June 30, 192 1] 



NATURE 



563 



encouraged by the Prince of Monaco and others, have 

 been made in great numbers. The present exhibition 

 includes what are supposed to be examples of early 

 Iberian script, figures of suns, fishes, horseshoes, 

 women weaving short skirts, drawings of the chase, 

 tiny and most artistic stags from the eastern regions 

 of the Peninsula, and splendid life-size wild boars and 

 bisons from Altamira in the north-west. These 

 figures, in drawing and colouring, are splendid 

 examples of prehistoric art. 



Baron Edmond de Rothschild has intimated to 

 the Paris Academy of Sciences his intention to place 

 at the disposal of the Academy the sum of 10,000,000 

 francs for the purpose of creating a fund for the 

 development of physico-chemical research in France. 

 According to the Morning Post, the revenue from the 

 capital sum will be used first for assisting young 

 students who devote themselves to pure science ; 

 secondly, to furnish investigators with the means to 

 carry out their work ; thirdly, to help inventors who 

 have made discoveries as a result of being assisted 

 by the new foundation to take out patents protecting 

 their discoveries ; and, fourthly, to create later on, if 

 it should be deemed necessary, an institute with 

 laboratories to be named after the founder. 



At the annual general meeting of the Rontgen 

 Society, held on June 16, the following oflficers and 

 council were elected : — President : Prof. J. W. Nichol- 

 son. Vice-Presidents : Dr. G. H. Rodman, Sir Ernest 

 Rutherford, and Sir William Bragg. Hon. Treasurer: 

 Mr. G. Pearce. Hon. Secretaries: Dr. E. A. Owen 

 and Dr. J. R. Reynolds. Hon. Editor: Dr. G. W. C. 

 Kaye. Council: C. Andrews, Dr. H. Black, A. E. 

 Dean, Major Kenelm Edgcumbe, N. S. Finzi, Dr. 

 F. L. Hopwood, Dr. F. H. Johnson, Dr. R. Morton, 

 C. E. S. Phillips, Prof. A. W. Porter, Prof. A. O. 

 Rankine, and Sir Archibald D. Reid. 



The seventy- fourth annual meeting of the Palaeonto- 

 graphical Society was held in the rooms of the 

 Geological Society, Burlington House, on Friday, 

 June 17, Mr. E. T. Newton, vice-president, in the 

 chair. The report referred to the completion of Dr. 

 Reed's monograph of Bellerophontacea, and the early 

 publication of a new monograph of carboniferous in- 

 sects by Mr. Herbert Bolton. It also announced 

 further instalments of the monographs of Pliocene 

 Mollusca, Palaeozoic Asterozoa, and Pleistocene Mam- 

 malia (Hippopotamus). The size of the annual volume 

 had unfortunately to be reduced owing to the higher 

 cost of production and to the difficulty of increasing 

 the membership of the society. Dr. J. S. Flett, Mrs. 

 Longstaff, Mr. A. W. Oke, and Dr. C. T. Trechmann 

 were elected new members of council. Dr. Henry 

 Woodward was re-elected president. Prof. E. J. Gar- 

 wood was elected new vice-president, and Mr. Robert S. 

 Herries and Dr. A. Smith Woodward were re-elected 

 treasurer and secretary respectively. 



The council of the Society of Chemical Industry has 

 nominated Prof. R. F. Ruttan, of Montreal, as presi- 

 dent for the session 1921-22. The council, in view of 

 the fact that the current' annual meeting will be held 

 NO. 2696, VOL. 107] 



in Montreal, requested the Canadian sections to sug- 

 gest one of their members for nomination for the office 

 of president, and Prof. Ruttan 's name was proposed. 



Early last year, as announced in Nature, the 

 Medical Research Council, by the courtesy of the 

 Governing Body of the Lister Institute, made arrange- 

 ments to maintain a national collection of type cul- 

 tures at the institute. The scheme is under the 

 general direction of Prof. J. C. G. Ledingham, with 

 Dr. R. St. John Brooks and Miss M. Rhodes an 

 curator and assistant curator respectively. It now 

 appears that mycologists feel the need of a similar 

 collection. Since the formation of such a collection 

 is not at present contemplated by any institution it 

 is considered that the scope of the national collection 

 should be extended. The British Mycological Society 

 has appointed a fully representative standing com- 

 mittee to consider the ways in which the collection 

 can be made most valuable, and to advise and assist 

 in all questions appertaining to fungi. It is proposed 

 to collect and maintain cultures of fungi of import- 

 ance in phytopathology, medicine, veterinary science, 

 technology and soil biology, types useful for teaching 

 purposes, and any rare or interesting species. At 

 present it is not possible to cope with the innumerable 

 strains of common fungi, and room can be found only 

 for those forms with some published distinguishing 

 name or symbol. The co-operation of bacteriologists 

 and mycologists is earnestly invited, and in return 

 every effort will be made to supply the needs of appli- 

 cants for cultures. All communications respecting the 

 collection should be addressed to the Curator, National 

 Collection of Type Cultures, Lister Institute, Chelsea 

 Gardens, S.W.i. 



There was an interesting demonstration of new 

 wireless telegraph apparatus by the R. M. Radio 

 Co. on Thursday last. This company has developed 

 and shown in operation a Morse printing wireless 

 receiver, which, in addition to the ordinary detector 

 and amplifier valves, is provided with another valve, 

 to rectify the currents that would normally go into 

 the receiving telephone circuit, so that a relay can 

 be made to work. The relay is of a sensitive Post 

 Office pattern, and is actuated by upsetting the 

 balance of a Wheatstone bridge arrangement, in one 

 arm of which the valve is connected. The relay con- 

 trols an ordinary Morse inker, so that a permanent 

 record of the messages is produced. This apparatus 

 is due to Mr. F. H. Haynes, of the R. M. Radio Co., 

 and Mr. V. Ramage, of the Central News, Ltd., and 

 can easily take down messages from Paris, Moscow, 

 etc., as well as from ship installations up to a con- 

 siderable distance. Capt. H. de A. Donnisthorpe 

 also showed a new form of thermionic valve known 

 as the R.M.R. triode. In this, improved efficiency is 

 obtained by the use of a hemispherical anode which 

 avoids the fringing effect produced by the more usual 

 cylindrical electrodes, and thus utilises the electron 

 stream more completely. In a further development 

 of this apparatus a "soft" tube of this kind is sur- 

 rounded by a current-carrying coil, which produces 

 a magnetic field having the effect of concentrating 



