446 



NATURE 



[February 6, 1919 



The interval of time between totality at tin two 



<ns is 2h. 19m., during - which the sun will 



move nearly 6'. Hence the shifts of the nearer 



stars should be sensibly altered in the interval, 



giving a further opportunity for verification. 



Some photographs were taken for the .same 

 purpose in the United States last June, but the 

 publication of results has been postponed uniil the 

 same region has been photographed in the night 

 sky. The region was much poorer in bright stars 

 than that of next May. 



The expeditions propose to leave Liverpool by 

 the Booth line about the middle of March, travel- 

 ling in company so far as Lisbon, where the Prin- 

 cipe party will tranship. It is desired to reach 

 the (observing stations three or four weeks in 

 advance of the eclipse. 



A. C. D. Crommelin. 



AMERICA AND GERMAN SCIENCE. 



WE have already, on more than one occasion, 

 directed attention to the effect exerted by 

 the war on American opinion concerning German 

 science and on the marked change it has brought 

 about in the attitude of American men of science 

 towards their German confreres. The change is 

 the more remarkable in that it is contrary to what 

 might have been anticipated from the leaven of 

 Teutonism which exists in the United States, and 

 from the possible influence of German university- 

 trained men on American education and on Ameri- 

 can technology. It is well known that the German 

 Government confidently counted upon this 

 element to restrain America from participating 

 in the world-wide struggle upon which it had 

 embarked. As usual, it miscalculated. The 

 "hyphenated " American, who had thrown in his 

 lot with his adopted country, and learned to 

 know and to appreciate its institutions and its 

 ideals, had, with comparatively few exceptions, 

 no real sympathy with Germany's unscrupulous 

 designs to dominate the world and to impose its 

 "Kultur " upon mankind. Where it was well with 

 him, there was his country. Of course, there were 

 traitors, for the most part controlled and insti- 

 gated from Berlin, but, looking back upon the 

 past, it is remarkable how small their influence 

 was in modifying American opinion, or in thwart- 

 1 merican action. 



- opinion, indeed, thoroughly supported 

 the American Government in its prompt and ener- 

 gfcti' with covert attempts to undermine 



the 1" i American citizens, or with overt 



acts tb it it- terrorise them by outrage and 



crime. Si mpts, so far from achieving' 



their object, ... d precisely the opposite effect. An 

 act of outrage and terrorism like the destruction 

 of the Lusitariia, ■ b its awful loss of life, did 

 more to rouse and stiffen American feeling than 

 any single measure :li 1 could have been con- 

 1 ii\ed. As I-dii, I.. it \ V as more than a 



crime; it was a political fault, and that of the 

 most egregious kind. I hi i xtravagant jubilation 

 with which the crime was i • irvwhere hailed in 



NO. 2571, VOL. I02] 



Germany was the finishing- touch to the episode, 

 and greatly intensified the wrathful indignation 

 and disgust of civilised humanity. It was signifi- 

 cant that the American troops should go into 

 action with the battle-cry of " husitania '. " and that 

 intellectual and cultured America should visit its 

 resentment upon those of its own class in Ger- 

 many, who, so far from protesting against this 

 affront to our common humanity, shared the 

 general joy of their countrymen that it had beer* 

 committed. 



Recent attempts to dissect the mentality of 

 German men of science have accentuated this 

 feeling. They and their works have been put 

 through a scrupulous assay, with the result that 

 they are no longer taken at their own valuation. 

 The scales have fallen from people's eyes. In 

 various papers and articles which have appeared 

 in American scientific periodicals we have been- 

 given the results of the analysis, and, to say the 

 least, they are not flattering to German self- 

 esteem. Dr. Nutting, in a recent issue of Science, 

 describes the methods, "some of them entirely 

 legitimate by every standard, others entirely inde- 

 fensible by any standard," by which Germany 

 has sought to establish her prestige in pure and 

 applied science. Whilst America in the past 

 respected Germany's diligent productive workers, 

 and contributed, with some qualms of conscience, 

 rather freely to German scientific literature, she 

 smiled at her many false claims to superiority 

 and originality, and generally despised her 

 technologists for their piratical methods. With 

 (la coming of the war she was surprised to find 

 how well she got along without her, and how little 

 she was reallv indebted to her. Whilst it is true 

 that the scientific and technical output of Germany 

 was greater in proportion to population than 

 in any other country, it is not true that 

 scientific ability or originality is higher in native- 

 born Teutons than among other civilised races. 

 This, indeed, has been admitted by such an 

 authority as Prof. Emil Fischer, who, in an 

 address before the German Emperor tour years 

 before the war, had the courage to point out 

 to him the shortcomings of the Teutonic mind in 

 originality and creative power. How, then, has 

 Germany gained the prestige she has undoubtedly 

 enjoyed? Dr. Nutting attributes it to what he 

 Styles "the intensive factor of publicity " — in other 

 words, to intensive self-advertisement, conscious 

 or unconscious. And he proceeds to indicate in 

 what this has consisted. 



It must be admitted that the Teuton mind has 

 the faculty of application more, perhaps, than 

 thai of any other nationality. "A specific problem 

 occupies it to the exclusion of almost everything 

 else. While we [Americans] are prone to work 

 a few hours, then turn to something else, or run 

 off to play, the Teuton eats and sleeps with his 

 problem, takes little interest in anything else, 

 talks shop with his colleagues, and does not com- 

 pletely relax even in his limited recreation." 



Our author claims that his compatriots are as 

 ready as any to attack difficult scientific problems, 



