May 13, 1922] 



NA TURE 



623 



evening. On Wednesday, May 31, fellows and 

 associates have been invited by the president and 

 council of the British Astronomical Association to 

 attend the meeting of the association, at Sion College, 

 Victoria Embankment, and on Saturday, June 3, there 

 will be a visit to Greenwich Observatory, by invita- 

 tion of the Astronomer Royal. 



Earl Buxton's comments, at the annual meeting 

 of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, on 

 the ways and methods of the modem egg-collector, 

 have made something like a sensation in the ornitho- 

 logical world, focussing and expressing, as they do, 

 a feeUng of protest strong among the majority of bird- 

 students against the wholesale and reckless collection 

 of wild birds' eggs in clutches by certain " oologists." 

 The text of that part of Lord Buxton's speech is 

 published in the spring number of Bird Notes and 

 News, from which it appears that for the purpose of 

 so-called science the successive layings of certain 

 birds for an entire season are sought in various 

 parts of the country, by the collector and his agents, 

 regardless of the comparative rarity of the species, 

 and also, it would appear, of Bird Protection Orders. 

 Lord Buxton's subsequent correspondence with 

 representatives of the British Ornithologists' Union 

 will appear in the Society's annual report. The 

 pages of Bird Notes and News are doubled in number 

 with the present issue, the first of its tenth volume 

 and twenty-first year. 



The Bulletin of the South -Eastern Union of 

 Scientific Societies announces that the twenty- 

 seventh Annual Congress of the union will be held at 

 Southampton, on June 14-17, inclusive. The new 

 president, to be elected at the evening meeting of the 

 first day, is Col. Sir C. F. Close, who will give an address 

 on " Small Rivers as Sources of Power : with special 

 reference to the River Itchen." Archaeology, botany, 

 ii^eology, and physiology will be represented in the 

 papers and lectures which will be delivered at the 

 Congress, and the programme which has been prepared 

 should prove a very comprehensive and interesting one. 



At a recent council meeting an Archaeological Section 

 of the union was authorised, and Sir Edward Bra- 

 brook, Dr. W. Martin, and Mr. H. Norman Gray were 

 appointed to deal with its development, with power 

 to act. The council has also authorised the forma- 

 tion of a Zoological Section, and the carrying out of 

 the initial steps have been entrusted to Prof. E. B. 

 Poulton, and Messrs. R. Adkin, H. J. Turner, and 

 Stanley Edwards. 



The next International Conference of Pure and 

 Applied Chemistry will be held at Lyons on June 27- 

 July 2, and as usual a variety of topics of interest to 

 chemists will come up for discussion. The former 

 International Committee on Atomic Weights has now, 

 in consequence of the recent work on isotopes, become 

 an International Committee on the Elements, and 

 the British representatives are Prof. Soddy and Dr. 

 Aston ; another committee is considering a uniform 

 system of abbreviations and a third is deaUng with 

 the preparation of research chemicals. The Federal 

 Council for Pure and Applied Chemistry has asked 

 Mr. F. H. Carr to act as correspondent for this com- 

 mittee. Mr. A. Chaston Chapman is acting as 

 correspondent, in conjunction with the Society of 

 Public Analysts, in connection with a project for the 

 standardisation of food analysis, and Dr. Mellor has 

 been appointed to put forward the views of British 

 chemists in relation to ceramic matters. Most 

 countries which are represented at these conferences 

 have a fund from which the expenses of the delegates 

 can be paid. Great Britain is an exception, and 

 the Chemical Society has in a very public-spirited 

 manner agreed to pay the travelling expenses of two 

 of the delegates from this country. Some other bodies 

 should follow this excellent example in order that 

 Great Britain may take an adequate part in the 

 regulation of those chemical matters which are capable 

 of international treatment. To meet together in 

 foreign parts, making the acquaintance of chemists 

 from divers countries and comparing notes, helps 

 to advance knowledge. Plurimi pertransibunt et 

 augehitur scientia, as the Vulgate puts it. 



Our Astronomical Column. 



The Planet Mercury. — Mr. W. F. Denning writes 

 that the most favourable time of the present year for 

 viewing this object will occur between May 12 and 27. 

 Mercury is rarely visible to the naked eye, and intend- 

 ing observers should utilise the present opportunity 

 of catching a gUmpse of the fugitive little object, 

 which it is recorded always evaded the eyes of Coper- 

 nicus. The planet will be at its greatest apparent dis- 

 tance from the sun on May 23 and will set about two 

 hours after the sun for about a fortnight. It will be 

 easily visible to the naked eye near the west-north- 

 west horizon, at about 8.40 p.m. G.M.T. if the skv is 

 clear in that region. Twilight will be very strong "but 

 Mercury may be seen with a rosy fluctuating light 

 rather brighter than that of a first magnitude star. 

 It may be easily identified, for the bright planet Venus 

 will be not more than four or five degrees to the east- 

 ward, and situated to the left and above the smaller 

 orb of Mercury. 



Advances in Astronomy. — The presidential ad- 

 dress to Section A at the Durban meeting (1921) 



NO. 2741, VOL. 109] 



of the South African Association for the Advancement 

 of Science contains a good r^sumi of the remaikable 

 advances in stellar astronomy during the last half- 

 century. The treatment is full and explicit, and in- 

 cludes Dr. Shapley's investigations on the globular 

 clusters (not, however, the recent criticisms of his 

 conclusions) and the remarkable results obtained 

 with the Mt. Wilson interferometer, both in investigat- 

 ing close binaries, such as Capella, and in measuring 

 the angular diameter of the giant red and orange 

 stars. 



Many personal details of the donors and the 

 designers of the great American telescopes are given ; 

 as a contrast Airy is quoted as saying in 1832 that 

 no public observatory existed in the United States. 

 The address concludes by expressing the hope that 

 the development of university education in South 

 Africa will lead to a corresponding expansion of 

 astronomical observation and discussion, and the 

 conviction that such studies draw out all that is 

 highest and best in the human intellect. 



