234 



NATURE 



[April 22, 1920 



Probably the best hope of an immediate improve- 

 rrjent in the relations between science and the Army 

 lies in the direction suggested by Prof. Filon in his 

 letter in Nature of April i, in which he says: — "I 

 would suggest . . . that what is most urgently 

 needed for General Staff officers is a course of 

 scientific classification and organisation, where they 

 would be taught the real meaning of scientific quali- 

 fications and the names of living authorities in 

 various subjects." 



The position of the Signal Service is a case in point. 

 I think I am correct in saying that a few years before 

 the war there was scarcely an officer outside the Signal 

 Service itself who knew what that Service was. It 

 was generally recognised among the officers of the 

 Signal Service that one of their chief duties would 

 be to advise and instruct the staff in the possibilities 

 and limitations of the Service, and that this duty 

 would not be less important than the supervision of 

 the technical duties of the Service itself. This prin- 

 ciple was applied both in manoeuvres and during the 

 war, and I think that the correctness of the views 

 held was fully borne out by experience. The ordinary 

 Staff officer eventually learnt that battles could not be 

 fought without signals, and that it was necessary to 

 take the senior signal officer into his confidence if the 

 best results were to be obtained. 



I suggest that men of science in general might well 

 follow this example. They should realise that the 

 Staff officer is a specialist in his own particular busi- 

 ness and that he cannot know everything, and they 

 should themselves advise him how science can be 

 used and what are its limitations. 



Technical and scientific societies might themselves 

 select small rommittees which would be prepared to 

 advise the War Office or other Government Depart- 

 ments on technical matters. The committees might 

 also be prepared to nominate gentlemen who could 

 visit the Staff College and other military centres and 

 give lectures on their own special subjects. The 

 lectures would not deal with technical matters to any 

 great extent, but their purpose would be to show what 

 had been done by the particular science or industrv 

 during the war, and to indicate in what directio'ns 

 assistance might be expected in future. 



One further suggestion I should like to make. 

 Certain sums are allotted from time to time in con- 

 nection with experiments on the design of militarv 

 equipment, and these funds are devoted to work v-hich 

 is caj-ried out almost entirely by militarv officers 

 acting under the instructions of War Office Com- 

 mittees. The funds now allotted are small, but I 

 suggest that additional sums might be given for 

 research work on military subjects which might be 

 allotted bv the War Office Committees to technical 

 or scientific institutions outside the Army. Periodical 

 discussions between the War Office Committees and 

 the technical institutions with res^ard to these re- 

 searches would tend to keep the War Office Staff in 

 touch with leading scientific and technical workers 

 outside, and it would permit of those personal 

 exchanges of opinion which are worth all the official 

 letters which were ever written. 



K. E. Edgeworth. 



Crowborough, April ii. 



The Universities and the Army. 



The proposals contained in the leading article in 

 Nature of April 8, that the raw material for the com- 

 missioned ranks should be university graduates rather 

 than public-school boys, mav be ideal, but it would 

 have been more practicable in 1914 than it is at the 



NO. 2634, VOL. 105] 



present day. Under the existing pressure on the uni- 

 versities there is rather a risk of the Army candidate 

 being squeezed out ; there is not accommodation for 

 all candidates for commissions to enter freely. For 

 the moment we shall have to be content with a 

 measure by which selected ofticers can be accepted at 

 universities for specialised training not readily avail- 

 able elsewhere. Thus the Services can obtain that 

 contact with living science which is so essential 

 for them, and has been so often lacking in the 

 past. This will require supplementing by courses 

 within the fighting Services if proper preparation is 

 to be made for the scientific aspects of the next war. 

 At least at the various Staff colleges trained scientific 

 workers must lecture, while selected officers should be 

 sent to work in university laboratories. The present 

 state of friendly co-operation must not be allowed to 

 disappear. 



The practice of farming out research problems to 

 scientific institutions may have favourable results if 

 pursued in a long-sighted manner and supported by 

 adequate grants (and, where necessary, by field or 

 marine trials). Given close co-operation, it should 

 lead to many problems of defence and offence being 

 foreseen and solved in advance. The man of science 

 should have his chance of pointing out to those who 

 must listen (an.d who have the power of decisive 

 action) what key industries are vital to the country's 

 safety, and cannot be allowed to pass entirely to other 

 lands. The necessary mobilisation of science at the 

 next emergency should be quicker and more practical, 

 and the man of science should have a better sense of 

 the nature of the problems that are likely to be sprung 

 upon him to solve. 



One word by way of conclusion. The fighting Ser- 

 vices are not the onlv national Services that would 

 gain bv a wide infusion of scientific knowledge and 

 method. 



F. J. M. Stratton. 



Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. 



Early Hawthorn Blossom. 



The first sound of the cuckoo and the first flowers 

 of the hawthorn have come this year about the same 

 time, which is surely a remarkable occurrence. 



It is not unusual for hawthorn blossom to appear 

 well after the beginning of May, and it has been 

 suggested that the discontinuance' of May Day festivi- 

 ties was due in part to the change in the calendar 

 introduced into this country in 1752. The change 

 made May Day, eleven days earlier by the sun, and 

 so reduced the chance of obtaining whitethorn 

 blossom, which was the proper ornament for the top 

 of the maypole and for the crown of the May Queen. 



Gilbert White's "Naturalist's Calendar" gives 

 April 20 as the earliest date for the unfolding of the 

 hawthorn blossom, but the Rev. C. A. Johns in his 

 book, "The Forest Trees of Britain," states that 

 hawthorn blossom was gathered in Cornwall on 

 April 18, 1846. This year it was seen on April 16 

 at Northwood, Middlesex. 



Jenny Rose. 



The Doctor of Philosophy in England. 



Referring to the article in Nature of April 15 on 

 this subject, I may perhaps recall to the recollection 

 of the writer that in the University of Aberdeen the 

 degree which is primarily that of Master of Arts 

 confers specifically Magister Artium et Doctor Philo- 

 sophiae. 



Henry O. Forbes. 



5 Ilchester Gardens, Bayswater. 



