April 



1922 



NA TURE 



487 



bodies are prepared to co-operate in such a study. 

 The committee make several useful suggestions. 

 Detailed surveys, it is urged, should be made of the 

 San Andreas rift and other Californian faults. The 

 Gjast and Geodetic Survey should be invited to 

 undertake a system of primary triangulation and 

 precise levels in the regions most subject to move- 

 ment, and to connect them with an appropriate 

 zone of no movement east of the mountains, and also 

 to erect new lines of columns at right angles to the 

 San Andreas and San Jacinto faults, a time like the 

 present being more suitable for the measurement of 

 crustal drift than the months immediately following 

 a great earthquake, such as that of 1906. Southern 

 California, especially, is a region of intricate faulting, 

 in which many of the faults are still active, and it 

 is also one in which no primary triangulation has 

 yet been made. The committee also indicates the 

 value of gravity observations in connexion with 

 the measurement of displacements along the great 

 faults. 



Sir Arthur Newsholme delivered a course of 

 three Chadwick lectures at Birmingham on March 

 27-29. The subject of the first lecture was " Values 

 in Preventive Medicine historically considered : 

 General and Specific Sanitation." The lecturer dealt 

 with the value of various measures against disease in 

 their historical development. He deprecated strongly 

 the undiscriminating call for retrenchment in public 

 health expenditure, though urging a careful survey of 

 the cost of all measures in vogue. The epidemiology 

 of typhoid fever, cholera, typhus fever, and others 

 was considered, and the lessons taught by the methods 

 of control were surveyed. In the second lecture on 

 " Current Values in Preventive Medicine : Relation 

 between Prevention and Treatment," Sir Arthur 

 Newsholme reviewed the possibilities of preventing 

 the chief infectious diseases. The acute notifiable 

 diseases cause only 3- 1 per cent, of the total mortality, 

 though the greater part of administrative care is 

 devoted to them. In childhood more than half the 

 deaths are due to infections, and in a large measure 

 adult health is determined by disease or absence of 

 disease in childhood. The chief object of preventive 

 medicine is to postpone death, and this would be 

 greatly aided if every adult submitted himself to 

 periodical medical examination. In the third lecture, 

 methods of evaluating public health activities were 

 considered. Empiricism in analysis of social condi- 

 tions was deprecated, as, for instance, in statements 

 on malnutrition of school children, without further 

 attempt to ascertain the cause. The amount spent 

 on public health in large English and American towns 

 averaged 5s. per head per annum, or, in England, 

 from 4 to 8 per cent, of the total rates collected per 

 head. The importance of minimum standards was 

 emphasised, each town to receive a government grant 

 only when it fulfilled certain minimum conditions. 

 The lecturer concluded that the greatest return in 

 health for money expended — apart from the ordinary 

 sanitation of a city — was to be had in respect of 

 maternity and child welfare, and on the prevention 

 and treatment of tuberculosis and venereal diseases. 



NO. 2737, VOL. 109] 



The Times reports the opening on April 5 of a 

 lock and weir at Blanchetown, South Australia, the 

 first of a series of such structures which will ulti- 

 mately number 26, and directs attention to the very 

 important scheme of navigation and irrigation, of 

 which they form part, entered upon by the States 

 of New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia, 

 with the sanction of the Federal Government. The 

 rivers Murray and Murrumbidgee are to be regulated 

 by a lockage system which will make it possible to 

 navigate their waters for a distance of 1066 miles 

 above the mouth of the former, and at the same 

 time will increase greatly the area of irrigable land. 

 Of the total number of locks, nine will be constructed 

 by the New South Wales Government on the Murrum- 

 bidgee, eight by the Victorian Government on the 

 Murray, and nine by the South Australian Govern- 

 ment on the same river. The Blanchetown lock, 

 which has been named after Mr. W. R. Randell, one 

 of the pioneer navigators of the river, is situated 

 170 miles from the sea, and marks the limit of free 

 deep water, for which reason it was chosen as the 

 initial feature of the undertaking. The work, which 

 was begun seven years ago, has been much impeded 

 by floods and industrial troubles, so that the lock 

 was only completed in September last. 



Lectures at the Royal Institution after Easter 

 will be resumed on Tuesday, April 25, when Sir 

 Arthur Keith will begin a course of three further 

 lectures on " Anthropological Problems of the British 

 Empire," Series II. : " Racial Problems of Africa." 

 The TyndaU Lectures will be delivered this year by 

 Prof. W. Bulloch on " Tyndall's Biological Researches 

 and the Foundations of Bacteriology," and Sir 

 Percy Sykes will give two lectures on Persia. On 

 Thursday afternoons there will be two lectures by 

 Prof. E. H. Barton on " Audition and Colour Vision " ; 

 two by Prof. F. Keeble on " Plant Sensitiveness." 

 On Wednesday, April 26, Prof. D. H. MacGregor 

 gives the first of two lectures on " Industrial Relation- 

 ship," and on Wednesday, May 24, Dean Inge begins 

 a course of three lectures on " Theocracy." On 

 Saturday afternoons there will be two lectures by 

 Prof. O. W. Richardson on " The Disappearing Gap 

 between the X-ray and Ultra-violet Spectra " ; and 

 three by Sir Hugh Allen on " Early Keyboard 

 Music," with musical illustrations by Mr. Harold 

 Samuel. The Friday evening discourses will be 

 resumed on April 28, when Dr. Arthur Harden will 

 deliver a discourse on " Vitamin Problems." Suc- 

 ceeding discourses will probably be given by Dr. 

 M. Grabham, Dr. H. H. Dale, Sir William Bragg, 

 Prof. W. E. Dalby, the Hon. Maurice Baring, Mr. 

 J. Barcroft, and other gentlemen. 



At the anniversary meeting of the Royal Irish 

 Academy held last month Prof. T. H. Morgan (New 

 York) and Prof. Jules Bordet (Brussels) were elected 

 honorary members in the section of science. 



It is stated in the Chemiker Zeitung of March 23 

 that Prof. W. Nernst will take over on April i the 

 duties of Director of the Physikalisch-Technische 

 Reichsanstalt, but will continue to act as Rector of 

 the University of Berlin until October 15. 



