December 5, 1912" 



NATURE 



389 



At the anniversary dinner, held on Saturday 

 evening-, the new German Ambassador (Prince 

 Lichnowsky) and Prof. MetchnikofF were among 

 the guests. In proposing the toast of " The Royal 

 Society," Sir Rickman Godlee, president of the 

 Royal College of Surgeons, dwelt upon the rela- 

 tions of the society to medicine. After respond- 

 ing to the toast, Sir .Archibald Geikie proposed 

 the health of the German Ambassador, and pointed 

 out that this was the first public dinner that their 

 guest had attended since he arrived a few 

 weeks ago. 



In the course of his reply, Prince Lichnowsky 

 remarked : — 



" Of all bonds that unite nations none are stronger 

 than intellectual sympathy, and nothing is more apt 

 to promote a real and lasting understanding between 

 nations than the common struggle against darkness, 

 ignorance, and misery. From time immemo- 

 rial a close connection has existed between 

 the intellectual leaders of our two great countries. 

 Newton laid the basis of the modern develop- 

 ment of physical science in Germany. Carlyle's 

 work on Frederick the Great is a standard 

 work, unrivalled, and Qf the works of all 

 foreign historians the most popular in Germany. 

 Hume was the predecessor of Kant and Schopen- 

 hauer, and I do not believe that in any country in 

 the world are Shakespeare and Byron more fully 

 appreciated or deeply understood than in Germany. I 

 am confident that this close intellectual connection will 

 in the future as in the past be a powerful help to the 

 efforts of all those who work for the establishment of 

 good understanding and harmony between our two 

 kindred peoples." 



Prof. Metchnikoff replied to the toast of " The 

 Guests," in a speech in which he referred, in ap- 

 preciative terms, to the influence the society 

 exerted upon scientific progress, and the recog- 

 nition it gave to the merits of men of science in 

 many parts of the world. He cited particularly 

 the case of Mendeleeff, who, though refused ad- 

 mission to the St. Petersburg Academy of Science, 

 was elected a foreign member of the Royal Society. 



NOTES. 

 In reply to a question asked in the House of Com- 

 mons on Monday, the Prime Minister stated that he 

 feared the Government will not be able to find time 

 to pass the Mental Deficiency Bill this session, but 

 that the Home Secretary hopes to reintroduce the Bill 

 early next session embodying the amendments made 

 by the Standing Committee. The pledge that the 

 Bill would be passed this session is thus held to be 

 of no account. That Parliamentary exigencies should 

 cause the jettisoning of the Bill is greatly to be de- 

 plored. Men of science know with a certainty that 

 arises out of their qualifications that the problem of 

 the feeble-minded and mentally deficient does not stand 

 still. Its urgency caused the appointment of the 

 Royal Commission in 1904; the report emphasised 

 the necessity for immediate action in 1908; vet Decem- 

 ber of 1912 finds the subject shelved and put on one 

 side. The Times has opened its columns to various 

 expressions of feeling on this occasion, but manv 

 NO. .2249, VOL. 90] 



people who do not see its files will share in Sir Edward 

 Fry's " distress and dismay " at a postponement 

 which is "little short of a national calamity," and 

 agree with the long list of distinguished signatories 

 in the issue of November 28, that "this neglect is 

 causing untold suffering to thousands of feeble-minded 

 individuals who, because it is impossible under the 

 existing law to train them and care for them, become 

 inebriates, prostitutes, criminals, and paupers." Nor 

 is it only these persons themselves with whom we need 

 concern ourselves. They leave behind them a new 

 generation of mentally and physically degenerate 

 children, increasing daily in number, to be a shame 

 to our national life, and a menace to our racial 

 superiority. 



The High Commissioner for the Commonwealth of 

 Australia has received official information of the ar- 

 rangements that are being made for the visit of the 

 British Association to .Australia in 1914. A Federal 

 Council has been formed, under the patronage of the 

 Governor-General, with the Prime Minister as chair- 

 man. The members of the association will arrive at 

 Fremantle on August 4, Adelaide August 8, Mel- 

 bourne August 13, Sydney August 20, and Brisbane 

 August 27, and those returning home by the shortest 

 route will reach London on October 11. The Com- 

 monwealth has granted 15,000/. to be handed to the 

 British Association by the High Commissioner to cover 

 the passages of not fewer than 150 official representa- 

 tives, including selected Dominion and foreign men 

 of science. A special invitation has been issued to 

 Sir Charles Lucas, formerly head of the Dominions 

 Department of the' Colonial Office. Dr. Rivett has 

 been appointed organising secretary, and will visit 

 London next }'ear. The Governments of the several 

 States offer special facilities for prolonged visits of 

 men of science interested in special problems in .Aus- 

 tralia. 



A VERY interesting tract of wild country has just 

 been vested as a nature reservation in the National 

 Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural 

 Beauty. This is Blakeney Point, in Norfolk, a tract 

 of about 1000 acres, consisting of three and a half 

 miles of the shingle spit, with the sand-dunes and 

 salt-marshes protected by it ; the frontage on the North 

 Sea is three and a half miles, viz. the end of the spit. 

 A remarkable feature of the tract is the series of 

 terrains instituted by the silting process, and the re- 

 sulting formation of series of vegetations. Norfolk 

 generally is one of our richest counties in rare flora 

 and fauna. Blakeney Point is a typical area of the 

 county in this regard. It possesses the four chief 

 species of Statice (sea lavender), the very rare Merten- 

 sia maritima (oyster plant), and the fine shrub, sea- 

 blite, Suaeda fniticosa, which grows in great pro- 

 fusion. It is famous for its birds, protected for some 

 years now by the Wild Birds' Protection Society. The 

 oyster-catcher, ringed plover, common and lesser tern 

 breed freely ; the latter and various gulls are extra- 

 ordinarily abundant. Being a sort of " hook " in the 

 North Sea, the point receives interesting stragglers, 

 seals, sharks, and last year a whale. Salt-marshes 

 such as these are rich in insect fauna. The gift is due 



