594 

futile, it is positively mischievous, for it raises , 
an ideal which for the ordinary man is quite in- 
appropriate during his preparation for a life of 
serious practical endeavour.” The remarkable 
development of chemical industry in Germany has 
resulted much more from the large command of 
chemists and engineers of sound professional 
training and ability than from the possession also 
of an even larger supply of research chemists of 
mediocre ability. 
Sir William Lever’s paper is a weighty con- 
tribution to what is at the present crisis a very 
serious problem. One of the most distressing 
features of the times is the widespread unrest in 
the labour world concerning the division of the 
profits arising from the remarkable activity of 
certain industries connected with the war. So 
far it has not extended to any marked extent to 
the chemical industries, probably because these 
are not subjected to the same disturbing influences 
as, say, the coal-miners. But Sir William Lever’s 
paper is a timely account, judicious, impartial, 
and dispassionate, of the working of a system 
which is pursued with signal advantage and 
success in the great organisation which he con- 
trols, and as such it may be commended to the 
thoughtful consideration of all employers of 
labour. 

THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY’S 
WORK ON THE ONE-MILLION MAP. 
R. A. R. HINKS, secretary of the Royal 
Geographical Society, described at a re- 
cent meeting of the society the work which has 
been carried out, and is still in progress, on a 
map on the scale 1/1,000,000. It is well known 
that, before the outbreak of war, conferences of 
representatives of the principal Powers had met 
in London and Paris, and had come to an agree- 
ment as to the production of a map on this scale, 
to cover ultimately all lands, on a uniform pro- 
jection and with uniform methods of representa- 
tion, etc. A few sheets had been produced in 
various countries. They were scattered, in some 
instances imperfect and not available in any 
quantity, and in any event useless to meet even 
partially the necessity which was felt, almost at 
the outset of the war, of a map to cover uniformly 
Western and Central Europe and Asia Minor and 
adjacent areas affected by military operations. 
Even for Europe no such map existed, and it was 
necessary, in taking a broad view of the opera- 
tions, or for any such purpose as that which will 
ultimately become of prime importance, the 
tracing of boundaries, to pass at certain points 
from maps of a particular scale and method to 
others totally different in every respect. People 
are prone to comment that the scale 1/1,000,000 
(nearly 16 miles=1 inch) is too small even for 
such general purposes, but it is not so. It allows 
the representation of important places, railways, 
roads and boundaries, rivers, and elevation by 
means of contour lines, either alcne or in con- 
junction with layer colours. 
NO. 2387, VOL. 95| 
NATURE 


[JuLy 29, 1915 

Such a map, then, was undertaken by the Royal 
Geographical Society under the direction of the 
Geographical Section of the General Staff. The 
society’s responsibility has extended to the com- 
pilation of construction drawings from the 
materials available on the spot, while the engray- 
ing and reproduction is being carried out by the 
Ordnance Survey Department. Methods have 
been used which, if slightly rough, have allowed 
of high speed, and a number of the sheets are 
already on the market in a preliminary issue. 
The work at the society’s house has been done 
by Mr. Hinks and a number of volunteer fellows, 
all more or less accustomed to map-compilation, 
with the assistance of certain external advisers 
and a few trained draughtsmen. 
Despite the possibilities for error which are 
inseparable from work done thus rapidly and 
without access to local information at the moment 
—possibilities which were frankly discussed by 
Mr. Hinks—there cam be no question that a valu- 
able and important task has been accomplished. 
Much experience has been gained. In certain 
respects the methods laid down at the international 
conferences have been improved upon. Two of 
the most important departments in which the work 
marks a real scientific advance are (1) the solid 
endeavours which have been made to overcome 
the immense difficulties of regularising the spell- 
ing of place-names in Central and Near Eastern 
Europe; (2) the contouring of the maps, which, 
in the same localities, often represents a reasoned 
collation of very imperfect sources, and the appli- 
cation to the data thus obtained of what may be 
called topographical sentiment of a high order. 
The systems of transliteration and hints as to 
pronunciation are indicated, where necessary, on 
the maps themselves. The work of compiling 
the physical outlines and contours has enabled 
a proper value to be set on many of the well- 
known official and other maps; notably it has 
resulted in the detailed criticism of the great 
Austrian staff map of 1/750,000, which does not 
emerge triumphantly from this test. 
It is to be hoped that on the solid foundation 
of preliminary work thus laid will be raised, after 
present exigencies have been met, a structure of 
permanent value to geography generally; these 
maps should ultimately be revised and executed 
by the best methods, excellent as the present 
results are for the time being. 

RECENT STUDIES IN. THE DYNAMICS OF 
LIVING MATTER. 
HERE is no falling off in the stream of work 
which comes from Prof. Jacques Loeb’s 
laboratory in the Rockefeller Institute, from which 
we have now before us some ten or a dozen papers, 
mostly by Prof. Loeb himself, all published since 
the beginning of last year. They deal with 
various subjects in that field of comparative 
physiology, or dynamical biology, which Loeb has 
so diligently reaped as well as sown. Most of 
them are concerned with one or other of three 
topics, the phenomenon of heliotropism, the in- 
