July 20, 191 1] 



NATURE 



85 



also be seen in the Town Hall, and are of great 

 interest. The population of the borough has increased 

 during the last decade by upwards of 40,000, the 

 number of inhabitants, as shown by the census just 

 completed, being about 232,000. 



Not being a university or large industrial centre, 

 Portsmouth cannot perhaps boast of as many large 

 halls as other cities in which the association has met, 

 but the accommodation will be found quite adequate. 

 The general reception room will be in the Connaught 

 Drill Hall, which is the headquarters of the 3rd Hants 

 Volunteers. Here will be obtained all the literature 

 relating to the meeting, tickets for excursions, postal 

 facilities, &c. Most of the sections will be housed in 

 the Municipal Technical College, a fine building, 

 erected about four years ago at a cost of more than 

 70,000/., and situated close to the Town Hall. This 

 latter building itself will probably accommodate one 

 or two of the sections, and is a magnificent edifice 

 resembling the Town Hall, Leeds. As mentioned 

 above, there are no large works, but several of the 

 excursions will deal with objects of naval interest, 

 such as visits to battleships, the dockyard, Whale 

 Island (the gunnery school), or the Vernon (the tor- 

 pedo and wireless telegraph instruction ship). Other 

 excursions will include visits to Arundel Castle and 

 various parts of the South Downs, and to the Isle of 

 Wight. The Mayor proposes to give a garden-party 

 to all members of the association, as well as a ban- 

 quet to all the officers. 



A good local guide-book is now well in hand, by 

 the aid of which visitors will be able to find their 

 way to the numerous objects of interest without diffi- 

 culty, and also acquire much interesting information 

 with regard to the borough and environs generally. 

 If the number of visitors is large, the question of 

 accommodation may present some difficulty. The best 

 available accommodation in lodging-houses will prob- 

 ably soon be exhausted, as even at the end of August 

 there are still a considerable number of visitors in 

 the town. There are plenty of hotels, but in view 

 of the above facts it will be well to apply early to the 

 local secretaries for particulars of housing accom- 

 modation, as if the housing question is left until a 

 few days before the meeting the choice may be very 

 limited. There is no doubt, however, that the town 

 and outlying districts will be able to accommodate as 

 many as attend the meeting. 



Portsmouth has during the last few weeks taken a 

 prominent part in the Coronation Naval Review, and 

 this has to a slight extent interfered with the meet- 

 ings of the various committees which are dealing with 

 the British Association gathering. Arrangements will, 

 however, now go ahead fast under the guidance of the 

 local secretaries, and in a few weeks we hope to pub- 

 lish further details respecting the meeting, which pro- 

 mises at present to be well up to the standard of any 

 of its predecessors, both as regards work and pleasure. 



It will be seen from the subjoined provisional pro- 

 grammes received from recorders of sections, that the 

 scientific proceedings of the meeting promise to be of 

 interest and importance. 



Provisional Programmes of Sections. 

 Section A (Mathematical and Physical Science). — The 

 presidential address, by Prof. H. H. Turner, will be 

 delivered at 10 a.m. on Thursday, September 1. Three 

 discussions have been arranged : one on the principle of 

 relativity, to be opened by Mr. E. Cunningham ; one on 

 stellar distribution and movements, to be opened by Mr. 

 A. S. Eddington ; the third (in conjunction with Section G) 

 on mechanical flight, with Mr. A. E. Berriman as opener. 

 The following papers have been promised : — Prof. Petter- 

 s,on, on great boundary waves ; parallactic tide set up in 

 the bottom layers of the sea by the moon ; Prof. F. T. 



NO. 2177, VOL. 87] 



Trouton, on peculiarities in the adsorption of salts by 

 silica; Major Hills, on the infra-red spectrum; Prof. F. R. 

 Watson (of Illinois), on the effects of air currents on 

 sound ; Prof. L. Vegard (of Christiania), on the properties 

 of the radiation producing aurora borealis ; and by Prof. 

 W. H. Bragg, on the corpuscular nature of rays. 



Section . B (Chemistry). — Discussion on colloids: The 

 theory of colloids, Prof. Freundlich ; (1) colloids in 

 pharmacy, (2) the blue absorption compounds of iodine 

 with starch and other substances, Dr. G. Barger ; the 

 colloid theory of cements, Dr. C. Desch ; adsorption of 

 bromine by graphite, Dr. E. Wechsler. Discussion on 

 indicators and colour : The origin of general and of 

 specific absorption, Dr. T. M. Lowry ; absorption spectra 

 of vapours, J. E. Purvis; absorption spectra and refractive 

 power of metallic vapours, P. V. Bevan ; the use of 

 indicators in modern physico-chemical research, H. T. 

 Tizard ; the application of methyl orange for the deter- 

 mination of the affinity constants of weak acids and bases, 

 Dr. V. H. Veley. Joint meeting with Agricultural Sub- 

 Section (Monday). Discussion on the part played by 

 enzymes in the economy of plants and animals, opened by 

 Dr. E. Frankland Armstrong ; some points in the treat- 

 ment of wheaten flour, A. E. Humphries. Papers : 

 Optically active systems containing no asymmetric carbon 

 atom, Prof. W. H. Perkin and Prof. W. J. Pope; the 

 diffusion of gases through water, Prof. C. Barus ; the 

 compressibility of mercury, Dr. W. C. Lewis. Reports : 

 Electric steel furnaces, Prof. A. McYVilliam, and those of 

 the Research Committees. 



Section G (Mechanical Science). — Joint discussion 

 with Section A on aeronautics, opened by Mr. A. E. 

 Berriman ; over-type superheated steam engine, Captain 

 H. Riall Sankey and Mr. W. J. Marshall; suction gas 

 plants, Mr. Tookey ; Diesel engines, Mr. Chas. Day ; the 

 vibragraph, Mr. Digby ; experiments on wireless telegraphy, 

 Prof. G. W. O. Howe; electrical steering, Mr. Haig ; 

 electrical drives for propellers, Mr. H. A. Mavor ; smoke 

 abatement, Dr. J. S. Owens; on the origin and production 

 of corrugation on tramway rails, Mr. Worby Beaumont ; 

 crude oil marine engines, Mr. J. H. Rosenthal ; portable 

 wireless telegraphy equipment, Captain H. Riall Sankey ; 

 the gyro compass, G. K. B. Elphinston ; the single-phase 

 repulsion motor, T. F. Wall. 



Section H (Anthropology). — The proceedings promise to 

 be as interesting and as varied as usual. The chief feature 

 will be a discussion on totemism, to be opened by Dr. 

 Haddon, and to which papers are to be contributed by a 

 number of distinguished foreign guests of the section, in- 

 cluding Dr. Kohler, Prof. Graebner, M. A. Van Gennep, 

 Prof. Hutton Webster, and Dr. Goldweiser ; among the 

 English anthropologists who hope to be able to contribute 

 papers or to take part in the discussion are Prof. Frazer, 

 Mr. Hartland, Dr. C. G. Seligmann, and Mr. R. R. Marett. 

 Archaeological papers will cover a wide field. Miss Adela 

 C. Breton will exhibit paintings and frescoes from the 

 Temple of the Tiger, Chichen Itza, and other ruins in 

 Mexico and Yucatan, and will describe some recently dis- 

 covered Costa Rican and Peruvian painted vases. She will 

 also give an account of the present position of archaeological 

 study in Peru. European archaeology will be covered by an 

 important paper on the recent discovery of pleistocene man in 

 Jersey by Mr. R. R. Marett, who has been in charge of the 

 excavations of the caves in which the remains have been 

 discovered ; Dr. A. Keith, in a series of papers on palaeolithic 

 man will describe a second skull recently discovered in the 

 same locality, and said to be from the same level as the 

 well-known Galley Hill skull, a skull of Magnon type 

 from Dartford, and remains of a pygmv race from Spain. 

 Among papers dealing with the Mediterranean and Egyptian 

 area may be mentioned Prof. G. Elliot Smith's paper on 

 the foreign relations and influence of the Egyptians under 

 the Ancient Empire, and Prof. Flinders Petrie's account of 

 the Roman portraits discovered by him in Egypt during the 

 lasl season's excavations. In ethnography and the study of 

 religions, the papers to be contributed bv Mr. W. Crooke on 

 the cow and the milk, Major A. J. Tremearne's notes on 

 Hausa folklore, M. Malinowski on the economic functions 

 of magic, and Dr. C. G. Seligmann on the divine kings of 

 the Shilluk, are of interest and importance. Mr. J. Grav 

 will bring before the section the important question of tb» 



