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WE have received from the University Press of Liverpool a copy of a report of the Senate of the University upon research and other original work by members of the University published or completed during the session 1913-14. The titles of papers and other publications are arranged under faculties and numbered consecutively, those published during the session being placed first. The abbreviations adopted in the titles of scientific periodicals are those used in the "International Catalogue of Scientific Literature."

Ar a meeting held in New York, on January 27, in connection with the inauguration of the Engineering Foundation, it was announced, says Science, that the initial gift had been made by Mr. Ambrose Swasey, past-president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, who has given 40,000l. for "the advancement of the engineering arts and sciences in all their branches to the greatest good of the engineering profession and for the benefit of mankind." The administration of the fund will be entrusted to the Engineering Foundation Board, elected by the trustees of the United Engineering Society. From the same issue of our contemporary we learn that the sum of 8oool. has been given by Mr. Andrew Carnegie to Allegheny College for a chemical laboratory to replace that recently destroyed by fire; and that Mr. Patten, who has already given 100,000l. to the medical school of Northwestern University, has now added 5400l. for scholarships.

THE Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland has issued particulars of the summer courses of instruction for teachers to be held this year in Ireland. The courses, with the exception of that in rural science for national school teachers to be held in August, will begin on July 6 and close on July 30. Among the courses arranged may be mentioned that on chemical manufactures intended for teachers of chemistry in technical schools who hold a university degree in chemistry or equivalent qualification; and those on the testing and working of electrical machines, practical mathematics and mechanics, hygiene and sick nursing, experimental science, and rural science (including school gardening). Teachers who attend the courses from the beginning to the end are allowed a sum of 31. 10s. towards their expenses while living at the centre; and those who travel more than twenty miles to the centre of instruction are allowed, in addition, third-class railway fare for one return journey from the railway station nearest their school.

THE metallurgy laboratory for the mechanical testing of metals and alloys, presented to the Sir John Cass Technical Institute by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, was formally opened by Sir Boverton Redwood, Senior Warden of the Goldsmiths' Company, on March 3, in the unavoidable absence owing to illness of Sir Robert Mowbray, Prime Warden of the company. The work of this new laboratory, which will form an important extension of the metallurgy department of the institute, will be carried on from the metallurgical rather than from the engineering point of view, and will be closely related to the instruction already provided in connection with the metallographic and pyrometric examination of metals and alloys, including iron and steel and the materials used in the motor-car industry and in the construction of aeroplanes, high-speed machinery, and the like. Previous to the opening of the laboratory, Sir Boverton Redwood distributed the prizes gained by students of the institute during the past session, and delivered an address, the chair being taken by Sir Thomas Elliott, who has succeeded the late Sir Owen Roberts

as chairman of the governing body. In speaking of the work of the institute, Sir Boverton Redwood said that such work as is being done was never more needed than at the present time. Among other things which the war has done for us, it has shown us that there must be a much more intimate relation between science and industry in this country; and it is to be hoped that the students will avail themselves to the fullest possible extent of the facilities which the institute affords them of becoming better qualified to discharge the duties with which they will be entrusted. If one result of the war is to bring about a better recognition of what is needed in this direction we shall have some compensation for the sacrifices which we are making. In referring to the courses on fuel and power, arranged at the institute, Sir Boverton pointed out the all-important part that is now being played by liquid fuel both in the Navy and on the field of battle on land, especially in connection with the "all-oil boilers now in use on the battleships of the Queen Elizabeth class, all of which are driven solely by oil fuel.

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SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.

LONDON.

Geological Society, February 19.-Annual General Meeting. Dr. A. Smith Woodward, president, in the chair. Dr. A. Smith Woodward: Presidential Address. The progress of geology depends on so many lines of research, that each specialist does well at times to pause and consider the relation of his own small part to the whole. The president therefore reviewed some results of his study of fossil fishes in their bearing on stratigraphy. However necessary detailed lists of species of fossils might be for comparative work with sediments in restricted areas, he hoped to show that in dealing with broader questions names were really of small importance. Certain general principles had been arrived at, which would serve for all practical purposes. Each successive great group of fishes began with free-swimming fusiform animals, of which some passed quickly into slow-moving or grovelling types, while others changed more gradually into elongated or eel-shaped types. There was also a constant tendency for the primitive symmetry of the parts of the skeleton in successive members of a group to become marred by various more or less irregular fusions, subdivisions, and suppressions. Some of the successive species of each group increased in size, until the maximum was reached just before the time for extinction. These and many other more special inevitable changes had now been traced in most groups, and the various geological dates at which they occurred had been determined by observations on fossil fishes from many parts of the world. Even fragments of fish-skeletons, too imperfect to be named, were often therefore of value for stratigraphical purposes.

Royal Anthropological Institute, February 23.-C. Dawson Flint implement cultures of the Sussex Ouse Valley, with special reference to the Piltdown gravelspreads and deposits. Among the exhibits were originals and casts of the rude iron-stained Palæolithic implements discovered at Piltdown. They are really large flakes worked on one face, rather after the Chellean culture. The other face is unworked, like those from the Mousterian cultures. The large elephant-bone implement trimmed to a point like a stake at one end, and roughly rounded by cuts at the other end, was exhibited. By comparison it is found that this implement is made from one of the thighbones of a large species of elephant not yet discovered

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Zoological Society, February 23.-Prof. E. W. MacBride, vice-president, in the chair.-Miss Kathleen Haddon: The methods of feeding and the mouth-parts of the larva of the glow-worm. External digestion is a phenomenon of fairly wide Occurrence among various groups of insects, and the mouth-parts are in some cases specially adapted to this purpose. The larva of the glow-worm (Lampyris noctiluca) feeds on snails, of which it leaves no residue but an empty shell; it is unlikely that there is any preliminary anæsthetising as asserted by Fabre. The mandibles of the larva bite up the food and each mandible is pierced by a fine tube, through which a dark-coloured fluid is exuded. The bases of all the mouth-parts are covered with fine outwardly directed hairs, which are bathed in the juices of the snail whilst the larva is feeding; the juice is sucked into the œsophagus, which is extremely narrow, by the action of a pharyngeal pump similar to that found in other sucking insects.-Dr. J. F. Gemmill: Ciliation of asterids and the question of ciliary nutrition in certain species. The arrangement of the ciliary currents on the various surfaces of four widely different species of starfishes is described in detail. This arrangement is constant for all individuals in each of the species, and, except as regards external surfaces, is practically the same in all the species. Everywhere the arrangement is shown to be explicable by physiological needs. Ciliation in the perihæmal spaces is demonstrated.-R. E. Turner: New fossorial wasps. The wasps were mostly collected while on a recent expedition to Australia, but include a few received from the Queensland and West Australian Museums.-Lt.-Col. J. M. Fawcett : A collection of Heterocera made by Mr. W. Feather in British East Africa. The bulk of the species was taken at light during damp evenings, and perhaps the most interesting capture is that of a specimen of the celebrated Actias besanti, Rebel, a large and most beautiful Saturnid moth distinguished by its extremely long tails. This is a well-known rarity of the "first water," and only four specimens were previously known to have been taken, two of which are in the British Museum and two in Germany. Besides the forms described as new species, there are a good many previously described forms not as yet represented in the National Collection, which of itself is evidence of their rarity. Mr. Feather is to be especially congratulated upon the very perfect condition of his specimens and the very accurate record he has kept of the dates of their capture and the localities. Many of the forms dealt with in this memoir were only previously known to science through specimens brought from tropical West Africa, and were previously unrecorded from British East Africa. But this region still remains to be properly worked out, and a great field of research is in store for anyone who can find time to take the matter in hand.

CAMBRIDGE.

Philosophical Society, February 22.-Prof. Newall, president, in the chair.-Dr. Arber and R. H. Goode : Some fossil plants from the Devonian rocks of North Devon. In addition to the first record of an obscure plant specimen from the Lynton beds, some six other types are described from the Baggy or Cucullæa beds of the Upper Devonian. One of these, Xenotheca,

is an entirely new fructification, consisting of thecæ with eight teeth, terminating the branches of a dichotomously branched axis. These thecæ are regarded as being probably of the nature of cupules. Sphenopteridium rigidum, Ludw., is recorded for the first time from Britain. The other fossils can only be identified generically as Sphenopteris sp., Telangium sp., Knorria sp., and Cordaites? sp. These are the oldest (in a geological sense) fossil plants of terrestrial habit yet known from England.-H. Hamshaw Thomas: Some new and rare Jurassic plants from Yorkshire-the male flower of Williamsonia gigas, L. and H. The female strobili of this species were described many years ago, but the male sporophylls have remained a matter for speculation. When examining the specimens in the Yates Collection in the Museum of Natural History at Paris, the author found an example showing an undoubted male flower of the same general type as Williamsonia spectabilis, Nath. Though not attached, there were strong reasons for regarding it as belonging to the species W. gigas. The flower was briefly described, and compared with other species in the genus.-Dr. C. E. Moss: Nomenclature of Pteris aquilina.

DUBLIN.

Royal Irish Academy, February 22.-Count Plunkett in the chair.-J. A. McClelland and J. J. Dowling: Some electrical properties of powders in thin layers. A very thin layer of a conducting powder, such as graphite, is formed on the surface of an insulator, usually paraffin. Tinfoil strips a few centimetres apart are fastened on the layer so as to make good electrical connection with it, and the conductivity of the layer measured. The strips being earthed, a high potential is applied to a plate parallel to the layer, a few millimetres of paraffin intervening between the plate and the layer. The conductivity of the layer is then found to be very much increased. The points of resemblance and of difference between this effect and the coherer effect are discussed in the paper, and the laws obeyed by the conductivity are studied in detail. PARIS.

Academy of Sciences, March 1.-M. Ed. Perrier in the chair. The President announced the deaths of George William Hill and G. F. J. Auwers, correspondants in the section of astronomy.-E. L. Bouvier : The adaptative forms of Scyllarus arctus and the post-larval development of Scyllarus.-Haton de la Goupillière: The sums of like powers of integral numbers.-J. Guillaume : Observations of the Mellish comet made at the Observatory at Lyons. Six positions given for February 20, 23, 25, and 26. The comet appeared as a circular nebulosity, diameter about half a minute of arc, with faintly marked excentric nucleus. Was about the 11th magnitude.— M. Coggia: Observations of the Mellish comet made at the Marseilles Observatory. Positions given for February 20, 23, and 25.-W. Sierpinski: A curve of which any point is a point of ramification.-André Brochet: The catalytic reduction of indigo. In slightly alkaline solution indigo is rapidly reduced by hydrogen in presence of suspended metallic nickel. The indigo white obtained has the advantage of being free from saline impurities.-J. Caralp: A Permian melaphyre in the Ariège Pyrenees.-Marin Molliard : nitrogen and the higher plants. Experiments are described proving that the radish, grown aseptically, is incapable of assimilating atmospheric nitrogen.Georges A. Le Roy: The use of low temperatures in toxicological analysis. The fine subdivision of tissues is facilitated by a preliminary solidification by freezing.

Free

BOOKS Received.

The Carnegie Annual Report. Constable.)

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17.

INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, at 7.45.-Students' Section
Some Experiments on the Induction Generator: W. H. Date.

ROVAL SOCIETY OF ARTS, at 8.-The Industrial Uses of Coal Gas: H. M.
Thornton.

ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY, at 7.30.- The Meteorology of the
Sun: Dr. W. Geoffrey Duffield.
ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY, at 8.

ROYAL MICROscopical SociETY, at 8.-A New Mitotic Structure Disclosed
as the Result of New Technique: E. J. Sheppard -Notes on the
Structure of Tests of Fresh-water Rhizopoda: G. H. Wailes.

Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India. Palæontologia Indica. Vol. v. Memoir No. 2. The Anthracolithic Faunæ of Kashmir, Kanaur, and Spiti. By Dr. C. Diener. Pp. 135+ plates xi. (Calcutta: Geological Survey; London: Kegan Paul and Co., ROYAL SOCIETY, at 4.30.-Bakerian Lecture: X-rays and Crystals: Prof. Ltd.)

Twenty-seventh Annual Report of the Purdue University Agricultural Experiment Station, Lafayette, Indiana. Pp. 88. (Lafayette: Haywood Publishing Co.)

Clark University, Worcester, Mass. Register and Twenty-seventh Official Announcement. Pp. 112. (Worcester, Mass.: Clark University.)

Ex

Memoirs of the Geological Survey, Scotland. planation of Sheet 74. The Geology of Mid-Strathspey and Strathdearn. By L. W. Hinxman and E. M. Anderson. Pp. v+97. (London: H.M.S.O.; E. Stanford, Ltd.) 2s. 6d.

Memoirs of the Geological Survey, England and Wales. Explanation of Sheet 269. The Geology of the Country around Windsor and Chertsey. By A. Dewey and C. E. N. Bromehead. Pp. vi+123. (London: H.M.S.O.; E. Stanford, Ltd. 2s. 6d.

DIARY OF SOCIETIES.

THURSDAY, MARCH 11.

ROYAL SOCIETY, at 4.30.-Contributions to the Study of the Kionomics and Reproductive Processes of the Foraminifera: E. Heron-Allen.-The Occurrence of an Intracranial Ganglion upon the Oculomotor Nerve in Scyllium Canicula, with a suggestion as to its Bearing upon the question of the Segmental Value of certain of the Cranial Nerves: G. E. Nicholls. -Experiments on the Restoration of Paralysed Muscles by Means of Nerve Anastomosis. III.-Anastomosis of the Brachial Plexus, with a consideration of the Distribution of its Roots: Prof. R. Kennedy.-On the Mechanism of the Cardiac Valves. A Preliminary Communication: A. F. S. Kent.

INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, at 8.-Electric Cooking, mainly from the Consumer's Point of View: W. R. Cooper.

CHILD STUDY SOCIETY, at 6.-Discussion: The Care and Development of the Child during School Age -Treatment Centres and their Possibilities: Miss Margaret McMillan.-Care Committees: Mrs. Evelyn.

FRIDAY, MARCH 12.

ROYAL INSTITUTION, at 9.-Back to Lister: Sir R. J. Godlee.
PHYSICAL SOCIETY, at 8.-(1) The Estimation of High Temperatures by the
Method of Colour Identity: (2) The Unit of Candle-power in White
Light C. C. Paterson and B. P. Dudding.-The Relative Losses in
Dielectrics in Equivalent Electric Fields, Steady and Alternating
(R. M.S.): G. L. Addenbrooke.

MALACOLOGICAL SOCIETY, at 8.-Helicella crayfordensis, n.sp. from the
Pleistocene deposits of S. E. England: A. S. Kennard and B. B. Wood-
ward. Further Notes on Radule: the Rev. E. W. Bowell.-The Editions
of Swainson's "Exotic Conchology": A. Reynell.
ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, at 5.-Double Stars Measured at the
Cape: J. Voûte.-Comet Westland: E. H. Beattie.-A General Solution
of Hill's Equation: E. Lindsay Ince.-Note on the Comparison of Two
Plates of the Same Region in the Vatican Zones of the Astrographic
Catalogue: Ethel F. Bellamy.-Probable Papers: The Dynamics of a
Globular Stellar System. II.: A. S. Eddington.-The Secular Accelera-
tion of the Moon's Mean Motion, as Determined from the Occultations in
the Almagest: J. K. Fotheringham and Gertrude Longbottom. - Micro-
metrical Measures of Double Stars made in 1914: Rev. T. E. R. Phillips.

SATURDAY, MARCH 13.

ROYAL INSTITUTION, at 3.-Recent Researches on Atoms and Ions: Sir
J. J. Thomson.

MONDAY, MARCH 15.

ARISTOTELIAN SOCIETY, at 8.-The Philosophy of Values: Dr. Tudor
Jones.

VICTORIA INSTITUTE, at 4.30.-The Determination of Easter Day: Dr.
A. M. W. Downing.

ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS, at 8.-House Building: M. H. Baillie Scott.

TUESDAY, MARCH 16.

ROYAL INSTITUTION, at 3.-The Belief in Immortality among the
Polynesians Sir J. G. Frazer.

ROYAL STATISTICAL SOCIETY, at 5.15.-The Cost of the War: E. Crammond.
ILLUMINATING ENGINEERING SOCIETY at 8.-Discussion: The Marking
and Rating of Lamps and the best methods of specifying their Illuminat-
ing Value.

MINERALOGICAL SOCIETY, at 5.15.-The Dispersion of Adularia from
St. Gothard, Felspar from Madagascar, and Moonstone from Ceylon :
Dr. S. Kôzu.--The Meteoric Stone of Launton, Oxfordshire: Dr. G. T.
Prior.

W. H. Bragg.

THURSDAY, MARCH 18.

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THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 1915.

SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

form, stereotyped, and antiquated pattern, but must be elastic and carefully adapted to the needs of each particular class of the community. Education of every kind has been promoted, not only

WHAT the present European struggle may exceptional privileges, both material and social,

HATEVER the political changes resulting by pecuniary endowment but by the granting of

be, it is certain that the industrial and economic changes will be of an equally striking and revolutionary character. Those of us who can remember Europe as it was before the war of 1870 and now look back upon the forty-five years which have elapsed since that fateful conflict, cannot fail to realise that the transfer of Alsace and Lorraine from France to Germany was an event of vanishing importance compared with the gigantic disturbance which has been brought about in Europe and throughout the world by the unprecedented industrial expansion of Germany which has taken place during the same period. Some idea of the stupendous magnitude of this rapid development in the matter of chemical industries may be gathered from the figures cited by Prof. Percy Frankland in a lecture recently delivered before the Society of Chemical Industry, and of which an abstract was published in our last issue. The magnitude and variety of the German chemical industries are surpassed in wonder only by the rapidity with which they have developed from the very small dimensions which they possessed prior to the war of 1870. Still more remarkable, however, is the fact that a similar investigation. of many other activities, such as the textile, mining, metallurgical, electrical, agricultural, and shipping industries, would reveal developments almost equally startling.

It is this great industrial prosperity which has rendered possible the vast and amazing effort to secure German supremacy in Europe of which we are the spectators to-day. The older ruling class in Germany had but little interest in commerce and industry as such but it had the sagacity to see that its dreams of empire could only be realised by fostering industrial and commercial enterprise in every possible way. The ruling class, at bottom despising the tradesman in every shape and form, has had the wisdom to recognise that its prejudices must be concealed, and that everything must be done to put the wealthproducing classes into the most favourable position for competing with the similar classes of rival countries. The rulers of Germany had the discernment to apprehend that one of the most important weapons in that competition was education, and that education must not be of a uni

to those possessing attainments of a higher order, e.g., by the reduction of military service to a period of one year only in the case of all boys who have passed beyond a certain school standard. Research of every description, not only in science but in every other branch of learning, has been fostered to an extent quite unknown in any other country.

This has resulted in Germany becoming beyond all other countries the land of the expert, "a country of damned professors," as Lord Palmerston once called it in the language of a bygone day. It is the country in which every man is proud of knowing his own particular business, nor will he be listened to on any other subject. In England, if a man succeeds in catching the public ear, his utterances on every conceivable subject will be accepted by thousands. Nothing is more astounding than the faith which large sections of people put in the omniscience of our prominent men. We can well remember how Mr. Gladstone, who had adopted the plan of replying by post-card to his innumerable inquirers, was once not only asked for his opinion on the efficacy of vaccination, but actually thought fit to express it. Other and much more recent examples of the faith reposed in self-constituted oracles amongst us will occur to most of the readers of NATURE. In Germany knowledge is so widely diffused, and it is so generally understood that real knowledge can only be attained by years devoted to some kind of research, using the word in its widest sense, that most educated Germans are aware that any given individual, however brilliant, can only be an authority in a comparatively limited field of knowledge. In Germany, therefore, it is only the opinion of the accepted expert that counts. If Germany is the land of experts, England is undoubtedly the land of amateurs, and, owing to the extraordinary genius of our countrymen, it is quite true that in the past most striking achievements must be credited to amateurs. Priestley and Cavendish were amateurs, as were Darwin and many others of high distinction that could be mentioned, but they assuredly became experts also in fact, if not in

name.

Science is the dynamic and creative force in

industry, and it is only through scientific discovery that industry can rapidly advance. It is this fact which has been freely recognised in Germany, whereas it is from this fact that the great majority of Englishmen instinctively shrink. The German believes in shaping his practice on theory, whilst the Englishman moulds his practice on tradition and instinct, and avoids all theoretical considerations as far as he can. In the earlier stages of chemical industry, and whilst chemical science was in a rudimentary state, much was accomplished by the eminently practical instincts of Englishmen, but with the increasing complexity and refinement of the problems involved, progress has only become possible through profound knowledge gained by unceasing investigation directed by theoretical considerations, and it has been during this later phase that such rapid strides have been made by the chemical manufacturers of Germany.

Of all the chemical industries, the one which depends most entirely on a far-reaching knowledge of chemical theory is that of Synthetic Organic Products (Artificial Dyes, Drugs, Perfumes, etc.), for it would certainly require instincts of even a super-British order to be capable of devising methods for the economic manufacture of such commodities as indigo, adrenalin, and ionone! It is not surprising, therefore, that this branch of chemical industry is almost entirely in German hands, whilst the other branches are, for the most part, gravitating in the same direction.

It is not the unexpected which has happened, for that the neglect of science by our manufacturers would inevitably lead to this result has been consistently preached by British chemists during the past forty years. The irony of the situation lies in the fact that this relative failure of our chemical industries to expand has gone on pari passu with a great increase in our output of chemical research, the quality of some of which has been of a particularly brilliant kind. That this capacity for research has remained almost wholly divorced from industry is due to the British manufacturer, who has almost entirely failed to attract into his works the more brilliant chemists trained in this country. The remuneration and prospects offered are in general of such a disadvantageous character that they cannot be entertained excepting as a last resort. It is, moreover, the absence of any prospect of reasonable remuneration in industrial chemistry that greatly limits the study of chemistry as a profession in this country. The Government and the muni

cipal corporations, in their capacity as employers of chemists, are no better than the manufacturers. That the British manufacturer is himself in general entirely ignorant of chemistry is the result of our antiquated system of education. Whatever school he may have attended will almost certainly have been presided over by a headmaster reared in traditions of medievalism, with the result that he probably imbibed the idea that the study of science would relegate him to an inferior position in the school; at the university, unless he were reading either classics or mathematics, he would not, even at the present day, be in the swim, and would find little or no favour with the head of his college, whilst until recently he would have been of no account at all. He would then pass into his hereditary position in the factory knowing nothing of the science upon which the business is based, and incapable of understanding even the alphabet of the language of the chemical officers it may possess. What wonder, then, that he distrusts and fears these chemists, who are the brain of his business, and that he prefers to confide in the engineers, who are but little less ignorant of chemistry than himself.

That this is the typical situation in the chemical industries of this country was revealed in a particularly significant manner in the House of Commons only a few nights ago, when the Government scheme of "British Dyes, Limited," was under discussion. At the conclusion of the debate, the Parliamentary Secretary of the Board of Trade said that the man who was conversant with the science and practice of dye manufacture was unfit to go on the directorate, because, as he would know something of the business, the whole of the other directors, being but business men, would be in his hands. We are thus authoritatively informed, from his seat in Parliament, by the Secretary of the very Board which is entrusted with the duty to look after the commercial and industrial interests of the country, that the first qualification of a director of a public company subsidised by the Government is that he must know nothing of the business in which that company proposes to engage. Surely the report of this speech must have escaped the astigmatic eye of the official censor, or he would have passed his pencil over a piece of information so gratifying and useful to the enemy! As Prof. Armstrong, in commenting on this utterance in a letter to the Morning Post on Saturday last, very truly remarks: "Our fate as makers of dyes is sealed. We, the taxpayers, can do nothing but

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