April 5, 1906] 



NA TURE 



Prof. Allbutt speaks with authority and lull know- 

 ledge. He points out to the medical student who 

 through comparative indigence has to proceed from 

 the secondary to the medical school without the in- 

 itiatory university course with which his more opu- 

 lent contemporary is favoured, that " there is no 

 difficulty, at any rate in university education, in using 

 for general training the broader principles of any one 

 of the professional faculties." Applying his principle 

 already quoted, that it is not what is taught but how 

 it is taught, Dr. Allbutt shows how professional 

 studies may be made sources of culture and broad 

 ideas by the non-university medical student. But there 

 is in no sense a disparagement of the unique value 

 of a good university course, with its chances of inter- 

 course with many types of intellect and the oppor- 

 tunities the student has of learning the best which 

 has been done and said in the world. 



The question of examiners and examinations is 

 dealt with also. We are told that " the professional 

 examiner, he who makes it his business to range 

 from place to place imposing mechanical tests whole- 

 sale, is one of tin- new terrors of life." We are not 

 introduced, however, to the evil effects of examina- 

 tions upon the examiners. The examiners are, in 

 many cases, distinguished men of science who eke 

 out insufficient emoluments by undertaking examining 

 work in their leisure hours — time which, in a ration- 

 ally organised system that recognised the workman 

 to be worthy of his hire, would be devoted to re- 

 search work. Enough has been heard of the evil 

 effects of examinations upon students, and, indeed, 

 much has been done in the direction of judicious in- 

 spection to remedy these, and it is time to recognise 

 that the employment of eminent leaders in science to 

 do the work which competent teachers can perform 

 better is an improvident use of our best intellects. 



We notice, in conclusion, that Prof. Allbutt sums 

 up the end of education to be action. " We learn, 

 that we may do," he says. The educated man must 

 not rest satisfied with his education, and be content 

 selfishly to enjoy the intellectual gratifications placed 

 at his disposal. Like each one of us, the educated man 

 is one member of a complex society with many needs 

 to be satisfied, many abuses to be swept away, many- 

 wrongs to be redressed. The privileges the educated 

 man has enjoyed, and the sources of satisfaction his 

 education has revealed to him, should serve as in- 

 centives urging him to work for the advancement of 

 his race and the further development of human 

 society. A. T. S. 



A MARE'S XEST. 

 The Utilisation of Nitrogen in Air by Plants. By T. 

 Jamieson. Pp. S2+1S. (Aberdeen: The Agricul- 

 tural Research Association, iqo5.) 

 A/TATTHEW ARNOLD has somewhere a finely 

 i v -l ironical passage in which he comments upon 

 the British habit of labelling its institutions with a 

 great name without considering whether they possess 

 any great thing to correspond, and certainly the name 

 of " Research " has rarely been more taken in vain 

 NO. I 90 1, VOL. 73] 



than in the present publication. The Agricultural 

 Research Association appears to be a body of gentle- 

 men in the neighbourhood of Aberdeen who maintain 

 certain experimental plots under the direction of Mr. 

 T. Jamieson. It is further assisted by grants from 

 the Count) Council and from the Board of Agri- 

 culture, and it has issued the above report for 1905, 

 heralded by some startling preliminary trumpets in 

 the Scottish Press. Briefly speaking, Mr. Jamieson 

 claims to have " discovered " " that plants generally 

 absorb free nitrogen directly from the air, and trans- 

 form it into albumen." He proposes to wipe out agri- 

 cultural science between the dates of De Saussure and 

 himself, writing, indeed, with a curious resemblance 

 to the amateur speculations of sixty years ago. 



Mr. Jamieson begins by demolishing, to his own 

 satisfaction, the theory that leguminous plants fix 

 nitrogen by the agency of bacteria, and the quality 

 of his argument may be gauged from the following 

 passage : — " It should be borne in mind, also, that 

 bacteria were never proved to be present. The small 

 particles found in the tubercles were merely assumed 

 to be bacteria." What are we to say to a man who 

 proposes to dismiss the nineteen years' work of some 

 scores of investigators in every country by denying 

 a fact he could demonstrate to himself at any moment 

 had he the most elementary acquaintance with the 

 manipulation of bacteria? But no; Mr. Jamieson 

 prefers to speculate on his own, without even reading 

 up the subject. There is a curious footnote on p. 29 

 which, we imagine, is meant to display Mr. 

 Jamieson 's acquaintance with the literature of 

 nitrogen fixation; a list of authorities is given, equally 

 amazing as regards either its inclusions, its omissions, 

 or its spellings of proper names. Beyerinck appears 

 variously as Burginck and Beirjerenck. But when 

 we leave Mr. Jamieson 's criticism and turn to his 

 constructive work the result is even more amazing. 

 He takes an ordinary plant, spurrey, for example, and 

 finds certain hairs on the leaves. To ascertain the 

 purpose of these hairs he applies to them iodine or 

 some other reagent capable of staining proteid. He 

 finds that the tips of these hairs, which are at first 

 empty and then become green with chlorophyll, give 

 later a reaction for albumen, which disappears again 

 as the hairs age. " If the formation of albumen 

 takes place in the tip of this hair, one would expect 

 to find its absence in the early stage, its presence in 

 the later or active stage, its discharge through the 

 channels and round the cells of the plant, and its pos- 

 sible absence in the latest stages — and this is what 

 has actually been found." 



" The evidence that nitrogen is absorbed by these 

 tips, and is there fixed and manufactured into albu- 

 men, is thus as complete as could well be desired." 

 " The direct absorption of nitrogen, and its direct 

 fixation as albumen, thus seems demonstrated even 

 more satisfactorily than is possible by chemical 

 analysis," and none, accordingly, is attempted. " Tis 

 safer so," as the American poet puts it. Mr. Jamie- 

 son does not bring forward a single experiment to 

 demonstrate that nitrogen has been fixed by any of his 

 plants; this fundamental fact (?) he assumes. 



