ASS.M-IATIONS FOR Till-: ADVANCKMKNT OF S ||;\i K. (BKITWII.) 



47 



tiiul jM.licie.- ..I' Spain iiinl I'otltiiral. who exhausted 



!i in a task far beyond their itmvi i 



pOMemion t' tropical countries only, ami abandon, d 



!.ni.l the les> attraetiv c. luit ill reality far more 



''mil-. f North America. Kngluiid was 



lablcd In become tin- rounder of ival colonies, 



tin- iii.'tlu-r of nations, mill her luniruuiro, customs, 



mid iHilitical institutions found u home in a new 



world. And MOW, when the old highway tliroiiu'li 



i ha.> lieell reopened. when tile wealth 



tlo\\iii'_r throiiirh the Canal of Sue/, is beginning to 

 n-vivify tin- commerce of Italy, Kliirland may eom 



fort herself with the thought that in Her own colonies, 



mid in the stale- \\ hi.-h have sprung "p across the 

 Atlantie, she may til id e.nii|ieiisation for any po--i 



hie lo that may accrue to her through geographica] 



advantage.-. hcinironee more allowed to liuvc full play. 



Among the papers read before this section, the 

 following arc worthy of mention: "The Art of 

 olisen iiiLT." by John Coles; "Geographical Edu- 

 cation," by J. S. Keltie; "The Treeless Charac- 

 ter of Prairies," by Miller Christie ; " The Homol- 

 ogy of Continents," by H. R. Mill; "The Com- 

 parative Value of African Lands," by A. S. 

 White ; " Suggestions for. the Revision and Im- 

 provement of Large Scale Maps of the Ordnance 

 Survey," by Henry T. Crook: "Antarctic Explo- 

 ration," bv Delmar Morgan ; " Photography ap- 



Slied to Exploration," by John Thompson ; " A 

 ourney in the Lake-Ngami Region," by H. D. 

 Buckle ; " A Visit to Kilima-Njaro and Lake 

 Chala," by Mrs. French Sheldon ; " The Geog- 

 raphy of Southwest Africa," by Henry Schlich- 

 ter ; and * k The Physical Aspects of 'the Him- 

 alayas and Notices of the Inhabitants," by J. 

 Tanner. 



F. Economic Science and Statistics. This 

 section was presided over by W. Cunningham, 

 who delivered an address on " Nationalism and 

 Cosmopolitanism in Economics," consisting es- 

 sentially of considerations on present-day prob- 

 lems gathered from the experience of past times. 

 He endeavored to show that nations and national 

 distinctions are not such important elements in 

 actual commercial life as they used to be, and 

 that this gradual change, as it proceeds further 

 and further, will necessitate modifications in cur- 

 rent economic doctrine. He said : 



Society is too frequently regarded as an aggregate 

 <>f .-'malar individuals whose actions can all be repre- 

 sented with sufficient accuracy by the Benthamite 

 analysis of motives. Such a conception of society is 

 surely out of date to-day. In tin- family there is a 

 natural social and economic unit which was of much 

 uetual importance before English municipalities arose, 

 Ukd before English national lite asserted itself in eco- 



i.- attairs. The family is a natural unit, which is 

 destined to survive even if our national industry and 

 commerce arc more, and more merged in cosmopolitan 

 and international progress. Economists may com- 

 plain that they arc misunderstood; but a historian 

 may be inclined to insist that, since human nature 

 and institutions change so much, it is most important 

 that our hypotheses regarding them should be stated 

 fully and clearly. Carelessness had been shown by 

 those economists among whom the doctrine of a wages 

 fund grew up. They did not dcti.ie it as tixcd, but 

 they thought and argued about it as though it was 

 fixecLowing to the actual circumstances of their times, 

 which they implicitly assumed. These conditions 

 have passed away, but we need not denounce those 

 who formulated a theory of wutres which was, on the 

 whole, applicable to the times in which they lived, 

 because these times have chunked, mid it is no longer 

 BO applicable to ours. If we an- t preserve and de- 

 velop economics on all its sides, both us a formal 



science which deals With the relation* between !<<,- 



nomic unit* of all kind* and us an instrument for in 

 vcML'utiri;.' actual facts and understanding tin 

 ter, we HUM be careful to -, -i- that our In 1'otheno* are 

 appropriate to the actual conditions of life, and moat 

 anxious in our endeavor to state fully the condition* 

 we assume. 



The following were among the more impor- 

 tant papers read before this section: " Lalmr 

 and Capital," by C. H. Perkins; "On the Al- 

 leged Differences in the Wages paid to .Men 

 and Women for Similar Work, by Sidney Webb; 

 "The Taxation of Inventors," by Louis Ed- 

 munds ; " Recent Material Progress in Indian 

 Agriculture," by C. L. Tupper: "Indian Hail- 

 way Communication," by W. Furnivall ; The 

 Data available for determining the Host Limit 

 (Physically) for Hours of Labor," by Dr. A rl id ire : 

 " The Cure of Consumption in its Economic As- 

 pects," by G. W. Hambleton ; " The Increase of 

 Food and Population," by W. E. Axon ; " Le 

 Play's Method of Systematic Observation," by 

 F. Aubertin ; and " Recent Changes in the Dis- 

 tribution of Population in England and Wales," 

 by E. Cannon. 



G. Mechanical Science. The address before 

 this section was delivered by T. Forster Brown, 

 who referred to the progress which had been 

 made in connection with locomotive and marine 

 engines in such works as the Severn Tunnel, the 

 Forth and Tay bridges, and the Manchester ship 

 canal. In mining, the progress had been slow, 

 and it was a remarkable fact that, with the ex- 

 ception of pumping, the machinery in use in con- 

 nection with mining operations in Great Britain 

 had not, in regard to economy, advanced so rap- 

 idly as had been the case in our manufactures and 

 marine. This was probably due, in metalliferous 

 mining, to the uncertain nature of the mineral 

 deposits not affording any adequate security to 

 adventurers that the increased cost of adapting 

 improved appliances would be reimbursed ; while 

 in coal mining the cheapness of fuel, the large 

 proportion which manual labor bore to the total 

 cost of producing coal, and the necessity for 

 producing large outputs with the simplest ap- 

 pliances, explained in some measure the reluc- 

 tance with which high-pressure steam compound 

 engines and other modes embracing the most 

 modern and approved types of economizing 

 power had been adopted. In the raising of coal 

 and placing it on board ship there was a vast 

 amount of machinery employed, much of which 

 was now of an obsolete type. When, however, 

 new winnings had been made, or where in old 

 mines it had been found necessary to replace the 

 old machinery by new, the question of efficiency, 

 and at the same time economy, had of late years 

 received serious attention. Electricitv had made 

 rapid strides as a motive power, and there was 

 no doubt that, in conjunction with a better type 

 of machinery for the compression of air, it would 

 eventually become the principal agent in under- 

 ground operations. Many large electrical in- 

 stallations had already been in use for a consid- 

 erable period; but there must be still great 

 improvement in electric plant before it would 

 be adopted in preference to other machinery 

 now in general use, especially in gaseous mines; 

 and these improvements must embrace a certain 

 means of rendering sparking absolutely harm- 



