SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LI. No. 1308 



and in tireless energy, patience and talent, 

 stand out preeminent in their respective 

 groups. Albert Maotj 



QUOTATIONS 



THE BRITISH NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM 



We learn that there are at present vacancies 

 in the entomological, zoological and geolog- 

 ical departments of the ITatural History Mu- 

 seum which have been open for several 

 months, and that more vacancies are expected 

 in the immediate future. The museum is 

 one of the great national instruments for the 

 collection, classification, and preservation of 

 specimens of the animal and plants, the rocks 

 and minerals, of the world. For the ade- 

 quate performance of its duties, it must have 

 a full staff of able and devoted specialists. 

 It should require no defense on utilitarian 

 grounds, for the advancement of natural 

 knowledge of the kind to which it is devoted 

 is recognized as a privilege by every civilized 

 state. But there are plenty of utilitarian 

 arguments. Take entomology alone: the 

 number of living species of insects is esti- 

 mated at over 2,000,000. The preserver of 

 insect life on human life is continuous. As 

 household pests, as carriers of disease, as 

 enemies of stores or crops, they are every day 

 being found to have an unexpected economic 

 importance. It is to the experts and the 

 collections of the ^Natural History Museum 

 that we have to turn for the requisite in- 

 formation, and unless the museum has an 

 adequate staff we turn in vain. The diffi- 

 culty in filling posts with suitable men is 

 partly financial. The present rate of pay for 

 assistants in the second class is from £150 to 

 £300, and in the first class from £300 to £500 

 a year, with a temporary war bonus. These 

 salaries — the " despair " of Professor Stanley 

 Gardiner, whose cogent letter we publish in 

 another column — are no longer sufficient to 

 attract or to retain men of the right attain- 

 ments, imless they happen to have private 

 means. The smallness of the staff and its 

 inevitable division into water-tight compart- 

 ments makes promotion slow and capricious. 

 These disadvantages are increased by an 



antique privilege of the principal trustee, who 

 nominates candidates for vacancies instead 

 of advertising for them. It has frequently 

 happened in the past that middle-aged medio- 

 crities have been brought in and placed over 

 the heads of the existing staff because of 

 their acquaintance with a group in which 

 some of the trustees are interested. The fact 

 is that the mode of governance of the Natural 

 History Museum is medieval. It should be 

 separated from Bloomsbury and placed imder 

 a body of trustees selected not because they 

 make a hobby of collecting bugs or butter- 

 flies, but because they have a wide knowledge 

 of the scientific purposes which it is the 

 business of the museum to subserve. — The 

 London Times. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



Geodesy, including Astronomic Ohservations, 



Gravity Measurements and Method of Least 

 .Squares. By George L. Hosmer. John 



Wiley and Sons. First edition, 1919, 377 



pages, 6X9, 115 cuts. 



This book is especially to be commended for 

 the skill shown in the selection of illustrations, 

 both photographs and drawings, and for the 

 excellence of arrangement and printing of the 

 text and tabular matter. These things con- 

 tribute substantially to the satisfaction and 

 comfort of the user. 



Still more is the book to be commended for 

 its positive qualities, which make it a distinct 

 and valuable addition to that part of the litera- 

 ture of geodesy which serves to carry informa- 

 tion and understanding from the extreme spe- 

 cialists who are developing the methods and 

 extending the knowledge in these fields, to the 

 students and the practising engineers who de- 

 sire to get a well-balanced view of the whole 

 field of geodesy quickly. The old well-known 

 matters are restated well in effective grouping. 

 The ideas, formulae and tables most needed by 

 the student and the practising engineer are 

 selected from the great mass of available ma- 

 terial with rare skill. The recent developments 

 in geodesy are shown in true perspective with 

 respect to old things, to a quite unusual extent 

 for a text-book. 



