search), was recently issued. The London Times states that the institute at the outbreak of war emphasized to the War Office the paramount need of tetanus antitoxin, and on its own initiative took steps immediately to enlarge the capacities of its therapeutic farm at Elstree, where horses were kept for the purpose of producing the antitoxin. In consequence the needs of the soldiers were met and thousands of lives saved. The institute also carried out researches on the antitoxin, and on various other sera and antitoxins. The Trench Fever Committee, of which Sir David Bruce is chairman, owed very much to the help of the institute and, indeed, could not have carried its researches to their brilliant conclusion without that help. Investigations arising out of the outbreak of food poisoning in the Army in France were also carried on, and various other work in connection with food undertaken, more especially that dealing with what are called "accessory food factors." Scurvy, for example, which was one of the great problems among troops in Mesopotamia, arose from the absence of one of these factors in the ration. The researches of the institute enabled the fact to be established, and suggested the remedy. Causes and remedies similar in kind, though differing in particulars, have been investigated for infantile scurvy. Other researches are now proceeding in respect of the indispensable food factors in milk, butter, margarine and so on.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS

By the will of Charles N. Clark, former treasurer and trustee of Smith College, practically his entire estate, estimated at $500,000, is bequeathed to Smith and Mount Holyoke colleges.

Ar the University of Michigan salaries have recently been increased 30 per cent. for instructors and assistant professors and 25 per cent. for associate professors and full professors. The new scale of salaries is from $1,300 to $2,100 for instructors, $2,200 to $2,600 for assistant professors, from $2,700 to $3,100 for associate professors and from $3,200

to $6,000 for full professors. The same scale applies to all colleges.

A COMPETITIVE examination to fill four vacancies in the grade of instructor in mathematics will be held at the Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, on August 27. The base pay is $2,000. Particulars as to the qualifications can be obtained from the head of the department.

DR. H. A. MORGAN, dean of the Tennessee State College of Agriculture, has been elected president of the University of Tennessee.

DR. JOHN C. HESSLER, professor of chemistry, has been appointed acting president of the James Millikan University at Decatur, Illinois.

DR. ROLLIN D. SALISBURY, professor of geographic geology and head of the department of geography at the University of Chicago, has been appointed head of the department of geology and paleontology to succeed Professor Thomas C. Chamberlin, who has retired from active service, Professor Harlan H. Barrows has been given the chairmanship of the department of geography made vacant by the transfer of Professor Salisbury. The latter still remains dean of the Ogden Graduate School of Science. Dr. Edson Sunderland Bastin, of the United States Geological Survey, has been appointed to a professorship of economic geology, from January 1, 1920. Dr. Bastin received his doctor's degree from the University of Chicago in 1909. Other new appointments are those of Russell Stafford Knappen to an instructorship in geology, and of Derwent Stainthorpe Whittlesey to an instructorship in geography.

DR. RICHARD WRENSHALL, a graduate of Yale University, has joined the faculty of the College of Hawaii, as professor of chemistry.

THE following appointments have been made at the University of Birmingham: John Robertson as professor of hygiene and public health; John Shaw Dunn as professor of pathology; Leonard Gamgee as professor of surgery; B. T. Rose, demonstrator of anatomy, and Miss Hilda Walker, lecturer in physiology.

DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE LABORATORY INSTRUCTION IN CHEMISTRY; ITS AIMS AND ITS LIMITATIONS

Ir is now well over half a century since the laboratory has been regarded as a necessary feature in the study of science elementary as well as advanced. Before that laboratory methods of instruction were rarely practised and were available only for the exceptionally fortunate, or probably exceptionally able, student who had first demonstrated in a purely intellectual way his aptitude for science.

The greatness of the achievement of the brilliant scientific men before, say the middle of the nineteenth century, with poor facilities for work, and inadequate knowledge upon which to build, certainly furnishes an argument that intellect may be stimulated rather than discouraged by lack of practical facilities.

The question must present itself to every one connected with training students in scientific schools, to what extent expensive laboratory facilities are justified, particularly for the great numbers of elementary students, when compared with the results achieved. No one will argue that direct observation of scientific phenomena in experiments performed with the student's own hands does not increase the student's familiarity with the phenomena. Perhaps we might say that the impression made upon the student's mind by a personally performed experiment is so much more vivid than the impression made by a written statement in a text-book, or even by an experiment performed by the professor on the lecture table, that the phenomenon is remembered with much less intellectual effort. Since however progress is attained only through the expenditure of effort, we may well ask, will the student of science reach as high a plane of intellectual development if the laboratory is used too freely for demonstration purposes.

The writer acknowledges as the immediate stimulus to present these thoughts, the article in SCIENCE of May 30, 1919 (page 506) upon "The Freas System," written by Dr. W. L. Estabrooke.

The Freas System is obviously a recognition of the problem of balancing the costs of lab

oratory instruction against the results. It is to be hoped that further details of this system promised by the writer will bring its advantages fully to the knowledge of those who have the administration of the laboratories of our schools and colleges. Certain rather broad aspects of the question are suggested by the first article and it is to be hoped that they will be discussed by the advocate of the Freas System.

The Freas System seems to be a species of modern factory efficiency management applied to laboratory administration. There can be no doubt that all possible efficiency in obtaining, distributing and conserving laboratory supplies and apparatus is to be desired, nor is there any doubt that without careful planning and a capable administrator in charge the efficiency will be low. But how far will the enthusiasm for efficiency in handling supplies tend to reduce the instruction to a lifeless routine. It would almost seem as if in the Freas plan the structure of the laboratory course had been built around the framework of the system of supply distribution. For we are told that at the beginning of a term the student receives supplies exactly sufficient for a whole term's work in a carefully planned kit. Such a kit contains for some of the courses as many as 140 different bottles of materials.

Modern American factory methods are marvelous when measured by the material output, but they do not rank so high when measured in terms of the welfare of the individual worker. Perhaps the solution of the factorylabor problem will recognize that the welfare and happiness of the individual workers is the framework around which the structure of industry must be built. No educator thinks other than that intellectual development is the aim to which educational effort must be directed. The writer does not see how a standardized routine of laboratory experiments can stimulate the intellectual development of a student any more than the intensive drive of production in a textile mill can stimulate the joy of life in the worker standing day after day in the same place over noisy looms.

The primary purpose of the experimental laboratory was to carry out original investigations. It is well not to lose sight of the fact that the laboratory of elementary chemistry can appear to the beginning student a place of original investigation. Indeed it is probably safe to say that the amount of intellectual stimulus he receives in the laboratory is in direct proportion to the extent to which he takes the attitude of an investigator.

It is more often the case than not that after a student has performed a routine experiment in a routine manner, he will retain of it so vague a recollection that he will be unable to relate his observations the next day in the class room. When however the experiment has developed some unexpected feature which perplexes him enough to incite him to try out variations of the experiment upon his own initiative, he will be found full of information and argument in the class room.

Elementary experiments may be classified into two kinds: (1) isolated short experiments, and (2) sustained experiments. The short experiments may be planned in a beautiful sequence, each building on the results of the preceding ones in a manner to arouse the admiration of an instructor. Yet to the student they seem just isolated experiments and he is only too likely to receive the impression that the standard of his work is measured by the number performed. Even when the student is above the average of intelligence and sees pretty clearly the sequence as planned by the instructor, he still does not develop very much enthusiasm for a thing which has been all planned out for him.

The writer believes that efficiency methods which increase the output of material products of an industry are not directly applicable to the development of intelligence. True, the Freas method may double the number of experiments which the student will perform in a laboratory period. But can we measure the development of the student by the number of experiments performed any more than we can measure the happiness of the mill operative by the number of yards of fabric which he can get through his looms in a day.

Scientific research is in its nature inefficient if judged in terms of the formulas of production experts. Yet research is recognized by large industries as a vital part of their organization.

The value of laboratory work depends mostly on the extent to which the students feel the research spirit-even if in but a very feeble way in elementary laboratories. The acquiring of manipulative skill and the learning of properties which are better stated in the textbooks than they can be observed by the student, are for the most part incidental to the more important purposes. To encourage this spirit of research, reagents must be available on the side shelves for free use within reasonable bounds. In fact a well-stocked outfit of reagent shelves serves as a chemical museum and time spent in going to these shelves, inspecting the chemicals there, and sometimes in trying out reactions not specified in the directions, is surely not time wasted. Naturally the student should be expected to work industriously during laboratory time and he should perhaps be expected to perform at least a certain minimum number of "required" experiments. But he should not be continually driven to realize the highest value of the ratio of experiments done to length of laboratory period. He should rather be distinctly encouraged to work thoughtfully and be made to feel that quality is given more recognition than mere quantity.

At all events there must be a compromise in elementary laboratories handling large classes, between efficiency of the supply service on the one hand, and the scientific inspiration to the

individual student on the other hand. It is hard to see how cut and dried laboratory experiments, with all materials measured out in advance ready to be put together, can interest an intelligent student so much as experiments performed on the lecture table.

The writer realizes that many will deem him guilty of heresy even for putting the question: Do we give too much laboratory work in our science courses? If it becomes necessary on account of expense to so standardize the laboratory work that it loses nearly all its stimulus, were it not better to omit laboratory from the program until at least the point is reached where experiments described earlier as of the sustained type apply?

Some students are at school or college for a general liberal education-not to specialize in science. How shall they be treated if they elect to study the elements of chemistry? Is the expense of even a standardized and denatured laboratory course justified? When chemistry is chosen mainly for the object of intellectual development does not the class room work without the laboratory serve the purpose? Indeed does it not require a higher order of intelligence to visualize a chemical phenomenon from a text-book statement alone, than from a laboratory demonstration?

The writer has ventured to raise questions in the foregoing some of which have an obvious answer, others of which have been viewed for more than a generation in a uniform dogmatic manner, but ought now to be reopened and reconsidered on their real merits. The Freas System involves these questions, and it constitutes a compromise between two unreconcilable conditions. So far as the evidence presented in the article referred to goes, it seems like the case in which the compromise was effected by one party acceding to all the demands of the other. However, a misconception may have been gained from the first article of the series and the other numbers should be awaited with interest.

Furthermore, if an issue seems capable of adjustment only through an unsatisfactory compromise, is it not the part of wisdom to reexamine the conditions underlying the issue

to see if perhaps the issue itself ought not be reconstructed in such a manner as to avoid the necessity of a compromise.

ARTHUR A. BLANCHARD

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

METEOROLOGY AND THE TRANS-ATLANTIC FLIGHT

WITHIN the past few months many millions of people have had their attention directed, as never before, to the importance of meteorological conditions in connection with the question of trans-Atlantic flight. A popular interest has thus been aroused which has been but partially satisfied by the often contradictory and usually rather meager information supplied by the daily newspapers. Many persons doubtless have a real desire to inform themselves more fully in regard to the weather conditions which are likely to be met with at various altitudes over the North Atlantic Ocean. A recent paper on "Trans-Atlantic Flight from the Meteorologists' Point of View" brings together, in compact form, just the sort of information of which the intelligent public is in search. The author, Willis R. Gregg, of the Weather Bureau, was actively concerned as a meteorological expert in connection with the flight of the U. S. Navy planes. The fact that Mr. Gregg's article was in print before the recent transAtlantic flights were accomplished does not in any way detract from its interest or value.

Mr. Gregg's chief conclusions are as follows: Favorable conditions of wind and weather are necessary for the safety of airplanes which attempt the trans-Atlantic flight. In order to obtain the requisite knowledge of the prevailing atmospheric conditions, frequent and widely-distributed observations are necessary. When a favorable day comes, the meteorological expert can indicate the successive directions toward which the airplane should be headed in order to keep to any desired course, and can also calculate the assistance which the winds will furnish. Favorable conditions for an eastward crossing are found at 500-1,000

1 Mo. Wea. Rev., Vol. 47, 1919, pp. 65-75.

meters during about one third of the time. The percentage of favorable days increases materially at greater altitudes, especially along the northern route. The percentage of favorable days for the westward trip "is so small as to make trans-Atlantic flight in this direction impracticable until the cruising radius of aircraft is increased to such an extent that they are relatively independent of weather conditions."

As to the season, there is little choice. The prevailing westerly winds are stronger in winter than in summer, but there are more storms in the colder months. The greater prevalence of fog in summer is a disadvantage at that season which about offsets the greater amount of cloudiness in winter. The fogs of Newfoundland are generally of but slight vertical extent, and as they do not extend far inland they ought not to interfere with a landing if such is attempted some distance from the coast. The most important thing of all is the need of a comprehensive campaign to secure meteorological and aerological observations over the North Atlantic.

R. DEC. WARD

QUOTATIONS

BRITISH SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY

THE speakers at the opening of the British Scientific Products Exhibition emphasized different aspects of the same truths. When the war came, England was deprived of many scientific products which she had been content to receive from Germany. English scientific men and inventors had long been in the forefront of discovery, but English manufacturers had taken little advantage of their achievements. We had not the industrial processes for making high explosives from coal-tar nor the methods of making optical glass for gun-sights. In a thousand ways, great and small, we were unready for the ordeal. The unlimited valor of our fighting men and the unswerving resolution of the people alone carried us over the dead point. The exhibition of British scientific products, made in Britain, for the first time during the

war, shows the splendid progeny of the liaison de convenance hurriedly arranged between science and industry. It is to be hoped that it will lead to a more permanent union.

The war is over, and there is more than a fear that the soporific effect of the cry "Business as usual" may again be felt. Business will not be as usual. The old British way of being content with large-scale manufacture of the "good enough," of seeking the easy market and the repeat order, is gone for ever. Even the best is not good enough, for there is always a better. As Lord Moulton said, Divine discontent must have its place in our industries. The manufacturer must keep in touch with the inventor and the scientific student. The men of the laboratory must keep aware of the industrial processes to which they can so largely contribute. The seller of British goods must have a better weapon than blandishment; he must be able to explain why his goods are the best, and to stimulate the imagination of his customers by the assurance of better. Lord Crewe rightly laid stress on the part of education in the new orientation of our scientific and industrial effort. He referred with legitimate pride to the associations of manufacturers and investigators that are being organized by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. But there is still a long way to go. In one sense, the lean years that lie ahead of us are less favorable to continued effort, although they require it even more urgently. During the war an imperative stimulus quickened our common purpose. Money flowed like water for the experiments of the laboratory and the workshop, and the operations of war supplied the swiftest and surest test of efficiency. We must lose none of the organizing and self

sacrificing spirit that we gained when our

need seemed greatest.-The London Times.

SCIENTIFIC BOOKS

The Turtles of New England. By HAROLD L. BABCOCK, M.D. Mem. Boston Soc. Natural History, VIIII., No. 3, 4to, pp. 325 to 431, plates 17 to 32, April, 1919.