66 NAT ORE 
[Marcu 21, 1912 
Arnulph Mallock, F.R.S., his subject being ‘ Aérial 
Flight.” 
Dr. ALES Hrp.icka, curator of physical anthro- 
pology,. United States National Museum, has been 
appointed as the representative of the Smithsonian 
Institution at the eighteenth International Congress 
of Americanists, which will meet in London on 
May 27 to June r. He has also been designated by 
the State Department as a representative of the 
United States on this occasion. 
Tue eleventh general meeting of the Association of 
Economic Biologists will be held at Dublin on March 
28-29, under the presidency of Prof. G. H. Carpenter. 
Among the subjects of papers to be read and discussed 
are :—biological training for agricultural students; 
parthenogenesis; methods of testing grass seeds; the 
culture of Phytophthora infestans (the potato-blight 
fungus); the food of birds; the pollination of hardy 
plants; and cereal breeding. 
WE are informed that the collection obtained by 
Mr. Edmund Heller, who represented the Smithsonian 
Institution on Mr. Paul J. Rainey’s African expedi- 
tion, will rival that made by the Smithsonian. African 
expedition in t909 and 1910. In all there are about 
7oo large mammal skins in salt, 4ooo small mammal 
skins, and a large number of birds and reptiles, most 
of them coming from regions not visited by the 
previous expedition, while some are from remote 
localities never before visited by naturalists. 
From a report in The Times we learn that at a 
meeting of the Council. of the Royal: College of 
Surgeons on March 14, Sir Henry Morris, in the 
course of an eloquent tribute to Lord Lister, said :— 
“His gentle. nature, his deep compassion, his 
courteous and dignified bearing, his imperturbable 
temper, his resolute will, his indifference to ridicule, 
his tolerance of hostile criticism combined to make 
him one of the noblest of men. His work will last 
for all time; its good results will continue throughout 
all ages; humanity will bless him for evermore; his 
fame will be immortal.’’ The council unanimously 
decided that this tribute should be inscribed upon a 
tablet and placed in a suitable position within the 
walls of the college, ‘‘to serve as evidence to future 
generations of the honour, respect, and reverence in 
which the great founder of aseptic surgery was held 
by his contemporaries and immediate successors.” 
THE experiments about to be undertaken by the 
Board of Agriculture and Fisheries in the breeding of 
horses on Mendelian lines will be watched with great 
interest. Impressed with the results of breeding on 
such lines in the the smaller domesticated 
animals, Captain Dealtry C. 
Board a large sum of money for carrying on similar 
experiments with horses. The direction of these ex: 
periments has been entrusted to Major C. C. Hurst, 
director of the Burbage Experiment Station, who will 
have the advice and assistance of Mr. F. W. Carter, 
superintending inspector of the Board of Agriculture. 
It has. been decided that the best type of light horse 
for general purposes is the weight-carrying hunter, 
NO. 2212, VOL. 89] 
case of 
Part has given to the | 
| different parts of India. 
while the best foundation stock for crossing is the 
thoroughbred, and it is proposed to try to produce 
from the latter a distinct breed possessing the quali- 
ties of the former. The foundations for such a type 
already exist in weight-carrying steeplechasers, which 
have been found to breed true. Mares suitable for 
the purpose of the experiment have been selected, but 
there is some difficulty in regard to stallions; with 
those at present available, about one-half of the 
progeny is expected to be of the stamp required. 
REFERENCE has already been made in the public 
Press to the publication in the Government Gazette of 
a Bill by the Minister of Commerce of the Union of 
South Africa for the reform of the weights and 
measures of that Union. Tha Decimal Association 
has now received a copy of the Bill, and states that it 
represents a great advance towards the complete 
introduction of the metric system. The standard 
units of each table of weight and measure as shown 
in the second schedule of the Bill are those of the 
metric system alone, but the use of the imperial 
measures, with certain modifications, is permitted. 
The only Cape measures allowed are the rood of 
12 Cape feet, their squares, and the morgen. The 
hundredweight is eliminated, and the cental of roo Ib. 
substituted; the ton is to be 2000 Ib., and the carat 
is fixed at 205-304 mg. Section 12, subsection 3, pro- 
vides that no person shall sell drugs and medicines 
retail by weight or measure except by measures of 
the metric system. It is not yet known whether the 
Bill has been introduced, but little, if any, opposition 
is expected to it, as the reform has been well dis- 
cussed in the Union and the chambers of commerce 
have been consulted. 
Tue following are among the subjects of lectures 
to be given at the Royal Institution after Easter :— 
Mr. F. Balfour Browne, ‘‘Insect Distribution, with 
Special Reference to the British Islands”; Prof. W. 
Bateson, ‘‘The Study of Genetics’; Prof. W. M. 
Flinders Petrie, ‘‘The Formation of the Alphabet ”’; 
Prof. A. W. Crossley, ‘‘ Synthetic Ammonia and Nitric 
Acid from the Atmosphere ’’; Prof. J. Norman Collie, 
“Recent Explorations in the Canadian Rocky Moun- 
tains’; Prof. H. T. Barnes, ‘“‘The Physical and 
Economic Aspects of Ice Formation in Canada’ (the 
Tyndall lectures); Prof. J. H. Poynting, ‘The 
Pressure of Waves”; Mr. Willis L. Moore, chief of 
the U.S. Weather Bureau, ‘‘The Development and 
Utilities of Meteorological Science.’ The Friday 
evening meetings will be resumed on April 19, when 
Mr. Alan A. Campbell-Swinton will deliver a dis- 
course on “Electricity Supply: Past, Present, and 
Future.’’ Succeeding discourses will probably be 
given by Sir George H. Darwin, Mr. W. C. Dampier 
Whetham, Prof. W. Stirling, Mr. W. Duddell, Prof. 
Howard T. Barnes, Sir William Macewen, and other 
gentlemen. 
WE are glad to notice that efforts are being made 
to form an Indian Association for the Advancement 
of Science, the primary object of which is to afford a 
medium of communication between workers in 
It is proposed to hold an 
