July io, 1913] 



NATURE 



sentation of the window on behalf of the donors. 

 Members of the American engineering societies and of 

 the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers who may 

 be in London at the time are invited to attend the 

 dedication ceremony, whether they subscribed to the 

 cost of the window or not, and they may obtain cards 

 of admission by writing before Monday, July 14, to 

 the secretary of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 12 

 Dartmouth Street, Westminster, S.W. 



The allocation by the Mansion House Committee 

 of the Scott Fund shows every evidence of a most 

 careful consideration of all the interests involved. 

 The allocation falls under the three main headings of 

 provision for the relatives of those lost (or, in one- 

 instance, incapacitated), for the publication of the 

 scientific results, and for memorials. The provision 

 for the relatives includes 8500Z. each for Lady Scott 

 and Mrs. Wilson, 6000/. for Mrs. Scott and her daugh- 

 ters, 45007. for Mrs. Bowers and her daughters, and 

 3500?. in trust for the child Peter Scott, with smaller 

 sums for Evans's family and to meet need in other two 

 cases. The arrangements for publication of the scien- 

 tific results have failed to commend themselves to one 

 member of the committee, but they can scarcely, on 

 general grounds, be regarded as ungenerous. One 

 of the honorary secretaries of the Royal Geographical 

 Society, Capt. H. G. Lyons, F.R.S., appropriately 

 undertakes their editorship, and representatives of that 

 body and of the Royal Society, with Surgeon Atkin- 

 son, will control the work. A total sum of 17,500?. 

 provides, besides the cost of publication, for the ser- 

 vices of three biologists, three geologists, two physic- 

 ists, other specialists, and a draughtsman, and the 

 figure of 800Z. — an ample but not excessive provision — 

 is earmarked for the production of charts and maps. 

 As regards the arrangements for memorials, a tablet 

 in St. Paul's Cathedral is fitting; a group of statuary 

 was doubtless inevitable ; it is proposed that it should 

 stand in Hyde Park facing the Royal Geographical 

 Society's house. A contribution to a memorial to 

 Oates, which is being raised by his regiment, is 

 admirable as a special expression of regard for the 

 memory of one whose relatives need no assistance 

 from the fund. The published results of the expedi- 

 tion will not form its only scientific memorial; the 

 establishment of a trust fund of some 10,000?. for the 

 endowment of future polar research will perhaps in 

 the long run preserve most honourably the memory 

 of a great scientific expedition, and would, in the 

 belief of the committee, have commended itself greatly 

 to its leader. 



The council of the Royal Society of Edinburgh has 

 awarded the Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize for the 

 quadrennial period 1908-12 to Prof. J. Norman Collie, 

 F.R.S., for his distinguished contributions to chem- 

 istry — organic and inorganic — during twenty-seven 

 years, including his work upon neon and other rare 

 gases. Prof. Collie's early papers were contributed 

 to the Transactions of the society. The council has 

 also awarded the Makdougall-Brisbane prize for the 

 biennial period 1910-12 to Dr. John Brownlee, for 

 his contributions to the theory of Mendelian distri- 

 butions and cognate subjects, published in the Pro- 

 NO. 2280, VOL. 91] 



ceedings of the society within and prior to the pn - 

 scribed period. 



At a meeting of the electing trustees of the British 

 Museum, held on July 2, Sir Archibald Geikie, K.C.B., 

 P.R.S., was elected a trustee of the British Museum 

 in succession to the late Lord Avebury. Sir A. 

 Geikie was already an ex-officio trustee, in virtue of 

 his position as president of the Royal Society ; but 

 his tenure of that office comes to an end in November 

 next, and his services would have been lost to the 

 British Museum but for his present election as a 

 trustee for life. 



An association of amateurs interested in wireless 

 telegraphy and telephony has been formed, under the 

 title of "The London Wireless Club." A meeting 

 will be held in September next, for the purpose of 

 electing a committee. The honorary secretary pro 

 tern, is Mr. R. H. Klein, 18 Crediton Road, West 

 Hampstead, N.W. 



Sir Robert Lucas-Tooth has given a donation of 

 1000Z. to the fund that Capt. J. K. Davis is raising 

 in this country for Dr. Mawson's Australasian Ant- 

 arctic Expedition. We learn from The Times that 

 Capt. Davis leaves England on July 18 for Australia. 

 On his arrival there the Aurora will be refitted and 

 will proceed to Commonwealth Bay to bring back Dr. 

 Mawson and his six companions at present in the 

 Antarctic. 



The discussion by a Standing Committee of the 

 House of Commons of the Bill to prohibit experi- 

 ments on dogs was continued on July 2. As was 

 pointed out in our issue of last week, the Bill proposes 

 to enact that it shall be unlawful to perform any 

 experiments of a nature causing or likely to cause 

 pain or disease to any dog for any purpose what- 

 soever, either with or without anaesthetics. At the 

 Committee meeting on July 2 an amendment was 

 carried that the Bill should apply only to inoculation 

 experiments. The Bill is again under consideration 

 by the Committee as we go to press. 



The annual conference of the Museums Association, 

 which is to be held at Hull this year, will open on 

 Monday next, July 14, under the presidency of Mr. 

 E. Howarth, curator of the Sheffield Public Museums 

 and Art Gallery. Many interesting subjects are to 

 be discussed, among them being the possibility of 

 showing our museums and art galleries to the blind, 

 arising out of experiments made by Mr. J. A. Charl- 

 ton Deas, at Sunderland Museum and Art Gallery. 

 The peripatetic guides at the British Museum (both 

 Bloomsbury and South Kensington) will attend to 

 give their experiences in the personal conduction of 

 visitors around these institutions, and Prof. Rathgen, 

 of Berlin, is to discourse on the decay and preserva- 

 tion of antiquities. The local secretary for the meet- 

 ing is Mr. Thos. Sheppard, of the Hull Museum. The 

 secretary of the association is Mr. E. E. Lowe, curator 

 of the Leicester Museum and Art Gallery. 



The Institut de Paleontologie Humaine, founded 

 by Albert I., Prince of Monaco, has issued a report 

 of the investigations conducted in 1912 by MM. Breuil 



