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NATURE 



[November 25, 1920 



The following have been elected members of 

 council of the Rontgen Society for the ensuing 

 year: — President: Dr. R. Knox. Vice-Presidents: 

 Prof. A. W. Porter, Prof. J. W. Nicholson, and 

 Dr. G. H. Rodman. Hon. Secretaries: Dr. R. W. A. 

 Salmond, 51 Welbeck Street, W. i, and Dr. K. A. 

 Owen, National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, 

 Middlesex. Hon. Treasurer : Mr. Geoffrey Pearce. 

 Hon. Editor: Major G. W. C. Kaye. Other 

 Members of Council : Dr. J. Metcalfe, Mr. E. P. 

 Cumberbatch, Dr. A. E. Barclay, Mr. F. J. Harlow, 

 Dr. W. Makower, Mr. J. Russell Reynolds, Prof. 

 A. O. Rankine, Mr. Cuthbert -Andrews, Major 

 C. E. S. Phillips, Dr. R. Morton. Sir A. Reid, and 

 Mr. A. E. Dean. The names in the above list are 

 in order of seniority. 



The Forestry Commission, in consultation with the 

 India and Colonial Offices, has appointed an Inter- 

 Departmental Committee to prepare a scheme for 

 giving effect to the resolutions of the British Empire 

 Forestry Conference with regard to a central institu- 

 tion for training forest officers, including (i) its loca- 

 tion ; (2) its organisation, constitution, and control ; 

 (3) its cost and method of financing; (4) its relation 

 to forest research; and (5) the qualifications, selec- 

 tion, and cost of maintenance of students. The Com- 

 mittee consists of the following members : — Right 

 Hon. Lord Clinton, representing the Forestry Com- 

 mission (chairman); Mr. P. H. Clutterbuck, repre- 

 senting the India Office; Major R. D. Furse, repre- 

 senting the Colonial Office; Sir Ronald Munro- 

 Ferguson; and Prof. J. B. Farmer. Mr. W. H. 

 Guillebaud, Forestry Commission, 22 Grosvenor 

 Gardens, S.W.i, will act as secretary to the Com- 

 mittee. 



Mr. L. H. Dudley Buxton, of the department of 

 human anatomy. University Museum, Oxford, has 

 been invited by Dr. Zammit, of the Malta Universitv, 

 to conduct an investigation of the physical characters 

 of the ancient and modern inhabitants of Malta. A 

 party, consisting of Mr. Buxton, Mr. .\. V. D. Hort, 

 of Brasenose College, Mrs. Jenkinson, of Somerville 

 College, Miss Moss and Miss Mond, of Lady Mar- 

 garet Hall, under the leadership of Mr. Buxton, will 

 visit the island for this purpose during the coming 

 Christmas vacation. Archa;ological investigations will 

 also be undertaken, but only in so far as these may 

 be necessary to throw light upon the physical anthro- 

 pology. The expedition has received the approval of 

 the Governor of Malta, and the expenses will be met by 

 a grant from the Mary Ewart Trust and by a generous 

 donation of lool. from Sir Alfred Mond. A report on 

 the results of the expedition is to be presented at a 

 meeting of the Royal Anthropological Institute to be 

 held early in the spring. 



The Institute of Industrial Administration is hold- 

 ing a meeting at the Central Hall, Westminster, on 

 December 7, at 7 p.m., when Mr. Richard Twelve- 

 trees will read a paper on "Road Transport as an 

 Aid to Industrial Management." The chair will be 

 taken by Mr. E. Shrapnell-Smith, chairman of the 

 Commercial Motor Users' Association, and the sub- , 

 NO. 2665, VOL. IO6I 



ject will be discussed from various aspects, including 

 the development of roads, traffic congestion, handling 

 of goods, and the design and maintenance of road 

 motor vehicles. The lecture will be illustrated by kine- 

 matograph pictures, and various interesting models 

 will be on view. Up to the present time the develop- 

 ment of road transport has been largely regarded as 

 the province of the engineers responsible for the manu- 

 facture of the actual vehicles employed, but it is 

 expected that a much wider field of discussion will be 

 opened by the lecture, which should be of scientific 

 interest, and readers of Nature are invited to attend. 



The Institute of Physics has now been incorporated 

 and has begun to carry out its work. The object of 

 the institute is to secure the recognition of the pro- 

 fessional status of the physicist and to co-ordinate the 

 work of all the societies interested in physical science or 

 its applications. Five societies have already participated 

 in this co-ordination, namely, the Physical Society of 

 London, the Optical Society, the Faraday Society, the 

 Royal Microscopical Society, and the Rontgen Society. 

 The first president is Sir Richard Glazebrook, who 

 will preside at the opening statutory meeting of the 

 institute, which will be held early in the new year. 

 The list of members now includes the names of more 

 than two hundred fellows. Sir J. J. Thomson, the 

 retiring president of the Royal Society, has accepted 

 the invitation of the board to become the first, and at 

 present the only, honorary fellow. It is a tribute to 

 the status already acquired by the newly formed 

 institute that its diploma is now being required from 

 applicants for Government and other important posi- 

 tions requiring a knowledge of physics. Particulars 

 with regard to the qualifications required for the 

 different grades of membership can be obtained on 

 application to the secretary, Mr. F. S. Spiers, 10 Essex 

 Street, London, W.C.2. Fellows elected before 

 May I, 1 92 1, will have the privilege of being styled 

 founder fellows. 



The new premises of the London School of Tropical 

 Medicine and the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, 

 Endsleigh Gardens, N.W.i, were opened bv the 

 Duke of York on November 11. Lord Milncr in an 

 introductory address sketched the history of the 

 school, which owed its inception to Sir Patrick 

 Manson during the Colonial Secretaryship of Mr. 

 Joseph Chamberlain, who welcomed and helped the 

 scheme. Opened in 1899, the work of the school was 

 carried on for twenty years in buildings at the Branch 

 Hospital of the Seamen's Hospital Society, Royal 

 .Albert Dock. During the war it was found desirable 

 to remove the school to a more central position in 

 London. Through the generosity of the Red Cross 

 Society 100,000/. was received for the purchase of the 

 new buildings, and it became necessary to raise an 

 additional sum of 150,000/. for the endowment of 

 the school, of which more than 100,000/. had been 

 collected. The Duke of York, in declaring the 

 buildings open, paid a tribute to the successive 

 Colonial Secretaries who had furthered the progress 

 of tropical medicine, and unveiled a tablet recording 

 the munificent gift of the British Red Cross Society 

 and the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. One of the 



