■56 



NA TURE 



[December 30, 1909 



■detail as to the actual government of the Natural History 

 Museum by the Trustees of the British Museum during 

 the last twelve years — whether good or bad in their 

 •tendency and result — is the late Director of the Natural 

 History Departments. He is in frequent personal relations 

 with Sir Archibald Geikie, but has never been consulted 

 or questioned in any way whatever by that gentleman 

 during his " careful investigation " of the utility or inutility 

 of the present relations of the Trustees of the British 

 Museum to the Natural History Museum. 



I am able to state, categorically, that Sir Archibald's 

 opinion is not based upon a knowledge of the facts, and 

 that he has not (for reasons nerhaps known to the Speaker 

 and to himself, but not to me) taken the obvious means 

 of ascertaining the facts — since I am the late Director in 

 question. I have always maintained very friendly relations 

 with Sir Archibald and should have been quite willing 

 to assist him in his inquiry. He has not, however, 

 approached me on the subject, and has not received either 

 from me or from others authorised by me any statement 

 on the matter. It will, I think, be obvious to your readers 

 that no one, not even a member of the committee itself, 

 which varies in consequence of absences, replacements by 

 death, inattention, and incapacity to understand the 

 matters discussed, can have such a knowledge of the acts 

 and tendency of the body in question as the official (in 

 this case the Director of the Natural History Departments) 

 who during many successive years attended every meeting 

 (held once a month) as secretary, prepared their agenda, 

 took the minutes of their proceedings, and conducted their 

 correspondence. He necessarily endeavoured to obtain their 

 support for certain lines of policy, and knows, as he alone 

 can know, what they accepted, what they rejected, and the 

 motives and influences at work in determining their assent 

 and their dissent. He cannot make a full statement of his 

 knowledge on these matters except under very special 

 authority and guarantee of immunity. For this he asks. 

 E. Ray Lankester. 



H6tel Ritz, Paris, December i6. 



VOTES. 



We regret to announce the death, at eighty-two years 

 of age, of M. Bouquet de la Grye, member of the Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, and distinguished by his work in 

 astronomy and hydrographic engineering. 



The death is announced, in his seventy-fourth year, of 

 Prof. L. Lortet, honorary dean of the medical faculty in 

 the University of Lyons and director of the Natural 

 History Museum in that city. Prof. Lortet was the author 

 of a number of original works, and also of translations of 

 works by Prof. Tyndall and other British scientific writers. 



The juvenile lectures at the Royal Society of Arts will 

 be delivered by Prof. Harold B. Dixon, F.R.S., on 

 January s and 12, his subject being the chemistry of flame. 

 The subject is one that lends itself to experiments, and 

 the nature of fl^me, the properties of cxj'gen, the nature 

 of various combinations of air and gas, will all be fully 

 illustrated and explained. 



The Paris correspondent of the Times announces the 

 death of Dr. L. Malassez, assistant director of the Ecole 

 des Hautes Etudes, and president of the French Biological 

 Society, in his sixty-eighth year. Dr. Malassez was dis- 

 tinguished by his numerous works on normal and patho- 

 logical histology and his research work on questions re- 

 lating to blood tuberculosis and the genesis and nature of 

 tumours. 



By the assassination, on December 22, of Mr. A. M. T. 

 Jackson, Collector of NSsik, the Bombay Civil Service has 

 lost one of its most learned members. Educated at Win- 

 chester and Brasenose College, Oxford, where he gained 

 the Boden Sanskrit scholarship, he commenced his Indian 

 service in 1888. He was the contributor of many papers 

 on subjects connected with the religion, history, and ethno- 

 NO. 2096, VOL. 82] 



logy of western India, and he collaborated with the late 

 Sir James Campbell in the valuable series of volumes con- 

 stituting the " Bombay Gazetteer." It was mainly owing 

 to his researches published in the Indian Antiquary, Journal 

 of the Royal .'\siatic Society, and articles in the " Bombay 

 Gazetteer " that the origin of the Rajput tribes from the 

 Scythian and Hun invaders was established. His untimely 

 death removes one of the most eminent scholars in the 

 ranks of the Indian Civil Service. 



The Research Defence Society desires to direct the atten- 

 tion of all Parliamentary candidates to its work. The 

 society was founded in January, 1908, to make generally 

 known the facts as to experiments on animals in this 

 country, and the regulations under which they are con- 

 ducted ; the immense importance of such experiments to 

 the welfare of mankind ; and the great saving of human 

 life and health which is already due to them. It is hoped 

 that all candidates for Parliament, who may desire to 

 acquaint themselves with these facts, will communicate 

 with the hon. secretary. Research Defence Society, 70 

 Harley Street, W. 



The following appointments have been made at the 

 National Physical Laboratory : — Dr. G. W. C. Kaye has 

 been appointed an assistant in the metrology division. Dr. 

 Kaye holds the degree of D.Sc. of London University, the 

 i B.A. research degree of Cambridge, and is an associate of 

 the Royal College of Science and an associate member of 

 the Institution of Electrical Engineers. He was formerly 

 demonstrator in physics at the Royal College of Science, 

 and a sub-lector in physics at Trinity College, Cambridge. 

 Mr. Harris Booth has been appointed a junior assistant 

 in the aeronautics division. Mr. Booth took the degree 

 of B.A. at Cambridge, obtaining honours in mathematics 

 and mechanical sciences. Mr. J. H. Hyde has been 

 appointed a junior assistant in the aeronautics division. 

 Mr. Hyde obtained in 1907 a Whitworth exhibition for 

 engineering, and has had five years' experience at the 

 works of the Great Eastern Railway Company. 



Sir Henry Trueman Wood, the secretary of the society, 

 has edited a " Directory of the Royal Society of Arts," 

 which has been published by Messrs. George Bell and 

 Sons at the price of 2.5. The pamphlet, which runs to 

 seventy-six pages, contains a short sketch of the society's 

 history, an account of the trust and prize funds which it 

 administers, a history of the e."caminations which it has 

 carried on for the past fifty years, a description and 

 pictures of its medals, lists of the Albert medallists and 

 of past and present officials, the charter and by-laws, and 

 other general information, including a list of the proceed- 

 ings of the past session, and a financial statement for the 

 past year. The pamphlet provides abundant evidence of 

 the honourable part taken by the Royal Society of Arts 

 in the improvement and development of the scientific and 

 technical education of the country. The work of the 

 society is, and has been, at once scientific, technical, in- 

 dustrial, commercial, and artistic. For many years — for 

 it must be remembered the society was founded in 1754 — 

 it alone filled the place which is now occupied by the 

 numerous modern scientific and technical associations, the 

 Royal Society and the Society of Antiquaries alone being 

 in existence when the society was inaugurated. It was the 

 Society of Arts that first directed public attention to the 

 national need for technical education, and by its efforts 

 aroused the public feeling which led to the appointment 

 of the Royal Commission of 1881. The whole of the 

 society's work has been carried on without Government 

 aid, or, indeed, without any endowment. It is practically 



