512 
firm of sculptors. It represents Dr. Wilson in polar 
dress, hands on hips, in a natural, careless attitude, 
and is an excellent likeness. A brass plate let into the 
stone base bears an inscription recording the heroism 
of the members of the expedition who perished with 
him. 
Mr. J. FostER STACKHOUSE has sent us a copy of a 
circular letter relating to the British Antarctic and 
Oceanographical Expedition being organised by him. 
The circular states that the expedition will leave 
England towards the end of the year for the following 
purposes :—(1) To investigate reports of mariners as 
to the existence of dangerous uncharted rocks, shoals, 
reefs, islands, etc., on the trade routes of the world; 
(2) to discover the extent and position of the coast 
line still left unmapped on the continent of Antarctica ; 
(3) to make a scientific survey of the sea in general. 
This programme, we need scarcely point out, is 
ambitious enough for half a dozen expeditions, and 
we should be glad to know the names of men of 
science associated with it, either as members of Mr. 
Stackhouse’s advisory committee or of the proposed 
undertaking. 
Dr. W. S. Bruce left Edinburgh on Thursday, 
July 9, on an expedition to Spitsbergen. The object of 
the expedition is hydrographic and geological research 
in Wybe Jansz Water, or Stor Fiord, where the coast 
is little known, and where there are practically no 
soundings. Geological investigations will form an 
important item in the programme. Dr. Bruce is to be 
assisted by Mr. J. V. Burn Murdoch, who has pre- 
viously twice accompanied him to Spitsbergen, by Mr. 
R. M. Craig, of the geological department of the 
University of St. Andrews, and by Mr. J. H. Koeppern, 
zoologist. He will be himself responsible for the con- 
duct of the hydrographic work. The expedition is 
expected to be absent for about two months. It is 
supplied with instruments by the Admiralty and the 
Scottish Oceanographical Laboratory, and is also 
supported by the Royal Geographical Society and the 
Prince of Monaco. 
At the twelfth annual general meeting of the British 
Academy, held on July 10, Lord Bryce, who was in the 
chair, urged that the academy should have the means 
of encouraging and aiding inquiries of real value which 
cannot be materially profitable to those who undertake 
them, and of paying for the publication of works 
needed by students but which cannot be expected to 
command a remunerative sale. Ample justification, he 
said, for such grants would be found both in the prac- 
tice of the chief nations of Continental Europe and in 
that followed as respects scientific inquiries, grants for 
which are made to the Royal Society to be adminis- 
tered by that body. Lord Haidane, Lord Fitzmaurice, 
and Mr. John W. Mackail were elected new fellows 
by ballot, and the following were elected correspond- 
ing fellows :—M. Charles Bémont, Mr. C. W. Eliot, 
M. Omont, and Signor Pasquale Villari. Lord Bryce 
was re-elected president, and Canon Charles, Prof. 
Percy Gardner, Sir Courtenay Ibert, Prof. W. P. Ker, 
and Prof. W. R. Sorley were appointed members of 
the council. 
NO! (2232.0 VON Osi 
NATURE 
[JuLy 16, 1914 
Tue annual meeting of the British Medical Asso- 
ciation will be held this month at Aberdeen. The 
president’s address will be delivered on July 28 by Sir 
Alexander Ogston, K.C.V.O. The address in medicine 
will be given by Dr. A. E. Garrod, and that in surgery 
by Sir John Bland-Sutton. Prof. J. Arthur Thomson 
will deliver the popular lecture. The scientific busi- 
ness of the meeting will be conducted in sixteen sec- 
tions, which, with the names of the presidents, are as 
follows :—Anatomy and Physiology, Prof. R. W. 
Reid; Dermatology and Syphilology, Dr. A. Eddowes ; 
Diseases of Children, including Orthopzedics, Dr. J. 
Thomson; Electro-Therapeutics and Radiology, Dr. S. 
Sloan; Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Dr. F. W. Nicol 
Haultain; Laryngology, Rhinology, and Otology, Dr. 
H. Lambert Lack; Medical Sociology, Dr. J. Gordon; 
Medicine, Dr. F. J. Smith; Naval and Military Medi- 
cine and Surgery, Surgeon-General W. M. Craig; 
Neurology and Psychological Medicine, Dr. F. W. 
Mott; Ophthalmology, Mr. C. H. Usher; Pathology 
and Bacteriology, Dr. W. S. Lazarus-Barlow; Phar- 
macology, Therapeutics, and Dietetics, Prof. J. T. 
Cash; State Medicine and Medical Jurisprudence, Prof. 
Matthew Hay; Surgery, Mr. J. Scott Riddell, Tropical 
Medicine, Prof. W. J. R. Simpson. 
Tue Eugenics Review for July (vol. vi., No. 2) con- 
tains many articles of general interest. Mr. Nettle- 
ship reviews the results of consanguineous marriages, 
and concludes that those between cousins are as safe 
from the eugenic point of view as any other mar- 
riages, provided the parents and stock are sound. 
Mr. Macleod Yearsley deals with the problem of deaf- 
ness and its prevention. The chief causes of acquired 
deafness are meningitis, fevers and other infective 
diseases, such as tuberculosis and syphilis, and 
adenoids and similar throat conditions. The preven- 
tion of acquired deafness therefore largely rests with 
efficient treatment in the fever hospitals and with 
medical inspection and treatment of school children. 
In the third part of that excellent periodical, Ancient 
Egypt, the editor, Prof. Flinders Petrie, gives an 
authoritative account of the discovery of the famous 
treasure of Lahun, in a tomb which had been already 
plundered, probably in the decadence of the kingdom 
before the Hyksos. The splendid diadem and two 
pectorals, one bearing the cartouche of Senusert II., 
the other that of Amenamhat III., are specially note- 
worthy. The same scholarly explorer contributes the 
first part of an article which, by reference to the work 
of recent travellers, provides material for the com- 
parison of Egyptian funerary rites with those of the 
modern Bantu and other African races—a piece of 
work which throws important light on many anthro- 
pological problems. 
In the review of ‘‘ Maya Art’? in Nature of July 2 
(p. 456), in referring to Maya chronology, the state- 
ment was made that the number 13 ‘‘is based upon 
the fact that eight years of 365 days are exactly five 
years of the planet Venus.” Mr. A. E. Larkman 
\ writes from Southampton to suggest that there is a 
discrepancy in this statement. The reviewer regrets 
| having omitted to say that the five years of the planet 
a 
rc ata os 
La ee em a 
rahot se 
OAS LO RT EN. es 9 to = 
engi 2erreseenaee aia —_ 
—ahey 
“ Aaa Neawrcex TEOMA 
