,12 



NATURE 



[November 14, 1912 



of whom it is said no pure-bred descendants now 

 ixist. Mr. Routledge and his colleagues have a most 

 fascinating field for research, and we wish them every 

 success. 



We regret to notice the death, in his eighty-first 

 vear, on November 6, at the University of Virginia, 

 U.S.A., of Prof. J. W. Mallet, F.R.S., professor of 

 chemistry in the University, and joint author, with his 

 father, of the British .Association catalogue of earth- 

 quakes. 



The death is announced, at the age of ninety years, 

 of M. Aimd Pagnoul, a French authority on agricul- 

 tural chemistry. In 1869 M. Pagnoul organised the 

 agricultural station of the Pas-de-Calais, of which he 

 was director until 1899 ; and in 1894 he was elected a 

 correspondant of the Paris Academy of Sciences in 

 the section of rural economy. 



The Decimal Association announces that a large 

 majority of American jewellers has agreed to adopt 

 the metric carat of 200 milligrams as from July i, 

 1913. A committee has been formed to promulgate the 

 i)assage of a law making the metric carat effective 

 throughout the country. It is probable that the adop- 

 tion of this new carat by the jewellers of the United 

 States will hasten its introduction here. 



The 159th session of the Royal Society of Arts will 

 be opened on Wednesday evening, November 20, by 

 Lord Sanderson, G.C.B., K.C.M.G., chairman of the 

 council, who will deliver an address and distribute the 

 medals awarded last session. Mr. A. Zimmermann 

 will describe "The Manufacture of Sugar from Wood, 

 and its Economic Importance," on December 4, and 

 Dr. F. Mollwo Perkin will read a paper on syn- 

 thetic rubber on December 11. In the Colonial 

 Section, Prof.- W. H. Warren will describe "The 

 Hardwood Timbers of New South Wales " on Novem- 

 ber 26. A course of Cantor lectures will also be 

 delivered by Mr. C. R. Darling on "Methods of 

 Economising Heat " on Mondays, December 2, 9, and 

 16. 



The following is a list of those who have been 

 recommended by the president and council of the 

 Royal Society for election into the council for the year 



1913 at the anniversary meeting on November 30: 



President, Sir Archibald Geikie, K.C.B. ; Treasurer, 

 Sir Alfred B. Kempe ; Secretaries, Sir John Bradford, 

 K.C.M.G., Prof. A. Schuster; Foreign Secretary, Dr. 

 D. H. Scott; Other Members of the Council, Lieut.- 

 Col. A. W. Alcock, the Right Hon. A. J. Balfour, 

 Sir William Crookes, O.M., Dr. F. W. Dyson, Prof. 

 W. Gowland, Sir Joseph Larmor, Prof. E. W. Mac- 

 Bride, Mr. W. B. Hardy, Prof. Micaiah J. M. Hill, 

 Sir Ronald Ross, K.C.B., Prof. G. Elliot Smith, Prof. 

 A. Smithells, Dr. J. J. Harris Teal!, Prof. Silvanus 

 P. Thompson, Prof. Sir J. J. Thomson, Sir Philip 

 Watts, K.C.B. 



The Zoological Society of Los Angeles, California, 

 was established in August, 1911, to further the project 

 of starting a collection of wild animals in Griffith 

 Park in that city, and we are glad to learn from the 

 first number of its Proceedings that the idea has 

 NO. 2246, VOL. 90] 



already taken practical shape. The necessary funds 

 are being raised by private subscription, aided by a 

 substantial grant from the City Council. Judging 

 from the description, the site and climate seem to offer 

 ideal conditions for the exhibition and preservation of 

 animals in e.xtensive ranges, varying in area from 

 fifteen to one hundred and twenty-five acres. To this 

 is to be added a marine aquarium to be placed on the 

 sea-front on the cliffs skirting the base of San Pedro 

 Hill. To zoologists will be especially welcome the 

 announcement that although the animals are to be 

 kept primarily as part of the park system for the 

 pleasure and instruction of the people, a special feature 

 of the institution will be a prosectorial department, 

 where the anatomy and pathology of the dead animals 

 may be investigated. We heartily wish the project all 

 success. 



A COPY of the programme for 1912 of the Soci^te 

 Batave de Philosophie experimentale de Rotterdam 

 has been received. The gold medal of the society, or 

 its value in money, as the successful candidate may 

 determine, w-ill be awarded to each candidate whose 

 paper on a scientific question proposed by the society 

 is considered most satisfactory by a general meeting 

 of members. The programme includes some forty-five 

 questions to which competitors may address them- 

 selves. The general character of the inquiries pro- 

 posed by the society may be gathered to some extent 

 from the following examples : an anatomical and 

 physiological description of one or more species of a 

 family of plants which up to the present has not been 

 e.xamined satisfactorily in this way ; magnetic varia- 

 tions and disturbances ; an exact and critical review 

 of our present knowledge of the volcanoes and volcanic 

 phenomena in the East Indies ; an experimental re- 

 search into the thermoelectric properties of some 

 metallic alloys, with special reference to the influence 

 of the composition of the alloy; a study of the origin, 

 physiological significance of the green colouring 

 matter in the bodies of certain animals, structure and 

 development of a species of trypanosome, &c. The 

 theses may be written in Dutch, French, German, or 

 English, and should be in the hands of the secretary 

 of the society by February i, 19 14. 



On November 7, a conference of museum curators 

 and others interested in museum work was held at the 

 Manchester Museum. Mr. H. W. Freston, chairman 

 of the Manchester Museum Standing Committee, pre- 

 sided, and representatives from twenty-eight museums 

 were present. In a paper on pigmy flint implements, 

 Mr. W. H. Sutcliffe, of Rochdale, maintained the 

 opinion that the shouldered type of these implements 

 was used by Neolithic man to form a kind of carding 

 tool, by fixing numbers of them up to the shoulder 

 in a wooden stock, with which the muscle fibres and 

 sinews adhering to skins used for clothing could be 

 teased and loosened after curing, the skin being 

 rendered by this means soft, pliable, and capable of 

 being made into close-fitting garments. The chief 

 opposition to this theory was based on the grounds 

 (i) that no trace of wooden stock had ever been found 

 with pigmy flints; (2) that only a small percentage of 

 the flints showed any signs of wear or usage ; (3) that 



