August 25, 1898] 



NATURE 



391 



health of Prof. Cams, Prof. Ray Lankester and Sir 

 WiUiam Flower. Sir William Flower, it will be re- 

 membered, was, at the conclusion of the Leyden Con- 

 >jress in 1895, made President-Elect for this Cambridge 

 meeting ; but he relinquished the presidency in favour of 

 Sir John Lubbock, in the early part of the present year, 

 on account of failing health. Sir John Lubbock opened 

 the Congress on Tuesday morning by a short address, 

 which is here printed in full. The members of the 

 Congress who arrived at Cambridge on Monday evening 

 were received at the Guildhall by the Mayor of Cam- 

 bridge and by the Vice-Chancellor of the University, 

 who, \x\ a short speech begun in English, continued in 

 German, and concluded in French, welcomed the visitors 

 and expressed the best wishes of the town and the 

 University for the success of the meeting. 

 The following is the President's address : — 



My first duty to-day is to welcome our foreign friends who 

 have done us the honour to attend the Congress. I may do so, 

 I know, on behalf of all English zoologists. They will, I hope, 

 find much to reward them for their journey. It will have been 

 to them, as it is to us', and to no one more than myself, a matter 

 of profound regret that Sir W. Flower, who had been nominated 

 as our President, found himself unable to accept the post. Our 

 regret is the keener on account of the cause, but I am sure 

 that we all hope that rest and change of air will secure him a 

 renewal of health. I am painfully conscious how inadequately 

 I can fulfil his place, but my shortcomings will be made up for by 

 my colleagues, and no one could give our foreign friends a 

 heartier or more cordial welcome than I do. 



The first Congress was held at Paris in 1889, and was worthily 

 presided over by Prof Milne-Edwards, whom we have the 

 pleasure of seeing here to-day. The second Congress was held 

 at Moscow in 1892, under the Presidency of Count Kapnist, and 

 under the special patronage of his Imperial Highness the Grand 

 Duke Serge. The third Congress was at Leyden in 1895, 

 under the Presidency of Dr. Jentink, Director of the Royal 

 Museum, and under the patronage of the Queen Regent. 

 We assemble here to-day under the patronage of H.R.H. the 

 Prince of Wales, with the support of Her Majesty's Govern- 

 ment, and under the auspices of the University of Cambridge. 



Such meetings are of great importance in bringing together 

 those interested in the same science. It is a great pleasure and 

 a great advantage to us to meet our foreign colleagues. More- 

 over, it cannot be doubted that these gatherings do much to 

 promote the progress of science. 



What a blessing it would be for mankind if we could stop 

 the enormous expenditure on engines for the destruction of 

 life and property, and spend the tenth, the hundredth, even the 

 thousandth part, on scientific progress. Few people seem to 

 ealise how much science has done for man, and still fewer how 

 much more it would still do if permitted. More students would 

 doubtless have devoted themselves to science if it were not so 

 ystematicaliy neglected in our schools ; if boys and girls were 

 not given the impression that the field of discovery is well-nigh 

 exhausted. We, gentlemen, know how far that is from being 

 the case. Much of the land surface of the globe is still un- 

 explored ; the ocean is almost unknown ; our collections contain 

 thousands of new species waiting to be described ; the life- 

 histories of many of our commonest species remain to be investi- 

 gated, or have only recently been discovered. 



Take, for instance, the common eel. Until quite recently its 

 life-history was absolutely unknown. Aristotle pointed out 

 *' that eels were neither male nor female," and that their eggs 

 were unknown. This remained true until a year or two ago. No 

 one had ever seen the egg of an eel, or a young eel less than 

 5 centimetres (i J inches) in length We now know, thanks mainly 

 to the researches of Grassi, that the parent eels go down to the 

 sea and breed in the depths of the ocean, in water not less than 

 3000 feet below the surface. There they adopt a marriage 

 dress of silver and their eyes considerably enlarge, so as to make 

 the most of the dim light in the ocean depths. In the same 

 regions several small species of fish had been regarded as a 

 special family, known as Leptocephali ; these also were never 

 known to breed. It now appears that they are the larvae of 

 eels ; the one known as Leptocephaltts brevirostn's being the young 

 of our common fresh-water eel. When it gets to the length of 

 about an inch, it changes into one of the tiny eels known as 



NO. 1504, VOL. 58] 



elvers, which swarm in thousands up our rivers. Thus the habits 

 of the eel reverse those of the salmon. 



I will only take one other case, the fly of the King 

 Charles oak apple so familiar to every schoolboy. In this 

 case the females are very common ; the eggs were known. 

 But no one had ever seen a male. Hartig in 1843 knew 

 twenty-eight species of Cynips, but in twenty-eight years' col- 

 lecting had never seen a male of any of them. He and 

 Frederick Smith between them examined over 15,000 specimens 

 of Cynips disticha and C. Kollari, and every one was female. 

 Adler, however, made the remarkable discovery that the galls 

 produced by these females are quite unlike the galls from which 

 they were liiemselves reared ; that these galls produced flies 

 which had been referred to a distinct genus, and of which both 

 males and females were known. Thus the gall-flies from the 

 King Charles oak apple (which are all females) creep down and 

 produce galls on the root of the oak from which quite a dis- 

 similar insect is produced, of which both sexes occur, and the 

 female of which again produces the King Charles oak apple. 

 This is not the opportunity to go into details, and I merely 

 mention it as another illustration of the surprises which await 

 us even in the life-history of our commonest species. 



Many writers have attributed to animals a so-called sense 

 of direction. Some species of ants and bees certainly 

 have none. Pigeons are often quoted, but the annals of 

 pigeon-flying seem to prove the opposite ; they are "jumped," 

 as it were, from one point to another. We know little 

 about our own senses — how we see or hear, taste or smell ; 

 and naturally even less about those of other animals. Their 

 senses are no doubt in some cases much acuter than ours, 

 and have different limits. Animals certainly hear sounds 

 which are beyond the range of our ears. I have shown 

 that they perceive the ultra-violet rays, which are invisible to 

 us. As white light consists of a combination of the primary 

 colours, this suggests interesting colour-problems. Many 

 animals possess organs apparently of sense, and richly supplied 

 with nerves, which yet appear to have no relation to any sense 

 known to us. They perceive sounds which are inaudible to us, 

 they see sights which are not visible to us, they perhaps pos- 

 sess sensations of which we have no conceptions. The familiar 

 world which surrounds us must be a totally different place to 

 other animals. To them it may be full of music which we 

 cannot hear, of colour which we cannot see, of sensations 

 which we cannot conceive. 



There is still much difference of opinion as to the mental 

 condition of animals, and some high authorities regard them 

 as mere exquisite automata — a view to which I have never 

 been able to reconcile myself. The relations of different classes 

 to one another, the origin of the great groups, the past history 

 of our own ancestors, and a hundred other problems, many of 

 extreme practical importance, remain unsolved. We are, in 

 fact, only on the threshold of the temple of science. Ours is, 

 therefore, a delightful and inspiring science. 



We are fortunate in meeting in the ancient University of 

 Cambridge, a visit to which is, under any circumstances, de- 

 lightful in itself from its historic associations, the picturesque 

 beauty of the buildings, and as the seat of a great zoological 

 school under our distinguished colleague. Prof. M. Foster. 



The University has given us a most hospitable reception, for 

 which we are very grateful. This morning will be devoted to 

 business and the receipt of reports. In the afternoon will be 

 held the first meeting of Sections, and to-night the Vice-Chan- 

 cellor has been good enough to invite us \.o Downing College. 

 To-morrow morning will be devoted to a discussion of the 

 position of sponges in the animal kingdom, and in the evening 

 there will be a conversazione in the Fitzwilliam Museum. 

 Thursday we are looking forward to a discussion on the origin 

 of Mammals. For Friday we have a number of interesting 

 papers. On Saturday morning we shall have to determine 

 the time and place of the next meeting, and then we adjourn to 

 London. 



The President and Council of the Zoological Society have 

 invited us to visit their gardens in the afternoon ; and in the 

 evening, by the kind permission of the Trustees, I am permitted 

 to invite your presence to a party at the Natural History 

 Museum. 



The Central Hall only will be open that evening, but on the 

 following day you will have the opportunity of visiting the whole 

 Museum. 



In the evening the President and Committee of the Royal 



