November 2, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



427 



similar system, tlieir atomic weights should 

 be as follows : 



There is here again the remarkable fact 

 that with one exception these are the atomic 

 weights of the odd-numbered elements. 

 The general formula for the odd-numbered 

 elements may be expressed as nHe' + H3'. 

 From the numerical standpoint it will be 

 seen that the system here proposed corre- 

 sponds to the foi'mulas found for the 

 atomic weights by Eydberg in 1897. He 

 found that most of the atomic weights can 

 be expressed by 2m or 2m — ■ 1, where m is a 

 whole number. 



The proposed structure for the 26 ele- 

 ments of low atomic number is presented 

 in Table III. While it is not meant that 

 in every minute detail this table is neces- 

 sarily correct, verj^ strong evidence has 

 been found for its validity as a general re- 

 lationship. William D. Harkins 

 University op Chicago 



(To be continued) 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



CHEMICALS AND WAR IN ENGLAND 



Professor W. J. Pope, addressing a meeting 

 of teachers at the Regent-street Polytechnic 

 on October 6, according to a report in the 

 London Times, said that Germany prepared 

 for war by the establishment of a huge chem- 

 ical industry, which was built up about the 

 coal-tar industrj% and then by exporting a 

 very large proportion of the world's require- 

 ments of coal-tar colors, and pharmaceutical 

 and photographic products. 



That success was achieved in spite of the 



fact that England once possessed the whole 

 of the heavy chemical industry of the world. 

 We formerly produced practically all the 

 nitric and sulphuric acids, and the greater 

 part of the alkali used throughout the world. 

 That had been taken from us as the result of 

 Germany's foresight and exploitation of sci- 

 entific ability. The coal-tar industry was 

 established originally in this country. Until 

 ten years ago Germany was practically de- 

 pendent on us for crude coal-tar, and for the 

 simpler first products separated from coal-tar. 

 Alluding to the establishment of the depart- 

 ment for scientific and industrial research 

 with an endowment of £1,000,000, Professor 

 Pope said: The question we want answered is 

 why that experiment was not made twenty 

 years ago, at a time when it would have beer* 

 undoubtedly successful in preventing the 

 horrors of the last three years? We have suf- 

 fered in the past from the exclusively British 

 method of making the specialist entirely sub- 

 servient to the administrator, the adminis- 

 trator being generally chosen because he is 

 available, because he is politically acceptable, 

 and because he knows nothing whatever about 

 the subject which is to be administered and is 

 therefore not likely to be prejudiced by any 

 previous convictions. That process of ap- 

 pointing someone who knows nothing, to 

 supervise the work of some one who does know 

 how to do the job, seems to have been at the 

 bottom of a great many of our misfortunes in 

 the past. 



Even in 1915 the government applied this 

 same method to reestablish the coal-tar in- 

 dustry in this country. An organization was 

 established in which all the people in control 

 were men who knew nothing whatever about 

 chemistry or science, and naturally enough 

 the government organization has proved not 

 only a great failure, but has had the further 

 effect of inhibiting the reestablishment of the 

 coal-tar industi-y. That is to say, the organi- 

 zation apparently was to do everything that 

 was necessary, and consequently private effort 

 was to a considerable extent hampered, and 

 could not get on with the imjwrtant problem 

 of reestablishing this fine chemical industrv. 



