670 



NATURE 



[February 19, 1920 



tion." Ag-ain : "No candidate should obtain a 

 certificate who does not show a good command of 

 English and the power of writing it intelligently." 

 If to this were added the power of reading English 

 intelligently, which implies a knowledge of the 

 meaning of a number of words in common use 

 under the headings of geography, history, and 

 general science, and, finally, the power of doing 

 simple arithmetic, is it not conceivable that a 

 candidate possessing these three powers might be 

 thought fit to continue his studies at any university 

 of the realm? 



NOTES. 

 Botanists in Great Britain have been considering 

 the practicability of holding an Imperial Botanical 

 Congress in London at which botanists from the 

 overseas Dominions might meet their colleagues at 

 home for the discussion of matters of common interest. 

 Many subjects are ripe for discussion, such as the 

 methods of training botanists for service abroad, the 

 relation between the pure science and its applications 

 and between the botanist and the commercial men in- 

 terested in industries in which botanical knowledge 

 should play an important part, more helpful co-opera- 

 tion between the home and the overseas botanist, 

 botanical surveys of overseas Dominions, and others. 

 After careful consideration it has been decided that it 

 would be inadvisable to hold such a congress durint^ 

 the present year. 



M. LuciEN PoiNCARE, Vice-Rector of the Univer- 

 sity of Paris, will be entertained at dinner by the 

 Groupe Inter-Universitaire Franco-Britannique on 

 Monday, February 23. The dinner is being organised 

 in connection with the formal opening of the British 

 Bureau of the Office National des Universit^s et Ecoles 

 Fran^aises by M. Poincar^. The chair will he taken 

 by M. Petit-Dutaillis, Director of the Office National. 

 .\mongst the members who have intimated their inten- 

 tion of being present are his Excellencv the Belgian 

 .Embassador, his Excellency the Greek Minister, the 

 Lord Chancellor, the Earl of Reading, Viscount 

 Burnham, the Right Hon. H. A. L. Fisher (President 

 of the Board of Education), the American Consul- 

 General, Mr. .\usten Chamberlain, and the Lord 

 Mayor and Lady Mayoress. 



The anniversary of Sir Francis Gabon's birth, 

 February 16, was celebrated by the Eugenics Educa- 

 tion Society as usual this year. Prof. Arthur Keith 

 delivered the Galton lecture, and this was preceded 

 by a dinner at the Connaught Rooms. These annual 

 gatherings have been held since 1914 in every year 

 but one, when war conditions stood in the way. In 

 his interesting lecture, which will be printed in full 

 in the next issue of the Eugenics Review, Prof. Keith 

 gave a' sketch of Gabon's life in so far as it affected 

 his work, and a broad and general account of his 

 investigations and theories. The main thought 

 running through his address was that Gabon's work 

 had not been adequately appreciated during his life, 

 and that his reputation would increase as time went 

 on. In Gabon's day anthropologists concentrated 

 NO. 262=;. VOL. 1041 



their attention on the individual man, whilst it was 

 equally necessary to consider the distribution of men 

 according to their qualities. Hence Gabon's teach- 

 ings made slow progress because they fell on unpre-J 

 pared ground, whereas in the future he would come 

 to be recognised as one of the greatest men of science 

 produced in England during the nineteenth century. 

 Major Leonard Darwin was in the chair, and said 

 that Galton always had practical aims in view and 

 always had the courage of his opinions. If ever the 

 natne of eugenics came to be captured by cranks 

 it would be because scientific men did not follow his 

 example, and, through fear of contact with cranks, 

 gave this important subject lukewarm support. The 

 science of eugenics could never suffer in this way, 

 because it was founded on indisputable truths. The 

 proceedings terminated by a vote of thanks moved 

 bv Sir Robert Blair and seconded by the Dean of St. 

 Paul's. 



At the National Conference of Manufacturers and 

 Producers, held at Kingsway Hall on February 11, 

 Sir Robert Hadfield, representing the Federation of 

 British Industries, proposed a resolution appreciating 

 the work of the Department of Scientific and Indus- 

 trial Research; and strongly urging all manufacturers, 

 either individually or collectively by trades, to 

 organise and maintain research facilities. In the 

 course of his remarks Sir Robert Hadfield affirmed 

 that science and industry are now in indissoluble part- 

 nership, and that further steps should be taken to 

 organise research more thoroughly and efficiently than 

 has been done in the past. We must recognise that, 

 in these days of international competition, the 

 prosperity of every British manufacturer and trader 

 is bound up with that of British trade as a whole, 

 and hence research must be regarded as a national 

 rather than as an individual matter. While admitting 

 the necessity for, and the value of, the research work 

 done by big firms along the lines of their special 

 activities. Sir Robert Hadfield pointed out that there 

 are also a number of questions affecting whole indus- 

 tries the solution of which can be obtained only by 

 the co-operation of many workers investigating special 

 branches of the subject. In these cases everything is 

 to be gained by carrying on the work of research in 

 combination and making its results available to the 

 whole of the organised industry. This is what the 

 Department of Scientific and Industrial Research en- 

 ables to be better accomplished, at any rate in cer- 

 tain trades and lines of work. 



The third annual Silvanus Thompson memorial 

 lecture of the Rontgen Society will be delivered by 

 Prof. W. H. Bragg in the Barnes Hall of the Royal 

 Society of Medicine, i Wimpole Street, at 8 o'clock on 

 Tuesday, March 2. The subject will be " .Analysis by 

 X-rays." Admission will be free. 



Prof. A. Depage (University of Brussels), Drs. 

 Pierre Duval and A. Gosset (Paris), Prof. J. M. T. 

 Finney (Johns Hopkins University), and Dr. 

 Charles H. Mayo (Rochester, LI.S.A.) have been 

 elected honorary fellows of the Royal College of 

 Surgeons of England. 



