386 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. No. 1295 



Atlantis is being made by tlie govemment 

 at tlie present time. The inception, con- 

 stitution and methods of procedure of the 

 department, which was constituted in 1915, 

 were fully described by Sir Frank Heath 

 in his paper to the Royal Society of Arts 

 last February, and it was there stated by 

 Lord Crewe that, so far as he knew, this 

 was the only country in which a govern- 

 ment department of research existed.* 



It is obvious that the work of a depart- 

 ment of this kind must be one of gradual 

 development with small beginnings in 

 order that it may be sound and lasting. 

 The work commenced by assisting a num- 

 ber of researches conducted by scientific 

 and professional societies which were lan- 

 guishing as a result of the war, and grants 

 were also made to the National Physical 

 Laboratory and to the Central School of 

 Pottery at Stoke-on-Trent. The grants for 

 investigation and research for the year 

 1916-17 totalled £11,055, and for the pres- 

 ent year are anticipated to be £93,570. 

 The total income of the National Physical 

 Laboratory in 1913-14 was £43,713, and, 

 owing to the great enlargement of the lab- 

 oratory, the total estimate of the Research 

 Department for this service during the 

 current year is £154,650. 



Another important part of the work of 

 the department has been to foster and to 

 aid financially associations of the trades 

 for the purpose of research. Nine of 

 these associations are already at work; 

 eight more are approved, and will prob- 

 ably be at work within the next two 

 months; and another twelve are in the 

 earlier stage of formation. There are also 

 signs of great increase of research by 



* The Italian government are now establishing 

 a National Council for Research, and a bill is be- 

 fore the French Chamber for the establishment of 

 a National Ofiice of Scientific, Industrial and Agri- 

 cultural Eesearch and Inventions. 



individual factories. "Wliether this is due 

 to the indirect infl.uence of the Research 

 Department or to a change in public 

 opinion and a more general recognition of 

 the importance of scientific industrial re- 

 search it is difficult to say. 



The possibility of the uncontrolled use 

 on the part of a nation of the power which 

 science has placed within its reach is so 

 great a menace to civilization'' that the 

 ardent wish of all reasonable people is to 

 possess some radical means of prevention 

 through the establishment of some form of 

 wide and powerful control. Has not sci- 

 ence forged the remedy by making the 

 world a smaller arena for the activities of 

 civilization, by reducing distance in terms 

 of time? Alliances and unions, which 

 have successfully controlled and stimu- 

 lated republics of heterogeneous races 

 during the last century, will therefore 

 have become possible on a mder and 

 grander scale, thus uniting all civilized 

 nations in a great league to maintain 

 order, security and freedom for every in- 

 dividual and for every state and nation 

 liberty to devote their energies to the con- 

 trolling of the great forces of nature for 

 the use and convenience of man, instead 

 of applying them to the killing of each 

 other. 



Many of us remember the president's 

 banner at the Manchester meeting in 1915, 

 where science is allegorically represented 

 by a sorrowful figure covering her eyes 

 •from the sight of the guns in the fore- 

 ground. This year science is represented 

 in her more joyful mien, encoiiraging the 

 arts and industries. It is to be sincerely 

 hoped that the future will justify our 

 present optimism. 



Charles A. Parsons 



5 For instance, it might some day be discovered 

 how to liberate instantaneously the energy in 

 radium, and radium contains 2,500,000 times the 

 energy of the same weight of T.N.T. 



