May 20, 1915] 
NATURE 3 
15 

book, and we confess to a feeling akin to dis- 
appointment after a perusal of the volume. The 
work is good as far as it goes, but the treatment 
is less suggestive, and the grip less firm than we 
had been led to anticipate. 
The effects of the salts of five elements, viz., 
copper, zinc, arsenic, boron, and manganese upon 
plant growth have been studied, and the sur- 
prisingly deleterious results which follow on the 
addition of minute traces of some of them to 
plants grown as water cultures are described, and 
are also illustrated by excellent photographs. 
The conclusion is reached that no stimulation of 
growth follows the addition of even the smallest 
amounts of salts of copper, zinc, or arsenic, whilst 
some improvement does occur when salts of boron 
or manganese are employed. This is of interest 
when the somewhat widespread notion of the bene- 
ficial action of traces of copper salts, in some in- 
stances, at any rate, is recalled. Naturally, how- 
ever, one must accept with caution conclusions 
based on the results of water-culture experiments 
in any endeavour to extend them to plants growing 
under ordinary soil conditions. This is the more 
necessary when one reflects how differently plants 
may behave in pot culture and in the field, and 
that even in the field itself it is not possible always 
to predict results at all accurately when the soil, 
aspect, drainage, and other factors as well are 
all subject to variation. We need a far more in- 
timate knowledge of the physical conditions, as 
well as of the chemical processes that are in part, 
and often largely, governed by those conditions in 
the soil, before we shall be in a position even to 
formulate these fundamental questions, a satis- 
factory answer to which must form the basis on 
which our real knowledge of the plant, in this 
connection, will have to be built up. Miss 
Brenchley is fully aware of the difficulties which 
surround the whole subject, and her summing up 
of the whole position is admirable in its caution. 
Index to Periodicals. Compiled by various authori- 
ties and arranged by A. C€. Piper. Vol. i., 
April—September, 1914. Pp. xxxii+ 192. 
(London: Stanley Paul and Co., for The 
Librarian and Book World.) Price 21s. net. 
Tue general editor of this classified and annotated 
index to the original articles contained in some of 
the principal weekly, monthly, and quarterly 
periodicals, Mr. A. J. Philip, rather disarms 
criticism by recounting in the preface the difficul- 
ties due to the war under which the index has 
been prepared. The idea of such an index of the 
important signed articles in periodical literature 
was excellent, and had it been possible to carry 
it out with some completeness, the result would 
have been widely welcomed. 
It is difficult to understand on what plan the 
10g periodicals indexed have been chosen. The 
preface says that foreign periodicals have been 
omitted, yet the names of a few appear in the 
list of those indexed. The Journals of the Royal 
Anthropological Institute, the Royal Microscopical 
Society, the Royal Sanitary Institute, and the Royal 
Statistical Society have been dealt with, but the 
NOUR 77 JaVOL.. 95) 

publications of the Royal Society, the Royal Astro- 
nomical Society, the Royal Meteorological Society, 
the Chemical Society, the various engineering 
institutions, and scores of others of equal import- 
ance are ignored. Similarly in education, atten- 
tion is confined apparently to the Educational 
Times, the Journal of Education, and the Parents’ 
Review, while no mention is made of the Prepara- 
tory Schools Review, the School World, the 
Schoolmaster, and a host of others. The Classical 
Review is indexed, but the periodicals concerned 
with modern languages, English studies, nature 
study, and so on, seem to have been forgotten. 
While appreciating the enterprising beginning 
which has been made, it may be hoped that in the 
next volume the compilers will cast their nets more 
widely, and so secure a more representative pro- 
duction. 
PBR S OMEN EDI OR: 
[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for 
Opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither 
can he undertake to return, or to correspond with 
the writers of, rejected manuscripls intended for 
this or any other part of Nature. No notice is 
taken of anonymous communications. ] 
The National Organisation of Scientific Effort. 
For readers of Narure one of the most striking 
features of the war is that the German Government 
should be approved and supported by its prominent 
men of science, in spite of the fact that it uses 
methods of warfare which we regard as being out- 
side the pale of humanity and common civilisation. 
It seems inconceivable that anything like it should 
happen in this country. If the British military autho- 
rities had transgressed against the written and un- 
written laws of humanity as Germany has done, 
we. feel sure that our men of science would 
have found a voice in condemnation of the Govern- 
ment. In this country it is no unusual thing for 
men of science to find a voice in condemnation of 
the Government, both for what it does and for what 
it leaves undone. Such condemnation used, in fact, 
to be, in peace time, a staple article of scientific 
public-speaking, the like of which one did not find 
in Germany. One never heard there even in private 
conversation the kind of criticism of Government 
action or inaction which in this country is reiterated 
commonplace. 
The difference in practice may be attributed to the 
fact that in Germany scientific effort is organised by 
Government, which stands to scientific work in the 
relation of creator, provider and guardian, on its 
own terms. In Germany, Government is the provi- 
dence of science; and to rail against Government, 
even when its ways are dark and mysterious, is not 
to be thought of. The attitude of the man of science 
in Germany towards his Government _ recalls 
Cowper’s hymn. Changing the grammatical gender 
to avoid irreverence :— 
Blind unbelief is sure to err 
And scan Its work in vain, 
It is Its own interpreter 
And Jt will make it plain. 
We have nothing like it in this country, and this 
reflection prompts the question: What is the corre- 
sponding organisation in this country? For organisa- 
tion there must be, whether it be simple or elaborate, 
effective or ineffective, intentional or haphazard. 
Our organisation is, in fact, haphazard, a matter 
of history and tradition; and, on examination, it 

