162 



NA TURE 



[December 13, 1894 



grant degrees, but to grant them as a mark of success in regular 

 and systematic courses of study, rather than in the display of 

 hastily acquired, and, therefore, ill-digested knowledge. (3) 

 To stimulate scholarly and scientific research by means of well- 

 eqnipped libraries, laboratories, and other like apparatus, and 

 by the institution of public lectures of an advanced character, 

 like those of the Sorbonne and the College de France. The 

 scheme drawn up by the Gresham Commissioners satisfies most 

 of these rtquirements, and a dens tx machina in the shape of a 

 Statuior)' Commission is all that is wanted to establish it. 



So much attention has recently been given to the new treat- 

 ment of diphtheria, that Dr. Roose's sketch of the history of the 

 complaint, and the circumstances which tend to promote its 

 spread, comes very opportunely. His description of the measure-; 

 calculated to check the prevalence of the disease, and of the 

 remedy lately introduced, is clear and concise, whilst the follow- 

 ing statement, though commonly known in the scientific world, 

 will remove the misapprehension that exists in the minds of a 

 large section of the general public ;^"L6ffler and Klebs dis- 

 covered the microbe of diphtheria, and studied its life-history ; 

 Roux and Versin demonstrated that the bacillus was capable of 

 evolving toxic material, and Behring crowned the edifice by 

 discovering the antidote." 



.■\n address hv Prof. G. \V. Prothero, on " Why should we 

 learn History ? " contained in the National, would at first hardly 

 seem to be a subject for comment in these columns. There is, 

 however, much in the address worth noticing here, for Prof. 

 Prothero shows that history, if not strictly speaking a science, 

 may be taught in a scientific way. Let us briefly state his 

 argument. There are many gaps in history, but in every 

 science there is a lack of information on certain points. Evtn 

 astronomy, the most exact of the sciences, has its dark spots, 

 and there are shady places in evolutionary biology. Thus, so 

 far as imperfection of knowledge goes, history and science only 

 differ in degree. A greater difficulty, perhaps, is that the his- 

 torian cannot employ experiments either to discover facts or to 

 test observations ; but here again it .vuffers in company with 

 geology and other branches of natural knowledge concerned 

 with the past. History is therefore not disqualified from being 

 a science because it is not experimental. The infinite variety 

 and extent of historical phenomena, and the presence of the 

 human element are, however, "obstacles which, it must 

 be allowed, check history on the threshold of science. If 

 indeed the term science is to be restricted to the knowledge 

 and application of general laws — if that alone is science which 

 can foretell with certainty the occurrence of certain results — if 

 science deals with no phenomena but such as can be exactly 

 weighed and measured — then history is not a science at all. 

 But this is surely lo restrict science within too narrow limits. 

 All sciences are not equally exact or equally capable of general- 

 isation. . . . There jis, in fact, a regular gradation from the 

 sciences of abstract reason and mathematical formula;, through 

 the phenomena of the inanimate and the animate world to the 

 world of man." But, pa^e Prof Prothero, if history be 

 granted a place among the sciences, it must be scientific in the 

 ascertainment of its facts. Take the Black Death as an illus- 

 tration. The vague and exaggerated statements of certain 

 chroniclers of its ravages may be taken as evidence, or the 

 more laborious process of searching the registers of the time 

 may be explored. The difference is that one of the ways is 

 scientific, while the other is unscientific. In the drawing of 

 conclusions, also, "there is the same distinction between scien- 

 tific and unicienlific work as there is in the ascertainment 

 of historic facts. For instance, Buckle, in illustrating his 

 theory that national character depends largely upon food, 

 attributes the weakness of the Hindoos to an almost exclusive 

 diet of rice. A striking but misleading generalisation, for, as 

 Sir H. Maine has pointed out, the great majority of the 

 Hindoos never eat rice at all. . . . There is, then, a scientific 

 way as there is an unscientific way of studying history. If 

 treated one way, its results are guess-work and delusion ; if 

 treated another way, if industry, reason, and sober judgment 

 are brought to bear, its results are in many cases matter of 

 certainty, in many others matter of at least high piobability. 

 And, if we except the science of mathematics, what more can 

 be said of any science I" The main object of Prof. Prothero's 

 address was to show that historical study exerts considerable 

 influence upon the mind and character. Tliii is certainly the 

 caje, and if the student is trained on the lines indicated in the 

 foregoing, intellectual results of the highest oidtr must fullow. 



NO. 1311, VOL. 51] 



The great landslip which caused the formation of the Gohna 

 Lake, Gurhwal, in the central Himalayas, has led Mr. W. M. 

 Conway to write on " .Mountain Falls " in the Contemporary. 

 This caia<trophe, however, is only used as a peg upon which 

 to hang an account of the great .\lpine landslip which buried 

 part of the village of Elm, in Canton CKarus, thirteen years 

 ago. The Contemporary also cont.nins a metaphysical article 

 by Emma Marie Caillard, in which cosmic and ethical pro- 

 cesses are discussed, and Prof. Huxley's opinions on evolution 

 and ethics are criticised. Prof. Huxley is also involved in a 

 paper on religion and science, contributed by .■\. J. Du Bois to 

 the Century. Another article for abstract philosophers is Prof. 

 Seth's second paper on " A New Theory of the .Vbsolute." 



Sir Robert Ball contributes to Good Words another of his 

 interesting — albeit superficial— papers on gre.it astronomers, 

 the subject being Sir John Herschel. Chaml'ers's jfouiihil con- 

 tains the usual complement of chatty articles, among which we 

 notice one on smoke absorption, descriptive of Colonel Dulier's 

 patent system of removing the soot and sulphurous acid from 

 the products of combustion, by treatment, before passage into 

 the chimney, by both steam and water ; and another on remark- 

 able hailstorms. 



A passing reference will suffice for the remaining papers on 

 scientific topics. The result of prematurely releasing a chrysalis 

 from its cocoon, a subject on which we published a letter by 

 Dr. L. C. Jones in our issue of November 22 (p. 79), serves 

 Mr. W. C. Wilkinson as the theme of a poem in the Century. 

 St. George Mivart writes popularly on "Heredity" in the 

 Humanitarian, his paper dealing chiefly with Prof. Weismann's 

 speculations. A posthumous paper of Richard Jefferies' 

 appears in Longman's Afa^uzine, and Mr. Phil Robinson con- 

 tributes a facetious paper on rattlesnakes 10 the English Illus- 

 trated. In addition to the magazines and reviews named in the 

 foregoing, we have received Scrilner, CasscU's, and the Sunday 

 Magazine : but these do not contain any articles that can be 

 commented upon here. 



A^ 



OYSTER CULTURE ON THE IVEST COAST 

 OF FRANCE. 



T the request of the Lancashire Sea-I"isheries Committee, I 

 spent some time, last June and July, in investigating the 

 various methods of shell fish culture in use along the western 

 coa^t of France from .\rc.ichon in the south to Brittany in 

 the north. There can be no doubt that there are extensive and 

 flourishing shell-fish industries along the French coast, and one 

 is struck very forcibly with the admirable manner in which the 

 people seem to make the best of unfavourable conditions, and 

 to take full .advantage of any opportunity given lo them by 

 nature. Few places on any coast could look more desolate and 

 forbidding than the vast mud swamps of the Bay of .\iguillon, 

 and yet by means of the " bouchot " system many square miles 

 of this useless ground have been brought under cultivation, and 

 an industry established which supports several villages. Then 

 again, the neat little enclosures along the beach at many places, 

 carefully tended by the owners at low tide, remind one con- 

 stantly of market gardening, ami enforce the truth of the iden, 

 long familiar to the biologist, and ncnv beginning to be more 

 generally recognised, that the fisherman should be the farmer, 

 not the mere hunter of his fish, and that aqui-culture must be 

 carried on as industriously and scientifically as agriculture. 



In addition to industry and care on the part of the fisher- 

 folk, women as well as men, the success of the shell-fish 

 industries in France is largely due to the encouragement and 

 wise assistance of the Government, especially in the regulation 

 of general oyster-dredging and the reservation of certain grounds 

 for supplying seed. The practical question — and one of enor- 

 mous im|.orlance— is : Is there anything special in the condition; 

 in France, either of the land or of the water, which woul.l 

 render their methods inapplicable to our more northern shores t 

 I do not believe that the question can be satisfactorily and 

 finally answered uiiiil some experimental cultures on a fairly 

 laige scale have been tried; but a consideration of the details 

 and results of the French melhoils will at least give us some 

 idea of which experiments are worth trying, and of the localities 

 which might be cultivated with most prospect of success. 



I AbMraclcfarepor .yrrof. «'. A. HcrJnan, ' .R.S ,10lhc Lancashire 

 Sea-Fi»hciic5 ConimiUcc, 



