496 



NATURE 



[June 17, 1920 



Notes. 



The Linnean Society will be engaged to-day, June 17, 

 in celebrating the centenary of Sir Joseph Banks, 

 Bart., who died on June 19, 1820. On the death of 

 Carl von Linn^ in 1778, Banks endeavoured to buy his 

 herbarium, but that was acquired by Linn^'s son for 

 the remainder of his short life. Five years later, when 

 the herbarium was again for disposal upon the death 

 of the younger Linn^, Banks had changed his mind, 

 for when the collections were offered he passed the 

 offer to Dr. J. E. Smith, recommending the purchase, 

 as it would be of great value to him as a young 

 naturalist. On getting the herbarium Smith spent 

 the winter of 1784-85 in collating his new acquisition 

 with the Banksian collection, with the invaluable help 

 of Jonas Dryander, Banks's factotum; then, after a 

 tour abroad, Smith took counsel with his friends, and 

 the Linnean Society came into being. Banks was 

 chosen as honorary member immediately, and re- 

 tained that position until his death. Besides con- 

 tinual gifts of books, the cast from Inlander's relief 

 of Linn^, which was the model for Wedgewood's 

 plaque, and objects of natural history, he paid for the 

 entire cost of illustration for the first volume of the 

 Transactions. It is well that such liberal actions 

 should be recalled to the memory of the present 

 generation. 



We have received from the secretary of the Rubber 

 Growers' Association particulars of a competition 

 which has been organised by the association with the 

 view of extending the industrial uses of rubber. A 

 sum of 5000L is offered for ideas and suggestions in 

 this connection, the amount to be divided into the 

 following awards, viz. one prize of loooL, three prizes 

 of 500!. each, ten prizes of looL each, and a sum not 

 exceeding 1500Z. to be divided amongst the remaining 

 competitors whose suggestions are considered to be 

 practical, according to the relative value of the pro- 

 posals. Among the conditions of the competition it 

 is noted that special value will be attached to ideas 

 of a thoroughly practical nature, supported by 

 detailed information likely to make them effective; 

 and that the relative value of the suggestions which 

 are deemed practical will depend upon the quantity 

 of raw rubber which their adoption would absorb, 

 special consideration being given to proposals likely to 

 utilise rubber in large quantities. The most important 

 condition, however, is that relating to the protection 

 by letters patent of any process, method, or apparatus 

 submitted by competitors; this regulation is too long 

 to quote in detail here. Full particulars of the com- 

 petition may be obtained from the Rubber Growers' 

 Association (Department C), 38 Eastcheap, E.G. 3; the 

 closing date of the competition is December 31 next. 



The Albert medal of the Royal Society of Arts for 

 1920 has been awarded to Prof. A. A. Michelson, 

 For.Mem.R.S., professor of physics in the University 

 of Chicago, and Nobel laureate for physics in 1907. 



The. enterprise of the Royal Horticultural Society in 



holding a three-days' show at Cardiff on July 6-8 



marks a new departure in the society's history. Not 



in the present generation has it held such a meeting 



NO. 2642, VOL. 105] 



in the provinces, and it has now taken this step to 

 foster the interest in gardening and the production of 

 home-grown produce that it did so much to develop 

 during the war period. The scientific section will 

 contain exhibits showing how to identify and over- 

 come the various garden pests, as well as displays of 

 the various appliances used in repelling their attacks. 



The David Syme prize, with medal, for the year 

 1920 has been awarded to Mr. Frederick Chapman, 

 palaeontologist to the National Museum and lecturer 

 in palaeontology in the University of Melbourne. Mr. 

 Chapman, before his first appointment in Australia, 

 Was known to a wide circle in London through his 

 work under Prof. Judd and his association with Pr<3f. 

 T. Rupert Jones in the investigation of fossil 

 Foraminifera. Foraminifera have always remained 

 his special object of research, but he has published a 

 large number of papers in all branches of palaeonto- 

 logy, including a revision of the fossil fish-remains of 

 New Zealand. Few men have rendered the results 

 of their observations available with such zeal and 

 regularity, and Mr. Chapman, from the date of his 

 earliest papers, when he described the preparation of 

 thin sections of minute objects, for the microscope, 

 has brought to his painstaking studies the enjoyment 

 of an artist in his work. 



At the anniversary meeting of the Linnean Society 

 on May 27, the following officers and members of 

 council were elected : — President : Dr. A. Smith Wood- 

 ward. Treasurer : Mr. H. W. Monckton. Secretaries : 

 Dr. B. Daydon Jackson, Prof. E. S. Goodrich, and 

 Dr. A. B. Rendle. Council: Mr. E. G. Baker, Mr. H. 

 Bury, Prof. Margaret Benson, Mr. E. T. Browne, Mr. 

 Stanley Edwards, Prof. J. B. Farmer, Prof. E. S. 

 Goodrich, Capt. A. W. Hill, Dr. B. Daydon Jackson, 

 Mr. C. C. Lacaita, Mr. G. W. E. Loder, Mr. H. W. 

 Monckton, Mr. R. I. Pocock, Dr. A. B. Rendle, the 

 Rt. Hon. Lionel Walter, Baron Rothschild, Dr. E. J. 

 Salisbury, Mr. C. E. Salmon, Miss A. Lorrain Smith, 

 Lt.-Col. J. H. Tull Walsh, and Dr. A. Smith Wood- 

 ward. The president has appointed Mr. E. T. 

 Browne, Prof. J. B. Farmer, Mr. H. W. Monckton, 

 and Mr. R. I. Pocock vice-presidents. Dame Helen 

 Gwynne-Vaughan was presented at the anniversary 

 meeting with the Trail award and medal, and Sir Ray 

 Lankester with the Linnean medal. 



A successful meeting of the British Lampblown 

 Scientific Glassware Manufacturers' Association, Ltd., 

 was held on June 8 at the Abercorn Rooms, Great 

 Eastern Hotel. Mr. Douglas Baird, vice-president of 

 the association, who occupied the chair, in proposing 

 the toast of "The B.L.S.G.M.A.," gave a short history 

 of the formation of the association. The manufacturers 

 who were members of the association were engaged in 

 work which couIcJ be truly designated a "master-key 

 industry," because there was no trade or profession 

 that could be successfully carried on without the aid 

 of one or other of the instruments manufactured by 

 its members. The association was formed during the 

 war because it was found by the Government that 

 there was a great demand for all kinds of instruments 

 for the fighting forces which previous to hostilities 

 had been introduced into this country from abroad, 



