TEE PROGRESS OE SCIENCE 



477 



in early life, both had traveled exten- 

 sively, and both had at the critical 

 moment read Malthus's " Essay on 

 Population." Darwin himself, how- 

 ever, has pointed out that they dif- 

 fered in so far as he was led to his 

 views from a consideration of what 

 artificial selection has done for domes- 

 tic animals. Sir Joseph Hooker de- 

 scribed the events preceding and at 

 the time of the presentation of the 

 paper, from which Darwin was absent 

 through illness. A medal struck by 

 the society — here reproduced by the 

 courtesy of his secretary — was pre- 

 sented in gold to Dr. Wallace and in 

 silver to Sir Joseph Hooker, Professor 

 Ernst Haeckel, Professor Eduard 

 Strasburger, Professor August Weis- 

 mann, Dr. Francis Galton and Sir E. 

 Ray Lankester. Responses were made 

 by Professor Strasburger, Dr. Galton 

 and Sir E. Ray Lankester, and by 

 delegates from universities and acad- 

 emies, including Dr. Francis Darwin 

 and Lord Avebury. 



The hundredth anniversary of the 

 birth of Darwin will occur on February 

 12 of next year, which is also the hun- 

 dredth anniversary of the birth of Lin- 

 coln. The event will be celebrated by 

 the University of Cambridge, and in 

 this country by Columbia University 

 and the New York Academy of Sciences 

 and doubtless elsewhere. The Amer- 

 ican Association for the Advancement 

 of Science will, at its Baltimore meet- 

 ing, give special prominence to exer- 

 cises in honor of the hundredth anni- 

 versary of Darwin's birth and the fif- 

 tieth anniversary of the publication of 

 " The Origin of Species." 



THE DUBLIN MEETING OF THE 

 BRITISH ASSOCIATION 

 The recent meeting of the British 

 Association had a program of the usual 

 high standard and an attendance of 

 2,270 members and associates. The 

 size of the meeting was about the same 

 as the larger convocation-week meet- 

 ings of the American Association and 



its affiliated societies, but the number 

 of scientific men and of scientific papers 

 is greater in this country. There were 

 at Dublin 1,374 associates, mainly 

 people living in Dublin and vicinity, 

 who joined the association for the 

 meeting, though not especially inter- 

 ested in science. The American Asso- 

 ciation has not been able to attract to 

 its meetings people of this class. This 

 is doubtless in part due to better social 

 organization in Great Britain — the 

 sentiment which leads the London 

 Times to devote pages to reports of 

 the meeting and every country house 

 to take in Nature — but it is also in 

 part due to the fact that the meetings 

 are made more attractive to those not 

 professionally engaged in scientific re- 

 search. It seems that our association 

 should aim to do more for this class, 

 for from it science needs sympathy, 

 support and recruits. 



Mr. Francis Darwin, the president of 

 the meeting, who, like his brother. Sir 

 George Darwin, the president of the 

 South African meeting three years 

 ago, bears worthily his great name 

 now being celebrated on the occasion 

 of the fiftieth anniversary of the pub- 

 lication of the " Origin of Species," 

 chose as the subject of his inaugural 

 address the reactions of plants. His 

 own experimental work has been large- 

 ly in this field, and the address was 

 made interesting to a large audience 

 by a discussion of consciousness in 

 plants' and the hereditary transmission 

 of acquired characters'. Public lectures 

 were given by Professor H. H. Turner, 

 of Oxford, on " Halley's Comet" and 

 by Professor W. M. Davis, of Harvard 

 University, on " The Lessons of the 

 Colorado Canon." The annual lecture 

 to the working classes was by Dr. A. 

 E. Tutton, on " The Crystallization of 

 Water." 



The entertainments and excursions 

 were as usual very elaborate. The 

 reception given by the Royal Dublin 

 Society was attended by 4,000 guests, 

 and there were numerous luncheons 



