NATURE 



[May 25, 1916 



and pooling our scientific resources, which have hitherto 

 lacked organisation. Doubtless many manufacturers 

 will in future provide themselves with small labora- 

 tories where manufacturing difficulties peculiar to their 

 ■own works can be solved, but the big advance in the 

 future can only come by concentrating advanced research 

 in a large central institution. The materials, tools, and 

 processes which are common to any industry would 

 be considered in such an institution, and efforts de- 

 voted to improving them for the common benefit of the 

 industry. Processes which are the monopoly of any indi- 

 vidual firm would have to be left out of such a scheme. 

 DifTerences of factory organisation and management 

 and methods of distribution would still enable manufac- 

 turers to compete among each other, but the whole 

 industry would be lifted to a higher plane through 

 discoveries arising from work done at a research in- 

 stitution, which would enable foreign competition to 

 be met most successfully. 



Such an institution would comprise a laboratory for 

 each of the great industries — engineering, shipbuilding, 

 soap-making, dyeing, rubber, paper, metal, and textile 

 manufacture, mining, etc.— housed in a large central 

 building. Much of the work done would be along 

 lines of pure science investigation, so as to ensure 

 priority of new applications in industry. Patents 

 would be taken out by the Board of Control, and 

 manufacturers in this country or the Colonies licensed 

 to manufacture at a nominal charge. 



The advantages of such a scheme over a system of 

 isolated laboratories in different centres are as fol- 

 lows : — 



(i) Work would be done without the overlapping 

 which inevitably occurs among a number of 

 different institutions, and results in great lack of 

 economy. 



(2) Administrative expenses would be reduced to a 

 minimum. 



(3) Since one research frequently leads to others quite 

 unsuspected originally, if all the work were done in 

 one centre fresh investigations could be carried out 

 with the least loss of time and the greatest possible 

 efficiency. 



(4) The problem of collecting information on 

 problems considered would be reduced to a minimum 

 by housing copies of all matter required in one library. 



(5) The problem of distribution of information would 

 in the same way give as little trouble as possible if 

 handled by a bureau attached to the institution. 



(6) It is of the greatest possible value to have a 

 number of men engaged in research problems housed 

 in one building where opportunities arise for frequent 

 meetings. The stimulation arising from intercourse 

 in this way can scarcely be over-estimated. This 

 would be very largely lost in a system of isolated 

 laboratories. 



The advantages the above scheme presents over any 

 proposal to distribute the research work among the 

 universities are equally obvious. The universities are 

 now mainly teaching centres, and the importance of 

 the research work done by the students lies mainly in 

 its educational value. Lecturers and professors are 

 generally too much occupied with teaching to devote 

 time continuously to research, and the complexity of 

 modern research demands, above all things, continuity 

 of application. If the universities adopt the plan of 

 having two separate staffs, one for teaching and the 

 other for research, then there would be an obvious 

 gain in transferring the research workers to the 

 central institution, where the best possible equipment 

 and facilities would be obtainable. At present good 

 research workers at the universities are often spoiled 

 by having to undertake teaching, while really capable 

 lecturers seldom make first-class research, men. 



NO. 2430, VOL. 97] 



On the other hand, the existing facilities of the 

 universities comprising equipment and staff could be 

 utilised as an auxiliary to the central institution for 

 dealing with those problems for which their scien- 

 tific apparatus and experience are best suited. In this 

 way the whole of the scientific resources of the country 

 could be co-ordinated and utilised in the national 

 industrial interests. 



British people seem to possess a certain industrial 

 genius which assured them priority in the industrial 

 world in the past, and the records of her inventors 

 and discoverers lead to the belief that what has hap- 

 pened in the past may, with suitable organisation, be 

 repeated in future. 



In view of the fact that industrial research can be 

 made to pay for itself, it would be an excellent invest- 

 ment if manufacturers in this country would devote 

 the necessary percentage of the gross profits arising 

 from industrial processes to equip and maintain a 

 research laboratory planned on a comprehensive scale. 



A critical survey of the work already accomplished 

 in the States affords evidence in favour of the success 

 of such a national attempt at industrial research, and 

 ultimately such a scheme might be extended to em- 

 brace, not only the interests of this country, but also 

 to link up the efforts made in our overseas Dominfons, 

 such as those of the recently established Institute of 

 Science and Industry for the Commonwealth of Aus- 

 tralia. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



At the forthcoming annual conference of the Asso- 

 ciation of Education Committees a demand is to be 

 made for the appointment of a Royal Commission to 

 inquire into and consider the whole question of the 

 organisation of our educational system and its adapta- 

 tion to the new national needs which will arise after 

 the war. The association will urge that there should 

 be no delay in the appointment of such a Commission, 

 and that the necessary inquiries should commence 

 forthwith, so that the coming of peace may find us 

 in possession of the facts as to the directions in which 

 modifications and developments are desirable. To pro- 

 vide a complete and satisfactory system which will 

 ensure the best education for all students up to the 

 limit of their capabilities will of necessity be a costlv 

 undertaking, though, from the national point of view, 

 it will be a highly remunerative investment. It is the 

 duty of all who influence public opinion to insist upon 

 this national need, and to explain that recent reductions 

 in educational expenditure by local authorities is a 

 mistaken and unwise economy. 



In a recent Convocation address by Dr. Ewing, the 

 Vice-Chan cellor of the Punjab University, attention 

 was directed to the necessity that urgently exists of 

 broadening the basis of higher education in India. 

 Dr. Ewing said : — " I have dreamed of the establish- 

 ment here of a College of Commerce as an integral 

 part of our activities; of the foundation of industrial 

 fellowships for the investigation of specific problems 

 connected with industry." With this as a text, the 

 Pioneer Mail of March 25 includes a convincing article 

 pointing out the enormous numbers of graduates which 

 are being turned out by Indian universities, the great 

 majority of whom are only fitted by their training for 

 various posts in Government employ and for the prac- 

 tice of the law. These two professions are, and have 

 been for years, largely overcrowded. Relatively few 

 graduates take up engineering or medicine, and still 

 fewer take up commerce, trade, or agriculture. It is 

 pointed out that many of these highlv educated 

 Indians, trained largely on a literary basis, must of 



