52 



NA TURE 



[March j i, 1909 



fession docs not ncccsiarily imply success in the other. 

 \o amount of field experiments will make the farmer into 

 a successful business man, but there is one way in which 

 he can rely on getting the full value of his produce — by 

 cooperation. Only in this way can the small farmer hope 

 10 buy and sell to the best advantage, and to make any- 

 thing out of market fluctuations that are capable of yield- 

 ing profit. This question is discussed in the Quarterly 

 Review by " Home Counties," whose interesting article 

 deserves to be widely read. 



In conclusion, no notice of current agricultural publica- 

 tions intended for the tenant farmer would be complete 

 without reference to the leaflets of the Board of Agri- 

 culture, which deal in simple manner with a large variety 

 of important topics. Every effort is made to ensure that 

 these leaflets should reach the men for whom they are 

 intended. 



THE BRITISH SCIENCE GUILD. 

 'T'HE verbatim report of the third annual meeting of 

 the British Science Guild, held at the Mansion House 

 •on January 22, has just been issued. We give extracts 

 from the speeches made by Sir William Ramsay and Sir 

 Frederick Pollock. 



."Vfter referring to the work done by the Guild during 

 the year, summarised in N.mure of January 2.S, Sir 

 William Ramsay said: — "The greatest danger, I think, 

 from which we suffer is this inherent one in the minds 

 of so many of us, that it is not necessary to prepare before- 

 hand for events which we can perfectly well prophesy 

 will happen. I want to draw attention to one subject 

 which I think a committee of the Guild ought to consider. 

 It is not merely of the utmost importance to ourselves as 

 a race, but it is of the greatest importance taken in con- 

 nection with any legislative proposals of any Government. 

 Let me give you an example from private life. No doubt 

 most of us, perhaps all, have made our wills. We prepare, 

 in a sense, for death. That is to save our successors from 

 a considerable amount of trouble. .Again, if we are well, 

 we safeguard ourselves. We do not go into infected places, 

 we indulge in exercise, we take a reasonable amount of 

 sleep — in fact, we try to keep well; and if we fall ill from 

 any chance we call in a doctor and take other measures 

 to cure ourselves. In other words, we try our best to 

 prolong our lives. Now, it appears to me that one of the 

 duties of the State is to prolong the life of the nation. 

 What does the life of the nation depend on? It depends 

 not only upon the fitness of the people, but upon the 

 amount of natural energy which is available to be used 

 for driving power. We know pretty well from the results 

 •of the Royal Commission that our coal mines will not 

 last for an indefinite time.. Some say three hundred, others 

 ■eight hundred years. Let us put it at five hundred. We 

 can turn our minds back to the year 1400. We certainly 

 ■did not know the people of England in those times, but 

 many of us have a very lively knowledge of the sort of 

 people they were and what they have done for us. They 

 did great things in developing the country, building many 

 churches, carrying out reforms according to their lights. 

 We are now enjoying the benefits of what they did. Is 

 It not only right and natural that we ought to have some 

 consideration for persons living three or five hundred years 

 hence? It does not need many " greats " before " grand- 

 son " until that time is reached in the picture of the mind 

 — probably only six or seven. We ought in the present 

 day to have consideration for the generations who will 

 succeed us, and who will either profit by our foresight or 

 regret pur s^^tupidity. Now, in this country our watcr- 

 nower is qu'te insignificant, and, indeed, if it were much 

 larger than it is there is not much to be made of it. It 

 ■has been calculated that the total water-power of Europe, 

 excluding, perhaps, some few rivers in northern Russia, is 

 equal to 2,000,000 horse-power. Why, we use 100,000,000 

 horse-power in England, so that even if we possessed the 

 whole water-power of Europe we should hardly be supply- 

 ing one-fiftieth of what we use from coal. I know there 

 js a popular superstition that in view of the extraordinary 

 "inventions which we are witnessing in these days — long- 

 distance telegraphy and so on— something will be discovered 



NO, 2054, VOL. 80] 



in the future which will replace our present source of 

 energy. One cannot say with absolute certainty that that 

 will not happen, but I think any scientific man will say 

 it is in the highest degree improbable. And what else 

 have we to come and go upon? You may say that we 

 might have an apparatus to utilise the tides; but the 

 first storm knocks' to bits any apparatus. Or solar heat? 

 -Again the first storm plays havoc with any machinery — 

 and that of the costliest. One possibility is to dig a big 

 hole deep enough into the earth and hope to get boiling 

 water. Well, curiously enough, to-day's Morning Post, 

 in its " Discovery and Invention " column, describes how 

 Mr. Parsons has considered that very question.- He says 

 that to bore a hole twelve miles deep would cost 5,000,000/. 

 and take eighty years. If we are going to bore that hole, 

 ladies and gentlemen, it is time we began. Joking apart, 

 without that possibility, there is no other source of energy. 

 Now this points to the economisation of coal. It points 

 to legislation in other directions. .Are we going to limit 

 the use of steam engines? Gas engines give us about 

 three times the power for the same consumption of fuel. 

 .•\re we going to pay attention to the afforestation of the 

 country, so that when coal is done we shall still have 

 wood ? Are we going to stop the enormous loss of 

 nitrogen, which is so serious, that it will be impossible 

 after fifty j'ears to get the necessary amount for the growth 

 of our plants? Are we going to utilise our sewage? -Ml 

 these are questions of first importance, and I think the 

 Guild should appoint a committee to see how we can save 

 the waste that is going on, and so give our country a 

 chance of longer life. It would be horrible to look for- 

 ward to London becoming a fishing village of five to ten 

 thousand people, built on the top of some magnificent ruins 

 and supported by scanty agriculture. But it is only what 

 we should have to look forward to unless something is 

 done. Let us postpone that evil day as far as possible." 



Sir Frederick Pollock, in moving that the annual re- 

 port be adopted, said : — " I have been asked to say a few 

 words on the Patents Act, 1907, and to explain that the 

 new matter in that -Act, the only matter which attracts 

 public attention, is not a revolutionary enactment or a 

 breach with any established fiscal policy, but a revival of 

 principles upon which the whole of our legislation for 

 patents started, and on which it has been continued- In 

 the earliest days of grants to inventors, the King exercised 

 the power of granting monooolies at his own will and 

 pleasure. In the course of the sixteenth century strc.ig 

 and well-founded objections were raised to the indis- 

 crimiiiate granting of monopolies, and it came to be 

 accepted as a principle that monopolies ought to be granted 

 to inventors only on condition of their being able thereby 

 to introduce new industries into the kingdom. That was 

 assigned as the consideration for which monopolies were 

 granted. And further, during the early history of this 

 branch of monopolies, which ultimately became the founda- 

 tion of our modern Patent Law, it was understood that 

 the inventor was bound, not only to work his invention 

 within the kingdom, but to teach the use of it to all who 

 desired to learn it. Those principles continued to be 

 observed until comparatively modern times. But from 

 some time in the latter part of the eighteenth century the 

 principle of cITectively introducing the new invention to 

 this country was rather lost sight of, and it was supposed 

 that the rule of publishing the invention, so that any 

 competent person could learn from the specification to 

 make it and work it for himself, would be sufficient for 

 the protection of the public. In recent days it has been 

 found that specification is not enough, for it was discovered 

 that there was such a thing as the " obstructive " working 

 of patents. That might be done in two ways. A man 

 might acquire an invention, not for the purpose of intro- 

 ducing it to this kingdom, but, on the contrary, to stifle 

 it and prevent it from being worked at all. That is a 

 point which has, I think, been rather overlooked in some 

 of the public discussions on this subject. I believe that 

 that mischief existed, and that it was quite prooer to put 

 an end to it. The other obstructive way was for foreign 

 manufacturers to take out or buy up a British patent, 

 and so get a practical monopoly by being able to stoo 

 anyone from m;mufacturing the invention here. It is 

 obvious that in both these ways " unfair prejudice " might 



