62 



NA TURE 



[November 15, 19CO 



forced on him that it is to Germany he must go for his 

 goods. 



And the conviction is strengthened by the organisation 

 provided for giving information as to the goods ex- 

 hibited. The German exhibit is under the skilled care 

 of Dr. Robert Drosten, with some three or four scientific 

 assistants. One or more of these gentlemen is always 

 ready to give information about special instruments. 

 When I visited the exhibition I asked for a catalogue, 

 and inquired if I could examine more closely certain 

 special instruments. By all means, was the reply, and 

 Herr Drosten gave me several hours of his time opening 

 cases, taking apparatus out, looking up special catalogues, 

 and loading me with inforniation. At the end of this 

 time we were both tired, and he suggested that if I found, 

 on looking over the catalogue and my notes, that I had 

 omitted anything, I should come again. I returned next 

 morning, and spent nearly as long a second time. 



- Or take, again, my own experience with the splendid 

 exhibit of comparators and dividing engines of the Soci^te 

 Genevoise des Instruments de Precision. 



There was a notice in the case that M. Schwartz, at 

 the Bureau, would give information. On asking for M. 

 Schwartz, and explaining that I wished to examine cer- 

 tain things with care, he came at once, opened the cases, 

 and answered my many questions in the most courteous 

 manner ; some information which I wanted as to certain 

 instruments not made by the Society he could not give 

 me. It has since been sent me, at his request, from 

 Switzerland. 



So also with some American measuring and testing 

 apparatus ; the cases were opened, and I was allowed to 

 handle the apparatus ; one gentleman gave me a very 

 full demonstration of the use of a new testing machine, 

 which combines a multitude of ingenious devices. 



Contrast this with the English exhibit ; a courteous 

 commissionaire was, when I saw it, in charge of the 

 whole ; there were some notices as to where to apply for 

 price lists of some of the firms exhibiting ; the nearest 

 approach to a catalogue was a set of cards hung on the 

 wall relating to the excellent exhibit of the Scientific 

 Instrument Company. These I found of real value, but 

 they could not be carried away for reference. 



Again the same conclusion is forced home ; the 

 Germans have organised their exhibit and are far ahead ; 

 few, if any, of the English firms will profit through the 

 exhibition by an increase in their trade ; German trade 

 must grow as a result of a show which has been visited 

 by thousands of men of science. The 700,000/. of 1898 

 will rapidly increase. 



And why should this be so ? Is it our insular 

 ignorance and our unreadmess? In everything, this 

 great exhibition shows the advance of our continental 

 rivals. It is probably true that, in the special circumstances 

 of the exhibition, many prominent firms declined to 

 exhibit. The results will prove conclusively that they 

 made a mistake. Why should I exhibit ? said one 

 manufacturer ; last time I sent the best of my goods and 

 won a prize, and the French immediately put on heavy 

 duties against them. It is an argument that may have 

 some weight, but does not apply forcibly to scientific 

 apparatus ; besides, the French are not the only cus- 

 tomers. No ; the reason lies deeper. British pluck and 

 doggedness, the individual skill of the British workman, 

 which, on the average, is far above that of his foreign 

 confrere, the traditions of British ascendancy in the past, 

 can all do much, but we have not realised — shall we 

 realise them in time ? — the efforts our continental rivals 

 are making to rob us of that ascendancy. It is true, 

 as a recent writer in the Westminster Gazette puts it, 

 speaking of trade with South Africa, that 



" We must be prepared to face the truth that, unless 

 the British manufacturer bestir himself for the supply 

 of this great African community, a great deal of business 



NO. 16:0, vol . (^-^ 



which, in the natural course of events, should go to him 

 will certainly have to be diverted to Germany and 

 America." 



The first step towards curing the disease is to recog- 

 nise its presence ; and how slow we are to do that. 



The German catalogue and the exhibit are striking 

 evidences of the services rendered to German trade by 

 the Reichsanstalt. 



"The greatest share of the impetus given to the manu- 

 facture of scientific instruments,'' says the catalogue, "is 

 due to the Imperial Physical and Technical Institute. 

 . . . This institution has already done great service, and 

 a large proportion of recent progress is due to its 

 stimulating and helpful influence." 



An inspection of the exhibit fully bears this out. We 

 in England have for some time past hoped that the 

 National Physical Laboratory would do for English 

 science all the Reichsanstalt has done for Germany. 



It is now two years since the Treasury accepted gene- 

 rally the conclusions of the report of Lord Rayleigh's 

 Committee on the establishment of such a laboratory, 

 and one year since the first meeting of the General 

 Board, and for months the whole scheme has been at a 

 standstill because certain of our rulers attach more 

 weight to the protests of some who object to the selected 

 site than to the deliberate opinion of those whom they 

 have invited to organise and control the laboratory. 



It is admitted that the establishment of the laboratory 

 is of national importance. Various difficulties are 

 allowed to delay its erection ; meanwhile the Germans 

 go ahead. 



Up to the middle of the century our methods were 

 sufficient ; that condition of things has ceased. The 

 organised application of science and scientific methods 

 to trade and commerce, indeed to all the affairs of life, 

 is absolutely essential if we are to continue to prosper. 

 Will England realise this truth before it is too late ? 



NOTES. 

 The evening discourses at the mealing of the British Asso- 

 ciation at Glasgow next year will be given by Mr. Francis 

 Darwin, F.R.S., and Prof. W. Ramsay, F.R.S. The lecture 

 to working men will be delivered by Mr. H. J. Mackinder. 



Huxley's life and work is an inspiring subject for a lecturer, 

 and Lord Avebury had no difficulty in interesting the audience 

 which assembled at the Museum of Practical Geology on Tues- 

 day to hear him discourse upon it. The address was the first of 

 the annual lectures established by the Anthropological Institute 

 in memory of Huxley ; and as Lord Avebury was a close and 

 intimate friend of the master, he very appropriately inaugurated 

 the series. Readers of Nature are familiar with a large part 

 of Huxley's work, but a few points mentioned by Lord Avebury 

 will bear repetition. Huxley's Friday evening lectures at the 

 Royal Institution rivalled those of Tyndall in interest and bril- 

 liancy ; yet he said himself that at first he had almost every 

 fault a speaker could have. He was one of the foremost of those 

 who brought people to realise that science is of vital importance 

 in their lives, that it is more fascinating than a fairy tale and 

 more thrillincr than a novel, and that any one who neglects to 

 follow the triumphant march of discovery, so inspiring in its 

 moral influence and its revelations of the beauties and wonders 

 of the world, is deliberately rejecting one of the greatest in- 

 terests and comforts of life. Apart from his professional and 

 administrative duties, Huxley's works fall into three principal 

 divisions — science, education and metaphysics. Of his contri- 

 butions to science the Royal Society's catalogue enumerates 

 more than one hundred, and every one of them, in the words of 

 Prof. Parker, " contained some brilliant generalisation, some 

 new and fruitful way of looking at the facts." The value of his 



