October 13, 1923] 



NA rURE 



561 



Pioneers of Metallurgy.^ 



T^HE relationship of scientifically trained experts 

 -^ to the actual work of the world is much closer 

 than at first sight would appear. The introduction 

 of bronze and iron into the daily life of our ancestors 

 marked the initiation of epochs of an importance to 

 civilisation only secondary to the advent of fire. 

 ]Metals were prepared from their ores, and worked into 

 beautiful and useful forms, thousands of years before 

 science, as now understood, existed. So far as we 

 know, the necessary knowledge and skill must have 

 been arrived at by a process of trial and error ; or, 

 in other words, by the method of experiment and 

 observation. There have been, from time to time, 

 revivals during which the arts and crafts made great 

 steps forward. These steps must necessarily have 

 resulted from the revival in individual workers of the 

 dormant interest and belief in experiment and observa- 

 tion, no doubt stimulated by the generally increased 

 activity of thought in the times in which they lived. 

 The material progress of the past has invariably been 

 due to observation of the actual phenomena leading 

 to experiment on, and observation of, the effect of 

 changed conditions on these phenomena ; observa- 

 tion followed by thought, leading to experiment, 

 followed in turn by further thought. 



While the vast majority of our fellow-men have had 

 neither the desire nor the capacity for experiment and 

 observation, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion 

 that there have been from the start of the human 

 race individuals of this type to whom civilisation on 

 its material side has owed practically everything. 

 Of the equally important element of thought which 

 must follow observations if these are to lead to 

 practical achievements much might be said. While 

 thought must be critical in the broadest sense, it must 

 also be constructive. In the true pioneer it must, 

 if need be, override the purely negative function of 

 criticism, for without courage and enthusiasm in 

 facing the unknown no real pioneering work can be 



• Abstract of an address delivered by Sir George Beilby on September 1 1 

 at the opening of the new Metallurgical Department of the University of 

 Manchester. 



done. This type of constructive thought in its 

 higher development is one of the rarest of intellectual 

 qualities. 



The pioneers among the early workers in metals 

 must, like their more modern successors, have pos- 

 sessed some strains of this great quality, this instinct 

 which makes for progress. Here also we find that 

 there has been absolute continuity in the evolution 

 of workers in metals from our prehistoric ancestors 

 down to the designers of this laboratory, which in 

 itself is a visible expression of the latest thought and 

 practice in the production and manipulation of metals. 

 One of the laboratories here is named after Henry Cort, 

 in memory of his epoch-making work on the manu- 

 facture of malleable iron in Great Britain one hundred 

 and forty years ago. This may be gladly accepted as 

 an admirable illustration of the point that the qualities 

 which make for progress are deep down in the very 

 nature of the individual pioneer, who, in many cases, 

 owes little or nothing to the systematic knowledge of 

 science. In Cort's case he knew the primary object of 

 the free exposure of molten cast-iron rich in carbon 

 to a moderately oxidising atmosphere in which the 

 carbon was burned away, but it is improbable that he 

 had any theoretical idea as to how the fibrous texture 

 of the resulting iron was produced. By trial and 

 error he definitely ascertained the conditions of 

 atmosphere, of temperature, and of working at each 

 stage which would attain the desired result, and this 

 knowledge he was able to translate into a workable 

 process on a large manufacturing scale. 



While an exact knowledge of scientific laws and 

 methods is a tool which must be placed in the hands 

 of the future workers in, and directors of, the metal 

 industries, the material on which this tool is to be 

 employed must be their own close and personal 

 observation of facts and phenomena, and time must 

 be unsparingly devoted to the acquirement of this 

 habit until it becomes instinctive and automatic. Let 

 us not forget that, in spite of our wide knowledge of 

 scientific laws and phenomena, the skilled craftsman 

 may still be our model in this type of observation. 



American Genetical and Botanical Research. 



'X'HE great amount of valuable research being 

 -*■ accomplished in biology, genetics, and botany 

 by the investigators of the Carnegie Institution of 

 Washington is shown by the reports from the Depart- 

 ments of Genetics and Botany in the Year-Book for 

 1922 of the Institution. Reports are included not 

 only of the experimental work at the Station for 

 Experimental Evolution near New York, the Desert 

 Botanical Laboratory at Tucson, Arizona, and the 

 Coastal Laboratory at Carmel, California, but also 

 from men holding chairs in various American uni- 

 versities, and from travel experiments in regions so 

 iar afield as South Africa and Australia. Only a few 

 of the many lines of research of which this Year-Book 

 contains reports of progress can even be mentioned 

 in a short review. 



We may mention Prof. W. E. Castle's continued 

 studies on inheritance in mice, rats, and rabbits, in 

 which the linkage relations between groups of char- 

 acters are being worked out on a basis similar to the 

 Drosophila experiments ; and the further investiga- 

 tions of Prof. T. H. Morgan and his collaborators on 

 the constitution of the germ-plasm in that little fly. 

 Prof. C. A. Kofoid reports the discovery of amoebai 

 in connexion with such diseases as arthritis deformans 

 (in bone marrow) and Hodgkin's disease (in lymph 



NO. 2815, VOL. I 12] 



glands), and has also investigated various intestinal 

 parasites. Mr. Albert Mann continues a mono- 

 graphic study of North American diatoms. 



The work under the direction of Dr. C. B. Daven- 

 port includes many diverse fields of activity in 

 genetics, eugenics, and animal behaviour. Co- 

 operative breeding with mice and dogs ; the study 

 by Dr. Banta of intersexes and eyeless variations in 

 parthenogenetic Cladocera ; the continued experi- 

 ments of Dr. Riddle on the metabolism of sex and 

 other problems in pigeons ; the investigations of 

 Messrs. Blakeslec, Belling, and others on variations 

 and chromosome relations in Datura, some of which 

 parallel conditions discovered in Oenothera a decade 

 ago ; pedigrees of aristogenic and cacogenic families 

 — these are but a few of the activities of this 

 laboratory. 



In botany, the report of Dr. D. T. MacDougal from 

 the Desert and Coastal Laboratories is mainly con- 

 cerned with physiological and ecological problems. 

 The continued investigations of Dr. H. A. Spoehr and 

 others on photosynthesis and other processes in the 

 leaf have established a quantitative relation between 

 photosynthesis and respiration. Dr. MacDougal con- 

 tinues the study of various problems of hydration 

 and permeability in the plant cell, including the use 



