79 8 



NA TURE 



[December 16, 1922 



and we should be sorry to suggest that scientific in- 

 vestigators themselves should seek to get into the 

 limelight or take part in the turmoil of politics. They 

 are much better employed in the laboratory than in 

 Parliament. What are wanted, however, are advo- 

 cates of science and scientific method — men and 

 women who know the disinterested spirit in which 

 pinch scientific inquiries are carried on and desire 

 to introduce into social and political discussions the 

 same impartial attitude towards evidence and fearless 

 judgment upon it. At the present time it is in a large 

 measure the mission of science to rebuild a shattered 

 civilisation, not alone by providing the foundations for 

 material progress, but also by introducing scientific 

 methods and the scientific spirit into all fields where 

 questions of national significance are debated. 



To attain these ends there must be a much wider 

 understanding of the service of science than exists at 

 present. Science will not advertise itself, but there is 

 every reason why believers in it should undertake a 

 publicity campaign on its behalf. Dozens of inter- 

 esting leaflets or short pamphlets might be written 

 showing what science means to progressive industry 

 and modern civilisation, and they should be distri- 

 buted in thousands both to enlighten and to stimulate. 

 Wireless telephony, for example, is a direct product of 

 purely scientific studies. The tungsten used for the 

 filaments in the thermionic valve and in metallic 

 filament lamps generally, was discovered more than a 

 century ago. It enters into the constitution of all 

 high-speed tool steels and every magneto. Man- 

 ganese, nickel, titanium, aluminium, and other essen- 

 tial constituents of the alloy steels now used for many 

 engineering purposes were all first discovered in 

 scientific laboratories. So also were the thorium and 

 cerium used in the manufacture of incandescent gas 

 mantles, calcium carbide for the production of acetylene 

 gas, the methods of extracting nitrogen from the air 

 to produce nitrates for explosives and agricultural 

 fertilisers, and hundreds of other substances and pro- 

 cesses which are now accepted as part of our daily lift- 

 without a thought of their origin. 



The most remarkable of such developments is that of 

 helium gas discovered by Sir Norman Lockyer in the 

 sun in 1868, found in terrestrial minerals by Sir William 

 Ramsay twenty-six years later, and now being pro- 

 duced in millions of cubic feet from certain oil wells 

 in the United States, where all airships are compelled 

 to use this gas instead of hydrogen. It is quite possible 

 that the practical monopoly of helium which America 

 possesses in its rich sources of supply, may be of great 

 significance both in the arts of peace as well as those of 

 war. At any rate, the United States Government is 

 quietly accumulating vast quantities of the gas com- 

 NO. 2772, VOL. I IO] 



pressed in cylinders for whatever needs the future may 

 bring. 



It is obvious that valuable national and Imperial 

 service can be performed by a body which has sufficient 

 funds to undertake active propaganda work for the 

 extension of an understanding of the influence of 

 scientific research and its results. The only organisa- 

 tion which is attempting to do this is the British Science 

 Guild, founded in 1905 to convince the people, by 

 means of publications and meetings, of the necessity 

 of applying the methods of science to all branches of 

 human endeavour and thus to further the progress and 

 increase the welfare of the Empire. The Guild is thus 

 not a scientific or technical society but a body of 

 citizens united for the purpose of making the Empire 

 strong and secure through science and the application 

 of scientific method. Its relation to the work done 

 in our laboratories is that of the Navy League to tha 

 Royal Navy — to watch and promote progress. Lord 

 Askwith has just accepted the presidency of the Guild 

 in succession to the Marquess of Crewe, who has 

 reluctantly had to withdraw from this office on account 

 of his appointment as British Ambassador at Paris. 



Active steps are shortly to be taken by the Guild to 

 secure adequate funds for displaying the fertility of 

 British science not only throughout the Empire but 

 also to the whole world. We possess a great treasure, 

 and in these days cannot afford to let it lie hidden. 

 It is devoutly to be hoped, therefore, that when the 

 British Science Guild makes its appeal for funds and 

 members there will be a rich and ready response to it, 

 so that branches may be established throughout the 

 Empire for the strengthening of the foundations of the 

 knowledge upon which our position among the nations 

 of the world depends. The British Empire Exhibition 

 to be held in 1924 will provide an opportunity for 

 showing what science has accomplished, and we look 

 to a body like the British Science Guild to see that the 

 promoters provide in the Exhibition a Temple of 

 Science which shall be worthy of the great achieve- 

 ments of British genius. 



Wegener's Drifting Continents. 



Die Entstekung der Kontinente mid Ozeane. By Dr. 

 Alfred Wegener. Dritte ganzlich umgearbeitete 

 Auflage. Pp. viii + 144. (Braunschweig: Friedr. 

 Vieweg und Sohn, Akt.-Ges., 1922.) 95. 



HOWEVER much conservative instincts may 

 rebel, geologists cannot refuse a hearing to 

 Dr. Alfred Wegener, professor of meteorology in 

 the University of Hamburg. As an oceanographer, he 

 looks out over the boundaries of sea and land ; as a 

 meteorologist, he is interested in changes of climate in 



