October 14, 1920] 



NATURE 



127 



in form from the rest could be traced at the matura- 

 tion division, and that this chromosome was always 

 associated with the sex-character in the following 

 manner. The female possessed an even number of 

 chromosomes so that each egg received an identical 

 number, including this particular sex-chromosome. 

 The male contained an uneven number, having one 

 fewer than the female, with the result that half the 

 sperms received the same number as the egg including 

 the sex-chromosome, and half were deficient in this 

 particular chromosome. Eggs fertilised with sperms 

 containing the full number of chromosomes developed 

 into females, while those fertilised with sperms lack- 

 ing this distinctive chromosome produced males. 

 Morgan made the further discovery in the fruit-fly, 

 Drosophila ampeloph'la, that certain factors control- 

 ling various somatic characters were located in the 

 sex-chromosome. The inheritance of these characters 



and of sex evidently went together. The spenns of 

 Drosophila are therefore conceived as of two kinds, 

 one containing: the same sex-chromosome as the eggs, 

 the so-called X chromosome, and the other a mate of 

 a different nature, the Y chromosome, which appears 

 to be inert and unable to carry the dominant allelo- 

 morphs. 



Instances of sex-linked inheritance are now known 

 in many animals, some of which are strictly compar- 

 able with Drosophila ; others follow the same general 

 principle, but have the relations of the sexes reversed, 

 as exemplified by the moth Abraxas, which has been 

 worked out by Doncaster (Rep. Evolution Committee, 

 iv., 1908), whose sudden death we have had so recently 

 to deplore. Here the female is the heterozygous sex, 

 and contains the dummy mate of the sex-chromosome. 



{To he continued.) 



The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. 



By J. W. WiLUAMSON. 



THE Report of the Committee of the Privy Council 

 for Scientific and Industrial Research for the 

 year 1919-20 ' is of great interest to all those who are 

 watching with sympathetic anxiety the attempt, em- 

 bodied in the Department of Scientific and Industrial 

 Research, to secure greater and better organised State 

 aid for scientific research without subjecting the 

 research worker to such Governmental control as 

 would stifle his spirit and energies. The present 

 rep>ort is the Committee's fifth annual report, and the 

 Report of the .Advisory Council which is subjoined, 

 before proceeding to record the past year's work, 

 takes the occasion to give a brief survey of its 

 labours during the past five years. 



The Government has entrusted to the Department 

 during the past year new responsibilities. The Geo- 

 logical Survey and .Museum of Practical Geology were 

 transferred to the Department on November i last, 

 iind a Geological Survey Board has been appointed 

 under the chairmanship of .Sir Francis Ogilvie. .\t 

 the beginning of this year the Cabinet decided that 

 means should be adopted so to organise the scientific 

 work that was needed for the fighting Services as to 

 avoid unnecessary overlapping, to secure the utmost 

 (•conomv of personnel and equipment, to facilitate the 

 interchange of scientific knowledge and experience 

 between all the Departments concerned, and to provide 

 a single direction and financial control for all work 

 of a fundamental nature of civilian as well as military 

 interest. It directed that the Department shoulci 

 establish a series of co-ordinating Boards, and that 

 these Boards should include technical representatives 

 of each of the fighting .Services and of such civilian 

 Departments as might be materially interested in 

 their work, as well as independent men of science. 

 Thfee Boards, one for rhemistrv, one for phvsirs, and 

 one for engineering, have been established, and 

 these, with the existing Radio Research Board, form 

 the nucleus of the scheme. Tfiesc new arrangements 

 ;ire, obviously, an attempt to apply the principles of 

 the co-operative conduct of research to Government 

 Departments, and as the .Advisory Council points out : 

 "If firms competing with each other for existence 

 ran combine, as thev have done, for their common 

 benefit, it ought not to be more difficult for the 

 members of a national service to do so merely because 

 they are attached to different Departments of the 

 Government." 



1 Report of the Commitlte of the Privy Council for Sclantific and 

 Induiiritl Rmcarch for the Vmr 1919-10. (Cmd. 905.) Pp. i*ow (London : 

 H.M. Si'tioncry OSm.) Price 1/. net. 



The review of the past five years' work of the 

 Department is a satisfying and promising record. 

 The programme, it is explained, falls under four 

 main heads : (1) The encouragement of the individual 

 research worker, particularly in pure science ; (2) the 

 organisation of national industries into co-operative 

 research associations ; (3) the direction and co- 

 ordination of research for national purposes ; and 

 (4) the aiding of suitable researches undertaken by 

 scientific and professional societies and organisations. 



Since the establishment of the Department, 136 

 maintenance grants have been made to students and 

 89 to independent workers, while 48 grants have been 

 made to provide professors with research assistants 

 of scientific standing. During the four academic 

 years in which grants could be made, approximately 

 50,000/. was distributed in grants of the various kinds 

 referred to, and it is anticipated that during the 

 next academic year the distribution will amount to 

 about 45,oooJ. The great majority of the grants 

 have been made for work in the fundamental sciences. 

 The .Advisory Council goes on to say: ".And here a 

 j word of explanation is needed in view of ill-informed 

 criticism of our policy. No conditions are attached to 

 the grants made to workers whose sole aim is the 

 extension of knowledge, either as to the line of their 

 work or as to the use to be made of the results. If 

 tliey propose to make commercial use of their dis- 

 coveries we require them to consult us, because at 

 this point they are leaving the field of pure investiga- 

 tion. But, subject to this single condition, their 

 tenure is as free as, and in some respects more free 

 than, that of a scholarship, fellowship, or professor- 

 ship." 



With respect to the organisation of industries into 

 research associations, the present position is that 

 eighteen research associations have been establislied, 

 and that five others have been approved by the 

 Department and will shortly receive their licences 

 from the Board of Tr.ide. Of the i,ooo,ooof. fund it 

 is estimated that the Department is committed at the 

 present time to a total expenditure of nearly 4i;o,oooI. 

 on account of the established research associations, 

 and to a further expenditure of at least I2o,oooi. on 

 account of those .ipproved but not yet lic<^nsed. The 

 totnl commitments out of the 1,000,000/. fund are 

 expected shortly to reach 8oo,oool., and the report 

 observes : " It is clear that the sum placed at our 

 disposal is not likely to be more thnn suflficient to 

 aid the associ.ntions either forme<l or likelv to be 



NO. 2659, VOL. 106] 



