July 22, 1922] 



NA TURE 



Section J (Psychology), which was to have been 

 by the late Dr. W. H. R. Rivers. We are now 

 pleased to announce that Dr. C. S. Myers has accepted 

 the presidencv of this section and will deliver an address 

 on " The Influence of the late Dr. W. H. R. Rivers on 

 the Development of Psvchology in Great Britain." 



An exceptional opportunity at the Hull meeting 

 will be afforded for discussing thoroughly the work of 

 the Corresponding Societies of the Association. Th's 

 subject has had the serious consideration of the council 

 of the British Association for some time, and at the 

 Hull meeting it is proposed to depart from the practice 

 which has grown up in recent years of looking upon the 

 Conference of Delegates almost in the light of still 

 another section of the Association, and to revert to the 

 former system of discussing the various ways in which 

 the corresponding and other local societies may accom- 

 plish useful work. Conditions which obtained since 

 the war are likely to interfere with the work of natural 

 history, geological, archaeological, botanical, and allied 

 societies ; already the publication of the results of 

 their work has been seriously impeded by the present 

 charges for printing, and in many other ways it seems 

 desirable that this Conference of Delegates shall be 

 more of a conference than of a Section X, to which 

 papers, not quite desired by other sections, shall be 

 sent ! Certainly in recent years the connexion between 

 the Conference of Delegates and some of the papers 

 presented at its meetings has been somewhat remote. 

 At Hull, therefore, there will be no set presidential 

 address to the conference. 



Advantage will be taken of the fact that the meeting 

 is held in the county in which probably the leading 

 provincial society in the British Isles (that is, the 

 Yorkshire Naturalists' Union) exists, and the way in 

 which this society, by means of its sections, committees, 

 publications, etc., carries out and records its researches 

 will be explained in Hull, as probably upon such lines 

 it will be necessary that other societies should work in 

 the future. 



The list of the distinguished members from the near 

 continental countries, from the United States, Canada, 

 and other parts of the world, is constantly growing, and 

 the Hull meeting bids fair to be memorable from the 

 part these gentlemen will take in its proceedings. 



Under the editorship of one of the local secretaries a 

 handbook to Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire is 



in preparation, and will be presented to each member, 

 In this booklet an effort will be made to direct atten- 

 tion to the various attractions in the Riding, as well 

 as to give descriptions of the city and district under 

 the heads of geology, zoology, botany, archaeology, 

 meteorology, commerce, etc. 



Elaborate arrangements are being made by a special 

 excursions committee for general and popular excur- 

 sions to Scarborough, Flamborough, Bridlington, York, 

 Beverley, and other places of scientific interest within 

 easy access of the city, as well as for special excursions 

 of smaller parties of members particularly interested 

 in geology, engineering, chemistry, and other subjects. 



In addition to the handbook, a local programme is in 

 preparation, which will contain particulars of the various 

 directions in which the members may be occupied 

 during their stay in Hull. The Constitutional Club, 

 the East Riding Club, and others are electing members 

 of the British Association honorary members of the 

 clubs during the meeting, the Freemasons are giving a 

 reception to their brethren, and special exhibitions of 

 various kinds are being prepared to interest the 

 different sections of the Association. One of these, 

 organised by the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, will be 

 held in the Board Room of the Education Offices oppo- 

 site the Museum in Albion Street, and will illustrate 

 the work of the various sections and committees of that 

 society. 



The public lectures to citizens so far arranged are as 

 follows : — Dr. A. Smith Woodward on " The Ancestry 

 'of Man " ; Dr. E. H. Griffiths on " The Conservation 

 and Dissipation of Energy " ; Sir Westcott Abell on 

 " The Story of the Ship " ; Prof. A. P. Coleman on 

 " Labrador " ; and the Rev. A. L. Cortie, S. J., on 

 " The Earth's Magnetism." 



Evening discourses will be given by Dr. F. W. Aston 

 on " The Atoms of Matter, their Size, Number, and 

 Construction," and by Prof. Walter Garstang on 

 " Fishing : Old Ways and New." 



For the first time, special lectures are being arranged 

 for the children in the upper classes in the secondary 

 and other schools in the city, and these will be given by- 

 Prof. H. H. Turner on " The Telescope and what it 

 tells us " ; Prof. J. Arthur Thomson on " Creatures of 

 the Sea " ; and Mr. F. Debenham on " The Ant- 

 arctic." Each lecture will be given to two thousand 

 pupils. T. S. 



An imposing gathering of savants recently 

 assembled in the great hall of the Sorbonne to cele- 

 brate the double centenary of the foundation of the 

 Asiatic Society and the discovery bv Jean Frangois 

 Champollion of the secret of the Egyptian hiero- 

 glyphs, the most important of which is the famous 

 Rosetta Stone in the British Museum. The meeting, 

 presided over by M. Millerand, was addressed by M. 

 Sunart, who pointed out that the Asiatic Society 

 was founded at the period when Champollion, in his 

 famous letter to Dacier, revealed the secret which 

 restored to humanity five thousand years of history. 

 Since then the Society had always been in the van of 

 Orientalism, and Phoenician and Palestinian epi- 

 graphy and archaeology owed it a lasting debt. 



NO. 2751, VOL. I io] 



Current Topics and Events. 



Sir Arthur Evans, in the Times of July 14, 

 announces two dramatic discoveries at Knossos. It 

 had long been observed that the position of the walls 

 at the South-east Palace angle indicated a sudden 

 collapse of the building by what could only have 

 been a great earthquake shock. The discovery of 

 two large skulls of the urus ox, and in front of them, 

 remains of portable terracotta altars, showed that 

 " previous to the filling in there had been a solemn 

 expiatory sacrifice to the Powers below — recalling 

 the words of the Iliad, ' in bulls doth the Earth- 

 shaker delight.' There can be little doubt that the 

 great deposits throughout a large part of the Palace 

 area, all illustrating an identical cultural phase 

 and indicative of a widespread contemporary ruin 



