490 



NATURE 



[January 3, 1920 



addressed to advanced students of th<» L'niversity and 

 to others interested in the subject. Admission is free, 

 without ticket. 



Other advanced courses to be delivered are : — Six 

 lectures on "The Physical Properties of .Soil" (Im- 

 perial College of Science and Technology), by Mr. 

 Bernard A. Keen, on Tuesdays at 4.30 p.m., beginning 

 on February 3; and a course on " .\ General .Survey 

 of the Globe and its Atmosphere," with practical work 

 (Meteorological Office, .South Kensington), by Sir 

 Napier .Shaw, on Fridays at 3 p.m. during the second 

 term, beginning on January 23. 



Dr. D. W. Carmalt Jones has been appointed to 

 the chair of systematic medicine in the Universitv of 

 Otago, New Zealand. 



.Miss F. M. G. Micklethwait has been appointed 

 principal of the Horticultural College, Swanley. Miss 

 Micklethwait holds the diploma of the college, and 

 was a Beit research fellow; she has published a 

 number of papers on her researches upon chemical 

 subjects. 



In connection with the London County Council's 

 lectures for teachers on recent developments in 

 science, a lecture on " .\viation " will be given by 

 Lord Montagu of Beaulieu at King's College, Strand, 

 W.C.2, on Tuesday, January 13, at 6 p.m. The chair 

 will be taken by Major-Gen. Sir Frederick H. Sykes. 



The Civil Service Commissioners announce that an 

 examination will begin on May 4 next for the purpose 

 of filling ten vacancies for assistant examiners in the 

 Patent Office. The examination will be confined in 

 the main to candidates who have served in his 

 Majesty's Forces, and will consist of a qualifving 

 examination followed by interview by a selection 

 board. The subjects of the qualifying examination 

 are English composition, ^re'ci.s-writing, general 

 knowledge, and one of the following : General 

 chemistry, electricity and magnetism, mechanics and 

 mechanism. The limits of age are twentv to thirty. 

 Initial salary 150/. a year, together with a 'war bonus. 

 Copies of the regulations and forms of application 

 may_ be obtained by writing to the Secretarv, Civil 

 Service Commission, Burlington Gardens, London, 

 W.T. The last dav for making application is 

 March 4. 



In a pamphlet on college studies, published bv the 

 St:uiford University of California, Prof. H. \V. Stuart, 

 professor of philosophy in the Universitv, points out 

 that the old discussion on the relative merits of literary 

 and scientific studies in the training of a well-educated 

 man has now become the problem whether citizenship 

 in the modern world can be based on the contempla- 

 tion, criticism, and enjoyment of life, or whether it 

 requires a capacity for 'constructive participation in 

 the activities of life in addition. It is remarked that 

 while a literary education supplies a direct acquaint- 

 ance with the characteristic interests and experiences 

 of life, and a scientific education a knowledge of the 

 means and machinery of life, neither recogni.ses 

 adequately those interests which find expression in the 

 familv, amongst friends, in play, or in the responsibili- 

 ties of citizenship. Culture, in Prof. Stuart's opinion, 

 expresses a persona! capacity for conduct, not the 

 bcdv of knowledge of which the person makes use. 

 It must comprise both literary and scientific discipline 

 and study and experience of social science. The evi- 

 dence of culture in ;m individual is the proper fulfil- 

 ment of his functions in the society in which he lives, 

 and each age must have its own standard of culture. 



NO. 2619, VOL. 104] 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Aristotelian Society, December 15, 1919.— Prof. A. .\. 

 Whitehead in the chair. — Dr. G. E. Moore : External 

 and internal relations. The most important part of 

 what is meant by those who say that no relations are 

 purely external seems to be the proposition that every 

 relational property belongs necessarily to everv term 

 to which it belongs in part. This jjroposition is false, 

 the truth being that somie only among relational pro- 

 perties belong necessarily to those terms which possess 

 them. To say that the property P belongs necessarily 

 to the subject S is to say that from the proposition, 

 with regard to any term. A, that it has not got P, it 

 jolloivs that X is numerically different from S. .And 

 this has been falsely taken to be true of everv P and 

 every S, because it is, in fact, true that from the pro- 

 position " S is P " it follows that anv term, A, which has 

 not got P is, in fact, other than S. The proposition that 

 if p is true, then the conjunction "q is true and 

 r false " must be false, has been compared with the 

 proposition that if p is true, then " 5 is true and r 

 false " is necessarily false in the sense that r follows 

 from q. From the proposition "from ' /) is true' it 

 follows that ' q is true and r false ' is faLse," it does 

 not follow that, if p is true, then r follows from q. 



Geological Society, December 17, 1919.— Mr. G. W 

 Lamplugh, president, in the chair. — Prof. S. J. Shand : 

 .\ rift-valley in Western Persia. .Asmari Mountain, 

 near the oilfields of Maidan-i-Naftun, in the Bakhtiari 

 country of Western Persia, is an inlier of Oligocene 

 limestone among the beds of the Fars system 

 (Miocene), the latter consisting, in the lower part, 

 of bedded gypsum with intercalated shales and a few- 

 thin limestones. The mountain is a whale-back, 

 formed by a simple symmetrical anticline plunging at 

 both ends. The north-western end plunges rather 

 steeply, and shows no abnormal structures ; but at the 

 south-eastern end the fold has collapsed along its 

 length for a distance of three miles, letting the 

 gypsum-beds down into a trough in the limestone. 

 This trough is bounded by two main faults hading 

 north-eastwards and south-westwards respectively, 

 with an average hade of 20°, and marked by steep 

 escarpments. The gypsiferous beds which once com- 

 pletely filled the trough have been partly removed by 

 erosion, clearly revealing the fault-walls in the lo wer 

 part of the valley. 



Manchester. 



Literary and Philosophical Society, December 16, 1919. 

 — Sir Henry A. Miers, president, in the chair. — C. E. 

 Stromeyer : The study of nationalities. .Mthough 

 structural peculiarities are very viseful for differen- 

 tiating non-related species, they are of little use for 

 the purpose of classifying branches of one species, 

 and it is necessary to study their characteristics. 

 There are very marked differences amongst the charac- 

 teristics of different nationalities, i.e. the Semitic and 

 .Slavonic races' have wonderful memory gifts, and the 

 Scandinavians are pre-eminently inventive. The 

 author dealt with the vapue words employed in 

 defining various characteristics and with the reagents 

 which might be employed for revealing fundamental 

 characteristics of different nationalities. — W. J. Perry : 

 The historical process. The study of the geographical 

 distribution of peoples in various stages of culture, 

 and of the migrations of peoples, suggests that the 

 degree of civilisation possessed by any community 

 that has advanced beyond the pure hunting stage is 

 the result, direct or indirect, of cultural influences pro- 

 pagated from some original centre. It seems as 



