440 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1135 



our leaders in science have done all that 

 lay in their power to awaken the country 

 to the inevitable and deplorable results of 

 this form of "sleeping sickness," but 

 hitherto their reception has been much the 

 same as that accorded to the hero of "The 

 Pilgrim's Progress," as depicted in the fol- 

 lowing passage: 



' ' He went on thus, even until he came at 

 a bottom where he saw, a little out of the 

 way, three Men fast asleep with Fetters 

 upon their heels. ' ' 



"The name of the one was Simple, an- 

 other Sloth, and the third Presumption." 



' ' Christian, then seeing them in this case, 

 went to them, if peradventure he might 

 awaken them. And cried, You are like 

 them that sleep on the top of a Mast, for 

 the Dead Sea is under you, a Gulf that hath 

 no bottom. Awake therefore and come 

 away; be willing also, and I will help you 

 off with your irons. He also told them, If 

 he that goeth about like a Roaring Lion 

 comes by, you well certainly become a prey 

 to his teeth. ' ' 



"With that they lookt upon him, and 

 began to reply in this sort: Simple said, 

 I see no danger; Sloth said, Yet a little 

 more sleep; and Presumption said, Every 

 Vat must stand upon his own oottom. And 

 they lay down to sleep again, and Christian 

 went on his way." 



I believe that a brighter day is dawning, 

 and that, if only we rise to the occasion now, 

 chemistry in this country will attain the 

 position of importance which is its due. 

 Meantime it is of no avail to lament lost 

 opportunities or to indulge in unprofitable 

 recrimination ; on the contrary, it should be 

 our business to find a remedy for the "ar- 

 rested development" of our chemical indus- 

 try, and the task of establishing remedial 

 measures should be taken in hand by the 

 state, the universities and the chemical 

 manufacturers themselves. As regards 



another very large group of interested per- 

 sons, the consumers of chemical products, 

 or in other words the nation as a whole, it 

 is surely not too much to expect that they 

 have been taught by the course of events 

 since the outbreak of the war the folly of 

 depending solely upon foreign and possibly 

 hostile manufacturers, even although fiscal 

 and other advantages may enable the alien 

 to undersell the home producer. Consider- 

 ing that the future prosperity of the empire 

 depends largely upon the well-being of its 

 chemical industries, it is simply suicidal to 

 permit these to be crippled or even crushed 

 out of existence by competition on unequal 

 terms. 



The government has taken a most signif- 

 icant step in advance by appointing an ad- 

 visory council for scientific and industrial 

 research and providing it with funds ; inci- 

 dentally, in so doing, it has recognized the 

 past failure of the state' to afford adequate 

 support to scientific work. The advisory 

 council has lost no time in getting to work 

 and has already taken steps to allocate 

 grants in support of a number of investiga- 

 tions of first-rate importance to industry. 

 In order to be in a position to do justice to 

 the branches of industry concerned in pro- 

 posed researches which have been submitted 

 by institutions and individuals it has de- 

 cided to appoint standing committees of 

 experts and has already constituted strong 

 committees in mining, metallurgy and in 

 engineering; a committee in chemistry will 

 no doubt be appointed in due course. The 

 council also makes the gratifying intimation 

 that the training of an adequate supply of 

 research workers will be an important part 

 of its work. 



It is safe to prophesy that the money ex- 

 pended by the advisory council will sooner 

 or later yield a goodly return, and this 

 justifies the hope that the government will 

 not rest satisfied with their achievement, 



