February 11, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



133 



Gaze prize to Eobert de Fororand, for his work in 

 inorganic chemistry. 



Mineralogy and Geology. — The Pontannes prize 

 to Olivier CoufEon, for his work entitled "Le Cal- 

 lovien du Chalet (Commune de Montreuil-Bellay ) ' ' ; 

 the Joseph Labti6 prize to Albert Bordeaux, for his 

 applications of geology to the solution of mining 

 problems. The Victor Eaulin prize is postponed 

 until 1921. 



Botany. — The Desmazieres prize to Andrg Mau- 

 blanc, for his work in mycology and plant diseases ; 

 honorable mention to Pierre S6e, for his book on 

 the diseases of paper; the De Coiney prize to 

 Luoien Hauman-Merck, for the whole of his bo- 

 tanical work. The Montague prize is not awarded. 



Anatomy and Zoology. — The Cuvier prize to 

 Alphonse Malaquin, for the whole of his work in 

 zoology; the Savigny prize to F. Le Cerf, for his 

 "Eevision des ^geriidSs algfiriens"; the Jean 

 Thore prize to A. Cros, for his biological studies 

 of the Coleoptera of northern Africa. 



THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON'S PHYSIOLOG- 

 ICAL LABORATORY 



At its meeting in December tlie senate of 

 the University of London decided that the 

 physiological laboratory must be closed at the 

 end of July next unless assurance of adequate 

 support is received from the London County 

 Council or other sources. The British Medical 

 Journal writes: 



The laboratory was established under the di- 

 rection of Professor A. D. Waller, F.E.S., in 1902, 

 at the headquarters of the university in the Im- 

 perial Institute, South Kensington, the equipment 

 being provided out of a fund of £4,000 provided 

 from private sources. It has since been maintained 

 partly out of university funds and partly by pri- 

 vate assistance, with tie help, during the last nine 

 years, of an annual grant of £500 from the London 

 County Council. This grant is now to be with- 

 drawn, and the university has no funds out of 

 which to make up the deficit. In deciding to close 

 the laboratory, the senate appears to be influenced 

 also by the need of finding additional room in its 

 present quarters for general university purposes; 

 this is indicated by a further resolution stating 

 "(that should adequate support for the transference 

 and maintenance of the physiological laboratory 

 be forthcoming, the laboratory be continued during 

 the pleasure of the senate elsewhere than in its 

 present quarters, which shall be vacated not later 

 than the end of July, 1921." Physiologists wUl 



agree with Sir E. Sharpey Schafer that the closure 

 of the laboratory would be a serious misfortune. 

 "It is, " he says, in a letter to the Times, "unique 

 from the fact that, being unattached to any par- 

 ticular medical school or college, it has been un- 

 trammelled by the necessity of providing elemen- 

 tary teaching in physiology, and has been able to 

 devote all its energies to research. The success it 

 has obtained in this under the able guidance of the 

 director, Professor A. D. "Waller, is universally 

 acknowledged. The originality of Professor Wal- 

 ler's methods and the brilliant results which have 

 been obtained from their application — especially in 

 the difficult subject of electrophysiology — are well 

 known. It would be a real calamity if a sudden 

 stop were put to these activities. " It is suggested 

 that the reason why the London County Council has 

 withdrawn its contribution at this time is the ex- 

 pectation that it wiU shortly have to contribute a 

 large simi toward the cost of building new univer- 

 sity headquarters. "It would seem," Sir E. 

 Sharpey Schafer concludes, "a pity to allow an 

 active laboratory to be abolished in order to save 

 £500 a year towards the cost of problematical 

 buildings." "Problematical," perhaps, is not 

 , quite the right word, because, we presume, some- 

 thing will have to be done for the university, but 

 no building can be undertaken for some consider- 

 able time to come. We can only express the hope 

 that, should the London County Council remain 

 obdurate, pubHe-spirited benefactors, recognizing 

 the importance of the university having at least one 

 research laboratory, will come to the rescue. We 

 •may, at any rate, express the expectation that 

 ■means wiU be found to carry on the laboratory 

 until the question of the new site for the univer- 

 sity is settled. 



POPULAR LECTURES ON SCIENTIFIC SUBJECTS 



AT THE CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF 



SCIENCES 



With the opening to the public of the new 

 Museum of the California Academy of Sci- 

 ences in G-olden Gate Park, San Francisco, 

 in 1916, one of the activities of the educa- 

 tional policy put into effect by Dr. Barton 

 "Warren Evermann, the director of the mu- 

 seum, was courses of popular lectures on sci- 

 entific subjects of general interest. These 

 courses began in the fall of 1916 and have 

 been continued each year since, without inter- 

 ruption except during the summer months. 

 The lectures are given at three o'clock each 



