226 



DISCOVERY 



materialistic pursuits, to develop in other du-ections. 

 Men have unfortunately grown accustomed to think 

 of civilisation as standing for the watchword of 

 '• Efficiency." This is true enough, but it is not the 

 whole truth. We venture to think that no one who 

 believes in evolution, in the idea that some gradual 

 process is being worked out amongst mankind, as in 

 every branch and portion of life and matter in the 

 universe, can think of civilisation merely in these 

 terms. The highest result of civilisation seems to 

 us to lie in the fact that it is lifting mankind from 

 the position merely of maintaining life on this 

 particular planet into a position of using that life for 

 higher ends, such as the study of itselt and the 

 universe which surrounds it, or of the development 

 of the faculty of appreciating beauty. The know- 

 ledge that astronomers have acquired about the 

 peculiarities of certain stars will probably not increase 

 our efficiency or our material comfort ; the develop- 

 ment of the decoration of pottery did not make eating 

 or drinking easier; and the only material uses of 

 music and poetry, of which one can think, He in. their 

 capacity for soothing troubled nerves, though they 

 could not even be so used except in the case of 

 persons with some considerable aesthetic faculty. 



In general we may say that civilisation has resulted 

 in an endeavour on the part of mankind to expand 

 outwards, often with a risk to individual members of 

 the race. All this seems a far cry from Mount 

 Everest. But if we view the attempts to conquer 

 Everest, or the conquest of the North and South 

 Poles, in the light of the preceding considerations, we 

 cannot but see in them a few of the more obvious 

 proofs of that collective urge, that clan z'ital. which 

 is ever driving us forward. \\'hither we are being 

 driven we cannot humanly say. The urge is there, 

 and to trust to it is, we think, the only ]5i>ssible and 

 the onlv satisfactory course. 



This month, from the 6th to the i;,th, the British 

 .Association will visit Hull for its annual meeting. 

 The President, Sir Charles Sherington, is by an 

 uncommon coincidence also President of the Royal 

 Society. This has happened only twice before : in 

 1848 to the Marquess of Northampton, and in 1895 

 to Lord Lister. The programme, like all British 

 Association programmes, is exceedingly interesting. 

 The social interest of Hull as a great fishing centre 

 will receive prominent attention in a series of sectional 

 discussions dealing with the North Sea. Thus there 

 will be joint discussions on the geological history of 

 the North Sea basin, on biology and fisheries of the 

 N'orth .Sea, on land reclamation on the East Coast, 

 and on tides with special reference to the North Sea. 



Historians tell us that it is probable that the herring 

 came into the North Sea from the Baltic and else- 

 where in comparatively recent times. We hope that, 

 as a consequence of this considerable discussion on 

 them and their surroundings, they will not take it 

 into their heads to quit. 



The subjects of the evening discourses, which rank 

 in importance next after the presidential address, 

 were mentioned in a review which appeared in this 

 journal last month. This year there will be four 

 Citizens Lectures on the lines of those started by 

 Huxley and Tyndall in the " Sixties." Dr. E. H. 

 Griffith, F.R.S., will speak on " The Conservation 

 and Dissipation of Energy " ; Sir W'estcott .Abell on 

 the " Story of the Ship " ; Dr. Smith Woodward on 

 the " .Ancestors of Man " ; and Professor Coleman, 

 of Toronto, on '' Labrador." There will also be 

 special lectures for children by Professor H. H. 

 Turner on " The Telescope and what it tells us," by 

 Professor J. Arthur Thomson on " Creatures of the 

 Sea," and bv Mr. F". Debenham, the explorer, on 

 " The .Antarctic." With sectional addresses and 

 sectional discussions for specialists, evening lectures 

 and joint discussions for those who are learned but 

 not necessarily specialists, lectures for citizens, and 

 lectures for children, in addition to social meetings, 

 visits, excursions and the like, it is plain that all 

 classes who care anything at all about science and 

 who betake themselves to Hull, are being very amply 

 catered for. In addition, a special effort is being 

 made this year to attract the younger generation of 

 students, and the generosity of a former president of 

 the Association has enabled a certain number of the 

 younger graduates of our different universities and 

 university colleges to be entertained as guests during 

 the meeting. 



***** 



The mathematicians, economists, and agriculliu'ists 

 are holding a discussion on economic periodicity, and 

 will in particular discuss Sir Wm. Beveridge's theory 

 that a bad time in trade will be coming in a few years; 

 the chemists and botanists ^\ ill discuss recent research 

 on photo-synthesis, especially the action of light in 

 effecting the synthesis of bodies like starch and sugar 

 from very simple compounds ; the zoologists and the 

 botanists will discuss the present position cf 

 Darwinism ; the agriculturists and the economists, the 

 possibility of increasing the food supply of Great 

 Britain ; and the psychologists and the educationists, 

 the relation of psycho-analysis to the School. These 

 are some of the leading joint-discussions. 



***** 



On looking over the subjects cho-sen by the sectional 

 presidents for their addresses we notice two features 



