

- 
TArcH 3, 1923] NATURE 309 
: primary. But all explicit judgments are clearly 
Societies and Academies. secondary. The realist judgment is of this nature 
c 
Lonpon. 
_ Royal Society, February 22.—G. I. Taylor and 
C. F. Elam: The distortion of an aluminium crystal 
during a tensile test (Bakerian lecture). A rectangular 
specimen 1x1x20 cm. cut from a round bar of 
uminium, which had been treated by the method 
of Carpenter and Elam, so that it consisted of one 
single crystal, was stretched through successive 
_ extensions of 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 60, and 78 per cent. 
of the original length. At each stage of the test, 
distortion was determined by measurements of 

scratches ruled on the surface and the directions 
of the crystal axes were determined by X-ray analysis. 
The method for determining the nature of the dis- 
tortion was to find lines of particles which were 
unextended by the strain. The directions of these 
lines lie on a quadric cone, which evidently has two 
positions corresponding with the two configurations 
from which it was derived. It was found that, up 
to 40 per cent. elongation, the ‘‘ unextended cone” 
was of a degenerate form consisting of two planes, 
one of which contained in all cases the same particles, 
while the other contained different particles for 
different strains. Distortion was due to slipping or 
shearing over the former plane. By X-ray measure- 
ments it was found that the slip plane was identical 
with an octahedral (III) plane of the crystal. The 
direction of the shear was along one of the three 
atom lines of atoms in the octahedral plane. 
en the specimen was extended beyond 40 per cent. 
elongation, the effect of the shear was to rotate 
the axis of the specimen relative to the crystal 
axes in such a way that another (III) plane came 
into a position where its inclination to the axis 
was the same as that of the slip plane. In these 
circumstances slipping might occur on both planes 
simultaneously. 
Aristotelian Society, February 5.—Prof. A. N. 
Whitehead, president, in the chair.—May Sinclair : 
Primary and secondary consciousness. Consciousness 
is defined as a state of awareness, of knowing that 
there is something “‘there.’’ Idealism regards the 
world as arising in consciousness ; realism regards it 
as existing apart from and independent of conscious- 
ness. Primary consciousness is all that is present to 
the subject in perception, contemplation, memory, 
and immediate thinking, before reflection, judgment, 
and reasoning has set in. It says nothing about the 
external and independent existence of its content or 
object. Secondary consciousness is consciousness of 
consciousness. It is all reflection, judgment, reason- 
ing, all the play of mind round and about its object. 
Secondary consciousness is always distinguishable 
_ from its object and primary consciousness is not. 
Therefore secondary consciousness alone supports the 
realist’s assumption and provides the basis for his 
attack. At the point where consciousness is most 
vivid, most intense, its identity with its object is 
_ absolute : as in the consciousness of a lightning flash, 
of shell-fire, or toothache. Here there is no possibility 
of analysing into consciousness and independent 
object. Yet at this point primary consciousness is 
the intensest affirmation of its object’s existence. 
There is no reason why this should be so if realism 
Were true. We cannot then distinguish between con- 
sciousness and its object. When we seem to be doing 
this we are really distinguishing between primary and 
secondary consciousness, and the distinction falls 
within consciousness. Implicit judgments of per- 
ception present a difficulty. They would seem to be 
NO. 2783, VOL. 111] 
and it comes too late to save the independent reality 
of the object. 
Royal Anthropological Institute, February 6.—Mr. 
H. J. E. Peake in the chair.—E. O. Rutter: 
The natives of British North Borneo. Fifty years 
ago the native population of North Borneo con- 
sisted of pirates, who ranged along the coasts, and 
of head-hunters, who lived in small communities in 
the hills. The natives may be divided into three 
groups—the people of the coast, the people of the 
plains, and the people of the hills. The coast natives 
are mainly Bajaus, Sulus, and Illanuns; they are 
Mohammedans and, for the most part, sea-gipsies. 
Boats take the place of caravans and they make 
their living from the produce of the sea. Even 
when they build houses they are usually constructed 
over the water upon the seashore or the river banks. 
Some are accomplished horsemen. The inhabitants 
of the plains are the Dusuns, a race of farmers, law- 
abiding and industrious, who cultivate the rice which 
is their staple food. Some of the Dusuns come into 
the hill group and with them are the Muruts. The 
latter are the most primitive race. They live in 
villages of one or perhaps two houses 200 or 300 feet 
in length, perched high upon a hill to be out of the 
way of raiding-parties. Only within the last few 
years have they abandoned head-hunting, which was 
the outcome of feuds between villages. Peace terms 
were sealed by bathing in the blood of buffaloes and 
planting stones as witnesses of oaths of peace. 
Linnean Society, February 15.—Dr. A. Smith 
Woodward, president, in the chair.—A. M. Alston: 
On the method of oviposition and the egg of the 
beetle Lyctus brunneus Steph—V. S. Summerhayes : 
Lichens collected by the Oxford University Expedi- 
tion to Spitsbergen in 1921. In all, 68 species in 
27 genera of lichers were found, chiefly on Bear 
Island, a mass of limestone rock, and Prince Charles's 
Foreland, of siliceous rock.—F. Howard Lancum: 
Curious oviposition by a specimen of the clouded 
yellow butterfly, Colias edusa. A female Colias 
edusa refused to deposit ova and declined to feed. 
At the end of a fortnight it was transferred casually 
to a leaf of a potted plant of white clover, and it 
laid one egg, and by moving it seventeen times in 
succession to different leaves, seventeen eggs were 
obtained. It was curious that it would not deposit 
an egg until it was moved.—B. Daydon Jackson: 
C. A. Agardh’s ‘“ Aphorismi botanici,’’ Lunde, 
1817-26, 8°. The volume confirms the practice 
prevalent in Scandinavia to the middle of the previous 
century, the Preeses being the actual author, and the 
Respondentes being little better than dummies. 
Royal Meteorological Society, February 21.—Dr. 
C. Chree, president, in the chair.—E. Gold: A pro- 
posed reform of the calendar by Dr. C. F. Marvin, 
Chief of the U.S. Weather Bureau. Dr. Marvin in 
his pamphlet states that the only modification of 
the Gregorian calendar which meets the need of the 
meteorologist is one which calendars the year in 
exactly 13 months of 28 days each, each of which 
would start on a Sunday. One day in each year 
and an additional day in leap year, should be set 
apart as public holidays.—S. Fujiwhara: (1) On the 
growth and decay of vortical systems. Water 
vortices of a like’ sense of rotation attract, and 
vortices of opposite sense repel each other. Vortices 
grow by amalgamation, and cyclones and anticyclones 
can be regarded as following similar laws. The 
