642 



NA TURE 



[November i i, 1922 



of his leisure in literary and scientific work with 

 which his present multifarious duties, not only as 

 head of a very large and busy department, but also 

 as member of numerous university committees and 

 outside public bodies, seriously interfere. 



The use of the cinema as a means of agricultural 

 education among farmers is in contemplation in 

 this country, and at least one organisation is under- 

 stood to be preparing a set of films. A recent 

 announcement in Le Matin indicates that France 

 may, however, be first in the field. It is stated that 

 the Ministry of Agriculture has submitted to the 

 President of the Republic an order authorising an 

 annual grant of 500,000 francs for the purpose of 

 installing, in agricultural colleges and schools and 

 in the rural communes, cinematographic appliances 

 which would be used for the popularisation of scientific 

 agriculture. There is no question that the cinemato- 

 graph could serve a highly useful purpose ; it is not 

 only more attractive than the lantern slide, but it 

 brings out points that could not otherwise be readily 

 shown. It may be doubted whether the ordinary 

 lantern slide could be dispensed with, however, and 

 the lecturer of the future will probably try to use both 

 films and slides. 



At the International Congress of Eugenics held in 

 New York in 192 1 an International Commission of 

 Eugenics was re-formed from a previously existing 

 committee. This committee held its first annual 

 meeting at Brussels on October 7 and 9. By a 

 unanimous vote it was decided to invite Germany to 

 co-operate in its labours in the future, delegates from 

 the United States, France, Denmark, Holland, 

 Norway, together with Major Darwin, the chairman, 

 and Dr. Govaerts of Belgium, the secretary, being 

 present. The Societe Beige d'Eugenique held a 

 series of conferences at the same time, at which 

 interesting papers were read. This society is to be 

 congratulated on the assistance it is now receiving 

 from the Solvay Institute, both as regards quarters 

 and funds. 



Upwards of eighty members and visitors attended 

 the last conversazione of the Natural History Museum 

 Staff Association for the current year, which Twas 

 held in the Board Room on November 1. Among 

 the many interesting exhibits placed round the 

 room may be mentioned the following : A selection 

 of birds collected in the course of the Shackleton- 

 Rowett Expedition to the Antarctic regions by the 

 Quest ; life-size casts of the dolphins recently received 

 by the Museum from Tung Ting Lake, China, about 

 800 miles from the sea ; a series of specimens illus- 

 trating sporadic variation in plaice and flounder ; 

 life-size models in colour of toads and frogs shortly 

 to be placed in the exhibition gallery ; enlarged 

 model of an extinct marine arthropod found in the 

 Upper Silesian rocks of Oesel in the Baltic ; examples 

 of tropical spiders which have been discovered alive 

 in this country ; a selection of the butterflies collected 

 in the course of the Mount Everest Expedition 1922, 

 and a small fragment of the rock (biotite-schist) at 

 NO. 2767, VOL. IIOJ 



the highest point reached by the climbing party ; 

 diagrams of genera of British Carboniferous corals, 

 and others illustrating the distribution of mammals 

 in Africa ; and specimens illustrating the introduc- 

 tion of the chrysanthemum into this country in the 

 eighteenth century. In addition, Mr. O. H. Little 

 showed beaded casts of crustacean or worm tracks 

 from the Nubian sandstone at Wady Arabah, Egypt. 

 Messrs. James Swift and Son exhibited recent models 

 of their microscopes and accessories, and Messrs. 

 Baird and Tatlock showed examples of glassware 

 and other apparatus for museum and laboratory use. 



The Society of Chemical Industry, which was 

 founded in 1881 for the promotion of applied chemistry 

 and chemical engineering, has now a roll of some 5500 

 members scattered over all parts of the world. No 

 less than eighteen local sections have been formed at 

 home and abroad, each section having its own officers 

 and programme, and leading to some extent an in- 

 dependent existence. There is also a chemical 

 engineering group, which has its headquarters in 

 London. The Edinburgh and East of Scotland 

 section has included in its programme an address by 

 Prof. G. Barger on some recent advances in bio- 

 chemistry and another by Prof. H. S. Allen on modern 

 theories of the structure of the atom, the latter being 

 a joint meeting with the Glasgow section, the Royal 

 Scottish Society of Arts, and the local section of the 

 Institute of Chemistry. The programme of the 

 Liverpool section is more industrial ; papers have 

 been arranged dealing with bleaching agents for 

 textiles and paper pulp, chemical industry during 

 the war in Great Britain and France, saponification 

 of fatty oils, patent fuels, synthetic tannins, fractional 

 distillation, and sulphur. These two programmes 

 are wide and varied in their appeals, and serve to 

 show the range of the society's activities. 



The report of the council of the North-East Coast 

 Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders for the 

 year 1921-22, which has recently been issued, marks 

 the close of the thirty-eighth session of the society. 

 In addition to the presidential address by Sir William 

 J. Noble, thirteen papers were presented at meetings 

 during the session, and twelve are printed in the 

 Transactions. They cover a wide field, there being 

 three papers dealing with naval architecture, three 

 with internal combustion engines, two with electrical 

 and two with mechanical engineering, in addition to 

 a paper on casualties at sea and another on standard- 

 isation. The roll of the society in July contained 

 1594 names, of which 486 were those of members, 

 542 of associate members, and 388 of graduates. The 

 society benefited by two gifts of 500/. during the 

 year ; one was from Mr. A. E. Doxford, a past 

 president, for the endowment fund, and the other 

 from the Furness Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., to provide 

 an income for the newly formed Middlesborough 

 branch. The Graduate Section had a successful 

 session, including, in addition to its formal meetings, a 

 number of visits to works. Study circles inaugurated 

 in 1920, specialising in the internal combustion 

 engine and strength of ships, continued to meet. A 



