June 17, 1920] 



NATURE 



49t7 



and more particularly from Germany. The Govern- 

 ment experienced great difficulty in getting in touch 

 with manufacturers, and it was at the suggestion of 

 the Ministry of Munitions that the B.L.S.G.M.A. was 

 formed. Mr. Baird emphasised the necessity of each 

 member in the association uniting to their utmost in 

 promoting- and fostering the industry. He pointed 

 out that it was only by united effort to turn out 

 instruments of the highest class of manufacture that 

 the country could hope to keep out the importation of 

 foreign glassware. 



Sir C. H. Read, in his presidential address de- 

 livered before the Society of Antiquaries, does not 

 take an optimistic view of the prospects of archaeo- 

 logical research. While the late German Govern- 

 ment lavished treasures on the Berlin museums, the 

 British Museum, our one institution archaeological in 

 its aims, is hampered by lack of funds. Again, the 

 regulations against the export of specimens from 

 countries under our control have proved to be in- 

 effective. For example, specimens found in Cyprus 

 are smuggled to any other art centre rather than 

 to London, and the silver treasures from that island 

 passed easily into the Pierpont Morgan galleries in 

 New York. The same result of Government action 

 is anticipated in India. The president is, however, 

 .scarcely fair in his strictures on the Indian Govern- 

 ment. Why, he asks, are the Indian museums filled 

 with statuary of the Buddhist age? — things which he 

 believes are hated by Mussulmans and almost equally 

 disliked by Hindus. He forgets that many of the 

 Indian Mussulmans, being converts from Hinduism, 

 have in a measure lost that hatred for repre- 

 sentations of the human forrn which survives in 

 orthodox cities like Cairo. Hindus have recognised 

 Buddha as an incarnation of Vishnu, and the ignorant 

 Hindif villager often worships a figure of the Master 

 as a representation of some local deity, male or even 

 female. But Sir Hercules Read is well justified in 

 pleading for the development of excavation in 

 Babylonia and in Egypt, in which latter country Prof. 

 Flinders Petrie has done admirable work with very 

 limited resources. He also wisely lays stress on the 

 fact that, while our galleries abound in examples of art 

 in its highest forms, we have comparatively little to 

 illustrate the everyday social life of the populations 

 which are now subject to our control. 



The tenth International Cotton Congress was held 

 in Zurich on June 9-1 1. In the course of its pro- 

 ceedings a highly suggestive paper was read by Dr. 

 W. Lawrence Balls, scientific expert and adviser to 

 the" Fine Cotton - Spinners' Association, Ltd., Man- 

 chester, on "The Nature, Scope, and Difficulties of 

 Research," in which he dealt with the foundation of 

 research, the past and present scope of the research 

 on cotton, the British organisation^ of cotton re- 

 searches, and international research.- The demand for 

 scientific research, with the, view of enlarging the 

 possibilities of the industry, embracing not only the 

 cultivation of the plant, but also every subsequent 

 process in its utilisation, has been induced by 

 various changes in recent years. There is a 

 vast accumulation of experience in the cotton 

 NO. 2642, VOL. 105] 



' industry, together with a small stock-in-trade of 

 generdl knovVledge. Most of the work of the first 

 decade undertaken by the scientific workers will have 

 to be spent in defining what the spinner knows, and 

 th^n in reducing the incoherent mass of details to a 

 small number of generalisations easy to grasp. The 

 question of the method of utilisation of the results 

 of research which may be condensed under the title 

 of publication is summed up in a line : To ascertain 

 the true facts, to conceal nothing known, and to take 

 personal responsibility. There must be individualism 

 in effort and communism in knowledge, which is put 

 forward as the code of the pure scientific worker. With 

 respect to a code of research for industry, the author 

 insists on the need for individual effort, but also that 

 after five years the industrial research worker and his 

 employer-colleague shall rrlake known the true facts 

 ascertained, which, whilst giving full advantage to the 

 business concerned, shall yet give fair and full assist- 

 ance to the general advance of man's power over his 

 environment. 



In Man for May Mrs. M. E. Cunnington describes 

 a curious stone mould found on the Worms' Head, 

 Glamorganshire. It is made of two pieces of fine- 

 grained red ^sandstone about an inch thick. On the 

 corresponding sides of the two stones are matrices for 

 casting four objects : a large ring ornamented with a 

 raised pattern of S-like scrolls enclosed by two narrow 

 rows of irregular chevrons or waved lines, a ring with 

 seven star-like rays, a second ring, and another 

 smaller with a raised pattern of waved lines or loops 

 with seven points. It is suggested that this orna- 

 mentation has been designed with some reference to 

 sun-worship, the disc, the rayed star, and the S scrolls 

 being all well-known solar symbols derived from the 

 wheel. From the objects found in association with 

 these moulds it may be inferred that they belong to 

 the Early Iron age. This part of the coast, though 

 difficult of access by land, was easily reached by sea 

 from other parts of Britain and from the Continent. 

 The moulds may thus possibly have been introduced 

 from abroad. 



The Oxford University Press has issued a revised 

 edition of its General Catalogue, which was first 

 produced in 19 16. It is not only an excellent descrip- 

 tion of the varied activities of this great publishing 

 institution, but it is also valuable as a fine example 

 of scientific bibliography, and forms very interesting 

 reading. The Press offers this valuable service to 

 science and literature that the profits derived from 

 school books and other more or less popular works 

 are devoted to the publication of expensive volumes 

 of permanent value which the ordinary publisher 

 may hesitate to produce. One book, Woide's Coptic 

 New Testament, published in 1799, is still on sale. 

 There is an account of the " Dictionary of National 

 Biography," the copyright of which was presented to 

 the University by the family of its founder,' the late 

 George M. Smith. Preliminary work under, the 

 direction of Mr. H. W. Carless Davis is now- ir> 

 progress with the view of maintaining and-extending 

 its usefulness. A history, of course, is given of what is 

 now called the "Oxford Dictionary, '',W|hichsince the 



