5IO 



NATURE 



{August 28, 19 19 



NOTES. 



Particulars respecting the Government competition 

 for the construction of aeroplanes and seaplanes on 

 the lines of increased safety, to which allusion was 

 made in Nature of August 21, have now been pub- 

 lished, and are obtainable from the Air Ministry. 

 The following prizes are offered : — For aeroplanes of 

 small type : First prize, io,oooL ; second prize, 4000Z. ; 

 and third prize, 2oooi. For large-type aeroplanes : 

 First prize, 2o,oooZ. ; second prize, SoooL ; and third 

 prize, 4000L For seaplanes ; First prize, io,oooi. ; 

 second prize, 4000/. ; and third prize, 2000L The 

 latest date for entries is December 31 next. Sir 

 H. H. Shephard has instituted a memorial to his 

 son, the late Brig.-Gen. G. S. Shephard, in the 

 shape of prizes for members of the Royal Air Force 

 for essays relating to aviation. This year the prizes 

 are to be awarded for essays on " Sea and Fleet 

 Reconnaissance'' and "Aerial Navigation and Pilot- 

 age." The administration of the annual comjietitions 

 is to be carried out by the Air Council. 



An International Exhibition of Aeronautics is to 

 be held in Paris from December 19 to January 4 

 next. There will be eleven groups of exhibits as 

 follow : — Aerostatics ; heavier - than - air apparatus ; 

 motors and propellers ; sciences ; art ; structural 

 materials; transport and shelters; cartography and 

 bibliography ; commerce ; motor navigation ; and 

 various industries. 



The annual general meeting of the Institution of 

 Mining Engineers will be held at the University, 

 Birmingham, on September 10-12, when the follow- 

 ing papers will be read, or taken as read :— " Report 

 of the Committee on the Control of Atmospheric 

 Conditions in Hot and Deep Mines"; "Training of 

 Officers and Men of the Tunnelling Companies of the 

 Royal Engineers in Mine-rescue Work on Active Ser- 

 vice in France," G. F. F. Eagar; "A New Method of 

 Working Thick Seams of Coal at Baggeridge Col- 

 liery," D. S. Newey; "Protractors," T. G. Bocking; 

 and "Magnetic Meridian Observations : A Method 

 of Utilising the Kew Observatory Records," T. G. 

 Bocking. The following papers will be open for dis- 

 cussion :—" The DifTiculties and Dangers of Mine- 

 rescue Work on the Western Front, and Mining 

 Operations carried out by Men wearing Rescue- 

 apparatus," Lt.-Col. D. Da'le Logan; "Accidents due 

 to Structural Defects of Apparatus or Injury to 

 Apparatus, and the Future of the Proto Appara- 

 tus," Lt.-Col. D. Dale Logan; "The Examination 

 of Coal in Relation to Coal-washing," M. W. Blyth 

 and L. T. O'Shea; and "The Education of Colliery 

 Managers for Administrative and Social Responsibili- 

 ties," W. Maurice. 



The seventh congress of the Spanish Association 

 for the Advancement of the Sciences is to be held at 

 Bilbao on September 7-12. 



A SUMMER meeting of the Royal English Arbori- 

 cultural Society is to be held at Bournemouth on 

 September 16-18. 



We learn from the Museums Journal that it is 

 proposed by the British Cotton Industry Research 

 Association, Manchester, to establish a Cotton Indus- 

 tries Museum, having for its object the illustration 

 of the production of cotton and its utilisation in 

 industry. 



We much regret to have to announce the death on 

 August 23, in his eighty-fifth year, of Dr. A. G. 

 Vernon Harcourt, F.R.S., lately Lee's reader in 

 chemistry at Christ Church, Oxford. 



NO. 2600, VOL. 103] 



We announce with regret the death on August 20, 

 in his fiftieth year, of Dr. L. W. King, assistant 

 keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian antiquities in the 

 British Museum, and professor of Assyrian and 

 Babylonian archaeology in the University of London. 



By the death at the age of sixty -<five of Sir W. H. 

 St. John Hope has been lost one of the greatest 

 authorities on British archaeology the present genera- 

 tion has known. When in 1885 he was appointed 

 assistant secretary of the Society of Antiquaries, 

 a post which he held for twenty-five years, 

 his life-work as an archaeologist began. Soon after 

 leaving Cambridge Sir W. St. John Hope took up 

 the study of ecclesiastical architecture, monumental 

 brasses, and heraldry, and he communicated numerous 

 papers on these subjects to Archaeologia, the 

 Archaeological Journal, and the Proceedings of locat 

 societies. His monograph on Fountains Abbey and 

 those on the cathedral church and monastic buildings 

 of Rochester are noteworthy examples of research 

 and exposition. His chief work, however, was the 

 description of Windsor Castle, undertaken under 

 royal patronage, which was published in 1912. He 

 was closely associated with the leading archaeologists 

 of his time, to whom his loss is irreparable, and he 

 leaves no successor so well equipped in many fields 

 of learning. 



The gold medal of the Hyderabad Archaeological 

 Society, which was instituted as a memorial to Sir 

 A. Fleetwood Pinhey, the founder and first president 

 of the society, has been awarded to Mr. H. Cousens 

 for his work, " Bijapur and its Architectural Remains." 



According to Science, Mr. D. B. MacMillan, the 

 leader of the Crocker Land Expedition, is to leave 

 next summer on an exploring expedition to the Arctic 

 regions, and will be provided with a small schooner, 

 to be named the Bowdoin, with auxiliary power, 

 built to withstand the pressure of ice-floes. The 

 expedition party will probably number ten, and be 

 absent for two or three years, engaged in work for 

 the National Geographic Society. 



An expedition to Africa under the auspices of the 

 Smithsonian Institution is in progress. Its main 

 object is to supplement the collections of African 

 animals and plants and ethnographical specimens 

 already possessed by the U.S. National Museum, 

 particularlv the collections made by Col. Roosevelt. 

 Although the museum has considerable collections 

 from various parts of the West Coast of Africa, it 

 is very deficient in specimens from the interior and 

 South Africa, and these it is hoped to supply by the 

 present expedition, which is under the leadership of 

 Mr. E. Heller, and will be abroad for at least 

 a year. It is proposed to utilise the kinematagraph 

 for taking pictures of the animals and primitive 

 peoples met with. 



The report for 1918 on experiments on animals 

 in Great Britain and Ireland has just been pub- 

 lished (price 2d.). There is a marked increase over 

 1917 in the total number of experiments; this 

 increase is due partly to the great development of 

 Army hospitals and "Army laboratories, and partly 

 to the ever-growing demand that the whole study 

 of national health and efficiency shall be advanced 

 and maintained by all the resources of science. 

 Twenty-three new places, mostly for Army work 

 or for municipal work, were registered in 19 18; and 

 eight places, having served their purpose, ^ were 

 removed from the register. The vast majority of 

 the experiments were inoculations, or of that class, 

 of experiments, made on behalf of Government 



