288 



NATURE 



[June 12, 19 19 



In 1896 Sir Boverton made a most valuable con- 

 tribution to the industry he had so much at heart 

 by the publication of his great work, " A Treatise 

 on Petroleum." This has already passed through 

 three editions, and a fourth was in course of 

 preparation at the time of his death. He was 

 also primarily responsible for the foundation of 

 the Institute of Petroleum Technologists, of which 

 he was the first president. In 1S73 he married 

 the eldest daughter of the late Mr. Frederick 

 Letchford, who survives him. His only son, 

 Bernard Boverton, died in 1911, leaving a son, 

 Thomas Boverton, born in 1906, who now suc- 

 ceeds to the baronetcy. A. C. K. 



NOTES. 



Among the additional honours conferred on the 

 occasion of the King's birthday we notice the fol- 

 lowing :—G.C.B. : Sir H. Llewellyn Smith, Secretary, 

 Board of Trade. K.C.B.: Mr. Stanley M. Leathes, 

 First Civil Service Commissioner. C.B. : Mr. R. J. G. 

 Mayor, Principal Assistant Secretary (Universities), 

 Board of Education, and Prof. S. J. Chapman, Senior 

 Assistant Secretary, General Economic Department, 

 Board of Trade. Knight: Col. G. P. Lenox-Conyng- 

 ham. Superintendent of the Trigonometrical Survey, 

 Dehra Dun, India. 



The following medical men are among those whose 

 names are included in a list of further • honours 

 and appointments made on the occasion of the King's 

 birthday:— K.C.B.: Col. W. Tavlor and Lt.-Gen. Sir 

 W. Babtie. K.C.M.G.: The Hon. Sir John McCalh 

 (Agent-General in London for the State of Tasmania), 

 Col. W. T. Lister, Major-Gen. H. N. Thompson, 

 Brig. -Gen. J. Moore, and Major-Gen. Sir W. P. 

 Herringham. K.C.V.O.: Mr. J. O. Skevington. 

 K.B.E.: Col. H. A. Ballance, Col. R. H. Firth, 

 Col. C. G. Watson, Major-Gen. G. B. Stani street. 

 Col. H. Davy, Lt.-Col. and Bt. Col. G. -Sims Wood- 

 head, Lt.-Col. Sir S. F. Murphv, Lt.-Col. D'Arcy 

 Power, Lt.-Col. ]. L. Wood, Lt.'-Col. H. McI. W. 

 Gray, Lt.-Col. Sir A. W. Mavo-Robson, Col. C. J. 

 Symonds, Maj. and Bt. Lt.-Cof. F. W. Mott, F.R.S., 

 Major-Gen. Sir Robert Jones, Lt.-Col. A. D. Reid, 

 Col. H. G. Barling, and Col. J. Swain. 



Aircraft crews are speeding up for the eastward 

 flight across the Atlantic, and, weather permitting, 

 fresh attempts will be made very shortly. The Times 

 of June 10, in a cablegram from St. Johns (N.F.) 

 dated June 9, says: — "The Vickers-Vimv machine 

 ascended for its trial flight at 8.17 a.m. (Greenwich 

 mean time). It descended after a spin of about forty 

 minutes. . . . The airmen report that everything was 

 working satisfactorily. . . . The machine will now 

 await suitable weather for the Atlantic flight." The 

 crew of the Handley-Page machine had earlier ex- 

 pressed the hope to be ready for the flight by June 15. 

 There is the advantage now of the full moon. At the 

 time of going to press the weather conditions over 

 the eastern Atlantic were not very favourable. There 

 were cyclonic disturbances in the Atlantic at no great 

 distance from the Irish coast. If the aeroplanes which 

 are being prepared had been ready on June 3, they 

 would probably have experienced very favourable 

 weather for the flight. At St. Johns a very light north- 

 east wind was blowing and the weather was clear. 

 During the night of June 3-4 no wireless weather 

 message from the open Atlantic reported more than 

 a fresh wind, and the direction was uniformly from 

 NO. 2589, VOL. 103] 



the westward. There was a good deal of cloud with 

 some rain and mist on the British coasts, which 

 seemed the only unfavourable factor. "The Life- 

 History of Surface Air-Currents," published by the 

 Meteorological Office, giving the trajectories for mid- 

 June, 1883, from some Atlantic synchronous charts, 

 shows the surface wind from Newfoundland to travel 

 up the Davis Strait and down to the eastward of 

 Greenland, striking fairly southwards to the equator, 

 so that all June weather is not favourable to the 

 trans-Atlantic flight. • Current weather conditions alone 

 can be of use for safe guidance. 



The thirtieth annual conference of the Museums 

 Association will be held in the University Museum, 

 Oxford, on July 8-10, under the presidency of Sir 

 Henry Howorth. The chief subjects for discussion 

 are the question of transferring the control of 

 museums to the education authority and the desir- 

 ability of a diploma for museum curators and the 

 necessary course of training. Among papers with a 

 scientific bearing will be " Suggestions for Preparing 

 and Mounting Museum Specimens," by L. P. W. 

 Renouf; "The Pitt-Rivers Museum," by H. Balfour; 

 and "Timber Collections for Museums," by H. Stone. 

 Prof. Sollas will demonstrate the arrangement of the 

 geological collections and his section-cutting machine. 

 Prof. Poulton will elucidate the collections in his 

 care, and contributions are promised by Prof. J. L. 

 Myres and Dr. H. M. Vernon, among others. Visits 

 will be paid to other museums and places of historic 

 interest in Oxford. Each museum subscribing one 

 guinea may send three delegates, and individuals can 

 join on payment of half a guinea. The secretary 

 (whose resignation we regret to see announced) is Mr. 

 W. Grant Murray, Art Galleries, Swansea, and the local 

 secretary, to whom inquiries about accommodation 

 should be addressed as soon as possible, is Miss W. 

 Blackman, of the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford. 



The joint session of the u^ristotelian Society, the 

 British Psychological Society, and the Mind Associa- 

 tion, to take place at Bedford College on July 11-14, 

 promises some communications of present scientific 

 interest. Dr. Rivers will ex,pound a new theory of 

 the repression of instinct in normal conscious life, to 

 which he has been led in the study of war neuroses 

 in the military hospitals. He is to open a symposium 

 on "Instinct and the Unconscious," in which Dr. 

 C. G. Jung, the leader of the Zurich school of psycho- 

 pathology, will take part. The important neuro- 

 logical discoveries of Dr. Head will also be discussed 

 in their bearing on the metaphysical problem of the 

 nature of the ultimate data of science. This sym- 

 posium will be presided over by Sir J. Larmor. It 

 will be opened by Prof. Whitehead, who, with Sir 

 Oliver Lodge and Prof. J. W. Nicholson, will repre- 

 sent different views on the questions raised by the 

 recent relativity and quantum theories. In pure 

 philosophy Mr. Bertrand Russell will expound a new 

 view of what propositions are and how they mean, 

 the result of a recent critical examination of the 

 new behavourist psychology. Lord Haldane is to pre- 

 side over a symposium on the relation of the finite 

 to the infinite mind, which the Dean of Carlisle will 

 open, and in which the Bishop of Down will take 

 part. The theory of knowledge will be discussed In a 

 symposium on " Knowledge by Acquaintance," at 

 which Prof. Sorley will preside. The arrangements 

 announced in the programme do not exhaust the 

 interest of the session, as there are to be informal 

 meetings for the reception of short communications 

 and discussions on present controversies. 



