u8 



NATURE 



[July 27, 1911 



Government Board, with officers of the Home Office 

 into cases of phthisis which had been attributed to 

 "kissing ihe shuttle," a practice in the cotton mills in 

 Lancashire. His recent report on plague in East 

 Suffolk was a further piece of excellent work, set 

 out with characteristic detail and exactitude. All his 

 reports will remain for a long time valuable works 

 of reference for investigators and examples of laborious 

 and exact inquiry. 



Dr. Bulstrode's death in his fifty-third year re- 

 moves from the medical staff of the Local Govern- 

 ment Board not only a very able and conscientious 

 public official, but a colleague who had endeared him- 

 self to the officials of his own department, and was 

 held in high repute by local officials in England and 

 Wales with whom his investigations had brought him 

 in contact. 



THE PROMOTION OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH 

 BY THE DEVELOPMENT COMMISSIONERS. 



THE appointment of the Development Commis- 

 sioners marks a remarkable change in the atti- 

 tude of the British Government towards research. 

 Not only is the old laissez-faire policy thrown over, 

 for the commissioners are charged with the duty of 

 fostering decaying rural industries and trying to pro- 

 mote new, but they are also specifically instructed to 

 promote scientific research and experiment so far as 

 it bears upon agriculture. The funds placed at their 

 disposal are considerable — a capital sum of two and 

 a half million pounds, with an annual grant of 

 400,000/. for the live years for which provision is made 

 in the Act — and though the big" grants will be chiefly 

 wanted for such purposes as the improvement of 

 harbours and inland navigation, the reclamation of 

 land, rural transport, and similar works, there should 

 yet be a very considerable margin available for investi- 

 gation and education in its widest sense. 



The first report, which the Development Commis- 

 sioners have just issued, shows that although they 

 have been at work for less than a year, they have 

 set scientific matters in the forefront of their pro- 

 gramme ; indeed, they indicate that until they have 

 dealt with research and education they intend to post- 

 pone the consideration of projects aiming at the direct 

 creation of employment, such as the reclamation of 

 land, canals and light railways, and afforestation of 

 waste land. Our deficiencies in the scientific direction 

 and control of agriculture and other cognate industries, 

 e.g. sea-fishing, are both patent and pressing. In 

 this direction the foundations have to be laid for the 

 future ; and, moreover, there can be very little doubt 

 but that the expenditure wil be recouped a thousand- 

 fold, because it will take effect upon the mind of the 

 men who have to live by the industry, whereas in 

 the case of works the expenditure is greater and the 

 ultimate benefits to the industry as a whole more 

 doubtful. 



The commissioners have already made certain 

 giants for research to institutions like Cambridge 

 University (4,000!.), the Rothamsted Experimental 

 Station (2,000/.), the Royal Veterinary College 

 (1,390/.), Bristol, and other university colleges pos- 

 ing agricultural departments; but they indicate 

 that these are only interim grants for the maintenance 

 of certain work already going on pending the framing 

 of a general scheme of research applicable to the 

 whole kingdom and intended to secure that every part 

 of the wide field shall receive adequate attention. The 

 mis report that tin \ are negotiating with 

 the Board of Agriculture for the preparation of such 

 a scheme, and that they propose to devote about 

 40,000/. a war to carrying it out. In other directions 



NO. 2178, VOL. 87] 



. the scientific aspect of the question seems to have 

 been well before the commissioners, for example in 

 the scheme for the improvement of the breeding of 

 light horses; they have insisted that "definite pro- 

 vision should be made for watching and supervising 

 its operation and so far as possible making experi- 

 ments from the point of view of scientific research in 

 eugenics as applied to horses." Again, in attacking 

 the problem of increasing the variety of production, 

 they "have appointed two gentlemen of scientific 

 training to investigate by inquiry at home and abroad " 

 the cultivation and management of the tobacco, flax, 

 and hemp crops; and, as regards forestry, they report 

 that education and research ought to precede any 

 action in the direction of afforestation on a large scale. 



This recognition of the foundation of all develop- 

 ment of industries like agriculture, forestry, and fish- 

 ing upon scientific knowledge and research is very 

 welcome, and must be applauded as a most promising 

 departure from the spirit ^&l^methods that have 

 hitherto prevailed in English omn'al circles. We may 

 compare the 40,000/. the commissioners propose to 

 spend with the few hundreds a year which represented 

 all the Board of Agriculture was able to devote to 

 the same purpose. 



In this connection the British Science Guild may 

 well be congratulated upon its action. A few years 

 back the guild appointed an agricultural committee, 

 which, after making many inquiries and collecting 

 a great deal of information, produced a report show- 

 ing what Great Britain did in the way of agricultural 

 n arch in comparison with foreign countries and our 

 own colonies, and giving some examples of the returns 

 which had accrued to the industry from the applica- 

 tion of particular investigations. This report was 

 widely and influentially signed and presented to the 

 Government; and the guild maybe will content with 

 the manner in which its representations have now 

 been translated into action. Subjoined are a number 

 of extracts from the commissioners' report. 



The Development Commissioners were appointed b) the 

 King on May 12, 1910, by Royal Warrant. The com- 

 oners include Lord Richard Frederick Cavendish 

 (chairman), Sir Francis Hopwood, K.C.B., and M 

 Saint-Hill Eardley-Wilmot, H. J. Davies, M. A. Funis, 

 \Y. S. Haldane, A. D. Hall, F.R.S., and Sidney V 

 \i the beginning of this year the commissioners entered, 

 with the Road Board, into the occupation of perm in nt 

 offices at Queen Anne's Chambers, Broadway, V 

 minster. 



Since their appointment, the commissioners had held 

 nine official meetings up to March 31 last, and it is with 

 the work done at these meetings and the preliminary busi- 

 ness transacted by the commissioners that their first 

 report ' deals. 



General Principles of the Commissioners' Action. 



The commissioners are informed that during the period 

 under review about 170 applications for advances from the 

 Development fund were made to the Treasury. Of these, 

 twenty-four reached the commissioners officially under the 

 Act, so that they could take formal cognisance of them. 



It may be useful if they offer some general remarks on 

 the duties entrusted to them by the Act of 1909, and the 

 principles at which they have arrived in considering how 

 best to carry out those duties. 



Their prime duty is to consider and report to the 

 Treasury on applications referred to them for advances 

 from the Development Fund. All applications must in the 

 first instance be made to the Treasury. The Act directs 

 that when an application reaches the Treasury it is to be 

 dealt with in different ways, according to its source. If 

 it is from a Government department, the Treasury are to 

 send it direct to the commissioners for examination ; if it 



] First Report (if the Proceedings of the Development Commissioners for 



the Pen id 1 , to March :i. I'm- I'p- 60. (Wyman and 



I 1 ic( id. 



