NATURE AND NATURALISTS AT BOOKHAM. 
17 
a rapidly growing science and a most important one. The 
question of communication with the planets was then dealt with. 
Mr. Bloch showing by means of diagrams that the chances of 
existence of sentient beings on Mars were extremely small, 
about 100,000 to 1, according to his calculations, which were 
based on the enormous age of our earth before the appearance 
of man upon it. The science of bacteriology was then taken 
as a type of the growth of scientific knowledge, as it was but a 
very recent branch of research. Pasteur was connected with 
its beginnings and his discoveries in the cure of hydrophobia 
were well known. He was also the discoverer of the interesting 
fact that ordinary lyeast after being used up in the formation 
of alcohol, reacquired the power of fermentation after exposure 
to oxygen. Koch’s researches had led to the separation of the 
active principle of cholera and other diseases and he had also 
done much in adding to our knowledge of the causes and 
nature of consumption. There were three means of safeguard¬ 
ing against infectious diseases : (1) vaccination with an 
attenuated virus, (2) accustoming the system to resist diseases 
by inoculating with special matter, (3) sanitation. The 
relations between science on the one hand and art and religion 
on the other were then discussed. The lecturer concluded by 
reference to the imperfect modern method of education, and 
stated that he fully believed the near future would bring about 
great changes in all such matters as he had referred to. 
NATURE AND NATURALISTS AT BOOKHAM. * 
An Account of a Whit-Monday Ramble. 
The twenty-second of May, as I need hardly remind the 
readers of the Naturalists’ Journal, was a glorious day and 
the members of the Lambeth Field Club who met together on 
that morning in Waterloo Station seemed, as was natural, to 
have made up their minds to have a very enjoyable holiday 
among the beauties of that part of Surrey which had been 
fixed upon for the excursion. Those who were especially 
interested in the various phases of life to be found within the 
watery limits of a pond, including myself, were extra jubilant, 
as the programme that had been sent to each and every member 
some weeks before contained a promise of a splendid harvest of 
pond life. Owing to a freak on the part of the railway company, 
however, the route which we originally intended to follow had 
to be somewhat changed, and the distance to be traversed made 
