2 20 



NATURE 



[December 15, 1910 



the rocks the construction of the Hne on the western 

 slope presented serious problems to be solved, and the 

 central rack rail is almost continuously employed for a 

 distance of fifteen miles, while on the Argentine side it 

 is only occasionally resorted to. 



Nearer the equator, where south-easterl}' winds prevail, 

 there are railways which, starting from the Pacific 

 Coast, reach an altitude of more than 14,000 feet with- 

 out the use of anj' special appliance of this character, for 

 the rainless western slopes present comparatively few 

 engineering difficulties ; but when the time comes for rail- 

 ways to be built down to the Amazonian plain it will be 

 no easy task to construct a firm track through the deeply 

 dissected country, where the almost continuous rain has 

 decomposed the rock to a considerable depth, and from 

 time to time great landslips leave a strip of the valley- 

 side denuded from crest to base of its thick covering of 

 trees. 



The opening of this through route from the Atlantic to 

 the Pacific is an important step in the development of 

 communications in South America. Soon the .Argentine 

 railways will be united to those of Bolivia and Peru, and 

 the lowlands of Bolivia rendered accessible by the railway 

 round the cataracts of the Madeira. Everywhere the 

 plateau, the pampa, and the forest are losing their remote- 

 ness and their solitude, and bid fair to be occupied, ere 

 long, with a population drawn from European sources, a 

 consummation that, however natural and inevitable it may 

 be, cannot but inspire some vain regrets in those who have 

 known them when they were still in the state in which 

 the early Spanish adventurers found them. 



John W. Evan% 



EVOLUTION: DARWINIAN AND SPENCERIAN. 

 /^ N Thursday, December 8, the Herbert Spencer lecture 

 ^^ at Oxford was delivered by Prof. Meldola, F.R.S., 

 the title of the lecture being " Evolution : Darwinian and 

 Spencerian." Prof. Meldola began by pointing out that 

 while Oxford had influenced Darwin through Lyell (whose 

 reputation, however, was made by throwing over the doc- 

 trine of his old master at Oxford, Buckland), it had also 

 influenced Spencer through both Lyell and Mansel. 

 Evolution, the lecturer proceeded, did not stand or fall 

 with natural selection, but the prominence given by 

 Darwin to the latter principle availed to convert Spencer 

 from exclusive Lamarckism. Darwin and Spencer 

 approached the problem of evolution with different types 

 of mind, and addressed themselves to different audiences ; 

 the special task of Spencer was to show that organic 

 evolution was a particular case of general evolution. In 

 this he entirely succeeded, points of objection that might 

 be taken to his views being of minor importance. Selec- 

 tion, so far, had only been shown to prevail in relation 

 to the phenomena of life. Darwin's influence in depart- 

 ments where selection is not found was only indirect. 



There was a fundamental difference in the method of 

 attack of scientific problems adopted by Darwin and 

 Spencer respectively. The procedure of the former was 

 analytic, that of the latter synthetic. For Spencer, philo- 

 sophy was unified science. His treatment of scientific 

 questions was characterised by extreme breadth, inasmuch 

 as his principles transcended the data of particular 

 sciences, this being one reason why he failed to impress 

 scientific men so much as might have been expected. No 

 such attempt to wield the weapon of unified science had 

 ever before been made. In estimating the comparative 

 validity of the methods employed by the two men, it 

 should be remembered that Darwin was working at a 

 lower level ; thus his foundations were more securely laid ; 

 and however sound the method, information can^ after 

 all, only be acquired by beings of finite intelligence and 

 imperfect sense organs. Hence mistakes could be, and 

 actually were, made ; these, however, the same method 

 would be competent to correct in the presence of better 

 information. Spencer's plan, on the other hand, was to 

 prove the existence of underlying principle controlling all 

 the processes of nature. Hence his method was philo- 

 sophical in the more enlightened sense of that term — the 

 sense seen in the old expression " natural philosophy." 



From this point of view the division between sciences, 

 though convenient, is arbitrary. The rdle of the philo- 



NO. 2146, VOL. 85] 



sopher is to develop generalisations and present them for 

 verification by science. Hence the sphere of science is 

 different from that of philosophy ; and in the region of 

 physical phenomena the deductive method has never been 

 called in question. In conversation with Darwin, the 

 lecturer was once speaking of the difficulties attendant on 

 the interrogation of Nature, to which Darwin replied, 

 " She will tell you a direct lie if she can " ! It could not 

 justly be said that Spencer was not an investigator at all ; 

 we were apt to forget that we stand on the shoulders of 

 our predecessors, and to judge them by the standard of 

 our own appliances and attainments. Of recent applica- 

 tions of the genuine deductive method, none was more 

 remarkable than the quantitative bionictric investigations 

 originated by Sir I'rancis Galton, pursued by the late 

 Prof. Weldon, and now being carried into various depart- 

 ments by numerous workers with conspicuous energy and 

 success. 



The lecture was listened to with marked interest by a 

 large and representative audience, including the Vice- 

 Chancellor of the University, with several professors and 

 heads of colleges. It is published in full by the Clarendon 

 Press. 



THE WORK OF POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTES. 

 "PHE Lord Chief Justice, Lord Alverstone, G.C.M.G., 

 *• P.C., distributed the prizes at the annual prize distri- 

 bution at the Northampton Polytechnic Institute, London, 

 E.C., on Thursday, December 8. In the course of his 

 address, after the distribution of the prizes, he remarked 

 that one reason why perhaps years ago we had fallen 

 back was that this country and this metropolis had not 

 then been aroused to the necessity of thoroughly good 

 technical education, but that now immense good had been 

 done to all the outlying districts of the metropolis, as well 

 as to the City itself, by the establishment of the great 

 polytechnics and by their capability for doing good work 

 and of leading their students to higher and better grades. 

 With reference to the proposed establishment of a great 

 institution of technical optics in connection with the 

 Northampton Polytechnic, he recalled a visit he paid years 

 ago to the workshops of Messrs. Beck, and was satisfied 

 that with the development of science that was now going 

 forward practical optics would take a very prominent place 

 in the future ; he hoped that the jxjlytechnic, with the 

 support of those interested in it and the support of public 

 bodies, would be able to say next year that the building 

 of the new optical school had been commenced. It was 

 always, he considered, a matter of regret when the educa- 

 tional facilities of any branch of technical industry were 

 cribbed, cabin 'd, and confined, and he further expressed 

 the opinion that it was of very great importance that any 

 school of practical technology or practical instruction in 

 any expert business should be able to command the best 

 apparatus and the best accommodation, because if it did 

 not it would soon take second place. In these days 

 specialisation is absolutely necessary in every trade, and 

 after the preliminary training in fundamental subjects the 

 time soon comes when specialisation must begin with the 

 students, for in the present day it is np good scratching 

 at a subject, but it must be gone through right to the 

 bottom, so that the higher branches may be developed. 

 Rapid modern developments, for instance, in electricity are 

 constantly calling upon the institution for better apparatus, 

 upon the teachers for greater acquirements, and upon the 

 students for greater application. 



After reference to the expenditure of some 6000Z. on the 

 new electric generating station, the Lord Chief Justice re- 

 minded the governors that they must be prepared for change 

 if they desired to keep up the standard of the institution to 

 the highest possible point. They must be on the look-out 

 in each subject for the particular branches which can be 

 specialised. In speaking to the students of the necessity 

 for concentration on the object in view, he remarked that 

 the extraordinary thing about Faraday was that he seemed 

 to be able to think and think only of the particular subject 

 that he was studying, and if he saw a light by the way 

 which perhaps might lead him to some other aim or object 

 he did not follow it up at once, but made a note, so to 

 speak, in his mind, never forgetting the main object at 

 which he was aiming, but putting a little mark so as to 



