December 5, 1901J 



NA TURE 



107 



tributes data for the problem of evolution in man. 

 anthropometric data from Austraha ; Miss Beeton and 

 Prof. Pearson furnish a paper on the inheritance of the 

 duration of hfe and the intensity of natural selection in 

 man ; Mr. E. T. Browne writes on variation in Aurclia 

 auri/a, and Prof. Weldon on a first study of natural 

 selection in Chiusilia laiitinata. 



This first list of rrntributions augurs well for the future 

 of an undertaking which deserves support from all 

 workers in science who are interested in the theory of 

 organic evolution in its broadest applications. The 

 points of contact between mathematicians and biologists 

 have hitherto been but few, and the time is yet remote 

 when we may look for the advent of a skilled mathema- 

 tician who shall also be an expert biologist, or vice versa. 

 But although the modern biologist may be unable to 

 follow the mathematical processes of the new method, he 

 will assuredly be impressed with the importance of the 

 results, and such a work as that which has now been 

 launched will serve as a common meeting ground for 

 both classes of workers. The recognised methods of 

 studying living organisms from the points of view of 

 systemy and taxonomy, embryology, histology and 

 anatomy, bionomics and distribution have all contributed 

 to the sum total of that great division of natural 

 knowledge which is known by the comprehensive title of 

 biology. Side by side with these we must now place the 

 newer statistical methods inaugurated with such marked 

 success by Galton. This latest claimant to recognition 

 as a legitimate weapon of scientific attack may be looked 

 at with suspicion by those who are accustomed only to 

 the older methods. We may remind our readers, how- 

 ever, that the value of measurement and statistical treat- 

 ment was fully realised by Uarwin, as made clear in 

 one of the editorial articles in the present part of 

 Biometrika. We may point out also that Wallace in his 

 "Darwinism" (18S9} fully recognised the value of such 

 methods, and made considerable use of the measure- 

 ments of lizards by Milne-Edwards and of birds by Mr. 

 J. A. Allen for his discussion of the question of individual 

 variability as furnishing the material for the operation of 

 natural selection. Such data were imperfect compared 

 with the modern requirements of statistical methods, but 

 so far as they went they have been of service to the 

 cause of Darwinian evolution, and this fact, again, tells 

 strongly in justification of the appearance of a new 

 periodical devoted entirely to this phase of biology. 



There is no real antagonism — as some men of science 

 have supposed to exist — between the older methods and 

 the latest statistical methods. They are, or should be, on 

 the contrary, mutually helpful. If by the measurement 

 of large numbers of individuals and the mathematical 

 treatment of such data the trend of evolution in any 

 species can be detected, here at once is a suggestion for 

 the observing naturalist to work upon — to endeavour to 

 find out the nature and cause of the survival in a certain 

 direction ; in other words, to hunt down the selecting 

 agent. Where ordinary observation has in so many 

 cases failed, the newer methods appear to open out end- 

 less possibilities of attacking such problems. The 

 student of bionomics will, as statistical data and their 

 deductions accumulate, have definite information given 

 as to what is going on in particular species, and it will be 

 for him to approach the study of such species armed 

 with specific questions awaiting answer in the field or 

 laboratory. We venture to think that, far from any 

 antagonism existing between the older and newer methods, 

 the introduction of statistics in the Galtonian sense 

 cannot but give a great impetus to observational work. 

 It may be added that the periodical is really cosmo- 

 politan, and the editors invite contributions in German, 

 French or Italian, as well as in English. We cordially 

 wish the new journal the success which it merits. 



XO. 1675, VOL. 65] 



ANNIVERSARY MEETING OF THE ROYAL 

 SOCIETY. 



THE anniversary meeting of the Royal Society was 

 held as usual on St. Andrew's Day, November 30, 

 when the annual report of the Council to the Fellows 

 was presented. Among the subjects mentioned in this 

 report is the proposal to establish a British Academy, 

 which was discussed at a special meeting of the Society 

 held in May last. 



Reference is made by the Council to the subject of the 

 tenure of office of the secretaries, which was recently 

 raised again. A memorial " praying the President and 

 Council to take into immediate consideration the advisa- 

 bility of limiting the tenure of office of any future trea- 

 surer or secretary," and also a memorial expressing the 

 decided convictions of the memorialists that the change 

 advocated by the preceding memorial would not be in 

 the interests of the Society, were taken into considera- 

 tion at the meeting of the Council on November 7. It 

 was proposed, as a resolution, "That in the opinion of 

 this Council it is desirable that the secretaries should not 

 be so re-elected as to hold office for a period exceeding 

 ten consecutive years, this resolution not to apply to the 

 present holders of office," and, after considerable discus- 

 sion and the consideration of various amendments, the 

 resolution was carried. 



As already announced, in consequence of his appoint- 

 ment as Principal of the University of London, Prof. 

 Riicker has resigned his office as secretary, and is now 

 succeeded by the distinguished mathematician and phy- 

 sicist. Dr. Joseph Larmor. 



The address of the president referred to the scientific 

 work of the Fellows and Foreign Members deceased 

 since the former annual meeting, and a few investigations 

 commenced or carried on in the course of the year. The 

 work of this year's medallists was described as follows : — 



Copley Medal. 



Prof. J. IVillard Gibhs, Foreign Member, R.S. 



The Copley Medal is awarded to Prof. J. Willard Gibbs, a 

 Foreign Member of this Society, for his contributions to mathe- 

 matical physics. 



Although Ilorstmann had demonstrated, between 1869 and 

 1S73, the applicability of the mechanical theory of heat to the 

 elucidation of the phenomena attending dissociation, J. Willard 

 Gibbs was the first to apply the second law of thermodynamics 

 to the exhaustive discussion of the relations between chemical, 

 electrical and thermal energy and capacity for external work. 

 His great contribution to this subject appeared in the Trans- 

 actions of the Connecticut Academy in two parts, the first in 

 1S75 ^^^ 'he second in 1S7S. In this paper, which opens with 

 a discussion of the criteria of equilibrium and of stability as 

 applying to a material system, the conditions of equilibrium 

 prevailing in both homogeneous and heterogeneous systems of 

 gaseous, liquid and solid materials are considered in a highly 

 generalised form ; and it is shown by Gibbs that DeviUe and 

 Troost's experimental values of the density of nitrogen peroxide 

 at different temperatures, and Playfair and Wanklyn's results 

 obtained with mixtures of nitrogen peroxide and nitrogen, can 

 be interpreted quantitatively with the aid of his fundamental gas 

 equation. 



The most important result of Gibbs's work, from a chemical 

 standpoint, is the so-called '■ phase rule," the law which governs 

 the general case of complete heterogeneous equilibrium. This 

 law, which was developed theoretically, states that a system in 

 complete heterogeneous equilibrium must be composed of at 

 least H different molecular components if it consists of n+i 

 different phases. 



The application of the phase rule has been repeatedly verified 

 experimentally under a great variety of aspects. During the last 

 few years the recognition of the law has led, amongst other 

 important results, to a complete systemalisation of our know- 

 ledge concerning dissolution of solid substances, the distribution 

 of a solute between two immiscible solvents, and to the forma- 

 tion of double sails and of racemic, pseudo-racemic, non-racemic 



