24 BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY) 



gress. Mr. N. D. Riley and Mr. R. B. Benson were the official Museum 

 delegates to the Seventh International Entomological Congress, Mr. Riley 

 representing also His Majesty's Government. Mr. A. H. G. Alston 

 attended the first South American Botanic Assembly at Rio de Janeiro 

 in a similar capacity. Mr. W. N. Edwards, Keeper of the Department 

 of Geology, was the Museum delegate to the Annual Conference of the 

 Museums Association held at Belfast. At the International Ornitho- 

 logical Congress at Rouen in May, the Museum was represented by 

 Mr. P. R. Lowe (formerly an Assistant Keeper) and Mr. J. D. Macdonald. 

 Mr. L. Bairstow represented the Trustees at the Centenary Meeting of 

 the Yorkshire Geological Society. At the International Geographical 

 Congress held at Amsterdam in July, Dr. J. D. H. Wiseman acted as 

 rapporteur for the Oceanographical Section. Mr. A. J. Wilmott was 

 appointed as the botanical representative of the Trustees on a Committee 

 set up by the Royal Meteorological Societj^ to supervise phenological 

 work. Mr. N. D. Riley already represented the Museum on the same 

 conference as an entomologist. The British Association's Meeting at 

 Cambridge in August was attended by several members of the scientific 

 staff. 



Advisory and Economic Activities. 



Numerous economic inquiries from private individuals, business firms, 

 and public authorities and departments were again dealt with. Those 

 received in the Department of Zoology were concerned chiefly with the 

 extermination of destructive and noxious mammals ; advice was given 

 also on polyzoa in water-works and on the incrustation of piers, fighters, 

 etc., by a serpulid polychsete. In the Department of Entomology special 

 interest was taken in measures to deal with bed-bugs and crickets, re- 

 sulting in the beginning of world-wide recognition of the methods advo- 

 cated in that Department for the control of the former pest. 



A suggestion was received through the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science that the Museum should take steps for the 

 coUection of data concerning the movements of marine turtles. As it 

 appeared that a number of turtles was stranded yearly on the British 

 coasts, the Board of Trade has been approached with a view to such 

 strandings being reported to the Museum in the same way as those of 

 whales by coastguards and Receivers of Wreck. 



The Trustees continue to take an active interest in the subject of 

 the pollution of the sea by oil. Lord Ilchester's questions in the House 

 of Lords early in the year eficited the information that steps were being 

 taken to increase the number of separator barges in use in the com- 

 mercial harbours of Great Britain, and that His Majesty's ships and 

 Royal Fleet auxiliaries were forbidden to discharge oil or oily matter 

 into the sea mthin fifty miles of the coast. 



Advice was given to the Foreign and Colonial Offices regarding col- 

 lecting expeditions ; to the Colonial Office on the subjects of the pro- 

 tection of the St. Helena Pheasant and the Cyprus Moufflon, and on 

 measures for controUing rats and mice on St. Helena; and assistance 

 was given to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in connexion with 

 escapes of Nutria in Great Britain, and the suspected infection by Colorado 

 Beetle of a small area in the neighbourhood of Tilbury Docks. 



