December i, 192 i] 



NATURE 



439 



Martin Folkes (i 690-1 754), president of the Royal 

 Society for eleven years; John Freind (1675-1728), 

 who while imprisoned in the Tower began his 

 "History of Physic," and whose release was a 

 condition laid down by Mead when prescribing for 

 Sir Robert W'alpole ; Thomas Sprat (1635-1713), 

 Bishop of Rochester and first historian of the 

 Royal Society, who concluded his dedication to 

 the King : " Your Majesty will certainly obtain 

 immortal fame for having established a perpetual 

 succession of inventors " ; and William Buckland 

 ( 1 784-1856), the well-known Dean of Westminster 

 and twice president of the Geological Society. In 

 the early days of Buckland at Westminster his 

 son, Frank, the discoverer of Hunter's coffin, 

 climbed the roof of the nave and by means of a 

 long pendulum suspended from it repeated 

 Foucault's experiment for showing the rotation of 

 the earth. 



Besides the graves of Moray and Barrow 

 already referred to, the south transept contains a 

 monument to Stephen Hales {1677-1761), "pious, 

 modest, indefatigable, and born for the discovery 

 of truth," known to-day for his work on animal and 

 vegetable physiology ; and another to Sir John 

 Pringle (1707-82), reformer of military medicine 

 and the predecessor of Banks as president of the 

 Royal Society. It was he who, when the world 

 of science was torn asunder by the controversv 

 over the pointed ends (Franklin's) and the blunted 

 ends (Wilson's) of lightning conductors, made the 

 reply to George III. : "Sire, I cannot reverse the 

 laws and operations of Nature." Buried here is 

 also Sir William Spottiswoode (1825-82), who 

 died while president of the Royal Societ}'. 



Only a few more memorials remain to be 

 noticed. Among these, however, is that of Watt. 

 Of all the monuments within the Abbey none has 

 called forth more criticism than Chantrey's great 

 work which dominates the little chapel of St. Paul. 

 "Well might the standard-bearer of Agincourt," 

 wrote Stanley, "and the worthies of the Courts of 

 Elizabeth and James have started from their 

 graves in St. Paul's Chapel if they could have 

 seen this colossal champion of a new plebeian art 



enter their aristocratic resting-place and take up 

 his position in the centre of the little sanctuary, 

 regardless of all proportion or style in all the 

 surrounding objects. Yet when we consider what 

 the vast figure represents, what class of interest 

 before unknown, what revolutions in the whole 

 actual framework of modern Society, equal to any 

 that the Abbey walls have yet commemorated, 

 there is surely a fitness in its very incongruity." 

 Of Brougham's inscription Stanley said: "It is 

 not unworthy of the omnigenous knowledge of 

 him who wrote it or of the powerful intellect and 

 vast discovery which it is intended to describe." 



Watt's great contemporary', Telford, is com- 

 memorated by a statue in St. Andrew's Chapel, 

 and here are also to be found the memorials to 

 Matthew Baillie (1761-1823), pupil and successor 

 of William Hunter, physician to George III., and 

 president of the Royal College of Physicians ; Sir 

 Humphry Davy (1778-1829), discoverer of potass- 

 ium and sodium, and inventor of the miner's 

 safety lamp; Thomas Young (1773-1829), founder 

 of physiological optics, and called by Rankine " the 

 most clear-thinking and far-seeing mechanical 

 philosopher " of his time ; and lastly that to Sir 

 James Young Simpson (181 1-70), the great Edin- 

 burgh surgeon, by whose efforts "the fierce ex- 

 tremity of suffering has been steeped in the waters 

 of forgetfulness." It is here, between the statues 

 of Telford and of Mrs. Siddons, and above the 

 memorials to Baillie and Davy, that the tablet to 

 Lord Rayleigh has been placed. The chapel itself 

 forms part of the aisle of the north transept, to 

 which entrance is gained through the gates of 

 the Ambulator}'. Sir John Franklin, Admiral 

 McClintock, who discovered the relics of the 

 Franklin expedition, and Admiral Kempenfelt, all 

 have their monuments here, while across the 

 transept can be seen the window erected to the 

 memory- of the officers and men who were 

 drowned in the Bay of Biscay through the cap- 

 sizing of H.M.S. Captain, an eloquent reminder 

 of the necessity of making adequate scientific re- 

 search before embarking upon a great practical 

 experiment. 



The Nitroge 

 * I ^HE results of a detailed examination of the 

 -I- problem of nitrogen fixation were given in 

 the comprehensive Final Report of the Nitrogen 

 Products Committee of the Ministry of Munitions, 

 published in 1920, and already noticed in these 

 columns (vol. 104, pp. 533 and 569; vol. 105, 

 p. 201), As the Ministry of Munitions is no , 

 longer in existence, the Department of Scientific i 

 and Industrial Research has arranged for the 

 publication of the additional statistical information ' 

 which has been accumulated since that time. This , 

 Supplementary Report has been drawn up by Dr. '•■ 

 J. A. Harker, the director of the Nitrogen Re- , 



1 Statistical Supplement to the Fina'. Report of the Nitrogen Products ' 



Committee of the Ministry of Munitions. Department of Scientific | 



and Industrial Research. (Published by H.M. Stationery Office, igzi ) ' 



I*, net. I 



NO. 2718, VOL. 108] 



n Problem.^ 



search Laboratory under the Ministry of Muni- 

 tions. It deals with the statistical aspect of the 

 Chile nitrate industry, the saltpetre industry', the 

 nitric acid industry, the ammonium sulphate in- 

 dustry, the synthetic ammonia industry, the Nor- 

 wegian fixation industry, the cyanamide industry, 

 the ammonia oxidation industry', and the fertiliser 

 industry. It includes, in addition, a variety of 

 miscellaneous statistics relating to the world's 

 production of fixed nitrogen, national internal 

 sources of fixed nitrogen, the world's fixation 

 plants and power requirements, and the prices of 

 nitrogen fertilisers in England and Germany. The 

 whole concludes with a reference to the present 

 position of nitrogen fixation in this country. 



One of the most remarkable of post-war experi- 



