568 



NATURE 



[January 21, 191 5 



two places in thirteen minutes, and the experiment 

 created great interest at the time. It may be some 

 j^ears before a regular aerial service is established for 

 the transportation of mails, but the report from New 

 York suggests that we are getting within measurable 

 distance of it. 



The Chemist and Druggist announces the death on 

 December 28, 19 14, at seventy-three years of age, of 

 Prof. Karl Liebermann, professor of chemistry in the 

 Technical High School, Charlottenburg, Berlin. 



The death of Mr. J. S. Harding on January 11, in 

 his seventy-sixth year, has deprived science of a life- 

 long meteorologist. He had been connected with the 

 Meteorological Office since its establishment in 1854, 

 and was private secretary to Admiral FitzRoy — the 

 meteorological pioneer. He retired in 1906, after a 

 service of more than half a century, leaving behind 

 him an abiding memory, having secured the hearty 

 appreciation of the committee and council of the office 

 and the sincere friendship of his colleagues. All who 

 knew Mr. Harding have reason to remember his ever- 

 courteous personality and willingness to help inquiry 

 into meteorological literature in any direction. He 

 had been a member and fellow of the Royal Meteoro- 

 logical Society since 1866, and had contributed valu- 

 able work to the researches of the society. He had 

 mastered the chief European languages — a notable 

 asset for the study of international meteorology — and 

 was an esteemed contributor to the columns of Nature 

 to the very week of his passing into silence. 



Dr. de Filippi has reported to the Royal Geo- 

 graphical Society at some length upon the work of 

 his expedition in northern Kashmir. Two parties, led 

 respectively by himself and by Major Wood, have 

 gone far to establish knowledge of the topography of 

 the Remo glacier basin and the watershed between 

 it and the Karakoram pass. Their researches appear 

 to necessitate the substantial modification of existing 

 maps, in regard not only to the extent of glaciers, 

 but also to the position of the watershed and defluent 

 valleys. The Remo glacier-field is found to feed both 

 the Indus and the Yarkand systems, and thus to send 

 some of its water down either slope of the Himalayan 

 system, to the Arabian Sea on one hand, and to the 

 Tarim depression in the Central Asian desert on the 

 other. The expedition is continuing its work, which 

 has been extended into Chinese Turkestan. 



The Russian Supplement which accompanied the 

 Times of January 15 dealt mainly with economic 

 aspects of the war as especially affecting that country, 

 and some of them, such as the question of the position 

 of the chemico-pharmaceutical industry, call for scien- 

 tific attention. The possible development of British 

 and Russian commercial relations is treated of at 

 considerable length, and among other interesting com- 

 mercial discussions are those dealing with the sudden 

 strain placed upon the port of Archangel, with the 

 arctic sea route to .Siberia, and with other facts and 

 problems of communication. In another department 

 we find a study of the distribution of Germans in 

 Russia, accompanied by an instructive map, which 

 shows how Germans have established themselves in 

 greatest numbers in some of the best provinces (not 

 NO, 2360, VOL. 94] 



necessarily nearest their own frontier), and how they 

 largely populate also some of the great towns, with 

 important political results. Another article discusses 

 the tribes of the Yenisei valley. 



On several occasions recently, writers in the daily 

 Press have suggested that the barbarous methods of 

 warfare adopted by German forces represent the 

 natural result of close attention to scientific teaching, 

 and we are warned against letting our educational 

 institutions be dominated by the same materialistic 

 spirit. It would be juster to associate the humanities 

 rather than science with the cause of the present war, 

 and to say that whatever success has been achieved 

 by the enemy is due to the application of scientific 

 knowledge. There is, unfortunately, little danger that 

 science will be given a prominent or important place 

 in our schools or universities, or that our public men, 

 officials, and writers will understand that it is not 

 only essential to national welfare, but also in addition 

 an intellectual outlook and a standard of truth. The 

 only literary man who knows these things and en- 

 deavours to impress them upon the public mind is 

 Mr. H. G. Wells ; and for his efforts to awaken the 

 British people to a sense of what their neglect of 

 systematised natural knowledge signifies, we cannot be 

 too grateful. An article by Mr. Wells in the Daily 

 Chronicle of Januarv 19 describes truthfully the dis- 

 couraging conditions attached to scientific study in 

 this country, and the mental inertia which has to be 

 overcome before use is made of scientific knowledge 

 or expert opinion. He pleads for the organisation of 

 a thinking department for collecting, testing, and 

 developing new ideas, such as was referred to by Lord 

 Selborne in the House of Lords a few days ago, and 

 his forcible words may perhaps stimulate interest in 

 intellectual activity for the benefit of the State. It has 

 never been more necessary than it is now to insist 

 upon fuller recognition of the claims of science in 

 education and in public affairs, and for that reason 

 we hope that Mr. Wells will make further and similar 

 contributions to national enlightenment. 



The evidences in favour of the protective treatment 

 against typhoid fever are of many kinds. There is 

 the analogy between this protective treatment and the 

 protective treatments against cholera, anthrax, and 

 plague. There is the authority of the years of hard 

 work spent by men of science over the bacteriology of 

 the fever. There is the whole strength of the medical 

 profession ; Sir William Osier and Sir Lauder Brunton 

 have well said, in the Times, what their brethren are 

 saying everywhere. Above all, there is the final and 

 irreversible judgment of nature herself. We read, 

 only a fortnight ago, how she has tested this treat- 

 ment, in northern France and Belgium. Our men in 

 the field may be divided into three classes : (a) fully 

 protected, (b) partly protected, (c) non-protected. The 

 proportion of cases has been i, 6, and 16; that is 

 to say, the non-protected have been punished sixteen 

 times more than the protected. We read, only a few 

 days ago, how nature made a similar experiment 

 among the French troops in the field. That seems 

 to be her invariable rule, to pick out the unprotected. 

 How could she do otherwise? What else do we 



