Full text of "Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science"

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BRITISH ASSOCIATION

FOR THE ADVANCEMENT
OF SCIENCE

REPORT

OF THE

EIGHTY-NINTH MEETING

EDINBURGH— 1921

SEPTEMBER 7-14

LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET

OFFICE OF THE ASSOCIATION
BURLINGTON HOUSE, LONDON, W.I

1922

CONTENTS.

rAuu

Officers and Council, lJ)21-22 v

Sections and Sectional Officers, Edinburgh, 1921 vii

Officers of Conference of Delegates ix

Annual Meetings : Places and Dates, 1'resident.s, Attendances,
Receipts, Sums paid on account of Grants for Scientific

Purposes (1831-1921) x

Report of the Council to the General Committee (1920-21) ... xiv

General Treasurer's Account (1920-21) xxiil

General Meetings at Edinburgh xxx

Public Lectures at Edinburgh xxxi

Research Committees (1921-22) xxxi

Cairo Fund xxx vii

Resolutions and Recommendations (Edinburgh Meeiing) xxxviil

The Presidential Address, by Sir T. Edward Thorpe, C'.B., F.R.S. 1

Sectional Presidents' Addresses :

A. — Problems of Physics. By Prof. 0. W. Richardson, F.R.S... . 25
B. — The Laboratory of the Living Organism. By Dr. M. O.

Forsteb, F.R.S 36

C.— Experimental Geology. By Dr. J. S. Flett, F.R.S 56

D.— Some Problems in Evolution. By Prof. E. S. Goodrich, F.R.S. 75

E.— Applied Geography. By Dr. D. G. Hogarth, C.M.G 86

F. — The Piinciples by which Wages are Determined. By W. L.

HiCHENS 95

G.— Water Power. By Prof. A. H. Gibson 110

I. — The Boundaries of Physiology. By Sir Walter M. Fletcher,

K.B.E., F.R.S 125

J. — C'onsciousncss and the Unconscious. By Prof. C. Lloyd

Morgan, F.R.S 143

A 2

IV CONTENTS.

PAGE

K. — The rrc.sL'ut Position of the Theory of Descent, in Relation to

the Early History of Plants. By Dr. D. H. Scott, F.R.S.... 17U

L. — The Place of Music in a Liberal Education. By Sir Henry

Hadow, C.B.E 187

M. — The Study of Agricultural Economics. By C. S. Obwin 194

Reports on the State op Science, &c 2U()

Transactions of the Sections 4U8

References to Publication of Communications to the Sections... 464

Sectional Communications in exlenso :

Discussion on the Structure of Molecules 468

Discussion on the Quantum Theory 473

Science and Ethics, by Dr. E. H. Griffiths, F.R.S 47'J

Corresponding Societies Committee's Report 487

Conference of Delegates of Corresponding Societies :

President's Address — The Message of Science, by Sir R. Gregory... 488

Report of the Conference 4'J7

List of Papers, 1920, on Zoology, Botany, and Prehistoric

Archeology of the British Isles, by T. Sheppabd 499

Index 550

iritislj |.ss0riati0n for il^t ^bbaitamcnt

0f Science,

OFFICERS & COUNCIL, 1921-22.

PATRON.

HIS MAJESTY THE KING.

PRESIDENT.
Sir T. Edward Thorpe, C.B., D.Sc, Sc.D., LL.D., F.R.S.

PRESIDENT ELECT.
Professor C. S. Sherrington, M.D., Sc.D., LL.D., F.R.S.

VICE-PRESIDENTS FOR THE EDINBURGH MEETING.

The Right Hon. Thomas Hutchison,
Lord Provost of the City of Edin-
burgh.

The Right Hon. Robert Munro, K.U.,
M.P., Secretary for Scotland.

His Grace the Duke of Buccleuch

AND QuEENSBERRY, K.T.

The Most Hon. the Marquess of

Linlithgow.
The Right Hon. Lord Clyde, Lord

Justice General.
Sir James Alfred Ewing, K.C.B.,

LL.D., F.R.S., Vice-chancellor of

the University of Edinburgh.

Professor Sir Edward Sharpey
Schafer, LL.D., F.R.S., ex-Presi-
dent of the Association.

Professor F. 0. Bower, Sc.D.,
LL.D., F.R.S., President of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Sir Robert Usher, Bart., Convener of
the Midlothian County Council.

Professor Sir Isaac Bayley Balfour,
K.B.E., M.D., D.Sc, F.R.S.

Sir .Johx Ross. LL.D., Chairman of
Carnegie Trusts, Dunfermline.

VICE-PRESIDENTS ELECT FOR THE HULL MEETING.

The Right Hon. the Lord Mayor of

Hull.
The Right Hon. Lord Nunburnholme,

C.B., D.S.O., Lord-Lieutenant of the

East Riding of Yorksiiire.
The Right Hon. T. R. Ferens, P.C.

High Steward.
The Worshipful the Sheriff.
Sir James Reckitt, Bart., D.L.
The Right Rev. Francis Gurdon.

Bishop of Hull.

Col. W. (1. R. ChichesterConstable,

D.L.
James Downs, O.B.E., J.P.
^Major A. J. Atkinson. O.B.E.
Alderm:ui F. Askew, J.P.
C. H. Gore, M.A., Headmaster

Hymers College.
,T. E. Forty, ALA., Headmaster

Hull (lianimar Scliool.
Dr. E. TuRTON.

of
of

GENERAL TREASURER.
E. H. Griffiths, Sc.D., D.Sc, LL.D., F.R.S.

A 3

OFFICERS AND COUNCIL.

GENERAL SECRETARIES.

Professor H. H. Turner, D.Sc,
D.C.L., F.R.S.

Professor J. L. Myres, O.B.E., M.A.
D.Sc, F.S.A.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY.

O. J. R. HowARTH, O.B.E., M.A., Burlington House, London, \V. 1.

LOCAL TREASURER FOR THE MEETING AT HULL.
T. F. MiLNER, F.S.A. A., City Treasurer.

LOCAL SECRETARIES FOR THE MEETING AT HULL.

H. A. Learoyd, M.A., LL.B., Town | T. Sheppard, M.Sc, Museums
Clerk of Hull. I Curator.

ORDINARY MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL.

Dr. E. F. Armstrong, F.R.S.

Dr. F. W. Aston, F.R.S.

J. Barcroft, F.R.S.

Professor W. A. Bone, F.R.S.

Professor H. J. Fleure.

Professor A. Fowler, F.Pi.S.

Professor J. Stanley GARniNF.R,

F.R.S.
Sir R. A. Gregory.
Sir R. Hadfield, Bart., F.R.S.
Sir Daniel Hall, K.C.B., F.R.S.
Sir S. F. Harmer, K.B.E.. F.R.S.
J. H. Jean-s, F.R.S.
Sir A. Keith, F.R.S

Sir J. Scott Keltie.

Professor A. W. Kirkaldy.

Dr. P. Chalmers Mitchell. C.B.E.,

F.R.S.
Sir J. E. Petavel, K.B.E., F.R.S.
Sir W. J. Pope, F.R.S.
Professor A. W. Porter, F.R.S.
Dr. W. H. R. Rivers, F.R.S.
Professor W. R. Scott.
Professor A. C. Seward, 'F.R.S.
Sir Aubrey Strahan, F.R.S.
W. \Yhitaker, F.R.S.
Dr. A. Smith Woodward, F.R.S.

EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL.

The Trustees, past Presidents of the Association, the President and Vice-
Presidents for the year, the President and Vice-Presidents Elect, past and
present General Treasurers and General Secretaries, past Assistant General
Secretaries, and the Local Treasurers and Local Secretaries for the ensuing
Annual Meeting.

Major
LL.D

TRUSTEES (PERMANENT).

P. A. MacMahon, D.Sc, I Sir Arthur Evans, M.A., LL.D..

, F.R.S. j F.R.S., F.S.A.

Hon. Sir Charles A. Parsons, K.C.B., LL.D., D.Sc, F.R.S.

PAST PRESIDENTS OF THE ASSOCIATION

F.R.S

Sir A. Geikie, K.C.B., O.M

Sir James Dewar, F.R.S.

Arthur J. Balfour, O.M., F.R.S.

Sir E. Ray Lankester, K.C.B., F.R.S.

Sir Francis Darwin, F.R.S.

Sir J. J. Thomson, O.M., Pres. R.S.

Professor T. G. Bonney, F.R.S.

Sir E. Sharpey Schafer, F.R.S.
Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S.
Professor W. Bateson, F.R.S.
Sir Arthur Schuster, F.R.S.
Sir Arthur Evans, F.R.S.
Hon. Sir C. A. Parsons, K.C.B.,
F.R.S.

Professor W. A. Herdman, C.B.E., F.R.S.

OFFICERS AND COUNCIL. VU

PAST GENERAL OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION.

Professor T. G. Bonney, F.R.S.
Sir E. Sharpey Schafer, F.R.S.
Dr. D. H. Scott, F.R.S.
Dr. J. G. Garson.

:Major P. A. M.\c^Iahon, F.R.S.
Professor W. A. Herdmak, C.B.E.,
F.R.S.

HON. AUDITORS.

Professor A. Bowley. I Professor A. VV. Kirkaltiy.

LOCAL OFFICERS : EDINBURGH, 1921.

CHAIRMAN OF GENERAL AND EXECUTIVE COMMITTEES.

The Rt. Hon. Thomas Hutchison, Lord Provost.

LOCAL TREASURER.
Thomas P.. Whitson, U.A.

LOCAL SECRETARIES.

Professor J. H. Ashworth, D.Sc, F.R.S.
A. Grierson, S.S.C., Town Clerk.

ASSISTANT LOCAL SECRETARY.

Professor W. T. Gordon, D.Sc.

SECTIONS & SECTIONAL OFFICERS, 1921.

A.— MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE.

President.— FtoL 0. W. Richardson, D.Sc, F.R.S.

Vice-Presidents.— Frol. C. G. Barkla, D.Sc, F.R.S. ; Prof. A. S.
Eddington, M.Sc, F.R.S.; Principal Sir J. A. Ewing, K.C.B., LL.D.,
D.Sc, F.R.S.; C. G. Knoit, D.Sc, LL.D., F.R.S.; Prof. R. A. Sampson,
D.Sc, F.R.S. ; Prof. E. T. Whittaker, M.A., F.R.S.

Recorder. — A. O. Rankine, D.Sc.

Serretaries.—I'roi. H. R. Hasse ; J. Jackson; M. A. GiBLETt; Prof.

A. M. TYND.4LL, M.Sc

Local Secretary.— G. A. Carse, D.Sc.

B.— CHEMISTRY.

President.— M. 0. Forster, D.Sc, Ph.D., F.R.S.

Vice-Presidents.— FroL G. Bargee, D.Sc, F.R.S.; C. T. Heycock,
M.A., F.R.S. ; Principal J. C. Irvine, D.Sc, Ph.D., F.R.S. ; Prof. Sir .7.
Walker, D.Sc, Ph.D., LL.D., F.R.S.

Becorder.— Prof. C. H. Descii, D.Sc, Ph.D.

Secretaries.— K. McCombie, D.Sc; E. H. Tripp, D.Sc.

Locol Secretar\i. — .1. E. Mackenzie, Ph.D., D.Sc

vni OFFICERS OF SECTIONS, 1921.

C— GEOLOGY.

President— 3 . S. Flett, D.Sc, LL.D., F.R.S.

Vice-Presidents. — F. A. Bather, D.Sc, F.R.S.; Prof. L. W. Collet;
Prof. R. A. D.4LY ; Walcot Gibson, D.Sc. ; J. Horne, LL.D., F.R.S. ; Prof.
T. J. Jehu, M.A., M.D.

Becorder. — A. R. Dwerryhouse, D.Sc.

Secretaries.— Vroi. W. T. Gordon, D.Sc. ; Prof. G. Hicklixg, D.Sc.

Local Secretary.— "R. Campbell, D.Sc.

D— ZOOLOGY.

President.— Prof. E. S. Goodrich, M.A., F.R.S.

Vice-Presidents. — E. J. Allen, D.Sc, F.R.S.; Prof. J. H. Ashwoeth,
D.Sc, F.R.S.; Prof. J. C. Ew.^rt, M.D., F.R.S.; Prof. J. Stanley
Gardiner, M.A., F.R.S. ; J. Ritchie, D.Sc.

Becorder. — R. D. Laurie, M.A.

Secretaries. — F. Baleour Browne, M.A. ; W. T. Calman, D.Sc, F.R.S.

Local Secretary. — G. Leslie Purser, M.A.

E.— GEOGRAPHY.

President.- V>. G. Hogarth, C.M.G., D.Litt.

Vice-Presidents. — Capt. J. Bartholomew, F.R.S. E. ; W. S. Bruce,
LL.D. ; H. M. Cadell, B.Sc. ; G. G. Chisholm, M.A. ; Col. Sir Duncan A.
Johnston, K.C.M.G., C.B., C.B.E. ; J. McFarlant:, M.A. ; Miss Marion
Xewbigin, D.Sc.

Becorder. — R. N. Rudmose Brown, D.Sc.

Secretaries. — Prof. W. H. Barker; F. Debenhaii.

Local Secretary. — T. S. Muie, M.A.

F.— ECONOMICS.

President. — W. L. Hichens.

Vice-Presidents. — Prof. E. Cannan, LL.D. ; Andrew Henderson, B.Sc. ;
Prof. A. W. Kirkaldy, M.A., M.Com. ; Prof. J. S. Nicholson, M.A. ;
D.Sc; Prof. W. R. Scott. D.Phil., Litt.D., LL.D.; A. K. Wright, J. P.

Becorder. — Prof. H. M. Hallsworth.

Secretaries. — Miss L. Griee; A. Radford.

Local Secretary. — W. M. Mitchell, M.A.

G— ENGINEERING.
President.— Proi. A. H. Gibson, D.Sc.

Vice-Presidents.— Prof. F. G. Baily, M.A. ; Prof. T. Hudson Be.\re,
B.Sc, D.L. ; AV. A. Eraser; Prof. A. E. Kenxelly ; Prof. R. Stanfield.
Becorder.- Proi. G. W. O. Howe, D.Sc.

Secretaries.— Pioi. F. Bacon, :\I.A. ; Prof. F. C. Lea, D.Sc.
Local Secretary. — J. B. Todd, B.Sc.

H.— ANTHROPOLOGY.

President.— m. Hon. Lord Abercromby, LL.D., F.R.S.E.i

Vice-P,esidents.—A. O. Curle ; ProL H. J. Fleure, D.Sc; Sir E. F.
iM Thurn, C.B., K.C.M.G. ; Prof. R. W. Reid, M.D. ; ProL A.
Robinson, M.D.

Becorder.-^. N. Fallaize, B.A.

Secretary. — F. C. Shrubsall, M.D.

Local Secretary. — D. MacRitchie.

* III succession to Sir .J. fl. Frnzer. F.R.S.. resigned.

OFFICERS OF SECTIONf!, 1921. ''f

I.— PHYSIOLOGY.

President.— Sir Walter M. FLETcirEa, K.B.E., M.D., Sc.D., F.R.S.

Vice-I'rPsidcnts.—¥roi. W. M. Bayliss, D.Sc, F.R.S. ; Prof. A. R.
CusHNY, M.D , LL.D., F.R.S. ; J. S. Haldane, M.D., F.R.S. ; Prof. W. D.
HALLiEimTON, M.D., L.L.D., F.R.S. ; Prof. Sir E. Sharpey Schafer, LI>.D.,
Sc.D., F.R.S. ; Prof. A. D. Waller, M.D., F.R.S.

Ecwrder.— Prof. H. E. Ro.af, M.D., D.Sc.

Serrehtnes.^C. Lovatt Evans, D.Sc. ; Prof. P. T. Herring, M.D.

Local Secretarii.—yV. W. Taylor, D.Sc.

J.— PSYCHOLOGY.

President. — Prof. C. Lloyd Morgan, LL.D., D.Sc, F.R.S.
Tirf -Preside nts.—C. S. Myers, M.D., Sc.D., F.R.S. ; W. H. R. Rivers,
M.D., F.R.S.; Prof. G. M. Robertson; Prof. J. Seth.
liecorder. — C. L. Burt.
Secretary. — F. Watts.
Local Secretary.— J. Drever, B.Sc, D.Phil.

K.— BOTANY.

Preside rd.— J). H. Scott, D.Sc, LL.D., Ph.D., F.R.S.

Vice-Prcshlents.^Pvot Sir I. B. Balfour, K.B.E., M.D., F.R.S.;
Prof. F. 0. Bower, Sc.D., LL.D., F.R.S.; R. Kiuston, LL.D., F.R.S.;
Miss E. R. Saunders ; Prof. E. P. Stebbing ; W. G. Smith, Ph.D. ; Prof.
F. E. Weiss, D.Sc., F.R.S.

Be cord er.— Miss E. N. Miles Thomas, D.Sc.

Secretaries.— F. T. Brooks; Prof. J. McLean Thompson, D.Sc.

Local Secretary. — W. Wright Smith, M.A.

L.— EDUCATION.

President.— Sh W. Henry Hadow, C.B.E., M.A., D.Mus.

Vice-Presidents. — Her Grace the Duchess of Atholl, D.B.E., LL.D.;
Sir R. Blair, M.A. ; Sir R. A. Gregory; Principal A. P. Laurie, D.Sc. ;
A. Morgan, D.Sc.

Recorder. — D. Berridge, M.A.

Secretaries.— C. E. Browne, B.Sc; Miss L. J. Clarke, D.Sc.

Local SecAtary.—I). Kennedy-Fraser, M.A., B.Sc.

M.- AGRICULTURE.

Presidpnt.—C. S. Orwin, M.A.

T'/>c-P/p.s)'(/c;if.s.— Sir Robert Grieg; Prof. R. Wallace.
liecorder. — A. Lauder, D.Sc.

Secretaries.^ C. G. T. Morison, M.A. ; G. Scott Robertson, M.Sc.
Local Secretary.— J. A. S. Watson, B.Sc

CONFERENCE OF DELEGATES OF CORRESPONDING

SOCIETIES.

President. — Sir Richard A. Gregory.
Vice-President arid Secretary. — W. INFark Webb.
Local Secretary. — T. Cuthbert Day.

ANNUAL MEETINGS.

TABLE OF

Date of Meeting

Where held

Presidents

Old Life
Members

169
303
109
226
313
241
314
149
227
235
172
164
141
238
194
182
236
222
184
286
321
239
203
287
292
207
167
196
204
314
246
245
212
162
239
221
173
201
184
144
272
178
203
235
225
314
428
266
277
259
189
280
201
327
214
330
120
281
296

New Life
Members

1831, Sept. 27

1832, June 19

1833, June 25

1834, Sept. 8

1835, Aug. 10

1836, Aug. 22

1837, Sept. 11

1838, Aug. 10

1839, Aug. 26

1840, Sept. 17...

1841, July 20

1842, June 23

1843, Aug. 17

1844, Sept. 26

1845, June 19

1846, Sept. 10... .

1847, June 23 ....

1848, Aug. 9

1849, Sept. 12

1860, July 21

1861, July 2

York

Viscount Milton, D.O.L., P.R.S

The Rev. W. Buckland, P.R.S

The Rev. A. Sedgwick, F.R.S

Sir T. M. Brisbane, D.C.L., F.R.S. ...
The Rev. Provost Lloyd,LL.D., P.R.S.
The Marquis of Lansdowne, P.R.S. ..

The Earl of Burlington, F.R.S

The Duke of Northumberland, P.R.S.
The Rev. W. Vernon Harcourt, P.R.S.
The Marquis of Breadalbane, P.R.S.

The Rev. W. Whewell, P.R.S

The Lord Francis Egerton, F.G.S. ...

The Earl of Rosse, F.R.S

The Rev. G. Peacock, D.D., P.R.S. ...
Sir John F. W.Herschel, Bart., P.R.S.
Sir Roderick I.Murchison,Bart.,P.R.S.
Sir Robert H. Inglis, Bart., F.R.S. ...
TheMarquisofNorthampton,Pres.R.S.
The Rev. T. R. Robinsou, D.D., F.R.S.

Sir David Brewster, K.H., F.R.S.

G. B. Airy, Astronomer Royal, F.R.S.

Lieut.-General Sabine, P.R.S

William Hopkins, P.R.S

The Earl of Harrowby, P.R.S

The Duke of Argyll, P.R.S

Prof. C. G. B.Daubeny, M.D., P.R.S....

The Rev. H. Lloyd, D.D., P.R.S

Richard Owen, M.D., D.C.L., F.R.S....

H.R.H. The Prince Consort

The Lord Wrottesley, M.A., P.R.S. ...

William Fairbairn, LL.D., P.R.S

The Rev. Professor WiUis,M.A.,F.R.S.
SirWiUiam G. Armstrong.O.B., F.R.S.
Sir Charles Lyell, Bart., M.A., F.R.S.
Prof. J. Phillips, M.A., LL.D., P.R.S.

William R. Grove, Q.C., F.R.S

The Duke of Buccleuch, K.C.B.,F.R.S.

Dr. Joseph D. Hooker, P.R.S

Prof. G. G. Stokes, D.C.L., P.R.S. ...
Prof . T. H. Huxley, LL.D., P.R.S. ...
Prof. Sir W. Thomson, LL.D., P.R.S.
Dr. W. B. Carpenter, F.R.S. ...
Prof. A. W. Williamson, F.R.S.

Prof. J. Ty ndall, LL.D., P.R.S

Sir John Hawkshaw, P.R.S

Prof. T. Andrews, M.D., P.R.S

Prof. A. Thomson. M.D., P.R.S

W. Spottiswoode, M. A., F.R.S

Prof. G. J. AUman, M.D., F.R.S

A. C. Ramsay, LL.D., F.R.S

Sir John Lubbock, Bart., F.R.S

Dr. C. W. Siemens, F.R.S

Prof. A. Cayley, D.O.L., P.R.S

Prof. Lord Rayleigh, F.R.S

Sir Lyon Playfair, K.O.B., P.R.S

Sir J. W. Dawson, O.M.G., P.R.S

Sir H. E. Rosooe, D.O.L., F.R.S

Sir P. J. Bramwell, F.R.S

Prof. W. H. Flower, C.B., F.R.S

Sir P. A. Abel, C.B., F.R.S

Dr. W. Huggins, F.R.S

Sir A. Geikie, LL.D., F.R.S

Prof. J. S. Burdon Sanderson, P.R.S.
The Marquis of Salisbury,K.G.,P.R.S.
Sir Douglas Galton, K.C.B., P.R.S. ...
Sir Joseph Lister, Bart., Prcs. R.S. ...

Sir John Evans, K.C.B., P.R.S

Sir W. Orookes, P.R.S

Sir Michael Foster, K.C.B., Sec.R.S....

65
169
28
150
36
10
18
3
12
9
8
10
13
23
33
14
16
42
27
21
113
15
36
40
44
31
25
18
21
39
28

2I
13
36
35
19
18
16
11
28
17
60
20
13
25
86
36
20
21
24
14
17
21
13

8
19
20

Oxford

Cambridge

Edinburgh

Dublin

Bristol

Liverpool

Newcastle-on-Tyne. . .
THrminghani

Glasgow

Plymouth

Manchester

Cork

York

Cambridge

Southampton

Oxford

Swansea

Birmingham

Edinburgh

Ipswich

1852, Sept. 1

1853, Sept. 3 ... .

1854, Sept. 20 .

1865, Sept. 12

1856, Aug. 6

18B7,Aug.26

1868, Sept. 22 ...

1859, Sept. 14

1860, June 27 ...

1861, Sept. 4

1862, Oct. 1 .

1863, AU2. 26

1864, Sept. 13

1865, Sept. 6

1866, Aug. 22

1867, Sept. 4

1868, Aug. 19 ...

1869, Aug. 18

1870, Sept. 14

1871, Aug. 2 .

1872, Aug. 14

1873, Sept. 17 ...

1874, Aug. 19

1875, Aug. 25

1876, Sept. 6 ....

1877, Aug. 15

1878, Aug. 14

1879, Aug. 20

1880, Aug. 25

1881, Aug. 31

1882, Aug. 23

1883, Sept. 19

1884, Aug. 27

1885, Sept. 9

1886, Sept. 1

1887, Aug. 31

1888, Sept. 5

1889, Sept. 11

1890, Sept. 3

1891, Aug. 19 ...

1892, Aug. 3 .

1893, Sept. 13...

1894, Aug. 8

1895, Sept. 11 ...
1893, Sept. 16....

1897, Aug. 18

1898, Sept. 7

1899, Sent. 13

Belfast

Hull

Liverpool

Glasgow

Cheltenham

Dublin

Leeds

Aberdeen

Oxford

Manchester

Cambridge

Newcastle-on-Tyne. . .
Bath

Birmingham

Nottingham

Dundee

Norwich

Exeter

Liverpool

Edinburgh

Brighton

Bradford

Belfast

Bristol

Glasgow

Plymouth

Dublin

Sheffield

Swansea

York

Southampton

Southport

Montreal

Aberdeen

Birmingham

Manchester

Bath

Newcastle-on-Tyne...

Leeds

Cardiff

Edinburgh

Nottingham

Oxford

Ipswich

Liverpool

Toronto

Bristol

Dover

* Ladies were not admitted by purchased tickets until 1843. t Tickets of Admission to Sections only.

[ Continued on p. xii.

ANNUAL MEETINGS.

Old
Annual
Members

46
75
71
45
94
65
197
54
93
128
61
63
56
121
142
104
156
111
126
177
184
150
154
182
215
218
193
226
229
303
311
280
237
232
307
331
238
290
239
171
313
253
330
317
332
428
BIO
399
412
368
341
413
328
436
290
383
286
327
324

New
Annual
Members j

Asso-
ciates

317

376

185

190

121

101

120

179

126

209

103

149

105

118

117

107

196

127

185

17fi

323

219

122

179

244

100

113

162

141

139

126

33t

9t
407
270
495
376
447
510
244
610
367
765

1094
412
900
710

1206
636

1589
433

1704

1119
766
960

1163
720
678

1103
976
937
796
817
884

1265
446

1286
529
389

1230
516
952
826

1053

1067

1985
639

1024
680
672
733
773
941
493

1384
682

1061
548

1100»

60*
331»
160
260
172
196
203
197
237
273
141
292
236
524
543
346
669
609
821
463
791
242
1004
1068
608
771
771
682
600
910
764
912
601
630
672
712
283
674
349
147
514
189
841
74
447
429
493
509
579
334
107
439
268
451
261
873
100
639
120

Foreigners

Total

—

363

900

—

1298

1350

—

1840

—

2400

1438

1353

—

891

1315

1079

867

1320

819

1071

1241

710

1108

876

1802

2133

1115

2022

1698

2664

1689

3138

1161

3336

2802

1997

2303

2444

48J

2004

1856

2878

2463

2533

1983

1961

2248

2774

1229

2578

1404

915

2557

1263

2714

26&60H.5

1777

2203

2463

3838

1984

2437

1775

1497

2070

1661

2321

1324

3181

1362

2446

1403

Amount
received

for
Tickets

£707

963
1085

620
1085

903
1882
2311
1098
2015
1931
2782
1604
3944
1089
3640
2965
2227
2469
2613
2042
1931
3096
2576
2649
2120
1979
2397
3023
1268
2615
1425

899
2689
1286
3369
1855
2256
2632
4336
2107
2441
1776
1664
2007
1653
2175
1236
3228
1398
2399
1328

Sams paid

on account

of Grants

for Scientific

Purposes

£20

167

435

922

932

1695

1646

1236

1449

1566

981

831

685

208

275

159

346

391

304

205

380

480

734

607

618

684

766

1111

1293

1608

1289

1591

1750

1739

1940

1622

1572

1472

1285

1685

1161

960

1092

1128

726

1080

731

476

1126

1083

1173

1385

996

1186

1511

1417

789

1029

864

907

883

977

1104

1069

1212

1430

Tear

10 11 1

1831
1832
1833
1834
1835
183S
1837
1838
1839
1840
1841
1842
1843
1844
1846
1846
1847
1848
1849
1860
1851
1852
1853
1864
1855
1856
1857
1868
1859
1860
1861
1862
1863
1864
1865
1866
1867
1868
1869
1870
1871
1872
1873
1874
1875
1876
1877
1878
1879
1880
1881
1882
1883
1884
1885
1886
1887
1888
1889
1890
1891
1892
1893
1894
1896
1896
1897
1898
1899

X Including Ladies, § Fellows of the American Association were admitted as Hon. Members for this Meeting.

[^Continued on p. xiii.

ANNUAL MEETINGS.

Table of

Date of Meeting

Where held

Presidents

Sir William Turner, D.O.L.. F.R.S. ...
Prof. A. W. Rucker, D.Sc, SecJl.S. ...

Prof. J. Dewar, LL.D., F.R.S

Sir Norman Lockyer, K.C.B., F.R.S.
Rt. Hon. A. J. Balfour, M.P., F.R.S.
Prof. G. H. Darwin, LL.D., F.R.S. ...
Prof. E. Ray Lankester, LL.D., F.R.S.

Sir DaTid Gill, K.O.B., F.R.S

Dr. Francis Darwin, F.R.S

Prof. Sir J. J. Thomson, F.R.S

Rev. Prof. T. G. Bonney, F.R£

Prof. Sir W. Ramsay, K.C.B., F.R.S.

Prof. E. A. Schafer. F.R.S

Sir Oliver J. Lodge, F.R.S

Prof. W. Bateson, F.R.S

Prof. A. Schuster, F.R.S

1 Sir Arthur Evans, F.R.S |

Hon. Sir 0. Parsons, K.O.B.,P.R.S....

Prof. W. A. Herdman, C.B.E., F.R.S.
Sir T.E. Thorpe, O.B., F.R.S

Old Life
Members

New Life
Members

1900, Sept. 5

1901, Sept. 11

1902, Sept. 10

1903, Sept. 9

1904, Aug. 17

1906, Aug. 15

1906, Aug. 1

1907, July 31

1908, Sept. 2

1909, Aug. 25

1910, Aug. 31

1911, Aug. 30

1912, Sept. 4

1913, Sept. 10

1914, July-Sept....

1916, Sept. 7

1916, Sept. 5

1917

1918

1919, Sept. 9

1920, Aug. 24

1921, Sept. 7

Bradford

267
310
243
250
419
116
322
276
294
117
293
284
288
376
172
242
164

235

288
336

13
37
21
21
32
40
10
19
24
13
26
21
14
40
13
19
12

Belfast

Southport

Cambridge

South Africa

York

Leicester

Dublin

Winnipeg

Sheffield

Portsmouth

Dundee

Birmingham

Manchester

Newcastle-on-Tyue. . .
(No Meeting)

(No Meeting)

Bournemouth

Cardiff

Edinburgh

T Including 848 Members of the South African Association.
XX Grants from the Caird Fund are not included in this and subsequent sums.

1^2-2,

H-uH

ANNUAL MEETINGS.

Xlll

Annual Meetings—

-(coulinued).

Old New
Aiiuiial Annual

Asso-
oiatee

Ladies

Foreigners

Total

Amount
received

for
Tickets

Sums paid

on account

of Grants

Yeai-

Members Members

for Scientific
Purposes

£1072 10

1900

297 ; 45

801

482

1915

£1801

374 * 131

794

246

1912

2046

920 9 11

1901

:h14 86

647

305

1620

1644

947

1902

319 90

688

365

1754

1762

845 13 2

1903

449 113

1338

317

121

2789

2650

887 18 11

1904

937T 411

430

181

2130

2422

928 2 2

1905

356 93

817

352

1972

1811

882 9

1906

339 61

659

251

1647

1561

767 12 10

1907

465 112

1166

222

2297

2317

1157 18 8

1908

290»« 1 162

789

1468

1623

1014 9 9

1909

379 i 57

663

123

1449

1439

963 17

ItlO

349 61

414

1241

1176

922

1911

368 95

1293

359

2504

2349

845 7 6

1912

480 149

1287

291

2643

2756

978 17 IJt

1913

139 416011

63911

—

604411

4873

1086 16 4

1914

287 116

628*

141

1441

1406

1159 2 8

1915 i

250 76

251*

826

821

715 18 10

1916

— —

—

427 17 2

1917

— —

—

220 13 3

1918

•2bi 102

688*

153

1482

1736

160

1919

Annual Members

Old
Annual

Transfer

Students'

Regular
Members

Meeting

and
Eeport

Meeting
only

able
Tickets

Tickets

136

192

571

120

1383

1272 10

959 13 9

1920

133

410

1394

121

343

2768

2599 15

418 1 10

1921

•* Including 137 Members of the American Association.
II Special arrangements were made for Members and Associates joining locally in Australia see
Keport, 1914, p. 686. The numbers include 80 Members who joined in order to attend the Meetineof
L' Association Fran? aise at Le Havre.
» Including Students' Tickets, 10».

XIV

REPORT OF THE COUNCIL, 1920-21.

I. Professor Charles Scott Sherrington, Pres. Pi-.S., has been
unanimously nominated by the Council to fill the office of President of
the Association for the year 1922-23 (Hull Meeting).

II. A resolution from Section D, supported by other Sections, urging
the need for a national expedition for the further exploration of the
sea, was referred by the General Committee at the Cardiff Meeting to
the Council for consideration, and, if desirable, for action. A memo-
randum, printed as an appendix to this report, was drawn up by a
Committee which (as stated therein) was appointed by the Council for
the purpose.

The Council, however, at its meeting on March 4, 1921, adopted
a report from the General Officers recommending that no further action
should be taken for the present, in view of the need for economy in
national expenditure, in regard to the presentation of the above scheme
to H.M. Government. The scheme, however, is retained under con-
sideration, and the Council hopes that the expedition is only postponed
for a season, and that the interval may be usefully employed in
perfecting plans and making other essential preparations.

Meanwhile, the memorandum has been communicated to the Cabinet
Secretariat of H.M. Government, the Admiralty, and the Department
of Scientific and Industrial Eesearch.

III. Other resolutions referred by the General Committee, at the
Cardiff Meeting, to the Council for consideration and if desirable for
action were dealt with as follows: —

(a\) An application to H.M. Stationery Office to print tables on
Congruence Solutions, prepared by Lieut. -Col. A. Cunningham and
Mr. T. G. Creak, was forwarded to the Department of Scientific and
Industrial Research, \\hich replied that the work could not be under-
taken at present owing to the nigh cost of printing, but suggested that
the application should be renewed later. (Eesolution of Section A.)

(b) The need lor a central British institute for training and research
ill surveying, hydrography, and geodesy has been brought to the notice
of the Eoyal Commissions on the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
(Resolutions of Sections A and E.)

(c) A resolution on the desirability of continuing experiments on
industrial alcohol in Government estabUshments was forwarded to the
Director of Fuel Research. (Eesolution of Section B.)

(d) The Council took note that the forecasting of the length of
Research Committee reports was regarded as impossible in many cases
by the Committee of Section C. Forecasts have not been requested
this year, and alternative measures will be adopted in future.

REPORT OF THE COUNCIL, 1920-21. XV

(e) Following on a resolution by Section D, supported by other
sections, the Council communicated the following resolution to the First
Lord of the Treasury : — -

That the Council considers that no scheme of payment of professional
scientific men in the service of the State is satisfactory which places them on
a lower level than that of the higher grade of the Civil Service.

(/) Eesolutions from Sections E and H in favour of the collection
of rural lore through the agency of schools and colleges were approved
and forwarded to the President of the Board of Education and to the
Scottish Education Department.

(g) A resolution from Section E, on geographical education in
advanced courses, was approved and forwarded to the President of the
Board of Education.

(//) The Council forwarded to the Royal Society a resolution from
Section E, asking that the representative of the Association on the
National Committee on Geographical Research should be one who
might hold office for a longer term than the President of Section E
during his year of office (as proposed by the Society). Having ascer-
tained the concurrence of the Society with this view, the Council
appointed Professor J. L. Myres to represent the Association.

(i) The Council communicated with the Government of the Union
of South Africa as to the desirability of instituting an ethnological
bureau (Resolution of Section H), and were informed that a school of
Bantu studies is being established in connection with the University
of Cape Town.

(j) A resolution of Section. H on the desirability of instituting an
anthropological survey of aborigines in Western Australia was approved
and forwarded to the Government of that State. A resolution on the
protection of aborigines in central Australia was approved and forwarded
(o the High Commissioner for Australia, with an expression of satis-
faction at the measures to that end which, as the Council learned, were
ali'eady in hand.

(fc) The Council resolved to give effect to a resolution (from Section
H) that associations for the advancement of science in the Dominions
and foreign countries should be asked to send official representatives
to attend annual meetings of the British Association, and the Austral-
asian, South African, American, French, Italian, and Spanish Associa-
iions for the Advancement of Science were accordingly invited to send
delegates to the Edinburgh meeting.

(?) A I'esolution from Sections H and L. urging the extension of
anfliropometric observations as part of the medical inspection in schools,
was approved and forwarded to the President of the Board of Education
and the Minister for Health. The former, however, pointed out that
it was not possible to impose further duties upon local educational bodies
in regard to medical inspection.

(m) The Council approved the foi-mation of Section J, Psychology.

(?i) A resolution from Section K, urging Government support for
afforestation experiments on pit-mcmnds by the Midlands Afforestation
Committee, was approved and forwarded to the Minister for Agriculture
and to the Forestiy Commission.

XVI REPORT OF THE COUNCIL, 1920-21.

(o) Tlic Council were unable to approve a proposal (from Section L)
that the Organising Committee of that Section should allow a book on
Citizenship to be published with its approval, but informed the Com-
mittee of its power to bring such a book to the notice of the Council
itself.

(•/)) The Council took no action upon proposals received from the
Conference of Delegates : (i) That a meeting of delegates should be
held in London ; (ii) That the Council should urge the reappointment
of a Eoyal Commission on Eailwa3's. As regards (ii) the Council felt
that such a proposal lies outside the scope of the Association.

IV. The Council have had under careful consideration various sugges-
tions which have been made, in correspondence in NaUire and elsewhere,
in regard to the organisation of Sections, the improvement of annual
meetings, etc. The Council appointed a Committee ' to consider and
report upon the redistribution of Sections and on other matters in connec-
tion with the proceedings of the Annual Meeting,' and this Committee
has presented a valuable and suggestive report. The Council also caused
all the Organising Sectional Committees to be summoned to meet on
one day (February 25, 1921) at Burlington House, accommodation
being provided for them through the kind collaboration of the
Chemical Society, the Society of Antiquaries, and the Linnean Society.
The Committees met jointly, as well as separately, ^ and the opportunity
thus afforded for interchange of views was greatly appreciated, and
resulted in many valuable suggestions, especially in the direction of
formulating subjects for joint discussion at the Edinburgh Meeting.

In the outcome, the Council have made the following arrangements,
which they hope will add to the success of the forthcoming and future
Annual Meetings: —

(a) Out of the subjects proposed for discussion at joint sectional
meetings the Council have selected six, for which they have empowered
the General Officers to fix times in the programme of the meeting, with
a view to their arrangement as special features.

(b) Sectional Presidents have been given the opportunity either of
reading their addresses, as hitherto, or of speaking and introducing
discussion upon their subjects (without formal reading). The Council
have also empowered the General Officei's to fix the times of presidential
addresses in the programme, in order to avoid the clashing of subjects
of kindred interest.

(c) The Council have endorsed the opinion of the meeting on Feb-
ruary 25 that any grouping of the Sections should be voluntary and
temporary, not binding and permanent. They propose, however, that
the General Committee should meet in special session at the Edinburgh
Meeting to consider the question of a reduction in the number of
Sections.

(d) The Council have empowered Sectional Committees to submit
each year a short list of names suitable for Presidents of their respective
Sections at the next meeting.

1 These meetings rendered unnecessary a meeting of Recorders of Sections
similar to that which was so successfully held in 1920, and is referred to in
Seport of Council, 1919-20, § xv.

REPORT OF THE COUNCIL, 1920-21. XVil

V. Conference of Delegates and Corresponding Societies Com-
mittee. — The following nominations are made by the Council: Confer-
ence of Delegates : Sir R. A. Gregory [President), Mr. W. Mark Webb
{Vice-President and Secretary), Mr. T. C. Day {Local Secretary for the
Edinhurgli Meeting). Corresponding Societies Coinviiilee: Mr. W.
Whitaker {Chairman), Mr. W. Mark Webb {Secretary), Mr. P. J.
Ashton, Dr. F. A. Bather, Eev. J. O. Bevan, Sir Edward Brabrook,
Sir H. G. Fordham, Sir R. A. Gregory, Mr. T. Sheppard, Rev.
T. R. R. Stebbing, Mr. Mark L. Sykes, and the President and General
Officers of the Association.

VI. Under the powers delegated to them by the General Committee,
the Council appointed Dr. E. H. Griffiths General Treasurer of the
.\ssociation for the year 1920-2]. His accounts have been audited and
are presented to the General Committee.

VII. The Council empowered the General Officers to grant the sum
of 2501. annually for five years out of the gift of 1,000L (with accumu-
lated interest) made by the late Sir James Caird for the study of radio-
activity, subject to reports to the Council by the General Officers and
the recipients. The grant for the year 1921-22 has been made to Sir
E. Rutherford.

VIII. The retiring Ordinary Members of the Council are: —

By seniority: Dr. F. A. Dixey, Sir F. W. Dyson, Miss E. R.
Saunders.

By least attendance: Sir D. Morris.

Dr. E. H. Griffiths, on his appointment as General Treasurer, ceased
to be an Ordinaiy Member of the Council.

The Council nominated the following new members: —
Dr. F. W. Aston, Prof. H. T. Fleure, Prof. A. C. Seward,
leaving two vacancies to be filled by the General Committee without
nomination by the Council.

The full list of nominations of Ordinary Members is as follows: —

Mr. J. H. Jeans.
Professor A. Keith.
Sir J. Scott Keltic.
Professor A. W. Kirkaldy.
Dr. P. Chalmers Mitchdl.
Sir W. J. Pope.
Dr. W. H. R. Rivers.
Professor W. R. Scott.
Professor A. C. Seward.
Sir Aubrey Strahan.
Mr. W. Whitaker.
Dr. A. Smith Woodward.

IX The General Officers have been nominated by the Council as
follows : —

General Treasurer, Dr. E. H. Griffiths.

General Secretaries, Prof. H. H. Turner and Prof. J. L. Myres.

X. Dr. E. H. Griffiths and Prof. J. L. Myres have been appointed
representatives of the Association on the Conjoint Board of Scientific
Societies.

1921 B

Dr. E. r. Armstrong.

Dr. F. W. Aston.

INIr. J. Barcroft.

Professor W. A. Bone.

Professor H. J. Fleure.

Professor A. Fowler.

Professor J. Stanley Gardiner,

Sir R. A. Gregory.

Sir R. Hadfield.

Sir Daniel Hall.

Sir S. F. Harmer.

XVIU REPORT OF THE COUNCIL, 1920-2K

XI. The following have been admitted as nieiiibers ol the General
Committee: —

Canon J. A. MacCulloch, Dr. J. E. Milne, Trof. T. P. Nunn,
Dr. J. Eeilly, Mr. W. Alfred Eichardson, Sir E. Eobertson, Prof. W. H.
Watkinson.

XII. The Council have been informed that invitations for future
Annual Meetings will be presented in due course to the General Com-
mittee as follows : Liverpool, 1923 ; Toronto, 1924.

XIII. The following changes in the Eules are proposed, namely : —

(a) Rule VII., 4, ' tlie balance .standing ... to the credit of tlie AssociatioTi
ill the hooks of the Bank of England,' to read ' . . . the Association's bankers us
authorised by the Council.'

(h) To add in Rule X., after clause (iii.) :

(iv.) University students, not resident or working in the locality where the
Annual Meeting takes place, may, on tlie recommendation of any recognis<<d
University or College, obtain, on one occasion only, students' tickets for tin;
meeting on payment of 10s. Holders of such tickets shall not be entitled to any
privilege beyond attendance at the Annual Meeting, but shall not be debarred
from admission under clause (iii.).

REPORT UF THE COUNCIL, 1920-21. XIX

APPENDIX TO REPOET OF COUNCIL.

MEMOEANDUM ON PROPOSED NATIONAL EXPEDITION
FOR THE EXPLORATION OF THE SEA.

I.
Origin of Proposal.

AT the Annual Meeting of the British Association for the Advance-
ment of Science in August 1920 the President, Dr. W. A.
Herdman, F.R.S., Professor of Oceanography in the University of
Liverpool, delivered an address dealing with some of the problems of
oceanography, and suggested that the time had come for a new British
expedition to explore the great oceans of the globe. This suggestion was
aftei-wards put forward more definitely and with further detail in the
discussion ' On the Need for the Scientific Investigation of the Ocean '
at a joint meeting of the Sections of Zoology and Geography. The pro-
posal then made was, in brief, that there was now urgent need for
another great exploring lexpedition like that of the Challcugrr
(1872-76), national in character, world-wide in scope, to investigate
further the science of the sea, in all departments, by modern methods
under the best expert advice and control.

Action by Committees and Council of the Association.

This proposal was received with such favour that at the next meeting
of the Committee of Section D (Zoology) a resolution was unanimously
passed : —

That Section D is profoundly impressed with the impoiiance
of urging the initiation of a further National Expedition for the
Exploration of the Ocean, and requests the Council of the British
Association to appoint a Committee to take the necessary steps to
impress this need upon His Majesty's Government and the
nation.
This resolution was supported by the Committees of all the other Sections of
the Association interested in such an exploration. The Committee of Recom-
mendations and the General Committee on the following day passed a resolution
' pointing out the importance of urging the initiation of a national expedition
for the exploration of the ocean, and requesting that the Council of the British
Association should take the necessary steps to impress this need upon His
Majesty's Government and the nation.' The Council of the Association there-
upon appointed a Committee, representative of all the departments of science
concerned, to prepare and take steps for the presentation of the present state-
ment; while, following upon a reference from the Association, the Council of the
Royal Society also appointed a Committee to confer with that appointed by the
Council of the Association.

Many men of science, both British and foreign, wrote expressing the hope
that the cogent scientific reasons for the expedition may be pi-essed without delay
upon the Government so as to indue© the nation to undertake this great enterprise.

XX REPORT OF THE COUNCIL, 1920-21.

II.

' Challenger ' Expedition.

The ChdUciKjrr expedition, the great British circumnavigating and deep-sea
exploring expedition under Sir George Nares and Sir Wyville Thomson in
1872-76, brought back collections and results unrivalled either before or since,
which added enormously to our scientific and practical knowledge of the oceans.
Our knowledge of the science of the sea, however, has undergone great changes
during the last half-century. Physics, Chemistry, Geology, Zoology, Botany,
Physiology, and Geography all have problems awaiting solution,' and there are
many modern method's of investigation of the ocean depths which have been
devised or improved since the days of the Ckallenqer. AH civilised nations of
the world have contributed by means of expeditions during the last quarter-
century to the advance of oceanography, and it is remarkable that our country,
considering the relations of our Empire to the oceans, has done comparatively
little. In view of our maritime position, of the pre-eminence of our Navy, of
our great mercantile marine, and of our sea-fisheries, Great Britain should
undoubtedly lead the world in oceanographical research.

III.

Scope and Period of Proposed Expedition.

Such an exiDedition as is contemplated ought, in order to make worthy contri-
butions to science, to be at least as extensive in duration and as comprehensive
in scope as the Cliallcnijor Expedition. It ought to explore all the great oceans
during a period of three or four years. It ought to be prepared to establish
landiTig parties on oceanic islands, coral reefs, and other places where special
detailed explorations on shore or in shallow water are required. Special
scientific apparatu.s may have to be devised, and young scientific men may
have to be trained to fit them for the work of such an expedition. At
least one year, therefore, would have to be devoted to the work of preparation.
It will be apparent from the Appendix to this statement that a number of the
investigations proposed are of the highest direct practical importance, and there
are many reasons why it is important that the scheme should be initiated and
preparations organised with as little delay as possible.

Ship.

Preliminary inquiries lead tentatively to the belief that a vessel of the
mercantile marine, of aliout 3.000 tons, chartered by H.M. Government for the
occasion, would best suit the general purposes of the expedition ; with the possible
exception, as already indicated, of certain investigations which might be carried
out independently of the main body.

Date of Departure.^

It has been suggested that the expedition should start in the summer of 1922,
which date would, incidentally, permit of its conveying the astronomical
observers of the eclipse of the sun visible on September 30 of that year in the
Maldive Islands (Indian Ocean).

Scientific Personnel.

It is estimated that the scientific staff of such an expedition should consist of
a director with ten or twelve assistants, exclusive of landing parties and any
officers of the Royal Navy who might be detailed for special investigations for
Admiralty purposes.

Cost.

While it is difficult under present conditions, and in the present preliminary
stage of inquiry into the possibility and scope of the expedition, to form any
near estimate of its cost, it is believed that (apart from the provision of the

1 See Schedule appended for a Summary of the proposed investigations.
- This clause is now subject to the Council's decision stated in Report § II.

REPORT OF THE COUNCIL, 1920-21. XXi

ship, which it is hoped would be undertaken by the Admiralty) this should lie
between 200,000/. and 300,000/., with a bias toward the higher figure. It is to
be observed that the expenditure would be spread over a number of years.

Publication of Results.

In this connection suitable arrangements for the adequate publication of the
results of the expedition must be borne in mind. The working out and
publication of the results of the ChalUnger Expedition are stated to have cost
about as much as the expedition itself, .md a similar expenditure may be
anticipated in the present case.

Preservation of Specimens.

The natural repository of type specimens collected during the expedition
would be the British Museum (Natural History Dep<artment), while duplicate
specimens should be ottered to museums, universities, etc., in various parts of the
Empire.

The Committee trust at this stage to obtain such assurance from H.M. Govern-
ment of their support as will justify them in reporting to their Council that the
organisation of the expedition is to be proceeded with. Having regard to the
world-wide and therefore Imperial character of the investigations proposed, to
whicli they have already called attention, and to the valuable assistance which
could be rendered locally to the expedition by the Govenmients of the Dominions
whose territories border upon the great oceans, they venture to suggest to
H.M. Government that the subject of the expedition is one which might properly
be brought to the notice of the Imperial Conference.

SCHEDULE.

Subjects for Investigation.

To give some idea of the amount and variety of scientific work that miglit be
undertaken by such an expedition, the following may be mentioned as some of
the chief recommendations which have been received from representatives of the
various Sections of the Association concerned : —

(1) In the departments of marine biology and physiology extensive
investigations are required of fish and fisheries in the interest of food sup-
plies. These include a very wide range of inquiry, which may be sum-
marised thus : the effects of temperature and other conditions on the distri-
bution and life of organisms; the distribution of the plankton (which includes
organisms of first-rate importance a.s food for fishes which supply food for
man); ocean currents in relation to fisheries (just enough is known as to the
influence of variations in the great oceanic currents upon the movements and
abundance of migratory fishes to make evident the need for further and more
complete investigation' of the subject); the physiology of deep-sea and otiier
oceanic animals; the investigation of marine alg.-e, both coastal and
lilanktonic; marine bacteria; bio-chemical investigation of the metabolism i;f
the sea (this is perhaps the department of oceanography which deals with
the most fundamental problems and which is most in need of immediate
investigation) : the question of the abundance of tropical plankton as com-
pared with that of temperate and polar seas, the distribution and action of
denitrifying bacteria, the variations of the plankton in relation to environ-
mental conditions, the factors which determine uniformity of conditions
over a large sea area from the point of view of plankton distribution, the
supply of the necessary minimal substances such as nitrogen, silica, and
phosphorus to the living organisms, and the determination of the rate of
production and rate of destruction of all organic substances in the sea—
these are some of the fundamental proMcnis of llic int-tuliolism of the ocean;

XXll REPORT OF THE COUNCIL, 1920-21.

all of them require investigation, and bear, directly or indirectly, upon the
harvest of the sea for man's use, iust as agricultural researches bear upon the
harvest of the land.

(2) In the appropriate departments of chemistry observations are required
on the temperature, salinity and chemistry of sea-water, the hydrogen-ioti
concentration, and the source and distribution of nitrogen in the sea.

(3) In the department of physics there is need for investigation of
meteorological problems, the distribution of oceanic temperature, atmospheric
electricity, long-distanc« transmission of electro-magnetic waves, and other
problems of wireless telegraphy at sea. The study of the variation in the
force of gravity over the great ocean basins is also suggested, and bears
upon the problem of the figure of the earth, and the density of materials of
which it is composed. It may be stated here that such an investigation
might need to be carried out on a larger and steadier ship than that which
would most probably be detailed for the expedition. On the other hand,
there is no reason why the whole of the investigations associated with the
expedition should be confined to a single vessel, for the opportunity might
be made for collateral investigations on other vessels in the ordinary course
of navigation. Similarly, the investigation of the phenomena of tides, one
of the most urgent on the physical side, could most profitably be begun in
shallow seas, and not on the vessel carrying the main expedition over the
deep oceans.

(4) In the departments of geology and geography there are indicated as
subjects for study both shallow and deep water deposits, and the various
methods of deposition ; sediments on the sea-bottom in relation to the move-
ment (rising or sinking) of adjacent land areas (a matter which in turn bears
upon the encroachments of the sea upon the land, or the reverse) ; borings
on the floor of the sea for the extension of knowledge of the rocks composing
the crust of the earth; the physical conditions of oceanic islands; the growth
and other problems of coral reefs and islands.

(5) In the department of anthropology it is pointed out that the oppor-
tunity for landing parties on oceanic islands (especially in the Pacific) would
give occasion for observations on the ethnography, habits, and life of native
populations; any medical officer attached to such parties would find matter
for study in the physical characters and diseases of natives.

It is not suggested that the foregoing summary by any means covers a com-
pleta list of the problems of the ocean requiring investigation, nor on the other
hand that these need all be undertaken by one expedition ; but they are sufficient
to show that there is still much to be found out in all branches of oceanography,
and that a further scientific exploration of the oceans will add to knowledge
in many branches of science, and should also aid in the advancement of various
industries based upon marine products of economic importance.

It may be desirable to refer to the relations between the work of such an
expedition as is here proposed — work which, while temporary in character would
be world-wide in scope — and that carried on under the International Council for
the Study of the Sea in the North Atlantic and adjoining European seas. This
latter work, while restricted in scope, is permanent, and the proposed oceano-
graphic expedition covers a wider lange in science, and would offer an unsur-
passable opportunity of qualifying investigators to take part in future oceano-
graphical and fisheries research under a permanent organisation.

xxm

GENERAL TREASURER'S ACCOUNT

July 1, 1920, to Junk 30, 1921.

On the recommendation of the Hon. Auditors, the former simple
statement of receipts and payments for the year is replaced on this
occasion, and for the future, by a balance sheet showing liabilities
and assets, an expenditure and income account, and a separate
statement for the Caird Fund.

In the accounts of expenditure and income certain comparative
figures for the year 1919-20 are furnished, and notes upon some of
these are appended to the accounts. Owing to the alteration in the
method of presenting the accounts, a complete comparison is, on this
occasion, not possible.

The financial position of the Association cannot be regarded as
satisfactory. It is natural that under present circumstances there
should be a downward tendency in the receipts from membership
subscriptions, which represent over two-thirds of the receipts from
normal sources. On the other hand, all ordinary expenditure has
increased since 1914 : salaries approximately by 28 per cent., printing
by 120 per cent., and expenditure on postage, stationery, and traveUing
very largely. Economies have been effected wherever possible ; for
example, there are now in the London office only two permanent paid
officers, whereas in 1914 there w^ere three and in 1910 and earher four ;
while printing, which is the heaviest single item of expenditure, has
been reduced, it is believed, to the limit of efficiency, the cost last year
being £1,475 10s. Ud., as against £2,400, which would have been the
approximate cost at present rates if printing had been maintained at
pre-war standard. Notwithstanding these economies, the balance sheet
reveals an excess of expenditure over income amounting to £80, and
this deficit would have been much greater had we not received certain
non-recurrent items of income.

It is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the deficit in the
coming year will be largely increased, and the General Treasurer asks
members to recognise the necessity of economy in such matters as the
reduction in printing, grants for research, etc.

E. H. GRIFFITHS,

{Ge.neml Tieasurer), ,

XXIV GENERAL TREASURER'S AffOUNT.

Balance Sheet,

LIABILITIES.

£ 8. d. £ 8. d.

To Sundry Creditors ...... 282 3 7

,, f'apifal Accounts —

General Fund per contra . . . 10,575 15 2

Caird Fund do. .... 9,582 IC 3

Sir F. Bramwell's Gift for Enquiry into

Prime Movers, 1931 —
£50 Consols accumulated to June 30, 1921,
per contra . . . . . . 49 15

20,208 6 5

.. Caird Fimd Income and Expenditure Account

Balance at July 1, 1920 .... 582 3

Add Income Tax Recovered j'ear 1919 110 9 8

692 12 8

Jdd Excess of Income over Expenditure

for year to June 30, 1921 . . 275 19

908 U 8

Caird Gift—

Radio-Activity Investigation, Balance at

July 1, 1920 1,208 8 11

.4dd Interest on Deposit 35 5
Dividends on Treasury

1 onds . . . 14 19 4

49 19

1,258 8
250

LfM Grant to Sir E. Rutherford

„ Income and Expenditure Account, Balance at

July 1, 1920 3,367 14 n

Add Income Tax Recovered year 1919 95 14 1

1.008 S 8

3,463 9

Less Outstanding Account for year 1919
(\ne to Printers — paid since . . 1,328 7 1

2,135 1 11

Less Excess of Expenditure over In-
come for year to June 30, 1921 . 80 2 9

2,054 19 2

£24,522 9 6

I have examined the foregoing Balance Sheet and accompanying Accounts with
balances at the Bankers and the inveslnients. ^viuuinB nruii

Approved,

ARTHUR L. ROWLEY,

Audi/or.
July 29, 1921.

GENERAL TREASURER'S ACCOUNT.

XXV

June 30, 1921.

ASSETS.

By Sundry Debtors

„ Investments on Capital Accounts^-

i-4,6')l 10s. rid. Consolidated 21 percent.
Stock at cost .....

,^3,000 India A per cent. Stock at cost
£879 14s. 9d. £43 Great Indian I'eninsula
" B " Annnity at cost ....
£863 2s. lOrf. War Stock, 1929-47, at cost .
£1,400 War Bonds 5 per cent., 1929-47, at cost

Value at date, £6,794 8s. 4f/.

„ Caird Fund —

£2,627 Os. lOd. India 3 i percent. Stock at cost

£2,100 London and North Western Rly.
Consolidated 4 per cent. Preference at cost

£2,500 Canada 31 fer cent. ,1930-50, Registered
Stock at cost ......

£2,500 London & South Western Rly. Con-
solidated 4 per cent. Preference at cost .

Value at date, £5,889 18s. 2d.

„ Sir F. Bramwell's Gift —

•2\ percent. Self -Cumulating Consolidated Stock
at Nominal Value .....
Add accumulations to .Tune 30, 1920 .
Do. to .Inne 30, 1921 .

Value at 48
,, Caird Gift —

£1,000 Treasury Bonds ....
„ Investments out of Income —

£900 Treasury Lionds ....

,, Cash —

On Deposit ......

At Bank ....-••

In Hand .....■•

Viz.—
Caird P'und
Caird Gift
General Purposes

rf.

£ s. d.
259 2 5

3,942

3,522

827

889

1,393

10,575 15 '.

2,400

2,190

2,397

2,594

9,582 Ifi ;

908 11

S 8

1,178

8
8
4

£2,155

50 (I

50 19 3

2 14

103 13 3

1,657 18 1

490 10 2

C 12 5

49 15

1,000

000

2,155 8

£24,522 9 6

the books and vouchers and certify the same to be correct. I have also verified the

W, B. KEEN,

Chartered Accmmiant.

XXVI

GENERAL TREASURER'S ACCOUNT.

General Treasurer in Account

July 1, 1920, to

EXPENDITURE.

To Heatinsr and Lighting
,, Stationery
,, Advertising

„ Rent ....

„ Electric Light Installation and Gas

Fittings
„ Postages ....
,, Gift to Miss Stewardson
„ Travelling Expenses .
„ General Expenses

„ Salaries and Gratuity
,, Printing, Binding, etc.

„ Grants to Research Committees
Table of Constants
Bronze Implements
Colloid Chemistry
Corresponding Societies
Macedonia (excavations)
Primary Survey of Wales
Gravity at Sea
Coloui' in Lepidoptera .
Inheritance in SUkwomis
Oenothera .
Training in Citizenship .'
Colloid Chemistry
Primary Survey of Wales
International Languages
Credit, Currency, and Finance
Zoological BibUography
Educational Pictures
Physiology of Heredity

„ Cardiff Meeting Expenses .

£ s. d.

7 13 7
43 13 11
21 13 3

8 2 G

96 9 6

53 12 5

100

28 5 11

£ s. d.

171 5

530 16

972 10

1,475 10

Corresponding
Figures in
1919-20.
£ s. d.

2,978 17 2

292 14 S(i)
877
/SS9 15 3(i)

100

(»

!»

418 1 10
121 3 4

£3,518 2 4

1,011 13
260 8 ?(")

(1) The higher figure for 1920-21 is to be accounted for mainly by non-recurrent
charges (gift to Miss Stewardson, electric light installation, and certain advertising),
amounting to £216. The remainder is largely accounted for by increased postal charges
and travelling expenses.

(2) The sum of £859 15s. Zd. does not represent the whole cost ot printing incurred
in 1919-20, which was £2,188 2s. 4d. The sum of £1,475 10s. lid., on the other hand,
represents the whole cost of printing incurred in 1920-21. The economies in printing
put into force by the Council have, therefore, proved effective.

(■■') The falling-off in life compositions is accounted for by the raising of the fee from
£10 to £15 in 1919, and by the fact that a large number of members compounded imme-
diately before the raising of the fee came into effect.

(■<) The sums on account of Life Members' additional subscriptions represent the
result of an appeal made by the late General Treasurer to old Life Member's to add to
their original compositions in order to help to meet the increased cost of printing, if they

1921
June 30.

EXPENDITURE.

To Grant to Seismological Committee
,, Balance carried to Balance Sheet

Gaird

£ s. d.
1 00
275 19

£375 19

GENERAL TREASURER'S ACCOUNT.

XXVU

with the British Association.

June 30, 1921.

INCOME.

By Life Compositions ....
,, Annual Members' Siibscription.s

(Regrular)
,, ,, ,, (Temporary)

„ „ ,. with Report

,, Transferable Tickets ....
,, Students' Tickets ....
„ Life Members' Additional Subscriptions
„ Refund of TravelUug Expenses re.

Australian Meeting, 1914
,, Donations .....

„ Interest on Deposits ....
,, Sales of Publications ....
,, Unexpended Balance of Grants returned
,, Jncome Tax recovered
„ Dividends : —

Consols .....

India 3%

Great Indian Peninsula Railway .
" B " Annuity

War Stock

Treasury Bonds ....

Legacies : —

T. W. Backhouse ....
Wm. Palmer ....

Balance being Excess of Expendit\irp
over Income for Year

IJO

Corresponding

Figures In

1919-20.

i; 8. d.

734 0(3)

no.

til 3
371

47
60

282

10
10

■1,72C 10
446 13

0(1)

75
148
103
466
224

13
11
11

5
7
8
3

2,489 G

53 6

224 11

51 111

CO
s

10(6)

3(1)

7.->

8
12

9
3

278

272 10

50
104

3,283

154

15
4

•J

£3,518 2 4

wished to receive the annual report. This source of income must be regarded as non-
recurrent.

(') The greater part of the ' Bournemouth Fund,' initiated to meet the cost of
researches maintained during and after the war, when the normal resources of the Associa-
tion became severely limited, is represented by the figure of £2,489 (is. 6d. for 1919-20.
Only small additions were received in 1920-21, and this source of income is to be regai'ded
as non -recurrent, and has been devoted to the purpose for which it was subscribed.

(6) The increase in receipts from sale of publications in 1920-21 is lai'gely accounted
for by the publication of the Presidential Addresses as ' The Advancement of Science :
1920,' a measure first undertaken in that year.

(') ' Unexpended balances ' are from grants made in the preceding year.

(>*) The reduction in the expenses of the Annual Meeting was effected mainly by
ceasing to issue a daily journal independently of the Annual Report : the single journal
now Lssued is subsequently incorporated in the Report.

Fund.

1921
June 30.

INCOME.

£ s. tl.
By Dividends"on Investments : —

India 3J% 64 7 4

Canada 3i% (including extra 1%) . 70

Ijondou and South-Western Railway

Consolidated 4 % Pref. Stock . 70

London and North -Western Railway

Consolidated 4 % Pref. Stock . 58 16

„ Income Tax Recovered

263 3 4
112 15 8

£375 19

XXVIU

GENERAL TREASURER'S ACCOUNT.

Bank Agreement, June 30, 1921.

Balance as per Pass Book .

Less Cheques not presented : —
Prof. Love
„ Bateson
,, Bateson
Di'. Hoyle .
„ Thomas .
,, Foster Morlcy
Prof. Scott .
„ Poulton .
„ Myres .
Sir R. Gregory

Balance as per Cash Book

£ s.

s. d.

Gi'J

17 2

1 5

7 10

16 18

6 10

1 QC

o 1 n

£490 10 2

Dividends and Interest Received Year ended
June 30, 1921.

& 8. d. 1920

4,Gr)l 10 5 Consolidated 2i per cent. Str.ck,

i Year

.•i.fino n India 3 per cent. Stock

879 14 £43 Great Indian Peninsula ' B
Annuity . . . .

July 5
Oct. 5
1921
Jan. .')
April 7

1920
July 5
Oct. 5

1921
Jan. 5
April 7

June 30
Dec. 31

810 10 3 War Stock r, ppr cent. 1929-47 . Dec. 1

1921
June 1

52 12 7

1920
Post Office Issue . Dec. 1
1921
June 1

1920
1,400 War Bonds, r. per cent. 1929-47 . Dec. 1

1921
June 1

900 Treasury Bonds

£ s. a.

20 7

18 18

11 14
11 15

7
4

20 5

1 r. 3

1 r> 3

24 10

£ a. d.

81 8

75 12

23 9 11

40 10 6

2 12

49
6 9

£278 13 8

GENEKAL TREASUKEK'.S ACC'UUi^T.

XXIX

Gaird Fund.

2,500

Canada 31 per
Registered

cent. 1930-00

2,027 10 ludia 3* per cent. Stoek

2,500 Londou aud South -Westeru Kail-
way t^nnsolidated 4 per eeut.
Preference ....

2,100 Loiidou and North-Western liail-
way Consolidated 4 per cent.
Preference ....

Gaird Gift.

1,000 Treasury Bonds ,

£ 8.

i: s. (/.

.Iiine 30

Dec. 31

.July 5

Oct. 5

1921

Jan. 6

IC,

April 5

.lune 30

Dee. 31

7(t

June 30

Dec. 31

:■>«

tr.

£263 3

£14 19

General Account
Caird Fund .
Caird Gift .

278 13 8

263 3 4

14 19 4

£556 16 4

Investment Values, June 30, 1921.

103

4,651

3,600

879

2,627
2,100

d.
3
5

2,500
2,500

810 10

52 12

1,400

I Consols, 25 per cent. .

India 3 per cent.

£43 Great Indian Peninsula

Railway ' B ' Annuity
India 3i per cent.
London and North-Western
Consolidated 4 per cent. Pre-
ference 1881
Canada 3 1 per cent. 1930-50

(Deposited with Treasury)
Londou and South-Western Rail
way t^onsolidated 4 per cent
Preference
3 War Stock 5 per cent. 1929-47
7 „ „ Post Office Issue

War Bonds, 5 per cent. 1929-47

1,900 Treasury Bonds.

Market
Price.

Correspond-
ini? Value:^ at
lune 30,1020.

£ s. d.

. 48

2,284

2,233 l:J 4

. 50
145

1.800
623

1,7:8
5S0 10

. 57
60 i

1,497

1,280

1,471 -J 4
1,291 10

. 06

1,650

[

1,S37 10

1- 58J
t.

1,462

\ 1,112 10

• }8Si

703

731 12 i

. 98

1,372

1,330

12,734
1,900

£14,634

S.V',416 8 1

XXX GENERAL MEETINGS AT EDINBURGH.

GENERAL MEETINGS AT EDINBURGH.

Inaugural General Meeting.

On Wednesday, September 7, at 8.30 p.m., in the Usher Hall,
Professor W. A. Herdman, C.B.E., F.E.S., resigned the office of
President to Sir T. Edward Thorpe, O.B., F.R.S. In the greatly
regretted absence of Sir Edward Thorpe owing to indisposition, his
Address (for which see p. 1) was read by Principal Sir J. Alfred Ewing,
K.C.B., F.R.S. , a Vice-Piesident of the Association.

The meeting was preceded by a recital of organ music by British
composers, given by Mr. Eobert M'Leod, Mus.Bac, F.R.C.O.,
Edinburgh.

Evening Discourses.

On Friday, September 9, at 8.30 p.m., m the Usher Hall, Professor
C. E. Inglis, O.B.E., delivered a discourse on 'A Comparison of the
Forth and Quebec Bridges, showing the Evolution of Cantilever Bridge
Construction during the past thirty years.'

On Tuesday, September 13* at 8.30 p.m., in the Usher Hall,
Professor W. A. Herdman, C.B.E., F.R.S., delivered a discourse on
'Edinburgh and Oceanography.'

Concluding General Meeting.

The Concluding General Meeting was held in the M'Ewau Hall
on Wednesday, September 14, at 12 noon, the President, Sir Edward
Thorpe, in the Chair. The following Resolutions were unanimously
adopted, conveying the thanks of the Association:

(1) To the Lord Provost and tlie Citizens of Edinburgh, and to the University
of Edinburgh, for their invitation to hold a meeting in their city, and for tlie
cordial reception which they have given to the members of the British
Association.

(2) lo the University of Edinburgh, for the use of the McEwan Hall and
other University buildings for the Sectional meetings; to H.M. Office of Works.
for the use of the Parliament Hall as a reception room ; to the Advocates'
Library, the Royal Scottish Museum, and the Zoological Society of Scotland, for
throwing open their buildings and garden for the instruction and delight of
members ; to the Very Reverend Dr. Wallace Williamson and the Kirk Session
of St. Giles' Cathedral, for an occasion of public worship in tliat historic
building; to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Colleges of Physicians and of
Surgeons, the Philosophical Institution, the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland,
the Royal Scottish CJeographical Society, and other learned Societies and Institu-
tions, for admittance to their libraries and collections; to the Air Ministry,
for establishing a ^NFeteorological Office at the place of meeting; and to the
Carnegie Trust, for their hospitable reception at Dunfermline.

(3) To the Hon. Local Secretaries.

(4) To the Hon. Local Treasurer and the ^Members of the Finance Committee.

(5) To the'^Iembers of the Hospitality Committee, and especially to its
Secretary, !Miss S. H. Turcan ; the Wardens of the University Hostels ; the
Committees of the University I^nion : the Women's ITniversity Union : and the

GENERAL MEETINGS AT EDINBURCiH. XXXI

I'luljs iitid (iiilf Chilis wliiih have ;i(hiiitl('(l .Memheis of llie Association iluriii;,'
liicir stay.

(6) To tlie .M(!nihers of the Reception and Rooms Committee, and especially

to Dr. F. A. E. Crew; to the Puhlitations hub-Ccmmittec, the Excursions
Committee, and tlic Entertainments Committee.

(7) To tlie Staffs tif tlio University, the Advocates' Library, tlie Parliament
Hall, tlie Town Clerk's OfKce; to Mr. Wliitson's Office Staff; to the Station-
masters of the Waverley and C'aledonian Stations; to the Post Office officials
at the Reception Room, and to the Reception Room Staff generally, and to the
Boy Scouts, for their assistance at every point to ensure the success of a
memorable meeting.

PUBLIC LECTURES AT EDINBURGH.

Public ov Citizens' Lectures were delivered in the Uslicr Hall at
8 P.M. as follows :

Tuesday, Septembei- G: Sir Oliver J. Lodge, F.E.S., on ' Speech
througli the Ether, or tlie Scientific Principles underlying Wireless
Telephony. '

Thiusday, Septeniher 8: Professor A. Dendy, F.R.S., on 'The
Stream of Life. '

Monday, September 12: Professor H. J. Fleurc, D.Sc, on 'Coun-
tries as Perso;ialities. '

RESEARCH COMMITTEES, Etc.

APPOINTED BY THE GENERAL COMMITTEE, MEETING IN
EDINBURGH : SEPTEMBER, 1921.

Grants of money, if any, from the Association for expenses connected
with researches arc indicated in heary type.

For Committees concerned with the Nucleus Catalogue for the Carneyie
United Kingdom Trust, see end of this list,

SECTION A.— MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICS.

Seismological Investigations.— Prof. H. H. Turner {Chairman), Mr. J. J. Shaw
{Secretary). Mr. C. Vernon Bovs, Dr. J. E. Crombie, Sir H. Darwin, Dr. C. Davison,
Sir F. W. Dyson, Sir R. T. Glazebrook, Prof. C. G. Knott. Prof. H. Lamb, Sir
J. Larraor, Prof. A. E. H. Love. Prof. H. M. Macdonald, Prof. H. C. Plummer,
Mr. W. E. Plummer, Prof. R. A. Sampson, Sir A. Schuster, Sir Napier Shaw,
Dr. G. T. Walker. £100 (Caird Fund grant).

To assist work on the Tides. — Prof. H. Lamb {Chairman). Dr. A. T. Doodson {Secretary),
Colonel Sir C. F. Close, Dr. P. H. Cowell, Sir H. Darwin, Dr. G. H. Fowler,
Admiral F. C. Learmonth, Sir J. E. Petavel, Prof. J. Proudman, Major G. I.
Taylor, Prof. D'Arcy W. Thompson, Sir J. J. Thomson, Prof. H. H. Turner.
«10.

XXXll RESEARCH COMMITTEES.

Annual Tables of Constants and Numerical Data, chemical, physical, and technological.
— Sir E. Rutherford (Chairman), Prof. A. W. Porter (Secretary), Mr. A. E. G.
Egerton. £40 from Caird Fund, to be applied for from Council.

Calculation of Mathematical Tables. — Prof. J. W. Nicholson (Chairman), Dr. J. R.
Airey (Secretary), Mr. T. W. Chaundy, Prof. L. N. G. Filon, Colonel Hippisley.
Prof. E. W. Hobson, Mr. G. Kennedy, and Profs. Alfred Lodge. A. E. H. Love,
H. M. Macdonald, G. B. Mathews, G. N. Watson, and A. G. Webster. £20.

Determination of Gravity at Sea. — Prof. A. E. H. Love (Chairman), Dr. W. G. Duffield
(Secretary),Mr. T. W. Chaundy, SirH. Darwin, Prof. A. S. Eddington, Major E. 0.
Henrici, Sir A. Schuster, and Prof. H. H. Turner.

Radiotelegraph ic Investigations. — Sir Oliver Lodge (Chairman), Prof. W. H. Eccles
(Secretary), Mr. S. G. Brown, Dr. C. Chree, Sir F. W. Dyson, Prof. A. S. Eddington,
Dr. Erskine-Murray, Profs. J. A. Fleming, G. W. 0. Howe, H. M. Macdonald,
and J. W. Nicholson. Sir H. Norman, Sir A. Schuster, Sir Napier Shaw, and
Prof. H. H. Turner.

Inve.'itigation of the Unper Atmosphere. — Sir Napier Shaw (Chairman), Mr. C. J. P.
Cave (Secretary), Prof. S. Chapman. Mr. J. S. Dine.«, Mr. W. H. Dines, Sir R. T.
Glazebrook, Col. E. Gold, Dr. H. Jeffreys, Sir J. Larmor, Mr. R. G. K. Lenip-
fert. Prof. F. A. Lindemann, Dr. W. Makower, Sir J. E. Petavel, Sir A. Schuster,
Dr. G. C. Simpson, Mr. F. J. W. Whipple, Prof. H. H. Turner.

To aid the work of Establishing a Solar Observatory in Australia. — Prof. H. H. Turner,
(Chairman), Dr. W. G. Duffield (Secretary), Rev. A. L. Cortie, Dr. W. J. S. Lockyer,
Mr. F. McClean, and Sir A. Schuster.

SECTION B.— CHEMISTRY.

Colloid Chemistry and its Industrial Applications. — Prof. F. G. Donnan (Chairman],
Dr. W. Clayton (Secretary), Mr. E. Ardern, Dr. E. F. Armstrong, Prof. W. M.
Bavliss, Prof. C. H. Desch, Dr. A. E. Dunstan, Mr. H. W. Greenwood, Mr. W.
Harrison, Mr. E. Hatschek, Mr. G. King, Prof. W. C. McC. Lewis, Prof. J. W.
McBain, Dr. R. S. Morell, Profs. H. R. Proctor and W. Ramsden, Dr. E. J.
Russell, Mr. A. B. Searle, Dr. S. A. Shorter, Dr. R. E. Sladc, Mr. Sproxton,
Dr. H. P. Stevens, Mr. H. B. Stocks, Mr. R. Whymper. £10.

Fuel Economy ; Utilisation of Coal ; Smoke Prevention. — Prof. W. A. Bone (Chair-
man), Mr. H. James Yates (V ice-Chairman], Mr. Robert Mond (Secretary), Mr.
A. H. Barker, Prof. P. P. Bedson, Dr. W. S. Boulton, Mr. E. Bury, Prof. W. E.
Dalby, Mr. E. V. Evans, Dr. W. Gallowav, Sir Robert Hadfield. Bart., Dr.
H. S. Hele-Shaw, Mr. D. H. Helps, Dr. ' G. Hickling. Mr. A. Hutchinson,
Mr. S. R. lUingworth, Principal G. Knox, Prof. Henry Louis, Mr. H. M.
Morgans, Dr. J. S. Owens, Mr. W. H. Patchell, Mr. A. T. Smith, Dr. J. E. Stead,
Mr. C. E. Stromeyer, Prof. W. W. Watts, Mr. C. H. Wordingham, and
Mr. H. James Yates. £5.

Absorption Spectra and Chemical Constitution of Organic Compounds. — Prof. I. M.
Heilbron (Chairman), Prof. E. E. C. Baly (Secretary), Prof. A. W. Stewart. £10.

SECTION C— GEOLOGY.

The Old Red Sandstone Rocks of Kiltorcan, Ireland. — Prof. Grenviile Cole (Ch'vr-
man). Prof. T. Johnson (Serreiary), Dr. J. W. Evans, Dr. R. Kidston, and Dr.
A. Smith Woodward. £15.

To excavate Critical Sections in the Palaeozoic Rocks of England and Wales. — Prof.
W. W. Watts (Chairman), Prof. W. G. Fearnsides (Secretary), Prof. W. S. Boulton,
Mr. E. S. Cobbold, Prof. E. J. Garwood, Mr. V. C. Illing, Dr. J. E. Marr, and
Dr. W. K. Spencer. £15.

RESEARCH COMMITTEES. XXXHl

The Collection, Preservation, and Systematic Registration of Photographs of Geo-
logical Interest. — Prof. E. J. Garwood (Chairman), Prof. S. H. Reynolds (Secretary),
Mr. G. Bingley, Dr. T. G. Bonney, Messrs. C. V. Crook, R. Kidston, and A. 8.
Reid, Sir J. J. H. Teall. Prof. W. W. Watts, and Messrs. R. Welch and W. Whitaker.

To consider the preparation of a List of Characteristic Fossils. — Prof. P. F. Kendall
(Chairman), Fioi. W. T. Gordon (Secretary), Prof. W.S. Boulton.Dr. A.R. Dwerry-
house. Profs. J. W. Gregory, Sir T. H. Holland, and S. H. Reynolds, Dr. Marie
C. Stopes, Dr. J. E. Marr, Prof. W. W. Watts, Mr. H. Woods, and Dr. A. Smith
Woodward.

To investigate the Flora of Lower Carboniferous times as exemplified at a newly-
discovered locality at Gullane, Haddingtonshire. — Dr. R. Kidston (Chairman),
Prof. W.T. Gordon (Secretary), Dr. J. S. Flett, Prof. E. J. Garwood, Dr. J. Home,
and Dr. B. N. Peach.

To investigate the Stratigraphical Sequence and Palaeontology of the Old Red Sand-
stone of the Bristol district. — Mr. H. Bolton (Chairman), Mr. F. S. Wallis
{Secretary), Miss Edith Bolton, Mr. D. E. I. Innes, Prof. C. Lloyd Morgan, Prof.
S. H. Reynolds.

SECTION D.— ZOOLOGY.

To aid competent Investigators selected by the Committee to carry on definite pieces
of work at the Zoological Station at Naples. — Mr. E. S. Goodrich (Chairman),
Prof. J. H. Ashworth (Secretary), Dr. G. P. Bidder, Prof. F. 0. Bower, Dr. W. B.
Hardy, Sir S. F. Harmer, Prof. S. J. Hickson, Sir E. Ray Lankester, Prof. W. C.
Mcintosh, Dr. A. D. Waller. £100 from Caird Fund, subject to approval of
Council.

To summon meetings in London or elsewhere for the consideration of matters affecting
the interests of Zoology, and to obtain by correspondence the opinion of Zoologists
on matters of a similar kind, with power to raise by subscription from each
Zoologist a sum of money for defraying current expenses cf the organisation. —
Prof. S. J. Hickson (Chairman), Dr. W. M. Tattersall (Secretary), Profs. G. C.
Bourne, A. Dendy, J. Stanley Gardiner, W. Garstang, Marcus Hartog, W. A.
Herdman, J. Graham Kerr, R. D. Laurie, E. W. MacBride, A. Meek, Dr. P.
Chalmers Mitchell, and Prof. E. B. Poulton. £20 for rejjrint and distribution
of Report (not exceeding 2,500).

Zoological Bibliography and Publication.— Prof. E. B. Poulton (Chairman), Dr. F. A.
Bather (Secretary), Mr. E. Heron-Allen, Dr. W. E. Hoyle, and Dr. P. Chalmers
Mitchell. £1.

Gilbert White Memorial (Brent Valley Bird Sanctuary). — Sir S. F. Harmer
(Chairman), Mr. W. Mark Webb (Secretary), Dr. W. T. Caiman, Mr. E. Heron-
Allen. £5.

Parthenogenesis. — Prof. A. Meek (Chairman), Mr. A. D. Peacock (Secretary), Mr.
R. S. Bagnall, Dr. J. W. Heslop-Harrison. £5.

To nominate competent Naturalists to perform definite pieces of work at the Marine
Laboratory, Plymouth. — Prof. A. Dendy (Chairman and Secretary), Prof. E. S.
Goodrich, Prof. J. P. Hill, Prof. S. J. Hickson, Sir E. Ray Lankester.

Experiments in Inheritance in Silkworms. — Prof. W. Bateson (Chairman), Mrs. Merritt
Hawkes (Secretary), Dr. F. A. Dixey, Prof. E. B. Poulton, Prof. R. C. Punnett.

Experiments in Inheritance of Colour in Lepidoptera. — Prof. W. Bateson (Chairman),
The Hon. H. Onslow (Secretary), Dr. F. A. Dixey, Prof. E. B. Poulton.

1921

XXXIV RESEARCH COMMITTEES.

SECTIONS E, L.— GEOGRAPHY, EDUCATION.

To formulate suggestions for a syllabus for the teaching of Geography both to Matricu-
lation Standard and in Advanced Courses ; to report upon the present position
of the geographical training of teachers, and to make recommendations thereon ;
and to report, as occasion arises, to Council through the Organising Committee
of Section E, upon the practical working of Regulations issued by the Board of
Education affecting the position of Geography in Training Colleges and Secondary
Schools.— Prof. T. P. Nunn (Chairman), Mr. W. H. Barker {Secretary), Mr. C. E'.
Browne, Sir H. J. Makinder.

SECTION P.— ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS.

The Effects of the War on Credit, Currency, Finance, and Foreign Exchanires. — Prof.
W. R. Scott {Chairman), Mr. J. E. Allen {Secretary], Prof. C. F. Bastable, Sir E.
Brabrook, Dr. J. H. Clapham, Dr. Hugh Dalton, Mr. B. EUinger, Sir D. Drummond
Fraser, Mr. A. H. Gibson, Mr. C. W. Guillebaud, Mr. F. W. Hirst, Prof. A. W
Kirkaldv, Mr. F. Lavington, Mr. D. H. Robertson, Mr. E. Sykes, Sir J. C. Stamp.
£25.

SECTION G.— ENGINEERING.

To report on certain of the more complex Stress Distributions in Engineering Materials.
— Prof. E. G. Coker {Chairman), Prof. L. N. G. Filon and Prof. A. Robertson
{Secretaries), Prof. A. Barr, Dr. Gilbert Cook, Prof. W. E. Dalby. Sir J. A.
Ewing, Messrs. A. R. Fulton and .J. J. Guest, Dr. B. P. Haigh, Profs.
Sir J. B. Henderson, C. E. Inglis, F. C. Lea, A. E. H. Love, and W. Mason,
Sir J. E. Petavel, Dr. F. Rogers, Dr. W. A. Scoble, Mr. R. V. Southwell,
Dr. T. E. Stanton, Mr. C. E. Stromeyer, and Mr. J. S. Wilson. £10.

SECTION H.— ANTHROPOLOGY.

To report on the Distribution of Bronze Age Implements. — Prof. J. L. Myres {Chair-
man), Mr. H. Peake (Secretary), Dr. E. C. R. Armstrong, Dr. G. A. Auden, Mr.
H. Balfour, Mr. L. H. D. Buxton, Mr. 0. G. S. Crawford, Sir W. Boyd Dawkins,
Prof. H. J. Fleure, Mr. G. A. Garfitt, Dr. R. R. Marett, Mr. R. Mond, Sir C. H.
Read, Sir W. Ridge way. £50.

To conduct Archoeological Investigations in Malta. — Prof. J. L. Myres (Chairman),
Sir A. Keith (Secretary), Dr. T. Ashby, Mr. H Balfour, Dr. A. C. Haddon,
Dr. R. R. Marett, Miss M. Marray, and Mr. H. Peake. £25.

To conduct Explorations with the object of ascertaining the Age of Stone Circles. —
Sir C. H. Read (Chairman), Mr. H. Balfour (Secretary), Dr. G. A. Auden, Prof.
Sir W. Ridgeway, Dr. J. G. Garson, Sir Arthur Evans, Sir W. Boyd Dawkins,
Prof. J. L. Myres, and Mr. H. Peake. £30, provided work completed by
December 31, 192L

To excavate Early Sites in Macedonia. — Prof. Sir W. Ridgevay (Chairman), Mr.
A. J. B. Wace {Serretari/), Prof. R. C. Bosanquet, Mr. S. Casson, Dr. W. L. H.
Duckworth, Prof. J. L. Myres.

To excavate a Palaeolithic Site in Jersey. — Dr. R. R. Marett (Chairman), Mr. G. de
Gruchy (Secretary), Dr. C. W. Andrews, Mr. H. Balfour, Prof. A. Keith, and
Colonel Warton.

To report on the Classification and Distribution of Rude Stone Monuments. — Dr
R. R. Marett (Chairman), Prof. H. J. Fleure {Secretary), Miss R. M. Fleming,
Prof. J. L. Myres, Mr. H. Peake.

RESEARCH COMMITTEES. XXXV

The Collection, Preservation, and Systematic Registration of Photographs of Anthro-
pological Interest. — Sir C. H. Read {Chairman), Mr. E. N. Fallaize [Secretary],
Dr. G. A. Auden, Dr. H. 0. Forbes, Mr. E. Heawood, Prof. J. L. Myres.

To conduct Archseological and Ethnological Researches in Crete. — Dr. D. G. Hogarth
(Chairman), Prof. J. L. Myres (Secretary), Prof. R. C. Bosanquet, Dr. W. L. H.
Duckworth, Sir A. Evans, Sir W. Ridgeway, Dr. F. C. Shrubsall.

To co-operate with Local Committees in excavation on Roman Sites in Britain. —
Sir W. Ridgeway (Chairman), Mr. H. J. E. Peake (Secretary), Dr. T. Ashby, Mr.
Willoughby Gardner, Prof. J. L. Myres.

To report on the present state of knowledge of the Ethnography and Anthropology
of the Near and Middle East. — Dr. A. C. Haddon (Chairman), Mr. S. Casson
(Secretary), Prof. H. J. Fleure, Mr. H. J. E. Peake.

To report on the present state of knowledge of the relation of early Palseolithio
Instruments to Glacial Deposits. — Mr. H. J. E. Peake (Chairman), Mr. E. N.
Fallaize (Secretary), Mr. H. Balfour, Mr. M. Burkitt.

To investigate the Lake Villages in the neighbourhood of Glastonbury in connection
with a Committee of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society. —
Sir W. Boyd Dawkins (Chairman), Mr. A. Bulleid (Secretary), Mr. H. Balfour,
Mr. Willoughby Gardner, Mr. F. S. Palmer, Mr. H. Peake.

To co-operate with a Committee of the Roya! Anthropological Institute in the explor-
ation of Caves in the Derbyshire district. — Sir W. Boyd Dawkins (Chairman),
Mr. G. A. Garfitt (Secretary), Mr. Leslie Armstrong, Mr. E. N. Fallaize, Dr.
R. R. Marett, Mr. H. Peake, Dr. W. M. Tattersall.

SECTION J.— PSYCHOLOGY.

The Place of Psychology in the Medical Curriculum. — Prof. G. Robertson (Chairman),
Dr. W. Brown (Secretary), Dr. J. Drever, Dr. R. G. Gordon, Dr. C. S. Myers, Prof.
J. H. Pear, Dr. W. H. R. Rivers.

Vocational Tests. — Dr. C. S. Myers (Chairman), Dr. G. H. Miles (Secretary), Prof.
J. H. Pear, Mr. F. Watts.

SECTION K.— BOTANY.

Experimental Studies in the Ph3'siology of Heredity. — Dr. F. F. Blackman (Chairman),
Miss E. R. Saunders (Secretary), Profs. Bateson and Keeble. £25, subject to
result of application elsewhere.

To continue Breeding Experiments on Oenothera and other Genera. — Dr. A. B.
Rendle (Chairman), Dr. R. R. Gates (Secretary), Prof. W. Bateson, Mr. W.
Brierley, Prof. 0. V. Darbishire, Dr. M. C. Rayner. £7. 5s.

Primary Botanical Survey in Wales. — Dr. E. N. Miles Thomas (Chairman), Prof.
0. V. Darbishire (Secretary), Miss A. J. Davey. Prof. F. W. Oliver, Prof.
Stapledon, Mr. A. G. Tansley, Miss E. Vachell, Miss Wortham. £10.

The Renting of Cinchona Botanic Station in Jamaica. — Prof. F. 0. Bower,
(Chairman), Prof. A. J. Ewart (Secretary), Prof. F. F. Blackman.

SECTION L.— EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE.

Training in Citizenship. — Rt. Rev. J. E. C. Welldon (Chairman), Lady Shaw (Secretary),
Sir R. Baden-Powell, Mr. C. H. Blakiston, Mr. G. D. Dunkerley. Mr. W. D. Eggar,
Mr. C. R. Fay, Mr. .1. C. Maxwell Garnett, Sir R. A. Gregory, and Sir
T. Morison. £10.

c 2

XXXVl RESEARCH COMMITTEES.

To inquire into the Practicability of an International Auxiliary Language. — Dr. H.
Foster Morley {Chairman), Dr. E. H. Tripp {Secretary), Mr. E. Bullough, Prof.
J. J. Findlay, Sir Richard Gregory, Mr. W. B. Hardy, Dr. C. W. Kimmins,
Sir E. Cooper Perry, Mr. Nowell Smith, Mr. A. E. Twentyman. £5.

The Influence of School Books upon Eyesight. — Dr. G. A. Auden {Chairman), Mr.
G. F. Daniell {Secretary), Mr. C. H. Bothamley, Mr. W. D. Eggar, Sir R. A.
Gregory, Dr. N. Bishop Harman, Mr. J. L. Holland, Dr. W. E. Sumpner,
and Mr. Trevor Walsh.

CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES.

Corresponding Societies Committee for the preparation of their Report. — Mr. W.
Whitaker {Chairman), Mr. W. Mark Webb {Secretary), Mr. P. J. Ashton, Dr. F. A.
Bather, Rev. J. 0. Bevan, Sir Edward Brabrook, Sir H. G. Fordham, Mr. T.
Sheppard, Rev. T. R. R. Stebbing, Mr. Mark L. Sykes, and the President and
General Officers of the Association. £40.

To take steps to obtain Kent's Cavern for the Nation. — Mr. W. Whitaker {Chairman),
Mr. W. M. Webb {Secretary), Prof. Sir W. Boyd Dawkins, Mr. Mark L. Sykes.

LIST OF COMMITTEES.

Appointed by the General Committee to co-opemte ivith tlie Carnegie
United Kingdom Trust in preparing the Scientific Sections of a
Nucleus Catalogue of Books for the use of Rural Libraries.

Section B (Chemistry). — Prof. C. H. Desch {Chairman), Dr. A. Holt (Secretary),
Dr. C. H. Keane.

Section C (Geology). — Dr. J. S. Flett (Chairman), Mr. W. Whitaker (Secretary),
Dr. J. W. Evans.

Section D (Zoology). — Sir S. F. Hanner (Chairman), Dr. W. T. Caiman (Secretary),
Prof. J. H. Ashworth, Dr. P. Chalmers Mitchell.

Section E (Geography). — Dr. H. R. Mill (Chairman), Dr. R. N. Rudmose Brown
(Secretary), Mr. G. G. Chisholm, Mr. 0. J. R. Howarth, Dr. Marion Newbigin.

Section F (Economics).— Prof. E. Cannan (Convener), Prof. H. M. Hallsworth,
Miss Jebb.

Section H (Anthropology). — Dr. E. S. Hartland (Chairman), Mr. E. N. Fallaize
(Secretary), Mr. W. Crooke, Prof. H. J. Fleure.

Section I (Physiology). — Prof. H. E. Roaf (Chairman), Dr. C. Lovatt Evans
(Secretary).

Section J (Psychology). — Dr. J. Drever (Chairman), Miss Bickersteth (Secretary),
Dr. H. J. Watt.

Section K (Botany). — Dr. H. W. T. Wager (Chairman), Mr. F. T. Brooks (Secretary),
Prof. W. Neilson Jones, Prof. F. E. Weiss.

Section L (Education). — Dr. A. Darroch (Chairman), Prof. J. A. Green (Secretary),
Prof. T. P. Nunn.

XXXVll

THE CAIRO FUND.

An unconditional gift of £10,000 was made to the Association at the
Dundee Meeting, 1912, by Mr. (afterwards Sir) J. K. Caird, LL.D., of
Dundee.

The Council, in its report to the General Committee at the Birming-
ham Meeting, made certain recommendations as to the administration
of this Fund. These recommendations were adopted, with the Eeport,
by the General Committee at its meeting on September 10, 1913.

The following allocations have been made from the Fund by the
Council to September 1921 : —

Naples Zoological Station Committee (p. xxxiii). — £50 (1912-13) ;
£100 (1913-14) ; £100 annually in future, subject to the adoption of
the Committee's report (reduced to £50 during war ; suspended,
1920-21, pending approval by Council of Committee's report on future
control of the Station, etc.).

Seismology Committee (p. xxxi). — £100 (1913-14) ; £100 annually in
future, subject to the adoption of the Committee's report.

Badiotelegraphic Committee (p. xxxii). — £500 (1913-14).

Magnetic Be-survey of the British Isles (in collaboration with the
Eoyal Society).— £250.

Committee on Determination of Gravity at Sea (p. xxxii). — £100
(1914-15).

31r. F. Sargent, Bristol University, in connection ivith his Astro-
nomical Work.— £10 (1914).

Organising Committee of Section F (Economics), towards expenses of
an Inquiry into Outlets for Labour after the War. — £100 (1915).

Bev. T. E. B. Phillips, for aid in transplanting his private observa-
tory. —&<2.0 (1915).

Committee onFuel Economy (p. xxxii).— £25 (1915-16), £10 (1919-20).

Committee on Training in Citizenship) (p. xxxv). — £10 (1919-20).

Geophysical Committee of Boyal Astronomical Society. — £10 (1920).

Conjoint Board of Scientific Societies.— £10 (1920) ; £10 (1921).

Marine Biological Association, Plymouth. — £200 (1921).

On September 7, 1921, the Council authorised the expenditure of
£300 from accumulated income of the fund upon grants to Eesearch
Committees approved by the General Committee at the Edinburgh
Meeting, in addition to grants ordinarily made by, or applied for from,
the Council.

Sir J. K. Caird, on September 10, 1913, made a further gift of £1,000
to the Association, to be devoted to the study of Eadio-activity. In
1920 the Council decided to devote the principal and interest of this gift
at the rate of £250 per annum for five years to purposes of the research
intended. The grant for the year ending March 24, 1922, was made to
Sir E, Eutherford, F.E.S,

XXXVIU

RESOLUTIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS.

The following Resolutions and Recommendations were referred to
the Council (unless otherwise stated) by the General Committee at
Edinburgh for consideration and, if desirable, for action : —

By the General Committee.

That the General Committee commends the action of the Council in encourag-
ing arrangements for joint discussions on subjects of interest to two or more
Sections.

From Section B.

That in the opinion of the Sectional Committee it is desirable that all
Reports of Research Committees should be sent, in the first instance, to the
Organising Committee of the appropriate Section (through the Recorder) before
the Annual Meeting.

From Section B.

The Sectional Committee recommends the re-appointment of the Fuel Economy
Committee. The Sectional Committee requests the General Committee to inform
the Council that, whilst in the opinion of some of the members of the Sectional
Committee the present position of the Fuel Economy Committee is not satis-
factory, it has been thought undesirable, in the enforced absence of Professor
Bone, to enter into a detailed consideration of the subject. The Sectional
Committee recommends the publication of the Fourth Report of the Fuel
Economy Committee.

From Sections E and L.

To draw the attention of the Council to the Revised Regulations for
Secondary Schools, England, 1921, so far as they concern instruction in
Geogrtiphy, and to ask the Council to take the necessary steps to ascertain : —

1. Whether the effect of the new regulations is to ensure the continuity of

instruction in Geography up to the age of 16 (as appears to
be provided in page 7, pars. 6 and 7).

2. Whether it is the intention of the Board that the phrase ' language,

literature, and history ' in 48 («) B, C, D, in the absence of specific
reference to the Geography of selected countries, should be construed
as necessarily including adequate geographical study of the selected
region.

3. Whether the Board accepts Geography as a ' main subject of study '

under Sub-section A, Science and Mathematics.

(In view of the urgency of the above resolution, the General Committee
instructed the General Secretaries to take action upon it and report to the
Council.)

From Section E.

That the Council recommend that the Census authorities of the United
Kingdom should, if practicable, indicate in their final report the population
not merely of municipal and other administrative areas, but also of urban
aggregates.

(In view of the urgency of the above resolution, the General Committee
instructed the General Secretaries to take action upon it and report to the
Council.)

RESOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS. XXXIX

From Section E ,

The Committee of Section E suggests that the Council of the Association
sliould ask the Air Ministry to be kind enough to supply the Council with a
detailed statement, giving the reasons for the adoption of Mercator's projec-
tion for the international series of aeronautical maps.

From Section H.

That it is in the interests of the Empire that a knowledge of Anthropology
should be more widely disseminated ;

That for this purpose Universities and other institutions be encouraged to
provide instruction in this subject ;

And, further, that there should be a central institution in London, not
necessarily new, for the collection, co-ordination, and publication of the results
of anthropological research, and the provision of information derived therefrom,
for the use of the Imperial Services, teachers, missionaries, and others ;

That the Council of the Association, in conjunction with other bodies
interested, be requested to consider the advisability of taking such steps as
may be necessary to secure this end.

From Section L.

The Committee of Section L recommends the Council to call the attention
of the Board of Education to the desirability of strengthening the position of
Music, and its appreciation, in the curriculum of Secondary Schools.

From the Conference of Delegates (a) and Section L (b).

(a) That the Council be asked to represent to the Postmaster-General the
very heavy burden which the postage of their publications and notices entails
upon scientific societies, and to request him to alleviate it at the earliest
possible moment.

(/;) That Section L, whilst believing it to be useless to appeal to the Post-
master-General to reduce the cost of postage on scientific publications, recom-
mend the Council to appeal to the Presidents of the Royal Society and other
scientific bodies to approach the Postmaster-General, urging him that scien-
tific publications may be registered for postage reduction.

COMMUNICATIONS EECOMMENDED FOE FEINTING IN

EXTENDED FOEM.

Sections A and B. — Report of Joint Discussion on the Structure of
Molecules. (See p. 468.)

Section A. — Report of Discussion on the Quantum Theory. (See p. 473.)

Section A. — Extended Abstract of Professor J. C. Kapteyn's Paper on ' The
Structure and Motions of the Stellar Systems.' (See p. 409.)

Section L.— Dr. E. H. Griffiths'? Paper on ' Science and Ethics.' (See p. 479.)

7 JUN22

■y.

.-\v

17:h\3

THE

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS,

SirT. EDWAED THORPE, C.B., D.Sc, Sc.D., LL.D., F.E.S.,

Hon. F.R.S., Edin.,

PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION.

The British Association for the Advancement of Science owes its origin,
and, in great measure, its specific aims and functions, to the pubUc
spirit and zeal for the interests of science of Scotsmen. Its virtual
founder was Sir David Brewster ; its scope and character were defined by
Principal Forbes. In constitution it differed from the migratory scientific
associations existing on the Continent, which mainly servp I to promote
the social intercourse of their members by annual gatherings, in that
it was to be a permanent organisation, with a settled establishment and
headquarters, which should have not merely its yearly reunions, but
which, ' by methods and by influence peculiarly its own, should con-
tinue to operate during the intervals of these public assemblies, and
should aspire to give an impulse to every part of the scientific system ;
to mature scientific enterprise; and to direct the labours requisite for
discovery. '

Although, for reasons of policy, it was decided that its first meeting
of September 27, 1831, should be held at York, as the most central
city for the three kingdoms, and its second and third meetings at the
ancient Universities of Oxford and Cambridge respectively, it was
inevitable that the Association should seize the earliest opportunity
to visit the Metropolis of Scotland where, as an historical fact, it may
be said to have had its origin.

The meeting in this city of September 8, 1834, was noteworthy for
many reasons. It afforded the first direct proof that the Association
was fulfilling its purpose. This was shown by the popular appreciation
which attended its activities, by the range and character of its reports
on the state and progress of science, by the interest and value of its
sectional proceedings, and by the mode in which its funds were
employed. In felicitous terms the President of the preceding year, the
Eev. Professor Sedgwick, congratulated the gathering 'on the in-
creased strength in which they had assembled, in a place endeared to the
feelings of every lover of science by so many delightful and elevating

2 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS.

recollections, especially by the recollection of the great men whom
it had fostered, or to whom it had given birth. ' In a few brief sentences
Professor Sedgwick indicated the great power which this Association
is able to apply towards the advancement of science by combination and
united action, and he supported his argument by pointing to the results
which it had already achieved during the three short years of its
existence. Professor Sedgwick's words are no less true to-day. His
contention that one of the most important functions of this philosophical
union is to further what he termed the ' commerce of ideas ' by joint
discussions on subjects of kindred interest, has been endorsed by the
recent action of the Council in bringing the various sections into still
closer touch with each other with a view to the discussion of common
problems of general interest. This slight reorganisation of the work
of the Sections, which is in entire accord with the spirit and aims of the
Association, as defined by its progenitors and formulated in its consti-
tution, will take effect during the present meeting. Strictly speaking,
such joint sectional discussions are not unknown in our history, and
their utility and influence have been freely recognised. But hitherto
the occasions have been more or less informal. They are now, it is
hoped, to be part of the regular of&cial procedure of the meetings,
to which it is anticipated they will afford additional interest and value.

Another noteworthy change in our procedure is the introduction of
discussions on the addresses of the Presidents of Sections. Hitherto
these addresses have been formally read and never discussed. To the
extent that they have been brief chronicles of the progress of the special
departments of science with which the section is concerned they have
given but little opportunity for discussion. With the greatly increased
facilities which now exist for every worker to keep himself informed
of the development of the branch of knowledge in which he is more
particularly interested, such resumes have in great measure lost their
true purpose, and there has, consequently, been a growing tendency of
late years for such presidential addresses to deal with contemporary
topics of general interest and of fundamental importance, affording ample
opportunity for a free exchange of opinion. The experiment will cer-
tainly conduce to the interest of the proceedings of the sections, and will
contribute to the permanent value of their work. We see in these several
changes the development of ideas connected with the working of the
Association which may be said to have had their birth at its first meeting
in Edinburgh, eighty-seven years ago.

Sixteen years later, that is on July 21, 1850, Edinburgh again
extended her hospitality to the British Association, which then honoured
itself by electing the learned Principal of the United Colleges of St.
Salvator and St. Leonard, St. Andrews^ to the presidential chair — at
once a tribute to Sir David Brewster's eminence as a natural philo-

THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 3

sopher, and a grateful recognition of his services to this body in
suggesting and pi'omoting its formation.

On the occasion of his inaugural address, after a brief account of
recent progress in science, made with the lucidity of expression which
characterised all the literary efforts of the learned biographer of Newton
and versatile editor of the Ed'mburgh Encyclopedia, the Edinburgh
Magazine, and the Edinburgh Journal of Science, the President dwelt
upon the beneficent influence of the Association in securing a more
general attention to the objects of science, and in effecting a removal
of disadvantages of a public kind tliat impeded its progress. It was
largely to the action of the Association, assisted by the writings and
personal exertions of its members, that the Government was induced
to extend a direct national encouragement to science and to aid in its

organisation.

Brewster had a lofty ideal of the place of science in the intellectual
life of a community, and of the just position of the man of science
in the social scale. In well-weighed words, the outcome of matured
experience and of an intimate knowledge of the working of European
institutions created for the advancement of science and the diffusion
of knowledge, he pleaded for the establishment of a national institution
in Britain, possessing a class of resident members who should devote
themselves wholly to science — wdth a place and station in society the
most respectable and independent — 'free alike,' as Play fair put it,
' from the embarrassments of poverty or the temptations of wealth.'
Such men, ' ordained by the State to the undivided functions of science,'
would, he contended, do more and better work than those who snatch
an hour or two from their daily toil or nightly i-est.

This ideal of ' combining what is insulated, and uniting in one great
institution the living talent which is in active but undirected and un-
befriended exercise around us,' was not attained during Brewster's time;
nor, notwithstanding the reiteration of incontrovertible argument during
the past seventy years, has it been reached in our own.

I have been led to dwell on Sir David Brewster's association with this
question of the relations of the State towards research for several
reasons. Although he was not the first to raise it — for Davy more
than a century ago made it the theme of presidential addresses, and
brought his social influence to bear in the attempt to enlist the practical
sympathy of the Government — no one more consistently urged its
national importance, or supported his case with a more powerful advo-
cacy, than the Principal of the University of Edinburgh. It is only
seemly, therefore, that on this particular occasion, and in this city of
his adoption, where he spent so much of his intellectual energy, I
should specially allude to it. Moreover, we can never forget what this
Association owes to his large and fruitful mind. Every man is a

4 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS.

debtor to his profession, from which he gains countenance and profit.
That Brewster was an ornament to his is acknowledged by every lover
of learning. That he endeavoured to be a help to it was gratefully
recognised during his lifetime. After his death it was said of him that
the improved position of men of science in our time is chiefly due to
his exertions and his example.

I am naturally led to connect the meeting of 1850 with a still more
memorable gathering of this Association in this city. In August 1871 —
just over half a century ago — the British Association again assembled in
Edinburgh under the presidency of Lord Kelvin — then Sir William
Thomson. It was an historic occasion by reason of the address which
inaugurated its proceedings. Lord Kelvin, with characteristic force and
insistence, still further elaborated the theme which had been so signal
a feature of Sir David Brewster's address twenty years previously:
' Whether we look to the honour of England, ' he said, ' as a nation which
ought always to be the foremost in promoting physical science, or to
those vast economical advantages which must accrue from such estab-
lishments, we cannot but feel that experimental research ought to be
made with us an object of national concern, and not left, as hitherto,
exclusively to the private enterprise of self-sacrificing amateurs, and
the necessarily inconsecutive action of our present Governmental
Departments and of casual committees.'

Lord Kelvin, as might have been anticipated, pleaded more especi-
ally for the institution of physical observatories and laboratories for
experimental research, to be conducted by qualified persons, whose
duties should be not teaching, but experimenting. Such institutions
as then existed, he pointed out, only afforded a very partial and inade-
quate solution of a national need. They were, for the most part,
' absolutely destitute of means, material, or personnel for advancing
science, except at the expense of volunteers, or of securing that volun-
teers should be found to continue such little work as could then be
carried on. '

There were, however, even then, signs that the bread cast upon the
waters was slowly returning after many days. The establishment of
the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge, by the munificence of its then
Chancellor, was a notable achievement. Whilst in its constitution
as part of a university discipline it did not wholly realise the ideal of the
two Presidents, under its successive directors. Prof. Clerk-Maxwell, the
late Lord Eayleigh, and Sir J. J. Thomson, it has exerted a profound in-
fluence upon the development of experimental physics, and has inspired
the foundation of many similar educational institutions in this country.
Experimental physics has thus received an enormous impetus during the
last fi'fty years, and although in matters of science there is but little
folding of the hands to sleep, ' the divine discontent ' of its followers

THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. »

has little cause for disquietude as regards the position of physics in this
country.

In the estabhshment of the National Physical Laboratory we have
an approach to the ideal which my predecessors had so earnestly advo-
cated. Other Presidents, among whom I would specially name the late
Sir Douglas Galton, have contributed to this consummation. The
result is a remarkable testimony to the value of organised and continuous
effort on the part of the British Association in forming public opinion
and in influencing Departmental action. It would, however, be ungrate-
ful not to recall the action of the late I^ord Salisbury — himself a
follower of science and in full sympathy with its objects — in taking
the first practical steps towards the creation of this magnificent national
institution. I may be allowed, perhaps, to refer to this matter, as 1
have personal knowledge of the circumstances, being one of the few
survivors of the Committee which Lord Salisbury caused to be formed,
under the chairmanship of the late Lord Eayleigh, to inquire and report
upon the expediency of establishing an institution in Great Britam
upon the model of certain State-aided institutions already existing on
the Continent, for the determination of physical constants of importance
in the arts, for investigations in physical problems bearing upon
industry, for the standardisation and verification of physical instru-
ments, and for the general purposes of metrology. I do not profess
to give the exact terras of the reference to the Committee, but, in sub-
stance, these were recognised to be the general aims of the contemplated
institute. The evidence we received from many men of science, from
Departmental officers, and from representatives of engineering and other
industrial establishments, was absolutely unanimous as to the great
public utility of the projected laboratory. It need hardly be said that
the opportunity called forth all the energy and power of advocacy of
Lord Kelvin, and I well remember with what strength of conviction he
impressed his views upon the Committee. That the National Physical
Laboratory has, under the ability, organising power, and busmess
capacity of its first director, Sir Eichard Glazebrook, abundantly justified
its creation is recognised on all hands. Its services during the four
years of war alone are sufficient proof of its national value. It has
grown to be a large and rapidly increasing establishment, occupying
itself with an extraordinary range of subjects, with a numerous and
well-qualified staff, engaged in determinative and research work on
practically every branch of pure and applied physics. The I'ange
of its activities has been further increased by the estabhshment since
the war of co-ordinating research boards for physics, chemistry,
engineering and radio-research. Government Departments have
learned to appreciate its services. The photometry division, for
example, has been busy on experiments on navigation lamps for the

6 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS.

Board of Trade, on miners' lamps for the Home Office and on motor-
car head-lamps for the Ministry of Transport, and on the lighting
of the National Gallery and the Houses of Parliament. Important
work has been done on the forms of ships, on the steering and
manoeuvring of ships, on the effect of waves on ship resistance, on the
interaction between passing ships, on seaplane floats, and on the
hulls of flying-boats.

It is also actively engaged in the study of problems connected with
aviation, and has a well-ordered department for aerodynamical research.

It can already point to a long and valuable series of published re-
searches, which are acknowledged to be among the most important
contributions to pure and applied physics which this country has made
during recent years.

I may be pardoned, I hope, for another personal reference, if I
recall that it was at the Edinburgh meeting, under Lord Kelvin's presi-
dency, fifty years ago, that I first became a member of this Association,
and had the honour of serving it as one of the secretaries of its chemical
section. Fifty years is a considerable span in the life of an individual,
but it is a relatively short period in the history of science. Nevertheless,
those fifty years are richer in scientific achievement and in the impor-
tance and magnitude of the utilitarian applications of practically every
branch of science than any preceding similar interval. The most
cursory comparison of the state of science, as revealed in his compre-
hensive address, with the present condition of those departments on
which he chiefly dwelt, will suffice to show that the development has
been such that even Lord Kelvin's penetrative genius, vivid imagina-
tion, and sanguine temperament could hardly have anticipated. No
previous half-century in the history of science has witnessed such
momentous and far-reaching achievements. In pure chemistry it has
seen the discovery of argon by Eayleigh, of radium by Madame Curie,
of helium as a terrestrial element by Eamsay, of neon, xenon, and
krypton by Ramsay and Travers, the production of helium from radium
by Eamsay and Soddy, and the isolation of fluorine by Moissan.
These are undoubtedly great discoveries, but their value is enormously
enhanced by the theoretical and practical consequences which flow
from them.

In applied chemistry it has witnessed the general application of the
Gilchrist-Thomas process of iron-purification, the production of calcium
cyanamide by the process of Frank and Caro, Sabatier's process of
hydrogenation, a widespread apphcation of hquefied gases, and Haber's
work on ammonia synthesis — all manufacturing processes which have
practically revolutionised the industries with which they are con-
cerned.

In pure physics it has seen the rise of the electron theory, by

THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. V

Lorentz ; Hertz's discovery of electro-magnetic waves ; the investigation
of cathode rays by Lenard, and the elucidation of crystal structure by

Bragg.

It has seen, moreover, the invention of the telephone, the establish-
ment of incandescent lighting, the electric transmission of force, the
invention of the cinematograph, of wireless telegraphy, the application
of the Eontgen rays, and the photographic reproduction of colour.

In physical chemistry it has witnessed the creation of stereo-
chemistry by Van t'Hoff and Le Bel, Gibbs' work on the phase rule.
Van t'Hoff "s theory of solutions, AiThenius's theory of ionic dissocia-
tion, and Nernst's theory of the galvanic cell.

Such a list is far from complete, and might be greatly extended.
But it will at least serve to indicate the measure of progress which the
world owes to the development and application during the last fifty
years of the two sciences — physics and chemistry — to which Lord
Kelvin specially referred.

The more rapid dissemination of information concerning the results
of recent or contemporary investigation, which Lord Kelvin so strongly
urged as ' an object to which the powerful action of the British Asso-
ciation would be thoroughly appropriate,' has been happily accomplished.
The timely aid of the Association in contributing to the initial expense of
preparing and publishing monthly abstracts of foreign chemical
literature by the Chemical Society is gratefully remembered by British
chemists. The example has been followed by the greater number of
our scientific and technical societies, and the results of contemporary
inquiry in every important branch of pure and applied science are now
quickly brought to the knowledge of all interested workers. In fact,
as regards the particular branch of science with which I am more
directly concerned, the arrangements for the preparation and dissemina-
tion of abstracts of contemporary foreign chemical literature are
proving to be a veritable embarrassment of riches, and there is much
need for co-operation among the various distributing societies. This
need is especially urgent at the pi-eseni time owing to the greatly
increased cost of pajier, printing, binding, and indeed of every item
connected with publication, which expense, of course, ultimately falls
upon the various societies and their members. The problem, which
has already received some attention from those entrusted with the
management of the societies referred to, is not without its difficulties,
but these are not insoluble. There is little doubt that a resolute and
unanimous effort to find a solution would meet with success.

The present high cost of book production, which in the case of
specialised books is about three times what it was in 1914, is exercising a
most prejudicial effect upon the spread of scientific knowledge. Books
on science are not generally among the ' best sellers. ' They appeal to a

8 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS,

comparatively limited and not particularly wealthy public, largely com-
posed of the professional classes who have suffered in no small measure
from the economic effects of the War. The present high price of this
class of literature is to the public detriment. Eventually it is no less to
the detriment of the printing and publishing trades. Publishers are well
aware of this fact, and attempts are being made by discussions between
employers and the executives of the Typographical Association and other
societies of compositors to reach an equitable solution, and it is greatly
to be hoped that it will be speedily found.

All thinking men ai'e agreed that science is at the basis of national
progress. Science can only develop by research. Research is the
mother of discovery, and discovery of invention. The industrial
position of a nation, its manufactures and commerce, and ultimately its
wealth, depend upon invention. Its welfare and stability largely rest
upon the equitable distribution of its wealth. All this seems so obvious,
and has been so frequently and so convincingly stated, that it is super-
fluous to dwell upon it in a scientific gathering to-day.

A late distinguished Admiral, you may remember, insisted on the
value of reiteration. On this particular question it was never more
needed than now. The crisis through which we have recently passed
requires it in the interests of national welfare. Of all post-war
problems to engage our serious attention, none is more important in
regard to our position and continued existence than the nation's attitude
towards science and scientific research, and there is no more opportune
time than the present in which to seek to enforce the teaching of one
of the most pregnant lessons of our late experience.

It is, unfortunately, only too true that the industrial world has in
the past underrated the value of research. One indication that the
nation is at length aroused to its importance is to be seen in the estab-
lishment of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Eesearch, with
its many subordinate associations. The outbreak of the Great War,
and much in its subsequent history, revealed, as we all know, many
national shortcomings, due to our indifference to and actual neglect of
many things which are at the root of our prosperity and security.
During the War, and at its close, various attempts, more or less un-
connected, were made to find a remedy. Of the several committees
and boards which were set up, those which still exist have now been
co-ordinated, and brought under the control of a central organisation —
the Department of Scientific and Industrial Eesearch. Eesearch has
now become a national and State-aided object. For the first time in our
history its pursuit with us has been organised by Government action.
As thus organised it seeks to fulfil the aspirations to which I have
referred, whilst meeting many of the objections which have been urged
against the endowment of research. It must be recognised that modern

THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. ^

ideas of democracy ai'e adverse to the creation of places to which
definite work is not assigned and from which definite results do not
emanate. This objection, which strikes at the root of the establish-
ment of such an institution as Sir David Brewster contemplated, is, to
a large extent, obviated by the scheme of the Department of Scientific
and Industrial Eesearch. It does not prescribe or fetter research, but,
whilst aiding by personal payments the individual worker, leaves him
free to pursue his inquiry as he thinks best. Grants are made, on the
recommendation of an Advisory Council of experts, to research workers
in educational institutions and elsewhere, in order to promote research
of high character on fundamental problems of pure science or in suitable
cases on problems of applied science. Of the boards and committees and
similar ojganisations established prior to or during the AVar, or subse-
quent to it, with one or two exceptions, all are now directly under the
Department. They deal with a wide range of subjects, such as the
Building Eesearch Board, established early in 1920 to organise and
supervise investigations on building materials and construction, to study
structural failures, and to fix standards for structural materials. The
Food Investigation Board deals with the preservation by cold of food,
and with the engineering problems of cold storage, with the chemistry
of putrefaction, and the agents which induce it, with the bionomics of
moulds, and the chemistiy of edible oils and fats. The Fuel Eesearch
Board is concerned with the immediate importance of fuel economy
and with investigations of the questions of oil-fuel for the Navy
and Mercantile Marine, the survey of the national coal resources,
domestic heating, air pollution, pulverised fuel, utilisation of peat, the
search for possible substitutes for natural fuel oil, and for practicable
sources of power alcohol.

The Geological Survey Board has taken over the Geological Survey
of Great Britain and the control of the Museum of Practical Geology.
The maintenance of the National Physical Laboratory, originally con-
trolled by a General Board and an Executive Committee appointed by
the President and Council of the Eoyal Society, is now transferred to
the Department of Scientific and Industrial Eesearch. A Mines
Eesearch Committee and a Mine Eescue Apparatus Committee are
attached to the Department. The former is concerned with such ques-
tions as the detemiination of the geotliermic gradient, the influence of
temperature of intake and return air on strata, the effect of seasonal
changes on strata temperature of intakes, the cooling effect due to tlie
evolution of fire-damp, heat production from the oxidation of timber,
etc. The Department is also directing inquiries on the preservation
and restoration of antique objects deposited in the British Museum. It
is concerned with the gauging of rivers and tidal currents, with special
reference to a hydrographical survey of Great Britain in relation to

1921 ^

10 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS.

the national resources of water-power. In accordance with the
Government policy, four co-ordinating boards have been established to
organise scientific work in connection with the fighting forces, so as to
avoid unnecessary overlapping and to provide a single direction and
financial control. The four boards deal, respectively, with chemical
and physical problems, problems of radio-research, and engineering.
These boards have attached to them various committees dealing with
special inquiries, some of which will be carried out at the National
Physical Laboratory. The Government have also authorised the
establishment of a Forest Products Eesearch Board.

The Department is further empowered to assist learned or scientific
societies and institutions in carrying out investigations. Some of these
were initiated prior to the War, and were likely to be abandoned owing
to lack of funds. Whenever the investigation has a direct bearing upon
a particular industry that had not hitherto been able to establish a
Research Association, it has been a condition of a grant that the institu-
tion directing the research should obtain contributions towards the cost
on a £ for £ basis, either directly through its corporate funds or by
special subscriptions from interested firms. On the formation of the
appi'opriate association the research is, under suitable safeguards, trans-
ferred to it for continuance. The formation of a number of Eesearch
Associations has thus been stimulated, dealing, for example, with
scientific instruments, non-ferrous metals, glass, silk, refractories,
electrical and allied industries, pottery, etc.

Grants are made to Eesearch Associations formed voluntarily by
manufacturers for the purposes of research, from a fund of a million
sterling, placed at the disposal of the Eesearch Department for this
purpose. Such Associations, to be eligible for the grant, must submit
Articles of Association for the approval of the Department and the
Board of Trade. If these are approved, licences are issued by the
Board of Trade recognising the Associations as limited liability com-
panies working without profits. Subscriptions paid to an Association
by contributing firms are recognised by the Board of Inland Eevenue
as business costs of the firms, and are not subject to income or excess
profits taxes. The income of the Association is similarly free of income
tax. Grants are ordinarily made to these .\ssociations on the basis of
£1 for every £1 raised by the Association between limits depending
upon the particular industry concerned. In the case of two Eesearch
Associations grants are made at a higher rate than £ for £, as these
industries are regarded as having a special claim to State assistance on
account of their ' pivotal ' character. The results of research are the
sole property of the Association making them, subject to certain rights
of veto possessed by the Department for the purposes of ensuring that
they are not communicated to foreign countries, except with the consent

THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. H

of the Department, and that they may be made available to other inter-
ested industries and to the Government itself on suitable terms.

These arrangements have been found to be generally satisfactoiy,
and at the present time twenty-four of such Research Associations have
been formed to whom licences have been issued by the Board of Trade.
Others are in process of formation, and may be expected to be at work
at an early date. These Research Associations are concerned with
nearly all our leading industries. The official addresses of most of,
them are in London; others have their headquarters in Manchester,
Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham, Northampton, Coventry, Glasgow, and
Belfast.

The Department has further established a Records Bureau, which is
responsible for receiving, abstracting, filing and collating communica-
tions from research workers, boards, institutions, or associations
related to or supervised by the Department. This information is
regarded as confidential, and will not be communicated except in
writing, and after consultation with the research worker or organisation
from which it has been received. Also such non-confidential informa-
tion as comes into the possession of the Department which is of evident
or probable value to those working in touch with the Department is
collected and filed in the Bureau and made generally available.

It is also a function of the Bureau to effect economy in preventing
repetition and overlapping of investigations and in ensuring that the
fullest possible use is made of the results of research. Thus, the
programmes of Research Associations are compared in order to ensure
that researches are not unwittingly duplicated by different Research
Associations. Sometimes two or more Research Associations may be
interested in one problem from different points of view, and when this
occurs it may be possible for the Bureau to arrange a concerted attack
upon the common problem, each Research Association undertaking that
phase of the work in which it is specially interested and sharing in the
general results.

As researciies carried out under the Department frequently produce
results for which it is possible to take out patents, careful consideration
has been given to the problems of policy arising on this subject, and
other Government Departments also interested have been freely con-
sulted. As the result, an Inter-Departmental Committee has been
established with the following terms of reference : —

(1) To consider the methods of dealing with inventions made by
workers aided or maintained from public funds, whether such
workers be engaged (a) as research workers, or {b) in some
other technical capacity, so as to give a fair reward to the
inventor and thus encourage further effort, to secure the

D ?.

12 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS.

utilisation in industry of suitable inventions and to protect the
national interest, and
(2) To outline a course of procedure in respect of inventions arising
out of State-aided or supported work which shall further
these aims and be suitable for adoption by all Government
Departnjents concerned.

About forty patents have been taken out by the Department jointly
with the inventors and other interested bodies, but of these, nine have
subsequently been abandoned. At least five patents have been developed
to such a stage as to be ready for immediate industrial application.

It will be obvious from this short summary of the activities of the
Department, based upon information kindly supplied to me by Sir
Francis Ogilvie, that this great scheme of State-aided research has been
conceived and is administered on broad and liberal lines. A consider-
able number of valuable reports from its various boards and committees
have already been published, and others are in the press, but it is, of
course, much too soon to appreciate the full effects of their operations.
But it can hardly be doubted that they are bound to exeiT-ise a profound
influence upon industries which ultimately depend upon discovery and
invention. The establishment of the Department marks an epoch in
our history. No such comprehensive organisation for the application
of science to national needs has ever been created by any other State.
We may say we owe it directly to the Great War. Even from the
evil of that great catastrophe there is some soul of goodness would we
observingly distil it out.

I turn now to a question of scientific interest which is attracting
general attention at the present time. It is directly connected with
Lord Kelvin's address fifty years ago.

The molecular theory of matter — a theory which in its crudest form
has descended to us from the earliest times and which has been
elaborated by various speculative thinkers tin-ough the intervening ages —
hardly rested upon an e.xperimental basis until within the memory of
men still living. When Lord Kelvin spoke in 1871, the best-established
development of the molecular hypothesis was exhibited in the kinetic
theory of gases as worked out by Joule, Clausius, and Clerk-Maxwell.
As he then said, no such comprehensive molecular theory had ever
been even imagined before the nineteenth century. But, with the eye
of faith, he clearly perceived that, definite and complete in its area as
it was, it was ' but a well-drawn part of a great chart, in which all
physical science will be represented with every property of matter
shown in dynamical relation to the whole. The prospect we now have
of an early completion of this chart is based on the assumption of atoms.
But there can be no permanent satisfaction to the mind in explaining

THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 13

heat, light, elasticity, diffusion, electricity and magnetism, in gases,
liquids and solids, and describing precisely the relations of these
different states of matter to one another by statistics of great numbers
of atoms when the properties of the atom itself are simply assumed.
When the theory, of which we have the first instalment in Clausius and
Maxwell's work, is complete, we are but brought face to face with a
superlatively grand question: What is the inner mechanism of the
atom ? '

If the properties and affections of matter are dependent upon the
inner mechanism of the atom, an atomic theory, to be vaUd, must
comprehend and explain them all. There cannot be one kind of atom
for the physicist and another for the chemist. The nature of chemical
affinity and of valency, the modes of their action, the difference in
characteristics of the chemical elements, even their number, internal
constitution, periodic position, and possible isotopic rearrangements must
be accounted for and explained by it. Fifty years ago chemists, for the
most part, rested in the comfortable belief of the existence of atoms in
the restricted sense in which Dalton, as a legacy from Newton, had
imagined them. Lord Kelvin, unhke the chemists, had never been in
the habit of ' evading questions as to the hardness or indivisibility of
atoms by virtually assuming them to be infinitely small and infinitely
nunierous.' Nor, on the other hand, did he realise, with Boscovich,
tlie atom ' as a mystic point endowed with inertia and the attribute of
attracting or repelling otlier such centres.' Science advances not so
much by fundamental alterations in its behefs as by additions to them.
Dalton would equally have regarded the atom ' as a piece of matter of
measureable dimensions, with shape, motion, and laws of action, in-
telligible subjects of scientific investigation.'

In spite of the fact that the atomic theory, as formulated by Dalton,
lias been generally accepted for nearly a century, it is only within the
last few years that physicists have arrived at a conception of the
structure of the atom sufficiently precise to be of service to chemists in
connection with the relation between the properties of elements of
different kinds, and in throwing light on the mechanism of chemical
combination.

This further investigation of the ' superlatively grand question— the
inner mechanism of the atom "—has profoundly modified the basic
conceptions of chemistry. It has led to a great extension of our views
concerning the real nature of the chemical elements. The discovery
of the electron, the production of helium in the radioactive disintegra-
tion of atoms, the recognition of the existence of isotopes, the possibility
that all elementary atoms are comi^osed either of helium atoms or of
atoms of hydrogen and helium, and that these atoms, in their turn, are
built up of two constituents, one of which is the electron, a particle of

14 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS.

negative electricity whose mass is only 1/1800 of that of an atom of
hydrogen, and the other a particle of positive electricity whose mass is
practically identical with that of the same atom — the outcome, in short,
of the collective work of Soddy, Rutherford, J. J. Thomson, Collie,
Moseley, and others — are pregnant facts which have completely altered
the fundamental aspects of the science. Chemical philosophy has, in
fact, now definitely entered on a new phase.

Looking back over the past, some indications of the coming change
might have been perceived wholly unconnected, of course, with the
recent experimental work wliich has served to ratify it. In a short
paper entitled ' Speculative Ideas respecting the Constitution of
Matter,' originally published in 1863, Graham conceived that the
various kinds of matter, now recognised as different elementary sub-
stances, may possess one and the same ultimate or atomic molecule
existing in different conditions of movement. This idea, in its essence,
may be said to be as old as the time of Leucippus. To Graham as to
Leucippus ' the action of the atom as one substance taking various
forms by combinations unlimited, was enough to account for all the
phenomena of the world. By separation and union with constant
motion all things could be done.' But Graham developed the concep-
tion by independent thought, and in the light of experimentally ascer-
tained knowledge which the world owes to his labours. He might have
been cognisant of the speculations of the Greeks, but there is no evi-
dence that he was knowingly influenced by them. In his paper Graham
uses the terms atom and molecule if not exactly in the same sense that
modern teaching demands, yet very different from that hitherto required
by the limitations of contemporary chemical doctrine. He conceives
of a lower order of atoms than the chemical atom of Dalton, and founds
on his conception an explanation of chemical combination based upon
a fixed combining measure, which he terms the vietron, its relative
weight being one for hydrogen, sixteen for oxygen, and so on with the
other so-called 'elements.' Gr-aham, in fact, like Davy before him,
never committed himself to a belief in the indivisibility of the Daltonian
atom. The original atom may, he thought, be far down.

The idea of a primordial yle, or of the essential unity of matter, has
persisted throughout the ages, and, in spite of much experimental work,
some of it of the highest order, which was thought to have demolished
it, it has survived, revivified and supported by analogies and arguments
drawn from every field of natural inquiry. This idea of course was at
the basis of the hypothesis of Prout, but which, even as modified by
Dumas, was held to be refuted by the monumental work of Stas. But, as
pointed out by Marignac and Dumas, anyone v,'ho will impartially look
at the facts can hardly escape the feeling that there must be some reason
for the frequent recurrence of atomic weights differing by so little

THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 15

[mm the numbers required by the huv which the work of Stas was
supposed to disprov(>. The more exact study within recent years of
the methods of determining atomic weights, the great improvement
in experimental apphances and technique, combined with a more
rigorous standard of accuracy demanded by a general recognition of
the far-reaching importance of an exact knowledge of these physical
constants, has resulted in intensifying the belief that some natural
law must be at the basis of the fact that so many of the most carefully
determined atomic weights on the oxygen standard are whole numbers.
Nevertheless there were well-authenticated exceptions which seemed to
mvalidate its universality. The proved fact that a so-called element
may be a mixture of isotopes — substances of the same chemical attri-
butes but of varying atomic weight — has thrown new light on the
question. It is now recognised that the fractional values independently
established in the case of any one element by the most accurate experi-
mental work of various investigators are, in effect, ' statistical quanti-
ties ' dependent upon a mixture of isotopes. This result, indeed, is a
necessary corollary of modern conceptions of the inner mechanism of
the atom. The theory that all elementary atoms are composed of
helium atoms, or of helium and hydrogen atoms, may be regarded as an
extension of Front's hypothesis, with, however, this important distinc-
tion, that whereas Prout's hypothesis was at best a surmise, with little,
and that little only weak, experimental evidence to support it, the new
theory is directly deduced from well-estabUshed facts. The hydrogen
isotope H,, first detected by J. J. Thomson, of which the existence
has been confirmed by Aston, would seem to be an integral part of
atomic structure. Eutherford, by the disruption of oxygen and
nitrogen, has also isolated a substance of mass 3 which enters into
the structure of atomic nuclei, but which he regards as an isotope
of hehum, which itself is built up of four hydrogen nuclei together
with two cementing electrons. The atomic nuclei of elements of even
atomic number would appear to be composed of helium nuclei only,
or of helium nuclei with cementing electrons; whereas those of
elements of odd atomic number are made up of helium and
hydrogen nuclei together with cementing electrons. In the case of
the hghter elements of the latter class the number of hydrogen nuclei
associated with the helium nuclei is invariably three, except in that of
nitrogen where it is two. The frequent occurrence of this group of
three hydrogen nuclei indicates that it is structurally an isotope of
hydrogen with an atomic weight of three and a nuclear charge of one.
It is surmised that it is identical with the hypothetical ' nebulium ' from
which our ' elements ' are held by astro-physicists to be originally
produced in the stars through hydrogen and helium.

These results are of extraordinary interest as bearing on the question

16 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS.

of the essential unity of matter and the mode of genesis of the elements.
Members of the British Association may recall the suggestive address on
this subject of the late Sir William Crookes, delivered to the Chemical
Section at the Birmingham meeting of 1886, in which he questioned
whether there is absolute uniformity in the mass of the atoms of a
chemical element, as postulated by Dalton. He thought, with
Marignac and Schutzenberger, who had previously raised the same
doubt, that it was not improbable that what we term an atomic weight
merely represents a mean value around which the actual weights of the
atoms vary within narrow limits, or, in other words, that the mean
mass is ' a statistical constant of great stability.' No valid experi-
mental evidence in support of this surmise was or could be offered at
the time it was uttered. Maxwell pointed out that the phenomena of
gaseous diffusion, as then ascertained, would seem to negative the
supposition. If hydi'ogen, for example, were composed of atoms of
varying mass it should be possible to separate the lighter from the
heavier atoms by diffusion through a porous septum. ' As no chemist,'
said Maxwell, ' has yet obtained specimens of hydrogen differing in
this way from other specimens, we conclude that all the molecules of
hydrogen are of sensibly the same mass, and not merely that their
mean mass is a statistical constant of great stability.'^ But against
this it may be doubted whether any chemist had ever made experiments
sufficiently precise to solve this point.

The work of Sir Norman Lockyer on the spectroscopic evidence for
the dissociation of ' elementary ' matter at transcendental tempera-
tures, and the possible synthetic intro-stellar production of elements,
through the helium of which he originally detected the existence, will
also find its due place in the history of this new philosophy.

Sir J. J. Thomson was the first to afford direct evidence that the
atoms of an element, if not exactly of the same mass, were at least
approximately so, by his method of analysis of positive rays. By an
extension of this method Mr. F. W. Aston has succeeded in showing
that a number of elements are in reality mixtures of isotopes. It
has been proved, for example, that neon, which has a mean
atomic weight of about 20.2, consists of two isotopes having the
atomic weights respectively of 20 and 22, mixed in the proportion of
90 per cent, of the former with 10 per cent, of the latter. By frac-
tional diffusion through a porous septum an apparent difference of
density of 0.7 per cent, between the lightest and heaviest fractions
was obtained. The kind of experiment which Maxwell imagined proved
the invariability of the hydrogen atom has sufficed to show the converse
in the case of neon.

' Clerk-Maxwell, Art. =At(jm," Ency. Brii. 9th Ed.

THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 17

The element chlorine has had its atomic weight repeatedly deter-
mined, and, for special reasons, with the highest attainable accuracy.
On the oxygen standard it is 35.46, and this value is accurate to the
second decimal place. All attempts to prove that it is a whole
number — 35 or 36 — have failed. When, however, the gas is analysed
by the same method as that used in the case of neon it is found to
consist of at least two isotopes of relative mass 35 and 37. There is no
evidence whatever of an individual substance having the atomic weight
35.46. Hence chlorine is to be regarded as a complex element con-
sisting of two principal isotopes of atomic v/eights 35 and 37 present
in such proportion as to afford the mean mass 35.46. The atomic
weight of chlorine has been so frequently determined by various
observers and by various methods with practically identical results that
it seems difficult to believe that it consists of isotopes present in definite
and invariable proportion. Mr. Aston meets this objection by pointing
out that all the accurate determinations have been made with chlorine
dei-ived originally from the same source, the sea, which has been perfectly
mixed for seons. If samples of the element could be obtained from
some other original source it is possible that other values of atomic
weight would be obtained, exactly as in the case of lead in v/hich the
existence of isotopes in the metal found in various radioactive minerals
was first conclusively established.

Argon, which has an atomic weight of 39.88, was found to consist
mainly of an isotope having an atomic weight of 40, associated to the
extent of about 3 per cent., with an isotope of atomic weight 36.
Krypton and xenon are far more complex. The former would appear
to consist of six isotopes, 78, 80, 82, 83, 84, 86; the latter of five
isotopes, 129, 131, 132, 134, 136.

Fluorine is a simple element of atomic weight 19. Bromine con-
sists of equal quantities of two isotopes, 79 and 81. Iodine, on the
contrary, would appear to be a simple element of atomic weight 127.
The case of tellurium is of special interest in view of its periodic relation
to iodine, but the results of its examination up to the present are
indefinite.

Boron and silicon are complex elements, each consisting of two
isotopes, 10 and 11, and 28 and 29, respectively.

Sulphur, phosphorus, and arsenic are apparently simple elements.
Their accepted atomic weights are practically integers.

All this work is so recent that there has been little opportunity,
as yet, of extending it to any considerable number of the metallic
elements. These, as will be obvious from the nature of the methods
employed, present special difficulties. It is, however, highly probable
that mercury is a mixed element consisting of many isotopes. These
have been partially separated by Bronsted and Hervesy by fractional

IS THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS.

distillation at very low pressures, and have been shown to vary verj-
slightly in density. Lithium is found to consist of two isotopes,
6 and 7. Sodium is simple, potassium and rubidium are complex, each
of the two latter elements consisting, apparently, of two isotopes. The
accepted atomic weight of csesium, 132.81, would indicate complexity,
but the mass spectrum shows only one line at 133. Should this be
confirmed cfesium would affoi'd an excellent test case. The accepted
value for the atomic weight is sufficiently far removed from a whole
number to render further investigation desirable.

This imperfect summary of Mr. Aston 's work is mainly based upon
the account he recently gave to the Chemical Society. At the close
of his lecture he pointed out the significance of the results in relation
to the Periodic Law. It is clear that the order of the chemical or
' mean ' atomic weights in the Periodic table has no practical signifi-
cance ; anomalous cases such as argon and potassium are simply due to
the relative proportions of their heavier and lighter isotopes. This
does not necessarily invalidate or even weaken the Periodic Law which
still remains the expression of a great natural truth. That the expres-
sion as Mendeleeff left it is imperfect has long been recognised. The
new light we have now gained has gone far to clear up much that was
anomalous, especially Moseley's discovery that the real sequence is the
atomic number, not the atomic weight. This is one more illustration
of the fact that science advances by additions to its beliefs rather than
by fundamental or revolutionary changes in them.

The bearing of the electronic theorv of matter, too, on Prout's dis-
carded hypothesis that the atoms of all elements were themselves built
up of a primordial atom — his protyle w^hich he regarded as probably
identical with hydrogen — is too obvious to need pointing out. In a
sense Prout's hypothesis may be said to be now re-established, but
with this essential modification — the primordial atoms he imagined are
complex and are of two kinds — atoms of positive and negative elec-
tricity — respectively known as protons and electrons. These, in Mr.
Aston 's words, are the standard bricks that Nature employs in her
operations of element building.

The true value of any theory consists in its comprehensiveness and
sufficiency. As applied to chemistry, this theory of ' the inner
mechanism of the atom ' must explain all its phenomena. "We owe to
Sir J. J. Thomson its extension to the explanation of the Periodic Law,
the atomic number of an element, and of that varying power of chemical
combination in an element we term valency. This explanation I give
substantially in his own words. The number of electrons in an atom
of the different elements has now been determined, and has been found
to be equal to the atomic number of the element, that is to the position
which the element occupies in the series, when the elements are

THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 19

arran'^ed in the order of their atomic weights. We know now the
nature and quantity of the materials of which the atoms are made up.
Tlie properties of the atom will depend not only upon these factors but
also upon the way in which the electrons are arranged in the atom.
Tiiis arrangement will depend on the forces between the electrons
themselves and also on those between the electrons and the positive
charges or protons. One arrangement which naturally suggested itself
is that the positive charges should be at the centre with the negative
electrons around it on the surface of a sphere. Mathematical investi-
gation shov/s that this is a possible arrangement if the electrons on the
sphere are not too crowded. The mutual repulsion of the electrons
resents overcrowding, and Sir J. J. Thomson has shown that when
there are more than a certain number of electrons on the sphere, the
attraction of a positive charge, limited as in the case of the atom m
magnitude to the sum of the charges on the electrons, is not able to
keep the electrons in stable equilibrium on the sphere, the layer of
electrons explodes and a new arrangement is formed. The number of
electrons which can be accommodated on the outer layer will depend
upon the law of force between the positive charge and the electrons.
Sir J. J. Thomson has shown that this number will be eight with a law
of force of a simple type.

To show the bearing of this result as affording an explanation of the
Periodic Law, let us, to begin with, take the case of the atom of lithium,
which is supposed to have one electron in the outer layer. As each
element has one more free electron in its atom than its predecessor,
glucinum, the element next in succession to lithium, will have two
electrons in the outer layer of its atom, boron will have three, carbon
four, nitrogen five, oxygen six, fluorine seven and neon eight. As there
cannot be more than eight electrons in the outer layer, the additional
electron in the atom of the next element, sodium, cannot find room in
the same layer as the other electrons, but will go outside, and thus the
atom of sodium, like that of lithium, will have one electron in its outer
layer. The additional electron, in the atom of the next element,
magnesium, will join this, and the atom of magnesium, like that of
glucinum, will have two electrons in the outer layer. Again, alu-
minium, hke boron, will have three; silicon, like carbon, four; phos-
phorus, like nitrogen, five; sulphur, like oxygen, six; chlorine, like
fluorine, seven; and argon, like neon, eight. The sequence will then
begin again. Thus the number of electrons, one, two, three, up to eight
in the outer layer of the atom, will recur periodically as we proceed
from one element to another in the order of their atomic weights, so
that any property of an element which depends on the number of elec-
trons in the outer layer of its atom will also recur periodically, which
is precisely that remarkable property of the elements which is expressed

20 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS.

by the Periodic Law of Mendeleeff, or the Law of Octaves of
Newlands.

The valency of the elements, like their periodicity, is a consequence
of the principle that equilibrium becomes unstable when there are more
than eight electrons in the outer layer of the atom. For on this view
the chemical combination between two atoms, A and B, consists in the
electrons of A getting linked up with those of B. Consider an atom
like that of neon, which has already eight electrons in its outer layer;
it cannot find room for any more, so that no atoms can be linked to it,
and thus it cannot form any compounds. Now take an atom of fluorine,
which has seven electrons in its outer layer ; it can find room for one,
but only one, electron, so that it can unite with one, but not with more
than one, atom of an element like hydrogen, which has one electron
in the outer layer. Fluorine, accordingly, is monovalent. The oxygen
atom has six electrons; it has, therefore, room for two more, and so can
link up with two atoms of hydrogen : hence oxygen is divalent. Simi-
larly nitrogen, which has five electrons and three vacant places, will
be trivalent, and so on. On this view an element should have two
valencies, the sum of the two being equal to eight. Thus, to take
oxygen as an example, it has only two vacant places, and so can only
find room for the electrons of two atoms ; it has, however, six electrons
available for filling up the vacant places in other atoms, and as there
is only one vacancy to be filled in a fluorine atom the electrons in an
oxygen atom could fill up the vacancies in six fluorine atoms, and
thereby attach these atoms to it. A fluoride of oxygen of this compo-
sition remains to be discovered, but its analogue, SF^, first made known
by Moissan, is a compound of this type. The existence of two valencies
for an element is in accordance with views put forward some time ago
by Abegg and Bodlander. Professor Lewis and Mr. Irving Longmuir
have developed, with great ingenuity and success, the consequences
which follow from the hypothesis that an octet of electrons surrounds
the atoms in chemical compounds.

The term ' atomic weight ' has thus acquired for the chemist an alto-
gether new and much wider significance. It has long been recognised
that it has a far deeper import than as a constant useful in chemical
arithmetic. For the ordinary purposes of quantitative analysis, of tech-
nology, and of trade, these constants may be said to be now known with
supreme importance. Their determination and study must now be
of the essential nature of matter and on the ' superlatively grand ques-
tion, What is the inner mechanism of the atom? ' they become of
supreme importance Their determination and study must now be
approached from entirely new standpoints and by the conjoint action of
chemists and physicists. The existence of isotopes has enormously
widened the horizon. At first sight it would appear that we should

THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 21

require to know as many atomic weights as there are isotopes, and the
chemist may well be appalled at such a prospect. All sorts of difficulties
start up to affright him, such as the present impossibility of isolating
isotopes in a state of individuality, their possible instability, and the in-
ability of his quantitative methods to estabhsh accurately the relatively
small differences to be anticipated. All this would seem to make for
complexity. On the other hand, it may eventually tend towards simpli-
fication. If, with the aid of the physicist we can unravel the nature and
configuration of the atom of any particular element, determine the
number and relative arrangement of the constituent protons and elec-
trons, it may be possible to arrive at the atomic weight by simple
calculation, on the assumption that the integer rule is mathematically
valid. This, however, is almost certainly not the case, owing to the
influence of ' packing.' The little differences, in fact, may make all the
difference. The case is analogous to that of the so-called gaseous laws
in which the departures from their mathematical expression have been
the means of elucidating the physical constitution of the gases and of
throwing light upon such variations in their behaviour as have been
observed to occur. There would appear, therefore, ample scope for the
chemist in determining with the highest attainable accuracy the de-
partures from the whole-number rule, since it is evident that much
depends upon their exact extent.

These considerations have already engaged the attention of chemists.
For some years past, a small International Committee, originally
appointed in 1903, has made and pubhshed an annual report in which
it has noted such determinations of atomic weight as have been
made during the year preceding each report, and it has from time
to time made suggestions for the amendment of the Tables of Atomic
Weights, published in text-books and chemical journals, and in use m
chemical laboratories. In view of recent developments, the time has
now arrived when the work of this International Committee must be
reorganised and its aims and functions extended. The mode in which
this should be done has been discussed at the meeting in Brussels, m
June last, of the International Union of Chemistry Pure and Applied,
and has resulted in strengthening the constitution of the Committee and
in a wide extension of its scope.

The crisis through which we have recently passed has had a pro-
found effect upon the world. The spectacle of the most cultured and
most highly developed peoples on this earth, armed with every offensive
appliance v/hich science and the inventive skill and ingenuity of men
could suggest, in the throes of a death struggle must have made the
angels weep. That dreadful harvest of death is past, but the aftermath
remains. Some of it is evil, and the evil will persist for, it may be

22 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS.

generations. There is, however, an element of good in it, and the
good, we trust, will develop and increase with increase of years. The
whole complexion of the world — material, social, economic, political,
moral, spiritual — has been changed, in certain aspects immediately
for the worse, in others prospectively for the better. It behoves us,
then, as a nation to pay heed to the lessons of the War.

The theme is far too complicated to be treated adequately within the
limits of such an address as this. But there are some aspects of it
germane to the objects of this Association, and I venture, therefore, in
the time that remains to me, to bring them to yom' notice.

The Great War differed from all previous internecine struggles in
the extent to which organised science was invoked and systematically
applied in its prosecution. In its later phases, indeed, success became
largely a question as to which of the great contending parties could
most rapidly and most effectively bring its resources to their aid. The
chief protagonists had been in the forefront of scientific progress for
centuries, and had an accumulated experience of the manifold applica-
tions of science in practically every department of human activity that
could have any possible relation to the conduct of war. The military
class in every country is probably the most conservative of all the
professions and the slowest to depart from tradition. But when nations
are at grips, and they realise that their very existence is threatened,
every agency that may tend to cripple the adversary is apt to be resorted
to — no matter how far it departs from the customs and conventions of
war. This is more certain to be the case if the struggle is protracted.
We have witnessed this fact in the course of the late War. Those who,
realising that in the present imperfect stage of civilisation wars are
inevitable, and yet strove to minimise their horrors, and who formulated
fhe Hague Convention of 1899, were well aware how these horrors
might be enormously intensified by the applications of scientific know-
ledge, and especially of chemistry. Nothing shocked the conscience
of the civilised world more than Germany's cynical disregard of the
undertaking into which she had entei'ed with other nations in regard,
for instance, to the use of lethal gas in warfare. The nation that
treacherously violated the Treaty of Belgium, and even applauded the
action, might be expected to have no scruples in repudiating her obliga-
tions under the Hague Convention. April 25, 1915, which saw the
clouds of the asphyxiating chlorine slowly wafted from the German
' trenches towards the lines of the Allies, witnessed one of the most
bestial episodes in the history of the Great War. The world stood
aghast at such a spectacle of barbarism. German kultur apparently
had absolutely no ethical value. Poisoned weapons are employed by
savages, and noxious gas had been used in Eastern warfare in early
times, but its use was hitherto unknown among European nations.

THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 23

How it originated among tlie Germans— whether by the direct un-
prompted action of the Higher Command, or, as is more probable, at
tiie instance of persons connected with the great manufacturing concerns
in Rhineland— has, so far as 1 know, not transpired. It was not so
used in the earlier stages of the War, even when it had become a war
of position. It is notorious that the great chemical manufacturing
cstabUshments of Germany had been, for years previously, sedulously
linked up in the service of the war which Germany was deliberately
planning— probably, in the first instance, mainly for the supply of
umnitions and medicaments. We may suppose that it was the tenacity
of our troops, and the failure of repeated attempts to dislodge them by
direct attack, that led to the employment of such foul methods. Be this
as it may, these methods became part of the settled practice of our
enemies, and during the three succeeding years, that is from April 1915
to September 1918, no fewer than eighteen different forms of poison-
gases, liquids, and sohds — were employed by the Germans. On the
principle of Vespasian's law, reprisals became inevitable, and for the
greater part of three years we had the sorry spectacle of the leading
nations of the world flinging the most deadly products at one another
that chemical knowledge could suggest and technical skill contrive.
V/arfare, it would seem, has now definitely entered upon a new phase.
The horrors which the Hague Convention saw were imminent, and from
which they strove to protect humanity, are now, apparently, by the
example and initiative of Germany, to become part of the established
procedure of war. Civihsation protests against a step so retrograde.
Surely comity among nations should be adequate to arrest it. If the
League of Nations is vested with any real power, it should be possible
for it to devise the means, and to ensure their successful application.
The failure of the Hague Convention is no sufficient reason for despair.
The moral sense of the civilised world is not so dulled but that, if
roused, it can make its influence prevail. And steps should be taken
without delay to make that influence supreme, and all the more so
that there are agencies at work which would seek to perpetuate such
methods as a recognised procedure of war. The case for what is called
chemical warfare has not wanted for advocates. It is argued that poison
gas is far less fatal and far less cruel than any other instrument of war.
It has been stated that 'amongst the "mustard gas" casualties the
deaths were less than 2 per cent., and when death did not ensue complete
recovery generally ultimately resulted. . . . Other materials of
chemical warfare in use at the Armistice do not kill at all ; they produce
casualties which, after six weeks in hospital, are discharged practically
without permanent hurt.' It has been argued that, as a method
of conducting war, poison-gas is more humane than preventive medi-
cine. Preventive medicine has increased the unit dimension of an

24 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS.

army, free from epidemic and communicable disease, from 100,000
men to a million. ' Preventive medicine has made it possible to
maintain 20,000,000 men under arms and abnormally free from disease,
and so provided greater scope for the killing activities of the other
military weapons. . . . Whilst the surprise effects of chemical war-
fare aroused anger as being contrary to military tradition, they were
minute compared with those of preventive medicine. The former
slew its thousands, whilst the latter slew its millions and is still reap-
ing the harvest.' This argument carries no conviction. Poison gas
is not merely contrary to European military tradition; it is repugnant
to the right feeling of civilised humanity. It in no wise displaces
or supplants existing instruments of war, but ci'eates a new kind of
weapon, of limitless power and deadliness. ' Mustard gas ' may be a
comparatively innocuous product as lethal substances go. It certainly
was not intended to be such by our enemies. Nor, presumably, were
the Allies any more considerate when they retaliated with it. Its
effects, indeed, were sufficiently terrible to destroy the German moral.
The knowledge that the Allies were preparing to employ it to an almost
boundless extent was one of the factors that determined our enemies to
sue for the Armistice. But if poisonous chemicals are henceforth to be
regarded as a regular means of offence in warfare, is it at all likely that
their use will be confined to ' mustard gas, ' or indeed to any other of the
various substances which were employed up to the date of the Armistice ?
To one who, after the peace, inquired in Germany concerning the
German methods of making ' mustard gas,' the reply was : — ' Why are
you worrying about this when you know perfectly well that this is not
the gas we shall use in the next war? '

I hold no brief for preventive medicine, which is well able to fight
its own case. I would only say that it is the legitimate business of
preventive medicine to preserve by all known means the health of any
body of men, however large or small, committed to its care. It is not
to its discredit if, by knowledge and skill, the numbers so maintained
run into millions instead of being limited to thousands. On the other
hand, ' an educated public opinion ' will refuse to give credit to any
body of scientific men who employ their talents in devising means to
develop and perpetuate a mode of warfare which is abhorrent to the
higher instincts of humanity.

This Association, I trust, will set its face against the continued
degradation of science in thus augmenting the horrors of war. It
could have no loftier task than to use its great influence in arresting a
course which is the very negation of civilisation.

SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

PROBLEMS OF PHYSICS.

ADDRESS TO SECTION A (MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICS) BY

TROFESSOE O. W. EICHARDSON, D.Sc, F.E.S.,

PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION.

My predecessor in office a year ago reminded you that the theoretical
researches of Einstein and Weyl suggest that not merely the material
univei'se but space itself is perhaps finite. As to the probabilities i
do not wish to express an opinion ; but the statement is significant
of the extent of the revolution in the conceptions and fundamental
principles of physics now in progress. That space need not be infinite
has, I believe, long been recognised by geometricians, and appropriate
geometries to meet its possible limitations have been devised by
ingenious mathematicians. I doubt, however, whether these inventive
gentlemen ever dreamed that their schemes held any objective validity
such as would assist the astronomer and the physicist in understanding
and classifying material phenomena. It is not certain that they will ;
but the possibility is definite. Apart from this, the whole development
of relativity is an extraordinary triumph for pure mathematics. Had
Einstein not found his entire calculus ready to hand, owing to the
purely mathematical work of Christoffel, Eiemann, and others, it seems
certain that the development of generalised relativity would have been
much slower. It is a pleasure to be able to acknowledge this indebted-
ness of physics and astronomy to pure mathematics.

Eelativity is the revolutionary movement in physics which has
caught the public eye, perhaps because it deals with familiar concep-
tions in a manner which for the most part is found pleasantly incom-
pi'ehensible. But it is only one of a number of revolutionary changes
of comparable magnitude. Among these we have to place the advent
of the quantum, the significance of which I hope we shall thoroughly
discuss early next week. The various consequences of the electronic
structure of matter are still unfolding themselves to us, and are increas-
ing our insight into the most varied phenomena at a rate which must
have appeared incredible only a few decades ago.

The enormous and far-reaching importance of the discoveries being
made at Cambridge by Sir Ernest Rutherford cannot be over-empha-
sised. These epoch-making discoveries relate to the structure and
properties of the nuclei of atoms. At the present time we have, t
tnink, to accept it as a fact that the atoms consist of a positively
charged nucleus of minute size, Nurrounded at a fairly respectful distance
1921 ■

2fi RErTIOKAL ADDRESS I'^S.

by the number of electrons requisite to maintain the structure electri-
cally neutral. The nucleus contains all but about one-two-thousandth
part of the mass of the atom, and its electric charge is numerically
equal to that of the negative electron multiplied by what is called the
atomic number of the atom, the atomic number being the number
which is obtained when the chemical elements are enumerated in the
order of'the atomic weights; thus hydrogen = l, helium = 2, hthium = 3,
and so on. Consequently the number of external electrons in the
atom is also equal to the atomic number. The evidence, derived from
many distinct and dissimilar lines of inquiry, which makes it necessary
to accept the foregoing statements as facts, will be familiar to members
of this Section of the British Association, which has continually ])een
in the forefront of contemporary advances in physical science. But
I would remind you in passing that one of the important pieces of
evidence was supplied by Professor Barkla's researches on the scattering
of X-rays by light atoms.

The diameters of the nuclei of the atoms are comparable with one-
millionth of one-millionth part of a centimetre, and the problem of
finding what lies within the interior of such a struct lU'e seems at first
sight almost hopeless. It is to this problem which Eutherford has
addressed himself by the direct method of bombarding the nuclei of the
different atoms with the equally minute high-velocity helium nuclei
(alpha-particles) given off by radioactive substances, and examining
the tracks of any other particles which may be generated as a result
of the impact. A careful and critical examination of the results shows
that hydrogen nuclei are thus expelled from the nuclei of a number of
atoms such as nitrogen and phosphorus. On the other hand, oxygen
and carbon do not eject hydrogen under these circumstances, although
there is evidence in the case of oxygen and nitrogen of the expulsion
of other sub-nuclei whose precise structure is a matter for further
inquiry.

The artificial transmutation of the chemical elements is thus an
established fact. The natural transmutation has, of course, been
familiar for some years to students of radioactivity. The philosopher's
stone, one of the alleged chimeras of the mediaeval alchemists, is thus
within our reach. But this is only part of the story. It appears that
in some cases the kinetic energy of the ejected fragments is gi'eater
than that of the bombarding particles. This means that these bombard-
ments are able to release the energy which is stored in the nuclei of
atoms. Now, we know from the amount of heat liberated in radio-
active disintegration that the amount of energy stored in the nuclei
is of a higher order of magnitude altogether, some millions of times
greater, in fact, than that generated by any chemical reaction such
as the combustion of coal. In this comparison, of course, it is the
amount of energy per unit mass of reacting or disintegrating matter
whick is under consideration. The amounts of energy which have thus
far been released by artificial disintegration of the nuclei are in them-
selves small, but they are enormous in comparison with the minute
amounts of matter affected. If these effects can be sufficiently inten-
sified there appear to be two possibilities. Eitlier they will prove

A.— MATHRMATICS AND PHYSICS. 07

uncontrollable, wliu'li would picsiunahly spell I he cud o[ all things,'
or they will not. If they can be both intensified and controlled tlien
we shall have at oar disposal an almost illimitable supply of power
which will entirely transcend anything hitherto known, it is too early
yet to say whether the necessary conditions are capable of being
realised in practice, but I see no elements in the problem which would
justify us in denying the possibility of this. It may be that we are
at the beginning of a new age, which will be referred to as the age
of sub-atomic power. We cannot say; time alone will tell.

Thermionic Emission.

With your permission, I will now descend a little way from the
summit of Mount Olympus, and devote the rest of my address to a
sober review of the present state of some of the questions with which
my own thoughts have been more particularly occupied. At the
Manchester meeting of the Association in 1915 I had the privilege of
opening a discussion on thermionic emission — that is to say, the
emission of electrons and ions by incandescent bodies. I recall that
the opinion was expressed by some of the speakers that these pheno-
mena had a chemical origin. That view, I venture to think, is one
which would find very few supporters now. It is not that any new
body of fact has arisen in the meantime. The important facts were
all established before that time, but they were insufficiently appreciated,
and their decisiveness was inadequately realised.

It may be worth while to revert for a moment to the issues in that
controversy, already moribund in 1915, because it has been closely
paralleled by similar controversies relating to two other groups of
phenomena — namely, photoelectric emission and contact electro-
motive force — which, as we shall see, are intimately connected with
thermionic emission. The issue was not as to whether thermionic
emission may be looked upon simply as a type of chemical reaction.
Such an issue would have been largely a matter of nomenclature.
Thermionic electron emission has many features in common with a
typical reversible chemical reaction such as the dissociation of calcium
carbonate into lime and carbon dioxide. There is a good deal to be
said for the point of view which regards thermionic emission as an
example of the simplest kind of reversible chemical action, namely,
that kind which consists in the dissociation of a neutral atom into a
positive residue and a negative electron, inasmuch as we know that
the negative electron is one of the really fundamental elements out of
which matter is built up. The issue in debate was, however, of a
different chai'acter. It was suggested that the phenomenon was not
primarily an emission of electrons from the metallic or other source,
but was a secondary phenomenon, a kind of by-product of an action
which was primarily a chemical reaction between the source of elec-
trons and Some other material substance such as the highly attenuated

' To reassure the nervous I would, however, interpolate the comforting
thouglil tliat this planet tias held consideral>le quantities of radioactive matter
for a vtry long tihie Without anytiiing Very serious llappbnili^ So far as we
know.

E 2

28 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

g;aseons atmosphere which surrounderl it. This sugp^pstion carried with
it either imphcitly or expUcitly Ihe view that the source of power
behind the emission was not the thermal energy of the source, but
was the chemical energy of the postulated reactions.

This type of view has never had any success in elucidating the
phenomena, and I do not feel it necessary at this date to weary you
with a recital of the facts which run entirely counter to it, and, in
fact, definitely exclude it as a possibility. They have been set forth
at length elsewhere on more than one occasion. I shall take it to
be established that the phenomenon is physical in its origin and
reversible in its operation.

Establishing the primary character of the phenomenon does not.
however, determine its nature or its immediate cause. Originally I
regarded it as simply kinetic, a manifestation of the fact that as the
temperature rose the kinetic energy of some of the electi"ons would
begin to exceed the work of the forces by which they are attracted
to the parent substance. With this statement there is, I think, no
room for anyone to quarrel, but it is permissible to inquire how the
escaping electrons obtain the necessary energy. One answer is that
the electrons have it already in the interior of the substance by virtue
of their energy of thermal agitation. But thermal agitations now
appear less simple than thev used to be regarded, and in any event
they do not exhaust the possibilities.

We know that when light of short enough wave-length falls on
matter it causes the ejection of electrons from it — the so-called photo-
electric effect. Since the formula for the radiation emitted by a body
at any given temperature contains every wave-length without limita-
tion, there must be some emission of electrons from an incandescent
body as the result of the photoelectric effect of its own luminosity.
Two questions obviously put themselves. Will this photoelectric
emission caused by the whole spectrum of the hot body vary as the
temperature of the incandescent body is raised in the way which is
known to characterise thermionic emission ? A straightforward thermo-
dynamic calculation shows that this is to be expected from the theo-
retical standpoint, and the anticipation has been confirmed bv the
experiments of Professor W. Wilson. Thus the autophotoelectric
emission has the correct behaviour to account for the thermionic
emission. The other question is: Is it large enough? This is a
question of fact. I have considered the data very carefully. There is
a little uncertainty in some of the items, but when every allowance
is made there seems no escape from the conclusion that the photo-
electric effect of the whole spectrum is far too small to account for
thermionic emission.

This question is an important one, apart from the particular case
of thermionic emission. The same dilemma is met with when we
seek for the actual models operandi of evaporation, chemical action,
and a number of other phenomena. These, so far as we know, might
be fundamentally either kinetic or photochemical or a mixture of both.
In mv judgment the last of these particular alternatives is the most
probable. (I am using the term photochemical here in the wide sense

A.— MATHEMATICSJAND: PHYSICS. 29

of an effect of light in changing the composition of matter, wliether llie
parts affected are atoms, groups of atoms, ions, or electrons.) For
example, the approximation about boiling points known as Trouton's rule
is a fairly obvious deduction from the photochemical standpoint. The
photociiemical point of view has recently been put very strongly by
i^errin, who would make it the entire nioiif of all chemical reaction, as
well as of radioactivity and changes of state. In view of the rather minor
part it seems to play in thermionic emission, where one would a priori
have expected light to be especially effective, this is probably claiming
too much for it, but the chemical evidence contains one item which is
certainly difficult to comprehend from the kinetic standpoint. The
speed of chemical decomposition of certain gases is independent of
their volume, showing that the decomposition is not due to molecular
collisions. The speed does, however, increase very rapidly with rising
temperature. What the increased temperature can do except increase
the number and intensity of the collisions, factors which the indepen-
dence of volume at constant temperature show to be without effect,
and increase the amount of radiation received by the molecules, is
not too obvious. It seems, however, that, according to calculations
by Langrauir,- the radiation theory does not get us out of this difficulty;
for, just as in the ordinary photoelectric case, there is nothing like
enough radiation to account for the observed effects. It seems that
in the case of these mono-molecular reactions the phenomena cannot
be accounted for either by simple collisions, or by radiation, or by a
mixture of both, and it is necessary to fall back on the internal structure
of the decomposing molecule. This is complex enough to afford material
sufficient to cover the possibilities; but, from the standpoint of the
temperature energy relations of its- parts, it cannot at present be
regarded as much more than a field for speculation.

Contact Electricity.

A controversy about the nature of the contact potential difference
between two metals, similar to that to which I have referred in connec-
tion with thermionic emission, has existed for over a century. In
1792 Volta wrote : ' The metals . . . can by themselves, and of their
own proper virtue, excite and' dislodge the electric fluid from its state
of rest." The contrary position that the electrical manifestations are
mseparably connected with chemical action was developed a few years
later by. Fabroni. Since that time electrical investigators have been
fairly evenly divided between these two opposing camps. Among the
supporters of the intrinsic or contact view of the type of Volta we
may recall Davy, Helmholtz, and Kelvin. On the other side we have
to place Maxwell, Lodge, and Ostwald. In 1862 we find Ix>rd Kelvin^
writing: ' For nearly two veais I have felt (juite sui'e that the proper
explanation of voltaic action in (lie common voltaic arrangement is
very near Volta 's. which fell into discredit because Volta or his
followers neglected the principle of the conservation of force. ' On the
ether hand, in 1896 we find Ostwald^ referring to Volta 's views as

~ Journ. Am. Chem. Soc, vol. xlii., p. 2100 (1920).

■' Papers on Electrostatics and ^lagticti.sm. p. 318.

■' EleJitrochcmh, Ihrc Geschichte und Lefirc. p. 65, Leipzig (1890).

•30 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

the origin of the most far-reaching error in electrochemistry, which
the greatest part of the scientific work in that domain has been occupied
in fighting almost ever since. These are cited merely as representative
specimens of the opinions of the protagonists.

Now, there is a close connection between thermionic emission and
contact potential difference, and I believe that a study of thermionic
emission is going to settle this little dispute. In fact, I rather think
it has already settled it, but before going into that matter I would
like to explain how it is that there is a connection between thermionic
emission and contact potential difference, and what the nature of that
connection is.

Imagine a vacuous enclosure, either impervious to heat or main-
tained at a constant temperature. Let the enclosure contain two
different electron-emitting bodies, A and B. Let one of these, say A,
have the power of emitting electrons faster than the other, B. Since
they are each receiving as well as emitting electrons, A will acquire
a positive and B a negative charge under these circumstances. Owing
to these opposite charges A and B will now attract each other, and
useful work can be obtained by letting them come in contact. After
the charges on A and B have been discharged by bringing them in
contact, let the bodies be quickly separated and moved to their original
positions. This need involve no expenditure of work, as the charges
arising from the electron emission will not have had time to develop.
After the charges have had time to develop the bodies can again be
permitted to move together under their mutual attraction, and so the
cycle can be continued an indefinite number of times. In this way
we have succeeded in imagining a device which will convert all the
heat energy from a source at a uniform temperature into useful work.

Now, the existence of such a device would contravene the second
law of thermodynamics. We are therefore compelled either to deny
the principles of thermodynamics or to admit that there is some fallacy
as to the pretended facts in the foregoing argument. We do not need
to hesitate between these alternatives, and we need only look to see
how the alleged behaviour of A and B will need to be modified in order
that no useful work may appear. There are two alternatives. Either
A and B necessarily emit equal numbers (which may include the par-
ticular value zero) of electrons at all temperatures, or the charges which
develop owing to the unequal rate of emission are not discharged, even
to the slightest degi'ee, when the two bodies are placed in contact.

The first alternative is definitely excluded by the experimental
evidence, so I shall proceed to interpret the second. It means that
bodies have natural states of electrification whereby they become
charged to definite potential differences whose magnitudes are indepen-
dent of their relative positions. There is an intrinsic potential difference
between A and B which is the same, at a given temperature, whether
they are at a distance apart or in contact. In the words of Volta,
which I have already quoted, ' the metals can by themselves, and of
their own proper virtue, excite and dislodge the electric fluid from its
state of rest. '

A.— MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICS. 31

Admitting that the intrinsic potentials exist, a straightforward
calculation shows that they are intimately connected with the magni-
tudes of the thermionic emission at a given temperature. The relation
is, in fact, governed by the following equation : If A and B denote
the saturation thermionic currents per unit area of the bodies A and
B respectively, and V is the contact potential difference between them

at the absolute temperature T, then V = ^ log where k is the

e JtJ

gas constant calculated for a single molecule (Boltzmann's constant),

and e is the electronic charge.

I have recently, with the help of Mr. F. S. Eobertson, obtained
a good deal of new information on this question from the experimental
side. We have made measurements of the contact potential difference
between heated filaments and a surrounding metallic cylinder, both
under the high-vacuum and gas-free conditions which are now attain-
able in such apparatus, and also when small known pressures of pure
hydrogen are present. As is well known, both contact potentials and
thermionic emission are very susceptible to minute traces of gas, but
we find that under the best conditions as to freedom from gas there
is a contact potential of the order of one volt between a pure tungsten
filament and a thoriated filament. We also find that changes of a
smiilar magnitude in the contact potential difference between a thoriated
tungsten filament and a copper anode take place when the filament is
heated. These changes are accompanied by simultaneous changes in
the thermionic currents from the filament; and we find that the change
in the contact potential calculated from change in the currents with the
help of the foregoing equation is within about 20 per cent, of the
measured value. Considering the experimental difficulties, this is a
very substantial agreement. Whilst the evidence is not yet as complete
as i hope to make it, it goes a long way towards disproving the chemical
view of the origin of contact potential difference.

From what has been said you will realise that the connection between
contact potentials and thermionic emissions is a very close one. I
would, however, like to spend a moment in developing it from another
angle. To account for the facts of thermionic emission it is necessary
to assume that the potential energy of an electron in the space just
outside the emitter is greater than that inside by a definite amount,
wiiich we may call w. The existence of this ir, wliich iiieasuies liio
work done when an electron escapes from the emitter, is required by
the electron-atomic structure of matter and of electricity. Its value
can be deduced from the temperature variation of thermionic emission,
and, more directly, from the latent heats absorbed or generated when
electrons flow out of or into matter. These three methods give values
of ID which, allowing for the somewhat considerable experimental
difficulties, are in fair agreement for any particular emitter. The data
also show that in general different substances have different values of
w. This being so, it is clear that when uncharged bodies are placed
in contact the potential energies of the electrons in one will in general
be different from those of the electrons in the other. If, as in the
case of the metals, the electrons arc able to move freely they will

32 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

so move until an electric field is set up which equilibrates this difference
of potential energy. There will thus be an intrinsic or contact difference
01 potential between metals which is equivalent to the difference in
the values of -w and is equal to the difference in iv divided by the
electronic charge.^

Photoelectric Action.

We have seen that there is a connection on broad lines between
thermionic emission and both contact potentials on the one hand and
photoelectric emission on the other. The three groups of phenomena
are also related in detail and to an extent which up to the present
has not been completely explored. In order to understand the present
position, let us review briefly some of the laws of photoelectric action
as they have revealed themselves by experiments on the electrons
emitted from metals when illuminated by visible and ultra-violet light.

Perhaps the most striking feature of photoelectric action is the
existence of what has been called the threshold frequency. For each
metal whose surface is in a definite state there is a definite frequency
Hg, which may be said to determine the entire photoelectric behaviour
of the metal. The basic property of the threshold frequency w„ is
this : When the metal is illuminated by light of frequency less than
n no electrons are emitted, no matter how intense the light may be.
On the other hand, illumination by the most feeble light of frequency
greater than n^ causes some emission. The frequency n„ signalises a
sharp and absolute discontinuity in the phenomena.

Now let us inquire as to the kinetic energy of the electrons which
are emitted by a metal when illuminated by monochromatic light of
frequency, let us say, «. Owing to the fact that the emitted electrons
may originate from different depths in the metal, and may undergo
collisions at irregular intervals, it is only the maximum kinetic energy
of those which escape which we should expect to exhibit simple
properties. As a matter of fact, it is found that the maximum kinetic
energy is equal to the difference between the actual frequency n and
the threshold frequency n„ multiplied by Planck's constant /;. In
mathematical symbols, if v is the velocity of the fastest emitted electron,
in its mass, e its charge, and V the opposing potential required to
bring it to rest,

eV = ^m v'^ = h (n — «.g).

From this equation we see that the thr-eshold frequency has another
property. It is evidently that frequency for which kinetic energy and
stopping potential fall to zero. This suggests strongly, I think, that
the reason the electron emission ceases at n^ is that tlie electrons
are not able to get enough energy from the light to escape from the
metal, and not that they are unable to get any energy from the light.

The threshold frequencies have another simple pro]ierty. If we
measure the threshold frequencies for any pair of metals, and at the

5 This statement is only approximately true. In order to condense the
argument certain small effects connected with the Peltier effect at the junction
between the metals have been left out of consideration.

A.— MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICS. 33

same time we measure tlie contact difference of potential K between
them, we find tfiat K is equal to the difference between their threshold
frequencies nuiltiplied by this same constant h divided by the electronic
ciiarge e.

These results, as well as others which I have not time to enumerate,
admit of a very simple interpretation if we assume that when illumi-
nated by light of frequency n the electrons individually acquire an
amount of energy hn. We have seen that in order to account for
thermionic phenomena it is necessary to assume that the electrons
have to do a certain amount of v/ork iv to get away from the emitter.
There is no reason to suppose that photoelectrically emitted electrons
can avoid this necessity. Let us suppose that this work is also definite
for the photoelectric electrons and let us denote its value by hn^. Then
no electron will be able to escape from the metal until it is able to
acquire an amount of energy at least equal to hrig from the light —
that is to say, under the suppositions made — until » becomes at least
as great as n^. Thus n„ will be identical with the frequency whicli
we have called the threshold frequency, and the maximum energy of
any electron after escaping will be h (n—n^,).

The relation between threshold frequencies and contact potential
difference raises another issue. "We have seen that the contact potential
difference between two metals must be very nearly equal to the difference
lietween the amounts of work w for the electrons to get away from
the two metals by thermionic action, divided by the electronic charge e.
The photoelectric experiments show that the contact electromotive force
is also nearly equal to the differences of the threshold frequencies multi-
plied by % It follows that the photoelectric \^ork hUg must be equal
to the thermionic work w to the same degree of accuracy. We have
to except here a possible constant difference between the two. I do
not see, however, how any value other than zero for such a constant
could be given a rational interpretation, as it would have to be the
same for all substances and frequencies. The photoelectric and ther-
mionic works are known to agree to within about one volt. To decide how
far they are identical needs better experimental evidence than we have
at present. The indirect evidence for their substantial identity is
stronger at the moment than the direct evidence.

I do not think that the complete identity of the thermionic work 7;)
and the photoelectric hiu is a matter which can be inferred a priori.
What we should expect depends to a considerable extent on the con-
dition of the electrons in the interior of metals. We cannot pretend
to any real knowledge of this at present ; the various current theories
are mere guesswork. TTnless the electrons which escape all have the
same energy when inside the metal we siiould expect the thermionic
value to be an average taken over those which get out. The photo-
electric value, on the other hand, sliould be the minimum pertaining to
those internal electrons which have most energy. The apparent sharp-
ness of the threshold frequency is also surprising from some points
of view. There seems to be scope for a fuller experimental examination
of these questions.

I have spoken of the threshold frequency as though it were a

34 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

perfectly definite quantity. No doubt it is when the condition of the
body is or can be definitely specified, but it is extraordinarily sensitive
to minute changes in the conditions of the surface, such as may be
caused, for example, by the presence of extremely attenuated films of
foreign matter. For this reason we should accept with a certain degree
of reserve statements which appear from time to time that photoelectric
action is some parasitic phenomenon, inasmuch as it can be made to
disappear by improvement of vacuum or other change in the conditions.
What has generally happened in these investigations is that something
has been done to the illuminated surface which has raised its threshold
frequency above that of the shortest wave-length in the light employed
in the test. Unless they are accompanied by specific information
about the changes which have taken place in the threshold frequency,
such statements are of little value at the present stage of development
of this subject.

Interesting calculations have been made by Frenkel which bring
surface tension into close connection with the thermionic work w.
Broadly speaking, there can be little doubt that a connection of this
nature exists, but whether the relation is as simple as that given by
the calculations is open to doubt. It should be possible to answer this
question definitely when we have more precise information about the
disposition of the electrons in atoms such as the continuous progress
in X-ray investigation seems to promise.

Light and X-Rays.

One of the great achievements of experimental physics in recent
years has been the demonstration of the essential unity of X-rays and
ordinary light. X-rays have been shown to be merely light of particu-
larly high frequency or short wave-length, the distinction between the
two being one of degree rather than of kind. The foundations of our
knowledge of X-ray phenomena were laid by Barkla, but the discovery
and development of the crystal diffraction methods by v. Laue, the
Braggs, Moseley, Duane, and de Broglie have established their relations
with ordinary light so clearly that he who runs may read their substan-
tial identity. The actual gap in the spectrum of the known radiations
between light and X-rays is also rapidly disappearing. The longest
stride into the region beyond the ultra-violet was made by Lyman
with the vacuum gi-ating spectroscope which he developed. For a short
time Professor Bazzoni and I held the record in this direction with
our determination of the short wave limit of the helium spectrum,
which is in the neighbourhood of 450 Angstrom units. More recently
this has been passed by Millikan, who has mapped a number of lines
extending to about 200 Angstrom units— that is to say, more than four
octaves above the violet limit of the visible spectrum. I am not sure
what is the longest X-ray which has been measured, but I find a
record of a Zinc L-ray by Friman « of a wave-length of 12.34G
Angstrom units. There is thus at most a matter of about four octaves

0PAt7. .Vaj7.,vol. xxxii., p. 494 (1916).

A.— MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICS, 85

slill to 1h' I'Xiiloicd. In appioaching this unknown i-eyion IVoni tin;
violet end the most characteristic property of the radiations appears to
be their intense absorption by practically every kind of matter. This
result is not very surprising from the quantum standpoint. The
quantum of these radiations is in excess of that which corresponds to
the ionising potential of every known molecule, but it is of the same
order of magnitude. Furthermore, it is large enough to reach not
only the most superficial, but also a number of the deeper-seated
electrons of the atoms. There is evidence, both theoretical and experi-
mental, that the photoelectric absorption of radiation is most intense
when its quantum exceeds the minimum quantum necessary to eject
the absorbing electron but does not exceed it too much. In the simplest
theoretical case the absorption is zero for radiations whose frequencies
lie below the minimum quantum, rises to a maximum for a frequency
comparable with the minimum, and falls off to zero again at infinite
frequency. This case has not been realised in practice, but, broadly
judged, the experimental data are in harmony with it. On these general
grounds we should expect intense absorption by all kinds of matter for
the radiation between the ultra-violet and the X-ray region.

The closeness of the similarity in the properties of X-rays and light
is, I think, even yet inadequately realised. It is not merely a similarity
along broad lines, but it extends to a remarkable degree of detail. It
is perhaps most conspicuous in the domains of photoelectric action and
of the inverse phenomenon of the excitation of radiation or spectral lines
by electron impacts. Whilst there may still be room for doubt as to
the precise interpretation of some of the experimental data, the impres-
sion I have formed is that each important advance tends to unify rather
than to disintegrate these two important groups of phenomena.

THE LABORATORY OF THE LIVING

ORGANISM.

ADDRESS TO SECTION B (cHEMISTRY) BY

M. 0. PORSTER, D.Sc, F.R.S.,

PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION.

Many and various are tlie reasons which liave been urged, at different
periods oi its history, for stimulating the study of chemistry. In
recent years these have been either defensive or frankly utilitarian, in
the latter feature recalling the less philosophic aspects of alchemy ;
moreover, it is to be feared that a substantial proportion of those who
have lately hastened to prepare themselves for a chemical career have
been actuated by this inducement. It is the duty, therefore, of those
who speak with any degree of experience to declare that the only motive
for pursuing chemistry which promises anything but profound disap-
pointment is an affection for the subject sufficiently absorbing to dis-
place the attraction of other piu'suits. Even to the young chemist who
embarks under this inspiration the prospect of success as recognised
by the world is indeed slender, but, as liis knowledge grows and the
consequent appreciation of our ignorance widens, enthusiasm for the
beauty and mystery of surrounding nature goes far in compensating for
the disadvantage of his position. On the other hand, he who has been
beguiled into embracing chemistry on the sole ground of believing it
to be a ' good thing ' will either desert it expeditiously or almost surely
starve and shower purple curses upon his advisers.

In one respect chemistry resembles measles — every boy and girl
sliould have it, lest an attack in later life should prove more serious.
Moreover, whilst it is not only unnecessary, but most undesirable, to
present the subject as if every boy and girl were going to be a chemist.
it is most important to present it in such a manner that every educated
citizen may realise the intimate part which chemistry plays in his
daily life. Not only do chemical principles underlie the operations of
every industry, but every human being — indeed, every living plant and
animal — is, during each moment of healthy life, a practical organic and
physical chemist, conducting analytical and synthetical processes of
the most complex order with imperturbable serenity. No other branch
of knowledge can appeal for attention on comparable grounds ; and
without suggesting that we should all, individually, acquire sufficient
chemical understanding fully to apprehend the changes which our
bodies effect so ijunctuallv and so precisely — for this remains beyond
the power of trained cheniists — it may be claimed that an acquaintance
with the general outlines of chemistry would add to the mental eauip-
ment of our people a source of abundant intellectual pleasure which
is now unfairly denied them. We have been told that the world shall
be made a fit place for heroes to live in ; but is not the preliminary

B.— CHEMISTRY. ^7

to this ideal an exposition to those lieroes of the wonder and beauty
of the world which they already occupy, on the principle that if you
cannot have what you like, it is elementary wisdom to like what you
have? In following the customary practice of surveying matters of
interest which have risen from our recent studies, therefore, it is the
purpose of this address to emphasise also those aesthetic aspects of
chemistry which offer ample justification for the labour which its
pursuit involves.

What is breakfast to the average man'.' A hurried compromise
between hunger and the newspaper. How does the chemist regard it ?
As a daily miracle which gains, rather than loses, freshness as the
years pr-oceed. For just think what happens. Before we reach the
table frizzled bacon, contemplated or smelt, has actuated a wonderful
chemical process in our bodies. The work of Pavlov has shown that
if the dog has been accustomed to feed from a familiar bowl the sight
of that bowl, even empty, liberates from the appropriate glands a
saliva having the same chemical composition as that produced by
snuffing the food. This mouth-watering process, an early experience
of childhood, is known to the polite physiologist as a ' psychic reflex,'
and the various forms assumed by psychic reflex, responding to the
various excitations which arise in the daily life of a human being,
must be regarded by the chemical philosopher as a series of demon-
strations akin to those which he makes in the laboratory, but hopelessly
inimitable with his present mental and material resources. For,
extending this principle to the other chemical substances poured succes-
sively into the digestive tract, we have to recognise that the minute
cells of which our bodies are co-ordinated assemblages possess and
exercise a power of synthetic achievement contrasted with which the
classical syntheses, occasionally enticing the modern organic chemist
to outbursts of pride, are little more than hesitating preliminaries. Such
products of the laboratory, elegant as they appear to us, represent only
the fringe of this vast and absorbing subject. Carbohydrates, alkaloids,
glucosides and purines, complex as they seem when viewed from the
plane of their constituent elements, are but the molecular debris strewing
the path of enzyme action and photochemical synthesis, whilst the
enzymes produced in the cells, and applied by them in their ceaseless
metamorphoses, are so far from having been synthesised by the chemist
as to have not even yet been isolated in purified form, although their
specific actions may be studied in the tissue-extracts containing them.

Reflect for a moment on the specific actions. The starch in our
toast and porridge, the fat in our butter, the proteins in our bacon, all
insoluble in water, by transformations otherwise unattainable in the
laboratory are smoothly and rapidly rendered transmissible to the blood,
which accepts the products of their disintegration with miUtary pre-
cision. Even more amazing are the consequences. Remarkable as the
foregoing analyses must appear, we can dimly follow their progress
by c^omparison' with those more violent disruptions of similar materials
revealed to us by laboratory practice, enabling such masters of our craft
as Emil Fischer to isolate 'the resultant individuals. Concurrently with
such analyses, however, there proceed syntheses which we can scarcely

H'S SECTIONAL ADDUESSES.

visualise, much less imikile. The perpetual elaboration of fatty acids
from carbohydrates, of proteins from amino-acids, of zymogens and
hormones as practised by the living body are beyond the present com-
prehension of the biochemist; but their recognition is his delight, and
the hope of ultimately realising such marvels provides the dazzling
goal towards which his efforts are directed.

The Vegetable Alkaloids.

The joyous contemplation of these wonders is an inalienable reward
of chemical study, but it is denied to the vast majority of our people.
Tlie movements of currency exchange, to which the attention of the
public has been directed continuously for several years, are clumsy
contortions compared with the chemical transformations arising from
food exchange. It should not be impossible to bring the skeleton of
these transformations within the mental horizon of those who take
pleasur-e in study and reflection; and to those also the distinction
between plants and animals should be at least intelligible. The wonderful
power which plants exercise in building up their tissues from carbonic
acid, water and nitrogen, contrasted with the powerlessness of animals
to utilise these building materials until they have been already assembled
by plants, is a phenomenon too fundamental and illuminating to be
withheld, as it now is, from all but the few. For by its operation
the delicate green carpet, which we all delight in following through
the annual process of covering the fields with golden corn, is accom-
plishing throughout the summer months a vast chemical synthesis of
starch for our benefit. Through the tiny pores in those tender blades
are circulating fi^eely the gases of the atmosphere, and from those
gases — light, intangible nothingness, as vve are p]-one to regard them —
this very tangible and important white solid compound is being
elaborated. The chemist cannot do this. Plants accomplish it by their
most conspicuous feature, greenness, which enables them to put solar
energy into cold storage ; they are accumulating fuel for subsequent
development of bodily heat energy. Side by side with starch, however,
these unadvertised silent chemical agencies elaborate molecules even
more imposing, in which nitrogen is interwoven with the elements of
starch, and thus are produced the vegetable alkaloids.

In this province the chemist has been more fortunate, and successive
generations of students have been instructed in the synthesis of piperine,
coniine, trigonelline, nicotine, and extensions from the artificial produc-
tion of tropine ; but until quite recently his methods have been hopelessly
divergent from those of the plant. Enlightening insight into these,
however, was given just four years ago by E. Eobinson, who effected a
remarkably simple synthesis of tropinone by the mere association of
succindialdehyde, methylamine, and acetone in water, unassisted by
a condensing agent or an increase of temperature :

CH.,.CH:0 CH:, CH.^ CH CH^

-H H.,N.CH:, + rO ->

! I

CH,.CH : t^H^ CH^ CH CF,

N.nH, CO

r.. niEMiSTiiv. i'O

Although the yiehl was veiy small, it reached 42 per cent, when
acetone was replaced by a salt of its dicarboxylic acid, which might
easily arise from citric acid as one of the intermediate compounds used
by plants in their synthetical exercises.

Based upon this experiment, E. Robinson (1917) has developed an
attractive explanation of the phytochemical synthesis of alkaloids, in
which the genesis of a pyrrolidine, piperidine, quinunuclidine, or iso-
quinoline group is shown to be capable of proceeding from the associa-
tion and interaction of an amino-acid, formaldehyde, acetonedicarboxylic
acid and the intermediate products of these, taking place under the
influence of oxidation, reduction, and condensation such as the plant
is known to effect. It would scarcely be fair to the resourceful skill
embodied in this theory to attempt an abbreviated description of the
methods by which molecules as complex even as those of morphine and
narcotine may be developed. Ornithine (aS-diaminovaleric acid) is
represented as the basis of liygrine, cus"liygriiie, and the tiopine alka-
loids, wliilst the coniine group may spring from lysine (at-diamino-
caproic acid). A particularly interesting application of these principles
has been made with reference to the vital synthesis of harmine, which
W. H. Perkin and R. Robinson (1919) represent as arising from a
hydroxytryptophan as yet undiscovered ; meanwhile they have shown
that harman is identical with the base obtained by Hopkins and Cole
on oxidising tryptophan itself with ferric chloride. Thus it may be
claimed that Robinson's theory represents a notable advance in our
conception of these vital changes, and that by means of the carbinol-
amine and aldol condensations involved fruitful inquiries into constitu-
tion and the mechanism of synthesis will follow.

The Nucleic Acids.

Owing to the venerable position occupied by alkaloids in the sys-
tematic development of chemical science, and to the success which
has attended elucidation of their structure, many of us have become
callous to the perpetual mystery of their elaboi^ation. Those who seek
fresh wonders, however, need only turn to the nucleic acids in order
to satisfy their curiosity. For in the nucleic acid of yeast the chemist
finds a definite entity forming a landmark in the path of metabolic
procedui-e, a connecting link betw-een the undefined molecules of living
protein and the crystallisable products of katabolic disintegration.

Let us review this remarkable substance. With an empirical
formula, CagH^^O.^Ni-P^, it has a molecular weight (1303) exceeding
that of the octndecapeptide (1213) synthesised by Fischer (1907),
nlthough considerably below those of the penta-(penta-acetyl-7?i-
digallovl)-^-giucose (2136) produced by Fischer and Bergmann (1918).
and of the hepta-(tribenzovlgalloyi)-p-iodophenylmaltosazone (4021)
elaborated by Fischer and Freudenberg (1912). Nevertheless, its in-
trinsic importance is transcendent. In the language of chemistry it
is a combination of, four nucleotides, linked with one another through
the pentose molecule, J-rihose, which is common to each, and owing
its acid chiii'ncter lo iiliospliniic' iici(l, ;ilRd cOninioii tt1 IJle Component

40 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

nucleotides. The latter dift'er from one another in respect of their
nitrogenous factors, which are guanine (2-amino-6-oxypurine), adenine
(6-aminopurine), uracil (2 : 6-dioxypyrimidine), and cytosine (2-oxy-6-
aminopyrimidine), giving their names to the four nucleotides linked with
each other in the following manner :

(HO).2PO.O.C.5H702.C.5H40N,, (guanine)

I
(HO)oPO.O.C,H60.C4H40Na (cytosine)

I
(HO).2PO.O.C5H60.C,H4N5 (adenine)

I
O

(HO)oPO.O.C,-,H702.C4H;,0.2N2 (uracil)

We owe this picture of plant nucleic acid to the combined researches
of many chemists, conspicuous amongst whom is A. Kossel ; he derived
purine bases from nucleins in the early eighteen-eighties, and subse-
quently identified the products of completely hydrolysing the nucleic
acids from yeast and from the thymus gland. Characterisation of
intermediate products in such hydrolyses — namely, the nucleotides of
guanine, cytosine, adenine, and uracil — with the corresponding nucleo-
sides, guanosine, cytidine, adenosine, and uridine is due chiefly to
W. Jones and to P. A. Levene, with whom was later associated W. A.
Jacobs ; but the most picturesque of all contributions to the subject
was made by the earliest of the systematic investigators, Friedrich
Miescher, who followed his isolation of nuclein (nucleic acid) from pus
cells (1868) by the remarkable discovery that the spermatozoa heads of
Ehine salmon consist almost entirely of protamine nucleate (1874), and
that this must have arisen, not directly from food, but from muscle
protein.

Whilst the yeast cell and the wheat embryo have the power to
synthesise nucleic acid of the structure represented above, the thymus
gland elaborates another nucleic acid in which a hexose is substituted
for J-ribose, and uracil is replaced by thymine, its methyl derivative
(S-methyl-Q : 6-dioxypyrimidine) ; the order and mode of nucleotide
linkage are also different. These nucleic acids, although deriving their
carbohydrate and phosphoric acid from the nourishment on which the
organism thrives, do not owe the purine factors to the same source ;
in other words, the tissues must have power to synthesise a purine
ring. The mechanism by which they exercise this power is one of the
many problems which await elucidation, but arginine fa-amino-^-
guanidinevaleric acid) has been indicated as one possible origin, whilst
histidine (a-amino-^-imidazolylpropionic acid) may be a source of the
pyrimidine nucleus.

The transformations undergone by nucleic acid in contact with
tissue-extracts have provided the subjects of numerous investigations
extending over thirty years, In fact, the experimental material is of

B.— OHEMISTRY.

such voluminous complexity as lo he unintoUigihlo without the guidance
of an expert, and in this capacity W. Jones has rendered valuable
service by his recent lucid ai-rangement of the subject (1921). From
this it is comparatively easy to follow the conversion of nucleic acid
into uric acid thi'ough the agency of enzymes, and a review of these
processes can serve only to increase our admiration for the precision
and facility with which the chemical operations of the living body are
conducted. Regarding for the sake of simplicity only the purine
nucleotides, these are probably the hrst products of hydrolysing nucleic
acid, and from them there may be liberated eitlier phosphoric acitl
by a phospho-nuclease, or the purine-base by a purine-nuclease, giving
rise to guanine and adenine, with their nucleosides, guanosine and
adenosine. Thereafter the procedure is less obscure. The four pro-
ducts exchange their amino-group for hydroxyl under the influence of
their respective deaminase — namely, guanase, adenase, guanosine-
deaminase or adenosine-deaminase. The two original nucleosides, with
their corresponding derivatives, xanthosine and inosine, are then
hydrolysed by their appropriate hydrolase, and the resulting oxypurines,
xanthine and hypoxanthine, are further oxidised by xanthine-oxidase
to uric acid. This is the concluding phase of purine metabolism in
man and apes, but other animals are able to transform uric acid into
allantoin by means of uricase. The changes may be represented
diagramraatically as follows :-—

Nucleic Acid

Guanosine

Adenosine

Guanine

Y
Xanthosine

Adenine

Inosine

Xanthine -<—

Uric Acid

Hypoxanthine

>- Allantoin

Considerable progress has been made also in localising the various
enzymes among the organs of the body, particularly those of animals.
Into the results of these inquiries it is not the purpose of this address
to enter further than to indicate that they reveal a marvellous distribu-
tion, throughout the organism, of materials able to exert at the proper
moment those chemical activities appropriate to the changes which
they are required to effect. The contemplation of such a system
1921 V

42 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

continuously, and in health unerringly, com^^leting a series of chemical
changes so numerous and so diverse, must produce in every thoughtful
mind a sensation of humble amazement. The aspect of this miraculous
organisation which requires most to be emphasised, however, is that an
appreciation of its complex beauty can be gained only by those to whom
at least the elements of a training in chemistry have been vouchsafed.
Such training has potential value from an ethical standpoint, for
chemistry is a drastic leveller ; in the nucleic acids man discovers a kin-
ship with yeast-cells, and in their common failure to transform uric
acid into allantoin he finds a fresh bond of sympathy with apes. The
overwhelming majority of people arrive at the grave, however, without
having had the slightest conception of the delicate chemical machinery
and the subtle physical changes which, throughout each moment of life,
they have methodically and unwittingly operated.

Chlorophyll and Hsemoglobin.

To those who delight in tracing unity among the bewildering
intricacies of natural processes, and by patient comparison of super-
ficially dissimilar mateiials triumphantly to reveal continuity in the
discontinuous, there is encouragement to be found in the relationship
between chlorophyll and hasmoglobin. Even the most detached and
cynical observer of human failings must glow with a sense of worship
when he perceives this relationship, and thus brings himself to acknow-
ledge the commonest of green plants among his kindred. Because, just
as every moment of his existence depends upon the successful
performance of its chemical duties by the heemoglobin of his blood
corpuscles, so the life and growth of green plants hinge on the trans-
formations of chlorophyll.

The persevering elucidation of chlorophyll structure ranks high in
the achievements of modern organic chemistry, and in its later stages
is due principally to Willstatter and his collaborators, whose investiga-
tions culminated in 1913. Eliminating the yellow and colourless
companions of the substance by a regulated system of partition among
solvents, they raised the chlorophyll content to 70 per cent, from the
8 to 16 per cent, found in the original extract, completing the separation
by utilising the insolubility of chlorophyll in petroleum ether. By
such means, 1 kilogram of dried stinging-nettles gave 6.5 grams of the
purified material, representing about 80 per cent, of the total amount
which the leaf contains, and application of tlie process to fresh leave!?
has estalilished the identity of the product from both sources. Thus
the isolation of chlorophyll from plants is now no more difficult than
that of alkaloids or of sugars, and may actually be demonstrated as a
lecture-experiment .

As a consequence of these operations the dual nature of leaf-green

was brought to light in 1912. The focus of main phytochemical action

is thus revealed as a system composed of chlorophyll-a, bluish-green

in solution, and of the yellowisli-green chlorophyll-l;, I'epresenting

different stages of oxidation as indicated by the formulte,

(a) C3oH,oON4Mg(C0.2.CHO (C0.2.C.2oH,q) = C5,H,,0.,N4Mg
(*) ("'.iH,H0,N4Mg(C0a.CH,,) (CO.,.C.,nH.<,<,) = C,,,HjnOf,N4Mg

B.— f'HEMIRTRY. 43

Til tlio solid form these products .iro niicro-crystallino powders, l)luish-
black and greenish-black respectively. They are accompanied l)y two
non-nitrogenous yellow pigments, the unsaturated hydrocarbon,
carrotene, C,„H.b, and its oxide, xanthophyll, C.Jl-gO, both of which
readily absorb oxygen and are allied to a third carrotinoid substance,
fucoxanthin, C^uHs^Og, associated with tliem in brown algae and
isolated in 1914. Based upon the experience indicated above, Will-
statter and his colleagues have examined upwards of 200 plants drawn
from numerous classes of cryptogams and phanerogams. The leaf-
green of these is identical, and the proportion of a to h almost invariably
approaches 3 : 1 excepting in the brown algap, in which b is scarcely
recognisable.

'i'his is not an occasion to follow, otherwise than in the barest out-
line, the course of laboratory disintegration to which the chloropliyll
molecules liave been subjected by the controlled attack of alkalis and
acids. The former agents reveal chlorophyll in the twofold character
of a lactam and a dicarboxylic ester of methyl alcohol and phytol, an
unsattu-ated primary alcohol, C,JT3,,.0H, of which the constitution
remains obscure in spite of detailed investigation of its derivatives ; but
the residual complex, representing two-thirds of the original molecule,
has been carefully dissected. The various forms of this residual com-
plex, when produced by the action of alkalis on chlorophyll, have
lieen called ' phyllins ' ; they are carboxylic acids of nitrogenous ring-
systems, which retain magnesium in direct combination with nitrogenl
The porphyrins are the corresponding products arising by the action of
acids ; they are carboxylic acids of the same nitrogenous ring-systems
from which the magnesium has been removed. The phyllins and the
porphyrins have alike been degraded to the crystalline base, jstiopor-
phyrin, O^iHagN.,, into the composition of which four variously
substituted pyrrole rings enter, probably as follows: —

CH - CH

CH3.C CH,. ^C C

II >N Nf II

^C cf

C..H,.C^ C<r }C CC.H.

I >NH HN< I ■ ^

CH3C --C ^C CCH3

CH3 CH3

.Etioporphyrin, CjiHj^N^.

It is this assemblage of substituted pyrroles which, according to
present knowledge, is the bafsic principle also of the blood-pigment, in
which iron plays the part of magnesium in chlorophyll. Fundamental
as is the difference between haemoglobin and chlorophyll, relationship
can be claimed through this connecting-iink, because the same com-
pound, aetioporphyrin, has been produced from haemoporphyrin,
C33H3r,04N^, which is thus its dicarboxylic acid. Haemoporphyrin
arises from haematoporphyrin, O.^HagOgN,, produced by the action of
hydrobromic acid on ha^jnin, CjaHg^OjN.FeCl, which in turn is
derived by exchanging chlorine for hydroxyl in haematin

F 2

44 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

CajHjiO.NjFe, the non-albiiminoid partner of globiu in h.ipmoglohin.
Thus, omitting many intermediate stages, the rehilionship between
chlorophyll and Juemoglobin may be sketched by the following
diagram : —

Chlorophyll Haemoglobin ^-Hamatiii

I i

Chlorophylliii ^5itio porphyrin Haemin

Pyrrophyllin ^^ ' ^ Haeraatoporphyrin

^tiophyllin Haemoporphyrin

It must be remembered, liowever, that although recent years have
witnessed great progress in elucidating the nature of clilorophyll and
haemoglobin, the mechanism by which they act remains unrevealed.
'J'lie famous assimilation hypothesis of von Baeyer, according to which
it is formaldehyde which represents the connecting-link in the phyto-
chemical synthesis of carbohydrate from carbon dioxide, was enunci-
ated in 1870, and arose from Butlerow's preparation of methyienitan.
In spite of numerous criticisms, some of which are quite recent, it
remains unshaken. The line of such criticism has taken two direc-
tions. On the one hand, H. A. Spoehr (1913), from experiments
suggested by the fact that the morning acidity of plant juices diminishes
or disappears on exposure to light, has shown that this change is
photochemical only, and may be independent of enzymes, the volatile
products including formaldehyde. Emil Baur (1908, 1910 and 1913!
has urged the claims of oxalic acid to be regarded as the first product
of assimilation, and shows how this may lead to the other plant-acids,
glycollic, malic and citric, the first-named being a possible stepping-
stone to the carbohydrates by resolution into formaldehyde (and formic
acid), incidentally assuming towards malic and citric ncids the relation-
ship which glucose bears to starch. On tlie other hand, K. A. Hofmann
and Schumpelt (1916), preceded by Bredig (1914), have attacked the
hypothesis on the ground of kinetics, and imagine an electrolytic
resolution of water under the influence of light, which liberates oxygen
and effects the reduction of carbon dioxide by hydrogen to formaldehyde?
through formic acid.

All these arguments have been weighed by Willstatter and Stoll
(1917), who dismiss them on comparing the volume of carbon dioxide
absorbed by leaves with the corresponding volume of oxygen liberated.
They point out that this assimilatory quotient, CO„IO„, which should
be unity in the case of formaldehyde, beconies 1.33, 2 and 4 in the case
of glycollic, foraiic and oxalic acids respectively. Proceeding to deter-
mine this quotient experimentally they found it to be unity, whether the
temperature is 10° or 35", whether the atmosphere is rich in carbon
dioxide or free from oxygen, and alike with ordinary foliage or cactus.
Furthermore, they found (1917) that whilst organic liquids holding
chlorophyll in solution do not absorb more carbon dioxide than the

B.— CHEMISTRY. 4o

liquids themselves, this gas is absorbed much more freely by chlorophyl)
hydrosols than by other colloidal solutions, a maximum assimilation of
two molecular proportions to one magnesium atom being reached, when
phscophytin is precipitated : —

C55H7,05N4Mg + 2CO2 + 2H2O = C,V5H,40,N4 + Mg(HCOa),.

Prior to this change, which is the first stage appearing in a controlled
disruption of chlorophyll-a by mineral acids, there is produced an
intermediate compound rescnnbling a hydrogen carbonate in which the
metal retains a partial grip on the nitrogen : —

I II II I II II

=N.C: C.C.N.C— =N.C:C.C.NH.C—

i ■;:■.• Mg + CO., + H.,0 ^:S '■;• Mg.O.CO,H

=:X.C:C.C.N.C— =N.C:C.C.N.C—

I II II I II II

It is suggested that leaf-green unites with carbon dioxide by similar
mechanism, and that the action of light on the above compound trans-
forms the carbonic acid, into an isomei'ide having the nature of a
peroxide such as per-formic acid, H.CO.O.OH, or formaldehyde

peroxide, HO.CH< | .
^0

Anthocyans, the Pigments of Blossoms and Fruits.

Since the days of Eden, gardens have maintained and extended
their silent appeal to the more gentle emotions of mankind. The
subject possesses a hterature, technical, philosophical, and romantic,
at least as voluminous as that surrounding any other industrial art,
and the ambition to cultivate a patch of soil has attracted untold
millions of human beings. Amongst manual workers none maintains
a standard of ordei-ly procedure and patient industry higher than that
of the gardener. Kew and La Mortola defy the power of word-painters
to condense their soothing beauty into adequate language, whilst that
wonderful triangle of cultivation which has its apex at Grasse almost
might be described as industry with a halo.

To the countless host of flower-lovers, however, it is probable that
Grasse is the only connecting-link between chemistry and their
cherished blossoms, they being dimly aware that the ingi'edients of
some natural perfumes have been imitated in the laboratory. The
circumstance that identical products of change are generated by the
plant, however, and form but one section of the numberless chemical
elaborations which proceed before their eyes escapes them because it
has been ordained that chemistry is to occupy a backwater in the flood
of knowledge. Let us hope that before another century has passed
this additional charm to the solace of a garden may be made more
generally accessible.

46 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

Even to chemists it is only during the last decade that the
mechanism of blossom-chemistry has been revealed. The subject has
indeed excited their attention since an earl}' period in the history of
the organic branch, and the existing class-name for blossom-pigments
was first used by Marquart in 1835 to distinguish blue colouring-
matters occurring in flowers. It is also interesting to us to notice
that in the following year Dr. Hope, who presided over the birth of
the Chemistry Section at the Edinburgh meeting in 1834, described
experiments conducted with blossoms representing many different
orders, and devised a classification of the pigments which they contain.
The recognition of glucosides amongst the anthocyans appears to have
been first made as recently as 1894, by Heise ; about that period, also,
it gradually became clear that the various colours assumed by flowers
are not variations of a single substance common to all, but arise from
a considerable number of non-nitrogenous pigments. Prior to 1913 the
most fruitful attempt to isolate a colouring-matter from blossoms in
quantity sufficient for detailed examination had been made by Grafe
(1911), but the conclusions to which it led were inaccurate. In the
year mentioned, however, Willstatter began to publish with numerous
collaborators a series of investigations, extending over the next three
years, which have brought the subject within the realm of systematic
chemistry. For the purpose of distinguishing glucosidic and non-
glucosidic anthocyans the names anthocyanin and anthocyanidin
respectively were applied. The experimental separation of anthocyanins
from anthocyanidins was effected by partition betw^een amyl alcohol
and dilute mineral acid, the latter retaining the diglucosidic antho-
cyanins in the form of oxonium salts and leaving the anthocyanidins
quantitatively in the amyl alcohol, from which they are not removed
by further agitation with dilute acid ; the monoglucosidic anthocyanins
were found in both media, but left the amyl alcohol when offered fresh
portions of dilute acid.

The earliest of these papers, published in conjunction with A. E.
Everest, dealt with cornflower pigments, and indicated that the dis-
tinct shades of colour presented by different pai'ts of the flower are
caused by various derivatives of one substance ; thus the blue form
is the potassium derivative of a violet compound which is convertible
into the red form by oxonium salt-formation with a mineral or plant
acid. Moreover, as found in blossoms, the chromogen was observed
to be combined with two molecular proportions of glucose and was
isolated as crystalline cyanin chloride ; hydi'olysis removed the sugar
and gave cyanidin chloride, also crystalline. Applying these methods
more generally, Willstatter and his other collaborators have examined
the chromogens which decorate the petals of rose, larkspur, hollyhock,
geranium, salvia, chrysantheminn, gladiolus, ribes, tulip, zinnia, pansy,
petunia, poppy, and aster, whilst the fruitskins of whortleberry, bil-
berry, cranberry and cherry, plum, grape, and sloe have also been
made to yield the pigment to which their characteristic appearance
is due.

The type of structural formula by which the anthocyanidins
are now represented was proposed in 1914, simultaneously and

B.— CHEMISTRY. 47

independently by Willstatter and by Everest ; incidentally their separate
memoirs afford an unusual example of synchronous publication, each
having been communicated to the respective academies on the saii;e
day, March 26th. Willstatter identified phloroglucinol (1:3: 5-trihy-
droxybenzene) as a common product of hydrolysing anthocyanidins with
alkali, obtaining also /)-hydroxybenzoic acid from pelargonidin, proto-
catechuic (3 : 4-dihydroxybenzoic) acid from cyanidin, and gallic
(3:4: 5-tnhydroxybenzoic) acid from delphinidin. Accordingly he
suggested for the anthocyanidin chlorides two alternative formulci?-,
O.Cl O.Cl

HO f ^r YiCX and HO ( ^r f|CH

OH CH OH CX

in which X represents the substituted benzene ring which appears
in the form of a phenolcarboxylic acid on hydrolysis. Later in the
same year he confirmed (with Mallison) the former of these repre-
sentations by reducing quercitin to cyanidin chloride,

O OH O.Cl OH

<^^/\c <^ \oH HO 1^ N^^iC C > OH

■^

OH CO OH CH

and (with Zechmeister) by effecting a complete synthesis of pelar-
gonidin chloride,

O.Cl

OH CH

from 2:4: G-trihydroxybenzaldehyde.

Everest reached the same conclusion by recognising the significance
of the fact that a flavone, e.g., luteolin, and a flavonol, e.g., morin,
yield red pigments on reduction ; he therefore reduced quercitrin (the
rliamnoside of quercitin) to cyanidin, and rutin (the rhanmoglucoside
of quercitin, and identical with osyritin, myrticolorin, and violaqucr-
citi'in) to cyanin. Moreover, he showed that the petals of many yellov/
flowers, e.g., daffodil, wallflower, tulip, crocus, jasmin, primrose, anl
viola, or the white blossoms of narcissus, primula, and tulip, all yield
red pigments on car-eful reduction, and in subsequent papers (e.g.,
with A. J. Hall, 1921) has indicated reduction of yellow sap-pigments
belonging to the flavonol group as representing the probable course
of anthocyan-formation in plants. In this connection it is noteworthy
that an association between the pigments of sap and of blossoms was
adumbrated in 1855 by Martens, who suggested that a faintly vellow
substance in plant sap, when oxidised in presence of alkalis and light,
produces the yellow pigments, and that these, by further oxidation.

48 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES,

change into the red colouring-matters. Everest has shown tliat reduc-
tion is the process actually involved and that flavonols are the pre-
cursors of anthocyans, not vice versa as suggested by other investi-
gators ; moreover, he found (1918) that ' Black Knight ' petals contain
a glucoside of delphinidin, whilst the corresponding fiavonol, myricetin,
is present in the sap, also as a glucoside :

O OH O.Cl OH

OH CO OH CH

Myricetin. Delphinidin Chloride.

Hence it will be seen that pelargonidin, cyanidin, and delphinidin,
corresponding to the three above-mentioned phenolcarboxylic acids, are
the fundamental materials in the group of anthocyan pigments, and
that they are derived from the three flavonols, kaempferol, quercitin,
and myricetin respectively. The variations upon these types which
present themselves in blossoms are twofold, due to (1) the number and
position of entrant methyl groups, and (2) the number and character
of the aldose molecules which go to form their glucosides. Belonging
to the first group are peonidin (monomethylated cyanidin), ampelop-
sidin, myrtillidin, and petunidin (monomethylated delphinidin) with
malvidin and oenidin (dimethylated delphinidin). The second group
arise from combination with glucose, galactose or rhamnose, the
greatest propoiiion of pigments occurring as mono- or diglucosides.
Thus callistephin and salvinin are the mono- and diglucoside of pelar-
gonidin ; asterin and chrysanthemin are monoglucosides and idaein a
galactoside of cyanidin, derived from which are the diglucosides cyanin
and mekocyanin, and the rhamnoglucoside, keracyanin; violanin is a
rhamnoglucoside of delphinidin, whilst delphinin, when hydrolysed with
hydrochloric acid, yields delphinidin chloride, glucose and p-hydroxy-
benzoic acid in the molecular proportion, 1 : 2 : 2.

Thus may the chemist find fresh delight in the hedgerow and the
garden by reflecting on the processes which lead to molecular structures
lying well within his mental horizon, and adorning those familiar models
with all the chromatic splendours of snapdragon, pansy, rose, and
larkspur. The gustatory and aesthetic thrill engendered in consuming
summer pudding and custard is heightened by the soothing blend of
egg-yolk lutein and the crimson contributed to the colour scheme by
the raspberry and cuiTant anthocyanins.

Micro-Biochemistry.

Amongst the many sources of pleasure to be found in contemplating
the wonders of the universe, and denied to those untrained in scientific
principles, is an appreciation of infra-minute quantities of matter. It
may be urged by some that within the limits of vision imposed by
telescope and microscope, ample material exists to satisfy the curiosity
of all reasonable people, but the appetite of scientific inquiry is in-
satiable, and chemistry alone, organic, inorganic, and physical, offers an

B.— CHEMISTRY. 49

instrument by which the investigation of basal changes may be caiTied to
rogions beyond those encompassed by the astronomer and the
microscopist.

It is not within the purpose of this address to survey that revolu-
tion which is now taking place in the conception of atomic structure ;
contributions to this question will be made in our later proceedings
and will be followed with deep interest by all members of the Section.
Fortunately for our mental balance the discoveries of the current
century, whilst profoundly modifying the atomic imagery inherited
from our predecessors, have not yet sei-iously disturbed the principles
underlying systematic organic chemistry, but they emphasise in a
forcible manner the intimate connection between different branches
of science, because it is from the mathematical physicist that these new
ideas have sprung. Their immediate value is to reaffirm the outstanding
importance of borderline research and to stimulate interest in sub-
microscopic matter.

This interest presents itself to the chemist very early in life and
dominates his operations with such insistence as to become axiomatic.
So much so that he regards the universe as a vast theatre in which
atomic and molecular units assemble and interplay, the resulting
patterns into which they fall depending on the physical conditions
imposed by nature. This enables him to regard micro-organisms as
co-practitioners of his craft, and the chemical achievements of these
humble agents have continued to excite his admiration since they were
revealed by Pasteur. The sixty years which have now elapsed are rich
in contributions to that knowledge which comprises the science of micro-
biochemistry, and in this province, as in so many others, we have to
deplore the fact that the principal advances have been made in countries
other than our own. On this ground, foi-tified by the intimate relation
of the science to a number of important influstries, A. Chaston
Chapman, in a series of illuminating and attractive Cantor Lectures in
December, 1920, iterated his plea of the previous year for the founda-
tion of a National Institute of Industrial Micro-biology, whilst H. E.
Armstrong, in Birmingham a few weeks later, addi'essed an appeal
to the brewing industry, which, although taking the form of a memorial
lectui-e, is endowed with many lively features depicting in characteristic
form the manner in which the problems of brewing chemistry should,
in his opinion, be attacked.

Lamenting as we now do so bitterly the accompaniments and conse-
quences of war, it is but natural to snatch at the slender compensations
which it offers, and not the least among these must be recognised the
stinuilus which it gives to scientific inquiry. Pasteur's Etudes sur la
Biere were inspired by the misfortunes which overtook his country in
1870-71, and the now well-known process of Connstein and Ltidecke
for augmenting the production of glycerol from glucose was engendered
by parallel circumstances. That acquaintance with the yeast-cell
which was an outcome of the former event had, by the time of the
latter discoveiy, ripened into a firm friendship, and those who slander
the chemical activities of this genial fungus are defaming a potential
benefactor. Equally culpable are those who ignore them. If children

50 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

were encouraged to cherish the same inteUigent sympathy with yeast-
cells which they so willingly display towards domestic animals and
silkworms, perhaps there would be fewer crazy dervishes to deny us the
moderate use of honest malt-liquors and unsophisticated wines, fewer
pitiable maniacs to complicate our social problems by habitual excess.

Exactly how the cell accomplishes its great adventure remains a
puzzle, but many parts of the machinery have already been recognised.
Proceeding from the discovery of zymase (1897), with passing refer-
ence to the support thus given by Buchner to Liebig's view of fermenta-
tion. Chapman emphasises the importance of contributions to the
subject by Harden and W. J. Young, first in revealing the dual nature
of zymase and the distinctive properties of its co-enzyme (1904), next
in recognising the acceleration and total increase in fermentation
produced by phosphates, consequent on the formation of a hexose-
diphosphate (1908):

2C6H12O6 -h 2Na.2HP04 = 2CO2 + 2C.iH60 -h C6Hio04(P04Na.,)., -f- 2H.2O.

In this connection it will be remembered that a pentose-phosphate
is common to the fom* nucleotides from which yeast nucleic acid is
elaborated. The stimulating effect developed by phosphates would not
be operative if the cell were not provided with an instrument for
hydi'olysing the hexose-diphosphate as produced, and this is believed
by Harden to be supplied in the form of an enzyme, hexosephosphatase,
the operation of which completes a cycle. As to the stages of dis-
ruption which precede the appearance of alcohol and carbon dioxide,
that marked by pyruvic acid is the one which is now most favoured.
The transformation of pyruvic acid into acetaldehyde and carbon dioxide
under the influence of a carboxylase, followed by the hydi'ogenation
of aldehyde to alcohol, is a more acceptable course than any alternative
based upon lactic acid., Moreover, Fernbach and Schoen (1920) have
confirmed their previous demonstration (1914) of pyruvic acid formation
by yeast during alcoholic fermentation.

The strict definition of chemical tasks allotted to yeasts, moulds, and
bacteria suggests an elaborate system of microbial trades-unionism.
E. C. Grey (1918) found that Bacillus coli communis will, in presence
of calcium carbonate, completely ferment forty times its own weight
of glucose in forty-eight hours, and later (1920) exhibited the threefold
character of the changes involved which produce (1) lactic acid,
(2) alcohol with acetic and succinic acids, (3) formic acid, carbon
dioxide, and hydrogen. Still more recent extension of this inquiry by
Grey and E. G. Young (1921) has shown that the course of sucli
changes will depend on the previous experience of the microbe. When
its immediate past history is anferobic, fermentation under anaerobic
conditions yields very little or no lactic acid and greatly diminishes
the production of succinic acid, whilst acetic acid appears in its place ;
admission of oxygen during fermentation increases the formation of
lactic, acetic, and succinic acids, diminishes the formation of hydrogen,
carbon dioxide, and formic acid, but leaves the quantity of alcohol
unchanged. The well-known oxidising effect of Aspergillus niger has
been shown by J. N. Currie (1917) to proceed in three stages marked by

B.— CHEmSTRY.

citric acid, oxalic acid, and carbon dioxide, whilst Wehmer (1918)
has described the conditions under which citric acid and, principally,
fumaric acid are produced by Aspergillus fiiinaricus, a mould also
requiring oxygen for its purpose. The lactic bacteria are a numerous
family and resemble those producing acetic acid in their venerable
record of service to mankind, whilst among the most interesting of the
parvenus are those responsible for the conversion of starch into butyl
alcohol and acetone. Although preceded by Schardinger (1905), who
discovered the ability of B. macerans to produce acetone with acetic
and formic acids, but does not appear to have pursued the matter
further, the process associated with the name of A. Fernbach, and the
various modifications which have been introduced during the past ten
years are those best known in this country, primarily because of the
anticipated connection with synthetic rubber, and latterly on account
of the acetone famine arising from the War. The King's Lynn factory
was resuscitated and arrangements had just been completed for adapting
spirit distilleries to application of the process when, owing to the
shortage of raw material in 1916, operations were transferred to
Canada and ultimately attained great success in the factory of British
Acetones, Toronto.

Much illuminating material is to be found in the literature of 1919-20
dealing with this question in its technological and bacteriological aspects.
Ingenuity has been displayed in attempting to explain the chemical
mechanism of the process, the net result of which is to produce roughly
twice as much butyl alcohol as acetone. The fermentation itself is
pi'eceded by saccharification of the starch, and in this respect the bacteria
resemble those moulds which have lately been bi-ought into the technical
operation of starch-conversion, especially in France. The amyloclastic
])roperty of certain moulds has been known from very early times, but
its application to spirit manufacture is of recent growth and underlies
the amylo-process which substitutes Mucor Boulard for malt in effecting
saccharification. Further improvement on this procedure is claimed for
B. mesentericus, which acts with great rapidity on gi-ain which has
been soaked in dilute alkali ; it has the advantage of inferior proteolytic
effect, thus diminishing the waste of nitrogenous matter in the raw
material.

Eeviewing all these circumstances we find that, just as the ranks
of trades-union labour comprise every kind of handicraftsman, the
practitioners of micro-biochemistry ai'e divisible into producers of
hydrogen, carbon dioxide, formic acid, acetaldehyde, ethyl alcohol,
acetic, oxalic, and fumaric acids, acetone, dihydroxyacetone, glycerol,
pyruvic, lactic, succinic and citric acids, butyl alcohol, butyric acid.
Exhibiting somewhat greater elasticity in respect O'f overlapping tasks,
they nevertheless go on strike if imderfed or dissatisfied with their
conditions; on the other hand, with sufficient nourishment and an
agreeable temperatui'e, these micro-trades-unionists display the unusual
merit of working for twenty-four hours a day. One thing, however,
they have consistently refused to do. Following his comparison of
natural and synthetic monosaccharides towards different families of
yeast (1894), Fischer and others have attempted to beguile unsuspecting

52 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

microbes into acceptance of molecules which do not harmonise with
their own enzymic asymmetry. Various aperitifs have been
administered by skilled chefs de cuisine, but hitherto the little fellows
have remained obdurate.

Photosynthesis.

Beyond a placid acceptance of the more obvious benefits of sunshine,
the great majority of educated people have no real conception of the
sun's contribution to their existence. What proportion of those who
daily use the metropolitan system of tube-railways, for instance, could
trace the connection between their progress and the sun ? Very moderate
instruction comprising the elements of chemistry and energy would
enable most of us to apprehend this modern wonder, contemplation
of which might help to alleviate the distresses and exasperation of the
crush-hours.

For many years past, the problem connected with solar influence
which has most intrigued the chemist is to unfold the mechanism
enabling gi-een plants to assimilate nitrogen and carbon. Although
atmospheric nitrogen ha& long been recognised as the ultimate supply
of that element from which phyto-protoplasm is constructed, modern
investigation has indicated as necessary a stage involving association
■of combined nitrogen with the soil pi-ior to absorption of nitrogen
•compounds by the roots, with or without bacterial co-operation. Con-
currently, the agency by which green plants assimilate carbon is
■believed to be chlorophyll, operating under solar influence by some
such mechanism as has been indicated in a preceding section.

Somewhat revolutionary views on these two points have lately been
expressed by Benjamin Moore, and require the strictest examination,
not merely owing tO' the fundamental importance of an accurate solution
being reached, but also on account of the stimulating and engaging
manner in which he presents the problem. Unusual psychological
features have been introduced. Moore's ' Biochemistry,' published
three months ago, will be read attentively by many chemists, but the
clarity of presentation and the happy sense of conviction which pervade
its pages must not be allowed to deter independent inquirers from
confirming or modifying his conclusions. The book assumes a novel
biochemical aspect by describing the life-history of a research. The
first two chapters, written before the experiments were begun, suggest
the conditions in which the birth of life may have occurred, whilst
their successors describe experiments which were conducted as a test of
the speculations and are already receiving critical attention from others
(e.g., Baly, Heilbron and Barker, Transactions of the Chemical
Society, 1921, p. 1025).

It is with these experiments that we are, at the moment, most
concerned. The earliest were directed towards the synthesis of simple
organic materials by a ti'ansfonnation of light energy under the influ-
ence of inorganic colloids, and indicated that formaldehyde is produced
when carbon dioxide passes into uranham or ferric hydroxide sols
exposed to sunlight or the mercury arc lamp. Moore then declares

B.— CHEMISTRY. 58

that, nliliniigh since the days of de Saussiire (1804) clilorophyll has been
regarded as the fundamental agent in tlie photosynthesis of living
matter, there is no experimental evidence that the primary agent may
not be contained in the colourless part of the chloroplast, chlorophyll
thus being the result of a later synthetic stage. ' The function of
the chlorophyll may be a protective one to the chlorojjlast when exposed
to light, it may be a light screen as has been suggested by Pringsheim,
or it may be conctrned in condensations and ]iolyinerisations subsequent
to the first act of synthesis with production of fornuildehyde ' (p. 55).
In this connection it is significant that chlorosis of green plants will
follow a deficiency of iron even in presence of sunlight (Molisch, 1892),
and that development of chlorophyll can be restored by supplying this
deficiency, although iron is not a component of the chlorophyll molecule ;
moreover, green leaves etiolated by darkness and then exposed to light
regain their chlorophyll, which is therefore itself a product arising from
photosynthesis.

H.Thiele (1907) recorded the swift conversion of nitrate into nitrite
by the rays from a mercury quartz lamp, whilst O. Baudisch (1910)
observed that daylight effects the same change, and from allied observa-
tions was led (1911) to conclude that assimilation of nitrate and nitrite
by green plants is a photochemical process. Moore found (1918) that
in solutions of nitrate undergoing this reduction green leaves check the
accumulation of nitrite, indicating their capacity to absorb the more
active compound. Proceeding from the hypothesis that one of the
organisms arising earliest in the course of evolution must have
possessed, united in a single cell, the dual function of assimilating both
carbon and nitrogen, he inquired (1918) whether the simplest unicellular
algae may not also have this power. He satisfied himself that in
absence of all sources of nitrogen excepting atmospheric, and in presence
of carbon dioxide, the unicellular algse can fix nitrogen, grow and form
l^roteins by transfoi'mation of light energy ; the rate of growth is
accelerated by the presence of nitrites or oxides of nitrogen, the latter
being supplied in gaseous form by the atmosphere. From experiments
(1919) with gi'een seaweed (Enteromorpha compressus), Moore con-
cluded also that marine algae assimilate carbon from the bicarbonates
of calcium and magnesium present in sea-water, which thereby increases
in alkalinity, and further convinced himself that the only source of
nitrogen available to such gi'owth is the atmosphere. A description of
these experiments, which were can-ied out in conjunction wdth
E. Whitley and T. A. Webster, has appeared also in the Proceedings
of the Eoyal Society (1920 and 1921).

For the purpose of distinguishing between (1) the obsolete view
of a vital force disconnected with such forms of energy as are exhibited
by non-living transformers and (2) the existence in living cells of only
such energy forms as are encountered in non-living systems, Moore
uses the expression ' biotic energy ' to represent that form of energy
peculiar to living matter. ' The conception, in brief, is that biotic
energy is just as closely, and no more, related to the various forms
of energy existing apart from life, as these are to one another, and that
in presence of the proper and adapted energy transformer, the living

54 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

cell, it is capable of being formed from or converted into various of
these other forms of energy, the law of conservation of energy being
obeyed in the process just as it would be if an exchange were taking
place between any two or more of the inorganic forms ' (p. 128). The
most characteristic feature of biotic energy, distinguishing it from all
other forms, is the power which it confers upon the specialised trans-
former to proliferate.

Conclusion.

In ' The Salvaging of Civilisation, ' H. G. Wells has lately directed
the attention of thoughtful people to the imperative need of reconstruct-
ing our outlook on life. Convinced that the state-motive which,
throughout history, has intensified the self-motive must be replaced by
a world-motive if the whole fabric of civilisation is not to crumble in
ruins, he endeavours to sul)stitute for a League of Nations the con-
ception of a World State. In the judgment of many quite benevolent
critics his essay in abstract thought lacks practical value because it
underestimates the combative selfishness of individuals. Try to disguise
it as one may, this quality is the one which has enabled man to emerge
from savagery, to build up that most wonderful system of colonial
organisation, the Eoman Empire, and to shake off the barbaric lethargy
which engulfed Europe in the centuries following the fall of Rome. The
real problem is how to harness this combative selfishness. To eradicate
it seems impossible, and it has never been difficult to find glaring
examples of its insistence among the apostles of eradication. Why ciy
for the moon '? Is it not wiser to recognise this quality as an inherent
human characteristic, and whether we brand it as a vice or applaud it
as a virtue endeavour to bend it to the elevation of mankind? For it
could so be bent. Nature ignored or misunderstood is the enemy of
man; nature studied and controlled is his friend. If the attacking
force of this combative selfishness could be directed, not towards the
perpetuation of quarrels between different races of mankind, but against
nature, a limitless field for patience, industry, ingenuity, imagination,
scholarship, aggressiveness, rivalry, and acquisitiveness would present
itself; a field in which the disappointment of baffled effort would not
need to seek revenge in the destruction of our fellow-creatures : a
field in which the profit from successful enterprise would automatically
spread through all the communities. Surely it is the nature-motive,
as distinct from the state-motive or the world-motive, which alone can
salvage civilisation.

Before long, as history counts time, dire necessity will have impelled
mankind to some such course. Already the straws are giving their
proverbial indication. The demand for wheat by increasing popula-
tions, the rapidly diminishing supplies of timber, the wasteful ravages
of insect pests, the less obvious, but more insidious depredations of
our microscopic enemies, and the blood-curdling fact that a day must
dawn when the last ton of coal and the last gallon of oil have been
consumed, are all circumstances which, at present recognised by a small
number of individuals comprising the scientific community, must
inevitably thrust tliemselves upon mankind collectively. In the

B.-f'HEMTSTRV. •>"

campaign which then will follow, choniistiy must occupy a prominent
place because it is this branch of science which deals with matter more
intimately than any other, revealing its properties, its transformations,
its application to existing needs, and its response to new demands.
Yet the majority of our people are denied the elements of chemistry
in their training, and thus grow to manhood without the slightest real
understanding of their bodily processes and composition, of the wizardry
by which living things contribute to their nourishment and to their
aesthetic enjoyment of Ufe.

It should not be impossible to bring into the general scheme of
secondary education a sufficiency of chemical, physical, mechanical,
and biological principles to render every boy and girl of sixteen
possessing average intelligence at least accessible by an explanation of
moi^lem discoveries. One fallacy of the present system is to assume
tliat relative proficiency in the inorganic brancli must be attained before
approaching organic chemistry. From the standpoint of correlating
scholastic knowledge with the common experiences and contacts of daily
life this is quite illogical; from baby's milk to gi'andpapa's Glaxo
the most important things are organic, excepting water. Food (meat,
carbohydrate, fat), clothes (cotton, silk, linen, wool), and shelter (wood)
are organic, and the symbols for carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen
can be made the basis of skeleton representations of many fundamental
things which happen to us in our daily lives without first explaining
their position in the periodic table of all the elements. The curse of
mankind is not labour, but waste; misdirection of time, of material, of
opportunity, of humanity.

Eealisation of such an ideal would people the ordered communities
with a public alive to the verities, as distinct from irrelevancies of life,
and appreliensive of the ultimate danger with which civilisation is
threatened. It would inoculate that public with a germ of the nature-
motive, producing a condition which would reflect itself ultimately upon
those entnisted with government. It would provide the mental and
sympathetic background upon w-hich the future truthseeker must work,
long before he is implored by a terrified and despairing people to provide
them, with food and energy. Finally, it would give an unsuspected
meaning and an unimagined grace to a hundred commonplace
experiences. The quivering glint of massed bluebells in broken sun-
shine, the joyous radiance of young beech-leaves against the stately
cedar, the perfume of hawthorn in the twilight, the florid majesty of
rhododendron, the fragrant simplicity of lilac, periodically gladden the
most careless heart and the least reverent spirit ; but to the chemist
they breathe an added message, the assurance that a new season of
refreshment has dawned upon the world, and that those delicate
syntheses, into the mystery of which it is his happy privilege to
penetrate, once again are working their inimitable miracles in the
laboratory of the living organism.

EXPERIMENTAL GEOLOGY,

ADDRESS TO SIX'TIOX f ((IKOLOOy) BY

J. S. ELETT, D.Sc, LL.D., P.E.S.,

PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION.

Among the citizens of Edinburgli in tlie closing years of tlie eighteenth
century there was a brilliant little group of scientific, literary, and
philosophical writers. These were the men who founded the Royal
Society of Edinburgh in the year 1783, and many of their important
papers appear in the early volumes of its Transactions. Among them
were Adam Ferguson, the historian and philosopher; Black, the chemist
who discovered carbonic acid and the latent heat of water; Hope, who
proved the expansion ol water on cooling; Clerk of Eldin, who made
valuable advances in the theory of naval tactics, and his brother, Sir
George Clerk; Hutton, the founder of modern geology; and Sir James
Hall, the experimental geologist. These men were all intimate friends
keenly interested in one another's researches. Quite the most notable
member of this group was Hutton, who, not mainly for his eminence
in geology, but principally for his social gifts, his bonhomie, and his
versatility, was regarded as the centre of the circle. Hutton showed
an extraordinary combination of qualities. His father was Town Clerk
of Edinburgh. After starting as an apprentice to a Writer to the
Signet, he took up the study of medicine at the Universities of Edin-
burgh and Paris, and graduated at Leyden. He then became a farmer
on his father's property in Berwickshire, and also carried on chemical
manufactures in Leith in partnership with Mr. Davie. He studied
methods of agriculture in England and elsewhere, and was an active
supporter of the movement for improving Scottish agriculture by intro-
ducing the best methods of other countries. A burning enthusiast in
geology, especially in the ' theory of the earth,' he travelled extensivelv
in Scotland, England, and on the Continent making geological
observations.

His interests were not confined to geology, for he wrote a treatise
on metaphysics, which seems to have been more highly esteemed in his
day than in ours, and in his last years he produced a work on agri-
culture which was never published. The manuscript of this work is
now in the library of the Edinburgh Geological Society. He also made
interesting contributions to meteorology. Hutton 's writings are as
obscure and involved as his conversation was clear and persuasive, and
it is only from the accounts of his friends, and especially Playfair's
' Life of Hutton,' that we can really ascertain what manner of man
he was.

It could easily have happened that when Hutton died his unread-
able writings might have passed out of notice, to be rediscovered at a
subsequent time, when their value could be better appreciated. But
Playfair's 'Explanations of the Hutton Theory,' as attractive and

C— GEOLOGY. 57

convincing still as wlien it was originally published, established at
once the true position of Hutton as one of the founders of geology.
Sir James Hall undertook a different task : he determined to put Hutton 's
theories to the lest of experiment, and in so doing he became the
virtual founder of modern experimental geology. It is my purpose
in this address to show what were the problems that Hall attacked,
by what methods he attempted to solve them, and what were his results.
I shall also consider how tar the progress of science has carried us since
Hall's time regarding this department of geological science.

Hutton was a friend of Hall's father: they were proprietors of
adjacent estates in the county of Berwick, and much interested in the
improved practice of agriculture, and though the elder Hall (Sir John
Hall of Dunglass) has apparently left no scientific writings, he was one
of those who were familiar with Hutton 's theories and a member of
the social group in which Hutton moved. Sir James Hall was the
eldest son ; born in 1761, he succeeded to the estate on his father's death
in 1776. Educated first at Cambridge and then at Edinburgh University.
at an early age he became fascinated by Hutton 's personality, though
repelled by his theories. He tells us how for three years he argued
with Hutton daily, rejecting his principles. Hutton prevailed in the
long run, and Sir James Hall was convinced. Hall's objection to
Hutton 's theories is not difficult to understand, though he has not
himself explained it. The world was sick of discussions on cosmogony
in which rival theorists appealed to well-known facts as proof of the
most extravagant speculations. Serious-minded men were losing interest
in these proceedings. The Geological Society of London was founded
in 1807, and one of its objects is stated to be the avoidance of specula-
tion and the patient accumulation of facts. No doubt Hall also was
greatly influenced by the discoveries that Black and Hope had made by
pure experimental investigation. His bent of mind was towards
chemical, physical, and experimental work, while Hutton was not only
a geologist but also a metaphysician.

Foreign travel was then an essential part of the education of a
Scottish gentleman, and the connection between Prance, Holland, and
Scotland was closer than it is to-day. Hall travelled widely ; in his
travels two subjects seem to have especially engrossed him. One was
architecture, on which he wrote a treatise which was published in 1813
and is now forgotten. The other was geology. He visited the Alps.
Italy, and Sicily. In Switzerland he may have met De Saussure and
discussed with him the most recent theories of their time regarding
metamorphism and the origin of granites, schists, and gneisses. In
Italy and Sicily one of his objects was to observe the phenomena of
active volcanoes, and to put to the test of facts the theories of Wernei:
and of the Scottish school regarding the origin of basalt, whinstone,
trap, and the older volcanic rocks of the earth's crust. At Vesuvius
he made his famous observation of the dykes that rise nearly vertically
throueb the crater wall of Sorama, which he held to prove the ascent
of molten magma from below through fissures tO' the surface. This was
in opposition to the interpretation of the "Wernerians. ,who regarded
^b.em as filled frbitl ahove by atjuebu^ Sedimfents, and Hall's conclu-
1921 b

58 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES

sions, which were strikingly novel at the time, have been abundantly
confirmed.

We obtain a pleasant glimpse of Hall's life in Berwickshire in the
account of his visit with Hutton and Playfair to Siccar Point in the
year 1788. The start was made from Dunglass, where probably the
party had spent the night. The great conglomerates of the Upper
Old Eed Sandstone of that district had much impressed Hutton. He
saw in them the evidence of new worlds built out of the ruins of the
old, with no sign of a beginning and no prospect of an end — a thesis
which was one of the corner-stones of his ' Theory of the Earth. ' No
doubt Hall knew or suspected that in the cliff-exposures at Siccar
Point, where the Old Eed rests upon the Silurian, there was evidence
which would put this dogma to a critical test.

Hall's first experiments were begun in the year 1790, his object
being to ascertain whether crystallisation would take place in a molten
lava which was allowed to cool slowly. It was generally believed that
the results of fusion of rocks and earths were in all cases vitreous, but
glassmakers knew that if glass was very slowly cooled, as sometimes
happened when a glass furnace burst, the whole mass assumed a stony
appearance. An instance of this had come under Hall's notice in a
glasswoi-ks in Leith, and its application to geology was clear. Hutton
taught that even such highly crystalline rocks as granite had been com-
pletely fused at the time of their injection, and their coarse crystallisa-
tion was mainly due to slow cooling.

For the purpose of his experiments Hall selected certain whin-
stones of the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, such as the dolerites of the
Dean, Salisbury Crags, Edinburgh Castle, the summit of Arthur's
Seat, and Duddingston; but he also used lava from Vesuvius. Etna,
and Iceland. He made choice of graphite crucibles, and conducted his
experiments in the reverberatory furnace of an iron foundry belonging
to Mr. Barker. As had been shown by Spallanzani, to whose experi-
ments Hall does not refer, lavas are easily fusible under these con-
ditions. Hall had no difficulty in melting the whinstones and obtaining
completely glassy products by rapid cooling. He now proceeded to
crystallise the glass by melting it again, transferring it from the
furnace to a large open fire, where it was kept surrounded by burning
coals for many hours, and thereafter very slowly cooled by allowing
the fire to die out. He succeeded in obtaining a stony mass in which
crystals of felspar and other minerals could be clearly seen. Some of
his specimens were considered to be very similar in appearance to the
dolerites on which his experiments were made.

The only means of measuring furnace temperatures available at
that time were the pyrometers which had recently been invented by
Wedgwood. Hall found that a temperature of 28 to 30 Wedgwood
yielded satisfactory results. This seems to be about the melting-point
of copper, approximately 1000° C.

Whether by design or accident, Hall chose for his experiments
precisely the rocks which were most suitable for his purpose. If
granite had been selected no definite results would have been obtained.
De SausSure had already made fusion experiments on granite. Ninety

C. -GEOLOGY 69

years ■ afterwards the problem was completely solved by Fouqu6 and
Levy, who used a gas furnace and a nitrogen thermometer. They
found that it was possible to obtain either porphyritic or ophitic struc-
tui-e by moflifying the conditions, and that the minerals had exactly
tile characters of those of the igneous rocks. Some of Hall's re-
crystallised dolerites were examined microscopically by Fouque and
L6vy, and, as might be expected, they proved to be only partly
crystallised, showing skeleton crystals of olivine and felspar with
grains of iron ore in a glassy base.

Some curious observations made by Hall in his experimental work
were also confirmed by Fouqu6 and Levy. The crystalline whinstones
were more difficult to melt than the glasses which were obtained from
them, and the glass crystallised best when kept for a time at a tem-
perature a little above its softening point. It is not possible to assign
a definite melting-point to the Scottish whinstones with which Hall
worked. Many of them contain zeolites, which fuse readily. Minerals
are also present that decompose on lieating, such as calcite, dolomite,
chlorite, and serpentine. The whole process is very complex, and
probably takes place by several stages not sharply distinct. Similarly
the glasses cannot be said to have a melting-point. They are really
super-cooled liquids. A full explanation of what took place in Hall's
crucibles cannot be given at the present day, but there is no room
for doubt that his experiments were good and his infei'ences accurate.
His friend Kennedy, who had recently discovered the presence of
alkahs in igneous rocks, furnished valuable support to Hall's conclu-
sions by showing that the chemical composition of whinstone and of
basalt were substantially identical.

Apparently the results of Hall's work were not received with
unmixed approbation. Hutton was distinctly uneasy, and it has been
suggested that he feared if experimental work turned out unsuc-
cessful it might bring his theories into discredit. The Wernerians
frankly scoffed; they preferred argument to experiment, and the endless
discussion went on. Gregory Watt repeated Hall's experiments by
fusing Glee Hill dolerite, a hundredweight or two at a time, in a blast-
furnace. But there can be no doubt that among those who were not
already committed to the principles of Werner the new evidence pro-
duced a strong impression, and helped to widen the circle of Hutton 's
supporters.

Hall's most famous experiments were on the effect of heat com-
bined with pressure on carbonate of lime. The problem was, Gan
powdered chalk be converted into firm limestone or into marble by
heating it in a confined space? In this case Hutton 's theories were
in apparent conflict with experimental facts ; from general observations
he held it proved that heat and pressure had consolidated limestones
and converted them into marbles. It .was well known, of course, that
limestone, when heated in an open vessel, was transformed into quick-
lime, and Black had shown that the explanation was that carbonic
ncid had been expelled in the form of a gas.

The experiments were begun in 1790, but deferred till 1798 after
Hutton'a death. Hutton quite openly disapproved of experiments. His

60 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

famous apophtliegm has often been quoted about those who ' judge
of the great operations of the mineral kingdom by kindhng a fire and
looking in the bottom of a crucible.' In deference to the feelings of
his master and his father's friend, Sir James Hall, with admirable
self-restraint, decided not to undertake experimental investigations in
opposition toHutton's expressed opinion. With a few months' inter-
ruption in 1800 they were continued till 1805. A preliminary account
of the results was communicated to the Eoyal Society of Edinburgh
on August 30, 1804, and the final papers submitted on June 3, 1805.
Hall states that he made over 500 individual experiments and destroyed
vast numbers of gun-barrels in this research.

The method adopted was to use a muffle-furnace burning coal or
coke and built of brick. No blast seems to have been employed. The
chalk-powder was enclosed in a gun-barrel cut off near the touch-hole
and welded into a firm mass of iron. The other end of the barrel could
be kept cool by applying wet cloths, and as it was not in the furnace
its temperature was always comparatively low. Various methods of
plugging the barrel were adopted ; at first he used clay, sometimes with
powdered flint. Subsequently a fusible metal which melted at a tem-
perature below that of boiling water was almost always preferred. Borax
glass with sand was used in some of the experiments, but it was liable
to cracking when allowed to cool, and consequently was not always gas-
tight. It was essential, of course, that in sealing up the gun-barrel,
and in subsequently removing the plug, the temperatures should never
be so high as to have any sensible effect on the powdered chalk or lime-
stone. Hall tried vessels with screwed stoppers or lids at first, but
never found them satisfactory.

In the gun-barrel there was always a certain amount of air enclosed
with the chalk. Very early in the experiments it was shown that if
no air-space was provided the fusible metal burst the barrel. No means
was found to measure the size of the air-space accurately, but approxi-
mately it was equal to that of the powdered chalk used in the experi-
ment. If the air-space was too large, or if there was an escape of gas,
part of the chalk was converted into lime.

As each experiment lasted several hours the temperature of the chalk
was approximately equal to that of the part of the muffle in which it
was placed. Pyrometry was as yet in its infancy. Wedgwood had
invented pyrometric cones and Hall had heard of them, but apparently
at first he was not in possession of a set. He made his own cones,
as nearly similar as possible to those of Wedgwood, and subsequently
obtaining a set of Wedgwood's cones he standardised his own by com-
parison with them. His gun-barrels of Swedish and Eussian iron (' Old
Sable ') were softened, but seldom gave way except when the internal
pressures were of a high order. Some of the gun-barrels seem to have
been used for many experiments without failure occurring. As Hall
made his own pyrometric cones, and we have no details of their com-
position and the method of preparation, it is not possible to do more than
guess at the temperatures to which his powdered lime and chalk were
exposed. There is no doubt that by constant practice and careful
observatidn he Was able to fegulate the temperatuif'e within fairly wide
lirhitS.

C— GEOLOGY.

61)

Hall began his experiments as already stated in 1798. They were
interrupted for about a year (March 1800 to March 1801), and on
March 31, 1801, he had obtained a considerable measure of success. A
charge of forty grains of powdered chalk was converted into a firm
granular crystalhne mass of limestone. The loss on weighing wa.5
approximately 10 per cent. Another charge of eighty grains was con-
verted into marble (on March 3, 1801), with a loss of approximately
5 per cent., and the crystalline mass showed distinct rhombohedral
cleavage.

Though it cannot be said that his success was easily won he was by
no means satisfied, and for another four years he continued his
researches. Many different methods were tried in order to ascertain the
most satisfactory and reliable; his ambition was to attain complete
control of the process so that he could always be certain of the result.
Porcelain tubes were tried, which he obtained from "Wedgwood. They
were very liable, however, to allow escape of the gases through pores.
Many different methods of obtaining gas-tight stoppers were experi-
mented on, but he does not seem to have found anything really better
than the fusible metal. A slight loss of weight in the chalk used seemed
inevitable, and the amount of loss varied irregularly; after long trials
he ultimately succeeded in reducing this to less than 1 per cent.
Various kinds of carbonate of lime were used, including chalk, lime-
stone, powdered spar, oyster shells, peii winkles, and each of these was
crystallised in turn. Many experiments showed that a reaction might
take place between the chalk powder and the glass of the tube in which
it was contained. The result was a white deposit often crystalhne, and
a certain amount of uncombined carbonic acid gas which escaped when
the tube was opened. No doubt the white mineral was woUastonite.
Hall proved that it was a silicate of lime which dissolved in acid and
left a cloud of gelatinous silica. Thereafter he used platinum vessels
instead of glass to contain the charge of carbonate of lime which he
wanted to fuse. The effect of impurities in the material used was also
investigated. Critics had urged that his limestone was not pure. Hall
aptly replied that this was so much the better ; natural limestones were
seldom pure, and his point was that limestone might be fused under
heat and pressure. He obtained the purest precipitated carbonate of
lime, and used also perfectly transparent crystalline spar; the results
were, as we might expect, that the pure substances and the fairly coarse
crystalline powder were more difficult to fuse than the very finely
ground natural chalk. These results show that Hall had very complete
control of his experimental processes, and that even small differences
in fusibihty did not escape his observation.

As natural limestones are always moist. Hall's attention was next
directed to the influence of water on tlie crystallisation of his powders.
Tliis added greatly to the difficulty of the experiments, but by wonderful
skill he succeeded in using a few grains of water (apparently up to
5 per cent, of the weight of the chalk). The result was to improve the
crystallisation, for the reason, as Hall believed, that the pressure was
increased. He noticed at the same time that hydrogen was produced,
which took fire when the gun-barrel was discharged. Probably there

62 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. ,'

was also some carbonic oxide. About this time he was using bars of
Eussian iron into which a long cylindrical cavity had been bored. He
then tried other volatile ingredients such as nitrate of ammonia, car-
bonate of ammonia, and gunpowder. In January 1804 he was able to
convert chalk into firm limestone at a temperature about 960° (melting-
point of silver) in presence of small quantities of water with a loss of
less than one-thousandth part of the chalk used.

Finally he attempted to measure the pressure which was necessary
to effect re-crystallisation under the conditions of his experiments. No
pressure gauges were available at that date, and after many tiials he"
employed a stopper faced with leather and forced against the mouth of
his iron tube by means of weights acting either directly or through a
lever. He ultimately succeeded in obtaining gas-tight junctions under
pi^essures ranging from 52 up to 270 atmospheres, and concluded that
52 atmospheres was the least pressure which could be satisfactory.
This is equal to the pressure of a column of water 1,700 feet high or
to a column of rock 700 feet high. A ' complete marble ' was formed
at a pressure of 86 atmospheres and carbonate of lime ' absolutely
fused ' under a pressure of 173 atmospheres.

In reviewing these classic experiments after a lapse of 120 years
we feel that there are many points on which we should have liked more
detailed information. One essential, for example, is exact chemical
analysis of all the materials employed. Even chalk is variable in com-
position to a by no means negligible extent. Oyster shells and peri-
winkle shells contain organic matter, which would account for the
considerable loss in weight they always exhibited. The use of glass
tubes was a defect in the early experiments, afterwards remedied by
employing platinum vessels. Although in all the experiments the
charge was weighed it seems clear that at first at any i-ate the materials
were not carefully dried. In the experiments with water it was seldom,
possible to provide absolutely against the escape of moisture when the
fusible metal was introduced. Most of all we may regret the inadequate
means of measuring the temperatures at which the experiments were
conducted. The measurements of pressure were made by the simplest
possible means, and it was only by great experimental skill and care
that even approximate results could be obtained.

Such criticisms, however, do not mar the magnificent success of
Hall's experiments. For nearly a hundred years, in spite of the advance
of physical and chemical science, no substantial improvement on his
results was attained. His work was immediately recognised as trust-
worthy and conclusive, and became a classic in the literature of experi-
mental geology. Although not exactly the founder of this school of
research, for Spallanzani and De Saussure had made fusion experiments
on rocks before his time, he placed the subject in a prominent position
among the departments of geological investigation, and did great service
in supporting Hutton's theories by evidence of a new and unexpected
character.

As Hall himself has told us, there were critics who before the com-
plete account of his researches in carbonate of lime was published had
challenged the accuracy of some of his conclusions. The ground seems

C— GEOLOGY,

to have been that the materials he worked with were impure, and that
the glass or porcelain vessels in which the powdered chalk was placed
were visibly acted on during the experiment. Hall recognised the
justice of these conclusions in so far that he made further experiments
on tile purest precipitated carbonate of lime that he could obtain, and
he used platinum vessels instead of glass. These changes admittedly
made success more difficult to attain, but he considered that he ulti-
mately was able to fuse the pure chemical in platinum vessels with only
a negligible loss of weight by escape of carbonic acid. This seems to
have silenced criticism, and with the gradual acceptance of most of
Hutton's theories the controversy died down for a time.

Many attempts were made to repeat Hall's experiments during the
next eighty years with varying degrees of success. No one was able to
secure perfectly gas-tight stoppage of porcelain or iron tubes as Hall
did, though they had the record of his experiments to help them, a fact
which shows how extremely skilful Hall was in experimental practice.
But various authors found that chalk, powdered limestone, and even
pure Iceland spar powder or precipitated carbonate of lime could be
converted into a firm coherent mass by heating in an open furnace. It
was also claimed that lithographic limestone became a crystalline rock
resembling marble when heated before a blowpipe under certain con-
ditions. Whether the mass was actually fused was not expressly proved
by any of these expei-iments, and in time it came to be recognised that to
make a limestone from powdered chalk it was not necessary that melt-
ing should take place. On the other hand, it was contended that when
Hall's experiments had resulted in the production of a vesicular or
frothy mass which showed evidence that it had dripped or flowed, or
that it had been spattered in drops about his apparatus, as he concluded
from the appearance presented in certain of his experiments, there was
some reason to believe that chemical action had taken place between
the siUcates of his tubes of glass or porcelain, or the pipeclay stems
in which the drops of water were contained, and the carbonate
of lime, with the formation of readily fusible compounds. Hall, of
course, was perfectly aware that his carbonate of lime combined with the
ingredients of glass, porcelain, pipeclay, refractory cones, and sdica.
He had noticed that in many experiments. What was necessary was a
complete quantitative chemical analysis of some of his fused masses, to
show that they were carbonate of lime and nothing else. This he never
performed. He had his specimens of artificial marble cut and polished,
thus testing their hardness, their crystalUne structure, and their trans-
parency. He noted also how far the specimens were permanent in dry
air, and found that very frequently they disintegrated owing to the
presence of a considerable proportion of caustic lime. In many cases
also he threw part of the mass into acid and observed complete solution
with effervescence of carbonic acid gas. He trusted apparently to deter-
muiuig whether there had been loss of weight, by escape of carbonic acid
gas either during the experiment or subsequently on opening the gun-
barrel, and argued that if the tube and its contents had the same weight
after and before the experiment there could have been no chemical

64 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

change. This argument is sound, but confirmatory evidence by quanti-
tative analysis would have rendered the matter certain.

The other question under dispute, viz. : whether actual fusion had
taken place or only re-crystallisation in a pasty mass, was of a higher
order of difficulty, and neither in Hall's time nor for a century later
were means available definitely to settle it.

During the whole of the nineteenth century this controversy lasted
and no satisfactory conclusions were reached. Those who tiied to
repeat Hall's experiments with porcelain tubes, gun-barrels, and iron
cylinders met the same difficulties as he did, and were on the whole less
successful in overcoming them. In most cases their gun-barrels burst
or the method of stopping them failed. It became clear that a coherent
mass could be obtained from powdered chalk or pure carbonate of lime
at a red heat without great pressure, but no one obtained really con-
vincing evidence of fusion. The problem remained practically as Hall
had left it.

The twentieth century, however, has witnessed a tremendous im-
provement in our methods of tackling such questions as these, and the
result has been that a new department of physico-chemical or experi-
mental petrology has been opened up and already possesses a large and
most interesting literature. It is really the old experimental geology
of Sir James Hall, developed almost beyond recognifion. Essentially
three factors have produced this result. One is the application of the
electric furnace, so powerful and at the same time so compact and easily
managed. By its means temperatures from 1000° to 1600° C. are
easily obtained, and as many silicates and other minerals have fusion
points between those limits their behaviour in the molten state and
during crystallisation and cooling becomes accurately observable. The
second factor is the invention of the electric pyrometer, by which tem-
peratures up to the melting-point of platinum can be observed instan-
taneously and continuously with an accuracy of one or two degrees
centigrade. The third important element which has determined the
recent progress of knowledge in this field is the theoretical mathematical
researches of such men as Willard Gibbs, Eoozeboom, Sclireinemakers,
and Smits, which are so full and clear that in many respects they are
far in advance of the experimental results. To these we may add the
continual improvement in microscopic methods of determining minerals,
and the advance in knowledge of crystallography, optics, and analytical
chemistry.

Among workers in this field it is generally agreed that only the purest
chemicals or minerals should be used, as the presence even of traces
of impurity may greatly modify the phenomena, and the interpretation
of the results is so difficult that unnecessary comphcations must be
studiously avoided.

The behaviour of CaCOa under heat and pressure is really a question
of two components, CaO and CD,, one of these being solid and very
infusible, the other a gas at ordinary temperatures. We may simplify
it By regarding the system for our present purposes as consisting of
CaO and CaCO., with COj as a volatile constituent, arising from the
dissociation of CaCOg at certain temperatures and pressures

C— GEOLOGY. (35

Of the components CaO, lime, is a solid fusible in the electric arc
at a temperature about 2570° C. as measured by the optical pyrometer.
There are reasons for believing that lime exists in two forms ; one of
these is nearly isotropic and perhaps amorphous, and is obtained by the
dissociation ol CaCOj at low temperatures; the other is cubic with good
cleavage and generally occurs in rounded crystals ; at high temperatures
this is probably the only form met with.

CaGOj as a mineral and as a chemical compound has been so exten-
sively studied that the literatui'e would fill a considerable library. At
least eight forms of it have been described. Four of these, ktypeite,
conchite, lublinite, and vaterite are rare and doubtful, and are by no
means satisfactorily known. Eecently a form known as /nCaCOj has
been described, but it is not believed to be of importance as a mineral.
Two others are the well-known minerals calcite and aragonite. Calcite
is the stable form under ordinary conditions. Aragonite is transformed
into calcite slowly in presence of moisture and carbonic acid, and rapidly
if heated to a temperature from 400° to 500° 0., but is practically stable
in dry air at ordinary temperatures and pressures. There is some
reason for believing that aragonite would be the stable form in tempera-
tures 100° C. or so below the freezing-point. It has a higher specific
gravity than calcite. In all experiments in which well-formed crystals
of aragonite have been heated they changed to granular crystalline
aggregates of calcite befoi'e dissociation or melting began. This
transition so far as is known is irreversible.

At temperatures between 450° and 970° C. calcite is the result of
heating every known form of CaCOa, but above that point it is believed
to change to another mineral, aCaOOg, not very different in crystallo-
graphic and optical characters. The transition is reversible, and as
the temperature falls calcite is again formed. The existence of this
transition is indicated by tlie heating and cooling curves of calcite, which
show a discharge of heat delaying the fall of temperature about 970° C.
The change is very small. Optical studies have been made with the
help of an electric fui-nace closed with transparent quartz-glass plates,
but no measurements were obtained of the optical constants of the
mineral, and of its crystallographic form nothing is known except that it
is probably trigonal. The change in fact is very similar to that by which
quartz passes intoa-quartz at a temperature of 575° 0., and it has been
proposed to use calcite like quartz as a geological thermometer.

Carbonate of lime when heated in a closed vessel melts at a tem-
perature of 1289°. A pressure of not less than 110 atmospheres of
carbonic acid gas is necessary to prevent dissociation at the melting tem-
perature. It forms quite a liquid melt which will readily flow through
cracks in the platinum vessel that contains it. On cooling the melt
crystallisation takes place readily, and the resulting mass when cold is
finely gi-anulor and completely crystalline.

The dissociation pressure of CaCO, when heated has boon studied
by several investigators and the results are somewhat discordant.
The most reliable results obtained by actual experiment show that at
687° dissociation has only begun, the pressure of 00^ being only oi>e
millimetre of mercury. At 700° it is 25mm., at 800° about 160mm.,

66 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

and at 900° about 720mm., so that it increases I'apidly with rise of
temperature. The dissociation pressure at the melting-point stated
above was determined experimentally. It is quite probable that the
high pressure of carbonic gas favours fluidity in the melt, and also
accelerates crystallisation.

If the pressure be less than the figures given above, a certain amount
of dissociation will take place, and lime, CaO, will be present in the
melt. We have then a binary system CaO and CaCOs and a binary
eutectic point is to be expected. Boeke has investigated this system,
and finds that the eutectic mixture has a melting temperature appi'oxi-
mately 1218° C, and consists of 91 per cent. CaCOa and 9 per cent.
CaO. Small additions of CaCOa raise the melting-point only slowly,
but the presence of additional lime makes the melt far more in-
fusible. Mixtures of CaO and CaCOj with moi'e than 9 per cent.
CaO show on microscopic examination a finely crystalline first genera-
tion of lime crystals followed by a second generation of CaCOj and
CaO well crystallised. On the other hand, mixtures containing
less CaO than the eutectic proportion show branching skeleton
crystals of early CaCOj which have a development indicating trigonal
symmetry, and a ground mass consisting of CaO and CaCOg. The large
early skeleton crystals often continue to grow during the consolidation
of the eutectic so as to give a coarsely crystalline appearance to the
aggregate. Hence melts containing little lime often yield semi-
transparent crystalline masses having the appearance of marble though
not its minute structure. The refractive index of CaO obtained in this
way is about 1.83, and it is optically isotropic, so that there is no
difficulty in recognising it in the microscopic slides.

So far as research has yet gone, no evidence has been found that
there are intermediate compounds between CaO and CaCOj, and the
two substances do not appear to form solid solutions to a perceptible
extent.

To indicate how far experimental methods have advanced since the
days of Sir James Hall, a brief account of the apparatus used will not be
without interest. The carbonate of lime was either true Iceland
spar, which is quite as free from admixture as the best prepared
carbonate, or specially purified precipitated CaCOj. It was heated in a
platinum vessel, as in Hall's experiments. This vessel was placed in a
small electric resistance furnace with walls of fireclay and magnesia
and a platinum spiral. This furnace could attain a temperature of
1600° in a few minutes, and maintain it perfectly steadily for days if
required. The small furnace containing the platinum tube was now
placed in a steel vessel less than six inches in diameter with thick walls.
The lid of the container was fastened with bolts and nuts and a lead
washer used to prevent escape of gas. By this arrangement the small
internal furnace was alone heated ; the steel enclosing vessel could be
kept cold if necessary by a water-cooling arrangement, and it was a
fairly simple matter to obtain gas-tight connections, and to obviate any
risk of bursting. The space between the steel vessel and the furnace
was packed with purified asbestos, to prevent convection currents in the
carbonic acid gas from affecting the temperature of the electiic furnace.

C— GEOLOGY. 07

Temperature was measured by a platinum-platinum-rhodium electric
pyrometer of which the sensitive part was immersed in the GaCOa which
was being experimented on. Carbonic acid gas was provided in an
ordinary steel cylinder such as is used for trade purposes ; these can
easily stand higher pressures (at ordinary temperatures) than those it
was necessary to employ. The gas in these cylinders is at fifty
atmospheres pressure, but by immersing the cyUnder in hot water the
pressure could be raised sufficiently for the purposes of the experiment.
All pressures were measured by an ordinary Bourdon gauge, such as is
used for many purposes in the arts. Through the walls of the vessel
the insulated wires of the electric furnace and pyrometer and the tube
carrying carbonic acid gas were led by gas-tight junctions. The whole
apparatus worked perfectly smoothly. It is a type of experimental
plant which is already employed in many researches into the behaviour
of substances at high temperatures under considerable gas pressures,
and seems likely to play a large part in the progress of experimental
geology in the near future. By slow stages it has reached its present
development, and when we remember how many advantages we enjoy
in experimental work to-day as compared with Sir James Hall, who
was a real pioneer and had to invent all his apparatus and solve every
difficulty for himself, we can appreciate more thoroughly the masterly
ingenuity he displayed.

As the outstanding uncertainty about Hall's experiments is the
question whether his carbonate of lime was actually melted or not, we
may pause to consider what evidence is accepted as sufficient on this
point at the present day. In ordinary cases the proof of fusion would
be that the mass became liquid, but as the charge is contained in a
furnace inside a closed steel vessel it is impossible to examine it till the
apparatus cools down and is opened up. In many cases also it is
possible to rapidly cool the melt, by dropping it into water or mercury,
and if it solidifies as a pure glass the proof of fusion is complete. The
carbonate of lime, however, could not be chilled either directly or
indirectly, and, furthermore, it seems clear that this substance crystal-
lises so readily that to obtain solidification as a vitreous mass might be
quite impossible. Eeliance accordingly must be placed on a third ex-
perimental method, that of reading the heating and cooling curves as
recorded by the pyrometer. Change of state involves either the libera-
tion or absorption of heat, and l.hese may be ascertained without any
difficulty. Fortunately the behaviour O'f carbonate of lime in this respect
is quite satisfactory ; it melts sharply at a definite temperature and
crystallises very readily on cooling, so that the exact fusion point is not
difficult to observe. Moreover, the microscopic appearance of the
crystalline masses produced is entirely in accordance with the belief
that complete fusion had taken place.

We may now consider what light modern research has thrown on the
vexed question whether Hall succeeded in molting carbonate of lime,
and on the value and accuracy of his experimental work generally.
It is clear that Hall in his best experiments was able to prevent escape
of gas from his gun-barrels. The fact that there was no significant
loss of weight in the materials he used seems to prove this satisfactorily.

68 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

His latest experiments with arrangements for meosuring the pi'essure
were conducted in a manner far less likely to obtain complete retention
of the gas than his early expeiiments, but they show that he had
obtained a useful first approximation to the pressures involved, and
that somewhere between lUO and 150 atmospheres was the dissociation
pressure of CaCOa on melting. So crude was his apparatus, to modern
ideas, that it is wonderful he obtained any results at all.

The necessity of providing an air space to prevent bursting of the gun-
barrels by expansion of the fusible metal makes it certain that lime was
always present in his melt, and as the air space was never accurately
measured it is not certain to what extent dissociation took place. He
was working therefore with mixtures of CaO and CaCOa, and the tem-
perature of the fusion at which he aimed was the eutectic point at
1218°C. In most cases he probably had excess of lime in his melt,
but in his best experiments he was either very near the eutectic mixture
or on the carbonate of lime branch of the curve. The effect of the water
which he introduced may have been tO' lower the melting-point slightly,
though there are no very exact experimental results at the present time
to indicate the magnitude of this effect ; probably it was not very great.
If then he was able to reach a temperature of 1218° 0. he may be said
to have succeeded. Everything depends on the conditions in his
furnace, and this was determined by the design of the furnace, the nature
of the fuel, and the draught. Apparently he did not use a blast, and
we are not informed as to the chimney. His fui-nace and muffle seem
to belong to a pattern which has been long employed for refining silver
and gold and for assaying copper. Now copper melts at 1082°C., and
it is open to doubt whether a muffle-furnace of this type will give a tem-
perature of 12l8°C. It seems just possible that the melting-point of
carbonate of lime may have been actually reached under the best working
conditions. The question will never be settled. Hall's pyrometers were
the least satisfactory pai't of his apparatus, and all his critics are agreed
that it is impossible to interpret the results that they gave. Without
an exact knowledge of the materials, structure, and dimensions of his
furnace, his fuel and his draught, we cannot reproduce the conditions
under which he was working, and his descriptions of his methods are
too incomplete to settle the point.

The determination of the actual melting-point and vapour pressure
of CaCOa is a question, however, which interests the physical chemist
more than the geologist, and there is little evidence to show that the
eutectic mixture of lime and carbonate of lime has a distinct importance
as a component of rocks. Though Sir James Hall may not have clearly
reahsed it, he had established a truth of far higher value to geologists.
He had shown that at comparatively low temperatures such as the
melting-point of silver, which is 9C0°C., a fine grained aggregate of
calcite will readily recrystallise. If the mineral is an incoherent powder
it will agglutinate into a firm coherent mass. At slightly higher tem-
peratures it becomes plastic, so as to assume the shape of the vessel
which contains it, and loses any angularities or irregularities of its
surface. These temperatures are about the same as those exhibited by
ordinary lavas, and must be quite common in the vicinity of under-

C— GEOLOGY. 69

ground intrusions. The whole of the phenomenn. of the contact, altera-
tion of limestone, including the disappearance of original structures and
organic remains, find a simple explanation through his experiments.
Granted only a temperature about 1000°C. and sufficient pressure to
retain tlic carbonic acid evolved (less than 1000 feet of average rock)
any limestone will recrystallise completely. As a matter of fact, there
is little evidence that the complete fusion of limestone is a common
phenomenon, and a liquid limestone magma sending intrusive veins into
the surrounding rocks has only seldom been postulated. The Huttonians
thought that the calcareous amygdales of many of the basaltic lavas
were fragments of limestone that had been involved in the igneous
rock and completely fused, but this is no longer believed. Furthermore.
Sir James Hall proved that under the same conditions limestone would
react on silica, forming silicates, and would attack glass, porcelain, pipe-
clay, and the material of his pyrometric cones ; thus he explained the
origin of accessory minerals of many limestones, such as wollastonite,
garnet, vesuvianite, diopside, and scapolite. Edinburgh geologists, for
example, know well the altered limestone which occurs at the margin of
the teschenite-picrite sill at Davidson's Mains railway station. There
is no need to believe that it was ever completely melted, and the preser-
vation of many traces of the original bedding makes it very improbable
that complete fusion took place.

Eecrystallisation and the growth of crystals in solido were observed
also by many of those who endeavoured to repeat Sir James Hall's ex-
periments during the nineteenth century, and have been fully confirmed
by more recent researches. In fact this process is now regularly
applied in the investigation of minerals that refuse to crystallise well
from igneous melts or undergo transformation into other forms below
a certain transition temperature. From the pure chemical components
a glass is prepared as homogeneous and free from bubbles as possible,
and this glass is then heated for many hours to a temperature below
its melting-point, but within the field of stability of the crystalline form
which it is desired to investigate. Crystals are thus produced which
may be sufficiently large to have their optical characters, cleavage,
hardness, and other properties satisfactorily determined. This is, of
course, a case of devitrification, a process which Hall was familiar with,
as he had studied it in the glass furnace at Leith which first suggested
to him the advisability of making furnace experiments on rocks. He
recognised it also in certain varieties of porcelain which he had employed
in his experiments. But even when devitrification is sensibly complete
and a finely crystalline aggregate replaces the original elass the process
win so on. and the crystals become larger and larger if subjected for a
considerable time to a temperature not far below the fusion point.

It was characteristic of Hall that having set himself an object
he pursued it with undeviating persistence. For four years he con-
tinued his experiments on the crystallisation of the carbonate of lime
by heat modified by compression. In that time he mnde nearly five
lumdred experiments, and considering how elaborate they were and
how all his appfiratus was rnade by himself or by ordinary mechanics
\ve carl slSe that little titne was left for the Ordinary pursuits oi ft Country

70 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

gentleman. A few subsidiary investigations, however, received atten-
tion, one being the action of organic matter when heated under pressure,
including the formation of coal and the origin of the bituminous materials
found where igneous rocks are intrusive into coal seams or beds of shale
rich in organic matter. The other was the action of carbonate of lime
on ' silex. '

It is not quite clear what the ' silex ' was, as Hall employs the term
for the material of which his Wedgwood porcelain tubes were made,
while others used it to designate precipitated silica and various siliceous
minerals. If it were porcelain, Hall was experimenting with the system
CaO-Al203-Si02 on which the beautiful researches of Rankin and
Wright executed at the Geophysical Laboratory in Washington were
published in 1915. This work may be taken as an example of the
highest type of investigations of the class which Hall initiated. About
7000 individual tests were made. The complete ternary diagram con-
tains fourteen separate stability fields, each for a definite chemical com-
pound. Some of these are well-known minerals such as cristobalite,
tridymite, sillimanite, anorthite, but many are new compounds, or
minerals under forms which do not occur in rocks (such as pseudo-wol-
lastonite). In addition to the three components there are nine binary
compounds; three are ternary, but of these only two are stable.
Between the stability fields are thirty boundary lines, which show under
what conditions two minerals may exist simultaneously in the presence
of liquid melt of a definite composition. The fields meet three together,
in twenty-one quintuple points, eight of which are ternary eutectics,
while thirteen are transition points. The lowest temperature at which
liquids appear is 1170'^C. ± 5°; no possible mixture of these three
substances is completely fused below that temperature.

Many binary systems and quite a number of ternary systems have
now been explored, some of them very fully. The seed which Hall
planted is growing into a mighty tree. It is bearing fruit most precious
to petrologists, mineralogists, and physical chemists. The conditions
under which certain minerals can form in igneous melts are being
gradually determined. But as yet the results appeal to the mineralo-
gist and physical chemist rather than to the geologist. Quartz,
tridymite, calcite, pyrites, corundum, and other common minerals of
rocks have now had their stability conditions determined when they
occur in dry fusions at atmospheric pressure in presence of a limited
number of other substances. The accuracy of the determinations is
marvellous, and has been confirmed in many cases by independent
investigations along different lines. These researches are of even more
value to the technologist than to the geologist. In the system above
mentioned, for instance, there are only three or four minerals among
the compounds determined in the melts. But the whole system and
all its compounds have a bearing on practical pi'oblems. The three pure
substances, for example, are well-known I'efractories : silica, alumina,
and lime. Silica is the material of the quartz-glass industry; alumind
forms alundum, an abrasive and a valuable refractory, while the uses
of^ lime are too many to mention. Silica brick is principally quartz and
tridymite with a little lime as a bond; ga,nister brick is mamly silica

c— geoloCtY. 71

and alumina; firoclay contains moro alumina with a small and variable
amount of alkalis. Portland cement is a mixture of silica, alumina, and
lime. All these manufactures are produced by pure dry fusion under
atmospheric pressure, and exactly under the conditions and tempera-
tures of the experiments on which tlie diagram is founded. The
presence of small amounts of impurities in the natural minerals em-
j)loyed introduces complications, but these may be neglected if only
approximate results are aimed at. During the War the highly trained
technical skill of the workers of the Geophysical Institute and their
refined apparatus were entirely at the service of American industries,
such as the manufacture of optical and chemical glass, and all the
practical problems that arose were promptly and satisfactorily solved.

The investigation of the system Ca-AljOa-SiOj which we have taken
as an example of the best type of modern work in this field of research .
is a great contribution to theoretical petrology. It has bearings on the
thermal alteration of many rocks such as quartzites, flints, pure lime-
stones, siliceous and argillaceous limestones, bauxites, fireclays,
calcareous quartzites, all of which may be regarded as mixtures of
silica, clay, and (carbonate of) lime together with their alteration pro-
ducts. But for the geologist as a rule the matter is not quite so simple,
and caution is necessary in drawing inferences. Three of the
commonest alteration products in this group of rocks, for example, are
biotite, garnet, and andalusite, and these minerals have been produced
experimentally only under very exceptional conditions.

There are differences between the conditions of the experiments and
those that actually obtain in the making of rocks, and these are
essentially of three kinds :

(a) Experimental work is successful only when the conditions are
exactly defined, and necessity compels us at present to restrict experi-
mental work to simple systems of two or three components. The theory
of these has been very fully worked out, and this is essential to the
interpretation of the experimental results. Systems of four components
have hardly yet been touched. If we take, for example, the four
common oxides of rocks, CaO, AljO,,, MgO, and SiO,, the six possible
binary systems are pretty well known, and the four possible ternary
systems have also been thoroughly studied, but little progress has yet
been made with the investigation of quaternary mixtures containing all
four components. The mathematics of such a system is of the most
complex description. Now the common rocks contain seven or more
components, and their behaviour in igneous melts is a problem which is
at present beyond solution.

To simplify matters we might investigate such a system piecemeal,
that is to say, we might take parts of it and treat them as independent
svstems. For example, the three minerals anorthite, forsterite, quartz,
which consist of these four components, have been investigated, and
it was proved that this could not be regarded as a simple three-com-
ponent system, as under certain conditions phenomena appeared which
characterised a quaternary mixture. Along these lines, however, there
is no doubt that gfeat progress can be made, and the results already
obtained are so valuable that they hold out great promise for the future;

72 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

(b) The only igneous rocks that consoUdate from high temperatures
at atmospheric pressures with free escape of contained gases are the
volcanic lavas. The plutonic and intrusive rocks consolidate under high
pressures and with retention of their gases. Hall began his experiments
with dry melts in open furnaces ; but he realised that under these
conditions it was not possible to crystallise a marble. The historical
development of research has followed similar lines, and investigations
under pressure are now becoming more prominent. In the special field
in which Hall worked we owe very important results to Professors
Adams and Nicolson, of Montreal. They experimented on the effects
of very high pressure (obtained by a hydraulic press) on chalk, lime-
stone, and marble. Columns of limestone were embedded in alum or
fusible metal enclosed in a steel tube, and submitted to enormous pres-
sures. In some of the experiments the apparatus was heated to 300° or
400°C., and that the investigation was on ' the effects of heat modified
by compression ' as stated in the title of Hall's original paper of 1805.
They succeeded in obtaining plastic deformation in the solid rock, with
development of schistosity and cataclastic structures but without exten-
sive recrystallisation. These experiments illustrate very perfectly the
formation of such rocks as calc-schists, mylonites, fiaser-gabbros, and
augen-gneisses.

It is generally agreed by physicists that increase of pressure makes
little difference on the melting-points of solids, and that a slight rise
of temperature may have a much greater effect on the stability of a
mineral system than a considerable rise of pressure. But this is to
some extent altered whei'e volatile substances are concerned, for then
pressure modifies the concentration, often to a high degree. In many
rocks, and especially the acid plutonic rocks and mineral veins, the
importance of volatile mineralisers is abundantly clear. In the crystal-
line schists, on the other hand, we see the effects of pressure, not only
in the structures of the rock masses, but also in the special minerals
which characterise this group. The importance, accordingly, of pressure
and volatile components cannot be ignored, and experimental petro-
logists are now directing their attention especially to a study of their
influence. The ground has been cleared by a masterly series of
mathematical researches, principally by Schreinemakers and Smits,
and experimental work along these lines is rapidly advancing.

(c) The third agency which nature employs in the making of rocks
but is apt to be neglected in the laboratory is time. It is not always
easy to estimate its importance. A laboratory experiment under excep-
tional circumstances has been carried on over several months ; most
of them are finished in a few hours, but nature works with un-
limited time. The action of solvents when they occur in very small
quantities is favoured in this way and unstable phases tend to dis-
appear. In the deposition of mineral veins this may be a factor of
paramount importance, and it also cannot be ignored in all studies of
metamoi'phism and metasomatism.

We learn from Hall's papers that he was continually experimenting,
and Re delighted to devise ineans to put geological ttieories to pl'actical
tests.

C— GEOLOGY. 73

In 1812, when he was President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh,
he read a paper to the Society on ' The Contortions of the Strata.' He
described the Silurian rocks of the Berwickshire coast as having been
thrown into folds, a great part of which had been rcmovod by denuda-
tion. Similar phenomena had been noted in many other places, and
many explanations had been offered to account for the tilted, bent,
upturned, and distorted rocks. Sonic geologists held they had been
deposited in tliat position, others that they had been upheaved by earth-
quakes, or let down by subsidences. Hall's explanation was very
simple — the rocks had been affected by lateral pressure. With some
pieces of cloth and a door ' which happened to be off its hinges, ' and a
few stones to act as weights, he was able to reproduce the ' contortions
of sti-ata ' experimentally with great perfection. The whole proceeding
was so simple that one is reminded of Columbus and the egg. Yet if
we are to judge by the discussions in contemporary literature, folding
of strata had not yet been recognised, and this suggestion was revolu-
tionary. It contains the germ of many theories of mountain building ;
no one now doubts that lateral pressure is one of the most powerful
agencies in the disturbance of the earth's crust and the production
of many special types of rocks. In no district is this better exemplified
than in the North- West Highlands of Scotland.

As the source of lateral pressure Hall suggested that igneous in-
trusions making their way upwards might force asunder the adjacent
rocks. This would not now be generally accepted, but of course it was
an explanation very likely to occur to a Huttonian. It seems to have
been about forty years later that Elie de Beaumont and his school
brought forward the hypothesis that secular contraction of the earth's
crust might produce lateral compression of rock masses, and might be
the cause of folding and of mountain building. The rise of modern
theories of mountain structure probably dates from the investigations of
H. D. Rogers on the Appalachians.

Hall's final contribution to experimental geology appears in a paper
which he read to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in April 1825, and was
published in the tenth volume of the ' Transactions. ' The title is ' On
the Consolidation of the Strata of the Earth.' Modern geology by that
time had made great progress, and many of the controversies of Hall's
early years had been settled. But Hall remained essentially a Huttonian
in his belief in the efficacy of plutonic heat. He aimed at showing
that submarine intrusions would consolidate loose overlying beds of
sand into firm sandstone. For this purpose he took salt water, or
concentrated brine, and heated it in crucibles or iron vessels containing
a quantity of sand. He found that it was possible to make the bottoiri
of such an iron vessel red hot, while the brine on top was so cold that
the hand could be inserted into it. The sand was in some cases con-
verted into firm coherent mass, no doubt by the action of alkalis at
a red heat. It is difficult to perceive what such an experiment proves ;
it may possibly have some bearing on the induration of sandstones by
contact alteration in the vicinity of intrusive sills, and one of the special
cases to whicli Hall refers as suggesting this experiment was the
hardening of conglomerate by intrusive dykes. What actually
1921 H

74 S?:0TIONAL ADDRESSES.

happened was the prooliiction of a vitreous cement, consisting of silicates
of alumina and the alkalis, sufficient to bind together the sand grains.
We are reminded of the fused Torridon sandstone that is found at the
margins of Tertiary dykes in the western isles of Scotland, but in these
the alkali was furnished by the felspar originally present in the sand-
stone. This paper probably contains the last expression of the pure
Huttonian philosophy. Hall was now the sole survivor of the original
group who established the Huttonian theories. Having begun as an
innovator and a radical, regarded askance for his revolutionary tenden-
cies, he was now a conservative holding fast to orthodox opinions, even
when they were out of date. His passion for experiment lasted to
the end, and he seems to have maintained his furnace in working
order for over forty years. He died in 1832. Although he was
not the greatest of the trio — Hutton, Playfair, and Hall — who
founded modern geology, he was worthy to take his place with the
others. Hutton 's was the original master-mind who, by sheer induc-
tion and abstract reasoning, had read the secrets of the earth. Playfair
was the man of balanced judgment who grasped the essentials and
placed them in convincing clearness before a sceptical public. Hall
had his special field of work in which he excelled all his contemporaries,
and for us who are watching with profound interest the rapid progress
of experimental investigation into geophysical and petrophysical
problems, it is not uncongenial to pay a tribute to his memory.

SOME PROBLEMS IN EVOLUTION.

ADDKI'SS TO SKCTIOX I) (/,()()T,()(iV) HV

iVuiossof EDWiN S. (lOODKlCjr, F.K.S.,

rUliSIDKNT OV TIIIO SKCTION

It was nearly 100 years ago that Cliarles Darwiii began his scientific
studies in the University of Edinburgh. In this illustrious centre of
intellectual activity he met various friends keenly interested in natural
iiistory, and attended the meetings of scientific societies, and it was
doubtless here that were sown many of the seeds destined to bear such
glorious fruit many years later. No more fitting subject, I thiidc,
could be found for an address than certain problems relating to his
doctrine of evolution. That controversy perpetually rages round it is
a healthy sign. For we must take care in science lest doctrine should
pass into dogma, unquestioned and accepted merely on authority. So
from time to time it is useful to re-examine in the light of new knowledge
the very foundations on which our theories are laid.

Perhaps the best way of treating these general subjects is by trying to
answer some definite questions. For instance, we may ask: ' Why
are some characters inherited and others not '? ' By characters we
mean all those qualities and properties possessed by the organism, and
by the enumeration of which we describe it : its weight, size, shape,
colour, its structure, composition and activities. Next, what do we
mean by ' inherited ' ? It is most important, if possible, clearly to
define this term, since much of the controversy in writings on evolution
is due to its use by various authors with a very different significance —
sometimes as mere reappearance, at other times as actual transmission
or transference from one generation to the next. Now, I propose to use
the word inheritance merely to signify the reappearance in the offspring
of a character possessed by the ancestor — a fact which may be observed
and described, regardless of any theory as to its cause. Our question,
then, is : ' "Why do some characters reappear in the offspring and others
not?'

It is sometimes asserted that old-established characters are inherited,
and that newly-begotten ones are not, or are less constant, in their
reappearance. This statement will not bear critical examination. For, on
the one hand, it has been conclusively shown by experimental breeding
that the newest characters may be inherited as constantly as the most
ancient, provided they are possessed by both parents.^ While, on the
other hand, few characters in plants can be older than the green colour due
to chlorophyll, yet it is sufficient to cut off the light from a germinating
seed for the greenness to fail to appear. Again, ever since Devonian

1 We purposely set aside complications due to hybridisation and Mendelian
segregation, wl^ich (}o not directly bpar pn thp qnestions at issue.

?f 2

76 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

times vertebrates have inherited paired eyes; yet, as Professor Stockard
has shown, if a Httle magnesium chloride is added to the sea-water in
which the eggs of the fish Funduhis are developing, they will give rise to
embryos with one median cyclopcaii eye! Nor is the suggestion any
Jiappier that tlie, so to sfjeak, more deep-seated and fundamental
characters are moi'e constantly inherited than the trivial or superficial.
A glance at organisms around us, or the slightest experimental trial,
soon convinces us that the apparently least-important character may
reappear as constantly as the most fundamental. But while an organ-
ism may live without some trivial character, it can rarely do so when
a fundamental character is absent, hence such incomplete individuals
are seldom met in Nature.

Yet undoubtedly some characters reappear without fail and others
do not. If it is neither age nor importance, what is it that determines
their inheritance? The answer is that for a character to reappear in
the offspring it is essential that the germinal factors and the environ-
mental conditions which co-operated in its formation in the ancestor
should both be present. Inheritance depends on this condition being
fulfilled. For all characters are of the nature of responses to environ-
ment;^ they are the products or results of the interaction between the
factors of inheritance (germinal factors) and the surrounding
conditions or stimuli. This power of response or reaction is no
mysterious property of organisms — it is the effect produced, the dis-
turbance brought about by the application of a stimulus. All the
special properties and activities of living organisms ultimately depend
on their metabolism, of which growth and repi'oduction are the chief
manifestations. The course of metabolism, and, consequently, the
development in the individual of a character, is moulded or conditioned
by the environmental stimuli under which it takes place. On the
other hand, the living substance, protoplasm, which is undergoing
metabolism is the material basis of the organism. It has a specific
composition and structure peculiar to the particular kind of organism
concerned, and this is handed on to the offspring in the germ-cells from
which starts the new generation. The inheritance of a character is due.
then, not only to the actual transmission or transference of this specific
' germ-plasm ' containing the same factors of inheritance (germinal
factors) as those from which the parent developed, but also to this
factorial complex developing under the same conditions (environmental
stimuli), as those under which the parent developed. Any alteration
either in the effective environmental stimuli or the germinal factors
will produce a new result, will give rise to a new character, will cause
the old character to appear no longer.

Now what is actually transmitted from one generation to the next
is the complex of germinal factors. Hence we should carefully dis-
tinguish between transmission and inheritance. Much of the endless

2 In a letter to Nature Sir Eay Lankester long ago drew attention to the
importance of this consideration when discussing inheritance. He also pointed
out that Lamarck's first law, that a new stimulus alters the characters of an
organism, contradicts his second law, that the effects of previous stimuli are
fixed by inheritance. [Nature, vol, li, 1894,)

D.— ZOOLOGY. 77

confusion and interminable controversies about tlie inheritance of so-
called ' acquired characters ' is due to tlie neglect of this important
distinction. For it is quite clear that whereas factors may be trans-
mitted, characters as such never are. 'i'he characters of the adult,
being responses, are not present as such in the fertilised ovum from
which it develops, they are produced anew at every generation.^ No
distinction in kind or value can he drawn between characters.

If some are inherited regularly and others are not, the distinction
lies not in the nature or mode of production of the characters them-
selves, but in the constancy of the factors and conditions which give
rise to them. Thus, although there is only one kind of character, there
are two kinds of variation.

Much of the confusion in evolutionary literatui'e is, I think, due
to the use of the word variation in a loose manner. Sometimes it is
taken to mean the degree of divergence between two individuals ; some-
times the character itself in which they differ, such as a colour or spot
on a butterfly's wing, at other times a variety or race differing from
the normal form of the species. If clearness of thought and expression
is to be attained, the word variation should mean the extent or degree
of difference between two individuals or between an individual and the
average of the species, the divergence of the new form from the old;
not a new character or assemblage of characters, but a difference which
can be measured or at least estimated. "We shall then find that a
variation is of one of two kinds (which may, of course, be combined) :
the first kind is due to some change in the complex of effective
environmental stimuU, the second to some change in the complex of
germinal factors.

The second kind, to which the name mutation has been apphed, will,
under constant conditions, be inherited since the new complex of
factors will be transmitted to subsequent generations. The first kind
of variation, which has been called a modification, will also be inherited,
provided, of course, the change of stimulus persists. In either case,
new characters will result. But here, again, we must be careful not to
apply the terms mutation and modification to the chai'acters themselves,
as is so often done ;* for we then reintroduce the confusion already
exposed in the popular but misleading distinction between ' acquired '
and ' non-acquired ' characters. The characters due to mutation or
modification are, of course, indistinguishable by mere inspection, and
can only be separated by experiment. A mutation once established
should give rise, under uniform conditions, to a new heritable character,
and may be detected by crossing with normal members of the species.

•1 In other words, all characters are ' acquired during the lifetime of the
individual,' and ' inherited ' in the sense here defined has just the same
meaning. Much the same view was advocated by Professor A. Sedgwick in his
address to this Section at Dover in 1899, and it has also been developed by
Dr. Archdall Reid and others.

4 The name ' mutation ' might be given to the alteration in the factors
instead of the variation due to it. The latter might then be termed a muta-
tional variation and would be opposed to a modificational variation At present
the term ' mutation ' is applied to three different things : the factorial change,
the variation or difference, and the new product response or character.

78 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

So far observations and tests have shown that new characters due to
modification only reappear so long as the new stimulus persists. The
difference lies not in the value or permanence of the new character, but
in the causes which give rise to it.^

It is little more than a platitude to state that, for the production of
an organism or of any of its characters, both germinal factors and
environmental stimuli are necessary, and that if evolution is to take
place there must be change in one or both. Yet the changes in the
factors may be held to be the more important. In an environment
which on the whole alters but little, evolution progresses by the cumu-
lation along diverging lines of adaptation of new characters due to
mutation. Thus natural selection indirectly preserves those factorial
complexes which respond in a favourable manner. In other words,
an organism, to survive in the struggle for existence, must present that
assemblage of factors of inheritance which, under the existing envix'on-
mental conditions, will give rise to advantageous characters.

In answer to a further question, let us now try to explain what we
mean when we contrast the organism with its environment. In its
simplest and most abstract form a living organism may be likened to
a vortex. That mixture of highly complex proteins we call protoplasm,
the physical basis of life, is perpetually undergoing transformations of
matter and energy, so long as life persists. Towards the centre of the
vortex the highest compounds are continually being built up and con-
tinually being broken down ; new material (food, water, oxygen) and
energy are brought in at the periphery, and old material and energy
(work and heat) thrown out. The principle of the conservation of
energy and matter holds good in organised living processes as it does
in the inorganic world outside. This is the process we call metabolism,
and it is at the base of all the manifestations of life. From the point
of view of biological science life is founded on a complex and continuous
physico-chemical process of endless duration so long as conditions are
favourable; just as a fire will continue to burn so long as fuel is at
hand. No one step, no single substance, can be said to be living : the
whole chain of substances and reactions, every link of which is essential,
constitutes the life-process. A stream of non-living matter with stored-
up energy is built up into the living vortex, and again passes out as
dead matter, having yielded up the energy necessary for the performance
of the various activities of the organism. If more is taken in than is
given out it will grow and sub-divide. The complexity of the organism
may increase by the formation of subsidiary, more or less interdepen-
dent, vortices within it. The perpetual growth and transmission of
factors of inheritance, the continuity of the germ-plasm, is but another
aspect of the continuity of the metabolic process forming the basis of
the continuity of life in evolution.

* VVe miglit peiliaps distiiiguisli tlie two cases l)y calling them constant
and inconstant characters, or ' natural ' and ' acquired,' as is commonly done
when describing immunity. It should be meant thereby that one is acquired
usually (under normal conditions), the other occasionally (when infection
occurs). Error creeps in when the term ' acquired ' is opposed to ' non-
acquired ' or to ' inherited.'

D.-ZOOLOGY.

Bui all t;nvii'oiimeiitaI stimuli are not external to llie organism.
Just as the various steps in tlie metabolic process are dependent on
those which preceded them, so when an organism becomes differentiated
into parts, when the main process becomes sub-divided into subsidiary
ones, these react on each other. What is internal to the whole becomes
external to the part. An external stinmlus may set up an internal
metabolic change, giving rise to a response whose extent and nature
depend on the structure of the mechanism and its state when stimulated,
that is to say, on the effect of previous responses. Such a response may
act as an internal stimulus giving rise to a further response, which may
modify the first, and so on. Parts thus become marvellously fitted to
set going, inhibit, or regulate each other's action; and thus arises that
power of individual adaptation, or self -regulation, so characteristic of
living organisms. The processes of temperature regulation, of respira-
tion, of excretion are examples of such delicate self -regulating
mechanisms in ourselves. But one of the great advantages thereby
gained by organisms is that they can r-egulate their own growth and
ensure their own ' right ' development. Whereas the simplest plants
and animals are to a great extent, so to speak, at the mercy of their
external environment, except in so far as they can move from unfavour-
able to more favourable surroundings ; whereas their characters appear
in response to external stimuli which may or may not be present, and
over which they have little or no control — the higher organisms (more
especially the higher animals), as it were, gradually substitute internal
for external stimuli. Food material is providetl in the ovum, and the
size, structure and time of appearance of various characters are regu-
lated to a great extent by use and by the secretions of various endocrinal
glands, the action of which has been so successfully studied, among
others^ by Sir Sharpey Schafer in this University. Thus, as is well
shown in man, the higher animals acquire considerable independence,
and are little affected in their development by minor changes of
environment. Inheritance is thus made secure by ensuring that the
necessary conditions are always present.

We may seem to have wandered far from our original question ; but
the answer now appears to be that only those characters can be regu-
larly inherited which depend for their appearance on conditions always
fulfilled in the normal environment (external or internal); and those
characters will not be regularly inherited which depend on stimuli that
may or may not be present. Thus, while the offspring of a dark-
skinned race will be dark in whatever climate they are born, those of a
fair-skinned race will be born fair, but may be darkened by sun-burn,
if they sjjend their holiday in tlie open.

Now it will be said, and not without some truth, that all this is
mere couunonplace admitted l)y all ; but, if so, it is, I think, often
ignored or misundeislood in discussions on heredity, more especially
in senu-popular writings, and sometimes even in scientific works
However, I quite willingly admit that the real problems Darwin left to
1)6 solved by the evolutionist are the nature of the germinal factors
themselves, and more especially the origin of the differences between
them, the origin of those changes which give rise to mutations.

80 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

That these factors" must at least be self -propagating substances,
subsidiary vortices in the main stream of metabolising living proto-
plasm, is certain, since they grow and multiply repeatedly, to be
distributed to new generations of germ -cells. That they may be
relatively constant and remain unaltered for generations seems also
certain, since organisms or their parts can continue almost unchanged
for untold ages. That they can act independently, can be separately
distributed into different germ-cells, and can be re-combined seems
likewise to have been proved by the brilliant work of Mendel and his
followers. So independent and constant do they appear to be that
niodex'n students of heredity tend to treat them as so many beads in a
row, as separate particles themselves endowed with all the properties
of independent living organisms, the very properties we wish to explain
While not prepared to accept these views without qualification, it seems
to me that it can scarcely be doubted that some such units must exist
whether in the form of discrete particles or merely of separable sub-
stances. But not until these factors have been brought into relation
with the general metabolism of the organism, as links in the chain of
processes, will the problem of inheritance approach solution. If the
theory is to be completed it must attempt to explain how they come to
differ, how their orderly behaviour is regulated, in what functional
relation they stand to each other, what is the metabolic bond between
them. That harmonious processes may be carried out by discreta
elements in co-operation is shown in cases of symbiotic combinations
such as the lichens, or the green algae in such animals as Hydra and
Convoluta. Here an originally independent organism takes its place
and does its woi'k regularly in another organism, and may even be
Ijropagated and transmitted from one generation to the next in the
germ-cell ! Most instructive, also, are the recently studied cases of
bacteria and yeasts living regularly in certain special tissues of various
species of insects, where they exert a definite influence on the
metabolism (see the works of Pierantoni, Buchner, Glaser). These no
doubt are mere analogies, but they serve.

In all probability, then, factors of inheritance exist, and the funda-
mental problem of Biology is how are the factors of an organism
changed, or how does it acquire new factors ? In spite of its vast im-
portance, it must be confessed that little advance has been made
towards the solution of this problem since the time of Darwin, who
considered that variation must ultimately be due to the action of the
environment. This conclusion is inevitable, since any closed system
will reach a state of equilibrium and continue unchanged, unless affected
from without. To say that mutations are due to the mixture or re-
sliuftling of pre-existing factors is merely to push the problem a step

•i Herbert Spencer's ' physiological units,' Darwin's ' pangens,' Weismann's
' determinants,' are all terms denoting factors, but with somewhat different
meanings. !More recently Professor W. Johannsen {J'J/emcnie dcr excdten
Erblichheitshhre, 1909) has proposed the term 'gene' for a factor, 'genotype'
for the whole assemblage of factors transmitted by a species, and ' phenotype '
for the characters developed from them. This clear system of nomenclature,
although much used in America, has not been generally adopted in this country.

D.— ZOOLOGY.

farther buck, ior we must still account for tlieir origin and diversity.
The same objection applies to the suggestion that the complex of
factors alters by the loss of certain of them. To account for the
progressive change in the course of evolution of the factors of in-
heritance and for the building up of the complex it must be supposed
that from time to time new factors have been added ; it must further
be supposed that new substances have entered into the cycle of
metabolism, and have been permanently incorporated as self-
propagating ingredients entering mto lasting relation with pre-existing
factors. "We are well aware that living protoplasm contains molecules
of large size and extraordinary complexity, and that it may be urged
that by their combination in different ways, or by the mere regrouping
of the atoms within them, an almost infinite number of changes may
result, more than sufficient to account for the mutations which appear
But this does not account for the building up of the original complex.
If it must be admitted that such a building process once occurred, what
right have we to suppose that it ceased at a certain period? "We are
driven, then, to the conclusion that in the course of evolution new
material has been swept from the banks into the stream of germ-plasm.
If one may be allowed to speculate still further, may it not be
supposed that factors differ in their stability? — that whereas the more
stable are merely bent, so to speak, in this or that direction by the
environment, and are capable of returning to their original condition,
as a gyroscope may return to its former position when pressure is
removed, other less stable factors may be permanently distorted, may
have their metabolism permanently altered, may take up new substance
from the vortex, without at the same time upsetting the system of
delicate adjustments whereby the organism keeps alive? In some such
way we imagine factorial changes to be brought about and mutations
to result.

Let it not be thought for a moment that this admission that factors
are alterable opens the door to a Lamarckian interpretation of evolution I
According to the Lamarckian doctrine, at all events in its modern form,
a character would be inherited after the removal of the stimulus which
called it forth in the parent. Now of course, a response once made,
a character once formed, may persist for longer or shorter time accord-
ing as it is stable or not ; but that it should continue to be produced
when the conditions necessary for its production are no longer present
is unthinkable. It may, however, be said that this is to misrepresent
tlie doctrine, and that what is really meant is that the response may
so react on and alter the factor as to render it capable of producing the
new character under the old conditions. But is this interpretation any
more credible than the first ?

Let us return to the possible alteration of factors by the environ-
inent. TTnfortunately thei'e is little evidence as yet on this point. In
the course of breeding experiments tlie occurrence of mutations has
repeatedly been obseived, lint what led to their appearance seems never
to have been so clearly established as to satisfy exacting critics. Quite
lately, however, Professor M. F. Guyer, of "Wisconsin, has brought
forward a most interesting case of the apparent alteration at will of a

82 SECTIONAL>DDRESSES.

factor or set of factors under definite well-controlled conditions.' You
will remember that if a tissue substance, blood-serum for instance, of
one animal be injected into the circulation of another, this second
individual will tend to react by producing an anti-body in its blood to
antagonise or neutralise the effect of the foreign serum. Now
Professor Guyer's ingenious experiments and results may be briefly
summarised as follows. By repeatedly injecting a fowl with the sub-
stance of the lens of the eye of a rabbit he obtained anti-lens serum.
On injecting this ' sensitised ' serum into- a> pregnant female rabbit it
was found that, while the mother's eyes remained apparently
unaffected, some of her offspring developed defective lenses. The
defects varied from a slight abnormality to almost complete disappear-
ance. No defects appeared in untreated controls, no defects appeared
with non-sensitised sera. On breeding the defective offspring for
many generations these defects were found to be inherited, even to
tend to increase and to appear more often. When a defective rabbit
is crossed with a normal one the defect seems to behave as a Mendelian
recessive character, the first generation having normal eyes and the
defect reappearing in the second. Further, Professor Guyer claims to
have shown that the defect may be inherited through the male as well
as the female parent, and is not due to tlie direct transmission of anti-
lens from mother to embryo in utero.

If these remarkable results are verified, it is clear that an environ-
mental stimulus, the anti-lens substance, will have been proved to
affect not only the development of the lens in the embryo, but also the
corresponding factors in the germ-cells of that embiyo; and that it
causes, by originating some destructive process, a lasting transmissible
effect giving rise to a heritable mutation.

Professor Guyer, however, goes farther, and argues that, since -i
rabbit can also produce anti-lens when injected with lens substance, and
since individual animals can even produce anti-bodies when treated
with their own tissues, therefore the products of the tissues of an
individual may permanently affect the factors carried by its own germ-
cells. Moreover he asks, pointing to the well-known stimulative
action of internal secretions (hormones and the like), if destructive
bodies can be produced, why not constructive bodies also? And so ho
would have us adopt a sort of modern version of Darwin's theory of
Pangenesis, and a Lamarckian view of evolutionary change.

But surely there is a wide difference between such a poisonous Or
destructive action as he describes and any constructive process. The
latter must entail, as I tried to show above, the drawing of new sub-
stances into the metabolic vortex. Internal secretions are themselves
but characters, jn'oducts (perhaps of the natui'e of ferments) behaving
as environmental conditions, not as self-projiagating factors, moulding
the responses, but not permanently altering the fundamental structure
and composition of the factors of iidieriUince.

Moreover, the early fossil vertebrates had, in fact, lenses neither
larger nor smaller on the average than those of the present day. If

' American Naturalist, vol. Iv. 1921 ; Jour, of E.rjier. Zoology, vol. xxxi. 1920.

D.— ZOOLOGY. 83

destructive anti-lens had been continually produced and had acted, its
effect would have been cumulative. A constructive substance must,
then, have also been continually produced (o counteract it. Such a
theory might perhaps be defended ; but would it bring us any nearer to
the solution of the problem ?

The real weakness of the theory is that it does not escape from
the fundamental objections we have already put forward as fatal to
Lamarckism. If an effect has been produced, either the supjiosed con-
structive substance was present from the first, as an ordinary internal
i-nvironmental condition necessary for the normal development of the
character, or it must have been introduced from without by the appli-
cation of a new stimulus. The same objection does not apply to the
destructive effect. No one doubts that if a factor could be destroyed by
a hot needle or picked 'out with fine forceps the effects of the operation
would persist throughout subsequent generations.

Nevertheless, these results are of the greatest interest and impor-
tance, and, if corroborated, will mark an epoch in the study of hei-edity,
being apparently the first successful attempt to deal experimentally
with a particular factor or set of factors in the germ-plasm.

There remains another question we must try to answer before we
close, namely, ' "What share has the mind taken in evolution? ' From
vhe point of view of the biologist, describing and generalising on v/hat
he can observe, evolution may be represented as a series of metabolic
changes in living matter moulded by the environment. It will natu-
rally be objected that such a description of life and its manifestations as
a physico-chemical mechanism takes no account of mind. Surely, it
will be said, mind must have affected the course of evolution, and may
indeed be considered as the most important factor in the process.
Now, without in the least wishing to deny the importance of the mind,
I would maintain that there is no justification for the belief that it
has acted or could act as something guiding or interfering with the
course of metabolism. This is not the place to enter into a philo-
sophical discussion on the ultimate nature of our experience and its
contents, nor would I be competent to do so; nevertheless, a scientific
explanation of evolution cannot ignore the problem of mind if it is to
satisfy the average man.

Let me put the matter as briefly as possible at the risk of seeming
somewhat dogmatic. It will be admitted that all the manifestations of
living organisms depend, as mentioned above, on series of physico-
chemical changes continuing without break, each step determining that
which follows ; also that the so-called general laws of physics and of
chemistry hold good in living processes. Since, so far as living pro-
cesses are known and undeistood, they can be fully explained in
accordance with these laws, there is no need and no justification lor
calling in the help of any special vital force or other directive influence
to account for them. Such crude vitalistic tlieories are now discredited,
but tend to return in a more subtle form as the doctrine of the inter
action of body and mind, of the influence of the mind on the activities
of the body. But, try as we may, we caiuiot conceive how a physical
process can be interrupted or supplemented by non-physical agencies.

84 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES

Rather do we believe that to the continuous physico-chemical series
of events there corresponds a continuous series of mental events
inevitably connected with it ; that the two series ai'e but partial views
or abstractions, two aspects of some more complete whole, the one
seen from without, the other from within, the one observed, the other
felt. One is capable of being described in scientific language as a
consistent series of events in an outside world, the other is ascertained
by introspection, and is describable as a series of mental events in
psychical terms. There is no possibility of the one affecting or con-
trolling the other, since they are not independent of each other.
Indissolubly connected, any change in the one is necessarily accom-
panied by a corresponding change in the other. The mind is not a
product of metabolism as materialism would imply, still less an
epiphenomenon or meaningless by-product as some have held. I am
w^ell aware that the view just put forward is rejected by many philoso-
phers, nevertheless it seems to me to be the best and indeed the only
working hypothesis the biologist can use in the present state of
knowledge. The student of biology, however, is not concerned with
the building up of systems of philosophy, though he should realise that
the mental series of events lies outside the sphere of natural science.

The question, then, which is the more important in evolution, the
mental or the physical series, has no meaning, since one cannot happen
without the other. The two have evolved together pari passu. We
know of no mind apart from bo<iy, and have no right to assume that
metabolic processes can occur without corresponding mental processes,
however simple they may be.

Simple response to stimulus is the basis of all behaviour. Responses
may be linked together in chains, each acting as a stimulus to start the
next ; they can be modified by other simultaneous responses, or by the
effects left behind by previous responses, and so may be built up into
the most complicated behaviour. But, owing to our very incomplete
knowledge of the physico-chemical events concerned, we constantly,
when describing the behaviour of living organisms, pass, so to speak,
from the physical to the mental series, filling up the gaps in our know-
ledge of the one from the other. We thus complete our description
of behaviour in terms of mental processes we know only in ourselves
(such as feeling, emotion, will) but infer from external evidence to take
place in other animals.

In describing a simple reflex action, for instance, the physico-
chemical chain of events may appear to be so completely known that
the corresponding mental events are usually not mentioned at all, their
existence may even be denied. On the contrary, when describing com-
plex behaviour when impulses from external or internal stimuli modify
each other before the final result is translated into action, it is the
intervening physico-chemical processes which are unknown and perhaps
ignored, and the action is said to be voluntary or prompted by emotion
or the will.

The point I wish to make, however, is that the actions and
behaviour of organisms are responses, are characters in the sense
described in the earlier part of this address. They are inherited, they

D.— ZOOLOGY.

vary, they are selected, and evolve like other characters. The distinc-
tion so often drawn by psychologists between instinctive behaviour said
to be inherited and intelligent behaviour said to be acquired is as
niislcading and as little justified in tliis case as in that of structural
characters. 'J'inie will not allow me to develop this point of view, but
I will only mention tliaii instinctive behaviour is carried out by a
mechanism developed under the influence of stinmli, chie'lly internal,
which are constantly present in the normal envn-onmental conditions,
while intelligent behaviour depends on responses called forth by stimuli
which may or may not be present. Hence, the former is, but the latter
may or may not be inherited. As in other cases, the distinction lies in
the factors and conditions which produce the results. Instinctive and
intelligent behaviour are usually, perhaps always, combined, and one
is not more primitive or lower than the other.

It would be a mistake to think that these problems concerning
factors and environment, heredity and evolution, are merely matters of
academic interest. Knowledge is power, and in the long run it is
always the most abstruse researches that yield the most practical
results. Already, in the effort to keep up and increase our supply of
food, in the constant fight against disease, in education, and in the pro-
gress of civihsation generally, we are beginning to appreciate the value
of knowledge pursued for its own sake. • Could we acquire the power to
control and alter at will the factors of inheritance in domesticated
animals and plants, and even in man himself, such vast results might
be achieved that the past triumphs of the science would fade into
insignificance.

Zoology is not merely a descriptive and observational science, it is
also an experimental science. For its proper study and the practical
traming of students and teachers alike, well-equipped modern labora-
tories are necessary. Moreover, if there is to be a useful and progressive
school contributing to the advance of the science, ample means must be
given for i-esearch in all its branches. Life doubtless arose in the sea,
and in the attempt to solve most of the great problems of biology the
greatest advances have generally been made by the study of the lower
marine organisms. It would be a thousand pities, therefore, if Edm-
bm-gh did not avail itself of its fortunate position to offer to the student
opportunities for the practical study of marine zoology.

In his autobiography, Darwin complains of the lack of facilities for
practical work— the same need is felt at the present time. He would
doubtless have been gratified to see the provision made since his day
and the excellent use to which it has been put ; but what seems adequate
to one generation becomes insufficient for the next. We earnestly hope
that any appeal that may be made for funds to improve this Department
of Zoology mav meet with the generous response it certainly deserves.

APPLIED GEOGRAPHY.

ADDRESS BY SECTION E (gEOORAI'HY) BY

D. G. HOGAETH, M.A., D.Litt., G.M.G.,

I'KIOSIUENT C)E THl'; SECTION.

The term which I have taken for the title of my address has been
111 use for some years as a general designation of lendings or borrowings
of geographical results, whether by a geographer who applies the
material of his own science to another, or by a geologist or a
meteorologist, or again an ethnologist or historian, who borrows of the
geographer. Whether Geography makes the loan of her own motion
or not, the interest in view, as it seems to me, is primarily that, not
of Geography, but of another science or study. The open question
whether that interest will be served better if the actual application be
made by the geographer or by the other scientist or student does not
concern us now.

Such appHcations are of the highest interest and value as studies,
and, still more, as means of education. As studies, not merely are
they links between sciences, but they tend to become new subjects
of research, and to develop with time into independent sciences. As
means of education they are used more generally, and prove them-
selves of higher potency than the pure sciences from which or to which,
respectively, the loans are effected. But, in my view. Geography,
thus applied, passes, in the process of application, into a foreign
province and under another control. It is most proper, as well as
most profitable, for a geographer to work in that foreign field; but,
while he stays in it, hg is, in military parlance, seconded.

Logical as this view may appear, and often as, in fact, it has been
stated or implied by others (for example, by one at least of my pre-
decessors in this chair. Sir Charles Close, who delivered his presidential
address to the section at the Portsmouth Meeting in 1911), it does not
square with some conceptions of Geography put forward by high
authorities of recent years. These represent differently the status of
some of the studies, into which, as I maintain. Geography enters as a
subordinate and secondary element. In particular, there is a school,
represented in this country and more strongly in America, which claims
for Geography what, in my view, is an historical or ethnological or even
psychological study, using geographical data towards the solution of
problems in its own field ; and some even consider this not merely a
function of true Geography, but its principal function now and for
the future. Their ' New Geography ' is and is to be the study of
' human response to land-forms.' This is an extreme American state-
ment; but the same idea is instinct in such utterances, more sober
and guarded, as that of a great geographer. Dr. H. E. Mill, to the
effect that the ultimate problem of Geography is ' the demonstrative
and quantitative proof of the control exercised by the Earth's prust qn

E— OEOORArnY. 87

llic iiiPiihil procossofinr ilsiiilinliilniils.' Dr. Millislon j)i-orountl ii man
of science not to guard lnms(^lf, by that saving word ' ultimate,' from
such retorts as Professor EUswortli Huntington, of Yale, has offered
to the extreme American statement. If, tlie latter argued, Geography
is actually the study of the Innnan response to land-forms, then, as a
science ifi is in its infancy, or, rather, it has r(^tunie(l to a second
childhood; for it has Jiardly hegun to colh'cli exact data to this
particular end, or to treat them statistically, or to ap])ly to them the
methods of isolation that exnct science demands. In this country
geographers are less inclined to interpret ' New Geography ' on such
revolutionary lines ; hut one suspects a tendency towards the
American view in both their principles and their practice — in their
choice of lines of inquiry or research and their choice of subjects for
education. The concentration on Man, which characterises geographical
teaching in the University of London, and the almost exclusive attention
paid to Economic Geography in tke geographical curricula of some
other British Universities make in that direction. In educational
practice, this bias does good, rather than harm, if the geographer
liears in mind that Geography proper has only one function to perform
in regard to Man — namely, to investigate, account for, and state his
distribution over terrestrial space — and that this function cannot be
performed to any good purpose except npon a basis of Physical Geo-
graphy — that is, on knowledge of the disposition and relation of the
Earth's physical features, so far as ascertained to date. To deal with
the effect of Man's distribution on his mental processes or political
and economic action is to deal with him geographically indeed, but by
applications of Geography to Psychology, to History, to Sociology, to
Ethnology, to Economics, for the ends of these sciences; though the
interests of Geography may be, and often are, well served in th ? process
by reflection of light on its own problems of distribntion. If in instruc-
tion, as distinct from research, the geographer, realising that, when
he introduces these subjects to his pupils, he will be teaching them
not Geography, but another science with the help of Geography, insists
on their having been grounded previously or elsewhere in what he
is to apply — namely, the facts of physical Distribution — all will be
well. The application will be a sound step forward in education, more
potent perhaps for training general intelhgence than the teaching of
pure Geography at the earlier stage, becanse making a wider and more
compelling appeal to imaginatiA^e interest and pointing the adolescent
mind to a more complicated field of thought. But if Geography is
applied to instruction in other sciences without the recipients having
learned what it is in itself, then all will be wrong. The teacher will
lalk a language not understood, and the value of what he is applying
cannot be appreciated by the pupils.

If I leave this argument there for the moment, it is with the intention
of returning to it before I end to-day. It goes to the root, as it seems
to me, of the unsatisfactory nature of much geographical instruction
given at present in our islands. The actual policy of the English
Board of Education seems to contemplate that Geography should be
taught to secondary students only in connection with History. If

88 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

this policy were realised in instructional practice by encouragement or
compulsion of secondary students to undergo courses of Geography
proper, with a view to promotion subsequently to classes in Historical
Geography {i.e., if History be treated geographically by application of
another science previously studied), it would be sound. But I gather
from Sir Halford Mackinder's recent report that such is not the
practice. Courses in Geography proper are not encouraged during the
secondary period of education at all. Encouragement ceases with the
primary period, at an age before which only the most elementary
instruction in such a science can be assimilated — when, indeed, not much
more can be expected of pupils than the memorising of those summary
diagrammatic expressions of geographical results, which are maps. How
these results have been arrived at, what sort of causes account for
physical Distribution, how multifarious are its facts and features which
maps cannot express even on the minutest scale — these things must
bs instilled into minds more robust than those of children under fourteen ;
and until some adequate idea of them has been imbibed it is little use
to teach History geographically. So, at least, this matter seems to me.

It will be patent enough by now that I am maintaining Geography
proper to be the study of the spatial Distribution of all physical features
on the surface of this Earth. My view is, of course, neither novel
nor rare. Almost all who of late years have discussed the scope of
Geography have agreed that Distribution is of its essence. Among
the most recent exponents of that view have been two Directors of
the Oxford School, Sir Halford Mackinder and Professor Herbertson.
When, however, I add that the study of Disti'ibution, rightly under-
stood, is the whole essential function of Geography, I part company
from the theory of some of my predecessors and contemporaries, and
the practice of more. But our divergence will be found to be not
serious; for not only do I mean a great deal by the study of Distri-
bution — quite enough for the function of any one science ! — but I claim
for Geography to the exclusion of any other science all study of spatial
Distribution on the Earth's surface. This study has been its well
recognised function ever since a science of that name has come to be
restricted to the features of the terrestrial surface — that is, ever since
' Geography ' in the eighteenth century had to abandon to its child Geo-
logy the study of what lies below that surface even as earlier it had
abandoned the study of the firmament to an elder child. Astronomy.
Though Geography has borne other children since, who have grown
to independent scientific life, none of these has robbed her of that one
immemorial function. On the contrary, they call upon her to exercise
it still on their behalf.

Let no one suppose that I mean by this study and this function
mei-ely what Professor Herbertson so indignantly repudiated for an
adequate content of his Science — Physiography plus descriptive Topo-
graphy. Geography includes these things, of course, but she embraces
also all investigation both of the actual Distribution of the Earth's super-
ficial features and of the causes of the Distribution, the last a profound
and intricate subject towards the solution of which she has to summon
assistance from many other sciences and studies. She includes, further.

E.— GEOGRAPHY. 89

in her field, for the accurate statement of actual Distribution, all the
processes of Survey — a highly specialised function tO' the due perform-
ance of which other sciences again lend indispensable aid; and, also,
for the diagrammatic presentation of synthetised results for practical
use, the equally highly speciaUsed processes of Cartography. That
Beems to me an ample field, with more than sufficient variety of expert
functions, for any one Science. And I have not taken into account
either the part Geography has to play in aiding other sciences, as they
aid her, by application of her data., or, again, certain investigations
of terrestrial phenomena, at present incumbent upon her, because special
sciences to deal with them have not yet been developed — or, at least,
fully developed — although their ultimate gi'owth to independence can
be foreseen or has already gone far. Such, for the moment, are
Geodetic investigations, in this country at any rate. In Germany, I
understand. Geodesy has attained already the status of a distinct
specialism. Here the child has Hardly separate existence. But beyond
a doubt it will part from its parent, even as Oceanography has parted.
Indeed some day, in a future far too distant to be foreseen now, many,
or most, of the investigations which now occupy the chief attention of
geographical researchers may cease to be necessary. A time must come
when the actual distribution of all phenomena on the Earth's surface
will have been ascertained, and all the relief upon it and every super-
ficial feature which Cartography can possibly express in its diagi-ammatic
way will have been set out finally on the map. That moment, how-
ever, will not be the end of Geography as a science, for there will still
remain the investigation of the causes of Distribution, the scientific
statement of its facts, and the application of these to other sciences.
Let us not, however, worry about any ultimate restriction of the
functions of our Science. The discovery and correlation of all
the facts of geographical Distribution and their final presentation in
diagrammatic form are not much more imminent than the exhaustion of
the material of any other science !

In the meantime, for a wholly indeterminate interval, let us see
to it that all means of investigating the phenomena of spatial Distri-
bution on the Earth be promoted, without discouragement of this or
that tentative means as unscientific. The exploration of the terrestrial
surface should be appreciated as a process of many necessary stages
graduated from ignorance up to perfect knowledge. It is to the credit
of the Eoyal Geographical Society that it has always encouraged tenta-
tive, and, if you like, unscientific first efforts of exploration, especially
in parts of the world where, if every prospect pleases, Man is very
vile. Unscientific explorations are often the only possible means to
the beginning of knowledge. Where an ordinary compass cannot be
used except at instant risk of death it is worth while to push in a succes-
sion of explorers unequipped with any scientific knowledge or apparatus
at all, not merely to gain what few geographical data untrained eyes may
see and uneducated memories retain, but to open a road on which ulti-
mately a scientific explorer may hope to pass and work, because the local
population has grown, bv intercourse with his unscientific precursors,
less hostile and more indifferent to his prying activities. There seems
1921 I

90 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

to me now and then to be too much criticism of Columbus. If he
thought America was India he had none the less found America.

I have claimed for the geographer's proper field the study of the
causation of Distribution. I am aware that this claim has been, and
is, denied to Geography by some students of the sciences which he
necessarily calls to his help. But if a Science is to be denied access to the
fields of other sciences except it take service under them, what science
shall be saved? I admit, however, that some disputes can hardly be
avoided, where respective boundaries are not yet well delimited. Better
delimitation is called for in the interest of Geography, because lack of
definition, causing doubts and questions about her scope, confuses the
distinction between the Science and its Application. The doubts are not
really symptoms of anything wrong with Geography, but, since they
may suggest to the popular mind that in fact something is wrong, they
can be causes of disease. Their constant genesis is to be found in the
history of a Science, whose scope has not always been the same, but has
contracted during the course of ages in certain directions while expand-
ing in others. If, in the third century B.C., Eratosthenes had been asked
what he meant by Geography, he would have replied, the science of
all the physical environment of Man whether above, upon, or below the
surface of the Earth, as well as of Man himself as a physical entity.
He would have claimed for its field what lies between the farthest star
and the heart of our globe, and the nature and relation of everything
composing the universe. Geography, in fact, was then not only the
whole of Natural Science, as we understand the term, but also every-
thing to which another term. Ethnology, might now be stretched at
its very widest.

Look forward now across two thousand years to the end of the
eighteenth century a.d. Geography has long become a Mother. She
has conceived and borne Astronomy, Chemistry, Botany, Zoology,
and many more children, of whom about the youngest is Geology.
They have all existences separate from hers and stand on their own
feet, but they preserve a filial connection with her and depend still on
their Mother Science for a certain common service, while taking off
her hands other services she once performed. Restricting the scope
of her activities, they have set her free to develop new ones. In doing
this she will conceive again and again and bear yet other children
during the century to follow — Meteorology, Climatology, Oceano-
graphy, Ethnology, Anthropology, and more. Again, and still
more narrowly, this new brood will limit the Mother's scope; but ever
and ever fecund, she will find fresh activities in the vast field of Earth
knowledge, and once and again conceive anew. The latest child that
she has borne and seen stand erect is, as I have said. Geodesy; and
she has not done with conceiving.

Ever losing sections of her original field and functions, ever add-
ing new sections to them, Geography can hardly help suggesting
doubts to others and even to herself. There must always be a cer-
tain indefiniteness about a field on whose edges fresh specialisms are
for ever developing towards a point at which they will break away to
grow alone into new sciences. The Mother holds on awhile to the

E.— GEOGRAPHY. 91

child, sharing its activities, loth to let go, perhaps even a little jealous of
its growing independence. It has not heen easy to say at any given
moment where Geography's functions have ended and those of, say.
Geology or Ethnology have begun. Moreover, it is inevitably asked
about this fissiparous science from which function after function has
detached itself to lead life apart — what, if the process continues, as it
shows every sign of doing, will be left to Geography later or sooner?
Will it not be split up among divers specialisms, and become in time
a venerable memory? It is a natural, perhaps a necessary, question.
But what is wholly unnecessary is that any answer should be re-
turned which implies a doubt that Geography has a field of research
and study essentially hers yesterday, to-day, and to-morrow; still less
which implies any suspicion that, because of her constant partmntion
of specialisms Geography is, or is likely in any future that can be
foreseen, to be moribund.

Since Geography, as I understand it, is a necessary factor in the
study of all sciences, and must be applied to. all if their students are
to apprehend rightly the distribution of their own material, it is a
necessary element in all education. Unless, on the one hand, its
proper study be supported by such means as the State, the Univer-
sities, and the great scientific Societies control, and, on the other, its
application to the instruction of youth be encouraged by the same
bodies, the general scientific standard in these islands will suffer; our
system of education will lack an instrument of the highest utility for
both the inculcation of indispensable knowledge and the training of
adolescent intelligence; and a vicious circle will be set up, trained
teachers being lacking in quantity and quality to train pupils to a
high enough standard to produce out of their number sufficient trained
teachers to carry on the torch.

The present policy of the English Board of Education, as
expressed in its practice, encourages a four-years' break in the geo-
graphical training of the young, the break occurring between the ages
of fourteen and eighteen, the best years of adolescent receptivity. If
students are to be strangers to specifically geograpliical instruction
during all that period, any geographical bent given to their minds
before the age of fourteen is more than likely to have disappeared
by the time they come to eighteen years. The habit of thinking
geographically — that is, o^f considering group Distribution — cannot
have been formed; and the students, not having learned the z-eal
nature of the science applied, will not possess the groundwork
necessary for the apprehension of the higher applications of Geo-
graphy. Moreover, as Sir Halford Mackinder has rightly argued, an
inevitable consequence of this policy is that the chief prizes and
awards offered at the end of school-time are not to be gained by
proficiency in Geography. Therefore, few students are likely to enter
the University with direct encouragement to resume a subject dropped
long before, at the end of the primary period of their education.

It is not, of course, the business of schools, primary and
socondai-y, to train specialists. Therefore one does not ask that pui-e

I 2

92 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

geographical science should have more than a small share of the
compulsory curriculum. Only, that it have some share. If this is
assured, then its applications, which on account of their highly
educative influence deserve an equally compulsory but larger place
in the curriculum, can be used to full advantage. The meaning and
value of the geographical ingredient in mixed studies will stand good
chance of being understood, and of exciting the lively interest of
young students. In any case, only so will the Universities be likely
to receive year by year students sufficiently grounded to make good
use of higher geographical courses, and well enough disposed to
Geography to pursue it as a higher study, and become in their turn
competent teachers.

The obligation upon the Universities is the same in kind, but
qualitatively greater. They have to provide not only the highest
teaching, both in the pure science and its applications, but also such
encouragements as will induce students of capacity to devote their
period of residence to this subject. The fii'st part of this obligatory
provision has been recognised and met in varying degrees by nearly all
British Universities during the past quarter of a century. A valuable
report compiled recently by that veteran champion, Sir John Keltie,
shows that, in regard to Geography, endowment of professorial chairs,
allocations of stipends to Eeaders, Lecturers, and Tutors, supply of
apparatus for research and instruction and organisation of ' Honour '
examinations, have made remarkable progress in our University world
as a whole. But no single British University has yet provided all
that is requisite or desired. Oxford and Cambridge, which have well-
equipped geographical laboratories, still lack professorial chairs. Liver-
pool, maintaining a well-staffed Department of Geography, and
London, which, between University College and the School of
Economics, provides all the staff and apparatus required for teaching,
have endowed Chairs ; but they direct the attention of the holders to
applications of Geography rather than to the pure Science. So do also
the University of Manchester and the University College of Wales,
both of which maintain geographical Professors.

All the Universities, with but one or two exceptions, examine in
the subject to a high standard, that set by Cambridge being perhaps
the highest over the whole field of properly geographical study. This
latter University, also, alone (if I am not mistaken), has met the second
part of her obligation to Geography by the organisation of an Honours
course of instruction and classified examination, which, if pursued
throughout a student's residence, is sufficient in itself to secure
graduation. At Cambridge, therefore, Geography may be said to stand
on a par with any other self-contained Final Subject. Neither in
London nor in Manchester (I am not quite sure about Liverpool, but
believe its case to be the same) is Geography, in and by itself, all
sufficient yet to secure graduation, though at each of these Universities
it counts strongly in the Baccalaureate Honours course. Oxford offers
distinctly less encouragement at present than any of the Universities just
mentioned. Her teaching and her examination standard are as
advanced as the best of theirs, and the highest award which she

E.— GEOGRAPHY.

gives for proficiency in Geography, her Diploma ' with distinction '
counts towards the B.A. degree in at least as great a proportion as at
any other University except Cambridge — it counts, in fact, as two-
thirds of the whole qualification; but — and here's the rub! — the
balance has to be made up by proficiency in some other subject up
to a pass, not an Honours standard. Therefore the resultant degree
does not stand before the world as one taken in Honours; and,
although some candidates are notified as distinguished and some not
in the geographical part of her examinations, the distinction is not
advertised in the form to which the public is accustomed— namely, an
Honours list divided into classes. The net result is that an Oxford
diploma, however brilliantly won, commands less recognition in the
labour market than would a class in an Honour School or Tripos.
It should, however, be mentioned — though an infrequent occur-
rence, not advertised by a class list, makes little impression on public
opinion — that special geographical research, embodied in a thesis, can
quahfy at Oxford for higher degrees than the B.A. — viz., for the B.Litt.
and B.Sc. — without the support of other subjects.

The reason of this equivocal status of Geography at Oxford is
simply that, so far as the actual Faculties which control the courses
for ordinary graduation are concerned, Geography is, in fact, an
equivocal subject. No one Faculty feels that it can deal with the
whole of it. The Arts Faculties will not accept responsibility for the
elements of Natural and Mathematical Science which enter into its
study and teaching — for example, into the investigation of the causes
of Distribution, into the processes of Surveying, into Cartography,
and into many other of its functions. Moreover, the traditional
Oxford requirement of a literary basis for Arts studies is hard, if not
impossible, to satisfy in Geography. The Faculty of Natural Science,
on the other hand, is equally loth to be responsible for a subject which
admits so much of the Arts element, especially into those applications
of its data which enter most often into the instructional curriculum
of adolescei:its — for example, its applications to History and to
Ethnology.

At this moment, then, there is an impasse at Oxford similar to
that (it is caused by the same reason) which prevents the election of a
Geographer, as such, either to the Eoyal Society on the one hand, or
to the British Academy on the other. But ways out can be found
if there be good will towards Geography, and such general recog-
nition of the necessity of bringing it into closer relation with the
established studies, as was implied by the examiners in the Oxford
School of Liberae Humaniores last year, when, in an official notice,
they expressed their sense of a lack of it in the historical work
with which they had to deal. Faculties are comparatively
modern organisations at Oxford as at Cambridge for the control of
teaching and examining. Before them existed Boards of Studies,
appropriated to narrower subjects ; and, indeed, such Boards have been
constituted since Faculties became the rule and side by side with
them. The Board, which at the first controlled at Oxford the Final
Honour School of English, is an example and a valid precedent.

94 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

Cambridge has found it possible to organise a mixed Board of Studies
to manage a Final School of Geography, the Board being composed
of representatives of both the Arts subjects and the Natural and Mathe-
matical Sciences ; and this acts apparently to the general satisfaction
even in the absence of a Professor of the special subject, for whose
teaching and testing it was formed. Why, then, should Oxford not do
likewise? If Cambridge has not waited for the endowment of a
Professorial Chair in Geography, need Oxford wait? I am well
aware that, when at the latter University the School of English came
into existence, there were 'already two Chairs appropriated to its
subject; and I grant that Oxford will not have the very best of all
guarantees that a high standai'd will be maintained in the instructional
courses and the examinations in Geography, until there is a Professor
ad hoc. But guarantees sufficient for all practical purposes she could
obtain to-morrow by composing a Board out of her existing teachers
of Geography and kindred sciences.

For the last time, then, let me rehearse the too familiar ' vicious
circle.' The supply of good students depends on a supply of good
teachers ; the supply of good teachers depends on a supply of good
students. If either supply fails, it is not Geography alone, but all
sciences and studies that will be damnified; for all require the best
of tlie help she can give in proportion as her science grows and im-
proves. History will be able to call but indifferent Geography to
her assistance, if this science has been understaffed and discouraged by
official reluctance to allow it a place of its own in the sun. Is there
not still some such reluctance on the part of the Board of Education,
of some of our Universities, and of the Civil Service Commissioners?

THE PRINCIPLES BY WHICH WAGES
ARE DETERMINED.

ADDRESS TO SECTION F (ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS) BY

W. L. HICHENS,

PRESIDENT OP THE SECTION.

I HAVE chosen as the subject of my address ' The Principles by which
Wages are Determined ' because I think the most burning question in
the industrial world to-day is the proper apportionment of the proceeds
of industry between labour and capital. A strong feeling exists in the
minds of many that the share of capital is too large and that labour is, in
consequence, underpaid. There are those, of course, who hold with
Mr. Tawney that capital is functionless and therefore entitled to no
reward. It is not my intention to examine the grounds for this state-
ment, for no one who has any experience of business can fail to recog-
nise that under the existing organisation of business capital has a very
definite function — that it is indeed essential to any industrial organisa-
tion. If there is anyone in this room who has had dealings in the City
for the purpose of raising a loan he will feel acutely — not merely the
unpleasant consequences that would have awaited him had none of this
functionless capital been placed at his disposal — but also the fact that
the capitalist has a very definite idea of the importance of his own
function. The capitalist would, indeed, automatically cease to exist if
he were not needed and fulfilled no function, and the fact that every
industrialist is obliged to go to him — often on bended knee — is sufficient
answer to the proposition that he performs no useful service. Acquisi-
tive he may be, but he only acquires wealth because he supplies some-
thing for which there is a real need. Capital must be paid for just as
much as any other commodity, and if any given industry is unable to
pay sufficient to attract it, that industry must inevitably languish and
ultimately perish.

Many of our industrial troubles to-day arise from the fact that people
concentrate on one aspect of the industrial problem only and refuse to
consider it as a whole. They are so intent on the rights of labour or of
capital that they overlook the fact that each is necessary to the other,
and that neither can exist in isolation from the other. It is clearly
important, therefore, that both capital and labour should understand,
and, what is more, sympathise with, each other's point of view. And
if I may venture a criticism it is that the capitalist has usually an in-
tellectual grasp of the point of view of labour, but fails to bring a
sympathetic understanding to bear on its aspirations. Labour, on the
other hand, apart from some of the leaders whose opinions are in con-
sequence suspect, neitlier understands nor sympathises with the
capitalist standpoint. This is a real misfortune, for the two are indis-
solubly bound together, and no progress is possible so long as they

96 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

quarrel and pull in different directions. Clubs for the discussion of
economic questions should be started all over the country, and every
section of opinion should be represented in order that problems may be
considered from every point of view.

The wage problem is in essentials simple to grasp ; it is the problem
of the division of the proceeds of industry between labour and capital.
How are we to ensure that neither the capitalist nor the worker gets too
large a share of the proceeds of industry ? How are we to provide that
one class of labour does not get too much in relation to another ? How
are we to secure that the consumer is not robbed by the exaction of too
heavy a toll for services rendered ? But if the problem is easy to state
the solution is by no means simple. Some people would cut the
Gordian knot by referring every dispute as it arises to compulsory
arbitration. But there are certain difficulties which must be overcome
before arbitration can be successfully applied. In the first place, the
principle of arbitration must be generally accepted by both sides. You
cannot compel large bodies of men to work for a given wage, for there
is no penalty that can be enforced against them if they refuse. Nor
can you force employers on a large scale to pay a prescribed wage if
they prefer to close their factories. The right to strike and the right
to lock out must always lurk in the background, and nothing can
prevent the exercise of both if enough men feel sufficiently strongly on
one side or the other. The time may come when public opinion will
recognise so acutely the evils of the strike and the lock-out that both
sides will be prepared to accept the principle of arbitration. It is not
perhaps too much to hope that one day the principles of reason and
justice will triumph over the prevailing theory that might is right and
that the only effective criterion of justice is what a man is strong enough
to take and to hold. But that day has not yet dawned, and any scheme
of compulsory arbitration would, under present conditions, be fore-
doomed to failure. Meanwhile, an important step in the right direction
has already been taken. The Government has been given powers to
institute an inquiry into any trade dispute and to summon witnesses.
Hence, although the decision of any such court of inquiry will not be
binding on the two parties, yet the proceedings can be published and
the public will be enabled to pass judgment on the actual facts. The
development of these inquiries will be watched with great interest, and
there are strong grounds for hoping that they will exercise an effective
influence on the side of peace. It is important to notice that these
inquiries will only be held after the two parties have met and failed to
reach agreement. For by far the best method of settling a dispute is
that the representatives of both sides should meet and negotiate with the
object of finding some solution that is mutually satisfactory. It is only
in the last resort, when all other means have failed, that recourse should
be had to a higher authority. I must add that it is, in my opinion,
regrettable that arbitration is not voluntarily accepted by both sides more
often. There is a tendency at present for certain groups of employers
to refuse arbitration, although the representatives of the Trade Unions
concerned are prepared to do so, and I feel that this is a short-sighted
policy. It must be confessed also that the feeling amongst employers

R— ECONOMICS. 97

that the rank and file of labour would refuse to be bound by an
unfavourable arbitration award, even if their leaders had agreed to
accept it, is not without foundation.

A second objection to arbitration that has to be met is that the
arbitrators must command the confidence of both sides. For arbitra-
tion, in the sense of an award made by Government nominees, has long
ago been tried and found wanting. Attempts have been made in times
past to regulate wages and conditions of work either by Acts of Parlia-
ment or by particular orders of the justices of the peace, but, on the
whole, the results have been bad, and the well-known criticisms of
Adam Smith appear to have been justified. For the laws were made
and administered by the employing classes and took little account of
the aims and aspirations of the workers. They were essentially con-
servative in character and aimed rather at preserving the ancient
privileges of the ruling classes than at developing the liberties of the
ruled. Fortunately the growth of the labour movement has now made
it possible to secure both a fair hearing and adequate representation for
working-class interests. One result of the development of Trade
Unionism has been to create a body of highly trained experts who can
be relied on to do full justice to the cause of those whom they have
been chosen to represent. The difficulty to-day is that the Trade
Union leader, whose education and training have given him a wider
grasp of economic problems than is possessed by his constituents, is
often not treated with the confidence that he deserves and is not allowed
that freedom and power to settle which is essential to the success of
all negotiations.

A third objection to arbitration, which leads up to the subject with
which I am to deal more particularly to-day, is that there are at present
no generally accepted principles governing industrial problems which
the arbitrator has to interpret, and yet the success or failure of arbitra-
tion as a method of settling industrial disputes depends ultimately on
whether there are certain clear principles which the great majority are
prepared to accept as just and reasonable. The function of an arbitra-
tor is to interpret and apply accepted principles just as that of a judge
is to interpret the principles embodied in the laws. It is not his
business to lay down principles, and if he attempts to do so he will
probably fail. That is why arbitration has so often miscarried and why
the Hague tribunal was foredoomed to failure. For the disputes
between nations are not as a rule differences as to the interpretation of
a principle; they arise from a conflict of principles. Hence the danger
that arbitrators will base their verdict on the woi'ding of treaties and
agreements, on precedent and tradition, and serve merely to protect the
atatus quo. This is a very real danger in industrial questions, for the
industrial machine is extremely sensitive and complex, and needs con-
tinually to be adjusted to an ever-changing environment. What is
good for to-day will perhaps be wholly unsuited for to-morrow, and no
worse fate can befall industry than that it should be fast bound in the
tyranny of precedent. Another danger of special application to wages
disputes is that, in the absence of real principles, an arbitrator may
simply split the difference between the contentions oi the disputants,

98 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

and there is a widespread feeling that, in the past, wages awards have
largely been made by this rule-of-thumb method. It is of the first
importance, therefore, that clear and well-recognised principles should
be established, and in considering the question one would naturally
expect to find guidance in the laws of those States which have adopted dj
compulsory arbitration for wages disputes. Unfortunately they have ~
shirked the difficulty, and left it to the arbitrator to make and interpret
his own code of rules. According to some Australian Acts reasonable
wages are defined as ' the average prices of payment paid by reputable
employers to employees of average capacity. ' But the ' reputable
employers ' clause has proved a broken reed, and embodies no principle
of practical value. For, in the first place, there are industries in which
a standard wage is paid by all employers so that in the event of a
dispute there are either no reputable or else no disreputable employers —
whichever you please. In the second place, even if there are certain
employers in an industry who pay higher wages than others, it does not
follow either that the employers who pay less are not reputable or that
the higher-paid employees are of average capacity. The probability is
that they are not — that they are above the average. The justification
for paying higher wages is that you get the pick of the basket by so
doing. And efficiency is so important that it is worth the while of any
given firm to adopt this course if it can be sure that others will not follow
suit. If, unfortunately for it, they do, it no longer gets the pick, and
the game is spoiled. Henry Ford is only able to pay higher wages than
his rivals because this policy enables him to adopt the strictest tests
of efficiency.

The weakness of this clause has led the Australian Commonwealth
to adopt another principle for the guidance of arbitrators, namely, that
the conditions as to the remuneration of labour are to be such as the
President of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration
shall declare to be fair and reasonable. That is not a very illuminating
or helpful principle, and Mr. Higgins, the President of the Court, has
complained very bitterly tliat the Legislature has left to him what it
ought to have done itself by defining what is meant by ' fair and
reasonable.' Everyone, even the disreputable employer, will agree that
v/ages must be fair and reasonable, but with this meaningless proposi-
tion our unanimity comes to an abrupt end, for we find the most
divergent views as to what constitutes fairness or reasonableness. One
school — and a powerful one, too — holds that a fair wage is one that is
determined by the higgling of the market, that it is established by the
law of supply and demand. ' The money rate of wages,' says Walter
Bagehot, ' is a case of supply and demand — that is, it is determined by
the amount of money which the owners of it wish to expend in labour,
by the eagerness with which they want that labour, by the amount of
labour in the market which wishes to sell itself for money, and by the
eagerness with which the labourers desire that money. ' No doubt in a
perfect world, and if everyone were a perfectly free agent, the law of
supply and demand might safely be left to take its own course. And
even in the imperfect world in which we live it has its value as a
criterion in the determination of wages, and must always be regarded

F.— ECONOMICS. 99

as one of ihe decisive fuctors, thougli not by any nirans the only one.
It is true that the law may be harsh and inhuman in its operation when
applied by harsh and inhuman men, but it has often proved of more
advantage to the workers themselves than the solicitude of Parliament
or its agents. There is a familiar ring about the history of a wages
award in the London tailoring trade made by the justices of the peace
in 1771. It can be paralleled in any country in any age. The wages
of London tailors were settled at 2s. 6d. a day, ' but many master tailors
gave some of their men 3s. a day; they paid the 15s. at the end of the
week openly, and then put 3s. more for a man in some place where he
knew where to find it. And if this money was not laid up for him on the
Saturday night the master might be certain not to see his face on the
Monday morning. '

But it must be remembered that in very many cases we are not
free economic agents, and the open competition which is essential to
the successful functioning of the law of supply and demand is con-
spicuously absent. It is absent, for example, in the case of a general
coal strike or a railway strike, where the whole community is
threatened with disaster. It is absent, too, if the employers in any
big industry threaten a lock-out as the alternative to a reduction in
wages, because there is no reasonable chance for the men to find other
employment, and starvation may stare them in the face. In such
cases the law of supply and demand should not be allowed to decide
the issue, for the economic wage would be either too high or too
low from the standpoint of what is fair and reasonable. State
intervention therefore becomes necessary. But the law of supply
and demand always has been one of the chief factors in deter-
mining the price of labour, and will continue to be so as long as the
existing industrial system lasts. For it is merely another way of
stating that a free exchange of services, as of commodities, is the
foundation of all trade. Indeed, no other practicable method has ever
been devised for determining the relative value of certain services.
When a new industry is started, for example, it is necessary to attract
workers from those already in existence, and this can only be done
by offering higher wages or tetter conditions. Similarly, if there is a
shortage of workers in any established industry owing to increased
prosperity, the personnel must be drawn from outside by the offer of
greater inducements unless the shortage can be made good from the
ranks of the unemployed. Again, if there is a general expansion of
industry throughout the country, accompanied as it must be by a
general increase of wealth, the greater demand for workers will cause
wages to rise. Indeed, as Adam Smith has pointed out, it is hi a pro-
gressive society, in which the demand for labour continually rises, that
wages are highest. ' It is not the actual greatness of national wealth,'
he says truly — and we shall do well to take his words to heart in these
days — ' but its continued increase which occasions a rise in the wages
of labour.' In a stationary or declining society wages are bound to
fall.

But, important though the part played by the law of supply and
demand is in determining wages, there is another equally important

100 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

principle which governs them — namely, that all men must be paid a
living wage. The former is easy to understand and works automati-
cally, though not always satisfactorily. It is important to remember,
however, that if the law of supply and demand works badly the fault
lies not with pohtical economy but with ourselves. The fact that
wages postulate a willing buyer and a willing seller of labour does not
justify the employer in driving the hardest bargain he can. The inter-
pretation of this law must be consistent with the higher moral law
of our duty towards our neighbour, and the many shortcomings in our
industrial life may, in my opinion, be attributed entirely to the fact
that we have failed to apply the moral law. It is not the system
which is wrong, but those who work it — employers, employed, and
consumers alike; it is the hearts of men that must be changed,
not the forms of industrial organisation, if we are to cure industrial
unrest.

But, if the law of supply and demand is easily intelligible, the
principle of the living wage has given rise to many controversies. It
is obvious that a man must be paid at least enough to keep body and
soul together, otherwise the human race would cease to exist. But
we mean by a living wage something more than a bare pittance
sufficient to maintain a man's physical health at a proper standard.
This is the criterion for an ox or an ass, not a human being. We
mean a wage suitable to the development of the physical, moral, and
intellectual attributes of mankind. This is what Mr. Clynes, one of
the clearest thinkers in the labour world to-day, means by a living
wage. He defines it as one v.'hich should ensure to the human being
a condition of life ' equal to the expectations and tastes of a civilised
population of this age.' This is an ideal which we should all, I think,
readily accept. But I must emphasise the point that it is an ideal,
and that therefore it may not be capable of realisation in all times
and in all places. Wages, as I have pointed out above, depend on
the accumulated wealth of a community, which is obviously greater
in times of progress and development than during a period of stagnation
or retrogression. Clearly, therefore, wages must vary from time to
time, and it is idle to pretend that any country can guarantee per-
manently a wage equal to the expectations and tastes of a civilised
population. We are now living in a period of industrial stagnation,
following upon one of intense activity. It is inevitable, therefore, that
wages should fall. It is inevitable, too, that the wages in one indus-
trial country should approximate to those of others where competition
for foreign markets is concerned. Unless we have greater natural
advantages than our foreign rivals, or are more industrious, or have
superior mechanical contrivances, we cannot pay higher wages here
than there, for if we do they will underquote us and take away our
foreign trade, which is essential to our existence. And this is just
what is happening to-day. It is clear, therefore, that a lowered
standard of civilisation in one country will react disastrously on
others, and that if the more fortunate are not willing to lend a helping
hand to their poorer neighbours they will themselves be dragged down
to the same level. Instead of trying to keep Germany under, we ought,

F.— ECONOMICS. 101

therefore, to try to put her on her feet, not merely as a moral duty,
but on the lowest grounds of self-interest.

I have dwelt at some length on the point that a civilised wage such
as we all desire may be unattainable, because it is of critical importance
to-day, and because, obvious though it may appear, it is widely ignored.
We are continually being told that the standard wage should be the
1914 wage, plus a percentage equivalent to the increase in the cost
of living since that date. And yet we are obviously poorer than we
were in 1914, and it is equally obvious that our foreign trade is slipping
from our grasp, owing to the competition of Germany and America.
From a practical point of view what is necessary is not to work out
a standard wage which we should like to pay if we could, but to deter-
mine what wages we can afford to pay in each industry without losing
our foreign markets. This can only be settled by a frank discussion
between employers and employed, and it is essential that employers
should disclose all the facts. This would reveal that in many industries
prices have fallen faster than costs, and that work is being taken at a
loss. This is, I believe, right as a temporary measure, because it is
not reasonable that all the sacrifices should be borne by the workers.
But it can be only temporary, otherwise fresh capital will not be forth-
coming, and our industries will perish for the want of it.

It is clear, therefore, that in accepting the principle of a civilised
wage we must have due regard to the progress, maintenance, and
well-being of the industry under consideration.

But it may be that, whilst the great majority of trades and industries
in the country can afford to pay what may fairly be regarded as a
civilised wage, some few industries may be unable to do so. One way
of meeting the difficulty is by the imposition of a special tariff on
imported goods, on the Hues of the Safeguarding of British Industries
Bill. I must not be led too far astray into the byways of controversy,
but I confess that I think this is a thoroughly bad solution. I do not
object to the protection of infant industries, but if a full-grown industry
cannot walk without crutches we are better without it, even if its
absence may embarrass us in a world war once every hundred years.
As a matter of fact, however, sweated wages are usually the result of
inefficiency — absence of labour-saving devices and bad organisation.
So that often the real remedy for a trade in which wages are depressed
is an expert inquiry into its metliods of working, and State-aided
scientific research, which has an important field ahead of it.

If it is accepted that the basic wage of a worker must be a living
wage and that this term should be interpreted as liberally as possible
consistently with the progress, maintenance, and well-being of the
industries of the country, a further question arises. What do we mean
by a worker? Do we mean a single man, a childless married man, or
a man with a family? Obviously, I think, the cost of living for a
married man with a family is greater than for a single man, although
T have heard the opposite argued, very unco'nvincingly. Is a living
wage to cover the expenses of a married man with an average family of,
say, three children? Or should it merely cover the man, some other
means being found to provide for the wife and family ? The case for a

102 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

single-man wage plus family allowances has recently been put forward
with great ability by Miss E. P. Rathbone. She points out that 27 per
cent, of the men worker's over twenty in England are bachelors or
widowers without dependent children; 24.7 per cent, are married
couples without children or with no dependent child below fourteen;
16.6 per cent, have one dependent child; 13 per cent, have two depen-
dent children; 8.8 per cent, have three dependent children; and 9.9 per
cent, have more than three dependent children. Hence a living wage
based on the five-member family is adapted to the needs only of one of
the smallest actual groupings. She argues, therefore, that the child-
less man is getting too high a wage in relation to the man with a family,
and that the distribution of the wage fund is uneconomical. Her sugges-
tion is that the wives and children should be provided for out of a
separate fund maintained by contributions from employers calculated
according to the number of their male employees, whether married or
single. Thus the employer will have no inducement to prefer single
to married men, whilst every wage-earner and his family will be
assured of an income at least adequate to the needs of healthy physical
subsistence, and at the same time the wages bill of the country will be
substantially reduced, thus relieving industry of a burden that is
threatening to strangle it. In support of her proposals, she points out
that, so far as the children are concerned, this plan has already been
embodied in the New South Wales ' Maintenance of Children Bill,' and
that Mr. Hughes has foreshadowed the intention of the Federal
Government of Australia to introduce a similar Bill into the Federal
Parliament. It may be added that a scheme similar to that outlined
by Miss Eathbone has actually been adopted by the textile industries
of the Eoubaix-Tourcoing district of France.

Even if it be assumed that Miss Rathbone 's scheme would have the
results that are claimed for it, I am strongly of opinion that the remedy
would prove far worse than the disease. In the first place, it will, I
am convinced, prove impossible to confine this scheme to the wage-
earners; it must be extended to the salaried classes, and, in fact, to the
whole community. It will thus inevitably fall to be administered by
the State, and I confess that I can imagine no more detestable form of
State Socialism. For it will involve a State interference in the home
life which will make the war-time activities of the Government fade
into insignificance. In the second place, however much we may
attempt to disguise the fact, the effect of a family fund must be to
subsidise families at the expense of the childless. I can see no justifica-
tion for the argument that a wife and family are a burden which no man
can reasonably be expected to bear, and from which, therefore, he must
be relieved by the State or his more fortunate celibate fellow-citizens.
Nor is his marriage necessarily a benefit to the community to be grate-
fully acknowledged by a dole. In fact, I can imagine the Dean of St.
Paul's, for example, arguing that a premium should be paid to those who
do not increase the population of the country. All virile and healthy
nations have recognised that the husband is responsible for the main-
tenance of his family, that he must be regarded as the bread-winner,
and that only thus can the family be so closely knit together that it is

F.— ECONOMICS. 103

in the true sense of the word a unit. In my opinion the State has
ah'eady gone too far in the direction of taking over the duties of parents,
and I regard as deplorable the present tendency to throw more and
more of the burden in respect of housing, medical attendance, dentistry,
food, clothing, and education on the State, thus relieving parents of
what should in large measure be their own responsibility. This policy
breeds up a race of slaves — not free men.

I have dealt so far with two principles by which wages are deter-
mined—the law of supply and demand, and the principle of a living
wage. I will now pass on to a third — the principle that wages should
he proportioned to the service rendered. In some I'espccts this result
is achieved through the operation of the law of supply and demand,
and in the last resort the price that one man is prepared to take and
another to give for labour is the only practical criterion of its value.
But the value of the service rendered is not merely the i-esult of a
haggling match. It is clearly just, for example, that a good worker
should receive higher wages than a bad one, that the man who produces
much should be paid more than the man who produces little. By far
the best way of securing this end is through the establishment wherever
possible of a piece-work or premium bonus system. Under such a
system not only does the payment received bear a direct relation to the
results attained, it also acts as an incentive to greater effort. It might
naturally be expected therefore that the Trade Union Movement would
encourage a system that has such obvious advantages. Unfortunately,
however, some of the leading Trade Unions are opposed to payment by
results, and, if they cannot suppress it altogether, are successful in
preventing its extension. The explanation of their attitude, of course,
is a fear, often well justified by past experience, that payment by results
will lead to speeding-up followed by an arbitrary reduction in the rates.
It will lead me too far afield if I attempt a detailed discussion of this
question, and I will merely say the objections, though serious, are by no
means insuperable. Some firms, for example, have agreed that if an
alteration is made in their piece-work list the saving shall always be
used to increase the wages of some other section of their workers. In
other cases a piece-work list is mutually agreed by representatives of
employers and workers, and can only be altered after negotiation. I
should like to emphasise the importance to our national industries of
encouraging payment by results, because it is one of the surest ways of
increasing efficiency. If the principle were accepted by both labour
and capital, as it should be, a frank discussion would disclose the
means of overcoming the abuses that experience has proved to exist.

But there will always be many classes of work where payment by
results is not practicable, and where a time rate must be adhered to.
Should some differentiation be attempted in respect of time rates ? The
period of maximum efficiency lies between the ages of thirty and fifty,
and it has been suggested that wages should be based on a sliding scale
according to age, reaching a maximum at the age of thirty and tapering
off after the age of fifty. Any cut-and-dried rule of this description
would be most objectionable and work with great harshness. There are
many men over fifty who are far more efficient than younger men, and

104 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

it would be unjust to place them on a lower scale of wages. Moreover,
the result of such a sliding scale would be to give an undue preference
to older men, when employment is scarce, at the expense of younger
men with growing families. At the same time, something should be
done to meet the case of the old, the infirm, and the maimed, although
the matter cannot be left to the sole discretion of employers without
serious risks. In Australia the arbitration laws empower arbitrators
to license old, slow or infirm workers at lower rates, and I think the
same principles should be adopted here. In particular, wounded
soldiers in receipt of a pension should be licensed to accept lower rates
where their working efficiency has been impaired, since it is an injustice
that men who have been wounded in the defence of their country should
be handicapped in getting work.

The principle of equal pay for the same work leads on to the con-
sideration of women's wages. We are all familiar with the battle-cry
of ' equal pay for equal work ' which has a convincing ring about it.
But when one considers it more closely one realises that it is extremely
difficult to define what is meant by equal work. How are you to com-
pare the work of a hospital nurse and a stockbroker, or the services of
a charwoman and a sailor? A comparison between the work of men
and women is possible where both are doing identically similar jobs,
though even here there are many different factors which make it diffi-
cult. But in practice the tendency is for men and women to do
different types of work. During the war women to a large extent
replaced men in the factories, but their introduction nearly always led
to a reclassification of the work. Except in the earliest days of the war,
men and women did not work indiscriminately at the same jobs ; certain
classes of work were allocated to them, and, as time went on, they were
usually collected into separate shops. Since the war men have largely
reverted to their old jobs, replacing women, and the tendency to
differentiate between the spheres of men and women grows more and
more marked. It is the exception that they do the same work as men,
and a comparison between the value of their work and man's in his
different sphere serves no useful purpose. Their wages must largely
be governed by the law of supply and demand, and since the openings
for women are relatively fewer than for men ; since for a variety of
reasons their cost of living is lower; and since their average term of
service is shorter and therefore their experience is less than that of men,
because they usually cease work on marriage, it is inevitable that, on
the whole, their wages should be lower than those paid to men.

The three main principles governing wages, then, are the law of
supply and demand implying freedom of contract or a willing buyer
and a willing seller, the cost of living, and the principle that wages shall
be proportioned to the service rendered. There are certain other con-
siderations referred to by Adam Smith as leading to inequality of wages
which may be briefly mentioned. They are: (1) The agi'eeableness or
disagreeableness of the work to be done ; (2) The expense of learning a
trade or profession ; (3) Constancy of employment ; (4) Eesponsibility ;
(5) The risk of failure.

It has been suggested that another factor in determining wages in

R— ECONOMICS. 105

any given industry should be the financial prosperity of that industry,
that wages should bear some definite relation to profits and presumably
to losses, although this fact is seldom emphasised. Profit-sharing may,
or may not, form a valuable adjunct to the wages system, but no form
of co-partnership or of the co-operative movement can ever replace the
wage system, for the simple reason that you cannot keep body and soul
together on a minus quantity of food ; there must always be some
guaranteed minimum. The essence of the wage system is that the
employee is assured of his wage whether the business makes a profit or
a loss, and the fundamental wage on which those of all higher grades
are based — namely, the wage of the unskilled worker — must be deter-
mined by the cost of living, not solely by considerations of profit and
loss. I can see no other practicable basis for a wage system, and
even under Guild Socialism or State Socialism this principle must
be operative — however much the pill may be gilded by high-sounding
phrases.

Wages, of course, do tend to rise in any industry when trade
conditions improve, and in that sense profits are shared, but the
exclusive enjoyment of the improvement does not remain for long.
If, for example, the tinplate industry is prosperous, the workers
in that trade are the first to feel the benefits of improved
conditions. But soon the miner who supplies the coal on which
the industry depends, the railway worker who transports it, the
butcher and the baker who feed the tinplate worker, and so on,
will also require a share. Moreover, the coal-owner and the railway
company will expect consideration, so that in the end the prosperity
of one industry tends to become generally diffused. And this tendency
is natural, partly because of the dependence of one trade on another,
and partly because the wages of one trade or employment tend to bear
a definite relation to those of other trades. Hence there are strong
forces always at work in the direction of equalisation, both as regards
wages and profits. Again, labour, in this country, is organised on
a craft, not an industrial, basis. There are fitters, turners, carpenters,
joiners, boilermakers, employed in a number of different industries,
and their wages are those of their craft ; they are not fixed in relation
to the industry for which they happen to be working. It is one of the
cardinal principles of craft unionism that there should be a uniform
wage for all able-bodied members of the same craft. A railway porter
on the London and North Western Eailway, for example, claims the
same wage as his brother on the Great Central, and the latter would
be outraged at the suggestion that he should accept a lower wage than
the former merely because the London and North Western Eailway
happens to be more prosperous than the Great Central.

I think that the importiance which the workers themselves attach
to the maintenance of a definite relation between the wages of different
classes of employment has been tindeiTated by those who advocate
profit-sharing as a panacea for all our industrial troubles. Mr. Cramp
put the case very well last year when presenting the demand of the
railway men for increased wages before the National Wages Board.
'So 'far as the workers are concerned,' he said, 'their status is
1921 K

106 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

determined to a greater degree than that of any other section of society
by the amount of wages they receive. In otlier waU^s of life a man's
titles or his learning or his particular standing frequently are not related
to the amount of income he receives, but with the workers a, man's
standing is almost entirely related to his income. Men, women, and
their children are judged, and their social conditions are determined,
by the amount of wages or salary which they are able to earn and the
consequent standard of life that they are able to maintain.' He pro-
ceeded to make a comparison between the wages of railway men and
those of other callings — in particular dockers, miners, policemen, and
municipal workers — ^with the object of showing that the pay of railway
men was low in comparison with that of other walks of life.

The fact that any particular industry is making large profits is not —
per se — a ground for increasing the remuneration of the workers any
more than the fact of a Budget surplus is a justification for increasing
the salaries of Civil Servants all round. We feel that the general tax-
payer is entitled to the saving, and it may be that the general public is
entitled to participate in the prosperity of an industry either through
a reduction in prices or through the taxation of profits.

Another objection to profit-sharing deserves a brief mention. It
is that if it is to succeed the capital employed must be high in relation
to the wages paid, otherwise the profits to be shared will be insignificant.
Suppose, for example, that the capital employed in a business is
1,000,000J., and the annual wages are 3,000,000L, as might well
happen in a shipyard; suppose, again, we assume the profit earned to be
10 per cent., which would be a very high average in the shipbuilding
trade — before the War it did not, I Iselieve, exceed 3 per cent, for the
industry. If half the profits went to capital and the other half were
shared between labour and capital — a very common form of profit-
sharing — labour would receive 25,000L, or an addition of only twopence
in the £ on its wages. Bearing in mind the increases that have actually
taken place in recent years, it will be recognised that such an addition
would be regarded as insignificant. The fact is that in any country
where labour is well organised wages absorb as much as can be allotted
to labour consistently with a reasonable return to capital. And if a
reasonable return is not offered to capital no capital will be forth-
coming.

It is extremely doubtful if labour would tolerate a different remunera-
tion between the various firms within an industry owing to the im-
portance attached to the maintenance of a definite relation between the
wages of different groups of men. But if they were prepared to accept
a differentiation other forces would counteract it. A successful firm
making large profits would be able tO' offer higher remuneration than
an unsuccessful one, and thus attract the best men. Theoretically
this may seem right and proper, but in practice the unsuccessful
firm would find itself obliged to guarantee a bonus to its workers
equivalent to the share of the profits accruing to the workers in the
more prosperous ventures. Otherwise it would find that it could only
attract the least efficient workers at a time when efficiency was most
needed to save it.

F.— ECONOMICS. 107

Tlio objection that under a profit-sharing system there might be
"laring inequaHties as between one business and another has been
anticipated under the so-called profit-sharing scheme recently adopted
in the coal-mining industry. It was realised that any scheme would
fail if a; collier working on a rich mine were to receive far more than
his fellow-worker on a poor mine immediately adjacent, although the
type of work done by each and the hours of labour might be exactly
the same. Hence the country has been divided into districts, and within
each district there is no variation in the scale of pay. A standard wage
is fixed in each district, being in effect the July 1914 rates plus, in the
case of piece-workers, the percentage additions which were made con-
sequent upon the reduction of hours from eight to seven ; and there is a
guaranteed minimum for a certain period of the standard wages plus
20 per cent. A standard profit is fixed equivalent to 17 per cent, of
the cost of the standard wages, and any surplus after paying standard
wages, costs of production, and standard profits is to be shared between
labour and capital, 83 per cent, being appHed in each district to the
payment of wages above the standard wages, and 17 per cent, being
allocated to the owners as profit. This is not a profit-sharing scheme
in the proper sense of the temi because, while the district as a whole
may make a profit, and therefore wages may increase in the propor-
tions specified, certain individual firms may make a loss and yet be
obliged to pay the increased wages. It is possible that if such a scheme
is to prove workable, the mines in each district will be obliged to amalga,-
mate, for under present arrangements the poor mines will in effect
be penalised by the profits of the rich ones, whilst the latter will
benefit owing to the reduction in average profits due to the losses on
the former. Hence the distinction between the poor and rich mines
will merely be accentuated. It is more probable, however, that there
will be no average profits during the next few years, since substantial
reductions in the price of coal are essential and inevitable, and that the
scheme will prove to be still-born. Should it, however, turn out to
be a vigorous infant and lead on, as I have suggested, to district
amalgamations, a further consequence will be that the miners will
make a strong demand for a voice in the control of the industry. This
is a natural consequence of effective profit-sharing, and one which I
believe to be unworkable. It would, however, carry me beyond the
scope of this paper to discuss the question, and I will merely say that
I believe the ultimate control in any business must always rest with
those who bear the financial responsibility.

Whilst I do not believe that profit-sharing will ever solve the
problem of the fair distribution of the proceeds of industry between
labour and capital, it may prove of advantage in particular cases, and
it is to be hoped that experiments will continue to be made in this
direction. In fact, there is much to be gained by experiments in as
many directions as possible. Co-partnership, the co-operative move-
ment, which is a form of profit-sharing among consumers, building
and other guilds. State and municipal management, individual enter-
prise — all have a part to play in satisfying the various demands of
human nature, and there is room for all. For elasticity is an essential

K 3

108 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

feature of successful industrial development, and the individual liberty
which this implies can only be found in countries where the law is
respected and there is a strong Government. For, as has been truly
said, ' Where order reigns her sister liberty cannot be far.' The out-
standing feature in the history of our own Empire, as of every successful
commercial community, and the lesson of Europe to-day, is that indus-
trial prosperity depends upon stable political conditions combined with
individual liberty. The absence of either always has resulted and
always will result in industrial stagnation and disaster.

The conclusions, then, that I would put before you are these : There
is no simple and straightforward system applicable to the division of
the proceeds of industry between labour and capital. Both are essential
to industry, and therefore to each other; hence the deeper interests of
both lie in co-operation, and the task before the leaders of labour and
of capital consists in promoting the interests of both, not in selfishly
pursuing the advantage of the one at the expense of the other. Both
must recognise the need of contenting the other, for if capital is noi
satisfied its springs will dry up and the industrial body will wither
away, whilst if labour is discontented and the members of the industrial
body war against each other the end is death. The real solution of
the problem is a moral one, and can be achieved only if justice and
virtue govern the lives of the members of the community, for all
human organisations must reflect the character of those who work
them. Arbitration offers no immediate solution of the difficulty, for
to be effective it must be voluntarily accepted by the majority on both,
sides, and the principles by which arbitrators are to be guided must
first be clearly expressed and accepted. But it is the goal at which
civilisation must aim, and as a step in this direction public inquiries
into all disputes between labour and capital should be encouraged
after all attempts at mutual agreement have failed.

A clearer understanding of economic truths in the industrial world
is essential if disputes are to be avoided. It must be recognised that
the wealth available for wages depends on the total production of the
country, and that whilst, if production increases, wages will go up,
if it falls wages must come down. It must be recognised, too, that
where foreign competition is concerned the wages paid in one industrial
country must have an important bearing on those paid in others.

So long as the present industrial system continues — and no alter-
native system that is practicable at any rate within a measurable
distance of time has ever been suggested — the wages system must
prevail. Profit-sharing is no substitute for it, since, amongst other
reasons which I have referred to, the amount necessary to provide a
living wage will and should absorb practically the whole of the share
available for labour, leaving only a reasonable return to capital sufficient
to encourage its production.

The fundamental wage, or the wage of unskilled labour, should be
a living wage — that is, a wage suitable to the development of the
physical, moral, and intellectual attributes of the citizens of a free
country. But it must be recognised that the degree to which this ideal
can be attained must depend on the skill and endeavour of the people.

f.— ECONOMICS. iOtJ

and clue regard must be had to the progress, mahitenance, and well-
being of the industries of the country. It is idle to hope that the
living wage can be based permanently on any given standard of civilisa-
tion; it is bound to fluctuate at different periods, and will depend
largely on whether the industries of a country are progressive, stagnant,
or retrogressive. Wages above the minimum or living wage are
determined mainly by the law of supply and demand, but certain other
factors enter into their determination, notably the principle that wages
should be proportioned to the value of the service rendered, implying
payment by results. There never was a time when it was more impor-
tant that all should grasp, not merely what is possible, but what is
reasonable as i-egards wages. For the artificial prosperity and trade
activity that followed upon the War are at an end, and the reaction
has begun. How long it will last no one can tell, but it is reasonably
certain that we must expect a period of depression and falling wages
and profits. It is essential that the wage-earners should recognise
that reductions are inevitable, and not the fault of the capitalists;
they should be satisfied that all reductions proposed are reasonable.
The capitalist, on his side, must be prepared to accept his full share
of sacrifice, and be ready, if need be, as a temporary measure, not
merely to receive no profits, but to face a loss, in order that our
difficulties may be tided over until our trade recovers and prosperity
returns.

NOTES ON WATER-POWER
DEVELOPMENT.

ADDRESS TO SECTION G (ENGINEERING) BY

Professor A. H. GIBSON, D.Sc,

PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION.

^Ihe extent to which the water powers of the world have been investi
gated and developed during the past decade forms one of the strikin
engineering features of the period. Although falling or flowing water
formed the earliest of the natural sources of energy to be utilised for
industrial purposes, it is of interest to note that two-thirds of the
water power at present in use has been developed within the last ten
years.

The reasons for the revival of interest in this question are partly
technical and partly economic.

The technical development of electric generation and transmission
has made it economically possible to utilise powers remote from any
industrial centre, while a rapid increase in the demand for energy for
general industrial purposes and for the many electro-chemical, electro-
physical, and electro-metallurgical processes which are now in general
use, and whose field is rapidly growing, has provided a ready outlet for
all such energy as could be cheaply developed.

The urgent demand for energy to supply the abnormal requirements
of the war period, combined with the world shortage of fuel, was
responsible for an unprecedented rate of development in most countries
with available water-power resources, and especially in those countries
normally dependent on imported fuel.

Thus in France some 850,000 water horse-power has been put into
commission since 1915, and the country now has 1,600,000 horse-power
under control as compared with 750,000 before the war. In Switzer-
land some 600,000 horse-power has been developed since 1914, or is in
course of construction, as compared with 880,000 horse-power before
the war. In Spain, where the pre-war output was 150,000 horse-power,
the present output is 620,000 hoi'se-power, and about 260,000 horse-
power is now in course of development, while the Spanish Ministerio de
Fomento is considering the development of some 2,000,000 horse-power
to be delivered into a network of transmission lines covering the
industrial parts of the country.

In Italy, schemes totalling about 300,000 horse-power are under
way, and it is estimated that the total output will shortly amount to
2,000,000 horse-power. The Government Hydrographical Department
is now engaged in gauging and surveying the profiles of the principal
rivers, and statistics of available reservoir sites, of lakes suitable for
storage, and of available horse-power are being compiled.

G.— ENGINEERING. Ill

Japan, which only very recently began to investigate her water
powers, has, since 1916, developed over 1,000,UU0 horse-power, or
almost twenty per cent, of her available resources.

In Canada and the United States many large schemes have recently
been brought into service, and some extremely large installations are
now in course of construction or are projected. Tfius the Queenston-
Chippewa project on the Canadian side of the Niagara Kiver is intended
to develop some 500,000 horse-power, while a projected development
of the St. Lawrence River will be capable of yielding 1,700,000 horse-
power. In Canada the total development (2.3 million horse-power) in
]i)18 was almost tliree times as great as in 1910. In the United States
of America the development has increased from something under two
million horse-power in 1901, to 5.3 millions in 1908, and to nearly
10.0 milUons in 1920.

Eapid as has been the development of water power in the United
States in the past, it has been retarded by the fact that the privilege
of using the national forests or other public lands for water-power
development has only been granted by the issuing of permits which
were not available for any definite period and which were revocable
at the will of the Granting Authority. In the case of development on
navigable streams, whether on public or private land, each scheme has
required a special Act of Congress, and these Acts could be revoked
by Congress at any time. Owing to the uncertainty of tenure there
has naturally been some reluctance to invest capital in such under-
takings.

By the recent Federal Water Power Act, signed in June 1920,
licences for such developments may now be issued under the juris-
diction of a new body, known as the Federal Power Commission, for a
period not exceeding fifty years, at the end of wliich the hcence may be
renewed, or the Government may take over the enterprise upon com-
pensation of the licensee. In the issuing of licences, preference is to
be given to State and municipal applications. The effect of this Act
may be inferred from the fact that, within a month of its being signed,
appUcations for hcences to develop over 500,000 horse-power had been
filed. The duty of collecting, recording, and publishing data regarding
the utilisation of water resources, the water-power industry and its
relation to other industries, and regarding the capacity, development
costs, and relationship to possible markets, of power sites, has also been
assigned to this Federal Power Commission.

World's Available Water Power. — During the past few years much
attention has been paid to statistics of available and developed water
powers. In the case of developed powers, these are usually stated in
terms of the capacity of the installed machinery. This machinery is
in general only used to its full capacity over a portion of each day,
although in many such cases water is available for providing continuous
power if desired.

Estimates of potential power are always to be accepted with con-
siderable reserve. In order to make a reasonably accurate estimate,
the run off from the catchment area, and the variation in this run off
from month to month and from year to year, must be known, and it
is only in comparatively rare cases that this information is as yet

112

SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

available. Moreover, there is as yet no standard basis on which
potential power is computed.

The power available from a given stream during the wet season
is many times as great as dm'ing the di'y season unless sufficient storage
is available to equalise the flow throughout the year, and the cost of
such storage would in general be prohibitive, even if it were physically
possible to provide it.

The United States Geological Survey takes the maximum useful,
flow of a stream as being that which may be guaranteed during six
months in each year. The minimum flow is taken as the average which
can be guaranteed over the two driest consecutive seven-day periods
in each year, along with the additional flow which may be obtained
during this period by developing any available storage capacity in the
upper waters of the stream. Estimates of potential power based on
storage capacity are, however, subject to a wide margin of error owing
to the hmited data available, and in the following table the potential
water power is estimated on the basis of the maximum flow as just
defined, and in terms of continuous 24-hom' power.

{Millions of Horse-Power.)

Available

Developed

Great Britain . . . . . . |

0-9

0-2

Canada

230

3-28'

' Australia

°t

Africa (East)

fea^

„ (South)

'a«^-

„ (West)

30-0 to

0-7

'S-S-i

British Guiana .

50-0

fl .2 S

India and Ceylon

New Zealand

^ Papua

Austria

6-5

0-57

Brazil

26-0

0-32

Dutch East Indies

5-5

France

5-6

1-6

Germany

1-5

0-75

Iceland

4-0

1-02

Italy

4-0

1-25

Japan

8-0

1-5

Norway

7-5

1-25

Russia

20-0

Spain

0-88

Sweden

6-2

1-2

Switzerland

4-0

1-4

United States of America

28-0

9-8

Adopting these figures it appears that the available horse-power
of the world is of the order of two hundred millions, of which
approximately twenty-five millions is at present developed or is in
course of development.

Power Available in Great Britain and in the British Empire. — With
the noteworthy exceptions of Canada and New Zealand, practically

* Including projected extensions to plants now in operation.
^ Projected but not yet constructed.

G.— ENGINEERING. 113

nothing had been done, prior to 1915, by any part of the British
Empire, to develop or even systeuiatically to investigate tiie possibili-
ties of developing its water powers. It is true that a number of large
installations had beei:i constructed in India and Tasmania, but their
aggregate output was relatively inconsiderable.

Since then, however, there has been a general tendency to initiate
such investigations, and at the present time these are being carried out
with varying degrees of thoroughness in India, Ceylon, Australia, South
and East Africa, and British Guiana. While it is known that there
IS ample water power in Newfoundland, Nigeria, Rhodesia, Papua, and
the Gold Coast, no very definite information is available, nor are any
steps apparently being taken to obtain data in these countries.

The Water Power Committee of the Conjoint Board of Scientific
Societies, which has been studying the state of investigation and
development throughout the Empire since 1917, has, however, come
to the conclusion that its total available water-power resources are
at least equivalent to between 50 and 70 milUon horse-power.

Of the developed power in the Empire about 80 per cent, is in
Canada. Throughout the remainder of its territories only about
700,000 horse-power is as yet developed, or only a little over 1 per
cent, of the power available, a figure which compares with about
24 per cent, for the whole of Europe, and 21 per cent, for North
America, including Canada and the U.S.A. These figures sufficiently
indicate the relatively large scope for future development.

Power Available in Great Britain. — With a view of ascertaining the
resources of our own islands, a Board of Trade Water Power Resources
Committee was appointed in 1918. This Committee, which has just
presented its final report, has carried out preliminary surveys of as
many of the more promising sites as its limited funds allowed, and has
obtained data from the Board of Agriculture for Scotland, the
Ordnance Survey Department, the Ministry of Munitions, and
from civil engineers in private practice, regarding a large number of
other sites.

As might be anticipated, Scotland, with its comparatively high rain-
fall, mountainous area, and natural lochs, possesses relatively greater
possibihties than the remainder of the United Kingdom, and investi-
gation has shown that it offers a number of comparatively large schemes.
Nme of the more immediately promising of those examined by the
Committee have an average output ranging from 7,000 to 40,000 con-
tinuous 24-hour horse-power, and an aggregate capacity of 183,000
horse-power, while in every case the estimated cost of construction is
such that power could be developed at a cost appreciably less than from
a coal-fired station built and operated under present-day conditions.
I'he aggregate output of the Scottish schemes brought before the notice
of the Committee, some of which, however, are not commercially
feasible at the moment, is roughly 270,000 continuous horse-power.

In addition to these there are a very large number of other small
schemes which have not yet been investigated,^ and it is probably well

' In a paper read before the Royal Society of Arts on January 25. 1918, Mr. A.
Newlands, M.I.C.E., gave a list of 122 potential Scottish schemes, the capacity of
which he estimated, on a very conservative basis, at 375,000 horse-iDower.

114 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

within the mark to say that there are water-power sites in the country
cajDable of developing the equivalent of 400,000 continuous horse-
power, or 1,500,000 horse-power over a noi'mal working week, at least
as cheaply as from a coal-fired installation.

A number of attractive schemes are also available in North
Wales, though these are in general more expensive than those
in Scotland.

Owing to the general flatness of the gradients, there are, except
possibly around Dartmoor, no schemes of any large individual magnitude
in England, but there are a large number of powers ranging from 100
to 1,000 horse-power which might be developed from river flow uncon-
trolled by storage.

Investigations on a few typical watersheds throughout England and
Wales appear to show that the possible output averages approximately
eight continuous horse-power per square mile of catchment area, which
would be equivalent to an aggregate of about 450,000 horse-power.
Although much of this potential output is not commercially feasible, it
would give the equivalent of 500,000 horse-power over a normal
working week if only 30 per cent, of it were fully utilised.

In the report recently issued by the Irish Sub-Committee of the
Board of Trade Water Power Committee, it is estimated that approxi-
mately 500,000 continuous 24-hour horse-power is commercially avail-
able in Ireland, and that if utilised over a 48-hour working week, its
capacity would be at least seven times as great as that of the engine
power at present installed in the country for industrial purposes.

It appears then that, although the water-power possibilities of the
United Kingdom are small in comparison with those of some more
favoured countries, they are by no means so negligible as is commonly
supposed, even in comparison with the present industrial steam-power
resources of the country.

The capacity of the fuel-power plants installed for industrial and
public-utility services in the United Kingdom in 1907 was approxi-
mately 9.8 million horse-power. Allowing for an increase of 15 per
cent, since then, and an average load factor of 35 per cent., this is
equivalent to 32,000 million horse-power hours per annum, or to a
continuous 24-hour output of only 3.7 million horse-power.

According to Sir Dugald Clerk, the average consumption of coal
per horse-power hour in this country is about 3.9 lb., which, on the
above basis, would involve a total annual consumption of 55 million
tons for industrial purposes, not including railways or steamships.
This figure is in substantial agreement with the estimate of 60 million
tons made for factory consumption in 1913 by the Coal Conservation
Committee of the Ministry of Eeconstruction, since this latter figure
also includes coal used for heating and other manufacturing processes
in factories.

Adopting this figure of 32,000 milhon horse-power hours as the
annual demand for power for industrial purposes, it appears that the
inland water-power resources of the United Kingdom are capable of
supplying about 27 per cent, of this, a proportion which, in such an
industrial country as our own, is somewhat surprisingly large.

Many of the small powers w'ould be well adapted for linking up, as

G.— ENGINEERING. 115

automatic or semi-automatic stations, into a general network of elec-
tricity supply, or for augmenting the output of municipal supply works,
as has been done so successfuUy, for example, at Chester, Worcester,
and Salisbury.

The development of the many small schemes available in the
Scottish Highlands would probably have a great effect on the social
life of the community. It would go far towards reviving and extending
those small local industries which should form an essential feature of
tiie ideal rural township. Commercially such undertakings may appear
to be of small importance, but as a factor in promoting the welfare of
the State, economical and political, their influence can hardly be over-
estimated.

Some of the larger schemes in Scotland would lend themselves
admirably to transmission to its industrial districts, while others, in
close vicinity to the sea-board, would appear to be well adapted for
supplying chemical, or electro-physical, or metallurgical processes.

There is a probability that at least two of these schemes will be
developed in the near future. One of these — the Lochaber scheme — is
capable of developing some 72,000 continuous horse-power, which is
to be utilised largely in the manufacture of aluminium. It is interest-
ing to note that when this scheme is completed the British Aluminium
Corporation will have, with their station at Kinlochleven, an average
continuous output of over 100,000 horse-power, and a maximum
capacity of almost 140,000 horse-power.

The second — the scheme of the 'Grampian Power Company — is in-
tended ultimately to develop upwards of 40,000 continuous horse-power,
which it is proposed to use largely for general industrial purposes.

Should this latter scheme be carried to a successful conclusion it is
likely to give an impetus to large-scale water-power development in
Scotland. Its successful operation would certainly lead to the develop-
ment of others of the same type, which would help to provide a much-
needed home training-ground for British hydro-electric engineers.

"While this is admittedly an inopportune moment to suggest any-
thing in the nature of State co-operation in such developments, it may
be pointed out that many of the Scottish powers in particular occur in
sparsely populated districts, and that, although they would ultimately
become remunerative, the difficulty of raising the capital necessary for
their development is great. In view of their direct and indirect advan-
tage to the community it would appear not unreasonable to advocate
that financial assistance should be granted by the State in the earlier
stages of such developments. If such assistance, say in the form of a
loan maturing after a period of ten or fifteen years, could be granted,
it would certainly give an immediate impetus to the development of
water power in this country.

Conservation. — The importance of water-power development from
the point of view of conservation of natural resources requires no
emphasis. When the value of coal purely as a chemical asset, or as
a factor in the manufacture of such materials as iron and steel, cement,
&c., is considered, its use as a fuel for power purposes, when any other
equally cheap source of energy is available, would appear, indeed, to be
unjustifiable.

116 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

The consumption of coal in the best modern steam plant of large
size, giving continuous output, would be about nine tons per horse-
power year, and on this basis the world's available water power if utilised
would be equivalent to some 1,800,000,000 tons of coal per annum.
The world's output of coal in 1913 was approximately 1,200,000,000
tons, of which about 500,000,000 tons were used for industrial power
purposes, so that on this basis 55,000,000 continuous water horse-
power would be equivalent to the world's industrial energy at that date.

Not only does the use of water power lead to a direct conservation of
fuel resources, but it also serves to a notable degree to conserve man
power. To take an extreme example, each of the 40,000 horse-power
units now being installed at Niagara Falls will require for operation
two men per shift. It is estimated that to produce the same power
from a series of small factory steam plants, over eight hundred men
would be required to mine, hoist, screen, load, transport by rail, unload,
and fire under boilers the coal required, while, if account be taken of the
additional labour involved in horse transport, wear and tear of roads
and of railroad tracks and rolling stock, the number would be consider-
ably increased.

Uses of Hydro-Electric Energy. — While a large proportion of the
energy developed from water power is utilised for industrial purposes
and for lighting, power, and traction, an increasing proportion is being
used for electro-chemical and electro-metallurgical processes. It is
probable indeed that we are only on the threshold of developments in
electro-chemistry, and that the future demand for energy for such
processes will be extremely large.

In Norway the electro-chemical industry absorbed 770,000 horse-
power in 1918, or approximately 75 per cent, of the total output,
as compared with 1,500 horse-power in 1910. Of this some 400,000
horse-power was utilised in nitrogen fixation alone.

The production of electric steel in the U.S.A. increased from
13,700 tons in 1909 to 24,000 tons in 1914, and to 511,000 tons in 1918,
this latter quantity absorbing 300 million kw. hours, equivalent to
almost 400,000 continuous horse-power.

In Canada, in 1918, the pulp and paper industry absorbed 450,000
horse-power, or 20 per cent, of the total, while the output of central
electric stations amounted to 70 per cent, of the total.

The electrification, on a large scale, of trunk line railways is also a
probability in the not distant future. In the U.S.A. 650 miles of
the main line of the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railway, com-
prising 850 miles of track, have been electrified, the power for opera-
tion being obtained from hydro-electric stations. In France much of
the track of the Compagnie du Midi in the region of the Pyrenees has
been electrified with the aid of water power; much of the Swiss rail-
way system has been electrified ; and the electrification of many other
trunk lines on the European continent is at present under consideration.

Quite apart from the probable huge demand in the distant future
for energy for the manufacture of artificial fertilisers by some system
of nitrogen fixation, agriculture would appear to offer a promising field
for the use of hydro-electric power.

Much energy is now being utilised in the U.S.A. for purely

G.— ENGINEERING.

117

agricultural purposes. In California, for example, there is in effect one
vast system of electrical supply extending over a distance of 800 miles
with 7,200 miles of high-tension transmission lines. This is fed from
seventy-five hydro-electric stations, inter-connected with forty-seven
steam plants, to give a total output of 785,000 horse-power. A
further group of thirteen hydro-electric schemes now under construc-
tion will add another 520,000 horse-power. A large proportion of this
power is used in agriculture, and a census in 1915 showed that electric
motors equivalent to over 190,000 horse-power were installed on
CaUfornian farms. The Californian rice industry is almost_ wholly
dependent on irrigation made possible by electric pumping, while most
of the mechanical processes involved in farming are being performed
by electric power.

There can be httle doubt that the economic development ot many
of our tropical dependencies is bound up in the development of their
water-power resources. Not only would this enable railroads to be
operated, irrigation schemes to be developed, and mineral deposits to
be mined and worked, but it would go far to solve the black labour
problem, which promises to be one of some difficulty in the near future.
While those outlets for electrical energy which are now in sight
promise to absorb all the energy which can be cheaply developed for
many years to come, there are many other probable directions in which
cheap energy would find a new and profitable outlet. Among these may
be mentioned the purification of municipal water supplies; the
sterilisation of sewage; the dehydration of food products; and the
preservation of timber.

Scope for future Water-Power Development.— The figures already
quoted indicate that the scope for inland water-power development
throughout the world, and more particularly throughout the British
Empire, is likely to be large for many years to come, and it is gratifying
to knovv that British engineers are prepared to play a large part in such
development work.

The utilisation of this water power is likely to give rise to some
economic problems of interest and importance. When indiistrial con-
ditions have again become stabilised, the competitive ability of the
various nations will depend largely on economy in the application of
energy to production and transportation, and the possession of cheap
water power is likely largely to counterbalance the possession of such
resources as coal and iron as a measure of the industrial capacity of a

nation.

While it is probably true in industrial communities that the most
attractive water-power schemes have already received attention, many
of those available in countries which have hitherto been non-industrial
are capable of extremely cheap development and will certainly be
utilised as soon as a market for their output can be assured.

It is in such countries that the result of these developments is likely
to be most marked, and will require most carefulconsideration. Thus
the hydro-electric survey of India now being carried out by the Indian
Government indicates that very large water-power resources are avail-
able in the country, and that, although a few large schemes havebeen
or are being developed, the resources of the country are practically

118 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

untouched. There can be httle doubt that in the course of time a large
amount of cheap energy will be available in India for use in industrial
processes, and as the country possesses a large and prolific population
readily trained to mechanical and industrial processes, along with ample
supplies of raw material for many such processes, all the conditions
would appear to be favourable for its entry into the rank of manu-
facturing and industrial nations.

Modern Tendencies in Wafer-Power Development. — -The large
amount of attention which has been concentrated on the various aspects
of water-power development during the past ten years has been
responsible for great modifications and improvements in the design,
arrangement, and construction of the plant.

Broadly speaking these have been in the direction of increasing the
size, capacity, reliability, and efficiency of mdividual units ; of im-
proving the design of the turbine setting and of the head and tail works ;
of increasing the rotative speed of low head turbines ; of detailed
modifications in the reaction type of turbine to enable it to operate
under higher heads than have hitherto been considered feasible ; and
of increasing the voltage utilised in transmission.

The capacity of individual units has been increased rapidly during
recent years, and at the present time units having a maximum
capacity of 55,000 horse-power under a head of 305 feet are
being installed in the Queenston-Cheppewa project at Niagara, while
units of 100,000 horse-power are projected for an extension of the
same plant.

These modern high-power turbines are usually of the vertical shaft,
single runner type, with the weight of the shaft, runner, and generator
carried from a single thrust bearing of the Michell type. This type
lends itself to a simple and efficient form of setting, while the friction
losses in the turbine are extremely low. As a result of careful overall
design it has been found possible to build units of this type having
an efficiency of approximately 93 per cent.

One of the great drawbacks of the low head turbine in the past has
been its relatively slow speed of rotation, which necessitated either a
slow speed, and consequently costly generator, or expensive gearing.
As a result of experiment it has, however, been possible so to modify
the form of the runner as greatly to incrense the speed of rotation under
a given head without seriously reducing the efficiency.

Investigations in this direction are still in progress and promise to
give rise to important results. At the present time, however, turbines
are in existence which are capable of working efficiently at speeds at
least five times as great as would have been thought feasible ten
years ago.

The non-provision of a suitable pipe line has. until recent years,
tended to retard the development of plants for very high heads. Under
such heads the necessary wall thickness, even with a moderate pipe
diameter, becomes too great to permit of the use of riveted joints.
Recent developments in electric welding and oxy-acetylene welding
have, however, rendered it possible to construct suitable welded pipes,
and by their aid, and by the use of solid drawn steel pipes in extreme
cases, it has been found possible to harness some very high falls. The

G.— ENGINEERING. U 9

highest as yet utiUsed is at the Fully installation in Switzerland. Here
the, working head is 5,412 feet, corresponding to a woi'king pressure
of 2,360 lb. sq. in. The pipe Hne is 19.7 in. in diameter and If in.
tliick at its lower end, and each of the three Pelton wheels in the power
house develops 3,000 horse-power, with an efficiency of 82 per cent.

Until comparatively recently the Pelton wheel was looked upon as
the only practicable turbine for high heads, and the use of the Francis
turbine was restricted to heads below about 400 feet. This was due
partly to the fact that a reaction turbine of comparatively small
dimensions gives a large output under a high head, and except in
turbines of comparatively large power the water passages become very
small, and the friction losses in consequence large.

A further and more important reason for the general choice of the
Pelton wheel for high heads was tlie fact that in the earlier Francis
turbines, when operating under heads involving high speeds of water
flow, corrosion of the runner was very serious. This corrosion is now
generally attributed to the liberation of air containing nascent oxygen,
at points where eddy formation causes regions of low pressure. Careful
design of the vanes has enabled this to be largely prevented in modern
runners, and in consequence the field of useful application of the Francis
turbine has been extended until at present turbines of this type are
operating successfully under a head of 850 feet, and this limit will
probably be exceeded in the near future.

The great increase in all constructional costs since 1914 has
increased the cost of the average hydro-electric plant by something
of the order of 150 per cent., and since the cost of energy produced by
such a plant is mainly due to fixed charges on the capital expenditure,
this cost has gone up in an even greater proportion owing to the higher
interest charges now demanded.

It is true that the same increased cost applies within narrow limits
to the output from every steam plant erected since the War, and the
relative position of the two types of power plant with coal at about 25s.
per ton is much the same as before the War.

The fact remains, however, that a newly constructed hydro-electric
plant has often to compete in the market with a steam plant built in
pre-war days whose standing charges are comparatively low, and in
order to enable it to do so with success the constructional cost must
often be reduced to a minimum compatible with safe and efficient
operation. With this in view many modifications in design and con-
struction have been introduced in recent plants, but there would still
appear to be ample scope for investigation into the possibility of reducing
the first cost by modifying many of the details of design and methods
of construction now in common use.

Among recent modifications in this direction may be mentioned —

1. The elimination of the dam in storage schemes in which
natural lochs or reservoirs are utilised, this water level being
drawn down in times of drought instead of being raised in
times of flood. This reduces the cost of construction
appreciably in favourable circumstances, and eliminates the
necessity for paying compensation for flooding of the land
surrounding the reservoir.

120 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

2. The substitution, where feasible, of rockfill dams for those

of masonry or monolithic concrete.

3. The introduction of outdoor installations with the minimum

of power-house construction.

4. The simplification of the power plant.

Some progress has already been made in these directions, and it is
probable that experience based on recent installations and experimental
investigations will enable considerable further progress to be made.

Research in Hydro-Electric Problems. — There are few branches of
engineering in which research is more urgently required and in which
it might be more directly useful.

Among the many questions still requiring investigation on the
civil and mechanical side may be mentioned —

1. Turbines. — Investigation of turbine corrosion as affected by

the material and shape of the vanes.
Effect of erosion due to sand and silt.

Eesistance to erosion offered by different materials and coatings.
Bucket design in low head high-speed turbines.
Draft tube design.
Investigation of the directions and velocities of flow in modern

types of high-speed turbines.
Investigation of the degree of guidance as affected by the number

of guide and runner vanes.

2. Conduits and Pressure Tunnels. — The design of large pipe

lines under low heads with the view of reducing the weight
of metal. The investigation of anti-corrosive coatings, so
as to reduce the necessity for additional wall thickness to
allow for corrosion.

Methods of strengthening large thin-walled pipes against bend-
ing and against external pressures.

Methods of lining open canals and of boring and lining pressure
tunnels.

Effects of curvature in a canal or tunnel.

3. Dams. — Most efficient methods of construction and best

form of section especially for rockfill and earthen dams.
Best methods of producing water tightness.

4. Run-off data. — Since the possibility of designing an instal-

lation to develop the available power efficiently and
economically depends in many cases essentially on the
accuracy of the run-off data available, the possession of
accurate data extending over a long series of years is of great
value.

While such data may be obtained either from stream gaugings or
from rainfall and evaporation records, the former method is by far the
more reliable. For a reasonable degree of accuracy, however, records
must be available extending over a long period of years, and at the
present moment such data are available only in very few cases.

Where accurate rainfall and evaporation records are available, it is

G.— ENGINEERING. 121

possible to obtain what is often a sufficiently close approximation to
the lun off, but even rainfall records are not generally at hand where
they are most required, and even in a district where such records are
available, they are usually confined to easily accessible points, and are
seldom extended to the higher levels of a catchment area where the
rainfall is greatest. Even throughout the United Kingdom our know-
ledge of the rainfall at elevations exceeding 500 feet is not satisfactory,
and little definite is known concerning that at elevations exceeding
1,000 feet.

In this country evaporation may account for between 20 and 50 per
cent, of the annual rainfall, depending on the physical characteristics
of the site, its exposure, mean temperature, and the type of surface
covering. In some countries evaporation may account for anything
up to 100 per cent, of the rainfall. As yet, however, few records are
available as to the effect of the many variables involved. An investi-
gation devoted to the question of evaporation from water surfaces, and
from surfaces covered with bare soil and with various crops, under
different conditions of wind, exposure, and mean temperature, would
appear to be urgently needed. If this could be combined with an
extension of Vermeulle's investigation into the relationship between
ramfall, evaporation, and run-off on watersheds of a few characteristic
types, it would do much towards enabling an accurate estimate of the
water-power possibilities of any given site to be predetermined.

Even more useful results would follow the initiation of a systematic
scheme of gauging applied to all streams affording potential power sites.

Among other questions which are ripe for investigation may be
mentioned : —

1. The combined operation of steam and water power plants to
. give maximum all-round efficiency.

2. The relative advantages of high voltage D.C. and A.C.

generation and transmission for short distances.

3. The operation of automatic and semi-automatic generating

stations.

Tidal Power.— The question of tidal power has received much atten-
tion during the last few years. In this country it has been considered
by the Water Power Eesources Committee of the Board of Trade, who
have issued a special tidal power report dealing more particularly with
a suggested scheme on the Severn. The outline of a specific scheme
on the same estuary was published by the Ministry of Transport
towards the end of 1920.

In France a special commission has been appointed by the Ministry
of PubUc Works to consider the development of tidal power, and it
has been decided to erect a 3,000 kw. experimental plant on the coast
of Brittany. With the view of encouraging research the Government
proposes to grant concessions, where required, for the laying down of
additional installations.

The tidal rise and fall around our coasts represents an enormous
amount of energy, as may be exemplified by the fact that the power
obtainable from the suggested Severn installation alone, for a period
1921 T.

122 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

of eight hours daily throughout the year, would be of the order of
450,000 horse-power.

Many suggestions for utiUsing the tides by the use of current
motors, float-operated air compressors, and the like have been made,
but the only practicable means of utihsing tidal energy on any large
scale would appear to involve the provision of one or more dams,
impounding the water in tidal basins, and the use of the impounded
water to drive turbines.

The energy thus rendered available is, however, intermittent; the
average woi'king head is low and varies daily within very wide limits,
while the maximum daily output varies widely as between spring and
neap tides.

If some electro-chemical or electro-physical process were available,
capable of utilising an intermittent energy supply subject to variations
of this kind, the value of tidal power would be greatly increased. At
the moment, however, no such process is commercially available, and
in Older to utilise any isolated tidal scheme for normal industrial
application it is necessary to provide means for converting the variable
output into a continuous supply constant throughout the normal
working period.

Various schemes have been suggested for obtaining a continuous
output by the co-ordinated operation of two or more tidal basins
separated from each other and fi'om the sea by dams with appropriate
sluice gates. This method, however, can only get over the difficulty
of equalising the outputs of spring and neap tides if it be arranged that
the maximum rate of output is that governed by the working head at
the lowest neap tide, in which case only a small fraction of the available
energy is utilised.

When a single tidal basin is used it is necessary to provide some
storage system to absorb a portion of the energy during the daily and
fortnightly periods of maximum output, and for this purpose the most
promising method at the moment appears to involve the use of an
auxiliary high-level reservoir into which water is pumped when excess
energy is available, to be used to drive secondary turbines as required.
It is, however, possible that better methods may be devised. Storage by
the use of electrically heated boilers has been suggested, and the whole
field of storage is one which would probably well repay investigation.

If a sufficiently extensive electrical network were available, linking
up a number of large steam and inland water-power stations, a tidal -
power scheme might readily be connected into such a network without
any storage being necessary, and this would appear to be a possibility
which should not be overlooked in the case of our own country.

Investigation necessary. — A tidal-power project on any lai'ge scale
involves a number of special problems for the satisfactory solution of
which our present data are inadequate.

Thus the effect of a barrage on the silting of a large estuary, and
the exact effect on the level in the estuary and in the tidal basin at
any given time, can onlv be determined by experiment, either on a small
installation, or preferably on a model of the large scheme.

Many of the hydraulic, mechanical, and electrical problems involved

G.— ENGINEERING. 123

are comparatively new, and there is little practical experience to serve
as a basis of their solution.

Among these may be mentioned : —

1. The most advantageous cycle of operations as regards working

periods, mean head, and variations of head.

2. Tlie methods of control and of sluice-gate operation.

3. Effect of changes of level due to wind or waves.

4. The best form of turbine and setting and the most economical

turbii:ie capacity.

5. The possibihties of undue corrosion of turbine parts in salt

water.

6. The best method of operation ; constant or variable speed.

7. Whether the generators shall be geared or direct driven.

8. Whether generation shall be by direct or alternating current.
The questions of interference with navigation and with fisheries;

of utihsing the dam for rail or road transport across the estuary ; and,
above all, economic questions connected with the cost of production,
and the disposal of the output of such an installation, also require the
most careful consideration before a scheme of any magnitude can be
embarked upon with assurance of success.

In view of the magnitude of the interests involved, and of the fact
that rough preliminary estimates indicate that to-day current even for
an ordmary industrial load could be supphed from such an installation
at a price lower than from a steam generating station giving the same
output with coal at its present price, it would appear desirable that
these problems should receive adequate investigation at an early date.

Facilities for Research in Hydraulic and Cognate Problems. — In
view of the considerations already outhned, and especially in view of
the large part which British engineering will probably play in future
water-power developments, the provision on an adequate scale at some
mstitution in this country of facihties for research on hydrauhc and
cognate problems connected with the development of water power is
worthy of serious attention.

At present the subject is treated in the curriculum of the engineering
schools of one or two of our universities, but in no case is the laboratory
equipment reaUy adequate for the purpose in question.

What is required is a research laboratory with facilities for experi-
ments on the flow of water on a fairly large scale; for carryin^^
out turbine tests on models of sufficient capacity to serve as a basis for
design; and, if possible, working in conjunction with one or more ol
the hydro-electric stations already in existence, or to be installed in the
country, at which certain large-scale work might be carried out.

The provision of such a laboratory is at the moment under con-
sideration in the United States, and in view of the rapidity with which
the designs of hydrauhc prime movers and their accessories are bein^^
improved at the moment, it would appear most desirable that the British
designer, in order that tlie deservedly high status of his products should
be maintained and enhanced, should at least have access to equal
facilities, and should, if necessary, be able to submit any outstandincr
problems to investigation by a specially trained staff. "^

L 2

124 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES,

The extent to which our various heat-engine laboratories have been
able of recent years to assist in the development of the internal com-
bustion engine, and to which our experimental tanks have assisted in
the development of the shipbuilding industry, is well known to most
of us, and the provision of similar facilities to assist in the development
of our hydro-electric industry would probably have equally good results
in this connection.

As a result of representations made by the Water Power Committee
of the Board of Trade, I understand that it has now been decided to
initiate a Chair of Hydro-Electric Engmeering in some one university,
and it is greatly to be hoped that funds may be available to enable the
necessary laboratory to be designed and equipped on a scale com-
mensurate with the importance of the work which it would be required
to undertake.

[Note.— Owing to the resignation of Sir J. C. Frazer, F.R.S.,
from the presidency of Section H (Anthropology) shortly before the
Meeting, no address was delivered in that Section.]

THE AIMS AND BOUNDARIES OF
PHYSIOLOGY.

ADDEESS TO SECTION I (PHYSIOLOGY) BY

Sir WALTEEM. FLETCHER, K.B.E., M.D., Sc.D., F.R.S.,

PRESIDENT Ot' THE SECTION.

Upon the occasion of our meeting in this metropolitan city of Edin-
burgh, the seat of an ancient university and a great centre of medical
study and practice, it has occurred to me that it may be profitable
for us to consider the part which physiology should rightly take in
its relation to national life, to learning, and to medicine. Not only
the place of our meeting, indeed, but some special circumstances of
the present time seem to make it fitting that we should here review
the progress, the proper scope, and the prospects of our chosen subject.
We are now just half a century from the time when physiology first
came to take its present position in this kingdom as one of the great
branches of university learning and as a vital part of medical educa-
tion. We have seen the close of a War which, though it diverted
and distorted the progress of the science, yet brought it great oppor-
tunities of service in national life and taught us lessons, here as in
so many other directions, of which we shall do well to take profit.
The passing of the War, moreover, has brought a period of change
and unrest during which impulses towards reform are being chequered
by the results of fatigue or reaction. Both here and in America it
may be said that, while physiology has come from the War with
enlarged outlook and responsibilities, it is exposed to some new and
perhaps dangerous influences in the present time of rapid resettlement.
It may well be worth while, then, to look now both forward and back,
to see the road by which we have hitherto been led and its relations
to that which now lies before us.

Physiology, as the passing generation lias known it, took shape
and established its boundaries in this country just fifty years ago,
when, shaking off its long subordination to anatomy, it was brought
to a new life of recognition and progress. The seventeenth centuiy
had seen England famous for her school of physiologists, leading the
rest of the Continent in experimental results and in new ideas. Working
upon the foundations laid by Harvey, that brilliant group at Oxford —
Boyle, Lower, Mayow, Willis— had brought new light to the study
of the living body. Nor was their service only recognised by fellow-
workers abroad or bv those that came after. Their names and fame
were on fashionable lips ; like that of their predecessor, Harvey himself,
under Charles J., and of that other Cambridge philosopher, Glissgn,

126 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

their immediate contemporary, their work was aided by the direct
interest and favour of the sovereign. But, during the eighteenth century
and the earlier part of the nineteenth, echpse fell upon the light that had
thus burned so brightly, though isolated gleams shone here and there.
James Jurin, under George II., applied the Newtonian principles to
calculating the work done by the heart and to other problems of the
body, but his efforts to lay true and exact foundations for the study of
disease were premature in the absence of expei'imental data. Stephen
Hales, Chaplain to the future George III., made the first measure-
ments of blood pressure in his garden at Teddington, and made many
far-reaching observations of the first importance; but, as he wrote,
there was indeed ' abundant room for many heads and hands to be
employed in the work, for the wonderful and secret operations of
Nature are so involved and intricate, so far out of the reach of our
senses . . . ' ; and it was not then or till much later that many heads
and hands were ready to be employed. Neither of these men had
effective influence upon the thought or practical affairs of their day,
either within the universities or outside them.

Physiology, as we know it now in this country, took its shape
in a new revival which may be reckoned as beginning half a century
ago. All our chief schools may be said to derive their lineage from
that new home of active and unshackled inquiry — I mean University
College, in Gower Street, London — and from the influence there of
an Edinburgh graduate, William Sharpey, who at the age of thirty-
four was taken from the Edinburgh school to be Professor of Anatomy
and Physiology. Here, from 1836 until 1874, Sharpey was inspiring
a group of younger minds with his eager outlook. Already in France
the new experimental study of the living functions was being established
by Claude Bernard — that true ' father in our common science, ' as
Poster later called him; already in Leipzig Ludwig, transmitting the
impulse of Miiller's earher labours, had founded that school of
physiology which moulded the development of the subject in Germany
and other countries, and had very strong early influence upon several
of those who were later to become leaders with us. England had lost
the pre-eminence that Stuart kings at all events had valued and pro-
moted. Learning had become identified in English society with the
mimetic use ol the dead languages, and progress at the two univer-
sities — even at the Cambridge of Newton, where mathematics kept
independence of thought alive — was still impeded by the grip of ecclesias-
tical tradition and by sectarian privilege. But at University College
learning had been unfettered. Here Sharpey and his colleagues were
in touch with the best progress in France and Germany, and here the
organised study of physiology as a true branch of university study
may be said to have begun. Its formal separation from anatomy came
later and irregularly ; a separate Chair of Physiology was not created
at University College until 1874, nor at Camlaridge or at Oxford until
1883.

We ought in piety to recognise that this tardy reflection of Conti-
nental progress in our own subject, like parallel movements in other
siibjects, had in its early stages received invaluable gid frorp tjie Prjncp

I.— PHYSIOLOGY. 127

Consort, who, familiar with the progress of other countries, had lent
his influence and sympathy to many men of science in their struggle
against the insularity and apathy of the wealthy and governing classes
of the earlier Victorian days. The curious may take note that the
first outward mark of recognition given by the official and influential
world to the existence of physiology as such was given not, as in other
and poorer countries much earlier, by the endowment of some chair
or institute for research and teaching, but by an act of symbolic repre-
sentation. For, when the expensive statuary of the Albert Memoi-ial
was completed in 1871, it v/as found that 'Physiology,' betokened by
a female figure with a microscope, had been given its place among the
primary divisions of learning and investigation acknowledged in that
monument to the Prince.

From Sharpey himself and his personal influence we may trace
directly onwards the development of all the chief British schools of
physiology whose achievements have in the past half-century restored
Britain to more than her old pride of place in this form of service to
mankind. We here fittingly acknowledge first the close link v/ith
Sharpey which we find to-day in Sir Edward Sharpey Schafer,
who, after fruitful years in his old teacher's place at University College,
brought that personal tradition back to this great school of Edinburgh
from whence it originally came. At University College itself the line
has been continued with undimmed lustre by Starling and Bayliss and
their colleagues to the present day. From Sharpey 's school again are
derived the great branches which have sprung from it, both at Oxford
and at Cambridge. Burdon Sanderson, Sharpey 's immediate successor
at University College, proceeded thence to Oxford and founded there,
against many difficulties of prejudice and custom, the school of physi-
ology which Gotch, Haldane, and Sherrington have nevertheless main-
tained so brilliantly in succeeding years. To Cambridge, Michael
Foster, one of Sharpey's demonstrators, was invited in 1870 by Trinity
College to be Praelector in Physiology and Fellow of the College. This
enlightened and then almost unprecedented act, no less than the personal
qualities of Foster that so aboundingly justified it, I would, as in
private duty bound, hold here in special remembrance. Under Foster's
influence there came into being at Cambridge a strong and rapidly
growing school of physiologists, from Langley, Gaskell, Sherrington,
Hopkins, to numerous successoi's. There sprang from him, too, a new
impetus to other subjects, through his pupils Francis Balfour and Adam
Sedgwick to embryology and zoology, through Vines and Francis Darwin
to botany, through Eoy to pathology. From Foster again through
Newell Martin, who, coming with him from London, had caught
not only inspiration from him but some of his powe'r of inspiring others,
and who left Cambridge for a Chair at Baltimore in 1876, we may
derive a large part of the growth and direction of physiology since
that time in the United States and in Canada. The rapid progress
of all these biological sciences at Cambridge within a single generation
and the volume of original work poured forth depended, of course, upon
two necessary conditions. The first is one which has never failed in
this country — the existence of men fitted by temperament to advance

128 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

knowledge by experiment. The second has been the supply of living
necessities through the ancient endowments of the colleges, and these
in the Cambridge of the last half-century have been freely and increas-
ingly used in catholic spirit for the increase of any of the borders of
knowledge.

If these have been the chief lines of descent along which our present
heritage has come to us, as mind has influenced mind and the light
has been passed from hand to hand, what has been the outcome as
we look back over the half-century to those small beginnings ?

Truly we can say that the workers in this country have in that
short space of years laid the whole world under a heavy debt. In
whatever direction we look we seem to see that in nearly all the great
primary fields of physiological knowledge the root ideas from which
further growth is now springing are in great part British in origin,
and based upon the work of British experimenters. If we consider
the blood circulation we find that our essential ideas of the nature of
the heart-beat were established by Gaskell, and that other first prin-
ciples of its dynamics and of its regulation have been laid down by
successors to him still with us; that the intricate nervous regulation of
the arterial system has had its chief analyses here, and that here
have been made more recently the first demonstrations of the part
played by the minute capillary vessels in the regulation of the distribu-
tion and composition of the blood. Of the central nervous system
the modern conceptions of function in terms of the purposive integration
of diverse impulses along determined paths have sprung direct from
British work, while the elementary analysis of the structure and
functions of the sympathetic nervous system has been almost wholly
British in idea and in detail. As with the nervous regulation of the
body, so with the chemical regulation of function by travelling sub-
stances — the so-called ' hormones,' or stimulants from organ to organ —
this, too, is a British conception enriched by numerous examples drawn
from experimental work in this country. In the study of nutrition,
of the primary ' foodstuffs,' proteins, carbohydrates, fats, salts, and
water, whose names in their supposedly secure sufficiency were written
with his own hand by Poster upon the blackboard shown in his portrait
by Mr. John Collier, to typify, as we may imagine, a basal physio-
logical truth, we have come to learn that these alone are not sufficient
for growth and life in the absence of minimal amounts of accessory
unknown and unstable substances, the so-called ' vitamins,' which are
derived from pre-existent living matter. This conception, undreamt of
to the end of the nineteenth century, has fundamental value in medicine
and in agriculture, and has already begun to bear a harvest of practical
fruit of which the end cannot be seen or the beneficence measured. This
discovery stands to our national credit, and large parts of its develop-
ment and application have been due to recent British work. If we
turn to the regulation of respiration and its close adaptation to body
needs, that also, as it is now known to the world, is known as British
labom-s have revealed it, just as the finer analyses of the exchanges
of gas between the air and the blood and between the blood and the
body substance have been made with us. The actual modes bv which

I.— PHYSIOLOGY. 129

oxygen is used by the tissues of the body, its special relations to
muscular contraction, the chemical results of that contraction, the
thermal laws which it obeys— all these fundamental problems of living
matter have seen the most significant steps to their solution taken
within the past generation in this country.

Work of this kind brings permanent enrichment to the intellectual
life of mankind by giving new and fuller conceptions of the nature of
the living organism. That we may think is its highest function; but
it does more than this. Just as all gains in the knowledge of Nature
bring increase of power, so these discoveries of the past fifty years
have their place in the fixed foundations upon which alone the science
and the arts of medicine now or in the future can be securely based.
The special study of disease, its cure and prevention, has had notable
triumphs here and elsewhere in the same half-century, and these as
they come must make as a rule a more spectacular appeal to the
onlooker. Yet it is the accumulating knowledge of the basal laws of
life and of the living organism to which alone we can look for the
sure establishment either of the study of disease or of the applied
sciences of medicine. As we have seen, there are few indeed among
the fields of inquiry in the whole range of physiology in which the
British contributions to the common stock of ascertained knowledge
or of fertile idea do not take a foremost place. It would be impiety
not to honour, as it would be stupidity to ignore, these plain facts,
which, indeed, are now perhaps more commonly admitted abroad than
recognised at home. There is no occasion here for any spirit of national
complacency — rather the reverse, indeed. British workers at no time
earlier than the War have had the menial assistance or other resources
which their colleagues in other countries have commonly commanded,
and too often the secondary and relatively easy developments of pioneer
work done in this country have fallen to well-equipped and well-served
workers elsewhere. If in the past half-century better support had been
available from public or private sources, or at the older universities
from college endowments, it is impossible for any well-informed person
to doubt that a more extended, if not a more diversified, harvest would
have been won.

We stand too near to this remarkable epoch of progress to appraise
it fairly. In the same span of years Nature has yielded many fresh
secrets in the physical world under cross-examination by new devices
which have themselves been lately won by patient waiting upon her.
So great a revelation of physical truth has been lately made in this
country, bringing conceptions of space and of matter so swiftly changing
and extending, that our eyes are easily dimmed to the wonders of
that other new world being unfolded to us in the exploration of the
living organism. Only the lapse of time can resolve the true values of
this or that direction of inquiry, if indeed there be any true calculus
of ' value ' here at all. We seem to see in the progress of physiology,
not at few but at manv points, that we stand upon new paths just
opening before us, which must certainly — as it seems — lead quickly to
new light, to fuller vision, and to other paths beyond. The advances
of the next half-centurv to come must far exceed and outshine those

180 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

due to the efforts of the half-century just closing; that is probably
the personal conviction of us all. Yet we may still believe that through
all the history of mankind recognition will be given and honour be
paid to the steps in knowledge which were made first and made securely
in the period we now review. The men who have done this work
will not take pride in it for themselves ; they know that their strength
has not been their own, but that of the beauty which attracted them,
and of the discipline which they obeyed. They count themselves happy
to have found their favoured path. Other and more acute minds might
have usurped their places and found greater happiness for themselves
if, under a social ordering of another kind, they had been turned to
the increase of knowledge instead of to the ephemeral, barren, or
insoluble problems of convention and competition. By how much the
realised progress towards truth and the power brought by truth might
have been increased under a changed social organisation we can never
know, nor can we guess what acceleration the future may bring to
it if more of the best minds are set free within the State for work
of this highest kind, what riches may be added to intellectual life, or
what fuller service may be given to the practical affairs of man and
to the merciful work of medicine.

II.

To the story of progress which has just been sketched in outline
the War brought inevitable interruption and change. To the more
obvious disturbances and wastage of war I need not here refer, but
I would point to some influences of that time which will be found, I
think, to have left permanent effects, and on the whole good effects,
upon the position and tendencies of physiology. Before 1914 physiology
was being developed, as we have seen, in its still youthful status as
one of the primary departments of knowledge; it had become a subject
of independent university rank. Large and important parts of this
development had proceeded at one or other of the ancient universities,
out of touch with great centres of population, and out of touch, there-
fore, with immediate medical needs. In some degree this was not
without advantage, and for two main reasons. Detachment from the
pressure of need allowed the free pursuit of knowledge for its own
sake and a full surrender to the hintings of Nature, wherever her clues
might lead the inquirer. Experience amply showed, moreover, that
when physiology was presented among other university subjects for
study it gained, first as recruits and later as distinguished workers,
many able young men who were attracted to it, often from other
subjects, by the fascinations of its problems, and without regard to
any of its potential applications to medical or any other practical ends.
These were great gains which it would be easy, if it were not unneces-
sary, to illustrate by many convincing examples. Yet there were some
heavy counterweights on the other side of the balance. The practical
and urgent needs of humanity as found at the hospitals were not
brought with full or due effect to the notice of physiologists. Those
in charge of hospital patients were not selected to advance, or habituaUy

I.— PHYSIOLOGY. 131

engaged in advancing, medical knowledge, and new physiological con-
ceptions as they took shape in our laboratories only slowly and partially
came to have effect in medical practice and medical study. The
physiologist, to his own certain loss and to the no less certain loss of
medicine, held aloof from the bedside, often when access was possible,
and remained immersed in his laboratory interests. Little pressure,
indeed, was ever brought to bear upon him by the physician to come
to his aid. Connected with the evils of this separation was the divorce
which the accidents of development had set up between physiology
and pathology, as though the study of the damaged body could be
separated from the science of the living organism and of its reactions
to any disturbance from the normal. Yet, while the physician had
come to tolerate the approach of the pathologist to the bedside, it
occurred too rarely that he felt the need of the physiologist, or made
himself familiar with new devices of physiological investigation.

If from a hospital in time of peace the most obvious call had
seemed in the past to come from the side of infective disease or morbid
process for the help of the pathologist, in war the stresses put upon
the healthy human body made the physiologist and his methods indis-
pensable. Bacteriological work and studies of immunity had their
prominent place, of course, in the detection and prevention of infective
disease, and wonderful were many of the achievements seen under
this head. But in a sense the more complete the prevention of infective
disease the more apparent became the physical stresses of war. The
violences offered in modern warfare to the human body — whether
through exertion and exposure, by terror or excitement, in physical
damage by lead or steel or in chemical attacks by poison, and not
least through the incredible stresses of flying high and fighting in the
air — all these brought many new and urgent calls for precise physio-
logical knowledge and for new studies by the physiologist. The results
of pain and fear, of hsemorrhage, of ' shock ' by wound or operation —
all these needed further analysis before sound treatment could be
devised or improved. New studies were needed of changes in blood-
pressure and blood-volume and in the qualities of the blood itself, new
inquiries into the finer vessels of blood circulation and their relation
to the nervous and other systems, and new analyses of the chemical
mechanisms of the body and of the modes by which want of oxygen
is met by adaptation or leads to final damage. But the well-nigh
incredible demands made upon the machinery of man's body in and
behind the battle-line, in all situations upon the land or under the earth,
high in the upper air, in the sea or within its depths, by no means
make up the tale. Our forces were engaged in every climate, from the
Equator to the Arctic regions, and were faced by innumerable local or
accidental variations of diet. Here again were required the applications
of physiological studies of heat loss and of heat production to manifold
practical problems of clothing and of diet. What would have seemed a
fanciful fairy tale barely twenty years ago might in particular be told
of the miracles wrought by the studied application of our new knowledge
of ' vitamins ' in diet, in saving from painful disease or ^eath many
thousands of rpen in diverse cjimat-es and fields pf war,

132 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

At home the bodies of the civihan population were exposed to many
stresses, often hardly less than those of active service. Men and women
alike were exposed to arduous toil, to dangerous occupation, to poisons
of many kinds needed for munitions, and in all these dangers the
guidance of the physiologist was needed for the avoidance of industrial
fatigue and loss of output and for devising protection against industrial
poisoning. The whole nation was threatened by the menace of starva-
tion, and our escape from that, itself one of the governing conditions
of our ultimate victory, was due to a system of rationing and of the
management of food materials, animal and vegetable, which was based
on accurate physiological knowledge, won by experimental methods.

I touch on these points here briefly and in outline only in order
to draw attention to the special influence which, as I think, the War
has exercised upon the position of physiology in this country. The
physiologists gave no exceptional help to the nation during the War;
the exponents of every branch of science were needed, were ready, and
were used, in our national crisis. Hardly one division of science can
be named the deficiency of which would not have made defeat inevitable.
It is a truism and a commonplace to say that no bravery and no fortitude
could have avoided defeat without the help of scientific men and of
the fruits of experimental science, though that commonplace has not,
I think, ever yet been enshrined in the addresses or thanks of Parlia-
ment or in the prayers and thanksgivings of our churches. But we
may recognise, perhaps, that the nation as a whole, and those especially
who have the government, public or private, of large groups of men
in their hands, have learned that obedience to physiological law is a
first necessity for the maintenance of the body machinery in health
and for its effective and harmonious use. They have come to know,
moreover, that the men who alone can guide them to this obedience
are those who have learned in the school of investigation from Nature
herself. The nation has seen a Minister fall whose control of the
people's food was not based upon physiological law, and his successor,
whose adoption of the teaching of physiological experiment was early
and faithful, gain renown. Nor was this by any means an isolated object-
lesson. There is no doubt, surely, that physiologists have a new
vista before them of immense public usefulness, if they will hold them-
selves in readiness to give the same kind of service to the country in
the stress of her industrial life during peace as they gave so freely
and to such effect in time of war.

But if the War brought these lessons to the general public, what
lessons have come from it to the physiologist himself? I would only
recall briefly here the considerations which were brought home
with sufficient clearness to us all, I think, during and after the closing
stages of the struggle. The War, in the first place, displayed hefore
us new and gigantic fields of physiological study. Viewing these so
far as we can, even at this distance, dispassionately, we see
how the stresses and accidents of warfare in all their variety offered
to our study a series of experiments made Tipon the human
body, and on a gigantic scale. Only by disciplined study of
the results at all stages of these trials qf war in qll their varying

I.— PHYSIOLOGY. 1B3

degrees of honor and distress could effective aid be given in palliation

of suffering or its avoidance. It was inevitable that study of this
kind and upon so great a scale should result — as, happily, it did result —
in much permanent gain to physiological knowledge and to the bene-
ficent power that all sound knowledge brings. New insight was given
into the functional patteins of the nervous system and into the orderly
liierarchies, so to speak, under which this or that function is brought
into subordination to another of superior rank, and new knowledge
was gained of the phenomena of separation and repair in the outlying
nerve-trunks. Accurate information was collected of the nutritional
needs, quantitative or qualitative, of human beings under varying con-
ditions ; and. in particular, many special conditions of warfare brought
to the test, established the fundamental usefulness, and stimulated
the growth of that newest chapter in physiology already mentioned—
that deahng with the elusive but potent accessory factors in nutrition —
the vitamins. These examples must suffice where scores of others
familiar to all of you might be given.

In the second place, the experience of the War has had wholesome
effect from its tendency to remove the barriers that here and there
had grown up between physiologists and the practical needs of medicine.
Physiologists had valued, and justly valued, their academic freedom
of inquiry within the universities, and, indeed, we know that practical
utility could not be better served in the long run than by the detached
pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. But, partly for reasons of
hospital and professional organisation already touched upon, and partly
because, to its obvious and immense gain, physiology had attracted
from other paths men who were not, and had never become, medical
men, there were some capital parts of the subject of which the chief
explorers had never used the medical field of work or brought to
medicine the weapons they had, perhaps unwittingly, at command.
We can recognise already that this partial divorce has been changed
by the War into a union likely to be increasingly fertile. Of the
professoiial chairs of medicine or directorships of medical units
established since the War, for the advance of medical knowledge within
hospitals in accordance with the university standards and ideals
acknowledged in other subjects of study, it is remarkable that to the
greater number of these there have already been appointed men whose
training has been in the methods of the physiological laboratory, and
who applied that training to urgent medical problems of the War.
There is hardly any one of our schools of physiology, moreover, to
which some piece of living experience has not been brought in these
last years to enforce the old lesson of the value to science itself of
bringing natural knowledge to its fullest utilitarian applications. The
practical fruits of scientific labour are found, if our hands are put out
to gather them, to contain within themselves, like the natural fruits
of the earth, the very seeds from which new knowledge and new fertility
will spring. Many of our leaders in physiology brought to the problems
of war the accumulated knowledge of their lives, as patriotism and
humanity dissolved at a touch the hedges of custom and use. I know
of not one such who did not find in the application of his vision and

134 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

training to the actual problems before him, first, a wholesome reminder
of the limits of his knowledge and its clarity, and, second, new clues
towards its' advance, and that by no means only in a familiar or an
expected direction. The stimulus of practical need here, as so often
in experience, advanced the growth of knowledge beyond the point
of immediate application to practice. Those who studied to find the
best and most practical means of saving life threatened by severe
haemorrhage, or by the shock of wounds or operation, found in the
course of meeting the immediate emergencies almost endless promptings
to further inquiries, to be followed then or later — inquiries into the
physical, chemical, or biological qualities of the blood, into its relations
to the vessel walls, and into the functional changes of the capillary
blood system and the factors affecting or controlling them. Those
who fixed their attention upon the damage wrought in the respiratory
organs by poison gases were led to many new studies of the funda-
mental physiology of the lungs. The lymphatic system of drainage
of the lungs was re-examined, and wide new experimental studies of
the modes of regulation of the breathing were undertaken which have
thrown new and valuable light upon the normal mechanisms of respira-
tion. An inquiry into the poisonous action of the high-explosive tri-
nitrotoluene, and into the possibility that slightly abnormal forms of
this substance, found as a small contamination of the normal form,
might be specially toxic, led to a clear negative answer. But it led
unexpectedly, it is both curious and useful to note, to the discovery
that one of these abnormal forms was an effective reagent in the
laboratory. By its means the chemical structure of a constituent of
muscle substance known as carnosin was for the first time determined,
and carnosin has now been synthesised artificially from simple materials.
In sum, then, we may gratefully recognise that the War in its
horror and waste has not brought evil without any admixture at all
of good. We may be encouraged at least to hope that the active co-
operation which the War established and fostered in diverse ways
between the physiologist and the medical or surgical clinician may
remain to bring lasting good, on the one side to the cause of learning
and its advance, and on the other to medical education and to medical
progress.

III.

If we have thus looked backward to the development of physiology
in the past half-century, and to the influence upon its course which
the War has brought about, I would invite you to look forward to the
future and to review the aims of physiology and the boundaries to
which it should properly extend in its relations to other subjects of
study.

Foster, early in his work at Cambridge, spoke of physiology as
being the study of the differences between the living body and the
dead body. The progress of this study, as it has been carried on during
the past generation, may be considered from two directly opposite
points of view. Viewed in one way, we may think of this progress as
being a progress in analysis, as a disentanglement of the diverse though
not separable functions of the body and of each of its parts. Viewed

I.— PHYS]X>LOGY. 135

again, we may see it as a steady progress towards synthesis, towards
the unification of all the contributory functions of the parts into a
single functional organism.

The analysis of the separate functions of each part of the body was
an inevitable mental process as the anatomist revealed more and more
accurately the visible machinery of the body. Bichat at the beginning
of the nineteenth century had taught that the activities of the body
must be the sum of the activities of the organs. The announcement
of the universal cellular structui'e of the organs made by Schwann
seemed but to carry this analysis one step further, and to show that
in the sum of the activities of the constituent cells could be found
the adequate expression of the functions of the whole body. The rapid
improvement of the microscope in the latter half of last century,
combined with the new resources of the aniline dyes by which trans-
parent structures could be differentiated and made visible, greatly
stimulated the analytic study of the body. As the various glandular
structures were made visible and even, as it almost seemed, the inner
life of the gland cell was revealed, as muscle fibres in their different
kinds were made plain and the harder elements of the body resolved
into the architectures due to different kinds of constructive cell, so it
seemed to many that in a little time we should have the quest resolved
in an appeal to a congeries of physico-chemical events within the
individual cells. Even the mysteries of the central nervous system
seemed to be dissolving as the new powers of histology, coupled with
refined methods of experiment, showed the intricate pattern of com-
municating fibre and cell and gave provisional descriptive explanations
of many isolated nervous phenomena. Meanwhile, the chemical
structure, no less than the material form, of the body was being explored,
and here, too, progress followed the path of analysis, ever more refined
and complete. Just as old notions of ' humours ' of the body had been
resolved into varieties of cell activity, so the vague chemical ideas
conveyed in the words ' protoplasm ' or ' metabolism ' received precision
by expression in terms of colloidal systems or of associated enzymes
or catalysts in appropriate positions, effecting chemical changes of
recognisable type among substances of relative simplicity.

Along these lines of analysis rapid progress has been made, but
it is to be observed that it has been in great part along diverging lines.
The tendency has been centrifugal, or, to use a biological simile, the
growth of physiology has led to a fissiparous habit. Pursuit of know-
ledge by particular technical methods has led to specialism ; men have
reached points far distant along branches of inquiry that at first grew
together from the stem. The very development of new technical
methods may by itself lead unavoidably to separatism, for the micro-
scope and test-tube may best be used in rooms widely different in
equipment and often far separated in space. So have grown up new-
named sciences within a science, and the histologist or cytologist, the
neurologist, the pharmacologist, the biochemist — each carrying off, so
to speak, his part of the subject — may be found to be incurring the
dangers or even paying the penalties of schism.

Step by step, however, with this progress in analysis, a continual

136 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

advance towards synthesis has accompanied it as new truths have been
unfolded to the investigator. Here, as in other fields, the conception
that the whole is the same as the sum of its parts is either meaningless,
or, if it have any meaning, is untrue. Fresh reinforcements have
steadily come to the idea that the animal body is not to be rightly con-
sidered as a patchwork of the activities of its parts, but that the organism
itself as a whole is the true physiological unit. In tliis conception the
functions of the organs and of their own cellular subdivisions can only
find due expression in relation to each other and to the functions of
the whole. Just in proportion as analysis has proceeded with ever
greater refinement to trace in terms of physics or chemistry the nature
of given organic or cellular phenomena, the analysis itself is found to
be pointing to new relationships between part and part of which the
meaning is bound up in the unity of the organism.

Of this continued absorption of analytic data into synthetic concep-
tion, this interweaving of increasingly manifest diversities into an
increasingly emergent unity, illustration can be found in many direc-
tions. The name ' hormone ' has been given to chemical products of
particular organs which pass by way of the blood to stimulate another
organ or other organs of the body to changes in activity. This mode
of chemical regulation by messenger, so to speak, is superadded to the
more rapid method of regulation by nervous impulse through the
nervous system : and already many beautiful examples of delicate
interplay and co-ordination have been discovered between the two kinds
of regulation. In its earlier phases the knowledge of these messengers
gave us a picture of relatively simple, though wonderfully adjusted, acts
of chemical regulation. As analysis of the hormonic exchanges of other
glands and tissues of the body has proceeded, however, a system of
interplay and reciprocal function of increasing complexity has been
revealed by later studies. Our knowledge of this is still young and
quite rudimentary, but at every fi-esh step in this advance it becomes
more evident that the multiplying facts can only be resumed by a con-
ception of the whole organism as a unit of which the parts exist to
preserve the integrity and ' normality. '

In the study of the nervous system, again, new methods of obser-
vation and analysis have given us during the past half-century immense
additions to our knowledge of the intricate fabrics of the brain and
spinal cord and of the functions of the various systems of fibres and
cells. The content of our knowledge of these must be tenfold that
which was known fifty years ago. Here again, as investigation has
gone forward, and as analysis has proceeded by methods so special and
so refined that neurologists work, as it were, in a field of their own, it
has proceeded only to reveal ever more and more clearly what Sherring-
ton, one of the chief pioneers in this analysis, has himself called the
' integrative ' action of the nervous system. The fabric of nerve cell
and fibre, whether we trace its history from the lower to the higher
animals, or whether we trace its complexity in the individual, is
revealed to us as a series of superimposed controlling systems whose
structural relations find intelligible expression only in terms of func-
tions, and of functions of the animal as a whole.

I.— PHYSIOLOGY. 137

Is the same return to synthetic conceptions to be found as a result
of analyses of the biochemist? His work has brought much simplifi-
cation to our notions of the chemistry of the body. We have learned
that in the exchanges witliin the living cell we are not necessarily, or
indeed probably, dealing with molecules of a complexity unknown
outside the living body ; we do not now think as formerly of substances
being worked up through successive stages of elaboration into a living
molecule — a molecule of ' protoplasm ' of mystical complexity — or of
other substances reappearing as the result of incessant degradation of
parts of the living molecule. Analysis has shown already that many
characteristic cell-changes turn upon relatively simple reactions of a
kind familiar in chemistry between known and relatively simple sub-
stances. How much further will this analysis proceed? No doubt
many of the typical functions of particular kinds of cell will become
expressible in a set of chemical formulae, and every simplification
attained by the biochemist in terms of known chemical or physical law
will be a notable gain. Yet even now we can feel assured that the
analyses of the biochemist bring with them new emphasis upon the
essential unity of the whole organism. Let me give but one illustra-
tion of this. In the studies of immunity from disease it had long been
known that substances which to a chemist would appear to be identical
could be sharply distinguished in the most decisive way by biological
reactions. Tiny fragments of a small blood-clot can be made thus to
declare whether they come from a man or from what other animal,
when no chemist would have dreamed of finding a distinction. Dudley
and Woodman have lately been able, however, to bring biochemistry
within the range of this biological delicacy of discrimination, and have
shown a subtle difference in the chemical architectures of the caseins
derived respectively from the milk of a cow and of a sheep. More
recently the two modes of analysis have been brought side by side.
Similar cells in similar organs of the two not widely dissimilar birds,
the hen and the duck, secrete layers of egg-albumin during the com-
pletion of that wonderful structure, the egg. From the ' white ' of each
egg can be prepared apparently identical albumins, and in a pure
crystalline form. This albumin is built up in each case from simple
materials — amino-acids — derived from the food, and we should naturally
expect a close similarity between the two kinds of resulting albumin,
that in the hen's egg and that in the duck's. The most refined methods
of ordinary chemical examination show us, indeed, that the two are
chemically identical and indistinguishable, containing on analysis the
same amounts of the same varieties of amino-acids. But Dakin hns
lately succeeded in tracing a difference between the two albumins,
exhibited only as partial differences in the order or pattern in which
some of the constituent amino-acids are linked together in the structure
of the albumin molecule. By using a physiological test, Dale, at the
same time, has been able to show a decisive and even dramatic differ-
ence between the qualities of the two albumins so near to chemical
identity. By using the ' anaphylactic ' reaction of the organic tissue
from an animal ' sensitised ' against hen albumin, he has found that a
suitable application of hen egg-albumin will produce a decisive response,
1921 M

138 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

while an exactly similar dose of duck egg-albumin will produce no effect
whatever; and so vice versa. Here, then, is some authentic stamp
of unknown kind imposed uniformly upon the parts of the organism
of a given species, even upon the molecules of the albuminous coating
of its egg. We are brought sharply back from the relative simplicities
of chemical analysis to consider this supra-chemical impress of specific
pattern, a phenomenon which can have no meaning that is not drawn
from a conception of the organism as a whole.

It would be impossible here, and quite unnecessary for the present
purpose, to do more than refer finally to the beautiful researches of
recent years upon the modes of regulation of breathing, upon the gas
exchanges of the blood, and upon the associated activities of other
organs, and especially of the kidney, which have brought such ample
support and illustration to the doctrine first clearly taught by Claude
Bernard, namely, that the different mechanisms of the body, various
as they are, have their single object in ' preserving constant the condi-
tions of life in the internal environment.' These regulative functions
in particular have been fully discussed by Dr. Haldane in a recent
notable essay, and he has shown how, as their chemical analysis has
proceeded and observations have been collected by physiological
niethods, themselves of a delicacy often far exceding present
physical and chemical methods, it has become more and more necessary
to express the facts in terms of an organic unity. ' The physical and
chemical picture is entirely obliterated by the picture of organism.'
These considerations are full of interest, of course, in their relation to
the rival mechanistic and vitalistic theories that have been advanced
for the explanation of living processes. Here, however, I refer to this
synthetic tendency of modern physiology because of its practical bearing
upon the present development of the subject in the universities and
the medical schools. As the preliminary analyses of the functions have
been, as we have seen, centrifugal and fissiparous in their tendencies,
so the accompanying and inevitable synthesis, resuming analytical data
within the notion of organism, has been centripetal and conjugative.
It is this bond of organic unity which must sooner or later serve to bring
together the scattered workers in different fields of analysis. It is this
conception of the organism, moreover, which must maintain physiology
as a great primary branch of study — the study of the living organism.

If physiology remains as a free subject of university study, we need
not have serious fear that the fissiparous, centrifugal tendencies
already noticed will be dangerous or crippling. Ludwig organised his
physiology teaching at Leipzig in 1846 under the three main divisions
of histology, experimental work, and physiological chemistry. In the
English revival that we have earlier sketched, this grouping, largely
under the influence of Foster, was maintained not only at Cambridge,
but at other centres here and in America. As years have passed, how-
ever, there has been an increasing tendency here to follow what is
commonly done in other countries, and to place histology with anatomy.
In my personal view, physiology cannot proceed without perpetual use
of the microscope, and yet anatomy must be dead without histology. I
should hope to see histology the well-worn bridge of union between the

I.— PHYSIOLOGY. 189

two subjects, just as, I think, we should look to cytology and the study
of cell development to offer active points of growing union between
physiology and the sciences of animal and plant morphology. These and
other questions of detailed organisation will, I hope, be explored fully
in the discussion for which we are hoping to-day. With time also
has come a great development of biochemistry, and this, if only from
the structural necessities of its laboratory technique, is tending more
and more to set up house for itself. This, too, is to be a matter for
fuller discussion presently. We may perhaps hope to see in bio-
chemistry as it grows not only a common meeting-ground and an un-
failing source of new inspiration for physiologists and pathologists
alike, but also a pathway by which organic chemistry may be led towards
the study of living matter. Few organic chemists in this country,
though more in America, have been led by that path till now, and yet
we must believe that biochemistry has perhaps even more to give to
organic chemistry, as we now know it, than it has to gain. A study of
organic compounds in a spirit of detachment from the living processes
which gave them birth must surely lead often to mere virtuosity in the
laboratory transformations of chemical structure, and I venture very
timidly to think that many signs point to the near approach of a time
when organic chemistry will feel the need of fresh inspiration coming
from the intricate laboratory of the living cell. In a university the
separation of laboratories, which must be guided solely by convenience,
as convenience is dictated by necessary differences in equipment and
technique, may be easily transcended by the tree communication of
workers in different branches. Intellectual association and close co-
operation, and especially within a university, seem inevitable, as we have
seen, because of the converging approach of diverse workers in common
reference to the conception of organic unity. Tliere can be no
boundaries to physiology narrower than the limits of the study of the
whole organism and the balanced regulation of its living parts.

I would venture here, however, to point to some dangers by which
the sound development of physiology seems to be threatened, that
spring from its necessarily close association with medical education,
dangers eminent in the present stage of rapid growth in medical studies
both here and, even more obviously, in America. Historically,
physiology may be said to have been born of medicine, but it has
sanctions and streng-th quite independent of the great services it has
rendered and has still to render to the material good of mankind through
medicine, and, in a less, though in no insignificant degree, to agricul-
ture. We may recall that chemistry, too, was almost equally born of
medicine; medicine, at least, was the fostei'-mother and long the nurse
of chemistry. Lyon Playfair, in his inaugural address of 1858, in this
very place, said, nevertheless, that ' chemistry in her period of youth,
full of bloom and promise, was forced into a premature and ill-assorted
union with medicine. ' We can now look back and see that chemistry,
in becoming free of medicine, and in becoming a great independent
branch of learning, has, by the fruits of that freedom, repaid to medicine
a thousandfold her early debts of the nursery. So, too, the history of
the last half-century, in which physiology has become an independent

M 3

140 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

subject of university study, sliows how this freedom has multiplied the
gifts which physiology has had it in her power to return to her ancient
mother. There can be no dissolving of the ties between one and the
other, but we must see to it that these ties are well adjusted and that
there shall be no ' ill-assorted union ' between the tv^'o.

In the rapid growth of medical schools throughout the English-
speaking world there are present signs that the essential part which
physiology plays in medical education and study may wrongly
masquerade as the only service physiology has to give to man, and may
appear to fill the measure of her rightful status. In more than one of
the great American universities physiology is treated either in theory or
in practice as a subject within the Medical Faculty to be housed within
the Medical School, yet at the same time not as a subject in the Faculty of
Arts or of Science, nor to be studied alone or with other sciences as
part of a liberal and non-professional education. It is rare in the
United States for physiology to be studied by any but professed medical
students, and there is some reason to think that it is becoming rarer
in Great Britain than it was a few years ago.

To my mind this tendency is to be deplored. It implies a reversal
of that growth of physiology in freedom which began half a century
ago and from which such good fruit has already been gathered. It has
two chief evils among its inevitable results. Eemoved from its position
among other university subjects by geographical separation that in
some universities amounts to transportation and exile, it is deprived of
the kinship and co-operation of the sciences touching its own boun-
daries — those of zoology, embryology, and botany, of agriculture, of
psychology, of physics and chemistry. Assigned, if not limited, to a
place in the medical curriculum, it is apt to be narrowed in its claims
and outlook, and to lose not only its proper neighbours, but even parts
of itself, whittled away in the organisation of a purely medical pro-
gramme in the guise of pharmacology, neurology, toxicology, and the
like, for which special funds may be available, separate places in the
time-table reserved, and independent departments provided. But a
second evil strikes more deeply. Any arrangements that give in effect
a restriction of physiological studies to medical students alone must be
doubly injurious. It is injurious to the general course of education,
because it tends to cut away from the other university students the
opportunity of possessing themselves, either as a primary or secondary
study, of the knowledge and discipline of physiology which has edu-
cative value in the highest degree for the cultural or the practical sides of
living. And here, secondarily, we may notice the loss to an apphed
study only less in importance to that of medicine ; I mean the science
and practice of agriculture. It is injurious, again, to physiology itself,
because we know well from reiterated experience how many promising
recruits for the future advancement of the subject have been brought to
it, often, as it were, by chance, in the course of their university life,
attracted to it whether from classical studies or mathematical, or from
other branches of natural science. A notable number of the chief
leaders in the science of the past and present generation have so been
attracted, without any previous thought of medical studies as such

I.— PHYSIOLOGY. 141

whether these have been added later or not; of these, not a few whose
names are well known to us have never become, in the technical sense,
students of medicine at all. They may have lost by this, but should
we willingly have lost them?

I hope that what I have earlier said with regard to the great service
that physiology has both to give to medicine and to receive from it will
acquit me of any charge of desiring less, rather than much more, in-
timacy and intercourse between them, t believe that no bettor service
can be done for the good of both than to increase their mutual offices
and the ties between them. But we must see that, in uniting physi-
ology to medicine, we do not uproot it from that soil in which alone it
can abundantly flourish and bear fruit, the environment of a university
with all that that connotes. If there be any serious doubt of the reality
of the dangers I have indicated, I would point to the dearth of men
fitted to promote and teach the subject among those coming from the
schools in which physiology is regarded as a medical study and no more,
and is not given its full university status. In the United States at
present there is a grave and admitted dearth of suitable candidates for
chairs of physiology, in spite of the remarkable work which has been
done there in recent years and the fine material equipment in general
available. I venture to offer my conviction that the prime cause of this
shortage is the absence of the great recruiting possibilities of university
life and the undue limitation of physiology to medical students. Men
coming to physiology as a ' preliminar}' subject ' and nothing more are
not likely to think of it as their life-work, but will pass through it
not to return.

Let me, in conclusion, point again to the highest of the tasks which
physiology, like every other science, has to perform. Its highest and
indeed its primary task is to enlarge the vision of man and to enrich
his knowledge of truth. The secondary tasks of physiology, in finding
power through truth, power to diminish pain and to restore health, and
to guide to right nnd prosperous living, are happily so beneficent in
kind, and already in some degree so fruitfully discharged, that it is not
easy, or indeed common, to keep in mind that great and primary aim.
Right thinking in this respect is the only constant guide to right action
in all the practical questions which confront us now in our discussion
of the position and the future of this science. ' Man does not live by
bread alone ' : and we shall find — we have already abundantly found
in experience — that it is only through the seeking of wisdom first that
power to increase the comfort and convenience of life is most fully to
be won. Tlie practical services of inquiry have been easy for all to
see. Men have come readily to think of physiology as the handmaid of
medicine and as nothing more. Of late years we who follow the study
of living things have not had interpreters to make plain to men at large
the interest and beauty of the additions to revealed truth which have
been coming from the work of the investigator. There are very few
I among the onlookers who have seen, or who can bring others to see,
those clearer visions of the consummate beauty which are being revealed
in the study of the body, visions as remote from the actual figments

142 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

daily painted for us by our sense organs as are the newest visions of
the physical world, yet appealing as strongly to the intellectual and
aesthetic emotions. Few hold the quest for natural knowledge in right
relation to other activities of the mind; few see it not merely and not
in chief as a useful pursuit of power, but in its essence as a pursuit
of truth.

That knowledge of natural truth and of the changing pattern of our
ideas of the natural world should be an unusual or quite subordinate part
of a cultural equipment, in this and in recent generations, may be due
to lack of interpreters, but it is due also to convention and educational
habit, and these, perhaps, combine in special degree to shut out from
the world of general culture the revelations of intricate beauty in the
living body of man. Ancient and mistaken theological conceptions
filtering through the Victorian age have tended to degrade the dignity
and marvel of the body. Generations that have been nurtured upon
narrowed classical studies have so far forgotten the spirit of Greece
as to ignore the universal beauty of truth ; it has been thought vulgar
not to know the verbal details of an old mythology, but hardly respect-
able not to be ignorant of the elementary laws of life and of the unseen
beauties of the body unfolded in modern study. So have many sub-
mitted to be enchained in ignorance and superstition as to vital matters
of reality, victims of every passing charlatan. Out of this loss of
instruction in the beauties and wonders of living substance, as they
are becoming known, must come great loss of possible happiness, and
indeed there comes, too, a loss of dignity, for we may fitly apply the
rebuke of Robert Boyle, much more deserved now than in his darker
century, who held it to be ' highly dishonourable for a Reasonable Soul
to live in so Divinely built a Mansion, as the Body she resides in,
altogether unacquainted with the exquisite Structure of it.'

Meanwhile the workers will proceed in their quest for further truth,
caring little if, for the time being, other eyes are blind to its beauty.
They will still be lured by it as all eager minds have been lured before ;
some will confess the attraction of a call for help in human need and
suffering, some will claim austerely that they follow only the bidding
of a curiosity of mind, and some perhaps may work for fame. But,
whetlier they know it or not, the effective lure that Nature holds out
to those of her followers who have it within them to respond to it, and
so to reach new knowledge, is a quickening hint of further beauty to be
unfolded in further truth. Whether they know it or not, they might
make the same Confession as that of St. Augustine: ' And I replied
unto all those things which encompass the door of my flesh, " Ye have
told me of my God, that ye are not He: tell me something of Him."
And they cried, all with a great voice, " He made us." My questioning
them was my mind's desire, and their Beauty was their answer.'

CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE
UNCONSCIOUS.

ADDRESS TO SECTION J (PSYCHOLOGY) BY

0. liLOYD MORGAN, LL.D., D.Sc, F.R.S.,

PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION.

Psychology has now been given full sectional status, taking effect at
this meeting of the British Association. I trust that we shall justify
the confidence reposed in us by our fellow -workers in other branches
of science. I need hardly add that I deem it no mean honour to be
chosen as your President on tliis occasion.

The subject of my address bristles with difficulties. I may at once
state that my primary aim is to consider in what way mind and con-
sciousness may be regarded as natural products of that all-embracing
process which I propose to name ' emergent evolution, ' and thus come
within the purview of science as I understand its aim and methods.

Emergent Evolution.

What do I mean by emergent evolution? Shall we start from the
platform of that which we call common-sense as tempered by the
refinement of scientific thought? By general consent we live in a world
in which there seems to be an orderly passage of events. That orderly
passage of events, in so far as something new comes on to the scene
of nature, is what I here mean by evolution. If nothing really new
emerges — if there be only permutations of what was pre-existent (per-
mutations predictable in advance by some Ijaplacian calculator) — then,
so far, there is no evolution, though there may be progress through
survival and spread on the one hand and elimination on the other.
Under nature is to be included the plan, expressive of natural law, on
which all events (including mental events) run their course.

From the point of view of a philosophy based on science our aim
is to interpret the natural plan of evolution, and this is to be loyally
accepted just as we find it. The most resolute modern attempt to
interpret evolution from this point of view is that of Professor S. Alex-
ander in his ' Space, Time, and Deity.' He starts from the world of
common sense and science as it seems to be given for thought to
interpret. In order to get at the very foundation of nature he bids
us think out of it all that can possibly be excluded short of the utter
annihilation of events. That gives us a world of ultimate or basal
events in purely spatial and temporal relations. This he calls ' space-
time,' inseparably hyphened throughout Nature. From this is evolved
matter, with its primai-y and, at a later stage of development, its
secondary qualities. Here new relations, other than those which are
only spatio-temporal, supei-vene. Later in logical and historical
sequence comes life, a new quality of certain systems of matter in

144 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

motion, involving or expressing new relations thus far not in being.
Tlien within this organic matrix, already ' qualitied ' (as he says) by
Ufe, there arises the quality of consciousness, the highest that we know.
What may lie beyond this in Mr. Alexander's scheme may be learnt
from his book.

This thumb-nail sketch can do slight justice to a theme worked out
in elaborate detail on a large canvas. The treatment purports to formu-
late the whole natural plan of progressive evolution. From the bosom
of space-time emerge the inorganic, the organic, the conscious, and,
perchance, something beyond. And with this successive emergence of
new qualities goes the progressive emergence of new orders and modes
of relatedness. The plan of evolution shows successively higher and
richer developments.

Such a doctrine, pliilopophical in range but scientific in spirit — to
which, I may perhaps be allowed to say, I, too, have been led by a rather
different route — I call emergent evolution.

The concept of emergence is dealt with by J. S. Mill, in his 'Logic,'
under the consideration of ' heteropathic laws.' The word ' emergent,'
as contrasted with 'resultant,' was suggested by G. H. Lewes in his
' Problems of Life and Mind.' "When oxygen, having certain properties,
combines with hydrogen having other properties, there is formed water,
some of the properties of which are quite different. The weight of the
compound is an additive resultant, and can be calculated before the
event. Sundry other properties are constitutive emergents, which
could not be predicted in advance of any existent example of combina-
tion. Of course, when we have learnt what happens in ' this ' par-
ticular instance under ' these ' circumstances, we can predict what will
happen in ' that ' like instance under similar circumstances. We have
learnt something of the natural plan of evolution. We may also predict
on the basis of analogy as we learn to grasp more adequately the
natural order or plan of events. But could we predict what will happen
prior to any given instance — i.e. prior to the development of this stage
of the evolutionary plan? Could we predict life from the plane of
the inorganic, or consciousness from the plane of life? In accordance
with the piinciples of emergent evolution we could not do so. The
Laplacian calculator is here out of court.

This is not the place to adduce the many facts at the inorganic stage
of evolution, which, as I think, exemplify emergence (in this technical
sense) with its hall-mark of something new, and its saltatory form of
continuity — saltatory because there is often an apparent jump from one
relatively stable product to another; continuous because there is no
unfilled hiatus in the course of events. It is exemphfied, as I think,
in the modern stoiy of the so-called chemical elements, in the very
structure of the Mendeleeff table, in the systems of crystallography,
and so on. In organic evolution it is recognised (though not under this
name) by some biologists in the acceptance of mutations, in the out-
come of much Mendelian research, and in the clue it affords to the
origin of variations.

More to our present purpose, however, is its explicit recognition by
Wundt in his advocacy of ' a principle of creative resultants ' (Lewes

J.— PSYCHOLOGY. 145

would have said ' emergents '), which ' attempts to state the fact that
in all psychical combinations the product is not a mere sum of the
separate elements that compose such combinations, but that it repre-
sents a new creation.' Clearly there is here emergence. But Wundt
accepted the philosophy of what may be distinguished as ' creative evo-
lution ' — that which Professor Bergson in different form so brilliantly
advocates. Wherein lies the difference? For M. Bergson the philo-
sophical question is : What makes emergents emerge ? Eightly or
wrongly, I do not regard this question as one with which science, as
such, is concerned; and in some passages at any rate this is the opinion
of M. Bergson himself. Philosophy, he says, ought to follow and
supplement science, ' in order to superpose on scientific truth a know-
ledge of another kind, which may be called metaphysical.' Be that
as it may, his answer to the question : What makes emergents
emerge? is Mind or Spirit as Vital Impulsion. (I use capital letters
for concepts of this order.) Whereas, then, for Mr. Alexander
mind as consciousness is an empirical quality emergent in nature
at an assignable stage of evolution, for M. Bergson Mind, as Spirit, is
the metempirical Source (I adopt Lewes's adjective) through the Agency
of which emergent evolution has empirical being. For the one con-
sciousness is a product of emergent evolution ; for the other emergent
evolution is the product of Spiritual Activity, which is sometimes spoken
of as Consciousness. The methods of approach, the treatment, and
the conclusions reached, are different. Although my present concern is
with the former, this must not be taken to imply a denial of Spiritual
Activity. Its discussion, however, belongs to a different universe of
discourse.

In Mind.

To come to closer quaiiers with our sectional topic, what do we
mean when we say that this or that is ' in mind ' ? In a well-known
passage Berkeley distinguished that which is in mind ' by way of
attribute ' from that which is in mind ' by way of idea. ' Fully realising
that this should be read in the light of Berkeley's adherence to the
Creative concept, one may none the less claim for it validity on the
empirical plane where mind is regarded as a product of emergent evolu-
tion. The former, therefore (i e. what is present in mind by way of
attribute), I shall speak of as minding, the latter as that which is minded.
The former is a character constitutive of the mind — that in virtue of
which it is a mind ; the latter as objective to the mind or for the mind.
That which is minded always implies minding; but it does not neces-
sarily fellow that minding implies something minded.

Let me name a few of the many cases in our own life where not only
does the minded imply minding fwhich always holds good), but where
minding implies something definitely minded (which often holds good).
Perceiving implies something perceived ; remembering, something re-
membered; imaging, something imaged; thinking, something thought
of; believing, something believed; and so on through a long list. In
each case what I may call, in general, the -ing has, as its correlative,
a more or less definite -ed. Whether correl!ative to unconscious

146 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

minding, there is something more or less definite which is unconsciously
minded, it is very difficult to say. But if I do not misinterpret current
opinion it is commonly held that sometliing minded is often present to,
or for, the unconscious mind. I shall say somewhat more on this
head later on.

The distinction based on that drawn by Berkeley may be expressed
in another way. One may be said to be conscious in perceiving, re-
membering, and, at large, minding; that which is perceived, remem-
bered, or minded is what one is conscious of. I am conscious in
attending to the rhythm or the thought of a poem; I am conscious of
that to which I so attend. I need not then be conscious of attending to
the poem, though perhaps I may, in psychological mood, subsequently
make the preceding process of attention an object of thought. I am
well aware that Professor Strong has urged that, in its original use,
the expression ' conscious of ' was applied only with reference to mental
process as such. One need not discuss this point. It must suffice to
make clear the usage I accept.

Even in our own life there are cases in which one's consciousness
in some experience — e.g. feeling fit or depressed — does not seem to
have, correlative to it, anything definite of which one is conscious. It
may, of course, be said that what one is here conscious of is some
bodily condition, or some more abstract concept of welfare or the re-
verse. But, without denying that it may come to be so interpreted in
reflective thought, it is questionable whether the dog or the little child
knows enough about ' the body ' or of ' welfare ' to justify us in regard-
ing these as objectively minded. There can be little question, however,
that the dog or the child (and we, too, in naive unreflective mood) may
be conscious in such current episodes of daily life. Whether, therefoi-e,
there be something definitely minded or not, the emphasis is on minding
(in a broad and comprehensive sense) as an inalienable attribute of that
kind of being which we name 'mental.'

Mr. Alexander emphasises the distinction between what I have called
the -iyig and the -ed in the most drastic manner. He speaks of all that
is in any way objective to minding as non-mental. I cannot follow his
lead in this matter, because I need the word in what is for me (jbut
not for him) a different sense. But what does he mean ? It is pretty
obvious that while seeing is a mental process in which I am conscious,
the lamp that I see is not a mental process, but an object of which I
am conscious. If, however, I picture the Corcovado beyond the waters
of Rio Bay, is that mental ? The picturing of a remembered scene is a
mental process ; but that which is thus pictured is not mental in the
same sense. It is just as much re-presented for the remembering as
the lamp is presented as an object for the seeing. And suppose I try
to think of the four-dimensional space-time framework conceived by
Minkowski ; the thinking is unquestionably mental, but the framework -
thought of is not mental in the same sense. What is not mental in
that sense Mr. Alexander calls ' non-mental. ' I speak of that which
is not mental in this sense as ' objective. '

A wider issue is here involved. Are we to include ' in mind ' pro-
cesses of minding only, or also that which is objectively given a&

J.— PSYCHOLOGY. 147

minded? Is the science of psychology concerned only with mental
processes of the -ing order ; or is it concerned also with all manner of
objective -eds7 One must choose. So long as we are careful to dis-
tinguish the -ed from the -ing it is better, I think, to include both.

Dependence and Correlation.

On these terms what is minded is no less mental than the process
of minding. But I suggest that the word ' consciousness ' should be
reserved for that vi^hich Berkeley spoke of as ' in mind by way of
attribute,' or, in Mr. Alexander's way of putting it, as ' a quality ' of
that organism which is conscious in minding. Anyhow, consciousness
is here in the world. Creative Evolution says : Yes, here in the world,
but not of the world. It acts (as elan vital) into or through the
organism regarded as a physical system; but its Source is a disparate
order of Being to which, in and for itself, and an sich, it properly
belongs. It depends on the physical organism in act but not in Being.
Now this, I urge, is a metempirical explanation of given facts, but not
an empirical interpretation of them as (in my view) science tries to
interpret. And its cause should be tried before a different court of
appeal from that of science. Hence under emergent evolution one uses
the word ' dependence ' in another sense, and urges that the very being
of consciousness, as a quality of the organism, depends upon (or implies
the presence of) the quality of life as prior in the natural order of emer-
gence. If we enumerate successive stages, then consciousness is a
quality (4) of certain things (very complex and highly organised things)
in this world. In these same things there is also present the quality
of life (3), and a specially differentiated chemical constitution (2).
Empirically we never find (4) without (3), nor (3) without (2) ; and we
express this by saying that consciousness depends on (or implies the
presence of) life ; and that life depends on a. specialised kind of chemical
constitution. It is an irreversible order of dependence. But there are
things, such as plants, in which we find (as is commonly held) life
without consciousness; and other things, such as minerals, in which
there is chemical constitution (not, of course ' the same ' chemical con-
stitution) without life. Furthermore, there seems to have been a time
when consciousness had not yet been evolved; and an earlier time at
which life had no existence. But this or that chemical constitution
is itself an emergent quality (2) of certain things ; and there was probably
a yet earlier stage of evolution at which even this quality had not yet
emerged — a purely physical stage (1) at which (let us say) electrons
afforded the ultimate terms in relation within physical events, con-
tinuously changing under electromagnetic (and, of course, also under
spatio-temporal) relations. That is as far as I, with my limited powers
of speculative vision, can probe. Mr. Alexander, with perhaps more
piercing insight, goes further. For him such entities as electrons are
themselves emergent from the yet more fundamental matrix of space-
time. For him the ultimate terms are point-instants (pure motions).
I cannot here discuss his fascinating but rather elusive treatment. As
at present advised I can find no satisfactory foothold without electrons,
or something of the sort, as joints d'appui.

1 48 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

Be that as it may, there is clearly nothing in the foregoing thesis
which necessarily precludes the further consideration of the same events
from the point of view of Creative Evolution. The questions : "What
makes emergents emerge? What directs the whole com'se of emergent
evolution ? — these questions and their like are there quite in place.
Furthermore, as between emergent thesis and Creative antithesis, Kant's
' Solution of the Third Antinomy ' may afford a guiding clue.

If one selects, as above, certain salient phases of evolutionaiy pro-
gress, and lays stress upon them, one must remember that within the
span of each phase there are other emergent sub-phases, some of them,
no doubt, worthy of selective emphasis. Nay more, it must be realised
that one is only attempting to classify the myriad instances of emergence
in an ascendmg hierarchy. In all phases, in all sub-phases, and in all
the myriad instances, there is continuity of advance, in that (a) there
is never any unfilled gap or hiatus in the course of events, and in that
(b) any instance, sub-phase, or phase, arises out of, is founded on,
and implies, that which lies just below it in the scale.

Here, however, an important question arises. The selected sequence
of qualities is —

(4) Conscious.
(3) Vital.
(2) Chemical.
(1) Physical.
Are the four terms of this sequential order homogeneous? If so, the
quality of consciousness in (4) is homogeneous with the purely physical
quality under (1). But this is not in accordance with a cardinal tenet
very widely accepted — namely, that the physical and the mental cannot
be regarded as homogeneous. They are, it is urged, essentially hetero-
geneous. On the assumption (which I feel bound to accept) that this
traditional view is right, how does emergent evolution deal with the
problem? It further assumes (or accepts as an hypothesis to be tried
out on its merits) that there obtains a correlation of diverse (and in that
sense heterogeneous) aspects. The word ' congelation ' is here used to
designate a mode of natural ' gotogetherness ' which is sui generis ; and
the word ' aspects ' (for lack of a better) to designate the fundamental
difference between the mental or psychical and the non-mental or
physical — a difference that must be accepted as something given in
nature. On this hypothesis, then, how do our emergent phases now
run?

Let me recall that each of our four emergent stages gives emphasis
to a salient phase of emergence, and that within each phase there are
sub-phases also emergent through the supervenience of something really
new. "Within the vital quality, for example, there are ascending sub-
qualities. It is for the phvsiologist to deal with these. There are, too,
in any given organism different lines of advance closely inter-related
within the life-system of that organism as a whole. "We must select,
then, that line of advance which serves to enable us to interpret
psychical advance in terms of correlation. Here we may be content,
so far as the physiological aspect is concerned, to label, say, three sub-
phases (a), (b), and (c); where (c) represents such integration as is

J.— PSYCHOLOGY 149

established iu the cortex of the brain in correlation with reflective con-
duct ; (b) such intermediate level of integration as is acquired in the course
of individual life ; and (a) such integration as is prior to (6) and (c) and
on which they depend. I seek only to give a provisional schema. Now,
I assume that correlated with (a) there is an affective form of psychical
existence which is not yet consciousness as I shall presently define it;
that correlated with (b) is consciousness of tlie order of such perceptual
cognition as we impute to many animals ; and that coiTelated with (c) is
reflective consciousness or judgment which implies conceptual thought,
and is often spoken of as self-consciousness. We may label these (thus
provisionally distinguished) (a), (/3), and (y). They stand, I believe,
in an order of dependence. We never find (y) without (/?) and (a) ;
nor ever (/?) without (a). The presence of reflective consciousness
implies perceptive cognition ; and the presence of perceptive cognition
implies that of affective enjoyment. We do, however, seemingly find
organisms with {/3) and (a) but without (y); and (as I think) lowly
forms to which one can impute (a) without (/3). Our tabular statement
may therefore take some such provisional form as this, which may at
least serve to indicate my method of approach.

(i) Vital ' (?) • (■>') Reflective judgment | non^ciousness ^iv^
(i) vital , ^jj _ ^^^ Perceptive cognition ) '-'OJisciousness (iv)

(3) Vital (a) . (a) Affective enjoyment ' The unconscious ' (iii)
(2) Chemical ? ? (ii)

(1) Physical ? ? (i)

On the left-hand side of the table we have ' outer aspect ' ; on the
right ' inner aspect. ' The ' inner aspect ' (if such there be) under
(ii) and (i) is left with a query. Panpsychic speculation is here and
now beyond our horizon.

What I may call the homogeneous precursor of the quality of con-
sciousness (iv) is ' unconscious enjoyment ' (iii) which, notwithstanding
its negative prefix, must be regarded as a positive character. The
heiprogeneous precursor of (iv, y) is (4 b). Heterogeneous treatment
involves passing over from one ' aspect ' to the other — e.g. interpreting
perceptive consciousness in terms of brain-physiology, or psychical
habit in terms of synaptic resistance. I do not mean to suggest that
heterogeneous treatment is without value. Far from it. I do wish to
suggest that we shall do well to realise that it is heterogeneous.

The Quality of Consciousness.

Before proceeding further certain preliminary questions must be
briefly considered. First, is there progressively emergent evolution in
consciousness? It is one of cardinal importance. My contention is
that such evolution obtains in both aspects, inner and outer, the one in
correlation with the other. This means that interpretation under
emergent evolution is applicable to mental no less than to non-mental
events. In other words, there is just as much progressive emergence
in the inner or psychical aspect of organic nature as there is in the outni'

150 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

or physiological aspect. This is the keynote of mental evolution
throughout its whole range.

I regret here to depart from the conclusion to which Mr. Alexander
has been led. Take such episodes in our mental life as seeing a rain-
bow, hearing a musical chord, partaking of woodcock, dipping one's
hands into cool water. In Mr. Alexander's interpretation (as 1 under-
stand it) percipient consciousness, in each case, differs only in what he
speaks of as ' direction.' That alone is enjoyed. All further difference
in one's cognitive experience on these several occasions is due to the
difference in that non-mental set of events with which one is then and
there compresent. Even feeling, as affective, is not itself enjoyed.
Feelings are objective experiences of the order of organic ' sensa. ' They
are not in mind by way of attribute. "We are conscious of pleasure and
pain but are not differentially conscious in receiving them. Conscious-
ness is here just compresent with certain phases of life-process. Thus,
for Mr. Alexander, consciousness, alike in sensory acquaintance, in
perceptive cognition, and even in feeling pleasure or the reverse, is itself
undifferentiated (save in ' direction ') ; all the differentiation is in the
non-mental world (beyond us or within our bodies) which is experienced
and which transmits its characters to a recipient in which the rather
featureless quality of consciousness has emerged. No doubt for Mr.
Alexander the recipient is not merely passive ; for there is mental pro-
cess — not Agency, though he so often uses the word ' act.' But this
mental process just actively takes what is given; and all the difference
still lies in that which is given and not in the enjoyment of how it is
taken.

But it is only when Mr. Alexander is interpreting consciousness at
the perceptive level that he advocates this doctrine. When he deals
with values or 'tertiary qualities,' such as beauty, his treatment is
quite different. Consciousness hitherto featureless gives to certain
objects of judgment their characteristic features. How, then, does the
interpretation here run ? ' In our ordinary experience of colour, ' he
says, ' the colour is separate from the mind, and completely independent
of it. In our experience of the colour's beauty there is indissoluble
union with the mind.' The contention comes to this. Colour resides
in the thing seen, with which the organism having the quality of con-
sciousness may or may not be compresent. Whether it is so com-
present or not makes no difference to the non-mental existence of the
colour as such. On the other hand, beauty resides, not in the thing
only and independently, but in ' the whole situation,' which we may
bracket thus [coloured thing in relation to compresent organism with
quality of consciousness] . ' In that relation the object has a character
which it would not have except for that relation.' The doctrine of
' internal relations ' is accepted where beauty is concerned, and rejected
in respect of colour. In other words, if the beautiful thing be one
term and the conscious organism, the other term, each gets its character
{qua beautiful but not qua coloured) from its relation to the other.
[ should say that this holds good for the colour of the object, no less
than for its beauty. My chief concern, however, is not with what
Mr. Alexander rejects but with that which he accepts.

J.— PSYCHOLOGY. l5l

He holds (1) that the beauty of an object ' is a character superadded
to it from its relation to the mind in virtue of which it satisfies, or
pleases after a certain fashion, or sesthetically.' Now this being
pleased or satisfied is referable (within the situation) to the organism
which has the quality of consciousness, i.e. in brief to the mind. So
far at least it seems to be a differentiated feature in consciousness no
longer merely recipient. Mr. Alexander tells us (2) that, within the
relational situation, 'the beauty is attributed to the object.' He says
that ' it is the paradox of beauty that its expressiveness belongs to
[I should say is referred to] the beautiful thing itself, and yet would
not be there except for the mind. ' He accepts (3) ' value ' as that
which satisfies a need; and he would (I think) not reject the view
that it is primarily a felt need for behaving or acting (socially he would
add) in some manner in regard to, or with reference to, the object to
which value is attributed. He accepts also (4), as precursors of true
values, what he calls ' instinctive values,' which I should speak of as the
utilities of organic behaviour (e.g. under Darwinian treatment). We thus
have (i) a specific mode of being conscious ; (ii) reference of this differen-
tiated feature in consciousness to the object; and (iii) a recognition of
the pragmatic value of tertiary characters as determined by social con-
duct. I urge that, mutatis mutandis, the same treatment apjplies to the
secondary characters ; and that such treatment does away with Mr.
Alexander's rather drastic difference of interpretation on the perceptive
and on the reflective plane. In the case of secondary characters, no
less than in that of values, we have (i) specific modes of being conscious,
(ii) reference of this differentiating feature in consciousness to the object,
(iii) as founded on the utility of behaviour thereto. Finally, we have
Mr. Alexander's general conclusion. ' Thus value,' he says, 'in the
form of the tertiary qualities emerges not with consciousness or mind
as such, which the animals also possess, but with reflective conscious-
ness or judgment.'

This conclusion seems to indicate that just as the quality of con-
sciousness marks a phase of emergent evolution, with something
genuinely new supervenient to the quality of life, so too within this phase
there are ascending sub-phases of emergence. In reflective consciousness
(the iv, y of my table) there is, in ' value,' something genuinely new,
supervenient on the perceptive consciousness (iv, /3) which affords its
evolutionary precursor. In other words, just as consciousness has its
status in the hierarchy of salient qualities, so too within consciousness
there are reflective and perceptive sub-qualities.

It is, I think, clear that the question I have here raised is of im-
portance suiScient to justify the space I have devoted to it. It comes
to this : Are there differentiating features {'qiialia ' they may be called)
in consciousness as such? Do they, under conscious reference to
objects, make these mental objects other than they would be if relation
to consciousness were absent? If so, is this outcome of conscious
reference restricted to the ' tertiary characters,' or is it also applicable
to the ' secondary characters ' ? My belief is that it has to be reckoned
with throughout the whole range of mental evolution.

152 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

The Place of Consciousness^

A second pi-eliminary question is this : Where does consciousness
dwell and have its being? From the point of view of emergent evolution
I take it that the answer is : Consciousness is correlated with certain
physiological and physical events which have place in the organism —
and there only.

One has to deal with the relations which obtain in nature at their
appropriate levels of emergence; and I hold that the proper level
of spatial (and temporal) relations is that of physical events. But
since all higher emergent strata depend on this stratum, and would not
be present in its absence, space-time relations are implied throughout
the whole series. In further illustration of what I mean, the proper
level of energy-relations is sub-vital. Vital events, in a system which
is not only physico-chemical but has also the quality of life, no doubt
depend on energy-changes at the physico-chemical level. But there
is no specific ' vital energy ' (still less ' psychic energy ') in the same
sense of the word ' energy.' The word is then used with a different
connotation.

Our present concern, however, is with ' the place of consciousness '
under some meaning to be attached to this expression. There is so
much ambiguity in the question ' Where is it? ' and in the answer
' It is there,' that a little must be said thereon.

Suppose that one is dealing with things in one's room. Each
thing is interpretable as a group of events with physical substratum.
May we say, then, that any such given event (spatially related, of
course, to other such events) has place in the group or system of events
which is the thing? I take it that in one valid sense 'it is there.'
In this sense a multitude of events — chemical, vital, unconscious, and
conscious — have place which is dependent on that of the physical events
in the organism. In this sense they are included in that system of
events which we call the organism. But the organism is included in
a larger spatial system. Shall we, for our present purpose, which is
rather biological and psychological than physical, call -this larger whole
the situation? Now, suppose that my dog leaves the mat, on which
he has been lying, to bask in a patch of sunshine near the window. He
alters his place in the room as situation; but the physical, chemical,
and other events retain their place in him. Whither he goes, thither
also go all these events. In one sense they are still there — wherever
he may be. In another sense their place has changed. They were, a
few minutes ago, on the mat; now, they are near the window.

And if we ask: Where does the dog behave? I take it that the
natural answer is : In the environing situation. But the question may
be taken to mean : Where do his muscles function ? Then the natural
answer would be : In his body wherever it may go under their functional
action. Let us next ask : Where does the dog perceive? In one sense
he perceives in the situation, which includes the thing seen and the
dog that sees it. But in another sense the perception is in him. That
is where the process of perceiving (or more strictly the physical events
correlated therewith) may be said to occur and to have place.

J.— PSYCHOLOGY. 1 53

We should distinguish, then, a ' there of place,' witiiin the inclusive
situation, and a ' there of place ' within the thing included in that situa-
tion. But when the dog rose from the mat and walked to the window,
the influence of the sunlit patch which took effect on his eyes was the
basis (founded on prior behavioui') of reference to place near the window.
That is where he saw it; it is towards that spot that his procedure
was directed. Now, on this occasion, reference to place within the
situation, and behaviour in reaching that place, were happily consonant.
There was nothing of the nature of illusion. But when one of his
predecessors in my household barked at his mirror-image, the place of
reference for behaviour' was not consonant with what sophisticated
human folk call the ' real place ' of that tiring towards which he behaved.
The conditions v/ere abnormal ; and ' place of reference ' did, not coincide
with ' real place. ' So, too, if you see a pike below the surface in a
still pool, and try to shoot him with a saloon rifle, you will probably
miss him (unless you have learnt the trick) because the place of refer-
ence for behaviour in aiming is not the place where he happens to be.
Coincidence of place of reference with ' real, ' or acknowledged, place
can only be established through the outcome of behaviour, crude at first,
intellectually guided at last. If this behaviour works, well and good
in the realm of practice; but it may work admirably, and yet not stand
the test of validity in the realm of interpretation which includes the
problem of cognition. In any case we have to distinguish (c) the ' there
of reference ' from the ' there of place ' (a) in the situation and (b) in
the thing. The ' where ' to which the colour of the ruby, and to which
its beauty also, is referred, is unquestionably 'there ' in the gem; the
conditions for colour-perception are undoubtedly ' there ' in the cognitive
situation as a whole ; but the chemical changes due to electro-magnetic
influence are ' there ' in the retino-cerebral system of the organism.
And it is in correlation with these changes which run their course
within the organism that the quality of consciousness is emergent.

Does it follow from what has been said that ' the place of conscious-
ness ' is in some differentiated part of the organism — say in the cortex
of the brain? Again the question is ambiguous. In what sense has it
place there? Certain focal events in what one may call the intra-
organic situation have place there; and in that sense conscious enjoy-
ment is the correlate o-f physiological changes that may there be
localised. It is dependent on these changes, and in their absence would
not be present or in being. But it is no less dependent on all that takes
place in the intra-organic situation. Hence in the wider sense nothing
less than the whole organism as a going concern is the seat of the
enjoyment which is correlated with its total working as a vitally
integrated system.

Consciousness as Objective.

It will now, I hope, be sufficiently clear that when I say that con-
sciousness dwells and has its being in the organism, and there only,
my meaning is that any given instance of the class of events we call
conscious (in a comprehensive sense of the word) is oon'elated with
Certain vital and physical events which have place in that organism.
1921 „

154 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

There is, however, a very different bat still quite empirical view. It
may be said that consciousness as such embraces all the objects to
which there is conscious reference. In other words, on this view it
pervades the whole situation. That is ' where it is.' Let us consider
what is here meant. It rests on the interpretation of consciousness as
a mode of connection under which objects in the whole situation are
the terms related inter se. Hence Professor Woodbridge urges that
objects are ' in consciousness ' in the same sense as things are ' in
space' or events are 'in time.' Just as the expression 'in space ' or
' in time ' conveniently condenses the longer and more cumbrous ex-
pression ' in that kind of inter-relatedness of things which is called
spatial or temporal ' ; so too does ' in consciousness ' condense the fuller
expression ' in that kind of inter-relatedness of objects which we call
conscious.' And just as there is a spatio-temporal continuum within
which things have place; so too, according to Mr. Woodbridge, 'con-
sciousness may be defined as a kind of continuum of objects.' We
should, therefore, he says, deal with the relations of the objects in con-
sciousness to one another ' in the same way as that in which we deal
with the relations of things in space to one another.' It is, I think,
clear that consciousness, on this view, is coextensive with what is some-
times called ' the field of consciousness ' — that of which one is con-
scious in reference thereto. In other words, consciousness is nowise
limited to the organism, but is a special kind of relatedness which
pervades the whole conscious situation. In my phraseology following
Berkeley, the field of consciousness is ' in mind by way of idea ' but
not ' in consciousness by way of attribute. ' But we are here considering
a different usage under a different terminology.

Professor Holt, whose avenue of approach, like that of Mr. Wood-
bridge, is primarily logical, and new-realistic, develops an interesting
doctrine of ' neutral entities.' I cannot here parenthetically discuss
this doctrine with its stress on the objective reality of universals indepen-
dently of consciousness. We may, I think, for our present purpose,
take his view to be that what we commonly call the environment of an
organism is aw fond constituted by those universalised neutral entities
we name objects, and that it is these neutral objects which call forth
in the organism its specific responses or its more highly organised
behaviour. But not all the environment calls forth such response or
behaviour. That part which does so on any given occasion is what Mr.
Holt calls a 'cross-section.' It is, so to speak, the business part of
the total environment — that part which counts for behaviour — and it is
through behaviour that it is selected from the rest of the environment.
Now this neutral cross-section, defined by responsive behaviour, ' co-
incides exactly with the list of objects of which we say that we are
conscious.' Mr. Holt therefore, on the basis of this coincidence, feels
himself free to call the environmental cross-section the ' psychic cross-
section,' or 'consciousness' or 'mind,' within which the individual
members are 'sensations,' 'perceptions," 'ideas,' &c. It is clear,
therefore, that for Mr. Holt, as for Mr. Woodbridge, consciousness is,
or includes, all that part of the environment to which there is conscious
reference; that it 'is extended both in space and time . . . being

J.— PSYCHOLOGY. 155

actually such parts of the object as are perceived '; and that the cross-
section we are said to perceive is coincident with that towards which
we behave.

Obviously we have in Mr. Holt's doctrine one form of a behaviour-
istic interpretation of consciousness. This opens up an issue which
cannot here be discussed. One can, however, brietly indicate what
seems to be the essential question at issue. Let us provisionally grant
that organic behaviour towards what we call an object is ' coincident '
with conscious reference to that object; nay more, let us gi'ant that in
the absence of prior behaviour to it there would never be evolved such
conscious reference to it. Even granting this, does it follow that this
conscious reference is not only ' coincident with ' behaviour but is
nothing more than that behaviour? In accordance with the principles
of emergent evolution it does not follow, and it is not so; the one is
a function of the organism's life, dependent on, but emergently more
than, its physico-chemical constitution, while the other is a function of
that organism's consciousness, dependent on, but emergently more
than, that organism's hfe. And just as life is a quality of the organism
that behaves and is centred therein, so too is consciousness a quality
(higher in order of emergence) of the organism which is conscious in
perceiving and in behaving.

Modes of being Conscious.

We may revert, then, to the view that the quality of consciousness
has place in the organism (or more strictly is correlated with physical
and physiological events which have place there), but that conscious
reference, hke organic behaviour on the plane of life, is effluent from
that organism which receives physical influence.

My position under genetic treatment is this : (a) Physical processes
of many and varied kinds are, on occasion, influent on the organism
which has receptors attuned to them; (b) very complex chano-es,.
physico-chemical and physiological, are called forth in that organism;.
and (c) it responds in organic behaviour, coming thus into new fields
of physical influence. Thus, under hght-radiation, influence from that
which, in the language of our highly developed adult reference, we call
a ladybird, affects the retinal receptors of the chick a few hours old;
organised changes in his tissues result therefrom ; he pecks at the lady-
bird, and tango- or chemo-receptors are thus physically influenced. So
far the interpretation is biological and behaviouristic only. But,
rightly or wrongly, I impute to the chick affective enjoyment on which
some measure of conscious cognition is founded. That is neither
physico-chemical nor physiological, though it is correlated with both.
It is mental. It is the psychical or inner aspect of processes which
have also their outer aspect with which the bio-chemist and the physio-
logist deal. But it just as truly belongs to that organism as does its
life, or its chemical constitution.

We want now to come to closer quarters with this inner or psychical
aspect correlated with the whole range of hfe-processes (a), (b), and (c).
What is it? Perhaps all that one can say in reply to this question is
that what it feels like that it is. But one can enumerate different ways.

N 2

156 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

in which we enjoy this inner aspect — in which we are conscious in the
most comprehensive sense of the word. Thus when one is seeing,
hearing, tasting; when one is running, cUmbing, swimming; when
one is imaging in reverie or in dream; when one is ix'ritable, worried,
or anxious; joyous or sad, in discomfort or at ease, fit and well, sick
or sorry; when one is thinking or trying to recollect, following an
argument, or solving a problem; accepting some statement in an atti-
tude of belief, rejecting it, or poised in a state of doubt; when one
chuckles over a joke, or winces under a bad pun; when one vibrates
to music or shudders at the braying of a street band ; nay even when,
thereafter, ' silence like a poultice comes to heal the blows of sound ' ;
in all these cases, and in a thousand others, we have instances of what
it is to be conscious in the most comprehensive sense.

It will of course quite rightly and pertinently be asked : Who or
what is thus conscious, now in this way and now in another? The
empirical reply to this question (that to be given under emergent evolu-
tion) is : The integrated system of all the fluent conscious events that
are thus integrated within that system. That is just what the mind
is — an integrated system of consciously inter-related terms intrinsic to
tlie organism and correlated with its hfe. No doubt a further question
lies behind : What is it that gives to such a system the integration that
it has ? It is here that Creative Evolution offers an explanation in
terms of Agency. In accepting the ' given ' as that which we find in
nature — and in leaving the question : What gives ? to be discussed in
the philosophical class-room — emer-gent evolution does but follow, as I
think, the traditional procedure of science.

Consciousness and Enjoyment.

In speaking of a mind as an integrated system of conscious events
the word ' conscious ' is used in the broad and comprehensive sense that
Was almost universally accepted a generation ago. But in accordance
with current usage we must now distinguish consciousness from the
unconscious. I happen to regard the woi'd ' unconscious ' as pecuUarly
unfortunate — chosen as it is on the lucus a non lucendo principle. But
let that pass. There it is and we must make the best of it — seeking to
penetrate its dark wood. Under the older and more comprehensive
use, consciousness may be indefinable. As in the case of spatial or
dl temporal relatedness we have got down to something that we find,
rather than to something that can be strictly defined. Hence one
has to proceed by indicating instances that fall within the inclusive
class which we so name. The position is that, in the comprehensive
class which we used to comprise under the heading of consciousness,
it is now thought desirable to make two sub-classes — (a) the uncon-
scious and (h) the conscious. There is call, therefore, for the indication
of some criteria which shall serve to distinguish the one from the other.
Here definition is required. And since the unconscious is ' served withi
the negative prefix,' it is clear that the criteria we seek must distinguish]
by their presence the conscious from the unconscious in which these
criteria are absent. Under what heading, then, are we now to place!
the compi-ehensive class including both (a) and (b)? I suppose we I

J.— PSYCHOLOGY, 157

may call it the class of psychical events — as distinguished from physical
and physiological events. But we still want some convenient noun
which we may qualify by the adjectives ' conscious ' and ' unconscious.'
I borrow froni Mr. Alexander, and adapt for my present purpose, the
name 'enjoyment.' Perhaps the chief objection to the choice of this
word is that it must be understood as including what is unpleasant no
less than that which is pleasureable. But as I cannot find a better,
and am loth to coin a worse, I ask leave to use this word ' enjoyment '
to include all Hint has the psycliical cliaracter or aspect. I regard the
emphasis on affective tone which it suggests as a point in its favour.

On these terms there fall within the comprehensive class of enjoy-
ment two sub-classes : (a) unconscious enjoyment and (b) conscious
enjoyment — the latter marked by certain differentiating criteria. It
may, however, be said (with some impatience) : This division and sub-
division into classes and sub-classes may be all very well in its way;
but we ought to deal with concrete systems, not with abstract classes.
So be it. Then, in this or that psychical system or mind, with concrete
individuality, there is enjoyment which is (in some sense) unconscious,
and there may also be enjoyment which is conscious (under some
definition) ; and we want to distinguish in some way the one kind of
enjoyment from the other. That puts the matter in more concrete
form.

The question now arises : Is the distinction between the conscious
and the unconscious just the same as that which is often drawn between
' above the threshold ' and ' below the threshold ' (supraliminal and
subliminal)? Or, if they are not just the same, is there such close and
intimate alliance that we may still say that all that is supraliminal is
conscious and all that is subliminal is unconscious?

Let us first ask what we are to understand by supraliminal and by
subliminal. I find this question exceedingly difficult to answer, save
in rather vague and general terms. It involves a boundary line — the
threshold — very hard to draw if one keeps within the sphere of what I
have called homogeneous treatment. Is it a matter of intensity of
psychical process, or of complexity, or of some combination of both?
If so, can we, on purely psychical grounds, get a scale of one or other
or both, so as to determine that zero-level at which what we call the
threshold stands ? It is difficult to do so.

May we say that the supraliminal is what we actually feel or ex-
perience, and that the subliminal is that the presence of which we
infer? Then on what grounds is this inference based? Is it that
we find, on occasion, that we have done something without any felt
experience in doing it ? If so, what evidence is there with regai^d to the
nature of the psychical or inner aspect which on that occasion accom-
panied the doing? Or is it that the supraliminal experience is such as
to lead us to infer that the subliminal modifies its felt nature? But
if the difference is felt, as such, the subliminal so far enters into the
supraliminal field so as to be felt indirectly if not directlj'. In that case
the boundary seems hard to draw.

Shall we then resort to heterogeneous treatment? Shall we regard
the psychically supraliminal as correlated with some q,ssignabJe

158 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

character of physiological process, say in the cortex of the brain? It
is sometimes said that ' when the brain-paths are worn smooth ' the
correlated psychical process becomes (or tends to become) subliminal.
Without denying the partial validity of some such interpretation in
correlating the physiology and psychology of habit, can one accept
the general principle that at some stage of lessened synaptic resistance
enjoyment is subliminal and at some stage of heightened synaptic
resistance it is supraliminal? Is there not rich enjoyment (apparently
well above the threshold) in the performance of well-established habit?
And is there good evidence that (let us say) clear and vivid perception or
swift and effective thought (which seems to thrill with supraliminal
enjoyment) is proportional to physiological friction or synaptic
resistance ?

If the emphasis fall, not on the synaptic resistance overcome but on
the establishment of a constellation of neuronic connections, and if it
be urged that it is integration in progress which is correlated with what
is psychically supraliminal, there may be much that is in favour of
some such view. But does it follow that it is only when integration
is in progress that enjoyment is supraliminal? There is surely much
which is the outcome of well-established process that seems to be dis-
tinctly above the threshold. I am not satisfied that in our present state
of knov/ledge heterogeneous treatment helps us very much to draw a
definite line.

Eeverting, then, to homogeneous treatment, it is often said that
the subliminal (commonly regarded, I think, as a synonym for the un-
conscious) may best be defined as that which lies beyond the reach of
introspection. But the introspection in terms of which the distinction
is made stands in need of careful re-examination. Apart from
behaviourist criticism, which has to be reckoned with, Mr. Alexander
has raised the pertinent question : What is it that is reached by
introspection? Is it the process of minding (e.g. attending or being
interested), or is it that which is minded (what one is attending to,
or interested in)? If the latter, he denies that it should be called
introspection ; it is a form of ' extrospection ' in relation to what, for
him, are non-mental (and, for me, objective) images or concepts — ^in
mind by way of idea. And if the former, he denies that there is such
introspection; for minding, though it is enjoyed, cannot, he says, be
an object of contemplation or at the same time then and there minded.
Now I have taken the word ' consciousness ' as connoting mental pro-
cess — i.e. that which is in mind by way of attribute. And I am dis-
posed to agree with Mr. Alexander that mental process as such (and
therefore consciousness as such) is not directly within the reach of
introspection. I cannot follow this up. Indeed, my aim is only to
show that if we are to define the supraliminal in terms of introspection
we need a careful and up-to-date discussion of that in terms of which
we so define it. To say that everyone knows what introspection is
does not suffice.

Furthermore, those who have carefully considered the matter will
probably regard introspection as possible only at the level of reflective
thought. Presumably the cow has not reached tbat level. Put if th§

J.— PSYCHOLOGY. 159

supraliminal is to be defined as that which is within the reach of
introspection, can the cow have any supraliminal enjoyment if she have
no introspection by means of which to reach it? Does comparative
psychology endorse this current method of dealing with that very
elusive limit, the threshold?

It must not be inferred from what I have said that the concept of
threshold must be abandoned. It may be a difficult line to draw and
yet be there as a boundary. We may still speak rather vaguely of
supraliminal and subliminal. What I wish to suggest is that the line
between them need not be coincident with that between conscious and
unconscious. There are, I believe, modes of enjoyment both conscious
and unconscious in the supraliminal field. But this reopens the main
question : What are the differentiating criteria of the conscious ?

Criteria of Consciousness.

Ask the plain man what he means when he speaks of acting con-
sciously and he will probably reply : ' I mean doing this or that with some
measure of intention and with some measure of attention to what
is done or to its outcome. The emphasis may vary; but one, or
other, or both, of these characterise action that I call conscious. If
I offend a man unconsciously there is no intention to give offence.
When a cyclist guides his machine unconsciously he no longer pays
attention to the business of steering, avoiding stones in the road, and
so forth.' Now if this cori'ectly represents the plain man's view, it
is clear that a full consideration of his attitude would involve careful
discussion of intention and of attention. This is beyond my present
scope. I want to dig farther down so as to get at what, as I think,
underlies his meaning, and thus to put what I have to submit in a much
more general form.

I want, if possible, to get down to what there is in the most
primitive instances of consciousness — i.e. right down to that which
characterises them as such. I believe that there is always in addition
to that which is immediately given (say under direct stimulation in
sense-awareness) some measure of revival with expectancy, begotten
of pi'evious behaviour in a substantially similar situation. Conscious-
ness is always a matter of the subsequent occasion, and always pre-
supposes a precedent occasion. In other words it is the outcome of
repetition ; and yet, paradoxically, when it comes it is something
genuinely new. But this is the very hall-mark of emergence. That is
why Mr. Alexander and I speak of consciousness as an emergent quality.

Let us analyse some simple first occasion — that on which a chick
behaves to a ladybird will serve. The eye is stimulated from a distance
with accompanying enjoyment (a). The chick responds by approach-
ing and pecking with enjoyment in behaving (b). There follows con-
tact stimulation with its enjoyment (c); and, thereon, behaviour of
rejection with (d). We have thus (as I interpret) a biologically
determined but orderly sequence affording successive modes of enjoy-
ment a, b, c, d. So far the precedent occasion. On a subsequent
occasion there is (a) as before in presentative fonn ; this is immediately
given in sensory acquaintance. But (b, c, d) are also ' in mind ' —

160 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

mediately or in re-presentative guise, under revival, as what Professor
Stout calls ' meaning. ' We have therefore (under an analogy) on
the precedent occasion the notes a, h, c, d, strucli in sequence. We
have on the subsequent occasion [b, c, d) rung up by (a) through a
' mechanism ' (a bad word since the mechanical is superseded) provided
psychically and neurally in the instrument. And when the notes
(a, b, c, d) thus vibrate together they have the emergent quality of what
one may speak of as the chord of consciousness.

What is there, however, about this emergent chord which
differentiates it from the precedent sequence of notes a, b, c, d? It
must be something psychical in its nature. I suggest that the revival
carries with it a specific mode of new enjoyment which may be called
' againness ' ; that which affords the basis of felt recognition. There
is also something equally new in expectancy. That this is (so far
as our own experience testifies) a fa-ctor in the chord of consciousness
is, I should suppose, scarcely open to question. I believe that it arises
somewhat thus. On the precedent occasion the order of sequence was
(c), after (a). On the subsequent occasion the quale in consciousness
takes the form of what one may call the ' comingness ' of (c) precedent
to the ' comeness ' which normally follows. But I cannot here follow
up this clue.

Now whereas on the precedent occasion it is behaviour unconsciously
directed towards that from which stimulation arrives that determines
the order b, c, d as sequent on a; on the subsequent occasion it is the
'meaning ' [b, c, d) which then consciously determines the-direction of
behaviour. This centering of ' meaning ' on that to wliich behaviour
was on the precedent occasion unconsciously directed is the basis of
conscious reference to an object.

The characteristics, then, of a chord of consciousness are revival
with expectancy and with conscious reference which anticipates, and,
through anticipation (thus forestalling the event), may endorse, or
inhibit, the further course of behaviour. And its emergent character,
as chord, makes consciousness, not merely an additive blend of con-
stituent tones of enjoyment, but (in Browning's forcible emphasis on
a wholly new quaUty) ' a star.' (Cf. Abt VogUr.)

I have thus far dealt with the criteria of consciousness on the lines
of what I conceive to be its evolutionary genesis. I must now ask
whether these criteria — revival with expectancy and reference — do not
characterise what we commonly regard as conscious enjoyment in our
own adult life. My own experience is consonant with the outcome
of genetic treatment. And I would ask others if there is not in our
current consciousness always some measure of felt 'againness ' carried
over from the past in revival, and always some measure of ' comingness '
in expectancy. I would ask whether there is not, as essential to con-
sciousness, some leaning back on previous experience, some leaning
forward to that which the future has in store. Is not this what
M. Bergson means (I do not say all that he means) when he speaks
of consciousness as ' a hyphen ' linking past and future ?

It need only be added that the conscious enjoyment in minding
lies in the felt againness and comingness and referring — i.e. in the -ing

J.— PSYCHOLOGY. 161

aspect. But there are in consciousness as above differentiated always
correlative -ed-aspects in that which is revived, that which is expected,
and that to wliich there is objective reference.

Stress on Integration.

I suppose that there may be pretty general agreement that, in
dealing with mind, emphasis — perliaps the chief emphasis — should fall
on integration. I use the word ' integration ' for that kind of systematic
relatedness which obtains in an organism, and in a mind, where the
functioning of sub-systems, as parts of the whole, depends on that
of the system as a whole.

Let us here very briefly advert to that organic integration which
characterises a system which has the emergent quality of life. "We
find a number of sub-systems — respiratory, circulatory, reproductive,
and so on — within the comprehensive life-system of the organism. We
find these functional activities interrelated in many vei'y subtle and
delicate ways in the life that is common to them all. We consider,
for example, the integrative action of the nervous system, and of that
which may now be called the ' hormonic ' system of internal secretions
distributed by the bloo<l-stream. The working of any one sub-system
may facilitate or enhance the working of another; or it may partially
arrest or even inhibit it. Abnonnal functional activity of one sub-
system may throw another sub-system out of gear; and so the trouble
may spread. But the sub-systems are not historically prior to the life-
system as a whole within which they play their parts; nor is the
whole (that whole) prior to its sub-systematic constituents ; whole and
parts have been progressively evolved together with such closely related
interplay as characterises the quality of life.

Now I assume, or accept as a provisional hypothesis, that uncon-
scious enjoyment is correlated with life-process throughout its whole
range. I know not where to draw the line between presence and
absence. And how else can we interpret in homogeneous treatment,
under emergence, psychical continuity in the race? In other words,
wherever there is life there too, even in the germ cells, there is also,
I assume, an accompaniment of enjoyment, psychical in its nature,
at a level correlative with that of the current physiological process.

If this hypothesis be provisionally accepted in the spirit in which
it is provisionally offered, what holds good for the life-system holds good
also in principle and mutatis mutandis for the psychical system. But
within that system there emerges the higher quality of consciousness
(iv, yS) characterised, lot us say, by cognitive reference to the objective
environment (to emphasise this criterion). Hence in the light of
developing consciousness there is a progressive re-grouping in reference
to the objects of which we are conscious, or objects in terms of which
much of our unconscious enjoyment is re-interpreted. We say that
dispositions, or interests, or innate tendencies, or emotional systems, or
instincts, or impulses, are awakened to activity from a state of more
or less unconscious slumber. (We are sure to use some rather
metaphorical expressions.) These are then regarded as the sub-systems
of the mind. Each has some measure of autonomous integration ; all

162 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

are in some measure inter-related; and in a well-balanced mind, the
net results of a bewildering number of psychical processes, many of
them previously subliminal and unconscious, are caught up in sub-
servience to conscious integration. But taken in detail there is much
interplay between the psychical sub-systems as such, with facilitation,
partial arrest, more or less inhibition, and perhaps derangement of
function. There may be failure of normal integration within one
systematic whole, or even such dislocation as we speak of as complete
dissociation. And any of the psychical sub-systems — the so-called
sexual complex for example — may be active in the subliminal region
of the unconscious, or may rise into the supraliminal field and may
modify the course of conscious events.

There is thus integration within the sub-systems severally, and
integration of these sub-systems collectively so as to constitute a
whole with (let us hope) due balance and poise. The unity ol the whole
is not that of simplicity but that of integrated complexity. In the
degree in which the total integration fails to conduce to what we
speak of as mental health and sanity we regard the poise as abnormal,
and seek, by appropriate means (under the guidance of sympathy),
(1) to ascertain to what sub-systematic conditions the lack of balance
is due, and (2) to re-establish, if possible, the noi-mal poise. It is
here that psycho-therapy has done such valuable work in the practical
application of psychological principles no longer restricted to the sphere
of reflective consciousness only.

Levels of Psychical Integration.

In our normal life much integration proceeds on the reflective
level — that of rational thought and volitional conduct. The older
philosophers, with some variation of terminology, urged that the
difference between this reflective level and the perceptive level below it
(e.g. in Descartes' animal automatism) is one not only of degree but
of kind. The difference, they said in effect, is radical and absolute,
demanding metempirical explanation. Thus the word ' kind ' carried
a definitely metaphysical implication the influence of which is still
with us to-day. But apart from this, as a matter of frankly empirical
description of what is found, it was their way of expressing what I
seek to express by saying that reflective consciousness has a new
emergent quality — that which characterises reason as distinguished from
perceptual intelligence. We have, however, the one word ' conscious-
ness ' for both these levels. But within the more comprehensive sub-
class, comprising all instances of consciousness, we may distinguish
two sub-classes subordinate therein, (i) that of instances of reflective
consciousness (iv, y), and (ii) that of instances of non-reflective con-
sciousness (iv, y8 ). Both sets of instances have the criteria of con-
sciousness. But in (i) there is a further differentia in that ' value '
(in the technical sense) is refen-ed to the object of such reflective thought.
There is then, on this view, reflective integration, and there is also
non-reflective or perceptive integration, each on its appropriate level, and
each in its distinctive way conscious.

It is to the reflective level that all interpretation and explanation

J.— PSYCHOLOGY. 163

properly belong. And it is here that there emerge the significant re-
lations of conduct to value (truth, beauty, goo<lness) in conscious
reference to objects of reflection. That, in us, much integration is
established at this level of our conscious life cannot be questioned.
But to say that all psychical integration is established at this level
is itself an interpretation subject to truth-value; and one is pretty safe
in roundly asserting that it is erroneous. Now, regarded from the
point of view of emergent evolution, just as the quality of consciousness
is dependent on, and supervenient to, the quality of life, so too is
reflective consciousness dependent on, and supei-venient to, the prior
development of unreflective consciousness — in human folk in large
measure begotten, through perceptive imitation, of the customs of our
'herd.' This unreflective process, as such, imitatively follows a lead
which is itself the outcome of traditional habit no less unreflective.
But reflective interpretation in due course supervenes when values come
within the mental horizon; and it may be (alas often is) erroneous.
And a leading type of false interpretation to which men are prone Is
seen in the tendency to trump up reflective motives in terms of value
for actions detennined by integration that is unreflective in character.
As Huxley long ago put it, ' What we call rational grounds for our
beliefs are often extremely irrational attempts to justify our instincts.'

How then do we stand? There is perceptive integration (con-
sciously but not reflectively established) such as is the salient feature
in the mental life of many animals. This passes up from its proper
level to that of reflective consciousness, and is there re-integrated in
the new significant field of value. Then, as reflective habitudes of
valuing get firmly rooted, such re-integration spreads downwards to
give value to more and more of that which has been established under
the lower and earlier integration of the perceptive order. Behaviour
is reorganised as conduct in terms of value.

This double process is noteworthy. Yilien the emergent level of
reflective consciousness is reached, the outcome of prior unreflective
integration passes up from its lower level. But as re-integration at the
upper level proceeds, more and more of the unreflective substratum
undergoes reflective regrouping around the values which are the new
centres of that higher re-integration. Unreflective integration ascends
from below ; reflective re-integi'ation descends from above. But they
are different ; the new ' form ' of integration is other than the old.
There is always some ' conflict ' which has been a fruitful theme in
drama from the time of the Greeks onwards. And in our so-called
normal life (to say nothing of that which is abnormal) this conflict of
systems, with different centres of gi'ouping and fields of influence, is
daily and hourly in evidence.

Now carry the matter a stage lower. Unreflective integration of
the perceptually intelligent order is consciously established in the course
of individual life. The animal unreflectively learns to act in nice
accordance with varying circumstances just as man learns also to act
reflectively in relation to value. But is there not a yet deeper integra-
tion the products of which come up from below the perceptive level?
Unquestionably there is, A generation ago it wag regarded as purely

164 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

physiological; but that involves heterogeneous interpretation. If we
accept the correlation of enjoyment with life we can regard it as un-
conscious integration. Its characteristic feature is that it is not con-
sciously established in the course of individual or personal life. Its
integrated ' form ' is inherited and not acquired, though it may be
swiftly re-integrated at the perceptive or (later) at the reflective level.
As such and in its primary ' form,' as initially given, it is an ancestral
bequest transmitted as a psychical legacy through the parents. Of it
the individual is the unconscious heir.

Primarily dependent on the great life-functions, closely coiTelated
with current physiological process in the organic sub-systems, finding
expression in the co-ordinated, albeit unlearnt, behaviour adapted to
racially recurrent life-situations, unconscious enjoyment, as psychical
aspect, is, as M. Bergson says (but under a different interpretation),
moulded to the very form of life — nay more, to every changing phase
of the physiological balance and poise of the organism as such. Of
this unconscious enjoyment nmch is, and may remain, the subliminal
basis for a supraliminal superstructure at the levels of conscious in-
tegration. But qua unconscious it does not necessarily remain
subliminal. In any of its ' forms ' it may, on occasion, surge up into
the supraliminal field with strongly affective tone, and thus afford new
factors to be woven into the tapestry of the higher conscious integration.
It still, however, even there, bears the mark of the unconscious in that
it is new and unexpected with no feeling of againness just because, as
fresh and new, there is no againness in the individual life to feel.
And this insurgent factor, welling up from the unconscious, may, and
often does, come into conflict with the outcome of perceptive or un-
reflective, and still more markedly with the outcome of our reflective
re-integration. This more radical conflict is mi fond that between what
is racially established for the furtherance of life, as such, and what is
socially established (far later in the evolutionary order) at the reflective
level of that which we call (with emphasis on one of the values) our
morality.

Having no space for further elaboration in detail, I must rest content
with drawing attention to the following salient points. Although it
originates in the unconscious and is there shaped to its integrated
' form, ' the uprush from the deeper psychical strata founded on life-
inheritance may glow and thrill with the affective tone which is the
hall-mark of enjoyment and may take a very high place in the supra-
liminal field. Secondly, in that field it can only be distinguished (and
that mainly inferentially) under analysis. It cannot ever be separated
from the conscious factors which emergently combine with it in per-
ceptive or in reflective re-integration. Thirdly, the distinguishing fl
positive character of the innate factor which comes up from the un-
conscious (if we can catch it prior to further combination) is that it
is new to individual experience. As new, there is no revival, no feeling ■
of againness, no expectancy of what will next come based on the
experience of what has come on like occasions ; for there have been no
like occasions in the course of individual life. And it gets all its
reference to objects through its alliance with the conscious,

J.— PSYCHOLOGY. 165

, It seems to me therefore imperative to distinguish in that which
is present in the suprahminal field according to tlie mode of origin of
tlie integration that obtains. We must ask: How far is the ' form '
which it assumes (iii) the outcome of reflective integration; (ii) the
outcome of unreHective or perceptive integration ; and (i) the outcome
of the integration in the subliminal unconscious to which as living
beings we are heirs'? If I am right in regarding (ii) and (iii) as
successively emergent qualities of consciousness there is somewhat of a
leap (though no breach of continuity) from (i) to (ii), and from (ii) to (iii).
There is always something more (involving new terms in new relations)
in the higher-level conclusion than is contained in the lower-level
premisses. This is the cardinal principle of all emergent evolution.
Without this there would be nothing really new — merely a reshuffling
of the old.

Eevert now to ascending and descending integration. Under what
may be spoken of as degradation — going down a step with habitude and
habit — well-established reflective integration may assume the status
of unreflective integration, and well-established unreflective integration
that of the unconscious. The illustrative facts are familiar enough.
It appears that the physiological correlates of this descent or degradation
from higher to lower levels may be interpreted in terms of neural loop-
lines and lower-level short-cuts due to lessened synaptic resistance in
subordinate centres. If this be so, it is strictly accordant with the
dependence of consciousness on life that psychical degradation should
accompany physiological automatisation. The one is the correlated
inner aspect of processes with which the physiologist has to deal.

Are there Unconscious Images and Ideas P

In the interpretation to which I have been led unconscious enjoyment
(not necessarily involving unconscious images and ideas) is no less
integrated than is the system of physiological events which gives to
life its emergent quality. If the analogy be permitted, just as in the
physiological symphony of life there are chords and phrases and
motifs, each with an emergent character of its own (e.g. the part played
by the instruments of the reproductive sub-system), so too, in the
psychical symphony of unconscious enjoyment there are correlated
chords, phrases, and motifs. And all goes well so long as due balance
and harmony is maintained in the orchestral performance, no matter
what instruments play a dominant part at the time being. But uncon-
scious enjoyment is primarily inherited psychical music correlated with
the outcome of life-inheritance. I entertain little doubt that the life
of animals, could we only feel its inner aspect as they themselves do,
is brim-full of a rich music of unconscious enjoyment. As I write
the swifts are wheeling and shrilling in the summer air. Am I wholly
wrong in imputing to them an integrated form of enjoyment which is
theirs on a basis of inheritance ? Perhaps even sympathetic naturalists
fail adequately to realise to what extent in animals the business of life
as such, with further life as its wage, has also its psychical reward in
enjoying so fully the performance of life's job. And this reward in
the enjoyment of doing is inherited with the ability to do. A

166 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

behaviourist interpretation of how it all comes about is, I believe,
perfectly sound in its way. Not in what it emphasises, but in what
(among extremists) it ignores — a psychical factor — does it seem to me
to be deficient. In us at any rate the presence of enjoyment is un-
deniable. And though it is so readily caught up into consciousness it
still carries, I think, the marks of its unconscious origin. What does
the poet or the artist tell us? Does he not claim that what springs
up within him — if it be in truth (he may add) in any valid sense his — is
quite inexplicable on what he regards as psychological principles ? And
if psychological principles deal only with conscious integration he is
right. His poetry, or his art, is not in its essential nature the outcome
of perceptive or reflective integration. Its well-springs lie deeper than
that in the unconscious. He rightly affirms that the real thing in all
true art is beyond his conscious control, though the means by which
it is expressed must be learnt and may be bettered by taking thought.
This is enshrined in the proverb : Poeta nascitur, non fit. And even of
those who can only appreciate his work, may it not be said, with a touch
of paradox, that enjoyment in art becomes reflectively conscious in
criticism. This need not mean that the critic enjoys poetry any the less
for the combination in higher integration of unconscious and conscious
enjoyment. "What it does mean is that the glad newness and glory
of surprise lies in the poetry and not in the criticism. Once again it
must bo said that it is the fresh unexpectedness that is still the hall-
mark of the unconscious.

And here a question arises which I find it difficult to put in readily
intelligible form. Is the rich enjoyment which gets human expression
in the poet — but gets expression also in the Black-cap, consummate
master of song — is this enjoyment dependent on that expression, or is
the expression dependent on unconsciously integrated enjoyment?
Which is prior to the other in order of dependence? What, you may
ask, am I driving at in propounding so subtle a conundrum? Well, I
take it that the Black-cap sings, under the conspiring influence of the
situation and envii'oning conditions, because it is part of his inborn
nature so to sing under these circumstances. His song is primarily
the outcome of the unconscious poise of a psychical system, correlated
no doubt with a physiological poise. In that sense surely the expression
in song depends on unconscious enjoyment — or, if it be preferred, the
behaviour in song depends on the integrated life-process with which
unconscious enjoyment is correlated. Whether we say that the
behaviour-expression (with its accompanying enjoyment) is dependent
on impulse, or disposition, or instinct, or emotional state, what we mean
is that if the latter be absent the former will not come into being. If
I may so put it, unconscious enjoyment, affectively integrated, becomes
clothed in the expression, with its enjoyment, and is consciously
integrated therewith on the higher perceptive level. And what of the
poet? I think that he too may tell us that unconscious integration of
the emotional order precedes the imagery in which it is expressed — that,
as he may put it, ' the poetic inspiration strives to find expression ' —
that the clothing in imagery depends, on the prior affective integration,
as yet unconscious.

J.— PSYCHOLOGY. 16?

This leads on to the broader question. Does that which we call the
unconscious depend on the presence of images and ideas ; or are images
and ideas the cognitive raiment which the unconscious puts on at the
emergent levels of perceptive and reflective consciousness? The
question in brief really comes to this : Are there what we may compre-
hensively speak of as memories in the unconscious ? In much present-
day resuscitation of Herbartian notions (which some of us thought were
little better than picturesque mythology long ago discarded as obsolete)
the unconscious is peopled with such memories — with images, ideas,
wishes, and thoughts, living together, as Professor James Ward puts it,
' like shades on the banks of the Styx.' Is this so? It is against this
sort of thing that the behaviourist rises in vigorous protest ; and, swing-
ing his pendulum too far (in some cases), drops psychology overboard
and proceeds on his course in the biological ship. For those who cannot
go to this extreme the alternative view is that memories have being
only in supraliminal consciousness and that the unconscious, as such,
is no wise imagmal. It is not yet cognitive. Only through cognition
at the higher level of unreflective or perceptive consciousness does it
begin to put on the raiment of images, ideas, and the rest, and thus find
expression in the supraliminal field.

On this alternative view not only are there no inherited memories in
any form or guise, but there are no memory-images in existence save
as correlative to an existent pi'ocess of conscious remembering. One
opens up here the whole problem of retention. What is retained — the
blossoms of imagery, or the conditions under which they will in due
season appear ? The plant does not retain flowers ; but its abiding
nature is such that flowers are put forth under the influence of external
conditions at a recurring stage of constitutional life-balance. This
analogy may be rejected. If so the grounds of rejection should be
clearly set forth. Is it on the ground that lilac-blossoms are not stored
but that my memory-image of those I saw last spring is stored ? One
may then ask whether there is any better scientific evidence for the
latter than for the former. M. Bergson is unwearied in his reiteration
of the absurdity of supposing that images are stored in the brain.
But M. Bergson contends that memory-images are stored in the
' obscure depths ' of a realm of being quite disparate from that of the
brain. All that one has ever experienced is thus retained. ' I believe,'
says M. Bergson, that ' our past life is there, preserved even in the
minutest detail; nothing is forgotten; all that we have perceived,
thought, willed, from the first awakening of our consciousness, persists
indefinitely. But the memories which are preserved in these obscure
depths are for us in the state of invisible phantoms. ' If this is to be
accepted as ' scientific truth ' the man of science may reasonably ask
for such evidence as he is accustomed to demand in other branches of
scientific inquiry. And if it is part of the metaphysics which we are
' to superpose upon scientific truth ' this should be more clearly stated
than some at least of M. Bergson's disciples are wont to state it. At
all events the status of images, ideas, wishes, and thoughts in the
unconscious — nay deeper than that whether as such they are there

168 SECTIONAL_^ADDRESSES.

existent at all — is perhaps the most important of the fundamental
questions which psychology has just now to answer.

And the answer must be sought, not only by those psychologists
who have wide training and all-round experience, but in. the full light
of science as a whole. Part of my aim has been to lay stress on the
solidarity of scientific inquiry. The psychologist must not work
independently of the physiologist and the biologist, nor they inde-
pendently of the chemist and the physicist. No member of the
brotherhood of science may ignore or contravene what has been
established in other fields of research. Though there is more at any
higher level of emergent evolution than there is in the lower, the more
is never divoi-ced from the less on which it is founded. At the higher
stage new modes of relation may obtain ; but they are nowise discrepant
with those which still obtain in the lower. And we must never interpret
the lower in ter-ms which belong to a higher emergent stage. That is
false method in science. It is perhaps the cardinal principle of
explanation in metaphysics ; but in science it must be um-eservedly
condemned.

We here touch the quick of the world-problem under the interpre-
tation of science and explanation by metaphysics. Emergent evolution
works upwards from materiality through life to consciousness which
attains in man its highest reflective level. It accepts the ' more ' at
each stage as that which is given, and accepts it to the full and ungrudg-
ingly. It urges that the ' more ' of any given stage is dependent on,
or implies, the ' less ' of the stages which are prior to it both logically
and historically. It does not interpret the higher in terms of the lower ;
for that would imply denial of the emergence of those new modes of
natural relatedness which characterise the higher and make it what it
is. Nor does it explain the lower in terms of the higher. It leaves that
kind of explanation to metaphysics. If physical changes are explained
in terms of life ; if physiological changes are explained in terms of
unreflective or perceptive cognition, or this is explained in terms of the
reflective consciousness which is emergent in philosophical thought; if
all that we know is explained as the expression of yet higher and more
completely integrated Mind or Knowledge — that is, I believe, the dis-
tinguishing mark of metaphysical as contrasted with scientific method.
I do not deny its validity within its proper sphere. I do question its
validity and its utility in science. But to distinguish is not to separate.
It may well be that the methods are not antagonistic but complementary.
None the less I seek to bring out as clearly as I can the position as I see
it. Interpretation of the higher as founded on the lower (but fuller and
richer in the advance of nature) is, I conceive, in accordance with the
method of science ; explanation of the lower in terms of that which is
given only at a higher (and eventually the highest) stage — valid as it
may be in metaphysics — must unreservedly be condemned in science.

In dealing with a very difficult problem, in trying to dig down to
foundations, in seeking to link up psychology with other branches
of science under one consistent scheme of natural development, I
have doubtless said many things which call for disagreement and

J.— PSYCHOLOGY. 169

protest. Many perhaps will not accept the distinction I draw between
what I regard as empirical and what I regard as metempirical treat-
ment. I have, however, only dwelt upon it so far as seemed
to be necessary to indicate my concept of what science is and
what it should seek to do. And though, on this occasion when
men of science are gathered together, I hold a brief for the
science in whose name we meet, it has been no part of my aim
to disparage metaphysical explanation within its proper sphere. I
may perhaps be allowed to say that, on a different platform, I should
be prepared to defend, to the best of my ability, the Creative concept as
nowise antagonistic to that of emergent evolution. I should then ask
with Kant : ' May it not be that while every phenomenal effect must
be connected with its cause in accordance with empirical causation, this
empirical causation, without the least rupture of its connection with
natural causes, is itself an effect of a Causality that is not empirical
but [as Kant puts it] intelligible? '

1921

THE PRESENT POSITION OF THE THEORY
OF DESCENT, IN RELATION TO THE
EARLY HISTORY OF PLANTS.

ADDRESS TO SECTION K (bOTANY) BY

D. H. SCOTT, LL.D., F.E.S.,

PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION.

It has long been evident that all those ideas of evolution in which the
older generation of naturalists grev/ up have been disturbed, or, indeed,
transformed, since the re-discovery of Mendel's work and the conse-
quent development of the new science of Genetics. Not only is the
' omnipotence of Natural Selection ' gravely impugned, but variation
itself, the foundation on wliich the l3arwinian theory seemed to rest
so secm'ely, is now in question.

The small variations, on which the Natural Selectionist rehed so
much, have proved, for the most part, to be merely fluctuations, oscil-
lating about a mean, and therefore incapable of giving rise to perma-
nent new types. The well-established varieties of the Darwinian, such
as the countless forms of Eraphila verna, are now interpreted as
elementary species, no less stable than Linnean species, and of equally
unknown origin. The mutations of De Vries, though still accepted at
their face value by some biologists, are suspected by others of being
nothing more than Mendelian segregates, the product of previous cross-
ings; opinion on this subject is in a state of flux. In fact, it is clear
that we know astonishingly little about variation.

My friend Dr. Lotsy, indeed, proposes to dispense with variation
altogether, and to find the true origin of species in Mendelian segrega-
tion; inheritable variability, he believes, does not exist; new species, on
his bold hypothesis, arise by crossing, and so, as he points out, we may
have an evolution, though species remain constant. Thus everything
apparently new depends on a re-combination of factors already present
in the parents. ' The cause of evolution lies in the interaction of two
gametes of different constitution. '

I am aware that very surprising results have been obtained by
crossing. Nothing could well have been more striking than the series
of Ajitirrhinum segi"egates which Dr. Lotsy showed us some years ago
at a meeting of the Linnean Society. And now we hear of an apetalous
Lychnis produced by the crossing of normally petaloid races. We do
not know yet to what extent that sort of thing goes on in Nature, or
what chance such segregates have of surviving. Still, if one may judge
by Dr. Lotsy 's experimental results, ample material for Natural Selec-
tion to work on might be provided in this way.*

1 See Dr. Lotsy 's book. Evolution by Means of Hybridisation, The Hague,

K.— BOTANYi

171

Dr. Lotsy's theory that new species originate by Mendehan segre-
gation, if true, would have the advantage that it. would make quite
plain the meaning of sexual reproduction. Hitherto there has been a
good deal of doubt ; some authorities have held that sexual reproduction
stimulated, others that it checked variation. But, if we eliminate varia-
tion, and rely solely on the products of crossing, we get a clear view —
' species, as well as indivduals, have two parents ' ; sexual reproduc-
tion can alone provide adequate material for new forms, and can pro-
vide it in unbounded variety.

Again, though Dr. Lotsy himself is far from sanguine on this point,
the crossing theory might be helpful to the evolutionary morphologist,
for breeding is open to unlimited experiment, and we might hope to
learn what kinds of change in organisms are to be expected. For
example, the Lychnis experiment shows how easily a petaloid race
may become apetalous. Such results might ultimately be a great help
in unravelling the course of evolution in the past. We should gain
an idea of the transformations which might actually have taken place,
excluding those which were out of the question. At present all
speculation on the nature of past changes is in the air, for variation
itself is only an hypothesis, and we have to decide, quite arbitrarily,
what kind of variations we think may probably have occmTed in the
course of descent. One need only recall the various theories of the
origin of the seed from the megasporangium to reahse how arbitrary
such speculations are.

But, while recognising certain advantages in the theory of the origin
of species by crossing, it is not for me to pronounce any opinion as
fo its truth. It is only the present position of the question that con-
cerns us to-day. We shall hope to hear a statement of Dr. Lotsy's views
from his own lips.

Some modern geneticists believe that there is evidence for mutation
by the loss of factors, apart from the effects of crossing. Dr. Lotsy con-
siders that such changes, if proved, can afford no explanation of pro-
gressive evolution. ' Evolution by a process of repeated losses is
inconceivable. ' It has, however, been pointed out by Dr. Agnes Arber,
in her recent admirable book on Water-plants, that, on any theory of
evolution, ' what organisms have gained in specialisation they have lost
in plasticity. ' She avails herself of a human analogy and says : ' The
man, though superior to the baby in actual achievement, is inferior to
it in the qualities which may be summed up in the word " promise,"
just as the Angiosperm, though its degree of differentiation so gi'eatly
exceeds that of the primordial protoplasmic speck, is inferior to it when
judged by its power to produce descendants of v/idely varying types '
(p. 335).

This is true, but it is not clear that this admitted loss of poten-
tialities is the same thing as the loss of factors, in the sense of genetics.
For example, if a glabrous variety of Violet really arose as a mutation
by loss of the factor for hairiness, assuming that such a loss was
permanent, the effect would seem to be a diminution of specialisation,
though, no doubt, it might also be interpreted as a loss of potentiality.

Turning for a moment to Darwin's own theoiy of the origin of

172 SEOTIONAL ADDRESSES.

species by means of Natural Selection, the efficacy of the latter, in
weeding out the unfit, is, of course, still acknowledged, and some
geneticists allow it a considerable role. But there is a strong tendency
m these days to admit Natural Selection only as a ' merely negative
force, ' and as such it has even been dismissed as a ' truism. ' Now
Darwin's great book was most certainly not written to enunciate a
truism. He regarded Natural Selection as ' the most important, but
not the exclusive, means of modification ' (' Origin of Species,' p. 4).
It was the continual selection of the more fit, the ' preservation of
favoured races,' on which he relied, and not the mere obvious elimina-
tion of the unfit, and this great idea (so imperfectly understood by many
of his contemporaries and successors) he worked out with astonishing
power, in the light of the changes which man has produced, with the
help of his own artificial selection.

It may be that the theory of Natural Selection, as Darwin and
Wallace understood it, may some day come into its own again ; cer-
tainly it illuminated, as no other theory has yet done, the great subject
of adaptation, wlfich to some of us is, and remains, the chief interest
of Biology. But in our present total ignorance of variation and doubt
as to other means of change, we can fonu no clear idea of the material
on which Selection has had to work, and we must let the question rest.

For the moment, at all events, the Darwinian period is past; we
can no longer enjoy the comfortable assurance, which once satisfied so
many of us, that the main problem had been solved — all is again in the
melting-pot. By now, in fact, a new generation has grown up that
knows not Dai-win.

Yet Evolution remains — we cannot get away from it, even if we
only hold it as an act of faith, for there is no alternative, and, after
all, the evidence of Palaeontology is unshaken. I have thought it fair
to lay stress on the present state of uncertainty in all that concerns
the origin of species. On another occasion I even ventured to speak of
the return of ' pre-Darwinian chaos. ' But out of this chaos doubtless
light will come.

Last year we had a joint discussion on Genetics and Paleontology;
among many good speeches, I specially remember a remark by Miss
Saunders, our then President, that Mendelism is a theory of heredity,
not of evolution — a caution not unneeded, though, as the crossing
hypothesis shows, the connection between the two conceptions may
prove to be a very close one.

Genetics is rendering the greatest service to Biology generally in
ensuring that organisms shall be thought of as races, not as isolated
individuals, mere chemical and physical complexes, at the mercy of
the environment. The whole tendency of modern work is to show that
in living things Heredity is supreme. An organism is what it is by
virtue of the constitution of the germ-plasm derived from its parents.
As Dr. Church has said in one of his recent Botanical Memoirs : ' The
individual is no longer to be regarded as an isolated unit, or a casual
creation, but is the present representative of a "race." That is to
say, the individual is not, as short-sighted chemical physiologists tend
to believe, a mere physical mechanism, the creature of the external

K.— BOTANY. 178

environment to which it passively responds ; but it is the living presenta-
tion of a continuous line of organism, successful since living, or a
"race" leading back as the expression of continued response to very
similar, but not necessarily identical, environment, in unbroken plasma-
tic continuity, over a period of time which, in terms of ultimate cytologi-
cal history, may represent a continuous reaction and record for anything
up to such an inconceivable period as two thousand million years.'
This expresses the case vigorously, whether we accept the time estimate
or not. Dr. Church goes on to say that ' during this period the more
fundamental reactions, as expressed in morphological units of construc-
tion, have been established as constants beyond any hope of change.' ^
This last statement is an important one for the palaeontologist, for all
our attempts to trace descent rest on the assumption that, in a general
sense and as regards certain well-established characters, ' Like breeds
like.'

History, then, broadly speaking, is everything. But there is more
than one kind of history in Biology. First, we have the exact records
of the Mendelian from generation to generation, F\ F^, and so on;
this alone is adequate, but we usually have to be content with some-
thing much less. At the other end of the scale there is the fossil
history, full of gaps and uncertainties of every kind, but always impos-
ing from its vast duration. Then there are intermediate kinds of
biological history, such as the imperfect records of the breeding cf
cultivated plants or domestic animals. These can sometimes now be
interpreted in the light of the more exact genetic histories, as Dr. Lotsy
will show us in the case of some neglected and misinterpreted observa-
tions of Darwin. 'Domestication,' as he says, 'spells segregation,
followed by selection and isolation of the desirable segregates.' Darwin
himself, though necessarily groping in the dark where genetics were
involved, yet thought the study of cultivated and domestic races the
best clue to the origin of species. If this holds good still, it makes
a strong point in favour of the crossing theory of evolution, for the
History of cultivated races seems to be largely the history of deUberate
or unconscious Mendelian crossings. We may reasonably expect to
find a relation between the process of origination of new cultural races
and that of new species in Nature.

This suggests the question, what we mean by a ' species '—far too
difficult a matter to discuss now. Whatever we may think of Darwin's
theory, his ' Origin of Species ' is at any rate a classic, and I believe
we cannot do better than continue: to use the word in the same
sense as Darwin used it — i.e. essentially in the sense of a Linnean
species.

Perhaps the best answer to the question ' What is a species ? ' is
in the form 'Ranunculus rrpens,' avoiding all attempts at definition.
T know Dr. Lotsy thinks differently, but pure races, whatever else and
however important they may be, ' are but rarely or never met with
in Nature ' (Lotsy), and are certainly not sppcies in the classical sense
in which Darwin used the word ; to my mind it seems a pity to go out
of our way to change completely the meaning of a familiar term. We
2 Form Factors in Coniferce, Oxford, 1920, p. 22.

174 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

can continue to call ' pure races ' by that name or any more modern
equivalent, and ' elementary species ' may still be called so, or I have
no objection to calling them ' Jordanons.' In the interests of practical
taxonomy they necessarily have to be kept subordinated to Linnean
species. There are difficulties enough either way, but they are, as it
seems, less if we adopt the conservative course. That many Linnean
species are real units of a definite order is generally admitted. Dr.
Lotsv himself dwells on their distinctness, which depends on their
usually not inter-crossing, and appears to be shown by the fact that
among animals members of the same species recognise each other as
such and habitually breed together. Such habitual breeding together
under natural conditions is perhaps the best test of a species in the
Linnean sense. ' The units within each Linneon ( = species) form an
inter-crossing community.' (Lotsy.) He adds: 'Consequently it is
Nature itself which groups the individuals to Linneons.' These ' pair-
ing communities ' have recently been re-christened by Dr. Lotsy
' syngameons, ' ^ a good name to express this aspect of the old ' species. '

I do not propose in these brief remarks to venture on that well-worn
subject the inheritance of acquired characters — i.e. of such characters
as are gained during the lifetime of the individual by reaction to the
envii^onment. There has always been a strong cross-current of opinion
in favour of this belief, especially, in our own time, in the form of
' unconscious memory,' so ably advocated by Samuel Butler and sup-
ported by Sir Francis Darwin in his Presidential Address to the British
Association at Dublin. Professor Henslow, as we all know, is a
veteran champion of the origin of plant structures by self-adaptation
to the environment. On the other hand, some geneticists roundly deny
that any inheritance of somatically acquired characters can take place.
In any case, the evidence, as it seems, is still too doubtful and inadequate
to warrant any conclusion, so, however fascinating such speculations
may be, I pass on.

To bring these introductory remarks to a close, we see that while
the theory of Descent or Evolution is undisputed, we really know
nothing certain as to the way in which new forms have arisen from
old. During the reign of Darwinism we commonly assumed that this
•had happened by the continual selection of small variations, and we
are no longer in a position to make any such assumption.

We Have been told on high authority that ' as long as we do not
know how Primula ohconica produced its abundant new forms it is no
time to discuss the origin of the Mollusca or of Dicotyledons.' (Bate-
son.) Yet this is just the kind of speculation in which a palaeontologist
is apt to indulge, and if kept off it he would feel that his occupation
was gone ! However, so long as we may believe, as already said, that,
on the whole, like breeds like, that grapes do not spring from thorns
or figs from thistles, there is perhaps still sufficient basis for some
attempt to interpret the past history of plants in terms of descent.
But certainly we have learnt greater caution, and we must be careful

'Lotsy, La Quintessence de la TMorie du Croisement. Archives
Neerlandaises des Sciences, Ser. III. B., t. iii., l&l?.

K.— BOTANY. 175

not to go far beyond our facts, and, in particular, to avoid elaborate
derivations of one type of structure from another where the supposed
transitional forms have but a purely subjective existence; we have
realised the difficulty of tracing homologies. We may still be allowed to
seek affinities, even where we cannot trace descent. And though we
may sometimes go a little beyond our tether and give rein to bolder
speculations, there is no harm done so long as we know what we are
doing, and there may be even some good in such flights if our scientific
use of the imagination serves to give life to the dry bones of bare
description. On this subject I am somewhat more optimistic than
Dr. Lotsy, who, abandoning his ' Stammesgeschichte ' point of view,
has dismissed all attempts at phylogenetic reconstruction as ' fantastic'

There are some questions of the highest interest that at present can
scarcely be approached in any other but a speculative way. Within
the last year or two new points of view have thus been opened out.
For example. Dr. Church's able essay on ' Thalassiophyta and the
sub-aerial transmigration ' has brought vividly before us the great
change from marine to terrestrial life.

The origin of a Land Flora had, of course, been discussed with
much ability before, but rather as incidental to a morphological theory.
Dr. Church puts the actual conquest of the land in the foreground. We
watch the land slowly rising toward the surface of the primeval ocean,
the rooted sea-weeds succeeding the free-swimming plankton, and then
the continents slowly emerging and the drama of the transmigration
as the plants of the rock-pools and shallows fit themselves step by step
for sub-aerial life when the dry land appears. It is a striking picture
that is thus displayed to our view — whether in all respects a faithful
one is another question; we must not expect impossibilities. The
doubts which have been raised relate first to the assumed world-wide
ocean, which seems not to be generally accepted by geologists. If con-
tinental ridges existed from the first (i.e. from the original condensa-
tion of watery vapour to form seas), the colonisation of the land may
have followed other lines and have happened repeatedly. Perhaps,
after all, that would not greatly affect the botanical aspects of the
transmigration .

The other difficulty is, however, a botanical one. Dr. Church looks
at the whole problem from the sea-weed point of view, and it is well he
does, for sea-weeds have been badly neglected, especially by some of the
great continental morphologists, who used to lead our speculative
flights. Dr. Church is much impressed by the high organisation of
many sea- weeds, especially, in the living marine flora, by that of the
Brown Algse. Here we find well-differentiated leaves, special repro-
ductive shoots, extremely efficient holdfast roots, and, sometimes, a
definite alternation of generations, while, on the anatomical side, we
meet with true parenchymatous tissues, a well-developed phloem and
secondary gn^owth in thickness. There is, in fact, in many respects,
an anticipation of, or an analogy with important features which charac-
terise the higher plants of the land.

Dr. Church believes that the chief morphological characters of the
Land Flora were first outlined in the sea ; that such characters were not

176 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

newly assumed after transmigration, but that they merely represent
an adaptation to sub-aerial conditions of a differentiation already attained
at the phase of marine phytobenthon (rooted sea-weeds). At the same
time it is not suggested that any existing class of sea-weeds can be taken
as representing the ancestry of the Land Flora ; the transmigrant races
are, as Algse, extinct — they may have been Green Algse of a high grade
of organisation, on a level now perhaps most nearly represented by the
highest of the Brown Seaweeds.

Thus the transmigrants, which were destined to become the parents
of the Land Flora, are pictured as already highly organised and well-
differentiated plants, which only needed to provide themselves with
absorptive instead of merely anchoring roots, and with a water-con-
ducting system (xylem and stomata) in order to fit themselves for sub-
aerial life, while, on the reproductive side, the great change remaining
to be accomplished was the adaptation of the spores to transport by
air instead of by water.

It is clearly impossible to criticise the theory in detail, for the
assumed transmigrants are ex lujpothesi unknown; we can only form
a distant conception of what they were from the analogy of the highest
sea-weeds of the present day, which admittedly belong to quite different
lines of descent. Dr. Church puts the transmigration so far back
(pre-Cambrian) that not much help can be expected from fossils, but
to this subject we shall return.

Some botanists find a difficulty in accepting the suggestion that
plants already elaborately fitted out for a marine life could have sur-
vived the transition, however gradual, to a totally different environment.
Such thinkers prefer to believe that lower forms may have been
more adaptable, and that morphological differentiation had, in a great
degree, to start afresh when the land was first invaded. My own
sympathies, I may say, are here with Dr. Church, for I have long
inclined to the belief that the vascular plants were, in all probability,
derived from the higher Thallophytes. The view of the late Professor
Lignier, now so widely accepted, that the leaf, at least in the mega-
phyllous or Fern-like Vascular Plants, was derived from specialised
branch-systems of a thallus, assumes, at any rate, that the immediate
ancestors possessed a well-developed thallus, such as is now known
only among the higher Algae. The Hepaticse, as we now know them,
clearly do not come into question, and the Pro-hepatics, which Lignier
postulated as early ancestors, have only a theoretical existence, and if
they were ever present in the flesh may well have been transmigrant
Algae.

The question now arises, how far have we any evidence from the
rocks, which may bear on the transmigration and on the nature of the
early Land Flora? A very few years ago no such evidence was avail-
able — such data as we then possessed seemed too obscure to discuss.
Quite recent discoveries, especially those from the famous Ehynie
Chert-bed, have shown that in Early Devonian times certain remarkably
simple land-plants existed, which in general configuration were no
more advanced than some very ordinary sea-weeds of the present day.
'At the same time these plants were obviously fitted for terrestrial life.

K.— BOTANY.

177

as shown by the presence of a water-conducting tissue and stomata,
and by the manifestly air-borne spores. These simplest land-plants
are the Ehyniaceae [Rhynia and Hornea), while the third genus,
Asteroxylon, was more advanced and further removed from any possible
transmigrant type.

My friend Dr. Arber was so impressed by the primitive character
of Rhynia (the only one of these genera then known) that he boldly
called it a Thallophyte, while recognising, in respect of anatomical
structure, an intermediate position on the way to Pteridophyta. This
is not really very different from the view taken by the investigators
themselves, though they call the plants Pteridophytes, which they
certainly are, if we go by internal structure rather than external
morphology. But if, as Kidston and Lang suggest, the Ehyniaceae
' find their place near the beginning of a current of change from an
Alga-like type of plant to the type of the simpler vascular Crypto-
gams,'* they must have been very primitive indeed and might even be
regarded as fairly representing the true transmigrants which had not
long taken to the land.

It is true that the Middle Devonian is much too late a period for
the original transmigration (I believe there is some evidence for land-
animals in the Lower Silurian), but one may argue that some of the
transmigrant forms may have survived as late as the Devonian, just
as the Selaginella type seems to have gone on with little change from
the Carboniferous to the present time. There must have been many
such survivals of earlier forms in the Devonian period, if Arber was
right in regarding all the characteristic plants of the Psilophyton Flora
as 'much more probably Thallophyta than Pteridophyta.'' Cer-
tainly some of them, apart from the Ehyniaceae, have an alga-like
appearance (e.g. PseudosporocTinus!) and there is some evidence that
such plants also were already vascular. There is, in fact, no doubt
that the earlier Devonian Flora is turning out to have been on the whole
more peculiar and more unlike the higher plants than we realised a
few years ago. The Early Devonian plants cannot usually be referred
to any of the recognised groups of Pteridophytes, and this is not owing
to our imperfect knowledge, for it is just in those cases where the
plants are most thoroughly known that their unique systematic position
is most manifest. Arber called all the plants in question ' Procormo-
phyta ' — an appropriate name. As Kiclston and Lang point out in
their later work, the three groups — Pteridophyta, Bryophyta, and
Algsc — are brought nearer together by the Ehynie fossils.

And yet there is evidence that about the same period stems with
the highly organised structure of Gymnospermous trees already
existed. I refer to remains of which Palcsopitys Milleri, from the
Middle Old Eed Sandstone of Cromarty, is the type. We need much
further investigation of these higher forms of Early Devonian vegeta-
tion, but we know enough to impose caution on our speculations.

* This view is further developed and expanded in the authors' fourth
memoir, which I have had the privilege of reading in MS.

* Devonian Floras, a Study of the Origin of Cormophyta. Cambridge, 1921,
p. 47.

178 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

THe Ehyniacese, at all events, were leafless and rootless plants. In
one species of Rliynia and in Hornea the aerial stems are entirely
without any appendages, while in the other Rliynia there are hemi-
spherical swellings, which have been identified by Arber with certain
states of the spines in Psilopliyton. The emergences of R. Gwynne-
Vaughani have been interpreted as nascent leaves, but more recent
observations, showing their late histological origin, have rendered this
hypothesis very doubtful.

In Asteroxyhn, a higher plant altogether, the stem is clothed with
quite distinct leaves, though they are somewhat rudimentary as regards
their vascular supply. Have we, in these plants, and others of con-
temporary date, the first origin of the leaf from a mere non-vascular
emergence, or had reduction already begun, so that in Rhyniacese, for
example, the leaves were in the act of disappearance? In the former
case we should be assisting at the birth of Lignier's phylloids, the
microphylls of the Lycopod series, though, as just mentioned, the out-
growths in Rliynia GwTjnne-Vaughani may have had nothing to do
with leaves.

But the opposite view may also be tenable. We have already
seen that these plants have been referred both to the Pteridophytes and
the Thallophytes ; they also show signs of Bryophytic affinities, and T
understand that it has even been proposed to include them in the
Bryophyta, in which case every possible view will be represented. The
Sphagnum-Mke structure of the columellate sporangium or sporogonium
of Hornea and Sj)orogonites may justify the Bryophvtic attribution, and
it is then, of course, easy to extend it to Rliynia. If we were to adopt
this opinion, we should probably have to regard these simple Devonian
plants as representing stages in the reduction of the sporophyte to a
sporogonium, the leaves being already nearly or quite lost, while the
branched thallus was still much in excess of the simple seta of the
modem Moss or Hepatic. Naturally we know nothing of the gameto-
phyte, so that the material for comparison is limited. Kidston and
Lang, however, have recently pointed out that the presence of spore-
tetrads clearly indicates the existence of a gametophvte.

I make no attempt to decide between these views. There can
be no reasonable doubt that the Psilophytales generally represent an
earlier phase of Cormophytic life than any of the groups previously
recognised. But we must not assume that all their characters were
primitive. It has been pointed out that the Ehyniaceae were peat plants,
and that the peat-flora is apt to be peculiar. Under such conditions
it is not improbable that a certain amount of reduction may have
already been undergone, though this is not the view taken by the
investigators.

There is one more point in connection with the Rhynie plants which
may be mentioned, as it is of purely morphological interest, and may
be more in place here than at a later stage of the discussion.

In Hornea, as Kidston and Lang have shown, the terminal
' sporangia evidently arose by the transformation of the tips of certain
branches of the plant. '

They are, in fact, very little modified as compared with vegetative

K.— BOTANY. 179

parts of the stem. The epidermis and subjacent layers of the sporangial
wall differ but slightly from the corresponding tissues of the branch,
while the columella is continuous with the phloem, and resembles it
in structure. The sporangium has no special stalk, and in some cases
is forked, like the stem, having evidently been formed when the branch
was in the act of dichotomy.

In Rhynia the sporangia are better differentiated, but here also cases
occur where the spore-bearing region differs little in structure from the
branch which it terminates. In both genera the spore-containing organ
is thus nothing but the more or less altered end of a branch, quite
comparable to the stichidium, which is differentiated in some Red Sea-
weeds as the receptacle of the tetraspores, while in other Algse of this
gi'oup the tetraspores are produced in unaltered portions of the thallus.
In Hornea the fertile branch-ending is less differentiated than in
Rhynia, and we must be prepared to meet with related forms in which
the spore-bearing region was not differentiated at all, except for the
presence of the spores.

Goebel taught that the sporangium was an organ sui generis, a
special reproductive structure, which had never arisen from any vege-
tative part of the plant." His view has been generally accepted, but,
in the light of the conditions in Ehyniacese, appears to be no longer
tenable. While the spores may still be described as organs sui generis,
for there have always been reproductive cells since plants became multi-
cellular, the sporangium proves to be really a portion of the vegetative
stem or thallus, which has gradually become specialised as a receptacle
for the spores. The sporangium thus turns out to be strictly homologous
with a definite part of the vegetative body of the plant. In these
remarks I am glad to find myself entirely in accord with the views of
Kidston and Lang, as stated in their fourth memoir on the Ehynie
plants.

The recent work on the Early Devonian Flora has wide bearings.
It has long been noticed that among the fossils of that period no typical
Fern-fronds are found. Those remains which are most suggestive of
Fern-like habit consist merely of a naked-branched rachis. It used
to "be assumed that the absence of a lamina might be explained by bad
preservation. But, as Professor Halle points out, the chief reason for
condemning the preservation as bad was the fact that a lamina was
absent !

The evidence really seems to indicate that the so-called fronds of
that age did not possess a leaf -blade. As Professor Halle says : ' In
the Lower Devonian, finally, we find frond-like structures bearing
sporangia, but no fronds with developed laminae. One can hardly
escape the conclusion that the " modified " fertile fronds may represent
the primitive state in this case and that the flattened pinnules are a
later development, as suggested by Professor Lignier. '' These naked

6 ' Vergleichende Entwickelungsgeschichte der Pflanzenorgane.' Schenk's
Eandhurh der Botanik. Bd. III., Part I., p. 130, 1884.

* T. G. Halle : Lower Devonian Plants, from Eoragen, in Norway. Stock-
holm, 1916, p. 33.

180 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES

fronds may, in fact, be regarded as the little-differentiated branches of
a thallus. It is often impossible to say whether we have to do with
the ramification of a stem or with a frond. Halle even suggests that
one of his species of Psilophyton, P. Goldschmidtii, may furnish us
with an intermediate stage between the two, as required by Lignier's
hypothesis. Plants of the PJiynia type may represent a still
earlier phase, in which there was no differentiation whatever, but
merely a branched thallus. It is a curious point that ' the circinate
vernation of the Fern-fronds is paralleled in the branches of Psilophyton
princeps.'

The evidence, as at present understood, seems to suggest that, in
the earlier Devonian Flora, Ferns, properly so called, may not yet
have been in existence. The predecessors of the Ferns (Lignier's
' Primofilicinees,' not Arber's ' Primofilices ') were there no doubt, but
not, so far as we know, the Ferns themselves. Yet it seems that
highly organised stems of a Gymnospermous type were already present
at about the same period. Thus the evidence from the older Devonian
Flora, so far as it goes, materially supports the opinion that the Seed
Plants cannot have arisen from Ferns, for the line of the Spermophyta
seems to have been already distinct at a time when true Ferns had not
yet appeared.

The idea that the Gymnosperms were derived, through the Pterido-
sperms, from the Ferns, which I once advocated, must, I think, be
given up, on grounds which were stated two years ago at the Bourne-
mouth meeting of the Association. It is safer to regard the Pterido-
sperms, and therefore the Seed Plants generally, as a distinct stock,
probably as ancient as any of the recognised phyla of Vascular
Cryptogams, and derived from some unknown and older source. At
the same time the striking parallelism between the Pteridosperms and
the true Fems must be recognised. These views are essentially in
agreement with those previously expressed by my friend Dr. Kidston.

I may be permitted to quote in this connection an interesting remark
made by Professor Paul Bertrand in a letter received last year. He
was speaking of a strange group of plants of Lower Carboniferous or
possibly Upper Devonian age, the Cladoxylefe. These plants have a
complex polystelic structure in both stem and petiole, but seem to be
quite distinct from the later and better-known polystelic family,
Medullosese. Professor Bertrand, the chief living authority on the
Cladoxylese, speaks of them as very primitive types, in which the
distinction between stem and petiole was still but little marked. Yet
he considers them as most probably Phanerogams. These views, if
confirmed, imply that the Phanerogams or Seed Plants started as a
distinct phylum, quite low down, at a phase when the differentiation
between stem and leaf was still incomplete.

Without laying too much stress on an expression of opinion such as
Professor Bertrand 's, I believe the present evidence is in harmony
with the view he suggests. The Spermophytes. as it seems, have been
an independent class of plants from very early times ; they are not
to be derived from the Vascular Cryptogams, as we have hitherto
conceived them, but are of the same standing with them, having sprung

K.— BOTANY. 181

fi'om some long-extinct stock, comparable, perhaps, to Kidston's and
Lang's Psilophytales, though not necessai'ily on the same line.

The significance of the Pteridosperms has perhaps been somewhat
misunderstood. It now seems that they do not, as some of us once
imagined, indicate the descent of the Seed Plants from Ferns, but
rather show that the Seed Plants passed through a Fern-like phase;
they ran a parallel course with the true cryptogamic Ferns, and, like
them, sprang fi'om some quite early race of land plants, such as Ehynie
has revealed to us. But the phylum was never any more Fern-like
than the Pteridosperms themselves. This, at least, is the view which
now suggests itself, but our knowledge is still very meagre. We
especially want to know more about the Devonian Spermophyta, for
at present we have scarcely any evidence even of the existence of seeds
in any Devonian Flora. Such data as we possess are all anatomical,
and a disciple of Williamson must be on his guard against the risk
of repeating the old mistake of the Brongniartian school.

Having ventured so far into speculative regions, it may be well to
return foi' a moment to the facts, and ask to what extent our knowledge
of the Fern-like Seed Plants has advanced since the original discoveries
of 1903-1906. I fear that there is not very much to record. We now
have one or two additional species of Neuropteris bearing seeds, and
also the probable seed of Heterangium. Further, we have various
indications of the characters of the pollen-bearing organs in some
Pteridosperm genera, though the documents, being mostly in the form
of impressions, are deficient in detail. Such new information as has
come to hand confirms in a satisfactory manner our former conclusions,
but does little to extend them.

On the anatomical side there has been more liveliness. We now
know quite a number of Palasozoic plants, of varied structure, which
have something in common with the better-established Pteridosperm
families, Lyginopterideas and MeduUosese, while they certainly have
nothing to do with Lycopods, Horsetails, or Sphenophylls. We there-
fore call them Cycadofilices or Pteridosperms. I prefer to use one name
for them all and incline to the latter, for, while the plants are generally
more or less Fern-like in structure, many of them show no special
resemblance to Cycads.

At present we know of no fewer than eight families, based mainly on
anatomical cliaracters, which we provisionally include under Pterido-
sperms :

1. The familiar Lyginoptei'ideas (Lower and Upper Carboniferous).

2. The Blietinang'mm family, founded on Dr. Goi-don's new genus
(Lower Carboniferous).

3. The MegaloxylefB, discovered by Prof. Seward (Upper
Carboniferous).

4. The Calamopityeae, recently enriched by Dr. Kidston with a new
genus, besides new species (Lower Carboniferous).

5. The Stenomyelon family, another of Dr. Kidston's discoveries,
described by him in conjunction with Gwynne-Vaughan (Lower
Carboniferous).

182 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

6. The Protopitys type, a singularly isolated one, elucidated by
Solms-Laubach (Lower Carboniferous). The above are all monostelic.
Next come the two essentially polystelic groups :

7. Cladoxylese, already mentioned, a somewhat mysterious race, of
Lower Carboniferous or possibly even Upper Devonian age.

8. The well-known Medulloseae (Upper Carboniferous).

It is noticeable that five of these families are Lower Carboniferous
(or possibly, in certain instances, older) ; one (Lyginopteridese) includes
both Lower and Upper Carboniferous members, while two (Megaloxylese
and Medulloseae) are at present known only from the Upper
Carboniferous.

Of the eight families in question there are only two (Lyginopterideae
and Medulloseae), in which we have any evidence as to the fructification.
The other six are known only by their vegetative and mostly by their
anatomical features. Of these the Protopityeae and the Cladoxylese
are the most isolated, differing, for example, in the structure of their
tracheides from the other families. There seems to be no reasonable
doubt that the famiUes represented by Lyginopteris, Rhetinangium,
Megaloxylon, Calamopitys, Stenomyelon, and Medullosa, are related,
and belong to one and the same main phylum. Considering that
members of two widely separated families in this series are known
to have borne highly organised seeds, there is a strong presumption
that the whole set were reproduced by seeds of some sort. In the
case of the two families Protopitye^ and Cladoxyleae the marks of
affinity are less obvious, but even here there is more in common with
the type-families Lyginopterideae and Medulloseae than with any other
group.

I think then that we are justified, in the present very imperfect state
of our knowledge, in provisionally keeping all these families together,
as probably, in some wide sense, Pteridosperms. On this view, they
formed a distinct, extensive, and varied class of plants, already very well
developed in Lower Carboniferous times, and no doubt going back to
the Upper Devonian, though here the available evidence is scanty.

The question may be asked : Did all the Seed-plants pass through
the Pteridosperm phase, or were there other parallel lines of descent?
Some recent work, no doubt, tends to link up the Cordaitales with the
Pteridosperms. Mesoxylon, for example, is merely a Cordaites with
centripetal wood in the stem, a character which strongly suggests an
affinity with the Lyginopteris or Calamopitys type. In fact, some
members of the Calamopityeae (Zalessky's Eristophyton) show a certain
approach to Cordaitales.

A more striking point is that no marked distinction has been found
between the seeds of Pteridosperms and those of Cordaitales. The
general community of seed-structure is strong evidence of close affinity
and of a common stock.

There seems to be no proof that the family Cordaiteae existed as
such in Devonian times; we do not know much about them even
in the Lower Carboniferous ; the family is typically Upper Carboniferous
and Permian. On the other hand, the Pitys family, which we include
in the wider group Cordaitales, is as old as any known Pteridosperm ;

K.-BOTANY. 183

Zalessky's genus Callixylon, an evident ally of Pitys, is of Upper
Devonian age. The affinities of the still more ancient Palaopitys
Milleri have not yet been determined.

The position of the Pityese hangs in the balance, at least until
Dr. Gordon's new results are fully placed before us. From his
discovery of the peculiar foliage and leaf-traces as well as from the
stem-structure it appears that the Pityese form a very distinct group,
farther from the other Cordaitales than we once supposed, and not
much like any of the Pteridosperms either. At any rate, we may
suppose that the Pityeee branched off from the common stock low
down, while the PoroxyleiB and Cordaitese may have been of later
origin. For the present, however, one may be content to regard the
early Spermophytes as constituting a single main phylum. Since
these words were written, however, Dr. Margaret Benson has main-
tained a contrary view, ai'guing that the Coi'daitales, Ginkgoales, and
Conifers represent a wholly distinct stock, more allied to the Sphenopsida
than to the Fern-like* races. The independence of this line has also
been maintained by Prof. Chambeidain * and discussed by Pi'of.
Sahni.i"

On our hypothesis, the Upper Palaeozoic phyla, with which we have
to reckon, are the Pteridosperms (representing the early phase
of the Seed-plants), the Ferns, the Sphenophylls, the Equisetales, and
the Lycopods. These five lines were probably all well differentiated
in the Upper Devonian Flora ; the only doubt concerns the Equisetales,
which seem not to be known with certainty before the Lower Car-
boniferous, but they were so well developed then that they must have
existed earlier.

When we get back to the Middle and Lower Devonian the case
is completely altered. Not one of the five phyla is here clearly
represented, unless it be the Spermophyta ; for these we have the
evidence of apparently Gymnosperm-like stems. Thus the field is
left absolutely open to speculation. We may imagine, either that the
various phyla converged in some early vascular stock (illustrated by
the Psilophy tales), or that they ran back in parallel lines to independent
origins among the transmigi-ant Algfe and, perhaps further still, to
separate races of purely marine plants. Both views are represented
in the publications of recent authors.

Dr. Arber, in his ' Devonian Floras,' maintained the early
existence of three distinct lines of descent : the Sphenopsida,
Pteropsida, and Lycopsida. In agi'eement with the present writer,
he included the Equisetales in the Sphenopsida. Each of the three
lines is described as descended from Thallophytic Algae of a disfmct
type. Thus Arber's view was decidedly polyphyletic. It must, how-
ever, be borne in mind that the supposed ancestral ' Algae ' were
plants in which he expected to find ' some form of primitive vascular
system, at least as far advanced as in Psilophyton ' (I.e., p. 74).

* ' The Grouping of Vascular Plants,' New Phytologist, June 30, 1921.

' ' The Living Cycads and the Phylogeny of Seed Plants.' American
Jourttal of Botany, vol. 7, 1920.

1" B. Sahni, ' On the Structure and Affinities of Acmopyle Pancheri.' Phil.
Trans. B. Soc, Ser. B., vol. 210, 1920.

184 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

Arber derived the Sphenopsida from Algse-bearing whorled branches
of limited growth, converted into leaves, wliich were originally and
always microphyllous. The Pteropsida, with which he associated his
Palseophyllales {Psygmophyllumi with foliage like the Maiden-hair tree),
were descended from Algae in which the branches were large, numerous,
scattered, and not whorled, eventually metamorphosed to megaphyllous
leaves. The Lycopsida, on the other hand, were derived from Algse
in which the usually dichotomous axis bore emergences, metamorphosed
to microphyllous leaves.

Thus, as regards the origin of the leaf, Arber was in general agree-
ment with Lignier, while he differed from the French author in the
important point that he did not derive the Sphenopsida from the
Fern-stock, but kept them as an independent line.

A remarkable feature in Arber 's hypothesis is his treatment of the
Psilotales. He made this problematic family ' a quite independent
race, also of Algal origin, which appeared on the scene long after the
other races . . . possibly in Mesozoic times or even later ' (p. 87).
Thus he rejected both the connection with Psilophytales, suggested by
Kidston and Lang, and the affinity with Sphenopsida, once maintained
by the present writer.

We thus see that, on Arber's view, there were altogether four
distinct lines of descent, running back independently to ' Thallophytic
Algss.'

Dr. Church, from quite a different point of view, arrives at some-
what similar conclusions, but he goes further. He says : ' Speaking
generally, it appears safer to regard a "race" or " phylum " as the
expression of a group of organisms which derived their special
attributes from the equipment of a preceding epoch, if not in one still
further back. Thus all the main lines of what is now Land Flora must
have been differentiated in the Benthic Epoch of the sea (i.e. as algal
lines), as all algal lines were differentiated in the Plankton phase. The
possibility is not invalidated that existing groups of Land Flora may
trace back their special line of progression to the flagellated life of the
sea, wholly independently of one another (Pteridophyta). ' (' Thalassio-
phyta,' p. 41.)

Taking the Lycopods and Ferns as an example, and arguing from
their different types of flagellated spermatozoids, Dr. Chm^ch states :
' It appears impossible to avoid the conclusion that the Lycopod phyla
only merge with those of the Filicinese in a distant Plankton phase,
even beyond an independent origin as benthic sea-weeds' (Z.c.,p. 82).
Thus the idea of independent parallel lines of descent is carried to its
extreme limit. ' Each phylum goes back the whole way, without any
connection with anything else.' Of course, this thorough-going poly-
phyletic conception is involved in the doctrine already mentioned — that
morphological differentiation was attained in the sea before the
transmigration.

I have cited Dr. Arber and Dr. Ohiirch as independent representa-
tives, approaching the question from quite different sides, of the poly-
phyletic or parallel-phyla hypothesis. The opposite view, of convergent
monophyletic races, is also well supported. Some reference has already

K.— BOTANY. 1 H5

been made to Professor Halle's position. Alter speaking of the possible
relation of the Psilophylon type to Lycopods on the one hand and Ferns
on the other, he adds : ' From this point of view the whole pteridophytic
stock would be monophyletic, the Lycopsida and the Pteropsida being
derived from a common form already vascular. It would not thus be
necessary to assume a parallel evolution of a similar vascular system
along two different lines.' (Halle, I.e., p. 89.)

He does not refer to the Articulatse, of which, it is true, there are
only the most doubtful indications in the Lower Devonian rocks. Halle,
too, accepts Ligniei''s view of the twofold origin of the leaf, from
emergences in the Lycopsida, from thallus-branches in the Pteropsida.

Kidston and Lang, in the light of their Rhynie discoveries, regard
Halle's survey as ' a fair statement of the present bearing of the imper-
fectly known facts. ' They lay great stress on the synthetic nature of
their genus ARlcro.rylon, which they say ' appears to agree with Psilo-
phyton in possessing in a generalised and archaic form characters that
are definitely specialised in the Psilotales, Lycopodiales, and Filicales.'
They add : ' The Geological age and succession of the Early Devonian
plants are, on the whole, consistent with the origin of the various
gi'oups of Vascular Cryptogams from a common source. ^^ "We have
already referred to the Bryophytic features, which have been recognised
in the Ehyniaceae. Kidston and Lang make use of these to extend their
tentative conclusions to the Bryophyta. In concluding their third
memoir they say : ' In Rhynia and Hornea we have revealed to us a
much simpler type of Vascular Cryptogam than any with which we
were previously acquainted. This type suggests the convergence of
Pteridophyta and Bryophyta backwards to an Algal stock. The know-
ledge of AsterO'xylon confirms and enriches our conception of a more
complex but archaic type of the Vascular Cryptogams, which supports
the idea of the divergence of the great classes of Pteridophyta from a
common type, and links this on to the simpler Rhyniacese ' (I.e.,
p. 675.) The monophyletic view, though stated with appropriate caution,
could not be more clearly expressed. It is fully maintained in these
authors' later statements.

It is evidently impossible to decide between the two theories in
the present state of our knowledge; we are now only beginning to
acquire some conception of the vegetation of Early Devonian times. The
discovery, however, of the existence at that period of an unexpectedly
simple race of vascular plants to some extent favours a monophyletic
interpretation, even though we accept with some reserve the wonderful
svnthesis of characters which Asteroxylou appears to exhibit. To some
minds, too, the important points in which all existing Pteridophyta, how-
ever diverse, agree will still suggest a common origin not too remote.
Among such common characters may be mentioned the alternation of
generations with the sporophyte predominant ; the development both of
the spores and the sexual organs; and the histology, especially of the

11 On Old Red Snnd.'^torie PImif.t. .^Jiowhig strurture, from the Tfhyme Chert.

Bed, Part III., p. 673. In Part IV. this conclusion is further emphasised,

and it is supgested that the Rhyniacere are really too simple morphologically
to suit the views of either Lignier or Church.

1921 P

186 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

vascular system and the stomata. The community of reproductive
phenomena is explained by Dr. Church on the principle that repi'oductive
phases are inevitable and are therefore the same in all phyla. A like
explanation may to a certain extent be applicable to somatic features,
some of which may be the necessary consequences of the sub-aerial trans-
migration. Thus a polyphyletic hypothesis may no doubt be justified,
but it urgently needs to be supported by further evidence of the actual
existence of separate stocks among the earliest available records of a
Land Flora.

The study of Fossil Botany has led to results of the utmost
importance, in widening our view of the Vegetable Kingdom and helping
to complete the natural system, to use Solms-Laubach"s old phrase
once more. One need only mention the Mesozoic Cycadophytes, th(.'
Cordaitales, the Pteridosperms, the Palaeozoic Lycopods and Equise-
tales, the Sphenophylls, and now, most striking of all, the Psilo-
phytales, to recall how much has been gained. We have indeed a wealth
of accumulated facts, but from the point of view of the Theory of
Descent thev raise more questions than they solve. In this address I
have briefly touched on some of the most general and most speculative
problems in the hope of giving an opening for discussion. It might
have been more profitable to deal in detail with definite facts of
observation, but recent discoveries have brought us face to face with the
great questions of descent among plants. However imperfect our data
may be, both as regards the method and the course of evolution, the
problems suggested, nevertheless, make urgent claims on our attention.

THE PLACE OF MUSIC IN A LIBERAL

EDUCATION.

ADDRESS TO SKCTION L (EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE) BY

Sir henry IIADOW, C.B.E., D.Mus.,

PBESIDENT OF THE SECTION.

Some years jgo we were sitting round tlie fire in an Oxtoril Comnion
Kooni." The Dean, who liad tlie evening paper, let Iiis eye fall upon
a paragraph of musical criticism, and read it aloud in that tone of
polished irony which we all knew to be his accustomed mark of
disajiproval. It was a harmless paragraph and contained somewhere
an innocent technicality — I think 'sub-mediant.' When ho had
liiiished, ho looked across to the eminent scholar by the fireside and
said, 'Of course, you know what a " sub-mediant " is? ' To which
came the answer, slow, meditating and pious, ' GckI forbid! '

That is fairly typical of the attitude adopted in those days by
scholarhip and 'litci'ary culture toward the sister art. There were,
no doubt, at Oxford and elsewhere, some notable exceptions, but in
general the erudite world of England regarded music as something
outside the scholar's province : something to be enjoyed as a recreation
or a pastime, something even to be encouraged with generous rewards
and good-humoured praise, as the Squire might dismiss the mummers
on Christmas Eve; but as far as any sympathy or insight was con-
cerned there had been very little progress since the time when, as Byron
says,—

' Jolin Bull, with ready Hand,
Applauds the strain he cannot understand. '

Applause, no doubt, as much as you will — artists live on applause —
but as for understanding or even supposing that there was anything
to be understood — ' God forbid! '

Two other remarkable pieces of evidence may be adduced from
n;ore recent years. The Home University Library, issued by an
enterprising publisher and controlled by a body of very distinguished
editors, set out to supply a series of monographs on all subjects in
which an intelligent I'eader could take an interest; science, history,
poetry, politics, foreign travel — all were to be included, nothing human
was to be alien from it. When, at the completion of the hundredth
volume, it was pointed out that there had been no book on Music
or on any subject in which Music could enter, the reply was that this
omission was intentional for fear there should be no readers. Music
was not regarded as one among the hundred subjects most likely to
engage a reader's attention. There is a similar omission from the
Cambridge History of Literature, that monumental work — cere
pcrenvius — which has become indispensable to cveiy scholar of our

188 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

language or our letters. In it we have criticisms of books of almost
every conceivable variety of topic, there is even sympathetic mention
of books on pugilism, but there is no account of any books on
Music. To emphasise the omission, Burney and Hawkins are both
noticed, one as the father of Madame d'Arblay, the other as a rather
eccentric member of Johnson's circle, but there is nothing to indicate
that they wrote two great historical works which are still read with
pleasure and consulted with profit. Everyone who has looked into the
matter will have observed this same neglect in bibliographies and
dictionaries, and other works of reference. Information about Music
and IMusical Literature must be sought as a rule in specialised volumes
intended for nmsicians alone. It shares, no doubt, the all-embracing
hospitality of the Encyclopsedia Britannica. but it has not j'et won
citizenship in the daily life and civilisation of our people.

This is clearly an error, the perpetration of \\hich is a serious loss
to the country at large. Music is not onlj^ a source of noble pleasure
- — everyone admits that, at any rate in theory — it is a form of intellectual
and spiritual trainmg with which we really cannot afford to dispense.
It is not merely a matter of pleasing the ear with successions of
beautiful sound or stirring the emotions with vibrating tone and poignant
rhythm. It is just as truly a language as French or Latin. It is just
as truly a form of mental discipline as any subject in Science or
Mathematics. That it can be studied with much more personal enjoy-
ment than some of its compeers may perhaps be maintained ; though
on this score there is very little difference between it and literature ;
but even if that be granted, it is a very peevish asceticism which would,
for this reason, depreciate its value in our educational system. The
notes in a perfect melody follow each other by as sure logical necessity
as do the words in a line of Shakespeare. They are not only beautiful ;
they not only appeal to the discerning ear by a thousand tones and
associations; they have also an inherent significance, which in music, as
in poetry, is a sure criterion of the difference between good art and
bad.

No doubt there is here one salient difference between the two arts.
In language a part at any rate of the significance depends upon the
relation between the thing said and an external reality which it
expresses or depicts; in music the whole significance is intrinsic, deter-
mined by the laws of its own form and the impulse of its own spirit.
But though the kinds of significance are different, the fact of signifi-
cance is equally present in both arts, and here I would venture to
call in question two opinions, both of which seem to me entirely and
fatally erroneous. One, which T saw a few days ago, in a volume of
essays (and which, indeed, a reader of literary criticism may see almost
once a week), is that poetry appeals to the intelligence and music to
the emotions. The answer to this is that if poetry is to be summed
up as an appeal to the intelligence, then Euclid was a very great poet ;
and if music has no further function than to appeal to the emotions,
then it is nothing better than melodious nonsense. The other of the
two is that any succession of notes constitutes a melody and that
of such melodies intelligible music can be made up. The answer to

L.— EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE. J 89

this is that such a sequence of notes can no more make a melody than
a sequence of words makes a sentence. Everything depends on
whether tlie words do or do not carry a meaning. Suppose, for
instance, I wrote a sonnet of which the last line sliould run

' And pLU'ple decks the fragrant empyrean,'

I should liave produced a sequence of quite admirable words, but
it would not be a line of poetry. In just the same way the difference
between a melody of Beethoven and the types of melody which once
fell under the censure of Sir Hugh Allen is very largely that the melody
of Beethoven has a noble meaning, and that the bad tunes of the streets
have either an ignoble meaning or none at all. It may frankly be
admitted that a vast proportion of what is printed and sold as music
is far below this criterion; it is meaningless and therefore worthless.
But if the advocates of literature or of the representative arts feel any
inclination to despise music on this score they may be recommended,
before pronouncing judgment, to look at home. The present generation
of English readers has bought 130,000 copies of ' The Young Visitei's,'
the last generation made the fortune of Mrs. Henry Wood, its prede-
cessor of Martin Tupjier, and so the tradition stretches back through
T. H. Bayly, Eobert Montgomery, and a whole series of false idols
surfeited with undiscriminating incense. The state of pictorial art in
this country may be attested by some of our print shops, many of our
private collections, and most of our municipal galleries. Indeed, it is
not from the poet or the artist that one usually hears this argument.
They know too well of what slender glass their houses are built. In all
arts alike the work which endures is the work which appeals to the
whole nature of man, spiritual, intellectual, emotional, and of this
vliere is plenty in music to give full justification to its claim.

Here an objection may be lodged — it may be said that this is merely
special pleading, that music would not have been neglected unless it
luul deserved neglect; and in this there is a great measure of truth.
The case for music has been badly presented ; a great many hearers
who really understand it are no more conscious of the fact than
M. Jourdain knew that he was talking prose, and the vast majority who
accept it without understanding do so because they vastly overrate its
difficulties and are repelled by some unnecessary formalities in its
method.

A good many treatises on music correspond not to the writings of
literary critics, but to elementary school books on grammar; they are
concerned with aljihabets and case endings and rules of syntax. The
reader who takes tliom in hand is likely to fling them aside with the same
impatience with which Montaigne dismissed the ' trash-names of
grammar ' which learned men had assigned to ' the tittle-tattle of his
chambermaid.' It is not that the technical terms in music are any
worse than those in other arts and sciences ; they are less aggressive
than the botanical description of a rose, and shorter by several syllables
than the usual designation of a chemical compound, but they somehow
seem to have occupied more of the field. They have forced themselves
needlessly upon our attention ; they have correspondingly led people to

190 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

believe that all musical criticism springs fi'oin their tangled roots. And
to this may be added a real difficulty which music specially has to
confront. Our ordinary language has been so framed with reference
to external nature and the life of man that the critic of literature or
painting has a far easier task than the critic of musical style or musical
structure. Music is equally philosophical in basis, but its philosophy is,
in the nature of the case, if not more penetrating than that of the poet,
a little more abstract in form. Compare, for instance, a play of Shake-
speare with a symphony of Beethoven. The comparison is really extra-
ordinarily close ; there is the same kind of architectonic power in the
construction; there are the same points of interest and adventure; there
is the same high and noble emotion; there is the same humour; there
is even, allowing for the difference of medium, the same characterisa-
tion. But when Mr. Bradley analyses for us a Shakespeare play, there
are a thousand points on which he can illustrate his meaning in words
and phrases which directly relate his experience to human life. When
Sir George Grove analyses a symphony of Beethoven, he is hard put to
it to find any verbal analogues at all ; when they do come they hai'dly
seem more convincing than metaphors, and almost every point in his
admirable account has to be illustrated and enforced by musical examples
which the majority of people persistently declare themselves unable to
read. The result is that the musical critic has often to substitut-e
emphasis for persuasion, and has tended to dogmatise — not because
he is unsure about his convictions (though this is a common basis of
dogmatism), but because the difficulty of expressing them drives him
to an unusual trenchancy.

Another reason for the prevalent error is that musical history has
been far too sharply separated from the general history of civilisation.
This, again, is a matter of proportion; the English Histories of my
■boyhood were mainly occupied with battles and treaties, and paid very
little attention to letters or science or discovery, but at worst they have
nothing to show parallel to Lord Macaulay's great History of England,
which in an exhaustive account of the reign of James 11. finds no room
for the mention of Purcell. The result is again the loss of human
interest, which tends to relegate music into a remote and abstract world
wiiich is far away from men's business and bosoms. Professor Dowden
once wrote a very remarkable essay about the influence of tlie Frencli
Revolution on English literature ; an essay of ecpial interest and im-
portance niiglit be written about its inHuence on Viennese music. And
indeed we are coming more and more to see that the whole artistic
expression of the people is an index of its national character and a
R>inptoni of its national health.

It is not, therefore, because music is unworthy of a place in our
intellectual life that we have hitherto left it so much on one side.
^Ye have been frequently reminded of late — and we cannot be reminded
too often — that the one supreme period of English music, the period in
which our composers stoo<:l in the forefront of the whole world, is
the period which produced the great Elizabethan seamen and the great
Elizabethan dramatists; the period in which Drake circumnavigated
the world and Shakespeare the soul of man; and, what is more, that

L.— EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE. 191

our madrigal writers and Church writers, and writers for the Virginals
.ind the Lute, were not isolated phenomena, hi'ouglit by some unexpected
rrovidence into a country untifc to receive them ; they were the natural
outgrowth of a civilisation which accepted music as an essential part
ot a man's upbringing and nurture. In the days of Elizabeth the
whole of England was full of music, as Shakespeare's plays are full
of it, and we are not so much better than our Elizabethan ancestors
that we can afford to disregard what they claimed as one of the most
valuable parts of tlieir education.

It has been said that complaints against an abuse have usually been
most urgent at the time when the abuse is in the natural course of
bemg redressed, and this is certainly true of the strictures which have
been made in the earlier part of this paper. During the last twenty
years an extraordinary change has taken place in the part assigned
to music in our civilised life. The reform is only just at its beginning,
but it has as a matter of fact begun, and though we may be like
Caesar and ' think nought done while aught remains to do,' we can,
at any rate, see round us enough signs of progress to go forward with
considerable encouragement. For one thing, the study of music no
longer means, as it did a generation ago, a reluctant drill in the
elementary practice of a musical instrument. We are learning the
wisdom of confining our executants to those who show some taste or
aptitude for performance, and have come to see that confining the
study of music to them is just as irrational as it would be if we
confined the study of literature to students who aimed at being poets
or actors. By all means develop and encourage our specialised schools
of music. They have a great tradition ; they have done and are still
donig magnificent work, and one of the results which they have already
produced is that we are no longer obliged to look to our Continental
neighbours for executive and creative artists, that our own players
and singers and our own composers can hold their own against any
rival in the world. But still more important, and at any rate more
germane to this present paper, is the recognition of music as an essen-
tial part of that liberal education which we are endeavouring to bestow
upon all citizens throughout the country, and it is in this that the
most remarkable advance is now being made. Our public schools,
which half a century ago treated music as an unpopular alternative
to cricket, have now begun to find a place for it, if not always in the
curriculum, at any rate in the corporate life. The old d.ays of the
visiting music master, shy, embarrassed, probably a foreigner, ill at
ease in Common Room, hardly counting as a member of the staff, have
now been replaced by a more genial and hospitable system, by which
tiie school music is placed in the hands of a well-educated and genial
colleague who can mix with his fellows on equal terms and is as sure
of a welcome as any among them. The school concerts are more
numerous and of far higher quality than they were in the old days,
and in many schools they are prefaced by explanatory lectures on the
more elaborate or recondite works performed. Most of all, perhaps,
is the change noticeable at Oxford and Cambridge, which have become
radiating centres of musical activity and are sending out every year

192 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

trained men to carry on their tradition through every corner of the
land. Yet hardly less in importance is the action which has recently
been taken by some county and municipal authorities, who have
appointed special Directors of Music to organise the work for all the
schools in their area. The improvement already effected by this means
is very remarkable, and will be the more conspicuous still as the move-
ment spreads and advances.

What, then, it may be asked, further remains for us to do? The
answer may be suggested on the following lines: First, that music
should be recognised in our formal education of school and college;
that it should be given a place in the cm-riculuni and full recognition
in the examination system. It is likely that this proposal will at
once arouse an outcry, on the ground that it is adding a new subject
to ail already overloaded scheme. But, in the first place, I have never
known any teacher complain of overloading in regard to his particular
subject; and, in the second place, I would suggest that music for
the whole school should consist of little more than class singing and
an occasional concert or lecture, and that those who have the taste
and aptitude for pursuing its serious study should do so in substitution
for some other subject. The study of a great composer might be made
of as much educational value as that of a great poet. On the other
side, the qualities of abstract thinking and of mental construction
implied in the study of musical form are closely analogous to those of
our natural sciences, and might well be made of the same educational
value. It should be quite possible to draw up a syllabus for music
which would fit into the existing schemes of school and college work,
and which would neither encourage faddists, nor excuse idlers, nor
produce that lamentable class of people, not yet quite extinct, who
talk emotionally about music without any understanding. Secondly,
there should be a great improvement in the place of music in our
libraries. Every public library in the country and, if possible, every
school and University library should contain a musical department
which includes not only the standard classical compositions, but the
first-rate books on musical testhetics and criticism. There are a great
many more of such books than is commonly supposed. Almost every
civilised nation has contributed to them, and they range from enter-
taining volumes of ligbt essays to such profound philosophical treatises
as Schopenhauer's book on 'The Platonic Idea.' At present an
allusion to music in average society would tend to cut the conversation
down to the roots ; half the company would feel nervous and uncom-
fortable, half apprehensive of a dull or pontifical lecture. It ought to
be just as possible for people to be well read in music and interested
in communicating their ideas about it as they are at present in ordinary
civilised society over questions of literature or the representative arts.
And this leads to a third point — that the ordinary educated man ought
to be trained to read music. The script, though it is not always very
rational, is not unduly difficult, and its mastery unlocks the door of
a new literature. A very great many o£ us have only rare and infrequent
opportunities of hearing the best music. We have no means of refreshing
our memories between recurrent performances, and we therefore lose

L.— EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE. 193

a great deal of the effect which they produce. If we learn to read
(by which I do not mean to sing or play at sight, but to read silently
as one reads a play or a novel) we have added another valuable resource
to our intellectual life. Lastly, and as corollary to all these, we
all of us need to simplify our attitude towards music. One result which
follows from the uncertainty of its position is that it has not yet found
its proper bearings. People who have any musical gifts are a little
inclined unduly to stress them, because they have a misgiving that
tlieir neighbours do not rate music sufficiently high. The outside world,
which would be very glad to understand more about music, but regai^ds
il. as a kind of hieroglyphic or sacerdotal secret, which the profane may
not penetrate, is equally reticent because it is afraid to put forward
an opinion in the presence of the expert. We want really to pool our
knowledge, to concentrate our interests, to develop on this side, as
we have on so many others, a sense of comradeship and co-operation,
and this can only be done if we are all made free of the company ;
if our musical education is such that we can meet each other as frankly
and openly in this field as educated men are accustomed to do in the
discussion of science or poetry. And this we can only do if music is
enfranchised in our educational system, if it takes its assured place
in the community and is invested with the full rights of intellectual
citizenship.

THE STUDY OF AGRICULTURAL
ECONOMICS.

ADDRESS TO SECTION M (AGRICULTURE) BY

C. S. OEWIN, M.A.,

PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION.

For the third year in succession tlie University of Oxford has been
honoured by the selection of one of its resident members for the office
of President of the Agricultural Section of the British Association,
and on the occasion of the Edinburgh Meeting it may be of interest
to recall that historically, at all events, the study of Agriculture and
Eural Economy at Oxford takes second place to no university with
the single exception of Edinburgh. I am not a scientist in the
commonly accepted sense of the word, and nothing but my deep con-
viction of the need for wider recognition of the importance of the
study of economics in connection with agricultural research work
could have overcome my reluctance to assume an office in which I
have been preceded by such a long line of distinguished men.

It is now about five-and-twenty years since research and educational
work in agriculture began to be developed seriously in this country.
Since that date a very great deal of effort has been expended in investi-
gating the forces by which )3lant and animal life are controlled, and
to bring natural science to bear in every way upon the problems of
food production. Work along these lines has been productive of most
valuable results to the farmer; but at the same time the fact has been
overlooked that, when all is said, farming is a business, and if it is to
succeed as such it must be carried on with a clear regard for the
economic forces which control the industry. So, whilst desiring
notTiing but the fullest recognition of work in the fields of natural
science applied to the investigation of farming problems, I must express
without any qualification tlie view that the equal importance of the
study of these economic forces has never been adequately recognised.
Educational and research work in agriculture whicli takes no account
of flie dominant importance of economics must always be ill-balanced
and incomplete, for farming business requires for its proper control a
consideration of human relationships, of markets, of transport, and of
many other matters which should come within the purview of the
economist, as well as, or even more than, a corisideration of questions
regarding the control of plant and animal growth with which the
scientist, in the limited sense of the name, is concerned. No one
could wish to deny the need for the close and continual study of the
soil and the means by which it can he made to produce more abundantly ;

M.— AGRICULTURE. 1 95

no one could deny the need lor researcli work in problems of animal
and plant life. But the main concern of the farmer is to know not
so much that which he can grow and how best to grow it as that which
he can sell and how to sell it at a profit. Given the necessary capital
ami labour, conditions may be contrived under which any soil may
be made to pi'oduce any crop ; but the wisdom or otherwise of embark-
ing upon any particular form of production can be determined only
by a study of economic forces. In Bedfordshire, for example, con-
siderable areas of very moderate land are met with given up to a most
intensive form of agriculture; but land equally suitable for a similar
form of farming may be met with in many other parts of the country
which is producing not a tenth part of the value in food products nor
employing a tenth part of the capital and labour, whilst at the same
time the systems under which it is farmed are fully justified by the
results. The reason of the difference, as doubtless everyone reaUses,
is that the land in the former case is so situated that it has access,
in the first place, to supplies of organic manures on an abundant
scale and at a cheap price, and, in the second place, to markets crying
out for its produce, whilst one or both of these facilities are denied to
the other areas. In the Chilterns district of Oxfordshire farming a
generation ago was mainly directed to the production of corn and meat,
and nothing that has arisen out of the work of the investigators along
lines of natural science would have called for any radical changes in
agricultural policy on these soils. But economic forces, inexorable in
their effect, have brought about a revolution, and arable land pi'eviously
under corn and sheep is now laid down to grass or occupied with
fodder crops for the maintenance of the dairy herds which have replaced
sheep throughout the area. Again, in the hill districts of England
and Wales there occur combes and valleys admirably adapted by soil
and climate to the production of potatoes, and the highlands of Devon-
shire and Somerset may be cited in illustration. In these places, how-
ever, in the majority of cases, even though good markets may exist —
Somerset, for example, imports potatoes — the lack of transport
facilities makes it impossible for the farmers to produce anything
which does not go to market on four legs. Coming last to the question
of human I'elationships, we find that it is possible to organise much
more intensive forms of agriculture than any of our ov\'n, which would
be an enormous advantage to a consuming nation like Britain ; examples
of such are to be met with in varying degrees of intensity in many
countries. The Chinese, one reads, have increased production per unit
area to an almost incredible extent, and in a lesser degree a similar
state of affairs exists in jxirts of France and in Belgium (so often held
up to us in this country as a model of productive capacity which we
should strive to emulate). But in all these places the results are only
achieved by a prodigal use of labour. The nation gains, no doubt, in
the volume of produce available for its consumption, but the individual
producer, .deprived under this system of the opportunity to apply his
manual effort in conjunction with an adequate amount of capital and
land, is sacrificed to the consumei's advantage, and is driven to spend
himself, year in and year out, for a reward for his toil which the

I9fi SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

British worker, with so many alternative openings in more profitable
directions available lor him under our industrial system, would never
for one moment submit to. Fi'om what I have read, I imagine that
the fact which drove so many Scottish crofters across the seas was
much less the selfishness of deer-stalking landlords than the opportunity
for exchanging a few acres of rocks and heatlier in the Highlands for
160 acres of the virgin soil of Canada. People only submit to poor
conditions of life when they have no alternative, and one of the most
important studies awaiting the investigator of agricultural economics
is that of the lines on which to develop the industry so as to give the
worker the biggest reward for his toil.

These few illustrations may serve to indicate the over-riding import-
ance of the economic factor in farming just as in any other business.
It is a common experience in industry that many scientific and tech-
nical processes are possible which are not profitable, and it is in the
light of the profit that they leave that all of them must be judged.

Economic conditions are subject to continual change, and the varia-
tions may be both sudden and extreme. This makes it the more need-
ful to be continually recording experience and to examine it for the
facts that emerge from which to obtain guidance for future policy.
Much information is required both for national and individual guid-
ance. Of late years, for example, there has been much advocacy of
more intensive cultivation of the soil ; it is said that by closer settle-
ment and more intensive methods the production from the land could
be much increased. On the other hand, there are those who advocate
a development of extensive farming as being the only means by which
to attract capital to the land and to pay the highest wage to the worker.
Both sides to this controversy can and do produce evidence in support
of their views, and some figures derived from a survey made by my col-
league, Mr. J. Pryse Howell, will serve to illustrate both. The total area
surveyed was 9,390 acres, divided into fifty-two farms of various sizes,
and the region was selected by reason of the uniformity of the general
conditions. All available data for each holding were collected, and
after grouping the farms according to acreage the figures were thrown
together and averaged for each group, with the following result: —

Production per Unit of Land and per Unit op Labour from
Holdings op Various Sizes.

£5

■2"S

in "
§1

-fc3

a
a» CD

l-M u

a "

5
a.

*- a

-li

I-. ("

■^ r-l

6 ""

Acres

Feet

S. (1.

£ s.

0-50

341-369

32 10

168 19

II.

50-100

319-384

6-4

156 2

[II.

100-150

138

370-453

27 2

4-2

189

IV.

150-2.50

201

11-7

330-411

28 4

3-3

222 12

over 250

356

18-0

286-435

26 5

2-6

316 19

M.- AGRICULTURE. 107

It. will ho noted that the conditions under which the farming is
carried on in the various groups show no material differences as
between one group and another, except in the matter of area. There
is a tendency for rent to fall as the size of the holdings increases,
hut it is not pronounced, and in one case (Group IV.) the percentage
of grass land to arable land is considerably liighei' tlian in the rest; but,
considering the variations which must be expected in the conditions
jirevailing over any area of fifteen square miles in extent, it may be
claimed that in respect of altitude, quality of land, and proportion
of arable to grass the holdings in these five groups are fairly com-
parable. Taking the results as they stand, the fact emerges that
employment and production vary inversely with the size of the hold-
mg, but that the pioduction per man employed varies directly with
llie size of the holding. Thus, on the one hand, the advocates of
closer settlement and the intensive methods which must necessarily
follow if men are to live by the cultivation of small areas of land
would seem to bo juslilied, in that the results shown by the survey
nidicate the highest amount of employment and the greatest product-
\aluc in the smaller groups. On the other hand, the advocates of
more extensive methods of farming can point to their justification in
that it is clear that the efficiency of management is greatest in the
larger groups if the standard of measurement be that of product-value
per man employed.

However, it is clear that either party is drawing conclusions from
incomplete data. The efficiency of any farming system can only be
judged by an examination of the extent to which all the factors of
production are utilised and balanced under it. Each of the assump-
tions made from the figures above ignores entirely the factor of capital.
Land, labour, and capital are all required for production, and the
optimum system of farm management is that which utilises all three
together so as to secure the maximum result from each. If informa-
tion were available as to the capital utilised in each of the five groups
n\ the survey it might be found that in the smaller groups labour was
being wastefully employed, and that an equal number of men working
on a larger area of land with more capital, in the form of machinery
equipment, would produce an equal product-value per unit of land
with a higher rate of output per man employed. Equally it might be
found that in the larger groups the use of more labour, or a reduction
in the area of land, might produce the same product-value per man
with a higher rate of output per unit of land. Obviously there can
be no absolute answer to the question of what constitutes the most
economical unit of land for farm production. The quality of land in
certain cases, and market, transport, and climatic conditions in many
more, make it impossible to determine even within wide limits the
size of the holding on which the principal factors of production can
be emi^loyed with maximum effect. Within similar areas, however,
and in limited districts, much work -can and should be done by agricul-
tural economists to collect evidence on this point for the informa-
tion of all concerned with the administration of land.

Another matter of the utmost importance to the farmer and to

198

SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

the public alike, and one which is crying out for investigation on a
large scale, is the distribution and marketing of farm produce. Atten-
tion has been drawn at many times to the discrepancy between the
price realised by the producer and the price paid by the consumer
for the same article. In connection with market-garden produce, for
example, the Departmental Committee on the Settlement or Employ-
ment on the Land of Discharged Sailors and Soldiers stated in their
Report (Cd. 8182, 1916) that ' the disparity between the retail prices
paid for mai-ket-garden produce in the big towns and the small portion
of those prices received by the growers is utterly indefensible. It
demonstrates a degree of economic waste which would ruin any other
industry.' No evidence was published by the Committee as to the
facts upon which this conclusion was based, but a recent inquiry made
by the Ministry of Agricultiu'e into the prices prevailing at various stages
in the distribution of vegetables in London may be quoted in confirma-
tion of it. Figures were collected to show the amount received by
the producer, the wholesaler, and the retailers for various classes of
everyday garden stuff, with results as shown below.

Pkoducer's,

Wholes aleb's, and Eetaileks' Prices for Market-
garden Produce, January 1921.

Cabbages,

Cauli-

Sprouts,
top grade,
per 28 lb.

.V. (I.

Turnips,

medium

bottom

flower.s.

medium

grade,

grade.

top grade.

grade.

per doz.

))er doz.

per cwt.

.■!. -/.

.«. d.

.-■ <l

.S-. d.

Producer .

3 6

Wholesaler

—

5 6

Retailers —

(a) Stalls and barrows

2 6

—

(6) Suburban shops .

2 6

— •

class-shops

18 8

One has only to glance at the prevailing methods of distribution to
realise their wastefulness. The street in which I live contains ten
houses, and each day four uiilk-carts, three bakers' carts, three grocers'
carts, and two butchers' carts deliver food to them. Twelve men,
horses, and carts, not to mention a host of errand-boys on foot and
on cycles, to deliver food to ten families ! While we are content with
such a loose organisation of distribution as this represents, we must not
wonder if the prices received by producers seem disproportionate
to those paid by consumers, particularly when the produce
partakes of the nature of market-garden stuff, bulky, perishable, and of
low value. But apart from the question of methods of distribution,
and the advantages to producer and consumer alike which would accrue
from some co-operative organisation directed towards the elimination of
unnecessary retailers who do no real service to either of them, an in-
vestigation of transport and marketing-costs would show to what extent
they are being exploited by the distributor. The farmer suffers equally
with the market-gardener. At the present time I am getting Is. 9d. per

M.— AGRICUJ.TURK. 100

gallon for milk sold to a middleiuaii from my farm, and for this milk my
wife is charged 3s. per gallon. I am selling lamb at f .s. 4r/. per pound for
which she is charged 2s. 6t/. per lb., and if the drought had not upset the
crop I should be selling potatoes at an equal disparity as between w hole-
sale and retail prices. Can anyone say whether these figures do or do not
represent a fair division of total cost as between producer, retailer, and
consumer? It may be asserted with contidence that no one can speak
with authority upon the subject. The only figures which we have been
able to collect at Oxford on the cost of distribution relate to milk, and the
most recent that we have are those for the year l!)f8. In that year in a
Midland maimfacturing town we found that the distribution costs of a
lai-ge producer-retailer were as follows: —

£ .s. d.

T ■ f Manual and clerical 1,242 10 2it

Labour i „ .„-t r. r.?

[ Hor.se ........ 497 !)A

Rent 75 ()'

Sundry purchases, depreciation, general expenses, &c. . 430 2 1

Total cost £2,24t 13 1

Number of gallons of milk distributed .... 112,833

Cost of distribution per gallon ..... 4-77rf.

Doubtless the conditions have changed since that year, nor is it
possible to generalise from a single example; but, nevertheless, the
figure for the gallon-cost seems to indicate that both farmer and con-
sumer are suffering in the interests of the distributor, though it is
impossible to say without further investigation whether the profit
secured by retailers generally is excessive, or whether the difference
between distribution cost and the margin out of wlrch it is paid is
necessary owing to an excessive number of distributors.

As to the other points named, meat and potatoes, no evidence exists
at all, and the position with regard to them and also to milk is only
indicated to emphasise the need for a full investigation of the economics
of distribution.

At the present time labou)' problems afford a useful example of the
need for further investigation of the economic problems of agriculture.
The agricultural industry has been fortunate in that it has escaped
the serious labom- troubles which have shaken many other industries so
badly during the past few years. This has been due in part, no doubt,
to the closer personal relations which exist between employer and
employed in agriculture than in other enterprises, and in part to the
intervention of that often unfairly criticised body, the Agricultural
Wages Board, but agricultural employers have also to thank the fact
that agricultural labour is difficult to organise. Much controversy in
the past would have been avoided, and the possibility of future difficulties
could be faced with more confidence, if all the facts relating to labour
had been and were being studied over the country generally. The
labourer is often blamed for results which are due to the inefficiency
of the farmer as a manager. When wages were low it may have been
that the labourer was the cheapest machine, but in proportion as his
remuneration approaches more nearly to the standard of reward in com-
peting industries, so will the necessity for making his \\'ork more

200 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

productive be intensifiL'd. Tlie value of the output from the farm per
man employed is not the only measure by which to gauge the efficiency
of the management, but is certainly one of primary importance. A man
with a spade can dig an acre of land in about two weeks at a cost to-day
of about 4:1. 10s.; a horseman and a pair of horses can plough an acre
in about a day and a-half at a cost of about 1/. 15s. ; a farm mechanic
on a tractor can break up an acre in about a quarter of a day, and
although in the absence of sufficient data the comparison cannot yet be
completed by reference to the cost of motor ploughing, it is fairly
safe to suggest that when all the factors are considered — speed, less
dependence upon atmospheric and soil conditions, as well as actual cost
— there will be a still further advantage to be derived by investing the
manual worker with the control of mechanical power. Thus it may be
that high labour costs to-day are due in many cases less to the ineffi-
ciency of labour and more to the inefficiency of management. In a
recent issue of The Times an agricultural writer expressed the view that
if the means existed for determining the proportion of the net returns
of agriculture accruing to-day to labour, it would be found that labour
was taking an excessive toll of farming results. This view is probably
very generally held, and it affords a good example of the misconcep-
tions which may and do arise in people's minds in the absence of exact
information upon which to base their assertions. This happens to be
one of the questions which have been the subject of investigation at
Oxford, though only on the small scale that the means at the disposal
of the University has admitted. An investigation was made before the
War of the Distribution of the Net Returns of Agriculture as between
landlord, farmer, and labour. The net returns are calculated from the
net output, and the net output was ascertained by the method followed
in the Final Report on the First Census of Production of the United
Kingdom, 1907 (Cd. 63^0). Under this method the cost of materials
at the works is deducted from the value of the output at the works, and
the difference constitutes for any industry the fund from which wages,
salaries, rent, royalties, rates, taxes, depreciation, advertisement, and
sales expenses, and all other similar charges, have to be defrayed, as well
as profits. The same basis of calculation was adopted in the Report of
the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries on the Agricultural Output of
Great Britain (Cd. 6277) made in connection with the Census of Pro-
duction Act, 1906. In applying this measure of net output to the
agricultural industry the method is to value the farmer's capital at the
beginning of the year and to add to this figure all live and dea3 stock
bought during the year, foods, manures, tradesmen's bills, on-cost and
establishment charges, &c., and to deduct the total from the sales during
the year added to the valuation of the farmer's capital at the end of the
year. Only in the case of the workers is their share of this net output
available as net income. The landlord has to incur a considerable
expenditure upon the farm in the way of repairs and maintenance, and
this must come out of his share of the net output. From an inquiry
conducted by the Land Agents' Society in the year 1909 it appeared
that about 30 per cent, of the rent received by the landlord is expended
by him in repairs, insurance, management, and similar payments neces-

M.— AGRICULTURE.

201

sary to maintain the proj)oi'ty in a condition to produce the rent. The
I'urnier, too, may have certain expenses to meet not covered by those
deducted in arriving at the net output, and his share of this figure has
also to cover some rate of interest on his working capital Ijesides tlie
reward due to him for the exercise of his managerial functions. Thus,
in considering the distribution of the profits of agriculture between the
three interests concerned, it is necessary to distinguish between net
output as defined in the Census of Production and what may be termed
the net returns. The net returns are ascertained by deducting from the
net output any additional expenses of the business not already allowed
for; a sum repi-esenting about 7 per cent, interest on the farmer's capital
(this figure being based on current rates for money), and one-third of
the amount of the rent.

This method for calculating net returns was apjilied in l'.)13 to six
farms scattered all over the country and differing from each other in
almost every way as to systems of management, soil, locality, and so
forth, and it was found that the proportions accruing to each of the three
interests varied hardly at all, and that it would be safe to say that 20 per
cent, of the total was going to the landlord, 40 per cent, to the farmer,
and 40 per cent, to labour. Owing to the disorganisation of the work
arising out of the War it was not possible to carry on the investigation
on each of these six farms, but it was continued in connection with one
of them down to the year 1920. This farm may fairly be described as
typical of ' average to rather indifferent ' conditions. It was a tenant-
farm, about a thousand acres in extent, commanding a rent of less than
11. per acre, about three-quarters arable, situated on light to medium
land, seven miles from a station, and farmed mainly for production of
corn and meat. Taking the above proportions, namely 40 per cent.
each to farmer and labour and 20 per cent, to landlord as the pre-w^ar
rate of distribution, and calling each of these shares 100, the proportion
of distribution between the three interests varied during the following
six years as sliown below: —

Distribution of the Net Eeturns from Farming between
Landlord, F.\rmer, and Labour during the years 1913-14 — 1919-20.

Year

Landlord

Farmer

Labour

1913-14 (Standard) .

100

1914-1.5 .

104

1915-16 .

108

1916^17 .

115

1917-18 .

111

1918-19 .

115

1919-20 .

109

102

The figures are interesting in several ways. In the first place they
seem to disprove the suggestion referred to above, that labour has been
taking an undue share of the net returns from farming, for an examina-

that until

tion of the figures in
X931

'to'

tlie ' Ijabour ' column shows

the

^02 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

institution of the Agricultural "Wages Board in 1917 the tendency was
in the direction of a slight but steady reduction in the proportion
coming to the workers ; the effect of the Wages Board Orders was to
steady this tendency and, ultimately, to bring labour back approximately
to the position it occupied in 1913-14. If the figures could have been
continued for another year it is likely that they would show a material
increase in the workers' share, but, even so, it would be found that this
increase had been achieved without reducing the farmer's share below
his pre-war proportion. In the second place, the figures confirm the
experience of landowners in that the landlord has received no part of
the increased prosperity of farming, -whilst, as everyone knows, his
expenses of maintenance have enormously increased. Briefly, the
situation is that, thanks to the Agricultural Wages Board (and its
appointed members may take heart from the fact), the workers have
been maintained in the same position as regards their share in the net
returns as that in which they were before the war, whilst the farmer
has received his share in the increase realised during the past few years,
together with that which would have gone to the landlord had the
pre-war scale of distribution been maintained. Rents and wages under
normal conditions are slow to adjust themselves to changes in farming
fortune, and, except in a time of violent economic upheaval, it is right
that this should be so, for if the landlord may be regarded as a deben-
ture holder, and labour as a preference shareholder, then the farmer,
as the ordinary or deferred shareholder, has to bear the brunt, and if
he must take the kicks so also is he entitled to the halfpence.

Turning now from problems in which either the nation generally
or whole classes of the industry are concerned, it may be stated that
there are many economic problems arising on the farm itself in the
solution of which the individual farmer should be able to derive help
from the economist. Some of these problems are so simple that their
solution should be obvious, but the fact remains that waste in its most
easily eliminated forms is constantly to be met with on the farm. The
need for the study of the economic use of manual labour has ah'eady
been referred to in another connection, but, granted that the balance
between the employment of land, capital and labour on any farm has
been established, cases are continually met with where labour is being
mismanaged. It is a not uncommon practice at threshing-time to take
the horsemen from their work to assist at threshing, and as this opera-
tion can only be performed in dry weather, it may be assumed that
the horses might usually be employed on threshing days. With manual
labour costing about 7s. 6d. a day and horses about 5s. a day, the advan-
tage of hiring casual labour for threshing, even at high rates of pay, will
be obvious when it is remembered that the horseman whose horses are
standing idle represents a daily cost for the manual work performed by
him of some 18s. On a Midland Counties farm, where the maximum
possible horse-hours in a certain week in November last were 238, the
time actually worked by horses was found to be eighty-seven, owing to
threshing operations, and the wastefulness of the labour-management
in such a case is obvious. Again, employers in certain cases object to

M.— AGRICULTURE. 203

paying Saturday overtime to men willing to worl<, because overtime
payments are at a higher rate than those for ordinary time, but they
overlook entirely the fact that the Agricultural Wages Board provides
no overtime payments to the horses, and tlius the clieapest horse-labour
on the farm is that performed on Saturday afternoon at overtime rates
of pay to the horsemen.

Everyone realises, of course, the importance of keeping horses
busy, but not everyone thinks how heavily the cost of manual labour
is increased by idle horses. The maximum number of working days in
a year is 312, a total obviously impossible of attainment in practice.
Such records as are available show that the days actually worked by
horses on the farm will not usually exceed four-fifths of the maximum.
More time may be lost in summer than in winter, a fact not generally
realised, and the period of maximum unemployment falls between hay-
making and harvest. The busy seasons are, of course, the autumn
and the spring, when the preparation of the ground for winter and
spring corn is going actively forward. In the year 1918 figures were
collected to show the percentage of days worked compared with ' pos-
sible days ' in each month on four farms distributed pretty evenly over
England, and the results, thrown together, are as follows: —

Pebcext.\ge of Days Worked to Possible Horse-d.\ys on Four

Farms in 1918.

. 38

. 65

. 78

. 80

. 67

. 64

Although the figures represent an average of four farms, it is note-
worthy that the results on the individual holdings varied one from
another in degree only, and that the months of maximum and mini-
mum employment were the same in every case. The loss of time is
far more serious than many people realise. The maximum possible
horse-days in the year are 312, and the cost per day of the horses on
the above four farms on this basis was 2s. Id. whereas, owing to the
time lost, the cost on the basis of days worked was 3s. Id. Whilst
some difference is inevitable, so great a discrepancy as these figures
reveal can be avoided by skilful management, and one of the tests of
the farmer's efficiency is provided by an examination of the distribution
of horse-labour throughout the year on his farm. His cropping and
other work should be so contrived as to provide for the uniform,
utilisation of horse-labour month by month. Under skilful manage-
ment the differences in the number of days worked by horses fi'om year
to year are extraordinarily slight. On an East Midlands farm, employ-
ing twenty-three horses, the days worked per horse during the past
six years have been as follows: —

January

/o
. 67

July

February

. 82

August .

March

. 77

September

April

. 74

October

May

. 70

November

June

. 56

December

Year

1913-14

1914-15

1915-16

1916-17

1917-18

1918-19

Days worked per

horse .

250-25

247

243

236

243

244-5

Q 2

204: SECTIONAL ADDRESSES.

It may be noted, in passing, that figures such as those given for the
seasonal employment of horse-labour emphasise the need for a study of
the place of the agricultural tractor in farm management, for the busiest
times of the year synchronise, more or less, with the seasons when
the weather is more uncertain and suggest that the application of
speedier mechanical power to field operations, in substitution for slower
horse-power, would result in economic advantages in certain cases.

In connection with the study of economics on the farm the question
of agricultural costings naturally suggests itself. Farmers, as a class,
arc not accountants and much less are they cost accountants, but this
has not deterred many of them from taking part in discussions of
farming costs which have been going on in the Press and in the Food
Controller's offices for some time past, and the confusion of thought
on the question of what cost of production really is which these dis-
cussions have revealed is evidence of the need for study and education
in costing processes. Few things can be of greater service to the
farmer than scientific book-keeping carried out and interpreted with
proper understanding, but few things can deceive him more than
costing wrongly conducted or misinterpreted. The need for accurate
thinking is evidenced in nothing, perhaps, so much as in connection
with the question of the valuation of the raw materials gi-own on the
farm, the hay, straw, roots, pasturage, &c., produced for home con-
sumption in the process of manufacturing milk and meat. Thei'e can
be only one basis of value possible, namely, their cost to the farmer,
but it is contended, almost universally, that their market price should
be substituted for the sums that he has actually paid for them. As
a matter of fact, the bulky feeding stuffs usually produced and con-
sumed at home rarely have any market value at all. A market value
is one that can be realised in the market. Thus, corn, meat, and
certain other commodities have clearly market value because they are
always saleable, but if all the farmers in the country decided to sell
their mangolds they would find that the market for mangolds is non-
existent, and that the prices quoted in market reports represent a few
deals to satisfy an infinitesimal demand. The same is true of straw
and, in a slightly less degi^ee, of hay in normal times. Even if the
difficulty of fixing the market prices of certain products, such
as turnips, straw, or hay, be ignored, and if it be assumed that
there be a free market in such things, a fuller consideration of what
the farmer really does in feeding them to his stock will show how
inapplicable such values are to his case. The market value of an article
is the figure at which a willing buyer and a willing seller can agree
to do business. The farmer who contends that he is justified in
' selling ' his roots or hay to his stock is selling them, in point of
fact, to himself, and seeing that there is only one party to the trans-
action there can be no market and, consequently, no market price.
In the majority of cases each of these things is grown because the
farmer has need of them in the production of the article or articles
of food towards which his management is directed. If he could buy
them more cheaply than he can grow them he would surely do so, but
to I'egard himself as a merchant instead of as a manufacturer, and

M.— AGRICULTURE. 205

then to trade with one department of his farm against another is to
involve himself in paper transactions which have no foundation in
fact, and whicii may lead to disastrous conclusions. To take, for
example, the cost of milk production. It is usual to argue that hay
consumed by the cow should be charged at its market price. It may
well be that in consequence of a temporary or of a local demand it
will pay a farmer better to sell hay rather than to produce milk, and
one of the main functions of book-keeping is to enable him to make
a decision on such points as this. But he cannot expect to have
it both ways ; if he sells hay he cannot produce milk, and vice versa.
Many farmers contract at summer prices for their winter's supply of
feeding stuffs, but a man who has bought linseed cake at a pound
per ton less than the price current at the time when he is consuming
it would hardly think of charging it to bullocks at any other price
than that which he actually paid, and it is this figure, the actual cost
to him, which must be the measure of the value of all raw materials,
whether they be bought in the market, or whether, for the sake of
convenience and economy, they be grown on the farm.

Lastly, I want to urge, and particularly before a gathering such
as this, the importance of agricultural economics in agricultural
education. The fact is realised, no doubt, by many teachers, but until
a sufficient body of data bearing on the study of farm management can
be made available to them it is impossible for them to give to the
teaching of practical agriculture that solid economic basis which is
fundamental, and the teacher is driven to include in his insti-uctioii
much to which the economic test has never been applied and to exclude
more for which no basis for teaching exists at all. Given the requisite
body of information it would not only be possible but necessary to
recast the whole foundations upon which the teaching of practical
agriculture rests.

I am not one of the few who appear to derive satisfaction from
milking comparisons unfavourable to British agriculture with that of
other countries, but, when we look at the work which is being done
in the United States, in Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and even in
Russia before the War, it is surprising to reflect that the agriculturists
of the nation which produced Adam Smith. Ricardo, and John Stuart
Mill should have been so slow to realise the need for a fidler organisation
for the study of as'iicultural economics.

REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE,

Etc.

Seismological Investigations. — Twenty-sixth Report of Com-
mittee (Prolessur H. H. Turner, Chairman; Mr. J. J. Shaw,
Secretary; Mr. C. Vernon Boys, Dr. J. E. Crombie, Sir Horace
Darwin, Dr. 0. Davison, Sir F. W. Dyson, Sir R. T.
Glazebbook, Professors C. G. Knott, and H. Lamb, Sir J.
Larmor, Professors a. E. H. Love, H. M. Macdonald, and H. C.
Plummer, Mr. W. E. Plummer, Professor R. A. Sampson, Sir A.
Schuster, Sir Napier Siiaw, Dr. G. T. Walker, and Mr. G. W.
Walker). Drawn up hij tJic CJiairDiun, cvccpi irlierc dtlieririse
mentioned.

General.

The Committee has to deplore the death of Professor J. Perry, who had
been associated with its work from the early days when he was in Japan with
Professor John Milne. The first Report of this Committee (1895, Liverpool)
contains an account of the ' Perry Tromometer ' by its inventor, and a note
on trials of one form of it at Shide by !Milne — so sensitive that the guns fired
five miles away (at the funeral of Prince Henry of Battenberg) caused movements
of 1 foot in the light spot. Perry was continuously a member of this Committee
from its inception till his death (1920, August 5), and a regular attendant at
its meetings.

The clerical work at Oxford is still being carried on in the room in the
' Students" Observatory ' mentioned in the last Report, as the tenant of the
house (purchased by Dr. Crombie's benefaction) found at the last moment
that his arrangements for vacating it in September, 1920, had broken down.
This has naturally hampered the work ; and the serious illness of Miss Bellamy
for several months has also had an inevitable effect on the current reductions.
The Committee is much indebted to her uncle, i\Ir. F. A. Bellamy, for the way
in which lie has minimised the loss by his own personal exertions.

Until the Royal Commission on the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge
has reported, and the Geophysical Union has considered the international situa-
tion (as expected at Rome in April next), no further steps of a general kind
can be taken.

The Committee received its annual grant of 100/. from the Caird Fund in
January, 1921. In place of the 100/. formerly granted by the British Association
at its annual meeting, it was resolved at the Cardiff (1920) Meeting to forward
to the Board of Scientific and Industrial Research a recommendation that this
sum should lie granted from its funds. The Chairman interviewed the officials
of the Board on the matter, at their request ; and it was ultimately decided
that, instead of the application to the B.Sc. and Tnd. Res., application should
be made to the Government Grant Fund for 300/. in place of the former 200/.
'J'liis grant of .300/. was made in INIarch, 1921, and placed at the disposal of the
Committee in June, 1921.

It may be mentioned that a member of the Committee, Dr. C. Davison, has
during the year published an excellent ' Manual of Seismology ' (Camb. Univ.
Press, Geological Series).

Instrumental.

The ]Milne-Shaw seismograph erected in the basement of the Clarendon
Laboratory at Oxford has worked well throughout the year, except that the
coal strike led to a diminution of gas-pressure and consequent illumination
for certain hours, which made the record almost useless. Mr. Bellamy and
Mr. J. J. Shaw arranged an electric-light substitute which has performed
fairly well.

It may be mentioned that miniature copies of the films on quarter-plates
have been found very useful. Prints made from these show under a lens
practically all that is required, and are very readily stored or sent by post.

SEISMOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS.

207

It would thus be feasible to collect the records of several observatories for
comparison without taking up an inconvenient amount of storage space. We
should at Oxford welcome exchanges of this kind (for days of large earthquakes)
with observatories that would consider a mutual arrangement.

During the year Milne-Shaw machines have been despatched to Bombay,
Rio de Janeiro, Wellington (N.Z.), Cairo, and Hong-Kong.

JMr. J. J. Shaw has been hard at work all the year on the construction of
Milne-Shaw machines, and as each approaches completion he has seized oppor-
tunities for experiment. The most valuable and laborious of these experiments
are referred to later under the heading of ' ]Microseisms,' but another instance
is represented in the following note supplied by him : —

Wanderings of the Zero.

' In the Report for the year l'J17 attention was drawn to the great difference
in the stability of two adjacent sites 60 feet apart (at West Bromwich), but
there was a possibility tliat the wandering of the zero was an effect of changes
of temperature upon the instruments. The base of the seismograph is poised
upon three brass feet, the effect of which might be to tilt the instrument if
one side of the chamber was warmer than the other.

' To investigate this point three feet of invar steel were substituted, but the
wandering of the zero from day to night continued as before.

' An attempt was made to counteract the tilt by using invar on one side of the
instrument and brass on the other. If any effect was produced, it was too small
to lie noticed.' (.J. J. S.)

Just as this Report was going to press, Mr. Shaw sent a further note of an
important series of observations on the effect of solar radiation. ' Yesterday
was a special day here,' he wrote on August 4 ; ' the sky was intensely blue,
with huge banks of fleecy cumulus clouds, so that the front of my house was
at one moment in brilliant warm sunshine, and at another in cool shadow.'
He noted the times of transition, and found almost immfdiatc responses of the
.seismograph in the cellar. The matter will, of course, be further investigated,
and fuller details given later.

Change of Site from Shide to Oxford.

The departure from Shide (rendered necessary by the return of Mrs. Milne
to Japan) and removal to Oxford involves discontinuity, which is liable to
affect scientific results more or less, sometimes in details which are not realised

TABLE I.

Number of Earthquakes Eegistered.

Shide

Oxford

1916

1917

6
3
4
6
4
G
13
5
1
3
1
4

191S

1919

1918

1919

1920

2
11

2
10

G
10
17
15

6
16

108

January
February .
March
April .
May .
June .
July .
August
September .
October
November .
December .

5
7
4
9
6
4
2
15
6
6
9
7

5
3
2

5
2

7
5
3
8
10
4

7
4

2
3

Total .

until too late to remedv the defect. The most noticeable change up to the
present has been decidedlv advantageous, viz. the steadiness of the trace has
been immensely improved. Tins is probably not a consequence of change of

203 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC

geological site, but merely of the installation in the basement of the Clarendon
Laboratory, where the temperature is kept very steady (wliereas in the old stable
on ground-level at 8hide it varied considerably : see the Twentieth and Twenty-
first Reports). Bat in the present imperfect state of our knowledge it is well
to keep an eye on anything which may suggest change in sensitiveness of site.
The counts of the numbers of earthquakes registered at Shide and Oxford
near the break, given in Table I on page 207, seem to show that no very serious
discontinuity of this kind has been experienced. Miss Bellamy went through
all the records and noted any disturbance of the trace, however slight, that
could be attributed to an earthquake.

Bulletins and Tables.

The Bulletins are now considerably in arrear, owing to the imperfection
of correspondence during the War, which is only slowly disappearing. Several
times the results for 1917 have had to be revised owing to the receipt of
delayed material ; but they are now being put into shape for printing, which
will be pushed on (for this and following years) as rapidly as possible. Any
corrections to tables must necessarily await the completion of this work.

Earthquake Periodicity.

It was mentioned in the last Report how the long period of 240 to 300 years
suggested by the Chinese records of earthquakes had perhaps been identified
in the growth of trees as exemplified in the records collected by Mr. A. E.
Douglass. If so, there were apparently two interfering periods of 284 and 303
years. During the past year, by the courtesy of the i\leteorological Office, a
copy of the independent work by Professor Ellsworth Huntington, ' The
Climatic Factor as illustrated in Arid America,' was lent for some months in
order that the measures there given might be analysed. They were accepted
as given by Professor Huntington in Table G on p. 323, which gives a summary
of growth of Sequoia Washingtoinana. Column (H) gives final corrected
average. What follows refers to this column suljsequent to date — 1085, before
which the numbers are wild and would seriously upset the analysis.

(a) When analysed in an adopted period (adopted for convenience of
arithmetic) of 280 years the phases showed a progressive increase, indicating
a longer mean period, but at the same time a reversal in the middle of the
series showed that a single term would not suffice to represent them completely.

[b] A period of 284 years was then assumed and separated out. The
remainders indicated a term, not of 303 years as expected, but of 327 years.
Since the values 284 and 303 for the components were adopted from discussion
of the corresponding pair near one century (95 and 101 years), this new series
was next examined for cycles near one century, and a term of 109 years
declared itself unmistakably.

Hence it will be necessary to reconsider the former adopted values, and to
see how far the whole evidence will support modified values of the periods.

Breaking Submarine Cables.

It was Milne's opinion, several times publicly expressed, that submarine
earthquakes were often responsible for breakages of cables, which occasionally
occur without assignable cause. If so, we should have an important link
between a scientific study and the business world.

During the past year opportunities have arisen in several independent ways
for testing this hypothesis. In some cases definite dates and places of cable
breakages were supplied, with inquiries whether shocks fitting in with these
data had been recorded. In no case could an affirmative answer be given after
scrutiny of the records ; while in some of them the trace seemed to be almost
maliciously quiet for many hours near the date and time provided. After some
experience of this kind other inquiries were initiated by the Chairman without
better success. The cable companies concerned do not wish the details pub-
lished, for business reasons; but the main facts are as stated. It would seem
that if submarine shocks of the kind are responsible, then for some reason
they do not affect our seismological records.

SEISMOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS. 209

Explosions.

During the past year also there have been one or two explosions of which
notice has kindly been given, so that eftects on the trace might be looked for.
In these instances previous experience suggested a negative result, and no
serious expectations were raised. There was ultimately nothing to report.

Standard Time.

This Committee in its earlier years naturally took much interest in the
establishment of Standard Time in various parts of the Empire. The Colonial
Office courteously continues to inform the Committee of any advances in this
direction. Tlius in 1919, August, the Colonial Secretary informed us that
the ' Standard Time of one hour fast on Greenwich will be introduced in
Nigeria on the 1st of September next,' forwarding at the same time a copy of the
Ordinance. On 1920, January 2, the Colonial Secretary forwarded copies of
Ordinance No. 18 of the Gold Coast, No. 11 of Ashanti, and No. 8 of the
Northern Territories, which enacted that Standard Time shall be twenty minutes
in advance of Greenwich from September 1 to January 1 in each year; and
Greenw^ich time for the rest of the year.

Alterations of twenty minuti?s at various seasons formed part of Mr. Willett's
original scheme of ' Daylight Saving,' but were given up in deference to urgent
representations from various quarters. As an alteration of this kind seems f;ir
more likely to cause inconvenience and confusion than an alteration of a whole
hour, an inquiry to the Colonial Office has recently been adventured whether
it would be possible to find out how far experience of the change had proved
satisfactory ; and an answer was received promising that inquiries should be
made. On August 12 the reply was transmitted, to the effect that the changes
had been found so beneficial in practice that they were to be retained.

The Earthquake in New Guinea on 1919, May 7.

Acknowledgment may be also made here of the courtesy of the Colonial
Office in forwarding, under date 1919, September 10, a copy of a Report from
the Administration at Rabaul (late German New Guinea) relative to a ' severe
earthquake shock ' on 1919, May 7. ' Reveille had blown at 5. .30 . . . and a
few men who were snatching some minutes' extra sleep received a violent
reminder that it had blown by being pitched off their stretchers and having
the stretchers overturned on top of them.' In acknowledging the Report,
opportunity was taken to ask for details of locality, which led to a further
Report from the Administrator, received here on 1921, January 4, specifying
the centre of disturbance as the ' semi-active volcano Glaie or Tavurvur,' in
long. 152° 8' 55" E., lat. 4° 14' 20" S. (2 miles S.E. of Rabaul), which was in
violent eruption in 1878 (January-February), when (Febraary 14) Vulcan I.sland
was upheaved (ref. to autobiography of Rev. George Br(j>vn, and R. Geog. Soc. ;
chart of H.M.S. Blanche, 1872). At that time there was little or no wliite
settlement. There was another 'severe shock on 1916, January 1, for which the
details adopted (by Shide, I.W.) were

To=13'' 20" 13», . . 154°-0E. 6°-5 S.

Possibly the actual position of the volcano would suit the data equally well
(see 'Large Earthquakes' of 1916, published by this Committee). The
Administrator adds : —

' The line of disturbance is South-West from the volcano Glaie to the large
active volcano called the Father on the north coast of New Britain. In fact,
the earthquakes are most severe when the Father is quietest. The line extends
then westerly towards the west end of New Britain, where there are semi-active
volcanoes; thence on to the Island of Manam, off the coast of New Guinea,
which is a very active volcano.'

The Great Earthquake o£ 1920, December 16.

A very severe earthquake occurred on December IG near the city of Pingliang,
in Kansu, China. Father Gherzi has already published a valuable preliminary
report on this disaster, but the following notes are chiefly from sources inde-

210

REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC.

pendent of his : ' The reported loss of life varies from 1,000,000 — a Chinese
official report — to 100,000, a "conservative" foreign estimate.' Part of the
population live in caves, and were buried alive by the collapse of the hills.
Others sleep on brick platforms with a fire underneath, and were either burnt
in the fire or died of cold and exposure from the fire being extinguished.
Letters have been received (in reply to inquiries kindly suggested by the
Royal Geographical Society) from a number of missionaries and others, giving
details of the terrible disaster in various localities. A valuable report from
Mr. E. J. Mann in Lanchow (103°. 9 E., 36°. N.) deserves special mention.
He gives a sketch map of the district most affected which extends from

Haicheng (105°.95 E., 36°. 35 N.) : ' No walls left ; no people left ' ;
Ta-la-Cliih (105°. 36 E., 36°. 62 N.) : 'Important large market; entirely
destroyed '

(these as northern limit) to

Touguei (105°. 12 E., 35°. 22 N. : 'No wall standing; not quite so flat as Hai-
cheng ' ;
and Ma-ing (104°. 97 E., 35°. 30 N.) : Same note as Ta-la-Chih.

The mean co-ordinates of these four places are 105°. 3 E., 35°. 9 N., and, so
far as it is possible to specify a single point for a disaster of such magnitude,
we might take this for the epicentre. Mr. Mann draws attention to two
volcanoes N. and S. of the district most affected. The positions given above
are taken from his sketch map by comparison with a few well-known points :
and the positions he records for the volcanoes are

o o

105-79 E 37-26 N 1 Mean

104-69 E 34-64 N J 105°-24 35°-95

The point midway between them is, as Mr. INIann observes, remarkably
close to the middle of the affected district, as above estimated. The northern
volcano 'does not emit fire but is always smoking.' Close to the southern,
which is also a ' smoking hill,' is a ' noted boiling-water spring to which people
go for medical baths.' Between the hills are a 'large number of warm or hot
springs. There is a real hot one close to the ruined city of Tonguei, and
there are many warm ones in the district of Cliing-yuan ' (105°. 08 E., 36°59N.).
Other points of interest in Mr. Mann's letter may be briefly summarised
thus : —

(A.) Percentage of houses destroyed at

105-08 E

36-59 N.

A>78

80 to 90 per cent

105-59

35-41

0-60

106.24

35-65

0-90

60 to 80

105-15

34-49

1-40

105-03

35-07

0-28

Ching-yuan

Ching-ning

Ku-yuan

Tsinchow

Huei-ning

The distance A from the epicentre deduced above is estimated from the
map. The percentage for Huei-ning suggests that the epicentre should be
moved further away from it, probably to the East, which would bring it nearer
Ku-yuan. This is in accordance with the rough shading on the map by which
jNIr. Mann has indicated the devastated area. Perhaps 105°.8 E., 35°. 8 N., would
be a better estimate, taking everything into account. Fatlier Gherzi's contour
lines suggest 106°. 1 E., 3o°.6 N.

(B.) Black and evil-smelling water was vomited in many places; the earth
opened in others. [In the subsequent quake of December 25 a man fell into
an opening up to his middle, which then closed and smashed his legs.] In
several places long strips of land subsided 20 or 30 feet.

(C.) At Tsinchow (105°. 0, 34°. 4) is a stone tablet commemorating the re-
building of the walls after an earthquake when half the people were killed.
(Date not yet communicated.)

(D.) The barometer fell heavily before each bad earthquake; for that of
December 16 was followed by a series of others, which, at the time of writing

SEISMOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS. '211

(1921, March 17), were still coutiiiuiiig. JJy an odd cuiiicidence a letter was
received irom Mr. A. Pearse Jenkin, F.R.lNlet.S. (of lledruth, Cornwall), sug-
gesting, from an independent standpoint, a connection between earthquakes and
barometer changes. He draws attention to p. 226 of Symons's ' Meteorological
Magazine ' for lOOG (vol. 41), where there are some notes by Mr. W. Gaw on
the Chili earthquake.

(1) The third and second days previous to the great shocks were ' charac-
terised by a high barometer, accompanied with rain; abnormal conditions here.
(2) The day preceding the first seismic movement was marked by a sudden fall
of about half an inch of barometric pressure in a comparatively short period of
time.'

Mr. Jenkin's view is that ' at some spot on the earth there exists, from
some exceptional cause, an area of deficiency of mass in the earth's crust, and
there is, according to the theory of isostasy, an endeavour to fill up the deficient
area and so restore the balance. The interior of the earth, being viscid,
re.sponds but slowly, but the atmosphere, subject to the same laws but more tluid,
does its part in attempting to restore the balance more rapidly.' He docs not
make his mechanism entirely clear, but neithei' is the mechanism of isostasy
yet fully ur.derstood.

Location of the Epicentre: Early Uncertainties.

It is perhap.s well to put on record the uncertainties which affected the
localisation of this great earthquake for some days. A single completely
equipped station, such as Eskdalemuir, can assign the locality of an epicentre
from its own records ; but unfortunately the Eskdalemuir machines were out
of action on December 16. Other English stations have as yet only partial
equipment : taking them in combination, they could assign two alternative
localities, one to the East and one to the West. News from America that
the epicentre was only 3,000 miles from them pointed to the Western alterna-
tive, but it was very difficult to fulfil all the conditions. The direct evidence
of the seismographs put the epicentre where a disaster of such magnitude would
be independently recognised ; it was necessary to look for a possible centre,
not too far from that directly indicated, where a big earthquake might occur
without revealing itself by telegraph to the civilised world — such as the Alaskan
Coast, for instance. But the receipt of news from China made it clear that
the American stations had been deceived by the magnitude of the disturbance
into thinking it close at hand, when it was in reality far away.

A few Details for December 16.

The earthquake of December 10 was so exceptional that a few figures may
be given here. The ado))ted epicentre (calculated before Mr. Mann's map
was received) is 10o'^5 E., 35^. .5 N., and the time at origin To=12'' 5'" 40".

A Azini. Obsd. P O— C Ob.sd. S. 0— C

Station ^ ^ m. s. s. m. s. s.

Calcutta . . 19-8 236 10 30 + .5 14 12 -f 5

Kodaikanal . . 3.5-9 233 13 — 1 — —

Vienna . . 03-8 312 16 19 — 4 24 58 +1

Padova . . 0,7-5 311 16 49 +2 — —

Dyce . . . (19-2 327 16 58 26 58 — 4

West Bromwich . 71-8 323 17 14 — 1 26 29 — 5

Oxford . . 71-9 322 17 15 26 31 — 4

Riverview . . 81-5 143 18 15 +2 28 28 -f 2

Sydney . . 81-5 143 18 12 — 1 28 30 +4

Honolulu . . 82-8 70 18 24 +3 28 42 -|- 1

San Femandn .84-1 312 18 27 — 2 28 36 —19

Saskatoon . . 880 21 18 39 —12 29 19 —19

Ottawa . .991 1 19 27 —25 30 6 —87

La Paz . . IGOl — 25 58 — 40 10 —

212 REPORTS ON THE STATE OP SCIENCE, ETC.

Disturbance at Colombo, Ceylon.

The following note was forwarded by Mr. Bamford on 1931, June 22 : —
' The shock of December 16, 1920, gave the seismograph zero a permanent
shift of 8^ mm., or about 5'', the West end of the pillar being raised. A print
of the corresponding records is enclosed. Two West to East levels, one on the
seismo-pillar, 15 feet deep, the other on the pillar of the new transit instrument,
2-3 feet deep, were available for examination. Their curves are shown (Curves I.
and II.). The plotted points are the means of three readings, approximately
at 8 A.M., noon, and 4 p.m. (I.S.T.), except on the 12th and 19th (8 a.m. readings
only), and on the 18th (8 a.m. and noon readings only, for the transit level).
The curves run fairly parallel, except on the 16-17. We may therefore take
the effect of the earthquake on the seismo-pillar to be a shift of rather over 1".

' The North to South level on the seismo-pillar (Curve III.) shows no effect at
all, unless it is masked by a simultaneous shift due to meteorological changes,
such as frequently occurs. In this connection it may be mentioned that the
daily period of the seismo-pillar (the East to West component of which used
to be 5", the North to South component much smaller) was considerably reduced
last year by the addition of verandahs to the North and South of the seismo-
graph room, and by the addition of a new transit room to the East, so that
the seismograph room is no longer at the extreme East of the Observatory
building.'

The three curves forwarded by Mr. Bamford certainly all show a sympathetic
drop on December 17, and a sympathetic rise from about December 18.5 to 20.0.
Outside these limits their trends are unsympathetic and even opposed. It is
possible that the movements between December 17-20 are due to the earthquake,
but large changes of a seismograph trace may be due to creep of the boom
needle point in its cup, which in the Colombo (Milne) instrument is
hemispherical.

Disturbance at Oxford.

On the other hand, we are fortunate to have a remarkable observation at
the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford, kindly communicated by Dr. Rambaut. It
appears that Mr. W. H. Robinson happened to be observing the level-error
of the Transit Circle at the time of the earthquake, and after making a setting
' was astonished to see the reflected image of the wires slowly move away
until it reached a distance of about 4"; it then as slowly returned to the direjt
wire, repeating this many times during the half-hour's watching from 12h. 55m.
to 13h. 25m. At times the amplitude of the oscillation was rather greater
than 4", possibly 5". There was a complete absence of tremor or quick vibration
and diffusion such as those ordinarily observed, caused at certain times by
the engine of the University Press, and occasionally by passing heavy traffic'

The extreme readings of" the R.A. micrometer were 21.277 and 21.333 ; on
December 17 and 18 the mean readings were 21.356 and 21.353, agreeing nearly
with one extreme, and certainly not lying between them. The suggestion is
that ' the oscillation took place in such a way as to lift the Eastern pivot rela-
tively to the Western by about 0.0006 in. (pivots 50 in. apart).' The observa-
tions were communicated by Dr. Rambaut to the 'Monthly Notices' of the
Royal Astronomical Society in 1921, April, but the facts were set down on 1920,
December 30.

Telegraphic Transmission of Earthquake News.

It is not often that rapid communication of seismological observations is
seriously needed. For most earthquakes leisurely transmission by post is quite
sufficient, for the accurate determination of an epicentre is best undertaken
when all the information has been collected. As regards preliminary determina-
tions, they can often be made from a single completely equipped station or
from one or two stations near together, in friendly communication by postcard.
The quake of December 16, however, drew attention to the desirability of
having in reserve some means of telegraphic communication. Inquiry was

SP]ISMOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS.

213

tlierpforc made of M. Lecointe, of Brussels (who was deputed l)y the Inter-
national Astronomical Union to deal with astronomical telegrams), whether
a supplementary seismological service could be arranged. [It may be
remarked that, although an International Geophysical Union was con-
stituted at Brussels in 1919, at the same time as the Astronomical Union,
it was not found possible to initiate the seismological branch of it until the
formal dissolution of the former International .Seismological Association had
been completed. Hence the astronomical body was approached as the best
available means under the circumstances.] M. Lecointe replied that a tele-
graphic code had already been arranged at Strasbourg, which Professor Rothe
kindly communicated to me. Since then we have exchanged various telegrams
in this code, with advantage, at anv rate, to us. 'For instance, the news from
America about the quake of 1921, February 4, was again misleading, but the
wire from Strasbourg prevented our being perturbed by it. Inquiry has been
made whether exchanges cannot be arranged across the Atlantic in this code,
and negotiations are still proceeding in the matter. Meanwhile a further step
has been taken in the dissemination of Strasbourg intelligence from the Eiffel
Tower. Of this we have not as yet been able to take advantage, partly because
of the absence through illness of IMiss Bellamy, and partly because there have
been few large earthquakes recently.

The following are the particulars of the code : —

Telegraphic Code for Earthquakes.

dd/aa/p p/hh/mm ss/ttt D,D,DDD.

dd = date.

aa=azimuth of epicentre from 10° to 10", counting from N. through E. (01-3G)
based on any dcnr indications of the trace. The addition of 50 (51-86)
indicates that the azimuth is uncertain by J: 180^^. The figures 91-98
indicate that the direction is vague and estimated only to nearest 45'^;
99 indicates that no azimuth determination has yet been made ; 00 that it
seems impossible.

pp refer to phases P and S; the first (1-4) concerns P. F.nd second (5-8) S,
according to the table below. The figure 9 for either P or S indicates
that the minute signal interferes with beginning.

hh mm ss are hours minutes and seconds of P.

ttt is difference S — P in seconds.

D,D, gives difference P— P in seconds for close earthquakes; if this difference

is not clear, D,D, is replaced by 99.
DUD is distance in kilometres for close quakes.
D,D|DDD is distance in kilometres for distant quakes.

Phase
P

P&P

clear

Phase
S

,-s

Uncertain

Azimuth of Epicentre from two adjacent Stations.

In the course of trying to identify the epicentre of the great earthquake of
1920, December 16, a small point of procedure suggested itself which it may be
useful to note.

Suppose we have two stations, say O(xford) and D(yce), whose distances
{10 and EP from the epicentre E are known. We can describe circles on the

214

REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC.

globe with O and D as centres, intersecting in two points one of which is E.
But drawing these circles on a globe is not a very accurate operation, and it is
convenient to calculate, if it can be done quickly, in what direction outwards
from or D to look for the epicentre.

Let EO— EI) = 2a.-: and put E0+ED = 2 A

Then 2x must be less than the distance OD (say 2d) between the stations ; and
approximately 0M=2.t, OD=2f7, so that cos EOD = .r/rf, which gives
approximately the angle made by EO with OD.

The point to which attention is here called is that this simple equation
(which is, moreover, independent of A and thus readily tabulated) gives with
considerable precision the angle ECD, where C is the midpoint of OD. This is
true either for spherical or plane geometry. Consider first the la:tter. We have

and

2 EC . d . cos ECD=EC2+d'--ED-=EO-2-EC2-(i2
•.iECd cos ECD=E02— ED2=4Aa;

2 (EC2+fi!-')=E02+ED-^ = 2( A-+a:-)
X A

cos ECD =

d {A^+x'-d')i

Since the equation is only likely to be required when x and d are small compared
with A, the approximation is close.

For spherical geometry the equations are

sin d . sin EC cos ECD=cos ED— cos EC . cos fZ=coi EC . ens (Z— cos EO
2 sin d . sin EC . cos ECD=cos ED— cos E0 = 2 sin A . sin x
2 cos d cos EC=cos ED+cos E0=2 cos A . cos x

Thus
and

cos d sin EC={cos2 d — cos^ A cos- x)i
tan X sin A

cos ECD=

tan d (cos^ d — cos'^ A cos- x)^
tan X sin A

tan d (sin^ n cos'^ ar+sin' j:— sin- d]^

where the approximation is clearly of the same order as before.

It may be convenient to use a flat projection of the sphere. Thus we may
take as the centre of a gnomonic projection, so that a circle of radius r
round is projected info a circle of radius tan r on the flat. The angles round
C will then be projected angles, but if C is not too far away from O, the error
made in setting them off uniformly round C will not be large.

There is another method of finding the points of intersection E of the two
circles, which may be useful as a check on the former. Let the constants for
O and D (as given on p. iii of the 'Large Earthquakes for 1916 ') be (a, b, c,)
and (a„ b„ c„) : and let E be denoted by (A, B, C). Then

cos E0 = aiA+6,B + CiC
cos ED=a2A+bi'B + CnG

SEI8M0L0GICAL INVESTIGATIONS. 215

l^ei /i' denote tlie ratio of cos ED to cos EO, which is not very different I'roni
unity. Then

(ifcai-a2)A+{fc6,-6.,)B+(A-r,-f,)C =

Considered as a relation between (A, B, C) this represents a great circle on
which (A, B, C) must lie. It has also the property of being at right angles to the
great circle joining OD. For the pole L of this circle has co-ordinates

fc^Ci— feifi.,, c.2ai— Ci«.2, aJji—afi-i

and these satisfy the aliove equation, which therefore represents a great circle
through L, and consequently perpendicular to OD.

We can find the point K at which this line cuts OD from the relation

cos KD = /ir cos KO
Since KD=KO— 2rf, this becomes

cos 2rf + sin 2d . tan KO=/fc
or tan KO=(/i;— -cos 2rf)/sin 2d

so that KO can be readily tabulated in terms of /.; for a given pair of stations.
Or the positions of K for given values of k can be marked off on the projection.

Microseisms. [B,j j. j. Shaw.]

In the Report for 1920 particulars were given of some investigations made
upon microseisms, and it was there shown how it was possible at stations two
miles apart to identify the individual waves so precisely that there was little
difficulty in determining the time of arrival at each station to within a fraction
of a second.

It was therefore proposed to extend the experiments, using three stations
situated about ten miles apart, with the object of measuring more accurately
the rate of propagation, and to confirm the previous observation that their
direction was consistently from the North.

The 1920 experiments were conducted at West Bromwich.

Inquiries were made to discover two capable observers,

(a) at suitable distances from West Bromwich,

(b) with cellars or other accommodation which would provide a stable

site for the instruments,

By the kindness of Mr. Harry Walker, of Sutton Coldfield, and his brother,
Mr. Sidney Walker, of Solihull, who gave much time to the work, the above
conditions were fulfilled; and the thanks of the Committee are here placed on
record for their valuable help in the experiments.

The instruments used were three i\Iilne-Shaw seismographs, timed by three
clojks with rates of about 1 sec. per day.

Each time circuit was provided with an audible ' clicker,' which could be
placed near the telephone and heard at West Bromwich each minute. By this
means the time breaks were either synchronised, or the difference (if small)
observed.

One machine was installed at Sutton on 1921, January 18, and the other at
Solihull on 1921, February 28; and both were oriented on a line 12° East of
North to conform to the only convenient orientation at West Bromwich.

All machines were used with 10 sec. period; 20 : 1 damping; and a magnifica-
tion of 250 : 1.

From the outset it was noted that it was not only quite impossible to
identify individual waves, luit even the trains of waves would not bear com-
parison.

On February 28 West Bromwich and Sutton machines only were running.
They showed an exceptional series of torpedo-shaped maxima for many hours;
but it was rarely that the maxima were in agreement at the two stations, and
then obviously by mere chance.

216 REPORTS UN THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC.

During February, iMarch, and April some 150 records were taken, luit beyond
the average amplitude and period there was no satisfactory agreement.

In the case of 1920 experiments the outlying station was two miles distant
in a direction 17° West of North.

The Sutton position lies 8-2 miles distant and 66°"5 East of North. Solihull,
106 miles, and 134° East of North.

Sutton is 10'6 miles from, and precisely due North of, SoliliuU; only 17° from
parallel to the two-mile line of 1920.

It seems remarkable that the microseisms. so perfectly reproduced at a
distance of two miles, should so completely change in eight to ten miles.

It is worthy of note that the two near positions used in 1920 were situated
upon a narrow outcrop of Permian Sandstone and Marls, whereas Sutton and
Solihull are located upon a bed of Keuper Marls, and a geological fault divides
them from this Permian strata.

If this discontinuity in tlie underlying rocks is responsible for the change
shown in tlie microseisms, it might lie possible to locate fault lines in this way.

The earthquake which occurred South of ]\Iexico on March 28 was recorded
on the West Bromwich and Sutton machines (Solihull not running). The
seismograms were quite similar in all the main features, any differences were
in tha tiny superimposed waves (probably microseisms) and occasionally small
differences in amplitude, tlie excess being sometimes on one machine and
sometimes on the other, notwithstanding the damping ratio was 20 :1 and the
periods the same.

TO ASSIST WORK ON THE TIDES. 217

To Assist Work on the Tides. — Report of Committee (Professor
H. Lamb, Chairmaji ; Dr. A. T. Doodson, Secretary ; Colonel Sir
C. F. Close, Dr. P. H. Cowell, Sir H. Darwin, Dr. G. H.
FowLEE, Admiral F. C. Learmonth, Sir J. E. Petavel, Pi'ofessor
J. Pboudman, Major G. I. Taylor, Professor D'Abcy W.
Thompson, Sir J. J. Thomson, Professor H. H. Turner). Drawn
up by Dr. A. T. Doodson, Tidal Institute, University of Liverpool.

§ 1. The Committee was appointed to investigate the degrees of accuracy
obtainable in the analysis and prediction of tides. A great deal of work on
tidal records has now been done under the superintendence of the Secretary
at the Tidal Institute, and some definite conclusions on the subjects of reference
have now been arrived at. These are restricted to short-period tides.

(1) On the basis of previous methods of harmonic analysis and prediction
the errors of prediction for certain British stations may amount to more than
a foot, apart from errors due to the use of predicting machines. At these
stations the range of tide is not exceptional.

(2) About half of this error may be due to the inadequate treatment of
shallow-water effects.

(3) The remaining half of the error is due to tidal constituents which are
not included in the schedules given by Sir G. H. Darwin in 1883, and whose
origin is not definitely known.

(The constituents scheduled by Sir G. H. Darwin will be spoken of as
' 1883 ' or ' Darwinian ' constituents.)

(4) While the methods of analysis and prediction are restricted as hitherto
to the consideration of the ' 1883 ' constituents only there can be no material
improvements in sither analysis or prediction. This is a direct consequence
°f (3).

(5) Time devoted to the modification of harmonic ' constants ' by repeated
analyses would probably be better spent in analysing for new constituents.

These conclusions are based upon the work of which an account is now
given. The Report is divided into three parts : — ■
I. A general account of procedure and results.
II. A statement of methods. (Some of these may be of interest to those
not concerned with tidal applications — e.g. the methods of calculation
and summation of harmonic terms.)
III. A report on the behaviour of predicting machines.

The subjects of reference have not been fully investigated; the long-period
tides and meteorological effects have yet to be considered, and the residues
mentioned in (3) above need thorough examination. The Committee, therefore,
asks to be reappointed.

PART I.

General Account of Procedure and Results.

§ 2. Some indirect evidence as to the errors of analysis and prediction is
furnished by a comparison of observations and predictions such as is contained
in the ' Report on the Harmonic Prediction of Tides ' by the Secretary in 1920.
But such evidence is not sufficient to indicate the causes of the discrepancies,
and the only satisfactory course at the outset seemed to be that of the continuous
subtraction of such partial tides as could be determined, together with examina-
tions of the successive residues. Obvious tidal constituents, or such constituents
as were indicated in the standard schedules (or otherwise), were to be removed
and the residues successively treated until there would be nothing left save
weather effects and other non-periodic perturbations of mean sea-level.

Success depended upon the accuracy of the observations to be treated, and
upon the accuracy of calculations. Concerning the former it was concluded
1921 B

218 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC.

that no observations were better than those taken by the Ordnance Survey,
and the situation of one of their stations (Mewiyn, on the coast of Cornwall)
was extremely favourable for the investigations because of its situation with
respect to the Atlantic Ocean. The Survey kindly placed at the disposal of
the Committee the records they had taken, and the accuracy of these was greatly
appreciated.

The powers of the predicting machines in summing the harmonic terms
required were duly considered, but the evidence given in the Report for 1920
was sufficient for the machines to be distrusted for this work. Tests of two
predicting machines have been carried out, and the results show that even
with very careful reading the errors are too great for their use in calculating
hourly heights j the labour of reading the curves is also very great. The results
of the tests are discussed in Part III.

§ 3. The investigations were made possible by the invention of a scheme for
the numerical calculation and summation of the harmonic constituents ; this
scheme very greatly reduced the labour of calculation, and the results of summa-
tion of one set of constituents could be relied on to within about O'Ol foot. An
account of this scheme is given in Part II., §§ 11-13.

The first procedure was to remove the chief semi-diurnal constituents, or a
first approximation to them. Examination of the analyses at neighbouring
ports indicated the constituents M^, S^, N^, K^, and L^ as most worthy of
consideration. These were evaluated by certain inference methods (Part II.,
§ 10) to a fairly good degree of approximation except in the case of M.^, which
was modified after the residue for one month had been obtained. Application
of the scheme for the calculation and summation of harmonic constituents to
these five constituents, and subsequent subtraction of the partial tide, resulted
in a residue which was mainly quarter diurnal. The residue for the month of
January, 1918, is given in fig. 1. There is obviously some semi-diurnal residue,
as was to be expected, since only a first approximation to the semi-diurnal tide
was removed. There is also some diurnal tide, but this is not so prominent
as the quarter-diurnal tide, and attention was first paid to the latter.

§ 4. Now the quarter-diurnal tide does not correspond directly to the
generating potential, as the quarter-diurnal constituents of the potential are
very small. It is well known, however, that as a wave progresses in shallow
water it changes shape and the front slope becomes steeper than the rear
slope. If the departure from sinuity be not too great, this change in form
can be expressed by the addition of waves whose speeds are multiples of the
speed of the primary wave. Theoretical considerations of a wave in a shallow
canal have suggested that the quarter- diurnal constituents must have speeds
which are either twice those of the primary semi-diurnal constituents or are
equal to the sums of pairs of those speeds. The constituents usually analysed
for are M<, MS^, and S^, with speeds respectively equal to twice the speed of
Mj, the sum of the speeds of S^ and M^, and twice the speed of S^,. Now, on
carrying out analyses by the usual methods i for these constituents, and on
subtraction of the partial tide compounded of them, it was found that they
were quite inadequate to account for the whole, or a reasonable part of the
whole, of the quarter- diurnal tide. Considerable attention was therefore
directed to the matter, as it was known that these shallow-water effects were
undoubtedly responsible for a large part of the errors in predictions. More
constituents, as suggested by the theory mentioned above, were analysed for
and calculated, but the rate of elimination was rather slow. It was ultimately
found that there existed a very simple relation between the existing quarter-
diurnal tide and the square of the semi-diurnal tide; a reduction factor and
change of phase, applied to the quarter- diurnal portion of the square of the
semi-diurnal tide, were sufficient to account so well for the quarter-diurnal
tide that only a trace of it was left ; this was possibly due to the incomplete
(or approximate) semi-diurnal tide taken. This metRbd was developed, very
simple numerical formulae were applied, and the quarter-diurnal constituents
removed en bloc.

1 For a rlsumi and criticism of these methods reference should be made to
the Report for 1920 by Professor Proudman.

233d

A33d

R 2

220 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC.

§ 5. Tests have been made for Liverpool and Hilbre Island, and similar
methods can be applied successfully to the sixth-diurnal tide as well as to the
quarter- diurnal tide.

(The methods of analyses for, and removal of, the quarter-diurnal tide are
discussed in Part II., §§ 14-15.)

§ 6. After removing the quarter- diurnal tide the residue is mainly diurnal
and semi-diurnal, as may be seen from fig. 2.

Inference methods for the chief diurnal constituents not proving very
successful, resort was made to direct analyses of the residues, both for diurnal
and residual semi-diurnal constituents. A summary of the usual methods of
analysis, as applied to observations, is given in Part II., §§ 16-17, and modifica-
tions of these for use with residues are afterwards discussed in § 18. The
Report liy Professor Proudman (1920) shows that the chief errors in the analysis
of observations are due to the presence of large constituents, so that one
■constituent is imperfectly isolated. The chief constituents having been prac-
tically removed, modifications in analysis were possible. The usual method
is to analyse only for expected constituents, and the resulting numbers are
taken on trust ; the methods given in § 18 do not assume the absence of per-
turbing or of unknown constituents, but were designed so as to give unmis-
takable indications if such be present. Further, they give valuable internal
evidence as to the amount of trust to be associated with any derived ' harmonic
numbers.' This cautious procedure had its reward, as the results indicated
that the residue contained constituents not included in Darwin's schedules.
For a full discussion of these matters reference is necessary to § § 17-18 and
figs. 7-9. It was not found possible, using only six months' residues, to deduce
the unknown constituents from these analyses, nor would it have been advisable
to draw definite conclusions at this stage. Our sole index of reality lay in
the residues. If, after taking out all the ' Darwinian constituents,' there were
unmistakable signs of semi-diurnal constituents still remaining, then this would
be regarded as sufficient proof of reality. On these coasts the diurnal tide is
small, and no new diurnal constituents were suspected or found.

The removal of the diurnal and semi-diurnal Darwinian constituents
indicated by the analyses was carried out with the results shown in figs. 3
and 4.

§ 7. The order of procedure so far has been as follows : — •

(1) Removal of first approximation to the semi-diurnal tide;

(2) removal of quarter-diurnal tide ;

(3) analyses ;

(4) removal of diurnal tide;

(5) removal of second approximation to semi-diurnal tide.

No attempt has been made to analyse for, and remove, the long-period
constituents, and it has not been found possible as yet to remove the residual
semi-diurnal tide.

§ 8. The residual semi-diurnal constituents. — The residue illustrated by
fig. 4 is clearly the difference between observations and predictions from
Darwinian short-period constituents. (The matter of shallow-water effects and
their inadequate representation will be dealt with separately in § 9.) On certain
days it is seen that the residual semi-diurnal tide can give an error of ± 6 inches,
and statement 2, § 1, is justified. It may be stated that at Newlyn there is
not a very great range of tide.

The origin of these constituents remains obscure. Apart from the reasons
given in Part II., § 18, the presence of non-Darwinian constituents may be
readily shown. If we have two constituents, M^ and S„, say, then the range
of tide varies from day to day and we get the phenomena of springs and neaps :
the time between two successive springs is equal to 360° divided by the difference
in speed (in degrees per mean solar day) of the two constituents ; in the case
mentioned this difference in speed is about 24", so that the spring tides occur at
intervals of approximately fifteen days. Now the greatest difference in speed
between two Darwinian semi-diurnal constituents is about 52° per m.s.d.,
corresponding to ' spring tides' at intervals of about seven days. Fig. 5 shows
the variation of daily range of the semi-diurnal oscillation for 180 days. The

J.33-d

222

REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC.

phenomena of springs and neaps are here rather complicated, but the general
principle still holds. In the month of January there is a well-marked
phenomenon where the springs recur at intervals of two or three days ; that is,
there is an indication of the presence of a non-Darwinian constituent.

The residue for the month of April is very much affected by the unknown
semi-diurnal constituents.

A rather crude form of periodogram has been constructed from the first six
months' residues at Newlyn, but it suffices to show that the constituents present
in the residue are quite distinct from those in Darwin's schedules; it also shows
that all the Darwinian constituents have been effectively removed. The data,
however, are not sufficient for definitive conclusions to be drawn as to the
nature of the residue.

§ 9. Errors resulting from the inadequate treatment of shallow-water
effects. — The following table gives a list of the constituents that ought to be
taken into account in the prediction of tides for Liverpool, in order to give a
satisfactory representation of the shallow-water effects. The amplitudes are
approximate only.

Table of Shallow-watee Constituents at Liverpool.
Inferred from Harnuonic Constants for M4, Mg and Ms.

J-Diurnal

^-Diurnal

J-Diurnal

Origin

Amplitude

Origin

Amplitude

Origin

Amplitude

M2.M2

[-67] ft.

M2.M2M2

[•20]

M2M2M2.M2

[•07]

[•42]

•19

•08

•26

•11

•03

•13

•06

Ks,

•03

•07

•03

etc.

•07

etc.

•03

M2.S2.S2

•06

M2S2.M2S2

•03

/x2

•03

•04

M2N2

•03

etc.

82.82

•07

S2.S282

•02
[•01]

M2K2
etc.

•02

•08

•01

etc.

•04

Those constituents whose amplitudes are enclosed in square brackets are
the constituents usually analysed for. The residual quarter- diurnal tide, if
all are neglected save M,.M and jM„Sj, will frequently exceed six inches,
and the differences between observations and predictions also serve to justify
this conclusion. For Newlyn the error will not be so large, but most British
ports are situated in estuaries where the shallow-water effect will be quite
comparable with that at Liverpool. Hence we base upon these facts the
statement (3) of §1.

It may be mentioned that the predicting machines have not been built to
catPr for the constituents meptioned above,

J.33d

la-

a
o
o

CM
<0

o
bo

'?
o

8
8

224 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC.

PART II.

Methods.

§ 10. Inference of chief semi-diurnal constitvents. — It is unnecessary to enter
into the details of this process. A tidal constituent being expressed as R cos (a-t — f),
where t is zero at midnight on January 0-1, 1918, the following values of R and
— € were actually used : —

R -e

Sj : 1-870 180-00°

Mj : 5-633 150-33°

Nj, : 1-100 12-53°

Kj : 0-600 37-46°

L2 : 0-300 105-33°

An analysis for Sj was carried out using six months' observations, and the
average values of ratios of amplitudes and differences in lags for all other con-
stituents (referred to SJ were fourd from known harmonic constants for ports
within a few hundred miles of Newlyn ; from these were deduced the values of R
and — € given above.

Regarded as true representatives of the constituents, R is probably correct to
the nearest tenth of a foot and « may be in error by several degrees. The figures
represent j3rem«?y what was removed by accurate arithmetical processes.

§ 11. Calculation of harmonic constituents.— The process on which the intensive
analysis of tidal observations depends is that of the summation of harmonic
constituents. Consider the calculation of the five constituents given in the
previous paragraph ; the calculation of the individual arguments by successive
addition of hourly increments is itself no light task, and the consequent deter-
mination of the cosines and the multiplication by the appropriate amplitudes is a
task of appalling magnitude. The greater part of this labour has been avoided in
the scheme now to be explained.

Any term R cos {crt — «) can be written in the form

D cos (ct — e + d) + D cos (crt — f — d)

where 2D cos d = R, and D can be chosen at will. By choosing D = 10, 1, 0-1, . . .
we thus avoid the labour of multiplication, but double the labour of determining
arguments and cosines. The latter, however, can also be avoided by the construc-
tion of a suitable abac.

Let the argument at time t = for a given harmonic term be o, and let the speed
be <r, so that we have to construct cos (^at + o) at unit intervals of t. Suppose that
we have a horizontal scale graduated uniformly in degrees (0) on one side, and on
the other side let there be the appropriate cosine scale, graduated, say, at intervals

of 001 in cos 6. Then if we mark on the scale the values 6 = a, a + cr, a + 2(r

0+ fo-, .... we can at once read off, by interpolation in the cosine scale, the values
of cos a, cos (o + (r), . . . . to three decimals. This double scale avoids reference to_
trigonometrical tables or to a graph of cos 6.

But this method does not perform automatically the processes of adding <Tt tol
the argument o for the required values of t ; moreover, a very lengthy scale would ]
be required for us to be able to read off many values to the required degree of I
accuracy. The problem can be solved by cutting up the scale into sections of I
length 6 = 0- ; the sections 6 = to a-, a- to 2<r, .... are then placed parallel to one I
another vertically with their extremities on horizontal lines. A large number of 1
sections can thus be drawn on an open scale and placed side by side. Suppose that]
the given value of the initial argument (a) be in the first section ; then a horizontal!
straight line passing through this point will cut the vertical sections in the points!

corresponding to fl = a, a + 0- a + at and by interpolation in the vertical]

cosine scales the values of the cosines can be immediately read off. It is obviousj
that only one angle (a) needs to be determined, so that it is not necessary to have!
the fl-scale marked on the cosine scale at all. The best procedure is to use paper]
ruled in quarter-inch squares with the vertical lines half an inch apart, and with!
one half- inch to a degree. Since we know that the vertical sections have their]
upper extremities corresponding to = o, <r, 2<t, . . . ., then any intermediate anglej

J.S3J

S! c 2 0- 5 c!
— T — rr 1 —

CO
Oi

d
_o

'-3

o
o^

c«
-O

a
o
o

<3>

'>
o

S
^

5f ^ ?

226 REPORTS OiSl THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC

can be readily found by marking out the scale oi = o to <r ia degrees on the extreme
left of the abac : we shall call this the scale of 5, so that in general

= JO- + S
where i is an integer.

If the initial argument (a) is expressed in the form i(r + S, then a horizontal line
drawn through 5 on the S-scale will pass through the angles a — i<r, ... a, o + c, . . .
and readings will commence on the line corresponding to i(T. In practice this
horizontal line is lightly ruled in pencil, and is afterwards erased.

There is, however, a limit to the number of readings on one horizontal line. We
shall suppose that the abac covers r x 3fi0° and contains v complete vertical sections
and one incomplete section ; then the length of the incomplete section in degrees
will be

7 = 360r-f(r.

But it the abac were extended we should be getting precisely the same values as
if we started on the extreme left again with a new value of 5 obtained by diminish-
ing the previous value by 7. Whenever the cycle is completed it is only necessary
to subtract y from the old value of S to get the new one. The first value of S having
been found as a — iir, it is simplest to write down the series of subsequent values of 5
before commencing to draw the lines. Sooner or later, however, a value of 5 will be
obtained which is less than y, but as the addition of tr to any argument leaves 5 un-
altered it is immaterial whether we S2ibtraot y or add (ir — 7), provided that we leave
S<(T. Each new cycle after the first starts on the extreme left : the first cycle, as
has been explained, starts on the vertical section corresponding to i<r.

A further modification is that of using (1-l-cos 8) instead of cos 6, so as to
avoid negative quantities ; the effect of this is that the constant 22D must be sub-
tracted from the sum of the harmonic constituents. There are many advantages in
the avoidance of negative quantities.

For negative speeds (cr negative) the changes necessary are as follows : —

(1) Start with rH60°, r360°-Kr, .... as headings to the vertical sections;

this gives a decreasing series of angles ;

(2) the first value of S will be (r360° + i(r- o), and readings will commence on

the vertical section corresponding to r'660° + i(r; the scale for S is always
regarded as positive ;

(3) the value of 7, being positive, will be (360r + wcr).

The only change required, apart from the construction of the abac, is that of the
determination of 8; after the first cycle the procedure is the same as for positive
speeds.

A small-scale illustration of the abacs used is given in fig. 6 for the case
(r = 37.4465°. At the top of the diagram is a horizontal scale for 9 and cos 6 to illus-
trate the construction of the abac. As an example we sliall take a = 20°. Then the
dotted lines in the upper figure correspond to 20°, 57.45°, . . . and cos 6 can
then be read from the lower scale. The abac is drawn with overlapping sections
commencing at 0°, 37.45° . . . , and covers 2 x 360°. There are nineteen complete
sections and one incomplete section. Hence « = 19, r = 2, (t = 37.4465, whence

7 = 720° - 19 X 37.4465° = 8.5167°.

The S scale is given for multiples of 10° in this illustration, and 1 -i-cos 6 is given
at intervals of 0.1, decimals being omitted; there are no negative values. With
5 = 20° we get the following values of 1 -H cos 6 : —

. 193, 164, 90, 33, 4, 12, 58, 121, 176, 200, 182, 130, 67, 17, 2, 26, 81, 145, 190.

A new cycle is then necessary ; this is given by

8 = 20°-8.5167° = 11.4833°,

and the values of (1 -1- cos 6) are continued as

196, 167, 105, ....

If, originally, we had a = 132.34°, then we should look along the top of the abac
for the nearest value of in- which is less than o, in this case 112.34°, giving Sss20°;
the readings would commence with 33,

J.33J

228 EEPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC.

§ 12. Calculation of semi-diurnal tide. — The calculation of the semi-diurnal
tide hour by hour is most expeditiously carried out in accordance with the scheme
now to be explained."

Consider ^^ = 2Br cos (<r,.t + or), where t is given in units of one mean solar hour ;

(Tr is the speed in degrees per mean solar hour, and is such that (t,. — 30 is small.
Then we may write

Co=C2 cos 30°if-S2 sin 30%
where C^ = 2K,. cos {ar—30t + a,.)°

S2 = 2RrSin ((r^-80^ + ar)° = 2R,. cos {ffr-SOt + a-dO)°.

r r

Both C2 and Sj are slowly varying quantities because a;- — 30 is small, and therefore
interpolation can be used if C, and S„are calculated direct at convenient intervals of
time. Supposing that we know C, and S^ at intervals of twenty-four hours, then
interpolation formulae can be applied to give the values at intervals of six hours,
and simple linear interpolation is usually sufficient to give the intermediate values
at intervals of one hour ; but even if this were not sufficient the principle of inter-
polation can be used. By this method onl}'^ two series of harmonic constituents
have to be summed for intervals of twenty-four hours.

We shall have occasion to use the speed denoted by

p,. = 24(cr,-.S0)°

This is equal to the speed in degrees per mean solar day less 720°, and it is con-
venient to speak of it as the ' reduced speed ' ; we shall use T with pr to signify
time measured in units of one mean solar day.

The detailed procedure can now be considered. The methods of § 11 are applied
with abacs constructed to give readings at intervals of p,. ; the abac for Mj must be
on a much more open scale than the others in order to read to three decimal places
of a foot : a convenient scale is one-quarter inch to 01° and the abacs used are in
four overlapping sections. Also the speed of K^ is such that it is preferable to con-
struct the abac for a speed Cpr — i-e. to read ofE at intervals of six days ; intermediate
values are obtained by increasing the appropriate value of S by p,., 2pr, ....

When each cycle is completed it is desirable to verifj^that no omission has taken
place, and this can readily be done by calculating independently the date (or day
number) corresponding to the last reading of the cycle. Bach cycle except the first
adds either (v + 1) or v readings according to whether 5 be less or greater than 7 ;
these should be separately summed before any readings are taken from the abac.
This check is very important indeed, for systematic error is fatal to success, and
must be avoided. While we have now an assurance that each cycle ends on the
correct date, the above check is not sufficient to ensure that a particular line has
been drawn correctly. There is a check which can be applied on any day, but it is
best to use it on the 15th, 30th and 31st days of each month, as these days are not ;
covered by a check on the sums, mentioned later. Each constituent is expressed as
the sum of two others with amplitudes D, say : adding the two readings and
subtracting 2D gives, say, R,. cos (p,.T + a,.), a term of C ; obtaining the corresponding J
term of S in the same way, the sum of the squares should be constant, and equal to]
Rr^. This test should be made before the summations are commenced.

After carrying out the summations for C and S a check is desirable to indicate ]
casual errors of abac readings or of .summations. The method of checking by
successive differences is not very efficient in this instance, and use is made of thai
relation that the sum of (m + 1) consecutive values of R,. cos (p ,.T + o,) is equal to (
the raid-value multiplied lay a factor

, _sini(m-f-l)pr
sm ^pr

The test is best taken with m+1-7, whence we can test the values of C and S in a I
given month for the days 1-14, 16-29, inclusive ; the remaining days are tested j

^ The method as given here has been applied to the reduction of the second six j
months' observations for Newlyn ; a slightly different method, not using Cj and Sj,
wa-s used previously,

§4

9
3-

8--

-:; Uj

i t

-^ -v

NO N

■ja

:3t

•n

1. k

-n^-

-SI

•o

& S

•^

R-

o 9

LsbbZ
tt-LSi

s%ie

l« so
I

8 ;?

«^ N;

? ir

9 ?j ^

r I

Oft

%
I

1? 'i:

^ ei ••) <( I 1 ■« ^

I I I

O
I

5 (^ a» K
v» 4 !?

N
I

« fv «B

I I I

^ «

I I I

d. <ft

I I I

ti t" ^

"71 JT"

■S

a
o
o

a
o

. 3
to O

-a
o

1-1

6-466

"2 =

2-674

6-294

N,:

2-349

4-720

w»:

0-393

230 REPOllTg OlSr THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC.

specially as previously mentioned. The values of fr for the appropriate values of
Pr are given in the following table : —

Sj : 7000 Lj

Rj : 6-997 A^

T., : 6-997 M^

Kj: 6-983 2SM : 4-720 2N: 0-131

Multiplying by the above factors the corresponding terms in C on the 4th day of
the month, and subtracting the constant due to the use of 1 + cos 6 in the abac,
the result should be equal to the sum of the values of C for the first seven days of
the month ; the differences between the two are usually less than 0-020 foot.

The errors in the calculation of and S as above rarely exceed 0-010 foot.

The next step is to interpolate for values of C and S at intervals of six hours,
and for this purpose interpolation formulae are used ; these are modifications of the
ordinary central difference formula —

Mj=«„ + a;(M,-«„) + ;|a;(a!-l)(«2-w, -w„ + ?<_i)+ ....

which gives Mj, in terms of the variates «_!, ?<„, «t„ u^. It is supposed ihat x lies
between and 1. If we apply this formula to the case a; = J and Ux = cos (fx + a)
we get M cos (^p+ o), where M = (18 cos gp — 2 cos |p)/16. It is easy to show that M
is always less than unity ; an improvement is to write

whence M = (I + 2A) cos ^p — 2A cos |p. We can now choose A to make M unity for
a particular speed, or to make the possible error a minimum when several speeds
are involved. In the present instance Mj, the largest constituent, and Nj, the con-
stituent with the greatest value of p, need only be considered. Taking h succes-
sively equal to -063, -064, -065, 066, we find the values of (M-1) multiplied by
the appropriate amplitudes to be respectively —-003, — -001, -001, 003 for M^, and
respectively —-00.5, — -005, — -004, — -003 for N2. Ignoring the signs, the value of
A = -065 gives the least additive error, and therefore we adopt the interpolatio)!
formula —

Cj = - -066C_i -f -565 0„ + -565C, - -OeSCy

The errors when p is small are negligible whatever value we as.sign to k within the
range -062 to -066. Except in rare instances the errors of interpolation will be less
than -010 foot.

A formula similarly derived could be used to get Cj from C_j, Co, Cj, and
C,, but it is better to operate on the original series of values of C at intervals of
twenty-four hours, as these have been carefully checked. We obtain

C} = - •05C_i -I- -SOCo -I- -SOC, - •05C_i
C| = - -05C .1 -1- -30C„ -I- -SOC, - OSC-i

The maximum error is about -01 foot ; this could be reduced a little by taking three
decimals in the coeflBcients, but the simplicity of the formula outweighed any
advantage to be otherwise attained. Obviously Cj and Cj can be calculated almost
simultaneously by first calculating

[--05 C-i-t- 30C„-H-30C,--05C2] and then adding ^Co or iC,.

It is helpful to write the primary values in coloured ink and to leave blai.k
spaces for the values of Cj, Cj, and Cj. As the interpolations are all separate
calculations with no risk of systematic error, and as the smaller interval
makes the successive differences to diminish more rapidly than for the primary
series, all the interpolations can be checked by differencing the complete series
• • . C„, Cj, Cj, Cj, C,, ....

The interpolations for C and S for the intermediate hours are simply carried out
by linear interpolation, and then we have the height of the semi-diurnal tide
given by

^2= Cj cos 30°f-S2 sin 30°i;.

There is no great necessity for checks to be applied at this stage. Systematic error
is only possible by using the formula wrongly, and examination at intervals is
sufficient to test this.

TO ASSIST WORK OlST THE TtDES. 25^1

At each stage of the work the maximum error is less than '010 foot and the value
of y^ can be taken as correct to within -020 foot — the average error, regardless of
sign, will be much less tlian this.

§ 13. Calculation of diurnal tide. — The changes to be made in § 12 in order to
adapt the work to the calculation of the diurnal tide are very few. We have

C, = C, cos 15°<-S, sin 15°*
where C, = 2R'- cos (o-,- 15 t + o, )°

S, = 2R,. sin (ov^Ts t + a,)°

The multipliers/'' used in testing the summations are as follows : —

S, : 7-000 M, : 6-383 p, : 2-491

P, : 6-997 J,: 6-187 Q, : 2167

K,: 6-997 O, : 4-553 2Q, :--008

00, : 4-211

The formula of interpolation may be taken the same as for the semi-diurnal tide.

(For Newlyn the diurnal tide is small, and it was unnecessary to use the
multipliers /r : differences could be used on C„, C,, C, )

§ 14. Analyses for (juarter-diurrMl tide. — It has previously been mentioned that
the quarter-diurnal tide (fj at Newlyn has a simple relation to the square of the
semi-diurnal tide {Q. There are two methods for determining this relationship
numerically, the first depending upon deduction from harmonic analyses lor M.^ and
M4 over fairly long periods, and the second depending upon the direct correlation
between (^ and Q. The former method assumes the existence of the relationship for
all constituents, and, if it be known that this is legitimate, it is probably the best
method in practice. The latter method is interesting and is of value when obser-
vations over only a short interval are available ; the results show whether the method
is valid. Both methods have been applied to Newlyn observations, and the results
are in satisfactory accordance.

The phase shift is approximately the difference between the lag of M, and twice
the lag of M„, and the reduction factor is approximately equal to the amplitude of
M, divided by half the square of the amplitude of M^. The effect of the constituents
L,^ and N, in contributing to the M^ term in Q should be allowed for, but the
corrections are small.

The second method is as follows. Let the quarter-diurnal tide in the residue
after removing the semi-diurnal tide be represented by

f, - 52'r cos {(r,.t — h,)

Applying the S4 least-square rule -^ to twenty-four hourly values would give

« = tV 2 C cos 60°* = ^f,.qr cos (k, + I,.) -1- 2/',?, cos (A',. -1- 1',.)

J = j'j 2 Ci sin 60°* = 2/, 5,. sin (k,. + |,) - 2/',.yr «'» (*r + I',)

t=0 r r

where/,., /',., |,. anil |',. are dependent only on a,.. We may therefore write

a = -2.g^q,. cos (A-,. + 77,)

where g, find r;,. are dependent only on or,..

•' For technical terms and processes see Report for 1920.

232 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC.

Now suppose that Ci' contains a quarter-diurnal portion that can be repre-
sented by

2Qr cos {(Trt-Kr).

Then, analysing as above for A and B will give

A = iffrQr cos (Kr + Vr)

where ffr and Vn being dependent only on a-r, are the same as before.
If we now suppose that

and qr = 2cQr

and that c and x are independent of r, we have

a cos X — * sin x = 2c A,

whence

a sin X + * cos x = 2cB,

. Ba — AJ J , ■. a-+b
tan x= „, and ia- =

Aa+Bb A^+B*

The value of x can alternatively be found as

tan"'^ — - tan i— .
A a

The definition of a and x is such that if we write R cos (ai + a) for the semi-
diurnal tide, then the quarter-diurnal tide is given by cW cos Q2(rt + 2o + x).

In the case of Newlyn two such analyses were made on the results for
February 15 and March 28, on which days the quarter-diurnal tide was prominent
and free from serious perturbation by other constituents. The results were :

2c = -0222, -0229; x = 95°, 96°, respectively.

These values were in accordance with reductions from the first method, and the
mean values

2c = -0225, x = 96°

were adopted.

Further experience with observations at Liverpool has shown that the second
method should be used with some caution ; it is necessary to choose days when (^
is prominent and free from disturbance by other constituents, and several such days
should be taken. The values of c and x. however, do not vary much more than do
the results of analyses for M^ from year to year.

§ 15. Calculation of the quarter-diurnal tide. — (1) The first method of calculation
tried used the values of Q direct. An interpolation formula was evolved for use
with the hourly values of Q'- It is easily shown that

•0091 (C,=), -H -0164 (C,=),

gives the value of (^4)0. where suffixes outside the brackets indicate the relative
hourly values. The formula is based upon the assumption of a mean speed of 58°
per mean solar hour, and it does not correspond exactly to constant values of
c and X ; the variations in c and x are small, however, and of no importance. It is
easy to calculate the precise value of any constituent.

Unfortunately f/ contains constants and long-period constituents, so that the
formula gives a part L which has to be removed. It is easy to show, however,

TO ASSIST WORK ON THE TIDES. 233

that the average of the results of the forinula over twenty-hours will give, to a
very close degree of approximation, the value of L at the mid-hour. L was found at
intervals of twelve hours, and intermediate values obtained by linear interpolation.
It should be noted that L has to be added to the residue.

(2) The second method, used for Liverpool, was applied to (Ci)'o — (Q's instead
of ^2^ with an appropriate formula. The residual value of L is very small.

(3) The third method has been used for reducing the second half of the 1918
records for Newlyn. This method avoids the introduction of long-period con-
stituents, and involves less labour than the first method.

Referring to § 12, we have

Ci = Cj cos 30°t - S, sin 30°t = R cos (30^ + a)°

where R cos « = C, R sin a = S, and R is slowly-varying.

Tlien (^ = cW cos (60t + 2a + x)°

= 0^008 60°^-S4sin 60°^,

where Cja(c cos x)(C2^-S./) - (<! sin x)(2a8s)

and S^ = (o cosx)(2aS.,) + (c- sin x)(C/-S/).

Now c cos X and c sin x are constants, being, for Newlyn, —.0012 and .0120
respectively. It is sufficient, therefore, to calculate C/ — S./ and 2C2S., at intervals
of six (or even twelve) hours, and thence to evaluate C^ and S^ by linear inter-
polation. The hourly values of f, are then given by

Ct cos 60°;; - S^ sin 60°^,

and since cos 60"^ is either ± 1 or ± §, and sin 60°^ is either ± .866 or zero, it is
desirable to write down iC^ and .866 H,; the calculation of (^ is then a very simple
matter.

This method is superior in every way to either of the first two methods.

§ 16. Analysis of observations. — Before proceeding to dit>cuss the analysis of
residues it is desirable to consider the principles governing the methods in vogue
for the harmonic analysis of tidal observations. A full discussion of these is given
by Professor Proudman in the Report for 1920, and a brief statement only is here
required; the matter may be considered under three headings: — (1) the isolation
and analysis of the principal solar series ; (2) the ' assignment ' ; (3) the length of
record to be included.

(1) If the constituent sought be of the principal solar series then it repeats itself
at intervals of twenty-four mean solar hours, or of some sub-multiple thereof. Hence
the mean of the heights at intervals of twenty-four hours will tend to isolate the
height due to the solar series of constituents at the given hour of the day. Other
constituents will, in the long run, eliminate themselves. The twenty-four means so
obtained may be submitted to harmonic analysis by the least square rule, and the
separate constituents obtained. If ^ is the tidal height at time t, measured in mean
solar hours, N the number of mean solar days included in the record submitted to
analysis, 15°/t the speed in degrees per mean solar hour, then the whole of the
processes give

^-2-rN^^

A„ = J 2 C cos Vo°nt (« = 1,2, . . .)

12N

B„ = j^2fsin 15^«i (>i=l,2, ...)

(2) The 'assignment' is a process whereby heights at successive mean solar
hours may be utilised in ' special time.' When the constituent sought is a principal
solar constituent the method of analysis is that stated above : a similar process for
any other constituent would involve a knowledge of heights at ' special hours' in

1021 3

234 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC.

place of mean solar hours. A ' special day ' is the time taken for the argument of
the constituent in question to increase by 360° if it be diurnal or 720° if it be semi-
diurnal. As this knowledge is lacking, the heights at the nearest solar hours are
assigned and attributed to the special hours. A certain correction is made
depending upon the assumption of a random distribution of the difference in time
between special and mean solar hours. In dealing with large constituents this
correction may not be adequate.

(3) The length of record to be included in the process is determined by choosing
an interval of time such that the effect of some one large constituent is made as
small as possible. The effects of all other constituents are ignored, though this may
not be justifiable if these constituents are large or if their speeds are very nearly
equal to that of the constituent sought.

The whole purpose of the methods described is that of determining simply two
numbers A and B, and there is no internal evidence to show that we are entitled to
attach any significance to these numbers, though they are supposed, and are used, to
define a constituent. There is nothing to indicate the presence or magnitude of
perturbing constituents, and nothing to show whether the whole of the constituents
have been dealt with or not. The whole process is repeated for each of the
constituents expected to be present. As instruments for research these methods are
singularly ineflScient, the paucity and uncertainty of the results being in remarkable
contrast to the magnitude of the work required.

§ 17. Darwin's method of analysis of observations. — A method which ranks as a
great improvement on those discussed in § 16 was introduced by Darwin in his paper
on the abacus. The method is only applied to the group of constituents whose
speeds are nearly equal to those of the principal solar constituents ; the constituents
Kg, Eg, Sj and Tj are all nearly equal in speed, and are treated over a short interval
of time as having the speed of Sj. For successive intervals the values of Ajand Bg
would be constant if only Sg were present, but in the case considered they vary
harmonically, and analyses of the variations give the harmonic numbers for the
four constituents.

This method will now be considered in more detail. The exposition here given
is different from that by Darwin, and the method has been generalised to some
extent.

Suppose that we are dealing with a constituent R cos (at - 1) whose value is
given at intervals of one mean solar hour. Then the contribution to A„ and B„ in
the analysis for solar constituents will be

A" = —^ 2R cos (o-i - f) cos \b°nt = kt^ 2R | cos ((r-15«i - e)° + cos ((r+15«< - 6)° |

•>']

B„ = Znxx 2R cos {at — e) sin \h°nt — ,ct^ 2R < — sin (o- — 1 bnt — f) + sin (a + \5nt — e

where the summations are taken from t = 24T to 24T + 24N — 1 , so that it is supposed
that the summations begin at zero hour on day T and include all the hourly values
of the constituent over N complete days.
These may be written as

An=/'R cos (6'-24<7T)+/'R cos (e"-24<rT),

B„=/'R sin (6'-24<rT)+/"R sin («"-24(rT),

where

,,_ sin 12N (a-15n)° .„_ sin 12N((r + 1 ■5ra)°

24N sin i((r-15w)°' 24N sin i((r + 15»)°'

€" = f- 12N((r- 15«)° + ^{a - lon)°

e" = f-12N((r-15«)° + K"'+15«)° = ^'+ '5«°,
certain multiples of 360° having been ignored.

T07ASSIST WORKrON THE TIDES.

235

^„ = Fcos(ij-pT) I
3„ = Fsiii(r,-^T), J

. (1)

It is now convenient to write these in the form

A„ = Fcos (i?-pT)

B„
where

F cos 7)=/'R CCS (' +/"R cos e",

F sin T) =/'R sin t' +/"R sin e",

and p is the equal to 24((r— 15«)° : it differs from the true speed in degrees per mean
solar day only by a multiple of 360°. We shall speak of F, v and p as the ' reduced
values ' of R, 6 and a. We now obtain

and

(F/Ry^f^ +/""- + 2 f'f" cos \o°n

. , ,, /"sinl5°»
tan (t) - € ) = --^

/' +/" cos 15°/t

(2)

As, however, we shall not have occasion to use values of N other than N = 30 the
relations between F and R, t; and e may be given once for all in a numerical form
for convenient values of p. The value of e — tj is practically the same for all values
of 71, but the ratio of R to F varies with n.

« =

« = 1

w = 2

6 „

R/F

0°

10000

1-0000

10000

1°

14-96°

0115

10101

1-0109

2°

29-92°

0472

10444

10459

3°

44-88°

1107

1-1063

11086

4°

59-84°

2092

1-2027

1-2062

5°

74-80°

3552

1-3461

1-3509

6°

89-76°

1-5708

1-5582

1-5649

Having obtained A,„ B,; for all the values of n, each pair of harmonic numbers
is treated separately, so that we shall now omit the suflBx w.

If p is zero then A and B are constants ; if p is not zero then both A and B vary
harmonically with the period 360/p days. We shall get what we may call ' conjugate
constituents ' with the same period if the values of p are equal and opposite in sign.
Thus R„ and T, with p= ± 0-9856 are conjugate with respect to Sj. Now, in general,
we shall have several constituents occurring together so that we shall have

A = F„ cos T)„ + 2 JF, cos (r7,-p,T) + F',. cos (v'r + p,T)|, )
B = F„sin r,„ + 2 {F, sin (7?,-/),T) + FV sin (t)',. + p,T)}, j

and we can consider p,- as positive. These may be written as
A = A(.y + 2 (A,.,, cos p,.T + Agr sin p^T)

B = B,„ + 2 (B,, cos p,T + B,, sin p,T)

where

Ac-„ = F„ cos Vo.

Aj.,. = F,. cos ri,. + F'r cos v'r,
B„- = - Fr cos 7)r -t F',. COS 7)',.,

Therefore we have

F, cos V = i(A, r - B.r), F,. sin v,- = K-"^ .■ + B,r)

F/ cos v/ = KAcr + B,,), F,.' sin v'r = U - A„ + B,,)

(3)

(4)

Bj„ = F„ sin r;„

Aj,. = F,. sin 7),.-F',. sin rj'^

Bs,. ^ F,- sin 7),. + FV sin -n',.

(5)

(6)

236 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. -

The application of the least square rule to (4) gives, for example,

iA<;r-=L^ ^"2 Acosp,.T , . . . (7)

Theoretically, therefore, we can obtain Ac,-, Agr and thence P,-, Vr by (6) ;

application of the table given above determines the corresponding values of
R and e.

In the simple case considered by Darwin the periods are exactly a year and half
a year, and he was able to apply the least square rule to twelve values with N = 30 and
T such that p,.T is very nearly a multiple of 30°. The perturbation of one constituent
upon another was negligible so far as constituents of the solar group were concerned.
Some perturbation, however, was caused by M, with f>=— 24-38. Taking T at
intervals of about 30-5 days on the average gives pT about -741°, or ' apparently '
- 24°. The residual effect of M^ is therefore to give a perturbation which is approxi-
mately annual in period. Darwin makes corrections for this perturbation. In the
present paper we shall not have occasion to consider such perturbations, as we are
not dealing with observations but with residues.

§ 18. Analysis of residues.— When the chief constituents have been subtracted
from the tidal observations there is greater freedom possible in the details of
analysis. In the analysis of observations there are two kinds of errors, the first being
due to the methods of assignment, which introduce errors in the constituent sought
whether other constituents be present or not. The second kind of error is due
entirely to the presence of other constituents. In both cases the error is proportional
to the size of the constituent producing it, and if the chief constituents be removed
the methods of analysis can be applied to the residues without serious error. If we
consider the errors due to the assignment as negligible or adequately corrected by
the multiplying factor previously mentioned, then we can apply more generally
Darwin's method as given for the solar constituents.

The exposition of Darwin's method in § 17 can be generalised simply by writing
' special time.' for ' mean solar time.' If the heights are given (or obtained roughly
by assignment) at intervals of one special hour, then the speed per special hour is
15%° aiTd p (in special time) is zero for the constituent appropriate to the special
time. As an example the L.,-group of constituents includes L., with speed = 29-5285°
per m.s.h. and K. mth speed" = 29-4356° per m.s.h. In special (or L„) time the speed
of L2 becomes 30° per L.„h. and the speed of K becomes

29-4556 X 30° ^gg.Q^ggo t j^
29-5285

corresponding to p= 1-7784°. The constituent Aj, therefore, will give approximately
semi-annual variations in the A and B obtained by the ' L„ process.' By the ' L„
process ' is meant the analysis as for L,.

Darwin's method is applicable wherever there are groups of constituents whose
speeds are nearly equal. Tidal constituents are supjaosed to be separable from one
year's observations only, so that two constituents are not separable in a year unless
their speeds, true or reduced, differ by a multiple of approximately 360° per mean
solar year, corresponding to a difference of approximately 1° in p. Now the con-
stituents occur in groups such that there is a difference in speed of about 12° per
mean solar day from group to group. It is necessarj^ to choose N such that one
group has very little effect upon the results of analyses relating to another group.
If we consider the account of the method in §17 it will be found that the ratio F/R
depends chiefly upon /', and this vanishes for 24 (<r — 15»)° = 12° when N is a
multiple of fifteen days. It will be sufficient, therefore, to take N = 30, say, in all
cases whether we are dealing with solar or special time.

Darwin's method is to take his thirty-day intervals running almost consecutively,
but by so doing the most is not made of the material. In the present investigation
the interval is taken as thirty days, but the intervals overlap, so that analyses are
carried out for N = 30 and T = 0, 10, . . . This is obviously effected by taking

N = 10, T = 0, 10 and then averaging the values of A (and B) in threes to

correspond to N = 30.

The methods are now easily explained by references to actual analyses and we
shall first study the case of M^. The hourly heights (mean solar time) were assigned

TO ASSIST WORK ON THE TIDES. 237

to M,-time in the usual B.A. manner,^ and were then treated in sections of ten lunar
days. For each hour series in the section the heights were averaged, giving twenty-
four values for submission to harmonic analysis, by the least square rule, for a
semi-diurnal constituent. The results are shown in Table I., cols. 2 and 6; aver-
aging these results in threes gives the values of A and B in cols. 2 and 7 ; these
correspond to N = 30, T = 0, 10, . . . . The diminution of range is obviously due tc
the diminution of the effects of other groups. If these results are plotted, as is
done in fig. 7, a very striking effect is shown : there is a well-marked variation fn
the values of A and B with a period somewhat less than three months. There is
nothing in Darwin's schedules of constituents to explain this perturbation; it
cannot possibly arise from another group because a difference in speed of 12° or
13° per day would require a true amplitude (R) about 0-7 foot !

Thus the method has already shown the existence of one constituent previously
unsuspected : it may be repeated that the ordinary methods of analysis would have
given one A and one B for an arbitrarily fixed interval, and thus no new constituent
would have been revealed. We can now consider the calculation of the most trust-
worthy values of A(.„ and B,,„, corresponding to the constituent M, ; shall we simply
take the average of all the values of A, or shall we take the average over a definite
interval of time determined by considerations cf relative speeds of M„ and S„, say,
or by the relative speeds of the perturbing constituents indicated in the figure 7
The problem is rather complex if we are limited to rigid arithmetical methods,
obviouslj', if we choose an interval to satisfy one condition it may happen that the
other constituents have their greatest effect in it. Further, in this case we do not
know exactly the speed of the perturbing constituent. The only satisfactory solu-
tion of the problem is to use the idea of an ' asymptotic mean ' and to discard
altogether the idea of attempting to fix a criterion tor choosing the interval for
analysis. Suppose that we sum the values of A consecutively, writing down the
sum 2 in col. 4, Table I., and then divide each sum by M, the number of contributory
values of A, as in col. .5, then the asymptotic mean is the limiting value of this
average (2/M) as M increases indefinitely ; i.e. the asymptotic mean is defined, as in

§ 18 (7), by 1 loS^-i'

±L M ^ ^T

M-».a> T=0

Here the suflBx T is used to denote the value of A in the thirty-day interval com-
mencicg on day T. The values of 2/M are plotted in Fig. 7, and the dotted lines
give approximately the tendency of the curves. The oscillations about the dotted
line diminish in range as M increases, and there is a tendency for the line to reach
a constant value — the asymptotic mean. Of course, in this case, with only six
months' residues submitted to anal3'sis, it is impossible to give a reallj' definitive
value to the asymptotic mean, but it is possible to give a much better value to A<;„
than would result from numerical methods with an arbitrarily fixed interval. These
curves provide an interesting commentary on the accuracy of the ' constants ' usually
obtained.

In the case of M, there are no obvious semi-annual oscillations in A and B,
though there may be some annual oscillation ; analyses from six months' residues do
not suffice for dealing with these.

A very interesting case is that of the L, group. Darwin's schedules of constituents
indicate only L^ and A,, and the latter would give semi-annual variations in Lj (A, B).
Table (II.) gives the values of A and B by the Lj process, in columns 2 and 6 for
N = 30. The values of 2/M are illustrated in fig. 8.

It is rather difficult to determine Acq and Bjo satisfactorily because of the large
perturbing constituents. It is an advantage to be able to remove even crude
approximations to these before proceeding further, but in this case they are small
and are allowed to stay. The value of p for X^ ^^^ been given as — 1-778° and we
shall write

Pj, = 1-778°;

the suffix here denotes that the variation is semi-annual.

■■ For technical terms and explanations reference should be made to the Report
by Professor Proudman, 1920.

238 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC.

We now form A cos p^T. A sin p^T, B cos p.T, B sin pjT, as in Table III. When
M is large we shall have from (7) § 18,

Asymptotic mean of A cos p^T = ^A.c2
„ „ A sin p2T = |A82

„ ,, Bcosp2T = iB,2

„ „ B sinpjTs^B^^

Determining these means as nearly as possible we have

F,cos7,,= iAo,-iB,,= -•003--012=--015

F2sinr,,= iA.,, + iB»2= -OOO+Ol-l^ "044
and

F'^ cos 7,-2= AA,2 + iBc2=--003 + -012= 009

F'„sin r,'2= -|A,, + AB%= --000+ 044= -044
Hence we have two constituents

F„ cos (7j.-p2T) = -047 cos (109° -p,T)
F\ cos (r,'j + p2T)= 0J5 cos (78° + pJ)

The latter of these gives the constituent Aj.

Now using the table of §17 we have (R,e) respectively equal to (047, 135°), and
(•045, 52°), the latter giving X^-

The presence of the constituent 'conjugate' to K^ with p = 1-778° in L^time is very
interesting, especially when it turns out to be as important as A,. Again we have
an unsuspected constituent, but a word of caution must be given. Our analysis has
assumed the presence of two constituents with equal and opposite values of p, and
indeed this is often the case, but here we can assert nothing about the unknown
constituent except that it has p approximately =2°, and without more definite
information as to the value of p the above figures are not to be considered as definitive
for this constituent. It is not inappropriate to add that though we may not get
pairs of values of p to be equal and opposite in sign yet the tidal constituents in-
dicated by the potential are such that the relation is nearly true, and any correction
necessary could easily be applied, provided that the true values of p are icnown.

It was considered to be of interest to see the results after the two disturbing
constituents had been removed, and cols. 10 and 11, Table II., give the residual A
and B ; these are plotted in fig. 8. An independent deduction of A^^ and Bs„ from
these figures confirms the values previously obtained from the original A and B ; we
get

A«, =-010, B,„ =-025

whence the L^ constituent in the residue is

•027 cos ((r<-68°).

These examples are sufficient to illustrate the methods. In practically all cases
approximate quarter-annual perturbations in the A and B have been found. The
cause of these is obscure and the matter is still under investigation.

TO ASSIST WORK ON THE TIDES.

239

Table I. — Mo Process.

T=10(M-1)
N = 10

t=io{m:-i)

N = 30

T=10(M-1)
N = 10

r=io(M-i),

N = 30

1
2

•022

■005

•005

•213

•027

■027

•009

•070

•075

•038

-•099

-•069

-042

-■021

-•015

•061

•136

•045

-031

-•081

-■123

-■041

•217

•095

■231

•058

-•079

-•094

-.217

-■054

-018

-008

■228

•045

-•133

■027

-•190

-038

•086

-•025

■203

•034

-•070

•015

-•175

-029

-076

•048

■251

•036

•285

-090

-•265

-■038

-•084

•061

•312

•039

-•170

-•171

-•436

-■054

•304

•073

•385

•043

-•384

-•179

-•615

-■058

-037

■058

•443

•044

■041

-•068

-•683

-■068

-051

-007

•436

■040

-•373

-•039

- 722

-■066

•262

-■C02

•434

•036

•129

■001

-•721

-■060

-•231

-•046

•388

•030

•126

-■004

-•725

-■054

-•038

-•054

•334

•024

-•251

-■006

-■731

-■052

■131

-054

•280

•019

•114

-•054

-■785

-■052

-•255

—

•112

—

-039

—

-•388

—

Fig. 7.— Mj Process.

240

REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC.

Table II.— L

J Process.

N = 30
A

N=30
B

cos P2T
1^000

sin p^T

A cos

A sin

B cos

B sin
P.T

•000

Residual

-•046

•081

•000

-•046

•000

•081

-•040

-•007

•003

•091

•951

•309

•003

•001

•086

■028 ;

•008

-•002

•002

•131

•809

•588

•002

•001

•106

■077

•006

•045

-•Oil

•099

•602

•799

-•007

-■009

•060

■080

-•007

■016

-•032

-•002

•326

•946

-•010

-•031

-•007

-•002 1

-■030

-■054

-•095

•036

•018

rooo

-•002

-•095

•001

■036

-■095

■010

•108

■089

-•292

•956

-•031

•103

-•027

•085

•106

■092

•122

•065

-•559

•829

-•068

•101

-•036

•054

•119

■094

•058

-•075

-•788

•616

-•040

•031

•059

-•046

•049

-•020

-■129

-•079

-•940

•342

■121

-•044

■074

-■027

-•135

-•005

-•057

-•120

-•999

•035

■057

-•020

•120

-■042

-•063

-•032

-•002

-•074

-•966

-•259

■002

•000

•071

•019

-•007

•018

•035

-•068

-•889

-•545

-•029

-•019

•057

•037

•030

•020

•034

•029

- 629

-•777

-•021

-•026

-•018

- 023

•031

■104

•134

•035

-•358

-•934

-•048

-•]25

-•012

- 033

•134

•090

— 10

0^5

Fig. 8. — L, Process.

TO ASSIST WORK ON THE TIDES.

241

■V-oS

-OOS

Fig. 9.— L2 Process.
(After removal of \ and its conjugate.)

§ 19. Results of analyses.— Yox the constituents M^, S,„ N., K^, L.^ the results of
anal3'ses of the residues are tis follows ; each constituent is expressed in the form

R cos ((Ti — e).

M2 Sj Nj K2 Lj

•060 -OSS -166 -100 -027

297° 87° 251° 87° 68°

The full list of constituents removed from the record for 1918 is now given : the
results for the five constituents given above have been combined with the first
approximations given in § 10.

K, 1

2SM

1-868
178-31°

•020
2-00°

-110

174-00°

•502 1
320-41° 2

-273 -047 5-636 -100
55^35° 52-00° 210-28° 323-00°

•190
110-00°

1-094
338-78°

-182
319-00°

•130
132^00'^

-010
155-00°

•071
118-00°

•202
89^00°

•182
78-00°

•062
177-00°

I There has also been removed the quarter-diurnal tide represented hv the i factor
•0225 and phase shift 96° applied to the quarter-diurnal portion of the square of
I the semi-diurnal tide.

242 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC.

The harmonic constants (H, k) are as follows : —

H
K

1-868
189-4°

•020
191-4°

•110
186-8°

-503

188-8'=

■386
156-9°

2SM

■047
93-3°

5-621

145-8°

•100
49-6°

•189
119-8°

H
E

1-091
122-4°

•182
176-9°

-130
123-7°

•010
340-5°

■071
113-7°

-200
113-3°

-180
345-3°

•060
2924°

These are obtained from (R,€) by multiplying R by a certain factor depending
upon the longitude of the moon's node, and by adding to e the 'astronomical
argument. '

PART III.

Tests on the Accuracy of Tide-predicting Machines.

In collaboration -with the Hydrographic Department of the Admiralty and -with
the National Physical Laboratory, it has been possible to use the Newlyn calcula-
tions for a direct test on two tide-predicting machines. The Report for 1920 gives
certain indirect tests where predictions from two machines are compared, and the
absolute errors of each are unknown. The harmonic numbers used to represent the
five chief semi-diurnal constituents for Newlyn were supplied to the Hydrographer
and to Mr. Selby, of the N.P.L., for use with Mr. Roberts' machine (R) and the India
Office machine (N) respectively. The curves for six months were forwarded to the
Tidal Institute, where they were read and compared with the calculations.

Measurements of heights at intervals of four hours, and of heights and times of H.
and L.W. were made on nineteen days at intervals of ten days, and every effort -was
made to ensure the greatest possible degree of accuracy in measurement. The machine
scales were, in height, one inch to a foot, and, in time, one inch to four hours ; con-
sequently the gradients were sometimes very steep and measurements were difficult
to make. The errors of measurement are essentially random, and not systematic,
errors. The calculations are correct to within 001 foot in height and one minute in
time. The errors are taken as machine value minus calculated value.

High and Low Water Heights (feet).

Range ol error

Average
error

Zero
error

' Throw
error

R-machine

. H.W.
L.W.

errors

-•10 to -^24
-■07 to -^21

-•181
-12/

--15

-•06

N -machine

.. H.W.
L.W.

■00 to --13
■U9 to --05

-07-
•00 .

-•03

-•07

By the ' throw ' of the machine is meant the distance from maximum to minimum in
the tide. In these cases H.W. are systematically too low and L.W. systematically
too high by about •QSS foot when the zero error is corrected.

R-machine
N-machine

High and Lorv Water Times (minutes).

Bange o£
error

1 to 10

to 10

to 12

H.W. errors
L.W. „
H.W. „
L.W. „

to 13

Average
error

5^8

4-8

5-2

7-2

Greatest range
in oae day

to 5

2 to 13

ON FUEL ECONOMY.

Hourly Height*

(feet).

R-machine

rising tide

Average
error

-0-24

falling „

-006

N-machine

.. rising „

-015

These tests indicaie : —

falling „

-009

Maximum
error

-0 47
0-45

(1) that both machines have zero errors in height, that of the R-machine being

serious ;

(2) that both machines have serious time errors averaging about 6 minutes ;

(3) that the throw of the machines (or apparent range of tide) is deficient,

but not seriously so ;

(4) that the machines have no produced predictions with the accuracy

required in research work.

The average (or zero) errors are easily allowed for, even if the machines are not
mechanically adjusted. There are certain other errors which may be serious, e.g.

the variation of the H. and L.W. time error from two to thirteen minutes in one day

apart from the zero error the performance of the R-machine is more creditable than
that of the N-machine in this respect.

The tests have been made with the machine scales used commercially. The time
scale could be altered i£ greater accuracy were desired. It may be stated that
six mins is represented by one-fortieth of an inch on the chart and that this is the
average error with very careful reading.

Both machines agree better with one another than with calculations ; but they
are of the same type and were built by the same maker, so that it might be expected
that similar faults would be present.

The above tests ought, perhaps, to be supplemented by others in which the
machines are more fully used ; the present tests hare only used five constituents out
of the twenty or thirty represented on the machines.

In connection with methods of research (Part II.) it may be remarked that the
machines would have been useless for the purpose covered by the scheme for
prediction (§ 12), and the labour of reading the curves with any pretence to accuracy
is quite comparable with the labour of direct numerical calculations, but the results
are not comparable in value.

Fuel Economy. — Fourth Report of Committee appointed for the In-
vestigation of Fuel Economy, the Utilisation of Coal, and Smoke
Prevention (Professor W. A. Bone,* Chairman; Mr. H. James
Yates,* Vice-Chairmun ; Mr. Egbert Mond,* Secretary; Mr.
A. H. Barker, Professor P. P. Bedson, Dr. W. S,
BouLTON, Mr. E. Bury, Professor W. E. Dalby, Mr*.
E. V. Evans,* Dr. W. GAiiLOWAY,* Sir Robert Had-
FiELD, Bart.,* Dr. H. S. Hele-Shaw,* Mr. D. H. Helps,
Dr. G. HicKLiNG, Mr. D. V. Hollingworth, Mr. A.
Hutchinson,* Mr. S. R. Illing worth, Principal G. Knox, Pro-
fessor Henry Louis,* Mr. H. M. Morgans, Mr. W. H.
Patchell,* Mr. A. T. Smith, Dr. J. E. Stead, Mr. G. E.
Stromeyer, Mr. G. Blake Walker, Sir Joseph Walton, M.P.,*
Professor W. W. Watts,* and Mr. 0. H. Wordingham*).
Note. — * Denotes a member of the Executive Committee.

Owing to two unforeseen causes, namely (1) the unprecedentedly difficult and
anxious industrial situation during the past autumn and winter, accentuated,
as it was, by the stoppage of the coal mines in October last, and culminating in
the great coal-strike of this year, and (2) the sudden and serious illness of the

244

REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC.

Chairman in February last (now, however, safely passed through), necessitating
his relinquishing all his professional work and public duties for three months,
the Committee has not been able to fulfil the programme of work which it
proposed a year ago. Accordingly, it cannot present this year anything in the
nature of an extended Report, but must confine itself to a brief general state-
ment as to the present fuel situation, and to the importance of its future work
and plans in relation thereto.

The Coal Situation. — In its previous Reports, and particularly in the one
presented at Bournemouth in 1919, the Committee has repeatedly warned the
country of the serious economic dangers attendant upon the rapidly increasing
cost of producing coal in British mines. Last year it published official
statistics showing how rapidly our coal export trade was declining. Some
important statistics upon these points were given in a paper upon ' The
Economics of the South Wales Coalfield,' which Mr. Hugh Bramwell read at
the joint meeting of this Committee with that of the South Wales Institute
of Engineers at Cardiff on August 26, 1920. Among them were the following
which, referring to a group of South Wales collieries, 'illustrate in detail the
relation between the production per person employed p<er pit worl^ing day and
the earnings per person employed, also per pit working day, for the past six
years, plotted weekly, and averaged each six months ' : —

Earnings

Production

per

Period.

Duration.

person

employed

per pit

day.

3. d.

Tons.

No. 1 Pay 1915 to No. 22 Pay 1916.

Prior to 15 per cent, advance

7 1-30

0-768

No. 23 Pay 1916 to No. 37 Pay 1917.

Period of 15 per cent, advance .

8 11-40

0-7.58

No. 38 Pay 1917 to No. 26 Pay 1918.

1 st War Wage addition

10 8-79

0-742

No. 27 Pay 1918 to No. 1 Pay 1919.

2nd War Wage addition .

11 11-03

0-718

No. 2 Pay 1919 to No. 29 Pay 1919.

Sankey Wage addition

13 7-84

0-677

No. 30 Pay 1919 to No. 17 Pay 1920.
Hours reduced 8 to 7 and piecework

rates increased by 14-2 per cent.

14 3-15

0-561

No. 1 8 Pay 1 920. Additional 20 per cent,
on earnings .....

—

On March 11 last the Secretary for Mines officially reported the following
comparative statistics concerning our British coal industry in the years 1913 and
1920, respectively : —

Average Cost of Producing a Ton of Coal in Great Britain.

1913

Wages ....

Timber, Stores, and other costs
Royalties ....

Total Cost

Add Owners^ pro/its

1 6

1920

ON FUEL ECONOMY. 245

Average Cost of Producing Coal — continued.

Tons. Tons.

Total coal raised at mines 287,412,000 229,295,000

Total coal raised per person employed at mines . 259 190
Amount of coal shipped abroad : —

Ascargoesi " 73,400,118 24,931,853

As bunkers^ 21,031,550 13,840,360

Total . 94,431,668 38,772,213

The position thus revealed may be summed up as follows : (a) The average
cost of producing coal at the pithead had in seven years increased nearly
fourfold, whilst (6) the amount raised per person employed had diminished by
more than 25 per cent., and (c) our coal exports to foreign markets (excluding
bunkers) had fallen to one-third the pre-war amount.

The rapidly increasing costs of producing coal in Great Britain have already
reacted most detrimentally upon its finances and trading position. For some
time prior to the recent strike, the cost of producing coal at the pithead had
exceeded its selling price by several shillings per ton ; the difference had been
made up by a subsidy from the public funds, at the expense of the taxpayer.
The crisis was precipitated by the decision of the Government that, after
March 31 last, this subsidy must cease, and that the coal industry must revert
to its former position of being self-suppoiting.' The strike came as a final
blow to the country's industries, already crippled by intolerably high coal
prices. The coal-export trade, which for some time had been rapidly
declining, was brought to a standstill, with disastrous effects upon the shipping
trade. It must also be remembered that coal is the principal mineral which
this country has to export, and that in the past our coal exports have not only
given British ships outward cargoes and freights, but have materially helped
to pay for the large amounts of raw materials and foodstuffs which must be
imported to maintain our factories and workers. The recent marked con-
traction in British coal exports, which in pre-war days easily dominated the
overseas markets to our great advantage as a maritime Power, has coincided
with a great expansion in American coal exports, which now seriously threatens
our once unrivalled position. ^

Whilst the Committee has steadily refrained from intervening in what
may be regarded as the political aspects of the coal question, and therefore
expresses no opinion as to the various ex parte proposals which have been put
forward for the future organisation of the coal trade, it is nevertheless well
within its province to urge the necessity, from the point of view of national
economy and well-being, of a substantial reduction in the cost of producing
coal in this country.

In this connection the Committee would draw attention to the weighty
declarations made in May last by Sir Hugh Bell (as President of the Cleveland
Mineowners' Association) and Mr. Alfred Hutchinson (one of the members of
the Committee and President of the Cleveland Ironmasters' Association) to
the effect that, even were the differences in the coal trade to be settled imme-
diately, there could be no resumption of work in the iron and steel industry
on the old scale without a very drastic reduction in coal prices. Wages, they
said, are governed by a sliding scale ; but even when wages have been reduced
to bed-rock, Cleveland pig iron cannot be manufactured, excluding all question
of profit, at the price at which foreign pig iron is being delivered into this
country, unless coke of good quality can be delivered to the furnaces at about
27s. per ton. Mr. Maurice Deacon has recently pointed out that an even lower
figure than this would be required if the iron trade of the Midlands is to
continue in being. Without necessarily accepting any particular figure, the
Committee would again emphasise the view, which it already expressed in its
second Report — namely, the absolute dependence of the country's industrial
system upon its ability to produce relatively cheap coal, which is, indeed, the
keystone of its whole economic structure.

1 When, however, the strike was finally settled on June 28 last, the Govern-
ment agreed (subject to the consent of Parliament, which was afterwards given)
to grant a sum not exceeding 10,000,000?. in subvention of miners' wages.

* Vide the Appendix to this Report.

246 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC.

Oil Fuel. — During the recent coal strike successful attempts have been made
in several directions in this country to substitute oil fuel for coal. Oil has
thus been used with good results in public electric power stations, for driving
steam locomotives on the railways, and also in the case of several large ocean
liners. !So many advantages are claimed for oil as agamst coal firing, m regard
to cleanliness, labour saving, and general efficiency, that the question of now
far such substitution can be economically kept up or extended in future will
depend largely upon the prospects of ensuring regular and adequate supplies
of fuel oil at reasonable prices that can be established. It woula undoubtedly
be advantageous to the country if its power stations, railways, and other sucli
public services could be rendered less dependent upon coal than they have
hitherto been. Such a consideration makes it more than ever important that
our future sources of supply of liquid fuel should be thoroughly explored,
and therefore the Committee proposes in the immediate future to include such
an inquiry in its programme of work.

Federation of British Industries Fuel Economy Committee. — The Committee
has learned v/ith much satisfaction of the establishment by the Federation of
British Industries of a special Committee (of which Sir Robert Hadfield,
Mr. H. James Yates, and Professor Bone are members) to assist manufacturers
in economising coal in their operations, and of the good and effective work that
it has already accomplished in this direction. The Committee hopes, through
the said three members, who are common to both, to keep in touch with and
help forward the work of this new Committee.

The Board of Trade Gas Committees. — Since the Committee was last
reappointed, the Board of Trade, under powers conferred upon it by the Gas
Regulation Act, 1920, set up two ad hoc Special Committees to deal with the
important question of whether or not it is necessary or desirable to impose any
limitation as to the amount of (a) carbon monoxide, and [b) incombustible
constituents ('inerts') permissible in public gas supplies. As the Committee
had, in its Second and Third Reports, already expressed the view that such
limitations are desirable, it appointed a Sub-Committee to arrange for its views
being formally represented to the Board of Trade Committee. Upon the
question of carbon monoxide, the Sub-Committee had the advantage of conferring
with Dr. J. S. Haldane, who expressed himself entirely in agreement with the
Committee's views that the CO-content of a public domestic gas supply ought
not to be allowed to exceed 20 per cent. Dr. Haldane himself gave evidence
to this effect before the Board of Trade CO-Committee on February 10 last,
and subsequently Mr. Robert Mond presented to it the considered views of
this Committee upon the subject, in accordance with its previous Reports.
Owing, however, to the Chairman's illness, no formal representation was made
about the Committee's views as to the question of the limitation of ' inerts,'
although the Board of Trade was aware that they were in agreement with the
recommendations made in 1918 by the Fuel Research Board. '^

Changes in Membership. — Since its last reappointment, Mr. W. B. Wood-
house has resigned from the Committee, owing to pressure of other work ; and
Mr. S. R. Ulingworth, of the Treforest School of Mines (South Wales), has
been co-opted as a new member.

Future Work. — In view of the serious position of the coal mining and
consuming industries, of the increasing attention that is being given to the
possible substitution of other fuels for coal, and therefore of the consequent
continued need of a body of disinterested scientific experience and opinion
that can be brought to bear upon the various aspects of the fuel question, the
Committee asks for reappointment for another year, for the purpose of com-
pleting the investigations outlined in its Third Report a year ago, with a grant
of 351. The patronage and help of the Committee has also been requested in
connection with the proposed Smoke Abatement Exhibition to be held in London,
in March and April 1922, under the auspices of the Coal Smoke Abatement
Society.

8 Three members of the Committee (Messrs. E. V. Evans, D. H. Helps, and
H. James Yates) were, however, of the opinion that, in view of the provisions
of the Gas Regulation Act, 1920, for the future sale of gas on a thermal basis,
gas undertakings should be allowed a free hand in regard to carbon monoxide
and inerts.

ON NON-AROMATIC DIAZONItBI SALTS. 247

APPENDIX.

Some Comparative Statistics for British and American Coal Exports for the
Years 1913 and 1920 respectively.

In amplification of what has been said in the main Report about the
threatened loss of our once dominant coal-export trade, the following com-
parative statistics (recently published in ' Imperial Commerce and Affairs,'
Vol. II., No. 6, pp. 30-31) may be quoted :—

(1) In the year 1913 the United States exported altogether 20,708,582 tons

of anthracite and bituminous coals, of which, however, only about
five million tons went overseas ; some 14,482,929 tons of bituminous
coals went overland into Canada. In the sijme year Great Britain
exported to other countries no less than 73,400,118 tons of coal
(excluding ships' bunl^ers). Thus it would appear that in 1913 Great
Britain sent overseas about fifteen tons of coal to every ton sent
overseas from the United States.

(2) In the year 1920 the British coal exports (excluding bunkers) had

declined to 24,931,853 tons, whilst those of the United 'States had
increased to 39,215,030 tons, of which nearly 25 million tons went
overseas. In other words, whilst our overseas coal trade had shrunk
to about one-third of its pre-war dimensions, that of the United
States had increased fivefold.

(3) The United States has already made great inroads into the European

coal markets, selling 10.240,422 tons of bituminous coals (besides some
anthracite) there in 1920. She has also almost captured the Central
and South American coal markets, where we were once supreme; for
whilst our coal exports to Central and South America had fallen
from upwards of 17 million tons in 1913 to rather less than 3.7 million
tons in 1920, those of the United States had increased something
like tenfold.
London, June 30, 1921. William A. Bone.

Non-aromatic Diazonium Salts* — Beport of Committee (Dr.
P. D. Chatt.wvay, Chainnan; Prof. G. T. Morg.\n, Secretary;
Mr. P. G. W. B.4lYly, and Dr. N. V. Sidgwick. Drawn ^ip by
Prof. G. T. Morgan and Mr. Henry Burgess).

Eecent investigations have shown that several series of non-aromatic primary amines
possess in varying degrees the property of diazotisability. In certain cases the
existence of a diazo-derivative is inferred from tlie property of coupling to form
azo-derivatives or from the fact that the diazo-group can be replaced by other radicals
such as chlorine, but in other instances diazonium salts have actually been isolated.
These non-aromatic diazonium salts vary considerably in stability from the excep-
tionally stable diazonium salts of the pyrazole series 10 the explosive diazo-deriva-
tives of the thiazole group. Orientation plays an important part in the stability of
these compounds, as is shown below in the case of the pyrazole and pyridine
derivatives.

The requisite properties for diazotisability appear to be the presence of the group

HjN — C and the possession of a certain degree of unsaturation in the cyclic system

in which this carbon atom is included. But it must not be assumed that any base
having the foregoing group and belonging to an unsaturated cyclic system is neces-
sarily diazotisable. The absence of diazotisability is noteworthy in the thiophen,
furane and pyrrole series in spite of the close relationship between the first of these
series and the aromatic compounds.

Pyrazole Series.

In this group the effect of orientation on the stability of the diazonium salts is
well marked. 4-Amino-.3 : .5-dimethylpyrazole when diazotiped in the usual manner
furnishes 3:5dimethyl pyrazole-4-diazonium chloride stable in hot aqueous solutions

248

REPORTS ON THE STATE OP SCIENCE, ETC.

and up to 150° C. in the dry state. This salt, which retains its diazo nitrogen and
coupling power for an indefinite time, gives rise to sparingly soluble diazonium
platinichloride and aurichloride.' Other 4-aminopyrazole derivatives yield sitnilarly
stable diazo-derivatives.^

When the diazonium group is in position 5 the product is distinctly less stable, for
l.Phenyl-3-methyl-4-ethylpyrazole-5-diazonium chloride decomposes at room tem-
J)erature in a few hours, and quickly on warming.^ l-Phenyl-3-methyl-5-aminopyrazole I
containing a labile hydrogen atom in position 4 gives only 12 per cent, of diazoniuin
compound.'

C,H,N-

"h ^

C,H,-N-

-C-NHj^HCl

)C-H
.CCH3

CA-N-

-CN.,C1

)CH

.C-CH,

-C:NH

\c : NOH
= C-CH,

Substitution of the labile hydrogen by an alkyl group prevents the second reaction,
and diazotisation takes place quantitatively.

In the case of l-Phenyl-3-methyl-4'amino-5-anilinopyrazole an azimino compound
II is formed unless diazotisation is carried out in strong acid."*

N=='CCH3
I \CNH, + H0N0

C,H,-N C— NH

\
C,H,

C,H,-N-

// >N

-C

N'
\

4 2H,0

0„H,

On adding a solution of any diazonium salt of the general formula III to boiling
dilute sulphuric acid the diazonium nitrogen is retained and a triazine IV is produced.

CHj-C

N-

-C-R
'^CN^-HSO^

-N-C„H.

— ->

CH,-C-

:CN:N + H,SO

III

-N-_<:

R = an alkyl group.

In this series replacement of the diazonium complex by iodine ^ and by the
triazo group has been effected. It is noteworthy that 4-triazo-3 : 5-dimethylpyrazole V,
a well-defined crystallisable compound, has the remarkable property of giving
distinctive colour reactions with all phenolic substances not containing nitro-groups.

NH-

N-

-C-CHj

"^CNoCl
=CCH,

NH-

CCH3
);CN3
= CCH,

' Morgan & Reilly, T. 1914, 105, 435. ^Knorr, B. 1895, 28, 717; Michaelis &
Schafer, A. 1915, 407, 229 ; Michaelis & Bressel, .4. 191S, 407, 274. ' Mohr,
J. Pr. Chem. 1914, 90, (ii) 509. ' Michaelis & Schafer, loc. cit. ^ Knorr, loc. cit.

Pyrazolone Series.

Very stable salts are obtained on diazotising the hydrochlorides of the amino-
pyrazolones ; the products are crystallisable from hot aqueous solutions, and are stable
in a dry state for an indefinite time.' The acid diazonium salts, VI, from amino
antipyrine ^ are exceptionally stable and re-crystallisable and in these respects are

ON NON-AROMATIC DIAZONIUM SALTS. 249

unlike the decomposable acid diazonium salts of the aromatic series.' Double
salts with auric chloride and platinic chloride have been prepared and are stable up
to 120° C. in the dry state.-

-CH3N CCH3 -1 CH3N CCH3

I ^C-NXl I HCl ^ I \c-N,

•QH^-N CO J, . C«H,N CO

VI VII

Diazoaniino derivatives are formed with fatty amines such as dimethylamine and
are stable up to 120° C, when they begin to decompose into the amine and a complex
pyrazolone derivative, the constitution of which has not been settled.' In this
series, as in the pyrazoles, the diazonium complex has been replaced by iodine ^ and
by the triazo group" VII, but reduction with stannous chloride does not lead to a
readily isolated hydrazine, probably owing to condensation taking place with the
carbonyl group in the ring.^

' Knorr & Geuther, A. 1896, 293, 55; Knorr & Stolz, A. 1896, 293, 58;
Michaelis, A. 1906, 350, 288. '' Morgan & Eeilly, T. 191.3, 103, 808, 1494
' Hirsch, 5. 1897, 30, 1148; Hantzsch, ibid. 1153. ' Stolz, B. 1908, 41, 3849.
5 Michaelis, loc. cit. " Forster & Muller, T. 1909, 95, 2072.

Iso-oxazole Series.

4-Amino-3-5-dimethyliso-oxazole has recently been prepared and diazotised. The
diazonium chloride VIII is very soluble and is much less stable than the correspond-
ing pyrazole compound. The diazonium aurichloride is sparingly soluble and stable
on keeping in the dry state at the ordinary temperature.'

CMe CMe CMe

I ^C-NH-NH, ^- j ^C-N,C1 ^ I '^C-N3

N^r^C-Me N=C-Me N=^C-Me

X VIII IX

CMe O CMe C-Me

I "^C-I I '^C-N:N-NH-C'^ I

N=^C-Me N CMe C-Me=N

XI XII

The diazonium complex is readily replaced by the triazo group IX and by
iodine XI. The diazonium chloride reacts, with the base forming a well-defined
colourless diazoamine XII, and is reduced by stannous chloride to the hydrochloride
of the hydrazine X.

' Morgan & Burgess, T. 1921, 119, 697.

Glyoxaline Series.

The bases of this group have not been studied exhaustively as regards diazotis-
ability, but 2-aminoglyoxaline when treated successively with nitrous acid and
alkaline ^-naphthol gave a brownish-red, soluble azo derivative, which does not appear
to have been isolated.'

' Pyman & Fargher. T. 1919, 115, 247.
1921

250 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCTENC^E, ETC.

Triazole Series.

When 5-aminotriazoles are diazotised in hydrochloric acid solution the resulting
salt decomposes fairly quickly at 0° C. into nitrogen and the corresponding chloro-
triazole.' If, however, oxy-acids are used instead of hydrochloric acid, more stable
diazonium salts are obtained, although these are too unstable to be isolated.^ The
sparingly soluble diazonium aurichloride has been isolated and is stable in the dry
state. When a solution of the diazonium nitrate is evaporated to dryness in vacuo
over potassium hydroxide a colourless isodiazo hydroxide is obtained, which is quite
stable at 100° C. and couples only after being acidified. The diazonium complex is
replaced by hydrogen on reduction with alcohol, and with stannous chloride the
hydrazine is obtained.'

1 Thiele & Manchot, A. 1898, 303, 33. " Morgan & Eeilly, T. 1916, 109, 155.

Thiazole Series.

2-Aminothiazole reacts in the same way as aminotriazole with nitrous acid. In
hydrochloric acid solution an unstable diazonium cliloride is produced. This de-
composes rapidly at 0° C. into nitrogen and chlorothiazole. Oxy-acids give more
stable salts, especially sulphuric acid. The perchlorate is explosive even at 0° C.
The yellow diazonium aurichloride is sparingly soluble and is stable in the dry state
but becomes brown on washing with water. In feebly acid solution aqueous sodium
nitrite gives an unstable orange-red powder, probably an isodiazo compound.'
Keduction of the diazonium sulphate with alcohol causes the replacement of the
diazonium complex by hydrogen.'^

• Morgan & Morrow, T. 1915, 107, 1291. = Hantzseh & Popp, A. 1889, 250, 274.

Pyridine and Quinoline Series.

Nitrous acid acts on the amines derived from these bodies in the same way. The
o and 7 amines when treated in hydrochloric acid solution yield forthwith the corre-
sponding chloro derivatives. This reaction suggests a rapid decomposition of a probable
intermediate diazonium chloride.' Oxy-acids have not been used and these would
probably give better results. The ^-amines form diazonium chlorides, which do not
appear to have been isolated but liave been coupled with phenols.- The corresponding
0/3-diazoaminopyridine is a yellow, crystalline, stable compound.-'

' Marckwald, B. 1898, 31, 2496 ; B. 1894, 27, 1325 ; H. Meyer, Monatsch. 1894,
15, 173 ; Glaus & Howitz, J. Pr. Chem. 1894, (ii) 50, 23. ■•' Mohr, B. 1898, 31,
2495 ; Watson & Mills, T. 1910, 97, 743. ^ Mohr, loc. cit.

ON PHOTOGRAPHS OF GEOLOGICAL INTEREST. 251

Photographs o£ Geological Interest, — Twentieth Report of Com-
mittee (Professors E. J. Garwood, Chairman, and S. H. Reynolds,
Secretary ; Mr. G. Binoley, Dr. T. G. Bonney. Messrs. C. V. Crook
and W. Gray, Dr. R. Kidston, Mr. A. S. Reid, Sir J. J. H. Teall,
Professor W. W. Watts, Mr. R. Welch, and Mr. W. Whitaker).
Drawn up by the Secretary.

The Committee have to state that since the issue of the previous Report (Bourne-
mouth, 1919) 223 photographs have been added to the collection which now numbers
6,069.

The most extensive set numbering 46 is one illustrating the Suffolk coast ; this
was presented some years ago by the late W. Jerome Harrison, but has not hitherto
been listed. The Secretary contributes sets from the Bristol district. West Yorkshire
and Galloway, and Mr. B. Hobson photographs from Cornwall, Devon, and various
parts of Scotland and Ireland. Special mention must be made of an admirable series
by Mr. J. Ritchie illustratmg the Bennachie storm-burst of 1891. Mr. Ritchie also
sends some excellent views from Banff.

The Committee are very glad to welcome new contributors in Mi'. J. J. Hartley
who sends jJrints from the Lake District and Jersey, in Mr. R. Parker Smith who
illustrates subjects from Stafford and Cardigan, in Mr. E. C. Martin who sends an
excellent and well-described set from Carnarvon, and in Mr. E. W. Tunbridge who
contributes a valuable series from Pembroke. The Committee are much indebted
to Mr. J. F. N. Green for further detail regarding some of the views from the Lake
district and Pembroke.

Other prints have been sent by Mr. C. Buckingham and Mr. P. C. Dutton and a
set of Scottish subjects has been printed from negatives taken by the late G. W.
Palmer, M.A.

In their previous rejiort the Committee expressed the hope that before the issue of
the next report the new series of Geological photographs which had so long been under
consideration would be published. With this end in view, a selection of suitable
subjects was made, and circulars were sent out to former subscribers and to practically
all the universities and other institutions likely to subscribe all over the world.
Probably owing to the general imjjoverishment due to the War, the response was most
disappointing, only thirty-five ai3i)lications for the new issue having been received,
while for the previous issue the subscribers numbered 235. Still fewer apijlications
were received for the reissue of the earlier set. It is clear, therefore, that nothing
can be done at present as regards a new issue, but it is intended to move again in
the matter when conditions become more favourable.

The Committee recommend that they be reajipointed.

TWENTIETH LIST OF GEOLOGICAL PHOTOGRAPHS.

From September 1, 1919, to August 31, 1921.

List of the geological photographs received and registered by the Secretary of
the Committee since the publication of the last Reijort.

Contributors are asked to affix the registered numbers, as given below, to their
negatives, for convenience of future reference. Their own numbers are added in order
to enable them to do so. Copies of photographs desired can, in most instances, be
obtained from the photographer direct. The cost at which copies may be obtained
depends on the size of the print and on local circumstances over which the Committee
have no control.

The Committee do not assume the copyright of any jihotograph included in this
list. Inquiries resjjecting photographs, and applications for permission to reproduce
them, should be addressed to the photographers direct.

Copies of photographs should be sent, unmounted, to

Professor S. H. Reynolds,

The University, Bristol.

T 2

252 EEPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC.

accompanied by descriptions written on a form prepared for the purpose, copies of
which may be obtained from him.

The size of the photographs is indicated as follows : —

L=Lantem size. 1/1= Whole plate.

1/4= Quarter-plate. 10/8=10 inches by 8.

l/2=Half -plate. 12/10=12 inches by 10, &c.

E signifies Enlargement.

England.

Cornwall. — Photographed by B. Hobson, M.Sc, F.G.S., 20 Hallamgate

Road, Sheffield. 1/4.

5846 (v.4) Gunwalloe . . . Folded Veryan strata. 1913.

Cumberland. — Photographed by J. J. Hartley, Church Walk,
Amhleside. Postcard size.

5847 (5) Between Watch Hill and Elva Columnar felsite. 1920.

Hill, Coekermouth.

5848 (10) Caldew Valley . . . Water- worn surface of altered and con-

torted Skiddaw slate. 1920.

5849 (11) Threlkeld .... Slickensided fault plane in Microgranite.

1920.

Devonshire. — Photographed by B. Hobson, M.Sc, F.G.S.,
20 Hallamgate Road, Sheffield. 1/4

5850 (263) Horse Cove, Dawlish . Honeycomb weathering and fault in L.

Sandstone (Permian). 1906.

Dorset. — Photographed by E. C. Martin, B.Sc, 20 Derby Road,
Woodford, London, E. 18. 1/4.

5851 (273) ' Fossil Forest,' Lulworth . Tufa-coated tree stumps. 1910.

Gloucester. — Photographed by Professor S. H. Reynolds, M.A., Sc.D.,

The University, Bristol. 1/2 a7id 1/4.

5852 (9-1919) Avon Section, N. end . K-beds and top of O.R.S. 1/2. 1919.

5853 (48-1918) „ „ „ . Succession K„, to Z,. 1/2. 1918.

5854 (49-1918) „ „ Press' Quarry Thrust fault traversing horizon ;8. 1/2.

1918.

5855 (50-1918) „ „ Black Rock Succession Kj to base of Cj. 1/2. 1918.

Quarry.

5856 (8-1919) Avon Section . . Succession Zi to Cj. 1/2. 1919.'

5857 (51-1918) ,, ,, from Sea General view showing succession Z, to D^.

Walls. 1/2. 1918.

5858 (52-1918) „ „ from Sea Ditto. 1/2. 1918.

Walls.

5859 (54-1918) „ „ The Gully Succession y to C.. 1/2. 1918.

5860 (55-1918) Avon Section, the Gully Succession /ajramosa-dolomite to Caniwia-

Quarry. dolomite. 1/2. 1918.

5861 (7-1919) Avon Section, Black Rock Succession Z, to S^. 1/2. 1919.

Quarry to Great Quarry.

5862 (58-1918) Avon Section, N. part Si and lower part of Sj. 1/2. 1918.

of Great Quarry.

5863 (56-1918) Avon Section, N. end of Lower Si-beds. 1/2. 1918.

Great Quarry.

5864 (62-1918) Avon Section, Great Succession C,_ to Dj. 1/2. 1918.

Quarry and cutting to N.

5865 (59-1918) Avon Section, Great S-beds. 1/2. 1918.

Quarry.

ON PHOTOGRAPHS OF (GEOLOGICAL INTEREST. 253

5866 (00-1918) Avon Section, Great S-beds. 1/2. 1918.

Quarry.

5867 (61-iyi8) Avon Section, S. part Succession, top of Sj to base of Dj. 1/2.

Great Quarry. 1!)1S.

5868 (12-1919) Avon Section, Observa- Succession S, to D, repeated by the

tory HiU. Observatory Hill Fault. 1/2. 1919.

5869 (64-1918) Avon Section, Observa- S,-beds repeated by the Observatory

tory Hill. 'Hill fault. 1/2. 1918.

5870 (65-1918) Avon Section, Observa- S, and Dj beds repeated by the Observa-

tory Hill. 'tory Hill i'ault. 1/2. 1918.

5871 (75-1918) Avon Section, Great Peneconteniporaneous brecciation in

Quarry. Seminula-Oolite (S.,). 1/2. 1918.

5872 (76-1918) Avon Section, Great Seminula-FisoVite (base S.). 1/2. 1918.

Quarry.

5873 (14-1919) Avon Section, Great Seminula-Fisolitc (So). 1/2. 1919.

Quarry.

5874 (15-1919) Avon Section, Great ^'emj/u(k-Pisolite (S^). 1/2. 1919.

Quarry.

5875 (11-1920) Avon Section, N. end of Small thrust faults in Z^. 1/4. 1920.

Black Rock Quarry.

5876 (20-1920) Avon Section, N. end of Patchy dolomitisation in Zj. 1/4. 1920.

Black Rook Quarry.

5877 (21-1920) Avon Section, S. end of Patchy dolomitisation in y. 1/4. 1920.

Black Rock Quarry.

5878 (9-1920) Avon Section, Great Bedding plane of shale covered with

Quarry. Seminula. 1/4. 1920.

5879 (22-1920) Avon Section, Great Algal Limestone in Sj. 1/4. 1920.

Quarry, N. end.

5880 (13-1920) Avon Section, Great ' Stick bed ' (Si), 1/4. 1920.

Quarry.

5881 (3-1920) Avon Section, between Seminula-Visolite (Sj). 1/4. 1920.

Bridge and Old Zigzag path.

5882 (15a-1919) Avon Section, Great Block of china-stone with ' worm tubes. '

Quarry. 1/4. 1919.

5883 (17-1920) Avon Section, Observa- Algal Limestone (So). 1/4. 1920.

tory Hill, Clifton, approach to
Susjiension Bridge.

5884 (0-1920) Avon Section, riverside Pseudobreccia in Dj. 1/4. 1920.

exposure S. of Point Villa.

5885 (24-1920) Avon Section, S. of Point Band of pseudobreccia (D,). 1/4. 1920.

Villa.

5886 (25-1920) Avon Section, S. of Point Pseudobreccia in D.. 1/4. 1920.

ViUa.

5887 (8-1920) Avon Section, S. of Point

Villa.

5888 (43-1920) Avon Section, S. of Point Sandy pseudobreccia in D,. 1/4. 1920.

vnia.

5889 (19-1920) Avon Section, Observa- Bedding plane of ' Concretionary beds.'

tory Hill, Clifton. 1/4. 1920.

5890 (77-1918) Westbury-on-Trym, near Block of Algal Limestone from top of Co.

Greenway Farm. 1/2. 1918.

5891 (22-1919) Near Bury Hill, Wickwar Unconformity, Dolomitic Conglomerate

on Carboniferous Limestone. 1/2.
1919.

5892 (20-1919) Knowle Quarry, Brentry Concretionary beds (S.,). 1/2. 1919.

5893 (21-1919) „

5894 (24-1919) Chipping Sodbury Quarry

5895 (25a-1919) „ „ „ Algal nodules, ' Concretionary beds ' (S,).

1/4. 1919.

5896 (23-1919) Near Bury Hill, Wickwar Algal nodules (So). 1919.

5897 (56-1905) Bridge Valley Road, Coarse Dolomitic Conglomerate. 1/2

Clifton, Bristol. 1905.

5898 (57-1905) Bridge Valley Road, Coarse Dolomitic Conglomerate, 1/2.

Clifton, Bristol. . 1905.

254 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC.

5899 (58-1905) Bridge Valley Road, Coarse Dolomitic Conglomerate. 1/2.

Clifton. Bristol. 1905.

5900 (59-1912) Avon Section, Great Masses of LithostroHon marlini (Sj). 1/4.

Quarry. 1912.

5901 (11-1919) Avon Section, N. of Point D-beds and Dolomitic Conglomerate of

Villa. Bridge Valley Road. 1/2. 1919.

Photographed by Taunts, presented by the executors of the late

H. B. Woodward.

5902 Kemble Station, Cirencester . Quarry in Great Oolite.

Hampshire (Isle of Wight). — Photographed by (purchased).

Postcard size.

5903 ( ) Freshwater Bay and Cliffs . The gap in the Chalk escarpment due to

Western Yar.

5904 ( ) The Cliffs, Chale . . Succession Chalk to Lower Greensand.

5905 ( ) . . Lower Greensand Section.

5906 ( ) Near Blackgang . . Upper Greensand Section.

Photographed by E. T. W. Dennis & Sons, Ltd., London and Scarborough

(purchased). Postcard size.

5907 ( ) Blackgang Chine, Ventnor Lower Greensand succession and features

of a ' Chine.'

Kent. — Photographed by C. Buckingham, 13 York Road, Canterbury. 1/2.

5908 (169) Drillingore Nailbourne . Usual saturation level in Olkham Valley.

1904.

5909 (170) „ „ . Usual saturation level in Olkham Valley.

1904.

5910 (171) „ „ . Eroded road, Olkham. 1904.

5911 (172) „ „ . Source of 1903 and 1904 flow. 1904.

Oxfordshire. — Photographed by E. C. Martin, B.Sc., 20 Derby Road,
Woodford, London, E. 18. 1/4.

5912 (301) Enslow Bridge Quarry . Clay band separating Forest Marble and

Great Oolite. 1910.

Somerset. — Photographed by Professor S. H. Reynolds, M.A., Sc.D.,

The University, Bristol. 1/2 and 1/4.

5913 (72-1918) Avon Section (left bank) Block of Algal Limestone (Km). 1/2.

1918.

5914 (79-1918) Avon Section (left bank) Brecciated Algal Limestone (Km). 1/4.

1918.

5915 (81-1918) Avon Section (left bank) Block of Algal Limestone (Km). 1/4.

1918.

5916 (67-1918) Avon Section (left bank) Temporary spring in quarry 1. 1/2.1918

5917 (69-1918) Avon Section (left bank) C, and lower part of Co. 1/2. 1918.

qu. 3.

5918 (78-1918) Avon Section (left bank) Block of ' Concretionary ' beds (S,). 1/2.

1918.
5S19 (33192(1) E. of Gurncy Slade, Coarse Dolomitic Conglomerate on Mill-
Men(li])S. ' stone Grit. 1/2. 1920.

5920 (34-1920) E. of Gurncy Slade, C<iarse Dolomitic Conglomerate on Mill-

Mendips. stone Grit. 1/2. 1920.

5921 (35-1920) E. of Guincy Slade, Coarse Dolomitic Conglomerate on Mill-

Mendips. stone Grit. 1/2. 1920.

ON PHOTOGRAPHS OF GEOLOGICAL INTEREST. 255

5922 (36-1920) Railway Cutting N. of K, Section. 1/2. 1920.

Maesbury Station.

5923 (40-1920) Moon's Hill Quarry, Quarry in Silurian Lava (jjyroxcuo

Stoke Lane, Mendips. Andesite). 1/2. 1920.

5924 (37-1920) Waterlip Quarry . . Bedding planes Z.,-beds. 1/2. 1920-

5925 (38-1920) Waterlip, near Shepton Chert in y of main quarry. 1/2. 1920.

Mallet.

5926 (39-1920) Waterlip, near Shepton Chert in 7 of the small quarry. 1/2.

Mallet. 1920.

5927 (41-1920) Mells Quarry . . Bedding planes of pscudobrecciaDi. 1/2.

1920.

5928 (42-1920) Gurney Slade, Mendips. Rhoetic infilling in CarhoniferDUs Linie-

st(.)ue. 1/2. 1920.

5929 (27-1919) Long Ashton, near Bristol Swallet near the golf course. 1/2. 1919.

Photographed by R. Vowell Sheering, Hallatrow, near Bristol. 10 x 8.

5930 ( ) Gumey Slade . . . Infilling of Rhatic left after removal of

Carboniferous Limestone.

5931 ( ) » » • • • Infilling of Rhaetic left after removal of

Carboniferous Limestone.

Suffolk. — Photographed by the late W. Jerome Harrison. 1/2.

5932 (231) The Denes, Lowestoft . Sandy strip accumulated N. of the

Harbour. 1901.

5933 (262) Corton, cliffs 100 yards S. of Mid-glacial sand on loam. 1901.

the Gap.

5934 (263) Corton, the Gap, south side Mid-glacial sand on loam. 1901.

5935 (264) Corton, 150 yards N. of the Mid-glacial sands, 1901.

Gap.

5936 (268^ Corton, J mile N. of the Gap Glacial sands and loam. Forest Bed at

beach level. 1901.

5937 (269) Corton, f mile N. of the Gap Surface of Forest Bed near beach level.

1901.

5938 (270) Corton, 1^ miles N. of the Glacial sands and loam. 1901.

Gap.

5939 (272) Coast N. of Corton (looking Forest Bed below Glacial sands. 1901.

S. from near League Hole).

5940 (285) Corton, elifis a little S. of the Glacial sands. 1901.

Gap.

5941 (286) Corton, cliffs 100 yards N. of „

the Gap.

5942 (287) Corton, cliffs S. of the Gap Mid-glacial sands on loam. 1901.

5943 (289) Corton, cliffs about 200 yards False-bedded Mid-glacial sands on loam.

N. of the Gap. 1901.

5944 (290) Cliffs N. of Corton Gap . Glacial sands on loam with peaty Forest

Bed at base. 1901.

5945 (291) „ „ „ » • Mid-glacial sands on loam. 1901.

5946 (297) Cliffs 150 yards S. of second „ „ „ „

Gap S. of Pakefield Lighthouse.

5947 (298) Cliffs S. of Pakefield . .

5948 (300) Clifts S. of Pakefield . . Mid-glacial sands. 1901.

5949 (301) Cliffs I mile S. of Pakefield

Lighthouse.

5950 (302) Cliffs half-way between Pake- „ „ „

field and Kessingland.

5951 (304) Cliffs N. of Kessingland . Chalky boulder-clay upon Glacial sands.

1901.

5952 (305) Cliffs N. of Kessingland . Chalky boulder-clay upon Glacial sands.

1901.

5953 (308) Pakefield Cliffs . . Upper 2/3 of Section Mid-glacial .sands .

1901.

256 REPORTS ON THE STATE OP SCIENCE, ETC.

6954 (311) Pakefield Cliffs 100 yards S. Mid-glacial sands. 1901.
of the Lighthouse.

5955 (312) Pakefield Cliffs, 400 yards S.

of Lighthouse.

5956 (314) Pakefield Cliffs . . Mid-glacial sands. 1901.

5957 (315) Pakefield Cliffs, one of the

Gaps.

5958 (316) Pakefield CUffs, S. side of a

Gap.

5959 (319) Pakefield Cliffs . . . „ „ „

5960 (320) Pakefield Cliffs . . . Mid-glacial sands. 1901.

5961 (321)

5962 (322) Pakefield Cliffs, S. side of Mid-glacial sands on loam. 1901.

second Gap.

5963 (330) Pakefield Cliffs, S. side of Loam at base of Mid-glacial sands. 1901.

Lighthouse Gap.

5964 (332) Pakefield Cliffs, i mile S. of Mid-glacial sands on loam. 1901.

the Lighthouse Gap.

5965 (333) Pakefield Cliffs, 500 yards S. Mid-glacial sands. 1901.

of Lighthouse Gap.

5966 (339) Cliffs 1 J mile N. of Kessing-

land.

5967 (340) Cliffs S. of Pakefield . . „

5968 (343) Cliffs S. of Pakefield . . False-bedded Mid-glacial sands. 1901.

5969 (344) ,, „ „ . . Chalky boulder-clay resting on sand.

1901.

5970 (347) „ „ „ . . Mid-glacial sands. 1901.

5971 (348) „ „ „ . . False-bedded Mid-glacial sands. 1901.

5972 (349) Cliffs 100 yards N. of Pake-

field Gap.

5973 (351) Pakefield Cliffs, The Gap,

N. side.

5974 (352) Pakefield Cliffs

5975 (364) Pakefield Cliffs, N. end

5976 (365^ Pakefield Cliffs, N. end

5977 (366) „ „ „

5978 (367) „ „ „

False-bedded Mid-glacial sands. 1901.
Westleton Beds. 1901.
Westleton Beds. 1901.

STAFFORBsniRE.— Photographed by P. C. Button, 65 High Street,

Stone. 1/2.

6979 ( ) S. of Oulton Mill, Stone . Glacial Gravels and Clay on Keuper

Sandstone. 1920.

Photographed hy the late W. Jerome Harrison. 1/2.

5980 (20) Midland Railway Cutting, Fossiliferous Wenlock shale. 1900.

near Aldridge.

5981 (21) Midland Railway Cutting, Fossiliferous Wenlock shale. 1900.

near Aldridge.

Photographed hy R. Parker Smith, Perse School, Cambridge. 1/2.

5982 ( ) Peadstone Rock, near Keuper Sandstone cemented by barytes.

Cheadle.

Warwickshire.— P^to^ra;)^e(i hy the late W. Jerome Harrison. 1/2.

6983 (2087) Chapel End, near Nuneaton. Basal Carboniferous and Stockingford

shales. 1898.

ON PHOTOGRAPHS OP GEOLOGICAL INTEREST. 257

Westmorland.— P7ioto^ra;p7(ecZ hy J. J. Hartley, Church WaR;
Ambleside. Postcard size.

5984 (()) Eascdak- Tarn . . . Ei'ratic of Concretionary Tuff. 1920.

6985 (7) Mardale, 111 Boll . . . Columnar Andesite. 1920.

5986 (8) Cawdale Moor . . . Harrath Tuflf. 1920.

5987 (9) Red screes, Scandale Valley . Banded ash and lava. 1920.

5988 (12) Garburn Pass . . . Coniston Limestone and shale. 1920.

YoRKSKiRE.— Photographed hy Professor S. H. Reynolds, M.A., Sc.D.,

The University, Bristol. 1/4.

5989 (45-1919) Ingleborough from N. . Great Scar Limestone plateau in fore-

ground. 1919.

5990 (46-1919) „ „ . Great Scar Limestone plateau in fore-

ground. 1919.

5991 (47-1919) North-western flanks of Great Scar Limestone plateau. 1919.

Ingleborough.

5992 (48-1919) North-western flanks of Grikes, Great Scar Limestone plateau.

Ingleborough. 1919.

5993 (43-1919) Chapel-le-Dale, looking Erosion valley in Carboniferous Lime-

S.W. stone. 1919.

5994 (50-1919) S. of Gate Kirk, Chapel- Dry water-course. 1919.

le-Dale.

5995 (61-1919) Rowton Pot, Kingsdale Large pot-hole. 1919.

5996 (51-1919) Great Dowk.N.W. flanks Outflow of stream. 1919.

of Ingleborough.

5997 (60-1919) Hull Pot, Penyghent . One of the largest of the Yorkshire Pots.

1919.

5998 (59-1919) Hunt Pot, Penyghent . Inner Chasm. 1919.

5999 (56-1919) Gaping Gill, Ingleborough. 1919.

6000 (66-1919) Norber, near Clapham . Erratics of Coniston Grit on Carboni-

ferous Limestone. 1919.

6001 (67-1919) „ „ „ . Erratics of Coniston Grit on Carboni-

ferous Limestone. 1919.

6002 (64-1919) S.E. of Horton-in- Cleaved Silurians. 1919.

Ribblesdale.

6003 (65-1919) Dry Rig, Horton-in- Calcareous concretions in Horton Flags

Ribblesdale. 1919.

Wales.

CARmGAmnmE.— Photographed by R. Parker Smith, Perse School
Cambridge. Postcard size.

6004 ( ) Devil's Bridge, Aberystwith. Pothole, River Mynach.

6005 ( ) „ ,, River Gorge.

Carnarvonshire.— PAoto^ray^iecZ by E. C. Martin, B.Sc, 20 Derby Road,
Woodford, London, E. 18. 1/4.

6006 (506) Coast, I mile S. of Borth-y- ' Hassock bedding ' in Ffestiniog beds,

gest, Portmadoc. 1912.

6007 (507) Fechan Point, Portmadoc . Effect of sand blast on Maentwrog beds.

1912.

6008 (509) „ „ 'Caves in the making' (1) in Lingula

Flags. 1912.

6009 (510) „ „ 'Caves in the making' (2) in Lingula

Flags. 1912.

6010 (514) Hen Fynwent, Tremadoc . Small thrust-plane subsidiary to the

Penmorfa Fault. 1912.

258

REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC.

6011 (526) Moel-y-gest, Portmadoc

6012 (530) Criccieth Castle

6013 (531)

Escarpments N. of the Peninorfa fault.

1912.
Boulder clay on head on Felsite. 1912.
. Boulder clay on head on Felsite (detail).
1912.

Pembroke. — Photographed by E. W. Tunbridge, Castel Froma,
Leamington Spa. 1/4.

6014 (123) St. Non's Bay, St. Davids Precambrian and Cambrian Section.

1911.

6015 (126) Solva .... Drowned valley and dolerite intrusion.

1911.

6016 (127) Newgale Sands . . Millstone Grit with high seaward dip.

1911.

6017 (129) „ „ . . . Storm-beach. 1911.

6018 (113) Ogof Golclifa, Whitesand Menevian faulted against Pebidian.

Bay. 1911.

6019 (111) Whitesand Bay, St. Davids Blown sand on head on Boulder clay on

Menevian. 1911.

Photographed by H. Mortimer Allen, Tenby. 1/1.

6020 ( ) Bullslaughter Bay, Stack Erosion of Carboniferous Limestone.

Rocks.

6021 ( ) Huntsman's Leap, Stack Erosion along shale band in vertical

Rocks. Old Red Sandstone,

Scotland.

Aberdeenshire. — Photographed by J. Ritchie, Hawthorn Cottage,
Port Elphinslone, Inverurie, Aberdeenshire. 1/2.

6022 (1) Bennachie, near Oyne

6023 (2)

6024 (3) Bennachie, near Oyne ,

6025 (4)

6026 (5) Bennachie, near OjTie

6027 (6)

6028 (7) Bennachie, near Oyne .

6029 (8)

6030 (9) Bennachie, near Oyne .

6031 (10) ' Mithertap ' Bennachie

Beginning of trench made by cloudburst

of August 2, 1891. 1891.
View near head of trench. 1891.
Deepest part of trench. 1891.
Upper part of gap in wood. 1891.
Erosion due to cloud-burst of August 2,

1891. Upper part of trench after four

years' weathering. 1895.
Lower part of trench after four years '

weathering. 1895.
Deepest part of trench after four years '

weathering. 1895.
Upper part of gap in wood after four

years' weathering. 1895.
Gap in wood made by Bennachie cloud-
burst of August 2, 1891, after four

years' weathering. 1895.
Weathering of granite.

Argyle. — Photographed by the late G. W. Palmer, M.A.,
of Christ's Hospital.

6032 ( ) Kerrera Is. S. of Oban . Joint cutting through pebbles of Old

Red Conglomerate.

Banffshire. — Photographed by J. Ritchie, Hawthorn Cottage,
Port Elphinstone, Inverwie, Aberdeenshire. 1/2.

6033 (11) Cullen Bay . . . Raised coast-line. 1900.

6034 (12) „ „ . . . The 'Red Craig' a raised sea -stack of

Old Red Sandstone. 1900.

ON PHOTOGRAPHS OF GEOLOGICAL INTEREST. 259

6035 (13) Cullen Bay . . • Old Red Sandstone of Red Craig (detail).

1900.
Cave in Old Red Sandstone of the Bore

Craig.
Raised sea-cave in Old Red Sandstone.
1900.
. Natural Arch in Old Red Sandstone.
1900.
River Gorge in Old Red Sandstone. 1906.

6036 (14) „

6037 (15) Cullen Bay

6038 (10) „

6039 (17) Bridge of Alva

Buteshire. — Photographed by B. Hobson, 20 Hallamgate Road,

Sheffield. 1/4.

6040 (368) \ N. of Drumadoon Point, Dyke of Banded Felsite. 1907.
(J8) J Arran.

Edinburgh. — Photographed by B. Hobson, 20 Hallamgate Road,

Sheffield. 1/4.

6041 (S6) Salisbury Crags, Arthur's Teschenite dj'ke in Carboniferous Sand-

Seat, stone. 1912.

Forfarshire. — Photographed by B. Hobson, 20 Hallamgate Road,

Sheffield. 1/4.

6042 (SI) Whiting Ness, Arbroath . Fault in Old Red Sandstone. 1912.

6043 (S2)

Inverness. — Photographed by the late G. W. Palmer, M.A.,
of Christ's Hospital. 1/4.

6044 (1) Canna .... Bedded tuffs and dolerite sill.

6045 (2) „ „ „

6046 (3) Dun Beag, Canna . . . Dolerite sills and volcanic conglomerate.

6047 (4) „ „ „ . . . Volcanic conglomerate and overlying

dolerite sill.

6048 (5) „ „ „ . . . Volcanic conglomerate and overlying

dolerite sill.

6049 (6) Eigg The Scuir from opposite the landing

place.

6050 (7) Part of S. face of Scuir.

6051 (8) Blaven, Skye, from Loch Gabbro mountains.

Slapin.

Kincardineshire. — Photographed by B. Hobson, 20 Hallamgate Road^

Sheffield. 1/4.

6052 (R4) Crawton, near Stonehaven. Basalt on Old Red Conglomerate.

Kirkcudbright. — Photographed by Professor S. H. Reynolds, M.A., Sc.D.,

The University, Bristol. 1/4.

6053 (32-1919) Talnotry, N.E. of Newton Junction of Cairnsmore-of-Fleet granite

Stewart. with overlying Silurian grit. 1919

6054 (33-1919) Talnotry, N.E. of Newton Junction of Cairnsmore-of-Fleet granite

Stewart. with overlying Silurian grit. 1919.

6055 (28-1919) Caimsmore-of-Fleetfrom Great granite intrusion. 1919.

Talnotry Road.

6056 (31-1919) Cairnsmore-of-Fleet from

near Creetown. 1919.

260 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC.

Renfrewshire. — Photographed hy B. Hobson, 20 HaUamgate Road,

Sheffield. 1/4.

6057 (389) \ Cutting IJ mile W. of Loch- Basalt dyke in Carboniferous.
(M5) J winnock.

Wigtownshire. — Photographed hy Professor S. H. Reynolds,
M.A., Sc.D., The University, Bristol 1/4.

6058 (37-1919) Near Inverwell Point . Bedding and cleavage of Silurian grits

and slates. 1919.

6059 (38-1919) „ „ „ . Bedding and cleavage of Silurian grits

and slates. 1919.

6060 (39-1919) ,, ,, „ . Contorted quartz veins in Silurian grit.

1919.

6061 (40-1919) ,, ,, ,, . Calcareous concretions in Silurian grit.

1919.

Ireland.

Galway. — Photographed by Professor S. H. Reynolds M.A., Sc.D.,
The University, Bristol. 1/4.

6062 ( ) Top of Curraghrevagh,Lough Vertical Silurians. 1913.

Nafooey.

Leitrim. — Photographed hy B. Hobson, 20 HaUamgate Road,

Sheffield. 1/4.

6063 (Q6) Glcncar .... Valley due to landslip. 1912.

Mayo. — Photographed by B. Hobson, 20 Hallatngate Road,

Sheffield. 1/4.

6064 (P6) Cathedral Rocks, Aehill Marine erosion of bedded quartzites.

Island. 1912.

6067 (Ql) Mallaranny Gap . . Section of drift mound in railway cutting.

1912.

Channel Islands.

Jersey. — Photographed hy J. J. Hartley, Church Walk, Ambleside.

Postcard size.

6068 (1) Tete des Hougues . . Cambrian basement conglomerate. 1921.

6069 (2) St. Laurence Valley . . Highly inclined Precambrian shale. 1921.

6070 (3) St. Laurence Valley . . Contorted Precambrian shale. 1921.

6071 (4) Archirondel . . . Columnar Rhyolite. 1921.

Zoological Bibliography and Publication. — Report of Com-
mittee (Professor E. B. Poulton, Chainnan; Dr. i\ A. Bather,
Secretary; Mr. E. Heron-Allen, Dr. W. E. Hoyle, and Dr. P.

Cpialmers Mitchell).

1. The circulation among editors of scientific journals of recent recom-
mendations by this Committee (as desired by the Committee of Section D)
has been favourably received by several of them, and has led to further
correspondence.

2. Mr. Maurice Cossmann, on his own initiative, reprinted the Committee's
circular in the Reinie Critique de Pali'ozoologie for December 1920, which
involved republication in the lievuc de Geologie. A French translation prepared

ON ABROLHOS ISLANDS. 261

by your Secretary arrived too late for this, and was, through JMr. Cossmann's
.kind intervention, printed in the Compte Rendu de la Societe Geologique de
France for February 7, 1921. Reprints of this French edition were furnished
by the Societe Geologique.

3. In the iWutiiralist for September 1, 1920, the chief recommendations were
quoted and contributors asked to adhere to them. Several requests for further
copies of the circular and for previous reports were received and complied
with.

4. Tlie editor of the Yorkshire Geological Society consulted the Secretary
of the Committee on the correct way of writing specific names. Since the
particular instances occurred in a paper on pakeobotany, the reply sent was
kindly read and approved by Dr. A. B. Reudle. Many otherwise competent
zoologists seem unaware that an author's name should be enclosed in brackets,
e.{j. Dalmanites raudatus (Briinnich), only when the species has been transferred
from the genus in which the author originally placed it, e.g. Trilobus cmidatus
Briinnich. It would be equally correct to write Dalmanitc-s ccmdatus Briinnich sp.

5. There is also confusion in some minds as to the use of brackets in connec-
tion with generic and subgeneric names. The trilobite just mentioned was
long placed in the genus Phacops; this fact may be indicated thus — Dalmanites
[P/iacojis] caudatvs. At first Dalmanites was regarded as a subgenus of Phacops,
and this would have been indicated correctly by : Phaco'ps [Dalmanites)
caudatus.

6. A similar question was raised, and the opinion of the Committee asked,
by Mr. J. C. Moulton, who, as editor of the R. Asiatic Society's Journal,
Straits Branch, has adopted the following method of printing trinomials : — •

CHLOROPSIS VIRIDIS Horsfield viriditcctus Hartert. Here the essential
departures from ordinary usage are the difference of type for the subspecific
component of the name, and the insertion of the name of the author of the
si>ecies after the specific component.

The Committee agrees that the alterations introduced by Mr. Moulton tend
to increased clearness. If it be ever necessary to give the name of the author
of the species, it is no less necessary when the form referred to is one of the
subspecies into which the species has been divided, and Mr. Moulton's method
of introducing it seems unexceptionable.

The Committee does not wish by this expression of opinion to encourage
the insertion of authors' names in general writing, except when they are needed
to avoid ambiguity. Mr. Moulton's devices are best suited for such systematic
lists as those in which he has employed them.

7. In postage of the above correspondence the Committee has spent the
sum of 4.S". 9f/., leaving an unexpended balance of 15?. M. The postage account
is likely to be heavier in the coming year. The Committee therefore applies for
its reappointment, with a grant of 1?. to cover such possible expenditure.

Abrolhos Islands. — Report of Committee (Professor W. A.
Hebdman, Chairman; Professor W. J. Dakin, Secretary;
Professors J. H. Ashwobth and F. 0. Bower) appointed to
conduct an investigation of the biology of the Abrolhos Islands
and the north-west coast of Australia (north of Shark's Bay to
Broome), with particular reference to the marine fauna.

Tlie investigation of the Abrolhos Islands in the Indian Ocean (marine fauna
and flora and formation of islands) was undertaken with the help of grants
from the Percy Sladen Fund, the Government Grant Committee of the Royal
Society, and the British Association.

Two expeditions were arranged and extensive collections were made in 1913
and 1915. The grants were exhausted with the exception of a small amount
out of that made by the Government Grant Committee of the Royal Society.
During the years 1915 to date the collections have been distributed to various
specialists, some of whom have already reported upon the same.

Professor Dakin has written a narrative of the expeditions and a report upon

262 REPORTS ON THE STATE OE SCIENCE, ETC.

the structure of these coral islands. The report was published in the
I'roccedings of the Liiuuun Sucicty for 1017. He has also written a report on
a new Enteropneust from the islands, published in Proc. Linn. Soc, 1916.

The vertebrate fauna has been reported upon by Mr. W. B. Alexander, M.A.
{Proc. Linn. Soc, 1921). A report upon certain Crustacea by Dr. Tattersall is
in process of publication, and Professor Dendy has the report upon the sponges
well in hand. A report on the seaweeds has been received from ]\Ir. Lucas,
M.Sc, of Sydney. Professor Hickson has written a short account of the few
sea pens captured. The Echinoderms, with the exception of the Holothuria, are
now in America, and a report from H. L. Clarke is exported shortly.

The Polychret worms have been investigated by Professor Fauvel, and this
paper is now in the press (Proc. Linn. Soc, 1921). Other collections are in the
hands of Miss Thorpe, B.Sc, at Liverpool (Alcyonaria), S. Kemp, M.Sc, at
Calcutta (certain Crustacea), Dr. J. Pearson at Colombo (Holothurians), and
S. K. Montgomery, B.A., B.Sc. (Brachyura).

The remaining specimens are being distributed. The small amount of grant
remaining has been allotted by the Committee of the Royal Society for aid in
the publication of the papers.

The Committee does not apply for reappointment.

Experiments in Inheritance of Colour in Lepidoptera. —

Report of the Committee (Prof. W. Batp:son, Chairman; Hon.
H. Onslow, Secretary; Dr. P. A. Dixey, Prof. E. B. Poulton).

Diaphora [Sfilosoma] mcndica and var. rustica. — The experiments with this
variety were concluded, a sufficient number of the F2 generation having been
obtained. The results confirm what has been previously reported ; the incom-
pletely dominant white variety segregating from the buff-coloured heterozygous
as well as from the black type insects. A full report will appear in the Journal
of Genetics.

Boarmia coiisortaria and var. coii<ohrinaria. — A few more families were
obtained, which point to the view that the melanic variety is hypostatic to the
intermediate variety, and the latter hypostatic to the type; but the experiments
are being continued.

Hcmerophila abruptaria and var. fuscata. — The melanic variety behaves
as a simple Mendelian dominant. The excess of melanics observed by Hamling
and Harris must have been due to abnormal circumstances. In captivity a
second brood may be obtained, and it was observed that a number of such
insects, among which the mortality was very high, showed a considerable excess
of melanic over type insects. Probaljly this excess of melanics was due to a
mortality which favoured the black form. This supports the view that one
of the main causes of the spread of melanic forms is due to their constitutional
hardiness. A full account will appear in the .Journal of Gcnr:tic.?.

Zygccna fHipendulo; , and the yellow variety. — The families reared in 1920
indicate that the normal red colour is dominant to the yellow. The experi-
ments are being continued, but the imagines of 1921 have not yet emerged.

Adraxas (fro-tsu/ariata and var. vnrtcijata. — The black variety behaves as a
Mendelian recessive. These experiments were completed, and a full report
will appear in the Journal of Genetic-^. In addition, it was found that the
black pattern of the type form is restricted to about one-third of the total
area in the fore wings. The factor which causes the limitation of this
black pattern is dominant to that causing completely black fore wings (var.
hazeleighensis). This factor is connected with femaleness in such a way that
the males always appear to have most pigment.

Abraxas grossvlariata and var. actinota. — This is a radiated variety of
the melanic form varleyata. It is sex-linked with maleness, and a female has
not yet been bred. This is therefore the first case (except in Drosopfiila) in
which a character has been found sex-linked both to maleness and femaleness —
i.e. lacticolor and this radiated variety actinota. The method of inheritance is
complicated and not yet understood, but it appears to be involved with a lethal

ON ZOOLOGY ORGANISATION. 263

factor, which suggests an analogy with the case of 'notch' wing in Drosoi)liila.
The experiments will be continued.

Abraxas grossitlariata vars. lacticolor and varlci/ata. — These experiments have
been considerably extended, and it is hoped to airry them farther. The dis-
tribution of the sexes appears to agree with the suggestion made last year.
As was expected, moreover, anomalous sex-ratios have been observed in the
crosses fjrossidariataX vatic yata, giossulariataxlacticolor, and giossulariafaX
exqiiisita, when the female parent is grossitlariata and heterozygous for both
varleijata and lacticolor. A full report will appear in the Journal of Genetics.

Zoology Organisation. — Report of CummiUec, appointed to
summon meeiings in London or ehewJiere for consideration of
matters affecting the interests of ZoologTj, etc. (Pi^ofessor S. J.
HicKSON, Chairman; Dr. W. M. Tattersall, Secretary; Pro-
fessors G. C. Bourne, A. Dendy, J. Stanley Gardiner,
W. Garstang, Marcus Hartog, W. A. Herdman, J. Graham
Kerr, Mr. E. D. Laurie, Professors E. W. MacBride and A.
Meek, Dr. P. Chalmers Mitchell, and Professor E. B.
Poulton).

MEMORANDUM ON THE TEACHING OF NATURAL HISTORY

IN SCHOOLS.

Prepared by the Zoology Organisation Committee at the request
OF the Committee op Section D.

' Make the boy interested in Natural History if you can ; it is better
than games; they encourage it in some schools.' — (Last words of
Captain E. P. Scott, Antarctic explorer.)

It does not need any profound investigation of the various JNIatriculation and
School-leaving Examinations to be convinced that the great majority of our
boys and girls when they leave school at the age of seventeen or eighteen years
are almost entirely devoid of any sound knowledge of the structure and
physiology of the animal body or the elementary principles of the science of
animal life.

It is true that in ordinary conversation they will use such words as brain,
heart, liver, or kidneys as if they were familiar with their meaning. They will
talk about the birds, the fishes, the reptiles, or even the worms and corals, as
things they know something about in a general way, and in the course of time
they will gather some information from various sources concerning all these
things, which enables them to pass muster as educated men and women.

But what the schoolmasters, as a rule, do not realise, and educational
authorities invariably do not realise, is that boys and girls have not been given
the educational opportunity they need to enable them to gain an intelligent
interest in their own bodies and in the animate world with which they come
into daily contact.

The tragic events of the last six years have brought home to the minds of
most educated persons the national importance of scientific training and research,
and an effort has been made to remove, to some extent, our national neglect of
Science. There has been a larger endowment for scientific research, new
laboratories have been built and old laboratories enlarged for the study of
Chemistry, Engineering, Agriculture, and other Sciences in our Universities,
and in many of the schools a little more encouragement is given now to the boys
and girls who 'take the modern side' than before the War. But as regards
the teaching of Natural History and the animal side of Biology there has been

264 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC.

no improvement in the schools, and there are strong reasons for believing that
the situation is steadily becoming w^orse.

It is true, as Captain 'Scott said, that ' they encourage it (i.e. Natural
History) in some schools,' but in a great many of these the encouragement that
is given to boys or girls with a taste for the subject and a determination to
pursue it amounts to little more than toleration. They are allowed to make
collections of butterflies and shells, or even to keep a few live pets under
conditions that are usually unfavourable for a healthy existence, and in some
cases there are prizes or awards for collections or observations made in the
holidays. But the most lamentable thing about it is that there are so few
masters or mistresses, and these only in some of the larger schools, whose
education and training enable them to give any sound guidance or assistance to
boys or girls in their study of Animal Life.

It does not need many years of experience as a teacher in a University to
discover that the graduates who have taken a degree with Honours in Zoology
are not in demand for masterships in secondary schools, and it is only on rare
occasions that they succeed in getting good posts.

There is a demand for botanists, and apparently the demand is increasing;
but there can be no doubt that, at the present time, botanists who can give
instruction in two other subjects such as Chemistry and Mathematics, or
Chemistry and Physics, have a better chance of making a successful application
for teaching posts in secondary schools than the botanists who have also had a
good training in Zoology.

The effect of this neglect of the teaching of Animal Biology in the schools
is reflected in the Universities, in which we find large classes of students
attending the higher courses of introduction in Biology and very small classes
attending the corresponding courses in Zoology. Students coming up to the
Universities from our secondary schools naturally suppose that it will be to
their advantage to continue the study of subjects in which they have already
received some preliminary introduction, and the longer they have remained
at school after reaching the iNIatriculation stage the less is their inclination to
start a new subject. Moreover, students in deciding upon a career at the
Universities must be influenced, in most cases, by the opportunities the career
offers for earning a living when they have graduated.

It is not surprising, therefore, that our boys and girls, having received no
systematic instruction whatever on the animal side of living organisms at school,
and finding that the study of Zoology offers very few opportunities, under our
present system, for obtaining positions as teachers, either in schools or in
Universities, very seldom choose Zoology as a subject of University study.
There is, indeed, in this respect a vicious circle in our educational system : on
the one hand, the masters and mistresses in our schools, the members of the
governing bodies, and indeed His Majesty's school inspectors, with very rare
exceptions, almost entirely ignorant of the first principles of Biological Science,
and therefore inclined to discourage the subject in the schools; and, on the
other hand, the Universities unable, for many reasons, to attract sufiicient
numbers of students to the courses in Zoology and Animal Physiology even to
the standard of an ordinary degree.

One can. understand that the masters and mistresses of schools, troubled with
the multiplicity of sul)jects and the expense of scientific laboratories, should be
inclined to welcome the discouragement of another science subject, but it is
astounding that any body of educational experts, asked to consider the educa-
tional needs of the country, could issue such a report in respect to Zoology as
that published by tlie Secondary Schools Examination Commission under the
authority of the Board of Education, i The report in question has reference to
the first examinations only, that is to say, to examinations corresponding to
the standard of the Senior Local Examinations of the Cambridge University
Syndicate or the Matriculation Examinations of the Northern Universities Joint
Matriculation Board, examinations which are usually taken by boys and girls of
sixteen to seventeen years of age.

1 Secondary Schools Examinations Council. — Report of the Investigations of
the First Examinations. Subjects Reports, Group III., p. 10. H.M. Stationery-
Office. 1919. Price id.

ON ZOOLOGY ORGANISATION. 265

The reports of the Investigators of the Higher Certificate Examinations have
not yet been published.

The passage in the report to which grave exception must be taken is as
follows : —

'Very few of the candidates offer this subject (Natural History), and it
seems very doubtful whether it is worth while to maintain it as qualifying
for a Pass with Credit in Science. The principles of Biological Science can
be better illustrated by means of Botany, especially as Physiology occupies a
far more important place in this subject than in Zoology, which does not
readily lend itself to experimental treatment.'

The Science of Biology, as the word is now used, is the Science that deals
with living things, animal and vegetable, and it is diificult to understand how
the principles of the subject can be taught, even in the most elementary stages,
in a course of study from which the problems and features of animal life are
entirely excluded. The study of Botany can afford illustrations of the life of
plants, but it cannot give correct or reasonable instruction in the principles of
Biology. If a student has attended such a course of Botany, is it possible
that he could understand anything that could reasonably be called the first
pnnciples of Biology, when he is entirely ignorant of the structure and functions
of the heart, the nervous system, the sense organs, the locomotor organs, and
the reproductive organs of animals ? :\Iany of us who have had long experience
of the teaching of Biology are convinced that the conceptions of the principles
of Biology that such a student gains are both incorrect and misleading. From
the standpoint of first principles, the whole life of a green plant, from its
dependence on so highly specialised a substance as chlorophyll, is rather an
anomaly than a self-sufficient illustration. There may be some truth in the
statement that Zoology does not lend itself so readily to experimental treatment
as Botany; but even in this respect a properly trained teacher can devise
valuable experiments upon animals which do not involve injury to or death
of the subjects of the experiments. It is perfectly simple, for example, to
demonstrate colour changes in the skin of living frogs, by comparing two
specimens, one of which has been kept in a dark cupboard and the other in
the sunlight for half an hour, to show the reactions of different kinds of
protozoa to light and heat, to demonstrate the beating of the heart of a daphnia,
or the circulation of the blood in a tadpole or a worm under the microscope!
without injuring it or sacrificing its life.

It is equally feasible to apply exact, if qualitative, experimentation to
the study of the many respiratory and environmental adaptations of aquatic
animals such as crabs, molluscs, and many insects and their larva. There
are, in fact, many ways in which Zoology even at this stage can be treated
as an experimental science with the simplest apparatus-

But it is not in this aspect of the subject that its chief educational training
lies Its place in the curriculum is advocated because it is pre-eminently
the subject that can be used with effect for education in careful observation
and comparison and inference.

At the very beginning of school life it has the advantage that nearly all
boys and girls possess a natural interest in the living, moving things "they
see around them, and consequently it is an easy matter to catch and to
keep their attention for a whole school period. From this beginning it is not
difficult to proceed to successful exercises in independent observation, and
from these to simple deductions as to the why and wherefore of organic
structures. °

And to the older student, what science can present problems of such
enthralling interest? Which can give so furiously to think as Zoology, with
Its various theories of evolution and heredity, bearing as these do alike on
the past and the future of man, with the universal drama of sex, the almost
incredible intricacy of the 'web of life,' and, above all, the picture of the
livmg organism, most delicate and fragile of living objects, standing for ever
poised upon the brink of destruction, yet, thanks to the life that is in it,
master of Its fate? Surely this is a subject to be taught if intellectual stimulus
be needed.

In the hands nf competent teachers the subiect is one which can be used
with great advantage, not only as a training for the faculties, but also as a
1921

266 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC.

means for imparting that knowledge of the simpler anatomical structures and
elementary physiological principles of the animal liody which should be a
part of the equipment of every man and woman.

Many strange objections have been brought forward in the past against
the introduction of the teaching of Natural History of animals in schools.
Perhaps the most serious of these is tlie statement that there is not time in
the school curriculum for the introduction of another subject, that the time-
table is already overloaded with subjects, and that it is most undesirable
that the numl.'er of school hours should be increased. This is an objection
that it is difficult to answer without a full discussion of the j)resent school
curriculum, but from our knowledge of what can be done in the way of giving
some sound teaching of Zoology in a few schools at the present time it does
not appear to be an objection that is insuperable.

It is a curious fact that in England alone, among civilised countries, a
boy and girl can reach the age of eighteen or nineteen years and leave school
without having received any school instruction in animal physiology or the
natural history of animals. In Japan, to take only one example out of many,
the courses in the middle school (fourteen to nineteen years of age) include
Botany, Physiology, and a two years' course in Zoology, and the official text-
book for these schools shows that the standard aimed at, if not acquired, is
a very high one — far higher, indeed, than that of any school in this country.
x\nd this instruction is given not only to the few scholars that are passing on
to a specialised course in Science in the Universities, but to all scholars
without exception.

It would be too much to expect, perhaps, that our standard of education
in this respect should reach that attained in Japan immediately, but we are
convinced that a few periods a week could be spared for the subject at all
stages in the curriculum without impairing the educational value of the other
subjects.

A second objection that is frequently raised is that the expense of providing
the necessary equipment for the efficient teaching of the subject is beyond
the means of the average secondary school. We think that this objection has
been greatly exaggerated. Provided that there is a well-lighted laboratory,
which can also be used for Chemistry and Physics, a few microscopes, which
can also be used for Botany, the expenses for purely zoological teaching are
not great. There should be a fresh- water aquarium, and in schools by the
sea a sea-water aquarium as well, a few simple dissecting instruments and
lenses, and a few prepared skeletons and other preparations which can be
increased as time passes. The difficulties of obtaining specimens are not
great if the teachers keep in touch with the larger departments in our
Universities, and many specimens can be obtained in sufficient quantities
from the fields and ponds in the neighbourhood of the schools if occasional
field excursions are organised.

It is even suggested as an objection that the subject cannot lie studied
without inflicting pain upon animals. To this we reply most emphatically
that in the school classes no vivisection and no cruelty to animals is necessary
or desirable. In fact, the knowledge the boys and girls gain of the structure
and organisation of animals counteracts the desire that many may possess to
crush and kill the creeping things they do not understand. Knowledge does
not stimulate hatred and cruelty, but does create love and sympathy. If the
boy knew something about the wonderful structure of the fly or wasp that
he squashes on the window-pane, he would hesitate to strike.

We plead boldly for the teaching of Zoology as an antidote to cruelty to
animals, as a basis for a more general and sympathetic appreciation of Nature,
and as an indispensable approach towards a sound understanding of human life
itself.

Of other objections that have occasionally been raised, passing reference must
be made to that which suggests that it is objectionable to refer to questions of
sex in animals. To most of us, who are interested in the subject, the fact that
Zoology does provide authoritative instruction on the physiology of sex in
animals is one of the strongest arguments in favour of the introduction of the
subject in schools. We lay stress on the fact that it is a matter of universal
experience that when the phenomena of sex are taught in a series from the

ON ZOOLOGY ORGANISATION. "i^i?

unicellular animals through the simpler itivertebrata to the higher animals all
sense of indelicacy or impropriety disappears, while the knowledge acquired is
clear and precise. In this respect JJotany cannot take its place. The
phenomenon of sex-reproduction should be regarded as one of the most necessary,
and in some respects the most important, features in the general education of our
hoys aTid girls, and we attach great importance to the study of Animal Biology
as the only means by which it can be adc(juatcly taught.

As the question has frequently been asked what should be the scope of the
teaching of Natural History in schools up to the standard of the first school
leaving examination, we have ventured to draw up the following schedule of
subjects based on a practical knowledge of what has been done and can be done.

1. The principal characters of some of the more important divisions of the
animal kingdom which can be observed by a study, without dissection, of a
number of selected types such as —

The sea anemone and a simple coral.

A snail or a whelk.

A whiting or a fresh-water fish.

A lizard.

A bird or a rabbit.

The study of the movements and haliits of living animals should lie en-
couraged as far as possible by observations on such animals as can be kept in an
aquarium, such as Daphnia. Cyclops. Planavian worms, water snails, insect
larvw, small fishes, and in the case of seaside schools, sea-anemones, marine
worms, crabs or prawns, limpets, periwinkles, and various zoophytes.

A simple terranum can also be devised for the study of living insects, spiders,
earthworms, snails, frogs, and reptiles.

3. A more detailed study of the general anatomy and of the function.s of the
principal organs of such types as —

Amceba or Paramecium.

Hydra.

The earthworm.

Cockroach.

Frog.

Dogfish and rabbit.

This study will require the use of the microscope and of dissections which
could be made Ijy the masters or the older boys under the direction of the
master. The functions of the organs can be explained by the master in the
course of the exercises, and by demonstrations which do not involve experiments
on living structures.

3. The study of the development of the frog by direct observation of the
spawn and tadpole stages in the spring, and in schools provided with an
incubator, the first three days of the development of the chick can be studied
with advantage.

The study of the metamorphoses of the butterfly, moth, harlequin fly, or gnat
can also be studied practically at this stage.

In regard to junior pupils the Committee would endorse the suggestions
elaborated in the Scottish Education Department's ' Memorandum on Nature
Study,' which indicate the advantages of following the seasons and trying to
understand their prominent features. This method is particularly applicable to
country schools, Ijut it has among its advantages that of bringing different
sciences — Chemistry, Physics. Botany, Zoology — to bear on what is going on in
the natural world outside. It is very important to suggest early that the various
sciences work into each other's hands.

268 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC.

The Eflfects of the War on Credit, Currency, Finance,
and Foreign Exchanges.— Report of Committee, consisting of
Prof. W. E. Scott (Chairman), Mr. J. E. Allen (Secretary),
Prof. C. F. Bastable, Sir E. Brabrook, Dr. J. H. Clapham,
Dr. Hugh Dalton, Mr. B. Ellinger, Sir D. Drummond Eraser,
Mr. A. H. Gibson, Mr. C. W. Guillebaud, Mr. F. W. Hirst,
Prof. A. W. KiRKALDY, Mr. F. Lavington, Mr. D. H. Eobertson,
Mr.-E. Sykes, and Sir J. 0. Stamp.

Even at the di.stance of thirty-two months after the Armistice it is not possible
to write with certainty on economic conditions during the War and the
reconstruction period. Nevertheless, we have reached a certain amount of
agreement on some of the principal points which have arisen during our inquiry.

Our Committee endorses the memorandum submitted by the five economists '
to the Economic Conference at Brussels. Also the recommendations of the
Commission on Currency and Exchange, ^ which were approved imanimously
by the Economic Conference. These recommendations cover a considerable
part of our questionnaire, 6.17. Credit, Inflation, and the Gold Standard.

Our first question, Hotu far is the rise in prices in the U.K. since
July 1914 dve (a) to expansion of the currency and (6) to expansion of credit?
like the second, is evidently controversial. Economic opinion is still divided
as to the relative share of credit expansion and currency expansion in causing
the rise in prices since July 1914.

The majority of our members and correspondents believe that the expansion
of credit was the main cause. As Sir J. C. Stamp writes : ' A relatively small
part is due to the currency, but the greater part is due to the expansion of
other credit instruments.' Sir Edward Brabrook writes : 'I take it that both
causes contributed to the rise in prices, but I cannot say in what proportions.'
Sir Drummond Eraser ' Has no doubt whatever that the rise in prices was
mainly due [a] to the expansion of the currency and (6) to the expansion of
credit.' Mr. Hirst thinks that 'the expansion of currency and the expansion
of credit interact, i.e. one is sometimes the cause, sometimes the effect of
the other.'

Mr. Lavington and Mr. Robertson (avoiding the difficuity of defining
' currency ' or ' money ') say that the difference between pre-war and post-war
prices ' was duo. in tlie main, to expansion of the insfnimcnts of foymcnt,'
they add, in agreement with Sir J. C. St^amp, that it also was due (perhaps
to the extent of 10 per cent.) to a falling-off in production. Mr. Ellinger
qualifies this by limiting it 'to the time of the Armistice or a little later.'

Dr. Cannan holds that the rise in prices was ' due to Government expenditure
of money on a scale which could not have been reached without a diminution
in the purchasing power of money. This diminution would have come about,
to a large extent, even if no U.K. paper money had been issued, owing to
the demonetisation of gold abroad, which reduced the value of gold. The
U.K. paper money enables it to be carried further.'

Mr. Sykes draws a distinction between the expansion of the currency
abroad, where it bas been 'the principal cause of the increase of prices,' because
it was issued by Governments in direct payment of their debts, and the increase
of currency in the U.K., which has been 'almost entirely a consequence of the
expansion of credit.' Without such additional currency the banks could not
have met the increased potential demand for cash which the increase in the
volume of credit placed in the hands of the banks' customers. Mr. Sykes
believes that if the additional currency had not been created by the Govern-
ment ' a voluntary emergency currency would almost certainly have been
brought into existence by mutual consent of all parties.'

1 Dr. Bruins and Professors Cassel, Gide, Pantaleoni, and Pigou.
- Mr. Robertson comments : ' These seem to me very difficult to apply in
present circumstances.'

EFFECTS OF THE WAR ON CREDIT, CURRENCY, AND FlNANCF. ^69

111 our first Report, which was drafted during tlic summer of 1915, and
preseiiled to the Association at its Manchester meeting in September, we quoted
a sentence from the memorandum of our late colleague, Sir R. H. Inglis
Palgrave, as expressing the views which are taken by must economists. Sir
Robert wrote : ' The effect of an increase in the paper currency on prices, if
sufficiently large, is invariably to raise prices, in the same way as any other
increase of the circulating medium when this is not called for by an increase
in the business dune.' In our interim report last year, wliich was not printed,
we said : 'As the War went on there was a fairly constant increase of the note
issue, while the gold reserve, after an early period, remained stationary at
28,500,000/. If the money which the Government obtained by its war loans
had been subscribed entirely out of real savings the loan policy would have
had no effect on prices; but from an early period the banks were encouraged
to take up war loans and to make advances to their customers for the same
purpose, thereby causing an inflation of credit. This inflation of credit was
made possible by the increase of the currency, and was itself a cause tending
to currency expansion.'

Mr. Gibson holds that 60-70 per cent, of the rise in prices up to December 31,
1910, was due to monetary influences (increase in legal tender, bank deposits,
&c.). Some allowance, too, must be made for increased velocity of circulation.
He reckons that up to December 31, ipiO, 80 per cent, of the rise due to
monetary influences was caused by expansion of bank credit and 20 per cent,
to the fiduciary part of the currency note issue (the-se being the relative pro-
portions between the increases of bank credit and the fiduciary part of the
currency note issue).

QuKSTiON 2. — Id the expansion of credit thv cause or the. effect of the exjJan-
sion of the currency ?

The answer to our second question may almost be inferred from the answer
to the first. As Mr. Robertson and Mr. Lavington put it, the expansion of
credit was, in the main, the cause or the antecedent of the expansion of the
currency. But, as they say, ' a readiness to expand the currency was a necessary
condition of the expansion of credit, if the banking system was not to be
allowed to go to smash.' Sir Edward Brabrook thinks that 'it is both a cause
and an effect.'

Mr. Ellinger thinks that the expansion of currency came first; 'had it not
come the expansion of credit could hardly have followed ' ; moreover, tlie
subsequent expansion of credit would not have taken place ' unless manufac-
turers of credit had known that further expansion of currency would automati-
cally follow.'

Mr. Hirst and Mr. Petliick Lawrence hold that the two things are inter-
connected. Commander Hilton Young holds that the expansion of currency is
a consequence of tlie expansion of credit; Mr. D. M. Mason and Mr. Alfred
Hoare say it is the cause.

Prof. Cannan declares that ' There has been no expansion of credit when
you measure credit in an undepreciated standard.'

Dr. Hugh Dalton argues that the increase of credit could not have taken
place without the increase of currency 'in this, tlie most fundamental, sense,
increase of credit is an effect and not a cause of increase of currency, for if,'
he says, 'the British Government, determining to deflate the currency, were
to withdraw a number of currency notes from circulation and destroy them,
it is evident that bank loans would have to be reduced in roughly the same
proportion.'

Dr. Dalton goes on to say : ' This reduction would be brought about by a
rise in the bank rate and market rate.'

Mr. Sykes objects to this statement and contends that ' banks might refuse
to lend without increasing rates.' Dr. Dalton had gone on to argue that ' if the
Government is unwilling to see the volume of credit restricted by high rates of
interest, it is possible to maintain this volume above what it would otherwise
be, and the banks' rate of interest below what it would otlier\vise be, by an
increase in the volume of the currency. This is the policy which the British
and other Governments have, in fact, pursued during recent years. In this sense
the increase of currency has licen the effect, not of an increase of ciedil, but of

270 REPORTS ON THE STATE OP SCIENCE, ETC:

the Government's policy in relation to credit and interest rates. There are
other forms of credit besides bank loans, e.g. the book debts of private traders.
The volume of tliese depends primarily upon the state of business confidence,
but drastic deflation of currency, by causing a fall in prices, would cause a
restriction of this kind of credit also.'

Sir Drummond Eraser writes : ' Some portion of the expansion of the currency
was undoubtedly due to the expansion of credit. But I doubt whether the two
are entirely interdependent. Take two extreme cases : When the Austrian
Government was short of money the currency was expanded. When the British
Government was short of money credit was expanded. In Austria the increase
in the note issue was not accompanied by a iiro rata increase in the bank
deposits. In C4reat Britain the increase in bank deposits was not accompanied
by a 2-"'0 rata increase in the note issues. The expansion of currency in a
country like Austria is readily accomplished, because the note issues remain
in circulation. The expansion of credit in Great Britain was readily accom-
plished because of the effectiveness of deposit banking.'

Mr. Gibson also holds that the expansion of credit was the main cause of
the expansion of the currency. But the first could not have taken place
without breaking up a part of it into legal tender units for wages and retail
transactions. ' Currency notes have not been forced into circulation ; they
have always been returnable to the banks at their full face value to the credit of
customers.' Of course, some issue of paper money was required to balance the
gold coins withdrawn from circulation.

iMr. G. Bernard Shaw answers Questions (1) and (2) together : ' The two
are really the same. Expansion of credit is effected by issuing rcore currency
than you have goods to back it with ; in short, by inflation. Credit is one of
the economic phantoms.'

Question 3. — Was it 'possible, in this and other countries, to irrevent the
expansion of credit and currency f

This question raises the further question, ' Should a war be paid for by
loans or by taxation?' and the answer depends partly upon the view which
is taken of the patriotism of non-combatant citizens, partly on their power
and will to pay. Opinions dift'er as to the extent to which higher taxation
could have been imposed, but we agree that considerably higher taxation might
safely have been imposed at an earlier period of the War. Such taxation would
have tended to check personal extravagance, to lessen the inevitable rise in
prices, and to decrease the future burden of the War Debt. It might have
helped also to abate the demand for war bonuses, which were themselves both
an effect and a cause of higher commodity prices. Sometliing more might also
have been done, in l'J14 and 1915, to attract savings or special profits into the
Exchequer by means of continuous borrowing rather than by, or in addition to,
spectacular periodic loans.

Dr. Dalton answers the original question — ' Yes ; by heavier taxation (or
alternatively, to some extent, by ottering higher rates of interest on voluntary
loans). This policy, if it had been adopted in this country, would have pre-
vented the greater part, if not the whole, of the rise in prices and money wages,
and of the depreciation of the American and other exchanges. Especially in
the early part of the W^ar, it was a gross error of policy not to impose heavier
taxation.' Mr. Hirst, Commander Hilton Young, Mr. Mason, and Mr. Bernard
Shaw also answer Yes. Sir J. C. Stamp answers : ' Theoretically Yes, but
psychologically No, the stimulus given to profit-making by the expansion is
too important an ingredient for waging the War to have been left out.' Dr.
Dalton comments : ' This doesn't say much for the patriotism of the business
community.' Mr. Allen observes : 'A Napoleon may be compelled to mislead
his countrymen, a self-governing community ought to face a war with a full
knowledge of its costs and dangers. To take a classical analogy, the choice was
between the policy of Pericles and that of Cleon ; and Cleon's won.'

Sir Edward Brabrook says: ' It was not possible to prevent it.' Mr. Sykes
takes the same view, for he doubts ' whether any Government which attempted
to prevent the expansion of currency and credit would have withstood the
strain, even if it were abstractly possible.' He mentions a further difficulty —
• How could Great Britain have financed international purchases for war pur-

EFFECTS OF THE WAR ON CREDIT, CURRENCY, AND FINANCE. 271

poses without an expansion of credit?' Perhaps we may draw a line, as
suggested by Dr. Scott (in ' Economic Problems of Peace alter War,' Second
Series, page 5G), between borrowing for purchases at home and for jjurcliases
from foreign countries, tlie second Ijeiiig a legitimate and unavoidable
expansion.

Mr. Robertson comments on this paragraph, ' I don't feel sure tliat this is
relevant to infiution, only to the different question of loans and ta.xes.' jNlr.
l.,avingtoi), too, cainiot see the validity of the distinction.

Sir Drumniond Eraser writes : ' The expansion of credit and currency can
be prevented in this and other countries, if the money required by the Govern-
ments is raised from taxation and loans direct from the people. Great Britain
lias proved this. During the four hundred days on which National War Bonds
were on tap — from October 1917 — the whole of the home money borrowed was
raised from the day-to-day proceeds from the Bonds and Savings Certilicates.
This wholesale transfer of purchasing power from the people to the Govern-
ment, without monetary inflation, not only arrested but actually reduced tlie
hitherto continuous rise in prices. In my opinion it was an error of judgment
not to have increased taxation in the early part of the War and not to have
borrowed direct from the people at a higher rate of interest than that paid for
the money borrowed on the money market. The practical result was sliown in
the swollen bank deposits and swollen currency notes, which ought to have been
tapped by a Goverinnent security of the nature of National War Bonds.'

Mr. Robertson says ' not in most countries, to any very material extent,
granted that the War was to be carried on. In war the preservation of morale
frequently involves a certain measure of illusion.' It was certainly the practice
of the European Governments to assure their citizens that the cost of the W^ar
would be paid by the defeated enemy. Mr. Ellinger thinks that, in order to
prevent expansion of currency, it would have been ' necessary (a) to increase
taxation, and (h) to conscript Labour and Capital, including the Labour of
supervision and organisation.' He thinks that the first might have been done
in this country to a limited extent, also in France and Germany, but he doubts
whether the conscription of Capital and Labour could have laeen carried out
in any country.

Mr. Allen writes : ' There can be no doubt, I think, that all Governments
ought to have increased their taxation at an early period of the War, just
as the American Government did, when at last it took up arms. We must
recognise that ]\Ir. ]\IcKenna's two Budgets (September 22, 1915, and April 4,
1916) mark an immense advance on everything that was done by European
Finance Ministers. Subsequent Budgets have made no appreciable improve-
ments in Mr. McKenna's scheme of taxation.'

Professor Cannan holds that the expansion of credit could have been pre-
vented 'by not issuing it.' He adds, 'Of course this might have stopped the
War; but that isn't economics, but politics.'

Compulsory service raises the question of the conscription of wealth.
Clearly, it ought not to have been possible for people who were, for any reason,
whether age, sex, occupation or physical disability, free from the risks and
discomforts of military service, to make foi'tunes or even to improve their
economic condition out of tlie misfortunes of their country. I'he Excess Profits
Duty was a necessary result of the postponement of taxation of 1914-15, when
the Government created so much new purchasing power. It ought to have
reduced the purchasing power of the public by higher taxation.

As we said in our interim report for 1920, no one has explained whv the
ordinary Budget at the beginning of the financial year 1915-16 did not add to
taxation. ' It should have been clear that non-combatants could not make their
usual demands on the national output of goods and services, if the requirements
of the fighting forces were to be supplied. Consequently it was desirable
that the simplest of all checks on consumption, ?'.e. taxation, should have been
applied. Unfortunately the Government seemed to have other views, and
"business as usual " was the popular cry.'

Mr. Lavington, taking the view expressed some time ago by Sir Drummond
Fraser and J\Ir. Gilison, with which Dr. Dalton agrees, thinks" that tlie expan-
sion of currency could have been appreciably reduced had we adopted earlier

272 REPORTS ON THE STATE OP SCIENCE, ETC.

the more effective methods of borrowing, e.g. continuous borrowing stimulated
by advertisement, which were put into force later.

Mr. Gibson replies : ' Theoretically Yes, practically No.' In the
absence of a General Service Act the Government had to allay discontent and
to encourage increased production by increasing purchasing power. ' Work-
people wanted higher wages.' Dr. JJalton comments: 'They wanted higher
money wages, when prices rose. I doubt if, had there been no inflation, they
would have pressed for higher real wages.'

Mr. Gibson also controverts Dr. Dalton's replies. Admitting that heavier
taxation would have curtailed consumption, he does not think that an extra
25 per cent, could ' have been equitably distributed over all classes without
causing further demands for increases of wages and the breaking up of a large
number of the homes of the fixed-income class.'

Dr. Dalton answers : 'I entirely disagree. If prices rise 100 per cent., that
is equivalent to an additional income-tax of 10s. in the pound on the "fixed
income class." Inflation hit them hardest of all.'

Mr. Gibson continues : ' Under scarcity conditions, during the War, pro-
ducers, manufacturers, and traders were in a position to pass on increased
taxation to the consumer.' He denies also that higher interest rates would have
attracted any considerable further amount of loans towards the end of the
War. Why this was so he explains at some length as follows : ' Before the
War the aggregate of credit balances at banks was fairly evenly divided ^
between deposit accounts and current accounts (balances due to manufacturers,
traders, and other business concerns). At the end of 1919 the relative propor-
tions had changed to 1-2, or in some banks 1-3. This change was due to
Government disbursements mainly finding their way to manufacturing and
trading accounts. Only bank officials were in the position to note the great
change in the distribution of credit. When manufacturers were urged to
subscribe large sums, they replied that, on account of the rise in prices and
increase of wages, they required considerably more liquid capital than in
pre-war times.-* Also that they were nursing their liquid capital for the
expected world-wide trade boom after peace was declared.'

Question 4. — Hoiv j-s t/ie taxable capacity of a nation ascertained? Has it
been reached and jtassed, as Mr. McKenna suggests, in the case of Great
Britain ?

Opinions on this question are bound to vary. Mr. Robertson gives our
collective view when he deprecates ' any language which suggests that the
taxable capacity of the nation is an absolute amount.' Evidently there must
be some limit, though one cannot do more than suggest symptoms which point
to the conclusion that the taxable limit is being approached. Much depends
upon the purpose for which the Government imposes taxation , and upon whether
the money taken by the tax-collector is spent inside or outside the country.

Sir Edward Brabrook thinks that taxable capacity 'cannot be ascertained.'
Mr. Robertson replies : ' Almost any taxation has some deterrent effect on
enterprise and the accumulation of capital ; the question at any time is whether
this deterrent effect is justified by the importance of the objects — national
defence, fulfilment of obligation, or improvement of the quality of the popula-
tion — to which that part of the nation's income which is spent communally is
devoted. This is a question which, from its nature, admits of no precise
statistical answer.'

Mr. Shaw thinks that it cannot be ascertained ' without reference to a
minimum standard of subsistence for the population, and a distinction between
productive and destructive activity. There is no limit for productive activities
except the limit of the citizen's capacity for production. The State may take
all he produces if it supports him.'

•' Mr. Lavington says that these were usually taken to be in the proportions
of 1 to 2. Mr. Gibson replies that the proportions vary in different banks
according to the meaning given to the words ' deposit account,' that his remarks
apply to provincial banks and not to bank accounts in London.

4 Dj.. Dalton comments : ' But if there had been heavier taxation and less
inflation, money wages and prices would have been lower.'

EFFECTS OF THE WAR ON CREDIT, CURRENCY, AND FINANCE. 273

]\Ir. Hiist icplics : ' It would not bo easy to set a limit. If the Goveni-
nu'iit could spend its money as profitably and productively as individuals,
I should say, in that case, the revenue might sai'cly exceed half the total
aggregate incomes of the people.'

Dr. Cannan writes : ' Nohow, because it is relative to the system of taxation,
disposition of the taxpayer, &c., and you can never tell whether you have the
best possible conditions in this respect for raising taxation.' IMr. Lavington
suggests that ' taxable limits are set by political and by economic considerations.
On economic grounds alone it may be said that the taxable limit is reached
when further taxation would inflict an injury on the community greater than
(1) that inflicted by alternative methods of raising that revenue, or (2) that
resulting from the abandonment of the purpose for which the revenue was
required.' Mr. Ellinger finds the limit, ' when so much is taken out of the
taxpayers' pockets that their incentive to produce is reduced, and when
insufficient remains to provide the necessary capital to make up for wastage
and to set to work new workers in an increasing jDopulation.' He does not
think it has been reached here, especially after the abolition of the E.P.D.

Dr. Dalton draws a distinction between (o) the proceeds of taxation spent
within the country, and (&) those spent in making payments outside. In the
case of («) he does not believe that the taxable capacity, ' as measured by a mere
sum of money, or even by a percentage of the national income, can be ascer-
tained at all.' It depends upon what particular taxes and what particular
forms of public expenditure it is proposed to increase {or reduce). Dr. Dalton
wishes to draw a further distinction between taxation devoted to repayment of
internal debt and taxation devoted to paying for the destructive operations
of war, or between a tax on spirits and a tax on the necessities of life
or on savings. In the case of making payments outside the country ' the
problem may be regarded as that of determining what is the maximum
amount, or percentage, of the national income which can be taken away and be
handed over to foreigners, without reducing the future national income.'

Mr. Sykes thinks we must face ' the possibility or probability of a democratic
Government being compelled to bow to popular opposition to an increase of
taxation above an uncei'tain limit.' Again, we have to remember that the
results of excessive taxation may only be felt in a gradual economic deteriora-
tion, which may not be recognised for years. Mr. Sykes sees a need ' for more
definite information in regard to the incidence of modern forms of taxation.'
He cannot agree with Mr. McKenna's statement that the necessity for borrowing
to pay taxes is an indication that the limits of taxation have been reached or
exceeded.

Mr. Hilton Young answers : ' Directly, by a census of production only ;
mdirectly, according to the fancy of the payer, as to what he likes to call a
fair measure of it.'

Mr. Pethick Lawrence thinks 'that no definite basis can be laid down."
Mr. Mason answers : ' When it affects production unduly.' Mr. A. Hoare
thinks that ' taxable capacity can only be ascertained by experimenting with
taxes; Mr. McKenna was wrong.'

Mr. Gibson thinks that the limit depends mainly on the distribution of
taxation, but also on the level of prices and the general willingness to work
harder. He does not think that it has been reached yet, ' providetl there bo
increased production.' But taxation should be directed against those who made
fortunes out of the War, with a corresponding remission for people with
' fixed ' incomes.

Sir J. C. Stamp replies : ' (o) By reference to the total surplus of produc-
tion over the minimum of consumption that is functional or necessitated by
the volume of that production, (b) This surplus mu.st be considered in relation
to the number of inhabitants, and the proportion in which it is distributed.
('•) It depends also upon the njanner in which the taxes are raised, (d) There
can be no absolute answer, because it depends upon the reasons for, or subjects
upon, which the money is to be spent, (e) There is a much larger capiicitv
if the money is to be applied to the payment of interest, and a very much
larger capacity if it is to be applied to the payment of internal debt.

It has not been reached and passed for this country, as suggested by IMr.
McKenna, if these facts are borne in mind. He has treated interest and debt
]ust as they would be treated if the same money was .spent on armaments.'

274 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE.^ETC;

Dr. Dalton agrees with (e).

Sir Drunimond Eraser writes : ' The taxable capacity of a nation is surely
reached when taxpayers are forced to borrow from the banks to pay the
taxes. Excessive taxation for the heroic repayment of debt can be reduced
if the Government provide for the annual redemption of debt by a statutory
sinking fund of one-half per cent, in addition to the interest. This would
necessitate a bond continuously on tap to replace bonds falling due or bonds
accepted in payment of taxes. Tlius the time for repayment would be spread
over a longer number of years, and the Government debt would be spread over
a larger number of people. Lancashire and Manchester give a striking example
of the advantages of this financial policy. The cotton mills for -forty years
have been mainly financed by the short-term loans of the people. The Man-
chester Corporation for thirty years has also been financed in this way. All
the money required has been obtained, in spite of strikes and other handicaps,
and in spite of spectacular .stunts for Government war borrowing at a higher
rate of interest ! The atmosphere thus created not only adds to public interest,
but secures efficiency.'

Question 5. — /*■ there any economic basis for the old idea of a balance
between direct and indirect taxation?

Our members and correspondents are almost unanimous in saying, as Sir
Edward Brabrook puts it, that ' there is no necessary relation between direct
and indirect taxation.' Dr. Cannan, Dr. Dalton, Mr. Hirst, Mr. Hoare, Mr.
Pethick Lawrence, Mr. Mason, Mr. Robertson, all say 'No.'

Sir J. C. Stamp answers : ' In theory, No ; but in the practical collection of
taxes from the less wealthy classes. Yes.' Mr. Hilton Young replies : ' It was
a good enough way of distribution over all classes before the War. No scientific
justification, nothing but a rough approximation.'

Dr. Dalton writes: 'Those who speak of a "balance" generally assume
(a) that direct taxes are paid by the rich and indirect by the poor, and [b] that
the totals paid by the rich and poor should remain in some constant proportion.
But (a) is not necessarily true, for, e.g. an income tax on small incomes is
paid by the poor, and taxes on luxuries are paid by the rich. As to [b), even
if (a) were true, the proper distribution of the burden of taxation, whatever
that may be, may require a change to be made in the previously existing
proportion, even if the relative number and wealth of rich and poor do not
change, and a fortiori if they do.'

Mr. G. B. Shaw replies: 'No; only a psychological basis. If men will
revolt against a direct tax of threepence, and will without protest pay Is. for
three-halfpence worth of tobacco, direct and indirect taxation must be balanced
accordingly.'

Mr. Gibson thinks that ' the theoretical proportions must necessarily vary
with changing economic conditions and changes in the distribution of the
national income. The fixed-income class suffers least by additions to indirect
taxation. If taxation be direct, producers, manufacturers, and traders pass
part of it on to the consumer; consequently the fixed-income class receives
double doses.'

Dr. Dalton disagrees with Mr. Gibson's last sentence, and has some doubt
whether the distinction between direct and indirect taxation has any use.

Mr. Allen writes : ' Is not this an inversion of the usual law, which says
that direct taxes stick where they fall, while indirect taxes are passed on to
the consumer? It is not easy to say whether some taxes — e.g. the Excess
Profits Duty — are direct or indirect, and it is possible that wage-earners and
the salaried class would make an addition to their income tax a ground for
claiming higher pay. In a primitive or partly-developed country it is natural
for a Government to raise its revenue by taxing commodities. In the highly
developed civilisation of to-day taxes on ordinary articles of consumption seem
out of date ; they can have little relation to the ability of the taxpayer, and
among people with small incomes they become a tax on families.'

Mr. Lavington writes : ' I imagine that Mr. Gibson is right in holding that
producers may shift a qjart of direct tax; but I greatly doubt if this is of any
practical importance. Fixed-income classes could also shift such tax a little
by restricting their savings and so slightly raising the rate of interest.'

Mr. Sykes observes : ' I think that there is no foundation for this law ; it

EFFECTS OF THE WAR ON CREDIT, CURRENCY, AND FINANCE. 275

is just as easy to pass on a direct tax as an indirect tax if circumsta/n rg arc
Jitroiirable.'

In reply to the above tnticism, Mr. Gibsnn expresses his opinion that direct
taxes, such as the income tax, do not ' stick where they fall ' should the person
directly taxed be in a position to pass on the tax to other shoulders. To support
this opinion he gives the following illustration : —

Imagine a wool merchant in normal times to be making 5000?. a year, after
payment of income tax. Next imagine direct taxation to be increased to such
an e.xtent as to cause the merchant's net income to be reduced, say, to 4000/.
The merchant will widen his percentage gross profit on future sales in an
endeavour to restore his customary net income and standard of living. The
same applicvS to other traders, particularly retailers, who find their net incomes
reduced by increased direct taxation. To what extent it will be possible to
pass the increased direct taxation on to the consumer will depend on the strength
of competition, home and foreign.

For this and other reasons Mr. Gibson states he has never been in favour
of a direct tax on wages. As consumers, wage-earners indirectly pay part of
the direct taxation levied on manufacturers, merchants, retailers, and other
classes who are in a position to pass part or the whole of increased direct
taxation on to the consumer.

Referring to the Excess Profits Duty, Mr. Gibson writes : ' It was a direct
tax, though it became indirect on the consumer. The report of the Committee
appointed to investigate the prices, costs, and profits of the manufacture of
Yorkshire tweed cloths contained the following statement (Cmd. 858, p. 4) : " In
practice we find that Excess Profits Duty is added by manufacturers to the
prime cost of the article, and is an important factor in putting up prices." '

Question 6. — Has the value of indirect taxatioii been lessened by the t/reat
increase in the number of Government employees, and by the acceptance of the
principle that wages and salaries should rise as the cost of living rises? Is the
last principle valid?

This question has been rather misunderstood. The idea was that if the
wages of Government employees rose with the cost of living, while the Govern-
ment was employing millions of people during the War, it was little use to put
taxes on commodities, because to do so would be to raise the cost of living
and so increase the Government's expenditure.

Mr. Hilton Young replies : ' Undoubtedly it has. Now that wages are so
sensitive to the cost of living it is vain to try to load the burden on to the
wage-earning class by means of indirect taxes. They can pass it straight on.'
Dr. Cannan takes the opposite view of the first part of the question; but he
answers the second part — ' Certainly not ; it's a kitten chasing its tail ! '
Mr. Hirst (perhaps misunderstanding the intention of the question) replies :
'I do not see why Government employees should not smoke and drink as much
as private employees. When the cost of living rises in consequence of capital
having been wasted in war, an attempt to raise wages and salaries in proportion
to the rise in the cost of living is bound to end in unemployment and disaster.'

Mr. Robertson, drawing a distinction between the effect of inflation on
prices and that of broader economic causes, replies : ' It is reasonable that a
rise in prices arising out of the expansion of the instruments of payment
should be followed by a roughly proportionate rise in money wages and salaries ;
otherwise, those whose money incomes fluctuate with prices — i.e. the recipients
of business profits — make a gain at the expense of the other classes. But
it is not reasonable that the recipients of wages and salaries should never be
called upon to bear a share, in the shape of rising prices, of a general national
burden (occasioned, e.g. ))y war or a general decrease in the productivity of
industry) except in cases where their incomes were already so low as to be
barely compatible with decency or efficiency. The general argument for raising
part of the revenue by well-devised indirect taxes is not, therefore, destroyed
by the fact that of recent years money wages have been progressively raised in
order to compensate for the effect of expansion of the instruments of payment.

How far are such taxes, even though desirable, rendered ineffective by
the fact that they are refunded in part to railwaymen. Government employees,
and others, whose money wages vary with the price of commodities? I have
not studied this question, but I should have thought that (Ij the articles taxed

276 . REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC;

or likely to be taxed are either not included at all or pkiy a comparatively
small part in the indices of price-changes on which wage-changes are based,
(2) that the proportion of taxpayers affected by such arrangements is still
comparatively small; I should not imagine, therefore, that any weighty argu-
ments against the continuance or increase of indirect taxation could be founded
upon these considerations.'

Sir Edward Brabrook replies : ' The cost of living is not the only or the
principal element in the determination of the rate of wages.'

Dr. Dalton writes : ' I am not sure that I understand the first part of the
question. Evidently, if the prices of certain commodities, which enter into
the cost-of-living index-number, are raised by taxation, and if wages and
salaries are linked to the cost of living by means of a (proportionate) sliding
scale, the effect of these taxes on wages and salaries will be neutralised. But
(u) tobacco and alcohol are not included in any British cost-of-living index-
number; (6) the difficulty, if there is one, works both ways, for if the prices
of tea, sugar, &c., were reduced by remission of taxation, wages and salaries
on a simple cost-of-living sliding scale would also be reduced ; (c) the difficulty
can easily be got over, as in some recent wage arbitrations, where money wages
based on the cost-of-living index-number had been reduced by an allowance for
a typical wage-earner's contribution to national taxation.

' The principle of making wages and salaries rise (and fall) with the cost
of living is not, in any general sense, "valid." But it is convenient as a
means of reducing unrest and wage disputes during periods when the price-level
is undergoing rapid changes chiefly due to monetary causes. In effect, wage-
bargains are made, not in terms of money, but in terms of jrarchasing power,
and during such periods the revisions reciuired in real wage-bargains will be
smaller, and therefore more easily brought about, than the revisions which
would be required in money wage-bargains. Compare the present state of the
railways, where money wages move on a sliding scale, with that of the coal
mines, where they do not.'

Mr. Pethick Lawrence, dividing the question into three, says 'No' to (a),
'Yes' to (6), and 'Yes' to (c). 'For small salaries, so long as there is a
margin of taxable capacity elsewhere, but as the salary rises it should not
completely apply.' Sir J. C. Stamp replies: 'To some extent. The jrrinciple
is not wholly valid. It is true that wages should rise and fall with prices,
but not to an equal extent or range — only enough to preserve the iiroportion
of the actual total volume of production as the reward of any single service.
So far as irrices are up because production is 20 per cent, down, then real wages
should be 20 per cent, down — i.e. money wages should rise only to 80 per cent,
of the price-rise.'

Mr. JNIason says 'Yes.' Mr. Bernard Shaw replies: (a) 'It depends on
whether the employees are productive or not. Two postmen and a coster-
monger will yield as much indirect taxation as two costermongers and a postman.
But if you substitute sinecurists or soldiers for postmen, taxation on their
consumption is illusory, (h) In the case of subsistence wages, Yes, obviously.
Necestity is always valid.'

Mr. Allen writes: 'In my opinion the "principle" ought never to have
been accepted. Surely it is hardly possible that any large section of the
population should be able to maintain their pre-war standard of living during
a really big war 7 It is no less evidently unfair that a second section of the
population should have to sacrifice their lives, and that a third section should
have to sacrifice a large part of their income while the first section makes no
sacrifices at all. No doubt there are people on the margin of subsistence who
cannot be asked to give up their bare necessities of life, unless the country
is in a state of siege. But they may be asked to work harder. In any case
it seems most inequitable, as well as politically inexpedient, that Govetnmenfc
employees should have enjoyed (a) special exemption from military service and
[h) war-bonus additions to their wages and salaries. At the present time there
is much resentment among other wage-earners and salary-earners over the
favoured position of Government employees.'

On this Sir J. C. Stamp comments : ' The principle is perfectly valid, see
above, if it doesn't connote extent.'

i:ffegts of the war on credit, currency, and finance. 277

Question 7. — It is generally taken for tjranted that certain transactions —
e.g. the purchase and sale of stocks and shares or real prop.erty, the rai.'sing of
mortgages, the hiring of a house, and so on — provide suitable occasions for
taxation. Is there any justification in economic theory for a tax on fran.tactions?
Does not the more enlightened view point to the freeing of transactions as well
as trade from the inquisition of the tax-collector'/

This question was thrown into a form which suggests the answer, and we
are nearly agreed in saying ' Yes ' to it. Thus Mr. Hirst, agreeing with the
view implied in the question, says : ' It seems to me that taxes on transactions
are bound to reduce and hinder trade. Hence I would certainly reduce rather
than increase such taxes.' But we admit that there may be a case for continuing
taxes to which people have become accustomed, especially when, as with some
of the stamp duties, their payment lends a kind of additional sanction to the
transaction taxed.

Sir Edward Brabrook replies : ' Freedom of transactions and of trade is
essential to the welfare of the country.'

Mr. Robertson replies (Mr. Lavington and INIr. Ellinger agreeing with
him) : ' Convenience, ease of collection, and productivity must be given some
weight in framing a system of taxation as well as justice. Even from the
standpoint of justice, there is perhaps something to be said for making a special
charge on those who avail themselves to a special extent of the readiness of the
State to enforce contracts. I am not inclined to favour a general repeal of
taxes on transactions ; indeed, I should like, if practicable, to see them developed
in such a way as to secure part of the increment of capital value arising in
cases of speculative purchase and resale of houses, securities, &c. (unless these
can be assessed to income tax).'

Dr. Dalton thinks that ' a moderate tax on transactions is neither a very
good nor a very bad tax ; it tends to check production less than some e.xisting
taxes, but more than others.' Mr. Hoare thinks that these taxes 'should be
retained for a long time to come, so as to allow the worst taxes — e.g. those on
tea and sugar — and local rates to be taken off before stamps are touched.'

Sir J. C. Stamp takes a different view. ' There is very little justification
for taxes of this kind, excejrt so far as they serve as convenient methods of
registration, or lending validity to transactions.'

Mr. Hilton Young replies emphatically : ' A rotten tax ! No relation to
ability to pay; not even equitably spread over the limited area that it covers.'

Dr. Cannan replies : ' Transactions arc trade. When you have exhausted
the better taxes and still want money you take the worse, as Adam Smith
said.'

Mr. Lawrence and Mr. Mason reply 'Yes' to the last part of the question.
Mr. Shaw replies : ' Every tax that hampers a beneficial human activity is
economically bad. But it may be psychologically expedient.'

Question 8. — // the principle of 'ability to pay'' he accepted, does it no
follow that the greater part of the national revenue shovld be raised by income
tax^

This question also suggests the answer, and again we are able to reply
mainly in the affirmative. In November 1917 our Committee appointed a
Sub-Committee on Income Tax Reform, and seventeen months later the Sub-
committee was invited to give evidence before the Royal Commission on the
Income Tax. The Sub-Committee threw its opinions into a few short ' points '
or sentences for its proof of evidence before the Royal Commission. The
first six sentences ran as follows :

1. That the income tax is the fairest, cheapest, and most productive of all
possible taxes.

Footnote. — We assume, of course, the existence of a constitutional
Government; a despotic Government might use the income tax as
an instrument of oppression.

2. That the tax requires to be adjusted to the much-increased demand for
revenue.

3. That it is indefinitely elastic, and can be made to produce as much
revenue as the citizens as a body think justifiable.

4. That if skilfully adjusted to the ' ability ' of each taxpayer it imposes
little real burden.

278 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC.

5. That a heavy income tax lias a tendency to lower prices of conmiodities
in general, just as an inflation of the currency increases them.

6. That a graduated income tax, unlike most (if not all) other taxes, makes
for greater equality of spending power.'

Dr. Dalton comments on point 5 : ' This seems to me a fallacy. You trans-
fer purchasing power from income-taxpayers to beneficiaries of public
expenditure, e.g. civil servants, holders of War Loan, old-age pensioners.
Total purchasing power is not diminished. Why, then, should prices fall ? '

^Ir. Lavington also expresses a doubt about point 5 and asks, ' May not
the most important effects of a heavy income tax be : (1) to compel an exten-
sion of bank loans, and (2) to check productivity; in both directions tending
to raise prices? ' The Sub-Committee contemplated a large reform in income-tax
law and practice, of which the most important items were that the point of
total exemption should be lowered until the tax was paid liy all persons who
could lie considered as having any tax-paying ability, and that the tax should
be collected at the source wherever possible — e.g. that in the case of salaries,
wages, and other periodical payments the tax should be deducted by the
person making the payment and that the taxpayer's abatement and allowances
should be taken into account at the time of deduction. On the question of
prices, what the Sub-Committee, which was working while the C4overnment still
made no attempt to meet its expenditure out of genuine revenue, meant was
that the payment of wages and salaries out of loans instead of taxes necessarily
raised prices. If the income tax had been raised sharply at the outbreak of
war, and had been applied to all recipients of income above some very low
point (e.g. the annual value of a private soldier's pay, keep, and allowances),
the purchasing power of ordinary persons would have been reduced and prices
would have been lower in consequence. As Dr. Dalton says elsewhere in the
present report, the depreciation of the currency was equivalent to an income
tax without graduations, abatements, or exemptions.

A serious fact about the income tax is that it is paid by so small a propor-
tion of the citizens who possess the Parliamentary vote. Exemptions and
abatements, which allow a married man with three children to earn almost £5
per week without being assessable to income tax, are barely compatible with
democratic Government. If ' Taxation implies Representation,' ought it not
to follow that ' I'epresentation implies direct taxation ? ' Citizens who, by
their vote at Parliamentary elections, ultimately determine national policy,
ought to have the responsibility which goes with power brought home to them
by high taxes if they have A-oted for a costly policy, or low taxes if they have
voted for a policy of retrenchment.

Hardly any other tax can be adjusted to the ' ability ' of citizens, for even
death duties, although carefully graduated, only affect incomes from property,
not the amount which individuals have to spend. Some taxes, e.g. those on
tea and sugar, fall heaviest on the man (or widow) with a family and a small
income.

Sir Drummond Eraser writes : ' In my opinion the bulk of the revenue
should be raised by income tax. It forces the taxpayer to do without something
else in order to pay the tax. In practice this is a transfer of purchasing power,
and therefore prevents monetary inflation.'

Mr. Hirst replies : ' I agree that the income tax, if it begins on very low
incomes, ought to be relied upon as the mainstay of the national revenue. And
if by raising it the yield per penny were greatly diminished, I should regard
that as a sign that the limit of the taxable capacity of the nation had been
reached.'

Sir J. C. Stamp, Mr. Hilton Young, Mr. Mason, and Mr. Hoare answer
' Yes.'

Mr. Shaw also answers ' Yes : all of it. Include " ability to work " and
you may substitute poll tax for income tax. If it were not for the phenomenon
of unearned income arising through the operation of the law of rent, income
tax would act as a premium on idleness.'

Mr. Robertson replies : ' Yes ; if we may include death duties in income
tax, but there is much to be said for having some taxes which hit people
in proportion to their expenditure (especially luxurious expenditure) rather
than their ivenme^ and thus discriminate, to some extent, in favour of saving.

EFFECTS OF THE WAR ON CREDIT, CURRENCY, AND FINANCE. 279

And I should not be in a hurry about discarding at present any taxes which
people have become tolerably accustomed to.'

Professor Foxwell has expressed the same views, and is still more m favour
of taxing expenditure and exempting savings. ^

Dr. Dalton (who refers to an article on ' Tlie Study of Public Finance in
!■:<■<, iioiiiira, .Tune, 1921) approves of the present exemptions and abatements,
lie thinks that ' ability to pay ' is an ambiguous phrase. ' It may have refer-
ence either to effects on production, to effects on distribution, or to current
views of equity. I agree, however, that a large proportion of the national
revenue should be obtained from income tax.'

Sir J. C. Stamp comments : ' The phrase is not really ambiguous in general
use, only made so bv a few writers who import new ideas into it.'

Mr. Lawrence leplies 'Yes, except that in order to be really equitable the
income tax would have to be very inquisitive ; it is not a bad plan to tax
luxuries as well, and for practical purposes to have some other taxation.'

Dr. Cannan, however, replies shortly ' No; why should it? '

Mr. Gibson prefers to avoid 'a multitude of taxes,' and most economists
will agree with him. He would like to sweep away all existing taxes except
the Estate Duties and Liquor Duties, and to substitute a single tax. He
suggests a flat-rate income tax with the present abatements, and would impose
additional graduated rates on annual increases of income, but the additional
tax must rTot be too great to throttle enterprise or discourage saving. He
thinks that existing capital ' is in the control of too few persons.'

Sir Edward Brabrook, who does not approve of the present abatements,
exemptions, and allowances, writes : ' The question of ability to live on what
is left after payment of taxation does not arise in a well-graduated tax.'

Question 9.— A Sub-Committee was appointed last year to inquire and report
upon 'The Currency and the Gold Standard,' with Mr. Lavmgton and Mr.
Robertson as Jpint-'Conveners, but our questionnaire was gradually extended,
mainly by the suggestions of iNIr. Lavin"ton and jNIr. Robertson, to cover
most of the Sub-Committee's province. The original question ran thus : ' Can
a paper currency {such ax a " Bradhiiriy "), -which ix controlled h;/ the Govern-
ment and>. hears no fixed relation to any stock of gold or silver, serve as u
measure and standard of rrduc or as a satisfactory medium of exchange?'

Our members and correspondents seem to agree with Dr. Cannan's reply :
' It is quite a satisfactory medium of exchange, but a bad standard.'

Dr Cannan also wi-ites : ' There is no reason to suppose that the absolute
limitation of the Bank of England's fiduciary issue to 18,000,000/., or whatever
it has been, and the abolition of other fiduciary issues, has been of any use
for the standard, and it certainly has not made the medium of exchange any
better. Convertibility into free gold is all that is required to keep the paper
at gold value ; uniformity and cognoscibility make a single issue desirable,
but that can be attained without making notes into gold certificates.'

Dr. Dalton replies : ' If not over-issued to such a point that public con-
fidence in it disappears, it is an excellent medium of domestic excbanee, and
much more economical and convenient than gold coins. If intelligently
controlled by the Government it might become quite a good standard of value.'

Mr. EUinger thinks that a paper currency, 'if efficiently controlled, accord-
ing to the requirements of production, and not according to the requirements
of the Government, might be a satisfactory measure and standard of value,
and a satisfactory medium of exchange for internal transactions, but the
likelihood of such a control being efficient is so small, and the desirability
of maintaining a gold standard for the purpose of international trade is so
great, that, for this country at all events, the maintenance of a gold standard

is essential.'

Mr. Robertson, who added sub-questions (1), (2). (3). and (4), replied as
follows to the original question : ' Theoretically, an inconvertible paper cur-
rency, nroprrly managed, would be a better standard than one tied to gold,
the value of "which cannot be expected to remain stable. But the inherent
tendency, both of indu.stry and commercial activity, to press for a continuous
expansion of the instruments of naymrnf is so strong that there is a good
deal to be said for tetherincr both Governments and bankers down to gold,
which, though far from a satLsfactorv standard, is better than no standard at all.

280 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC.

' Fmtlier, if other countries have a currency whose value is stable in terms
of gold there is a strong argument for our doing the same, in order to
facilitate international business. The U.S.A. have such a currency at present,
and it is perhaps more likely that the European countries and the Dominions
will eventually return to such a system than that they will make a good
job of any other.

' There seems no reason why a paper currency, which is convertible into
gold only for the purpose of makintj payments abroad, should not serve as
a satisfactory medium of exchange within the country.'

Dr. Dalton agrees with Mr. Robertson's views, though he thinks the last
sentence, 'an understatement.' He adds: 'To me it seems obvious that a
paper currency is a satisfactory medium of domestic exchange, though it
may be a bad standard of value.'

" 'Sir. Shaw, with more scepticism, replies : ' It can, if it is honestly con-
trolled, but it never is.' Mr. Lawrence agrees. Sir J. 0. Stamp, Sir Drummond
Eraser, Mr. Sykes, and Mr. Mason answer ' No,' Sir Josiah adding : ' Not
as at present controlled. Not if we are thinking of the long run.' Mr. Sykes
and Mr. Allen believe that the standard of value should be, as far as
possible, independent of Government or other human control. Mr. Sykes adds :
' I am firmly convinced that, in spite of the admitted defects of gold as a
standard, the lialance of advantages in its favour, as compared with any
standard dependent on Government control, is very great indeed. The ques-
tion of the medium of exchange is of minor importance.'

Sir Drummond Eraser says that a paper currency should be issued by
the Bank of England on a gold basis, as our Committee suggested in its
1915 Report. He adds : ' I believe in the cast-iron principles of the Bank
Act. The mistake in issuing the currency notes was that the amount at
first was unlimited. This enabled the Bank of England to manufacture bank
credit ad lib. and without restraint.'

Question 9 (1). — Do u-e want oiir ^jciV^-ZereZ to remain stationary? or to
be continvally falling [as in 1873-96), or to he continually rising slightly (as
in 1896-1914) >

It is assumed in this question that prices in general may be raised or
lowered by an increase or decrease of currency, and either by natural causes,
such as the discovery of new or exhaustion of old goldfields, or by the
action of the Government in expanding or contracting a paper currency. This
is a commonplace of economics, and does not contradict the opinions given
in the replies to Sub-questions '1,' '2.' and '3.'

With so much experience of the troubles caused by rising prices between
1914 and 1921, our members and correspondents agree in not wanting the
price-level to rise. There is some difference of opinion as to whether it is
desirable that the price-level should fall further. Dr. Cannan replies : ' Keep
it steady ' ; ]Mr. Lawrence says : ' Stationary or slightly falling ' ; Mr. ^lason
says : ' As stationary as possible ' ; Sir J. C. Stamp prefers it to be ' continually
falling, not to a pre-War level, but to a level where the superstructure of
credit has a reasonable relation to a metallic basis.' Dr. Dalton thinks that
' if future price-movements were perfectly foreseen by all parties it would
not matter what those movements were. But perfect, or even tolerably good,
all-round foresight being unattainable, I think that, on the whole, a price-
level slowly and steadily falling is most to be desired.' Mr. Hoare, placing
more trust in Government control of paper money than the rest of us, wants
the level to ' tend constantly downwards, paper money being always so increased
as to make the drop in prices very slow, i.e. the drop should be due to
increased output, and the drop should be so hindered by increased currency
as to prevent that drop from being so pronounced as to check output.'

!Mr. Ellinger also answers ' Stationary.' but he adds : ' I should like to
see prices on the level corresponding to the average level which existed at
the time the War Debt was created, and in so far as the steneral level of prices
may be hiaher than such level I should like to see prices falling gradually
as public debt is paid off, or converted to a lower rate of interest. It must
be borne in mind, particularly as regards the three following clauses (" 2," " 3,"
and "4 ") that the level of prices in this country depends very largely on the
general level of world prices, and I should be sorry to see the general level

EFFECTS OF THE WAR ON CREDIT, CURRENCY, AND FINANCE. 281

of prices of our exports falling more rapidly than the general level of prices
of our imports.'

Mr. Shaw replies : ' I cannot understand anyone but a speculator " wanting "
prices to tluctuate. '

Question 9 (2). — In inirguit of our object, whatever it is, ou(jht we to seek
to tiiiilrifnin our turrency at a jmrifi/ with tjold?

This is one of the few questions on which we are able to reydy with practical
unanimity in favour of linking our currency with gold. Professor Cannan
replies : ' Get it to par with gold first, and then join other gold countries
in seeking either greater stability of gold or a substitute for goFd.' Mr. Mason
also wishes 'Gradual contraction of the paper currency until parity of exchange
with gold standard countries has been re-established. A date then fixed for
resumption of specie payments. Legislative enactments would probably be
necessary to facilitate machinery of convertibility and regulation of currency
issues between the Treasury and the Bank of England and the other banks
throughout the country. All of the foregoing would be helped and stimulatea by
drastic economy in every department of the State.'

ISIr. Pethick Lawrence replies : ' In default of an index-number standard
(Professor Irving Fisher's compensated dollar), which I regard as theoretically
best, I favour gold parity.'

Sir J. C. Stamp replies : ' With gold certainly, but I do not think an actual
parity matters, so long as there is reasonable stability.'

Dr. Dalton replies : ' As an immediate policy. Yes. When this is achieved
the next stage should be to seek to apply Professor Irving Fisher's or some
other similar scheme.'

Mr. Gibson, who is reading a paper at the Edinburgh meeting on the
subject, replies: 'I think the time is ripe for the introduction of a new
standard of value, to be stabilised by the interest factor when an inter-
national agreed-upon index-number has fallen to pre- War level. The working
man is surely entitled to a continuity of employment. In pre-War times the
state of employment was dependent on variation of gold supplies. I suggest
an international note-issuing bank (denominations of notes, say, 1.000?. and
upwards), such notes to form the basis of bank cash reserves, and cover for
internal paper issues. Bank and Government applicants for international notes
would pay interest thereon, the rate of which would be subject to variation.
Each country would have its own internal rates of interest, varied from time
to time according to the course of the exchanges and domestic conditions.
Gold in pre-War times functioned as the mercury of the barometer that
compelled interest rates to be altered from time to time in accordance with
the current economic atmosphere. The interest factor preserved the due pro-
portion between the employment of labour for producing consumable goods and
capital goods.'

Mr. Lavington replies : ' Against the advantages of re-establishing a gold
standard must, of course, be set the evils resulting from (1) the raising the
value of the Bradbury to that of the sovereign, or (2) the fixing of its value
in terms of gold at something lower than the sovereign. I doubt if it
is socially desirable to lower the level of prices, except in so far as this
may be necessary to re-establish a gold standard. In correcting old injustices
in this wav we should also be creating new ones.'

Mr. Hirst and Mr. Allen maintain : ' That any monetary measure and
standard of value should possess intrinsic value, so that its utilitv should
not depend upon the pleasure of the Government. No doubt the fact that
gold has been so generally adopted as a standard adds to its value.'

Question 9 (3). — If ko, should it be at the old parity, or some other — say
one rorrespondiiia to the present gold ralve of the Bradbury?

Here som^ differences of opinion will be found. Professor Cannan replies i
' The old. The fixed-income people will have been a good deal robbed even
then.'

Dr. Dalton. Mr. Ellinger. INIr. Lawrence, and Mr. Mason favour the old
parity. Mr. Shaw replies : ' It depends on circumstances. A big change in
the purchasing power of a currency upset,? everythinq; frightfully. A restora-
tion may he as great a calamity as an acceptancp of. the change.'. Mr. Allen
Agrees, and vegrfts that thebC eotifiidijfattorts, which -team so olivious how,
1D21 M

282 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC.

should not have had more weight with the Chancellor of the Exchequer and
his advisers in August 1914 and during the earlier months of War.

Mr. Hoare replies : ' I don't see that it matters theoretically, and therefore
I should aim at the old parity.'

Sir J. C. Stamp replies : ' Depends on foreign countries to some extent.
On the whole. Yes.'

Question 9 (4). — If the old parity, should an effort he made to restore it in
the immediate future'/ If so, hoiv?

Professor Cannan replies : ' Yes, by quietly reducing the Bradbury issue
without making any great definite profession about it.'

Dr. Dalton says : 'If " immediate future " means " within the next eighteen
months, " Yes." ' As to the method, he refers to his answer to question ' 13 '
below.

Mr. Ellinger fears that ' No heroic measures are possible to enable restora-
tion in the immediate future. Exports should be increased to the uttermost.
Economy of consumption should be practised in imported articles not forming
the raw materials or semi-raw materials of our industries. Efforts should be
made to draw gold from debtor countries, like Spain, who have an adverse
exchange and a large accumulation of gold. At the present time Government
securities in the hands of the public, in so far as they are used to obtain
advances from banks, cause inflation of credit ; the total amount of credit
available should be measured by the total volume of commodities to be financed,
and not by the total volume of commodities, 'plus a Government debt which
represents no existing commodities. The gradual restoration of the credit
position on these lines would lead to a reduction of the currency notes in
circulation and to a more speedy restoration of the gold standard. The reduc-
tion of the Government debt, particularly of floating debt, would have the same
effect.'

Dr. Dalton comments : ' But the value of commodities varies with the amount
of credit.'

Mr. Lavin^ton comments : ' I doubt if we should try to get gold from
Spain. It is surely better that all surplus gold should go to the U.S.A.,
ultimately raising prices there and so helping to re-establish the U.K. on a
gold standard. I do not think that there is any urgent need for more gol'd
in this country. The urgent need, in my view, is for (1) increased production,
(2) diminished consumption, and (3) diminished currency.' (Dr. Dalton agrees.)

Sir J. C. Stamp replies : ' Only very slowly.'

Mr. Shaw replies : ' Make a Bradbury exchangeable for a sovereign at the
Bank of England or the Mint.' «

Question 10. — Wovld a Capital Levy or a Forced Loan offer any eseape from
the dangers of national insolvency ? Or woidd private credit suffer more than
public credit could hope to gain from any such method of reducing the War
debt?

This question is evidently controversial. Unfortunately, some heat has been
imparted to the discussion by the discovery of large war profits and by the
Board of Inland Revenue's estimate of 4,000,000,OOOZ. of ' increased wealth '
in private hands owing to the War. Sir John Anderson informed the Select
Committee that ' the estimated aggregate increases of value appertaining to
those individuals whose capital wealth had increased during the War, diminished
by the fall in value of the capital of those whose capital wealth had decreased,
amounted to about 4,000,000,000?.' iCmd. 594, p. 17). As we said in our Interim
Report at Cardiff last year : ' This statement was taken to mean that the
nation as a whole, or owners of property as a body, were actually better off
as a result of the War. The case for a levy on War wealth, like the case
for the Excess Profits Duty, was based on the very natural sentiment that
people ought not to " make money out of the War." According to these
Memoranda the Board of Inland Revenue had taken an estimate of the amount
of Wealth in private hands before the War, which came to 11,000,000.000?. and
Compared it with a similar estimate " as at June 30. 1919." The second estimate
sliowed a total of 15,000,000,000/., leaving 4,000,000,000?. apparently liable to

• It is so now under the Currency Notes Act (IV. & V. Geo. V. ch. xiv.)j
But in practice the Bank's officials show a reluctance to pay out sovereigns,
and as the sovereigns can neither be exported nor melted down, the Act Is
a dead letter.

EFFECTS OF THE WAR ON CREDIT, CURRENCY, AND FINANCE. 283

the proposed levy. When an allowance is made for the depreciation of the
currency, it is clear enough that these figures indicate a decline rather than
an increase in the amount of real wealth in private hands.'

The Memoranda contained a warning that ' the increase in the exchange
value of certain forms of wealth is merely the result of the general rise of
prices ' ; but this qualification, which was not very lucidly expressed, has been
overlooked. Part of the unresl among wage-earners is due to the belief, fostered
by a misunderstanding of these Memoranda, that the War had enriched the
propertied classes. We thought it necessary (at Cardiff) to declare our opinion
that the reverse is the case ; that the recent War, like other wars, has caused
the destruction, not the creation, of wealth. But the working-classes are quite
right in believing that some sections of the propertied classes have been greatly
enriched by the War.

Had the demand for the conscription of wealth taken the form of demanding
increased direct taxation of all non-combatants, it would have been better
justified. As a matter of fact, it is almost impossible to postpone the financial
sacrifices involved in a big war by postponing taxation. Unless the Govern-
ment's expenditure can be defrayed by loans subscribed out of the genuine
savings of its subjects, the alternative is a policy of credit and currency inflation,
which acts as a concealed levy on many forms of pre-War capital and as a
concealed income tax on all kinds of income. But whereas the ordinary income
tax can be adjusted to the ability of the taxpayer, the concealed income tax
falls mainly upon people with ' fixed incomes.' It was assumed by the Income
Tax Committee of 1906 that the words ' permanent ' and ' precarious ' in their
terms of reference might be translated by 'unearned' and 'earned.' Experi-
ence has shown that most ' earned ' incomes may be raised as the purchasing
power of money is lowered, either automatically, as in the case of Government
employees and railwaymen, whose pay rises or falls with the changes in the
Ministry of Labour's index number, or (with more friction) through strikes
and lock-outs or amicable arrangements. There are other cases, such as those
of clergymen and some schoolmasters, though not the teachers in State-supported
schools, whose money incomes are not elastic.

On the other hand, the so-called 'unearned,' or 'permanent,' or 'fixed'
incomes cannot, as a rule, be adjusted to alterations in the purchasing power
of money. This applies to ' gilt-edged ' or trustee securities, and explains
very largely the present financial straits of our voluntary hospitals, which have
found their income from property cut down by about a half. It applies to all
debenture and preference stocks, and to certain classes of ordinary shares —
e.g. those of gas, water, tramway, and railway companies — and at present to
bank shares. Consequently, if the pound sterling loses half its purchasing power
the receivers of fixed money incomes, whether from earnings or from invest-
ments, suffer the equivalent of a 106:. income tax, from which large sections of
the wage-earning and salaried classes, whose incomes are adjusted to the
Ministry of Labour's index number, escape. In some instances, especially
those of industrial companies which can make and divide profits without
statutory restrictions, the depreciation of the currency has transferred part of
the debenture-holders' and preference-holders' property to the ordinary share-
liolders. Sometimes this fact has been recognised by the distribution of bonus
shares to the ordinary shareholders.

On the whole, therefore, it appears that while certain favoured persons and
small classes of capitalists acquired new wealth as a result of the War, the
vast majority of the propertied classes are very much poorer. Moreover, a
good deal of the profits which might have been assessed to a levy on War
Wealth a year ago has vanished in the recent industrial depression.

Our members and correspondents differ irreconcilably in their answers to
Question 10.

Mr. Ellinger and Mr. Gibson do not think that this country is in any
danger of national insolvency. Mr. Ellinger says : ' National insolvency might
take two forms : (1) That we could not pay our debt to America ; (2) that we
could not raise sufficient taxation to pay the interest on aiir internal debt.
As regards (1), a capital levy or forced loan would tiot helpi. As regards (2),
a capital levy would help, t think that it is very doubtful, If we had had a
capital levy a year ago, whetbef the shock to private eredit ^hSch would have

X 2

284 REPORTS ON THE STATE OP SCIENCE, ETC.

been caused by such a levy would have been as great as the shock which private
credit has now sustained, and which might have been avoided had a capital
levy been imposed ; for in this event the inflation of 1920 would have probably
been avoided, and it is this inflation which is largely responsible for the
present condition. However, in view of the present state of private credit it
would be disastrous at this time to superimpose on the present shock such
further shock as might be caused by a capital levy.'

Mv. Gibson maintains that ' No country is nationally bankrupt until it
cannot pay, within a reasonable time, the interest on its external debt by
exports or other form of settlement. In 1914 we had 4,000,000,000/. invested
abroad. Since that year we have sold about 1,000,000,000/. of these investments
and created an external debt of 1,000,000,000/. in round figures. We have
therefore a net balance abroad of about 2,000,000,000/., not taking into account
any indemnity payments yet to be received from former enemy States or loans
to Allies. Last year we had a net trade balance in our favour, taking invisible
exports into account, and a net favourable balance is likely to be maintained
in future years. I see no present necessity for a forced loan. A capital
levy directed solely against War-fortunes I support if practicable. It would
accelerate the economic recovery of the country and tend to lower costs of
production, after a small temporary disturbance to credit. Preferably it should
take the form for several years of payment of 5 or 6 per cent, interest on
amount assessed.'

Sir J. C. Stamp replies : ' It is a nice balance. It all depends upon the
prevailing psychology in financial circles at the time when it is introduced.
It is not enough to prove that mathematically or actuarially the efl'ect should
not follow. It is what people imagine that will rule the issue, and not what
they ought to think.'

Dr. Dalton also does not take seriously 'the dangers of national insolvency.'
He adds : ' But I favour a capital levy sufficiently productive of revenue to
wipe out at least half the National Debt within the next few years. I am in
general agreement with Prof. Pigou's argument on this subject, and I regard
such a levy as specially desirable if a policy of deflation is adopted, as I think it
should be. Unless the business world is successfully bamboozled into unreason-
able panic, I believe that no appreciable shock to private credit need result
from such a levy. (For a detailed scheme, with which I am in general agree-
ment, though the proposed minimum exemption from the levy — 5,000/. — is,
perhaps, rather too high, see the Second Interim Report of the Joint Labour
Committee on Taxation and the Cost of Living.) I am opposed to a forced
loan. It appears to me to combine nearly all the disadvantages, and none of
the advantages of taxation and a voluntary loan.'

Mr. Robertson replies : ' A capital levy would have great advantages : (a) in
paying off a considerable amount of debt before the value of the pound sterling
greatly increases; {b) by affording a smaller deterrent than a higher recurrent
income tax to future enterprise and saving, since even if levied by instalments
it would be assessed on present capital values ; (c) in eliminating the standing
menace of imdue expansion of the currency caused by the continuous maturing
of Treasury Bills ; {d) in its social and political effects. I am not convinced
that if payment were allowed to be made in selected securities (with perhaps
preferential treatment of War loans), and to be spread over a number of years,
the effect need be very damaging to private credit ; but I do not feel that 1
have the requisite practical experience to speak with confidence on this point.'

On the other side, Mr. Shaw writes : ' A capital levy is utter nonsense
economically; it is the delusion of "the practical business man," who thinks
that because he can sell an income of 5/. a year for 100/. dowh, the whole
income of the world could be sold for twenty times its figure. There is nothing
to be got out of capital by way of taxation except the income it produces.
As to a forced loan, why not a forced gift? All taxation of the interest on a
loan to the State is repudiation. The War Debt is already repudiated to tlie
extent of lis. in the pound in the case of the very rich. How far the repudiation
should go, and what form it should take, are matters of expediency.'

Mr. Lawrence, answering Questions 9 (iv.) and (10) together, replies :
' Yes. Capital levy, complete revision of peace treaties, free trade, lirtiita-
ticms of papw currency, and many othet steps. Had deflatiotl been bdirtMbd

EFFECTS OF THE WAR ON CREDIT, CURRENCYj AND FINANCE. 285

out immediately after the War by such means I would have recommended some
compensation to holders of stocks of commodities, i am doubtful whether such
compensation should now be given, but in any case it should be confined to
deflation specially brought about by Government action.'

Mr. Mason is opposed both to a capital levy and a forced loan at the present
time ; Mr. Hoare thinks that ' a forced loan would be far preferable to a
capital levy.'

yir Drummond Fraser writes : ' I am opposed to a capital levy or a forced
loan, because both produce monetary inflation.'

Mr. Allen desires to point out that a levy on pre-War capital has, in effect,
taken place. Each War loan acts as a levy on existing investment securities,
just as an issue of bonus shares lowers the value of a company's existing shares.
This fact was recognised by Mr. McKenna and his successors at the Exchequer
when they gave ' conversion rights ' to holders of earlier War loans. They may
have foreseen, also, that people would not subscribe to such issues without
some kmd of guarantee agamst depreciation. If a holder of pre-War gilt-edged
securities has been able to save enough money to buy War loans to the nominal
value of his stocks in July, 1914, he is about where he was when war broke
out ; otherwise he is poorer. The case of hospitals must be well known to
everybody. These institutions, like many educational, religious, and charitable
bodies, are in serious financial difficulties because the value of their property
has been cut down about 50 per cent., although they are supposed to be exempt
from taxation ; they escape income tax, it is true, but ordinary persons and
business concerns have to pay tax on an income which in many cases has been
cut down by one-half. Earned incomes, of course, pay income tax, but then
they are elastic, and in most cases have been raised considerably from their
pre-War rate. In some cases salaries are paid free of income tax, which seems
to me an undesirable practice. To illustrate the change in the distribution
of the national income produced by the War and the depreciation of the currency
let me take a single familiar instance : Before the War railway shareholders and
railway operatives drew about the same income from their undertaking — about
47,000,000^. or 48,000,OOOZ. a year. The shareholders are still drawing their
47,000,000/., with perhaps another million for new capital; the railwaymen
are drawing about 160,000,000?., though their wages are now falling with the
decline of the ' cost of living.'

No doubt some individuals have made large fortunes out of the War; perhaps
wars would not last so long if no one made money out of them. A new
propertied class appears to have come into existence through the War. There
was a good case for the taxation for these special fortunes, but by this time
the opportunity has been lost. In my opinion we ought to have had at an
early period of the War an excess income tax to balance or supplement the
excess profits duty. One result of the War may be welcomed : it has brought
about a much more equal distribution of the national income. But that fact is
an argument against a levy on capital.

On grounds of equity the objection to a levy is that it throws a special
burden on a particular class without any reference to the principle of ability
to pay. It may be admitted that a person with 500/. a year from property
has a greater taxable capacity than a similar person earning 500/. a year, but
this difference is already recognised {a) by levying a higher rate of income
tax on invested income, and (/;) by imposing special and heavy taxation when
property changes hands at death. To a much smaller extent there is a special
kind of taxation in the form of stamp duties when property of most kinds
passes from hand to hand.

Dr. Dalton comments : ' It is a question of verbal convenience whether
you like to describe what has happened in the past as a " levy on pre-War
ra|)ital." I have no objection to so describing it, jirovided that you recognise
that the fall in prices, which is now taking jilace, and the fall in rates of
interest, which may soon be anticipated, will be a " bounty to pre-war capital." '

Question 11. — Now tfuif f/ie J'Jxrcss Profit-'^ Dull/ has bren repealed, sfiouhl
some, other form of xjicrial taxation of business profits be imposed? If so,
what ?

On the whole our opinions are against the imposition of a special tax on
business profits. Prof. Cannan, Sir Drummond Fraser, Mr. ]\Iason, Mr. P,
Lawrence, and ^Ir. Sykcs all answer ' No,' and suggest as an alternative greater

286 REPORTS ON TriE STATE OF gclENCE, E*C;

economy in Government expenditure. .Mr. Hoare also answers ' No.' On the
other hand, Sir J. C. btamp answers, ' ^es, as ah-eady indicated by me in
the Economic Journal.' Mr. Eobertson also is ' inclmed to think that a
special tax on business profits, iJ: free from the particular defects of the
E.P.D., and felt to be generally equitable as between different firms and
different trades, is justifiable (a) on the grounds of equity — the rewards of
business enterprise being on the whole disproportionate to those of other kinds
of mental and bodily activity; [b) on the grounds of indirect effects — a well-
devised profits tax, pressing evenly all round, would not materially impair
etficiency or discourage emulation in enterprise. But I am not a business
man ! '

Mr. Ellinger, answering 11 and 12 together, writes : ' I hope the Chancellor
is right, and that it will not be necessary to impose any tax in place of the
•' Excess Profits Duty." I do not like the French Tax on Turnover ; nor do I
like the American differentiation of spent and saved income. I think that
the Canadian Tax on Sales is worth further examination, if it should prove
necessary to replace the Excess Profits Duty.'

Dr. Dalton, expressing the views which we imagine to be held by the
majority of economists, writes : ' I am not much enamoured of special taxes
on business profits. If the difficulties of capital valuation can be overcome
at a reasonable cost, there is something to be said for a tax progressive according
to the rate of profits. If not, there is a little, but not much, to be said for the
present Corporation Tax. But as a general proposition, I doubt the expediency
of making "A," who derives a certain income from business, pay more
taxation than " B," who derives an equal income from War Loan.'

Mr. Bernard Shaw writes : ' I see no objection to giving effect to a law of
maximum profit ; but the maximum must he determined first on grounds of
uational welfare.'

Mr. Allen writes : ' I am opposed entirely to the special taxation of business
profits. Except in the case of very small businesses, where the taxation is
negligible, busmess profits are already assessed up to the hilt ; for the Revenue
authorities treat as taxable a larger sum than any prudent firm of partners
or board of directors would think it wise to distribute or treat as income. In
the case of the professions, and of other earnings which are not made as the
result of a regular business with clerks, ledgers, and so on, there is more
possibility of income escaping taxation than there is in a regular business.
Whether incomes earned in business are greater than those earned in a pro-
fession I cannot say, except, indeed, that big fortunes are almost entirely made
in business. There is always a risk of error if we get away from the fact
that "taxes are paid by taxpayers." Does it matter to the Chancellor of
the Exchequer how a man gets his income ? Is it not likely also that a special
tax on business profits would in the long run tend to be passed on, like any
other business expense, to the consumer ? It would be difficult to say whether
the E.P.D. was a direct or an indirect tax ; I have little doubt that in many
cases it was passed on, and that in most cases it led to extravagance or acted
as a check on enterprise.'

Question 12. — Do you think that the French Tax on Turnover, the Canadian
Tax on Sales, the American differentiation in taxing spent and saved income,
or any other tax now being tried in a foreign country, would be a useful addition
to the list of British Taxes ?

To offer a direct negative to so comprehensive a question appears to savour
of national arrogance, and members of our Committee do not wish to say that
nothing can be learnt from foreign and Colonial experience in taxation. Our
general opinion is, however, that we have quite enough taxes in this country
already, and that the main thing to be aimed at is a reduction in expenditure
rather than the discovery of new revenue sources.

Dr. Cannan, Dr. Dalton, Sir Drummond Fraser, Mr. Hoare, Mr. Lawrence,
Mr. Mason, and Mr. Sykes answer ' No.' Mr. Gibson and Sir J. C. Stamp
also dislike the three taxes mentioned, but think the reference to any other
tax used abroad too wide.

Mr. Gibson writes : ' Taxes on turnover or sales are difficult of equitable
distribution and of collection. Presumably the percentage in the £ would
have to vary with different trades, wholesale and retail. If such a tax is
necessary, I prefer it to be collected at the spending source — a tax on income

EFFECTS OF THE WAR ON CREDIT, CURRENCY, AND FINANCE. 287

actually spent each year, whether for goods or services by final consumer.
Taxpayers to be assessed on previous year's expenditure. This tax would
tend to increased saving, lower interest rates, and tend to increased production.'

Dr. Dalton also has ' no confidence whatever either in the practicability (at
reasonable cost) or in the economic desirability of taxes on turnover, sales, &c.'

Mr. Allen writes : ' The Tax en Turnover has been strongly advocated by
Lord Leverhulme and by some financial journals in London. Liord Leverhulme
suggests a Tax on Turnover not exceeding 1^ per cent. ; " the Tax on Turnover
would be a flat rate, not graded or varied for luxuries or necessities" (The
Organiser, December 1920).

' Surely this idea of a Tax on Turnover is a survival from the Feudal
System, and is as obsolete as chain mail and the common field. How could
such a tax be applied at the same rate to the purchase of furs, champagne,
and motor cars as to the purchase of boots, bread, and rail or tram tickets ?
Much business is done, especially in the City of London, and no doubt in
our other large towns, on a tiny margin of profit. How would Lord Lever-
hulme apply his I5 per cent, to " day to day " loans at 4 per cent, per annum?
How, too, would the tax be applied to purchases of Consols, War Loans, or
other stocks bought to employ temporary balances ? In this country we say
that certain kinds of expenditure, e.g. on wines, spirits, beer, cigars, tobacco,
motor cars, game-shooting, cinema and theatre tickets, indicate a taxable
margin, and so we tax them. Most other kinds of expenditure, e.g. on clothes,
food, schools, rent, doctors, depend largely on the size of a man's family and
offer no indication of his capacity to pay taxes ; if anything, they indicate
the opposite.

' k50 far as I can ascertain, the Turnover Tax in France has proved a dis-
appointment, and is said to have led to much dishonesty on the part of sellers.
Evidently a tax on turnover is meant to be passed on to the consumer, and in
most cases it would be. Probably it would fall most heavily on genuine business
transactions or on the purchase of necessaries, and least heavily on the purchase
of luxuries ; therefore it would increase the cost of living ; it is bound also to
differentiate in favour of large concerns and multiple shops against the smaller
concerns and the individual shopkeeper. It must involve, too, a prodigious
extension of Government activity and constant interference by officials with
trade and production of every kind. Experience since the Armistice shows
how much injury can be done to trade and to the nation's prosperity by the
interference of Government officials with trade.'

We should be glad to recommend some exemption of savings from income
tax, seeing that the need of new capital is so great ; but probably, as Dr. Dalton
writes, the administrative difficulties are insuperable.

Dr. Dalton suggests certain changes in our tax system : ' I am in favour
of a tax on the capital site values of land, but probably this would be most
conveniently treated as a source of revenue for local authorities. I am in
favour of changes in the Death Duties, as a result of which (a) the present
legacy and succession duties should be amalgamated and steeply graduated
according to the amounts received by inheritors; and {b) the present estate
duty should, if administratively practicable, be replaced by a tax of the
type suggested by Professor ^ignano, of Milan. (See my review of Professor
Rignano's ' Del Diritto Successorio ' in the Economic Journal, March 1921, and
also my ' Inequalities of Income,' Part IV., Chapters IX. and X.)

The mainstays of the British tax system should, in my opinion, be (a) Income
Tax, (6) Inheritance Tax, (c) Taxes on Alcohol and Tobacco, with [d) Capital
Levy as an exceptional and transitory measure.'

Mr. Bernard Shaw ' is strongly of opinion that the principle of exempting
invested income — that is, income transformed into capital — from income tax
should be made general; so tli.at expenditure, not savings, should be taxed.'

Question 13. — Describe the process and resii/ts of deflation.

Most of our members and correspondents have omitted to deal with this
question, which evidently requires considerable reference to statistics. These
statistics, however, are given and discussed in the report of our Sub-Committee
on Currency and the Gold Standard.

Perhaps our collective views are fairly expressed by Sir J. C. Stamp, who
replies : ' I think that these are sufficiently well known, without my being
able to add very much. In any pronouncement on the subject it should be

288 REPORTS QN THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC.

made clear that we have most, to fear from the burden of the debt becoming
correspondingly much higher than if we maintain currencies at present level.'
He gives as his own view : ' If we can spread the effects over about eight or
ten years, we can absorb the loss on existing stocks in business by a modest
reduction of the ordinary margin of profits, say one-fifth thereof.'

Mr. Gibson replies that deflation may take two forms, automatic and
compulsory. A fall in prices will cause a reduction in bank loans ; therefore,
yer contra, in deposits. Currency notes will return to the banks from circula-
ti