92 



NATURE 



[March 23, 1916 



is equally useful for this purpose, that wool will t;ike 

 the place of cotton in the manufacture of nitrocellulose 

 for propellants, or that a cargo of phosphate has ueen 

 seized lest it should be used by the enemy for the 

 manufacture of phosgene gas." 



Dr. Garnett suggested that, perhaps, in course of 

 time, the Committee of the Privy Council concerned 

 with the development of scientific and industrial re- 

 search may, as in other cases, be replaced by a new 

 Ministry ; and that a National Chemical Laboratory 

 might be established corresponding to the National 

 Physical Laboratory, though the diversity of chemical 

 trades and interests Suggests that several co-ordinated 

 laboratories would be required. 



Mr. Fleming's account of the enormous amount of 

 industrial research being carried on in the United 

 States by individual firms, and the increased provision 

 being made for research in universities and technical 

 institutions, shows that America is fully alive to the 

 commercial advantages of such work. He stated that 

 in the United States at the present time there are 

 upwards of fifty corporations having research labora- 

 tories, costing annually from 2o,oooi. to ioo,oooZ. 

 each for maintenance ; and he added : — " Some of the 

 most striking features of the research work in America 

 are the lavish manner in which the laboratories have 

 been planned and which in many cases enable large- 

 scale manufacturing operations to be carried out in 

 order to determine the best possible methods of manu- 

 facturing any commodity developed or discovered in 

 the laboratory; the appreciation of men of higher 

 scientific training by industry, resulting in increasing 

 numbers of students proceeding to their doctor's degree 

 before leaving the university ; the increasing attention 

 given in the research laboratories to pure science in- 

 vestigations, this being, in my opinion, the most im- 

 portant phase of industrial research ; the absorption of 

 men who have proven their capacity for industrial 

 research in such places as the Mellon Institute, the 

 Bureau of Standards, etc., by the various industries 

 in which they have taken scientific interest." 



While much work of prime importance has been 

 done by individual investigators in this country, there 

 is a general lack of appreciation by manufacturers of 

 the advantages to be derived from the application of 

 science to industry, and a tendency to avoid the em- 

 ployment of scientifically trained men. Steps have 

 been taken by the Royal Society to organise scientific 

 workers, and the Chemical Society has formed com- 

 mittees representing all branches of chemical science. 

 Similar organisations of technical experts have been 

 brought together by engineering societies. What 

 seems to be particularly needed . is a combination of 

 the forces of education, science, manufacture, and 

 commerce, instead of bodies in which these interests 

 are separately represented. The only body in which 

 this combination exists is the British Science Guild, 

 which was founded in 1905, with the express object 

 of bringing home to all classes " the necessity of apply- 

 ing scientific treatment to affairs of all kinds." The 

 present European crisis affords an opportunity of 

 unique importance for the guild to impress upon all 

 who are engaged in the executive functions of Govern- 

 ment, and especially upon those who are engaged in 

 the sphere of industry and commerce, the paramount 

 claims of science in its most advanced aspects of train- 

 ing and research. 



The events of the present war have shown with 

 striking clearness, not only the advantage which 

 systematic education in science and thorough organisa- 

 tion of scientific research in its various applications 

 have given, whether from a chemical or engineering 

 point of view, to the chief of the Central Powers with 



NO. 2421, VOL. 97] 



which the Allies are engaged, but they have shown 

 with no less emphasis the extent to which in the 

 region of scientific industry Germany has grown to 

 be the most formidable rival of the United Kingdom. 



This result is not due to any merely adventitious cir- 

 cumstances, but is the direct fruit of the sedulous cul- 

 tivation of science and of scientific research during the 

 last sixty years, especially in the highest educational 

 institutions of Germany ; and it is the result also of the 

 frank and liberal recognition by the great departments 

 of the State and by the leaders of industry and com- 

 merce of its vital importance to the economic progress 

 and well-being of the nation. 



The recent important memorial, signed by men of 

 high scientific and technical eminence engaged in the 

 various departments of pure and applied science, 

 directed the attention of the public to the grave char- 

 acter of the problems involved. It is novy necfessarv 

 to invoke the aid of the influential technical associa- 

 tions concerned with the development and advance- 

 ment of the great scientific industries, of the chambers 

 of commerce in the chief industrial and commercial 

 centres, and of bodies representative of the workers 

 engaged in the service of the more important indus- 

 tries. It is necessary also to engage the influence and 

 support of bodies charged with the development of 

 agriculture, in respect not only of improved scientific- 

 means and methods of cultivation, but also of the 

 introduction into agriculture of other products of high 

 value, with a view to render the nation less dependent 

 upon foreign sources for its food supplies. 



It is of prime importance that consideration should 

 be given to the conditions upon which the personnel 

 of the public service is recruited, particularly in respect of 

 the choice of the higher officials. We may thus ensure 

 a much closer sympathy with, and a keener apprecia- 

 tion of, the value of science and of its close relation to 

 national progress, with the consequent careful and 

 generous consideration of the curricula of the schools, 

 so as to include a fuller measure of observation and 

 experiment, and provide the means whereby the. gifted 

 of all classes can avail themselves of the highest facili- 

 ties for education. 



With the object of giving effect to these purposes 

 and aims the British Science Guild is preparing a 

 statement which will be submitted to leading repre- 

 sentatives of many national interests, and the whole 

 subject will afterwards be brought before the Govern- 

 ment and the nation. The technical Press could per- 

 form a useful service by directing attention to the 

 opportunity which the guild affords of uniting industry; 

 with education and science for their common good. 



USE OF FOSSIL REMAINS OF THE 

 HIGHER VERTEBRATES IN STRATI- 

 GRAPHICAL GEOLOGY.^ 



T^HE study of fossil fishes, referred to in the presi- 

 ■■■ dential address to the society in 1915, raised the 

 question as to whether animals of apparently the same 

 family, genus, or species might not originate more 

 than once from separate series of ancestors. The 

 higher vertebrates, which inhabited the land, may 

 most profitably be examined to throw light on the 

 subject ; for the land has always been subdivided into 

 well-defined areas, isolated by seas, mountains, and 

 deserts, so that animals in these several areas must 

 often have developed independently for long periods. 

 Students of shells are unanimous In recognising what 

 they term homoeomorphy, and trace immature, mature, 

 and senile stages in the course of every race that can 

 be followed through successive geological formations, 



1 Abstract from the presidential address delivered to the Geological 

 Society of London on February i8, by Dr. A. Smith Woodward, F.R.S. 



