November 16, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



481 



We learn from Nature that on October 10 a 

 memorial tablet was unveiled at Oxford, com- 

 memorating the life and work of Roger Bacon. 

 The tablet has been fixed to the old wall of 

 the city, dating from early in the thirteenth 

 century, close to the site of the Grey Friars 

 Church in the precincts of which Roger Bacon 

 was buried. The church has long since dis- 

 appeared, but the position of the burial 

 ground, though not the exact spot of Bacon's 

 grave, is known. After the celebration at Ox- 

 ford in 1914 of the seven hundredth anniver- 

 sary of Bacon's birth, it was thought fitting 

 that in addition to the statue then created in 

 the University museum, a permanent and 

 public memorial should be set up as near as 

 possible to the site of the Franciscan friary 

 in which Bacon passed so many years of his 

 strenuous life. This has now been accom- 

 plished. 



The death is announced, at seventy-three 

 years of age, of Professor A. J. F. Dastre, di- 

 rector of the laboratory of animal physiology 

 at the Sorbonne, and a member of the Paris 

 Academy of Sciences. 



Dr. Addison, the minister of reconstruction 

 of Great Britain, has appointed a committee 

 to consider and report on questions connected 

 with the supplies of raw materials which will 

 be required by British industries for the pur- 

 pose of restoring and developing trade after 

 the termination of the war and the best means 

 of securing and distributing supplies, due re- 

 gard being had to the interests of the Allies. 

 The committee, which will be known as the 

 Central Committee of Materials, consists of 

 the following members: Sir Clarendon Hyde 

 (chairman). Sir H. Birchenough, K.C.M.G., 

 Mr. Cecil Budd, Sir C. W. Fielding, K.B.E., 

 Sir H. Babington Smith, K.C.B., Mr. W. 

 Thorneycroft and Mr. A. "Weir. The secretary 

 is Mr. J. F. Ronca, who should be addressed at 

 the Ministry of Reconstruction, 2 Queen 

 Anne's Gate Buildings, "Westminster, S."W. 1. 



"We learn from Nature that a meeting was 

 held at the Manchester School of Technology 

 on November 10, under the chairmanship of 

 Dr. Alfred Ree, for the purpose of inaugurat- 



ing a British Association of Chemists. The 

 objects of the proposed association are (a) to 

 obtain power to act as sole registration au- 

 thority for all chemists; (6) to have the word 

 chemist legally redefined; (c) to safeguard the 

 public by obtaining legislation ensuring that 

 certain prescribed chemical operations be under 

 the direct control of a chemist, and (d) to raise 

 the profession of the chemist to its proper posi- 

 tion among the other learned professions, so 

 that it may attract the attention of a larger 

 proportion of the best intellects, and thereby 

 secure a supply of highly trained chemists ade- 

 quate to the industrial needs of the country. 

 The secretary of the Provisional Committee is 

 Mr. R. E. Crowther, 3 Langford Road, Heaton 

 Chapel, near Stockport. 



At the Pittsburgh meeting of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 Section G — Botany, will hold on Saturday, De- 

 cember 29, at 2 P.M., a joint session with the 

 Botanical Society of America and the Ameri- 

 can Phytopathological Society. The program 

 will be as follows: 



"The near future of botany in America" (vice- 

 presidential address), C. Stuart Gager. 



Invitation Papers Belating to War ProMems in 

 Botany 



"A new wheat disease in relation to the national 

 food supply," Erwin F. Smith. 



' ' Plant disease survey work and its relation' to 

 food production." G. E. Lyman. 



"Forestry problems after the war." I. W. 

 Bailey. 



""War work of the botanical committee of the 

 National Research Council," John M. Coulter. 



The course of scientific lectures of the 

 California Academy of Science have been con- 

 tinued on Sunday afternoons at 3 o'clock in the 

 Auditorium of the Museum in Golden Gate 

 Park. Announcements for the month were 

 as follows : 



October 28. Mr. Henry H. Hart, assistant city 

 attorney. San Francisco, Hawaii Nei. (IUub- 

 trated.) 



November 4. Dr. Bailey "Willis, head, depart- 

 ment of geology, Stanford University, The Chinese 

 at home. (Illustrated.) 



November 11. Professor G. A. Coleman, college 

 of agriculture, University of California, Natural 



