June 7, 1917] 



NATURE 



289 



ham University ; Mr. Graham Balfour, secretary to the 

 Staffordshire Education Committee ; Mr. F. H. 

 Barker, for his work in the development and adop- 

 tion of the Parsons steam turbine throughout the prin- 

 cipal countries of Europe; Prof. T. Kennedy Dalziel, 

 professor of surgery, Anderson's College, Glasgow; 

 Dr. T. Gregory Foster, the provost of University 

 College, London; Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, F.R.S., 

 director of the National Physical Laboratory since 

 1899 ; Mr. Robert Jones, lecturer on orthopaedic sur- 

 ger\', Liverpool University, and inspector of military 

 orthopaedics, A.M.C. ; Mr. William Peck, director of 

 the City Observatory, Calton Hill, Edinburgh ; Prof. 

 E. C. Stirling, professor of physiology in the Univer- 

 sity of Adelaide; Mr. H. F. Waterhouse, dean and 

 lecturer on anatomv at Charing Gross Medical School. 

 K.C.B.: Dr H. F. Heath, secretary of the Depart- 

 ment of Scientific and Industrial Research. K.C.M.G. : 

 Dr. R. A. Falconer, president of the Universitv of 

 Toronto. C.M.G. : Mr. R. C. Allen, Director of Sur- 

 veys and Land Officer, Uganda Protectorate ; Mr. T. 

 Hood, Director of the Medical and Sanitary Service, 

 Nigeria; Mr. F. E. Kanthack, Director of Irrigation, 

 Union of South Africa. CLE.: Lt.-Col. D. W. 

 Sutherland, principal, and professor of medicine. Medi- 

 cal College and School, Lahore, Punjab ; Mr. Taw 

 Sein Ko, superintendent, Archaeological Survey, 

 Burma. Kaisar-i-Hind Medal: Capt. R. H. Bott, 

 professor of surgery, Medical College, Lahore, Punjab. 



We regret to announce the death, on June 2, of Dr. 

 W. H. Besant, F.R.S., fellow of St. John's College, 

 Cambridge, in his eighty-ninth year. 



We notice with regret the announcement of the 

 death on Mav 29, at seventv-five years of age, of 

 Sir William D. Niven, K.C.B., F.R.S., late director 

 of studies, Royal Naval CoH^g^. Greenwich. 



According to the Electrician it is proposed to change 

 the name of the Canadian Society of Engineers to 

 the Canadian Institution of Engineers, and to enlarge 

 the scope of the society by the admission of electrical, 

 chemical, mining, and mechanical engineers. 



Mr. Stephen Paget is collecting notes for a book on 

 the life and work of the late Sir Victor Horsley, and 

 he asks friends, colleagues, and patients of Horsley 

 to send him any letters which may be used for the 

 purposes of the book. Great care will be taken to 

 return all letters, which should be sent to Mr. Paget 

 at 21 Ladbroke Square, W. 11. 



Mr. J. Ramsbottom, of the Department of Botany, 

 British Museum, has been appointed protozoologist to 

 the medical staff at Salonika. The trustees of the 

 museum have accepted Miss Lorrain Smith's offer to 

 act as temporary assistant in charge of the fungi dur- 

 ing Mr. Ramsbottom 's absence and to deal with in- 

 quiries relating to this group of plants. Miss Lorrain 

 Smith has been associated with the department for 

 many years, especially in connection with the revision 

 and completion of Crombie's '* Monograph of British 

 Lichens," the second volume of which (by Miss Smith) 

 appeared in 191 1; the second edition of' vol i., which 

 will bring the whole work up to date, is now almost 

 complete. 



A PARAGRAPH has appeared generally in the daily 

 Press^ relating to a new and wonderful explosive lOf 

 American origin "so powerful that five grains, its 

 inventor claims, would blow the largest building -in 

 the world to pieces." One must conclude that the 

 accident which led to the discovery yielded only minute 

 NO. 2484, VOL. 99] 



quantities, or the United States might have been dis- 

 integrated ! Sensational statements of this descrip- 

 tion may appeal to the public imagination, but it must 

 be remembered that some of the most highly explosive 

 substances are inapplicable by reason of the difficulties 

 and risks of manufacture, of their sensitiveness, and 

 of our inability to control the explosion. If the new 

 "Terrorall" is even one-thousandth as powerful as 

 stated it by no means follows that it will prove of 

 service in the war. 



At the aniversary meeting of the Linnean Society * 

 on May 24 the following were elected officers and 

 council for the ensuing year : — President : Sir David 

 Prain. Treasurer : Horace W. Monckton. Secretaries : 

 Dr. B. Daydon Jackson, E. S. Goodrich, and Dr. 

 A. B. Rendle. Council (in addition to these officers) : 

 Mrs. Agnes Arber; E. G. Baker; Prof. W. Bateson ; 

 E. T-. Browne; R. H. Burne; Sir Frank Crisp, Bart.; 

 A. D. Cotton: J. Groves; Miss G. Lister; Gerald 

 Loder; Prof. G. E. NichoUs; Prof. H. G. Plimmer; 

 Dr. D. H. Scott; Dr. A. E. Shipley; and Lt.-Col. 

 J. H. T. Walsh. The president handed to Mr. T. G. 

 White, secretary of the Agent-General for New South 

 Wales, the Crisp award and medal to be forwarded to 

 Dr. Robin John TUlyard, of Sydney University; and 

 presented to Mr. H. B. Guppy the Linnean gold medal 

 awarded to him for his ser\-ices to biology. 



In a recent note (Nature, May 24, p. 250) 

 we directed attention to the renewed audibility 

 in the south-eastern counties of the gun-firing 

 on the Western front. We have received 

 another account from Dr. H. S. Allen, who, 

 from the porch on the south side of Cressington 

 Church, Surrey, heard very distant gun-firing at 

 11.30 a.m. on May 28. "The church is two miles 

 south of Surbiton, and stands on a slight eminence 

 from which an uninterrupted view of the North 

 Downs is obtained. There were light, variable breezes 

 from the south-east. The reports followed one another 

 at irregular intervals, but the average time between 

 successive reports was about three seconds." Accord- 

 ing to Sir Douglas Haig's report, there was "con- 

 siderable artillerv- activity on both sides during the 

 day south of the Scarpe and in the Ypres sector." 



By direction of the War Cabinet. Dr. Addison, the 

 Minister of Munitions, has made arrangements for the 

 appointment of an interdepartmental committee to pre- 

 pare a scheme for the establishment in London of an 

 Imperial Mineral Resources Bureau : — (a) To collect 

 information in regard to the mineral resources and 

 metal requirements of the Empire, and (h) to advise 

 what action, if any, may appear desirable to enable 

 such resources to be developed and made available to 

 meet requirements. The members of the committee 

 are as follows : — Sir James Stevenson, Bt. (chairman). 

 Mr C. L. Budd, Sir A. Duckham. Prof. W. R. Dun- 

 stan, Mr. C. W. Fielding. Mr. J. F. N. Green. Rt. 

 Hon. Lord Islington, Mr. L. J. Kershaw, Sir T. Mac- 

 kenzie, Hon. Sir G. H. Perley, Mr. W. S. Robinson, 

 and Rt. Hon. W. P. Schreiner. The secretary' to the 

 committee is Mr. Oswald C. Allen, and all communi- 

 cations on the subject should be addressed to him at 

 the Ministry of Munitions, Whitehall Place, S.W.i. 



Under the title, "Rhubarb and Red Tape," the - 

 British Medical Journal for June 2 makes the follow- 

 ing remarks upon the suspension of the Kew Bulle- 

 tin : — " Our contemporary, N.^ture, published on MaV 

 24 an interesting and timely article on rhubarb, in- 

 tended by its author for the Kew Bulletin, the pub- 

 lication of which the Government in its wisdom has 

 decided to suspend. The official explanation given 



