October 22, 1896] 



NATURE 



607 



lolw ; a report by Mr. J. E. S. Moore was presented on the 

 fauna of the African lakes; Prof. M. M. Hartog read a paper 

 on the Morphology of the Rotifera and the Trochophore larva ; 

 and a letter was read by Prof. A. Newton from Dr. Stirling, on 

 Cciiyornis Newtoni, an extinct Ratite bird from Australia allied 

 to the Emu, but with leg-bones like those of the Moa, supposed 

 to belong to the order Mfgistancs. 



IVednesday, September 23. — The first paper of the final meet- 

 ing of the Section was by Mr. A. T. Masterman on " Phoroiiis, 

 the earliest ancestor of the Vertebrates." Mr. Masterman 

 described two diverticula of the gut in the Actinotrocha larva, 

 which he concluded from their structure represented a double 

 notochord. He hence proposed a new group, to be called the 

 Diplochordata. Hence the supposed relationship of Phoronis 

 to the primitive vertebrate was confirmed. Mr. E. W. McBride 

 said that there was such a strong tendency to discover ancestors 

 for the Vertebrata, that great caution should be exercised before 

 needlessly adding to the list. He thought that a double noto- 

 chord w;ls too great a demand upon their credulity, although Mr. 

 M.isterman's diverticula might function as a notochord. 



I'rof. W. A. Herdman then read a report on the Zoology, 

 liotany, and Geology of the Irish Sea (illustrated by the lantern). 

 \ very interesting account was given of the work done by the 

 members of the Liverpool Marine Biology Committee and other 

 naturalists, and slides were shown of the Laboratory at Port 

 Erin and its surroundings. The Committee were doing a useful 

 work, and a work which was very far from being complete. The 

 Kev. T. R. R. Stebbing spoke of the admirable faunistic work 

 being done by the members of the Committee, and thought that 

 they were to be congratulated on their report. Mr. W. E. 

 I loyle thought the results obtained by Prof. Herdman and his 

 colleagues had an important bearing upon questions of general 

 oceanography, and it was to be hoped, therefore, that the work 

 of the Committee would not cease. I'rof. Johann Walther testi- 

 fied to the admirable work that had been done in British seas 

 during the last fifty years. This work, which was so important 

 to marine biologists and oceanographists, had been initiated by 

 I-Mward Forbes, and continued by Prof. Herdman, whom he re- 

 garded as Forbes' natural successor. Dr. Hjort and Mr. A. O. 

 Walker also took part in the discussion. 



Mr. Masterman read a further paper on " Some Effects of 

 I'elagic Spawning on the Life-Histories of Marine Fishes," in 

 which he maintained that pelagic spawning was more primitive 

 than littoral. This explained many well-known facts in the 

 migr.ation of fishes. Dr. W. B. Benham then read a short paper 

 on the structure of the genital glands of Apiis, which, he'asserted, 

 could not be described as an hermaphrodite. He had recently 

 made some observations on the reproductive organ of a male 

 Apits, and showed diagrams of the spermatogenesis. The 

 specimen had not been well preserved, but, except in this 

 respect, he believed he was the first to study the testis u{ ApKs 

 accorfling to modern methods, .-\fter some remarks by Prof. 

 Hartog, the meeting concluded with a paper on the life-history 

 iif the Haddock, by Prof. W. C. Mcintosh, communicated by 

 Mr. Masterman. 



MECHANICS AT THE BRITISH 

 ASSOC lA TION. 



"T-HE meetings in Section G — that devoted to mechanical 

 •'■ science — at the recent Liverpool meeting of the British 

 Association were generally well attended, and, on the whole, 

 the proceedings compared not unfavourably with those of recent 

 years. But only qualified praise can be given, as for long 

 " G " has fallen short of its vocation. We look back to past 

 times, to the days of Rankine and Froude, when the Section 

 was more constant to its true mission, and sigh over later 

 records. Mechanical science, though only applied science, 

 /.r science ; and though the Section must be utilitarian, 

 it need not be a penny-readings or a means of trade 

 advertisement. We think that any one acquainted with 

 the proceedings of later years will agree that both the latter 

 elements have been too much in evidence. With regard 

 to the penny-readings or popular-lecture side of the question, 

 we had more than one example during the recent meeting. 

 There were some most interesting lectures and discourses, illus- 

 trated by equally interesting lantern slides, but they could hardly 

 be classed as scientific They were just admirable penny- 

 readings — nothing more. 



NO. 1408, VOL. 54] 



With regard to the second undesirable feature to which 

 reference has been made, we feel we are on delicate ground. A 

 man having made an invention of a useful nature, and translated 

 it into a machine or a process, naturally wishes to bring it 

 prominently before the world for financial reasons. A cheap 

 and efficacious method of doing so, is by reading a paper before 

 a technical society. That is a perfectly legitimate proceeding, 

 and is thoroughly recognised by the various societies and institu- 

 tions of this nature ; for however much they may strive to pose 

 as scientific, they know well enough they are no more than 

 technical, and founded on commercial bases. Were it not for 

 the hope of advertisement — it is best to call spades, spades — not 

 one half the papers read before engineering societies would ever 

 be written ; but that is no reproach to the societies. They do 

 most admirable and useful work, without which the country 

 would not make the progress it does. The morality of technical 

 societies is, as it should be — " If a man has anything new and 

 instructive to tell us, he is entitled to his advertisement, short of 

 introducing purely commercial details." 



But the British Association for the Advancement of Science 

 should take higher ground than this, even in Section G. It 

 should not allow a paper to be read on a trade article at the 

 same time that illustrated catalogues and price-lists of the article 

 are distributed amongst the audience. Neither should it allow 

 its officials to distribute among the audience touting circulars 

 asking members present to subscribe to a public company which 

 bears evidence of being a trade association. 



There were, however, at the recent meeting one or two good 

 examples of the work Section G ought to do. Mr. Beaumont's 

 paper may be taken. It was an endeavour to account for a 

 somewhat obscure, but well-known, engineering phenomenon by 

 the aid of scientific or physical data. The author may have 

 been wrong in his conclusions, even in his premises, as some 

 speakers during the discussion suggested, but at any rate he bad 

 a proper conception of what a British Association paper should 

 be, and some regard for the dignity of the Section. Mr. 

 Wheeler's report on tidal influences was also a piece of good 

 work, which will be useful to those making scientific investiga- 

 tion of the subject ; and there were one or two other items in 

 the programme of a character proper to the Section ; but we will 

 proceed to details. 



This year Sir Douglas Fox was President of the Section, 

 and on Thursday, September 17, the proceedings were opened 

 by his inaugural address. This we have already printed in 

 full. The first paper taken was by Mr. G. F. Lyster, and was 

 on the " Physical and Engineering Features of the River Mer.sey, 

 and the Port of Liverpool." This was not a contribution of the 

 popular-lecture order, because it was not popular, and it was 

 certainly not a " mechanical science " paper. It could hardly be 

 called an engineering paper, excepting in respect of it being a 

 catalogue of engineering works. It was very long, arid its 

 author read it to the bitter end. It is to be printed in the 

 Pro(eedmgs. 



.Mr. Beaumont's paper, to which reference has already been 

 made, came next. The following is an abstract of this contri- 

 bution. The author was of opinion that the failure of any rail, 

 however perfect, is chiefly a question of the number and weight 

 of the trains passing over it. The result of the rolling of the 

 heavily loaded wheels of engines and vehicles is that a gradual 

 compression of the upper part of the rails takes place, and this 

 produces internal stresses which are cumulative and reach great 

 magnitude. That which takes place in the material of a rail 

 head under the action of very heavy rolling loads at high speed, 

 is precisely that which is purposely brought into use every day 

 in ironworks. The effect is, however, obscured by the slow- 

 ness of the growth and transmission of the forces which are ulti- 

 mately destructive. It was pointed out, further, that when a piece 

 of iron or steel is subjected to pressures exceeding the limit of 

 elastic compression, by a rolling or hammering action, or by both 

 these combined, the result is spreading of the material and 

 general change of the dimensions. This is equally the case with 

 a plate hammered or rolled on one side while resting on a flat 

 surface. In these cases, the hammering or rolling work done 

 upon the surfaces tends to compress the material beneath it, but 

 being nearly incompressible and unchangeable in density, the 

 material flows, and change of form results. Gener.ally the 

 material thus changed in form suffers permanently no greater 

 stresses than those within its elastic limit of compression or ex- 

 ten.sion. When, however, the material is not free to flow or to 

 change its form in the directions in which the stresses set uji 



