;96 



NATURE 



[July 12, 19 17 



Among the salient events in the work of the insti- 

 tution during the year under review the following facts 

 referred to in the president's report may be mentioned. 

 The loo-in. reflecting telescope at the Solar Observa- 

 tory of the institution is nearly completed, and the 

 observatory now possesses an unrivalled equipment 

 for nearly all branches of stellar work, except that of 

 positional astronomy, to which the institution is con- 

 tributing substantial aid through its Department of 

 Meridian Astrometry. 



During the year the non-magnetic ship, Carnegie, 

 has added an unexpectedly large mileage to her record. 

 Leaving Lyttelton, New Zealand, on December 6, 1915, 

 she sailed round the world between parallels of 50° and 

 60° south latitude, a voyage of only 118 days, during 

 which complete observations of the magnetic elements 

 were made on every day except one. Sailing again 

 from Lyttelton on May 17, 1916, she arrived at San 

 Francisco on September 21 following. 



The various editions of Ptolemy's 'Almagest" have 

 been collated, and a new edition was issued by the 

 institution during the year. 



"This edition is a result of the joint researches of the 

 late Dr. C. H. F. Peters and Mr. E. B. Knobel. In 

 addition tothe profound historical importance of this 

 early work, a great and permanent merit of this latest 

 edition lies in the data it affords for fixation of the 

 relative precision of the ancient determinations of 

 stellar positions. Our admiration for the Alexandrian 

 school of astronomers need not be diminished, how- 

 ever, by the fact that the .precision now attained in 

 such determinations is incomparably superior to that 

 attainable by the pioneers in this science twenty 

 centuries ago." 



"During the past four years Dr. Frederic E. 

 Clements, professor of botany in the University of 

 Minnesota, has been attached to the department of 

 botanical research as a research associate, and has 

 extended the field studies and elaborated the induc- 

 tions on which he had been at work previously for 

 many years. The results of his investigations are 

 embodied in a remarkable book entitled ' Plant Suc- 

 cession : An Analysis of the Development of Vegeta- 

 tion.' This work extends the concepts of Darwin and 

 views the successive plant-complexes which invade any 

 region as so many organic units, each enacting 

 its rdle no less definitely than is enacted the 

 r6le of an individual plant or other organism. This 

 work of Prof. Clements brings the relatively new 

 science of ecology and palaeo-ecology prominently for- 

 ward. It is instructive by reason of the analogies it 

 suggests, especially to the student of contemporary 

 events, between the struggle for existence of the lower 

 species and the struggle for existence of the highest 

 species in the biological world." 



The public estimation of the value of research in 

 science as a means of assisting the development of 

 human institutions is referred to in the following para- 

 graphs from the report : — 



" Numerous references have been made in preceding 

 reports to the growing realisation of the world at 

 large^ that the methods of science are the most 

 effective methods thus far developed for the 

 advancement of learning and for the mitigation of the 

 consequences of the inexorable ' laws of Nature 'which 

 condition existence on our planet. Reference has been 

 made likewise to the contemporary rise and progress 

 of other research establishments and to the introduc- 

 tion of investigation as an economic adjunct to indus- 

 trial enterprises. These manifestations of popular ap- 

 proval and confidence continue to be among the most 

 noteworthy signs of the times. Indeed, it is plain 

 t^ln J Ir "°^ witnessing a remarkably rapid evolu- 

 tion of pubhc understanding of the meaning and the value 

 NO. 2489, VOL. 99] 



of research. This has been greatly intensified and 

 accelerated by the European war, the sinister aspects 

 of which appear to be relieved in some degree by the 

 prospects of an awakened realisation of the availability 

 of better methods than those of warfare for settling 

 international disputes, of better methods than those 

 now commonly applied in the government of States, 

 and of better methods in education, in sanitation, in 

 industry, and in biological economy generally. The Eu- 

 ropean war has emphasised to a degree not hitherto 

 attained in the world's history the perils of ignorance, of 

 government by assumed divine right, and of that sort 

 of diplomacy which shades off by insensible degrees 

 into duplicity; and it has emphasised equally clearly 

 the necessity for rational investigation of, and progres- 

 sive reforms in, all national affairs. 



" How the details of this evolution, in which the in- 

 stitution must participate, will work themselves out is 

 impossible to predict except in general terms. It may 

 be safely inferred, however, from the historv of similar 

 developments, that this one will proceed much more 

 slowly _ and with much more difficulty than many 

 enthusiastic optimists anticipate. Evolution is, in 

 general, a secular process, and goes on with a leisurely 

 disregard of individuals. It may be safely inferred 

 also that many of the numerous fallacies which have 

 beset the institution during the brief interval of its 

 existence will recur again and again in the rise of 

 similar organisations, while fallacies of a more trouble- 

 some type are likely to beset the introduction of the 

 methods and the results of research in governmental 

 affairs. It is in the latter affairs that the most stub- 

 bom opposition to progress is usually met, since 

 there exist, as a rule, in such affairs no adequatelv 

 developed relations of reciprocity between those bes't 

 qualified to suggest and to formulate improvements 

 and those who control the machinery for their appli- 

 cations. Such improvements can be secured onlv by 

 overcoming a stolid adherence to precedent as "well 

 as the reluctance of rational conservatism. 



"Thus it happens in governmental affairs that the 

 most incongruous ideas often co-exist, as is well shown 

 by the contemporary adoption of the most advanced 

 principles of sanitation in certain European countries 

 which are still dominated by medieval theories of the 

 functions of a State. To cite another illustration 

 readilv understood and verifiable, it is an anomalous 

 fact that the United States Government exacts no 

 professional requirements for the direction of its 

 highly technical affairs except in a single branch of 

 Its service, namely, the legal. And in line with this 

 glaring national deficiency it is notorious that the fiat 

 of an executive can make an astronomer, a geodesist 

 or a biologist out of a man whose works are unknown 

 in the annals of the science of which he becomes the 

 ex-officio representative. 



"We hear much also in ihese days of the ' mobilisa- 

 tion of genius in the interests of national prepared- 

 ness for commercial and industrial competition, if not 

 tor the more serious exigencies of national defence; 

 but It IS to be feared that this mobilisation means 

 fruitless attempts to utilise aberrant types of mind 

 or perhaps the employment of men of talent under the 

 direction of those whose competency for leadership is 

 admitted, if at all, only in quite other fields of activity 

 than those here considered. In the meantime it is 

 plain enough, in the li-ht of current events, that anv 

 nation the governors of which mistake necromancy for 

 science, confound invention with investigation, or fail 

 to utilise effectively available and advancing know- 

 ledge, is in danger of humiliation in peaceful inter- 

 national competition, if not in danger of extinction in 

 international conflict." 



The principles which have guided the research work 

 of the institution and the difficulties with which the 



