452 



NA TURE 



[Septem 



1923 



Current Topics 



The ninety-first annual meeting of the British 

 Association, which closed at Liverpool on Wednesday, 

 St-ptcinber 19, was one of the most successful in the 

 history of the Association, and all who have been 

 concernetl in the arrangements for it, whether local 

 or sectional, are to bt^ congratulated upon the gratify- 

 ing result of their work. More than three thousand 

 members attended the meeting, and the fjicilities 

 afforded them for social amenities and scientific 

 discussion were much appreciated by all. As nomin- 

 ated by the Council, Sir David Bruce was elected by 

 the General Committee as president for the meeting 

 to be held in Toronto on September 3-10 of next year. 

 The Committee also cordially accepted the invitation 

 from Southampton to meet there in 1925. On 

 Monday, September 17, the honorary degree of 

 doctor of science of the I'niversity of Liverpool was 

 conferred upon the following distinguished men of 

 science : Sir Ernest Rutherford ; Prof. Niels Bohr, pro- 

 fessor of physics in the University of Copenhagen ; 

 Dr. E. H. Griffiths ; Prof. G. N. Lewis, professor of 

 chemistry', University of California ; Prof. G. Elliot 

 Smith, professor of anatomy in University College, 

 London ; Dr. Jobs. Schmidt, director of the Carlsberg 

 Laboratory, Copenhagen ; and Prof. J. C. McLennan, 

 professor of physics in the University of Toronto. 



Canon Barnes of Westminster preached the 

 sermon on Sunday last in the Lady Chapel of Liverpool 

 Cathedral on the occasion of the British Association's 

 visit to that city. He dealt with " The Influence of 

 Science on Christianity," and with characteristic 

 courage attributed the waning influence of the 

 churches to the obscurantism and static outlook of 

 many exponents of religion. Christianity has gained 

 much from progress external to itself ; the pronounced 

 ethical progress in the Roman Empire in the second 

 century was a wide movement for which religion 

 cannot claim the whole credit ; thirteen centuries 

 later the Renaissance had an invigorating effect, 

 producing in the churches changes destined to be as 

 permanent and valuable as they were extensive : 

 the pity was that in the nineteenth century the 

 churches did not take advantage of the changes 

 produced in the outlook of educated men by the 

 scientific movement, but, led by the tractarians, 

 adopted rather an attitude of hostility which has 

 resulted in the modern conflict of ideas among clerics 

 themselves, and has prejudiced educated people against 

 their teachings. " Faith is a necessity of existence. 

 Zealots still contend that there is a moral value in 

 blind faith. But the modern world, so far as it has 

 fallen under the sway of the scientific method, demands 

 that faith shall be reasonable and not blind." In- 

 ability to grasp new ideas, reluctance to discard or 

 even to modify theories or beliefs, are qualities 

 perhaps more rare among scientific workers than 

 among theologians; but we are too accustomed to 

 the conservatism of outlook among the former, 

 particularly those whose life-work has been in the 

 direction of elaboration of what are to them funda- 

 mental principles amounting to beliefs, to fail to 



NO. 281 2, VOL, I 12] 



and Events. 



appreciate the magnitude and importance of the tasl 

 of the best contemporary theologians in combatin 

 religious obscurantism. 



If the first accounts exaggerated the number <> 

 lives lost, the latest figures reveal the completcne> 

 of the disaster caused in Japan by the earthquake <> 

 September i. Although the exact number of death 

 caused by earthquake and fire is still unknown, it i 

 estimated that, approximately, 110,000 were killi 1 

 in Tokyo, 30,000 in Yokohama, 10,000 in Kamakura, 

 10,000 in the Miura Peninsula, 700 in Odowara and 

 Atami, and 5000 in the Boso Peninsula — a total of 

 165,700. In Yokohama, about 71,000 houses wer- 

 destroyed and about 100 escaped damage ; in Yoko 

 suka, all but 150 out of 1 1,800 houses were destroyed 

 in Tokyo, 93 per cent, of the houses were burnt 01 

 crushed. Most of the high concrete buildings damage<l 

 in Tokyo show fissures in the third-floor facades, bir 

 above and below that floor there is little injur\'. Tlv 

 fire destroyed a great part of the Imperial Univt r • 

 including 700,000 volumes in the library. At i • • 

 the shock at Yokohama was not severe and differed 

 little from those so often felt in Japan. Then 

 suddenly, there came a swirling motion (the vorticos- 

 shock of the Italians), during which practically ali 

 houses collapsed instantaneously. Several early 

 rep)orts with regard to the effects of the shock prove 

 to have been erroneous. There was no volcanic 

 eruption in the island of Oshima and none of the 

 islands off the Izu Peninsula disapj)earetl. Dr. 

 Nakamura has made a preliminary investigation of 

 the central area. He finds that the earthquake 

 originated in two separate foci, one between Oshima 

 and Atami, in which the first and more violent move- 

 ment seems to have originated, the other near the 

 naval station of Yokosuka. 



The Howard silver medal for 1923 of the Royal 

 Meteorological Society has been awarded to Cadet 

 J. C. Needham of H.M.S. Worcester for the best essay 

 on " Tropical Storms." The medal was compete<i 

 for by the cadets from H.M.S. Worcester, H.M.S 

 Conway, and the Nautical College, Pangboume. 



The International Commission of Eugenics met at 

 Lund in Sweden on September i and 3 under the 

 chairmanship of Major Leonard Darwin. Various 

 resolutions were passed, and the question where the 

 next international congress should be held was dis- 

 cussed. Profs. Nilsson - Ehle and Johansson were 

 appointed members of the Commission. The Com- 

 mission was entertained at dinner by the Mendelia: 

 Society and visited the Swedish Institute of Genetici 

 at Akarp near Lund, and the Swedish State institute 

 for race biological investigation. These are the onlv 

 institutions in the world for genetics or eugenic 

 wliich are State-endowed. 



" Health Week " is to be celebrated on October 

 7-13. This movement was instituted in 1912 and 

 the arrangements are made by a committee appointed 

 by the Royal Sanitary Institute, 90 Buckingham 

 Palace Road, S.W.i. The object of Health Week 



