872 



NATURE 



[Dfx'ember 15, 1923 



Current Topics 

 At a very successful dinner given by the Institute 

 of Chemistr>' at the Hotel Victoria on Montlay, 

 December 10, with Mr. A. Chaston Chapman, the 

 president, in the chair, some notable speeches were 

 made relating to the work of chemists, both in times 

 of war and of peace. The dinner marked the 46th 

 anniversiiry of the foundation of the Institute, and 

 Mr. Chapman rightly stressed the influence which this 

 IxKly has had in promoting a high standard of 

 knowledge and conduct on behalf of its members, and 

 the services it has rendered to the community. The 

 number of fellows, associates, and registered students 

 now reaches a total of more than 5000, so that the 

 Institute may claim to be of real significance to 

 national progress. Lx)rd Ilaldane, in proposing the 

 toast of the Institute, referred to some of the develop- 

 ments of industry brought about by the applications 

 of science, and he mentioned particularly the establish- 

 ment and growth of the Imperial College of Science 

 and Technology as a sign of the changed attitude of 

 British people towards science since the days when 

 we let Hofmann go to Berlin instead of retaining him 

 in Great Britain. To the neglect of the vital necessity 

 of science to national prosperity, and to lack of 

 industrial oversight, must be attributed the loss of 

 the coal-tar industry and its related branches. In 

 the early days of electrical engineering also, we let 

 other nations surpass us in the production of machinery 

 and appliances and the employment of electric j>ower, 

 tliough we were the first to stake out claims in these 

 fields. Though the relation of science to progressive 

 industry is close and effective, almost no reference 

 was made to it in the speeches and addresses with 

 which we have been overwhelmed in the last few 

 weeks tlirough the General Election. The late Lord 

 Salisbury once lamented that, while the work of the 

 statesman, the politician, the soldier, or the leader of 

 men, however great and however fortunate, is of 

 necessity but transitory — what is accomplished by 

 one man being undone by another — the work of the 

 scientific discoverer or inventor has a permanent 

 place in civilisation. Lord Haldane expressed the 

 hope that, as a result of the Election, Parliament will 

 be more interested in the diffusion of knowledge than 

 Parliaments have been in the past, and we trust that 

 whatever party takes the reins of Government in 

 hand will remember that creative scienpe may be 

 made a most potent means of growth of the manu- 

 factures and trade of a modern state. 



A LECTURE on " The Application of Science to the 

 Fishing Industry," delivered by Prof. Stanley 

 Gardiner at the Leeds Fisheries Exhibition in 

 September last, has been printed and distributed. 

 It is, primarily, a good account of the points of 

 contact made between science and the fishing industry, 

 and secondarily, a candid criticism of the trade. The 

 autlior criticises the trawling gear, the handling of 

 the fish, the methods of preserving the fish and the 

 business enterprise of the trawler owners. There are 

 fish near our coasts, he says, which we do not know- 

 how to catch. The " Scotch-branded salt herring " 

 is described jis " an appalling product, the world's 



NO. 2824, VOL. 112] 



and Events. 



taste for which has assuredly passed." But in 1911 

 we exported nearly 9 million cwt. of cured herring 

 while we imported only about 900,000 cwt. of 

 kinds of canned fish, salmon included. The fact 

 that no way of dealing with the enormous potential 

 catch of herrings is practicable except that of ■ >titi 

 in salt. The next kind of cured fish that 

 demned is the " Newfoundland air-drie<l sait i,o<i 

 (much of which comes from the Scottish north-east | 

 coast). It would be as easy, the author say.", 

 and export this fish brine- frozen ; and don 

 would, but for the very great difference ii* cost bet\^ 

 the very cheap air-drying and the very expen> 

 brine-freezing, to say nothing of the additional cost 

 of transporting and refrigerating the whole cod. The 

 methods of the canners are criticised ; thus the auth' >r 

 has " failed to discover any British-canned, smoke- 

 cured haddock " ; though these were certainly on the 

 market in 1919. The importance of finding the 

 plankton contents of the water as a guide to the place 

 where to shoot herring nets is urged on the experienced 

 skippers of drifters ; but though this is sound enough 

 from a scientific point of view, we are not surprised to 

 learn that practical fishermen are "left cold" by 

 scientific work of this kind. It is doubtful whether 

 such criticism, however friendly, is the best way to 

 persuade fishermen and trawler owners of the helpful- 

 ness of scientific research. 



At a meeting of the Optical Society, held at the 

 Imperial College of Science and Technology, South 

 Kensington, on Tuesday, November 27, Dr. M. von 

 Rohr, of Jena, delivered the 1923 Thomas Young 

 oration. The date was the 123rd anniversarv* of 

 the delivery by Thomas Young of his famous Bakerian 

 lecture " On the Mechanism of the Eye." The 

 subject of the oration was " Contributions to the 

 history of the spectacle trade from the earliest times 

 to Thomas Young's appearance." The lecturer 

 divided the subject chronologically into six parts. 

 The first period beginning in the 13th century extends 

 to the invention of printing, about 1448 ; com- 

 paratively few spectacles were then in use. The 

 second period, relating principally to the grow-th of 

 the South German spectacle factories from about 

 1450 up to 1620, is much better known. At about 

 the same time Venice must have been another 

 important centre of spectacle manufacture, for in 

 the early days of the telescope (the Dutch form and 

 the terrestrial telescope, both made of single, un- 

 achromatised lenses) Venetian craftsmen were supply- 

 ing these instruments ; but of Venetian spectacles 

 proper only some casual hints are ascertainable. In 

 both these centres " near " spectacles (for reading 

 and working only) were made. Notable develop- 

 ments took place in Spain from about 1560 up to 

 17x0 : distance-spectacles fastened to the head were 

 worn everywhere, even in the highest circles of 

 Spanish aristocracy, and were introduced to China 

 and Japan by Spanish Jesuits. The chief develop- 

 ment between 1640 and 1740 was the production of 

 cheap nose spectacles in Nuremberg. The spectacle 

 grinding optician arose in the i8th centur>-. The 



