864 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. No. 1015 



That in view of all the eireumstances and condi- 

 tions; in accordance with ample traditional prac- 

 tise and precedent established by China's ancient 

 rulers; ^nd in cooperation and harmony with the 

 policy of the most advanced governments, the na- 

 tional government of China make new legal recog- 

 nition of China's monuments and antiquities, and 

 of all forms of national art of antiquarian and 

 historical value as national property, and, in the 

 manner adopted by other nations, newly take na- 

 tional possession of the same and bring them under 

 national protection for preservation in China for 

 the lasting benefit of the Chinese people and of 

 mankind generally. 



EespeetfuUy submitted, 

 (Signed) Heney Fairfield Osborn, 



President 



THE BSITISH ASSOCIATION IN AVS- 

 TBALIAi 



At the end of June and in the first week of 

 July 400 members of the British Association 

 for the Advancement of Science will leave 

 England to meet for the annual sessions of the 

 Association in the state capitals of Australia. 

 The visit is made at the invitation of the 

 Australian Commonwealth Government, whose 

 guests the members of the association will be, 

 and by whose generosity so protracted a jour- 

 ney is made possible. 



Such a meeting is memorable in many ways. 

 It adds completeness to that system of ex- 

 change of scientific thought and scientific men 

 between the United Kingdom and the Domin- 

 ions over-seas which has been steadily growing 

 since the beginning of the century ; and it will 

 serve to link still more closely the newer uni- 

 versities with the older throughout the whole 

 of the Empire. The previous visits of the 

 British Association to Canada and to South 

 Africa gave fresh impetus to scientific work, 

 and were followed by tangible results in the 

 creation of new! scientific institutions and 

 laboratories. There is assurance beforehand 

 that this precedent will be repeated in Aus- 

 tralia, for one of the objects of the visit is to 

 afford opportunities for joint discussion on 

 cooperation in research between the southern 

 continent and the countries of the Northern 



1 From the London Times. 



Hemisphere in astronomical, meteorologicaJ 

 and anthropological problems. 



There are advantages of a reciprocal kind to 

 those who would not otherwise sacrifice four 

 months of the scientist's year in a visit to 

 Australia. Problems await attack in solar 

 physics and in the distribution of the stars; 

 problems in the evolution of segregated species 

 of animals and plants ; of physiological adapta- 

 tion; of atmospheric electricity and earth 

 magnetism; of the antiquity of races and of 

 the development of social conditions — in short, 

 problems affecting every department of sci- 

 ence, which can only be carried to completion 

 with the aid of data obtained in the Southern 

 Hemisphere and the southernmost continent. 



The commonwealth government, the state 

 universities and the Australian people are 

 making every provision that the fullest oppor- 

 tunity shall be given to the meeting to investi- 

 gate both the work that is being done and that 

 which has to be done in the fields of zoology, 

 botany, physiology and engineering. It should 

 be added as not the least remarkable of the 

 circumstances of this meeting that this is the 

 first time that any government has set aside 

 so large a subsidy for the purposes of the en- 

 couragement of science. 



The members of the association proceed in 

 two parties. The advance party of YO, in which 

 the president-elect. Professor William Bate- 

 son, E.R.S., travels, and which takes with it a 

 number of zoologists, botanists and geologists, 

 will go by way of the Cape to Perth, in 

 Western Australia. This party stays a week, 

 making excursions for field work in the sand 

 plains, in the Darling Range, the Irwin River 

 district, the coast or the Kalgoorlie goldfield 

 during the larger part of it; and, at most, 

 three evening lectures will be delivered, one 

 of them by Professor Herdman on " Life of 

 the Sea," and another by Professor A. S. 

 Eddington on " The Stars and their Move- 

 ments." This visit is an unofficial part of the 

 meeting ; but since among those who take part 

 in it are Professor F. W. Dyson (the astron- 

 omer royal), Professor H. E. Armstrong, Pro- 

 fessor Poulton, Professor Dendy and Professor 

 W. J. Pope (presidents respectively of the 



