March 7, 1901] 



NA TURE 



453 



heed they doubt but that at some far distant date the human 

 race might at length make its way on through those regions 

 too, and attain, even by that apparently arid path, the rich 

 tropical belt of luxurious verdure and bright sunshine where 

 conflict ceased and art and enjoyment and emotion and religion 

 began. Facts known to few with eflfort were science, but those 

 same facts when known to all without effort were aesthetic ; 

 they could then be appreciated in a fuller and higher way, 

 could be seen in an altogether new light, so that they became 

 fit subjects for poetry, for music, and for art. 



Meanwhile, the justification of all pure, dry science lay 

 essentially in its ultimately human bearings. If a subject could 

 be proved to be never capable of any human influence or any 

 relation to humanity, however developed it might become, then 

 its pursuit would be rightly condemned. But such proof could 

 never be given. Again and again had the most unlikely 

 channels developed into fruitful watercourses. We must trust 

 the instinct of our leaders and let them advance unhampered, in 

 the faith that where they felt so much enthusiasm, where they 

 seemed to see their way so clearly and so well, we too, in time, 

 or our descendants, should be able to enter with their aid, and 

 should realise that the remote and at first sight hopelessly in- 

 accessible region was full, after all, of human interest, and of that 

 which contributed to the enrichment of life. 



Referring to the present state of electrical knowledge. Dr. 

 Lodge spoke as follows : — 



"We are in the beginning of a great era in connection with" 

 the pure science of electricity. The almost despised and neg- 

 lected subject of electrostatics, as known to Franklin, is rearing 

 its head again and pressing to the front. 



" The experiment of a charged rod and pith balls is typical 

 of much, perhaps typical of all that goes on in electricity ; and 

 how much this means some of us are beginning to guess. It 

 is to the works of Larmor and the late Prof. Fitzgerald that we 

 must look for an explanation of the nature of an electric charge 

 — that Wank, that absolute void so wisely left by Clerk Maxwell 

 in his scheme, and by Helmholtz in his— a void occupied only 

 by the isolated brilliant surmise contained in the phrase * one 

 molecule or atom of electricity.' 



"But even before we understand the nature of an electric 

 charge we shall find that the labours of J. J. Thomson have 

 enriched the science of our times with what appears likely to 

 be a unifying and comprehensive generalisation such as philo- 

 sophers of all time have groped after, for which some of them 

 have strongly hoped." 



Concluding his address. Dr. Lodge illustrated with a few 

 simple experiments the most recent views of the nature of the 

 electric current. The atom was ordinarily associated with a 

 charge, and force was required to separate them. This atomic 

 charge, when separated, was known as an electron. 



In the electrolyte there was a bodily transfer of atoms with 

 their atomic charges. 



In a metallic conductor the charges were handed on as 

 electrons from atom to atom. 



But it was in the discharge through highly rarefied gases that 

 the electric current was in its most simple form, for here there 

 was a flow of electrons travelling by themselves, of disembodied 

 charges or electric ghosts. It was interesting to notice that, 

 with their enormous speed of one-tenth of that of light-wave 

 propagation, these electrons were the fastest moving of all 

 known terrestrial objects. 



A revolving electron was a magnet. A vibrating one could 

 start light vibrations. And it might even be that inertia itself 

 — that familiar but unexplained property of matter — was but 

 eltctromagnetic inertia in disguise. 



Prof. Perry, in thanking the chairman for his address, 

 remarked that the country was now very much alive to the need 

 for improvement in the scientific education of practical men. 

 Ail the scientific world was watching to see what Dr. Lodge 

 was going to make of the great problem that was before him of 

 the Birmingham University. 



He deprecated the tendency in this Institution to array 

 professors and engineers against one another, and advocated the 

 cultivation of a spirit of mutual helpfulness as between men 

 whose various endowments must be interdependent if they were 

 to he fully utilised. 



Prof. Perry congratulated the new local section on its suc- 

 cessful start and on its locality, saying that the people of 

 Birmingham were very early in ititroducing scientific methods of 

 manufacture. The stress of international competition called for 



NO. 1636.. VOL, 63] 



the greatest afivity in scientific methods in all our centres. The 

 Institution of Electrical Engineers was doing a great work and 

 had a great future before it in binding together the best thinkers 

 in a great association for the common good. 



Prof. Threlfall seconded the motion, and the meeting con- 

 cluded with a feeling reference to the untimely death of Prof. 

 G. F. FitzGerald, who was chairman of the Dublin local 

 section of the Institution. 



THE TAMNAU MINERALOGICAL . 

 ENDOWMENT. 



TN the year 1879 occurred the death of Dr. Friedrich Tamnau, 

 a rich Berlin banker, who was also an enthusiastic collector 

 of minerals ; his collection was well known, and was frequently 

 used by mineralogists ; a considerable portion of it was given to 

 the Berlin Museum during his life-time, and at his death the 

 remainder was bequeathed to the technische Hochschule at 

 Chariot tenburg. 



Dr. Tamrtau's services to the science of mineralogy did not 

 end with his death. He left to the University of Berlin a sum 

 of 36,000 marks for the purpose of founding a mineralogical 

 travelling fund. 



By the statutes of the founder it is enacted that when the fund 

 has accumulated to a sufficient extent it shall be employed in 

 sending away a young and promising mineralogist to some inter- 

 esting locality, in order to study the modes of occurrence of 

 fine or rare minerals, to collect, and to report upon them. It is 

 expressly stipulated that the fund is to be applied to mineral- 

 ogical, not geological, purposes. The specimens are to go in 

 the first instance to the Berlin University collection, then to the 

 technische Hochschule, but they may also be given or exchanged 

 to other collections. The administration of the fund is in the 

 hands of three trustees ; those named by the founder to hold 

 office at the beginning were Profs, von Rath, of Bonn, Groth, of 

 Strassburg, and Websky, of Berlin. 



The first application of the Tamnau fund was made in send- 

 ing Dr. Tenne, of Berlin, on a successful mineralogical tour in 

 southern Spain. 



Two of the original trustees are dead, and the fund is now 

 administered by Profs. Groth, of Munich, Klein, of Berlin^- 

 and Bauer, of Marburg. 



The second award, 10,000 marks, was made in 1896. Dr. F. 

 Griinling, the well-known assistant of Prof. Groth, first at 

 Strassburg and subsequently at Munich, and now curator of the 

 State collection of minerals in Munich, was commissioned to- 

 undertake a mineralogical expedition in Ceylon. 



The valuable results of Dr. Grlinling's tour have now been- 

 published. A triple Heft (Nos. 3-5) of the thirty-third volume 

 of Groth's Zeitschrift fiir Krystallographie und Mineralogie 

 is almost entirely occupied by the scientific work done upon the 

 material which was brought back from Ceylon, and those who 

 wish to see the excellent results of a wise scientific endowment 

 wisely administered cannot do better than glance over this 

 publication. 



Dr. Griinling brought back rich collections, especially of the 

 dolomite and the minerals which it contains, of the graphite 

 and of the gem-stones ; among the latter the most remarkable 

 are the tourmalines, which constitute a unique series of beautiful 

 crystals. 



All these minerals have now been examined by various 

 workers in Prof. Groth's laboratory. The graphite has been 

 the subject of exhaustive study by Dr. Weinschenk, the lecturer 

 on petrology in the University of Munich, who has already 

 published papers on the subject in the Zeitschrift fiir Praktis he 

 Geologic and in the Abhamiltingen of the Bavarian Academy of 

 .Sciences. The dolomite has been analysed by Dr. Schiffer, 

 whose results have been given as an inaugural dissertation. 

 And now has appeared this triple Heft of Groth's Zeitschrift, 

 containing a general description of Ceylon and its minerals by 

 Dr. Griinling, a research upon the chrysoberyl, the sillimanite 

 and the blue spinel by Dr. Melczer, and a voluminous report 

 upon the tourmaline crystals by Dr. Worobieff, whose memoir 

 occupies nearly 2c o pages, and is in reality a crystallographic 

 monograph of the mineral 



The fact that so much has been achieved will suggest to the 

 teader that the collection and scientific study of Ceylon minerals 

 has been sadly neglected by our own countrymen. A perusal 

 of Dr. Griialing's paper serves but to strengthen this conviction; 



