January 20, 19 16] 



NATURE 



571 



cases, and put them all together, the results of the 

 protective treatment are still above the least shadow 

 of doubt. If any reader wishes to have leaflets for 

 distribution, giving a simple account of the treatment, 

 he should apply to the hon. secretary of the Research 

 Defence Society, 21 Ladbroke Square, London, W. 



A LUNCHEON was given to Sir Edward Carson, on 

 January 12 at the Savoy Hotel, by the Institute of 

 Industry. In his address Sir Edward Carson referred 

 to a number of questions which would have to be 

 answered after the war, and urged the need for con- 

 centration of effort. He said there should be no essen- 

 tial article, either for the arts of peace or for the 

 arts of war, upon which we could not within the 

 Empire lay our hands. He never could understand, 

 he continued, why the question as to what was best 

 for our industry, commerce, and finance should be any 

 concern of the party politician. It was a pure business 

 question, and it was there that the Institute of Indus- 

 tr>- came in. It was for them, by strengthening it 

 and working out these problems, to make themselves 

 felt in the settlement of these great matters. A dis- 

 cussion was opened by Mr. J. Taylor Peddie, chair- 

 man of the institute, by an address on the new national 

 business policy. He explained that among the objects 

 of the institute it was intended to secure the establish- 

 ment of a Ministry of Industry, to develop national 

 and Imperial industries, and to stimulate and en- 

 courage the standardisation of our educational system. 

 The following resolution was adopted unanimously : — 

 " That this meeting- of manufacturers and other repre- 

 sentative men closely connected with all phases of 

 industrial activity in the British Empire, fully endorses 

 and approves of the objects and policy of the Institute 

 of Industry, and recommends all persons or companies 

 interested in the industrial life of the British Empire 

 to support the institute by becoming members." 



Mr. F. M. Lloyd, Besselsleigh, Douro Road, Chel- 

 tenham, has issued a circular in which he urges the 

 establishment of a Board of Investigation and Experi- 

 ment, not only to consider suggestions, but also to 

 carry out experiments upon them, with the view of 

 bringing any that are of practical utility before the 

 notice of military or naval departments, or otherwise 

 promoting their development for national purposes. 

 The weakness at present results from want of organ- 

 isation. It cannot be expected that the officials of all 

 the great Government departments are able to judge 

 of the practicability or value of the scientific sugges- 

 tions or inventions placed before them ; so it often 

 happens that ideas are pigeon-holed or correspondents 

 are advised to apply to other officers or departments. 

 Mr. Lloyd gives several instances of this repressive 

 policy ; and he asks that the whole question of inven- 

 tion .and experiment should be placed on a sounder 

 basis, and that greater facilities should be given to the 

 inventor. A new department had been established in 

 France to co-ordinate the work of men of science and 

 engineers for the service of the country, to examine 

 what proposals are feasible, and assist in the realisa- 

 tion of promising ideas. A like centralisation seems 

 to be needed here, so that suggestions shall not be 

 NO. 2412, VOL. 96] 



passed over because they have been sent to a wrong \ 

 department, and that promising ideas may first be ; 

 tested by scientific experiments and be put into prac- \ 

 tical application if successful. We have advisory \ 

 boards of invention and research connected with the ; 

 .Admiralty, Ministry of Munitions, the Board of Educa- ) 

 tion, and other Government departments, but Mr. \ 

 Lloyd emphasises the need for a new department which i 

 will co-ordinate the whole service for the promotion of \ 

 science and invention. He invites all who are willing J 

 to help to attain this end to communicate with him. J 



Several letters on the relation between science and ; 

 industry, with particular reference to the decline of our j 

 dye-stuff industry, appear in the Observer of January ■'■ 

 16 as comments upon an article contributed by Prof, j 

 H. E. Armstrong to the issue of our contemporary a . 

 week before. On one side we are told that the old ' 

 patent laws, wliich allowed the Germans to make our 

 dyes, but prevented us from making theirs, was chiefly -j 

 responsible for the loss of the dye industry; and on ; 

 the other that the decline was due to the neglect of .. 

 science by our manufacturers and commercial men. i 

 As to the employment of chemists, Mr. W. G. Black \ 

 asserts that "the British manufacturer is alive both, 

 to their value and limitations," and the editor of the I 

 Dyer and Calico Printer that " the British colour- ] 

 making trade generally has never been without good ' 

 business men and clever research chemists." Mr. ■■ 

 J. W. Green, registrar of the Institution of Chemical ^ 

 Technologists, supplies the answer to these views in a ; 

 statement of the training and position of the technical ; 

 chemist in this country. The college and the factory '^ 

 are admittedly not in sufficiently close touch, but the | 

 relationship between them will become much stronger 5 

 when the prospects of a properly trained industrial ; 

 chemist are improved. Mr. Green says that one of the ■ 

 largest concerns of its kind pays its chemists thirt\'-five \ 

 shillings a week each as a maximum salar}% while a ; 

 skilled labourer in the same firm can earn five or ten • 

 pounds a week, and his wages never drop to the level J 

 of the chemist. This is typical of the value which our i 

 manufacturers usually place upon the work of the j^ 

 chemist, and it is not surprising that such an attitude : 

 has had its effect on academic circles. What is : 

 urgently wanted is a definite training and status for '. 

 the profession of chemistry, and efficient co-operation 

 between the technical chemist, the chemical manufac- ' 

 turer, and the Government. 



The Guthrie lecture of the Physical Society will be j 

 delivered at the Imperial College of Science on Friday, ^. 

 January 28, by Mr. W. B. Hardy, upon the subject \ 

 of " Some Problems of Living Matter." ■ 



Major F. W. Mott, F.R.S., will deliver the Lett-^ 

 somian Lectures to the Medical Society of London on 

 February 7 and 21 and March 6, taking as his subjects 

 the effects of high explosives on the central nervous I 

 system. ; 



It is announced in the Daily Mail of January 18' 

 that Dr. Aylmer May, principal medical officer oi\ 

 Northern Rhodesia, has been selected by the War^ 

 Office to undertake research work on the western ^ 

 front in connection with wound infection. ' 



