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��THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

��of industrial and manufacturing estab- lishments. Researeh eonunitieeB of two classes will be appointed: central eom- mitteeSy representing various depart- ments of science, comprised of leading authorities in each field, selected in consultation with the president of the corresponding national society; local committees in cooperating institutions engage<i in research.

The following plan of procedure is proposed :

1. The preparation of a national in- ventory of equipment for research, of the men engaged in it, and of the lines of investigation pursued in cooperating government bureaus, educational insti- tutions, research foundations and in- dustrial research laboratories; this in- ventory to be prepared in harmony with any general plan adopted by the pro- posed government council of national defence.

2. The preparation of reports by special committees, suggesting impor- tant research problems and favorable opportunities lor research in various departments of science. i

3. The promotion of cooperation in research, with the object of securing in- 1 creased efficiency; but with careful avoidance of any attempt at coercion or intereference with individual free- dom and initiative. ' I

4. Cooperation with educational in- stitutions, by supporting their efforts i to secure larger funds and more favor- able conditions for the pursuit of re- search and the training of students in | the methods and spirit of investigation. ,

5. Cooperation with research foun- dations and other agencies desiring to secure a more effective use of funds available for investigation.

6. The encouragement in cooperating laboratories of researches designed to strengthen the national defence and to render the United States independent of foreign sources of supply liable to

be affected by war. I

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It is not clear why there should be a discrimination between educational

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institutions and research foundations, 80 that the former should be aided in ; securing larger funds and the latter in using their funds more effectively, and , some scientific men may think it more | desirable to cooperate with other na- 1 tions in {)roducing supplies where this can be done to the best advantage,, rather than to prepare for war. The

��National Research Council should, how- ever, be able to perform a useful serv- ice, more especially in directing public attention to the importance of scientific research for the welfare of the nation and of the world.

THE EPIDEMIC OF INFANTILE PARALYSIS

There have been in New York City up to August 20 about 7,000 cases of infantile paralysis and 1,600 deaths and the epidemic has spread to a seri- ous extent in adjacent parts of the state and in New Jersey. The only alleviating circumstance in connection with this disease, which from its ill- understood origin and mode of trans- mission, produces in these days some- what the same psychologic effects as unallpox and the plague in past days, is that thorough measures have been undertaken to check the disease and that these may be extended to other diseases which entail an even greater amount of suffering and death than poliomyelitis.

Efforts are also being made in many places to obtain scientific information concerning the disease. Thus at the suggestion of Dr. Haven Emerson, health commissioner of New York City, a conference took j)lace at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, early in iugust, of which Dr. Simon Flexner was chosen as chairman. A committee was appointed to consider all the phases of laboratory investigation, to suggest subjects and in some instances lines of study in connection with the disease. This committee consists of Dr. Flexner, Professor Ludvig Hektoen, University of Chicago, Professor Hans Zinsser, College of Physicians and Sur- geons, New York; Professor Richard M. Pearce, Jr., University of Pennsyl- vania; Professor James W. Jobling, Vanderbilt University; Surgeon George W. McCoy, director of the hygienic lab- oratory at Washington, and Dr. Theo- bald Smith, of the Rockefeller Insti- tute. Another committee was ap- pointed to consider practical measures

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