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NATURE 



[April 22, 1922 



Current Topics and Events. 



No British statesman of our times is more closely 

 associated with scientific activities, or has done more 

 to promote scientific interests, than Sir Arthur 

 Balfour, upon whom the King conferred the honour of 

 knighthood a few weeks ago and invested him with 

 the insignia of the Order of the Garter. We notice, 

 therefore, with much satisfaction the announcement 

 that the King has been pleased to approve that the 

 dignity of an Earldom of the United Kingdom be 

 conferred upon him. Sir Arthur Balfour was elected 

 a fellow of the Royal Society in 1888 and was president 

 of the British Association at the Cambridge meeting 

 in 1904. He has been Lord Rector of St. Andrews 

 University and of Glasgow University, is Chancellor 

 of Edinburgh University, and in 1919 he succeeded 

 his brother-in-law, the late Lord Rayleigh, as Chan- 

 cellor of Cambridge University. He is president of 

 the British Academy, and Lord President of the 

 Council, and by the latter office is concerned with the 

 Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, in 

 the work of which he takes active interest. Sir 

 Arthur Balfour possesses a sure faith that no attempt 

 to acquire and improve knowledge is vain, and a 

 reasoned belief in the power of science to help and 

 elevate mankind. He is a peer among philosophers 

 and a trusted leader among statesmen, and the honour 

 which has now been conferred upon him has given 

 particular pleasure to all who work for social, intel- 

 lectual, and scientific progress. 



The retirement is announced of Sir L Bayley 

 Balfour, Regius Keeper of the Botanic Garden at 

 Edinburgh, Regius Professor of Botany in the 

 University there, and King's Botanist for Scotland. 

 Sir Bayley Balfour succeeded Dickson as Regius 

 Keeper in 1888 and soon initiated that enlightened 

 policy of friendly co-operation between the Com- 

 missioners of Works and the Regius Keeper which 

 prevailed throughout his tenure of office. He placed 

 the garden in the unique position it occupies 

 to-day, and made it fruitful of result to botany and 

 horticulture. His strength as Regius Keeper lay in 

 more than one direction, and we may safely place 

 his lovable human qualities and his knowledge of 

 men in the centre of the arch, with his broad-minded, 

 scientific outlook on one side and practical knowledge 

 of horticulture on the other. As an administrator, 

 his knowledge of men and affairs was never exhibited 

 to better purpose than in the happy relations he 

 established with one after the other of a succession 

 of official chiefs who rightly trusted him implicitly. 

 It is scarcely necessary in these columns to refer to 

 Sir Bayley Balfour's position as a scientific botanist, 

 but there is still much for him to do along lines of 

 research he has made peculiarly his own, such, for 

 example, as the differentiation of the great Rhodo- 

 dendron genus, by the characters of the leaf indu- 

 mentum. As a practical horticulturist, he stands 

 alone in the profundity of his knowledge of plants 

 and their ways. Of late years, taking up the work 

 where Franchet left it in 1900, he has taken the 

 leading part in this country in the enumeration of 



NO. 2738, VOL. 109] 



the discoveries which have been going on for 40 

 years in the flora of the Western Chinese Alps, and 

 which, in Rhododendron alone, far transcend the 

 epoch-making results of Hooker's exploration of the 

 Eastern Himalaya in the 'fifties. The consideration 

 of the material already to hand, in the discovery of 

 which George Forrest, an old member of the Edin- 

 burgh garden staff, has latterly played a major part, 

 has resulted in the publication of a series of in- 

 valuable monographic " Notes " on Rhododendron, 

 as well as Nomocharis, Chinese Gentian and Primula, 

 all couched in the lucid style with which many 

 previous publications of Sir Bayley Balfour's have 

 made us familiar. 



The King, on the recommendation of the Secretary 

 for Scotland, has approved the appointment of Mr. 

 W. W. Smith to succeed Sir I. Bayley Balfour as 

 Regius professor of botany in the University of 

 Edinburgh, Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic 

 Garden, Edinburgh, and King's Botanist in Scot- 

 land. Mr. Smith has been assistant to the Regius 

 Keeper for several years. 



Sir Humphry Rolleston has been elected 

 president of the Royal College of Physicians of 

 London. 



Sir F. W. Duke, Under-Secretary of State for 

 India; Sir Berkeley G. A. Moynihan, professor of 

 clinical surgery, University of Leeds ; and Sir Ronald 

 Ross, have been elected members of the Athenaeum 

 Club under the provisions of the rule which em- 

 powers the annual election by the committee of a 

 certain number of persons " of distinguished eminence 

 in science, literature, the arts, or for public services." 



The latest news from the Mount Everest expedi- 

 tion reports an uneventful march from Darjeeling 

 through Sikkim and over the Jelepla pass into 

 Tibet. The road then lay along the Chumbi valley 

 to Phari Dzong, to which place stores and grain 

 had been despatched in advance. Gen. Bruce reports 

 that on April 8 the expedition left Phari Dzong for 

 Khimbajong. A message from the Pope wishing 

 the expedition success was received before leaving 

 Darjeeling. 



On Tuesday next, April 25, Sir Arthur Keith will 

 begin a course of three lectures at the Royal Institu- 

 tion on " Anthropological Problems of the British 

 Empire." Series II. " Racial Problems of Africa " ; 

 on Thursday, April 27, Prof. E. H. Barton will deliver 

 the first of two lectures on (I.) " The Resonance Theory 

 of Audition," (II.) " A Syntonic Hypothesis of Colour 

 Vision " ; and on Wednesday, April 26, and Saturday, 

 May 6, Prof. D. H. MacGregor will deliver two 

 lectures on "Industrial Relationships" — (I.) "The 

 Historical Interpretation," (II.) " The Problem of 

 Structure." The Friday evening discourse on April 

 28 will be delivered by Dr. Arthur Harden on 

 " Vitamin Problems," and on May 5 by Dr. M. 

 Grabham. on " Biological Studies in Madeira." 



The special arrangements for Easter made by the 

 French Physical Society include an address by Prof. 



