Eleventh Year of Publication. On the 15th of each month. 75. 6d. per annum, post free; single copies, is. each.

The Chemist and Druggist; a Journal of

the Trade and Science of Pharmacy. Each number contains Editorial Notes on Topics interesting to Pharmacists, Chemists, and Medical men: Original Articles by well-known Scientific Writers: Special Reports of the Proceedings of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, and of other Associations of Chemists and Druggists: Veterinary Notes; Records of Progress in Therapeutics, Dentistry, Homoeopathy, and Photography; Illustrated Descriptions of New Inventions and Trade Novelties; Reviews of Scientific and Commercial Books: Descriptive Lists of Patents; Notes and Queries; Trade Memoranda, Reports and Price Lists, and a classified digest of the News of the Month. For Scientific Students, a number of Chemical, Physical, and Arithmetical Problems are provided in a special department entitled the Corner for Students," and two or more valuable prizes in the shape of scientific books are awarded to successful competitors each month. With the number for February 15, a carefully-executed lithographic portrait of the PRESIDENT OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY will be issued.

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SCIENTIFIC WORKS.

Mr. WALLACE'S "MALAY ARCHIPELAGO:" The Land of the Orang-Utan and the Bird of Paradise. A Narrative of Travel, with Studies of Man and Nature. Two Vols. Crown 8vo.

With Nine Maps and more than 50 Illustrations, 245. Second Edition.

OBSERVATIONS on THE GEOLOGY AND ZOOLOGY OF ABYSSINIA. Made during the progress of the British Expedition to that Country in 1867-8 By W. J. BLANFORD, late Geologist to the Expedition. 8vo. with Coloured Illustrations. \Immediately

FORCE and NATURE: ATTRACTION AND REPULSION. The Radical Principles of Energy graphically dis cussed in their Relation to Physical and Morphological Development. By C. F. WINSLOW, M.D. 8vo. 145.

THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 1870

THE SOCIETY OF ARTS CONFERENCE

THE Society of Arts is entitled to the thanks of the community for the service it performs in holding from time to time conferences for the discussion of public questions of immediate interest. Technical education, street tramways, the sewage question, and the Channelspanning problem, have all been recently discussed in this way. Last Thursday another national movement, of greater importance than even any of those we have named, was brought under discussion at one of these useful gatherings, namely, the Relation of the State to Science, a movement that could not have a more natural or more influential supporter than the Society whose special province it is to advance the practical application of science to the needs of our daily life.

The Conference was opened by a paper by Colonel Strange, "On the proposed inquiry, by a Royal Commission, into the Relation of the State to Science." The part which deals with the scope of the intended inquiry we reproduce in another column: we published some time ago a narrative of events.

It is easy to see that in the paper which formed the subject for debate, the writer aimed at giving to the discussion a practical direction, calculated to assist those interested, including the Government, in determining what objects should claim the attention of the Royal Commission which will probably soon be issued. The Conference, though not numerously attended, included many of our most eminent men of science, and the speakers were all of that class. Professor Williamson, of University College, and Dr. Miller, of King's College, addressed themselves chiefly to the educational side of the question, and insisted on the rights of independent teaching of which they are the recognised champions-rights which Colonel Strange in his paper mentions prominently as demanding examination. Professor Williamson forcibly deprecated any cut-and-dried scheme, thus endorsing Colonel Strange's recommendation that the fullest possible inquiry into all existing scientific agencies should be made first and foremost. Dr. Balfour Stewart suggested a very comprehensive classification of scientific work into Observational work, Experimental work not involving time as an essential element, and Experimental work involving time as an essential element. Of these, he stated that the first and last require the permanence and continuity of State institutions, and have been much neglected in England, while the second can to a great extent be achieved by individuals labouring independently. No doubt this classification will more or less form the basis of the scientific system of the future.

The Astronomer Royal, speaking with an evident sense of the weight that must attach to his opinions on such a subject, and in a tone that might almost be called official, announced his belief that much good would come of the proposed Royal Commission. He illustrated the confused state of our scientific officialism by a humorous description of the accounts of the Royal Observatory, of which three distinct sets were required, one for the Admiralty, another in a different form for the Treasury, and a third

"to reconcile the other two." He considered that the present movement tended to the creation of a salaried Academy, to which he did not seem opposed, though he pointed out that there are some kinds of inquiry which such a body would never have initiated, as for instance the discovery of Neptune, and Mr. Lockyer's solar researches. Dr. Mann, Mr. De la Rue, and the Rev. Arthur Rigg warmly supported the recommendation that the inquiry should be full. Mr. Edwin Chadwick particularly dwelt on the advantage of official concentration in science, in a specch full of practical sagacity. The discussion was summed up most ably by the chairman, Lord Henry Lennox, President of the Society of Arts, who, in responding to a pointed appeal made to him by Mr. Chadwick, told the meeting how, on one occasion, desiring to ask in the House of Commons a question regarding some scientific matter, he found that it affected four different departments, and should therefore elicit a quadruple reply, the horrors of which he evaded by most informally putting the inquiry to the Premier himself. He did not add that his desire for information was gratified.

The proceedings of the Conference were brought to a practical issue by the following resolution :-"That this Conference desires emphatically to affirm the conclusion of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, that a Royal Commission to inquire into the relations of the State to Science is very desirable, and to recommend that the scope of the inquiry be made as wide as possible." This motion obviously conveyed the sense of the meeting with accuracy, and it was carried unanimously. The chairman announced that the resolution and a full report of the conference would be forwarded by the Council of the Society of Arts to the Government.

Armed with so competent and united an expression of opinion, following up that already given by the British Association, the Government will, no doubt, invest the Commission with very full powers. A little consideration, indeed, will show that the wider the scope given to the inquiry, the more easy will it be to conduct it. Nothing would be so difficult as to confine inquiry to selected portions of such a subject, all the parts of which are so intimately connected as to preclude the possibility of entering on one without trespassing on those which surround it. The whole field of science must be submitted to a comprehensive survey, before any project for its effectual cultivation can possibly be devised. The plain assertion made in Colonel Strange's paper, that at present we have not even the nucleus of a scientific system, received the tacit assent of the Conference, no speaker thinking it worth while to do more than incidentally illustrate its truth. Comprehensive confusion needing comprehensive remedies must first undergo comprehensive examination. We agree with those who think it will be difficult for the Commission to construct a new and complete system. A good and durable system must, as Dr. Mann expressed it, be built up by degrees-brick by brick, as it were. This work is administrative, not deliberative, and should therefore properly devolve on the Minister entrusted with the Department of Science. If, with the materials furnished by the Royal Commission to his hand, he cannot work them into shape, the course is simple-change him!

OUR NATIONAL DRINK

Strong Drink and Tobacco Smoke: the Structure, Growth, and Uses of Malt, Hops, Yeast, and Tobacco. With 167 original illustrations, drawn and engraved on steel by Henry P. Prescott, F.L.S. Pp. 71. (London: Macmillan and Co. 1869.) Burton-on-Trent: its History, its Waters, and its Breweries. By William Molyneux, F.G.S. Pp. 264. (London: Trübner and Co. Burton-on-Trent : Whitechurch.)

WHEN Mr. Gladstone, some years ago, inaugurated a new era, and opened British ports to wine which could not be brought here previously on account of its value being actually less than the duty it was subject to equally with wine of the most costly sort, it was believed by many that a serious blow had been dealt against a branch of home industry-the production of malt liquor which is probably more peculiar to this country than any other.

The fact that there has always been a host of poetic and jubilant notions associated with the name of wine, as well as the enhanced estimation of a thing not easily obtainable, may have seemed good reasons for anticipating a very general desertion of beer in favour of cheap wine; but when the inaccessibility which lent enchantment to the name of wine was replaced by the sour reality of shilling hock or claret, the halo of imaginative recommendation was soon dispelled; consequently, these beverages have been very generally classed among things to be avoided, and even "Gladstone" sherry is regarded with profound suspicion. Meanwhile, our national drink has maintained its supremacy, and though its prospects were for a time clouded by the advent of cheap wine, it may safely be said that while the beer-drinking class in this country is quite as large as ever, the amount of malt liquor consumed has scarcely been affected by the introduction of cheap wine.

One of the works referred to at the head of this article gives some account of the materials used in the production of beer, and of the operations they are submitted to; the other contains a history of a town which is now famous as one of the chief seats of the brewing trade, together with an account of the topography and geological features of the neighbourhood. There is also a good description of the breweries, and of the enormous extent to which the industry has grown, with much interesting information as to its origin and development.

The beer-consuming propensity of the Briton is not a characteristic exclusively his own. The Germans, Russians, and Belgians, have long been famous for their cerevisial devotion, and even the Frenchman is rapidly acquiring a taste for beer which demands satisfaction in spite of national tradition and fiscal regulations. At the same time, though the general excellence of British beer has so long been notorious throughout Europe, and the later fame of bitter beer has now become familiar in all parts of the world, it is not without a rival in the beer of Bavaria and Austria; and, while the stupendous proportions of British breweries as well as our vast trade in beer may have hitherto justified the belief that this country was without a competitor in the art of brewing, the rapid development of this branch of industry in Germany and Austria within the last few years is well

calculated to suggest the question whether we may not before long find that in this art, as in most others, we no

longer occupy a position of secure pre-eminence, but have to contend with other nations for a place in the markets of the world, if not in that of our own country.

The beer of Austria is already imported here and sold in London. It is largely consumed in Paris, where it excited quite a furore during the Exhibition of 1865. Moreover, the Austrian breweries, though of comparatively recent origin, are on a scale approaching that of our Down the own great beer-producing establishments. whole length of the Lower Danube, beer-brewing has become a settled and lucrative business. On the shores of the Black Sea and even in Constantinople this is also the case. Almost every town of any importance has its brewery, or several of them, where excellent beer is made. The proximity of these countries to grain-producing districts, as well as the extension of agriculture in the plains of Hungary and elsewhere, are all circumstances in favour of the development of this industry, and the opening of a means of transport to India and China by the Suez Canal may well afford an opportunity for future competition with this country in the supply of beer to those large markets which it has hitherto been our exclusive privilege to provide with beer.

Here, then, is a possibility of British beer finding a rival much more formidable than cheap wine is at home, and in this view of the subject it may be interesting to the readers of NATURE to know something more of the peculiarities of German beer. With the exception of Belgium, where inferior kinds of beer have long been made, the chief seat of beer production, until within the last few years, was Bavaria, and the beer made there was celebrated throughout the Continent. This beer is made by a method different from that practised in this country, and the difference consists chiefly in conducting the fermentation at a very low temperature. Under this condition the yeast that is produced does not collect as a scum at the surface of the fermenting wort, as is the case in our system of brewing; but it separates as small clots or flocculi, which fall to the bottom of the liquor, leaving the surface freely exposed to the atmosphere. The beer brewed in this way is less liable to become sour when kept than beer brewed by the method of frothing fermentation, and this is one of the special characteristics of Bavarian beer. Liebig, who has devoted much attention to the subject, explains this difference as resulting from the facility afforded by sedimentary fermentation for atmospheric oxidation of the soluble gluten, or that constituent of beer wort from which yeast is produced by oxidation. In frothing fermentation this action of the atmosphere is prevented by the layer of yeast collecting at the surface of the liquor. The formation of yeast then takes place by abstraction of oxygen from sugar, and consequently, since beer wort contains more soluble gluten than is requisite for converting the sugar into alcohol, the proportion of sugar to gluten is still further reduced in that way; so that after fermentation has ceased, some of the gluten still remains unaltered in the beer, and, by a subsequent slow fermentation, is capable of determining the conversion of alcobol into acetic acid. In sedimentary fermentation, on the contrary, the unimpeded action of atmospheric air has the effect of separating the whole of the gluten from the wort

The brewing of beer on this system has latterly extended beyond Bavaria, and it is now extensively practised in Austria and the Rhine district, where the frequent occurrence of basalt and other porous volcanic rocks presents great facilities for making brewing vaults and cellars, in which a low temperature can be maintained. The various details of the art of brewing have also been carefully studied by chemists with Government support, and the rapid progress of this industry in Germany serves well to illustrate the great advantages resulting from the application of scientific skill to practical subjects. There are not a few of our own industrial arts that would be, in like manner, benefited by a better appreciation of the aid which science is capable of rendering them; not a few that are sorely in need of this aid to enable them to keep abreast of the progress made in other countries.

BENJAMIN H. PAUL

OUR BOOK SHELF

Handbuch der Allgemeinen Himmelsbeschreibung. Von Hermann J. Klein. Das Sonnensystem. (Braunschweig, 1869.)

THIS work professes to combine a full account of the most recent physical discoveries in astronomy, with an exact statement of all those points which are commonly met with in handbooks of the science. The present volume, as will be gathered from the title, deals only with the solar system. Certainly it cannot be said to bear out in full the promise of the author. We are particularly struck by the almost entire absence of reference to the labours of English spectroscopists within the bounds of the solar system. Mr. Huggins's researches on cometic spectra are briefly referred to; but his observations on the spectra of the planets are passed over in silence, while place is given to the comparatively less valuable researches of the Padre Secchi on the same subject. We should be far from desiring to undervalue the researches of the eminent Italian astronomer; but no one who is acquainted with the circumstances under which Mr. Huggins and Father Secchi have respectively observed the planetary spectra, could think (we imagine) of comparing the Italian with the English series of observations. A similar remark applies to the solar researches of Father Secchi, which have not been made with sufficient dispersive power to be fairly comparable with the researches of Mr. Lockyer, Yet the labours of the last-named observer are passed over unnoticed, not only in the body of the work, but in an appendix, wherein the author treats specially of recent solar observations. In a note, a brief and inexact account is given of Mr. Lockyer's discovery that the bright lines of the prominence spectra can be seen when the sun is not eclipsed. After this, it is surprising to find that a full account is given of Professor Tyndall's ingenious theory

of comets.

The treatise is one, however, we can on the whole recommend. The arrangement of the chapters on the planets is particularly clear and satisfactory. It is noteworthy that the author, with praiseworthy exactness, gives the secular variations of the planetary elements to the term involving the square of the time.

We were inclined to take exception at the manner in which Professor Adams's labours on the planet Neptune are left to the very end of the chapter on the planet; and we still think that their proper place would have been immediately after the account of Galle's detection of Neptune. This, however, is perhaps a small matter; and the statement of the relative claims of Adams and Lever

some continental astronomers have not scrupled to give of the matter. Not only does Herr Klein recognise the claims of Adams, but he assigns the just and sufficient reason for putting the two astronomers on the same level, that "Leverrier can no more deserve credit because Neptune was actually discovered before the end of September 1846, than Adams can deserve blame because Challis, up to that very time, though he had indeed found Neptune, had not yet recognised the planet.” R. A. PROCTOR

St. Pierre's Dictionary of Botany.-Nouveau Dictionnaire de Botanique. Par E. Germain de Saint Pierre, avec 1,640 figures. Pp. 1,388. (Paris J. B. Baillière et fils, 1870. London: Williams and Norgate.) WHEN it is recollected that this bulky volume is the product of a single mind, the industry, no less than the encyclopædic knowledge of its author, strikes the reader with astonishment. Whether it is desirable in the interests of science that a publication of this kind should be the work of one man is another question. The system pursued in the compilation of cyclopædias, of relegating each separate article of importance to the man who has paid special attention to that particular subject, has its advantages, and what is lost in unity is gained in exactness and thoroughness. In these days of subdivision of scientific labour, even a man of M. Germain de St. Pierre's vast erudition cannot be the highest authority in every branch of his science, and accordingly we find the articles of very unequal interest and value. Thus, under the head "Herborisation" occurs a list of plants gathered in the environs of Paris by Cornuti, in 1635, valuable, no doubt, in its way, but altogether out of place in a botanical dictionary. On the other hand, so many interesting observations have lately been made on the physiology of climbing plants by Mr. Darwin and others, that we turned with interest to this volume to acquaint ourselves with the newest researches on the subject. The heading "Liane" does not appear at all, while under "Grimpant " there are just a dozen lines, and no reference to any other article. Dissertations on the relative advantages of living in Paris and in the country like that under "Laboratoire du Botanique" might have been altogether spared. Other objections might readily be made to the plan of the work. A short description of the leading characters of each natural order is useful, but the utility would have been increased by inserting the Latin names of the orders, with a reference from them to the French names, as from Ranunculacea to "Renonculacées," or from Umbelliferæ to “Ombellifères." The selection of a few genera and even species for description does not commend itself in the same manner, and the selection must necessarily be arbitrary and partial. Nevertheless, with these defects, we have in the work before us a most useful and valuable cyclopædia, containing an immense mass of information on every branch of botany, which cannot fail to be almost a necessary book of reference alike to the man of science and the student. On those subjects in particular in which M. St. Pierre is an acknowledged authority second to none, the work is especially valuable. The illustrations are copious and admirable. A. W. B,

THE second fasciculus of the twelfth volume of the Atti della Societa Italiana delle Scienze Naturali, which has lately reached us, contains only two zoological papers. The most important of these is a systematic catalogue of the testaceous mollusca of the neighbourhood of Spezia and of its gulf, by Dr. C. T. Canefri, which will be of value to the student of geographical distribution. The other includes the first century of South American Coleoptera, by Prof. P. Strobel, with descriptions of numerous new species by Dr. E. Steinheil.