322 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



or done anything are as good as men of the widest experience and achievement, 

 so long shall the world suffer from wars, massacres, injustice, destitution, insanita- 

 tion, and crime. Let us hope that this war will abolish not only German militarism 

 but the whole lying and canting democratic hypothesis of equality. The best men 

 at the top is the only sound rule ; and it remains to find how to put them there. 



The Glasgow Herald of July 19 had a most able article on " Science as 

 Cinderella," and this was followed on the 25th by a letter from Prof. Soddy, which 

 suggested that a large part of Mr. Carnegie's endowment of Scottish universities 

 for science had been appropriated by these bodies to other purposes. 



All the British universities should be subjected, we think, to a fiery renovation. 

 Remarks were published in Science Progress of January 1914 and January 191 5 

 on the doings of the Bristol University as regards the giving of honorary degrees 

 and the subsequent dismissal of a professor who had objected to those doings. We 

 now hear that this learned body has disembarrassed itself of another member of its 

 staff who objected to both of these actions. The Board of Education is the proper 

 body to look into these matters. It is paid for such work : why does it not do it ? 

 Is it because, as a correspondent has assured us, the whole country is managed by 

 time-servers and invertebrates ? 



The Croonian Lecture of this year was delivered at the Royal Society on 

 June 22 by Prof. S. J. Hickson, F.R.S. (Manchester), and dealt in an interesting 

 manner with the two forms of symmetry — namely, radial and bilateral — found in 

 animals. The gist of the lecture was that those classes of animals now sedentary 

 or floating in habit tend to show a radial symmetry, while those that are actively 

 motile tend to show the bilateral symmetry of form. The lecturer also noted that 

 there is a far greater range of variability in radially symmetrical animals, so much 

 so that he believes that in some radially symmetrical genera there is no such dis- 

 continuity of structure as would justify their division into specific groups ; while, 

 on the other hand, such a discontinuity certainly exists in the bilaterally sym- 

 metrical genera. 



A ton of coal for half-a-crown ! For a considerable time past the advertisement 

 sheets of our newspapers have been informing readers that they can greatly increase 

 the heat of their fires by adding certain remarkable agents to the coal. We once 

 procured a sample of this stuff, carried out the instructions, and were crushed to 

 find that there was no result at all ! We had scarcely expected anything else, 

 since if the mere adding of an ounce or two of powder to a mass of coal will 

 so greatly enhance its heating capacities, the world would at once be in possession 

 of an invention of quite a revolutionary character. How cheap it would then be 

 to run our railway trains and men-of-war ! The saving to the British taxpayer 

 alone would amount to millions a year. In fact, we wonder that the purveyors of 

 this kind of thing are driven to advertise their wares in the Press at all, for the 

 whole world would be using the powders by this time. But what an extraordinary 

 thing it is that such frauds should be allowed to be advertised for the express 

 purpose of deceiving the ignorant public, and is there any other country in the 

 world where such a thing would be permitted? On the other hand, the clever 

 persons who do the advertising have probably succeeded in netting many thousands 

 of pounds' worth of half-crowns. Doubtless the ingenious inventor of the idea, 

 whoever he may be, will soon be made a baron and be given a seat on the Privy 

 Council. We may heartily congratulate him ; but what about the state of education 

 of a people who are ignorant enough to be deceived by such advertisements ? 

 Could there ever be a better plea for more science in education ? 



The Dublin Express complains that Science Progress " cannot be obtained 



