July 13, 1916] 



NATURE 



407 



without notification to the consumer. The questions 

 involved in these resolutions have been before the 

 public on several occasions during the last hundred 

 years, most recently in the form of the "Standard" 

 bread crusade, but the present conditions give them 

 a new significance, and in any case the matter is 

 of real scientific importance. In 1881 the late Sir 

 J. H. Gilbert, in a letter to the Royal Society of Arts, 

 expressed the view that while whole meal bread was 

 undoubtedly beneficial to the sedentary worker, the 

 bulk of the labouring population was better suited 

 by a white bread containing a more concentrated 

 nourishment. The apparent waste involved in the 

 production of white flour is largely illusory, as the 

 offals when fed to stock are merely converted into 

 another form of concentrated food. Modern methods 

 of milling have since introduced another factor, but 

 until rigidly controlled feeding experiments on the 

 human subject have been made, the question must 

 remain controversial. 



It is of high importance to the well-being of our 

 industries that we should gather the views of men 

 who stand at the head of great manufacturing con- 

 cerns as to the type of man, his education and train- 

 ing, who in their opinion is best fitted to direct them. 

 We welcome, therefore, the experience of so eminent 

 an industrial leader as Sir Robert Hadfield, who, in 

 a recent issue of the Coal and Iron Trades Review, 

 has expressed himself on this subject. We have not 

 always had this advantage : nothing in the past has 

 been more discouraging to the directors of our scien- 

 tific and technical institutions than the apathy, not 

 to say the callous indifference, of all but a few far- 

 seeing employers. This newly-awakened interest 

 doubtless finds its origin in the successful industrial 

 rivalry of the United States and Germany, and if we 

 fail to grip the true reason for its success in the wise 

 and ample provision of general scientific and 

 specialised education we shall miss its vital signifi- 

 cance. Yet the burden of Sir Robert Hadfield's 

 message is that of the old adage, Poeta nascitur, non 

 fit, that the successful " captain of industry " must 

 have original force of character and gifts of natural 

 temperament ; in short, must possess inborn qualities 

 that neither education nor training can bestow, but 

 only develop. It thus becomes the business of the 

 nation to set up what Huxley called " effective capacity- 

 catching machinery," so that no potentially capable 

 child shall wither in neglect. One of the greatest 

 qualities of an organiser is the gift of selection, the 

 ability to pick out the fit man for a given place, and 

 if he has had a sound general education and an effec- 

 tive scientific training he will be in full sympathy with 

 all grades of workers, and alive to the possibilities 

 of each. The qualities of mind leading to scientific 

 discovery are one thing, the gift of invention and 

 application another, and they do not often reside 

 in the same person ; they even indicate a different order 

 of mind. A Dalton or a Faraday would not neces- 

 sarily have made a first-rate organiser of a modem 

 business, but by their patient investigations and their 

 penetrating vision they have made possible the great 

 modern technical developments. The true place for 

 the adjustment of theoretical knowledge to industrial 

 aims and conditions is in the workshop, and if manu- 

 facturers were wise and far-seeing they would give 

 ample opportunity to the well-educated young man 

 to acquire this essential experience, and would find 

 abundant reward therein. 



The paper published in No. 3317 of the Journal of 

 the Royal Society of Arts for June 16, by the Right 

 Hon. Sir W. MacGregor, entitled "Some Native 



NO. 2437, VOL. 97] 



Potentates and Colleagues," supplies an admirable 

 example of the methods by which one of our most 

 distinguished colonial officials succeeded in gaining the 

 confidence and affection of the native races under his 

 control. He begins with an account of Thakambau, 

 " the greatest and best-known man of the Fijian 

 race," of whom it may be said that no ruler "ever 

 saw his country transformed by such enormous 

 changes as this Fijian chief saw and assisted in." 

 Sedu, the Papuan, "one of the finest characters I 

 have ever known," met an untimely fate in an 

 ambuscade, and the Garter King-of-Arms has allowed 

 Sir W. MacGregor to quarter a figure of this hero 

 as the dexter supporter of his coat-of-arms. The 

 writer's wide experience enables him to record worthies 

 of other races, such as John Allan, an Australian 

 Aboriginal, and the Alake of Abeokuta in West 

 Africa. In the discussion which followed the reading 

 of the paper the Hon. J. G. Jenkins acknowledged in 

 graceful terms the great services of the writer in the 

 administration of British New Guinea in the early 

 days of the colony. 



Most of the June number of the Zoologist, (4), 

 vol. XX., No. 900, is occupied by Capt. Malcolm Burr's 

 highly interesting account of his travels in the 

 Caucasus and the Asiatic territory beyond. His 

 military duties have taken him through a remark- 

 able country, and he is able to record many observa- 

 tions on plants and animals, notably birds and ortho- 

 ptera. The centre of attraction, from the naturalist's 

 point of view, is Geok Tapa, where Capt. Burr was 

 the guest of that famous collector, Alexander 

 Shelkovinov. 



Some facts bearing on the "struggle for existence," 

 as understood by Darwin, are contributed in a short 

 note, " Sur I'^quilibre naturel entre les diverses esp^ces 

 animales," by A. Pictet in the C. R. des Stances de 

 la Soc. de Physique et d'Hist. nat. de Geneve (xxxii., 

 1915, pp. 10-13). The author reckoned that if a pair 

 of white butterflies {Pieris brassicae) produce 500 

 eggs, 99'6 of the larvae must be destroyed if the 

 numbers of the species remain constant. He then 

 collected all the caterpillars — 148 in number — from 

 a certain bush, and found that of these 137 had been 

 parasitised by the small ichneumonoid Microgaster, 

 that 9 died of disease, and that only 2 completed their 

 transformations. From the age of these collected 

 larvae he believed that twice as many had already 

 perished, and thus arrives at a survival ratio (0*04 

 per cent.) agreeing with his estimate. The agreement 

 thus reached after several assumptions is perhaps too 

 close to be altogether convincing. 



The January number of the South African Journal 

 of Science (vol. xii., No. 6) contains an article on 

 the Sarcosporidia by G. van de Wall de Kock, in 

 which the effect of these obscure protozoan parasites 

 on their mammalian hosts and their probable action 

 in causing various diseases are discussed. Recent 

 work on the life-history of Sarcosporidia is usefully 

 summarised. 



In the Proc. Roy. Soc. Victoria (xxviii., 1916, part 2) 

 Miss G. Buchanan gives the results of a comparative 

 examination of the blood of certain Australian animals, 

 with coloured figures of the various forms of cor- 

 puscles. She finds a general decrease in size and 

 increase in number of red cells in ascending through 

 the vertebrate classes, while the lymphocytes decrease 

 in number and increase in size. The reptilian re- 

 lationship of the Monotremes is suggested by a 



