588 mineral spring at rietfontein. 



Inflammai!le Gases. 



As the mean of four determinations the vahies 71.5 per 

 cent, marsh gas and 10 per cent, hydroj^en (the remainder being 

 nitrogen) were found. Akhough the results were fairly con- 

 cordant, these figures should only be regarded as indicating the 

 order of magnitude, the apparatus used not being of a nature to 

 ensure a high degree of accuracy. 



No tests for radioactivity were made, but the writer hopes 

 to have the opj^ortunity of investigating that ])oint at a later date 



Organisation of Science.— Some months ago a 



Conference, convened by the President and Council of the 

 Royal Society, was held in London, for the purpose of organis- 

 ing scientific effort in the United Kingdom. Tn addition to 

 the Royal Society, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Royal 

 Institution, and the British Association, twenty other scientific 

 societies were represented. A resolution was adopted in 

 favour of establishing a Board of Scientific Societies for the 

 purpose of ( i ) promoting co-operation among those interested in 

 science; (2) supplying means for giving eft'ective expression to 

 scientific opinion on scientific, industrial, and educational mat- 

 ters; (3) taking the necessary steps to promote the application 

 of science to national industry and service ; and (4) discussing 

 scientific (|tiestions in which international co-o])eration seems 

 advisable. Sir Ronald Ross thereupon wrote to the Times 

 expressing his ap])roval of the strong efforts that were being 

 made to organise scientific afi'airs, and his doubt whether the 

 learned societies, as at present constituted, are altogether suited 

 to the task. He held that most of the scientific societies are not 

 always constituted in such a manner as to be representative of 

 the bulk of persons engaged in scientific work. Moreover, he 

 said, thev were managed by councils that often did little more 

 than endorse the acts of their officers. Sir Ronald therefore 

 advocated placing the business aft'airs of science, as distinct from 

 the discussion of science, under a separate body, appointed for 

 this express purpose. At a meeting convened six weeks later 

 to discuss the subject of national neglect of science, resolutions 

 were ado]:)ted to the eft'ect that the natural sciences should be 

 made an integral part of the educational courses in all the great 

 schools, and should form part of the entrance examination of 

 the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, as well as of the 

 newer Universities ; that the Government should exercise its 

 power to encourage the study of the natural sciences, and so 

 increase the efficiency of public servants by assigning capital 

 importance to the natural sciences in the examinations for the 

 Home and Indian Civil Service, and requiring some knowledge 

 of those sciences of all candidates for admission to Sandhurst ; 

 that the matter is urgent, and should at once be taken in hand 

 b}' the (government ; and that aj)])ropriate steps be taken to 

 bring these views to the notice of His Majesty".- Government. 



