Marcu 25, 1915] 

NATURE 
95 

their manufacture on a scientific basis. That op- 
portunity has gone. The only practical plan 
would seem to be for the Government to take the 
matter in hand and independently of public finan- 
cial assistance to obtain its staff of expert 
chemists under adequate scientific control, and 
by their aid to work out the initial experimental 
stages and afterwards either manufacture the dyes 
or make over the processes on certain conditions 
to private firms. 

NOTES. 
WE regret to see the announcement of the death, 
on March 21, in his sixty-fourth year, of Dr. A. A. W. 
Hubrecht, professor of embryology at the University 
of Utrecht. 
TuE honorary freedom of the Apothecaries’ Company 
has been conferred upon Sir Ronald Ross, in recogni- 
tion of the valuable services rendered by him to 
medical science, especially in the prevention of tropical 
disease. 
In recognition of their services as consulting sur- 
geons to the British Expeditionary Force in France 
Mr. G. H. Makins and Sir Anthony A. Bowlby have 
been made Knights Commander of the Order of St. 
Michael and St. George (K.C.M.G.). 
Tue Nieuwe Courant, the Hague, of March 3, states 
that the van’t Hoff fund committee of the Academy 
of Sciences of Amsterdam received five applications 
for grants. The only one awarded was for 600 francs 
to Dr. E. D. Tsakalotos, of Athens, in aid of his 
researches on the thermal properties, the viscosity, 
and the magnetic susceptibility of binary mixtures, 
capable of yielding endothermic compounds, 
At a meeting of the executive committee of the 
British Science Guild, held on March 16, it was 
resolved to send copies of a resolution formulated by 
the medical committee, advocating inoculation against 
typhoid fever, to the commanding officers of every 
regiment of the British Army. Reports on the ques- 
tion of the supply of optical glass and of glass for 
‘ chemical purposes—formerly largely obtained from 
Germany and Austria—showing what has already been 
done in these matters, were also ordered to be widely 
circulated. The question of the shortage of micro- 
scopes was considered, and action is being taken by 
the guild in this matter. 
TuHE death is announced, after a short illness, of 
Prof. W. Smart, professor of political economy at 
Glasgow University. Prof. Smart began his academic 
work in 1886 as lecturer on economics at University 
College, Dundee, and Queen Margaret College, Glas- 
gow. .On the affiliation of Queen Margaret College 
to the University, he became University lecturer on 
economics, and in 1896 was appointed to the Adam 
Smith chair of political economy. In addition to his 
professorial work, Prof. Smart translated Boéhm- 
Bawerk’s ‘Capital and Interest’ and ‘Positive 
Theory of Capital,’ edited Wieser’s ‘‘ Natural Value,”’ 
and compiled ‘‘Economic Annals of the Nineteenth 
Century.” Among his other works are ‘Taxation of 
Land Values” and ‘‘The Return to Protection.” 
NO. 2369, VOL. 95] 
Tue Geologists’ Association has made arrangements 
for an excursion to Glasgow from April 2 to April 8. 
The object of the excursion is to examine the geology 
of the district around Glasgow. On April 2 Prof. 
J. W. Gregory will conduct the party around the 
Campsie Fells. On April 3 South Bute will be visited 
under the directorship of Mr. W. R. Smellie. Garabal 
Hill, Loch Long, and Loch Lomond will be studied 
on April 5 under the guidance of Mr, A. Scott; the 
Falls of Clyde, Cartland Gorge, and Kames of Car- 
stairs on April 6, when Prof. J. W. Gregory and Mr. 
J. Stark will direct; Lugar and Mauchline on April 7, 
director, Mr. G. W. Tyrrell; Hamilton Park and 
Strathaven on April 8, directors, Messrs. Macintyre 
and Carruthers. Intending visitors should communi- 
cate with the secretary for the excursion, Miss G. M. 
Bauer, 16 Selborne Road, Handsworth Wood, 
Birmingham, from whom particulars as to trains and 
accommodation can be obtained. 
Tue death has occurred at Dartmouth, at the age of 
eighty-six, of Mr, E. W. H. Holdsworth, who will 
be remembered by his book, ‘‘ Deep-Sea Fishing and 
Fishing Boats,” published in 1874, which gives the 
best and most intelligent account of the British fisheries 
at that time which we possess. This book will always 
be of the first importance to those interested in the 
progress and development of our sea fisheries. Mr. 
Holdsworth wrote from great personal knowledge of 
the subject, as he had acted as secretary to the Royal 
Commission, of which Prof. Huxley was a member, 
which between 1863 and 1865 travelled all around the 
British coasts inquiring into the condition of the 
fisheries. At the close of the work of this Royal Com- 
mission, Mr. Holdsworth went for some years to 
Ceylon in order to conduct an official inquiry into 
the pearl fisheries. In 1883 Mr. Holdsworth took an 
active part in the International Fisheries Exhibition 
and contributed to the literature of that exhibition an 
important paper on apparatus for fishing. On the 
foundation of the Marine Biological Association he 
was for some years a member of the council. Previous 
to his work in connection with the fisheries Mr. Holds- 
worth took part in the management of the Zoological 
Gardens, Regent’s Park, and the Proceedings of the 
Zoological Society contain several papers which he 
wrote, chiefly on anemones and corals. 
Mr. J. S. MacArtHur, whose name is well known 
in connection with the cyanide process of extracting 
gold, has been engaged during the past two years in 
the extraction of radium from carnotite and similar 
ores at his factory at Runcorn. From a statement in 
the Press we learn that Dalvait, Loch Lomondside, 
has been selected as the site for a new factory, on 
account of the advantages offered by the purer air and 
water supply in this neighbourhood. The new factory 
is to deal with between five and six grams of radium 
annually, and will be a welcome addition to the 
country’s sources of radio-active materials. Hitherto, 
with the exception of one concern, working up the 
pitchblende from the Trenwith mine, Cornwall, this 
country has been entirely dependent upon foreign 
radium. The output of another Cornish pitchblende 
| mine is sent to France’ to be extracted, and the re- 

