Feb. 14, 1889] 



NATURE 



^1^ 



conflict raged about the age of mar, and evidence was 

 gradually accumulated, which proved that for many 

 thousand years the human type has been practically the 

 same as it now is: the question then forced itself for- 

 ward, How long would it take a simple cell to develop 

 through various forms to the anthropoid apes and man ? 

 The answer was given in figures higher even than those 

 required by the geologist. 



On the other hand, the question of the possible age of 

 the world in its present condition has been attacked by 

 Sir William Thomson from the side of mathematical 

 physics, and his results have been recalculated and ex- 

 tended by Profs. Tait and Darwin. Arguments based 

 upon (i) the internal heat of the earth, (2) the retarda- 

 tion of the rotation of the earth due to tidal friction, (3) 

 the temperature of the sun, seem to show that the earth 

 has not continued under present conditions for more than 

 from ten to a hundred millions of years ; while the theory 

 of evolution probably requires at least three hundred mil- 

 hons of years for even a comparatively brief portion of 

 geological history. The two results, each supported by 

 strong evidence, are at present in contradiction toeach 

 other. 



Political economists have for some years past been 

 gradually realizing the immense importance of time in 

 all their theeries and calculations. The various causes 

 which accelerate and retard the rate of growth are most 

 important questions, not only for agriculturists, but for the 

 whole population, who are dependent for their subsistence 

 upon the reproduction of plants and animals. As Malthus 

 pointed out in 1798, the population of a civilized country 

 increases in geometrical ratio, while the food-supply can 

 only be increased by importation, by taking inferior land 

 into cultivation, or by improved methods of production. 

 The gradual advance of civilization tends to quicken the 

 rate of increase of population, while it decreases the three 

 palliatives ; hence, at some time, a limit must be reached 

 at which population will increase faster than the means 

 of subsistence. The results of this condition of affairs 

 have been most ably discussed by Mill, and will possibly, 

 before long, be exemplified in England. 



To an individual, all duration beyond comparatively few 

 years is of no importance, but, to a country or corporation, 

 the difference between a hundred years and perpetuity 

 may be very great. Two instances of this distinction 

 have recently caused some discussion. The services of a 

 general or lawyer may be amply rewarded by the grant 

 of an annuity for a hundred years or for three lives ; 

 while the burden of a " perpetual pension'' is felt long 

 after the services for which it is granted are forgotten, 

 and too often after all who have any real claim upon, 

 or connection with, the original recipient have passed 

 away. 



The old fiction of English law, that all the land of the 

 country belongs to the Government, and that the holders 

 of the land are in reahty not owners, but tenants, has 

 recently been brought into prominence by Mr. George 

 and his followers. The tenure of land varies almost 

 infinitely in different countries, and even in diffent parts 

 of the same country, but two simple examples may serve 

 to render the point at issue clear. In the United States 

 the land in the Territories, speaking generally, belongs to 

 the Government, and has been, and to some extent is 

 being, sold to capitalists in large lots at " prairie value." 



Suppose 1000 acres worth ^i an acre are sold outright, 

 they would fetch ^1000, but the present value of a lease 

 for a hundred years, interest being reckoned at 4 per 

 cent., is ;^98o. So far as the capitalist is concerned, for 

 all practical purposes, the land is as much his own in ihe 

 second case as in the first, since any change would take 

 place in the time of a descendant whom he has never 

 seen, and a fair compensation might be arranged for any 

 unexhausted improvements. But, from the point of view 

 of the Government, the case is very different : they would 



receive for the lease only £20 less than the selling price, 

 and at the end of the century the land, with its " unearned 

 increment," would revert to them in the same or better 

 condition than it originally was, with the exception of 

 minerals, for which special arrangements by royalty or 

 otherwise must be made, and the conditions of the 

 tenancy could then be altered to meet any change of 

 circumstances. Where, as is generally the case in 

 England, the land has long ago passed out of the 

 possession of the community, considerations of public 

 faith rightly overpower all considerations of expediency,, 

 but even in this case the absolute sale of " Crown lands "^ 

 or "commons"' seems to be suicidal. That things are 

 not perfect is no reason for making them worse. 



Sydney Lupton. 



NOTES. 

 We print to-day an article on the proposal that English men 

 of science and others should co-operate in the movement for 

 the erection of a statue of Ohm in Munich. The Committee 

 appointed by the meeting at the Royal Society to make the 

 scheme known in England, and to collect subscriptions, consists 

 of the following members :— -Sir F. Abel, Prof. D. Atkinson, 

 Mr. Vernon Boys, Mr. Conrad Cooke, Profs. Ewing, Fitzgerald, 

 Fleming, G. Carey Foster, Mr. Glazebrook, Prof. D. E. Hughes, 

 Mr. Norman Lockyer, Dr. Hugo Miiller, Prof. John Perry, Mr. 

 W. H. Preece, Lord Rayleigh, Profs. Reinold, Riicker, Stokes 

 (President of the Royal Society), Mr. Swinburne, Sir William 

 Thomson, and Prof. S. P. Thompson. Lord Kayleigh was 

 elected President. 



The manuscript of the Royal Society Catalogue of Scientific 

 Papers for the decade 1874-83 is now ready for the press, but 

 Her Majesty's Government have informed the President and 

 Council that it is not their intention to undertake, as in the case 

 of previous decades, the printing and publication of the work. 



Those who knew Dr. O. J. Broch, either when he was Pro- 

 fessor of Mathematics at Christiania, or when he was Minister 

 of the Board of Trade in Norway, or more recently, when he 

 acted as Director of the International Bureau of Weights and 

 Measures at Paris, and all who had any opportunity of inter- 

 course with him either in social or official life, will hear of his 

 death with deep regret. Dr. Broch died at Sevres on the 5tb 

 inst., at the age of seventy-one. It has been the especial duty of the 

 Bureau, over which Dr. Broch presided from its creation after 

 the Metric Convention of 1875, to construct new standards of the 

 metre and kilogramme for the different countries, including 

 Great Britain, which were parties to that Convention. At the 

 time of his death all these standards had been constructed, after 

 much patient investigation, and were only awaiting final approval 

 at Sevres, before their delivery this year to the several contract- 

 ing States. Dr. Broch's work remains to us, not only in those 

 standards of exact measurement which, with the assistance of the 

 men of science attached to the Bureau, he so well designed and 

 verified, but also in the various scientific contributions by which 

 he advanced our knowledge, particularly those published 

 annually by the Comitc International des Poids et Mesures ; 

 and in the mathematical papers issued by the Academy of 

 Sciences at Paris (Elliptic Functions, Comptcsrendits, 1864, «S:c.). 

 Dr. Broch was a corresponding member of the Paris Academy % 

 he was also a member of the Academies of Sciences of Berlin and 

 Copenhagen, and a high officer of the Legion of Honour of 

 France, and of the Order of St. Olaf of Norway. 



The death is announced of M. G. Meuinghini, who had been 

 Professor of Geology at Pisa from 1849. 'He died, on January 

 29, at the age of seventy-eight. 



