August 21, 19 19] 



NATURE 



489 



Pieces from Special Steels," J. J. Cohade ; "Nickel- 

 chrome Forgings," J. H. Andrew, J. N. Green*\vood, 

 and G. W. Green; " Brittleness in Nickel-chrome and 

 other Steels," F. Rogers; "Temper Brittleness of 

 Nickel-chrome Steel," R. H. Greaves; "Experiments 

 with Nickel Steels," N. Hudson; and "The Cause 

 of Irreversibility in Nickel Steels," K. Honda and 

 H. Takagi. Other papers expected are: — " Decar- 

 burisation of Steel," E. D. Campbell; "Nature of 

 the Ai Transformation and a Theory of Quenching," 

 K. Honda; and "The Structure of Iron-Carbon- 

 Chromium Alloys," T. Murakami. 



Prof. G. E. Hale, director of the Mount Wilson 

 Observatory, has been elected a foreign associate of 

 the Paris Academy of Sciences. 



The appointment of Lord Lee of Fareham to the 

 Presidency of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, 

 in succession to Lord Ernie, resigned, has been 

 approved by the King, as has also that of Sir Eric 

 deddes as Minister of Transport, 



The Bessemer medal of the Iron and Steel Institute 

 for the present year has been awarded to Prof. F, 

 Giolitti, of Turin. 



The Fream memorial prize for 1919 has been 

 awarded by the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries 

 to Miss Doris Anderson, a student of University 

 College, Reading. 



The Elgar scholarifehip in naval architecture of the 

 Institution of Naval Architects has been awarded to 

 Mr. W. G. Green, and the Earl of Durham prize to 

 Mr. W. C Perring, both of Chatham Dockyard. 



It is announced that the widow of Prof. Milne 

 has decided to return to her native country, Japan, 

 and that in consequence the house at Shide, Newport, 

 Isle of Wight, in which Prof. Milne did such im- 

 portant work in seismology is to be sold shortly by 

 public auction. 



The death is announced of Prof. William Smith 

 Greenfield, who held the joint chair of pathology and 

 clinical medicine in the University of Edinburgh from 

 1881 to 1912. He was, in addition, physician to the 

 Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, and was probably the 

 last occupant of such a dual professorship, which was 

 not infrequent in a former generation before the 

 present era of specialisation. Prof. Greenfield was a 

 student of University College, London, and a graduate 

 of the University of London, and previous to his 

 appointment to the Edinburgh chair had been assistant 

 physician and lecturer on pathological anatomy at St. 

 Thomas's Hospital and professor-superintendent of 

 the Brown Institution. His chief contributions to 

 pathology were on anthrax and allied diseases, renal 

 diseases, pyaemia, and diseases of the thyroid gland. 



The Government has decided to institute a competi- 

 tion for commercial types of aircraft with the view of 

 obtaining a type giving greater safety. Prizes will be 

 offered for three types of aircraft — a smaller aeroplane, 

 a larger aeroplane, and a seaplane respectively. The 

 rerms of the competition will be announced shortly. 



The Home Office Committee on Miners' Lamps 



•ves notice that it is open to consider new suggestions 



r improving the safety or illuminating power of 



ifety lamps, and to examine and, if necessary, test 



iiy new devices or new types of lamps that may be 



?ent by inventors. Communications on the matter 



-hould be addressed to Mr. E. Fudge, secretary of 



the Committee, Home Office, Whitehall, S.W.i. 



The United States Ordnance Department is 

 appointing a number of experts in mathematics and 

 NO. 2599, VOL. 103] 



dynamics to conduct scientific research on ordnance 

 problems, to act as advisers on mathematical and 

 scientific problems for the Department, and to main- 

 tain connection between the Department and the 

 scientific world. 



Dr. Ph. Vogel, the well-known Indian archaeo- 

 logist, has published at Leyden an interesting 

 paper entitled " The Sign of the Spread Hand, 

 or Five-finger Token, in Pali Literature." He 

 quotes numerous examples from the sacred books 

 of Buddhism to show that this familiar symbol, a 

 protection against the Evil Eye and the influence of 

 malignant spirits, was commonly used in ancient 

 India in connection with animal sacrifice and tree- 

 worship. In one remarkable case the tree is a Ficus 

 indica, and the spirit by which it is haunted is pro- 

 pitiated by means of a human sacrifice, the entrails 

 being used as garlands and palm-marks made 

 with the blood. This explains why women in the case 

 of suttee up to recent times, when going to crema- 

 tion with their lords, used to make marks on the 

 gates of the palace with their hands steeped in ver- 

 milion. Numerous examples are given to prove that 

 the use of this symbol as a protection is common in 

 modern India and in other parts of the world. 



In the Mtiseum Journal (vol. ix., Nos. 2-3) for 

 September-December, 1918, Mr. C. W. Bishop dis- 

 cusses the horses of Tang T'ai-Tsung and the ante- 

 cedents of the Chinese horse. In considering this 

 series of reliefs in the University Museum, Phila- 

 delphia, a question arises about the origin of the 

 representation of the flying gallop, showing the horse 

 with legs extended skimming through the air as if 

 shot from a bow. There was one culture area in 

 which the representations of both animals and men 

 in motion were executed with a vigour and a force 

 unknown elsewhere — the Minoan or ^gean. All 

 studv points to the extreme unlikelihood of an in- 

 dependent invention of the same artistic convention in 

 the Mediterranean and in China. The problem is by 

 what mean:; the idea was transmitted. The writer 

 concludes that it spread in pre-Classical times to the 

 regions north of the Black Sea, where it was 

 eventuallv carried both to Sassanian Persia and to 

 ancient China, apparently through the medium of 

 the so-called Scythian culture, which overspread to 

 much of Eastern Europe and Central Asia in early 

 times, and in many ways acted as a sort of connecting 

 link between East and West. 



The first number of a new periodical, the Journal 

 of Industrial Hygiene (New York : The Macmillan 

 Co. ; London : Macmillan and Co., Ltd.), has 

 reached us. It has grown out of the recent establish- 

 ment, at Harvard University, of teaching and research 

 in this field, and is published mainly under the auspices 

 of this organisation, although it aims at being inter- 

 national in character. The scope of the journal may 

 be gathered from the titles of the articles in the present 

 issue. "Industrial Medicine and Surgery," "Lead 

 Poisoning," "Fatigue," and "Telephone Operating in 

 its Medical Aspects," together with full abstracts of 

 current literature bearing on cognate subjects, are in- 

 cluded. The printing and illustrations are well done. 

 Although the formation of so many new journals for 

 special departments of knowledge is in general to be 

 regretted, there is no doubt that this one will be found 

 of much value in bringing the results of scientific re- 

 search to the acquaintance of the industrial world. The 

 publication of results of original work, however, except 

 such as is directed to very special economic ends, in 

 journals of limited range is apt to lead to their be- 

 coming lost to the general body of scientific doctrine. 



