August 19, 1920] 



NATURE 



7^7 



schemes. This subject is to have fuller treat- 

 ment in the final Report of the Committee. 



In addition to new allocations the Water Com- 

 mission should have power to revise existing allo- 

 cations, including- the compensation water already 

 prescribed by Act of Parliament. Another duty 

 would be the setting--up of local Rivers Boards to 

 control individual rivers as a whole. 



One further safeguard is suggested, namely, 

 the appointment by the Commission of an 

 advisory committee, or committees, consisting of 

 " representatives of water undertakings and scien- 

 tific institutions, consulting engineers, and other 

 qualified persons." Presumably the services of 

 these specialists are to be solicited gratuitously, 

 for the Commission "also" ask to be empowered 

 "to obtain and pay for professional advice in con- 

 nection with their investigations." 



Perhaps one might be inclined to doubt whether 

 the Committee has always kept clearly in mind the 

 essential distinction between scientific and tech- 

 nical advice ; but in one respect at least the Report 

 will be welcome to scientifically minded people. It 

 places in the forefront of the duties of the Water 

 Commissioners the investigation by scientific 

 study of the actual water resources of the country 

 and the strengthening of existing agencies by the 

 creation of a hydrometric survey of rivers. One 

 cannot help regretting that the various survey 

 bodies are not united under one scientific Depart- 

 ment, for it would be a natural development if the 

 Department of Scientific and Industrial Research 

 were to add to the care of the Geological Survey 

 that of the Ordnance Survey, the Meteorological 

 OflSce, and the proposed Hydrometric Survey. In 

 these matters, however, simplification comes 

 slowly, and it is a great matter to find a clear 

 statement of the truth, which is not self-evident 

 to all our legislators, that one must first ascertain 

 what our resources are before we proceed to 

 distribute them. 



We have endeavoured to state the conclusions 

 as briefly and simply as possible, but the Report 

 goes into much detail and requires careful reading. 

 The system suggested is, we believe, as simple 

 and efficient as it could be made, bearing in mind 

 the initial determination to work so far as possible 

 through existing agencies. But it is open to doubt 

 the wisdom of that determination and to ask 

 whether the creation of a Central Department 

 dealing with all water questions, and with water 

 questions only, might not, after all, be a simpler, 

 cheaper, and more efficient solution of the problem. 

 NO. 2651, VOL. 105] 



The Mathematician as Anatomist. 



Department of Applied Statistics, University of 

 London, University College : Drapers ' Company 

 Research Memoirs. Biometric Series, x. : A 

 Study of the Long Bones of the English 

 Skeleton. By Karl Pearson and Julia Bell. 

 Text : Part i.. The Femur. Chaps, i. to vi. 

 Pp. v + 224. Atlas: Part i., The Femur. 

 Pp. vii + plates lix-f Tables of Measurements 

 and Observations. (Cambridge : At the Uni- 

 versity Press, 1919.) Price, Text and Atlas, 

 Part i., 305. net. 



Department of Applied Statistics, University of 

 London, University College: Drapers' Company 

 Research Memoirs. Biometric Series, xi. : A 

 Study of the Long Bones of the English 

 Skeleton. By Karl Pearson and Julia Bell. 

 Text: Part i,. Section ii,. The Femur of Man, 

 with special reference to other Primate Femora. 

 Chaps, vii. to x., Appendices, Bibliography, 

 and Indices. Pp. 225-539, Atlas : Part i.. 

 Section ii.. The Femur of the Primates. 

 Pp. vii -I- plates Ix-ci -F Tables of Femoral 

 Measurements of the Primates. (Cambridge : 

 At the University Press, 1919.) Price, Text 

 and Atlas, Part i., Section ii., 405. net. 



IF in the rapid increase of knowledge at the 

 present time there is a tendency for men to 

 limit their labours more and more to one narrow 

 field of investigation, there is also, we are glad 

 to note, an opposite tendency leading men who 

 have become eminent in their own particular 

 subject to cross professional frontiers and to 

 carry war, seldom peace, into neighbouring or 

 even distant specialities. In the present two great 

 publications, devoted chiefly to the human thigh- 

 bone, containing more than a quarter of a million 

 words, with tables which give the results of at 

 least 70,000 measurements, and illustrated by 105 

 anatomical plates, we find Prof. Karl Pearson, the 

 mathematician, definitely settling himself in the 

 front bench of speculative anatomists. He cannot 

 have expected a warm welcome in his new 

 quarters, for there are few British anatomists who 

 do not bear the mark of at least one of those 

 biometrical brickbats at the throwing of which 

 Prof. Pearson has manifested very considerable 

 skill. They did not hurt any the less because they 

 were meant kindly ! In spite of all their scars, 

 however, British anatomists — nay, anatomists 

 of every country — who study these volumes will 

 forget their past sores and be glad to welcome 

 him to their membership for the great service he 

 has rendered to their subject, not only in this, but 

 also in previous memoirs. 



