44 



ASSOCIATIONS FOR ADVANCEMENT OF SCIKNCK. (BRITISH.) 



he sketched the progress that had been made, gen- 

 erally and locally, during the quarter of a century 

 since the association last met in Liverpool in several 

 branches of knowledge and of practical application 

 covered by civil and mechanical engineering. In 

 particular he stated the results of experience with 

 regard to electric and other mechanical traction and 

 tunnel construction, touching also upon light rail- 

 ways, motor cars, the metric system, the scientific 

 bases of foreign engineering, and the problems to 

 be solved in the future. Concerning the metric 

 system, he said : " The question of the early adop- 

 tion in England of the metric system is of impor- 

 tance not only to the engineering profession, but 

 also to the country at large. The recommendation 

 of the recent royal commission appointed for the 

 consideration of the subject was that it should be 

 taught at once in all schools, and that in two years' 

 time its adoption should be compulsory; but it is 

 much to be regretted that up to the present time 

 nothing has been done. The slight and temporary 

 inconvenience of having to learn the system is of 

 no moment compared to the great assistance it 

 would prove to the commercial and trading world ; 

 the simplification of calculations and of accounts 

 would be hailed with delight by all so soon as they 

 realized the advantages. England is suffering in 

 her trade with the Continent for want of it." 



Among the more important papers presented be- 

 fore this section were : " The Physical and Engi- 

 neering Features of the River Mersey and Port of 

 Liverpool," by G. F. Lyster ; " The Cause of Frac- 

 ture of Railway Rails," by W. Worby Beaumont; 

 " The Tower Bridge, the London Bridge, and other 

 Thames Bridges," by Wolfe Barry ; " The Liverpool 

 Waterworks," by J. Parry ; " The Present Position 

 of the British North Atlantic Mail Service," 

 by A. J. Maginnis; "Testing of Electric Glow 

 Lamps," by William H. Preece ; " Description of 

 Two Electric Traveling Cranes in the Erith Iron 

 Works," by E. W. Anderson ; " Armor and Heavy 

 Ordnance Recent Developments and Standards," 

 by Capt. W. H. Jaques, U. S. N. ; "A New Spher- 

 ical Balanced Valve for all Pressures." by J. Casey ; 

 "Engineering Laboratory Apparatus," by Prof. 

 Hele Shaw; "An Account of the Art of Printing 

 in Colors," by T. Cond; "The New Expanded 

 Metal : Its Production and Uses," by H. B. Tarry ; 

 " Concerning Wreck Raising," by J. Bele ; " On 

 Horseless Road Locomotion," by A. B. Sennett. 

 Also the following report was presented : " On the 

 Effect of Wind and Atmospheric Pressure on the 

 Tides," by Augustus G. Vernon Harcourt. 



H. Anthropology. Thissection was presided over 

 by Arthur J. Evans, keeper of the Asmolean Muse- 

 um in Oxford, who delivered an address on " The 

 Eastern Question on Anthropology." At the outset 

 he said : " Anthropology, among other things, has 

 its ' eternal Eastern question.' Till within quite re- 

 cent years the glamor of the Orient pervaded all 

 inquiries as to the genesis of European civilization. 

 The biblical training of the northern nations pre- 

 pared the ground. The imperfect realization of the 

 antiquity of European arts ; on the other hand, the 

 imposing chronology of Egypt and Babylonia ; the 

 abiding force of classical tradition, which found in 

 the Phoenician a deus ex machina for exotic im- 

 portations ; finally, the ' Aryan hypothesis,' which 

 brought in the dominant European races as immi- 

 grant wanderers from central Asia, with a ready- 

 made stock of culture in their wallets these arid 

 other causes combined to create an exaggerated es- 

 timate of the part played by the East as the illumi- 

 nator of the benighted West. More recent investi- 

 gations have resulted in a natural reaction." He 

 discussed the "early ^Egean culture," and then 

 Crete and its influence was considered. His closing 



paragraph was: "In Crete, far earlier than else- 

 where, we can trace the vestiges of primeval inter- 

 course with the valley of the Nile. There more 

 clearly than in any other area we can watch the 

 continuous development of the germs which gave 

 birth to the higher JEgean culture. There before 

 the days of Phoenician contact a system of writing 

 had already been worked out which the Semite only 

 carried one step further. To Crete the earliest 

 Greek tradition looks back as the home of divinely 

 inspired legislation and the first center of maritime 

 dominion." 



Among the more important papers presented be- 

 fore this section were : " The Paleolithic Stone Im- 

 plements of Somaliland,'' by H. W. Seton Kerr : 

 " An Account of the Older Flint Implements of 

 Ireland," by W. J. Knowles ; "The Dolmens of 

 Brittany," by William A. Herdman : "On Pahi'o- 

 lithic Spearheads and Arrowheads from the Thames 

 Gravels " and " On Reworked Derived Flints," by 

 H. Stopes; "The Sculptured Stones of Scotland" 

 and " The Broohes of Scotland," by Miss Maclagan ; 

 " Physical Anthropology of the Isle of Man," by 

 A. W. Moore and John Beddoe ; " The Trinil Femur 

 (Pithecanthropus erectus) contrasted with the Fem- 

 ora of Various Savage and Civilized Races," by 

 David Hepburn ; " Proportions of the Human 

 Body," by Dr. Garson ; " Some Pagan Survivals," 

 by F. T. Elworthy ; " Anthropological Opportuni- 

 ties in British New Guiana," by S. H. Ray ; " A 

 Method of determining the Value of Folklore as 

 Ethnological Data illustrated by Survivals of Fire 

 Worships in the British Isles," by G. L. Gomme ; 

 " The Coast Indians of British Columbia and Alas- 

 ka, including the Flatheads of the South, the 

 Kwakuintls and Tsimpbians of the West Coast, the 

 Haidahs of Queen Charlotte's Island, the Klinghts , 

 of Alaska, and the Sticks of the Interior," by E. 

 Adlum ; " Cyprus and the Trade Routes of South- 

 eastern Europe," by J. L. Myres ; " The Transition 

 from Pure Copper to Bronze-made Tin," by John 

 H. Gladstone ; " The Starting Point of the Iron Age 

 in Europe," by W. Ridgway ; " Tyrrhenians in Greece 

 and Italy," by Dr. O. Montelius ; " Who produced 

 the Objects called Mycenaean? "by W. Ridgway; 

 "On Preclassical Chronology in Greece and Italy," 

 by 0. Montelius : " Recent Evidence in relation to 

 Pillar and Tree Worship in Mycenaean Greece," by 

 Arthur Evans; "The Ornament of Northwest Eu- 

 rope," by G. Coffey ; " Celtic and Scandinavian Or- 

 nament illustrated on the Monuments of the Isle 

 of Man," by P. M. C. Kermode ; " Sergi's Theory of 

 a Mediterranean Race," by J. L. Myres ; " A Pre- 

 historic Settlement in County Kerry," by R. A. S. 

 McAlister: "Boat Graves in Sweden," by H.Stolpe; 

 "On an Ethnological Storehouse," by W. M. Flin- 

 ders Petrie ; " On the Duk-Duk Organization of the 

 Kanakas of the Bismarck Archipelago in the Pa- 

 cific Ocean," by Graf von Pfeil ; " On Ancient Brit- 

 ish Interment^" by F. T. Elworthy ; " Points of 

 Resemblance between Irish Ogams of the Past and 

 the Australian Aborigines' Stick W'riting of the 

 Present," by Dr. Harley. 



Also the following reports were presented : " The 

 Mental and Physical Deviations from the Normal 

 among Children in Public Elementary and other 

 Schools," by Sir Douglas Galton ; " On the Ethno- 

 logical Survey of Great Britain and Ireland," by E. 

 W. Brabrook : " On the Physical Characters, Lan- 

 guages, and Industrial and Social Conditions of the 

 Northwestern Tribes of the Dominion of Canada," 

 and "On the Linguistic and Anthropological Char- 

 acteristics of the Northern Dravidian and Kolatu- 

 vian Races the Uranws. 



A resolution offered by C. H. Read, proposing the 

 establishment of an imperial bureau of ethnology 

 in London for information relating to the manners 



