^M 



NATURE 



[May 22, 19 19 



with anthropology, folk-lore, archaeology, and kindred 

 subjects. Among the items listed we notice a batch 

 of fifty-eight volumes of the Folk-lore Society's pub- 

 lications, comprising the Folk Lore Record, the 

 Folk Lore Journal, Folk Lore, County Folk 

 Lore, and "Extra Publications"; a complete set of 

 the Psychical Research Society's Proceedings; 

 Wright's "The English Dialect Dictionary," 6 vols.; 

 Catlin's "North American Indian Portfolio" (coloured 

 illustrations) ; long runs of the Journal of the Royal 

 Anthropological Institute and of Man, and Reports i 

 to 28 of the Bureau of American Ethnology. The 

 catalogue is sent free upon application. 



The following are among the announcements of 

 forthcoming books of science : — "The Environment of 

 Vertebrate Life in the Late Paleozoic in North 

 America : A Paleogeographic Study," E. C. Case 

 {Washington: Carnegie Institution of Washington); 

 " Psychoses of the War, including Neurasthenia and 

 Shell Shock," Lt.-Col. H. C. Marr; "The Nervous 

 Child," Dr. H. C. Cameron (Henry Froxvde and 

 Hadder and Stoughton). 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



Jupiter. — ^Observers of the surface of this planet 

 have remarked that not for many years past has 

 Jupiter presented so many interesting details as it 

 has in the apparition that is now passing away. It 

 has been noticed that the south equatorial belt has 

 been unusually faint and its components extremely 

 narrow, but it has. gained redness in some parts, whilst 

 the north equatorial belt has been losing its redness. 

 This apparent transference of colour appears to be a 

 periodic phenomenon. The feature known as the 

 south tropical disturbance, first seen in 190 1, the 

 movement of which, especially with reference to that 

 of the red spot, has been observed continuously since 

 that time, became faint in the early months of this 

 year,, and in April this marking, together with the 

 hollow in the soutli equatorial belt, in which the red 

 spot lies, had quite disappeared, whilst the spot itself 

 was seen only by some observers and in favourable 

 circumstances. 



Nova Aquil^, 1918.^ — Observations of the nova of 

 last year that have been already made in the morning 

 ■sky show that the star is now fainter than sixth 

 magnitude, for it has been estimated to be about 

 o-x magnitude fainter than the neighbouring star 

 B.D. +04027°, which appears as 626 in the Revised 

 Harvard Photometry. A not-e from the Bergedorf 

 (Hamburg) Observatory in the Astronomische Nach- 

 richten of April 7 describes its spectrum about the 

 date April 4 as consisting essentially of three bright 

 lines in the red, yellow, and blue-green, and its ap- 

 pearance in the ordinary stellar eyepiece as a small 

 reddish-yellow image covered by a bluish-green disc. 

 The difference of focus gives a decided parallactic 

 effect, looking slantwise, and the appearance is that 

 of a double star with components of these colours. 



"Annuaire de l'Observatoire Royal de Bel- 

 GiQUE." — ^The volumes of this publication for the years 

 1915, 1916, 1917. and 1918 have lately been received. 

 The first was printed and published in 1914 in the 

 ordinary course, but the last three bear the date 1918 

 on thereover, and the preface to each is signed by 

 M, Stroobant, Chief Astronomer of the observatory, 

 vice the Director, the date of signing being 19 18 

 November 11, the day of the armistice. These facts 

 are significant, and the explanation is that the three 

 Ijooks were printed in Brussels year by year without 

 the knowledge of the occupying^ Power during the 

 war, but were not issued because they would have 



NO. 2586, VOL. 103] 



had to be submitted to the enemy censor. The 

 Annuaire for 1916, like the earlier volumes of the 

 series, comprises what is practically a complete treatise 

 on descriptive astronomy. There will be found in it 

 definitions, descriptions, tables, photographs of nebulae, 

 comets, and star clusters, and a history of the recent 

 progress of astronomy. The later volumes are less 

 complete, and much of the information about the 

 current events of astronomy had to be omitted 

 because astronomical publications did not reach 

 Belgium during the war. M. Stroobant, who 

 is to be congratulated on carrying on in such 

 unusual and painful circumstances, is responsible for 

 the preparation, because M. Lecointe, the Director 

 of the Royal Observatory, has been serving in the 

 Belgian Army. It is worthy of remark that Green- 

 wich civil time, which is the official time of the 

 country, is used throughout, and this doubtless was 

 one reason for keeping these volumes from the eyes 

 of the enemy. The preface to the edition for the 

 current year, 1919. which was signed on 1918 Novem- 

 ber 18, contains the pleasing announcement that, as 

 the country is now liberated, the Annuaire will be 

 able to appear in the future unfettered. 



SCIENCE AND THE CLASSICS. 

 'T*HE Classical Association held its annual meeting 



-»■ at Oxford on May 16-17, ^nd Sir William Osier 

 delivered the presidential address on "The Old 

 Humanity and the New Science." Sir William began 

 by referring to the history of the Divinity School, in 

 which the meeting was held. It had been frequented, 

 he said, by Linacre, who, in addition to being a 

 pioneer in medical education, had achieved a great 

 reputation as a scholar. It had known the times 

 when the natural sciences were so much neglected 

 that the belief was solemnly maintained that fossils 

 had been buried in the earth to test man's belief in 

 the omnipotence of the Creator. The last century 

 had witnessed extraordinary developments in 

 scientific knowledge of every sort, and the 

 interest taken in discovery on one hand, and 

 social progress on the other, had rather thrown the 

 old humanities into the background. It might be 

 maintained, from the part played by Science during 

 the war, that its chief result had been to add to the 

 sum of human misery; but, all things considered, 

 such utilisation of discovery could not be fairly used 

 as a reproach against Science ; the fault lay in the 

 degradation of the human mind which the horrors 

 of the last five years had brought about. Sir William 

 was rather inclined to subscribe to the opinion that 

 the invention of firearms had been one of the main 

 causes which saved the human race from destruction. 

 But to assure the continued well-being of the race 

 a different kind of education was necessary. The 

 solution of the difficulty would be found in the union 

 of Science with the Humanities. Germany, in which 

 scientific education had been systematically developed, 

 nevertheless had paid far greater attention to the 

 study of the classics than any other modern nation. 



The attitude of our modern society towards classical 

 education might be compared with that of ants and 

 wasps, which protect their larvae, but require from 

 them a return in the form of a honey which they 

 secrete; and if the larvae do not exude it freely, the 

 V.A.D. wasps; will nip their patients' heads to cause 

 a quicker flow, Tlie academic larvae of to-dav were 

 much to blame, and it was for them to see to it that 

 they exude their nectar more willingly. There had 

 been practically no change in the papers set for 

 "Greats" between 1831 and 1919; and, indeed, in 

 1267 the teaching of the schools was very much as it 



