June 12, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



865 



zoological and chemical sections), Professor 

 A. D. Waller, Sir John Biles, Dr. A. C. Had- 

 don and Mr. A. D. Hall (president of the 

 agricultural section) it is very strongly repre- 

 sentative of the main body. 



The rest of the party, the main body, will 

 pick up the advance party at Perth about 

 August 7 and will sail with them for Adelaide. 

 If it had not been for the death of Sir W. H. 

 White, who was to have been president at 

 Birmingham last year, Sir Oliver Lodge would 

 have been the president for the Australian 

 meeting; and Australia has been eager to wel- 

 come him in his presidential capacity. Con- 

 sequently he has been asked to deliver an 

 address, and has consented. At Adelaide he 

 will speak at an evening meeting on " The 

 Ether of Space," and this valedictory discourse 

 will embody his conclusions as to the objective 

 reality of this concept, and his criticisms of the 

 new mechanics by which an attempt is being 

 made to replace it. Dr. W. J. Sollas, of Ox- 

 ford, will deliver the other evening discourse 

 on " Ancient Races and Their Modern Repre- 

 sentatives " — of whom he believes the extinct 

 Tasmanians to have been the most primitive — 

 and Sir Charles Lucas and Mr. A. D. Hall will 

 address their sections of geography and of 

 agriculture. 



From Adelaide, after a stay of four days, 

 the association will go on to Melbourne, which 

 with Sydney will be the auditorium of the 

 larger part of the addresses, papers and dis- 

 cussions. Following the precedent of South 

 Africa, the presidential address of Professor 

 Bateson will be divided into two parts. The 

 address in Melbourne will discuss the problem 

 of evolution in the light of Mendelian dis- 

 coveries. Professor Bateson will especially 

 attempt a consideration of the nature of varia- 

 tion, showing the extreme difficulty of any 

 longer maintaining the received doctrines on 

 these subjects. At Sydney he will proceed 

 further to show the application of the results 

 of Mendelian analysis to man, pleading for 

 simpler views of life and death and for a fuller 

 recognition of biological knowledge in regard 

 to conduct and the ordering of social 

 structures. 



The president's address will be delivered on 

 the evening of August 14, and on that morn- 

 ing and on two other days the sections of 

 mathematics, chemistry, zoology, economics 

 and physiology will meet. When the associa- 

 tion is adjourned and meets again in Sydney 

 (August 20) the second part of the presi- 

 dential address will be delivered and the re- 

 maining sections of geology, engineering, 

 anthropology, botany and education will assem- 

 ble. In another week the members move on 

 again to Brisbane, where the sections of physi- 

 ology and agriculture reassemble and where 

 an address will be delivered by Professor W. E. 

 Brown on " Cosmical Physics." These ad- 

 dresses and evening lectures are a special char- 

 acteristic of the meeting, and among those 

 who deliver them will be Sir E. A. Schafer on 

 "The Origin of Life," Sir E. Rutherford, 

 Professor Elliot Smith, Professor IST. E. Arm- 

 strong, Professor E. B. Poulton, Professor 

 G. W. Howe, Professor H. H. Turner, Pro- 

 fessor B. Moore and Dr. Rosenhain. 



After leaving Sydney some of the members 

 of the association will visit New Zealand, 

 and others will go to Tasmania. After the 

 concluding meeting at Brisbane some will 

 return directly home, but a number, splitting 

 into larger or smaller parties, will continue 

 the program of excursions which are so liber- 

 ally provided for in the program of the 

 month's meeting. One party, for example, 

 will travel across North Queensland, others 

 will visit New Guinea, where the common- 

 wealth government has placed a yacht at the 

 disposal of a specific anthropological investiga- 

 tion; and there are many other excursions for 

 those who have time to make them before re- 

 turning home by way of New Guinea and 

 Java. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 

 With the close of the present term at the 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Pro- 

 fessor Robert H. Richards will retire from the 

 active work of teaching which he has followed 

 for forty-six years. He is made professor 

 emeritus and receives the benefits of the 

 Carnegie Foundation. Professor Richards has 



