284 



NATURE 



[November 13, hjk) 



Society of Public Analysts and Other Analytical 

 Chemists. President : Dr. Samuel Ridfai.. — As presi- 

 dent of the Society of Public Analysts, I beg to offer 

 you congratulations on reaching the jubilee of Nature. 

 The journal has always been the pioneer of scientific 

 progress in this country, and has contributed not a 

 little in its development at the present time. It looks 

 as if the Government and the daily Press arc still far 

 from realising what the promotion of science and its 

 value to the national needs means. Members of my 

 society, who are for the most part Government officials 

 under Acts passed so long ago as 1875, a few years 

 after your first number appeared, have recently been, 

 I believe, transferred to a new Government Depart- 

 ment, the Ministry of Health, which starts on its new 

 career, like its predecessor, without any adequati- 

 representation of pure science on its councils. Your 

 weekly numbers must have a beneficial effect upon 

 the national development, and I hope that your cir- 

 culation will increase and that the knowledge which 

 you reveal will be assimilated and rendered more and 

 more available for the general good. 



Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 

 President: Prof. Arthur Keith, F.R.S. — Nature is 

 the link which binds British men of science together. 

 It is essential, and I wish it long life and prosperity. 



Institution of Automobile Engineers. President: 

 Mr. Thomas Clarkson. — A lover of science is con- 

 tent to follow devotedly the object of his affection 

 regardless of whether his revenue is likely to be 

 speedily augmented thereby. He should, never- 

 theless, take a broad view that does not exclude 

 the consideration of probable benefit to the 

 community as a result of his endeavours. In other 

 words, the true man of science is a public servant in 

 the widest sense, and his work is directed to bettering 

 the conditions of life, reducing its toil, evil, and 

 ■'dis-ease," while increasing its pleasure and charm: 

 for example, by adding to our knowledge and power 

 of controlling the forces and amenities of Nature ; by 

 solving the problem of increased production with 

 greater leisure to the worker; by increasing cultiva- 

 tion; by reducing the cost of transport, and thereby 

 facilitating intercourse. 



Biochemical Society. Dr. Arthur Harden, F.R.S. 

 — The recognition of biochemistry — linked on one 

 hand with chemistry, and on the other with biology — 

 as a distinct branch of science has gradually come 

 about during the half-century covered by the pub- 

 lication of Nature. To students of this borderland 

 science Nature, with its comprehensive and impartial 

 treatment of the physical and biological sciences, has 

 always been of special value, bringing within their 

 reach the opinions and discoveries of other workers, 

 whose results, obtained in fields beyond their own 

 boundaries, are yet of great interest and often of 

 supreme importance to them. It is precisely this 

 universality of scientific interest which constitutes the 

 diief value of Nature to the investigator, and as long 

 as this is maintained, so long will the journal con- 

 tinue to flourish and earn the gratitude of its scientific 

 readers. 



British Academy. President: Sir F. G. Kenyon, 

 K.C.B. — The jubilee of Nature is not a matter of 

 NO. 261 1, VOL. 104] 



interest to students of natural science alone, k is, I 

 hope, generally recognised now that the interests of 

 science and of the humanities are not hostile, and that 

 the welfare of the nation depends on the advance of 

 knowledge in both these spheres, and in a fuller recog- 

 nition of the necessity of both. Nature, I am sure, 

 under its present administration, will, without pre- 

 judice to the subjects with which it is specially con- 

 cerned, continue to advocate the cause of knowledge 

 and intellectual culture as a whole ; and all friends 

 of the humanities will wish it God-speed. 



British Association. President : Sir Charles A. 

 Parsons, K.C.B., F.R.S. — The British .Association 

 sends its most cordial greetings to Nature on the com- 

 pletion of its fiftieth anniversary. The influence of 

 Nature on the advancement of science for half a 

 century has been wide and comprehensive, and 

 a powerful factor in popularising scientific thought and 

 progress. To men of science also it has been of great 

 assistance by chronicling contemporary progress in the 

 advance of the sciences and arts, and has been a 

 medium for the interchange of information, know- 

 ledge, and ideas. 



Chemical Society. President: Sir James Doumk, 

 F.R.S. — ^The advance of chemistry takes place to-day 

 along a front which has been enormously extendt^d 

 since the first number of N.wure was issued. More- 

 over, it is supported by forces so vastly superior in 

 number, in organisation, and in equipment to those 

 existing in 1869 that scientific workers may go for- 

 ward in the confident anticipation that the progress of 

 the next fifty years will be even more wonderful than 

 that of the half-century which has witnessed the 

 elucidation of the constitution of the most complex 

 organic compounds and the formulation of the periodic 

 law, and has revealed the structure of the atom. 

 .Amongst the agencies to which the improvement of 

 the position of science in this country is due Nature 

 takes an important place, not only by the opportunities 

 it has afforded scientific inen for interchange of views, 

 but also by the force and persistency with which it has 

 advocated the cause of scientific education and brought 

 the claims of science before the attention of the 

 Government. 



Institute of Chemistry. President: Sir Herbert 

 Jackson, K.B.E., F.R.S.— It gives me very great 

 pleasure to offer, on behalf of the Institute of 

 Chemistry, hearty congratulations to Nature on fifty 

 years of work in the best interests of science. .At no 

 part of that period has the importance of applying 

 science to industry been more evident than it is to- 

 day, and at no time, perhaps, has it been more 

 abundantly clear that sound and broad training in 

 pure science is imperative if real progress is to be 

 made in its applications. May Nature flourish and 

 continue to spread knowledge of science, to show its 

 necessity in education, and to point out how prohfic 

 a source it is of benefits to mankind. 



Institution of Electrical Engineers. President: 

 Mr. Roger T. Smith. — Nature attained its jubilee 

 within a few days of the first full meeting of 

 the International Electrotechnical Commission held 

 since peace was signed. Well-known electrical 

 engineers representing twenty-one foreign countries 



