particularly since Italy joined the Allied countries. In 1913 it is estimated that Germany's consumption was 265,000, and Austria-Hungary's 50,000 tons; their united production was 29,400 tons. There is no means of estimating the War demand for this metal in these countries, to which, of course, Turkey must be added. It is quite certain, however, that its use is being rigorously restricted to purposes for which there is no substitute, and it is extremely probable that large stores were accumulated before the war. The very high price that Germany has recently been willing to pay for copper shows nevertheless that her reserves have been considerably depleted. Two things may be stated with confidence. The first is that all her copper mines, mills, and smelters are being worked to their utmost co-ordinated capacity, the second that her technical metallurgists will have endeavoured to find a substitute for copper shell bands.

Aerial warfare has enthroned aluminium as par excellence the munition metal for this purpose, but its war usefulness is by no means confined to the construction of aircraft. One of the greatest metallurgical achievements of the last century was the adding of aluminium to the metals of everyday life. Thirty years ago the world's annual production was 5500 lb. ; in 1913 it was estimated to be 173,175,000 lb. In this time it has risen from a rare metal to a yearly tonnage exceeded only by iron, lead, copper, zinc, and tin. To quote Prof. J. W. Richards ("Mineral Industry," 1913, p. 14):-"It can confidently be anticipated that by the middle of this century it will rank next to, or even ahead of, copper. It is already cheaper than tin, pound for pound, and cheaper than copper per unit of bulk or per unit of electrical conducting power, while the range of its applications and usefulness is extending more rapidly than that of lead or zinc."

One of the less well known uses of aluminium is as a constituent of the bursting charge for shells. "Ammonal" is an explosive the constituents of which are ammonium nitrate and finely divided aluminium. It is not a propellent explosive, such as cordite or other of the smokeless powders; its disruptive effect is too great, and its explosion too sudden. But this very fact renders it suitable as a bursting charge for shells, and Austria-Hungary is using it for filling the shells for the howitzer batteries. The United States and Canada produced nearly half the world's output of aluminium in 1913, the remainder being furnished in almost equal amounts by France, Great Britain, and Switzerland, leaving out of account a tonnage of 800 produced in Italy. So far as the Allies are concerned, therefore, they are in a much better position than the enemy countries with regard to the supply of this metal. Moreover, France contains the most suitable European deposits of the raw material of manufacture, viz., bauxite. The Swiss production is available for the enemy countries, and it is known that Germany has since the war become a producer of the metal. Next there is zinc, the metal of which the selling price has appreciated to five times its pre-war

figure. Originally only two-fifths the price of copper, it is now decidedly above it, in spite of a marked appreciation in the price of copper itself. The most important munition uses of zinc are as a constituent of cartridge brass and shell fuses, and as a covering for iron barbed-wire fencing. In 1913 the principal producers of the metal were the United States, Germany and Belgium; whereas, however, the first-named smelted domestic ores, the two latter relied mainly on zinc concentrates imported from the Broken Hill mines in New South Wales, where, owing mainly to the high price of labour, it does not pay to smelt the ore locally, or even in the country. France, Spain and Great Britain also produce substantial amounts, though not enough for their own needs. Although the importation of Australian ore into the enemy countries is now stopped, they have considerable supplies of local ore both in Silesia, Hungary, Carinthia, and Tyrol. Unfortunately for Great Britain her zinc-smelting furnaces are not well adapted for dealing with Broken Hill concentrates, and there are upwards of 80,000 tons seized in enemy shipping which are lying idle in our yards in this country. She is in the unsatisfactory position of having to draw upon the United States for the bulk of her supplies. The shortage of domestic zinc is bound to continue unless works are built and operated which are capable of dealing with the zinc concentrates from Broken Hill. It is therefore of national importance so long as the war lasts that the use of zinc, whether as such or for alloys, should be restricted to purposes for which this metal is absolutely necessary.

Lead calls for only brief mention. Germany is a very large producer, and her output with that of Austria is sufficient for the requirements of the enemy countries. Australia is the largest producer among the Allies, who, however, do not furnish enough for their needs, and draw upon the United States, Spain, and Mexico. The shrapnel bullet is a lead-antimony alloy, the antimony producing the requisite hardening and embrittling effect. In spite of the fact that the shrapnel shell is much less suitable than the highexplosive shell for the offensive land operations of the present war, the price of antimony has appreciated almost as much as that of zinc. The normal annual world's production is less than 20,000 tons, of which China furnishes two-thirds and France the bulk of the remainder. Before the war Hungary was producing about Soo tons per annum, but doubtless this amount could be substantially increased.

Tin as a constituent of tin-plate, the various anti-friction metals, solders, and Admiralty gunmetals, is a munition metal of no small importance, the world's normal annual output being about 120,000 tons. Of this the Federated Malay States produce about half from native ore, in addition to exporting ore which is smelted in various European countries; England comes next as a producer of the metal, although 75 per cent. of her output is derived from imported ores; then follow Banca, Germany, Australia, Billiton, and China in the order mentioned. The enemy countries have

hitherto relied on imported ores for raw material, their own deposits being very inadequate.

To sum up, the position may be stated broadly as follows:-Of the ten munition metals, the chief sources of production and uses of which have been passed in review, the enemy countries can certainly produce five without having recourse to imports, viz., iron (the basis of the various steels used for war purposes), manganese, chromium, zinc, and lead; on the other hand, it is doubtful whether they can produce sufficient nickel, copper, aluminium, tin, and antimony from domestic ores. In view of the fact, however, that they prepared for this war with extreme care and foresight, it may safely be concluded that large stocks, either of ores or the corresponding metals, or both, will have been accumulated in those countries. However confident the Higher German Command may ostensibly have been of a rapid victory, they will quite certainly have laid their plans to wage a prolonged war if it should prove to be necessary, and such plans will have included the accumulation of munition ores and metals of which their countries produced an insufficient amount. There is accordingly no adequate reason for concluding that the enemy countries are likely-in spite of the prodigious scale upon which the war is being conducted -to run short of metals which are essential for war purposes for some time to come. Moreover, it may safely be concluded that their technical metallurgists will have been mobilised in the direction of discovering substitutes for any of the above metals of which a shortage is liable to occur in a long war.

The Allies for their part can produce from their own resources all the iron, manganese, nickel, chromium, tin, and most of the aluminium they require; their command of the seas enables them to obtain, principally from the United States, their deficiencies in aluminium, copper, and lead; China furnishes the requisite antimony. Zinc is the only important munition metal of which there is a shortage, in spite of the great speed with which the American furnaces are being operated. Wherever it is possible to substitute zinc by another metal it is of national importance that it should

probably scarcely yet realise how dependent we have been on Germany for many raw and finished products; indeed with many coal tar derivatives it has amounted to a German monopoly.

The output of coal in the United Kingdom in 1913 was 287,430,473 tons; in Germany 188,485,000 tons, but in addition to the ordinary coal 86,093,000 tons of brown coal or lignite were raised. England retained 189,092,369 tons for home consumption in 1913; Germany retained about 155,503,000 tons and 93,455,000 tons of brown coal, part of which was imported. These figures show a mean consumption of coal of 4108 tons per head in the United Kingdom and 368 tons of coal and brown coal in Germany. Broadly speaking, the coal consumption is a measure of the industrial activity of the two countries, and on this basis it is gratifying to note the greater consumption in England.

In order to arrive at some idea of the products available from distillation, the amounts of coal carbonised for gas and coke making, and the quantities treated in recovery plant in the latter case, must be considered. It is estimated that, in 1913, 37,483,944 tons of coal were used in the manufacture of gas and coke in this country; something above 16,000,000 tons being carbonised in gas works. In Germany the total quantity carbonised was 62,613,000 tons; only about 9,000,000 tons being used in gas works. There is, however, a difference of considerable importance so far as the utilisation of products is concerned, that whereas in the United Kingdom 427 per cent. of the total coal carbonised is treated in gas works, primarily for the production of coal gas, in Germany the corresponding figure is only 14'4 per cent., the larger bulk being treated primarily for the production of coke.

Owing to the larger proportion carbonised in ovens in Germany, the quantity of some crude products which are of primary importance in chemical industries-such as benzol, which is recovered only to a very small extent in gas works-is very much greater in Germany, relative to the total amount of coal carbonised, than in the United Kingdom. The output of pig iron, which dominates the question of coke production, is clearly an important factor. Germany derives a further advantage from the more extensive use of by-product recovery plant. Benzol recovery is now a matter of national importance, since toluene, which forms from 10 to 25 per cent. of the benzol, is in large demand for the manufacture of trinitrotoluene. In recovery oven practice the gas is stripped of the whole of the benzol content, but in gas making only the toluene content of the benzol is removed permanently from the gas. It has been proved, however, that at least one-third of the benzol content of the gas can be removed without reducing its calorific value below the standard of 500 B.Th. U. per cubic foot. The possible supply from coke ovens, if the whole of the gas produced in them were debenzolised in recovery plant, would probably amount to 60,000,000 gallons; in

addition, by the removal of one-third of the benzol from coal gas, allowing the average benzol to be 225 gallons per ton of coal, another 12,000,000 gallons would be obtained. These supplies are independent of the small quantity in coal tar. Mr. Butterfield estimates that some 5 gallons of pure benzene and 15 gallons of pure toluene are obtainable from this source per 100 tons of coal carbonised.

Benzene, toluene and xylene, which are obtained from the heavier fractions of benzol and the lighter fractions of naphtha, are the raw materials from which many nitro-compounds are produced for the manufacture of explosives, and for the preparation of bases such as aniline, toluidine, xylidene, etc., which are the starting points for the manufacture of large classes of dye-stuffs and drugs. Congo red, indigo, the large number of aniline dye derivatives, fuchsine, and eosine, are among the most important of the derivatives of the benzene hydrocarbons. Nor must the heavier oils be overlooked. Phenols yield valuable disinfectants, and phenol itself is the raw material for the manufacture of salicylic acid, many dyestuffs, and the important explosive picric acid (Lyddite). Naphthalene and anthracene are both important as parent bodies from which valuable dyes are prepared.

Referring to the production of trinitrotoluene, Mr. Butterfield mentions that great stores of this explosive had been accumulated in Germany prior to the outbreak of war, and that for one or two years prior to the commencement of hostilities its shipment to this country appears to have been hindered, on the ground of its being dangerous. Without a powerful detonator there is, however, no danger in shipment.

The problem of the establishment of the synthetic colour and drug industries in this country on a scale commensurate with our own requirements is considered briefly. The author sees no inherent objection to the directorate of such an undertaking consisting wholly wholly of financiers and business men, providing that the control of the working is delegated to an advisory or managing board constituted of technical chemists, with at least one engineer accustomed to the design and supervision of works plant. These industries appear to offer ample scope for the investment of capital, with ultimate prospect of very high returns on the investment.

number of days over which the meeting extends, the absence from the programme of the formal excursions to which the members are accustomed, and the omission of garden parties and some of the evening entertainments, are exceptional features which have been necessitated by the circumstances arising from the war.

After the outbreak of war some discussion arose as to the wisdom of holding the meeting at all this year. The decision to hold the meeting was reached after consultation between the council in London and the local executive committee. There was some difference of opinion, but, by a very large majority, it was decided that the opportunities afforded by the British Association for the discussion of scientific matters and for the conference of men of science are of such national importance, at the present time, that the meeting ought not to be abandoned.

At the same time it was felt-and on this point there was unanimity-that many of those features of the association's meetings which are of the nature of social entertainment and festivity would be out of place, and should be reduced to a minimum.

Since this decision was reached, great efforts have been made, under the leadership of distinguished men of science in the country, to organise the resources that British science affords for the most pressing services of the State. This organisation should include not only the branches of science that deal with the direct physical, chemical, and technological problems bearing upon the conduct of the war, but also with those that deal with the educational and economic changes the need for which the war has demonstrated. Proper organisation of our forces is undoubtedly essential, but no less essential is the provision of opportunities, such as the meetings of the British Association afford, for the public and private conference of our experts from all parts of the British Isles. It is anticipated, therefore, that the decision of the council and local executive committee to hold the meeting will meet with a hearty response from the scientific men of the country, and there is reason to believe, from the names that have already been sent in, that the meeting this year will prove to be one of the most interesting and memorable in the history of the Association.

The first important change in the arrangements that will be noticed is that the whole business of the meeting will be included in the week beginning September 6. The inaugural meeting will be held in the Free Trade Hall on Tuesday evening, September 7, and the final meetings of the sections on Saturday morning, September 11. the first time in the history of the association, therefore, there will be no British Association Sunday.

For

Prof. Schuster, Sec. R. S., the president-elect, will deliver his address at the inaugural meeting on Tuesday evening, and in the same hall on Thursday evening Mr. H. W. T. Wager, F.R.S., will deliver a discourse on the behaviour of plants

in response to light, and on Friday evening Dr. R. A. Sampson, F.R.S., will deliver a discourse on a census of the sky.

On Wednesday evening the members and associates are invited to visit the Manchester School of Technology, and to inspect the appliances and apparatus with which this great institution is provided.

The reception room will be the Whitworth Hall of the University, and accommodation will also be provided for all the sections (except Sections F, L, and M), for all the committees, for writing rooms, smoke rooms, and refreshments within the University precincts.

For the convenience of men of business in Manchester, Section F (Economics) will meet in the Chamber of Commerce in Mosley Street. Sections L and M will meet in the High School for Girls in Dover Street, a few yards from the University buildings.

Although there will be no long-distance excursions of the usual type, some shorter excursions will be arranged of special interest to members of particular sections. There will be, for example, some afternoon excursions to places of geological interest for members of Section C, and some short-distance botanical excursions for members of Section K. Arrangements will be made for the visit of some of the members interested in antiquities to Ribchester to attend the formal opening of the new Roman Museum, and on another occasion there will be an excursion to visit the Manchester Ship Canal.

Opportunities will be afforded in the course of the week for members to visit some of the more interesting works, warehouses, and factories of the district, but, owing to the circumstances of the war, the great armament factories, some of the chemical works, and businesses engaged in the manufacture of munitions of war, are unable to offer this year similar invitations to the association.

The Rylands Library, Chetham Hospital, the Art Galleries, and other institutions of special interest, will be opened to members of the association during the meeting.

In the house of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, members of the association will be able to inspect a series of original diagrams made by John Dalton at the beginning of the nineteenth century to illustrate his lectures on the atomic theory. These diagrams have quite recently been discovered in the premises of the society, and have been cleaned, catalogued, and displayed for the inspection of the members. addition to these diagrams, visitors may see an interesting collection of the instruments, apparatus, and personal effects of John Dalton, and some of the apparatus used by J. P. Joule in his experiments on the mechanical equivalent of heat. The association has arranged for a number of lectures by distinguished men of science for working-men audiences in Manchester and some of the neighbouring boroughs during the week. The programme of these lectures will be issued shortly. S. J. H.

NOTES.

THE Council of the Physical Society of London has decided to sanction and adopt the letters F.P.S.L. as the official indication of fellowship of the society.

We regret to see the announcement of the death, at Pretoria, on June 28, aged forty-six, of Mr. Herbert Kynaston, director of the Geological Survey of the Union of South Africa; also, on June 6, at Calcutta, of Mr. H. S. Bion, assistant superintendent, Geological Survey of India.

THE second International Conference of the Society for Practical Astronomy will be held on August 16, 17, and 18, at the University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill., U.S.A. All persons interested in astronomy, and friends of the science, whether members of the society or not, are cordially invited to attend the regular sessions of the conference, and will be made welcome there. The programme will consist of papers from members, illustrated lectures on astronomical subjects, and social meetings. For at least two of the evenings excursions have been arranged to the Dearborn Observatory of Northwestern University, in Evanston, Ill., and to the (private) Petrajtys Observatory, in South Chicago, Ill.

THE death is announced of Prof. J. F. Eykman, of Groningen, at sixty-four years of age. After studying at Amsterdam and at Leyden, and qualifying as a pharmaceutical chemist, Prof. Eykman was appointed director of a hygienic and chemical laboratory at Nagasaki, Japan; later he became professor of chemistry in the University of Tokyo. In 1885 he founded, in the Buitenzorg Botanic Gardens, a laboratory for the chemical and pharmacological investigation of East Indian plants, but returned to Holland in the next year, being succeeded by the late Dr. M. Greshoff. Since 1897 he had occupied the chair of organic chemistry in the University of Groningen. Prof. Eykman was largely responsible for the compilation of the first Japanese Pharmacopoeia. His name is further associated with the so-called depressimeter-a simple apparatus for cryoscopic molecular weight determinations.

EXETER COLLEGE, University of Oxford, which has already suffered a severe loss by the death of Dr. Jenkinson in the Dardanelles, has now been deprived of another of its members who had added to his work as a teacher the experience gained by investigation in a wider field. Capt. C. F. Balleine, a native of Jersey, entered Exeter College as a classical scholar in 1902. After a successful academic career, he took his degree in 1906, and was then elected to a senior scholarship in the same college "for travel and research." Having spent some time in Germany, he joined Dr. Randall MacIver in an archæological investigation at Korosko in Upper Egypt. His work on that site was cut short by an attack of appendicitis, on recovery from which he returned home. Having been elected to a tutorial fellowship, still at his old college, he devoted himself assiduously to promoting the welfare, both mental and physical, of the students under his charge. Always keenly interested in military matters, he was a most efficient officer in the Oxford O.T.C. Soon

after the war broke out he obtained a commission as captain in the Rifle Brigade, and went to the Front in April. On July 2 he was killed by a shell in Flanders, to the great grief of all who knew him. It is unfortunate that his opportunities for original work were not greater. There is little doubt that, had circumstances favoured, he would have attained high distinction in this direction.

THE joint session of the Aristotelian Society, the British Psychological Society, and the Mind Association was held on July 3 and 5. On July 3 Prof. Dawes Hicks presided, and an interesting discussion took place between Prof. G. F. Stout and Mr. Bertrand Russell. It was opened by a paper in which Prof. Stout criticised adversely the theory of judgment as a multiple relation put forward by Mr. Russell in "Problems of Philosophy" as a solution of the problem of truth and error. Mr. Russell now declared that he was himself dissatisfied with the theory and could not defend it, though not for the reasons brought against it by Prof. Stout. He still found himself in profound disagreement with the latter on the fundamental question of the nature of universals. July 5 Prof. Percy Nunn presided. The meeting was devoted to the discussion of a symposium on "The Import of Propositions," by Miss Constance Jones, Prof. Bosanquet, and Dr. Schiller.

On

THE greater part of a very large skeleton of the Pleistocene southern elephant (Elephas antiquus) has been discovered in a river terrace in the grounds of the Royal School of Military Engineering at Upnor, near Chatham. The specimen was buried in stiff clay, and all the remains are well preserved except the comparatively fragile skull. By permission of the War Office and the commandant of the school, and with the valuable help of Capt. H. L. Bingay, the geological department of the British Museum (Natural History) has been engaged for some time in excavating the skeleton, and the work is now nearly completed. One of the preparators of the museum, Mr. L. E. Parsons, has hardened and packed the bones under the direction of Dr. C. W. Andrews, and the collection will shortly be sent to the museum for final preparation. The skeleton is so nearly complete that it can probably be mounted, when it will rival, if not exceed in size, the great skeleton of Elephas meridionalis in the Paris Museum, which measures about 14 ft. in height at the shoulder.

THE Ipswich Museum has for some time past made a very strong feature of the department of prehistoric archæology, and has collected extensively from the uniquely rich district of East Suffolk. The museum collections now include a large and representative series of pre-Palæolithic and Paleolithic flint implements, and also numerous examples of specimens referable to the later Cave and Neolithic periods. Among the later additions may be noted a large series of implements, bones, etc., from the Grimes Graves flint mines, Moustier flints from Baker's Hole pit in the Thames valley, and implements of different ages presented by Dr. A. E. Peake and Rev. H. G. O. Kendall. The museum authorities have just purchased the entire series of local specimens, and the Palæolithic

implements from the Dovercourt gravels collected by the late Lieut.-Col. Underwood, of Ipswich, and these make a very valuable addition to the collections. Th skeleton of the Neolithic (or early Bronze age) yourh found with an ornamented drinking vessel by Mr. Reid Moir at Wherstead, near Ipswich, is now ca exhibition, together with other interesting humaa skulls, and the remains of extinct animals.

THE award of the Hanbury medal to Mr. E. M. Holmes, curator of the Pharmaceutical Society's Museum, for high excellence in the prosecution of original research in the natural history of drugs, is a fitting recognition of Mr. Holmes's unwearied activi. ties in the domain of pharmaceutical and botanical science. In 1897 Mr. Holmes was the first recipient of the Flückiger medal, and his numerous contributions to pharmacography and botany up to that date are enumerated in the Pharmaceutical Journal of September 4, 1897. Since then he has contributed about two hundred articles and notes to the journal, and has also found time to continue his studies of the alga, and of the British seaweeds in particular, of which group he is recognised as one of the first authorities. Among plants of pharmaceutical importance which have been the subject of Mr. Holmes's researches may be mentioned, in particular, jaborandi, Siam benzoin, strychnos, Natal aloes, cinchona, plants yielding myrrh, resins, etc. Plants yielding arrow poisons and plants which are the sources of poisonous drugs generally have been the subject of Mr. Holmes's careful and critical investigation, and pharmaceutical science is deeply indebted to him for the valuable work he has done in connection with medicinal plants and their products. It is largely owing to Mr. Holmes's wide botanical knowledge that his contributions to pharmacography rest on so sure and certain a founda.

tion.

ON June 30 (June 17, old style) Dr. Alexander Fischer de Waldheim, director of the Imperial Botanic Garden of Peter the Great at Petrograd completed the fiftieth year of his scientific and administrative activities. The event was made the occasion of a fitting ceremony with presentation of addresses, etc., in the hall of the herbarium at the garden. Dr. Fischer de Waldheim commenced his botanical career as privat-docent at the University of Moscow, and later became professor of botany at the University of Warsaw. On the death of A. F. Batalin in 1897 he was appointed director of the gardens at Petrograd. It will be remembered that in 1913, on the 200th anniversary of the founding of the Petrograd garden by Peter the Great, the name of the institution was changed by rescript of the Emperor to that of the Imperial Botanic Garden of Peter the Great, and a representative scientific gathering took place at Petrograd on the occasion. Under the present director's able administration the garden has been greatly improved, and the scientific activities of the institution largely extended. With its museum, herbarium, and library, laboratory, seed-control station, and school of horticulture, the Imperial Botanic Garden forms a very complete institution, and its scientific publications are of the first importance.