', 2, l ' | i 1 1 



NATURE 



547 



If cuke is used in the stoves there is no trouble 



: in the ecom h as w as found here 



vith ei w ith ordinary 



onomis'ers I" n 

 • a year, principally 

 for dust. 



Winn the Governmenl undertook the control of 

 coal, plans rind descriptii ns of the above economisers 

 ■ ontroller of Coal Mines. 



John Aitken. 

 Ardenlea, Falkirk, Decembi r 27, 1918. 



University Poverty or Parsimony? 

 t I., fore thi "in there « as some 



correspondence, in Nature and elsewhere, with 

 mists in advertise- 

 ments of the Research Department of Woolwich 1 

 Vrsenal. Exception was taken to the olTer of little 

 more than loot, a year to men who were supposed to 

 have received training rendering them competent to 

 undertake research work. As a result, I believe, the 

 Department was led to attach a rate of pay to the 

 - nol quite so inadequate as that first proposed. 

 Apparently during the war some slight conception 

 o1 the value of chemistry to the nation has been 

 ed upon the public. So much has been said about 

 the importance of research that we are almost as 

 willing a~ the Americans to "talk big" about it, and 

 pul emphasis upon the first syllable. We even recog- 

 (on paper) an indissoluble connection between 

 science and industry; in fact, so great is our advance 

 that several literary men have been appointed, at high 

 salaries, to supervise the expenditure of public funds 

 echnical scientific inquiries. It is true the Board 

 1 [Yade lias systematically declined to associate 

 ce with the dyestuff industry, bul only by way 

 ption to prove the rule. The Board, 

 we kn"ow, is a superior body, and not to be led by any 

 vulgar policy ; the highest explosives would not cause 

 gust offii iah to accept advice. 



nt of the Board of Education, too, has 

 ■ lis, nursed eloquently on the value of intelligence; 

 attracting intelligence-, if not 

 genius, into the chemical and other learned careers 

 pic we never wearj of airing in these days. 

 \l object now is to direct attention to the way in 

 which the learned are living up to their own profes- 

 sions, to urge that charity really should begin at home. 

 I do this because my eve has casually fallen upon 

 an advertisement in vour columns in which applica- 

 tions are invited by the Vice-Chancellor of the Uni- 

 versity of London for a University chair of chemistry 

 at King's College at the princely salary of 

 a year. Thus do we testify to our belief in our- 

 selves. No man can fulfil the duties of such a chair 

 adequately on such pay. 



It can only be supposed that the University desires 

 to write down the value of King's College chemistry 

 in comparison with that taught at the South Kensing- 

 ton and University Colleges. A more effective way 

 could not well be found, and in the interest of the 

 subject it would undoubtedly be better to concentrate 

 the teaching at two schools. 



If. however, chemistry be retained in existence in 

 the Strand, and funds be not forthcoming for the 

 proper endowment of a chair, at most a lectureship 

 should be established; and it would be wise to pro- 

 vide- that candidates should not exceed about twenty- 

 five years of age and should hold the appointment at 

 most during ten years. 



Let us hop.- that the profession will make no 



response to the invitation. Unless chemists themselves 



take some effective action to protect their interests, the 



position of chemical science in this country will not 



NO. 2566, VOL. I02] 



only be worse than it was before the war, but must 

 .steadily degenerate as years go on. 



Henry E. Armstrong. 



Inter-Allied Conference on International Organisations 

 in Science. 

 In the account of the [nter-Allied Scientific Con- 

 tce at Paris published in \ ah RE of December 2(1, 

 nee ought, perhaps, to have been made to the 

 -iatus which it has been decided to give to the self- 

 governing British Dominions. These will be able to 

 join any international association under the proposed 

 -1 hi me, on signifying their intention to do so, with 

 the same voting power as independent States. 

 Arthur Sen 

 Yeldall, Twyford, Berks, December 27, 1918. 



SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND 

 PREVENTIVE MEDICINE. 



IT was stated recently in these columns that the 

 toll of pain and death due to causes which 

 are more or less preventable may be gauged in 

 terms comparable with those demanded by the 

 sufferings directly attributable to war. In order 

 to reduce such sources of national loss it was 

 considered important that in the evolution of 

 schemes tor the furtherance of research work 

 in pure and applied science the question of the 

 encouragement of research work in all branches 

 of medical science should occupy a prominent 

 place. The pandemic of influenza recently experi- 

 enced may be taken as an illustration of the 

 need for wide-embracing and well-organised 

 research work in preventive medicine, and par- 

 ticularly in epidemiology. That such an epi- 

 demic would well deserve thorough and extensive 

 investigation seems self-evident. According to 

 the medical correspondent to the Times of 

 December 18 and 19, 1918, there is good reason 

 to estimate the world's death-roll from influenza 

 and pneumonia at not fewer than 6,000,000 lives, 

 at which rate he points out that this epidemic has 

 been five times as deadly as the war during the 

 same period of three months. Now a visitation 

 on such a scale as this, in which many of the 

 victims are in the prime of their lives, is compar- 

 able with the great plagues of the Middle Ages, 

 and, coming at such a time as the present, is 

 catastrophic from whatever point of view it may 

 be regarded. 



Epidemics of influenza have recurred at inter- 

 vals for some hundreds of years, and in recent 

 times have fallen on us in 1803, 1833, 183:7-38, 

 1847-48, and 1889, when it became annual for 

 several years. From i860 to 1889 the disease 

 became practically extinct, the mortality per 1000 

 being about 0003. Even during these epidemics 

 the case mortality was low when compared 

 with that which has obtained in the present out- 

 break, and was estimated at 1 to i"6 per 1000. 

 One of the most remarkable features of the recent 

 epidemic is the tendency to the development of 

 very acute toxic symptoms with such astounding 

 rapidity that the body of the victim is overcome 

 by the poison before defences can be put up; iD 

 any case, the defence is of a very temporary 



