——_ 
May 30, 1912] 
body on duty at the wireless telegraphy apparatus, 
that there should be legislation against interference 
by amateur operators, and that all ships carrying 
more than a hundred passengers should have two 
searchlights. In connection with the last recom- 
mendation a paper by Dr. Henry Wilde, F.R.S., on 
searchlights for the mercantile marine, of which a 
summary appears among our reports of societies 
(p. 338) is of particular interest. Dr. Wilde states 
in his paper certain causes which have retarded the 
progress of the use of searchlights on merchant ships, 
and are largely responsible for the deplorable event 
which is now engaging the attention and sympathy 
of the civilised world. The great value of search- 
lights for navigation, as well as for other purposes, 
at sea, was reported to the Lords Commissioners of 
the Admiralty by Admiral Sir Beauchamp Seymour 
in 1876. The Admiralty later Claimed the right, from 
the exigencies of the public service, to use Dr. Wilde’s 
inventions without making any compensation, and to 
prevent the adoption of the searchlight in ships other 
than those of the Royal Navy. There are many cir- 
cumstances in which searchlights are useful apart 
from the navigation of ice-fields and the avoidance of 
icebergs, as instanced in the detection of derelicts 
and the rendering of assistance to other vessels in 
a disabled or sinking condition. Referring to the loss 
of the Titanic, Dr. Wilde remarks, “It has been 
repeatedly stated in evidence that at the time of the 
collision and for some hours afterwards, the atmo- 
sphere was perfectly clear, so much so that the stars 
were seen brightly on the horizon. If, therefore, the 
Titanic had been equipped with an efficient search- 
light, an iceberg would have shone out by reflection 
at a distance of several miles (visible to all persons 
on deck) and collision therewith would have been 
easily avoided. The ultimate responsibility, there- 
fore, of a calamity which the world now deplores 
rests upon the naval authorities at Whitehall through 
their blind policy of excluding searchlights from the 
mercantile marine.” 
In the list of those who are now known to have 
perished in the Titanic disaster, we regret to note the 
name of Mr. Henry Forbes Julian, a well-known 
member of the Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. 
Mr. Julian was a pupil of Sir Henry Roscoe, and 
began his career as a consulting engineer for the 
mining of precious metals in South Africa. In 1904, 
with Mr. Edgar Smart, he published a treatise on 
*“ Cyaniding Gold and Silver Ores,’ which has passed 
through three editions. He was an unassuming 
student of several branches of science, and for many 
years regularly attended the meetings of the British 
Association. In 1902 he married the youngest daugh- 
ter of the late Mr. William Pengelly, F.R.S., and 
also became an active member of the Devonshire 
Association and the Torquay Natural History Society. 
With Mrs. Julian he travelled extensively, and a large 
circle of friends mourns his sad loss. 
Tue Kine has conferred the honour of knighthood 
on Mr. Harry James Veitch, who has taken a leading 
part in connection with the recent International Hor- 
NO. 2222, VOL. 89| 
NATURE 32 
| 
ticultural Exhibition, and has been a pioneer in many 
departments of horticulture, notably in the hybridisa- ° 
tion of plants, and in the collection of rare specimens 
from many parts of the world. 
An extra meeting of the Chemical Society will be 
held at Burlington House on Wednesday, June 26, 
at 8.30 p.m., when Sir Wiiliam Tilden, F.R.S., will 
deliver the memorial lecture in honour of the late 
Prof. Stanislao Cannizzaro. 
Tue Peabody Museum, Yale University, is hoping 
to benefit by an expedition which will visit Texas and 
Nebraska this summer in search of fossil remains of 
prehistoric horses. The museum at present contains 
parts, but parts only, of twenty-six such horses. A 
look-out will also be kept for remains of the great 
imperial mammoth. The expedition will be led by 
Prof. R. S. Lull, assisted by Mr. F. W. Darby. 
TuHROuGH the liberality of a friend, the Smithsonian 
Institution has just been able to participate in a zoo- 
logical expedition to the Altai Mountain region of 
the Siberia-Mongolian border, Central Asia. Mr. N. 
Hollister, assistant curator, Division of Mammals, 
U.S. National Museum, represents the institution, 
and will make a general collection of the birds and 
mammals. At present the party expects to remain in 
the field for four months hunting and collecting, 
returning to the United States about the beginning 
of October. 
Tue Government Bill to deal with the subject of 
the feeble-minded, to which reference was made in a 
note in our last issue (vol. Ixxxix., p. 300), has formed 
the subject of discussion at the meetings of several 
associations during the past week. The Medico- 
Psychological Association resolved unanimously that 
the authority which will have to administer the new 
Feeble-minded Persons Control Act should be consti- 
tuted at once in anticipation of any amalgamation 
such as is contemplated by section 62, and that such 
body, in the first instance, should consist of the Com- 
missioners in Lunacy. The general committee of the 
London Teachers’ Association passed a number of 
resolutions on the subject. Among other matters, this 
committee urges that any measure for the education, 
care, and training of mentally defective children 
should be made compulsory; that all educable 
mentally defective children should be registered; that 
the present system of special instruction for mentally 
defective children in day special schools should be con- 
tinued; and that all children, still certifiable as 
mentally defective on leaving schools or institutions, 
should automatically be subject to the control of the 
commissioners. 
Dr. H. Bayer publishes a lecture (Jena: Fischer, 
50 pp-) on ‘Vererbung und _ Rassenhygiene,” 
addressed especially to the medical profession. It is 
intended as a sketch on quite general lines of the 
principles underlying eugenics. The work of Galton, 
Pearson, and Johannsen is described and compared, 
after which follows a discussion of Weismannism. 
Although the inheritance of somatic acquirements is 
| rejected, considerable importance is ascribed to the 
| action of environment on the germ-cells. 
A clear 
