328 



NATURE 



[June 26, 1919 



particularly to the movements of limbs and joints in 

 health as well as in disease. Such films would prove 

 invaluable for investigators, teachers, and students. 



An International Hydrographic Conference was 

 opened in London on June 24. The subjects to be 

 discussed are: — (i) Charts; (2) sailing directions; 

 (3) list of lights ; (4) notice to mariners ; (5) time- 

 signals, distance-tables, and other miscellaneous hydro- 

 graphic publications ; (6) tide-tables ; (7) instruments 

 used for surveying on shore and at sea ; (8) time- 

 measuring instruments ; (9) interchange of publica- 

 tions ; and (10) establishment of an International 

 Bureau. Representatives were present from Argen- 

 tina, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, China, Denmark, Egypt, 

 France, Great Britain, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, 

 Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Siam, Spain, 

 Sweden, and the United States. Rear-Admiral Sir 

 John Parry -was elected president of the conference; 

 M. Renaud, vice-president; and Mr. W. D. Barber, 

 secretary. 



Prof. F. Soddy has been elected a foreign member 

 of the Swedish Academy of Sciences in succession 

 to the late Sir William Crookes. 



The council of the British Scientific Instrument 

 Research Association has appointed Mr. H. Moore to 

 be assistant director of research. 



Mr. L. G. Radcliffe, of the Municipal College of 

 Technology, Manchester, has been awarded the gold 

 medal of the Worshipful Company of Dyers, London, 

 for his researches on the sulphonation of fixed oils. 



The following acceptances of lectureships in con- 

 nection with the Royal College of Physicians of 

 London are announced : — Dr. J. L. Birley, the Goul- 

 stonian ; Sir W. Leishman, the Horace Dobell ; Sir 

 J. Rose Bradford, the Lumleian ; and, for 1921, Dr. 

 J. L. Golla, the Croonian. 



The Ministry of Health for England and Wales has 

 now been formally established by Order in Council, 

 and the King has approved the appointment of Dr. 

 Addison as the first Minister of Health. The func- 

 tions and staff of the Local Government Board will 

 be taken over by the Ministry. 



The annual general meeting of the Research 

 Defence Society will be held at the rooms of the 

 Medical Society of London, 11 Chandos Street, 

 Cavendish Square, on Thursdav, June 26, at 4.30, 

 Lord Knutsford presiding. A short address will be 

 given by Sir Anthony Bowlby on " Experimental 

 Medicine and the Sick and Wounded in the War." 



There will be an additional meeting of the Royal 

 Astronomical Society this session, probably on July n, 

 to receive certain American astronomers who are on 

 their way to Brussels to take part in the conference 

 of the International Research Council, which will be 

 opened there on July 18. The party is expected to 

 include Profs. Adams, Boss, Campbell, Eichelberger, 

 Mitchell, Schlesinger, and Stebbins. 



The last conference of the present series on " Health 

 Work for Whitley Councils'*' will be held under the 

 auspices of the Industrial Reconstruction Council on 

 Tuesday, July ij at 6 p.m., in the Hall of the Insti- 

 tute of Journalists, 2 and 4 Tudor Street, E.C.4. The 

 chair will be taken by Sir Alexander Roger, and the 

 opening address given by Dr. E. Halford Ross, after 

 which will follow questions and discussion. No 

 tickets are necessary. 



The death is announced, in his seventy-fifth year, 

 of Dr. William Gilson Farlow, professor of crypto- 

 gamic botany at Harvard University since 1879. ' Dr. 

 NO. 2591, VOL. 103] 



Farlow was president of the American Academy of 

 Arts and Sciences in 1905. He was the author of 

 books on "The Black Knot," "Diseases of Olive and 

 Orange Trees," "The Gymnosporangia," "Marine 

 AlgEB of New England," "The Potato Rot," and an 

 Index of Fungi. 



A SUMMER meeting of the Royal Meteorological 

 Society will be held at Kew Observatory, Richmond, 

 on Wednesday, July 2. A demonstration of a port- 

 able wireless apparatus for use in the location of dis- 

 tant lightning flashes will be given by Mr. R. A. 

 Watson-Watt, and the president (Sir Napier Shaw) 

 will exhibit two diagrams showing the motion of air 

 in travelling depressions. Pilot-balloon ascents will 

 be made from the observatory grounds, and there will 

 be an exhibition of autographic records of the observa- 

 tory, photographs of clouds and other meteorological 

 phenomena, and recent meteorological instruments. 



The President of the Board of Agriculture and 

 Fisheries has appointed a Departmental Committee to 

 arrange for the testing, adaptation, and improvement 

 of machines likely to prove of value to agriculture, to 

 examine inventions and new devices, and to advise as 

 to the further steps which should be taken to promote 

 the development of agricultural machinery. . The Com- 

 mittee consists of the following members : — Sir 

 Douglas Newton (chairman), Mr. G. C. Baddon. Mr. 

 Thompson Close, Major T. G. Merrison. Cant. B. J. 

 Owen, Mr. H. G. Richardson, Prof. R. S. Seton, and 

 Mr. J. G. Stewart. The secretary of the Committee 

 is Mr. V. E. Wilkins. Board of Agriculture, 72 Vic- 

 toria Street, London, S.W.i, to whom all communica- 

 tions should be addressed. 



As already announced in N.ature (February 6, 1919, 

 p. 448), a revision of "Pritzel's Index" is in course 

 of preparation by the Royal Horticultural Societv, 

 with the assistance of botanists attached to the Roval 

 Botanic Gardens, Kew, the Natural History Museum, 

 the Linnean Society, and the co-operation of the 

 U.S. 'Government Plant Bureau. The estimated cost 

 of the production of the work is 3500Z., which mav 

 possibly be increased to 4000L in consequence of the 

 present enhanced cost of labour and materials. Up 

 to the present contributions amounting to 968/. have 

 been promised, but, being of the opinion that manv 

 more people would like to have a share in the issue of 

 this important work, an appeal for subscriptions has 

 just been_ circulated by the Royal Horticultural 

 Society, Vincent Square, S.W. i. 



There has been formed in America a Llnion of 

 Scientific Federal Employees similar to the National 

 Union of Scientific Workers in this country. The 

 aims of both unions, to advance science as an essential 

 element in the national life by improving the status 

 of the scientific worker, are stated in terms which 

 are nearly identical. The American union differs from 

 the British; first, because it includes only Federal 

 employees, and, secondly, because it is afifiliated to a 

 "Labour" organisation.' The first difference alreadv 

 seems likely to disappear; the second indicates a 

 difference in political conditions rather than in policy, 

 for one of the chief arguments urged in America for 

 affiliation was based on the cordial relations of the 

 Labour unions to the Federal Departments. Another 

 argument, which has also been "urged over here, is 

 that intimate relations with scientific workers will 

 widen the outlook of the Labour unions. There is 

 no indication at present how the American union 

 proposes to solve the difficult problems connected with 

 qualifications; perhaps they do not arise while 

 membership is restricted to Federal emolovees. The 

 secretary of the union is P. G. Agnew, "Bureau of 

 Standards. 



