Marcu 7, 1912] NATURE 23 
Oxrorp.—On Wednesday, February 28, Mr. W. | nical subject is associated with the underlying 
Bateson, F.R.S., honorary fellow of St. John’s | sciences. Laboratory work, wherever possible, sup- 
College, Cambridge, and director of the John Innes 
Horticultural Institution, - delivered the annual 
Herbert Spencer lecture at Oxford, the subject being 
** Biological Fact and the Structure of Society.” 
Man, he said, is an animal guided by natural laws. 
It is only lately that accurate inquiry has been started 
into the actual meaning of heredity, but it is now 
becoming recognised that parents cannot pass on 
factors that they do not themselves possess, and that 
the conditions of life are less important than genetic 
qualities. Still, even now our knowledge is not 
sufficient to warrant public interference with the 
ordinary practices of society. ‘‘ We should probably 
be no better off if marriages were made at West- 
minster instead of in heaven.’’ In one respect, how- 
ever, the course is clear—segregation of the feeble- 
minded and hopelessly unfit is absolutely necessary. 
On the other hand, the existence of a physical defect 
such as cataract is not incompatible with a useful life 
and profitable work. There are many k'-ds of men, 
but the conditions are so complex that complete classi- 
fication is impracticable. Two classes, however, may 
be distinguished—those who can take an interest in 
science and those who cannot; public men belong, as 
a rule, to the latter class. In law all men are equal, 
but science is juster than the law. A high birth-rate 
is not an unmixed blessing; it produced, for example, 
the misery of the “ forties.”’? It is incumbent on the 
State to see that no one goes without food, but a 
motive must be kept for individual effort. Classes are 
essential, and a necessary condition of progress is that 
every individual should be got into his right class. 
Present social conditions are too unstable to last, and 
Mr. Bateson doubts whether many wish that they 
should. It is to be hoped that the new order, what- 
ever shape it may take, will grow up not in sub- 
servience to nostrums, but under the guidance of 
scientific fact. : 
We learn from Science that the plans of Mr. 
George M. Pullman for the establishment of a manual 
training school at Pullman, Ill., are assuming definite 
form. Prof. L. G. Weld, formerly professor of 
mathematics and Dean of the University of Iowa, 
has been despatched on a tour of America and Europe 
to collect data to guide the board of trustees in the 
construction of the buildings and the arrangement of 
the curriculum. Building operations, it is expected, 
will be commenced next year. A site of forty acres 
has been purchased at a cost of 20,0001. A fund of 
200,000l. was bequeathed by Mr. Pullman at his 
death in 1897 for founding the institution. This fund 
Was invested in securities, which have increased in 
value until now there is about 500,000l. at the dis- 
_ posal of the governors for the school. 
Tue general and departmental reports for the 
Session 1910-11 of the Bradford Technical College 
show a steady increase in the number of students in 
attendance. In view of the advanced nature of much 
of the work in the day courses, the committee has 
decided to follow the practice usual in connection with 
university colleges, and appoint external examiners, 
“who will be associated with the college staff in the 
final diploma examination and the examinations for 
the technological scholarships. An extensive research 
has been carried out in the chemistry department, 
with the help of students, on the production of some 
new sulphur bases and their utilisation as sources of 
colouring matters. The work in the evening classes, 
it is satisfactory to note, is organised mainly in 
ystematic courses of instruction, in which the tech- 
NO. 2210, VOL. 89] 
plements class work. The courses occupy three even- 
ings per week, and extend over three, four, or five 
years. The various laboratories of the engineering 
department continue to carry out tests and investiga- 
tions for local firms and for trade purposes. The 
value of the experience gained in this way and the 
opportunity afforded of bringing the department into 
constant touch with the trade are greatly appreciated. 
THE first issue of the Johns Hopkins University 
Circular for the present year is devoted to the report 
of the president of the University for the year 1910-11. 
President Ira Remsen says that the principal event of 
the year was the work that culminated in the raising 
of the sum required to secure the contribution of 
50,0001. by the General Education Board towards the 
endowment of the University. In the offer of the 
General Education Board it was stipulated that ‘‘a 
supplementary sum of not less than 150,000l. shall 
be contributed to the University on or before 
December 31, 1g10.’’ The work of collecting this 
money was actively undertaken in October, 1910, and 
was so successful that on December 31 the desired 
amount had been contributed in cash or promised. 
Indeed, the amount contributed was greater than that 
stipulated by the General Education Board. Up to 
the present, including the amount contributed by the 
General Education Board, the University has avail- 
able, in consequence of this effort, about 240,o00l. 
Of this sum, I00,o0o0l., according to the conditions 
of the gift, must be reserved as endowment. It is 
hoped that additional contributions will be made so 
that the sum of 400,000]. may be available for several 
pressing needs. The greater part of the volume, 
which runs to 10g pages, is made up of reports on 
the instruction in the chief branches of study and 
reports by various administrative officers of the 
University. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
LonDoN. 
Royal Society, February 15.—Sir Archibald Geikie, 
K.C.B., president, in the chair—Dr. T. Graham 
Brown: An _ alleged specific instance of the 
transmission of acquired characters—investiga- 
tion and criticism. An examination of the 
“Brown-Séquard phenomenon” in  guinea-pigs— 
usually considered to be a classical instance of 
the alleged transmission of an acquired character— 
throws much doubt upon its value in this controversy. 
The phenomenon is not an acquired peculiarity pro- 
duced de novo on division of a great sciatic nerve. 
It is due to the raised excitability of a mechanism— 
that of the scratch-reflex—already present; and this 
raised excitability is probably due to the removal of 
an inhibiting influence by section of the nerve. The 
phenomenon, therefore, cannot be considered as trans- 
missible as an acquirement per se. If anything is 
transmitted as an acquired character, it must be the 
state of raised excitability of the scratch-reflex. The 
presence of the phenomenon in the offspring observed 
by Brown-Séquard may be admitted, but this may be 
explained otherwise than by assuming a transmission 
of acquired characteristics. That the alternative ex- 
planation—the presence in the offspring is due to 
a production of the state by injury to the toes and 
feet inflicted by the parent—is true is rendered pos- 
sible, and indeed highly probable, by certain parallel 
evidence submitted in this paper.—W. B. Alexander : 
Further experiments on the cross-breeding of two 
races of the moth, Acidalia virgularia. This paper 
