350 
advocacy by Nature for a number of years past. 
These are (1) the formulation of the outlines of a 
national water policy, and (2) the survey of the water 
resources of England and Wales. We are not in 
possession of information as to the views of the members 
of the Advisory Committee on these points, but we 
conceive that they must have been somewhat seriously 
handicapped by the absence of assistance from the 
compilers of the very valuable report to which we have 
alluded. In regard to the second point, we note that 
the survey is already in hand, and is being made'by 
the Engineering Department of the Ministry of Health. 
We confess that we are puzzled by this statement. 
Conservation and control of water power resources for 
industrial purposes is not very obviously a question of 
health, or of physical well-being. We are therefore at 
a loss for an explanation, unless it be, that the survey 
is limited to sources of water supply for domestic use. 
If so, this is not only regrettable as making it an inquiry 
of inadequate scope, but it is also inconsistent with the 
announcement that the survey is being prosecuted “‘ on 
lines recommended by the Water Power Resources Com- 
mittee in their final report.” Turning to that report, 
we find the recommendation expressed as follows : 
“That in view of the importance in the national 
interest of the utilisation of water power, wherever 
this is commercially practicable, the Board of Trade, 
or the Electricity Commissioners, should be charged 
with the duty of studying, supervising, and promoting 
the development of all water power. The (Water 
Power) Department should collect data concerning, and 
cause surveys to be made of water power resources, 
and they should give the widest publicity to the results 
of their inquiries.”’ 
Clearly it is not within the province of a Ministry of 
Health to prosecute such a research, which must lie 
outside the education and training of its officials. Our 
own suggestion was that the work might be done as a 
branch of the Ordnance Survey, as it is done in the 
United States by the Geological Survey. 
A matter of such outstanding importance as national 
water power control demands the most careful and 
competent handling. It has been the subject of a 
searching and painstaking investigation by a committee 
thoroughly representative in character, the recom- 
mendations of which, after several years of exhaustive 
study and the issue of three reports, were to the effect 
that the matter did not admit of procrastination or 
delay, and that it should be dealt with on a generous 
and effective scale. They were ‘ thoroughly convinced 
of the necessity of such action if the national water 
resources are to be properly conserved and fully and 
systematically utilised for all purposes, and that the 
work should be proceeded with unremittingly.”” We 
NO. 2785, VOL. 111 | 

NATURE 



[Marcu 17, 1923 
therefore urge that the matter should be entrusted to 
a committee with a scientific and technological element- 
of adequate proportions, and that the survey should be 
placed in the hands of a department closely associated 
with this particular class of work. 

The Gas Industry. 
(1) The Administration and Finance of Gas Under- 
takings: with Special Reference to the Gas Regulation 
Act, 1920. By G. Evetts. Pp. xi+374. (London: 
Benn Bros., Ltd., 1922.) 32s. 6d. net. 
(2) Modern Gasworks Chemistry. By Dr. G. Weyman. 
Pp. x+184. (London: Benn Bros., Ltd., 1922.) 
25s. net. 
(3) Gasworks Recorders: their Construction and Use. 
By Dr. L. A. Levy. Pp. xi+246. (London: Benn 
Bros., Ltd., 1922.) 35s. net. 
(4) The Distribution of Gas. By W. Hole. Fourth 
edition, rewritten and enlarged. Pp. xv+699. 
(London: Benn Bros., Ltd., 1921.) 5os. net. 
HE gas industry had its modest origin in the 
researches of William Murdoch, the “ incom- 
parable mechanic ”’ to whom the Royal Society awarded 
its Rumford medal for his work in the production 
and utilisation of illuminating gas. Its rapid growth 
owes much to the co-operation of the scientific workers, 
although in the early days, even as now, there were 
not lacking prominent and distinguished men of 
science prepared to wail a Jeremiad over the industry. 
While to-day the nature and magnitude of its opera- 
tions entitle the gas industry at least to contend for 
pride of place among applied sciences, whether chemical, 
mechanical, or physical, it cannot be too strongly 
emphasised that the industry is the child of pure 
science, and its present-day problems the problems 
of pure science. The industry asserts that pure and 
applied science are one and indivisible. 
Scientific literature, apart from technical journals 
and the Transactions of various institutions, dealing 
with the fundamentals of the processes and control 
of manufacture of towns’ gas is not at present very 
extensive. The volumes under review, together with 
Meade’s ‘‘ Modern Gasworks Practice” in the same 
series, and Prof. Bone’s ‘‘ Coal and its Scientific Uses,” 
constitute practically the only modern English works. 
dealing specifically with the scientific and other 
problems of the gas industry. 
(t) Consider the magnitude of the industry. We 
learn from Mr. Evetts’s book that in the United King- 
dom the public supply of gas is in the hands of about 
1630 undertakings. About 20 million tons of coal and 
65 million gallons of oil are employed annually in the 
manufacture of gas in the country. By-products of 
