ar mee 8 Se 
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
It is beyond question that the immediate duty of the Commonwealth 
at this time is production, and it is a wise policy which endeavours 
to insure that all the resources of science shall be applied to industry, 
so that production may be raised to, and maintained at, its highest level. 
It is, however, much more important that the human factor shall 
be carefully studied, that, in producing wealth, the worker shall not 
lose health. Better a healthy people than a wealthy people, if a choice 
were necessary. And, as things stand to-day, there is not the study of 
the nation’s health that there might be; there is not the concerted 
scientific investigation of causes of ill-health and death that there 
should be; and there is a magnificent opportunity for a broad policy of 
the preservation of health along modern, well-established lines. 
Hepburn Springs Radio-Active. 
An. Interesting Discovery. 
The Hepburn Springs near Daylesford, in Victoria, have been proved 
to be radio-active. For many years these springs have enjoyed a 
considerable reputation for their curative qualities, so it seemed not at 
all unlikely that one day they would be found to possess radio-active 
powers, like the waters of Bath and Buxton, in England. 
Some evidence in this direction was recently obtained by means of 
radiograph tests carried out by Mr. James Macdonald, the managing 
-director, and Mr. Lees, the works manager, of Hepburn Spa Proprietary 
Limited. The question has now been settled conclusively by Professor 
Masson and Mr. G. Ampt, who have proved by a standard electrical 
method that the gas evolved from the spring, and therefore necessarily 
the water which carries the gas in solution, is notably radio-active. 
They intend to carry out a more detailed investigation of the gas, the 
water, and the dissolved salts, but the results already obtained point 
without doubt to the presence of niton in the gas and of radium in the 
sources from which it comes. 
The belief. in the curative value of mineral springs is of untold 
antiquity; yet, till a few years ago, it was impossible to offer a satisfac- 
tory explanation of their action. Among equally famous European 
springs, some are hot and others cold, some contain much dissolved 
mineral matter and others relatively little. They differ also in the 
chemical character of the salts which they carry in solution; and, as a 
rule, there is nothing in their quality or quantity to suggest the possi- 
bility of such healing powers as the waters are generally credited with. 
Moreover, there is evidence that waters prepared artificially to imitate 
the precise composition of natural springs, as disclosed by chemical 
‘inalysis, fail to reproduce their curative effects. Were the virtues of 
the springs, then, purely imaginary? Was it all a matter of faith- 
healing? Had suffering humanity since earliest times been finding 
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