448 



NATURE 



[December 2, 1920 



-taffs of various institutions and science facullif> of the 

 universities of the United Kingdom, many of which 

 associated themselves with the memorial. It was 

 then sent to the proper authorities. 'J'hc secretary of 

 the joint committee has now been informed that the 

 Chancellor of the Exchequer has arranged for the 

 Commissioners of Inland Revenue to meet a deputa- 

 tion of scientific workers on Friday, December lo, 

 to afford them the opportunity of support inf^ their 

 claims. 



That excellent institution the Children's M11-.1 uni 

 of Brooklyn has sent us an issue of its News, which 

 is devoted to an account of the museum's efforts to 

 Americanise the children <lrawn to New York from 

 all the countries of Europe. The museum, it is 

 claimed, can supply that which the teacher cannot 

 provide, namely, an American background for the 

 intellectual life of the child. This is effected by 

 helping the pupils to visualise incidents in the lives 

 of past .Americans through the numerous models and 

 objects of historic interest in the museum. By con- 

 tact with these concrete exhibits the abstract know- 

 ledge provided in school becomes more real to them, 

 and a personal link with the country's past is forged 

 in the mind of each child. The influence of the 

 museum is even wider than mere .\mericanisation, 

 for "tho person whose intellect is overtrained to the 

 neglect of the senses is perhaps a greater menace to 

 the community than the illiterate." 



The fourth annual Report of the National Research 

 Council of the Inited States of -America consists of 

 68 pages, and shows that a large proportion of the 

 programme of the Council is now in operation. The 

 funds are provided mainly by the Carnegie Corpora- 

 tion of New York, the Rockefeller Foundation, the 

 General Education Board, and the Commonwealth 

 Fund. Its purpose is to promote research in the 

 mathematical, physical, and biological sciences with 

 the object of increasing knowledge and contributing 

 to the public welfare. One of its thirteen divisions 

 deals with foreign relations, and represents the 

 Council ;it the meetings of the International Research 

 Council. .Another deals with the physical sciences, 

 and already has research committees on atomic struc- 

 ture, celestial mechanics, X-ray spectra, electro- 

 dynamics, photo-electricity, etc. The engineering 

 division has committees on fatigue in metals, heat 

 treatment of steel, pyrometers, highways, etc. The 

 chemistry division has committees on svnthetic drugs, 

 colloids, ceramics, etc. The Council is to be con- 

 gratulattxl on the speed with which it has got to 

 work. 



We have received a copy of the appeal issuj-d bv 

 the University of Birminghjim for 500,000/. The 

 present financial position, as set forth in the circular, 

 is indeed critical. The increase in cost of administra- 

 tion and maintenance, coinciding with an increased 

 demand on the capacity of the I'niversity-each addi- 

 tional student costs about three times as much as he 

 contributes — has made bankruptcy the only alterna- 

 tive to a large addition to its resources, .\mong the 

 objects of the appeal the first place is rightly given 

 to the improvement of the salaries of the teaching 



NO. 2666. VOL. To6"| 



staff, especially of the non-professorial section. Pro- 

 vision has also to be made for the enlargement of 

 existing departments to cope with the demands mad-- 

 upon them. It is further pointed out that additional 

 chairs are required in many subjects (e.g. mathe. 

 matics, physics, chemistry, engineering, and biology) 

 and that increased facilities for research are urgently 

 needed. There is, moreover, an insistent and grow- 

 ing demand on the part of industrial workers for 

 extra-mural work, and classes have been created for 

 t-r'd- I'n'oi!;;.;, in which special instruction is given 

 in English literature, economics, and modern history, 

 in co-operation with the Workers' Educational Asso- 

 ciation. The provision of hostels for men students 

 is also very desirable. Finally, it is urged that grants 

 or gifts to the University will in all probability secure 

 an equivalent from the Government. .A first list of 

 contributions shows promises amounting to more 

 than 250,000/., of which nearly one-half is given by 

 representatives of the petroleum mining industry for 

 a petroleum mining endowment fund. We sincerely 

 hope that further lists may show that the Birmintr- 

 ham and .Midland district is alive to its responsibilitie- 

 in the matter and that the desired sum may be 

 raised. 



In the Museum Journal of the University of Penn» 

 sylvania (vol. xi.. No. i, March, 1920) a valuable 

 article, with excellent illustrations, is published 

 describing a collection of " fetish " figures from equa- 

 torial Africa. The word "fetish" is now suspect 

 among anthropologists, as its meaning has been un- 

 reasonably extended. -At the same time, the great 

 majority of these wood carvings have undoubtedly 

 some connection with the religious magic of the 

 negro, and among the special group of the Bakuba- 

 Baluba peoples in the South-Western Congo region 

 the best and least contaminated negro art is found 

 among a race which possesses a more highly developed 

 system of cults, religions, or magico-religions than 

 any other Congo people possessing such a high degree 

 of culture. 



The Archives of Radiology and Electrotherapy U>r 

 October (No. 243) contains the continuation of a 

 sketch of the history of electrotherapy by Mr. H. .\. 

 Colwell. The period dealt with is from 1800 to 1879, 

 and the apparatus of various inventors is described 

 and figured, such as Golding-Bird's contact-breaker 

 (1838), Neef and Wagner's and Benedict's induction 

 coils, Piscii's magneto-electric shocking machine (1832 1, 

 and various portable batteries. Contact-breakers 

 worked by an assistant were in use as late as 1849. 

 The account, which is a very interesting one, is to 

 be continued. 



Medical Scienc:e : Abstracts and Reviews for 

 November (vol. iii.. No. 2) contains a critical review 

 of the cancer problem, particularly of work done 

 during the last twenty years. In England and Wales 

 one woman in eight and one man in eleven above the 

 age of thirty-five years dies of cancer. .Acquired im- 

 munity to transplanted cancer in the mouse and rat 

 can be produced by means of liiiing cancer-cells. 

 -Altmann's granules are absent from the cells of 

 malignant growths. The blood and tissues of can- 



