June 12, 1919] 



NATURE 



289 



The ladies' soiree of the Royal Society will be held 

 at Burlington House on Wednesday, June 25, at 8.30. 



The general board of the National Physical Labora- 

 tory will meet at Bushy House, Teddington, on 

 Tuesday, June 24. 



Dr. J. J. Simpson has been appointed keeper of 

 /oology in the National Museum of Wales, and Dr. 

 Ethel N. Thomas keeper of botany. 



The Bakerian lecture of the Royal Society will be 

 iMivered on June 19 by the Hon. R'. J. Strutt, F.R.S., 

 >n " Phosphorescence and Fluorescence in Metallic 

 \'apours." 



We regret to announce the death on June 10, at 

 sixty-nine years of age, of the Ven. William Cunning- 

 ham, D.D., Archdeacon of Ely, and fellow of Trinity 

 College, Cambridge. Dr. Cunningham was the author 

 of a number of important works on the economic 

 asjjects of the history of commerce, and from 1891 to 

 1897 was professor of economics at King's College, 

 London. 



It is announced in Science that the Edison medal 

 for meritorious achievement in electrical science or 

 electrical engineering has been awarded to Mr. Ben- 

 jamin G. Lamme, of the Westinghouse Electric and 

 Manufacturing Co., and was presented to him at the 

 recent^ annual meeting of the American Institute of 

 Electrical Engineers. 



We learn from the Times that an International 

 Hydrographic Conference will meet in London on 

 June 24. The conference will be representative of 

 all maritime nations, except the Central Powers, 

 Turkey, and Russia, and it is hoped that the hydro- 

 graphic experts will settle many differences in respect 

 to charting, hydrographic publications, and hydro- 

 graphy generally. 



The following have been nominated as officers and 

 council of the Wild Bird Investigation Society for 

 the year 1919-20: — President: Mr. J. H. Gurnev. 

 Vice-Presidents : Dr. F. G. Penrose, Prof. D'Arcy W. 

 Thom,pson, and Mr. E. Wheler-Galton. Council': Mr. 

 W. Berry, Mr. L. Greening, Mr. L. A. L. King, Dr. 

 S. H. Long, Dr. Graham Renshaw, and Dr. F. 

 Ward. General Secretary and Editor: Dr. W. E. 

 Collinge. 



The presentation of the Albert medal of the Royal 

 ^Mcietv of Arts to Sir Oliver Lodge on June 6, "in 

 cognition of his work as the pioneer of wireless 

 iegraphy," has given much gratification to men of 

 science. The developments of wireless telegraphy 

 have been so remarkable that the early demonstra- 

 tions of its practicability by Sir Oliver Lodge are 

 1 lively to be forgotten except by the people who wit- 

 nessed them. We are glad, therefore, that the Royal 

 Society of Arts has by its award given public recogni- 

 tion of his pioneer work, and has distinguished itself 

 by being the first to confer an honour so fully merited. 



On account of the very large number of applica- 

 tions that have been received by the organising com- 

 mittee of the forthcoming British Scientific Products 

 Exhibition, to be held under the auspices of the 

 British Science Guild, all the space available at the 

 Central Hall. Westminster, has now been allotted, 

 and no further applications can be considered. The j 

 exhibition will be open to the public from July 3 to 

 August 5. Its scope will be more extensive than was 

 possible at last year's display, when war conditions 



NO. 2589, VOL. 103] 



made it necessary to withhold from public view much 

 of the scientific and technical work carried on in 

 Great Britain. Striking testimony will be furnished 

 of the enterprise of British manufacturers, and the 

 uses they have made of science and invention in new 

 industries and in the development of old. 



A COPY of the annual report for 1918 of the council 

 of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, New 

 Zealand, has been received. From it we learn that 

 early in the year the Government voted the sum of 

 500Z. to the New Zealand Institute for research work. 

 Five applications for allotments were made through 

 the Institute of Canterbury, and the following grants 

 were made to members : — 200I. to Dr. W. P. Evans, 

 for investigation of New Zealand brown coals ; 50L to 

 Dr. Chas. Chilton, for investigation of New Zealand 

 flax (phormium); and 30^. to Mr. L. J. Wild, for a 

 soil survey of the Canterbury Plains district. The 

 principal action of the institute in the direction of the 

 co-ordination of science and industry during the past 

 year led to the establishment by the board of governors 

 of Canterbury College of a technological section 

 in the public library. The need for modern technical 

 literature has been felt very much during the past 

 four years by those engaged in the many attempts to 

 establish industries of a chemical, or more or less 

 scientific, nature. This section, though yet small, will, 

 if adequately supported, eventually prove of great in- 

 dustrial value. The institute's representative on the 

 board of trustees of the Riccarton Bush reports that 

 the Bush has been open to the public durinp- the year 

 at the usual times, and has been vi^ted'.by large 

 numbers. The Bush continues to be of great use to 

 the botanical students in the neighbourhood of Christ- 

 church and to members of the institute. 



The preparation of lac, one of the oldest Indian 

 industries, has recently been investigated bv the Im- 

 perial Government. Though other countries, notably 

 Japan and German East Africa, have attempted the 

 cultivation of lac, their efforts have so far proved 

 fruitless, and India retains the monopoly of this im- 

 portant industry, which supplies exports amounting 

 to 4 crores of rupees, or about 260,000!. The 

 collection of the product is still largely confined to 

 the wilder forest tribes, and their methods are care- 

 less, imperfect, and wasteful. The same mav be said 

 of the present methods of making shellac. There 

 is a real danger that it may be replaced bv a syn- 

 thetic product, and the example of indigo shows the 

 possibility that the industry may ultimatelv disappear. 

 Not long ago the forest chemist at Dehra Dun 

 worked out a method of extracting the pure lac-resin 

 with a wood spirit. This and other suggestions 

 for improvement of the manufacture are now being 

 considered by the Government of India, and there seems 

 reason to anticipate that, in the immediate future. 

 India will be able to meet the ever-increasing demand 

 for shellac. 



A comprehensive paper on the Orthoptera of Nova 

 Scotia has been recently published bv Mr. H. Piers 

 (Proc. and Trans. Nova Scot. Inst." Sci., vol. xiv., 

 part 3, 1918). In addition to careful diagnoses of the 

 twenty-eight species enumerated, the author gives 

 valuable distributional, bionomic, and economic notes. 

 It is rather surprising that, with the exception of the 

 imported cockroaches, no member of the Nova Scotian 

 orthopteran fauna is found in Great Britain. 



Mr. W. Dwight Pierce has published (Proc. U.S. 

 Nat. Mus., vol. liv., No. 2242) a second supplement 

 to his monograph on the Strepsiptera. He brings 

 forward additional arguments for his contention that 



