246 



NATURE 



[November 29, 191; 



strong-er claim than that of the Public Works De- 

 partment) to participate in the deliberations of the 

 Board. But, leaving- the great departments of 

 State on one side, there are other very important 

 interests that mig-ht with advantage be directly 

 associated with State science, such as the chambers 

 of commerce, the various associations of special 

 trades and industries, the learned societies, the 

 Industrial Conference, the superintendents of 

 museums, the directors of industries, of engineer- 

 ing works, factories, foundries etc., and the experts 

 in charge of the investigations into silk, cotton, jute, 

 paper, timbers, dyes, tans, leather, tea, coffee, etc., 

 both public and private — these and many others 

 need opportunity, g-uidance, encourag^ement, or, it 

 may be, direct help. The Board of Scientific Advice 

 will not fulfil its programme of public service until 

 it has designed a working plan that will link up all 

 branches of industry with both official and private 

 science research. 



For some reason, unknown to the public, the old 

 office, first designated that of the Reporter on Pro- 

 duce to the Secretary of State and then resident in 

 London, and afterwards that of the Reporter on 

 Economic Products to the Government of India 

 and resident in India, has been abolished and its 

 duties assumed apparently by the officers of eco- 

 nomic branches in botany, zoology, geology^ agri- 

 culture, and forestry. But this new arrangement, 

 while it gains in official influence, fails in public 

 advantage, . since it loses touch very largely with 

 commerce. To the merchant it is immaterial 

 whether a resin, a medicine, or a fibre is of animal, 

 vegetable, or mineral origin. If, therefore, he has 

 to go from one State department to another in 

 search of needed information, he may find his 

 patience exhausted long before he has discovered 

 the object of his quest. With a Reporter on 

 Economic Products (and a commercial museum 

 fully equipped with all products, whether of animal, 

 veg-etable, or mineral origin) attention could be 

 focussed on the products themselves, not on de- 

 partmental limitations. It is to be feared that this 

 illustration exemplifies the danger that underlies 

 much of the Indian departmental research, even 

 when controlled by a central org-anisation such as 

 that of the Board of Scientific Advice. The cart 

 is put before the horse. The machinery is cum- 

 brous and research made to supersede material, 

 both in interest and value. Is the Board working 

 so as finally to meet this position? Has it not 

 even now been made evident that a bureau or ex- 

 change (call it by whatever name you please) may 

 have to be reorganised so as to act as the Re- 

 porter on Economic Products did, as the inter- 

 mediary between science and commerce in all 

 departments ? 



It is scarcely necessary to classify research ; there 

 are obvious diversities accordingf to the object aimed 

 at — commercial, medical, veterinary, etc. Hence 

 it follows that the field of operations covered by the 

 Board of Scientific Advice is far wider than that of 

 economics pure and simple, but it may perhaps be 

 useful to concentrate attention on one issue, since 

 It is more or less illustrative of the whole of the 

 NO. 2509, VOL. 100] 



Board's activities. Is there any particular advan- 

 tage in the report becoming a channel of publica- 

 tion for jottings, interesting no doubt, but often 

 gleaned from papers and periodicals published 

 throughout the world, instead of being confined to 

 a fairly detailed Imperial review of the actual 

 operations controlled by the Board? In place of 

 jottings one is surely justified in looking for special 

 chapters devoted, far more than they are, to nar- 

 rating commercial and industrial requirements and 

 setting forth the progress made with such pre- 

 viously agreed-upon subjects of investigation. 



So, again, too' much importance would appear 

 to be attached to the compilation of lists of scien- 

 tific papers, books, and periodicals. The report 

 is thereby converted into a sort of advance proof 

 of the catalogue of the Royal Society. Doubtless 

 these classified lists, especially of extra-Indian 

 publications, are useful to the various departments 

 concerned, but they do not appear of sufficient im- 

 portance to constitute so very distinct a feature of 

 the annual report of the Board of Scientific Advice 

 for India. Further enumerations of the names to 

 new species of plants or animals, discovered during 

 the year, scarcely amount to manifestations of 

 scientific research. Systematic studies in the 

 aggregate stand on quite a different platform from 

 the mere mention of a few individual species, in 

 themselves of no importance. Trivialities of this 

 nature give the impression that the fundamental 

 principles of research are being lost sight of, and 

 possibly very largely so, through the reason set 

 forth, namely, of science being divorced from com- 

 merce and industry. 



PITFALLS OF METEOROLOGICAL 

 PERIODICITIES.' 



THERE is a real danger that some meteorolo- 

 gists, resenting the accusation frequently 

 made against them of accumulating masses of 

 data without making any real use of them, may 

 be tempted to apply the processes of mathematical 

 analysis to any and every set of observations, re- 

 gardless of the considerations which limit the 

 suitability of the method for the particular data 

 proposed for analysis. This may easily be 

 the case when hunting for periodicity. There is a 

 great temptation, especially for anyone accus- 

 tomed to the regularity of so many cosmic 

 phenomena, such as eclipses, comets, planets, etc., 

 to expect to find such periods recurring in the 

 weather, but the work before us, consisting of the 

 essential portions of a dissertation by Dr. Ryd, for- 

 tunately thought worthy by Capt. Ryder, direc- 

 tor of the Danish Meteorological Institute, of a 

 wider publication, and so included in the Communi- 

 cations of the Institute and done into intelligible 

 English, should be studied before much time is- 

 spent in the search. 



Dr. Ryd sets out clearly certain characteristics 

 of meteorological data, wherein they differ essen- 

 tially from, e.g., astronomical data. One of these 



1 Publikationer fra Det Danske Meteorologiske Institut Meddelelser. 

 No. 3, " On Computation of Meteorological Observations. By V. H. Ryd.. 

 (Copenhagen, 1917.) 



