474 



NATURE 



[January 8, 1920 



NOTES. 



The list of New Year Honours includes one earl, 

 three barons, seven Privy Councillors and three in 

 Ireland, nineteen baronets, and a number of appoint- 

 ments to orders of knighthood. Sir Bertrand Dawson, 

 Physician in Ordinary to the King, and Dean of the 

 medical faculty of the University of London, is one of 

 the new peers. .Among the new Unights are Prof. .Arthur 

 Schuster; Dr. E. A. Wallis Budge, Keeper of Egyp- 

 tian and .Assyrian Antiquities, British Museum ; Col. 

 W. A. Churchman, Ministry of Munitions Explosives 

 Department; Dr. J. Court, known by his researches 

 on diseases of miners; Mr. F. C. Danson, chairman 

 of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine; Mr. 

 D. E. Hutchins, for his services to forestry; Mr. 

 James Kemnal, for public services in connection with 

 the manufacture of munitions; Mr. F. S. Lister, 

 research bacteriologist, South African Institute for 

 Medical Research; Mr. H. J. Mackinder, M.P. ; and 

 Dr. F. G. Ogilvie, Director of the Science Museum, 

 South Kensington. Prof. S. J. Chapman, Joint Per- 

 manent Secretary, Board of Trade, and Sir Richard 

 Glazebrook have been promoted from C.B. to K.C.B. 

 Dr. G. R. Parkin has been promoted to the rank of 

 K.C.M.G., and Mr. H. N. Thompson, Chief Con- 

 servator of Forests, Nigeria, has received the honour 

 of C.M.G. 



We regret to announce the death on January 4, at 

 seventy-eight vears of age, of Sir Thomas R. Eraser, 

 F.R.S., emeritus professor of materia medica. Uni- 

 versity of Edinburgh, and Honorary Physician-in- 

 Ordinary to H.M. the King in Scotland. 



The Prince of Wales, who has recently become 

 vice-patron of the Royal Geographical Society, will 

 be present at the meeting of the society on Monday, 

 February 2, at the Central Hall, Westminster, at 

 8.30 p.m., when a paper will be read by Major-Gen. 

 Sir Frederick Svkes on ".Air Routes of the Empire." 



The Times correspondent at New York reports that 

 violent earthquake shocks were felt over the greater 

 part of the Mexican Republic on Saturday night and 

 Sunday, January 3-4. The State of Vera Cruz seems 

 to have suffered most. The Mexican Government 

 Observatory places the centre of the disturbance near 

 the volcano of Orizaba. A shock was recorded by the 

 seismograph at Kew Observatory at 5.25 a.m. on 

 January 4. 



On Tuesday next, January 13, at 3 o'clock, Sir 

 John Cadman will deliver the first of two lectures at 

 the Royal Institution on (i) "Modern Development of 

 the Miner's Safety Lamp," and (2) " Petroleum and 

 the War." The Friday evening discourse on 

 January 16, at 9 o'clock, will be delivered by Sir 

 James Dewar on " Low-temperature Studies," and on 

 January 23 by the Hon. Sir Charles Parsons on 

 "Researches at High Pressures and Temperatures." 



The Ramsay Memorial Fund has received from 

 Prof. H. Kamerlingh Onnes a very substantial con- 

 tribution of 1571Z. 9^. sd., which has been given or 

 promised by donors in Holland. These generous con- 

 tributions are evidence of the sympathy felt in Holland 

 NO. 261Q, VOL. IO4I 



for British science and scientific workers, and the 

 respect so widely felt in that country for the memory 

 of the late Sir William Ramsay. Among the sub- 

 scriptions are : — Philips Gloeslampenfabriek, 500!. ; 

 Fransch Holiandsche Oliefabrieken, Delft, 30ci. ; Neder- 

 landsche Gist & Spiritusfabriek, Dolft, 300^. ; Van 

 den Bergh's Fabrieken, Rotterdam, 300?. ; and Lym 

 & Gelatinefabriek, Delft, lool. 



.Announcement is made in the British Medical 

 Journal that the eighty-eighth annual meeting of the 

 British Medical .Association will be held at Cambridge 

 next summer, under the presidency of Sir Clifford 

 .\llbutt, Regius professor of physic in the University, 

 who will deliver his address on the evening of Tue.s- 

 day, June 29. The sectional meetings for scientific 

 and clinical work will be held on June 30, July i, and 

 Julv 2, the mornings being given up to discussions, 

 and the afternoons to clinical and laboratory demon- 

 strations. There will be twelve sessions, of which 

 five will meet on each of the three days, and the 

 remainder each on one day. The annual representa- 

 tive meeting will begin on June 25. The annual 

 dinner has been fixed for July i, and on the evening 

 of July 2 Dr. G. S. Graham-Smith will give the 

 popular lecture. Saturday, July 3, the last day of 

 the meeting, has been set apart for excursions to 

 places of interest in the neighbourhood. 



Further excavations at the well-known .Anglo-Saxon 

 site of Ravensburv Manor, Mitcham, have brought to 

 light numerous remains of the period. The old gravel- 

 pit is being extended, and further relics will no doubt 

 be found. Six graves have so far been opened up, 

 with the bones of two giant chieftains and a cripple 

 with a diseased thigh-bone. Two swords, a bronze 

 buckle, and an earthenware jar have been found. -At 

 earlier excavations no fewer than a hundred skeletons 

 were exhumed. The first discovery was made in 1848, 

 and in 1895 the opening-up of a new gravel-pit by 

 Mr. G. P. Bidder brought to light a quantity of 

 objects. Later digging by Col. H. F. Bidder produced 

 knives, spear-heads, a few swords, pottery, shield- 

 bosses, saucer-shaped brooches, and some beads, whilst 

 a number of female skeletons were found to have been 

 thrown carelessly into the graves of the men. One 

 grave contained a coin of Constantius II., and Mr. 

 Reginald Smith was of opinion that the date of the 

 cemetery was the first half of the fifth century. Great 

 care will, it is understood, be taken to preserve any- 

 thing of value that comes to light, but at present 

 nothing new has been found. 



The annual meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute 

 will be held on Thursday and Friday, May 6 

 and 7, at the Institution of Civil Engineers, 

 Great George Street, London, S.W.i. The retiring 

 president, Mr. Eugene Schneider, will induct into the 

 chair Dr. J. E. Stead, the new president-elect. The 

 council is prepared to consider applications for grants 

 from the Carnegie Fund in aid of research work, of 

 such value as may appear expedient, but usually of 

 the value of 100!. in any one year. The awards are 

 made irrespective of sex or nationality. Special forms, 

 1 on which candidates should apply before the end of 



