NATURE 



[March 6, 1919 



but also outside, and particularh' amongst medical 

 officers of health, whose society has issued a 

 memorandum dealing with the Bill, medical opinion 

 is strongly against any Department other than the 

 Ministry of Health having control of research. In 

 regard to the failure of the Bill to provide for the 

 taking over by the Ministry of lunacy and mental 

 deficiency there was comment also, and here again 

 medical opinion is in favour of transference. As Dr. 

 Addison pointed out, however, there was much detail 

 that must be left to the future. The main and press- 

 ing business of the moment is to get the Ministry 

 formed and to see that the definite fundamental health 

 matters are brought within its purview. Other things 

 will follow when the Ministry and the Minister have 

 shown themselves worthy of the trust which every- 

 body seems to be so willing to give them and of the 

 high hopes that are based upon them. 



Capt. G. p. Thomson will deliver his postponed 

 lecture on "The Dynamics of Flying" at the Royal 

 Institution on Monday next, March lo, at 3 o'clock. 



The death is announced, at eighty-five years of age, 

 of Dr. Robert Liveing, consulting physician to the 

 skin department of the Middlesex Hospital, and 

 formerly lecturer on anatomy at Middlesex Hospital. 



We regret to announce the death on February 8, 

 at ninety-four years of age, of Prof. J. J. T. 

 Schlcesing, doyen of the section of rural economy of 

 the Paris Academy of Sciences, and professor of agri- 

 cultural chemistry in the Paris Conservatoire des Arts 

 et Metiers. 



Science for February 7 announces that Major C. E. 

 Mendenhall, professor of physics in the Universitv 

 of Wisconsin, has been appointed scientific attach'6 

 to the United States Legation in London, and has 

 been given leave of absence from the University to 

 take up the duties of this post immediately. 



At the ordinary meeting of the Royal Society of 

 Edinburgh, held on March 3, the following were 

 elected ordinary fellows : — Dr. A. R. Cushny, Dr. 

 W. J. Dundas, Dr. R. O. Morris, Dr. T. S. Patter- 

 son, Mr. B. D. Porritt, Mr. A. H. Roberts, Mr. 

 W, A. Robertson, Dr. A. Scott, Dr, A. R. Scott, 

 Mr. W. W. Smith, and Capt. D. A. Stevenson. 



The following lectures will be delivered at the 

 Royal College of Physicians during March and 

 April : — Milroy lectures, Half a Century of Smallpox 

 and Vaccination, Dr. John C. McVail ; Goulstonian 

 lectures. The Spread of Bacterial Infection, Dr. 

 W. W. C. Topley; Lumleian lectures, Cerebro-spinal 

 Fever, Sir Humphry D. Rolleston. 



The Paris correspondent of the Morning Post an- 

 nounces the death, at sixty-eight years of age, of 

 Prof. Andr^ Chantemesse, professor of hygiene in 

 the facultv of medicine in Paris, member of the 

 Academy of Medicine, and Inspector-General of Sani- 

 tary Services. Prof. Chantemesse was the author of 

 works on typhoid fever, and others entitled " Mous- 

 tiques et Fi^vre Jaune," " Mouches et Cholera," and 

 " Frontiferes et Prophylaxie." 



At a special general meeting of the British Psycho- 

 logical Society held in London on February ig it 

 was unanimously resolved that persons interested 

 (instead of, as heretofore, engaged) in the various 

 branches of psychology shall be eligible for member- 

 ship. It was also decided to institute three special 

 sections of the society, devot-ed respectively to the 

 educational, industrial, and rhedical aspects of psycho- 



NO. 2575, VOL. 103] 



logy. Further particulars may be obtained from the 

 honorary secretary of the British Psychological 

 Society, the Psychological Laboratory, University 

 College, W.C.I. / 



It is with regret we record that Capt. Melville Willis 

 Campbell Hepworth, Marine Superintendent of the 

 Meteorological Office, died at his residence at Ealing, 

 on February 25. Capt. Hepworth was in his- 

 seventieth year, and had held his official position 

 since 1899. He was a Younger Brother of Trinity 

 House, and received his C.B.in 1902 at the coronation 

 of King Edward VII. The Monthly Meteorological 

 Charts of the North Atlantic and Mediterranean, as- 

 well as of the East Indian seas, were initiated during 

 his tenure of office, and the later editions of "The 

 Baroineter Manual for the Use of Seamen " and the 

 "Seaman's Handbook of Meteorology" were com- 

 piled under his direction, and attained a large cir- 

 culation. Capt. Hepworth was much interested in 

 marine biology and in the temperature and salinity of 

 the sea. Prior to his association with the Meteoro- 

 logical Office he was in command of mail steamers 

 trading to the Cape and Australia, and later of 

 vessels engaged on the Canadian-Australian steam 

 route. For many years while at sea he made a study 

 of meteorology which prepared him for his official 

 position. 



Sir Andrew Eraser, K.C.S.I., whose death has 

 recently been announced, was the son of a missionary 

 and one of the many Scottish Presbyterians who have 

 been distinguished members of the Indian Civil Ser- 

 vice, and began his work in India in 1871. He served 

 with distinction in the Central Provinces, and in 1903 

 was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal. He 

 was in some ways unsuited for this difficult office, 

 because he was unacquainted with the Bengali 

 character, and was not qualified to deal with the 

 organised resistance against the partition of the Pro- 

 vinces. While his policy of attempting to conciliate 

 the revolutionary party, as is usual in India, served 

 only to encourage anarchism, he met with courage 

 at least five attempts against his life. Sir Andrew 

 Eraser was a typical ofificial of the secretariat type, 

 and beyond his official duties his interests were 

 limited, as is shown by the account of his experi- 

 ences in his book "Among Indian Rajahs and Ryots," 

 which, while interesting as a record of his official life, 

 is lacking in first-hand knowledge of the ethnology, 

 religions, customs, and manners of the races of India. 



It is reported from Ottawa that Mr. S. Storkerson, 

 of the Canadian Arctic Expedition, with his party of 

 five men, safelv reached the Alaskan coast on Novem- 

 ber 19 last. When Mr. Stefansson was incapacitated 

 bv illness in December, 19 17, and had to return to 

 civilisation, his place was taken by Mr. Storkerson, 

 who immediately made preparations for a journey 

 from the coast of Alaska northward over the ice of 

 the Beaufort Sea. He left Cross Island in about 

 long. 146° W. on March 15, 1918, with a large party, 

 including several Eskimo. When about two hundred 

 miles north of the coast he sent back several of his 

 men, and with the remainder continued his journey, 

 expecting to be carried westward with the ice to the 

 coa§t of Siberia. Practically no provisions were 

 carried, the party relying on seal-meat and polar bears, 

 as had been done in all the journeys of the Stefansson 

 expedition. Contrary to expectations, based on the 

 drift of the Karluk and other evidence, the ice did 

 not move westward, but drifted around in a great 

 eddy. The most northerly point reached was lat. 74° N. , 

 long. 152" W., in a part of the Arctic Ocean not 

 previously explored. The problematical Keanan's 



