June lo, 1922] 



NATURE 



753 



MacWilliam and Prof. A. C. Baird (Aberdeen), Prof. 



.Martin (Glasgow), Prof. Fitzgerald (Belfast), Prof. 



O'Rahillv and Prof. J. F. D'Alton (Cork), Sir Robert 



Woods and Mr. E. H. Alton (Dublin). 

 The Canadian delegation included Prof. Bieler 

 j (Montreal), Sir George Parkin (Fredericton), Mr. R. C. 

 I Archibald (Sackville), Dr. 0. Klotz and Mr. E. Deville 



(Toronto), Dr. H. Ami (Ottawa). The university of 



S\dney sent Mr. C. MacLaurin. India was represented 



l)v Prof. Chatter ji and Prof. Mallik of Calcutta. 



At the solemn ceremony on May 15 the delegates 

 were classified in groups. England, Scotland, Wales, 

 Ireland, Canada, and Australia formed one group. 

 France, Spain, and the South American States formed 

 another group. Strange new States also appeared. One 

 group comprised Esthonia, Latvia, Finland, Poland, 

 etc. Germany had its independent place, while the 

 countries of Asia were ably represented by Prof. 

 Chatterji of Calcutta, who made a charming speech in 

 English and Sanskrit. 



Current Topics and Events. 



Five fellows of the Royal Society are included in 

 the list of honours conferred on the occasion of the 

 King's birthday, namely, Dr. H. K. Anderson, master 

 of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, Prof. 

 W. M. Bayliss, professor of general physiology. 

 University College, London, Prof. F. W. Keeble, 

 Sherardian professor of botany, University of Oxford, 

 Dr. T. R. Lyle, formerly professor of natural philo- 

 sophy in the University of Melbourne, and Dr. E. 

 J. Russell, director of the Rothamsted Experimental 

 Station. Among other names we notice those of 

 Sir B. G. A. Moynihan, professor of clinical surgery. 

 University of Leeds, who has been made a baronet. 

 Dr. J. Macpherson, professor of psychiatry. University 

 of Sydney, and Dr. W. Thomson, lately registrar of 

 the University of South Africa, who have received 

 the honour of knighthood, and Mr. A. E. Kitson, 

 director of Geological Survey, Gold Coast Colony, 

 who has been made a Companion of the Order of 

 St. Michael and St. George (C.M.G.). 



Reports have appeared in the daily press of plagues 

 of caterpillars defoliating oaks, particularly on the 

 borders of Surrey and Hampshire. They have also 

 been observed in the wooded country near St. Albans. 

 Large numbers of the caterpillars, suspended by 

 silken threads from the branches of the oaks, are 

 a common feature of such infestations, and are often 

 an annoyance to people walking along woodland roads. 

 The insect primarily concerned is Tortrix viridana : 

 the moth of this species is a small insect with pea- 

 green fore-wings and smoky brownish hind-wings. 

 During the end of this month it will appear in myriads 

 throughout the countryside wherever the caterpillars 

 have been abundant. Fortunately there is only one 

 generation in the year and, once the moths appear, 

 there will be no recurrence of the caterpillars during 

 the same season, and the trees commence to shoot out 

 fresh leaves. The effect of the defoliation naturally 

 checks the growth of the trees to some extent for 

 the time being, but is rarely more serious, and in- 

 festations of this kind are very common during hot 

 dry weather. 



We notice with deep regret the announcement 

 that Dr. W. H. R. Rivers, distinguished by his 

 brilliant work in anthropology and psychology, 

 died on June 4, at fifty-eight years of age. 



It is announced that Mr. C. T. Heycock, Gold- 

 smiths' Reader in metallurgy at the University of 



NO. 2745, VOL. 109] 



Cambridge, has been appointed Prime Warden of the 

 Goldsmiths' Company. 



The centenary of the death of Rene Just Haiiy, 

 " the father of crystallography," occurred on June 3. 

 Haiiy, who was of humble parentage, was born at 

 Saint-Just-en-Chaussee, Oise, February 28, 1743. 

 After great privations and extraordinary exertions, 

 at the age of twenty-one he became a teacher in the 

 College of Navarre in Paris. Here he began the study 

 of botany. An accident, however, with a crystal of 

 calcareous spar attracted him to the examination of 

 minerals and led him to the discovery of the law of 

 crystallisation. The happy issue of this was that he 

 gained the favourable opinion of Daubenton and 

 Laplace, and in 1783 was elected a member of the 

 Academy of Sciences. Though as an ecclesiast he 

 stood in some danger at the Revolution and was 

 indeed committed to prison, his numerous friend- 

 ships and the esteem in which he was held secured 

 him from serious trouble. He afterwards became 

 one of the first members of the National Institute, 

 was secretary to the commission on weights and 

 measures, lectured at the Ecole Normale, and held a 

 chair at the Jardin des Plantes. Edward Stanley, 

 the well-known Bishop of Norwich, when visiting the 

 Jardin des Plantes in 1814, wrote: " Here as every- 

 where else the utmost liberality is shown to all, but 

 to Englishmen particularly, your country is your 

 passport. . . . Haiiy, you know, is the first mineral- 

 ogist in Europe and I never looked upon a more 

 interesting being. When he entered the lecture room 

 everyone rose out of respect, and well they might. 

 He is 80 years of age apparently, with a most heavenly 

 patriarchal countenance and silver hair ... he 

 looked like a man picked out of a crystal, and when he 

 dies he ought to be reincarnated and placed in his 

 own museum." Haiiy 's brother, Valentin, was the 

 inventor of raised type for the blind, and in 1903 a 

 monument to both of them was unveiled at Saint- 

 Just. There is also a monument to the Abbe Haiiy 

 in Paris, ju 



In his presidential address at the anniversary 

 meeting of the Royal Geographical Society on May 

 29, Sir F. Younghusband, the retiring president, 

 dwelt briefly on the need for more intensive geo- 

 graphical examination of the homeland. The spade- 

 work of this form of exploration has of course been 

 completed in topographical and geological surveys, 

 faunas and floras and so forth, but the true geo- 

 graphical description is still far from complete. The 



