818 
NATURE 
[JuNE 16, 1923 | 

Current Topics and Events. 
SomE time ago Dr. George Sarton, of the Carnegie 
Institution, Washington, and editor of Jsis, directed 
the attention of scientific men to the enormous 
amount of ignorance and superstition which still 
surrounds them (Jsis, vol. iii. pp. 449-50). This 
mental condition is not confined to the poor and un- 
educated, but is to be found among many people 
who have had the advantage of a collegiate education. 
Yet how common is that ignorance has recently been 
shown by the attacks made in the United States upon 
the Darwinian theory by Mr. W. J. Bryan, a cam- 
paign which has found an echo in Great Britain. On 
May 25 the writer of a letter headed ‘“ War on 
Darwinism ”’ in the Daily Mail gravely assured us 
that the origin of man has not been discovered by 
science, and that the author of the “ Origin of 
Species ’’ was wrong because ‘‘ Ruskin laughed the 
thing to scorn in ‘ The Eagle’s Nest,’ ’’ and “ Disraeli 
did likewise in ‘ Tancred.’’’ That remarkable 
epistle emanated from a certain “‘ Modern High 
School, Lee, London.’”’ Damnant quod non intelli- 
gunt! The logic equals the knowledge: Darwin 
wrong because Froude (a manufacturer of English 
history), Ruskin (a word-painter), and Disraeli (an 
imaginative writer) laughed and did other things ! 
One would have thought that the days when Dar- 
winism was “reviled by bigots and ridiculed by all | 
the world ’’ were for ever past, were we not forcibly 
reminded to the contrary by such fanatical attacks 
from time to time. However man’s origin may have 
been brought about, no trained mind questions the 
fact of that origin, which is no mere phantasm but 
rests upon irrefragable evidence. Whether it would 
be a good thing to teach the doctrines of evolution 
in our “‘ modern high schools ’’ may be a questionable 
matter; but it would indeed be a good thing if 
teachers in ‘‘ modern high schools ’’ were to teach 
their pupils to emulate the noble example set them 
by such scientific men as Charles Darwin and Thomas 
Henry Huxley, who devoted their lives to the search 
for scientific truth. 
On June 6, at the Langham Hotel, the Anglo- 
Batavian Society entertained Prof. H. A. Lorentz 
at a banquet which was attended by a number of | 
British men of science. The Anglo-Batavian Society 
was formed a few years ago in order to promote good- 
fellowship between the English and Dutch races, on 
a similar basis to that of the Pilgrims’ Club, which 
seeks to promote good-fellowship between Great 
Britain and the United States. A couple of years 
ago the Society was instrumental in establishing an 
interchange of University lecturers between Holland 
and England. At first this was limited to the medical 
faculty, but last year it was decided to extend the 
lectures to other faculties, and to include physicists 
and others. In that way Profs. J. F. Thorpe, Brereton 
Baker, and Sir Humphry Rolleston visited Holland in | 
the months of February, April, and May last, while 
Prof. W. de Sitter, of Leyden (astronomy), H. R. 
Kruyt, of Utrecht (chemistry), E. D. Wiersma, of 
Groningen (medicine), and Prof. H. A. Lorentz, of 
NO. 2798, VOL. 111] 

Leyden (astronomy and physics), visited Great 
Britain. During the months of May and June Prof. 
Lorentz visited consecutively the Universities of 
London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Leeds, and Liver- 
pool, where he lectured on the rotation of the earth 
and its influence on optical phenomena and the 
theory of the Zeeman effect. 
lectures, Prof. Lorentz addressed the Royal Institution 
on June 1 on the subject of radiation of light, and gave 
by invitation a series of three lectures at University 
College, London, on June 4, 5, and 7, on relativity. 
The last three lectures formed a connected course, 
the aim being to present in a simple form the funda- 
mental principles and some of the applications of the 
theory of relativity. The other lectures were mainly 
| devoted to questions belonging to the quantum 
theory and to a discussion of the relation between 
it and former views. In his discourse at the Royal 
Institution Prof. Lorentz showed how the ideas of 
the corpuscular and the undulatory theory of light 
were closely interwoven in Newton’s mind and may 
be interwoven once more in the physics of the future. 
The banquet given to him by the Anglo-Batavian 
Society was presided over by Sir Walter Townley, 
chairman of the council of the Society. In replying 
to the toast of his health Prof. Lorentz expressed his 
great appreciation of the welcome which he had 
received everywhere in England. 
A REPRESENTATIVE and well-attended meeting was 
held on Friday, June 1, at the Royal Society of 
Medicine, at which it was decided to establish a 
memorial to the late Prof. A. D. Waller and Mrs. 
Waller. In view of their lifelong devotion to, and 
enthusiasm for, scientific investigation, it was felt 
that the most fitting memorial would be the forma- 
tion of a fund to be used for the promotion of scientific 
research. Further, in recognition of their close asso- 
ciation with the London (Royal Free Hospital) School _ 
of Medicine for Women, where Prof. Waller succeeded 
Sir Edward Sharpey Schafer as lecturer in physiology, 
| a post which he held from May 1883 to November 
1886, and Mrs. Waller was first a student and 
afterwards a member of council, a position which she 
held to the last year of her life, it was decided that the 
research fund should be entrusted to, and adminis- 
tered by, the council of that School. A committee 
was formed to carry out this scheme, and the follow- 
ing, among others, have consented to serve: Sir E. 
Sharpey Schafer (chairman), the Maharaj of 
Jhalawar, Sir Charles Sherrington, Sir Humphry 
Rolleston, Sir Sydney Russell-Wells, Sir Walter 
Fletcher, Sir David Ferrier, Sir David Prain, Sir 
Frederick Mott, Sir Leonard Rogers, Miss Aldrich- 
Blake, Mrs. Scharlieb, Miss Tuke, Mr. Bousfield, Prof. 
Adam, Prof. Halliburton, Prof. Gowland Hopkins, 
Prof. Starling, and Mr. Alfred Palmer. Already r10ol. 
has been promised, and further subscriptions may be 
sent to the honorary secretaries, Prof. Winifred Cullis 
and Prof. J. S. Macdonald, or to the hon. treasurer, 
Prof. J. Mellanby, St. Thomas’s Hospital Medical 
School, London, S.E.1. 
Tl. PPR eee 
In addition to these 
