m6 



NATURE 



[September 26, 19 12 



to the throwers. 1 he sugar industry, however, is in 

 a critical condition, the native product failing to com- 

 pete with sugar from the West, but it is hoped that 

 the industry can be remodelled on scientific lines. 



Turning to the memoirs published recently from 

 Pusa, Mr. and Mrs. Howard have succeeded in 

 crossing rust-resistant wheat from northern Europe 

 with some of the native wheats. It was not possible 

 to do this at Pusa, on account of the impossibility of 

 g'etting the rust-resisting parents to flower in time 

 for crossing to be done and for the resulting grain to 

 ripen before the hot weather set in. The difficulty 

 was overcome by sending the Indian parents to Cam- 

 bridge for spring sowing, and by carrying out the 

 actual hybridisation work in England. In this way 

 crosses were made between variout Indian types and 

 American club and other rust-resis.tant wheats that 

 promise to be very useful. 



In the chemical department Mr. Annett has begun 

 an important study of the date-palm sugar industry, 

 which has hitherto been entirely worked by native 

 methods, involving considerable losses. There can 

 be no doubt of the value of this kind of work ; success 

 in putting native industries on a sound foundation 

 would be an achievement of which any department 

 might be proud. The saltpetre industry has already 

 been investigated by Dr. Leather, and we may hope 

 for further good results. Dr. Leather also reports 

 further work on the water requirements of crops. 



The Entomological Department has proceeded on 

 its usual lines. Progress has been made with 

 inquiries into the life-histories and habits of injurious 

 insects, amongst the more important being the 

 rhinoceros beetle, the surface and painted grass- 

 hoppers, potato bug, lucerne Hvpera, small cabbage 

 caterpillar, termites, &c. Steady progress has been 

 made in the preparation and issue of coloured plates 

 illustrative of insect pests of crops, and these have 

 been distributed to various institutions. Useful work 

 has also been don-; on sericulture. 



The Bacteriological Department is now in full work, 

 and may be expected shortly to turn out useful 

 results ; whilst the mycologist, the agriculturist, and 

 the cotton specialist are all able to report good 

 work done. 



THF. BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT DUNDEE. 

 SECTION F. 



economic science and statistics. 



From the Opening Address by Sir Henry H. 



cunynghame, k.c.b., president of the section. 



Having endeavoured to the best of my ability 

 to protest against the idea that economics is not a 

 science, but a mere collection of copybook aphorisms 

 that may be used at random like quack medicines, I 

 should like, with your leave, to endeavour to establish 

 its claim to come among the exact sciences by the 

 surest test that can be applied — namely its capability 

 of being demonstrated by means of geometry and 

 mathematics. 



Everyone in this room is no doubt acquainted with 

 the machine known as a barograph or registering 

 barometer. It is constructed as follows : A vertical 

 cylinder covered with white paper revolves once in a 

 week. A light arm is hinged on to a series of hollow 

 elastic circular chambers, from which the air has been 

 pumped out. As the pressure of the atmosphere 

 varies, the air chambers dilate and contract, carrying 

 the arm with them. The arm carries a pen which 

 marks with a dot on the paper the height of the 

 barometer at any time. .As the paper moves the dot 

 is drawn out into n line, which gives a continuous 



NO. 2239, VOL. go] 



record of barometric variations. This diagram is a 

 picture of one of the records. 



Now, a little consideration will show what a useful 

 diagram we have here. If we were to attempt to 

 give the information contained in it in words we 

 should have to say something like this. On .Monday 

 at o a.m. the barometer stood at 2SS in. ; during the 

 morning of Monday it rose until about 2 p.m., when 

 it remained stationary for three hours. It again 

 steadily rose in the evening, until at midnight it 

 stood at 29'y in. (Fig. i). On Tuesday it still con- 

 tinued to rise until midday, when it again experienced 

 a fall, &c. Or, if the same results were put into 

 arithmetical form, we should have quite a column 

 of figures. 



But this diagram shows us the height of the 

 barometer at anv time, and all its fluctuations. Its 



28 



life-history for the week and the law of its variations 

 are obvious at a glance, in a way which no words 

 could convey to us. So great are the advantages of 

 this method that barographs are printed in many of 

 the newspapers. 



But the use of such curves is not confined to the 

 registration of atmospheric pressure or temperature. 

 They may be used for all purposes. Thus, for 

 example, we might have a curve indicating the varia- 

 tion in successive years of the number of marriages 

 per head of the population. 



Line i (Fig. 2) shows the proportion of marriages 

 to population from 1870 to 1910. The advantages of 

 this synoptic view are obvious. But they become 

 more obvious still when we add other curves. For 

 instance, line 4 shows the price of wheat in various 



1870 



1910 



years, line 3 the price of coal, line 2 the average of 

 money wages, and line i the number of marriages 

 per head of ihe population. A simple inspection shows 

 that these curves rise and fall sympathetically, and 

 proves beyond doubt that the facts they represent 

 are causally connected. 



How eloquently this diagram represents on a space 

 that in a printed book may be three inches square, a 

 series of relations which would take three or four 

 pages to describe even imperfectly in words. And 

 would any description in words enable us to follow 

 the changes like this diagram? The diagram, in 

 fact, plays the part that maps play in geography, and 

 when duly appreciated becomes as valuable as maps 

 of countries. 



