January 15, 1920] 



NATURE 



507 



The council of the Geological Society of London has 

 this year made the following awards : — WoUaston 

 medal, Prof. Baron Gerard Jakob de Geer (Stock- 

 holm); Murchison medal, Mrs. (Dr.) E. M. Shake- 

 spear; Lyell medal, Mr. E. Greenly; Wollaston fund, 

 Mr. W. B. R. King; Murchison fund, Dr. D. Woola- 

 cott; and Lyell fund, Dr. J. D. Falconer and Mr. 

 E. S. Pinfold'. 



The Secretary of the Department of Scientific and 

 Industrial Research announces that the Research 

 Association for the British Launderers' Industry has 

 been approved by the Department as complying with 

 the conditions laid down in the Government scheme 

 for the encouragement of industrial research. As the 

 association is to be registered as a non-profit-sharing 

 company, the promoters have applied to the Board of 

 Trade for the issue of a licence under section 20 of the 

 Companies (Consolidation) Act of 1908. The secretary 

 of the committee engaged in the establishment of this 

 association is Mr. J. J. Stark, 162-165 Bank Chambers, 

 329 High Holborn, VV.C.2. 



With the approach of a return to normal conditions, 

 the Natural History Museum, we are glad to learn, is 

 developing a policy of adding to the national col- 

 lections bv means of exploration. Thus Mr. Wil- 

 loughby Lowe, who has already made several expedi- 

 tions to .Africa on behalf of the museum, has recently 

 started on a mission to the West Coast of Africa for 

 the purpose of collecting specimens for South Kensing- 

 ton, and Capt. Hubert Lynes, R.N., has just left 

 England on an expedition to Darfur, where he intends 

 to make a special survey of the avifauna of the Jeb- 

 Maria Mountains, which should yield many forms 

 new to science to the Bird Department. Other similar 

 expeditions are, we believe, contemplated by the 

 museum authorities. 



A MEETING of surgeons, representing the surgical 

 staffs of all the great teaching hospitals of Britain, 

 assembled in the theatre of the Royal College of 

 Surgeons of England on January 8, under the chair- 

 manship of Sir Rickman J. Godlee, and resolved 

 to form an " .Association of Surgeons of Great Britain 

 and Ireland." British surgeons have thus followed 

 the precedent set by their colleagues the physicians, 

 who formed a similar association a number of years 

 ago. The object of the newly formed association is 

 to permit surgeons on the staffs of the greater hos- 

 pitals to meet together from time to time at various 

 centres in order to exchange observations and com- 

 pare results. The association will stand as the repre- 

 sentative body for British surgeons, and in that 

 capacity will represent British interests at international 

 surgical congresses. Sir John Bland-Sutton was 

 elected president of the new association. 



.\CTIVE steps are now being taken in the movement 

 to establish a memorial to Lord Lister in Edinburgh. 

 The movement had already begun to take shape in 

 1914, but its progress was arrested by the outbreak 

 of war. The war, which has caused delay, has given 

 at the same time an overwhelming demonstration of 

 the value of Lord Lister's work. The University and 

 Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons in Edin- 

 NO. 2620, VOL. 104] 



burgh, under the control of which the memorial will 

 be established, have determined to provide an institute 

 for research and teaching in medicine. A site has 

 been secured, and a committee is now being formed 

 to make an appeal to the public for a sum of 250,000^. 

 Mr. Balfour, Chancellor of the University, has con- 

 sented to be president of the committee, with the 

 Duke of Atholl, Lord Rosebery, Lord Beatty, Lord 

 Glenconner, Lord Leverhulme, and Sir J. Lome 

 McLeod as vice-presidents. 



The Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 

 for December 19 announces that Mr. E. C. McKelvv, 

 of the Chemical Division of the Bureau of Standards, 

 died on November 29, in his thirty-sixth year, as the 

 result of burns caused by an explosion of ammonia- 

 condensing apparatus containing petroleum-ether cooled 

 by liquid air. Mr. McKelvy was born at Upper San- 

 dusky, Ohio, on May 9, 1884. He joined the staff of the 

 Bureau of Standards in July, 1907, and was chief of 

 the physico-chemical section of the Chemistry Division 

 at the time of his death. His work for several years 

 past had been on the physical constants of ammonia 

 and other substances used in commercial refrigeration. 

 He was a member of the Washington .'Vcademy of 

 Sciences and one of the associate editors of its Journal, 

 and had been secretary of the American Chemical 

 .Society since 1915. 



An exhibition of radiographic prints has been ar- 

 ranged by the Rontgen Society, and is being shown 

 at the Royal Photographic Society's house at 35 Russell 

 Square, W.C.i. The exhibition is open free to the 

 public until February 7, between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. 

 daily. The two hundred or so prints which are hung 

 on the walls of the gallery well illustrate present-dav 

 practice in both medical and industrial radiologv as 

 developed by some of the leading X-ray workers in 

 this country. We hope to make extended reference to 

 the subject in a future issue. Incidentally, the grow- 

 ing custom of holding joint meetings of kindred 

 societies is one much to be commended, and we are 

 glad to note that the Rontgen Society, in addition to 

 its recent joint meeting with the Faraday Society, has 

 similarly co-operated during the present exhibition with 

 the Royal Photographic Society. Furthermore, it has 

 arranged, in the near future, joint meetings with the 

 Institution of Electrical Engineers and the Electro- 

 therapeutic Section of the Royal Society of Medicine. 

 The officers of the Rontgen Society deserve every sup- 

 port for their energy and enterprise. 



Reference is made in the Times of January 12 to 

 an exceptionally high velocity, at the rate of 180 miles 

 an hour, attained by the north-west wind at 25,000 ft. 

 over southern England on January 9 as a precursor 

 to the recent rough and stormy weather. Deep 

 cyclonic depressions had spread in from the .Atlantic, 

 the central area of one passing over the northern parts 

 of Ireland and England on January 10, and a second 

 disturbance skirted our north-western seaboard on 

 January 11, when the barometer in the Hebrides fell 

 to 283 in. The intensity of the storm was greatest in 

 the English Channel. In the Scilly Isles the wind 

 attained the velocity of 68 miles an hour in a gust 



