August 26, 1922] 



NA TURE 



29; 



Dante with medicine. Though opposed to the view- 

 that Dante himself was a medical man, the professor 

 stated that the poet studied medicine at Bologna, 

 was closely connected with Alderotti and Pietro 

 d'Albano, two of the most distinguished physicians 

 of that time, was prior of the corporation of physicians 

 and apothecaries, and was given the title of magister 

 in a contemporary document. 



Other papers on miscellaneous topics were those by 

 Dr. F. J. Poynton on doctors and the dawn of aero- 

 statia, by Dr. J. D. van Gils of the Hague on the 

 doctors of Moliere and Shaw, and by Mme. Panayo- 

 tatou of Alexandria on hygiene and dancing in 

 ancient Greece. It is proposed to hold the next 

 Congress of the history of medicine at Geneva in 1925. 



The Research Association of British 

 Rubber and Tyre Manufacturers. 



PROBABLY in no industry is the old ground of 

 knowledge less thoroughly explored and the 

 new unbroken field for useful research so extensive 

 and attractive as in the rubber industry taken as a 

 whole. A hundred years or a little more have passed 

 since the discovery that rubber could be converted 

 into a workable form by solution in suitable solvents 

 or by mechanical kneading, and the process of 

 vulcanisation was discovered eighty years ago. 

 These operations, which are yet applied unaltered in 

 principle and very little different in practical detail, 

 still represent the foundation of rubber manufacture 

 of the present day ; compared with them, all the 

 other innovations have been of minor importance. 

 The disadvantages, however, inherent to these 

 fundamental operations are so marked as to cause 

 surprise that so little further advance has been made 

 during the last half-century. It is almost astounding 

 that so large a portion of the effective history of the 

 industry should be found recorded in the remarkable 

 " Personal Narrative " of Thomas Hancock, published 

 in 1857, after his retirement. 



If anything further had been needed to emphasise 

 the importance of the rubber industry, particularly 

 that section of it dealing with the production of 

 rubber tyres for various types of vehicles, and the 

 call for its further scientific development, the period 

 between 1914 and 1918 supplied the necessary stress 

 in an unmistakable manner. It was natural, there- 

 fore, that members of certain companies interested 

 in the manufacture of rubber goods should decide to 

 take advantage of the assistance offered by Govern- 

 ment to found a Research Association of British 

 Rubber and Tyre Manufacturers. An energetic 

 Committee under the chairmanship of Mr. Alexander 

 Johnson saw the Association pass from the embryo 

 stage to a state of healthy and vigorous existence with 

 Mr. B. D. Porritt as director of Research. 



On account of the early part of the year 1920 

 being inopportune for the purchase of premises and 

 equipment, the Research Association first found a 

 temporary home in University College, London, thus 

 enabling a commencement with a preliminary, 

 albeit necessarily restricted, programme of work, 

 more particularly of a purely physical and chemical 

 nature. Later, after careful search and inspection of 

 suitable premises, purchase was completed of two 

 detached houses at 105 and 107 Lansdowne Road, 

 Croydon. These possessed several advantages, and 

 after necessary alterations have been converted into 

 a prepossessing unit. The space between the two 

 houses is now occupied by a substantial connecting 

 building which provides increased accommodation in 

 addition to inter-communication. The frontage of 



the site is 120 feet and the depth 206 feet, the latter 

 leaving ample room for future extensions. 



The building, which was formally opened by Lord 

 Colwyn on July 26, comprises administrative offices, 

 library, experimental laboratory for the preparation 

 of rubber, incorporation of compounding ingredients 

 and vulcanisation, workshop, mechanical testing 

 laboratory, physical laboratory, chemical laboratories, 

 storage accommodation and caretakers' quarters. 

 All the necessary heavy experimental plant is con- 

 tained in the basement of the inter-communicating 

 building, and one of the two original houses has been 

 kept entirely free from running machinery in order to 

 permit the use of delicate instruments without risk 

 of disturbance from vibration. 



Those responsible for the founding of this Associa- 

 tion have realised that the importance of research 

 to industry lies not so much in the possibility of very- 

 occasional discoveries of a revolutionary nature as in 

 the sure benefits which are the abundant fruit yielded 

 by the application of science to the improvement of 

 existing methods. The functions of the Association, 

 while not excluding the study of fundamental prob- 

 lems, include more prosaic considerations such as 

 improvement in the control of manufacturing opera- 

 tions and the testing of raw materials and final 

 products. In such directions there is indeed urgent 

 need for work, such vital matters as the reasons for 

 the use and selection of various necessary " com- 

 pounding ingredients " and the methods adopted for 

 the production of vulcanised rubber possessing 

 special physical properties, e.g. resistance to cutting 

 or abrasion, resilience, toughness or even hardness, 

 being based on almost entirely empirical grounds, 

 often of the least desirable type. 



Whatever requirement may have to be left un- 

 satisfied in such an Association as this, it should be 

 able to anticipate with the utmost confidence an 

 abundant and unceasing supply of problems for 

 investigation. D. F. T. 



University and Educational Intelligence. 



Prospectuses of Universities and Colleges for 

 1922-23 are beginning to appear. Leeds University 

 publishes an extensive programme of evening courses 

 (advanced) in engineering, dyeing, textile and leather 

 industries, and geology, and afternoon courses in 

 coal-mining. During each of five evenings of the 

 week from five to nine classes will be held. The 

 faculty of engineering of the University of Bristol 

 announces additional vacation courses to be held in 

 1923. University College, Exeter, is establishing new 

 courses, intermediate and final, in horticulture and in 

 agriculture, the final course in agriculture being at 

 the Seale-Hayne Agricultural College, Newton Abbot. 



Secondary education in the United States is, as 

 every one knows, conducted chiefly in public (that is 

 to say, in State) schools. But the part of the field 

 occupied by the private high schools and academies 

 is not inconsiderable. Advance sheets from the 

 biennial survey of education in the United States, 

 1918-20 (Bulletin, 1922, No. 9 of the Bureau of 

 Education), show that in 1919-20 there were 2093 

 of these institutions, attended by 184,153 secondary 

 students and, in addition, 250,000 elementary pupils. 

 A remarkable growth occurred between 1905 and 1920. 

 During this period the number of their secondary 

 students increased by 72 per cent. Nearly 75 per 

 cent, of the institutions are under denominational 

 control ; of these 60 per cent, are Roman Catholic, 

 and the following analysis shows that to the Roman 

 Catholic schools is chiefly attributable the above- 



NO. 2756, VOL. I IO] 



