June 22, 1916] 



NATURE 



345 



Dr. Axel Gavehn has been appointed director of the 

 Swedish Geological Survey. 



The Sulitelma Company has made a grant of 20,000 

 kronen (about iiooZ.) to assist geological research in 

 Norway. 



A CORRESPONDENT of Svenska Dagbladet states that 

 in the Berlin Zoological Gardens carnivores are fed 

 no longer on horseflesh, but on general offal obtained 

 in the slaughter-houses, especially those of large pre- 

 serving factories, and other places. Animals formerly 

 fed on oats are now given various roots, and it is 

 found that they appreciate these much better when 

 boiled. 



The special correspondent of the Times at Port 

 Stanley (Falkland Islands) reports that the ship sent 

 by the Uruguayan Government for the relief of the 

 members of Sir Ernest Shackleton's expedition on 

 Elephant Island left there on Saturday, June 17. 



At a recent meeting of the Optical Society the 

 president (Mr. F. J. Cheshire) stated that it had re- 

 cently been discovered by a well-known London 

 optician that the apochromatic systems of Carl Zeiss 

 often, if not always, contained a strong negative lens 

 made from ordinary potash alum. This lens had also 

 been found in combination in such systems with a 

 lens made from fluorspar. 



A SCIENTIFIC lawyer writes : — " In the legal pro- 

 fession the axiom that ' a man who gets his law for 

 nothing feels that he has got his money's worth ' has 

 assumed the purple among accepted facts." On this 

 principle the best way to secure appreciation for the 

 expert knowledge which men of science are continu- 

 ally giving gratuitously to Government departments 

 would be to require reasonable payment for it. 



The death is announced, in his sixtieth year, of Mr. 

 C. Sooysmith, consulting engineer, of New York, who 

 introduced into the United States the so-called freez- 

 ing process for excavating, and took out many patents 

 for its application to the building of subaqueous 

 tunnels. He also inaugurated the pneumatic caisson 

 method for constructing the foundation of high build- 

 ings, and constructed the foundation for a number 

 of large bridges, including the bridge over the Schuyl- 

 kill River at Philadelphia and the Harlem River bridge 

 at New York. 



At the annual meeting of the American Association 

 for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis it was 

 announced that it had received from the Metropolitan 

 Life Insurance Co. a gift of 2o,oooZ. for a "'com- 

 munity experiment," with the idea of proving that 

 tuberculosis can be controlled. First, there is to be 

 selected a suitable communit)-, of a character as nearly 

 typical American as possible. In this community will 

 be placed a staff of experts, who will get in touch 

 with ever}- person living within its boundaries who 

 either has tuberculosis or has been exposed thereto. 

 The staff will then, it is hoped, get every case under 

 supervision, and control the disease in that particular 

 town. The experiment is to last three years. 



The President of the Board of Trade has appointed 

 a Committee to investigate the principal causes which 

 have led to the increase of prices oT commodities of 

 general consumption since the beginning of the war, 

 and to recommend such steps, if any, with the view of 

 ameliorating the situation as appear practicable and 

 expedient, having regard to the necessity of maintain- 

 ing adequate supplies. The Committee is constituted 

 as follows :— Rt. Hon. J. M. Robertson, M.P. (chair- 



NO. 2434, VOL. 97] 



man), Mrs. Pember Reeves, Mr. W. C. Anderson, 

 M.P., Prof. W. J. Ashley (professor of commerce, 

 University of Birmingham), Mr. John Boland, M.P., 

 Mr. T. Brodrick, Sir Gilbert Claughton, Baft., Mr. 

 J. R. Clynes, M.P., Mr. R. E. Prothero, M.P., Mr. 

 T. Shaw, J. P., and Sir W. Capel Slaughter. Mr. 

 E. C. Ramsbottom, of the Board of Trade, will act 

 as secretary to the Committee. 



The death is announced on June 13 of Commander 

 C. B. Neate, R.N. Commander (then Lieutenant) 

 Neate was the head of the British expedition to 

 Rodriguez, in the Indian Ocean, for the observation 

 of the transit of Venus in 1874. Three stations in the 

 island were occupied, J^ieut. Neate himself being at 

 Point Venus, where all contacts were successfully 

 observed. The "black drop" was seen, both at in- 

 gress and egress. At ingress the whole planet was 

 distinctly seen outside the sun's limb, the following 

 limb of Venus being bright, " like a very young 

 moon." The observations are fully described and 

 illustrated in the volume edited by Sir G. B. Airy, 

 and published in 1881. Lieut. Neate was also a 

 member of the expedition for the transit of 1882, 

 being stationed at Bermuda, where, however, owing to 

 cloud, the obser\'ations were only partial!}' successful. 



In some agricultural districts the times at which 

 labourers commence work have been advanced by one 

 hour, thus cancelling the operation of the Summer 

 Time Act. The reason given for this action is that at 

 the earlier hour there is too much dew to enable farm 

 work to be carried on. The advantage of the later 

 lighting-up time in houses is also apparently to be 

 discounted by an increase in the cost of artificial 

 illumination, for the Brompton and Kensington Elec- 

 tricity Supply Co., Ltd., has just made the following 

 announcement : — " In consequence of the operation of 

 the ' Daylight Saving ' Act, and in furtherance of the 

 appeal of the Board of Trade to economise as far as 

 possible in the use of electricity and gas (owing to 

 the need for reducing the consumption of coal), the 

 price of current will be increased by a further 10 per 

 cent., to take effect from the date of reading the 

 meters at the end of the current quarter." Other com- 

 panies are also making this additional charge, which 

 means that consumers will now have to pay a 20 per 

 cent, increase on the cost of the units used, as there 

 has been for some time an increase of 10 per cent, 

 upon the pre-war rate. Whatever economy is effected 

 in the consumption of current and gas by the introduc- 

 tion of the Daylight Saving measur* will not, there- 

 fore, be to the advantage of the consumer, who will, 

 under the increased rate, have to pay much the same 

 for illumination as in corresponding periods before the 

 Act came into force. 



The Standing Committee on Engineering appointed 

 by the Advisor}- Council for Scientific and Industrial 

 Research held its first meeting on Wednesday, June 7. 

 The Committee has been so constituted as to represent 

 both the scientific and the industrial sides of engineer- 

 ing, and includes the following members nominated 

 by the professional associations : — Institution of Civil 

 Engineers, Sir Maurice Fitzmaurice; Institution of 

 Electrical Engineers, Mr. J. S. Highfield; Institution 

 of Mechanical Engineers, Dr. Dugald Clerk; Institu- 

 tion of Naval Architects, Sir Archiljald Denny, Bart. ; 

 N.E. Coast Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders, 

 Mr. Herbert Rowell ; Manchester Association of 

 Engineers, Mr. Alfred Saxon; Institution of Engineers 

 and Shipbuilders in Scotland, Mr. James Brown ; and 

 the following members appointed directly by the Advi- 

 sor}- Council : — Mr. F. R. Davenport, ^Ir. Alfred 

 Herbert, Prof. Bertram Hopkinson, F.R.S., Mr. 



