June i6, 192 i] 



NATURE 



499 



Notes. 



The Albert medal of the Royal Society of Arts for 

 1^2 1 has been awarded to Prof. J. A. Fleming in 

 recognition of his many valuable contributions to elec- 

 trical science and its applications, and especially of his 

 original invention of the thermionic valve, now so 

 largely employed in wireless telegraphy and for other 

 purposes. 



Notice is given by the University of London that 

 the advanced lectures by Prof. A. D. Waller and Mr. 

 J. C. Waller on "Experimental Studies in Vegetable 

 Physiology and Vegetable Electricity," announced for 

 delivery on June 15, 22, 29, and July 6, cannot now 

 "be given. 



TrtE Importation of Plumage (Prohibition) Bill, as 

 amended in Standing Committee, was read a third 

 time in the House of Commons on June 10. 



The grant of 5000^ a year promised by the Govern- 

 ment for five years to the Empire Cotton Growing 

 Corporation (on condition that 90 per cent, of the 

 cotton industry should agree to contribute by means 

 of a voluntary levy on every bale of cotton imported 

 into England, which agreement has now been ob- 

 tained) is to be replaced by the grant of a capital sum 

 of i,ooo,oooZ. to the corporation. This announce- 

 ment was made by Mr. Winston Churchill in Man- 

 chester on June 7. The capital sum in question is 

 about a quarter of the total profits made by the 

 British and Egyptian Governments from their joint 

 •control of the cotton supply during the war. These 

 profits are being shared equally between the two 

 Governments, and half the British Government's 

 sliare is to be utilised for the promotion of Empire 

 cotton. 



The Minister of Agriculture has announced the gift 

 to the nation by Lord Lee of a large estate of 1300 

 acres, being part of the Chequers estate, of which 

 700 acres is farmland and the remainder woodland. 

 The Ministry proposes that the main farm should 

 be conducted as an example of the stock-rearing farm, 

 showing how land of that character could be improved 

 so as to produce the maximum output of livestock 

 consistent with sound commercial agriculture. It 

 is considered that the farm could be made a 

 valuable demonstration of the growth and value of 

 improved varieties of cereals and fodder crops and 

 of the amelioration of grassland to be utilised for 

 the intensive breeding and rearing of livestock, with- 

 out departing from the prime economic purpose of 

 any farm which is intended to guide the practice of 

 I he working farmer. At the same time it is hoped 

 to come to some arrangement with the Bucks County 

 Council, under which the Dropshort Farm could be 

 utilised for more definitely educational purposes as 

 the holding attached to a farm institute. It is a hope- 

 ful augury, and one not without significance, that future 

 Prime Ministers should be able to see at their doors 

 an example of agricultural education in being. Lord 

 Lee's munificent donation adds to the debt of grati- 

 tude which the nation already owes him, and gives 

 NO. 2694, VOL. 107] 



the agricultural authorities an opportunity of carrying 

 out work which has long been needed, and which 

 they have long desired to do. 



The fifth International Rubber Exhibition was 

 opened on June 3 by Sir Owen Philipps, M.P., at the 

 Royal Agricultural Hall, Islington. Notable exhibits 

 of rubber and other tropical produce were shown by 

 commercial firms and by British overseas and 

 foreign Governments, the colonial exhibits of the latter 

 being particularly good. From the scientific point of 

 view the display illustrating the mycological work 

 which is being carried out under the auspices of the 

 Rubber Growers' Association, and the fine exhibit of 

 the Java rubber research stations, call for special men- 

 tion. The most important feature of the exhibit of 

 the Rubber Growers' Association was the effectively 

 arranged demonstration of the discovery by the Botany 

 Department of the Imperial College of Science and 

 Technology thar, in all probability, "brown bast" 

 (the most serious disease of Hevea brasiliensis) is 

 essentially a question of phloem necrosis. Sanderson 

 and Sutcliffe (the latter a former student of the col- 

 lege), in their investigation of the anatomy of burr- 

 formation, which is the principal external symptom of 

 brown bast, had shown that the burrs result from 

 the inclusion of areas of diseased laticiferous tissue, 

 in stone-cell "pockets" formed by the activities of 

 wound cambiums. The recent work at the Imperial 

 College, however, focusses attention upon the prob- 

 ability that the disease has its origin in an affection 

 of the sieve-tubes (phloem), -the symptoms described 

 by Sanderson and Sutcliffe being a secondary develop- 

 ment. The important information now available 

 should be a step forward to the discovery of the 

 causative factors of this baffling disease. Another 

 series of preparations demonstrated the action of cer- 

 tain fungi (Diplodia, Nectria, and Fusarium) as 

 wound parasites; cultures of fungi obtained from 

 Hevea trunks were also shown. A further exhibition 

 of the department comprised a series of seed-germina- 

 tion experiments, which showed that rubber seed 

 which had failed to germinate was already infected 

 with Diplodia, a fungus known to cause a disease of 

 Hevea seedlings. Reference must also be made to 

 the interesting exhibit illustrating the course of in- 

 struction in rubber technology which is being con- 

 ducted at the Northern Polytechnic Institute, HoU 

 loway. 



The BriBsh Cast-iron Research Association has 

 been approved by the Department of Scientific and In- 

 dustrial Research as complying with the conditions 

 laid down in the Government scheme for the encour- 

 agement of industrial research. The secretary of the 

 association is Mr. Thomas Vickers, Central House, 

 New Street, Birmingham. 



At the anniversary meeting of the Linnean So;:iety 

 of London, held on May 24 last, the following officers 

 were elected -.—President : Dr. A. Smith Woodward. 

 Treasurer: Mr. H. W. Monckton. Secretaries: Dr. 

 B. Davdon Jackson, Prof. E. S. Goodrich, and Dr. 



