ASSOCIATIONS FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. (BRITISH.) 



Challenger expedition. The -subject of his ad- 

 dress was the Ocean's Floor. He said : " It was 

 the desire to establish telegraphic communica- 

 tion between Europe and America that gave the 

 first direct impulse to the scientific exploration 

 of the great ocean basins, and at the present day 

 the survey of new cable routes still yields each 

 year a large amount of accurate knowledge re- 

 garding the floor of the ocean." Taking up spe- 

 cial topics, he showed from statistics that con- 

 siderably more th'an half of the sea floor lies at 

 a depth exceeding 2,000 fathoms, or more than 

 2 geographical miles. The greatest depth re- 

 corded is 5,155 fathoms, or 530 feet more than 

 5 geographical miles, being about 2,000 feet more 

 below the level of the sea than the summit of 

 Mount Everest is above it. Concerning the ocean 

 floor, he said : " The deep sea is a region of dark- 

 ness as well as of low temperature, for the first 

 direct rays of the sun are wholly absorbed in 

 passing through the superficial layers of water. 

 Plant life, in consequence, is quite absent over 93 

 per cent, of the bottom of the ocean, or 66 per 

 cent, of the whole surface of the lithosphere." 

 He referred to the changes in progress on the 

 floor of the ocean, and discussed the causes of 

 the changes in the surface of land areas. In 

 closing he made an appeal for aid to carry to a 

 successful issue the proposed antarctic exploring 

 expedition. 



The following-named papers were read and dis- 

 cussed before the section : Description of an Arc- 

 tic Voyage in the Russian Ice-breaker Yermak, 

 by Admiral Makuroff ; Physical Observations in 

 the Barents Sea, by William S. Bruce; The Voy- 

 age of the Southern Cross from Hobart to Cape 

 Adare, by Hugh R. Mill; The Problem of Ant- 

 arctic Exploration, by M. H. Arctowski; The 

 Physical and Chemical Work of an Antarctic 

 Expedition, by John Y. Buchanan; On the Flora 

 of the Seas, by George Murray; Travels in East 

 Bokhara, by Mrs. W. R. Rickmers; An Account 

 of a Journey in Western Oaxaca, Mexico, by 

 O. H. Howarth; An Account of the Oceanological 

 and Meteorological Results of the German Deep- 

 sea Expedition in the Steamship Valdivia, by G. 

 Schott; The Mean Temperature of the Surface 

 Waters of the Sea round the British Coast, and 

 its Relation to that of the Air, and Temperature 

 and Salinity of the Surface Waters of the North 

 Atlantic during 1896 and 1897, by H. N. Dickson; 

 The Nomenclature of the Forms of Suboceanic 

 Relief, by Hugh R. Mill; Bathymetrical Survey 

 of the Scottish Fresh-water Locks, by Sir John 

 Murray and F. P. Pullar; Twelve Years' Work 

 of the Ordnance Survey, by Sir John Farquhar- 

 son; Sand Dunes in Lower Egypt, by Vaughan 

 Cornish; A Visit to the Kartchkhal Mountains 

 in Transcaucasia, by W. R. Rickmers; On the 

 Anthropogeography of New Guinea and Sara- 

 wak, by Alfred C. Haddon; Travels through 

 Abyssinia, by Capt. Wellby; An Account of a 

 Journey to Wilczek Land and a Winter in the 

 Arctic Regions, by Walter Wellman, of Washing- 

 ton city, U. S. A.; and On Oceanic Islands, by 

 Charles W. Andrews. 



F. Economic Science and Statistics. The pre- 

 siding officer of this section was Henry Higgs, 

 who is secretary of the British Economic Associa- 

 tion and is connected with the English civil 

 service. The subject of his address was The Con- 

 dition of the People. He said : " The prime con- 

 cern of the economist and of the statistician is 

 the condition of the people. The statistician 

 measures the changing phenomena of the pro- 

 duction, distribution, and consumption of wealth, 

 which to a large extent reflect and determine the 

 VOL. xxxix. 4 A 



material condition of the people. The economist 

 analyzes the motives of these phenomena, and 

 endeavors to trace the connection between cause 

 and effect." Mr. Higgs then contended that " we 

 want, above all, the careful, minute, systematic 

 observation of life as effected by environment, 

 heredity, and habit." Concerning wages, he said: 

 " It is now necessary for us to distinguish between 

 real wages and utilities; not to stop at the fact 

 that so many shillings a week might procure 

 such and such necessaries, comforts, or luxuries, 

 but to ascertain how they are expended." The 

 defects of household management received due 

 attention, and he contended that great possibili- 

 ties in the economic progress would result from 

 attention being paid to the humblest details of 

 domestic life. The waste in the consumption of 

 food was discussed, and he told how, owing to 

 the great cheapness of bananas during a recent 

 severe strike, the strikers had sustained them- 

 selves and their families on this fruit at a trifling 

 cost. Other forms of waste, such as coal, were 

 mentioned, and he quoted Edward Atkinson to 

 the effect that the waste of food from bad cook- 

 ing in the United States amounted to $1,000,000,- 

 000 a year. He contrasted the economies of the 

 French people with those at home, and referred 

 to the desirability of municipal management of 

 funerals. He quoted largely from Le Play's 

 monograph, Family Budgets, saying: " They yield 

 excellent material, upon which science in its vari- 

 ous branches has yet to do work which will 

 benefit mankind in general, and promises espe- 

 cially to benefit the people of this country.''' 



The following-named papers were read and dis- 

 cussed before the section: Aspects of American 

 Municipal Finance, by John H. Hollander, of 

 Baltimore, Md., U. S. A.; Municipal Trading and 

 Profits, by Robert Donald; The Single Tax, by 

 William Smart; The State as an Investor, by E. 

 Cannon ; The Mercantile System, by G. J. Stokes ; 

 On the Mercantile System of Laissez Faire, by 

 Miss Ethel R. Faraday; Geometrical Illustrations 

 of the Theory of Rent, by J. D. Everett; On the 

 Modes of representing Statistics, by F. Y. Edge- 

 worth; Agricultural Wages from 1770 to 1895, 

 by A. L. Bowley; On the Census of 1901, by Miss 

 Clara E. Collet; On the Cause of Average Wages 

 between 1790 and 1860, by George H. Wood; 

 The Regulation of Wages by Lists in the Spin- 

 ning Industry, by S. J. Chapman; The Teaching 

 University of London and its Faculty of Eco- 

 nomics, by Sir Philip Magnus; The Increase in 

 Local Rates in England and Wales, 1891-'92 to 

 1896-'97, by Miss Hewart; Bank Reserves, by 

 George II. Pownall; Indian Currency after the 

 Report of the Commissioner, by Hermann 

 Schmidt; The Silver Question in Relation to Brit- 

 ish Trade, by J. M. Macdonald ; Results of Recent 

 Poor-law Reform, by Harold E. Moore; and Old- 

 age Pensions in Denmark, by A. W. Flux. 



G. Mechanical Science. Sir William H. White, 

 F. R. S., who is assistant controller and director 

 of naval construction in the English Admiralty, 

 was the presiding officer of this section. His 

 address treated of Steam Navigation at High 

 Speeds. He said that progress in steam naviga- 

 tion had been marked by the following character- 

 istics: 1. Growth in dimensions and weight of 

 ships, and large increase in engine power as 

 speeds have been raised. 2. Improvements in 

 marine engineering, accompanying increase of 

 steam pressure; economy of fuel and reduction in 

 the weight of propelling apparatus in proportion 

 to the power developed. 3. Improvements in the 

 materials used in ship-building; better structural 

 arrangements; relatively lighter hulls and larger 



