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NATURE 



[December 30, 1920 



Not 



The Dycstuffs (Import Regulation) Bill was read ' 

 for a third time in the House of Lords on December 23 

 and has been given Royal assent. The measure was 

 referred to in the King's Speech at the close of the 

 session as "the Act regulating the importation of dye- 

 stuffs, in order securely to establish the dyestuffs 

 industry in this country." 



We begin this week the publication of a Calendar 

 of Scientific Pioneers, which it is proposed to continue 

 throughout the year. There is inspiration as well as 

 Interest in the lives and work of the great men of 

 science thus recalled to memory, and many readers 

 will, we believe, welcome this additional feature in 

 the columns of Nature. The Calendar has been pre- 

 pared by Engr.-Comdr. Edgar C. Smith, H.M. 

 Dockyard, Devonport, who has for many years been 

 engaged in compiling biographies of all leading con- 

 tributors to the advancement of natural knowledge. 



A GREAT earthquake on December 16 is reported 

 from the province of Kansu, on the Upper Hoang-Ho, 

 in north-west China. The city of Ping-Iiang was 

 much damaged, and 2000 persons are said to have 

 perished. Prof. H. H. Turner and Mr. J. J. Shaw, 

 in the Times of December 28, give reasons for believ- 

 ing that this earthquake was the origin of the great 

 seismic disturbance registered on December 16. With 

 regard to the suggestion of an Alaskan origin referred 

 to last week (p. 542), it may be of interest to recall 

 the last great earthquakes in that country. They 

 occurred on .September 3 and 10, 1899, the latter being 

 the more violent. Though the seismographic evidence 

 implied an origin in or near Alaska, no direct evidence 

 reached this country until September 26, when the 

 Times of that date published a short account of the 

 violent earthquakes in Yakutat Bay. The magnitude 

 of the disturbance was not, however, realised until 

 1905, when Messrs. Tarr and Martin showed, from 

 the evidence of dead barnacles and mussels still adher- 

 mg to the cliffs, that the uplift of the crust was in one 

 place as much as 47 ft. 4 in. 



The third half-yearly report on the progress of civil 

 aviation has just been issued as a White Paper 

 (Cmd. 1073). I' 'S an interesting document in view 

 of the prevailing conditions in the industry, and holds 

 out hope of a more prosperous future. It is pointed 

 out that regular air services have now been estab- 

 lished from London to Paris, Brussels, and Amster- 

 <iam, and that passenger, mail, and goods traffic is 

 increasing. The total number of aeroplane miles flown 

 in the half-year ending September 30, 1920, is nearlv 

 700,000, whilst the aggregate since May, 1919, exceeds 

 1,000,000. The number of pas.sengers by air exceeds 

 30,000, whilst the goods carried weigh little less than 

 <)o tons. In value the imported goods exceed 500,000!., 

 whilst the exports and re-exports are about half that 

 amount. As part of the mail services, about 50,000 

 letters have passed each way between London-Paris, 

 Brussels, and Amsterdam with a regularity which is 

 notable. Of the three routes the best shows 94 per 

 cent, of deliveries within tJiree hours of schedule time, 

 and the worst 76 per cent. As part of the organisa- 

 tion for further improving these records, it is stated 

 NO. 2670, VOL. 106] 



es. 



that the wireless direction-finding apparatus installed 

 at Croydon has proved its value, enabling aircraft to 

 correct their course in thick weather. The equipment 

 of aircraft with apparatus for wireless telephony is 

 extending, as it is found to be of considerable assist- 

 ance to navigation. The fatal accidents are given as 

 in the ratio of 1 per 50,000 miles flown or per 5000 

 passengers carried. The international character of 

 flying is prominently brought out in a concise state- 

 ment of activities in other countries than Britain, and 

 shows a breadth of interest which will stimulate 

 efforts to overcome the present difficulties experienced 

 by those engaged in civil aviation. 



H.M. Stationery Office has published an Interim 

 Report on Glass Bottles and Jars and Scientific Glass, 

 ware, prepared by a Sub-Committee appointed by the 

 .Standing Committee on Trusts and adopted by the 

 Standing Committee (Cmd. 1066, price 2d.). The 

 section on scientific glassware is of great interest and 

 importance to all scientific users. After pointing out 

 that prior to the war the whole of the scientific glass- 

 ware used in this country was imported from enemy 

 countries, principally Germany, the Committee 

 describes the efforts made by certain manufacturers 

 of glass bottles, under inducements by the Govern- 

 ment, to develop the scientific glassw'are indu.stry in 

 Great Britain. The report points out that British 

 manufacturers have to meet to-day foreign competi- 

 tion the nature of w-hich may be gathered from the 

 fact that, " favoured by ' exchange ' rates and other 

 conditions, goods of the kind now being made in this 

 country are being supplied by Continental manufac- 

 turers at prices less than the actual cost of manu- 

 facture here, whereas for goods that are not yet 

 being manufactured here prices are being charged by 

 the Continental maimers which mean to the consumer 

 approximately five times the pre-war price of such 

 goods." Finally, after declaring that it is outside 

 its functions to report on the demand of the in- 

 dustry for a prohibition of imports of scientific glass- 

 ware except under licence, the Committee says : " We 

 cannot refrain from expressing the hope that his 

 Majesty's Government will not find it impossible to 

 implement the verbal assurances said to have been 

 given to manufacturers ; for it would appear to be 

 only in that way that this country can be saved from 

 returning to the pre-war position of dependence upon 

 foreign countries for their supplies. We would add 

 that, in our view, at the same time users of such 

 glassware should also be safeguarded as to prices, 

 and that the desired assistance should only be given 

 for a limited period, with powers of withdrawal if 

 it were found that manufacturers were in any way 

 inclined to take advantage of the situation by unduly 

 raising prices." 



The Annual Report of the Chief Medical Officer, 

 1919-20, Ministry of Health, has recently been issued, 

 being the first annual medical report of the Ministry of 

 Health. The greater part of the volume is occupied with 

 a survey of the general health, of epidemiology and 

 infectious diseases, and of the work of the sections 

 into which the Medical Department of the Ministry 

 of Health is now divided. In the appendix to the 



