12 NATURE 
[SEPTEMBER 7, 1916 
will often suggest a diverging inquiry that, if followed 
up, may produce results even more valuable than the 
original question. Such loose ends litter the labora- 
tories of firms which confine themselves to questions 
of the moment. They lead straight to the basic theory 
of a subject, to the roots that strike down into pure 
science. They are infinite in number and intermin- 
able, as the man of pure science knows well; but they 
also often yield results that revolutionise those indus- 
tries which are empirical in. their methods—as what 
industry is not?—and give that control over nature 
which it is the object of all science, whether pure or 
applied, to secure. The discovery of the structure of 
the indigo molecule led not merely to the synthetic 
manufacture of this blue dye, but has enabled the 
chemist to produce a number of mew substances 
of analogous structure and different shades of colour. 
Research of this order does not cease when a 
problem—even if it be as complicated as synthetic 
indigo—has been solved. It must be continuous in its 
operation, and its ramifications will spread as know- 
ledge grows. It will’ inevitably tend to bring industries 
into intimate relation, which are at present independent 
of each other, to transform what have hitherto been 
crafts into scientific industries, and to require co- 
operation not only between different firms in the same 
industry, but between groups of industries in a con- 
tinuously widening series of inter-related trades. 
THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT 
NEWCASTLE. 
PPARENTLY, the handbook published in con- 
nection with the meeting of the British Asso- 
ciation, which is being held this week in Newcastle- * 
upon-Tyne, has been well received by the members. 
Unlike the handbooks for previous Newcastle 
meetings, the present one describes not only the 
industries of the district but also includes articles 
embracing the remarkable and interesting arche- 
ology and history of Northumbria. If there is 
any fault to be found with its contents it is that 
no more than a passing reference is made in its 
pages to two widely known scientific societies— 
viz., the North-East Coast Institution of Engi- 
neers and Shipbuilders and the North of England 
Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers, 
which have their headquarters in Newcastle and 
have for nearly half a century done exceptionally 
useful work, whereas a whole article is devoted to 
the history of the Literary and Philosophical 
Society, which is little more than a lending library. 
The anomaly is more remarkable when one 
remembers that the handbook has been issued for 
the information of the members of an association 
founded for the advancement of science. How- 
ever, the editors are to be congratulated.on pro- 
ducing a useful handbook. Those members of the 
Association who visit the Roman wall near Choller- 
ford and the ancient buildings in Newcastle 
should find many of the articles of great interest. 
Members of the Association who attended the 
previous meetings in Newcastle and are there this 
week will have a further opportunity of studying 
the characteristics of the North-country people. In 
the present instance the Monday and Tuesday. of 
the meeting were observed as a general holiday— 
the deferred August Bank Holiday coinciding with 
the last’two days of the holiday granted to ‘the 
NO. 2445, VOL. 98] 
'workers in the Tyne munition factories. 
When 
the general holiday was announced, the local com-: 
mittee feared that the further depletion in the 
number of cabs and other conveyances resulting” 
from the holiday would mean that the bulk of the 
number of visitors would be put to considerable 
inconvenience on their arrival. By the action of 
the North-Eastern Railway Company, however, 
who placed special vehicles for luggage at the 
disposal of the members, and assisted in other 
ways, no such inconvenience was experienced. 
It is expected, too, that the other preparations 
for the meeting are being appreciated by the 
members. .On Monday and Tuesday last the 
reception room presented that animated appear- 
ance which is associated with the opening days of 
a British Association Meeting. The posters and 
signs in the streets erected for the guidance of 
visitors incidentally exhibit the coping-stone of the 
successful work done by the Sectional Arrange- 
ments Committee. 
For some time previous to the opening days of 
the meeting a good deal of interest was shown 
locally in the forecasts of the activities of the 
sections, and in the announcements with regard 
to the President’s address and the evening dis- 
courses. It was not surprising, therefore, on 
Tuesday evening last to see that in a larger 
audience than was expected the local residents 
were well represented. 
In additicn to the exhibitions forming part of 
the programme, to which attention has been” 
directed in previous numbers of Nature, an attrac- 
tive and useful exhibition of chemicals and appara- 
tus is being held in the College of Medicine. The 
main object of the exhibition is to demonstrate the 
progress made by British firms in manufacturing 
articles formerly produced in Germany only. In 
the Hancock Museum, also, an exhibition of geo- 
logical and botanical interest is being held. 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS (ABRIDGED) BY SIR ARTHUR Evans, 
D.Litt., LL.D., P.S.A., F.R.S., EXTRAORDINARY 
PROFESSOR OF PREHISTORIC ARCHA:OLOGY, Ox- 
FORD, CORRESPONDANT DE L’INSTITUT DE FRANCE, 
ETC., PRESIDENT. 
New Archaeological Lights on the Origins of Civilisa- 
tion in Europe: its Magdalenian forerunners in the 
South-West and Aigean Cradle. 
Tue science of antiquity depends on evidence and 
rests on principles indistinguishable from those of the 
sister science of geology. Its methods are stratigraphic. 
As in that case the successive deposits and their char- 
acteristic contents—often of the most fragmentary kind 
—enable the geologist to reconstruct the fauna and 
flora, the climate and physical conditions, of the past 
ages of the world, and to follow out their gradual 
transitions or dislocations, so it is with the archzo- 
logist in dealing with unwritten history. 
In recent years—not to speak of the revelations of 
Late Quaternary culture on which I shall presently 
have occasion to dwell—in Egypt, in Babylonia, in 
Ancient Persia, in the Central Asian deserts, or, 
coming nearer home, in the A®gean lands, the patient 
exploration of early sites, in many cases of huge 
stratified mounds, the unearthing of buried buildings, 
the opening of tombs, and the research of minor relics, 
has reconstituted the successive stages of whole fabrics 
a 
