August 8, 191 8] 



NATURE 



447 



sional opinions of technical officers too frequently 

 are not given the due weight which they deserve. 

 Science has done much for the Civil Service ; it 

 has not, in return, received the recognition which 

 it merits. 



The question arises : How can the defects and 

 abuses known to exist in the Civil Service be best 

 corrected? Remedies there are, some of which 

 have been made public. Such remedies are not 

 comp>etitive inter se : they can be applied concur- 

 rently, and are capable both of promoting the wel- 

 fare of the Civil Service and at the same time of 

 adequately protecting the public interest. The re- 

 port of Sir J. J. Thomson's Committee on the posi- 

 tion of natural science in the educational system of 

 Great Britain (Cd. 901 1) contains two important 

 recommendations having these objects in view, 

 iz. (a) that all' candidates for the competitive 

 ('xamination for the Home and Indian Civil 

 Services should supply evidence of a continuous 

 training in science extending over several years ; 

 and (b) that many posts in the public services 

 should be filled by men selected, not by the ordinary 

 competitive examination, but, at a riper age, on 

 the ground of high scientific qualifications and pro- 

 fessional experience. 



In view of the present organisation of the Civil 

 Service, it is very certain that the adoption of the 

 first of the foregoing recommendations alone, as 

 a solitary and isolated measure of reform, will 

 not cure the defects known to exist in the Service. 

 The scheme will do little to provide the Civil 

 Service with a sufficient number of men of high 

 scientific attainments and proficient technical 

 knowledge capable of administering the affairs of 

 a modern State in the spirit of progressive know- 

 ledge; it will not remove the schism between the 

 administrative and technical staffs of the same 

 Department, a schism which, unfortunately, exists 

 in some Departments to-day. 



As regards the second of the above recommenda- 

 tions, presumably the intention is that the men 

 of riper years selected on the ground of profes- 

 sional experience shall fill some of the high ad- 

 ministrative posts in the higher division. If this 

 is so, the recommendation is an admirable one 

 and worthy of immediate adoption. But the ques- 

 tion arises whether the State will provide remune- 

 ration at a rate high enough to secure for the 

 public services men of sufficiently good abilities. 

 Unless it does so, nothing will be gained by the 

 adoption of the recommendation. 



A Government pension under the special pro- 

 visions contained in section iv. of the Superannua- 

 tion Act, 1859 (22 Vict., c. 26) — i.e. one calcu- 

 lated at a higher rate than the ordinary scale — 

 might possibly, in some instances, have been con- 

 sidered by candidates a sufficient compensation for 

 the lower rates of salary prevailing in the Civil 

 Service as compared with those paid by private 

 employers and public corporations. But this 

 feature of the Government pension scheme, pro- 

 vided originally to meet the cases of the kind now 

 inder consideration, has ceased to exist: the 

 -ection of the Act of 1859 in question was re- 

 NO. 2545, VOL. lOl] 



pealed by section v. of the Superannuation Act, 

 1914 (4 & 5 Geo. v., c. 86). 



The only effective remedy for curing the ills 

 from which the Civil Service is suffering at the 

 present time consists in a root-and-branch re- 

 form, a reform involving the re-fashioning of its 

 entire framework and fabric. No dangerous or 

 expensive experiments are necessary for the pur- 

 pose of "trying out" and "proving in " a new 

 organisation : a model well worthy of imitation 

 exists in the Swedish Civil Service, with its ad- 

 ministrative boards. This model could easily be 

 adapted to meet the requirements of this country ; 

 the system of administrative boards would provide 

 a means for utilising to the best advantage the 

 existing administrative and technical officers in 

 the Civil Service by associating with them men 

 of large business and professional experience 

 drawn from outside the public services. A re- 

 organisation on the lines here suggested would 

 naturally bring in its train the recognition of the 

 necessity for a more widespread knowledge of 

 science in the Civil Service. Simultaneously, 

 effect could be given to the recommendation re- 

 garding the appointment, to permanent posts of 

 the higher division, of men of professional ex- 

 perience as recommended by Sir J. J, Thomson's 

 Committee. Finally, with the advent of the ad- 

 ministrative boards would disappear the methods 

 of administration based on the despot's maxim. 

 Divide et itnpera, methods which continue to have 

 a vogue in certain Departments. Such methods, 

 it is scarcely necessary to point out, are extremely 

 wasteful, and' can have no place in any regime 

 which relies for its prosperity and efficiency on 

 science. 



THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE SOLAR 

 SYSTEM. 



A COMMON feature of the older theories of the 

 ■^^ origin of the solar system is that they all 

 suppose it to have been derived from a more or 

 less symmetrical rotating nebula in a gaseous or 

 quasi-gaseous state. By some process, the details 

 of which differ in different theories, this mass is 

 supposed to have condensed locally to form the 

 sun and planets. A recent paper by Jeans has 

 indicated a way of examining whether such con- 

 densation is possible. Viscosity is insufficient to 

 cause a mass so large as the primitive nebula to 

 rotate like a rigid body ; each part would revolve 

 practically independently around the centre under 

 gravity, and the matter near any point, on 

 account of the differences between the velocities of 

 different parts, would be in a state of rotation 

 with an angular velocity different from that of 

 its revolution as a whole. It is, however, easily 

 shown that the two are of the same order of 

 magnitude. Now a mass cannot condense locally 

 unless the density is so great that mutual gravita- 

 tion is enough to balance the centrifugal force due 

 to the rotation, and this indicates that, before 

 condensation started at distance r from the centre, 

 the density there must have been at least com- 



