NATIONAL WORK AT BRITISH MUSEUM BATHER. 621 



portance. Mining engineers, indeed, and other practicians of ap- 

 plied science know that the precise specific determination of a fossil 

 may often decide an expenditure of thousands of pounds. Not long 

 ago the seekers after potash in a hitherto unworked region, desirous 

 of correlating the rocks beneath tkem with those of a neighboring 

 district, submitted fossiliferous cores from their borings. It was a 

 fish scale and some fragmentary heart urchins that enabled the ex- 

 perts on such fossils to send an answer. In like manner the depart- 

 ment has been able to aid the military authorities in Cyprus over the 

 water supply. Those who, on behalf of the Government, are now in- 

 vestigating the constitution of coal find at this museum alone the 

 large collections of fossil plants that are constantly required for ref- 

 erence. An obscure fact of palaeontology may confirm or rebut a 

 theory raised on chemical evidence ; a museum preparation will show 

 that the characters of the older coals can not be due, as was sug- 

 gested, to any larger amount of woody substance in the plants from 

 which they were formed ; the bituminous nature of a certain seam can 

 no longer be ascribed to a preponderance of moss when sections in the 

 department prove* coniferous wood to be the main constituent. The 

 detailed studj' of fossil shells sent from Trinidad has enabled a 

 palaeontologist of the museum to throw light on the succession of 

 strata in that island, and thus to facilitate the prospecting for oil- 

 bearing deposits. These and other instances serve to show that in 

 palaeontology as in other sciences no branch can be disregarded as too 

 remote from actuality to have any bearing on the world of men. 



The bearing of botany, on the other hand, is obvious, so obvious 

 that the keeper of the department makes but the barest reference to 

 the information constantly supplied to official inquirers on matters 

 connected Avith the war. We are permitted to mention a few ex- 

 amples. At Malta the material of the army tents was being destroyed 

 by a fungus, with a loss to the Government of enormous sums. The 

 fungus was identified in the herbarium, and a careful study of its 

 growth on canvas treated in various ways led to the discovery of a 

 complete remedy. Remedies have also been suggested for another 

 fungus which destroys the envelopes of airships. The selection of 

 timbers appropriate to various special purposes, such as the difi^erent 

 parts of aeroplanes, is a subject on which the department, thanks 

 to its collection of samples from all parts of the world, has been 

 nble to render invaluable aid. Here, too, the inspectors who have 

 to pass the wood study in prepared specimens the appearance of the 

 diseases to which each kind is liable. A different form of study was 

 presented by some fodder sent from a veterinary camp, where it 

 had to all appearance disagreed with the horses. Examination of 

 the sample revealed an extraordinary composition but no actually 

 poisonous ingredient. Other inquiries have related to the use and 



