124 



NATURE 



[March 24, 192 1 



fund has been allotted, which is to be expended mainly 

 on purposes immediately connected with students. The 

 values of research scholarships and fellowships have 

 been raised from 150Z. and 200/. to 200/. and 250Z. per 

 annum respectively. Grants have been made to assist 

 4912 students in the payment of fees involving an 

 expenditure of 68,591/. 



At a meeting of the Royal Anthropological Insti- 

 tute held on February 22 Sir Alfred T. Davies, 

 of the Welsh Department of the Board of Education, 

 gave an account of the scheme for the collection of 

 rural lore in Wales by school-children which had 

 been instituted by that Department. The educational 

 object of the scheme had been to quicken the interest 

 of the children in their immediate surroundings and 

 to stimulate their desire for acquiring knowledge 

 through their own efforts. In its original form the 

 object of the scheme was to secure on Ordnance maps, 

 which had been provided out of funds supplied from 

 private sources, the records of traditional names of 

 fields and a record of the state of the land in relation 

 to cultivation at the beginning and the end of the 

 Great War. This record would prove in days to 

 come a valuable source of information as to the 

 economic and social state of Wales at this date. The 

 whole scheme was voluntary so far as teachers were 

 concerned, and those who were interested were invited 

 to secure and record supplementary information such 

 as local folk-lore, local industries, ancient monuments 

 and buildings of note, the names and birthplaces of. 

 men who had been born in the district and had after- 

 wards become famous, and other data of the kind. 

 The chief item in the cost was the supply of sheets 

 of the Ordnance map, which had amounted to just 

 over 55. per school. The president. Dr. W. H. R. 

 Rivers, in opening the discussion, said that the 

 point in the scheme which most impressed an 

 anthropologist was the great enthusiasm which 

 it showed for the preservation of the past. 



A POWERFUL plea for the org"anisation of science in 

 Australia has been made by Prof. T. H. Laby, of 

 the University of Melbourne. Prof. Laby points out 

 that virhile in both Great Britain and America the 

 war period was a time when important changes were 

 made in the organisation of science, no corresponding 

 change occurred in Australia. Science in that con- 

 tinent is organised on a State basis ; each of the five 

 States has its Royal Society together with a number 

 of minor scientific societies, but the only society in 

 which the whole Commonwealth is represented is the 

 Australasian Association for the Advancement of 

 Science. This body meets normally once in two years, 

 but, owing to force of circumstances, no meeting has 

 been held during the last seven years. Prof. Laby 

 argues that such a body is unable to take continuous 

 care of Australian science. The world-wide need for 

 the re-organisation of science w^as expressed in Great 

 Britain by the formation of the Conjoint Board of 

 Scientific Societies, the National Union of Scientific 

 Workers, and the establishment of State-aided re- 

 search associations ; in America a similar movement 

 led to the formation of the National Research Council 

 to "mobilise" the scientific personnel and resources 

 of the country. In Prof. Laby's opinion, none of 

 these bodies would meet the whole of Australia's 

 requirements. He advocates rather the formation of 

 a national scientific society or national academy com- 

 posed of those who are contributing to both pure and 

 applied science which shall have sufficient resources 

 to promote and direct scientific research ; further, it 

 should be recognised by the Government as an ad- 

 visory body, and be capable of safeguarding the pro- 

 fessional interests of men of science. 



NO. 2682, VOL. 107] 



Calendar of Scientific Pioneers. 



March 24, 1712. Nehemiah Grew died. — Like 

 Malpighi, Grew is regarded as one of the founders 

 of vegetable anatomy. He practised medicine in 

 Coventry and London, and was secretary of the Royal 

 Society in 1677. In 1682 he published his " Anatomy 

 of Plants." Grew was probably the first to distin- 

 guish sexuality in plants. 



March 24, 1776. John Harrison died. — A native of 

 Yorkshire, Harrison made several improvements in 

 clocks and watches, and, having settled in London, 

 during the years 1735-59 ^^ produced the first four 

 chronometers. Though when tested at sea for deter- 

 mining the longitude they proved successful, it was 

 only after long delay that Harrison was granted the 

 full award of 2o,oooJ. offered by the Act of Parliament 

 of 1713. 



March 24, 1849. Johann Wolfgang Dbbereiner died. 



—For some years professor of chemistry at Jena, 

 Dobereiner's chief work was on platinum in a minute 

 state of division and the oxidation products of 

 alcohol. He was the inventor of the Dobereiner 

 lamp. 



March 24, 1881. Achille Ernest Oscar Joseph 

 Delesse died. — An Inspector-General of Mines and a 

 president of the Geological Society of France, Delesse 

 paid special attention to the deposits beneath the sea. 



March 24, 1905. Pietro Tacchini died. — Distin- 

 guished for his investigation of the physics of the 

 sun, Tacchini was the founder of the Society degli 

 Spettroscopisti and the Society Sismologica of Italy, 

 and also of the Mount Etna Observatory. In 1879 

 he succeeded Secchi as director of the observatory of 

 the Collegio Romano. 



March 25, 1915. Karol Stanislav Olszewski died. — 



After studying under Bunsen, Olszewski became pro- 

 fessor of chemistry at Cracow. Like his countryman 

 Wroblewski, he was a pioneer worker on the lique- 

 faction of gases, and was the first to study argon 

 at very low temperatures. 



March 26, 1797. James Hutton died. — The founder 

 of physical and dynamical geology, Hutton gave his 

 views to the world in his paper, "Theory of the 

 Earth," of 1785, and in the book bearing the same 

 title published ten years later. 



March 26, 1877. Karl Bremiker died.— While holding 

 a post in the Prussian Board of Trade, Bremiker in 

 his leisure revised some of the star charts of the 

 Berlin Academy. It was with the aid of these charts 

 that Galle first observed Neptune. In later life 

 Bremiker was a director of the Prussian Geodetical 

 Institute. 



March 28, 1874. Peter Andreas Hansen died.— Of 



Danish parentage, Hansen in 1825 succeeded Encke 

 at the Gotha Observatory. His principal researches 

 related to lunar theory and the orbits of comets and 

 planets. His "Tables of the Moon" were published 

 ijy the British Government, which granted him loooL 



March 30, 1832. Stephen Groombridge died.— A 



London merchant and a keen astronomer, Groom- 

 bridge produced an important catalogue of stars. 



March 30, 1914. John Henry Poynting died.— Pro- 



fessor of physics in Mason's College and its suc- 

 cessor, the University of Birmingham, for thirty-four 

 vears, Poynting's original researches referred mainly 

 "to the constant of gravity and to the theories of 

 electrodynamics and the pressure of light. E. C. S. 



