December i6, 1909] 



NA TURE 



207 



by pressure and strain. The phenomena of radio-activity 

 have opened up a new world, and no achievement of science 

 is, to my mind, more wonderful than the way in which 

 a modern physicist can measure the velocity and count 

 the number of inconceivably minute particles that fly off 

 from a morsel of radio-active matter. 



For many purposes the steam engine has been out- 

 distanced. The energy now available from modern engines 

 is much greater than was at one time thought practicable. 

 The best triple-expansion steam engines gave back as 

 mechanical energy only 17 per cent, or 18 per cent, of the 

 energy represented by the combustion of the fuel, the re- 

 maining 82 per cent, and 83 per cent, being lost, or, at 

 all events, is mechanically inefficient, as heat. A human 

 muscle gives as mechanical energy 25 per cent, of the 

 energy of the food, but the remaining 75 per cent, of heat 

 is necessary for the life of the muscle, so that, in this 

 aspect, it is superior to the steam engine. 



I have often been struck with the wonderful economy 

 of nature. She attains her ends usually by the simplest 

 and most direct method and with the smallest expendi- 

 ture of matter and energy, and one cannot help thinking 

 that future inventions — I mean inventions during the next 

 two or three centuries — will be in this direction. The 

 electric organ of an electric eel, at rest, may show so 

 small an electromotive force as to require a good galvano- 

 meter to detect it, but a nervous impulse from nerve- 

 cells in its spinal cord may suddenly raise a potential of 

 many volts, and this with little heat and with so small 

 an expenditure of matter as to defy the most expert 

 chemist to weigh it. The electric organ is in no sense 

 a storage battery, but rather a contrivance by which elec- 

 trical energy is liberated at the moment it is required. 

 The fire-flies, the glow-worms, and many deep-sea fishes 

 can produce light without heat and at a cost which would 

 make tlie price of a wax vesta an extravagant outlay. 

 Plants, possibly aided by micro-organisms, or at all events 

 by ferments (enzymes), can produce alkaloidal substances 

 at a low temperature and by slow processes ; but, on the 

 other hand, to produce these synthetically the organic 

 chemist requires all the resources of his laboratory, high 

 temperatures, acids, and other potent agencies. Many 

 other examples might be given of the economy of nature 

 all establishing the truth that the principle of least action 

 holds good everywhere — a principle which some have 

 thought was a greater, at all events a wider, generalisa- 

 tion than that of the conservation of energy. 



There is another department of science to which I must 

 refer in this brief survey. I refer to bacteriology, a branch 

 which deals with the life-history of minute organisms that 

 play a very important part in the economy of nature. In 

 the public mind there is a widespread impression that 

 bacteria and other organisms are the enemies of man, bi:t 

 this is far from being the case with the great majority of 

 these humble plants. Of the thousand or fifteen hundred 

 species now known, probably only fifty or so are inimical 

 to men. The others are highly beneficent. Some are 

 engaged in taking nitrogen from the air for the use of 

 the higher plants : others in splitting up complex sub- 

 stances existing in the bodies of dead plants and of dead 

 animals, and in restoring simpler substances to the soil : 

 others purify our rivers and lakes ; even the ocean is the 

 theatre of their activities : and others have to do with the 

 varied phenomena of fermentation. A knowledge of the 

 life-history of these microbes has enabled the physician 

 and surgeon not only to do much in the way of pre- 

 ventive medicine, but to benefit mankind in the treatment 

 of many diseases ; and, what is probably of even greater 

 interest, we now recognise that the rc\e played by these 

 living beings is 'of the greatest importance In many In- 

 dustries. Such are the industries connected with fermenta- 

 tions, brewing, distilling, baking: the processes of the 

 dairy, as In butter-making and cheese-making ; and the 

 imoortant industry of tanning or making leather. In those 

 industries and in scientific agriculture the services of 

 microbes are being more and more called to our aid. 

 Bacteriologists can now make pure cultures of micro- 

 organisms that are useful, and practical men may sow 

 these In approximate media where they do their useful 

 work. In this way the soil of the farmer may be enriched, 

 the growth of particular cereals, leguminous plants, and 



NO. 2004, VOL. 82] 



roots may be facilitated, and the products of the dairy 

 may be made more wholesome. There can be no doubt 

 that in the future many industrial processes, such as these 

 of tanning, paper-making, and others, will be improved 

 as we are able to call these humble beings to our assist- 

 ance. This, I think, is one of the fairy tales of scientihc 

 achievement. 



VmVERSnY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge.— Mr. W. G. Fearnsides has been appointed 

 demonstrator of petrology, and Mr. F. J. M. Stratton 

 assistant in astrophysics. , ^, , m 



Mr. E. M. Wellisch has been elected to the Clerk Max- 

 well scholarship. . ,. ^ »i. 



The general board of studies recommends that Mr. 

 K J J. Mackenzie be appointed as university lecturer in 

 agriculture for five years, and that he receive a stipend_ of 

 200/. a year, payable out of the agricultural education 



Dr. Stein will deliver a lecture in Cambridge on Jhurs- 

 day, January 20, at 5 p.m., on his explorations in Asia. 



London.— A new syllabus in chemistry is to come into 

 force at the matriculation examination on and after 

 January 191 1. In the new syllabus greater emphasis is 

 attached to the theoretical basis of the science and to 

 physical phenomena, such as the development of heat in 

 chemical reaction. The general characteristics of _ the 

 metals including an elementary study of sodium, calciuni, 

 and iron, and their common compounds, are introduced, 

 while the elementary organic chemistry and a part of what 

 was termed the " chemistry of common life has been 

 taken out of the syllabus. 



Oxford.— The news of the impending retirement of Dr. 

 E B Tvlor, F.R.S., professor of anthropology, will be 

 received With universal regret. It is perhaps not easy for 

 the present generation to realise how much the science ot 

 anthropology owes to the unwearied labours of Prof, lylor, 

 continued for the space of full fifty years. The importance 

 which the subject has now attained among the studies ot 

 Oxford is in large measure due to the energy and 

 enthusiasm with which, on his appointment in 1883 as 

 keeper of the university museum, and afterwards as reader 

 and professor, Dr. Tylor threw himself Into the work of 

 arousing and maintaining interest in the scientific history 

 of the arts and institutions of mankind. Under his careful 

 management, and with the able help of the curator of the 

 splendid Pitt-Rivers collection, Mr. H. Balfour, and of 

 other younger workers, the study of anthropology in Oxford 

 has during the last quarter of a century been completely 

 transformed. Prof. Tvlor's kindliness and geniality^ have 

 secured to him the affection of a large circle of friends, 

 whose good wishes will follow him into his retirement. 



The second annual dinner of the Old Students' Associa- 

 tion of the Royal College of Science will be held on Friday, 

 January 7, 19 10. Tickets may be obtained from the secre- 

 tary of' the association, Mr. T. L. Humberstone, 3 Selwood 

 Place, South Kensington. Sir Thomas H. Holland, 

 K.C.I.E., F.R.S., has consented to nomination as president 

 of the association for the year igto, in succession to Mr. 

 H. G. Wells. 



Speaking at the Strand School, King's College, on 

 December 10, Sir William White said that it is not putting 

 a narrow or improper meaning on the word " education 

 to sav that it must have relation, In the case of the vast 

 majority of men and women, to their getting a livelihood. 

 An examination which is passed by means of cramming is 

 mischievous. In many cases boys crammed for an examina- 

 tion have obtained for themselves positions for which they 

 are totally unfitted. Some men spoil their lives by 

 cramming 'for examinations; they take away all the fresh- 

 ness of life by simply accumulating different kinds of know- 

 ledge for reproduction in a match against time. On the 

 other hand, there are many e.xcellent men who, directly 

 thev get into the examination room, can never do them- 

 selves justice. Examinations, therefore, do not always find 



