October 7, 1922] 



NA TURE 



485 



wind, followed by a quickly decreasing wind, the pilot 

 can take advantage of both phases by pointing the 

 machine into the rising wind, and with the falling 

 wind. Quick manoeuvring is, of course, essential, as 

 well as an intimate acquaintance with the movements 

 that are always taking place in the air. 



With more complicated variations in the wind, 

 more complex results are obtained. It is now clear, 

 however, that the future of wind-flight is associated 

 with three main lines of study : 



(1) The motions that are continually taking place 

 in the atmosphere need to be studied, not only the 

 meteorological wind phenomena as ordinarily under- 

 stood, but particularly the detailed air motions, the 

 " internal structure of the wind." 



(2) Motorless flight presents problems of design 

 that are different from those of ordinary aeroplanes. 

 This is because the glider is a much lighter machine 

 than the aeroplane. Stability is essential, but easy 

 control is a sine qua non, since so much depends upon 



taking as full advantage as possible of any temporarv, 

 and often unanticipated, motion in the air. 



(3) The rigid dynamics of wind-flight is also an 

 important factor in the progress of the art. Only in 

 very exceptional circumstances can the motion of a 

 glider be steady. Upward steady winds, or uniformly 

 varying winds, are only of rare occurrence and brief 

 duration, and in trying to perform real flight in an 

 engineless machine the pilot must make use of any 

 stray wind that comes to his aid. The motion in 

 wind-flight must consequently be very variable. In 

 this respect wind-flight must generally differ in 

 essence from engine-flight. In the latter steady 

 flight is the rule, in the former steady flight is bound 

 to be a comparative rarity. The pilot must there- 

 fore learn from experience and from calculation to 

 know what to expect from his machine under different 

 conditions. The dynamics of wind-flight should be a 

 fruitful subject of study both for the aviator and the 

 mathematician. 



The Influence of the late W. H. R. Rivers on the Development of 

 Psychology in Great Britain. 1 



By Charles S. Myers, C.B.E., M.A., M.D., Sc.D., F.R.S. 



A MOURNFUL gloom has been cast over the pro- 

 ceedings of our newly born Section. Since its 

 inauguration twelve months ago this Section, as, 

 indeed, psychology in general, has suffered an irrepar- 

 able loss through the sudden death, on June 4 last, of 

 him who was to have presided here to-day. When, 

 only a few weeks ago, it fell to me, as one of his first 

 pupils, to occupy Rivers's place, I could think of little 

 else than of him to whom I have owed so much in 

 nearly thirty years of intimate friendship and in- 

 valuable advice ; and I felt that it would be impossible 

 for me then to prepare a presidential address to this 

 Section on any other subject than on his life's work 

 in psychology. 



William Halse Rivers Rivers was born on March 12, 

 1864, at Luton, near Chatham, the eldest son of the 

 Rev. H. F. Rivers, vicar of St. Faith's, Maidstone, and 

 of Elizabeth, his wife, nee Hunt. Many of his father's 

 family had been officers in the Navy — a fact responsible, 

 doubtless, for Rivers's love of sea voyages. The 

 father of his paternal grandfather. Lieutenant W. T. 

 Rivers, R.N., was that brave Lieutenant William 

 Rivers, R.N., who, as a midshipman in the Victory at 

 Trafalgar, was severely wounded in the mouth and had 

 his left leg shot away at the very beginning of the 

 action, in defence of Nelson or in trying to avenge the 

 latter's mortal wound. So at least runs the family 

 tradition ; also according to which Nelson's last words 

 to his surgeon were : " Take care of young Rivers." 

 A maternal uncle of Rivers was Dr. James Hunt, who 

 in 1863 founded and was the first President of the 

 Anthropological Society, a precursor of the Royal 

 Anthropological Institute, and from 1863 to 1866 at 

 the meetings of this Association strove to obtain that 

 recognition for anthropology as a distinct Subsection 

 or Section which was successfully won for psychology 

 by his nephew, who presided over us at the Bourne- 



NO. 2762, VOL. I IO] 



mouth meeting in 1919, when we were merelv a Sub- 

 section of Physiology. 



Our " young Rivers " gave his first lecture at the 

 age of twelve, at a debating si » iety of his father's pupils. 

 Its subject was " Monkeys." lie was educated first 

 at a preparatory school at Brighton, and from 1877 to 

 1880 at Tonbridge School. Thence he had hoped to 

 proceed to Cambridge ; but a severe attack of enteric 

 fever compelled him to take a year's rest, and thus 

 prevented him from competing for an entrance scholar- 

 ship at that University. He matriculated instead in 

 the University of London, and entered St. Bartholo- 

 mew's Hospital in 1882, sharing the intention of one 

 of his father's pupils of becoming an Armv doctor. 

 This idea, however, he soon relinquished ; but, like 

 his desire to go to Cambridge, it was to be realised later 

 in life. 2 



When he took his degree of Bachelor of Medicine in 

 1886 he was accounted the youngest Bachelor ever 

 known at his hospital. Two years later he graduated 

 as Doctor of Medicine, and he spent these two and the 

 two following years in resident appointments at 

 Chichester (1888) and at St. Bartholomew's (1889) 

 hospitals, in a brief period of private medical practice 

 (1890), and in travelling as ship's surgeon to America 

 and Japan (1887), the first of numerous subsequent 

 voyages. 



In 1892 he spent the spring and early summer at 

 Jena, attending the lectures of Eucken, Ziehen, Bins- 

 wanger, and others. In a diary kept by him during 

 this visit to Germany the following sentence occurs : 

 " I have during the last few weeks come to the con- 

 clusion that I should go in for insanity when I return to 

 England and work as much as possible at psychology." 

 Accordingly, in the same year he became clinical 

 assistant at the Bethlem Royal Hospital, and in 1893 

 he assisted G. H. Savage in his lectures on mental 



- early life and antecedents I 



