January 26, 191 1] 



NATURE 



413 



votes wert given to him, while Mme. Curie received the 

 same number as before. We congratulate Mme. Curie 

 upon the substantial support she secured, and trust that 

 before long her claims to a seat in the academy will 

 receive their rightful recc^nition. The narrow mai^in by 

 which she lost election on Monday may, we suppose, be 

 taken to mean that the academy is about equally divided 

 as to the eligibility of women for membership, and that 

 Mme. Curie may expect to be elected on a future occasion. 

 As scientific work must ultimately be judged by its merit, 

 and not by the nationality or sex of its author, we believe 

 that the opposition to the election of women into scientific 

 societies will soon be seen to be unjust and detrimental 

 to the progress of natural knowledge. By no pedantic 

 reasoning can the rejection of a candidate for member- 

 ship of a scientific society be justified if the work done 

 places Jthe candidate in the leading position among other 

 competitors. Science knows no nationaliti.-, and should 

 rec(^nise no distinction of sex, colour, or creed among 

 those who are contributing to its advancement. Believing 

 that this is the conclusion to which consideration of the 

 question must inevitably lead, we have confidence that the 

 doors of all scientific societies will eventually be open to 

 men on equal terms with men. 



The inauguration of L'Institut Oc^anographique de 

 Paris took place on Monday evening, JanuarA* 23, in the 

 presence of the President of the Republic, M. Falliferes, 

 and a distinguished gathering, presided over by his Serene 

 Highness the Prince of Monaco as president of the council 

 of administration. Among those present were Prince and 

 Princess George of Greece, Prince Louis of Monaco, 

 Prince Roland Bonaparte, ex-President Loubet, the 

 members of the Government, Ambassadors and Ministers 

 Plenipotentiary of the foreign Powers, and the members 

 of the Conseil d 'Administration and Comit^ de Per- 

 fectionnement, including, among others. Dr. Paul Reynard, 

 director of the institute ; Dr. Jules Richard, director of 

 the museum at Monaco ; Prof. Chun, of Leipzig ; Prof. 

 " -gesell, of Strassburg; M. Thoulet, of Nancv ; Sir John 

 rray, K.C.B., F.R.S. ; Mr. J. Y. Buchanan, F.R.S. ; 

 i Dr. W. S. Bruce. Short addresses were delivered by 

 Prince of Monaco; ^L Maurice Faure, "iiinister of 

 Public Instruction and Fine Arts; M. Armand Gautier, 

 president of, and in the name of, the Academy of Sciences ; 

 M. Liard, vice-rector of, and in the name of, the Uni- 

 versity of Paris ; and M. Perrier, director of the Museum 

 d'Histoire naturelle. M. Henri Bourfe, aide-de-camp to 

 the Prince of Monaco, also showed some excellent lantern 

 illustrations and kinematograph views of the Prince's 

 oceanographical investigations on board the Princesse 

 Alice. After the formal proceedings, the assembled com- 

 pany proceeded to inspect the institute, an account of 

 ch, with its aims and object, will appear in a sub- 



-uent issue. 



~-iR Joseph LARNfOR, FlR.S., Lucasian Professor of 

 thematics at Cambridge and secretary- of the Royal 

 iety, has accepted the invitation of a meeting of the 

 onist Part}- to become the L'nionist candidate for the 

 ancy in the Parliamentary representation of Cambridge 



Mversity. The prospect which this selection offers of 

 luding among the members of the House of Commons a 



-n of distinguished eminence in the scientific world, is 

 »cially gratifying, in view of the necessity of keeping 



:ore the Government and the legislature the need for a 

 ^ neral adoption of the methods of science in the affairs of 



" Empire. It is refreshing to find the value of scientific 

 ;jrcss rtiven prominence in an election address. Sir 

 ^ V -ieph refers in his address to the progress of scientific 

 NO. 2152, VOL. 85] 



knowledge during the last half-century, and to the part 

 which Cambridge has played in promoting the advance- 

 ment of this newer learning. He adds: — "But modern 

 scientific discovery advances with accumulated force : 

 better organisation and knowledge, in order to take full 

 advantage of the resources that are available for this 

 country, is still one of our foremost problems in the face 

 of the competition of other nations ; and our University 

 is destined for an even wider sphere of work and influence 

 than has fallen to us in the past. It should be our aim 

 to supply leaders of industn.- who possess not only special 

 attainments, but also that temperament of scientific inquhy 

 which exalts industrial pursuits and is the most potent 

 influence For their progress." 



According to a statement issued to the Press by Mr. 

 William Willett, the originator of the so-called Daylight 

 Saving Bill, the Home Secretary, Mr. Winston Churchill, 

 " cannot conceive of any argument now which would cause 

 him to doubt the wisdom of passing the Daylight Bill into 

 law." Mr. Churchill is therefore prepared to make a 

 speech in favour of the Bill when it comes again before the 

 House of Commons. He considers that as agriculturists 

 form only about eight per cent, of the population, their 

 objections may be disregarded, " in order to bring within 

 the reach of the other ninety- per cent, of the population the 

 blessings of sunlight and fresh air in their leisure hours." 

 Mr. Churchill is, in fact, prepared to support a measure 

 which will convert Greenwich time into German time at 

 stated inter\-als, not because he has taken competent 

 opinion as to the consequences of such an Act. but because 

 he thinks a majority desires it. In the building and 

 engineering trades, and in the Government's own dock- 

 yards, the working hours are already adjusted to the 

 seasons, without legislative interference, so that the sugges- 

 tion that agriculturists are the only people who do not 

 want the Bill is altogether misleading. The daylight 

 effects of the difference in latitude between London and 

 Edinburgh are apparently not to be considered in these 

 days of hasty and unnecessary legislation. Consideration 

 of these effects would show at once that North Britain 

 should be excluded from the provisions of the Bill. The 

 promoters of the Bill refer to the advantages which would 

 be obtained by altering the hours of work at different 

 seasons of the year according to those of daylight. But 

 it does not seem to occur to them that all the advantages 

 could be secured in a much simpler way without the in- 

 describable confusion and inconvenience which would be 

 caused by frequent interference with clock-time. We 

 believe that if the measure which Mr. Willett persistentlv 

 puts forward is ever put upon the statute book, it will 

 make us the laughing-stock of the civilised world. L'nable 

 to change our customs, we are to deceive ourselves into 

 doing so by moving the hands of clocks in months pre- 

 scribed by Act of Parlianient. Such methods may l>e 

 appropriate for lodging-house servants, but they are 

 unworthy of the dignity of a great nation. It is peculiarlv 

 unfortunate that a Cabinet Minister should permit his 

 name to be used in connection with such a proposal at the 

 present time, seeing that a Bill to make Paris official time 

 coincide with Greenwich time has been approved by the 

 French Chamber of Deputies, the Senate Committee and 

 the Cabinet, and will in all probabilit>- become law. We 

 cannot believe, in the face of such facts, that Parliament 

 will entertain seriously the proposed periodic change of our 

 time-standard which Mr. Churchill is said to regard with 

 favour. 



Tjte concluding part (No. 10) of last year's volume of 

 the Keiv EuUetin contains identifications cf new Lauraccre 



