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SEPTEMBER II, 1913] 
NATURE 
22 
rere) 
Station, when Major Hurst will demonstrate his 
Mendelian experiments. 
The Economic Section has a well-organised 
discussion on inland waterways, to be opened by 
Lord Shuttleworth on Friday, September 12, and 
another on prices and the cost of living, on the 
Monday following. The subject of the “Panama 
Canal” will be discussed from many points of 
view, both by this section in the Queen’s College, 
Paradise Street, and by the Engineering Section 
in the Technical School. 
A large number of photographs of the Canal 
will be shown in the latter meeting room. 
The Engineering Section has a full programme. 
In the Mechanical Sub-section Prof. Burstall has 
a paper on fuels that should attract attention; in 
the Electrical one there are contributions to the 
study of wireless telegraphy, and a paper on 
electric cooking. The transport and settlement 
of sand and sand-bars, and the re-construction of 
Snow Hill Station, Birmingham, are among the 
topics for discussion by the Mechanical Engineers. 
A gyroscope will be exhibited by Mr. J. W. 
Gordon. 
Anthropology (Section H) has a long and in- 
teresting programme for each day, including 
Wednesday, September 17. The subject-matter, 
indeed, is so large and varied that in addition to 
the large meeting room in the Temperance Hall, 
Temple Street, a sub-section has been arranged to 
meet in the University (Mason College), Edmund 
Street. For details of the work of this section the 
daily programme must be consulted, and mention 
here can only be made of the joint discussion with 
the Education Section on the value of museums, 
to the report by Dr. Fleure and Mr. T. C. Jones 
on the ethnology of Wales; the papers by Dr. 
Flinders Petrie on Egyptian exploration; and to 
the paper on Paleolithic cave-paintings by Dr. 
Capitan, of Paris. 
Section I (Physiology) suffers to some extent 
from the meeting during the past week of the 
International Congress of Physiologists at Gronin- 
gen; but though many prominent men will thereby 
be prevented from attending the Birmingham 
meeting, an interesting debate on the physiology 
of reproduction is assured, and the psychologists 
have such a strong programme that their work is 
to form the basis for an independent sub-section, 
the problems of which are so closely allied to those 
of education that the meeting room of the sub- 
section is placed close to that of Education 
in the University (Mason College). A joint meet- 
ing of their two bodies will discuss “Research in 
Education” on Monday morning, September 15. 
In the Botanical Section there will be, in addi- 
tion to the usual programme of single papers 
(which include such interesting topics as ‘‘The 
Preservation of the British Flora” and ‘The 
Colours and Pigments of Flowers”), one or more 
joint discussions. On Friday morning, September 
12, there will be a conference with the Agricultural 
Section on barley production, and probably a 
second on the fruit industry. The agriculturists 
are offering a paper on German forestry methods, 
NO. 2289, VOL. 92] 
by Prof. Fraser Storey, that is sure to appeal 
equally strongly to the Botanical Section. 
Meetings devoted to topics of general interest 
form a distinctive feature of the Education Sec- 
tion. “The Educational Use of Museums” is the 
title of a discussion, which is strongly supported 
by the leading directors of our museums, whilst 
“The Function of the Modern University ” is the 
subject for Friday’s discussion. As this is intro- 
duced by Sir Alfred Hopkinson, and supported by 
such speakers as Lord Kenyon, Sir H. Reichel, Sir 
George Kenrick, Sir James Yoxall, and Miss 
Burstall, there is sure to be a large attendance. 
Lastly, Agriculture (Section M) has a paper of 
outstanding interest, “The Partial Sterilisation of 
Soil by means of Caustic Lime,” by Dr. Hutchin- 
son and Mr. M. MacLennan, and gives the results 
of some striking experiments recently carried out 
at the Rothamsted Laboratory, Harpenden. Con- 
tributions from the same laboratory are: “The 
Relations between Protozoa and Soil-Problems,” 
by Mr. T. Goodey (protozoologist to the University 
of Birmingham), and “The Weeds of Arable 
Land,” by Dr. Brenchley. Prof. Sédrensen will 
give an account of his recent investigations on 
cereals, whilst the economic side of agriculture 
will be represented by Sir Richard Paget’s 
address on the possibilities of partnership between 
landlord and tenant. 
InauGuRAL ADDRESS BY SIR OLivER J. Lopce, D.Sc., 
LL.D., F.R.S., PRESIDENT. 
Continuity. 
Natura non vincitur nisi parendo. 
First let me lament the catastrophe which has led 
to my occupying the chair here in this city. Sir 
William White was a personal friend of many here 
present, and I would that the citizens of Birming- 
ham could have become acquainted with his attrac- 
tive personality, and heard at first hand of the 
strenuous work which he accomplished in carrying 
out the behests of the Empire in the construction of its 
first line of defence. 
Although a British Association address is hardly 
an annual stocktaking, it would be improper to begin 
this year of office without referring to three more of 
our losses: one that cultured gentleman, amateur of 
science in the best sense, who was chosen to preside 
over our jubilee meeting at York thirty-two years 
ago. Sir John Lubbock, first Baron Avebury, culti- 
vated science in a spirit of pure enjoyment, treating 
it almost as one of the arts; and he devoted social 
and political energy to the welfare of the multitude 
of his fellows less fortunately situated than himself. 
Through the untimely death of Sir George Darwin 
the world has lost a mathematical astronomer whose 
work on the tides and allied phenomena is a monu- 
ment of power and achievement. So recently as our 
visit to South Africa he occupied the presidential chair. 
By the third of our major losses, I mean the death 
of that brilliant mathematician of a neighbouring 
nation who took so comprehensive and philosophic a 
grasp of the intricacies of physics, and whose eloquent 
though sceptical exposition of our laws and processes, 
and of the modifications entailed in them by recent 
advances, will be sure to attract still more widespread 
attention among all to whom the rather abstruse 
subject-matter is sufficiently familiar. I cannot say 
that I find myself in agreement with all that Henri 
Poincaré wrote or spoke in the domain of physics, 
