654 



NATURE 



rjULY 22, 1920 



Notes. 



Mr. Alan A. Campbell Swinton has been elected 

 chairman of the council of the Royal Society of Arts 

 for the ensuing year. 



Dr. Edridge-Green, C.B.E., has been appointed a 

 special examiner in colour vision and eyesight by the 

 Board of Trade. 



The Civil List Pensions granted during the year 

 ended March 31 are shown in a White Paper just 

 issued, and include the following : — Mrs. Howell, in 

 recognition of her late husband's eminent public ser- 

 vice in the Geological Survey of Great Britain, 50L ; 

 Miss Juliet Hepworth, in recognition of her late 

 brother's services to meteorology and oceanography, 

 50L ; Mrs. K. Macdonald Goring, in recognition of her 

 husband's services to biometrical science, 85L ; and 

 Mrs. Leonard William King, in recognition of her 

 husband's services to Assyrian and Babvlonian studv, 

 85^. 



At a public meeting held at the Mansion House in 

 October, 1912, the following proposals for com- 

 memorating the work of Lord Lister were adopted : — 

 The placing of a memorial in Westminster Abbey, 

 to take the form of a tablet with medallion and 

 inscription ; the erection of a monument in a public 

 place in London ; and the establishment of an Inter- 

 national Lister Memorial Fund for the advancement 

 of surgery, from which either grants in aid of re- 

 searches bearing on surgery or awards in recognition 

 of distinguished contributions to surgical science 

 should be made, irrespective of nationality. A meet- 

 ing of the general committee was held in the rooms 

 of the Royal Society on Monday, July 19, to receive 

 and adopt the report of the executive committee ap- 

 pointed in 1912. The chairman. Sir Archibald Geikie, 

 stated that the sums received in respect of subscrip- 

 tions from the British Empire and foreign countries 

 amounted to 11,846/. 5s. \od. A memorial tablet, 

 executed by Sir Thomas Brock, was unveiled in West- 

 minster Abbey on November i, 1915, and steps are 

 being taken for the erection of a monument in a public 

 place in London. In order to carry out the scheme 

 for the establishment of the International Lister 

 Memorial Fund for the Advancement of Surgery, it 

 was resolved that :— (a) Out of the general fund a sum 

 of 500/., together with a bronze medal, be awarded 

 every three years, irrespective of nationality, in 

 recognition of distinguished contributions to surgical 

 science, the recipient being required to give an address 

 in London under the auspices of the Royal College of 

 Surgeons of England, (b) The award be made by a 

 committee constituted of members nominated by the 

 Royal Society, Royal College of Surgeons of England, 

 Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, University of 

 Edinburgh, and University of Glasgow, (c) Any 

 surplus income of the general fund, after providing 

 for the erection of a monument and defraying 

 administrative exj>enses, be either devoted to the 

 furtherance of surgical science by means of grants or 

 invested to increase the capital of the fund. The 

 Royal College of Surgeons of England has consented 

 NO. 2647, "V'OL. IO5I 



to become the trustees and administrators of the 

 . Lister Fund and to carry out its objects, subject to 

 the above provisions of the scheme. The subscription 

 list is still open, and the hon. treasurer of the fund 

 is Sir Watson Cheyne, Bart., to whom donations may 

 be addressed at the Royal Society, Burlington House, 

 London, W. i. 



A MARBLE statue to the memory of Wilbur Wright 

 was unveiled on July 17 at Le Mans, where twelve 

 years ago this aviator accomplished a flight of nearly 

 a mile. We learn from the Times that the statue 

 is the work of the sculptor Landowski, and typifies 

 the struggle of man to conquer the air. The nude 

 figure of a man is represented as having scaled a 

 rugged mountain peak and as stretching out his arms 

 to the hitherto unconquered element, air. The base 

 of the monument is carved with bas-relief figures of 

 Wilbur and Orville Wright and L^on Boll6e, the 

 Frenchman who collaborated in the early experiments. 



The thirty-ninth annual meeting of the Society of 

 Chemical Industry was held at Newcastle-upon-Tyne 

 on July 13-16. The gold medal of the society was 

 presented to M. Paul Kestner, president of the Society 

 of Chemical Industry of France, by Prof. Henry Louis, 

 who read the presidential address of Mr. John Gray. 

 Sir William J. Pope was elected president for the 

 ensuing year. An invitation to hold the next annual 

 general meeting at Montreal was accepted. 



A Congress of Philosophy, in which members of 

 the Soci^t^ Fran^aise de Philosophie are taking part, 

 and to which the American Philosophical Association 

 is sending delegates, is to take place at Oxford on 

 September 24-27. Two of the subjects of discussion 

 are likely to be of especial scientific interest : one a 

 symposium on the principle of relativity, to be opened 

 bv Prof. Eddington, and the other a discussion to be 

 opened by Dr. Head on disorders of symbolic think- 

 ing due to local lesions of the brain. The opening 

 meeting of the congress will be presided over by 

 Lord Haldane, and the inaugural address will be by 

 Prof. Bergson, Arrangements are under the direction 

 of Mr. A. H. Smith, New College, Oxford. 



The Faraday Society and the Physical Society of 

 London are arranging to have a joint symposium and 

 general discussion in October next upon the 

 physics and chemistry of colloids and their 

 bearing on industrial questions. The subject will 

 be introduced by a brief survey of the present 

 position of colloidal physics and chemistry, and 

 there will then be discussion on the following- sub- 

 divisions of the subject :— Emulsions and emulsifica- 

 tion, physical properties of elastic gels, cataphoresis 

 and electro-endosmose, precipitation in disperse sys- 

 tems, glass and pyrosols, and non-aqueous systems. 

 In spite of the importance of colloidal physics and 

 chemistry in many branches of manufacture, and of 

 the interest which the subject has aroused in recent 

 years, much light remains to be thrown on the nature 

 of the manufacturing process in which colloids play 

 a part. It is hoped that the discussion will focus 

 attention on some of these problems, that its 

 I result will be to indicate lines of advance and suggest 



