1923] 
mittee has recently recommended decentralisation of | 
_ medical research in India, with consequent dependence 
of all grants for its support being voted annually by 
the large Indian Council majorities. The qualifica- 
tions for such serious responsibility can be gauged by 
the above examples, and they are combined with 
administration by an Indian Minister who is very 
unlikely to look beyond his own province and race for 
research workers. Moreover, the original grant of five 
lakhs of rupees (33,000/.) a year for medical research 
was cut down to 34 lakhs during the War, and is now 
recommended to be abolished. In its place the 33 
lakhs accumulated by the Indian Research Fund 
Association during the War, and ear-marked for a 
new research laboratory in Delhi, is to be capitalised 
to bring in about two lakhs a year for the full support 
of the bacteriological department, which is to be 
deprived of twelve of its officers—more than one-third 
of the total number—the whole savings from this 
small department being disproportionally great as 
_ compared with many far less valuable and life-saving 
forms of expenditure. The future of medical research 
in India will be dark indeed if such large reductions 
in finance and personnel are effected, and still more so 
if the remaining funds are to be placed at the mercy 
every year of the large Indian majorities on all the 
_ Provincial Councils, few of whom have had the 
_ slightest scientific knowledge or training. 
: APRIL 28, 
Tue first congress of Polish Chemists and Physicists 
met in Warsaw on April 3. With a total membership 
of about 850, this meeting has taken a high place 
among recent Polish scientific congresses, and the 
_ organising committee is to be congratulated upon the 
brilliant success achieved. A large gathering of 
scientific and industrial chemists and physicists, to- 
gether with representatives of the Government, the 
_ Municipality of Warsaw, and of various societies and 
_ corporations, filled the Great Hall of the Technical 
High School of Warsaw on April 4, when the meeting 
was welcomed by Dr. Mikulowski Pomorski (Minister 
of National Education), and short scientific addresses 
were delivered by Prof. Ladislas Natanson (Rector of 
the Jagellonian University of Cracow), and by Profs. 
Marchlewski, Bialobrzeski, and Moscicki. The scien- 
tific proceedings of the sections were full of interest ; 
about 120 papers were read in various chemical 
sections and about 36 in the section of physics ; 
there were many communications showing serious 
work and real progress. Particularly interesting, in 
the section of physics, were communications by Profs. 
Pienkowski, Zakrzewski, Wolfke, and Reczynski on 
experimental investigations in progress in various 
University laboratories in Poland. The meeting con- 
cluded on April 6 with an address delivered by Prof. 
Tolloczko, and the usual votes of thanks. The hearty 
reception accorded to scientific men coming from all 
parts of Poland was much commented upon by those 
who attended this very successful meeting. 
THE first conversazione of the Royal Society this 
year will be held at the Society’s rooms, Burlington 
House, on Wednesday, May 16. 
NO. 2791, VOL. 111] 

NATURE 
579 
Ture Yimes announces that the Anthropological- 
Geographical Society of Stockholm has conferred the 
Anders Retzius Medal in gold upon Sir Aurel Stein 
for his archeological research in Central Asia. 

THE twenty-ninth James Forrest lecture of the 
Institution of Civil Engineers will be delivered on 
May-4 by Sir Richard Glazebrook, who will take as 
his subject ‘‘The Interdependence of Abstract 
Science and Engineering.”’ 
Dr. H. H. Date will deliver two Oliver-Sharpey 
lectures at the Royal College of Physicians of London 
on May 1 and 3, at 5 o'clock, taking as his subject 
“The Activity of the Capillary Blood-vessels, and its 
Relation to certain Forms of Toxemia.”’ 
Tue Adolph von Baeyer Memorial lecture will be 
delivered before the Chemical Society by Prof. W. H. 
Perkin, in the Lecture Hall of the Institution of 
Mechanical Engineers, Storey’s Gate, S.W.I, on 
Thursday, May ro, at 8 p.m. 
Tue Secretary for Mines has appointed the follow- 
ing to be additional members of the Safety in Mines 
Research Board: Prof. W. S. Boulton, Prof. S. M. 
Dixon, Dr. J. S. Haldane, Prof. C. H. Lees, and Prof. 
J. F. Thorpe. 
THE Chemical Society Research Fund Committee 
will meet early in June. Applications for grants 
should be made on forms obtainable from the Assistant 
Secretary, Chemical Society, Burlington House, 
Piccadilly, W.1, and must be lodged with the Assistant 
Secretary by June tr. 
Applications for grants in aid of scientific in- 
vestigations bearing on agriculture to be carried out 
in England and Wales during the academic year 
beginning on October 1 next should reach the Secretary, 
Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Whitehall Place, 
S.W.1, by, at latest, May 15. The applications must 
be made upon form A, 230/1, copies of which can be 
obtained from the Secretary to the Ministry. 
APPLICATIONS are invited by the Ministry of Agri- 
culture and Fisheries for a limited number of research 
scholarships in agricultural and veterinary science, 
tenable for three years and each of the annual value 
of 200/. The latest date for the receipt of applica- 
tions, which must be made upon a prescribed form, is 
July 15. The form and particulars concerning the 
conditions of the scholarships are obtainable from the 
Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, 
Whitehall Place, S.W.1. 
AN election of not more than six junior Beit 
Memorial fellows for medical research will take place 
in July next, and the persons elected will be required 
to begin work on October 1. Each fellowship is of 
the annual value of 350/., and the usual tenure is 
three years. The latest date for the receipt of 
applications is June 1, or, in the case of candidates 
giving residents abroad as referees, May 15. Forms 
of application and all information may be obtained 
by letter only addressed to Sir J. K. Fowler, Honorary 
Secretary, Beit Memorial Fellowships for Medical 
Research, 35 Clarges Street, W.1. 
