Januaby 4, 1918] 



SCIENCE 



21 



German air-nitrate factories are situated. A 

 process has been discovered by which nearly 

 twice the usual amount of ozokerite can be 

 obtained from lignite, and the gas is being 

 more extensively used for heating and smelt- 

 ing purposes. 



Nature reports that one of the great cap- 

 tains of industry of Scotland has specially 

 organized and equipped an engineering factory 

 for the employment exclusively of educated 

 women of good social standing instead of the 

 usual woman factory worker, and with the 

 fixed determination to carry on operations 

 permanently under those conditions, the work 

 to be taken up being that associated with the 

 manufacture of internal-combustion motors. 

 There is a fully illustrated account of the new 

 factory in Engineering for November 9, from 

 which it appears that it has some of the salient 

 feature of a technical college combined with 

 practical work in the factory, which gives that 

 stimulus to study not realizable in the labora- 

 tory of a collie. The factory is situated in 

 the south of Scotland amidst beautiful scenery, 

 so that students of botany and of wild-life 

 generally can have full opportunity of pur- 

 suing their hobby. All the accessories which 

 are now placed \mder the wide term " welfare " 

 have been adopted to the fullest extent. 

 Highly trained lecturers conduct classes at the 

 works; these are compulsory. Entrants re- 

 ceive 20s. per week during the probationary 

 period of six weeks; they then decide whether 

 or not they intend to pursue the engineering 

 career. If such be the case, and they are con- 

 sidered suitable, an apprenticeship agreement 

 is entered into, and the wages become 25s. per 

 week. Examinations are held at six months' 

 intervals, and each " pass " means an increase 

 of 5s. per week. It is evident that the whole 

 scheme provides for women the opportunity of 

 prosecuting an engineering career under the 

 most favorable and stimulating conditions, and 

 that the conditions are those best calculated 

 for women of good education and social stand- 

 ing to attain a broad experience of engineer- 

 ing science and practise. 



We learn from the British Medical Journal 

 that the Army Council has issued an instruc- 

 tion providing that students who at the time 



of their enlistment (whether they enlisted 

 voluntarily or were called up under the mili- 

 tary service acts) were actively engaged in 

 medical studies and had completed the second 

 year of their professional course, are, if elig- 

 ible, and they so desire, to be transferred to 

 the reserve, or discharged if ineligible for 

 transfer to the reserve, for the purpose of re- 

 suming their studies with a view to obtaining 

 a medical qualification. For the purpose of 

 this instruction a man who had on or before 

 enlistment completed two years of medical 

 study, and who can within thirty-six months 

 complete his professional curriculum and ob- 

 tain his medical degree or license, is to be 

 regarded as a third-year medical student. Stu- 

 dents who do not pass the professional ex- 

 amination in anatomy and physiology within 

 six months of resuming study will be recalled 

 to the colors, and a student transferred to the 

 reserve, unless he resimies his medical studies 

 and enrolls in an Officers' Training Corps, will 

 be recalled. Any third-year medical student 

 who is desirous of being released from the 

 colors under this instruction must apply 

 through the usual channels, stating the date 

 on which he desires to be released, and that he 

 undertakes to resume his studies with a view 

 to obtaining a medical qualification. A 

 similar difficulty is being met in a different 

 way in France. Owing to the prolongation of 

 the war the supply of newly qualified men is 

 drying up; casualties among medical officers 

 have been numerous, the medical service in 

 this respect coming next after the infantry. 

 The French mobilization scheme provided that 

 a medical student in a certain stage of the 

 curriculum, reached usually at the end of the 

 second year, should, when called up, be ap- 

 pointed mcdecin auxiliaire, a grade unknown 

 in the Britsh army, but corresponding with 

 that of surgeon probationer in the Royal Navy, 

 which itself is the revival of the old grade of 

 surgeon's mate. The case of medical students 

 who have not advanced so far has recently en- 

 gaged the attention of the Ministers of War 

 and of Education, and of the General Staff, 

 with the result that arrangements have been 

 made by which medical students from the 

 ranks may attend special courses of lectures 



