July 29, 1920] 



NATURE 



687 



Apparently the consideration of any supplementary 

 grant within the present financial year is not con- 

 templated. While it is reassuring to find that the 

 Chancellor of the Exchequer recognises the clamant 

 needs of the universities, there will be no little dis- 

 appointment that provision more appropriate to the 

 present needs, especially in the matter of superannua- 

 tion, is not made. 



On July 21 the King received at Buckingham 

 Palace the principal members of the British Empire 

 Forestry Conference, which sat in London during the 

 preceding fortnight. The members included dele- 

 gates from Great Britain and Ireland, India, and 

 the various Dominions and Colonies. Lord Lovat, presi- 

 dent of the conference and chairman of the Forestry 

 Commission of the United Kingdom, presented the 

 delegates separately to his Majesty; and Mr. H. R. 

 Mackay, Forest Commissioner, Victoria, and repre- 

 sentative of the Commonwealth of Australia, read an 

 address to the King, who in his reply congratulated 

 the Home Forest Authority on its joining hands so 

 soon .with foresters in other parts of the Empire. He 

 referred to the work of universities and colleges and to 

 the experience gained in the Crown woods and private 

 plantations as having laid a foundation on which it 

 is incumbent to build. The King pointed out the 

 peculiar difficulty of forestry work, which demands, 

 perhaps, more imagination, more patience, and more 

 foresight than any other industry, and considered it 

 an immense advantage that the experience of all 

 parts of the Empire should be brought into a common 

 stock and made available for all. Forestry, directed 

 as it is to checking reckless consumption of the world's 

 supply of timber and to teaching and encouraging 

 thrifty use and prudent replacement, represents a 

 great work for the common good. The conference 

 will result both in practical improvements in the opera- 

 tions of the Forestry Services at home and overseas, 

 and in a truer and wider appreciation of their value 

 to the Empire at large. 



With the advice and assistance of the U.S. National 

 Research Council, a co-operative body of scientific 

 experts on injurious insects and plant diseases and 

 of manufacturers of insecticides, fungicides, and 

 general chemicals and apparatus used in fighting the 

 enemies of field and orchard crops has just been 

 organised under the name of the Plant Protection 

 Institute. The purpose of the institute is to promote 

 the general welfare by supporting and directing 

 scientific research on the pests of crops, shade trees, 

 and ornamental plants and on the methods of their 

 control, and by furthering co-operation between the 

 scientific investigators and the manufacturers of 

 chemicals and appliances, especially for the sake of 

 effecting standardisation and economy in the produc- 

 tion and use of the means of fighting pests. Also it 

 expects to aid in the dissemination of scientifically 

 correct information regarding the control of injurious 

 insects and plant diseases. Much excellent work along 

 this line is now being done by Government and State 

 organisations, but a further advance can be made by 

 introducing a wider co-ordination and co-op>eration of 

 the efforts of both the scientific men and the manu- 

 NO. 2648, VOL. 105] 



facturers of control devices. It is in this general 

 direction of co-operative work that the Plant Pro- 

 tection Institute expects to be most active. 



Two general excursions, both on Saturday, 

 August 28, have been arranged in connection with 

 the Cardiff meeting of the British Association. One 

 party will drive through the Wye Valley to Tintern, 

 where lunch will be taken ; thence to Llanover, where 

 they will be the guests of Lord Treowen for tea (price 

 of ticket 19s.). The other party will cross the Bristol 

 Channel to Weston-super-Mare, and drive to Cheddar, 

 Wells, and Glastonbury, returning to Cardiff by boat 

 in the evening (price of ticket 21s.). Owing to the 

 difficulty of arranging transport, the local secretaries 

 will be much obliged if members intending to join 

 either of these excursions will kindly signify their 

 intention of doing so as soon as possible. Both these 

 are whole-day excursions, and it will be impossible 

 for members to be brought back to Cardiff until rather 

 late in the evening. Letters should be addressed to 

 the Local Secretaries, British Association, City Hall, 

 Cardiff. 



The eighteenth annual meeting of the general com- 

 mittee of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, held 

 on July 22, of which we publish an account in another 

 column, shows that the Fund has returned to full 

 activity after the interruptions of the war, W'e are 

 glad to note that our premier organisation for cancer 

 research mainly concerns itself with the purely 

 scientific aspects of the problem. The detailed study 

 of cell-metabolism now in progress, as foreshadowed 

 in the Director's report, should, if energetically 

 pursued, lead to advances in general biology of per- 

 manent value, apart from their application to the 

 special problems of cancer. It is gratifying to find 

 that the Fund is again playing its part as a central 

 organisation of international collaboration in cancer 

 research. 



The one hundred and first annual meeting of the 

 Soci^td Helv^tique des Sciences Naturelles will be 

 held at Neuchatel on August 29-September i. The 

 following are among the papers to be presented :— 

 "Les aciers au nickel dans Thorlogerie," C. E. Guil- 

 laume; "Die Vegetation des Diluviums in der 

 Schweiz," Prof. H. Brockmann-Jerosch ; " Ueber das 

 Kropf problem," Prof. Hedinger; "Les fouilles de la 

 Grotte de Cotencher," Prof. A. Dubois; and "Die 

 Gesteinsassociationen und ihre Entstehung," Prof. P. 

 Niggli. Particulars of the meeting may be obtained 

 from Prof. O. Fuhrmann, University, NeuchMel, or 

 Prof. E. Piguet, rue de la Serre 2, Neuchatel. 



The Rayleigh Memorial Committee has decided 

 that the memorial to the late Lord Rayleigh in West- 

 minster Abbey shall take the form of a mural tablet 

 to be erected near the memorials to Sir Humphry 

 Davy and Dr. Thomas Young. The execution of the 

 tablet will be entrusted to Mr. Derwent Wood. It 

 is expected that after all expenses are met there will 

 be a balance remaining, and this the committee pro- 

 poses shall be used to establish a library fund at the 

 Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, with which Lord 

 Rayleigh was closely associated. 



