May 15, 1919] 



NATURE 



21 



purposes of war our administrators gave every 

 incentive to scientific investigation; money, men, 

 and material were provided for the asking, free 

 from Treasury control — free, in fact, from all control 

 other than that of the scientific worker able and 

 - willing to organise and execute a necessary piece of 

 work. 



I see no reason to think that the lesson has been 

 properly learnt, and every reason to anticipate a re- 

 establishment of that parsimonious treatment of 

 '■ scientific effort which seems now to belong to a past 

 age, but with which we were all well acquainted five 

 years ago. The control of scientific research is again 

 leaving the hands of the scientific man and being 

 resumed by the lay administrator. The old remark 

 has been resuscitated quite recently that " it is a 

 commonplace among administrators to fear the 

 expert." The non-technical administrator has no 

 means of distinguishing the expert from the charlatan ; 

 he has, perforce, to regard the scientific expert as the 

 lineal descendant of the " adept " of alchemical times, 

 whose main claim to recollection is based upon the 

 adroitness with which he was able to divert public 

 funds to his own base purposes. 



It is quite clear that if scientific research is to be 

 assisted by the State — and unless so aided it will 

 languish, and carry with it into decadence everv 

 activity of the Empire — it must be administered by 

 men of scientific training and eminence; any other 

 mode of procedure will necessarily lead to the 

 strangulation of scientific effort by departmental red 

 tape. In this connection it is again instructive to 

 refer to American practice. Our blood-relatives across 

 the Atlantic had three years in which to study in 

 peace the efforts which we were making in war, and 

 it cannot but be useful to observe the manner in which 

 thev propose to profit bv our experience. 



In 19 16 President Wilson, a university professor 

 and an expert, now one of the most imposing figures 

 in terrestrial affairs, called upon the National Academy 

 of Sciences at Washington to nominate the members 

 of a " National Research Council " ; the object of this 

 new organisation was stated to be that of co-ordinating 

 the scientific work of the country in order that the 

 scientific problems both of war and of peace might 

 be more_ efficientiv solved. The National Research 

 Council is under the presidency of one of the most 

 eminent among the active American men of science, 

 Prof. George E. Hale, of the Mount Wilson Observa- 

 torv, and has large funds at its command for research 

 purooses. Two points are conspicuous in connection 

 with the .American prof^ramme — first, the substitution 

 of the professional lay administrator by the ordinarv 

 ntTico staff; secondly, the recognition of the close 

 interdependence of pure and applied science. The con- 

 tention which has long been advanced in this country. 

 that an adequate output of purely academic chemical 

 nsearch work and the existence of a flourishing fine 

 ( homical industry are mutually essential, is here tacitly 

 accepted ;^ the former seeks in the industries remunera- 

 tive positions for the products of its training, and the 

 fine chemical industrv looks to the scientific investiga- 

 tor for inspiration and new directions for enterprise. 

 The nation which possesses an extensive organic 

 chernical industrv controls chemical warfare, the pro- 

 duction of pharmaceutical and photographic products, 

 the textile industrv, and many other great departments 

 of human activitv. 



The operations of the great .American organisation 

 for the stimulation of scientific research work are 

 already makincr themselves felt. Thev have produced 

 just recently an entirely novel method for oxidising 

 naphthalene to phlhalic acid, presumably bv the use 

 rSf atmospheric oxvgen and a catalvst. which gives a 

 Q.^ per cent, yield, and are responsible for the huge 

 NO. 2585, VOL. 103] 



nitrogen fixation scheme now under installation in the 

 States. These two illustrations alone, the one small 

 and the other large, leave us in no doubt as to the 

 influence which the National Research Council is 

 destined to exert on scientific and technical progress 

 throughout the world. 



If British science is to make itself adequately felt 

 in the great intellectual and material advances of the 

 near future, British men of science must be entrusted 

 with the initiative power and the command of money 

 which they have enjoyed during the past few years ; 

 unless this is done our Empire will, as before, continue 

 to fall behind other great nations as a contributor to 

 the increasing mass of pure and applied scientific 

 knowledge. 



In an address which I had the honour of delivering 

 in this room a year ago attention was directed to the 

 necessity for closer co-operation between the large 

 societies representing the various chemical interests 

 in Great Britain. During the past year action has 

 been taken in this matter, and some fifteen of the 

 societies have now collaborated in the establishment of 

 a Federal Council for Pure and Applied Chemistry-, 

 j the function of which is to advance, safeguard, and 

 voice the interests of chemical science. The Federal 

 Council consists of representatives nominated by the 

 component bodies, and is already occupying itself 

 actively with the questions within its purview; it has 

 moved with some success in connection with the 

 claims of experimental science to recognition in the 

 recently established scheme for education within the 

 Army, with the provision of fine chemicals for research 

 purposes, with the remuneration of scientific posts, and 

 with other matters. The Federal Council will continue 

 to applv itself to those questions which are of import- 

 ance to chemists as a class, leaving more specific 

 chemical interests to be dealt with by the appropriate 

 constituent societies. A very similar project for the 

 consolidation of the larger chemical interests is in 

 course of execution by our French colleagues. 



It is beyond question that a central house for ac- 

 commodating the chemical societies in a manner more 

 proportionate to their importance than is at present 

 possible should be provided; that a common chemical 

 library far more complete than any now available in 

 this cotmtrv should be at our service: and that some 

 comprehensive scheme for the publication of comoendia 

 of chemical knowledtje should be put into operation. .\ 

 verv imposing and costly programme confronts the 

 recent amalgamation of chemical interests, but the 

 universal approval which greeted the proposition for 

 creatinj? a Federal Council for Pure and Applied 

 Chemistrv is a hanpv augury for the future u.sefulness 

 of the new organisation. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 

 Birmingham. — At a meeting in Birmingham on 

 May 8 of representatives of the engineering profession 

 and others, the Lord Mayor presiding, a provisional 

 scheme for celebrating the centenary of the death of 

 James Watt was agreed upon. We are glad to note 

 that the scheme includes the endowment of a chair of 

 engineering at the University, A point which is some- 

 times overlooked in such matters was made by Sir 

 Oliver Lodge, who reminded the meeting that endow- 

 ments of this kind, though most desirable, should not 

 be regarded as gifts conferring benefit only on the Uni- 

 versity. The University acted as a trustee, and every 

 new chair endowed involved expense. .Apparently no 

 definite opinion was expressed as to the salary which 

 should be attached to the chair; this would no doubt 

 depend upon the sum collected for the memorial. 



