198 



NATURE 



[November 6, 1919 



generated gas might force the oil up the fissured 

 crust to the surface. Only where it makes its 

 appearance do we know for certain that there 

 must be some oil below, but whether in quantity 

 sufficient even to repay the cost of boring for it 

 cannot be predicted. 



But before our coal supplies are worked out, 

 and whether or not we discover subterranean 

 supplies of oil, we may surely hope that some of 

 the sources of power which are now unused will 

 be harnessed to the service of man. To the water- 

 falls, tides, and winds, which have long been con- 

 sidered. Sir Charles Parsons in 1904 suggested 

 another possible source of power in the internal 

 heat of the globe, and in his recent presidential 

 address to the British Association he has returned 

 to the subject. His proposal is to sink a bore-hole 

 12 miles deep, which would cost five million 

 pounds and require about eighty-five years for its 

 completion. With the use of a fresh source of 

 power and an extended development of electricity, ■ 



we should doubtless be able to hold our own in 

 the competition of the nations. 



It may be allowed to me to end this article on 

 a more personal note. To the foresight, energy, 

 and constant attention bestowed on Nature by 

 its founder. Sir Norman Lockyer, the world of 

 science has been indebted during half a century 

 for the possession of a journal which with per- 

 sistent force has sustained the cause of science 

 in this country, has been an invaluable medium 

 for recording the progress of research and dis- 

 covery, and has played a most useful part as a 

 medium for the discussion of questions of general 

 interest and for public intercommunication 

 between the cultivators of science, to whom it has 

 become indispensable. I contributed to its first 

 number, and have often sent communications 

 since then, and now I am proud to be asked to 

 write a preface to this jubilee ijssue and to wish 

 continued life and prosperity to my old and valued 

 friend, the founder of the journal. 



THE FOUNDATION OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES. 



By Sir E. Ray Lankester, K.C.B., I-.R.S. 



WHEN the first number of Nature was pub- 

 lished in November, 1869, the word 

 " biology " had not the currency now given 

 to it. The word had been adopted by 

 Whewell, and was used by Treviranus and philo- 

 sophical writers of the early half of last century. 

 What is now called hypnotism was termed 

 "electro-biology," but the extent of the great field 

 of exploration signified by "biology" was little 

 understood. The great event in the history of 

 biological science occurred ten years before the 

 appearance of the first issue of Nature, namely, 

 in 1859, when Darwin published his book "On the 

 Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection 

 or the Preservation of I-'avoured Races in the 

 Struggle for Life." 



The new conception of organic phenomena 

 brought about by Darwin's work took deep root 

 in the ten years from 1859 to 1869, and the main 

 lines of study necessitated by it had been boldly 

 laid by the pioneers, chief pf whom were Huxley 

 and Hooker. One main line of work set going, 

 and ever since continued, was the production of 

 further evidence of the kind brought forward by 

 Darwin and Wallace. The period was one of 

 intense activity and movement. The Darwinian 

 theory spread in every direction, and new evidence 

 in its favour was accumulated by naturalists, 

 collectors, and explorers. By a remarkable coinci- 

 dence, the year 1859 was marked not alone by 

 the publication of the "Origin of Species," but — 

 owing to the work of Joseph Prestwich and a 

 small group of English geologists — it is definitely 

 distinguished as the date when the occurrence of 

 flint implements in the gravels of the Somme 

 was recognised as proving (as had been main- 

 tained since 1847 by M. Boucher de Perthes and 

 NO. 2610, VOL. 104] 



denied by the French savanis) the existence of 

 man as a contemporary of the mammoth and the 

 woolly rhinoceros. 



When this journal started its career we had 

 already Darwin's aclditional volume on the 

 "Variation of Animals and Plants under Domesti- 

 cation," which was followed in 1871 by the 

 "Descent of Man." Practically the whole scien- 

 tific world (and much of the thinking world out- 

 side it) had been convinced of the truth of the 

 doctrine of organic evolution and also of the vast 

 antiquity of man. The evolution of man from 

 animal ancestry, with all its consequences as to 

 the development of the human mind, became an 

 inevitable inference. 



Elemetitary Biology. j 



By the year 1869 the triumph of the Darwinian] 

 theory was assured. In that year Huxley began!; 

 his course of lectures and laboratory work onjl 

 elementary biology. The class numbered abouql 

 a hundred, and Huxley's three assistants were; 

 (Sir) Michael Foster, Rutherford (then professor 

 at King's College, London, afterwards professor 

 at Edinburgh), and myself. This course of lec- 

 tures to teachers, which was given also in the 

 following year, largely emphasised the unity of 

 animals and plants, and it aroused great, en- 

 thusiasm. Each lecture by Huxley was followed 

 by demonstrations by his assistants in the 

 laboratory, which lasted all day. This became 

 the model for the courses in biology in all English- 

 speaking countries, and formed the basis of the 

 examinations in the University of London. 



Huxley by no means sought to put forward 

 zoology at the expense of physiology and botany. 

 In the new laboratories at South Kensington the 



