114 



NA TURE 



[Dec. 3, 1S85 



results. The quantity and quality of the scientific work now 

 being done in the United States moves us all to hearty admira- 

 tion ; the Dominion of Canada, and our colonies in South 

 Africa, New Zealand, and Australia, show that they do not 

 mean to be left behind in the race ; and the scientific activity of 

 our countrymen in India needs no comment. 



Whatever may be the practicability of political federation for 

 more or fewer of the rapidly growing English-speaking peoples 

 of the globe, some sort of scientific federation should surely be 

 possible. Nothing is baser than scientific Chauvinism, but still 

 blood is thicker than water ; and I have often ventured to dream 

 that the Royal Society might associate itself in some special way 

 with all English-speaking men of science ; that it might recog- 

 nise their work in other ways than by the rare opportunities at 

 present offered by election to our foreign Fellowship, or by the 

 award of those medals which are open to everybody ; and with- 

 out imposing upon them the responsibilities of the ordinary 

 Fellowship, while they must needs be deprived of a large part of 

 its privileges. How far this aspiration of mine may be recipro- 

 cated by our scientific brethren in the United States and in our 

 colonies I do not know : I make it public, on my own responsi- 

 bility, for your and their consideration. 



I am anxious to call the attention of the Fellows to an altera- 

 tion in our rules, in virtue of which it is hoped that the valuable 

 library of the Society will be made more e.xtensively useful to 

 them by being accessible up to a later hour than heretofore, and 

 by better provision for the comfort and convenience of those 

 who desire to read or write in the Society's rooms. 



The funds of the Society have been augmented in various 

 ways during the past year. 



The value of the fee for the Croonian Lecture has been in- 

 creased from 2/. iSj. 9</. to about 50/. a-year, by the falling in 

 of certain leases. 



Allusion was made in the Treasurer's address last year to the 

 Darwin Memorial. I am happy to say that Mr. Boehm's ad- 

 mirable statue was formally and publicly accepted by II.R.H. 

 the Prince of Wales, on beh.alf of the Trustees of the British 

 Museum, last summer, and now adorns the entrance hall of the 

 Natural History Museum at South Kensington. The balance 

 of the sum raised, amounting to 2003/., has been handed over 

 to the Royal Society, and the interest thereof will be employed 

 under the name of the "Darwin Fund for the Promotion of 

 Biological Research," in any way the President and Council 

 may think fit. I sincerely trust that this fund may be increased 

 from time to time, as the Donation Fund, founded by Dr. 

 Wollaston, has been ; and that its beneficent influence on the 

 progress of biological science may thus keep green the memory 

 of the great man whose name it bears, in the way which, 

 assuredly, would have been most agreeable to himself 



I am sure that I may express your acknowledgments to Mr. 

 James Budgett for the repetition of his liberal donation of 100/. 

 in aid of the cost of publication of Prof. Parker's important and 

 elaborate monographs on the vertebrate skull, one of which oc- 

 cupies a whole part of the Transactions, and is illustrated by 

 thirty-nine quarto plates. 



We are indebted to the subscribers to the Henry Smith 

 Memorial for the marble replica of the bust by Mr. Boehm of 

 that eminent mathematician and most accomplished scholar, 

 which now ornaments our library. The Fme Art Society has 

 presented Mr. Flameng's etching of the portrait of your 

 President, painted by the Hon. John Collier. 



Among the presents to the library, I may particularly mention 

 the second volume of Prof C;. Retzius' valuable and splendidly 

 illustrated work, "Das Gehor-organ der Wirbelthiere," and 

 "Les Habitants de Surinam," by the Prince Roland Bona- 

 parte, by their respective authors, and four volumes of the 

 Challenger Report, by Her Majesty's Stationery Office. 



Five numbers of the Proceedings (about 8S0 pages) have ap- 

 peared since the last Anniversary. Only one part of the Philoso- 

 phical Tra7isactions has been as yet published ; but two other 

 parts (Parts I. and II. for 1885) are passing .simultaneously 

 through the press. 



The possibility of devising means by which papers read before 

 us rnay be published more rapidly, has seriously engaged the at- 

 tention of the officers of the Society, and I trust that, before 

 long, tlie Council may have some well-conceived plan for achiev- 

 ing that end brought under their consideration. While all will 

 agree in deprecating unnecessary retardation, it must be remem- 

 bered that a certain delay is absolutely necessary, if the Com- 

 mittee of Papers is to discharge ^^■ith due care its important 



function of arriving at a sound judgment, after considering the 

 opinions of responsible specialists on the merits of each paper 

 submitted to it. In substance, I do not think that we can hope 

 to better our present arrangements ; all that can be asked is, that 

 they should be improved in some details, and more especially 

 that the time which necessarily intervenes between presentation 

 and publication should be minimised. 



The preparation of copy for the Catalogue of Scientific Papers, 

 deca<le 1874 — 85, no* approaches completion. A total of 290 

 series have been indexed, giving 85,000 title slips, written, 

 checked, and distributed. This number, which is within 10,000 

 of that contained in the two volumes of the preceding decade, 

 nearly exhausts the material in our own library ; it remains to 

 supplement this by reference to other libraries. 



At the meeting on the i8th of June last, our Fellow, Prof. 

 Roy, communicated to the Council the project entertained by 

 himself. Dr. Graham Brown, of Edinburgh, and Mr. Sheringtou 

 (G. H. Lewes Student, Cambridge), of proceeding to Spain 

 with a view of investigating the nature of cholera, and requested 

 the assistance of the Royal Society. 



In view of the great practical importance of such an investiga- 

 tion, and the desirableness of making a new attempt to solve a 

 problem about which highly competent inquirers have arrived at 

 contradictory results, the President and Council resolved to do 

 everything which lay in their power to assist Dr. Roy and his 

 colleagues. The Secretary was instructed to inquire of the 

 Spanish Minister whether the proposed investigations would be 

 agreeable to the Spanish authorities, and whether Dr. Roy might 

 expect to obtain facilities and assistance. On the receipt of a 

 courteous and sympathetic letter from his Excellency, the Secre- 

 tary was further instructed to inform the Foreign Office of Dr. 

 Roy's expedition, and to request that Her Majesty's Govern- 

 ment would afford him and his colleagues all the assistance in 

 their power. Moreover, 150/. was granted from the Donation 

 Fund in aid of the expenses of the undertaking, which were 

 shared between the Royal Society and the Society for the Ad- 

 vancement of Medicine by Research. 



I am sure the Fellows of the Society will join with me in con 

 gratulating Dr. Roy, Dr. Brown, and Mr. Sherington on bhaving 

 returned safe and sound from an adventure in which the interest 

 of scientific inquiry must have been heightened by a considerable 

 spice of personal danger. Dr. Roy has furnished me with a 

 brief preliminary report of the work done, the substance of which 

 I proceed to lay before the Society. 



The members of the Commission met with very serious diffi- 

 culties in their attempts to study the pathology of cholera in Spain, 

 where they spent three months ; but owing to the powerful sup- 

 port which was giveu them by the English Embassy in Madrid, 

 they were able eventually to pursue their studies in a satisfactory 

 manner. At Aranjuez antl iVIadrid they obtained free access tu 

 the cholera hospitals, and made nearly thirty autopsies of typical 

 cholera cases within very short periods after death. From all 

 of these cases they were able to obtain mateiial for cultivation and 

 thus to make a large series of investigations on the different 

 forms of micro-organisms which are found in the tissues and in- 

 testinal contents of cholera cases. Owing, however, to the im- 

 possibility of obtaining animals for inoculation, and reagents of 

 various kinds, they were unable to complete their inquiry in 

 Spain, and they were obliged to leave the investigations of cer- 

 tain points until their return to England. They have directed 

 their attention chiefly to the relation which the comma bacillus, 

 first described by Koch, bears to the cholera proce-s, and they 

 hope to be able to make important additions to our knowledge of 

 this important subject. They are at present engaged in com- 

 pleting their work, and in the course of a few weeks they 

 hope to be able to present their full report to the Royal 

 Society. 



The Marine Biological .Association, to the funds of which the 

 Royal Society made a substantial contribution last year, is making 

 good progress. A site for building has been granted by the 

 War Office, at Plymouth ; plans have been prepared, and if the 

 Treasury will follow the precedent nhich it has so largely and 

 beneficially adopted in educational matters, of helping those who 

 help themselves, as I am glad to say my lords seem inclined to 

 do, I trust that, before long, the laboratory will be in working 

 order. 



The prosecution of the borings into the Delta of the Nile, 

 which reference has been made on previous Anniversaries, have 

 unfortunately been hindered by various obstacles. Quite recently 

 I have been favoured by Col. H. Maitland, R.E., with an 



