20 



NATURE 



[May 5, 1887 



a most important part of the main groundwork of its organisa- 

 tion, is not in the least theoretical in its character. Its possible 

 development has suggested itself to many who have given thought 

 to the future sphere of action of the Institute in connexion with 

 commerce and industry ; to myself, who for many years have 

 been, from time to time, officially cognisant of the work per- 

 formed by what are called the Intelligence Departments of the 

 Ministries of War abroad and at home, the direct and valuable 

 bearing of such a system upon the work of the Institute, 

 suggested itself as soon as I gave thought to the possible future 

 of this great conception, and to Major Fitzgerald Law belongs 

 the credit of suggesting that the well-tried machinery of the 

 War Office Intelligence Department should serve as a guide for 

 the elaboration of a Commercial Intelligence Department. This 

 Department, which will, it is hoped, ere long commence its 

 operations by establishing relations with the chief colonies and 

 India, will be in constant communication with the Inquiry 

 Offices to be attached to the local commercial establishments and 

 to other provincial representations of the work of the Institute, 

 systematically distributing among them the commercial informa- 

 tion and statistics continually collected. It will be equally 

 valuable to the colonies and Indiaby bringing their requirements 

 thoroughly to the knowledge of the business men in the United 

 Kingdom, and by maintaining that close touch and sympathy 

 between them and the people at home which will tend to a true 

 federation of all parts of the Empire. 



In no more important direction is this system destined to do 

 useful work than in the organisation of emigration, not only of 

 labour, but also of capital. The establishment of emigration 

 inquiry offices at provincial centres in connexion with a central 

 department at the Institute, will be of great service to the in- 

 tending emigrant, by placing within his reach the power of 

 acquiring indispensable information and advice, and by facilitating 

 his attainment of the special knowledge or training calculated to 

 advance his prospects in the new home of his choice. Similarly, 

 the capitalist may be assisted in discovering new channels for 

 enterprise in distant portions of the Empire, the resources of 

 which are awaiting development by the judicious application of 

 capital and by the particular class of emigration which its devotion 

 to public works or manufacturing enterprise in the Colonies would 

 carry with it. The extent to which the State may aid in the 

 organisation of systematic emigration, and the best mode in which 

 it may, without burden to the country, promote the execution 

 of such public works in the Colonies as will open up their 

 dominions to commerce and at the same time encourage the 

 particular class of emigration most advantageous to the Colonies 

 themselves, are subjects of great present interest ; but, in what- 

 ever way these important questions may be grappled with, such 

 an organisation as the Institute should supply cannot fail to 

 accelerate the establishment of emigration upon a sound and 

 systematic footing, and to co-operate very beneficially in directing 

 private enterprise into the channels best calculated to advance the 

 mutual interests of the capitalists and the colonies. 



I have already indicated that it is not only in connexion with 

 purely commercial matters that the Intelligence Department of 

 the Institute will occupy itself. The prospects of its value to 

 the Colonies and to India in promoting the development of their 

 natural resources and the cultivation of new fields for commer- 

 cial and industrial activity are well illustrated by the valuable 

 work which has been accomplished upon similar lines by the 

 admirably directed organisation at Kew. 



By the systematic collection and distribution of information 

 relating to industries and to education from all countries which 

 compete with ourselves in the struggle for supremacy in intellec- 

 tual and industrial development, the Institute will most importantly 

 contribute to the maintenance of intimate relationship and co- 

 operation between educational, industrial, and commercial 

 centres, between the labourer in science and the sources 

 through which his work becomes instrumental in advancing 

 national prosperity ; between the Colonies and the Mother 

 Country, between ourselves and all races included in the vast 

 Empire of Her Majesty. 



In conclusion, I venture to express the belief that the 

 organisation which the Imperial Institute will have the power of 

 developing, with a wisely constructed governing body at its head, 

 may accomplish, and at no distant date, other most useful work, 

 which has been already publicly indicated as destined to have 

 an immediate bearing upon the federation of England and her 

 colonies. Prof. Huxley, in his last Presidential Address to 

 the Royal Society, uttered most suggestive words, indicative of 



the value and the possibility of a scientific federation of all 

 English-speaking peoples ; and this subject is now receiving the 

 careful consideration of that Society. It is firmly believed by 

 leading men of science that such a federation of at any rate the 

 Colonies and Dependencies with us will be brought about, and it 

 is in harmony with that belief that the Imperial Institute should 

 be expected, through its organisation, to afford important aid in 

 the application of the principle of federation to the geological 

 and topographical survey of the Colonies, in the establishment of 

 a system of interchange of meteorological and scientific observa- 

 tions, and in the promotion, in various ways, of thorough co- 

 operation between particular Colonies, or groups of Colonies, 

 for applying the results of scientific research to the mutual 

 development of their natural resources. 



It may be that the programme of which I have given a very 

 imperfect exposition, as indicative of the work which the Imperial 

 Institute may be called upon to accomplish, will be regarded 

 by some as almost too ambitious in its scope for practical fulfil- 

 ment. The outline of this programme has been drawn by a 

 combination of abler hands than mine ; I have but ventured to 

 sketch in some of the details as they have presented themselves 

 to my mind, and to the minds of others who have given thought 

 to this great subject ; but I dare to have faith in its realisation, 

 and to believe that, if the work be taken in hand systematically 

 and progressively, the nucleus being first thoroughly established 

 from which fresh lines of departure will successively emanate, 

 the Imperial Institute is destined to become a glory of the land. 

 And, as one whose mission it has been, through many years of 

 ai'duous work, to assist in a humble way in the application of 

 the resources of some branches of science to the maintenance of 

 the countiy's power to defend its rights and to hold its own, I 

 may perhaps be pardoned for my presumption in giving expres- 

 sion to the firm belief that, by the secure foundation and careful 

 development of this great undertaking, and by its wise direction, 

 by a government truly representative of its founders — all 

 Nations and Classes composing the Empire — there will be 

 secured in it one of the most important future defences of the 

 Queen's dominions ; one of the most powerful instruments fcr 

 the maintenance of the unity, the strength, and the prosperity of 

 her realms. 



THE LOCOMOTOR SYSTEM OF STAR-FISH. 



TDROF. PREYER, of Jena, has recently concluded an elaborate 

 -*- research " Ueber die Bewegungen der Seesterne." This 

 paper, which contains over thirty illustrations, appears in the 

 Publications of the Zoological Station at Naples (vii.), where 

 the investigation was carried on during a period of nearly five 

 months. This investigation was exclusively physiological, and 

 confined to the star-fish — the Holothurians, Echini, &c. , not 

 having fallen within its scope. Considering that Prof. Preyer 

 thus selected a line of experimental inquiry which had been 

 already pretty well worked out, he deserves to be congratulated 

 on the everywhere interesting and frequently novel character of 

 his results. The most important of these results, in so far as 

 they are new, appears to me — as also to himself — to be his de- 

 monstration that a severed ray of a star-fish exhibits much more 

 co-ordination in the management of its tube-feet, if the section 

 has been arranged so that two or more of the central ganglia in 

 the disk are left in connexion with the ray, than if only one of 

 these ganglia be so left. It was previously known that under 

 any circumstances the severed ray of a star-fish would not only 

 crawl about, seek the light, &c., but also right itself when turned 

 over on its back. In order to execute this manoeuvre highly 

 co-ordinated action on the part of the tube-feet is required, and 

 therefore the interest attaching to Prof. Preyer's observation con- 

 sists in its having shown that this co-ordination cannot be nearly 

 so well effected by one of the central ganglia as it can be by two 

 or more of them. Or, in his own words, " Also leisten 2 func- 

 tionell gleichwerthige Theile des Nervensystems zusammen 

 qualitativ mehr als jeder fiir sich. Man kommt auf die Vermu- 

 thung, dass auch bei den hoheren Thieren, und vielleicht auch 

 dem Menschen, es nicht allein die qualitative Beschaftenheit 

 der Ganglienzellen, sondern auch ihre Anzahl und Verbindung 

 ist, welche hohere psychische Leistungen ermoglichen." 



Highly interesting also are the results of numerous ingenious 

 experiments devised with a view of testing whether the adaptive 

 movements of star-fish can be explained as due to mechanical 

 reflexes alone, or require us to suppose something of the nature 



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