49S 



NATURE 



[February 21, 19 18 



"the closer the tie between the University and the 

 prime industries of the city the better for both." The 

 honorary graduates were introduced to the Chancellor 

 by the Public Orator (Prof. A. H. Leahy) in terms 

 which did full justice to a great occasion, for an 

 assembly which included the Ambassadors of the great 

 Allied Powers, France, the United States, and Italy, 

 .was a memorable assertion of the University's faith in 

 the common cause, and the presence there of represen- 

 tatives of sister universities made that assertion more 

 deeply significant. The University also did honour to 

 itself by conferring the degree of Doctor of Letters on 

 the President of the Board of Education, its former 

 Vice-Chancellor. 



Dr. R. S. Willows, head of the department of 

 physics and mathematics at the Sir John Cass Tech- 

 nical Institute, Aldgate, London, has been appointed 

 head physicist to Messrs. Tootal Broadhurst, Lee, and 

 Co., of Manchester, in connection with their scheme for 

 cotton research. 



Mr. D. B. Mair and Mr. L. C. H. Weekes have been 

 appointed Assistant Civil Service Commissioners. The 

 former will also hold the office of Director of Examina- 

 tions, and the latter that of Secretary to the Civil Ser- 

 vice Commission. Mr. Stanley M. ■ Leathes remains 

 the First Commissioner, but Mr.. Herbert W. Paul has 

 retired from the post of Second Civil Service Commis- 

 sioner which he has held since 1909. 



The course of public lectures on " Some Biological 

 Problems of To-day,*' arranged in co-operation with the 

 Imperial Studies Committee, are being continued at 

 University College (Gower Street, W.C.) on Mondays 

 at 4 p.m. The remaining lectures of the present term 

 will deal with important questions of food production, 

 as follows : — (i) The possibilities of increased crop 

 production, by Dr. E. J. Russell; (2) Grassland and 

 arable, by Mr. R. G. Stapledon ; (3) Farm strategy of 

 the past and for the future, by Mr. K. J. J. Mac- 

 Kenzie; (4) Spraying problems, by Dr. A. S. Home; 

 (5) Birds and insects in relation to crops, by Prof. 

 S. J. Hickson; (6) Co-operation in food supply, by Mr. 

 A. G. Tansley. The lectures are open to the public 

 without fee or ticket. 



The first four lectures of the public university 

 course on "Animal Life and Human Progress" at 

 King's College, London, have been very well attended. 

 Prof. A. Dendy delivered an introductory discourse on 

 "Man's Account with the Lower Animals," Prof. G. C 

 Bourne has lectured on " Some Educational and Moral 

 Aspects of Zoology," Mr. C. Tate Regan on " Museums 

 and Research," and Prof. J. Arthur Thomson on 

 " Man and the Web of Life." The remaining lectures 

 of the course will be given by Prof. F. Wood Jones on 

 "The Origin of Man" (February 27); Dr. R. T. 

 Leiper, on " Some Inhabitants of Man and their Migra- 

 tions" (March 6); Prof. R. T. Punnett, on "The 

 Future of the Science of Breeding" (March i-^); Prof. 

 W. A. Herdman. on " Our Food from the Sea " (March 

 20); and Prof. Robert Newstead on "Tsetse-flies and 

 Colonisation" (March 27). It is intended to publish 

 the lectures in book form with Messrs. Constable and 

 Co., Ltd., after the conclusion of the course. 



The annual general meeting of the Association of 

 Technical Institutions will be held on February 22 and 

 2-^,- at the Drapers' Hall. Thrograorton Street, E.C. 

 The president. Sir Alfred Keogh, G.C.B., will take the 

 chair, and deliver a short address. Papers will be read 

 on the training of teachers for technical institutions and 

 day continuation classes, by Principal Watson of 

 Keighlev, and on the Education (No. 2) Bill, 1918, by 

 Prof. Wertheimer, of Bristol. Among the resolutions 

 to be submitted to the meeting may be mentioned those 



NO. 2521, VOL. 100] 



urging, in the interest of technical education, that 

 scales of salary providing for adequate increases and 

 reasonable prospects should be adopted for all fully 

 qualified full-time teachers, and that the Government 

 be requested to make a grant to technical-school 

 teachers, as it has done in the case of primary- and 

 secondary-school teachers; those expressing general 

 approval of the provisions of Education (No. 2) Bill 

 and recording the opinion that an alternative plan, 

 should be allowed in Section 10 of the Bill, such plan 

 being half-time compulsory attendance from fourteen 

 to sixteen years of age, together with encouragement 

 of, and ample facilities for, attendance afterwards at 

 evening classes for two evenings per week on tech- 

 nological or other subjects from sixteen to eighteen 

 years of age, and those expressing disappointment that 

 the Board of Education has not yet withdrawn or 

 modified the objectionable features of the Regulations 

 for Junior Technical Schools. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Royal Society, February 7. — Sir J. J. Thomson, presi- 

 dent, in the chair.— Prof. O. W. Richardson : The 

 photo-electric action of X-rays. In this paper the ex- 

 citation of electron emission by X-rays is discussed in 

 relation to our knowledge of the photo-electric action 

 of other types of radiation. The ratio Ek/E* of the 

 energy Ek emitted in the form of K secondary X-radia- 

 tion to the energy E., of the primary radiation (wave- 

 length A) absorbed is found in the case of bromine to 

 be expressed to within the degree of accuracy of the 

 available observations by the formula 



Ek/E,: ^ 



where 



(I+/)Ak 



Xk is the average wave-length of the K radiations and 

 Xkx is the wave-length of the shortest K radiation.— F. 

 Soddy and J. A. Cranston : The parent of actinium, 

 (i) In a full historical" introduction the data obtained 

 in 1909 relative to the rays and products of uranium-X 

 are discussed, in so far as they throw_ light on the 

 various possible modes of origin of actinium. (2) The 

 minute growth of actinium previously put on record in 

 1913 as having been observed in the old uranium-X 

 preparations has been confirmed by their later history 

 and is now established beyond doubt. (3) Uraniurn-Xj 

 can be separated from uranium-X, by sublimation in a 

 current of air charged with vapours of carbon tetra- 

 chloride at a temperature below visible red-heat. (4) 

 470 grams of a Very pure Indian pitchblende were 

 similarly treated in the expectation of removing eka- 

 tantalum isotopic with uranium-X^ and giving 

 actinium in an a-ray change of long period. 

 (5) The preparations so obtained were initially free^ 

 from actinium, but one of them has produced it con- 

 tinuously with the lapse of time. (6) A direct com- 

 parison of the amount of actinium in this preparation 

 after the lapse of 25; vears with that in the original 

 pitchblende "showed tha't it was equal to that in about 

 o-2.i^ gram. (7) On the assumptions that eka-tantalum 

 and actinium are both long-lived, that no intermediate 

 members intervene between them, and that the pre- 

 paration contained the whole of the parent of actinium 

 in the original mineral, the period of average life of 

 actinium is calculated to be 5000 years. Nothing can 

 vet be said definitely as to the period of the parent. 

 (8) A second preparation separated from Joachimsthal 

 pitchblende, the ' treatment of which commenced in 

 1903, and ended in 1914, with the carbon tetrachloride 



