622 



NATURE 



[May 13, 1922 



ments to discuss their common problems and formu- 

 late a common policy, and resolutions were adopted 

 calling for the formation of similar sections to 

 represent members engaged in university and other 

 educational work, and members in industry. The 

 vacancy on the executive caused by the death of Dr. 

 Lyster Jameson was filled by the election of Dr. J. 

 Henderson Smith, of Rothamsted. 



The Quest with the Shackleton-Rowett expedition 

 has arrived at South Georgia after a cruise in the 

 Weddell Sea. Mr. F. Wild, who succeeded Sir E. H. 

 Shackleton in command, gives a summary of the 

 results of the voyage in the Times of May 5. As was 

 anticipated, ice conditions in the Weddell Sea proved 

 to be unfavourable this year. After leaving, the 

 South Sandwich group where Zavodoski Island, the 

 most northerly point of the Traversey Islands, was 

 explored and surveyed, a course was set eastward. 

 The pack was entered on February 4 in lat. 65° 18' S., 

 long. 15° 23' E. Two attempts to penetrate south- 

 ward failed on account of heavy ice and the low power 

 of the Quest. The positions reached were respect- 

 ively lat. 69° 18' S., long. 17° 11' 30" E., and lat. 

 69° 49' S., long. 0° i' W., and mark approximately 

 the points where Bellingshausen in 1820 was forced 

 to turn back when seeking a route to the south. No 

 new land was discovered by the Quest although the 

 soundings indicated, as was expected, that it could 

 not be far south of lat. 69° S. After the second 

 failure to get south, the Quest turned westward across 

 the Weddell Sea through heavy pack. The objective 

 was Ross's " appearance of land " approximately in 

 lat. 65° S., long. 44° W. This report, which dates 

 from 1843, had never been actually disproved although 

 subsequent expeditions to the Weddell Sea had made 

 the existence of land in that locality extremely 

 unUkely. The Quest was beset within 35 miles of 

 Ross's "Appearance of land," and escaped only with 

 difficulty. There was no sign of land and the depth 

 of the sea was 2446 fathoms. The Quest then sailed 

 for Elephant Island and South Georgia. On April 

 18 the expedition was to leave for Tristan da Cunha, 

 Gough Island, and Cape Town. The expedition has 

 not succeeded in adding to our knowledge of Antarctic 

 lands, but has done valuable ocean ographical work. 

 A line of soundings between South Georgia and the 

 place where the pack was entered cuts across a 

 practically unsounded region. The track across the 

 Weddell Sea seems to follow the course of the Scotia's 

 line of soundings in 1903. 



In the Chemiker Zeitung of April 15 it is announced 

 that Prof. P. P. von Weimarn has been appointed Re- 

 search Associate of the Imperial Research Institute of 

 Osaka, Japan, and charged with the creation of a 

 laboratory for research in colloids. 



Notice is given by the Chemical Society that 

 applications for grants from the Chemical Society 

 Research Fund must be received, on the forms 

 provided, on or before Thursday, June i. 



On Tuesday next, May 16, Prof. W. Bulloch will 

 begin a course of two lectures at the Royal Institution 



NO. 2741, VOL. 109] 



on "Tyndall's Biological Researches" and "The 

 Foundations of Bacteriology." These are the 

 Tyndall Lectures. The Friday evening discourse 

 on May 19 will be delivered by Sir William Bragg 

 on " The Structure of Organic Crystals." 



Applications are invited by the Salters' Institute 

 of Industrial Chemistry, Salters' Hall, St. Swithin's 

 Lane, E.C.4, for a limited number of fellowships, 

 each of the annual value of 250/., falling vacant in 

 October next. Applications, with full particulars 

 of training and experience, must reach the Director 

 of the Institute before June 10. 



The Board of Trade has received formal notices of 

 complaint that boric acid and metaldehyde have been 

 improperly included in the lists of articles chargeable 

 with duty under Part I. of the Safeguarding of Indus- 

 tries Act, and that gallic acid and " R " tannic acid 

 have been improperly excluded from these lists. 

 These complaints will be submitted to the Referee, 

 and persons directly interested should communicate 

 with the Assistant Secretary, Board of Trade (Indus- 

 tries and Manufactures Department), Great George 

 Street, London, S.W.i. 



The list of papers bearing upon the zoology, botany, 

 and prehistoric archaeology of the British Isles, issued 

 during 1920, which has been prepared by Mr. T. 

 Sheppard and published in the Report of the British 

 Association for 1921, is now available as a separate 

 pamphlet. The list occupies fifty pages of close print 

 and is divided into three sections, zoology, botany, 

 and prehistoric archaeology. In this form it should 

 prove very useful to students and workers. The Hst 

 of papers is very complete, and as a guide to the work 

 done in the British Isles it will be invaluable to workers 

 in systematic natural history and to those responsible 

 for regional surveys. Copies may be obtained, we 

 understand, at the offices of the British Association. 



The Zoological Society has acquired by purchase 

 two reindeer from Norway for its collection. During 

 March 157 additions to the menagerie were received, 

 61 by presentation, 20 deposited, 70 by purchase, 2 

 by exchange, and 4 born in the gardens. The most 

 interesting of the new acquisitions are two tree 

 porcupines from Canada, three Alpine marmots from 

 southern France, and a black-gloved wallaby from W. 

 AustraUa. An Indian kestrel from Darjeeling is new 

 to the Society's collection. At the monthly meeting 

 of the Society on April 19, thirty-five new fellows were 

 elected and forty candidates proposed for membership. 



The celebration of the centenary of the Royal 

 Astronomical Society will begin on the evening of 

 Monday, May 29, with a Conversazione, to be held, 

 by kind permission of the Royal Society, in their 

 rooms, at BurUngton House. The following morning 

 will be devoted to an introductory address by the 

 president. Prof. A. S. Eddington, one on the history 

 of the society by Dr. Dreyer, and a biographical 

 address, with portrait sUdes, by Prof. Turner. In 

 the afternoon there will be a scientific meeting, at 

 which associates of the society present will be invited 

 to speak on their work. A dinner will be held in the 



