June 18, 1914| 
NATURE 
407 
by a national research committee consisting partly 
of representatives of the Post Oflice, Admiralty, 
War Office, and Treasury, and partly of paid 
members nominated for short terms of years by 
the Royal Society and the Institution of Electrica] 
Engineers, together with the director of the 
National Physical Laboratory. 
As the capital cost of the laboratory is estimated 
at only 7,300l., and the total annual expense, both 
of laboratory and committee, at only 4,8ool., 
sums which are very small in comparison with 
the possible savings that such a research labora- 
tory ought to be able to assist in effecting in the 
vast annual expenditure on the national telegraph 
service, the proposals cannot be considered in 
any way extravagant. Indeed, if anything, they 
appear to err on the side of insufficiency. For 
instance, the secretary of the proposed research 
committee, who, in addition to possessing the 
usual qualifications for such a post, including a 
knowledge of French and German, is to be a man 
of technical training and experience, is only to 
divide 300l. per annum between himself and a 
clerk. Again, the principal assistant, who must 
obviously be a first-class technician, as he is to 
have complete charge of the laboratory under the 
director of the National Physical Laboratory, is 
only to get a salary of 4ool. 
Further, it is suggested that the honorarium 
given to each of the paid members of the proposed 
committee for their attendance at meetings is to 
be fixed at ten guineas a meeting, it being pro- 
posed that during the first two years there will 
probably be fifteen meetings per annum, and after 
the first two years ten meetings. No doubt 
eminent men of science will be found ready to 
give their time to the State at this rate of re- 
muneration, as equally would they no doubt be 
found to do so for nothing; but it may be pointed 
out that this amount of pay suggested for the 
committee, presumably for men of the highest 
scientific capacity and experience, is only about 
one-half what the average company director, who 
may have no special experience or training, com- 
monly obtains for attending the board meetings 
of medium-sized companies in the City of London. 
The fact that Sir Alexander King, the secretary 
of the Post Office, and Mr. R. Wilkins, of the 
Treasury, are of opinion that the payments sug- 
gested are on too liberal a scale, is significant 
evidence of the low value that non-technical 
Government officials attach to scientific attain- 
ments, 
However, the recommendations contained in the 
report, if adopted by the Government, will be a 
beginning in the right direction, and it is satis- 
factory to know that similar arrangements in con- 
nection with the advisory committee for aero- 
nautics, established in 1909, of which the research 
work is carried out in the National Physical 
Laboratory, are working well. It will always be 
open to the research committee, when once it is 
established and has had time to prove the value of 
its work, to point out that with ampler resources 
it could do more. 
A. A. CAMPBELL SWINTON. 
NO. 2329, VOL. 93| 
) 
THE URGENT NEED FOR. ANTHROPO- 
LOGICAL INVESTIGATION.} 
HE Carnegie Institution of Washington has 
taken the wise step of inviting certain experts 
to report on the special needs of anthropological 
investigation, and have printed the reports of Dr. 
Wii aver iverss UR S.,,Prof. A. i. Jenks sas 
Mr. S. G. Morley in a sumptuous brochure. 
Dr. Rivers lays particular stress on the special 
urgency of the needs of anthropology, due to the 
character of its material, this factor of urgency 
being wholly or almost without importance in other 
branches of science. Only exceptionally can the 
investigation of archeological problems be re- 
garded as urgent, and he believes that science will 
gain in the long run by delaying archeological 
exploration. He contrasts with this the case for 
ethnology, and adds, “In many parts of the world 
the death of every old man brings with it the loss 
of knowledge never to be replaced.” He contrasts 
“survey work” with “intensive work,” and proves 
the importance of the latter. The most favourable 
moment for ethnographical work among any given 
people is discussed, and the different kinds of 
agencies by which ethnographical work is now 
being carried out, his remarks on investigations by 
officials and missionaries being both just and sym- 
pathetic. 
Preliminary training in scientific methods is 
essential, and Dr. Rivers agrees with Friederici 
that investigators working alone seem to obtain 
more valuable results than expeditions comprising 
a whole staff of experts. “The work of an expedi- 
tion will attain its highest efficiency if it seeks to 
combine the advantages of individual enterprise 
with the work of specialists where this seems in- 
dispensable.” Collecting expeditions for the en- 
riching of museums rarely accumulate any intimate 
knowledge of the natives that is of much value; 
indeed their tendency is unconsciously in the 
opposite direction. Everything which the inten- 
sive worker obtains will have an infinitely wider 
and deeper meaning than anything which can be 
obtained by the cursory visitor, and the processes 
of manufacture can be collected, which are even 
more important than the finished article. 
Physical anthropology can be postponed till a 
later stage of the inquiry. It follows that the 
prime need of anthropology is for the intensive in- 
vestigation of those living examples of human 
culture which are most likely to disappear or suffer 
serious decay. Dr. Rivers then makes a brief 
survey of different regions of the globe outside 
America, with the object of ascertaining the 
urgency of the needs, and how far these needs are 
being met by existing agencies. ‘Perhaps the 
most urgent needs for Europe are for the study of 
the existing cultures of Lapland in the north, and 
of the countries of its south-eastern corner, and 
especially of Albania.” The pressing need for re- 
search in South Africa “stands beyond all ques- 
tion.” The ethnological problems of Asia, except 
1 Reports upon the Present Condition and Future Needs of the Science of 
Anthropology. Presented by W. H. R. Rivers, A. E. Jenks, and S. G. 
Morley. Pp. gt+14 plates. (Washington, D.C. : Carnegie Institution of 
Washington, 1914.) 
