574 



NATURE 



[January 21, 19 15 



stances where science would prove itself useful on 

 service, he explained how particulars of the enemy's 

 guns could be deduced from fragments of the wall of 

 a shell and photographic pictures. From a fragment 

 they could determine whether a shell came from one 

 of the 42-centimetre howitzers, the very existence of 

 which still appeared in doubt. Dealing with the cal- 

 culations for ascertaining how far men should stand 

 from a gun to avoid the danger of permanent deaf- 

 ness, he said they need not fear to stand 12 yards 

 behind the 42-centimetre howitzer ; and so the story 

 was discounted of the firing party taking cover 100 to 

 200 metres away when this howitzer was fired. An 

 application of the theory of the conduction of heat 

 would have reassured our men that life in the trenches 

 would not be too cold, or would at least be warmer 

 than in the frost above, provided only the floor could 

 be drained dry under foot. It had also to be borne 

 in mind that the trench gave better cover than a tent. 

 Five years ago he had an invitation to Berlin, to 

 visit the Military Technical Academy there. It was a 

 magnificent institution such as we could not afford, so 

 our rulers assured us. Prof. Cranz showed how in his 

 department no money was spared in recent equipment, 

 including a bomb-proof range available for artillery 

 fire and yet in the heart of a big city. There were 

 plenty of outdoor artillery ranges also to visit, where 

 instructive work was in progress. The Perry system 

 of education was adopted in Berlin. After a lecture 

 on wireless telegraphy, the class was set to work, as 

 he saw, in making the antennae which had played 

 such an important part in the war. Sixty ofificers 

 were under instruction at a time for a course of three 

 years, and he was assured their zeal was admirable. 

 It was considered such bad form not to give the best 

 in return for the honour and glory of the Fatherland. 

 But our Regular was apathetic by comparison. We 

 must put our trust in the junior ranks to push old 

 Apathy from his stool and carry us through this war. 

 It was a mournful contrast to revert to Woolwich. 

 There they had been evicted and were told to found 

 a new artillery college with the choice of a cellar 

 under some stables or a kitchen and scullery and bare 

 walls in a deserted hospital, there to organise victory 

 and at no expense. With the courage of an Austrian 

 general compelled to maintain his muzzle-loading 

 musket a match for the Prussian needle-gun, the Mili- 

 tary Director assured them that there was nothing 

 superior to be found at Greenwich, in the Naval 

 College there lodged in the old Palace. Such dismal, 

 penurious surroundings had a disastrous effect on the 

 genius loci, and they never really recovered from a 

 downhearted spirit not calculated for victory. Our 

 military science was under the rule of Thumb, the 

 ofiicial genius. His fumbling method was considered 

 a match for disciplined theory. 



We saw already how the cost had been well laid out 

 in this war of the Berlin Military Technical Academy, 

 the German jumping off with a lead he was able to 

 keep so far. The finished article of the academy was 

 employed in the dissemination of true theory and in 

 the scientific direction of warlike preparation as at 

 Krupps. Assuming everything for the best for the 

 Allies, and if we lived to go in again at Antwerp, an 

 interesting match would be watched between our 

 artillery science and the German, to see how long it 

 would take us to get the other side out, compared 

 with our own innings and the time we kept our wicket 

 up. No long-range fire, he had been assured, was 

 ever going to be of any use again, involving theo- 

 retical calculation. The word was " Gallop up close, 

 to 400 yards, and let them have it." 



The country was furious at the way our poor fellows 

 were pounded mercilessly at the start by long-range 

 accurate howitzer fire with no protection from our 

 NO. 2360, VOL. 94] 



own side. King George's stirring appeal, "Wake up, 

 England," was intercepted by our rulers, and it was 

 England the Unready again when our Senior Lethargy 

 bumped into the Titanic Energy of the German 

 Empire. 



SOME ASPECTS OF PROGRESS IN 

 MODERN ZOOLOGY.'^ 



IT is our privilege to live in a time of almost unex- 

 ampled progress in natural science, a time distin- 

 guished alike by discoveries of the first magnitude 

 and by far-reaching changes in method and in point 

 of view. The advances of recent years have revolu- 

 tionised our conceptions of the structure of matter, 

 and have seriously raised the question of the trans- 

 mutation of the chemical eleni«>nts. They have 

 continually extended the proofs of organic evolution, 

 but have at the same time opened wide the door to a 

 re-examination of its conditions, its causes, and its 

 essential nature. Such has been the swiftness of these 

 advances that some effort is still required to realise 

 what remarkable new horizons of discovery they have 

 brought into view. A few years ago the possibility 

 of investigating by direct experiment the internal 

 structure of atoms, or the topographical grouping of 

 hereditary units in the germ-cells, would have seemed 

 a wild dream. To-day these questions stand among 

 the substantial realities of scientific inquiry. And 

 lest we should lose our heads amid advances so sweep- 

 ing, the principles that guide scientific research have 

 been subjected as never before to critical examination. 

 We have become more circumspect in our attitude 

 towards natural "laws." We have attained to a 

 clearer view of our working hypotheses — of their uses 

 and their limitations. With the best of intentions we 

 do not always succeed in keeping them clear of meta- 

 physics, but at least we have learned to try. We 

 perceive more and more clearly that science does not 

 deal with ultimate problems or with final solutions. 

 In order to live science must move. She attempts no 

 more than to win successive points of vantage which 

 may serve, one after another, as stepping stones to 

 further progress. When these have played their part 

 they are often left behind as the general advance 

 proceeds. 



In respect to the practical applications of science 

 we have almost ceased to wonder at incredible pro- 

 digies of achievement; yet in some directions they 

 retain a hold on our imagination that daily familiarity 

 cannot shake. Not in our time, at least, will the 

 magnificent conquests of sanitary science and experi- 

 mental medicine sink to the level of the common- 

 place. Science here renders her most direct and 

 personal service to human welfare ; and here in less 

 direct ways she plays a part in the advance of our 

 civilisation that would have been inconceivable to our 

 fathers. Popular writers delight to portray the 

 naturalist as a kind of reanimated antediluvian, wan- 

 dering aimlessly in a modern world where he plays 

 the part of a harmless visionary; but what master 

 of romance would have had the ingenuity to put into 

 the head of his mythical naturalist a dream that the 

 construction of the Panama Canal would turn upon 

 our acquaintance with the natural history of the mos- 

 quito, or that the health and happiness of nations — 

 nay, their advance in science, letters, and the arts — 

 might depend measurably on the cultivation of our 

 intimacy with the family lives of house-flies, fleas, 

 and creatures of still more dubious antecedents ! 



1 Presidential address delivered to the American Association for the 

 Advancsment of Science, Philadelphia, December 28, 1914, by Prof. E. B. 

 Wilson. 



