la 
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SEPTEMBER 21, 1916] 
NATURE 
51 
to which confidential information and inquiries . ment-appointed Committee recording the results 
may be directed in the first efforts to establish and 
conduct that conjoint scientific work which such 
co-operation of kindred trades will require. 
Turning, then, to that section of the report 
which deals with the sphere of the universities and 
technical colleges in relation to scientific research, 
we find the same absence of positive constructive 
suggestions for reform as in other portions of the 
report. The defects or deficiencies of our present 
conditions are pointed out, but the remedies for 
them only indicated in the most nebulous manner. 
It is stated with great truth that “the universities 
can and must be the main sources of research in 
pure science, the discoveries in which lie at the 
root of all practical and technical applications.” 
But no definite recommendations are made as to 
how this output is to be increased. 
It should be clearly recognised that effective 
research work of a high class demands a con- 
tinuity of effort and time which it is in many cases 
almost impossible to obtain for university teachers. 
A man who has to drop his observations or experi- 
ments at a critical moment to go off and give a 
lecture or attend a committee 
or superintend a_ laboratory 
of more than a year’s consideration of this vital 
subject. Time presses, and our national position 
now demands vigorous and well-determined action 
rather than leisurely and academic discussion of 
our needs. Jo ACB. 
THE ART OF THE CAVES 
|e “La Pileta” a further considerable contribu- 
tion is made to our knowledge of the Jurassic 
caves of South-west Europe by Abbé Breuil, 
in collaboration with Dr. Obermaier and Col. 
Willoughby Verner. The cave, which takes its 
name from the hill in which it is found, is, with 
its various corridors, recesses, and “galeries,” 
more than usually complicated, and in fact at cer- 
tain periods it provides accommodation for a 
stream and a lake. Wherever the cave opens out 
to form a chamber, wall paintings are to be seen, 
and it is these paintings which constitute the chief 
interest of the cave. The paintings comprise 
examples of four separate pictorial phases. The 
earliest are yellow in colour, and consist largely 
j, Shai 
class is not placed under con- es ST » 
ditions in which the best work “ZB i= 
can be done. On the other 
hand, there are many men who 
are admirable and capable as 
teachers and as college ad- 
ministrators who have not the 
gifts of originality which make 
them shine as investigators. 
The only way out of this diffi- 
culty is to separate the func- 
tions more clearly. Every uni- 
versity should have research 
professorships and chairs, the 
occupants of which should 
have as their principal work to enlarge the bounds 
of knowledge in their particular subject. 
The report does not furnish us with any definite 
proposals for the establishment of such research 
scholarships, fellowships, or professorships, but 
confines itself to the enunciation of broad and 
general aspirations in this respect. The universi- 
ties will have suffered greatly by the close of the 
war in the loss of many of their most promising 
and talented students and teachers whose valuable 
lives have been given in the service of their 
country. We have to make provision for the 
careful cultivation of originality and research 
power in those who remain or return, and it would 
therefore have been much to the point if we could 
have found in this report a carefully-considered 
programme with this object in view. We think 
that many who study the report will feel dis- 
appointed that it does not contain more definite 
pronouncements of constructive policy in place of 
generalities. Much of it has the tone of an able 
article written for a leading monthly magazine 
rather than the enunciation of the matured con- 
clusions and decisions on the part of a Govern- 
NO. 2447, VOL. 98] 
Panneau No. 49, dit du grand Poisson. 
From “‘ La Pileta.” 
of serpentine forms with an occasional realistic 
figure of a goat, ox, or horse. The second series 
in chronological order is red in colour, and here, 
in addition to animal forms, are to be found 
various signs or symbols—recurrent dots, lines, 
spirals, ovoid figures, “claviformes” and “tecti- 
formes.” These are followed by a series drawn 
with charcoal, in which forms of animals naturalis- 
tically treated largely predominate, among them, 
be it noted, in considerable numbers the figures of 
fish—a new feature in parietal art, as the authors 
point out. With these are interspersed serpentine 
forms and schematic figures of animals. It is 
among these last figures that the authors believe 
they can recognise figures intended for human 
beings, and that an attempt has even been made 
to indicate the sex. The fourth and last series is 
purely schematic, and comprises geometrical 
figures with little or no zoomorphic or anthropo- 
morphic suggestion. The vast majority of the 
figures are pectiniform, the number of teeth and 
the orientation of the backs of the combs exhibit- 
1 “La Pileta & Benaojan (Malaga) (Espagne). Par |'Abbé H. Breuil, 
Dr. H. Obermaier, et Col. Willoughby Verner. Pp. 65-+plates i-xxi- 
(Monaco: A, Chéne, r915.) 
