390 



NATURE 



{Sept. 7, 1876 



Through the past labours of these men and of their 

 chief officers, the business of the meteorological office 

 has now probably been put into a satisfactory position 

 that will render unnecessary for the future any very 

 great expenditure of energy upon the details of admi- 

 nistration. 



But such an arrangement, however excellent in a 

 business point of view, must nevertheless necessarily fall 

 short in developing scientific research. For this the un- 

 divided attention of several men of science must be 

 secured, and the question we would here wish to submit 

 to the consideration of our readers is the following. 



Would not the combination of a few such men devoting 

 their whole time to the subject, together with other men 

 who though well acquainted with the subject, and otherwise 

 qualified, are yet unable to devote their whole time to it, 

 constitute the best possible committee of the future ? We 

 need hardly say that the functions of such a board would 

 not be limited to that of producing research within itself. 

 It ought likewise to stimulate and aid outsiders by various 

 means, including advice and perhaps pecuniary aid. It might 

 attach to itself as occasional members the meteorologists 

 of the provinces, inviting their co-operation, giving and 

 receiving advice, and it might even associate with itself as 

 corresponding members, the meteorologists of the colonies 

 and of foreign countries. In fine, the subject is one which 

 perhaps more than any other demands the united action 

 of men of various nations. 



From what has just been said, it will readily appear 

 that the sources of information upon which such a com- 

 mittee will draw in their investigations will by no means 

 be confined to those which are under their own immediate 

 control. The stores accumulated by foreign and colonial 

 observers will, of course, be greatly drawn upon, and not 

 only so, but the committee will doubtless also avail them- 

 selves of the stores of information possessed by other 

 Governmental departments, as, for instance, those under 

 the control of the hydrographer, who would naturally be 

 a prominent member of the meteorological board, lending 

 them his valuable assistance and co-operation. Besides 

 the hydrographer, it would probably be found necessary 

 to have, at least, three members of the board represent- 

 ing the three divisions of the subject already alluded to, 

 who should be content to devote their whole time to their 

 respective inquiries. The remainder would be composed 

 of distinguished men interested in the subject, but unable 

 to devote their whole time to it, embracing amongst 

 them one or more mathematical physicists of high 

 reputation. 



If it be asserted that there are difficulties in the way of 

 such an arrangement, it may be replied that undoubtedly 

 there are ; but if the subject were not one of difficulty, 

 the Government would probably not have consulted the 

 Royal Society from the very commencement of their in- 

 quiries. Such a powerful engine as a distinguished scien- 

 tific committee, some of whom are pledged to devote their 

 whole time, and others a portion of it, to the progress of 

 scientific meteorology, is not meant to be used for the 

 mere chopping of straws. The appropriate function of 

 such a committee is surely that of overcoming difficulties. 



P^LFOUR Stewart 



THE ''ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICAP 



EncydopcBdia Britannica. Vol. IV. (Edinburgh : Adam 



and Charles Black.) 



'T^HE most prominent scientific contribution to the 

 ■'- fourth volume of the " Encylopaedia Britannica" 

 is Prof. Balfour's article on Botany. In fact, with two 

 other articles, it occupies a fourth of the whole number of 

 pages, and this, together with its very comprehensive 

 title, leads the reader to expect a tolerably complete 

 review of all the various fields of botanical science, an 

 expectation which is confirmed by their enumeration in 

 the opening paragraphs. A little further examination 

 shows, however, that it only treats of a single branch ; the 

 «' Structure and Morphology of Plants ; " " Classification" 

 and " Distribution in Time and Space" are deferred for 

 separate articles, and " Vegetable Physiology " has appa- 

 rently dropped out of sight altogether. Any division of 

 the matter is, for many reasons, better in an Encyclo- 

 paedia than to despatch a whole subject en blocv^'x'Ca. what 

 is substantially a textbook rather than an article. But it 

 is impossible not to regret that the vegetable side of 

 Biology has not had a carefully planned series of contri- 

 butions by different hands devoted to it like those which 

 from the volumes already published appear to have been 

 arranged for the animal side. And it is at any rate not easy 

 to see why, as it is, one of several contributions should arro- 

 gate to itself the general title belonging to the whole. 

 What would be thought of an article headed Zoology which 

 only dealt with the myology of mammals .'' 



The "Encyclopaedia Britannica" has become, in its 

 present edition, in a sense a national undertaking. It is 

 so well supported by the best men in different depart- 

 ments of knowledge that it will no doubt come to be 

 regarded as having a kind of representative character. 

 The utterances of the several contributors will be taken 

 as a kind of measure of the state of opinion in this 

 country in each subject. From this point of view it is 

 impossible not to feel that Prof. Balfour's exposition is 

 disappointing as coming from so eminent a teacher, and 

 that the idea it gives of botanical science is unsuggestive 

 to the last degree. 



Passing over an historical sketch of which many of the 

 details, such as the last illness of the elder De CandoUe, 

 are essentially biographical, we commence with the 

 " Structural Elements of Plants," in other words, their 

 " General Histology." This opens with an account of the 

 cell, which, even in its youngest condition, is stated to 

 contain a sap-cavity ; this is by no means the case, and 

 the adjoining illustration, to which reference is made, 

 shows cells with unvacuolated protoplasm, unless the 

 nucleus is made to do duty for a vacuole. On the next 

 page we are told that protoplasm " consists of albuminous 

 substance mixed with water, and some incombustible 

 materials," and that " it also contains some organic com- 

 pounds ; " are we to infer from this that albuminous sub- 

 stance is inorganic ? From the cell we pass to the 

 consideration of tissues, which are divided into cellular 

 and vascular. This distinction carries us back half a 

 century to DeCandolle's "OrganographieVe'gdtale" (1827). 

 Vegetable histologists have, indeed, laboured in vain frgm 



