September 8, 192 1] 



NATURE 



59 



fleet the character of those who work them. 

 Arbitration offers no immediate solution of the 

 difficulty, for to be effective it must be voluntarily 

 accepted by the majority on both sides, and the 

 principles by which arbitrators are to be guided 

 must first be clearly expressed and accepted ; but 

 it is the goal at which civilisation must aim, and 

 as a step in this direction public inquiries into all 

 disputes between labour and capital should be 

 encouraged after all attempts at mutual agreement 

 have failed. A clearer understanding of economic 

 truths in the industrial world is essential if dis- 

 putes are to be avoided. It must be recognised 

 that the wealth available for wages depends on 

 the total production of the country, and that 

 whilst, if production increases, wages will go up, 

 if it falls wages must come down. So long as the 

 present industrial system continues, the wages 

 system must prevail, and profit-sharing is no sub- 

 stitute for it. 



The fundamental wage, or the wage of unskilled 

 labour, should be a living wage — that is, a wage 

 suitable to the development of the physical, moral, 

 and intellectual attributes of the citizens of a free 

 country ; but it must be recognised that the degree 

 to which this ideal can be attained must depend 

 on the skill and endeavour of the people, and due 

 regard must be had to the progress, maintenance, 

 and well-being of the industries of the country. 

 It is idle to hope that the living wage can be based 

 permanently on any given standard of civilisation ; 

 it is bound to fluctuate at different periods, and 

 will depend largely on whether the industries of 

 a country are progressive, stagnant, or retrogres- 

 sive. 



Water-power Development. 



Prof. A. H. Gibson's address to Section G 

 (Engineering) is devoted to a consideration 

 of inland water-power and tidal-power de- 

 velopment, with special reference to the possi- 



bilities in the United 

 British Empire. The 

 power development, in 

 for. the conservation 



Kingdom and in the 

 importance of water- 

 view of the necessity 

 of solid and liquid 



fuels, needs no emphasis, and the extent 

 to which such development has been taking place 

 during recent years may be gauged by the fact 

 that two-thirds of the water-power now being 

 utilised throughout the world has been harnessed 

 during the past decade. The proportion of the 

 available water-power which is utilised throughout 

 the British Empire is only slightly above i percent, 

 as compared with, approximately, 24 per cent, for 

 the continent of Europe and for the U.S.A. The 

 scope for further development in this field is 

 obvious, and it should form a fruituil field of 

 activity for British engineering for many years to 

 come. 



On the mechanical and electrical sides of water- 

 power engineering the development has been rapid, 

 and the modern turbine differs essentially from the 

 types in common use a few years ago. Much in- 

 vestigation work in this direction is now in pro- 

 XO. 2706, VOL. 108] 



gress, and promises to give important results. 

 Research in many other directions is also urgently 

 required, and the importance is urged of institut- 

 ing, on an adequate scale, a hydraulic laboratory 

 at some institution of university standard for the 

 special study of the many special problems now 

 awaiting solution, a number of which are indicated 

 in the address. The subject of tidal power is also 

 considered briefly, with special reference to the 

 problems still to be solved before any large scheme 

 can be undertaken with confidence. 



The Role of Physiology. 



The relation of physiology to national life, to 

 science generally, and to medicine in particular, is 

 the theme of the address delivered by Sir 

 Walter M. Fletcher to Section I (Physiology). 

 Physiology, as we know it to-day, became estab- 

 lished as a progressive branch of science when it 

 was divorced from the study of anatomy just fifty 

 years ago, when William Sharpey became pro- 

 fessor of anatomy and physiology at University 

 College, London, and to Sharpey and his personal 

 influence the development of all the chief British, 

 Canadian, and American schools of physiology 

 can be traced. But until 191 4 physiology had 

 developed as one of the primary departments of 

 knowledge chiefly in the older universities, where 

 it was out of touch with the great centres of popu- 

 lation and, in consequence, with medical needs. 

 While this detachment allowed of a fuller and 

 freer development of the subject, the urgent needs 

 of humanity were not brought clearly before 

 physiologists. The problems presented by the 

 war served to remedy, in great measure, this 

 defect. Changes in blood pressure and quality, 

 the chemical mechanisms of the body, studies in 

 heat loss and production in relation to climate, 

 clothing, and diet, are some of the many 

 " human " problems which had to be solved; the 

 stresses and accidents of warfare provided an in- 

 finitely varied series of experiments on the human 

 body. It also had a wholesome effect from its 

 tendency to break down the barriers that had 

 grown up between physiology and the practical 

 needs of medicine. 



The progress of physiology during the past half- 

 century can be regarded alternatively as an 

 analvsis of the varied though inseparable functions 

 of the parts of the body or as a synthesis leading 

 towards the unification of the functions of all the 

 parts in a single functional organism. The 

 analysis has led to a growth of specialism within 

 the mother-science, but there is a growing ten- 

 dency to regard the whole organism as a physio- 

 logical unit in relation to which alone the func- 

 tions of the organs and their cellular subdivisions 

 can find due expression. 



At the present time there appears to be a dangeV 

 that physiology will be confined to the medical 

 schools, a fate which will limit its outlook by 

 depriving it of co-operation with kindred sciences 

 and tend to keep from it many promising recruits 

 who are not contemplating medical studies. The 



