May 5, 1904] 



NATURE 



must be first-class graduates of leading technical 

 schools. \\'e start them on trial at 8d. an hour, and 

 if reallv bright they may be earning 30/. a month 

 with us at the end of eight months. We are always 

 on the look-out for bright men ; we cooperate with 

 the professors of colleges to get them." " Two of the 

 chiefs of the staff of the Westinghouse Company," 

 says Prof, .\yrton later, " visit all the principal univer- 

 sities, colleges, and technical schools throughout the 

 United States every year for the purpose of seeing the 

 students, and choosing those who are most suitable 

 to work with the Westinghouse Company." College 

 stud<MUs. too. are encouraged to work in the shops 

 during vacation time, and in this way to supplement 

 theoretical knowledge with practical experience. 



Still another way in which the connection between 

 the training given in the technical schools and colleges 

 and the needs of industry is in America made intimate 

 and real is to be found in the conditions of tenure per- 

 taining to professorships. All the practical men 

 engaged in engineering consulted by Prof, .-\yrton 

 were unanimous in telling him that " an engineering 

 pro'essor in a college should be actively engaged in 

 the practice of his profession." Or, as he says later 

 in his report, " engineering education in America is 

 directed bv those who are doing the engineering work 

 of their country." Prof. Maclean's evidence is in the 

 same direction; he states, "superior men are induced 

 to accept collegiate appointments because of the well- 

 equipped laboratories at their disposal, and because as 

 engineering professors they are given every opportunity 

 and encouragement to do outside work. It is believed 

 that thus they keep in touch with the various lines of 

 progress in their profession." Prof. Ripper, too, adds 

 his testimonv to the same effect. He writes, " it is 

 considered vital that the professor should be in the 

 field of practice, otherwise he is liable to become stale 

 and out of date, and to attach exaggerated importance 

 to unnecessary things." 



The scepticism of the British manufacturer as to the 

 value of a scientific training in the workshop and fac- 

 tory, his neglect of the technical expert, and his 

 ingrained conservatism are already painfuUv familiar 

 to men of science. It is unnecessary to insist, in view 

 of what this latest report tells of .American enlighten- 

 ment, that in the absence of an earnest endeavour by 

 British directors of industry to follow the lead of their 

 contemporaries in the States, the results will be disas- 

 trous — indeed, fatal — to our commercial supremacv. 



To turn now to the extent that science is in .America 

 utilised in the service of the State — a matter the im- 

 portance of which has been urged consistently in these 

 pages. .A joint report, signed bv the commissioners 

 as a body, places it on record that " the closest con- 

 nection is being established between theory and prac- 

 tice, the practical bent of the men of letters and science 

 and the breadth of their outlook being verv remark- 

 able. The services of experts in various branches of 

 knowledge are, therefore, held in high esteem and are 

 in constant demand." And Prof. .Armstrong, in a 

 report brimful of good things, gives numerous ex- 

 amples of the appreciation by the .American Govern- 

 ment of the services of men of science. To quote one 

 or two of his obiter dicta : — " So far as I am aware, 

 there is nothing anywhere to compare with the way in 

 which science is being utilised in the service of the 

 State by the U.S. Department of Agriculture." 

 " There is no question that the research work done 

 under the auspices of the .Agricultural Department and 

 in the experiment stations is of the very' greatest value, 

 and is contributing most materially to the development 

 of agricultuial industrv. " "One branch of work 

 initiated in the Office of Experiment Stations at Wash- 

 ington of extreme importance, to which reference 



NO. 1 80 I , VOL. 70] 



should also he made, is that relating to the nutrition 

 of man, which has been carried out in various parts of 

 the States under the supervision of my friend Prof. 

 Atwater." If it were necessary, similar examples 

 from these reports could be multiplied a hundredfold. 



In a short review it is possible only to touch the 

 fringe of so great a subject. Much of value in the 

 reports has been left completely on one side. But it 

 is greatly to be desired that every man of science, 

 every person engaged in education, whether as admin- 

 istrator or teacher, will study the volume. It is an 

 important and absorbingly interesting contribution to 

 a subject that deserves the immediate attention of 

 everv one of our statesmen. .A. T. S. 



NOTES. 

 The annual conversazione of the Royal Society will be 

 held on Friday, May 13. 



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

 E. Duclaux, director of the Pasteur Institute, at sixty-three 

 years of age. 



Prof. A. W. Williamson, F.R.S., is lying dangerously 

 ill at his residence at Hasleraere. 



Invit.itions have been issued by the Royal Society of 

 Edinburgh to a conversazione to be held in the rooms of 

 the society on Saturday, May 2.S. 



Prof. Henri Becquerel, of Paris, has been elected a 

 corresponding member of the Berlin -Academy of Sciences. 



The deaths are announced of Prof. Leidie (chemistry), of 

 Paris, and Prof. Charles Soret (experimental physirsi, of 

 Geneva. 



In the Physikalische Zeitschrift for April 15, Prof. Th. 

 Indrikson states that he has repeated Sir William Ramsay's 

 experiments showing the spectrum of helium in the eman- 

 ations from radium, the experiments being in this case 

 conducted in the physical institute at St. Petersburg, where 

 no experiments with helium had previously been made. 



It is announced that an annual subsidy of 35,000 kr. 

 (1950;.) for twenty years has been granted by the Icelandic 

 Government for the establishment of a wireless telegraphic 

 connection between Iceland and the Shetland Islands or 

 the mainland of the United Kingdom, and also between 

 the four principal towns of Iceland. 



The council of the Institution of Civil Engineers has 

 made the following awards for papers read and discussed 

 before the institution during the past session : — A Telford 

 gold medal to Major Sir Robert Hanbury Brown, 

 K.C.M.G., a George Stephenson gold medal to Mr. G. H. 

 Stephens, C.M.G., and a Watt gold medal to Mr. .Alphonse 

 Steiger. Telford premiums to Mr. E. W. de Rusett, Dr. 

 Hugh Robert Mill, Mr. Alexander Millar, and Dr. T. E. 

 Stanton. A Manby premium to Prof. J. Campbell Brown, 

 and a Crampton prize to .Mr. L. H. Savile. The present- 

 ation of these awards, together with those for papers which 

 have not been subject to discussion and will be announced 

 later, will take place at the inaugural meeting of next 

 session. 



The Geologists' .Association has arranged an excursion 

 to Derbyshire for Whitsuntide. Four days are to be devoted 

 to out-door geology. The party leaves St. Pancras for 

 Buxton on Friday, May 20, and is expected to arrive in 

 London from Derby on Wednesday, May 25. On Saturday. 

 May 21, the excursion will be directed by Messrs. H. A. 



