August i8, 1923] 



NA TURE 



245 



Current Topics and Events. 



The text of the twelfth Huxley Memorial Lecture, 

 delivered recently by Sir Arthur Keith, is published 

 supplementarily to this issue. Its title, " The 

 Adaptational IMachinery concerned in the Evolution 

 of Man's Body," admirably defines the greatest of 

 present biological problems, " infinite in extent and 

 complexity," and still affording scope for " many 

 centuries of labour." Such phrases measure the 

 magnitude of Darwin's influence, exerted steadily for 

 over sixty years. The Huxley lecturer, speaking 

 from a vast knowledge of evolutionary biology, says 

 that we know of no means by which the machinery 

 of mechanical adaptation can be altered from without. 

 With Huxley, he believes that the government which 

 rules within the body of the embryo proceeds along 

 its way altogether uninfluenced by occurrences or 

 experiences which affect the body or brain of the 

 parent. The machinery of adaptation has its " pre- 

 determined line " of action. We may carp at the 

 word ; but Huxley's meaning seems clear enough : 

 he described a sequence in a natural order, not a 

 consequence of a supernatural order. How far we 

 have advanced along the thorny path which the great 

 Darwinians mapped out for us may be judged fairly 

 from the address itself. The question of use-inherit- 

 ance is crucial; and while every failure to demon- 

 strate its occurrence serves only to establish the 

 Darwinian theory more firmly, there are those who 

 still hope to find in the intricacies of the problem a 

 door of escape from the position assumed by Darwin 

 and Huxley and, we believe, the best and most 

 philosophical workers in biology to-day. Man, even 

 scientific man, does not seem altogether willing to 

 assume his rightful place in the Universe ; albeit the 

 place which Darwinism assigns to him is funda- 

 mentally securer and philosophically grander than 

 any other which individual or collective wit has 

 designed. We are still far from plumbing the deptn 

 of wonder of the Universe of which we are a part, 

 in which we " live, move, and have our being," and 

 the " many centuries " of Sir Arthur Keith that 

 separate us from that aim is a phrase that is good 

 only because it does not bring imagination to a halt. 

 This aspect of the Darwinian theory is still not widely 

 apprehended ; none of the natural sciences comes so 

 near to intriguing the personal prejudices of its 

 votaries as biology ; but as potent to confuse present 

 work and thought is that sterilising influence of great 

 ideas which, while they liberalise for a time, do so 

 spasmodically. Many workers, all unconsciously, 

 turn from Darwinism because it does for them not 

 too little but too much. Forty, thirty, and even 

 twenty years ago, comparative anatomy and embry- 

 ology pressed forward irresistibly with Darwinian 

 enthusiasm. During the " many centuries " ahead 

 the present reaction will probably have less signifi- 

 cance than appears now; but, for the clarification of 

 present work, Sir Arthur Keith's advocacy is timely. 



In a lecture entitled " Charles Darwin, 1809-1882 " 

 delivered to the teachers of the London County 

 Council on March 21, and now published (London : 



NO. 2807, VOL. I 12"! 



Cambridge University Press, 25. ^d. net). Prof. Karl 

 Pearson has brought out with great clearness the 

 importance of the successive revolutions in thought 

 caused by modern discoveries in astronomy, geology, 

 and anthropology, unified as the two kitter are by the 

 crowning achievement of Darwin. Prof. Pearson is 

 no doubt justified in attributing the comparatively 

 slow progress of scientific investigation before Darwin 

 to the fact that even among scientific men the date 

 of 4004 B.C. was commonly accepted for the creation 

 of the universe. Many excuses may be offered for 

 this obsession, but it is fair to remember that the date 

 represents only the computation by an Irish Arch- 

 bishop of the figures given in the existing text of 

 Genesis, and can scarcely be spoken of as having 

 been " fixed by the Church." Perhaps Prof. Pearson 

 is a little too much apt to revive the memory of " old 

 forgotten far-off things, and battles long ago." How- 

 ever, there can be no doubt of the magnitude of the 

 revolution effected by Darwin, a revolution which 

 has made itself felt in every department of human 

 thought. In view of recent occurrences in America, 

 it can scarcely be considered unnecessary to insist 

 once more on the indisputable fact that the doctrine 

 of evolution, thanks to Darwin, is now as thoroughly 

 established as any of the great generalisations of 

 science. Prof. Pearson does well also to emphasise 

 the admirable personal qualities of Darwin. 



About twenty years ago (see Nature, October 20, 

 1904, p. 602, and December 15, 1904, p. 156) the 

 performances in Berlin of an intelligent horse — 

 " Clever Hans " — were tested by a committee of 

 psychological experts. The conclusion arrived at was 

 that the performances of the animal, like those of 

 the horse " Mahomet," exhibited iix London several 

 years previously, and of performing animals generally, 

 depended chiefly upon observations of movements 

 of the trainer. An experiment carried out by the 

 Marconi Company in connexion with the Zoological 

 Society, at Regent's Park on August 9, supports this 

 conclusion as to the perceptual character of animal 

 thought. The trainer of an Indian elephant at the 

 Society's Gardens spoke to the animal from the 

 British Broadcasting Company's studio, and his voice 

 was distinctly heard in a loud-speaker arranged 

 against the elephant-house. Four orders were given 

 by the trainer, and, though they are always obeyed 

 immediately when he is near, the elephant took no 

 notice of them clearly uttered by the trumpet attached 

 to the wireless receiver. It is possible, of course, that 

 though the words could be heard easily by the people 

 present at the experiment and listening for them, the 

 absence of the trainer deprived the elephant of the 

 associative relation between sound and action. This 

 might be tested by connecting an electrophone with 

 a gramophone record of the trainer's orders, the 

 trainer himself being present but not actually speak- 

 ing. We should then learn whether an elephant can 

 recognise " His Master's Voice," like the Scotch 

 terrier of the well-known advertisement of gramo- 

 phones. 



