264 



NATURE 



[November 6, 1919 



rapidly increased in amount and importance, and the 

 laboratories and staff have been greatly extended in 

 recent years. It is obvious that in the wide sense the 

 scientific investigation of raw materials provides an 

 enormous field, and it was necessary to limit the 

 work of the departmefit to those materials which are 

 considered to be of most importance from a com- 

 mercial point of view and are best dealt with in 

 this country, and also to a large extent to limit the 

 scientific investigation of these selected materials to 

 the subjects requiring elucidation from the commercial 

 viewpoint. Even with these necessary limitations a 

 large number of scientific papers have been communi- 

 cated by the staff of the department to the Royal 

 Society, Chemical Society, Society of Chemical In- 

 dustry, and other societies, whilst a number of 

 materials of promise in scientific research have been 

 passed for investigation to workers in other institu- 

 tions, including the Universities of Manchester, Liver- 

 pool, Leeds, Aberdeen, and London. 



To the research laboratories, which are provided 

 with the proper equipment for experimental research, 

 have been added testing plant and machinery for en- 

 abling small-scale technical trials of certain raw 

 materials to be carried out. Arrangements have also 

 been made with manufacturers for trials on a com- 

 mercial scale of materials which appear to be suit- 

 able for commercial employment, and the department 

 is now utilised not only for such investigations as 

 have been indicated, but by manufacturers and mer- 

 chants in this country for obtaining information as 

 to supplies of raw materials, their nature and com- 

 position, and also as to their uses and the means of 

 overcoming technical difficulties in regard to their 

 industrial employment. 



The scientific results of investigation conducted by 

 members of the staff are, as a rule, communicated 

 to the special societies concerned, whilst records of 

 some of the principal results obtained in their corn- 

 mercial bearings are printed in the quarterly Bulletin 

 of the Imperial Institute. 



THE LISTER INSTITUTE OF PREVENTIVE 

 MEDICINE. 



THE institute originated from a public meeting 

 summoned by the Lord Mayor in July, i88j, to 

 hear statements from scientific men as to the efficacy 

 of Pasteur's treatment for hydrophobia. The lack of 

 any institute in this country with objects similar to 

 those of the Institut Pasteur in Paris was discussed, 

 and it was pointed out that England should continue 

 to take her share in the discovery of means to control 

 disease and not be dependent upon the national labora,- 

 tories of France and Germany. 



A committee was formed, of which Lister became 

 chairman, and in i8qi the British Institute of Preven- 

 tive Medicine was founded. 



During the first nine years of its existence the per- 

 manent income of the institute was hopelessly in- 

 adequate to the requirements, but in 1900 it received 

 a gift of 250,000?. from Lord Iveagh, which for the 

 first time placed it in possession of an assured income. 

 In 1903 the title of Lister Institute was adopted. 



The central institute is situated on the banks of 

 the Thames at Chelsea. It contains laboratories 

 equipped for the study of bacteriology, biochemistry, 

 protozoologv, experimental pathology, entomology, 

 etc., and a library and theatre. These accommodate, 

 in addition to the staff, 20-30 graduates who are 

 engaged in researches in some subject pertaining to 

 preventive medicine under the guidance of the staff. 

 The institute is a school of the University of London, 

 and graduates of any university may proceed to the 

 degree of doctor of science after having satisfactorily 

 NO. 2610, VOL. 104] 



conducted during two years a research under the direc- 

 tion of a member of the staff who is a recognised 

 teacher in the University. 



In addition to its central laboratories in London the 

 institute has a branch where antitoxic sera, bacterial 

 vaccines, and calf-vaccine lymph are manufactured, 

 and where investigations into the improvement of 

 these curative and prophylactic agents, their 

 standardisation, etc., are carried out. 



The institute is administered by a governing body 

 of seven, upon which the Earl of Iveagh has three 

 representatives and the Royal Society one. The 

 remaining three are elected by the members. 



The income of the institute is derived from two 

 sources, about one-third from endowment and the 

 remainder partly from the sale of antitoxins, etc., and 

 partly from moneys received from Government 

 Departments and municipal authorities as remunera- 

 tion for investigations and diagnoses carried out at 

 their request. 



THE NATIONAL PHYSICAL LABORATORY. 

 T F fifty years ago a Government had proposed to 

 ■*■ allocate i5o,oooZ. per annum for the furtherance of 

 scientific research, it would have met with an un- 

 sympathetic response in Parliament, and in all prob- 

 ability would have been turned out of office as too 

 visionary and unpractical. The growth of the belief 

 in the influence of research on industry and com- 

 merce was slow in this country, and was due, perhaps, 

 more to the successful application to the production 

 of electricity and of light of the laws of electro- 

 magnetic induction discovered by Faraday than to 

 any other fact. When Dr. (now Sir Oliver) Lodge 

 urged the necessity of a National Physical Laboratory 

 in his address to the Mathematical and Physical Sec- 

 tion of the British Association in 1891, Berlin and 

 Paris had already taken action. A committee of the 

 association, under the chairmanship of Sir Douglas 

 Galton, drew up a scheme for the foundation of such 

 a laboratory, and, after a favourable report by a 

 Treasurv Committee under Lord Rayleigh appointed 

 to consider the matter, the laboratory was founded in 

 190 1, with Dr. (now Sir Richard) Glazebrook as 

 director and an annual income of ^oool. The control 

 was vested in the council of the Royal Society, who^ 

 appointed an executive committee. Owing to the 

 rapid growth of the work of the laboratory, the 

 financial responsibility became too great for the Royal 

 Society, and the financial control was taken over by 

 the Government in 1918. So well has the laboratory 

 justified its foundation that the Government is pre- 

 pared not only to make the annual grant mentioned in 

 the opening sentence, but also to support a Depart- 

 ment of Scientific and Industrial Research, and 

 National Chemical and Engineering Laboratories an 

 not outside the bounds of possibility. 



THE DAVY FARADAY RESEARCH 

 LABORATORY OF THE ROYAL 

 INSTITUTION. 



THE Davy Faraday Research Laboratory of the 

 Roval institution was founded and endowed by 

 the late Dr. Ludwig Mond, F.R.S.. with the object 

 of providing opportunity for original investigation to 

 extend knowledge in the domain of pure chemical and" 

 physical science by persons (men and women of any 

 nationality) who could satisfy the authorities of the 

 laboratory of their scientific training and qualifications 

 to conduct original research. 



The laboratory was opened on December 22, 1896, 

 by his Majesty King" Edward VIL, who took 



