676 



NA TURE 



[May 27, 1922 



tropisms and other movements of living beings has 

 revealed how greatly these depend on purely physical 

 forces. A mechanistic theory of life may not be correct, 

 but is at least intelligible. Prof. Bohn, however, goes 

 much further than this. He would explain the mani- 

 fold variety of living form, past, present and future, 

 by physico-chemical processes within the creature, in- 

 fluenced from outside only by corresponding chemical 

 or physical factors acting directly. For selection or 

 adaptation he has no use, holding a structure to be a 

 consequence as inevitable as any precipitate in a 

 laboratory test-tube. 



Let us illustrate by two of Prof. Bohn's inferences. 

 Stockard has shown that, in sea-water containing an 

 excess of magnesium chloride, the eggs of the fish 

 Fundulus develop cyclopic young to the extent of 50 

 per cent. These young are as vigorous as the controls, 

 and swim with equal facility. " This fact shows that 

 the evolution of the eye is effected not only, as the 

 Lamarckians believe, under the influence of light, but 

 that it may depend on a chemical factor." Similarly, 

 the fact that various salts, or excess or deficiency of 

 oxygen, favour or inhibit the growth of wings, leads 

 Prof. Bohn to conclude that the insect fauna of oceanic 

 islands must owe its wingless condition to some chemical 

 agent. Wingless insects cannot well have migrated to, 

 say, Kerguelen, but blifid cave animals have, in Prof. 

 Bohn's view, sought the seclusion which a cavern grants 

 because they were already blinded. 



Failure to follow such tenuous argument need not 

 preclude a welcome to this little book for its insistence 

 on facts and ideas that should certainly prove fruitful, 

 if not on the precise lines imagined by its author. His 

 conclusions seem to ignore that aspect of the unity of 

 nature which is revealed in the myriad interrelations of 

 living things, the delicate balance of life, and the inti- 

 mate adjustment of successive generations to the 

 changing surface of the Earth. If Prof. Bohn would 

 lock his laboratory door and spend a year in the open 

 field, he might there be exposed to some influences, 

 which, though not purely chemical or physical, would 

 change his mental attitude. 



Economic Aspects of Human Wastage. 



Waste in Industry. By the Committee on Elimination 

 of Waste in Industry of the Federated American 

 Engineering Societies. Pp. xii + 409. (New York 

 and London : McGraw-Hill Book Co., Ltd., 192 1.) 

 20s. net. 



BRIEFLY to review this book is an almost 

 impossible task, and the only way to accomplish 

 it at all, while doing justice both to the writers and the 

 public, is to give an indication of its contents and the 

 NO. 2743, VOL. 109] 



methods employed, at the same time pointing out the 

 fundamental importance, of certain of the problems 

 discussed. 



The book is the report of a committee which made a 

 detailed inquiry into certain industries with a view of 

 finding out how waste of human effort occurred, and, 

 so far as possible, to appraise the responsibility for such 

 waste. The first part is a summary of the detailed 

 reports, and may be taken as the general conclusions 

 at which the committee arrived. The second part 

 contains the detailed reports of the investigations 

 into the building, clothing, boot and shoe, printing, 

 metal, and textile trades. The third part contains 

 general reports on such specific problems as unemploy- 

 ment, labour troubles, accidents, industrial hygiene, 

 etc. This arrangement of the matter makes it 

 extremely easy for the reader in search of special 

 information to find what he needs with the least 

 possible trouble. An attempt is made to determine 

 the amount of waste due to inefficient management, 

 want of planning, labour turnover, seasonal fluctuations, 

 accidents, etc., and it is clear that a large proportion 

 of the responsibility is due to management. This is 

 necessarily the case, since any improvement reducing 

 wastage from such causes as labour turnover and 

 accidents must at least be initiated by those who are 

 responsible for the general policy of industry. 



' A criticism that may be passed upon this work is 

 that its outlook is narrow, for, with the exception of a 

 few sections by medical men, attention is confined 

 almost entirely to the economic aspect of human 

 wastage. This is not really a serious criticism. A 

 new science is growing up in all civilised . countries 

 which seeks to investigate the interaction between 

 industrialism and human nature. To this infant 

 science psychologists, physiologists, doctors, statis- 

 ticians, and iengineers are all contributing, and we must 

 not blame any specific piece of work if one particular 

 aspect of the question is somewhat over-emphasised. 

 The very existence of such a science is a confession 

 that these problems can no longer be regarded as the 

 preserves of philanthropy or politics, which have both 

 failed to remove any but the crudest abuses, while 

 many of their endeavours to improve matters have 

 done harm because they have been undertaken without 

 knowledge of the scientific factors involved. For 

 example, unemployment has too often been regarded 

 merely as a problem of insurance, and various schemes 

 have been worked out based upon the arguing power 

 of the parties concerned rather than upon scientifically 

 ascertained facts. Unemployment, as is pointed out 

 in this book, has far wider ramifications, and cannot 

 be treated from one point of view alone. However 

 unemployment occurs, it involves a great national and 



