344 



NATURE 



[May 13, 1920 



Agricultural Development in the West 

 Indies. 



n^HOSE interested in tropical agriculture will 

 -■- find much worthy of attention in a paper 

 on "Tropical Departments of Agriculture, with 

 Special Reference to the West Indies," written 

 by Sir Francis Watts, Imperial Commissioner of 

 Agriculture for the West Indies, and published 

 in the Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 

 (February 20). The paper contains a very interesting 

 account of the evolution of tropical Departments of 

 Agriculture, pointing out that these Departments had 

 their origin in the botanical gardens which were 

 started in the larger islands in the eighteenth century, 

 and also in the mission gardens which the early mis- 

 sionaries cultivated around their stations. The author 

 traces the decline of the British West Indian sugar 

 industry, and the efforts to revive it and to stimulate 

 agriculture by the formation of botanical departments 

 in the smaller islands. Economic conditions, however, 

 became worse, and in 1896 the West Indian Royal 

 Commission was appointed, and its report marks a 

 period in West Indian history. As an outcome of 

 this report the Imperial Department of Agriculture 

 was constituted, the expense of which was met by 

 Imperial funds. The policy of the Department was 

 to revive, extend, and improve the already existing 

 botanic gardens. This action so fostered agricultural 

 development that, at the end of ten years, the Colonial 

 finances had so improved that it was decided to 

 diminish progressively the Imperial grants to the various 

 stations, until in 1912-13 these grants ceased. Sugar 

 production is still a highly important industry; it has 

 been very much improved ; the pests and diseases of 

 the sugar-cane are understood, and, what is more im- 

 portant, the growers know how to control the pests ; 

 also, the sugar produced by the factories is now a 

 much more valuable product than the old muscovado 

 sugar. The cacao and lime industries have been 

 studied and improved ; some minor industries, e.g. 

 onion-growing, have also been studied to the advan- 

 tage of the growers ; while encouragement has been 

 given to the production of such crops as maize for 

 home consumption. The latter activity is especially 

 important at the present time, when a wheat shortage 

 is threatened. 



A Simple Viscometer. 



PARTICULARS of a remarkably simple viscometer 

 devised by Mr. A. G. M. Michell, of Melbourne, 

 are given in Engineering for April 16. The instru- 

 ment is intended for workshop use, and gives rapid 

 determinations of viscosity in absolute measure with- 

 out requiring extraordinary care or skill. It consists 

 of a cup fitted with a handle and a ball of the same 

 curvature as the cup. Contact of these surfaces is 

 prevented by three symmetrically disposed projections 

 in the cup, raised a mil or two above its surface. 

 The cup is held by its handle, and a few drops of 

 the oil to be testedare placed in it. The ball is then 

 placed in the cup and pressed firmly into it for five 

 or ten seconds. This drives some of the oil out, which 

 collects in a channel ; enough oil must be provided in 

 the first instance to ensure that the channel is filled. 

 The instrument is then inverted, and the time taken 

 for the ball to drop clear noted. This time in 

 seconds divided by the constant of the instrument is 

 equal to the absolute viscosity of the oil. The action 

 depends upon the rate at which the oil-film between 

 the cup and the ball thickens under the force of 

 gravity exerted by the ball. This flow of oil is 



NO. 2637, VOL. 105] 



resisted by its viscosity, and the time taken for the 

 ball to fall clear is accordingly directly proportional to 

 the viscosity. The above method is sufficiently 

 accurate for worlcshop use. To obtain accurate 

 results, the ball is placed at the bottom of a vessel 

 containing a considerable quantity of the liquid. The 

 cup is then lowered over the ball, taking care to 

 exclude air. After pressing the two together as before, 

 they are lifted until the ball clears the bottom of the 

 vessel, and the time it takes to drop clear is noted as 

 before. .Mr. W. Ramsay, of Messrs. Cammell and 

 Laird, has made as many as 120 most concordant 

 readings in two hours, and the results plotted quite 

 regularly. With liquids of very low viscositv, the ball 

 is suspended from the arm of a balance. By adjust- 

 ing the weights, the force tending to separate the 

 ball from the cup can be diminished to, say, one- 

 twentieth of the normal. This increases twentvfold 

 the time needed to effect the separation. The manu- 

 facture in this country has been undertaken by Messrs. 

 Michell Bearings, Ltd., 3 Central Buildings, London, 

 S.W.I. 



The Chemical Society and its New 

 By-laws. 



TT is not surprising in these days, when the jld 

 ■•- political order has been challenged in so many 

 quarters, that even the scientific societies should be 

 moved to recast their constitution and government in 

 a democratic sense. The Chemical Society is the 

 latest to complete this process of revision, and a 

 record of the chief points in which changes have been 

 made is of public interest. 



As a preliminary to any fundamental alterations, a 

 supplemental charter was found to be necessary. 

 The original charter of 1848 included many hampering 

 restrictions, prescribing, for example, the maximum 

 size of the council and the manner of its election. 

 Such provisions, devised for the conduct of a small 

 society associated mainly with London and the imme- 

 diate districts, are quite unsuitable now that the society 

 numbers more than 3500 fellows, and when probably 

 about two-thirds of these reside beyond the metro- 

 politan area. 



There has been some doubt also whether, under the 

 original charter, it was permissible to elect women 

 as fellows of the society. Uncertainty on this point 

 has now been removed by the supplemental charter, 

 which provides that fellows may be of either sex. 



Another important feature of the new by-laws 

 based on the supplemental charter is the attempt to 

 secure for provincial fellows a greater share in the 

 conduct of the society. Hitherto every important 

 matter affecting the society, including the election of 

 officers and council, has been determined at a general 

 meeting by a majority of the fellows present and 

 voting. Under the supplemental charter the society 

 has power to elect the officers and council by a postal 

 vote, and further, in certain cases, to take a poll of 

 all fellows resident in the United Kingdom. These 

 powers have been Incorporated in the new by-laws. 



Another important aspect of these is that there has 

 been kept in view the contingency of combined action 

 with kindred societies concerned in the development 

 of chemical science, as, for example, in the possible 

 acquisition of common premises, or in the publication 

 of ioint abstracts. Under the new provisions there 

 will be greater liberty to deal with such a situation 

 if and when it arises, and it may be that these par- 

 ticular modifications of the bv-laws will prove to be 

 amongst the most important that have been made. 



