3i6 



NATURE. 



[November 3, 192 1 



the Clinical Thermometer Bill, which was submitted 

 to Parliament in July last to replace the lapsed 

 Order in Council, but which, owing to the objections 

 of six members, was deferred bv the Government to 

 the next session. That in the interests of consumers 

 and manufacturers alike there should be some 

 guarantee of accuracy seems to be indisputable. The 

 circular does not discuss the question whether clinical 

 thermometers imported from abroad and tested by a 

 foreign institution of recognised standing should also 

 be re-tested by the National Physical Laboratory 

 before being sold in this country. 



The Church of St. Martin 's-in-the-Fields, the bicen- 

 tenary of which is about to be celebrated, was rebuilt 

 in- 172 1, but, as was pointed out by Sir William 

 Tilden in Nature of October 6, p. 176, it was not in 

 the present church that Boyle w^as buried. It was, 

 however, in the vaults of the new church that the great 

 anatomist, John Hunter, was first interred. Hunter's 

 burial took place in October, 1793, and the trans- 

 ference of his remains to Westminster Abbey sixty- 

 six years later was entirely due to the extraordinary 

 exertions of Frank Buckland, the naturalist. Buck- 

 land's resolution to do honour to Hunter's remains 

 was made at a dinner held in 1856 to celebrate the 

 centenary of Hunter's studentship. Three years later, 

 on February 7, 1859, he began to search the vaults 

 of St. Martin's for Hunter's coffin, and in his diary 

 writes : — " Moving coffins all day long ; turned out 

 about thirty coffins. . . The stink was awful; rather 

 faint towards the end of the business." His search 

 went on for fourteen days, until on February 22 he 

 records : — "At work all the morning, and about three 

 o'clock in the afternoon found it, the bottom coffin 

 in the last tier but one." The removal of the coffin 

 to the Abbey took place about a month later. 



The British Medical Journal announces that the 

 Municipal Council of Paris has decided to establish 

 at a cost of 1,185,000 francs a municipal institute of 

 electrotherapy. 



Sir Arthur Griffith-Boscawen, Minister of Agri- 

 culture and Fisheries, has appointed the Earl of 

 Ancaster to act on his behalf as Deputy Minister of 

 Fisheries in addition to his duties as Parliamentary 

 Secretary to the Ministry. 



The Times of November i announces that Mrs. 

 Rosita Forbes (Mrs. McGrath) was presented with the 

 gold medal of the Antwerp Royal Geographical Society 

 on Saturday last after she had given a lecture to the 

 society on her expedition to Kufara. 



Dr. M. Grabham, of Madeira, will deliver the 

 Bradshaw lecture at the Royal College of Physicians 

 on November 3 on "Sub-tropical Esculents" and 

 Dr. R. O. ]Moon the FitzPatrick lectures on Novem- 

 ber 8 and 10 on "Hippocrates in Relation to the 

 Philosophy of his Time." 



The Swiney lectures on geology for the present 

 year will be delivered by Dr. J. D. Falconer at the 

 Imperial College of Science and Technology (Royal 

 College of Science, Old Building) on Mondays, 



NO. 2714, VOL. 108] 



Wednesdays, and Fridays, beginning on November 7, 

 at 5.30. There will be twelve lectures in all on the 

 subject of "The Wonders of Geology." Admission will 

 be. free. 



Prof. J. W. Hinchley, of the Imperial College of 

 Science and Technology, South Kensington, has issued 

 invitations to a meeting to be held on Wednesday, 

 November 9, at the Engineers' Club, 39 Coventry 

 Street, London, W.C., to discuss the best method of 

 forming an Institution of Chemical Engineers. Sir 

 Arthur Duckham will preside, and will be supported 

 by representatives of various branches of industrial 

 activity cognate with the profession of chemical 

 engineering. 



The sixth meeting of the Optical Society of 

 America was held at Rochester, N.Y., on October 24, 

 25, and 26, and was constituted an Helmholtz 

 memorial meeting. On the first day the president, 

 Prof. J. P. C. Southall, gave a brief survey of the 

 development of optics. Prof. H. Crew gave an account 

 of Helmholtz's work on the conservation of energy. 

 Dr. L. T. Troland of his contributions to physio- 

 logical optics, and Prof. M. I. Pupin gave some per- 

 sonal recollections of him. Under the chairmanship 

 of Mr. P. G. Nutting, the reports of sixteen sub- 

 committees on nomenclature and standards were read 

 and discussed. Up to the present time these reports 

 have not been received, but from the abstracts of 

 some of them which are available it is evident that 

 they will be of importance to optical workers in this 

 country. 



In the third interim report of the Departmental 

 Committee on Lights on Vehicles it is remarked that 

 complete elimination of dazzle from motor headlights 

 is impracticable, but glare may be materially restricted 

 below the eye-level of an adult observer approaching 

 a car. The main beam should accordingly be re- 

 stricted as regards height above ground and a maxi- 

 mum and minimum intensity specified. Secondary 

 diffused light should be also available. No lamp en- 

 tirely complying with the desired conditions has been 

 found. Suitable regulations permitting the use of 

 existing lamps adapted to restrict light below a 

 height of 4 ft. from the ground and diffuse the light 

 are proposed, but would require statutory authority. 

 Compliance would involve co-operation on the part of 

 manufacturers and owners of headlights, which 

 should be submitted to an approved authority which 

 might issue certificates. No legal requirement of 

 minimum intensity exists, and the Committee con- 

 sider that this should not be made compulsory, but 

 that in any proceedings in regard to dangerous driv- 

 ing due regard should be paid to adequacy of lights. 

 Swivelling headlights should • not be permitted, but 

 devices enabling the beam to be tilted downwards to 

 avoid dazzle are permissible provided all headlights 

 execute the same movement. Inspection lamps, for 

 use only when the vehicle is at rest, should also be 

 permitted. 



The Journal of the American Society of Naval 

 Engineers for August last contains an interesting 

 and well-illustrated article by Comdr. Stanford C. 



