

_ THE annual conversazione of the Institution of 
: _ | Civil Engineers will be held on Thursday, July r2, at 
luncheon at the Trocadero Restaurant on June 7 8 P.M. 
The objects of this Association were referred to in an | 
_ article published in Nature of January 13, 1923. 
It has now been arranged that the first expedition 
shall start in September next, the three-masted 
schooner St, George, of approximately 1ooo tons 
_ -Tegister, having been secured for the purpose. The | 
_ ship, which is designed on the lines of a yacht, is | 
_ fitted with auxiliary steam-power, and will be under 
___ the command of Commander D. Blair. It is intended 
that seven or eight fully qualified men of science, | 
representing biology in its different branches, eth- | 
nology, oceanography, and geology, shall accompany : 
the expedition, and that full opportunities shall be | 
given them for serious scientific work. The expedi- | 
tion will last for about ten months, and the route _ 
followed will be Panama, Galapagos, Easter Island, 
Pitcairn, Gambier Islands, Rapa, Australs, Cook | 
Islands, Tahiti, Rangiroa, Marquesas, Cocos, Panama, 7 
Azores. There will be accommodation for not more | 
_ than thirty paying guests, and the cruise should offer | 
a unique opportunity for any one with scientific | 
interests to visit the Pacific Islands under favourable — 
conditions for research work, which would supplement 
the organised research of the expedition. The | 
arrangements for the latter are being made by a 
committee of scientific men who are specialists in the 
different subjects which will be investigated. The | 
Offices of the Association are at 5° Pali Mall, London, 
e S.W.r. 
June opened this year with very unfavourable 
weather conditions. May was dull and cold generally, 
but statistics of past years show worse weather in 
May than that experienced this year. The un- 
favourable atmospheric conditions in May occasioned 
a drift of cold air over the British Isles from the 
Arctic regions. A change, however, has occurred 
since the commencement of June, and the drift of 
air is chiefly-from the Atlantic, with more normal 
conditions, although the days are mostly decidedly 
cool. Greenwich records afford a ready comparison 
with the past for a period of at least 80 years. June 
1-6 this year was continuously cold, the day tempera- 
tures being below 60°, with the exception of June 3, 
when a break of warmer weather was experienced 
over the south-west and south of England, and at 
Greenwich the maximum in the shade registered 71°, 
while the sun was shining for 8-4 hours. The lowest 
mean maximum temperature in June recorded at 
Greenwich since 1841 is 62°4° in 1909, which is 7°6° 
below the normal, there being only 3 days during 
this month with the temperature 70° or above; 
1860 and 1916 are the only other years with so small 
a number of warm days in June. In 1909 the first 
half of the month was generally cold. In 1903 June 
was also cold, and the two weeks from June 7-20 were 
probably colder than any other similar period in 
June on record; the maximum or day temperature 
on June 19 was 48°5°, which is the lowest day tempera- 
ture in June during the last 80 years, and 5° below 
the coldest day in the early part of June this year. 
NO. 2798, VOL. I11] 



SINCE 1917 the Royal Society’s Gold Medals have 
been struck in brass, although the recipients have 
been informed that in due course the brass copies 
will be replaced by gold. The receipt of an invita- 
tion from a prominent firm of jewellers to view the 
King’s Gold Vase and the Gold Cup made for the 
Ascot meeting, 1923, gives reason for the hope that 
at no distant date the Mint may find itself in a 
position to release the small quantity of gold required 
to strike these medals in their proper medium. 















Tue tercentenary of the Oxford University Botanic 
Garden will be celebrated on Saturday, June 23, 
in the Garden at 3.30-5.50 p.M. The speakers will 
include the chancellor of the University, Sir David 
Prain, the president of Magdalen College, and Sir 
F. W. Keeble, Sherardian professor of botany in the 
University. 











Ir is announced in Science that Dr. George K. 
Burgess has been appointed director of the Bureau 
of Standards in succession to Dr. S. W. Stratton, 
who resigned to become president of the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology. Dr. Burgess has been 
connected with the Bureau of Standards for twenty 
years, becoming chief of the division of metallurgy 
in 1913. 








In another part of this issue we print an article 
on the life and work of Blaise Pascal by Prof. H. 
Wildon Carr. Celebrations commemorating the ter- 
centenary of Pascal’s birth are to be held in France 
on July 8-9. The principal meeting will be in Paris, 
where the French President will be present at a 
gathering to be addressed by the Minister for Public 
Instruction and members of the French Academy. 
A meeting will also be held at the summit of the 
Puy de Déme, the site of Pascal’s classical experiment 
showing the fall of the barometer with increasing 
height above sea-level. 









THE trustees of the British Museum have accepted 
a portrait of Alfred Russel Wallace, which is being 
presented to them by a memorial committee of which 
Sir James Marchant is secretary. The artist is Mr. 
J. W. Beaufort. The painting will be unveiled in 
the Central Hall of the Natural History Museum, 
South Kensington, at 12 noon on Saturday, June 23. 
Places will be reserved as far as possible for those 
specially interested in Wallace’s work, on the receipt 
of applications addressed to the Director. 









THE arrangements for the International Air 
Congress, which is to be held in the rooms of the 
Institution of Civil Engineers, on June 25-30, are 
now nearly complete. A large number of papers 
has been received; these have been arranged in 
four groups, or sections, and the discussions on the 
four will go on simultaneously. The Congress, of 
which H.R.H. the Duke of York is president, will 
be opened at ro A.M. on June 25 by H.R.H. the 
Prince of Wales. An inaugural address will be 







