August 30, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



'AS 



reports are always of the deepest interest for 

 both the geologist and the orographer. The 

 Count Llitke medal was awarded to M. E. 

 Zhdanko for his extensive geodetical and hy- 

 drographical works in the far North, the Sem- 

 enoff medal to J. A. Kersnovsky for work in 

 meteorology, and the Prjevalski medal to the 

 Tomsk professor, V. V. Sapozhnikoff, whose 

 explorations of the Altai highlands revealed 

 hundreds of unknown glaciers, as well as 

 widely-spread traces of glaciation, and threw 

 much new light on the geography of the whole 

 region. These researches are now embodied in 

 a work, ' The Katun, and its Sources ' (with 

 maps and a summary in French). 



The Society of Chemical Industry held its 

 annual meeting at Glasgow at the end of July. 

 The secretary reported that the society was in 

 the most prosperous condition, there being now 

 3,632 members. The president, Mr. J. Wilson 

 Swan, chose as the subject of his address 'Elec- 

 tro-chemical Industry.' According to the ab- 

 stract in the London Times he traced the prog- 

 ress of this branch of applied science from the 

 early laboratory researches of Davy and Fara- 

 day down to the position it occupied at the pres- 

 ent time. He gave particulars of the power 

 at present utilized and products made in the 

 150 works using electricity for chemical and 

 metallurgical purposes in Europe, and described 

 the methods employed in the several branches 

 of manufacture. In several instances the new 

 methods of manufacture had already supplanted 

 the old, while in others there was keen compe- 

 tition between the chemical and the electrolytic 

 processes. Turning to the future, Mr. Swan 

 pointed out that the united kingdom was 

 severely handicapped as regards these new de- 

 velopments by her lack of water-power. In 

 spite of this, however, many of the new electro- 

 chemical industries could be carried on prof- 

 itably with steam-power. The utilization of 

 the waste gases of blast furnaces in large gas- 

 engines for the generation of electrical energy 

 would also become a realized fact, and would 

 supply large quantities of cheap power for the 

 industries under discussion. While, therefore, 

 admitting that the position of the staple chem- 

 ical and allied industries in England had 

 been undermined to some extent by the rapid 



growth of electro-chemical industries abroad, 

 and that protective tariffs were being em- 

 ployed to shut out British products, Mr. 

 Swan believed the future might be faced 

 with some degree of confidence and hope. 

 Speaking in one of the lecture theaters of a 

 great university, whose long and splendid ser- 

 vices to education has lately been commemo- 

 rated, he could not but congratulate Scotland 

 and the Scottish section of the society on the 

 very advantageous position it occupied in that 

 respect. In England and Ireland they were 

 suffering acutely from dire educational neglect 

 and destitution. They were giving to the classes 

 at the bottom of the industrial ladder a dis- 

 jointed smattering of miscellaneous science of 

 no great value, though probably good so far as 

 it went, while they were neglecting to thor- 

 oughly educate those upon whose shoulders 

 would soon rest the weight of the management 

 of the great manufacturing industries. A sci- 

 entific training of university standard for our 

 manufacturers and for our technical chiefs was 

 an absolute necessity. One of the most press- 

 ing requirements of the moment, demanded 

 not only in the interest of chemical industry, 

 but in that of the manufacturing industries gen- 

 erally, was the adequate endowment and en- 

 couragement of research. The advances in 

 knowledge, and the consequent revolutionary 

 changes that had taken place in almost every 

 branch of chemical industry during the last 100 

 years were probably not greater than those 

 further changes that would be seen at the end 

 of the present century, for change brought 

 about by scientific discovery grew ever swifter 

 and more sweeping. Change was the natural 

 order of things ; but, to take advantage of it, 

 the fullest measure of assistance was demanded 

 that education and energy could give. 



Mr. W. H. Maw recently delivered his 

 presidential address before the members of the 

 British Institution of Mechanical Engine 3rs. 

 Dealing with the question of the education of 

 young mechanical engineers, he said, according 

 to the London Times, that nothing was more 

 disheartening to a student than to find at some 

 stage in his career that he had been devoting 

 time to learning things which were not only 

 useless to him, but which it was desirable he 



