50 



ASSOCIATIONS FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. (BRITISH.) 



carrying power. 4. Improvements in form, lead- 

 ing to diminished resistance and economy of 

 power expended in propulsion. These character- 

 istics were illustrated by a concise survey of the 

 progress achieved (1) by transatlantic passenger 

 steamers, (2) by swift passenger steamers for 

 long voyages, (3) by cargo and passenger steam- 

 ers, and (4) by cross-channel steamers. He told 

 how speed had been increased from 8J to 22J 

 knots, and the time on the voyage reduced to 

 about 38 per cent, of what it was in 1840. " Ships 

 have been more than trebled in length, about 

 doubled in breadth, and increased tenfold in dis- 

 placement. The number of passengers carried by 

 a steamship has been increased from about 100 

 to nearly 2,000. The engine power has been 

 made 40 times as great." The size and speed of 

 war ships was discussed, and he showed how the 

 speed of a war ship in 1860 was from 12 to 13 

 knots, while at present from 20 to 23 knots are 

 obtained. Modern battle ships are of 13,000 to 

 15,000 tons, and modern cruisers of 10,000 to 

 14,000 tons, not merely because they are faster 

 than their predecessors, but because they have 

 greater powers of offense and defense and pos- 

 sess greater coal endurance. He showed the ad- 

 vantages of increased dimensions, and then 

 passed to an interesting description of swift tor- 

 pedo vessels. Concerning these he said : " The 

 results obtained in torpedo vessels show such a 

 wide departure from those usual in seagoing 

 ships as to suggest the possibility of some inter- 

 mediate type of propelling apparatus applicable 

 to large seagoing ships, and securing sufficient 

 durability and economy of fuel in association 

 with further savings of weight." He described at 

 length the steam turbo-motor recently introduced 

 by Charles Parsons, and in conclusion discussed 

 the future possibilities of speed, asserting that 

 in the immediate future " further reductions may 

 be anticipated in the weight of propelling ap- 

 paratus and fuel in proportion to the power de- 

 veloped; further savings in the weight of the 

 hulls, arising from the use of stronger materials 

 and improved structural arrangements; improve- 

 ments in form and enlargements in dimensions " ; 

 also, " if greater draughts of water can be made 

 possible, so much the better for carrying power 

 and speed." 



The following-named papers were read and dis- 

 cussed before the section: On the Dover Harbor 

 Works, by William Matthews and J. C. Coode; 

 On Noninflammable Wood and its Use in War 

 Ships, by E. Marshall Fox; A Short History of 

 the Engineering Works of the Suez Canal to the 

 Present Time, by Sir Charles Hart'ey; A De- 

 scription of Suggestions made for Fast Cross- 

 channel Steamers to be fitted with the Parsons 

 Steam Turbine, by Charles Parsons; Niclausse 

 Steam Boilers, by Mark Robinson; The Method 

 of Under- water Torpedo Discharge adopted by 

 Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth & Company, 

 by Capt. Lloyd; Electrical Machinery on Board 

 Ship, by Alexander Siemens; A Contribution to 

 the Knowledge of the Electric Conductivity and 

 Magnetic Properties of an Extensive Series of 

 Iron Alloys, by W. F. Barrett and William 

 Brown; A Method of E'ectric Railway Signaling 

 without Contact, by Wilfred S. Boult; Some Re- 

 cent Applications of Electro-metallurgy to Me- 

 chanical Engineering, by Sherard C. Coles; On 

 the Lighthouses of the English Channel, by 

 James Kenward; Recent Experiences with Steam 

 on Common Roads, by J. I. Thornycraft; Dym- 

 church Wall and the Reclamation of Romney 

 Marsh, by E. Case; An Apparatus by which the 

 Circularity of Boiler Furnaces could be tested, 



by T. Messenger; and Some Experiments on the 

 Thrust and Power of Air Propellers, by William 

 G. Walker. 



H. Anthropology. This section was presided 

 over by Charles H. Read, who is the keeper of 

 British and mediseval antiquities in the British 

 Museum. In his address he called attention to 

 the fact that in Great Britain there is a greater 

 variety of prehistoric and later remains than is 

 seen in most European countries, and yet in the 

 absence of any organized means for their pres- 

 ervation many ancient remains have been plowed 

 down almost to the level of the surrounding 

 country, thus scattering bones and other relics 

 unnoticed over the field. Such accidental and 

 casual destruction can only be remedied by en- 

 lightening public opinion through local scien- 

 tific societies. " The plan I would propose," he 

 said, " is this : Each society should record on the 

 large scale ordnance map any tumulus or earth- 

 work within the country, and at the same time 

 keep a register of the sites, with numbers refer- 

 ring to the map, and in this register should be 

 noted the names of the owner and tenant of the 

 property, as well as any details that would be 

 of use in exploring the tumuli." Mr. Read de- 

 scribed the steps taken toward the formation of 

 a bureau of ethnology, and said : " Within a 

 short time we shall have an organization that 

 will systematically gather the records of the 

 many races which are either disappearing before 

 the advancing white man, or, what is equally 

 fatal from the anthropological point of view, are 

 rapidly adopting the white man's habits and for- 

 getting their own." Attention was called to the 

 fact that the museums of anthropology in Berlin 

 surpass those in London ; thus " the British prov- 

 ince of Assam is represented in Berlin by a whole 

 room, and in London by a single case." This 

 led to a plea for more ample accommodation 

 and for more extensive teaching. He said : " I 

 should like to say that courses of lectures in an- 

 thropology delivered in the same building would 

 form a fitting crown to such a scheme for a really 

 imperial museum such as I have endeavored to 

 sketch. There is but one chair of anthropology 

 in this country, and there is ample room and 

 ample material to justify the creation of a sec- 

 ond." Failing to secure more accommodations 

 in the British Museum, the natural home of such 

 a collection, he recommended the conversion of 

 the Imperial Institute into " such a museum of 

 anthropology as I have indicated, but, of course, 

 as a Government institution. I am by no means 

 an advocate of the creation of new institutions 

 if the old ones can adequately do their work. 

 But the removal of the ethnographical and anthro- 

 pological collections from the British Museum to 

 the galleries of the Imperial Institute would pos- 

 sess so many manifest advantages that the dis- 

 advantages need scarcely be considered." 



The following-named papers were read and dis- 

 cussed before the section: The Personal Equation 

 in the Anthropometry of Criminals, by J. G. 

 Garson; The Finger Prints of Young ' Children, 

 by Francis Galton; On the Finger Print as a 

 Means of identifying Criminals, by E. R. Henry; 

 The Cambridge Expedition to Torres Straits and 

 New Guinea and Some of the Totem Customs 

 of the Yarai Kanna Tribe of Cape York, North 

 Queensland, by Alfred C. Haddon; The Lin- 

 guistic Results of the Cambridge Expedition to 

 Torres Straits and New Guinea, by Sidney H. 

 Ray; Some Observations on Savage Music and 

 Observations on Hearing, Smell, Taste, Reaction, 

 and Time, by C. S. Myers; On the Clubs, Houses, 

 and Dubus of British New Guinea, by C, G. Selig- 



