July 8, 1922] 



NA TURE 



r ' 



respecting the congress may be obtained from the 

 Secretario Geral, XX Congreso de Americanistas, 

 Sociedade de Geographia, Praca 15 de Novembre,No. 

 101, Rio de Janeiro. 



Some interesting points in the work of officials 

 connected with scientific and technical bodies, especi- 

 ally in relation to the scientific and technical press, 

 were raised in an address on the duties of secretaries, 

 delivered by Mr. P. L. Marks at a meeting of the Circle 

 of Scientific, Technical, and Trade Journalists on May 

 30. There are few men gifted with the power of 

 presenting scientific knowledge in an easily assimi- 

 lated form, and it is here that a really competent 

 secretary reveals itself. Editors are busy men, often 

 with a wide but not a detailed knowledge of scientific 

 subjects, who require information conveyed within 

 a small compass ; and if a secretary, in issuing matter 

 to the press, can select certain journals for individual 

 treatment, providing them with matter closely allied 

 or linked to their respective fields of operations, his 

 efforts will not be vain. This applies particularly to 

 bodies the aim of which is the popularisation of 

 science. The ideal secretary must be able to take a 

 wide view and sanction some departure from the 

 limits of absolute scientific truth, if essential to 

 simplicit}- and popular appeal. While rejecting fal- 

 lacious statements — involving inaccuracy arising from 

 ignorance rather than an effort after simplicity — such as 

 are apt to creep into daily non-technical papers, it is not 

 necessary to adhere to the standard rightly demanded 

 in scientific transactions. With regard to secretaries 

 who exercise editorial functions in connexion with 

 their societies, Mr. Marks inclines to the view that 

 no radical alteration in contributions or discussion 

 should be permitted. Nevertheless we think it ad- 

 visable in the interests of a society that its transactions 

 should not contain statements that are manifestly 

 incorrect or absurd, or in conflict with its policy. 

 In general the authors of such remarks are open to 

 correction, if tactfully conveyed. A secretary of a 

 scientific body may not receive high remuneration, 

 may not even enjoy the esteem and appreciation he 

 deserves, but he has the knowledge that by his work 

 he is shaping the scientific destiny of the nation. 



Within recent years most of the leading industries 

 have founded Research Associations, and in 1919 the 

 Council of the Institute of Brewing decided to make 

 provision for investigating problems of a general 

 character in the brewing and allied industries. To 

 obtain the necessary funds for carrying out the scheme 

 a new class of members, known as Research Fund 

 Members, has been created. These members consist 

 of firms who are invited to join the Institute at a 

 minimum annual subscription of 10 guineas. At the 

 end of 1 92 1, the total subscriptions amounted to 

 nearly 6000/. per annum, so that the scheme is now 

 well in being. Two reports have already been issued, 

 and particulars are given of the investigations so far 

 carried out in connexion with hops, barley, and 

 timber. An account is given of the experiments on 

 breeding new varieties of hops at the South Eastern 



NO. 2749, VOL. I 10] 



Agricultural College, Wye, and their testing on a 

 commercial scale at the East Mailing Research Station, 

 under the direction of Mr. E. S. Salmon. Photo- 

 graphs and a detailed description of the kilns erected 

 by the Institute at Beltring, Kent, for investigating 

 the various factors involved in the drying of hops are 

 also given in Report II. Manurial experiments on 

 hops are being carried out at Chilham and Horsmon- 

 den by Mr. F. Ivo Neame and Mr. T. I. Nicolson 

 respectively, while the chemical investigations are 

 being conducted, under the direction of Dr. F. L. 

 Pyman, at the College of Technology, Manchester. 

 With regard to barley it is intended to make a sys- 

 tematic study of barley and malt from the agri- 

 cultural, botanical, chemical, and physiological stand- 

 points, and arrangements have been made for field 

 trials, under the direction of Sir John Russell, 

 of the Rothamsted Experimental Station, on farming 

 conditions in East Suffolk, Lincolnshire, Somerset, 

 Essex, Yorkshire, Norfolk, Shropshire, Wiltshire, and 

 the East Lothians. Trials are also being made at 

 the Rothamsted and Woburn Experimental Stations. 

 Mr. H. F. E. Hulton has drawn up a report on the 

 relation of the nitrogenous matters in barley to 

 brewing value, while botanical and chemical investiga- 

 tions on timber for casks, with special reference to 

 American oak, are being carried out at the Imperial 

 College of Science and Technology, under the direction 

 of Prof. P. Groom and Prof. S. B. Schryver, re- 

 spectively. 



At the meeting of the Royal Statistical Society on 

 June 20, a paper was read by Mr. J. W. Yerdier 

 dealing with the statistics of shipping casualties and 

 loss of life at sea. Discussing the occupational risks 

 run by seamen, the author gave comparative esti- 

 mates, based on the recorded deaths \>y accidents in 

 the five years ended 1913. The yearly death-rate 

 among seamen was 4-05 per thousand employed, 

 compared with 1-56 for underground workers in coal 

 mines, and 0-59 for railway servants. It is estimated 

 that the number of deaths per million man-hours of 

 employment was 0-97 for seamen, o-68 among under- 

 ground workers in coal mines, and 0-20 among railway 

 servants. Mr. Yerdier also compared the accidents 

 involving deaths of passengers on steam vessels with 

 those on railways. Assuming that, in the foreign 

 trade, sea passengers are at sea for twenty days on 

 the average, and that railway passengers (excluding 

 season ticket holders) are on the train for about an 

 hour, then, in the period about 1900, the railway 

 passengers' deaths were 0-12 per million passenger- 

 hours, while the sea passengers' were 1-5, or more 

 than twelve times as great. In the period about 

 1910, the railway passengers' deaths were about o-i 

 per million passenger-hours, and the sea passengers' 

 0-3, or three times as great, showing that there has 

 been a general progress towards safety. 



The address prepared by Sir Robert Hadfield for 

 the Sheffield Association of Metallurgists and Metal- 

 lurgical Chemists last October has been published 

 under the title of " The Work and Position of the 



