226 



NA TURE 



[July 6, 1905 



honour of Knight Bachelor has been conferred upon Dr. 

 E. S. Stevenson, member of the medical council of the 

 Cape of Good Hope; and Mr. Philip Watts, F.R.S., 

 Director of Naval Construction, is made an ordinary 

 member of the Civil Division of the Second Division, or 

 Knight Commander, of the Order of the Bath. 



A MEETING of Members of Parliament, presided over by 

 Mr. Haldane, met on Tuesday last in a con.mittee room 

 of the House of Commons to consider the question of a 

 request for an additional State grant to the National 

 Physical Laboratory. Dr. Glazebrook having made a 

 statement as to the aims and needs of the laboratory, was 

 followed by Mr. Chamberlain, who in the course of his 

 remarks said that the real problem of the nation was how 

 to improve our highest education. He felt convinced 

 that if they were to speak of the whole matter as an 

 investment, it was from higher education that they would 

 gain the ' largest return. He asked in what way the 

 National Physical Laboratory was distinct from other uni- 

 versities, such as those of Birmingham, Liverpool, Man- 

 chester, and Sheffield. He asked this because it was not 

 merely the object of the universities to educate young 

 persons; it was their object to carry on post-graduate 

 research in the largest possible way— to make precisely 

 the experiments which the laboratory was making. They 

 did not want in any way to discourage that work in 

 these separate universities ; they did not want to centralise 

 any branch of scientific work. He had himself rather a 

 horror of central institutions, and he had a great belief 

 in the freedom and the competition of a number of separate 

 centres. He was sure that there was no idea of injurious 

 competition in the minds of the promoters of the meeting; 

 but he would like to be certain that it might not have 

 that effect. After all, they were all more or less de- 

 pendent, and they would be increasingly dependent, upon 

 State aid, of which they had had very little up to the 

 present. Were the universities, each of them, to apply 

 separately and frighten the Treasury, or were they to 

 •put their forces together, and go as one body representing 

 the whole and ask for a very largely increased grant, 

 leaving it for consideration afterwards how that grant 

 should be divided? Why were they making a special 

 demand at that time for that particular institution? He 

 was all in favour of giving assistance to any institution 

 of the kind. But he should like to know in what way 

 this was to be distinguished from the University of Liver- 

 pool or any of the others where they were carrying on the 

 work of physical research. He would even ask why the 

 promoters of this institution should operate alone— whether 

 they would not do much more if they all came together. 

 In that case they would, of course, have very much larger 

 Parliamentary support. If each institution was to ask 

 for what it wanted he was afraid the chances of success 

 would not be great. He might be considered to be throw- 

 ing cold water on the matter at the beginning, but as a 

 fact he most entirely sympathised with the general object. 

 He thought that such an institution was absolutely 

 necessary, and if there were no others, then he would say 

 most distinctly that it would have a special claim upon 

 them. But as there were, and as they were all in their 

 infancy, he wished to know in what way it was thought 

 best to treat the matter when they approached the Govern- 

 ment, whether as a whole on behalf of scientific instruc- 

 tion generally or whether on behalf of the claims of that 

 particular institution. The chairman said they were all 

 interested in what Mr. Chamberlain had said, and his 

 suggestion of a collective movement in favour of the 

 NO. 1862, VOL. 72] 



highest education. He thought the work that the National 

 Physical Laboratory was doing could not be organised in 

 connection with any of the universities. The following 

 resolution was then put to the meeting and carried 

 unanimously : — " That this meeting, being satisfied of the 

 necessity of further State aid to the National Physical 

 Laboratory, at Tcddington, as regards both equipment and 

 maintenance, requests the chairman and conveners of this 

 meeting to prepare and present a memorial to the Chan- 

 cellor of the Exchequer asking for such additional aid, 

 and that the memorial be signed by members here present 

 or who, being absent, may be in sympathy with its 

 objects." Mr. Chamberlain, who had to leave before a 

 decision was arrived at, said that if the meeting decided 

 in favour of the resolution his name might be attached 

 to it. 



On Monday last Mr. Ailwyn Fellowes, President of the 

 Board of Agriculture, was waited upon by a deputation 

 from the Pharmaceutical Society respecting the proposed 

 legislation to extend to other than chemists the right of 

 selling poisonous products used in agriculture and horti- 

 culture. It was argued on behalf of the society that it 

 would be dangerous to the public to allow any one to sell 

 poisonous articles ; that there was no difficulty in the way 

 of farmers or horticulturists getting the articles through a 

 chemist as cheaply as through any other person ; and the 

 public would be safeguarded by the special knowledge of 

 the chemist and druggist. In reply, the President of the 

 Board of Agriculture said he had received an enormous 

 number of resolutions from all over the country in favour 

 of a relaxation of the present law. The new regulations 

 under the proposed Bill would provide ; — (i) that no 

 poisonous substance shall be kept in any shop or premises 

 where articles of food are stored or kept for sale ; (2) that 

 poisons must be kept in a separate cupboard from other 

 goods ; (3) all poisons shall be sold in an enclosed vessel, 

 labelled with the word "Poison"; (4) liquid poisons shall; 

 be sold only in bottles or tins easily distinguishable by 

 touch from ordinary bottles or tins ; (5) in granting licences 

 the local authority shall have regard to the facilities 

 already existing in the neighbourhood for the purchase of 

 poisonous compounds. 



According to the Berlin correspondent of the Daily '• 

 Chronicle, Dr. Robert Koch has written from German i 

 East Africa stating that he has been studying the nature, 

 habits, and anatomy of the tsetse fly, and that he has dis- 

 covered a certain parasite in the fly to which he attributes^ 

 the disease to which the cattle bitten by the fly succumb. 



The death is announced, at the age of fifty-five years, 

 of Prof, von Mikulicz-Radecki, of the University of 

 Breslau, well known as a surgeon and for his numerous 

 papers and memoirs on surgical subjects. About a year ago 

 he delivered the Cavendish lecture before the West London 

 Medico-chirurgical Society, and last year he was the presi- 

 dent of the surgical section of the German Association of 

 Men of Science and Medical Men. 



The death is announced of Prof. P. T. Cleve, of Upsala, 

 on June 18. He was born in 1840, and was the leading 

 exponent of chemical research in Sweden. His hydro- 

 graphical investigations were also of great importance. 

 He was an honorary member of the Chemical Society. 



The Barnard medal of Columbia University has just 

 been awarded to Prof. H. Becquerel for " important dis- 

 coveries in the field of radio-activity, and for his original 

 discovery of the so-called dark rays from uranium, which 

 discovery has been the basis of subsequert research into 



