April 20, 19 16] 



NATURE 



171 



have put their best brains and energies into the cause | 

 of agriculture, with the result that their system of j 

 rural economics is a model to the world. The high | 

 standard of agricultural education is chiefly responsible ; 

 for this success; it is significant that 20,000 Danish | 

 farmers possess covered manure sheds, while 90,000 I 

 have water-tight liquid manure tanks. But in com- ' 

 paring this state of affairs with conditions on our : 

 farms at home, it must always be remembered that \ 

 our system of land tenure does not favour similar | 

 development here. It is not only ignorance that still j 

 causes so much of the fertilising value of farmyard 

 manure to be lost by careless storage. The Danish [ 

 farmer, owning his holding, is able to borrow from | 

 his credit society the capital necessary for these im- 1 

 provements; the English tenant farmer is not in the | 

 same position. Many landlords cannot provide these j 

 aids to successful farming, even if they realise that it 

 is to their ultimate advantage to do so. | 



It is, hoviever, to the rural high school that we must ■* 

 look as the real source of Denmark's present agricul- j 

 tural prosperity. It may surprise many to learn that 

 no merely utilitarian outlook dominates these schools. 

 1 On the contrary, they endeavour to show the power 

 of history, poetry, and science, and of a higher level 

 of life and thought to glorify ordinary workaday exist- 

 I ence. How -will a man trained in an atmosphere of 

 i this kind fill the place of a typical agricultural labourer 

 1 on. our farms? If Danish workers are introduced in 

 I any numbers into English rural life the results cannot 

 fail to be of great interest. 



THE CULTIVATION OF SPONGES. 



AN industry which promises a return of 3000 per 

 cent, per annum on a very moderate capital 

 j expenditure is an attractive proposition. In the last 

 I issue of the West Indian Bulletin Mr. W. R. Dunlop 

 I describes the successful rearing of sponges from cut- 

 I tings in the Caicos Islands, near Jamaica, and also 

 the results of some earlier experiments in Florida. 

 The sponges occurring naturally in West Indian waters 

 ; have little commercial value, so that the material for 

 planting must be imported. Although sponges are to 

 a remarkable extent creatures of environment, and 

 tend when transplanted to approach the native types 

 in quality, there is evidence that this may not occur 

 in selected localities in the Lesser Antilles. As the 

 cuttings will only grow when attached to an anchor- 

 age, it is necessary to provide them with suitable 

 means of support when planting out. Cement discs 

 are used in Florida, to w-hich the sponges are held by 

 metal clips, but it has been found in the Caicos 

 Islands that slabs of coral are quite as efTective as the 

 discs and naturallv much cheaper. On soft or sandy 

 bottoms a spindle is set in the disc to hold the cutting, 

 otherwise the sinkmg of the disc tends to bury the 

 sponge and kill it. 



The crop is ripe for harvesting in from one to four 

 years, according to the variety grown. To plant, har- 

 vest, and market one acre of sheep 's-wool sponges costs 

 about 4I. This is a large and valuable variety, taking 

 four years to mature, and yielding 116Z. per acre in the 

 \'ew York market. Assuming that one acre is planted 

 ch year, then, after four years, an annual expendi- 

 .^ure of 4?. will yield an annual profit of 112Z., if four 

 acres only are under cultivation. No charge for 

 management is included in this estimate. The growers 

 m the Caicos find that the small reef sponges, in spite 

 of their lower market value, give an even better 

 '; return on capital than the wool sponges, because they 

 mature in twelve or fourteen months. It will be sur- 

 prising if this industry, apparently so profitable," needs 

 ^uch ofTicial encouragement. 



NO. 2423, VOL. 97] 



NATIONAL ASPECTS OF CHEMISTRY.^ 



EXACTLY seventy-five years ago from March 30, 

 1916, the Chemical Society met for the first time 

 at the Royal Society of Arts alter a preliminary meet- 

 ing on February 23, 1841, at which it was decided 

 "that it is expedient that a Chemical Society be 

 formed." Though the society has continued to hold 

 its anniversarj- meetings on or about March 30, ever 

 since then, under various conditions, no meeting ex- 

 cept that in 1915 has ever been held in circumstances 

 at all approachmg those now prevailing throughout 

 the entire globe. The Crimean and Boer Wars did 

 not awaken in the nation any appreciation of the 

 increasingly important rdle played by chemical science 

 in warfare. On th^ other hand, the enormous possi- 

 bilities for the destruction of human life afforded by 

 the application of scientific methods to warfare had 

 inclined people to the belief that such a war as the 

 present, with its ruthless disregard of life, could never 

 occur. Short of demonstration, chemists would never 

 have believed that their science could have been pros- 

 tituted as it has been by the enemy. 



Many thoughts arise in our minds on such an occa- 

 sion as the seventy-fifth anniversary of our society, 

 leading us to reflect on the state of chemical science 

 before 1841, on the aims and purposes for which it 

 was deemed expedient to form such a society, and to. 

 examine the measure of success that has been achieved 

 by the society in fulfilling the objects as laid down 

 in the charter. 



Reference was made to various letters received from 

 the founders of the society, and to one in particular 

 from Henr>' Fox Talbot, the well-known pioneer in 

 photography, expressing the view that the science of 

 chemistry alone was not sufficient to engage the atten- 

 tion of a society, and suggesting that electricity should 

 be added. How erroneous was this view is shown by 

 the fact that within a month or so of its formation the 

 Pharmaceutical Society was founded, and of later 

 years, amongst other societies which have sprung 

 from the parent society, may be mentioned the Society 

 of Public Analysts, the Institute of Chemistry, and 

 the Society of Chemical Industry, each of which has 

 its important functions to perform. 



Looking back to the time of the " father of chem- 

 istry and brother of the Earl of Cork," who in his 

 introduction to the "Sceptical Chymist " stated '"that 

 of late chymistry begins, as indeed it deserves, to be 

 cultivated by learned men, who before despised it; and 

 to be pretended to by many, who never cultivated it, 

 that they may not be thought to be ignorant of it," 

 one may indeed wonder, on perusing our Parliament- 

 ary and legal reports, how our legislators should be 

 classed in accordance w'ith this statement, and to doubt 

 whether the attitude of so-called learned men towards 

 chemistry had done more than "begin" to change 

 during the last two centuries. The beginnings of this 

 change and the initiation of the experimental method 

 into true science by Robert Boyle and his contem- 

 poraries followed closely upon the Civil War. For a 

 hundred years or so onwards from the time of Boyle, 

 the gradual substitution of careful experimental work 

 in place of speculation on the reasons for chemical and 

 physical changes added greatly to our know ledge. The 

 rise and development of the phlogistic theor\' and its 

 [ final overthrow by Lavoisier illustrate this phase in 

 ' the growth of our science. The vast strides made in 

 the progress of chemistry date back to the time when 

 ' the use of the chemical balance was insisted on by 

 I Black : by its use chemistrv became an exact science. 

 I Black's modesty and his devotion to scientific inves- 



I 1 Abstract of t''e~ Pre>;idential .-Vddres*, entitled " Our iNeventy-fifth- 

 I Anniversarv," delivered before the Chemical Society on April 6, by Dr. 

 I Alexander Scott, F.R.S. 



