58 



NATURE 



[September 8* 192 1 



develop to a great extent in response to external 

 stimuli over which they have no control, the 

 higher gradually substitute internal for external 

 stimuli, thus acquiring considerable independence. 

 Inheritance is made secure by ensuring that the' 

 necessary conditions are always present. The 

 answer to the original question now appears to 

 be that only those characters can be regularly 

 inherited which depend for their appearance on 

 conditions always fulfilled in the normal environ- 

 ment, external or internal. 



Prof. Goodrich goes on to deal with the nature 

 of the factors themselves, their relation to meta- 

 bolism, and their possible alteration by the en- 

 vironment. How new factors are acquired is the 

 fundamental problem of biology. Prof. M. F. 

 Guyer's experiments are described. His remark- 

 able results seem to show that an anti-body may 

 be made to act on the germinal factors corre- 

 sponding to its antigen, and that heritable muta- 

 tions may thus be produced experimentally. A 

 Lamarckian interpretation of these results is 

 rejected. 



In answer to the question, "What share has 

 the mind taken in evolution?" it is pointed out 

 that to the continuous physico-chemical metabolic 

 process, describable in scientific language as a 

 consistent series of events in an outside world, 

 there corresponds a continuous series of mental 

 events describable in psychical terms. The one is 

 not a product of the other, nor does it control or 

 interfere with the other ; but confusion may arise 

 because in a description of behaviour the gaps in 

 our very incomplete knowledge of one series 

 are usually filled in from the other. It is further 

 pointed out that instinctive behaviour is carried 

 out by a mechanism developed under the influence 

 of stimuli, chiefly internal, which are constantly 

 present in the normal environmental conditions, 

 while intelligent behaviour depends on responses 

 called forth by stimuli which may or may not be 

 present. Hence the former is, but the latter may 

 or may not be, inherited. 



Finally, it is urged that these questions of 

 factors and environment, heredity and evolution, 

 are not of mere academic interest, but are of great 

 importance for the progress of civilisation. Could 

 we acquire the power to control and alter at will 

 the factors of inheritance in domesticated animals 

 and plants, and even in man himself, such vast 

 results might be achieved that the past triumph^ 

 of the science would fade into insignificance. 



Applied Geography. 



Dr. D. G. Hogarth takes "Applied 

 Geography " as the subject of his address to 

 Section E (Geography). By this term is 

 meant a loan asked of, or offered by, geography 

 for the purpose of another science. It may be 

 applied by students and teachers of the borrowing 

 science, or by those of the lender; but if the latter 

 devote themselves to such application they are for 

 the time being seconded from their own sciences 



NO. 2706, VOL. 108I 



to the service of the others. Many geographers, 

 especially in America, disagree with this view, 

 holding such applications to be functions, even the 

 main functions, of geography itself. If, however, 

 the study of the " human response to land-forms " 

 is the science of geography, that science is still in 

 its earliest infancy ! Geography has properly to 

 consider man only from the point of view of his 

 distribution over physical space ; and study of the 

 physical environment should precede the study of 

 man in it. The prior importance of physical 

 geography is not recognised in official curricula. 



Geographical science is first and last the science 

 of distribution. It includes the investigation, 

 study of causation, survey, and diagrammatic de- 

 lineation of all the superficial features of the earth. 

 Of these, causation will be the last study to be 

 exhausted. To the understanding of it many 

 other sciences have to give help to geography, even 

 as they ask her in turn to help them about the dis- 

 tribution of their own material. But it is, and 

 will, remain a true function of geography. At the 

 same time delimitation of geography from the 

 sciences aiding it or aided by it is not easy, and 

 has been obscured by progressive changes in the 

 popular use of the word " geography," and by the 

 continual parturition of specialisms by the latter, 

 which come in time to be accepted as new sciences, 

 but often remain for a while imperfectly detached 

 from the mother. Such has been geodesy. 



To teach geography, therefore, only in its appli- 

 cation to history is not to teach geography as a 

 science, and to do so discourages the study of the 

 thing to be applied. This lessens the value of the 

 application as much as it does the standard of 

 geography proper. The Ministry of Education, 

 the great scientific societies, and the universities 

 must see to it that the study of the mother science 

 is better encouraged, if many other sciences and 

 much education are not to suffer. 



Labour, Capital, and Wages. 



The conclusions put before Section F (Econ- 

 omic Science and Statistics) by the president, 

 Mr. W. L. Hichens, in his address, are as fol- 

 lows : — There is no simple and straightforward 

 system applicable to the division of the proceeds 

 of industry between labour and capital. Both are 

 essential to industry, and, therefore, to each 

 other ; hence the deeper interests of both lie in 

 co-operation, and the task before the leaders of 

 labour and of capital consists in promoting the 

 interests of both, not in selfishly pursuing the 

 advantage of the one at the expense of the other. 

 Both must recognise the need of contenting the 

 other, for if capital is not satisfied its springs will 

 dry up and the industrial body will wither away, 

 whilst if labour is discontented and the members 

 of the industrial body war against each other, the 

 end is death. The real solution of the problem is 

 a moral one, and can be achieved only if justice 

 and virtue govern the lives of the members of the 

 community, for all human organisations must re- 



