5i8 



NATURE 



[December i6, 1920 



schemes referred to in the report, and generally 

 approved by competent persons, should be taken up 

 bv the Advisory Council on Atmospheric Pollution, 

 who should bring it before the notice of the public in 

 the form of active propaganda. It seems useless to 

 make vearlv records of air pollution when no serious 

 steps are being taken, publicly or privately, to diminish 

 the evil. J. B. C. 



Work of the Analytical Laboratory, Cairo. 



SEVERAL features of more than passing interest 

 are shown in the undermentioned report.' 

 Covering as it does the period of the war, it 

 chronicles work — such as the making of special 

 incendiary bombs and chemical igniters for flares- — 

 which is rather unusual for the analytical laboratory, 

 but is an indication of versatility in time of need. 

 Passing, however, to more normal activities, with a 

 bare mention of the excellent routine work done, it 

 is interesting to note that research has taken a 

 definite place in the programme of the department; 

 the authorities are evidently alive to the importance 

 of encouraging the application of chemistry to arts 

 and manufactures. Thus an investigation of Egyp- 

 tian crude petroleum has been made, the results of 

 which have proved that good yields of Diesel fuel-oil 

 can be obtained from this source, besides the cus- 

 tomary petroleum spirit and kerosene, and a pitch 

 which will be invaluable for road-making. A 

 Government refinery to deal with this crude petroleum 

 is to be erected at Suez. 



An inquiry into the possibility of cement manufac- 

 ture in the Sudan was also undertaken. As a result 

 a cement factory is now being constructed at Makwar, 

 where 50,000 tons of cement per annum will be made; 

 the fuel difficulty has been overcome by using a 

 mixture of locallv made charcoal and imported coke. 



Among the chemico-legal cases dealt with was an 

 interesting one in which a claim was made against 

 the Government for land valued at about i6,ooo,oooZ. 

 Unfortunatelv for the claimant, however, it was found 

 that out of the 168 documents on which the claim 

 was based no fewer than 163 were forged. 



It is noted that an entirely new method of assaying 

 gold has been devised, whereby the Assay Office was 

 enabled to cof>e with a very considerable increase of 

 work resulting from the new assay law, which pro- 

 vides for the compulsory hall-marking of eold and 

 silver. The report indicates useful work and steady 

 progress. 



The Problem of Soaring Flight.^ 



THE source of energy used by birds in soaring 

 flight is not yet clearly known. Attempts have 

 been made to achieve this form of flight artificially, 

 and, according to Gustav Lilienthal, a flight of 

 500 metres up wind, in which a height of 40 metres 

 was attained, has been made by a man-carrying 

 glider not provided with a motor, but having wings 

 constructed on the pattern of- those of a soaring bird. 

 The extraordinary regularity with which cranes, 

 when flving in a group, keep their distances from 

 one another affords a proof that such soaring flight 

 is either due to undiscovered wing-movements or to 

 some condition of the air which is widely and uni- 

 formlv distributed. The observation that certain 

 dragon-flies, and also flying-fishes, employ soaring 



1 " Rf-DOrt on the Work of the Government Analytiral Laboratory and 

 Assay Clflice, lor^-iO'o." (Ministry of F nanre. F.evfit.l 



Abstract of a paper bv Dr. F,. H. Hankin and F. Handley Page read 

 before the CimV^d-e Philosophical Soc^ ty on November aa. 



flight has ltd to discoveries that throw a new light 

 on the subject. Dragon-flies can adjust their 

 abdomens and hind-legs, and flying-fishes their 

 pelvic fins, in such a way that these organs act as a 

 brake to check speed when flying. The brake is 

 used in certain conditions in continued flight to keep 

 their S|x;ed at a required minimum. This use of an 

 air-brake yields a proof that these instances of 

 soaring flight are not due to undiscovered wing- 

 movements. Dragon-flies habitually avoid ascending 

 currents when in soaring flight so long as the sun 

 is shining. If isolated clouds are crossing the sky 

 these insects collect in the neighbourhood of a con- 

 venient ascending current, entering it whenever the 

 sun is obscured, and gliding beyond its range so soon 

 as the sun comes out. That soaring flight is not 

 due to the lifting effect of lateral fjusts is proved 

 by the fact that the flying-fish w'hen at highest speed 

 carries its wings inclined so that the \vit\g-tips are 

 on a lower level than the body. In this case, if 

 lateral gusts were operative, their only effect would 

 be to drive the fish under water 



Certain facts suggest that turbulent motion is, in 

 some unknown wav, the source of the energy of soar- 

 ing flight. But light objects, such as feathers or 

 aerial seeds, mav be seen floating in the air in the 

 neighbourhood of soaring birds, and exhibiting only 

 slow and equable movement. What form of tur- 

 bulent motion can be imagined that enables a bird 

 weighing 10 lb. or more to glide without effort to a 

 heicht of 2000 metres or to travel horizontallv for 

 indefinite distances at a speed of 50 miles an hour, 

 and vet is unable to disturb the course of a piece of 

 thistledown? Thus the facts of the case appear to 

 offer insuperable difficulties to all theories that have 

 hitherto been put forward as an explanation of 

 soaring flight. 



University and Educational Intelligence. 



Cambridge. — The proposal to admit women to 

 membership of the University on equal terms with 

 men was rejected on December 8 by 904 votes to 712. 

 The next step, presumably, will be a vote on Report B, 

 the alternative proposal offered by the recent syndi- 

 cate. This is, in effect, a suggestion on the part of 

 the University that it would welcome the foundation 

 of a separate University for women at Cambridge, and 

 would extend to it the same facilities for educational 

 purposes as are at present offered to the members of 

 Girton and Newnham Colleges. This proposal dees 

 not in any way meet the greater number of the diffi- 

 culties that were raised in connection with the re- 

 jected scheme, in particular the question of numbers 

 and accommodation. It has already been rejected by 

 the women's colleges, which have declared that they 

 have no intention of taking action in the matter of 

 forming a separate University even if Report B is 

 passed. Already three of the six signatories of 

 Report B have, in a sense, abandoned it for some 

 scheme which shall more nearly meet the women's needs, 

 a scheme the details of which have yet to be worked 

 out. It does not look as though the adoption or 

 rejection of Report B by the University will bring the 

 problem nearer to an agreed settlement. In the 

 interests of the Universitv as a whole, and of the 

 women's colleges in particular, an early settlement 

 must be reached, and it looks as though the next move 

 must lie with "the partv of thirteen," who have in 

 view a scheme which will give the women the full 

 privileges of membership of the University without 

 anv control over the men's education. If thev take 

 early and effective action they may be able to justify 



NO. 2668, VOL. 106] 



