May 31, 19 1 7] 



NATURE 



265 



the Committee of the Privy Council for Scientific 

 and Industrial Research. The report of the Uni- 

 versities Trust exhibits the effective response of 

 the universities to recent calls. The report of 

 the Council makes very evident the need, long 

 recognised by scientific men, of change — drastic 

 ■change — in the methods of industr}-, and the need 

 for collaboration in endeavour. It makes also 

 very evident the need for the theorist to direct 

 and expedite the labours of the practical man ; 

 and, more satisfactory still, it shows that the 

 practical man is now recognising it widely under 

 the stress of war. 



The future age is to be the age of specialisa- 

 tion and co-ordination. An interesting example 

 of co-ordination appears in the reports of the 

 Advisory Council and the United Kingdom Trust. 

 The former body gave grants to the Stoke School 

 of Potter}- in order to aid "a threatened indus- 

 try." The latter acquired the unique Solon 

 Ceramic Library and presented it to the Stoke 

 School in the hope that it might "help to 

 strengthen ,the high standard of a national 

 Industry." 



The specialisation and the co-ordination are to 

 be directed towards the placing of national efforts 

 on the fittest bases and in touch with the fittest 

 methods. It is largely isolation and the lack of 

 specialised scientific control in commercial and 

 Industrial endeavours that have led to the critical 

 conditions upon which the war has focussed atten- 

 tion. The Committee of the Privy Council has 

 already done much towards the removal of some 

 of these conditions, and has proceeded tentatively 

 to the inauguration of means to remedy widely 

 the lack of co-ordination and the neglect of spe- 

 cialised control. The constitution of the ma- 

 chinery of the committee for the effective attain- 

 ment of its national aims is verv ideal. The 

 committee itself includes the heads of the various 

 governmental departments concerned, and its 

 Advisory Council and very large Standing Com- 

 mittees are formed of li-'orking scientific and tech- 

 nical experts, whose decisions must obviously be 

 determinative. 



But there exist many pre-war administrations 

 — boards, trusts, etc. — on a smaller scale, and 

 many post-war administrations will arise also on 

 a smaller scale, yet, nevertheless, dealing with 

 matters of importance to the nation. In the case 

 of the former there must be revision, in the case 

 of the latter there must be supervision, in order 

 that the fittest constitution mav be framed and 

 followed. In matters of business the framing 

 should be moulded on business lines, and not, for 

 example, on legal lines, though a slight admix- 

 ture of legal opinion might be desirable. In 

 matters of education the administrators should 

 mainly be trained educationists, and not, for 

 example, business men, though a slight propor- 

 tion of these might be of advantage when the 

 administration deals also with its own funds. In 

 a mixed body it is not infrequently found that 

 the best business member is one who never had 

 a special business training; nevertheless, there 

 are certain aspects of business .which can be 

 NO. 2483, VOL. 99] 



safely guided only by a trained specialist. On 

 the other hand, it must also be recognised that 

 the lines of success in a trading firm or a manu- 

 facturing firm are fundamentally different from 

 those in an educational institution. Trade and 

 ordinary business are. of the nature of a war with 

 tendencies, which may be, and often are, success- 

 fully combated, towards selfishness and hardness. 

 And this tendency might easily develop into a 

 national curse. In not very remote history a 

 subordinate body, composed mainlv of business 

 men, intending to be well-intentioned, byt misled 

 by a mischief-maker and to some extent under 

 the influence of the heritage of old feuds, worked 

 behind the back of a superior body and almost 

 involved both bodies in an utterly ruinous litiga- 

 tion. In that process they attacked, also behind 

 his back and without his knowledge, a man whose 

 life, in connection with the matter regarding 

 which they attacked him, could easily challenge 

 that of any one of them; for it had, in that very 

 matter, been one of absolute innocence. Such a 

 performance could scarcely be imagined in the 

 case of a body of jurists, whose training begets 

 sensitiveness to justice; or of a body of scientific 

 men, whose training begets sensitiveness to accu- 

 racy and truth ; or even of a body of literary men 

 or artistic men, whose training confirms the sense 

 of beauty. 



In every case the scientific test of fitness must 

 be applied. In pure business, the business man ; 

 in pure technics, the technical man ; in technical 

 science, the practical man and the man of science 

 equally, or the latter preponderantly in cases of 

 doubt; in education, the trained educationist, 

 must have the determinative voice. So also in 

 other matters. It is no less an important point 

 that the specialists must be men actively engaged 

 m the work which is their specialty. Under no 

 other conditions can the fullest efficiency be 

 attained. Nor can it be attained with certainty 

 unless these men are in the majority as regards 

 either numbers or, at least, the weight effectively 

 attached to their views. 



When proved by these tests, of the three ad- 

 ministrations here specially considered, only that 

 of the Committee of the Privy Council seems to 

 be of quite the fittest type. Although there is full 

 internal evidence in the reports of the Carnegie 

 Trusts that great weight is attached to expert 

 advice, possibility should be changed into visible 

 certainty. Nevertheless, one ought not to take 

 cognisance of this condition without at the same 

 time acknowledging, with full appreciation, the 

 height of the aims of these trusts and the great- 

 ness of the results to which they have attained. 



W. Peddie. 



ANTISEPTICS, AND THE TREATMENT OF 

 INFECTED WOUNDS. 



FROM the beginning of the war the Medical 

 Research Committee has paid special atten- 

 tion to the important subject of antiseptics in the 

 treatment of wounds. The part taken by Sir 

 Almroth Wright and the bacteriological depart- 



