May 3, 1917] 



NATURE 



189 



public mind on such matters, this enormous waste 

 will continue, and in all probability increase. 



It cannot escape observation that for many 

 years past farmers, fruit-growers, and others have 

 annually implored action, but it would seem that 

 the very people who should have been primed with 

 accurate information, and able quickly and 

 decisively to have remedied the situation, are 

 rather disabled than qualified for work of this 

 character, which is of vital importance to the 

 nation, and calls for immediate action. 



Walter E. Collinge. 



NOTES. 



We learn from the "Political Notes" in the Times 

 that Lord Balfour's Committee on After-War Trade 

 has been strengthened by the addition of Sir William 

 Pearce, Sir Charles Henrj-, Sir Archibald Williamson, 

 and Sir William Priestley. The committee is now in- 

 vestigating the question of the possible introduction of 

 the metric and decimal systems for our coinage, 

 weights, and measures. 



While the wastage of the Yorkshire cliffs is to be 

 deplored, the result is sometimes of advantage to the 

 geologist and antiquary. Recently, in the vicinity of 

 Scarborough, a fall of the cliff has revealed a hoard 

 of twenty bronze weapons, which consisted of battle- 

 axes, spears, chisels, gouges, portions of a sword, 

 etc. Twelve of the axes, of the socketed type, are 

 perfect. One shows the unusual feature of a rivet- 

 hole in place of a loop for secure hafting ; another 

 contained a portion of the original wood shaft. Some 

 of the axes are in the rough state, as if just turned 

 out of the mould ; others have obviously been in use. 

 The collection evidently formed the stock-in-trade of 

 a metal-worker of the Bronze Age, at least a thousand 

 years before the Christian era. Mr. T. Sheppard, 

 who has made a special study of the relics of this 

 period, is figuring and describing the specimens, 

 which have found a permanent home in the museum 

 at Hull. 



Until recently our supplies of acetone, of which 

 enormous quantities are now required in the manu- 

 facture of propellent explosives, have been largely 

 obtained from foreign countries, where cheap supplies 

 of waste wood were available for destructive distilla- 

 tion for acetone production. Since the outbreak of 

 war, however, this position has been radically altered, 

 and acetone is now produced in this country' on a 

 large scale by the distillation of wood and in other 

 ways. The question is also being taken up in other 

 countries of the Empire ; it is proposed, for instance, 

 to erect a factorj- for this purpose in Natal, where 

 wattle wood will be used as a raw material. The 

 possibility of similarly utilising the wattle wood accu- 

 mulated in connection with the wattle bark industry 

 of the East Africa Protectorate is also under con- 

 sideration, and at the Imperial Institute an exliaustive 

 series of trial distillations with this wood, and also 

 with olive wood from the same protectorate, used 

 locally as fuel, has just been concluded. Tlie results 

 show that the yield of acetone and acetic acid from 

 both woods is satisfactory. A good yield of acetic 

 acid is also being obtained in Ceylon from the distilla- 

 tion of coconut shells and various local woods. Atten- 

 tion is also being given to the subject in the Indian 

 State of Mysore, and it seems likely that in a short 

 time the Empire will be able to produce all the acetone 

 and acetic acid it requires. 



NO. 2479, VOL. 99] 



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

 of Dr. H. B. Wheatley, who was clerk to the Royal 

 Society from 1861 to 1879, and assistant secretary to 

 the Royal Society of Arts from 1879 to 1908. 



We regret to see in the Morning Post of April 27 

 the announcement of the death of Sir Marc Ruffer, 

 president of the Sanitary, Maritime, and Quarantine 

 Council of Eg^pt, and formerly director of the British 

 Institute of Preventive Medicine — now the Lister Insti- 

 tute. 



The Nieuwe Coiirant announces the death of Prof. 

 Morjan Raciborski, professor of botany in the Univer- 

 sity of Cracow, and formerly for many years engaged 

 in work on sugar-cane and tobacco in the Buiten- 

 zorg Botanic Gardens, Java. 



' The valuable material collected by the special com- 

 mission apf>ointed to investigate the fk)ra, fauna, and 

 hydrology of Lake Baikal is to be published by the 

 Imperial Academy of Sciences, Petrograd, in one 

 volume, of which an edition of five hundred copies will 

 be issued. 



We regret to note that Engineering for April 27 

 records the death of Mr. .Andrew S. Biggart, in Glas- 

 gow, on April 26. Mr. Biggart was associated with 

 the late Mr. William Arrol for thirty-four years, and 

 took a prominent part in the construction of the plant 

 used in connection wich the Forth Bridge. He was a 

 member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and 

 was noted for his interest in his workers. His death 

 will be regretted by many who have benefited by his 

 philanthropic schemes. 



At a meeting held at the Institute of Chemistn," on. 

 April 27, the president and council presented a silver 

 rose bowl to Mr. R. B. Pilcher, registrar and secre- 

 tary, in appreciation of twenty-five years' faithful 

 service. The meeting was well attended, and the pre- 

 sentation was made by the president. Sir James 

 Dobbie, principal of the Government laboratories. 

 Mr. Pilcher, who joined the staff of the Institute as 

 clerk in 1892, was appointed assistant secretary in 

 1894, secretary in 1895, and has held the joint offices 

 of registrar and secretary since 1900. 



It is announced that the next triennial prize of 300?. 

 under the will of the late Sir Astley Cooper will be 

 awarded for an essay or treatise on the subject of 

 "Gunshot Wounds of the Lungs and Pleura." 

 Candidates (who must not be members of the staffs 

 of Guy's or St, Thomas's Hospitals, or their relafives) 

 must send their essays, written in English, addressed 

 to the physicians and surgeons, Guy's Hospital, 

 London, S.E., on or before January i, 1919. Full 

 particulars concerning the conditions of the competi- 

 tion are obtainable from Mr. C. H. Fagge, Guy's 

 Hospital. 



The sixteenth biennial Dutch Congress of Natural 

 and Medical Sciences was held at The Hague on April 

 12 and following days. In connection with this; the 

 geography section had organised an interesting his- 

 torical exhibition, mainly of the work of Mercator and 

 the Dutch cartographers of the seventeenth century. 

 The chief general lecture was delivered by Prof. H. A. 

 Lorentz, of Leyden, on "Einstein's Gravitational 

 Theory and Fundamental Ideas in Physics." From a 

 discussion, in one of the sections, on chemical indus- 

 try in Holland, it appears that the manufacture of 

 aniline and other intermediate materials for the dye 

 industry was started in 1916. 



' The annual meeting of the members of the Royal 

 Institution was held on May i, the Duke of North- 



