50 



NATURE 



[April 25, 1918 



Times of April 23, states that he has examined a 

 certain number of kelts in all the so-called " mend- 

 ing " stages, and has found no trace of food in any 

 of them. 



Hull is probably one of the few places in this country 

 which are extending their museums in these times. 

 It may toe remembered ithat during the Museums 

 Conference at Hull in 1913, Col. G. H. Clarke pur- 

 chased for loooZ. the Mortimer collection of York- 

 shire archsBolbgical and geological specimens, which the 

 members had an opportunity of visiting at Driffield, 

 and as the building is now required for other purposes 

 the collections have been removed. The Hull Corpora- 

 tion has taken some temporary premises in Albion 

 Street, in the centre of the city, and in these the entire 

 collection has recently been placed, and steps have 

 been taken to prepare tlie museum for public inspec- 

 tion. When it is remembered that in the archaeo- 

 logical collection alone there are the entire contents 

 of nearly four hundred barrows of (the Bronze age, as 

 well as several hundred skulls of prehistoric, Roman, 

 and Saxon date, about 1000 prehistoric, Roman, 

 Saxon, and medieval vases, some of large size, and 

 the contents of several Anglo-Saxon and Roman ceme- 

 teries, it will be understood that the removal of the 

 collection has been an undertaking of some magni- 

 tude. Nearly twenty vanloads were required to remove 

 the specimens, and we understand the entire collec- 

 tion, consisting of about 60,000 objects, has reached 

 its new quarters without damage. 



It is proposed shortly to establish in Naples a 

 National Experimental Station for Ceramics and 

 Glass-making, in which will be incorporated the exist- 

 ing Ceramic Laboratory of the Royal Museum for In- 

 dustrial Arts at Naples. L'Economiita d'ltalia for 

 April 4 states the objects of the new institution as 

 follows : — (i) To carry out researches bearing on 

 problems connected with ceramics and glass-making, 

 and to promote such manufacture by publications, lec- 

 tures, and assistance; (2) to experiment with and pub- 

 lish new methods of working, for the better utilisation 

 of raw materials, the improvement of the quality 

 of the products, and the effective utilisation of by- 

 products and waste ; (3) to investigate and suggest new 

 sources of supply of raw materials and new markets 

 for the products ; (4) to give opinions and advice ; (5) to 

 make analyses, tests, and researches, and to verify 

 instruments and apparatus when requested by the pub- 

 lic, by manufacturers, or by public bodies ; (6) to pro- 

 vide laboratory accommodation, etc., for the use of 

 students ; (7) to publish a bulletin giving results of 

 researches and other information ; (8) to admit into 

 the laboratories as pupils young students who have 

 passed through a technical college and taken a 

 diploma, etc., and intend taking up the manufac- 

 tures mentioned ; further, to hold evening and holiday 

 classes of theoretical and practical instruction for work- 

 people. 



An account of an interview with Prof. E. H. 

 Starling on the position of natural science in the 

 educational system of Great Britain, as described in 

 the report to which we directed attention last week, 

 is given in the issue of the Observer for April 21. The 

 report. Prof. Starling remarked, is an anticipation of 

 and preparation for nothing short of a revolution in 

 the intellectual life of the country. Hitherto in this 

 country we have neglected and despised science. We have 

 not understood that it is simply the whole of human 

 experience ordered and classified. A State which tries 

 to govern its affairs without science is blind. Every 

 step it takes iS a steip into unexplored ground, and it 

 only learns by bitter experience, by, tumbling into every 

 NO. 2530, VOL. lOl] 



shelUiole it comes across. That is what we call 

 "muddling through" — a method of which some people 

 are proud. The question of the future is whether our 

 democracy has learned the bitter lesson ithat the war 

 has taught us — ^that for survival it must use the laws 

 given by science, or go under. The penalty of sin is 

 death. And sin in this case is a neglect of Nature's 

 laws. One of the main points of the report is that 

 it is necessary hot only to make scientific experts, but 

 also to educate every individual in this country so 

 that he may know of the existence of this mass of 

 human experience, and may recognise that behind 

 every problem witJi which he is confronted there is 

 the great body of science to which he can appeal for a 

 right solution to his difficulties. 



Mr. L. Andrews read an interesting and suggestive 

 paper to the Institution of Electrical Engineers on 

 April 18 on the "Overseas Distribution of Engineer- 

 ing Appliances." It is generally admitted that the 

 British artisan as an engineering craftsman can hold 

 his own against all competitors. He attributes, there- 

 fore, the commercial success of Germany and 

 America in the pre-war days to the excellence of their 

 systems of distribution. The British manufacturer is 

 in too many cases content to make machines and ap- 

 paratus and trust to his agents abroad to get the 

 orders, leaving the conveyance of the goods to an out- 

 sider. This lack of co-ordination leads to unneces- 

 sary expense. To remedy this, Mr. Andrews proposes 

 a modified form of State control. Some system of 

 overseas trade service should be set up and managed 

 by the State or by the State and private enterprise 

 combined. Its first aim would be to provide facilities 

 for British subjects in all parts of the world to secure 

 British-made engineering appliances on satisfactory 

 terms, and its second aim would be to give to British 

 producers the fullest information regarding overseas 

 requirements. Mr. Andrews instanced the Govern- 

 ment Postal Service as the kind of department he ad- 

 vocated : it is run on strictly business lines, being 

 financially self-supporting, and yet it competes with 

 no private undertaking. He objected strongly to any 

 despotic mandatory control by the State. 



News of the death of Dr. Ethel de Fraine, Fellow of 

 the Linnean Society, for some years lecturer in botany 

 at Whitelands Training College, and afterwards lecturer 

 in botany at Westfield College, University of London, 

 has been received with great regret by many friends. 

 Dr. de Fraine was a conscientious worker in the field 

 of plant anatomy, particularly in the realm of seedling 

 anatomy, a branch which has acquired great promin- 

 ence of recent years. The series on the Gymnosperms, 

 in which she collaborated with Mr. T. G. Hill, adds 

 considerably to our knowledge of the obscure " transi- 

 tion " phenomena between the vascular structure of 

 the stem and that of the primary root, and a similar 

 independent contribution published in 19 10 deals with 

 the seedling structure of Cactacese. The School of 

 Seedling Anatomy, to which these publications belong, 

 was initiated by the work of the late Miss E. Sargant, 

 and arose at the beginning of the present century as a 

 modern development of that search for phylogenetic 

 clues, that hunt for the "missing link," which is 

 attributable to the spread of evolutionary ideas follow- 

 ing upon the publications of Darwin. Dr. de Fraine, 

 fixing her attention on taxonomic rather than on broad 

 phylogenetic characters, was led to conclude that the 

 study of seedlings was barren from this point of view. 

 Her research career covered a period of about ten 

 years, during which she made an incursion into the 

 realm of fossil botany with a paper entitled "The 

 Structure and Affinities of Sutcliffia." The ecological 

 expeditions in which she took part resulted in 19 13 in 



