622 



NATURE 



[July 15, 1920 



Notes. 



The exhibits of the Research Department, Wool- 

 wich, at the Imperial War Museum, Crystal Palace, 

 illustrate some of the work vital to the war which was 

 done there, and incidentally our unpreparedness, as 

 much of it might have been done before. Amongst 

 the specimens shown are the six isomers of T.N.T., 

 isolated whilst devising new processes for the manu- 

 facture of the symmetrical variety, and for cheaply 

 eliminating the undesirable isomers— a problem not 

 yet fully solved. There are also specimens of amatol, 

 which has largely replaced T.N.T. as a shell-filling; 

 tetranitromethyl aniline, which is of increasing use as 

 •an initiator of detonation in others ; trinitrobenzene, 

 which should have a future, and many others. The 

 exhibits of fragments of shells detonated by picric 

 acid, T.N.T., and amatol respectively show by the 

 relative numbers of the fragments that picric acid still 

 remains our most shattering shell explosive, and, by 

 the minuteness of most, how limited the killing range 

 of such shells really is. The specimen of R.D.B. 

 cordite illustrates how, when through lack of fore- 

 sight our supply of acetone failed, our chemists and 

 -distilleries saved the situation by providing soluble 

 nitrocellulose and alcohol-ether to gelatinise it. The 

 sections of gaines show how the problem of detonating 

 insensitive shell-fillings was solved during the war by 

 employing a series of explosives in the detonator, and 

 accomplishing in several steps what could not be done 

 with certainty in one. The specimens which display 

 the eroding effect of hot gases on gun-tubes present a 

 problem to chemists which will probably be solved 

 by the invention of a new alloy. An excellent series 

 of X-ray photographs shows that great progress has 

 been made in the penetration of metals. Internal 

 flaws in parts are revealed, and also the internal 

 structure of ammunition — an important matter when 

 eaptured ammunition has to be examined and dis- 

 sected. • There are many other exhibits of interest. 



The appeal which the chairman of the Brent Valley 

 Bird Sanctuary makes in our correspondence columns 

 for funds with which to buy and endow the reserve 

 which the Selborne Society has maintained for 

 eighteen years will commend itself to most naturalists. 

 It is as important to rear two useful birds as it is 

 to make two ears of corn grow where there was but 

 •one before, and the sanctuary has done more than 

 this. Not only has it enabled birds to build undisturbed 

 near London, but its example has been followed else- 

 where, and in thousands of gardens have birds been 

 brought up where there were no fledglings previously. 

 This is through the nesting-boxes which the com- 

 mittee has sent out. Such work should go on. A 

 permanent sanctuary within the London area would 

 be an excellent memorial to Gilbert White and crown 

 the efforts of the Selborne Society. Although, the 

 gift of the purchase money or some substantial con- 

 tributions would bring the endeavour to an earlier 

 completion, we imagine that the more subscribers 

 there are the better pleased would the committee be, 

 and small amounts would therefore be welcomed. 



The fifty-seventh annual general meeting of the 

 British Pharmaceutical Conference will be held at 

 NO. 2646, VOL. 105] 



Liverpool on July 19-23 under the presidency of Mr. 

 C. a; Hill, managing director of The British Drug 

 Houses, Ltd., who will deliver his presidential 

 address at the Royal Institution, Liverpool, on 

 Tuesday, July 20. The British Pharmaceutical Con- 

 ference is an organisation established in 1863, and 

 during the fifty-six years of its existence it has made 

 at its annual meetings a total addition of more than 

 a thousand original researches to the common stock 

 of chemical and pharmaceutical knowledge. Among 

 the subjects of the scientific papers to be read at the 

 forthcoming meeting are : A New Method for the 

 Estimation of Cineole in Eucalyptus Oils; The Deter- 

 mination of Hydrocyanic Acid, of Nitrate in Bismuth 

 Carbonate, and of Free Acetic Acid in Acetylsalicylic 

 Acid ; Aconite Alkaloids : An Improved Method for 

 their Estimation ; and The Detection of Inorganic 

 Phosphate in Glycerophosphates. 



With the view of obtaining further evidence as to 

 the relationship of the Early Mousterian palaeolithic 

 flint implements to the Glacial Chalky Boulder Clay, 

 excavations will be carried out shortly at High Lodge, 

 Mildenhall, Suffolk, by Prof. J. E. Marr, Mr. J. Reid 

 Moir, Mr. Reginald Smith, Mr. Henry Bury, and 

 Mr. M. C. Burkitt. The owner of the High Lodge 

 property. Sir Henry Bunbury, Bart., having given 

 permission for the diggings to be conducted, it is hoped 

 that it may be possible to ascertain with certainty 

 whether the well-known brick-earth of Mousterian 

 age occurring at this spot is younger or older 

 than the Boulder Clay with which it is intimately 

 associated. A full account of the excavations and the 

 conclusions arising therefrom will be published in due 

 course. 



The following elections in connection with the 

 Royal College of Surgeons of England are an- 

 nounced : — President : Sir Anthony A. Bowlby. 

 Hunterian Professors: Mr. C. W. G. Bryan, Mr. 

 A. G. T. Fisher, Mr. W. S. Handley, Mr. W. G. 

 Howarth, Prof. A. Keith, and Mr. H. Piatt. Arris 

 and Gale Lecturers: Mr. J. F. Dobson, Dr. F. W. 

 Edridge-Green, and Mr. J. H. Evans. Erasmus 

 Wilson Lecturer: Prof. S. G. Shattock. Arnott 

 Demonstrator: Prof. A. Keith. Pathological Curator: 

 Prof. S. G. Shattock. Physiological Curator: Mr. 

 R. H. Burne. Honorary Curator of the Odontological 

 Collection: Sir Frank Colyer. Sir D'Arcv Power is 

 'to deliver the next Thomas Vicary lecture. 



The Very Rev. Dr. W. R. Inge, Dean of St. 

 Paul's, is president for the new session of the 

 Aristotelian Society which will open in November 

 next. 



The Sir Alfred Jones Laboratories of the Liverpool 

 School of Tropical Medicine will be officially opened 

 by Lord Leverhulme on Saturday, July 24, at 2.30. 

 The presentation of Mary Kingsley memorial medals 

 will also be made. 



Sir Robert Jones has been awarded the Cameron 

 prize of the University of Edinburgh in recognition 

 of his work in orthopaedics. Earlier recipients of the 

 prize, which is of the value of about 150?., were 

 Pasteur, Lord Lister, and Sir Lauder Brunton. 



