68o 



NATURE 



[February 20, igi_ 



The Geographical Society of Philadelphia has 

 iiitherto been accustomed to present its Elisha Kent 

 Kane gold medal to explorers only. This year, how- 

 ever, it has made an innovation by bestowing that 

 honour, the highest in its gift, on a distinguished 

 geologist, Prof. W. M. Davis, of Harvard. The pre- 

 sentation immediately preceded a lecture by Prof. 

 Davis on human response to geographical environ- 

 ment. This was the first of a series of memorial 

 lectures to Angelo Heilprin. 



On Tuesday next, February 25, Prof. H. H. Turner 

 will begin a course of three lectures at the Royal 

 Institution on the movements of the stars, and on 

 Thursday, March 6, Mr. W. B. Hardy will deliver 

 the first of two lectures on surface energy. The 

 Friday evening discourse on February 28 will be 

 delivered by the Hon. R. J. Strutt on active nitrogen, 

 and on March 7 by Mr. C. T. R. Wilson on the 

 photography of the paths of particles ejected from 

 atoms. 



The Paris correspondent of The Times reports that 

 preparations are being made for the dispatch of an 

 official French expedition to Franz Josef Land under 

 M. Jules de Payer, son of the Austrian Captain de 

 Payer, who commanded the Austrian expedition that 

 discovered Franz Josef Land in 1873. The object of 

 tlie expedition is to explore the little-known north- 

 eastern portion of Franz Josef Land. A base will be 

 established in the archipelago formed by Zichy Land, 

 Liv, Eva, Adelaide, and Hvidtenland Islands. M. de 

 Payer proposes to pass the winter at the base in 

 scientific observations and in preparation for summer 

 work, when a varied programme of scientific inves- 

 tigation will be e.\ecuted by means of two aeroplanes 

 and a boat fitted with auxiliary power. 



A BEQUEST of lool. was left to the Linnean Society 

 by the late Sir Joseph Hooker. The council of the 

 society desires that the bequest should form the 

 nucleus of a fund to be raised for the endowment of a 

 Sir Joseph Hooker lecture, to be delivered every 

 second, third, or fourth year, and to be published by 

 the society. The proposal meets with the warm j 

 approval of Lady Hooker. A total sum of not less 

 than 600!. should be obtained for this purpose, and 

 the council confidently appeals to the fellows of the 

 Linnean Society and others to contribute. Cheques 

 should be drawn in favour of the " Hooker Lecture 

 Fund," and sent to the general secretary of the 

 Linnean Society, Burlington House, London, W. 



The Board of Trade and the principal Atlantic 

 steamship lines are to cooperate in carrying out during 

 the present year the recommendations of the Merchant 

 Shipping Advisory Committee in its report on life- 

 saving at sea as to stationing an ice observation vessel 

 to the north of the steamship routes across the North 

 Atlantic. Following the advice of a conference sum- 

 moned by the Board of Trade to consider the best 

 means of giving effect to this recommendation, it is 

 proposed this spring to station a vessel off the east 

 coast of North America to the north of the steamship 

 routes to watch the break up of the ice and to report 

 its movement. The Scotia, formerly employed on the 



NO. 2260, VOL. go] 



Scottish Antarctic expedition, has been chartered, and 

 it is anticipated that she will be ready to leave about 

 the end of this month. The vessel is being fitted with 

 a Marconi wireless installation of long range to keep 

 in touch with the wireless stations in Newfoundland 

 and Labrador. The) cost of the expedition will be 

 shared between the Government and the principal 

 Atlantic steamship lines. There will be three scien- 

 tific observers on the vessel, and as she will be from 

 time to time stationary, it is expected they will make 

 oceanographical and meteorological observations of 

 general scientific interest, as well as of direct value 

 to the work in hand. 



The Herbert Spencer lecture at O.xford was de- 

 livered on February 14 by Prof. D'Arcy Thompson, 

 He began bv paying a warm tribute to the memory 

 of Spencer, laying stress on the widespread nature of 

 his influence — an influence that had more effect upon 

 contemporary thought than even that of Kant in a 

 former generation. With no education in literature 

 or art, and without advantages of style, he was yet 

 "a gallant soldier in the cause of intellectual free- 

 dom." Passing on to the special subject of his lec- 

 ture, viz. "Aristotle as a Biologist," Prof. Thompson 

 drew a graphic picture of the natural surroundings 

 of Aristotle during his two years' residence at Mitylene 

 — the period to which, in the opinion of the lecturer, 

 the bulk of his work in natural history is to be attri- 

 buted. Many reasons of weight were given in favour 

 of the view that in the fauna, and especially the 

 marine fauna, of Lesbos and the neighbouring seas 

 and islands, Aristotle found the chief materia! for his 

 anatomical researches. This was important in rela- 

 tion to the fact that it limited the date of his chief 

 philosophical works to a time subsequent to the writ- 

 ing of his treatises on biology. Plato " saw as in a 

 vision," but Aristotle was neither artist nor poet, nor, 

 it was to be suspected, a profound mathematician. 

 But he was a naturalist born and bred, and, above all, 

 a student of life itself. His biological instincts and 

 training unmistakably influenced his philosophy. This 

 was apparent alike in his politics, his psychology, and 

 his ethics. In all these his treatment was scientific. 

 Making full use of the comparative method, he yet 

 stopped short of a complete historical conception of 

 evolution. 



The widespread belief in the sanctity of the fig-tree, 

 which, as the pipal (Ficus religiosa), is venerated in 

 India, is illustrated by the account contributed to the 

 January issue of Man on the cult of the tree by the 

 A-Kikuyu of East Africa. The exact species of this 

 tree has not been as yet determined, but Mr. W. H. 

 Beech describes it as the medium by which prayers 

 ascend to Ngai, the tribal deity. As is the case with 

 its Indian congeners, the wood is used to make 

 the fire-drill, and the identity of observances connected 

 with the tree seems to suggest a fusion of Indian with 

 East African culture. 



We have received from Capt. Stanley Flower a re- 

 vised list of the zoological gardens and menageries 

 of the world, published apparently at Cairo. The 

 total number is i58. 



