yio 



NA TURE 



[November 25, 1922 



former and the degree of technical skill shown in 

 elaborating an entirely original technique. Some of 

 the work dates from twenty years back and suggests 

 problems to the plant physiologist on the stability of 

 vegetable pigments in relation to light and other 

 external conditions. Seen at a little distance, the 

 pictures might be mistaken for oil paintings. Actu- 

 ally, the medium consists of plant material — leaves, 

 petals, and other tissues — selected with much skill 

 and exposed to bright sunshine after drying. The 

 material so prepared is treated as would be the colours 

 on a palette, and by its use in this way Mr. King 

 has achieved remarkable results. The " Dante bust " 

 (Naples) and the " Virgin " (after Bernardino Luini) 

 afford proof of the technical skill of the craftsman. 

 The original works, especially the landscapes entitled 

 " Spring," " Beech Trees in Autumn," and others, 

 provide evidence of real artistic ability as well as 

 mastery of a most remarkable plastic medium. 



Dr. Gravely, the superintendent, seems deter- 

 mined to make the Government Museum, Madras, 

 used by the local schools. He has attached the 

 scientific and popular names in various vernaculars 

 to the trees in the compound ; he has started a 

 herbarium of the flora of Madras city, also with 

 vernacular names, as a guide and ensample to the 

 schools ; he has had a research student of the Univer- 

 sity of Madras working on the local fauna with special 

 reference to groups likely to be useful for nature 

 study (bugs are specially mentioned) ; and he has 

 arranged for demonstrations both to teachers and to 

 students. Alas ! Madras does not respond as it 

 ought : one out of the four demonstrations to 

 teachers failed because no teachers turned up, and 

 of the 2221 anticipated students only 950 attended. 

 But Dr. Gravely goes on collecting the local specimens, 

 and his sub-librarian has at any rate found matter 

 for a chapter on " Museums and Libraries " con- 

 tributed to a work on " Teaching in Indian Ele- 

 mentary Schools." All of which and much more we 

 learn from the Report entitled G.O. No. 885. 



Dr. J. C. Willis has published in the Nineteenth 

 Century for October a statement of his hypothesis of 

 " Age and Area," in its bearing on the evolution of 

 species. It will be remembered that the subject was 

 introduced by him at the recent meeting in Hull of 

 the British Association, where it met with somewhat 

 severe criticism. In the present article the author 

 avers that Darwin's theory of natural selection " has 

 received so severe a shake that it is no longer a. name 

 to conjure with." It is unable, for example, to ex- 

 plain the distribution of the Ceylon species of the 

 genus Coleus (nettle-geranium). The visible struc- 

 tural differences between the species of wide and 

 those of restricted distribution cannot possibly make 

 any difference of advantage or disadvantage to their 

 possessor. The controlling principle, according to 

 Dr. Willis, is that " widely-spread species are in 

 general the oldest and first evolved, very local species 

 the youngest and last evolved." Moreover, the area 

 occupied by a group of genera corresponds roughly 

 with the number of species in each genus of the 

 NO. 2769, VOL. I io] 



group. It follows that the number of species in a 

 genus should also show an increase with its age. 

 Opinions will differ as to the importance to be assigned 

 to the factors suggested by Dr. Willis ; it cannot, 

 however, escape notice that while he alleges that it 

 would be " wiser to abandon natural selection " as 

 the general principle that has guided evolution, he 

 yet allows that " nothing can come into lasting 

 existence " without its permission. 



The opening remarks of Prof. C. H. Desch in his- 

 Streatfeild Memorial Lecture delivered at Finsbury 

 Technical College on November 2, on the subject 

 of " The Metallurgical Chemist," emphasised the 

 value of trained chemists in the field of metallurgical 

 and chemical industry to control and guide these 

 industries. Prof. Desch asserted that the basis of 

 the training for a metallurgical chemist should be 

 mathematics, physics, and chemistry, and specialised 

 work should not be entered upon at too early a stage. 

 Chemical knowledge and manipulative skill is required, 

 for example, for the analysis of alloys and modern 

 high-speed steels, while training in physical chemistry 

 and physics is requisite for a proper interpretation 

 of the results of examinations of physical properties, 

 for example, of alloys as shown by X-ray analyses. 

 There is also need for engineering knowledge for 

 carrying out large-scale metallurgical operations, 

 such as the study of fatigue and also in ore extrac- 

 tion. Probably the best results can be obtained by 

 the co-operation of chemist and engineer both with 

 a certain amount of training in common. Prof. 

 Desch also referred to the importance to the metal- 

 lurgical industries of further work on refractory 

 materials. Another matter awaiting immediate at- 

 tention is economy in the utilisation of fuel and 

 other natural resources. Secrecy and rule-of-thumb 

 methods have completely disappeared from the steel 

 industry, and co-operation between the scientific 

 advisers, to the advantage of the whole industry, 

 has taken its place. 



On November 15, Prof. A. P. Laurie, professor of 

 chemistry to the Royal Academy, delivered a lecture 

 at the Academy on " The Preservation and Cleaning 

 of Pictures." He pointed out that the question of 

 the preservation and cleaning of pictures is not a 

 purely scientific one, but involves certain esthetic 

 considerations, and he suggestedjthat there has been 

 some confusion of thought on the whole subject. 

 A picture might have certain flakes of paint off it, 

 and yet be otherwise in good condition, and in such 

 a case it would probably be considered necessary to 

 restore the absent pigment. Here, however, we get 

 upon purely aesthetic ground as to whether such a 

 restoration is justifiable. In order that the general 

 appearance of the picture conveyed to the observer 

 what the artist intended, it is necessary to replace 

 the defective part, but from the point of view of the 

 minute and careful student of the picture, it is essential 

 that such replacement should be known. This diffi- 

 culty can be overcome by taking photographs of 

 the picture before repair, so as to put on record 

 what is the work of the master and what is the work 



