810 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIY. No. 1145 



appear as a new datum for whatever schemata we 

 offer of central mechanisms. The data for such 

 schemata have been so few that the diagrams were 

 easy to make but not of much significance. The 

 new ones if less easy to sketch will have more 

 meaning. 



Lucas had little patience with unfounded 

 speculation or with the elaboration of hypoth- 

 eses without any attempt to test them. But 

 that his thoughts were not limited to the direct 

 results of his experiments is shown by his 

 cautious but suggestive remarks on the pos- 

 sible application of his analysis of the Weden- 

 sky effect to inhibition in the central nervous 

 system, and again on the possible basis for an 

 explanation of reflex summation. His atti- 

 tude is expressed in these words: 



There is a tendency to attribute to the central 

 neurone and its connections properties which have 

 no basis in the direct observation of the simple 

 conducting tissues. It is our belief that the time 

 for such a procedure can only come when it has 

 been proved after repeated trial that there is no 

 explanation of central phenomena possible in 

 terms of properties revealed by the study of the 

 simple tissues. 



His sense of the immensity of the problems 

 which drew him on is shown in the conclusion 

 of his Croonian Lecture, in which he remarks 

 " we may now claim to have passed through 

 the first phase of ignorance, in which we 

 merely admitted that we did not know, and to 

 have reached the second phase of ignorance, in 

 which we are recognizing what precisely are 

 the points on which our want of knowledge is 

 most profound." The breadth of his outlook 

 on physiology is shown in two stimulating 

 articles on " The Evolution of Animal Func- 

 tion" published in 1909 in Science Progress. 



Thus he was a scientist combining rare 

 mechanical ingenuity and experimental skill 

 of the highest order with a wonderful grasp of 

 the crucial tests through which advance should 

 come and a broad philosophical view of the 

 truths he brought to light. But besides all 

 this he was a man of great personal charm and 

 nobility of character. His keen and delight- 

 ful sense of humor and his modest, friendly 

 personality made him a companion and friend 

 beloved by those about him. 



The spirit in which he left his absorbing 



career to play his part in the great fight for 

 liberty is reflected in a letter written in the 

 spring of 1915, an extract of which appears in 

 the Atlantic Monthly for October, 1916 (page 

 546). He was to have joined an artillery com- 

 pany, but on the very day he was to have been 

 sworn in he was sent for to carry on research 

 at the Boyal Aircraft Factory on devices for 

 the control of aeroplanes. He had already 

 perfected an aeroplane compass and was en- 

 gaged in similar experimental work when he 

 met his death in a flying accident. 



Alexander Forbes 

 Hakvakd Medical School 



INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH IN CANADA 



The Canadian government has appointed an 

 honorary advisory council on scientific and 

 industrial research to advise a committee of 

 the cabinet consisting of the ministers of trade 

 and commerce, interior, mines, inland revenue, 

 labor and agriculture, on all matters relating 

 to the extension and coordination of scientific 

 and industrial research, with a view to secur- 

 ing united effort and mutual cooperation be- 

 tween scientific workers and industrial con- 

 cerns, and to selecting the most practical and 

 pressing problems indicated by the industrial 

 necessities for submittal to research and other 

 institutions and individuals for solution. 



The members of this advisory council are: 

 Dr. A. Stanley Mackenzie, president of Dal- 

 housie University, Halifax, N". S.; Dr. Frank 

 D. Adams, dean of the faculty of applied sci- 

 ence, McGill University; Dr. B. F. Buttan, 

 professor of chemistry, McGill University, 

 Montreal ; Dr. J. C. McLennan, director of the 

 Fhysical Laboratories, University of Toronto; 

 Dr. A. B. Macallum, president of the Boyal 

 Society of Canada, University of Toronto; 

 Dr. "Walker Murray, president of the Univer- 

 sity of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon; Mr. Bobert 

 Hobson, president of the Steel Company of 

 Canada, Hamilton, Ont.; Mr. B. G. Boss, 

 consulting electrical engineer, Montreal; and 

 Tancrede Bienvenu, manager of La Banque 

 Provinciale, Montreal. 



The question of the cooperation .of the scien- 

 tific men and laboratories of the country with 

 the industrial concerns with a view to solving 



