November 4, 1922J 



NA TURE 



611 



institution or university in that country can offer the 

 same facilities for training. It must be heartbreaking 

 to see the practical equipment and apparatus, the 

 fine electric machinery plant, engineering department, 

 and laboratories generally, used for kitchens and bed- 

 rooms and at the mercy of military forces unfamiliar 

 with their significance or value. It is almost im- 

 possible to get exact information as to the actual 

 position of things in Dublin, but if conditions are 

 half so bad as have been described to us, men of 

 science and scientific institutions should unite to 

 bring them to the notice of their colleagues in other 

 parts of the British Isles and the world of progressive 

 knowledge in general, in the hope that provision for 

 the scientific instruction and research much needed 

 by Ireland will not be curtailed but extended in the 

 near future. 



The Marquess of Crewe has accepted the invitation 

 of the council of the British Science Guild to succeed 

 Lord Montagu of Beaulieu as president of the Guild. 

 Lord Crewe has always taken much interest in the 

 promotion of scientific research, and it was while he 

 was Lord President of the Council in 1915 that the 

 Government scheme for aiding the formation of In- 

 dustrial Research Associations was announced by him. 

 The British Science Guild is not directly concerned 

 with the methods and results of research in the same 

 way as are the various scientific and technical societies, 

 but with securing adequate facilities not only for 

 extending scientific knowledge itself but also for using 

 it for national progress. Its relation to such societies 

 is similar to that of the Navy League to the navy ; 

 and the need of such a body, watching and intervening 

 on behalf of science, and in the interests of adminis- 

 trative efficiency and national development, is as 

 great to-day as ever it was. We understand that the 

 Guild proposes shortly to make a wide appeal for 

 support to extend its activities and to enlighten the 

 general public as to the significance of scientific work 

 and thought in modern civilisation by means of leaflets, 

 lectures, conferences, and so on. The campaign is a 

 promising one, and for the sake of science as well 

 as for national security, we trust it will be markedly 

 successful. 



Among the scientific men who lived during the 

 Revolutionary Era in France few were held in higher 

 esteem than Claude Louis Berthollet, the centenary 

 of whose death occurs on November 6. Celebrated 

 for his discovery, in 1785, of the composition of 

 ammonia and, in 1786, of the bleaching properties of 

 chlorine, he was one of the earliest converts to the 

 new ideas of Lavoisier, and with Lavoisier, Fourcroy, 

 and Guyton de Morreau, compiled the " Methode de 

 Nomenclature Chemique." During the Revolution 

 his organising powers were devoted to maintaining 

 a supply of saltpetre for the making of gunpowder, 

 while with Monge and Clouet he did much to improve 

 and extend the manufacture of steel. He also played 

 a prominent part in the reorganisation of the Aca- 

 demies and the inauguration of the National Institute. 

 Like Monge, he was a favourite with Napoleon and 

 was one of the group of learned men who accom- 



NO. 2766, VOL. I 10] 



panied the young conqueror to Egypt. Among 

 Berthollet's writings was his " Statique Chimique," 

 published in 1803. He was the founder of the famous 

 " Societe d'Arceuil," of which Laplace, Biot, and 

 Gay-Lussac were members. 



The secretary of the Swedish Medical Society has 

 favoured us with the following particulars of the 

 Anders Retzius medal which was awarded recently 

 to Sir Charles Sherrington. The Anders Retzius 

 foundation was given to the society on October 13, 

 1896, by Mrs. Emilie Retzius in memory of the 

 hundredth anniversary of the birth of her late 

 husband, Prof. Anders Retzius ; and it is intended to 

 promote studies of normal anatomy and physiology. 

 From this foundation the Anders Retzius gold medal 

 was for the first time awarded by the society to 

 Albert von Kolliker in the year 1897. It nas since 

 been awarded successively on every fifth year to 

 Carl Voit, Gustaf Schwalbe, John Newport Langley, 

 and Oscar Hertwig, alternately in recognition of their 

 prominent anatomical and physiological researches. 

 The medal is sixty-nine millimetres in diameter, was 

 designed by the Swedish medallist E. Lindberg, and 

 represents Anders Retzius's portrait in profile. 



Mr. W. French, writing from the Storey Institute, 

 Lancaster, directs our attention to a letter from 

 Prof. A. C. Seward, published in the Lancaster 

 Observer for September 22, referring to the state of 

 the tombstone marking the grave of the parents of 

 Sir Richard Owen and appealing to Lancastrians to 

 contribute the comparatively small amount required 

 for its restoration. Mr. French suggests that there 

 may be many scientific men yet living who owe much 

 of their success and inspiration to the writings and 

 teachings of Sir Richard Owen, and would be willing 

 to acknowledge in part their debt to him by con- 

 tributing to the restoration of the tombstone of his 

 parents. The estimated cost of the project is about 

 30/., and Mr. French is willing to receive subscriptions 

 and to give any further information that is required. 

 We feel sure that readers of Nature will share the 

 desire of Prof. Seward and Mr. French that anything 

 associated with the memory of so distinguished a 

 man of science should be preserved and treated with 

 the greatest reverence. 



It has been announced in our columns (September 

 16, p. 394) that nearly 850/. had been subscribed in 

 this country in support of the Pasteur centenary 

 celebrations. This sum has been forwarded to the 

 general treasurer of the fund, M. Th. Hering, who, 

 in his reply acknowledging the receipt of the gift, 

 states that any surplus of funds remaining after 

 providing the monument at Strasbourg will pass to 

 the Pasteur Foundation, which will probably institute 

 Pasteur prizes for needy students. In February 

 next, the Alliance Francaise, of 41 Fitzroy Square, 

 W.i, is entertaining for a few days MM. Vallery- 

 Radot, father and son, relatives of Pasteur, and Dr. 

 Pasteur Vallery-Radot will give an address on the 

 work of his illustrious grandfather. MM. Vallery- 

 Radot will afterwards be entertained at dinner, 

 probably at the Vintners' Hall. 



