December 2, 19 15] 



NATURE 



175 



iho part of the authorities, we shall assuredly suffer 

 total defeat in the industrial war which must of neces- 

 sity follow upon the conflict of arms now raging. This 

 is a matter in which men of science have a great 

 responsibility to the nation. We must not cease to 

 bring to the notice of the public the facts of which 

 we are too fully aware. The attitude of the Govern- 

 ment and the public towards science has been mis- 

 taken. For this formidable error we suffer and, I 

 Itar, must long continue to suffer. The remedy in- 

 volves many sacrifices and heavy expenditure, prob- 

 ably at first without apparent return. It is to 

 the new generation now being educated that we must 

 kK>k for betterment of our position ; and it is for 

 youth we must now make plans. We must make all 

 <ducation more scientific. It is admitted we have 

 much to learn from our adversaries; we must bring 

 scientific methods to the front. 



Should not science be represented on the Privy 

 Council? It is astonishing that in so august a body 

 science is almost ignored. Ought we not to have in 

 the Cabinet a Minister of Science with a board of 

 advisers similar to that of Agriculture, with the pro- 

 viso that the Minister of Science should hold his office 

 primarily by virtue of his scientific capacity? Power 

 of organisation and general business ability should 

 be regarded as essential secondary qualifications. The 

 newly appointed Science Councils and Committees 

 might be incorporated under the Ministry of Science 



then and then only pure research would begin to 

 take its place as an invaluable profession, with a 

 status of its own at least on a level with that of other 

 learned professions. The leaders of its rank and file 

 would be doing work of fully as much value to the 

 nation as the work of the officers of our naval and 

 military forces. Then, I feel convinced, the next 

 tjeneration would see the disappearance of listliess co- 

 operation between manufacturer and scientific work- 

 men, and we should hear less of the inferiority of 

 Hritish science as compared with that of our opponents. 

 Given equal opportunities, our men would speedily 

 give proof of fertility of ideas, of organising powers, 

 and of resource and initiative. Research could be so 

 thoroughly well organised that suitable workers would 

 bo jointly engaged with those problems for the speedy 

 elucidation of which there is the greatest need, and 

 the results of their investigations would be at the 

 disposal of all British manufacturers. It rests with 

 us to keep these ideas before the mind of the public 

 now that at last it is ripe to consider them. " Be 

 wise to-day; 'tis madness to defer." 



In conclusion, Sir William Crookes referred in 

 felicitous words to the election of Sir J. J. 

 Thomson as his successor in the presidential chair 

 of the society. 



NOTES. 



The Amsterdam correspondent of the Morning Post 

 announces that the Dutch Royal Academy of Sciences 

 has awarded the gold Leeuwenhoek medal for 1915 to 

 Surgeon-General Sir David Bruce. 



The Croonian Lecture of the Royal Society will be 

 delivered on Thursday, December o. by Dr. W. M. 

 I'ietcher and Prof. F. G. Hopkins, on "The Respiratory 

 Process in Muscle, and the Nature of Muscular 

 Motion." 



The death is announced, at his residence in Dublin, 

 of Dr. Francis T. Heuston, formerly professor of 

 anatomy in the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland, 

 NO. 2405, VOL. 96] 



and lecturer on anatomy in Carmichael College, Dub- 

 lin. Dr. Heuston was well known as a consulting 

 surg^eon, and contributed many papers on professional 

 subjects to the medical journals. 



At the annual meeting of the Iron and Steel Insti- 

 tute, to be held next May, Sir William Beardmore, 

 Bart., will be inducted into the chair as the new- 

 president of the institute, in succession to Dr. Adolphe 

 Greiner. The Bessemer gold medal for 19 16 will be 

 presented to Mr. F. W. Harbord, honorary consulting 

 metallurgist to the Ministry of Munitions. It has been 

 decided not to hold an annual dinner next year. 



At the meeting of the Faraday Society on Wednesday, 

 December's, a general discussion on "The Corrosion 

 of Metals — Ferrous and Non-ferrous," will take place. 

 The president, Sir Robert Hadfield, will take the 

 chair. The members of the Iron and Steel Institute 

 and of the Institute of Metals have been invited to 

 attend the meeting. Other persons desirous of attend- 

 ing can obtain tickets on application to the secretary 

 of the Faraday Society, 82 Victoria Street, S.W. 



It is announced officially that arrangements have 

 been made between the Army Council and the Ministry 

 of Munitions for the transfer to the latter of responsi- 

 bility for designs, patterns, and specifications, for the 

 testing of arms and ammunition, and for the examina- 

 tion of inventions bearing on such munitions. In- 

 structions have therefore been given for the immediate 

 transfer to the Ministry of Munitions of the Ordnance 

 Board, Research Department at W'oolwich, Experi- 

 mental Establishment at Shoeburyness, and the War 

 Office Inventions Department. 



The death is reported, at the age of seventy-two, of 

 Dr. E. L. Greene, the head of the botanical department 

 at Notre Dame University, Indiana. He was pro- 

 fessor of botany at the University of California from 

 1885 to 1895, 3"^ ^* *^^ Catholic University of 

 America from 1895 to 1904. He had also had an 

 official connection with the Smithsonian Institution. 

 Dr. Greene, who was the author of several mono- 

 graphs and of a flora of the San Francisco district, 

 was president of the International Congress of Botan- 

 ists held in connection with the Chicago Exposition 

 of 1893. 



At the November meeting of the Royal Physical 

 Society of Edinburgh, the following office-bearers 

 were elected for the 145th session, 1915-16 : — Presi- 

 dent: Prof. Arthur Robinson; Vice-presidents: P. H. 

 Grimshaw, Prof. D'Arcy W. Thompson, Dr. J. H. 

 .Vshworth ; Secretary : Dr. James Ritchie, Royal 

 Scottish Museum; Assistant Secretary: J. A. S. Wat- 

 son ; Treasurer : Wm. Williamson ; Librarian : L. W. 

 Hinxman ; Councillors: Hugh Miller, Dr. Malcolm 

 Laurie, J. Kirke Nash, Dr. B. N. Peach, Dr. J. F. 

 Gemmill, Dr. John Rennie, Dr. D. C. Mcintosh, 

 Principal O. C. Bradley, Wm. Evans, Prof. T. Hud- 

 son Beare, T. H. Gillespie, and Prof. D. C. Matheson. 

 In the Report of Council it was stated that two 

 fellows of the society, Mr. L. N. G. Ramsay and Mr. 

 C. H. Martin, had been killed in battle In France. 



