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FEBRUARY 2231917 | 
.traced.. The horizons are nct conspicuous litho- 
logically, and it is not easy to detect them except 
-in a country of good exposures—a feature which 
is not usually found in areas covered by Kim- 
_meridge Clay. 
The lateral extent of these oil-shales is certainly 
greater than the present evidence will allow us 
to assert with any definiteness, but they will 
probably be found to vary in richness when traced 
along their strike and dip, and, in addition, the 
unconformably overlying Lower Greensands will 
have eliminated them in certain areas. But when 
the technical difficulties in the purification of the 
“oil have been overcome, there is every prospect of 
an industry of important dimensions springing up 
in Dorsetshire and West Norfolk, and perhaps 
being linked up by similar industries in Berk- 
shire, Oxfordshire, etc. 
The one great drawback, which is at present 
prohibitive to the general use of this Kimmeridge 
shale oil, is the abnormal percentage of sulphur 
present. This exists in a very stable form, and 
has baffled the commercial attempts to eliminate 
it; but there is little doubt that a solution will be 
found, and it is suggested that it will probably 
die in changed methods of retorting. The fact 
that the shale*yields upwards of 60 gallons of 
oil per ton, more than twice the average yield in 
‘Scotland, indicates that when the difficulty of the 
sulphur content has been overcome it will become 
‘an important asset in the economic development 
“of the country. Mi, Gack, 
NOTES. 
A Boarp of Fuel Research has been appointed by 
the Committee of the Privy Council for Scientific and 
Industrial Research on the recommendation of their 
Advisory Council. Sir George Beilby will act as 
director of the new organisation, and be assisted by 
the Hon, Sir C. Parsons, Mr. R. Threlfall, and Sir R. 
_Redmayne as members of the board. By arrange- 
ment with the governors of the Imperial College of 
Science and Technology, Prof. W. A. Bone will be 
retained as consultant to the Board of Fuel Research 
under the Department of Scientific and Industrial Re- 
search, continuing to hold his chair at the Imperial 
‘College. 
Sir ArrHur Lee has been appointed by the Presi- 
“dent of the Board of Agriculture Director-General. of 
Food Production; the Hon, E. G. Strutt and Mr. 
-A. D. Hall will, for the period of the war, be additional 
Agricultural Adviser and Scientific Technical Expert 
respectively, and the Duke of Marlborough has been 
appointed Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Board 
‘of Agriculture, representing the department in the 
House of Lords. All the posts named are unpaid. 
Tue Board of Trade is taking possession of all the 
‘coal mines in the United Kingdom for the period of 
the war, and a new department is being set up to 
control the mines. and to deal with production, output, 
distribution, finance, wages, and the price of coal. 
Mr. Guy Calthrop, general manager of the London 
-and North-Western Railway Company, has been ap- 
pointed head of the new department, and is designated 
‘Controller of Coal Mines. He will be assisted by Sir 
R. Redmayne, H.M. Chief Inspector of Mines, and 
:an advisory committee consisting of persons selected 
NO. 2469, VOL. 98] 
NATURE 
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495 
to represent coal-owners and  coal-miners. Mr. 
Walker, the Deputy Chief Inspector of Mines, will 
act as Chief Inspector for the period of the war. 
Sir Bamry_pe Fuiier has undertaken the charge 
of the department of the War Office which is dealing 
with the supply of timber for the use of the Army; 
the control of the use of timber in the United King- 
dom with the view of effecting economy in its use 
for all purposes; the regulation of the purchase of 
such timber as may be imported from sources outside 
the United Kingdom, whether on Government or pri- 
vate account; and the stimulation of the felling of 
timber in the United Kingdom, Sir B. Fuller will 
be assisted by an Advisory Committee, composed of 
timber merchants chosen by the Timber Federation, 
and by others representing firms of repute which do 
not belong to the federation. The address of the de- 
partment is Caxton House, Tothill Street, Westmin- 
ster, 
Str Rogpert HapriE_p is succeeding the Rt. Hon. 
H. E. Duke, K.C., M.P., as president of the Society 
of British Gas Industries, 
WE regret to learn of the death, on February 17, 
at the age of sixty-seven years, of Mr. George Massee, 
tormerly of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 
From K6énigsberg comes the news. of the death of 
Dr. Friedrich Hahn, who occupied the chair of geo- 
graphy at the University there. He was born in 1852, 
began his academic career at Leipzig in 1879, ‘and went 
to Kénigsberg in 1885. Hahn was a great traveller, 
having visited Australia, Polynesia, and Africa. He 
was a prolific writer, his principal work being the 
great collection, ‘‘Die landeskundliche Literatur der 
Provinzen Ost- und Westpreussen.’’ Among his other 
books may be mentioned ‘Ueber Aufsteigen und 
Sinken der Kiisten’’ (187q), ‘‘Inselstudien” (1883), 
“Die Stadte der norddeutschen Tiefebene”’ (1885), and 
‘““Topographischer Fiihrer durch Nordwest-Deutsch- 
land "’ (1895). 
A MEETING of the Refractory Materials Section of the 
Ceramic Society will be held at the University, Leeds, 
on March 13 and 14, when the following papers will 
be read :—‘‘ The Dressler Kiln,’ Mr. Dressler; ‘‘ The 
Spalling of Magnesite Bricks,’’ Dr. J. W. Mellor; 
‘‘A Process of Manufacturing Heavy Fireclay and 
Similar Articles,” Mr. B. J. Allan; “‘ Geology of Clays of 
Central Yorkshire,” Prof. Kendall and Mr. Gilligan; 
‘“The Use of Zirconia as a Refractory Material,” Mr. 
J. A. Audley; and ‘‘Temperature Measurements on 
Clay Works Practice,’’ Prof. Cobb. 
Mr. A. CHaston CuHapMAN will deliver a lecture, 
entitled “*Some Main Lines of Advance in the Domain 
of Modern Analytical Chemistry,’’ to the Chemical 
Society on March 15, and Dr. Horace T. Brown will 
lecture on ‘‘The Principles of Diffusion: their 
Analogies and Applications"’ on May 17. The follow- 
ing changes in the officers and council of the Chemical 
Society for 1917-18 have been -proposed by the coun- 
cil:—President, Prof. W. Jackson Pope; New Vice- 
Presidents, Col. A. Smithells and Prof. Sydney Young ; 
New Ordinary Members of Council, Prof. H. C. H. 
Carpenter, Prof. A. Findlay, Prof. A. Harden, and 
Dr. T. A. Henry. 
Sir Atrrep Keocu. Director-General of the Army 
Medical Service, presiding at a lecture at the Royal 
Institute of Public Health on February 14, stated that 
in France at that moment there were only five cases 
of enteric fever and eighteen cases of paratyphoid 
fever, with seventy or eighty doubtful cases. He 
attributed this result to inoculation, and the general 
