January 17, 19 18] 



NATURE 



3^ J 



more constantly in. touch with the problems upon 

 which they are advising. Mr. C. H. Merz, the elec- 

 trical consulting engineer, who has been associated 

 with the Board of Invention and Research since its 

 inception, has consented to serve as Director of Experi- 

 ments and Research (unpaid) at the Admiralty to direct 

 and supervise all the executive arrangements in con- 

 nection with the organisation of scientific research. 

 Mr. Merz will also be a member of the Central Com- 

 mittee of the Board of Invention and Research under 

 the .presidency of Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fisher. 

 The functions of the Central Committee will, we learn 

 from the Times, as hitherto, be to initiate, investigate, 

 develop, and advise generally upon proposals in respect 

 to the application of science and engineering to naval 

 warfare; but the scientific experts at present giving 

 their services will in future work much more closely 

 with the technical departments of the .Admiraltv imme- 

 diately concerned with the production and use of appa- 

 ratus required for specific purposes. The general ar- 

 rangements in regard to the organisation of scientific 

 research will in future come under the direct super- 

 vision of the First Lord of the Admiralty. 



The Times of January 8 contained a letter from 

 Profs. J. Stanley Gardiner and G. H. F. Nuttall on 

 the applicability of the method of preserving herrings 

 by freezing in brine, and on January lo Mr. J. M. 

 Tabor had a letter dealing with the process 

 from the commercial point of view; a further letter 

 in the Times of January 14 appeared from Profs. 

 Gardiner and Nuttall. The method suggested 

 by the last-named is evidently the Otteson 

 method developed and worked in Norway, Sweden, 

 ^md Holland. It was investigated by Mr. H. 

 Bull, of the Norwegian Fisheries Bureau, and later 

 by a commission of three experts appointed by the 

 German Government. There is a very good account 

 .of the process and its effect on the tissues of fish in 

 the. Fish Trades Gazette of October 20 last. The fish 

 are frozen rapidly in solutions of salt in water of such 

 strengths that the temperature can be reduced to 

 6-8° F. if necessary. "Glazing" by the formation of 

 an ice film occurs and prevents osmotic interchange, 

 and the rapjdity of the freezing produces very small 

 ice-crystals between the muscle-fibres, instead of the 

 large crystals which are mainly responsible for the 

 deterioration of the flesh. Experiments on a commer- 

 •cial scale were made at Fleetwood and elsewhere in 

 this country in 1917, and successful results were ob- 

 tained, so much so that it was claimed by the writer 

 of the article in the Fish Trades Gazette that the very 

 difficult problem of refrigeration of sea fishes had been 

 completely solved, and strong recommendations were 

 made for its commercial adoption. It is suitable for 

 most species of fish, but herrings and some others 

 require rather careful handling, and gutting is probably 

 necessary. Mr. Tabor's letter in the Times directs 

 attention to the practical side of the matter, suggesting 

 difficulties that are, just now, very formidable. A j 

 further, very useful contribution to this important dis- I 

 cussion is contained in the leading article of the Fish 

 Trades Gazette of January 12. 



According to a note in L'Economista d'ltalia for 

 January i, an eminent Brazilian geologist has been 

 commissioned by his Government to investigate the 

 deposits of oxide of zirconium in the Caldas region 

 (Minas Geraes), as well as to carry out further work 

 to ascertain the extent of the coal formations in the 

 State of Sao Paulo. 



The presentation of the Thomson Foundation gold 

 medal of the Royal Geographical Society of Queensland 

 was made to Dr. Griffith Taylor on November 8 last for 

 NO. 2516, VOL. 100] 



his thesis on "The Settlement of Tropical Australia," 

 which deals specially with the control of crops and 

 health in relation to temperature and rainfall. The 

 progress made in the settlement of this part of Aus- 

 tralia is also compared with that of other tropical 

 areas. 



Mr. R. Bullen Newton, F.G.S., of the Geological 

 Department, British Museum, has just completed fifty 

 years of Government service. Shortly after entering 

 on his official career, which commenced on January 6, 

 1868, Mr. Newton became one of the assistant natural- 

 ists of the Geological Survey under Prof. Huxley. He 

 was transferred to the British Museum in August, 1880. 

 His numerous published researches on various branches' 

 of palaeontology, especially the Mollusca and Foramin- 

 ifera, have had a direct bearing on the geology, both 

 theoretical and economic, of widely scattered region^. 

 Mr. Newton has been president of the Malacological 

 Society of London and of the Conchological Society of 

 Great Britain and Ireland. 



The buildings of Dalhousie University suffered 

 severely in the recent explosion on the munitions ship 

 which wrecked the northern part of the city of Halifax, 

 N.S., on December 6 last. Nearly all the windows in 

 the medical school were blown in, and much material in 

 the laboratories was destroyed. The new science build- 

 ings and library suffered almost worse damage. On the 

 day following the disaster there was a blizzard, during 

 which much snow was driven into the buildings before 

 the windows could be boarded up. The damage is 

 being rapidly repaired, and arrangements are being 

 niade to continue the session this month. No members 

 of the staff were injured. Prof. Eraser Harris has 

 been asked by the military authorities to undertake the 

 duties of historian of the medical aspect of the recent 

 disaster. 



The death is announced, at sixty-seven years of age, 

 of Mr. J. E. Cullum, late superintendent of the Valen- 

 cia Observatory, Ireland. 



The Morning Post announces the death, at thirty- 

 nine years of age, of Mr. H. L. Burgess, medical 

 secretary to the Advisory Medical and Sanitary Com- 

 mittee for Tropical Africa and to the Yellow Fever 

 (West .Africa) Commission. 



The annual meetings of the Institution of Naval 

 Architects will be held on March 20-21, in the hall of 

 the Royal Society of Arts. The Right Hon. the Earl 

 of Durham, president, will occupy the chair. A gold 

 medal will be awarded by the council to any person, not 

 being a member or associate member of council, who 

 shall at the forthcoming meetings read a paper which, 

 in the judgment of the council, is deemed to be of 

 exceptional merit. 



We learn from the January issue of the Observatory 

 the announcements of the deaths of M. S. Javelle, 

 astronomer at the Nice Observatory, and Dr. E. Kron, 

 junior observer at the Potsdam Observatory. The 

 following particulars of their careers are extracted from 

 obituary notices in our contemporary : — M. Javelle was 

 born at Lyons in 1864, and joined the staff of the Nice 

 Observatory in 1884. He assisted Thollon in his solar 

 researches and Perrotin in his double-star observations. 

 In 1889 the great equatorial was placed in his charge, 

 and remained so until his death. He made many ob- 

 servations of comets and minor planets, but his prin- 

 cipal work was the discovery of more than two 

 thousand faint nebulae. — Dr. Kron was killed on Octo- 

 ber 24 last in Flanders, where he was serving as ober- 

 leutnant and battery commander. Born in 1881, 

 after graduating at the Berlin University he was ap- 



