414 



NATURE 



[July 13, 1916 



St. Andrews. — At the summer graduation cere- 

 mony on July 6 the honorary degree of LL.D. was 

 •conferred upon Mr. W. E. Clarke, keeper of the 

 zoology department, Royal Scottish Museum, Edin- 

 burgh ; Mr. C. T. Clough, district geologist, Geo- 

 logical Survey of Scotland ; Dr. R. B. Don ; Mr. 

 L. R. Farnell, rector of Exeter College, Oxford ; 

 Dr. C. G. Knott, lecturer in applied mathematics, 

 University of Edinburg^h ; Dr. J. Musgrove, Bute 

 professor of anatomy, St. Andrews, 1901, 1914; and 

 Prof. W. R. Scott, professor of economics. University 

 of Glasgow. 



Mr. Asquith stated in the House of Commons on 

 July 10 that he does not propose to advise the appoint- 

 ment of a Royal Commission on Education. The 

 Government is itself engaged in a comprehensive 

 review of the system of education as a whole. 



At the invitation of the Paris Academy the Imperial 

 Academy of Sciences of Petrograd has appointed 

 three of its members as delegates to the International 

 Commission established on the initiative of the Paris 

 Academy for the purpose of taking steps, after the 

 war, of restoring so far as possible the library of 

 the University of Louvain burnt by the Germans. 



The recently established School of Slavonic Studies 

 at King's College, London, wishes to form a special 

 Slavonic library, and hopes for the sympathetic co- 

 operation of Russian learned societies by donations of 

 suitable books. This having been brought to the 

 notice of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of Petro- 

 grad by the Minister of Public Instruction, the 

 Academy at once expressed its willingness to con- 

 tribute to the desired end, and directed that a cata- 

 logue of the Academy's publications be sent to the 

 school with the request that a list be prepared of the 

 works which it wishes to receive. 



Numerous bequests to aid medical science in the 

 United States are reported in a recent issue of Science. 

 By the will of the late Dr. J. W. White, trustee of 

 the University of Pennsylvania, and Prof. J. R. 

 Barton, emeritus professor of surgery, 30,oooZ, is 

 bequeathed in trust as a permanent endowment 

 fund, the Income to be used for establishing a 

 professorship of surgical research in the medical 

 department of the university. Two hundred 

 thousand pounds will be available for use by the 

 Washington University Medical School, with the 

 opening of the new term in September, through the 

 gift to the school of 33,200?. each by Mr. E. Mallinc- 

 krodt and Mr. J. T. Milliken, of St. Louis. One 

 fund of ioo,oooZ., to be known as the Edward Mallinc- 

 krodt Fund, will be devoted to teaching and research 

 work in pediatrics. The other fund of ioo,oooZ., to 

 be known as the John T. Milliken Fund, will be 

 devoted to teaching and research work in medicine. 

 The funds will enable the medical school to employ 

 physicians in these departments for their full time. 

 The amount, in addition to the Mallinckrodt and 

 Milliken donations, to brinsf the fund to 20o,oooZ. has 

 been given by the General Education Board. A move- 

 ment has been inaugurated to secure at least 400,000?. 

 additional endowment for Jefferson Medical College, 

 Philadelphia. Mr. D. Baugh, founder of the Baugh 

 Institute of Anatomy and Biology, subscribed 20,000?., 

 provided that an equal amount was raised on or 

 before June 16. The executors of the estate of the 

 late Mr. Emil C. Bundy, of New York, have paid 

 over to Columbia University the sum of 20,oooZ. for 

 research work In cancer. 



Attention may be directed to the help rendered to 

 manufacturers and business men for some time past 



NO. 2437, VOL. 97] 



by the librarian and staff of the City of Coventry 

 Public Libraries. From time to time lists of recent 

 books in technical chemistry, metallurgy, etc., are 

 issued in printed form and circulated widely among 

 those likely to be interested. In addition, lists are 

 prepared and issued dealing, e.g., with a specific 

 metal and its alloys. We have before us one such 

 relating to aluminium, which gives an admirable 

 series of references to original papers and books pub- 

 lished in the last ten years. These lists are not only 

 circulated among manufacturers and business men, 

 but are also given a wider publicity by being pasted 

 inside books on the same subject. The Central 

 Library and Its branches are well supplied with tech- 

 nical journals, to which the public have access with- 

 out any restriction. The technical section Is rein- 

 forced by cutting out the best articles from duplicate 

 and unbound periodicals, mounting them on sheets, 

 and exposing them In boxes where they are classified 

 under appropriate headings. In addition, the staff 

 of the library invites Inquiries for Information, 

 whether made verbally, or by letter, or by telephone. 

 All Inquiries are treated as confidential, and no effort 

 Is spared to supply the fullest and most trustworthy 

 information. No doubt the instance we have quoted 

 is not unique, but It appears worth while directing 

 attention to a practice which must be most helpful 

 to fthe technical staff of manufac'tories, particularly 

 where, as Is so often the case, few. If any, technical 

 books or periodicals are taken. The example of the 

 staff of the Coventry Public Libraries Is warmly to be 

 commended. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Challenger Society, June 28. — Dr. E. J. Allen in the 

 chair. — Capt. Campbell Hepworth : The meteorology of 

 Davis Strait and Baffin Bay, including ice distribution 

 and frequency. The paper was based on a set of 

 charts that had been prepared In the Meteorological 

 Ofl^ce. 



Dublin. 



Royal Dublin Society, June 20. — Dr. J. M. Purser In 

 the chair.— Prof. W. H. Thompson and J. Pimlott : 



The possibilities of food production in the United 

 Kingdom. — Prof. G. H. Carpenter : Injurious Insects 

 and other animals observed in Ireland during the 

 years 19 14 and 19 15. The summer of 19 14 was note- 

 worthy for the great abundance of the " diamond- 

 back " moth (Plutella cruciferarum) on turnip crops, 

 both In the east and west of Ireland. Nymphs of the 

 large shield-bug, Tropicoris rufipes, were very destruc- 

 tive to young apples in Co. Kilkenny In the summer 

 of 1915. Another unusual observation was the 

 abundance of two weevils, Phyllobius argentatus and 

 Strophosonius coryli, on larch. 



Royal Irish Academy, June 26. — The Most Rev. Dr. 

 Bernard, Archbishop of Dublin, president, in the 

 chair. — M. W. J. Fry : Impact In three dimensions. 

 The paper showed that the course of impact In three 

 dimensions can be minutely followed In the rnost 

 general case. There are two or four directions 

 (according to the value of the coefficient of friction) 

 In which If sliding initially takes place it persists 

 without change of direction, and of these alternate 

 ones correspond to stable motions. Any other direc- 

 tion of sliding tends to get parallel to the adjacent 

 stable direction, and does so If the Impact is suffi- 

 ciently prolonged, and at the same time the velocity of 

 sliding vanishes, but does not if the direction Is that 

 special one along which sliding may take place, when 



