834 



NATURE 



[August 26, 1920 



Notes. 



The triennial prize competition for the best orij 

 contribution to the scientific advance or the 

 technical progress of electricity, known as the Fonda- 

 tion George Montefiore Prize, and administered by a 

 committee of the Association of Electrical Engineers 

 from the Montefiore Technical Institute of Li^ge, 

 which had lapsed during the war, is now to be revived, 

 and the comp>etition which would have been held in 

 19 17 is now announced for 192 1. The prize will 

 amount to 20,000 francs. Competitors must send in 

 their work by April 30, 192 1, and all particulars can 

 be obtained from the Secretary, Fondation George 

 Montefiore, rue Saint-Gilles 31, Li^ge, Belgium. 

 Contributions may be in English or French, and if 

 successful are published in French in the Bulletin de 

 I'Association des Ingdnieurs Electriciens sortis de 

 I'Institut Technique Montefiore. 



Nela REStARCH Laboratory was organised in 1908 

 under the directorship of Dr. Edward P. Hyde as the 

 physical laboratory of the National Electric Lamp 

 Association. The name was changed to Nela Re- 

 search Laboratoi'y in 1913, when the National Elec- 

 tric Lamp Association became the National Lamp 

 Works of the General Electric Co. For some years 

 the laboratory was devoted exclusively to the develop- 

 ment of those sciences on which the art of lighting has 

 its foundation, but in 19 14 the functions of the labora- 

 tory were extended by the addition of a small section 

 of applied science which had an immediate practical 

 objective. The section of applied science is now 

 being largely extended as a separate laboratory of 

 applied science under the immediate direction of Mr. 

 M. Luckiesh, who becomes director of applied science, 

 and a new building is being constructed to house this 

 branch of the work. Dr. Ernest Fox Nichols, for- 

 merly president of Dartmouth College, and more 

 recently professor of physics at Yale University, has 

 accepted an invitation to assume the immediate direc- 

 tion of the laboratory of pure science under the title of 

 director of pure science. The work of this labora- 

 tory, which will be continued in the present building, 

 will be somewhat further extended under the new 

 organisation. The laboratory of pure science and the 

 laboratory of applied science will together constitute 

 the Nela Research Laboratories, and will be co- 

 ordinated under the general direction of Dr. Hyde, 

 who becomes director of research. 



The Public Health Department of the Ports- 

 mouth Town Council, having evidently investigated 

 thoroughly the scientific evidence submitted to it en 

 the practicability of preventing the infection of 

 venereal disease by the use of a disinfectant imme- 

 diately after exposure to risk, has recently issued 

 two descriptive leaflets giving the information neces- 

 sary to carry out the disinfectant process effectually. 

 We understand that about a dozen other Health 

 Departments are taking, or about to take, similar 

 measures. The leaflets, entitled " What Every Man 

 should Know," embody in clear words the ascertained 

 knowledge on this matter which has been acquired by 

 observation and experiment, and contain a succinct 

 NO. 2652, VOL. 105] 



and useful summing-up of the multiform evils of 

 venereal disease. The council states that it has 

 come to the conclusion that, in view of the terrible 

 effects of this disease on national and family 

 life, it is its bounden duty to make public a know- 

 ledge of the means by which this scourge can be 

 prevented. These leaflets pay due regard to both the 

 social and scientific aspects of the much-discussed 

 subject of prompt self-disinfection after incurring the 

 risk of infection. The Portsmouth Public Health 

 Department deserves to be congratulated on its action 

 in this seriously important matter of sanitation. 



"Epidemic stupors" are often referred to in early 

 records (seventeenth and eighteenth centuries) as 

 occurring in times of influenza prevalence, and in 

 this country encephalitis lethargica made its ap{>ear- 

 ance immediately before and during the influenza 

 epidemic of 1918-19. It is of interest, therefore, to 

 record the occurrence of the same disease in Karachi 

 at the end of 1919 during an epidemic of influenza. 

 A full description of the outbreak, consisting of 

 seventeen cases, is given by Capts. Malone and Maitra 

 in the Indian Journal of Medical Research (vol. vii.. 

 No. 3). 



In the Journal of the Royal Society of Arts (vol. Ixviii., 

 No. 3533, August, 1920) we have a report of the Sir 

 George Etirdwood memorial lecture on "The Enduring 

 Power of Hinduism " by Sir Valentine Chirol. Sir 

 Valentine admits that he writes "not as a student, 

 but merely as a layman." He has, however, been a 

 diligent student, and his wide knowledge of contem- 

 porary politics and his experience of personal visits to 

 many of the most important sites where archaeological 

 investigation is being conducted by Sir John Marshall 

 have enabled him to construct a graphic picture of tlie 

 historical development of India in relation to 

 Hinduism. This lecture is thus of considerable im- 

 portance, and it is rendered more attractive by the 

 picturesqueness of the author's style. He has 

 not followed so completely the trend of modern 

 studies as to grasp the fact that the survival of 

 Hinduism, in spite of the rise of Buddhism and the 

 cataclysm of the Mohammedan invasion, is due to its 

 amorphous character, its eclectism, and its capacity 

 for adapting itself to novel conditions. But with 

 these reservations the lecture gives an admirable 

 account of the development of Hinduism. 



The character of the prehistoric culture of the 

 people of the Malay Peninsula has as yet received 

 inadequate attention, but much good work is being 

 done in continuation of that summarised in "The 

 Pagan Races" by Messrs. Skeat and Blagden. Thus 

 we find in the Journal of the Federated Malay States 

 Museum (vol. ix., part i, January, 1920) an excellent 

 account by Mr. I. H. N. Evans of the exploration of 

 a rock shelter in the Batu Kurau Parish, Perak, with 

 a description of the flint-weapon industry. In more 

 recent times the influence of Islam has been pre- 

 dominant, but it has absorbed and as.similated much 

 of the indigenous animistic beliefs. In this connec- 

 tion, in the same issue of Ihe journal, Mr. R. O. 

 Winstedt refers to some curious analogies between 

 the local customs and those of the Brahmans of South. 



