December 3, 1908J 



NA TURE 



done more than any other man to focus scientific attention 

 on the mechanism of inheritance. 



Hl'giies Medal. 



The Hughes medal is awarded to Prof. Eugen Goldstein. 



Prof. Goldstein was one of the early workers on the 

 modern detailed investigation of the electric discharge in 

 rarefied gases, and by long-continued researches has con- 

 tributed substantially to the systematic analysis of the 

 complex actions presenting themselves in that field. Of 

 these researches may be mentioned his observations of the' 

 effect of magnetic force on striations, of the phosphor- 

 escence produced by the kathode rays, and of the reflection 

 of kathode rays. 



By his discovery of the so-called Kanalstrahlen, or 

 positive rays, he has detected an essential feature of the 

 phenomenon, which, in his own hands and in those of 

 other workers, has already thrown much needed light on 

 the atomic transformations that are involved. 



TiJE Past and Present of the Royal Society. 



At the anniversary dinner, held at the Hotel Metro- 

 pole on .Monday evening, Sir Archibald Geikie pre- 

 sided, and a distinguished company of fellows and 

 their guests assembled together. 



Prof. Lorentz, in proposing the toast of " The Royal 

 Society," said he availed himself of the opportunity for 

 saying a few words about the Royal Society, the time- 

 honoured and world-renowned institution which for two 

 centuries and a half had pursued with untiring energy the 

 object for which it was founded — the improvement of 

 natural knowledge. Surely there were few things so 

 wonderful as that society, originating in a small club of 

 persons who met weekly in the most simple manner for 

 the discussion of philosophical inquiries, and grown by its 

 own force, unaided by the State, as other academies usually 

 were, to a mighty body which extended its influence all 

 over the globe, and the annals of which showed a long 

 list of the very first and most illustrious of natural philo- 

 sophers, from Boyle and Newton to Charles Darwin and 

 Lord Kelvin. The most striking feature in their long 

 history was, perhaps, the unbroken continuity between the 

 past and the present, between the modest beginnings and 

 the glorious onward career, a continuity that was per- 

 spicuous, not only in the constancy of their true and high 

 scientific spirit, but also, he thought, in the outward 

 form. The collected works of Huygens, now being pub- 

 lished, contained about 3000 letters, and many of them 

 were directed to or received from members of their society, 

 the chief correspondents at the time of which he was now 

 speaking being Moray, the first secretary, Oldenburg, and 

 eventually their first president, Lord BroUncker. Among 

 the subjects treated in these letters there were some very 

 proper for illustrating the continuity of which he had 

 spoken. For instance, Lord Brouncker devoted much of 

 his time to pendulum experiments for the purpose of find- 

 ing a universal and natural unit of length. He was 

 careful about the material of which the pendulum should 

 be made. It ought, he thought, to be of good silver. 

 In these days they had seen Sir J. J. Thomson experi- 

 menting with a pendulum which consisted of much more 

 valuable material, namely, radium, though not, of course, 

 madf entirely of radium. So in those early days they 



•uld notice a feature that seemed to him to be charac- 



1 i-;tic of British physical science, the invention of 



I chanical models for the purpose of illustrating natural 

 li "nomena, a method that had borne such splendid fruits 

 the hands of Faraday, Lord Kelvin, Maxwell, and their 

 - ircessors. 



In responding to the toast of "The Royal Society," the 

 ncwlv elected president. Sir Archibald Geikie, spoke as 

 follows :— 



It is not without interest on an occasion like the pre- 

 -cnt to look back for a little at the first beginnings of 

 ■ irh an institution as the Royal Society, and to compare 



h1 contrast its present condition with that of its infancy. 



I the middle of the seventeenth century, amidst the first 

 Mupptus given by the writings of Francis Bacon, a small 

 romriany of enthusiasts for what was called the " New 

 Philosophv." incluf'ing such men as Robert Bovle, Robert 

 Hook-. William Petty, John Evelyn, and Henry Olden- 



burg, met together in London, mainly for the purpose o{ 

 making experiments and discussing with each other the 

 lessons to be drawn therefrom. This select company, 

 which some of its members knew by the name of "' The 

 Invisible College," eventually gained the sympathetic 

 notice of Charles II. He incorporated and named them 

 " The Royal Society," and such was his interest in their 

 welfare that he was induced to grant them no less than 

 three charters in the course of seven years. He is said 

 to have suggested to them various subjects for experi- 

 ment, but there is good evidence that, with his keen sense 

 of humour, he liked sometimes to make fun of them. 

 Pepys tells how, a few months after the society had re- 

 ceived its first charter, the King " mightily laughed at 

 them for spending time in weighing of ayre and doing 

 nothing else since they sat." The Royal example was- 

 followed with less good nature by poets such as Butler, 

 who satirised the young society ; but the philosophers 

 outlived the sarcasm. That they were in most serious 

 earnest in their experimental inquiries was shown by 

 their appointing and subsidising some of their number 

 as " curators of experiments," whose duty it was to pre- 

 pare experiments which were e.xhibited and discussed at 

 their weekly meetings. These experimental demonstrations 

 and the discussions arising from them, rather than the 

 reading of set papers, were the characteristic feature of the 

 earliest meetings of the society. 



In those days the range of natural knowledge was com- 

 paratively limited, so that a fairly complete acquaintance 

 with all its fields was not beyond the compass of any man 

 of average intelligence and industry ; but as this range 

 widened and the boundaries of the several branches of 

 science extended, it became in the course of years in- 

 creasingly difficult to follow the original experimental 

 arrangements for the meetings. Fully equipped labora- 

 tories had to be created outside the Royal Society, where 

 long and intricate series of connected experiments and 

 investigations could be carried on in the domains of physics 

 and chemistry, and ultimately also of biology. Hence by 

 degrees papers descriptive of these researches supplanted 

 at the society's meetings the older practical demonstrations 

 of the processes of experiment, and came to be, as they 

 are now, the recognised form in which advances in science 

 are laid before the society. 



The reading of these papers, or abstracts of them, the 

 careful consideration of them by specially appointed com- 

 mittees, and the ultimate publication of such of them as- 

 are approved in the Proceedings or Philosophical Trans- 

 actions, form the main part of the scientific work of the 

 Royal Society at the present time. We can point with 

 not unjustifiable pride to our long series of published 

 volumes as a memorable record of the advance of all 

 branches of natural science during nearly 250 years, and 

 of the share which the society has had in furthering this 

 progress. 



But the meetings, discussions, and publications form 

 only a portion of the ordinary business of the Royat 

 Society. I think it is not generally known how much 

 additional work the society is now called upon to under- 

 take. The confidence felt by Parliament, the Government, 

 and the country at large in the society's capacity and 

 judgment is shown by the multifarious tasks which have 

 been entrusted to it, outside of what might well be re- 

 garded as its more legitimate sphere of operations. Thus 

 it nominates a representative to the governing body of 

 each of the great public schools, who is specially charged 

 to watch over the interests of science in the general curri- 

 culum of instruction. It has a voice in the election of 

 some of the scientific chairs in the two older universities. 

 It administers the annual Parliamentary grant of 4000?. 

 for the furtherance of scientific investigations. It has 

 been entrusted with the control and supervision of the 

 National Physical Laboratory. It takes a large share in 

 the visitation and direction of Greenwich Observatory. It 

 nominates nearly one-half of the Lawes trust, which has 

 rendered such important services to the scientific develop- 

 ment of agriculture. 



Over and above these standing engagements, if one 

 may so call them, the Royal Society is not infrequently 

 consulted by the v.arious public departments of the country 

 in regard to questions wherein expert scientific knowledge 



NO. 2040, VOL. 79] 



