er 
JuNE 30, 1923] 
NATURE 
891 

AT a meeting of the Royal Society of New South 
Wales on May 2, the following officers for 1923-24 
were elected :—President: Mr. R. H. Cambage. 
Vice-Presidents: Prof. C. E. Fawsitt, Mr. J. Nangle, 
Mr. E. C. Andrews, and Mr. C. A. Sussmilch. Hon. 
Treasurer: Prof. H.G. Chapman. Hon. Secretaries : 
Prof. O. U. Vonwiller and Mr. G. A. Waterhouse. 
Members of Council: Dr. C. Anderson, Sir Edgeworth 
David, Mr. W. S. Dun, Dr. R. Greig-Smith, Mr. 
Charles Hedley, Rev. E. F. Pigot, Mr. W. Poole, 
Mr. H. G. Smith, Prof. J. Douglas Stewart, and 
Prof. R. D. Watt. 
Tue David Livingstone Centenary Medal for 1923 
has been awarded to Dr. T. Griffith Taylor, associate 
professor of geography in the University of Sydney, 
Australia. This medal, founded by the Hispanic 
Society of America and awarded by the American 
Geographical Society, is given ‘‘ for scientific achieve- 
ment in the field of geography of the southern hemi- 
sphere.” Dr. Taylor has made notable contributions 
to Australian geography, applying the results of his 
physiographic and climatic studies to problems of 
_ settlement and human adaptation. He is the author 
of several works on Australia and of numerous com- 
munications appearing in Australian Government 
bulletins, and was senior geologist and leader of the 
western parties on the British Antarctic Expedition 
of 1910-1913 (Scott’s last expedition), on which he 
has written ‘“‘ With Scott: The Silver Lining ”’ (1915). 
It is anticipated that the medal will be presented 
on the occasion of the Second Pan-Pacific Science 
‘Congress, which meets in August and September in 
Australia. 
On June 10 two departments were opened for the 
public and visitors in the new premises of the 
Geological Museum of the Petrograd Academy of 
Science. One of the departments is devoted to the 
general osteological collection and contains among its 
exhibits remains of Indricotherium, a giant primitive 
thinoceros-like mammal, from the Turgai Oligocene 
deposits (Indricotherium beds), north of the Aral 
Sea, recently described by Prof. A. Borissiak (Mém. 
Acad. Petrograd (viii.) xxxv. N6). The other 
department, the so-called North-Dvina gallery, is 
devoted exclusively to the Upper Permian fauna, 
discovered by Prof. Amalitzky, and contains his 
types, some of them partly re-developed and re- 
described by the present curator of the gallery, Prof. 
P. Sushkin (Comptes rendus of the Petrograd Academy 
for 1921 and 1922). 
One of the main functions of the Fuel Research 
Board is a survey and classification of the coal 
seams in the various mining districts by means of 
chemical and physical tests in the laboratory, supple- 
mented where desirable by large-scale tests at 
H.M. Fuel Research Station, East Greenwich, or 
elsewhere. It is considered that the best way to 
carry out this work is by means of local committees, 
the personnel of which would include colliery owners, 
managers, representatives of the Fuel Research 
Board and of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, 
as well as of outside scientific interests. In this way 
. NO. 2800, VOL. 111] 
local knowledge and experience is made available. 
The first of these committees has now been actively 
at work in the Lancashire and Cheshire area for 
nearly eighteen months, and the Board has recently 
decided to deal with the South Yorkshire area. 
The South Yorkshire Coal Trade Association and 
the Midland Institute of Mining, Civil, and Mechanical 
Engineers are co-operating in the work. The follow- 
ing committee has been appointed: Dr. C. H. 
Lander (chairman, pro tem.), Mr. J. Brass, Mr. 
Robert Clive (hon. secretary), Mr. H. Danby, Lieut.- 
Col. H. Rhodes, Prof. R. V. Wheeler, and Dr. Walcot 
Gibson. 
THE annual general meeting of the Research 
Defence Society, on June 20, when Lord Knutsford 
presided, was well attended, and the necessary 
business was quickly done. Dr. Saleeby lectured on 
“Sunlight and Disease’’; and showed lantern- 
pictures and films illustrating the past and present 
use of “the sun-cure’’: especially the amazing 
results which Rollier has obtained at Leysin; the 
downright cure, by light alone, of many fearful cases 
of tuberculosis. If the photographs and the films 
had not been there, the whole thing would have been 
incredible. The sun, that careful doctor, had faith- 
fully recorded the work which he had achieved. 
Dr. Saleeby also spoke of the experimental research 
which is being pursued into the action of light on 
life: the relation of light to the storage of phosphorus, 
calcium, and vitamin A in the body, and so on: but 
we are still a long way from understanding these 
mysteries. In Great Britain, a measure of success 
has been gained at Sir William Treloar’s Hospitals at 
Alton and Hayling Island, and at Queen Mary’s 
Hospital, Carshalton. But what is the good of 
talking of ‘“‘sun-cure”’ in this country, in this 
weather ? It was a sunless day, near the end of a 
sunless May and June. Besides, in our great in- 
dustrial cities we poison the air with smoke. Dr. 
Saleeby's pictures of Manchester and Sheffield were 
Ruskin’s prophecies come true. Prof. Dreyer is 
working for a better tuberculin-treatment. Mr. Justice 
McCardie has spoken his mind on the contagiosity 
of a dusty house in which a consumptive patient had 
lived. People are learning more about tuberculosis. 
But, until we get finer summers, use smokeless 
coal, and abolish slums and overcrowding, we must 
not expect to repeat the wonders of Leysin in Great 
Britain. 
On April 6 Mr. G. R. Clarke, the Director-General 
of Posts and Telegraphs for India, read a paper to 
the Royal Society of Arts on postal and telegraph 
work in India, He pointed out that the present 
problem is not the erection of more wires to carry 
the increased traffic, but to increase the capacity of 
the existing wires by the use of multiplex high- 
speed instruments. Automatic telephone exchanges 
have proved a great success at Simla and Lahore, 
and many similar installations are in course of 
erection. Radio communication has not proved 
successful in India owing to the ‘ atmospherics ” 
making signalling impossible at certain seasons. 
