90 



NATURE 



[Nov. 28, 1889 



■of friction, and had got hold of an absurd idea that the value? of 

 the various so-called imponderables could be expr23>ed in 

 ■quantitative terms, the one of the other. Fortunately for the 

 •credit of the Roval Society, someone mire far-seeing than these 

 •critics, expressed the opinion that the Council had better take 

 care what it was abou% because if they acted on these ideas 

 they might find that they, the highest scientific tribunal in the 

 country, had refused to publish the most important scientific 

 discovery of the century, and one which had already been 

 receivred with acclamation by all Continental scientific authorities. 

 And so the celebrated paper on the mechanical equivalent of 

 heat was printed, seven years after its first announcement, in the 

 Philosophical Transactions for 1850. But while this, with its 

 immediate relations, was Joule's magnum opus, other portions 

 of his work were of scarcely less importance, and to one only of 

 these did he (Sir Henry) wish f )r a moment to revert, as it 

 touched on a fundamental principle in the science of 

 •chemistry, and was therefore specially interesting to himself, 

 whilst it served to show the wide area which Joule's re- 

 searches covered. On January 24, 1843, Joule read a 

 paper before the Literary and Philosophical Society in their 

 rooms in George Street, hallowed by the memory of Dalton, 

 entitled, "On the Heat evolved during the Electrolysis 

 -of Water." The results of this apparently trivial research 

 were of the highest importance, as establishing the heat equiva- 

 dence of chemical action. Dulong, in France, had already de- 

 termined the amount of heat evolved during combustion, but he 

 did not compare this with the heat evolved by the same com- 

 bustion in the battery or elsewhere, and Joule's discovery, 

 described in the above papers, was, that the heat which dis- 

 app'iars during separation of the chemical elements was equal to 

 that which made its appearance during their combination, on 

 the principle that action and reaction were equal and opposite. 

 And this was the discovery which established the law proving 

 that chenical action was due to the clashing of the atoms, and 

 that the same laws applied to those atom? singly as they did to 

 the.n when taken in the aggregite, thus showing that chemistry 

 was a branch of molecular physics. He trusted he had given 

 good grounds for the acceptance by that m eting of the resolu- 

 tion he moved. He would humbly suggest that mthing short of 

 a similar memorial to that erected to Dalton ought to be raise! 

 in Manchester in recognition of the labours of Joule. They 

 had statues of Cob len, of Dalton, and of good Bishop Fraser ; 

 they would soon have one of Bright. Let them not place Joule 

 in any less conspicuous position, for his work was as glorious a? 

 any of theirs. Let us have a marble statue as a companion to 

 that beautiful one of Dalton, b/ Chantrey, in our Town Hall, 

 and let us have a replica of it in bronze to place on our Infirm- 

 :ary flags, so that all who passed for generations might say, 

 "That is the statue of our great Manchester man of science, James 

 Prescott Joule, who did work in our midst not less important 

 than that of his master, John Dalton, whose statue is hard by ; 

 both men were honoured by their contemporaries, and are even 

 more honoured by us who follow them." 



Prof. Osborne Reynolds, in supporting the motion, expressed 

 regret that they had not present with them Sir William Thom- 

 son, who fought the battle with Dr. Joule. Sir Willian had 

 written a letter, in the course of which he said : " Manchester 

 is certainly, of all cities in the world, to be envied the honour of 

 being able to erect a monument to Joule as one of its own citi- 

 zens." Professor Reynolds also made a statement as to the 

 action which had been taken by the Manchester Literary and 

 Philosophical Society, with whom the proposal for a memorial 

 of Dr. Joule originateL 



On being put to the meeting, the motion was unanimously 

 adopted. 



Mr. Alderman W, H. Bailey moved the appointment of the 

 following Committee to raise, by public subscription, a sufficient 

 sum to carry the above resolution into effect, viz. :— Chairman — 

 the Mayor of Manchester ; Treasurer —Oliver Heywood ; 

 Thomas -Ashton ; the Ven. Archleacon Anson ; Sir William 

 -Cunlifife Brooks, Bart., M.P, ; Alderman W. H. Bailey; Rev. 

 St. Vincent Beechey ; C. H. Bayley ; Dr. James Bottomley ; 

 William Brockbank ; J. H. Buxton : Rev. L. C. Casartelli ; 

 Councillor George Clay ; R. S. Dale ; Prof. W. Bjyd Daw- 

 Jcins ; ■" Mr. Thoaias Diggles ; Samuel Dixon, President of the 

 Manchester Society of Engineers ; F. J. Faraday, H )n. 

 Se:ret ry of the Manchester Literary and Pnilosophical Society ; 

 Livington E. CFletcher; R. F. Gwyther, Hon. Secretary of 

 ilha M mchester Literary and Philosophical Society; Sam.iel 



Gratrix ; Principal J. G. Greenwood ; William Grimshaw ; 

 Charles J. Galloway; Sir W. IL Houldsworth, Bart., M. P. ; T. 

 C. Horsfall ; Dr. Charles John Hall ; Thomas Harker ; Henry 

 H. Howorth, M.P. ; William W. Hulse ; Henry P. H )lt ; 

 Isaac Hoyle, M. P. ; Dr. Edward Hopkinson ; Canon Hicks ; 

 James Jardine, High Sheriff of Cheshire ; W. H. Johnson ; 

 Thomas Kay ; George King ; Thomas Kay ; Horace I-amb ; 

 Sir Joseph C. Lee; Ivan Levinstein; J. W. Maclure, M.P. ; 

 Councillor J. D. Milne ; James Cosmo Melvill ; Councillor 

 Alexander M'Dougall,Jun. ; Robert Montgomery; Dr. Morgan ; 

 William Mather, M.P. ; Ludwig Mond (V.P. Chem. Soc.) ; 

 Prof. J. E. C. Munro ; Francis Nicholson ; Councillor Charles 

 O'Neill ; Henry D. Pochin ; W. O. Pooiey ; Sir H. E. Roscoe, 

 M.P.,; Dr. Ransome ; Prof. Osborne Reynolds; Henry 

 Slatter ; Dr. Schunck ; Prof. Schuster; Councillor Dr. Henry 

 Simpson ; Colonel Thomas Sowler ; William Thomson ; 

 Alderman Joseph Thompson ; Councillor S. Chesters-Thompson ; 

 E. Leader Williams ; Professor A. W. Ward ; Thomas Worth- 

 ington ; Rev. Canon Charles W. Woodhouse. Convener of 

 first meeting. Prof. Osborne Reynolds. In his remarks in 

 support of the motion, Mr. Bailey said that speaking as an ex- 

 President of the Manchester Society of Engineers he could testify 

 that, however slow many people might have been to acknowledge 

 Dr. Joule's work, the Society of Engineers had never forgotten 

 Dr. Joule's labours and the benefit which those labours had 

 conferred on the engineers of this country and on the industries 

 of the world generally. 



The motion was seconded by Colonel T. Sowler and un- 

 animously adopted. 



A vote of thanks to the Mayor for presiding and for the use of 

 his parlour, accorded on the motion of Prof. Ward, seconded by 

 Mr. C. Bailey, brought the proceedings to a close. -^^j^ 



HOW PLANTS MAINTAIN THEMSELVES IN 

 THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE} 



(^RDINARY English scenery, so full of quiet and so suggest- 

 ^•'^ ive of repose that one may not rea'lily discover signs of a 

 struggle for existence. In tropical scenery these signs are so 

 clear that they have been recognized again and again by every 

 thinking naturalist who has ever visited tropical regions. 



Any comprehensive view of the phenomenon of life upon the 

 globe clearly points to the one conclusion that all Nature is in 

 a perpetual state of desperate warfare, and the keynote of this 

 address must be : the utter remorselessness of Nature, the care 

 for self ; the absolute disregard for others. In all cises the 

 weakest goes to the wall. 



Evidences of Struggle for Exist ewe in the Plant World. 



Ficus parasitica. Seed dropped by bird germinates on fork 

 of some tree, e.g. the jack fruit {Artocarpus integrifolid) ; sends 

 long root into soil ; gradually spreads itself over, and suftocates 

 the unfortunate foster-mother. 



Heraclcum giganteum. Allowed to seed itself freely. On 

 June I, 18S9, 573 seedlings had germinated ; on August 19, 

 105 remained, the missing ones having been killed by the more 

 vigorous survivors. 



Bertholletia excelsa. Fifteen to twenty-four Brazil nuts are 

 contained in each fruit, the fruit being indehiscent. All seeds 

 germinate at once. The most vigorous gets first through a small 

 hole at the top to the open air, and strangles and feeds upon all 

 the rest. 



What Plants struggle for. 



Plants struggle for two main objects — viz. their own nutrition, 

 and the reproduction of their species by means of offspring, 

 which they leave behind them, and for which they make ade- 

 quate provision. The two master functions, nutrition and re- 

 production, often stand out clearly marked the one from the 

 other— ^.^. in the Talipot palm (Cojypha uinhraculiferd), where 

 the period of leaf- bearing is succeeded by the period of fruiting, 

 the latter being accompanied by the final death of the whole 

 plant. 



I. — Nutrition. 



Protective Adaptations associated with the mainly Nutritive 

 Organs, 



(i) Mechanical contrivances. Large forest trees (often 200 

 feet high) have buttressed trunks, e.g. Canarium commune. 



^ Abstract furnished by the Author, Prof. Waher Gardiner, of a lecture 

 delivered at the Newcastle meeting of thi British Asscciation. 



