146 



NATURE 



[March 31, 1910 



erected." By the will of Mrs. Mary A. Richardson, Tufts 

 College is to receive 8000/. for fellowships. 



Bv the will of the late Prof. Hilary Bauerman, the sum 

 of 500Z. is left to the Memorial Fund of the Iron and Steel 

 Institute. The residue of his property (about 15,000/.) is 

 left, subject to a life interest, upon trust to be applied 

 by his trustees in the encouragement of the study of 

 mineralogical science at the Royal School of Mines, by 

 means of lectures on subjects of prominent or educational 

 interest at the time, but which are not included in the 

 ordinary list of subjects taught, and for making grants to 

 enable students to make special investigations or to enable 

 them to travel for the better pursuance of their studies. 



In addition to the regular courses of instruction given 

 by Profs. Sedgwick and MacBride and by Mr. Dobell at 

 the Royal College of Science, a series of special courses 

 on important departments of zoology are being delivered 

 by lecturers, each as specialist in his particular branch. A 

 course on heredity and variation, by Mr. A. D. Darbishire, 

 has just been completed, and two other courses of great 

 interest will commence shortly. One of these courses will 

 be delivered by Dr. E. J. Allen, director of the Plymouth 

 Marine Biological Station, and will treat of marine biology, 

 with special reference to its bearing on fishery problems 

 as well as on oceanic science. The question of the feasi- 

 bility of the artificial rearing of marine animals of economic 

 importance will also be dealt with. An opportunity will 

 thus be afforded to the student of obtaining in a condensed 

 form the results of a lifetime devoted to this form of re- 

 search. The lectures will be delivered on Tuesdays, 

 Wednesdays, and Fridays at 2 p.m., commencing April iq, 

 and will be accompanied by practical work, for the benefit 

 of which salt-water aquaria have been installed in the 

 Royal College of Science, and are now in successful opera- 

 tion ; at the conclusion of the course in London the prac- 

 tical part of the course will be continued at the Marine 

 Laboratory, Plymouth, during July, for those desirous of 

 prosecuting the study further. Another of these courses, 

 treating of on?ans of embrvonic and foetal nutrition, is 

 in charge of Mr. Richard .Assheton, and will be held on 

 Tuesdays and Thursdays at =; p.m., beginning on Tuesday, 

 April 19. This course will deal with the comparative 

 anatomy and physiology of the placenta in a comprehensive 

 way. taking into consideration all cases of trophic con- 

 nection between mother and offspring throughout the 

 Vertebrata, and tracing thus the fully developed placenta 

 of the highest forms from its first beginning. An account 

 of the oestrus cycle will also be given, and the question of 

 the influence of the internal secretions of the generative 

 organs on the organism will also be dealt with. The 

 course will be accompanied by demonstrations and practical 

 work. Such a course hns never before been given in 

 London, and it should enable a medical student to grasp 

 the meaning and physiology of the placenta in a way un- 

 attainable to those who have only had acquaintance with 

 the human type of the organ. 



In an address .at the recent annual banquet of the 

 American Chemical Society, Dr. R. C. Maclaurin, presi- 

 dent of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, referred 

 to the necessity for keeping industry in the closest possible 

 touch with science. In the course of his remarks, he 

 said : — " The awful example, the standing warning in this 

 respect,' is the case of England. There a few years ago 

 was celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of an English 

 chemist's epoch-making discovery of mauve, and yet the 

 jubilee in honour of this man of science was the occasion 

 of the funeral oration of the colour industry in his own 

 country. This deplorable result was brought about entirely 

 by two things that are closely related : — first, the failure 

 to keep industry in close touch with science, and, second, 

 thd impatience of the manufacturer and his narro\vness"as 

 a self-styled * practical ' man. The practical Englishman 

 is too apt to be impatient of the' slow processes of research. 

 He wants to be compensated in hard cash, and at once. 

 The German, on the other hand, has learned to be no less 

 practical, but he has retained the traditions of a race of 

 idpalists plodding patiently and surely to success. But the 

 field of industrial chemistry is not the only one in which 



NO. 2109, VOL. 83] 



the times are critical and exciting. That is equally true 

 of the pure science itself. I hope my own predilection for 

 physics does not mislead me into thinking that the most 

 conspicuous development of chemistry during the past 

 quarter of a century has been on the physical side ; but, in 

 any case, there can be no question that the artificial 

 boundaries between physics and chemistry are being rapidly 

 removed, and, of course, it is well to have it frequently 

 brought home to us that all such boundaries are purely 

 artificial. One point suggested by recent experiences is 

 that we should pay more serious attention than we usually 

 do to the logic of science, and have as clear ideas as 

 possible as to what we are really aiming at, as to what 

 we can reasonably expect to do and not to do. It seems 

 unfortunate that men of science are still so much scared 

 by the bogey of metaphysics. What we have to be afraid 

 of is not metaphvsics, but bad metaphysics, and it is 

 difficult to accept the simple faith of many a man of science 

 that, his metaphysics is to be preferred to any other brand 

 merely because it is either unconscious or naive. A little 

 quiet thought and study should at least have the good 

 effect of enabling us to' preser%-e our calm when things 

 seem to be tumbling down. We should realise, perhaps, 

 that a science like chemistry is, above all else, a work of 

 art, and that concepts like atoms, energv, and the like are 

 not much more than pigments with which we_ paint our 

 pictures. The next generation may find new pigments or 

 mix the old ones differentlv." 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Geological Society, M^rch 9— Prnf. W. W. Watt-. 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — E. E. L. Dixon and 

 A. Vaushan : The Carboniferous succession in Gower 

 (Glamorganshire). The succession in three districts in 

 Gower is described. With the description of the litho- 

 logical sequence are notes on some breccia-like limestones, 

 on " lagoon-phases," and the origin of radiolarian cherts. 

 From the faunal sequence it is concluded that many zones 

 are characterised bv the same assemblages as in the 

 Bristol area. The lithological sequence shows (i) that over 

 the area the depth of the Carboniferous sea underwent a 

 cvcle of change during Lower Avonian time, the initial 

 deepening being followed bv shallowing up to the top of 

 the lower part. C,, of the Svringothyris zone, deposited 

 almost at sea-level ; (2) that a cycle marked the ensuing 

 period up to the top of the Seminula zone ; (t,) that a cycle 

 took p'nce in the Dibunophvllum zone, the latter reaching 

 the surface; and (4) that a fourth cycle characterised thp 

 Posidonomva zone. A comparison of the sequences and 

 thicknesses'^ in the districts shows that the axis on which 

 the movement during the first cycle hinged was different 

 in direction from the axis during the second cycle. The 

 bearing of these movements on the question of the dehmit.a- 

 tion of the divisions of the Avonian is then discussed. It 

 is suggested that the base of the upper part, C,, of the 

 Syringothvris zone should form the base of the Upper 

 Avonian. ' The base of C„ in at least two localities is 

 connected, faunallv, with the zones below, whereas the 

 fauna of' the main m.ass of C, passes into S, without 

 appreciable change other than the introduction of Litho- 

 strotion. Probablv the break between the Lower and the 

 Upper Avonian should be taken at a level within C rather 

 than at the base of the Seminula zone. 



l=>hvsical Society. March it.— Prof. H. L. Cnllendar. 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair.— Dr. W. H. Eccles:- 

 Coherers. A method of investigating detectors is developed 

 with special reference to the relations between the energy 

 given to the detector in the form of electrical vibrations 

 and the energy delivered bv the detector, as direct current, 

 to the circuit of the indicating instrument. The author 

 puts forward the hypothesis that the properties of an oxidp 

 coherer mav arise solely from the temperature variations 

 caused in the minute mass of oxide at the contact by the 

 electrical oscillations and bv the applied E.M.F. He 

 examines the hypothesis mathematically, and shows that 

 most of the phenomena recorded above can in this way be 



