38 



SCIENCE. 



ponding secretary, C. C. Royce ; recording secretary, 

 Lester F. Ward ; treasurer, J. Howard Gore ; curator, 

 Dr. W. J. Hoffman ; council, President J. C. Welling, 

 Professor E. A. Fay, Dr. J. Meredith Toner, Mr. F. A, 

 Seely, Mr. Miles Rock, Mr. H. L. Thomas. 



The Biological Society of Washington. 



On the first of December last, another society was or- 

 ganized for the study of the Biological sciences which, 

 after completing its organization, elected the following 

 officers for the ensuing year : President, Theodore 

 Gill; vice-presidents, C. V. Riley, J. W. Chickering, 

 Henry Ulke, Lester F. Ward ; secretaries, G. Browne 

 Goode, Richard Rathburn ; treasurer, Robert Ridgway ; 

 council, George Vasey, O. T, Mason, J. H. Comstock, 

 and Drs. Schafer and A. F. A. King. Professor S. 

 F. Baird was elected an honorary member. Dr. Frank 

 H. Baker, Mr. H. II. Birney and Mr. C. W. Scudder 

 were elected to active membership. Professor L. F. 

 Ward read a paper entitled "The Flora Columbiana of 

 1830 and 1880," in which a comparison was made be- 

 tween the lists of plants recorded as growing in the 

 District of Columbia in 1830 in Brereton's " Flora," and 

 the lists as now known to the botanists of the District. 

 Mr. Ulke spoke of the occurrence in the District of many 

 species of beetles, before known only in Alaska and 

 other remote localities. Professor Jordan read a paper 

 on "The Salmon of the California Coast," which con- 

 tained many new and important facts regarding their 

 habits and economic value. The annual address will be 

 delivered at the next meeting by Professor Theodore 

 Gill. A paper was also read by Professor Tarleton H. 

 Bean on "An Excursion to the Northern Coast of 

 Alaska." 



CHEMICAL SOCIETIES. 



The January Conversazione of the American Chemical 

 Society was held at the rooms of the Society on Monday 

 evening, January 17. The Vice-President, Dr. Albert R. 

 Leeds, of the Stevens Institute, exhibited a new modifi- 

 cation of Dinitro-orcine and certain of its salts. These 

 salts were originally prepared by Professor Leeds at his 

 own laboratory in the course of his investigations of Hypo- 

 nitric Anhydride in organic substances. 



Specimens of Dibenzole and Diphenyle were also ex- 

 hibited by the same gentleman. Several of the members 

 took advantage of the occasion to visit the laboratory 

 and see the recently patented electrical inventions of Dr. 

 O. Lugo. 



The next and regular meeting will take place on the* 

 first Monday of February, the 7th prox. 



The Chemical Society of Paris announces that among 

 the vice-presidents, according to the constitution, the 

 president shall be chosen from the following gentlemen ; 

 M. M. Grimaux, Salet and Berthelot, and that the Council 

 nominates M. M. Grimaux and Salet ; therefore M. Berthe- 

 lot will remain as vice-president during 188 1, and in con- 

 sequence of the regretted decease of M. Personne, M. 

 Berthelot will be the only occupant of that office. 



The German Chemical Society at their annual re-union 

 increased the dues of the non-resident members from 15 

 to 20 marks. This action has been in contemplation for 

 several years, and has now been definitely settled. 



M. B. 



THE French Association for the Advancement of 

 Sc'ence is to hold its next meeting in the city of Algiers, 

 on the 14th of April. The piople and authorities of 

 the city are making preparations to give the Association 

 a fitting welcome, and liberal appropriations have been 

 made by the Council for organizing the meeting, to 

 entertain the members and their friends. 



THE UNITY OF NATURE. 

 By the Duke of Argyll. 



V. 



ON THE TRUTHFULNESS OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE CON- 

 SIDERED IN THE LIGHT OF THE UNITY OF NATURE. 



But another nightmare meets us here — another sug- 

 gestion of hopeless doubt respecting the very possibility 

 of knowledge touching questions such as these. Nay, it 

 is the suggestion of a doubt even more discouraging — 

 for it is a suggestion that these questions may probably 

 be in themselves absurd — assuming the existence of rela- 

 tions among things which do not exist at all — relations 

 indeed of which we have some experience in ourselves, 

 but which have no counterpart in the system of Nature. 

 The suggestion, in short, is not merely that the answer 

 to these questions is inaccessible, but that there is no 

 answer at all. The objection is a fundamental one, and 

 is summed up in the epithet applied to all such inquiries 

 — that they are anthropomorphic. They assume author- 

 ship in a personal sense, which is a purely human idea — 

 they assume causation, which is another human idea — 

 and they assume the use of means for the attainment of 

 ends, which also is purely human. It is assumed bv 

 some persons as a thing in itself absurd that we should 

 thus shape our conceptions of the ruling power in Na- 

 ture, or of a Divine Being, upon the conscious knowledge 

 we have of our own nature and attributes. Anthropo- 

 morphism is the phrase employed to condemn this 

 method of conception — an opprobrious epithet, as it 

 were, which is attached to every endeavor to bring the 

 higher attributes of the human mind into any recogniza- 

 ble relation with the supreme agencies in Nature. The 

 central idea of those who use it seems to be that there 

 is-nothing human there ; and that when we think we see 

 it there, we are like some foolish beast wondering at its 

 own shadow. The proposition which is really involved 

 when stated nakedly is this : that there is no Mind in 

 Nature having any relation with, or similitude to, our 

 own, and that all our fancied recognitions of intellectual 

 operations like our own in the order of the Universe are 

 delusive imaginations. 



The denial of what is called " The Supernatural " is 

 the same doctrine in another form. The connection may 

 not be evident at first sight, but it arises from the fact 

 that the human mind is really the type of the Supernat- 

 ural. It would be well if this word were altogether ban- 

 ished from our vocabulary. It assumes that we know all 

 that " Nature " contains, and that we can pronounce with 

 certainty on what can and what cannot be found there. 

 Or else it assumes that Nature is limited to purely physical 

 agencies, and that our own mind is a power and agency 

 wholly separate and distinct from these. There might 

 indeed be no harm in this limitation of the word if it could 

 be consistently adhered to in all the terms of any argu- 

 ment involving its use. We are all quite accustomed to 

 think of Man as not belonging to Nature at all — as the one 

 thing or Being which is contradistinguished from Nature. 

 This is implied in the commonest use of language, as 

 when we contrast the works of Man with the works of 

 Nature. The same idea is almost unconsciously involved 

 in language which is intended to be strictly philosophical, 

 and in the most careful utterances of our most distin- 

 guished scientific men. Thus Professor Tyndall, in his 

 Belfast address to the British Association, uses these 

 words : " Our earliest historic ancestors fell back also upon 

 experience, but with this difference, that the particular 

 experiences which furnished the weft and woof of their 

 theories were drawn, not from the study of Nature, but 

 from what lay much closer to them— the observation of 

 men." Here Man is esoecially contradistinguished from 

 Nature ; and accordingly we find in the next sentence 

 that this idea is connected with the error of seeing our- 



