March 24, 192 1] 



NATURE 



115 



The annual Wilbur Wright lecture of the Royal 

 Aeronautical Society for this year is to be delivered 

 by Major G. I. Taylor at the Royal Society of Arts 

 on Tuesday, April 12, at 8 o'clock. 



It is announced in Science for March 4 that the 

 Bruce gold medal for the year 192 1 of the Astro- 

 nomical Society of the Pacific has been awarded to 

 Dr. H. A. Deslandres, director of the Astrophysical 

 Observatory of Meudon, near Paris, for his "distin- 

 guished services to astronomy." 



The International Institute of Anthropology, which 

 has been founded at Paris, will hold a congress at 

 Liege on July 25-August i. The provisional pro- 

 gramme appears in the current issue of the Revue 

 Anthropologiqiie, which has been adopted as the organ 

 of the institute and of the Schools of Anthropology of 

 Paris and of Li^ge. The central office of the institute 

 is at 15 rue de I'Ecole de Medecine, Paris VI, 



At the anniversary meeting of the Royal Irish 

 Academy on March 16 Prof. Sydney Young was 

 elected president in succession to the Most Rev, Dr. 

 Bernard, Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, whose 

 period of office has just expired. Prof. C. S. Sher- 

 rington, president of the Royal Society, was declared 

 an honorary member in the section of science under 

 the statute by which presidents of the Royal Society 

 are honorary members of the academy. 



The summer meeting of the Institution of Elec- 

 trical Engineers is to be held in Scotland on June 7-10, 

 and a provisional programme for it has just been 

 issued. Besides a number of visits to places of 

 interest, the reading of the two following papers has 

 been arranged for: — "The Dalmarnock Generating 

 Station," R. B. Mitchell (at the Royal Technical Col- 

 lege, Glasgow, on June 7), and "The Hydro-electric 

 Resources of the Scottish Highlands," Prof. Magnus 

 Maclean (in Glasgow University on June 8). 



At the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society 

 on Monday, March 21, the president announced that 

 the King has sent a donation of looZ. towards the 

 funds of the Mount Everest Expedition. The presi- 

 dent added : — " Both his Majesty and her Majesty 

 the Queen take the greatest interest in the expedi- 

 tion, and have questioned me closely as to our plans, 

 the prospects of success, and the composition of the 

 party ; and they have assured me of the keen interest 

 with which they will follow the progress of the 

 expedition." 



The election to a Sorby research fellowship at the 

 University of Sheffield will take place in June next. 

 The appointment, subject to regulations, will be 

 for five years, and the emoluments approximately 

 500Z. per annum. The object of the fellowship is not 

 the training of men for original research, but to 

 obtain advances in natural knowledge by enabling 

 men of proved ability to devote themselves to research. 

 Applications for the fellowship should be made to the 

 Secretaries of the Royal Society, Burlington House, 

 W.I, by May 31, and such applications should give 

 particulars of the candidate's scientific career and state 

 the nature of the work he proposes to follow if 

 elected. 



NO. 2682 VOL. 107] 



.\t the annual general meeting of the Ray Society 

 on March 10 the following officers were re-elected :■ — 

 President: Prof. W. C. Mcintosh Treasurer: Sir 

 Sidney F. Harmer. Secretary : Dr. W. T. Caiman. The 

 Right Hon. Lord Rothschild was elected a vice- 

 president, and Mr. E. E. Green, Mr. Chas. Oldham, 

 and Sir David Prain were elected new members of 

 council. The report of the council directed attention 

 to the urgent need for a large increase in the number 

 o^ subscribers if the society is to avoid the alternatives 

 of raising the rate of subscription or restricting the 

 annual output of publications.. It was announced that 

 the first part of the fourth volume of Prof. Mcintosh's 

 "British Marine Annelids" was in the press, and 

 would form the issue to subscribers for 1920. Sub- 

 stantial grants towards the cost of publication of this 

 work have been made by the Carnegie Trust for the 

 Universities of Scotland and by the Royal Society. 



A SECOND International Congress of Eugenics is tO' 

 be held in New York City on September 22-28, under 

 the honorary presidency of Dr. Alexander Graham 

 Bell. The president of the congress is Prof. Henry 

 Fairfield Osborn, its treasurer Mr. Madison Grant, 

 hon. secretary Mrs. C. Neville Rolfe (of London), and 

 general secretary Dr. C. C. Little. The papers to 

 be read before the congress fall into four sections : — 

 (i) Studies in human heredity, including the results- 

 of research in pure genetics which may be applicable 

 to man. (2) The human family, including the factors 

 that influence the fecundity of different strains and 

 the differential mortality of the eugenically superior 

 and inferior stocks ; mate selection to be considered 

 in this section. (3) Human racial differences; in this 

 section will be considered the facts of migrations and 

 the influences of racial characteristics on human his- 

 tory and miscegenation. (4) Applied eugenics; here 

 will be discussed eugenics in relation to the State, to- 

 societv, and to education. It is desired that all papers 

 from Europe should be in the hands of the general 

 secretary. Dr. C. C. Little, American Museum of 

 Natural History, by May i, and those from Canada 

 and the United States not later than June 15. Persons 

 having material for exhibition are requested to write 

 at once to Dr. Little, stating its nature and size. 



The annual general meeting of the Chemical Society 

 was held at Burlington House on March 17, when 

 Sir James J. Dobbie, the retiring president, delivered his 

 address. The following new officers and members of 

 council were declared elected: — President: Sir James 

 Walker. ]'ice-Presidents ivho have filled the office 

 of President: Prof. H. E. Armstrong, Sir James J. 

 Dobbie, Prof. W. H. Perkin, Sir William J. Pope, Dr. 

 -Vlexander Scott, and Sir William .\. Tilden. Other 

 Vice-Presidents: Prof. F. G. Hopkins, Prof. F. S. 

 Kipping, and Prof. J. F. Thorpe. Ordinary Members 

 of Council: Prof. J. S. S. Brame, Dr. C. H. Desch. 

 Mr. E. V. Evans, Mr. H. B. Hartley, Dr. T. S- 

 Patterson, Dr. T. Slater Price, Mr. W. Rintoul, Dr. 

 R. Robinson, and Dr. N. V. .Sidgwick. In present- 

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

 president referred to the importance of the researches 

 on organic chemistry on which Prof. Thorpe and his: 

 colleagues had been engaged for many years. The 



