178 



NATURE 



[October 30, 1919 



This will be distributed between the ethnographic 

 department of the Swedish Riksmuseum, the Ethno- 

 graphic Museum of Gothenburg, and the Missionar}' 

 Union's museum. Dr. Laman has made six visits 

 to the Congo since 1890, and has paid particular 

 attention to the language. His collection includes 

 gramophone records of native songs. 



The Swedish Academy of Science has reported 

 favourably on a request by Prof. J. G. Andersson 

 (formerly Director of the Swedish Geological Survey) 

 for a Government grant of 90,000 kronor towards 

 scientific researches and collections in China, where 

 Dr. Andersson is now Geological Adviser to the 

 Chinese Government. It is hoped that the Swedish 

 Riksmuseum will thus receive rich collections in 

 palaeontology, prehistory, and zoology, but, to comply 

 with conditions laid down by Profs. Andersson and 

 Wiman, the fossil vertebrates will go to Upsala. 



On October 21 the Manchester Chemical Club 

 (president, Mr. R. H. Clayton) was incor- 

 porated with the Manchester Literary and Philo- 

 sophical Society. A new chemical section of the 

 society has been formed, and Sir William J. Pope, 

 professor of chemistry in the University of Cam- 

 bridge, delivered an address on "The Photographv of 

 Coloured Objects " to a large audience at the opening 

 meeting on October 24. 



A COURSE of twelve Swiney lectures on " Geology 

 and Mineral Resources of the British Possessions in 

 Africa " will be given in the lecture-theatre of the 

 Imperial College of Science and Technology (Royal 

 College of Science. Old Building), Exhibition Road, 

 S.W.7, by Dr. J. D. Falconer, on Mondays, Wednes- 

 days, and Fridays, at 5.30, beginning on Monday, 

 November 10. There will be no charge for admission. 



A JOINT meeting of the Royal Society and the Roval 

 Astronomical Society will be held at the Royal Society 

 on Thursday, November 6, at 4.30 p.m., for the dis- 

 cussion of observations made during the total solar 

 eclipse of May 29 last. Sir Frank Dyson will open 

 the discussion, and will be followed by Prof. Edding- 

 ton and other members of the eclipse expedition. 



The -Xristotelian Society w'ill open its forlv-first 

 session on November 3. The president. Prof. James 

 Ward, will deliver the inaugural address on the sub- 

 ject "In the Beginning . . ." The congress which 

 the society arranges annually will be held next year 

 at Oxford in September, and the French Philosophical 

 .Society will take part. 



The opening meeting of the new session of the 

 Institution of Electrical Engineers will be held at 

 the Institution of Civil Engineers, Great George 

 Street, Westminster. S.W.i, on Thursday, Novem- 

 ber 13, at 6 p.m., when the president, Mr. Roger T. 

 Smith, will deliver his inaugural address. 



The one hundred and first session of the Institution 

 of Civil Engineers will be opened on Tuesday, Novem- 

 ber 4, at 5.30 p.m., when Sir John Purser Griffith, 

 president, will deliver an address, and will present 

 awards made by the council for papers dealt with 

 during the past session. 



Sir Henry Alexander Miers, Vice-Chancellor of 

 the University of Manchester, has been appointed bv 

 an Order of Council dated October 16 to be a member 

 of the .'Advisory Council to the Committee of the 

 Privy Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. 



The first meeting of the session of the Royal Geo- 

 graphical Society will be held at 8.30 p.m. on Monday, 

 November 3, at the ^olian Hall, New Bond Street, 

 NO. 2609, VOL. 104] 



when Major Kenneth Mason will read a paper on 

 Central Kurdistan. 



Messrs. Hodgson and Co., 115 Chancery Lane, 

 W.C.2, are to sell by auction on Thursday, Novem- 

 ber 13, and Friday, November 14, the library of the 

 late Sir William Crookes. A catalogue is obtainable 

 from the auctioneers upon application. 



An interesting series of fragments of prehistoric 

 pottery was found early in the year in Eastern Mace- 

 donia near Drama and the plain of Philippi. The 

 chief importance of the discovery lies in the relation 

 with both the north and the south which is seen in 

 the types of pottery found. Pottery similar to the 

 so-called Dimini ware of Thessaly, and not hitherto 

 found in Macedonia, occurred in large quantities. 

 Fragments of a white-on-black ware of a date later 

 than the Dimini ware and common in Thessaly were 

 also found. .\ few fragments of this latter ware were 

 found in Macedonia in 1916 near Salonica. Some 

 remarkable fragments showed a combination of the 

 white-on-black painted technique with incised white- 

 filled patterns, thus showing that the two tj'pes of 

 technique were contemporaneous. The wares of a 

 northern type consisted for the most part of simple 

 pottery decorated with large spiral or semi-spiral 

 designs. Similar wares are common in the Uppe; 

 Maritsa Valley near Philippopolis and generally in 

 the Danubian area, and are essentially northern in 

 type. K number of clay figurines of men, women, and 

 domestic animals were also found. The human figures 

 are for the most part steatopygous. The importance 

 of these discoveries for the prehistoric study of Mace- 

 donia cannot be overestimated. The series will be 

 published in the forthcoming Annual of the British 

 School at -Athens. 



The October issue of British Birds contains an 

 extremely interesting account of the nesting habits of 

 the sparrowhawk. The author, Mr. J. H. Owen, 

 gives a vivid description of the bathing habits of this 

 bird and of its playful feints at capturing prey. At 

 one time a hen he had under observation stooped at 

 a rabbit two or three times, vet made no serious 

 attempt to seize it; at another it trifled in the same 

 way with a brood of partridges. But perhaps the 

 most important of Mr. Owen's notes are those con- 

 cernini:' the eftorts of the bird to protect her eggs 

 from the sun, which she did at the cost of great dis- 

 tress to herself. The nestlings suffered no less from 

 this cau'^e; al times, indeed, they Were on the verge 

 of collapse. Some very beautiful illustrations add 

 greatly to the value of these notes. 



The first number of the Radio Revicui, a monthly 

 magazine devoted to scientific radio-telegraphv and 

 radio-telephony, has been published. It contains 

 short instalments of papers by .'\ndre Blondel and 

 Dr. Eccles oh the functions aoplicable to directive 

 aerials and on the internal action of a triode valve. 

 In Blondel's paper the definitions are not very explicit, 

 and so it is not easy to follow his reasoning. Dr. 

 Eccles 's paper is simpler, but in order to follow it 

 the reader must have a knowledge of Child's and 

 Langmuir's papers in the Physical Revieiv. In a brief 

 introduction the editor. Prof. Howe, states the policy 

 and aims of the review. The remaining part of this 

 issue consists of abstracts and reviews of books. 

 .'Xpparently the aim of the journal is to do for radio- 

 telegraphy what the Philosophical Magacinc does for 

 physics. The amount of matter in tfie first number 

 strikes us as rather rneagre. 



The Institution of Electrical Engineers has issued 

 an amended edition of its Wiring Rules. These rules 



