February 14, 191 8] 



NATURE 



469 



first removed become almost perfect females ; 

 others with longer and longer periods of attach- 

 ment become more and more perfect males. 



The general idea, then, is that "sexually dif- 

 ferentiated organisms, from the first, have had 

 the problem of producing germs pitched at two 

 different metabolic levels." In connection with 

 the establishment of these two metabolic levels 

 (which appear to us to be also illustrated by varia- 

 tional alternatives quite apart from those of sex), 

 the germ-cells have sometimes at least" produced 

 two different chromosome complexes. " But, as 

 we have seen, the requisite metabolic level of the 

 germ may be established in the absence of the 

 appropriate chromosome complex, and the sex 

 of the offspring made to correspond with the ac- 

 quired grade or level of metabolism." Sex is 

 plastic, reyersible, quantitative in nature. " Seem- 

 ingly this can only mean that other hereditary 

 characters are also modifiable." Dr. Riddle has 

 made a very notable contribution towards the 

 solution of a long-standing problem. 



NOTES. 



The mastership of Trinity College, Cambridge, is 

 in the gift of the Crown, and to this post, vacant by 

 the recent death of Dr. Butler, Sir J. J. Thomson has 

 been appointed. No fellow of that great house has 

 had a more distinguished career, and his appointment 

 was not unexpected. He is the first layman to hold 

 the office. Three other fellows of the JRoyal Society 

 are heads of Cambridge colleges, namely. Dr. A. E. 

 Shipley, Christ's ; Dr. H. K. Anderson, Gonville and 

 Caius ; and Prof. A. C. Seward, Downing. "J. J.," 

 as he is commonly called, was born just over sixty- 

 one years ago, entered Trinity in 1876, was made a 

 lecturer of his college in the same year in which he 

 took his M.A. degree, and shortly afterwards, at the 

 early age of twenty-seven, was appointed Cavendish 

 professor at Cambridge in succession to Lord Ray- 

 ieigh. His success in developing the Cambridge 

 school of mathematical and experimental physics must 

 be familiar to all readers of Nature, and there is 

 scarcely any civilised country which has not sent 

 students to work under him in his laboratory. The 

 brilliant researches carried on there were surveyed in 

 Nature of March, 1913, when Sir Joseph Thomson 

 was the subject of an article in our series of " Scien- 

 tific Worthies." In 1905 Sir Joseph Thomson was 

 appointed professor of physics at the Royal Institution, 

 and was awarded a Nobel prize for physics in the 

 following year. He was president of the British Asso- 

 ciation in 1908, and four years later received the 

 coveted distinction of the Order of Merit. In 1915 he 

 was elected president of the Royal Society, and now 

 his academic course is crowned by the headship of the 

 leading college in his University. This is not the place 

 to describe Sir Joseph Thomson's discoveries. It is 

 more interesting to turn to the future. He is a ready 

 speaker, a good talker, has the " saving grace " of 

 humour, is popular, and knows and is known by all 

 physicists and most chemists. He has now a great 

 opportunity, and we predict with confidence that, 

 aided by his wife, his rule in Trinity will add further 

 lustre to his career, and bring universitv society into 

 ever closer touch with leaders of scientific thought in 

 Europe and America. 



Prof. W. W. Watts, professor of geology at the 

 Imperial College of Science and Technology, has been 

 elected a member of the Athenaeum Club under the 



NO. 2520, VOL. too] 



provisions of the rule which empowers the annual elec- 

 tion by the committee of a certain number of persons 

 •'of distinguished eminence in science, literature, the 

 arts, and for public service." 



Sir Napier Shaw, director of the Meteorological 

 Office, has been elected a foreign honorary member of 

 the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Boston. 



We regret to announce the death on February 7, 

 in his seventy-first year, of Prof. G. .\. L. Lebour, 

 professor of geology in Armstrong College (formerly 

 Durham College of Science), Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 

 since 1879, ^od vice-principal of the college since 1902. 



The Perkin Medal Committee, consisting of mem- 

 bers of several chemical societies, has, says Science, 

 awarded the Perkin medal for 1918 to Auguste J. 

 Rossi, of Niagara Falls, New York, in recognition of 

 his work on titanium. 



The death is announced, at eighty-six years of age, 

 of Prof. G. P. Girdwood, professor of chemistry in the 

 faculty of medicine of McGill University, Montreal, 

 from 1869 to 1902. 



At the ordinary scientific meeting of the Chemical 

 Society, to be held at Burlington House, W.i, on 

 Thursday, February 21, at 8 p.m., the Hon. R. J. 

 Strutt will deliver a lecture entitled " Recent Studies 

 on Active Nitrogen." 



We learn from Science that the Nichols medal for 

 meritorious research in organic chemistry has been 

 conferred on ProL T. B. Johnson, of the Sheffield 

 Scientific School of Yale University. The medal is 

 awarded annually by the New York Section of the 

 American Chemical Society on the merit of the original 

 communications published in the journal of the society. 



The following officers and other members of council 

 were elected at the annual meeting of the Malaco- 

 logical Society on February 8 : — President, J. R. le B. 

 Tomlin ; Vice-Presidents, Rev. A. H. Cooke, A. Rey- 

 nell, Tom Iredale, and H. O. N. Shaw; Treasurer. R. 

 Bullen Newton; Secretary, G. K. Gude; Editor. B. B. 

 Woodward; Other Members of Council, A. S. Ken- 

 nard, Charles Oldham, G. B. Sowerby, A. E. Salis- 

 bury, E. R. Sykes, and W. J. Wintle. 



The officers and ordinary members of council of the 

 Royal Microscopical Society, elected for the ensuing 

 year, are as follows: — President, J. E. Barnard; Vice- 

 Presidents, E. Heron-Allen, F. Martin Duncan, A. 

 Earland, and R. Paulson; Treasurer, C. F. Hill; 

 Secretaries, Dr. J. W. H. Eyre and D. J. Scourfield ; 

 Ordinary Members of Council. A. N. Disney, Dr. 

 R. G. Hebb, T. H. Hiscott, Dr. Benj. Moore, Dr. J. 

 Milton Offord, P. E. Radley, E. J. Sheppard, A. W. 

 Sheppard, Dr. C. Singer, C. D. Soar, J. Wilson, and 

 B. B. Woodward ; Librarian. P. E. Radley.' 



The twelfth award of the Reuben Harvey triennial 

 memorial prize of the Royal College of Physicians of 

 Ireland will be made on July i next. The competition 

 is Of>en to all students of the various recognised schools 

 of medicine in Dublin, and to graduates or licentiates 

 of the medical licensing bodies in Ireland of not more 

 than three years' standing. The essavs must show 

 original research in animal physiology or pathology, 

 be illustrated by drawings or preparations, and reach 

 the registrar of the Royal College of Physicians of 

 Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin, not later than June r. 



Miss Edith H. Martyn records from Cheltenham 

 the appearance of a fine peacock butterfly {Vanessa 

 lo) on February 8. Though Blomefield, in his 



