274 



NATURE 



[December 5, 1918 



intelligent appreciation of, the importance of science 

 in this work are required through all the Govern- 

 Hi. 111 Departments, civil and military, in the country. 

 1 1 is unfortunate that in these departments the 

 number of permanent officials who have received the 

 training which would ensure this appreciation is very, 

 small, and 1 venture to direct attention to the recom- 

 mendation in the report of the Committee on the 

 Position of Science in Education that steps should be 

 'taken to introduce into the Civil Service, at a later 

 age than is possible on a scheme based solely on com- 

 petitive examination, men who have had training in 

 science and experience in research, and would be able 

 to represent efliciently in the various offices this funda- 

 mentally important side of Government activity. 



To give a training in science to all who will need 

 it for the work of reconstruction will increase the 

 strain on the universities at a time when some of 

 them arc 1 laced with a difficulty which will soon 

 become acute. In not a few of our universities, 

 especially the older ones, the stipends of many of the 

 teachers come from endowments which yield incomes 

 of fixed value; but now, and there seems no chance 

 of any immediate improvement in this respect, money 

 has not much more than half the value it had before 

 the war ; the salaries of the teachers were certainly 

 never excessive, they are quite inadequate under 

 present conditions. In some way or other increased 

 help must be given to the universities if they are to 

 maintain their efficiency. To increase the resources 

 and equipment of the universities would, I think, be 

 the most effective way of aiding research in pure 

 science. If the grants for this have to come from a 

 fund which has also to provide those for industrial 

 research, there is, I think, no inconsiderable danger 

 that the latter may be regarded as the more urgent, 

 and that the claims of pure science may be crowded 

 out. 



To pass on to another point, unfortunately we 

 cannot yet assume that war will be impossible in the 

 future, and that an army and a fleet are luxuries 

 that we shall be able to do without. If our Army or 

 our Fleet is to be effective, it must not be behind 

 others in its equipment with the application of science 

 to war. In the course of the present war, however, 

 practically all such applications have been disclosed, 

 so that all countries are at present in this respect on 

 the same level, and unless we continue our researches 

 we shall be left behind. The experience of the war 

 has shown us the importance of science, and we have 

 seen how the most unexpected and unexplored 

 branches of science have furnished methods which 

 have been of critical importance. 



Now a large number of men with scientific training 

 have been working during the war on the application 

 oi science to naval and military purposes; some of 

 the, i- have done remarkably well, and know the kinds 

 of problems that have to be solved and the limitations 

 imposed by service conditions. It would be deplor- 

 able if all this knowledge should be wasted. It seems 

 to me most important to establish for each Service 

 research departments for promoting applications of 

 science to that Service. In the laboratories of these 

 departments new methods would be sought for and 

 investigated until their peculiarities were thoroughly 

 understood; they would then be handed over to the' 

 technical departments of the Services, which would 

 carry the thing from the stage of what might be called 

 .1 piece of laboratory apparatus to that of an instrument 

 which could stand the wear and tear of service con- 

 ditions. They would also carry on experiments until 

 the difficulties of manufacture had been so thoroughly 

 overcome that this was a matter of routine. In pi ai i 

 time it would not be necessary to manufacture in any 

 NO. 2562, VOL. I02] 



quantity, but when war came and they were wanted 

 tin \ eould be made without delay. 



Officers in the Service with special scientific apti- 

 tude might at some stage or stages in their career 

 pass -.nine lime in such .1 piuiii.Mii;; laboratory. ["His 

 would not only improve their own knowledge, but 

 also tend to diffuse a scientific spirit through the 

 Service and make it more ready to welcome new 

 ideas. But for this to happen I am convinced that 

 each Service should have its own establishment. 

 Many of the Services — the Navy, for example — would 

 not, I feel sure, make much use of, or be much 

 influenced by, large establishments for general 

 scientific research, whereas if- they had one which 

 could be looked upon as an integral part of their 

 own organisation it would, I think, have a good 

 chance of success. 



The Medallists. 



The Coplki' Medal is awarded t" Hendrik Amoon 

 Lorentz, For.Mem.R.S. 



Lorentz is generally recognised as one of the most 

 distinguished mathematical physicists of the present 

 time. His researches have covered many fields of 

 investigation, but his principal work deals with the 

 theory of electrons and the constitution of matter 

 considered as an electro-dynamic problem. When 

 Zeeman had discovered the effect of magnets on 

 spectroscopic lines, he perceived at once the theoretical 

 bearing of the effect, which led to the discovery of 

 the circular polarisation of the components of the lines 

 split up by magnetic force. Lorentz's name is also 

 associated with that of Fitzgerald in the independent 

 explanation of the Michelson-Morley effect, from 

 which far-reaching consequences have been derived. 

 An important optical relationship between the density 

 of a medium and its index of refraction (independently 

 by L. Lorentz) was published in 1878, and he has 

 been an active and fruitful investigator ever since. 



A Royal Medal is awarded to Prof. Alfred 

 Fowler. 



Prof. Fowler's investigations have been, in the 

 main, on spectroscopy, and one of his specialities 

 has been the identification and reproduction of celestial 

 spectra in the laboratory. His extraordinary success 

 in identification of this kind is attributable in part 

 no doubt to a special intuition, but also to a great and 

 laboriously acquired knowledge of detail. For 

 instance, the origin of the bands dominating the 

 spectra of stars of Secchi's third class remained a 

 mystery for many years. Fowler showed that they 

 were due to titanium oxide. He accounted for many 

 of the band-lines in the sun-spot spectrum by showing 

 that they belonged to "magnesium hydride," and 

 several other instances of scarcely less importance 

 might readily be given. 



Another important branch of his work is conned.. 1 

 with spectrum series. The lines of many elements 

 which appear in the arc spectrum have long been 

 classified into series, and empirical relations have 

 been obtained between the position of a line in the 

 series and its frequency of oscillation. Those lines 

 which are characteristic of the spark-, and require 

 higher stimulation, were not included in the scheme. 

 Fowler was the first to show that the spark-lines form 

 series at nil. For this purpose he had first to work 

 out experimentally the conditions for obtaining an 

 adequate number of lines belonging to these series. 

 Helium and magnesium wire the elements chiefly 

 studied. It was found that the spark-line series could 

 be represented bv formulas similar to those which 

 hold good for the arc lines, but with a fourfold value 

 of trio universal constant holding for the arc-line 

 series of all the elements. 



