68o 



NATURE 



[February 17, 1916 



the moist climate. The groups of natives were 

 always taken as they lived, accordingf to climatic 

 and psychological essentials, the women naked 

 and often painted, the men unembarrassed by 

 more than a loincloth. 



THE AMERICAN STATE AND HOUSEHOLD 



SCIENCE. 

 nPHE application of science to national life and 

 ■*- industry in the United States proceeds 

 apace, and affords a very interesting spectacle in 

 its variety of methods and experiments. Un- 

 doubtedly great progress is being made amidst 

 a great deal of talk, and America bids fair to 

 rectify itself in relation to science much more 

 quickly than we can do even under the stupendous 

 impact of war and all that it threatens to us. 

 In this process of rectification the United States 

 Government appears to be taking a discreet and 

 effective part. A Bureau of Standards sounds 

 more like Berlin than Washington, but the name 

 is misleading if it suggests bureaucracy and 

 punctilious standardisation. The circulars of the 

 Bureau are, in fact, very careful and admirable 

 scientific publications conveying a vast amount of 

 extremely useful information, usually written in 

 a human way and having behind them nothing 

 in the shape of an act of legislature or compulsory 

 standardisation. The Government gives a lead, 

 it shows you something of which you may avail 

 yourself; you may take it or leave it, but, at 

 any rate, it is there. It is a calamity that we 

 cannot say as much for our own country, where 

 a Board of Trade hardly seems to understand what 

 you mean when you ask it to embody a scientific 

 element. 



In one of its latest circulars ^ the U.S. Bureau of 

 Standards enters upon a new path, attempting to 

 reach the household: — "(i) To give information 

 as to wants, methods, and instruments of 

 measurement useful in household activities; 

 {2) to describe available means of assuring cor- 

 rect quantity in articles bought by weight and 

 measure ; and (3) to give other facts of interest 

 which would awaken an appreciation of the rdle 

 of measurement in daily life." 



Stress is laid on the educational value of such 

 measurements and on the increase of efficiency 

 in the household, which comes from the habit of 

 thinking in terms of units and definite quantities. 

 The introduction is indeed a temperate and ad- 

 mirable appeal for increased accuracy and better 

 knowledge in the use of household appliances and 

 in the conduct of household oj>erations. 



The substance of the circular is compre- 

 hensive. It includes chapters on commodities, 

 heat, light, electricity, gas, water, atmospheric 

 humidity, atmospheric pressure, density of liquids, 

 time. In each case the trade and household 

 measuring instruments related to these topics are 

 carefully described both in principle and in 

 mechanical detail, and excellent illustrations 

 abound. There is an abundance also of useful 

 hints directed towards securing eflSciency and 



1 U.S. Department of Co-nmerte. Circular of the Bureau of Standards 

 No. 55. " Measurements for the Hous»)inld." 



NO. 



2416, VOL. 96] 



economy, and, in fact, the circular might be 

 called in many respects a treatise on that am- 

 biguous subject known as domestic science. 



As such it suffers from a common defect, 

 namely, the attempt to expound scientific prin- 

 ciples piecemeal and incidentally, or paren- 

 thetically, to single applications. This kind of 

 defect is always visited with severity by the more 

 academic critics, but it may be urged that the 

 defect is not so great as it seems. It is true 

 enough that the contents of this circular, so far 

 as they call for scientific comprehension, will be 

 unassimilable by the ordinary mistress of the 

 household who has only received the one-sided 

 and largely unnegotiable gift of " a good general 

 education." But it is equally true that the 

 anchorage of sound scientific explanations to 

 things and processes of the most obvious prac- 

 tical utility is as likely as anything to direct atten- 

 tion to what has been neglected in one generatioiv 

 and may be secured to another. 



Something must be done to demonstrate the 

 place of science in practical affairs, and this 

 seems a legitimate way. Our educational masters 

 seem to make most of their mistakes by for- 

 getting that they are exceptional members of 

 society in having an enthusiasm for abstract 

 knowledge. No doubt the love of knowledge 

 for itself exists to some degree in everyone, and 

 may be developed ; but the ordinary circumstances 

 of the world make most people, even at an early 

 age, want to know what use is to be made of know- 

 ledge. The fastidious exclusion of the useful from 

 the exposition of the good and true is an unneces- 

 sary and fatal extravagance of the pedagogue^ 

 and nowhere has its incidence been more lament- 

 able than in the case of natural science. Are we 

 not at the moment bemoaning a nation that does 

 not even know that science is useful? Who or 

 what is responsible for this? Many answers are 

 given, but none is nearer the truth than this : that 

 our teaching has failed. How and where it has 

 failed might be well illustrated by this circular, if 

 those who are engaged in teaching science to the 

 future housewives of England could be examined 

 upon the contents. We should see the reason why 

 such a gap remains between the science of our 

 schools and science in actual use. There is a i 

 missing link. It is true of the domestic world, 

 it is true of the industrial world, it is true of the j 

 whole national life, and there is urgent need of , 

 a remedy. The publication under notice helps \ 

 to fill one gap, and it should be of real value to I 

 those engaged in teaching science to future house- 

 wives ; and it will help also towards making 

 boys' science more mobile in their homes. 



A. S. 



THE CLOSING OF MUSEUMS. 

 \ PROTEST against the closing of museunT-: 

 -^"^ (including art galleries) was made to the 

 Prime Minister on February 10 by a deputation 

 representing the Museums Association, the 

 National Art Collections Fund, the Royal Asiatic 

 Society, the Hellenic Society, the Art Worker-" 



