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JANUARY II, 1917] 
NATURE 
375 
should ensure the full use of the available scientific 
data in the design of machines, especially as the name 
of Dr. T. E. Stanton has been mentioned in. connec- 
tion with the latter appointment. As is well known, 
Dr. Stanton has been superintendent of the engineer- 
ing and aeronautical departments of the National 
Physical Laboratory for many years, and is theretore 
in possession of all the necessary scientific knowledge 
in both the aerodynamical and purely engineering 
branches of the subject. The proposed housing of the 
various departments of the Board under one roof, and 
consequent free exchange of ideas between technical 
experts of both Services, should do much to advance 
the scientific design of machines. Another excellent 
feature of the reorganisation is the possibility of 
standardising component parts of machines and 
engines for both Services, and thereby improving the 
rapidity of construction. If we are to maintain our 
air supremacy, it is necessary that we should have an 
ample supply of machines of existing proved types, as 
‘well as that we should proceed to new designs, and 
the centralisation of supply and design should assure 
both these necessities in the future. 
In a series of recommendations made by the Federa- 
tion of British Industries for the development of 
Government service for the promotion of British trade 
in foreign countries, it is suggested that foreign trade 
should be*under a single department operating under 
Foreign Affairs. The proposed department would 
undertake the promotion and protection of British 
trade in foreign countries and the collection and dis- 
tribution of information relating thereto, support 
British efforts to secure contracts abroad, and, when 
possible, make it a condition that goods purchased by 
loans to foreign countries should be obtained mainly 
from British sources. Similar functions in regard to 
Home and Colonial trade should be discharged by the 
Board of Trade, a Ministry of Commerce, or other 
appropriate department. With respect to the Diplo- 
matic Service, it is suggested that the staff should be 
increased with the view of enabling officials to pay 
more attention to commercial affairs, and that an 
officer of high rank designated Commercial Coun- 
sellor with appropriate assistance should be added. 
Suggestions are also made for the improved remunera- 
tion and training of the members of the Consular 
Service, promotion to be by merit under. the super- 
vision of a Promotions Board. Candidates for the 
service should be required to pass a general. course 
in economics and commercial methods, and should be 
conversant with two or more foreign languages. Faci- 
lities for such training should be provided at the uni- 
versities. Officers should also be granted facilities to 
visit the leading industrial centres at frequent inter- 
vals. A staff of experts is also needed to procure 
detailed information on particular trades, industries, 
and markets. Finally, the urgency of this reform is 
pointed out. Steps should be taken immediately in 
ates to be prepared for conditions after the cessation 
of war. 
‘“Microses and the War,’ with comments on the 
national neglect of natural science, is the title of a 
pamphlet by Prof. Ernest Glynn, of the University of 
Liverpool. | The author first describes, in popular 
language, the various microbial diseases which attack 
armies in the field, and comments on the measures 
that have been taken to combat them, which are the 
outcome of scientific research as to their nature and 
prevention. Notable instances of these are typhoid 
fever and anti-typhoid inoculation, cholera and anti- 
cholera inoculation, Mediterranean fever and its spread 
by goats’ milk, and, among animals, glanders and 
its recognition by the mallein test. By an appreciation 
NO. 2463, VOL. 98] 
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of the vast importance of bacteriological science in the 
present war, our armies ‘‘have won great, though 
silent and bloodless, victories." Prof. Glynn then pro- 
ceeds to discuss the general neglect of science by the 
nation and its disastrous consequences in the present 
war—our dependence upon the foreigner for dyes, 
chemicals and synthetic drugs, glassware and optical 
glass, for example. A Cabinet Minister excused the 
importation of fat into Germany by the statement that 
it had only recently been discovered that glycerin could 
be obtained from lard; Woolwich Arsenal advertised 
for university-trained research chemists at wages of 
2l. os. 6d. per week! Prof. Glynn ascribes the 
national neglect of science as being largely due to the 
dominance of vested interests in classics. At Eton, of 
eighty assistant-masters but five teach science, and the 
same disproportion holds good for the majority of 
public schools. The argument is supported by quota- 
tions from numerous sources that have appeared 
during the last two years. The pamphlet is issued by 
Messrs. Tinling and Co. at the modest price of 3d., 
and should be widely circulated. 
Tue death is announced, at eighty-nine years of 
age, of M. J. B. A. Chauveau, member of the section 
of rural economy of the Paris Academy of Sciences. 
Pror. W. Ko tte, of the Institute of Hygiene and 
Bacteriology at Berne, has been appointed successor to 
Prof. Paul Ehrlich in the directorship of the Frankfort 
Institute for Experimental Therapy. 
Tue Order of the Nile, Second Class, has been con 
ferred by the Sultan of Egypt upon Mr. S. H. Wells, 
Director-General of the Department of Technical, In- 
dustrial, and Commercial Education in Egypt, and 
formerly principal of the Battersea Polytechnic. 
Mr. F. A. StockpaLe, Director of Agriculture, 
Mauritius, has been appointed by the Secretary of State 
for the Colonies Director of Agriculture, Ceylon, and 
Dr. H. A. Tempany, Government Chemist and Super- 
intendent of Agriculture for the Leeward Islands, has 
been appointed to succeed Mr. F. A. Stockdale as 
Director of Agriculture, Mauritius. 
CLOsE upon the news of the depredations of the 
blister rust in the American white-pine forests comes 
a report from the Department of Agriculture directing 
attention to the fact that the poplars of the United 
States are seriously threatened by an outbreak of the 
European poplar-canker. The States affected include 
New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Con- 
necticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Mary- 
land, Ohio, and Nebraska. The disease attacks the 
twigs, limbs, and trunks of the black and Lombardy 
poplars, and of the Carolina poplars or cottonwoods. 
Dr. Frank M. Carman, curator of ornithology at 
| the American Museum of Natural History, New York, 
has recently returned from a journey taken largely 
in order to establish friendly relations with the 
museums of South America. He has arranged with 
the directors of several of these museums for regular 
exchanges of specimens. Many of the directors have 
also consented to act as local representatives of the 
New York institution, and to give assistance in the 
work of exploration. Dr. Ribero, for instance, at Rio 
de Janeiro, helped Dr. Chapman’s party to find favour- 
able spots for collecting in the mountains near that 
city. Dr. Chapman’s report on Colombia is already in 
type, and reports are in preparation respecting the 
exploration of Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. It is hoped 
that there may eventually be completed—though not, 
perhaps, for several generations—a biological survey of 
the whole of South America, for which the American 
Museum of Natural History, with the co-operation of 
the local museums, will be responsible. 
