i68 



NATURE 



[April 17, 19 13 



opened on Monday last, after an enforced sojourn in 

 temporary quarters at Cromwell Gardens since the 

 beginning of the year. The house, formerly known 

 as Lowther Lodge, has proved excellently adaptable 

 to its new purpose. The ground floor provides a 

 museum and lounge, in addition to two map-rooms 

 and a council-room — a change indeed from the condi- 

 tions at Savile Row. The accommodation on the first 

 floor serves for the library, for various rooms for the 

 convenience of fellows, and for offices ; on the second 

 floor is the surveying school, with students' and 

 draughtsmen's rooms, while the roof provides space 

 for an observatory for the purposes of the school. 

 The intention is to dispose of a considerable portion 

 of the land attached to the house, but sufficient will 

 be retained to form a pleasant open space on the south 

 side of the building. 



Three evening lectures (the Chadwick Public Lec- 

 tures, 1913) on the evolution of epidemics are being 

 given by Dr. J. T. C. Nash, at the Royal Society of 

 Medicine, i Wimpole Street, W. In his first lec- 

 ture Dr. Nash pointed out that, although 

 measles is so constantly with us, and smallpox is 

 generally so distinctive, and is yet common enough 

 in various parts of the world, no causal germ has yet 

 been definitely recognised for either disease. Certain 

 other specific diseases have been found to be due to 

 the life-processes within the blood and tissues of 

 higher forms of life than mere bacteria. Malaria is 

 an example of such. In pre-vaccination days small- 

 pox in Great Britain showed a periodic intensity of 

 prevalence every three, four, or five years, but during 

 the latter half of the nineteenth century, since vaccina- 

 tion was made compulsory in 185 r, only one wide- 

 spread epidemic occurred, in 1871-72, when smallpox 

 overran Europe and America ; but it must be remem- 

 bered that vaccination was not the onlv measure in 

 force, and compulsory notification, disinfection, isola- 

 tion, "following up" of contacts throughout the in- 

 cubation of the disease, all assisted in limiting the 

 spread of infection and widening out the inter- 

 epidemic periods. In commenting upon the second 

 Chadwick Lecture, delivered on Monday last, Sir 

 Richard Douglas Powell, who presided, said that Dr. 

 Nash's arguments were of great importance in lead- 

 ing to a salutary speculation on the true character 

 and possible removability of endemic, as well as 

 epidemic diseases. May it not be that the bovine, 

 avian, and human forms of tubercular diseases are 

 distinct only from the fact that for many generations 

 the micro-organisms have been cultivated in the special 

 environments of beasts, birds, and mankind, and that 

 the root-ancestor of all was a fungus dwelling in the 

 earth and ever ready to spread into animal soil? Dr. 

 Nash's lectures should do much to lead students of 

 the etiology of tuberculosis to look back into long- 

 forgotten factors, such as that of soil, which were 

 discussed by Buchanan and other men of medicine in 

 his (Sir Douglas Powell's) early years. The next lec- 

 ture will be given on Monday next, April 21, when 

 Sir William J. Collins will preside. 



In June Dr. F. W. Mott, F.R.S., will give a course 

 of Chadwick Public Lectures at the Royal Society 

 NO. 2268, VOL. 91] 



of Arts, under the title of "Nature and Nurture in 

 Mental Development." Among the lectures in con- 

 templation for the provincial cities are those on the 

 public milk supply — some criticisms and suggestions 

 from the public health point of view, by Prof. Henry 

 R. Kenwood, at Cardiff; on water supply, with exhaus- 

 tive consideration of sources, collecting works, con- 

 veyance, and distribution, by Mr. E. P. Hill, at 

 Birmingham; and on infant welfare, by Prof. Karl 

 Pearson, F.R.S., at the School of Economics, May 16, 

 2^, and 30. Glasgow, Bristol, and other cities of the 

 kingdom will also be provided with Chadwick Public 

 Lectures during the year. All the lectures will be 

 free and open to the public, but will be of a character 

 to attract post-graduate and advanced students of 

 engineering, medicine, and other cognate sciences. 

 The secretary to the trust, to whom all communica- 

 tions should be addressed, is Mrs. Aubrey Richardson, 

 S Dartmouth Street, Westminster. 



The Eugenics Record Office, which was established 

 at Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, in October, 

 1910, bv Mrs. E. H. Harriman, with the additional 

 assistance of Mr. John D. Rockefeller and others, has 

 recently entered upon a new stage of its development. 

 A board of scientific directors has been organised, 

 comprising Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, chairman; 

 Dr. William H. Welch, professor of pathology, Johns 

 Hopkins Hospital, vice-chairman; Prof. Irving Fisher, 

 Yale Universitv ; Prof. Lewellys Barker, of Johns 

 Hopkins Hospital; Prof. E. E. Southard, of Harvard 

 University, and director of the Psychopathic Hospital, 

 Boston; and Dr. C. B. Davenport, secretary of the 

 board and resident director. The board met at Cold 

 Spring Harbor on March 21, and organised its work. 

 The aim of the Eugenics Record Office was defined 

 to be as follows : — (1) To promote researches in 

 eugenics that shall be of utility to the human race. 

 This part of the programme includes the study of 

 America's most effective blood lines and the methods 

 of securing the preponderance and relative increase 

 of the best strains ; the study of the origin of and 

 the best methods of restricting the strains that pro- 

 duce the defective and delinquent classes of the com- 

 munity; the study of the method of inheritance of 

 particular traits ; the study of the consequences of the 

 marriages of close kin; the study of miscegenation 

 in the United States ; the study, both in that country 

 and abroad, of the family histories of permanent 

 immigrants. (2) To publish the results of these re- 

 searches. (3) To provide a fireproof building for the 

 preservation of eugenical records, including genea- 

 logical works and town histories. (4) To provide an 

 administrative office and staff to carry out the work. 



In the third part of his useful periodical, Visva- 

 karma, Mr. Ananda K. Coomaraswamy gives a further 



selection of examples of Indian sculpture. The pre- 

 sent instalment is devoted to specimens from Java, 

 Cambodia, and Ceylon, all of which betray Hindu 

 influence, while two fine examples from Sarnath, near 

 Benares, and from Nepal are excellent illustrations 

 of the local art. The photographs are now more 

 artistically reproduced than in the first number of the 



