October 25, 191 7] 



NATURE 



51 



Mr. W. Thomson, in his presidential address to the 

 Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society on 

 October 2, gave a sketch of the very important work 

 which had been done by the society since its inaugura- 

 tion in 1 78 1, as a continuation of the Warrington 

 Academy, which was established twenty-four years 

 ' arlier (1757), in which it is believed that Marat, the 

 great French revolutionist, taught languages. Joseph 

 Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen in 1774, was teacher 

 of languages and belles ief ires at that academy in 1761. 

 Later, whilst at Warrington, he began the study of 

 science, and was afterwards a member of the society. 

 Both Dalton and Joule were closely connected with 

 the society : the former had his laboratory in the pre- 

 sent society's rooms. He was elected a member in 

 1794, and was president from 18 17 until 1844. During 

 the last 136 years most of the eminent scientific men 

 of Manchester have been members of. this society, and 

 have contributed to its memoirs. Dr. Henry Wilde, 

 with others, subscribed handsomely to the extension 

 of the present premises in 1883, and then bequeathed 

 to it an endowment of 8265/., the interest of which 

 is at present employed for the purposes of the society. 

 The members of to-day include the most eminent men 

 of science in Manchester, and there are at present 

 about 150 members. Since the war commenced the 

 value of scientific knowledge has been more highly 

 appreciated in England than ever before, and it is to 

 be hoped that manufacturers and others in Manchester 

 will show their appreciation of science by joining the 

 society. 



We regret to announce the death on October 18 of 

 Mr. George Charles Crick, assistant in the geological 

 department of the British Museum. Mr. Crick was 

 born at Bedford on October 9, 1856, and recei_ved his 

 scientific education at the Royal School of Mines, of 

 which he was an associate. He was appointed to the 

 staff of the British Museum in 1886, and devoted him- 

 self to the care and special study of the fossil Cephalo- 

 pod Mollusca. Though he had been in failing health 

 for some years he continued to attend to his museum 

 duties until the end, and on the day before his death 

 he was able to discuss with Dr. Kitson the geological 

 age of some new ammonites from Nigeria. His know- 

 ledge of the fossil Cephalopoda was, indeed, so pro- 

 found that his services were in constant request by 

 geologists investigatmg new countries, and his pub- 

 lished writings, though numerous, give only an imper- 

 fect idea of the extent of his researches and their 

 importance for the progress of stratigraphical geology. 

 He was of too diffident a nature to do full justice to his 

 powers. Most of his papers were naturally technical 

 descriptions of genera and species, but among those 

 of wider scope may be specially mentioned his memoir 

 on the attachment of the fossil Cephalopoda to the 

 shell, published by the Linnean Society, and his valu- 

 able report on the Cretaceous Cephalopoda of Natal. 

 Mr. Crick was awarded the Barlow-Jameson fund by 

 the Geological Society in 1900, and the general appre- 

 ciation of his scientific worth was equalled by the 

 €Steem in which he was held by his colleagues and all 

 who were associated with him. 



The Herbert Spencer lecture was delivered at Ox- 

 ford on October 20 by Prof. Emile Boutroux, member 

 of the Institut and of the French Academy. The lec- 

 ture, which was given in English, embodied a careful 

 analysis of the relation between thought and action 

 from the German and classical points of view. The 

 contrast between the two conceptions was well brought 

 out by the lecturer, whose treatment of the subject 

 was, however, metaphysical rather than scientific. The 

 modern German view was traced back to Kant, accord- 

 ing to whom thought is conditioned in such a way that 

 NO. 2504, VOL. 100] 



by the nature of things the present is entirely con- 

 trolled by the past; hence the laws of thought are 

 determined mechanically. The only true action is that 

 where the effect is conditioned by the subject. From 

 this follows the radically dualistic conception that 

 thought and action move in two worlds which have 

 nothing in common. But by Fichte and others it was 

 recognised that action was only possible through the 

 world of sense. Hegel applied to the content of 

 action the law which Fichte had applied to its produc- 

 tion. " The world of phenomena creates the world 

 of freedom." Germany proceeded to preach that the 

 ever-increasing control of our world was the only field 

 of action. Thus action bears its own law in itself; 

 all scientific explanation resolves itself into mechan- 

 ism. Phenomena come within the sphere of action. 

 If the Kantian conception with its implications be 

 admitted, the attitude of modern Germany is justified. 

 Contrast with this the truer view of antiquity, espe- 

 cially as brought out by Plato, viz. that thought and 

 action are not mutually exclusive, but interdependent 

 constituents of human life, neither being self-sufficient. 

 With the Aristotelian ro koKov we get a living medium 

 between action and thought; hence comes individuality 

 and with it an indefinable enlargement of the inner life. 

 We are free when we exercise self-control — 



Vis consili expers mole ruit sua : 

 Vim temperatam di quoque provehunt 

 In maius. 



Carcinologists are indebted to Dr. J. J. Tesch, 

 who, in Zoologische Mededeelingen for July, gives a 

 long synopsis of the marsh-crabs of the genus Sesarma 

 and allied genera, illustrated by numerous plates and 

 text-figures. The special feature of this contribution 

 is the key which the author has devised for the iden- 

 tification of the Indo-Pacific species, a task which so 

 far has not been attempted. He also gives a brief 

 summary of what is known of the habits of these 

 creatures. 



Dr. E. C. Hort, in the Journal of the Royal Micro- 

 scopical Society for August, gives a detailed account of 

 his attempts to unravel the life-history of the meningo- 

 coccus of cerebro-spinal fever, and if the statements 

 of his results provoke criticism his investigations will 

 have served a very useful purpose. Perhaps the most 

 important of his results is his claim to have demon- 

 strated the presence of excessively minute, filterable 

 organisms which are quite as pathogenic as unfiltered 

 cultures. In so far as prophylaxis is concerned he does 

 not seem to have made any advance on the admirable 

 work in this field by Lt.-Col. Gordon, summarised 

 in these pages in April last. 



In 1886 Dr. W. E. Hoyle named a Cephalopod, taken 

 in the Pacific by the Challenger Expedition in 1874, 

 Moschites verrucosa, believing it to be identical with 

 the species of that name common in the Atlantic. Mr. 

 S. Berry, in the Proceedings of the Academy 

 of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, vol. Ixix., 

 part I, negatives this decision, showing con- 

 clusively that, though closely resembling this 

 species, it nevertheless presents so many structural 

 peculiarities th^t it is entitled to rank as a distinct 

 species, which he proposes to call Moschites challengeri. 

 Mr. Berry has not examined the original specimen in 

 the British Museum of Natural I^istory, but he con- 

 tends that photographs of the specimen which have 

 been sent him justify his contention. He bases his 

 decision on the form of the " hectocotylus," the distri- 

 bution of the tubercles of the umbrella, and the relative 

 lengths of the arms. This issue of the Proceedings also 

 contains a paper by Messrs. H. A. Pilsbury and A. 

 Brown on Oligocene fossil MoUusca fron the neigh- 

 bourhood of Cartagena, Colombia, wherein they de- 



