November 29, 1900] 



NA TURE 



121 



invention, and assists students by providing a common meeting- 

 H place and centre of action. Every scientific discoverer desires 

 immediate publication of his work, both for his own reputation 

 and to secure the assistance of his colleagues. Every industrial 

 inventor requires publication in order that he may secure the 

 natural profits of his invention. A society systematises and 

 arranges the science or study which is its subject-matter. 



The present condition of science is certainly due to the or- 

 ganised efforts of such societies as the Royal Society and its 

 subordinate societies in this and other countries. They secure 

 public recognition for science and those who pursue it ; they 

 prevent overlapping ; serve to deter different men from working 

 on the same lines ; and they bring influence to bear on the 

 public and on the Government. Any individual is less power- 

 ful by himself than when he is associated with others seeking 

 the same object. An active society is a corporation with a 

 perpetual succession, and it never dies. The work carried on 

 by an isolated student ceases at his death, but the work done 

 by a number of students associated together goes on and on. 

 As one man drops out, another takes his place. 



An excellent example of the reciprocal influence of scientific 

 workers and of a scientific institution upon each other is afforded 

 by the Royal Institution. Without Davy, Faraday, or Tyndall, 

 the Royal Institution would never have become the important 

 body it now is. But without the Royal Institution neither 

 Davy nor Faraday would have had any opportunity for carrying 

 out their scientific work and of obtaining their scientific reputa- 

 tion, and perhaps the same may be said to a certain extent of 

 Dr. Tyndall. 



The history that I have been tracing comprises within it a 

 record of the advance in many directions of our acquaintance 

 with the secrets of nature, of our turning that acquaintance to 

 practical account, and of the consequent progress of the nation 

 in material prosperity. It bears witness likewise to that 

 specialisation in science, which, though by no means an un- 

 mixed blessing, seems to be of necessity associated with all ad- 

 vancement in natural knowledge. The days are long since past 

 when any single individual could attempt to cope with the whole 

 encyclopaedia of science, but the question not unfrequently arises 

 at the present day whether the po.sition of the specialist would 

 not be more secure were the foundations on which he builds 

 extended over a larger area, and were his scientific sympathies 

 somewhat wider in their character. 



Another question that may be asked is whether there is any 

 need for this multiplicity of societies. The answer from any 

 one who in whatever manner believes in evolution will be, that 

 at the time of founding each society a necessity for it must at 

 all events have been thought to exist, and that the analogous 

 societies at that time in being must have been either unable or 

 unwilling to adjust or expand themselves so as to include the 

 subject for the study of which the new society was instituted. 

 Many of the subjects, for instance, that originally came within 

 the domain of the Royal Society, and indeed are still in- 

 cluded within it, have by degrees been not absolutely 

 banished from it, but relegated in the main to other societies, 

 founded more especially for the study and illustration of such 

 subjects. The Linnean, the Astronomical, the Chemical, and 

 the Geological Societies afford instances in point, and any at- 

 tempt to suppress such socieiries, and to bring their members 

 all within the fold of the Royal Society, would have a disastrous 

 effect on the advance of science, and would absolutely over- 

 weight the powers of the' Royal Society itself. At the same 

 time it must be remembered that accounts of important dis- 

 coveries in any of these branches of knowledge are cordially 

 welcomed by the Royal Society, and that it is usually the case 

 that the leading Fellows of these special societies are also 

 Fellows of the Royal Society. The same in a lesser degree 

 holds good with the Society of Antiquaries, as archaeological 

 discoveries, especially when bearing on the early history of 

 man, are welcomed alike on both sides of the quadrangle at 

 Burlington House. 



Turning to the more purely philosophical societies that have 

 been established in London, it would seem as if for some reason 

 or other the soil was not congenial for their growth or longevity. 

 The Dialectical Society, founded in 1865, was dissolved in 

 1888 ; the Psychological, founded in 1875, ceased to exist in 

 1879, but was resuscitated under the name of the Society for 

 Psychical Research in 1882. The Zetetical Society, established 

 in 1878, and the Aristotelian in 1880, do not appear in 

 Whitaker's List of So:ieties and Institutions, though the latter, 



NO. 1622. VOL. 63] 



notwithstanding that its members are few, is still in active 

 operation. Altogether the number of those interested in 

 abstract philosophy seems to bear no proportion to that of the 

 votaries of the study of nature in all its phases and of those 

 who devote themselves to the application of science to the good 

 of mankind. 



In the Institut de France, one of the Academies is that of 

 Sciences Morales et Politiques, which, however, is divided into 

 five sections. Of the eight places devoted to philosophy, only 

 six were filled at the beginning of the present year, but this may 

 have been purely accidental. The mention of the Institute 

 suggests the question how far a similar association of academies, 

 would meet the requirements of this country. Such a question 

 is beyond the limits of the present address, but in passing I may 

 say that the necessary limitations of the Institut, the payment 

 for attendance, the method of election of its members, and its 

 close connection with the Government of the day, all p -•'ent 

 features which are hardly in accordance with our insular tra .i- 

 tions. In Paris itself the Institut has had to be supplemented 

 by various important scientific societies, such, for instance, as 

 the Geological Society and the Society of Antiquaries of 

 France. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Oxford. — Dr. S. H. Hodgson has been appointed an elector 

 to the White's professorship of moral philosophy in succession 

 to the late Prof. Henry Sidgwick. 



It will shortly be proposed in Convocation to confer the de- 

 gree of D.Sc, honoris causa, upon Dr. Oliver J. Lodge, prin- 

 cipal of the University of Birmingham. 



Science scholarships are announced for competition on 

 December 4 at Balliol College, Trinity College and Christ- 

 church ; on December II at Magdalen College ; on January 15 

 at Jesus College. 



Cambridge. — The complete degree of M.A., honoris causa, 

 is to be conferred on Mr. G. H. F. Nuttall, M.D. California, 

 Ph.D. Gottingen, University lecturer in bacteriology and pre- 

 ventive medicine, and on Mr. T. Strangeways Pigg, Advanced 

 Student of St. John's College, University demonstrator of 

 pathology. 



The Special Board for Medicine propose a new scheme for 

 the degrees of M.B. and B.C., whereby candidates shall be 

 required to pass a suitable examination in pharmacology {i.e. 

 the physiological actions of remedies), and in general pathology 

 and the elements of hygiene, before admission to the final or 

 qualifying examination in medicine, surgery and midwifery. 



The new Ravenscroft metallurgical laboratory of the Birkbeck , 

 Institution will be opened on Saturday next, December i. 



Dr. Brillouin has been nominated to succeed the late Prof. 

 Bertrand as professor of general and mathematical physics at the 

 College de France. 



Dr. Thomas Buzzard, a Fellow and member of the Council 

 of King's College, London, has been appointed one of the 

 representatives of the college upon the Senate of the University 

 of London, in succession to Lord Lister, who has resigned. 



At a meeting of the associates of the Owens College, Man- 

 chester, held on November 21, Prof. J.J. Thomson, F.R.S., 

 who is himself an associate, was elected a representative of the 

 associates on the Court of Governors of the college for a period 

 of five years. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, August 21. — "Note on the Occurrence of a 

 Seed-like Fructification in certain Palaeozoic Lycopods." By 

 D. H. Scott, M.A , Ph.D., F.R.S. 



The specimens described in the present note show that seed- 

 like bodies, identical with those figured by Williamson under 

 the name of Cardiocarpon anomaluni, were borne on Lepido- 

 dendroid cones, otherwise indistinguishable from Lepidostrobus. 

 They thus prove that under the genus Cardiocarpon, and even 

 under the "species" C. anomaluni, totally different objects 

 have been confounded, namely, the seeds of Cordaiteae or Cycads 



