96 
NATURE 
[Marcu 25, 1915 

cently discovered source of pitchblende of very fine 
quality in India, seems, like the Indian monazite, to 
be controlled by foreign capitalists. The Glasgow and 
West of Scotland Radium Committee purchased from 
Mr. MacArthur last year the equivalent of 600 milli- 
grams of radium bromide in the form of a barium- 
radium carbonate containing 20 milligrams of radium 
bromide per kilogram, finding it more advantageous 
to undertake itself the further fractionation of this 
material than to purchase from abroad at the inflated 
prices then obtaining. 
In the scientific world probably the highest dis- 
tinction is the election of a man of science to foreign 
membership of the leading scientific society of a 
country not his own. Prof. E. C. Pickering has from 
time to time published lists of men of science who 
have received this honour from two or more of the 
seven great scientific societies, viz., the Imperial 
Academy of Petrograd, the U.S. National Academy, 
the Royal Prussian Academy, the Royal Academy of 
Sciences in Vienna, the Royal Society, the Institute 
of France, and the Royal Academy of the Lincei. 
The first such list was published in 1908, and since 
then more than a third of the men whose names were 
included have died. Prof. Pickering, in an article 
in the February number of the Popular Science 
Monthly, has brought the list up to the beginning of 
1914, and analysed it according to societies, countries, 
and sciences. The men of science whose names appear 
in the list number 122, sixteen of whom are members 
of all seven societies, and fourteen of six societies. 
Four men of science in Prussia, namely, A. Auwers 
(since deceased), E. Fischer, van’t Hoff, and R. Koch, 
and three Englishmen, namely, Sir A. Geilie, Sir 
William Ramsay, and Lord Rayleigh, are members of 
all seven societies. Taking two groups together, 
England leads with eight men of science who have 
achieved the distinction of election to foreign member- 
ship of six or seven national scientific societies, and 
is followed by Prussia, which possesses six such men. 
The average number of scientific societies for English 
members is 4-9, for Prussian members 4-2, and for 
Germany as a whole, 4-0. As regards the different 
branches of science, ‘‘In mathematics, the country 
most largely represented is France, with 5 members; 
in astronomy, United States, 5, England, 4; in 
physics, England, 5; in biology, Prussia, 5. Great 
Britain is the only country represented in each of the 
sciences. Prussia has no geologist, France no geo- 
grapher, and the United States no mathematician, 
chemist, botanist, or biologist.” 
Tue jubilee of the University of Melbourne Medical 
School was celebrated on April 25—May 2, 1914, and 
a memorial volume containing the history of the school 
and the jubilee addresses, and embellished with 
numerous plates of the buildings and laboratories and 
members of the staff, has been issued (‘‘ University of 
Melbourne Medical School Jubilee, rg14,"" Ford and 
Son, Melbourne). The University of Melbourne had 
been in existence for seven years when its medical 
school was opened on March 3, 1862. The ‘school 
owed its inception largely to the energy of Dr. 

cellor of the University in 1858. In 1862 Dr. John 
Macadam was appointed lecturer on chemistry, Dr. 
G. B. Halford professor of anatomy, and Mr. R. 
Eades lecturer in Materia Medica. In 1863, the medi- 
cal school buildings were commenced from plans pre- 
pared by Messrs. Reed and Barnes, the University 
architects. In 1864, the Melbourne Hospital opened 
its doors to receive the first class of third-year students,. 
Messrs. Rees, Moloney, and Mackie. Although its 
career has been checked from time to time by lack 
of funds, the story of the school is one of continued’ 
progress. Opening in 1862 with four students, the 
students’ roll now (1914) numbers 394 for the five years. 
of the curriculum. The latest development is the 
establishment of a fund for clinical research, which 
now amounts to approximately roool. per annum. 
Tue forty-eighth report of the Peabody Museum at 
Warvard University is a record of actiye progress. 
Additions to the buildings now provide much needed 
accommodation for the collections. Exploration has 
been active in various regions—Mexico, Nebraska, 
New Jersey, Arizona, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. 
Dr. E. A. Hooton conducted an expedition to England. 
Landing in July last, he worked for a month, when 
““he was forced to discontinue worl because of the 
unsettled state of the country.’”’ He excavated with- 
out much success the alleged site of an early Saxon 
cemetery at Great Shefford, Berks, and then he turned 
his attention to Wexcombe Down, overlooking Salis- 
bury Plain, where nine barrows were opened contain- 
ing incinerated remains, Bronze Age potsherds, and 
surface finds of late Celtic and Roman pottery.. One 
large cinerary urn and one La Téne III. bronze fibula 
were found. From Knowle Pit, Savernalke, a series of 
River-drift implements was obtained. 
Captain Sir G. D. Dunpar in the February 26 
issue of the Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 
describes some of the tribes occupying the northern 
frontier of Assam. Owing to the inaccessibility of 
the country and the savagery of its inhabitants, little 
is known about them. The tribes here dealt with are 
the Abors, Daflas, and Mishmis. The word Abor 
means ‘‘unfriendly,’ which well describes the 
character of the group. The general type is Mongo- 
loid, and the writer suggests that the Abors and 
their brethren migrated from the Tibetan side of the 
Himalayas into the Dihang valley. They display re- 
markable industrial capacity in their bridges, irriga- 
tion channels, and ironwork. It is not possible to 
imagine a more democratic organisation than the con- 
stitution of these tribes. The village, not the clan, 
is the political unit, ruled by a headman, whose office 
is not hereditary, but he is retained in office only so 
long as he represents the views of the majority in 
their rather noisy meetings. Women exercise a 
marked influence. Other duties now prevent Sir 
G. D. Dunbar from preparing a book on these tribes, 
but it may be hoped that this intention is only for a 
time postponed. 
In the American Museum Journal for February 
Col. Theodore Roosevelt contributes an admirable 
' article on the animals of Central Brazil, ‘and Mr- 
Anthony Colling Brownless, who became Vice-Chan- } L. E. Miller gives an account of the Roosevelt-Rondon 
NO. 2369, VOL. 95 | 
