NA TURE 



\_Dec. 6, 1 88^ 



the presence of our troops in Fgypt in order to carry out a series 

 of borings across the rnidiUe of ihe delta, in the full expectation 

 that such borings, if made «itli proper care and carried down to 

 the solid rock, will aff^ird information of the mo^t important 

 character, and will ihrow a new light upon the natural and civil 

 history of this unique country. I am glad to say that the repre- 

 sentations nhich the I'res'dent and Council made to the War 

 Office on this subject were roost favourably received, and that 

 instructions were at once sent to tVe officer commanding the 

 Engineers to undertake the operations which they recommended. 

 I trust that, before long, information will rrach us which 

 will be of no less interest to the archaeologist than to the 

 geologist. 



While I am speaking of Egypt, I may perhaps be permitted 

 to express a regret that the admirable energy of the Government 

 in taking measures to make the recent advances of medical 

 science available during the late outbreak of chol=ra in that 

 country, was not extended beyond the purely practical side of 

 the matter, or, perhaps, not so far as the practical side in the 

 proper sense ; for until we know something about the causes of 

 that terrilile disease, our measures for prevention and for cure 

 will be alike leaps in the dark. 



Those who have looked into the literature of cholera may, 

 perhaps, be disposed to think that a new search after its cause 

 will add but another to the innumerable wild hypotheses which 

 have been set afloat on that topic ; and yet devastating epi- 

 demics, like Ihe pebrine of the silkworm, so similar in their 

 fatality and their apparently capricious spread, that careful in- 

 vestigators have not hesitated to institute a detailed comparison 

 of the phenomena of this disea-e with those of cholera, have 

 been proved by Pasteur to be the work of microscopic organisms; 

 and hardly less fatal epidemics, such as splenic fever, have been 

 traced to similar agencies. In both these cases, knowdedge of 

 the causes and of the conditions which limit the operation of 

 the causes, have led to the invention of effectual methods of 

 cure. And it is assuredly, in the present state of science, some- 

 thing more than a permissible hypothesis, that the cause of 

 cholera may be an organic living ma'eriis tnorbi, and that the 

 discovery of the proper curative and prophylactic measures will 

 follow upon the determination of the nature and conditions of 

 existence of these organisms. 



If this reasoning is just, it is certainly to be regretted that the 

 opportunity of the outbreak of cholera in Egypt was not utilised 

 for the purposes of scientific investigation into the cause of the 

 epidemic. There are able, zealous, and courageous young 

 pathologists in this country who would have been willing enough 

 to undertake the labour and the risk ; and it seems a pity that 

 England should leave tn Germany and to France an enterprise 

 which requires no less daring than Arctic or African exploration, 

 but which, if successful, would be of a thousand times more 

 value to mankind than the most complete knowledge of the 

 barren ice wastes of the Pole or of the sweltering barbarism of 

 the equator. 



It may be said that inquiries into the causation of cholera have 

 been for some years conducted in India by the Government with- 

 out yielding any very definite result. But this is perhaps rather an 

 argument in favour of, than against, setting fresh minds to work 

 upon the problem. 



In December last year the President received from the Lords 

 of the Treasury a letter, addressed to their Lordships by the 

 Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council on Education, re- 

 commending to the favourable consideration of the Treasury a 

 memorial from the bolar Physics Committee, suggesting the 

 organisation of an expedition for the purpo-e of making obser- 

 vations during the solar eclipse of May 5, 1883 ; and the Presi- 

 dent was requested to communicate his views upon the subject 

 to the Treasury. 



After careful consideration, the President and Council reported 

 in favour of the projected expedition ; but they added that they 

 did so on condition of its being possible to find some one, 

 whose position in the scientific world would command the con- 

 fidence of the public, to take charge of the expedition. Un- 

 fortunately, f.M- one reason or another, none of Ihe men of science 

 who fulfilled this condition were al>le to go ; and, at the meeting 

 of Council of January 18, the projected expedition was aban- 

 doned. The President was, however, requested to place him- 

 self in communication with the American authorities, and to 

 ascert in from them whether a photographer and assistant could 

 be allowed to accompany their expedition to Caroline Island. 

 On doing so, he at once received an invitation for two observers : 



who were accordingly sent out, their expenses being defrayed, 

 part'y by a conlributi jii fr.m the Government grant, and partly 

 by a special sum of 500/. provided by the Treasury. 



I am indebted to Mr. Lockyer for the following list of photo- 

 graphs t.iken by the observers : — 



1. Six good photographs of the corona, ex]5osures varying 

 from two to sixty seconds, giving coronal detail from near the 

 limb to end of streamers. That the limit of the corona has 

 been photographed is shown by the manner in which the light 

 of the sky has impressed itself on the plate. 



2. Three large photographs showing the details of the corona 

 close to Ihe limb. 



3. Good photographs of the spectrum of the corona, showii g 

 a great number of coronal lines and very faint Frau hofcric lines. 



4. Photographs taken on a moving plate in integrating spec- 

 troscope, from one minute before to one and a half minute after 

 totality, show ing the most prominent lines of the reversion spec- 

 trum. These lines belong mainly to hydrogen. 



5. Photographs taken with first-order grating, before, during, 

 and after totality. These show H and K, near the limb, through- 

 out the whole of totality. 



6. Photographs taken with a dense prism spectroscope before, 

 during, and after totality. These photographs also give some of 

 the prominent lines of the reversion spectrum. 



7. Two photographs taken in the prismatic camera on plates 

 sensitive to ultra-red rays. Results comparatively indifferent on 

 account of the absence of prominences. 



The arrangements made for obtaining a series of circumpolar 

 observations in meteorology and magnetism were fully described 

 in the Presidential addres of last year. I am glad to be able to 

 report that the English party, under Capt. IJawson, has success- 

 fully achieved its mission and has returned to this country. 

 Capt. Dawson speaks very gratefully of the efficient assistance 

 which he received from the Canadian authorities and from the 

 Hudson Bay Company. 



The re-ponsibility for the transaction of the ordinary work of 

 the .Society rests with the Council and the officers, of whom the 

 President is only one, and I may be allowed to say by no means 

 the most important, the heaviest part of the burden of the ex- 

 ecutive re-ting upon the Secretarie . But your President is, in 

 virtue of his office, a member of two public bodies whose 

 functions in relation to science are of great importance ; and I 

 follow the excellent precedent set by my predecessor in con- 

 sidering it my duty to acquaint the Fellows of the Society with 

 any occurrence, bearing on the interests of science, which has 

 come under my cognisance, as a Trustee of the British Museum 

 and as a member of the Council and Executive Committee of 

 the City and Guilds Institute. 



In the first-named capacity, I am glad to be able to announce 

 that the transference of the vast zoological, botanical, geological, 

 and mineralogical C';)llections from Blooinsbury to the New 

 NaturalPIistory Museum is now accomplished ; and that it has 

 been effected to the great credit of all concerned, with no 

 greater mishap than the fracture of a bottle or two. 



The advantages which w ill accrue to zoologists, botanists, and 

 mineralogists from the re-arrangement of this vast assemblage of 

 the objects of their studies, in such a manner as to be accessible 

 to every investigator, cannot be over-estimated. The Natural 

 History Museum at South Kensington is, in fact, a library of 

 the works of nature which corresponds in value, in extent, and 

 in the purposes to which it should be applied, to the vast library 

 of the works of men which remains at Bloomsbury. 



In making this collection of use to the world of science by 

 the publication of complete catalogues of its contents, and of 

 systematic monographs upon particular groups ; and to the 

 nation at large, by the composition of guide books calculated to 

 afford the ordinary visitor an insight into the plan of the mighty 

 maze of nature, the officers in charge of the Natural History 

 collections have before ihem a task, the due performance of 

 which, whatever their abilities, or their number, or their industry, 

 will tax their energies to the utmost. It is in this way that, in 

 the discharge of their proper duties, they may render services 

 of the hiijhest value alike to pure science and to the diffusion of 

 knowledge among the people, out of who.'e resources the great 

 institution to which they belong is supported. And I trust that 

 no mistaken view of the functions of ihe officers of Ihe Museum, 

 which no more embrace oral instruction in science than those of 

 the officers of the Library comprehend oral instruction in 

 literature, may lead to the imposition of duties, foreign to their 



