APRIL 29, 1915] 

NATURE 
237 

Tue Civil Service. Estimates for the year ending 
March 31, 1916, recently issued, contain various par- 
ticulars with regard to the sums to be voted for carry- 
ing out the provisions of the National Insurance Act. 
The grant in aid of medical research, to be paid to 
the Medical Research Fund, is 56,500l., which is the 
same as for the last financial year. The grant to 
pathological laboratories to assist in the provision of 
laboratory facilities with a view to the prevention, 
diagnosis, and treatment of disease is 25,000l., which 
is only half that voted for the financial year 1914-15. 
The sums voted for sanatorium benefit and for the 
remuneration of panel practitioners remain the same 
as before. 
For the meeting of the British Association to be 
held at Manchester on September 7-11, under the presi- 
dency of Prof. Arthur Schuster, Sec.R.S., the follow- 
ing sectional presidents have been appointed :—Sec- 
tion A (Mathematics and Physics), Sir F. W. Dyson; 
B (Chemistry), Prof. H. B. Baker; C (Geology), Prof. 
Grenville Cole; D (Zoology), Prof. E. A. Minchin; 
E (Geography), Captain H. G. Lyons; F (Economics), 
Dr. W. R. Scott; G (Engineering), Dr. H. S. Hele- 
Shaw; H (Anthropology), Dr. C. G. Seligman; I 
(Physiology), Prof. W. M. Bayliss; K (Botany), Prof. 
W. H. Lang; L (Education), Mrs. Henry Sidgwick ; 
M (Agriculture), Mr R. H. Rew. Evening discourses 
will be delivered by Mr. H. W. T. Wager on the 
behaviour of plants in response to light, and by Dr. 
R. A. Sampson, Astronomer Royal for Scotland. 
A MONUMENT to the late Prof. J. H. van’t Hoff was 
unveiled at Rotterdam on April 17. It consists of a 
bronze statue, double life-size, in sitting position, and 
has been placed in front of the school at which Prof. 
van’t- Hoff was educated. The monument is about 
30 ft. high, and the statue itself is flanked by female 
figures representing ‘Imagination’? and “ Reason.” 
On the front of the base is the following inscription :-— 
. Van’r Horr, 
1852-1911. 
Physicam chemiae adiunxit. 
The principal speaker at the ceremony was Prof. A. F. 
Holleman, of Amsterdam, who directed attention to 
the fact that owing to the war no foreign delégates 
were present, and that the proceedings in memory 
of an international investigator were entirely national 
in character. 
Ir is announced that a committee, under the presi- 
dency of the Director-General, Army Medical Service, 
has been formed to provide the necessary co-ordinating 
authority for the compilation of an adequate medical 
history of the war. In connection with each of the 
chief subdivisions of the work, military and civilian 
members have been appointed, except in the case of 
the Section of Hygiene, in which both members are 
military. The constitution of the committee under 
the presidency of the Director-General is as follows :— 
Medicine.—Lieut.-Col. O. L. Robinson, R.A.M.C., 
and Sir William Osler, Bart. Surgery.—Lieut.-Col. 
Be Membilcher, D:S:O; REAL MEG. and Coli i. “h: 
Burghard. Pathology and Bacteriology.—Sir William 
Leishman, C.B., and Capt. F. W. Andrewes. Statis- 
NO. 2374, VOL. 95 | 

tics.—Lieut.-Col. H. P. W. Barrow, R.A.M.C.; Dr. 
John Brownlee, and Lieut.-Col. W. N. Barron, 
M.V.O., R.A.M.C. Hygiene and Sanitation.—Col. 

W. H. Horrocks, K.H.S., and Lieut.-Col. W. W. O. 
Beveridge, D.S.O., R.A.M.C. Historical and Secre- 
tarial— Capt. F. S. Brereton, R.A.M.C., and Dr. 
W. M. Fletcher. In each section the members of the 
committee have been given authority to co-opt for 
the purposes of the section other persons, and it is 
hoped that in the various sections the best results of 
the varied experience now being gained will be selected 
and arranged for publication in the Medical History, 
and not left to be distributed in scattered communi- 
cations published independently by individual observers. 
THE current issue of the Quarterly Review publishes 
a symposium on German “Kultur,” and one of the 
four contributions is by Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B., 
who deals with the subject as illustrated by German 
science. He institutes an inquiry as to what share 
Germans have had in scientific discovery and invention 
and utilises the data found in ‘‘4oo Jahre Pionier- 
Arbeit in den exacten Wissenschaften,” by L. Darm- 
staedter and R. du Bois-Reymond, published in rgo04. 
Between the years 1500 and 1600, out of a total of 
176 names mentioned, 39 are German, or 22 per cent. 
Between 1600 and 1700, out of 312 entries, 48 are 
German, or 15 per cent. During the next century, 
the entries are 517, of which 72, or 14 per cent., refer 
to German discoveries. The period from 1800 to 1850 
comprises go1 entries; of these Germans and Austrians 
form 234, or nearly 26 per cent. Between 1850 and 
1900 the records comprise 1021 entries, of which 477, 
or 46 per cent., can be ascribed to Teutonic sources, 
but, as Sir William Ramsay points out, it should be 
remembered in connection with the large percentage 
of German names in the list that it was compiled by 
two German savants. The awards of the Nobel prizes 
are also summarised. ‘‘The awards of the Swedish 
Nobel Committee are unbiassed by any national spirit; 
four prizes of the approximate value of 8oool. are 
distributed annually, one for physics, one for chem- 
istry, one for medicine, and one for literature. During 
the twelve years from 1901 to 1912 inclusive, 58 have 
been awarded, of which 17, or nearly 30 per cent., 
were received by Germans or Austrians.’’ Similarly 
the ratio of German and Austrian foreign members 
and associates of the principal academies of the world 
is 28 per cent. 
On April 20 Prof. H. E. Armstrong opened at Car- 
diff a conference on the extension of British trade, 
which had been arranged by the city’s Technical 
Schools Committee and Development Committee. 
Prof. Armstrong, in his address, which is reported in 
the Morning Post of April 21, pointed out that there 
is at the present moment much fiery talk of capturing 
the enemy’s trade, but that in view of its many defects 
an urgent need will be to develop and improve our 
own trade, and to preserve it from the attacks to 
which it will be subject, not only by our present foes, 
but by our Allies and the Americans. To ensure 
future progress, the general average of intelligence 
must be raised in the schools, receptivity and plasticity 
of mind, and some measure of alertness must be 
