440 



NATURE 



[September 2, 1897 



ment and susceptible of education. If increasing knowledge 

 gives us increasing power so to mould a muscular fibre that it 

 shall play to the best the part which it has to play in life, the 

 little knowledge we at present possess gives us at least much 

 confidence in a coming far greater power over the nerve cell. 

 This is not the place to plunge into the deep waters of the 

 relation which the body bears to the mind ; but this at least 

 stares us in the face, that changes in what we call the body 

 bring about changes in what we call the mind. When we alter 

 the one, we alter the other. If, as the whole past history of our 

 science leads us to expect, in the coming years a clearer and 

 clearer insight into the nature and conditions of that molecular 

 dance which is to us the material token of nervous action, and 

 a fuller, exacter knowledge of the laws which govern the sweep 

 of nervous impulses along fibre and cell, give us wider and 

 directer command over the moulding of the growing nervous 

 mechanism and the maintenance and regulation of the grown 

 one, then assuredly physiology will take its place as a judge of 

 appeal in questions not only of the body, but of the mind ; it 

 will raise its voice not in the hospital and consulting-room only, 

 but also in the senate and the school. 



One word more. We physiologists are sorely tempted 

 towards self-righteousness, for we enjoy that blessedness which 

 •comes when men revile you and persecute you and say all 

 manner of evil against you falsely. In the mother country our 

 hands are tied by an Act which was defined by one of the highest 

 legal authorities as a " penal " Act ; and though with us, as 

 with others, difficulties may have awakened activity, our science 

 suffers from the action of the State. And some there are who 

 would go still further than the State has gone, though that is 

 far, who would take from us even that which we have, and bid 

 us make bricks wholly without straw. To go back is always a 

 hard thing, and we in England can hardly look to any great 

 betterment for at least many years to come. But unless what I 

 have ventured to put before you to-day be a mocking phantasm, 

 unworthy of this great Association and this great occasion, 

 England in this respect at least offers an example to be shunned 

 alike by her offspring and her fellows. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 

 Dr. W. Ernest Thomson has been appointed to the chair 

 of Physiology at Anderson's College, Glasgow, in succession to 

 Dr. Campbell Black. 



The Atliemeiini states that Peoria, Illinois, is to have a 

 university. A millionaire has endowed the proposed institution 

 with 1,000,000 dollars, placing the estate in the hands of 

 trustees to be named by himself. His instructions are that the 

 estate shall be conserved until the interest accretions, together 

 with the principal, amount to 1,500,000 dollars, when the build- 

 ings are to be erected, the faculty secured, and the library, 

 laboratories, &c., equipped. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, August 25. — M. A. Chatin in the 

 ■chair. — Persian truffles. Note by M. Chatin on a letter re- 

 ceived from the late Dr. Tholozan. — The recent storms in P' ranee, 

 July and August 1897, and the solar period, by M. Ch. V. 

 Zenger Further evidence in support of the author's theory of 

 the parallelism of atmospheric, electric, magnetic and seismic 

 disturbances, and their connection with the electro-dynamic 

 action of the sun. — Summary of solar observations made at the 

 Royal Observatory of the Roman College during the first half of 

 the year 1897, by M. P. Tacchini. — Observations of the solar 

 eclipse of July 29 at the observatory of Rio de Janeiro, by M. 

 L. Cruls.— On the reduction of vectors and metric properties, 

 by M. J. Andrade. — Critical constants of some gases, by MM. 

 A. Leduc and P. Sacerdote. The authors have determined the 

 temperature and pressure, at the critical point, of hydrogen sul- 

 phide, chloride and phosphide. The results in the first two 

 cases are in accordance with those obtained by Dewar. The 



critical constants of hydrogen phosphide are here given for the 

 first time. — Absorption of the X-rays, by M. Abel Buguet. 

 Methods are described by which the relation of the thickness of 

 a substance to its opacity for the X-rays, and also its specific 

 absorption of the latter, may be determined. — Presence of Atari 

 in wines, by M. L. Mathieu. Several species of Acari, particu- 

 larly Glyctphagus cursor and Tiroglyphus farince, have been- 

 observed in genuine unsweetened wines. 



BOOKS, PAMPHLETS, and SERIALS RECEIVED. 



Books. — V.alves and V.-\lve-Gearing : C. Hurst (Griffin).— Analytic Geo- 

 metry : P. A. Lambert (Macmillan). P. J. van Benedin : La Vie et 

 L'CJJuvre d'un Zoologiste : Dr. A. Kemna (Anvers, Buschmann). — A Guide 

 to Zermatt : E. Whymper (Murray). — Durham College of Science 

 Calend.ir, Session 1897-98 (Reid). 



Pamphlets — A Monograph on the Mechanics and ^Equilibrium of 

 Kites : Prof. C. F. Marvin (Washington). — First Report upon Magnetic 

 Work in Maryland : L. A. Bauer (Baltimore). — Report to the Local 

 Government Board on the Preparation and Storage of Glycerinated Cdlf 

 Vaccine Lymph (Eyre). 



Serials. — English Illustrated Magazine, September (198 Strand). — 

 VerhandlungendesNaturhistorischen Vereins, 53 Jahrg. 2 Halfte (Honn). — 

 Longman's Magazine, September (Longmans). — Proceedings of the Society 

 for Psychical Research, July (K. Paul).— Journal of the College of Science, 

 Imperial University, Japan, Vol. x. Part 2 (TOkyO). — Quarterly Journal of 

 the Royal Meteorological Society, July (Stanford). — ^^Scientific Transac- 

 tions of the Royal Dublin Society, Vol. vi. Series ii. ix. (Williams). — 

 Humanitarian, September (Hutchinson).— Zeitschrift fiir Physikalische 

 Chemie, xxiii. Bd. 4 Heft (Leipzig).— Chambers's Journal, September 

 (Chambers). — Good Words, September (Isbister). — Sunday Magazine, 

 September (Isbister). — Natural Science, September (Dent). — Century 

 Magazine, September (Macmillan). — History of Mankind : F. Ratzel, 

 translated, Part 20 (Macmillan).— Journal of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society, August (Victoria Street).— Journal of the Anthropological Insti- 

 tute, August (K. Paul). 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



The Necessary Postulates of Geometry, By A. E. 



H. L 417 



Our Book Shelf:— 



Martin: "A Bibliography of Gilbert White, the 



Natural Historian and Antiquarian of Selborne " . 418 

 Symons and Wallis : " British Rainfall, 1896 " . . . 419 

 Letters to the Editor : — 



The late^Earthquake in India.— Dr. Ralph Copeland 419 



On Mimicry.— Dr. Karl Jordan 419 



International Congress for the Unification of 



Methods of Testing 419 



The Radiation of Light in the Magnetic Field . . 420 



Samuel Edward Peal 421 



Notes 421 



Our Astronomical Column:— 



Relationship between the Masses and Distances of the 



Planets 424 



The Madras Observatory 424 



Stations for Observing the Total Eclipse of the 



Sun in January 1898 424 



The British Association. By Prof. W. A. Herdman, 



F.R.S 425 



Section H.— Anthropology. — Opening Address by 

 Prof. Sir William Turner, F.R.S. , President of 



the Section 425 



Section I.— Physiology. — Opening Address by Prof. 

 Michael Foster, Sec.R.S., President of the 



Section 435 



University and Educational Intelligence 440 



Societies and Academies 440 



Books, Pamphlets, and Serials Received 440 



NO. 1453, VOL. 56] 



