28o 



NATURE 



[November ii, 1915 



discussions, with careful prearrang-ement, having 

 for their special object to elucidate the present 

 state of knowledge on some paiticular subject, 

 to define its unsolved problems, and suggest or 

 indicate the most fruitful lines for future research 

 and discovery? To such discussions eminent 

 workers in the subject, even though not fellows, 

 should be invited. The object should be to direct 

 individual workers to lines of investigation con- 

 verging in certain useful directions. 



The example would then doubtless be followed 

 by other societies; indeed, the Faraday Society 

 has held several successful meetings of this kind. 

 The function of such meetings should be to stimu- 

 late the thoughts and originality of the adult in- 

 vestigators, just as the teaching of a good teacher 

 does for his students. Then, in the next place, 

 valuable work might be done by the formation 

 in these societies of committees of investigation, 

 composed of small groups of members or fellows 

 charged with the special duty of following out 

 some particular line of experimental or theoretical 

 work, and publishing the result as the joint work 

 of the committee, and not of individual members 

 of it. Such committees have often been formed 

 and done much valuable work, and it suffices to 

 mention the British Association Committee on 

 Electrical Units to recall one of the most famous 

 of them, and the Engineering Standards Com- 

 mittees of the Institution of Civil Engineers. 



At the present time, members of learned socie- 

 ties either sit and listen to abstracts of papers 

 read by others or read one of their own, but they 

 seldom, if ever, find the opportunity of joining 

 hands in a piece of joint work to which all would 

 contribute an effective share. There are many 

 fields of investigation in which the work of the 

 mathematician, the physicist, the chemist, and 

 perhaps the engineer could be united with great 

 advantage, and far more valuable work done if 

 each member of the partnership were to play for 

 the team than simply for his own hand. 



The mathematician is apt to direct his atten- 

 tion too much to problems in which the technique 

 of his science is involved, and too little to the 

 function of co-operating with experimental re- 

 search in bringing us to fresh discovery. In 

 like manner, the experimentalist may have his 

 skill more rewarded if directed by the guidance 

 of the mathematician, who can point out to him 

 the best direction in which it can be utilised. 



No doubt such co-operative work requires an 



amount of self-suppression which is not widely 



distributed, but it is what every public-school boy 



exhibits who plays cricket or football for his 



NO. 2402, VOL. 96] 



house and not for himself, or every soldier or 

 sailor who puts "The Service" before everything 

 concerning his own life and interests. Then the 

 same thing applies to commercial research. 

 Every British manufacturer who affords himself 

 some small degree of scientific research in '^his 

 business is anxious, before all things, to keep his 

 difficulties and knowledge to himself. If he could 

 be induced to see that his real foes are, not his 

 own kindred, but the highly organised German 

 manufacturers, f>erhaps he might be inclined to 

 listen to suggestions for co-operative research 

 maintained by common effort in the common 

 interest. There are in all manufactures scientific 

 problems which all concerned are interested in 

 solving. These could probably be better dealt 

 with by a strong and highly competent scientific 

 staff maintained in common than by insufficient 

 individual effort. 



In this matter, however, we work in a vicious 

 circle. Until the manufacturers recognise that 

 sufficient inducement must be offered to the 

 highest scientific ability to enter commercial 

 service, the best men will not take up the Work, 

 and until such highly trained men with initiative 

 are proved to be available, the manufacturers are 

 sceptical as to the advantages of scientific assist- 

 ance. Nevertheless, the supply will create the 

 demand, and it is the duty of the universities and 

 technical colleges to see that the training they pro- 

 vide turns out first-class, and not only second- 

 class, men. 



The Advisory Council concerned with the 

 Organisation and Development of Scientific 

 and Industrial Research should have all these 

 matters in review. We stand at the entrance 

 to a new era in the life of the world, and it is 

 imperative that we should all look the facts fairly 

 in the face, and realise that we have to attain in 

 every department of national life a higher effici- J 

 ency and more effective service for the common 1 

 good. 



SCIENCE AND ART OF ILLUSTRATION. 

 The Essentials of Illustration: a Practical Guide 

 to the Reproduction of Drawings and Photo- 

 graphs for the Use of Scientists and Others. By 

 T. G. Hill. Pp. xii + 91. (London: W. Wesley 

 and Son, 1915.) Price 105. net. 



IF too little importance has been hitherto 

 attached by the writers of scientific books 

 to the way in which they have been illustrated, it 

 is due to various causes, not the least of which is 

 the want of guidance as to the manner in which 

 pictorial illustrations are produced. Want of skill 



