NovEMBER 29, 1918] 
in chemistry ; ‘‘The Fusarian Wilt in China 
Asters,’’ in botany; or, ‘‘The Nature of 
Ionization of an Atom of Mineral Sul- 
phide’’ in physies ; to take a few of the sub- 
jects studied by those members admitted 
last year. But their general interest and 
value can not be gainsaid, nor ean their fit- 
ness for presentation as evidence of the abil- 
ity of the investigators for admission to the 
Sigma Xi Society be doubted. 
Next to the many big problems of labor, 
erying for scientific treatment, come ques- 
tions of industry. Industrial research is 
no new ‘thing in America and the develop- 
ment of industrial Germany has been due. 
to awarding governmental subsidies for 
chemical and other research workers. The 
Bell Telephone Company has had a re- 
search department for some forty years, ad- 
vancing from a small beginning to a great 
institution, employing hundreds of scien- 
tists and engineers. In a recent address, the 
director of the research laboratory of the 
General Electric Company, Mr. Whitney, 
urged the value of research work in uni- 
versities where the foundation for indus- 
trial advance can be well laid by trained 
workers. Dr. Steinmetz has urged many 
times the need of university training and 
has pointed out the fact that only because 
the demand for the results of scientific re- 
search has been so great that the universi- 
ties have not been able to supply the de- 
mand ‘the industries have had to enter the 
field of research themselves. He believes 
that some kinds of research can be best car- 
ried out by educational institutions, such 
as those requiring large amounts of time 
and attention, while others, requiring large 
amounts of material and power are better 
adapted to the industries. The latter also 
are more likely to limit the field of their in- 
vestigations to some particular problem, to 
seek to meet some particular competition 
SCIENCE 
529 
and to provide in some line a special effi- 
ciency. 
The National Research Council is to-day, 
through coordination of research work, 
offering to the government the results of 
scientific studies of various war problems. 
The council has been able to assign properly 
qualified men to the solution of special 
problems as they have arisen. They have 
already pointed out the shortage of men 
properly equipped for high-grade research 
work and that the industrial efficiency of 
this country at the close of the war may be 
hindered by the failure of the universities 
to turn out men so qualified. In England 
the need for industrial research has led to 
various kinds of industry combining to 
maintain laboratories in which certain 
evident problems may if possible be solved. 
The Rockefeller Institute for medical prob- 
lems and the Mellon Institute at Pittsburgh 
for the study of manufacturing operations 
are both splendid examples of the big re- 
turns that come from the application of 
pure science to problems of life and indus- 
try. In Professor Duncan’s ‘‘Chemistry of 
Commerce,’’ he says: 
Everywhere throughout America, wherever there 
is the smoke of a factory chimney, there are un- 
’ solved, exasperating, vitally important manufac- 
turing problems, problems in glass, porcelain, 
starch, tanning, paints, drugs, meats, iron, oil, 
metallurgical products, problems wherever man 
deals with substances. It seems clear that 
these problems can best be answered by combin- 
ing the practical knowledge and the large facilities 
of the factory with the new and special knowledge 
of the universities and by making this combination 
through young men who will find thereln success 
and opportunity. 
And what answer does Sigma Xi give to 
the call from industry for help in solving 
its insistent industrial problems? What 
work is going on in the chemical and phys- 
ical and engineering laboratories that will 
bring direct aid to the sorely perplexed 
