
Pe 
May 5, 1923] 
makers of Leyden in 1916. Prof. Tammann will 
receive the medal personally at the May sitting of 
the Academy. 
Tue fourth of the series of lectures on physics in 
industry, being delivered under the auspices of the 
Institute of Physics, will be given in the hall of the 
Institution of Electrical Engineers, Victoria Embank- 
ment, W.C.2, on Wednesday, May 9, at 5.30 P.M., by 
Dr. J. W. Mellor, of Stoke-on-Trent, who will deal 
with “‘ The Application of Physics to the Ceramic 
Industries.” Sir J. J. Thomson will preside. No 
ticket of admission is required. 
Ar the anniversary meeting of the Royal Society 
of South Africa, held in Cape Town on March 21, the 
following officers were elected: President: Dr. A. 
Ogg; Hon. Treasurer: Dr. L. Crawford; Hon. 
General Secretary: Dr. W. A. Jolly; Members of 
Council: Mr. K. H. Barnard, Dr. J. W. Bews, Dr. 
ee. Dalton, Dr. J. D. F. Gilchrist, Dr: (Si He 
Haughton, Dr. J. S. v. d. Lingen, Dr. T. J. Mackie, 
Dr. A. W. Rogers, and Dr. S. Shénland. 
Aw address on ‘‘ The Worth of Science ’’ will be 
given at a meeting of the London Branch of the 
National Union of Scientific Workers on Tuesday, 
May 8, at 6 p.M., at the Birkbeck College, Bream’s 
Building, E.C., by Sir Richard Gregory. The chair 
will be taken by Mr. C. S. Garland, M.P. The 
meeting is intended primarily for members of the 
Union who are scientific workers in Government 
departments, but a cordial invitation is extended to 
non-members interested in the work of the Union, 
especially those in public employment. 
_ APPLICATIONS are invited by the Secretaries of 
the Royal Society for a Moseley research student- 
ship, value 300/. per annum, “ for the furtherance 
of experimental research in pathology, physics, and 
chemistry, or other branches of science, but not in 
pure mathematics, astronomy, or any branch of 
science which aims merely at describing, cataloguing, 
or systematising.’’ The appointment will, in the first 
instance, be for two years, but it may, in exceptional 
circumstances, be extended. Further particulars and 
forms of application are obtainable from the Assistant 
Secretary of the Royal Society, Burlington House, 
W.1. The latest date for the receipt of applications 
is Friday, June tr. 
Tue eleventh International Physiological Congress 
will be held in Edinburgh, on July 23-27, and the 
following officers have been appointed: President, 
Sir Edward Sharpey Schafer ; Treasurer, Prof. A. R. 
Cushny ; Secretaries, Prof. G. Barger and Prof. J. C. 
‘Meakins ; Assistant Secretary, Miss Dorothy Charlton. 
Those who desire to be enrolled as members are 
requested to forward their names and addresses, 
together with the amount of their subscription (25s.), 
to Miss Charlton, Department of Physiology, Uni- 
versity, Edinburgh, who will send on request particu- 
lars of hotels and lodgings, and all other necessary 
information. Opportunities will be afforded for the 
exhibition of physiological apparatus. 
NO. 2792, VOL. I11 | 
NATURE 
613 
Tue Minister of Health has appointed the following 
committee ‘‘ To investigate the comparative value, 
for the therapeutic purposes for which cocaine is at 
present used, of various possible substitutes, and the 
evidence as to risk, if any, of such substitutes becoming 
drugs of addiction”: Dr. J. Smith Whitaker, Dr. 
N. G. Bennett, Dr. R. W. Branthwaite, Dr. T. 
Carnwath, Dr. J. H. Chaldecott, Dr. H. H. Dale, 
Mr. T. B. Layton, Dr. G. F. McCleary, Mr. R. 
Foster Moore, and Sir William Henry Willcox. The 
secretary is Dr. E. W. Adams, Ministry of Health, 
to whom all communications relating to the work of 
the committee should be addressed. 
Tuer Postmaster-General has appointed the follow- 
ing committee to consider broadcasting : Major- 
General Sir F. Sykes (chairman); the Hon. J. J. 
Astor; Mr. F: J. Brown, Assistant Secretary of the 
Post Office; Sir Henry Bunbury, Controller and 
Auditor-General of the Post Office; Viscount 
Burnham, chairman of the Newspaper Proprietors’ 
Association; Dr. W. H. Eccles, president of the 
Radio Society of Great Britain ; Sir Henry Norman ; 
Mr. J. C. W. Reith, general manager of the British 
Broadcasting Company ; Sir William Robertson ; and 
Mr. C. Trevelyan. The terms of reference of the 
committee are: ‘‘ To consider (a) broadcasting in all 
its aspects; (b) the contract and licences which have 
been or may be granted ; (c) the action which should 
be taken on the determination of the existing licence 
of the British Broadcasting Company; (d) the uses 
to which broadcasting may be put ; (é) the restrictions 
which should be placed on its user or development.” 
AN article on ‘ Botulism in Scotland’’ which 
appeared in Nature of March 24, p. 415, referred 
to the difficulty, due to breakages, in heating glass 
containers for potted meats, so as to secure pre- 
ventive sterilisation. Dr. G. R. Leighton, the 
author of the report described in our article, says 
on this subject: ‘‘ I find it is a common experience 
in the trade that glass containers cannot be heated 
above boiling-point without the risk of a good many 
being broken.’’ Mr. R. L. Frink, director of research 
of the Glass Research Association, in a letter to us, 
urges that such statements are scarcely justified, 
and do not take into account “‘ the strenuous efforts 
that are being made to establish glass in its proper 
place as the most suitable container for foodstuffs.” 
He adds: ‘‘ Within the last month I have received 
information dealing with those properties and the 
use of glass as a food-container requiring pasteurisa- 
tion and sterilisation (the latter being at temperatures 
of 230°-250° F.). It is shown that of more than 
400,000 gross of containers used, there was less than 
0°25 per cent. breakage, causing a loss not exceeding 
two-thirds of that suffered by the use of tins.’’ Also 
as ‘“‘ the contents of tins are susceptible to fermenta- 
tion or decomposition there is great danger that 
ptomaine may be propagated or that soluble salts 
of lead may exist in the contents.” 
THE Geological Survey of New South Wales is 
fortunately able to continue the publication of its 
valuable Records. The last two numbers, vol. x. 
