NOVEMBKU, 1912. 



KNOWLEDGE. 



closing of considerable areas of the grounds, and the 

 substitution of individual for common rights thereon. 

 Moreover, the success on any considerable scale of 

 cultivation would be a severe blow to those whose 

 money is invested in the industry as at present 

 carried on, and who would be faced with the necessity 

 of \\riting off large losses. Secondlv, Australians, 

 like the rest of the British people, have perhaps 

 hardly yet realised the strength of zoolog\' : that is to 

 say, the immense amount of practical and theoretical 

 information that is available, if it can onh- be 

 properly mustered and coordinated for the elucida- 

 tion of their problems. Against this potential 

 strength of our science must be set off the drawback 

 that work of this kind has hitherto been regarded as 

 a fit training for the young and inexperienced man 

 of promise — a useful stepping stone to a post at 

 home — rather than as demanding the best men the 

 Empire can ofter. 



And yet, to anyone with imagination and faith in 

 the possibilities of his subject, the Australian pearl 

 fisheries offer work of a kind that seldom falls to the 

 lot of a zoologist. The man who can show how 

 the old and formerly rich beds can be restored as an 

 asset for the white man w ill be able to see, perhaps 

 not only as a vision but as a reality, the North and 

 North-West coasts of Australia, which are crying out 

 for settlers, peopled with men of his own race — 

 somewhat scattered, perhaps, but none the worse for 

 that — drawing a part of their living from the sea, a 

 part from the soil. To the biologist who can solve 

 the Australian problem there is in store not only the 

 privilege of advancing knowledge and industry but 

 the honour of being numbered among Empire- 

 builders. 



A consideration of the small amount that we 

 biologists have so far been able to do to ini[)rove the 

 prospects of the pearl and mother-of-pearl fishing in- 

 dustries, andof theimmensepossibilitiesof theseindus- 

 tries as a field for applied biolog\-, leads one to en<]uire 

 Nshether it would not be possible to devise a means 

 for rendering our science more useful, and more 



directly available to those who may be disposed 

 to invoke our aid. The following suggestion is 

 therefore put forward, tentativel)-, for the con- 

 sideration of those concerned with the organisation 

 of science. 



Is it not time, in view of the minute and ever- 

 increasing specialisation of our subject, that some 

 kind of machinerv were provided that would, when 

 re(]uired, briii^ together and make available for the 

 public, whether Governments, financiers, or share- 

 holders, the available scientific knowledge and 

 advice, on particular subjects such as problems of 

 economic biology? It is seldom, when a new subject 

 like this is broached, that the information necessary 

 to achieve practical results is all in the possession 

 of any one man. Such machinery, if it existed, 

 would be a most valuable asset, never more needed 

 than now, when investors are looking further and 

 further afield for openings for their capital. 



What seems to be needed is some organising or 

 coordinating machiner)- that will bring to bear on a 

 question like this all available reputable specialist 

 opinion that is likely to be useful, both in the 

 preliminary stages, when a plan of campaign is 

 being laid, and in the later phases, when examina- 

 tion, criticism, and correlation of results, and the 

 formulation of a working |)olic\', are required. 



It is suggested that if such machinery existed, not 

 only would the prospects of such missions as the 

 Ceylon one, undertaken under the wing of a strong 

 Government, and backed at a later stage by abundant 

 capital, be brighter, and some of the mistakes that 

 have undoubtedlv been made in the past be almost 

 impossible, but the public would soon begin to realise 

 that there were available expert " Courts of Appeal " 

 to protect administrations and investors. 



\\'ithout measures for correlating and concentrating 

 specialist knowledge, the progress of economic 

 biology, as it becomes more and more specialized, 

 will run a risk of being seriously impeded by diffi- 

 culties similar to those which baftled the builders of 

 the Tower of Babel. 



NOTES. 



ASTRONOMY. 



By A. C. D. Crommelin, B.A.. D.Sc, F.R.A.S. 



THE DISTANCE OF THE MILKY WAY.— I have 

 followed with interest Professor Very's articles on this subject. 

 Time does not permit me to go very fully into the discussion, 

 but I wish to put forward a few considerations which seem to 

 me to make so small a distance very improbable. 



(1) We find that the nearer stars have inotus peculiaris of 

 the same order as the Sun's motion isome twelve miles per 

 second). That the Sun's viotiis peculiaris should without 

 any obvious reason be just the same, both in magnitude and 

 direction, as that of the Milky Way, and that all that count- 

 less host should have practically the same motion with- 

 out any sensible variations, both appear highly improbable 

 a priori. 



12) It is well established, by careful counts of star density 

 that this density steadily and continuously increases all the 

 way from the poles of the Milky \\'ay to the Milky Way itself : 

 unless we assume most artificial distribution, this can only 

 mean that the stellar system is flattened like a bun ; and if the 

 more distant region were only sixty light years, the nearer 

 portions would be only some twenty light years away, so that 

 all the stars near the poles of the Galaxy should have sensible 

 parallaxes and large proper motions, which is not in accord 

 with a superficial examination of the data. 



(31 There are some seventeen stars concluded to have a 

 parallax exceeding one-fifth of a second ; that is, within a 

 radius of fifteen light years. We may make some allowance 

 for undetected parallaxes, but we can hardly extend the 

 number above thirty. Taking a radius four times as great, or 

 sixty light years, we should expect to find sixty-four times as 

 many stars, say two thousand ; but we actually find about 



