NOTES 465 



Research Boards for Food and for Tin and Tungsten production in Cornwall have 

 been established. Several new industrial research associations have been formed, 

 notably the British Scientific Instrument Research Association, which has received 

 a grant of ,£36,000 to be spread over the next five years, and the British Photo- 

 graphic Association, which will receive ,£1,500 a year for the same period. The 

 Iron Manufacturers' Research Association has been founded by the British Iron 

 Puddlers, who have subscribed all the necessary funds, and have decided not only 

 that all the results of the researches undertaken shall be freely available to each 

 firm (and 97 per cent, of the whole industry is represented), but that " all existing 

 knowledge, trade secrets, and procedures shall be pooled for the common good." 

 The internal-combustion engine makers failed to form an association in the absence 

 of sufficient common ground for common action, but each section is moving 

 towards the formation of a separate association with power for co-operation in 

 attacking any problems of common interest which may arise. Similarly, the 

 makers and users of refractories have not so far been brought into agreement. 

 Nevertheless, the Council has made a grant of .£1,500 towards the cost of a new 

 research building for refractories at Stoke. A subscription of .£500 for five years 

 is to be paid to the International Commission for the Publication of Constants and 

 Numerical Data, provided that the French Government, who have been the 

 principal supporters of the Commission since its foundation in 1909, should con- 

 tinue their subscription of 3,000 francs. Fifty-e*ight students and research workers 

 have received personal grants : but so far the Advisory Council to the Committee 

 have not felt themselves able to draw up stereotyped regulations for their awards, 

 and are, at present, basing them on their personal knowledge of the research 

 worker or of the professor or other person recommending him. While this is being 

 done it would be more satisfactory if the Council gave a list of the institutions at 

 which those who have received grants are working. It has been decided that, 

 save in exceptional circumstances, not more than two annual grants should be 

 made to one student to enable him to undergo training in methods of research, or 

 more than five annual grants in the nature of a Fellowship. 



The second Bulletin issued by the Advisory Council is a Memorandum on 

 Cutting Lubricants, Cooling Liquids, and on Skin Diseases produced by Lubricants. 

 It forms a valuable summary of our information on this subject, but is hardly 

 suited for abstract here. 



The Council of the Bread and Food Reform League, which is engaged in a 

 campaign for the increased use of finely ground whole wheat meal, ask us to state 

 that if specimens of bread containing large fragments of bran are sent to their 

 office at 2>7 Essex Street, W.C. 2, together with particulars as to its origin, they will 

 take steps to remedy the defective milling to which it is due. The League also 

 desires to draw attention to a Report published by the Public Health Service of 

 the United States which emphasises the fact that white flour deprived of the 

 essential phosphates and vitamines will, when it forms the principal food, lead to 

 "deficiency disease" conditions most prejudicial to the general health. On the 

 other hand, for easy digestibility whole wheat meal must be ground to sufficient 

 fineness to pass through a 16-mesh sieve. 



