45 6 



NATURE 



[July 3, 19 13 



NOTES. 



The window in Westminster Abbey in memory of 

 Lord Kelvin will be unveiled at the 3 p.m. service 

 of the Abbey on July 15. 



We are informed that the following have been 

 elected life honorary members of the Geological 

 Society of South Africa :— Dr. J. S. Flett, F.R.S., 

 assistant director, Geological Survey of Great Britain ; 

 Dr. A. Lacroix, professor of mineralogy, Natural 

 History Museum, Paris; and Prof. E. Weinschenk, 

 Alte Akademie, Munich, Bavaria. 



The death is reported, in his seventy-seventh year, 

 of Mr. W. A. Conklin, director of the zoological 

 department of the Central Park, New York, from 

 1865 to 1898. After the latter date he was engaged 

 in importing wild animals into the United States. 

 From 1878 to 1893 ne edited The Journal of Com- 

 parative Medicine and Veterinary Archives. 



In the article on the Birmingham meeting of the 

 British Association that appeared in Nature on June 

 12 it was stated that an organised programme of the 

 field work in connection with the Geological Section had 

 been prepared by Dr. T. Groom, with the supervision 

 of Prof. Lapworth. We now understand that this 

 is not the case. The excursions in connection with 

 the Geological Section have been organised by Prof. 

 Lapworth, and not by Dr. Groom. 



An earthquake occurred in southern Italy shortlv 

 before 10 a.m. on June 28, strong enough to damage 

 buildings in several villages of the province of 

 Cosenza. No lives were lost, though more than 

 twenty persons were injured by falling masonry at 

 Rogiano Gravina. The shock was felt at Messina 

 and Naples, which are respectively about ninety and 

 150 miles from the epicentre. The province of Cosenza 

 includes one of the more pronounced seismic regions 

 of Calabria, in which originated the severe earthquake 

 of February 12, 1854, and, in part, the still more 

 destructive shock of September 8, 1905. 



It is proposed to commemorate in 1914 the seventh 

 centenary of Roger Bacon's birth (1214) by erecting 

 a statue (by Mr. Hope Pinker) in his honour in the 

 Natural History Museum at Oxford, and by raising a 

 fund for the publication of his works. An influential 

 committee, with Sir Archibald Geikie, K.C.B., P.R.S., 

 as chairman of the executive, has been formed to 

 carry these purposes into effect. Roger Bacon was 

 the champion of experimental science and the advo- 

 cate of positive knowledge at a time when logic 

 reigned supreme ; and we are glad that his important 

 place in the history of science is to be made more 

 widelv known. The committee proposes : — (1) To hold 

 a Roger Bacon commemoration at Oxford in July, 

 1914, when the statue will be unveiled, and addresses 

 will be given by distinguished scholars ; (2) to issue 

 a memorial volume of essays dealing with various 

 aspects of Roger Bacon's work, written by specialists 

 in the various subjects ; (3) to arrange for the editing 

 and printing of Roger Bacon's writings, so far as 

 funds will allow. The first volume (now in the press) 

 will contain his unpublished treatise and commentary 

 NO. 22/9, VOL. 91] 



on the pseudo- Aristotelian " Secretum Secretorum," 

 edited by Mr. Robert Steele. The second volume will 

 probablv contain the medical treatises, an edition of 

 which is being prepared by Dr. E. T. Withington and 

 Mr. A. G. Little. The committee points out that 

 other volumes should contain a complete edition of the 

 "Opus Tertium" (fragments of which were printed 

 in 1S59, 1909, and 1912); the " Quaestiones " on Aris- 

 totle's physics and metaphysics, and on the "De 

 Plantis"; the " Communia Mathematicae," and per- 

 haps the "Computus Naturalium ; while new and 

 critical editions of the "Opus Majus," of the frag- 

 mentary " Opus Minus," and of the less important 

 "De Naturis Metallorum " and "Tractatus Trium 

 Verborum " are desirable. A general committee (of 

 which the Chancellor of the University of Oxford has 

 consented to be hon. president) is being formed, con- 

 sisting both of collaborators in the editorial work and 

 of subscribers. Subscriptions in aid of the foregoing 

 objects should be sent to the secretary of the executive 

 committee, Colonel Hime, 20 West Park Road, Kew. 



The Historical Medical Museum now open in Wig- 

 more Street, Mr. H. S. Wellcome's magnificent col- 

 lection, is one of the most interesting sights of Lon- 

 don. All ages and all countries have been ransacked 

 to make it complete ; we go from Babylon to here, 

 and from the dawn of the art of healing to now. 

 Medicine, like man himself, is of lowly origin ; we 

 have to keep reminding ourselves that evolution is 

 creative wisdom, not blind force, alike in the one case 

 and in the other. On the threshold of the museum 

 we are nut by hideous idols, and all the ugliness of 

 witch-doctors and devil-dancers; and there, in the 

 midst of all these savageries, is an exquisite model of 

 the Wellcome Floating Tropical Research Laboratory, 

 and a long array of the latest and rarest germs under 

 microscopes. We stand in the hall of statuary, and 

 look past a most unspeakable "ancient Mexican deity 

 ul healing" to Apollo and yEsculapius; or we study 

 the weaved-up follies of charms, amulets, and talis- 

 mans, until we find — it is an error of judgment — a 

 crucifix among them. The museum is a fine place to 

 wonder and think in — so many hundreds of instru- 

 ments now discarded and labelled and put under glass ; 

 so many appliances become curiosities ; so many ways 

 of healing deserted. Then comes the dismal thought 

 that a hundred years hence all our present apparatus 

 will likewise be useless : — 



" It makes me mad, to see what men shall do — 

 And we in our graves — " 

 Truly, one must take a pinch of philosophy, and a 

 j pinch of faith, to keep one's head in this museum. 

 I With these, it is possible to receive such a history 

 I lesson as will not be forgotten for many years. 



A Standing Committee of the House of Commons 

 on June 26 discussed a Bill to prohibit experiments 

 upon dogs. The chief operative clause in the Bill 

 proposes to enact that "from and after the passing 

 of this Act it shall be unlawful to perform any experi- 

 ment of a nature causing or likely to cause pain or 

 I disease to any dog for any purpose whatsoever, either 

 j with or without anaesthetics, and no person or place 

 I shall be licensed for the purpose of performing any 



