May 6, 1920] 



NATURE 



303 



Notes. 



The first conversazione of the Royal Society this 

 year will be held in the rooms of the sodety at Bur- 

 lington House on Wednesday evening next, May 12. 



A SUMMER meeting of the Institution of Naval 

 Architects will be held in Liverpool on July 6-8. 

 Meetings for the reading of pap>ers will be held, and 

 arrangements will be made to visit some of the 

 principal shipbuilding and other works in Liverpool 

 •id its vicinity. 



Sir Henry A. Miers, Vice-Chancellor of the Vic- 

 toria University of Manchester, has been re-elected 

 president of the Manchester Literary and Philo- 



phical Society for the session 1920-21. Dr. H. F. 



oward and Prof, C. A. Edwards have been elected 

 honorary secretaries. 



A PUBLIC meeting, arranged by the National Union 

 of Scientific Workers, will be held on Tuesday next, 

 May II, at 8.30 p.m., at the Imperial College Union, 

 Prince Consort Road, South Kensington, for the dis- 

 cussion of "The Economic Position of Scientific 

 Workers." The chairman will be Dr. H. M. Atkin- 

 son, and the subject will be introduced by Prof. J. B. 

 Farmer and Dr. J. W. Evans. 



Sir Henry Birchenough has been appointed chair- 

 man of the British Dyes Corporation in succession to 

 Lord Moulton, whose resignation is announced. Sir 

 Henry was chairman of the Royal Commission on 

 Paper, 1917; of the Committee on Cotton-growing in 

 the Empire, 1917; and of the Advisory Council to the 

 Ministry of Reconstruction, 1918. 



A committee of fellows of the Royal Society and 

 members of the University of Cambridge has been 

 formed for the purpose of collecting funds for a 

 memorial to be erected in Westminster Abbey to the 

 late Lord Rayleigh in recognition of his eminent ser- 

 vices to science. Lord Rayleigh was both president 

 of the Royal Society and Chancellor of the University, 

 and an appeal has been issued by the society and the 

 University. It is thought, however, that there may be 

 some men of science unconnected with either of these 

 bodies who may wish to .t-how their appreciation of 

 L^rd Rayleigh 's work. Donations may be sent to the 

 hon. treasurers of the fund, Sir Richard Glazebrook 

 and Sir Arthur Schuster, at 63 Grange Road, 



im bridge. 



The council of the Institution of Civil Engineers 

 has made the following awards for papers read and 

 discussed during- the session 1919-20 : — Telford gold 

 medals and Telford premiums to Mr. David Lyell, 

 Mr. J. K. Robertson, and Major-Gen. Sir Gerard M. 

 Month; a George Stephenson gold medal and a 



Iford premium to Mr. Maurice F. Wilson; a Watt 

 ^jld medal and a Telford premium to Mr. P. M. 

 Crosthwaite; and Telford premiums to Major E. O. 

 Henrici, Sir Francis -J. E. Spring, Mr. F. O. Stan- 

 ford, Mr. J. Mitchell, Mr. J. W. Sandeman, and 

 Dr. A. R. Fulton. 



Lt.-Col. Sir Leonard Rogers, I. M.S., has 

 recently returned from India on a year's leave on 

 NO. 2636, VOL. IO.\] 



medical certificate, on the expiry of which he will 

 have only a short period of Indian service remaining 

 before being retired under the age rules. As he has 

 completed the organisation of the Calcutta School of 

 Tropical Medicine for opening next autumn with a full 

 staff, he does not propose to return to India, but to 

 devote himself to continuing his researches on the 

 treatment of tuberculosis, which have already yielded 

 some promising results in India, and have arisen out 

 of his successful method of treating leprosy by injec- 

 tions of soluble preparations of the unsaturated fatty 

 acids of various oils. 



At the annual general meeting of the Marine Bio- 

 logical Association, held in London on April 28, Sir 

 E. Ray Lankester was re-elected president of the 

 association, and Sir Arthur Shipley chairman of 

 council. '' The Rt. Hon. Sir Arthur Griffith-Boscawen 

 was added to the list of vice-presidents, and Messrs. 

 T. H. Riches and Julian S. Huxley became members 

 of council for the first time. The council re- 

 ported that donations amounting to 1770/. had been 

 promised towards the erection of new laboratories and 

 the equipment of a department of general physiology. 

 Scientific work at Plymouth during the year had been, 

 specially directed to a comparison of the condition of 

 the trawling grounds with that which had been 

 observed before the war, to the continued study of Lhe 

 distribution of post-larval and young adult stages of 

 fishes and the food eaten by fishes when in these 

 stages, and to observations on the invertebrate fauna, 

 particularly on the rate of growth of various 

 organisms. 



. That the Plumage Bill was "talked out" in the 

 House of Commons last Friday is probably due to the 

 fact that it did not come before the House until the 

 day was far spent. As a private members' Bill, its 

 chances of success, should the debate be resumed on 

 some future Friday, are not great. The Hon. E. S. 

 Montagu spoke briefly, and to the point, in its favour, 

 remarking that the Government was extremely anxious 

 to see the Bill passed into law. He did not believe, 

 he said, that the passing of the measure would destroy 

 any legitimate trade. Lord Aberdeen's Bill, which 

 is on its way to the Commons, affords yet another 

 chance, though a slender one, for necessary legislative 

 action. It does not seem to be realised, even by 

 zoologists, that the matter is one of real urgency, not 

 merely for ornithologists, or for those who desire to 

 protect birds for their owa sake, but for all who are 

 concerned with problems of economic zoology and pure 

 science. It is therefore devoutly to be hoped that this 

 matter will at once be taken up by men of science in 

 all seriousness. Their considered opinion is necessary 

 if any Bill restricting the import of plumage of wild 

 birds is to become law before extermination has set 

 its seal upon a number of species which are well 

 within the "danger-zone." 



The nfeed has long been felt for a corporate body 

 analogous to the Institute of Chemistry which would 

 represent the profession and strengthen the position of 

 workers engaged in physics, and would also form a 

 bond between the various societies interested. The 



