148 



NATURE 



[February 2, 1922 



At the monthly meeting of the Zoological Society 

 of London, held on January i8, the secretary reported 

 that seventy-nine additions had been made to the 

 society's menagerie during the month — thirty by pre- 

 sentation, thirty-nine deposited, and ten by purchase. 

 The most noteworthy addition to the collections is a 

 pair of lions from India, presented by H.M. the 

 King. The number of visitors to the gardens during 

 1921 was 1,386,745, and the receipts for admission 

 amounted to 46,509^. Four hundred and seven new 

 fellows were elected to the society during the year, 

 and while this number is 123 fewer than in the 

 previous year, it is 95 above the average for the last 

 ten years. These figures are eloquent of the popu- 

 larity of this institution. 



A MOVEMENT has been set on foot to erect a fitting 

 memorial to the great sanitarian, William Crawford 

 Gorgas, through whose labours it became possible to 

 complete the construction of the Panama Canal. 

 Inaugurated by Dr. Belisario Porras, the President 

 of the Republic of Panama, the scheme aims at the 

 erection of a hospital and laboratory for tropical and 

 preventive medicine. The Panama Government has 

 provided a site, a building, and modern equipment 

 valued at half a million dollars, as well as the use of 

 the two-million-dollar Santo Tomas Hospital, which 

 is just being completed. It is hoped to increase the 

 initial sum available by another four and a half mil- 

 lion dollars by means of contributions from the public 

 and the Governments which have benefited from the 

 work of Gorgas. A provisional board of directors 

 for the United States has been appointed. The labora- 

 tories to be built will resemble the Pan-American 

 buildings in Washington, while Dr. R. P. Strong, of 

 the Harvard School of Tropical Medicine, is to be the 

 scientific director of the memorial. 



Shortly after the retirement of Prof. P. F. Frank- 

 land from the Mason chair of physics in the Univer- 

 sity of Birmingham a fund was opened with the 

 object of providing some permanent memorial of his 

 work in the University. The money subscribed was 

 devoted in the first place to a portrait of Prof. Frank- 

 land (painted by Mr. Bernard Munns), which now 

 hangs in the great hall of the University at Edgbas- 

 ton. The balance of the fund has been applied to 

 the institution of a Frankland medal, which, together 

 with a prize of books, is to be presented annually to 

 the best student in practical chemistry. The medal is 

 of bronze, bearing on the obverse a profile portrait 

 ■of Prof. Frankland, and on the reverse the arms of 

 the University. A handsome book-plate has also 

 been designed to be placed in the prize-books. The 

 name of this distinguished chemist will thus be kept 

 green in the memory of future generations of students, 

 and the prize will doubtless act as a sti^nulus to the 

 attainment of excellence in the practical study of 

 ■ chemistry, on the importance of which Prof. Frank- 

 land so wisely insisted. 



The Gypsy Lore Society, founded in 1888 by Mr. 

 David MacRitchie to promote the study of the lan- 

 guage, history, ethnology, and folk-lore of the gypsy 

 NO. 2727, VOL. 109] 



race, continued its useful career until its publications 

 were suspended in 1892. After fifteen. years it was 

 revived under the direction of Mr. R. A. Scott Macfie, 

 but its work again Ceased owing to the war in 1914. 

 We are glad to learn that the society has now been 

 revived again under the presidency of Mr. W. 

 Ferguson, with Mr. T. W. Thompson as honorary 

 secretary. The address of the honorary treasurer, 

 to whom the subscription of li. per annum is pay- 

 able, is 7 Macdonald Road, Friern Barnet, London, 

 N.I I. The society in its new form has received the 

 support of several eminent scholars interested in the 

 subject, and many valuable contributions have been 

 promised. The study of the gypsies is to be com- 

 mended from many points of view and we trust that 

 the society will receive generous support and meet 

 with the success which it deserves. 



In 182 1 some residents of New South Wales of a 

 scientific turn of mind founded the Philosophical 

 Society of Australasia, the first scientific society to be 

 formed in Australia. The society did not continue 

 its meetings for long, and while other societies devoted 

 to agriculture, horticulture, botany, etc., were formed, 

 it was not until 1850 that a society for general science 

 known as the Australian Philosophical Society, with 

 Sir Thomas Brisbane as president, came again into 

 existence. Only two members of the original society 

 were also members of the 1850 society, namely, 

 Alexander Berry and Dr. H. G. Douglass, the latter 

 of whom was honorary secretary of both societies. 

 In 1855 ths name was changed to the Philosophical 

 Society of New South Wales, and in 1866 this name 

 gave place to that of the Royal Society of New South 

 Wales, which it still bears. To commemorate the 

 centenary of the foundation of the parent society, 

 members of the Royal Society of New South Wales 

 visited Kurnell on December 10 last, where the presi- 

 dent and members of the original society had erected 

 a brass tablet in memory of the landing of "James 

 Cook and Joseph Banks." 



Influenza in London had very appreciably decreased 

 according to the deaths given in the Registrar- 

 General's return for the week ending January 21; 

 the decrease compared with the preceding week was 

 108. In the ninety-six great towns of England and 

 Wales the deaths had increased in the corresponding 

 period by 164, but there seems a good prospect that 

 the improvement shown in London will extend to 

 other parts of. England. Of the total deaths from 

 influenza in London during the week 56 per cent, 

 occurred between the ages of forty-five and seventy- 

 five. In London there have been with the present 

 attack thirty-one epidemics since 1890, considering a 

 well-established 20 or more deaths per week as epi- 

 demic. The only years without an epidemic are 1896 

 and 190 1, and of the thirty epidemics preceding 

 the present, twenty-seven have occurred in March, 

 twenty-four in February, eighteen in April, and seven- 

 teen in January. Not one has been existent in Sep- 

 tember, only one in August, two in July and October, 

 and three in June. The complaint is essentially epi- 

 demic in winter and spring, but there seems little 



