536 



NATURE 



[July 24, 19 13 



monographs upon the sponges collected by various 

 expeditions. In addition to his zoological work he 

 was a keen mountaineer, and contributed articles to 

 various Alpine journals. 



The Dogs (Protection) Bill, which has for several 

 weeks been before a Standing Committee of the 

 House of Commons, but reached a deadlock 

 on July 16, provides that it shall be unlaw- 

 ful to perform any experiment of a nature 

 likely to cause pain or disease, with or with- 

 out anaesthetics, upon dogs. The Bill would thus 

 prevent, in this country, all experiments on dogs, not 

 only all experiments under anaesthetics, but all inocu- 

 lations. We may all of us be agreed that a dog has 

 more claim on our regard than a rat or a guinea-pig; 

 but we have to consider whether the Bill, in the long 

 run, would lessen the sum of pain, disease, and 

 death, in the world ; and the answer surely is that it 

 would not. Indeed, it would inflict far more than 

 it would avert. For it would hinder in this country 

 the proper and complete investigation, not only of 

 human diseases, but also of canine diseases. Among 

 human diseases, it would hinder the study of diabetes, 

 and perhaps of kala-azar and of cancer. Looking 

 back a few years, we can say that the Bill would 

 have prevented, if it had been in existence, the dis- 

 covery of the best vaccine against distemper in dogs, 

 and the best treatment of malignant jaundice in dogs! 

 Looking forward, we cannot foresee what the Bill 

 would be preventing; but air experience goes to show 

 that it would be preventing work useful either to 

 man or to dogs. Experiments on dogs in this country 

 are jealously restricted already by the Home Office; 

 and the Bill is a move in the wrong direction. Some 

 useful pamphlets on this subject can be had on appli- 

 cation to the Research Defence Society. 



Mr '. L - w - King, assistant in the Department of 

 Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities in the British 

 Museum, has been appointed to the post of assistant- 

 keeper in that department. 



Capt. P. J. Marett has been appointed to a Beit 

 Memorial Research Fellowship to carry on further 

 research as to the nature of the virus of sand-fly fever 

 a disease which is the cause of much sickness in the 

 ships of the Mediterranean Squadron and among the 

 troops stationed at Malta and in certain parts of India 

 and elsewhere. The Army Council has approved of 

 Capt. Marett, who has already published several 

 papers on the subject, undertaking this research in 

 addition to his military duties at Malta. 



The council of the Royal Society of Arts attended 

 at Buckingham Palace on July iS. when his Royal 

 Highness the Duke of Connaught, president of the 

 society, presented to his Majesty the King, for nine 

 years president and now patron of the society, the 

 soi iety's Albert medal for the present year, " in respect- 

 ful recognition of his Majesty's untiring efforts to make 

 himself personally acquainted with the social and 

 economical conditions of the various parts of his 

 Dominions, and to promote the progress of arts 

 manufactures, and commerce in the United Kingdom 

 and throughout the British Empire." 

 NO. 2282, VOL. 91] 



The Institution of Mechanical Engineers will meet 

 at Cambridge on Tuesday, July 29, and Wednesday, 

 July 30, in the Senate House of the University. The 

 papers to be read and discussed are :— A new method 

 of cooling gas-engines, Prof. Bertram Hopkinson ; 

 modern methods of measuring temperature, R. S. 

 Whipple; modern pumping machinery for the drainage 

 of the fens, R. W. Allen; the drainage of the fens, 

 R. F. Grantham ; the drainage of the River Ouse basin! 

 E. G. Crocker; modern flour milling machinery! 

 R. B. Creak ; and a few notes on engineering re- 

 search and its coordination, G. H. Roberts. 



A scheme for the establishment of an Oriental 

 Research Institute in India has been put forward 

 tentatively by the Government of India, with a sug- 

 gestion that an expression of the views of the provin- 

 cial Governments be invited. Meanwhile the Royal 

 Anthropological Institute has taken the opportunity 

 of addressing the Secretary of State with a plea for 

 the inclusion of anthropology in the course of studies 

 at the institute. In his reply the Secretarv of State 

 observes that he is alive to the importance of anthro- 

 pological research, and thanks the institute for its 

 offer of cooperation, which is being conveyed to the' 

 authorities in India. But he points out that in the 

 present state of the question it would be premature to 

 discuss the exact scope of the proposed Research 

 Institute. 



We understand that excavations in the base-beds of 

 the Red and Coralline Crags of Suffolk have now 

 been proceeding for some months under the direction 

 of Mr. J. R,id Moir. Worked flints of various forms 

 consisting of the well-known rostro-carinate type' 

 pointed implements for use in the hand, pounders' 

 rubbers, round-ended and other scrapers, borers' 

 hammer-stones, and flakes, affording evidence of a' 

 complete sub-Red Crag "industry," have been re- 

 covered. Extensive diggings at various sites have 

 brought to hght a small but very excellent series of 

 humanly flaked flints, some of which have barnacles 

 Oi the Red Crag Sea attached to their worked sur- 

 faces. With the exception of one small ridged flake 

 no humanly struck flints have as yet been found 

 beneath the Coralline Crag. 



The King has recently placed on loan for exhibition 

 at the Bntish Museum a large and valuable collection 

 of gifts received by him from the Dalai Lama of 

 libet It includes a very sacred relic, a royal saddle, 

 said to be 500 years old, and used by the first Dalai 

 Lama who entered Lhasa; a set of Tibetan armour 

 with a steel helmet, the armour being of a type ' 

 spread over western Asia; a fine sword of the shape 

 till used by the Khambas, the most warlike Tibetan 

 tnbe, which was probably made at Derge, and ex- 

 hibits remarkable handwork. Tibetan Buddhism is 



wh,VhT K y S T" gilt ima ^ es of the Seven Gems, 

 which have been fully described by Dr. Waddell in his 



E^rc,"-*' 7 h t Bl ' ddhism ° f Tibet >" ™* the 

 Eight Glorious Emblems and Offerings. Among 

 smaller objects is a model of a Chor-tfn or shrink 

 harm-boxes, and a complete costume of a Tibetan 

 lady, the gown of bright colours on a dark purple- 

 brown ground, the boots of green and red cloth, em- 

 broidered in green and red. 



