MARCH 3, 1923 
of carbon monoxide to establish in the end a really 
dangerous atmosphere. That the risk in any case is 
bound to become far greater as the proportion of 
carbon monoxide in the illuminating gas is increased 
is evident. In the U.S.A., where much greater con- 
centrations of water gas are used than in this country 
—indeed pure carburetted water gas is often supplied 
—the death rate from both accidental and suicidal 
gas poisoning appears to be far higher than in England. 
An article in a recent number of the American Gas 
Association Monthly conveys the impression that the 
gas companies are fully alive to the dangerous quali- 
ties of the gas that they distribute, for one of the 
New York Companies is stated to maintain in each 
of the districts it supplies a motor van with three 
crews working in eight-hour shifts ready to do ordinary 
repairs, and to proceed at any hour of the day or 
night when a case of gas poisoning is reported, not 
only to rectify the fault but also to resuscitate the 
victim of carbon monoxide if he can be reached in time, 
the crews having been specially trained for this purpose. 
NATURE 
295 
It is no use belittling the risks incurred by increas- 
ing the proportion of carbon monoxide in illuminating 
gas, but they should not be unduly exaggerated. It 
is evidently a case for striking a reasonable balance 
between the risk and the economic advantages of 
cheap light and heat for domestic purposes. The risk 
of accidental poisoning is greater the smaller the room 
in which an escape of gas occurs. “The steady improve- 
ment in the housing of the poorer classes, the general 
use of more economical burners, such as incandescent 
burners, and the more widespread knowledge of the 
fact that illuminating gas does have poisonous pro- 
perties undoubtedly justify a higher limit to be set 
to the concentration of carbon monoxide permissible 
in illuminating gas than was contemplated by the 
Water Gas Committee in 1899, but it may very reason: 
ably be questioned whether the recommendation of 
the Carbon Monoxide Committee in rg21, that no 
limitation at all should be imposed by statute, is 
really justifiable. The report of the latter committee 
is certainly a most unconvincing document. 
Imperial College of Science and Technology. 
OPENING OF THE NEW Botany BurLpING (PLANT TECHNOLOGY). 
ee Imperial College of Science and Technology 
was founded to give advanced training not only 
in pure science but also in science in relation to in- 
dustry. The close association of pure and applied 
science is exemplified in all the departments of the 
College, and under the direction of 
Prof. J. B. Farmer the botany de- 
partment has been not the least con- 
spicuous in the development of pure 
botany and of the various branches 
of applied botany which may be 
grouped together as plant techno- 
logy. The department has for a 
number of years specialised in train- 
ing men as economic botanists, and 
particularly for work in the great 
plantation industries of the tropics, 
such as rubber, cotton, sugar, etc. 
Ravages of disease caused by fungal 
and insect pests, and by other in- 
jurious agencies not yet so clearly 
defined, are particularly severe in 
these tropical industries, and with- 
out the control that science can 
supply their prosperity would be 
slight. A considerable proportion 
of the officers who are engaged 
in combating disease in tropical 
plantations have received their 
scientific training at the Imperial 
College. 
By the rapid expansion of the work 
of the department in the direction of 
plant physiology, plant pathology, 
bacteriology, biochemistry, and plant technology 
generally, the accommodation provided by the 
present botany building became quite inadequate, 
though it was opened only so recently as 1914. Accord- 
ingly, an appeal for contributions towards the cost of 
NO. 2783, VOL. 111] 


an additional building was made to the members of 
the Rubber Growers’ Association by Mr. Herbert 
Wright, an old student of the department and now 
chairman of the executive committee of the governing 
body of the College. Thanks to Mr. Wright’s untiring 
aE 
. eee | eee oe — ORG Soe eh Wee 

Fic. 1.—New botany (plant technology) building, Imperial College of Science and Technology. 
zeal and energy and to his personal generosity, the 
magnificent sum of 30,0001. was raised. 
The new building was designed by Sir Aston Webb, 
and is a substantial and well-planned structure of five 
floors. The basement and ground floors are allocated 
