March 2, 191 61 



NATURE 



^D 



iiool of Economics. Among miscellaneous grants 



juade during the year may be mentioned a sum of 



1500/. to the United Irish Women, and 4000^. to the 



Women's Industrial Council towards the cost of 



iiilding a nursery training school; and to provide an 



larium for the gardens of the Zoological Society of 



itiand 10,000/. is to be given. 



How unwise it would be if the present demand for 

 national retrenchment led to any reduction of State 

 aid to our modern universities can be gathered from an 

 inspiring article by a special correspondent in the issue 

 of the Times for February 9. The impressive array 

 of facts as to the value of the application of research 

 U) the purposes of the war which the article provides 

 shows that those nations will take the first rank in 

 peace and war alike which utilise most completely the 

 resources which science has placed at the disposal of 

 mankind. The article deals more especially with the 

 four universities of the North of England, and we 

 select the following instances from the numerous 

 "xamples cited : — Distillations from coal tar, testing of 

 • 1 and explosives, calibrating of aeroplane recording 

 truments, and the production of pharmaceutical 

 drugs are included among the special war enterprises of 

 .Manchester University. Liverpool University has 

 given expert advice in the manufacture of explosives, 

 and has undertaken the analysis of explosives in a 

 district extending from Ruabon to Fleetwood. The 

 ; equipment and personnel of the tinctorial chemistr\^ and 

 ( dyeing department of Leeds University were put at 

 I the disposal of the Government in 19 14, and the de- 

 i partment has done valuable research work in relation 

 I to dye-stuffs and raw materials not hitherto made in 

 I England. Another department of this University is 

 I conducting the recovery of toluene from coal gas in 

 I Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, and is inspecting the pro- 

 i duction of high explosives in Yorkshire. The chemists 

 of the University have furnished a large supply of the 

 anzesthetic novocaine, which we formerly imported 

 from Germany, and have prepared about a hundred 

 antiseptic compounds for the military hospitals. In 

 regard to the University of Sheffield, valuable and 

 confidential w'ork has been done there in relation to 

 the science of steel, and the Scientific Advisory Com- 

 mittee of the University has given local manufacturers 

 expert guidance in their efforts to replace exports 

 from Germany. Thus, advice has been given on the 

 processes of hardening steel, on materials for polishing 

 razors, on the contact process of procuring sulphuric 

 acid, and so forth. Steps have been taken also to 

 encourage the revival of the old glass industry of 

 South Yorkshire. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Mathematical Society, February 10.— Sir Joseph 

 Larmor, president, in the chair. — J. H. Grace : (i) 

 Theorems on straight lines intersecting at right angles, 

 (ii) The classification of rational approximations. — 

 Mrs. G. C. Young : Infinite derivates. — E. H. Neville : 

 The bilinear curvature and other functions of in- 

 dependent directions on a surface. — Dr. S. Brodetsky : 

 The attraction of equiangular spirals. — J. Proudman : 

 Additions and corrections to a former paper, " Limit- 

 ing forms of long-period tides." — R. E. Powers : Cer- 

 tain composite Mersenne's numbers.— Prof. H. F. 

 Baker : Note on a formula connected with the theory 

 of spherical harmonics. — Dr. T. J. PA. Bromwich : 

 Note on Dr. Baker's formula. — J. Hammoad : Notes on 

 the arithmetic of prime numbers. 



NO. 2418, VOL. 97] 



Royal Meteorological Society, February it. — Major 

 H. G. Lyons, president, in the chair. — C. E. P. 

 Brooks : The rainfall of Nigeria and the Gold Coast. 

 The paper dealt with the rainfall on the Guinea Coast 

 and its hinterland for the ten years 1904-13. The 

 driest month is January, with scarcely any rain, the 

 wettest is June, and the monthly maps show how the 

 rainy belt travels inland as the wet season comes on. 

 In .August it reaches its northernmost position, and 

 the coast is drier during that month than in July and 

 September. The coast is very rainy, the annual fall 

 averaging 160 in., and reaching 200 in. in wet years 

 at some stations in the Niger delta. The interior 

 merges into the desert, with a rainfall of less than 

 10 in. annually. The variation of the rainfall from 

 year to year is governed by the development and move- 

 ments of the equatorial belt of low pressure and the 

 subtropical " highs," while it is the alternation of dry 

 and wet seasons which governs the temperature and 

 humidity, rather than the position of the sun, and the 

 dominant factor in Nigerian climatology is not tem- 

 perature, but rain. — Dr. J. R. Sutton : South African 

 coast temperatures. This paper dealt with the normal 

 monthlv mean temperatures at selected stations on the 

 coast of South Africa, a few miles inland, and on the 

 tableland, and the author endeavoured to connect the 

 retarding of the maximum and minimum temperatures 

 at certain stations with the moderating effect of the 

 temperature of the sea and of the direction and force 

 of the wind. 



Linnean Society, February 17. — Prof. E. B. Poulton, 

 president, in the chair. — Miss C. Herring-Browne : John 

 Bartram, the pioneer American botanist. Bartram 

 was born on March 23, 1699, near Darby, in County 

 Delaware, Pennsylvania. In 173 1 his friend, James 

 Logan, procured a copy of Parkinson's "Theatrum" 

 from England as a present for Bartram, and this 

 decided him to make excursions after plants into 

 Maryland and Delaware. To receive and grow his 

 discoveries he began before the end of the year to 

 lay out the garden, the charm of which was felt by 

 Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin. Many of the 

 American trees were first sent to Europe by Bartram, 

 amongst them being the Taxodiiim distichutn, still 

 extant at Mill Hill, in Collinson's old garden. An 

 even finer specimen, which died a few years ago, was 

 150 ft. high, and 27 ft. in girth; the trunk still stands 

 in the Bartram Garden Park, Philadelphia. Bartram 

 died on September 22, 1777. His life was shortened 

 by the apprehension that his cherished garden might 

 be laid waste by British troops, but his fears were not 

 realised. This garden is now the property of the city 

 of Philadelphia, and is supported as a public park. — 

 E. P. Stebbing : The infestation of bamboos in tidal 

 waters bv Balanus amphitrite and Teredo navalis in 

 Tenasserim. The rapid destruction of bamboo piles 

 is a serious loss, and investigation shows that up to 

 now no species of bamboo is immune; research is to 

 be continued. 



Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, Februarv 24. — ■ 

 Sir T. K. Rose, president, in the chair. — E. T. 

 Mellor : The conglomerates of the Witwatersrand. Of 

 the various theories which have been from time to 

 time advanced to account for the association of the 

 gold with the conglomerates of the Rand, two now 

 hold the field : the infiltration theorv and the theon,' 

 which regards the conglomerates as placer deposits 

 modified by subsequent recrystallisation of many of 

 the constituents. In view of recent extensive develop- 

 ments in prospecting by boreholes and mining, and 

 the evidence accumulated as the result of a survev 

 of the Witwatersrand system during the past five 



