I50 



NATURE 



[April 19, 19 17 



women students and post-graduate researchers — most 

 of them present or future science schoohnistresses 

 taking a course of practical marine biology, under 

 the direction of Prof. Herdman, Mr. Douglas Laurie, 

 and Miss R. C. Bamber, and supported by a grant 

 from the Liverpool Council of Education. The wintry 

 conditions have been unfavourable for much work in 

 the open, but plankton observations in the bay have 

 been made almost daily, and the vernal maximum of 

 the Phyto-plankton (mainly Coscinodiscus and Chaeto- 

 ceras spp. at present), which is probably affected 

 more by the increasing sunlight than by temperature, 

 is now (April 12) well marked. The fish-hatching is 

 going on as usual, and several millions of young 

 plaice have already been set free to the west of the 

 Isle of Man. A point of considerable interest is that 

 the second generation of young plaice reared in cap- 

 tivity is now passing through the hatching-boxes. 

 There are about eighteen adult plaice reared from 

 eggs produced and hatched in the tanks in the season 

 of 19 14, and therefore just three years old, which are 

 now spawning. One of these fish, which has been 

 isolated in an aquarium tank and is now producing 

 spawn, measures 27 cm in length (about io| in.). 

 The average size of spawning female plaice in the 

 Irish Sea is about 15 in., and the smallest previous 

 record is about 13 in. The eggs produced from these 

 three-year-old plaice are slightly smaller than those 

 from older fish, but otherwise seem normal, and are 

 developing into embryos and larvae. A large shoal of 

 grey mullet visited Port Erin Bay on April 11 and 12 

 — a ver}' unusual occurrence at this time of year — and 

 swarmed close in to the rocks and beach at high tide. 

 More than 400 large fish, some of them weighing up 

 to 7 lb., were caught in a seine net and sent to the 

 Liverpool market. 



A COPY of an address by Prof. Murray Butler, de- 

 livered at the annual dinner of the Pittsburgh (Pa.) 

 Chamber of Commerce on February 10 last, has been 

 received. Prof. Butler asks, and attempts to answer, 

 the question: "Is America Drifting?" The general 

 tone of the address would probably have been modi- 

 fied had it been delivered after the entry of the 

 United States into the war, but its appeal to thinking 

 Americans to do all in their power to assist the ad- 

 justment of American national institutions to modern- 

 day needs and demands could scarcely have been more 

 insistent. " I do not recall," says Prof. Butler towards 

 the end of his address, "that any great administrator 

 has ever been chosen to be President of the United 

 States, and few governors or mayors seem to take 

 any interest in the improvement of ordinary adminis- 

 tration, such as every manager of an industrial or 

 business undertaking concerns himself with every day 

 and every hour." Americans, he states, are so con- 

 cerned with their own personal affairs and immediate 

 interests that they are letting America drift, and 

 until every American feels his personal responsibility 

 for the formulation of definite public policy at home 

 and abroad, and for the businesslike administration 

 of public affairs, the drifting will' continue. There is, 

 he insists, a call to Americans for national service 

 and a preparation for it which, so far from sharing 

 the spirit of militarism, are only the voice of demo- 

 cracy conscious of its obligations and its duties, as 

 well as of its rights and opportunities. 



The Societa Italiana delle Scienze has awarded the 

 gold medal of the physical section to Prof. W. H. 

 Bragg and Mr. W. L. Bragg in recognition of their 

 distinguished work in physics. 



.Mr. T. Sheppard, curator of the Hull Municipal 

 Museums, has been elected honorary life member of 



NO. 2477, VOL. 99] 



the Selby Scientific Society, in recognition of his ser- 

 vices since the society was founded. • - 



Recent enterprises in connection with the prepara- 

 tion of food and the development of its concessions in 

 West Africa and elsewhere have led to the establish- 

 ment of a research department by the Co-operative 

 Wholesale .Society, and Dr. Geoffrey Martin has just 

 been appointed to direct its work. This appointment 

 marks a new departure in connection with the co- 

 operative movement, and has been rendered necessary 

 by the concessions acquired by the Co-operative Whole- 

 sale Society in West Africa, Nigeria, and elsewhere, 

 as well as by the development of fresh undertakings 

 at home. 



The National Canners' Association has offered Har- 

 vard University, says Science, the sum of 4000Z. annu- 

 ally for a period of three years to carry on an investi- 

 gation of ptomaine poisoning, with special reference 

 to canned goods. The offer has been accepted by the 

 University, with the understanding that the investiga- 

 tion shall be conducted and the results published with 

 entire academic freedom. The study will be made at 

 the medical school, under the direction of Dr. M. J. 

 Rosenau, professor of preventive medicine and hygiene. 

 The National Research Council of the National 

 Academy of Sciences is supervising the investigations 

 on this subject. 



The British Medical Journal announces the death, 

 on February 27, of Prof. J. J. Dejerine, of the Uni- 

 versity, Paris, one of the leaders of contemporary 

 neurology. He was born at Geneva in 1849, ^^^ 

 studied medicine in Paris, where he took his doctor's 

 degree in 1879. ^n ^9oi he was appointed professor 

 of the history of medicine, and afterwards trans- 

 ferred to the chair of internal pathology. Finally, in 

 191 1, he became professor of nervous diseases and 

 head of the clinic at the Salpetriere. He was a 

 member of the Acad^mie de M^decine, and an 

 honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, 

 which awarded him the Moxon medal. From the first 

 he devoted himself to the study of neuro-pathology, 

 and his published papers cover the whole field of 

 nervous disease. His chief work is the " Anatomie des 

 Centres Ner/eux," written in collaboration with his 

 wife, herself a doctor of medicine. 



At the fourth annual general meeting of the Institu- 

 tion of Petroleum Technologists, the elections were 

 announced of Mr. C. Green wiay as president, Prof. J. 

 Cadman as a vice-president, and Sir Frederick 

 Black and Major A. Cooper-Key as honorary mem- 

 bers. The vice-presidents and council for the ensuing 

 year are : — Vice-Presidents : The Rt. Hon. Viscount 

 Cowdray of Cowdray, Sir Thomas H. Holland, and 

 SirBoverton Redwood, Bart. ; Council: A. C. Adams, H. 

 Allen, Sir Robert Balfour, Bart., Capt. R. W. Barnett, 

 H. Barringer, Sir George Bellby, E. R. Blundstone, 

 A. Campbell, J. T. Cargill, E. H. Cunningham Craig, 

 A. W. Eastlake, T. C. Palmer. Dr. F. MoUwo Perkin, 

 and R. Redwood. 



In Southern Nigeria the wholesale destruction of 

 interesting cult-objects by the fanatical adherents of 

 the prophet who called himself "Elijah II." has 

 robbed ethnologists of a vast amount of valuable mate- 

 rial which can never be replaced. It is fortunate that 

 Mr. P. Amaury Talbot, while engaged in official work 

 in these districts, has been able to form a splendid 

 collection of ethnological specimens, and both the 

 British Museum and the Oxford Museum have 

 acquired by his generosity a number of valuable acces- 

 sions. Among them Mr. Henry Balfour, in the April 

 issue of Man, describes a remarkable carved and 

 painted ceremonial paddle used by the Kalahari tribe. 



