386 Editorial Notes. 



and author of numerous books and papers on astronomy and 



physics. 



***** 



Death has deprived us of Professor John Perry, D.Sc, F.R.S., 

 late of the Royal College of Science, South Kensington (1850- 

 1920), who, with Professors Ayrton and John Milne, was among 

 the first on the stall of the Imperial College of Science, Tokio, 

 Japan ; Professor of Mathematics and Engineering, City and 

 Guilds of London Technical College, Finsbury ; President of the 

 Physical Society ; for many years General Treasurer of the 

 British Association ; author of numerous scientific papers, a most 

 popular lecturer, and beloved by a wide circle of men of science. 

 ***** 



The Mining Industry Act, 1920, which is the latest version of the 

 measure for the establishment of a Ministry of Mines, has under- 

 gone a good deal of modification in its passage through Parliament. 

 Some of these changes have to a certain extent met the objections 

 raised in a former issue of the Magazine. Thus we find that it is 

 now provided that two advisory committees must be appointed by 

 the Board of Trade, one to deal with coal, the other with 

 metalliferous mining. The constitution of the coal committee is 

 set out in detail ; out of a total twenty-four members only one is 

 to be a mining engineer, and there is provision for the inclusion 

 of a number of faddists of various kinds. There is a delightful 

 vagueness about the clause " three [members] shall be persons with 

 expert knowledge of medical or othe?- science " : the italics are 

 ours. As to the constitution of the committee on metalliferous 

 mining nothing is said. Section 21, subsection 2, provides that 

 no information with respect to any particular undertaking shall be 

 included in any published report. This is a retrograde step, since 

 in Section 10 of the Metalliferous Mines Act of 1872 power is 

 given to the Secretary of State to collect statistics, and there is no 

 limitation of his power to publish them. If this new provision is 

 enforced no details can be given as to the output of particular 

 mines, as has hitherto been done, for example, in the case of 

 hematite mines. 



