822 



NATURE 



[December 8, 192. 



that his shy, compliant nature was capable of holding 

 on with the soft and flexible tenacity of a Chiton to any 

 scheme on which his heart was set. Love of natural 

 history was his dominant characteristic, and it drew 

 him to the field and seashore rather than to the class- 

 room. He completed no course of formal study and 

 took no degree, remaining to the end an observer, 

 collector, and organiser ratlxr than a -^v^tcmatic or 

 specialised man of scieni 



In a fascinating group ul ft;ur inirudu* lory chapters 

 and one of " Further Recollections," his old friend and 

 companion, Mr. W. G. Bum Murdoch, reveals Bruce's 

 early environment in Edinburgh, where he responded 

 both to the magical stimulus of Prof. Patrick Geddes in 

 science and to the emotional Celtic patriotism then 

 pervading the University Hall where he lived. These 

 chapters also describe the voyage on the Balaena to 

 the Weddell Sea in 1892-3, when the spell of the polar 

 regions fell on a mind which never after escaped its 

 influence. After an account of the part Bruce played 

 in the Jackson-Harmsvvorth Expedition to Franz 

 Josef Land and in other private Arctic voyages. Dr. 

 Rudmose Brown deals, with fuller knowledge than any 

 one else possesses, with the origin, progress, and results 

 of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition to the 

 Weddell Sea in 1902-4. 



The solid results of the voyage of the Scotia entitle 

 Bruce to a high place as an Antarctic explorer, though 

 at the time he was rather overshadowed by the fame 

 of the Discovery. The inception of the Scotia Expedi- 

 tion was his own, the funds for it were contributed by 

 friends in response to his personal appeal ; the plan of 

 the cruise and the work done were original, dictated not 

 by any external authority but by his own foresight 

 and the chances which presented themselves in that 

 region of unexpected obstacles and opportunities. 

 How he looked on his assistants is shown by one of the 

 too rare extracts from Bruce's diary on the Scotia 

 (p. 148): 



*' I would like them to regard the ship as their 

 university, as their alma mater in the highest possible 

 sense, where they will be able to study the phenomena 

 of Nature, without bias, from Nature itself ; and learn 

 that they, as well as their fellows, have many short- 

 comings. I am here as leader rather than commander, 

 in order to guide the work of others, so that the aggre- 

 gate may be of the greatest possible value to science and 

 the world." 



Bruce's pertinacity secured the finest series of deep- 

 sea soundings ever made in the far south, and numerous 

 hauls of the dredge, trawl, and fish-traps in deeper 

 Antarctic waters than any other expedition has investi- 

 gated. The discover}' of Coats Lan^ was scarcely 

 noticed by the public, for though it was a geographical 

 result of the first order, Bruce's indifference to non- 

 NO. 2823, VOL. 112] 



scientific opinion led him to make little of it in €>>'.<>- 

 parison with his oceanographical work, which interest- i 

 the newspaper reader very little. The most perman< i 

 outcome of the Scotia Expedition is the meteorologi< a! 

 station established on Laurie Island (61® S.). "•» ;■ 1 

 after being organised and kept up for a year 

 R. C. Mossman, was taken over and maintains 

 Argentine Government. 



Though his later years were to some extent 

 by a sense of grievance with the tardy an- 

 assistance rendered by his own Govern ; 

 continued to carry on by himself work whi< 

 have taxed the resources of a well-endowed 

 institution, but he escaped at frequf-nt int' 

 solace himself in Spitsbergen solitu 

 the Scottish Oceanographical Laboraii>ry, nc (M>Mii(ri 

 and distributed the abundant collections of 'the Scotia, 

 and made considerable way with the publication 

 the scientific results of the expedition. Of his strug-!' - 

 in this effort Dr. Rudmose Brown says (p. 252) : 



" Bruce strained his own scanty means to breakini:- 

 point to keep the publications going. The proietiU 

 of lectures, articles and sale of bird skins and ei,..^ 

 were all devoted to the same cause. He had a hani 

 struggle to keep his laboratory open and meet the 

 printing accounts, yet he insisted that all the results 

 should be adequately dealt with and fully illustrated. 

 The one contingency he resisted was the abandonment 

 of his laboratory and his publications. Poverty he 

 was ready to face and did face : only his most intimate 

 friends at the time knew of his struggles. Throucrh 

 all those days he never lost hope. . . . But all li!> 

 schemes were for the advancement of science ; 1 i> 

 own interests counted not at all." 



Bruce had no expensive tastes or impulses, and only 

 cared for money to enable him to carr\' on his work : 

 to this his personal life was entirely subordinate!. 

 In the end he attained to recognition as the bi-t 

 authority in Great Britain on practical oceanograj)li> 

 and polar natural history ; all the more is it deploraMr 

 that his oceanographical laboratory was broken up 

 in his lifetime, and the collections, in gathering which 

 he had spent his life, dispersed, albeit within the 

 bounds of his beloved Scotland. 



Hugh Robert Mill. 



Mendelian Inheritance and Eugenics. 



Heredity and Eugenics. By Prof. R. Ruggles Gatrs. 

 Pp. xiii + 288. (London: Constable an r' '"• '<' 

 1923.) 2is. net. 



IN the space of some 250 pages of well-produ<\ ■ i 

 matter, Prof. Gates has devoted himself to an 

 examination of the known facts of human inheritani l. 

 with special reference to Mendelian inheritanrc. 

 According to the preface, a compelling interest in 



