April 17, 19 19] 



NATURE 



13 



experiments that, as the law is at present adminis- 

 tered, it is impossible for dogs to suffer pain. They 

 point to the power possessed by the Home Secretary 

 of allowing pamful experiments upon dogs, and see 

 in this a proof that pain is inflicted. It is right and 

 just that such powers should be possessed. Even 

 though for the large majority of experiments infliction 

 of pain is unnecessary, and, indeed, a disadvantage 

 from every point of view, it is always possible that 

 research into certain diseases might involve the neces- 

 sity of inflicting pain ; and in such cases the interests 

 of a dog, as of any other animal, may reasonably be 

 subordinated to those of man. It seems pitiful that 

 there should be all this pother and expenditure of 

 valuable energv just because the Government, which 

 spends thousands annually on medical research, was 

 lacking in the courage or the foresight to declare at 

 the outset that in the interests of the community the 

 Bill could not be allowed to become law. It is to be 

 honed that, even at this late hour, the Government 

 will take a definite stand in the matter and relieve the 

 investigators and the medical profession from the need 

 of wasting their time in defending science and the 

 welfare of the community against the attacks of mis- 

 guided zealots. 



The funeral of Sir William Crookes took place in 

 Brompton Cemetery on Thursday, April lo, and was 

 preceded bv a service held at St. John's Church, 

 Notting Hill. The three sons and one daughter, 

 together with other members of the family, were 

 present. Most of the learned societies in London 

 were represented, among them being : — Royal Society, 

 Sir J. J. Thomson, Prof. A. Schuster, and Prof. Emer- 

 son Reynolds; Royal Institution, the Hon. R. Clere 

 Parsons ; Chemical Society, Sir William Tilden and 

 Dr. Alex. Scott; British Association, Prof. John 

 Perrv; Institution of Electrical Engineers, Mr. C H. 

 Wordingham. Col. R. E. Crompton, Mr. W. M. 

 Mordey, and others ; Societv of Chemical Industr\-, 

 Prof. Frank Clowes and Mr.' J. P. Longstaff; British 

 Science Guild, Sir Boverton Redwood and Lt.-Col. 

 W. A. J. O'Meara; Institute of Chemistry, Sir 

 Herbert Jackson ard Mr. R. B. Pilcher; Faraday 

 Society. Sir Robert Hadfield and Mr. F. S. Spiers; 

 Institute of Inventors, Mr. W. F. Reid ; Society of 

 Psvchical Research, Sir Lawrence Jones ; Notting 

 Hill Electric Light Co., of which Sir William Crookes 

 was chairman for many years, the secretarv, Mr. 

 Rawkins. There were also present Sir William 

 Davidson (Mayor of Kensington), Dr. .Abraham Wal- 

 lace, Prof. H. E. Armstrong, and manv other dis- 

 tinguished men of science. S. letter of condolence 

 from his Majesty the King has been received by the 

 family, and messages of sympathy have been sent bv 

 manv prominent people in the world of science and 

 literature who knew and valued the work of Sir 

 William Crookes. 



Prof. F. Morley has been elected president of the 

 American Mathematical Society, and Prof. H. E. 

 Slaught president of the Mathematical Association of 

 America. 



The sum of looZ. has been voted by the Rumford 

 Committee of the American Academy of Arts and 

 Sciences to Prof. A. G. Webster, of Clark University. 

 In aid of his researches in pyrodynamics and practical 

 interior ballistics. 



Dr. J. W. Scott Macfie has been presented with 

 the Mary Kingsley medal of the Liverpool School of 

 Tropical Medicine in recognition of his distinguished 

 services in research into tropical medicine and allied 

 subjects. 



NO. 2581, VOL. 103] 



Prof. J. H. Jeans will deliver a lecture entitled 

 "The Quantum Theory and New Theories of .\tomic 

 Structure " at the ordinary scientific meeting of the 

 Chemical Society to be held at Burlington House on 

 Thursday, May i. 



The work on vulcanology at Kilauea has been placed 

 under the U.S. Weather Bureau. We learn from 

 Science that the transfer was made on February 15, 

 and the appointment of the director. Prof. T. A. 

 Jaggar, has been approved. A grant of 2oooL for the 

 year is made by the U.S. Government for continuing 

 the work heretofore maintained by the Volcano 

 Research .A^ssociation. 



Mr. j. A. Cairns Forsyth has been awarded the Jack- 

 sonian prize for iqi8 by the Royal College of Surgeons 

 for his dissertation on " Injuries and Diseases of the 

 Pancreas and their Surgical Treatment." The college 

 has accepted an offer from the Barbers Company to 

 endow for five yeais an historical lecture in anatomy 

 or surgery, to be called the "Thomas Vicary Lec- 

 ture," the' appointment of the lecturer to be in the gift 

 of the college. 



On and after May i the library of the Chemical 

 Society will be open daily from 10 a.m. until 9 p.m., 

 with the exception of "Saturdays, when it will be 

 closed at 5 p.m. This further extension of the hours 

 of opening has been made possible by the co-operation 

 of the Society of Chemical Industry, the members of 

 which are now able to use the library in common with 

 the members of the societies mentioned in X.vture of 

 December 19 last (p. 310). 



Mr. a. J. Walter, K.C, whose death occurred on 

 .April 9, was one of the best known members of the 

 Bar in connection with patent actions. He was a 

 man of science as well as an able advocate, and this 

 rare combination secured for him a high reputation in 

 patent trade-mark and technical litigation. He carried 

 out many valuable experiments in chemistry and elec- 

 tricity in his private laboratory, and was thus often 

 able to astonish expert witnesses with first-hand 

 knowledge of importance relating to the points at 

 issue. Mr. Walter had served on the council of the 

 Institution of Electrical Engineers, and his death 

 deprives, not only the Bal- oif a distinguished leader, 

 but also science of a keen student. 



The Faraday Society and the Rontgen Society are 

 holding a joint general discussion on the examination 

 of materials by X-rays on Tuesday, .April 29, at 5 p.m. 

 in the rooms of the Royal Society. Sir Robert Had- 

 field, president of the Faraday Society, will introduce 

 the discussion, and also contribute some papers, and 

 an address on radio-metallography will be delivered 

 bv Prof. W. H. Bragg. Other contributors include 

 Major G. W. C. Kaye, Capt. R. Knox, and M. E. 

 Schneider (Le Creusot). The discussion will include 

 contributions on the examination of timber as well 

 as of metals by X-rays, and there will be exhibits of 

 apparatus and demonstrations bv M. Pilon, Major 

 C. E. S. Phillips, Mr. Geoffrey Pearce, and others. 



Dr. Louis A. Bauer has finally selected Cape 

 Palmas, Liberia, as his observing station for mag- 

 netic and electric observations in connection with the 

 solar eclipse of May 29. He will be assisted by Lieut. 

 H. F. Johnston, who has rejoined the staff of the 

 Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, having been 

 on duty during the war at the .Admiralty Compass 

 Observatory at Slough. The party sailed on the 

 fiteamer^Benue from Liverpool on .April 12. Mr. 

 Frederick Brown, at one time assistant at the Royal 

 Observatory, Greenwich, has been sent by Dr. Bauer 



