72 



NATURE 



[Nov: 2 2, 1877 



and a general feeling of regret is felt over his eirly death, away 

 from home and friends. The French geologist, M, Largeau, is 

 at present endeavouring to penetrate into the Tuarej region from 

 the north, and the interest previously centred on von Bary's 

 investigations will now gather about his efforts. 



In the spring of the present year we referred briefly to the 

 attempt being made by Dr. J. M. Hildebrandt, under the 

 auspices of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, to ascend the snow- 

 covered summit of Mount Kenia. The question as to the per- 

 anent snow covering of the tw» equatorial mountains, Kenia 

 and Kilimandscharo, has been a subject of so much controversy 

 among geographers, that the results of this expedition have been 

 looked for with great interest. It is with regret that we learn 

 from a communication of Dr. Hildebrandt's, dated Suez, 

 November 2, that he has been compelled to return, leaving the 

 summit of Kenia still untrodden by the foot of a European. He 

 left Mombassa on January 10 with forty attendants, and after 

 two months of exhaustive travel amidst hostile tribes, reached 

 Kitui, in Ukamba. Here, in full sight of Kenia, he was com- 

 pelled to pause and retrace his footsteps, his followers utterly 

 refusing to venture among the maraud ng tribes intervening 

 between him and his journey's goal, and he himself being only 

 saved by the swift application of an antidote from death by 

 poison given by the natives. On reaching Zanzibar the physicians 

 declared his health impaired to such an extent that restoration 

 could only be hoped for in a more temperate clime. Dr. Hilde- 

 brandt has suffered unusually from the two invariable concomitants 

 of the African explorer — sickness and the hostility of the abori- 

 gines, his two expeditions from Zanzibar in the spring and 

 autumn of 1875 being both shortened and hampered by these 

 causes. 



Herr Schutt, a civil engineer, has been despatched by the 

 German African Society to*St. Paul de Loanda to undertake an 

 expedition through the region lately traversed so successfully by 

 the hunter. Dr. Pogge. 



One of the effects of the war in the east appears to be the 

 discovery in out-of-the-way towns in Russia, of gems of unsur- 

 passed size and beauty, which doubtless have been jealously 

 hoarded by their possessors, and only brought to light in times, 

 like the present, of national necessity. Some of these gems have 

 naturally found their way to this country ; perhaps the most 

 remarkable are — an aquamarine, far superior to anything before 

 seen in England, weighing over six ounces and a half, without 

 the slightest blemish, and of a deep sea-green tint ; also a topaz 

 rivalling that purchased for the Grand Mogul at Goa for 

 11,260/. Ihese two remarkable gems were received from 

 Moscow by Mr. Bryce M. Wright, Mineralogist, of Great 

 Russell Street, the possessor of the unique suite of diamonds 

 called the " Bryce Wright Diamonds," valued at 21,000/. 



We are requested to state that in the abstract of Mr. Perkin's 

 paper read at the meeting of the Chemical Society on November 

 I the word "cumenyl" was, by a slip, written "cinnenyl" 

 throughout the report. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Common Squirrel {Sciurus vulgaris), 

 European, presented by Mr. T. Massey, F.Z.S. ; a Greater 

 Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo {Cacatua gaknta), from Australia, 

 presented by Mr. F. ;Lablache ; a Radiated Tortoise {Testudo 

 radiata) trom Madagascar, presented by Mr. H. Harrison ; two 

 Red-backed Squirrel Monkeys {Saimaris cerstedi), two Black- 

 handed Spider Monkeys {Ateles melanochir), a Derbian Opossum 

 {Didelphys derbianus) from Central America, a Bonnet Monkey 

 (Macacus radiatus) from India, a Rufous-vented Guan {Penelope 

 cristata) from Costa Rica, deposited ; a Bay Antelope {Cepha- 

 lophiis dorsalis) from West Africa, received in exchange. 



THE LIBERTY OF SCIENCE IN THE MODERN 

 STATED 



"XTlfHEN the honourable request was addressed to me by our 

 ^ ' committee to deliver a lecture to the meeting upon this 

 occasion, I asked myself whether I should not treat of a 

 special department of the latest development of science, in 

 accordance with that point of view to which I drew attention 

 originally, and of which you were reminded by Prof. Klebs 

 only the other day. But I decided this time to give expression 

 to a more general want, principally because it seems to me that 

 the time has come when a certain explanation must take place 

 between science as we represent it and work in it, and general 

 life as a whole, and because in the special history of the conti- 

 nental nations of Europe the moment is rapidly approaching 

 when the mental fate of nations by decisions in the highest 

 quarters may be determined perhaps for a long time to come. 



It is not for the first time, gentlemen, that upon the occasion 

 of a meeting of this Association I have been able, as a warning, 

 to point out almost dramatic events happening in our neigh- 

 bouring state. On a former occasion I could draw atten- 

 tion to occurrences which had just taken place beyond the 

 Rhine, and which, however far they may apparently be removed 

 from our task, yet concern the same contested domain after all, 

 that namely upon which a decision must be made with regard to 

 determining what position modern science is to occupy in the 

 modern state. Let us be sincere — here we may perhaps be 

 doubly so, — it is the question of ultramontanism and of ortho- 

 doxy, which moves us continually. I may say that I look forward 

 with real fear to the events which will happen among our 

 neighbours in the course of the next years. We here, at this 

 moment, may look round with a certain pride and we may observe 

 the course of things with a certain calmness. But to-day, when 

 we are celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of this Association, it 

 is certainly becoming to remember how great a change has taken 

 place in Germany, and specially at Munich, since the days when 

 Oken assembled German naturalists and physicians for the first 

 time. 



I would only refer shortly to two facts ; they are well-known 

 enough, but then they are also important enough to be mentioned 

 again. The one is that when, in the year 1822, the handful of men 

 who constituted the first meeting of the German Association of 

 Naturalists met at Leipzig they thought it still so dangerous to 

 hold a meeting of that description that it was really held in per- 

 fect secrecy. The names of the Austrian members could indeed 

 be published only thirty-nine years later, viz., in 1861. The 

 second fact which strikes us when we remember Oken is, 

 that he, the valued and renowned teacher, the ornament of 

 the Munich high school, died in exile in the same canton of 

 Switzerland in which Ulrich von Hutten ended his life full of 

 troubles and contests. Gentlemen, the bitter exile which 

 oppressed the last years of Oken's life, which caused his death 

 far away from those scenes where he had sacrificed the best 

 powers of his life, this exile will remain the signature of the time 

 which we have gone through. And as long as there is a German 

 Association of Naturalists, we shall thankfully remember that this 

 man bore all the signs of a martyr until the time of his death, we 

 shall point him out as one of those who with their blood conquered 

 and obtained for us the liberty of science. 



Nowadays, gentlemen, it is easy to speak of the liberty of 

 science in Germany; now we are perfectly secure even here, 

 where, only a few decades back, the fear was great that a new 

 change of things might perhaps produce the extreme reverse, 

 and we can in all calmness discuss the highest and most difficult 

 problems of life and the hereafter. The addresses which were 

 delivered at the first and second general meetings certainly prove 

 sufficiently that Munich is now a place which can bear to hear 

 the representatives of science in the most perfect liberty. I was 

 not able to listen to all these addresses, but I have since read 

 those of Professors Haeckel and Nageli, and I must say we 

 cannot ask more than to be allowed to continue to discuss with 

 such liberty. 



If it were only a question of rejoicing over this possession I 

 should indeed not have claimed your attention for that object. 

 But, gentlemen, we have arrived at a point when it becomes 

 necessary to investigate whether we may hope to retain securely 

 for the future the possession which we actually enjoy. The fact 

 that we are enabled to discuss, as we do to-day, is not a sufficient 



' Address delivered at the Munich meeting of the German Association, 

 by Prof. Rudolf Virchow, of Berlin. 



