April i8, 191 8] 



NATURE 



131 



ronj unction with the Institute of Bankers and the 

 Decimal Association. It is understood that Lord 

 Southwark will introduce the Bill into Parliament at 

 the earliest possible moment. 



The possibility of an aerial mail has often been 

 commented upon in these columns, and it is very In- 

 teresting to note that a company has actually been 

 formed in Norway for the purpose of establishing a 

 mail service between Aberdeen and Stavanger. This 

 trip was made just before \var broke out by Capt. 

 Tryggve Grau in about five hours' flying, and it is 

 estimated that the mail services will reduce this to 

 four and a half hours with modern machines. An 

 •extension of the system to Christiania and Copenhagen 

 is contemplated, and it is hoped that letters leaving 

 Aberdeen in the morning would be delivered in both 

 these cities in the afternoon. The company has 

 already a share capital of 150,000!., and a representa- 

 tive is now in England negotiating with the Govern- 

 ment for a solution of the problem. The value of such 

 a mail service would be very great at a time when 

 the oversea service is so seriously hampered by the 

 German submarine campaign, and the satisfactory 

 1 stablishment of the contemplated Norwegian service 

 would undoubtedly soon lead to a general use of the 

 aeroplane for rapid international communication. ^ 



We learn from Science that by joint action the 

 United States Secretaries of War and the Navy, with 

 the approval of the Council of National Defence, have 

 authorised and approved the organisation, through the 

 U.S. National Research Council, of a Research In- 

 formation Committee in Washington with branch 

 committees in Paris and London, which are intended 

 to work in close co-operation with the officers of the 

 Military and Naval Intelligence, and the function of 

 which shall be the securing, classifying, and dis- 

 seminating of scientific, technical, and industrial re- 

 search information, especially relating to war problems, 

 and the interchange of such information between the 

 Allies in Europe and the United States. 



For the duration 01 the war and one year afterwards 

 (according to L'Econotnista d'ltcdia for April 2) there 

 has been established at the Italian Ministry of Com- 

 merce and Labour an office entitled " Office of the 

 Committee for Chemical Industries," which will fulfil 

 the following functions :— It will (i) act as the execu- 

 tive body for all the deliberations of the Committee for 

 the Chemical Industries ; (2) compile statistics bearing 

 on the Italian production of chemical and pharma- 

 ceutical supplies, especially in regard to raw materials ; 

 (3) collect information relative to the progress of in- 

 dustrial chemistry abroad; (4) publish information of 

 interest to the Italian chemical industry; (5) investi- 

 gate any new measures or modifications of measures 

 proposed in Italy or abroad of interest to industrial 

 chejnistry; (6) take any necessary preliminary steps to 

 get Parliament to adopt the best measures to secure 

 the most effective collaboration between science and 

 the chemical industry; (7) take any other steps neces- 

 sary to the interests of the chemical and pharma- 

 ceutical industry of the country. 



An account of the outbreak of pneumonic plague in 

 China is given by a correspondent in the Times of 

 April 12. The epidemic, which commenced last De- 

 cember, has a firm hold on a part of the Mongolian 

 plateau and in the high-lying part of North Shansi, 

 but so far has not spread to the populous centres in 

 North China. It was not until pressure had been 

 brought to bear upon the Chinese authorities that 

 precautionary measures were taken ; these consist in 

 quarantining those who come from infected districts, 

 and the immediate isolation of the sick and their treat- 



ment by masked attendants. The course of the 

 epidemic is traced, and it is surmised that marmots 

 have been the source of infection. The mortality has 

 been considerable, but exact figures are lacking ; in the 

 Suiynan district 1500 deaths were reported up to the 

 beginning of February. 



The first meeting of the Inter-Allied Scientific Food 

 Commission was, we learn from the British Medical 

 Journal, held in Paris on March 25 and the following 

 days. At the first sitting the Commission was received 

 ,byM. Boret, the French Minister of Agriculture and 

 ,Food. In his opening address M. Boret pointed out that 

 the object of the conference is to study the best means of 

 utilising the very small food resources at the disposal 

 of the Allies so as to effect an equitable distribution 

 of the available food supplies among the Allies, having 

 proper regard to the facts of physiology and political 

 economy. The Commission agreed to establish a per- 

 manent central secretariat in Paris, M. Alquier being 

 appointed secretary. In addition to the central secre- 

 tariat it was agreed that a secretary to the Commis- 

 sion should be appointed in each of the Allied coun- 

 tries. The Commission considered important ques- 

 tions relating to the minimum food requirements of 

 man, and to the production and distribution of food 

 supplies. The Commission will reassemble at inter- 

 vals, in Paris or in some other of the Allied capitals. 

 It will probably meet next at Rome towards the end 

 of this month. The formation of the Commission was 

 decided upon at an inter-Allied conference held in Paris 

 last November, when it was resolved that the Com- 

 mission should consist of two delegates each from 

 Great Britain, France, Italy, and America. The dele- 

 gates appointed from the various countries were : — 

 Great Britain : Prof. E. H. Starling and Prof. T. B. 

 Wood; France: Prof. Ch. Richet and Prof. E. Gley; 

 ,Italv : Pfof. Bottazzi and Prof. Pagliani ; America : 

 ,Pro'f. R. H. Chittenden and Prof. Graham Lusk. The 

 Commission is empowered to make any propositions to 

 the Allied Governments which it thinks fit. 



The President of the Local Government Board re- 

 cently appqinted a Committee, under the chairmanship 

 of Sir John Tudor Walters, " to consider questions on 

 building construction in connection with the provision 

 of dwellings for the working class in England and 

 Wales, and to report upon methods to secure economy 

 and despatch in the provision of such dwellings." The 

 Committee has approached the Department of Scien- 

 tific and Industrial Research with the request that the 

 Department would make arrangements to undertake 

 any research work which might be found desirable to 

 assist in the prosecution of these inquiries. The Advi- 

 sory Council for Scientific and Industrial Research 

 accordingly appointed a Committee consisting of Mr. 

 Raymond Unwin (chairman), Mr. R. J. Allison (on 

 the nomination of the First Commissioner of H.M. 

 Office of Works), Mr. P. A. Crosthwaite (on the 

 nomination of the Local Government Board), Mr. 

 W. H. Humphreys, and Mr. Seebohm Rowntree, with 

 Mr. E. Leonard, of the Local Government Board, as 

 secretary. In order that the services of suitable tech- 

 nical advisers should be at the disposal of this Com- 

 mittee, Mr. Tabor, an engineer of the London County 

 Council, has been appointed by the Department tech- 

 nical officer to the Committee, while, with the concur- 

 rence of the Board of Education, the services of Mr. 

 Hugh Davies, H.M. I., have also been made available. 

 The terms of reference to the Committee are as fol- 

 lows: — "To make arrangements for carrying out re- 

 searches on building construction instituted by the 

 Department at the instance of the Local Government 

 Board Committee or otherwise, to be responsible under 

 the council for the direction of such researches, and 



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2529, VOL. lOl] 



