534 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL VI. No. 1196 



Brazil, and in Ceylon and Siam of the Far 

 East. 



Four experiments in malaria control were 

 carried out during 1916 at different points in 

 the Lower Mississippi River Valley. In each 

 a different line of investigation vras pursued, 

 the object being to discover a practical method 

 of control which the average rural community 

 could afford. 



An experiment was conducted under the 

 administration of the Mississippi Department 

 of Health, with Dr. W. S. Leathers as ad- 

 ministrative director and Dr. C. C. Bass of 

 Tulane University as scientific director. The 

 practicability of control through detecting the 

 carriers and freeing them of the malaria par- 

 asites was tested. The experiment covered 

 225 square miles of territory, the size of the 

 communities varying from nine to sixteen 

 square miles, with an average population of 

 1,000. Adjoining communities were taken 

 up, one after another, as facilities permitted, 

 the work in each lasting about four weeks 

 with subsequent visits to insure thorough- 

 ness. Blood tests were taken, quinine treat- 

 ment was given to those found infected. The 

 experiment will be continued in 1917. 



THE BRITISH COMMITTEE FOR SCIENTIFIC 

 AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH 



The second annual report of the Commit- 

 tee of the Privy Council for Scientific and 

 Industrial Research for the year 1916-17 has 

 been published. According to an article in 

 Nature it consists of an introductory state- 

 ment by Lord Curzon, as lord president of 

 the privy council, the report of the Advisory 

 Council, signed by Sir William McCormick 

 and Sir Frank Health, and appendices giving 

 orders in council, terms of the imperial trust, 

 dociunents relating to research associations, 

 and names of members of committees at- 

 tached to the department of scientific and 

 industrial research. Lord Curzon points out 

 in his introduction that the foundation of the 

 department led to the creation of the im- 

 perial trust for the encouragement of scien- 

 tific and industrial research. 



The trust holds on behalf of the depart- 

 ment the sum of one million sterling which 



Parliament has voted for the purposes of the 

 department. The negotiations of the ad- 

 visory council with the leading manufacturers 

 in the various industries showed that it would 

 not be possible to develop systematic research 

 on a large scale unless the government were 

 in the position to assist financially over an 

 agreed period of years. These considerations 

 led the government to place a fund at the 

 disposal of the privy council committee to be 

 spent over a period of five or sis years af- 

 forded the best means of dealing with the 

 problem. Dioring the past year negotiations 

 have been concluded with the Royal Society 

 for the transfer of the property of the Na- 

 tional Physical Laboratory, together with the 

 responsibility for its maintenance and devel- 

 opment, to the department of scientific and 

 industrial research. The scientific manage- 

 ment of the laboratory will remain in the 

 hands of the executive committee under the 

 chairmanship of Lord Rayleigh, a member of 

 the advisory council. 



The committee reported last year that 

 grants had been approved to a number of in- 

 dividual students and research workers for 

 the year 1916-17 to an amount not exceeding 

 6000Z. The amount actually expended under 

 this head, however, was not more than 3550L 

 upon thirty-six workers. Throughout the 

 work has suffered in amount owing to the 

 war, and the committee was unable to expend 

 more than 14,524L out of the 40,000Z. placed 

 at its disposal by Parliament for the financial 

 year 1916-17. During the current year a 

 sum of 38,050Z. was taken in the estimates, 

 in addition to the fund of a million referred 

 to already. The annual vote is intended to 

 cover (a) the cost of those researches which 

 will not be undertaken by the proposed re- 

 search associations; (6) the grants to indi- 

 vidual research workers, both students and 

 others; and (c) the cost of administration. 



The report says: 



The one question of policy, to wliich throughout 

 the year we have continuously devoted our atten- 

 tion, is the working out, with all the care and ad- 

 vice we have been able to command, of the policy 

 of cooperative industrial research foreshadowed 

 in our last report. Lord Crewe, who was at that 



