682 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 357. 



THE GLASGOW MEETING OF THE BRITISH 

 ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCE- 

 MENT OF SCIENCE. 



THE GEOGRAPHICAL SECTION. 



The president of the Geographical Sec- 

 tion, Dr. H. E,. Mill, took as the subject of 

 his address the definition of the task of sci- 

 entific geography and the subdivisions of 

 the subject. In giving a brief review of 

 the ideas of the older geographers, attention 

 was called to an important, but well-nigh 

 forgotten, work by l!^athaniel Carpenter, 

 fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, published 

 1625, under the title ' Geographic Deline- 

 ated forth in two Books, containing the 

 Sphericall andTopicall parts thereof, 'a work 

 characterized by a clear appreciation of the 

 relations of the various subdivisions of the 

 subject and by a clear perception of the 

 good and the bad in the work of his prede- 

 cessors and contemporaries. 



Dr. Mill defined geography as ' the sci- 

 ence which deals with the forms of relief of 

 the earth's crust, and with the influence 

 which these forms exercise on the distri- 

 bution of all other phenomena,' and he 

 divides the subject into: (1) Mathemat- 

 ical geography, which regards the earth 

 as a spinning ball lighted and warmed 

 according to a rigid succession of diurnal 

 changes. (2) This merges into physical 

 geography which is concerned with the 

 contemporary changes in the crust and in 

 the surrounding fluid envelopes. (3) Bio- 

 geography or the geographical distribution 

 of life, and finally (4) Anthropo-geography 

 or the relation of man to the earth's crust, 

 a subject which must be separated for the 

 more general third division on account of 

 the number of exceptions it presents to the 

 laws governing the distribution of the lower 

 forms of animal life and on account of the 

 exceptional powers possessed by man for 

 modifying the conditions of the earth's sur- 

 face. Viewed from this broad standpoint 

 it is evident that enough attention has not 



been paid to geography by the universities. 

 It is true that Oxford possesses a school of 

 geography and Cambridge has a reader in 

 that subject, while in this country physical 

 geography receives most able attention in 

 a few of our great universities ; but more 

 should be done towards coordinating the 

 various subdivisions of the subject. No- 

 where can this be better done than in the 

 universities. Viewed in the broad sense, as 

 outlined by Dr. Mill, geography would 

 form a discipline worthy of a place upon 

 our college curriculums ; the practical ad- 

 vantages to be derived from a comprehen- 

 sion of the materials already in hand would 

 be great both in direct results and in sug- 

 gestions for future work. 



Of this last Dr. Mill's address is a proof 

 in itself and while many of his suggestions 

 are more especially applicable to the needs 

 of the British Isles, still some might be 

 profitably carried out in connection with 

 the surveys of this country. Thus maps 

 showing the character of the superficial 

 soil, such as the cartes agronomiques of 

 France, would be a most valuable asset 

 in the hands of any government and the 

 same is true of carefully collated ma- 

 terial with reference to the rainfall and 

 configuration of stream -beds in different 

 sections of the country, the horse-power of 

 the rivers and streams being eventually 

 determined from such data as has already 

 been done in Finland. Mention may also 

 be made of the population maps constructed 

 by Mr. Bosse on the plan of indicating by 

 dots the exact distribution of the popula- 

 tion, the usual method of estimating popu- 

 lation by counties or states giving but 

 imperfect ideas of the true distribution. 

 The population map of England shows in a 

 most remarkable manner the relation of 

 population to the geological character and 

 configuration of the country and a knowl- 

 edge of the conditions governing distribu- 

 tion in any country cannot fail to be of the 



