March 24, 1910] 



na ture 



101 



IV'orfc 0/ Committees. 



New committees have been formed for dealing with the 

 conservation of natural sources of energy, and to consider 

 the question of technical education and its position in 

 regard to universities. In addition to these, there are 

 committees dealing with education, inexpensive instruments 

 in science teaching, agriculture, sjnchronisation of clocks, 

 naming and numbering of streets (executive committee), 

 and the coordination of charitable effort. 



The medical committee has been increased in numbers 

 in order to take up specially the consideration of medical 

 research. In its report this committee emphasises the very 

 great importance of post-graduate medical study, and 

 points out the very wide field and the great materials for 

 such work which exist in London, and that owing to the 

 absence of organised effort relatively little use is being 

 made of this immense field. It is further considered that 

 the ideal to be worked for is the establishment of a 

 central medical school in connection with the London 

 Universit}', which should be devoted to post-graduate 

 teaching and research. Such central school might be 

 associated with all the^London hospitals in connection with 

 the London Universit^*^ for • the purpose of post-graduate 

 medical study, and should have affiliated to it other medical 

 institutions and hospitals for the treatment of special tj-pes 

 of disease (such as hospitals for epilepsy and diseases of 

 the nervous systems, the Royal Ophthalmic Hospital at 

 Moorfields, Brompton Hospital for Consumptives, &c.). 

 Professors appointed by the Central London University 

 School would be deputed to work at anj' of the appointed 

 institutions, where special facilities might exist for research 

 and post-graduate teaching in the subject dealt with by 

 each professor. The committee is strongly of the opinion 

 that much greater facilities should be given for medical 

 research than exist at the present time, and that large 

 funds should be furnished from public and private sources 

 for such purposes. One of the objects on which expendi- 

 ture is urgently required is in the endowment by the 

 Central London L'niversity School of arrangements for 

 pathological research at the medical schools. 



The committee on the conservation of natural sources of 

 energy, of which Sir William Ramsay is chairman, has 

 decided to draw up reports on (i) coal, particularly in 

 connection with its employment for smelting and other 

 industrial purposes : (2) internal-combustion engines and 

 oil engines ; (3) atomic and interatomic energ>- ; (4) the 

 availabilitA,- and quantity of natural oil arwl natural gas ; 

 (5) the heat of the earth ; (6) availability of water-power : 

 (7) forestry ; (8) carburisation of coal at high and low 

 temperatures ; (9) solar power. 



THE PROPOSED SCOTTISH XATIOXAL 

 ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION OF 191 1. 



A LARGE and enthusiastic meeting", organised by 

 the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, was 

 held in the Synod Hall, Edinburgh, on Thursday 

 evening, March 17, to hear the plans of Dr. Bruce for 

 his second Antarctic expedition. Prof. J. Geikie, 

 F.R.S., president of the society, was in the chair, 

 and was supported by a number of representatives of 

 Scottish scientific bodies and others. The keynote of 

 the meeting was that the aim of the expedition was 

 to be throughout scientific. This was emphasised first 

 of all by the chairman, who on that ground disclaimed 

 the idea against which a needless protest had been 

 put forth by the president of the Geogpraphical Society 

 of Berlin, that Antarctic exploration should be in 

 any way reser\'ed for any particular nation, and, in 

 view of the immense field for scientific investigation in 

 Antarctica, welcomed the friendly rivalry of all nations 

 in carrying out that work. 



Dr. Bruce then addressed the meeting, and before 

 giving an account of his present plans, gave a brief 

 sketch of the history of Antarctic exploration, laying 

 special stress on the part that Scotsmen had borne in 

 that work since Weddell set sail from Leith in 

 1823. It is hoped that the expedition now planned 

 will leave Scotland about May i, 191 1, and reach 



NO. 2108, VOL. 83] 



Buenos Aires about June 20 of that year. About ten 

 days later it will sail for Cape Town, pursuing a 

 zigzag course, for the most part, between the parallels 

 of 40° and 50° S., but including a visit to the Sand- 

 wich group in about 57° S., as well as to Gough 

 Island. The purpose of this navigation will be to 

 supplement the bathymetrical survey of the South 

 Atlantic Ocean begun by the Scotia in 1902-4, and it 

 is not expected that Cape Town will be reached 

 before September i. After refitting and coaling, the 

 ship will sail once more for the Sandwich group, and 

 thence to Coats Land, and seek for a place on or 

 near that coast where it may be possible to land and 

 erect a house, although from the experience of the 

 previous expedition it is thought possible that it may 

 be necessary to go so far east as Cape Ann in Enderby 

 Land for that purpose. At some point in Coats 

 Land, however, it is intended that a sledge-party of 

 three, under the leadership of Dr. Bruce, shall land 

 with the view of crossing to the Ross Sea by way of 

 the South Pole. The ship, after landing a party of 

 ten or twelve persons at whatever point they find 

 suitable for the erection of a house, will proceed, by 

 a route in as high a latitude as possible, to winter at 

 Melbourne, taking soundings and carrying on deep- 

 sea research all the way. 



In the following spring the ship will leave Mel- 

 bourne and push southward to McMurdo Strait, 

 Victoria Land, in order to send a sledge part}- to meet, 

 and furnish with' fresh supplies, the previously landed 

 sledge-party under Dr. Bruce. It is expected that the 

 two parties will meet near the Beardmore Glacier, 

 and, after meeting, the combined party will proceed 

 to the ship and sail for New Zealand. Further oceano- 

 graphical work will afterwards be carried on between 

 New Zealand and the Falkland Islands in as high a 

 latitude as the winter season will permit, and in the 

 following spring the ship will sail southwards to 

 relieve the wintering partv", which by that time will 

 have been engaged for two years in surveying the 

 coast-line of Antarctica east and west of the station, 

 and in taking meteorological, magnetic, and other 

 observations. The total cost of the expedition is esti- 

 mated at about 50,000!. Dr. Bruce, it may be men- 

 tioned, is in cordial correspondence, not merely with 

 Captain Scott, but also with the promoters of the 

 German expedition, and there is good reason to hope 

 that if funds are raised both for his and the German 

 expedition, there will be no useless overlapping of 

 work. As regards the McMurdo Strait, which Captain 

 Scott has chosen for his special sphere of work, Dr. 

 Bruce expressly announces that the Scottish expedi- 

 tion will make no special investigations in that region. 



The meeting was then addressed by Dr. John Home, 

 F.R.S., director of the Geological Survey of Scotland, who, 

 as representing the Royal Society of Edinburgh, first re- 

 ferred to the high value of the publications already issued 

 giving the scientific results of Dr. Bruce 's previous 

 Antarctic expedition, including upwards of twent}" papers 

 published by the society he represented, and expressed the 

 hope that the Government would see its way to furnish the 

 necessary funds for the publication of the remaining results, 

 which were eagerly looked for by all interested in .Antarctic 

 exploration in every part of the world. He stated that he 

 was commissioned by the council of the society to give to 

 Dr. Bruce 's new scheme the most cordial recommendation 

 to the Scottish public for financial assistance. 



Prof. J. Graham Kerr, F.R.S., professor of zoology in 

 the University of Glasgow, then spoke as representative of 

 the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow, expressing 

 that society's cordial sympathy with Dr. Bruce's project, 

 and especially because they felt that they had in him a 

 splendid example of the type of explorer who, while ready 

 to take any adventures that came his way, recognised that 

 his real object was to do honest scientific work. The Earl 

 of Cassilis, representing the St. Andrew Society, dwelt 



