AUGUST I, 1912] 
NATURE 
561 
way, certainly, she is most likely to be captured. But Construction Accounts and Contract Work, in suc- 
it must not be forgotten that the results of the labours 
of many sages during many centuries will continue to 
be of no value to mankind in general so long as 
evolution is merely regarded as a principle by which 
to interpret the past. We must have a bridge to unite 
the domain of science with the domain of human 
action, and such a bridge forms an essential part of 
the structure of eugenics. Both national societies and 
international cooperation are needed for the purpose 
of spreading the light, and the efforts already made 
in these directions will, it is hoped, be furthered by 
the holding of this congress. 
We may thus conclude that though for the moment 
the most crying need as regards heredity is for more 
knowledge, yet we must look forward to a time when 
the difficulties to be encountered will be moral rather 
than intellectual; and against moral. reform the 
demons of ignorance, prejudice, and fear are certain 
to raise their heads. But the end we have in view, 
an improvement in the racial qualities of future gene- 
rations, is noble enough to give us courage for the 
fight. Our first effort must be to establish such a 
moral code as will ensure that the welfare of the 
unborn shall be held in view in connection with all 
questions concerning both the marriage of the indi- 
vidual and the organisation of the State. As an 
agency making for progress, conscious selection must 
replace the blind forces of natural selection; and men 
must utilise all the knowledge acquired by studying 
the process of evolution in the past in order to promote 
moral and physical progress in the future. The nation 
which first takes this great. work thoroughly in hand 
will surely not only win in all matters of international 
competition, but will be given a place of honour in 
the history of the world. And the more nations there 
are who set out on this path, the more chance there 
is that some of them will run this course to the end. 
The struggle may be long and the disappointments 
may be many. But we have seen how the long fight 
against ignorance ended with the triumphant accept- 
ance of the vrinciple of evolution in the nineteenth 
century. Eugenics is but the practical application of 
that principle, and may we not hope that the twentieth 
century will, in like manner, be known in future as 
the century when the eugenic ideal was accepted as 
part of the creed of civilisation? It is with the object 
of ensuring the realisation of this hope that this con- 
gress is assembled here to-day. 
NOTES. 
A Royat Commission has been appointed to report 
on the means of supply and storage of liquid fuel in 
peace and war and its applications to warship engines, 
whether indirectly or by internal combustion. The 
following are to be the members of the Commission :— 
Lord Fisher of Kilverstone, O.M. (chairman), the 
Right Hon. George Lambert, M:P., Sir Boverton 
Redwood, Bart., Sir Philip Watts, K.C.B., F.R.S., 
Sir H..Je Oram, K.C.B., F-R:S:,/Sir J. R. Jellicoe, 
K.C.B., Sir W. Matthews, K.C.M.G., Sir T. H. Hol- 
land, (Gains .bR:S., Sir iar Thorpe, C.B., 
F.R.S., Mr. A. Gracie, Mr. H. O. Jones, and Mr. 
A. F. Yarrow. The joint secretaries will be Captain 
P. W. Dumas, R.N., Engineer-Lieutenant C. J. 
Hawkes, R.N., and Mr. J. H. Narbeth. 
Mr. E. H. Tennyson p’Eyncourt has been ap- 
pointed Director of Naval Construction to the Ad- 
miralty, and Mr. W. H. Whiting Superintendent of 
NO. 2231, VOlu 89] 
cession respectively to Sir Philip Watts, K.C.B., 
F.R.S., and Sir W. E. Smith, C.B., who are retir- 
ing. Mr. W. J. Berry becomes Assistant Director of 
Naval Construction. Sir Philip Watts is to be retained 
as Adviser on Naval Construction. 
CoMMANDER Evans, R.N., second in command, 
under Captain Scott, of the British Antarctic Expedi- 
tion, is expecting to leave England at the end of 
August for New Zealand, where he will resume com- 
mand of the Terra Nova, which will proceed to the 
south polar regions to meet Captain Scott.and his 
party. 
A Reuter message has been received stating that 
Captain Mikkelsen and Mr. Iversen, who in the 
summer of 1909 set out to discover the depét of Mr. 
M. Erichsen and his two companions, who perished 
in the expedition of 1907-8, have arrived at Aalesund, 
and will proceed shortly to Copenhagen. The two 
explorers, who had not been heard of since they left 
the expedition on April 10, 1910, on the 76th parallel 
north latitude, proceeded over the inland ice to Den- 
mark Firth, where they found a record left by Erich- 
sen. On May 29, 1910, they began the return journey. 
They were subjected to terrible hardships. The dogs 
died one after the other, and they were obliged to 
shoot the few remaining animals for food. On 
November 29, 1910, Shannon Island was reached, 
where they hoped to meet Norwegian whaling boats 
in the summer of 1911, but the hope was vain. Having 
waited through the summer until it was so late in the 
year that no whaling boats could be expected, they 
left Shannon Island and went to Shamrock Island, 
where they wintered. Here the Norwegian fishing 
vessel Sjéblomsten found them, after they had aban- 
doned all hope, and brought them to Aalesund. 
According to a statement made by Captain Mikkelsen, 
two reports from the late Mylius Erichsen were found 
in Denmark Firth. The first, dated September 12, 
stated that he was returning along the coast with 
provisions for sixteen days, while the second report, 
found in a summer camp, spoke of his discoveries, 
among which was one that the Peary Channel did not 
run through from sea to sea behind Hazen and Heil- 
prin Lands, and that Navy Cliff was connected with 
Heilprinland. Erichsen’s diaries were also recovered 
from Skergaardsfjord. 
Tue report of the Court of Inquiry, presided over 
by Lord Mersey, on the loss of the Titanic was pre- 
sented at a final sitting of the Court on Tuesday last. 
The finding is as follows :—The Court, having care- 
fully inquired into the circumstances of the above- 
mentioned shipping casualty, finds, for the reasons 
appearing in the annex hereto, that the loss of the 
said ship was due to collision with an iceberg, brought 
| about by the excessive speed at which the ship was 
being navigated. This finding, and the report itself, 
are concurred in by the five assessors :—Rear-Admiral 
the Hon. S. A. Gough-Calthorpe, Captain A. W. 
Clarke, Commander F. C. A. Lyon, Prof. J. H. Biles, 
and Mr. E. C. Chaston. 
