August i6, 1917] 



NATURE 



499 



'•a state of persistent and incomplete recurrent satis- 

 faction and dissatisfaction of certain proteidogenous 

 molecules," and metab.olism as the primary and basal 

 characteristic of living matter, for such a one Prof. 

 Bateson's stumbling-block does not exist. 



The hypothesis of a backward evolution by the pro- 

 gressive removal of inhibitory factors, like the base- 

 less fabric of a vision, fades into nothingness once it 

 is confronted by the proof that direct positive acquire- 

 ments can be brought about experimentally. It enters 

 into the limbo of the past as an exumple of the JJpen- 

 cerian tragedy — that of , a deduction destroyed by a 

 fact. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



London. — M. L. de la Vallee Poussin, professor in 

 the University of Ghent, is to act temporarily as lec- 

 turer in Sanskrit and Tibetan at the School of Orien- 

 tal Studies. 



The Gladstone memorial prize of the London School 

 of Economics and Political Science has been awarded 

 Miss Olive Wright. 



;k W. W.-vtson Cheyne, Bart., has been elected 

 Tarliamentary representative of the Universities of 

 Edinburgh and St. Andrews. 



Mr. Arthcr T. Bolton has been appointed curator 

 if Sir John Soane's Museum, Lincoln's Inn Fields, 

 -accession to the late Mr. W. L. Spiers. 



Iajok F. C. Purser has been elected to the chair 

 01 the Theory and Practice of Physic in the Schools 

 M Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ire- 



_)K. A. W . AbiiTON has been appointed principal of 

 the mechanical and electrical engineering department 

 of the Stoke-on-Trent Central School of Science and 

 Technology. 



Dr. \V. H. Welch has resigned his position as head 

 of the department of pathology at Johns Hopkins 

 University to take up the directorship of the School 

 of Hygiene and Public Health. Dr. W. G. McCallum, 

 of Columbia University, succeeds him at Johns Hop- 

 kins University. 



.\ppLiCAriONs are invited for a limited number of 

 places in the Pilcher Reseacch Laboratory attached to 

 Bedford College for Women, Regent's Park, N.W.i. 

 Places are available for post-graduate work in science 

 or in arts, preference being given to research in 

 science, and, at the present time, to any investigation 

 connected with the war. Applicants must state their 

 qualifications, the nature of the research, and the 

 period for which application is made. Further infor- 

 mation may be obtained from the principal of the 

 college. 



Many letters have been received by the chairman of 

 the British, Prisoners of War Book Scheme (Educa- 

 tional) testifying to the usefulness of the scheme. Fur- 

 ther contributions are urgently needed. In the tech- 

 nical and scientific sections the prisoners' demand for 

 books is very large, but the works asked for are rarely 

 obtainable as gifts, as the owners generally nee 1 them 

 for their own use, while second-hand copies, sufficiently 

 up to date, are proving increasingly difficult to procure. 

 In these circumstances the committee is compelled 

 to make large purchases of new copies of up-to-date 

 books of the above character, and, for this, ample 

 funds are essential. Donors to the scheme will recog- 

 nise that their gifts do not merely help to save the 

 prisoners from mental stanation, but also increase 



NO. 2494, VOL. 99] 



their value as a commercial and professional asset 

 after the war. Offers of books (which should always 

 b^ accompanied by a detailed list) are also invited and 

 should be addressed to Mj-. A. T. Davies, C.B., 

 " Prisoners of War," Board of Education, Victoria and 

 Albert Museum, South Kensington, S.W.7. 



Speaking last week at the Oxford summer meeting 

 of university extension and other students. Prof. W. H. 

 Perkin said that certain industries, which at. one time 

 appeared to be firmly established in this country, had 

 left them to flourish abroad, and inquir}' inio the 

 reason for this resulted in the conclusion that the 

 cause of our failure had been our neglect of scientific 

 methods and lack of appreciation of the value of re- 

 search. At the commencement of the war Germany 

 had, roughly, ten times as many advanced students 

 engaged in research work as there were in this coun- 

 tr}'. It must be clear to everyone that we could not 

 hope to compete with Germany while such a state of 

 things existed, and it was entirely due to our lack of 

 appreciation of the importance- of research that so 

 manv of our industries had already gone to Germany 

 and so many were in process of being transferred 

 when the war broke out. But in tackling and solving 

 difficult manufacturing operations it was not too much 

 to claim that the scientific men in our universities had 

 shown how valuable they could be to the manufac- 

 turersj whether it be in connection with munitions of 

 war or in the development of purely industrial opera- 

 tions. There could be no doubt that the war had 

 alreadv brought about this welcome change— that a 

 much closer association between the manufacturer and 

 the scientific worker was growing up, such, indeed, as 

 had not previously existed in this countn,-. There were, 

 of course, not a few who were afraid that the introduc- 

 tion of work of industrial importance into our uni- 

 versities, and especially into such universities as those 

 of Oxford and Cambridge, would have a bad effect on 

 these institutions. They feared that the lofty academic 

 spirit which had always pervaded our older universi- 

 ties would suffer from contact with the realities of com- 

 mercial life, and while he could understand the sus- 

 picion which was always associated with any radical 

 change in old-established traditions, he failed entirely 

 to see whv the introduction into the students' career 

 of some of the conditions of the life which so many 

 must ultimately adopt should be in any way -preju- 

 dicial. He was certain that purely academic. work and 

 industrial research could go along side by side to their 

 great mutual advantage. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, July 23. — M. Paul Appell in the 

 chair. — Ch. Lallemand : Remarks on the extension to 

 the sea of hourly time zones. The extension to the 

 sea of the system of hourly zones in use on land, 

 suggested in January last by J. Renaud, has been 

 adopted bv France for warships and mobilised vessels, 

 and the Service H\drographique de la Marine has 

 published a planisphere of the hour zones. In Great 

 Britain a committee appointed by the Admiralty has 

 unanimouslv recommended the adoption of the same 

 rules for British ships. — E. Hang : The extension to- 

 wards the west of the strata of Basse-Provence.— M. 

 Lean : The measurement of linear ensembles. — M. 

 Tonrnier : The experimental determination of the 

 efficiencv of marine engines and boilers. — V. Valcovici : 

 The position of the point of arrest in movement of 

 uniform rotation. — ^J. C. Sola : A new stream of stars 

 in Sagittarius. — A. Gnebhard : A new manner of re- 

 garding volcanic action and the pseudo-eruptive ap- 



