March 7, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



241 



dustrial fati^e, having regard both to indus- 

 trial efficiency and to the preservatiou of 

 health among the workers." Grants are made 

 to aid researches undertaken by independent 

 bodies and also to individual students in re- 

 search work; in making them the council has 

 been guided by its knowledge of the quality 

 of the research work undertaken by the pro- 

 fessor or head of the department who recom- 

 mends the student. 



Ill referring on a previous occasion to the 

 work of this new department we expressed the 

 hope that though it was primarily established 

 to encourage the application of scientific re- 

 search to industrial methods, it might become 

 the rallying point of other scientific branches 

 subsidized by the government, eventually devel- 

 oping into an independent Ministry of Science. 

 These hopes have been realized to a consider- 

 able extent, and we find no evidence that the 

 department is regarded as a temporary ex- 

 pedient. Indeed, another step forward has' 

 been taken which we hardly dared to antici- 

 pate. The annual report of the department 

 contains a series of paragraphs relating to the 

 development of the organization of research 

 in the Overseas Dominions. The home de- 

 partment has been in close touch with the 

 Canadian Honorary Advisory Council for Sci- 

 entific and Industrial Research, which was 

 incorporated by a Canadian Act of Parliament 

 a year ago. This Canadian council has pro- 

 moted many valuable researches and inquiries, 

 some of which have already produced impor- 

 tant results. Again, in Australia, an Ad- 

 visory Council of Science and Industry has 

 been established, and has started a number of 

 investigations which have aroused the active 

 interest of manufacturers and others likely to 

 benefit by the systematic application of science 

 to industry. The New Zealand government 

 took initial steps to organize scientific and 

 industrial research as long ago as 1916, but 

 the matter does not there seem to have passed 

 beyond the stage of discussion. In South 

 Africa there is an Industries Advisorj' Board, 

 which deals not only with scientific and in- 

 dustrial research, but also with statistics of 

 production, factory legislation, the encourage- 



ment of industries, and the development of 

 natural resources. Finally, it is the intention 

 of the government of India to establish after 

 the war an Industrial Board and Department, 

 which will succeed the Indian Munitions 

 Board and extend its sphere of operations. As 

 the chairman of that board has pointed out, 

 munitions for a modem army cover practically 

 all the wants of the civil community. It is also 

 to be noted that a National Research Council 

 was established in the United States of Amer- 

 ica in 1916, imder the auspices of the National 

 Academy of Sciences, and largely through the 

 initiative of its president. Dr. Welch, and of 

 Professor Hale. This council, as we have 

 shown on previous occasions, did much val- 

 uable preparatory work before America en- 

 tered the war, and since then it has so grown 

 in usefulness and power that President Wilson 

 has issued an executive order putting it upon 

 a permanent basis. 



The letter in which the Lord President, 

 Lord Curzon of Kedleston, presents the report 

 of the British Advisory Council to the King 

 in Council, concludes as follows : " The founda- 

 tions of a national system of scientific research 

 are being truly laid. In the final structure 

 as they (the Advisor>' Council) are planning 

 it, the universities and technical colleges, the 

 learned societies and the industries will be 

 found taking their due place; not in subordi- 

 nation to the state, as our enemies like to see 

 them, but working together for the common 

 good in helpful cooperation." 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



THE RELATION OF THE SECTOR OPENING OF 

 THE SECTOR PHOTOMETER TO THE EX- 

 TINCTION COEFFICIENT 



In determining absorptions with a spectro- 

 graph and sector photometer it is necessary to 

 know the relation existing between the sector 

 opening and the extinction coefficient. If the 

 two beams whose intensities are to be equal- 

 ized by interposed sectors be donated by 7 and 

 r respectively, then 



mji = e 

 defines e as the extinction coefficient of the 



