490 
NATURE 
[APRIL 14, 1923 

to undertake research was proved, should be for all time 
associated with it. All who are interested not only 
directly. in agriculture, but also indirectly in food pro- 
duction generally, are under a deep debt of gratitude 
to Dr. Rowett. It is pleasant to record that the 
example of Dr. Rowett has already stimulated an 
Aberdeen donor, Mr. Walter A. Reid, to give 5oool. 
towards the development of the library and the 
statistical department of the Rowett Institute. 
The food troubles of the War ought to have brought 
it home to all that British agriculture was in a parlous 
state. Great Britain may be able to raise the finest 
horses and cattle in the world, but nevertheless our 
agriculture in general is in a backward condition. Sir 
Thomas Middleton before the war drew a most interest- 
ing series of comparisons showing the effect of the 
application of science between agriculture in Great 
Britain and in Germany, where the soil is inferior to 
ours. From each 100 acres of land the German farmer 
obtained 33 tons of corn to the British 15, 55 tons of 
potatoes to the British 11, 28 tons of milk to the British 
173, and even 4} tons of meat to the British 4. 
Research in Great Britain in other branches of science 
would have been in a poor state if it had had to rely 
in the past on support from public funds. We owe 
much of our outstanding position in various sciences 
to gifts from far-sighted private benefactors. Surely 
agriculture, which becomes the hobby of so many of 
our successful business men, ought to attract the 
necessary funds to assist in the investigation of problems 
of really national importance. There is abundant 
opening both at the Rowett Institute and at Cambridge 
for generous donors to assist, for example, by the institu- 
tion of experimental farms on a large scale at these 
institutes. Such practical workshops as experimental 
farms are essential to demonstrate to the so-called 
“practical” agriculturist that there are ways better 
than his own of doing things, that will convince him, 
for example, that there is such a thing as the hygiene of 
the cowhouse and byre. Men talking and lecturing 
about the possibilities of doing things properly will not 
suffice ; there must be actual demonstration of the value 
of the suggested change. The soil breeds an individual 
slow to convince, but facts tell. As Dr. Orr, the 
director of the Rowett Institute, has shown, even in 
the short time the work has been running at Aberdeen, 
such farms can be made to pay their way. The pig 
farm he established last year already shows a positive 
financial balance. 
It must not be forgotten, too, that indirectly from 
these experiments on farm animals there will eventually 
emerge a great body of knowledge of direct use in the 
solution of human nutritional problems. Dr. Rowett, 
when conveying his donation to the Aberdeen Institute, 
NO. 2789, VOL. III] 

definitely recognised this fact, and even stipulated that 
so far as possible the nutrition of man as well as that of 
animals should be kept in view. 
As there is no institute or laboratory devoted to the 
investigation of the nutrition of man in Great Britain, 
these animal stations will have to be depended upon for 
a great deal of the information we now lack on mineral 
metabolism, to take a single outstanding example of a 
neglected field of study. We trust, therefore, that 
generous provision will be made for the mainten- 
ance and extension of the valuable research work on 
problems of nutrition being carried on at Aberdeen 
and Cambridge. 
The King’s English. 
Notes on the Composition of Scientific Papers. By the 
Rt. Hon. Sir T. Clifford Allbutt. Third edition. 
Pp. xii+192. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 
1923.) 6s. net. 
IR CLIFFORD ALLBUTT, the author of this 
little book, informs us in the preface that he 
has occasion in his capacity as a member of the Medical 
Faculty of the University of Cambridge to read, in 
the course of each academic year, some seventy or 
eighty theses which are presented for the degree of 
M.B. and about thirty which are offered for that of 
M.D. Of the value of such theses, as indicative of 
the prospective graduates’ attainments or ability, 
there is a difference of opinion. Considering the 
usual age and opportunities of the candidates, and 
their limited professional experience, the theses are 
necessarily, for the most part, mere compilations 
culled from text-books, or from the records of cases 
in the medical journals. But, however limited their 
value, we are disposed to agree with Sir Clifford Allbutt 
that they serve a useful purpose. The search through 
the literature is of itself a salutary and desirable 
regimen. It serves to concentrate the student’s atten- 
tion on a single subject, and ends by making him a 
better informed man on that particular subject than 
he otherwise would be. Of course, much depends 
upon the choice of the subject. Sir Clifford’s experi-. 
ence is that, on the whole, the candidates choose wisely. 
He tells us that the matter of these theses is good, 
often excellent. What he complains of is the manner 
of their presentation. In composition some are fair, 
and a few are good, but the greater number are written 
badly, some very ill indeed. 
of their composition is not mere inelegance: were it 
so, it were unworthy of educated men ; it is such as 
to perplex, and even to travesty or to hide the author’s 
meaning.” ; 
The purpose of Sir Clifford Allbutt’s book is to 
“The prevailing defect — 

