March 4, 1909] 



NA TURE 



13 



election than their knowledge of or interest in the 

 poor. Accordingly their administration is often faulty 

 and ill-informed; and the Commissioners direct atten- 

 tion to many cases in which the allowances made by 

 the guardians are helping to perpetuate social and 

 moral conditions of the worst type. Even when the 

 relief is given to the right people, it is too often 

 inadequate in amount, and ill-adapted to the parti- 

 cular needs of the case. 



Tlie object of the Commissioners, therefore, is to 

 ensure that henceforth the local public assistance 

 authority shall be largely nominated from amongst 

 men and women of experience, wisdom, and unselfish 

 devotion to the public good, and shall be served by 

 nflicers fully qualified by knowledge and by experi- 

 ence. For the higher offices it is suggested that there 

 should be qualifying examinations, and highly trained 

 officers will be required in what are now regarded as 

 less important posts, e.i^. that of labour master. For 

 these purposes a graded public assistance service 

 should be set up, which should include all officers con- 

 cerned with the supervision, control, and disciplinary 

 treatment of the poor, both male and female. In this 

 service there should be more opf>ortunity of promo- 

 tion from the lower to the higher ranks, and no ques- 

 tion of superannuation should hinder the transfer of 

 efficient and promising officers from one local 

 authority to another. 



The recommendations of the Commissioners tend 

 not merely to securing better qualified administrators, 

 but also to the adoption of sound principles, which we 

 may fairly define as scientific, in the distribution of 

 public assistance. For example, the principle of 

 classification is insisted upon, in institutions adapted 

 to the various needs of the dependent poor, in lieu 

 of the aggregation of all classes in the present work- 

 houses. For those trespassers on public hospitality 

 called " ins-and-outs " a system of detention should be 

 adopted. Outdoor relief should be administered 

 unoler those conditions of strict investigation and 

 adaptation to the particular needs of the individual 

 wliich are expressed in the term " case-work," and in 

 such a manner as to strengthen the hands of sanitary 

 authorities, and to elicit the support and cooperation 

 of voluntary aid committees. The aged should be 

 adequately relieved, and their comfort and happiness 

 considered. Many recommendations are made as to 

 the care, education, and medical supervision of 

 children. The detention of feeble-minded, idle, and 

 unmoral paupers is recommended, and is a step which 

 may help to the solution of a problem in eugenics. 



.Among the questions dealt with in this report for 

 the determination of which the scientific spirit is 

 essential, that of the relation of public assistance to 

 voluntary aid — that is to say, of the relative functions 

 of the community, of the charitable individual,- and 

 of the charitable foundation in the relief of distress — 

 is one of the most important. Its consideration 

 occupies eighty folio pages of the report, and we are 

 glad to know that it has not been omitted from the 

 (programme of the British Science Guild, which has, 

 at the suggestion of -Sir William Bousfield, appointed 

 a committee to work out this problem. The report 

 will, supply materials of great value to that committee. 

 It bears testimony to the good results obtained by 

 the labours of charity organisation societies in 

 all parts of the country, which have long been imbued 

 wilh that spirit; and it leads to nineteen -specific 

 recommendations, too minute to be referred to in 

 detail, which justify the hope that that spirit will 

 govern the administration of public aid and of charitv 

 in the future. 



_ The report of the four members of the Commis- 

 sion who found themselves unable to sign that agreed 



NO. 2053, VOL. 80] 



to by their fourteen colleagues also confirms the 

 views we have endeavoured to express. It declares 

 the breaking up of the present unscientific category 

 of the aged and infirm, and the substitution of a 

 method of dealing separately with distinct classes 

 according to the age and the mental and physical 

 characteristics of the individuals concerned, to be a 

 necessary preliminary of any effective reform. 



Other problems which are discussed in these able 

 documents require actuarial .science for their solu- 

 tion, as, for example, the distress due to unemploy- 

 ment, invalidity assurance, old age pensions, friendly 

 societies and trade unions, and the other provident 

 institutions which have been so marvellously efficient 

 as prophylactics against pauperism ; but space will 

 not allow of further discussion. Enough if we have 

 shown the place of the scientific spirit in dealing with a 

 great social and economic question. 



THE METEORIC FIREBALL OF FEBRUARY 22 

 AND ITS STREAK. 



ONE of the most notable meteors of recent years 

 appeared on February 22 at 7.30 p.m., and was 

 observed from the southern counties of England. It 

 was a brilliant object, at first emitting an orange 

 light, varying in intensity, then when about half its 

 night had been performed it suddenly blazed out 

 with a steel3--blue lustre and lit up the foggy atmo- 

 sphere as though a huge rocket had exploded. It left 

 a short, luminous streak where the chief outburst 

 occurred, but this streak immediately intensified and 

 soon extended along the whole path traversed by the 

 meteor. Becoming bent and contorted, it assumed a 

 variety of shapes and drifted to north-west under 

 the action of upper wind currents. Diffusing itself 

 into a broad, faint band of irregular form, it was 

 ultimately lost amid the Milky \\'ay about two hours 

 after the time of its first projection. The long dura- 

 tion of the streak is almost without parallel in this 

 countr}-, though the Madrid meteorite of i8g6 Februarv 

 10 left a luminous band or cosmic cloud visible in 

 the sky for 55 hours ! 



The meteor of February 22 was a Leonid, but 

 the radiant is not quite accurately defined, as the 

 flight of the object was very similar at most of the 

 stations, for it slightly descended from Canis Minor 

 to the southern region of Orion. But there is 

 no doubt that the direction was from Leo, and the 

 point of radiation seems well indicated at 175°+ 16° 

 near Leonis. Just possibly the radiant may have 

 been at 155°-!- 12°, for I saw a fairly bright meteor on 

 the same night passing slowly from 150° -H 40° to 

 148° -I- 49°, and directed from this centre 5° E. of 

 Regulus. The height of the large meteor was from 

 about sixty to twenty-six miles over the English 

 Channel, about forty miles south of the coasts of 

 Sussex, Hampshire, and Dorset. The luminous 

 course was about 135 miles in length, and the velocity 

 20 miles per second. Several observations indicate a 

 greater length of path and a lower elevation (22 miles) 

 at the end, vertically over a point 50 miles S. 

 of Plymouth. The best estimates for the dura- 

 tion of flight are 5-6 sees., 6-7 sees., and 8 sees. 

 The fireball of 1898 February 20 had a radiant at 

 177°+ 12°, and probably belonged to the same system. 



.\s to the trail, at 8h. 12m. one trustworthy 

 observer says the whole length of it was 100° ; another 

 gives 180°. Many excellent observations are to hand, 

 and it may be possible to work out some interesting 

 details concerning the velocity and direction of its drift. 

 The great changes which affected it will, however, 

 make this difficult. One bright bend in the luminous 



