December 6, 19 17] 



NATURE 



277 



climatologist. Among other contributions to science, 

 Dr. Aitken has made important advances in our know- 

 ledge of the formation of dew. 



Dr. Smith Woodward has been for many years 

 keeper of the Department of Geology in the British 

 Museum, and has published a very large number of 

 valuable memoirs on fossil vertebrates, especially fishes. 

 H<;' has also published an important " Catalogue of 

 Fossil Fishes in the British Museum," and his " Out- 

 lines of Vertebrate Palaeontology," published in 1898, 

 is a standard text-book on the subject. Dr. Smith 

 Woodward's original memoirs are too numerous to 

 mention, but they have secured for him a world-wide 

 reputation, and he is universally regarded as one of 

 the highest authorities on vertebrate palaeontology. 



Davy Medal. — M. Albin Haller, professor of organic 

 chemistry at the Sorbonne, Paris, founder and first 

 president of the International Association of Chemical 

 Societies, and at the present time the most representa- 

 tive chemist of France, is distinguished for his many 

 and important contributions to chemical science during 

 the past forty years. His investigations have covered 

 a very wide field in the domain of organic chemistry, 

 the most important being those dealing with compounds 

 belonging to the camphor group. He has maintained 

 over a long period of years the. reputation of the Sor- 

 bonne School of Chemical Research, created by Dumas 

 and Wurtz, his predecessors in the chair. 



Buchanan Medal. — Sir Almroth Edward Wright was 

 the first (1896) to apply laboratory knowledge on 

 typhoid immunity to the protection of human beings 

 against enteric fever. Against formidable opposition 

 he carried out a long series of observations with the 

 highest scientific acumen and unsurpassed technique, 

 and laid the foundations for the effective elimination of 

 enteric fever from the armies of the world. Nothing 

 of importance has been added to his work down to the 

 present time. 



Hughes Medal. — Prof. C. G. Barkla's investiga- 

 tions have mainly dealt with X-rays, and their absorp- 

 tion and secondary emission by solid substances. He 

 showed that secondary emission of X-rays was of two 

 varieties. In one of these the X-rays are scattered, 

 without change of quality. The scattered rays were 

 shown by examining tertiary emission to be polarised, 

 and this was a fundamental result for the classification 

 of X-rays with ordinary radiation, at that time doubt- 

 ful. Prof. Barkla's other kind of secondary emission is 

 characteristic of the secondary radiator, and is accom- 

 panied by selective absorption of the primary rays. 

 He showed that each chemical element emitted more 

 than one definite kind of secondary fluorescent radia- 

 tion. Concentrating attention on, say, the less pene- 

 trating kind, it was found to vary in quality by definite 

 steps with the atomic weight of the secbn'dary radiator. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 

 Oxford. — The Romanes lectures, which has been in 

 abeyance for the present year, will, it is hoped, be 

 delivered in the course of 1918. The lecturer appointed 

 by the Vice-Chancellor is the Rt. Hon. H. H: Asquith, 

 D.C.L., honorary fellow of Balliol College., The sub- 

 ject and date are not yet announced. 



A bequest of lo.oooZ. has been made to the Univer- 

 sity of Liverpool by Mrs. A. C. Chaddock for the 

 endowment of a chair of commerce in memory of her 

 husband, unless such a chair has been endowed already, 

 in which case the bequest is to be used for such pur- 

 poses as the authorities shall determine. 



The provision of excellent laboratories at the Bristol 

 Grammar School was followed in 19 15 by the forma- 



NO. 2510, VOL. 100] 



tion of a Scientific Society, which now issues its first 

 report. The society is made up of the science masters 

 and science students, members of the classical side 

 and the upper school being admitted under special 

 rules. The society gives the members special oppor- 

 tunities for developing their school studies along lines 

 of their own choosing, subject to the approval of the 

 master in charge, and work of this character is ex- 

 pected from the members during meeting hours. A 

 strong library has been formed, and the nucleus of a 

 local herbarium, to which the members have contri- 

 buted 350 species. War difficulties and lighting regu- 

 lations have somewhat hindered the holding of work- 

 ing meetings, their place being taken by lectures, to 

 which the upper and middle schools were admitted. 



At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology the 

 faculty changes have introduced some new problems, 

 since there has been so much demand by the U.S. 

 Government and by industrial corporations related to 

 the war for men of technical skill. So great has been 

 this draft, says Science, that in the department of elec- 

 trical engineering onerthird of the staff has been called 

 away, in mechanical engineering a dozen men have 

 gone into war work, while civil engineering, chemistry, 

 naval architecture, and the other departments have 

 sustained serious losses. On the other hand, the de- 

 mands for instruction have not only not decreased, for 

 the registration is but slightly less than normal with 

 much the same distribution through courses, but are to 

 a considerable extent greater, for the institute is 

 furnishing instruction on academic and engineering 

 lines to the schools of aeronautics for the Army and 

 Navy, and is carrying on no fewer than three schools 

 for deck officers and the school for marine engineers. 

 Changes already announced include the retirement of 

 Prof. C. R. Cross, with the title of professor emeritus, 

 and the appointment of Prof. E. B. Wilson, of the 

 department of mathematics, to the chair of mathe- 

 matical physics and head of the department of physics. 

 Prof. C. L. Norton has been appointed professor of 

 industrial physics. In the department of chemical en- 

 gineering of the University of Michigan all but one 

 member of the faculty have left for active service. Every 

 effort made by the University to replace them tem- 

 porarily proved unavailing, owing to the unprecedented 

 demand for men in this branch. The situation became 

 so acute that several manufacturing concerns of the 

 State, which employ expert chemical engineers, and 

 the Michigan Agricultural College, came to the aid of 

 the University, and it opened with a complete staff 

 in this department. Dr. C. D. Holley, of the White 

 Lead and Colour Works, of Detroit, will act as head 

 of the department during the absence of Prof. A. H. 

 White. 



SOCIETIES. AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Zoological Society, November 20. — Mr. E. G. B. 



Meade-Waldo, vice-president, in the chair. — J. J. 

 Joicey and G. Talbot : New South American Rhopalo- 

 cera. New South American Arctiidae, new butterflies 

 from Africa and the East, Gynandromorph of Papilio 

 lycophron, Hbn., and three aberrations of Lepidoptera. 

 — S. Alphdraky : Deformity of 05 penis in a Phoca 

 caspica, Nilsson.— Lt.-Col.' J. M. Fawcett : Notes on a 

 collection of Heterocera made by Mr. W. Feather in 

 British East Africa, 191 1-13.— Prof. F. W. Jones: 

 The structure of the orbito-temporal region of the 

 skull of Lemur. 



Geological Society, November 21. — Dr. Alfred Harker, 

 president, in the chair. — J. Morrison : The Shao minor 

 intrusions. The paper deals with the minor igneous 

 intrusions occurring in the triangular area between 



