50 



NATURE 



[October 25, 1917 



Petroleum Executive, with the view of his dealing with 

 technical questions of the highest importance, includ- 

 ing the co-ordination of the work of petroleum produc- 

 tion and that of petroleum research. In order to 

 devote himself to his new duties Sir Boverton Red- 

 wood will cease to act as Director of Petroleum Re- 

 search. 



In answer to a question asked in the House of Com- 

 mons on October i8 the Chancellor of the Exchequer 

 said : — "The proposal of a Ministry of Health is under 

 careful consideration ; at present the various difficul- 

 ties needing to be provided for in the establishment 

 of such a Ministry have not reached any widely agreed 

 solution, and so long as this is so it is not possible to 

 undertake to introduce a Bill for the purpose. Steps 

 are, however, being taken which will, it is hoped, 

 secure substantial agreement amongst those who are 

 actively engaged in the work of national health." 



The Times of October 24 announces the death of 

 Surgeon-General Sir Charles Pardey Lukis, K.C.S.I., 

 Director-General of Indian Medical Services, at sixty 

 years of age. Sir Charles received his professional 

 education at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and entered 

 the Indian Medical Service in 1880. In 1905 he was 

 appointed principal and professor of medicine in the 

 Calcutta Medical College, and was selected to be 

 Director-General at the beginning of 19 10. He took 

 especial interest in original research in medicine in 

 India, and edited a journal devoted to this subject, 

 as well as two or three well-known tropical medical 

 text-books ; he was also the author of " A Manual of 

 Tropical Hygiene." 



At the annual statutory meeting of the Royal Society 

 of Edinburgh, held on October 22, the following office- 

 bearers and members of council were elected : — Presi- 

 dent, Dr. J. Home; Vice-Presidents, the Right Hon. 

 Sir J. H. A. Macdonald, Prof. R. A. Sampson, Prof. 

 D'Arcy Thompson, Prof. J. Walker, Prof. G. A. Gib- 

 son, and Dr. R. Kidston ; General Secretary, Dr. C. G. 

 Knott; Secretaries to Ordinary Meetings, Prof. A. 

 Robinson and Prof. E. T. Whittaker; Treasurer, Mr. 

 J. Currie; Curator of Library and Museum, Dr. A. C. 

 Mitchell; Councillors, Dr. J. H. Ashworth, Prof. C. G. 

 Barkla, Prof. C. R. Marshall, Dr. J. S. Black, Sir 

 G. A. Berry, Dr. J. S. Flett, Prof. M. Maclean, Prof. 

 D. Waterston, Prof. F. O. Bower, Prof. P. T. Her- 

 ring, Prof. T. J. Jehu, and Dr. A. Lauder. 



The series of meetings arranged by the director of 

 the Meteorological Office since 1905 for the informal 

 discussion of important contributions to meteorological 

 literature, particularly those by Colonial or foreign 

 meteorologists, was reopened on Monday, October 22, 

 at 5 o'clock, and will be continued until March next. 

 Among the subjects to be considered are : — The distri- 

 bution of cyclonic rainfall in Japan ; the Aurora 

 Borealis expedition of 19 13 to Bossekop, Norway; 

 the height of the Aurora Borealis ; monthly mean tem- 

 peratures of the surface water in the Atlantic north 

 of lat. 50° N. ; (i) types of storms in the United States 

 and their average movements, (2) types of anticyclones ; 

 the properties of revolving fluid; meteorology of 

 Norway; and aerography. 



Dr. Robert Braithwaite, whose death on October 

 20, in his ninety-fourth year, is announced, was a 

 fellow of the Linnean and Royal Microscopical Socie- 

 ties, as "well as of several foreign natural history 

 societies. He entered the medical profession in 1858, 

 and became M.D. of St. Andrews in 1865. His three 

 elaborate volumes on "The British Moss-Flora," of 

 which the publication was completed in 1905, con- 

 stitute the standard work upon their subject. All 

 NO. 2504, VOL. 100] 



the 128 pages of plates which illustrate this work 

 were engraved from drawings made by the author 

 himself, and the whole work forms a remarkable 

 monument of his skill and industry. The Sphagnaceae 

 were not included in the voluq;ies, but Dr. Braithwaite 

 published an interesting monograph upon these, 

 namely, "The Sphagnaceae, or Peat Mosses of Europe 

 and North America." 



The Minister of Munitions has issued an order that 

 no person shall deal in potassium compounds except 

 under a licence issued by the Controller of Potash 

 Production. No licence will be required (a) by the 

 Admiralty or War Office ; or (b) by any person for the 

 purchase of potassium compounds in quantities not 

 exceeding 3 lb. in any one calendar month. All per- 

 sons must furnish returns to the Controller of Potash 

 Production of all potassium compounds under their con- 

 trol, manufactured, or dealt in by them. The potassium 

 compounds to which the order relates are the hydrate, 

 chloride, carbonate, and sulphate, whether in a pure or in 

 a commercial form, and any material (other than blast- 

 furnace dust referred to in the order of the Minister 

 of Munitions of August 7, 1917) of which more than 

 10 per cent, consists of any one or more of the above. 



A meeting is to be held at the Manchester School 

 of Technology in the afternoon of Saturday, November 

 10, under the chairmanship of Dr. Alfred R6e, for the 

 purpose of inaugurating a British Association of 

 Chemists. The objects of the proposed association are 

 "(a) to obtain power to act as sole registration author- 

 ity for all chemists ; (b) to have the word chemist 

 legally redefined ; (c) to safeguard the public by ob- 

 taining legislation ensuring that certam prescribed 

 chemical operations be under the direct control of a 

 chemist ; and (d) to raise the profession of the chemist 

 to its proper position among the other learned profes- 

 sions, so that it may attract the attention of a larger 

 proportion of the best intellects, and thereby secure a 

 supply of highly trained chemists adequate to the indus- 

 trial needs of the country." The meeting is open to 

 all chemists. The hon. secretary of the Provisional 

 Committee is Mr. R. E. Crowther, 3 Langford Road, 

 Heaton Chapel, near Stockport. 



A PRIVATE letter from Dr. Paul Bertrand announces 

 the death of his father, Prof. C. E. Bertrand, the dis- 

 tinguished plant-anatomist and palaeobotanist. Among 

 recent plants Prof. Bertrand elucidated the structure of 

 Gnetaceae and Conifereae (1874), of Tmesipteris (1881), 

 and of Phylloglossum (1882), and in 1902 pubushed, in 

 conjunction with Prof. Cornaille, a remarkable theory 

 of the construction of the vascular strands of the ferns 

 and other plants. In fossil botany he investigated 

 the problematical fossil Algae of the Boghead Coal 

 (1892-94), worked out the detailed structure of the 

 famous Lepidodendron Harcourtii (1891), discovered 

 the minute Carboniferous Lycopod, Miadesmia (1891), 

 and described one of the first examples of a ribbed 

 Sigillaria, with structure preserved. Perhaps his most 

 important palaeobotanical work was his researches, in 

 collaboration with Renault, on the Poroxylons, a most 

 elaborate study of a remarkable group. His latest 

 papers were on the comparative structure of various 

 Palaeozoic seeds (1907-11). He also wrote on the 

 formation of coal and on the Iguanodon coprolites of 

 Bernissart. His work was characterised by the most 

 careful accuracy and an almost mathematical precision. 

 Bertrand was professor of botany at Lille, and lived 

 there for the last three years of his life under German 

 rule. Under these difficult and painful conditions, he 

 was still able to carry on both his university courses 

 and his private research, as long as his health per- 

 mitted. His death took place in August, but the sad 

 news only reached his son this month. 



