5^2 



NATURE 



[August 28, 19 19 



microbiology and for the study of the innumerable 

 problems on which it bears. The first object of such 

 an institute would be to provide for the systematic 

 prosecution of research in connection with any 

 mdustry in which micro-organisms or enzymes play 

 an important part. Such industries— not to mention 

 brewing and distilling— are, for example, the dairy 

 industry, particularly cheese-making; the bread- 

 making and pressed-yeast industry; tanning; lactic 

 acid making; the treatment of sewage; wine- and 

 vinegar-making, and agriculture generally. Another 

 function would be the specialised training of teachers 

 of microbiology and biochemistry, and the practical 

 instruction of technical employees. A further object 

 would be the provision of organisms in pure culture 

 for use in industry and the housing of. as complete 

 a collection of technical micro-organisms as could be 

 got together. No such collection exists in the United 

 Kingdom f scientific and other workers in want of a 

 particular organism are compelled to apply to their 

 friends on the chance that someone may happen to 

 have a specimen, or else must send abroad for it. 

 Whilst much valuable work in microbiology is done 

 in this country, the institutions are scattered and 

 there is lack of co-ordination. Far better results would 

 be obtained if the many closely related problems con- 

 nected with the activity of micro-organisms and 

 enzymes could be studied in a single institution, 

 adequately provided with all the necessary appliances 

 and specimens, where the various workers would have 

 the opportunity of discussing their problems with one 

 another. 



In a paper on the growth of crystals under con- 

 trolled conditions (Journ. Washington Acad. Sci., 

 vol. ix., p. 85, 1919), Mr. J. C. Hostetter shows how 

 the faces developed on a crystal may result from a 

 cessation of growth, incipient solution, and then re- 

 newed deposition of crystalline material. An octahedral 

 crystal of alum may thus have its edges rounded by 

 solution, and planes of the rhombic dodecahedron 

 appear in place of these edges during renewed growth. 

 These planes maintain themselves, and the original 

 edge never becomes restored. 



_ A COMMITTEE appointed by the council of the Institu- 

 tion of Electrical Engineers to consider the question 

 of patent law amendment has recently presented a 

 report to that body containing the outline of a scheme 

 relating to a proposed Empire patent law; the inten- 

 tion of the scheme is that inventors shall, by means 

 of a single application, be put in a position to secure 

 a patent which shall possess validity in as many 

 parts of the Empire, where patent protection receives 

 recognition, as they may select in each particular 

 case. Adhesion to this scheme should, it is sug- 

 gested, be left optional^ to the various parts of the 

 Empire, as also the decision on the question whether 

 changes shall immediately be made in the existing 

 patent laws having force therein. The undesirability 

 of there being two classes of patents in force simul- 

 taneously in the same region is appreciated in the 

 report, and it is, in consequence, suggested that the 

 local Act or Ordinance, which it would be necessary 

 to pass to give validity to the Empire patents in any 

 particular region, should provide* for such patents 

 being treated in every respect as though they had 

 been granted under the territorial patent law. ' It is 

 proposed that the. Empire patents should, in the first 

 p4ace, be issued in the same way as an English patent, 

 the examination being made at, and the grant sealed 

 in, the Patent Office in London. However, thereafter 

 the Empire patents should, it is suggested, be assimi- 

 lated with the domestic patents severally in each part 

 of the Empire covered by the grant, questions of 

 validity, infringement, revocation, etc., in relation 



NO. 2600, VOL. 103] 



thereto being dealt with and determined under the 

 local patent laws. It is further recommended that 

 the Empire patents should rest in each region on their 

 own foundation— that is to say, any judgment given 

 in an infringement or revocation action or like pro- 

 ceedings in the United Kingdom, or in any Dominion, 

 etc., should alone operate in that part of the Empire 

 in which the legal proceedings were taken giving rise 

 to such judgment, and should in no way '"affect the 

 patent in any other part of the Empire to which the 

 grant extended. 



Readers interested in the decimal system of weights 

 and measures will remember that, in addition to his 

 pioneer work in steam engineering, James Watt has 

 another claim to the gratitude of posterity in having 

 originated, towards the close of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury, that demand for decimalisation and for co- 

 ordination between the units of measure and weight 

 which led in a few years to the conception of the 

 metric system. 



Symons's Meteorological Magazine for July shows 

 the exceptionally dry character of the weather over 

 England during the early part of June, and it was 

 not until June 19 or 20 that the prevailing drought 

 was brought to an end. In London the partial 

 drought, which had lasted seven weeks, broke up on 

 June 19, and was followed by cool and showery 

 weather. The map giving the Thames Valley rain- 

 fall for June shows that the driest weather occurred 

 in Hampshire and Sussex in the south, and in the 

 central Midlands, where the total rainfall for the 

 month was less than i in. At Tenterden, in Kent, 

 the rain measurement was only 0-47 in., and at 

 Hailsham 048 in. The August issue of the maga- 

 zine gives an account of the transfer of the British 

 Rainfall Organisation to the Meteorological Office. 

 The rainfall work will, however, still be carried on 

 at Camden Square by Mr. Salter, who, acting under 

 the Meteorological Office, will be superintendent in 

 charge of the rainfall work. As stated in Nature of 

 July 24 (p. 409), Dr. H. R. Mill has retired from the 

 directorship of the British Rainfall Organisation and 

 from the editorship of Symons's Meteorological Maga- 

 zine. The Thames Valley rainfall map for July 

 shows that the rainfall over the area was smallest in 

 parts of Berkshire and Hampshire, where the total 

 measurement for the mcnth was less than 1-5 in. 



The Monthly Meteorological Chart of East Indian 

 Seas for September contains, as usual, the winds and 

 ocean currents and other meteorological information 

 for the guidance of seamen, which are now of great 

 value for airmen. At the back a chart is given showing 

 the drift of ocean current-papers, issued under the 

 authority of Mr. H. A. Hunt, Commonwealth Meteoro- 

 logist. The tracks followed by the several bottle- 

 papers are entered on the chart, and some details of 

 each current-paper are given in a tabular form. Fifty 

 bottle-papers are thus dealt with during the years 1 

 1908-14, and they show a general drift to the north- ■ 

 eastward from the Southern Indian Ocean towards 

 South Australia and New Zealand. A current is also 

 shown from Western Australia to North-East Africa. 

 These drifts give the resultant direction in the special 

 cases dealt with, but the rate of flow Is, for various 

 reasons, untrustworthy. The current-papers secured 

 are only a small fraction of those thrown overboard. 

 To obtain the fifty drifts, without doubt many 

 hundreds of bottles would have been thrown over- 

 board. Some captains make it a system to throw 

 overboard at least one bottle a day. The tracks 

 charted would be more valuable if the numbers of the 

 drifts were given at start and finish, and if month 

 and year were noted along the track. 



