lO 



NATURE 



[March i, 1917 



shared by others, are included. As a work of 

 reference the later treatise is, however, unique 

 and invaluable. In spite of his energies in the 

 field of pathology, taxonomy still received atten- 

 tion, as is testified by the volumes, " European 

 Agaricaceae " (1902), "British Fungi and 

 Lichens" (191 1), and "British Mildews, Rusts, 

 and Smuts " (1913). Massee was a fellow of the 

 Linnean Society from 1895 to 1915. He was 

 elected an associate in 1916. In 1902 he received 

 the Victoria Medal of Horticulture of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society. 



Massee's talent as a systematist lay perhaps 

 mostly in his genius for recognising the affinities 

 of a fungus and his remarkable memory. He 

 wrote fluently and forcibly, and being full of 

 energy and industry, was therefore an extremely 

 rapid worker. His artistic powers were quite 

 exceptional, and his drawings, many of which 

 were extraordinarily beautiful, were usually 

 executed with astonishing rapidity. His power 

 of recalling the precise appearance of individual 

 specimens was so great that he could with the 

 greatest ease portray from memory a whole series 

 of Agarics or other fungi. As to detail he was 

 impatient, his style being always bold and vivid. 

 Massee was a remarkable personality. Quick, 

 shrewd, and outspoken, he w^as misunderstood by 

 some. Those who knew him well understood 

 and appreciated him, and mourn the loss of an 

 old and valued friend. A. D. C. 



THE PROMOTION OF TECHNICAL 

 OPTICS. 



'X'HE attention of all interested in the subject 

 -■- of technical optics, the importance of which 

 we have emphasised repeatedly during the last 

 few years, is directed to the subjoined valuable 

 and interesting report, issued by the Board of 

 Scientific Societies, having been approved by the 

 Board on January 24. It will be recalled that the 

 board was formed some time ago by the Royal 

 Society after conferences with the learned and 

 professional societies of the kingdom with the 

 object of investigating scientific and technological 

 problems arising out of the war. It is an addi- 

 tional testimony to the importance of the subject 

 that this should be the first formal report issued 

 by the board. 



The committee upon whose labours the report 

 is based was exceptionally well qualified to deal 

 with its reference "to consider and report upon 

 national instruction in technical optics." It com- 

 prised well-known representatives of the scientific, 

 the industrial, and the educational aspects of 

 optics, and included a high official of the Ministry 

 of Munitions, which has had such good cause to 

 realise thoroughly the disasters brought upon the 

 nation by previous neglect. 



The report is, we think advisedly at this stage, 



not overburdened with details, but deals with the 



matter in hand on broad lines, both as to the 



necessity for immediate action and the direction 



NO. 2470, VOL. 99] 



that action should take, but we are pleased to 

 note that the "committee is willing," and, we 

 assume, prepared, " to give further advice with 

 respect to . . . matters connected with subjects 

 referred to in the report." 



The necessity for immediate action is empha- 

 sised in weighty sentences, especially in regard 

 to the numerous scientific and industrial interests 

 involved. The report asserts that " the next 

 few years are the years which will determine the 

 future of the [optical] industries of the country." 



The actual recommendations for action are 

 directed tow-ards concentration and appear to 

 focus on two points — the provision of the "man" 

 and of the "home " — though other matters of out- 

 standing importance are not overlooked. The 

 first point can be dealt with without any great 

 delay by the appointment of a "director," as he 

 is provisionally termed, whose initial duty will be 

 the organisation and direction of the whole of the 

 teaching, and who, assisted by a qualified staff, 

 should, from the start, be able to advise "the trade 

 in any difficulties they may encounter" until "a 

 sufficient supply of men thoroughly trained " can 

 be evolved. But such an appointment involves 

 an appointing body, and this the board proposes 

 to set up in the form of an independent " super- 

 vising representative council," which, although it 

 is sometimes referred to as an "advisory council," 

 obviously must have executive powers and the 

 control of funds, and, presumably, would be a 

 statutory body, although the report does not say 

 so. It is strongly advocated that the council 

 should be independent of any existing institution 

 or governing body, as dependence would seem " to 

 perpetuate what . . . should only be a transitional 

 stage." Similarly, the director should not be a 

 member of the staff or responsible to the govern- 

 ing body of any existing institution. 



One of the dangers which the board appears to 

 anticipate in too close a connection with, say, the 

 Imperial College is the tendency to allocate all 

 higher research to the favoured college. But 

 higher research in any subject, and not least 

 in such a subject as optics, grows naturally out 

 of opportunities and predilections in any suitable 

 soil, and it would be a mistake to endeavour to 

 confine it to any one college or institution, 

 especially if the favoured place has already many 

 wider and diverse interests in other direc- 

 tions. The recent history of research in this very 

 subject illustrates the point. We need only refer 

 to what has been accomplished by Prof. H. Jack- 

 son at King's College, London, by the University 

 of Sheffield, and by the Glass Research Committee 

 of the Institute of Chemistry. Such researches 

 are essentially strongly individualistic and not 

 made to order, whilst, for the organised research 

 involved in the investigation of particular indus- 

 trial problems, there is the National Physical 

 Laboratory created for this very purpose. 



The other point referred to above — the provision 

 of a " home " — is regarded by the board as of vital 

 importance, and to be proceeded with "as soon 

 as the preliminary work of organisation permits." 



