October 20, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



515 



QUOTATIONS 



A LABORATORY FOR EUGENICS 



We publisli this morning, and commend 

 heartily to our readers, a very cogent appeal 

 issued by the Francis Galton Laboratory 

 .Committee with the approval of the senate of 

 the University of London, and signed by Lord 

 Eosebery, the chancellor. Sir William Collins, 

 the vice-chancellor, Sir Edvrard Busk, the 

 chairman of convocation, Dr. Miers, the prin- 

 cipal, and other members of the committee, 

 asking for contributions towards a sum of 

 £15,000 which is required in order to build the 

 Galton Laboratory for eugenics. It will be 

 remembered that the late Sir Francis Galton 

 bequeathed the residue of his estate, amount- 

 ing to about £45,000, to the university for the 

 purpose of encouraging the study of National 

 Eugenics, and that he expressed his hope that 

 the university would see fit to preserve the 

 capital wholly or almost wholly intact, not en- 

 croaching materially upon it for cost of build- 

 ing, fittings or library. This wish has been 

 strictly respected, and the work of Professor 

 Karl Pearson and his assistants has been con- 

 ducted under great disadvantages in rooms 

 wholly unsuited for the purpose, although 

 with a vigor and eificiency of which ample evi- 

 dence has been afforded by some of the con- 

 troversies to which it has already given origin. 

 The scheme now put forward on the part of 

 the committee would provide a building ade- 

 quate at least for present needs, on land given 

 for the purpose by the university, and would 

 provide for the safe stowage and the ready ac- 

 cessibility of the numerous pedigrees and other 

 records which are being accumulated in excess 

 of the power of examining and applying them. 

 The committee point out in their appeal that 

 future legislation is likely to deal largely with 

 social problems, and declare it to be essential 

 that the statistical facts on which such legis- 

 lation may be based shall be analyzed in a 

 purely scientific manner by workers who can 

 give time and energy to investigation, quite 

 independently of any ulterior end or party 

 bias; and they are able to declare that a wide 

 interpretation has already been placed upon 

 Sir Francis Galton's recorded wish that the 

 laboratory " should provide information, under 



appropriate restrictions, to private individuals 

 and to public authorities." They tell us that 

 they are at present in possession of material, 

 received from educational and health authori- 

 ties in all parts of the country, which alone 

 would afford three or four years of continuous 

 labor for the existing staff, and the bulk ot 

 which has direct bearing upon the most im- 

 portant social and national problems of the 

 day. — London Times. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 Hygiene and Public Health. By Louis 0. 

 Parkes, M.D., D.P.H., and Henry E. Ken- 

 wood, M.B., F.E.S. Edinburgh, D.P.H. 

 London. Philadelphia, P. Blakiston's Son 

 & Co. 1911. 8vo. Pp. 691. Fourth edi- 

 tion with 86 illustrations. 

 The fourth edition under the conjoint au- 

 thorship of this work which had previously 

 run through five editions has been carefully 

 revised and brought up to date and will meet 

 the needs of the practitioner and student in a 

 most satisfactory manner. The book contains 

 thirteen chapters, and treats in a very com- 

 prehensive manner the following subjects: 



(I) Water, (2) The Collection, Eemoval and 

 Disposal of Excretal and other Eefuse, (3) 

 Air and Ventilation, (4) Warming and Light- 

 ing, (5) Soils and Building Sites, (6) Climate 

 and Meteorology, (7) Exercise and Clothing, 

 (8) Food, Beverages and Condiments, (9) The 

 Contagia-Communicable Diseases and their 

 Prevention — Hospitals, (10) School Hygiene, 



(II) Disinfection, (12) Statistics, (13) Sani- 

 tary Law and Administration. 



In the chapter on Water we note with ap- 

 proval the authors' comments on " domestic 

 filters, which are probably more often a source 

 of pollution of the water than otherwise. It 

 is usually considered that a filter requires no 

 attention; it is consequently but rarely 

 cleaned; the filtering material is seldom re- 

 newed and its pores become clogged with pu- 

 trescible organic matter, which form a suit- 

 able nidus for the growth and development 

 of living organisms which contaminate the 

 filtered water. It is not unusual under such 

 circumstances to find a considerably larger 

 proportion of organic matter in the filtered 



