May 27, 1909] 



NA TURE 



m 



designing balloons and aeroplanes for naval and military 

 purposes. In answer to the question Mr. Asquith said : — 

 " It is no part of the general duty of the advisory com- 

 mittee for aeronautics either to construct or to invent. 

 Its function is not to initiate, but to consider what is 

 initiated elsewhere, and is referred to it by the executive 

 ofiicers of the Navy and .Army construction departments. 

 The problems which are likely to arise in this way for 

 solution are numerous, and it will be the work of the 

 committee to advise on these problems, and to seek their 

 solution by the application of both theoretical and experi- 

 mental methods of research." 



On Tuesday next, June i, Dr. F. Gowland Hopkins will 

 begin a course of two lectures at the Royal Institution on 

 " Biological Chemistry"; on June 3 Prof. W. E. Dalby 

 will commence a course of two lectures on " A Modern 

 Railway Problem : Steam v. Electricity " ; and on Satur- 

 day, June 5, Dr. F. F. Blackman will deliver the first 

 of two lectures on "The Vitality of Seeds and Plants," 

 (i) "A Vindication of the Vitality of Plants," (2) "The 

 Life and Death of Seeds." The Friday evening discourse 

 on June 4 will be delivered by Prof. J. A. Fleming, on 

 " Researches in Radio-telegraphy," and on June 11 by Sir 

 James Dewar, on " Problems of Helium and Radium." 

 An extra discourse will be delivered on June 18 by Mr. 

 \. Henry Savage Landor, on " A Recent Visit to the 

 Panama Canal." 



We have received a copy of a special report on the 

 establishment and organisation of a research laboratory at 

 the Crichton Royal Institution, Dumfries, which has been 

 submitted to the board of direction by Dr. C. C. Easter- 

 bfook, the physician superintendent. It is suggested that 

 the laboratory shall be devoted to study and research 

 in nervous and mental disorders. Dr. Easterbrook pro- 

 poses that three Crichton fellowships be established for 

 the promotion of psychiatrical research, one in clinical 

 jieurology and psychology, one in pathology and chemistry, 

 and one in pathology and bacteriology. Each fellowship 

 should be, he maintains, of the value of 250L a year with 

 residence in the institution, or soZ. additional in lieu 

 thereof. Particulars are given of what might well be the 

 general qualifications and previous training of candidates, 

 and indications are supplied of how such fellows could, 

 by working in a research laboratory, benefit the institution 

 as well as medical science. 



Is a note upon changes in the staff and administration 

 of the London Zoological Gardens which appeared in 

 N.ATURE of May 13, it was announced that the curators 

 will have to devote their whole attention and time to the 

 care of the animals under their charge, and therefore 

 " will have no time to spend on scientific zoology." Dr. 

 Chalmers Mitchell, secretary of the society, writes to say 

 that while it is certainly intended that the first duty of 

 the curators shall be the care of the living animals in 

 their charge, " such work opens as wide a field for research 

 in ' scientific zoology ' as the anatomical and systematic 

 investigations to which, by implication, the writer of your 

 note would seem to restrict the phrase." He is convinced' 

 that " the council will welcome the scientific work 

 of the staff in whatever direction that may be, so long as 

 it is compatible with the discharge of their duties." In 

 the Times announcement of the changes it was stated 

 that the curators were expected to devote all their energies 

 to " curating, " an expression which the writer of the 

 note took (and still takes) to mean that they were not 

 10 spend time on scientific work. 



NO. 2065, VOL. 80] 



The British Fire Prevention Committee, which was 

 founded on the occasion of the great Cripplegate fire of 

 1S97 and incorporated in 1899, is celebrating the tenth 

 anniversary of its incorporation this week. The greater 

 knowledge of building materials and appliances obtained by 

 scientific independent tests at the committee's testing station 

 has done much to obtain a better understanding of the value 

 and also the limitations of different methods of construc- 

 tion and equipment, whilst considerable influence has also 

 been exerted by the committee in guiding building and 

 fire service legislation in directions where it is most 

 effective to prevent loss of life and loss of property. The 

 objects tested by the committee since its formation numbered 

 160 to the end of last year, and it should be understood 

 that the investigation into any one object sometimes re- 

 quires as many as twenty or thirty testing operations. 

 Notable tests have been those with large reinforced con- 

 crete floors, a series of fifty fire-resisting doors, fire- 

 resisting glazing, and latterly also with safety devices. 

 Perhaps a final feature that claims remark is that the 

 whole of the funds required for the establishment of the 

 committee's testing station and the execution of its work 

 have been raised voluntarily, that more than 20,oooZ. have 

 been expended in ten years on the work of the committee, 

 and that the whole of the services rendered by the com- 

 mittee and its officers are voluntary. 



Some interesting details of the scientific achievements of 

 the British Antarctic Expedition under Lieut. Shackleton 

 are. given in Monday's Times. The communication is 

 from the New Zealand correspondent of the Times, and is 

 based upon information provided by Prof. Edgeworth 

 David. From the article we learn that a number 

 of the rotifers found in the lake muds were of 

 the same variety as those already described by the 

 biologist of the expedition (Murray) in Spitsbergen and 

 Franz Josef Land. This was especially the case in regard 

 to the species Macrobiotus arcticiis. A point of special 

 interest in regard to the marine fauna near Cape Royds 

 is that it may provisionally be concluded that it bears 

 some distant resemblance to the types of animal life of 

 the Coal-measure series of Australia and Tasmania. The 

 possibilities of the Antarctic having been an archipelago 

 can no longer be entertained. There is a high continental 

 plateau extending from the new mountains recently dis- 

 covered by the Nimrod expedition forty-five miles west of 

 Cape North to the magnetic pole across the plateau 

 traversed by Captain Scott of the Discovery, and over 

 the portion traversed by Lieut. Shackleton in his furthest 

 south journey to beyond the South Pole itself — probably 

 for a distance of 1800 miles. The most interesting geo- 

 logical discovery was that of Coal-measures at least 

 1500 feet thick in latitude 85° S. There were at least 

 seven seams of outcrop in the cliff face of the great 

 nunatak where the discovery was made ; they varied 

 in thickness from i foot to 7 feet. Abundant small fossil 

 root impressions were present in the fire-clay found with 

 some of the seams. The general geological results of the 

 expedition show that there is a very ancient series of 

 crystalline rocks similar to those already described by 

 Ferrar, of the Discovery, forming the foundation plat- 

 form from near the South Pole to Cape North. The 

 whole of this basal series gives every promise of minerals 

 of the rare earths in more or less abundance. Super- 

 imposed upon these basal beds is the sandstone formation 

 already described by Ferrar as the " Beacon " sandstone. 

 -Above the sandstones, on a series of volcanic rocks, occur 

 immense lava sheets more or less horizontally bedded. .As 

 regards volcanic eruptions, it is interesting to note that 



