December i, 1910] 



NATURE 



M3 



ANKIYERSARY MEETING OF THE ROYAL 

 SOCIETY. 



THE anniversary meeting of the Royal Society was 

 held as usual on St. Andrew's Day, November 

 30, when the report of the council was presented, and 

 the president, Sir Archibald Geikie, K.C.B., delivered 

 an address. Most of the matters mentioned in the 

 council's report have been referred to already in the 

 columns of Nature, and others are of domestic, rather 

 than of general scientific, interest. The council has 

 decided "'that the surplus annual income of the Dar- 

 win Fund, after providing for the silver medal and 

 money gift prescribed by existing regulations, be 

 devoted, not to the provision of scholarships or 

 medals, but to the furtherance of biological research 

 in the Darwinian field." 



Upon the recommendation of the president and 

 council of the society, the Government has agreed to 

 continue its subscription to the International Associa- 

 tion of Seismology for six years more, up to the end 

 of March. 1916. In alluding to this decision in his 

 address, the president took the opportunity to refer 

 to Dr. John Milne's extensive work in modern 

 observational seismologv. •"The valuable service 

 which he has thus rendered to the study of earth- 

 quakes has been universally recognised, and there is 

 a widespread conviction' that the system of observing 

 stations which he has created is worthy of being made 

 a national undertaking." 



It is proposed to publish a collected editic»i of the 

 works of Sir William Herschel, under the editorial 

 supervision of Dr. J. L. E. Dreyer. The cost will be 

 shared with the Royal Astronomical Society. 



A number of facts of importance relating to sleeping 

 sickness in Uganda have been described by Sir David 

 Briice and his- colleagues in papers presented to the 

 societv. The council reports as follows: — 



. Research on Tropical Diseases. 



The work of the commission in Uganda has confirmed 

 the conclusions, mentioned in the council's report of last 

 year, that the Glossina palpalis is capable of conveying 

 the infection of sleeping sickness for a much longer period- 

 than was' thought to be the case at first, and- that this 

 tly "may act as a carrier Of other trypanbsome diseases, 

 such as those animal diseases that are produced by 

 Trypanosoma dimorphon, T. viva x,- and T. naiium'. 



One of the most important results of the last 3'ear's 

 work of the commission is the discovery that the flies of 

 the lake shore are still capable of transmitting the infec- 

 tion of sleejping sickness, although two years have now 

 elapsed since the population was removed.' The' cause of 

 this has not yet been ascertained with certainty, but 

 further work is being done to determine, if possible, 

 whether there is an animal reservoir- for the T. gambiense, 

 and especially whether cattle and antelope harbour the 

 parasite of the disease, as laboratory experiments made 

 at -Mpumu suggest. This is a question of great import- 

 ance with regard to the means to be adopted to control 

 the malady.' •' " ' ' • ■ > '■ 



The commission has not only done a great deal of work 

 on sleeping sickness, but a number of researches on other 

 maladies, human and animal, have also been carried out. 

 Thus a disease affecting the natives in the- province of 

 Ankole, and known as " muhinyo, " was investigated by 

 Sir David Bruce and his colleagues, and the very interest- 

 ing discovery was made that this malady was reallv Malta 

 fever, and affected both men and goats in Central Africa. 



In his presidential address. Sir Archibald Geikie 

 Referred to the losses by death sustained by the societv 

 during the year. These include the patron. King 

 Edward VII. ; foreign members: Alexander .Agassiz, 

 Stariislao Cannizzaro, Giovanni SchiaparelH, Robert 

 Koch, Friedrich Wilhelm Kohlrausch, and Melchior 



NO. 2144, VOL. 85] 



Treub; and fellows. Sir William Huggins, Dr. Lud- 

 wig Mond, Dr. Shelford Bidwell, Sir Robert Giffen, 

 Rev. Robert Harley, Mr. J. B. N. Hennessey, Mr. 

 Edward Saunders, Sir Charles Todd, and Mr. C. 

 Greville Williams. 



The work of the medallists for this year was 

 described by the president in the following words : — 



Copley Medal. 



The award of the Copley medal has this year been 

 made to one of our own countrymen, who has been more 

 than fifty years a Fellow of the Royal Society. Sir 

 Francis Galton's life has been one of ceaseless activity in 

 many varied departments of intellectual effort. Few of 

 us can remember how he began as an enthusiastic explorer 

 and geographer, " urged," as he confessed, " by an 

 excessive fondness for a wild life," and with " the love of 

 adventure " as his chief motive. He chose south-western 

 .Africa as the theatre of his exploration, penetrated into 

 regions where no European foot had preceded him, and 

 brought back with him a vivid impression of the scenery, 

 physical geography, natural history, and ethnol(^y of 

 Damaraland and South Ovampoland. He embodied his 

 observations in an interesting volume of travel published 

 in 1853. That work showed that he was no mere hunter 

 after game or seeker of adventure, but a shrewd and 

 observant traveller, with his eyes open to every distinctive 

 natural feature in the countries and their inhabitants. His 

 experience in these African journeys led him to plan and 

 to publish in 1854 his well-known and admirable hand- 

 book, " The Art of Travel," which, as a pioneering 

 treatise in the practical methods of scientific exploration, 

 has proved of inestimable service to the travellers of the 

 last half-centur}\ 



Sir Fraiicis at an early period of his career was led 

 to interest himself in meteorology, which, as a science of 

 observation, was then in its earliest infancy. With much 

 labour and skill he constructed weather charts, and dis- 

 cussed meteorological statistics. His zeal and success in 

 these, studies! led to his being chosen a member of the 

 Meteorological Council at its origin, and he remained in 

 that position until the council was superseded in 1901 by 

 the Sleteorological Office. He likewise acted as chair- 

 man of the Royal Society's Committee of Management of 

 Kew ■ Observatory from 1888 until 1900, when the work 

 of this committee became merged in that of the National 

 Physical . Laboratory. 



But it was not only in geography and meteorology that 

 Sfr Francis Galton manifested his versatile energies. He 

 was much interested likewise in biological studies, especi- 

 ! ally in regard to questions of relationship and heredity. 

 So far back as 1871 he began what has proved to be a^ 

 voluminous and important series of contributions to these- 

 subjects. . From his first paper, "Experiments in Pan>- 

 genesis," down to his last volume on " Eugenics," his 

 successive papers have shown a continuous development 

 of . ideas and conclusions. He was led from his earfy 

 : ethnological ' inquiries into the mental peculiarities of. 

 different races to discuss the problems of heredity genius 

 from the' fundamental postulate that "a man's natural" 

 abilities are derived by inheritance under exactly the same 

 limitations as are the form and physical features of the 

 I whole organic world." To obtain further data for the 

 discussion of this subject he carried out the elaborate 

 statistical inquiries embodied in his "English Men of 

 Science." Confident in the results of these researches, he- 

 proceeded after the manner of " the surveyor of a new 

 country who endeavours to fix, in the first instance, as 

 truly as he can. the position of several cardinal points." 

 His results in this quest were given in his " Inquiries 

 into Human Faculty and its Development," published in 

 1883. A further contribution was made by him in 1889, 

 when his work on " Natural Inheritance " appeared. His 

 subsequent papers and essays on " Eugenics " have still 

 further stimulated inquiry into a subject of such deep 

 interest and transcendant importance in all efforts to 

 improve the physical and mental condition of the human- 

 race. It has seemed to the council fitting that a man- 

 who has devoted his life with unwearied enthusiasm to* 



