Jone 23, 1923] 
NATURE 
855 

of the prize to a representative committee in Edin- 
burgh. Further subscriptions will still be welcomed 
by the hon. treasurer, Mr. A. N. G. Aitken, 37 Queen 
Street, Edinburgh. 
THE resignation is announced of Sir George Beilby 
after nearly seven years’ voluntary service as director 
of fuel research and chairman of the Fuel Research 
Board under the Department of Scientific and 
Industrial Research, which was established in 1917 
to investigate the nature, preparation, and utilisa- 
tion of fuel of all kinds. Dr. C. H. Lander has been 
appointed director of fuel research, and Sir Richard 
Threlfall, a present member of the Board, to be 
chairman. The Hon. Sir Charles Parsons will 
continue as a member of the Board ‘for a further 
period. Sir George Beilby retains his membership 
of the Advisory Council of the Department, and has 
consented to act as honorary adviser to the Board. 
The following have been appointed additional 
members of the Board: Mr. R. A. Burrows, Sir 
John Cadman, Dr. Charles Carpenter, Mr. Samuel 
Tagg, Sir James Walker, and Prof. R. V. Wheeler. 
In his recent presidential address to the Institute 
of Physics, Sir J. J. Thomson gave some account 
of the work he saw during his recent visit to America 
in the research departments of some of the great 
manufacturing firms. These laboratories were estab- 
lished in the face of considerable opposition, but 
now the unanimous opinion appears to be that the 
research department is one of the most profitable 
in manufacturing concerns, and, however great the 
necessity for economy, its cost would be the last to 
be reduced. The scale of the laboratories is far 
greater than anything in Great Britain, and much 
of the work carried out is not merely what may be 
called development work, but is fundamental scientific 
work, worthy of a university laboratory. On the 
other hand, the American universities do not seem 
designed to produce a large number of men qualified 
to take up advanced research work. For example, 
few of the science students have the necessary 
equipment in mathematics, and the stern training 
which a good honours man in a great English university 
has to go through appears to be unknown. The 
system is doubtless good for the average man, but 
a successful research institute requires something 
more than the average man: it needs men with 
high scientific knowledge. In this regard, Great 
Britain has a distinct advantage which is sorely 
needed if it is to hold its own in competition. 
THE annual conversazione of the Institution of 
Electrical Engineers will be held at the Natural 
History Museum, Cromwell Road, S.W., on Thursday, 
June 28, at 8.30 P.M. bs 
Ir is announced in the Times that Sir E. Wallis 
Budge, keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian antiquities 
at the British Museum, has been elected a foreign 
correspondent associate of the Lisbon Academy of 
Sciences. 
A REPLICA of the portrait of Benjamin Harrison, 
painted a short time before his death by Mr. Cyril 
Chitty of Ightham, has been purchased by private 
NO. 2799, VOL. 111] 
subscription and presented to the Maidstone Museum. 
It has been placed in the room in which selected 
examples of Mr. Harrison’s flint implements are 
exhibited. 
THE annual general meeting of the Institution of 
Gas Engineers is to be held on June 26-28 in the City 
Hall, Belfast. At the first session of the meeting 
the Birmingham medal will be presented to Mr. W. 
Doig Gibb, and Mr. J. D, Smith, engineer and manager 
of the Corporation Gas Works, Belfast, will deliver 
his presidential address. A number of reports and 
papers will be presented to the meeting and discussed. 
“Nationa, Baby Week” will be observed on 
July 1-7, and we have received from the National 
Baby Week Council (117 Piccadilly, W.1) pamphlets 
explaining the object of baby week and how to 
organise a baby week celebration, and dealing with 
the activities of the Council. The Council desires 
to promote in the widest sense the safeguarding of 
infant life. 
Ir is stated in the British Medical Journal that 
Dr. Kleiweg de Zwaar, of Amsterdam, has instituted 
‘a triennial prize of the value of 2500 francs, which 
will be awarded for the first time in 1924 for the 
best work in physical or prehistoric anthropology 
during the preceding three years. Candidates should 
apply before November 1 to the Secretary, Ecole 
d’Anthropologie, 15 rue de l’Ecole de Médecine, 
Paris. 
THE Society of Glass Technology has issued a 
provisional programme for its visit to France on 
June 30-July 6. The details of the meeting are 
being arranged by M. Delloye, of the Glaceries de 
St. Gobain, Chauny, and Cirey, and visits to a number 
of glass factories in and near Paris are promised. 
On July 2 there will be a joint meeting for the 
presentation and discussion of papers with the 
French Society of Civil Engineers, and it is hoped 
that Prof. H. le Chatelier will address the meeting. 
THE centenary of the death of the famous horologist, 
Abraham Louis Bréguet, will be celebrated in Paris 
on October 22-27, by an exhibition of his works at 
the Musée Galliera, a special meeting at the Sorbonne, 
and a reception at the Hotel de Ville. The Congrés 
National de Chronométrie will also meet in Paris in 
October, under the honorary presidency of M. Baillaud, 
director of the Paris Observatory, and of General 
Sebert. Besides discussing general questions relating 
to chronometry, the congress will aim at the formation 
of a Chronometric Union under the direction of the 
International Research Council. 
TuHrRouGH the great generosity of Mr. Charles 
Heape, of Rochdale, the Manchester Museum will 
shortly come into possession of a fine collection of 
native implements, ornaments, and weapons, which 
will add greatly to the value of the ethnological 
collection that it already possesses. The bulk of © 
the specimens are drawn from the Pacific, but the 
collection also contains some objects from the Eskimo 
and from Egypt. The collection has been catalogued 
