Editorial Notes. 243 



The veteran Swiss geologist, Albert Heim, attained his 70th. 

 birthday on April 12, 1919. The event has been duly commemorated 

 by the publication of a Festschrift, issued by a special committee, 

 with Dr. Paul Arbenz as chairman, as a double number of the 

 Vierteljahrschrift der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Zurich. 

 This is a handsomely prepared volume of 518 pages and 12 plates, 

 and contains 24 separate contributions, besides a complete catalogue 

 of Professor Heim's publications. Most of the contributions to 

 this Festschrift naturally deal with various branches of the geology 

 of Switzerland ; other subjects, however, have received attention. 

 Thus, A. Hartmann deals with the hydrology of the Magdalen a 

 Bay district, in Lower California ; L. Zehnder contributes a short 

 discussion on the causes of geological epochs ; E. Blumer reviews 

 the principal petroleum deposits; E. Bloesch gives an account of 

 the tectonics of the Front Bange in Colorado ; while W. Staub 

 presents the results of recent geological exploration in Eastern 

 Mexico. The value of Albert Heim's own work is well recognized 

 in this country ; he was elected a Foreign Correspondent of the 

 Geological Society of London in 1887, and was made a Foreign 

 Member in 1896. It will be remembered that he was one of the 

 six distinguished geologists on whom the University of Oxford 

 conferred the honorary degree of D.Sc. on the occasion of the 

 Society's Centenary in 1907. 



# # * * * 



The views set forth in the Beport of Sir Joseph Thomson's 

 Committee on Scientific Education (Heport of the Committee of the 

 Privy Council for Scientific and Industrial Research for the Year 

 1917-18) are evidently endorsed by opinion in the Colonies. In 

 the recently established New Zealand Journal of Science and 

 Technology (the organ of the New Zealand Board of Science and Art), 

 the matter is discussed by the editor under the title of " Training 

 Besearch Workers". Certain passages are quoted from the Privy 

 Council Beport, and particular stress is laid on the prefatory 

 exhortation to prompt action. In the opinion of the editors of this 

 New Zealand Journal; even if scientific research were adequately 

 endowed in the Dominion a dearth of investigators would be at 

 once apparent. Granted that the true research spirit is a matter 

 of natural ability rather than the result of training, it still remains 

 that the potential worker must be able to get proper facilities for 

 development. The War has made us aware of many deficiencies : 

 one of these is the need of adequate scientific training of a University 

 type. The feeling of the natural independence of the New Zealand 

 youth is not confined to that Dominion ; he wants to find himself as 

 independent financially while pursuing his University course as he 

 would if starting a business career. An extension of the scholarship 

 system is the only means of attaining this except in the case of 

 the rich. 



***** 

 Geology and geography have so much in common that it is not 

 always easy to draw the line between them. It is accordingly 



