June 17, 1922] 



NA TURE 



789 



Mr. George F. Baker, chairman of the board of 

 directors of the First National Bank in New York, 

 who has been a trustee of the MetropoUtan Museum 

 of Art for thirteen years, has endowed the museum 

 with a capital sum equivalent to a quarter of a 

 million sterling. The annual income from this, which 

 may be estimated at 56,000 dollars, is to be at the 

 disposal of the trustees. The expenditure of the 

 museum in 1918 was 590,782 dollars, of which 233,000 

 dollars was contributed by the city of New York. 



By virtue of the Importation of Plumage (No. 2) 

 Order, 1922, the names of certain birds (which are 

 set out below) have been added to the schedule to the 

 Importation of Plumage (Prohibition) Act, 1921, and 

 their plumage can therefore be imported into the 

 LInited Kingdom without special licence : The 

 common jay ; the common magpie ; the common 

 starling ; the Java sparrow ; the West African ring- 

 necked parrakeet ; the Chinese bustard ; the Green 

 (or Japanese) pheasant ; the copper pheasant ; and 

 ilie golden pheasant. The Advisory Committee 

 ippointed under the Act, in recommending the 

 addition of the names of the three last-mentioned 

 birds to the schedule, further recommended that the 

 matter should be referred to them again for review 

 ;ifter the expiration of twelve months. The Board 

 of Trade accordingly desires it to be known that the 

 addition of these birds is provisional. 



It is announced in the British Medical Journal that 

 a gift of 10,000/. has been made to aid cancer research 

 by Mr. and Mrs. G. F. Todman, of Sydney, New 

 South Wales, in memory of their daughter. At the 

 request of the donors Sir Joseph Hood has allocated 

 the sum as follows : 4000/. to the Imperial Cancer 

 Research Fund, Queen Square, Bloomsbury ; 1000/. 

 each to the Middlesex Hospital, the Cancer Hospital, 

 Fulham Road, London, the Christie Hospital, Man- 

 chester, the MacRobert Endowment, Aberdeen Uni- 

 versity, and the Cancer Hospital, Glasgow ; and 500/. 

 each to the Radium Institutes of London and of 

 Manchester. 



Mr. F. N. Pickett, chairman of the Management 

 Committee of St. Paul's Hospital, 24 Endell Street, 

 W.C.2, has placed a sum of 15,000/. in the hands of 

 trustees to build, equip, and endow a new laboratory 

 for research on various diseases which afflict mankind. 

 The laboratory will be known as the " Pickett- 

 Thomson Research Laboratory," and will be under 

 the honorary direction of Dr. David Thomson, 

 formerly research assistant to Sir Ronald Ross, who 

 has consented to become president of the laboratory. 

 Dr. Thomson, Mr. E. R. Davies, 10 Downing Street, 

 and Mr. E. G. Martens, Genatosan Ltd., have been 

 instrumental in getting a yearly income of about 

 1500/. for the upkeep of the laboratory staff, and other 

 generous business men are now invited to help by 

 giving the necessary money to endow a Ronald Ross 

 research fellowship for biochemical researches on the 

 nature of cancerous growths. 



The Association to aid Scientific Research by 

 Women announces that at its recent annual meeting 



NO. 2746, VOL. 109] 



thirteen essays were submitted in competition for the 

 thousand dollar Ellen Richards Research Prize. Of 

 these essays six were from Great Britain, five from 

 the United States, one from Australia, and one from 

 a Russian working at research in New York. Since 

 its estabUshment this prize has been awarded five 

 times, three times to American competitors and twice 

 to English competitors. While the prize for 1922 

 was not awarded, as in the opinion of the judges 

 none of the essays were of the same grade as those 

 to which the prize had been awarded previously, the 

 judges gave such high credit to the paper submitted 

 under the pseudonym of " Excited Atom " that the 

 grant of 1000 dollars, together with honourable men- 

 tion, was awarded to the author. This is the first 

 time the grant has been made, and it carries with it 

 the. stipulation that " the grant shall be made only 

 on the basis of submitted work and shall be used for 

 the immediate continuation or completion of a definite 

 piece of research." To these conditions the author 

 of the paper entitled " An Investigation of the Critical 

 Electron Energies associated with the Excitation of 

 the Spectra of Helium, and their Significance in Rela- 

 tion to certain Modern Views of the Stationary States 

 of the Hehum Atom," has agreed, and therefore the 

 sum of 1000 dollars has been sent to Miss Ann 

 Catherine Davies, Royal Holloway College, Englefield 

 Green, Surrey. Miss Davies holds the B.Sc. degree 

 from the University of London, 191 5, and received the 

 M.Sc. degree from the same University in 191 7. 



Capt. R. Amundsen left Seattle on June 3 in his 

 schooner Maud for the Arctic. Before his departure 

 he announced a change in the plans of the expedition. 

 His original intention was to enter the pack-ice north 

 of Bering Strait and drift across to the Atlantic side, 

 a journey which might occupy from two to four 

 years. Last year the Maud made an attempt to 

 begin this drift, but sustained injuries which neces- 

 sitated her return to port. The Times announces 

 that Capt. Amundsen now intends to attempt a 

 flight across the polar basin from Point Barrow, the 

 most northerly point of Alaska, via the North Pole, 

 to Cape Columbia in Grant Land, where a depot of 

 food has been placed in readiness. The distance is 

 about 1550 nautical miles, and Capt. Amundsen 

 hopes to accomplish it in fifteen hours. Sledging 

 outfit and provisions will be carried in case a descent 

 on the ice is necessary. His sole companion will be 

 the pilot, Lieut. O. Omdal, and the machine will be 

 a Larsen plane built entirely of metal. This aeroplane 

 has already shown that it can remain in the air for 

 thirty-two hours. Provided the weather is clear, 

 this aeroplane reconnaissance should settle the 

 possibility of the existence of unknown islands in 

 the Arctic Ocean. Capt. Amundsen hopes to be 

 able to rejoin the Maud next year, and apparently 

 intends to continue the detailed exploration of the 

 polar basin. 



News from the Mount Everest expedition pub- 

 lished in the Times announces that on May 21 Messrs. 

 Mallory, Somervell, and Norton reached an altitude 

 of 26,800 ft. on the northern side of Mount Everest. 



