LP OTRO FEN Se 
APRIL 30, 1914] 
NATURE 
219 
Presidents of the Royal Society. There certainly 
seems good grounds for the complaint that the 
Scottish expedition has not received its fair share 
of support from the Treasury. It will be lament- 
able if scientific results of such importance be still 
further delayed in publication, and it is to be 
hoped that the Government will give favourable 
consideration to this reasonable appeal. 
NOTES. 
WE record with deep regret the death in Vienna, on 
April 25, at eighty-three years of age, of Prof, E. 
Suess, foreign member of the Royal Society, and 
emeritus professor of geology in the University of 
Vienna. 
Mr. HERBERT SAMUEL stated in the House of Com- 
mons on Tuesday that he is about to appoint a Com- 
mittee to consider the question of smoke abatement. 
The names of the members will be announced in a 
few days. 
Tue April number of Science Progress contains an 
editorial article of nine pages, entitled ‘‘Sweating the 
Scientist.””. During the past year an inquiry has been 
conducted by our contemporary as to the emoluments 
of scientific workers, and the article referred to is a 
provisional report on the results of this inquiry. As 
might, perhaps, have been anticipated, the replies 
received suffice to prove the ‘‘low scale of payment 
given throughout the British Empire for such work.” 
This result is no doubt due to the law of supply and 
demand, and an interesting sketch is given of the 
conditions which give rise to such a state of affairs. 
Other grievances are also dealt with. ‘Besides the 
low rate of pay, there are, in this country at least, 
many small abuses attached to high intellectual work. 
Large portions of the income of many institutions 
are given to the maintenance of more or less useless 
pursuits. Originality and success in research do not 
receive their due place in selection for appointments. 
The best-paid posts are seldom given for the best 
work done, but rather for qualities which are of little 
account—popularity, eloquence, text-book knowledge, 
private influence, and skill in the arts of time service. 
We appear to judge men, not by the work which they 
have done, but by the work which we may imagine, 
from their appearance, that they may do.’’ The lack 
of financial support afforded by the Government to 
the higher forms of intellectual effort and to higher 
education is also criticised. The article is a timely 
one, and deserves the careful attention of all scientific 
workers, as the question of remuneration is one of 
paramount importance to the future welfare of science 
in this country. Particular reference is made to the 
unpaid services of men of science upon Government 
Committees, and to the custom of Government depart- 
ments going to learned societies for expert advice for 
which no payment is made. ‘In other words, the 
State exploits the man of science on account of his 
enthusiasm for his work and his patriotism.’’ The 
whole subject is one which the British Science Guild 
could take up appropriately and refer to a committee. 
NO: 2322, VOL. 93] 
Dr. Basit T. Parsons-Smitu has been awarded the 
Hunterian Society’s medal for his essay, ‘‘ The Inter- 
mittent Pulse.” 
WE learn from the British Medical Journal that 
sufficient funds have now been collected for the erec- 
tion at Verona of a memorial to Prof, Cesare Lom- 
broso. It is hoped that the monument (which will be 
the work of Leonardo Bistolfi) will be unveiled in 1915 
at the time of the International Congress on Pellagra, 
which is to be held at Verona. 
On Tuesday next, May 5, Prof. W. Bateson will 
deliver the first of two lectures at the Royal Institution 
on (1) double flowers, (2) the present state of evolu- 
tionary theory, and on Saturday, May g, Prof. C. J. 
Patten, of Sheffield University, will begin a course of 
two lectures on bird migration. The Friday evening 
discourse on May 8 will be delivered by Prof. Karl 
Pearson on albinism in men and dogs, and on May 15 
by Prof. F. Keeble on plant animals: a study in 
symbiosis. 
Tue council of the Institution of Civil Engineers 
has made the following awards for papers read and 
discussed during the session 1913-14 :—A Telford gold 
medal to Mr. F. W. Cowie (Montreal); a George 
Stephenson gold medal to Mr. F. E. Wentworth- 
Sheilds (Southampton); Watt gold medals to Mr. 
Thos. Clarkson (Chelmsford), and Mr. Henry Fowler 
(Derby); and Telford premiums to Prof. E. G.. Coker 
(London), Mr. W. A. Scoble (London), Mr. Wm. 
Willox (London), and Mr. S. P. W. D’Alte Sellon 
(London). 
In the House of Commons on April 22, Mr. Astor 
directed attention to the unsatisfactory state of legis- 
lation and administration with reference to the supply 
and sale of milk and cream-in the United Kingdom; 
and moved ‘‘ That fresh legislation is needed to con- 
trol the supply and sale of milk and cream in the 
United Kingdom, and that the existing laws should 
be more thoroughly administered.’ Mr. Herbert 
Samuel, in reply, stated that the Board of Agriculture 
is about to issue a new Order granting more generous 
compensation to the farmers for the cows slaughtered 
for the purpose of checking the spread of tuberculosis, 
and that local authorities are to be assisted in the 
administration of the law. He further stated that he 
hopes shortly to introduce a Milk and Dairies Bill, 
more restricted than its predecessors, which will sub- 
stitute for various codes now administered by local 
authorities the uniform provisions of a general statute. 
He is anxious not to disturb the dairying industry, 
or to raise the price of milk, and the Bill will be framed 
in that spirit. 
FINAL arrangements are now being made for the 
International Congress of Tropical Agriculture, which 
is to be held in London at the Imperial Institute in 
June next, under the presidency of Dr. Wyndham 
Dunstan. Invitations to take part in the congress 
have been issued to foreign countries by H.M. Secre- 
tary of State for Foreign Affairs, and already many 
foreign Governments have nominated delegates to 
represent them at the congress. The cooperation of 
