September 4, 1919] 



NATURE 



and valuable, and it is to be hoped that the project 

 will be worthily carried out. All chemists who are 

 in a position to assist in the matter are invited to 

 communicate with the registrar of the institute. 



Two important geological collections of more than 

 local interest have recently been acquired by the Hull 

 Municipal Museum, viz. the Drake and Bower col- 

 lections. The first was formed by the late H. C. 

 Drake, F.G.S., who spent many years in the Scar- 

 borough district, and also collected largely among the 

 saurian and other vertebrate remains, of the Oxford 

 Clay in the Peterborough area. The other collection 

 was formed by the Rev. C. R. Bower. Many of the 

 specimens are'described and some figured in his paper 

 on "The Zones of the Lower Chalk of Lincolnshire" 

 in the Proceedings of the Geological Association for 

 1918. This collection consists of more than a 

 thousand excellentiv cleaned Chalk fossils, carefully 

 labelled and loailised, including many of those whicb 

 have been figured in his paper, as well as one of the 

 two known examples of Actinocarnax boweri, the 

 other specimen being in the British Museum. The 

 collections are largely from the Lower Chalk of Lin- 

 colnshire and the Chalk of Yorkshire, and there is 

 an interesting series from the Upper Cretaceous of 

 Dover, Folkestone, Kent, and Norfolk. 



There is no denying the value of intelligent propa- 

 ganda for increasing business and cultural relations 

 between various nations. As an example of the right 

 kind of propaganda we would mention the Bulletin 

 of the Pan-American Union, published- in English, 

 Spanish, Portuguese, and French. This magazine 

 contains authoritative articles on North and South 

 American activities, most of them being splendidly 

 illustrated. 



The Bulletin offlciel de la Foire de Lyon, of which 

 two recent issues are to hand, is the outcome of the 

 first Lvons Fair, and its object is to keep manufac- 

 turers and others in touch with the development of 

 these fairs in France and other countries. In this 

 connection it is interesting to note that the next Lyons 

 Fair will be held on October 1-15 next. The 

 previous fair was a great success, but it is hoped that 

 British manufacturers will be more adequately repre- 

 sented at the forthcoming fair. American competition 

 in France, especially in matters engineering, is very 

 keen, and it is up to British enterprise to~ see that no 

 trouble is spared in order that French traders, 

 engineers, consumers of scientific products, etc., may 

 know exactly what Britain is able to offer them. 



In the current issue of the Quarterly Review Sir 

 Lynden Macassey discusses very ably "The Economic 

 Future of Women in Industry." The author is 

 specially well qualified for his task, as he was a 

 •member of the War Cabinet Committee which made 

 extensive inquiries into the subject, and during the 

 war he acted as arbitrator in innumerable labour 

 disputes. He rightly states that the public in general 

 but little appreciates the enormous latent and un- 

 utilised capacities for production possessed by the 

 women of the nation. He points out that between 

 ic)i4 and 1918 more than 700,000 women directly re- 

 placed men in industry, and did work customarily 

 (lone bv men. On repetition work, which was such 

 a pronounced feature of war-time employment, women 

 often proved superior to men, as they do not suffer 

 from the monotonv to which men are so susceptible. 

 On the other hand^ they are not man's equal in skilled 

 work, and because of their greatly inferior physical 

 strength they cannot replace him iii the heavier types 

 of industry. As regards the future, there ought to 

 be no trade union rules which debar women from 



NO. 2601, VOL. 104] 



any employment which is commensurate with their 

 industrial qualifications, but women must not be 

 allowed to undercut and displace men. They must 

 come in as additional workers to accelerate the' in- 

 creased productivity which is such a crying need of 

 the present day. Sir Lynden Macassey approves the 

 conclusion of the Committee that women on piece- 

 rates must, as compared with men, receive "equal 

 pay. for equal work," but both he and they have 

 missed the fallacy involved in such a contention. If 

 the average woman has as large an output as the 

 average man she is entitled to equal pay, but not 

 otherwise. In most industries the cost of establish- 

 ment and machinery is far higher than the cost of 

 wages, and if, for instance, the woman produces only 

 four-fifths as much as the man, it would not be reason- 

 able for her employer to pay her four-fifths his 

 wages. Probably he could not afford to give her 

 even three-fifths as much. 



Among the pamphlets on reconstruction problems 

 recently published by H.M. Stationery Ofiice is one 

 relating to Industrial Research (No. 36, price 2d.), 

 which ought to be read by the public, whether directly 

 concerned with industry or not. It contains in fewer 

 than thirty pages a very instructive sketch of the 

 position in the past, and of what has already been 

 accomplished in the way of instituting and organising 

 new fields of research and indicating what may be 

 hoped for in the future. At the present time there 

 can be few people who are not convinced of the 

 necessitv for research in its relation to industry, but 

 it was not always so. Looking back only forty years 

 or thereabouts, it may be asserted that at that time 

 practicallv no provision was made by manufacturers 

 for improvements in their several industries. Among 

 the earliest of the manufacturers of iron and steel 

 to carry on research were Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell 

 and Sir Bernard Samuelson, but in other directions 

 there was practically nothing to be seen in the way 

 of research except — to their credit be it said — among 

 the great brewers, who set a fine example to the rest 

 of the world in the way they proceeded to apply the 

 results of Pasteur's discoveries. In connection with 

 agriculture the work of Sir John Lawes at Rotham- 

 sted, aided through many years by Sir Henry Gilbert, 

 represented an advance of incalculable importance. 

 Besides showing what can be done, their work seems 

 to illustrate the fact that research, and hence dis- 

 covery, have in the past depended chiefly on the 

 enthusiasm of the individual man of science. It 

 remains to be seen how far this will continue to be 

 the case. This certainly seems probable in connection 

 with pure science, but we have yet to learn the extent 

 to which organisation will facilitate the discovery of 

 new facts and principles, though there can be no 

 doubt as to the more abundant results which must 

 accrue from the application of such facts and prin- 

 ciples to practical purposes. It is now clear that 

 as there must be more scientific work done, there 

 must be a larger number of properly trained scientific 

 workers ; and one of the first duties of the State will 

 be to see that the universities and places of higher 

 instruction are provided with the means of giving 

 the instruction needed, and that conditions are so 

 improved as to give the encouragement wanted to 

 induce the most capable among the rising generation 

 to pursue science as a career. It is rightly pointed 

 out in the pamphlet that working-class opinion 

 especially should be made aware of the vital import- 

 ance of research. 



The Mexican Review of July describes, with 

 photographs, a remarkable series of stone and terra- 

 cotta remains' discovered in the neighbourhood of the 



