NATURE 



569 



fN a rm^ 



SATURDAY, MAY 6, 1922. 



CONTENTS. p^oE 



Government Scientific Services. By A. S. . . 569 

 The Design of Electric Power Stations. By Dr. A. 



Russell . 570 



Witch- Craft in Western Europe .... 572 



The Riddle of Bird Migration, By Dr. J. Ritchie . 573 



Modern Chemistry ....... 574 



Text - Books of Elementary Mathematics. By 



H. B. H . .574 



Studies in Symbiosis. By Prof, F. W. Gamble, 



F.R.S 576 



Our Bookshelf 577 



Letters to the Editor :— 



The Buoyancy of the Sun-fish.— Capt. G. C. C. 



Damant and Prof. A. E. Boycott, F.R.S. . 578 



Haloes and Earth History.— Prof. J. Joly, F.R.S. 578 

 Pythagoras's Theorem as a Repeating Pattern. — J. 



R. Cotter 579 



Man.— SirG. Archdall Reid, K.B.E. . . 579 

 Configuration of Molecules of Benzenoid Substances. 



—Dr. J. Kenner 581 



The Speed of Light.— Dr. E. H Kennard ^ .581 



On the N- Series in X-Ray Spectra.— V. Dolejsek . 582 

 A Proposed Laboratory Test of the Theory of 



Relativity.— Dr. Harold S. King .582 



Safeguarding of Industries Act, 1921. — Major A. G. 



Church 583 



Discovery of Gold in Devonshire. {Illustrated.) — 



Prof. W. T. Gordon 583 



Artificial Disintegration of the Elements. By Sir 



Ernest Rutherford, F.R.S 584 



The Royal Academy. By J. S. D 586 



Obituary : — 



Sir Patrick Manson, G. CM. G., F.R.S. By A. A. 587 



Sir A. B. Kempe, F.R.S. By P. A. M, , . 588 



Sir Wm. Phipson Beale, Bart., K.C. By H, E. A. 589 



Sir A. P. Gould 589 



Current Topics and Events 590 



Our Astronomical Column 591 



Research Items 593 



Sheep - Breeding and Ancestry. {Illustrated.) By 



A. F. B. . 595 



The Organisation of Knowledge .... 596 



The Centenary of Naval Engineering 596 

 British Research Chemicals -597 

 University and Educational Intelligence . . -597 



Calendar of Industrial Pioneers 598 



Societies and Academies ... . , 598 



Official Publications Received 600 



Diary of Societies 600 



Editorial and Publishing Offices : 



MACMILLAN £r CO., LTD., 



ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON, W.C.2. 



Advertisements and business letters should be 



addressed to the Publishers. 



Editorial communications to the Editor. 



Telegraphic Address: PHUSIS, LONDON. 

 Telephone Number : GERRARD 8830. 



Government Scientific Services. 



IN a presidential address to the WashingtonAcademy 

 of Sciences ^ Mr. Alfred H. Brooks deals with 

 the " Scientist in the Federal Service/' and incidentally 

 provokes comparison of Government scientific services 

 in Britain and the States. The field to be covered, as 

 he remarks, is continental in dimensions, and the 

 needs of upwards of one hundred millions of people have 

 to be met. So vast a proposition is beyond the 

 powers of private enterprise and demands the system- 

 atised efforts of national bureaus. Washington, as the 

 city of Government, formed the natural centre of 

 Government research, and only during the last two 

 decades became the home of other scientific institutions. 

 In Paris, Berlin and London, science was fostered by old 

 universities and learned societies, and it was only in 

 researches for which co-operation on a large scale, and 

 the maintenance of a permanent staff, were necessary, 

 that the Government lent its aid. 



The Federal scientific worker, we are told, giving his 

 whole time to science, may tend to lose enthusiasm, and 

 Mr. Brooks expresses a regret, with which we fully 

 sympathise, that the non-professional man of science, 

 with his enthusiasm and power to vivify science, is 

 almost unknown in Washington and would fail to find 

 there a congenial atmosphere. But in his fear that 

 organised science leaves no place for the amateur and 

 that competition with highly organised corps of pro- 

 fessionals is impossible, surely he is unduly pessimistic. 

 In Britain, at any rate, the amateur not infrequently 

 leads the way and indicates the channels along which 

 professional effort should be directed. 



The Federal scientific service commenced about 

 1816. Now there are about forty institutions and up- 

 wards of 1500 investigators. At first the obtaining of 

 funds depended largely upon the personahty of the 

 bureau chief. Pay was scanty, regulations were few, 

 and appointments were made too largely under political 

 influences. As practical applications of science in- 

 creased, the bureaus were enlarged, and business 

 methods were introduced, especially after 1906, as a 

 result of the recommendations of the Keep Commission. 

 Still more important was the reaUsation by the higher 

 Government officials of the value of science in national 

 economic problems. The demand for men began to 

 exceed the supply, and whereas a bare living and a 

 God-given love for his subject had been the scientific 

 worker's only motives, the service became a profession 

 for which the Universities graduated scores of highly 

 trained specialists. 



The tendency of a Federal service to collect facts 

 without providing adequate interpretation, is inevitable. 

 Organisation leads to uniformity, and, though a good 



» Joum. Washington Academy of Sciences, voL 12 {1922), pp. 73-"5. 



NO. 2740, VOL. 



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