460 



NA TURE 



[September 30, 1922 



Island, Strangford Lough, have been brought to light 

 by the agency of the archaeological section of the 

 Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society. 

 Founded about a.d. 450 it is mentioned in con- 

 nexion with St. Patrick, and it held for centuries an 

 important position in the Celtic Church. The dis- 

 covery of the site is due to Bishop Reeves. The 

 most remarkable part of the ruins is a long stone 

 causeway which was probably the monks' walk. 

 Near the north door of the Church a fragment of an 

 important old Norse inscription has been discovered. 

 Words meaning " Prime Abbot " and " Church of 

 Christ " have been interpreted by Prof. Macalister 

 of Dublin. Every effort to preserve the ruins is now 

 being made by the Belfast Society. 



On September 16, Sir Humphrey Rolleston, 

 president of the Royal College of Physicians of 

 London, opened the John Elliott Memorial Patho- 

 logical and Bacteriological Laboratory at the Chester 

 Royal Infirmary, which has been equipped by public 

 subscription in memory of Dr. John Elliott, honorary 

 physician of the infirmary from 1895 to 1921. Dr. 

 Elliott had a well-furnished laboratory of his own, 

 which he used for the elucidation of his cases, and, in 

 addition to his consulting work, was much interested 

 in radiology and in the treatment of venereal disease. 

 The provision of such laboratories in hospitals in 

 recent years has done much to promote the progress 

 of medicine by bringing together the clinician and 

 the worker in pure science ; and the pathological 

 laboratory is now recognised as a necessary part of 

 an efficient hospital. 



The Faraday Society and the British Cold Storage 

 and Ice Association will hold a joint meeting at the 

 Institution of Electrical Engineers on Monday, October 

 16, to discuss the present position of the generation 

 and utilisation of cold. It will be divided into 

 three sessions, at the first of which laboratory methods 

 of liquefaction and methods of measuring low tem- 

 peratures will be discussed. The opening address 

 will be delivered by Prof. H. Kamerlingh Onnes, 

 and Dr. Crommelin will give a description of the 

 equipment of the cryogenic laboratory at Leyden. 

 The second and third sessions will be devoted to 

 industrial methods of liquefaction and practical 

 applications of low temperatures. A general intro- 

 duction will be given by Mr. K. S. Murray of the 

 British Oxygen Company (Limited). M. Claude will 

 deal with the industrial manufacture of hydrogen 

 by the partial liquefaction of water gas, and Mr. 

 E. A. Griffiths with the subject as it touches aero- 

 nautical work. Invitations have been extended to 

 members of the London Section of the Society of 

 Chemical Industry and to the Physical Society of 

 London. Others desirous of attending should com- 

 municate with the Secretary of the Faraday Society, 

 10 Essex Street, London, W.C.2. 



A provisional programme of lectures on meteoro- 

 logy in connexion with the Imperial College of 

 Science and Technology, South Kensington, for the 

 ensuing session is given in the Meteorological Magazine 

 for September. There are twenty-one lectures by 

 NO. 2761, VOL. I 10] 



Capt. D. Brunt on advanced meteorology, dynamical 

 and physical, on Mondays at 3.30 p.m. during the 

 winter and spring terms, beginning on Monday, 

 October 9 ; seven lectures by Sir Napier Shaw on 

 meteorological conditions of the air-routes of the world, 

 at 3 p.m. on Fridays, commencing on October 13, 

 and continued each week until November 24 ; three 

 lectures by Mr. R. A. Watson -Watt on wireless 

 telegraphy and weather, at 3 p.m. on Fridays in each 

 -of the first three weeks of December ; ten lectures 

 on forecasting weather by Sir Napier Shaw on 

 Fridays, at 3 p.m., during the spring term, beginning 

 on Friday, January 19. Discussions on the incidents 

 of the weather charts of the previous week are arranged 

 for on Saturdays at 10 a.m. throughout the year 

 during term-time, beginning on Saturday, October 14. 



We learn from the September number of the 

 Museums Journal that Dr. W. Rushton Parker has 

 offered to set aside 100/. a year for several years to 

 induce any men excavating in any part of the LTnited 

 Kingdom to look out for fossil remains of any kind, 

 to extract them as completely as possible, and to 

 preserve them until some expert can value them, 

 with the view of presenting them to the National 

 Museums. This is an offer that should be made 

 known to the scientific societies as well as to the 

 museums in various parts of the country. 



Dr. R. C. Farmer has been invited to take up the 

 position of deputy director of explosives research 

 at the War Office Research Department, and will 

 commence duty in October. Dr. Farmer was formerly 

 chemical adviser to the Explosives Department 

 under Lord Moulton, and was a member of the 

 nitrogen products committee and the chemical 

 committee of the Munitions Inventions Department. 

 Since the armistice he has been a director of Messrs. 

 W. J. Bush and Company, Ltd., chemical manu- 

 facturers, of Hackney, London, which position he is 

 now resigning. 



A committee has been appointed by the Secretary 

 for Mines to undertake research, under the general 

 direction of the Safety in Mines Research Board, 

 into the causes of, and the means of preventing, the 

 ignition of firedamp and coal dust by the firing of 

 permitted explosives. The Committee has been 

 constituted as follows : Sir F. L. Nathan, Mr. W. 

 Rintoul, Dr. G. Rotter, Mr. H. Walker, and Prof. 

 R. V. Wheeler. A grant has been made by the 

 Miners' Welfare Committee out of the Miners' Welfare 

 Fund to meet the cost of initiating the research. 



On account of continued poor health, Dr. George 

 Eliery Hale, director of the Mount Wilson Observa- 

 tory, has resigned from the Committee on Intellectual 

 Co-operation of the League of Nations. Dr. Robert A. 

 Millikan, director of the Norman Bridge Physical 

 Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology, 

 Pasadena, has been appointed by the council of the 

 league to succeed Dr. Hale. 



The Faraday Medal of the Institution of Electrical 

 Engineers, the first award of which was made by the 

 council in the early part of the year to Mr. Oliver 



