August 26, 1920] 



NATURE 



839 



whole animal kingdom, from the elephant to the 

 flea, instead of dividing them into species. 



The following table gives the mean secular paral- 

 laxes for different magnitudes and spectral types, the 

 former being visual on the Harvard scale : 



Mag. B surs K stars F stars G stars K stars M stars 



10 0-138 0253 0-591 0-627 0-362 0-172 

 2-0 00921 0-170 0392 0-422 0-241 0-116 

 30 00622 0-115 0267 0-285 0-163 0-0786 



40 0-0422 0-0780 0-182 0-192 o-iio 0-0537 



50 00285 00526 0-123 0-129 0-0749 00361 



6-0 0-0192 00355 00827 0-0876 0-0506 0-0244 



7-0 00130 0-0240 00560 0-0599 0-0342 0-0163 



80 0-0087 0-0 16 1 00379 0-0403 0-0231 0-0108 



90 0-0059 00109 00254 0-0271 0-0156 0-0073 



The small values near the end of the final column 

 show that these distant M stars are giants nearly 

 equivalent to the B stars in absolute magnitude. On 

 the other hand, the M stars mentioned on page vii. 

 as being 17^ magnitudes fainter than the B stars are 

 dwarfs. 



Universities, Research, and Brain Waste 



THIS is the subject of a presidential address by 

 Prof. J. C. Fields to the Royal Canadian Insti- 

 tute, Toronto, on November 8, 1919. It contains a 

 review of the relations which must subsist between 

 universities and research and between research and 

 the progress of the world in civilisation, and it opens 

 up so many aspects of these questions which are 

 debatable that for that very reason it ought to be 

 read extensively. Though, on the whole, Prof. 

 Fields 's views are consolatory to us in the Mother 

 Country, they also show how much has yet to be 

 done in England, as in other countries, to prevent or 

 reduce the waste of potential brain power in the 

 generations to come. Conditions are now greatly 

 unproved whereby the educational net is able to select 

 out of the masses of population the individuals whose 

 mental qualities deserve and, in the interest of the 

 community, require due cultivation, but for the full 

 benefit we must wait a generation or two. 



It is premature to make comparisons between the 

 different races and nations in respect to intellectual 

 qualities, but it seems to be incontestable that the 

 Germans have for generations been distinguished by 

 their respect for learning and intellectual achievement, 

 and this is illustrated by the way in which during the 

 war their highly trained men were preserved from too 

 much risk. The Allies, on the other hand, took no 

 special care to protect and preserve such men as 

 Moseley, who was allowed to sacrifice his life in 

 Gallipoli. Such waste is, as Prof. Fields says, a 

 trag<Miy of the first order. But there is similar waste 

 going on every day in the neglect to give every boy 

 of promise an open road to the university and the 

 right kind of teaching when he gets there. 



It is a question open to discussion whether the 

 opportunity to do research lies only in a university 

 career. The successive great discoverers at the Royal 

 Institution in London, from Davy and Faraday 

 onwards, and men like Joule, who was a brewer, and 

 others unconnected with educational institutions, rise 

 at once to mind. But it certainly is true that in the 

 universities the example, the methods, and the spirit 

 of research should be found associated with the 

 teaching in every faculty and in every department. 



Prof. Fields was severe on the constitution and 

 government of the American universities, but while it 

 appears to be true that most of the professors there 



NO. 2652, VOL. 105] 



are overworked and that the standard of attainment \ 



among the graduates is inferior to those of the uni- ' 

 versities of Europe, the work that has been done at 



Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, and Harvard Universities 3 



must not be forgotten. Probably the next generation \ 



on both sides of the Atlantic will profit by the inter- \ 



change of visits by representatives of the higher educa- * 



tional institutions and by the opportunities for ex- { 



change of students, both graduate and undergraduate. • 



It is probable also that there is still great ignorance, ; 



esp)ecially among the masses of the people in all J 



countries, of the fact that the most potent factor in ] 



bringing the world out of barbarism to its present ' 

 better condition of life has been science. " Is it not," 



Prof. Fields says, " of the first importance that every \ 



boy and girl should be made aware of this fact? '* ■ 



With that object in view modern history requires to ■ 



be taught by teachers better qualified than in the ' 



past. ■ 



The Sun as a Weather Prophet. 



C OME forty years ago Prof. Langley, while engaged 

 •^ on his early bolometric work on the sun, grasped 

 the principle that, inasmuch as solar radiation is the 

 governing factor in world meteorology, it should ulti- 

 mately become possible to forecast weather changes, 

 sa soon as sufficient information had been obtained 

 in regard to the mechanism of the radiation effect, by 

 continuous observation of the intensity of radiation. 

 Gradual improvement in instruments and methods has 

 enabled his successors to state positively that the so- 

 called "solar constant" is subject to variations of long 

 and short period, and of late years determined 

 attempts have been made, chiefly by the Smithsonian 

 observers, to trace the meteorological changes that 

 may fairly be attributed to these variations. It is clear 

 that there are, from time to time, disturbing factors 

 of apparently terrestrial origin — for instance, the erup- 

 tion of Mount Katmai, in Alaska, in 1912, brought a 

 promising summer to an abrupt and chilly close in 

 mid-July; but it is becoming more and more probable 

 that the Smithsonian investigation is on the right 

 lines, and will give definite aid to forecasting, at any 

 rate in tropical and sub-tropical regions. 



Publication No. 2544 of the Smithsonian Miscel- 

 laneous Collections (vol. Ixxi., No. 3) is devoted to a 

 full statement of the case as regards Argentina, Chile, 

 and Brazil in connection with regular observations of 

 solar radiation at the new solar observatory at Calama, 

 in Chile. Clear evidence is provided by the tempera- 

 tures found at Buenos Aires that high values of solar 

 radiation are followed by maximum values of tempera- 

 ture at an interval of nearly eleven days. The in- 

 terval is not the same for lower maxima of radiation, 

 and the amount of lag appears to be connected with 

 the, latitude of outbreaks on the sun, but more 

 remains to be explained than the solar rotation will 

 cover. The lag is also not the same for all stations 

 considered. Twenty such were chosen in the countries 

 mentioned, and differences are noted in the intensities 

 as well as in the intervals, and also between the effect 

 of longer and shorter waves. The observations do not 

 cover everv dav, so that the correlation is probably 

 not so good as it would be if complete data could be 

 provided. The change due to a variation of i per 

 cent, in the solar radiation appears, to range between 

 0-2° C. and 0-8° C. in the tropics; in the temperate 

 zones the effect, though less direct, is greater, even 

 exceeding 2° C. at some stations. 



Having thus obtained satisfactory evidence that, 

 with the exception of the diurnal and annual varia- 



