March 20, 19 19] 



NATURE 



5« 



w ider exchange of knowledge will be secured, for the 

 I ( .ison that the Privy Council is the only body having 

 an Imperial range. Finally, under such a scheme, 

 ilio Committee would be freed from undue pressure by 

 tlu- immediate interests of any one Department, 

 particularly the iMinistry of Health. So far as the 

 laiier is concerned, the memorandum hastens to 

 point out that there must be very special links as 

 between it and the Committee, and arrangements to 

 secure these would have to be made. Another point 

 which prominence is given is that, even with a 

 March Committee and special researchers, there 

 d be no limiting of the efforts of the Ministry in 

 the matter of scientific investigations, and at any time 

 researches could and would be made through the staff 

 of the Ministry. The memorandum, w^hich is signed 

 by Dr. Addison, is supported by a statement by Sir 

 W. M. Fletcher, the secretary to the Research Com- 

 mittee, in favour of centralisation, for the reason 

 chiefly that researches carried out on behalf of one 

 Department so frequently yield accessory results of 

 \alue to others. There was a considerable amount of 

 discussion upon the subject when the Bill came before 

 the Standing Committee on March 13, and Major 

 Astor was obliged to accept an amendment making it 

 clear that, in addition to an independent Medical 

 Research Committee under the Privy Council, there 

 \s ould be a definite research department under the new 

 ^'-nistry. Probably this is the best way out of the 

 culty, and both parties may be content to accept 

 compromise. The Standing Committee of the 

 liniise of Commons adopted on March 18 an amend- 

 ni' nt providing that all the powers and duties of the 

 1 ard of Education with respect to the medical in- 

 tion and treatment of children and young persons 

 Ldd be transferred to the Ministry of Health. 



! HE death is announced, at seventy-five years of 

 . of Col. F. P. Washington, R.E., for many years 

 nected with the Ordnance Survey, and from 1898 

 <)o8 a director of the Survey and Map Department 

 he Land Registry. 



\ Wireless Press message states that the German 



\ (Tnment has decided to return to China the astro- 



ii' mical instruments which were transported from 



I\ kin to Germany in 1900. Negotiations have been 



!ied for the shipping of the instrumeots to China. 



I iiE annual general meeting of the Chemical Society 

 will be held at Burlington House on Thursday, 

 March 27, at 4 o'clock, when the retiring president. 

 Sir William J. Pope, will deliver his address, and a 

 ballot for the election of the new council will take 

 place. The anniversary dinner of the society will be 

 held the same evening at the Connaught Rooms, 

 f.i.at Queen Street, W.C.2. 



!)r. L. a. Bauer left Washington early in March 



England, where he will organise an expedition, 



Ahich Mr. Frederick Brown, of London, will be a 



member, for magnetic and electric observations during 



the solar eclipse of May 29 next at a station in South 



Africa. Dr. Bauer expects next to proceed to South 



rica and arrange for similar observations during 



eclipse there. While in South America he will 



: various institutions, and return to Washington 



July. 



i he death is announced, in his seventy-third year, 



of Mr. Louis E. Levy, of Philadelphia, who took out 



ill 1875 the first patent granted to an American citizen 



he field of photo-chemical engraving. Mr. Levy 



ived medals from the Franklin Institute for his 



ntion of the "Levy line screen," the "Levy acid 



NO. 2577, VOL. 103] 



I blast," and the etch-powdering machine. His dis- 

 coveries were also recognised by the expositions at 



I Chicago in 1893, Paris in 1900, and St. Louis in 

 1904. Mr. Levy had been president of the Graphic 

 .Arts Co., of Philadelphia, since 1908. 



The deaths of the following engineers are recorded 

 in the Engineer for March 14 :— Alderman Thomas 

 Canning, associate member of the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers, who was appointed engineer and manager 

 of the Newport Gas Co. in 1874, and held office up to 

 the time of his death; Mr. R. W. A. Southern, 

 member of the Institution of Mining Engineers, a 

 mining engineer well known in South Wales as a 

 colliery manager, and in private practice; and Mr. 

 G. H. Hill, member of the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers, and largely responsible for the water supply 

 of Manchester, especially in connection with the 

 Thirlmere scheme. 



The Salters' Institute of Industrial Chemistry has 

 awarded fellowships for post-graduate study iii the 

 universities or colleges indicated to Messrs. W. H. 

 Gough and W. A. Haward (Imperial College of 

 Science and Technology), Capt. L. J. Hudleston 

 (Reading), Lieut. K. H. Saunders and Mr. Gordon M. 

 Wright (Cambridge), Mr. P. N. Williams (Liverpool), 

 and Mr. Dudley C. Vining (Finsbury Technical Col- 

 lege). Through the generosity of certain leading 

 firms, the institute hopes shortly to announce furtlier 

 appointments; those who have already provided funds 

 for assisting the purpose of the institute are Messrs. 

 Borax Consolidated, the Mond Nickel CJJo., and Lever 

 Brothers. 



The council of the Royal Institute of Public Health 

 is arranging for a conference in the Guildhall, 

 London, on " Problems of Reconstruction in Relation 

 to Public Health " on June 25-28. The opening meeting 

 will be held in the Egyptian Hall of the Mansion 

 House on Wednesday, June 25, when the Lord Mayor 

 of London 'will preside. The conference will be 

 devoted to the work of the Ministry of Health, the 

 prevention and arrest of venereal disease, housing in 

 relation to national health, maternity and child wel- 

 fare, and the tuberculosis problem under after-war 

 conditions. Full particulars may be obtained on 

 application to the Secretary, Roval Institute of Public 

 Health, 37 Russell Square, W.C.i. 



The Times of March 17 gives an account from its 

 correspondent at Sydney of a remarkable Australian 

 rainfall. It states that "the extraordinary rainfall at 

 Melbourne threatens the greatest flood since 189 1. 

 The south-eastern corner of Victoria and New South 

 Wales is almost engulfed. At Port Melbourne fac- 

 tories have been swamped." At the time of the 

 report, March 7 (delayed), rain w^as still falling. "At 

 Macedon 8 in. were registered in twenty-four hours, 

 and other watersheds have been converted into lakes. 

 Thousands of persons are homeless. Thirteen inches 

 of rain in twenty-four hours has practically drowned 

 the township of East Bellingen, in New South Wales. 

 . . . Although the damages are estimated to aggre- 

 gate tens of thousands of pounds, the benefits ?rom 

 the breaking of the drought will be represented by 

 hundreds of thousands." 



We regret to have to record the death on February 16, 

 from pneumonia following influenza, of Mr. R. W. H. 

 Row, lecturer in zoology at King's College, London. 

 Although only thirty-four years of age, Mr. Row had 

 already done much to advance the science to which 

 he had devoted himself, both as a teacher and as an 



