December 24, 1914] 



NATURE 



457 



vice in the East, he came into contact with Cecil 

 Rhodes, served with the South African pioneer force, 

 and became administrator of Mashonaland in 1890. , 

 In later years he travelled extensively and wrote much 

 on South Africa, on the Far East, on the Pacific and 

 the Panama Canal schemes, and on other topics. 

 Some of his books are important contributions to the 

 study of great political questions, such as "'The Key 

 of the Pacific" (oa the Panama Canal routes), 

 -China in Transformation," "The Mastery- of the 

 Pacific," and 'The Afrikander Land." He was 

 closely associated with the work of the Royal Colonial 

 Institute, and was editor of its journal, and among 

 various honours he received the g^old medal of the 

 Royal Geographical Society. 



The organised methods employed by Germany in 

 commerce, and the means necessary to meet them 

 successfully, were referred to by Sir William Ramsay 

 in an article contributed by him to Nature of Novem- 

 ber 12 (p. 275). Sir William deals with the same 

 subject in further detail in a paper just issued by the 

 Institute of Industry and Commerce (Aldwych Site, 

 Strand, W.C.) The German militar}^ organisation 

 has its counterpart in their commercial organisation ; 

 there exists an Imperial Council the proceedings of 

 which are kept quiet, but which takes into considera- 

 tion all obtainable statistics, and so far as possible 

 legislates, or endeavours to legislate, on the basis of 

 these statistics. Where fiscal duties are found to be 

 required, such a council puts them-^n ; where there 

 is an advantage in taking them off, they are removed. 

 Where cheap transit is possible they give it; for the 

 railways are the property of the State. In referring 

 to these matters at the annual meeting of the Society 

 of Chemical Industry in 1903, Sir William Ramsay 

 said : — " Is it to be expected that any country can 

 light such a combination as that without adopting, at 

 all events, something of their methods, or without 

 .studying their methods, and without combining to- 

 .gether, if not to imitate them, at least to thwart 

 ihem ? There is. a military campaign against us, and 

 Ave must defend ourselves." Sir William points out 

 .that it will be necessary, if the future German State 

 is allowed to retain the power of waging an industrial 

 Avar, to combat it by the action of the organised 

 British nation, that is, by the State. Once that con- 

 quest is achieved, we should do well to remember that 

 commerce should be co-operative and not competitive ; 

 that it is to our interest not only that we ourselves 

 should prosper, but that others should also prosper; 

 that, indeed, our own prosperit}- is bound up in the 

 prosperity of our fellow-creatures. 



The Philadelphia mc-eting of the American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science will open on 

 Monday, December 28, when the retiring president. 

 Prof. E. B. Wilson, of Columbia University, will 

 introduce the president of the meeting. Dr. C. W. 

 Eliot, of Harvard. Addresses of welcome by the 

 provost and the governor-elect will be replied to by 

 President Eliot, after which retiring President Wilson 

 will deliver his address on '" Some Aspects of Progress 

 in Modern Zoology." There will be two public lec- 

 tures, complimentary to the citizens of Philadelphia 

 NO. 2356, VOL. 94] 



and vicinity, one on Tuesday night, at 8 o'clock, 

 being by Dr. D. C. Miller, "The Science of Musical 

 Sounds." On Wednesday night, at 8 o'clock. Dr. 

 W. H. Nichols will lecture on "The War and the 

 Chemical Industry." The titles of the addresses by 

 the retiring presidents of the sections are as follows : — 

 Physics : Recent evidence for the existence of the 

 nucleus atom, A. D. Cole; Botany: The economic 

 trend of botany, H.C. Cowles ; Anthropology and 

 Psychology : The function and test of definition and 

 method in psychology, W. B. Pillsbury ; Mafhemnfics 

 and Astronomy : The object of astronomical and 

 mathematical research, F. Schlesinger; Agritulfure : 

 The place of research and of publicity in the forth- 

 coming country life development, L. H. Bailey; Edu- 

 cation: The American rural school, P. P. Claxton; 

 Engineering : Safety Engineering, O. P. Hood ; 

 Geology and Geography : The relief of our Pacific 

 coast, J. S. Diller; Physiology and Experimental 

 Medicine : The classification of nervous reactions, T. 

 Hough ; Social and Economic Science : Social and 

 economic value of industrial museums, J. G. Wall; 

 Zoology : The research work of the Tortugas Labora- 

 tory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, A. G. 

 Mayer; Chemistry : Fermentation, C. S. Alsberg. 



At a good old age — eighty-six — the famous Swiss 

 I guide, Melchior Anderegg, has passed to his rest. 

 I Born near Meiringen, at which place he died, he was 

 I bred and lived, except when undertaking some longer 

 excursion, in the Oberland. He was introduced, if 

 we remember rightly, to the Alpine fraternity by the 

 late T. W. Hinchliff, who described, in his delightful 

 " Summer Months among the Alps," excursions with 

 him across the Strahlegg Pass in 1855 and up the 

 Altels in the following year. Melchior 's " great 

 ascents " were rather more than twenty, for his 

 emplovers, among whom we may number the 

 Walkers, father, son, and daughter, A. W. Moore, 

 H. B. George, F. Morsehead, C. E. Mathews, and 

 Leslie Stephen, belonged to the old guard of Alpine 

 climbers and did not consider the charms of an ex- 

 pedition enhanced by needless perils. The more 

 notable of those ascents were Mont Blanc by the 

 Aiguille and Dome du Gouter, and by the more 

 difficult route from the Brenva glacier ; the Col de la 

 Tour Noire, a most laborious pass, near the Aiguille 

 d'Argentiere, and the Roththal Sattel, one yet more 

 dangerous, under the Jungfrau ; the highest peak of 

 the Grandes Jorasses, the Dent d'Herens, the Parrot- 

 Spitze of Monte Rosa and its culminating peak by a 

 new route up the Grenz glacier, but probably there 

 were verv' few of the more noted peaks and passes 

 of the Alps with which .Melchior was not acquainted. 

 Besides this, he was an expert wood-carver, and small 

 statues of friends from his chisel have more than 

 once been exhibited in England. Melchior deservedly 

 won the affection of all who had travelled in his 

 company. He was one of nature's gentlemen, and 

 the late C. E. Mathews, whose companion he had 

 been for thirty-four years, truly says in his "Annals 

 of Mont Blanc" that he was "perhaps the greatest 

 all-round guide whom the love of mountaineering has 

 ever produced. ... It is with a peculiar pleasure and 



