12 
NATURE 
[Marcu 4, 1915 


with what is dead and corrupt; what is en- 
nobling with what is contemptible. Yet if a com- 
parison were possible it is the humanities which 
include the dead languages and literature and the 
history of dead institutions, whilst the sciences 
bring us directly into contact with present realities. 
Nevertheless, it is the former which take pre- 
cedence in our public schools and our older seats 
of learning and command the highest marks in 
Civil Service examinations, whilst chemistry and 
the other sciences are tolerated though not en- 
couraged, and are valued by the Civil Service 
commissioners at less than one-third that of the 
classics and one-quarter that of pure and applied 
mathematics. 
The conclusions are obvious. Our highly- 
educated Government officials and princes of 
industry are more or less ignorant of science. 
It is for many of them an unknown and mysterious 
region into which they would prefer not to pene- 
trate. That Nemesis now confronts our industries 
may be a blessing in disguise. It is only in a 
struggle that the weak points in one’s armour are 
disclosed. We are learning a lesson, which might 
have been learnt years ago had we not been so 
inexorably bound by tradition, and the sooner we 
profit by it the better. 
METEOROLOGY -AND THE WAR. 
jf an article which occupies a prominent posi- 
tion in Le Petit Journal of February 9, 1’ Abbé 
Moreux, the director of Bourges Observatory, 
emphasises the importance which Germany at- 
taches to meteorological observations and fore- 
casts in connection with the war on land, on sea, 
and in the air. The fact is scarcely surprising 
when it is remembered that the great damage done 
sixty years ago on November 14, 1854, to the 
allied fleets in the Black Sea by a storm, the 
course of which could be followed across Europe, 
was the factor which led Leverrier to conceive 
and inaugurate the service of international 
meteorological telegrams. Meteorology is essen- 
tially so co-operative and peaceful a science that 
its stormy birth is apt to be forgotten. 
According to M. Moreux, Germany  trans- 
ferred meteorologists from Aix-la-Chapelle to 
Liége and then to Brussels almost simultaneously 
with the entry of her army into these cities; and 
when she found the Aix-la-Chapelle staff not suff- 
ciently expert for her needs she brought up more 
competent authorities from Berlin and reinforced 
them with astronomers whose special duty was to 
watch sounding balloons. The evidence on this 
point does not appear, however, to be very con- 
clusive, and from the marvellous successes in the 
prophetic sphere which have been attributed to 
the German representatives in Belgium it would 
appear probable that the race of Galeotti, and not 
that of Galileo, has been invited to render assist- 
ance. 
Meteorology, along with other departments of 
science, is bound to have important bearings on 
the present war. It is, perhaps, more closely 
NO. 2366, VOL. 95 | 


associated with the actual active operations than 
many other departments of science; but its appli- 
cation is not likely to be rendered more success- 
ful by substituting for men who are intimately 
acquainted with the subject men who have 
achieved distinction in quite a different field; nor 
by moving the experts from the central institution 
to the local field of operations. Progress in fore- 
casting in recent years has been achieved by ex- 
tending the area from which observations are 
received by telegraph rather than by special 
observations at a single place; and the meteoro- 
logical expert’s work is to co-ordinate the results 
of other people’s observations, mainly by charting 
them, rather than to make the observations or to 
apply the deductions based upon them. 
It may be added that in normal times Hamburg 
is the official centre of the German system of 
weather-telegraphy and forecasting. 

NOTES. 
WE announce with much regret the death on Mon- 
day, March 1, at seventy-five years of age, of Prof. 
James Geilie, F.R.S., emeritus professor of geology 
and mineralogy in the University of Edinburgh. 
Tue King of the Belgians, and Admiral Lord Fisher 
of Kilverstone, First Sea Lord of the Admiraity, have 
been elected honorary members of the Institution of 
Civil Engineers. 
A BRONZE statue of Captain R. F. Scott, erected at 
Portsmouth Dockyard by the subscriptions of naval 
officers and officials of the Dockyard, was unveiled 
on February 26 by Admiral Sir Hedworth Meux, the 
Commiander-in-Chief at Portsmouth. The monument 
is the worlx of Lady Scott, and shows Captain Scott 
in his Antarctic dress. 
Tue following candidates have been selected by the 
Council of the Royal Society to be recommended for 
election into the Society :—Prof. F. W. Andrewes, 
Prof. A. W. Conway, Mr. L. Doncaster, Mr. J. 
Evershed, Dr. W. M. Fletcher, Prof. A. G. Green, 
Mr. H. H. Hayden, Dr. J. Mackenzie, Prof. J. C. 
McLennan, Dr. A. T. Masterman, Prof. G. 2s 
Morgan, Dr. C. S. Myers, Mr. G. C. Simpson, Mr. 
A. A. Campbell Swinton, Mr. A. G. Tansley. 
WE regret to see the announcement of the death, in 
his fifty-seventh year, of Mr. Frank T. Bullen, whose 
knowledge of the sea and its natural history made him 
distinguished among writers of sea stories. Mr. 
Bullen was a junior clerk in the Meteorological Office 
for several years previous to 1899, and while occupy- 
ing that post he contributed to Narure of June 4, 
1896, a very interesting article on ‘“‘ The Sperm Whale 
and its Food.’ This was before he had attained fame 
by his book, ‘‘ The Cruise of the Cachalot,’’ but we 
were impressed at the time by the clear and attractive 
style of the article, and were glad to know that later 
Mr. Bullen’s real literary gifts received general recog- 
nition. 
Srr Ciarves A. Parsons has made a gift of 5000l. 
to the Royal Institution. The following resolution 
