754 



NATURE 



[August 12, 1920 



pp. 23-42, and he has a paper on ionisation in a 

 mag-netic field in vol. iv., ser. 7, pp. 27-44. His 

 chief work, in which he summarises these and 

 other results, is entitled "I fenomeni elettro- 

 atomici sotto I'azione del magnetismo," a work 

 which met with a very cordial reception among 

 Italian physicists, who must, indeed, have been 

 indebted to Righi's activity and clearness of ex- 

 position for much of their knowledge of contem- 

 porary physics. 



Students adequately familiar with Italian — as 

 the writer cannot claim to be — speak of Righi's 

 writings as marked by extraordinary clearness 

 and simplicity of style, so that they can be read 

 by people of average culture, at least in their 

 non-mathematical portions. 



Numerous honours were conferred upon Righi, 

 among others a 10,000 lira prize of the Accademia 

 dei Lincei, and the Htjghes medal of the Royal 

 Society. The Royal Society also selected him as 

 a foreign member, and he succeeded Lord Kelvin 

 as foreign member of the Royal Academy of 



Sciences at Upsala. In 1905 he was elected a 

 Senator of the Italian Parliament. 



By Righi's death Italy probably feels that she 

 has lost her foremost physicist. He was anxious, 

 up to the last, for information about every new 

 discovery, and showed himself capable of appre- 

 ciating results in many departments of physics. 

 He was well known by reputation in this country 

 as a thinker and worker of exceptional keenness 

 and width of outlook, Oliver Lodge, 



A Reuter message from Stockholm announces 

 the death, at seventy-seven years of age, of 

 Admiral A. L, Palander, who was in command 

 of Baron Nordenskiold's vessel, the Vega, which 

 completed the navigation of the North-East passage 

 from the Atlantic to the Pacific along the north 

 coast of Asia (1878-79). Admiral Palander was 

 an honorary corresponding member of the Royal 

 Geographical Society and of many other scientific 

 societies both in Sweden and abroad. 



N otes. 



A MOVEMENT set OH foot in the early part of last 

 year for the foundrng of an institution or society 

 the membership of which should be open to those 

 particularly interested in problems connected with the 

 fields of administration and organisation in relation 

 to industrial enterprises was brought to a head at a 

 public meeting held on April 26 last at the Central 

 Hall, Westminste.-, by the appointment of a pro- 

 visional organising committee which was instructed 

 to prepare a draft constitution for such an institution, 

 to be named the Institute of Industrial Administra- 

 tion. This committee presented its report, accom- 

 panied by a draft constitution embodying (i) a 

 schedule of objects, (2) the conditions of member- 

 ship, and (3) the form of government, at a public 

 meeting held at the above-named hall on July 15. 

 This draft constitution was, with slight amendments, 

 adopted on the date last mentioned, and the first 

 board of management, consisting of eighteen mem- 

 bers representing a variety of industries, was elected 

 on the same occasion. The objects of the institute 

 as set out in the draft constitution are briefly as 

 follows : — To promote the general advancement of 

 knowledge relative to thei principles of industrial 

 administration and their applications ; to facilitate 

 the exchange of information and ideas regarding the 

 principles and practice of industrial administration ; 

 to collect and publish information and proposals 

 bearing on any aspect of industrial administration ; 

 and to co-operate with professional, industrial, or 

 educational societies, organisations, or authorities in 

 pursuance of these objects. The government of the 

 institute is to be vested in an advisory council com- 

 posed of honorary members and a board of manage- 

 ment representing the various classes of membership 

 of the institute. Mr. E. T. Elbourne was elected 

 hon. secretary of the institute, the offices of which 

 are temporarily located at no Victoria Street, West- 

 minster, S.W.I. 



NO. 2650, VOL. 105] 



The U.S. National Research Couacil, with head- 

 quarters at Washington, has elected the following 

 chairmen of its various divisions for the year beginning 

 July I, 1920 : — Division of Foreign Relations : George 

 E. Hale, director. Mount Wilson Observatory, Car- 

 negie Institution of Washington. Government Divi- 

 sion : Charles D. Walcott, secretary of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution and president of the National 

 Academy of Sciences. Division of Stated Relations : 

 John C. Merriam, professor of palaeontology. Uni- 

 versity of California, and president-elect of the Car- 

 negie Institution of Washington. Division of Educa- 

 tional Relations : Vernon Kellogg, professor of 

 entomology, Stanford University, and permanent 

 secretary of the National Research Council. Division 

 of Industrial Relations : Harrison E. Howe. Research 

 Information Service : Robert M. Yerkes. Division 

 of Physical Sciences : Augustus Trowbridge, pro- 

 fessor of physics, Princeton University. Division of 

 I Engineering : Comfort A. Adams, Lawrence professor 

 of engineering, Harvard University. Division of 

 Chemistry and Chemical Technology : Frederick G. 

 Cottrell, director of the Bureau of Mines. Division 

 of Geology and Geography : E. B. Mathews, professor 

 of mineralogy and petrography, Johns Hopkins Uni- 

 versity. Division of Medical Sciences : George W. 

 McCoy, director of the U.S. Hygienic Laboratory 

 since 19 15. Division of Biology and Agriculture : 

 C. E. McClung, professor of zoology, University of 

 Pennsylvania. Division of Anthropology and Psycho- 

 logy : Clark Wissler, curator of anthropology, 

 American Museum of Natural History, New York. 



The Department of Scientific and Industrial 

 Research has established four Sub-Committees to 

 assist the Radio Research Board in the investigation 

 of certain problems in connection with the work of 

 the Board. The constitution of the Board and its 

 Sub-Committees is at present as follows : — Radio 

 Research Board: Admiral of the Fleet Sir Henry B. 



