yoo 



NATURE 



[July 28, 1921 



particularly to some of the recent Rothamsted experi- 

 ments, showing that the addition of chalk to the soil 

 caused so marked a disintegration that the drawbar 

 pull on the tractor was reduced from 1500 lb. to 

 1300 lb. for the three-furrow plough, thereby reducing 

 the consumption of fuel and the wear-and-tear. 



Sir Daniel Hall described the relationships between 

 research stations and the college and farm institutes 

 on the one hand, and the county advisers on the 

 other. He impressed upon his hearers the fact that 

 much of the work of an experimental station could 

 have no immediate practical application, and yet it 

 was absolutely essential for the development of agri- 

 cultural science and for further advances in agricul- 

 tural practice. He described the great changes that 

 had taken place in the past fifteen years in the 

 attitude of Government departments towards research 

 work, and to the broader and more enlightened out- 

 look on the part of the general public. 



Dr. Russell described the work of the station, and 

 emphasised the fact that its purpose is first to obtain 

 trustworthy information about the soils and growing 

 plants, and then to put this information into such a 

 form that teachers and experts can use it. Ajnong 

 recent developments to which Dr. Russell referred are 

 the statistical department, where elaborate and ex- 

 tensive Rothamsted data are examined by modern 

 statistical methods, and the work on cultivation which 

 is now being carried out bv the physical department 

 and the farm. 



University and Educational Intelligence. 



Durham. — The following honorary degrees were 

 conferred upon members of the British Medical Asso- 

 ciation on July 21 : — Doctor of Civil Laws: Sir Wil- 

 liam MacEwen, Sir Thomas Oliver, and Sir Humphry 

 D. Rolleston. Doctor of Hygiene : Dr. T. E. Hill 

 and Dr. J. W. Smith. Doctor of Science: Sir Arthur 

 Keith. Doctor of Literature : Sir Dawson Williams, 

 editor of the British Medical Journal. M.A. : Dr. 

 Alfred Cox, medical secretary of the British Medical 

 Association. 



London. — Mr. M. T. M. Ormsby has been 

 appointed as from August 1, 192 1, to the Chadwick 

 •chair of municipal engineering tenable at University 

 College. Mr. Ormsby was appointed assistant to 

 Prof. Osbert Chadwick at the college in 1898, and 

 since 19 14 has been University reader in surveying. 



Dr. F. S. Langmead has been appointed as from 

 August 31, 192 1, to the University chair of medicine 

 tenable at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School. Dr. 

 Langmead has held a number of posts at St. Mary's 

 Hospital since 1902, also at the Hospital for Sick 

 Children and at the Seamen's Hospital, Greenwich. 



The Rogers Prize of looL for 192 1 has been awarded 

 to Mr. Lambert Rogers for an essay entitled "The 

 Surgical Treatment of Hyperthyroidism." 



The following doctorates have been conferred : — 

 D.Sc. in Physics: Mr. Lewis .Simons, an internal 

 student, of King's College, for a thesis entitled "Con- 

 tributions to the Study of Energy Transformations 

 when X-radiation is absorbed by, or emitted from, a 

 Substance." D.Sc. (Engineering) : Mr. K. C. 

 Chakko, an internal student, of University College, 

 for a thesis entitled "Stresses in Chain Links." 

 D.Sc. in Botany : Mr. Birbal Sahni, an external 

 student, for a thesis entitled "The Structures and 

 Affinities of Acomopyle Pancheri, Pilger. " D.Sc. in 

 Chemistry : Mr. W. C. Reynolds, an external student, 

 for a thesis entitled " On Interfacial Tension." D.Sc. 

 ■ in Geology : Mr. L. F. Spath, an external student, 



NO. 2700, VOL. 107] 



for a thesis entitled "On Cretaceous Cephalopoda 

 from Zululand," and other papers; and Mr. L. D. 

 Stamp, an external student, for two theses entitled 

 "On the Beds at the Base of the Ypresian (London 

 Clay) in the Anglo-Franco-Belgian Basin," and 'On 

 Cycles of Sedimentation in the Eocene Strata of the 

 Anglo-Franco-Belgian Basin." 



The Trustees of the Beit Fellowships for Scientific 

 Research, which were founded and endowed in 1913 

 by Sir Otto Beit in order to promote the advancement 

 of science by means of research, have recently elected 

 to fellowships Messrs, H. L. Riley and W. A. P. 

 Challenor. Mr. Riley was educated at the Keighley 

 Trade and Grammar School, 1910-17, and has been a 

 student at the Imperial College of Science and 

 Technology from 19 19 to date. Mr. Challenor was 

 educated at Whitchurch Grammar School, 1911-17, 

 and has been a student at the Birmingham University 

 from 19 17 to date. Both will carry out research at 

 the Imperial College of Science and Technology at 

 South Kensington. 



It was announced in Nature of July 7, p. 604, 

 that Mr. H. H. Wills had presented the University 

 of Bristol with the sum of 200,000/ . for the provision 

 of a new physics laboratory. Further particulars 

 have now been received. Two gifts totalling 2oo,oooi. 

 were received, and the Council of the University has 

 now approved plans and signed a contract for the 

 erection of a building. It is estimated that the work 

 will absorb the whole of the original gifts, together with 

 the interest on the fund, amounting to 21,000/., which 

 has since accrued. The Council has further decided 

 to associate the name of Mr. Henry Wills permanently 

 and for all time with the department by naming the 

 building "The Henry Herbert Wills Physical Labora- 

 tory." In this Bristol is following the precedent of 

 other universities in associating the name of the donor 

 with a laboratory erected by him for a particular sub- 

 ject. The building, which is Early Renaissance in 

 style, will be a four-floor structure in the shape of 

 the letter "L," to be erected on the north-east side of 

 the Royal Fort Estate. The architects have been 

 most successful in securing both architectural beauty 

 and all the facilities of light and other special require- 

 ments demanded by a science department. W^hen it 

 is erected Bristol will possess the best building for 

 teaching and research work in physics in the world. 

 The total amount contributed to the University of 

 Bristol by various members of the Wills family now 

 exceeds 900,000/. 



Sir Michael Sadler, Vice-Chancellor of the Uni- 

 versity of Leeds, in the course of an address after 

 opening the new buildings of the Community of the 

 Resurrection at Mirfield on July 16, said that modern 

 civilisation was one of the colossal facts in the world's 

 history. It had been achieved by the courage and 

 labour of Western men during four centuries. Its 

 essence was power. Its phases had been the power 

 of the individual pioneer, the power of the State, the 

 power of the sea, the power of the machine, the 

 power of coal, and the power of high explosives. 

 Through this stupendous outburst of power Provi- 

 dence had permitted a great change in the lives of 

 men and in the outlook of their minds. It had 

 quickened invention ; it had flowered in great litera- 

 ture ; it had multiplied opportunity ; it had created 

 wealth beyond even the dreams of avarice. Of the 

 six most brilliant epochs in human history modern 

 Western civilisation had been one. But now in its 

 heart and conscience there is foreboding. Power, 

 which is the essence of modern civilisation, threatens 

 to destroy it. Three men so typical as Viscount 

 Grev, Mr. H. G. Wells, and the Dean of St. Paul's 



