230 

1887, and later chemist, to the Wisconsin Agricultural 
Experimental Station. In 1906 he became professor of 
agricultural chemistry in the University, a post which 
he held until 1913, when he went to the University of 
California as professor of animal nutrition. Dr. Woll 
issued a number of valuable reports and bulletins on 
dairy matters and stock feeding while he was in charge 
of the research stations, and wrote, among other works, 
“A Book on Silage,” “‘ Testing Milk and its Products,” 
and ‘Productive Feeding of Farm Animals,” all of 
which have passed through several editions. According 
to Science, it was due mainly to Dr. Woll’s efforts 
that the cow-testing associations, of so much importance 
to the dairy industry of California, have been developed 
and placed on a permanent basis. 

Mr. F. E. Weston, the late head of the Chemistry 
Department of the Regent Street Polytechnic, died 
on January 4 after a long illness, and some account 
of his life and work appears in the Chemical Age of 

NATURE 
[FrsRuaRY 17, 1923 
January 20. His death will be regretted by large 
numbers of chemists who came under his influence. 
Mr. Weston was the author of some sound and popular 
text-books, and in addition to his activities as a teacher 
he made several original investigations. 

WE regret to announce the deaths of : Prof. Wilhelm 
Konrad von Réntgen, at the age of seventy-seven 
years; Mr. Bernard~Bosanquet, on February 8, in his 
seventy-fifth year; and Dr. A. H. Fison, lecturer on 
physics at Guy’s Hospital, London, and secretary to 
the Gilchrist Educational Trust, on February 5, at the 
age of sixty-five years. 

Tue Chemiker Zeitung of January 18 reports the 
death on December 6 of Prof. Luigi Marino-Zuco, of 
the Applied Chemistry Department of the Royal School 
of Engineers, Pisa. 
Current Topics and Events. 
THE recent decision of the Commissioners of 
Customs to enforce payment of the entertainment 
tax by the Committee of the West Highland Museum 
at Fort William in respect of an exhibition of local 
objects meets with some caustic comment in the 
February number of the Musewms Journal. It is 
pointed out that the official regulations contemplate 
the issue of certificates of exemption for ‘‘ entertain- 
ments ”’ of this nature, and that the Board of Educa- 
tion encourages such temporary local exhibitions as 
the best means of securing the establishment of 
permanent provincial museums. Thus does one 
Government Department hinder the efforts of the 
other; and thus is constructed another argument 
for a properly thought-out State policy towards 
museums. 
In view of the withdrawal of oversea contributions 
to the Imperial Institute, a committee under the 
chairmanship of the Hon. W. Ormsby-Gore and in- 
cluding the High Commissioners of Canada, Australia, 
New Zealand, South Africa, and representatives of the 
Board of Trade, the Colonial Office, the Treasury, and 
the Associated Chambers of Commerce, has been 
appointed to investigate the position of the Institute. 
Mr. E. B. Boyd of the Colonial Office is acting as 
secretary to the committee. The terms of reference 
include a consideration of what functions now carried 
out by the Institute are considered essential and 
whether they should be transferred to other research 
organisations. Further, the committee has to con- 
side1 to what extent the intentions of the founders of 
the Institute are being carried out and to suggest 
improvements which may be financially possible 
should it be recommended that the Institute continue 
on its existing basis. To us it seems astonishing that, 
as the Institute is largely concerned with the scientific 
study of the natural resources of the Empire, the 
committee does not include representatives of science, 
who alone are able to understand the significance and 
value of research aspects of the Institute’s work. 
NO. 2781, VOL. 111] 

Tue General Electric Co. of America has had for 
several years a testing transformer which can produce 
a potential difference of a million volts between its 
terminals. We understand also that Prof. Millikan 
will be able to experiment with a million volts at 
his new laboratory at Pasadena. According to La 
Nature of January 20, the Compagnie Générale 
d’Electro-Céramique has decided to instal a battery 
of transformers in its test-room at Ivry which will 
give a pressure of a million volts for measuring the 
electric strength of insulating materials. With these 
high pressures it is possible to make commercial tests 
on insulators when arranged in series, as they are on 
high voltage transmission lines. The Americans have ~ 
also used them for testing the efficiency of lightning 
safety devices, and for studying the phenomena which 
occur when a very high voltage discharge takes place 
on a network. 
To any one concerned with public health, and more 
especially to those who have witnessed the ravages of 
small-pox among natives in our overseas possessions 
and the benefits conferred by vaccination, the exhibit 
of pictures and relics connected with Edward Jenner 
now on view at the Wellcome Historical Medical 
Museum, 544 Wigmore Street, W., cannot fail to be 
of interest. Here are shown many mementoes of this 
illustrious benefactor of mankind ; an English country 
doctor, blessed with unusual powers of observation 
and animated by a scientific spirit, whose work, 
despite the efforts of cranks and detractors, will 
stand for all time. In addition to the large number 
of interesting objects forming part of the Wellcome 
Museum, special loan exhibits are displayed. Among 
them is the original pencil drawing of Jenner from 
life executed by Thomas Drayton, while there are 
many rare books and the original water-colour 
drawings of Kirtland showing the results of vaccination 
and variolation from day to day. Of the lancets 
Jenner used there are two with ivory points similar 
to those on which he sent dried lymph to India, The 
