2IO 



NATURE 



[May io, 191 7 



Most of Sir Armand Rufifer's active life was 

 spent in reorganising, making efficient, and 

 putting on a proper scientific basis the various 

 bodies mentioned above, in which he was the rui- 

 ng spirit; but in addition to this he carried out 

 -esearches on, and extending over, a number of 

 subjects. As a pupil of Metchnikoff, it was fit- 

 ting that his earliest research work should have 

 been on phagocytosis, on which he published, in 

 1890, a paper which is still valuable. He then 

 turned his attention to the still baffling subject of 

 :ancer and set himself to try to solve the vexed 

 question of the various cell-inclusions found in 

 the lesions of this disease, which he considered 

 to be of parasitic origin. As a member of the 

 Indian Plague Commission, he did work on 

 plague which was of great use to him later in his 

 administrative and preventive work in Egypt. 

 Besides the bacteriological and serological 

 research, in connection with the quarantine work, 

 which was done in his laboratory, and of which 

 a good deal was new, he published several papers 

 on the pathological lesions found in mummies, of 

 considerable importance with regard to the 

 history and distribution of diseases ; and he 

 collected a large quantity of material on this sub- 

 ject which is not yet published. 



As a colleague he was ideal, ever ready to help 

 and to advise, and never thinking of himself ; and 

 he was one who had the truest, kindliest, and 

 most appreciative affection for his manv friends. 



H. G. P. 



NOTES. 



The long-deferred Arctic expedition of Mr. Roald 

 Amundsen seems at last to be taking definite shape. 

 This is the expedition which Amundsen abandoned in 

 1910, when he sailed instead for the Antarctic on his 

 successful conquest of the South Pole. The plans have 

 been modified in^etail, and no longer include the use 

 of Nansen's Fratn, which has been condemned, but 

 the general scheme probably remains the same. 

 Amundsen's original intention was to enter the Arctic 

 Ocean by Bering Strait, to traverse the unknown Beau- 

 fort Sea and force his vessel Jinto the polar pack. He 

 intended to allow hjs vessel to be frozen in and to drift 

 with the ice across the polar basin, eventually reaching 

 the open sea, in four or five years, between Greenland 

 and Spitsbergen. In this resjpect the expedition is to 

 be on the lines of Nansen's successful drift in the Fram, 

 but by entering the ice further east than Nansen, 

 Amundsen hopes to drift across the middle of the polar 

 basin through quite unknown regions. Research in 

 meteorology, oceanography, . and biology will be pur- 

 sued all the time, and the expedition will be accom- 

 panied by several aeroplanes for reconnaissance work. 

 Amundsen has recently returned to Norway from 

 America, where he has been arranging about these 

 machines and receiving instr'iiction in flying. It is 

 announced that the Norwegian Storthing: has voted 

 ii,oooZ. towards the cost of the expedition. In 1914 

 a grant of 4000L was promised by the National Geo- 

 graphic Society of Washington. 



The recent debate in the House of Commons on the 

 Air Board vote has done much to explain the precise 

 functions of the Board, and its relation to the aero- 

 nautical industry. Major Baird pointed out to those 

 who w^re dissatisfied with the results of the work of 



the Board that it was necessary to proceed cautiously 

 and to avoid rash experiments which might seriously 

 affect the supply of machines to meet the demand at 

 the front. In the debate which followed Major Baird's 

 statement the usual criticisms were levelled at the 

 Government machines which are being supplied to the 

 Services, and it was asked whether more efficient 

 machines could not be obtained in large numbers. The 

 prevailing impression as to the inefficiency of these 

 Government machines is entirely unfounded, and a 

 statement made to the effect that the Air Board will 

 consider the Royal Aircraft Factory and private firms 

 on equal terms as regards the development of new 

 types of machine should satisfy anyone that a firm 

 claiming to produce a better machine than the official 

 type will have a fair hearing before the Board. The 

 formation of a new committee, under Lord Northcliffe, 

 to investigate the possibility of using surplus machines 

 and pilots for commercial purposes after the war 

 should produce some interesting results. It is cer- 

 tainly high time that the possible uses of aircraft when 

 f>eace returns shou'd be seriously considered. At the 

 conclusion of the war there will be many aircraft fac- 

 tories possessing expensive plant for the production 

 of machines, and this plant may easily be wasted when 

 the demand for military and naval machines becomes 

 smaller. The work of the Air Board has already 

 proved of great value in centralising and controlling , 

 the production of war machines, aud there seems no 

 reason whv equally good work should not be done 

 in peace time to advance the commercial side of 

 aeronautics. 



Under the title of " Science in Russia " a new 

 reference-book will be published in the present year, 

 composed of two parts : (a) an index of all scientific 

 institutions, societies, and higher schools in Russia ; 

 (6) an index of all persons working in these institutions 

 and of private scientific workers. It will thus 

 include in the first part the particulars hitherto 

 supplied, (but very incompletely as to Russia) by the 

 " Minerva Jahrbuch " ; while the second part will be 

 similar to "Who's Who in Science," but will give, 

 at least for 1916, not so much information about each 

 individual. The difficult task of collecting the neces- 

 sary material is already well in hand. The under- 

 taking has been brought, through the Russian news- 

 papers, to the knowledge of all those interested, and 

 special forms are being- supplied to the institutions and 

 societies, many of which have already been returned 

 with the necessary particulars. The work has been 

 taken in hand by the Academy of Sciences of Petro- 

 grad and the scientific periodical Priroda (Nature) 

 of Moscow. "Science in Russia" for 1916 will be 

 edited by Prof. V. N. BeneseviC, and published con- 

 jointly by the Academy and the journal Priroda in 

 the latter part of this v,ear. It will be issued 

 annually. This publication will supply a long- 

 felt need, as up to the present the only work 

 of reference containing any information about the 

 scientific institutions of Russia as a whole has been 

 " Minerva." " Science in Russia " will help towards^ 

 an exact evaluation of Russian scientific forces and 

 activity, and will constitute an important step towards 

 the promotion of closer scientific relations with the 

 Allied countries. 



In London, and probably at many other places in 

 England, April was colder than any corresponding 

 month for the last sixty years or more. Dr. H. R. 

 Mill contributed some details of the exceptional cold 

 weather to the Times of May 3. The mean tempera- 

 ture at Camden Square is given as 43- 1°, or 5° below 

 the average; the mean maximum was 526°, and the 

 mean minimum 346°. The arithmetical mean of 



NO. 2480, VOL. 99] 



