502 



NA TURE 



[April 30, 1874 



againit the centralisation of our various Universities, 

 Licensing Boards, &c, "with its inevitable acolyte cram.'' 

 He illustrated in an original and striking way what he 

 thinks would be the inevitable result of centralisation, by 

 referring to the dead and motionless uniformity which 

 must be the result of tlie degradation of energy. Prof. 

 Tait drew a ludicrous yet melancholy picture of what 

 would be the results of universal uniformity in the social 

 world. 



" The application of these ideas," he said, " to political 

 and social questions, among which of course comes Uni- 

 versity centralisation, is not far to seek. What would the 

 world of men be without what we may call ' social 

 entropy ' ? Everyone would then be his own farmer, 

 baker, butcher, brewer, banker, boot-black, &c. — all 

 would be at the same dead level — no possible help from 

 one to his neighbour, even if it could be required ; no 

 distribution of tasks, and therefore (in every department) 

 that endless waste which is inevitable in operations con- 

 ducted on a petty scale. No possibility of that mutual 

 reliance and assistance which forms the friendships we 

 delight in, none of that variety which is the real charm of 

 life — no idea which would not simultaneously strike every 

 unit of the race— no news, no books — nothing but same- 

 ness ! None of the pleasure of being able to assist 

 struggling worth, none of gratitude for generous aid. Nay, 

 we might pursue it further. No difference of temper, cha- 

 racter, tendencies, age, sex — a state lower than the lowest 

 known in vegetation ; but here the end must come. Or, 

 to take a somewhat different point of view (though the 

 basis is absolutely the same, for oscillation implies en- 

 tropy), what if everything were always at its average 

 value.' Never absolutely either fair or rainy weather, 

 clear or cloudy, calm or stormy, hot or cold ; but a dead 

 average. Never either absolutely day or night ; no 

 tides, no seasons ; men never either absolutely awake nor 

 absolutely asleep — continually in a semi-lethargic state — 

 half happy, half discontented ; half playful, half serious — 

 neither running, walkinsj, standing, sitting, nor lying, but 

 a perpetual average. No catastrophes such as a birth, a 

 marriage, or a death— no distinction between man and 

 man — nothing of that variety which is the law of nature. 

 Eternal, hideous, intolerable sameness, by necessity devoid 

 of all capacity for action : the human race turned into a 

 set of Niirnbci-g toy-solders, all cast in the same mould, 

 of the same base material, and all similarly bedaubed 

 from the same glaring paint-pots, and moving on the 

 same lazy-tongs with the same relative velocities. No 

 one to advise you in a difficulty, no one in whose superior 

 strength of mind or body you could confide ; nothing 

 around you except what you feel must be but the image 

 of yourself (as you will early have learned introspectively 

 to look at it)— mean, sordid, and grovelling ! No one 

 whom you can respect, none to trust — all, like yourself, 

 vile and despicable ! Here I would gladly say — 'Enough 

 of such horrors,' and quit the disgusting theme. But, un- 

 fortunately, the application has still to come. It will be 

 found very pertinent to many things which have been of 

 late evolved from the innermost consciousness of state- 

 craft, and hailed, with altogether inexplicable delight, by 

 what seemed (till lately) to be at least a numerical majority 

 of the representatives of our countrymen." 



Prof. Tait then referred to the late Prof. Forbes and 

 the recent discussion concerning his character and work. 

 For what Prof Tait has to say on this subject we must 

 refer our readers to his address, which is printed in full 

 in the Scotsman of the 23rd inst. He then spoke 

 of the scheme for extending Edinburgh University, and 

 the faciUties which would thereby be acquired for teach- 

 ing Science practically, as it ought to be taught, and thus 

 tend to extinguish "paper-science," a term which "con- 

 veys to all who are really scientific men an impression of 

 the most unutterable contempt." In conclusion. Prof. 

 Tait referred to the difficulties attending the work of his 



own class, that of " Natural Philosophy," arising from the 

 want of adequate means. He hopes to be able, at least, 

 to put the Natural Philosophy Department in Edinburgh 

 University on a proper footing for his successor. 



THE SOIREE OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY 



ON Wednesday, April 22, the first soiree of the Royal 

 Society since their removal into their new apart- 

 ments was given by the President, Ur. Hooker, and came 

 off with the greatest cclat. There was a remarkably good 

 display of scientific apparatus, and we thinlc tliat the inter- 

 dependence of theman of Science and of the manufacturer 

 of instruments is at no time better exemplified than on 

 occasions like the present. The apartments devoted to 

 the purposes of exhibition were thronged by the most 

 eminent in the various branches of Science — it might have 

 been said with reason that a considerable fraction of the 

 nation's mind had centred for the time being in the rooms 

 at Burlington House. Not as an unhealthy sign either 

 did we regard the presence of Archbishop Manning and 

 the attention shown towards that divine by scientific men 

 of the very opposite poles of thought. 



Of the objects of interest displayed in the six rooms de- 

 voted to this purpose we can here only give details of the 

 more prominent. In the first room several maps and photo- 

 graphs were exhibited by the Royal Geographical Society .: 

 also some splendid pieces of glass-work by Messrs. 

 Chance, consisting of a dioptric fixed light (4th order) 

 with nine prisms and six rings of lenses in four panels, a 

 segment of a dioptric totally reflecting mirror first pro- 

 posed by Mr. Thomas Stevenson, C.E., a dioptric holo- 

 phote designed by the same engineer, and a lamp-burner 

 designed by Mr. J. N. Douglass, C.E., with six con- 

 centric wicks. This burner can be used either for colza 

 oil or for petroleum. The President exhibited also in this 

 room some interesting objects from the Kew Museum. 

 Amongst these we noticed some fossil copal gums from 

 Zanzibar, carved cocoa-nut shells from the Fiji Islands, a 

 vase made from the ash of Moguilea utilis, mixed with clay, 

 from Parh, and different chemical and medical products 

 from species of Eucalyptus. 



In the second room Mr. Crookcs exhibited his ex- 

 periments showing the attraction and repulsion accom- 

 panying radiation. The pendulum described by Mr. 

 Crookes in his communication to the Society was exhi- 

 bited under various forms, and the experiments excited 

 the liveliest interest. Here also Dr. C. J. B. Williams 

 exhibited some new ear-trumpets, and Messrs. Whitehouse 

 and Latimer Clark an electrical recorder for registering 

 time, speed, distance, and number of passengers inside 

 and out in tram-cars and omnibuses. This information 

 is registered in four parallel columns in red ink on long 

 strips of paper, by automatic pens. — Mr. Vernon Heath ex- 

 hibited some autolypc landscapes, and the president some 

 Tappa dresses from Fiji, which reminded us strongly of 

 the ornaments placed in our fire-stoves during the summer. 

 Here also we were shown a microscope by Messrs. 

 Powell and Lealand, with a ^l immersion objective 

 and the eternal Podura scale. 



In the third room, the Entrance Saloon, were some 

 exquisitely coloured drawings of the flora of Brazil, and 

 landscapes by Miss North ; likewise some coloured draw- 

 ings of New Zealand birds, exhibited by Dr. W. Lawiy 

 Buller. The pair of new Paradise Birds collected by 

 Signor D'Abertis* in New Guinea, promised by Dr.. 

 Sclater, was not exhibited. 



In the fourth room, the Reading Room, Dr. Tyndall ex- 

 hibited the apparatus (already described in our columns) 

 for showing the stoppage of sound by a non-homogeneous 

 mi.xture of air and vapours, and also experiments illus- 

 » See Nature, vol. viii. p. 305. 



