April 13, 1916] 



NATURE 



H5 



Pharmaceutical Conference for the remainder of the 

 I current session, in succession to Major Peck, who has 



I been compelled to resign in consequence of the in- 

 creasing pressure of his military duties. 



A SERIES of popular lectures on " Our Tropical 

 Industries," describing the production of rubber, tea, 

 coffee, cocoa, sugar, etc., in the tropical colonies, and 

 illustrated by the collections of the Imp>erial Institute, 

 to be delivered by Miss Edith A. Browne, on Wednes- 

 days in April, May and June, at the Imperial Insti- 

 tute, at three o'clock, commenced yesterday, April 12. 

 ' Admission to the series of lectures will be free by 

 li ticket, for which application should be made to the 



II director of the Imperial Institute, South Kensing- 

 ton. 



i The sixty-ninth annual meeting of the Palaeonto- 

 1 graphical Society was held on March 31, Dr. Henr\' 

 Woodward, president, in the chair. The council's 

 report referred to the temporary diminution of the 

 annual volume of monographs in existing circum- 

 stances, but noted that palaeontological work was still 

 I being actively carried on, and would shortly be offered 

 I to the society to the normal extent. Dr. Henry Wood- 

 ward was re-elected president; Dr. G. J. Hinde was 

 elected a new vice-president ; Mr. R. S. Herries was re- 

 I elected treasurer; Dr. A. Smith Woodward was re- 

 j elected secretary ;' and Miss Man,- S. Johnston, Mr. 

 ■ H. L. Hawkins, and Mr. G. W. Young were elected 

 members of council. 



We regret to record the death of Mr. Henry Mor- 

 gan, on April 3. A brief account of his career appears 

 in Engineering for April 7. Mr. Morgan was born 

 in 1834, and was trained in Sheemess Dockyard. 

 After occupying responsible posts in the Royal Dock- 

 yards, he proceeded to the Admiralty in 1869, under 

 Sir (then Mr.) Edward J. Reed. Mr. Morgan also 

 i served as chief constructor under Sir Nathaniel 

 \ Barnaby and Sir William White. He retired in 1889, 

 after twentv-iive years' active service in the design of 

 warships. He devoted much of his ability to the Insti- 

 tution of Naval Architects, and was a member of 

 council from 1871. 



Discussing the question of centralisation in military 

 aeronautics, Engineering for April 7 considers that the 

 true function of a central board would seem to be the 

 collection and collation of facts, their transmission to 

 those interested, and the preparation of general speci- 

 fications, which, so far as practicable, should specify 

 ends, rather than means. Any attempt to centralise 

 design and experiment, and to discourage independent 

 work, will necessarily imply restrictions on the initia- 

 tion of many able men. A central board, operating 

 with salaried officials, may, no doubt, conduct routine 

 researches accurately and ably; but, in the opinion of 

 our contemporary, a central organisation must not "be 

 looked to for important new departures in either science 

 or industry'. 



According to the Nieuwe Courant, the Royal 

 Academy of Sciences of Amsterdam has awarded the 

 f(^owing grants from the Van't Hoff Research Fund : 

 640 francs to Prof. F. Ephraim, of Berne, for the 

 continuation of his studies on the nature of subsidiary- 

 valencies; 600 guilders (£50) to Dr. P. E. Verkade', 

 ofDelft, for the purchase of apparatus for the deter- 

 mination of heats of combustion; 100 guilders to Dr. 

 D. H. Wester, of The Hague, for a chemical exami- 

 nation of certain species of Loranthus ; 200 guilders 

 toDr. C. H. Sluiter, of Vught, for the purchase of 

 Beilstein's handbook and of materials for an investi- 

 gation of formaldoxime ; 400 marks to Prof. E. 

 Janecke, of Hannover, for the continuation of his 



NO. 2424, VOL. 97] 



work on melting and transition points under high 

 pressures. 



In the Times of April 4 Prof. W. C. McC. Lewis 

 points out that the neglect of the science of chemistry 

 in this country is due, not only to the public ignorance 

 of the close connection existing between industry and 

 the most abstruse forms of chemical research, but also 

 to the miserably inadequate salaries paid to chemical 

 assistants in university laboratories. In illustration 

 of the former, he cites, amongst other cases, the work 

 of the Corrosion Committee of the Institute of Metals, 

 at Liverpool University, and the new process recently 

 adopted by the War Office for the production of phenol. 

 In mitigation of the latter, a plea is put forward for 

 the establishment of a chemistry committee of the 

 advisory committee on university,- grants, with an 

 endowment of 30,000?. a year. Compared with the 

 scheme proposed by Mr. C. A. Jacobson for the 

 United States, and noticed in last week's Nature 

 (p. 130), for the creation of a chemical research insti- 

 tute at a cost of one million pounds annually, this is 

 modesty indeed. 



The article on Zeppelins by M. Georges Prade, in 

 the Times of March 25, has been followed by another 

 on "The Newest Aeroplanes,' Dy the same author, in 

 the issue of April 7. There being no outstanding 

 aeroplane in the sense that the Zeppelin is an out- 

 standing airship, the treatment is totally different, and 

 becomes a general review of the functions and general 

 characteristics of aeroplanes. It is said that the idea 

 of building one aeroplane which shall combine in 

 itself all the good qualities has proved to be Utopian, 

 and attention is now directed to four types : — (i) Scout- 

 ing aeroplanes ; (2) artillery observation aeroplanes ; 

 (3) bomb-droppers; and (4) battle planes. Discussing 

 the question of size, Mr. Prade says that " an aero- 

 plane is too small when it does not even permit a 

 machine-gun to be carried ; an aeroplane becomes too 

 large when its increase in power and surface is not 

 accompanied by a proportionate increase in weight-lift 

 capacit}\" This statement does not carry very far, 

 and limits aeroplanes to quite moderate sizes. Amongst 

 the classes mentioned above, it appears that the lightest 

 is that of battle planes, and the largest the bomb- 

 dropper, the former having a total weight of less 

 than a ton, and the latter an unsf>ecified but not large 

 weight if the horse-power of 200 may be taken as a 

 criterion. 



In the last issue of the Journal of the Franklin 

 Institute Dr. A. E. Kennelly suggests a scheme for 

 the co-ordination of the work of American labora- 

 tories of applied science. There are now a consider- 

 able number of these laboratories, but in some cases 

 the results of investigations are not published, and in 

 others they are not sufficiently widely known. More- 

 over there is overlapping. "Each laboraton,-, as a 

 rule, works for and in itself, as though it were the 

 only one in the country. It is almost self-evident that 

 the collective output would be improved, and the cause 

 of engineering advanced, if these various laboratories 

 could be co-ordinated, without imposing on them 

 either hindering restrictions or burdensome expense." 

 Dr. Kennelly therefore suggests that the Franklin 

 Institute should take the initiative, in : (i) Giving 

 publication, so far as it can, to the results reached in 

 these laboratories. (2) Suggesting subjects for re- 

 search to such laboratories as seem best suited for 

 them. (3) Inviting subjects from the industries and 

 ! grants for the expenses of research. (4) Encouraging 

 > mutual understanding between the laboratories. TTiis 

 ' matter also deserves consideration in the British Isles. 

 ] Attempts are being made to promote unity of effort 



