May 



1901] 



NA TURE 



Laboratory might take and of its future progress, and he 

 had it in his power greatly to help the realisation of 

 those hopes. His death is a serious blow to the new 

 institution— a blow the consequences of which can with 

 difficulty be repaired. R. T. G. 



THE NATIONAL ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



WE print below a letter which Prof. Poulton has 

 addressed to the Fellows of the Royal .Society in 

 regard to the Antarctic expedition. In it he gives a his- 

 tory of the circumstances which have caused Prof J. W. 

 Gregory to resign the leadership of the scientific staff. 

 The reason for this, to follow the Professors words, is 

 that since he left England in February changes have 

 been made in his position in regard to the naval com- 

 mander of the expedition which deprived him of any 

 guarantee that the scientific work would not be subordi- 

 nated to naval adventure, ''an object admirable in itself, 

 but not the one for which I understood this expedition to 

 be organised." The history of the negotiations before 

 and since the beginning of the present year — the date of 

 the letter in which these words occur — show that when 

 Prof. Gregory accepted the leadership of the scientific work 

 (late in 1899), much stress had been laid on the scientific 

 aspect of the expedition, arid that the alterations made 

 since the beginning of the present year have increased 

 the authority of the naval commander. 



At a special meeting of the Royal Society in February 

 1S98, when the advantages of an Antarctic expedition 

 were fully discussed, Sir John Murray, in an admirable 

 summary of matters requiring further study, enumerated 

 not only the depth, the deposits and the biology of the 

 South Polar Ocean, but also the meteorology, mag- 

 netism, geology, and ice-sheet of the region ; and laid 

 special stress on the importance of landing a party to 

 remain over at least one winter m order to study the 

 latter points. Dr. Neumayer, Sir Joseph Hooker, Sir A. 

 Geikie and the Duke of Argyll all enlarged on the 

 importance of one or more of the second group. The same 

 were mentioned by members of the deputation, which 

 Mr. Balfour received in June 1899, and in his reply he 

 acknowledged their importance. It is, therefore, not sur- 

 prising that Prof. Gregory expected the leader of the scien- 

 tific staff to be allowed a very free hand, and it certainly 

 seems that the negotiations, described by Prof Poulton, 

 have tended to deprive him of initiative and to place him 

 more completely under the authority of the naval com- 

 mander. Yet this expedition will afford a great opportunity 

 not only for geographical discovery, but also for increasing 

 scientific knowledge ; and for some most important things 

 in the latter a prolonged stay on land is absolutely 

 necessary. Chief among these, in addition to mag- 

 netic work, are the following :— The Antarctic land is 

 covered by an ice-sheet greater than that of Greenland, 

 and certainly not less than even the one which some I 

 glacialists assert to have formerly existed in Northern 

 Europe. In that land also, as in no other place, we have 

 a chance of obtaining the key to some curious problems 

 in the zoology and botany, past and present, of other 

 continental masses in the southern hemisphere. For 

 both these problems a prolonged residence is required, 

 and an expert who, like Prof Gregory, is as familiar with 

 ice and its work as he is with pala;ontological questions. 



We may hope then that those representatives of science 

 on the Joint .Antarctic Committee whom Prof Poulton 

 accuses will be able to demonstrate that he is wrong and 

 Prof Gregory needlessly apprehensive, that Commander 

 Scott possesses such experience in Polar exploration 

 and has such familiarity with the branches of science 

 which we have mentioned as to warrant a man of I 

 Prof Gregory's age and standing in placing himself 1 

 absolutely under his orders, and that the Discovery is a 

 NO. 1647, VOL. 64] 



King's ship in so full and real a sense that such entire 

 subjection, even to signing articles, is imperative. Until 

 their explanation is before us we cannot be expected to 

 express a final opinion on the merits of the dispute, and 

 this we shall no doubt obtain very shortly ; for those 

 whom Prof Poulton has accused of running the risk of 

 subordinating scientific investigation to geographical 

 discovery can hardly afford to let judgment go by- 

 default. 



To the Fellows of the Royal Society. 

 The resignation of the man who is, before all others, fitted 

 to be the Scientific Leader of the National Antarctic Expedition 

 will lead the Fellows of the Society to expect some statement of 

 the causes which have produced a result so disastrous to the 

 interests of science. The following statement gives an account 

 of the efforts which have been made to prevent the injury which 

 has occurred. 

 I In the autumn of 1S99 Captain Tizard, F.R.S., and I were 

 appointed as the representatives of the Council of the Royal 

 Society onan -Antarctic ExecutiveCommittee of four. Sir Clements 

 Markham (Chairman) and Sir R. Vesey Hamilton being the 

 representatives of the Royal Geographical Society's Council. 

 Our functions were defined under various heads in a printed 

 form previously agreed upon. No. 2 instructed us to submit a 

 programme of the Expedition for approval to the Joint Antarctic 

 Committee (consisting of sixteen representatives of each Council), 

 "such a programme to include (a) A general plan of the opera- 

 tions of the Expedition, including instructions to the Commander, 

 so far as this can be laid down beforehand, (b) The composition 

 of the executive and scientific staff to be employed, the duties, 

 preparation and accommodation for, and pay of, the several 

 members." No. 4 instructed us "To make the appointments of 

 the several members of the executive and scientific staff, subject 

 to the final approval of the Joint Committee.'' The word 

 " civilian " was nowhere employed. The four members of the 

 Executive Committee were placed on the Joint Committee and 

 all Sub-Committees. 



Before the first meeting of the Executive Committee Captain 

 Tizard and I were seen by Prof Riicker, who informed us that 

 one of the first points which the Council of the Royal Society 

 desired us to raise was the relation in power and status between- 

 the Commander and the Scientific Leader. In the German 

 Expedition, which was to start about the same time, the Scientific 

 Director had absolute power, and we were asked to consider the 

 possibility of such an arrangement in the English Expedition. 



At one of our first meetings, I think the very first, I raised' 

 this question and supported the German arrangement. The 

 other three members, who were all naval experts, convinced me 

 that English law required the Captain to be supreme in all 

 questions relating to the safety of his ship and crew. Since that 

 time I have never disputed this point, but always maintained' 

 that the scientific chief should be head of the scientific work of 

 all kinds, including the geographical, and that the captain should 

 be instructed to carry out his wishes so far as they were consistent 

 with the safety of ship and crew. 



We then considered the appointment of Scientific Leader and- 

 decided to nominate Prof J. W. Gregory, then of the British 

 Museum of Natural History. In suggesting his name to my 

 colleagues I was influenced by his proved success in organisation 

 and in the management of men in a most difficult expedition 

 (British East Africa in 1893), by the wide grasp of science which 

 enabled him to bring back valuable observations and collections 

 in so many departments. His ice experience in Spitzbergenand 

 Alpine regions was also of the highest importance, together with 

 the fact that his chief subject was Geology, a science which pur- 

 sued in the Antarctic Continent would almost certainly yield' 

 results of especial significance. In addition to all these qualifi- 

 cations Prof Gregory's wide and varied knowledge of the earth 

 rendered his opinion as to the lines of work which would be 

 most likely to lead to marked success extremely valuable in such 

 an Expedition. No one was more competent to state the probable- 

 structure of the Antarctic Continent and its relation to that of 

 the earth. This opinion of Prof Gregory's qualifications for 

 the position of scientific leader of an Antarctic expedition is I 

 know widely held among British scientific men. In their wide 

 combination and united as they are to tried capacity as a leader 

 they are unique, and an expedition with Prof Gregory for its 

 scientific chief, with as free a hand as English law would permit,. 

 was bound to yield great results. 



