28 



NATURE 



[March 2, 191 1 



here to-night, he said he wished me to tell you some- 

 thing of the work of the laboratory. 



It is a big work, for the subject is big. The laboratory 

 was founded some ten years since as a public institution 

 for standardising and verifying instruments, for testing 

 materials, and for the determination of physical constants. 



Its staff now numbers about 140 persons, its expenditure 

 during the past year was more than 28,000/., and towards 

 defraying that expenditure more than 15,000/. was re- 

 ceivt'd in fees for work done. 



During the past eleven years, if we exclude the aero- 

 nautical work, 49, 000/. has been contributed from public 

 funds towards capital expenditure, while 54,000/. has been 

 raised from private sources. In the same period, the 

 annual grants from the Treasury for working expenses 

 have been 57,750/., while the receipts from fees, private 

 donations, and subscriptions have come to 105,380/. 



Instruments of all kinds were examined, among them 

 in igio were 27,500 thermometers, 4000 telescopes, 1600 

 binoculars, electrical apparatus, measuring apparatus, 

 optical appliances, photographic lenses, opticians' testing 

 lenses (these numbered 5000), and taximeters. The value 

 of the instruments sent for test is nearly 1000/. for each 

 working day of the year. 



Nor is this half of the work. Researches of all kinds 

 of interest to industry and manufactures are in progress. 

 Papers have been communicated to engineering and scien- 

 tific societies which have aided in the solution of many 

 important technical problems, and investigations are now 

 in progress which will help still further. 



The laboratory is controlled by a committee appointed by 

 the Royal Society and representing the great scientific and 

 technical societies, and the general scheme of research is 

 approved by them. But besides these public investigations, 

 each day brings us inquiries from private firms and manu- 

 facturers as to matters on which they want our help or our 

 advice. 



The home of the laboratory is at Teddington, in Bushy 

 Park, and there, round the old Royal residence. Bushy 

 House, the modern buildings needed for the work are 

 being slowly and painfully raised. For some of these 

 funds have been provided by the Government ; others we 

 owe to private generosity to men like Sir Andrew Noble, 

 Sir John Brunner, Mr. Yarrow, who has just built for 

 us an experimental tank for naval research at a cost of 

 20,000/., Sir Julius Wernher, whose generous gift of 

 10,000/. has rendered it possible to commence the erection 

 of a laboratory for metallurgical research, or to those of 

 the city companies, the Goldsmiths', the Drapers', and 

 others, who have listened to our appeal. 



Meanwhile, we live from hand to mouth ; the deficit this 

 last year, on a total expenditure of nearly 30,000/., was 

 about 200/., and now we are appealing for funds to build 

 an optical laboratory, a library, and reading room, with 

 other offices for our work. 



We shall not appeal, I know, in vain, because English- 

 men at last are realising that organised scientific effort is 

 an essential factor in the country's progress ; you students 

 who in the various colleges of this institute have learnt 

 something of what science is, what scientific effort can 

 do, in time some of you will become the leaders of indus- 

 try. See to it, then, that those institutions to the work 

 of which your success is due are made ever more efficient 

 through your generous support. 



PROGRESS REPORT OF THE CARNEGIE 

 INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



T^HE ninth annual report of the Carnegie Institution of 

 Washington, in which the numerous activities of the 

 institution during igio are described, is now available. 

 The volume runs to 275 pages, and contains also five well- 

 reproduced plates. As usual, the report includes the 

 articles of incorporation of the institution, its bye-laws, 

 the minutes of the meeting of the Board of Trustees, the 

 report of the president of the institution, that of the 

 executive committee, as well as detailed reports on the 

 numerous investigations and projects of the institution. 



The president's report presents in order a review of the 

 work of administration of the institution, a risumi of the 

 investigations carried out during the year, and a summary 



NO. 2157, VOL. So] 



of the publications authorised and issued during the year 

 ending October 31, 1910. The subjoined extracts from dlft 

 report will serve to illustrate the increasing imiwrtance «l 

 the research work undertaken under the auspices of tlw 

 institution. 



Work of Adntimstration. 



The more noteworthy events in the history of the insti- 

 tution during the past year are the dedication, io 

 December, 1909, of the Administration Building ; (be 

 inauguration at that time of an annual series of seiiii> 

 popular lectures explanatory of the researches of the instit% 

 tion ; the inauguration on the same occasion of a series 0| 

 periodical exhibits of the work accomplished by the depai^ 

 ments of investigation and the divisions of publication aril 

 administration ; the successful completion of the firtt 

 vovage (of 8000 miles) of the non-magnetic ship Carnegit^ 

 and the beginning of a second cruise, which is expected 1)6 

 require three years, by this novel craft ; and the fourto 

 conference of the International Solar Union, held at the 

 Solar Observatory of the institution on Mount Wilsoifc 

 California, from August 29 to September 4, 1910. J 



It appears that since its organisation in 1902 upwards « 

 twelve hundred individuals have contributed in one wjji 

 or another to the promotion of the researches and til 

 publications undertaken by the institution. During eac 

 of the past five years about five hundred individuals hai 

 tlius collaborated. Ten independent departments of r 

 search and the divisions of publication and administrati< 

 each with its staff and assistants, have been organised an((^ 

 established within the institution itself. In addition to 

 these larger departments of work, numerous special re- 

 searches, in aid of which upwards of seven hundred grants 

 have been made, have been carried on by research 

 associates and other individual investigators. For the 

 departments of research, two astronomical observatories, 

 five laboratories, and a non-magnetic ship have been built 

 and equipped. 



The following list shows the departments of mvestiga- 

 tion to which the larger grants were made by the trustees, 

 and the amounts allotted from those grants by the 

 executive committee during the year : — 



Department of Botanical Research 

 Department of Experimental Evolution .. 

 Department of Economics and Sociology.. 



Geophysical Laboratory 



Department of Historical Research 



Department of Marine Biology 



Department of Meridian Astrometry 



Nutrition Laboratory • 



Division of Publications • 



Solar Observatory • 



Department of Terrestrial Magnetism- .. 



£ 

 6,946 

 8,194 

 2,000 

 10,204 

 4.540 

 5.4H 

 7.131 

 5.276 

 1,800 



23.144 

 1.5.384 



90,032 



Resume of Investigations of the Year. 



Work in the ten specially organised departments of re- 

 search in the institution has gone forward during the year 

 with increasing vigour and with increasing productivity. 

 But while the existing status of departmental affairs is in 

 general highlv satisfactory, it appears essential again to 

 direct attention to the fact that with present income and 

 current economic conditions no further expansion of depart- 

 mental appropriations can be expected. It may be neces- 

 sary, on the contrary, to curtail research in the depart- 

 ments in order to keep the aggregate expense of the insti- 

 tution within income. It need not follow, however, that 

 this prospective diminution in financial outlay will cause 

 a corresponding diminution of productivity, for _ work of 

 investigation, like work along other novel lines, is usually 

 most costlv in the preliminary stages. 



The headquarters of the Department of Botanical Re- 

 search are located in a desert area where the facts of plant 

 life are exhibited, in general, in their simplest, though 

 often extreme and highly specialised, relations. Durini; 

 the year the director of the department has continued his 

 investigations on the water-balance of succulent plants,^ on 

 the conditions of vegetable parasitism, on the variability 

 in plant species induced by chemical treatment of their 

 seeds, and on the influences of cUmate on plant organisms. 



