February 3, 192 1] 



NATURE 



7Z7 



trol over the elaborate anti-tuberrulosis organisation 

 -tablished in the Department of Eure-et-Loir at a 

 i)->t of 4,000,000 francs. The organisation consists 

 of twenty-four dispensaries, four complete isolation 

 services, and a departmental sanatorium and labora- 

 tory. The system will ser\'e as a model for similar 

 organisations to be established by the Government 

 throughout the country. The Rockefeller Foundation 

 i>. now assisting in the anti-tuberculosis campaign in 

 thirty-eight of the eighty-seven Departments of 

 l-'rance, and work is contemplated which will last for 

 .mother two years. 



\i the annual general meeting of the Royal 

 Meteorological Society on January 19 the following 



■ re elected officers and members of council : — 

 I'resident: Mr. R. H. Hooker. Vice-Presidents : Mr. 

 I. Baxendell, Mr. \V. W. Bryant, Sir Napier Shaw, 



;d Dr. E. M. Wedderburn. Treasurer: Mr. \\'. V. 



.laham. Secretaries: Mr. J. S. Dines, Mr. L. F. 



l\ichardson, and Mr. G. Thomson. Foreign Secre- 



! try : Mr. R. G. K. Lempfert. Councillors: Mr. 



< . E. P. Brooks, Capt. C. J. P. Cave, Mr. J. E. 



< lark, Mr. R. Corless, Dr. H. N. Dickson, Mr. 

 <".. M. B. Dobson, Mr. F. Druce, Mr. J. Fairgrieve, 

 Mr. H. Mellish, Mr. M. de C. S. Salter, Dr. G. C. 

 Simpson, and Mr. F. J. \V. Whipple. 



The Minister of Health, with the concurrence of 

 the University Grants Committee, has appointed a 

 Committee "' to investigate the needs of medical prac- 

 titioners and other graduates for further education in 

 medicine in London, and to submit proposals for a 

 practicable scheme for meeting them." The members 

 of the Committee are as follows ; — The Earl of 

 .\thlonc (chairman), Mr. H. J. Cardale, Sir Wilmot 

 Hierringham, Sir George .Makins, Sir George New- 

 man, Sir Robert Newman, Sir Edward Penton, Sir 

 E. C:ooper Perry. Mr. J. Dill Russell, and Dr. T. W. 

 Shore. Mr. .\. L. Hetherington will act as secretary 

 I of the Committee, and all communications should be 

 [addressed to him at the Ministry of Health, White- 

 |hall, London, S.W. i. 



At a meeting of the award committee, consisting 



if the presidents of the principal representative British 



igineering institutions, held in London on Tuesday, 



lanuary 25, the first triennial award of the Kelvin 



;old medal was made to Dr. W. C. Unwin, who was, 



In the opinion of the committer, after consideration 



<'f representations received from leading engineering 



hixlies in all parts of the world, the most worthy to 



(receive this recognition of pre-eminence in the branches 



'f engineering with which Lord Kelvin's scientific 



I'rk and researches were closely identified. The 



.irrangements for the presentation of the medal will 



he announced shortly. The Kelvin gold medal was 



rstablishe<l in 1914 as part of a memorial to the late 



Lord Kelvin and in association with the window 



placMl in Westminster .\bbey in his iii.in(,r\ Ip\ 



British and American engineers. 



Th« members of Mr. 1.. II. Dudley Buxton's 

 Kpedition have now returned from a stay of some 

 pks in the Island of Malta. The object of the 

 lition was to collect material for a study of the 

 NO. 2675, VOL. 106] 



physical anthropology of this island. .\bout 1000 

 adults, men and women, were measured. The fine 

 series of ancient bones which Prof. Zammit excavated 

 in the Hypogaeum at Hal-Saflieni and elsewhere was 

 collected together and measured. .\ long series of 

 skeletal remains from a modern ossuary was also 

 examined. .\ special visit, lasting for two days, was 

 paid to Gozo by Mrs. Jenkinson and Miss Moss to 

 work at the physical anthropology of that island. The 

 expedition has collected an iminense mass of valuable 

 material, which will take some time to arrange and 

 digest. .As soon as this work is sufliciently far ad- 

 vanced Mr. Buxton hopes to submit a preliminary 

 account q/ the results of the expedition to the Royal 

 .Anthropological Institute. 



.\t an extraordinary general meeting of the 

 Chemical Society held in .May, 1919, for the purpose 

 of dealing with various modifications of the bv-laws, 

 amongst which was the provision for the admission 

 of women as fellows on the same terms as men, the 

 council was authorised to apply to the Crown for a 

 supplemental charter giving the power to make the 

 necessary alterations in the by-laws. The petition for 

 the. supplemental charter received the assent of his 

 .Majesty the King, and all the additional powers 

 sought by the society were thus secured. The new 

 by-laws recommended by the council received the 

 approval of the general body of fellows at an extra- 

 ordinary general meeting held on .\pril 29, 1920, and 

 came into operation on June i. .At the ballot for the 

 election of fellows held on December 2 last, of the 

 ninety-seven who were elected fellows twenty-one 

 were women, and amongst the candidates for who5n 

 a ballot will be held on February 17 appear the names 

 of six women. 



Referenxf. was made last week to correspondence 

 in the Times on the effects of the discharge of oil from 

 ships into the sea. Oil enters the sea in various ways, 

 e.g. the •' steaming-out " of the "tankers " and acci- 

 dental leakages. The "benzene" oils must evaporate 

 quickly, but the heavy fuel-oils may be more per- 

 sistent. So far the evil is local, and there is no 

 evidence of any widespread effect upon the larger 

 fisheries. Sir .Arthur Shipley suggests, on the 

 authority of Prof. .A. Meek, that 1916-17-18 wer« 

 bad years for plaice fry, and that some factor was in 

 operation during that perio<l which was detrimental 

 to fish-life. This factor may have been the di.scharge 

 of oil from sunken ships. On the other hand, there 

 is strong statistical evidence that plaice were more 

 abundant in the North Sea during the years 1919-30 

 than during the years immediatelv before the war. 

 This is also the case in the Irish Sea, 1910 being a 

 maximum, 1918 a minimum, while 1920 and 192 1 

 tend towards another maximum. Prof. H. E. Arm- 

 strong refers to the failure of the Loch Fync herring 

 fishery, and suggests that this was due to " floating 

 <lefilement from the Clyde." but the herrings are 

 now returning to Loch Fyne. The question is a very 

 complex one, and investigation is obviously called for. 

 In connection with the subject discussed, I-ord Rny- 

 leigh refers in the Times of January 27 to experi- 

 ments made by his father in 1889, which showed that 



