2IO 



NATURE 



[November 15, 1917 



remarkable capacity of its leader. Rawiing's last ex- 

 pedition, to New Guinea, whilst it was not productive 

 of all the geographical information which was antici- 

 pated, was nevertheless a most valuable pioneer ex- 

 ploration into an utterly unknown region, and proved 

 to be of the highest interest to many collateral branches 

 of science which depend on geographical discovery as 

 their preliminary basis. It was fitting perhaps that 

 a right good soldier and a famous explorer should meet 

 his end in the field of a war waged in the interests of 

 all humanity. Like Toppin (of the Peru-Bolivian 

 boundary), who died at Mons, he never lived to reach 

 his highest ideal. That ideal with Rawling was 

 nothing less than the nscent of Everest, and who shall 

 say that a man of his stout heart and magnificent 

 physique would not have accomplished what many 

 men have pronounced to be an impossibility? 



The Royal Society announces that the King has 

 approved of the award by the president and council of 

 the society of a Royal medal to Dr. John Aitken, for 

 his researches on cloudy condensations, and a Royal 

 medal to Dr. Arthur Smith Woodward, for his re- 

 searches in vertebrate palaeontology. The following 

 awards have also been made bv the president and 

 council : — The Copley medal to M. Emile Roux, for 

 his services to bacteriology and as a pioneer in serum 

 therapy; the Davy medal to M. Albin Haller, for his 

 researches in the domam of organic chemistry ; the 

 Buchanan medal to Sir Almroth Wright, for his con- 

 tributions to preventive medicine ; and the Hughes medal 

 to Prof. C. G. Barkla, for his researches in connection 

 with X-ray radiation. 



It has been decided to dissolve the Soci^t^ Inter- 

 nationale de Chirurgie, and to form, after the war, a 

 new society on the lines of the former one, but to be 

 called the Soci^t^ Interalli6e de Chirurgie, the member- 

 ship of which will be open not only to surgeons of 

 the Allied countries, byt also to those of neutral coun- 

 tries who shall be nominated for election by the general 

 committee. 



At the annual general meeting of the Cambridge 

 Philosophical Society held on October 29 the following 

 were elected officers of the society for the ensuing 

 session : — President, Prof. Marr; Vice-Presidents, 

 Prof. Newall, Dr. Doncaster, and Mr. W. H. Mills; 

 Treasurer, Prof , ^Hobson ; Secretaries, Mr. A. Wood, 

 Mr. G. H. Hardy, and Mr. H. H. Brindley ; New 

 Members of Council, Sir J. Larmor, Prof. Eddington, 

 and Dr. Marshall. 



The council of the Institution of Civil Engineers has 

 made the following awards for papers published in the 

 Proceedings without discussion during the session 

 1916-17; A Watt gold medal to Major H. S. B. 

 VVhitley (Neath) ; Telford premiums to W. C. Popple- 

 well (Manchester), H. Carrington (Woodley, Stockport), 

 Dr. A. A. Stoddard (Bournemouth), A. E. L. Chorl- 

 ton (Lincoln), and B. M. Samuelson (Rangoon) ; the 

 Manby premium to R. Bleazby (Perth, W.A.) ; the 

 Webb prize to J_. B. Ball (London); and the Howard 

 Quinquennial prize to Dr. W. C. Unwin. 



At the anniversary meeting of the Mineralogical 

 Society, held on November 6, the following were 

 elected officers and ordinary members of council :— 

 President, Mr. W. Barlow ; Vice-Presidents , Prof. 

 H. L. Bowman and Mr. A. Hutchinson ; Treasurer, 

 Sir William P. Beale, Bart. ; General Secretary, Dr. 

 G. T. Prior; Foreign Secretary, Prof. W. W. Watts; 

 Editor of the Journal, Mr. L. J. Spencer; Ordinary 

 Members of Council, Mr. T. V. Barker, Mr. G. 

 Barrow, Prof. C. G. Cullis, Mr. F. P. Mennell, Mr. 

 H. Collingridge, Mr. T. Crook, Dr. G. F. Herbert 



NO. 2507, VOL. 100] 



Smith, Dr. H. H. Thomas, Mr. H. F. Collins, Mr. 

 J. P. De Castro, Prof. H. Hilton, and Lieut. Arthur 

 Russell. 



The programme of the one hundred and sixty-fourth 

 session of the Royal Society of Arts, to be opened on 

 Wednesday, November 21, shows that the society is 

 continuing its valuable work for " the advancement, 

 development, and practical application of every depart- 

 ment of science in connection with the arts, manufac- 

 tures, and commerce of this country." At the opening 

 meeting an address will be delivered by Mr. Alan A. 

 Campbell Swinton, chairman of the council, upon 

 " Science and its Functions." At a later meeting the 

 general aspects of the application of science to industry 

 will form the subject of a lecture by Sir Dugald Clerk, 

 and during the session leading authorities will deal 

 with particular industries, such as those of sugar, 

 rubber planting, cotton, timber, and the manufacture 

 of margarine in Great Britain. Some of the papers 

 to be read after Christmas are : — The relations between 

 labour and capital. Lord Leverhulme ; The war and 

 its effects on the mind. Sir Robert Armstrong-Jones; 

 Water-power in the British Isles, A. Newlands ; Agri- 

 cultural machinery, F. S.Courtney; and Organic chem- 

 istry in relation to industry. Dr. M. O. Forster. The 

 Cantor lectures will include courses on progress in the 

 metallurgy of copper; high-temperature processes and 

 products; and military explosives of to-day. 



The Postmaster-General, speaking at the Mansion 

 House, on November 12, said : — " It is intended, as soon 

 as the military position will admit, to institute inter- 

 national aerial posts between London and the various 

 principal capitals of Europe." 



Mr- a. Adams, writing from Looe, Cornwall, records 

 the occurrence in that county of the little owl {Carine 

 noctua). A specimen was sent to him recently for 

 identification by a rabbit-trapper in the neighbourhood, 

 who had found it in a trap. In the Zoologist, in 1914, 

 the little owl was recorded as breeding in Somerset; 

 Mr. Adams's communication shows that it has ex- 

 tended its range westwards and southwards, as one 

 would expect. 



Mr. T. McKenna, chairman of the Executive Com- 

 mittee of the Decimal Association, informs us that at 

 a recent joint meeting of the association with the Insti- 

 tute of Bankers and the Association of Chambers of 

 Commerce unanimous agreement was secured as to 

 the retention of the yC sterling as the monetary unit 

 and its division into 1000 parts, or mils. This enables 

 all the existing gold and silver coins down to and 

 including the sixpenny-piece to be retained without any 

 alteration in their respective values. For example, the 

 sixpence is represented exactly by 25 mils. In regard 

 to the coins of lower denomination, it was unanimously 

 agreed that they should consist of i, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 

 10 mil pieces, of which the two latter would be of 

 nickel. This enlarged range of the coins of lower value, 

 in addition to providing coins substantially equal in 

 value to the existing halfpenny and penny, would pro- 

 vide coins of intermediate value between the present 

 halfpenny and penny, and thus overcome a defect in 

 our present coinage which has resulted in prices in 

 millions of small transactions in daily life being unduly 

 increased because of the absence of suitable inter- 

 mediate coins. 



Owing to ill-health Dr. R. Hamlyn-Harris, director 

 of the Queensland Museum, resigned his appointment 

 on September 30. Referring to his retirement, the 

 Brisbane Courier remarks that it will be a serious loss 

 to the institution and to the cause of science in 

 Queensland. It is about seven years since Dr. Ham- 

 lyn-Harris was appointed director, and in the interven- 



