Zl^ 



NATURE 



[July ii, 1918 



which naturalists may record the distribution of species. 

 This will probably be circulated among the various 

 societies. 



More than one member commented on the fact that 

 this year, when the necessity for directing attention to 

 the national value of science seemed so great, the 

 British Association jor the advancement of science had 

 decided to have no general meeting. 



THE FUTURE OF THE ENGINEERING 



TRADES. 



T^HE Report of the Departmental Committee ap- 



-*• pointed by the Board of Trade to consider the 



position of the engineering trades after the war has 



recently been issued (Cd. 9073, price 6d. net). 



The report relates to one of the largest and most 

 important of the national activities. It is chiefly 

 concerned with fiscal, commercial, and labour ques- 

 tions. The Committee estimates the annual net value 

 of the output of the engineering trades, excluding the 

 cost of materials, at 84,000,000/., and the real value 

 at 144,000,000/. 



The Committee remarks on the smallness of many 

 individual firms, in consequence of which they manu- 

 facture at a cost which could be greatly reduced if 

 they were on a larger scale, well planned and well 

 equipped ; also, that adequate departments for research 

 are necessary, but that small firms cannot bear their 

 cost. The Committee regrets the spirit of exclusive- 

 ness which has marked the engineering trade, each 

 manufacturer keeping his own secrets and desiring 

 to retain the knowledge of any special processes and 

 methods for himself. 



It is urged that standardisation must be extended. 

 For instance, locomotive manufacturers exist almost 

 entirely on foreign trade, the great railways construct- 

 ing those they require. But, except in 'the case of 

 India, locomotives are not standardised, and British 

 engineers employed by foreign railways require modi- 

 fications of their own. German and American manu- 

 facturers build to stock with economy of drawings, 

 patterns, templates, etc. The case "of imports '~'of 

 watches is curious. The average value of imported | 

 watches from Switzerland is 6s. each, and the total ' 

 value more than a million pounds. The British manu- 

 facturer does not seem prepared to supply a good, I 

 cheap watch. ' \ 



The Committee decides against the compulsory adop- I 

 tion of the metric system on the grounds that the I 

 expense would be great, and that any change should 

 be effected after agreement with the Dominions and 

 the United States. But it recommends that sub- 

 divisions of the inch should be decimalised, and the i 

 hundredweight and ton replaced bv the cental and \ 

 short ton. 



The recommendation that school education between 

 the ages of fifteen and seventeen should be confined to 

 selected boys does not 00 so far as Mr. Fisher's Educa- 

 tion BHl. As to higher education, the views of the 

 Committee are more advanced. But it is pointed out 

 that the monetary results which can be achieved by a 

 graduate of the technical or scientific side of a uni- 

 versity are incommensurate with the expense incurred, 

 and that the rewards for higher technical education 

 are still far too small. ' 



As to the much-discussed question of dumping, the 

 Committee expresses a decided view. It thinks that 

 all necessary steps should be taken to prevent dump- 

 ing wherever practised, and refers with approval to the 

 legislation in the United States and Canada. 



An account is given of the German system of cartels, 



under which a manufacturer is able to maintain a 



reasonable output in bad times, and in the case of 



articles for export receives a rebate in price on raw 



NO. 2541, VOL. IO1I 



and semi-manufactured materials. Also, in Germany 



; there are reduced railway rates on goods for export. 



It is urged that the Government should supervise, 



encourage, and assist the development of the supply 



of raw materials within the Empire. On the other 



hand, it is suggested that Government control of in- 



i dustries should end as soon as possible after the 



war; also that labour must withdraw all restriction 



of output and hampering definitions of skilled work. 



I It is clear that the Committee regards the statistics 



of trade available in this country as imperfect. 



GENETICS AND EVOLUTION. 

 nj^HE problems connected with genetics and " species- 

 A making" continue to attract the attention, both 

 in the United Kingdom and in America, of many bio- 

 logists, whose papers should not be neglected by students 

 of heredity and evolution. In the American Naturalist 

 for October last (vol. li., No. 610) Dr. R. R. Gates 

 discusses the mutation theory and the species concept. 

 With the help of many illustrative examples he tries 

 to show that " there are two distinct types of variability 

 having different geographical relations." The discon- 

 tinuous type, " independent of environmental or func- 

 tional influence, has given rise to many specific and 

 generic characters, notably in plants, but also in 

 higher animals." The continuous type "apparently 

 represents the stress of the environment on the species 

 in its dispersal," and "is notably exemplified in birds 

 and mammals." 



An exceptionally valuable study on variation in a 

 group of mammals is furnished by A. C. and A. L. 

 Hagedoorn, who write on "Rats and Evolution" in 

 the American Naturalist for July, 1917 (vol. li., 

 No. 607). These authors, who have worked from the 

 economic and systematic point of view on "the rat 

 population of the Dutch East Indies," contend that 

 assemblages definable as "species" or "varieties " can 

 be appreciated only through breeding experiments and 

 field work, the results of which must constantly be 

 invoked to check the descriptive activities of' the 

 museum specialist, who deals with dead skins and 

 skulls. In their breeding experiments the authors 

 found no new dominant characters, but " in everv 

 instance there appeared new recessive characters," for 

 every one of which, they believe, " crossing, recom- 

 bination of genes was the cause, not loss-mutation." 

 In connection with these questions. Prof. T. H. 

 Morgan's discussion on the theory of the gene {Amer. 

 Nat., vol. li., No. 609) is noteworthy; in the course 

 of his argument he refers to Prof. Jennings's important 

 address summarised in Nature of November 8 and 15, 

 19 17. Prof. Morgan contends for the stability of the 

 gene; if it vary, the variation falls around a mode. 

 This question is further elucidated by Dr. R, Gold- 

 schmidt, who describes " Genetic Experiments con- 

 cerning Evolution" {Amer. Nat., vol. Hi., No. 613), 

 carried out on the gipsy moth {Porthetria dispar) and 

 other species ; from the crossing of races the cater- 

 pillars of which show varying amounts of dark pig- 

 ment Dr. Goldschmidt concludes that the multiple 

 allelomorphs for pigmentation " are different quantities 

 of "the substance which we call a gene, which act 

 according to the mass-law of chemical reactions, i.e. 

 produce a reaction or accelerate it to a velocity in pro- 

 portion to their quantity." Insects from various 

 European and Asiatic localities have been used in these 

 experiments, and the author states that " the first step 

 in the differentiation of species which occurs in Nature 

 seems to be the formation of geographic races." 



With this paper may be compared the second instal- 

 ment of J. W. H. Harrison's "Studies in the Hybrid 

 Bistoninae" (Journal of Genetics, vol. vi.. No. 4), in 

 which details of the results of crossing several species 



