NA TURE 



21 7 



THURSDAY, JULY 5, ii 



THE DECADENCE OF THE CHEMICAL PRO- 

 FESSION IN GOVERNMENT OPINION. 



THE Professorship of Chemistry in the Royal Naval 

 College, Greenwich, is, or is about to become, vacant 

 through the resignation of Dr. H. Debus, F.R.S., and it is 

 currently reported that the authorities have been advised 

 to discontinue the professorship, and to substitute for it a 

 mere lectureship or readership. We trust that this rumour 

 may prove unfounded, or that the Government may be led 

 in time to see the folly of degrading a subject which, if 

 properly handled, is of such extreme value and importance 

 to the Navy. We say degrade, because in the first place it 

 cannot be questioned that chemistry is a science which 

 may claim to rank with any other which enters into the 

 curriculum at Greenwich, both on account of its educa- 

 tional value and its direct usefulness ; and because any 

 such change must of necessity tend to lower the value of 

 chemical knowledge in comparison with that of other 

 subjects in the eyes of the students. 



It is scarcely necessary to point out in how many ways 

 a knowledge of chemistry may be of service in the Navy. 

 Our sailors are stationed in all parts of the world, and 

 the question of water-supply both for men and boilers is 

 an ever-present one : a decision as to the quality of a 

 water can only be given after it has been examined 

 chemically. Again, the action of sea-water on metals, 

 the corrosion of metals, the decay of timber, the econo- 

 mical use of fuel, are all matters in which the sailor 

 nowadays is deeply interested, and these can only be 

 rightly understood by those who have acquired a sound 

 knowledge of chemical principles. There are very many 

 other ways in which chemistry is of direct value to the 

 sailor ; but, most important of all, there is no subject 

 which, if properly and practically taught, affords the same 

 opportunity of training the student to observe accurately 

 and to think correctly, and it is especially on this ground 

 that chemistry should be assigned a high position in the 

 course at a Naval College. It will, however, not suffice to 

 require attendance at a course of lectures in which general 

 chemistry is treated of in slow and. measured cadences and 

 no heed is paid to the requirements of the students : the 

 subject must be taught technically, and almost exclusively 

 with direct reference to matters familiar to sailors and to 

 their future requirements ; and the training must be to a 

 very large extent carried on in the laboratory, and not in 

 the lecture-room. 



If the results thus far obtained at Greenwich have not 

 been such as to lead the authorities to appreciate the 

 value of the subject, the most short-sighted course they can 

 possibly pursue in the hope of obtaining better results in 

 the future will be to assign a lower rank to chemistry. 

 In cases of grave disease, if a practitioner, guided by 

 particular traditions, and operating under conditions 

 which he takes no particular pains to control, be unsuc- 

 cessful, it is not usual to call in another of lower grade ; 

 but on the contrary, if possible, one of equal or higher 

 grade is summoned, holding different and perhaps wider 

 Vol. xxxviii. — No. 975. 



views, and the effort is made to improve the conditions 

 so as to give every opportunity for his treatment to be 

 successful : and so may it happen, we trust, at Greenwich. 



In these anxious times of fierce competition the nation 

 cannot afford that the Government should act so as in 

 the least degree to diminish the importance of so valuable 

 a branch of science as chemistry. Moreover, a golden 

 opportunity will be lost if occasion be not now taken to 

 appoint at Greenwich a chemist who not only is known 

 to have been thoroughly trained, but who has given 

 proof, by his own researches and those of his pupils, that 

 he is possessed of enthusiasm, and capable of extending 

 our knowledge. In connection with explosives, and in 

 many other directions, there is infinite opportunity for 

 research ; and it is a disgrace to the nation that the Navy 

 at present has not a single chemist of repute in its 

 service, especially as such invaluable service has been 

 rendered to the War Department by its chemist, Sir 

 Frederick Abel. 



If the professorship at Greenwich be quashed, it is 

 unlikely that a man of proper calibre will be attracted by 

 a mere lectureship ; and thus another step will have been 

 taken to indicate that in this country we care little for 

 science, that our Government is blind to facts so clearly 

 recognized by foreign Powers. Among the noted men 

 of science now in the House of Commons, besides Prof. 

 Stokes, there are three chemists, Prof. Maskelyne, Sir 

 Lyon Play fair, and Sir Henry Roscoe : we feel sure that 

 they will not allow the Government to make a false move 

 in so important a matter without publicly warning them, 

 and without fully eliciting their reasons. 



THE LAND AND FRESH-WATER MOLLUSC A 

 OF INDIA. 



Land and Fresh-water Mollusca of India. Edited by 

 Lieut.-Colonel H. H. Godwin-Austen, F.R.S., &c. 

 Parts I. to VI. (London : Taylor and Francis, 

 1882-88.) 



ALTHOUGH much has been done to elucidate the 

 fauna of our great Eastern dependency, very much 

 more still remains to be accomplished : vast tracts have 

 yet to be explored scientifically, even though, year by 

 year, new areas are visited by the naturalist and collector, 

 and fresh species are added to the list. 



This is especially evident in the case of land and fresh- 

 water iMollusca ; whilst so scattered are the various 

 descriptions of the species up and down the pages of 

 different scientific journals and magazines, that the spe- 

 cialist himself has a hard task to ascertain whether a 

 given example is new or not. 



It is true that Hanley and Theobald, 1 in their now 

 classical work, went some way towards remedying this 

 state of things ; but their task was never completed, 

 and many new forms have been discovered since their 

 publication was brought to a close. 



Under these circumstances the present undertaking 

 cannot fail to be most welcome. It is modestly described 

 as " supplementary " to the work just named ; but, in 

 reality, it is something far more important, if we may 



1 The names are inadvertently reversed on the title-page of Colonel 

 Godwin-Austen's bock. 



