i6 



NA TURE 



[November 5, 1908 



mine miles in fourteen minutes. At Anvours on the same 

 -dav Mr. Wilbur Wright made a flight of lom. 37s. with 

 a passenger. The new dirigible balloon, the CUment- 

 ISayard, navigated by M. Henry Kapferer, on November i 

 travelled a distance of about 200 kilometres, from Paris 

 to Compifegne and back. 



The death is announced, at the age of forty-six, of Dr. 

 F. A. C. Perrine, one of the leading American authorities 

 on electrical engineering, and from 1893 to igoo professor 

 of that subject in the Leland Standford, Jr., University. 

 He was afterwards consulting expert of the Standard 

 Electric Company of California, which took the principal 

 part in generating electrical energy at the mountain 

 streams and transmitting it to the great cities of the 

 Pacific coast. Of late years he was engaged in private 

 practice as a consulting engineer. He was formerly editor 

 of the San Francisco Journal of Electricity and of the 

 Chicago Electric Engineering. 



The terms of reference have now been published of the 

 Royal Commission appointed " to make an inventory of 

 the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions 

 connected with or illustrative of the contemporary culture, 

 civilisation, and conditions of life of the people in England, 

 excluding Monmouthshire, from the earliest times to the 

 year 1700, and to specify those which seem most worthy 

 of preservation." The commissioners are authorised to 

 rail in the aid and cooperation of owners of ancient monu- 

 ments, and are given full power to call before them such 

 persons as are likely to afford any information upon the 

 subject of the commission, and also to call for, have access 

 to, and examine all such books, documents, registers, and 

 rrcords as may afford the fullest information on the sub- 

 i'ct. They are also empowered to visit and inspect per- 

 ^nnally such places as may be deemed expedient to inspect 

 for the more effectual carrying out of the purposes of the 

 inquiry. 



A GENERAL meeting of the British Academy was held 

 on October 28, when Dr. J. P. Postgate read a paper on 

 flaws in modern classical research. In spite of the 

 advances made and the results obtained in the field of 

 classical research during the last sixty years, the outer 

 world, he said, is still prone to doubt whether these are 

 as great in proportion as those of other studies which 

 claim to be scientific, or really commensurate to the time 

 and energy expended upon them. The qualifications for- 

 any scientific research are competence and impartiality. 

 Impartiality must be understood in a sense wide enough 

 to include freedom from every prepossession which is likely 

 to interfere with the proper weighing of the evidence. 

 The first and generally neglected duty of the classical 

 inquirer is the elimination of the personal equation. One 

 of many disturbing elements found in every inquirer 

 is the influence of modern forms of thought. The 

 modern's comprehension of the facts is frequently impaired 

 by the ethical judgments which he passes upon their 

 character. A fertile source of error is the strength 

 of modern vanity. We are the " heirs of all the 

 ages," and the testimony of ancient witnesses is liable to 

 be rejected summarily if either (a) we cannot reconcile 

 il with what we deem we know otherwise, or (6) if it 

 conflicts with evidence which we have had a hand in dis- 

 covering. The procedure, especially in the less settled 

 studies, such as archa:ology and mythology, is often too 

 lax. Impressions gathered in one field are carried over 

 to another where they do not apply. Owing partly to the 

 ■^•astness of the regions to be investigated, the conclusions 

 NO. 2036, VOL. 79] 



of one band of inquirers are apt to be rejected by those 

 in another sphere without proper consideration. In con- 

 trast to the true scientific spirit, which regards nothing 

 as of no importance, inaccuracy in " minor " matters is 

 condoned or even paraded, to the injury of fine scholar- 

 ship and vivid appreciation of antiquity. 



In his presidential address to the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers on November 3, Mr. J. C. Inglis dealt chiefly 

 with engineering in relation to transport. In the course 

 of his remarks he said it is only now dimly dawning in 

 controlling quarters that there is a science of transport, 

 and the fact that while British railways cost more than 

 SO,oooi. per mile, lines in Germany cost only about 

 20,000!., in France 27,000!., in America ii,oooi., and so 

 on, is symptomatic only of the extent to which Brifish 

 legislation, when it is allowed to proceed on unsound lines, 

 may prejudice vital interests. Mr. Inglis referred also to 

 the work done by the institution in improving the status 

 and efficiency of engineers. He holds that it ought to be 

 laid down as a principle that all public money derived 

 from rates and taxes should be, so far as it is applied in 

 engineering constructions, expended under the direction or 

 control of definitely qualified engineers, as is already the 

 case in many countries. The establishment of such a prin- 

 ciple would promote efficiency and economy in much public 

 expenditure, and would immensely strengthen the pro- 

 fession, as well as benefit the State. The difference 

 between British and German ideals was expressed recently 

 by a German professor lecturing on economic subjects in 

 words quoted by Mr. Inglis as follows :■ — " The aim of the 

 German was everywhere to leave as little as possible to 

 chance in the great struggle of the twentieth century, not 

 to allow people to muddle through somehow, but to 

 eliminate as far as possible the element of the unforeseen, 

 while carefully training the mind to cope if necessary in 

 an intelligent way with any emergency. While the British 

 had, as a rule, a violent suspicion of the expert, and a 

 strong belief in the untrained, unpaid amateur as the 

 right source of wisdom, allowing the expert to advise and 

 the amateur to decide, the German had no fear of the 

 expert. He well saw the possible danger of red-tapeism at 

 the hands of highly trained officials, but he found them 

 less than the dangers arising from the decisions of well- 

 meaning but untrained and inexperienced amateurs." 



Mr. a. R. Butterworth, chairman of the executive 

 committee of the Highways Protection League, has issued 

 a circular letter in which he gives statistics to show (i) 

 the number of local authorities which desire to have the 

 present speed-limit of motor traffic reduced, and to have 

 power themselves to fix still lower limits of speed in 

 towns and villages in their own districts without having 

 to make application to the Local Government Board ; 

 (2) the great increase in the number of persons annually 

 injured and killed by motor vehicles. It appears that in 

 1905 197 urban and rural district councils of England and 

 Wales approved of a proposal to reduce the maximum 

 speed-limit to fifteen miles an hour, and 212 desired to 

 have power to fix lower limits of speed in towns and 

 villages and at any places where they thought it desirable 

 to do so in the public interest. Up to October 19, 102 

 applications have been made by local authorities to the 

 Local Government Board to reduce the speed-limit on 

 certain roads ; of these, only twenty-two have been 

 granted, while eighty have failed. With regard to 

 accidents attributable to motor traffic, at the present 

 moment there are no complete reports obtainable of such 

 accidents occurring throughout the country generally, but 



