SCIENTIFIC NEV^^S. 



[Jan. 6, iS 



practice." Many savages cannot comprehend natural 

 death, but suppose that the deceased has in every case 

 been killed by witchcraft or by an evil spirit. 



The Royal Society. — It can scarcely be said that this 

 year the address of the President (Professor Stokes) is 

 worthy either of the occasion, or of his own merit. In 

 noticing the losses which the society has suffered by death 

 during the year, he introduced a defence of the strange 

 statute " which enables the Council to recommend to the 

 society for election in addition to the fifteen who are 

 selected in the ordinary way, and nearly always on 

 account of their scientific claims, persons who are 

 members of Her Majesty's Privy Council, and whose 

 ability is thus attested (?), though they are not usually men 

 of science." The speaker might have said " though they 

 are often indifferent or even hostile to science." A 

 foreign contemporary remarked some years ago that, 

 " whichever party was in power, the English Govern- 

 ment was always unfavourable to science." 



. Professor Stokes ventures a forecast of the direction 

 which future discovery may take. One cannot help 

 thinking of one or t\yo cases in which we seem almost 

 in touch of what if we could reach it would probably 

 give us an insight into the processes of nature, of which 

 we have little idea at present. Take, for instance, the 

 theory of electricity as contrasted with the theory of fight. 

 We can say that light consists in the undulations of an 

 elastic medium. But we are not able to give a similar 

 answer to the question, " What is electricity ? " Re- 

 ferring evidently to the researches of Mr. Crookes and 

 Mr. Lockyer on the " Genesis of the Elements," he 

 thinks that relations of chemical composition may be 

 pointed out even " between substances which we deem 

 elementary, and which from their great stability we 

 may, perhaps, never be able actually to decompose." 



Heredity and Nurture.— Mr. Francis Galton recentl}' 

 gave at the South Kensington Museum the first of a 

 course of three lectures on the parts played by these 

 factors in human development. He proposed the estab- 

 lishment of an anthropometric laboratory, where any 

 person might have his various dimensions and faculties 

 accurately measured. Such a laboratory would include 

 appliances for weighing, measuring, determining volume 

 of chest, muscular strength, etc., and more deficate 

 appliances for ascertaining the efficiency of the various 

 senses and certain mental constants. A library would be 

 attached, containing works on the respective influences 

 of nature and nurture, including medical, hygienic, and 

 statistical treatises in all languages. The lecturer solicits 

 communications and suggestions from all persons who 

 feel an interest in the project. 



Fog and Smoke. — In a lecture, of which we give an 

 abstract elsewhere. Sir Douglas Galton referred to the 

 connection of these evils. He admitted that he was un- 

 able to give any decisive method of dealing with smoke. 

 He proposes a trial of Professor Lodge's suggestion of 

 discharging electricity into the air during fogs by means 

 of a balloon or a kite. But he chiefly insists upon the 

 prompt removal of dust, ammonia, and sulphur from the 

 atmosphere and the prevention of the formation of smoke. 

 He considers that we should cook by gas and must 

 "sacrifice open fire-places, and probably the only way to 

 effect this would be to levy a tax upon their use." 



The Small-pox Hospitals. — The recently-issued sup- 

 plement to the annual report of the Local Government 

 Board, containing the Medical Officer's Report for 1886, 

 will possibly bring the question of these hospitals to a 

 crisis. Sixty pages of an appendix are devoted to a dis- 

 cussion of the influence of small-pox hospitals in spread- 

 ing that disease. Their consequences have long been 

 dreaded, though the Asylums Board contended that any 

 increase of small-pox in the neighbourhood might be 

 referred to other causes. Mr. Power now shows that in 

 every district w^here a small-pox hospital has been 

 established there has been a serious rise in the mortality. 

 If we compare the ten-years' periods, 1861 to 1870 and 

 1876 to 1885 (during which the hospitals of the Asylums 

 Board have been brought into operation), we see that the 

 small-pox deaths have increased yearly in Hackney from 

 fourteen to sixty-three per 100,000 ; in Hampstead from 

 five to sixteen. The sam.e process has been going on in 

 every district where a small-pox hospital has been 

 established. 



The Death of Professor Balfour Stewart. — We 

 much regret having to put on record the sudden death 

 of this eminent physicist. Balfour Stewart was born in 

 Edinburgh in 1828, was educated at the university of his 

 native city and in that of St. Andrews. Afterwards he 

 spent some time in Australia engaged in commercial pur- 

 suits ; but he soon turned his attention to science, selecting 

 the absorption and radiation of heat. In 1859 he was 

 appointed Director of Kew Observatory, where he 

 remained ten years engaged in the study of terrestrial 

 magnetism and of spectrum analysis. In 1862 he was 

 elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1868 he 

 received the " Rumford Medal" for his development of 

 the equality of radiation and the absorption of radiant 

 heat. In 1870 he was appointed to the chair of physics 

 in Owens College, Manchester, the duties of which post 

 he was fulfilling to within four days of his death. His 

 works on different departments of physics are highly 

 esteemed, but his most celebrated work, produced in con- 

 cert with his friend Professor Tait, is the " Unseen Uni- 

 verse," which has already passed through twelve editions. 



