January 12, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



39 



Stable relations between various research 

 organizations will be worth while only if some 

 mutual benefits can accrue. These can be 

 brought about by an exchange or interchange 

 of " commodities," such as — • 



(a) Subjects for research. 



(&) Special facilities for extraordinary con- 

 ditions, such as extreme pressures, extremes of 

 temperatures, etc. 



(c) Special pieces of expensive apparatus. 



(d) Helpful ideas on research already in 

 progress. 



(e) Candidates for employment. 



This presupposes a freedom from the secrecy 

 which still surrounds the industrial research 

 of certain organizations. Undue secrecy is 

 unnecessary and unwise, but it is only in those 

 cases where publicity is compatible with indus- 

 trial progress that full cooperation between 

 the universities and the industries can be 

 effected. 



A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF INVESTIGATIONAL 

 ACTIVITIES 



This study would be distinctly worth while, 

 but before the initiation of such a movement 

 there must first be established more mutual 

 confidence than now exists. A comparative 

 study of this kind would be very difficult and 

 would necessitate the expenditure of much 

 time. Probably such information could be 

 secured by obtaining the reports regarding the 

 industrial research laboratories in operation, 

 and there is no reason why a suitable ques- 

 tionnaire could not be prepared and distrib- 

 uted, in order to obtain information regard- 

 ing research conditions and comparative data 

 relating to the organizations maintaining labo- 

 ratories. 



It would be very useful indeed to have 

 available a yearbook pertaining to research 

 laboratories, with the following lines of infor- 

 mation : institutions, organizations or concerns 

 supporting them, approximate purpose of labo- 

 ratory, divisions of science represented therein, 

 manufacturing facilities directly associated 

 therewith, approximate annual expenditure for 

 maintenance of research, number of and par- 

 ticulars relating to the training of the mem- 



bers of the investigatory staff, and, finally, a 

 list of the scientific publications for the past 

 year. Such a book might also advantageously 

 include mention of the special equipment of 

 the laboratories unlikely to be possessed by 

 every similar institution. 



The !N"ational Research Council, through its . 

 committee on research in educational institu- 

 tions, could well arrange to have some one 

 whose sole duty it was to coordinate the work 

 in university laboratories with reference to 

 general or national welfare. While any at- 

 tempt which may be made by a national soci- 

 ety or association to secure cooperation be- 

 tween industrial and institutional laboratories 

 will invariably encounter the difficulty of in- 

 vested interests, an organization with govern- 

 mental support might accomplish much fruit- 

 ful research work through institutions of learn- 

 ing and in such a way that this would be of 

 material benefit to the institutions concerned, 

 as well as to the nation. 



E. F. Bacon, 



Chairman, 

 C. E. K. Mees, 

 W. H. Walker, 

 M. C. Whitaker, 

 W. R. Whitney 

 Pittsburgh, Pa., 

 December 15, 1916 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



THE CONTROL OF TUBERCULOSIS IN FRANCE 



Governor Whitman, of New York, has 

 granted Dr. Hermann M. Biggs, state health 

 commissioner, leave of absence to go to France, 

 at the request of the Rockefeller Foundation, 

 to conduct an organized campaign to combat 

 the spread of tuberculosis among noncombat- 

 ants. In a letter to Governor Whitman, Mr. 

 Jerome D. Greene, secretary of the foundation, 

 wrote : 



For some time past our representatives ia 

 France have been much impressed by the need of 

 effective measures for the relief and control of 

 tuberculosis. A number of voluntary American 

 agencies in Prance have exerted themselves with 

 great zeal to arouse the sympathy of the American 

 public and to do what could be done to provide 

 hospital care for the more urgent cases that have 



