March 22, 1917] 



NATURE 



69 



think necessary. The i,ooo,oooi. grant in aid of 

 industrial research will be paid to the account of the 

 Imperial Trust for the encouragement of scientific and 

 industrial research. The expenditure of the trust 

 will be audited by the Comptroller and Auditor- 

 General, but any balance remaining on the account 

 will not be surrendered at the close of the financial 

 year. Grants will be made by the directions of the 

 Committee of the Privy Council over an agreed period 

 to approved trade associations for research, to sup- 

 plement the funds of the associations, and pavments 

 in respect of such grants will not be liable to surrender 

 by the grantees at the end of the financial year. We 

 understood from Lord Crewe's remarks on December i 

 that for the next five years or so about 2oo,oooZ. a 

 year would be available for scientific and industrial 

 research, so that apparently the grant of i,ooo,oooZ. is 

 the sum which is to be drawn upon for this purpose. 

 The amount estimated for salaries, wages, and allow- 

 ances in the new department is 7250Z., which includes 

 1500Z. for the secretary^ and 850Z. for the assistant 

 secretary. Travelling and incidental expenses are 

 estimated to amount to 800Z. 



Prof. C. S. Sherrington, Waynflete professor of 

 physiology in the University of Oxford, has been 

 elected a corresponding member of the R. Accademia 

 delle Scienze of Bologna. 



On Thursday next, March 2C), at 3 p.m., the pre- 

 sident of the Royal Society will unveil the memorial 

 to Sir William and Lady Huggins in St. Paul's 

 Cathedral. Addresses will be given by the president, 

 and by the president of the Royal Astronomical 

 Societ}^ 



The annual general meeting of the Chemical 

 Society will be held at Burlington House on Thursday, 

 March 29, at 4 p.m., when a ballot for the election of 

 officers and council for 1917-18 will he held, and Dr. 

 Alexander Scott, the retiring president, will deliver 

 an address entitled "The Atomic Theory." 



The death is announced, in his sixty-eighth year, 

 of Dr. E. D. Peters, professor of metallurgy at Har- 

 vard University and the Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology since 1904. He was the author of standard 

 works on copper smelting, as well as of many tech- 

 nical monographs. 



Dr. W. C. Alpers, dean of the School of Pharmacy 

 at Western Reserve University, Cleveland, has died 

 in that city at the age of sixty-six. He was a native 

 of Hanover, and studied at Gottingen. In 1914 he 

 was elected president of the American Pharmaceutical 

 Association. He was a member of the revision com- 

 mittee of the U.S. Pharmacopoeia, and the author of 

 volumes on "The Medicinal Plants of Staten Island" 

 and "The Pharmacist at Work." 



Attempts have recently been made to work coal 

 on the island of Bornholm, in the southern Baltic. 

 No Carboniferous rocks are exposed, since apparently 

 thev have been cut out bv the faults that have brought 

 Rh'aetic, Lias, and later rocks against the older Palaeo- 

 zoics. Traces of coal have, however, been found by 

 boring, but the attempts referred to have now shown 

 that any workable layers lie at such a depth that 

 their exploitation is not a paying proposition. 



The council of the Incorporated Municipal Electric 

 Association, recognising the important part that elec- 

 tricity may be made to play in the better cultivation 

 and greater production of the land and in the ex- 

 tension of rural industries, has formed the nucleus 

 of what is ultimately intended to be a committee 



representative of all interests with the object of a 

 thorough investigation into the technical and com- 

 mercial problems underlying the application of elec-, 

 trical energy for such purposes. The chairman of 

 the committee is Mr. S. E. Britton, City Electrical 

 Engineer, of Chester, and among the objects are : — 

 (i) To investigate and advise upon the problems under- 

 lying the supply and use of electrical energy in agri- 

 cultural areas for power, lighting, heating, culture, 

 and other purposes for farms, villages, and rural 

 industries. (2) To collect and collate information, and 

 publish literature bearing upon the above. (3) To co- 

 operate with agricultural and other associations. 

 (4) To investigate in co-operation with manufacturers 

 the development, manufacture, and adaptation of agri- 

 cultural machinery, and appliances for utilising elec- 

 trical energy. 



The Royal Geographical Society announces that 

 the King has approved of the award of the Royal 

 Medals for the present vear as follows : — Founder's 

 Medal to Commander D.' G. Hogarth, R.N.V.R., for 

 his explorations and other geographical work in Asiatic 

 Turkey, 1887-1911; Patron's Medal to Brig.-Gen. 

 Rawling, C.M.G., for his explorations in western 

 Tibet and Rudok, 1903, his journey from Gyantse to 

 Simla vid, Gartok, 1904, and his e.xplorations In New 

 Guinea, 1908 ; Victoria Medal is awarded to Dr. 

 J. Scott Keltic for his eminent services to geography 

 during his secretaryship of the society. The other 

 awards are : — Murchison Grant to Rai Bahadur Lai 

 Singh for his devoted work as surveyor to the ex- 

 pedition of Sir Aurel Stein ; Back Grant to the Rev. 

 Walter Weston for his travels and explorations in 

 the Japanese .'Mps — a district previously unknown to 

 Europeans; Cuthbert Peak Grant to Dr. A. M. Kellas 

 for his exploration and ascent of new peaks in Sikkim, 

 and his investigation of the effects of high altitude ; 

 Gill Memorial to Mr. E. C. Wilton for his geo- 

 graphical work in south-western China. 



The Advisory Committee for Aeronautics has 

 appointed a Light Alloys Sub-Committee. The 

 members of the sub-committee are Mr. Henry Fowler, 

 superintendent of the Royal Aircraft Factory (chair- 

 man), Lieut. -Commander C. F. Jenkin, R.N.V.R., 

 and Prof. F. C. Lea, representing the .\ir Board ; 

 and Capt. H. P. Philpot, Mr. A. W. Johns, and 

 Dr. W. Rosenhain, representing respectively the 

 Aeronautical Inspection Department, the Director of 

 Naval Construction, Admiralty, and the National 

 Physical Laboratory ; together with the chairman of 

 the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, ex officio. 

 The functions of this sub-committee will be to advise 

 Government Departments on questions relating to light 

 alloys, to institute research for the development and 

 improvement of such alloys and the methods of work- 

 ing them, and to assist in the removal of difficulties 

 which may arise in their production and use. It will 

 be in close touch with the experimental work on light 

 alloys which is being carried out at the National 

 Physical Laboratory, the Royal Aircraft Factory, the 

 University of Birmingham, and elsewhere, and hopes 

 to be able to give advice and assistance to manu- 

 facturers undertaking the production of light alloys 

 and to founders engaged in the manufacture of engine 

 parts, cylinders, pistons, crank cases, etc. 



At the first ordinary meeting of the Refractory Mate- 

 rials Section of the Ceramic Society, held at Leeds Uni- 

 versity, it was stated that the remarkable properties of 

 zirconia make it an admirable refractory. Even the 

 natural crude zirconia is well adapted for use in elec- 

 trical furnaces and in other cases where exceptionally 

 strong heat has to be resisted. In Germany it was 



NO. 2473, VOL. 99] 



