July 31, 1913J 



NATURE 



565 



against 28,000/., the highest previously reached. 

 Arrangements have been made for research on agri- 

 cultural subjects to be carried on at a number of 

 centres, including Rothamsted, Manchester, Birming- 

 ham, Oxford, Cambridge, the Royal Veterinary Col- 

 lege, Leeds, Wye, Bristol, and Kew, and grants 

 amounting to 20,000/. a year have been made for the 

 purpose. In addition, 3900/, has been given for special 

 investigations lying outside the scope of the pro- 

 gramme of the special institutes. All these investiga- 

 tions have reference to the great fundamental problems 

 lying at the root of the agricultural and horticultural 

 work of the country ; the work is wholly scientific. 

 In order to bring the scientific results into the region 

 of practical farming a number of advisers have been 

 set up whose function it is to advise farmers or 

 county organisers in the light of the results of the 

 scientific knowledge that is gained. A grant of 9000/. 

 per annum has been made towards the salaries of 

 these advisers. 



Now that we are at the end of the second month of 

 summer some anxiety is being felt as to the general 

 character of the weather to be experienced during 

 August. June was a fair month with a generally 

 deficient rainfall, but the conditions were mostly 

 seasonable. July has had many shortcomings. During 

 the early part of the month the weather was very 

 unsettled, and the rainfall in the first three weeks was 

 equal to the average for the whole of July except in 

 parts of the Midlands and in the south-west of England. 

 The special feature of the weather has been the per- 

 sistent absence of bright sunshine and the consequent 

 low day temperatures. At Greenwich there were only 

 eight days to July 28 with a temperature of 70 or 

 above, and there was only one day in the four weeks 

 with the maximum day temperature above the average, 

 the highest reading during the period being 76 . In 

 July, 1910, the maximum temperature for the month 

 was 76 , and in iSSS July had no higher reading than 

 74 . According to the average of the past seventy 

 vears July has twenty-two days with a temperature 

 of 70 or above. The aggregate sunshine at Green- 

 wich to July 27 is sixty-six hours, and the least 

 sunshine for July previously since sunshine records 

 were established, rather more than thirty years ago, 

 is ninety-six hours in 1888, the next lowest record in 

 July being 113 hours in 1910. July this year bids fair 

 to be the least sunny July on record. There were only 

 four days to July 27 with more than five hours' sun- 

 shine, whilst in 191 1 July had twenty days with more 

 than ten hours' sunshine, and the total duration for 

 the month was 335 hours at Greenwich. 



The Institute of Metals will hold its first foreign 

 meeting on August 28 and 29 at Ghent. 

 Prof. A. K. Huntington will preside. The 

 congress will commence with an official wel- 

 come of the members on behalf of the University 

 and the municipality of Ghent. A number of impor- 

 tant scientific papers will be read and discussed. The 

 second report to the corrosion committee by Dr. G. D. 

 Bengough and Mr. R. Jones will be presented. The 

 report indicates not only the causes of the corrosion 

 of condenser tubes, but how such corrosion may be 

 NO. 2283, VOL. 91] 



eliminated. Among the papers arranged for the meet- 

 ing the following may be mentioned : — Mr. H. Gar- 

 land, " Metallographical Researches on Egyptian Metal 

 Antiquities"; Dr. VV. M. Guertler (Berlin), "The 

 Specific Volume and Constitution of Alloys " ; Prof. 

 S. L. Hoyt (University of Minneapolis), "Copper Rich 

 Alloys"; Dr. T. K. Rose, "The Annealing of Gold"; 

 Dr. W. Rosenhain, F.R.S.; and Mr. D. Ewen, "The 

 Intercrystalline Cohesion of Metals — Second Paper"; 

 Mr. J. H. Chamberlain, "A Further Study of Volume 

 Changes in Alloys"; Dr. C. H. Desch and Mr. S. 

 VVhyte, "The Micro-Chemistry of Corrosion : I., Some 

 Copper-Zinc Alloys"; Mr. F. Johnson, "A Method of 

 Improving the Quality of Arsenical Copper " ; Prof. 

 A. A. Read, "The Influence of Phosphorus on Some 

 Copper-Aluminium Alloys"; and Mr. T. West, "The 

 Determination of Oxygen in Copper and Brass." 

 Visits will be paid to factories of importance, and 

 numerous social functions have been arranged. Those 

 who desire to attend the meeting should communicate 

 with the secretary of the Institute of Metals, Mr. G. 

 Shaw Scott, Caxton House, Westminster, S.W. 



The Brighton meeting of the British Medical Asso- 

 ciation was held on July 22-26, the scientific business 

 being conducted in sixteen sections. Among these 

 the majority was of purely technical interest, all im- 

 portant problems of medical practice in its various 

 branches having been ventilated. The section of State 

 medicine dealt with questions regarding the Insurance 

 Act, the importation of disease into seaports, school 

 hygiene, and popular education in hygiene. The sec- 

 tion of medical sociology held discussions on eugenics 

 ,(Dr. E. Schuster, Dr. J. Scott, and many others), 

 on hospitals in relation to State, public, and medical 

 profession (Prof. B. Moore, Mr. C. F. Masterman, 

 M.P., and various authorities, including foreign 

 guests). Questions of general scientific interest were 

 raised and discussed in the sections of medicine (the 

 internal secretion in disease, by Prof. G. R. Murray), 

 the section of electro-therapeutics (on secondary X-ray 

 radiations in medicine, by Prof. C. G. Barkla, F.R.S.), 

 the section of bacteriology and pathology (general 

 pathological, experimental, bacteriological, and clinical 

 aspects of anaphylaxis, by Profs. W. G. Dixon and 

 G. Sims Woodhead, and Drs. Thiele, Embleton, 

 G. W. Gopdall, and H. H. Dale), the section of 

 neurology and psychological medicine (discussion on 

 sleep and sleeplessness, by Sir George Savage and 

 others), and the section of tropical medicine (discus- 

 sion on filariasis, by Dr. G. Low and others). We 

 hope next week to give a descriptive article dealing in 

 more detail with some of these discussions of general 

 importance. The Brighton meeting was very largely 

 attended, and was a great success in spite of the 

 International Congress of Medicine to be held in 

 London next week. 



On account of the deadlock reached by the Com- 

 mittee of the House of Commons considering the 

 Dogs (Protection) Bill, referred to last week (p. 536), 

 it was decided at the meeting of the Committee on 

 July 23 not to proceed with the Bill. The question 

 of the exclusion of dogs as subjects of all experiments 

 in this country — not only experiments under 



