” 
NOVEMBER 27, 1913] 
NATURE 377 
the performance of experiments and publication | 
of results in concentration of carnotite ores, re- 
sufficient radium for extensive trial in the treat- 
ment of cancer. 
From a point of view nearer home, it is clear 
that, as in the case of the Austrian deposits, so 
also everywhere where radium is found, the ques- 
tion of its supply will be regarded more and more 
as of national importance, and a nation trusting 
to the equitable operation of the laws of supply 
and demand is likely to be squeezed out. The 
situation for this country is a sufficiently serious 
one. Nothing is more certain than that, if radium 
is to be of use in the treatment of cancer, small 
quantities are not merely worthless, but may even 
do harm rather than good. Grams of radium in 
each large centre of population, kept in operation 
every minute of the twenty-four hours, alone will 
meet the impending development. Whence is it 
to be obtained? Austria and America have the 
radium, Germany the mesothorium raw material. 
A future source of supply for this country is a 
question of national concern, though we have not, 
like the Bureau of Mines in America, a ministerial 
department likely to move in the matter spon- 
taneously. In the public interest the matter 
should be lifted once for all above the plane of 
private venture and financial speculation. Will 
not the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy fulfil 
this public duty in lieu of a Bureau of Mines, and 
appoint an expert committee, mainly of practical 
mining authorities, but with representatives of 
technical chemistry and medicine, to consider the 
situation and take energetic steps to meet it? 
FREDERICK Soppy. 
PRESENTATION OF 
THE BUST OF SIR 
HENRY ~ROSCOE TO THE. CHEMICAL 
SOCIETY. 
HE former students of the Right Hon. 
Sir Henry Roscoe decided some time back to 
commemorate the celebration of his eightieth 
birthday in January, 1913, by presenting his bust 
to the Chemical Society of London. With this 
object in view a committee was formed, of which 
Sir Edward Thorpe has acted as chairman, and 
on which many prominent chemists who were 
students of Sir Henry’s during the long period 
he occupied the Chair of Chemistry at Owens 
College, now the University, Manchester, were 
associated. The formal presentation of the bust, 
a photograph of which is here reproduced, was 
made at the Rooms of the Chemical Society on 
Thursday last, November 20. 
Among those present, in addition to Sir Henry 
Roscoe, were Miss Roscoe, Mr. and Mrs. Mallet, Mrs. 
Edward Enfield, Mr. E. W. Enfield, Sir Edward 
Thorpe, Sir Archibald Geikie (president of the Royal 
Society), Prof. W. H. Perkin (president of the 
Chemical Society), Prof. H. E. Armstrong, Prof. 
H. B. Dixon, Prof. P. F. Frankland, Dr. Hugo 
Miller, Prof. W. Odling, Prof. Emerson Reynolds, 
Sir William Tilden, Sir Thomas and Lady Barlow, 
Sir J. Rose Bradford and Lady Bradford, Sir Henry 
Miers, Dr. Aubrey Strahan (president of the Geo- 
NO. 2300, VOL. 92] 
: *< c f | Cain, Dr. 
duction of present wastage, and the extraction of | j. Kane 
| with the commemoration had now 
logical Society) and Mrs. Strahan, Mr. Harry Baker, 
Mr. E. J. Bevan, Dr. Horace T. Brown, Dr. J. C. 
H. G. Colman, Prof. A. W. Crossley, Dr. 
Dr. Dobbie, Mr. J. M. Fletcher, Prof. 
Harden, Mr. A. J. King, Dr. C. Martin, Dr. 
Rudolph Messel, Dr. E. J. Mills, Mr. Pattison Muir, 
Dr. J. C. Philip, Mr. Rupert Potter, Prof. Schuster, 
Dr. Alexander Scott, Mr. Evelyn Shaw, Dr. S. Siniles, 
Mr. Watson Smith, Dr. A. Smith Woodward, and Dr. 
Charles A. Keane (secretary to the committee). 
Sir Edward Thorpe first presented to Sir Henry 
Roscoe the following address from his former 
students, which had been given him in a_ pre- 
liminary form on the actual day of his birthday, 
and to which the signatures of those associated 
been added. 
On April 22, 1904, the jubilee of your doctorate of 
| Heidelberg University, it was the privilege of 300 
of your friends and pupils to express to you their 
Bust of the Right Hon. Sir Henry Roscoe. 
appreciation of your services to chemical science, and 
especially their gratitude to you for vour stimulating 
influence as their teacher, and for ‘your personal 
interest in their progress and welfare which has 
endéared you so lastingly to one and all. 
To-day, on the attainment of your eightieth birth- 
day, we gladly welcome a further opportunity of 
recording our continued appreciation of your long 
life and work. We extend to you our most sincere 
and heartfelt congratulations, and rejoice to know 
that you have been granted health and strength thus 
to prolong your successful labours and activities, and 
to add to the large debt of thanks that is your due 
from your pupils, your science, and your country. 
Although it is now twenty-seven years since you 
resigned the chair of chemistry at Owens College, 
your influence as our teacher and friend has continued 
with us. Amongst your former pupils there are many 
who, thanks to the teaching they received at your 
hands, have been enabled to contribute to the ad- 
vancement of science, and who in their turn, both in 
