February i8, 19 15] 



NATURE 



681 



day in the rooms of the Royal Anthropological Institute 

 at 50 Great Russell Street, W.C., at 8.15, when Mr. 

 Charles Dawson will give a descriptive and illustrated 

 account of the various cultures found in the deposits of 

 the valley of the Sussex Ouse^ — particularly of the 

 implements recently discovered at Piltdown. Mr. 

 Dawson will also bring forward new evidence bearing 

 on the origin of eoliths, and will exhibit Catalonian 

 silk amulets in the form of prehistoric weapons. 



Under the auspices of the London Manx Society a 

 meeting was held in the Geological Society's Rooms, 

 Burlington House, on Februar}' 13, to celebrate the 

 centenary of the birth of the distingxiished naturalist, 

 Edward Forbes. He was born at Douglas, in the 

 Isle of Man, on February- 12, 1815, and died at Edin- 

 burgh, where he held the Universit\- chair of ofitural 

 history, on November 18, 1854. The president of the 

 Geological Societ\- (Dr. A. Smith Woodward) presided, 

 and addresses were given by Sir Archibald Geikie and 

 Prof. Edward Hull, who had personal memories of 

 Forbes. .Sir .Archibald Geikie suggested that an Isle 

 of Man Museum might be regarded as a most appro- 

 priate memorial of Forbes in the island of his birth, 

 and could be made to include illustrations both of the 

 natural history and of the antiquities of the country. 

 Mr. A. P. Graves added that the associations of Manx 

 literature might also find a place in such an institution. 

 -After the meeting the members of the London Manx 

 Societj* visited the Museum of Practical GeologA", 

 Jemiyn Street, where Forbes worked for many years 

 as naturalist to the Geological Sur\-ey. In the even- 

 ing, a second meeting and conversazione were held in 

 the St. Bride's Institute. 



Several correspondents have sent us descriptions 

 and sketches of a sun-pillar capped with an arc of a 

 secondar}- halo, observed during the afternoon of 

 February 11. Writing from Stony hurst College Ob- 

 servatory, Mr. W. McKeon states that at oh. 30m. p.m. 

 the ordinary- halo of 22° radius was observed, capped 

 by a bright " arc of upper contact," which not only 

 accompanied the halo throughout the whole afternoon, 

 but outlived it by quite thirtA- minutes. '".At 3.15 p.m. 

 a haz\- beam of white light began to project upwards 

 from the sun. This gradually brightened and 

 lengthened until by 4.30 it reached the bright arc of 

 contact 22° N. By this time the halo proper was 

 quite faint, while the ' solar pillar ' supporting, as it 

 were, the arc of contact, was very bright, and stood 

 out most conspicuously. Just before 5 p.m. the 22° 

 halo had quite vanished, at which time the * arc ' and 

 * pillar ' changed to a strong pink, and continued thus, 

 without the halo, as a mogt striking object until 

 5.25 p.m., when both together suddenly faded away." 

 The origins and characteristics of these and related 

 optical phenomena in the atmosphere were discussed 

 in articles in N.ature of June 13, 1912, and .April 3, 

 1913- 



".Alderman .Archib.ald said he did not think the 

 principle was right ; it was really a political ques- 

 tion." We quote from a report of a meeting of the 

 Middlesbrough Education Committee, at which a 

 NO. 2^64., VOL. 04] 



circular letter was read from the British Science 

 Guild, asking if a general undertaking would be 

 given to purchase British glass for school labora- 

 tory purposes for a period of three years after the 

 war. Seventy per cent, of the public schools repre- 

 sented on the Headmasters' Conference are willing 

 to afford this support to manufacturers contem- 

 plating expenditure upon plant for the production 

 of the glassware hitherto obtained mostly from Ger- 

 many and .Austria, but .Alderman .Archibald suspects 

 that the effort being made to encourage the estab- 

 lishment of these factories is a political move in 

 which the Middlesbrough Education Committee would 

 be unwise to take part. We have fortunately been 

 relieved of the disputes of party politics for the past 

 six months, but apparently the guardians of educa- 

 tion at Middlesbrough think that a body like the 

 British Science Guila has been got at by political 

 propagandists, and is trying to forestall legislation 

 of some kind; for the Committee decided without 

 discussion to take no action for the present. Mean- 

 while the supplies of glassware for laboratories are 

 getting low, and, following .Alderman .Archibald, 

 nothing must be done to stimulate enterprise in 

 its manufacture here because the attempt to meet 

 an educational want is "really a political question." 

 That an education authority should commit itself to 

 such a view is a pitiful sign of local inability to 

 understand national needs. 



That the protective treatment against typhoid fever 

 is indeed protective, we all are agreed. Not one man 

 in a hundred thousand disbelieves this plain fact ; the 

 only question is whether the treatment ought to be 

 made compulsory-. Soldiers take non-compulsion as 

 evidence that the authorities are not sure of the gr^eat 

 value of the treatment. "If you believed in it, really 

 believed in it, of course 30U would make it com- 

 pulsorv." That is the argument ; and a ver\" sound 

 argument it is. We may be sure that compulsion 

 would meet with no serious opposition among the 

 men themselves, and would make no appreciable 

 difference to recruiting. Of course, clear instructions 

 ought to be given to all men how to take care of them- 

 selves after the treatment. For two days, a man 

 ought to keep quiet ; he ought to avoid exposure to 

 the risk of pneumonia ; and he ought to leave off all 

 alcohol. If a man, for two davs after each of his 

 two doses, will keep quiet, and keep warm, and keep 

 teetotal, he may be absolutely certain that he will have 

 very little trouble from the treatment. .All experience, 

 ever since the South African war, has gone to 

 emphasise the danger of direct infection from the 

 surface-soil. It is man who infects men. WTien the 

 hot weather comes he will have the assistance of 

 swarms of flies; there will be not less t>'phoid but 

 more. Happily, vast numbers of ovu- troops are 

 already protected ; and the " conscientious objector " 

 is likely to feel the *' pressure " of his own comrades 

 in the ranks. If the Government adopts some 

 measure of compulsion, it will be a ver\- popular 

 action. It would bring the Government gratitude and 

 censure in the proportion of the sack to the bread in 

 Falstaff's tavern-bill. 



