JuiT 1, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



27 



headache, a sense of fulness in the head, with 

 a clouding to a slight extent of the mental 

 processes. When the doses are increased to 

 -3 grams a day these symptoms are established 

 in a majority of the cases but not in every 

 case. They are also sometimes attended by a 

 very distinct feeling of nausea and occasion- 

 ally by vomiting, though the latter act is 

 rarely established. There is a general feeling 

 of discomfort, however, in almost every case, 

 but the quantities required to establish these 

 symptoms vary greatly with different indi- 

 viduals. In some cases very large quantities 

 may be taken without the establishment of 

 marked symptoms, while in other cases from 

 1 to 2 grams per day serve to produce in a 

 short time feeling-s of discomfort and distress. 

 No conclusions were reached in regard to 

 smaller quantities than half a gram per day 

 of the preservative, and, therefore, any state- 

 ments in regard to the administration of 

 smaller quantities must be based largely upon 

 the results obtained with the quantities ac- 

 tually employed. It is reasonable to infer that 

 bodies of this kind not natural to nor neces- 

 sary in foods which exert a marked injurious 

 effect, when used in large quantities for short 

 periods of time, would have a tendency to 

 produce an injurious effect when used in small 

 quantities for a long time. The general course 

 of reasoning, therefore, would seem to indicate 

 that it is not advisable to use borax in those 

 articles of food intended for common and 

 continuous use. When placed in food products 

 which are used occasionally and in small quan- 

 tities it seems only right, in view of the above 

 summary of facts, to require that the quantity 

 and character of the preservative, that is, 

 whether borax or boric acid, be plainly marked 

 so that the consumer may understand the 

 nature of the food he is eating. 



LABORATORIES FOR BOTANICAL 

 RESEARCH.* 

 The publicity given to the opening cere- 

 monials of the' new science laboratories at 

 Cambridge by the king and queen on March 1 

 will, it may be hoped, do something to rouse 

 those who are responsible for the welfare of the 

 * From Nature. 



nation to a wider sense of their duties. The 

 time has surely passed when the remarks of a 

 well-known prelate and of a prime minister, 

 to the effect that they were born in a pre-scien- 

 tific era, could be received, if not with overt 

 applause, at least with sneaking sympathy. 



Sluggish as we are, some progress has been 

 made. Up to the middle of the last century, 

 and for some time after, there was scarcely a 

 botanical laboratory properly so called in the 

 whole country. Now we have the Jodrell 

 Laboratory at Kew, a very modest institution 

 when compared with the necessities of the case 

 or to the excellent equipment of other depart- 

 ments of this great national establishment. 

 The Jodrell Laboratory is not intended for in- 

 structional purposes, but chiefly for study and 

 research, and much good work has been done 

 there. 



At Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin, 

 at University College, London, the Royal Col- 

 lege of Science, and in many other univer- 

 sities, agricultural colleges and technical insti- 

 tutes, there are now more or less well-equipped 

 laboratories under competent direction. But 

 these are mainly for the instruction of students. 

 Eeseareh laboratories are still rare, and those 

 willing and competent to utilize them are also 

 few in number. This condition of affairs is 

 largely due to the indifference and lack of en- 

 couragement on the part of those who ought to 

 know better. The cui bono question is ever in 

 their minds, and much too frequently on their 

 lips. Abstract science does not appeal to their 

 sympathies, or to their intelligence, unless 

 some immediate practical result at once comes 

 into view. When that happens the commercial 

 instinct may perchance be aroused, and they 

 begin to ask, will it pay ? Of course, no reader 

 of this journal is likely to undervalue abstract 

 science, and most of them are well aware of 

 the enormous value of the practical results 

 that may and do result from it. But even 

 s\ich persons must have been startled to find 

 how the observations of Bower and others on 

 the minute anatomy of the prothallus and 

 spore-producing tissues of ferns, observations 

 which might have been thought to be too ab- 

 struse and recondite to be of any practical 

 value whatever, have directly led up to the 



