422 



Supplement to '* Nature,'' September 15, 1923 



per acre and j)cr liead of the population was rising, 

 not falling ; the price of corn relatively to other 

 commodities was falling, not rising, up to the eve of 

 War. There is still room for the expansion of the white 

 races. In Britain, as distinct from Europe as a whole, 

 the rate of material progress which marked the Victorian 

 age was not maintained from 1900 to 1910 ; this 

 apparent check, however, may have been temporary 

 and due to special causes. 



In considering the position of Britain after the War, 

 the example of German Austria, a highly specialised 

 and advanced community depending on free trade over 

 a large and varied area, is apposite. The optimum 

 density of pt)puliition in any given region depends, not 

 on that region alone, but also on the economic condi- 

 tions and needs of the rest of the world. A decline of 

 international dealing hurts all, but most of all the 

 highly specialised communities typified by German 

 Austria and Britain. The suggestion that we should 

 avoid the " Austrian risk " in future by aiming at self- 

 sufficiency is not practical. Britain, as we know it, 

 and with anything like its present population, depends 

 upon peace and trade. Its excessive unemployment 

 to-day can be fully explained by the War and its after- 

 math of economic disorganisation, and the remedy 

 must be sought elsewhere than in birth control. 



Though, however, increased birth control is not re- 

 quired by the conditions of Europe before the War and 

 is irrelevant to its present troubles, the problem of 

 numbers has to be faced. Man cannot with safety 

 indefinitely reduce the death-rate and leave the birth- 

 rate to look after itself ; as a matter of history, he has 

 at almost all stages of his development limited the 

 number of his descendants. The problem of popula- 

 tion is, at the moment, a matter for suspension of judg- 

 ment and inquiry. Two inquiries in particular are 

 suggested : one, into the potential agricultural re- 

 sources of the world, analogous to the inquiries made 

 at various times as to coal ; the other, into the physical, 

 psychological, and social effects of the restriction of 

 fertility which has become general among European 

 races in the past fifty years. 



Transport and its Debt to Science. 



Sir Henry Fowler's address to Section G 

 (Engineering) deals with the subject of transport and 

 its indebtedness to science. Since its foundation the 

 city of Liverpool has been associated with transport, 

 and no town owes so much to the facilities to trade 

 which transport has afforded, or has played so fre- 

 quently the part of a pioneer in the inception of new 

 methods . The Mersey and Trent Canal, the Manchester 

 Ship Canal, the Rainhill Railway trials, the electrifica- 

 tion of the Liverpool and Southport railway, and the 

 Commercial Motor Trials of the Liverpool Self-Pro- 

 pelled Traffic Association testify to this. 



All advances in methods of transport have been the 

 result of the availability of scientific knowledge. Since 

 the time of Watt these advances have taken place 

 when the " ordered knowledge of natural phenomena " 

 lias allowed. Progress has depended upon this know- 

 ledge ; locomotive design benefited by the experi- 

 ments of Schmidt ; electric traction by the numberless 

 researches into electrical phenomena, and the develop- 



ment of the turbine by Parsons : the work of the 

 latter gave a fresh impulse to marine transport. The 

 motor car and the aeroplane owe much to the Otto 

 cycle and the work of Daimler on internal corr' • 

 engines. The above are the results of work on 

 of propulsion. The advance in our knowicU^ic ul 

 material has also played its part. Until the invention 

 of Bessemer the material requisite was not 

 in quantities sufficient to allow of much progr. 

 made. The early work of Iladfield on alloy steels ii;ts 

 developed in such a manner tliat the motor car and 

 the aeroplane are possible as we have them to-day. 

 It is not alone in general and large questions that 

 scientific knowledge has helped transport, but it can 

 be shown that a careful investigation of the properties 

 of the steel from which locomotive crank axles are 

 made has led to a large increase in their life. 



One great trouble with scientific development (-n 

 industrial lines is the difficulty of obtaining correct 

 results from practical application. The transport 

 bodies have no axe to grind in the use of any particular 

 thing, and should show their appreciation of their 

 indebtedness to science by freely giving the results 

 of their work. 



Another trouble which still exists is that the personal 

 contact of the scientific man and the practical engineer 

 does not occur frequently enough, and the meetings 

 of the Association should be more freely used for this 

 purpose. 



Egypt as a Field for Anthropological Research. 



As the habits, modes of life, and occupations of all 

 communities are immediately dependent upon the 

 features and products of the land in which they dwell, 

 any inquiry into Egyptian origins ought to begin with 

 the question, What were the physical conditions which 

 prevailed in Egypt and its bordering deserts in the 

 period immediately preceding, and during the rise of, 

 the Egyptian civilisation ? Discussing what is actually 

 known about the fauna and flora of the dvTiastic and 

 predynastic periods, Prof. Newberr)', in his presidential 

 address to be delivered to Section H (.:\nthropology) 

 on September 17, shows that a material change must 

 have taken place in the character of the climate of 

 North-Eastem Africa since pre-agricultural days. The 

 fauna and flora have receded southwards, and the 

 physical conditions which now prevail in the region 

 north of the Atbara are similar to those which prevailed 

 in the deserts on either side of the Lower Nile Valley 

 in early times. The people living in this part of the 

 Anglo-Egyptian Sudan are Hamite, and, as Prof. 

 Seligman has shown, the least modified of these people 

 are physically identical with the predynastic Eg>-ptians 

 of Upper Egypt. Prof. Newberr>- suggests that they, 

 like the fauna and flora, have receded southwards under 

 the pressure of the advance of civilisation, and that 

 the physical conditions of the country- have preser\ed 

 them to a great extent in their primitive life and 

 pursuits. The picture of life in the Taka countr>' as 

 drawn by Burckhardt in 1813 would, except in some 

 unimportant details, equally well depict the pre- 

 dynastic Egyptians. 



Prof. Newberr}' proceeds to show that the earliest 



