230 



NATURE 



[May 



1919 



are known, but what has been done towards map>- 

 ping" out the distribution of these diseases, making 

 a survey of the mosquitoes known to transmit 

 them, and eradicating- these mosquitoes? Again, 

 are the investigations carried on in India in 

 respect of malaria at all commensurate with the 

 magnitude of the problem? Has kala-azar, one 

 of the deadliest of diseases, been systematically 

 attacked except by the enterprise of commercial 

 companies? We are aware that a few commis- 

 sions have investigated and reported on the 

 epidemic outbreaks of this disease, but more than 

 that is required, viz. patient, systematic research. 

 Fortunately, this hitherto incurable disease 

 appears to be now readily curable by tartar 

 emetic, and if research can discover the mode of 

 transmission of the disease the possibility of its 

 extermination is great. 



Sir Leonard Rogers points out the value of 

 "team" work. No better examples could be 

 given than the researches made through force of 

 circumstances during the war on malaria and 

 dysentery. It is this team work that is required 

 in India, and, indeed, we have one excellent 

 example of it, viz, the work of the Plague Com- 

 mission. In our indictment of official apathy we 

 had written on the subject of that devastating, 

 widespread disease ankylostomiasis, or hook- 

 worm disease, but even as we wrote we learned 

 that the Government of Bengal is instituting a 

 campaign against it. If it be said that medical 

 research is not being neglected in India, that 

 large sums of money have recently been devoted 

 to it, and that tropical schools are being formed 

 in Bombay and Calcutta, we would say that these 

 are good signs, but we still want more proof that 

 those in high places are purged of their ignor- 

 ance, and that at last the claims of scientific 

 medicine are fully admitted. 



J. W. W. S. 



NOTES. 



The Croonian lecture of the Royal Society will be 

 delivered on Thursday next, May 29, by Dr. H. H. 

 Dale on "The Biological Significance of Anaphylaxis." 



Sir J. J. Thomson has been appointed by an Order 

 of Council to be a member of the Advisory Council 

 to the Committee of the Privy Council for Scientific 

 and Industrial Research. 



The Prince of Wales, Sir J. J. Thomson, 

 Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and president 

 of the Royal Society, and Sir Norman Moore, Bart., 

 president of the Royal College of Physicians, have been 

 elected to the Standing Committee of the British 

 Museum. 



The Prince of Wales will be proposed for election 

 to the Royal Society at to-day's meeting. He will be 

 elected under the rule which provides that a prince 

 of the blood royal may be proposed at an ordinary 

 meeting of the society by any fellow, and may be put 

 to the vote for election on the same day, provided 

 that public notice of such proposal has been given 

 at the preceding meeting. 



At a meeting of the Royal Society held on May 15 

 the following candidates nominated by the council 



NO. 2586, VOL. 103] 



were elected fellows of the society : — Prof. F. A. Bain- 

 bridge, Dr. G. Barger, Dr. S. 'Chapman, Sir C. F. 

 Close, Dr. J. W. Evans, Sir Maurice Fitzmaurice, 

 Dr. G. S. Graham-Smith, Mr. E. Heron-Allen, Dr. 

 W. D. Matthew, Prof. C. G. Seligman, Prof. B. D. 

 Steele, Major G. I. Taylor, Dr. G. N. Watson, Dr. 

 J. C. Willis, and Prof. T. B. Wood. 



The Cullum geographical medal of the American 

 Geographical Society for the present year has been 

 awarded to M. E. de Margerie, the translator into 

 French of Suess's "Das Antlitz der Erde," and an 

 acknowledged authority upon the physical geography 

 of the United States of America. 



Mr. W. R. Dunlop referred in his letter on the 

 cultivation of sponges, published in Nature of May 8, 

 to the present position of the subject In relation to 

 the Colonial Office. We understand that nothing has 

 been officially decided there In regard to a marine 

 zoologist for the Imperial Department of Agriculture 

 (W.I.), but the subject of sponge culture is engaging 

 attention, and the question of sending a marine 

 zoologist to study sponges In the West Indies will 

 shortly come before a Committee. 



On Tuesday next. May 27, Prof. W. H. Bragg will 

 deliver the first of twq lectures at the Royal Institu- 

 tion on listening under water (the Tyndall lectures). 

 On Thursday, May 29, Sir Valentine Chirol will give 

 the first of two lectures on the Balkans. The Friday 

 evening discourse on May 30, at 5.30 o'clock, will be 

 delivered by Sir John Rose Bradford on a " filter- 

 passing" virus in certain diseases. The closing dis- 

 course of the session will be given on June 6 by 

 Sir Ernest Rutherford on "Atomic Projectiles and 

 their Collisions with Light Atoms." 



The Research Defence Society has presented to the 

 Home Secretary a protest against the Dogs' Protec- 

 tion Bill. Although the signing of such a document 

 by physiologists may perhaps be regarded as natural, 

 It is noteworthy that we find also the names of all 

 the leading members of the medical profession, many 

 dignitaries of the Church, men of affairs, and 

 members of the legal and literary professions. It Is 

 pointed out that the passing of the Bill would be 

 disastrous to the future of medical science in this 

 country, while the interests of national health and 

 efficiency would be seriously prejudiced. The latest 

 report of the Medical Research Committee Is referred 

 to as showing the service rendered by _ physiological 

 experiments, for which the use of dogs Is essential. 



Mr. H. S. Ball, late Assistant Inspector of Mines, 

 G.H.Q., France, has communicated a valuable account 

 of the work of the miner on the Western front to 

 the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy (Bulletin, 

 April, 1919, pp. 1-53)- One of the most Interesting 

 sections of the paper Is that which deals with mine 

 listening instruments. The geophone, which repro- 

 duces the sound exactly, magnifies the intensity two 

 and a half times. A single Instrument is used when 

 the object is merely to detect the existence and nature 

 of sounds made by enemy miners, and a pair when 

 the direction of the source of sound Is required. The 

 two geophones are placed on the ground about 18 In. 

 apart, each connected with an ear of the listener, and 

 they are moved until the sound Is reproduced equally 

 in both ears, the direction of the sound-source being 

 then at right angles to the line joining the geophones. 

 Observations were made at the end of a gallery, and, 

 owing to the danger Incurred at such a post and to 

 the need for economising man-power, the seismo- 

 mlcrophone came Into use, as many as fifty galleries 

 being connected up to a switchboard of a central lis- 



