February 19, 1920] 



NATURE 



671 



At the iccent annual general meeting of the Optical 

 Society Mr. R. S. Whipple was elected to the presi- 

 dency; Prof. F. J. Cheshire, Sir Herbert Jackson, 

 and Mr. H. F. Purser were elected vice-presidents; 

 Mr. 1. G. Aitchison, hon. treasurer; Mr. J. H. Sut- 

 cliffe, hon. librarian ; and Messrs. W. Shackleton and 

 L. G. Martin, hon. secretaries. 



The following officers and council of the Malaco- 

 logical Society of London for 1920 were elected at the 

 annual meeting on February 13: — President: G. K. 

 Gude. Vice-Presidents : H. O. N. Shaw, T. Iredale, 

 J. R. le B. Tomlin, and A. S. Kennard. Treasurer: 

 R. Bullen Newton. Editor: B. B. Woodward. 

 Secretary : A. E. Salisbury. Other Members of 

 Council: A. Reynell, C. Oldham, Major M. Connolly, 

 H.' Woods, the Rev. A. H. Cooke, and H. H. 

 Bloomer. 



The following officers and members of council of 

 the Royal Astronomical Society were elected at the 

 itnniversary meeting on February 13: — President: 

 Prof. A. Fowler. Vice-Presidents : Sir F. W. Dyson, 

 Prof. A. S. Eddington, Major P. A. MacMahon, and 

 Prof. H. F. Newall. Treasurer: Mr. E. B. Knobel. 

 Secretaries : Dr. A. C. D. Crommelin and the Rev. 

 T. E. R. Phillips. Foreign Secretary: Prof. H. H. 

 Turner. Council: Prof. A. E. Conrady, Dr. J. L. E. 

 Dreyer, Dr. J. W. L. Glaisher, Mr. J. Jackson, Dr. 

 Harold Jeffreys, Mr. H. S. Jones, Prof. F. A. Linde- 

 mann, Mr. E. W. Maunder, Dr. W. H. Maw, Prof. 

 J. W. Nicholson, Mr. J. H. Reynolds, and Lt.-Col. 

 F. J. M. Stratton. 



The war memorial of the Institution of Mining and 

 Metallurgy is to be a sculptured figure, to be placed in 

 the house of the institution, and a record of those 

 who served in his Majesty's Forces. The full scope 

 of the memorial cannot be decided until the council 

 knows the extent of the response to an appeal now 

 being made, but it is hoped that a fund of about 4000Z. 

 mav \ye available. A member of the institution, Lt.- 

 Col. Peter N. Nissen, has prepared a design for the 

 figure, which has been accepted, as has also his offer 

 to model the figure and friezes. These will be exe- 

 cuted in bronze and the pedestal-base in malachite, 

 with four silver-alloy plates upon which an appropriate 

 inscription and the roll of honour will be engraved. 

 This work is already in progress. Members of the 

 institution and others interested in the mining 

 industry are invited to contribute to the war memorial 

 fund. Subscriptions should be sent to the secretary 

 of the institution, i Finsbury Circus, London, E.G. 2. 



The report printed in Nature of January 8, pre- 

 >inted by the Joint Committee of the British Medical 

 Association and the British Science Guild, regarding 

 awards for medical discovery is published in the 

 Journal of the British Science Guild for January. 

 .Advances in medical treatment of great value to 

 liumanity frequently convey no additional remunera- 

 tion to the discoverers, and may even involve monetary 

 loss, and it is suggested that rewards should suffice 

 to meet this latter contingency. The principle was 

 accepted by Parliament in the case of Jenner in 1802 

 and 1807, but the 60,000!. annually disbursed by the 

 NO. 2625, VOL. IO4J 



Government under the Medical Research Committee 

 subsidises only investigations in progress, and not dis- 

 coveries already made. Honours, medals, and prizes 

 bestowed by H.M. the King or public bodies are acts 

 of grace falling outside the consideration of the 

 committee, which deals with pecuniary reward. It 

 is accordingly recommended that Parliament should 

 provide an annual sum of not less than 20,000!., en- 

 abling pensions amounting to between 500!. and loooi. 

 a vear to be awarded as compensation for losses 

 incurred in achieving medical discoveries. 



The annual general meeting of the Institute of 

 Metals will be held in the building of the Institution 

 of Mechanical Engineers, Westminster, on Thursday 

 and Fridav, March 11 and 12, under the presidency 

 of Prof. H. C. H. Carpenter. The president- 

 designate is Engineer Vice-Admiral Sir George Good- 

 win, K.C.B. The following are among the com- 

 munications to be submitted :— Fifth Report to the 

 Corrosion Research Committee, Dr. G. D. Bengough, 

 R. M. Jones, and Ruth Pirret; The Action on 

 Aluminium of Hard Industrial Waters, Dr. R. Selig- 

 man and Percy Williams ; Zinc .-Mloys with Aluminium 

 and Copper, Dr. W. Rosenhain, J. L. Haughton, and 

 Kathleen Bingham; Tin-Phosphorus Alloys, A. C. 

 Vivian; Effect of Hydrogen on Copper, W. C. 

 Hothersall and E. L. Rhead ; Influence of Cold 

 Rolling on the Physical Properties of Copper, 

 F. Johnson; Study of Thermal Electromotive Force 

 as an Aid to the Investigation of the Constitution of 

 .-VUov Systems, J. L. Haughton; and Idiomorphic 

 Crystals of Electro-deposited Copper, W. E. Hughes 

 On June 10 (not on May 5, as previously announced) 

 Prof. Carl A. F. Benedicks, of Stockholm, Sweden, 

 will deliver the tenth May lecture, his subject being 

 "Recent Progress in Thermo-electricity." 



By the death of Dr. Vincent Arthur Smith at 

 Oxford on February 6 India has lost an eminent his- 

 torian , archajologist, and numismatist. Born in Dublm 

 in 1848, Dr. Smith was educated at Trinity College 

 in that city, and passed thence into the Bengal Civil 

 Service in 1871, being posted to the United Provinces 

 of Agra and Oudh. He served in this Prgvince until 

 1000, passing through all the grades of the Service, 

 his last appointments being those of Magistrate-Col- 

 lector, District Judge. Commissioner, and Secretary to 

 Government. During his service he paid much atten- 

 tion to the local history, archaeology, and numismatics, 

 and contributed numerous papers on these subjects to 

 the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal and to 

 the Indian Antiquary. On his retirement he devoted 

 his life to historical literature, and wrote a series of 

 valuable works. In "The Early History of India" 

 Dr. Smith for the first time evoked order from chaos, 

 and established the chronology, hitherto uncertain, on 

 a firm basis. This was followed by "The History of 

 Fine Art in India and Ceylon," biographies of Asoka, 

 the Buddhist Emperor, and of Akbar, the Great 

 Mogul, and the Oxford " History of India," from the 

 earliest period down to the present day, which ap- 

 peared only a few months before his death. In 

 numismatics he investigated the series of Gupta coins, 

 and catalogued the collection of Indian coins in the 



