Editorial Notes. | 291 
MEANTIME the figures for the world’s production of minerals for the 
years 1914-18 have for the bulk of the minerals not yet been 
published, and similar figures for the years 1919 and 1920 are 
becoming due. These statistics used to be published by the Home 
Office, in Part IV of the Report of the Chief Inspector of Mines. 
During the war their publication was suspended, and on the 
formation of the Bureau the duty of compiling and publishing them 
was delegated to the new body. We cannot help thinking that it 
would have been wiser to have got out as rapidly as possible these 
vital statistics, and to have left the less important, but interesting, 
letterpress of the monographs for a more leisurely procedure. 
Mining engineers all the world over would have welcomed the 
publication of the production figures, and would have been content 
to wait until the staff of the Bureau should have had time to cope 
with the compilation of the monographs. 
2 K ES *k k 
Tue fourth report of the Conjoint Board of Scientific Societies shows 
that the Board has received evidence that scientific investigation 
is being seriously hampered by the heavy cost involved in the 
publication of results. An exceptional number of papers are being 
communicated to the Scientific Societies, including many held up 
during the war, while the resources of the Societies, which have not 
increased, are insufficient at present prices to publish even the normal 
pre-war number. The country is thus in danger of being seriously 
handicapped at a time when the rehabilitation of industry is in most 
serious need of scientific assistance. Much of the report is occupied 
with a short abstract of the third report of the committee on the 
water power of the Empire. It is shown that too little is being done 
to ascertain the total resources, or to secure uniformity in 
investigation and record. It is urged that steps should be taken to 
convene an Imperial Water Power Conference in London, at which 
the various Dominions and Dependencies of the Empire should be 
represented. The outcome of such a conference might well be the 
creation of an Imperial Water Power Board, with extensive powers 
to carry out a comprehensive policy for stimulating, co-ordinating, 
and, where necessary, assisting development throughout the 
Empire. The Board has also dealt with questions relating to the 
formation of National Research Committees, in connexion with the 
International Research Council, formed in 1919, with the collection 
of scientific data in the former German colonies, and with instruction 
in technical optics. The research on glues and other adhesives 
initiated by the Board as a war measure, at the instance of the 
Air Ministry, has now. been taken over by the Department of 
Scientific and Industrial Research. 
