October 23, 1919] 



NATURE 



157 



NOTES. 



The Board of Agriculture and Fisheries has taken 

 a step long overdue, and now the one competent 

 entomologist on its permanent staff can look forward 

 to assistance in doing the work which twenty com- 

 petent entomologists might, perhaps, be expected to 

 perform. An entomological laboratory has been estab- 

 lished and placed at Rothamsted, where a chief 

 entomologist and two research assistants are to devote 

 their whole time to investigation. The further- pro- 

 posal to appoint twelve advisory entomologists for the 

 twelve agricultural divisions of England is one the 

 advantages of which are doubted in a leading article 

 in the Times of October lo. It would be better, our 

 contemporary thinks, " were the research staff at 

 Rothamsted to be increased, and arrangements made 

 for the investigators to visit, now Cornwall, now 

 Northumberland, wherever a local problem became 

 urgent, returning to their headquarters to pool their 

 experience and their results." Research is needed, 

 very much needed, and probably nowhere else in 

 England could greater facilities for investigations of 

 the kind required be found than those at Rothamsted. 

 But if the practical value of entomological research 

 is to be brought home to the farmer, the fruit grower, 

 or the breeder of stock, he must have his eyes opened 

 for him and be given instruction on the spot ; it can 

 never be attained simply by the distribution of 

 pamphlets or journals, no matter how well prepared 

 or how valuable the advice they may give. The 

 divisional entomologists should do something more 

 than give advice when called upon ; they might make 

 periodical inspections, and have a look out for incipient 

 stages in the diseases of crops in their divisions, as 

 well as for critical stages, so that means could be 

 taken in time to prevent the spread of the disease. It 

 should also be their duty, rather than directly that of 

 the farmer, to keep in touch with what was going on 

 at headquarters, and to become acquainted with all the 

 latest discoveries brought about by research. Even in 

 research they themselves need not be idle, if they have 

 been properly trained, and are qualified, as they should 

 be, to carry it on. 



The annual exhibition of the Royal Photographic 

 Society is again held at 35 Russell Square, as, owing 

 to the requirements of the Government, none of the 

 larger galleries are available. But the scientific sec- 

 tion suffers nothing on this account, as the society in 

 its own house has greater facilities for displaying the 

 exhibits. This section fully maintains its reputation. 

 There are forty-three colour transparencies on auto- 

 chrome plates out of a total of forty-six, but this 

 kind of work is now so well established and so perfect 

 that the interest has passed to the subject rather than 

 10 the process. Photomicrography is well represented 

 bv entomological and botanical series. A' photomicro- 

 graph that stands alone must have something very 

 remarkable indeed about it to justify its exhibition. 

 The radiographs of surgical and medical interest are 

 as numerous and valuable as ever, and the application 

 of Riintgen rays to the detection of hidden defects in 

 metal castings and in aeroplane parts is strikinglv 

 and beautifully illustrated. Concerning novelties in 

 scientific methods and apparatus, the splendid exhibit 

 of grainless and filmless photography by the Messrs. 

 Rhoinberg richly deserves the medal awarded to it. 

 It includes scales on glass for apparently every con- 

 ceivable purpose, from micrometer scales to scales 

 30 cm. long. Messrs. .Adam Hilger show a spectro- 

 graph on an improved Schumann plate which records 

 lines from wave-lengths 21 to 67, and photographs 

 that illustrate the use of the interferometer for testing 



NO. 2608, VOL. 104] 



camera-lenses. The exhibition closes at the end of 

 November. 



The subject of the declining birth-rate was raised 

 at the Church Congress on October 15 in two papers. 

 The Bishop of Birmingham held that restriction of 

 births was due in inost cases to prudential motives 

 and to a sense of responsibility, and noted as a curious 

 fact that statistics showed that doctors and cler^x , 

 who used to be very prolific, now had smaller families 

 on the average than other people. The nation wants 

 more children, but wants them of the best quality. 

 There must be cases where some kind of control 

 should be exercised, and that must be before con- 

 ception is known to have taken place. Dr. Amand 

 Routh directed attention to. parental syphilis and 

 alcoholism as causes of ante-natal and neo-natal 

 disease and death. He condemned the circulation of 

 so-called "prophylactic packets" as likelv to increase 

 rather than to diminish venereal disease. He stated 

 that in the six months ended March 31 last deaths 

 in England and Wales exceeded births by 126,445 — 

 for the first time in our statistical history. Dr. 

 Stevenson, Superintendent of Statistics, attributed 

 this to a decline in fertility. Dr. Letitia Fairfield 

 stated that venereal diseases had not onlv spread during 

 the war, but had rapidly increased since the armistice, 

 and urged an addition to the number of clinics. The 

 .•\rchbishop of Canterburv considered that the use of 

 prophylactics would be perilous as srnoothing the wav 

 towards vice, but approved the efforts of the National 

 Committee for the Prevention of Venereal Diseases. 



It is with sincere pleasure that we learn that 

 M. Emmanuel de Margerie has been appointed Director 

 of the new Geological Survey of Alsace and Lorraine. 

 M. de Margerie brings lo his official duties the knowledge 

 gained by years of cultured conference with geologists 

 throughout the world, and we are indebted to his wide 

 reading and his personal acquaintance with the face 

 of the earth for the French edition of Suess's " Antlitz 

 der Erde. " This, far from being a mere translation, 

 is the form in which the book will live as a monu- 

 ment to Austrian powers of collation and construction 

 and to French lucidity of exposition. M. de Margerie's 

 published work has been geographical as well as 

 geological, and it is pleasant to picture him as looking 

 out from the heights of the Vosges on river-profiles 

 once more associated with France. Manv questions 

 of economic geology, and therefore of national wel- 

 fare, will come before him in the recovered provinces. 

 While his sympathetic spirit will find no barrier in the 

 Rhine, his vindication of the attitude of the Entente 

 Powers, addressed during the war to Prof. Heim of 

 Zurich, proves him to be the right man for the task 

 of reconstruction on the frontier. 



Mr. Francis Jeffrey Bell, who has just retired 

 from the Natural History Museum under the age- 

 limit, entered the service of the trustees on .'\ugust 12, 

 1S78, when the Zoological Department was still at 

 Bloomsbury and Prof. Owen the superintendent. He 

 took an active part in the removal of the collections 

 to SoiJth Kensington in 1882-83, and concerned him- 

 self with various divisions of the marine invertebrata.. 

 giving especial care to the exhibition of selected types! 

 .Mr. Bell is emeritus professor of comparative 

 anatomy in King's College, London, and he served 

 for many years as one of the secretaries of the Royal 

 Microscopical Society, the Journal of which he also 

 edited. In i8q8 he acted as general secretary of the 

 International Congress of Zoology, and for many 

 years was a constant attendant at the council of the 

 Marine Biological Association. Mr. Bell is part 

 editor of the Museum report on the collections of the 



