24 



NATURE 



[March 14, 19 18 



country. Only a few remarks are called for. The 

 section on surveying includes a good description 

 of the methods and instruments usually employed 

 in the measurement of land, and gives specimen 

 pages of field books. In the part dealing with 

 weights and measures there are tables not only 

 of the metric system, the use of which is now 

 general throughout France, but also of various 

 old French denominations, which, if not used at 

 the present time in commerce or science, are at 

 least often met with in legal documents. Par- 

 ticulars of the weights and measures of foreign 

 countries are also given, and so far as regards 

 the English system these are generally accurate. 

 The compiler is not, however, aware that the 

 metric carat of 200 mg. is the only legal unit of 

 weight in this country for diamonds and precious 

 .stones, as he gives the equivalent of the obsolete 

 English carat on p. 41. The troy weights men- 

 tioned on p. 44 are not, as there stated, used in 

 this country by chemists ; we have a special apothe- 

 caries' weight. On the whole, the work bears 

 evidence of careful compilation, and is likely to 

 prove useful to the professional men to whom it 

 particularly appeals. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 

 [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for 

 opinions expressed hy his correspondents. Neithei 

 can he undertake to return, or to correspond with 

 the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for 

 this or any other part of Nature. No notice is 

 taken of anonymous communications.] 



Patents and Scientific Research. 



-In connection with the excellent article on " Patents 

 and Scientific Research" in Nature of February 21, 

 may T direct the attention of your readers to another 

 article on ;the same subject published in Science Pro- 

 gress of January, 19 14? Both articles must be read if 

 any attempt is to be made to fit the patent system 

 on to scientific research. 



, In my opinion, however, much the best way to 

 encourage high intellectual effort of all kinds would 

 be to establish a national pension fund for men whose 

 work in any line has been of benefit to large' numbers 

 ot the public without being remunerative to them- 

 selves, or, as sometimes happens, while being of actual 

 pecuniary disadvantage to themselves. I have sug- 

 gested this idea over and over again, but regret that 

 1 cannot get anyone to pay attention to it. For 

 Britain, the present Civil List Pensions should be con- 

 verted into such a pension scheme as I suggest The 

 pensions, which I anticipate would scarcely amount 

 to more than 2o,oooZ. a year altogether for Britain 

 ought to be allotted by a standing committee with a 

 paid office— somewhat in the manner of the Nobel 

 prizes Of course, decision on rival merits of possible 

 candidates may often be difficult, but the same diffi- 

 culties now present themselves to all learned societies 

 in allotting medals and other honours, and also to the 

 Premier in allotting Civil List Pensions. 



Yet another method is to admit the precedent of 

 Jenner, who received 30,000/. on petitioning Parlia- 

 ment. I tried this method, as a test of the intelli- 

 gence of the country, before the war (see Science Pro- 

 NO. 2524, VOL. lOl] 



^resi, October, 1915); ibut the present Premier, when 

 he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, refused to allow 

 my petition to go forward, although my lawyers 

 assured me that it was a perfectly valid one. 



At present the British nation is paying large sums 

 of money to supply junior scientific workers with 

 laboratory facilities and small salaries for doing pot- 

 boiler scientific work in the hope of possibly making 

 some discovery in the future, while it gives nothing 

 whatever to those who have already done work of 

 established and even universal value. I wonder why 

 our countrymen find it so difficult to understand such 

 simple ideas. Ronald Ross, 



Editor of Science Progress. 



36 Harley House, London, N.W.i, March 4. 



Whale-meat in War Time. 



An announcement in the daily Press states that 

 whale-imeat furnished the principal article of food at 

 a luncheon given in New York by the American 

 Museum of Natural History to demonstrate the possi- 

 bilities of whale-meat for home consumption, in order 

 that the beef thus saved might foe sent by America to 

 relieve the scarcity prevailing among the Allies in 

 Europe. 



All who were privileged to partake of this luncheon 

 must have gone away satisfied that the substitution of 

 this meat for beef and mutton would entail no hard- 

 ship, but, on the contrary, would prove a welcome 

 addition to the bill of fare. This at any rate is the 

 conclusion arrived at by members of the staff of the 

 British Museum of Natural History, who have recently 

 experimented with the flesh of a white-<beaked dolphin 

 stranded on the Suffolk coast. 



Unfortunately, we can do little to assist in this sav- 

 ing, for the whales in our home-waters cannot be 

 "fished," since neither ships nor men are available for 

 the purpose. .Similarly, lack of tonnage prevents im- 

 portation from the Antarctic v/aters and elsewhere 

 under cold storage. 



It is to be hoped, however, that the fullest possible 

 use will be made of the carcasses of the various species 

 of Cetacea stranded around our coasts. Of course, 

 no great quantity of meat would thus be obtained, but 

 locally it should form a very welcome addition to the 

 scanty meat rations now of necessity prevailing. 



Whale-meat has no fat, but is encased in a thick 

 layer of "blubber," which, when boiled down with 

 water, yields a large quantity of clear, amber-coloured 

 oil, just now very precious. It has, however, a slight 

 and rather unpleasant odour, but it should not be 

 difficult to eliminate this. 



The dark red colour of whale-meat is likely to arouse 

 prejudice against it. But if those who have opportunity 

 will only make trial of its qualities as a food, they 

 will find it scarcely distinguishable from beef, and 

 quite as palatable. Such experiments may well create 

 a demand for this meat after the war. This should 

 lead to a revival of the now extinct Dundee whaling 

 industry, remodelled after the methods followed by the 

 Norwegians, in whose hands modern whaling now 

 almost entirely rests. The difficulty of finding suitable 

 gunners could easily be overcome by employing men 

 trained in the Navy. Many new industries will arise 

 among us after the war. This may well be among the 

 number. It is ridiculous to suppose that we are unable 

 to master the requirements of modern whaling; but, 

 as matters now stand, British whaling companies have 

 to depend for their principal officers on Norwegians. 

 There is no reason why this state of things should 

 continue. W. P. Pycraft. 



