December 22, 1923] 



NA TURE 



899 



m 



anxious to secure the help and co-operation of these 

 institutions, but the above suggestion, in my opinion, 

 omits several important considerations. For example, 

 commercial men are not very often in a position to 

 appreciate when the difficulties of an industrial pro- 

 cess are suitable problems for scientific research, and 

 as a consequence many problems which should be 

 referred to the universities for scientific help might 

 fail to be so treated. Again, considerable knowledge 

 both of textile processes and of the appropriate 

 ciences is often necessary even to diagnose the cause 

 »f a defect, the solution generally requiring the co- 

 operative efforts of the textile expert, the chemist, the 

 physicist, and the botanist. Such qualities could 

 sca'rcely be found combined in either the university 

 professor or the industrialist. 



Even assuming that these difficulties have been 

 surmounted and the university professor is trying to 

 solve an industrial problem, it seems that the writer 

 of the above quotation has scarcely realised the 

 amount of time which the university professor would 

 have to spend in learning the conditions in which his 

 new discoveries would have to be applied, without 

 which information his researches, though they might 

 be very fruitful in the accomplishment of scientific 

 fact, would in all probability be of no real value to 

 the industry. If, on the other hand, the university 

 professor devoted the necessary time and thought to 

 the solution of the industrial problems submitted to 

 him, he might find himself with little or no time 

 to devote to his professorial duties. 



For such reasons, and from nearly four years' ex- 

 perience, I am satisfied that efficient co-operation 

 between science and industry can be obtained by 

 means of Research Associations, where highly trained 

 scientific men will have daily intercourse with the 

 industry, either as a whole or with the particular 

 section of it connected with the special research 

 problems they have in hand. In these circumstances 

 such men may not only overcome difficulties as they 

 arise, but, what is far more important, they will also 

 certainly point out new lines of advance. I believe 

 indeed that Research Associations will establish a 

 necessary link between the universities and industry, 

 and will be the means of stimulating the industries to 

 take advantage of the opportunities provided. 



Kenneth Lee, 

 Chairman. 



The British Cotton Industry 



Research Association, 



Manchester, December 4. 



Experiments on Alytes and Giona. 



Those who have followed this discussion may be 

 interested in its subsequent course. I lately received 

 the following letter, undated, from Dr. H. Przibram, 

 director of the Versuchsanstalt, to which I have made 

 the reply subjoined. W. Bateson. 



December 2. 



Vienna. XIII./7, 

 Hietzinger Hauptstr. 122. 

 My dear Professor Bateson, 



Having read your offer about Kammerer's Alytes 

 in Nature, No. 281 1, my proposal is this : that you 

 may carry out your previous intention of coming to 

 Vienna yourself. I would gladly renew my invitation 

 to you to spend some time at my house. Thus you 

 would be given ample opportunity to examine the 

 specimen without risk of its loss. It was mainly my 

 wish to satisfy you that made me consent to Kam- 

 mcrer taking the specimen to England. I am sorry 

 you have not availed yourself of this opportunity, 

 but I could scarcely take the responsibility of entrust- 



ing the unique sample to anybody else (I had in fact 

 declined to do so on a previous occasion, as Mr. 

 Boulenger will affirm). 



It is not probable that I shall be away from Vienna 

 at any time before the middle of April next. At any 

 rate, please write beforehand, when you intend 

 coming. It would indeed be a great pleasure to see 

 you with us. 



In case you have noticed Mr. Munro Fox's letter 

 in Nature, No. 2818, on Ciona, I would like to direct 

 your attention to the fact that the discovery of its 

 siphons lengthening with repeated removal was not 

 made first by Kammerer. It was known so long ago 

 as 1897 by Mingazzini's experiments, which were, in 

 their turn, based on a previous observation of our 

 friend in common, Jacques Loeb, as he mentioned to 

 me in 1907 during my stay in California. So I do not 

 see how Mr. Fox's inability to reproduce the experi- 

 ment allows him to deny Kammerer's success with 

 the first generation. 



Believe me, dear Professor Bateson, most sincerely, 

 your old friend, Hans Przibram. 



If you think it desirable that my answer may be 

 known in public, I would be glad if you would send 

 this letter as it is to the editor of Nature for 

 publication. 



December 2, 1923. 

 Dear Dr. Przibram, 



I was not without misgiving that difficulties might 

 be raised. For that reason I offered a sum, 25/., 

 calculated to cover the railway fare, 10/., of a special 

 messenger, with a sufficient margin. I understand 

 the obstacle is not financial, or I would gladly now 

 double my offer. 



Thank you for a most kind invitation. It would 

 be delightful to see you all in Vienna once more, which 

 I was prevented from doing last year. Some day I 

 certainly hope to come, if only to look at the new 

 marvels of the Versuchsanstalt. But as regards Dr. 

 Kammerer's Alytes, which as it still seems to me 

 ought to be the most convincing exhibit of all, I 

 doubt the value of such a journey. If I were to 

 come, and — as it might happen — return with scepti- 

 cism unabated, could I do more than add one to the 

 number of those who already have seen and yet have 

 not believed ? 



In my last letter I explained how I missed making 

 a proper examination here. Reports had varied, and 

 I drew the inference that the nature of the black 

 marks must be mainly a question of interpretation. 

 Not until I saw the toad at the Linnean meeting, with 

 the unexpected and misplaced development on the 

 palm of the hand, did I discover that there was any- 

 thing so positive to examine. As I thought over the 

 incident it struck me as extraordinary that this, the 

 real peculiarity of the specimen — which, indeed, it 

 was set up to display — had never been mentioned by 

 Dr. Kammerer. He left England immediately after 

 the meeting. I might, no doubt, have been a little 

 quicker, but in amends, and in the hope of bringing 

 the matter to a definite issue, I made the offer, not an 

 unfair one, which you have declined. — Yours truly, 



W. Bateson. 



Colour Vision and Colour Vision Theories. 



In a recent letter to Nature (September 29, p. 473) 

 Dr. Edridge-Green has condemnecf the colour theory 

 of Young and Helmholtz by the sweeping statement : 

 " There is no fact that directly supports the trichrom- 

 atic theory." It is scarcely credible that such men 

 of science as Young, Helmholtz, Maxwell, and Abney 

 could have deliberately adopted a theory of colour 

 vision with tuiibing at all to commend it. 



NO. 2825, VOL. I 12] 



