30 



NATURE 



[September 6, 19 17 



many years pressed for the establishment of a National 

 Institute of Technical Optics. In the spring of 1916 

 the Higher Education Sub-Committee of the London 

 County Council put a scheme befo/e the Board of Edu- 

 cation, which included the establishment of a new de- 

 partment for post-graduate education and research at 

 the Imperial College, the strengthening of the existing 

 department of technical optics at the Northampton 

 Polytechnic Institute, and the appoinment pf a single 

 director with a specially constituted committee to super- 

 vise the work, both at South Kensington and Clerken- 

 well. The London County Council offered to defray 

 one-quarter of the capital and maintenance charges of 

 the new department at the Imperial College, and has 

 accordingly contributed loooL a year for maintenance, 

 with a special capital sum of 2500Z. for alterations and 

 equipment. The scheme appeared to us to be promis- 

 ing, and after conference with the Board of Educa- 

 tion, the London County Council, and the Imperial 

 College, we recommended your lordships to make a 

 grant of 750L for special apparatus and an annual 

 maintenance grant of loooL a year for five years pro- 

 vided the scheme agreed upon at the joint conference 

 was put in force. The governors of the Imperial Col- 

 lege offered the necessary accommodation for the pro- 

 posed department, and later voted a sum of 2000Z, for 

 equipment. After further negotiation with the gover- 

 nors of the Northampton Polytechnic Institute and with 

 the Board of Scientific Societies, which had interested 

 itself in the project, the scheme was adopted by all the 

 hodies immediately concerned. 



New Series of Optical Text-Books. 



With a due regard to the needs of the industry and 

 of research students in technical optics, our Glass and 

 Optical Instruments Committee have directed our at- 

 tention to the deficiency of books in *^he English lan- 

 guage on geometrical and technical optics. They re- 

 commend that a series of foreign works on these sub- 

 jects should be translated and published, with correc- 

 tions and additions, a proposal strongly supported by 

 the Ministry of Munitions. We have endorsed this 

 recommendation, and the Committee of Council have 

 accordingly authorised the issue by the department of 

 revised versions in English of the following standard 

 works at cost price : — 



Von Rohr : " Die Theorie der optischen Instrumente," 

 vol. i., " Die. Bilderzeugung in optischen Instrumenten." 



Gleichen : " Die Theorie der modernen optischen In- 

 strumente." 



Ferraris (Tr. by Lippich) : "Die Fundamental-Eigen- 

 schaften der dioptrischen Instrumente." 



At the close of our report last year we remarked that 

 " if it is supposed that modern industry can be de- 

 veloped or even maintained by a process of detailed 

 investigations, a series of particular inquiries, however 

 careful, the time, trouble, and expense will be largely 

 wasted." We are not likely, therefore, to suppose that 

 • the considerable number of inquiries we have initiated 

 or aided and have referred to in this part of our report 

 are any adequate measure of the progress made in deal- 

 ing with the difficult situation with which British in- 

 dustry is faced. Whatever has been accomplished 

 would be better understood by comparing the general 

 attitude of manufacturers to-day with their attitude 

 before the war, or even eighteen months ago; by 

 noticing the rapidity with which men of science at long 

 last are coming to their own ; by listening to the altered 

 tone of all classes, and not least the men of business, 

 towards the claims of education. May we add that if 

 our labours are helping to prepare one of the roads for 

 the corning advance, it will be due in the main to our 

 conviction that roads can only be built in country that 

 has been adequately surveyed? 



NO. 2497, VOL. too] 



BOOKS RECEIVED. 



Chile. Pp. 301. (Santiago : Chilian Government 

 Hygrometric Tables for Use with Rotating Dry a 

 Wet Bulb Thermometers. By Dr. W. Doberck. V 

 17. (London : Williams and Norgate.) 25. 6d. net. 



Introduction to the Calculus of Variations. 1 

 Prof. W. E. Byerly. Pp. 48. (Cambridge, Mas^ 

 I Harvard University Press ; London : Oxford Univ< 

 I sity Press.) 3s. 6d. net. 



I Health in Camp. By Dr. A. T. Nankivell. Pp. in 

 ' 84. (London : Constable and Co., Ltd.) is. net. 

 Papers from the Geological Department, Glasgi 

 University. Vol. iii., 1916. (Glasgow: J. Maclehi 

 ! and Sons.) 



Introduction to the Physiology and Psychology 

 Sex. By Dr. S. Herbert. Pp. xii+136. (London. , 

 A. and C. Black, Ltd.) y. 6d. net. 



Technical Handbook of Oils, Fats, and Waxes. By 

 P. J. Fryer and F. E. Weston. Vol. i.. Chemical and 

 General. Pp. x + 279-fplates xxxvi. (Cambridge: At 

 the University Press.) gs. net. 



Bedfordshire. By C. G. Chambers. Pp. x+195. 

 (Cambridge : At the University Press.) is. 6d. net. 



The Theory of the Submarine Telegraph and 

 Telephone Cable. By Dr. H. W. Malcolm. 

 Pp. xi + j;65. (London: Electrician Printing and Pub- 

 lishing Co., Ltd.) i8s. net. 



The Jewish Child : Its History, Folklore, Biology, 

 and Sociology. By W. M. Feldman. Pp. xxvi + 45i + 

 plates ii. (London : Baillifere and Co.) los. 6d. net. 



Zur Auffassung der Verwandtschafts-Verhaltnisse 

 der Tiere. By J. E. V. Boas. Pp. 61. (Kopenhagen : 

 A. Bays.) 3 kroner. 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



The Psychopathy of the Barbed Wire. By Sir 



Robert Armstrongr-Jones i 



Scientific Home-Making. By M. R. T 3 



Speculative Anthropology 4 



; Identification of Plants 1^ 



! Letters to the Editor: — 



I Unusual Rainbows.— J. L. ; C. T. Whitmell ; Dr. 



F. W. Aston ; Lieut. W. Neilson Jones ( WiJk 



Diagram.) . . . ... 5 



The Sounds of Gunfire. — C. Carus-Wilson .... 6 



Education and Industry . . . 6 



National Worth of Chemical Laboratories . . 8 

 I Some Recent Danish Medico-Historical Writings. 



By W. B 9 



Notes 9 



I Our Astronomical Column :— 



j Solar Radiation and Terrestrial Meteorology .... 14 



I Proper Motion of the Great Andromeda Nebula . . 14 



j The Lunar Eclipse of July 4 ..... 14 

 The Modern Range-Finder. By Prof. C. V. Boys, 



1 F.R.S 14 



The Relations of Mathematics to the Natural 



Sciences. By Prof. J. W. Nicholson, F.R.S. . . . 16 

 Precise Levelling in the West of England. By 



H. G. L 16 



Scientific and Industrial Research 17 



Books Received . . . . 20 



Editorial and Publishing Offices : 



MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd., 



ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON, W.C.2. 



Advertisements and business letters to be addressed to the 

 Publishers. 



Editorial Communications to the Editor 

 Telegraphic Address : Phusis, London. 

 Telephone Number : Gfrrard 8830. 



