March 3, 1921] 



NATURE 



21 



Psychology on vocational education and psycho- 

 logical tests. We hope shortly lo be able to give 

 further particulars of these and other joint discus- 

 sions which promise to make the Edinburgh meeting 

 both distinctive and of great interest to a large intel- 

 lectual public. 



Sir William J. Pope has been elected Membre 

 d'Honneur of the French Chemical Society. 



The Prince of Wales has become president of 

 the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 185 1 in 

 succession to Prince Arthur of Connaught. 



Announcement is made that summer time is to 

 begin this year during the night of April 2-3 and end 

 on October 2-3. Last year summer time began on 

 March 28. 



The council of the Chemical Society has awarded 

 the Longstaff medal to Prof. J. F. Thorpe. The 

 presentation will be made at the annual general 

 meeting on March 17. 



By a decree dated December 17, 1920, the 

 centesimal system of angular measurement has been 

 adopted in Sweden for land surveying, the hundredth 

 part of a right angle being indicated by 1°. 



The Mackenzie-Davidson memorial lecture of the 

 Electro-Therapeutics Section of the Royal Society of 

 Medicine will be given at 8.30 p.m. on Friday, 

 March 18, at the rooms of the society, i Wimpole 

 Street, W.i, by Prof. W. D. Halliburton, who will 

 take as his subject " Physiological Advance : The Im- 

 portance of the Infinitely Little." 



The sixth Guthrie lecture in connection with the 

 Physical Society of London will be delivered at 

 5 o'clock on Friday, March 11, at the Imperial Col- 

 lege of Science and Technology by Prof. A. A. Michel- 

 son, of Chicag'o. The subject will be " Some Recent 

 Applications of Interference Methods." To this 

 meeting visitors are invited. 



A DISCUSSION on problems of seismology will be 

 held in the rooms of the Royal Astronomical Society 

 to-morrow, March 4, at 5 p.m. The chair will be 

 taken by Prof. H. H. Turner. Prof. Horace Lamb 

 will open the discussion, which will be continued by 

 Dr. G. W. Walker, Mr. R. D. Oldham, and Mr. J. J. 

 Shaw. 



We regret to learn that Prof. William A. Bone, 

 professor of chemical technology at the Imperial Col- 

 lege of Science and Technology, South Kensington, 

 whose work on fuel is so well known, underwent a 

 serious operation on Thursday last, and is at present 

 passing through a critical period of recovery. He is, 

 therefore, compelled to suspend all his scientific and 

 public engagements for some time. 



The British Research Association for Liquid Fuels 

 for Oil Engines Industry has been approved by the 

 Department of Scientific and Industrial Research as 

 complying with the conditions laid down in the 

 Government scheme for the encouragement of indus- 

 trial research. The secretary of the committee en- 

 gaged in the establishment of this association is Mr. 

 Percy Still, 19 Cadogan Gardens, S.W.i. 

 NO. 2679, VOL. 107] 



At the last meeting of the Geological Society Mr. 

 C. Carus-Wilson exhibited a specimen of stalagmite 

 from a cave in the Cheddar district containing the 

 preserved impressions of moths' wings. Each layer 

 of the stalagmite shows a number of these fossils, 

 and Mr. Carus-Wilson thinks they may have been 

 rejected by bats while feeding. The stalagmite had 

 formed on a ledge at one side of the cave about 60 ft. 

 from its mouth. Many other limestone caverns 

 might yield similar fossils if searched. 



Science for February 4 announces that the John 

 Fritz gold medal for notable scientific and industrial 

 achievement has been awarded to Sir Robert Hadfield, 

 inventor of manganese steel and leader of the British 

 steel industry. The award of the medal has been 

 authorised unanimously by the sixteen members of 

 the committee representing the national organisations 

 of civil, mechanical, mining, metallurgical, and elec- 

 trical engineers. The medal was established in 1902 

 in honour of John Fritz, ironmaster of Bethlehem, 

 Pennsylvania. 



A Swedish expedition, under the leadership of Dr. 

 Otto Nordenskjold, is at present engaged in explora- 

 tion in the central and southern Cordilleras of South 

 America. The Geographical Journal for February 

 states that Dr. Nordenskjold, accompanied by Mr. A. 

 Backman, Count S. de Rosen, and others, began 

 work last autumn in the Sierra region south of Oroya 

 and explored the little-known Perene River and 

 Pangoa Valley. In December the expedition went 

 south to Chile. Its destination was the Penas Gulf 

 and the region round San Rafael Lake. It is hoped 

 also to ascend one of the glaciers to the inner moun- 

 tain region. The expedition, which has received 

 valuable assistance from the Governments of Peru and 

 Chile, expects to return to Europe at the end of the 

 southern summer. 



The Times for February 25 contains an interesting 

 letter from the secretary of the China Inland Mission 

 with regard to the great earthquake that visited the 

 north-west provinces of China on December 16 last. 

 The meizoseismal area covers a large portion of the 

 provinces of Kansu and Shensi, and is not less than 

 200 miles long from north-west to south-east and 

 about 150 miles wide. The centre of the area lies 

 about 30 miles south-east of Pingliang. Even near 

 Sichow, which is about 250 miles from the epicentre, 

 the shock was strong enough to throw down houses 

 and to bury the inmates in the ruins. The earth- 

 quake seems to have been a remarkable one, even 

 among shocks of the first order of magnitude, 

 especially as regards the great size of the area of 

 destruction and the changes wrought in the superficial 

 layer of the crust. 



The next summer meeting of the Institution of 

 Electrical Engineers will be held in Scotland on 

 June 7-10. The first two days will be spent in Glasgow, 

 when visits will be paid to the new power station at 

 Dalmarnock and to works and other places of interest. 

 There will also be papers on that power station and 

 on the hydro-electric power resources of Scotland. On 



