JD 1 - 



NATURE 



[January 2, 1919 



, to be .1 man of high • ourage, with ;i 

 real grasp of affairs, and of unwavering loyalty 

 to high ideals and to the truth; and his visit here 

 has been hailed with delight by all men of goodwill. 



I In- State banquet given by the King and Queen 

 ii Buckingham Palace on Friday, December 2% 

 in honour of the President and Mrs. Wilson 

 marked an occasion of high significance; 

 not only to the two nations united by 

 it, but also to all Tree peoples. It was the 

 historic expression of a union formed in a common 

 cause and strengthened by the common purpose 

 of establishing pear,- and freedom among the com- 

 munities of the world. "You come," said the 

 King to the 1 'resident, in proposing the health of 

 the principal quests, "as the official head and 

 spokesman of a mighty Commonwealth, bound to 

 us by the closest ties. Its people speak the tongue 

 of Shakespeare and Milton. Our literature is 

 yours, as vours is also ours, and the men of letters 

 in both countries have joined in maintaining its 

 incomparable glories." In President Wilson the 

 scholar is combined with the statesman, and 

 knowledge is associated with the courage of con- 

 viction. He has crossed the Atlantic to promote 

 the spirit of brotherhood in the hearts of men, 

 and "to make the right and the justice to which 

 great nations like our own have devoted them- 

 selves the predominant and controlling force of 

 the world." When these ideals are realised, a 

 new epoch in the history of mankind will begin ; 

 they \\<fe advanced by the exchange of pledges 

 at Friday's banquet and by the hope expressed 

 bv the King that the brotherly spirit which 

 brought the response to the call of humanity 

 would "inspire and guide our united efforts to 

 secure for the world the blessings of an ordered 

 freedom and an enduring peace." 



It is gratifying to notice that, in addition to 

 members of the Government and other statesmen, 

 the distinguished guests at the banquet included 

 leading representatives of science, as well as of 

 art and literature, among those present being Sir 

 J. J. Thomson (president, Royal Society), Major- 

 Gen. Sir George Makins (president, Royal Col- 

 lege of Surgeons), and Dr. Norman Moore (presi- 

 dent, Royal College of Physicians). 



NOTES. 



The list of New Year honours includes the following 

 names of men known in scientific circles: — Baronet: 

 Sir Lewis Amherst Selby-Bigge. Knights: Dr. 

 \V. Leslie Mackenzie, medical member of the Local 

 Government Board for Scotland; Dr. G. D. Thane, 

 principal inspector under Cruelty to Animals Act, 

 Home Office; Dr. Prafulla Chandra Ray, Indian 

 Educational Service, Bengal; and Col. Sir Almroth 

 E. Wright, Army Medical Service. K.C.Y.O.: Sir 

 George Anderson Critchett surgeon oculist to the 

 King. C.S.I.: Dr. H. H. Hayden, director of the 

 Geological Survey of India. C.B.: Mr. C. E. Ash- 

 lord, headmaster, Royal Naval College, Dartmouth ; 

 Mr. P.'W. L. Ashley, assistant secretary (Department 

 of Industries and Manufactures), Board of Trade; 

 and Dr. R. B. Low, assistant medical officer, Local 

 Government Board. C.M.G.: Mr. Frank Tate, Dire'e- 



i,n oi Education, Victoria. C.I.E.: Lt.-Col. J. T. 

 Calvert, principal, Medical College, Calcutta; Dr. W. 

 Crooke; Mr. C. G. Roberts, Chief Conservator oi 

 Forests, Burma; Mr. T. R. D. Bell, Chief Conservatoi 

 nf Forests, Bombay; Mr. W. F. Perree, Conservator oi 

 Forests, Kumaon, United Provinces; Mr. B. B. 

 Osmaston, president, Forest Research Institute and 

 College, Dehra Dun; and Prof. J. C. Lamont, pro- 

 fessor of anatomy, Medical College, Lahore, Punjab. 



At the annual meeting of the English Forestry 

 Association held on December 18, Major G. L. Court- 

 hope, the president, gave some interesting details on 

 the limber requirements of the Government and the 

 available supplies existing in the country. The posi- 

 tion is sufficiently serious to require earnest attention. 

 The Timber Supply Department, the president said, 

 was anxious to close down as soon as possible, 

 but the Government looked to it to ensure the sup- 

 plies which would be required during 1919. The 

 demand alone next year, irrespective of commercial 

 and trade demands, was expected to amount to 100,000 

 standards a month. There was nothing approaching 

 that quantity in this country. The Department had 

 rather more than a year's supply on the stump, cal- 

 culated on the basis of the existing rate of output. 

 The Controller of Timber Supplies had informed them 

 that the shipping position was getting easier, but it 

 would be some time before anything like adequate 

 supplies of imported timber could be expected. There 

 was a world shortage, and the countries which had 

 supplies of converted material were holding them up 

 for better prices. The foreign forestry workers 

 (Portuguese, Finns, etc.) were being demobilised, 

 and the demobilisation of the Canadian Forestrv 

 Corps was soon to take place. In their stead 

 16,000 demobilised British soldiers would be em- 

 ployed. It was certain that this country w-ould 

 require from 300,000 to 350,000 standards for recon- 

 struction purposes during the next twelve months. In 

 the United Kingdom there were something like 4^ mil- 

 lion standards remaining standing. We imported 

 3,000,000 standards in 1913 alone. Lord Selborne 

 said that if British landowners had not been far- 

 sighted and public-spirited enough for generations 

 past to carry on their plantings, in the absence of any 

 public encouragement of any kind, this country would 

 have been far more handicapped in carrying on the 

 war than had been the case. The existence of the 

 woods in Great Britain had saved the shipping situa- 

 tion on one hand and the coal situation on the 

 other. 



We regret to learn, from the Journal des Observa- 

 tewrs, that M. Luizet, assistant at the Lyons Observa- 

 tory, died on November 20, 191S. M. Luizet's special 

 field was the observation of variable stars, and he 

 prepared reports on this subject which have appeared 

 from time to time in the Journal. 



We regret to notice the death on December 23, 

 as the result of an accident, of Dr. Leonard G. 

 Guthrie, distinguished by his work in nervous diseases 

 and the historv of medicine. Dr. Guthrie delivered 

 the Fitzpatrick lectures at the Royal College of 

 Phvsicians in 1907-8, and as secretary and vice- 

 president of the section of medical historv at the 

 Royal Society of Medicine he did much to further 

 that branch of research. He was president of the 

 Harveian Society of London in 1913-14. 



The first lecture of the second series arranged by the 

 Industrial Reconstruction Council will be held in the 

 Saddlers' Hall, Cheapside, E.C.2, on Wednesday, 

 January 8. The chair will be taken at 4.30 by the 



NO. 2566, VOL. I02] 



