ApRit 29, 1920] 



NATURE 



281 



tion can be obtained from the Education Officer (T/s), 

 L.C,C. Education Offices, Victoria .Embankment, 



W.C.2. 



The Marquess of Crewe, chairman of the govern- 

 ing body of the Imperial College of Science and 

 Technology, was present, with other distinguished 

 guests, at the ninth annual dinner of old students 

 of the Royal College of Science on Saturday last, 

 April 24. Sir Richard Gregory, president of the Old 

 Students' Association, who occupied the chair, in 

 proposing the toast of the governing body, said that 

 the time had come for a national survey of the condi- 

 tions and requirements of university and higher 

 technical education in this country, so that a com- 

 prehensive view could be taken of the problem 

 as a whole, existing deficiencies discovered, and 

 adequate educational facilities provided in all areas. 

 The Imperial College would take an important place 

 in any national scheme which might result from such 

 a survey. Lord Crewe, in responding to the toast, 

 said that the college was not content to be merely 

 a school of any university, however distinguished. 

 Though there was in this country no precedent for a 

 technical university, there was, "on the other hand, 

 none for a population of eight millions, which was 

 the population of Greater London, with but one uni- 

 versity to serve all purposes. The problem of the 

 reorganisation of the University of London was quite 

 enough in itself, without involving the infinitely 

 more difficult task of trying to combine in some wav 

 the activities of the University and of the Imperial 

 College in one entirely unprecedented unit. At any 

 rate, the governors of the Imperial College had made 

 up their minds that the problem had to be solved in 

 a way which assured their practical independence. Sir 

 W. H. Bragg spoke of the increased interest, due 

 mostly to the war, now taken in scientific studies, 

 resulting in overfilled laboratories in university institu- 

 tions and insufficient instructors. Mr. Herbert Wright 

 gave instances of purely scientific investigations at 

 the college which had proved of great practical value, 

 and Prof. J. C. Philip referred to the steps being 

 taken to provide a worthy war memorial to old 

 students. Prof. H. E. Armstrong, proposing the 

 toast of "The Guests," paid a tribute to the men of 

 science whose work contributed so largely to success 

 in the war; and Sir Richard Glazebrook, in respond- 

 ing, referred particulnrlv to the work of Mr. L. 

 Rairstow, Dr. G. W. C. Kaye, and Mr. F. E. Smith, 

 old students of the college, .at the National Physical 

 Laboratorv. 



Societies and Academies. 



London, 

 Linnean Society, April 15.— Dr. A. Smith Woodward, 

 |)resident, in the chair. — Cajjt. F. Kingdon Ward : 

 Natural history exploration on the north-east frontier 

 of Burma. — R'. Paulson : Stages in the sporulation of 

 gonidia within the thallus of the lichen, Evernia 

 prunastri, Ach. It has for a considerable time been 

 generally accepted that the bright-green spherical 

 i^-^onidium which is common to many lichens, and is 

 referred to in the literature of the subject as Cysto- 

 ( occus, Protococcus, or Pleurococcus, multiplies vegcta- 

 lively only, while it remains the algal constituent of 

 the lichen thallus. Famintzin (1868), Baranetzki 

 1868), Woronin (1872), Bornet (1873), and Chodat 

 1913) state that the gonidia (Cystococcus?) of certain 

 lichens produce zoospores after being isolated from the 

 .^onidial layer and afterwards cultivated in, or on, 

 lifferent media. The author has not been able to find 

 I hat the gonidia of Evernia prunastri, and of twentv- 



NO. 2635, VOL. 105] 



three other species of lichens, representing eleven 

 genera, divide vegetatively within the thallvis, but in 

 all these cases the reproduction of gonidia wa^ found 

 to be the result of the successive bipartition of the 

 original protoplast of the cell into four, eight, or six- 

 teen separate masses, each of which rapidly develops 

 a cell-wall of its own while within the mother-cell. 

 These daughter gonidia (suppressed zoospores?) ulti- 

 mately escape as the mother cell-wall becomes diffluent. 

 They exhibit all the characteristics of the parent cell 

 before they are set free. 



Royal Anthropological Institute, April 20. — Sir Everard 

 im Thurn, president, in the chair. — R. Grant Browne ; 

 The races of the Chindwin, Upper Burma. The basin 

 of the Chindwin, in the north-west of Burma, is of 

 exceptional interest to ethnologists on account of the 

 medley of peoples inhabiting it — peoples distinguished 

 from each other by their language and customs rather 

 than by their physical characteristics. They include 

 Burmans, Shans, Tamans, Chins, Nagas, Kachins, 

 and Kadus. These terms denote communities rather 

 than races, lor the inhabitants may change from one 

 group to another in the course of a few years. The 

 people of Maukkalauk, for instance, are now regarded 

 as Kachins, but have learnt Shan, and will, no doubt, 

 "become" Shans like their neighbours, and eventually 

 Burmans ; but their head-man says they left Assam, 

 where they wore white clothes and spoke some lan- 

 guage, of which they have forgotten even the name, 

 when his father was a boy. In contrast to this 

 process of assimilation there are mountain .tribes 

 living a few miles apart from each other . whose 

 dialects have been differentiated until they have 

 become mutually unintelligible. The more •civilised 

 communities owe their language and customs to a 

 succession of dominant races. The Burmese came 

 last. Before them were the Shans, and before, these 

 probably the Kadus. There are signs that . Kadu, 

 now almost extinct in this area, was once the prevail- 

 ing languui/e of the riverine tracts. 



Royal Meteorological Society, April -21. — Mr. R. H. 

 Hooker, president, in the chair.— Royal Observatory, 

 Greenwich: A night sky recorder. The object of the 

 instrument is to supplement the daily sunshine record 

 in so far as it gives an indication of the amount of 

 cloud. The instrument consists of a small camera in 

 a fixed position pointing to the pole of the heavens. 

 The lens is a single confiponent of a doublet of 8-in. 

 focal length and o-4-in. aperture, working at //20. 

 It is found that the aperture, in conjunction with 

 plates of " ordinary " speed, will give a .good record 

 even at full moon. Measurements are made by means 

 of a photographic scale. — Lieut. N. L. Silvester : 

 Local weather conditions at Mullion, Cornwall. The 

 author gave a detailed analysis of . the local meteoro- 

 logical elements in the order of their importance rela- 

 tive to airship navigation, but remarked . that the 

 period under review (approximately one year) was too 

 short to deduce much information of climatolbgiral 

 value, though during most of this period the observa- 

 tions were as full and as frequent as the changes of 

 the Service in war-time would permit. Ratios of 

 gradient to surface wind had been computed and 

 analysed . from the results of more than 400 pilot- 

 balloon ascents by the one-theodolite method, There 

 was evidence of the marked friction and turbulence 

 affecting the wind near the surface in the vicinjty of 

 large buildings, such as airship-sheds, IV^uch usefjjl 

 inform.ilton relating to the local occurrence of fogs 

 and of unusual visibility had been tabulated ; whilst 

 another feature was the collection in tabular form of 

 local signs of approaching bad weather, which should 

 prove of value to the local forecaster. — J. E- Plar^ : 

 The Surrey hailstorm of Julv 16. 1018. This storm 

 differed from other similar British visitations hv the 



