February i6, 1905 J 



NATURE 



Zl^ 



who attacks experimentally the problems of his 

 manufactures ; for he knows if they are once dis- 

 covered his use is past. On the other hand, if fore- 

 man work is done bv a chemist, trained in experi- 

 mental methods and anxious to improve his product 

 (and his position), reforms can be made, and are 

 willingly undertaken. We in England are in a 

 similar plight ; one of the greatest preventives to 

 progress is the foreman. Why, many chemists would 

 be glad of his ^X. a week, and would be infinitely 

 more useful. 



A closer intimacy between professor and manu- 

 facturer is strongly urged. But in France there is 

 apparently mutual distrust. The standing of the 

 professors is low, for one thing, the best paid post (at 

 Paris) bringing' in only 8ooi. a year ; in the pro- 

 vinces the salaries run from 240/. to 400/. This 

 contrasts unpleasantly with German salaries, which 

 seldom fall below 600/., and may amount to 3600L 

 In France, many men have a taste for the career of 

 professor, and will work cheap for glory; "that is 

 the French character." Most French professors, 

 according to one of them (rashly named in this 

 article), do nothing and care nothing for industry. 

 In short, collaboration between manufacturer and 

 chemist is wanting owing to jealousy of the latter 

 towards colleagues who meddle w-ith industrial 

 problems, to ignorance and shyness of both parties, 

 and to the want of any intermediary who can bring 

 them into contact. 



Besides the recommendations stated in the outset, 

 it is advised that special schools be created, e.^. for 

 perfumes, for colours, for soaps, where young chemists 

 shall receive special training. 



Now what can we in England learn from this 

 exhaustive discussion ? We have many of the same 

 defects; we suffer from the supremacy of the fore- 

 man; from the want of interest in industry of the 

 professors (although this is lessening) ; from the want 

 of intelligence and scientific training of many manu- 

 facturers ; and from the lack of special schools. In 

 the old days of the Le Blanc soda process the works 

 served as schools for young chemists ; now things 

 are too specialised. In prosperous times, the manu- 

 facturer does not see the need of a chemist ; when bad 

 times come, the luxury of a chemist cannot be 

 afforded. What we want, what the Germans have got, 

 and what the Americans are rapidly getting, is a 

 race of scientifically trained manufacturers ; combina- 

 tions of those engaged in the same industry, so that 

 common laboratories of research may be kept running ; 

 the replacement of rule-of-thumb foremen by 

 chemically trained submanagers of a better class, 

 who have had something in the nature of a scientific 

 education, and who are imbued with the spirit of 

 research, leading them to keep their eyes open to 

 every possible improvement ; this they would gain 

 first in actual educational establishments, under the 

 guidance of capable professors, and later in the 

 special laboratories mentioned above ; and lastly, 

 thorough cooperation between teachers and manu- 

 facturers, so that problems capable of being solved in 

 a universitv laboratory, and of scientific interest, 

 should be transferred there, with the prospect of an 

 ultimate reward should they prove commercially 

 useful ; and a liberal attitude of mind on the part of 

 manufacturers, so that they would take a little trouble 

 to become acquainted with the progress of scientific 

 chemistry, with the view of its utilisation for money- 

 making purposes, and a readiness to consider any 

 problems suggested in the university laboratory, with 

 the view of their being worked out industrially. We 

 are moving slowly towards attaining this ideal. Is it 

 anv comfort that France appears on her own show- 

 ing to be more backward? Until the people con- 



NO. 1^542, VOL. 71] 



cerned learn to view such problems from a scientific 

 standpoint, little more can be done. The only thing 

 is for those who can to preach, and above all to 

 practise. W. R. 



NOTES. 



The new session of Parliament was opened on Tuesday by 

 the King, who was accompanied by the Queen, with the cus- 

 tomary ceremonial. The King's speech to the House of 

 Commons announced that provisions for amending the laws 

 relating to education in Scotland will again be brought for- 

 ward, and that a proposal for establishing a Minister of Com- 

 merce and Industry will be introduced. 



.At the annual meeting of the Royal Astronomical .Society 

 on Friday last, the gold medal of the society, awarded by the 

 council to Prof. Boss, director of the Dudley Observatory, 

 Albany, New York State, was received by Mr. Choate, the 

 United States Ambassador, for transmission to Prof. Boss. 

 The president afterwards handed to the secretary the 

 Jackson-Gwilt bronze medal for transmission to Mr. Tebbutt, 

 who for many years has carried on astronomical research in 

 his observatory in New South Wales. 



At a meeting of the trustees of the Percy Sladen fund, 

 held at the Linnean Society, Burlington House, on 

 February 3, grants varying in amount were made to 

 Mr. W. R. Ogilvie Grant, toward the expenses of a 

 collector for the British Museum in Central Africa ; to 

 Miss Alice L. Embleton, to enable her to continue her 

 investigations in insect cytology ; and to Mr. J. Stanley 

 Gardiner, toward the expenses of an expedition to the 

 Indian Ocean. 



M. R.\DAU has been appointed president, \'ice-Admiral 

 Fournier vice-president, and M. Bigourdan secretary of the 

 Bureau des Longitudes, Paris. 



M. F. J. P. FoLiE, honorary director of the Royal Ob- 

 servatory at Brussels, died at Lifege on January 29 in his 

 seventy-second year. 



We regret to see the announcement of the death of Mr. 

 Robert Tucker, who was for thirty-five years (November, 

 1867-November, 1902) honorary secretary of the London 

 Mathematical Society. 



Reuter states that the Argentine sloop of war Uruguay, 

 last reported at Punta Arenas, has returned to Buenos 

 .\yres after her voyage in the Antarctic seas, having failed 

 to' obtain any news of the French Antarctic Expedition 

 under Dr. Charcot. 



It is proposed to establish an International Association of 

 Anatomists at a meeting to be held at Geneva on August 7-10. 

 The initiative has been taken by the anatomists of the Swiss 

 universities and has the support of the anatomical societies of 

 Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, and America. 



The Athenaeum announces the death, on January 29, of 

 Prof. H. Landois, professor of zoology and director of the 

 Zoological Garden at Munster, in his seventieth year. Prof. 

 Landois was the author of " Der Mensch und das Tierreich," 

 "Das Pflanzenreich," "Das Mineralreich," and other 

 works. 



Captain- Jons Donnell Smith, of Baltimore, has given, 

 says Science, to the Smithsonian Institution his private her- 

 barium consisting of more than 100,000 mounted sheets and 

 his botanical library of nearly 1600 bound volumes. Captain 

 Smith's collection is probably the largest private herbarium 

 in .America, being very rich in tropical plants. 



