2 20 



NA TURE 



[January 5, 1893 



' Nevertheless, whatever might have been the attain- 

 ments of the geologist and of the teacher, they would not 

 have been sufficient to secure universal recognition, had 

 not Sir Archibald been provided in addition with the best 

 powers as a writer. From the beginning he was strongly 

 convinced of the importance of cultivating the literary 

 element in scientific exposition, not only in order to make 

 science interesting and intelligible to those outside the 

 circle of actual workers, as he did in writing " Geological 

 Sketches at Home and Abroad," but because he did not 

 admit the right of a man of science to appear before the 

 public without putting on the "nuptial dress." Every 

 one who knows Sir Archibald will readily admit that in 

 doing so he is not impelled by a desire for personal dis- 

 play. He is essentially a man of thought as well as of 

 action. " Res non verba " might well serve him as mo tto, 

 and whoever has seen his silent but piercing attention in 

 listening to some scientific controversy would never be 

 tempted to suspect him of a wish to search after re- 

 sounding manifestations. But he has too much of the 

 artist's temper to neglect correctness and elegance in the 

 utterance of his thoughts. And since nothing in the 

 world is less common than the union of scientific insight 

 and acuteness with a vivid appreciation of nature and a 

 delicate feeling for style, it is not strange that Sir Archi- 

 bald's fame has passed far beyond the circle of profes- 

 sional men. The portrait will be duly completed when it 

 is added that no one could have a better renown for 

 frankness, fair dealing, and perfect trustworthiness in 

 every relation of life. 



It is highly gratifying for England that the recognition 

 of such achievements has not been left to future times, 

 and that the present generation has not failed in the duty 

 of rewarding so much continuous and fruitful labour. He 

 was admitted to the Roya Society before reaching the 

 age of thirty, a most unusual honour ; he has been Vice- 

 President, and was recently elected Foreign Secretary, of 

 that Society. Since 1890 an Associate of the Berlin 

 Academy ; elected by the Royal Society of Sciences at 

 Gottingen, after the death of Studer, the Nestor of Swiss 

 geologists ; enrolled among the members of the Imperial 

 Leopold-CaroUne German Academy, of the Imperial 

 Society of Naturalists of Moscow, &c., &c., he was 

 chosen in 1891 as a correspondent by the French 

 Academy of Sciences, and in the same year he was made 

 a knight. An hoijorary LL.D. of the Universities of 

 St. Andrews and Edinburgh, he has received the Murchi- 

 son medal of the Geological Society of London, and twice 

 the MacDougal Brisbane Gold Medal of the Royal 

 Society of Edinburgh has been conferred on him, in 

 recognition of the zeal and skill displayed in explaining 

 the geological peculiarities of his mother-land . He is 

 now at the summit of his career, and not so heavily laden 

 with years but that we may express for him the wish 

 ad multos annos. Let us hope that he will long remain 

 at the head of the distinguished staff to which he has 

 given so profitable an impulse, and continue to serve as a 

 comforting example for those who refuse to acknowledge 

 any other means of genuine success than constant labour 

 and faithfulness to duty. 



A. DE Lapparent. 



SHAKING THE FOUNDATIONS OF SCIENCE} 



TO judge by the columns of the daily press, we must 

 expect to find a large number of enterprising 

 company-promoters coming forward shortly to urge, in 

 Parliament and elsewhere, that leave may be given 

 them to confer lasting benefits upon Londoners. The 

 good they propose to do comes in the shape of 

 underground intercommunication. Locomotives of 

 the ordinary construction, it would seem, are not 

 to be employed, but instead of them cable traction 

 or electric energy in some shape or another. On these 

 points, however, we must speak with caution, for we 

 are told that an absence of definite statements and 

 programmes is one of the main features of the pronounce- 

 ments so far issued. 



On two previous occasions it has been our duty 

 to draw attention to a scheme, intended to provide 

 more ready means of intercommunication between dif- 

 ferent parts of London, which threatens to inflict serious 

 damage upon the property of the nation. 



It so happens that one of the schemes to which refer- 

 ence was made in the opening paragraph is a rehabilita- 

 tion and expansion of that very project against which we 

 protested on the previous occasion. The attempt, 

 which has already once been thwarted, to render the 

 study of the sciences involving exact measurement 

 impossible at South Kensington, is again to be re- 

 peated, and it is necessary to warn the public that 

 an enterprise undertaken nominally for their interests^ 

 which are, or the moment, regarded as identical 

 with those of the company-promoter, will strike a fatal 

 blow at the utility of institutions on which many thousand s- 

 of pounds of money, public and other, have already been 

 spent, and on which it is in contemplation to spend many 

 thousands more. Our protest on the former occasion 

 was based on scientific grounds. There were others 

 strongly urged from other points of view, and as a result 

 of the opposition the scheme was withdrawn for a time. 



In the shape it now assumes it is still more objection- 

 able, as the scope is now a more ambitious one. 



Our objection was simply to the route to be followed. 



In London we have only one locality where telescopes 



are nightly used by teachers and students ; we have 



only one institution the function of which is limited to 



physical and chemical teaching and research, where 



delicate measurements are essential, and form part of 



the routine work; we have only one institution, the 



function of which is to teach applied science in the most 



\ efficient manner— that is, by teaching in which experi- 



I ment and observation, and of extreme delicacy, must 



; go hand in hand with the viva voce exposition of the 



i professor of each branch of applied science. 



The contemplated railway proposes to sweep all these 

 ' away. Astronomical Observatories, the various Labora- 

 tories of the Royal College of Science, and of the 

 City and Guilds Institute, are not to be considered the 

 least in the world. This is practically what it comes 

 to ; for we doubt whether either teacher or taught will 

 care to remain in a locality where neither valid experi- 

 ments nor observations are possible. 



' Continued from vol. xliii. p. 146. 



NO. I 2 10, VOL. 47l 



