344 



NATURE 



[September i, 1923 



attaine the Italian, French and Spanish Tongues, 

 and in Merchandizing be fit to negotiate with the 

 greatest Princes." In a second College nothing would 

 be spoken but Greek, and in a third Hebrew. This 

 woulcl attract all " forraigne Protestants of work in 

 this westerne World." as well as the Jews " whose 

 conversion is now at hand." 



The vision of a truly Puritan Paradise opens up. 

 " If London were an University, such, pluming the 

 Crest of this Royall City, would cause it to present a 

 more glorious aspect than all the lofty Cypresses in 

 Constantinople doe unto all that approach unto it : 

 vea, all the yeare long cause Lonclon to resemble 

 Jerusalem in the Feast of Tabernacles." Not only 

 would there be a chaplain in every house of the 

 nobility (and even " tne Citizens carry one some- 

 times "), but every godly merchant might have a 

 graduate in his ship, and " Sea-men (generally so 



prophane) " might become Saints and " their masters 

 goods prosper in their hands." 



That there will be objections from Cambridge and 

 Oxford (the order of precedence is his and prompts 

 a conjecture as to the True Lover's upbringing) is 

 foreseen, but these, it can well be imagined, do not 

 daunt such a buoyant optimism. Your True Lover, 

 if he is worthy of the name, has as little difficulty 

 with objections as with finance. Thus there are nine 

 answers to the three objections (" weak, weaker, 

 weakest"), not any of which are objections founded 

 upon such base things as accommodation and finance. 

 Perhaps, however, it was this sort of objection which 

 prevailed with the Lord Mayor and his colleagues 

 (to whom " Motives " are presented), and, ^ we 

 know, the True Lover's University did not build 

 Jerusalem in London. Which, perhaps, is iiisl as 

 well. ' 



Immigration and Degeneracy in the United States.^ 



THE United States Government is taking measures 

 to control immigration, so as to ensure, so far 

 as is possible, that undesirables of all sorts shall be 

 excluded. The present publication, which is the 

 statement of Dr. Harry H. Laughlin made before the 

 Committee on Immigration and Naturalisation of the 

 House of Representatives, is witness to its activity 

 in this direction. By estimating the actual and 

 predicted proportions of various sorts of degeneracy 

 contributed by the various stocks that enter the 

 United States, it is possible, by excluding immigrants 

 from those foreign countries that contribute more 

 than their share, to ensure that the healthiest possible 

 stocks only are admitted. 



The statement of Dr. Laughlin covers feeble- 

 mindedness, insanity, criminality, epilepsy, inebriacy, 

 leprosy, tuberculosis, blindness, deafness, deforma- 

 tion, and dependency. It is found that each of these 

 forms of degeneracy demand distinct methods of 

 treatment. For example, it is comparatively easy 

 to control feeble-mindedness, for it manifests itself 

 early in life. Therefore it is found that the native 

 white population contributes, proportionally, more 

 than the immigrant white to the feeble-minded part 

 of the population. On the other hand, insanity, 

 which manifests itself much later in life, is not so 

 easy to diagnose in the immigrant, with the conse- 

 quence that the immigrants of the present generation 

 have a higher incidence of mental instability than is 

 possessed by the foundation families. Therefore it 



> Analysis of America's Modern Melting Pot : Hearings before the 

 Committee on Immigration and Naturalisation, House of Representatives, 

 Sixty-seventh Congress, Third Session, November 2i, 1922. Statement by 

 Harry H. Laughlin. (Serial 7-C.) Pp. 723-831. (Washington : Government 

 Printing Office, 1923). 



is proposed that immigrants should come of families 

 with no record of insanity. 



The case of crime is interesting. Those countries 

 that have contributed least to the criminal population 

 of the United States are Great Britain, Scandinavia, 

 Ireland, Germany, and the Netherlands ; i.e. precisely 

 those that have contributed the foundation stocks. 

 The Southern European countries have contributed a 

 far larger proportion, and this is probably due, in the 

 opinion of Dr. Laughlin, to a change in social environ- 

 ment, with a consequent social maladjustment. 

 Since criminalistic tendencies show themselves early 

 in life, it has been possible to exclude this type with 

 a considerable degree of success. 



The analysis of figures has made it possible to 

 reach some interesting conclusions with regard to the 

 contributions to degeneracy made by the different 

 constituent elements of the population of the United 

 States, and it is evident from this report that before 

 long we shall know much more than we do at present 

 about the problem of degeneracy. One definite 

 conclusion seems to have been reached by Dr. 

 Laughlin ; he states that " custodial inadequates 

 are for the most part recruited from a relatively small 

 portion of the families of the whole population. This 

 means that social inadequacy is not a result of 

 accident or bad environment, but that primarilv 

 most custodial inadequacy is founded upon degenerate 

 inheritance." 



The ultimate effects of the prosecution of a 

 thoroughgoing policy of immigration control will be 

 far-reaching ; for the United States will be able to 

 absorb the healthy stocks, and to reject the unhealthy, 

 thus greatly benefiting itself at the double expense of 

 European countries. W. J. Perry. 



Fire Hazards and Fire Extinction on Oilfields. 



THE subject of fire-risk, prevention and extinction 

 on oilfields is one which the public as a whole 

 tends to take very much for granted, only being stirred 

 to interest by press reports of oil-well fires such as 

 occurred in Trinidad some two years ago, when 

 thousands of pounds' worth of damage was done, or 

 by more serious disasters on some of the American 

 fields, involving the loss of many lives. On the other 

 hand, those concerned with the actual control of 

 oilfields, if not the employees themselves, are very 

 much alive to the ever-present danger of a conflagra- 

 tion arising from the high degree of inflammability of 

 petroleum and its products, and they know, usually 

 only too well from experience, that oil-fires, from the 

 inherent nature of the materials involved, are by far 

 the most difficult to combat successfully. 



NO. 2809, VOL. 112] 



Prof. J. S. S. Brame chose this subject as the theme 

 of his valedictory address to the Institution of 

 Petroleum Technologists recently, and in ^^ew of the 

 rapid and generally unappreciated evolution of 

 modern methods of oil-fire extinction, especially as 

 practised in America, his dissertation was particularly 

 welcome. It certainly stimulated members of his 

 audience to a keener perception of the risks run 

 by those engaged in all branches of the industry', 

 without in any sense being either sensatioued or 

 alarming. 



As with other undesirable evils, prevention being 

 better than cure, the greatest possible care is taken 

 nowadays to meet, by precautiongu^' measures, the 

 contingencies of oil-well and oil-tank fires. Unfortun- 

 ately, one of the chief causes, lightning, is extremely 



