December 5, 1912] 



NATURE 



395 



GEOGRAPHY AT THE BRITISH 

 ASSOCIATION. 

 A \ THEN the British Association last met at Dundee 

 * » in 1867 the president of Section E, Sir Samuel 

 Baker, had but lately returned from his discovery 

 of the Albert Nyanza. In his presidential address for 

 1912 Colonel Sir Charles Watson returned to the 

 subject of the Sudan, pointing out how much and yet 

 how little has been learnt since the time of Sir Samuel 

 Baker. In 1869 Sir Samuel Baker was appointed by 

 the Khedive Ismail governor of the country south of 

 Gondokoro, with instructions to extend the Khedive's 

 authority as far south as possible. Owing to the 

 increase of the Sudd and the inadequacy of his forces, 

 little was accomplished at his return in 1873. The 

 same post was held from 1874 to 1S76 by Colonel 

 Gordon, who for three years from 1877 was governor- 

 general of the whole Sudan. Pressure of administra- 

 tive work lessened the opportunities of geographical 

 discovery, and after iSSi the Sudan was closed to 

 Europeans until 189S. Few know how limited is our 

 knowledge of the Sudan even to-day. Small 

 scale mans com'ey the impression that more 

 is known than is really known, and whatever appears 

 on a carefully engraved map comes to be accepted as 

 true for all time. The course of the Blue Nile itself 

 from Lake Tsana to Famaka, the upper waters of 

 the Atbara, Rahad Binder and Sobat, and the moun- 

 tains from which they flow, still await exploration, 

 while great areas of the level plains remain not only 

 unsurveyed, but unvisited. A complete trigonometrical 

 survey is out of the question for many years to come, 

 and though there has been a wonderful Increase in 

 our knowledge, though the blank spaces will be 

 gradually filled, the task of geographers in the Sudan 

 is not even half-completed. 



In the absence of the Director-General of the Ord- 

 nance Survey, Captain E. O. Henrici, R.E., read his 

 paper on the international map, and exhibited the 

 five sheets hitherto published. The discussion on this 

 paper strongly supported the president's criticisms of 

 the colour scheme, and a general feeling was mani- 

 fested in favour 01 a black and white edition of the 

 map. 



A valuable paper by Mr. E. A. Reeves dealt with 

 recent improvements in surveying instruments, includ- 

 ing those which deal with astronomical observation, 

 triangulation and levelling, such as lamps for theodo- 

 lites, invar tape and reflecting levels, and also the 

 latest instruments for plotting the facts observed, such 

 as the stereo plotter, Orel's stereo-autograph, tele- 

 scopic alidades, and the latest advances in photo- 

 graphic surveying. Great interest was shown in an 

 exhibition of road-books and atlases which illustrated 

 Sir H. G. Fordham's bibliography of British and Irish 

 road-books and itineraries from Leland to Ogilby, 

 from Ogilb}' to Cary, and in the last period from 

 1798 to about 1850, when railways made itineraries 

 except Bradshaw unnecessary. This paper included 

 some references to the road-books of France. 



.\frican geography was pursued further bv Dr. Felix 

 Oswald, who gave some of the results of his journeys 

 between the Victoria Nyanza and the Kisii Highlands, 

 and Mr. G. W. Grabham, who dealt with the country 

 northward from Lake Albert. Mr. W. J. Harding 

 King, in his paper on the Libyan Desert, pointed out 

 that the sand dunes do not extend so far as was 

 formerly supposed, since a large plateau, starting 

 about 20 miles south-west from Dakkleh oasis and 

 running west, banks up practically the whole of the 

 dunes. Southward of this plateau is a sandy plain 

 rising toward the south; the top of a hill in this plain 

 was found to be 2150 feet above the sea. There are 



NO. 2249, VOL. go] 



numerous fertile spots south of lat. 20° N. Ennedi 

 is said to be full of Roman remains. Another desert 

 paper was given by Mr. I. N. Dracopoli, who, in 

 speaking of the Sonora Desert of Mexico, dealt with 

 the physical features of the region and the character- 

 istics of the Papago and Seri Indians. 



Mr. P. Amaury Talbot gave his experiences of 

 Southern Nigeria, especially in the forest belt lying 

 between the coastal swamps and the grasslands of 

 the interior. As the Yoruba and Ibo territory is better 

 known, he paid most attention to the Cross River 

 district and its ethnography — the Ododop or Korawp 

 forest negroes, the Ojo and LJyanga and the Ekoi, a 

 semi-Bantu people of a high type. 



The ."Antarctic discussion, which occupied the Monday 

 morning, was specially appropriate to Dundee ; no 

 fewer than four Antarctic vessels were actually lying in 

 the harbour during the meeting. Sir Clements Mark- 

 ham, to whom with Sir John Murray the revived 

 interest in the Antarctic is mainly due, confined his 

 attention to the expeditions of Captain Scott, Mr. 

 Mawson, and Captain Filchner. Dr. \V. S. Bruce 

 gave a full review of the configuration of the continent, 

 both the coast and the interior, as at present known, 

 and then discussed former connections with the 

 southern continents, as suggested by the discoveries 

 of the Scotia. Dr. R. N. Rudmose Brown, who 

 opened the discussion, agreed in the main with Dr. 

 Bruce's views of the continental structure. Dr. E. 

 Marshall spoke of the work done by Sir Ernest 

 Shackleton, and Dr. Hodgson of his experiences in 

 the Discovery. Prof. Charles Chilton, of New Zealand, 

 discussed the biological evidence for the former land 

 connection with his country. 



Two committees were appointed to report to the 

 section at the 1913 meeting, one on the present state 

 of geographical teaching in Scotland, and the other 

 on the choice and style of atlas, textual, and wall- 

 maps. 



PHYSIOLOGY AT THE BRITISH 

 .ASSOCIATION. 



THE proceedings of the Section of Physiology were 

 characterised by two features : the first was that 

 a large number of foreigners attended the meetings 

 of the section, and the second was that a whole day 

 was devoted to subjects bearing on psychology. 



Three subjects formed the bases of discussions. One 

 joint discussion on animal nutrition with the Section 

 of .Agriculture is described in the report, which appears 

 elsewhere in this issue, of the proceedings of that 

 section. 



The second joint discussion on the physiology of 

 aquatic organisms was held with the Section of 

 Zoology. This discussion was opened by Prof. A. 

 Putter, who gave the arguments in favour of his 

 hypothesis that aquatic animals frequently obtain their 

 food material in dissolved form. Bv measuring the 

 respiratorv exchange it is possible to calculate the 

 amount of organic matter oxidised, and the quantity 

 of organic matter in the form of plankton can be 

 deterrnined. If the plankton is uniformly distributed 

 there is not sufficient particulate material to account 

 for the organic matter oxidised unless the animals 

 deal with disproportionately large amounts of water. 

 He has kept animals for long periods without solid 

 food, and found that they gained in weight. In addi- 

 tion, he determined the amount of dissolved organic 

 matter in sea-water, and found that it was sufficient 

 to account for the respiratorv exchange of the animals. 



Prof. Benjamin Moore, F.R.S., on the other hand, 

 stated that there was not sufficient dissolved organic 

 matter to account for the respiratory exchange. He 

 considered that the plankton is not evenly distributed, 



