498 



NA TURE 



[Sehtember 12, 1907 



Most of the items included under the Smithsonian 

 Institution explain themselves, but it is worth while 

 to say that the grant to American ethnology is " for 

 continuing ethnological researches among the American 

 Indians and the natives of Hawaii." The grant of a 

 quarter of a million pounds sterling to the National 

 Museum is stated lo be for the completion of the con- 

 struction of the building. 



.As regards the last two items under " Surveying 

 Public Lands," the first is explained to be for " the 

 analysing and testing of the coals, lignites, and other 

 mineral fuel substance belonging to the United States, 

 in order to determine their fuel value," and " for the 

 purpose of increasing the general efficiency or avail- 

 able supply of fuel resources in the United States." 

 The grant for testing structural materials is similarly 

 " for the investigation of structural materials belong- 

 ing to and for the use of the United States, such as 

 stone, clays, cement, and so forth." 



The Bureau of Animal Industry was instituted 

 " to enable the Secretary of Agriculture more 

 effectually to suppress and prevent the spread of con- 

 tagious and infectious diseases of live stock, and for 

 other purposes." The duties of the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry cover every part of scientific agriculture so 

 far as plant life is concerned. In the same way, the 

 Forest Service includes every aspect of scientific and 

 economic forestry ; and each of the departments under 

 tlie heading agriculture deals in a like comprehensive 

 spirit with the branch of science with which it is 

 identified. The other items are sufficiently explained 

 by their titles. 



Table II. — United Kingdom. 

 Board of Education. 



Museums Purchase Grant (Science Grant £ 



in Aid) 1,800 



Geological Museum ... ... ... ... 3,894 



Geological Survey 18,072 



Solar Physics ... ... ... ... ... 1,901 



British Museum. 



Natural History Museum ... ... ... 53,724 



Scientific Investigation. 



Royal Society ... ... ... ... ... 16,750 



Meteorological Office... ... ... ... 15,500 



Royal Geographical Society ... ... 500 



Marine Biological Association 1,000 



Royal Society of Edinburgh 600 



Scottish Meteorological Society ... ... 100 



Royal Irish Academy ... ... ... 2,000 



Royal Zoological Society of Ireland ... 500 



Edinburgh Observatory 1,600 



International Geodetic Association ... 419 



\orth Sea Fisheries Investigation ... 12,500 



International Seismic Association... ... 210 



Pnblic Education, Scotland. 



Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, 



Science Side (estimate) 1,500 



Temporary Commissions. 



Sewage Disposal Commission, Scientific 



Investigations ... ... ... ... 3,750 



Tuberculosis Commission, Scientific In- 

 vestigations ... ... ... ... 7,673 



Epizootic Abortion Committee, Scientific 



Investigations ... ... ... ... 1,110 



Mines Commission, Scientific Investiga- 

 tions 1,000 



Army. 



Inspection of Warlilje and Engineer Stores : 



Seven Chemists ... ... ... ... 2,340 



Ordnance Research Board : 



Fourteen Chemists and one Chemical 



Engineer 4,140 



Navy, Scientific Services. 



Royal Observatory, Greenwich 9,709 



Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope... 8,218 

 Photographic Mapping of Heavens ... 1,580 

 NO. 1976, VOL. 76]] 



Hydrographic Department 



Coast and other Surveys ... 



Naval Museum, Greenwich 



Compass Deparuiient 



Nautical Almanac 



Chronometers 



Contributions to Scientific Institutions 



;f 38.506 



22,280 



703 



'■897 



4,369 



2.393 



625 



Total 242,863 



The second table will explain itself to most readers 

 of Nature, but one or two variations in the amounts 

 which have been introduced during the year deserve 

 a few words of comment. The Royal Society grant 

 is 4250/. less than in 190(5-7, and the reason is chiefly 

 that the grant in aid of new buildings and equipment 

 for the National Physical Laboratory was this year 

 reduced by 5000/. I'he grant-in-aid of salaries and 

 other e.xpenses of tlie laboratory was increased by 

 750/. The grants to the society for scientific in- 

 vestigations undertaken with the sanction of a com- 

 mittee appointed for the purpose and for scientific pub- 

 lications has undergone no change, and remains at 

 5000L 



The grant towards the expenses of the Meteor- 

 ological Office shows an increase of 200/. ; that towards 

 the expenses of the Royal .Society of Edinburgh an 

 increase of 300/., or, in other words, the grant was 

 doubled this year; that to the Royal Irish Academy 

 an increase of 400/., the increase being intended to 

 provide for the cataloguing of Celtic MSS. now in 

 the custody of the Academy; that to the International 

 Geodetic Association an increase of 1 19/. to pay the 

 expenses of the British delegate in respect of his 

 attendance at the conference of the association held 

 in 1906. The contribution to the International Seismic 

 Association, however, shows a decrease of 40^. 



As regards the grants enumerated under the head- 

 ing "Temporary Commissions," the detailed esti- 

 mates show that the amount received on behalf of the 

 Commission on Sewage Disposal shows an increase 

 for the year of 250/., and that the total sum of 3750/. 

 is expended in the remuneration and expenses of bac- 

 teriological and chemical experts and their assistants, 

 apparatus, and so on. The amount voted for the 

 Tuberculosis Commission represents a decrease of 

 675L on the amount of the grant for the previous 

 year, though why the " expenses of experimental 

 farm?, buildings, and laboratories, the remuneration 

 of scientific experts, &c. , should be less this year is 

 not made clear. The Committee on Epizootic Abor- 

 tion received an increased grant of 260/. this year 

 towards its work of inquiring, " by means of experi- 

 mental investigation and otherwise, into the pathology 

 and etiology of epizootic abortion," and this year's 

 grant of 11 10/. covers the expenses of the experi- 

 mental farm, buildings, and laboratory. The Mines 

 Commission, which was appointed on June 6, 1906, 

 receives its grant of 1000/. for experimental work. 



To sum up, the State grant for the current year 

 towards scientific research in the United States 

 amounts approximately to two and three-quarter mil- 

 lions sterling, that in the Llnited Kingdom — allowing 

 generously for items which may have been missed in 

 examining the estimates — reaches a quarter of a mil- 

 lion sterling. The revenue of the United States for 

 1906 reached the total of 152,477,381/., and that of the 

 L'nited Kingdom 143,977,575'. In broad terms, there- 

 fore, it may be stated that with approximately the 

 same revenue the United States attaches eleven times 

 as much importance to scientific assistance as the 

 mother country of Newton, Darwin, Maxwell, Kelvin, 

 and a great host of other scientific pioneers. Who 

 shall say that there is to-day no need for missionary 

 enterprise on the part of the British man of science? 



A. T. S. 



