3^o 



NATURE 



[November 17, 192 1 



logy in Manchester University, and director of the 

 public health laboratories of the university, which 

 occurred on November 13 last, at the age of sixty- 

 six vears. 



It is announced that Mr. John Macalister 

 DjOdds, fellow and formerly tutor of Peterhouse, 

 Cambridge, died on November 13 at the age of 

 sixty-three years. 



We learn with regret of the death, which 

 occurred recently, of Tadeusz Godlewski, pro- 

 fessor of physics and formerly rector of the Tech- 

 nical High School, Lemberg {Lw6w), Poland. 



We regret to announce the death on Sunday, 

 November 13, at the age of eighty-one years, of 

 Sir C. Douglas Fox, past-president of the Institu- 

 tion of Civil Engineers. 



Notes. 



H.M. THE King has approved of the following 

 awards this year by the president and council of the 

 Royal Society : A Royal medal to Sir Frank Dyson, 

 Astronomer Royal, for his researches on the distribu- 

 tion and movement of the stars; and a Royal medal to 

 Dr. F. F. Blackman, for his researches on the gaseous 

 exchange in plants and on the operation of limiting 

 factors. The following awards have also been made 

 by the president and council : The Copley medal to 

 Sir Joseph Larmor, for his researches in mathematical 

 physics ; the Davy medal to Prof. Philippe A. Guye, for 

 his researches in physical chemistry ; and the Hughes 

 medal to Prof. Niels Bohr, for his researches in 

 theoretical physics. 



The memorial tablet to the late Lord Rayleigh 

 executed by Mr. Derwent Wood, R.A., is now 

 complete, and is being placed in the position 

 selected for it in the north transept of West- 

 minster Abbey, between the memorials to Sir 

 Humphrey Davy and Dr. Thomas Young. The Dean 

 of Westminster has arranged for the unveiling cere- 

 mony to be held on Wednesday, November 30, the 

 anniversary day of the Royal Society, at 2 p.m. Sir 

 Joseph Thomson, as chairman of the memorial com- 

 mittee, will represent the University of Cambridge and 

 the Royal Society. 



The Stockholm correspondent of the Morning Post 

 announces that the Nobel prize for chemistry for 1920 

 has been awarded to Prof. Walter Nernst, of Berlin 

 University. The prizes for chemistry and physics for 

 192 1 fiave. been reserved for next year. 



In a discussion in the House of Lords on Novem- 

 ber 10 the Marquess of Crewe voiced the complaint 

 of teachers and students of science that the Safe- 

 guarding of Industries Act and the German Reparation 

 {Recover^') Act had had the effect of hampering re- 

 search and the teaching of science. The former act 

 imposed high penalties on professors and education 

 authorities generally who were forced to purchase 

 materials abroad — materials which would never be pro- 

 duced in this country ; the latter caused considerable 

 delay in getting German books. It was a foolish 

 policy, he urged, to discourage that research upon 

 which the prosperity of the countrv' so largely de- 

 pended for the sake of the small amount of revenue 

 extracted from underpaid professors and underfed 

 students. Viscount Haldane suggested that a licence 

 should be given by the Research Department or the 

 Board of Education for getting the things required for 



NO. 2716, VOL. 108] 



research. The excellence of German scientific goods 

 was due to the workman's spirit and tradition, and 

 British research could not wait while British work- 

 men were imbued with these attributes. In reply 

 Viscount Peel stated that the Government were pre- 

 pared neither to issue licences nor to grant import 

 exemptions to educational institutions. It might be 

 possible, however, to remove from the schedule articles 

 which could not be produced in this country. He under- 

 took to place the whole subject before the Minister of 

 Education. In a leader in the Times of November 14 

 it is pertinently remarked, as evidence of the aloofness 

 of the State from science, that "the interpellations on 

 this scientific question were addressed to the Minister 

 of Transport," who undertook to refer it, not to the 

 Royal Society — " at one time the natural adviser of 

 the Government on scientific matters " — but to the 

 Minister of Education. 



The annual council meeting of the National Union 

 of Scientific Workers was held at the University of 

 London Club on November 12. The retiring president, 

 Prof. L. Bairstow, in his address, referred to the 

 friendships formed with kindred organisations as an 

 indication of the solid progress the union had made 

 in its development as an element in the life of the 

 scientific community. While the union's aims were 

 in part economic with immediate objects, the con- 

 sideraticm of effects to be produced by a higher 

 idealism had claimed the greater share of attention. 

 The Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors pro- 

 vided a striking example of the contrast in methods 

 of treatment between the independent worker and the 

 salaried worker. In the statement it presented to the 

 Interdepartmental Committee on Patents the union 

 had suggested that the latter method was the proper 

 basis of treatment for all. The union should now 

 make preparations for the collection of material ready 

 for the next occasion on which revision. of the patent 

 law occurs. Prof. Bairstow quoted from the Press 

 reports of the preliminary findings of the " Geddes " 

 Committee on Economy, which indicate that the War 

 Research Departments were threatened by the "axe." 

 This was folly, for the greatest economies depend on 

 research and education. Everything depended on the 

 interpretation of the word "research "; much of the 

 money allocated to research was actually expended on 

 technical development. Most scientific workers regard 

 the war period as a lean time for scientific research 

 while agreeing that it was one of intense application 

 of science. Prof. Bairstow concluded by expressing 



