208 



NATURE 



[May io, 19 17 



orating- the conditions of farm life, improving- 

 roads, and increasing the facilities for education. 

 Prof. McLennan discusses at leng-th the methods 

 that may be used to apply scientific research to 

 Caniadian industries. We gather from his remarks 

 that the difficulties which have to be overcome in 

 Canada are to a large extent the same as in the 

 United Kingdom. It will be necessary for the 

 firms in each industry to combine for purposes of 

 research, and Prof. McLennan thinks that this will 

 lead to the creation of great trusts, as in the 

 LTnited States, a result which, in his opinion, need 

 not be an economic evil if due precautions are 

 taken for the protection of the interests of labour 

 and of the consumer. It scarcely follows, we think, 

 that co-operation in research need lead to the 

 formation of trusts. If the research work under- 

 taken in common does not deal with matters of 

 detail, the firms can surely retain their individuality 

 and supplement the State-aided research by good 

 scientific organisation of their own. 



An important point discussed in the address is 

 the part that the universities can take in industrial 

 research. Prof. McLennan is anxious to see the 

 universities take a prominent place in the work, 

 but he expresses a strong opinion that research 

 work of a secret nature or for the advantage of 

 individual firms should not be encouraged in 

 university laboratories. Nothing must be allowed 

 to interfere with the training of the research 

 worker in the university. 



In addition to the university laboratories and 

 those established for research in connection with 

 special industries, the author points out the need 

 for others in which work of a testing and standard- 

 ising type would be done. He also thinks that 

 the Royal Canadian Institute might find a special 

 field of useful work if it aimed at providing 

 laboratories of the type found at the Mellon In- 

 stitute at Pittsburgh, where individual manufac- 

 turers could have problems of a private and ex- 

 clusive nature dealt with at their own cost. 



Prof. McLennan touches on such subjects as 

 banking, protection, and housing problems. He 

 tells us that it is comparatively easy in Canada 

 for railroads, electric development companies, steel 

 corporations, milling and other large and poli- 

 tically powerful interests to have very large ad- 

 vances made to them by the banks under legislative 

 or Governmental guarantees, but it Is not easy 

 for certain vital or " key " industries to get the 

 support they need. He agrees that the policy of 

 Protection Is both desirable and necessary, but he 

 wishes to see It applied first of all to those indus- 

 tries which are basic and of vital importance to 

 the community rather than to those, for example, 

 which have to do with the preparation of food- 

 stuffs and clothing. He thinks the time has come 

 for a scientific revision of Canadian tariffs. He 

 looks forward to the development of western 

 Ontario, and especially the Niagara^ peninsula. 

 Into a region of great industrial activity, and he 

 pleads that care be taken In advance to avold^ In 

 this district the wretched housing conditions which 

 prevail in some manufacturing centres In the Old 

 Country. 



NO. 2480, VOL. 99] 



The June, 1916, issue of the Journal of the 

 British Science Guild contains a report by Prof. 

 Barnes, of McGill University, on the work of the 

 Canadian Branch of the Guild. It Is clear froni 

 this report that the Guild has taken a leading 

 part in Canada, as at home, in concentrating atten- 

 tion on the necessity of organising scientific and 

 industrial research, and the Canadian Govern- 

 ment has now taken up the work on lines some- 

 what similar to those adopted by the Home 

 Government. 



Among the subjects considered by the Canadian 

 Branch of the British Science Guild is that of 

 science teaching in schools, and opinion appears- 

 to be divided on the relative values of physics, 

 chemistry, and botany as school subjects. The 

 present writer has long held the opinion that we 

 should not teach in our schools courses of physics, 

 chemistry, and so on, but that we should 

 endeavour to frame a single course in science suit- 

 able for school work. The course should be 

 selected so as to provide a due amount of experi- 

 mental work and theoretical reasoning, and 

 should Include fundamental principles required for 

 the further study of any branch of science. When 

 we try to teach separate sciences In schools the 

 result invariably is that the courses deal with 

 subjects which do not interest schoolboys and are 

 not of fundamental Importance. 



THE CULTIVATION OF MEDICINAL 

 HERBS. 



THE National Herb Federation, which has 

 taken an active part in stimulating the 

 collection and cultivation of medicinal herbs in 

 this country, has issued a review of an article 

 that recently appeared in the . Journal of the 

 Board of Agriculture under the above title. From 

 this review it appears that the Board of Agricul- 

 ture, which, in its leaflet published in October, 

 1914, and in a revised form in June, 1916, 

 encouraged the production of a number of medi- 

 cinal herbs, now makes the statement, based 

 apparently on a communication from the 

 National Health Insurance Commission (Eng- 

 land), that the home demand for "drug-yielding 

 herbs," with the exception of four essential 

 sj>ecies (belladonna, henbane, digitalis, and 

 colchicum), is now met, and that the four 

 essentials are likely to be put- upon the, market 

 in sufficient quantity to meet all home demands. 



The National Herb Federation very pertinently 

 points out that, in addition to the home con- 

 sumption of the medical profession, the home 

 consumption of the drug factories, where 

 preparations of the herbs are made In large quan- 

 tities for exportation, has to be considered, and 

 that the Imperial aspect of the question has 

 apparently been jettisoned. The origin of the 

 movement for the cultivation of medicinal herbs 

 In this country was twofold, viz. (i) an attempt 

 to meet the serious shortage due to the cessation 

 of importation, arid (2) an attempt to wrest from 

 Central Europe an Industry which we are capable 

 of conducting. The general position appears to 



