January io, 191 8] 



NATURE 



369 



cipal functions the conduct of an economic survey 

 of the natural resources of South Africa, the exten- 

 sion of provision for industrial research, co-ordina- 

 tion of industrial investigation, the elimination of 

 overlapping- in such work, and the provision of 

 means for taking advantage of facilities for investi- 

 i^-^ation not available in South Africa by co-opera- 

 tion with similar organisations in the United King- 

 dom and the other British dominions. The com- 

 mittee has so far made two chief recommendations, 

 viz, (i) the appointment of various authorities in 

 South Africa to report on the natural resources of 

 the country, and (2) the publication of an industrial 

 journal to give publicity to the reports and data 

 collected under the committee's auspices. The first 

 of these recommendations is being carried out, and 

 the second has been given effect to in the issue of 

 the South African Journal of Industries. 



In common with most of the overseas British 

 dominions South Africa, largely as a result of the 

 war, is in the throes of new industrial develop- 

 ments with the view of providing the necessaries it 

 formerly imported, but which it can no longer 

 procure from the manufacturing countries in 

 Europe. The first number of the journal is natur- 

 ally largely occupied with articles surveying the 

 present situation. Among these may be mentioned 

 Mr. Warington Smyth's article on "The Begin- 

 nings of Organisation for Industrial Expansion "; 

 that on the "Census of Manufacturing Industries, 

 1917," by Mr. C. W. Cousins, Acting Director of 

 the Census; and Dr. Lehfeldt's report on "The 

 Economics of Agricultural Production in South 

 .Africa." Among the new South African industries 

 to which attention is directed is the manufacture 

 of industrial alcohol, for use as a motor fuel, from 

 the molasses produced on sugar estates in Natal. 

 A report by the Imperial Institute on the results of 

 examination of the fruits of Ximenia americana is 

 printed, and Dr. Philips contributes a useful 

 risume of the information available regarding 

 "buchu," a drug the production of which is a 

 monopoly of South Africa. 



The article in Nature already mentioned directs 

 attention to the difficulties of co-ordinating indus- 

 trial research in the United Kingdom, and shows 

 that there is no evidence that such co-ordination 

 has yet been effected or is in process of being 

 arranged. The appearance of the South African 

 Journal of Industries is a reminder of the exist- 

 ence of the larger and still more difficult problem 

 of devising means for the utilisation of the re- 

 sources of the Empire within the Empire itself, 

 and the solution of which is of first-rate importance 

 to both British and Colonial industries. 



NOTES, 

 Among the promotions in and appointments to the 

 Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for ser- 

 vices in connection with the war announced 

 on Tuesday, we notice the following -.—Knights 

 Commanders (K.B.E.) : Mr. James Cantiie, member of 

 Council and of Executive Committee, British Red Cross 

 Society; Col. C. F. Close, Director-General of the 

 Ordnance Survey of the United Kingdom; Dr. W. 

 NO. 2515, VOL. 100] 



Morley Fletcher, secretar}- of the Medical Research 

 Committee; Dr. J. Gallowav, Chief Commissioner for 

 Medical Services, Ministry of National Service; Dr. 

 R. Robertson, superintending chemist, Research De- 

 partment, Woolwich Arsenal; Prof. W. H. Thompson, 

 scientific adviser to the Ministry of Food. Com- 

 manders {C.B.E.): Prof. F. J. Cheshire, adviser on 

 scientific side of Optical Munitions Branch, Ministrv 

 of Munitions; Dr. G. H. Fowler, Hvdrographic De- 

 partment, Admiralty; Prof. W. R. iiudgkinson, pro- 

 fessor of chemistry and metallurgy, Ordnance College 

 Woolwich; Mr. R. G. K. Lempfert, Superintendent of 

 the Forecast Division, Meteorological Office; Prof. 

 W. J. Pope, professor of chemistry. University of 

 Cambridge, member of panel of Board of Invention 

 and Research, Admiralty; Prof. T. B. Wood, Drapers 

 professor of agriculture in the University of Cam- 

 bridge, adviser on meat production to the President of 

 the Board of Agriculture, and chief executive officer, 

 •Army Cattle Purchase Scheme; Mr. G. Udnv Yule, 

 Director of Requirements, Ministry of Food. In addi- 

 tion, about two thousand names are included in lists 

 of new officers and members of the Order (O.B.E. and 

 M.B.E.). — Prof. James Ritchie, Irvine professor of bac- 

 teriology, University of Edinburgh, asks us to correct; 

 the mistake made in last week's issue of Nature 

 announcing that a baronetcy had been conferred upon 

 him. The recipient ol the distinction was not Prof. 

 Ritchie, but Sir James W. Ritchie, son of a former 

 Lord Mayor of London. We regret the error, but the 

 Press announcement that it was Prof. Ritchie who had 

 received the honour was perhaps a natural one for a 

 scientific journal to accept. 



Is the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scot- 

 land doing its duty in strengthening and developing 

 scientific study and research? That is the question 

 suggested by the report of a special committee pub- 

 lished in the December number of the Journal of the 

 British Science Guild. The question was first raised 

 in an incisive manner by Prof. Soddy in an article 

 communicated to Science Progress (January, 1917), and 

 further inquiry seems to show that his contention is 

 well founded. There may be some difference of opinion 

 as to the exact interpretation of Clause A of the Trust 

 Constitution ; but there can be no doubt that the main 

 object of the trust is to foster science, pure and applied, 

 in all its branches, and to strengthen that side of uni- 

 versity education which is of direct technical or com- 

 mercial value. In the light of that general principle 

 the following facts are well worthy of careful considera- 

 tion : — (i) Only 14 per cent, of the available funds 

 have been expended on scientific research,; (2) by en- 

 dowment out of Carnegie Funds of certain scientific 

 departments, monev formerly spent in their mainten- 

 ance has been diverted into other channels, so that 

 the university on its scientific side has not really been 

 strengthened; (3) among the twenty-two members of 

 the Board of Trustees, there have never been more, 

 and have usually been fewer, than four who could be 

 regarded as representing science, the majority being 

 practically ignorant of the methods, and even the 

 meaning, of research. 



Steps are being taken to incorporate the Selborne 

 Society and to widen its objects, so that it may not in 

 anv vvay be hamper'^'d in its efforts to bring home to 

 the public, especially through its lecturers, the great 

 value of science to the community. 



The death is announced, on January 5, in his 

 sixty-seventh year, of Mr. R. C. Woodcock, fellow of the 

 Institute of Chemistry' and of the Chemical Society, 

 and author of a number of papers upon analytical 

 chemistry. 



