilson ; Modern Buildings in Cam- 

 bridge and their Architecture, by T. H. Lyon; The 

 Coming of Age of Long-Distance Wireless Tele- 

 liraphy and some of its Scientific Problems (Sir Henr\ 

 Trueman Wood Lecture), by Prof. J. A. Fleming; 

 and The Preservation of Stone, by Noel Heaton. 



At the Royal Horticultural Society on Tuesday and 

 Wednesday of next week Lord Ventry will show New- 

 Zealand flax-plants (Phormium tenax) grown at 

 Ding'.e, Co. Kerry, and twine, etc., prepared from 

 the plants grown in Ireland. The exhibit will be an 

 interesting one as the flax is growing thoroughly well 

 in south-west Ireland. The leaves are 10 ft. 6 in. 

 long, and Lord Ventry has proved that the Dingle 

 peninsula can produce binder-twine for the whole of 

 the L'nited Kingdom (estimated at 20,000 tons). He 

 has been working hard with the flax, and his efforts 

 are very interesting and worthy of careful attention. 

 An account of his experiments was given in the Kew 

 Bu.letin, 1919, p. 146, with plates, and the first report 

 on the Flax Production Branch of the Ministry of 

 .\griculture appeared a couple of years ago (see 

 Nature, October 2, 1919, vol. 104, p. 98). 



At the annual statutory meeting of the Roval 

 Society of Edinburgh, held on October 24, the follow- 

 ing office-bearers and council were elected : Presi- 

 dent : Prof. F. O. Bower. Vice-Presidents : Sir G. A. 

 Berry, Prof. W. Peddie, Sir J. A. Ewing, Prof. J. W. 

 Gregory, Major-Genera! W. B. Bannerman, Dr. 

 NO. 2713, VOL. 108] 



W. A. Tait. General Secretary : Dr. C. G. Knott. 

 Secretaries to Ordinary Meetings : Prof. E. T. Whit- 

 taker, Prof. J. H. .\shworth. Treasurer : Dr. J. 

 Currie. Curator of Library and Museum: Dr. A. 

 Crichton Mitchell. Councillors: Mr. H. M. Cadell, 

 Prof. A. R. Cushny, Prof. F. G. Baily, Mr. G. J. 

 Lidstone, Dr. R. Campbell, Principal J. C. Irvine, the 

 Hon. Lord Salvesen, Prof. J. Arthur Thomson, Dr. 

 H. S. Allen, Sir R. B. Greig, Dr. J. Ritchie, and Dr. 

 E. M. Wedderburn. 



The new board of the Institute of Physics is con- 

 stituted as follows: — President: Sir J. J. Thomson. 

 Pctst-President : Sir Richard Glazebrook. Vice- 

 Presidents : Prof. W. H. Eccles, Major E. O. Hen- 

 rici. Prof. C. H. Lees, and Mr. C. C. Paterson. 

 Treasurer: Sir Robert Hadfield, Bart. Hon. Secre. 

 tary : Prof. A. W. Porter. Members: Inst. Comdr. 

 T. V. Baker, Mr. J. E. Barnard, Dr. R. S. Clay, 

 Mr. W. R. Cooper, Prof. C. L. Fortescue, Prof. 

 .\ndrew Gray, Dr. G. W. C. Kaye, Sir Charles 

 Parsons, Mr.' C. E. S. Phillips, Dr.' E. H. Rayner, 

 Prof. S. Russ, Mr. F. E. Smith, Sir Napier Shaw, 

 and Mr. R. S. Whipple. Particulars relating to the 

 institute can be obtained from the secretary, Mr. F. S. 

 Spiers, O.B.E., 10 Essex Street, London, W.C.2. 



The establishment of a diploma in medical radio- 

 logv and electrology by the University of Cambridge 

 was made at the instigation of the British Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Radiology and Physio- 

 therapy (B.A.R.P.). This association has also been in- 

 strumental in forming a Society of Radiographers, hav- 

 ing as its object the consolidation of the position and 

 improvement of the status of the lay assistant who 

 carries out the routine work at hospitals under the 

 direction of the medical head of the department. The 

 council of the Society of Radiographers has arranged 

 for an examination to be held yearly, and instruction 

 for this examination is being greatly facilitated by the 

 co-operation of the Institution of Electrical Engineers. 

 Successful candidates will be entitled to use the letters 

 M.S.R. These dual activities of the B.A.R.P. are 

 a good augury of the desire among radiologists to 

 improve the status of medical work involving the 

 use of the various forms of electricity and radiation. 



The Government of Czecho-Slovakia has recently 

 concluded an agreement with the Imperial and 

 Foreign Corporation which, it is expected, will have 

 imf>ortant consequences for this country in securing 

 a supply of radium for medical uses. L'nder the 

 agreement the output of radium from the celebrated 

 State mine at St. Joachimsthal (now Jachymov) for 

 the next fifteen vears will be loaned to a new company 

 that has been formed, known as the Radium Cor- 

 poration of Czecho-Slovakia. The latter will start a 

 laboratory and offices in this country for the sale and 

 hire of radio-active preparations, in the first place to 

 the medical profession. A quantity of two grams of 

 radium element, as the first instalment under this 

 agreement, was recently brought from Prague by 



