218 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LII. No. 1340 



engineering (workshop practise and machine 

 drawing) ; and one or two years training in 

 the methods of research under a professor or 

 teacher of a university or university institu- 

 tion who is competent to train in research. 

 Sir P. C. Eay, who stands only second to Sir 

 Jagadis Bose in eminence as an Indian scien- 

 tist, in a dissentient note disapproves of the 

 creation of yet another Indian service, and 

 thinks the best results could be achieved by 

 improving the teaching of chemistry in the 

 im.iversities. They should be encouraged to 

 strengthen the staff of chemical teachers and 

 to offer research scholarships. Technological 

 institutes should be attached to each univer- 

 sity as an adjunct to the chemical and phys- 

 ical departments. 



The attractiveness prima facie to men of 

 iigh scientific attainment of dependence on 

 -the universities has been shown in the last 

 ■few months in the correspondence columns of 

 .Nature. In his introductory note to the report 

 Dr. Thorpe, who may be presumed to have 

 had strong leanings in the same direction 

 when his inquiries began, is unhesitating in 

 his conclusion that the development of chem- 

 ical industries in India can only be adequately 

 realized through the agency of an efficient 

 Government Chemical Service. At the out- 

 set the report refers to the method, found 

 satisfactory in England, of government sub- 

 ventions to research associations in the va- 

 rious branches of industry. But in India, 

 -with its comparatively undeveloped great nat- 

 ural resources, " a more intimate system of 

 state assistance" is held to be necessary. 

 Similarly, it is not possible at present to rely 

 upon the Indian universities to complete the 

 training necessary for appointment to the 

 service, and selected students must be sent 

 abroad under a system of maintenance agents. 

 It is pointed out that the formation of the 

 service will necessitate a strengthening of the 

 chemical departments of Indian universities 

 and institutions. The professors of chemistry 

 should be relieved of some of their routine 

 work, and could then devote an appreciable 

 amount of time to training their senior stu- 

 dents in methods of research. The forma- 



tion of a service for the purpose of industrial 

 research does not mean that university pro- 

 fessors should be discouraged from doing 

 similar work. Dr. Thorpe, in his introduc- 

 tory note, says that while it is impossible and 

 imnecessary to have laboratories attached to 

 the universities fitted with full-scale appa- 

 ratus, there should be attached to the chem- 

 ical department in every university a labora- 

 tory of comparatively small dimensions, con- 

 taining types of every kind of plant used in 

 chemical manufacture of about one sixtieth 

 the size of the large scale plant. 



The proposed Chemical Service touches the 

 educational service or educational institutions 

 directly only in so far as concerns the efficient 

 training of its recruits in research methods. 

 For this reason it is not proposed that pro- 

 fessors and teachers of chemistry should nor- 

 mally be members of the service. It would be 

 open to the Education Department or to an 

 educational institution to ask for a chemist 

 to be seconded from the service if it so desires. 

 Such chemists would retain their lien on their 

 appointment in the Chemical Service, and 

 could revert thereto on promotion, on their 

 own request, or on the request of the authori- 

 ties to whom their services had been lent. 



NORTH AMERICAN FOREST RESEARCH 



The National Eesearch Council reports that 

 it has published a complete summary of all of 

 the scientific investigations upon forest prob- 

 lems which are now under way in the United 

 States and in Canada as a bulletin upon 

 " North American Forest Research." This 

 bulletin was compiled by a committee of the 

 Society of American Foresters composed of: 

 Barl H. Clapp, assistant forester, II. S. Forest 



Service. 

 Clyde Leavitt, commissioner of conservation of 



Canada, Ottawa. 

 Walter Mulford, professor of forestry, University 



of California. 

 J. W. Toumey, director of the forest school, Yale 



University. 

 E. A. Ziegler, director, State Forest Academy, 



Mount Alto, Penn. 



In this bulletin 519 different projects for in- 

 vestigation are described, including the re- 



