20 



NATURE 



[September i, 192 i 



own experience leads him to take a much higher 

 savings as a possibility. 



The last part of the lecture was given up to a 

 description of the new position of the gas indus- 

 try since the passing of the Gas Regulation Act 

 of 1920, which instituted the charging for gas by 

 the therm and removed many useless restrictions. 

 The new Act, which was based upon recommenda- 

 tions by the Fuel Research Board, will, in effect, 

 not only make it possible to obtain and distribute 

 as gas a portion of the volatile matter of the coal, 

 but also permit much more extensive gasi- 

 ficati6n of the fixed carbon. This should open out 

 quite a new field of efficiency and economy. 

 The lecturer refe.rred in particular to one modern 

 development in the gas industry on these lines 

 which has been investigated with considerable 

 thoroughness during the last three years. The 

 process of increasing the yield of gas by passing a 

 current of steam through continuous vertical gas 

 retorts while carbonisation is being effected was 

 investigated by a joint committee of the Institu- 

 tion of Gas Engineers and the University of Leeds, 

 and the results were presented to the Institution 



of Gas Engineers at its annual meeting in 1920. 

 These results, including chemical and thermal 

 balances obtained with different quantities of 

 steam, were obtained from one Scottish coal, but 

 similar work extended to English coals and carried 

 out later at the experimental station of the Fuel 

 Research Board has added to our knowledge. 

 " We can now say with confidence that there is 

 not only a very substantial gain in therms in the 

 form of gas, but also in the yields of tar and 

 ammonia," when the steaming process is 

 employed. 



Sir George Beilby concluded his lecture by a 

 brief summary and a reference to the present spirit 

 of unrest, which complicates fuel and all other 

 problems into which the human element enters : — 



This spirit, as it is manifesting itself to-day, is fatal 

 to the progress of reconstruction and development on 

 an)- extensive scale, and we, whose chief interest in 

 life lies in the control and use of the power and re- 

 sources of Nature for the service of man, can only con- 

 tinue to do the work next our hand, while we cherish 

 the hope that the better side of human nature, which 

 we know is only temporarily overshadowed, will 

 gradually reassert itself. 



The " Proletarisation of Science" in Russia. 



By Dr. Boris Sokoloff (formerly Lecturer, Petrograd University). 



"Science? What is science? It is only a tool in 

 the hands of clever politicians." — From report of a 

 public discussion on science held in the Petrograd 

 Palace of Labour, September, 1920. 



SCIENCE in Russia is now passing through 

 diflficult times. The experiments being 

 carried out by the Bolshevists in Russia are 

 opposed to it — how could it be otherwise? 

 Everything — art, education, poetry — have been 

 " proletarised " ; why not science? During the 

 whole of the year 1920 a campaign was being 

 carried on against "bourgeois science." In the 

 Press and at special meetings complaints were 

 made of the reactionary tendencies of professors, 

 of their strange indifference to politics, of the 

 necessity of turning scientific men into advocates 

 of the Soviet system. By the phrase the " pro- 

 letarisation of science " the Bolshevists seem to 

 understand a reorganisation of the methods of 

 scientific investigation, the broadening of its 

 basis, and its practical application. But the real 

 idea at the back of their minds is to make science 

 serve the ends of Bolshevism. This view was 

 expressed as follows bv Communist speakers at 

 the Petrograd Students' Conference : — 



Comrade Lounatcharskv is quite right in saying 

 that science is now in the hands of mandarins of 

 bourgeois origin. We must appropriate science; we 

 must make it pro'etarian. In the place of professors 

 and scientific men imbued with political indifference 

 and bourgeois ideals we must put real proletarians, 

 learned men who will be able to create a science which 

 will be obedient to us. 



NO. 2705, VOL. 108] 



Such is the theory. The " proletarisation of 

 science " in this sense Is a matter of the indepen- 

 dent reconstruction of scientific methods. But, in 

 practice, the " proletarisation of science " is quite 

 a different thing. 



Science is the crown of the human intellect ; it is 

 the sun which man has created from his own flesh 

 and blood. It is necessary to realise that the work of 

 a man of science is the property of humanity as a 

 whole. Science inhabits the domain of the highest 

 altruism. Scientific workers must be considered as 

 the most valuable of men, the most productive e'ement 

 of society. The premature death of a man of science 

 means a great loss to the country ; this must be fully 

 understood by the workers' Government. 



Look at the death-roll of scientific men within thel 

 last few months, and you will see how great is thej 

 loss of scientific energy in our country. If this process 

 of extinction of learned men continues at the samel 

 rate, Russia will be deprived of her brains. Free 

 science is indifferent to politics. (Petrograd journal. 

 Science and its Workers, No. i: article on "What 

 is Science? ") 



So writes Maxim Gorky, a supporter and faith- 

 ful adherent of the Soviet Government. He 

 writes, he tries to convince — whom? Not, of 

 course, the Russian intelligentsia, who know the 

 state of affairs better than Gorky himself. 

 Gorky's appeal is evidently addressed to Bolshev- 

 ists, to the Soviet Government. However, they 

 can neither understand nor appreciate the appeal. 

 Being men of simplified views — doctrinaires and 

 politicians — they cannot accept the fact that 

 science must be independent of everybody and 



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