Septembee 13, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



359 



The Royal Botanic Society has received a 

 legacy of about $1,000 from the estate of Mr. 

 Edward Baker, of The Cedars, Clapham-com- 

 mon, for thirty-six years a fellow of the 

 society. 



Dr. a. Graham Bell has erected at his 

 place at Baddeck, N. S., a tower, eighty feet 

 in height, built of the tetrahedral cells which 

 he invented to secure great strength and light- 

 ness in the construction of kites. The engi- 

 neer was Mr. F. W. Baldwin, of Toronto. It 

 is said that the tower weighs less than five 

 tons and will carry a weight of 50,000 pounds. 



Am electrical exhibition has been held in 

 Montreal, commencing on September 2, and 

 from September 11 to 13 the Canadian Elec- 

 trical Association meets in that city. 



The employees of the Pennsylvania Rail- 

 road, numbering 198,000, are to be given a 

 course of practical instruction in first aid to 

 the injured. For this purpose a series of 

 lectures will be delivered at various points 

 along the lines under the direction of the 

 company's medical examiner. 



Nature states that two sums, each of 2501., 

 have been received by the Institution of Me- 

 chanical Engineers from the Metropolitan 

 Water Board and the chairman of the Court 

 of Arbitration (under the Metropolitan Water' 

 Act, 1902), which the donors desire to be used 

 for some engineering purpose connected with 

 the institution. The council have invested 

 the amount — 500L — in a trustee security, the 

 income from which they have decided, after 

 consultation with Sir Edward Fry, shall be 

 offered biennially for a paper submitted in 

 accordance with prescribed conditions. It has 

 been further decided that the prize shall be 

 known as the " Water Arbitration Prize," and 

 shall be offered for a paper on an engineering 

 subject to be announced by the council one 

 year before the time for sending in the papers. 

 The prize, which will have a value of approxi- 

 mately 30Z., will take any form which the 

 council may from time to time decide. 



Nature says: As illustrating further the 

 want of sympathy with scientific research 

 shown by the Indian administrative authori- 



ties, to which Professor Ronald Ross, F.R.S., 

 directed attention in an exhaustive article 

 contributed to our issue of June 13, an In- 

 dian correspondent writes concerning the rules 

 of the India Ofiice regulating the supply of 

 apparatus to government colleges. Accord- 

 ing to these rules, our correspondent states, 

 any piece of apparatus of European manu- 

 facture — costing more than 31. Is. — can only 

 be obtained by requisitioning through the sec- 

 retary of state. Requisitions are prepared 

 once a year, and, as a rule, eighteen months 

 elapse between writing a demand and the 

 arrival of the apparatus. It is nearly im- 

 possible to foresee everything that may be 

 required during the prosecution of a research, 

 and it happens sometimes that a man of 

 science must wait three years for necessary 

 material. The reasonable contention is made 

 that professors in India should be permitted 

 to spend their laboratory funds themselves 

 and to deal with manufacturers direct. It is 

 surely not taking too much for granted to 

 suppose that men in responsible positions, who 

 presumably have been selected for their posts 

 with great care, may be trusted to administer 

 their funds honestly and to the best advan- 

 tage of the institutions with which they are 

 connected. The system of having to requisi- 

 tion scientific instruments and materials a 

 year or more in advance is not confined to 

 India, and it is both discouraging to scientific 

 work and wasteful in practise. 



Mr. Francis Fremantle, late plague medi- 

 cal officer in the Punjab writes as follows in 

 the London Times : " For nine years," says 

 Lord Curzon, " the Government of India has 

 conducted an unrelenting campaign against 

 the plague ... by every method, in fine, that 

 science or experience could suggest." As 

 one of the officers employed in that cam- 

 paign I venture to say that " science " will re- 

 pudiate the statement. We know the difficul- 

 ties were immense and that the Indian govern- 

 ment did all that occurred to them to do. But, 

 like all governments, they failed to realize 

 that the scientific method of preventing disease 

 is founded on exact knowledge, obtainable only 

 by research. No one knew how plague was 



