32 | NATURE 
[SEPTEMBER II, 1913 
will be a masque, folk-dancing, and choral sing- 
ing by village children and workpeople. On 
Saturday a long list of excursions fills the bill, 
and an ‘“‘ Excursion Guide ” giving full information 
of the route followed in each case, together with 
a full description of the several places to be visited, 
has been compiled by the chairman and secretary 
of the Excursions sub-committee (Mr. John Hum- 
phreys and Mr. F. B. Andrews), and is obtainable 
at the reception room; Stratford-on-Avon and 
Warwick, Coventry and Kenilworth, Worcester ; 
Malvern; Banbury and Compton Wynyates; Lich- 
field and Wall; Droitwich and Hartlebury Castle, 
and the Arden villages aré some of the chief 
points. In addition to the general excursions, 
some of the sections are arranging special visits 
for their members, particulars of which can be 
obtained in the reception room. On Saturday 
evening there will be a military concert and torch- 
light tattoo in the Botanical Gardens, Edgbaston. 
On Sunday (September 14) there will be special 
services at the principal places of worship in the 
city. The Bishop of Birmingham is to preach in 
the Pro-Cathedral. 
On Monday evening there will be three enter- 
tainments given by the local committee. The 
Prince of Wales Theatre will present the opera 
Orpheus, under the management of Herr Denhof. 
The Repertory Theatre will give St. John Hankin’s 
Return of the Prodigal, and the New Street 
Picture House will exhibit films of historical and 
scientific interest. 
Lectures.’ 
The evening discourses take place on Septem- 
ber 12 and September 16. The first will be given 
by Sir Henry Cunynghame, of the Home Office, 
and will deal experimentally with ‘Coal Dust 
Explosions and the Means of Preventing Them.” 
The second—by Dr. Smith Woodward, Ties 
of the British Museum (Natural History} —will be 
an illustrated exposition of “Missing Links 
among Extinct Animals.’’ Both of these lectures 
will be delivered in the new Central Hall. 
This year five ‘Citizens’ Lectures” are to be 
given to (mainly) working-class audiences at the 
Digbeth Institute, Birmingham. They are not 
intended for members, but form an altogether 
independent scheme, provided partly by the 
association and partly by the local commit- 
tee, with a view of interesting those members 
of the community who cannot join the asso- 
ciation. The first lecture will be given by Dr. 
A. C. Haddon, F.R.S., on the decorative art 
of “Savages. The other lectures are ‘The 
Panama Canal,” by Dr. Vaughan Cornish, 
F.R.G.S.; “Recent Work on Heredity, and its 
Application to Man,” by Dr. Leonard Doncaster; 
““Metals under the Microscope,” by Dr. Walter 
Rosenhain, F.R.S.; and “The Evolution of 
Matter,” by Mr. F. Soddy, F.R.S. The arrange- 
ments for these lectures have been entrusted to a 
committee, on which the Workers’ Educational 
Association, the Birmingham Trades Council, the 
City Council, and other kindred bodies are repre- 
sented. The demand for tickets has been very 
encouraging. 
NO. 2289, VOL. 92| 
Sectional Proceedings. 
A general statement of the addresses and of the 
chief papers to be delivered during the meeting 
has already been made public, and it is now only 
necessary to mention a few of the main topics of 
interest. 
Section A (Physics and Mathematics) is naturally 
very strong this year, both from the fact that the 
president is a leading physicist, and also from the 
support which has been given to the sectional 
president, Dr. Baker, by the presence of distin- 
guished colleagues, both from this country and 
from abroad. Among these may be mentioned 
Lord Rayleigh, Sir j. J. Thomson, Sir Joseph 
Larmor, Prof. Rutherford, and Prof. Bragg. At- 
tention will be devoted especially to the subjects 
of radiation, radio-active emanations, and the 
structure of the atom, Prof. H. H. Turner will 
demonstrate a seismograph (which was one of the 
late Dr. Milne’s instruments) to be erected in the 
basement of the University (Mason College). 
There will be a joint meeting with the Geographi- 
cal Section on geodetic problems to be held on 
Tuesday morning , September 16. 
The Chemical Section (B) meets in the Tech- 
nical School. In addition to the usual programme, 
there will be a discussion on coal and coal-fuels on 
Monday morning (September 15), and another on 
radio-active elements and the periodic law o 
Tuesday, September 16; whilst on Friday Horne 
(September 12) the two divisions of the section 
will discuss respectively the significance of optical 
properties of substances and certain problems in 
metallurgy. 
The Geological Section (C) has a full pro- 
gramme, both of papers and excursions dealing 
with local problems in coal-mining, and in strati- 
graphical and paleontological geology. Special 
interest is exhibited in the address by Prof. Lap- 
worth on the geology of the country round 
Birmingham. 
The Zoological Section (Section D) is devoting 
Friday morning to a discussion on mimicry, the 
inheritance of melanism, and other problems of 
especial interest 
Monday morning the subject of “Convergence in 
the Mammalia ” will be attractive to geologists, as 
well as to those distinguished zoologists who are 
to take a foremost part in the discussion. Many 
other papers of interest are promised, and on 
Monday afternoon at 3 p.m. Prof. Minchin is to 
give a special address on some aspects of sleep- 
ing sickness. We may here mention what pro- 
mises to be one of the most important demonstra- 
tions and papers, namely, Prof. Benjamin Moore’s 
“Synthesis of Organic Matter by Inorganic Col- 
loids.””. This subject will be given jointly to 
Section D, Section K (Botany), and Section I 
(Physiology) on Tuesday morning at 10.45. Prof. 
Braus (of Heidelberg) will give a kinematograph 
exhibition that morning in the Picture House, New 
Street, of the development of the heart, and on 
Thursday afternoon there will be a joint excursion 
by a limited number (twenty-five) of members of 
each of the sections of Zoology, Botany, and Agri- 
culture, respectively, to the Burbage Experimental 
to entomologists, whilst on. 
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