March 9, 1B93] 



NATURE 



449 



period. He ventured to say, as a scientific man, that he knew 

 nothing in the whole records of scientific research more honour- 

 able to this country than those experiments which were being 

 carried on at Rothamsted with such self-denying skill. The 

 resolution was then put by the chairman, and carried unani- 

 mously. Sir John Evans moved : — " That, in the opinion of this 

 meeting, the testimonial might advantageously take the form of 

 — (l) a granite memorial, with a suitable inscription, to be 

 erected at the head of the field where the experiments have 

 taken place ; (2) addresses to Sir John Lawes and Dr. Gilbert, 

 accompanied (if funds permit) by a commemorative piece of 

 plate."' This was also carried, and it was unanimously resolved 

 that the following should be requested to act as a committee for 

 carrying the resolutions into effect : — The presidents of the 

 Royal, Royal Agricultural, Linnean, and Chemical Societies, 

 the Earl of Clarendon, Viscount Emlyn, Sir John Lubbock> 

 Sir John Evans (hon. treasurer), and Mr. Ernest Clarke (hon. 

 secretary), with power to add to their number. The Duke of 

 Westminster moved a vote of thanks to the chairman, and the 

 Prince of Wales said, in response, that nothing had given him 

 greater pleasure and satisfaction than to take the chair on that 

 occasion, and to testify, as an agriculturist, his own sense of 

 gratitude for what Sir John Lawes had done for agriculture. 

 Subscriptions to the fund may be sent to any member of the 

 committee, to Sir John Evans, F. R. S., at Nash Mills, Hemel 

 Hempstead, or to Mr. Ernest Clarke, at 12, Hanover Square, W. 

 Lord Salisbury presided over a meeting held at Oxford 

 last week, in aid of the building fund of the Radcliffe Infirmary. 

 He delivered a most vigorous address, in the course of which he 

 said that at Oxford the difficulty connected with medical educa- 

 tion was the reverse of that felt in London. In London the 

 practical opportunities of exercising medicine were abundant, 

 and the only care, or the main care, which pressed upon 

 those who had charge of education in that respect was 

 lest the more scientific basis of that practice should be 

 neglected or receive inadequate attention. At Oxford, on 

 the contrary, they had abundant means of teaching the 

 group of sciences which were the equipment of the physi- 

 cian. But, necessarily, unless they made a great effort to 

 that end, they should not have the means of presenting those 

 opportunities of practical inquiry which were essential to the 

 formation of the professional ideal, and which in large popula- 

 tions necessarily occurred with so much greater frequency. This 

 movement — for so he looked upon it — on the part of the rulers 

 of the University, to draw somewhat closer to the science of 

 medicine, was only part of a larger movement which had been 

 going on for some time, which, if he might use the scientific 

 language of the day, was part of the evolution of education in 

 our time. He begged to assure the assembly that he had no 

 traitorous views with respect to the study of Greek. In fact he 

 was inclined to say that in recent controversies the advocates of 

 the classical languages had been unduly frightened, and that 

 there was not the slightest danger that the study of them would 

 ever pass from the education of youth or the culture of men of 

 intellect. The issue was not between science and languages, 

 ancient or modern ; the issue rather was between the science 

 whose chief food was gathered from observation and the science 

 whose chief food was gathered from reflection. This older 

 science was slowly, very slowly, but still quite evidently, giving 

 way to the sciences which relied upon observation. He always 

 thought that the science of medicine had scarcely received among 

 us all the tribute which it ought to receive among sciences which 

 rest upon observation. It was a curious fact that the whole ten- 

 dency of scientific thought appeared to be rapidly concentrating 

 itself upon the fields in which medicine reigned supreme. Those 

 infinitely minute beings which certainly for health or sickness 

 deeply affected our existence, and which were so essential to us 

 NO. I 2 19, VOL. 47] 



that some able scientific men said that we consisted of nothing 

 else, that we were not only a Republic, but were in a permanent 

 state of civil war — these bacilli were attracting more and more the 

 attention of the scientific intellect in Europe. It was dangerous 

 to prophesy, but he did not think that any one who had watched 

 the course of science would doubt that for the generation to 

 come the investigation of these creatures, which had been re- 

 vealed by new methods of research and by singularly patient 

 labour, and upon which the lives of millions of human beings 

 depended, would figure more largely in the scientific field than 

 any other study. This was the special domain and privilege of 

 medicine. He felt, therefore, that in commending this appeal 

 to their consideration he was doing more than preaching a 

 charity sermon. He was asking them to help that which con- 

 tained the most brilliant promise for the intellectnal future of 

 science in a University by which science ought to be culti- 

 vated and where science ought to reign. 



After Lord Salisbury's address various resolutions were 

 adopted, among which was one, moved by Prof. Dicey, to the 

 effect that the Radcliffe Infirmary, being the chief hospital for 

 Oxford and a large surrounding district, should be brought into 

 a state of efficiency corresponding with the recent advances in 

 hospital management. Another resolution, moved by the Master 

 of University, expressed approval of the committee's scheme, 

 consisting of the removal of the sick from the old building into 

 more modern wards and the renovation of the old building. 



On Saturday and Sunday last much damage was done in 

 Sandgate, nearj Folkestone, by remarkable disturbances of 

 land. The first disturbance was felt on Saturday at 7.45 p.m., 

 when a rocking motion was noticed. This soon stopped, but 

 later disturbances were so alarming that many people took their 

 furniture into the streets. According to a correspondent of the 

 Times, houses " slipped away from each other, leaving gaping 

 sections," while in other cases the walls bulged out, and great 

 rifts appeared in the ground. In the area affected by the 

 disturbances most, if not all, of the houses are out of line 

 and show cracking. Many of the inhabitants have been 

 brought to great distress by the calamity, and appeals to 

 the public have been issued on their behalf. An inquiry 

 into the cause of the disaster was held at Sandgate on 

 Tuesday by Mr. Walton, Local Government Board Inspector. 

 After hearing evidence the Inspector said that an official report 

 would be sent to the Board. What he had seen led him to con- 

 clude that the catastrophe was due to the sudden release of im- 

 pounded subsoil water, a thing which he believed was remediable 

 by the institution of proper water drains. If that was attended 

 to there was no reason to suppose that such a disaster would 

 ever recur. The strata were full of water, which the recent ab- 

 normal rainfall had served to increase. That water being 

 released had formed kinds of caverns. The remedies were 

 proper storm drains and intercepting drains, with free outlets 

 under the road to the sea. 



The death of Ludwig Lindenschmit, the well-known German 

 archaeologist, is announced. He died at Mainz on February 14 

 in his eighty-fourth year. He was the director and one of 

 the founders of the fine Central Romano-German Museum at 

 Mainz, and one of the editors of the " Archiv fiir Anthropo- 

 logic." Among his works are "Die vaterliindischen Altcr- 

 tiimer der fiirstlichen HohenzoUernschen Sammlungen ' and 

 his " Altertiimer unserer heidnischen Vorzeit." He began a 

 " Handbuch der deutschen Altertumskunde," but completed 

 only the volume relating to the Merovingian period. Linden- 

 schmit was an enthusiastic advocate of the theory that the 

 Aryan race is of European origin. 



The temperature during the past week has been generally 

 very high for the season, the daily maxima frequently exceeding 



