176 



NATURE 



[October 30, 1919 



other questions which may have only an indirect 

 relation to particular industries or trades. The 

 Fuel Research Board affords an example of the 

 kind of work which may be undertaken with the 

 aid of Government funds, and is now in active 

 operation in connection with the South Metro- 

 politan Gasworks. The inquiry is too costly 

 and altogether beyond the means of such agencies 

 as a British Association Committee or the private 

 persons by whom the research was initiated. 



But with regard to special scientific studies under- 

 taken by individuals help is still urgently wanted, 

 and the question arises whether such help can 

 always be obtained from the Department so long 

 as one of the conditions of a grant is that details 

 of the research contemplated must be communicated 

 to so large a number of persons as form an advisory 

 council or board. Aids to research must be given 

 m other ways. There seems to be some difference 

 of opinion whether this would be best accom- 

 plished by increasing substantially the present 

 grant of 4000Z. per annum to the Royal Society, 

 or by augmenting the annual grant to universities 

 and other teaching institutions where teachers and 

 students may co-operate in the work. The 

 scientific worker is often shy of exposing his ideas 

 in their early crude form to external criticism, and 

 tentative preliminary inquiry should be provided 

 for before the researcher is called on to expose 

 the whole of his plan. 



The whole scheme foreshadowed in this report 

 shows and acknowledges in more than one passage 

 the need for men. It has often been claimed for 

 the Oxford classical system of education that it 

 does select and equip with the necessary know- 

 ledge the young Englishmen whose destiny it is to 

 become administrators. The Oxford of the future 

 will doubtless furnish at least some of them with 

 science and scientific ideas. But in the meantime 

 there exists throughout the universities of the 

 country a body of some hundreds of able men 

 of science in the form of professors and lecturers 

 to which recourse might, one would suppose, 

 be had when occasion arises. 



The report discusses at some length the 

 momentous question as to the employment 

 of women in the Civil Service. All the world 

 has now profited by the experience derived from 

 the war, and much prejudice on this subject has 

 been cleared away. But while many women have 

 distinguished themselves by patriotic fervour, 

 physical energy, and administrative ability, the 

 education of women has in general been more 

 defective than that of men, and it will be necessary 

 to wait for another generation before the question 

 can be determined on satisfactory grounds 

 whether sex will not always stand in the way of 

 substituting women for men in many of the pro- 

 fessions and callings necessary to the world. 



Since the issue of the report — viz. on February 

 12, igig — a lecture has been given to the Royal 

 Society of Arts by Sir Frank Heath, Chief Secre- 

 tary of the Department of Scientific and Industrial 

 Research, on the work of that Department. The 

 lecture is lucid and interesting, and shows that 

 NO. 2609, VOL. 104] 



some definite results have already been attained. 

 Lord Crewe, who was in the chair, remarked 

 that this was " the only country in which a 

 Government Department of Research existed." 

 Such a statement can be accepted only with some 

 reservations. Research stations in connection 

 with agriculture have been instituted and sup- 

 ported by the State in many European countries 

 during the last half century, and the United 

 States Department of Agriculture at Washington 

 maintains a scientific staff and issues a very valu- 

 able illustrated annual report. Moreover, the 

 assistance given to the universities from national 

 funds has always been in European countries far 

 more liberal than has ever been the case in the 

 United Kingdom, even at the present day, when 

 the Government grants have been so considerably 

 augmented. 



THE FAUNA OF THE INLE LAKE? 

 'T'HE Inl6 Lake, lying at a height of 3000 ft. 

 -•■ in the great limestone zone of the Shan 

 plateau, is of peculiar bionomical interest, since, 

 although it belongs to the Salween river-basin, 

 it has become sequestered, or at least obstructed 

 in its biological commerce, by the behaviour both 

 of its principal feeders and of its only effluent, 

 which in considerable parts of their course flow 

 deep underground. Another point of interest in 

 a biological view is that it appears to be a relic 

 of a former lake, or system of lakes, of great 

 depth and extent. Two other remarkable features 

 of the Inl^ Lake are the extraordinary limpidity 

 of its waters, through which its animal population 

 can be watched as in an aquarium, and its girdle 

 of floating marshland. This curious terraqueous 

 fringe is capable of exuberant cultivation : the 

 local genius cuts from it an island plot, tows it 

 off where he lists, there turns it upside down and 

 anchors it with stakes, then dredges and adds 

 more clotted vegetable ooze to its surface, until 

 it becomes solid enough for tillage, and perhaps 

 firm enough to carry a sty for his pig, or a hut 

 for himself. Such an islander, as he turns from 

 spearing and trapping fish to tend with incessant 

 care the homely market-garden trade, or strictly 

 meditate the vocal pig, might well avouch the 

 philosophy of Thales. 



In this fine report, which includes twenty-eight 

 first-class plates, and more than 200 large pages 

 close packed with information both descriptive 

 and ratiocinative, the fauna of the lake (exclusive 

 of the plankton) is fully disclosed. Dr. Annan- 

 dale, the editor, contributes an introduction 

 mainly physiographical, a summary comprehen- 

 sively biological, compendious treatises on the 

 fishes and the aquatic mollusca, and minor papers 

 on the sponges, hydrozoa, polyzoa, and am- 

 phibia. Among other contributions may be men- 

 tioned that by Mr. S. W. Kemp on the Decapod 

 Crustacea, that by Mr. C. A. Paiva on the 

 Aquatic Hymenoptera, and those by Mr. Baini 

 Prashad on the Marsupium and Glochhiium of 



1 Records of the Indian Museum, vol. xiv. (Calcutta, igiS). 



