October 15, 1914] 



NATURE 



179 



mittees, which have been appointed, in almost all 

 the sections, to superintend Australian investiga- 

 tions. It is particularly gratifying to Australians 

 that the Mawson Expedition has received special 

 recognition, and that a grant has been given in 

 aid of the production of the charts of Antarctic 

 sea-depths, founded upon the observations of its 

 members. 



The good work done by members of the 

 Association has not been confined to the official 

 meetings. On the evening of their arrival, the 

 astronomers met the local branch of the Astro- 

 nomical Association ; and the Astronomer-Royal 

 and Prof. Turner gave up Sunday to visit in his 

 home, some forty miles from Sydney, Mr. Teb- 

 butt, the well-known Australian astronomer, 

 whose advanced years prevented his attendance 

 at Sydney. On Friday evening, Prof. Con- 

 ner and other economists and sociologists 

 met with the local students of these sub- 

 jects. On Saturday evening. Prof. Perry and 

 Prof. Turner attended a special meeting of the 

 local branch of the Mathematical Association, 

 and by their addresses did a notable service to 

 the teachers of mathematics in the Secondary 

 schools. On Sunday, one of the largest halls in 

 the city w;as packed with an audience eager to 

 hear Sir Oliver Lodge. Finally, the President of 

 the Association filled up the vacancy created by 

 the abandonment of the conversazione, by de- 

 livering an address in the Lecture Room of the 

 Geological Department, when he showed a number 

 of slides illustrating the first half of his presi- 

 dential address, given in Melbourne. Thus, from 

 the beginning of the meeting until its close the 

 personality of its President was felt and realised. 



H. S. Car SLAW. 



UOTES. 



Sir J. J. Thomson, CM., F.R.S., will deliver his 

 presidential address to the Physical Society of London 

 at the first meeting- of the society, on Friday, October 

 23. The subject of the address will be " lonisation," 

 and the meeting will be held at the Imperial College 

 of Science, South Kensington. 



The opening meeting of the new session of the 

 Institution of Electrical Engineers will be held on 

 Thursday, October 29, when the president, Sir John 

 Snell, will deliver his inaugural address. At this meet- 

 ing a marble bust of Michael Faraday will be pre- 

 sented to the institution by Mr. Llewellyn Preece, on 

 behalf of the family of the late Sir William Preece, 

 past president. 



In connection with the London County Council's 

 work of indicating the houses in London which have 

 been the residences of distinguished individuals, tab- 

 lets have recently been erected commemorating the 

 residence of Benjamin Franklin, at 36 Craven Street, 

 and of the brothers Adam, at 4 Adelphi Terrace. 



Engineering for October 9 has an article comment- 

 ing on a paper by Mr. C. C. Humphris, of the Barrow 

 Association of Engineers, and dealing with the 

 NO. 2346, VOL. 94] 



development of the military small arm. Many charges 

 of the use of unfair bullets have been made on both 

 sides during the present campaign. The old Snider 

 weapon made very bad wounds, but the penetrative 

 power of the bullet sems to have been ver>- small. 

 With the Martini and the original Lee-Enfield bullet 

 very clean wounds resulted. Mr. Humphris states 

 that this is not the case with the new pointed bullet 

 introduced by the Germans, which, unless it hits abso- 

 lutely perpendicularly to the surface struck, is liable 

 to turn round and proceed flat-long. He showed at 

 the meeting of the association a block of oak fired at 

 by Mark VI. and by Mark VII. ammunition, the 

 ; latter having the new pointed bullet. The former 

 i made a clean hole 30 in. deep, while the latter turned 

 round after entering the block, leaving a lacerated 

 hole. According to Mr. Roosevelt, the tendency for 

 the sharp-pointed bullet to turn in this way is only 

 notable at short ranges. 



The Engineer for October 9 has a leading article 

 on engineers and the sugar supply. It is estimated 

 that to produce 1,500,000 tons of sugar would require 

 some nine million tons of beet to be grown in this 

 country. This would require, roughly, one million 

 acres of land to be devoted to beet at one time. Beet 

 should not be planted more often than once in three 

 years — wheat and oats can be cultivated on the same 

 land during the other two years. On the agricul- 

 tural side, the idea of Great Britain being largely self- 

 supporting as regards sugar is by no means chimerical. 

 The machinery necessary for beet sugar factories can 

 all be manufactured in this country- — many of our 

 makers produce it already. To meet the needs of 

 manufacture, no factories are suggested, each dealing 

 with 1000 tons of beet a day. Each factory would 

 treat 80,000 tons of beet during its season of eighty 

 days, and would deal with the produce of 8000 acres. 

 The capital outlay on each factory^ would be about 

 120,0002., and a profit of one-tenth penny per pound 

 of sugar would give a return of about 10 per cent. — 

 notwithstanding the fact that the factory would lie 

 idle during the greater part of the year. The pro- 

 posal seems to offer large commercial possibilities. 



The interest shown by the Americans in the ex- 

 ploitation of the resources of Peru is shown by the 

 report of Mr. Osgood Hardy, reprinted from the 

 Bulletin of the American Geographical Societ\-, on the 

 industrial prospects of South Central Peru, including 

 the departments of Cuzco and Apurimac. The mineral 

 resources of the district have been only imperfectly 

 explored, and though some mines of silver and copper 

 have been experimentally worked, the result has hitherto 

 been inconsiderable. Above 12,000 ft. the potato is 

 cultivated in a rude fashion, while at lower levels 

 wheat, barley, and maize are grown. The district has 

 recently been opened up by the railway to Cuzco, but 

 the conditions of climate and labour supply are not 

 promising, and the level of agriculture is so low that 

 much demand for modern machinery is not to be 

 anticipated. But so far as the resources of the native 

 population go, some trade in cotton goods, tinned 

 foods, cheap hardware, paints and oils, patent medi- 

 cines, and toilet articles is being gradually developed. 



