678 



NATURE 



[November 10, 1923 



Institute laborutoric* or carried on elsewhere have 

 removed from Indian liecswax the suspicion of adultera- 

 tion that had arisen owing to its varied natural com- 

 position. The Institute has helped to render tobacco 

 one of the chief crops of Nyasaland. It has shown 

 why Indian l)arlcy to be serviceable for malting must 

 be shipped from Calcutta by May and from Bombay by 

 June. It has further helped India and the medical 

 world by destroying the former monopolies held by 

 Russia in santonin and by Germany in thymol. It has 

 shown that for many purposes the kapok of India can 

 be used instead of that yielded by a diflferent tree from 

 Java. It has assisted British Africa and the tanning 

 industry by showing the value of the sant seeds of the 

 Sudan and by finding British markets for South African 

 wattle. Its work on the commercial production of 

 acetophenone in Western Australia promises useful 

 results. It has shown, in spite of the general view to 

 the contrary, that Indian opium often contains a 

 sufficiently high proportion of morphine and codeine 

 to replace the supplies of Turkey and Persia which 

 failed during the War. It has aided tea and rubber 

 cultivation in Ceylon, and the Sudan by recognition of 

 the special qualities of its gums. It has helped to 

 improve the cocoa of West Africa and develop its 

 palm oil production. It has secured the offer to 

 Palestine of higher prices for Eri silk than those paid 

 for the material elsewhere. It has shown that the 

 Croton Elliottianus of Kenya Colony yields a valuable 

 drug, and that the Indian aconites include several 

 medicinal reagents, the production of which would be 

 profitable to India and useful in medical practice. It 

 has given helpful advice in fibre and bean production 

 in East Africa, in wood pulp manufacture in Canada, 

 and in connexion with the minerals, timbers, and drug- 

 producing materials of Australia and New Zealand. 



The Institute has been helpful not only by encourag- 

 ing production, but also by avoidance of waste and 

 disappointment in premature attempts to utilise 

 materials in areas which cannot at present compete 

 with more favourably situated localities. Meanwhile 

 it collects information as to the position of such 

 materials, so that they can be reconsidered from time 

 to time as the conditions alter. 



The work in the Exhibition Galleries of the Institute 

 is not the least important of its services. Th^ Imperial 

 Conference has directed attention to the need for 

 improved geographical education as regards the Empire. 

 We referred in an article (April i, 1922, p. 403) to the 

 Public Exhibition Galleries of the Institute as " without 

 question the finest illustration of economic geography 

 in the world." All the chief materials of the Empire 

 are shown there with ingenious illustrations of the 

 volume of output, their distribution throughout the 

 NO. 2819, VOL. I 12] 



Empire, and the geographical conditions und* 

 they occur. Important geographical featun s arc 

 illustratcd by models, such as those of the Victoria 

 Falls and of important harbours ; ethnographi 

 factors by models of different races ; the scenery «ji 

 different regions by pictures and photographs ; local 

 handicrafts by collections of work ; and Oriental 

 artistic culture by decorated pavilions such as those 

 of India and Ceylon. Statues of Cook and Raffles direct 

 attention to great landmarks in historical geo;.' 



In addition to the public galleries there are r^ .. 



collections for reference by industrial experts and 

 commercial inquirers. The galleries are unique as the 

 only centre at which may be seen the opportunitirs 

 and resources of all parts of the Overseas Emi>ir' 

 Although closed on Sundays, the galleries have 100.000 

 visitors a year and 10,000 school children go in classes 

 under the guidance of their teachers and the Institut< - 

 lecturer. The loss of these galleries would be edu< i- 

 tionally deplorable. 



The organisation of the Institute has proved well 

 suited to its work. It is managed by an executive 

 council, including representatives of the contributing 

 states and colonies, with the Under Secretary of State 

 for the Colonies as the chairman. This arrangement 

 secures widespread but voluntary association, and the 

 Institute organisation may prove a useful model on 

 which still greater experiments in Imperial ro-operation 

 may be made. 



That the Institute supplies a widely-felt need is 

 shown by the numerous inquiries sent to it from all 

 parts of the Empire. In 1922 it returned in replies no 

 less than 1334 reports. The chief subjects, in order of 

 number, were tropical agriculture, minerals, fibres, 

 oils and oil-seeds, food-stuflfs and fodders, timbers, 

 drugs, and paper-making materials. That the in- 

 formation given by the Institute is of use to our larger 

 Dominions as well as the smaller colonics is indicated 

 by the widespread origin of the inquiries. They 

 included in 1922, 121 from India, 89 from Australia, 

 89 from South Africa, 52 from Kenya Colony, 45 from 

 Nigeria, 37 each from Ceylon and the West Indies, 

 36 each from the Gold Coast and New Zealand, 35 from 

 Canada, and a few from each of the smaller colonies 

 and protectorates. 



It may be hoped that the reconstitution of the 

 Imperial Institute will extend its usefulness and enable 

 it to carry to full success the main purpose for 

 which it was founded. The development of the natural 

 resources of the Empire would then be assisted by in- 

 vestigation into the economic biology, geology, and 

 geography of the British Overseas Dominions through 

 an institution worthy of the group of naUonal scientific 

 museums at South Kensington. 



