170 



NATURE 



[April 26, 19 17 



The seventh May lecture of the Institute of Metals 

 will be delivered at the Institution of Civil Engineers 

 on Thursday, May 3, at 8.30 p.m., by Prof. W. E. 

 Dalby, on *' Researches made Possible by the Auto- 

 graphic Load-extension Optical Indicator." 



The Jacksonian prize of the Royal College of Sur- 

 geons of England for 1916 has b^n awarded to Mr. 

 E. W. H. Groves for his dissertation on " Methods 

 and Results of Transplantation of Bone in the Repair 

 of Defects caused by Injury or Disease." The sub- 

 ject for the Jacksonian prize for 1918 is "The Injuries 

 and Diseases of the Pancreas and their Surgical 

 Treatment." 



The death is announced, in his seventy-fourth year, 

 of Dr. H. B. Cornwall, professor of applied chemistry 

 and mineralogy at Princeton University from 1873 to 

 1910. He previously held posts on the faculty of 

 Columbia University, and was for a short time the 

 suf>erintendent of a mining company in Mexico. He 

 was the author of a manual of blow-pipe analysis and 

 other works. 



The next informal meeting of the Chemical Society 

 will be held at Burlington House, VV., on Thursday, 

 May 10, at 8 p.m. Owing to ill-health, Dr. Horace T. 

 Brown will be unable to deliver, on May 17, his 

 lecture entitled "The Principles of Diffusion: Their 

 Analogies and Applications" as previously announced. 

 The lecture has been postponed for the time, and the 

 usual ordinary scientific meeting will be held on that 

 day. 



We learn from the Morning Post that Mr. W. P. 

 Eraser, plant pathologist, of Macdonald College, has 

 been appointed to investigate the problem of grain 

 rust on the prairie provinces of Western Canada. The 

 Canadian Minister of Agriculture, the Hon. Martin 

 Burrell, has been devoting special attention to the 

 problem, and two well-equipped laboratories have been 

 built on the experimental farms at Brandon and Indian 

 Head. 



The death is announced of Sir Albert J. Durston, 

 Engineer-in-Chief of the Navy from 1889 to 1907. 

 We learn from the Times that Sir Albert was born 

 in 1846, and was educated privately, in Portsmouth 

 Dockyard, and at the Royal School of Naval Archi- 

 tecture, South Kensington. He entered the Royal 

 Navy in 1866, became chief engineer in 1877, chief 

 inspector of machinery in 1893, and chief engineer 

 at Sheerness and Portsmouth in 1881. During his 

 administration of the engineering department there 

 were introduced the water-tube boiler, the turbine 

 system of propulsion, and the use of oil fuel — all in- 

 ventions which made for the increase in engine-power 

 and the speed of the ships of the Fleet which has been 

 so noticeable and valuable during the war. 



We learn from the British Medical Journal that 

 Surgeon-General Sir William Taylor, K.C.B., late 

 Director-General, Army Medical Staff, died at Wind- 

 sor on March 10, aged seventy-four. In 1898 Sir 

 William was appointed principal medical officer to the 

 British Army in India and held that f>ost for three 

 years, until he became Director-General of the Army 

 Medical Service on December 3, 190 1, in the late 

 stage of the Boer war. On August 21, 1901, he was 

 gazetted honorary physician to the King, and in 1902 

 received the K.C.B. His Altn a Mater, the University 

 of Glasgow, bestowed upon him the honorary degree 

 of LL.D. He retired on December 2, 1904., after 

 forty years' service in the Army, during which he 

 had served in six campaigns, and had risen to the 

 highest position open to a medical officer. 



NO. 2478, VOL. 99] ' 



At the annual general meeting of the Institution of 

 Civil Engineers held on April 17 the result of the ballot 

 for the election of officers was declared as follows : 

 President: Mr. W. B. Worthington. Vice-presidents : 

 Mr. J. A. F. Asplnall, Mr. H. E. Jones, Sir John P. 

 Griffith, and Mr. J . A. Brodie. Other Members of Coun. 

 cil : Dr. C. C. Carpenter ; Dr. Dugald Clerk ; Col. R.E. B. 

 Crompton; Mr. M. Deacon; Sir Archibald Denny, 

 Bart.; Mr. W. H. Ellis; Sir R. R. Gales; Mr. A. J. 

 Goldsmith ; Sir R. A. Hadfield ; Brigadier-General 

 B. H. Henderson; Mr. R. W. Holmes; Prof. Bertram 

 Hopkinson; Mr. G. W. Humphreys; Mr. Summers 

 Hunter; Dr. W. H. Maw; Mr. C. L. Morgan; Mr. 

 Basil Mott; Sir H. J. Oram; Mr. F. Palmer; Capt. 

 H. P. R. Sankey; Sir J. F. C. Snell ; Mr. E. F. C. 

 Trench; Mr. W. F. Tye; Sir Philip Watts; Mr. E. J. 

 Way; and Sir A. F. Yarrow, Bart. The council has 

 made the following awards for papers read and dis- 

 cussed during the session 1916-17 : Telford gold 

 medals to Messrs. G. W. Humphreys and J. B. Ball; 

 George Stephenson gold medals to Messrs. P. V. 

 O'Brien and John Parr; Telford premiums to Messrs. 

 P. V. O'Brien, J. L. Hodgson, W. Brown, and P. M. 

 Crosthwaite; and a Crampton prize to Mr. F. J. 

 Waring. 



Mr. Abel Chapman, in the Scottish Naturalist for 

 April, demolishes the contention that there are two 

 distinct sub-sf>ecific forms of the Brent goose, both 

 of which, according to the most recent text-books, are 

 to be found in the British Islands. The one is sup- 

 p>osed to have a light-, the other a dark-coloured 

 breast. Mr. Chapman is of opinion that these differ- 

 ences merely indicate dimorphism. And it would seem 

 that the ornithologists who made the " sub-sf>ecies " 

 to which he objects have come to the conclusion that 

 Mr. Chapman's interpretation is the right one. 



The extreme severity of the weather since January 

 has told heavily on our native birds. One of the first 

 records of this fact is that by Mr. H. M. Wallis in 

 British Birds for April. During the February frost, 

 in West Cornwall, he remarks, lapwings haunted the 

 town rubbish-heaps and tiny grass plots in front of 

 suburban houses ; finally, they came to the windows 

 for food, but eventually most of them seem to have 

 died from starvation, their dead bodies, dreadfully 

 emaciated, being picked up in gardens, beside roads, 

 and in almost every field, After the lapwings, golden 

 plover, gulls, thrushes, and starlings seem to have 

 suffered most, though many other species are 

 enumerated in his list of dead. 



The British Museum (Natural History) has just 

 issued, in pamphlet form, some " Instructions for 

 Collectors," dealing with the preparation of mammal 

 skeletons in the field, with special notes on the collec- 

 tion of specimens of Cetacea. Since the skin of the 

 latter cannot be successfully preserved, special em- 

 phasis is laid on the need for careful notes and 

 measurements of carcases before dismemberment. 

 Attention is also directed to the importance of very 

 careful notes as to the colour of the "whale-bone" 

 in baleen whales,' and the number and position of the 

 teeth in the "toothed" whales. In all cases. It is 

 remarked, sketches or photographs of the external 

 apf>earance of a Cetacean should be made before the 

 work of preparing the skeleton is begun. These 

 " Instructions " have been carefully drawn up by Dr. 

 S. F. Harmer, the keeper of the department of zoology, 

 and should prove very welcome. 



The insects attacking stored wheat in the Punjab 

 are described, with admirable coloured illustrations, by 

 J. H. Barhes and A. J. Grove in the Memoirs of the 



