414 



NATURE 



[StPTEMBER 29, 1 9 10 



notified to the signalman. When it is remembered that 

 with ordinary signalling, to take an express train, for 

 example, a signalman hears some twenty-four beats on 

 the gongs in his box, and sends signals to the front and 

 rear box, which give altogether some twenty-four beats 

 on the gongs in these two boxes, fortj'-eight definite signals 

 in all, for every express train he passes into the section 

 which his signals protect, it will be understood that the 

 svstem must be profoundly modified to admit such a speed 

 of operation as eighty trains per hour per man. The 

 modification is radical. No gong signals are used at all. 

 Ihere is a small cast-iron box standing opposite the 

 signalman with fifteen small windows in it, each about 

 13 inches square. Normally, each window frames a white 

 background, k click in the box announces the approach 

 of a train, and a tablet appears in one of the empty 

 windows showing by code the destination of the train. 

 I he signalman presses a plug in the box, a click is 

 heard, and a tablet is seen in a precisely similar apparatus 

 in the next box. When the train passes the man presses 

 another plug, and the tablet disappears. 



Four wires run between the signal-boxes along the rail- 

 way, and by combining the currents along the four wires 

 in various ways fifteen definite signals can be obtained, a 

 number suflicieiit for the District traflic. Each of the 

 fifteen combinations is arranged to operate one particular 

 tablet in the box. Current from these four wires is tapped 

 off at intermediate stations, and is used to work a train 

 indicator showing the passengers assembled on the plat- 

 form the destinations of the next three trains. The whole 

 equipment is a triumph of ingenuity and engineering skill, 

 and is a splendid example of the way electricity may be 

 used to improve the railway service, quite apart fror^ its 

 main use in connection with the actual driving of the 

 trains. ° 



The facts and problems I have brought before you will, 

 I think, show the important influence that scientific dis- 

 covery has had upon our railway systems. Scientific 

 discovery and mechanical ingenuity have reduced the cost 

 of locomotive working to a point undreamt of by the 

 pioneer locomotive builders. Electric railways are the 

 direct fruit of the discoveries of Faradav. The safety of 

 the travelling public was enormously increased by' the 

 invention of continuous brakes and by "the discovery 'o\ the 

 electric telegraph, and is greatly increased by the develop- 

 ment of modern methods of signalling; and the comfort 

 of travellers is increased by modern methods of train- 

 lighting, train-warming, and the train kitchen. Inventions 

 of a most ingenious character have from time to time 

 been made in order to furnish a steady and ample light 

 in the carriages. The smoothness of 'travelling on our 

 main lines is evidence of the thought which has been 

 lavished both on the wheel arrangements of the carriages 

 and on the permanent way. Problems in connection with 

 the continuous brake are many and interesting. Some of 

 the problems of modern signalling would have quite 

 baffled the scientific electrician of a quarter of a century 

 ago. When engineers endeavour to apply the results of 

 scientific discovery they often find themselves confronted 

 by new problems unpprceived bv the man of science, 

 logpther thev may find a solution, and thus enlarge the 

 boundaries of knowledge, and at the samp time confer a 

 practical advantage on the community. The pure man of 

 science, the practical engineer, act and react on one 

 another both to the advantage of pure science and to the 

 advantage of the national welfare. The future success of 

 our railways depends upon the closer application of scien- 

 tific principle both to the economic and engineering 

 problems involved in their working, some dpcrease in un- 

 profitable competition \vith one another, and a more just 

 appreciation on the part of the State of the part railway 

 companies play in our national well-being. 



SECTION H. 



ANTIlROrOLOCV. 



Opening .Addrf.ss nv W. Crooke, B..\., President ok 

 THE Section. 



One-and-tiiirty years have passed since the British 

 .Association visited this city. \t that time anthropology 

 was in the stage of probation, and was represented by a 

 NO. 2135, VOL. 84] 



branch of the section devoted to biology. Since then its 

 progress in popularity and influence has been continuous, 

 and its claims to be regarded as a science, with aims and 

 capabilities in no way inferior to those of longer growth, 

 are now generally admitted. Its advance in this country is 

 largely due to the distinguished occupant of this chair at 

 our last meeting in .Sheffield. During the present year Dr. 

 E. B. Tylor has resigned the professorship of anthropology 

 in the University of Oxford. Before this audience it is 

 unnecessary for me to describe in detail the services which 

 this eminent scholar and thinker has rendered to science. 

 His professorial work at O.xford ; his unfailing support of 

 the Royal Anthropological Institute and of this section of 

 the British Association ; his sympathetic encouragement of 

 a younger generation of workers — these are familiar to all 

 of us. Many of those now engaged in anthropological work 

 ,it home and abroad date that interest in the study of man, 

 his culture and beliefs, which has given a new pleasure to 

 their lives, from the time when the^' first became acquainted 

 with his " Primitive Culture " and " Researches into the 

 History of Mankind." These works enjoy the almost 

 unique distinction that, in spite of the constant accumula- 

 tion of new material to illustrate an advancing science, 

 they still maintain their authority ; and this because they 

 are based on a thorough investigation of all the available 

 material and a profound insight into the psychology of man 

 at the earlier stages of culture. He has laid down once for 

 all the broad principles which must always guide the 

 anthropologist : that a familiarity with the principles of the 

 religions of the lower races is as indispensable to the 

 scientific student of theology as a knowledge of the lower 

 forms of life, the structure of mere invertebrate creatures, 

 is to the physiologist, "few," he assures us, " who will 

 give their minds to master the general principles of savage 

 religion will ever think it ridiculous or the knowledge of it 

 superfluous to the rest of mankind. . . . Nowhere are 

 broad views of historical development more needed than in 

 the study of religion. . . . Scepticism and criticism are 

 the very conditions for the attainment of reasonable belief.'' 

 I need hardly say that his exposition of the principles of 

 animism, as derived from the subconscious mental pheno- 

 mena of dreams and waking visions, has given a new 

 impulse and direction to the study of the religion of savage 

 races. 



Dr. Tylor, on his retirement from the active work cf 

 teaching, carries with him the respectful congratulations 

 and good wishes of the anthropologists here assembled, all 

 of whom join in the hope that the Emeritus Professor may 

 be able to devote some of his well-earned leisure to in- 

 creasing the series of valuable works for which w'e are 

 already indebted to him. 



In his address from this chair Dr. Tylor remarked that 

 twenty years before that time it was no difllcult task to 

 master the available material. "But now," he added, 

 " even the yearly list of new anthropological literature is 

 enough to form a pamphlet, and each capital of Europe has 

 its anthropological society in full work. So far from any 

 finality in anthropological investigation, each new line of 

 argument but opens the way to others behind, while those 

 lines tend as plainly as in the sciences of stricter weight and 

 measure towards the meeting ground of all sciences in the 

 unity of nature." 



Since these words were written there has been a never- 

 ceasing supply of fresh literature, which is well represented 

 in the publications of the present year. Every contributor 

 to this science must now be a specialist, because he can 

 with advantage occupy only one tiny corner of the field of 

 humanity ; and even than he is never free from a feeling of 

 anxiety lest his humble contribution may have been antici- 

 pated by some indefatigable foreign scholar. In short, the 

 attempt to give a general exposition of the sciences devoted 

 to the study of mankind has been replaced by the mono- 

 graph. Of such studies designed to coordinate and interpret 

 the facts collected by workers in the field we welcome two 

 contributions of special importance. 



Prof. J. G. Frazer has given us a monumental treatise on 

 totemism and exogamy, in which, relying largely on new 

 Australian evidenci- and that collected from Melanesia by 

 Dr. Haddon and his colleagues. Dr. Rjvers and Dr. 

 Seligmann, he endeavours to prove that totemism originated 

 in a primitive explanation of the mysteries of conception 

 and childbirth. As contributing causes he discusses the 



