372 
lished, it becomes possible to divert the money to 
a large extent from the objects for which it was 
intended, and that this operation has been applied 
to the departments of chemistry and geology. 
Obviously these are matters which will have to be 
looked into. 
In the conflict which is going on there can be 
no doubt that, assisted as it is by the prominence 
of the many practical problems, of which the 
dyes are the most notorious example, science will 
utimately win the day. The purely classical people 
will have to give way, and there is evidence that 
all over the country some progress has been made 
in the quality of the science teaching in the 
schools. It is to be hoped that in the triumph 
of the practical the interests of the liberal will 
be duly safeguarded. We can no more afford to 
let go ancient literature and history than modern 
physics and chemistry. All that the representa- 
tives of science ask for is that the new may be 
admitted to an equal place alongside the old, 
where both may stand in mutual honour and 
esteem. 
The indifference to the value of science appears 
to be almost attributable to a natural conservatism 
inherent in the British character. It certainly has 
pervaded a large part of the business world up to 
quite recent times, when the pressure of war-work 
has served as a wholesome stimulant. The news- 
papers are full of discussions as to what is to 
happen when the war ceases, but for the most 
part they have rather a specialist character. A 
series of articles appeared in the Times of July 
and August last in which “The Elements of Re- 
construction,” in reference to the Empire, were 
discussed in an unusually broad and thoughtful 
spirit. They have been reprinted with an intro- 
duction by Lord Milner,’ and both articles and 
introduction deserve to be read carefully and 
digested by all thoughtful men. The keynote of 
the whole may be said to be co-operation. This 
means that, in the view of the writers, the methods 
of business will have to be changed completely ; 
there must be among manufacturers mutual sup- 
port and confidence instead of suspicion and 
rivalry; and in the interests of the State many 
small businesses in competition with one another 
must be united. There must be national scientific 
education, and the men who control the industries 
must be fully qualified by education, liberal 
as well as special, not only to understand fully 
their own processes, but to deal in an enlightened 
spirit with all the problems connected with labour. 
Whether the doctrine that food production, fuel, 
and transport are not to be left under the control 
of private ownership, but transferred to public 
administration, will within our time be put into 
practical operation is a question. The author’s 
opinion is that such a development can be realised, 
not by the Socialist panacea of “expropriation,” 
but “by amalgamation, by co-ordination and co- 
operation, by bringing the State into partnership, 
and an increasing partnership, in the big businesses 
that result from these amalgamations, by develop- 
1 Nisbet and Co., Ld. 
NO. 2463, VOL. 98] 
Is. net. 
NATURE 
[JANUARY II, 1917 
ing the crude beginnings of the ‘controlled estab- 
lishment,’ by the quid pro quo of profit-sharing 
and control in the national interest in exchange 
for the national credit and a helpful tariff.” 
Labour and trade-unions provide another text 
which needs much careful thought. A temper 
must be cultivated free from class hostility and 
the use of aggressive phraseology. The war has 
doubtless done some little to clear away jealousy 
and suspicion between employer and employed,. 
to so large an extent the fruit of traditional mis- 
understandings. “‘‘The efficacy of ignorance,” to 
use an expression of Dr. Johnson’s, has been 
tried long enough, and that is why at the outset 
the prime importance of education was assumed. 
It is interesting to notice that in the opinion of 
the authors of ‘Eclipse or Empire? ” reviewed in 
Nature of November 9, the falling-off which they 
claim to have observed in inventions is due to 
our defective system of education. Here there 
are evidently two distinct propositions, of which 
the former is open to question. If the former is 
established, there will not be much difficulty im 
accepting the latter. 
The lack of clear thinking is one of the evil 
influences of the past, and as labour continues to 
make its voice heard, sometimes above other 
voices, it is imperatively necessary that the 
broadening of the higher education in school and 
university shall be accompanied by a lengthening 
and deepening of the course in the elementary 
schools. 
ACCESSORY FACTORS, OR “VITAMINES,” 
IN DIET. 
T was known to Captain Cook that fresh food, 
especially green vegetables, contained some- 
thing which was absent from the preserved food 
used by him in his voyages, but was necessary to 
maintain health. Stepp showed, a few years ago, 
that bread and milk, if extracted with alcohol, did 
not suffice for the growth of rats, but that addi- 
tion of the residue from the alcohol extract re- 
stored the adequacy of the diet. Hopkins then 
found that rats are unable to grow on a diet, other- 
wise complete, composed only of pure protein, 
fat, carbohydrate and salts, although this diet can 
be rendered perfectly adequate by the addition of 
a minute amount of milk. Further research by 
Osborne and Mendel and others in the United 
States confirmed these results. 
There are, therefore, certain necessary con- 
stituents of food the presence of which is not 
obvious to chemical examination, owing to the 
very small amount contained. For these sub- 
stances the name “vitamines” was suggested by 
Funk, on the basis of chemical work which was 
afterwards found by him to be incorrect. Unfor- 
tunately the word has come into use. Since we 
are, as yet, ignorant of their chemical nature, 
which is probably of several kinds, it is preferable 
to use the longer name, “accessory factors.” 
An interesting acccunt of some of the aspects of 
the problem, “eSpecially those of practical interest, 
