42 i 



NATURE 



[January 30, 1919 



\oi ES. 



A resoli 1 u > n for the establishment of a 



-• ,i~ passi '1 bj the Inter-Allied Confi enci 



on Saturday. It was moved bj Presidenl 



Wilson in an eloquent speech, in the course "I which 



dd I not a stai tling cireumstanci , foi 



thing, thai the gi eal disi m ice, 1 hal the 



quiet studies oi men in laboratories, thai thi tl "lit 



ful developments which have taken placi in quiet 

 lecture-rooms, havi now been turned to the destruc- 

 tion of civilisation? The powers ol destruction hav< 

 not so much multiplied .1- gaim d facil 1 hi 1 m mj 



whom w< have jusi overcon 1 eats ol 



learning some oi thi pi im ipal centres oi si ientifii 

 study and discovi ry, and hi used I hem in order to 

 make destruction sudden and complete; and onlj the 

 watchful, continuot tion of men can see to 



it that science afs well as armed men are kepi within 

 the harness oi civilisation." We have on many occa- 

 sions pointed out thai responsibility for the use oi 

 scientific disco\ - n destructive devices depends 

 upon statesmen and democracy rather than upon the 

 men who lab crease natural knowledge. It is 



for thos 1 to promote the higher national and 



interna rig of fellowship which will repudiate 



the doctrini - the main factor in the evolu- 



tion of civilisation, and to encourage the development 

 of science as the chief means of securing human 

 progress. The invention of gunpowder and the use 

 of i*t in scientific appliances freed the people from the 

 power of the barons in the Middle Ages and altered 

 the political organisation of Europe. Thanks to the 

 existence of scientific workers in the Allied countries, 

 free peoples havi been able to establish their cause 

 of righteous dealing against the arrogant mililarx 

 aristberacj of Germany. Political power is now in 

 the hands ol democracy, which has yet to prove that 

 it will make noble usi ol the force- provided bj 

 progressive scientific knowledge. 



h is rathei surprising to find from a stud} oi cap* 

 tured maps and surve) documents that the Herman 

 topographical Stall was far behind our own in enter- 

 prise and originality as applied to war-maps. It 

 certainly has not justified the German reputation for 

 thoroughness and efficiency. The Royal Geographical 

 Society has acquired a number of captured German 

 war-maps, and has placed them on exhibition in the 

 society's rooms. Mr. \. R. Minks gives some notes 

 on these maps in tin Geographical Journal For Januarj 

 (vol. liii., No. t). It is curious to note that, despiti 

 their plans of invasion, the Germans do not seem to 

 have provided themselves with .1 bettei map of north- 

 east France than a photographic reproduction of the 

 French t/8o,ooo. Requiring room for more detail', 

 enlarged this to 1 50,000 and added contours 

 the hachures ol the original, but the result was 

 , a , r,, ularf) Some of the contours 



ci proved to be wrong. The Germ, in Survej 

 Sta lot seem to have been successful) in field work 



undei I work, so far as our captures show, 



was d eas wi 11 bi hind the front. Bui 



mon 1 n n the failure of the Germans to 



pparent inability to appre- 

 ciate then thev fell into their hands through 

 the fortum .' In Lille the; found all the 

 cadastral plan- Departemenl du Nord, and in 

 \lbert quantities d British maps; yet there is 

 no evidence that tin made use of any of these. In 

 sound-ranging thi did not come up to our 

 standard,, and in he was behind us, 

 ast until a lati pi ! " war. In the use 

 of air-photographs foi tt mapping he seems to 

 have been more successful, and some of his plans of 

 2570, VOL. I02] 



Allied trench systems were useful to our Stall. I be- 

 am! oth n-iilc rations ol a similar nature show that 



thi German stall was noi scientifically organised, and 



lbe\ should I" an answer to those critics who still 



behevi thai we have anything to learn from the 



1 .ei mans in 1 ai tography. 



Ancieni records ol Mesopotamia show thai 

 portion ol it in the vicinitj of Bagdad and south- 

 to Kul-el-.\mara was a verj fertili n [ion, in 

 which artificial irrigation had been advanced to a 

 high pitch ol perfection. Indeed, a number of the 

 old water-channels still remain, though, in most 

 cases, the beds havi becdmi silted up during thi 

 period of neglect under Ottoman rule. Prominent 

 M, hi, ii hi n ati 1 ' ' mi s. - w as the Shatt-el- 

 llai, running southward from Kut. To the north- 

 east ol Bagdad there was a network of canals inter- 

 secting the district enclosed b\ the Hiatal), \d ! , 

 and Tigris rivers. This district, once noted Fi 

 productiveness, had passed out of cultivation when its 

 administration was taken over by the British Irriga- 

 tion Department of the Expeditionary Force. The 

 Times of January 20 announces the complete restora- 

 tion and widening of the old Man-uiiah Cut, with 

 the construction of a solid concrete regulator or dam 

 at the head. By the recommissioning of the channel, 

 which is six miles in length, an area of 300,000 acres 

 has been tendered cultivable. The canal leaves the 

 River Dialafe at a point some seventy miles north- 

 easi oi Bagdad, and passes through a rocky gorge, in 

 which the gradient is 4 ft. per mile. A little lower 

 down ,, change to i ft. pei mile is effected by means 

 of tiv. masonry falls. 'The width of 25 ft. at the 

 entrain.' is increased to 50 ft. below the gorge. Fhi 

 opening of the Hindieh barrage on the River 

 Euphrates is another instance of British 1 I 

 It has resulted' in the reclamation of a further 

 500,000 acres for agricultural operations. 



Tin Registrar-General's return for the week ending 

 January 18 shows a decided decrease in the- number 

 ol deaths from influenza both in London and for the 

 ninety-six great towns of England and Wales. In 

 London the deaths were forty-three, which is a drop 

 of twenty-five compared with the previous week, and 

 ,,, pei cent, of the death- occurred at ages bee 

 twentj and sixty-five years. In the ninety-six great 

 towns the deaths were 274, compared with 380 in the 

 ing week. The deaths are now lower than at 

 ime since the disease becaxni epidemic at the 

 commencement of last October. The Times 1 

 spondi m at Christiania gives a report ol influenza in 

 Iceland in the issue for January -'4. based on a tele- 

 gram From an Icelandic merchant, who gi'vi 

 first authentic account of the great ravage of 

 ■•Spanish" influenza in Iceland. "When he left Ice- 

 land at the New Year about ooo p. i-on- bad died 

 in the capital, Reykjavik, and its environs out of a 

 population of 8000." 



A LARGE diamond of fine "blue-white" quality is 



reported as having been found in the Jagersfontein 

 mini Orange Pree State. The weight is given as 

 3 881 'carats equivalent to 77115 grams. The stone is 

 thus much' smaller than the "Excelsior" ol lou-cu 

 grams and the "Jubilee" ol 130-16 grams, found in 

 the same mine in 1SQ3 and 1895 respective!} \notner 

 larg, stone of about 120 -rams was found there in 

 jgg , |SS( ph. fagersfontein diamond mine, 



eh producing much less than the Kitnberley 



mines yield's a higher proportion of fine quant] ' 



Foi comparison may be added the weight. 6ai-2 grams, 



,; , Collin, .11" diamond, found m I9°5 m /."' 

 I' 111 mine, near Pretoria, li.msvaal. lie-. 



