Information on Scientific Questions

Abstract

DR. BROWN GOODE is quoted in NATURE of July 16 (p. 252), as saying “he cannot think of any scientific subject regarding which a letter, if addressed to the scientific bureaus in Washington, would not receive a full and practical reply.” I infer from this that the replies are prompted by the courtesy of the officers of the various departments, and that the public of the United States possess no right to demand them. If this is so, surely Dr. Brown Goode's scoff at British Government departments is disingenuous, to say the least of it.