714 

that they will there receive examination at competent 
hands. 
Dr. Christy adds his testimony to that of his pre- 
decessors in the same quest as to the “invisibility ”’ 
of the okapi, whose markings and coloration—pace 
Colonel Theodore Roosevelt—so break up the surface 
of its large body and long legs as to cause it to fuse 
with the dark-brown, russet, white and yellow-white of 
the twigs and stems and leaf-stalks amongst which 
it moves. He also points out that the hoofs of the 
okapi are so closely pressed together that the footprint 
is almost like that of the single-toed donkey. On the 
other hand, he does not believe that the okapi feeds on 
the big leaves of the Sarophrynium (an amarantaceous 
plant), it merely resorts for concealment to these 6-ft. 
high thickets. Nor does it necessarily feed at night 
only, but rather in the early morning and late after- 
noon. It feeds chiefly on the small leaves and twigs 
of trees, which it ‘‘ hooks down with its long, mobile 
tongue.”’ Jt does not eat grass, but does browse on 
the coarse herbage on the outskirts of the forest. 
These notes are extracted from an extremely interest- 
ing article in the Field of July 10, which contributes 
likewise a good deal to our knowledge of the Bambute 
pigmies, almost the only foes the okapi has. 
In connection with this subject might I again put 
forward the suggestion that the very puzzling remains 
of so-called “‘antelopes’’ recently found, not only in 
southern California, but actually in Maryland (eastern 
North America), may be the bones and teeth of primi- 
tive Giraffids and not of ‘‘elands”’ or Tragelaphs, as 
surmised by American zoologists. The nearest relation 
of the isolated giraffe group at the present day would 
seem to be the pronghorn of western North America. 
It is quite conceivable that the Giraffids may have 
arisen from the indeterminate Antilocaprid group (inter- 
mediate between the Deer and the Bovids) in North 
America, and thence have spread to north-eastern Asia 
and eventually to India, Persia, Africa, and southern 
Europe. There are giraffine remains found fossil in 
China, and north-west India would seem to have been 
the area of greatest variation and specialisation. 
H. H. Jounston. 

THE SOUTH AFRICAN ASSOCIATION FOR 
THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.* 
PRETORIA MEETING. 
ee the purely formal meeting of 1905, 
in which year we joined forces with the visiting 
British Association for the Advancement of Science, 
this is the second session of the association to meet 
in the Transvaal and the first to meet in Pretoria. 
Our association was started in 1903 at Capetown, and 
in 1904 the meeting was held in Johannesburg, but 
on that occasion one day was spent in Pretoria. This 
year we hold our meeting in what is now the adminis- 
trative capital of the Union, but we are invited to 
spend one day in Johannesburg, visiting the Crown 
Mines, when visitors will have a favourable oppor- 
tunity of seeing the conditions under which our staple 
industry is conducted, especially with regard to modern 
views on hygiene and the preservation of life. 
The calm atmosphere of our association is especially 
suitable for discussions upon the broad principles 
underlying polity. In the present times these prin- 
ciples are being profoundly modified; old standards of 
government seem to be weakening day by day, and 
our association affords a common ground where tend- 
encies can be examined for what they are worth, 
instead of through the distorting lenses of party 
passion. 
; 1 Abridged from the address of the president, Robert Thorburn Ayton 
nnes. 
NO. 2391, VOL. 95] 
NATURE 


[AucusT 26, 1915 

War and Science. 
We meet this year under extraordinary circum- 
stances, during a period of war unequalled in the his- 
tory of mankind in its extent and intensity. A super- 
ficial view would be that our association has nothing 
to do with wars at any time, and should ignore the 
present war. This view would be entirely wrong. 
The war touches humanity at every point, in every 
interest. I am therefore going to deal with it, but in 
such a way that no one could say to which side my 
sympathies lean. 1] have, like everyone else, very 
decided views upon the rights and wrongs of the war, 
but these concern one of the aspects with which we 
as a scientific body have nothing to do. 
A certain school of thought—not particular to any 
one nation—has praised the value of war as a dis- 
cipline, and even as a moral force. Another school 
looks upon war as a curse for which no defence is 
possible. Science is impersonal, and looks merely to 
facts. Yet science cannot but feel degraded when it 
finds so great a part of its recent advances applied so 
freely and almost solely as aids to the destruction of 
human life. The pre-eminent inventions of our pre- 
sent generation—wireless telegraphy, the airship, the 
flying machine, the submarine, thermite, and other 
allied heat producers—seem to have found their cul- 
mination in usein war. How differentis this from the 
ideal of the man of science—the most altruistic possible 
—the lightening of the burdens of humanity by the 
mastery of natural forces—the transformation of inani- 
mate power to relieve mankind from arduous work— 
the conquest of pain and disease—the improvement of 
agriculture—and, by no means least, the enlargement 
of the human mind. Greek culture—that extra- 
ordinary efflorescence of a limited community of small 
cities, which we prize so highly to-day, and whose 
lesson seems to be valid for all time—we are told was 
only ‘possible because the Greek civilisation was built 
upon slavery; the helot was the pivot on which it 
turned. The man of science looks forward to a 
period of leisure and culture equally founded upon a 
slavery, but not upon the unwilling slavery either of 
man or beast, but upon the willing slavery of 
machinery and of the powers of nature harnessed for 
use. 
An increasing and unfaltering search for truth, with 
a belief in the betterment of humanity through know- 
ledge, is the ethical basis of science, and none other. 
If science could only serve material ends—the increase 
of money—profit, or serve to rivet the domination of 
one State over another—then it would be worthless; 
nay, it would be unclean. 
We perceive to-day that when any one nation de- 
liberately uses the resources of science as an aid to 
war, a burden of terrible import is thrown upon other 
nations. And herein is another apparent great evil of 
science, because its advance makes war both more 
terrible and more destructive. I say an apparent evil, 
because if it is not controlled it will lead to exhaustion, 
and so limitation will have to come by necessity. I 
believe that in earlier ages the individual, or at least 
the family, the patriarchal group, was to a great 
extent, like a nation is now, each a law unto itself, 
and it was only as weapons got more expensive and 
deadly that the small group was willing to abandon 
the right of private revenge or redress. In yet later 
ages the baron in his great castle could defy the king, 
but the invention of the cannon and the control of the 
manufacture of gunpowder by the king made even the 
most powerful barons willing to accept the king’s 
peace. To-day we would not tolerate any man or 
group of men turning their buildings into fortresses; 
to-morrow, I hope, I believe, that nations, or a federa- 
tion of nations, will likewise refuse to allow any other 
ee 
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