April 13, 1916} 



NATURE 



153 



tween the navigation of the Greeks and Romans by 

 :!id of knowledge and appliances available to them 

 1 modern navigation by aid of the compass, cbe 

 Ktant, and the nautical almanac. 

 3) When the institution was organised there was a 

 It'ly spread opinion that much of its work would 

 prove to be transitorj', requiring here and there tem- 

 porary Subsidies to complete mvestigations already 

 started and to publish conclusions already formulated. 

 ' It was also commonly held that the institution could 

 -Ti t as a sort of promoter, starting by aid of initial 

 nts many worthy undertakings and leaving them 

 subsequent support to the grantees themselves 

 10 the establishments with which the grantees were 

 nnected. 



Closely related to these opinions was another to the 

 effect that a large amount of valuable work could be 

 i accomplished under academic guidance by needy 

 I students who might thus earn from the institution 

 j small stipends while doing the drudgery and acquiring 

 I the inspiration of research. But these plausible 

 theories, praiseworthy enough in the abstract, failed 

 ' to meet the requirements of conditions as they actually 

 I developed. It soon appeared that the completed inves- 

 \ tigations, or those nearly ready for publication, were 

 '^ ""^ numerous. It was found that stimulating promis- 

 -, enterprises in other establishments by means of 

 ...iiial grants called, in general, for sustaining subsi- 

 [ dies ; and that in some instances such subsidies from 

 j the institution had the sinister effect of decreasing 

 1 independent support for research. And as for the 

 I students from whom so much for so little was ex- 

 pected, it turned out that they were preoccupied as a 

 rule with the elementary notion that research means 

 that modicum of investigation which leads to higher 

 academic degrees. 



Thus the institution was compelled to recognise, in 

 the face of much popular protest, what is clearly 

 j evident on reflection, both from a priori argument and 

 I from common experience, namely, that productive re- 

 ; search, like any other constructive work, requires 

 j arduous, persistent, and, above all, sustained effort 

 I under the direction of disciplined experts. Corusca- 

 Itions in science occur frequently enough, but unfor- 

 tunately most of them, as even,- investigator knows, 

 are igues fatui. It is more rational, therefore, in the 

 (interests of progress to provide for continuity in re- 

 I search than to give special attention to the excessively 

 ! rare events of sudden discoveries and inventions which 

 [prove to be of permanent value. These advances per 

 ■ saltum will take care of themselves; but the surer 

 and more rapJJ process of general advance, and the 

 :one on which attention should be concentrated, in 

 I order to build for the future as well as for the present, 

 lis the process of summation of increments of know- 

 pledge, each relatively infinitesimal in comparison with 

 the possible aggregate. 



i Science is unable to assign an epoch for the begin- 

 ining of research and may not venture to predict an 

 end thereof; it may assert confidentlv onlv that its 

 methods, which have proved effective and trustworthy 

 ■m the past, will prove still more effective and trust- 

 worthy in time to come. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 

 Birmingham.— The project of establishing a chair of 

 Russian language in the Universitv is now on the wav 

 to realisation. The Birmingham' Chamber of Com'- 

 merce has issued an appeal to its. members for con- 

 tributions to a fund for the endowment of such a 

 Aair, and of the sum of i2,oooL, which is aimed at, 

 NO. 2424, VOL. 97] 



more than half has already been promised. It is 

 significant that the list of donations includes hand- 

 some contributions from Wolseley Motors and Electric 

 Ordnance Accessories Company and the Birmingham 

 Small Arms Company, together with Lloyd's Bank and 

 the London, City and Midland Bank. The realisation 

 by such firms of the help which the University can give 

 to the fostering of commercial relations with Russia 

 augurs well for the early success of the scheme. 



The Times reports that the Government has set up 

 a Royal Commission to inquire into the co-ordination 

 of the work of the three Welsh University Colleges 

 and the University of Wales. 



The Teachers' Registration Council announces that 

 the meeting which was to have been held in the Cax- 

 ton Hall to-morrow, April 14, is unavoidably post- 

 poned, as Mr. Arthur Henderson, President of the 

 Board of Education, now finds that it will be impos- 

 sible for him to speak on that day. It is expected 

 that the meeting will be held soon after the Easter 

 vacation. The exact date wall be announced in due 

 course. 



The Executive Committee of the City and Guilds of 

 London Institute has appointed Prof. G. T. Morgan, 

 F.R.S., of the Royal College of Science, Dublin, to 

 the chair of chemistry at the Institute's Technical 

 College, Finsbur}-, rendered vacant by the death of 

 Prof. Meldola. Prof. Morgan was a former student 

 at the college under Prof. Meldola, and later for some 

 years chemist in the works of Messrs. Read, Holliday 

 and Sons. He is a recognised authority on synthetic 

 chemistry and dye-stuffs, on which subjects he has 

 published many original papers. He will take up his 

 duties at the college after Easter. 



It is announced in the London University Gazette 

 that a course of five lectures and demonstrations on 

 '"Some Vegetable Products of Economic Importance" 

 will be given by Mr. A. W. Hill, at the Royal Botanic 

 Gardens, Kew, at 11 a.m. on Saturdays, beginning on 

 May 6. The lectures will deal with some of the better- 

 known economic plants and their products, such as 

 tea, cinchona, cacao, rubber-yielding plants, oil-yielding 

 plants, etc. The lectures, which will be illustrated by 

 means of specimens from the living collections at Kew 

 and also by examples of the products referred to from 

 the museums, will be addressed to advanced students 

 of the University and to others interested in the sub- 

 jects dealt with. Admission is free, without ticket. 



The 360,000/. of " University Building Bonds " voted 

 by the people of California for additional building 

 work at the University of California have, we learn 

 from Science, been allocated by the regents of the 

 University as follows : — ^Benjamin Ide Wheeler Hall, 

 a class-room building with a capacity of 3500 students, 

 its exterior to be of white granite, 140,000/. ; comple- 

 tion of the University library, of which the present 

 portion was built at a cost of 168,000/., 105,000/.; 

 second unit of the group of agricultural buildings, 

 70,000/. ; first unit of a group of permanent buildings 

 for chemistry, 32,000/. ; new unit for the heating and 

 power plant, 14,000/. ; furnishings and equipment for 

 the four structures first mentioned, 26,800/. Our con- 

 temporary also states that the Committee on Agricul- 

 ture of the Massachusetts Legislature has obtained the 

 full grant of 76,400/. asked for new buildings this year 

 by the Massachusetts Agricultural College. 



The President of "the Board of Education has ap- 

 pointed a Departmental Committee to consider what 

 steps should be taken to make provision for the educa- 

 tion and instruction of children and young persons 

 after the war, regard being had particularly to 'the 



