March i6, 1916] 



NATURE 



63 



The retirement of Dr. Theodore Thomson, C.M.G., 

 from the post of assistant medical officer of the Local 

 Government Board about three years ago, and his 

 recent death at the age of fifty-nine, deprived that 

 Board of an extremely able public servant. Prior to 

 his appointment as a medical inspector of the Board, 

 Dr. Thomson had held the post in succession of medi- 

 cal officer of health of Sheffield and Aberdeen, and in 

 these positions had shown the high qualit}- of work 

 which characterised his later work in a Government 

 Department. His name will always be associated with 

 important reports on two of the largest epidemics of 

 enteric fever, due to water-borne infection, which have 

 occurred in this country, at Maidstone and Worthing 

 respectively. These reports are a model of precise 

 statements of results, as well as of methods of inves- 

 tigation. In the important international work of the 

 Local Government Board, Dr. Thomson for many 

 years took a chief part, and he was the British dele- 

 gate in 1903 to the International Sanitary Conference 

 of Paris, and signed the International Sanitarj- Con- 

 vention as the Plenipotentiar\- of the British Govern- 

 ment. For this work and his special mission of in- 

 quir\- into the sanitary defence of the Persian Gulf he 

 was nominated a C.M.G. in 1905. 



In a lecture recently delivered before the Hyderabad 

 (Deccan) Archaeological Society, Sir John Marshall, 

 Director-General of Archaeologj- in India, directed 

 attention to the importance of the Deccan as a field for 

 inquiry. The points on which investigations in this 

 region may be expected to throw light are : the date 

 of the interments usually supposed to be prehistoric, 

 but probably of a later age ; whether the copper culture 

 of northern India extended south of the Vindhyan 

 range, and whence the use of iron was introduced. 

 Recently a rock inscription of Asoka has been dis- 

 covered at Maski, unique inasmuch as it refers to the 

 Emperor under his own name, these edicts of Asoka 

 being the earliest records we possess in India, except 

 one bearing an Aramaic inscription recently found at 

 Taxila. He went on to refer to the number of cave 

 temples and monasteries, the paintings in the Ajanta 

 and Ellora caves, and the splendid series of Saracenic 

 buildings scattered over the region. The new society 

 has a great work before it, and under the skilful 

 supervision of Sir John Marshall important results 

 bearing on the ethnography and history of southern 

 India may be confidently expected. 



In an article in the Daily Telegraph of February' 29 

 Sir Robert Hadfield points out that most of the dis- 

 coveries which have proved of industrial importance 

 have not emanated from Grermany. It must be remem- 

 bered, however, that the countrj- in which the discovery 

 is made does not of necessity reap the benefit which 

 accrues from its commercial exploitation. When, as 

 in Sir Robert Hadfield's own case, the discoverer can 

 foresee the industrial possibilities, and is able to put 

 his ideas into practice, success is bound to follow. He 

 quotes Mr. C. R. Darling as lowing that none of the 

 prominent advances in connection with pyrometry have 

 originated in Germany; but here again the important 

 industry which has arisen in this countrj- in the manu- 

 facture of pyrometers is due to the skilled scientific 

 NO. 2420, VOL. 97] 



men who have seen how to apply new principles to 

 the production of useful instruments. All the evidence 

 shows that our future commercial success depends 

 upon a closer alliance between science and industn'. 

 No scheme to achieve this end can be complete which 

 does not foster the prosecution of laboratory- research, 

 and thus provide the seeds from which industries grow. 

 Encouragement and financial aid should be given to all 

 who devote themselves to research ; and to this end funds 

 should be forthcoming, either from private sources or 

 the Government, or from both. In this way the 

 laboratory can be connected with the workshop, to 

 the great advantage of both. 



The Pioneer Mail of February 5 contains an inter- 

 esting account of the presidential address delivered 

 by Dr. H. H. Hayden to the Mining and Geological 

 Institute of India, which dealt particularly with 

 problems raised by the \i-ar. As director of the 

 Geological Sur\-ey of India, Dr. Hayden spoke with 

 the authority- of an exf>ert, and his description of 

 the German metal ring and its vast ramifications was 

 peculiarly instructive. He explained that for years 

 past Germany had been gradually acquiring control, 

 not only of metals, but also of the raw materials for 

 their production. Her activities embraced Europe, 

 America, Australia, and India. In Australia, for ex- 

 ample, the Zinc Corporation had contracted to sell to 

 her all their concentrates until the year 1919; Germany 

 took the entire wolfram output of Burma, and the 

 monazite sands of Travancore were being worked bv 

 German firms, the production of thorium nitrate being 

 so regulated that the gas-mantle industry was com- 

 pletely controlled. Dr. Hayden then turned to India's 

 opportunities of developing her own resources. The 

 wolfram output of Burma is being expanded ; the 

 tungsten industry has been taken out of German 

 hands, and a new British industry- has been estab- 

 lished. Dr. Hayden suggests that it would pay to 

 make ferro-tungsten on the spot if the electrical method 

 could be economically introduced into Tavoz. Dr. 

 Fermor has shown that the manufacture of ferro- 

 manganese may be regarded as a sound commercial 

 proposition. If, then, India can arrange for the par- 

 tiall}- finished product to be exported instead of the 

 ores, the tungsten and manganese industries should 

 be assured of that permanence which is so desirable. 

 Dr. Hayden also touched on the question of the 

 manufacture of coal-tar dyes and the glass industry, 

 especially in the matter of the supply of glass bangles, 

 which latter he regards very hopefully. 



We are pleased to note from an inaugural address 

 published in our American contemporar}-. Science, 

 that there has been formed recently in the city of 

 Rochester, N.Y., an "Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Applied Optics." The event is one which 

 marks the growing estimation by scientific men, and 

 we hope also by the community at large, on the other 

 side of the Atlantic of the importance of the subjeri 

 of applied optics. During the past few months we 

 have several times directed attention in these columns 

 to the governmental, scientific, and popular neglect' 

 of this very important subject, and to some of the 

 consequences of its neglect ia our own country in 



