598 



NATURE 



[July 8, 1920 



the Food Administration in urging the consumption of 

 these commodities to relieve the pressure upon wheat 

 and animal products. The increased consumption of 

 oleomargarine was no doubt due to a favourable price 

 in comparison with that of butter and lard. 



Prof. Pearl provides a summary of daily consurnp- 

 ♦tion per " man," which again brings out the uniformity 

 from year to year. The largest figure is 4361 Calories 

 in 1913-14, and the smallest 42 11 in 1916-17. The 

 average figures are: 121 grams of protein, 169 grams 

 of fat, and 542 grams of carbohydrate, yielding 4290 

 Calories. Assuming that 5 per cent, of protein, 20 per 

 cent, of carbohydrate, and 25 per cent, of fat are lost 

 in the wastage of edible substances, the ^er capita 

 average of ingested food becomes :— Protein, 114 

 grams; fat, 127 grams; and carbohydrate, 433 grams, 

 yielding 3424 Calories. These final figures are in good 

 accord with the results of dietetic studies both in 

 America and in England. Prof. Pearl justly remarks 

 that "discussions of the minimum protein, _ fat, and 

 carbohydrate requirements of a nation are in a con- 

 siderable degree academic if they base themselves upon 

 net consumption rather than gross consumption. A 

 considerable" excess over any agreed-upon minimum 

 physiological requirements must always be allowed, 

 because there will inevitably be, in fact, a margin 

 between actual gross consumption and net physio- 

 logical ingestion or utilisation." 



The report is a useful contribution to knowledge. 

 It is to be feared that since the armistice little atten- 

 tion has been devoted to the study of national dietetics 

 in this country. During the war British physiologists 

 made valuable experimental and statistical contribu- 

 tions to the subject ; on the statistical side the work 

 of the late Sir William Thompson, and on the 

 experimental side that of Prof. Cathcart and his 

 collaborators, deserve special mention. It is to be 

 regretted that there is little prospect of the founda- 

 tions then laid being built upon; it will be long 

 indeed before the task of feeding the nation ceases 

 to cause anxietv and to merit scientific elucidation. 



M. G. 



Engineering Research in the U.S.A. 



THE problem of co-ordinating the interests and 

 activities of the various engineering institutions 

 and societies has been subject to much discussion in 

 this country. In America this problem was largely 

 solved by the establishment in 1904 of the United 

 Engineering Society, which combined the interests of 

 four founders' societies, namely, the American Society 

 of Civil Engineers and the American Institutes of 

 Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, Mechanical 

 Engineers, and Electrical Engineers. The- United 

 Engineering Society now numbers some forty thousand 

 -members, and its administration comprises three 

 principal departments, namely, the library board, the 

 engineering council, and the engineering foundation. 

 The last-named department is of particular interest, 

 and is directed to the furtherance of research in 

 science and engineering. 



The engineering foundation was established as a 

 result of a gift of 200,000 dollars by Mr. Ambrose 

 "Swasey, this sum being used as the nucleus of a fund 

 the income of which was to be devoted to research 

 or for the advancement in any other manner of the 

 profession of engineering and the good of mankind. 

 This first gift was made in 1914, and in September, 

 1918, Mr. Swasey added a further sum of 100,000 

 -dollars to the endowment. 



The donor is an engineer and manufacturer, and 

 president of . the Warner-Swasey Co., of Cleveland, 

 Ohio, a firm manufacturing fine tools and astro- 

 NO. 2645, '^OL. 105] 



nomical and other instruments of precision. Mr. 

 I Swasey is a member of most of the American en- 

 , gineering societies, and of several English scientific 

 societies, including the Royal Astronomical Society. 

 He is the author of a number of papers read before 

 American engineering societies. 



For all practical purposes the engineering founda- 

 tion is a professional trust organised along the lines 

 of the Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Sage foundations. 

 The facilities it provides have heretofore been devoted 

 principally to engineering research, and its most 

 notable work has been conducted through co-operation 

 with the National Research Council, which is an 

 organisation of men of science, engineers, and 

 educators brought into being by the National Academy 

 of Science at the request of President Wilson in 19 16, 

 and employed largely in the conduct of scientific 

 investigations relating to anti-submarine and other 

 war problems. 



When the National Research Council was formed 

 the administrators of the engineering foundation made 

 themselves responsible for its financial support for a 

 period' of one year, and this brought into successful 

 co-operation a body of engineering and scientific men 

 in a comprehensive and practical manner. 



Since July, 19 19, the research work undertaken by 

 the foundation has been of a very comprehensive 

 nature. It has included, for example, preliminary 

 researches on such subjects as a new hardness 

 testing machine, the elimination of casting defects 

 from steel, the uses of cadmium, the uses of 

 alloy steels, Neumann bands in iron and steel,' 

 the heat treatment of carbon steel, electrical 

 insulation, and substitute deoxidisers. A sum of 

 15,000 dollars a year for a period of two years has 

 been voted for the conduct of research in the fatigue 

 phenomena of metals in the laboratories of the en- 

 gineering experiment station of the University of 

 Illinois. From approximately fifty suggested subjects, 

 the engineering foundation has also selected for in- 

 vestigation : (i) The wear of gears, (2) spray camou- 

 flage for ships, (3) the directive control of wireless 

 communication, (4) weirs for the measurement of 

 water, (5) the establishment of a testing station for 

 large water-wheels and other large hydraulic equip- 

 ment, and (6) the mental hygiene of industry. 



These investigations are now all in progress or 

 have been completed. Particular attention has been 

 given to research relating to mental hygiene in 

 industry, the objects of the research being to develop 

 or discover methods for adapting psychopathetic 

 individuals to usefulness in industry. 



Realising, further, that mental hvgiene dealt with 

 only one of the many elements of the industrial per- 

 sonnel problem, the foundation board. In association 

 with the National Research Council, arranged for 

 the appointment of a committee representative of 

 anthropology, psychology, educational relations, indus- 

 trial relations,' engineering, and medicine to consider 

 means for furthering the study of the problems of 

 industrial employment. 



Quite apart from such efforts, the engineering 

 foundation has interested itself in an attempt to co- 

 ordinate the activities of many of the very numerous 

 societies and associations, some local, some national, 

 having a bearing on engineering, and to harmonise 

 their relations and aims. Up to the present, however, 

 no active investigational work along these lines has 

 been undertaken. While the foundation maintains the 

 closest relationship with the divisions of engineering 

 of the United Engineering Society and the National 

 Research Council, it reserves the right to conduct 

 under its own immediate direction such researches as 

 mav commend themselves to its membership. 



