July 25, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



85 



to combine the meetings of students and mem- 

 bers of the society for mutual benefit. This 

 arrangement has enabled the society to enter- 

 tain some of the foremost anthropologists of 

 the country, keeping the members in touch 

 with the important work being done in other 

 university centers, and making this body the 

 center of things anthropological in Phila- 

 delphia. 



At the first formal meeting of the society in 

 1914, Professor W. Max Miiller, the Egyptolo- 

 gist, was elected president for the current 

 four years. The president for the current 

 year is Professor Walter Woodburn Hyde, of 

 the department of Greek. Professor Speck, of 

 the department of anthropology, has been an 

 active member of the executive committee from 

 the beginning, contributing largely to the suc- 

 cess of the society. 



Among the outside speakers who addressed 

 the society in the past two seasons were: 



Dr. Robert H. Lowie, curator of ethnology, 

 American Museum of Natural History, New York. 

 (Two papers.) 



Dr. Alexander A. Goldenweiser, Columbia Uni- 

 versity. (Two papers.) 



Professor Franz Boas, head of the department of 

 anthropology, Columbia University. 



Professor Alfred L. Kroeber, head of the de- 

 partment of anthropology, University of California. 



Professor Spencer Trotter, department of biol- 

 ogy, Swarthmore College. 



Professor Phineas W. Whiting, department of 

 biology, Pranklin and Marshall College. 



Honorable Gifford Pinehot, formerly chief for- 

 ester of the U. S. 



THE BRITISH NATIONAL PHYSICAL 

 LABORATORY 



The custom which held before the war of 

 inviting a number of visitors to the ITational 

 Physical Laboratory in June has had to be 

 suspended during the last four years, but it 

 was revived on June 24 on the occasion of the 

 annual inspection by the general board, the 

 chairman of which. Sir J. J. Thomson, O.M., 

 received the guests. 



The London Times states that those who 

 had not seen the laboratory since the war could 

 scarcely recognize the place, so numerous are 

 the extensions that have been made, and yet 



the accommodation is even now inadequate for 

 the work that has to be done. Perhaps the 

 most conspicuous of the additions is a new 

 aeronautics building which, among other 

 things, is to house a huge wind channel, 14 

 feet across, for the testing of aircraft models. 

 Arrangements had been made by the di- 

 rector, Sir Richard Glazebrook, who is retiring 

 in September, for conducting the visitors over 

 the laboratory, and numerous demonstrations 

 illustrating the work that is being carried on 

 in the various departments had been arranged 

 for their edification. Thus, in the metallurgy 

 department the new rolling miU was shown in 

 operation rolling high-tensile aluminium alloys 

 down to very thin sheets suitable for covering 

 the wings of aeroplanes in place of fabric. In 

 the existing wind channels of the aeronautics 

 department experiments were being conducted 

 on the balancing of airship rudders, the mu- 

 tual interference of airscrew and body and the 

 flow of air in the neighborhood of the airscrew, 

 the spinning of aeroplanes, and other points. 

 The William Froude National Tank was being 

 employed for the testing of seaplane floats, 

 some of the experiments relating to the resist- 

 ance, running angle and longitudinal stability 

 of the float while planing on the water, and 

 others to the impact of a seaplane when alight- 

 ing on water. In the metrology department 

 various munitions gauges, in the supply of 

 which the laboratory did such good work dur- 

 ing the war, were on view, and there was a 

 minimeter capable of registering differences of 

 one millionth of an inch. An electrical device 

 for indicating at a distance the depth of petrol 

 in the tanks of an aeroplane was to be seen, 

 and in the department of electrotechnics there 

 was the Paterson-Walsh electrical apparatus 

 which was used as part of the London air de- 

 fenses for ascertaining the height of hostile 

 aircraft, while experiments with wireless teleg- 

 raphy were conducted in a hut in the meadow. 

 The engineering department and the optics di- 

 vision of the physios department were also 

 open among other sections. 



THE NEW BRITISH ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION 



Mr. J. L. Cope, who is organizing and will 

 lead the British Imperial Antarctic Expedi- 



