286 



NA TURE 



[August 26, 1922 



other crops which are grown in the country, on the 

 basis of field selection combined with self-fertilisation 

 and hybridisation. One important and promising 

 research which is in hand is the effect of the gradually 

 diminishing "sharaki" (waterless) period on the 

 soil flora. Propagation in bulk of improved strains 

 of wheat and cotton is arranged with the State ex- 

 perimental farm and with selected private cultivators. 

 The fungoid and bacterial diseases of Egyptian crops 

 in general and of cotton in particular are investigated, 

 and means for their control are devised and tested. 



The supply of trustworthy cotton seed of the best 

 growths is so important in order to produce a high 

 quality of staple, and the opportunities of mixing good 

 seed with inferior qualities before it reaches the culti- 

 vator are so many, that the Ministry actively interests 

 itself in the matter, through the botanical laboratory. 



To this may be added the important work which 

 is being done on the flowering-curve method as an 

 index to the effect of environmental conditions; or 

 investigations of the causes of bud-shedding ; and on 

 the root systems of cotton plants. Similar attention 

 is being paid to millet, rice, opium poppy, beans, and 

 sesame ; and sugar cane will be added shortly. 



The Entomological Section undertakes the study and 

 investigation of insect pests and advises on methods 

 for their control. The fumigation of all cotton seed 

 produced in the ginneries of Egypt is also controlled 

 by this section, and samples of the seed obtained from 

 ginning are sent to it for germination and examination 

 for worms. 



The work of the horticultural section should also 

 be mentioned, for in it much work is being done in 

 introducing and acclimatising new species or varieties 

 of trees, and farm and garden plants. 



Thus a beginning has been made to provide the 

 scientific organisation necessary for the development 

 of agriculture on sound lines, but something on a 

 larger scale will be needed before it can be adequate to 

 the country's requirements. In these institutions a 

 number of questions of first-rate importance to the 

 Egyptian cultivator are under study, such as the effect 

 on the cotton crop of a high subsoil water-table, of 

 rotation in irrigation, o£ reduced watering, and many 

 others, and for their satisfactory solution the provision 

 and efficient maintenance of a highly trained and 

 experienced scientific staff is essential. 



The scientific diagnosis and investigation of animal 

 diseases are carried out at the veterinary pathological 

 laboratory which was opened in 1904, and the Serum 

 Institute, which dates from 1903, provides the anti- 

 cattle-plague serum required for the immunisation of 

 cattle against cattle plague both in outbreaks and as 

 a preventive measure. 



Outside the State departments science is not widely 

 represented in Egypt. There are a few scientific 

 societies, of which the oldest is the Institut d'Egypte, 

 which was founded in 1859 ; its object is the study 

 of all that concerns Egypt and the surrounding countries 

 from the literary, artistic, and scientific points of view. 

 The Geographical Society was founded in 1875 an d 

 publishes bulletins and memoirs at intervals. In 

 1925 the fiftieth anniversary of its foundation is to be 

 the occasion of an international geographical con- 

 ference. 



The Cairo Scientific Society, founded in 1898, is an 

 active institution which meets fortnightly throughout 

 the winter half of the year and publishes its proceedings 

 monthly in the Cairo Scientific Journal. At Alexandria 

 a hydrobiological institute has been recently estab- 

 lished, and much important work awaits the scientific 

 research which should be undertaken there. But these 

 are all too few for the needs of the country, and their 

 paucity suggests a lack of appreciation of the import- 

 ance of scientific knowledge. 



In spite of difficulties due to the war, which Egypt 

 has experienced in common with most other countries, 

 science has of recent years been playing a more and 

 more important part in the development of the country 

 and its resources. The conditions there prevailing 

 often differ widely from those which have been studied 

 in other countries, and much research by scientific 

 men of high training and wide experience will be 

 necessary before the many problems which present them- 

 selves are solved. Such work is not in the interest 

 of Egypt alone, for much that is done there will, if it 

 is of a high scientific standard, be a permanent addition 

 to the general stock of knowledge. Egypt in the past 

 has benefited largely by the science and technical skill 

 which has been gradually built up by generations of 

 students in many lands, and she may now furnish 

 her own quota in return by scientific research in the 

 many fields of inquiry which the Valley of the Nile 

 affords. 



By Dr. 



Gelatin. 



T. Slater Price. 



GELATIN, in the form of glue, has been so long 

 known that, according to Dr. Bogue (J. Franklin 

 Inst., 1922, vol. 193, p. 795), " we are unable to pene- 

 trate the archives of the human race to a date where 

 we may say with assurance that glue was not yet dis- 

 covered. Certain it is that this material was in use as 

 an adhesive in the days of the great Pharaohs of Egypt.'' 

 As glue, or K'.'.AA.i, it has given us the term "colloid," 

 and at the time when this term was first used by Graham 

 it was supposed that all colloids were substances of very 

 complex constitution, such as is glue. This, however, 

 is by no means the case, since what are known as the 

 suspensoid colloids may consist of the elements them- 



NO. 2756, VOL. I 10] 



selves, e.g. colloidal gold and silver. The emulsoid 

 colloids, however, consist to a large extent of very 

 complex chemical substances, as, for example, the 

 proteins, and it is to this class that gelatin belongs. 

 Because of its complex constitution the chemical in- 

 vestigation of gelatin and of the processes which occur 

 in its extraction from bones and hides is still in its 

 infancy, and essentially progress has only been made 

 in the direction of the examination of the degradation 

 products. It is therefore not to be wondered at that 

 the enormous literature on gelatin consists, to a very 

 great extent, of accounts of results obtained in the 

 investigation of its colloidal properties. 



