328 



NATURE 



S^Augiist 4, 1 88 1 



increases, so among all sciences there is none of which the influ- 

 ence and therefore the responsibility, will increase more than 

 ours, because none more intimately concerns man's happiness 

 and working power. 



But, more clearly in the recollections of the Congress, we may 

 be reminded that in our science there n ay be, or, rather, there 

 really i-, a complete community of interest among men of all 

 nations. On all the questions before us we can differ, discus^, 

 dispute, and stand in earnest rivalry ; but all consistently with 

 friendship, all with readiness to wait patiently till more know- 

 ledge shall decide h hich is in the right. Let us resolutely hold 

 to this when we are apart : let our internationality be a clear 

 abiding sentiment, to be, as now, declared and celebrated at 

 appointed times, but never to be forgotten ; we may, perhaps, 

 help to gain a new honour for science, if we thus suggest that in 

 many more things, if they were as deeply and dispassionately 

 studied, there might be found the same complete identity of 

 international interests as in ours. 



And then, let us always remind ourselves of the nobility of 

 our calling. I dare to claim for it, that among all the sciences, 

 ours, in the pursuit and lue of truth, offers the most complete 

 and constant union of those three qualities which have the 

 greatest charm for pure and active minds — novelty, utility, and 

 charity. These three, which are sometimes in so lamentable 

 disunion, as in the attractions of novelty without either utility 

 or charity, are in our researches so combined that, unless 

 by force or wilful wring, they hardly can be put asunder. 

 And each of them is admirable in its kind. For in every 

 search for truth we can not only exerci;e curiosity, and have 

 the delight — the really elemental happiness — of watching the 

 unveiling of a mystery, but, on the way to Irulh, if we look 

 well round us, we shall see that we are passing wonders nioi e 

 than the eye or mind can fully apprehend. And as one of the 

 perfections of nature is that in all her works w ouder is har- 

 monised with utility, so is it with our science. In every truth 

 altained there is utility either at hand or among the certainties 

 of the future. And this utility is not selfish : it is not in any 

 degree correlative with money-making ; it may generally be 

 estimated in the welfare of others better than in our own. Some 

 of us may indeed make money and grow rich ; but many of 

 those that minister even to the follies and vices of mankind can 

 make inuch more money than we. In all things costly and vain- 

 glorious they would far surpass us if we would compete with 

 them. We had better not compete where wealth is the highest 

 evidence of success ; we can compete with the world in the 

 nobler ambition of being counted among the learned and the good 

 who strive to make the fnture better and happier than the past. And 

 to this we shall attain if we will remind ourselves that, as in 

 every pursuit of knowledge there is the charm of novelty, and 

 in every attainment of truth utility, so in every use of it there 

 maybe charity. I do not mean only the charity which is in hos- 

 pitals or in the service of the poor, great as is the privilege of 

 our calling in that we may be its chief ministers ; but that wider 

 charity which is practised in a constant sympathy and gentleness, 

 in patience and self-devotion. And it is surely fair to hold 

 that, as in every search for knowledge we may strengthen 

 our intellectual ]5ower, so in every practical employment of it we 

 may, if we will, improve our moral nature ; we may obey the 

 whole law of Christian love, we may illustrate the highest in- 

 duction of scientific philanthropy. 



Let us, then, resolve to devote ourselves to the promotion of 

 the whole science, art, and charity of medicine. Let this resolve 

 be to us as a vow of brotherhood ; and may God held us in our 

 work. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, July 25.— M. Wurtz in the chau-.— 

 The following papers were read : — On the comet b of iSSi, by 

 M. Monchez. The result of M. Oudemans' search among the 

 Dutch Colonial Archives in South Africa is that the comet of 

 iSSi is probably not that of 1S07, but seen now for the first 

 time. — Determination of the horizontal and lateral flexure and 

 the flexure of the instrumental axis of the meridian circle of 

 Bischoffsheim, by means of new' apparatus, by MM. Lcewry and 

 Perigaud. — On the equivalence of quadratic forms, by M. Jordan. 

 —On chlorhydric ether of glycol, by M. Berthelot. — Anthracic vac- 

 cination ; rJsmiu'oi experiments made at Lambert, near Chartres, 

 to test the method of M. Pasteur, by M. Bouley. The essence 

 of the test consisted in inoculating vaccinated sheep vrith naturaj 



virus {anthracic bjood from a sheep which died of the disease) 

 instead of that prepared by processes of culture. The efticacy 

 of the vaccination was fully demonstrated. — On the irreducible 

 covariants of ihe binary quantic of the eighth c rder, by Prof. 

 Sylvester. — Parabolic elements of the comet b 1881, by M. 

 Bigourdan. — Observations of Sch.ieberle's comet (c i88i) at 

 Paris Observatory, by M. Bigourdan ; also by ^IM. Henry. 

 — Considerations on the forces of nature ; inadmissibility of 

 the hypothesis proposed by M. Faye to explain the tails 

 of comets, by M. Picard, Whatever the nature of the 

 repulsive force it can only be proportional to masses, not to 

 surfaces, for ideal pressure on surfaces only arises from effective 

 action on masses. No interposed matter can weaken or arrest 

 its action, for the etherised medium penetrates all bodies. The 

 action is propagated, not successively but instantaneously, being 

 due not to an undulatory motion, but to shocks of etherised 

 atoms and ponderable molecules, like gravitation ; hence onfa point 

 in motion it is exerted in the same direction as the attraction exer- 

 cised by the ponderable mass of the sun. — Remarks on ihe calcu- 

 lation of relative perturbations, according to M, Gylden's method, 

 by M. Callandrean. — Hemihedral crystals with inclined f.aces as 

 constant sources of electricity, by MM. Jacques and Pierre 

 Curie. A plate suitably cut in such a crystal and placed 

 between two sheets of tin forms a condenser which becomes 

 charged when it is compressed. The authors give .an absolute 

 measure of the quantities of electricity liber.ated by tourmaline 

 and quartz for a determinate pressure. It is |show'n how the 

 instrument may serve in comparison of charges and capacities. — 

 Determination of Ihe angular distance of colours, by M. Rosen- 

 stiehl. He shows that three colours previously referred to, viz. 

 orange, the third yellow green, and the third blue, have the 

 characters of a triad (that is, mixed in equal intensity, they 

 produce the sensation of white). All the colours which occupy 

 the angles of an inscribed equilateral triangle have the same 

 properties. — Electric stopcock ; transformation, transport, and 

 use of energy, by M. Cabanellas — On the heat of foi'mation of 

 explosives, by MM. Sarrau and Vieille. When an explosive is 

 decomposed the heat liberated is equal (according to thermo- 

 dynamics) to the excess of the heat of formalion of the products 

 over the heat of formation of the explosive. Hence, know ing, 

 in a given case, the heat liberated by decomposition, and the 

 composition of the products of the reaction, the heat of forma- 

 tion may be arrived at. The authors have applied the method 

 to the principal explosives, and will shortly give the results. — 

 Industry of magnesia (continued), by M. Schlcesing. He treats 

 sewage matter with phosphate of magnesia, obtaining the jihos- 

 phoric acid from natural phosphates of lime, and the magnesia 

 from sea-water or water of salt marshes (it is precipitated by 

 slaked lime). He produces a sort of vermicelli of lime, which 

 gives a porous magnesia, on which the acid liquid acts easily. — 

 On some reactions of morphine and its congeners, by M. Grimaux. 

 — On a new process of vaccination of chicken cholera, by M. 

 TousF.aint. He inoculated fowds with blood of rabbits which 

 had died of septicemia (or with matter cultivated from it), and 

 the effects were those of an attenuated virus, which made the 

 fowls refractory to cholera. — On a volcanic breccia capable of 

 being utilised as an agricultural manure, by M. Carnot. The 

 rock (from I'Herault) contains notable amounts of iron, lime, 

 potash, and phosphoric acid. — Boric acid ; its existence in salt 

 lakes of the modern period, and in natural saline waters (second 

 note), by M. Dieulafait. — On the extraordinary temperature of 

 July, 1881, by M. Renou. It rose to 38°'4 on the 19th at the 

 Park Observatory, a degree never experienced in yVlgiers, the 

 Antilles, and Cayenne. 



CONTENTS Page 



Fossil Crinoids 305 



OtiE Book Shelf:— 



Brown's '* Countries of the World" 306 



Teclimer's " Phonetik " 307 



Letters to the Editor : — 



Medusse— Surgeon-Major H. .^bchkr 307 



Two Kinds of Stamens with Different Functions in the same 



Flower. — Dr. Hermann MuLLER (lf7/A///Ki/>-(i//o«). ... 307 

 Palaeolithic Implements in the Thames Valley at and near London 



— their Comparative Numbers — Worthington G. Smith . . 308 



The Comet. By Dr. Henry Draper ; J. Birmingham . . . 30S 

 \ Popular .Account of Cham.^leons. By St. George Mivart, 



F.R.S 309 



The Unexplored Parts of Europe and Asia 312 



Notes 313 



Solar Physics- The Chemistry of the Sun. By ;J. Norman 



Lockver, F.R.S. {With Diagrams) 3-5 



Intersjational Medical Congress 3-4 



Societies and Acade.mies 3-^ 



