June io, 1920] 



NATURE 



453 



and the transfer of some provincial scientific institu- 

 tions to the control of popular representatives neces- 

 sarily anxious for visible results) would retain for 

 scientific workers the security of a central Service, 

 and, so far as their research activities are concerned, 

 the advantages of the support and criticism of a senior 

 officer of their own caste. Our scheme is not an 

 attempt to impose arbitrary control, but a simple 

 response to a general petition from scientific workers 

 for protection and support. 



It cannot be applied, however, without suitable 

 modification to fit established interests and institu- 

 tions. TheVe are, for example, forest botanists who 

 are forest officers first and botanists after; their bond 

 with the Forest Service is closer than with the 

 Botanical Survey, and both should be developed as 

 complementary, not corHfieting, Services. There are 

 agricultural chemists whose community of interests 

 with the rest of the Agricultural Service forms a 

 stronger service link than their affinities to other 

 chemists ; they might more appropriately be termed 

 chemical agriculturists, and, having one of their own, 

 they need not form part of the suggested Chemical 

 Service. 



To find out whether the general principles suggested 

 bv the Commission are applicable at all to each of 

 the major sciences, and, if so, to adjust the scheme 

 to established conditions, requires examination by 

 special committees. One such committee for 

 chemistry under Prof. J. F. Thorpe has just pub- 

 lished its report, from which it will be seen that a 

 committee composed of six chemists and one adminis- 

 trative officer, after examination of witnesses and 

 institutions in various parts of India, accepts for 

 chemists the scheme which your correspondents, 

 rashly believing a privately concocted memorandum, 

 label as "servitude undisguised," a "means of en- 

 couraging mediocrity," "bureaucratic centralisation," 

 and other epithets. 



To those of vour readers who do not know the 

 motive of the private memorandum referred to above, 

 the special reasons for delaying the date for its dis- 

 tribution to everv member of the Royal Society's 

 Indian Advisorv Committee — except mvself, its chair- 

 man — and the selection of " the solid ground of 

 N.ATrRE" as the ftoint d'a-ppui, this "mass attack" 

 on the Industrial Commission's scheme has doubtless 

 all the appearance of spontaneity and honest con- 

 viction. 



Bv an oflficial accident, not foreseen by the author 

 of the private memorandum. I have now before me 

 ( i) a oroDosal from a committee of botanists for the 

 < nlargement of the Botanical Survey, and (2) the un- 

 sought advice of a forest botanist who. through com- 

 mendable but over-jealous regard for his own institu- 

 tion, submits opinions collected from ingenuous 

 scientific men and the correspondence in Nature in 

 support of his proposal, not for the expansion, but for 

 the limitation of the Botanical Survev to one crvoto- 

 gamic botanist and three specialists in medicinal 

 plants. And this in a tropical and semi-tropical 

 countrv covering i.ys^o.ooo square miles! Fortunately, 

 there is enough evidence available to justify further 

 support for, and the independent maintenance of, both 

 botanical institutions : but the nettv jealousies of those 

 who suffer from this form of mental astigmatism 

 scarcelv reinforce one's efforts to secure for isolated 

 unorganised workers in other sciences the benefits now 

 onjoved bv the fteolo£?ist. or to secure for all^ scientific 

 workers in Tndia the privileges and recognition long 

 a<^o accorded to engineers, doctors, and the members 

 of the Indian Civil Service. 



Thomas H. Holland, 

 President, Indian Industrial Commission. 



Simla, May 5. 



NO. 2641, VOL. 105] 



[The leading article to which Sir Thomas Holland 

 refers described the proposals of the Indian Industrial 

 Commission and discussed the policy of centralisation 

 and the creation of graded scientific Services in com- 

 parison with the present system under which research 

 is carried on in India. In the correspondence which 

 followed attention was given chiefly to the general 

 principles of " Organisation of Scientific Work," and 

 it was not necessary to be familiar with the Report 

 of the Commission in order to .express opinions upon 

 these, or to urge that creative investigators produce 

 their best results when they are given perfect freedom 

 of action. The proposed scientific Services of India 

 may, as regards their aims, be compared with the 

 Industrial Research Associations at home, and are 

 similarly capable of promoting progress in both pure 

 and applied science. But the work carried on at 

 universities and research institutes by men outside 

 official Services has even greater need of financial 

 support, because its value is not so readily understood. 

 This is the aspect of productive research with which 

 we are particularly concerned, and for which we ask 

 full consideration. — Ed. N.atcre.] 



Anti-Gas Fans. 



I HAVE read Mrs. Ayrton's letter in Xatlre of 

 June 3, after, unfortunately, missing the note in the 

 issue of May 13, as well as the Times correspondence 

 referred to. I have no intention of entering into a 

 controversy, polemical or otherwise, with Mrs. Ayrton, 

 but should like to put my views before your readers, 

 as I believe them to be shared generally not only by 

 Headquarters Gas Service ofticers, but also by regi- 

 mental soldiers of all ranks, including Gas personnel. 



The crux of the matter is this : The problems 

 involved in gas defence after July, 19 17, when the 

 enemv commenced using "mustard gas," were of a 

 totally different nature from those which had to be 

 faced before that date. Then, apart from small 

 quantities of the annoying, but otherwise practically 

 innocuous, "tear gas," we had to deal with moderate 

 quantities of lethal gas shell, containing the volatile 

 " diphosgene," and, very occasionally, with waves of 

 cloud gas. Under those conditions the gas, except in 

 very cold weather, disappeared quickly (a matter of 

 minutes) from the open, or even from trenches of 

 average depth, but was liable to collect and remain 

 in shelters for hours, or even days. When such 

 shelters had been once cleared thev were habitable, 

 as no "gas" remained outside in the neighbourhood 

 to contaminate them further. For this purpose the 

 .\vrton fan was found to be useful, and large numbers 

 were issued as trench stores. Later the more simple, and 

 Quite as efficacious, method was introduced of merely 

 lighting a small fire in the shelter, and thus causing a 

 throuc-h draught. This was found to be distinctlv 

 superior for deeo shelters, such as those in the chalk 

 countrv of the Somme battlefield, and, moreover, was 

 far less fatiguing to the men employed. W^orking an 

 .\vrton fan, even in the most approved fashion, when 

 wearing a gas-mask on a hot day. is a tiring task. 



.After the date mentioned we had essentially to deal 

 with a relatively non-volotile shell-filling, which pro- 

 duced its well-known effects at concentrations far 

 below those at which the volatile fillings be'^ame 

 innocuous, and was used bv the enemv in ven- large 

 quantities. This gave little warning of its presence 

 to the uninitiated, soaked much of the f*round and 

 pervaded the whole atmosphere in the shelled area for 

 davs afterwards, made great demands on the endur- 

 ance and discipline of the soldier, and called for ouite 

 new measures. This is not the place to discuss these 

 measures, but it is clear that the use of either fire or 



