208 



NATURE 



[December 27, 1900 



•examinations in physical geography. Grants in aid of 

 teaching were made for successful candidates by each 

 Department ; but it was found that many pupil teachers 

 presented themselves for examination by the Department 

 of Science and Art after they had passed the examination 

 of the Education Department, and they thus earned 

 grants twice over for the same subject. To avoid this 

 duplication, it was decided to limit physical geography 

 to the Education Department, and to give the subject 

 under the Department of Science and Art a wider scope 

 •and call it physiography. The subject was instituted 

 in place of physical geography by a minute of the Lords 

 of Committee of Council on Education dated August 15, 

 1876, and the first examination was held in the following 

 year, the syllabus having been drawn up by Sir Norman 

 Lockyer. The deliberate purpose was to introduce a 

 Subject which was not physical geography at all, and to 

 prevent candidates with a knowledge of physical geo- 

 graphy only from scoring a success upon their knowledge 

 in the examinations in physiography. If this is remem- 

 bered, the unreasonableness of criticising the physio- 

 graphy of the Department of Science and Art from the 

 point of view of the physical geographer is at once 

 obvious. There is nothing to justify the occupation of 

 this position, and the comparison made from it has no 

 significance. 



The general impression is that Huxley first used the 

 word physiography in the sense in which latter-day advo- 

 cates of physical geography like to understand it. Prof. 

 Davis commits himself to this opinion in the remark that 

 " the term physiography has been adopted [by the South 

 Kensington authorities] because of Huxley's use of it as 

 a title for a series of lectures in 1869 and 1870." Now, 

 as a matter of fact, this statement is not correct. The 

 subject of the lectures was, as Huxley's disciples know, 

 the Thames and its basin ; and when the lectures were 

 published eight years later, some elementary information 

 was added on the movements of the earth and the con- 

 stitution of the sun, and the title of " Physiography" was 

 given to the book thus brought into existence. This 

 Huxley clearly stated in the preface to his inspirmg 

 volume, and he also remarked " I borrowed the title of 

 physiography," but that is usually overlooked. In the 

 interval between the delivery of the lectures and their 

 publication, physiography was adopted by the Depart- 

 ment of Science and Art as a subject for examination, 

 and what Huxley really did was to give his book the title 

 •of the new subject. The same title — physiography — was 

 used by Prof. Ansted for a book published shortly before 

 Huxley's work. 



It therefore appears that there is no justification for 

 fathering the term physiography upon Huxley, or for 

 using the contents of his book " Physiography" as an affi- 

 •davit testifying to the devolution which the subject has 

 ■undergone on account of the South Kensington examina- 

 tions. An acquaintance with the actual circumstances 

 which caused the introduction of the subject and the 

 adoption of its title by Huxley would have enabled Prof. 

 Davis to see the matter in a little better light than that 

 in which he wrote his criticism. 



It is, however, not the object here merely to show the 

 weak points of a criticism ; that is, after all, a small 

 matter in comparison with the meaning which should be 

 attached to the word physiography. Etymologically 

 considered, physiography is the science which is con- 

 cerned with the facts and phenomena of the whole of 

 nature, and therefore embraces all the natural and 

 physical sciences. The separate sciences have had their 

 fields of activity staked out, and work is continuously 

 carried on in them ; but the boundaries are only marked 

 here and there, and it becomes more difficult to define 

 them every day. The amalgamation of all these interests 

 in a company which aims at increasing natural knowledge, 

 represents in a way the relation between the separate 



NO. 1626, VOL. 63] 



sciences and physiography conceived in the widest spirit. 

 Perhaps a philosopher will one day arise and produce 

 from the discrete collections of scientific facts a structure 

 in which all available material shall be fitted into its true 

 place ; and the monument thus erected should be called 

 physiography. Or, using another simile, what is wanted 

 is a Darwin who will trace the complete development of 

 organic and inorganic sciences, and show the mutual 

 relations between the stores of knowledge at present 

 kept in different departments. The work in which this is 

 done will be a work on physiography. 



The complete co-ordination of scientific material can, 

 however, only become possible when omniscience is 

 reached ; what the apostles of physiography have now to 

 do is to preach the gospel of the study of all natural know- 

 ledge. He who limits the study to the causes and con- 

 sequences of the various forms of the earth's surface is 

 not concerned with physiography at all, but with physical 

 geography. As was pointed out by Sir Norman Lockyer 

 long ago, in passing from geography to physiography, 

 we pass from yx] to ^u<rts,from the earth to the universe, and 

 unless that is borne in mind the view of physiography is 

 restricted and unnatural. Considered in this light, the 

 physiography of South Kensington examinations presents 

 characteristics worthy of consideration. The subject 

 includes the main fundamental principles of observational 

 science, and the application of these principles to the 

 study of the earth, the sun, moon, stars and other bodies 

 in the universe. The physical environment of man is not 

 considered as such, and though prominence is given to the 

 earth's crust and the changes which take place in it, 

 the point of view is largely physical, and physical causes 

 rather than anthropomorphic consequences are included. 



It will thus be seen that there is no pretence to make the 

 physiography of South Kensington the field of physical 

 geography, whether the latter expression is taken to mean 

 the subject as conceived by the geographers of a former 

 generation, or whether it is given the interpretation 

 Prof. Davis puts upon it. It is of course open to any one 

 to criticise the syllabus ; but the point of view should be 

 as much that of the physicist as of the geographer. And 

 whatever is said, let it be borne in mind that the syllabus 

 is the only one existing in this country to encourage the 

 experimental study of the physical principles underlying 

 astronomy, earth-knowledge, and meteorology. Whether 

 it would be better, in view of the meaning attached to the 

 word physiography in the United States, for the South 

 Kensington examiners to discontinue their use of the 

 term, and divide the subject into two, under the titles of 

 physical geography and astronomy, must be left to the 

 proper authorities to decide. R. A. G. 



NOTES. 

 We learn from the Times that on Saturday last Prof. Slaby, 

 of the Charlottenburg Technical High School, gave an interest- 

 ing lecture before the Emperor of Germany and a distinguished 

 company upon improvements which his former assistant, Count 

 Arco, and himself have made in the art of wireless telegraphy. 

 It has not hitherto been possible to use wireless telegraphy for 

 communicating with several different stations at the same time. 

 Prof. Slaby has now succeeded in overcoming this difficulty, 

 and on Saturday night he communicated from the conference 

 room of the General Electric Company in Berlin with operators 

 in the laboratory of the Technical High School at Charlotten- 

 burg and in the works of the General Electric Company at Ober 

 Schonweide. These two stations are distant about two and 

 eight miles respectively from the conference room in which the 

 experiment was conducted. Prof. Slaby used two instruments, 

 both of which were connected with a lightning conductor in the 

 neighbourhood. One of the instruments was made to syntonise 

 exactly with that in the laboratory at Charlottenburg, the other 



