48 



NATURE 



[March o. k)? i 



summer songsters as they hasten hard after the 

 northin}^^ sun. The tale each map is intended to tell 

 is made evident on its face by a system of signs, but 

 they are intelligible, however, only to those acquainted 

 with the earlier reports. As the student may not always 

 have these at hand, it would be advantageous and 

 would save some "language," if the editor would, as 

 already suggested in Nati;ke of May 26, have the 

 interpretation of the hieroglyphical brackets inserted 

 in the preface or cause explanatory legends to be 

 attached to e.'ich map; for the signs have not in- 

 variably the same meaning in all of them, while 

 occasionally new signs are introduced without ex- 

 planation, such as the hexacrons and octagons which 

 are used in the present report. 



There is considerable inconsistency also in the plot- 

 tings of the observations. In some schedules the 

 earliest arrivals, even if solitary, are entered, but not 

 invariably : in others, movements mentioned in the 

 chronological summary, which appear to us to be of 

 importance, are ignored for no obvious reason. In 

 the diary of the swallow, for instance, the summary 

 includes a large; number of records for May, yet the 

 whole of them (with the exception of those for "'2," 

 ■7-14," and "3," on the south coast), although 

 numerous and apparently as important as those of 

 March and April, are entirely unscheduled. So far, 

 also, as appears from the map, there was in 1909 only 

 a single swallow immigration, yet the summary alludes 

 to several, and in previous years as many as five are 

 separately mapped. In the section entitled " Un- 

 scheduled Birds," sixty-six birds are recorded, and are 

 listed in many cases with fuller details than those given 

 for the scheduled species. It would be an advantage to 

 those studying the evidence, we think, if, in future 

 reports, both scheduled and unscheduled birds were 

 incorporated in one list, the latter in less prominent 

 type, if need be. There is as much to be learned 

 from the one set as from the other. It would, like- 

 wise, be important and verv interestinp' to have light- 

 house records for the arriving as well as for the 

 departing bird-streams, and to know if the spring 

 flocks are composed of as mixed assemblages of 

 species as those of the autumn. It would be worth 

 trying also to ascertain whether, if this be not the 

 case on arrival, it be so as they start from their 

 winter quarters. 



Those who have followed this inquiry will remem- 

 ber that the reports which the committee have pre- 

 sented during the last five years are but fuller con- 

 tinuations of the investigations carried on for so 

 many years bv a British Association committee. The 

 present committee, in their second report, hoped " that 

 ill a few years results of considerable value may be 

 obtained." Many ornithologists are of opinion that 

 if these elaborate and costly compilations are ever to 

 contribute to the solution of the migration mystery 

 some results ought by now to be showing on the 

 surface. Yet if we search through the four last re- 

 ports, we fail to discover any fact of real significance 

 which is not to be found in the first. The dates of 

 the arrival and departure of our migrants are seen 

 t.) vary slightly from rear to year ; the wave mav be 

 larger or smaller, and the snecies which make their 

 port of entry in one year east of the Isle of Wight 

 may choose one to west of it in other years. But 

 of what importance is this information to the 

 pioblem? Five years ago it was believed that the 

 methods adopted by the committee would probably 

 provide material for valuable generalisations. Year 

 after year passes, and our disappointment grows 

 that we seem no " forarder " in our quest. It is be- 

 coming daily clearer that the area of observation is 

 far too limited, for the land-patch of England and 

 Wales is no more to the wide area covered bv | 

 NO. 2158, VOL. 86] 



migrants than Trafalgar Square is to the county of 

 Middlesex. The complex problems — the cause of the 

 impulse, whether it originates within or outside the 

 birds, and whether it afTects all species, though in 

 different degrees : how the young birds (if in autumn 

 they really — which is very questionable — precede their 

 parents into uncharted space) find their way, and other 

 such questions, cannot be solved by tabulating the 

 momentary vision of a passing bird in association 

 with local meteorological or other conditions which it 

 encounters by chance en route, except over a wider 

 area than these reports deal with, and by taking many 

 other influences into consideration. 



We firmly believe that no contributions of real vaiu" 

 to this inquiry can be attained, if they ever are to \u- 

 attained, except by the united international action of 

 ornithological societies in marking vast numbers of 

 parents as well as nestlings in their breeding locali- 

 ties, of " the thousands " also of those that are tem- 

 porarilv dazed at lighthouses, and of northern species 

 while in winter quarters in various regions of Africa, 

 and of southern Asia and America. Only thus are 

 w° likely to discover what awakens the migratory 

 impulse at a particular date, whether meteorological 

 changes, deficiency of food supply, decrease of sun- 

 heat and light, or other external causes, or whether 

 none of these have any influence, and perhaps soldv 

 an inherited periodical brain-storm impels them to 

 the road. Only by the capture of birds, numerouslv 

 marked at their nesting-places in northern and in 

 their winter quarters in southern latitudes, can their 

 routes, out and home, be plotted and dated with anv 

 approach to exactitude. .Such an inquiry must needs 

 be protracted even with united world-wide interaction ; 

 but it seems more hopeful than any other. Moreover, 

 it is urgent, and ought to be commenced at once. The 

 mystery of migration may, nevertheless, elude the 

 best efforts of our generation towards its solution. 



JO HAN GADOLIN.^ 



JOHAN GADOLIN, one of the most distinguished 

 of Finnish tnen of science, occupies a well-defined 

 position in the history of chemistry. He was a pupil 

 of Bergman, a friend of Scheele, and the forerunner 

 of Berzelius. He served as a connecting link, as it 

 were, in the new departure of the science as initiated 

 by the workers at Upsala, and as so splendidly fur- 

 thered by the secretary of the Stockholm Academy. 

 Gadolin's scientific activity was, in fact, concentrated 

 within the two decades which elapsed between the 

 death of Scheele and the coming of Berzelius, and 

 his labours worthily upheld the traditions of the Scandi- 

 navian school. 



Gadolin came of a family which had long been as-o- 

 ciated with learning and scholarship in Finland. He 

 was born June 5, 1760, at Abo, then the capital of 

 Finland, and the seat of its university. His father, 

 Jacob Gadolin, was formerlv professor of physic, 

 afterwards of theology, and ultimately Bishop of .Abo. 

 His maternal grandfather, Johan Browallius, a con- 

 temporary and friend of Linne, had also served as 

 professor of physic, and, like his son-in-law, was 

 likewise made a bishop. After passing through the 

 High School of his native town, the voung Gadolin 

 attended the lectures of Pehr Adrian Gadd, the first 

 to hold a chair of chemistry in the Finnish Univer- 

 sity. Attracted by the fame of Torbern Bergman, 

 then one of the foremost leaders of chemical science 

 in northern Europe, he passed over to Upsala, where 

 he remained four years. During that time he became 

 known to Scheele, and was on terms of intimate 



1 Johan Gadolin, 1760-1852. In Memoriam. Wis^enschaftliche Abhand- 

 lug^n lohan Gadolins in Auswaht. Herause^eeben von Edv. Hjelt tind 

 Roht. Tigerstedt. Pp. cii + 287. (Leipzig: S. Hirzel, n.d.) Price 12 marks. 



