August 15, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



217 



will be Professor W. Palmer Wynne, F.E..S. 

 His address will deal mainly with some 

 problems and aspects of organic chemistry. 

 A subject of national importance which 

 will be discussed by the section is the eco- 

 nomical use of coal and fuels derived there- 

 from. Among others who are expected to 

 take part in the discussion are Professor 

 Armstrong, Dr. Beilby, Professor Bone, 

 Dr. Wheeler, Dr. M. G. Christie, Dr. Col- 

 man, Mr. J. H. Yates, Mr. J. Bond and Mr. 

 E. Threlfall. The discussion will cover gas 

 producers and the use of gas, coking and 

 by-product recovery from small coal, gas 

 fires and their efficiency. Other discus- 

 sions have been arranged on radio-active 

 elements and a periodic law, to be opened 

 by Professor P. Soddy, and the signifi- 

 cance of optical properties. Several metal- 

 lurgical papers will be presented to the sec- 

 tion, including one by Professor E. Cohen, 

 of Utrecht, on strain diseases in metals. 



Professor Edmund J. Garwood will pre- 

 side over Section C (Geology), and in his 

 address will probably touch on the condi- 

 tions under which certain sedimentary 

 rocks were deposited, especially those laid 

 down during lower carboniferous times. 

 A large niunber of papers have been prom- 

 ised for the section, among them one by 

 Mr. V. C. Uling on recent discoveries in 

 the Stockingford Shales, near Nuneaton, 

 and another by Mr. P. G. Meacham on the 

 probable development of the South Staf- 

 fordshire coalfields to the west of the West- 

 ern Boundary Fault and to the Shropshire 

 Fault and the Severn Valley Fault, with 

 some notes on the probable conditions of 

 mining in the new area. The district 

 round Birmingham offers exceptionally 

 good opportunities for geological excur- 

 sions, and these will be made the great 

 feature of the sectional proceedings. While 

 the mornings will be given up to the read- 

 ing of papers, the afternoons will be given 



up to short excursions, and at the close of 

 the meeting there will be a three-days' 

 excursion into Shropshire. The organiza- 

 tion of these excursions is in the hands of 

 perhaps the greatest authority on all this 

 country. Professor Charles Lapworth, 

 F.R.S. As an introduction to the excur- 

 sions Professor Lapworth will address the 

 section on the geology of the country round 

 Birmingham immediately after Professor 

 Garwood's presidential address. 



Section D (Zoology) will be presided 

 over by Dr. H. F. Gadow, F.R.S., who, in 

 addition to his presidential address, will 

 open a discussion on convergence in the 

 mammalia. A subject of vital importance 

 to the development of tropical Africa will 

 be dealt with by Professor E. A. Minchin 

 in a lecture on some aspects of the sleeping 

 sickness problem. Among the papers 

 promised are one by Dr. F. A. Dixey on 

 the geographical relations of mimicry, and 

 another by Mr. W. Bowater on heredity of 

 melanism in lepidoptera. A discussion on 

 mimicry will be opened by Professor E. B. 

 Poulton. During the week a visit will be 

 paid to the Burbage Experimental Station, 

 by invitation of Major Hurst, to view the 

 results of inheritance experiments. An 

 important discussion, which will be held 

 jointly with the physiological and botanical 

 sections, will be opened by Professor B. 

 Moore, F.R.S., on the subject of the syn- 

 thesis of organic matter by inorganic col- 

 loids in the presence of sunlight, consid- 

 ered in relation to the origin of life. 



GEOGRAPHY AND SOCIAL QUESTIONS 



The professor of geography in Univer- 

 sity College, Reading, Dr. H. N. Dickson, 

 will preside over Section E (Geography). 

 His address will concern itself with the in- 

 creasing recognition of the importance of 

 human geography in the study of social 

 and economic questions. Besides the joint 



