36 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. No. 1280 



for eacli substance the minimuin daily ration 

 which will protect the experimental animal. 

 A committee on accessory food factors, with 

 Professor Hopkins as chairman and Dr. H. 

 Chick as secretary, has been sitting during 

 the year, and has prepared a monograph to 

 meet the needs of the general scientific and 

 medical reader. 



SCIENCE IN AUSTRALIA 



The newly founded Commonwealth Insti- 

 tute of Science and Industry, Melbourne, has 

 begun the publication of a monthly journal 

 entitled Science and Industry. The editorial 

 foreword says: 



No competent scientific investigator need fear 

 the coming of the institute. It will not attempt to 

 do work that others are doing already. There is 

 more than sufficient work for all. No one needs to 

 look round for a job. They are everywhere at 

 hand. While there is still dust in Sydney's 

 streets, or smoke issuing from the chimney stacks 

 at the factories at Footseray, while there is waste 

 timber being eternally burnt around the saw-mills 

 of the west, while the molasses expressed from the 

 sugar-cane of the north still finds its way down to 

 the sea, who can deny the width of the field for 

 scientific investigation? "While the rich lands of 

 Queensland are continually being given over to the 

 prickly pear, and arable areas of Victoria to St. 

 John's wort, while artesian water ceases to flow, or 

 the bores to corrode, while stock die of strange 

 diseases in the night, and their young perish before 

 birth, while there are still mineral treasures that 

 have not yet been exploited by the prospector, 

 while air transport is still with us an undeveloped 

 means of locomotion, while a thousand and one 

 articles of daily use are still being imported from 

 foreign lands that could easily be manufactured by 

 our own people, who will say that there is no room 

 for science? 



Hitherto in Australia, and in most other Eng- 

 lish-speaking countries, the scientist is only now 

 beginning to get back some of his own. In the 

 past there has been observable a certain suspicion 

 of science. The primary producer used to regard 

 the man of science as a dreamer or at best a 

 theorist. They talked of Collins-street farming. 

 The scientific man, on his part, had little respect 

 for those who allowed their actions to be hampered 

 by the ideas of their grandparents. But gradually 

 it was seen by producers that the man of science 



had something to teach them if they were only 

 prepared to listen, and if he was willing to express 

 his thoughts in every-day language. The man on 

 the land no longer despises science as he did a 

 quarter of a century ago — at least, the more pro- 

 gressive do not. The manufacturers are not pre- 

 cisely in the same plight. "With some few and 

 notable exceptions, they have been inclined to ig- 

 nore the lessons of science. The scientists them- 

 selves are somewhat to blame for this, or, at any 

 rate, they have themselves to thank. Business men 

 have one test of value, and that is cost. Scientists 

 who love their science place it above money. 

 Much of the most valuable scientific work done in 

 the world has been done for a pittance. The re- 

 ward of the investigator was not necessarily ex- 

 pressed in the augmentation of his banking ac- 

 count. Business men could not understand this. 

 Services that could be had cheaply were nasty. 

 If they were valuable, they would be much sought 

 after in the market. So argued these men of af- 

 fairs, and this was the basis of those advertise- 

 ments asking for the services of fully-qualified 

 chemists at £200 a year or less. These bad old 

 days must end if science is to come into her own. 

 In the field of science the laborer is worthy of his 

 hire. 



The institute is the youngest department of the 

 commonwealth government. It is not yet old and 

 effete, with a large number of its ofS.cers eagerly 

 looking for the retiring age. It represents the 

 young commonwealth, youthful and virile, and 

 realizes, as it has been expressed, that "the fron- 

 tier of knowledge is the starting point, of re- 

 search. ' ' 



SIGMA Xi AT SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY 



The Society of Sigma Xi at Syracuse Uni- 

 versity has elected as officers for the ensuing 

 year the following: President, Edward D. Roe, 

 Jr.; Vice-president, C. C. Adams; Secretary, 

 Geo. T. Hargitt; Treasurer, Henry F. A. 

 Meier. During the past year the following 

 scientific program has been presented by mem- 

 bers of the society: 



November 18. Edwin F. McCarthy. Occurrence 

 of knots and spiral in Adirondack red spruce. 



Carl J. Drake. Notes on Nezara viridula, a seri- 

 ous plant pest in the south. 



December 13. E. S. Boehner. Gas warfare. 



E. N. Pattee. The outlook for chemical indus- 

 tries in the United States. 



January 10. T. C. Hopkins. Exploring and 



