Febbuaet 8, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



239 



president, Mr. A. E. Shipley, the new presi- 

 dent, Mr. F. Darwin, Professor Nuttall, F.K.S., 

 Mr. K. H. Biffen, Professor Carpenter, Dr. 

 Macdougall, Professor Howard Marsh, Dr. 

 Freeman, Dr. Williamson, Professor Robin- 

 son, Mr. C. Warburton, Mr. Herbert Stone, 

 and Mr. Walter E. Collinge (hon. secretary). 

 The report of the council noted the steady 

 growth in the numerical strength of the as- 

 sociation; with thirty-one members elected at 

 this meeting there was now a membership of 

 112. Mr. Shipley's address was on ' Sea 

 Fisheries.' 



Eefeering to the plebiscite of eminent 

 Frenchmen recently reported in this journal 

 The British Medical Journal says : " A Paris 

 newspaper recently invited its readers to reply 

 to the question, who are the ten greatest 

 Frenchmen of the nineteenth century? Fif- 

 teen million votes were recorded, with the in- 

 teresting result that Pasteur was at the head 

 of the poll with 1,300,000 votes. His majority 

 over Victor Hugo, who was second, was 100,- 

 000. Napoleon was fourth. Among the ten 

 men in the list were the late Professor Curie 

 and Dr. Eoux of the Pasteur Institute. The 

 others were, with the exception of one or two 

 men of letters, politicians such as Carnot, 

 Thiers and Gambetta. The list is interesting 

 as showing the high place which science holds 

 in the popular mind of France. How different 

 would the result of a like appeal to public 

 opinion be in this country ! The general com- 

 position of such a list of the ' greatest men ' 

 of Great Britain might easily be foretold. It 

 would include politicians, preachers, two or 

 three soldiers, and one or two popular novel- 

 ists; science, and particularly that applied to 

 the art of healing, would be nowhere. When 

 the Order of Merit was created there was nat- 

 urally a good deal of difference of opinion as 

 to the names proposed. There was one name 

 as to which disagreement could scarcely have 

 been expected; yet in more than one of the 

 alternative lists suggested the name of Lister 

 was conspicuous by its absence. This par- 

 ticular form of stupidity scarcely exists in 

 France. It may be, as has been suggested by 

 M. Jules Claretie, that the choice of Pasteur 

 shows that the gratitude of the French people 



goes out towards the man who saves life rather 

 than to ' the saviour of society ' or the ' idle 

 singer of an empty day.' We are inclined 

 to think that there is more than this in the 

 preeminence accorded to a man of science — 

 that there is appreciation of the value of 

 knowledge for its own sake, and appreciation 

 of the work of those who add to it. But even 

 on the assumption that Pasteur has been pro- 

 nounced the greatest Frenchman of the last 

 century by the selfish regard of his country- 

 men for their own well-being, is it not a stri- 

 king proof of the intelligence of a people thai 

 it can perceive the worth of such a man? It 

 is surely a disgrace to us that the name of 

 Pasteur is probably better known in this coun- 

 try as a bogey of obscurantists than as one 

 of the founders of scientific medicine." 



We learn from the London Times that 

 through the generosity of Mr. W. A. Cad- 

 bury, the valuable collection of algw made 

 during the last thirty years- by Mr. E. M. 

 Holmes, F. L. S., curator of the Pharma- 

 ceutical Society's Museum in Bloomsbury- 

 square, has been acquired for the botanical 

 department of the University of Birmingham- 

 The collection includes about 13,000 speci- 

 mens, and has the reputation of being, apart 

 from the national collections at the British 

 Museum and Kew, the best collection of algce 

 in Great Britain. In certain respects it is, 

 indeed, unique, in that the British portion of 

 the collection, largely the outcome of Mr. 

 Holmes's personal activity as a collector, in- 

 cludes three or four species which have been 

 found but once. The foreign portion of the 

 collection is as nearly complete as it could 

 be made. All the specimens are well displayed 

 and mounted, since it had been throughout 

 the collector's aim that they should not re- 

 main in private hands, but be fitted in all 

 ways for public purposes. Mr. W. A. Cadbury 

 has desired, as a condition of gift, that the 

 collection shall be accessible to algologista 

 generally, at times and under conditions which 

 may be convenient to the staff of the botanical 

 department of the university. 



At the monthly general meeting of the 

 Zoological Society of London held on Jan- 



