384 



NATURE 



[November i8, 1920 



niembors of council were elected : — President : Sir 

 William P. Beale, Bart. Vice-Presidents : Prof. 

 H. I.. Bowman and Mr. A. Hutchinson. Treasurer: 

 Dr. J. W. Evans. General Secretary: Dr. G. T. 

 Prior. Foreign Secretary : Prof. VV. VV. Watts. 

 Editor of the Journal: Mr. L. J. Spencer. Ordinary 

 Members of Council: Dr. .\. Holmes, Miss M. VV. 

 Porter, Mr. R. H. Rastall, Sir J. J. H. Teall, Mr. 

 A. F. Hallimond, Dr. F. H. Hatch, Mr. J. A. Howe, 

 I.t.-Col. VV. Campbell Smith, Mr. T. V. Earlier, 

 Prof. G. G. Cullis, Mr. VV. A. Richardson, and Dr. 

 A. Scott. 



Mr. J. IIauc.rkavks presided over the annual mett- 

 inf» of the Chaldaean Society held at the Great 

 Northern Hotel on November 13. Reports of astro- 

 nomical worl< and progress were received from the 

 local sections established at Luton and Tottenham, 

 and the formation of new sections for Warwickshire 

 and Hertfordshire was announced. Special attention 

 was directed to the encouraging work of the society 

 in the observation of the zodiacal light, variable stars, 

 sun-spots, the moon, and photographic work. The 

 secretary, Mr. S. S. Clerk-Maxwell, King's College, 

 Cambridge, expres.sed a hope for further development 

 and for the formation of local sections south of the 

 Thames. The Chaldaean is now published for the 

 society by Messrs. Geo. Philip and Son, Ltd., 32 Fleet 

 Street, E.C.4. 



A JOINT meeting of the Physical and Optical Socie- 

 ties for the discussion of "The Making of Reflecting 

 Surfaces " will be held on Friday, November 26, at 

 7 p.m., at the Imperial College of Science and Techno- 

 logy, South Kensington, S.VV.7. The programme will 

 be divided into two parts : (a) Technical methods and 

 processes, and (b) properties of reflecting surfaces 

 (reflecting powers, etc.). Some demonstrations of 

 actual processes will also be given. Mr. R. Kanthack 

 is making a complete bibliography and rdsumi of 

 previously published work on this subject, and will 

 contribute a description of the results of his inves- 

 tigation to the discussion. Papers have been promised 

 by representatives from manufacturing firms, astro- 

 nomical observatories, and other scientific institutions. 

 .V complete programme will be issued during the week. 

 Tickets may be obtained from the secretary of the 

 Physical Society (Imperial College of Science) or of 

 the Optical Societv (39 Victoria Street, Westminster, 

 S.VV.i). 



Replying to a question in the House of Commons 

 on November 15, Mr. Lloyd George said : "The whole 

 subject of chemical warfare has been under careful 

 consideration by the Cabinet during the past year. It 

 was decided on March 4 that the question should be 

 raised at the Council of the League of Nations. It 

 is, I am sure, obvious to the House that this is a 

 question on which our action must depend on that of 

 other nations. It was realised, therefore, that, as 

 other countries have been continuing to develop this 

 method of warfare, the safety of our fighting Services 

 would be seriously jeopardised by lack of similar 

 development in this country, and it was decided on 

 May 12 that, pending a pronouncement on the subject 

 by the League, the fighting Services should continue 

 NO. 2664, VOL. 106] 



their researches and experiments. The War Office 

 Committee has been constituted as part of the 

 organisation necessary for the continuation of these 

 studies. The whole subject will, of course, have to 

 Ix; reconsidered when the Council of the League of 

 Nations has made its pronouncement." 



Representatives of countries included in the 

 League of Nations and of .\merica met in Paris on 

 October 17-21 for the purpose of forming an Inter- 

 national Union against Tuberculosis, which would con- 

 tinue the work carried on by the old international 

 association, the last conference of which was held 

 in October, 1913, at Berlin. Great Britain's repre- 

 sentatives were Sir Robert Philip, of the National 

 -Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis and 

 the Ministry of Pensions; Dr. Nathan Raw, also from 

 the National .Association ; and Dr. Halliday Suther- 

 land, of the Ministry of Pensions. The conference 

 was presided over by M. Leon Bourgeois, and 

 the principal subject raised was the necessity for 

 the earlv diagnosis of tuberculosis and the methods 

 which could be used for this purpose. The head- 

 quarters of the International Union against Tuber- 

 culosis will be at Geneva, and the next conference 

 will be held in London in 1921. 



Mr. E. W. Shann referred in his letter in Natire 

 of November 11 to the statement in the leading article 

 in our issue of October 28 that there was " little or 

 no evidence " that the museums of our public schools 

 "are used in school teaching." This statement was 

 based not only on the Report of the British .Associa- 

 tion Committee, but also on the confessions of public- 

 school science masters in annual conference in 1916, 

 and on personal inquiries from boys and masters while 

 the article was being written. Oundle is a marked 

 exception to the prevailing apathy, yet Mr. Shann in 

 his long and interesting letter devotes only ten lines to 

 the use of the museum in class-work. Such small 

 evidence as there is, in addition to that from Oundle, 

 comes, as in Mr. Shann 's case, from the biological 

 and geological sides. This is not because the subject 

 or the material is more suited to the museum method, 

 but because the teachers have had a .scientific train- 

 ing and have some appreciation of a museum's use- 

 fulness. More might be done even here, but it is in 

 the teaching of history, ancient and modern, and in 

 the elucidation of ancient or foreign authors, that so 

 much more use might be made of school museums. 



In a brochure entitled "A Proposal to Increase the 

 Purchasing Pow-er of the Penny " Mr. Harrv .Allcock 

 puts forward the view that the value of the penny 

 as I /'240th of the pound sterling has proved too low 

 for post-war requirements, and that, in consequence, 

 penny prices have been advanced by 50 per cent, in 

 many cases where a smaller increase w-ould have 

 satisfied the seller had a single coin been available inter- 

 mediate in value betw^een id. and i^d. As a result, two 

 coins are now needed in millions of daily transactions 

 where formerly only one was used, and this has led 

 to a shortage of copper coins and much inconveni- 

 ence to the public. The provision of either additional 

 copper coins or new nickel coins would involve 

 national expenditure, to obviate which Mr. .Allcock 



