1908.] Anniversary Address by Lord Rayleigh. 



13 



decide on the admissibility of his germ-plasm theory. It is in like manner 

 unimportant that he was, in certain respects, forestalled by Galton, and that 

 his own views have undergone changes. The fact remains that he has done 

 more than any other man to focus scientific attention on the mechanism of 

 inheritance. By denying the possibility of somatic inheritance, he has 

 compelled the world to look at this question with a closeness of criticism that 

 is wanting in all earlier inquiries. In the opinion of what is perhaps the 

 majority of naturalists, he has achieved much more than this — he has 

 convinced them that the solution of the problem of evolution must be sought 

 along the lines of his doctrine of germinal continuity. Thus the preformist's 

 point of view, for which he has done so much, forms the basis on which 

 Mendelians and Mutationists are at work. 



Weismann's work was highly estimated by Mr. Darwin. Thus he writes, 

 in 1875 (' More Letters,' i, 35'6), of Weismann's paper on Seasonal 

 Dimorphism : " No one has done so much as you on this important subject, 

 i.e., on the causes of variation." Again (' Life and Letters,' iii, 198) : " I 

 have been profoundly interested by your essay on ' Amblystoma,' and think 

 you have removed a great stumbling block in the way of evolution." And, 

 once more, in January, 1877 (' Life and Letters,' iii, 231), Darwin wrote of 

 Weismann's ' Studien zur Descendenzlehre ' : " They have excited my interest 

 and admiration in the highest degree, and whichever I think of last seems to 

 me the most valuable." 



Hughes Medal. 



The Hughes Medal is awarded to Prof. Eugen Goldstein. 



Prof. Goldstein was one of the early workers on the modern detailed 

 investigation of the electric discharge in rarefied gases, and by long continued 

 researches has contributed substantially to the systematic analysis of the 

 complex actions presenting themselves in that field. Of these researches may 

 be mentioned his observations of the effect of magnetic force on striations, of 

 the phosphorescence produced by the cathode rays, and of the reflection of 

 cathode rays. 



By his discovery of the so-called Kanal-Strahlen, or positive rays, he has 

 detected an essential feature of the phenomenon, which, in his own hands 

 and in those of other workers, has already thrown much needed light on the 

 atomic transformations that are involved. 



