May 2, 19 1 8] 



NATURE 



71 



-han usual, no doubt on account of the war, but they 



!i elude very large quantities of animals the extinction 



1 which cannot be far distant, unless measures are 



carried out to protect them. In the opinion of Dr. 



Chalmers Mitchell, which was confirmed by the meet- 



•ng, there is urgent need for drastic measures to pro- 



ct mammals. The protection of birds appeals to 



>>pular sentiment, and is zealously advocated by many 



influential organisations. The danger that threatens 



mammals is even greater, and, on account of their 



liigher intelligence and more sensitive nervous 



rganisation, the cruelty involved in the methods of 



;unting, trapping, and killing them is incomparably 



eater. 



A FOOD economy (plants) exhibit has been 

 M stalled in a new case in the Central Hall of 

 lie Natural History Museum. The several sec- 

 ions of the exhibit comprise cereals, bread, roots 

 and tubers and other "vegetables," nuts, the 

 pulses, fresh fruits, beverages, and sugar and its 

 substitutes. The plants are those most generally used 

 in the United Kingdom for foodstuffs, and these are 

 shown by specimens, models, drawings, and diagrams. 

 A feature of the exhibit is the series ot coloured 

 diagrams showing the values of some typical foods in 

 ' nergy and in building power; comparison of the food- 

 alues of different foods is easy, as all the diagrams 

 16 on the same scale and each colour has the same 

 ignificance throughout. Two interesting items appear 

 1 the bread section : one is a model of a 2-lb. loaf, the 

 liickness of the several daily rations being indicated 

 V black lines; the other is an analysis of 4 oz. of 

 read with the actual constituents of a piece of bread 

 f this weight. Food equivalents are exemplified in 

 mother part of the case by a series of samples of foods, 

 til of them being equal in energy-value to the 4 oz. 

 .)f bread. 



In the issue of Le Gdnie Civil for April 20 M. 

 Nicolas Flamel, a French authority, continues the 

 discussion of the German long-range gun. Interest- 

 ing information is given regarding the type of gun, 

 powder, shell, etc. It appears that the Germans have 

 taken one of their 15-in. naval guns and, by means 

 of the technical process known as relining, reduced 

 the calibre to 82 in. The powder is probably an 

 ordinary slow-burning powder, the weight of the 

 charge being increased to give the desired muzzle 

 velocity to the gun. The shell is in two parts, the 

 special fine-pointed head and the body. The shell 

 has special driving bands turned on projecting por- 

 tions of the body, in addition to the usual copper bands. 

 The burster is either T.N.T. or trinitroanisol (an ex- 

 plosive similar to T.N.T. , but having a lower melting- 

 point). The writer of the article does not incline to 

 the theory of a special propellant shell, but thinks the 

 gun has been produced in accordance with the usual 

 practice, with necessary modifications in charge, shape 

 of shell, and other minor details. 



.An extraordinary general meeting of the Institute 

 ..f Chemistry was held at King's College, London, on 

 April 27, to consider matters submitted to the institute 

 hy the Executive Committee of the proposed British 

 Association of Chemists, having in view the desir- 

 ability of effecting the more complete organisation of 

 properly trained and competent chernists. Several 

 resolutions were passed, among them being : — (i) That 

 it is desirable that the council should modify the exist- 

 ing requirements of the institute, in order to include as 

 many chemists as possible in the membership (asso- 



iateship and fellowship) of the institute, so far as 

 -uch a course is within the provisions of the royal 



barter of the institute. (2) That, until December 31, 



NO. 2531, VOL. lOl] 



192 1, it is desirable that any candidate who can pro- 

 duce evidence satisfactory to the council of having had 

 a sufficient general and scientific education, and of 

 having practised pure and applied chemistry for not 

 less than seven years, and who holds a responsible 

 position, should be accepted as eligible to apply for 

 admission to the associateship of the institute, pro- 

 vided that he has complied with the provisions of the 

 charter of the institute with regard to age, general 

 education, and scientific training— in chemistry, 

 physics, mathematics, and an optional subject — and 

 that he has passed approved examinations in those 

 subjects. It is the intention of the council to main- 

 tain the requirements for fellowship at a decidedly high 

 level. Every associate will be required to produce 

 evidence that since his admission and for a period of 

 three years therefrom he has been continuously engaged 

 in the study and practice of chemistry in a manner 

 satisfactory to the council ; and that he has carried 

 out original research of sufficient merit in the opinion 

 of the council, or that he has devised processes or 

 inventions of sufficient merit in the opinion of the 

 council, or, in special circumstances, that he is pos- 

 sessed of knowledge and ability equivalent, in the 

 opinion of the council, to having fulfilled certain 

 specified conditions, otherwise an examination will be 

 imposed. Steps will be taken towards closer co-opera- 

 tion between the work of the institute and that of the 

 universities and colleges ; the question of extending 

 the publications of the institute will be reviewed ; 

 further endeavours will be made to bring before the 

 public the importance of chemistry to the country, and 

 generally to forward the interests of chemists in every 

 way possible. 



Mr. Samuel Henry Miller was a native of Fen- 

 land, and lived during the greater part of his life at 

 Wisbech and Lowestoft. Elected a fellow of the 

 Meteorological Society so long ago as 1870, he con- 

 tributed several papers to its publications, dealing 

 chiefly with observational meteorology, in which he 

 was keenly interested. From 1861-76 he maintained 

 a fully equipped meteorological station at Wisbech, and 

 from 1879- 1900 at Lowestoft. An important work by 

 him, written in conjunction with S. B. J. Skertchly and 

 others, is "The Fenland : Past and Present" (1878), 

 in which the principal characteristics of this famous 

 and interesting district are efficiently described. Other 

 works written at that time are " A Guide to the Fen- 

 lands " and "The Camp of Refuge." A record of the 

 gales experienced round the British coasts was con- 

 tributed to The Shipwrecked Mariner in 1887. Mr. 

 Miller was a gold medallist and foreign member of 

 the Society of Arts and Sciences, Utrecht, and a fellow 

 of the Royal .Astronomical Society for nearly forty 

 years. He left Lowestoft in 1900, and spent the re- 

 mainder of his life in quiet retirement at Deal, Avhere 

 he was buried on April 20 at the advanced age of 

 ninet>--four years. 



Dr. J. MiCHELL Clarke, whose death occurred at 

 Looe, in Cornwall, on April 21, was Pro-Vice-Chan- 

 cellor and professor of medicine in the University of- 

 Bristol. He was a son of the late Mr. W. Michell 

 Clarke, of Clifton, and was educated at Dr. C. T. 

 Hudson's school at Clifton, Clifton College, Caius 

 College, Cambridge, Bristol Medical School, and St. 

 Thomas's Hospital. He took the M.B. degree at 

 Cambridge in 1885, M.D. in 1892, and became 

 F.R.C.P. (Lo.nd.) in 1896. At Cambridge he favoured 

 anatomy, in which subject he held a junior demonstra- 

 torship, but experience of clinical work soon convinced 

 him that his true vocation lay on the medical side. 

 In London he became house physician at St. Thomas's, 

 and on returning to Clifton settled down as a 



