122 



NATURE 



[March 24, 1921 



in the World that all of our visions of the benefits 

 to be derived from a large expansion of industrial 

 research will come to naught if we fail to realise or 

 neglect the fact that in the last analysis we are 

 dependent absolutely upon the mental productivity of 

 men, and men alone, and that we must, in con- 

 sequence, provide adequately for a continuous supply 

 of well-trained workers." It is, and must be, the 

 function of the universities and higher educational 

 institutions to pour out the steady stream of well- 

 equipped and trained Investigators that is the first 

 and vital need of the industrial research movement. 



Another essential condition for the successful 

 development of industrial research is that there must 

 be concurrently a corresponding growth and develop- 

 ment in the domain of fundamental scientific research 

 — what is, perhaps somewhat IoospIv, called " pure 

 science " — for from the fountains of pure science come 

 the waters that freshen and replenish the streams of 

 applied research. It is worthy of note, and should 

 be reassuring even to those who look with distrust 

 on the more recent developments of industrial re- 

 search, that in the various papers published by the 

 National Research Council dealing with the applica- 

 tion of science to industry there is abundant testi- 

 mony from men whose main interests are industrial 

 to the truth of this principle. Mr. J. J. Cartv, vice- 

 president of the American Telephone and Telegraph 

 Co., for example, in an address on "Science and the 

 Industries," savs : "The pure scientists are the ad- 

 vance guard of civilisation. Bv their discoveries thev 

 furnish to the engineer and industrial chemist and 

 other npplied scientists the raw material to be ela- 

 borated into manifold agencies for the amelioration 

 of the condition of mankind. Unless the work of the 

 pure scientist is continued and pushed forward with 

 ever-increasing energv, the achievements of the indus- 

 trial scientist will diminish and degenerate." It is, 

 again, to the universities mainly, if not almost whollv, 

 that Ave must look for this fundamental, purely 

 scientific research. The publications under review 

 perform not the least useful of their functions in 



emphasising the basic importance of the universities 

 in all schemes for the national development of indus- 

 trial research. 



The last point with which in our limited space we 

 can deal is the fundamental question of the organisa- 

 tion of research. Dr. James Rowland Angell, in an 

 address on "The Development of Research in the 

 United States," says : " Scientific men have as yet 

 only achieved the most elementary beginnings of the 

 organisation of scientific interests. Indeed, it has 

 been something of a fetish among scientists that we 

 must rely upon individual inspiration and initiative, 

 and that the individual worker must be safeguarded 

 in every possible way from the corroding influence of 

 administrative organisation." This complaint is not 

 baseless. There are still people who regard the mere 

 suggestion of organising research as a profanation of 

 genius not less desecrating than a proposal to have 

 poetry written by committees ; and yet scientific prin- 

 ciples and methods are no more out of place in the 

 organisation of research than they are in research 

 itself. It mav be long before we reach common 

 agreement as to the main plan, but the science of the 

 organisation of research is as worthy a study as — 

 shall we sav? — the science of education or of 

 econcariics. Dr. Angell, in the address referred to 

 above, observes : " As a matter of fact, large areas of 

 the most needed research lie in territory where properly 

 trained men of talent, given proper conditions of 

 work, may produce constantly and in increasing 

 measure results of the utmost consequence. But one 

 of the conditions of maximal efficiency is that they 

 shall work inside the framework of a general pro- 

 gramme in which there is intelligent co-operation in 

 the allocation of the field and in the constant com- 

 munication of results achieved. Such distribution of 

 responsibilitv and effort is entirely consonant with the 

 fullest actual initiative which any scientist can desire." 



The publications of the National Research Council 

 are a solid contribution to the elucidation of many 

 problems in this new and promising field of national 

 development. 



Psychotherapy and 



T NABILITY to see the wood for the trees is not 

 ■*■ uncommon in writers on most scientific subjects, 

 but the characteristic of many medical exponents of 

 psychotherapy seems rather that to them the wood is 

 invisible because of their proximity to one very large 

 and important tree. Dr. William A. Brend, who con- 

 tributes a notable article entitled "Psychotherapy and 

 War Experience " to the January issue of the Edin- 

 burgh Review, is emphatically not one of these. His 

 essay attracts one, apart from the obvious interest 

 and importance of its subject, on account of the 

 balance, the perspective, the background, and the 

 sympathetic appreciation of delicate nuances which 

 the picture displays. It is a lucid and judicious 

 account of the substance of eight publications — not all 

 of them recent — by Freud, Ferenczi, Ernest Jones, 

 Lay, and McCurdy ; but it is much more than this, 

 for it gives the general reader some idea of the 

 changes which the psycho-analytic movement has 

 brought about in the outlook of modern psycho- 

 therapy. Yet Dr. Brend obviously holds no brief for 

 this school of thought alone. He describes, too, the 

 parts which suggestion (including hypnotism), per- 

 suasion, re-education, and modified psycho-analysis 

 have played in alleviating the mental sufferings caused 

 by the war, the unwisdom of encouraging the patient 

 merely to "distract his mind" whether by play or 

 by work, the inadvisability of allowing important lost 

 memories to remain lost, the uses of hypnosis in 

 NO. 2682, VOL. 107] 



War Experience. 



recovering repressed experiences, the indispens- 

 ability of thorough-going psycho-analysis in some 

 cases and its undesirability in others. 



" Some knowledge of the principles of the new 

 psychology is desirable for everyone, but that is not 

 to say that a person of normal mentality should, 

 without good reason, allow all his natural repressions 

 to be brought to the surface by anyone who claims to 

 be an analyst." 



It is hoped that many will read of the extensive 

 provision of psychotherapy made by the Army since 

 19 16, and at present by the Ministry of Pensions under 

 Sir Lisle Webb, and that they will then inquire what 

 is being done for the civilian. The answer is : 



" As far as the ordinary civilian population is con- 

 cerned, very few facilities for this treatment are avail- 

 able for those who are unable to pay the fees of con- 

 sultants. One or two clinics have been started on a 

 small scale, but it is now recognised that to cover 

 the ground adequately very large provision of this 

 nature will require to be made, and it is to be hoped 

 that such clinics will eventually be established under 

 the Ministry of Health." 



Those of us who almost daily have sadly to tell 

 sufferers that "very few facilities for this treatment 

 are available for those who are unable to pay the 

 fees of consultants" very earnestly share the hope 

 of Dr. Brend. T. H. Pear. 



