January 19, 1922] 



NATURE 



remarkable interest. For example, it pointed out the 

 possibility of applying many of the most far-reaching 

 results obtained by the modern school of analysts to 

 this function F(a.-) by means of a careful consideration 

 of the assumptions which can plausibly be made con- 

 cerning the characteristic properties of this function 

 F(x). 



In the discussion which followed the reading of this 



paper, the "frequency " view of probability, according 

 to which the probability of an event is a property 

 definable in mathematical terms, was supported by 

 M. Carvallo ; but the contradictory view, which is, 

 of course, the view of the majority of recent writers on 

 the subject in England, was maintained in interesting 

 speeches from M. Hadamard, Prof. Langevin, and 

 others. 



Geographical Outlooks. 



nPHE Geographical Association held its annual 

 -*- meeting at Birkbeck College, London, on 

 January 5 and 6. Lord Robert Cecil, as president, 

 spoke on "Geography and Peace." If the Washing- 

 ton Conference was more efficient for peace than the 

 League of Nations Council, this was partly because 

 the latter had serious geographic constitutional defects, 

 ^uch as the absence of German, Russian, and United 

 States representatives. Self-determination was easy 

 to enunciate but most difficult to apply, because geo- 

 graphic conditions had resulted in extraordinary inter- 

 mingling of peoples who, with inexplicable perversity, 

 d-clined to live in watertight compartments. Racial 

 iid linguistic complexity is not, however, an impas- 

 ible barrier to governmental unity, as Switzerland, 

 with its three component peoples differing in history, 

 language, and religion, indubitably proves. The 

 Silesian decision was full of geographic interest. For 

 purposes of tariffs, passports, and transportation the 

 political boundary is ignored, and this may be a first 

 experiment towards serious future modification of 

 our State system. 



Mrs. Ormsby (London School of Economics) from 

 long-continued researches gave a demonstration lec- 

 ture showing remarkable connections between original 

 contours and drainage of London and Westminster 

 and their present configuration. Her detailed contour 

 maps are of great scientific interest, and should be 

 published. Sir Halford Mackinder suggested that 

 London originated as the port of St. Albans. Mr. 

 R. L. Thompson (Rugby School), pleading for the 

 I>etter teaching of both history and geography, em- 

 phasised the need for superseding the narrowness of 

 iho personal and local points of view. We should 

 fnvlsage the weaving of the pattern of life linked 

 through the ages by history and through space by 

 ■ ography. Sir Halford Mackinder spoke on problem's 

 the Pacific. He asked for geographic imagina- 

 ioii of the Pacific as a unitv instead of the 

 loo prevalent view of it as a distant fringe of the 

 European peoples. The Washington Conference had 

 •r laid down the limits of the Pacific, and this might 



a serious omission, since such populous and pros- ■ 

 ' rous islands as Java lie in the doubtful zone. The ; 

 Pacific coastal fringes must become incalculably im- 

 portant because of their coal, mineral, and agricul- 

 tural possibilities. 



Dr. Fleure, hon. secretary of the association, lec- 

 turing to a joint meeting of historians and geo- 

 graphers, urged that subject-barriers in education 

 should be diminished and that historians and geo- 

 graphers should co-operate to attain broader truth 

 about human evolution. The long, bitter Russian 

 winter so lowers human efficiency that continuously 

 efficient popular criticism of government is impossible, 

 and traditional routine is therefore important. In 

 France the Roman South and the Paris basin differ 

 historically in language, law, architecture, and 

 economics. The boundary between them is a zone, 

 not a line. Our political system needs re-adjustnv?nt 

 by recognition of the zonal characters of frontiers. 

 The maps of cities are full of clues for interpreting 

 their life, and, when compared, illustrate remarkably 

 the medieval spread of civic development from the 

 Paris basin along the European plain. Mapping of 

 prehistoric facts is another geographic study which will 

 help to trace back the lineage of human institutions 

 beyond the age of documents. 



Miss L. Winchester (Liverpool University) dis- 

 cussed climatic variations in Palestine and 

 factors of the serious summer drought which make 

 storage for water from the winter rains an out- 

 standing problem. 



Dr. Hogarth lectured, with many original slides, 

 on Hejaz as a central section of the age-long trade 

 route between Syria and Yemen, with Mecca and 

 Medina as stations on either side of an immense and 

 high bluff of barren volcanic rock. The growth of 

 Muhammadan life and pilgrimage on this basis was 

 implicitly suggested, and its influence on the countrv 

 was worked out to the practical conclusion that 

 Hejaz could scarcely become a commanding political 

 unit. 



The outstanding features of the annual business 

 meeting were the remarkable enthusiasm for geo- 

 graphy shown by the fact that eleven hundred new 

 members had joined the association during 1921, and 

 the resolution sent to the Board of Education urging 

 that, while fully recognising the enormous service 

 which the system of advanced courses had rendered 

 in raising the standard of secondary education, the 

 Geographical Association felt that changed conditions 

 emphasise the need for much greater freedom of 

 teaching and grouping of subjects. 



The Bow in Homeric Times. 



n^HE Huxley memorial lecture of the Royal Anthro- 

 pological Institute was delivered on November 2q 

 bv Mr. Henry Balfour, the title of the lecture being 

 The Archer's Bow Jh "the Homeric Poems." 

 Mr. Balfour said that the principal passages in the 

 Homeric texts relating to the archer's bow were : 

 (i) the description of the bow of Pandarus {Iliad, IV.); 

 {2) the account of the bow of Odysseus (Odyssey, 

 XXL). Both these bows were described merely as 

 NO. 2725, VOL. 109] 



made of horn, but it was impossible to believe that 

 horn alone was used in making so powerful a bow 

 as that of Odysseus The bow of the Lycian Pan- 

 darus was made, according to the poet, from the 

 horns of a single wild goat, but, on zoological grounds, 

 this description could be shown to be inadequate, as 

 such horns, if unaided, would not furnish material for 

 making a practicable bow. Tt was suggested that 

 either the horns of the .Armenian wild sheep, or, 



