500 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



The underlying note in the address to Section C (Geology) by the president, 

 Prof. W. S. Boulton, is the same as in the foregoing — the urgent ueed for the 

 organisation of our national resources, and also the need for more sympathetic 

 and generous assistance from the Government. The particular subject dealt 

 with is the outlook in economic geology at the present time. The general 

 criticism is put forward that this country has lagged behind our Colonies and 

 America, and that it does not occupy the position which its tradition and oppor- 

 tunities should have given it. The important Special Reports on our mineral 

 resources are very welcome, and should be continued and increased. A more 

 systematic economic survey of the country is much to be desired, and can only 

 be carried out by means of the assistance of deep borings. Three of the main 

 requirements, the coal, the petroleum, and the underground water, are reviewed 

 in some detail. 



In Section D (Zoology) the president, Prof. E. W. MacBride, dealt with the 

 organ-forming substances in the developing eggs of animals. The opening part 

 of the address contained an historical risume of the early workers in the field of 

 cellular embryology, His, Roux, Hertwig, and Dreisch. An account was given 

 of the experiments of Crampton and Wilson on molluscan eggs, in which we have 

 the first definite evidence of the existence of such organ-forming substances. By 

 various means, e.g., centrifuging developing eggs, it is possible to upset the dis- 

 tribution of these bodies within the egg cells, and consequently alter the propor- 

 tions in which they are handed on to daughter cells at division. This leads to 

 such a disorganisation of the processes of development that at present, at any 

 rate, it seems most easily explained by postulating the existence of certain sub- 

 stances in the egg that to a certain extent control the course of development. 



In Section E (Geography) the president, E. A. Reeves, delivered an address 

 on "The Mapping of the Earth— Past, Present, and Future." The need for some 

 kind of mapping to decide boundaries or indicate the position of distant objects 

 was urgent even to man in his savage state. This proposition is followed by a 

 brief history of the means of obtaining bearings from the time of Thales in the 

 seventh century, who taught the sailors of Ionia to steer by the Little Bear, and 

 onwards. Short but interesting accounts are given of the various instruments 

 used by the Greeks, and the subsequent improvements on them down to the 

 wonderful ones available to-day. In each case some idea of their accuracy is 

 provided, and reference is also made to some of the errors still remaining that can 

 be allowed for to a certain extent, but not controlled. Two maps of the world, 

 one of i860 and one of 1916, are given, on which the mapped areas are indicated 

 by different shadings to indicate the degree of accuracy of the maps. This enables 

 the reader to appreciate readily the expansion of modern surveying and also the 

 statistics that are given concerning it. A tribute is paid to the work of the Royal 

 Geographical Society in the assisting of explorers in many ways. As regards the 

 future, the surveyor will have great advantages over those of the past, not only 

 in the fact that he is in possession of instruments of much greater precision, but 

 the triangulations already existing in many places form a good basis for future 

 work. 



" Some Thoughts on Reconstruction after the War" was the subject chosen 

 for the president's address to Section F (Economic Science and Statistics), by 

 Prof. A. W. Kirkaldy. A brief review of the effect of two years' war on the various 

 aspects of life in this country leads directly to a consideration of what will take 

 place afterwards. Both ourselves and the Central Empires will have certain 

 advantages in the struggle for recovering stability, the more substantial of these 



