468 



NATURE 



[December 26, 1912 



nalional possession some part at least of our native 

 land, its fauna, flora, and geological features, (s) To 

 encourage the love of nature and to educate public 

 opinion to a better knowledge of the value of nature- 

 studv. The president is the Right Hon. J. W. 

 Lowther, M.P., the hon. secretaries are Mr. W. R. 

 Ogilvie-Grant and the Hon. F. R. Henley. The 

 temporary address of the society is the Natural History 

 Museum, Cromwell Road, S.W. There is no sub- 

 scription. The principle of centralising the various 

 efforts already instituted in this country towards the 

 preservation of its " natural monuments " has for some 

 time past been advocated in these columns. The 

 mechanism by which reservation is to be effected has 

 already been put into operation by the acquisition of 

 Blakcney Point in Norfolk. The highly successful 

 scheme which has been worked in Prussia for some 

 eight years is, we may note, governmental, and has 

 a special commissioner, Dr. Conwentz, the pioneer 

 of the movement, at its head. It seems to us that 

 some such close connection with the national execu- 

 tive is essential for the full success of any society, 

 however strong". 



At the Dundee meeting of the British Association 

 in September last the president of the Zoological Sec- 

 tion, Dr. P. Chalmers Mitchell, F.R.S., took as the 

 subject of his address, "The Preservation of Fauna." 

 At the close of the meeting the general committee 

 passed on to the council, for consideration, a resolu- 

 tion, which has now been adopted in the following 

 terms:— "That the British Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science deplores the rapid destruction 

 of fauna and flora throughout the world, and regards 

 it as an urgent duty that steps should be taken, by 

 the formation of suitably placed reserves, or other- 

 wise, to secure the preservation of examples of all 

 species of animals and plants, irrespective of their 

 economic or sporting value, except in cases where it 

 has been clearly proved that the preservation of par- 

 ticular organisms, even in restricted numbers and 

 places, is a menace to human welfare." 



The news of the death of Mr. Henry de Mosenthal, 

 which occurred on December 18, at sixty-two years of 

 age, will be deeply regretted by those numerous 

 friends and technologists with whom his long associa- 

 tion with the well-known firm of Nobels brought him 

 into relationship. Mr. de Mosenthal had acted as 

 technical secretary since the formation of the Dynamite 

 Trust Company in 18S6, but his association with Nobels 

 goes back some years earlier. Mr. de Mosenthal be- 

 came a member of the Society of Chemical Industry 

 in 1888, and two years later he was elected a fellow of 

 the Chemical Society. He contributed to the publica- 

 tions of each, and the series of three papers on 

 observations on cotton and nitrated cotton appearing 

 in the Journal of the former society in 1904, 1907, 

 and 191 1 record a large number of valuable deter- 

 minations of the physical properties of these bodies, 

 especially in solution. In the first contribution he 

 demonstrated that the cuticle of the cotton fibre is 

 extremely porous, that rows of pores and stomata 

 may be observed on the surface under oblique illumina- 

 tion. His experiments also showed that the single 

 NO. 2252, VOL. 90] 



cotton fibre exhibited no capillary action, which is 

 contrary to the commonly accepted view, but that 

 several fibres must be in contact before the well-known 

 capillary action became manifest. 



The Paris Society d'Encouragement has received a 

 legacy of 4000!., bequeathed to it by the late M. 

 Osmond. 



The silver medal of the Zoological Society has been 

 conferred on Major J. Stevenson-Hamilton, Game 

 Warden of the Transvaal, in recognition of his valu- 

 able services in connection with the King's African 

 collection. 



We learn from The Times that a new cancer insti- 

 tute has been established at the Brompton Cancer 

 Hospital, at a cost of some 6000L The importance of 

 X-rays and other electrical methods in the treatment 

 of malignant disease is now fully recognised, and the 

 institute has in its possession an excellent equipment 

 for this branch of therapeutics. 



The director of the Science Museum, South Ken- 

 sington, informs us that a temporary collection at the 

 museum in illustration of the history of aeronautics 

 and some of the scientific researches which are applied 

 in the design, construction, and use of aeroplanes 

 will be open to the public from December 23 until 

 the end of January. 



The eighty-first annual meeting of the British 

 Medical Association will be held in Brighton next 

 July. The president's address will be delivered on 

 July 22, and the sections will meet on the three follow- 

 ing davs. Dr. W. A. Hollis, consulting physician, 

 Sussex County Hospital, is the president-elect. The 

 address in medicine will be delivered by Prof. G. R. 

 Murray, physician to the Royal Infirmary, Man- 

 chester, on July 23. The address in surgery will be 

 delivered by Sir Berkeley Moynihan, professor of 

 clinical surgery in the University of Leeds, on July 24. 

 The popular lecture will be delivered by Mr. E. J. 

 Spitta on the evening of July 25. The scientific busi- 

 ness of the meeting will be conducted in fifteen sec- 

 tions, which will meet on July 23 to 25. These sections, 

 with their presidents, are as follows : — Bacteriology 

 and Pathology, Dr. J. W. H. Eyre; Dermatology, 

 Dr. J. H. Sequeira ; Diseases of Children, including 

 orthopaedus, Dr. G. F. Still ; Electro-therapeutics, Mr. 

 W. D. Butcher; Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Mr. R. 

 Sanderson ; Laryngology, Rhinology, and Otology, 

 Mr. A. J. Hutchison; Medical Sociology, 

 Dr. R. J. Ryle; Medicine, Dr. E. Hobhouse; Navy 

 and Army, and Ambulance, Colonel James Turton, 

 V.D. ; Neurology and Psychological Medicine, Dr. J. 

 Taylor; Ophthalmology, Mr. T. H. Bickerton ; Phar- 

 macology, Therapeutics, and Dietetics, Dr. W. H. 

 Hale; State Medicine, Dr. E. W. Hope; Surgery, 

 Mr. W. T. Thomas; Tropical Medicine, Lieut. -Colonel 

 Sir William Leishman, F.R.S. 



The report of the council of the Scottish Meteoro- 

 logical Society, adopted at the annual general meet- 

 ing on December 10, shows that during the past 

 twelve months the society's system of observations has 

 been strengthened by the re-establishment on a satis- 



