544 



NATURE 



[December 22, 192 1 



Attention was recently directed to the importance 

 of mapping from the air, especially in the preliminary 

 survey of routes for new railways and roads, ap- 

 proaches to possible harbours and prospecting of all 

 kinds. Prof. B. M. Jones gave in the Times of 

 December 13 some indication of the kind of experi- 

 mental work in this subject which is being pursued 

 at Cambridge under his direction, with the co-opera- 

 tion of the department of geography in the Univer- 

 sity and the financial assistance of the Department 

 of Scientific and Industrial Research. For aerial 

 photography to be of value for accurate survey it is 

 essential to know the angular position of the camera 

 when the photographs are taken. While it is possible 

 to calculate the tilt from the position on the plates 

 of known ground-marks which have been indepen- 

 dently surveyed, a more satisfactory solution of the 

 problem is to improve the flying until the camera 

 varies from the correct position only within a certain 

 permissible angle. Experimental work at Cambridge 

 has been mainly in this direction, but has also 

 touched the further problem of flying so as to cover 

 the ground without gaps or excessive overlapping 

 between the strips of photographs. 



At the annual general meeting of the Faraday 

 Society held on December 13 the following ofificers 

 and council were elected for the forthcoming year : — 

 President : Prof. A. W. Porter. Past-Presidents : 

 Mr. J. Swinburne, Sir R. T. Glazebrook, and Sir 

 Robert Hadfield. Vice-Presidents: Mr. W. R. 

 Cooper, Prof. C. H. Desch, Prof. F. G. Donnan, 

 Dr. J. A. Harker, Mr. E. Hatschek, Prof. T. M. 

 Lowry, and Dr. G. Senter. Treasurer : Mr. R. L. Mond. 

 Council: Prof. A. J. Allmand, Dr. H. Borns, Mr. 

 Cosmo Johns, Prof. W. C. McC. Lewis, Prof. J. R. 

 Partington, Mr. C. C. Paterson, Dr. J. N. Pring, 

 Prof. A. O. Rankine, Dr. E. K. Rideal, and Sir 

 Robert Robertson. In the annual report it was 

 stated that during the past year four general discus- 

 sions had been held, three of them in co-operation 

 with other societies. Reports of the proceedings of 

 these discussions had been published. An appeal 

 was made for an increased membership, without 

 which it would be difficult for the society to keep 

 pace with its increasing activities without a higher 

 subscription. 



The following fellowships for medical research each 

 •of the annual value of 400I. have been awarded by tfce 

 Trustees of the Beit Memorial Fund. The proposed 

 subject of research and place at which the work will 

 be carried on are indicated for each fellow : — Mr. 

 R. K. Cannan : Studies in some chemical aspects of 

 metabolism and digestion, at the Institute of Physio- 

 logy, University College, London. Mr. H. D. Kay : The 

 degradation of carbohydrates and allied substances by 

 micro-organisms, at the Lister Institute, Chelsea. Miss 

 Mary K. F. Lander : Examination of optic regions in 

 primate brains, clinical observations, and physiological 

 experiments with the view of ascertaining the crucial 

 stages of the evolutionary process of development of 

 stereoscopic vision and conjugate movements of the 

 • eye, at Department of Human Anatomy, University 

 NO. 2721, VOL. 108] 



College, London. Dr. H. Goldblatt : The quantitative 

 relation of fat-soluble A deficiency to the development 

 of rickets (experimental rickets) ; the effect of para- 

 thyroidectomy on immunity, with special reference to 

 its effect on the natural resistance of the rat to tuber- 

 culous infection, at the Lister Institute, Chelsea. Dr. 

 L. Gross : Microscopic and macroscopic investigation 

 and experimentation in the condition known as "in- 

 testinal stasis," at the Royal College of Surgeons andJ 

 the Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park. Dr. Ethel's 

 M. Luce : Accessory food factors, with special refer- 

 ence to the relationship of ductless glands to calciumj 

 metabolism, at the Lister Institute, Chelsea. 



The Review of Applied Entomology, which is devote 

 to abstracts of the literature of that subject, unlil 

 many other publications, has not had to curtail itl 

 pages owing to financial stringency. An index to the 

 literature of agricultural entomology which has been 

 abstracted in vol. 8 has lately been issued, and occupies 

 nearly 200 pages printed in double columns. The 

 size of the index indicates the vast amount of litera- 

 ture that is dealt with in the course of a year bv the 

 experts on the working staff of the Imperial Bureau 

 of Entomology. 



The curator of the Hull museums is active in 

 making known all accessions and other features of 

 interest by small pamphlets, frequently reprinted from 

 his own articles in the local newspapers, and sold at 

 twopence each. In 1908, as publication No. 48, he 

 issued an index to the previous forty-seven publica- 

 tions, and now, as No. 96, he sends us the index to 

 Nos. 49-95. By this time, however, the serial number 

 has mounted to 123, which last is a descriptive cata- 

 logue of exhibits temporarily arranged at the Wilber- 

 force Museum in celebration of Andrew Marv^ell's 

 tercentenary. Another of these most useful indexes 

 may, therefore, be expected before long. 



An important new map of the Tibesti, Borku, Erdi, 

 and Ennedi regions in the heart of the Sahara is pub- 

 lished in La Giographie (vol. 36, No. 3). The map. 

 which is on a scale of i : 2,000,000, is the outcome of 

 Col. J. Tilho's work in that region between 1912 and 

 1917. Previous cartographic material was of a scanty 

 nature, consisting, as it did, of rough itineraries, of 

 which Nachtigal's seems to have been the most im- 

 portant, although it did little more than touch the 

 western edge of the Tibesti region. No preliminary 

 material included any astronomical positions. Col. 

 Tilho's survey was based on Faya, the position of 

 which was determined with great accuracy. 



The report for the year 1920 of the museums of 

 the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences gives de- 

 tails of Mr. R. C. Murphy's expedition to the Peru- 

 vian Littoral. Reports on this work have appeared 

 serially in the Museum Quarterly since April, 1920. 

 In June we noticed Mr. Murphy's visit to the guano 

 islands, and we now find in the April number of the 

 Museum Quarterly an interesting account of Inde- 

 pendencia Bay, which harbours giant crabs, huge 

 mussels, and other big things, including, on occasion, 

 the British Pacific fleet. A number of motion pic- 



