228 



NATURE 



[May 17, 19 1 7 



a certain number of the individual members of the 

 stock. The investigfator has worked with patience 

 and carefulness; his most feasible practical sug- 

 gfcstion is the permanent custodial care of the 

 feeble-minded Jukes. 



(4) In a clear and courageous essay Adelyne 

 More points out the advantages of a deliberate 

 reduction of the birth-rate. Only thus can women 

 secure independence ; it is the chief way of reduc- 

 ing infantile mortality ; it is the only way by 

 which struggling parents can attain economic 

 security ; it forms part of the prophylaxis against 

 venereal disease; and it is the most effective way 

 of ensuring the cessation of war. "An undue 

 fecundity promotes international pugnacity of 

 precisely the kind which was operative in bringing 

 about the present war." In a slashing preface — 

 admirable in its exposure of our Anglo-Saxon 

 false shame — Mr. Arnold Bennett deals, some- 

 what too cavalierly, we think, with the hygienic, 

 religious, political, and industrial arguments 

 against the use of contraceptives. He does not 

 consider the ethical difficulties — perhaps transi- 

 tional, but already real enough — involved in being 

 able at will to evade the natural consequences 

 of sexual intercourse, nor the social difficulties 

 involved in the unequal birth-rate in different 

 sections of the community, and in the likelihood 

 that birth-control would tend to be adopted most 

 among thrifty, far-sighted, controlled, and "indi- 

 viduated " types, of whom a progressive nation 

 wishes more, not fewer. J. A. T. 



ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



A MEMORANDUM prepared for the Gover- 

 nor and the General Assembly of the* State 

 of Illinois, concerning the work of the College of 

 Engineering and the ^ Engineering Experiment 

 Station of the University of Illinois, has lately 

 reached us. It is partly a statement of the work 

 of the college, which gives degrees to more than 

 200 Engineering students annually, with photo- 

 graphs of some of the large engineering works 

 executed under the direction of its graduates, 

 and partly an appeal for a large extension of its 

 buildings. It is pointed out that the growth of 

 a State in population, wealth, and influence 

 depends chiefly on its success in the development 

 of engineering industries. 



It is known that the "State universities" of 

 the United States have engineering laboratories 

 more largely staffed and rnore completely 

 equipped than those in this country, and that they 

 carry on research work very directly associated 

 with industrial needs. Lately there has been a 

 movement to develop these as "experiment 

 stations." In the case of the Illinois University 

 the control is vested in the heads of departments 

 of the college; the ordinary equipment of the 

 laboratory is used, but there are nine investi- 

 gators devoted to research work and fourteen 

 research fellows who give half-time to research. 

 All results are published and 106 bulletins have 

 been issued. 



In a short account of the more important re- 

 searches carried on, it is stated that Prof. Talbot's 

 tests of reinforced concrete have supplied 

 information on which standard practice has been 

 based. They are well known in this country. In 

 the case of iron alloys, researches have been made 

 I with an electric furnace permitting melting in 

 I vacuo. These, it is claimed, have led to the 

 ■ production of iron alloys having magnetic proper- 

 ties far superior to anything hitherto known — for 

 example, specimens with a permeability seven or 

 eight times higher than any other alloy. A new 

 law bearing on steam-engine practice has been 

 discovered by Mr. Clayton, connecting the form 

 of the indicator expansion curve with the quality 

 of steam in the cylinder. This makes it possible 

 to predict the economic performance of an engine 

 from the evidence of the indicator diagram. Prof. 

 Goodenough has deduced values of the constants 

 for steam .which, it Is stated, give the means of 

 calculating steam tables of far greater accuracy 

 than any hitherto published. Prof. Parr has 

 devised a new low-temperature process of 

 carbonisation of the non-coking Illinois coal of 

 great importance, with the advantage that valu- 

 : able by-products are recovered. 



The building programme put forward will 



involve an expenditure of nearly i,ooo,oooi^, 



exclusive of land and equipment. In the last 



two years the expenditure of the college has been 



152,000^., and the budget for the next two years 



is 300,000/. Some account is piven of the 



Massachusetts Institute of Technology, nolv in- 



I corporated with Harvard University, which has 



i purchased land and erected buildings -and pro- 



1 vided equipment at a cost of 1,400,000/. 



The most important experiment station in the 



I United States is, no doubt, the Bureau of 



I Standards — a Federal institution which has rela- 



1 tions with many industries, and receives from the 



Government 125,000/. annually. A remarkable 



development is the Mellon Institute attached to 



the University of Pittsburgh. There any industry 



can endow a fellowship for a specific research. 



; The University selects a suitable investigator and 



I provides the laboratory. When results are 



I obtained a small unit factory is established near 



; the institute and the process worked on a small 



I but commercial scale. The annual expenditure 



'■ is 30,000/. 



PROF. EMIL VON BEHRING. 



IN Nature of April 26 a short chronological 

 survey was given of the career of Emil von 

 Behring, whose death was recently announced. 

 In the early eighties of last century, whilst a 

 military surgeon at Bonn, Behring commenced a 

 series of investigations which ultimately led him 

 to the discovery of anti-toxins.' This work merits 

 fuller notice than could be given to it within the 

 limits of a paragraph in the Notes columns of 

 Nature. 



The fact that white rats were generally 

 immune against anthrax, whereas ordinary wild 



NO. 2481, VOL. 99] 



