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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVI. No. 927 



was also read from Sir Charles Macara. Monday 's 

 program was more varied. Mr. Allan McNeill dis- 

 cussed the possibility of utilizing national savings 

 for the purchase of agricultural holdings through 

 the machinery of land banks. Miss Annie Ashley 

 instituted a comparison between British and Ger- 

 man insurance legislation. Dr. David Heron, in a 

 short address illustrated by lantern slides, gave 

 startling evidence of the failure of inebriates' 

 homes to reform habitual drunkards. Professor 

 Geddes pleaded for the cooperation of the sciences 

 in the town-planning movement and for the prep- 

 aration of regional and civic surveys for that 

 purpose. 



Trom one point of view the work of the section 

 on its last day was the most interesting of all. The 

 first half of the morning was given to Scottish 

 problems. Mr. James Cunningham, President of 

 the Dundee Chamber of Commerce, gave facts and 

 statistics which are probably not elsewhere pro- 

 curable, relating to the origin and growth of the 

 jute trade in Dundee and Germany. Mr. Alex. 

 Newlands opened up a fascinating problem — the 

 possibility of developing the water power of the 

 Highlands for industrial purposes. In an im- 

 partial paper Mr. J. H. Jones analyzed the effects 

 of dumping on the steel and tin-plate industries, 

 and Mr. A. A. Mitchell closed a most successful 

 meeting with an examination of the question — 

 "Do Trade Unions Raise Wages?" 



SECTION G ENGINEERING 



Perhaps the first place among the topics set 

 down for discussion in this section, which was pre- 

 sided over by Mr. Archibald Barr, may be assigned 

 to wireless telegraphy, which has already been 

 referred to under the heading of the section of 

 Mathematics and Physics. A second subject dis- 

 cussed referred to the attempts now being made by 

 workers in different countries to produce a com- 

 mercial gas turbine. The application of the recip- 

 rocating internal combustion engine to the purposes 

 of marine propulsion is regarded as a retrograde 

 step in view of the demonstrated advantages of 

 rotary machinery for such service, and, in spite of 

 the serious difficulties which have to be overcome, 

 it is felt that the efforts being made to construct a 

 commercial gas turbine is a movement along the 

 right lines. A certain measure of success has, 

 indeed, already been achieved, and with so many 

 minds attacking the subject in different ways it is 

 probable that success will be attained at no very 

 distant date. The discussion which was opened 



by Mr. Dugald Clerk showed what has been done 

 and what has still to be accomplished. 



The research on the gas engine itself which ia 

 being carried out by the Gaseous Explosions Com- 

 mittee of the British Association is to be continued. 

 The report presented to the present meeting made 

 it clear that useful work is being done by this com- 

 mittee in the settlement of disputed points and in 

 throwing light upon certain questions which have 

 hitherto baffled designers of gas engines. A set of 

 interesting papers on marine problems and develop- 

 ments in marine propulsion opened up a discussion 

 on several matters of current interest. Questions 

 relating to the provision of lifeboats on liners and 

 the special means whereby quick launching may be 

 ensured were the subjects of a paper by Mr. Axel 

 Welin. Another paper showed the real dangers 

 in navigation arising from the suction effect be- 

 tween passing vessels, concerning which there has 

 been a serious conflict of opinion. The case for 

 electrical methods of ship propulsion, which is 

 being closely watched by the British Admiralty, 

 was discussed from the expert standpoint for the 

 benefit of the lay mind. 



SECTION H ANTHROPOLOGY 



In the proceedings of Section H (Anthropology) 

 much interest attached to Professor Anthony's 

 exhibit of the east of the La Quina brain — one of 

 the first examples of a brain of paleolithic man 

 of Neanderthal type to be described and one of 

 the finest yet discovered — as well as to Professor 

 Keith's communication on the Gibraltar brain, 

 which afforded strong corroborative evidence in 

 support of the theories of the evolution of mam- 

 malian and especially the human brain elaborated 

 in the president's address. Dr. Duckworth's de- 

 scription of the jaw of paleolithic antiquity foimd 

 in Kent's Cavern, Torquay, in 1867, but not pre- 

 viously described, which was presented to the sec- 

 tion by Professor Boyd Dawkins, was another 

 interesting and important contribution to the 

 study of the antiquity of man — a subject much in 

 evidence at this meeting. Professor Elliot Smith's 

 views on the origin of megalithic monuments, 

 which he associates closely with the beginnings of 

 the use of copper in Egypt, whence he holds the 

 adoption of this form of burial monument spread 

 over the remainder of the world, gave rise to a 

 discussion in which these views were strongly criti- 

 cized and a number of profoundly interesting 

 questions were raised. The discussion on the 

 ethnological aspects of Scottish folklore, if it did 

 not succeed in elucidating any particular problems 



