442 



NATURE 



[April 21, 192 1 



will be known as the Empire Cotton Growing Cor- 

 poration, and will be incorporated under Royal 

 charter. Meanwhile, the present Committee has been 

 making careful inquiry from the Governments of 

 the Dominions, Colonies, and Protectorates as to 

 the means by which the development of cotton-grow- 

 ing within the Empire may best be promoted. From 

 more than one of the Governments approa<^hed the 

 suggestion has been made that specially qualified men 

 should be appointed to advise the local Agricultural 

 Departments on matters connected with cotton- 

 growing within their respective areas. To assist the 

 proposed corporation the Empire Cotton Growing 

 Committee is prepared to receive now from suitably 

 qualified persons statements of their scientific attain- 

 ments and /or experience of tropical agriculture, with 

 the view of compiling a register of men whose ser- 

 vices overseas may be useful in the development of 

 cotton-growing, either in consultation or by appoint- 

 ment as cotton experts. The register is intended to 

 be available for reference by the corporation now in 

 course of formation, but it is unlikely that appoint- 

 ments can be made for the next few months. All 

 communications, which will be regarded as confi- 

 ■dential to the members of the council of the corpora- 

 tion, should be addressed to the Secretary, Empire 

 Cotton Growing Committee, Board of Trade, Great 

 •George Street, London, S.W.i. 



The Civil Service Commissioners announce that an 

 open competitive examination for not fewer than 

 twenty situations as assistant examiner in the Patent 

 Office, Department of the Board of Trade, will be 

 lield in London in July next, commencing on July 12. 

 The limits of age are twenty and twenty-five, with 

 extension for service in H.M. Forces. Regulations 

 and forms of application will be sent in response to 

 requests by letter addressed to the Secretary, Civil 

 Service Commission, Burlington Gardens, London, 

 W.I, on and after April 25. 



"The Early Chronology of Sumer and Egypt and 

 Similarities of their Culture " is the subject of a 

 lecture to be delivered by Prof. S. Langdon at the 

 Royal Society's rooms at Burlington House on 

 Wednesday, April 27, at 8.30. The lecture is 

 arranged by the Egypt Exploration Society, and 

 tickets can be obtained gratis on application to the 

 Secretary, 13 Tavistock Square, W.C.i. 



Prof. G. H. Parker has been appointed director of 

 the Harvard Zoological Laboratory in succession to 

 Prof. E. L. Mark, who will retire at the close of the 

 academic year after having spent forty-four years in 

 the service of the University. The new director has 

 been a member of the teaching staff at Harvard since 

 his graduation in 1887, and has held a full professor- 

 ship of zoology since 1906. 



The Government has accepted the invitation of the 

 Spanish Government to participate in the third Inter- 

 national Fishery Congress, which will be held at 

 Santander on July 31-August 8, and has appointed as 

 its representative Mr. H. G. Maurice, Fisheries 

 Secretary. ; ' ' ' 



NO. 2686, VOL. 107] 



Don Josfe Rodriguez Carracido, Rector of the 

 University of Madrid, has been elected president of 

 the Spanish Association for the Advancement of 

 Science. 



The fourth Silvanus Thompson memorial lecture of 

 the Rontgen Society will be delivered on Thursday, 

 May 19, by Prof. A. V. Hill, of the University of 

 Manchester. The subject will be " Electrical Instru- 

 ments and Phenomena in Physiology." 



In the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Insti- 

 tute (vol, 1., January-June, 1920) Prof. A. C. Haddon 

 contributes an elaborate monograph on the outriggers 

 of Indonesian canoes. The present focus of outrigger 

 canoes is the Moluccas, and it is suggested that from 

 Indonesia, if not actually from the Moluccas, migra- 

 tions took place at various times, each with its 

 special type of canoe or with some partial modifica- 

 tion, the earliest types of canoes or outriggers being 

 those that went furthest, while those that started last 

 have a more limited distribution. The paper is well 

 illustrated with woodcuts, and furnished with an 

 ample bibliography of the subject. 



Mr. T. Sheppard has republished from the Trans- 

 actions of the East Riding Antiquarian Society 

 (vol. xxiii., 1920) a paper on the origin of the materials 

 used in the manufacture of prehistoric stone weapons 

 in East Yorkshire. Curiously enough, for a consider- 

 able distance in any direction this area does not pro- 

 duce a single rock in situ which is suitable for making 

 stone implements. The Yorkshire Chalk, which sur- 

 rounds Holderness and forms the Wold area, has 

 furnished many thousands of implements, but, though 

 it contains flints, it produces only a form of this 

 material which, owing to its brittle nature, is useless 

 for the purpose. Holderness, on the contrary, a 

 rubbish-heap deposited at the close of the Great Ice 

 age, contains boulders, large and small, derived from 

 Scotland, the Lake District, Teesdale, the coast of 

 Durham and Yorkshire, and even Scandinavia, which 

 supply large quantities of black and pink flints, excel- 

 lent material available for the ancient flint-workers. 

 Mr. Sheppard's paper, which is supplied with numerous 

 good illustrations, gives full details of this ancient 

 industry. 



For the moment smallpox has sunk almost to 

 vanishing point, but this is just the time to read the 

 carefully prepared pamphlet by Dr. Mary Scharlieb 

 on vaccination (Research Defence Society, 15.). Last 

 year's experience in Scotland shows that smallpox 

 is once more "on the move." During demobilisation 

 thorough inspection of soldiers and civilians stopped 

 many cases at the ports, but now that the Baltic and 

 the Mediterranean are both open the chances of fresh 

 importations have multiplied enormously. Under the 

 new regulations the port sanitary authorities will be 

 better equipped for handling the ordinary infections, 

 including smallpox, at the ports ; but the danger of 

 outbreaks, now that the numbers of susceptibles have 

 grown to be a large fraction of the community, will 

 increase as foreign trade increases. Dr. Scharlieb 

 gives an orthodox risumi of the historical facts about 

 vaccination, and the whole pamphlet is an appeal to 



