May 20, 1920] 



NATURE 



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Greek Science and Philosophy. 



N Wednesday, May 12, Dr. C. Singer delivered 

 his inaugural address as lecturer in the history 

 of medicine at University College, London. Sir 

 Robert Hadfield presided over a large and distin- 

 guished audience. After alluding to the neglect of the 

 history of science in this country, Dr. Singer referred 

 to the organised effort now being made by Dr. Wolf 

 and others to remedy it at University College. The in- 

 stitution in which 'Augustus De Morgan spent the 

 whole of his active life was a peculiarly appropriate 

 place for such an experiment. The history of science 

 was a necessary element in any curriculum that sought 

 to give a view of the mental history of the human 

 race. Turning to the various stages' through which 

 science has passed. Dr. Singer made some interesting 

 comparisons between the science of the ancient East, 

 the science of Greece, and modern science. Among 

 the characteristics which distinguished Greek science 

 from Oriental science and allied it to ours were the 

 individuality and eponymity of its discoveries, as dis- 

 tinguished from the anonymous thought of preceding 

 civilisations, which always appeared as a social rather 

 than as an individual product. Another and more im- 

 portant feature of Greek thought was the conviction 

 of the reign of law, the idea that order rules in 

 Nature. This belief, almost an article of faith with 

 the Greeks, has been justified more and more with 

 the advance of natural knowledge. On the other 

 hand, Greek science differed from ours in various 

 ways. The most obvious difference was the intimate 

 relation between Greek science and Greek philosophy. 

 This was due to the fact that Greek science was 

 originally a department of Greek philosophy. The 

 divorce between our science and philosophy had many 

 advantages, but also some drawbacks. Another im- 

 portant difference between Greek and modern science 

 is to be found in the method of record. The Greeks 

 were interested in results rather than in methods, and 

 almost always neglected to give an account of their 

 methods. .As a consequence, their results cannot be 

 relied upon, and, except by hard research, we can 

 get no glimpse of their methods of working. The 

 mathematical group of sciences, however, formed an 

 exception in this respect. In these the Greeks re- 

 corded their methods as well as their results. 



Life-history of the Periwinkle. 



UNTIL 1908 the life-history of the common peri- 

 winkle, Littorina Uttorea, L., was unknown. In 

 that year Dr. W. M. Tattersall published a brief 

 announcement of some investigations made that 

 included the discovery of its ova. He reserved a more 

 detailed account until further observations and re- 

 searches could be carried out, but this proved im- 

 practicable, and Dr. Tattersall has now issued the 

 notes of his work so far as it went (Department of 

 Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland 

 (Fisheries Branch), Scientific Investigations, 1920, 

 No. I, pp. II, I plate), being largely instigated 

 thereto by the publication in 191 1 of a paper on the 

 same subject by MM. Caullery and Pelseneer. From 

 Dr. Tattersall 's account it appears that the breeding 

 season lasts from the middle of January to June, and 

 the pink eggs are enclosed singly or in pairs (some- 

 times three and exceptionally four) in small, curiously 

 shaped, transparent capsules resembling a soldier's 

 " tin " hat, the eggs occupying the crown. These 

 capsules are unattached, and vary from 06 to 09 mm. 

 in diameter, the eggs being from 015 to 016 mm. 

 NO. 2638, VOL. 105] 



Segmentation is completed during the first day, and at 

 the third day the circumoral ring of cilia is complete 

 and the embryo begins to rotate. At the sixth day 

 the embryo breaks out from the capsule and swims 

 freely about in the water. The chief food of Littorina 

 Uttorea appears to be the hyphal hairs of Fucus ser- 

 ratus and allied seaweeds, and the animal swallows 

 indiscriminately the diatoms and other microscopic 

 organisms clinging to the seaweed. The climbing 

 habits of these molluscs suggested, to the author the 

 possibility of establishing "farms" for their more 

 easy collection for the market. Experiments were 

 rhade by erecting stakes in their intertidal haunts, 

 but, though the snails of all ages would ascend, they 

 seemed incapable of retaining their hold save in calm 

 weather, hence the farming had to be abandoned. In 

 conclusion, the author advocates the grading of the 

 winkles into sizes before dispatching them to market, 

 using two sieves of | in. and f in. respectively, and 

 rejecting all that pass through the smaller as un- 

 marketable. 



The Royal Society Conversazione. 



THE first of the two annual conversaziones of the 

 Royal Society was held at Burlington House on 

 Wednesday, May 12, when the president. Sir Joseph 

 Thomson, received a large company of fellows of 

 the society and other workers of distinction in the 

 scientific world. As is usual upon such occasions, 

 many exhibits of recent methods and results of in- 

 vestigation were displayed, and much interest was 

 taken in them. Mr. A. A. Campbell Swinton gave 

 a most successful demonstration and exposition of 

 wireless telephony with apparatus supplied by the 

 Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co., Ltd. Gramophone 

 records and musical instruments played at the com- 

 pany's works at Chelmsford were loudly reproduced 

 in the meeting-room of the society. The apparatus 

 used consisted of an amplifying detector and note 

 magnifier, to which was connected a loud-speaking 

 telephone enabling speech to be heard distinctly over 

 the whole ground floor. The aerial consisted simply 

 of a frame 3 ft. square, wound with a few turns of 

 wire, and placed on the lecture-table in the meeting- 

 room. The subjoined descriptions of most of the ex- 

 hibits, arranged so far as possible in related subjects 

 from man to machine, are abridged from the official 

 catalogue : — 



Mr. M. C. Burkitt: (1) Tracings of prehistoric 

 rock engravings from the shores of Lake Onega, North 

 Russia, the only site in Russia west of the Urals 

 where prehistoric engravings occur. (2) Palaeolithic 

 stone implements from North Africa, showing that 

 there is a series comparable in general form with the 

 regular sequence in France and Britain. 



Mr. S. H. Warren: Specimens from a factory of 

 Neolithic stone axes at Graig-lwyd, Penmaenmawr. 

 The axes were made from the scree which fell down 

 the mountain-side from a line of crags formed of the 

 fine-grained (chilled) margin of the Penmaenmawr 

 intrusion. Axes are found in every stage of manu- 

 facture, discarded on account of breakage or unsatis- 

 factory shape, the most frequent fault being excessive 

 thickness of blade. Palaeolithic resemblances are 

 abundant and striking. 



Mr. L. Treacher: A large Palaeolithic implement 

 from the Gravel at Furze Piatt, near Maidenhead. 

 The gravel in which this implement was found has 

 also vielded a verv large number of palaeoliths, mostly 

 belonging to the Chellean type, although a few Mous- 

 terian flakes have been found. The surface level is 



