4 
NovEMBER 2, 1916] 
Lorp RayLeicH presided at a meeting held at Uni- 
versity College, London, on Tuesday, October 31, to 
take steps to establish a memorial to the late Sir 
William Ramsay. Mr. J. A. Pease, M.P., Postmaster- 
General, in moving that a memorial fund should be 
raised, to be utilised in promoting chemical teaching 
and research, under a scheme. to be approved here- 
after, said he was glad on behalf of the Government 
to pay a tribute to the memory of Sir William Ramsay 
and to take part in the great object of the meeting. 
The memorial should be not merely national, but inter- 
national. Sir J. J. Thomson seconded the motion, 
which was supported by the Belgian Minister, who 
wished to convey the respectful homage of Brussels 
University, and by Mr. W. H. Buckler, who testified 
to the interest of the American Ambassador and his 
countrymen in the movement. The resolution was 
carried. It was also agreed that the meeting should 
resolve itself into a general committee, with Lord 
Rayleigh as chairman, to raise the necessary fund, 
and an executive committee was appointed to circulate 
an appeal. 
A NEW departure in the study of Indian phonetics 
and linguistics is marked by the presentation before 
the Royal Asiatic Society, by Sir G, Grierson, head 
of the Linguistic Survey of India, of a series of gramo- 
phone records of four languages of the Munda group, 
prepared under the orders of the Government of Behar 
and Orissa. These comprise the Kharia, Mundari, 
Ho,’ and Santali, and one of the Dravidian group, 
Kurukk. In each case a version of the tale of ‘‘ The 
Prodigal Son” has been reproduced, with some mar- 
riage songs and items of folklore. The work is im- 
portant because the Munda tongues are a widespread 
oup, extending ‘through India proper to Assam, 
urma, thence to Indo-China and the Malay Penin- 
sula, and eastward to Easter Island. A copy of these 
records will be deposited at the India Office Library, 
a second in the British Museum, and a third in the 
rooms of the Asiatic Society. It is significant that 
this new record of phonetics is produced just as the 
first director of the School of Oriental Studies has 
been appointed. It may be hoped that similar records 
for other Indian languages may be prepared, and the 
scheme might be extended to other Ianguages taught 
in our schools. 
Tue Chinese Government is becoming alive to the 
need for a proper geological investigation of 
the mineral resources of the country, and the 
lead in this task has_ been’ entrusted to 
Swedes. As the head of the survey, Dr. J. G. 
Andersson, formerly chief of the Swedish Geological 
Survey, has been appointed, and with him already are 
Dr. Tegengren and Prof. U. Nystrom. We now learn 
that Dr, T. G. Halle, assistant in the palzobotanical 
department of the Riksmuseum at Stockholm, is to 
travel in China for one year, mainly in the interests 
of his own department, for which he will collect Palzo- 
zoic plants, but partly for the Chinese Government, to 
which he will report on the age and character of the 
coal-seams inspected, and for which « duplicate series 
of fossils will be provided after their determination. 
A young Chinese geologist will accompany Dr. Halle, 
and will be trained by him as a palzobotanist. The 
spring and summer will be devoted to the northern 
provinces, especially Shansi, with its enormous de- 
posits of anthracite and ordinary coal. The coal-field 
of greatest scientific interest lies round and south of 
the Yangtse river, but how far this can be visited must 
depend on political conditions, now considerably dis- 
turbed. The expenses are borne by friends of the 
Swedish museum, but naturally every assistance will 
be given by the Central Government at Pekin. 
NO. 2453, VOL. 98] - 
NATURE 
173 
A PAPER on food economics, by Prof. G, Lusk, in the 
Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences for 
June 19, is worthy of study by everyone, and especially 
by those sending parcels of foodstuffs to prisoners in 
Germany. Prof. Lusk describes briefly how Germany 
tackled the all-important question of foodstuffs at the 
outbreak of the war. In order to maintain the protein 
portion of the nation’s food the committee of investiga- 
tion recommended that considerable increase should 
be made in the bean crop in Germany. Modifications 
were put forward in connection with the production 
of cereals, cheese, and skim milk, and it was finally con- 
cluded that the German people, through the co-opera- 
tion of millions of inhabitants, would be able to obtain 
a ration of 3000 calories per adult per day, and so 
escape suffering from lack of food. A prisoner of 
war, doing moderate work, could get along on a 
ration of 2500 calories, composed a& follows :—Pro- 
teins, 100 grams; carbohydrates, 4oo grams; fats, 
50 grams. On the assumption that a gram (roughly 
153 grains) of protein yields 4-1 calories, and that the 
corresponding values for carbohydrates and fats are 
41 and 9-3 respectively, it is obvious that the total 
caloric value of this ration is about 2500. Prof. Lusk 
points out that true food reform demands the sale of 
food by calories and not by pounds, and he gives an 
instructive table of various articles of food, showing 
the weight and price of each necessary to produce 
2500 calories. The following are some of the food- 
stuffs mentioned, and their costs in New York :—Oat- 
meal, 1 Ib. 53 oz., 22d.; wheat flour, 1 Ib. 8 oz., 3d.; 
sugar, 1 Ib. 53 0z., 33d.; rice, 1 lb. 83 oz., 33d. ; bread, 
2 Ib. 1 oz., 4d.; lard, 93 oz., 44d. ; potatoes, 8 Ib. 1 0z., 
8d.; raisins, 1 lb. 12 0z., to}d.; cheese, 1 lb. 3 02z., 
113d.; butter, 11 0z., 12d.; cocoa, 1 Ib. 1 0z., 1434.3 
lentils (dried), 1 Ib. 8 oz., 15d.; salt cod, 6 lb., 45d. 
Orricers of the Royal Artillery and the Royal 
Engineers, besides a large circle of friends in the 
teaching profession, will learn with deep regret of 
the sudden death, on October 18, of Mr. C. S. Jack- 
son, Instructor of Mathematics and Mechanics at the 
Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. Before entering 
as-a scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, Mr. Jack- 
son was head of Bedford School. He was eighth 
Wrangler in 1889, in the following year took the premier 
place in Part II. of the Law Tripos, and was called 
‘to the Bar shortly afterwards. In 1891 he joined the 
staff of the R.M. Academy, and for the past twenty- 
five years worked there with rare distinction and 
single-hearted devotion. He was a member of the 
council of the Mathematical Association, and took a 
prominent part on the various committees of that body, 
the reports of which have done so much to improve 
the mathematical teaching of our schools. He was 
also the first president of the London branch of this 
association. His great knowledge of the educational 
requirements of the country was recognised by the 
Board of Education when, in connection with the 
International Congress of Mathematicians, which met 
at Cambridge in 1912, it was determined to issue a 
series of reports dealing with the teaching of mathe- 
matics in secondary schools. The organisation of the 
work in connection with these reports was put into 
the hands of Mr. Jackson, and they form a lasting 
tribute to his far-sighted outlook on mathematical 
education. His work at Woolwich brought him into 
contact with the applications of mathematics to the 
problems of gunnery and military engineering. Work- 
ing on these lines, he became a pioneer in breaking 
down the barrier that so long existed between so-called 
rational mechanics, as taught in our schools, and 
mechanics as applied to the problems of civil and 
military engineering. 
