October io, 1918] 



NATURE 



1 1 1 



well a~ of certain medicinal herbs, and Br. Vddison 

 ■described the methods by which these difficulties were 



come, with the result that not only did we succeed 

 in satisfying ourselves, but we were also in a position 



apply nor Allies antl to export to certain neutral 

 Qtries. The particular lesson to be learnt was that 



we mu-t have a much better -.upply of trained 

 chemists, and to gel this supply and maintain it a 

 sufficient number of well-paid and suitable posts must 

 be assured. Chemical science and industry must be 

 completely reorganised. Science must not be bottled 

 up in laboratories, but given a wider range and more 

 freedom. However, with all that we plan and ar- 

 range, we must never forgel that our national strength 

 ultimate!) resides in the vitality, independence, initia- 

 tive, and charactei of individual citizens. 



The announcement thai within the last few days 

 there has been direct wireless communication between 

 ' ■!•-!! I'm ii iin and Australia must nol be exaggerated 

 into an achievement heralding the immediate approach 

 lirecl wireless communication between the two 

 countries. It is unnecessary to point out here that, 

 under certain abnormall) favourable conditions com- 

 bine, I with an element of hick, signals can be heard 



remarkably long distances. On more than one 

 occasion, when such signals have been heard over long 

 distances, the feat has been allowed to become un- 

 consciously exaggerated in the public mind, and 'the 

 science of wireless telegraph} has not thereby been 



5>ed. It is not the first time that reports have 

 been issued of wireless communication with the Anti- 

 podes. During K) 1 7 a wireless operator at Inver- 



I, New Zetland, is said to have found no diffi- 

 cult', in reading messages transmitted from the Eiffel 

 Tower, in Paris, and Coltano, near the Italian Riviera. 

 Possibly developments have taken place during the 

 war (about which nothing has bi en said, and very 



I) too) which are bringing us nearer satisfactory 

 and trustworthy commercial lone. distance wireless 

 working over ranges indicated in recenl Press an- 

 nouncements, it appe.ns that in Germany, too. the 

 -range working has been receiving 

 attention. In a recenl description of the Xauen 

 station it was si. , ted thai the equipment had been so 

 enormously di /eloped during the war thai it was now 

 capable of working over a range of 6200 miles. The 

 quiet scientific work essential to the solution of 



problems that have hitherto mad nmercial working 



ovei very long ranges an impossibility has been prac- 

 tically in abeyance during the war, .and until we know 

 what has been accomplished undei 'he veil of secrec 

 it is wiser not to assume too mui Ii from the announce- 

 iring in the Pi 



The June issue of The Central, the journal of the 

 Old Students' Association of the City and Guilds 

 I ollege, contains an article on th, organisation of the 



technical worker. Sin,.. manual workers 



and, later, the employers have formed unions or asso- 

 ciations for their mutual protection, there is a rapidlv 

 increasing sentiment amongst technical workers thai 

 their interests would be best advanced by the formation 

 of some protective association. The older technical 

 societies do not concern themselv, s with the material 

 advance of their members, and the-, have been, on the 

 whole, somewhat slow to act in the interests of the 

 professions they represent during the many changes 

 of the last few years. The question whether scientific 

 and technical workers should form a union is a vexed 

 one, the more so since involved in it is the verj 

 difficult subject of the definition of a chemist or 

 an engineer. The chemists have been the first in the 

 field to form a professional union, and two rival bodies 

 are already constituted, the British Association of 



NO. 2554, VOL. I02] 



Chemists and tin- Nal rnal Association of Industrial 

 Chemists. In addition, the Institute of Chemistrv has 

 increased its activities and made a very proper attempt 

 to open its membership to all genuine chemists— using 

 the term to indicate the full) ,1 chemist com- 



parable with the lawyer or , '■ toi ol medicine. 



1 nfortunately, this has failed, and the founders of 

 new organisations have persis i , f,„ , nation, 



although they will not be representa ti , properly 



qualified chemists. The proposed Nation ! Union of 

 Scientific Workers has less trouble in ,' ... the 

 qualifications ol candidates for membi if it is 



successful in any way in obtaining recognition I the 

 proper place ,,t scientific work in'the natiot it 



certainlj merits support. It is, at any rate, 

 the days of aloofness and isolation, which h.< 

 a characteristic of our scientific societies in th, 

 will have to give wa\ to a spirit of helpful co-opi 

 tion if the societies are to make their valuable influei 

 felt by the nation. 



The death is announced, on October 2, in his fifty- 

 (jfth >. u ..f Mr. John Enggo pnn-ipal ;f I niversit-, 

 Tutorial College, London. 



Dr. Percy Kidd will deliver the Harveian oration 

 at the Royal College of Physicians of London on 

 Friday, October iS, at 4 p.m. 



The first annual Streatfeild memorial lecture will 

 be delivered on Thursday, October 17, at 4 o'clock, 

 ii the City and Guilds Technical College, Finsburv, 

 by Prof. \V. J. Pope, who will take as his subji 1 t 

 "The Future of Chemistry." No charge will be ma I, 

 for admission. 



Dr. C. ADDISON, Minister of Reconstruction, will 

 give an address on "Principles of Reconstruction" 

 at 4.30 on Wednesday, October 10, in the Saddlers' 

 Hall, Cheapside. The lecture will be the second of 

 th, serii s arranged lor by the Industrial Reconstruc- 

 tion Council. 



A WAR relief fund for" the purpose of restoring the 

 -aniens and orchards in France, Belgium, and Serbia 

 which have been destroyed by the enemy has been 

 opened by the Royal Horticultural Society. Sir H. 

 \ eitch, the honorary treasurer, will be glad to receive 

 contributions to the fund. They should be sent to him 

 at Room 311, 17 Victoria Street, S.YY.i. 



Capt. Sit; Charles Bathurst, K.B.E., who has 

 been Parliamentary Secretary to th,- Ministrv of Food 

 sino the beginning of last year, and has done very 

 valuable service for the promotion of agriculture F01 

 many years, has had a peerage of the United Kingdom 

 conferred upon him by the King. It is understood 

 that he will represent the Ministrv of Food in the 

 House of Lords. 



The Commitee of thi Ramsay Memorial Fund 

 (to which the Italian Government has granted jooL 

 a year for ten years lo establish Ramsay memorial 

 fellowships in chemical science, tenable in the 

 United Kingd< m by chemists from Italy) an- 

 nounces that II.R.H. the Prince of Wales litis con- 

 sent,,! , il the position of patron of the fund, 



which was inaugurated in iqi6 to raise the sun 



inn, ! . aid that it is proposed to raise 50,000?. of 



the am,, int by a Million Shilling Fund, which v 

 devoted to (1) the provision of Rams.,, arch 



fellowships, tenable wherever the necessary equip- 

 ment may be found; and (2) the establishment of a 

 Ramsay memorial laboratory of engineering chemistry 

 in connection with I'niversit I 1 ge, London. 



