Decembee 31, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



633 



MEDALS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY 



At the anniversary meeting of the Eoyal 

 Society on November 30 the medals were 

 awarded in accordance with the announce- 

 ment already made. The citations of several 

 of the medalists were as follows : 



The Eumf ord medal is awarded to Lord Eayleigh, 

 who is distinguished for his researches into the 

 properties of gases at high vacua, and whose work 

 has opened the way to many valuable investiga- 

 tions. Some years ago Lord Eayleigh made a 

 number of interesting observations on the after- 

 glow in various gases noticeable after the cessa- 

 tion of an electric discharge, and these led in 1911 

 to his Bakerian lecture on "The Afterglow of 

 Nitrogen." The investigation thus started has 

 proved the subject of much of his recent work, and 

 in a series of most valuable papers he has studied 

 the properties of the gas in which this afterglow 

 is visible. 



A Eoyal medal is awarded to Dr. William 

 Bateson, who is universally recognized as a leading 

 authority on genetics, and has done more than any- 

 one else to put that branch of inquiry on a scien- 

 tific basis. The work that stands to his name is, 

 however, but a fraction of that which he has in- 

 spired wherever biological research is prosecuted. 

 In conjunction with Professor Punnett he worked 

 out in detail one of the earliest cases of sex-linked 

 inheritance. Peculiar association of genetic fac- 

 tors in gameto-genesis had previously been dis- 

 covered by the same authors and described under 

 the terms "coupling" and "repulsion." In 1911 

 they published two papers which proved that these 

 phenomena are part of a more general phenomenon 

 of linkage, the orderly nature of which was pointed 

 out. Since these papers appeared the phenomenon 

 has been shown by various workers to be wide- 

 spread in both animals and plants. Three papers 

 by Bateson and C. PeUew record a discovery of 

 high interest and importance, viz., that the germ- 

 cells of the same plant may vary in their genetic 

 properties. It is further pointed out that the 

 variation proceeds in an orderly way from the base 

 of the plant to the apex. The conception is a novel 

 one, and is bound to have great influence on the 

 development of genetical theory. 



The Darwin medal is awarded to Professor Eo- 

 land Harry Biffen, who has worked out the inheri- 

 tance of practically all the obvious characters of 

 wheat and barley. Perhaps his best-known work 

 is that on the inheritance of strength in wheat and 



on the inheritance of susceptibility and resistance 

 to yellow rust in wheat. Biffen 's activity is not 

 by any means to be measured by his published 

 work. Two of his new wheats — Little Joss, which 

 owes its value to its immunity from rust, and Yeo- 

 man, which combines high yield with first-class 

 baking quality — are among the most popular 

 wheats in the country, and together account for 

 something like a third; or even a half, of the wheat 

 crop of England. 



The Hughes medal is awarded to Professor Owen 

 Williams Eichardson for his researches on the pas- 

 sage of electricity through gases, and especially 

 for those relating to the emission of electrons from 

 hot bodies — a subject which Professor Eichardson 

 has made his own and christened " thermionics. " 

 The subject is of great industrial as well as of 

 scientific importance. 



THE PHILADELPHIA ACADEMY OF NATURAL 

 SCIENCES 



At the annual meeting of The Academy of 

 IsTatural Sciences of Philadelphia, held De- 

 cember 21, 1920, the following olficers, coun- 

 ,cillors and members of the committee on ac- 

 counts were elected to serve during 1921. 

 President: John Cadwalader, LL.D. 

 Vice-Presidents: Edwin G. Conklin, Ph.D.; Henry 



Skinner, M.D. 

 Beoording Secretary : James A. G. Eehn. 

 Corresponding Secretary: J. Percy Moore, Ph.D. 

 Treasurer : George Vaux, Jr. 

 Librarian: Edward J. Nolan, M.D. 

 Curators: Witmer Stone, A.M., Sc.D. ; Henry A. 

 Pilsbry, Sc.D.; Henry Tucker, M.D.; Spencer 

 Trotter, M.D. 

 Councillors to Serve Three Tears: Charles B. Pen- 

 rose, M.D.; Charles Morris; William E. Hughes, 

 M.D. ; EosweU C. Williams, Jr. 

 Councillor to Fill an Unexpired Term — 19S1 to 



19SS: Milton J. Greenmau, M.D. 

 Committee on Accounts: Charles Morris; Samuel 

 N. Ehodes; John G. Eothermel; Thomas S. Stew- 

 art, M.D.; Walter Horstmann. 

 At the meeting of the academy held ifTovem- 

 ber 16, 1920, the following was adopted : 



Resolved: That in recognition of the exception- 

 ally long period (covering 58 years) of his serv- 

 ice to the academy, of his undeviating loyalty to 

 its interests, and of the geniality of manner that 

 endeared him to members and visitors alike, Dr. 

 Edward J. Nolan be, upon the election of his sue- 



