January 31, 19 18] 



NATURE 



4-9 



But Miss Sargant's principal work lay in the 

 direction of anatomy and morphology : she pos- 

 sessed the "morphological sense" to a most re- 

 markable degree, and the anatomy of seedlings 

 became a subject which she made peculiarly her 

 own. She formed a unique collection of micro- 

 scopical preparations illustrating the vascular 

 anatomy of monocotyledonous seedlings. She 

 was the first botanist to apply microtome tech- 

 nique to the elucidation of the problems presented 

 by the anatomical transition from stem to root ; 

 owing to the extreme shortness of the hypocotyl in 

 many monocotyledonous seedlings, it is often 

 quite impos.-ible to demonstrate their structure by 

 means of hand sections alone. In a series of 

 papers, the great majority of which appeared in 

 the Annals of Botany, she developed her well- 

 known theory of the origin of monocotyledons, 

 based upon the results of her researches into seed- 

 ling structure. In 1913 she was president of 

 Section K (Botany) at the Birmingham meeting 

 of the British Association, being the first woman 

 chosen to preside over a section. She took for 

 the subject of her address "The Development of 

 Botanical Embryologv' since 1870," and gave a 

 masterly review of a difficult and controversial 

 field, in which she had herself broken much new 

 ground. 



NOTES. 



The gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society 

 has been awarded by the council of the society to Mr. 

 John Evershed for his investigations of radial motion 

 in sun-spots and other contributions to astrophysics. 

 The Hannah Jackson {nie Gwilt) gift has been awarded 

 to the Rev. T. E. R. Phillips for his observations of 

 planets, double stars, and variable stars. The awards 

 will be presented at the annual general meeting to be 

 held on Friday, February 8. 



The scheme for the reconstitution of the Labour 

 Party, to which we referred last week (p. 404), provid- 

 ing for representation of producers "by brain" as 

 well as "by hand," was submitted by Mr. Henderson 

 on behalf of the executive to the conference at Notting- 

 ham on January 23. .After discussion it was decided 

 that the draft scheme should be referred to the affiliated 

 societies* and that another conference should be called 

 in a month's time to consider it. 



The proposed formation of a British Association of 

 Chemists will be discussed at the meeting of the Lon- 

 don Section of the Society of Chemical Industry to be 

 held at the Royal Society of Arts on Monday, February 

 4, at 7.30 p.m! 



The death has occurred, in his sixty-seventh year, 

 of Mr. Louis P. Gratacap, curator in mineralogy in 

 the American Museum of Natural History since 1900. 

 For the previous nine years he had held the post of 

 assistant curator. His publications included a standard 

 " Guide to Mineral Collections," " Popular Mineralogy," 

 and " Geology of the City of New York." 



The death is announced, at the early age of forty- 

 five, of Dr. T. C. Janeway, who occupied, at Johns 

 Hopkins University, the chair of medicine formerly 

 filled by Sir William Osier. He was a rhember of the 

 Board of Scientific Directors of the Rockefeller Institute 

 for Medical Research, and secretarj^ of the Russell Sage 



NO. 2518, VOL. 100] 



Institute of Pathology. Prof. Janeway was the author 

 of "The Clinical Study of Blood Pressure." 



The Re^search Defence Society and the Association 

 for the Advancement of Medicine by Research have 

 been united into one society, which will retain the 

 name and official address of the Research Defence , 

 Society. All such communications as used to be made 

 to the association should, therefore, now be made to 

 the honorary secretary of the Research Defence 

 Society, 21 Ladbroke Square, London, W.ii. 



In consequence of a statement from F. 1. Faltz-Fein 

 directing attention to the dangers which, in the present 

 circumstances, threaten the existence of the famous 

 zoological park and horse-breeding station on his estate 

 at Ascania Nova, the council of the All-Russian Horse- 

 breeders' Congress brought the matter to the notice of 

 the Petrograd Academy of Sciences, with the earnest 

 request that immediate and energietic measures be 

 taken for the protection of an establishment which is 

 of very great scientific value, and justly considered the 

 pride of Russia. It is announced in the December 

 Bulletin of the Academy that, in response to this 

 appeal, the Government has instructed Maj.-Gen. P. K. 

 Kozlov to take the necessary measures. 



According to reports in the French Press, a 

 " General Congress of Civil Engineering " will be held 

 in Paris on March 18-23 next. The objects of the con- 

 ference, as recently explained to the French Minister 

 of Commerce and Industry, are to awaken the French 

 nation to the need for increased industrial enterprise 

 and the attainment of industrial agreement. The 

 Minister expressed the hope that the conference would 

 give very close attention to such questions as the 

 saving of fuel and the thorough utilisation of intellec- 

 tual and mechanical effort ; wage war on waste of all 

 kinds ; and advocate the systematic utilisation of by- 

 products, and the adoption of improved scientific 

 mechanical methods of production — in short, give that 

 place to applied knowledge that it. now merits. 



The Minister of Reconstruction has appointed the 

 following committee of manufacturers and business 

 men to consider the provision of new industries for the 

 engineering trades : — ^The Hon. H. D. McLaren 

 (chairman), Mr. C. Bennion, Sir George Bul- 

 lough, Bart., Mr. F. H. Crittall, Mr. R. 

 Dumas, Mr. W. B. Lang, Mr. C. A. Lister, 

 Mr. P. J. Pvbus, Mr. G. H. Sankev, Sir Percy 

 Stothert, Mr. J. Taylor, Mr. W. Taylor, Mr. W. 

 Thom, and Sir VV. Rowan Thomson. The duties of 

 the new committee will be to compile a list of the 

 articles suitable for manufacture by British engineers 

 which were either not made in the United Kingdom or 

 made in insufficient quantities, and for which 

 there is likely to be a demand after the war. The 

 need for such a list of articles and for some organised 

 effort to make them at home has been amply shown 

 by the war, which has revealed our dependence on 

 many — even the en^my— countries for articles vital to 

 our industries, and even to our war equipment. 



By the death of Lieut. E. J. Woodhouse in France 

 on December 18 last, from wounds received early in 

 the month, the Indian Agricultural Service has lost a 

 capable organiser and adviser. Educated at Marl- 

 borough, Lieut. Woodhouse entered Trinity College, 

 Cambridge, in 1903. In 1906 he graduated with honours 

 in the Natural Sciences Tripos, and the following year 

 obtained the I'niversity diploma in agriculture. He 

 then proceeded to India to take up the post of economic 

 botanist to the Government of Bengal. Three years 

 later he was appointed principal of the Agricultural 



