October 20, 1898] 



NA TURE 



609 



application to the teeth ot wheels and for other purposes. This 

 communication and also Mr. Forster Brown's are to be printed 

 /;/ extenso in the Proceedings of the Association. The instru- 

 ment was a very beautiful one, and the difficult problem it 

 solved had been most carefully worked out ; but here again a 

 very poor discussion followed, because no one felt able to criti- 

 cise the instrument or discuss the advantages or disadvantages 

 if such a piece of apparatus after merely hearing the author's 

 -hort account ; a description with sufficient diagrams ought to 

 nave been weeks before in the hands of those anxious to become 

 acquainted with it, and to discuss it. 



Amongst other papers dealt with was Mr. Dibdin's paper on 

 the treatment of sewage by bacteria, which in the discussion 

 elicited from Sir Alex Binnie the statement that the experi- 

 ments he was carrying out for the London County Council 

 led him to believe we were on the eve of most important changes 

 in the treatment of town sewage. 



SCIENCE IN RELA TION TO TRADE. 

 r^URING the last few years numerous references have ap- 

 ^-^ peared in the various reports made to the Foreign Office 

 y Her Majesty's diplomatic and consular officers on the 

 methods adopted by the principal trade rivals of the United 

 Kingdom in their competition in foreign trade abroad, and on 

 the apparent supineness of British traders in meeting this com- 

 petition. Besides calling attention to this, the Consuls suggest 

 the adoption of certain measures which they consider would be 

 advisable for British traders to take with a view of retaining the 

 pre-eminence of this country on foreign markets. 



A selection has been made of the views expressed in some of 

 these reports issued during the period comprised between 

 January 1896 and the present time, and has 'ust been published 

 in a Blue Book. 



From the 171 extracts in this publication it appears that the 

 following are some of the causes which are considered as tending 

 to place British trade at a disadvantage in those districts where, 

 especially of late years, foreign competition has been more than 

 usually keen : — 



I. The disinclination of British traders — 

 (a) To supply a cheaper class of goods. 

 \b) To be content with a small order at first, 

 (c) To study a customer's wishes. 

 \d) To adopt the metric system in calculations of weight, 



cost, &c. 

 (e) To grant credit facilities. 



II. The scarcity of British commercial travellers, in com- 

 parison with those of other nationalities, their ignorance of the 

 language of the countries they visit, and the endeavour to supply 

 their place by a lavish distribution of catalogues and other 

 matter printed in English only. 



III. The inferiority of the British to the German and American 

 methods of packing. 



IV. The additional cost of goods caused by the high rates 01 

 freight on British lines of steamers. 



V. The frequency of strikes in the United Kingdom tending 

 to cause uncertainty in the delivery of orders. 



VI. The development of technical education in Germany and 

 the greater attention paid in schools to modern languages, added 

 to the system of sending young Germans all over the world to 

 acquire a practical knowledge of the language, business habits, 

 t^cc., of other countries, by means of which they are afterwards 

 able to compete with those countries with a greater chance of 

 success. 



The two causes which concern us reier to the use of the metric 

 system and the development of technical education in Germany. 

 On these matters the Blue Book contains the following sum- 

 mary of the views expressed in the reports : — 



Metric Syste.m. 



The Consuls all lay stress upon the uselessness and expense 

 of British exporters forwarding trade circulars and catalogaes 

 more or less well-prepared in English, and with English weights 

 and measures calculated in our own currency. British weights 

 \ and measures are not liked abroad, and are in many cases either 

 ' not understood at all, or very imperfectly so, and the preference 

 ' is given to those who accommodate themselves to the metric 

 ' and decimal systems. On this point the Consul at Naples 

 expresses himself as follows: — " It seems absurd that the first 



commercial nation in the world should measure their horses by 

 hands and their dogs by inches, their cloth by ells and their 

 calico by yards; that such impossible numbers should come 

 into their square measure as 30^ and 4840, and in their measure 

 of solidity as 1728. And the weights are worse still. It can 

 never be too much impressed upon British traders that all goods 

 for sale on the continent should be marked in metres and 

 kilogs, and all catalogues sent to the continent should be in a 

 language which is understood by the people of the country." 



Technical Education. 



Much has been written respecting the superiority of the 

 German technical education to that of Great Britain, and to this 

 has been attributed the success which is said to have attended 

 Cierman commercial enterprise within the last twenty-five years 

 That the technical education is better than that in England is 

 denied by many Germans who are competent to express an 

 opinion, having studied the question in both lands ; but what 

 they do admit is that the application of this education in Ger- 

 many is carried out to a more practical and useful conclusion 

 than in England. "Thus," says the Consul at Stettin, "in 

 Great Britain there are numerous public and private schools 

 having a modern side in their curriculum which is an excellent 

 adaptation of what is termed in Germany the " reil gymnasium " ; 

 but in how many English schools is the modern side looked 

 down upon by the head master and consequently by the boys 

 themselves ; and the classic side held up as the education which 

 befits a gentleman ! . . . Undoubtedly the far greater majority 

 of British lads, on the completion of their education, become 

 what is vaguely termed men of business, and at the present day 

 it is an absolute necessity for the carrying on of that business 

 against the keen competition which, owing to European peace, 

 has manifested itself in foreign lands during the last twenty-five 

 years, that we, as a nation of merchants, should be able to deal 

 with our customers in their own tongues ; and for this purpose 

 it is of the utmost importance that the youth of Great Britain 

 should be instructed for the most part in living languages." 



Again, attention is called in the reports to the fact that 

 Germans have been gradually paving their way to their present 

 position by quiet individual persistence backed up by special 

 education. It is stated that they are in the habit of going as 

 clerks into British houses at home and abroad and gradually 

 obtaining a thorough knowledge of the British way of doing 

 business, of the centres of production, &c., which they subse- 

 quently turn to good account ; but some doubts are expressed 

 as to whether any German houses would receive an Englishman 

 in the same way even if he possessed the necessary qualifica- 

 tions. On this point the British Vice-Consul at Porto Alegre 

 says : " Germans can generally speak English and French 

 practically and usefully, and were taken into English houses at 

 first because they were content with little, and sometimes even, 

 no salary, in order to pick up business. On the other hand, the 

 English clerk usually understands no language but his own, 

 and this deficiency alone would be enough to prevent hi:- being 

 taken on as a clerk in a German house. Twenty or thirty years 

 ago the important export trade of this State was almost ex- 

 clusively in the hands of British merchants ; now it is in German 

 hands." 



NO. T512. VOL. 58] 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TUATARA 

 LIZARD. 

 pROF. A. DENDY, professor of biology in Canterbury 

 ■'■ College, New Zealand, has been engaged for the past two 

 years in investigating the development of the Tuatara Lizard, 

 perhaps the most remarkable animal now living in New Zealand, 

 and the oldest existing type of reptile. A short summary of the 

 principal scientific results obtained was sent to London just in 

 time to be laid before the Royal Society at its final meeting for 

 the session in June last. The memoir itself, containing a detailed 

 account of the general development, with numerous illustrations, 

 has now arrived in England, and will shortly be published. Mean- 

 while, the following particulars, published in the Christchitrck 

 Press, will be of interest to naturalists :— The development of 

 the Tuatara presents several remarkable features. The eggs are 

 laid in November, and on Stephen's Island take about thirteen 

 months to hatch, the embryos passing the winter in a state of 

 hybernation, unknown in any other vertebrate embryos. Before 

 entering upon their winter sleep the nostrils of the embryo 



