30 



NATURE 



[March 8, 191 7 



Cowan's article will convince the reader that at the 

 present time the average M.P. has practically no 

 opportunity of bringing his capabilities as an inde- 

 pendent expert to bear on problems of national 

 importance. Moreover, under the closure, oppor- 

 tunities for discussion are practically nil, except for a 

 handful of mem.bers who are able to catch the 

 " Speaker's eye," and the member who attempts to 

 introduce a private Bill will soon find his attempts 

 stifled by Ministerial and other pressure. As for the 

 control of the House of Commons over finance, this 

 is described as an emptv boast, untold millions being 

 voted without discussion at the fag-end of an all-night 

 sitting. While not claiming to propose any final cure 

 for this growing disease of bureaucratic tyranny, Mr. 

 Cowan suggests the following possible remedies : 

 Voting by liallot in divisions of the House ; shorter 

 Parliaments; an alteration in procedure enabling a 

 Bill dropped in one session to be taken up at the 

 same stage in the next session ; and the more con- 

 troversial proposal of "Home Rule AH Round." 



The latest issue of the Yiciorian Naturalist to reach 

 us brings the news of the death of Dr. E. P. Ramsay, 

 of Sydney, at the age of seventy-four years. Dr. 

 Ramsay was best known as curator for many years 

 of the Australian Museum, Sydney, and his "Tabular 

 List of Australian Birds " was long the standard 

 index for Australian ornithologists. 



A LETTER lately received from Dr. Ragnar Karsten, 

 leader of the Swedish expedition in Ecuador, is dated 

 El Tena, East Ecuador, October lo, 19 16, and states 

 that the expedition was then half-way along the diffi- 

 cult road from Quito to Napo, at which latter place 

 and at Curaray ethnographical studies and collections 

 would be made. 



Swedish papers announce the death, on January 23, 

 in his seventy-first year, of Dr. Edward Welander, 

 the leading specialist on skin and venereal diseases. 

 Many of his published investigations deal with the 

 action of mercury. On one occasion he injected a 

 mercurial preparation into his own arm-muscles, and 

 followed its cou'-se through the system by a series of 

 X-ray photographs. He fought these diseases also 

 by popular education, and founded a home for the up- 

 bringing of children with congenital s^'philis, an ex- 

 ample followed in other European capitals. 



The agricultural institute of Alnarp, Scania, pro- 

 poses to devote a plot of its land and about 4000^. to 

 the erection of a building for studies in heredity, 

 under the direction of H. Nilsson-Ehle, the recently 

 appointed professor at Lund. It will also provide a 

 maintenance grant of 200I. per annum. It is felt that 

 such studies are of the greatest importance at this 

 time, when Sweden is thrown on its own resources 

 in the matter of food production, and the institute is 

 convinced that any material sacrifices it may make 

 for this purpose will be more than repaid by the 

 economic results of the research, on which the insti- 

 tute will naturally have the first claim. 



The Daimler Company, Ltd., has placed at the dis- 

 posal of the council of the Institution of Automobile 

 Engineers a sum of money for the provision of an 

 annual premium of 25Z. to be granted to the graduate 

 submitting the best paper on an appropriate subject in 

 any session. Papers must reach the secretary of the 

 institution, 28 Victoria Street, S.W., during "Septem- 

 ber of each year. 



The following have been elected ordinary fellows of 

 the Royal Society of Edinburgh; G. B. Burnside, 

 Dr. B. Cunningham, T. C. Day, R. W. Dron, Prof.' 

 NO. 2471, VOL. 99] 



A. Gibson, J. Harrison, Prof. J. C. Irvine, A. King, 

 Sir Donald Macalister, Rev. H. C. Macpherson, Lieut. 

 L. W. G. Malcolm, A, E. Maylard, G. V. Merson, 

 F. Phillips, Dr. H. H. Scott, Sir G. A. Smith, Dr. 

 J. Tait, Dr. W, W. Taylor, J. M'Lean Thompson, 

 W. Thorneycroft, and Prof. D. F. Tovey. 



We learn from the Times that the Reconstruction 

 Committee which was appointed by the late Prime 

 Minister to advise the Government on the many 

 national problems that will arise at the end of the 

 war has now been reconstructed. The Prime Minister 

 will be chairman of this committee. Mr. Lloyd 

 George will, of course, not be able to give continuous 

 attention to the detailed proceedings of the committee, 

 and it is understood that his deputy, on whom the 

 work will fall, will be Mr. Edwin Montagu, the 

 Minister of Munitions in the late Government. 



The death is announced, in his ninety-second year, 

 of Mr. James Forrest, honorary secretary, and for 

 many years the secretary, of the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers. The famous " James Forrest " lecture 

 of the institution was endowed by him a few years 

 before his retirement, when a presentation was made 

 to him by the council. His intention was that the 

 lecture should illustrate the dependence of the engineer 

 in his practical professional work on the mathematical 

 and nhysical sciences. The first lecture was delivered 

 by Dr. W. Anderson in 1893 upon the subject of "The 

 Interdependence of Abstract Science and Engineering," 

 and the whole of the lectures form a very valuable 

 series. 



The report of the Philosophical Institute of Can- 

 terbury. New Zealand, for the year 1916 records that 

 the council has recognised the importance of further- 

 ing the national movement to advance scientific 

 research and extend the application of scientific know- 

 ledge. Addresses on " Education and our National 

 Requirements" and "The Importance of Research 

 to Industry and Commerce," by Mr. G. M. Thomson 

 and Prof. T. H. Easterfield respectively, were 

 arranged with these ends in view. In order that 

 matters connected with research and the technical 

 application of science should be constantly watched, 

 the council set up a special committee, with Dr. C. C. 

 Farr as hon. secretary. The New Zealand Board of 

 Industries, having invited the institute to send dele- 

 gates to confer with the Board on matters affecting 

 post-war reconstruction, the council appointed the 

 president, with Dr. Farr and Dr. Hilgendorf, to act. 

 Application has been made for part of the 250^ 

 granted by the Government for research; and investi- 

 gations are being arranged on the phosphate rocks 

 of Canterbury, the deterioration of apples in cold 

 storage, and the electrical prevention of frosting in 

 orchards. 



Sir James J. Dobbie, president of the Institute of 

 Chemistry, referred, in his presidential address to the 

 institute on March i, to the services of professional 

 chemists in connection with the war. The institute 

 has acted as a chemical clearing-house, assisting 

 public departments and firms engaged on Government 

 work to obtain the chemical service they required. 

 .Apart from that, the researches on glass initiated by 

 the institute, particularly the work of Prof. Herbert 

 Jackson, have proved of great value, and have been 

 specially recognised by the President of the Board of 

 Trade. After indicating a number of new industrial 

 developments which call for the help of practical 

 chemists, the president advocated the extension of the 

 training of chemists, particularly in higher physics 

 and physical chemistry, and, therefore, the adoption 

 of a four, instead of a three, years' course. He em- 



