\PRIL I, 1922] 



NATURE 



421 



belonging to physics and applied physics. Next in 

 order of numbers come zoology and chemistry — 

 each making about one-sixth of the total — and then 

 follow astronomy, physiology, geologj'', sociology, and 

 mathematics. About 60 per cent, of the papers 

 were by members of the society and the remainder 

 ^vere by visitors. In most cases the papers were 

 <iescriptive accounts of results of recent work and 

 progress in particular fields, presented so as to be 

 intelligible to scientific workers generally rather than 

 to specialists. The West Kent Scientific Society, 

 like most local scientific societies, thus fulfils on a 

 mall scale, and for its own area, the functions of 



he British Association with which it is affiliated. 

 i i'W" local societies can expect to receive many 



. immunications containing new results of original 

 investigations; first, because their proceedings, if 

 jniblished, are rarely easily accessible or widely 

 <!istributed, and next because recognised specialist 



i)cieties are usually ready to accept and publish 



uch papers. A local scientific society ought, how- 

 ler, to be recognised as the natural body to be 



)nsulted upon all local matters in which scientific 

 Knowledge or guidance is required, just as the 

 Chamber of Commerce is for commercial questions ; 



nd it is in this direction that such societies may 



xert most valuable social influence. Sir Robert 

 i Robertson's address ought to do something towards 

 promoting federation and development with this end 

 in view. 



Prof. A P. Laurie's discourse delivered at the 

 Koyal Institution on February 17, on Pigments and 

 Mediums of the Old Masters, began with the Egyptian 

 l^lue used in Egypt from the IVth Dynasty, which 

 lie had identified on the wall paintings in Crete in 

 the Palace of Knossos. This became ultimately the 

 blue used for wall paintings throughout the Roman 

 l.mpire. Prof. Laurie has shown that it is formed 

 ithin a limited range of temperature at about 

 iO° C. when sand, copper carbonate, soda, and lime 

 re heated together for a considerable time. The 

 Ljreen found on Egyptian paintings is formed when 

 the magma is raised to a higher temperature. Prof. 

 Laurie has traced the use of this blue until about 

 the end of the 2nd century, but it is not found 

 on the earliest Byzantine illuminated manuscripts 

 of the 7th century which are in the possession of 

 the British Museum, being replaced by a badly 

 washed ultramarine from lapis lazuli. Prof. Laurie 

 also referred briefly to the pigments used in classical 

 times as described by Pliny, and found by Sir 

 ilumphry Davy and other researchers on Pompeian 

 scoes, and traced the pigments used from 700 up 

 ' 1700 as determined, partly by literary evidence 

 and principally by the actual examination of illu- 

 minated manuscripts, pictures, and legal rolls in the 

 possession of the Record Office and Venetian Ducali. 

 The history of pigments brings out interesting points, 

 such as the close agreement between the pigments 

 used on the Lindisfarne Gospels and Scoto-Irish 

 manuscripts with those used in Byzantium, the 

 gradual improvement in the preparation of ultra- 

 marine and the use of a green which was apparently 



NO. 2735, "^'Ol- 109] 



verdigris dissolved in Venice turpentine. This is 

 apparently the green found in the Van Eycks and 

 other pictures of the 15th and early i6th centuries. 

 Azurite was used almost imiversally as a blue from 

 about 1480 to 1640, and was replaced by smalt and 

 by an artificial copper carbonate known as blue bice. 

 Prof. Laurie also described how tiny samples could be 

 taken from a picture without injury, and showed the 

 scheme of analysis for the identification of blue 

 pigments, explaining the value of such inquiries for 

 fixing the dates of pictures and detecting forgeries. 



At the monthly meeting of the Zoological Society 

 of London, held on March 15, the Secretary directed 

 special attention to the acquisition by the Society 

 of two Indian elephants presented by H.H. The 

 Gaekwar of Baroda, a lioness, bred in India, presented 

 by H.H. The Maharajah of Magurbhanj, and an 

 Allamand's Grison from Pernambuco presented by 

 Lieut. -Commander Rutherford Collins. Thirty-two 

 new fellows were elected to the Society and thirty- 

 five candidates proposed for fellowship. During 

 February 126 additions to the Society's menagerie 

 were received, 39 by presentation, 81 deposited, 5 

 by purchase, and one born in the gardens. 



The National Union of Scientific Workers has 

 received a number of scientific publications from the 

 People's Commissary for Education in Russia among 

 which are the following: " History of the World," 

 by K. N. Malinin ; " Man : his Origin, his Structure, 

 his Future," by C. A. Chugunof ; " The Foundations 

 of Life," by P. M. Schmidt ; " Life," by Sir Edward 

 A. Sharpey Schafer, a translation of his presidential 

 address to the British Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science delivered at the Dundee meeting 

 in 191 2 ; " Outline of the History of Geological 

 Knowledge," by A. P. Pavlov ; and '.' Spectrum 

 Analysis and the Structure of the Atom," by D. C. 

 Rojdestvinski. The National Union of Scientific 

 Workers is willing to endeavour to arrange with the 

 Russian Commissary for Education for the exchange 

 of scientific pubUcations between men of science in 

 Great Britain and Russia. 



In issuing their new quarto catalogue of scientific 

 apparatus Messrs. Pye and Co. of Cambridge invite 

 special attention to the reduced prices, which they 

 claim are now in many cases down to pre-war level. 

 A number of new pieces of apparatus are described, 

 including an X-ray spectrometer, a fluxmeter, a 

 reflecting moving coil galvanometer at 3/. los., a 

 Rayleigh stroboscope and a centrifugal force machine. 

 A large proportion of the apparatus intended for the 

 use of students has been designed by Dr. Searle. 

 The catalogue consists of 150 pages, well printed 

 and illustrated, and is bound in stiff cloth covers. 

 The name of the firm on the front page of the cover 

 is very readable, but there is no name on the back, 

 and when the catalogue is placed on the shelf amongst 

 others there is nothing except the colour of the cover 

 to indicate whose it is. It is curious that our instru- 

 ment makers should desire to render their catalogues 

 inconspicuous in this way, but there can be no doubt 

 about the fact, as this is the fourth case which has 

 come to our notice in the past few months. 



