DISCOVERY 



A MONTHUY" POPULAR 

 JOURNAL or KNOWrjLEDGE 



No. 10. OCTOBER 1920. 



PRICE 6d. NET. 



A Monthly Populax_ Journal of 



DISCOVERY. 



Knowledge. 



Edited by A. S. Russell, M.C, D.Sc, 4 Moreton 

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 should be addressed. 



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Editorial Notes 



The eighty-eighth meeting of the British Association 

 for the Advancement of Science met in Cardiff this 

 year. The meetings were well attended, and the dis- 

 cussions on the scientific problems which arose were 

 very good ones. This association, as is well known, 

 serves three main purposes : it gives scientific workers 

 an opportunity for getting in touch with men who are 

 working on allied subjects; it endeavours to encourage 

 research in all subjects ; it attempts to make scientific 

 knowledge accessible to the general public. The 

 association has a president, always a distinguished 

 man, who commences the proceedings by delivering 

 an address which sets many people thinking and talking 

 for a considerable time after it has been delivered. 

 Thereafter the association breaks up into twelve sec- 

 tions, each of which has a president, addresses, lectures, 

 and discussions. Interspersed with this work are 

 entertainments and excursions, and the general 

 public of the town are treated to five public lectures. 

 ***** 

 The president this year was Professor \V. A. Herd- 

 man, of Liverjwol, and the subject of his address was 

 Oceanography. In this address he made two impor- 

 tant suggestions : (i) that a department of oceano- 

 graphic and fisheries research should be established at 

 Cardifi ; and {2) that there should be a great national 



oceanographical expedition, fitted out by the Admir- 

 alty, and embracing all departments of the science of 

 the sea — a new Challenger expedition, in other words. 

 It is very probable that the second of these will receive 

 the support of the Government, and that not only 

 zoologists, but workers in chemistry, physics, geology, 

 and geography will be among the investigators who go 

 out on that trip. He pointed out that a scientific 

 investigation of the ocean might be considered under 

 two heads, the industrial need and the purely scientific 

 need, and he dealt with both of these in detail. Both 

 needs are very great. There is not a single marine 

 animal, for example, whose mode of life is fully under- 

 stood. Even common fish, such as the cod and the 

 herring, are in many respects unknown to scientists. 

 ***** 



Of course purely scientific work and investigations 

 with a practical end in view do not allow themselves 

 to be kept separate. At times each is of great assist- 

 ance to the other, and more especially obvious is the 

 contribution of the purely scientific work to that 

 undertaken for a practical and commercial end. It 

 was an investigation of the warm and cold areas of 

 the Faroe Channel which led to the discovery there 

 of the fishing grounds extensively exploited since by 

 British trawlers. Again, when making a scientific 

 study of the deep-sea deposits. Sir John Murray dis- 

 covered the valuable deposits of phosphates in Christ- 

 mais Island. We hope to have an article on the 

 interesting subject of oceanographical research in the 

 next number of this Journal. 



***** 



To turn now to the address ^ of Mr. J. McFarlane, 

 the president of the Geographical Section. Mr. Mc- 

 Farlane discussed in some detail the principles upon 

 which the recent territorial rearrangement of Europe 

 has been based. He considers that Europe will be 

 most stable politically when geographical and ethnical 

 conditions are most in harmony, that is when the 

 people of a particular race live as far as possible 

 inside the boundaries of that race's country, and least 



' I am indebted to Nature of August 26 for the baisis of these 

 remarks. — Ed. 



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