August 27, 1896] 



NATURE 



393 



ever. One of the most imercstiny results so far an- 

 nounced is the great depth of the Arctic Sea over a very 

 large area. This accentuates the physical contrast 

 between the Arctic and the Antarctic regions ; and will 

 probably make it necessary to adopt a greater mean 

 depth for the ocean, and a deeper position for the line 

 of mean-sphere level {cf. Natuki:, vol. liv. p. 112). The 

 general course of the Ffuiii, as sketched from the pro- 

 visional data, shows an altogcthci remarkable parallelism 

 with Dr. Nansen's hypothetical track of the Jcanncttc 

 relics, and fully bears out his theory of the circulation of 

 the Arctic Sea. A " pala'ocrystic sea " would appear to 

 be possible only in conditions which give rise to eddies, 

 or otherwise impede the normal circulation. The tem- 

 perature has not been found so low as that frequently 

 experienced in northern Siberia, so that unendurable cold 

 can no longer be \iewed as an obstacle in the way of 

 making high latitudes. 



.So far as high latitudes go, Admiral Markham, in 

 1874, succeeded in passing Parry's position of 1827 

 by only 35', or about forty miles; Lockwood, in 1882, 

 did not get more than four miles further north than 

 Markham ; but Nansen has taken the unexampled 

 stride of 2^ 50', or almost two hundred miles beyond 

 the previous " record," in consequence of his simple plan 

 of not opposing, but siding with the workings of nature. 

 The result is a triumph of science, and a proof — if proof 

 were needed — that scientific training, no less than courage, 

 perseverance, and physical endurance, is necessary in a 

 great explorer. 



.\part from the voyage of the Fi-niii, this summer has 

 yielded a rich harvest of arctic exploration. The ll'viii- 

 Wiird, which left Vardo on June 29, under the command 

 of Captain Brown, an experienced whaler, and with the 

 aid of Mr. Crowther as ice-master, has made a remarkably 

 quick voyage to and from Franz Josef Land. She took 

 out Mr. \V. S. Bruce and another member of Mr. 

 Jackson's party, and brought back several whose time 

 with the expedition had expired. The telegrams which 

 have been received show that Mr. Jackson's party have 

 passed the winter comfortably, and have had excellent 

 sport ; they have devoted themselves to the mapping of 

 the region around their winter quarters, and dispatches 

 are promised by the Winifwani, which will doubtless 

 give particulars as to points visited and positions attained. 

 Ur. Nansen's journey on the ice north of Franz Josef 

 Land will be a powerful stimulus which should result in 

 great achievements. 



Mr. .\ndree's balloon expedition has had to be post- 

 poned on account of delay in getting the balloon-house 

 erected and the balloon filled, but it will certainly be 

 renewed next year. Spitzbergen, with weekly mail- 

 steamers, a comfortable hotel, and even a set of postage- 

 stamps, has been largely visited by tourists during the 

 summer ; but amongst the sight-seers and sportsmen 

 there have been several scientific men bent on serious 

 exploration. Sir Martin Conway, with Dr. Gregory, Mr. 

 Garwood, and Mr. Trevor Battye, have been o\er a large 

 amount of new ground, and made several interesting 

 discoveries. The geology of the islands in particular 

 has been carefully worked up, and the results will be 

 looked forward to with confidence. The whole party has 

 safely returned to Norway. 



Mr. Peary's expedition to the north-west coast of 

 Greenland has been much hampered by the ice, and it 

 is uncertain whether it will yield any scientific results. 

 The application of the name Pcitry-landXo the extreme 

 north of Greenland, proposed by the Geographical Club 

 of Philadelphia, has been generally approved as a tribute 

 due to an explorer of great power and perseverance. 



Prospects of .Antarctic exploration are no brighter. 

 The Belgian expedition has been postponed, and the 

 English expedition to Cape .Adare does not seem likely 

 to start this year. There is, however, a possibility that 



NO. 1400, VOL. 54] 



the wave of enthusiasm in polar research, which is sure 

 to pass over Europe during the coming winter, may float 

 some of the existing schemes, or even move high quarters, 

 and lead to the dispatch of a properly equipped Govern- 

 ment expedition. However glad we should be to see a 

 British party regaining the national prestige in the polar 

 regions, the need for scientific research in those quarters 

 would lead us to welcome the first who comes forward 

 with a sane plan and a sound party, be their nationality 

 what it may. The drift of the Frain has shown that the 

 new explorer may succeed, even though he may contra- 

 vene every law laid down by the old, provided he re- 

 spects the law of nature of moving in the direction of 

 least resistance, and not trying to hurry through in a 

 season what should be the deliberate progress of years. 

 May it not be possible that we have somewhat over- 

 estimated the necessity for naval discipline, and under- 

 valued the power of scientific enthusiasm in polar ex- 

 ploration ? Hugh Robert Mill. 



SIR WILLIAM ROBERT GROVE. 

 " T H.A\'E long held an opinion almost amounting to 



^ conviction, in common I believe with many other 

 lovers of natural knowledge, that the various forms under 

 which the forces of matter are made manifest have one 

 common origin ; or in other words are so directly re- 

 lated and mutually dependent that they are convertible, 

 as it were, into one another, and possess equivalents of 

 power in their action. In modern times the proofs of 

 their convertibility have been accumulated to a very con- 

 siderable extent, and a commencement made of the 

 determination of their equivalent forces." 



Thus wrote Faraday in 1845, beginning his paper " On 

 the Magnetization of a Ray of Light and the Illumination 

 of Magnetic Lines of Force," and the words describe 

 admirably the subject of William Grove's great work 

 "On the Correlation of the Physical Forces" which 

 appeared in the following year. But as a matter of fact 

 this famous essay had been brought into existence three 

 years before as a course of lectures delivered at the 

 London Institution, in which Grove then held the post of 

 Professor of Experimental Philosophy. It was the first 

 systematic statement of the connections between the 

 different departments of physical phenomena, and as 

 such was of great scientific (that is scicncL'-making) value. 

 Helmholtz's magnificent exposition of the principle of 

 conservation of energy appeared the year after, and con- 

 tained as completely as was then possible that quantita- 

 tive discussion referred to in the last words of the above 

 quotation from Faraday, as being when they were written,, 

 at various points begun. These two remarkable essays 

 may be said to form the starting-point of the modern 

 science of energetics, of which the experimental founda- 

 tion was even then being overhauled and laid still more 

 deeply and stably by Joule. If we reflect how much has 

 come from the principle of constancy of energy with the 

 necessary aid of other dynamical principles (for the theory 

 of conservation is by itself insufficient for the determina- 

 tion of the mode of action of physical forces), we are better 

 able to form an idea of the value of the work done by these 

 pioneers in exploring and mapping out the paths which 

 appeared to lead from one province of science to another. 



At the time of the publication of his essay Grove was 

 about thirty-five years of age, having been born at Swansea 

 in iSil. He had already accomplished a considerable 

 amount of original work of great value. His voltaic cell, 

 known now to all who have even the slightest knowledge 

 of electricity, was one of several voltaic combinations 

 which he devised, and was described first at the British 

 Association meeting at Birmingham in 1839, and again 

 in a paper in the Philosophical Magazine for October of 

 the same year. Though the Grove battery is now super- 

 seded in most of our laboratories by dynamos, it was in 



