14 
He edited the ‘‘New Science Series,’ and was the 
author of ‘The New Knowledge,” ‘‘The Chemistry 
of Commerce,’ and ‘‘Some Chemical Problems of 
To-day.””. Dr. Duncan was popularly known through 
his articles on radio-activity in McClure’s Magazine, 
and on industrial chemistry in Harper’s, for which he 
made special inquiries abroad. 
AmonG the victims of the Titanic disaster in April, 
rg12, was Mr. H. Forbes Julian, whose work as a 
mining engineer, and for metallurgical science, was 
referred to appreciatively at the time in these columns 
(vol Ixxxix, p. 325). On February 24 a memorial 
tablet erected by a committee which included the 
names of many distinguished men of science was un- 
veiled to Mr. Julian in St. Mary Magdalene Church, 
Torquay, by the Ven. Archdeacon of Totnes, in the 
presence of a large congregation. The inscription on 
the tablet is as follows :—‘t Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam. 
This tablet is erected by a wide circle of friends in 
affectionate remembrance of Henry Forbes Julian, 
member of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, 
born Ascension Day, 9th May, 1861; married in this 
church 30th October, 1902; passed away 15th April, 
1912. During the whole of his working life he 
laboured at the solution of metallurgical problems in 
three Continents, and both by his writings and prac- 
tical skill exercised an influence which will long 
endure. He was amongst those who gave their lives 
for others in the disaster which befell the R.M.S. 
Titanic. This heroism and self-denial called forth ad- 
miration from the Throne to the cottage. ‘ Greater 
love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his 
life for his friends.’”’ 
Tue duration of bright sunshine at Greenwich in 
February was 106 hours, which is exactly double the 
average of the past thirty years, and is the brightest 
February on record; the highest previous record for 
February was ninety-nine hours in 1899. In February 
this year at Greenwich there were twelve days with 
more than five hours’ sunshine, whilst in July last 
year there were only seven days with more than five 
hours’ sunshine. The total hours of bright sunshine 
in February are ten hours more than in the whole of 
July last year. At Kew the duration of bright sun- 
shine in February was eighty-one hours, at South 
Kensington sixty-nine hours, and in the City, at Bun- 
hill Row, 44 hours, the latter being ten times more 
than in January. The following gives the duration of 
bright sunshine at a few stations in England, chosen 
promiscuously from the reports of the Meteorological 
Office. For the several stations the duration was :— 
Dover, 119 hours; Hastings, 111 hours; Yarmouth, 
108 hours; Margate, 106 hours (the same as at Green- 
wich); Brighton, 103 hours; Torquay, about 80 hours; 
Bath, 70 hours; Liverpool, 66 hours; and Buxton, 
55 hours. The excess of sunshine in and round Lon- 
don is far more striking than in other parts of 
England. 
THE inaugural meeting of the Institution of Petrol- 
eum Technologists was held at the Royal Societv of 
Arts on Tuesday, February 3. Sir Boverton Redwood, 
the president of the institution, who occupied the chair, 
NO. Zama VOL. 40 3'| 
NATURE 
[Marcu 5, 1914 
said, in the course of his opening remarks, that the 
aims of the institution are to enable technologists 
engaged in the petroleum or shale oil industry to 
meet, correspond, and accumulate trustworthy infor- 
mation regarding the production or winning of petrol- 
eum and oil-shale, the conversion of the raw materials 
into manufactured products, and the characters and 
uses of these products, together with their transport 
and storage; and, in the second place, to promote the 
better education of persons desirous of becoming pro- 
fessional consulting petroleum technologists, engineers, 
geologists, or chemists, and to elevate the professional 
| status of those employed in the industry by setting up 
a high standard of scientific and practical proficiency, 
and by insisting upon the observance of strict rules 
in regard to professional conduct. 
At the thirty-sixth annual general meeting of the 
Institute of Chemistry, held on Monday, March 2, the 
president, Prof. Raphael Meldola, who was in the 
chair, referred, in the course of his address, to the 
endeavours of the institute to secure fuller recognition 
for the profession of chemistry. The council of the 
institute, in a memorandum submitted to the Royal 
Commission on the Civil Service, stated that the 
chemical staff in the department of the Chief Inspector 
at Woolwich Arsenal should be controlled by a chemist 
of the highest efficiency. The real expert whose know- 
ledge and experience are of most value to the com- 
munity is the highly trained man who has specialised 
in some particular field. Surely such a man is the 
most competent to control the work of any public de- 
partment which is concerned with his own subject. 
Why, therefore, should there be this tendency to 
subordinate expert scientific service to non-expert con- 
trol? While the medical service takes army ‘rank,’ 
the chemist, whose services are of equal importance, 
not only takes no ‘“‘rank”’ at all, but is made respon- 
sible to superiors having no special knowledge of his 
subject. This state of affairs, rendering as it does the 
public service of chemists an unattractive career to 
the best talent in the profession, is fraught with 
danger to the future well-being of the country, and is 
a shortsighted policy which, in time of trouble, may 
well lead to disaster. Prof. Meldola then dealt at con- 
siderable length with the report of the conference of 
professors of chemistry, held under the auspices of 
the institute in October last, which was attended by 
professors from practically all the principal educational 
centres of the country, the institute thus providing an 
arena for the free discussion of the broad question of 
the education of professional chemists. Sir William 
Ramsay, in proposing a vote of thanks to the presi- 
dent for his address, endorsed the views which had 
been expressed with reference to placing men having 
no technical knowledge in the control of experts, and 
remarked on the absurdity of requiring them to sign 
reports only fully understood by the specialist. 
Miss M. A. Murray discusses, in the February 
issue of Man, the evidence for the custom of killing 
the king in ancient Egypt, in connection with the 
| Osiris cult, as explained by Dr. J. G. Frazer in ‘‘ The 
Golden Bough.’’ She interprets the name of Isis as 
Isé, ‘‘the throne-woman,”’ and Osiris, or Usiri, ‘‘the 
