JANUABY 7, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



15 



sumed in the factories where made. The esti- 

 mated production indicates an increase of 6J 

 per cent, in the three common grades, but more 

 than 100 per cent, in the strongest grades. 



The estimate of Portland cement output in 

 1915 indicates shipments from the mills of 

 86,524,500 barrels, an increase of one tenth of 

 one per cent, over 1914. There was a slight 

 decrease in production and this, with the ap- 

 preciable decrease in stock, indicates a more 

 conservative trend in the industry, which in 

 the preceding few years showed a tendency to 

 overproduction. Prices generally averaged a 

 few cents lower per barrel in 1915 than in 1914, 

 although toward the end of the year prices 

 were substantially increased, and the outlook 

 for 1916 is brighter than for several seasons. 



Perhaps the most notable item in the year's 

 record is the stimulation of metal mining in 

 the western states. Almost without exception 

 the increases in production were large and in 

 several states 1915 was the best year on record. 

 In Arizona, which leads in copper, the output 

 of that metal exceeded the previous record 

 production of 1913. California continues to 

 lead in gold and had the largest yield in thirty- 

 two years, and with one exception in half a 

 century. In Montana and Arizona record out- 

 puts of silver are reported and in Alaska the 

 increased production of gold and especially 

 copper made 1915 a much more prosperous 

 year than even 1906 when Fairbanks and ISTome 

 were yielding their greatest returns of gold 

 from bonanza placers. 



MEDALISTS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY 



At the anniversary meeting of the Royal 

 Society on !N"ovember 30, the president, Sir 

 William Crookes, characterized the work of 

 those on whom the medals of the society had 

 been conferred as follows: 



The Copley medal has been conferred upon Pro- 

 fessor Ivan Petroviteh Pavlov, one of our most 

 distinguished foreign members, whose researches 

 in physiology have led to the acquisition of valu- 

 able knowledge. By a most ingeniously worked- 

 out and original method of making fistulae or 

 openings to the exterior, Professor Pavlov has 

 successfully studied the interrelation of the func- 



tions of the alimentary canal. His experiments 

 have shown how the presence of food in one can- 

 ity controls the secretion of digestive juices into 

 the next, and he has made many discoveries con- 

 cerning the conditions which influence the secre- 

 tory process^ while his method has facilitated the 

 study of the chemical changes which occur in the 

 food as it passes through the canal. Moreover, by 

 the method which he calls that of conditioned re- 

 flexes, Professor Pavlov has studied, from a physi- 

 ological point of view, the influence of the higher 

 brain centers upon the secretion of saliva. He 

 has also investigated the mecha,nism of the muscle 

 by which bivalves open and close their shells, and 

 the nervous control of the heart, especially through 

 the sympathetic nerves. His resourcefulness and 

 skiU have enabled him to make important contribu- 

 tions to physiological science, and his work, the 

 true worth of which has, perhaps, not yet been 

 rightly prized, deserves the fullest recognition. 



The Royal medal given annually for physical in- 

 vestigations has been awarded to Sir Joseph Lar- 

 mor, whose work in mathematics and physics in- 

 cludes a very wide range of subjects — geometry, 

 dynamics, optics, electricity, the kinetic theory of 

 gases, the theory of radiation and dynamical as- 

 tronomy — upon all of which he has published il- 

 luminating memoirs. Possibly his chief claim to 

 distinction is the establishment of the theory that 

 radiant energy and intramolecular forces are due 

 to the movements of minute electric charges. This 

 theory is fully worked out in his treatise, "iEther 

 and Matter." For a long time Sir Joseph Larmor 

 acted as secretary to the Eoyal Society, perform- 

 ing the duties of the ofiice with great success, at 

 the same time continuing with unabated vigor orig- 

 inal research. The offer of the Eoyal medal is a 

 mark of the society's appreciation and admira- 

 tion of his invaluable services to science. 



The other Eoyal medal, for work in the biolog- 

 ical sciences, is this year conferred upon Dr. Wil- 

 liam Halse Eivers Elvers, whose work in ethnology 

 has contributed largely to the establishment of the 

 subject upon a scientific basis. He was the first 

 to use the genealogical method in ethnological in- 

 vestigations. His remarkable originality, com- 

 bined with sound judgment, have enabled him to 

 produce work which will rank with the best that 

 has been done in ethnology. 



All chemists will agree that the award of the 

 Davy medal to Professor Paul iSabatier is fully 

 justified. His lengthy researches on the use of 

 finely divided metals as catalysts are universally 

 known. The hydrogenation of unsaturated or- 



