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BRITISH ASSOCIATION 


FOR\|THE ADVANCEMENT 
OF SCIENCE 


EPORT 


OF THE 


ANUAL MEETING, 1934 
(104rH YEAR) 


ABERDEEN 
PTEMBER 5-12 


LONDON 


OFFICE ORHE BRITISH ASSOCIATION 
BURLIN@N HOUSE, LONDON, W.1 


1934 


Dr i 


ili 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 
SMGERS AND (COUNCIL, 919 394—35) Ss . 6). bie. PR w. eye be le dole dele Lek v 
SECTIONAL OFFICERS, ABERDEEN MEETING, 1934.......---eeeeeeee> ix 


ANNUAL MEETINGS: PLACES AND DATES, PRESIDENTS, ATTENDANCES, 
REcEIPTS, SuMS PaID ON ACCOUNT OF GRANTS FOR SCIENTIFIC 


RAURBOSESA (MGS T—TORAN IN cratet eis vaysonns arsEt «renee > payee SET COT TEC xii 
NARRATIVE OF THE ABERDEEN MEETING ...........0 ces cece eeeaee XVil 
REPORT OF THE COUNCIL TO THE GENERAL COMMITTEE (1933-34) .. XX 
GENERAL 'TREASURER’S ACCOUNT (1933-34) ...-eeeee cece eeeeeeces XXX 
RESEARCH COMMITTEES (1934=35). 5.022 s0cccccrsceecscevecsceens xiii 
RESOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS (ABERDEEN MEETING)........ xl viii 


THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS : 
The New World-Picture of Modern Physics. By Sir James H. 
LRAON SAR ESERRE GS Semmens aA tas. ctl ete. oie) are sib Deere hitin Mo sheets eeneto ws I 
SECTIONAL PRESIDENTS’ ADDRESSES : 
Theories of Light. By Prof. H. M. Macponatp, O.B.E.,F.R.S. 19 
Physical Methods in Chemistry. By Prof. T. M. Lowry, 


CGA a ee LAER Sc aeete ven are int conga ev ehestayso aris wae ee Rehsee iG oa cae ae CARRE 29 
*Plant Life and the Philosophy of Geology. By Prof. W. T. 

REE CORIO sac ere era AS oy ge rs UR ol abe 49 
The Study of Behaviour. By Dr. E. S. RussEtt............. 83 
Co-operative Research in Geography ; with an African Example. 

iBbyserot A. G.'OCIEVIE, OBE ac. st ha aussie see orde e s 99 
The Future of Rail Transport. By H. M. Hatitswortu, C.B.E. 119 
Sources of Cheap Electric Power. By Prof. F. G. Batry...... 145 
The Use and Origin of Yerba Maté. By Capt. T. A. Joyce, 

ORB SE as srars.ss 2. <CRRSRILEEREc DRI 2 RAE Se Ls oe Sree 161 


*Normal and Abnormal Colour Vision. By Prof. H. E. Roar 169 

*Psychology and Social Problems. By Dr. SHEPHERD DAWson’ 183 

Some Aspects of Forest Biology. By Prof. A. W. BorrHwick, 
O.B.E. 


BE Ry! TORII EEE Sra 21a 0d a Teh ah ge. 195 

Science at the Universities : Some Problems of the Present and 
Hutures (By H. Te Tizarp, C\BH B.R.St.. anges Net ae on 207 

Scientific Progress and Economic Planning in relation to Agri- 
culture and Rural Life. By Prof. J. A.S. Watson ...... 223 


* See note on following page. 


iv CONTENTS 


PAGE 
REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. .......20+-. ++ e0+-sereece 233 
SECTIONAL, (uRANSACTIONS 22'0-)-.,/59 oh ea gtcbecy t.)- ovo > +o; ekekemeiatenenate eas 269 
CONFERENCE OF DELEGATES OF CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES ........ 406 
EVENING DISCOURSES : 
Transport and Storage of Food. By Sir FRANK SMITH, K.C.B., 
C.B.E., Sec. R.S. (The Hardy Memorial Discourse) . 2 ATO 
The Exploration of the Mineral World bail X- une By Prof. 
W. L. Brace, F.R.S. . : 31434 
PHOTOELECTRICITY, ART AND Po itics: AN HIsToricaL STupy. 
By N. R. CAMPBELL and C. C. PaTERSON, O.B.E.........0004% 445 
UNDERGROUND WATER SUPPLY. By Prof. W.S. BOULTON......... 456 


REFERENCES TO PUBLICATION OF COMMUNICATIONS TO THE SECTIONS 463 


APPENDIX. 
A SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT ......:......05. I-123 
LIS DID Ses beds coe c BABE: CS AME Calcio sade 125 
PUBLICATIONS OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION ......-.00-eee000- (At end) 


* SECTIONAL PRESIDENTS’ ADDRESSES: CORRIGENDA. 


Section C: PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 


Page 51, footnote. Read Cochran Patrick, R. W., Early Records relating to Mining in 
Scotland, 1878. An undated lease of rather earlier date, probably before the end of the 
twelfth century, is recorded in Chalmers’ Caledonia, n.e., 1889, vol. iv, p. 866. See also 
Cadell, H. M., The Rocks of West Lothian, 1925, p. 313. 

Page 57, line 13. For ‘‘ elephant ”’ read ‘‘ elephants’ bones.” 

Page 63, line 7 from foot. After “‘ not’’ read “‘ to.” 

Page 65, line 12 from foot. For ‘‘ re-Paleozoic”’ read ‘‘ pre-Paleozoic.” 

Page 70, line 4. For ‘‘ Wegner”’ read ‘‘ Wegener.” 

Page 71, line 14. Read ‘‘ precursors.”” Line 18, read ‘‘ Alpine.” 

Page 75, line 7. For ‘‘ mistaken’”’ read ‘‘ misunderstood.” 

Page 79, line 2 from foot. For ‘‘little’’ read ‘‘ practically no.” 


SEcTION I: PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 


Page 178, Note 18. For lines 7 to 11, commencing ‘‘ This matter ”’ and ending ‘‘ sensa- 
tion of blue,” read ‘‘ The matter must be left in abeyance, but the use of the term ‘ violet 
receptor’ is to be understood to mean either the receptor for violet or blue. Owing to 


the fact that fatigue to ‘ red ’ causes violet to appear more blue, Wright believes that the 
single receptor gives rise to a sensation of blue.” 


SECTION J: PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 
Page 190, line 19. For 99 read 109. 


: 


: 
: 


Hritish Association for the Advancement 
of Science. 


OFFICERS & COUNCIL, 1934-35. 


PATRON. 
HIS MAJESTY THE KING. 


PRESIDENT, 1934. 
Sir JAMES’ He JEANS, D-Sc., Sc.D., ‘LL.D., F.R°S: 


PRESIDENT, 1935. 
Prof. W. W. Warts, Sc.D., LL.D., F.R.S. 


VICE-PRESIDENTS FOR THE ABERDEEN MEETING. 


The Hon. the Lorp Provost oF 
ABERDEEN (HENRY ALEXANDER, 
J.P., M.A.). 


The PRINCIPAL AND VICE-CHANCELLOR 
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN 
(Sir GrEorcE ApAm SmitH, D.D., 
fie), Litt.D:, PIBIA.). 


The Rt. Hon. the Ear or CAITHNESS, 
ae ., LL.D,,..D.L, 

The Rt. Hon. the Viscount ARBUTH- 
NOTT. 


The Rt. Hon. Lorp Meston, K.C.S.1., 
ED. 


The Rt. Hon. Sir Goprrey P. Cotttins, 


P.C., K.B.E., C.M.G., M.P. 


The Rt. Hon. WaLTER E. Et iot, P.C., 
D.Sc., LL.D., M.P. 


Sir THomas Jarrrey, Bt., LL.D. 
Sir RoBert Wittiams, Bt., D.L., J.P. 


Sir GEORGE ABERCROMBY, Bt., D.S.O. 


Sir ARTHUR KEITH, LL.D., D.Sc., 
BERS: 


Prof. Sir JoHN Marnocu, K.C.V.O., 
Ds, ele. 


Sir ASHLEY W. MAcKINTOSH, K.C.V.O., 
LED: 


Sir ALEXANDER M, MAcEWEN. 
James R. Rust, LL.D., D.L. 
CHARLES Murray, C.M.G., LL.D. 


Prof. H. M. Macponarp, O.B.E., 
F.R.S. 


Prot ey) te MACLEOD aac alee) 
ERS: 


Prof. J. A. MacWitiam, LL.D., F.R.S. 
i}. By ORR MDS: OS ir se., bs. 
Prof. R. W. Rep, LL.D. 


vi OFFICERS AND COUNCIL 


VICE-PRESIDENTS ELECT FOR THE NORWICH MEETING, 1935. 


The Lorp Mayor oF NorRwWICH (PERCY The Rt. Hon. the EARL oF ALBEMARLE, 
W. JEwson). GC V-O., G.B.; Toe 

The Ex-Lorp Mayor or Norwicu | The Rt. Hon, the Eart or LEICESTER, 
(Alderman F. C. Jrex, J.P.). G.C.V.O., C.M.G. 

The SHERIFF OF NorwicH (Councillor | The Lorp BisHop oF NorwicuH (Rt. 
W. E. WALKER, J.P.). Rev. BERTRAM POLLOcK, K.C.V.O., 


The Ex-SHERIFF OF NORWICH (Coun- | D.D.). 
cillor E. J. Mortum). The Rt. Hon. Lorp HAsTINGs. 

The Deputy Lorp Mayor or Nor- | The Rt. Hon. Sir SamuEL Hoare, Bt., 
wicH (Alderman H. N. Holmes, G.C.S.1., GB Eavises 
es). | Sir Epwarp Mann, Bt., J.P. 

H.M. LizuTENANT FOR NorFOoLkK | Sir BARTLE H. T. FRERE, K.C., J.P. 
(RUSSELL J. Cotman, J.P.). | Alderman Sir G. ERNEST WHITE, J.P. 


The Hicu SHERIFF OF NORFOLK, 1935. | The DowaGER LADY SUFFIELD, J.P. 
The Mayor or GREAT YARMOUTH | The DEAN oF NorwicH (Very Rev. 
(Alderman A. HarBorD, M.P.). D. F. S. Cranace, B.D., Litt.D.). 

The Mayor oF Kine’s Lynn (J. Har- | G. H. SHAKESPEARE, M.P. 


woop CaTLEuGH, M.B.E.). | GEOFFREY R. R. CoLMAN. 

The Mayor or Lowestorr (Major | Miss Erne M. Cotman. 
SELWYN W. HUMPHERY). Joun Cator, D.L., J.P. 

The Mayor oF THETFORD (Sir WiLL1AmM | Alderman G. J. B. Durr, M.C., D.L., 
GENTLE, J.P.). et. 

The Most Hon. the Marquess oF | Major E. H. Evans-LomseE, D.L., J.P. 
Loruian, C.H. Rev. C. T. Rar, B.D. 


GENERAL TREASURER. 
Sir JostaH STAmpP, G.B.E., D.Sc., F.B.A. 


GENERAL SECRETARIES. 


Prof. F. J. M. Stratton, D.S.O., | Prof. P. G. H. BosweEtt, O.B.E., D.Sc., 
O.B.E., M.A. Rese 


SECRETARY. 
O. J. R. Howarth, O.B.E., Ph.D. 


ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 
H. WooLpRIDGE, B.Sc. 


ORDINARY MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL. 


Prof. F. AVELING. Dr. H. S. Harrison. 

Sir T. Hupson BEARE. | Sir JaMEs HENDERSON. 

Prof. R. N. RupMosE Brown. Prof. A. V. HI t. 

Prof. F. BALFouR BROWNE. Prof. G. W. O. Howe. 

Dr. W. T. CALMAN, F.R.S. Dr. C. W. KIMMINs. 

Sir HENrRy Date, C.B.E., F.R.S. Sir P. CHatmEerRS MITCHELL, C.B.E., 

Prof. J. DREVER. F.R.S. 

Prof. A. FERGUSON. Dr. N. V. Sipewick, F.R.S. 

Prof. R. B. FoRRESTER. Dr. G. C. Simpson, C.B., F.R.S. 

Prof. W. T. GorpDon. Hey. Tizarp,7C-Bs shores: 

Prof. Dame HELEN GWYNNE-VAUGHAN, Prof. A. M. TYNDALL, F.R.S. 
G.B.E. Dr. W. W. VAUGHAN. 

H. M. Harttsworth, C.B.E. Dr. J. A. VENN. 


Prof. F. E. Weiss, F.R.S. 


OFFICERS AND COUNCIL 


Vii 


EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL. 


Past Presidents of the Association, the President for the year, the President 
and Vice-Presidents for the ensuing Annual Meeting, past and present General 
Treasurers and General Secretaries, and the Local Treasurers and Local Secretaries 
for the Annual Meetings immediately past and ensuing. 


PAST PRESIDENTS OF THE ASSOCIATION. 


Sir J. J. THomson, O.M., F.R.S. 

Sir E. SHARPEY-SCHAFER, F.R.S. 

Sir OLIVER LopGE, F.R.S. 

Sir ARTHUR Evans, F.R.S. 

Prof. Sir C. S. SHERRINGTON, O.M., 
Gee, PRS. 

The Rt. Hon. Lorp RUTHERFORD OF 
NEtson, O.M., F.R.S. 

H.R.H. The Prince oF WALES, K.G., 
WC. ,, BURS. 


Prof. Sir ARTHUR KEITH, F.R.S. 

Prof. Sir WiLt1am H. Brace, O.M., 
i Bubs eh RES: 

Sir THomas H. Horvanp, K.C.I.E., 
uC Self, FARIS: 

Prof. F. O. Bower, F.R.S. 

Gen. The Rt. Hon. J. C. Smuts, P.C., 
CLHBAESRES: 

Sir ALFRED EwInG, K.C.B., F.R.S. 

| Sir F. GowLanp Hopkins, Pres.R.S. 


PAST GENERAL OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION. 


Sir E. SHARPEY-SCHAFER, F.R.S. 


Sir FRANK SMITH, K.C.B., C.B.E., Sec. 


R.S. 
Prof. J. L. Myres, O.B.E., F.B.A. 


HON. AUDITORS. 


Prof. A. L. Bowley. 


| Prof. A. FERGUSON. 


HON. CURATOR OF DOWN HOUSE. 
Sir BucKsTON BROWNE, F.R.C.S., F.S.A. 


LOCAL OFFICERS 
FOR THE ABERDEEN MEETING. 


CHAIRMAN OF LOCAL GENERAL COMMITTEE. 
The Hon. the Lorp Provost oF ABERDEEN (HENRY ALEXANDER, J.P., M.A.). 


VICE-CHAIRMAN OF LOCAL GENERAL COMMITTEE. 


The PRINCIPAL AND VICE-CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN 
(Sir GEorGE Apam Smitu, M.A., D.D., LL.D., De Witts, b.B AS). 


LOCAL HON. SECRETARIES. 
Lt.-Col. Epwarp W. Watt, T.D., M.A. 
Prof. H. M. Macponatp, O.B.E., 

ies, nt eS. 

LOCAL HON. TREASURER. 
Marianus Lunan, J.P. 

LOCAL GENERAL SECRETARY. 
D. B. Gunn, M.B.E., M.A., LL.B. 


ASSISTANT LOCAL GENERAL 
SECRETARY. 


Miss EvELYN M. SHEARER, M.A. 
LOCAL TREASURER. 
R. G. Dutuiez, J.P., F.1.M.T.A. 


ROOMS SECRETARY. 
W. GopDEN, B.Sc. 


Vili OFFICERS AND COUNCIL 


LOCAL OFFICERS 
FOR THE NORWICH MEETING. 


CHAIRMAN OF LOCAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 
Sir ERNEST WHITE, J.P. 


VICE-CHAIRMAN OF LOCAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 
Percy W. JEwson (LorpD Mayor oF Norwicn), 


LOCAL HON. SECRETARY. 


HERBERT P. GOWEN. 


LOCAL HON. TREASURER. 
NoeEt B. Rupp, M.A. 


OFFICERS OF SECTIONS, 1934 ix 


SECTIONAL OFFICERS. 


A.—_MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
President.—Prof. H. M. Macponatp, O.B.E., F.R.S. 


Vice-Presidents —Sir FRANK Dyson, K.B.E., F.R.S., Sir ARTHUR EDDINGTON, 
F.R.S., Dr. A. E. M. Geppes, O.B.E., Dr. EzErR GRIFFITHS, F.R.S., J. W. 
RoBeErtTSON, Prof. E. T. WHITTAKER, F.R.S. 

Recorder.—Prof. ALLAN FERGUSON. 

Secretaries —M. G. BENNETT, Dr. EzER GRIFFITHS, F.R.S., Dr. R. O. REDMAN, 
Dr. Dorotuy M. WRINCH. 

Local Secretary.—Prof. J. A. CARROLL. 


B.—CHEMISTRY. 


President.—Prof. T. M. Lowry, C.B.E., F.R.S. 
Vice-Presidents.—Prof. A. FinpLay, Dr. W. Maitranp, Prof. J. C. PHILIP, 
O.B.E., F.R.S., Prof. R. Ropinson, F.R.S. 


Recorder.—Prof. T. S. Moore. 
Secretavies.—Prof. J. E. Coatres, Dr. J. M. GuLLAND. 
Local Secretary.—Dr. R. B. STRATHDEE. 


C.—GEOLOGY. 


President.—Prof. W. T. Gorpon. 

Vice-Presidents—Dr. R. CAMPBELL, Prof. W. G. FEARNSIDES, F.R.S., Prof. 
A. W. GisB, Sir A. Kitson, C.M.G., C.B.E., Dr. M. MaccGreEoor, Prof. H. H. 
READ, Dr. A. W. RoGErs, F.R.S. 

Recorder.—Dr. A. K. WELLS. 

Secretavies—B. H1LTonN Barrett, Dr. H. C. VERSEY. 

Local Secretary —Dr. A. BREMNER. 


D.—ZOOLOGY. 


Pyresident.—Dr. E. S. Russe i, O.B.E. 


Vice-Presidents.—Prof. J. H. AsHwortu, F.R.S., Dr. J. Gray, F.R.S., Prof. J. 
GRAHAM Kerr, F.R.S., Prof. J. Ritcuiz, Prof. D’Arcy W. THOMPsoN, 
C.B., F.R.S., Prof. D. M. S. Watson, F.R.S. 

Recorder.—G. L. PURSER. 

Secretaries —Dr. G. S. CARTER, Prof. W. M. TATTERSALL. 

Local Secretary —R. M. NEILL. 


E.—GEOGRAPHY. 


President.—Prof. A. G. OaILviz, O.B.E. 


Vice-Presidents.—Dr. W. A. Epwarp, Prof. C. B. Fawcett, J. McFArRLANE, 
Rt. Hon. Lorp MeEston, K.C.S.I., Prof. J. L. Myrezs, O.B.E., F.B.A., 
Sir GEORGE ADAM SMITH, F.B.A. 


Recordey.—H. Kine. 
Secretaries —J. N. L. Baker, Dr. R. O. BucHANAN. 
Local Secretayy.—J. Hay. 


x OFFICERS OF SECTIONS, 1934 


F.—ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS. 


President.—H. M. HALitswortu, C.B.E. 
Vice-Presidents.—R. H. Cowl, JAMES FIDDEs, Prof. A. Gray, Prof. J. H. Jongs, 
A. T. McRoBeErt, W. B. Mitne, R. M. WiILLramMson. 


Recordey.—Dr. K. G. FENELON. 

Secretaries —Dr. P. Forp, J. MorGan REEs. 

Local Secretary—Dr. H. HamILton. 

A Department of Industrial Co-operation—Chaiyman, Dr. J. A. Bowie ; Secretary, 
R. J. Mackay, Management Research Groups, Astor House, Aldwych, 
London, W.C. 2—arranged a special programme in connection with this and 
other Sections. 


G.—ENGINEERING. 


President.—Prof. F. G. Batty. 

Vice-Presidents —R. W. ALLEN, C.B.E., Prof. W. BLACKADDER. 
Recordey.—J. S. WiLson. 

Secretavies—Dr. S. J. Davies, Dr. A. H. Davis. 

Local Secretary.—J. C. GRASSIE. 


H.—ANTHROPOLOGY. 


President.—Capt. T. A. Joyczr, O.B.E. 

Vice-Presidents.—Prof. V. GORDON CHILDE, Prof. R. A. FIsHER, F.R.S., Prof. 
H. J. FLeure, Prof. A. Low, Dr. Marcaret A. Murray, Rt. Hon. Lorp 
RAGLan, Prof. R. W. Rerp, R. U. Saycre, Rev. E. W. Smiru. 


Recorder and Local Secretavy.—Dr. J. F. TocHER. 
Secretaries —K. H. Jackson, V. E. NasH-WILLIAMS. 


I.—PHYSIOLOGY. 


President.—Prof. H. E. Roar. 


e 
Vice-Presidents—Prof. J. J. R. Macteop, F.R.S., Prof. J. A. MAcWILLIAm, 
F.R.S., Prof. H. S. Raper, C.B.E., F.R.S., Prof. J. Tarr. 


Recordey.—Prof. R. J. BROCKLEHURST. 
Secretary.— Dr. F. J. W. Roucuton. 
Local Secretary.—Dr. J. M. PETERSON. 


J-——PSYCHOLOGY. 


President.—Dr. SHEPHERD DAwson. 


Vice-Presidents.—Prof. F. AVELING, R. J. BARTLETT, E. FARMER, Prof. G. A. 
JAEDERHOLM, Dr. Lt. Wynn Jones, Prof. D. Katz, A. REx KNIGHT, 
A. W. WOLTERS. 


Recordey.—Dr. Mary Co.ttins. 
Secretavies.—Dr. S. J. F. Puitpott, Dr. P. E. VERNON. 
Local Secretary.—G. J. AITKEN. 


K.— BOTANY. 


President.—Prof. A. W. Bortuwick, O.B.E. 


Vice-Presidents.—Dr. Dorotuy G. Downte, Prof. F. E. Lroyp, Prof. J. R. 
MattuHEws, Dr. W. G. Oce, Dr. J. D. SutHERLAND, C.B.E. 


Recordey.—Prof. H. S. HoLpEn. 
Secretavies—Dr. B. Barnes, Dr. E. V. Laine, Miss L. I. Scott. 
Local Secretayy.—Miss E. C. BARNETT. 


OFFICERS OF SECTIONS, 1934 xi 


L.—EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE. 
President.—H. T. Tizarp, C.B., F.R.S. 
Vice-Presidents—Dr. W. A. Epwarp, J. L. Hotianp, Dr. N. T. WALKER. 
Recordey.—G. D. DUNKERLEY. 
Secretavies.—S. R. Humpy, Miss HELEN MASTERS. 
Local Secretary.—D. M. Morton. 


M.—AGRICULTURE. 


President.—Prof. J. A. S. Watson. 

Vice-Presidents—J. CRUICKSHANK, Rt. Hon. WALTER ELtiort, P.C., Noe. 
Prof. J. HENDRIcK, Dr. A. LaupER, J. MAcKIE, A. Murpocu, Dr. J. B. 
Orr, F.R.S., J. DuTHIE WEBSTER. 


Recordey.—Dr. E. M. CROWTHER. 
Secretary.—W. GODDEN. 
Local Secretary —A. HILL. 


CONFERENCE OF DELEGATES OF CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES. 


President.—Col. Sir HENRY Lyons, F.R.S. 
Secretavy.—Dr. C. TIERNEY. 


ANNUAL MEETINGS 


TABLE OF 


Old Life | New Life 


Date of Meeting Where held Presidents Members | Members 
1831, Sept. 27...... OER. stop asadsecanenes Viscount Milton, D.C.L., F.R.S. ...... — — 
1832, June rg_...| Oxford .... .«...| The Rev. W. Buckland, F.R.S._ ...... _— —_— 
1833, June 25. ...| Cambridge... ....| The Rev. A. Sedgwick, F.R.S. 2 a —_ 
1834, Sept. 8 ...... Edinburgh ... ....| Sir T. M. Brisbane, D.C.L., F. R. ica ee — — 
1835, Aug. I0...... Dublin....... .-..| The Rev. Provost Lloyd, LED) Bees — — 
1836, Aug. 22...... Bristol....... .| The Marquis of Lansdowne, F.R.S. — — 
1837, Sept. 11...... TAYEpOOL, The Earl of Burlington, F.R.S.......... —_— -- 
1838, Aug. Io The Duke of Northumberland, F.R.S. -- 
1839, Aug. 26...... .| The Rev. W. Vernon Harcourt, F.R.S. — — 
1840, Sept. 17 .... .| The Marquis of Breadalbane, F.R.S. — — 
1841, July 20...... .| The Rev. W. Whewell, F.R.S. 5 169 65 
1842, June 23 ....| The Lord Francis Egerton, F.G.S ees at 303 169 
1843, Aug. 17 ---.| Lhe Earl of Rosse, F-R.S. ....csssvecsess 109 28 
1844, Sept. 26 ....| The Rev. G. Peacock, D.D., F.R.S.. 226 150 
1845, June 1g_...| Cambridge............ Sir John F. W. Herschel, Bart., F.R. sy 313 36 
1846, Sept. Io...... Southampton .......| Sir Roderick I. Murchison, Bart. ‘F. R.S 241 10 
TOAP eee 24) ie s|) OXIOMM. oe -sesncccestaes Sir Robert H. Inglis, Bart., F.R.S. 314 18 
1848, Aug. 9 ...... Swansea ............0+ The Marquis of Northampton, Pres. RS. 149 } 
1849, Sept. 12...... Birmingham .........| The Rev. T. R. Robinson, D.D., F.R.S. 227 12 
1850, July 21...... Edinburgh ... ....| Sir David Brewster, K.H., F.R.S....... 235 9 
1851, July 2 ...... Ipswich .... ..».| G, B. Airy, Astronomer Royal, F.R.S. 172 8 
1852, Sept. I ...... Belfast.... ...-| Lieut.-General Sabine, F.R.S. ......... 164 10 
1853, Sept. 3 ...... (8411 | Deen ....| William Hopkins, F.R.S............ = 141 13 
1854, Sept. 20...... Liverpool «...| The Earl of Harrowby, F.R.S. 238 23 
1855, Sept. 12 Glasgow -| The Duke of Argyll, F.R.S. ... 194 33 
1856, Aug. 6 .| Cheltenham Prof.C.G. B. Daubeney, M.D., F.R. 182 14 
1857, Aug. 26 -| Dublin.... The Rev. H. Lloyd, D.D., F.R.S. .. 236 15 
1858, Sept. 22 o| ROEGS uscceans .| Richard Owen, M.D., D.C.L., F.R.S. 222 42 
1859, Sept. 14 Aberdeen ...-| H.R.H. The Prince Consort ............ 184 27 
1860, June 27_ ...| Oxford ...... ....| The Lord Wrottesley, M.A., F.R.S. ... 286 2I 
1861, Sept. 4 ...... Manchester... ..--| William Fairbairn, LL.D. “ie. RSs ce:s 321 113 
T8G2;(Octsizy i .cc. Cambridge ............ The Rev. Professor Willis, "MLA. ,»F.R.S. 239 15 
1863, Aug. 26...... Newcastle-on-Tyne | Sir William G. Armstrong, C. B.,F.R.S. 203 36 
1864, Sept. 13...... Baty ect ecvesccessccee Sir Charles Lyell, Bart., M.A., F.R.S. 287 40 
1865, Sept. 6 ...... Birmingham .........]| Prof. J. Phillips, M.A., Le: D., F.R.S 292 44 
1866, Aug. 22...... Nottingham ......... William R. Grove, 0c. » F.R. 5 Soatine 207 31 
1867, Sept. 4 ...00. Dundee ...... «+-.| The Duke of Buccleuch, K.C.B., F.R.S. 167 25 
1868, Aug. I9...... Norwich .... -| Dr. Joseph D. Hooker, F.R.S. ......... 196 18 
1869, Aug. 18...... Exeter .... Prof. G. G. Stokes, D. c: L. FRESE ee 204 21 
1870, Sept. 14...... Liverpool ... .-| Prof. T. H. Huxley, LL.D., F.R.S. ... 314 39 
1871, Aug. 2 ...... Edinburgh ...-| Prof. Sir W. Thomson, LL Sous 246 28 
1872, Aug. I4...... Brighton .--| Dr. W. B. Carpenter, F, A 245 36 
1873, Sept. 17...... Bradford -| Prof. A. W. Williamson, 212 27 
1874, Aug. 19......| Belfast -| Prof. J. Tyndall, LL.D., 162 13 
1875, Aug. 25 -| Bristol .| Sir John Hawkshaw, F.R. S 239 36 
1876, Sept. 6 Glasgow -| Prof. T. Andrews, M.D. ae RS 221 35 
1877, Aug. 15 Plymouth tae erOte ks Thomson, M.D., F.R 173 19 
1878, Aug. 14...... Dublin....... -| W. Spottiswoode, . A., FR 201 18 
1879, Aug. 20...... Sheffield .... ---.| Prof. G. J. Allman, M.D., F.R.S....... 184 16 
1880, Aug. 25...... Swansea .... .-..| A. C. Ramsay, LL. D. ¢ FoRtSaeeccsses 144 Ir 
1881, Aug. 31...... IMOTK seeurcacs soeres Sir John Lubbock, Bart., F.R.S. ...... 272 28 
1882, Aug. 23...... Southampton ...... Dr. C. W. Siemens, F:R.S; sauseeaseren ee 178 17 
1883, Sept. 19...... Southport Prof. A: Cayley, D.C.L., FoRSae hates 203 60 
1884, Aug. 27...... Montreal .--.| Prof. Lord Rayleigh, F.R.S. 235 20 
1885, Sept. 9 ...... Aberdeen -| Sir Lyon Playfair, K.C.B., F. 225 18 
1886, Sept. 1 ...... Birmingham Sir J. W. Dawson, C.M.G., F. 314 25 
1887, Aug. 31...... Manchester Sir H. E. Roscoe, sof be ey a 428 86 
1888, Sept. 5 ...... PPAR oe ceecsenerescns Sir F. J. Bramwell, F.RS. 266 36 
1889, Sept. r1z......| Newcastle-on-Tyne | Prof. W. H. Flower, C.B., F. 277 20 
1890, Sept. 3 ...... EECUS) Sic ccascceoceseact Sir F. A. Abel, C.B., F.R.S. 259 21 
1891, Aug. 19...... Cardif . -| Dr. W Huggins, RIGS See 189 24 
1892, Aug. 3 Edinburgh . .| Sir A. Geikie, LL.D., F.R.S. . 280 14 
1893, Sept. 13... Nottingham — -| Prof. J.S. Burdon Sanderson, F. RS. 201 17 
1894, Aug. 8 Oxford) <.:... :-..| The Marquis of Salisbury, K.G., F.R.S. 327 2I 
1895, Sept. 11......| Ipswich .... .-..| Sir Douglas Galton, K.C.B., F.R.S. ... 214 13 
1896, Sept. 16...... Liverpool . ....| Sir Joseph Lister, Bart., Pres. R.S 330 31 
1897, Aug. 18...... Toronto .... .--.| Sir John Evans, K.C.B., F.R.S. 120 8 
1898, Sept. 7 ...... Bristol .... cove] (ill Ws CROOKES SE RRUS, | .cemieetuneaeel ees 281 19 
1899, Sept. 13...... DIGVER aos once weatwances Sir Michael Foster, K.C.B., Sec. R.S. ... 296 20 


* Ladies were not admitted by purchased tickets until 1843. 


+ Tickets of Admission to Sections only. 
[Continued on p. xiv. 


ANNUAL MEETINGS xiii 
ee UAL MEETINGS. 
) Sums paid 
| 
Old New Aceos Ano on eal | 
| Annual | Annual iat Ladies | Foreigners) Total Bij tig of Grants Year | 
omg Members| “@'€S Tickets for Scientific | 
Purposes | 
———— 
— — | = => _ 353 = _ 1831 
| _ — = — = — = — 1832 
| — — — as = goo — _ 1832 
: _ — = — — 1298 _ £20 O50 1834 
— | — — — -5 — — 167 0 0 1835 
/ —_— _— — —_ _— 1350 _ 435 0 0 1836 
—- | = — — _ 1840 — 92212 6| 1837 
=> — | —_— r110* — 2400 _— O92. 2.2 1838 
= oe = ana 34 1438 = 1595 II oO 1839 
| — -= _ —_— 40 1353 — 1546 16 4 1840 
46 317 — 60* — 891 — 1235 IO II 1841 
75 376 33t 331* 28 1315 = 1449 17 8| 1842 
eae | Wome 36) — 160 —— — —= 1565 10 2 1843 
45 190 gt 260 —_ —_ —_— 981 12 8 1844 
94 | 22 407 172 35 1079 aoe 831 9 9}| 1845 
65 39 270 196 36 857 —_— 685 16 o 1846 
197 40 495 203 53 1320 faa. 208 5 4 1847 
| 54 25 376 197 15 819 £707 0 0 275 x. & 1848 
93 33 447 237 22 1071 963 0 0 159 19 6 1849 
128 42 510 273 44 I241 1085 0 oO 345 18 Oo 1850 
61 47 244 I4I 37 710 620 0 Oo Z90rn «9 7 1851 
63 60 510 292 9 1108 1085 0 oO 304 6 7 1852 
56 57 367 236 6 876 903 0 Oo 205 0° 0 1853 
121 121 765 524 Io 1802 1882 0 0 380 19 _ 7 1854 
142 IOI 1094 543 26 2133 Z2T (0) 0 480 16 4 1855 
104 48 412 346 9 III5 1098 oO oO 734.13 9 1856 
156 120 900 569 26 2022 2015 0 O 507 15 4 1857 
III gI 710 509 13 1698 I93I 0 O 618 18 2 1858 
125 179 1206 821 22 2564 2782 0 O| 684 1% 1 1859 
a7 | 59 636 463 47 1689 1604 0 O 766 19 6 1860 
184 | 125 1589 791 15 3138 3944 0 O| IIII 5 10 1861 
150 | 57 433 242 25 1161 1089 0 0O| 1293 16 6 1862 
154 209 1704 1004 25 3335 3640 0 oO} 1608 3 10 1863 
182 103 111g 1058 13 2802 2965 Oo oOo} 128915 8 1864 
215 149 766 508 23 1997 2227 0 O| 1591 7 I0 1865 | 
218 105 960 771 II 2303 2469 0 O| 175013 4 1866 | 
193 118 1163 771 7h 2444 2613 0 O| 1739 4 0 1867 
226 117 720 682 45t 2004 2042 0 0] 1940 0 O 1868 
229 107 678 600 17 1856 I93I O O| 1622 0 O 1869 
303 195 II03 gio I4 2878 3096 0 O| 1572 0 O 1870 | 
311 127 976 754 21 2463 2575 0 O| 1472 2 6 Tagz, | 
280 80 937 gi2 43 2533 2649 0 O| 1285 0 O 1872 
237 99 796 601 II 1983 2120 0 o| 1685 0 oO 1873 
232 85 817 | 630 12 I951I 1979 O O| II5I 16 O 1874 
307 93 884 672 17 2248 2397 ‘D i0))), 1960 70) 50 1875 
331 185 1265 712 25 2774 3023 © O|} 1092 4 2 1876 
238 59 446 283 ap 1229 1268 o o| 1128 9 7 1877 
290 93 1285 | 674 17 2578 2615 0 Oo 725 16 6 1878 
239 74 529 | 349 13 1404 | 1425 O ©| 1080 II II 1879 
171 41 389 147 12 915 | 899 0 o| 73I 7 7 1880 | 
313 176 1230 514 24 2557 2689 0 o| 476 8 1 18sr | 
253 79 516 | 189 21 1253 1286 o oO} 1126 I II 1882 | 
330 | 323 952 | 841 5 | 2714 3369 0 oO} 1083 3 3 1883 | 
317 219 826 | 74 26 &60H.§; 1777 1855 O O| 1173 4 O 1884 | 
332 122 1053 447 6 | 2203 2256 o O| 1385 0 O 1885 | 
428 179 1067 429 II | 2453 2532. 0 O 995 0 6 1886 | 
510 244 1985 493 92 | 3838 4336 0 o|] 1186 18 o 1887 | 
399 100 639 509 12 1984 2107.0 O| I5Ir 0 5 1888 
412 113 102 579 21 | 2437 244I O O| 1417 OT! 1889 
368 92 680 334 12 he de do 1776 0 O 789 16 8 1890 
341 | 152 672 107 35 1497 1664 0 O| 1029 I0 O 1891 
413 141 733 439 50 2070 2007 0 O 864 10 o| 1892 | 
328 57 773 | “Zs 17 | r66r 1653 0 0 907 15 6)| 1893 | 
435 69 94m | 451 77 | 232% 2175 0 0O| 583 15 6| 1894 
290 31 493 | 261 22 1324 1236 0 0 977 15 5 1895 
383 139 1384 873 41 3181 3228 o o| 1104 6 | 1896 
286 125 682 | 100 41 1362 | 1398 o o| 1059 10 8 1897 
327 96 ro5r_ | 639 33 2446 | 2399 0 O} 1212 0 O 1898 
324 68 548 120 2 1403 ‘cP O 0|°%430 14 2 1899 


¢ Including Ladies. § Fellows of the American ‘sociation: were damitted as Hon. Members for this Meeting. 


[Continued on p. xv. 


XiVv 


ANNUAL MEETINGS 


Table of 


Date of Meeting 


Igoo, Sept. 5 .. 
Igor, Sept. 11.. 
1902, Sept. 10 
1903, Sept. 9 
1904, Aug. I7.. 
1905, Aug. I5..... 
1906, Aug. I ...... 
1907, july 31 
1908, Sept. 2 
1909, Aug. 25 
Igro, Aug. 31..... 
Igtr, Aug. 30...... 
1912, Sept. 4 


1916 Sept. 5 
1917 
1918 
1919, Sept. 9 


1920, Aug. 24 
1921, Sept. 7 
1922, Sept. 6 


1923, Sept. 12)... 
1924, Aug. 6 
1925, Aug. 26...... | 
1926, Aug. 4 


1927, Aug. 31 .....- 
1928, Sept. 5 


1929, July 22 


1930, Sept. 3 
1931, Sept. 23....-. 


‘| Glasgow .. 


1932, Aug. 31...... 
1933, Sept. 6 ...... 


1934, Sept..5 ...... | 


Where held 


Bradford ae 


Belfast .... 
Southport . 
Cambridge .... 
South Africa A 
York 


Birmingham ... 
Australia......,.. 
Manchester 
Newcastle-on-Tyne 
(No Meeting) 
(No Meeting) 
Bournemouth......... 


Cardiff 
Edinburgh .. 
Hull 


Liverpool 
Toronto .......... 
Southampton 
Oxford 


Glasgow oescssessccee- 
South Africa 


Bristol 
London 


RVOUGE coenaet re rereene 
Leicester 
Aberdeen 


Presidents 


Old Life | New Life 
Members | Members 


‘| Sir David Gill, K.C.B., F.R.S. 


...| Prof. Sir W. Ramsay, K.C.B., ERS. 


-| Sir William Bragg, K.B.E., F. 


Sir William Turner, D.C.L., F.R.S. ... 

Prof. A. W. Ricker, D. ae Sec. R.S. 

Prof. J. Dewar, LL. Dy. RIS oe aeemenee 

Sir Norman Lockyer, K. oe B., F. R. 

Rt. Hon. A. J. Balfour, M.P., F.R. 
F.R.S. 
DES 


Prof. G. H. Darwin, LL.D. 
Prof. E. Ray Lankester, LL. 


i" 


Dr. Francis Darwin, F.R.S. ...... 
Prof, Sir J. J. Thomson, F.R.S. 
Rev. Prof. T. G. Bonney, F.R.S. 


Prof. E. A. Schafer, F.R.S. 
Sir Oliver J. Lodge, F.R.S. 
Prof. W. Bateson, F.R.S. .... eee 
Protf.-A. Schuster, FRiS:......<.Seateccesd 


Sic Arthur Evans, PORES. ....ccseese 
Hon. Sir C. Parsons, K.C.B., F.R.S.... 


Prof. W. A. Herdman, C.B.E., F.R.S. 
Sink. EvEhorpe, C.Bi fF. R:Swepeesns 
Sir C.S. Sherrington, G.B.E., Pres. R.S.| 


Sir Ernest Rutherford, F. 5 SS 
Sir David Bruce, K.C.B., F.R.S. 
Prof. Horace Lamb, ERS. Seeees 
H.R.H. The Prince of Wales, K.G., 
BIRO Soy ceete owe op okie mags secs a0 ste cee eee 
Sir Arthur Keith, F.R.S. 


Thomas Holland, Sor 
Gr aR Ss, nasweek «cee sceeeeeeee ee 


Sir 
K. 


¢C. ice ceekb'sqhipng sae enesaeneceed 
Sir aitent Ewing, K.C.B., F.R.S. 
Sir F. Gowland Hopkins, Pres. R.S.. 
Sir James H. Jeans, F.R.S.14 


267 


13 

310 37 
243 21 
250 21 
419 32 
115 40 
322 10 
276 19 
294 24 
117 13 
293 26 
284 2I 
288 14 
376 40 
172 13 
242 19 
164 12 
235 47 
288 Ir 
336 9 
228 13 
326 12 
119 f 
280 8 
358 9 
249 9 
260 10 
8x I 
221 5 
487 14 
206 I 
185 37 
199 2I 


1 Including 848 Members of the South African Association. 
2 Including 137 Members of the American Association. 
’ Special arrangements were made for Members and Associates joining locally in Australia, see 
The numbers include 80 Members who joined in order to attend the Meeting of 
L’Association Frangaise at Le Havre. 
4 Including Students’ Tickets, ros. 
® Including Exhibitioners granted tickets without charge. 
° Including grants from the Caird Fund in this and subsequent years. 
? Including Foreign Guests, Exhibitioners, and others. 


Report, 1914, p. 686. 


ANNUAL MEETINGS XV 
Annual Meetings—(continued). 
| | Sums paid 
Old | New | N Amount | on account | y,., 
Annual | Annual renee Ladies (Foreigners) Total received of Grants 
Members Members BEMES for for Scientific 
| | Tickets Purposes 
207 45 801 482 9 1915 |£180r o o |f1072 10 0 | Ig00 
374 131 794 246 20 Igi2 2046 0 Oo 920 9 II | Igor 
314 86 647 305 6 1620 1644 0 0 947 O O| Ig02 
319 go 688 365 21 1754 1762 0 0 845 13 2 | 1903 
449 . 113 1338 317 121 2789 2650 0 O 887 18 Ir | 1904 
O37) | 411 430 181 16 2130 2422 0 O 928 2 2 | 1905 
356 93 817 352 22 1972 18II 0 Oo 882 0 9g | 1906 
339 61 659 251 42 1647 I56I 0 O 757 I2 10 | 1907 
405 | 112 1166 222 I4 2207 2317 0 O| 1157 18 8]! 1908 
290% | 162 789 go 7 1468 1623 0 O| 1014 9 9g | 1909 
379 } 57 563 123 8 1449 1439 9 0 963 17 0 | I910 
349 61 414 81 31 I24I 1176 0 OJ 922 O O| I9gII 
368 95 1292 359 88 2504 2349 0 0| 845 7 6] 1912 
480 149 1287 291 20 2643 2756 0 oO 978 17 I | 1913 
139 4160° 539° = 21 50445 | 4873 0 o| 1861 16 4*| 1914 
287 116 6284 I4I 8 1441 1406 0 0} 1569 2 8 | 1915 
250 76 251 73 — 826 82r 0 o| 985 18 10 | 1916 
a = a = = = = 677 17 2 | 1917 
—_ _ — —_ _ —- — 326 13. 3 | 1918 
254 102 6884 153 3 1482 1736 0 0 410 0 0O| I9gI9 
Annual Members 
Old 
ponual Tea eee Eransier Zee 
egular eetin : Ce ickets 
Members and E | se Tickets 
Report | 
136 192 571 42 120 20 1380 1272 10 0] 1251 13 0®| 1920 
133 410 1394 I2I 343 22 2768 2599 I5 O 518 I 10] I92t 
go 294 757 89 235° 24 1730 1699 5 Oo F222 oO F | T922 
Compli- 
mentary? 
123 380 1434 163 550 308 3296 | 2735 15 O| 777 18 6°| 1923 
37 520 1866 41 89 139 2818 3165 19 oO) 1197 5 Q | 1924 
97 264 878 62 119 74 1782 1630 5 O|} 1231 0 O| 1925 
Io1 453 2338 169 225 69 3722 3542 0 0 917 I 6] 1926 
84 334 1487 82 264 161 2670 2414 5 0 761 10 O |} 1927 
76 554 1835 64 201 74 3074 3072 I0 0} 1259 10 O| 1928 
j | 
: 24 177 | r2272| — 161 83 1754 | 1477 15 0 | 1838 2 1| 1929 
. 68 310 1617 97 267 54 2639 2481 15 oO 683 5 7 | 1930 
| 78 656 2994 157 454 449 5702" | 4792 10 0} 1146 7 6) 1931 
44 226 1163 45 214 125 2024 1724 5 O| 1183 13 II | 1932 
: 39 236 1468 82 147 74 2268 2428 2.0 412 19 1135) 1933 
30 273 1884 181 280 70 2938 2900 13 6 739 4 O| 1934 


to 1926. 


§ The Bournemouth Fund for Research, initiated by Sir C. Parsons, enabled grants on account oi 
scientific purposes to be maintained. 


® Including grants from the Caird Gift for research in radioactivity in this and subsequent years 


10 Subscriptions paid in Canada were $5 for Meeting only and others prorata; there was some gain 
on exchange. 
4 Including 450 Members of the South African Association. 
22 Including 413 tickets for certain meetings, issued at 5s. to London County Council school-teachers. 
48 For nine months ending March 31, 1933. 
+* Sir William B. Hardy, F.R.S., who became President on January 1, 1934, died on January 23. 


(Louititons} 


‘ mist i 


Gaon) 


sm 


sughnino? stink’ 
ite LUE fmm, wy yobrieers’ 


Roo Ure) ) 


NARRATIVE OF THE ABERDEEN 
MEETING. 


On Wednesday, September 5, at 8.30 P.M., the Inaugural General Meeting 
was held in the Capitol Cinema (generously placed by the management 
at the disposal of the Association), when the Hon. the Lord Provost of 
Aberdeen (Mr. Henry Alexander, J.P.) and the Principal and Vice-Chan- 
cellor of the University (the Very Rev. Sir George Adam Smith, D.D.) 
welcomed the Association to Aberdeen. The President of the Association, 
Sir James H. Jeans, F.R.S., delivered an Address (for which see p. 1) 
entitled The New World Picture of Modern Physics. 

Before delivering his Address, the President read the following message 
which had been forwarded to The King at Balmoral, and His Majesty’s 
gracious reply :— 


Your Mayjsesty,—We, the Members of the British Association for the 
Advancement of Science assembled in the City of Aberdeen in annual 
session, desire humbly to recall to Your Majesty that it was in this City 
that His Royal Highness The Prince Consort assumed the Presidency of 
the Association in the year 1859. From the Presidential Chair, he con- 
veyed to the assembled members of the Association a gracious message 
from Her Majesty Queen Victoria, and delivered an Address which dis- 
closed his own profound interest in the advancement of Science. The 
many marks of Royal favour which have been extended to our Association 
on subsequent occasions have provided further signal encouragement to 
us in our pursuit of the aims defined by His Royal Highness, and on all 
these counts we now desire to express to Your Majesty our humble gratitude. 


(Signed) J. H. JEANS, 
President. 
To The President, 
The British Association, Aberdeen. 

Iam commanded by the King to thank the members of the British 
Association for the Advancement of Science for the loyal message which 
they have addressed to His Majesty, their Patron, from the Inaugural 
General Meeting in the Ancient City of Aberdeen. 

His Majesty appreciates their kind remembrance of the occasion when 
the Prince Consort, as President of the Association, delivered a message 
from Queen Victoria to the members assembled in this City three-quarters 
of a century ago. 

The King desires me to assure the members of his unabated interest in 
their Meetings and his confidence that their investigations into the manifold 
problems confronting present day Scientists will continue to be productive 
of results which will benefit mankind. 

(Signed) CLIVE WIGRAM. 


5th September, 1934. 


On Friday, September 7, in the MacRobert Hall, Gordon’s College, 
at 8.30 P.M., Sir Frank Smith, K.C.B., Sec. R.S., delivered an Evening 
Discourse entitled The Storage and Transport of Food (see p. 419), being 

*b 


XViii NARRATIVE OF THE ABERDEEN MEETING 


a Memorial Lecture for the late President of the Association, Sir William 
Hardy, F.R.S. 

On Monday, September 10, in the same hall, at 8.30 P.M., Prof. W. L. 
Bragg, F.R.S., delivered an Evening Discourse entitled The Exploration 
of the Mineral World by X-rays (p. 437). 


* * * * * * 


The Lord Provost, Magistrates, and Town Council of Aberdeen enter- 
tained members of the Association at a Reception in the Art Gallery and 
adjacent buildings on Thursday evening, September 6. 

The University of Aberdeen entertained members of the Association 
at a Garden Party in King’s College on Monday afternoon, September ro. 

A dance was held in the Beach Ball Room on Tuesday evening, Sep- 
tember 11. 

The students of Aberdeen University produced a play, Town G Gown, 
during the week beginning on September 10, and the productions on this and 
the following nights were regarded as ‘ British Association performances.’ 

By the courtesy of the owners, the exhibits shown at the Telford 
Centenary Exhibition in the Institution of Civil Engineers, London, in . 
June, 1934, were displayed in the Engineering Department of Gordon’s 
College during the week of the meeting. The exhibition was opened 
by Sir Alexander Gibb, G.B.E., on Friday, September 7. 

Visits were arranged to the Rowatt Research Institute, the Macaulay 
Research Institute, the Torry Research Station of the Department of 
Scientific and Industrial Research, and the research vessel (the Explorer) 
of the Fishery Board for Scotland ; and numerous other institutions and 
works in the city and neighbourhood afforded facilities and entertainment 
to members during the meeting. 

* * * * * * 

A special service was held in the West Church of St. Nicholas, when 
officers and other members of the Association accompanied the Lord 
Provost in state. The service was conducted by the Rev. P. C. Millar, 
O.B.E., Minister of the Church, and the preacher was the Very Rev. 
Principal Sir George Adam Smith, D.D. The service was broadcast, 
and the sermon was published in The Listener, September 26. Other 
special services were held in St. Andrew’s Cathedral, St. Mary’s Roman 
Catholic Cathedral, and Belmont Congregational Church. 


¥ * * * * * 


On Saturday, September 8, general excursions were arranged to Royal 
Deeside, the Highlands (Spey Valley, Aviemore, Culloden Moor, Inver- 
ness), Moray (Elgin, Pluscarden Abbey, etc.), Mearns (Glen of Dye, Cairn 
o’ Mount road, Fettercairn, Edzell, Brechin, Stonehaven). Among other 
excursions and visits, those devoted to the interests of special Sections during 
the Meeting are mentioned among the Sectional Transactions in later pages. 

* * * * * ¥* 

At the final meeting of the General Committee, on Tuesday, Sep- 

tember 11, it was resolved : 


(1) That the British Association places on record its warm thanks for 
the hospitable reception afforded to it by the City of Aberdeen. The 


NARRATIVE OF THE ABERDEEN MEETING xix 


generous co-operation of the Lord Provost, Magistrates, and Town Council, 
and the thorough preparations made by the local officers and committees, 
have been deeply appreciated, while the large local membership has been 
highly gratifying to the Association. 

(2) That the British Association most cordially thanks the University 
Court of the University of Aberdeen for their hospitality to the Association, 
for the use of their buildings, and for the valuable assistance given by the 
University authorities and staff. 

(3) That the British Association most cordially thanks the scientific 
educational, commercial, and industrial institutions in Aberdeen and the 
neighbourhood, for the accommodation and facilities so generously provided 
for meetings and visits. 


* * * * * *& 
On Wednesday, September 12, the President and General Officers, 


Members of the Council and Presidents of Sections, entertained the 
principal local officers at luncheon. 


REPORT OF THE COUNCIL, 1933-34. 


PRESIDENCY, 1934. 


I.—The Association suffered a grievous loss in the death of its President, 
Sir William Hardy, F.R.S., on January 23. 
The Council adopted the following resolution :— 


That the Council deeply deplore the death of the President of the Associa- 
tion, Sir William Hardy, remember with gratitude his eminent services in 
the advancement of science, and record their sincere condolence with the 
members of his family in their bereavement. 


A letter was received from the Lord Provost of Aberdeen (Mr. Henry 
Alexander) expressing the regret of the Local General Committee for the 
Aberdeen Meeting. 

The Association was represented at the funeral of the late President 
by Prof. Lord Rutherford, F.R.S., ex-President, by» Prof. i: sjcMs 
Stratton, General Secretary, and by Mr. D. B. Gunn, ‘Town Clerk Depute 
of Aberdeen, on behalf of the Local General Committee. 

Sir William Bragg, O.M., K.B.E., F.R.S., occupied the Chair of the 
Council at the meetings in February and March. 

The Council resolved that one of the Evening Discourses at the Aberdeen 
Meeting should be announced as a Sir William Hardy Memorial Lecture. 


IIl.—On the nomination of the Council, Sir James Jeans, F.R.S., was 
appointed to succeed Sir William Hardy as President of the Association 
for the current year, at a meeting of the General Committee convened on 
March 2 by the Council under Statute IT, 3. 


OBITUARY. 


I1I.—The Council have had to deplore the loss by death of the following 
office-bearers and supporters :— 


Most Hon. the Marquis of Aber- Prof. A. B. Macallum, F.R.S. 


deen Prof. J. E. Marr, F.R.S. 
Dr. F.A.Bather,F.R.S.,amember Sir Ernest Moir, Bt. 
of the present Council Dr. Marion Newbigin 
Sir John H. Biles, F.R.S. The Hon. Lady Parsons 
Dr. Lilian Clarke Dr. W. Rosenhain, F.R.S. 
Prof. Sir Edgworth David, F.R.S. Dr. D. H. Scott, F.R.S., General 
Prof. J. Cossar Ewart, F.R.S. Secretary, 1900-03 
Prof. W. M. Hicks, F.R.S. Prof. J. Y. Simpson 
Prof. J. Joly, F.R.S. Prof. S. H. Vines, F.R.S. 
Sir Donald Macalister, K.C.B. Prof. R. Ramsay Wright 


The Association was represented at the funeral of Dr. Bather by 
Prof. P. G. H. Boswell, F.R.S., General Secretary, and at that of Dr. D. H. 
Scott by Prof. F. E. Weiss, F.R.S. 


REPORT OF THE COUNCIL, 1933-34 xxi 


REPRESENTATION. 


IV.—Representatives of the Association have been appointed as 
follows :— 


Central Conference for Health Education, 


London . : ; : : . Dr. C. W. Kimmins 
National Committee for Geodesy and 
Geophysics : : , : . Prof. A. O. Rankine, 
F.R.S. 


American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science, Boston Meeting . Prof. F. E. Lloyd and 
Prof. A. E. Kennelly 

British Film Institute, Advisory Com- 


mittee ; Prof. J. L. Myres 
International Congress "Of Anthropology 
and Ethnology, London : Capt. T. A. Joyce 
Edinburgh Geological Society, Centeniet Prof. P. G. H. Boswell, 
F.R.S. 


The Council have given general approval to a suggestion that, except 
on occasions of special formality or otherwise in the discretion of the 
General Secretaries, it should be competent for the Secretary to send a 
letter to inviting bodies indicating that representatives are not nominated 
unless special circumstances make such action desirable, but that among 
such circumstances would be included any specific proposal or suggestion 
for collaboration between the inviting society and the Association or any 
of its sectional or research committees, with the object of the advancement 
of science in any department within the scope of the Association. 


RESOLUTIONS. 


V.—Resolutions referred by the General Committee to the Council for 
consideration, and, if desirable, for action, were dealt with as follows. 
The resolutions will be found in the Report for 1933, p. xliv. 


(a) The recommendation received from the General Officers was in 
the following terms :— 


That it be a recommendation to the General Committee to request 
the Council to consider by what means the Association, within the 
framework of its constitution, may assist towards a better adjustment 
between the advance of science and social progress, with a view to 
further discussion at the Aberdeen Meeting. 


A committee of the Council considered this recommendation, and 
drew up a Memorandum which, after amendment and adoption by the 
Council, was circulated to all Organising Sectional Committees. As a 
result, numerous subjects appropriate to the terms of the recommenda- 
tion have been included for discussion in sectional programmes for the 
Aberdeen Meeting, and the Council themselves have had the recom- 
mendation in mind when arranging the evening meetings. 


XXii REPORT OF THE COUNCIL, 1933-34 


(b) A letter was addressed to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries 
expressing the hope that no effort would be spared to exterminate the 
musk-rat completely in this country. A reply was received to the 
effect that the danger was fully appreciated, and that suitable measures 
were being taken. (Resolution of Section D, Zoology.) 

(c) After inquiry, no action was taken upon a recommendation that 
the inclusion of population maps in the Census returns should be 
urged upon the proper authorities. (Resolution of Section E, 
Geography.) 

(d) The attention of the Colonial Office was drawn to the backward 
state of geodetic surveys in the British colonies and dependencies, and 
a reply was received to the effect that the question was continually 
engaging the attention of the Secretary of State, and that the Council’s 
representation would not be overlooked, but that it was difficult for 
most of the dependencies to find funds for survey work outside 
ordinary revenue purposes. (Resolution of Section E, Geography.) 

(e) A communication on the desirability of accelerating the revision 
of the large-scale maps of the Ordnance Survey was addressed to the 
Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. (Resolution of Section E, 
Geography.) 

(f) The attention of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries was 
drawn to the desirability of investigating diseases of the cricket-bat 
willow, and a reply was received to the effect that research into the 
diseases mentioned was already being carried on under the Forestry 
Commission, and that some work had also been done at Long Ashton 
Research Station. (Resolution of Section K, Botany.) 

(g) The separate issue of the reports on Science in Adult Education 
and on General Science with special reference to Biology was authorised 
as requested in the resolution of Section L (Educational Science). 


VI—In the Report of the Council for last year (Report, 1933, p. xx) 
it was stated that the Council had forwarded a resolution to H.M. Secretary 
of State for the Colonies, dealing with the archeological and geological 
interest of the Kendu-Homa area in Kenya. A reply was received to 
the effect that the Acting Governor of Kenya had taken steps to exclude 
the site in the Kendu-Homa area, on which archeological and geological 
discoveries had been made, from the area in respect of which application 
for exclusive mineral prospecting licences had been invited. 'The Council 
ordered an expression of their satisfaction to be conveyed to the 
authorities concerned. 


VII.—Correspondence on a proposal to establish a nature reserve in 
the Galapagos Islands was reported to the Council, and it was resolved 
that a communication be forwarded to the Carnegie Institution, expressing 
the hope that such proposal might be carried out, having regard especially 
to the fact that it was contemplated that the reserve should be established 
as a memorial to Charles Darwin. A reply was received from the 
Institution, expressing appreciation of the Council’s communication, and 
indicating that discussion was in progress with the authorities concerned. 


REPORT OF THE COUNCIL, 1933-34 XXili 


Down House. 


VIII.—The following report for the year 1933-34 has been received 
from the Down House Committee :— 


The number of visitors to Down House during the year ending June 6, 
1934, has been 8,536, compared with 7,022 in 1932-33. The increase 
is believed to be due, at least in part, to the establishment of an omnibus 
service to the village of Downe. 

Sir Buckston Browne has generously presented to the house his portrait 
by Mr. Robin Darwin. It is peculiarly appropriate that this work of 
Darwin’s great-grandson should find its place here. 

Several gifts of letters and other Darwiniana have been received during 
the past year and duly acknowledged, and have also been recorded in an 
addendum to the catalogue recently compiled. 

Under a scheme in which Mr. G. C. Robson, Prof. J. W. Munro, Miss 
Saunders of Goldsmiths’ College, and others are interested, opportunity has 
been given teachers in training and other students to do work on plant ecology 
in the neighbourhood of Downe, and they have made some use of accommoda- 
tion at Down House in this connection. 'The Committee feel that it is 
most appropriate that the Association should be able to grant such facilities. 

The Secretary and Mrs. Howarth have written, and published at their 
own charges, a History of Darwin’s Parish : Downe, Kent, to which Sir 
Arthur Keith has contributed a foreword. 'The Committee have consented 
to the announcement of this work along with other announcements relating 
to Down House in Association programmes, and have allowed it to be on 
sale at the house, as well as through ordinary channels. 

The following financial statement shows income and expenditure on 
account of Down House for the financial years ending March 31, 1933 and 
1934. For the latter year, a balance of income over expenditure amounting 
to £45 9s. 83d.is shown. The gift from the Pilgrim Trust, acknowledged 
in the last report of the Committee, has thus relieved the general funds of 
the Association. As the Council were advised last June, the present and 
any subsequent balance on the side of receipts will not be payable auto- 
matically to general funds, but will be placed in a suspense or maintenance 
fund for the house. If any payment to general funds should ultimately be 
considered possible, it will be by way of interest upon the so-called capital 
expenditure incurred on the property from general funds. 

It was explained in last year’s report that the figure for income from the 
endowment fund for 1932-33 was deceptive, as certain dividends included 
both a gross payment for the year and a refund of income tax on the pre- 
ceding year. This accounts for the apparent, but not actual, decrease in 
the returns on the invested fund. 


Income 
1932-33 1933-34 
ass as Meisel 7d 


By Dividends on endowment fund and 


income tax recovered . , i 1,030 I I0 978 17 6 
,, Grant from Pilgrim Trust : : — I50 0 0 
» Rents . , : : : : Tomo Oo 140) 150 
;, Donations. ; : E : ayy: tay 6 o 113 
,», Sale of Postcards and Catalogues ; 2417 0 34 14 23 
,, Balance, being excess of expenditure, 

as below, over income . B ; 40 7 114 — 


£1,240 11 14 1,310 7 8 


XxiV REPORT OF THE COUNCIL, 1933-34 


Expenditure (running costs) 


1932-33 1933-34 
ES Sad? LS? ads 
To Wages and National Insurance : 807 2 10 831 18 8 
,, Rates, Land Tax, Insurances . ; 64 10 II 57 4 10% 
5 Coal, Coke, etc. ; : ; : 104 9 9Q 103 12 5 
* Water z 5 90 aa DG Ase 
+5 Lighting and Drainage Plants (includ- 
ing petrol and oil) : : 69 17 6 62 18 34 
,, Repairs and Renewals. : ‘ Cope wey) 35 9 
,, Garden Materials . ; : ; 58 I0 9 56 14 8 
,, Household Requisites, etc. ‘ : 16 19 33 17 6 10% 
- ,, Transport and Carriage . z 2 5 ue Gee, yah ees 
,, Auditors ; 22 IO IO LG esTat 2 
», Printing, Postazes.. Telephone, Sta- 
tionery, etc. : 36 8 10 41 6 4 
», Donations to Village Tasttations é — Cato 
,, Legal Charges (lease of ‘ Homefield ’) . — Fels 6 
,, Purchase of Darwin’s eRe, table 
(net) . = 9 10 0 
,, Balance, being excess of i income over 
expenditure i ; ; : ad 45 9 84 
£1,240 Tt 15.1 3hOhag ces 
FINANCE. 


IX.—The Council have received reports from the General Treasurer 
throughout the year. His account has been audited and is presented to 
the General Committee. 


X. Bernard Hobson Trust—As stated in last year’s Report of the 
Council, the Association was a beneficiary in the sum of £1,000 under the 
will of Mr. Bernard Hobson, the income from which is to be devoted 
to the promotion of definite geological research. The Council have 
confirmed the proposals indicated in the last report, in the following 
terms :— 

(i) The fund is administered by the Council. 

(ii) It shall be competent for the Committee of Section C (Geology) at 
the Annual Meeting to recommend to the Council that one or more of 
the applications for grants to research committees shall be earmarked as 
a charge on the Bernard Hobson Fund. 

(iii) Council reserves the right to make a grant, or grants, from the 
fund in response to special applications arising in the course of the year. 

The Council undertook to consider the payment of travelling expenses 
(fares) in connection with grants made from the fund. 


XI. Sir Charles Parsons’ Legacy—The legacy of £2,000 left to the 
Association by the Hon. Sir Charles Parsons, K.C.B., F.R.S., has been 
received. 


XII. Leicester and Leicestershire Fund (1933)—On behalf of the Local 
Committee for the Leicester Meeting, 1933, Dr. C. J. Bond and Mr. Colin 


REPORT OF THE COUNCIL, 1933-34 XXV 


Ellis presented a cheque for £1,000 as a gift to the Association, being 
unexpended balance of the fund raised locally for the purposes of the 
meeting. ‘The following conditions were proposed :— 

(1) That the sum of £1,000 be given to the British Association for the 
Advancement of Science to be invested by them, the interest to be used 
to assist by scholarship or otherwise a student or students working for 
the advancement of science. 

(2) That the fund be administered solely by the Council of the British 
Association. 

(3) That when possible assistance be given preferably to a Leicester 
or Leicestershire student or worker. 

(4) That the fund be called the ‘ Leicester and Leicestershire Fund,’ 
or in some other way be identified with Leicester and Leicestershire, and 
that it be referred to in each year in the annual statement of the British 
Association. 


It was resolved that the Council accept with gratitude from the Com- 
mittee for the Leicester Meeting (1933) their gift of the sum of £1,000 to 
the Association, to form the Leicester and Leicestershire Fund for the 
prosecution of scientific work ; that the terms of trust accompanying the 
gift be accepted, and that the Council record their appreciation of the 
action of the committee in thus confirming, in a manner without precedent 
in the history of the Association, their interest in the advancement of 
science. 


XIII. Grants—The Council made the following grants from funds 
under their control :— 


From the Caird Fund. 


£ 
Committee on Seismology ; - 100 
- ,», Critical Sections in Palzeozoic Rocks . 20 (contingent) 
5 », Plymouth Table < s ? F 50° 
his ,, Zoological Record . . j E 50 
- », Naples Table . - 50 
te , Fresh Water Biological Station, Winder- 
mere (out of total grant of £75) ee AO 
aa », Derbyshire Caves ; ; i 25 
, », Prehistoric Site in Rio Tirito : 15 (contingent) 
bs ,, Routine Manual Factor in Mechanical 
Ability . i ? F 5 } 4,420 3 
(The above gave effect to recommendations made at the Leicester 
Meeting.) 
Committee on Mathematical Tables, toward the pub- 
‘lication of Bessel Function Tables . ; . £100 
Contribution toward expenses of Sixth International 
Congress for Scientific Management : foe 5S 
Committee on Human SeeeRy of tO ce Africa, 
not exceeding . : : eA 


From the Bernard Hobson Fund. 


Committee on Character of the Paleozoic Rocks under- 
lying the Carboniferous of the Craven area. e306 


(Giving effect to a recommendation made at the Leicester Meeting.) 
b2 


xxvi REPORT OF THE COUNCIL, 1933-34 


From the Cunningham Bequest. 


Prof. W. E. H. Berwick in connection with Table of 


Reduced Ideals £10 10s. 


XIV.—The Council propose the following additional Statute, to form 
paragraph (v) of section 2 in Chapter X, on the Admission and Privileges 
of Members :— 


Corporation membership may be acquired by any British corporate 
body approved by the Council on payment of the sum of thirty guineas 
which shall entitle the corporation to appoint one representative to attend 
each annual meeting in perpetuity, or on payment of the sum of fifty 
guineas, two representatives, and on payment of each further sum of fifteen 
guineas, an additional representative. Such subscription shall entitle 
the corporation or each of its representatives to receive the annual report 
on demand. 


PRESIDENT (1935), GENERAL OFFICERS, COUNCIL AND COMMITTEES. 


XV.—The Council’s nomination to the Presidency of the Association 
for the year 1935 (Norwich Meeting) is Prof. W. W. Watts, F.R.S. 


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


General Treasurer, Sir Josiah Stamp, G.B.E. 
General Secretaries, Prof. F. J. M. Stratton, D.S.O., O.B.E., Prof. 
P. G. H. Boswell, O.B.E., F.R.S. 


XVII. Council—The retiring Ordinary Members of the Council 
are: Sir Henry Fowler, K.B.E., Dr. Tate Regan, F.R.S., Prof. J. F. 
Thorpe, F.R.S., and Sir John Russell, F.R.S. A further vacancy was 
created by the death of Dr. F. A. Bather, F.R.S., to which previous 
reference has been made. 

The Council have nominated as new members Sir T. Hudson Beare, 
Prof. A. V. Hill, F.R.S., and Dr. W. W. Vaughan, 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 :-— 


Prof. F. Aveling Sir James Henderson 
Sir IT. Hudson Beare Prof. A. V. Hill, F.R.S. 
Prof. R. N. Rudmose Brown Prof. G. W. O. Howe 
Prof. F. Balfour Browne Dr. C. W. Kimmins 
Sir Henry Dale, C.B.E.,Sec. R.S. Sir P. Chalmers Mitchell, C.B.E. 
Prof. J. Drever Dr. N. V. Sidgwick, F.R.S. 
Prof. A. Ferguson Dr. G. C. Simpson, C.B., F.R.S. 
Prof. R. B. Forrester EL. Tizard) © Bo, ERese 
Prof. W. T. Gordon Prof. A. M. Tyndall, F.R.S. 
Prof. Dame Helen Gwynne- Dr. W. W. Vaughan 
Vaughan, G.B.E. Dr. J. A. Venn 


Dr. H. S. Harrison Prof. F. E. Weiss, F.R.S. 


REPORT OF THE COUNCIL, 1933-34 XXVii 


XVIII. Secretary—At their meeting in February the Council con- 
gratulated Dr. O. J. R. Howarth, Secretary, on completing twenty-five 
years in office. 


XIX. General Committee—The following have been admitted as 
members of the General Committee, mostly on the nomination of the 
Organising Sectional Committees under Regulation 1 :— 


Dr. S. Bryan Adams 
Mrs. Robert Aitken 

Prof. G. C. Allen 

Dr. C. B. Allsopp 

Prof. E. V. Appleton, F.R.S. 
Mr. W. 'T. Astbury 

Dr. W. A. Bain 

Dr. Helen Bancroft 

Dr. H. Banister 

Dr. B. Barnes 

Mr. B. Hilton Barrett 
Mr. R. J. Bartlett 

Mr. M. G. Bennett 

Dr. J. D. Bernal 

Miss D. Bexon 

Mr. E. G. Bowen 

Dr. J. A. Bowie 

Mr. M. C. Burkitt 

Dr. J. A. V. Butler 

Mr. L. H. Dudley Buxton 
Prof. H. Graham Cannon 
Miss G. Caton-Thompson 
Dr. A. W. Chapman 
Prof. V. Gordon Childe 
Prof. J. E. Coates 

Dr. J. D. Cockcroft 

Miss E. R. Conway, C.B.E. 
Dr. R,S. Creed 

Mr. E. H. Davison 

Prof. J. Doyle 

Prof. J. C. Drummond 
Miss M. Drummond 

Mr, T. S. Dymond 

Prof. L. E.S. Eastham 
Mr. W. N. Edwards 


Mr. A. C. G. Egerton, F.R.S. 


Capt. F. Entwistle 

Mr. E. Farmer 

Mrs. Allan Ferguson 
Prof. R. A. Fisher, F.R.S. 
Prof. P. Sargant Florence 
Prof. C. Daryll Forde 
Mr. C.H. H. Franklin 
Mr. J. A. Fraser 

Dr. R. G. Gordon 

Dr. Ezer Griffiths, F.R.S. 


Dr. J. M. Gulland 

Dr. R. T. Gunther 

Dr. T. M. Harris 

Mr. R. F. Harrod 

Prof. H. R. Hassé 

Prof. H. L. Hawkins 
Prof. W. N. Haworth, F.R.S. 
Prof. I. M. Heilbron, F.R.S. 
Dr. E. L. Hirst 

Mr. 5S. R. Humby 

Dr. J. O. Irwin 

Dr. J. Wilfred Jackson 
Mr. H.E. O. James 

Dr. S. W. Kemp, F.R.S. 
Prof. L. A. L. King 

Mr. J. F. Kirkaldy 

Mr. A. R. Knight 

Dr. Margery Knight 

Dr. S. K. Kon 

Dr. E. V. Laing 

Prof. J. E. Lennard-Jones, F.R.S. 
Mr. A. G. Lowndes 

Dr. W. H. McCrea 

Prof. B. A. McSwiney 
Dr. T. G. Maitland 

Capt. L. W. G. Malcolm 
Dr. F. G. Mann 

Dr. S. M. Manton 

Miss H. Masters 

Prof. J. R. Matthews 
Prof. E. Mellanby, F.R.S. 
Dr. G. H. Miles 

Mr. A. A. Miller 

Prof. E. A. Milne, M.B.E., F.R.S. 
Dr. E. M. Musgrave 

Mr. V. E. Nash-Williams 
Mr. R. M. Neill 

Prof. J. J. Nolan 

Mr. J. R. Norman 

Dr. W. G. Ogg 

Prof. L. S. Palmer 

Mr. C. F. A. Pantin 

Dr. S. J. F. Philpott 

Prof. W. J. Pugh 

Dr. A. Raistrick 

Dr. F. Raw 


xxviii REPORT OF THE COUNCIL, 1933-34 


Prof. H. H. Read Dr. R. Stoneley 

Prof. E. K. Rideal, M.B.E., Dr. J. D. Sutherland 
F.R.S. Prof. E. G. R. Taylor 

Mr. N. D. Riley Mr. T. W. J. Taylor 

Prof. G. W. Robinson Mr. E. R. Thomas 

Mr. G. C. Robson Dr. R. H. Thouless 

Dr. F. J. W. Roughton Mr. E. Tillotson 

Rev. J. P. Rowland, S.J. Dr. J. F. Tocher 

Mr. R. U. Sayce Dr. W. S. Tucker, O.B.E. 

Miss L. I. Scott Dr. G. W. Tyrrell 

Mr. D. J. Scourfield Miss M. D. Vernon 

Dr. L. Simons Dr. H. C. Versey 

Prof. J. L. Simonsen, F.R.S. Prof. J. Walton 

Dr. Bernard Smith, F.R.S. Dr. R. E. Mortimer Wheeler 

Prof. J. G. Smith ' Mr. W. Hamilton Whyte 

Mr. T. Smith, F.R.S. Prof. F. J. Wilson 

Mr. W. Campbell Smith Dr. J. Wishart 

Dr. F. G. Soper Dr. A. Wohlgemuth 

Mr. A. Stevens Dr. S. W. Wooldridge 

Dr. James Stewart Dr. Dorothy M. Wrinch 


XX. Corresponding Societies Committee—The Corresponding Socie- 
ties Committee has been nominated as follows :—The President of the 
Association (Chairman ex-officio), Mr. T. Sheppard (Vice-Chairman), 
Dr. C. Tierney (Secretary), the General Treasurer, the General Secre- 
taries, Mr. C. O. Bartrum, Sir Richard Gregory, F.R.S., Sir David Prain, 
F.R.S., Dr. A. B. Rendle, F.R.S., Prof. W. M. Tattersall, Prof. W. W. 
Watts, F.R.S., Dr. R. E. Mortimer Wheeler. 


Future ANNUAL MEETINGS. 


XXI.—lIt has been reported to the Council that invitations have been 
received for the Association to meet in Cambridge in 1938 and in Dundee 
in 1940 ; and these will be laid before the General Committee. 


MISCELLANEA. 


XXII. Commemorative Rolls and Panels—The Council have con- 
sidered schemes alternative to the presidential banners formerly exhibited 
in the Reception Rooms at Annual Meetings, and have adopted a scheme 
which they hope will commend itself to members of the Association 
generally. 


XXIII. The Catalogue of Bronze Age Implements, compiled by a 
committee of the Association, has been taken over by the British Museum. 


XXIV. Mathematical Tables—The Council desire to call the attention 
of the General Committee to the following appreciation of the work of 
the Mathematical Tables Committee. It appears in the preface to 
Funktionentafeln by Jahnke and Emde (Teubner, 1933), and runs (in 
translation) as follows :— 


As in the first edition, great use has been made of the work of the 
British Association Mathematical Tables Committee. Fortunately this 
committee has decided to publish collections of the very accurate tables 
which they have calculated in past years. Two volumes have already 


REPORT OF THE COUNCIL, 1933-34 XXix 


been published. The mathematicians, physicists, and engineers of the 
whole world regard with the greatest wonder and gratitude this colossal 
undertaking of their English colleagues, who have taken upon themselves 
almost entirely the load of new computation. It is hardly to be conceived 
that other countries will continue much longer to look idly on without 
helping in this work. 


XXV. Town and Country Planning —The Council approved a pro- 
posal to receive information from the Ministry of Health relating to town 
and country planning, with a view to reporting upon areas which appear 
to require protection for scientific reasons. Such information is now 
being received, and communication is proceeding between the Association 
and those of its own Corresponding Societies which may be concerned 
in this important matter, while other interested bodies are also being 
consulted. 


XXVI. Inland Water Survey —Following upon the issue last year of 
a report by the Committee on an Inland Water Survey, the co-operation 
of the Institution of Civil Engineers in the further consideration of this 
question was invited and generously afforded. A letter and memorandum 
on the desirability of a complete and systematic survey of the water re- 
sources of the country were addressed, by the Presidents of voth bodies, 
to the Prime Minister, and a representative deputation subsequently 
waited upon the Minister of Health to discuss the matter. The Minister 
promised careful consideration of the suggestions made. 


GENERAL TREASURER’S ACCOUNT 
1933-34 


THE outstanding incident during the financial year ending March 31, 
1934, was the presentation to the Association of the sum of £1,000 on 
behalf of the Leicester Committee, being the balance in excess of 
expenditure on the fund raised (as usual) locally in connection with the 
Leicester Meeting. ‘This gift, which is more fully referred to in the 
Report of the Council, is to be regarded as an unprecedented compli- 
ment to the Association, for hitherto balances (if any) on local funds 
have been disposed of by local committees themselves, although in 
two instances (Liverpool and Oxford) they have been devoted to the 
assistance of students attending Association meetings. 

The payment of the legacy from Sir Charles Parsons reminds us of 
all that the Association previously owed to this splendid benefactor. 

Apart from this and other matters mentioned in the Report of the 
Council there is little to report in matters of detail. In my report 
last year I expressed the hope that the excess of expenditure over 
income on account of Down House would not recur, thanks to the 
generous gift of the Pilgrim Trustees ; and this hope has been fulfilled. 
I also stated that the growth of advertisement revenue, under the then 
existing conditions of depression, could not be expected to continue ; 
and the revenue from this source is in fact seriously diminished. 

The usual practice of furnishing in the year’s accounts comparative 
figures for the preceding year is intermitted in the present instance 
because the accounts presented last year, owing to the change of dates 
for the financial year, covered a period of nine months only, and com- 
parisons would therefore be of no value. The practice will be resumed 
next year. 

The form in which the accounts are presented has been altered so 
as to bring more readily to the eye the position of the various funds 
administered by the Association. In working out this new scheme, 
occasion was taken to note certain legacies and other gifts which, not 
being given for special purposes, have not appeared individually in the 
accounts since the years in which they were received, In this year of 
meeting at Aberdeen, where the Prince Consort presided at the first 
meeting, in 1859, it is appropriate to recall that in 1846-7 he made 
a donation of £100 to the Association. ‘The list of legacies, apart 


GENERAL TREASURER’S ACCOUNT 


XXXi 


from those recently received from the estates of Sir Charles Parsons, 
Mr. Bernard Hobson, and Lt.-Col. Alan Cunningham, is as follows : 


Year 
1863-4 
1870-1 
1920-1 
1921-2 
1927-8 


Beriah Botfield, of Ludlow . 


Alexander Robb 
William Palmer . 

T. W. Backhouse 
Professor A. W. Scott 


£ 


10 
100 
104 
500 
250 


Ss. 
Io 


oof O 


d. 


Oo. 'o. Oo Oo O 


JostaH C. STAMP, 


General Treasurer. 


XXXII GENERAL TREASURER’S ACCOUNT 


Balance Sheet as 


LIABILITIES 


Ls ae Ls 


General Purposes :-- 


Sundry Creditors . : : : é 68 13 9 
Hon. Sir Charles Parsons’ gift (£10,000) and 
legacy (£2,000) . 5 : 12,000 0 0 
Yarrow Fund 
As per last Account . ; £6,142 14 8 
Less Transferred to Income 
and Expenditure Account 
under terms of the gift : 411 0 0 
5,731 14 8 
Life Compositions 
As per last Account . : 2,079 12 2 
Add Received during year. 462 0 0. 
204i 12512 
Less Transferred to Income 
and Expenditure Account S170" 0 
2,490 12 2 
Contingency Fund 
As per last Account . x 375,70" 10 
* Add Amount transferred from 
Income and Expenditure 
Account . ss : “ 394 17 11 
769 17 11 
Accumulated Fund 
As at Ist April, 1933 : 17,701 16 0 
Less Down House Suspense 
Account written off as per 
contra ; : é > ie2iseed, 20 
16,488 9 0 
37,549 7 6 
Carried forward 5 - 37,549 7 6 


* The amount which should, in accordance with Council’s resolution, have been in the Contingency 
Fund at 31st March, 1934, was £875, but the surplus income available for this purpose has been insuffi- 
cient by £105 2s, 1d. to meet the full annual amount transferable. 


GENERAL TREASURER’S ACCOUNT XXXIli 


at 3lst March, 1934 


ASSETS 

POS Gh Girsund. 
General Purposes :— 
Investments, as scheduled with Income and Expendi- 

ture Account, No. 1 : : ‘ é . 36,770 1 11 

Catalogues in Stock, at cost (Down House) . : 83.17. (0 
Sundry debtors and payments in advance. fs 73 16 9 
Cash at bank . ; - I : : : 601 16 7 
Cash in hand (as per contra) 5 : : 19 15 3 

——- 37,549 7 6 


Carried forward ‘ 7G ay Pat} 


Continued on pages xxxiv and xxxv 


XXXiV GENERAL TREASURER’S ACCOUNT 


Balance Sheet as 


LIABILITIES (continued) 


Brought forward 
Special Purposes :-— 
Caird Fund 
Balance at Ist April, 1933 . 
Add Excess of Income over Ex- 
penditure for year 


Cunningham Bequest 
Balance at Ist April, 1933 . 
Less Transferred to Income 
and Expenditure Account . 


Less Excess of Expenditure 
over Income for the year 


Toronto University Presentation Fund 
Capital 
Revenue . 


Bernard Hobson Fund 
Capital . : 2 
Revenue—Excess of Income 
over Expenditure for year 


Leicester and Leicestershire Fund, 1933 
Capital 3 f - 
Down House 
Endowment Fund 
Sundry Creditors . 
Suspense Account 


4, 


9,741 


1,000 


S. 


d. 


11 


oO 


20,073 13 103 


LL” “seams TR ORCL 
37,549 7 


9,767 11 0 
2,284 19 1 
182 18 10 
1,022 10 6 
1,000 0 0 


34,331 13 33 


£71,881 0 93 


NOTE,—There are contingent Liabilities in respect of grants voted to Research Committees at Leicester 
in 1933, but not claimed at 31st March, 1934, amounting to £478 18s. 3d. and £130 in respect of 
Grants voted by Council to other objects. 


I have examined the foregoing Account with the Books and Vouchers and certify 
Investments, and the Bank have certified to me that they hold the Deeds of Down 


year and I have verified the receipt of the proceeds. 


Approved. 
ArtTHuR L. BowLey 


W. W. Watts Auditors. 


21st June, 1934, 


GENERAL TREASURER’S ACCOUNT XXXV 


at 31st March, 1934 (continued) 
ASSETS (continued) 
IEG ME IOAN fs Leen SHE As 


Brought forward . - . 37,549 7 


Special Purposes :— 
Caird Fund 
Investments (see Income and Ex- 


penditure Account, No. 2) . 9,582 16 3 
Cash at bank . : : - 184 14 9 
9,767 11, 0 
Cunningham Bequest 
Investments (see Income and Ex- 
penditure Account, No. 3) . 2S aii ee 
Cash at bank . ; : 133 11 11 
———— 2,284 19 1 
Toronto University Presentation Fund 
Investments (see Income and Ex- 
penditure Account, No. 4) . 178 11 4 
Cash at bank . 4 4 : 4 7 6 
182 18 10 
Bernard Hobson Fund 
Investments (see Income and Ex- . 
penditure Account, No. 5) . 1,000 0 0 
Cash at bank . : . f 22 10 6 
1,022 10 6 
Leicester and Leicestershire Fund, 1933 
Investments (see Income and Ex- 
penditure Account, No. 6) . 1,000 0 0 
Down House 
Endowment Investments (see 
Income and _ Expenditure 
Account, No 7) . 3 . 20,000 0 O 
Cash at bank . = C 5 37 (ORS 
Cash in hand ‘ 5 : 14 11 103 
Sundry debtors and payments in . 
advance : : 5 22 Ele9 


20,073 13 104 
= 34,331 13 ah 


£71,881 0 94 


the same to be correct. I have also verified the Balances at the Bankers and the 
House. The Mortgage on Isleworth House has been paid off since the close of the 


W. B. KEEN, 
Chartered Accountant. 


GENERAL TREASURER’S ACCOUNT 


XXXV1 


¢ 20, SO ‘ : peraaooar xvj, auroouy “* | #6 6 SLE“p 
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= oy fe + squaujsaauy 


sinyipusdxq puv owoouy [essue4y 


‘TON 


*bE6r ‘HOUVIN ISI’ GHANA UVAA AHL YOA SLNQOOOV AYN.LIGNAdXA ANV ANWOONI 


XXXVI 


GENERAL TREASURER’S ACCOUNT 


€ gi coer 


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GENERAL 'TREASURER’S ACCOUNT 


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9sn¢ 


af 


RESEARCH COMMITTEES, Etc. 


APPOINTED BY THE GENERAL COMMITTEE, MEETING IN 
ABERDEEN, 1934. 


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


SECTION A.—MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 


Seismological Investigations.—Dr. F. J. W. Whipple (Chaiyman), Mr. J. J. Shaw, 
C.B.E. (Secretavy), Prof. P. G. H. Boswell, O.B.E., F.R.S., Dr. C. Vernon 
Boys, F.R.S., Sir F. W. Dyson, K.B.E., F.R.S., Dr. Wilfred Hall, Dr. H. 
Jeffreys, F.R.S., Prof. Sir Horace Lamb, F.R.S., Mr. A. W. Lee, Prof. H. M. 
Macdonald, O.B.E., F.R.S., Prof. E. A. Milne, M.B.E., F.R.S., Mr. R. D. 
Oldham, F.R.S., Prof. H. H. Plaskett, Prof. H. C. Plummer, F.R.S., 
Prof. A. O. Rankine, O.B.E., Rev. J. P. Rowland, S.J., Mr. D. H. Sadler, 
Prof. R. A. Sampson, F.R.S., Mr. F. J. Scrase, Capt. H. Shaw, Sir Frank 
Smith, K.C.B., C.B.E., Sec. R.S., Dr. R. Stoneley, Mr. E. Tillotson, Sir G. T. 
Walker, C.S.I., F.R.S. §150 (£100 Caird Fund grant). 


Calculation of Mathematical Tables.—Prof. E. H. Neville (Chaiyman), Dr. L. J. 
Comrie (Secvetavy), Prof. A. Lodge (Vice-Chaiyman), Dr. J. R. Airey, 
Prof. R. A. Fisher, F.R.S., Dr. J. Henderson, Dr. E. L. Ince, Dr. J. O. 
Irwin, Dr. J. C. P. Miller, Mr. F. Robbins, Mr. D. H. Sadler, Dr. A. J. 
Thompson, Dr. J. F. Tocher, Dr. J. Wishart. $100 (Council to consider 
additional grant not exceeding {200 to expedite printing). 


SECTIONS A, C—MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES, 
GEOLOGY. 


The direct determination of the Thermal Conductivities of Rocks in mines or 
borings where the temperature gradient has been, or is likely to be, 
measured.—Dr. Ezer Griffiths, F.R.S. (Convener), Dr. E. C. Bullard, Dr. H. 
Jeffreys, F.R.S. (from Section A); Mr. E. M. Anderson, Prof. W. G. 
Fearnsides, F.R.S., Prof. A. Holmes, Dr. D. W. Phillips, Dr. J. H. J. 
Poole, Mr. W. Campbell Smith (from Section C). £80 (part on Bernard 
Hobson Fund). 


SECTIONS A, C, E, G—MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES, 
GEOLOGY, GEOGRAPHY, ENGINEERING. 


To inquire into the position of Inland Water Survey in the British Isles and the 
possible organisation and control of such a survey by central authority.— 
Vice-Adml. Sir H. P. Douglas, K.C.B., C.M.G. (Chairman), Lt.-Col. E. Gold, 
D.S.O., F.R.S. (Vice-Chairman), Capt. W. N. McClean (Secretary), Mr. E. G. 
Bilham, Prof. W. S. Boulton, Dr. Brysson Cunningham, Prof. C. B. Fawcett, 
Prof. W. G. Fearnsides, F.R.S., Prof. A. Ferguson, Mr. H. J. F. Gourley, 
Dr. Ezer Griffiths, F.R.S., Mr. W. T. Halcrow, Mr. T. Shirley Hawkins, 
O.B.E., Prof. G. Hickling, Dr. Murray Macgregor, Mr. W. J. M. Menzies, 
Mr. H. Nimmo, Dr. A. Parker, Mr. D. Ronald, Capt. J. C. A. Roseveare, 
Dr. Bernard Smith, F.R.S., Mr. C. Clemesha Smith, Dr. L. Dudley Stamp, 
Mr. F. O. Stanford, O.B.E., Mr. A. Stevens, Mr. R.C.S. Walters, Brig. H. S. L. 
Winterbotham, C.M.G., D.S.O., Dr. S. W. Wooldridge. §10. 


RESEARCH COMMITTEES, ETC. xliii 


SECTIONS A, J—MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES, 
PSYCHOLOGY. 


The possibility of quantitative estimates of Sensory Events.—Prof. A. Ferguson 

(Chairvman), Dr. C. S. Myers, C.B.E., F.R.S. (Vice-Chaivman), Mr. R. J. 

° Bartlett (Secretary), Dr. H. Banister, Prof. F. C. Bartlett, F.R.S., Dr. Wm. 

; Brown, Dr. N. R. Campbell, Dr. S. Dawson, Prof. J. Drever, Mr. J. Guild, 

Drek..A:, Houstoun, Dr. /J. O. Irwin, Dr./G. WiC. Kaye, “Dr's. J. °F. 

Philpott, Dr. L. F. Richardson, F.R.S., Dr. J. H. Shaxby, Mr. T. Smith, 
Heo Dr. KR. EH. Thouless#r. W.S. Tucker, O.B.E. 


SECTION B.—CHEMISTRY. 


To advise the Sectional Committee as to the best method of meeting the 
wishes of Council as expressed in the memorandum on the Relation between 
the Advance of Science and the Life of the Community.— 

(Chaivman), (Secretary), Dr. N. V. Sidgwick, F.R.S., 
Prof, J. F. Thorpe, C.B.E., F.R.S., Mr. H. T. Tizard, C.B., F.R.S. 


——_ 


SECTION C:—GEOLOGY. 


To excavate critical geological sections in Great Britain —Prof. W.-T. Gordon 
(Chairman), Prof. W. G. Fearnsides, F.R.S. (Secretary), Prof. E. B. Bailey, 
F.R.S., Mr. H. C. Berdinner, Mr. W. S. Bisat, Dr. H. Bolton, Prof. P. G. H. 
Boswell, O.B.E., F.R.S., Prof. W. S. Boulton, Dr. E. S. Cobbold, Prof. 
Az .. Cox; Miss VEG, Crosfield, Mins (2 Bo on Dixon, Dr. Gertrude Elles, 
M.B.E., Prof. E. J. Garwood, F.R.S., Mr. F. Gossling, Prof. H. L. 

Hawkins, Prof. G. Hickling, Prof. V. C. Illing, Prof. O. T. Jones, F.R.S., 

Dr. Murray Macgregor, Dr. F. J. North, Dr. J. Pringle, Dr. T. F. ‘Sibly, 

| Dr. W. K. Spencer, F.R.S., Prof. A. E. Trueman, Dr. F. S. Wallis, Prof. 
W. W. Watts, F.R.S., Dr. Whittard, Dr. S. W. Wooldridge. £40 (Bernard 
Hobson Fund, contingent grant). 


The Collection, Preservation, and Systematic Registration of Photographs of 
Geological Interest.—Prof. E. J. Garwood, F.R.S. (Chaiyman), Prof. S. H. 
Reynolds (Secretary), Mr. C. V. Crook, Mr. J. F. Jackson, Mr. J. Ranson, 
Prof. W. W. Watts, F.R.S., Mr. R. J. Welch. 


1 
J 
L 
; 
] 
The Stratigraphy and Structure of the Paleozoic Sedimentary Rocks of West 
Cornwall.—Mr. H. Dewey (Chaivman), Mr. E. H. Davison (Secretary), 
Mr. H. G. Dines, Miss E. M. Lind Hendriks, Mr. S. Hall, Dr. S. W. Wooldridge. 


To consider and report upon Petrographic Classification and Nomenclature.— 
Dr. H. H. Thomas, F.R.S. (Chaivman), Dr. A. K. Wells (Secretary), Prof. E. B. 
Bailey, F.R.S., Prof. P. G. H. Boswell, O.B.E., F.R.S., Prof. A. Brammall, 
Dr. R. Campbell, Prof. A. Holmes, Prof..A. Johannsen, Dr. W. Q. Kennedy, 
Dr. A. G. MacGregor, Prof. P. Niggli, Prof. H. H. Read, Prof. S. J. Shand, 
Mr. W. Campbell Smith, Prof. C. E. Tilley, Dr. G. W. Tyrrell, Dr. F. 
Walker. £5. 

To prove the character of the Paleozoic Rocks underlying the Carboniferous of 
the Craven area.—Prof. W. G. Fearnsides, F.R.S. (Chaiyman), Dr. R. G. S. 
Hudson (Secretary), Prof. O. T. Jones, F.R.S., Prof. W. B. R. King, O.B.E., 
Mr. W. H. Wilcockson, 

To make recommendations to the International Geological Congress for the 
formation of a committee to consider geological evidence of climatic change.— 
Dr. W. B. Wright (Chaiyman), Mr. M. B. Cotsworth (Secretary), Prof. E. B. 
Bailey, F.R.S., Prof. W. N. Benson, Dr. G. W. Grabham, Dr. E. M. Kindle, 
Dr. A. Raistrick, Dr. S. W. Wooldridge. 


SECTIONS C, E.—GEOLOGY, GEOGRAPHY. 


To administer a grant in support of a topographical and geological survey of 
the Lake Rudolph area in E. Africa.—Sir Albert E. Kitson, C.M.G., C.B.E. 


——— 


xliv RESEARCH COMMITTEES, ETC. 


(Chaivman), Dr. A. K. Wells (Secretary), Mr. S. J. K. Baker, Prof. F. 
Debenham, Dr. V. Fuchs, Prof. W. T. Gordon, Brig. H. S. L. Winterbotham, 
C.M.G., D.S.O. £85 (Unexpended balance). 


SECTION D.—ZOOLOGY. 


To nominate competent Naturalists to perform definite pieces of work at the 
Marine Laboratory, Plymouth.—Prof. J. H. Ashworth, F.R.S. (Chaiyman 
and Secretary), Prof. H. Graham Cannon, Prof. H. Munro Fox, Prof. J. 
Stanley Gardiner, F.R.S. £50 (Caird Fund grant). 


To co-operate with other Sections interested, and with the Zoological Society, 
for the purpose of obtaining support for the Zoological Record.—Sir Sidney 
Harmer, K.B.E., F.R.S. (Chaiyman), Dr. W. T. Calman, F.R.S. (Secretary), 
Prof. E. S. Goodrich, F.R.S., Prof. D. M. S. Watson, F.R.S. §50 (Caird 
Fund grant). 


To consider the position of Animal Biology in the School Curriculum and matters 
relating thereto.—Prof. R. D. Laurie (Chaivman and Secretary), Mr. H. W. 
Ballance, Prof. E. W. MacBride, F.R.S., Miss M. McNicol, Miss A. J. 
Prothero, Prof. W. M. Tattersall, Dr. E. N. Miles Thomas. 


The progréssive adaptation to new conditions in Artemia salina (Diploid and 
Octoploid, Parthenogenetic v. Bisexual).—Prof. R. A. Fisher, F.R.S. (Chair- 
man), Dr. F. Gross (Secretary), Dr. J. Gray, F.R.S., Dr. E. S. Russell, O.B.E., 
Prof. D. M. S. Watson, F.R.S. 


To revise the leaflet on Biological Measurements and to consider what steps 
should be taken to increase the use made of the archives for the reception 
of such measurements now established at the British Museum (Natural 
History), South Kensington.—Prof. J. S. Huxley (Chaivman), Prof. R. A. 
Fisher, F.R.S. (Secretary), Dr. W. T. Calman, F.R.S., Dr. J. Gray, F.R.S. 


SECTIONS D, I, K.—ZOOLOGY, PHYSIOLOGY, BOTANY. 


To aid competent investigators selected by the Committee to carry on definite 
pieces of work at the Zoological Station at Naples.—Prof. J. H. Ashworth, 
F.R.S. (Chaiyman and Secretary), Prof. J. Barcroft, C.B.E., F.R.S., Prof. 
E. W. MacBride, F.R.S., Dr. Margery Knight. £50 (Caird Fund grant). 


SECTIONS D, K.—ZOOLOGY, BOTANY. 


To aid competent investigators selected by the Committee to carry out definite 
pieces of work at the Freshwater Biological Station, Wray Castle, Winder- 
mere.—Prof. F. E. Fritsch, F.R.S. (Chaivman), Mr. J. T. Saunders (Secretary), 
Miss P. M. Jenkin, Dr. C. H. O’Donoghue (from Section D); Dr. W. H. 
Pearsall (from Section K). $75. 


SECTION E.—GEOGRAPHY., 


To co-operate with bodies concerned with the cartographic representation of 
population, and in particular with the Ordnance Survey, for the production 
of population maps.— (Chaivman), Prof. C. B. 
Fawcett (Secretary), The Director General of the Ordnance Survey, Col. Sir 
Charles Close, K.B.E., C.B., C.M.G., F.R.S., Prof. H. J. Fleure. $8. 


To inquire into the present state of Knowledge of the Human Geography of 
Tropical Africa, and to make recommendations for furtherance and develop- 
ment.—Prof. P. M. Roxby (Chairman), Prof. A. G. Ogilvie, O.B.E. (Secretary), 
Dr. A. Geddes (Assistant Secretary), Mr. S. J. K. Baker, Prof. C. B. Fawcett, 
Mr. W. Fitzgerald, Prof. H. J. Fleure, Mr. E. B. Haddon, Mr. R. H. Kinvig, 
Mr. J. McFarlane, Col. M. N. MacLeod, D.S.O., Prof. J. L. Myres, O.B.E., 
F.B.A., Mr. R. A. Pelham, Mr. R. U. Sayce, Rev. E. W. Smith, Brig. H.S. L. 
Winterbotham, C.M.G., D.S.O. §25. 


RESEARCH COMMITTEES, ETC. xlv 


To investigate the mapping of historical data for medieval England and to take 
steps to advance such work.—Mr. J. N. L. Baker (Chairman), Dr. H. C. 
Darby, Mr. E. W. Gilbert, Mr. F. G. Morris, Dr. S. W. Wooldridge. 


SECTIONS E, L—GEOGRAPHY, EDUCATION. 


To report on the present position of Geographical Teaching in Schools, and of 
Geography in the training of teachers, and, as occasion arises, to report to 
Council through the Organising Committee of Section E upon the practical 
working of Regulations issued by the Board of Education or the Scottish 
Education Department affecting the position of Geography in Schools and 
Training Colleges.— (Chaiyman), Mr. J. McFarlane 
(Secretavy), Dr. W. Edward, Sir Richard Gregory, Bt., F.R.S., Prof. J. L. 
Myres, O.B.E., F.B.A., Mr. A. Stevens. 


SECTION F.—ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS. 


Chronology of the World Crisis from 1929 onwards.—Prof. J. H. Jones (Chaiyman), 
Dr. P. Ford (Convener), Mr. H. M. Hallsworth, C.B.E., Mr. R. F. Harrod, 
Mr. A. Radford, Prof. J. G. Smith. §25. 


To consider the ways in which the relationship of Science to the Community 
may be most usefully investigated and to inquire in what directions, if any, 
Section F might assist such investigations——Mr. H. M. Hallsworth, C.B.E. 
(Chairman), Dr. K. G. Fenelon (Secretary), Prof. R. B. Forrester, Prof. D. H. 
Macgregor, Prof. J. G. Smith. 


SECTIONS F, G, J, L—ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS, 
ENGINEERING, PSYCHOLOGY, EDUCATION. 


Industrial Co-operation: to report on the provisions for co-ordinating and 
stimulating scientific work bearing on business practice, and to make 
recommendations.—Dr. J. A. Bowie (Chaivman), Mr. R. J. Mackay (Secre- 
tary), Prof. J. G. Smith, Major L. Urwick (from Section F); Prof. W. 
Cramp (from Section G); Mr. G. P. Crowden (from Section I); Dr. C. S. 
Myers, C.B.E., F.R.S. (from Section J); Sir Richard Gregory, Bt., F.R.S. 
(from Section L). 


SECTION G.—ENGINEERING. 


Earth Pressures.—Mr. F. E. Wentworth-Sheilds, O.B.E. (Chairman), Dr. J. S. 
Owens (Secretary), Prof. G. Cook, Mr. T. E. N. Fargher, Prof. A. R. Fulton, 
Prof. F. C. Lea, Prof. R. V. Southwell, F.R.S., Dr. R. E. Stradling, C.B., Dr. 
W.N. Thomas, Mr. E. G. Walker, Mr. J. S. Wileca &7 4s. 1d. (Unexpended 
balance). 


Electrical Terms and Definitions.—Prof. Sir J. B. Henderson (Chaiyvman), Prof. 
F. G. Baily and Prof. G. W. O. Howe (Secretaries), Prof. W. Cramp, Prof. 
W. H. Eccles, F.R.S., Prof. C. L. Fortescue, Sir R. T. Glazebrook, K.C.B., 
F.R.S., Prof. A. E. Kennelly, Prof. E. W. Marchant, Sir Frank Smith, 
K.C.B., C.B.E., Sec. R.S., Prof. L. R. Wilberforce. 


Stresses in Overstrained Materials—Sir Henry Fowler, K.B.E. (Chaivman), 
Dr. J. G. Docherty (Secretary), Prof. G. Cook, Prof. B. P. Haigh, Mr. J. S 
Wilson. £5 (Unexpended balance). 


To review the knowledge at present available for the reduction of noise, and 
the nuisances to the abatement of which this knowledge could best be 
applied.—Sir Henry Fowler, K.B.E. (Chaiyman), Wing-Commander T. R. 
Cave-Browne-Cave, C.B.E. (Secretary), Mr. R. S. Capon, Dr. A. H. Davis, 
Prof. G. W. O. Howe, Mr. E. S. Shrapnell-Smith, C.B.E. 5. 


SECTION H.—ANTHROPOLOGY. 


To report on the Classification and Distribution of Rude Stone Monuments in 
the British Isles —Mr. H. J. E. Peake (Chaivman), Dr. Margaret A. Murray 


xlvi RESEARCH COMMITTEES, ETC. 


(Secretary), Mr. A. L. Armstrong, Mr. H. Balfour, F.R.S., Prof. V. Gordon 
Childe, Dr. Cyril Fox, Mr. T. D. Kendrick. 


To report on the probable sources of the supply of Copper used by the Sumerians. 
—Mr. H. J. E. Peake (Chairman), Dr. C. H. Desch, F.R.S. (Secretary), 
Mr. H. Balfour, F.R.S., Mr. L. H. Dudley Buxton, Prof. V. Gordon Childe, 
Mr. O. Davies, Prof. H. J. Fleure, Sir Flinders Petrie, F.R.S., Dr. A. Rais- 
trick, Dr. R. H. Rastall. $15. 


To conduct Archeological and Ethnological Researches in Crete.—Prof. J. L. 
Myres, O.B.E., F.B.A. (Chaiyman), Mr. L. Dudley Buxton (Secretary), Dr. 
W. L. H. Duckworth, Dr. F. C. Shrubsall. 


To co-operate with the Torquay Antiquarian Society in investigating Kent’s 
Cavern.—Sir A. Keith, F.R.S. (Chaiyman), Prof. J. L. Myres, O.B.E., F.B.A. 
(Secretary), Mr. M. C. Burkitt, Dr. R. V. Favell, Miss D. A. E. Garrod, 
Mr. A. D. Lacaille. 5. 


To co-operate with a Committee of the Royal Anthropological Institute in the 
exploration of Caves in the Derbyshire district—Mr. M. C. Burkitt (Chair- 
man), Dr. R. V. Favell (Secretary), Mr. A. Leslie Armstrong, Prof. H. J. 
Fleure, Miss D. A. E. Garrod, Dr. J. Wilfrid Jackson, Prof. L. S. Palmer, 
Mr. H. J. E. Peake. 


To co-operate with Miss Caton-Thompson in her researches in prehistoric sites in 
the Western Desert of Egypt—Prof. J. L. Myres, O.B.E., F.B.A. (Chair- 
man), Mr. H. J. E. Peake (Secretary), Mr. H. Balfour, F.R.S. 


To report to the Sectional Committee on the question of re-editing ‘ Notes and 
Queries in Anthropology.’—Rey. E. W. Smith (Chaiyman), Prof. H. J. Fleure 
(Secretary), Dr. H. S. Harrison, Prof. C. G. Seligman, F.R.S. 


To carry out the excavation of Palzolith cave deposits on Mt. Carmel, Palestine. 
—Prof. J. L. Myres, O.B.E., F.B.A. (Chaiyvman), Mr. M. C. Burkitt (Secretary), 
Miss G. Caton-Thompson, Miss D. A. E. Garrod. 20. 


To carry out research among the Ainu of Japan.—Prof. C. G. Seligman, F.R.S. 
(Chaiyman), Mrs. C. G. Seligman (Secretary), Dr. H. S. Harrison, Capt. 
T. A. Joyce, O.B.E., Rt. Hon. Lord Raglan. £50. 

To co-operate with the local committee in the excavation of Pen Dinas hill fort, 
Cardiganshire.—Dr. Cyril Fox (Chaiyman), Mr. V. E. Nash-Williams (Secre- 
tary), Prof. V. Gordon Childe, Prof. C. Daryll Forde, Rt. Hon. Lord Raglan, 
Dr. R. E. M. Wheeler. £20. 


SECTION I—PHYSIOLOGY. 


To deal with the use of a Stereotactic Instrument.—Prof. J. Mellanby, F.R.S. 
(Chairman and Secretary). 

To investigate the alleged differences in distribution of rods and cones in the 
retine of various animals.—Prof. H. E. Roaf (Chaivman), Dr. F. W. Edridge- 
Green, C.B.E. (Secretary), Prof. J. P. Hill, F.R.S., Dr. F. W. Law, Dr. S. 
Zuckerman. £10. 


SECTIONS I, J—PHYSIOLOGY, PSYCHOLOGY. 


The conditions of vertigo and its relation to disorientation ~ 
(Chaityman), Dr. T. G. Maitland (Secretary), Group-Capt. Clements, 
Squadron-Leader E. D. Dickson, Prof. J. H. Burn, Dr. R. S. Creed, Prof. 
J. Drever, Prof. J. T. MacCurdy. $20 (Unexpended balance). 


SECTION J.—PSYCHOLOGY. 

To develop tests of the routine manual factor in mechanical ability—Dr. C. S. 
Myers, C.B.E., F.R.S. (Chairman), Dr. G. H. Miles (Secretary), Prof. C. 
Burt, Dr. F. M. Earle, Dr. Ll. Wynn Jones, Prof. T. H. Pear. £80 (Leicester 
and Leicestershire Fund). 


| 
2 


RESEARCH COMMITTEES, ETC. xlvii 


The nature of perseveration and its testing.—Prof. F. Aveling (Chairman), 
Mr. E. Farmer (Secretary), Prof. F. C. Bartlett, F.R.S., Dr. Mary Collins, 
» Dr. W. Stephenson. 


To consider definite lines of research in social psychology.—Dr. Shepherd Dawson 
(Chairman), Mr. Eric Farmer (Secretarvy), Prof. F. Aveling, Prof. F. C. 
Bartlett, F.R.S., Prof. C. Burt, Dr. Mary Collins, Dr. C. S. Myers, C.B.E., 
F.R.S. 


SECTION K.—BOTANY. 


Transplant Experiments.—Sir Arthur Hill, K.C.M.G., F.R.S. (Chaiyman), Dr. 
W. B. Turrill (Secretary), Prof. F. W. Oliver, F.R.S., Prof. E. J. Salisbury, 
F.R.S., Prof. A. G. Tansley, F.R.S. 5. 


The anatomy of timber-producing trees—Prof. H. S. Holden (Chaiyman), Dr. 
Helen Bancroft (Secretary), Prof. J. H. Priestley, D.S.O. £10. 


SECTION L.—EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE. 


To consider and report on the possibility of the Section undertaking more definite 
work in promoting educational research—Dr. W. W. Vaughan, M.V.O. 
(Chaiyman), Miss H. Masters (Secretary), Mr. E. R. B. Reynolds, Mr. N. F. 
Sheppard. £5 (Unexpended balance). 


SECTIONS M, E.—AGRICULTURE, GEOGRAPHY. 


To co-operate with the staff of the Imperial Soil Bureau to examine the soil 
resources of the Empire.—Sir John Russell, O.B.E., F.R.S. (Chairvman), 
Mr. G. V. Jacks (Secretary), Dr. E. M. Crowther, Dr. W. G. Ogg, Prof. G. W. 
Robinson (from Section M); Prof. C. B. Fawcett, Mr. H. King, Dr. L. D. 
Stamp, Mr. A. Stevens, Dr. S. W. Wooldridge (from Section E). 


CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES. 


Corresponding Societies Committee.—The President of the Association (Chairman 
ex-officio), Mr. T. Sheppard (Vice-Chaivman), Dr. C. Tierney (Secretary), 
the General Secretaries, the General Treasurer, Mr. C. O. Bartrum, Sir 
Richard Gregory, Bt., F.R.S., Sir David Prain, C.1.E., C.M.G., F.R.S., 
Dr. A. B. Rendle, F.R.S., Prof. W. M. Tattersall, Prof. W. W. Watts, F.R.S., 
Dr. R. E. Mortimer Wheeler. 


xlviil RESOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 


RESOLUTIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS. 


The following resolutions and recommendations were referred to the 
Council by the General Committee at the Aberdeen Meeting for con- 
sideration, and, if desirable, for action :— 


From Sections A (Mathematical and Physical Sciences), C (Geology), 
E (Geography), and G (Engineering). 

That the British Association awaits with great interest the result of the 
careful consideration which His Majesty’s Government has promised to 
give to the question of an Inland Water Survey, and trusts that the Govern- 
ment will be favourable to the establishment of an organised survey of the 
water resources of the country on a scientific basis. 


From Section C (Geology). 

Section C recommends that the Government be urged to make compulsory 
the registration of wells, borings and excavations exceeding 100 feet in depth, 
under conditions similar to those for the notification and registration of 
shafts and boreholes for mineral, contained in the Mining Industry Act 
of 1926. ; 

From Section D (Zoology). 

The Committee of Section D draws the attention of the General Com- 
mittee to the fact that, although technical cinematograph films for the 
advancement of scientific knowledge may be imported duty free for exhibi- 
tion before scientific institutions, there is no provision for the free importa- 
tion of films for the teaching of science in universities and similar institutions ; 
and requests them to instruct Council to take steps to secure the duty-free 
importation, by recognised teaching bodies, of technical films to be used 
solely for the teaching of science, under conditions similar to those which 
apply to films for scientific institutions, provided such films are unobtainable 
in Great Britain. 

From Section E (Geography). 

The Committee of Section E invites the Council of the British Association 
to make a vigorous appeal to the Lord President of the Council and to the 
Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries to take such measures as may ensure 
the provision of ample funds to carry out a far-sighted policy of large-scale 
maps revision in the general interest of the community. 

(The above resolution was supported by Sections C, D, F, G, H, J, K, 
L and M.) 

From Section E (Geography). 

The Committee of Section E desires Council to bring to the notice of the 
Board of Education and the Scottish Education Department the Atlas of 
Geographical Types of the British Isles (of which one sheet has been pub- 
lished), and in view of the support lent by the Ordnance Survey to urge the 
desirability of continuing its production. 


From Section K (Botany). 

This Section requests the Council of the Association to urge upon the 
Department of Education in England and the Scottish Education Depart- 
ment, the need for instruction in all schools on the importance of the 
preservation of amenities, and in particular Be 'Hiyprotection of trees, 


woodlands and all natural vegetation. form oy 2 at 
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y= ree We 4: ff s) } 


BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 
ABERDEEN, 1934. 


THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 


THE NEW WORLD-PICTURE OF 
MODERN PHYSICS 


BY 
SIR JAMES H. JEANS, D.Sc., Sc.D., LL.D., F.R.S. 
PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION. 


Tue British Association assembles for the third time in Aberdeen— 
under the happiest of auspices. It is good that we are meeting in 
Scotland, for the Association has a tradition that its Scottish meet- 
ings are wholly successful. It is good that we are meeting in the 
sympathetic atmosphere of a university city, surrounded not only 
by beautiful and venerable buildings, but also by buildings in which 
scientific knowledge is being industriously and successfully accumu- 
lated. And it is especially good that Aberdeen is rich not only in 
scientific buildings but also in scientific associations. Most of us 
can think of some master-mind in his own subject who worked here. 
My own thoughts, I need hardly say, turn to James Clerk Maxwell. 

Whatever our subject, there is one man who will be in our thoughts 
im a very special sense to-night—Sir William Hardy, whom we had 
hoped to see in the presidential chair this year. It was not to be, 
and his early death, while still in the fulness of his powers, casts a 
shadow in the minds of all of us. We all know of his distinguished 
work in pure science, and his equally valuable achievements in 
applied science. I will not try to pay tribute to these, since it has 
been arranged that others, better qualified than myself, shall do so 
in a special memorial lecture. Perhaps, however, I may be per- 
mitted to bear testimony to the personal qualities of one whom I 
Was proud to call a friend for a large part of my life, and a colleague 
for many years. Inside the Council room, his proposals were always 
acute, often highly original, and invariably worthy of careful con- 
‘sideration ; outside, his big personality and wide range of interests 
jeede him the most charming and versatile of friends. 

B 


2 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 


And now I must turn to the subject on which I have specially 
undertaken to speak—-the new world-picture presented to us by 
modern physics. It is a full half-century since this chair was last 
occupied by a theoretical physicist in the person of the late Lord 
Rayleigh. In that interval the main edifice of science has grown 
almost beyond recognition, increasing in extent, dignity and beauty, 
as whole armies of labourers have patiently added wing after wing, 
story upon story, and pinnacle to pinnacle. Yet the theoretical 
physicist must admit that his own department looks like nothing so 
much as a building which has been brought down in ruins by a 
succession of earthquake shocks. 

The earthquake shocks were, of course, new facts of observation, 
and the building fell because it was not built on the solid rock of 
ascertained fact, but on the ever-shifting sands of conjecture and 
speculation. Indeed it was little more than a museum of models, 
which had accumulated because the old-fashioned physicist had a 
passion for trying to liken the ingredients of Nature to familiar 
objects such as billiard-balls, jellies and spinning tops. While he 
believed and proclaimed that Nature had existed and gone her way 
for countless aeons before man came to spy on her, he assumed that 
the latest newcomer on the scene, the mind which could never get 
outside itself and its own sensations, would find things within its 
limited experience to explain what had existed from all eternity. 
It was expecting too much of Nature, as the ruin of our building 
has shown. She is not so accommodating as this to the limita- 
tions of the human mind ; her truths can only be made compre- 
hensible in the form of parables, 

Yet no parable can remain true throughout its whole range to the 
facts it is trying to explain. Somewhere or other it must be too wide 
or too narrow, so that ‘ the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but 
the truth’ is not to be conveyed by parables. The fundamental 
mistake of the old-fashioned physicist was that he failed to distinguish 
between the half-truths of parables and the literal truth. 

Perhaps his mistake was pardonable, perhaps it was even natural. 
Modern psychologists make great use of what they describe as ‘ word- 
association.’ ‘They shoot a word at you, and ask you to reply im- 
mediately with the first idea it evokes in your uncontrolled mind. 
If the psychologist says ‘ wave,’ the boy-scout will probably say 
‘flag,’ while the sailor may say ‘sea,’ the musician ‘ sound,’ the 
engineer “ compression,’ and the mathematician ‘ sine’ or ‘ cosine.’ 
Now the crux of the situation is that the number of people who will 
give this last response is very small. Our remote ancestors did not 
survive in the struggle for existence by pondering over sines and 
cosines, but by devising ways of killing other animals without being 
killed themselves. As a consequence, the brains we have inherited 


ae 


THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 3 


from them take more kindly to the concrete facts of everyday life 
than to abstract concepts ; to particulars rather than to universals. 
Every child, when first it begins to learn algebra, asks in despair 
‘But what are x, y and z?’ and is satisfied when, and only when, 
it has been told that they are numbers of apples or pears or bananas 
or something such. In the same way, the old-fashioned physicist 
could not rest content with x, y and 2, but was always trying to ex- 
press them in terms of apples or pears or bananas. Yet a simple 


_ argument will show that he can never get beyond x, y and z. 


Physical science obtains its knowledge of the external world by 
a series of exact measurements, or, more precisely, by comparisons 
of measurements. ‘Typical of its knowledge is the statement that 
the line H« in the hydrogen spectrum has a wave-length of so many 
centimetres. ‘This is meaningless until we know what a centimetre 
is. ‘The moment we are told that it is a certain fraction of the earth’s 
radius, or of the length of a bar of platinum, or a certain multiple 
of the wave-length of a line in the cadmium spectrum, our know- 
ledge becomes real, but at that same moment it also becomes purely 
numerical. Our minds can only be acquainted with things inside 
themselves—never with things outside. ‘Thus we can never know 
the essential nature of anything, such as a centimetre or a wave- 
length, which exists in that mysterious world outside ourselves to 
which our minds can never penetrate; but we can know the 
numerical ratio of two quantities of similar nature, no matter how 
incomprehensible they may both be individually. 

For this reason, our knowledge of the external world must always 
consist of numbers, and our picture of the universe—the synthesis 
of our knowledge—must necessarily be mathematical in form. All 
the concrete details of the picture, the apples and pears and bananas, 
the ether and atoms and electrons, are mere clothing that we ourselves 
drape over our mathematical symbols—they do not belong to Nature, 
but to the parables by which we try to make Nature comprehensible. 
It was, I think, Kronecker who said that in arithmetic God made 
the integers and man made the rest; in the same spirit, we may 
add that in physics God made the mathematics and man made the 
rest. 
~The modern physicist does not use this language, but he accepts 
its implications, and divides the concepts of physics into obser- 
vablesand unobservables. In brief, the observables embody facts of 
observation, and so are purely numerical or mathematical in their 
content ; the unobservables are the pictorial details of the parables. 

The physicist wants to make his new edifice earthquake-proof— 
immune to the shock of new observations—and so builds only on 
the solid rock, and with the solid bricks, of ascertained fact. Thus 
he builds only with observables, and his whole edifice is one of 


4 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 


mathematics and mathematical formule—all else is man-made 
decoration. 

For instance, when the undulatory theory had made it clear that 
light was of the nature of waves, the scientists of the day elaborated 
this by saying that light consisted of waves in a rigid, homogeneous 
ether which filled all space. ‘The whole content of ascertained fact 
in this description is the one word ‘ wave’ in its strictly mathe- 
matical sense ; all the rest is pictorial detail, introduced to help out 
the inherited limitations of our minds. 

Then scientists took the pictorial details of the parable literally, 
and so fellinto error. For instance, light-waves travel in space and 
time jointly, but by filling space and space alone with ether, the 
parable seemed to make a clear-cut distinction between space and 
time. It even suggested that they could be separated out in practice 
—by performing a Michelson-Morley experiment. Yet, as we all 
know, the experiment when performed only showed that such a 
separation is impossible ; the space and time of the parable are 
found not to be true to the facts—they are revealed as mere stage- 
scenery. Neither is found to exist in its own right, but only as a way 
of cutting up something more comprehensive—the space-time 
continuum. 

Thus we find that space and time cannot be classified as 
realities of nature, and the generalised theory of relativity shows 
that the same is true of their product, the space-time continuum. 
This can be crumpled and twisted and warped as much as we please 
without becoming one whit less true to nature—which, of course, 
can only mean that it is not itself part of nature. 

In this way space and time, and also their space-time product, 
fall into their places as mere mental frameworks of our own con- 
struction. ‘They are of course very important frameworks, being 
nothing less than the frameworks along which our minds receive 
their whole knowledge of the outer world. This knowledge comes 
to our minds in the form of messages passed on from our senses ; 
these in turn have received them as impacts or transfers of electro- 
magnetic momentum or energy. Now Clerk Maxwell showed that 
electromagnetic activity of all kinds could be depicted perfectly as 
travelling in space and time—this was the essential content of his 
electromagnetic theory of light. Thus space and time are of pre- 
ponderating importance to our minds as the media through which 
the messages from the outer world enter the ‘ gateways of know- 
ledge,’ our senses, and in terms of which they are classified. Just 
as the messages which enter a telephone exchange are classified by 
the wires along which they arrive, so the messages which strike our 
senses are classified by their arrival along the space-time framework. 

Physical science, assuming that each message must have had a 


THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 5 


starting-point, postulated the existence of ‘ matter ° to provide such 
starting-points. But the existence of this matter was a pure hypo- 
thesis; and matter is in actual fact as unobservable as the ether, 
Newtonian force, and other unobservables which have vanished 
from science. Early science not only assumed matter to exist, but 
further pictured it as existing in space and time. Again this 
assumption had no adequate justification ; for there is clearly no 
reason why the whole material universe should be restricted to the 
narrow framework along which messages strike our senses. To 
illustrate by an analogy, the earthquake waves which damage our 
houses travel along the surface of the ground, but we have no 
right to assume that they originate in the surface of the ground ; 
we know, on the contrary, that they originate deep down in the 
earth’s interior. 

The Newtonian mechanics, however, having endowed space and 
time with real objective existences, assumed that the whole universe 
existed within the limits of space and time. Even more character- 
istic of it was the doctrine of ‘ mechanistic determinism,’ which 
could be evolved from it by strictly logical processes. This reduced 
the whole physical universe to a vast machine in which each cog, 
shaft, and thrust bar could only transmit what it received, and wait 
for what was to come next. When it was found that the human body 
consisted of nothing beyond commonplace atoms and molecules, 
the human race also seemed to be reduced to cogs in the wheel, and 
in face of the inexorable movements of the machine, human effort, 
initiative, and ambition seemed to become meaningless illusions. 
Our minds were left with no more power or initiative than a sen- 
sitised cinematograph film; they could only register what was 
impressed on them from an outer world over which they had no 
control. 

Theoretical physics is no longer concerned to study the Newtonian 
universe which it once believed to exist in its own right in space and 
time. It merely sets before itself the modest task of reducing to 
law and order the impressions that the universe makes on our senses. 
It is not concerned with what lies beyond the gateways of knowledge, 
but with what enters through the gateways of knowledge. It is 
concerned with appearances rather than reality, so that its task 
resembles that of the cartographer or map-maker rather than that of 
the geologist or mining engineer. 

Now the cartographer knows that a map may be drawn in many 
ways, or, as he would himself say, many kinds of projection are 
available. Each one has its merits, but it is impossible to find all 
the merits we might reasonably desire combined in one single map. 
It is reasonable to demand that each bit of territory should look its 
proper shape on the map; also that each should look its proper 


6 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 


relative size. Yet even these very reasonable requirements cannot 
usually be satisfied in a single map ; the only exception is when the 
map is to contain only a small part of the whole surface of the globe. 
In this case, and this only, all the qualities we want can be combined 
in a single map, so that we simply ask for a map of the county of 
Surrey without specifying whether it is to be a Mercator’s or ortho- 
graphic or conic projection, or what not. 

All this has its exact counterpart in the map-making task of the 
physicist. ‘The Newtonian mechanics was like the map of Surrey, 
because it dealt only with a small fraction of the universe. It was 
concerned with the motions and changes of medium-sized objects— 
objects comparable in size with the human body—and for these it was 
able to provide a perfect map which combined in one picture all the 
qualities we could reasonably demand. But the inconceivably great 
and the inconceivably small were equally beyond its ken. As soon 
as science pushed out—to the cosmos as a whole in one direction and 
to sub-atomic phenomena in the other—the deficiencies of the New- 
tonian mechanics became manifest. And no modification of the 
Newtonian map was able to provide the two qualities which this 
map had itself encouraged us to expect—a materialism which ex- 
hibited the universe as constructed of matter lying within the frame- 
work of space and time, and a determinism which provided an 
answer to the question “ What is going to happen next ?’ 

When geography cannot combine all the qualities we want in a 
single map, it provides us with more than one map. Theoretical 
physics has done the same, providing us with two maps which are 
commonly known as the particle-picture and the wave-picture. 

The particle-picture is a materialistic picture which caters for 
those who wish to see their universe mapped out as matter existing 
in space andtime. ‘The wave-picture is a determinist picture which 
caters for those who ask the question “‘ What is going to happen 
next?’ It is perhaps better to speak of these two pictures as the 
particle-parable and the wave-parable. For this is what they really 
are, and the nomenclature warns us in advance not to be surprised 
at inconsistencies and contradictions. 

Let me remind you, as briefly as possible, how this pair of pictures 
or parables have come to be in existence side by side. 

The particle-parable, which was first in the field, told us that the 
material universe consists of particles existing in space and time. 
It was created by the labours of chemists and experimental physi- 
cists, working on the basis provided by the classical physics. Its 
time of testing came in 1913, when Bohr tried to find out whether 
the two particles of the hydrogen atom could possibly produce the 
highly complicated spectrum of hydrogen by their motion. He found 
a type of motion which could produce this spectrum down to its 


: 


THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 7 


minutest details, but the motion was quite inconsistent with the 
mechanistic determinism of the Newtonian mechanics. The elec- 
tron did not move continuously through space and time, but jumped, 
and its jumps were not governed by the laws of mechanics, but to 
all appearance, as Einstein showed more fully four years later, by 
the laws of probability. Of 1000 identical atoms, 100 might make 
the jump, while the other g00 would not. Before the jumps oc- 
curred, there was nothing to show which atoms were going to jump. 
_ Thus the particle-picture conspicuously failed to provide an answer 
- to the question ‘ What will happen next ?’ 

Bohr’s concepts were revolutionary, but it was soon found they 
were not revolutionary enough, for they failed to explain more 
complicated spectra, as well as certain other phenomena. 

Then Heisenberg showed that the hydrogen spectrum—and, as 
we now believe, all other spectra as well—could be explained by the 
motion of something which was rather like an electron, but did not 
move in space and time. Its position was not specified by the 
usual co-ordinates x, y, 2 of co-ordinate geometry, but by the 
mathematical abstraction known as a matrix. His ideas were rather 
too abstract even for mathematicians, the majority of whom had 
quite forgotten what matrices were. Itseemed likely that Heisenberg 
had unravelled the secret of the structure of matter, and yet his 
solution was so far removed from the concepts of ordinary life that 
another parable had to be invented to make it comprehensible. 

The wave-parable serves this purpose ; it does not describe the 
universe as a collection of particles but as a system of waves. ‘The 
universe is no longer a deluge of shot from a battery of machine- 
guns, but a stormy sea with the sea taken away and only the abstract 
quality of storminess left—or the grin of the Cheshire cat if we can 
think of a grin as undulatory. This parable was not devised by 
Heisenberg, but by de Broglie and Schrodinger. At first they 
thought their waves merely provided a superior model of an ordinary 
electron ; later it was established that they were a sort of parable 
to explain Heisenberg’s pseudo-electron. 

Now the pseudo-electron of Heisenberg did not claim to account 
for the spectrum emitted by a single atom of gas, which is something 
entirely beyond our knowledge or experience, but only that emitted 
by a whole assembly of similar atoms ; it was not a picture of one 
electron in one atom, but of all the electrons in all the atoms. 

In the same way the waves of the wave-parable do not picture 
individual electrons, but a community of electrons—a crowd—as 
for instance the electrons whose motion constitutes a current of 
electricity. 

In this particular instance the waves can be represented as travel- 
ling through ordinary space. Except for travelling at a different 


8 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 


speed, they are very like the waves by which Maxwell described the 
flow of radiation through space, so that matter and radiation are much 
more like one another in the new physics than they were in the old. 

In other cases, ordinary time and space do not provide an adequate 
canvas for the wave-picture. ‘The wave-picture of two currents of 
electricity, or even of two electrons moving independently, needs 
a larger canvas—six dimensions of space and one of time. ‘There 
can be no logical justification for identifying any particular three of 
these six dimensions with ordinary space, so that we must regard 
the wave-picture as lying entirely outside space. ‘The whole picture, 
and the manifold dimensions of space in which it is drawn, become 
pure mental constructs—diagrams and frameworks we make for 
ourselves to help us understand phenomena. 

In this way we have the two co-existent pictures—the particle- 
picture for the materialist, and the wave-picture for the determinist. 
When the cartographer has to make two distinct maps to exhibit 
the geography of, say, North America, he is able to explain why two 
maps are necessary, and can also tell us the relation between the 
two—he can show us how to transform one into the other. He will 
tell us, for instance, that he needs two maps simply because he is 
restricted to flat surfaces—pieces of paper. Give him a sphere 
instead, and he can show us North America, perfectly and completely, 
on a single map. 

The physicist has not yet found anything corresponding to this 
sphere ; when, if ever, he does, the particle-picture and the wave- 
picture will be merged into a single new picture. At present some 
kink in our minds, or perhaps merely some ingrained habit of 
thought, prevents our understanding the universe as a consistent 
whole—just as the ingrained habits of thought of a ‘ flat-earther ’ 
prevent his understanding North America as a consistent whole. 
Yet, although physics has so far failed to explain why two pictures 
are necessary, it is, nevertheless, able to explain the relation between 
the particle-picture and the wave-picture in perfectly comprehensible 
terms. 

The central feature of the particle-picture is the atomicity which 
is found in the structure of matter. But this atomicity is only one 
expression of a fundamental coarse-grainedness which pervades the 
whole of nature. It crops up again in the fact that energy can only 
be transferred by whole quanta. Because of this, the tools with 
which we study nature are themselves coarse-grained ; we have only 
blunt probes at our disposal, and so can never acquire perfectly 
precise knowledge of nature. Just as, in astronomy, the grain of our 
photographic plates prevents our ever fixing the position of a star 
with absolute precision, so in physics we can never say that an electron 
is here, at this precise spot, and is moving at just such and such a 


THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 9 


speed. The best we can do with our blunt probes is to represent 
the position of the electron by a smear, and its motion by a moving 
smear which will get more and more blurred as time progresses. 
Unless we check the growth of our smear by taking new observations, 
it will end by spreading through the whole of space. 

Now the waves of an electron or other piece of matter are simply 
a picture of just such a smear. Where the waves are intense, the 
smear is black, and conversely. ‘The nature of the smear—whether 
it consists of printer’s ink, or, as was at one time thought, of elec- 
tricity—is of no importance; this is mere pictorial detail. All 
that is essential is the relative blackness of the smear at different 
places—a ratio of numbers which measures the relative chance of 
electrons being at different points of space. 

The relation between the wave-picture and the particle-picture 
may be summed up thus: the more stormy the waves at any point 
in the wave-picture, the more likely we are to find a particle at that 
point in the particle-picture. Yet,if the particles really existed as 
points, and the waves depicted the chances of their existing at 
different points of space—as Maxwell’s law does for the molecules 
of a gas—then the gas would emit a continuous spectrum instead 
of the line-spectrum that is actually observed. Thus we had 
better put our statement in the form that the electron is not a point- 
particle, but that if we insist on picturing it as such, then the waves 
indicate the relative proprieties of picturing it as existing at the 
different points of space. But propriety relative to what ? 

The answer is—relative to our own knowledge. If we know 
nothing about an electron except that it exists, all places are equally 
likely for it, so that its waves are uniformly spread through the whole 
of space. By experiment after experiment we can restrict the 
extent of its waves, but we can never reduce them to a point, or 
indeed below a certain minimum ; the coarse-grainedness of our 
probes prevents that. ‘There is always a finite region of waves left. 
And the waves which are left depict our knowledge precisely and 
exactly; we may say that they are waves of knowledge—or, 
perhaps even better still, waves of imperfections of knowledge— 
of the position of the electron. 

And now we come to the central and most surprising fact of the 
whole situation. I agree that it is still too early, and the situation is 
still too obscure, for us fully to assess its importance, but, as I see it, 
it seems likely to lead to radical changes in our views not only of the 
universe but even more of ourselves. Let us remember that we 
are dealing with a system of waves which depict in a graphic form 
our knowledge of the constituents of the universe. The central 
fact is this: the wave-parable does not tell us that these waves 
depict our knowledge of nature, but that they are nature itself. 

B2 


10 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 


If we ask the new physics to specify an electron for us, it does not 
give us a mathematical specification of an objective electron, but 
rather retorts with the question : ‘How much do you know about 
the electron in question?’ We state all we know, and then comes 
the surprising reply, ‘ That is the electron.’ The electron exists 
only in our minds—what exists beyond, and where, to put the idea 
of an electron into our minds we do not know. ‘The new physics 
can provide us with wave-pictures depicting electrons about which 
we have varying amounts of knowledge, ranging from nothing at all 
to the maximum we can know with the blunt probes at our command, 
but the electron which exists apart from our study of it is quite 
beyond its purview. 

Let me try and put this in another way. The old physics im- 
agined it was studying an objective nature which had its own exist- 
ence independently of the mind which perceived it—which, indeed, 
had existed from all eternity whether it was perceived or not. It 
would have gone on imagining this to this day, had the electron 
observed by the physicists behaved as on this supposition it ought 
to have done. 

But it did not so behave, and this led to the birth of the new physics, 
with its general thesis that the nature we study does not consist so 
much of something we perceive as of our perceptions ; it is not the 
object of the subject-object relation, but the relation itself. There 
is, in fact, no clear-cut division between the subject and object ; 
they form an indivisible whole which now becomes nature. This 
thesis finds its final expression in the wave-parable, which tells us 
that nature consists of waves and that these are of the general 
quality of waves of knowledge, or of absence of knowledge, in our 
own minds. 

Let me digress to remind you that if ever we are to know the true 
nature of waves, these waves must consist of something we already 
have in our own minds. Now knowledge and absence of knowledge 
satisfy this criterion as few other things could ; waves in an ether, 
for instance, emphatically did not. It may seem strange, and almost 
too good to be true, that nature should in the last resort consist of 
something we can really understand ; but there is always the simple 
solution available that the external world is ee of the same 
nature as mental ideas. 

At best this may seem very academic and up in the air—at the 
worst it may seem stupid and even obvious. I agree that it would 
be so, were it not for the one outstanding fact that observation 
supports the wave-picture of the new physics whole-heartedly and 
without hesitation. Whenever the particle-picture and the wave- 
picture have come into conflict, observation has discredited the 
particle-picture and supported the wave-picture—not merely, be it 


THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS II 


noted, as a picture of our knowledge of nature, but as a picture of 
nature itself. The particle-parable is useful as a concession to the 
materialistic habits of thought which have become ingrained in our 
minds, but it can no longer claim to fit the facts, and, so far as we 
can at present see, the truth about nature must lie very near to the 
wave-parable. 

Let me digress again to remind you of two simple instances of 
such conflicts and of the verdicts which observation has pro- 
nounced upon them. 

A shower of parallel-moving electrons forms in effect an 
electric current. Let us shoot such a shower of electrons at a thin 
film of metal, as your own Prof. G. P. Thomson did. The particle- 
parable compares it to a shower of hailstones falling on a crowd 
of umbrellas ; we expect the electrons to get through somehow or 
anyhow and come out on the other side as a disordered mob. But 
the wave-parable tells us that the shower of electrons is a train of 
waves. It. must retain its wave-formation, not only in passing 
through the film, but also when it emerges on the other side. And 
this is what actually happens : it comes out and forms a wave-pattern 
which can be predicted—completely and perfectly—from its wave- 
picture before it entered the film. 

Next let us shoot our shower of electrons against the barrier 
formed by an adverse electro-motive force. If the electrons of the 
shower have a uniform energy of ten volts each, let us throw them 
against an adverse potential difference of a million volts. According 
to the particle-parable, it is like throwing a handful of shot up into 
the air; they will all fall back to earth in time—the conservation 
of energy will see to that. But the wave-parable again sees our 
shower of electrons as a train of waves—like a beam of light—and 
sees the potential barrier as an obstructing layer—like a dirty window 
pane. The wave-parable tells us that this will check, but not 
entirely stop, our beam of electrons. It even shows us how to 
calculate what fraction will get through. And just this fraction, in 
actual fact, does get through ; a certain number of ten-volt electrons 
surmount the potential barrier of a million volts—as though a few 
of the shot thrown lightly up from our hands were to surmount the 
earth’s gravitational field and wander off into space. ‘The pheno- 
menon appears to be in flat contradiction to the law of conservation 
of energy, but we must remember that waves of knowledge are not 
likely to own allegiance to this law. 

A further problem arises out of this experiment. Of the millions 
of electrons of the original shower, which particular electrons will 
get through the obstacle? Is it those who get off the mark first, 
or those with the highest turn of speed, or what ? What little extra 
have they that the others haven’t got ? 


12 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 


It seems to be nothing more than pure good luck. We know of 
no way of increasing the chances of individual electrons ; each just 
takes its turn with the rest. It is a concept with which science has 
been familiar ever since Rutherford and Soddy gave us the law of 
spontaneous disintegration of radioactive substances—of a million 
atoms ten broke up every year, and no help we could give to a 
selected ten would cause fate to select them rather than the ten of 
her own choosing. It was the same with Bohr’s model of the atom ; 
Einstein found that without the caprices of fate it was impossible 
to explain the ordinary spectrum of a hot body; call on fate, and 
we at once obtained Planck’s formula, which agrees exactly with 
observation. 

From the dawn of human history, man has been wont to attribute 
the results of his own incompetence to the interference of a malign 
fate. The particle-picture seems to make fate even more powerful 
and more all-pervading than ever before ; she not only has her finger 
in human affairs, but also in every atom in the universe. The new 
physics has got rid of mechanistic determinism, but only at the price 
of getting rid of the uniformity of nature as well ! 

I do not suppose that any serious scientist feels that such a state- 
ment must be accepted as final; certainly I do not. I think the 
analogy of the beam of light falling on the dirty window-pane will 
show us the fallacy of it. 

Heisenberg’s mathematical equation shows that the energy of a 
beam of light must always be an integral number of quanta. We 
have observational evidence of this in the photoelectric effect, in 
which atoms always suffer damage by whole quanta. 

Now this is often stated in parable form. ‘The parable tells us that 
light consists of discrete light-particles, called photons, each carrying 
a single quantum of energy. A beam of light becomes a shower of 
photons moving through space like the bullets from a machine-gun ; 
it is easy to see why they necessarily do damage by whole quanta. 

When a shower of photons falls on a dirty window-pane, some of 
the photons are captured by the dirt, while the rest escape capture 
and get through. And again the question arises: How are the 
lucky photons singled out? The obvious superficial answer is a 
wave of the hand towards Fortune’s wheel ; it is the same answer 
that Newton gave when he spoke of his ‘ corpuscles of light ’ experi- 
encing alternating fits of transmission and reflection. But we readily 
see that such an answer is superficial. 

Our balance at the bank always consists of an integral number of 
pence, but it does not follow that it is a pile of bronze pennies. A 
child may, however, picture it as so being, and ask his father what 
determines which particular pennies go to pay the rent. The father 
may answer ‘ Mere chance "—a foolish answer, but no more foolish 


THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 13 


than the question. Our question as to what determines which 
photons get through is, I think, of a similar kind, andif Nature seems 
to answer ‘ Mere chance,’ she is merely answering us according to 
our folly. A parable which replaces radiation by identifiable photons 
can find nothing but the finger of fate to separate the sheep from 
the goats. But the finger of fate, like the photons themselves, 
is mere pictorial detail. As soon as we abandon our picture of 
radiation as a shower of photons, there is no chance but complete 
determinism in its flow. And the same is, I think, true when the 
particle-photons are replaced by particle-electrons. 

We know that every electric current must transfer electricity 
by complete electron-units, but this does not entitle us to replace 
an electric current by a shower of identifiable electron-particles. 
Indeed the exclusion-principle of Pauli, whichis in full agreement with 
observation, definitely forbids our doing so. When the red and white 
balls collide on a billiard table, red may go to the right and white 
to the left. ‘The collision of two electrons A and B is governed by 
similar laws of energy and momentum, so that we might expect 
to be able to say that A goes to the right, and B to the left or vice- 
versa. Actually we must say no such thing, because we have no 
right to identify the two electrons which emerge from the collision 
with the two that went in. Itis.as though A and B had temporarily 
combined into a single drop of electric fluid, which had subsequently 
broken up into two new electrons, C, D. We can only say that 
after the collision C will go to the right, and D to the left. If we are 
asked which way A will go, the true answer is that by then A will 
no longer exist. ‘The superficial answer is that it is a pure toss-up. 
But the toss-up is not in nature, but in our own minds ; it is an even 
chance whether we choose to identify C with A or with B. 

Thus the indeterminism of the particle-picture seems to reside 
in our own minds rather thanin nature. In any case this picture 
is imperfect, since it fails to represent the facts of observation. ‘The 
wave-picture, which observation confirms in every known experi- 
ment, exhibits a complete determinism. 

Again we may begin to feel that the new physics is little better 
than the old—that it has merely replaced one determinism by 
another. It has; but there is all the difference in the world between 
the two determinisms. For in the old physics the perceiving mind 
was a spectator ; in the new itis an actor. Nature no longer forms 
a closed system detached from the perceiving mind ; the perceiver 
and perceived are interacting parts of a single system. ‘The nature 
depicted by the wave-picture in some way embraces our minds 
as well as inanimate matter. Things still change solely as they 
are compelled, but it no longer seems impossible that part of the 
compulsion may originate in our own minds. 


14 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 


Even the inadequate particle-picture told us something very 
similar in its own roundabout stammering way. At first it seemed 
to be telling us of a nature distinct from our minds, which moved 
as directed by throws of the dice, and then it transpired that the dice 
were thrown by our own minds. Our minds enter into both pic- 
tures, although in somewhat different capacities. In the particle- 
picture the mind merely decides under what conventions the map 
is to be drawn ; in the wave-picture it perceives and observes and 
draws the map. We should notice, however, that the mind enters 
both pictures only in its capacity as a receptacle—never as an 
emitter. 

The determinism which appears in the new physics is one of 
waves, and so, in the last resort, of knowledge. Where we are not 
ourselves concerned, we can say that event follows event ; where 
we are concerned, only that knowledge follows knowledge. And 
even this knowledge is one only of probabilities and not of cer- 
tainties ; it is at best a smeared picture of the clear-cut reality which 
we believe to lie beneath. And just because of this, it is impossible 
to decide whether the determinism of the wave-picture originates 
in the underlying reality or not—Can our minds change what is 
happening in reality, or can they only make it look different to us by 
changing our angle of vision? We do not know, and as I do not 
see how we can ever find out, my own opinion is that the problem of 
free-will will continue to provide material for fruitless discussion 
until the end of eternity. 

The contribution of the new physics to this problem is not that 
it has given a decision on a long-debated question, but that it has 
reopened a door which the old physics had seemed to slam and bolt. 
We have an intuitive belief that we can choose our lunch from the 
menu or abstain from housebreaking or murder; and that by our 
own volition we can develop our freedom to choose. We may, of 
course, be wrong. ‘The old physics seemed to tell us that we were, 
and that our imagined freedom was all an illusion ; the new physics 
tells us it may not be. 

The old physics showed us a universe which looked more like a 
prison than a dwelling-place. ‘The new physics shows us a building 
which is certainly more spacious, although its interior doors may be 
either open or locked—we cannot say. But we begin to suspect it 
may give us room for such freedom as we have always believed we 
possessed ; it seems possible at least that in it we can mould events 
to our desire, and live lives of emotion, intellect, and endeavour. 
It looks as though it might form a suitable dwelling-place for man, 
and not a mere shelter for brutes. 

The new physics obviously carries many philosophical implica- 
tions, but these are not easy to describe in words. They cannot be. 


THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 15 


summed up in the crisp, snappy sentences beloved of scientific 
journalism, such as that materialism is dead, or that matter is no 
more. The situation is rather that both materialism and matter 
need to be redefined in the light of our new knowledge. When this 
has been done, the materialist must decide for himself whether the 
only kind of materialism which science now permits can be suitably 
labelled materialism, and whether what remains of matter should be 
labelled as matter or as something else; it is mainly a question 
of terminology. 

What remains is in any case very different from the full-blooded 
matter and the forbidding materialism of the Victorian scientist. 
His objective and material universe is proved to consist of little more 
than constructs of our own minds. To this extent, then, modern 
physics has moved in the direction of philosophic idealism. Mind 
and matter, if not proved to be of similar nature, are at least found 
to be ingredients of one single system. There is no longer room for 
the kind of dualism which has haunted philosophy since the days of 
Descartes. 

This brings us at once face to face with the fundamental difficulty 
which confronts every form of philosophical idealism. If the 
nature we study consists so largely of our own mental constructs, 
why do our many minds all construct one and the same nature ? 
Why, in brief, do we all see the same sun, moon and stars ? 

I would suggest that physics itself may provide a possible although 
very conjectural clue. The old particle-picture which lay within 
the limits of space and time, broke matter up into a crowd of distinct 
particles, and radiation into a shower of distinct photons. The 
newer and more accurate wave-picture, which transcends the frame- 
work of space and time, recombines the photons into a single beam 
of light, and the shower of parallel-moving electrons into a continuous 
electric current. Atomicity and division into individual existences 
are fundamental in the restricted space-time picture, but disappear 
in the wider, and as far as we know more truthful, picture which 
transcends space and time. In this, atomicity is replaced by what 
General Smuts would describe as ‘ holism ’—the photons are no 
longer distinct individuals each going its own way, but members of 
a single organisation or whole—a beam of light. ‘The same is true, 
mutatis mutandis, of the electrons of a parallel-moving shower. The 
biologists are beginning to tell us, although not very unanimously, 
that the same may be true of the cells of our bodies. And is it not 
conceivable that what is true of the objects perceived may be true 
also of the perceiving minds? When we view ourselves in space 
and time we are quite obviously distinct individuals ; when we pass 
beyond space and time we may perhaps form ingredients of a con- 
tinuous stream of life. It is only a step from this to a solution of 


16 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 


the problem which would have commended itself to many philoso- 
phers, from Plato to Berkeley, and is, I think, directly in line with 
the new world-picture of modern physics. 

I have left but little time to discuss affairs of a more concrete 
nature. We meet in a year which has to some extent seen science 
arraigned before the bar of public opinion; there are many who 
attribute most of our present national woes—including unemploy- 
ment in industry and the danger of war—to the recent rapid advance 
in scientific knowledge. 

Even if their most lurid suspicions were justified, it is not clear 
what we could do. For it is obvious that the country which called 
a halt to scientific progress would soon fall behind in every other 
respect as well—in its industry, in its economic position, in its 
naval and military defences, and, not least important, in its culture. 
Those who sigh for an Arcadia in which all machinery would be 
scrapped and all invention proclaimed a crime, as it was in Erewhon, 
forget that the Erewhonians had neither to compete with highly 
organised scientific competitors for the trade of the world nor to 
protect themselves against possible bomb-dropping, blockade or 
invasion. 

But can we admit that the suspicions of our critics are justified ? 
If science has made the attack more deadly in war, it has also made 
the defence more efficient in the long run ; it shows no partiality in 
the age-long race between weapons of attack and defence. This 
being so, it would, I think, be hard to maintain in cold blood that its 
activities are likely to make wars either more frequent or more pro- 
longed. It is at least arguable that the more deadly a war is likely 
to be, the less likely it is to occur. 

Still it may occur. We cannot ignore the tragic fact that, as our 
President of two years ago told us, science has given man control 
over Nature before he has gained control over himself. The tragedy 
does not lie in man’s scientific control over Nature but in his absence 
of moral control over himself. This is only one chapter of a long 
story—human nature changes very slowly, and so for ever lags 
behind human knowledge, which accumulates very rapidly. The 
plays of Aeschylus and Sophocles still thrill us with their vital human 
interest, but the scientific writings of Aristarchus and Ptolemy are 
dead—mere historical curiosities which leave us cold. Scientific 
knowledge is transmitted from one generation to another, while 
acquired characteristics are not. Thus, in respect of knowledge, 
each generation stands on the shoulders of its predecessor, but in 
respect of human nature, both stand on the same ground. 

These are hard facts which we cannot hope to alter, and which 
—we may as well admit—may wreck civilisation. If there is an 
avenue of escape, it does not, as I see it, lie in the direction of less 


THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 17 


science, but of more science—psychology, which holds out hopes 
that, for the first time in his long history, man may be enabled to 
obey the command ‘ Know thyself’; to which I, for one, would 
like to see adjoined a morality and, if possible, even a religion, 
consistent with our new psychological knowledge and the established 
facts of science ; scientific and constructive measures of eugenics 
and birth control ; scientific research in agriculture and industry, 
sufficient at least to defeat the gloomy prophecies of Malthus and 
enable ever larger populations to live in comfort and contentment on 
the same limited area of land. In such ways we may hope to restrain 
the pressure of population and the urge for expansion which, to my 
mind, are far more likely to drive the people of a nation to war 
than the knowledge that they—and also the enemies they will have 
to fight—are armed with the deadliest weapons which science can 
devise. 

This last brings us to the thorny problem of economic depression 
and unemployment. No doubt a large part of this results from the 
war, national rivalries, tariff barriers, and various causes which have 
nothing to do with science, but a residue must be traced to scientific 
research ; this produces labour-saving devices which in times of 
depression are only too likely to be welcomed as wage-saving 
devices and to put men out of work. The scientific Robot in 
Punch’s cartoon boasted that he could do the work of 100 men, 
but gave no answer to the question— Who will find work for the 
displaced 99?’ He might, I think, have answered—‘ The pure 
scientist, in part at least.’ For scientific research has two products 
of industrial importance—the labour-saving inventions which dis- 
place labour, and the more fundamental discoveries which originate 
as pure science, but may ultimately lead to new trades and new 
popular demands providing employment for vast armies of labour. 

Both are rich gifts from science to the community. The labour- 
saving devices lead to emancipation from soul-destroying toil and 
routine work, to greater leisure and better opportunities for its enjoy- 
ment. ‘The new inventions add to the comfort and pleasure, health 
and wealth of the community. Ifa perfect balance could be main- 
tained between the two, there would be employment for all, with 
a continual increase in the comfort and dignity of life. But, as 
I see it, troubles are bound to arise if the balance is not maintained, 
and a steady flow of labour-saving devices with no accompanying 
steady flow of new industries to absorb the labour they displace, 
cannot but lead to unemployment and chaos in the field of labour. 
At present we have a want of balance resulting in unemployment, so 
that our great need at the moment is for industry-making discoveries. 
Let us remember Faraday’s electromagnetic induction, Maxwell’s 
Hertzian waves, and the Otto cycle—each of which has provided 


18 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 


employment for millions of men. And, although it is an old story, 
let us also remember that the economic value of the work of one 
scientist alone, Edison, has been estimated at three thousand million 
pounds. 

Unhappily, no amount of planning can arrange a perfect balance. 
For as the wind bloweth where it listeth, so no one can control the 
direction in which science will advance ; the investigator in pure 
science does not know himself whether his researches will result in 
a mere labour-saving device or a new industry. He only knows 
that if all science were throttled down, neither would result ; the 
community would become crystallised in its present state, with 
nothing to do but watch its population increase, and shiver as it 
waited for the famine, pestilence or war which must inevitably come 
to restore the balance between food and mouths, land and population. 

Is it not better to press on in our efforts to secure more wealth 
and leisure and dignity of life for our own and future generations, 
even though we risk a glorious failure, rather than accept inglorious 
failure by perpetuating our present conditions, in which these 
advantages are the exception rather than the rule? Shall we not 
risk the fate of that over-ambitious scientist Icarus, rather than 
resign ourselves without an effort to the fate which has befallen the 
bees and ants? Such are the questions I would put to those who 
maintain that science is harmful to the race. 


eo 


SECTION A—MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 


THEORIES OF LIGHT 


ADDRESS BY 
PROF. H. M. MACDONALD, O.B.E., LL.D., F.R.S., 


PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 


EarLy speculations as to how impressions were produced on the senses 
ascribed the sensations associated with the senses of taste and smell to 
the emanation of small particles of the substances involved, and ascribed 
the sensations associated with the sense of sound to undulations or pulses 
inthe air. 'The sensations associated with the sense of sight were assumed 
by some philosophers to be produced in a manner similar to those belong- 
ing to the senses of taste and smell, while by others they were assumed to 
be produced in a manner similar to those of sound. In the first case 
they were assumed to be produced by emanations from the body seen, 
in the second case by undulations due to the body. Among the Greeks 
Empedocles was an exponent of the first view, while Aristotle supported 
the second view. It should be noted that different views were held by 
those who supported an emanation theory as to the nature of the emana- 
tion. Some held that the emanation consisted of small particles of 
matter, while others held that the emanation was something different from 
matter. 

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when attention was being 
directed again to the study of natural phenomena, the two types of theory 
were revived. The form of the emanation theory which was adopted 
ultimately is that due to Newton, usually referred to as the corpuscular 
theory of light. In this theory light is regarded as consisting of very 
small particles of matter emitted by luminous bodies with the same 
velocity, the velocity of light. These light particles are supposed to be 
repelled or attracted by the molecules of material bodies according to 
some law depending on the distance between them, It is further assumed 
that the law is such that the force can change from an attraction to a 
repulsion or from a repulsion to an attraction, that these forces are 
insensible at sensible distances, that the motion of a light particle 
satisfies the ordinary laws of dynamics, and that, as the light particle 


20 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


moves, it passes through states which have been termed ‘fits of easy 
transmission and easy reflexion’ by Newton, these states recurring 
periodically. 

The form of the undulating theory which was adopted is due to 
Huygens. On this theory light consists of undulations propagated 
through an elastic medium which fills all space ; it is assumed that the 
elasticity of this medium is different in different material bodies and 
different from its elasticity in free space, and that therefore the velocity 
of propagation of light in a material medium is different from its 
velocity of propagation in free space. It is a consequence of either theory 
that when all the media are isotropic Zy¢ along the path of a ray from 
one point to another point is stationary, and this relation is sufficient to 
give the results which are classed under the term of Geometrical Optics. 
The modification necessary in this result to make it applicable to the 
case of crystalline media was effected by Laplace, who made use of the 
corpuscular theory of light in his investigation and assumed that the 
velocity of the light particles in a crystalline medium depended on 
the direction. The same result was also derived from the undulatory 
theory. 

At the end of the eighteenth century the corpuscular theory of light 
was the theory which was accepted generally ; one of the main arguments 
against an undulatory theory was its failure to explain the formation of 
shadows. Early last century the principle of interference was put 
forward by Young to account for the formation of shadows on the un- 
dulatory theory, and somewhat later, though independently, Fresnel 
arrived at the same result. In 1816 Arago and Fresnel showed that 
light polarised in perpendicular planes did not interfere. It is not 
improbable that Fresnel had inferred already that the direction of the 
disturbance which constituted light was transverse to the direction of 
propagation, and that these experiments confirmed it, but he makes no 
reference to the principle of transversality in his writings for a con- 
siderable time. The earliest explicit reference to the principle I have 
been able to find is contained in a letter from Young to Arago written in 
January 1817. Young had visited Arago after the experiments had been 
carried out in 1816 and discussed them with him, and he appears to have 
been the only one who saw the importance of Fresnel’s inference and who 
agreed with it. In his essay on diffraction (1818) Fresnel does not refer 
to the principle ; he uses Huygens’ principle and the principle of inter- 
ference to obtain his results, principles which are independent of the 
direction of the disturbance. After the publication of his essay on 
diffraction, Fresnel applied his law of transversality to the phenomena 
of polarisation, the propagation of light in crystalline media and other 
problems. He obtained and verified by observation relations between 
the intensities of the incident, transmitted, and reflected light, when light 
is incident on a surface which separates two isotropic transparent media, 
and these relations have ever since been regarded as conditions which 
any adequate theory of light must satisfy. This is also true of the results 
he obtained for the propagation of light in crystalline media. Fresnel’s 


A.—_MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES 21 


method of attack is to a great extent geometrical and independent of any 
hypothesis as to the nature of a medium. 

The developments which had taken place in analytical mathematical 
methods beginning with the work of the Bernoullis on strings which led 
to Fourier’s work and Lagrange’s treatment of dynamical problems made 
it possible to submit the hypothesis that light is due to the vibrations of 
an elastic medium to a more rigorous analysis. ‘The earliest investigation 
of this kind is due to Cauchy. In Cauchy’s treatment the elastic medium 
is supposed to consist of small particles or molecules which act on each 
other, and the further hypothesis is made that the force between any two 
particles is along the line joining the two points which are taken to 
represent the two particles. As the same problem was discussed by 
Green in a more general way in 1837 it is unnecessary to refer to Cauchy’s 
results in detail. 

The hypothesis which Green made with respect to the mutual actions 
of portions of the elastic medium was that they possessed a work function. 
He investigated the form of this function and proved that when the medium 
is isotropic and homogeneous it involves two constants, and that, if trans- 
verse waves are propagated in the medium independently of normal 
waves, the velocity of propagation of normal waves must be either in- 
definitely great or indefinitely small. He further proved that if the 
elastic medium is stable the velocity of propagation of normal waves in it 
must be indefinitely great. 

The difference between two isotropic homogeneous media is assumed 
to be a difference between their densities, and on this assumption the 
relations between the amplitudes of the incident, the transmitted, and the 
reflected waves are obtained when waves are incident on a surface 
separating two such media. For waves polarised in the plane of incidence 
the relations are the same as Fresnel’s, and for waves polarised per- 
pendicularly to the plane of incidence the relations are very approxi- 
mately the same as Fresnel’s except when the index of refraction is great. 
The difference between Cauchy’s hypothesis as to the nature of the 
mutual actions of the medium and Green’s hypothesis has been referred to 
above ; another important difference in their treatments is that Cauchy 
assumes that the direction of the disturbance in the medium is parallel 
to the plane of polarisation, while Green, in accordance with Fresnel’s 
view, assumes that this direction is perpendicular to the plane of 
polarisation. 

Green’s investigation is of special interest, as it is the first where 
Lagrange’s dynamical method is used for the treatment of a physical 
problem, and where the advantages of using a general dynamical principle 
as the basis of the argument rather than hypotheses which involve the 
assumption of particular modes of action are recognised. 

In 1839 Green applied the same method of treatment to the investiga- 


1 The assumption that the difference between two isotropic homogeneous 
media is a difference in the elastic constants leads to results which do not agree 
with the observed facts. 


22 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


tion of the propagation of waves of light in a crystalline medium. In 
addition to the limitation used in his previous investigations, that trans- 
verse waves can be propagated in the medium independently of normal 
waves, he introduces the further limitation in accordance with Fresnel’s 
theory, that the media satisfy the condition that the directions of the 
transverse vibrations are always in the front of the wave. With these 
limitations he proves that, if the direction of a disturbance is parallel to 
the plane of polarisation and the medium is free from the action of any 
external forces, the directions of polarisation and the velocities of propaga- 
tion are the same as in Fresnel’s theory. In his previous investigations 
he had proved that in order to satisfy Fresnel’s relations between the 
amplitudes of the incident, transmitted, and reflected waves at the surface 
separating two isotropic homogeneous media, the direction of a disturb- 
ance is perpendicular to the plane of polarisation. He then shows that 
in order to satisfy Fresnel’s results for crystalline media when the direction 
of a disturbance is perpendicular to the plane of polarisation it is necessary 
to assume the existence of extraneous forces, and that, with the appro- 
priate restrictions on these extraneous forces, the results agree with those 
of Fresnel’s theory. 

It thus appears that an elastic solid medium which is self-contained 
and free from external constraints will not account for the observed facts. 
Cauchy arrived at the same result almost simultaneously. 

Various modifications of Green’s elastic solid theory of light have been 
proposed, but none of them is satisfactory. Perhaps the most interesting 
is that proposed by Lord Kelvin in his Baltimore Lectures. ‘This theory 
assumes that normal waves in the elastic medium are propagated with 
zero velocity, and to get over the difficulty, pointed out by Green, that 
such a medium is not stable, the medium is supposed to be attached to 
a boundary. ‘Thus, although this theory gives results for the relations 
between the amplitudes of the incident, the transmitted, and the 
reflected waves at the boundary separating two isotropic media and 
also for the propagation of waves in crystalline media which agree 
with Fresnel’s results, it is open to the same objection as Green’s 
elastic solid theory which requires the intervention of extraneous 
forces, as the condition that the medium is attached to a boundary 
postulates the existence of some other medium which acts on and 
controls it. 

Although these different investigations did not succeed in establishing 
a satisfactory mechanical theory of light, they were instrumental in 
advancing the knowledge of the subject. One important result emerged, 
that any theory to be satisfactory must agree with Fresnel’s results, and 
some writers, e.g. Lorenz, based many of their investigations on Fresnel’s 
results. 

In Green’s treatment of the elastic solid theory the Lagrangian function 
used by him is of the type which is expressed as the difference of a 
kinetic energy function and a potential energy function. The kinetic 
energy function is the sum of the squares of the velocities of the medium 
multiplied by the density, and, if the rate of transfer of energy due to 


A—MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES 23 


a source in such a medium emitting waves of one frequency is evaluated, 
it will be found that it is oscillatory, and this is also true when the potential 
energy function is of the most general type for an elastic medium. It 
should be observed that, just as in the case of waves of sound from a 
source or of waves in water, there is an actual displacement of the 
medium itself, e.g. in the case of waves of sound air must be supposed 
to be pumped in and out at the source, and this accounts for the 
fact that the rate of transfer of energy is oscillatory. This suggests 
that it should be possible to pump out portions of such a medium, 
and raises the question whether a medium which is subject to the 
laws of dynamics and which possesses a kinetic energy of this type can 
be an ultimate medium which will account for the phenomena of 
light. 

The next important stage in the development of theories of light is the 
discovery by Faraday in 1845 that when polarised light passed through 
a transparent medium its plane of polarisation was rotated by the im- 
position of a magnetic field. In the introduction to his account of these 
experiments Faraday says : ‘ I have long held an opinion, almost amount- 
ing to conviction, in common I believe with many other lovers of natural 
knowledge, that the various forms under which the forces of matter are 
made manifest have one common origin ; or, in other words, are so directly 
related and mutually dependent, that they are convertible, as it were, one 
into another, and possess equivalents of power in their action. ‘This 
strong persuasion extended to the powers of light, and led, on a former 
occasion, to many exertions, having for their object the discovery of the 
direct relation of light and electricity, and their mutual action in bodies 
subject jointly to their power; but the results were negative. ‘These 
ineffectual exertions, and many others which were never published, could 
not remove my strong persuasion derived from philosophical considera- 
tions ; and, therefore, I recently resumed the inquiry by experiment in 
a most strict and searching manner, and have at last succeeded in mag- 
netizing and electrifying a ray of light.’ Ina footnote added subsequently 
Faraday says: ‘ Neither accepting nor rejecting the hypothesis of an 
aether, or the corpuscular, or any other view that may be entertained of 
the nature of light ; and, as far as I can see, nothing being really known 
_ of a ray of light more than of a line of magnetic or electric force, or even 
of a line of gravitating force, except as it and they are manifest in and by 
substances ; I believe that, in the experiments I describe in the paper, 
light has been magnetically affected.’ 

Almost twenty years later, in 1865, Maxwell propounded a theory of 
light in his memoir, A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field.* 
In the introduction Maxwell states : ‘ We have therefore some reason to 
believe, from the phenomena of light and heat, that there is an aethereal_ 
medium filling space and permeating bodies, capable of being set in 
motion and of transmitting that motion from one part to another and of 


2 What might be termed an electric theory of light was propounded by 
Oersted ; in this theory light was regarded as a succession of electric sparks. 


24 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


communicating that motion to gross matter so as to heat:it and affect it 
in various ways. 

‘ We may therefore receive, as a datum derived from a branch of science 
independent of that with which we have to deal, the existence of a per- 
vading medium, of small but real density, capable of being set in motion, 
and of transmitting motion from one part to another with great, but not 
infinite, velocity. 

‘ Hence the parts of this medium must be so connected that the motion 
of one part depends in some way on the motions of the rest ; and at the 
same time these connexions must be capable of a certain kind of elastic 
yielding, since the communication of motion is not instantaneous, but 
occupies time. 

‘The medium is therefore capable of receiving and storing up two 
kinds of energy, the “actual” energy depending on the motions of its 
parts, and “ potential” energy, consisting of the work which the 
medium will do in recovering from displacement in virtue of its 
elasticity.’ 

Maxwell postulates further that the all-pervading medium possesses 
physical characteristics of the same kind as a homogeneous isotropic 
dielectric, that the effect of the action of an electric force on it is 
the production of what he terms ‘ electric displacement,’ which is ‘ a kind 
of elastic yielding to the action of the force similar to that which takes 
place in structures and machines owing to the want of perfect rigidity 
of the connexions.’ 

He shows that the application of the general equations of electro- 
dynamics, derived from the Ampere-Faraday laws, to the case of a magnetic 
disturbance propagated through a non-conducting field gives the result 
that the only disturbances which can be so propagated are those which 
are transverse to the direction of propagation, and that the velocity of 
propagation is the velocity v, which expresses the number of electro- 
static units of electricity which are contained in one electromagnetic 
unit. 

The all-pervading medium which Maxwell postulates is a medium 
which possesses to some extent the physical characteristics of an elastic 
solid, and it is probable that his replacement of the expression for the 
electrokinetic energy which is obtained from Faraday’s laws by an ex- 
pression which gives the energy in terms of the magnetic force, was 
effected to make it similar to the expression for the kinetic energy function 
of an elastic solid. This replacement is effected by an integration by 
parts and neglecting the surface integral on the ground that at an in- 
definitely great distance the surface integral tends to zero, but this over- 
looks the fact that the law of variation of magnetic force with distance is 
not the same when the magnetic field is varying as it is when the magnetic 
field is steady. This does not affect Maxwell’s investigation of the 
propagation of a magnetic disturbance, as this expression for the electre- 
kinetic energy is not used in that investigation. 

As has been seen, Faraday’s view, as set forth in his 1845 paper, is 
different, and he explains his views in greater detail in a letter which 


A.—_MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES 25 


was published in the Philosophical Magazine in 1846. In this letter he 
states : ‘ The view which I am so bold as to put forth considers, therefore, 
radiation as a high species of vibration in the lines of force which are 
known to connect particles and also masses of matter together. It 
endeavours to dismiss the aether, but not the vibration. The kind of 
vibration which, I believe, can alone account for the wonderful, varied, 
and beautiful phenomena of polarization, is not the same as that which 
occurs on the surface of disturbed water, or the waves of sound in gases 
or liquids, for the vibrations in these cases are direct, or to and from the 
centre of action, whereas the former are lateral. It seems to me, that the 
resultant of two or more lines of force is an apt condition for that action 
which may be considered as equivalent to a Jateral vibration ; whereas 
a uniform medium like the aether does not appear apt, or more apt than 
air or water. 

* The occurrence of a change at one end of a line of force easily suggests 
a consequent change at the other. The propagation of light, and there- 
fore probably of all radiant action, occupies time; and that a vibration 
of the line of force should account for the phenomena of radiation, it 
is necessary that such vibration should occupy time also.’ 

And again: ‘ The aether is assumed as pervading all bodies as well as 
space: in the view now set forth, it is the forces of the atomic centres 
which pervade (and make) all bodies, and also penetrate all space. As 
regards space, the difference is, that the aether presents successive parts 
or centres of action, and the present supposition only lines of action ; as 
regards matter, the difference is, that the aether lies between the particles 
and so carries on the vibrations, whilst as respects the supposition, it is 
by the lines of force between the centres of the particles that the vibration 
is continued.’ 

Faraday, like Fresnel, appears to be thinking in terms of geometrical 
relations, while Maxwell is seeking to construct a mechanical model 
whose motions will resemble those which constitute light. 

Starting from Faraday’s ideas, the problem of the propagation of 
a magnetic disturbance in free space can be approached in a direct manner. 
There are three vectors involved—the electric current at a point in the 
space, the magnetic force at the point, and the electric force at the point. 
The relation between the electric current and the magnetic force is given 
by Ampere’s law,® and the relation between the magnetic force and the 
electric force is given by Faraday’s law. Assuming, with Faraday, that 
the phenomena of light and of electricity have a common origin, Fresnel’s 
law of transversality, that the vectors which specify the disturbance are 
perpendicular to the direction of propagation, will hold for the propaga- 
tion of an electric or a magnetic disturbance as well as for light. These 
three laws are sufficient to determine the circumstances of the propagation 
of a magnetic disturbance in free space. It follows that for plane waves 


$ It should be noted that Ampére’s law was established initially for steady 
electric currents ; its extension to the case where the electric currents are varying 
is a result of Faraday’s work. 


26 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


the direction of the vector 7, whose time rate of increase is the electric 
current, at a point coincides with the direction of the electric force E at 
the point, and the relation between E andj is E = 4xV%7, where V is the 
velocity of propagation of a magnetic disturbance in free space. Further, 
if the changes which constitute the disturbance satisfy the laws of 
dynamics, the potential energy per unit of volume is } £j—that is, 
E?/8xV? in electromagnetic units—and, if E, is the same electric force in 
electrostatic units, the potential energy is £,7/8~; therefore E = VE), 
that is, the velocity of propagation is the velocity by which an electric 
force expressed in electrostatic units must be multiplied to convert it 
into electromagnetic units, or since the product of an electric charge and 
the electric force on it, being a mechanical force, is the same in both 
systems of units, the velocity of propagation is the velocity by which 
an electric charge expressed in electromagnetic units must be multiplied 
to convert it into electrostatic units. 

The Lagrangian function of the changes which belong to the propaga- 
tion of an electric or magnetic disturbance in free space is the difference 
of a kinetic energy function and a potential energy function. The 
potential energy function is the function given above—the kinetic energy 
function depends on the electromagnetic momentum and the electric 
current at a point; the contribution from an element in the neighbour- 
hood of a point cannot be expressed in terms of one vector: it depends 
on the electric currents throughout space. On this theory the rate of 
transfer of energy from a source emitting waves of one frequency is steady 
and not oscillatory as on an elastic solid theory. 

Consistently with the foregoing, the effect of material media, so far 
as electric and magnetic phenomena are concerned, can be represented 
by a distribution of electric currents and of magnetic currents throughout 
the space occupied by the material media. These electric current and 
magnetic current distributions can be supposed to be due to electric 
charges and to magnetic particles which are in motion, and it follows 
from the electrodynamical equations, when these current distributions 
are taken account of, that the current distributions can be represented 
by a distribution of electric and magnetic oscillators throughout the space 
occupied by the material media. 

Further, the magnetic field due to a distribution of electric and magnetic 
currents inside a closed surface at any point outside this closed surface 
can be expressed in terms of the components of the electric and magnetic 
forces tangential to the surface—that is, any distribution of electric and 
magnetic currents inside a closed surface produces the same magnetic 
field at points outside the surface as a distribution of electric and magnetic 
currents on the surface which is determined by the components of the 
magnetic and electric forces tangential to the surface at points on it, but 
a knowledge of the magnetic field external to a closed surface does not 
determine the distribution of electric and magnetic currents inside the 
surface which is producing the magnetic field. 

When the states of motion belonging to the electric and magnetic 
current distributions in the material medium are steady states of motion 


A.—MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES 27 


the material medium is in a state of relative equilibrium, but, when an 
electric or magnetic disturbance is being propagated in the material 
medium, these steady states of motion will be disturbed and, under 
certain conditions, the effect of the disturbance will be to set up small 
oscillations about the steady states of motion ; a material can be regarded 
as being perfectly transparent for a disturbance whose only effect is to 
set up small oscillations about the steady states of motion. A condition 
for this is that none of the frequencies involved in the disturbance are 
equal to or nearly equal to any of the natural frequencies belonging to 
the steady states of motion. 

Fresnel’s relations between the amplitudes of the incident, the trans- 
mitted, and the reflected waves when a train of waves is incident on the 
surface separating two transparent media follow on this hypothesis, and 
also Fresnel’s results for the propagation of waves in crystalline media. 
It should be noticed that on this hypothesis the electric and magnetic 
forces at a point in a material medium which appear in the equations are 
not the total electric and magnetic forces at the point, but the parts of 
them which are due to the disturbance. 

Faraday’s results for the rotation of the plane of polarisation by an 
imposed magnetic field when light is being propagated in a non-magnetic 
transparent medium follow immediately from the above hypothesis 
without making any additional assumptions. 

Further, on the same hypothesis there will be ranges of frequencies for 
which a material medium is transparent, the extent of such a range will 
depend on the intensity of the disturbances, and between any two con- 
secutive ranges there will be a range of frequencies for which the medium 
is not transparent, and the mathematical treatment of the effect of disturb- 
ances involving these frequencies will require additional hypotheses. 

The theory advanced above is not a mechanical theory of light in the 
sense that it is possible to construct a machine whose motions will resemble 
the motions involved in the propagation of light. The form of the electro- 
kinetic energy function raises the question whether all the time rates of 
change involved in the propagation of a magnetic disturbance can be 
represented by moving points, and whether every time rate of change 
associated with physical phenomena involves change of position in space. 
It may be necessary to contemplate time rates of change which do not 
involve change of position in space although they satisfy the laws of 
dynamics. In this connection it is of interest to observe that a result of 
Faraday’s laws is that, when there are electric currents in a system of 
circuits which are in motion, the kinetic energy function does not contain 
terms which involve the product of an electric current and a velocity, 
a result which Maxwell verified experimentally. 

A possible hypothesis is that physical phenomena are due to the inter- 
action of time rates of change which satisfy the laws of dynamics, and the 
Lagrangian function in that case would be a homogeneous quadratic 
function of all the time rates of change. In actual cases only some of the 
changes are being observed, and the Lagrangian function which is obtained 
from the experimental evidence is a modified Lagrangian function where 


28 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


the unobserved changes are supposed to be eliminated. In certain cases 
this function will be expressed as the difference of a kinetic energy and 
a potential energy function; an important case is the case where the 
unobserved changes appear in the original Lagrangian function as 
velocities only and there are no product terms which involve a velocity 
belonging to the observed and a velocity belonging to the unobserved 
changes. There are also cases where the modified function is of this 
form approximately. 


SECTION B—CHEMISTRY. 


PHYSICAL METHODS IN CHEMISTRY 


ADDRESS BY 
PROF. T. MARTIN LOWRY, C.B.E., Didc.,, F.R.»., 
PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 


CURRENT EVENTS. 


IN reviewing the development of chemistry in this country during the 
past year, I must place in the forefront the political events which have 
turned so many of our most welcome visitors into residents. It is 
impossible as yet to appreciate fully the contribution thus made to the 
advancement of science in this country, and it would perhaps be invidious 
to mention any names ; but I must make an exception in order to say that 
in Cambridge we were just beginning to discover how great a chemist 
and how generous a colleague we had found in Haber, when he succumbed 
to a heart-weakness of long standing, less than a week after I had the 
privilege of presiding at his first public lecture. 

I should also like to mention the holding of the 59th and 60th General 
Discussions of the Faraday Society in Cambridge and in Oxford respec- 
tively, since it was my privilege nearly thirty years ago to initiate the first 
three of these discussions, as a means of providing an appropriate environ- 
ment for a modest paper of my own on ‘ Osmotic Pressure,’ and for papers 
with Mr. Bousfield on the ‘Hydrate Theory of Ionisation,’ and on 
“Liquid Water a Ternary Mixture.’ 


INTERPENETRATION OF CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS. 


One of the most important features of scientific progress during the 
present century, and especially since the war, has been the renewal of the 
old intimate fellowship between chemistry and physics, which was 
characteristic of the earlier days, when Cavendish and Faraday were 
masters of both subjects and competent to make important discoveries 
in either. ‘The subsequent segregation, which resulted from the growing 
specialisation of these two subjects of research, tended to produce 
chemists who were no longer competent physicists, and physicists who 
had little or no sympathy with chemical problems, to the great loss of 
both sciences. Indeed, when I was a student, the leading physical 
chemist was one who ‘ used to boast that he had never performed an 


30 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


exact experiment in his life ’(1)* ; and the physico-chemical theories which 
first attracted me to the study of chemistry were largely fallacious, since 
we now know that the concentration of ions in an aqueous solution cannot 
be deduced directly from its conductivity at different dilutions ; nor does 
the catalytic activity of an acid afford a direct measure of the concentra- 
tion of hydrogen ions which it contains, in view of the fact that the 
molecules of the acid may be even more active than the ions produced 
from them. Even more amazing evidence of inaccurate theory was the 
claim made by Ostwald in 1904 (2) that the law of multiple proportions 
(which Sommerfeld (3) cites as one of three main arguments for the atomic 
theory) could be deduced without the help of the atomic hypothesis! At 
the present time, however, the work of Dr. Aston in the Cavendish 
Laboratory, and of Professor Lennard-Jones in the Chemical Laboratory 
at Cambridge, may be cited as a proof of interpenetration, which is as 
welcome as it is undoubtedly beneficial to both laboratories. Moreover, 
if I may be allowed to make a more personal remark, the efficiency of my 
own Laboratory of Physical Chemistry at Cambridge, and the pleasure 
that I derive from directing it, depend largely on the fact that the workers 
in the laboratory consist of chemists and physicists in approximately 
equal numbers, so that we are equally well equipped for work in the 
older Physical Chemistry and in the newer Chemical Physics. Indeed, 
our chief need at the present time is for larger numbers of organic 
chemists to undertake researches in the physical chemistry of organic 
compounds, which do not necessarily require (as is so often feared) a 
knowledge of wave mechanics and a mastery of higher mathematics. 


Atomic NUMBERS. 


If I were asked to indicate the principal contribution which physics 
has made to the progress of chemistry during the present century, I 
should without hesitation point to the theory of atomic numbers, and to 
the galaxy of phenomena that are associated with it. We might begin, 
for instance, by defining the atomic number of an atom as the net positive 
charge of the nucleus, on the assumption that Rutherford’s ‘ nucleus 
atom ’ is too stable to be disintegrated by any verbal bombardment to 
which it may be submitted. We then pass immediately to the epoch- 
making conclusion that nuclear charge is more important to the chemist 
than atomic mass, since the chemical properties of an element depend 
almost exclusively on the configuration of the electronic atmosphere with 
which the nucleus envelops itself in the neutral atom or in the ions derived 
from it. 

When the atomic numbers of the elements were made known, through 
the experiments of Moseley and others, a precise numerical basis was 
provided for their periodic classification. ‘This finds its simplest ex- 
pression in the Rydberg series : 


2X i? +2 XxX 22-2 X27 +2 %'32-+2 3% +2 4b ge 
which tells us how many electrons are required to give the configuration 


* References will be found at the end of the Address. 


B.—CHEMISTRY 31 


of the inert gases. ‘These gases owe their inertness to the extreme stability 
of the ‘closed shells’ of electrons represented by the terms of the 
Rydberg series. ‘These shells are, indeed, so stable that the elements are 
devoid of all ordinary chemical properties, although under the stress of 
great excitement pairs of atoms can be wedded into diatomic molecules. 

From the Rydberg series, the electronic theory of valency emerges at 
once, since maxima of chemical reactivity are found in those metals which 
can acquire the electronic configuration of an inert gas by parting with 
one or two surplus electrons, and in non-metals which have a like deficit 
in their electronic budget. Inorganic chemistry, which consists so largely 
of the chemistry of ions, thus finds a firm foundation in the Thomson- 
Kossell conception of ‘ electron transfer’ between the atoms of unlike 
elements. On the other hand, the bonds by which atoms of similar 
elements are united in diatomic gases, and in the complex molecules of 
organic compounds, can be expressed by means of the Thomson-Lewis 
conception of ‘ shared electrons,’ for which a physical interpretation has 
now been found in the spinning electron of the older quantum mechanics, 
and the resonance energy of the later wave-theory. 


CHEMICAL CHANGES IN THE NUCLEUS. 


If the study of the electronic atmosphere is of primary value to the 
chemist in his studies of chemical reactions, it is impossible to deny that 
the study of the structure of the nucleus itself is of even more funda- 
mental significance, since it is here that the atomic numbers have their 
origin ; and, if it were not for the stability of certain selected nuclear 
structures, the chemist would have no atoms from which to construct 
his molecules, except perhaps the ultimate elements (apparently once 
more four in number) from which the nuclei are built. 1 need not now 
describe in detail the chemical interest which attaches to the discovery of 
isotopes, since this will form the basis of a subsequent discussion ; but I 
should like tomention Oliphant’s (4) separation of the isotopes of lithium, 
in sufficient quantities to test their behaviour towards high-speed protons 
and deutons, by the method of the mass-spectrograph, since this method 
is obviously capable of universal application, when developed on an ade- 
quate scale of magnitude. On the other hand, attention may be directed 
to the vast field of nuclear chemistry which has been opened up in recent 
years by the development of new projectiles for bombarding the nucleus. 
Thus the relatively clumsy «-particle, with its double positive charge, 
has been supplemented by the swift proton and deuton, with only a 
single positive charge to impede their approach to the positively charged 
target ; and a climax has been reached by using the neutron, which can 
approach the nucleus without impedance by any electric charge, like 
aircraft attacking a battleship. It can therefore score direct hits, which 
are found to have a devastating effect even on the stoutest nuclei. As a 
result of the introduction of this new projectile, no element can now be 
regarded as safe from disintegration ; and isotopes of short life promise 
in the future to become as common amongst the lighter elements as they 
are now amongst the spontaneously radioactive elements, which lie on 
the heavy side of the boundary formed by metallic lead. 


32 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


DIFFRACTION OF MOLECULAR Rays AND ELECTRONS. 


Bombardment need not, however, be used only as an agent of 
destruction, since Dr. Fraser will tell you how gentle beams, in the form 
of molecular rays, travelling with the velocity of thermal agitation, 
instead of with velocities comparable with that of light, can be used to 
demonstrate the presence or absence of magnetic or electrostatic moments, 
to study the character of ‘free radicals,’ or to test the variability of 
‘dipole moments’ with temperature ; and Dr. de Laszlo will describe 
some applications of the method devised by Mark and Wierl for studying 
the structure of molecules by the orderly scattering of beams of electrons. 
The results thus obtained are so similar to those given by Debye’s study 
of the diffraction of X-rays as to be almost identical. 


DIFFRACTION OF X-RAYS. 


The applications of X-rays to chemistry are so numerous that I may 
be excused for selecting only a few examples that have interested me 
personally. ‘The influence of Cox’s X-ray analysis in vetoing an incorrect 
formula for ascorbic acid will perhaps be referred to in the joint dis- 
cussion on this vitamin ; but 1 may mention here that, in the case of 
another product of the same general class, Bernal was able to obtain a 
complete X-ray analysis by using a crystal weighing only 0-oo0015 mg., 
and was only prevented from making an exact determination of mole- 
cular weight by the Brownian movement, which prevented a precise 
determination of the density of the crystal by flotation—a difficulty which 
he suggests could be overcome with the help of a centrifuge. In a totally 
different field, I was during the war deeply interested in the polymor- 
phism of ammonium nitrate, which melts at 169°, but also has transition- 
temperatures at 125°, 84°, 32° and —16°. The heaps of nitrate from the 
driers in a shell-filling factory were therefore almost always either at 84° 
or at 32°, on account of the arrest of cooling at these transition-points. 
It is fascinating now to be told that these transitions are associated with 
the spinning of the ions in a rigid crystal lattice. As a result of this 
spinning, a tetrahedral ammonium ion and a triangular nitrate ion finally 
acquire complete spherical symmetry, and take up the same positions as 
the monatomic ions of sodium and chlorine in a crystal of rock salt, so 
that the substance crystallises in the cubic system in the range from 125° to 
169° C. 


MUTAROTATION. 


In accordance, I believe, with well-established custom, I pass on 
now to consider those examples of ‘ Physical Methods of Chemistry ’ 
with which I have been most closely concerned during a long period of 
years. 

Nearly forty years ago, as a student of organic chemistry under Prof. 
Armstrong, I undertook my first research, on the stereochemistry of the 
«-derivatives of camphor. ‘The earliest experiments (5) showed that the 
bromination of «-chlorocamphor and the chlorination of «-bromo- 


B.—_CHEMISTRY 33 


camphor both gave an isomorphous mixture of stereoisomeric ««’- and 
«’«-chlorobromocamphors : 


AM aL 

CY“ Cl CCIEY 5, Cr 
CoH | Pre he CoH | Puli Colle. | Nor 
c—O c—O C—O 


a.-Bromocamphor. vy | Chlorobromocamphor. «-Chlorocamphor. 


(Isomorphous mixture.) 


It was then natural to extend the research to the nitro-derivatives (6). For 
this purpose it was necessary not only to nitrate bromocamphor, but to 
brominate nitrocamphor. In this way I first encountered the nitro- 
compound, which has already provided a material basis for two extensive 
series of researches, and has not yet exhausted its utility or interest. 


A NO, NO, 
Ce CY Ge. 
CH | Npr —- CoH | \Br ae Csi | Nu 
C=0 e¢ c=O0 
a-Bromocamphor. ao.’-Bromonitrocamphor. a’-Nitrocamphor. 


The first of a series of happy chances (7) was a measurement of the optical 
rotatory power of a solution of nitrocamphor in the morning, followed by 
a confirmatory reading in the afternoon. During the luncheon interval 
the rotatory power of the solution had become quite different, and I was 
thus presented with a novel example of the phenomenon of change of 
rotatory power with time, which Dubrunfaut had first observed in 1846 
in a freshly prepared aqueous solution of glucose (8). This property of the 
reducing sugars had been variously described as birotation (8), multirota- 
tion, and paucirotation (9), according as the ratio of the initial to the final 
rotation was 2:1, greater than 1 or less than 1; but, since in certain 
_ solvents the szgz as well as the magnitude of the rotation of nitrocamphor 
_ was changed, I suggested in 1899 (10) that the phenomenon should be de- 
_ scribed as mutarotation ; and this name has been in general use ever since. 
The chemical basis of the phenomenon was disclosed by another 
happy accident. Wishing to know whether the change of rotatory power 
could be repeated when the nitrocamphor had been recovered from solu- 
tion, I left a solution in benzene to evaporate on the water bath. Later 
in the day I examined the residue and found that it was now almost 
entirely insoluble in benzene. It had in fact been converted into a new 
compound, an anhydride formed from nitrocamphor by the loss of half 
a molecular proportion of water (11). An anhydride of this type could not 
_be formed directly from nitrocamphor itself, but it could be derived 
_ easily enough from an isomeric hydroxylic form of the substance, such as 
that from which the salts of nitrocamphor were presumably derived. 
: This conclusion was confirmed by the fact that the anhydride of 
: Tevorotatory nitrocamphor was, like the salts, strongly dextrorotatory. 
e 
| 


34 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


The mutarotation of nitrocamphor, always from left towards right, could 
therefore be attributed to a partial conversion in solution of levorotatory 
nitrocamphor into a dextrorotatory isomeride, containing an acidic 
hydroxyl group, which was capable of forming an anhydride as well as a 
series of salts. 


CH.NO, C=NO,H C=NO,K 
C,H mecca O4 Fl Femme 51 | 
8 wl tg 8 wl 4 8 wt fey 


Nitrocamphor. y-Nitrocamphor. Potassium salt. 
Jt 
CBr.NO, ghd bale 
C,H | C,H | | SC,Ay 
8 Lp cil 8 ates oct atty 
Bromonitrocamphor. Anhydride of nitrocamphor, 


At this stage Prof. Kipping very generously gave me a quantity of 
the ~-bromo-derivative of «-bromonitrocamphor, from which I was able 
to prepare a stock of x-bromonitrocamphor. Lapworth and Kipping (12) 
had described this compound as trimorphous, and had recorded the 
crystal-constants and published drawings of two of the forms. The 
orthorhombic form, melting at 142°, proved-to be strongly dextrorotatory 
when dissolved in benzene, but it became levorotatory after a few hours. 
The tetragonal form, melting at 108° (which is formed as a by-product, 
alongside the more stable form, by rapid evaporation of a solution in 
chloroform), was found to be levorotatory, but like nitrocamphor it 
exhibited a relatively small mutarotation from left towards right. ‘This 
labile form was therefore analogous with ordinary nitrocamphor, whilst 
the more stable form was analogous with the still unknown pseudo- 
nitrocamphor, the relative stability of the two isomers having been 
reversed by the introduction of a halogen. The third form, for which no 
crystal measurements had been published, was evidently a mere mixture 
of these two isomers (13). 

The mutarotation of the sugars in aqueous solutions had been 
attributed to several causes ; but, when Emil Fischer (14) observed the 
same phenomenon during the reversible hydrolysis of the sugar-lactones, 
he concluded that these changes of rotatory power were due to reversible 
hydration, and this conclusion was very widely accepted. 


C,H,,O, + H,0 == C,H,2.0, 


Gluconic Gluconic 
lactone. acid. 
CoO, + HO == = C.HyO, 
Anhydrous Glucose 
glucose. hydrate. 


This explanation can obviously be applied to any aqueous solution in 
which reversible hydrolysis can take place ; but it was not applicable to — 


¥ 
| 


B.—CHEMISTRY 35 


nitrocamphor, which exhibited mutarotation in a large range of an- 
hydrous solvents, but was too insoluble to be examined in aqueous 
solutions. Since interaction with the solvent was thus excluded, the 
mutarotation of nitrocamphor could only be attributed to dissociation 
or to isomeric or polymeric change. 

At that date certain sugars had already been prepared in two isomeric 
forms, which exhibited mutarotation in opposite directions (15); but 
these changes were attributed to the complete conversion of the two 
sugars into a third isomeride (16). In the case of x-bromonitrocamphor, 
however, the product of mutarotation of the normal and pseudo forms 
was obviously an equilibrium-mixture of these two substances, and not 
‘a third isomeride, since, on evaporation of the solution, crystals of the 
normal and pseudo forms were deposited side by side. Mutarotation 
was therefore attributed to the reversible isomeric change of two isomers ; 
and this interpretation was regarded as generally applicable to mutarota- 
tions in which interaction with the solvent could be excluded. 


Dynamic ISOMERISM. 


The phenomenon of reversible isomeric change had been studied, and its 
essential characteristics had been fully elucidated, twenty-two years before 
by Butlerow (17) in 1877. He had shown that two isomeric forms of the 
unsaturated hydrocarbon, isodibutylene, CsH,,, could be brought into 
equilibrium by the reversible addition of sulphuric acid, since a molecule 
of sulphuric acid could be removed from the acid sulphate in two different 
ways. Simultaneously, two zsodibutyl alcohols of the formula C,H,,0, 
in the form of their acid sulphates, were brought into equilibrium by the 
reversible elimination of sulphuric acid, since the resulting olefine could 
add on sulphuric acid in two different ways : 


CH CHOH 

erteasGi Os walang eda | +H,O | 
CH, ——— CH eg : —— 

| | | 

CMe, CMe, CMe, CMe, 


Butlerow also recognised that, although sulphuric acid was required to 
bring the isomeric olefines and alcohols into equilibrium, the introduction 
of a catalyst might not be required in other cases. In particular he 
suggested that prussic acid might be regarded as an equilibrium-mixture 
of the two acids, HCN and HNC, from which the cyanides and 1so- 
cyanides CH3.CN and CH;.NC are derived : 


CH;.CN <— HCN == HNC —> CH;.NC 
Methyl cyanide. Prussic acid. Methyl zsocyanide. 
_ Butlerow’s paper did not receive the attention that it deserved, perhaps 


ecause it was published under the too modest title ‘ On Isodibutylene.’ 
uch more interest was aroused by the publication, eight years later, by 


36 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


Laar (18), of a speculative paper ‘ On the possibility of several structural 
formulz for the same chemical compound.’ Laar assumed that the dual 
reactivity of certain substances, of which ethyl acetoacetate is now the 
most familiar example, might be due to the incessant wandering of a 
hydrogen atom between two alternative positions in the molecule. In 
order to make his theory more precise, he compared these internal 
migrations with the vibrations which give rise to radiation in incandescent 
gases. To this phenomenon he gave the name of tautomerism, and in 
order to emphasise the contrast with Butlerow’s phenomenon of reversible 
isomeric change, he stated categorically (19) that the substances repre- 
sented by the two alternative structural formule were ‘ not isomeric but 
identical.’ 

Since two isomeric forms of x-bromonitrocamphor had been isolated in 
the crystalline state and their slow progress towards equilibrium in 
solution had been followed by observations of mutarotation, it would 
have been absurd to describe them as identical, or, in terms of Laar’s 
definition, as tautomeric. These well-defined compounds, however, 
provided an excellent illustration of Butlerow’s phenomenon of ‘ equili- 
brium between isomers.’ I therefore ventured to describe this pheno- 
menon in very obvious terms as dynamic isomerism (20), in contrast to the 
more usual condition of static isomerism, in which each isomer preserves 
its individuality and is not in process of conversion into any other member 
of the series. A full report on ‘ Dynamic Isomerism ’ was presented to 
Section B of the British Association at Cambridge in 1904, and reports of 
a Committee on Dynamic Isomerism are included in the Transactions of 
Section B from 1905 to 1916. A series of twenty-eight papers on the 
same subject has also been published in the Journal of the Chemical Soctety. 


ARREST OF MUTAROTATION. 


Further fortuitous observations showed that the mutarotation of 
nitrocamphor is not an independent intramolecular process, but depends 
on extramolecular circumstances, since under favourable conditions it 
may be arrested more or less completely over a period of several days (21). 
This discovery (which was made more than twenty years before Kurt 
Meyer’s experiments (22) on the aseptic distillation of ethyl acetoacetate in 
alkali-free vessels of silica glass) was also the result of a fortunate accident. 
The mutarotation of a solution of nitrocamphor in chloroform had been 
followed to completion during a period of about eight days, but had been 
accompanied by some loss of solvent (and possible concentration of the 
solution) by evaporation. The remainder of the solution had been left 
in the small graduated flask in which it had been prepared, and there was 
no reason to suspect that it would behave in any respect differently from 
the sample in the polarimeter tube. It was therefore a great surprise 
when, at the end of seventeen days, on attempting to confirm the final 
reading, it was found that the residue in the flask gave a rotation almost 
identical with the initial reading recorded more than a fortnight before. 
The transfer of the solution to the polarimeter tube, however, sufficed 
to initiate the mutarotation, which then proceeded with the same velocity 
as before. 


= 4. oe 


B.—CHEMISTRY 37 


Nearly ten years later a further series of experiments was being made 
on the catalysis of mutarotation by acids and bases (23). It was then 
observed that solutions of nitrocamphor in chloroform, to which trichlor- 
acetic acid had been added, developed an intolerable and pungent odour. 
This observation showed that the peculiar inertness of chloroform was 
due to its oxidation to carbonyl chloride or phosgene, and to the conse- 
quent elimination of traces of nitrogenous bases, in the form of inert 
carbamides (24). ‘The same series of experiments had already shown that 
some of these bases have an amazing catalytic activity. ‘Thus an accelera- 
tion of mutarotation was detected as a result of adding piperidine to 
benzene in the proportion of 1 part of the base in ro million parts of the 
solvent! This acceleration was also one of the earliest examples of a 
phenomenon which has since become very familiar, namely, a catalysis 
by bases, which could not be attributed to the presence of hydroxyl ions, 
and was therefore outside the scope of the conventional theories of 
catalysis by acids and bases, as developed and used by Ostwald and his 
colleagues. 

An immediate sequel to this discovery was the arrest in silica vessels of 
the mutarotation of solutions of nitrocamphor in benzene and in ether, to 
which traces of an anticatalyst had been added (24). Subsequent experi- 
ments showed that mutarotation could also be arrested in solutions of 
tetramethylglucose in chloroform, benzene, ethyl acetate, and pyri- 
dine (25) ; and Owen (26) developed to a fine art the process of arresting, 
almost at will and with very few failures, the mutarotation of solutions of 
tetra-acetylglucose in dry ethyl acetate. 

The climax of this work was reached when Faulkner (27) found that 
the mutarotation of tetramethylglucose could be arrested both in cresol 
and in pyridine, but proceeded too rapidly for convenient observation 
in mixtures of these two solvents. Since these mixtures gave velocities 
of mutarotation which were much greater even than in water, it was 
clear that the essential factor in promoting mutarotation was not an 
oxygenated solvent (28), nor an ionising solvent (29) (as had been suspected 
at earlier periods), nor even the zonisation of the sugar by an acid or basic 
catalyst (as most other workers had assumed), but that an amphoteric 
solvent (27) must be provided to serve as a complete catalyst for the 
process. 


PROTOTROPY. 


The migration of a hydrogen atom, in compounds such as nitrocamphor 
and the sugars, was thus shown to depend on the addition and removal of 
a proton at two opposite poles of the organic molecule. Since no satis- 
factory name had been adopted for this important group of isomeric 
changes, I proposed in 1923 to describe them by the term prototropy (30). 
The migration of a proton was, however, regarded as only a special 
example of the more general phenomenon of zonotropy (31), in which a 
radical migrates from one part of a molecule to another either as an anion 
or as a kation. 

The addition and removal of the ion from the two poles of the organic 
molecule may be either simultaneous or consecutive, but in either case 


38 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


it leaves behind a positive or negative charge. In order that this type of 
isomeric change may proceed, it is essential that these opposite charges 
should be neutralised. ‘The electronic theory of valency allows us to 
recognise that this is done by the rearrangement of bonds (or ‘ desmo- 
tropy ’) (32) which accompanies prototropic change, since a valency 
electron is thereby transferred through the interior of the molecule, to 
neutralise the charge of the proton, which is transferred through the 
amphoteric solvent. 

The migration of a hydrogen atom, to which the most fertile types of 
mutarotation are due, was thus linked up to an extended definition of 
acids and bases, which I set out in 1923 (33), at a time when it must have 
been in the minds of many other workers, and which was described more 
fully by Brénsted a few months later (34). ‘Thus, if we define an acid 
and a base as a proton donor and acceptor respectively, 


‘ i . 
B + HA=—=BH +A (where B is the base and HA the acid), 


the migration of a proton in a prototropic compound under the combined 
action‘ of a base B and an acid HA can be expressed by the equation 


+ — 
B--HS +HA= BH +SH-+A, 


used by Brénsted and Guggenheim (35), where HS and SH represent 
the two isomeric forms of the substrate. In an amphoteric medium such 
as water, catalysis by bases and acids can be represented by equations in 
which water plays the part either of an acid or of a base, thus : 


+ _— 
Catalysis by a base: B + HS + HOH=~BH + SH + OH 
+ — 
Catalysis by an acid: H,O 4+HS +HA=~H,0+SH+A. 


Finally, the possibility of autocatalysis must be recognised. Thus, since 
nitrocamphor is a strong acid, it may itself act as the acidic component of 
the catalyst ; mutarotation may than proceed by adding only a base, 
which in these conditions may become a complete catalyst for the 
mutarotation. 

The process of isomeric change, as set out above, can be regarded as 
an electrolysis of the organic molecule between positive and negative 
poles, provided by the acid and basic components of the amphoteric 
solvent. [his mechanism has therefore been described (36) as an 
* electrolytic theory of catalysis by acids and bases.’ Similar conditions, 
however, prevail in all conjugated systems, and these can now be formu- 
lated in general terms, as systems in which opposite charges at the ends 
of the system can be neutralised by a migration of valency electrons 
through the system (37). 


ROTATORY DISPERSION, 

At the time when the earlier measurements of mutarotation were made, 
it was customary to measure the optical rotations of organic compounds 
only for the yellow sodium line. Work on rotatory dispersion had indeed 
been suspended almost completely since the death of Biot in 1862, and 


ES 


B.— CHEMISTRY 39 


the discovery of the Bunsen burner in 1866. It was, however, certain 
that little progress could be made in elucidating the origin of optical 
rotatory power, or in predicting its magnitude, until the values of the 
rotatory power were known over a wide spectral range, instead of for a 
single casually determined point on the curve of rotatory dispersion. 
This opinion has received abundant confirmation from the subsequent 
demonstration that the substances which had provided the favourite 
materials for studies of optical rotatory power were those whose rotatory 
dispersion was most anomalous, since these substances are in fact (and 
perhaps inevitably) most sensitive to changes of solvent, concentration, 
or temperature. 

The ignorance then prevailing in reference to this important aspect of 
the subject is shown by the fact that, when Drude wished to test his 
equation for optical rotatory dispersion, he was only able to make use of 
data for quartz (38), since the rotatory dispersion of no one of the 
hundreds of optically active compounds prepared and studied by organic 
chemists was known with sufficient accuracy to be used for this purpose ; 
and his equation for magnetic rotatory dispersion was tested on data, for 
five wave-lengths only, for carbon disulphide and for creosote ! (39) 

Experiments carried out in order to supply the data required to 
determine the form of the curves of rotatory dispersion in organic com- 
pounds soon led to definite conclusions. Thus in 1913 I was able to 
show, with T. W. Dickson (40), that the optical rotations of ten simple 
alcohols, and the magnetic rotations of thirty-four simple organic com- 
pounds for eight wave-lengths in the visible spectrum could be expressed 
by one term of Drude’s equation : 


a =k] (22 — Ao”). 
In the following year we found (41) that two terms of opposite sign: 
ky ky 


canary Ce 2 i222 re? 


ea 


could be used in the same way to express the anomalous rotatory dis- 
persion of ethyl tartrate. This result confirmed the conclusion reached 
at a much earlier period by Biot (42) and by Arndtsen (43), that anomalous 
rotatory dispersion has its origin in the superposition of two partial 
rotations of opposite sign and of unequal dispersion. These partial 
rotations may be due to very diverse causes, ranging from the presence of 
two optically active absorption bands in the same molecule, to the case 
in which two liquids of opposite rotatory power and unequal dispersions 
are arranged in series in separate polarimeter tubes. This diversity has 
resulted in a certain amount of controversy as to the origin of the partial 
rotations which give rise to anomalous rotatory dispersion (44), but the 
essential facts represented by Drude’s equation are established beyond 
dispute. 


VALIDITY OF DrubDE’s EQuaTION. 


Since Drude’s equation is only applicable to transparent media, the 
limits of validity of the equation coincide with the conditions under which 


40 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


a maximum of experimental accuracy can be obtained, namely, by using 
long columns of concentrated solutions. Under these conditions the 
validity of the equation has been vindicated up to the limits of experi- 
mental accuracy for a single term in octyl alcohol (45) and for two terms 
in ethyl tartrate, drastically purified by crystallising to constant melting- 
point (46). 

An extreme limit has been reached in the case of quartz, where measure- 
ments to six significant figures have been made for twenty-four wave- 
lengths in the visible spectrum, on a column nearly half a metre in length. 
This column gave a rotation of 12,678-96° for the green mercury line 
Hg 5461 ; and when the ten sections of the column were dismantled and 
re-erected, the original reading was reproduced with an error of only 
0:03°, or less than three parts in a million (47). 

In the infra-red region, the rotation per millimetre falls from 25 -539° 
per mm. at 5460 -742A.U. to2°at 18,000 A.U.,1° at 25,000A.U.,ando+74° 
at 28,000 A.U. Observations are then interrupted by an absorption 
band ; but beyond this there is a narrow window through which observa- 
tions can be made before the medium again becomes opaque. Snow’s 
measurements (48) have shown that the rotations in this narrow region 
of transparency (about o «52° per mm. at 32,000 A.U.) fallonthesame curve, 
and can be expressed by the same formula, as those in the infra-red, 
visible and ultra-violet regions. The infra-red absorption band is there- 
fore, as Drude supposed, without influence on the course of the curve of 
rotatory dispersion. 

In the ultra-violet the rotations increase very rapidly. Thus for a 
copper line at 2263 A.U. the observed rotation of the half-metre column 
rose to 101,332, or 202 °328° per mm. (47). 

Throughout the whole range from 32,100 to 2263 ALU. the rotatory 
dispersion of quartz for about 1000 wave-lengths can be expressed within 
very narrow limits by two terms of Drude’s equation, of opposite sign, 
together with a small constant (47): 


9 5639 2°3113 
22 — 00127493 22 —0-000974  ° 7975 


ao 


This equation does not express with equal accuracy the observations 
made by Duclaux (49) at still shorter wave-lengths with a much shorter 
column of quartz, but it predicts with considerable precision the existence 
of two absorption bands, with characteristic frequencies far out in the 
Schumann region at 1130 and 310 A.U. I am still waiting, however, for 
a physicist to carry out the experiments which are needed to disclose the 
presence of these two bands, the existence of which has already been 
predicted for nearly a quarter of a century. 


NoRMAL AND ANOMALOUS ROTATORY DISPERSION. 


Experiments such as these have demonstrated, beyond the possibility 
of controversy, the ability of Drude’s equation to express the rotatory 
dispersion of transparent media up to the extreme limits of accuracy 


‘A 


B.—CHEMISTRY 41 


which are now attainable (52). Thus normal rotatory dispersion 
(defined by the fact that «, dx /di and d*x/di? are of constant sign through- 
out the region of transparency (50)) can often be expressed by a single 
term of the equation, with only two constants ; but this is by no means 
universally true, since the rotatory dispersion of quartz, which requires 
a five-constant equation, is nevertheless rigidly normal throughout the 
whole region of transparency. On the other hand, anomalous rotatory 
dispersions can only be expressed by using two terms of opposite sign. 
These two terms, however, are adequate to account for the presence in 
curves of anomalous rotatory dispersion of (i) a reversal of sign, where 
%=0, (ii) a maximum, where dx«/d\ =o, and (iii) an inflexion, where 
d*x/dd2 = 0 (50). 

Those normal rotations which cannot be expressed by a single term of 
Drude’s equation can usually be represented by equations with two 
terms, either of similar or of opposite signs. When the two terms are of 
opposite signs, the equation becomes identical in form with that which 
is used to represent anomalous rotatory dispersion. The distinction 
between normal and anomalous dispersion is indeed often almost a matter 
of accident. ‘Thus a wide range of dispersion-curves can be plotted for 
the tartaric esters in different solvents, and at different concentrations 
and temperatures (51). [hese curves all belong to one family, and can be 
expressed by the same equation, with small variations in the four arbitrary 
constants; but some of them cross the zero axis and are therefore 
anomalous, whilst others just fail to do so and are therefore normal (52). 


SIMPLE AND COMPLEX ROTATORY DISPERSION. 


An alternative method of classification is to describe as simple those 
rotatory dispersions which can be expressed by one term of Drude’s 
equation, and as complex those which cannot be so expressed (53). 

This classification lends itself very easily to practical use, since, for the 
purpose of complete verification, measurements need only be extended 
to a wave-length in the ultra-violet at which absorption first begins to be 
troublesome, in view of the fact that Drude’s equation is only valid in the 
region of complete transparency. On the other hand, the distinction 
between normal and anomalous rotatory dispersion depends on knowing 
whether the curve does or does not cross the zero axis in the infra-red ; 
and this cannot yet be determined with certainty with the apparatus now. 
commonly used in polarimetry. 

In general, simple rotatory dispersions are only observed when the 
characteristic frequencies of all the partial rotations lie close together 
in the Schumann region, giving a dispersion-ratio 4353/0546; = 1 °6 
approximately. ‘Thus, in the sugar series, the partial rotations associ- 
ated with the different asymmetric carbon atoms sometimes give rise to a 
simple dispersion, as in cane-sugar (54) ; but they do not necessarily do 
so (55), since even in a sugar the characteristic frequencies of the radicals 
may cover a wide range in the Schumann region, and the foot of the 
absorption bands often extends into the ordinary ultra-violet. 

Additional partial rotations of lower frequency give rise to dispersion- 

C2 


42 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


ratios which are either higher or lower than this value, according as 
they are of the same or of opposite sign as the partial rotations associated 
with absorption bands in the Schumann region. In the remarkable case 
of tetra-acetyl-u-arabinose, H[CHOAc],.CHO, however, the partial 
rotations associated with the three asymmetric carbon atoms cancel 
out (56). The whole of the rotatory power is therefore due to the partial 
rotation associated with the carbonyl group. ‘This gives rise to a simple 
rotatory dispersion in the region of transparency. In the region of 
absorption it gives a symmetrical loop, with equal and opposite maxima 
[«] = + 1200° on either side of a zero rotation at 2909 A.U. Camphor- 
quinone is a less precise example of the same phenomenon, since its 
rotation in a narrow region of transparency in the red, yellow, and green 
is dominated by an absorption band in the blue. ‘The influence of the 
Schumann terms is therefore so small that the rotatory dispersion can be 
expressed by a single term of Drude’s equation (54). 

Simple rotatory dispersion then does not imply the existence of only 
a single partial rotation, but merely indicates that the partial rotations of 
the molecule can in practice be covered by one term of Drude’s equation. 
It provides, however, the most practical way of classifying rotations, since 
no real physical meaning can be assigned to a rotation which is not 
‘simple,’ until the various partial rotations, which make the rotatory 
dispersion ‘ complex,’ have been unravelled. For this purpose, however, 
a precise algebraic analysis must be made of the observed rotations for a 
large number of wave-lengths ; and no sanction can be given to the use 
of graphical methods, except for the rough preliminary tests for which 
alone they are suitable (57). 


RoOTATORY DISPERSION IN ABSORBING MEDIA. 


A formula for rotatory dispersion in a region of absorption was developed 
by Natanson (58) in 1909, by reintroducing a ‘ damping factor ’ which 
Drude had discarded in his final simplified equation for rotatory dispersion 
in transparent media (59). No basic change has been made in the funda- 
mental relation thus developed between absorption and rotation; but 
Kuhn and Braun (60) found that, since the form of the absorption bands 
cannot be expressed by means of a damping factor, the form of the 
corresponding curves of rotatory dispersion is also incorrect. They 
therefore introduced a new series of equations on the supposition that 
‘the form of the absorption band can be expressed by an exponential 
equation representing a Maxwellian probability-distribution of fre- 
quencies. ‘Their equations are an improvement on those of Ketteler, 
Helmholtz and Natanson ; but absorption curves of the form postulated 
by them are so uncommon that, in the course of a long experience of 
absorption spectroscopy, I have not yet discovered a single example of 
this type. On the other hand, several absorption curves have been studied 
which are rigidly symmetrical on a scale of wave-lengths, and many more 
are known which shade off more slowly at higher frequencies. Hudson (61) 
has therefore developed a modified series of equations for substances 
which give rise to these symmetrical absorption curves. His equations 
express his own very exact measurements with far greater precision than 


B.—CHEMISTRY 43 


the equations of Kuhn and Braun. ‘Thus, in the fascinating case of 
tetra-acetyl-u-arabinose, where the positive and negative maxima are 
equal in magnitude, the equation of Kuhn and Braun gives a difference of 
200° between the observed and calculated values ; but this was reduced 
to only 30° by using Hudson’s own equation (56). 

This sugar-derivative provides ideal material for an experimental 
study of the form of the curves of rotatory dispersion in the region of 
absorption, since the partial rotation associated with the carbonyl-radical 
has been isolated automatically by a fortunate process of cancellation 
of the partial rotations of the asymmetric carbon atoms. A similar 
cancellation has been observed more recently by Baldwin in a specimen 
of penta-acetyl--fructose, also supplied by Dr. Wolfrom. Although 
the simple aldehydic radical —CO.H has now been replaced by the 
radical —CO.CH,.0.CO.CH3, this compound again gives rise to equal 
maxima on either side of the axis; but, since the configuration of the 
three asymmetric carbon atoms is reversed, these maxima are of oppo- 
site sign to those observed in the arabinose-derivative. Moreover, the 
absorption curves have not the same ideal symmetry, and the mathe- 
matical analysis of the dispersion curves has therefore not yet been 
completed. 


THE ORIGIN OF OpTicaL RoTaTOoRY POWER. 


Attempts to simplify the structure of an optically active molecule for 
the purpose of numerical calculations have been made by Drude (59), 
who used a model consisting of a vibrator moving in a spiral orbit, whilst 
Kuhn (62) has used a model consisting of two dissymmetrically coupled 
electrons. Each of these models includes a /ength, namely, the pitch of 
the spiral or the distance between the coupled electrons, and it is perhaps 
not surprising that they have led to equations which differ only in the 
meaning assigned to the arbitrary constants ; but in certain cases at least 
the length deduced from Kuhn’s model appeared to bear no relation to 
the linear dimensions of the molecule. Fortunately the formule which 
express the rotatory dispersion of a medium do not depend on the nature 
of the model used to deduce them, although new integrals are required to 
correspond with each new distribution of densities in the optically active 
absorption band. ‘This distribution depends on the intensities of the 
sub-levels associated with a given electronic jump, and cannot yet be 


_ predicted. In these circumstances it is remarkable that the absorption 


curve should be symmetrical even in the few cases studied by Hudson ; 
but this result may perhaps be interpreted as the effect of some limiting 
condition, which prevents the appearance even of curves which are 
symmetrical on a scale of frequencies instead of wave-lengths. 

The real theory of optical rotatory power may be found by the 
mathematician, but is concealed from the chemist, in the papers of 
Born (63), who recognised that four coupled electrons are required to 
produce optical rotatory power. Further advances appear to depend on 
reverting to this basis, in place of Drude’s single spirally controlled 
vibrator, or Kuhn’s two dissymmetrically coupled electrons, since neither 
of these conceptions can be realised except in a complicated field of force, 


44 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


depending presumably on the distribution of nuclei as well as on the 
distribution of electron-densities as studied by W. L. Bragg and others. 
It is, indeed, an interesting exercise to construct a model of the molecule 
of camphor and then to inquire to which other electrons the shared valency- 
electrons of the carbonyl group must be coupled, in order to develop 
the magnificent loop which appears in the curve of rotatory dispersion in 
the region of absorption. ‘The question answers itself by mere inspection 
of the model, since it is clear that al] the electrons are involved, and 
not merely one, two or four of them. ‘Thus, even when the carbonyl 
group has been linked to two dissimilar radicals, either in an open-chain 
ketone or in a cyclic ketone, no rotatory power at all is developed. The 
whole of the rotatory power of camphor therefore depends on the contrast 
between the two radicals —CH,.CH,— and —C(CH3;),— which lie on 
either side of the plane which contains the —CH,.CO— radical. These 
two chains are separated from the carbonyl-radical by an unbridged gap, 
since the route which leads to them through the bonds is long and tortuous. 
It therefore seems clear that we are dealing with an intramolecular field 
of force, acting across two empty spaces, which destroys the symmetry 
of the environment and thus brings out the latent possibility of dissym- 
metry in the highly-polarisable carbonyl group. 

The picture thus exhibited directs attention to the carbonyl group, 
rather than to the asymmetric carbon atoms, which in the acetate of 
u-arabinose make no direct contribution of any importance to the rotatory 
power of the molecule. In this respect it is indeed essentially identical 
with the conception of induced asymmetry (or better induced dissymmetry) 
put forward by Lowry and Walker in 1924 (64), according to which the 
carbonyl group itself becomes dissymmetric under the influence of the 
dissymmetric internal field of force of the molecule. It therefore con- 
tributes directly to the optical activity of the molecule, whereas less 
polarisable groups, such as +>CH, or >CMe,, contribute relatively 
little to the total rotation, even when they are exposed to a similar 
dissymmetric field. 

I have had the privilege of talking over this problem with Prof. 
Born. He insists that the rotatory power thus induced in the carbonyl 
group cannot be expressed in terms of single potential-gradients along 
and across the plane of the —CH,.CO— group, but must be a function of 
the frequencies of the electrons with which the carbonyl group is coupled, 
since this coupling affects the frequencies of both components. It is, 
however, possible that in a monoketone, such as camphor, the characteristic 
frequencies of the hydrocarbon radicals on either side of the median 
plane may be summed up in a weighed mean, depending but little on the 
structure or configuration of the carbon skeleton. In that case regularities 
and simplifications may perhaps be encountered, in studying different 
cyclic ketones, which could not have been foreseen from the complexities 
of pure theory. 


PREDICTION OF THE SIGN AND MAGNITUDE OF OpTICAL RoTATORY POWER. 


The electronic theories discussed above have not hitherto led to any 
prediction of the magnitude of the optical rotatory power of a dissym- 


* 


B.—CHEMISTRY 45 


metric molecule, although Hermann has calculated the rotatory power of 
crystals of sodium chlorate and Hylleraas that of $-quartz from formulze 
developed by Born. For the purpose of predicting the magnitude of the 
rotatory power of a molecule it is convenient to deal, not with single 
electrons or pairs of electrons, or even groups of four, but with the 
complete octet which constitutes the valency-shell of the atom. From 
this point of view, the four different radicals which are required to give 
rise to an asymmetric carbon atom may be considered as ellipsoids, with 
three principal axes of polarisation, arranged at a definite distance 
from the central carbon atom and with a definite orientation relatively 
to one another ; but this system is too complex for easy computation 
and some simplification is needed before numerical data can be 
deduced. 

This simplification was attempted nearly ten years ago by de Malle- 
mann (65), who assumed that, for the purpose of computation, single 
atoms might be treated as isotropic spheres. A further simplification 
was made by assuming that the three halogens in CHCIBrI could be 
placed on the rectangular axes of x, y and z at distances depending on 
their atomic radii. On this basis he calculated (66) the rotatory power 
of the molecule in terms of the radii and refractivities of the radicals, and 
obtained a value, [«],, = + 32°, of the expected order of magnitude for 


_a compound of this type; but, since the compound has not yet been 


prepared, no direct comparison of observed and calculated rotations was 
possible. During the present year, however, S. F. Boys (67) has been 
able to make this comparison by extending the postulate of isotropic 
spheres from single atoms to radicals. Langmuir’s theory of isosterism 
can be cited as justification for extending this postulate from the halogens 
to the isosteric radicals, OH, NH,, CH; ; but it is certainly invalid when 
extended to radicals such as C,H; and CH,OH, which cannot be either 
spherical or isotropic. Nevertheless Boys has been able to deduce, for 
four of the simplest alcohols and amines, rotations which are of very 
similar magnitude to those observed experimentally. This coincidence 
is limited to dissymmetric molecules of the simplest possible type, con- 
taining only one asymmetric carbon atom and no unsaturated or chromo- 
phoric group ; but it is sufficient to show that Pasteur’s model of an 
irregular tetrahedron can be used to predict the existence and the approxi- 
mate magnitude of such a molecule in terms of the linear dimensions and 
the refractive indices of the radicals. 

Detailed calculations by Mr. H. F. Willis have shown that the simple 
rotatory dispersion of sec-butyl alcohol, 43;3/a%54,; = 1-661, can be 
deduced exactly from the factor RsR,R-Rp/? of Boys’ formula, or 
less exactly if the factor (u?+2) (u?++5) is included. On the other hand, 
the dispersion-ratio of act-amyl alcohol, o435g/%54g, = 1-700, is higher 
than the maximum value which can be deduced from the formula. 
Moreover, the anomalous rotatory dispersion of aldehydes and ketones 
in the region of absorption cannot be represented even qualitatively by 
means of a formula of this kind, since the refractivity of the carbonyl- 
radical never approaches the zero axis, and cannot therefore give rise to 
a reversal of sign in the region of absorption ; but a zero value for the 


46 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


partial rotation of the carbonyl-radical might perhaps become possible 
by assuming with Lowry and Walker that an additional centre of dis- 
symmetry is developed within the chromophoric group in optically active 
aldehydes and ketones. 

From the above considerations it appears that the molecular theory of 
optical rotatory power, as de Mallemann has called it, is not capable in its 
present form of expressing the rotatory power of any but the simplest 
molecules ; and the crudeness of some of the assumptions on which it is 
based, and the importance of the secondary effects which it ignores, 
forbid any expectation of extensive developments in the near future. 
Nevertheless the theory has proved to be of real value in demonstrating 
the simplicity of the conditions which suffice to give rise to optical 
rotatory power, since this effect can be produced by four isotropic spheres 
which are near enough to pass on to one another the alternating polarisa- 
tion produced by an incident beam of light, without requiring any more 
complex form of coupling ; and chemists will always be grateful for a 
theory of optical rotatory power which makes it possible to identify the 
actual configurations of the dextro- and levorotatory forms of the simplest 
organic molecules, in parallel with a similar claim which has recently been 
made by Kuhn in the more complex case of the spiro-compounds (68). 
On the other hand, no theory of optical rotatory power which is limited 
to the region of transparency can be regarded as satisfactory, and further 
progress must depend on an intensive study of rotatory dispersion in the 
region of absorption. For this purpose the optically active aldehydes 
and ketones provide ideal material, since the position and intensity of the 
optically active absorption bands are both well adapted for precise 
experimental work, and two cases are already known in which the partial 
rotation of the chromophoric radical has been automatically isolated. It 
therefore only remains to determine, perhaps by the methods of wave- 
mechanics, the conditions under which the electronic cloud of the carbonyl- 
radical becomes optically active, and the factors which determine the 
magnitude of its partial rotation, in order to provide a complete solution 
for this special case, and thus to pave the way for a general solution of 
the whole problem. 


REFERENCES. 

I. WALKER, ‘ Arrhenius Memorial Lecture,’ J. Chem. Soc., 1928, 1400. 
2. OSTWALD, ‘ Faraday Lecture,’ J., 1904, 85, 508. 
3. SOMMERFELD, Atombau und Spektrallinien. 

4. OLIPHANT, Nature, 1934, 188, 377. 

5. Lowry, J., 1898, 78, 569. 

6. J., 1898, 78, 986. 

7. J., 1899, '75, 211. 

8. DuUBRUNFAUT, C.R., 1846, 28, 38. 

g. WHEELER and TOLLENS, Ann., 1889, 254, 310. 
to. Lowry, J., 1899, 75, 213. 


J., 1898, 78, 991. 
. Lapwortu and KipPinG, J., 1896, 69, 304. 


HOH 
NOH 


—— 


——- 


o> oe See oe 


B.—CHEMISTRY 47 


. Lowry, J., 1899, 75, 223. 
. E. Fiscuer, Ber., 1890, 28, 2626. 
. ScHMOGER, Ber., 1880, 18, 1917; 1881, 14, 2121; 1892, 25,1455. TANRET, 


C.R., 1895, 120, 1060. 


. Trey, Z. physikal. Chem., 1895, 18, 193. Lippmann, Ber., 1896, 29, 203. 


TanreT, Bull. Soc. Chim., 1896, [iii], 15, 195. 


. ButLerRow, Ann., 1877, 189, 44. 
. Laar, Ber., 1885, 18, 648. 


Ber., 1886, 19, 730. 


. Lowry, J., 1899, 75, 211. 


ibid., p. 220. 


. Kurt Mever, Berv., 1920, 58, 1410; 1921, 54, 579. 
. Lowry and Macsovy, /J., 1908, 88, 107. 


ibid., p. 119. 


. Lowry and Ricuarps, J., 1925, 127, 1385. 

. Lowry and Owen, Proc. R.S., 1928, A, 119, 505. 

. Lowry and FauLkneEr, J., 1925, 127, 2883. 

. Lowry, J., 1899, 75, 219. 

. See Lowry and Macson, J., 1908, 88, 129. 

. Lowry, J., 1923, 128, 828. 

. Lowry, Second Solvay Conference, 1926, p. 158. 

. JAcoBsEN, Ber., 1887, 20, 1732; 1888, 21, 2628. 

. Lowry, Chem. and Ind., Jan. 19, 1923, 1, 43 ; compare Tvans. Faraday Soc., 


1930, 26, 45. 


. BRONSTED, Rec. Trav. Chim., 1923, 42, 718; compare Trans. Faraday Soc., 


1929, 25, 59. 


. BRONSTED and GUGGENHEIM, J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 1927, 49, 2554- 
. Lowry, ‘ L’ Activation et la Structure des Molécules,’ Réunion Internationale 


de Chimie Physique, 1928, p. 219. 


. Lowry, Nature, 1925, 115, 376. 
. Drupve, Theory of Optics, English Trans., London, 1907, p. 414. 


ibid., p. 439. 


. Lowry and Dickson, J., 1913, 108, 1067. 


Trans. Faraday Soc., 1914, 10, 99. 


. Biot, C.R., 1836, 2, 543. 

. ARNDTSEN, Ann. Chim. Phys., 1858, 54, 421. 

. Hunter, J., 1924, 125, 1198. 

. Lowry and Ricuarps, J., 1924, 125, 1593. 

. Lowry and Cutter, J., 1922, 121, 532. 

. Lowry and CoopE-Apams, Phil. Tvans., 1927, A, 226, 391 ; compare Lowry, 


ibid., 1912, A, 212, 261. 


. Lowry and Snow, Proc. R.S., 1930, A, 127, 271. 

. Ducraux and JEANTET, J. Physique, 1926, 7, 200. 

. Lowry, J., 1915, 107, 1195. 

. Lowry and Dickson, J., 1915, 107, 1173. 

. Lowry, J., 1929, 2858. 

. Lowry and Dickson, Trans. Faraday Soc., 1914, 10, 102. 
. Lowry and Ricuarps, J., 1924, 125, 2511. 

. Harris, Hirst and Woop, /J., 1932, 2108. 

. Hupson, WoLFrom and Lowry, J., 1933, 1179. 

. Lowry and Azsram, J., 1919, 115, 303 ; compare HUNTER, ref. 44. 
. Natanson, Bull. Akad. Sci., Kvakow, 1908, No. 8, 764. 

. DruvE, Optik, Leipzig, 1900. 

. Kuun and Braun, Z. physikal. Chem., 1930, B. 8, 281. 

. Lowry and Hupson, Phil. Trans., 1933, A, 282, 117. 


48 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


62. W. Kuun, Trans. Favaday Soc., 1930, 26, 293. 
63. Born, Phys. Zeit., 1915, 16, 251 ; Ann. Physik, 1918, [iv], 55, 177. 
64. Lowry and Waker, Nature, 1924, 118, 565. Lowry, Nature, 1933, 181, 


565. 

65. DE MALLEMANN, Rev. Gen. Sci., 1927, 38, 453; Tvans. Faraday Soc., 1930, 
26, 281. 

66. ——C.R., 1925, 181, 208. 


67. S. F. Boys, Proc. Roy. Soc., 1934, A, 144, 655. 
68. W. Kuun, Ber., 1933, 66, 166 ; Z. physikal. Chem., 1934, B. 24, 335. 


SECTION C.—GEOLOGY. 


PLANT LIFE AND THE PHILOSOPHY 
. OF GEOLOGY 


ADDRESS BY 
PROF. W. T. GORDON, M.A., D.Sc. 
PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 


Ar a recent celebration 1 the President of the Royal Society, Sir Frederick 
Gowland Hopkins, said ‘ It has been remarked, and not without a measure 
of truth, that the scientific investigator is more readily forgotten even by 
his own world than is the author or the artist. A literary work or a picture 
is complete in itself. It is an accomplishment involving finality and it 
remains intact through the years. . . . The investigator of Nature, on the 
other hand, adds his quota to a growing structure, to the great edifice of 
science as a whole, and as knowledge grows and widens and others build 
upon his work as a foundation it may become, as it were, submerged.’ 
What is true of the individual worker may be equally true of his subject, 
and the influence of research, when viewed out of its original setting, may 
be completely lost. To an extent this has happened in connexion with 
the study of fossil plants in their relation to geological science, and the 
request of the Council that the Sections, at this year’s meeting, might 
explore the possibility of illustrating how far their particular science had 
added to the sum total of human advancement has afforded a chance to 
consider this matter. Geology is the science that investigates the past 
history of the earth, and, as a consequence, involves considerations of the 
past life of the earth, both animal and plant. Discussions of past life will, 
of necessity, involve investigations of life conditions, and these will react 
on ideas of inorganic nature. So far as human beings are concerned, we 
have no difficulty in appreciating the economic side of geology ; but there 
is another side—the advancement of thought—that is not quite so obvious 
to ‘ the man in the street.’ 

Our study this morning is largely historical, and the views of the ancients 
will form a suitable beginning. We cannot accredit any real scientific 
knowledge of geology to them, but their utilisation of stone and metals 
shows that they were not unacquainted with phenomena now considered 
by the geologist as among the data of his science. Even in pre-historic 
times observation of, and inference from, natural phenomena cannot be 
denied. In a late neolithic hearth at Gullane, East Lothian, I have col- 
lected a piece of petrified wood—Pitys primeva—of Carboniferous age 


1 Unveiling of a plaque to William Hyde Wollaston on 14 Buckingham Street, 
W.C. 1, on July 4, 1934. 


50 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


which certainly had deceived its collector. It is so well preserved, and 
so resembles a billet of wood, that even to-day a casual observer might 
have taken it for a piece of weathered drift-wood. While this must be 
one of the earliest known specimens actually collected and used by man, 
we can hardly say that its study led to any direct advance. Nor did the 
well-known specimen of Cycadeoidea etrusca, Capellini, found in a tomb 
twenty miles west of Bologna, signify anything more than that it had 
struck the curiosity of some ancient Etruscan. Neither the utilitarian 
outlook of the prehistoric Scot nor the curiosity of the Etruscan had any 
recorded result in further research. Other known uses of fossil plants by 
the ancients, such as the employment of logs of fossil wood by the Egyptians 
in making roads over the desert, and in fabricating ornaments, or the tools 
made out of the Rhynie chert, are likewise without any real significance 
from a geological point of view. They are all interesting, but have not 
led to further developments. 


PALZZONTOLOGICAL IDEAS IN CLASSICAL TIMES. 


Among the Greek and Roman philosophers there is no doubt that 
many were acquainted with fossils, and znter alia with fossil plants, but 
again the geological import of these objects was hardly considered. They 
were accepted as of organic origin, and their presence in rocks was attributed 
variously to former inundations of the land or a vis plastica. 'That they 
were remnants of former worlds never seems to have struck them. IJnun- 
dations of the land, or elevations of the land above the sea by earthquakes 
or volcanic action, they knew, and even successions of such changes,? 
but the great past history of the earth was still an unknown volume. Yet 
the naturalness of their deductions is often very striking. This applies’ 
perhaps with greatest force to the Geography of Strabo. The work was 
written for the instruction of administrators, and the sanity of the dis- 
cussions and final conclusions, together with the fair-minded criticism of 
the authorities he quotes, is startling when one considers the ideas of many 
of his contemporaries, and of his predecessors. He is perhaps too generous 
to Homer, whom he seems to consider infallible, and the depository of all 
knowledge: but in this he only follows most of the Greek philosophers. 
The works of Aristotle, Theophrastus, Pliny, Herodotus and Seneca, 
that are extant, are all excellent in their way as illustrating here and there 
geological ideas prevalent before, and just after, the beginning of Christian 
times ; but Strabo excels them all. 

Yet, with all their knowledge of the processes of nature, and of the 
plants and animals that inhabitated the earth, there does not appear a 
single hint of any former phase different from the present. In fact, although 
many geological processes and phenomena were known, there was no 
science of Geology. Yet the ancients have left us a legacy in their desire 
to find a natural explanation for the origin of everything. Curiosity to 
explore and explain nature seems to have been their watchword. For 
nearly 1,000 years from the beginning of the Christian era geological 


2 Cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses. 


C.—GEOLOGY 51 


science made no progress. Doubtless many fossil plants and animals 
were discovered, but no record of them has been preserved to us. 


MeEpizzvaL IDEAS ON Fossil PLANTS. 


In the Middle Ages fossils, both plant and animal, were regarded, for 
_ the most part, as produced by inorganic agencies in the earth itself. 
_ Mr. W. N. Edwards, in his Guide to an Exhibition illustrating the early 
history of Palzontology, has made an interesting suggestion in regard to 
the reason for this. He considers that it may have arisen ‘ from a mis- 
understanding of the explanations of fossils’ given by Avicenna. ‘The 
quotation from Albertus Magnus (1193 ?-1280) in De Mineralibus et rebus 
metallicis, describing certain stones like animals, runs : ‘ And the cause 
of this is, according to Avicenna, that animals themselves in their entirety 
are sometimes changed into stones, and especially into salty stones. For 
he says that just as earth and water are the material of stones, so also are 
animals, which, when they pass into places in which the stone-forming 
essence is given forth to the elements, are seized by the properties of those 
qualities which are in such places. The elements in the bodies of the 
animals are changed into the ruling element, namely, the earthy mixed 
with the aqueous, and then the mineral virtue changes that into stone, 
and they retain their figures and parts both within and without as before.’ 

This might appear to be a crude description of petrification, after 
burial by natural causes in the earth, in suitable conditions, and not a 
statement that fossils were produced in the earth by some stone-forming 
essences. Yet the latter doctrine seems to have held the field. 

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) ridiculed the idea, as also did Fracastoro 
in 1517, but it persisted, and we find Agricola in his De natura fossilium 
(1548) adopting two views. He believed that some materia pinguis or 
fatty matter produced organic shapes by fermentation, but he also thought 
that plants and animals could be turned into stone by a succus lapidescens. 
Andrea Mattioli two years later (1548) described fossil fishes from Monte 
Bolca, and, from his own observations, believed that bones, etc., could be 
turned into stone by absorbing such a lapidifying juice ; in modern phrase- 
ology by ground water containing mineral matter in solution. Yet not 
until the eighteenth century was the notion that these were merely /usus 
naturae, lapides figurati, or lapides sui generis finally killed by ridicule. 

Now fossil animals, rather than plants, have figured in these discus- 
sions, and Brongniart has suggested that the explanation can be found in 
the fact that coal was not in such demand because of the abundance of 
timber in Europe, and consequently the principal repositories of fossil 
plants had not been explored: but that cannot excuse workers in this 
country at all events. The earliest coal lease, for the commercial exploita- 
tion of coal, was granted between 1210 and 1219 to the monks of New- 
battle, Midlothian, by a Seyer de Quinci, as is recorded by Cochrane- 
Patrick,® while the Newcastle coalfield was working in 1239 under a charter 
of Henry III. It is inconceivable that the miners were unacquainted with 


3 Cochrane-Patrick, Records of Mining in Scotland. 


52 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


specimens of the abundant flora that is associated with the coal in these 
and other areas ; so that the paucity of references to such fossils can only 
be attributed to apathy, or interests in quite other matters. There is no 
doubt that great quantities of coal were raised and employed, among other 
uses, for evaporating sea water to produce salt. Prior to 1567, for example, 
the roth Earl of Sutherland had opened up the Brora coalfield ; and the 
coal was used by Lady Jean Gordon, not only for domestic purposes, but 
also for the salt pans working in the neighbourhood. ‘That a goodly number 
of people were employed is shown by old records and implied by old laws 
against the ‘ colliers and salters’ (1606). Had there been only a small 
number of operatives employed, there would have been no need of Acts 
of Parliament to regulate their behaviour: so that everything goes to show 
an extraordinary lack of interest in the fossils they must have unearthed 
during their work. But, if fossil plants had not been mentioned very 
frequently in these ancient treatises, the time soon came when they were 
used with great effect. 

The recognition, complete or partial, that these /apides figurati once were 
living organisms drove philosophers to attempt some explanation of their 
presence in rocks. In close proximity to the sea-board the presence 
of marine shells could be explained by elevation of the land, but their 
occurrence far inland, and at considerable heights and also deep down in 
mines, introduced difficulties. Men were not prepared to accept such 
wholesale drowning of the land as would be necessary. ‘The first chapter 
of the Bible contains statements that the land was separated from the 
waters on the third day of Creation, and this was held to be the incon- 
trovertible truth. But the Church also taught the occurrence of one great 
flood—Noah’s flood—and this, for the time at any rate, presented a way 
out of the philosophical impasse. Scientific discovery and what was 
thought to be Divine revelation were once more in accord. Fossils were 
real organisms that had been overwhelmed at the flood. Now, as Suess 4 
has shown, there is no event of pre-historic time so well authenticated as 
an inundation that terrified the Near Eastern world. Records of such 
an event are preserved in the traditions of many races round what is now 
Mesopotamia. Although the story of this occurrence had not been so 
well examined in these days as Suess has now done, yet it appeared in the 
sacred books of the Old ‘Testament, and was thoroughly implanted in the 
philosophy of the Hebrews, and, consequently, in Christian philosophy. 

Of course there were dissentients. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), 
for one, could not accept the theory, for there were such obvious diffi- 
culties. We cannot estimate the effect of his dissent, for his writings 
were not published until long after his death ; but Fracastoro at any rate, 
who held similar beliefs, was a power in the land, and his views, set forth 
in 1517, had great influence. We have indeed to thank the Italian scien- 
tists of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries for establishing the organic 
character of fossils, and for combating the notion of Noah’s flood as an 
explanation of their presence in rocks. They were before their time, 
however, and their influence was destined to be eclipsed. 


4 The Face of the Earth, introductory chapters. 


a 


{ 


C.—GEOLOGY 53 


INTERPRETATION OF FossIL PLANTS IN THE SIXTEENTH AND 
SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES. 


The greatest influence in the sixteenth century in geological philosophy 
was undoubtedly exercised by Georg Bauer, [Agricola] (1494-1555). His 
personality and his scientific attainments, both in the fields of theory and 
practice, place him far above all others. He was a man entirely devoid of 
bigotry, and took up the very common-sense view that some ‘fossils’ are 
inorganic, but some are remains of plants and animals. Gradually the 
organic nature of fossils was established as a principle of scientific philo- 
sophy. Palissy, whose collection contained ‘ more than a hundred pieces 
of wood turned into stone,’ dared to assert in Paris in 1580 that fossil 
fishes had once lived, that they had not been deposited by a universal 
deluge, and that many of the fossils were different from living types. For 
his liberal views Palissy died miserably in the Bastille. Others, of the 
Italian scientists, put forward many theories, but, on the whole, defended 
the Noah’s flood hypothesis. 

It is perhaps unfortunate for my general thesis that the first treatise 
on pure palzobotany by Stelluti, in 1637, should have been one of the 
reversions to the inorganic origin of fossils. His work has many plates— 
excellent for their time—but his words are retrograde. ‘ The generation 
then of this wood as far as I have been able to see, and to observe carefully, 
does not proceed from seeds nor from roots of any plant, but merely from 
a species of earth which is rich in clay, which little by little must be 
changed into wood ; in this way nature works until all that remains is 
converted into wood ; it is in this way I believe with the aid of some 
subterranean fires, such as there are in some places, which go winding 
about underground and give off from time to time a fairly thick smoke, 
and at times flames, especially in rainy weather, and also with the addi- 
tional assistance of sulphurated and mineral waters.’ 

Others write in what we would call a more progressive tone; and 
Steno, the Dane, a professor in Padua, published in 1669 a work of the 
very first importance. He enunciated the law of superposition of strata ; 
the original horizontality of beds ; and that high dip of beds connoted earth 
movement. He distinguished between marine beds containing shells, 
and fluviatile beds with reeds, grasses and branches of trees. But he was 
anxious to reconcile his discoveries with Scripture, and put forward many 
ideas with that end in view ; ideas sometimes plagiarised by others at a 
later date. 

Quirini in 1676 showed that Noah’s flood could not have moved heavy 
bodies to the extent that was assumed, since Boyle had shown that wave 
action did not continue to any depth. Quirini also contended that Noah’s 
flood could not have been universal. The period indeed was one of great 
interest ; new observations involving new philosophical ideas that directly 
opposed doctrines, as Lyell says, ‘ sanctioned by the implicit faith of many 
generations, and supposed to rest on scriptural authority.’ 

We now reach the time when British workers begin to take a more 
important part in the development of natural science. John Aubrey, 
Martin Lister, Robert Plot were all men of the very highest repute, but 


54 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


I can only refer to those who come within the scope of my subject, and 
Robert Hooke, Martin Lister and John Woodward must absorb my 
attention. Hooke had applied the microscope to the study of fossils; 
and, in the first edition of Evelyn’s Sylva (1664), had described a piece 
of fossil wood after a microscopical examination. The following year 
(1665) he published that epoch-making volume Micrographia, figuring 
petrified wood, showing cellular structure, for the first time. The plate 
is poor, but he claims that by the discovery of its pores he produced a 
better argument for calling it fir than Stelluti had for calling similar 
bodies merely earth. Hooke contributed greatly to other branches of 
the subject, but it was over a hundred and fifty years before his contribu- 
tion to the microscopical study of fossil plants was advanced to a greater 
degree. He believed in the extinction of species; that volcanic action 
and earthquakes had changed the face of the earth, and that these could 
account for fossils being found in the heart of the mountains, and far 
above the level of their natural habitat ; and that it might be possible to 
“raise a chronology’ out of these records of nature—fossil shells.6 He 
considered that England must once have been in tropical latitudes, and 
speculated on shifts of the poles to explain that hypothesis. His ideas, 
indeed, involved crises in nature that appeared no less stupendous than 
those demanded by the diluvialists. ‘These views therefore were not 
accepted, nor even given the consideration they really deserved. Lister,® 
in 1673, published ‘a description of certain stones figured like plants, 
and by some observing men esteemed to be plants petrified.’ They were 
really crinoids, but Ray, commenting on them, says that the roots are a 
strong argument for their being ‘ pieces of vegetables’ and suggests that 
they were submarine plants. In 1692 La Hire’? described two specimens 
of petrified palm trees from Africa. He states ‘ there are people who say 
fossils are stones, and have never been other than stones, that resemble 
organisms, while some say that these fossils are petrified. There is 
reason on both sides. These two stones, however (referring to the 
fossil palm trees), are so similar to two pieces of wood that it cannot be 
pure chance that has produced two bodies so similar to two other specimens 
of such a different nature. It is evident that these petrifactions are far 
other than sports of nature that have imitated tree trunks.’ He also 
describes fossil wood sent by Father Duchatz from Ava near Mandalay, 
Burma, and considers that the wood was petrified by the waters of a 
nearby river as stated by that priest. ‘This is the earliest reference to 
the famous fossil trees from the Pegu Series on the banks of the Irrawadi. 
We can see therefore the belief in the organic nature of some fossils at any 
rate (and in this case fossil plants), replacing the old view. 

But the doctrines of John Woodward as enunciated in his Essay towards 
a Natural History of the Earth (1695) so coincided with the philosophy 
of his times that they were accepted enthusiastically. It is true that, at 
this time, Burnet’s Sacred History of the Earth (first published in Latin 
between 1680 and 1690) had a great vogue as a scientific textbook, although 

5 Hooke, Posthumous Works—Lecture, February, 1688. 


§ Lister, Phil. Tyans. Roy. Soc., vol. 8, No. 100, p. 6181. 
7 La Hire, Mém. Acad. des Sciences, Paris, vol. for 1692, p. 122. 


C.—GEOLOGY 55 


there is practically no scientific observation in the whole work. Burnet 
studied books, not nature, but his eloquence seems to have made up, in 
_ the estimation of his literary friends, for his want of scientific knowledge. 
Woodward, on the contrary, was a great observer in the field, and was 
one of the figure-heads of his day, if not always a popular one. His 
methods for obtaining and recording scientific data are so thoroughly 
sound that it is difficult to believe they were formulated two hundred and 
_ fifty years ago. His questionnaire method of obtaining information, 
when he could not personally travel to the localities in question, is one of 
the earliest uses of an important present-day practice in scientific investi- 
gations. But his deductions from the data he received were often so 
incredibly unsound that one wonders at the enormous influence he 
attained. Accepting Noah’s flood as universal, and realising that the 
_ fossils obtained in northern Europe, in hard limestones and shales, were 
very different from the modern-looking Tertiary specimens from the 
deposits in Mediterranean lands, and very difficult to accept as of organic 
origin when compared with them, he imagined that the flood must have 
loosened the very foundations of the earth. He considered ‘ the whole 
terrestrial globe to have been taken to pieces and dissolved at the flood, 
and the strata to have settled down from this promiscuous mass as any 
earthy sediment from a fluid.’*® Gravitational segregation, to use a 
petrological phrase in a totally irrelevant connexion, collected the heavier 
fossils in the lower and more solid rocks, and the lighter forms in the 
upper beds. Woodward, therefore, did not deny like some of his con- 
temporaries, Lhuyd, Plot and others, that fossils were organic, thus 
gaining the favour of his non-scientific friends by his common sense ; 
and he did not antagonise the clerics, for he accepted as an explanation 
for the occurrence of these fossils an event about the reality of which they 
were perfectly satisfied. It is small wonder that his theory was hailed 
with acclamation on all hands. Yet he had personally some misgivings, 
for he admits that the discovery of shells ‘ in the most retired and inward 
parts of the most firm and solid rocks . . . almost everywhere’ is enough 
_ to make one believe they are ‘mere minerals,’ especially when found in 
places ‘ so deep in the earth and far from the sea, as these are commonly 
found.’ Others were also sceptical of Woodward’s views, and Ray,?® 
_ exposing some of the inaccuracies, stated that Woodward ‘ must have 
_ invented the phenomena for the sake of confirming his bold and strange 
hypothesis.” The hypothesis, however, was too excellent an escape 
from the impasse that geological philosophy had now reached to be 
relinquished readily. 


PALZOBOTANY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 


Among Woodward’s most enthusiastic followers was Scheuchzer of 
_ Geneva, who translated Woodward’s work into Latin, and thus spread 
his theories through the continent of Europe. With Steno’s ideas as 
well as Woodward’s to choose from, it is difficult to understand why 


8 Essay towards a Natural History of the Earth, 1695, Preface. 
® Ray, Consequences of the Deluge, p. 165. 


56 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


Scheuchzer should select the less scientific, but he was by no means the 
only scientist to be captivated by Woodward. Scheuchzer’s chief con- 
tribution to paleontology is an Herbarium Diluvianum (1709) in which 
there are many reproductions of fossil plants. Woodward had travelled 
widely to obtain his information, and Scheuchzer adopted a similar 
method, constantly seeking for proofs of the deluge, and, to his own 
satisfaction at any rate, discovering them. Woodward having found, 
from a study of fossil plants, that ‘there is so great an uniformity and 
general consent amongst them, that from it I was enabled to discover 
what time of the year it was that the deluge began; the whole tenour of 
these bodies thus preserved clearly pointing forth the month of May,’ 
Scheuchzer set out to emulate his avowed leader. In the very first plate 
and figure of his Herbarium he illustrates what he calls an ear of corn 
(actually it is a crinoid calyx with stem and arms attached). ‘ Now from 
the same pit’ (in a slate quarry in Mount Plattenberg, near Matt, Canton 
of Glarus, Switzerland, from which he had obtained fossil fishes) ‘ I 
present an ear of corn, a great rarity of nature, a genuine witness to the 
Universal Flood, and not only a sign of the event but also of the time it 
took place.’ Its plumpness, and yet its semi-mature condition, like that 
of certain filberts that were wrinkled and shrivelled, indicated that the 
flood took place about the middle of May. 

Scheuchzer, as has been noted, translated Woodward’s Essay into 
Latin and spread his ideas through Europe. By drawing attention to 
collecting evidence rather than relying on the criticism of literature, he, 
like Woodward, did an immense service for Geology. It is precisely by 
assembling new evidence that criticism must come. Woodward and 
Scheuchzer were both learned and honest observers. Their evidence 
might be read differently by their contemporaries, and indeed was so 
read, but their position had been attained by sound methods, and the 
popularity of the views they held indicates their reasonableness in the 
eyes of the general educated world of that day. 

The stimulation given to the collection of fossils soon bore fruit, and 
among the literature dealing with fossil plants in particular we may cite 
a paper by Leigh (1700) on the Natural History of Lancashire. He 
figured numerous examples, but considered them all inorganic. Parsons, 
in 1757, described a collection of fossil fruits from Sheppey made by 
Mr. Jacob of Faversham, surgeon. He defined what he meant by petri- 
factions thus: ‘ By being petrified is meant being impregnated with 
stony, pyritical, or any other metalline or sparry matter.’ In the course 
of his communication he recalls that Woodward thought the flood began 
in May, ‘ and yet this very opinion is liable to some objections ; because 
altho’ fruits, capable of being petrified, from their green state, may be 
pretty well formed in May here, as well as in the same latitude elsewhere, 
(and are) in favour of this opinion; yet there are the stones of fruits, 
found fossil, so perfect, as to make one imagine they were very ripe, when 
deposited in the places where they are discovered, which would induce 
one to think the deluge happened nearer Autumn, unless we could think 
them the productions of more southern latitudes, where perhaps their 
fruits are brought to perfection before ours are well formed.’ 


C.—GEOLOGY 57 


In the same volume of the Philosophical Transactions (1757) Emanuel 
da Costa described the occurrence of impressions of ‘ herbae capillares et 
affines, the gramineous and the reed tribes; but, however, among them 


many rare and beautiful impressions undoubtedly of vegetable origin, 
and impressed by plants hitherto unknown to botanists, are not un- 


——s 


frequently met with.’ He also recorded cones in the ironstone nodules 
of Coalbrookdale. Da Costa accepted Noah’s universal deluge, and, as 
evidence, cited the faults in mineral veins. ‘These, he stated, could not 
have been the result of partial floods, for, if so, they should contain local 


_ plants and animals, whereas the fossils were of organisms from ‘ the most 


remote climes from those, where they now lie buried.’ He instanced 
specimens of the Indian reeds—bamboos—from England, rhinoceros 
bones from the Hartz forest, horns of the moose-deer and elephant from 
England, and exotic shells from Harwich. Leibnitz, in 1706, thought 
that some of the fossil plants found in Germany resembled living types 
in India. ; 

The mystery underlying these observations was explained more naturally 
by Jussieu in 1718,1° although his ideas were not accepted. He was 
certainly one of the first to show that the floras of the Coal Measures 
and that of recent times were totally distinct, and that the supposed 
analogues of Coal Measure plants could only be found among tropical 
forms to-day. ‘To quote his own words: ‘ These plants are so different 
from those of Lyons, of the neighbouring provinces, and even of the whole 
of France, that they seem to belong to a new world . . . and what is 
still more curious these plants either no longer exist, or, if they do still 
live, they occur in such distant lands that we should not have known of 
them but for the discovery of these impressions.’ He considered their 
analogues, as has been stated, to occur in warmer regions in America and 
parts of India, and, since fossil shells were found along with them, he 
thought they had been floated to France by ocean currents from the south. 
Summing up in relation to the ideas current in his day, he says: ‘ It is 


‘not necessary therefore in explaining these fossil plants to have recourse _ 


to sports and tricks of nature, nor to palingenesis, as some recent authors 
think. . . . And when one attributes them to the Deluge one does not 


see with certainty the impressions of mature and fruiting plants deter- 


_ mining the month or season of the Deluge, since these plants came from 


warm countries where plants ripened before those in this country.’ 
Vallisneri also, in 1721, criticising Woodward’s hypothesis, advocated 
another, namely, that the earth had been originally completely covered 


‘with water, the land appearing as the water gradually subsided. Moro 
in 1740 tried to apply the theory of upheaval of the classical authors to 


Vallisneri’s observations. He really resuscitated Hooke’s earthquake 
hypothesis. Generelli in 1748, in defending Moro’s notions, stated that 
vegetable productions were found in different states of maturity, showing 
that they were embedded at different seasons, and he explained this 
by recurring volcanic outbursts. Other workers were collecting and 
describing specimens of fossils, plants, both impressions and petrifactions, 


10 Jussieu, Antoine de, Acad. Sciences, 1718. 


58 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


as well as animals. Lehmann, for example, collected from the coal 
measure beds at Ihlfeld in the Hartz, and published a paper in 1756 on 
Aster montanus which he thought had been caught at the flood in full 
bloom. These blooms were really the nodal sheaths of Annularia spheno- 
phylloides. Gesner, in 1758, observed that some fossil animals and 
plants, like those of Oeningen, resembled the local types, while some were 
either of unknown forms or resembled those from distant parts of the 
world. One famous production of this time must be mentioned, namely, 
Knorr and Walch’s descriptions of Knorr’s collection (1755-1773). 
Knorr died soon after the commencement of the work, and Walch is 
really responsible for the greater part. A résumé of palzobotany to date 
was given and figures of many plants, petrifactions and impressions. It 
would be difficult to find more beautiful plates, from an artistic point of 
view, in the whole literature of palzobotany, but the illustrations are 
almost worthless for reference, in any endeavour to identify similar 
specimens. The classification too must be considered quite bizarre. 
None-the-less it was a classification, and, as such, deserves mention. 
Several works appeared during the latter part of the eighteenth century, 
the majority of the authors describing, with greater or less precision, the 
characters of fossil plants; but some, like Fuchsel, were also interested 
in the geological horizons at which the plants were found, and a few 
devoted themselves to classification, and correlation of the specimens 
with living forms. 

The labours of these scientists were soon destined to bear abundant 
fruit. It is true that the whole aspect of geological studies had shifted 
from palzontology to the wider problems of earth processes. The 
organic nature of fossils was now unquestioned, but the interest had 
swung over to the problem of rock formation and rock classification. The 
Vulcanists, Plutonists and Neptunists now held the centre of the stage ; 
but it almost seems as though the palzontologists had been gathering 
their forces in order to launch the next attack on the philosophy of the 
new times. Again the first assault was by means of observations on fossil 
plants, and it was perhaps in view of this that Brongniart has recalled that 
the plant kingdom ought perhaps to claim the honour of having forced 
the abandonment of the ridiculous ideas that attributed these remains of 
an ancient world to sports of nature and to plastic forces.4 Blumenbach 
had been teaching that many fossils, plants and animals alike, must have 
existed under conditions different from the present, as indeed had been 
involved in Jussieu’s writings many years before. But it was left to 
Baron von Schlotheim and James Parkinson almost simultaneously, in 
1804, and certainly unknown to one another, to draw attention to this 
aspect of palzontology. 

The names of their respective works are practically transliterations of 
one another. Schlotheim’s Flora der Vorwelt and Parkinson’s first volume 
of his Organic Remains of a Former World each deal with fossil plants ; 
and each emphasise the fact that the conditions under which the fossils 
had existed were different from those now extant, Schlotheim’s is 


11 Brongniart, Histoive des plantes fossiles, p. 2. 


C.—GEOLOGY 59 


certainly the better of the two productions, and deals with the flora of 
the Carboniferous rocks of the Thuringen district. Parkinson’s work is 
more general and ranges through Tertiary, Mesozoic and Paleozoic 
floras. By this time fossil botany had nearly established itself as a science. 
The study of these remains during the preceding century had very 
materially assisted in forcing the acceptance of fossils as organic in origin ; 
in exposing the absurdity of the occurrence of one single Noah’s flood, 
which produced all the surface rocks of the earth at one and the same time ; 
and in showing that the fossil plants obtained from rocks represented 
accumulations at different times, and under conditions different from 
the present. 

One final paper belonging to this period may be mentioned because of 
the excellence of the illustrations. The Antediluvian Phytology of Artis 
belied the ineptness of its title. ‘The figures were well executed, and it is, 

to this day, a reference work in determining fossil plants. 


PALZOBOTANY—A SCIENCE. 


But fossil botany as a science was initiated by Adolphe Brongniart when, 
in 1822, he published a classification of fossil plants, and when the first 
part of his Histoire des Végétaux fossiles appeared in 1828. The sub-title 
of the latter is illuminating. It reads: Botanical and geological researches 
on the plants sealed up in the different rocks of the earth. 

William Smith’s paper, Strata identified by organised Fossils (1815), and 
the works of Cuvier, Lamarck and Brongniart in fossil animal and plant 
remains, respectively, completely changed the aspect of geology. A 
knowledge of fossils, and of geology, was no longer the hobby of a few 
interested naturalists, whose main work lay in other walks of life; but 
studies under the titles Geology and Paleontology became recognised 
as parts of the scientific equipment of universities, either as separate 
departments or under the care of biology. 

The study of geology had been enriched, by this time, on its minera- 
logical and stratigraphical sides, and we may say that nearly every import- 
ant geological theory had been exploited, or, at any rate, envisaged, if 
only in an elementary form. Practically every one of these theories had 
its advocates. There were those who still believed that most fossils were 
 lusus naturae ; and those who considered most of them of organic origin, 

without denying that usus naturae, in a different sense, did occur. (To-day 
We can point to specimens of beekite that will pass muster, at first sight, 
for nummulites of the type Assilina; and others that are perhaps less 
easily confused with actual fossil genera.) Many believed in great con- 
vulsions in the earth, either one or several, and pointed to actual geological 
_ phenomena in proof of their contentions : others advocated continuity of 
known world conditions. Some advanced the efficacy of water, others of 
_ volcanic action and earthquakes, to bring about these altered conditions. 
These workers were, for the most part, ordinary reasonable people, and it 
Was not a question of selecting between a right and a wrong explanation 
or observation, for like the blind men describing the elephant they were 
all partly right, and partly wrong. The question became one of proba- 
bility among all the possibilities that had been suggested. A summation 


60 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


of observations therefore was now necessary, and a systematic method of 
collating these observations was wanted. On the mineralogical side this 
had been, to an extent, accomplished by Werner and his followers. In 
Botany and Zoology, classification had also been effected, but in Palzo- 
botany the system of classification was still crude. In 1818 Steinhauer 1? 
described Coal Measure plants in the United States, and, for the first 
time, used the binomial nomenclature, a course that was followed two 
years later by Schlotheim in his Petrifaktenkunde. Schlotheim? and 
Sternberg 14 had each devised classifications, and Martius, in 1822, 
published a paper giving reasoned comparisons between fossil and recent 
plants. Although Martius had an unrivalled knowledge of the Brazilian 
flora, his knowledge of fossils was not so extensive, and his classification 
was therefore defective. Artis, in his Antediluvian Phytology, 1825, pre- 
sented a résumé of these attempts at classification, and also added that of 
Brongniart (1822). His own classification, however, was a modification 
of that of Martius. 

In the introduction to the Histoire des Végétaux fossiles, Brongniart 
discussed yet another method of classification of fossil plants. He used 
the names of living genera if the fossils could be actually identified with 
living types, modifications of these names where they were more or less 
related to living forms, and new names where no such relationship could 
be established. In other words a modification of the classification of the 
botanist. His work was a tremendous step, in advance, and although he 
made mistakes (such as classing graptolites as algae) his work is still one of 
the outstanding memoirs in fossil botany, and a book of reference for the 
stratigraphical “geologist. The reason is not far to seek, for, to accurate 
descriptions, he added beautiful and meticulously drawn plates. While 
his work deals with impressions, and these chiefly of vegetative parts of 
plants, his classification is based on ‘ form’ similarities, and is not com- 
parable in detail with the classification of the botanist ; yet he brought 
order out of chaos, and has given a classification that is as useful to the 
geologist as to the biologist. The study of fossil plants had therefore 
attained a scientific basis, and Brongniart well deserves the title of the 
Father of Fossil Botany. 

A brief digression will not be out of place to ascertain, if possible, the 
general views of geologists at this date. ‘The end of the eighteenth and 
beginning of the nineteenth century not only saw the publication of several 
works in fossil botany, as we have noted, but other branches of science 
were even more prolific in researches. Werner’s teaching was every- 
where evident in Geology, Cuvier was probably the chief exponent of 
Natural History, and the workers in other sciences had no reason to doubt 
the catastrophic philosophy of these leaders. Hutton and Lamarck were 
both discredited in their lifetime, and, although they had shown ‘ the 
writing on the wall,’ it was on the wall of the dungeon, or more 


12 Steinhauer, Tvans. Phil. Soc. Amer., vol. 1, 1818. 

18 Schlotheim, Petrifaktenkunde, 1820. 

14 Sternberg, Versuch einer Geognostich-Botanischen Darstellung der Flora dey 
Vorwelt, Leipzig, 1820-25. 

15 Martius, De plantis nonnullis antediluvianis, Ratisbonae, 1822. 


C.—GEOLOGY 61 


appropriately the oubliette of the Castle of Science, and not on that of 
the banqueting-hall. As a result the guests had little opportunity of 
realising the true position. 

To change the metaphor, when everything seemed knit together in a 
stable framework, science, religion, social customs, even politics (for they 
too were more or less stable after the Napoleonic Wars), and the world 


that the ‘man with the monkey-wrench ’ was unwelcome ? Poor Lamarck, 
blind as the result of overwork, but still presenting his ideas through the 
pen of his daughter, and Hutton, the discredited agriculturalist, exerted 
little influence on their fellow scientists, let alone the general body of their 
fellow men. Even Playfair’s illustrations of Hutton’s views had no 
large appeal. 

The belief in a ‘ special creation’ for each type of plant and animal, 
and catastrophic disturbances in geological science are absolutely akin. 
Uniformitarianism and evolution are equally associated. It is not un- 
natural,therefore, that Lamarck adopted uniformitarian doctrines in his 
Hydro-géologie (1802) while Cuvier rejected them in his work. ‘The leaders 
of geology in this country belonged to the catastrophic school, save perhaps 
Macculloch, whom Lyell acclaims as his teacher.1® 

A summary of the geological problems of that date (1831) was the subject 
of Prof. Gregory’s address to this Section at our Centenary meeting, and 
I would now only refer you to that excellent statement for further informa- 
tion. One can see, however, the difficulty Lyell found in the mental 
atmosphere into which he launched his uniformitarian hypothesis. The 
idea was contrary to all the tenets held by scientists and the general public. 
He proved, however, a better advocate than Lamarck or Hutton ; but he 
had to fight against tremendous opposition and inertia. He succeeded by 
appealing again and again to field observations and a parallel method 
was required in dealing with fossil plants. 

Subsequent to Brongniart’s work, the study of impressions, or rather 
lssiscztions, of fossil plants was actively pursued on a stratigraphical 
basis, and the distinction between floras at different geological horizons 
became more and more evident. ‘Tabulation of results showed the general 
truth of Brongniart’s classification, and it mattered little whether the indi- 


: appeared to be working like a perfect piece of machinery, can we wonder 


evolutionary viewpoint. ‘The main object was to obtain records. Time 
and again these records were used to confute the rising tide of uniformi- 
tarian doctrines. Witham, in 1831,!? was delighted to point out that his 
_ fossil trees proved the presence of high types of plants in Lower Carboni- 


| vidual worker considered the plants as special creations or adopted an 


- ferous times ; and Hugh Miller, in 1849,18 puts the case much more 
powerfully. From a literary point of view Hugh Miller was the most 
_ powerful opponent of the ‘ progressive development ’ school of thought. 

_ He was also an indefatigable field worker, so that, while he made his 
opponents prove every step they took, it cannot be said that he was an 
opponent of research. His general attitude seems to be typical of the 


16 Proc. Geol. Soc., 1836, vol. ii, p. 359. 
17 Witham, Observations on Fossil Vegetables, 1831. 
18 Miller, Foot Prints of the Creator, 1849, p. 201 et alia. 


62 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


workers right up to the beginning of this century ; they took the view that 
evidence must be collected, and it mattered little whether they adopted 
the theory of evolution or not. 

The culmination of this work in Britain, for the time being, came with 
the publication of Lindley and Hutton’s Fossil Flora of Great Britain in 
1837; but an additional series of figures, prepared under their super- 
vision, was published in 1877 under the editorship of Prof. G. A. Lebour. 
While not ranking so high as Brongniart’s Histoire des végétaux fossiles, this 
Fossil Flora is a most important publication, and is the last large work on 
incrustations published in Britain until practically recent times. 


A New TECHNIQUE FOR STUDYING FossIL PLANTS. 


But while Artis, Martius, Sternberg and, in particular, Brongniart, and 
Lindley and Hutton were establishing the classification and description 
of incrustations of plants, a new method had been devised for the investi- 
gation of the internal structure of certain specimens, by the examination 
of thin sections made from them. I have already referred to the useless- 
ness of many of Knorr and Walch’s beautiful plates, because of the want 
of details of structure, and Hooke’s microscopical examinations had also 
borne no fruit, but when Henry Witham published his two works }* the atten- 
tion of the scientific world was attracted to the possibility and importance 
of studying the internal structure of fossil plants. The history of the 
method of making thin sections of fossil plants I have already placed before 
this Section,2® and there drew attention to the controversy that arose 
between Nicol and others, as to who originated the method. Jameson, 
writing as editor of the Edinburgh New Philosophical fournal in 1834, 
says he had long known the method, and had advocated its use to geologists. 
Nicol in the same journal claims he had used the method for fifteen years, 
and there is no doubt that Nicol introduced improvements in it ; but there 
also seems little doubt that lapidaries had used an essentially similar 
method prior to Nicol. Sprengel also had published, in 1828, a work on 
fossil plants for which he employed sections. ‘There is no doubt, how- 
ever, that it was Witham’s work that showed the importance of the method. 
(Henry Witham was one of the first members of the British Association, 
and was one of the twelve constituting the sub-committee on Geology 
and Geography at York in 1831.) * 

The advent of the new technique had more than one consequence. It 
divided the study of fossil plants into two sections, one biological and the 
other stratigraphical, but it also led indirectly to what was probably the 
greatest advance ever made in Petrology. ‘The story is too important to 
be omitted from this address, although only in a secondary sense can we 
consider it one of the influences of the study of fossil plants on geology. 


19 Observations of Fossil Vegetables, 1831. Inteynal Structure of Fossil Vege- 
tables, 1833. 

20 British Association, Oxford Meeting, 1926, Section C, p. 348. 

21 Sprengel, Commentatio de Psarolithis ligni fossilis genere, 1828. 

2a Gregory, Pres. Address, Section C, British Association, Centenary Meeting, 
London, 1931. ; 


C.—GEOLOGY 63 


During the years between 1831 and 1858 many sections of fossil plants 
_ were made, and collections formed. One of these, including Nicol’s collec- 
tion, was in the possession of Mr. Bryson, Edinburgh. Sections of 
minerals, as thin as ;45th inch, had also been prepared, but the possibilities 
of the method were not realised until Sorby published his paper On the 
microscopic structures of crystals.** In this work he says that, while on a 
visit to Edinburgh, he saw the ‘ excellent collection of “ fluid-cavities ” 
in the possession of Mr. Alexander Bryson of Edinburgh, who told me he 
had found some in the granite of Aberdeen. I immediately perceived that 
the subject could not fail to lead to valuable results when applied to 
geological enquiries.’ To pursue the subject, thin sections of rock were 
required, and from this beginning sprang the study of microscopic 

- petrology. 
A second development from the discovery of the internal structure of 
- fossil plants is the biological aspect. Witham’s pioneer work was followed 
_ by numerous monographs, and larger works like Lindley and Hutton’s 
_ Fossil Flora of Great Britain, These generally dealt with both incrusta- 
tions and petrifactions. But there were wide differences of opinion in 
regard to the correlation of parts and of relationships. Writing in 1871, 
_ Williamson says of Calamites that Lindley and Hutton had given correct 
illustrations of the relation of root and stem, ‘ and yet for years afterwards 
some of their figures re-appeared in geological text-books in an inverted 
position, the roots doing duty as leaves ; so far was even this elementary 
point from being settled.’ + Brongniart also believed that there were two 
distinct types of Calamites, the one cryptogamic, the other gymnospermous. 
Similar uncertainties existed in regard to other forms, and it was only 
after much patient research that the present position was established. 
One of the most important of results has been the differentiation of the 
great group of the Pteridosperms, and the recognition of their abundance 
‘in Upper Paleozoic times. The story is one of interaction of results 
obtained partly from incrustations and partly from petrifactions, while 
the later results, at any rate, have only been obtained by improvements in 
technique dealing with incrustations. In 1866 Binney described Lyginop- 
teris (Dadoxylon) oldhamium as a plant with gymnospermous affinities. 


_* It evidently belonged to the genus Pinites of Witham, since changed by 
Bendlicher and Brongniart into Dadoxylon.’*> Williamson redescribed 
the plant in 1873, and drew attention to its fern-like and lycopodiaceous 
characters, but not the gymnospermous features. Later, in 1887,26 he 
concluded that Lyginopteris (Lyginodendron) ‘ belongs to the group of 
ferns’ ; but, in the same paper, speaking of Lyginopteris and Heterangium, 
_he stated ‘ possibly they are the generalised ancestors of both Ferns and 
‘Cycads....’ Stur, in 1883, on negative evidence—the non-occurrence 
of sporangia on the fronds—excluded certain of the fern-like incrustations 
in Carboniferous rocks from the fern group, and referred them to cycads. 


> % Q.7.G.S., vol. xiv, p. 454 (1858). 

_ #4 Williamson on the Organisation of the Fossil Plants of the Coal Measures, 
Pt. I, No. 1, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., 1871. 

_ *% Binney, Proc. Lit. and Phil. Soc., Manchester, vol. 56. Read, 1866. 

_ *6 Williamson, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., p. 299 (1887). 


64. SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


Felix, in 1885, suggested that Lyginopteris had cycadaceous affinities, and 
Count Solms-Laubach, in 1887, recognised the existence of types, includ- 
ing Lyginopteris, intermediate between ferns and gymnosperms. William- 
son even in 1890 held that the balance was towards the ferns, ‘ most 
probably belonging to some sphenopterid type.’ In 1903 the question 
was settled definitely by Oliver and Scott *” when they showed that L. 
oldhamium bore seeds of the Lagenostoma lomaxi form. ‘The reality of an 
intermediate group of Pteridosperms was thus proved. The position 
was attained by reference to petrified specimens, and also to incrustations, 
and the search for the male fructifications has gone on, since then, with 
marked success. Many of the male and female fructifications of these 
fern-like incrustations have been found ; and new discoveries in technique 
have materially assisted in these researches. Methods devised by the 
late Prof. Nathorst, Dr. H. Hamshaw Thomas, Prof. John Walton and 
Dr. Halle have revolutionised the study of plant incrustations and mum- 
mified specimens, so that the weapons now in the hands of the researcher 
are more numerous than ever before ; and this augurs well for the future. 

The story of the Pteridospermeae might be repeated in other groups. 
At our doors, at Rhynie, there is the chert bed which has yielded to 
Kidston and Lang plants whose structures are so distinct that they must 
be included in another special intermediate group, the Pszlophytales. 
Wieland, Florin and others have shown the existence of the Bennettitalian 
type in abundance in Mesozoic times. Hamshaw Thomas has proved 
the occurrence, in the Jurassic Caytoniales, of characters that throw con- 
siderable light on the probable ancestors of the angiosperms. While 
it may be objected that these have more botanical implications than 
geological, there is the obvious reply that anything that has a bearing on 
the elucidation of past phases of life is, of its very essence, geological. 
I do not agree that a piece of geological research must necessarily produce 
a geological map of a piece of country. One of the most pleasant aspects 
of geological work is certainly that it takes one into the field ; but specialist 
work in the laboratory is no less geological because it is also biological 
or petrological or chemical. 


FossiL PLANTS AS STRATIGRAPHICAL INDEXES. 


The outcome of the stratigraphical aspect of these researches was 
that there had occurred four distinct floras in geological times, an early 
Palzozoic, a late Palaeozoic, a Mesozoic and a Tertiary flora; and that 
there were florules by means of which smaller divisions could be recog- 
nised. ‘The degree of accuracy with which these latter may be delimited 
is still, however, open to discussion. ‘There is some evidence, also, for 
an early marine flora in pre-Cambrian and very early Palzozoic time, but, 
though apparently extensive, the types are few and many are possibly only 
inorganic growths. 

As far back as Jussieu’s time (1718) a distinction between the plants : 
of the Coal Measures and the living flora had been realised, but no — 


a Proc. BOY. 900... VOl., 735 PuA7a- 


C.—GEOLOGY 65 


reasonable differentiation was given until Brongniart, in 1849, suggested 
that there were three distinct floras in geological time, and named them 
after the dominant types of plants in each, namely :— 


I. Reign of Acrogens . . (Old Red Sandstone) Carboniferous, 
Permian. 
II. Reign of Gymnosperms . ‘Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous 
(Wealden). 
III. Reign of Angiosperms or 
Flowering Plants . . Cretaceous (above Wealden) to 
present. 


We now recognise an older flora in Devonian strata, below the Upper 
Series, which has lately yielded several new and important types. The 
recent interest in this older flora was undoubtedly stirred up by Kidston 
and Lang’s monographs on the plants obtained so near to us in Aberdeen, 
namely, Muir of Rhynie or Rhynie, as it has now become known through- 
out the world. As regards actual numbers of species this older Devonian 
flora is poor, but those that are known indicate considerable diversity in 
organisation. Palaeopitys is a type that Hugh Miller °° classed with the 
higher gymnosperms, but Kidston and Lang ?® would incline rather to 
place it with the Pteridosperms. ‘The Upper Devonian genus Callixylon 
has very specialised secondary xylem, and an argument might be made, 
on that accoant, for some ancestral form, with gymnospermous affinities, 
in the lower rocks. At any rate the higher and lower pteridophytes are 
admitted, as also the Psilophytales and the alge and fungi. In other 
words, there is a fairly representative phase of vegetation ; and a phase so 
different from the succeeding phases, that it deserves to rank as a flora of 
the first order. (May I recall that it was thzs flora that Hugh Miller used 
so frequently in his geological arguments combating the ‘ development 
hypothesis ’ as the theory of Evolution was called in his day. The force 
of the argument is now gone, but it was an important feature in moulding 
geological ideas at the time.) How far down the geological scale this 
flora may extend we do not know, but it certainly carries down into the 
rocks of Lower Old Red Sandstone times. 

A yet older flora is found in the early Palzeozoic and even re-Palzeozoic 
rocks. The only relics of it consist of the algz, and the so-called alge, 
‘that abound at certain levels. The algal character of some of these has 
been seriously challenged ; even some of those now accepted as such may 
have to be relegated to other categories, but some at any rate can be 
accepted. Now these are all marine forms, so far as we know, and their 
very simplicity is a barrier to classification. Are they the lower terms, 
as it were, of several floras, or did one marine type persist through these 
prolonged ages? At present we cannot say. From a geological point 
of view they are useful as indicating a type of deposit, for plants can only 
occur in shallow water; and this affords yet another example of the 
use of plants in geological philosophy. 


28 Miller, Footprints of the Creator. 
29 Kidston and Lang, Tvans. Roy. Soc. Edin., vol. liii, p. 415. 


66 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


It is well to elaborate the fact that many of these so-called alge may 
not have been correctly classified. Massive beds of limestone of Permian 
age near Denver, U.S.A., as Prof. Johnson has shown, have a nodular 
character that simulates that of algal limestones, but no trace of algal 
tubes can be found. Even the surface limestones formed as a result of 
capillary action on the borders of deserts may also show banded and 
nodular structure very similar to algal growths, as may be seen in the 
Kalahari desert to-day. 

On the other hand, Sir Douglas Mawson ®° records recent ‘ biscuit ’ 
shapes, and nodular structure, in calcareous deposits forming on coastal 
flats, and beyond any doubt the result of the activity of blue-green algae, 
and yet no minute algz structure can be observed. 

Aside from these possibilities, algee of Cambrian, Ordovician and 
Silurian age of the Solenopora and other types have been determined ; 
and the structures in pre-Cambrian rocks are also probably true alga, 
in some cases ; so that the evidence for a pre-Devonian flora is reasonably 
good. If, and when, fossiliferous terrestrial deposits of these ages are 
discovered, we may obtain some of the higher terms in yet another floral 
series. 

But the flora that has been most thoroughly and extensively explored 
is that of Carboniferous times, and to the late Dr. Kidston of Stirling we 
owe the present accepted subdivisions ; but the work of authors in other 
lands must not be forgotten, for it has had repercussions on the position 
in this country. When I mention Grand’ Eury, Zeiller, Renault, 
P. Bertrand, Potonié, Gothan, Renier, Jongmans, Zalessky, David White, 
I only select a few among the older workers whose influence has been 
felt here. Kidston recognised six divisions in this country in his latest 
memoir.*t 


Radstockian Series 

Staffordian Series 

Westphalian Series (Yorkian Series) 
Lanarkian Series 


Upper Carboniferous Rocks 


{ Carboniferous Limestone Series 


Lower Carboniferous Rocks (Calciferous Sandstone Series. 


As one of these names (Westphalian) has long been used in a wider sense, 
Prof. Watts has suggested the use of the term Yorkian, and this has met 
with general approval. In the past few years the scheme has been 
criticised, especially by mining engineers, as the zoning possible by 
using the florules was not sufficiently close for their purpose. ‘They 
prefer to use marine bands in their work in the Coal Measures. This 
has led to a rather unjust criticism of the use of fossil plants in geological 
work. In any sequence an unusual bed will form a useful datum line, 
if it be sufficiently extensive. In a marine series an algal phase is extra- 
ordinarily important, as Prof. Garwood has shown ; *? and a marine phase 


SURO R/EG OP ANG leg liceKy, LOZ, 
31 Fossil Plants of the Carboniferous Rocks of Great Britain, 1923-25. 
32.9,].G.S., 1912 ; Geol. Mag., 1914; et alia. 


C.—GEOLOGY 67 


in an estuarine or lacustrine series would be equally valuable. It happens 
that the latter types of rock may contain coal seams, and, consequently, 
marine bands have assumed a very great importance in correlating beds 
in different areas. But a widespread ash bed would have been quite as 
useful for mapping.** For wider zoning plants have proved useful. 

But Kidston’s classification is not expected to stand as the last word, 
and already research has shown it defective. Dr. Emily Dix *4 believes 
that the base of the Staffordian Series should be lower than Kidston 
suggested ; and she finds that, with the line drawn at the lower level, 
it will more or less correspond with one of the molluscan zones—that of 
Anthrocomya phillipsi. Any classification that will bring diverse groups 
into accord is of the greatest value. Dr. Dix has made another suggestion 
that might well be examined carefully. I have stated above that it is the 
accidental character of marine horizons in a non-marine series and the 
accidental occurrence of an ash bed that give them their value in strati- 
graphy. Dr. Dix states: ‘. .. that more attention would have to be 
paid to the vertical ranges of various species of plants, and in particular 
to the occurrence of rare species, which often give a clue to a particular 
horizon, before an ideal classification could be made.’ This suggestion 
_ should be followed up, and the result might remove the odium with 
which some mining engineers regard fossil plants. 


FossiL PLANTS AS QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE INDEXES. 


Another phase of research in plant palzontology is the quantitative 
type which has been explored along two lines: (a) for correlation of strata 
in a comparatively small area with possible extension over a wider field, 
and (bd) for correlation of one and the same coal seam over large or small 
areas. In 1929 * the late Mr. David Davies published the results of many 
years’ work in an area of some 30 square miles in East Glamorganshire. 
The most distant points were 5 miles apart. He recorded the colossal 
number of nearly 400,000 fossil plants, and, as a consequence, obtained 
a very accurate idea of the quantitative balance of plants at different 
horizons (actually 29) in the Coal Measures of that district. The strata 
searched were normally the shales immediately on top of the coal seams, 
but sometimes from 2 to 14 ft. above these seams. On the whole, there- 
fore, the flora, or microflora, is that associated with the individual seams. 
‘His results show that the floras ranged from wet to dry types. In the 
former lycopods (Lepidodendron, Sigillaria, etc.) predominate, and in 
the latter ferns and pteridosperms. Calamites and Cordaites were dis- 
tributed fairly evenly throughout both types. Molluscan remains 
(Lamellibranchs) occurred abundantly in association with the lycopods, 
ie. the wet type. On the whole the dry floras were the more common, 
and so he concludes that coal, in these seams, is not so much a swampy as 
a drier boggy accumulation. I am convinced that a continuation of his 


88 Dr. Ellis has actually used an ash bed, the Frondderw Ash, in mapping the 


rocks round Bala. Q.J.G.S., vol. Ixxviii, 1922. 
% EF. Dix, ‘ Coal Measures of North Staffordshire,’ Q.].G.S., vol. Ixxxvii, 1931. 
% Phil. Tvans. Roy. Soc., vol. ccxvii, 1929. 


68 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


researches would yield interesting results in what we may call the study 
of micro-floras, but the work of collecting, naming and recording such 
great numbers of fossil plants will only attract a worker who has the 
appropriate opportunities for obtaining the information, and the patience 
of enthusiasm. 

Equal skill and patience was required for the second line of research 
indicated above. ‘The tabulation and analyses of the relative abundance 
of fossil spores, in one and the same coal seam, has been used to correlate 
beds in different parts of the Yorkshire Coal Field. A considerable 
degree of success has attended the method. Diagrams have been con- 
structed representing the spore index for different types of spores from 
top to bottom of selected seams, and, as a result, Mrs. G. E. Finn *° has 
been able to recognise individual seams of coal over distances of about 
40 miles, and independent of the flora or fauna of the associated rocks. 
The method was tested rigorously for the Arley, Better Bed and Silkstone 
seams with marked effect ; and it shows that the spore content and pro- 
portion of types of spore to one another can be relied upon for the identi- 
fication of seams in all parts of the Yorkshire Coal Field. 

Still thinking of single seams, the new technique of Hickling and 
Marshall 8? opens up another avenue for the use of plants in geology. 
They find that they can identify certain bark structures in Lepidodendron, 
Sigillaria and Bothrodendron by examining the thin layers of bright coal 
that often form the surface layer of the specimens. Having identified 
the types of bark, they go on to examine the layers of the coal itself, and 
it certainly appears that we may soon know accurately the plants that 
made the actual coal, whether the bark, wood or spores, and in what 
proportions they have occurred. 

The application of the metallographic method to polished and etched 
surfaces of coal has also yielded valuable results, as has been shown by 
Seyler.38 In these several ways the stigma of uselessness may yet be 
entirely removed from fossil plants as means of close zoning in the Coal 
Measures, and as indexes of definite conditions of accumulation of indi- 
vidual seams. The economic consequences may be equally important 
in the exploitation of special seams. 

Nor has the importance of the flora of Carboniferous age been confined 
to land and swamp plants, the marine algze have been extensively employed 
by Prof. Garwood in this country, and by other workers abroad, as 
zonal indexes. They have been employed as indicators of conditions of 
depth, and it is extraordinary the extent to which similar lagoon conditions 
had spread, for example, over the north of England and southern Scotland 
in early Carboniferous times. Sir Douglas Mawson, as already mentioned, 
has shown the wide spread of calcareous algz of the blue-green type over 
saltmarsh areas in Australia to-day *°; and this forces one to remember 
that the mere presence of algz does not necessarily imply marine lagoonal 
phases. Only when they are associated with actual marine animal forms, 


36 University of Sheffield Library, M.Sc. Thesis, 1931. 
37 Trans. Inst. Mining Engineers, vol. lxxxvi, 1933. 
38 Phil. Tvans. Roy. Soc., vol. ccxvi, 1928. 

39 Toc. cit. 


C.—GEOLOGY 69 


or belong to forms that are definitely marine, can their presence be 
regarded as satisfactory evidence of such conditions. 

There is another consideration that requires investigation, and in which 
fossil plants will assist the geologist. Huge thicknesses of strata of the 
sedimentary series must have been derived from land-areas, probably of 
fair elevation to allow the necessary gradient for streams. Were these 
lands clothed in vegetation? Examples of upland phases of plant-life 
are not always easily obtained, but, in association with volcanic action, | 
believe we have conditions that assist in preserving some record of such 
floras. During Lower Carboniferous times in Scotland, at any rate, the 
volcanic ashes enclose abundant remains of plant life; and, while we can 
say little about the actual amount of elevation of the areas concerned, the 
plants of the Pitys type, which were so common, with their short, thick, 
_ hairy phyllodes, show an adaptation to a drier environment than that 
occupied by the Lepidodendrea. ‘The proportion of wood in the axis of 
these Pitys trees also points to conditions where the individual could not 
depend as much on mechanical support from its neighbours as occurs in 
swamp growth; while the growth rings in the wood show, when they 
occur, responses to some rhythmic influence. These characters all point 
to Pitys as an upland type. The drifted plants of the ‘ roof’ nodules of 
the coal seams in England, also, probably furnish examples of an upland 
flora. 

There cannot be a shadow of doubt that the fossil plants of Carboni- 
ferous times have had, and still promise to have, important repercussions 
on our ideas of the geological conditions (including climatic conditions) 
of that age. 


PERMO-CARBONIFEROUS FLORAS. 


But while the Carboniferous flora in Europe and N. America continued 
into that of Upper Carboniferous times without any marked change of 
type, though, of course, with recognisable modifications and additions, 
there were great changes developed in other parts of the world. The 
Glossopteris flora has long been known, and its association with clearly 
marked glacial phenomena has given rise to much speculation. Beneath 
the beds bearing the Glossopteris flora are rocks containing a typical 
_ Lower Carboniferous suite of plants, i.e., when compared with beds of 
similar age in Europe and N. America. Exact correlation of the strata 
across the Tethys sea has not been effected, and, of recent years, there 
has been some tendency to draw attention to the rarer plants in the 
_ Glossopteris-Gangamopteris assemblages as illustrating connecting links 
between the flora in the southern hemisphere, or rather south of the 
Tethys, and that to the north. It has been suggested also that this flora 
must have lived in a cooler environment than that in which our Coal 
Measure plants flourished ; and that a shift of the South Pole to the 
Indian Ocean would give a distribution of the known localities, where the 
floras in question occur, such that the northern flora would occupy a more 
or less equatorial belt and the,Glossopteris flora one bordering upon polar 
regions. ‘Two considerations rather negative such an explanation: 
(a) there is no good ground for assuming that the Coal Measure flora was 


70 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


a tropical one, and (b) if the South Pole were in the Indian Ocean the North 
Pole would come out in N.W. Mexico, and no sign occurs there of Permo- 
Carboniferous glaciation. Even on the best arrangement of these locali- 
ties to suit Wegner’s hypothesis of continental drift, some evidence of 
cool conditions should be found in the rocks of that area; hot, arid 
conditions, however, are indicated rather than cold. 

The mixing of northern types in the Glossopteris floras, as shown by 
several recent papers, has some bearing upon the question of the complete 
isolation of Gondwanaland from the northern continents ; so also has the 
discovery of still other floras of Permo-Carboniferous age—the Giganto- 
pteris flora of China and Korea; the Angaraland flora of Siberia; and the 
Upper Permian flora of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. But, until 
more is known of these latter, hypothetical re-arrangements of continents 
and oceans are rather premature, though, of course, they are interesting 
exercises of ingenuity. The Gigantopteris flora 4° had an admixture of 
forms more common in the Mesozoic rocks, as also had the Angaraland 
flora. The flora of the Grand Canyon deposits,*! too, had Mesozoic 
characters. It would be interesting if the quantitative method of David 
Davies could be applied to all these floras to determine which plants 
were really abundant, and which were rarities. There is one area at least 
where this could be done, namely, at Wankie in Southern Rhodesia. 
Several of us in this room will remember the absolute preponderance of 
Glossopteris on the horizon from which we collected in the field at Wankie 
in 1929, as well as in the samples brought to us at the Mine Offices through 
the good graces of the manager. The ‘ northern forms’ were conspicu- 
ous by their rarity. It is too much, at present, to expect these intensive 
studies to be conducted in the areas in question, but such ecological 
researches will have to be attempted before we can say that these floras 
may be used as confidently for zonal, or other geological and palzogeo- 
graphical conclusions, as we can employ the Coal Measure floras of N.W. 
Europe and Eastern America. 

Generally speaking, the Paleozoic floras occupy the greater part of the 
attention of geologists, and the reason is not far to seek. If fossil plants 
are to be used at all in zonal work, they must be used in areas where there 
is a practical demand for such zoning, and where plants are abundant. 
Now we know that there are coal seams of Mesozoic and Tertiary age of 
very great extent, and of enormous potential value, but they have not 
been exploited so thoroughly as the late Paleozoic coals, and consequently 
the associated floras have not yet received the attention they merit. But 
the work of du Toit, Walkom, Halle and others is gradually making us 
better acquainted with these floras. 


Mesozoic Fioras. 


_On the other hand, many important results, from a botanical point of 
view, have been obtained from the examination of the Triassic and 
Jurassic plants ; and the Botany School, Cambridge, has been especially 


40 See Seward, Plant Life through the Ages. 41 D. White. 


C.—GEOLOGY 71 


interested in these floras, and must be congratulated for the way its workers 
have given their energies to these problems. Prof. Seward, Dr. Harris, 
Dr. H. Hamshaw Thomas, Prof. Walton and others have contributed 
noteworthy memoirs, not merely describing the plants, but discus- 
sing the geological and botanical implications of the floras they have 
studied. This has necessitated devising new methods of examination, 
and Dr. Thomas’ work in that regard is most valuable. Indeed it has 
led to recent investigations of Paleozoic fructifications, at the hands 
of Dr. Halle, that are most illuminating, and that have already been 
mentioned. 

In general terms the Mesozoic floras contain a few survivals from 
Paleozoic times, but the special development of new forms of ferns, 
_ possibly some pteridosperms, cycads, conifers and rare types that may 
be the percursors, or even the ancestors, of the flowering plants, are the 
main features of the floras. On the whole, the interest of the Mesozoic 
floras is botanical rather than geological. So far as I know, no great 
amount of zoning has ever been accomplished by using these plants. 
Yet Pia has employed algz to determine zones in the Alpian Trias. 

If the Palzozoic flora has drawn attention to world climates in the past, 
that of Mesozoic times has accentuated the position. In point of fact it 
was the discovery of Mesozoic plants in Arctic regions that drew attention 
to the problem, if not in the first instance, at any rate at an early date. 
A brief consideration is therefore not only warranted, but imperative, in 
our study this morning. 

In some areas where the Gondwanaland flora has been developed, and 
particularly in India and Australia, there seems to be a gradual change from 
the late Paleozoic Glossopteris-Gangamopteris flora into that of Mesozoic 
times and terminating in the Thinnfeldia flora. In Europe the plant 
series in similar rocks is scanty, and in America enormous numbers of 
coniferous trees, that are represented in the petrified forests of Arizona 
and Utah, are derived from one horizon—the Chinle formation of Middle 
Triassic age. In these special areas in India and Australia there are 
apparent links with the upper Palzozoic vegetation, but our knowledge 

seems like ignorance, in contrast with what has been discovered in the 
Coal Measure flora. Much more work is necessary. 

It is the Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous flora, however, that has attracted 
most attention in botanical circles; for it is a phase that was suddenly 
replaced by one closely similar to that of the present time, and yet one 
that was itself quite distinctive. Perhaps the most striking character 
is the number and variety of plants of the cycad class. But it was a 
complete plant phase, with all the main groups represented, and even the 
flowering plants are heralded in the Caytoniales of the Yorkshire deposits. 

The Rheetic flora has been brought to our notice recently by the wonder- 
ful suite of plants of this age from Greenland. The flora in general shows 
a considerable development of ferns of the Osmunda type, numerous 
cycads and other gymnosperms, among which the Ginkgoales (Ginkgoites, 
Baiera, etc.) are specially prominent, and the genus Sagenopteris, which 
Dr. Thomas has shown probably bore fruits that are a first approximation 
to those of the flowering plants. In the later Jurassic rocks distinctions 


72 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


like those that could be detected in different areas among the older suites 
of plants, cannot be seen—the associations from widely separated places 
are very similar ; and there is decidedly less difficulty in assigning speci- 
mens to their -proper botanical group. Plants of doubtful affinities are 
fewer. Thus lines of evolution can be traced, as, for example, in the 
Osmundacez and the Bennettitales. The last group has been of special 
interest, and the works of Dr. Wieland, Prof. Seward, Dr. Marie Stopes 
and Dr. H. H. Thomas have illustrated the wonderful variety of form 
included init. Indeed it might be called the distinctive group of Mesozoic 
times, though the Ginkgoales also constitute another very prominent 
group. 

The physical conditions under which some forms lived can sometimes 
be detected. The swamp flora can be seen in association with coals 
like the Brora coal, Eguisetites is a common type; the estuarine series in 
Yorkshire yield a flora that has drifted probably from lowland regions ; 
and the conifers and cycads illustrate plants from a rather drier, and 
possibly upland, environment. In this connexion the Portland and 
Purbeck beds are specially interesting to the geologist. Drifted stems 
of cycads, and logs of coniferous wood, are not uncommon in the Portland 
quarries ; but the curious rings of tufa deposited round erect stems, as 
seen at Lulworth, probably point to lagoonal conditions of slow subsi- 
dence and gentle laving of the stumps by waters rich in calcareous material. 
An explanation of the well-known breccia beds of that last-mentioned 
locality, as due to deposition over thick accumulations of plants that 
subsequently rotted and caused the over-lying strata to be broken up, need 
not detain us, except to express our doubt of the suggested solution. The 
water of these lagoons was frequently evaporated to dryness, as the 
conspicuous rock salt and gypsum pseudomorphs attest. ‘This is merely 
a local point of interest, but several of us here visited the area during the 
British Association meeting at Southampton, and it recalls to me pleasant 
memories of our discussion of the Jurassic flora on the spot. 


THE LOWER CRETACEOUS FLORA. 


The plants of the upper Jurassic beds are generally similar to those that 
occur in the beds of Lower Cretaceous age, but a transition into the 
Tertiary flora is evident in the latter almost from the start. Heer com- 
pares the Greenland beds of the Kome series with the Wealden series, 
the Atane series with the Cenomanian succession. The latter view has 
been favourably accepted, the former not; but, taking the Cretaceous 
flora in Greenland as a whole, Seward * regards it as representing more 
fully than elsewhere the transition between the Mesozoic and Tertiary 
floras. As a rule the comparison of late Cretaceous and Tertiary floras 
with living plants shows differences of geographical distribution and 
conditions, rather than essential differences in types. Dr. Stopes also 
has shown that the angiospermous woods from the Lower Greensand 
Series “ did not exhibit any primitive characters, nor any relationships 
with gymnospermous (cf. Bennettitales). They were ‘ like quite highly 


#2 Phil. Tvans. Roy, Soc., vol. B., p. 215 (1926). 
48 Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., vol. B, p. 203 (1912). 


C.—GEOLOGY 713 


placed Angiosperms in all their details.’ Thus the Upper Cretaceous- 
Tertiary flora must have been preceded by one in which highly developed 
angiosperms were not uncommon, and the suddenness of the institution 
of the later flora must have been due to some factor that allowed the 
angiosperms scope, and inhibited the other elements in the Lower Cre- 
taceous flora. What the factor was we do not know, but the suggestion 
that it was the ‘Cenomanian transgression ’ is one of great value. Berry 44 
thinks it ‘ futile to speculate about the problem at the present time,’ and 
advocates a more intense study of Mesozoic floras, especially in the 
tropics, and the upland rather then the swamp flora. There is much in 
this criticism, and I would further add that the volcanic ashes of these 
days should be searched for traces of this upland flora. 

Nevertheless the suggestion that the ‘ Cenomanian transgression ’ was 
responsible for the alteration of conditions that gave the angiosperms the 
* boost ’ which initiated their present dominance is, I think, valuable and 
worth exploring. It happens to coincide with an idea I have held since 
I first stood on the edge of the Colorado River, at the bottom of the canyon, 
and looked at the sand and mud that was being swept along. One of my 
difficulties, at the time, was to understand the conditions of deposit of the 
Greensand, Gault and Chalk formations in England. Prof. E. B. Bailey *® 
had just published his suggestion of the Chalk being produced off a desert 
coast, and the desert conditions persisting after the beginning of Tertiary 
times. I found it difficult to reconcile the abundant plant remains of the 
upper beds of the Lower Greensand, and even of the Gault itself, with 
desert shores. But the geography of the Colorado River seemed to 
explain the situation. The river passed through areas of barren, desert 
country, and areas with abundant vegetation, carrying sand from the 
one, plants from the other, down to its estuary. Such a stream might 
be expected to produce a kind of deposit like the Greensand with smooth- 
grained, current-bedded sands, and abundant plant remains. A depres- 
sion of the drainage area up to the desert zone would widen its estuary, 
prevent sand from being swept into the areas once reached, and permit 
the accumulation of only fine clays or only pelagic deposits in these areas. 
The succession of plant-bearing, current-bedded sandstones would be 
followed by clays and calcareous oozes comparable with the succession 
of the Upper Cretaceous rocks in S.E. England ; and the shores might 
be deserts during the production of the calcareous oozes, and so permit 
the latter to accumulate close in-shore. After elevation, the desert 
conditions might still persist. 

But suppose the land prior to depression was clothed, in its non-desert 
track, with a vegetation consisting of an older flora holding i in check, by 
competitive power, a younger race; or, to put it into actual fact, a Mesozoic 
flora, similar to that found elsewhere without angiospermous associations, 
but here competing successfully or, at any rate, holding a balance with 
its angiospermous units. 

The depression of such a land would cause the flora to migrate, and 


4 “Revision of the Lower Eocene Wilcox Flora,’ U.S.G.S. Prof. Paper 156, 
1930, p. II. 
45 Geol. Mag., 1924, p. 102. 


74 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


the accession of water to the desert region would permit of some increase 
in rainfall over the area. The land would therefore be ready for plant 
colonisation, but each element of the flora would have more or less an 
equal chance, and the more vigorous race would prove successful. It is 
in some such way I picture the conditions to the north and west of Britain 
—in Greenland if you will—during late Cretaceous and early Tertiary 
times. 

To an extent this will also account for Greenland as one distributing 
centre for the angiosperms at a later date ; and, in addition, the depression 
would encourage the chance of ocean currents from the south rendering 
the climate rather warmer during the later stages than during the earlier. 
In fact it would explain the climatic conditions in England up to the time 
of the London Clay deposits. 


THe TERTIARY FLORAS. 


While there is some admixture of the Tertiary and the older Mesozoic 
flora to be observed in one or two localities, on the whole the change 
comes with dramatic suddenness. So sudden, indeed, that attempts at 
possible explanations appear futile, for there is no evidence of any com- 
parable change in inorganic nature. Examination of the sediments 
deposited before and after those of the zone in which the change is ob- 
served do not indicate any cause for the phenomenon, nor can the corre- 
sponding igneous rocks, if available, give us any clue. But, and this, so 
far as we are concerned, is the most important feature of all, the whole 
basis of classification of the fossil plants is also changed. ‘This point is 
simply not appreciated by the average geologist, and, for that matter, it 
seems to have been tacitly ignored by the palzobotanist. What would 
we say to the mineralogist who classified minerals by their colour? It 
could be done; it has been done. ‘That was the basis of Werner’s classifi- 
cation, and we find men like Jameson defending it. Now there is no 
doubt that such a method would, now and again, be accurate—azurite, 
malachite, etc., have distinctive colours—but what faith would we have 
to-day in mineralogical conclusions based on such a scheme ? 

The classification of flowering plants is based on floral characters and 
fructifications—this is the result of the combined experience of botanists— 
and these characters depend on delicate structures produced at a particular 
season of the year, generally totally different from the vegetative parts of 
the parent plant, and developing in a very few days into a fruit that is also 
totally distinct from the other members of the plant that bears it. While 
the two end stages—the vegetative body and the seed—may be fairly 
persistent over a period of months, the flower may last only a few hours. 
Yet the floral characters are the basis of botanical classification. The 
chances of preservation of such delicate structures are very few (though 
they occasionally are found, as in the fine ashes of the Miocene Lake, 
Florissant, Colo.), and the chances of correlation with their parent plants 
are still fewer. With what are we left? The vegetative structures, 
definitely rejected by the botanist as bases of classification of flowering 
plants! We cannot get away from this position, that, as a matter of 
observation, the vegetative parts of flowering plants are not safe criteria 


C.—GEOLOGY 75 


for classification. Here and there a plant may have characteristic vegeta- 
tive features, just as minerals may have characteristic colours, but taken 
by and large, the basis is as defective as classifying minerals by their 
colouralone. Modern methods for the determination of cuticular structure 
certainly improve matters as regards leaves and very young shoot tips, but 
they also are deficient, despite the work of many observers. I hope I 
may not be mistaken—I have said flowering plants. The case for 
gymnosperms is rather better; we may place some confidence in their 
determination by vegetative characters, but not flowering plants. For 
this reason we have more confidence in the determination of members of 
the older floras by vegetative characters, though caution is also necessary 
in these cases. 

Unfortunately the very abundance of flowering plants, and their 
absolute preponderance numerically over other types, in the Tertiary 
floras from the very beginning is a hindrance, not a help, to their use in 
geological work. ‘The determination and naming of the specimens is 
not easy, and the protest made by Mrs. Reid and Miss Chandler in their 
recent memoir * is timely in this respect, for workers are far too prone to 
give the name of a living genus to a specimen, and leave one to read down 
the description before one sees that their determination has been made 
on a few scraps that were hardly recognisable. Berry long ago protested 
against the nomina nuda in tertiary floral lists; Reid and Chandler’s 
protest against the use of definite names for indefinite specimens is no 
less deserved ; and Sahni’s statement?’ regarding the Mesozoic flora that 
“it is satisfactory to note that the hostile ranks of the species incerte@ sedis 
have suffered heavy losses’ cannot be taken as a matter of congratulation 
when applied to some lists of Tertiary floras. 

If workers refrain from giving the name of living types to fossils that 
merely look like them, and designate such with some name less committal, 
their floral lists would command more respect, and fewer unsafe deduc- 
tions would result, to the great benefit of geology and of our colleagues 
in other sciences who are coming more and more into the field of geological 
philosophy as we draw nearer to recent times. I refer particularly to the 
geographers, meteorologists, and archzologists. 

Yet there are certain generalisations that may be accepted. (1) The 
earlier Tertiary floras contain angiosperms almost exclusively of arbores- 
cent type—a feature of tropical and sub-tropical vegetation to-day. 
(2) The circum-polar spread, in early Tertiary times, of so many forms 
now living in tropical and sub-tropical lands indicates that these types were 
developed in the colder regions and migrated southwards, and not the 
reverse. (3) There is evidence that some rise in temperature in the 
north temperature zone in N.W. Europe and N.E. America took place 
about middle Eocene times, and that from that ‘ peak’ there has been 
a progressive lowering of temperature, with oscillations during the recent 
Ice Ages. (4) The Tertiary floras of the Northern and Southern hemi- 
sphere are not quite comparable for, while there appear to be considerable 
Variations in the northern hemisphere, there is a greater uniformity in 


46 The London Clay Flora, p. 46 (1933). 
47 Pyoc. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, Presidential Address, 1922. 


76 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


the southern hemisphere. How far this is the result of inadequate 
collections or inaccurate determinations is difficult to ascertain. 


Fossit PLANTS AND SPECIAL ROCK-TYPES. 


It is not my purpose to discuss the origin of coal, oil-shale, ironstone, 
limestone, etc., that are the result of the accumulation of plant debris or a 
consequence of the activity of plant life in the past, but a recent publi- 
cation by Murray Stuart makes such a direct correlation of definite fossil 
types with oil formation in Burma that some comment is merited. ‘The 
fossil wood first described by La Hire in 1692 consists chiefly of pieces of 
Dipterocarpus stems, and the living D. turbinatus is the source of the 
Garjan oil of commerce, a single tree yielding, on occasion, 40 gallons of 
oil per annum.*® Murray Stuart *® suggests that the petrifaction of the 
trees now found in the Irrawaddi Series released the oil now accumulated 
in the underlying Pegu Series. The theory of the origin of oil from 
vegetable material is no new one, but such a direct relationship has never 
before, I think, been suggested, nor can it be accepted without further 
investigation. 

FossiL PLANTS AND CLIMATE. 


On account of the clearly marked zonal distribution of plants to-day, 
it has long been held that they should be good indexes of climatic zones 
in past time. The position in this regard is not so definite as was formerly 
maintained, when the continents and oceans were held to be fairly perma- 
nent in position, though not necessarily in size or shape. Migrations of 
plants were considered to be effected slowly and in consonance with 
climatic changes. ‘This was especially so in relation to the Tertiary 
flora and to the Ice Age. But the discovery of many floras in Arctic and 
Antarctic areas, and several Ice Ages, has compelled re-consideration of 
the whole position. The other discovery, that oceans and continents 
had probably not occupied the same relative position with respect to the 
poles as they do to-day, further complicated matters. 

In a recent discussion at the Royal Society °° Prof. Seward put the case 
from the botanical point of view and stated that plants have been over- 
estimated as indexes of climate. As regards the older floras, he stated that 
the plants were of little value, because they were extinct. One of the 
arguments that used to be advanced for a tropical climate during the 
accumulation of the Coal Measures in England was the large size of some 
of the specimens. Last autumn I had the opportunity, through the good 
offices of Prof. Fearnsides, to examine and photograph probably the 
largest Carboniferous plants ever seen. They were casts of the stems 
of members of the Lycopodiales, and their stools ranged up to 6 ft. 3 in. 
in diameter, or 20 ft. in circumference. Slightly smaller specimens in 
the same vicinity had been described by Sorby © and are still protected by 


wooden huts erected round them. Now members of this relatively lowly — 


plant group reaching the enormous size of forest trees must, according 


48 Watt, Dictionary of Economic Products of India, vol. iii., p. 164. 

49 Inst. Pet. Tech., 1925, p. 296: Geology of Oil, etc., 1926. 

50 “ Discussion on Geological Climates,’ Pyoc. Roy. Soc., ser. B, vol. 106, 1930. 
BONE Gr: Sol O7ls 


C.—GEOLOGY 77 


to the ideas of the time, have grown under tropical conditions. There 
is no a priori reason, however, why this should be the case. Luxuriant 
growth is not a feature exclusively tropical, it is more a question of water 
supply at the proper time. Still less can we accept the contention when 
we find that the luxuriant Glossopteris flora, co-existing with the northern 
one, was associated with glacial conditions ; the glaciers, in places, coming 


_ down to sea level. ‘Tropical conditions in the northern hemisphere at 


7s 


the same time as glacial conditions in the southern, simply could not be 


brought into unison. The explanation by Wegener’s hypothesis of 
continental drift is an easy way out of the impasse ; but this is only one 


case among several, and even Wegener would hardly have accepted the 


wanderings of his continents that would be required to explain all the 


known occurrences. 

Again, the presence of plants, whose living relations inhabit tropical 
lands, in the early Mesozoic rocks in Greenland is no proof of tropical con- 
ditions in Greenland at that time, for a genus of plants may have some 
species capable of enduring more rigorous conditions than others, and, 
moreover, there may be a progressive decline in the power of certain 
genera to withstand any but tropical conditions as time goes on. Prof. 
Seward further pointed out that the present diversity in floras is largely 
due to the great preponderance of flowering plants, and that the apparent 
uniformity in past floras was therefore illusionary. 

Then we must never forget that fossil plants are almost always ‘ form’ 
genera and ‘ form’ species, and that, even within a single genus to-day, 
we may have some species confined to tropical regions and others that 
tolerate a colder climate. Consequently, a specimen that cannot be 
accurately proved as identical with a living species may be little or no 


‘use as a climatic index. 


Of course when specimen after specimen points in one and the same 
direction, so far as probable climatic characters are concerned, then we 
cannot disregard that indication, and when such indications can be 
confirmed by collateral phenomena, such as an apparent sub-tropical 
flora and entire lack of tundra features in a region now in the tundra belt, 
the conclusion is inevitable that climatic change has taken place. 

Taking everything we know into consideration, the general consensus 
of opinion is that plants do afford an index of climatic changes, and that 
these changes have been very considerable in past times. 

Can we explain those changes, and can we obtain an explanation that 
will not conflict with other evidence ? 

In the past few years interest in the problem has been awakened by 
Wegener’s theory of continental drift, or, perhaps better, the modification 
of Wegener’s hypothesis suggested by the late Prof. Joly of Dublin. Yet 
it must be remembered that Lyell and Darwin © were considering the 
problem seventy years ago, so that it is no new geological puzzle. 


52 Lyell’s Letters. Letter to Darwin, March 10, 1866. ‘I have been doing my 
best to do justice to the astronomical causes of former changes of climate, as I 
know you will see in my new edition [Principles of Geology], but I am more 
than ever convinced that the geographical changes are, as I always maintained, 
the principal and not the subsidiary ones.’ 


78 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


The most valuable contributions towards a solution are coming at 
present from the meteorologists, and Dr. Simpson and Dr. Brooks have 
each made important suggestions. ‘There is, as Dr. Simpson says, ‘ no 
formulated meteorological opinion,’ but he has personally come to a 
certain conclusion.5*? ‘Throughout geological time, he continues, there 
must have been climatic zones. The climate in a zone depends on two 
factors—the intensity of solar radiation, and the distribution of land 
and water. A study of the present climatic zones shows that the mean 
temperature in it is not affected by the distribution of land and water, 
though locally a range of 5° C. from the mean of the zone may occur. 
It is the annual range of temperature that is chiefly affected by the distri- 
bution of land and water. On these grounds he concludes that ‘ no 
change in the distribution of land and sea alone could have produced the 
large changes in climate shown in the geological record.’ 

Increases in solar radiation will cause (a) a greater temperature gradient 
from pole to equator, (b) an increase in the general circulation of the 
atmosphere, (c) increase in cloud and rainfall, (d) an increase in the 
mean temperature of all zones. Again he concludes that there is no 
evidence of sufficiently large changes in solar radiation to account for the 
facts of geological climates. Consequently, only a theory of continental 
drift will suffice. 

Dr. Brooks thinks that Simpson has under-estimated the effects of 
ocean currents. He attacks the problem from another point of view, 
namely, the question of Ice Ages. He shows that once an ice cap com- 
mences, it spreads rapidly, for its cooling effect increases with its area ; 
but a critical point occurs beyond which the effect is not proportional to 
the area, and consequently the ice cap finally terminates. He concludes 
then that the conditions that determine the temperature of Arctic and 
Antarctic areas is not the distribution of land and water, but the distribu- 
tion if there were no ice. ‘The most favourable distribution of land and 
water for high polar temperatures is a series of long narrow islands ex- 
tending meridionally from high to low latitudes, and separated by wide 
deep seas. The worst distribution would be lands stretching parallel 
to the lines of latitude. There are, in his opinion, only two possible 
polar climates, a mild type and a glacial type. Since the lands have 
mostly stretched from high to low latitudes, the mild type is normal and 
glacial periods exceptional. 

Wilhelm Ramsay, of Helsingfors, in 192454 advocated an increase in 
relief to explain glaciations, as others had done in former years. Orogenic 
movements, he claims, have preceded the chief periods of glaciations. 
The Caledonian, Hercynian, and Alpine periods of orogenic disturbance 
have each resulted in glaciations in the succeeding epochs. Mountain 
chains increase radiation because the layer of air above them is thinner, 
consequently there are colder conditions developed, and snow may 
accumulate, causing a still further reduction of temperature. Again, 
the greater amount of snow involves a removal of water from the ocean, 
and the lowering of level may amount to as much as 130 metres if we 


53 * Discussion on Geological Climates,’ Proc. Roy. Soc., 1930. 
54 Geol. Mag., 1924. 


C.—GEOLOGY 79 


accept 1,000 metres as the thickness of the ice sheet—a figure not incom- 
patible with known observations of former ice sheets. Ocean currents 
would be checked, and still further increase of the ice cap would result. 
Depression of the lands, however, would have the reverse effect. Beyond 
any doubt, periods of mountain building and of marine incursions have 
occurred, but Ramsay admits that there are difficulties that he cannot 
fully explain. His theory is, however, only a development of that put 
forward by Lyell in his letter to Darwin, and later published in his 
Principles of Geology. 

Now all these theories abound in conditional phrases, and the geologist 
hardly knows what to accept. Personally I favour Brooks’ theory, for it 
demands far less disturbance of the conditions we are inclined to consider 
normal. ‘The earth so far as we can see has always been solid and rotating 
at an enormous rate—a gyroscope, in fact. If we are to assume wholesale 
melting of the sub-surface rocks, then the speed of rotation would soon 
play havoc with the crust. It would no longer be a case of continental 
‘drift,’ there would be a continental ‘surge.’ I cannot accept such whole- 
sale continuous movements of continents as Wegener envisages, but I do 
accept something along the lines of Joly’s periodic local softening of the 
sub-stratum, differential foundering of the continental blocks, even slow 
separation of the continents, and a rotation of the blocks round parts 
where softening had not taken place. In consequence, the continents 
are not aggregated round the equator, where they ought to be on Wegener’s 
hypothesis, and there has not been any serious slip of the skin on 
the core—Wegener’s definition of shifting of the poles—at any one time. 
The Atlantic I consider a young ocean, but, like Tate Regan,** believe that 
it was a wide ocean by Eocene times. In fine that the so-called tremen- 
dous earth storms are really very local. It is true that the ‘ Alpine’ storm 
of Miocene date looms very large in north-west and central Europe, but 
look on a globe at the area involved and see how small it is relatively—a 
mere trifle as compared with the opening up of the Atlantic ocean. I 
feel that our maps have much to do with our defective appreciation of 
world conditions. Mercator has a deal to answer for, as a result of his 
“ projection,’ and until we get back to studying a globe, instead of a 
sheet of paper, our ideas will remain distorted, especially when the areas 
involved are in the temperate and northern regions—precisely those 
regions where geological research is most abundant to-day. 

Now how are we going to test these several hypotheses? One of the 
neatest possible tests has been applied by Mrs. Reid and Miss Chandler 
in their work on the London Clay Plants.5* This flora has puzzled people 
since Parsons’ work in 1757. (We may say that the presence of Nipa 
at Sheppey and Artocarpus in Greenland are two of the most difficult 
palzobotanical facts to arrange in their proper setting.) 

These ladies set out, first of all, by establishing the principle that 
with flowering plants, at any rate, and confining their attention to living 
forms, the great bulk (70 per cent. at least) showed little power of adapta- 
bility to different climatic zones—they are tropical or extra-tropical as 


55 ‘Discussion on Geological Climates,’ Pyoc. Roy. Soc., 1930. 
58 London Clay Flora, British Museum, 1933. 


80 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


the case may be. The remainder show extraordinary little power of 
adaptability—a species here and there may do so, but not the bulk. ‘They 
quote H. H. Thomas *? ‘that there seems to be no indication in the geo- 
logical record of any gradual acclimatisation of the plants which existed 
in Eocene times in Europe as the Great Ice Age approached, and the 
climates became colder, and, presumably, also drier.’ As regards the 
flora they were studying—the London Clay flora—not a single genus 
that lived in Britain survived into Upper Pliocene times. They therefore 
conclude that the bulk character of a Tertiary flora does determine its 
climatic character, and that that of the London Clay zs sub-tropical. The 
presence of Nipa—the most northerly record so far—gives them a tempera- 
ture figure, and they ask both Simpson and Brooks whether they can 
supply such conditions in Britain. The temperature is that of a wet 
tropical forest—a lower figure than the normal tropical type—a mean 
annual temperature of 70° F. 

Simpson could only supply it by the aid of some measure of continental 
drift which Mrs. Reid and Miss Chandler could not accept. Brooks 
could only give that temperature with the aid of Simpson’s hypothesis 
of increased solar radiation, and increase of cloud and precipitation. But 
the plant evidence could be explained by Brooks’ hypothesis ; or, expressed 
otherwise, accepting plants as good indexes of climatic zones, an appro- 
priate zone temperature could be established in Britain during London 
Clay times by the application of a theory devised to explain glacial and 
non-glacial epochs. If further tests, from the distribution of other plants, 
were applied we might obtain sufficient information to determine which 
theory is the most satisfactory. Brooks’ hypothesis appeals to me because 
it does not demand increases in solar radiation over long periods. But 
increases for short periods I think are necessary to explain climatic 
rhythms that are known, and that can be traced back in the history of 
certain trees. I do not regard Brooks’ and Simpson’s theories as 
mutually exclusive, but as mutually complementary. 


FossiL PLANTS AND CLIMATIC RHYTHM. 


Recent researches in archeology in Africa and America, and also 
former discoveries in other parts of the world, have drawn attention to 
minor fluctuations in climatic character similar to those periodic cycles 
that meteorologists had also discovered from quite other considerations. 
Historical records, so far as they go, can be checked up; but these are 
of short duration from a geological standpoint. In regions of the world 
where trees had not been destroyed, either by man or other agencies, 
certain examples have reached a great age—several thousands of years ; 
and, if plants are good indexes of former conditions, here, if anywhere, is 
an opportunity to obtain a cross check on historical information, and a 
possible extension into pre-historic times. The work of Antevs®§ and 
A. E. Douglas®® on annual rings and their variation according to climatic 


57 “ Discussion on Geological Climates,’ Proc. Roy. Soc., 1930. 

58 Amer. Jour. Sc., vol. ix, p. 296 et seg. (1925). 

°° Carnegie Inst., Washington, vol. xi, no. 289 (1928). Brit. Assoc. Report, 
Bristol, p. 371 (1930). 


C.—GEOLOGY 81 


changes, or accidents (forest fires, etc.), is most illuminating. Now 
palzontologists had noted the possibility long ago, Witham, Lindley and 
Hutton and the earlier writers on the internal structure of fossil plants 
had noted, and discussed the implications of, the fact that in Palaeozoic 
times certain specimens of one and the same species might have rings 
in the wood, while others might not. Unger in 1847 noted that Mesozoic 
woods (Lower Triassic) had poorly developed rings, and therefore 
concluded that the equable climate of Palzozoic times was becoming 
periodic; but later workers, Arnold, for example, have proved that in 
Callixylon from Upper Devonian rocks, rings were quite well developed, 
and consequently the climate of Paleozoic times was not equable. 

Botanical research shows that one and the same species may or may not 
have rings, depending on the conditions in which the specimens were 
growing. ‘This, in some cases, depended on whether the plants were 
growing in warm or cold places, but, in others, on whether the climate 
was equable or not, and quite irrespective of any particular climatic zone. 
The reaction was to environment, but not necessarily to seasonal changes. 
In other words, the rings are difficult to interpret. But some plants are 
specially sensitive to these changes, and plants in temporate regions— 
or at the higher elevation in tropical lands—nearly all have these rings. 
Conifers have the most distinct rings, in general, and even Araucaria, 
where they are not so marked, produces rings under varying conditions 
of nutrition. Now conifers have a long geological range, and so might 
possibly indicate seasonal rhythm in past times ; or even indicate, by breaks 
in the rhythm, some exceptional occurrences that might be rhythmical or 
not. Antevs °° after recalling all the difficulties and the need for caution, 
has stated, ‘We can say with certainty that the occurrence of very marked 
zones in Jurassic woods from Spitzbergen, and the lack of rings in Jurassic 
woods from British East Africa, indicates marked climatic zones and 
pronounced annual periodicity in Jurassic time.’ Douglas made a very 
careful study of the ‘ Big Trees’ in the Sierra Nevada and other areas in 
America, and concludes that any ‘index’ tree must be very carefully 
selected, and the results checked not merely in the immediate vicinity, 
but consistent records must occur further afield. He found that the 
best index tree is the Yellow Pine, and the next best the Scotch Pine. 
Sequoia gigantea, while more complacent to changes than the others, is 
longer lived, and the records from these trees may go back to 1,000 B.c. 
with consistent results over a considerable area. 

While geologists will not benefit much from these researches directly, 
yet meteorologists and archzologists will, and a cross check on de Geer’s 
results from Varve counts in Scandinavia, or similar results in America, 
may yet be effected. ‘The age of ancient ruins at Gobernador Canyon, 
Aztec, and Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon, Aztec, New Mexico, have 
been ascertained by examination of the ring record of logs which still 
retained their bark, and which had been used in building these dwellings. 
This was done by reference to large trees in the area, and a count back 
until the ring record of the log and that of the ‘ index’ tree coincided. 


80 Amer. Jour. Sc., vol. ix, p. 300 (1925). 


82 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


Douglas has also proved rainfall records at Flagstaff, Arizona, at eleven 
year periods for 600 years, and this checks up with the known solar record. 

Though we cannot entertain extravagant hopes that this mode of 
research will help geologists, we may learn something of periodic occur- 
rences in the past. It is true that at present single trees are little use, but 
methods may yet be found for using the records of such single trees. 
The largest fossil tree I know, and I think it is the largest yet discovered, 
is a stump said to be of the Sequoza type and of Miocene age at Henderson’s 
Ranch, near Florissant, Colorado. It is 17} ft. in diameter, and 1o ft. 
high, quite comparable in girth, therefore, with the Big Trees of to-day. 
A record of its rings should be made, as also of those of at least a dozen 
other stumps in that area. Then again the ‘ petrified forests’ of Arizona, 
Egypt, Burma, and elsewhere should also be recorded. The game 
might not be worth the candle, but it might add yet another minor link 
to the chain of ideas with which fossil plants have affected the philosophy 
of geology. 


a 


ae 


SECTION D.—ZOOLOGY. 


THE STUDY OF BEHAVIOUR 


ADDRESS BY 
E. S. RUSSELL, O.B.E., D.Sc., 
PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 


In his Presidential Address to this Section last year, Dr. James Gray put 
forward the view, with which I entirely agree, that the organism has 
properties and potentialities as a whole which are not reducible to the 
properties shown at the chemical level. He maintained that ‘ the con- 
ception of the organism as a single living entity is or should be the more 
peculiar attribute of experimental biology.’ We should study not only 
the action of the parts in isolation, as does the physiologist, but also and 
more particularly the activity of the animal as a whole. ‘Thus we should 
not rest content with a knowledge of the mechanism of muscular con- 
traction or of the propagation of the nervous impulse ; we must study 
also and before all the action of the neuro-muscular system as a whole, 
as, for example, in locomotion—and, I would add, in behaviour generally. 

I propose to continue the discussion so ably begun by Dr. Gray, and 
to deal particularly with that whole-activity of the organism which we call 
its behaviour. 

The study of animal behaviour has been somewhat neglected in this 
country, and this is all the more regrettable since first-rate pioneer work 
has been done by Prof. C. Lloyd Morgan and the late Prof. L.'T. Hobhouse. 
Furthermore, it has been largely divorced from the general study of 
zoology, and handed over to the physiologist and the psychologist, 
neither of whom is, as a rule, sufficient of a naturalist to appreciate the 
full biological significance of the behaviour observed in the laboratory. 
It is of course obvious that an animal’s behaviour is one of the most 
important things about it, and if the zoologist wishes to understand how 
his animal lives, maintains itself, and carries on the race, the first thing 
he should study is its behaviour in the field. It is also clear that a 
thorough knowledge of the bionomics or ecology of the animal is quite 
essential for the interpretation of its behaviour in the experimental 
conditions of the laboratory. 

We are meeting to-day in a zoological department which has always 
recognised the fundamental importance of the study of behaviour and 


84 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


ecology. Its head is Professor of Natural History, and both the present 
occupant and his predecessor, the late Sir John Arthur Thomson—to 
whom I personally owe so much—have made great contributions to the 
study of that subject which Prof. W. M. Wheeler has so aptly called ‘ the 
perennial root-stock or stolon of biological science.’ 

Interest in natural history is—fortunately—still widespread among 
zoologists, both professional and amateur, and one of the most significant 
developments of recent years has been the vigorous growth of the 
Oxford school of animal ecologists, under the leadership of Mr. Charles 
Elton. 

But while excellent work in the field of scientific natural history is 
being done by the animal ecologist, the economic entomologist, the 
fishery worker and also by the amateur naturalist, they have not as a rule 
taken what one might call a professional interest in the problems of 
animal behaviour, though they have accumulated a great store of observa- 
tions which are df the highest value to the professional student. 

Generally speaking, as things are at present, the study of animal 
behaviour as a science has not in this country taken its rightful place as 
an essential part of zoology, either in research or in teaching; the 
tendency has been to treat it either as a branch of physiology or as an 
adjunct to psychology, and in both cases to turn it into a laboratory 
subject. 

When we inquire into the reasons for this unsatisfactory state of affairs, 
we find, I think, that one of the main causes is the influence upon biology 
of a certain metaphysical theory which we inherit from the seventeenth 
century. We owe to the great thinkers of that age, and particularly to 
Descartes, a particular view about the nature of reality which has become 
firmly rooted in our thought and is apt to bias our methods of research. 
I refer of course to the classical doctrine of materialism, with its absolute 
separation of matter and mind. 

How did this doctrine arise? We do not find it in Aristotle. The 
dualism of matter and mind was foreign to his thought. A primitive 
form of materialism had been propounded by the Ionians, and Anaxagoras 
had added to their cosmology the conception of a universal reason or 
‘Nous.’ But Aristotle accepted neither view. He worked out a system 
of his own, which is now somewhat difficult for us to grasp, for we have 
lost that freshness and directness of approach to the great problems 
which were his. We know that he spoke of the nutritive, the sensitive 
and the rational ‘ souls,’ which formed a hierarchy of functions, but, with 
the possible exception of the rational soul, he did not think of these as 
separate from the body. His view was not vitalistic in the modern 
sense ; it did not imply a dualism of matter and entelechy ; for Aristotle, 
“soul ’ was an expression for the total functional activity of the organic 
unit, for its activity as a whole. ; 

We do not find the clear-cut dualism of matter as extended substance 
and mind as inextended thought fully expressed until we come to 
Descartes many centuries later. 

Descartes stands on the threshold of the modern world. No man can 


———E———— Sw 


D.—ZOOLOGY 85 


be independent of his epoch, and Descartes was in some respects a direct 
heir of the Middle Ages ; he shared their preoccupation with reason and 
the soul of man. He was primarily a mathematician and a theologian ; 
he had unlimited faith in the power of the human intellect; he was 
concerned to demonstrate the existence of God, and to uphold the belief 
that man’s soul is immortal, that he is not as the beasts that perish. At 
the same time, he was profoundly influenced by the physical and cosmo- 
logical conceptions introduced by Copernicus and Galileo, and grasped 
their enormous significance. He was acquainted with the work of his 
great contemporary, William Harvey, on the circulation of the blood, and 
made great play in his books with a somewhat crude attempt to explain 
all physiological processes mechanically. It was he who imposed 
dualistic materialism upon biology as its working method. 

Although nowadays modern physics has completely transformed the 
old conception of matter, and has little use for the notion of material 
determinism, it is not so long ago that materialism was the orthodox creed 
of science, and we are in biology still suffering from the after-effects. 
I do not think I can better describe the fundamental tenets of this creed 
than by quoting a passage from T. H. Huxley’s essay on The Progress 
of Science, which appeared in 1887. ‘ All physical science,’ he wrote, 
“starts from certain postulates. One of them is the objective existence 
of a material world. It is assumed that the phenomena which are com- 
prehended under this name have a “ substratum ” of extended, impene- 
trable, mobile substance, which exhibits the quality known as inertia, 
and is termed matter. Another postulate is the universality of the law 
of causation ; that nothing happens without a cause (that is, a necessary 
precedent condition), and that the state of the physical universe, at any 
given moment, is the consequence of its state at any preceding moment. 
Another is that any of the rules, or so-called “‘ laws of Nature,” by which 
the relation of phenomena is truly defined, is true for all time. The 
validity of these postulates is a problem of metaphysics ; they are neither 
self-evident nor are they, strictly speaking, demonstrable.’ 1 

As a counterpart to this abstract concept of matter as extended substance 
we have the concept of mind as inextended thought. Physical science, 
and here I include physiology, has never known quite what to do with 
mind. In practice it has ignored mind, and treated it as an ‘ epipheno- 
menon’ accompanying, but not influencing, certain physiological pro- 
cesses taking place in the central nervous system.2 For the practical 
purpose of research it has treated the animal as a mechanism, and sought 
to analyse its working in detail. This theory, that the animal is to be 
regarded, from the point of view of science, as a physiological automaton, 
we find explicitly stated by Descartes nearly 300 years ago in his Discours 


1 Method and Results, London, 1893, pp. 60-61. : 

? Cf. Huxley: ‘ The consciousness of brutes would appear to be related to the 
mechanism of their body simply as a collateral product of its working, and to be 
as completely without any power of modifying that working as the steam- 
whistle which accompanies the work of a locomotive engine is without influence 
upon its machinery.’ Ibid., p. 240. 


86 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


de la Méthode, and it has been for long a guiding principle of research 
in the physiological study of functions and behaviour. 

Let me give you a modern example by quoting a passage from Pavlov’s 
book on Conditioned Reflexes, published in 1927. ‘ Our starting point,’ 
he writes, ‘ has been Descartes’ idea of the nervous reflex. ‘This is a 
genuine scientific conception, since it implies necessity. It may be 
summed up as follows : an external or internal stimulus falls on some one 
or other nervous receptor and gives rise to a nervous impulse ; this 
nervous impulse is transmitted along nerve fibres to the central nervous 
system, and here, on account of existing nervous connections, it gives 
rise to a fresh impulse which passes along outgoing nerve fibres to the 
active organ, where it excites a special activity of the cellular structures. 
Thus a stimulus appears to be connected of necessity with a definite 
response as cause with effect’ (p. 7). We could not wish for a clearer 
statement of the underlying assumptions of the stimulus-response (S-R) 
theory of animal behaviour, nor for a clearer acknowledgment of. its 
source. 

It was Descartes, then, who imposed upon European thought for at 
least two centuries, and upon biology for much longer, that ‘ bifurcation ’ 
of Nature into matter and mind which has raised so many insoluble 
problems for philosophy, and diverted biology from its true method. As 
to its effect on philosophy, let me quote a great modern philosopher, 
Prof. A. N. Whitehead, who writes: ‘ The seventeenth century had 
finally produced a scheme of scientific thought framed by mathematicians, 
for the use of mathematicians. . . . The enormous success of the scientific 
abstractions, yielding on the one hand matter with its simple location in 
space and time, on the other hand mind, perceiving, suffering, reasoning, 
but not interfering, has foisted on to philosophy the task of accepting 
them as the most concrete rendering of fact. Thereby, modern philosophy 
has been ruined. There are the dualists, who accept matter and mind as 
on equal basis, and the two varieties of monists, those who put mind 
inside matter, and those who put matter inside mind. But this juggling 
with abstractions can never overcome the inherent confusion introduced 
by the ascription of misplaced concreteness to the scientific scheme of the 
seventeenth century.’ 3 

Actually, instead of being the most concrete of realities, both matter 
and mind are highly abstract concepts, the product of the reflective 
intelligence working upon the data of immediate experience. 

There is given in individual experience only the perceiving subject 
and his objective world. This dualism does not correspond, is not 
synonymous with, the dualism of matter and mind. Subjective experi- 
ence as we know it directly is a function of organism, not of pure mind ; 
objective experience is a relation between organism and other processes 
or events. The concept of matter is arrived at by abstracting from the 
data of sense, by leaving out the ‘ secondary qualities ’ such as colour, 
smell and sound, and retaining the so-called ‘ primary qualities’ of 

a 


% Science and the Modern World, Cambridge, 1926, p. 70. 


D.—ZOOLOGY 87 


resistance and extension, with location in time and space. By accepting 
this abstract definition or concept of matter, we substitute for the 
objective world of perception a symbolic or conceptual world of discrete 
material particles, which we may call the ‘ world of matter.’ This world 
of matter the materialist takes to be in some sense more real than the 
perceptual and colourful world from which he has derived it. Actually 
it is less real, less concrete. It is important to remember that the world 
which we perceive through the senses, with its shapes, colours, smells, 
tastes and so on, is not identical with the conceptual ‘ world of matter ’ ; 
we do not perceive ‘ matter’ at all, any more than we perceive mind ; 
we perceive things or relations or events. 

Complementary to this abstract material universe is the concept of 
mind as an inextended, immaterial, thinking entity, and this also is 
derived by abstraction from the data of immediate experience, and 
principally from the subjective aspect of experience. 

As applied to biology, this abstract dualism has saddled us with the 
theory that the organism is a machine, with the pale ghost of a mind 
hovering over its working, but not interfering. What chance is there for 
a real science of animal behaviour if this metaphysical view is accepted ? 

Obviously from the Descartian standpoint behaviour becomes a subject 
for the physiologist to study from his analytical point of view ; he must 
regard behaviour as the causally determined outcome of the working of 
the animal machine, under the influence of external and internal stimuli, 
and he must seek to determine the elementary physico-chemical processes 
out of which behaviour is built up. The physiologist as such can have 
nothing to do with mind, and hands over its study to the psychologist, 
who finds that he can know nothing directly about the minds of animals. 
Hence we get the state of affairs I alluded to at the beginning of this 
address—the study of animal behaviour split up between physiology and 


_ psychology, with no possibility of a connecting bridge. The scientific 


study of behaviour thus becomes divorced from natural history and 
ceases to take its rightful place as an integral part of zoology. 

Aristotle knew better than this; he regarded life and mind as con- 
tinuous one with another, and the basis of his zoological system was the 
form and activity of the animal as a whole. But then Aristotle was a 
first-rate field naturalist and observer. 

At this stage you may perhaps object that all this discussion of meta- 
physical notions is beside the mark and futile. You may say that as 
zoologists we are concerned only with facts and not with metaphysical 
theories. You may—dquite rightly—point out that in our practical re- 
searches we deal with the objective world of perception, and not with the 
abstract ‘ world of matter.’ 

But, unfortunately for us, these metaphysical notions which most of us 
have absorbed almost unconsciously from the older tradition of philo- 
sophical thought have influenced and continue to influence our aims and 
our methods in practical research. It is impossible to be an absolutely 
unbiased observer, an exact mirrog of the flux of events ; our conscious, 
and even more our unconscious, preconceptions lead us inevitably to 


88 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


select from the panorama of objective appearance those facts which are 
of interest from our own particular point of view, and so to devise our 
researches as to obtain answers to problems which we impose upon Nature 
rather than Nature upon us. 

Thus if we are firmly convinced that all events are ruled by strict 
mechanical causality we naturally look upon the organism as a machine, 
and when we study the behaviour of an animal we seek to analyse it into 
a number of simple constituents, such as tropisms and reflexes, which are 
determined by simple and measurable external stimuli. We lean in- 
evitably towards the stimulus-response theory of behaviour—a purely 
physiological and analytical view—and our researches are based on the 
supposition that this theory is true. Hence we tend to overlook facts 
which do not fit into this scheme—we miss them simply because we are 
not looking for them. 

The point I want to get clear is that the Cartesian doctrine of the 
dualism of matter and mind is in no sense an inevitable deduction from 
experience ; one is not forced to accept it as the necessary foundation of 
biological research ; other foundations are possible, as we shall see in 
a moment. 

I have in my preceding remarks purposely exaggerated to some degree 
the contrast between the physiological and the psychological attitude 
towards the study of animal behaviour, in order to bring out clearly the 
logical consequences of accepting the metaphysical theory of the dualism 
of matter and mind. But I do not mean to assert that all work on animal 
behaviour can be definitely labelled either as physiology or as psychology 
in this limited sense. An escape from the dilemma has in practice been 
found, and this alternative method we shall now proceed to discuss. 

Let us first of all try to rid our minds of the abstract notions of matter 
and mind, and regard the activities of living things without metaphysical 
preconceptions. As zoologists our job is to study animals in action. 
Let us try to approach our task with the same directness and naiveté that 
Aristotle showed when he laid the foundations of our science. Instead 
of assuming a priori that the physico-chemical or analytical method of 
approach is the only possible and the only fruitful one, let us try the 
alternative of considering first the most general characteristics of the 
organism as a whole, and working down from the whole to the parts, 
rather than up from the parts to the whole, as is the more usual method. 

Taking this simple and direct view of living things, abandoning theory 
and accepting the obvious facts at their face value, we see first of all that 
the complete phenomena of life are shown only by individuals, or organised 
unities. Sometimes these units are combined loosely or closely in unities 
of higher order, as in social insects and in colonial animals, such as corals, 
but these cases hardly affect the main thesis that life is a function of 
individuals. There is accordingly no such thing as ‘ living matter,’ save 
as part of an organised unity. 

The second thing we note is that all living things pass through a cycle 
of activity, which normally comprises development, reproduction, and 
senescent processes leading to death. This life-cycle is in each species a 


=] 


: 


D.—ZOOLOGY 89 


definite one, passing through a clearly defined trajectory, admitting of 
little deviation from normality ; it takes place generally in an external en- 
vironment which must be normal for the species, and asa rule the internal 
environment also is kept constant round a particular norm. The activities 
whereby the needs of the organism are satisfied and a normal relation to 
the external and the internal environment is maintained, may be called 
the maintenance activities of the organism, and they underlie and support 
the other master-functions of development and reproduction. 

Our general definition or concept of organism is then an organised 
unity showing the activities of maintenance, development and repro- 
duction, bound up in one continuous life-cycle. A static concept is 
inadequate ; time must enter into the definition ; the organism is essen- 


_ tially a spatio-temporal process, a ‘ dynamic pattern in time,’ as Coghill 


aptly calls it. 

Now all these activities are, objectively considered, directed towards 
an end, which is the completion of the normal life-cycle. One is tempted 
to use the word ‘ purposive’ in description of these activities, but this term 
is used in many senses and has a strong psychological flavour about it, so 
I shall use instead the neutral word directive, which I borrow from 


_Myers.* It is quite immaterial from our simple objective point of view 


whether these directive activities, or any of them, are consciously pur- 
posive. The directiveness of vital processes is shown equally well in the 
development of the embryo as in our own conscious behaviour. 

It is this directive activity shown by individual organisms that dis- 
tinguishes living things from inanimate objects. ‘The peculiar character 
of this directiveness, its orientation towards a cyclical progression of 
organisation and activity, clearly distinguishes it from the static directed- 
ness of a machine, constructed for a definite purpose. It should be noted 
too that the living thing shows a certain measure of adaptability in com- 
pleting its life-cycle, so that the end is more constant than the way of 
attaining it. 

Now from this point of view, which is, I maintain, strictly objective, 
behaviour is simply one form of the general directive activity of the 
organism ; it is that part of it which is concerned with the relations of 
the organism to its external world. Plants show behaviour in this general 
sense just as much as animals do, but they, being for the most 
part sessile and stationary creatures, respond to the exigencies of environ- 
ment, and satisfy their basic needs, mainly by processes of growth and 
differentiation, and only exceptionally by active movements. Thus the 
dune plant seeking water grows an enormously long root which burrows 
down through the sand till moisture is reached. Animals on the other 
hand respond to environment and satisfy their needs by means of move- 
ments, either of the body as a whole or of certain organs. But sessile 
animals, like plants, may also respond or show behaviour by means of 
morphogenetic activity. The hydroid Antennularia, for example, if 


“CC. S. Myers, The Absurdity of any Mind-Body Relation. L. T. Hobhouse 
Memorial Lecture, Oxford and London, 1932. 


go SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


suspended in the water may send out ‘ roots’ or holdfasts to regain 
contact with the bottom. 

Behaviour, whether of plants or animals, is thus to be regarded simply 
as one form of the general directive activity which is characteristic of the 
living organism. It holds no privileged position ; it does not require 
‘ mind ’ as an immaterial entity to explain it. 

I tried to show in the earlier part of this discourse that both ‘ matter ’ 
and ‘ mind ’ are abstract notions, of little real use in biology, and I main- 
tain here that the concept of ‘ organism ’ as I have attempted to define it - 
is a more concrete one, and a more useful one, for the practical purposes 
of biological research. 

If we accept this view of organism, which is to my mind a simple 
generalisation of fact, we escape or elude the difficulties of dualism ; we 
need no longer regard behaviour as either the mechanically determined 
outcome of the material organisation of the body, or the result of the 
activities of an immaterial mind or entelechy influencing in some utterly 
mysterious way the mechanical workings of the body. By taking as 
given and as fundamental the plain objective characteristics of the living 
and intact organism, by refusing to split it up into matter and mind, we 
avoid both materialism and its counterpart vitalism. 

This is, as I conceive it, the central position of the modern organismal 
theory—the substitution of the concept of organism for the concepts of 
matter and mind. The concept of organism, or more generally of 
organised system, may of course be applied right down through the in- 
organic realm, wherever organised unities are found. ‘Thus a molecule 
is an organised system, and so also is an atom. I do not, however, agree 
with those who think that all real unities, both organic and inorganic, are 
adequately characterised as ‘ systems.’ In certain most general character- 
istics an atom and a living organism agree, for both are systems or wholes. 
But the living organism has characteristics which are lacking in inorganic 
systems, and it can be adequately defined or characterised only by refer- 
ence to those peculiarities which we have just considered—the weaving 
together in one cyclical process of the master functions of maintenance, 
development and reproduction. ‘These distinguish it from any inorganic 
object or construction, from any inorganic system. Underlying these 
characteristics is the general directiveness of its activities, their constant 
drive towards a normal and specific end or completion. 

It will be noted that this organismal view makes no real distinction 
between life and mind, between vital activities and those which in 
immediate experience appear as mental or psychical activities. In this 
respect we hark back to a pre-Descartian mode of thought, and call 
Aristotle our master. 

Simple observation shows us that living animals exhibit activities 
which are obviously not, on the face of them, those of a mechanism. 
Many of their behaviour actions are strictly analogous to those which in 
immediate experience we should describe as psychological. Thus we 
see animals trying hard to achieve some aim or end—a salmon struggling 
to surmount a fall, for example, or a cat using all its skill to catch a bird. 


D.—ZOOLOGY gI 


We do not know whether these actions are consciously purposive or not, 
but we cannot dismiss the objective facts of striving merely by assuming 


that they are mechanically determined. There are the facts; animal 
_ behaviour is predominantly directive, or in an objective sense purposive, 


a 


> 


and there is no use closing our eyes to it. 

It is well known too that many animals can learn and profit by experi- 
ence. ‘Thus if you train a puppy to play with a ball, this becomes of 
functional significance to it; it will go and look for its ball, which it 
remembers ; and other objects of a similar size or shape acquire for it 
the functional value of a ball, and are used in play. There is here 
definite evidence of memory, or retentiveness. 

In the same way, there is abundant evidence that animals perceive 


_ their surroundings, singling out those objects and those events that are 


of importance in relation to their needs. Of course we cannot know 


what the quality of these perceptions is, but we can determine by suitably 
planned experiments just what it is to which the animal responds, and 
we often find that the response is to patterns or images or relations, and 
not to a simple summation of physico-chemical stimuli. I shall give 
some examples of this later on. At this stage I merely wish to make the 
point that from the organismal standpoint there is no difficulty in assuming 
that animals perceive and react to an external world of their own ; here, 
as in our own Case, perception may be regarded as a function of organism, 
not of ‘ mind.’ 

This is essentially the attitude of ordinary common sense. In practice 
we treat our fellow men and at least the higher animals as being real 
individuals with perceptions, feelings, desires, similar to our own. And 
common sense is in principle justified, though of course it runs a great 
risk of reading human motives, human ways of thought, into the be- 
haviour of animals, and of assuming without sufficient warrant that their 
perceptual worlds are the same as ours. But because there is a danger of 
faulty interpretation, due mainly to inaccurate or inadequate observation, 


we are not thereby compelled to throw over the general conception that 


the animal organism is capable of perception, conative behaviour, and 
memory, if the facts of observation lead us to this conclusion. I do not 
mean that we should explain behaviour as being due to psychological 
functions labelled conation, perception and memory—that would be an 
empty and barren explanation. We are concerned only with behaviour, 
not with the subjective experience of the animal, which cannot be the 
subject of scientific study. But we must describe the behaviour fully 
and adequately, using if necessary terms of psychological implication, 
refusing to be bound or hampered by the metaphysical notion that the 
animal is merely a machine or can be treated as such. 

In affirming as we do that the animal organism in its behaviour shows 
a kind of activity which cannot be adequately described in terms of 
material configuration we are taking no great risk. Our own immediate 
experience is there to assure us that in one case at least the organism 
certainly does perceive, strive, feel and remember. 

One point more before we go on to consider very briefly how the 


92 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


organismal method is to be applied in the practical study of behaviour. 
It is sufficiently clear, I think, that behaviour is an activity of the organism 
as an intact and unitary whole. Once we begin to tamper with the 
organism we get something less than behaviour. ‘The ‘ spinal ’ dog still 
retains the power to carry out many and complex reflex activities—and 
it is quite unimportant whether these activities are unconscious or not— 
but it does not and cannot manifest the full range of activity which 
characterises the intact dog. Pursuing the work of analysis further, we 
can get down to the study of an isolated muscle-nerve preparation, or to 
the study of the conduction of the nervous impulse and the mechanism 
of muscular contraction. Here we shall find little or no behaviour in the 
sense of directive and adaptable activity, and we may reasonably hope to 
arrive at an adequate physico-chemical account of what goes on. ‘There 
seems no reason to doubt that a physiological treatment of the isolated 
parts of the organism may in principle be adequate. But by taking the 
parts in isolation, we abstract from their relations to the whole, parti- 
cularly their temporal relations, and we leave out of account just 
what is fundamentally important—the working together of all the parts 
in the directive activities of self-maintenance, development and 
reproduction. 

When we analyse a total organic event or process we break up the 
spatio-temporal unity of the action into little unconnected bits which 
are unreal in the sense that they are abstract, being deprived of their 
constitutive relations to the whole process. If for the sake of enlarging 
and deepening our knowledge we analyse organic activities in detail, we 
must correct the abstract picture so obtained by re-integrating the part 
in the whole—we cannot reconstitute the whole action by simple summa- 
tion of the actions of the parts separated out by analysis. 

While then analysis is a justifiable and useful procedure, we cannot 
hope to build up from the parts thus isolated the directive activity of the 
whole, which shows characteristics belonging to none of the parts. Accord- 
ingly, the study of behaviour is not reducible to physiology or the causal- 
analytical investigation of the parts. Physiology may profitably consider 
what are the conditions necessary for the manifestation of whole-properties, 
and we have an excellent example of this in Lashley’s work * on the relation 
between learning and retentiveness on the one hand and the amount of 
brain substance on the other. But we must work down from the whole 
to the parts, and the study of the whole, as in behaviour, cannot be ade- 
quately replaced by the study of the parts in isolation. 

It is possible of course to abstract from the directiveness and continuity 
of organic events, and to consider the organism over a short period of 
time as being a mechanism or configuration. It is then susceptible of 
study and interpretation in physico-chemical terms, just as is an in- 
organic object, but what we get is physics and chemistry, not biology. A 
good deal of what ranks nowadays as experimental biology is not biology 
at all, but physico-chemical research carried out on organic systems 


5 K.S. Lashley, Brain Mechanisms and Intelligence, Chicago, 1929. 


D.—ZOOLOGY 93 


with complete disregard for the distinctive characteristics of such 
systems. 

From our organismal point of view, the study of behaviour is neither 
comparative physiology nor comparative psychology ; it is the study of 
the directive activity of the organism as a whole, in so far as that activity 
has reference to the organism’s own perceptual world. It must start 
_ with what Lloyd Morgan calls the ‘ plain tale ’ of behaviour, the full and 
accurate description of what organisms do, and of what they are capable. 
Though plants also show behaviour in this general sense, and their whole- 
response to environment is a proper subject for study, it will lighten our 
discussion if we limit it to the behaviour of animals. 

The plain tale description of animal behaviour must begin with a study 
of the natural history and ecology of the animal. Most animals are 
restricted to one definite and rather specialised kind of environment ; 
they are adapted both in structure and activity to inhabit some particular 
ecological norm or ecological niche. We must discover by field observa- 
tion how the animal finds this ecological niche to begin with, and how it 
maintains itself therein. We must investigate how it counters changes in 
its environment, how it defends itself against enemies, how it finds or 
captures its food. All this is straight natural history in the old sense, 
the study of the ‘ habits ’ of animals, and it is linked up closely with the 
modern study of ecology. It is the necessary basis for the more detailed 
study of behaviour. It is also the clue to much of the behaviour shown 
in the artificial conditions of a laboratory experiment.® 

Clearly then we must start with direct observation of the animal’s 
behaviour in the field, or in experimental conditions that approximate as 
nearly as possible to the normal. We must then ask what is the animal 
trying to do, what is the objective end or aim of its action? Sometimes 
the animal is doing nothing in particular ; it is resting or merely waiting 
for something to turn up. Usually, however, the animal is active, is 
showing behaviour ; its actions are directed to some end, are aimed at 
satisfying some need, and we can determine by observation and experi- 
ment what that end is ; the sign that the end is attained is the cessation 
of the train of action. ‘Thus, to take a very simple example, if you remove 
a caddis larva from its tube, by the simple method of prodding it gently 
from behind with the head of a pin, it will move restlessly about until it 
finds the empty tube. Then it will enter the mouth of the tube head 
first, creep through, and perhaps widen the narrow hind opening of the 
tube, but it will finally turn right round inside the tube so that its head 
comes out at the front end, and it is then able to get about normally. 
The aim of the train of behaviour is attained—normal relations to en- 
vironment are restored. If you have removed the tube so that the larva 
cannot find it, it will achieve its end by another means, provided the 
materials are available, for it will then construct a new tube. ‘That is 
an example of simple directive behaviour, and it also illustrates the general 
tule that the end is more constant than the method of reaching it. 


6 E.S. Russell, The Behaviour of Animals, London, 1934. 


94 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


We find very often that a simple directive activity is part of a general 
directive process of long range, which may take months to reach its goal ; 
and to understand the simple action we must relate it to, or integrate it 
in, the general process of which it is a part. Take for instance the 
building of a nest by a bird. This taken by itself is a directive activity, 
aimed at the construction and completion of an adequate brooding place 
for the eggs and young. It is a fairly stereotyped and specific activity, but 
unusual materials may be pressed into service if the normal materials are . 
hard to come by. But nest-building is simply one link in the long re- 
productive cycle, which may commence with migration, and its relation 
to that cycle, which includes both behavioural and physiological activities, 
must be studied if we are to understand it fully. 

This illustrates the general rule of biological method which we have 
just discussed—that the whole life-cycle of activity must be regarded as 
the primary thing, and that the parts of it which may be isolated for study 
must be re-integrated in the whole-activity. ‘The human mind is prone 
to analysis, and we must be on our guard against its inveterate tendency 
to separate and distinguish parts or elements in what are, fundamentally, 
continuous processes. 

In thus relating partial events to life-cycle, we must of course consider 
above all their time-relations, not only their relations to what has gone 
before, but also and more particularly to what follows after. I should 
like to refer in this connection to a recent address by Coghill, in which 
the organismal view of development, including the development of 
behaviour, is set out with great clearness and authority. He tells us that 
“the neuro-embryologic study of behavior shows that events within a 
behavioral system can be understood scientifically only as their relation 
is known to subsequent as well as to antecedent phases of the cycle. The 
antecedent tells a part of the story about the present, but not all of it ; for 
within the present are events that have behavioral significance only in 
that which follows. ... The purely scientific method, dealing ex- 
clusively as it does with space-time relations, can not reject the future 
from its explanation of the present in behavior, because any event in an 
organismic cyclic system is an integral part of both the future and the 
past.’ ? 

We come now to the question, how is behaviour instigated or initiated, 
how is it set going? ‘There is one ready-made answer to this question— 
that behaviour is essentially an automatic response or reaction to stimula- 
tion, either external or internal. You will recall the passage I quoted 
from Pavlov earlier in this address, in which the stimulus-response theory 
is very clearly and explicitly set forth. According to Pavlov, stimulus is 
related to reaction as cause to effect; the impulse generated by the 
stimulation of the receptor organ is automatically transmitted along the 
appropriate nervous pathways to set in motion the appropriate effector 
organ. Behaviour is therefore completely determined by the stimuli 


7 G. E. Coghill, ‘The Neuro-embryologic Study of Behavior: Principles, 
Perspective and Aim.’ Science, 1xxviii, 1933, pp. 137-138. I have expressed a 
similar view in my Interpretation of Development and Heredity, 1930, pp. 170-171. 


: 


| 
| 


D.—ZOOLOGY 95 


and by the connections already existing in the nervous system or built 
up during the formation of conditioned reflexes. 

There is no time, and no need, for me to criticise this view in detail. 
Actually the strict theory of connectionism is rapidly breaking down in 
face of the facts established by the brilliant work of Lashley on the one 
hand and the Gestalt psychologists on the other. I will merely point 
out, first, that this analytical and physiological view is a pure hypothesis, 
derivable from the Cartesian metaphysics, and second, that it does not 
harmonise well with the simplest facts of observation. 

Nothing is more striking than the apparent spontaneity of animal 
actions, their independence of the immediately present external stimulus. 
When an animal is hungry it goes and looks for food ; when a hunting 
wasp requires provisions for her future offspring she actively seeks high 
and low for the proper caterpillar or spider that she needs ; when a bird 


is building her nest she looks everywhere for the grass or feathers or moss 


she requires. As Koffka well expresses it: ‘ While reflexes are typically 
“passive ’’ modes of behaviour, which depend upon the fact that some 
stimulation has taken place, instinctive behaviour is, by contrast, signifi- 
cantly “ active’ in its search for stimuli. The bird seeks the material 
for its nest, and the predatory animal stalks its game. In other words, 
the stimulating environment is not a sufficient cause for these activities. 
Every movement requires forces which produce it; but the forces that 
produce instinctive activities are not in the stimulus-situation—they are 
within the organism itself. The needs of the organism are the ultimate 
causes of its action; and when these needs have been satisfied, the 
action comes to an end.’ § 

A very great part of the behaviour of animals is, quite simply, response 
to needs (or deviations from normal), and not to direct external stimula- 
tion. When a starfish is turned on its back it tries in various ways to 
right itself, or, more accurately, to re-establish contact with a solid surface. 
Careful study of the action by Fraenkel and others has clearly established 
that the real ‘ stimulus ’ to the action, if one may use the word stimulus 
at all, is not something positive, but simply the lack of contact between 
the tube-feet and some solid object, the need to re-establish a normal 
functional relation to the substratum. No doubt in all cases of action 


‘directed towards satisfying a need introception comes into the story, 
but the broad fact remains that it is lack of normality, or the absence of 


some condition necessary for maintenance or development or repro- 
duction, that sets much of behaviour going. 

I do not, however, wish to over-emphasise the autonomy of behaviour, 
its independence of external stimulation. It is certainly true that 
behaviour is to a considerable extent influenced by events in the animal’s 
€nvironment which it perceives and to which it responds. Thus all 
animals react to danger or to signs of danger by appropriate behaviour. 
Some like the rabbit bolt for their burrows ; others like the squirrel take 
refuge up a tree ; the antelope trusts to its fleetness, and most birds to 


8 K. Koffka, The Growth of the Mind, 2nd edit., London, 1928, p. 103. 


96 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


their wings. Some animals find safety in immobility, or in the protection 
afforded by a hard shell or carapace, or an armour of spines ; the tube- 
worm retracts its tentacles like a flash and may close the tube up with 
a stopper. 

In many of these cases the animal responds not to an actually nocuous 
stimulus but to some sign of approaching danger—to a shadow, the 
cracking of a twig, or to any object looming up and drawing near. So, 
too, the feeding response is often elicited not by direct contact with the 
food itself, but by a sign of it—its smell, its movement, the disturbance’ 
it makes. 

This leads us on to consider a point on which I touched before, namely, 
the nature of the perceptions, especially the visual ones, to which the 
animal gives significant responses. This is a field in which much 
interesting and important work has been done of late years. 

It has been shown in many cases that it is not the separate physico- 
chemical stimuli that are important in eliciting response, but the whole 
complex of stimuli taken together, their arrangement, their pattern, their 
relations to one another and to the visual field as a whole. A dog can 
recognise his master by sight, and it does not matter whether he sees him 
full face or in profile, standing up or sitting down, close at hand or a little 
way off. There is a general pattern or facies, with infinite variation in 
detail, to which essentially the response is made. He would be a bold 
man who would propose a connectionist or additive explanation of 
response to a varying and shifting pattern or image of this kind. 

Then there are the many examples known where response is made not 
to a particular visual datum per se but to it in its relations to other features 
in the perceptual field. ‘The simplest cases are those of ‘ relative choice,’ 
exemplified by K6hler’s experiments with chicks. He first of all trained 
them to respond to the darker of a pair of grey colours. He then sub- 
stituted a new pair of colours, consisting of the darker of the old pair 
and one still darker. He found that his chicks now reacted, not to the 
original grey, but to the darker of the new pair. They had really been 
trained to respond not to a particular shade of grey but to the darker of 
a pair. Many similar cases are known. 

Here is an observation by Bierens de Haan ® which shows in a striking 
manner how an animal may respond to an object only in its relation to 
other objects in the visual field. A young Pig-tailed Macacque was 
given the choice of two doors, one marked by a card with a red circle, 
while above the other was placed a card bearing a blue triangle. Food 
was placed behind the door with the red circle, and the monkey rapidly 
learned to choose that door. The experimenter then substituted for the 
blue triangle a blue circle or a red triangle, and he fully expected that the 
monkey would continue to choose the red circle. Instead of that the 
monkey was completely confused, and chose the red circle in only about 
fifty per cent. of the trials, When the blue triangle was restored, how- 
ever, it responded correctly and consistently. It appeared from these 


® Animal Psychology for Biologists, London, 1929, pp. 40-41. 


— 


D.—ZOOLOGY 97 


experiments that the monkey had learned to respond not to the red circle 
by itself but to it in combination with the blue triangle—that is, to the 
correct member of a complex comprising these two sensory data. 

The whole trend of modern work on the perceptions of animals is to 
show that they do not normally respond to simple physico-chemical 
stimuli, but to more or less complex whole-situations, and if to parts of 
the whole-situation, then to these parts in their relation to the whole. 

_ This is the essence of the principle of Gestalt—response to elements in 
the perceptual field as parts of the pattern of the whole. The principle 
of the whole is thus valid for the perceptual field just as it is for executive 
behaviour. 

These few examples of modern work on the perceptions of animals 
emphasise the need for extreme care in establishing exactly what it is in 
the surrounding world to which animals respond. We must not assume 
a priori that behaviour is determined by a concatenation of simple physico- 
chemical stimuli ; we must drop all metaphysical theory and try to find 
out by careful experiment just what animals do respond to. We shall 
often find that they respond to images or patterns, or to classes of objects 
that have for the animal the same functional significance, or to bare 
relations. 

Response to relations is clearly demonstrated in some very thorough 
work recently carried out by Kliiver!°on the perceptual world of monkeys. 
His general method was to train his monkey to draw in one of a pair of 
boxes differing in some particular, for instance in weight. When he had 
established a positive response to the heavier of a pair, he varied the 
difference between the boxes, using two others of quite different weights 
from the original pair. He found by this method that his monkeys 
would respond to the bare relation ‘ heavier than,’ quite irrespective of 
the absolute weight of the boxes used, provided of course that they were 
not too heavy for the monkeys to move. Other experiments of the same 
type showed that the monkeys had a power of practical generalisation, 
that many objects differing in shape and colour yet produced the same 
response—they were, from the monkey’s point of view, functionally 
equivalent. This method of studying the equivalence or non-equivalence 
of perceptual objects promises to be a very fruitful one for investigating 
the behaviour of animals. 

In the short compass of this address I have been unable to give more than 
the very slightest sketch of a method for the study of animal behaviour 
which is, I think, likely to be the method of the future. It is, I maintain, 
a perfectly objective method, dealing with observable fact, and it is free 
from any metaphysical preconceptions. 

I have been concerned to point out two things. One is that it is time 
biology shook itself free from the limitations imposed upon it by a blind 
trust in the classical doctrine of materialism. This doctrine is not in 
harmony with the modern development of philosophical thought, nor 


with the modern development of physical science, and it is not well 
_ adapted to the study of living things. 
% 10 H. Kliiver, Behavior Mechanisms in Monkeys, Chicago, 1933. 


yj 
¥ E 
j 


' 


98 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


We must adopt a more concrete and more adequate concept of the 
living organism, one that will take account of its essential characteristics. 
We must think of the organism as a four-dimensional whole, or directive 
cyclical process, and no longer attempt to contain it within the static 
scheme of the classical materialism. This does not lead to any form of 
dualistic vitalism. ‘The relation of behavioural or ‘ psychological ’ 
activities to physiological is not the relation of mental to physical activities, 
but is, quite simply, the relation of a whole spatio-temporal directive 
process to its parts. 


SECTION E—GEOGRAPHY. 


CO-OPERATIVE RESEARCH IN 
GEOGRAPHY; WITH AN AFRICAN 
EXAMPLE 


ADDRESS BY 
PROF. ALAN G. OGILVIE, O.B.E., 
PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 


Ever since our subject was re-established as an organised discipline, the 
essence of which is the study of terrestrial distributions and their inter- 
relations, geographers have been sifting and collating data of extremely 
varied character. ‘The facts which have thus been incorporated in the 
body of geographical literature have themselves usually been established 
by workers in other fields, while geographers have drawn deductions 
from them, in many cases without having the opportunity to test their 
validity on the ground. As a result generalisation and causation in 
regard to very large sections of the continents must necessarily rest on a 
rather insecure foundation. ‘The question therefore arises—how can this 
be remedied ? The world is large and complex, while the number of 
geographers is still small, and they are very unevenly distributed over 
the globe. In Europe, where they are numerous, the position is quite 
different. ‘The vast geographical literature of this continent is mostly 
due to individual workers who knew their country and had at their 
disposal copious facts and abundant statistical data of all sorts, and above 
all excellent topographical maps. But consider the basis of our knowledge 
of large parts of the southern continents and of Asia. We derive much 
of our information from the accounts of primary exploration, some of the 
best of it contributed by the great pioneers, the naturalist travellers of 
the nineteenth century. Since their day the mesh of the net has become 
closer; expeditions have been better equipped; scientific aims have 
become more definite; route surveys have improved. Yet the fact 
remains that comparatively few expeditions engaged in primary explora- 
tion have yielded well-balanced explanatory accounts of all the elements 
which might be the subject of observation in the regions traversed. This 
defect doubtless will be attended to more often in the future. But the 
records of exploration having the character of traverses must nearly 
always be limited, since observations are usually confined to one season 
of the year. 

I do not, however, propose to develop this aspect of the question ; 
for the suggestion which I have to offer applies rather to regions where 


100 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


pioneer exploration is regarded as finished, and especially to the colonies 
and dependencies of the more advanced nations. I submit that these 
regions offer the most fruitful field for geographical research in the nearer 
future. As the chief reason for this belief I would mention the justifiable 
hope of the rapid extension of systematic surveys in such countries ; 
and we are agreed, I think, that the basis of all sound geographical 
research is a reliable topographic map, supplemented if possible by the, 
results of geological surveys. 

Brigadier Jack, as President of this Section in South Africa, devoted 
his address to the need for extensive regular surveys and to the many 
practical advantages accruing from them ; and the Sectional Committee 
last year asked the Council of the Association to point out to our Govern- 
ment that the lack of reliable surveys and maps in the British Colonies 
and Dependencies greatly delays scientific and material progress. I am 
therefore only reiterating the firm conviction of geographers when I say 
that scientific knowledge of the continents can scarcely begin to make 
rapid progress until they have been adequately mapped. In the regions 
where this aim has already been achieved, as in India and in parts of 
Indonesia as well as in some of the African Colonies, I feel that geo- 
graphers, given at least one year in well-chosen ‘ key ’ districts, could do 
a great deal to promote a real understanding of larger regions, especially 
in the field of human geography. We should, I think, use every means 
to make such investigation possible. But I have repeatedly asked myself 
whether there is no other way in which wé can accelerate the process 
of gathering the type of information needed for the composition of 
geographical syntheses which may be at least fuller and better than those 
we now possess. And it has been borne in upon me that the right way 
lies in the direction of co-operative effort. 

The idea of extensive collaboration in geographical research is by no 
means new. An obvious method which has been employed consists in 
the concentration upon a given region of work by specialists in each of 
the earth sciences, resulting in a series of individual monographs. But 
unless there be a concluding volume in which all the results are causally 
linked, the work is not geography. An outstanding example of this 
kind is the great investigation of Lake Balaton and vicinity undertaken 
by the Hungarian Geographical Society in 1891, and involving nearly 
a hundred contributors. Most of the voluminous work was published, 
but unfortunately the geographical synthesis is still awaited. The same 
Society in 1905 organised a similar work upon the Alféld, but the war 
seriously interfered with this. The International Geographical Union, 
since its formation, has promoted co-operative research on various 
subjects the majority of which are of a physical character. Thus the 
creation of commissions to deal with these investigations marks the 
extension of an older and similar type of organisation well represented 
by the International Glacier Commission or by various national research 
bodies such as the late Sir John Murray’s Bathymetrical Survey of 
Scottish Lochs or the Royal Geographical Society’s Committee on 

1 Resultate dey Waissenschafilichen Evforschung des Balatonsees, Budapest, 
1897 onwards. 


E.—GEOGRAPHY IOL 


English Rivers. It is, however, significant that two of the new Inter- 
national Commissions are devoted to aspects of human geography. Of 
these one deals with Over-population in its Geographical Bearings. It 
has not yet had time to develop its work fully. The other, on Types of 
Rural Habitation, has accumulated a vast amount of material contributed 
by many geographers and is likely to render great service to our science. 

- Somewhat similar in aim is the separate co-ordinated study by a group of 
German geographers upon settlements in a large variety of regions 
throughout the world, and whose papers have recently appeared. Perhaps 
the most striking instance of an organised geographical investigation 
designed to be of definite advantage in future national planning is that 
of the American Geographical Society relating to problems of pioneer 
settlement throughout the world. The firstfruits of this, which have 
already been published,* represent the results of regional studies by 
selected geographers and a synthesis by the organiser, Dr. Isaiah Bowman. 
Associated with this is the intensive work upon the Prairie Provinces of 
Canada, which occupied five years. Its results, now in course of publica- 
tion* under the editorship of Prof. W. A. Mackintosh, represent the 
first large undertaking of co-operative scholarship in the Dominion. 
I understand that it is a most comprehensive work in which geographical 
factors have received due consideration, although the authors are exponents 
of other subjects. 

I have mentioned these examples in order to indicate the extent to 
which we already depend upon the fruits of co-operative investigation. 
But it is clear that the collaborators in such projects have always been 
geographers or people whose life’s work lies in some branch of science 
or learning that can be made to serve our purpose. But I now return 
to my original theme, the scanty nature of the data upon which our 
geographical generalisations so often rest, and the long period that must 
probably elapse before trained geographers duly equipped with maps can 
cover the immense field by personal investigation. Let us consider Africa 
as an example, with special attention to its inhabitants. 

During the past decade or so an increasing interest has been taken in 
the future of the black race in Africa, and the literature bearing upon the 
relations between Europeans and Africans has already assumed consider- 
able dimensions. But before arriving at a considered judgment regarding 
the future of the native it is evidently necessary to understand the native 
as he is, the life he leads and the beliefs he holds. These are matters 
proper to the study of anthropology ; and in fact that science has dealt 
very fully with the African races and is prepared to answer most of the 
questions that are usually asked relating to the natives. Nevertheless, in 
1926 I found it necessary to point out ® that the geographical controls or 


2 F. Klute (Ed.), Die léndliche Siedlungen in verschiedenen Klimazonen, Breslau, 
1933. 
% “Pioneer Settlement, Comparative Studies,’ Amer. Geog. Soc. Special 
Publication, No. 14, New York, 1932. Isaiah Bowman, ‘ The Pioneer Fringe,’ 
ibid., No 13, New York, 1931. 

4 By Macmillan, Toronto. 

§ “Africa as a Field for Geographical Research,’ The Geographical Teacher, 
vol, xiii, pp. 462-467. 


102 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


influences affecting the material life of these peoples usually receive far 
too little attention. Indeed the physical environment as a rule is quite 
inadequately treated in the anthropological literature of the continent. 
I was interested to find soon after this that my colleagues in this Section 
agreed with me both as to the gaps in our knowledge and as to the great 
importance of attempting to fill them. A Research Committee of the 
British Association was therefore appointed after the Oxford Meeting to - 
investigate the state of knowledge of the Human Geography of Inter- 
Tropical Africa; and this Committee has been increasing its activities 
ever since. We set ourselves to state clearly the points upon which 
information was badly needed, and then proceeded to lay plans for tapping 
a body of knowledge which we believed to exist in Africa, but which 
hitherto had scarcely been tapped in the interests of geography. Scattered 
throughout this continent are many men and women who, with long 
residence in close contact with the Africans and personal experience of 
the environmental conditions year in year out, should be able, by answering 
specific questions, to provide the essential link between the land and the 
mode of life of the natives. We had in mind chiefly the District Officers 
of Colonial Governments, and missionaries. ‘To them we sent our 
nineteen questions, most of which might be considered to apply to any 
of the regions envisaged. We included them in a pamphlet ® that gave 
in addition a brief explanation of our aims and reprints of two model 
essays on the relation of African tribes to their environment, those of 
Pére L. Martrou on the Fang and Mr. R. U. Sayce on the Basutos. 


Human GEOGRAPHY OF NORTHERN RHODESIA. 


The most comprehensive response received so far has come from 
Northern Rhodesia, where the late Governor was good enough to transmit 
our request to the District Officers of the Protectorate, with the result 
that we have at our disposal a series of thirty reports covering the whole 
territory save for two Districts, in area the equivalent of France with the 
Low Countries and Switzerland, and dealing with the life conditions of 
well over one million people. 

The aggregate volume of the Northern Rhodesia reports is considerable, 
amounting to well over 200,000 words ; some are quite brief, others are 
long and generally proportionately useful. I propose presently to state 
in summary form some of the results of a synthesis derived from their 
contents. Before doing so, however, I wish to express on behalf of the 
Committee our indebtedness to the authors’ for the trouble they have 
taken in responding to our invitation. 


§ The Human Geography of Inter-Tvopical Africa: The Need for Investigation, 
1930 (reprinted 1931). 

7 The authors of reports, and the Districts, are as follows: A. W. Bonfield, 
Serenje ; H. F. Cartmel-Robinson, Fort Jameson ; C. A. R. Charnaud, Mazabuka; 
E. H. Cooke, Feira; T. S. L. Fox-Pitt, Kasempa; H. A. Green, Kalabo; D. B. 
Hall, Kalomo (plateau) ; S. S. Hillier, Luwingu ; G. Howe, Mporokoso; R. S. 
Hudson, Balovale; G. Hughes-Chamberlain, Mwinilunga; R. O. Ingram, 
Sesheke; E. K. Jordan, Isoka; S. P. L. Lloyd, Kasama; F. B. Macrae, 
Livingstone, Kalomo (valley) and Mumbwa; E. Munday, Chinsali; C. P. 


a 


E—GEOGRAPHY 103 


There is special ground for satisfaction that the first of the British 
territories to make such full response is Northern Rhodesia, on account 
of the recent appearance of an important study of sociological and 
economic character which deals with almost the same region. ‘This is 
the report of an inquiry into the impact of the copper mines of Central 
Africa upon Bantu society, and the work of missions, made by the 
Department of Social and Industrial Research of the International Mis- 
sionary Council.§ It is to be noted that the material now in our hands 
is almost wholly supplementary to the content of this book. Yet I venture 
to think that we are in a position to compile from our reports an account 
which will facilitate the full appreciation of the vital problems dealt with 
by Mr. Merle Davis and his colleagues. 

It is a matter for regret, on the other hand, that we possess insufficient 
material from which to construct an adequate account of the physical 
geography of this region. ‘The map is a compilation, with no real 
representation of relief, for stringent financial resources have hitherto 
prevented the undertaking of regular surveys. ‘The presence of abundant 
reserves of copper in the central area has led, I learn, to much geological 
survey in recent years; but, so far, few results have been published. 
There are no satisfactory general treatises either upon the soils or upon 
the natural vegetation. In regard to the climate alone are satisfactory 
data available ; for the Protectorate has some fifty rainfall stations estab- 
lished at least fifteen years and many with shorter records, while observa- 
tions of temperatures are annually reported from some fifty stations. 

Thus, with the exception noted, the physical setting, in which human 
existence is now so minutely described, still remains somewhat obscure. 
It is fortunate, however, for our purpose that over vast stretches of 
Rhodesia there is relatively little variety of natural landscape or of the 
causes which underlie it; indeed, this is almost certainly true of the 
greater part of Central Africa. For this reason we are perhaps entitled 
to make the fullest use of accurate knowledge established in valuable 
surveys recently made across the northern border in the Katanga and 
now in course of publication by the Comité Spécial du Katanga. From 
the admirable sheets of this atlas ® and the published writings of its 
creators we may gain real insight into the interrelations of structure, 
relief, soil, and vegetation cover which must be closely analogous to those 
prevailing in the Protectorate. 

From our District reports we can glean much sporadic information 
upon each of these physical elements, and there are two types of state- 
ment which are real contributions to the physical geography of Rhodesia. 
The first supplements the climatic statistics by describing the local 


Oldfield, Abercorn; M. B. J. Otter, Kawambwa; F. R. G. Phillips, Fort 
Rosebery; E. H. L. Poole, Lundazi and Petauke; C. G. Stevens, Mkushi ; 
G. R. R. Stevens, Mankoya; G. Stokes, Mpika; H. A. Sylvester, Namwala ; 
P. D. Thomas, Senanga; E. F. G. Thomson, Chiengi and Lusaka; J. Moffat 
Thomson, Broken Hill; J. F. Warrington, Mongu. 

8 J. Merle Davis, Modern Industry and the African, Macmillan & Co., 1933. 

® H. Droogmans, M. Robert et G. Maury, Atlas du Katanga, Publication du 
Comité Spécial du Katanga, Bruxelles, 1928 onwards. 


104 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


weather sequence throughout the year; and the second concerns the. 


regimen of rivers. I would draw particular attention to this matter, so 
important for the population ; we have received a statement from every 
District as to the permanence of streams and their flood character. 


PuysicaL ENVIRONMENT. 


In order to have space for matter that is now available for the first time, 
I will describe the physical background in barest outline, mentioning only 
such facts as are important to the understanding of the human geography. 

The fundamental crystalline skeleton of Africa appears here in two 
broad zones extending respectively from S.W. to N.E., occupying the 
south-eastern belt, and S.E. to N.W., extending over into the Katanga. 
The structure of this latter zone is complicated by the presence of a 
geosyncline of ancient continental sediments, including dolomitic lime- 
stones, that were folded by thrusts from the S.W. ‘Their outcrops, 
therefore, lie along an are concave in this direction. Associated with 
these folds and with certain igneous intrusions is the mineralisation of 
the zone, by lead and zinc in Broken Hill and by copper and other ores 
farther north. The south-eastern zone is seamed by a structural depres- 
sion in which sediments of ‘ Karoo’ age are preserved, said to contain 
coal as well as nitrates sporadically quarried by the natives for gunpowder. 
The Luapula basin in the north is largely underlain by Palzozoic sedi- 
ments, but with granite intrusions, while throughout the drainage area of 
the upper Zambezi the ancient rocks are almost completely masked by 
the Kalahari sands. 

The relief of Northern Rhodesia, like that of most of the Central 
African highlands, is monotonous. Planation over long periods accounts 
for this ; and consequently the hill ranges and inselbergs which form the 
chief accidents on a plateau standing mostly between 1,000 and 1,500 m. 
are chiefly residuals of stronger rock, while the more extensive elevations 
above this height, notably those dividing the Bangweolo ‘ saucer’ from 
Tanganyika and from the Luangwa valley, will probably be explained 
by warping. The entire plateau seems to bear traces of indeterminate 
drainage with numerous evidences of river capture on all scales and of 
varied date. By far the most pronounced relief features are the margins of 
the south-eastern structural furrow drained convergently by the Luangwa 
and the Zambezi below the Batoka gorge. This, both on account of the 
height of the escarpments—generally more than 400 metres—which are 
to be regarded as erosional fault-scarps, as well as because of their extreme 
dissection by the regressive erosion of tributaries which are rapidly 
notching the plateau rims on both sides. 

Time does not permit me to deal statistically with the climate, which is, 
of course, of inter-tropical type with markedly seasonal rainfall. In 
Rhodesia three seasons are recognised and named by the natives, the 
limiting dates varying with the locality: the cool season from March, 
April or May to July or August ; the hot, dry season from July or August 
to October or November ; and the rainy season lasting from these months 
to March or April. But in some districts, where there is a temporary 
break in the rains of from one to three weeks in December to January, a 


E.—_-GEOGRAPHY 105 


lesser (first) and greater (second) rainy season are recognised. Moreover, 
in Barotseland a fourth has to be added, named Munda—the floods—for 
there the regimen of the Zambezi and tributaries is of prime importance. 

There is thus a dry period of at least six months during which the 
temperature is first dropping to its minimum in July and then rapidly 
rising to its maximum in October or November. The rains then spread 
southward and eastward, the belt of maximum precipitation being in the 
north-west in November, and in the east around Lake Bangweolo in 
December. In January rain is more evenly distributed; in February 
the maximum is again in the east, from which it gradually withdraws 
northward again. ‘The total rainfall is over 50 in. near the Congo frontier, 
and decreases eastward to 35 in. on the Nyasaland border and southward 
to under 30 in. in the Zambezi valley. 

The annual rhythm of vegetation, of animal life, and the seasonal activi- 
ties of the population are matters upon which we have received much 
information, especially on the latter. These phenomena can now be 
closely related to the temperature and rainfall factors and the flooding of 
the rivers and variation of swamps and lakes. 

In the absence of real knowledge of Rhodesian soils we may legitimately 
have recourse to the Belgian pedological work in Katanga, where, 
however, the rainfall is heavier. Owing to the very great extent of 
surfaces of peneplane type, it is most probable that the Rhodesian soils 
as a whole are residual and old, deficient in soluble salts and more or less 
lateritic. Moreover, deforestation over large tracts has proceeded for 
long; and the removal of this natural protective cover results in the 
lowering of the water table during the dry season, and the loss of fertility, 
especially by the removal of humus, a contributory factor in this being 
the widespread annual grass fires. It may be regarded therefore as most 
likely that prevailing plateau soils are poor. ‘Their vegetation is savanna, 
or what Shantz has classified as dry woodland, in which the trees are mostly 
deciduous and where their stature and their density varies with available 
water. They are, of course, associated with grass which is renewed each 
rainy season, and which, like the trees, varies with the rainfall. 

Throughout the peneplanes are numerous shallow hollows known as 
dambos, filled by wash from the slopes, sandy and lateritic round their 
margins, clayey and marshy in their centres. Their soil is infertile and 
grass predominates in their vegetation. 

By far the most attractive soils are those of the alluvial areas. In the 
maps of the Katanga these are distinguished according to age—young, 
adult and old; and the District data from Northern Rhodesia would 
seem amply to justify this classification as one that is important in 
the human geography. But of course it is impossible to do more than 
guess the distribution of such types in any locality. The first class are 
annually inundated and renewed ; the second, which may occasionally 
be flooded, are typically dotted over with termite hills. The plant cover 
of both these types is herbaceous, and their edges would seem to form the 
sites of the great majority of native villages in the Protectorate, for such 
places are close to good soil, to water, and to trees, the three main 
desiderata of the Rhodesian cultivator. The old alluvium, on the other 

E2 


106 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


hand, has lost much of its fertility through leaching, and possibly has 
become partly lateritic. It seems to be covered by somewhat xerophytic 
bush wood. The very porous soils developed upon the thick Kalahari 
sands of Barotseland would seem to be fairly good so long as the tree 
cover is maintained, with roots reaching the ground water, but to suffer 
rapid degradation when this is cut down. 


DEPREDATIONS BY MAN. 


The inquiry has elicited certain facts about the modification of the 
natural vegetation by the natives. The great majority of the people live 
upon their crops, and most of these are raised in partial clearings of the 
savanna. ‘The natives are truly men of the trees, apart from which they 
cannot live. The essential feature of their system of shifting agriculture, 
a system well known throughout the forests and savanna of inter-tropical 
lands, is the annual felling or pollarding of trees and the application to the 
soil of the ash derived from burning the wood on the site of their gardens. 
The name given to the practice in north-eastern Rhodesia is chitemene or 
vitemene, meaning ‘ those which have been cut.’ The area of woodland 
cut for a garden of given size of course depends first upon the luxuriance 
of the trees, and secondly upon the nature of the practice—whether 
pollarding or felling. Throughout the.drainage basins of the Kafue and 
upper Zambezi, as well as east of the Luangwa, it seems to be the habit 
to fell trees and to burn all branches, leaving the trunks to rot. This is 
also the method in part of Fort Rosebery and among the Awisa of Mpika. 
But to the north of the latter Districts trees are usually only pollarded, 
and this also seems to be the case in two central Districts, Mkushi and 
Serenje. The estimates of the ratio of timber area cut to area of garden 
vary between 4:1 and 10:1. The estimates of the period required for 
recovery of the woods are more numerous, but they are difficult to inter- 
pret in view of the inadequate accounts of the vegetation. In Mpika 
District the pollarded woods of the Awemba are left for about seven years, 
we are told, while the felled timber of the Awisa would require a genera- 
tion to recover. Yet several District reports mention rest periods as 
short as four or five years ; in others these are between ten and twenty, 
and in Barotse thirty to thirty-five years. 

The degree in which the savanna has degenerated under this system of 
agriculture depends largely upon the density of the population. Many 
writers point out that tracts of the natural vegetation still exist simply 
because the population is small—as, for instance, in Chinsali with three per 
square mile. But such figures are misleading, for the actual densities on 
land desirable from soil and water qualities are very much greater. More- 
over, the native cuts wood for many purposes besides that of manuring 
his garden. He needs timber for a new hut every few years, for heavy 
garden fences, and for canoes. He fells trees to obtain honey, he strips 
trees of their bark. ‘ Bark,’ writes the author of the report on Mongu,!° 
“comes more frequently into daily life than anything else ; every piece of 
rope used by natives and most of that used by Europeans is made of it, 


10 J. F. Warrington. 


E.—GEOGRAPHY 107 


consumption is enormous and must be responsible for the destruction of 
thousands of trees and saplings every year.’ Finally, there is the damage 
to seedlings and young trees caused by the annual grass fires which sweep 
the territory. These are started for various reasons. Fire may be 
allowed unintentionally to spread from the garden burning. Hunters 
use fire for two purposes : first, to promote rapid growth of young grass 
to attract game, and, secondly, in the case of organised hunts, to drive the 
animals in required directions. Stock-keepers also start fires to accelerate 
the appearance of fresh pasture, and, furthermore, long grass is disliked 
near villages for various reasons. 


MIGRATIONS. 


While no information was asked for regarding the physical or other 
characteristics of the inhabitants of Northern Rhodesia, yet a consider- 
able amount of data of this kind has been received, and it will be placed 
at the disposal of the anthropologists. Nevertheless it is pertinent 
here to mention some of the geographical effects upon the migrations 
into and within the territory as revealed by tribal tradition and reported 
in the present documents. Most of the migrations referred to have taken 
place within the last two centuries, and the dominant direction appears 
to have been south-easterly from the southern part of the Congo basin. 
Thus the way seems to have been easy for tribes from the Congo-Zambezi 
watershed, either south-eastward through the upper Zambezi area or 
southward, over the peneplane drained by the Kafue, as far as the escarp- 
ment. The north-eastern plateau also seems to have been peopled by the 
present Bantu tribes chiefly from this same Katanga region of Congo, but 
here approach had to be either to north or to south of the Bangweolo 
swamps. The Awemba, who are now dominant in the centre, took the 
northern route, but have pressed south across the Chambezi, driving a 
wedge in the Awisa folk. Other tribes like the Lungu and Mambwe have 
penetrated south-westward from east of Lake Tanganyika. The most 
notable invasion from the south is that of the Makololo from Basutoland 
in the mid-nineteenth century to the country of the Aluyi, whom they 
conquered ; their men were later massacred, yet Sikololo in a modified 
form remains the language of the region. 

British rule has, of course, gradually brought these mass movements to 
an end; but there is one outstanding exception in the Barotse plateau, 
where there has been a steady infiltration of people from Angola from 
1917 onwards, which represents a resuscitation of the older south-eastward 
drift. These immigrants, known collectively as the Mawiko or ‘ People of 
the West,’ and now numbering 100,000 or more, have left Portuguese 
territory when discontented with its administration, and they have now 
penetrated Barotse Province to a depth of nearly two hundred miles. 

A striking feature of human geography throughout Central Africa is 
the relegation of the weaker or more primitive peoples to the least desirable 
areas. In Northern Rhodesia these areas were the swamps of the plateau, 
and the hot lowlands of the Luangwa and the Zambezi below the Falls. 
In the former we find the backward Batwa or marsh folk, whose culture, 
however, has greatly advanced in recent years ; in the Luangwa, the Senga 


108 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


and others, who appear to have been forced thither by the Awemba or 
others from the west and the Ngoni raiders, of Zulu stock, from the east ; 
while the low Zambezi valley is peopled by numerous debilitated tribal 
fragments. 


EXTERNAL INFLUENCES. 


The effect of European influence upon the economic and social structure 
of native society in Northern Rhodesia has recently been very thoroughly 
dealt with by Mr. Merle Davis in the work already referred to. It is, of 
course, not a geographical work, though geographical factors are recognised 
by the author. I have therefore attempted to make an estimate, based 
upon our District reports, of the nature and degree of external influence 
upon the material life of the natives. These influences differ widely in 
date and in potency. The acquisition of the chief cultivated plants and 
domestic animals reaches far back, and I do not propose to deal with this. 
Direct contact with the earlier Portuguese traders has been of little account, 
save possibly in the Feira District, but in the west their indirect influence 
has been considerable in view of the migration of tribes whose ancestors 
had been in touch with the Portuguese on the Atlantic seaboard. The 
use of manioc bears witness to this, and the square or oblong type of 
house which to-day prevails in the two north-western districts probably 
derives ultimately from this source. In Balovale it replaced a beehive 
grass hut, and its superiority over the circular pole and thatch hut of the 
other Rhodesian areas is being recognised, as is the skill of its builders, 
who are often paid to build houses for neighbouring tribes. Since 1917, 
the new wave of immigrants from Angola has led to the spread of this 
house type throughout the upper Zambezi basin. 

About the southern end of Lake Tanganyika there are evidences of 
various effects of the incursions of Arab slave raiders. Here again a 
square house is found mingled with the circular huts (Abercorn), while 
the small groups of Swahili people have groves of date palms and other 
cultivated fruit trees. 

But these aspects are all insignificant in comparison with the potent 
influences due to the British rule and partial settlement by European 
farmers, the rapid exploitation of minerals in the Belgian Katanga and 
the Ndola and Broken Hill Districts of the Protectorate ; while the estab- 
lishment of missions throughout Rhodesia has had widespread material 
as well as moral effect. As indexes of the outward evidence of this 
permeation, which really amounts almost to revolution, I select data of 
three types: first, the distribution of houses built on the European 
pattern ; secondly, the continuance or otherwise of the old-established 
native iron industry ; thirdly, the direction and volume of movement of 
native labour to work for Europeans. 

Houses built on the European model, either of wood or of sun-dried 
brick, are most numerous along the southern half of the railway ; in Kalomo 
they are estimated at 10 per cent. Here also native iron-working is either 
not mentioned or is stated to have died out, or else the smiths have turned 
their attention from axes, hoes and spears to the repairing of ploughs and 


1 Cf. Fig. 3. 


E.—GEOGRAPHY 109 


bicycles. ‘These latter, which are rapidly multiplying, are a good index 
of prosperity, since their price is £5, and the possession of cycles gives 
special inducement to the people to keep the inter-village paths clear and 
encourages the habit of paying visits at a distance, the native’s chief 
recreation even when he had to walk. ‘This southern railway belt is, of 


° 100 miles Jf 
eh ee et é 


Jowe Noe OM 
. 


—itemmss eS, 
vem oeey 6 
~2---> 7 


ie 8 


A 
@vo 
x 
$ 
\ 
1 


. 
‘ 
O 
. 
7 
a 
. 
ae 
y 
« 
” 
” 


v 
y 
o 
2 
. 
a 
. 


-_ 


Fic. 1.—Cartogram of Northern Rhodesia to illustrate effects of 
External Influences. 

(1) Rhodesian circular house; (2) Rectangular house of Bantu or Swahili origin; 
(3) Rectangular house on European model; (4) Native iron industry 
reported as still in operation ; (5) Annual migration to European mines ; 
(6) to other European employment; (7) to market produce; (8) Surplus 
produce sold locally. 


course, the centre of European population, the effect of which is seen in 
the nature of money-earning employment. The poll tax of from 7s. 6d. 
to 12s. 6d., according to the region, is in Rhodesia the initial cause of 
the widespread annual migration of the younger men, but the desire 
for change and excitement and for luxuries increasingly influences it. 
Throughout most of the country natives have to travel far to earn money. 
But here in the south employment on farms, on the railway or in domestic 
service may be had at a distance usually much under one hundred miles. 
Moreover, surplus crops or stock may be sold for local use or for transport 


IIo SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


by rail to the northern mines. Thus the annual movement in the south 
is for the most part convergent upon the railway strip for service or for 
trade ; from Feira some agricultural labour moves to Southern Rhodesia, 
and such men as prefer the mines may go by train either north or south. 

Over the great north-eastern region European settlers are very few, 
and in East Luangwa they are concentrated about Fort Jameson. 
European influence, therefore, is either spread by the Administration, 
the missions, of which there are nearly forty, or by the migrating natives 
themselves. Copies of European houses occur in significant proportions 
throughout the Luapula drainage area, as well as in Isoka District. Only 
four of the thirteen Districts report native iron industries, the rest relying 
mainly on imported implements. The annual movement to the labour 
market is directed almost everywhere westward to the mines of Broken 
Hill, Ndola and the Katanga, the only important exodus for farm work 
being from Isoka to the coffee plantations of Mbezi in Tanganyika 
Territory. The distance travelled by the natives going to the mines 
frequently amounts to four hundred miles, and the average periods of 
absence from these northern districts are given as from six to nine months. 
The consequences of these long absences of the able-bodied men, whether 
accompanied by their wives or not, are fully discussed by Mr. Davis * ; 
I will mention only one result—the serious reduction of land in crops 
and the consequent increase of famine risk. From the Mweru Luapula 
Province there is a further movement into and across the Katanga. ‘This 
marks the export of the surplus produce of the Province, consisting of 
dried fish and manioc meal for sale at the mines. Natives may make 
three or four such journeys a year, but some of this commerce is now in 
the hands of European traders, mostly Greeks and Italians. ‘These also 
buy skins, notably those of the otters killed around Lake Bangweolo. 

The western plateau, drained by the Zambezi, lies off all main routes. 
Moreover, the greater part of it is Barotseland, where limited self-govern- 
ment exists and missions are fewer than elsewhere. Consequently the 
region has less contact with the white man. European houses are 
mentioned only in Mongu (probably mission influence); and all the 
Districts either mine their own iron or at least manufacture many of their 
implements. Yet the whole basin sends its quota annually to the mines 
when labour is in demand there. From the southern half of the country 
the majority probably go to the Wankie or other Southern Rhodesian 
fields, and Mankoya also sends agricultural labour southwards. But from 
the northern districts natives walk, up to four hundred miles, to the 
copper belt. 

Such are some of the regional effects of European contacts. But 
I must not omit to mention one which applies equally everywhere. Before 
British rule the Rhodesian natives lived dangerously. Because of inter- 
tribal wars and the risk of attack by slave raiders the people lived in large 
villages surrounded by stockades. With the new security their groups 
have been steadily growing smaller and tending to approach the natural 
unit which is the family, albeit a larger unit than that to which we apply 
the name. Government, however, has imposed its veto upon further 


12 Op. cit. 


E.—GEOGRAPHY III 


subdivision. Therefore it may be stated in general that the population 
is everywhere contained in villages varying in size according to local 
geographical conditions. 


POPULATION DENSITY. 


I have had to spend much time in studying the distribution of native 
population, since the responses to the Committee’s request for informa- 
tion under this head varied greatly in value. The average density for the 
whole Protectorate is a little over four per square mile. The official 
figures of average density by Sub-Districts in 1931, however, at once draw 
attention to the uneven distribution of the people. Thus, two Districts 
in Barotse Province, Kalabo and Mongu, have densities of 11-6 and 16-3 
respectively ; Chienji on Lake Mweru has 13, while Fort Jameson has 
20:8. On the other hand, in a belt from the Katanga border southward 
to Sesheke the District densities vary from 1-3 to 2-5, while in the 
railway belt to the east of this, figures are between 3 and 4. A cartogram 
made from these data, however, gives but a crude representation. In 
the first place, wherever there is a nucleus of European farmers the natives 
of the vicinity have been or are being moved into reserves, thus greatly 
increasing their density per square mile in these Districts. But it is the 
examination of life conditions which brings realisation of the real 
distribution. We have seen that agricultural village sites must of 
necessity be close to water, to reasonably good soil, and to trees. In the 
central District of Mkushi the actual distribution, almost entirely along 
the river valleys, was shown on a map by Mr. C. G. Stevens, from which 
I calculate densities of from 50 to 60 per square mile instead of 2-77 for 
the District, the interfluves apparently being inhabited. The evidence 
is insufficient and the map too vague to allow of such refinement being 
made for the whole territory, but I have had no great difficulty in plotting 
approximately the more outstanding variations in density. The following 
are some of the more interesting results of the operation. 

The type of locality which carries the greatest population is that which 
provides a means of livelihood apart from agriculture ; and fishing is 
by far the most usual supplement of this kind. Indeed it becomes the 
dominant occupation around Lake Bangweolo, where the islands have 
about 80 persons per square mile, and many shore areas must be nearly 
as densely peopled. Similarly, high densities occur along the shore of 
Lake Mweru and the banks of the lower Luapula. Such areas of good 
fishing which are also excellent land for producing manioc have received 
access of population in recent years on account of the encouragement to 
market fish and meal in the mining areas to the west. 

Fishing, again, is the cause of the most concentrated population on the 
River Kafue below Namwala and round several small lakes in Kalabo. 
Here indeed, near the western border, the appearance of ground water 
from the sands seems always to draw people in an otherwise dry region. 
The great alluvial plains of the Barotse, the Kafue Flats, and the reserves 
east of the Luangwa are all relatively populous districts in which cattle 
are held by cultivators. Apart from the areas mentioned and a few 
others less notable, the population densities, calculated on the assumption 


112 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


of stream-bank arrangement, would seem to vary from, say, 5 to loper square 
mile in Districts of small population to 40 to 50 in the more populous. 


TSETSE FLY. 


No element of the human environment is more important than the 
distribution of the tsetse flies (Glossina). G. palpalis, the carrier of 
sleeping sickness, appears happily to be either absent or innocuous over 
nearly all the country, the only districts where the disease has been 


yoo miles 


Fic. 2.—Sketch-map of Northern Rhodesia, showing Distribution of (1) Tsetse 
Fly and (2) Native-owned Cattle. 


reported in recent years being the Luapula and Luangwa valleys, the 
shore of Lake Tanganyika, and a small part of the upper Kafue valley. 
But with the bearers of Nagana it is quite otherwise. The presence of 
these flies is a menace to cattle owners, European and native, and un- 
fortunately they infest the greater part of theterritory. Their distribution, 
as plotted from the reports and certain local maps, reveals three large 
tracts that are free of fly. The first includes the greater part of Barotseland. 
East of this lies a broad fly belt ; within this the flies seem to be spreading, 
and at the southern end the belt is extending both eastward and westward 
toward the native and European cattle land of the lower Kafue and the 


| 


E.—GEOGRAPHY pric. 


railway zone. This latter, with its greater amount of cultivated land, is 
still free of fly to the edge of the great escarpment, and the same is gener- 
ally true of its continuation north-eastward along the divide between the 
Chambezi and Luangwa; Broken Hill and Mkushi even report a re- 
duction in fly. The Luangwa fly belt shuts off the clear area of the 
Nyasaland border, and at the head of the valley the pest is encroaching on 
the plateau land. The tsetse distribution is more patchy in the northern 
areas. Generally speaking, the higher lands are the freer. In Fort 
Rosebery the fly is local, and Kasama records a reduction ; but evidently 
there are few areas which can safely be reached by cattle. 

The map indicates clearly the prevalence of tsetse in the hot lowlands, 
but the controlling factor on the plateaus, which is doubtless the character 
of the vegetation, cannot be examined until a survey of that element has 
been made. The nature of the wild fauna is a contributory factor ; and 
while the reports contain useful information regarding the wild animals 
which are hunted or cause depredations to crops, it is insufficient to allow 
of any important deduction. 


CATTLE. 


While cattle are restricted to the areas free of fly, they are by no means 
evenly distributed throughout these parts. Nor are they of equal 
significance in the life of their owners, chiefly on account of varying tribal 
tradition in regard to cattle, but also from the incidence of European 
influence. In Barotse it is the Maroze chiefs and indunas who are the 
chief cattle owners, and the herds vary according to the available pasture, 
being greatest on the Zambezi plain (in Mongu c. 50,000 head) and 
decreasing north and south. Cattle in general are regarded merely as 
wealth, chiefly in relation to the marriage security, sometimes as a source 
of meat and of hides, more rarely of milk. But in contact with Europeans 
and a market, the tribesman tends to devote his animals to work, notably 
with the acquisition of the plough in the alluvial plains, of two-wheeled 
carts on suitable ground and of sledges elsewhere. It is chiefly in the 
vicinity of the railway that the natives are following European guidance 
in the matter of breeding and of dipping. Elsewhere the herds receive 
little attention, and consequently the stock is poor. Furthermore, the 
Barotse cattle were stricken with pleuro-pneumonia in 1915 and their 
numbers reduced by perhaps 50 percent. In the central Districts, on the 
other hand, stock is increasing, owing to the natives’ contact with Europeans. 
This feature is most pronounced in Mazabuka, where the Tonga and 
Lundwi have over 108,000 head, and as these have recently been driven 
into the reserves, there is a risk of overstocking. This reacts not merely 
directly on the animals, but indirectly and permanently upon the land, 


-which is much more serious. It results in rapid erosion of the soil 


wherever there are slopes. 

Cattle, of small size and few in number, are kept in the Zambezi lowland 
along the river banks and partly shut off from the plateau by a fly belt. 
Similarly a few animals only remain in the hot Luano valley of Mkushi, 
though formerly the herds there were sufficient to attract the Ngoni 
raiders from the east. The Ngoni and other tribes of the Nyasaland 


114 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


border form the remaining native group which keeps large numbers of 
cattle ; for the tribes of the northern plateau, in spite of considerable 
available land, are not pastoralists to any extent, the chief exception 
being the Isoka District with 7,000, where, however, tsetse, extending up 
from the head of the Luangwa valley, has been causing destruction. 

Small stock in Northern Rhodesia are widely spread : they are in almost 
every village and receive very little attention. Goats are a universal 
possession, far outnumbering cattle in most parts, and the same may be 
said of poultry ; sheep are more local in distribution, and pigs, which 
become crossed with the wild variety, seem to have an uneven distribution. 

Transhumance is practised by the cattle owners of the Barotse Plain 
and the Kafue Flats, in each case in response to the flooding of the alluvial 
belt. The Maroze possess two sets of villages, on the plain and in the 
savanna respectively. ‘They occupy the former from May to January, 
cultivating their maize and grazing their cattle ; then, when the Zambezi 
rises in February, they move to their woodland villages, where the cattle 
manure their manioc and millet land. The inundated villages have, of 
course, to be repaired regularly before reoccupation. The Baila of the 
Kafue, on the other hand, live in large permanent villages, above the 
floods and far from the river, where they grow maize. ‘The river is at its 
highest in March and, when the floods have receded in June, the migra- 
tion to the flats takes place, grass being burned for hunting and grazing ; 
temporary villages are occupied, where fishing can also be had. The 
Baila are exceptional in the variety of their diet of maize, fish, milk, and 
game meat. 


Foop STAPLES. 


The distributions of four of the leading food crops of Africa meet and 
overlap in Northern Rhodesia ; the three cereals, comprising the great 
millet—sorghum, the lesser millets of which eleusine is the most important, 
and maize. ‘These, with manioc (cassava), form the food staples of the 
native population. Allowing for some uncertainty as to the identity of 
the millets mentioned by the authors of reports, it has been possible to 
plot the crop distribution with general accuracy. It is thus evident that 
the small millets, especially eleusine, prevail in the north-eastern plateau 
while sorghum is more cultivated in the central Districts. ‘This crop, 
however, has yielded the first place over most of its area to maize, most 
probably introduced from the south and certainly increasing where the 
contact with European farming is close. The most outstanding fact 
elicited is the penetration of the territory by manioc as a staple crop. 
The lower Congo region is generally held to have been the centre of 
dispersion of this American plant, and it will be interesting to learn 
whether its area is now unbroken to the Rhodesian border. It is clear — 
that manioc is still being carried south-eastward by the Angolan immi- 
grants in Barotse, and, for reasons to be mentioned, its cultivation is being 
encouraged elsewhere by the Administration. Its appearance along the 
railway belt and its dominance in Lusaka are perhaps due to this. But 
manioc is also the staple along the Luapula valley and thence eastward 
to Lake Tanganyika. Where the small millet appears as secondary crop 


E.—GEOGRAPHY 115 


it is often grown solely for the beer that is brewed from it. Such ‘ beer 
crops ’ are those secondary to manioc in Chiengi and Fort Rosebery, and 
that of Kasempa, subsidiary to sorghum. 

To understand the geographical significance of these crops it is necessary 
to examine the manner of their cultivation. The preparations for millet- 
growing appear to vary but little. The lopping of trees and heaping of 


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Fic. 3.—Cartogram of Northern Rhodesia, showing Distribution of 
leading Food Staples. 


(t) Small Millet, generally Eleusine; (2) Sorghum; (3) Maize; (4) Manioc 
(Cassava). For sake of visibility, rulings have been drawn over European 
as well as Native areas. 


the branches on the cleared garden site are completed by the end of the 
dry season and the burning takes place, usually on the chief’s signal, 
just before the first rains ; if this is done too early there is a risk of the 
precious ash blowing away. The seeds are then planted in the ash- 
covered soil during the early rains; and the millet crop is directly 
dependent upon rainfall for its water and upon wood ash for its nourish- 
ment. Hence it is the only cereal which flourishes on poor, lateritic soils. 
It is therefore the characteristic grain of the savanna away from the alluvial 
strips of rivers, which are devoted in general to sorghum or maize. The 
same conditions govern the cultivation of ground nuts, which are generally 


116 é SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


associated with the smaller millets. In many Districts the main part of 
the garden is devoted to millet for only one year, a new garden being 
prepared for the staple crop each year, and the old garden used for mixed 
subsidiary ‘ relish’ crops. ‘The number of successive years in which a 
garden grows millet must, of course, depend upon soil fertility, and as 
we have little information about the plateau soils, no deduction can be 
drawn from the facts recorded. But three years appears to be the 
maximum, save for special reasons. ‘Thusthe Amambwe ofthe north-east, 
who are industrious hoe cultivators, have a four-year rotation system, 
consisting in millet, fallow, a leguminous crop or maize, and again millet, 
by which they use the same garden for eight years or more. Again, the 
Maroze cattle owners of the upper Zambezi systematically manure the 
ground by moving their kraals at.intervals, when the cattle are in the 
savanna during the Zambezi flood season. ‘These, however, are exceptions, 
and it is abundantly clear that dependence upon a millet crop results in 
the maximum destruction of timber, with the attendant impoverishment 
of the soil. Moreover, this reliance upon the chitemene system accounts 
for the temporary character of settlements, which is characteristic of all 
but a few areas of the Protectorate. 

Gardens must repeatedly be moved to avoid carrying wood for long 
distances. Soon the gardens are found to be inconveniently far from the 
village, and so this is moved. ‘There are many social and economic con- 
sequences of such an unstable form of existence. Soil exhaustion is by 
no means the only cause of the movement of-villages ; among the others 
are various superstitions and the insanitary condition of huts. But it is 
only for agricultural reasons that the displacement amounts to several 
miles. At the same time it must be remembered that the people usually 
return to the original site after a lapse of time sufficient for the recovery 
of the woodland ; they are deeply attached to their own special piece of 
country. Each District Officer was asked to state the average period during 
which villages remain in one site, and in general the life of the savanna 
village appears to be from three to four years. Where it is shorter there 
is probably exceptional poverty either in soil or in trees, and, conversely, 
longer periods are to be accounted for by abnormally good conditions. 

The small millets are grown nearly everywhere to some extent for the 
purpose of brewing beer, and in Districts where they also form the staple 
food there is grave risk of the native’s improvidence leading to famine 
during the months, generally February to April, before the new crop is 
ready, as in Luwingu, north of Lake Bangweolo, for example, where 
about one-half of the eleusine is devoted to beer. 

Manioc as a Rhodesian crop offers several contrasts to millet. In the 
first place the natives, after planting the shoots on the mounds they have 
prepared, must wait for at least one year before the tubers mature ; and 
this period may be eighteen months, as in Chienji, two years, asin Mankoya, 
or even three, as in Mongu. ‘This implies a greater amount of foresight 
than is the case with other crops and also more stability of the population, 
for since two crops may be taken successively from the same patch, a 
garden will last five or six years (e.g. Mwinilunga). Secondly, the 
cultivator does not have to spend time in scaring birds from his field or 


E.—GEOGRAPHY 117 


in constructing heavy fences round it to keep off graminivorous animals, 
as he has to do if he grows cereals ; nor does he risk loss from plagues of 
locusts. On the other hand, the manioc suffers much in every District 
from depredations of bush pigs and from elephants where these are 
numerous. Thirdly, this plant is less susceptible than the cereals to 
rainfall deficiency. For all these reasons the inhabitants of manioc 
Districts rarely suffer from hunger—indeed there are several which have a 
regular export of cassava meal ; ‘ meal in Mankoya is almost a currency.’ 
The Government is obviously fully justified in its efforts to induce extended 
cultivation of this valuable and reliable plant. 

The other two common staples are sorghum and maize. Both are 
more characteristic of relatively treeless land, and the former is the more 
resistant to drought. At their best they are the crops of the open alluvial 
plains, and we find them characteristically in the river bank gardens of 
the Zambezi and Luangwa and many of their tributaries, where two crops 
are often taken—especially of maize—the first from the wet silt of the 
receding river flood, and the second from the summer rains. We also 
find them on the older alluvium abounding in termite hills, which form 
the very best soil when levelled. But these cereals are by no means re- 
stricted to alluvial soils, as witness their wide distribution on the central 
plateau on both sides of the railway. Maize in outlying Districts is 
commonly eaten green, but here there is a market for surplus grain which 
may be sold for transport to the mines. Herein lies the importance of 
the freedom of this area from tsetse fly ; for the cultivator is also a cattle 
owner and he has readily taken to the plough. 

Ploughing gives great advantage in maize cultivation, and some also in 
the case of sorghum. Moreover, the acquisition of carts enables the native 
to market his produce. Yet even from this central region it is interesting 
to note that in the Broken Hill District, sorghum and eleusine are both 
commoner than maize, which is disliked because harder to grind. Again, 
in the plateau section of Kalomo, while maize predominates in the east 
where ploughing prevails, this is not true of the fly belt to the west, for 
here ground must be hoed, and the hoe is the woman’s tool. But the 
women cannot be induced to raise a surplus for export. 

This account of the distribution of staple crops must suffice to illustrate 
the kind of contribution which co-operative inquiry has made to our 
knowledge of the native agriculture. 


I have now given a fair sample of the kind of information which we 
have gained by this piece of co-operative research in human geography. 
There are many other matters that I have had to omit. For instance, 
the inquiries as to animal pests and to the amount and nature of hunting 
have led to replies which give a good general idea of the distribution 
of the principal mammalian fauna. Again, we have learned much of 
fishing in relation to the rise and fall of rivers ; we have data relating to 
the seasonal migrations in search of fish and various food relishes such 
as caterpillars. Most important of all is the whole subject of seasonal 
rhythm of occupation and its regional variations, a matter upon which 
the reports are of great service. 


118 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


CONCLUSION. 


I have devoted most of this address to Northern Rhodesia for four 
reasons: First, because it is now possible for the first time to give to 
this Section some idea of the real results of an inquiry set on foot within 
the Section. Secondly, because these results themselves represent new 
material contributed to the geographical synthesis of a region still very 
imperfectly known—material, moreover, which is really geographical in 
nature. It relates to specific localities and it records both the human 
actions in these and the explanations in so far as they are traceable to 
special environmental factors. My third reason lies in the importance 
that I attach to directing the attention of all interested in Africa to a close 
understanding of the conditions of the natives’ material life, which, 
simple though it is, yet varies considerably throughout the continent. 
Finally, I have in mind the wider implications of the success of this 
investigation. 

Our Committee hope that the other African territories will do for us 
what Northern Rhodesia has done, and answer our nineteen points, or 
such of these as are applicable, district by district. But I am looking 
beyond Africa to countries where many Europeans reside, people who 
may never have thought of geography as we regard it, but who might 
well be sufficiently interested in the land of their choice to be willing to 
take part in the kind of team work which I have outlined. 

Take India as an example. In spite of voluminous official and other 
literature, we have still a great deal to learn of the geography of man in the 
sub-continent. Although the task of gathering the information there would 
be much more complex than in the case of Africa, there would be certain 
offsetting advantages. Among these are: the accuracy of the map of 
India, the existence of a great body of data created by the various scientific 
services, and a wonderful census organisation. In addition, there is the 
likelihood that men of science could be found on the spot who would be 
able to fill in the gaps in the picture of the physical environment. These 
might be asked to deal with the numerous connecting links which are 
not usually required for official departmental reports but are nevertheless 
essential to the geographer. 


SECTION F.—ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS. 


THE FUTURE OF RAIL TRANSPORT 


ADDRESS BY 
H. M. HALLSWORTH, C.B.E., 
PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 


One hundred years ago the ‘calamity of railways,’ as Sir James McAdam 
termed it, fell on the existing means of transport. ‘Though the Stockton 
and Darlington Railway had been opened for trafficin September 1825, and 
the locomotive had been known since 1804, it was still doubtful whether 
locomotives could be used on lines with heavy gradients. It was the 
success of Stephenson’s ‘ Rapid’ and Hawthorn’s “‘ Comet’ on a section 
of the Newcastle and Carlisle railway in March 1835 which set the seal 
on their success, and led railway promoters to think no longer of horses 
and stationary engines as the tractive power on the new roads. Three 
years later locomotives were working the whole length of the line from 
Newcastle to Carlisle, and an era of rapid railway development began. 

The effect of railway competition on the canal companies, the stage 
coaches, and the road carriers of that time is well known. At first slowly, 
yet in the end surely, and in spite of severe reductions in their tolls, the 
canals lost all but the slow and bulky traffic. ‘The effect on the turn-pike 
roads was no less severe. Horse-drawn traffic, it is true, not only survived 
the early days of railways, but actually increased, though long-distance 
journeys by road, whether of passengers or goods, practically ceased. 
As Prof. Clapham says, ‘ Carts and cabs increased, but coaches and 
posting-horses decayed. Journeys behind horses multiplied; but long 
journeys behind horses stopped. . . . The tragedy was repeated on each 
trunk route as the sleepers and metals were laid along it... . The effect 
in every case was instantaneous and inevitable.’ 

To-day it is the railways whose established position is assailed. Compe- 
tition by road has taken on a new form; coastwise traffic has increased ; 
the reliability and efficiency of the internal combustion engine has 
opened up the air for a third competitor. 

In view of these developments in transport, what is the future position 
of the railways likely to be? Are they to be displaced from their position 
as the chief mode of transport, to which the rest are supplementary, and 
to be relegated to a position of secondary importance in the transport 
system of the twentieth century ? It is a question of far-reaching import- 
ance. I agree with Sir Josiah Stamp that of the country’s domestic 
problems at the present time none presses more gravely on the nation 
than the position and future outlook of the railway system. The number 
of workpeople it employs, the amount of capital invested in it, the 
increasing difficulty of providing for and controlling the traffic on the 
roads, the vital importance of securing for the community the most 


SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


120 


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F.—ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS 121 


economic and efficient system of transport that our present means and 
knowledge permit, combine to make it one of the most pressing problems 
that we have to face. Nor is it a situation confronting this country alone. 
A similar position has arisen in practically every country in the world. 

In view of these considerations, and quite apart from the fact that my 
own studies have mainly been in the subject of transport, I felt that 
I could not choose a subject more appropriate for a presidential address 
to this Section, and for a city so dependent on transport as Aberdeen than 
the future of rail transport. 

If justification for my choice were needed, I think I could find it in the 
Presidential Address of my predecessor, Henry Sidgwick, when the 
British Association last met in Aberdeen forty-nine years ago. The 
subject of that Address was the ‘ Scope and Method of Economic Science,’ 
and I venture to think that my own paper comes well within the field 
which he there mapped out for economic thought. 

It will be well at the outset to examine briefly the position of the rail- 
ways of this country in the post-war years. For this purpose some 
statistics are essential, though I will endeavour to reduce them to the 
minimum. 

The table opposite gives the revenue earned by the four grouped 
railway companies and the percentage change for the chief of the post-war 
years. The corresponding figures for 1913 are given, though in comparing 
the later years with 1913 it is, of course, necessary to bear in mind the 
change which has taken place in the value of money. 

The form of railway accounts was amended in 1928, and though the 
figures for 1927 have been recompiled on the new method, it has been 
possible only to make approximate adjustments for the earlier years. 
Nevertheless, if not pressed too far they may be used for comparative 
purposes. 

Railway revenue has, it will be seen, fallen by no less than 26 per cent. 
since 1923, and the fall has been most marked since 1929. Owing to the 
general strike and the coal dispute, 1926 was, of course, an exceptional 
year. The fall has been more severe in the case of passenger traffic and 
merchandise than in that of coal and minerals, though the revenue from 
the carriage of live stock also shows a big decline. The revenue from 
mails, parcels, and goods by passenger train has been surprisingly well 
maintained. 

Compared with pre-war years the expenditure of the railways shows 
a considerable increase, due in part to the increase in the cost of materials, 
but chiefly to the rise in the level of railway wages, which in 1932 were 
117 per cent. higher than in 1914; or allowing for the rise in the cost of 
living, 51 per cent. above the pre-war level. But since 1924 the expendi- 
ture shows a considerable reduction, partly owing to the lower cost of 
materials, partly owing to the numerous economies effected by the 
companies in their mode of working since 1923, and partly, of course, due 
to diminished traffic. 

The changes in expenditure and the net revenue of the companies, 
both from railways proper and from their ancillary undertakings, such 
as canals, hotels, and docks, are shown in the table on the next page. 


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SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


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F.—ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS 123 


It will be seen that railway expenditure has been reduced almost in 
proportion to railway receipts. The net railway revenue of the four 
grouped railway companies has fallen to 67 per cent. of the amount in 
1923, whilst the net revenue from all sources has fallen to 63 per cent. 
of the 1923 amount. 

Similar declines in receipts and expenditure are to be observed in most 
of the European railways, as in those of the United States of America, 
as the table on p. 123 shows. 

The railways selected have been chosen to show how the serious fall in 
receipts has affected countries with widely differing characteristics. It 
will be noticed that the fall in receipts on the British railways, serious as it 
is, is not so great as in most of the European countries ; but it should be 
remembered that in Great Britain railway receipts had not, as in these 
countries, been rising fairly steadily up to 1929. 

The effect of the changes in receipts and expenditure on British rail- 
ways has been very marked. First in the numbers of staff employed. 
In 1921 the number of staff on the railways comprised by the four grouped 
companies, including the Railway Clearing House, was 735,870. This 
had fallen to 681,778 in 1923, to 642,137 in 1929, and to 615,592 in 1931. 

The effect on railway dividends has, of course, been even more marked. 
In 1913 the net revenue earned by the companies within the groups 
represented 4-41 per cent. on all capital. ‘The return was 4:40 per cent. 
in 1923, 3-96 per cent. in 1927, 4-17 per cent. in 1929, 3°48 per cent. in 
1931, 2°30 per cent. in 1932, and 2-68 per cent. in 1933. 

The stocks chiefly affected are, of course, the ordinary stocks. The 
average earnings on ordinary stocks were in 1913, 5°55 per cent.; in 1929, 
3°27 per cent.; in 1931, 0:95 per cent.; in 1932, 0°57 per cent.; in 1933, 
0°77 per cent. 

The causes of this decline in railway traffic and railway revenue are 
not far to seek. They are industrial depression, the contraction of 
international trade, and the competition of roads, and to a lesser extent 
of coastwise and air transport. 

In the case of passenger traffic it is probable that a relatively small part 
of the decrease is due to economic depression, and that the bulk of it is 
due to road competition, including that of the private motor-car. Thus 
if we compare 1929, a year of relatively good trade, with 1923, in which 
trade was definitely not as good, we find a marked diminution both in 
the total number of ordinary passengers and in the total receipts from 
them. ‘The figures are shown in the next table. 


Four grouped companies. 


1929 as 
1923. 1929. percentage 
of 1923. 
Total number of ordinary 
passengers. . . 1633-Fm.- 589°8 m. 93 
Total receipts from ordinary 
passengers . ; = 255 °4.m: £48-3 m. 87 


Thus there was a decrease of 43:6 million in the number of such 
passengers, and of {7-1 million in the receipts from them. 


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F.—ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS 125 


Since 1929 road competition has become increasingly severe. It 
would seem fair to estimate, therefore, that in 1933 at least 15 or 16 per 
cent. of the total decline of 28 per cent. since 1923 is due to road competi- 
tion, giving a loss of at least £11 millions due to this cause. 

It is much more difficult to assess the loss of railway goods traffic due 
respectively to bad trade and road competition. Some indication may be 
obtained from a comparison with the Index of Production and the 
Quantitative Index of Imports compiled by the Board of Trade. ‘These 
figures have been available since 1924, and between that date and 1930 
the Index of Production of manufacturing industries rose from 100 to 
106°3, while during the same period the Quantitative Index of Imports 
rose from 100 to 111°4. If we make the assumption that in the absence 
of road competition the merchandise and live-stock traffic receipts of the 
railways would have increased in approximately the same proportion, 
say by 6 per cent. between 1924 and 1930, these receipts would have 
increased from {51-6 millions to £55 millions in 1930. In 1930, however, 
they actually amounted to no more than £47-3 millions, representing, if 
this argument is valid, a diversion of {7-7 millions. In 1927 there was a 

eneral increase in freight rates of 7 per cent., and assuming that this did 
fot cause a diminution in aggregate revenue, this would mean that the 
loss was the more significant. Since then, however, many rates have 
had to be reduced. 

Taking passenger and merchandise traffic together, the total loss of net 
revenue to the railways due to road competition between 1923 and 1930 
may be estimated at not less than £16 millions. 

In order to view the position in true perspective, it is necessary to 
disgress a little at this point and consider the growth of road transport and 
the causes of its development from the side of the motor transport industry. 

Since the war the development of motor transport has been remarkable. 
Though there were some 307,000 motor vehicles in use in Great Britain 
in 1914, the number had fallen to 189,000 in 1918, owing to the restric- 
tions of the war period. The railway strike of 1919, however, greatly 
stimulated the use of motor vehicles and by 1920 the number in use had 
grown to 551,000. By 1923 it had soared to 1,131,000. In 1928 it was 
just over 2 millions, and it reached 2} millions in 1933. 

_ Up to 1925 the most numerous category of vehicles was the motor- 
cycle, but since that year the number of private motor-cars has exceeded 
the number of motor-cycles. Motor-cycles increased in number con- 
tinuously from 373,000 in 1921 to 705,025 in 1929, but in 1933 they had 
decreased to 540,594. 

The growth in the number of private motor-cars as at August 31 in 
each year is shown in the following table : 


1921 242,500 1928 877,277 
1922 314,769 1929 970,275 
1923 383,525 1930 1,042,258 
1924 473,528 1931 1,076,128 
1925 579,901 1932 1,118,521 
1926 676,207 1933 1,195,982 


1927 = 778,056 


126 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


The reduced horse-power tax on private cars, which comes into force 
in 1935, will no doubt serve further to stimulate the use of such vehicles. 

There has been a similar continuous increase in the number of goods- 
carrying vehicles, despite the ups and downs in national prosperity. In 
spite of the trade depression after 1929 and the uncertainties caused by 
the publication of the Salter Report, the number of goods vehicles has 
continued to increase. The next table gives in each year the number of 
such vehicles in use in Great Britain as at November 30, the number 
licensed being greatest in this quarter of the year. 


1923 183,250 1929 325,700 
1924 212,300 1930 340,500 
1925 234,200 1931 352,500 
1926 259,000 1932 360,200 
1927 282,800 1933 379,600 


1928 301,500 


The last category of vehicle to which it is necessary to direct attention 
is that of Hackney Carriages, comprising taxi-cabs, motor-buses, and 
motor-coaches. In this class a noticeable feature has been the decline 
between 1930 and 1932. ‘This is to be explained by the operation of the 
Road Traffic Act, 1930, which imposed restrictions on the use of motor 
buses and coaches. ‘The number of hackney vehicles in use in each year 
in Great Britain as at August 31 is given in the next table. 


1921 82,800 1928 93,429 
1922 77,014 1929 =: 95,798 
1923 85,965 1930 98,865 
1924 94,153 1931 86,208 
1925 98,833 1932 84,667 
1926 99,077 1933 85,352 
1927 95,676 


According to statistics contained in the Reports of the Traffic Com- 
missioners the number of passengers carried in public service vehicles was 
5,2694 millions in 1931 and 5,4184 millions in 1933, or approximately 
more than six times the number of passenger journeys by rail including 
season ticket holders. The average receipt per passenger journey by 
road was, however, only 2-66d. in 1931, and 2:57d. in 1933. The total 
passenger receipts were £58-4 millions in 1931, and £57-9 millions in 
1933- 

Apart from such factors as the exhaustion of the railways after the war, 
and the industrial disputes of 1919 and 1926, the striking growth of road 
transport has been due to a variety of factors, such as its mobility, flexi- 
bility, and convenience ; a succession of technical improvements; the 
fall in the price of fuel and other costs (petrol cost 2s. 113d. in May 1921, 
but in 1934 it cost only 1s. 5d. despite the addition of a tax of 8d.a gallon) ; 
and its lower charges for certain traffics. 

The great convenience of motor transport has been a most important 
factor in the case of the private car. The advantages of having a vehicle 
which can be used when, where, and as the owner desires are obvious. 


F.—ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS 127 


To commercial travellers, salesmen, etc., the motor-car is a most valuable 
help. Naturally this development has robbed the railways of much 
trafic which would otherwise have come to them, but which they are 
unlikely to regain. The effect is most obvious in the case of first-class 
traffic. ‘There must also be a considerable loss of traffic to the railways 
during holiday times. On the other hand, there is no doubt that a big 
proportion of road traffic is new traffic which would not have developed 
without the motor-car. 

The competition of the motor-bus and motor-coach has been most 
severe on local journeys, short distance travel, and cross-country routes, 
where the railway station is not so near, or the services less frequent, or 
the timings not so good. In these circumstances, partly through greater 
convenience, partly owing to lower fares, the motor-bus has established 
a definite ascendency and it will be no easy task for the railways to regain 
much of this traffic. 

On the goods side the competition of road transport with rail has become 
intensified during recent years. Again, this competition is partly a matter 
of the convenience of road transport; but it is chiefly a question of 
charges, especially in the case of goods placed in the higher classes of the 
general railway classification. Road hauliers have been able to quote low 
rates for the higher grades of traffic without any statutory obligation to 
carry commodities in the lower grades, such as ores, iron, coal, limestone, 
or road metal. Knowing both the standard and the exceptional rates of 
the railways from any station to any other, they can undercut the railways 
with a lower rate, and frequently base their charges on the existing railway 
rate. 

Mr. W. V. Wood, a vice-president of the London, Midland, and 
Scottish Railway, has recently emphasised the probable effects of such 
competition. ‘It is clear that the two systems cannot live together, 
and ordinary commercial considerations will force a levelling downwards 
of the higher railway rates and a levelling upwards of the lower railway 
rates, if the conditions governing the use of the public roads continue as 
now.’ 

The Road and Rail Traffic Act, 1933, which is now coming into operation, 
will no doubt tend to restrict increased competition from road hauliers, 
since before new licences to operate goods vehicles may be granted it has 
to be shown that there is a need for them, and the railways have a right 
to lodge objections. But it must be remembered that the Act permits 
what is called ‘ claimed tonnage ’ to all existing operators. There can, 
therefore, be no immediate reduction in competition. Moreover the issue 
of “ C’ licences, that is, licences to those traders using road transport in 
connection with their own business and not carrying for others, may not 
be refused for either new or old tonnage, except on grounds of former 
bad conduct or failure to observe conditions. But, as stated in the 
Report of the Royal Commission on Transport, 80 per cent. of goods- 
carrying vehicles are owned by traders and manufacturers for providing 
their own collections and deliveries, and one effect of the 1933 Act may 
be to increase the number of traders who provide their own transport. 
There is here, therefore, a wide margin of goods traffic which may be still 


128 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


further lost by the railways, or a similar margin that may be won back 
by them under favourable conditions. 

Before the coming of the railways coastwise shipping used to be of 
the greatest importance to British trade, and during the nineteenth century 
it remained a formidable competitor to the railways. War-time con- 
ditions, however, transferred much of the traffic to the railways, and even 
yet coastwise shipping has not fully recovered from this set-back. 

Nevertheless coastal shipping is by no means a negligible competitor 
with the railways since it is a very cheap form of transport. It has 
indeed been described as the British equivalent of the inland waterways 
of the Continent. It is particularly well suited to the carriage of coal 
(indeed 60 per cent. of the commodities carried coastwise consist of coal), 
and for the distribution of foodstuffs from ocean-going vessels. 

Coastwise passenger services operate between London and Newcastle, 
Liverpool and Scotland, while goods services are very numerous. From 
Manchester, for example, cargo liners sail weekly to Aberdeen, Dundee, 
Leith, Kirkcaldy, Newcastle ; and twice weekly to London, Glasgow, 
and Greenock. The coastal liner services are now utilising road transport 
to effect collections and deliveries, and in this way are able to give direct 
door-to-door services, for which through rates are charged. Containers 
are also being employed. 

During recent years it would seem that the railways have lost some of 
their traffic to the coasting trade. In evidence before the National Wages 
Board a year or two ago, Sir Ralph Wedgwood stated that the railways 
had lost the carriage of two million tons of coal from the Midlands to the 
South in consequence of the competition of coal shipped coastwise from 
Northumberland and Fife. Coastal shipping rates, he stated, are now 
16 per cent. below their pre-war level owing to the severe depression in 
the freight market. 

A recent important development in the coasting trade has been the evolu- 
tion of Diesel-engined shallow-draught vessels capable of working into the 
smaller ports of the country. Such ships are now regularly penetrating to 
such places as Norwich, Colchester, York, Selby, Lancaster, Bridgwater, 
Gainsborough, Truro, Penryn, Exeter, and Totnes. The total number 
of ships engaged in navigating shallow channels has of recent years tended 
to diminish owing to the ‘ scrapping’ of obsolete sailing vessels, but, 
owing to the substitution of power-driven vessels of larger size, the volume 
of trade has tended to increase. ‘The use of such craft has, for example, 
transformed Norwich as a port, and no less than 30,000 to 40,000 tons of 
sea-borne coal a year are now being carried into Norwich, whereas a few 
years ago the port was little used. 

Some of the latest coasting vessels, though of 1,400 tons dead weight, 
have a draught under full load of somewhat under 14 ft., and can therefore 
enter ports formerly used by only the smallest coastal liners. ‘The ships 
are fitted with the most modern equipment for the handling and stowage 
of cargo, and are therefore independent of the dock facilities—formerly 
a question of considerable difficulty. It is indeed true to say that the 
British shallow-draught coasting trade is being rapidly revolutionised. 

Air transport is the third, and most recent, competitor with rail transport. 


F.—ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS 129 


Its great advantages are speed and independence of the nature of the route 
traversed, since direct journeys over both land and sea are possible. In 
other countries, notably Germany and the U.S.A., air transport competi- 
tion has been severely felt by the railways; but in Great Britain the 
comparatively short distances have prevented any rapid development of 
internal air transport lines up to the present year. The advantage of speed 
is somewhat reduced by the time taken to travel from the centre of towns 
to the adjacent aerodromes. In the table on p. 130 statistics are given 
relating to air transport in this country for the years 1929-33. It will be 
seen that the total mileage flown, even for 1933, amounted only to a little 
more than three million miles. 

During the present year, however, great activity has been shown in the 
inauguration of internal air routes. In March 1934 a total mileage of 
approximately 5,000 route miles, or roughly a quarter of the railway route 
mileage, was contemplated by various. undertakings taken together. Not 
all these schemes may come to fruition. Last year the mileage operated 
over regular routes was under 600 route miles. In previous years, there- 
fore, the railway companies in this country had no occasion to take air 
competition very seriously, but profiting by their experience of road trans- 
port competition, and to be prepared, they obtained air transport powers 
in 1929. This year they have formed a new company—Railway Air 
Services, Ltd., in conjunction with Imperial Airways, Ltd—for the 
operation of internal air transport routes. 

Experiments made in the past have not been very encouraging, and last 
year, for example, the G.W.R. lost over £6,000 on its air service between 
Birmingham, Cardiff, and Torquay ; while in 1930 the City Councils of 
Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham had to subsidise the internal 
experimental routes of Imperial Airways, Ltd. 

In the past the best results have been shown where air transport could 
take shorter routes than the rail, or routes involving a sea passage—e.g. 


_ the air ferries between Bristol and Cardiff, Hull and Grimsby, Glasgow 


and Belfast, London and Cowes, Thurso and the Orkneys. 
In August of this year Railway Air Services introduced a route between 


‘London, Birmingham, the Isle of Man, Belfast, and Glasgow, whereby 


it is possible to leave Glasgow at 9.15 A.M. and reach London (Croydon) 
by 1.30 P.M. Leaving London again at 3.10 P.M. one could be back in 
Glasgow at 7.30 P.M. 

The importance of this year’s developments are due to the employment 
of faster aircraft. The machines used in 1930 on the Manchester-London 
route had a cruising speed of go miles per hour, but to-day the machines 
which are being employed are capable of over 140 miles per hour. Another 
important development is the utilisation of these services by the Post 


Office for the carriage of mails. 


If the new services commenced this year can survive as a commercial 


_ undertaking, a new era in British transport will have been inaugurated. 


But when full account is taken of all the costs of operation this is extremely 


doubtful, unless a subsidy in some form is granted them. 


The decline in railway traffic which has taken place during the post- 


_ War years has been due, as I have said, to a variety of causes, including 


F 


SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


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F.—ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS 131 


economic depression, the shrinkage in world trade, and competition from 
other modes of transport. It is a very difficult matter to disentangle the 
effects of the various causes, and no very definite conclusions can be 
reached on this point. The effects of road competition are, however, 
incontestable, and the abstraction of traffic by this competitor is reflected 
in the general trends in traffic statistics for general merchandise and 
passenger services during the post-war period. 

Fluctuations in national prosperity are clearly indicated by variations 
in the volume of traffic (e.g. the peaks of 1920 and 1929 stand out clearly, 
as does the trough of the great depression), and these have affected traffic 
of all kinds. ‘The improvement in the internal economic position of the 
country is definitely indicated in the monthly traffic statistics of the past 
year, but it cannot be expected that the prosperity of 1929 can be attained 
until the international trading position improves. 

The chronic depression in the old pre-war export industries has 
naturally led to a fall in the traffic provided by them; thus even in the 
comparatively good year 1929 the tonnage of coal, coke, and patent fuel 
carried by rail was only 91°8 per cent. of that in 1913. By 1931 this 
traffic had fallen off by a further 334 million tons. Now coal traffic is 
practically immune from road competition, and it is only during the past 
few years that coastwise competition has become somewhat more severe. 
A considerable fall in other mineral traffic since 1913 is obviously due to 
a similar cause. 

General merchandise traffic shows a fall of more than 10 million tons 
comparing 1929 with 1913, despite the fact that the industrialisation and 
population of the country has increased since 1913. In this case, there is 
no doubt but that road competition has been the prime cause of the loss 
of traffic. The considerable expansion in the lighter industries of Great 
Britain hardly appears to be reflected at all in railway traffic. These 
industries are well suited to road transport, and in fact many new factories 
are now built not at rail-side, but on the main roads and utilise road 
transport for all their requirements. 

As regards passenger transport, the very marked decline in First Class 
travel from 233 million journeys in 1913 and 34} million journeys in 
1920 to only 17} million journeys in 1929 is no doubt in large part—though 
by no means altogether—due to the increased use of motor-cars. The 
fall in Third Class travel (756 million journeys in 1913, 823 million 
in 1920, and only 657 million in 1929) is due to the competition of the 
motor-bus and motor-coach. In estimating the effects of road com- 
petition it must be remembered that it is not sufficient to measure the 
figures of to-day against those of 1913. ‘The railways have failed to 
obtain their share of the new traffic which has arisen since 1913 owing to 
increase of population or from the tendency of journeys per capita to 
increase as the years go by. 

The only direction in which rail traffic has definitely held its own is in 
parcels traffic. Season ticket travel by train, it is true, has increased since 
1913, but the railways have not gained a proportionate part of the new 
traffic which must be very considerable bearing in mind the trend of 
population away from the centres of towns to outlying districts. 


132 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


Turning next to consider the reasons why traffic hitherto rail-borne has 
been captured by other forms of transport, it is obvious that the effects of 
the war, though they gave the railways an advantage over canals and coast- 
wise shipping, were responsible for a setback to railway efficiency, and 
thus gave road transport an opportunity to develop in its initial stages. 
Next the strikes of 1919 and 1926 resulted in the loss of much traffic to 
the roads and it is certain that much of this was never regained. The 
question of relative cost to the user has naturally been an important factor 
in determining the distribution of traffic as between road and rail, though 
it has not been the only factor. For many kinds of traffic, especially those 
placed in the higher classes of the railway classification, road transport 
except over long distances has been cheaper. Here we are faced with a 
fundamental difference in principle. The railways base their classifica- 
tion in the main on the value of the commodity, while road transport 
bases its classification on the cost of the service. 

Relative costs to the user as between road and rail are affected by a 
variety of considerations such as transhipment, the degree of packing 
required, loading and unloading, the possibility of return loads, the 
volume of the traffic offering, distance, frequency of journeys, wage rates, 
and labour costs. 

Road transport generally has the advantage where the haul is for short 
or medium distances, where return loads are available, where the articles 
require careful handling, or where the traffic passes in quantities sufficient 
for a van or lorry load. ‘The advantages of road transport in regard to cost 
are, for example, well illustrated in the case of furniture removal, where road 
quotations in the past have often been very much below rail. ‘The railways 
are now, however, trying to regain this traffic by means of containers. 

Road transport has definite advantages for local deliveries and collec- 
tions and for transit up to a certain distance, which varies with the nature 
of the trafic. On the other hand, beyond a certain distance for most kinds 
of traffic, for transport in bulk, and where certain ancillary services have 
to be performed, the rail has a definite superiority. 

Cost, however, has not been the only factor in determining the relative 
economic spheres of the two forms of transport. As already indicated, 
speed, convenience, and incidental advantages have also to be taken into 
account. ‘The motor vehicle is at the direct command of the user; it 
can readily be adapted to suit special requirements; there is a lessened 
liability to damage and pilferage ; prompt service can be given ;_ the goods 
can be loaded and unloaded by men conversant with the special require- 
ments of the business. The location of the consignor’s or consignee’s 
premises may be a further factor affecting the choice of transport methods. 
Again, the motor vehicle has a considerable publicity value for certain 
traders. 

On the other hand, the dependability, reliability, and speed of the 
railway, especially on long distances, gives it an advantage. The relative 
advantages are well illustrated in the case of perishable commodities. 
Fish traffic, for instance, which often goes long distances, and which must 
arrive in time for the market, goes by rail; fresh fruit, which can be sent 
direct by road from the grower to nearby towns, goes by road. Again, 


F.—ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS 133 


long-distance milk traffic in bulk, generally, though not always, goes by 
rail; short-distance collections from farms or deliveries to neighbouring 
towns go by road. 

In the case of passenger traffic, the road has gained most on the short 
haul. Motor-buses can be operated so as to give a more frequent service ; 
they can go right into the centre of the towns, and they may pass by the 
door of the traveller. ‘They do not require a very heavy traffic in order 
to prove remunerative. But on the long journey, the motor-bus is slow— 
even the long-distance express services in operation just prior to 1930 
were generally competing with the railways in price only. Costs were 
low because of the user obtained from the vehicles and the cheap ‘ summer’ 
tickets had not then been introduced. Road transport cannot deal so 
successfully with intensive passenger traffic as can the rail. 

In the case of air transport competition depends almost entirely on 
speed. Air transport in this country shows to the greatest advantage 
where rail transport is slow because of roundabout routes or where transfer 
between rail and sea is involved. 

It must, I think, be admitted that until the last few years the railways 
either did not realise the extent to which road transport was likely to 
develop or, at least, were slow to take steps to meet the competition which 
was arising. Prior to the advent of road transport the railways relied 
too much on their established position. ‘They were inclined to wait for 
traffic to come to them, since in most cases no other mode of transport of 
equal efficiency was available. It is true they employed canvassers, but 
canvassing for traffic was not undertaken to the same extent or with the 
same Zeal as it is to-day. The needs of their customers were not made a 
special subject of study. There was a tendency to wait for complaint 
to arise before altering an existing mode of operation or the kind of service 
offered, except in those cases where an operating economy to the benefit 
of the company was likely to be effected. Examples are not far to seek. 
On the passenger side they failed to see the latent demand for a more 
frequent service of trains at more regular intervals, especially on branch 
lines. On the goods side they took insufficient notice of the changes in 
the needs of traders. Owing to the more rapid changes of fashion, to the 
necessity of holding a greater variety of goods and at the same time 
keeping working capital low, traders to-day keep smaller stocks of each 
commodity. Frequently they need to replenish stocks at short notice, 
and consequently demand a more expeditious delivery of small consign- 
ments. In consequence of these changes, merchandise traffic by goods 
train has definitely tended to go in smaller lots, and in many depots the 
increase in the number of consignments per ton of goods handled has been 
remarkable. 

These demands of the passenger and the trader are admittedly ex- 
pensive to meet. The costs of providing such services with the existing 
equipment or mode of operation are higher than for the kind of service 
hitherto rendered by the railways. A monopoly holder under such 
conditions may refuse to supply the public with what it wants, but where 
competition exists a firm can only do so at the risk of being driven out of 
business. 


134 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


It is true that the Railways Act, 1921, no less than the economic de- 
pression, made it incumbent on the railways to effect economies both in 
their organisation and in their mode of working ; and, as we have seen, 
in spite of the high level of their wage and certain other costs, they have 
succeeded in doing so to a marked degree. Yet I cannot help but feel 
that in certain directions economies have been effected at the expense of 
efficiency, though not, as the statistics show, at the expense of safety. 

Within the last few years this policy has, however, been reconsidered. 
A considerable programme of re-equipment has been entered upon. 
Lines are being widened, new locomotives and rolling stock are being 
built, and smaller trains at more frequent intervals are being run on 
branch lines. There is every indication that this policy is to be actively 
pursued in the near future. The extension of electrification of lines is a 
special case in point. 

Even more noteworthy are the attempts now being made to recover 
the goods traffic the railways had lost to road transport. Braked goods 
trains have considerably increased since 1928, giving a far quicker service 
from station to station. Containers for perishable goods, for furniture, 
and for special consignments of various kinds are now being increasingly 
provided, and suitable wagons built for their conveyance. Collection and 
delivery services at terminal stations have also been entirely overhauled 
and improved. ‘The delivery areas have been extended. Feeder services 
for the collection of goods by road vehicles have been established in many 
centres, enabling the delivery of goods at their destination to be effected 
on the day following that of collection. The delivery of goods has also 
been expedited by the establishment of railhead or radial distribution 
centres from which goods are delivered over wide areas by fleets of motors, 
which thus save the delays of transhipment and quicken delivery. 

Naturally, these new services have taken time to develop, and though it 
is still true that in certain cases consignments of less than wagon-load 
amounts are several days on the journey from sender to consignee, the 
average journey time of consignments on the railways has been greatly 
reduced. 

A considerable change in the methods which the railways might adopt 
in dealing with road competition was brought about by the Railway 
(Road Transport) Acts, 1928, which.conferred road powers on the railway 
companies. Under these Acts, each of the four grouped railways was 
permitted to own and operate road vehicles in any district to which 
access is afforded by the system of the company. ‘The railway companies 
were also allowed to invest in any established road transport concern or to 
enter into agreements with any municipality, company, or other concern. 
Rates and charges, however, are subject to review by the Rates Tribunal 
on application by interested parties, and notice of any agreement must be 
given to the Minister of Transport. 

Until these Acts came into operation the railways were fighting with 
one arm tied. ‘The road arm is now free, and the railways have already 
shown that they intend to use it freely, not only where it -is actually 
remunerative, but wherever it is felt desirable to improve efficiency and 
effect quicker delivery of goods. The liberty conferred on the railway 


tt te lie 


F.—ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS 135 


companies by the Acts is very wide, and except in the matter of charges 
for regular services—which will, it is likely, be always a minority of the 
services required—puts the railways companies in a position to compete 
with the road haulier with absolute freedom. 

An ‘ ideal distribution’ of traffic would provide for an economically 
sound division of function between road, rail, and other forms of trans- 
port, and would take into account, not only the price to the consumer and 
the cost to the operator, but also the ultimate real cost to the community. 
Such an ‘ ideal’ division of function would provide that every passenger 
and every ton of goods would pass by that mode of transport or com- 
bination of modes which would provide the most efficient service at the 
least cost to the community. In this way overlapping, redundant, or un- 
necessary services would disappear, and each form of transport would 
convey just those passengers and goods for which it was best suited. 
Such a division of traffic between the different modes of transport would 
be determined by the demand of those who required it and the facilities 
offered by those who provided it, while the incidence of cost to the com- 
munity should be such as not to involve the subsidisation of any one form 
at the expense of the others. 

Sir Josiah Stamp, in his Presidential Address to the Institute of 
Transport, examined this particular problem from the point of view of 
expenditure of capital. He argued that if all forms of transport were 
subject to one authority, such a body would be failing in its duty if it 
extended one form of transport—other things being equal in the matter 
of service—instead of another which would have involved less expenditure 
or given better results for the same outlay. But, as he pointed out, 
under present conditions there is no guarantee that any one section of 
transport, in ignorance of the true costs or scientific position of the other, 
may not embark capital on projects which may be quickly rendered 
obsolescent by imminent advances elsewhere, or alternatively it may fail 
to embark capital for fear of obsolescence which in fact does not occur. 
We have, as he pointed out, not yet reached the stage where rival forms 
come together and agree that a particular piece of transport development 
should be undertaken by that form of transport which can do the work 
for least cost taking into account any public expenditure involved. He 
added that ‘ Even governmental application of capital to transport itself 
is quite empirical, especially if it has responsibility for one form and not 
for another. How much more is the application of capital by a hundred 
different agencies ? ’ 

The difficulties of distributing traffic on any ‘ ideal basis’ has been 
strongly emphasised in the Final Report of the Royal Commission on 
Transport. ‘But as things are to-day,’ they ask, ‘is such a state of affairs, 
or even any approach to it practicable ? Who is to decide, for example, 
what rail services are desirable in the public interest and what amount 
of coastwise shipping ? Or what goods should in the national interest 
be sent by rail, road, canal, or ship? To propound the question is 
sufficient to bring home the immense difficulty which it involves.’ 

They suggested, however, a rough approximation to this position in 
one particular, since they were of the opinion that it is not in the national 


136 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


interest to encourage further diversion of heavy-goods traffic from the 
railways to the roads. ‘ Such further diversions would add greatly to the: 
expenditure on highways and tend to make the railways unremunerative, 
without conferring any commensurate advantage.’ 

The Salter Committee endorsed this view, and recommended that the 
Minister of Transport should be given power to prohibit by regulation 
(after consulting the Advisory Committee which they recommended 
should be set up) certain classes of traffic which are unsuitable for road 
haulage from being transferred in the future to the road. They added 
that there is room for a scientific inquiry as to the most economic form 
of transport for each class of goods, having regard to distance and other 
considerations. 

The ideal distribution of traffic could only be brought about if it were 
possible to secure that each piece of transport service, by whatever mode 
of transport it was effected, was charged for at a rate sufficient to cover 
its true cost of production. But the difficulties of determining such 
true costs are very great indeed, and especially so in the case of both rail 
and road transport. On the railways it is impossible unless one makes 
large and arbitrary assumptions in the division of costs between different 
categories of traffic, yet requiring the same permanent way, much 
common equipment, and many common services. It is equally difficult 
in the case of road transport—as the Royal Commission on ‘Transport 
and the Salter Conference realised—if one is to take into account a proper 
share, according to user, of the cost of construction and maintenance of 
roads, the cost of signalling road junctions, the cost of street widenings 
in cities, and the construction and maintenance of terminal and junction 
stations. It would appear that in both cases we can only approach the 

problem by empirical methods. The real cost of production eludes us. 

_ "To what extent is it possible for the railways to find some solution of 
their problem by an alteration of their present (statutory) system of 
charging ? Sucha step is advocated by many railway critics at the present 
time. ‘The proposals range from a general lowering of rates and fares— 
based on the assumption that the elasticity of demand for rail transport 
is such that a higher aggregate net revenue would thereby be obtained— 
to schemes involving a revolutionary change in the general structure of 
railways charges. 

Prof. Pigou, in his Economics of Welfare, makes a careful analytical 
examination of the contrasted methods of charging according to value of 
service and cost of service, and comes to the conclusion that the latter mode 
of charging would bring about a better distribution of national resources 
and thereby increase national welfare. But his argument is by no means 
clear, nor does he indicate how the system could be carried out in practice. 
He admits that to apply the system would involve a number of delicate 
adjustments, since rates would have to vary with the incidental costs 
attaching to each service, and with the time at which it is provided in 
relation to the peak of the load. To provide for these adjustments 
would often be, as he again admits, a very difficult matter, involving 
costly technique and account- -keeping. Eventually, he compromises by 
stating that it is a matter of how near to the ideal of cost of service it is 


F.—ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS 137 


desirable to approach, and of determining at what point the advantage 
of getting closer to cost of service is outweighed by the complications, 
inconveniences, and expense involved in doing so. Moreover, there is the 
point that any change-over to a system of charging based essentially on 
cost of service would cause a very considerable disturbance in the present 
distribution of economic resources and activities. Various economic 
equilibria have been established on the basis of the present system of 
charges—e.g. location of plants, organisation of the heavy industries, etc., 
all of which would be disturbed by such a fundamental change. The 
' matter is, for example, linked up with our present export industries, 
since in the past the mainstays of our export trade have been the coal, 
iron, steel, heavy chemical, and heavy engineering industries, all of which 
obtain the advantage, under the present system of differential charging, 
of low railway rates. Obviously, a change of such magnitude would 
create great opposition from many people who would fear that their 
position would be adversely affected. There is, indeed, little doubt 
that public opinion would strongly resent any sweeping changes. On 
the other hand, should the nature of our export trade change in character 
in the future or should we develop our home markets at the expense of 
our exports, there would probably be less opposition to the change. 
Nevertheless, as Mr. Wood has indicated, some change in the structure 
of railway charges must be made, unless the competition between rail 
and road transport is put on a more equitable basis, or their competitive 
superiority in given cases can be more clearly established. 

Prof. Pigou has emphasised the importance of the time factor in relation 
to peak loads ; but it is also necessary to consider the load factor itself. 
Some advocates of railway reform, such as Mr. M. F. Farrar, have based 
their proposals on a consideration of this factor. It must, I think, be 
admitted that the load factor, both in relation to time and volume of 
traffic passing in a given consignment or on a given section of line is of 
considerable importance. ‘The influence of this factor is already seen 
at work in current railway practice. For though railway rates are based 
in the main on the value of the service, other factors are also taken into 
account. An example of the influence of the time factor is that of reduced 
fares on certain suburban routes for traffic outside the peak hours. The 
load factor is also taken into account in ‘ minimum consignment ’ rates, 
the rate for small consignments, and in those special or exceptional rates 
which are granted in consideration of the traffic passing in bulk—e.g. full 
wagon or full train loads. 

The question is how far could the practice of charging according to 
the load factor be extended with advantage. Costs to a railway are at a 
minimum when its capacity is fullyemployed. It could, I think, be argued 
that charges should be varied according as the particular demand for 
transport services increases or diminishes the load factor. If certain 
traffics involve only the partial utilisation of equipment which nevertheless 
has to be provided—e.g. traffic passing in less than full wagon or full train 
loads, provision of additional terminal facilities, etc-—then it might be 
said that the charges should be higher than for traffic which gives a better 
utilisation of equipment. 


F2 


138 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


In the somewhat analogous case of electricity supply, it is of interest 
to note that charges are more and more being based on considerations 
relating to the load factor. Electricity cannot be stored economically. 
Hence any demand that comes on at a peak hour has, so to speak, to have 
part of the capital of the generating machinery allocated to it. But if a 
new demand came on only between peak hours, this allocation would not 
be necessary. 

It is conceivable that the system of railway charging according to the 
load factor may be taken more into account in the future ; but it is diffi- 
cult to see how it could be applied as a universal method. It is still more 
difficult to see how it could prove a solution of the problems to-day 
confronting the railways. Road competition alone, and perhaps that of 
air transport in the future, not to mention the increasingly retail character 
of trade, would wreck any attempt to enforce a rigid adherence to this 
principle. 

I see, therefore, no real solution of the problem along either of these lines. 
Meanwhile, there is considerable diversion of traffic from a more economic 
to a less economic mode of transport. How is this to be prevented ? 

In a noteworthy article in the Economic Fournal, June, 1922, on “ Com- 
munication Costs and their Inter-dependence,’ the late Sir William 
Acworth drew attention to the uneconomic diversion of traffic which may 
occur when one form of traffic is subsidised by the State. ‘ There is,’ 
he said, ‘a real distinction between the cost of providing a means of 
communication which is of general—or at least of wide—public benefit, 
and the cost of its use, which normally benefits only the particular user.’ 
‘If, however, in one case the user, whether passenger or trader, has to pay 
the whole cost of his use, including the cost of providing and maintaining 
the specialised road as well as the actual conveyance cost, whilst in another 
use he is called upon to pay either a conveyance cost only, or the cost of 
conveyance plus some of the cost of maintenance of the roadway, un- 
economic diversion of traffic from one mode of transport to another is 
likely to occur. He quotes numerous instances of such diversions of 
traffic, not merely from railways to roads, but also from railways to canals 
or coastwise shipping. 

‘ If it be reasonable to charge upon the user of a macadam road the cost 
of use only, there seems no a priori reason why a similar policy should 
not be adopted in the case of a rail-road.’ He foresaw, however, the very 
great difficulty there would be in apportioning the cost of construction 
and maintenance to the users of the roads or other mode of transport. 
In the case of the roads, even if the capital cost incurred up to a given 
point were ignored—as in fact the Salter Committee later proposed that 
it should be—it would be a task of well-nigh insuperable difficulty to work 
out a new scheme of tolls or licences which would apportion the remaining 
costs even approximately and with only rough justice as between the 
many different classes of users. 

His plea, therefore, is that the cost of construction of communications— 
using the term in a broad sense—together with the annual cost of their 
maintenance should be a State charge, undertaken in the economic interests 
of the whole community. 


Ee 


F.—ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS 139 


The adoption of such a policy would mean not only a drastic revision 
of the present system of road taxation, but also the handing over of the 
permanent way of the railways at a fair valuation to the State, which would 
then become responsible for its maintenance. 

The difficulties of getting public opinion to approve such a scheme are 
obvious, and were fully recognised by Acworth himself. The railways 
are private enterprises, and the suggestion that the tax-payer or rate-payer 
should be called upon to pay any part of the cost of construction and 
maintenance even of new lines, much more of lines constructed in the 
past, “ would come as a shock’ to the average Englishman, though both 
in Paris and New York, this has in fact been done in the case of urban 
lines. This would be the first difficulty. Nor is it likely that public 
opinion would be won over by the fact that both in this country and in 
the U.S.A. laws have been passed limiting the profits which railways 
may earn to a reasonable return on their invested capital. 

But there is a further difficulty. It is obvious that if the railway 
companies were relieved of this part of their cost of operation, railway 
charges could be very greatly reduced. The capital expenditure of the 
four grouped companies to December 31, 1933, on the lines open for 
traffic or under construction amounts to £795 millions. Interest on this 
sum at 4 per cent. would amount to £31-8 millions. Maintenance of 
way and works amounts to £16-8 millions. Though a considerable 
reduction would have to be made from both these items in respect of 
works which are not part of the permanent way, it is clear that the rail- 
ways would be able to make sweeping reductions in their charges and yet 
earn their full standard revenue, as fixed by the Railways Act, 1921. 

But would this in itself secure that economic distribution of traffic, 
both of passengers and goods, as between competing modes of transport, 
which is the distribution desired? ‘Though it would remove some 
glaring inequalities, as between road and rail, it would not really effect 
the object Acworth had in mind. The cost to the State in providing and 
maintaining the communications for each mode of transport might easily 
prove to be heavier for a unit of transport work undertaken by one mode 
of transport than by another. Nor is it easy to see how the State might 
so adjust the scales that traffic—having regard to the kind of service 
required—would pass by the most economic method. In the absence of such 
adjustment the economic loss to the community would be considerable. 

Whilst, therefore, we can agree with Acworth that ‘ it is incumbent 
on the Government so to shape its policy as to encourage that means of 
communication which in each case is on the whole the most economical 
to the community at large ’ and that ‘ to permit individual users to employ 
a means of communication which, though the total cost is greater, is 
cheaper to them because they can impose on the tax-payer or rate-payer 
a portion of the cost is economically unsound,’ yet we cannot but feel that 
a solution of the problem is not to be found along the lines he indicates. 

Nor do I think a solution is to be found in an attempt to bring about 
some rational and economic division of traffic as between rail and road, 
as was advocated by Mr. G. Walker in his paper to this Section at Leicester 
last year. Under his scheme the railways would be considered not as a 


140 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


whole but by sections, distinguishing those sections which could and those 
which could not be worked profitably under a revised scheme of charges 
dictated not by adherence to the general railway classification, but by 
the exigencies of the situation, the charges being higher where the traffic 
is light than where it is heavy. The profitable lines would thus, he 
claimed, be able to earn a reasonable net revenue. The unprofitable 
lines would be closed down and their capital cost written off. The areas 
of the latter would then become entirely dependent on road or other 
modes of transport. It is even asserted that, of the 20,000 route miles, 
as much as 10,000 miles might have to be closed, and that, in fact, the only 
lines to be kept open might be the main lines between large towns. 

The adjustment required from the road transport industry would be 
equally drastic. Under such a scheme it would be required to serve only 
those routes, or areas, where traffic is both light and irregular, and where 
return loads are not by any means certain. Each mode of transport 
would have a virtual monopoly in its own area. 

It is hardly necessary to dwell on the opposition which such a division 
of traffic would call forth not only from the railways, but from the road 
hauliers, and, more important still, from the traders. It is sufficient 
criticism of such schemes to say that they fail to take account of the great 
diversity in transport needs, and in the most economic methods of meeting 
them. As modern practice is increasingly showing, a combination of rail 
and road transport is often the most efficient and economic method of meet- 
ing a given demand, particularly in the case of small consignments the 
delivery of which is urgently required. Moreover, it would entail carry- 
ing by road in certain areas, traffic for which road haulage is unsuitable 
and uneconomic; or in other areas sending goods by rail for which rail 
transport cannot give the kind of service required. 

It is not, therefore, by division into areas or spheres that the problem 
can be solved. Both rail and road transport are necessary in all areas, 
except those of very sparse population. ‘The decision as to which shall 
be employed for a given piece of transport must be decided by relative 
efficiency and relative cost in meeting the demand. The two modes of 
transport must necessarily be in constant competition with each other ; 
and it is desirable that they should be so. The real problem is whether 
those costs can be sufficiently nearly determined in any case to decide 
which is the more economic. 

A new phase in the competition between rail and road transport has 
arisen as a result of the Road and Rail Traffic Act, 1933. Under section 37 
of Part II of this Act, a railway company may, subject to the approval of 
the Railway Rates Tribunal, make such charge or charges for the carriage 
of the merchandise of any trader, as may be agreed upon by the Company 
and the trader. Such ‘ agreed charges’ must, however, not be approved 
by the Tribunal if the object may, in its opinion, be secured, having 
regard to all the circumstances, by the grant of appropriate ‘ exceptional 
rates ’ as provided for in the Railways Act, 1921. Moreover, it is import- 
ant to note that a railway company in respect of an ‘ agreed charge’ is 
exempt from the obligation to make equal charges to all persons under 
like circumstances, and from the obligation to accord no undue preference 


F. 


ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS 141 


to any person or firm. The consequences of this to traders will be con- 
sidered later. 

Already over 100 applications for ‘ agreed charges’ have been made, 
and a large number have been sanctioned by the Tribunal. Judging from 
the number of inquiries received by the railways, this system of ‘ agreed 
charges,’ which may take the form of a flat rate on all the traffic of a firm, 
irrespective of distance or the diverse nature of the goods, would seem to 
offer definite advantages to a number of traders. The agreements so far 
made include a provision that the trader should hand to the railway the 
whole of his traffic to which the ‘ agreed charges’ are applicable. In 
one case—one of the greatest interest—the charge is based not ‘ per 
package’ or ‘ per ton’ but on an ad valorem basis of 44 per cent. of the total 
value of the goods purchased by the trader. Such a basis of charge, 
whilst not unknown in the case of road haulage, is a distinct innovation 
in the case of railways. It is obvious that these ‘ agreed charges’ may help 
to reduce accounting and clerical costs both to the trader and the railway 
company. But to the railways the main advantages are that they will 
secure additional traffic and eliminate the risk of further diversion to road 
transport. The provision in the Act of 1933, which made these charges 
legal, was inserted as a result of an adverse judgment by the Railway 
Rates Tribunal in 1932, in the celebrated ‘ Robinson Case’ when an 
agreed charge in the form of special exceptional rates proposed by the 
Great Western Railway was refused on the ground that these were not 
new exceptional rates within the meaning of the Railways Act, 1921. 
The Act of 1933, therefore, relieved the railways of a statutory limitation 
which did not apply to their road transport competitors. 

If the number of successful applications for ‘ agreed charges’ is any 
indication, it would seem that this new system of charging is likely to be 
considerably extended, especially in the case of the larger traders. It isa 
development of the utmost significance in the history of rail and road 
competition. The system of differential charging prescribed by Parlia- 
ment in the earliest Railway Acts, and continued in successive Acts, had 
already been seriously undermined by the great extension of ‘ exceptional 
rates,’ despite the attempt in the Railways Act, 1921, to reduce their 
number by the device of increasing the number of classes in the general 
railway classification from 8 to 21. ‘ Agreed charges’ are a still greater 
departure from the principles of that classification. 

The result of a large extension of the system of ‘ agreed charges’ will 
undoubtedly be still greater competition with road hauliers, and much of 
this cannot fail to be extremely wasteful to the community. But the effect 
on traders generally is even more serious. If the railways make individual 
contracts with particular traders, others in the same line of business will 
no longer be able to rely, as they have been able in the past, on non- 
preferential treatment. The appropriate flat rate to one trader may, 
owing to the different nature or scale of his business, be higher than the 
flat rates to one or more of his competitors. Hitherto he has been able 
to rely on the fact that one of his costs—his costs of transport—is identical 
with that of the others in the same place in competition with him. This 
may no longer be the case in rail rates, just as it has not necessarily been 


142 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


the case with road transport charges. That the traders realise the conse- 
quences of this is clearly seen in the evidence given by them and various 
trade organisations in the course of the hearing of the Robinson and 
Woolworth applications for agreed charges. 

The traders are, in reality, on the horns of a dilemma. They cannot 
ask that the railways should be tied to their former methods of charging 
while they themselves are free to choose road transport when it suits 
them to do so, and at the same time to fall back on rail transport when it does 
not suit them, or when it is more expensive to use the roads. In the past 
the traders have had the best of two worlds by utilising road transport for 
the delivery of their high-valued manufactured products and rail trans- 
port for their coal, raw materials, and even returned empties. 

What then is the solution of the problem? How can the trader’s 
position be best safeguarded and at the same time wasteful competition 
between road and rail be minimised—a competition which will become 
more intense with the extended use of agreed charges ? How can the real 
needs of the country in the way of transport be best and most economically 
met ? 

It would be a foolish and retrograde solution to suggest—though this 
has secured approval in certain countries where state railways have been 
protected by the governments—that the great advantages accruing from 
the development of road transport should be forfeited in the interests of 
the railways. ‘These advantages should be secured to the community 
except where they are clearly uneconomic in character. The railway 
companies in effect admit this, as is shown by their own increasing use 
of road transport either alone or in conjunction with the rail, not only in 
those cases where they have to meet road competition, but in cases where 
this method gives a better or more economic service. 

The best solution that I can see is that the railways should cease to be 
regarded as merely railway companies—which as a matter of fact they 
have long ceased to be, as witness their numerous and well-developed 
ancillary undertakings such as hotels, docks, canals, housing estates, 
associated air and road transport services, and numerous other under- 
takings. They should come to be regarded as transport companies, 
undertaking a given piece of transport by that means or combination of 
means which appears to them (however impossible it is to ascertain real 
relative costs) to be the most economic and, at the same time, most suited 
to meet the real demand of the traveller or trader. 

But this solution would mean the absorption of road passenger and 
goods services—where undertaken for hire or as public services and not 
performed by a firm for the transport of its own commodities—by the 
new ‘ transport companies.’ There would naturally be much opposition 
to this solution, and public opinion would have to be educated. 

This, however, is the solution of the problem which has been adopted 
by the Irish Free State. The Transport Act, 1933, of the Irish Free 
State provides, subject to the approval of the Minister of Transport, for 
the compulsory acquisition of all road transport agencies by railway or 
shipping companies. 

It is significant, too, that a similar solution has been recommended by 


=e = 


F.—ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS 143 


Sir Felix Pole in his Report of July 21, 1934, to the government of Northern 
Ireland, who had requested him to submit recommendations for co- 
ordinating road and rail transport in that country. He advises the 
formation of a Road Transport Board to include all road transport services, 
both passenger and goods. Further, he recommends that the Board 
should be compelled to pool its revenues with the railway companies. 
He was deterred from recommending a single Transport Board, com- 
bining both rail and road transport, only because this would involve 
special difficulties due to the fact that six of the railway companies operate 
both in Northern Ireland and in the Irish Free State. Sir Dawson Bates, 
the Minister for Home Affairs, has since anounced that the Government 
have decided to adopt the main principles of Sir Felix Pole’s report. 
‘ The Government,’ he said, ‘ have come to the conclusion that the only 
practicable method of achieving the object we have in view is to bring 
the two systems of transport into partnership with a common financial 
interest, and to get them to work together instead of against one another, 
so that the best features of both may be used in one system.’ It is under- 
stood that the necessary legislation will be introduced in the spring session 
of Parliament. The formation of the London Passenger ‘Transport 
Board was also a step in the same direction, though, as its name implies, 
it is limited for the most part to the carriage of passengers only. 

If the scheme proposed as a solution, namely, the formation of ‘ Trans- 
port Companies,’ were adopted, it might also be necessary to include air 
transport operating on internal routes. But this should not be difficult 
since the railways, as we have seen, already have an interest in some of 
these services. 

In this way all the means of land transport would come under unified 
management, leaving competition only between land transport and canal 
or coastwise traffic. ‘This is capable of being distributed on a more 
economic basis under competition than in the case of road and rail, and 
it could therefore be left to the forces of competition. It would thus be 
left to the transport company to decide whether a given piece of trans- 
port should be effected by rail or by road, or by a combination of the 
two, but with due regard to the service required by the community. 
Obviously it would be to its own interests to effect it by the most economic 
method. Its own net revenue will be diminished by mistaken methods. 
And though, as we have seen, it will still be impossible for it to work out 
exact costs of operation, either for rail or road, it should be able to do so 
approximately on certain general assumptions based on experience, and 
in this it will be appreciably helped by the fact that both methods of 
operation are within its own control. 

This solution involves, of course, a considerable degree of monopoly. 
The fact has to be recognised. But it should be remembered that in this 
matter transport would only be adopting in its own special way the 
method of rationalisation that has had to be applied in different ways and 
in different degrees to other industries. 

The interests of the community could be safeguarded. The principle 
of limitation of profits could be applied to the new transport companies 
as it was applied to the railways in the Railways Act, 1921, and as it is 


144 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


applied to other public utility undertakings. Provision would have to be 
made so that the companies would share in increased profits or reduced 
costs due to greater efficiency of operation. 

The main difficulty would, of course, be to ensure that the monopoly 
companies should be kept to a high degree of efficiency, and that they 
should continue to meet in a satisfactory way the real and ever-changing 
transport requirements of the community. ‘This might be effected by a 
transformation of the Railway Rates Tribunal, which no longer performs 
any vital function, into a statutory body charged with the express duty of 
seeing that the transport companies are working with due economy and 
efficiency and at the same time meeting the reasonable and legitimate 
demands of the travelling public and those engaged in industry and trade. 
Such a body should have power, with certain safeguards, to compel a 
reluctant company to institute a change in its services or methods of 
operation. There would remain, too, a certain check on efficiency, 
since it is not proposed to restrict the use of private motor-cars or traders 
in the use of their own road vehicles for the purposes of their own 
business. 

Despite the development of the new forms of transport, railways still 
remain the backbone of the transport services of the country. They are 
likely to remain so for many years to come. ‘They are still the most 
economic mode of transport for many purposes. But to meet modern 
requirements, they need to besupplemented by other modes of transport. 
This, I venture to think, can be done most effectively and economically 
when the different modes of transport are under one management. 


SECTION G.—ENGINEERING. 


SOURCES OF CHEAP ELECTRIG POWER 


ADDRESS BY 
PROF. FRANCIS G. BAILY, M.A., F.R.S.E., 
PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 


For many years the extravagant waste of our coal has been the subject 
of criticism. ‘The steam engine, the blast furnace, and the domestic 
fire consumed it recklessly, and thermal efficiency was formerly dis- 
regarded. ‘To-day we are more careful of our fuel, except perhaps in 
the domestic fire, but there is still a considerable and unnecessary waste 
at the very beginning. ‘The amount of combustible material left in the 
mine, dumped at the surface as useless, or burnt at the pit-head to get 
rid of it, has often been pointed out, but its poor quality and large 
proportion of dirt make its transport to a consumer unprofitable, or render 
it unsuitable for use. The latter disability has been largely overcome by 
various devices in the boiler-house, and to-day we see steam raised by stuff 
that would have been scorned by our predecessors. But the material must 
be used on the spot, and the Commission called together by Mr. Lloyd 
George ten years ago advocated a comprehensive if rather shadowy scheme 
for generating electric power at the pit-head. The saving in coal was 
clearly demonstrated, but the financial advantage was not so convincing. 

The last ten years have brought about great changes in the conditions, 
some favourable to the scheme, some diminishing the financial advantage, 
and the question requires reconsideration under present-day conditions, 
with, if possible, a forecast of future developments. 

The general idea of the scheme of production of electric energy here 
proposed takes as its basis the complete linking up of all parts of the 
country by the grid and the subsidiary lines fed from it or from the 
stations directly. All stations are connected to the grid, and as well as 
supplying their local consumers, put the additional power into the grid 
as required. ‘This is the well-known main function of the grid. It is 
here submitted that this leads to a different scheme of generation from that 
now followed, and that sources of cheap power are rendered available that 
previously could not be utilised economically, 

The questions to be considered are : 

(1) The proportion of consumers who are within economic distance 
of a pit-head station. 

(2) The quantity of very cheap coal that is available. 

(3) The relative advantages of widely spaced large stations and more 
numerous small stations. 

(4) The opportunity offered by the grid to bring into economical 
use pit-head stations at small isolated mines, power from factories 
using industrial steam, power from coke-oven and blast-furnace 
gas, and hydro-electric stations. 


146 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


(5) The cost of transmission of electric power as compared with the 
carriage of the equivalent coal by rail or ship. 

(6) The effect of a substantial reduction in the cost of generation on 
the cost of distribution and the selling price of electric energy. 

The first question to be considered is whether pit-head production will 
so much limit the position of the sources of supply as to involve a great 
distance of transmission to a large part of the population. 

If a distance of forty miles be regarded as still in the neighbourhood 
of the coalfields, a map of the coalfields shows that most of Great Britain 
is within this distance. A line across Scotland from Montrose to 
Arrochar on Loch Long is the northern boundary, and a line from Hull 
to Bournemouth, and up to Taunton in Devon, marks the southern and 
eastern limits. A small part of Wales is also outside. ‘Two-thirds of 
the population live in the area, and if London be omitted as a special 
case, only one-fifth of the rest are outside. There is also a probable 
coalfield in Lincolnshire, which if it materialises will bring in a good 
part of this fifth. To a large extent, the population has gathered round 
the coal pits, and there are practically no large towns, except seaports, 
that do not lie within easy reach. A scheme depending on nearness to 
coal pits will have a large field for its operations, and it will in no way 
act prejudicially on parts which it may not be able to benefit. 

It is proposed to use the lowest grade and waste coal, and the proportion 
required may be up to 10 per cent. of the total coal raised. If the outputs 
of the different areas be examined, it is found that this proportion will 
in all cases be adequate for the population of the area. In some areas— 
Durham, S. Wales, and part of Yorkshire—where there is much less waste 
coal, the quantity of coal raised is so large that not more than 2 per cent. 
will be required, which is easily provided from waste. 

The belt of coalfields which lie about 120 miles from London can 
provide enough for their own people and still have an excess of some 
three million tons per annum of cheap coal, which will suffice for London 
at present, but is not enough for the future. Hence London and the 
south may require a proportion of sea-borne coal. There is ample 
Midlands coal, but its use will entail the consumption of qualities for 
which a good price can be obtained for other purposes, and it will be a 
question of relative cost of sea-borne coal and electrical transmission. 
The prospective Lincolnshire field may solve the question in favour of 
direct supply from the pits. 

Inside the area the pit-head station will be more economical than the 
present stations. There are seventy or eighty selected large stations within 
the area, some with no river, many with rivers that will not suffice for a 
largely increased station, so that the sites have little to recommend them 
except nearness to large towns. They were advantageous in early years, 
when their cooling water was adequate and distance of transmission was 
an important matter ; but their future will be without these advantages, 
and their huge consumption of coal will make them undesirable neighbours 
in cities. Railway and canal facilities for coal transport were also 
attractive factors, but these disappear if it is cheaper to convey power 
electrically than to carry the equivalent coal over the distance. 

Any wholesale sudden change of the existing state of things would 


G.—ENGINEERING 147 


certainly involve more loss of central station capital than the economies 
would repay, but in view of future expansion there seems a need for an 
examination of the present policy, which is only the old isolated station 
plan with interconnection by the grid superimposed. ‘The opportunities 
afforded by the grid permit of a great change in the general plan, and a 
change, moreover, that can be introduced by gradual steps, if the final 
scheme is outlined at the beginning. The present rate of expansion 
indicates that in ten years’ time the station power will be at least double 
its present figure, and while the utilisation of spare plant which the 
grid permits will slow down the increase of plant for two or three years, 
after that the normal growth will give opportunity for a new policy. 
There may be some waste of capital, where stations have been designed 
with a view to large expansion, in that certain permanent parts are now 
unnecessarily large ; but the proportion of such parts, taken all over, 
is only a small item, which the saving in fuel costs will quickly repay. 
No scrapping of existing plant need be done unless there will be a gain 
by so doing. 
WasTE Coat. 

The term ‘ waste coal ’ will here be used to include all coal in the seam 
that is not at present sold, but is or can be brought to the surface, and 
coal of poor quality that will be profitably used in the pit-head station, 
instead of being extensively cleaned for sale. This quantity varies with 
the kind of seam and with the purpose for which the coal is used. In 
Durham and S. Wales, where much of the coal is converted into coke, 
there is little waste, as even small fragments can be coked, and the coal 
is won with small admixture of dirt. But in most other parts the dross 
has a larger ash content and is less saleable. Machine cutting produces 
a larger proportion of dirt than hand winning, some of the mixed coal and 
dirt being left in the pit as not worth raising, but the actual cost of working 
is much less. Ifa use is found for the waste, this disadvantage of machine 
cutting will be removed, and the full advantage of the reduced cost of 
cutting will be gained, while no coal need be lost. 

The use of dry-cleaning processes results in a rather larger proportion 
of waste than does the wet process, and if this waste has no value, the 
cheapness of the process is neutralised by the loss of coal; but again 
a use and a market for the waste will be in favour of dry-cleaning. Wet 
processes are from one aspect a wrong action. ‘The water that is 
unavoidably left in the coal and often ignored is quite as detrimental 
to the calorific value as an equal percentage of ash. It is just as useless 
as fuel, and it has further to be evaporated, in which process it absorbs 
1100 B.Th.U. per pound, whereas one pound of ash would require to 
be heated to a temperature of about 2000° F. to absorb that amount 
of heat. There is, of course, the additional trouble of removing the ash, 
but the avoidance of water in the dross and small coal is a definite 
advantage. Hence dry-cleaning will be more widely adopted if the 
waste can be used. The waste from dry-cleaning is often cleaned again 
and some saleable coal recovered, but if the whole waste has a value and 
is used, the cost of additional cleaning will be saved. 

Of the dirty coal that is at present raised and remains as the residue 
of cleaning operations, some is dumped on to waste land and some into 


148 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


the sea, but the greater part is burnt in the furnaces of the mine power 
station. The consumption is wasteful in the extreme, for burning is 
the cheapest way of getting rid of the otherwise useless material. About 
6 per cent. of the coal raised is used to produce steam for power to work 
the mines, whereas in a colliery where the coal is scrupulously saved 
and there is little waste, it is found that the fuel required is only 1-25 per 
cent. of the coal raised, and the quality of it is exceedingly low. Hence 
some 5 per cent. is immediately available for other purposes if it is used 
economically, to which can be added what is actually thrown away. 

Summing up all these actual and prospective sources of low-grade 
coal, it may be estimated that if an overall price of 5s. per ton at 
the cleaning floors were offered, in most districts a quantity equal to 
10 per cent. of the coal raised would be readily obtained, with a smaller 
proportion in the rest, and that this would yield some 18,000,000 tons 
per annum, with a calorific value averaging 10,000 B.Th.U. per lb. This 
is 50 per cent. more than is used to produce the present output of all the 
generating stations. 

Any arrangement by which a waste product from one industry is used 
in another requires some plan to prevent an excess or deficit in the 
product. In the present case an adequate supply of fuel is essential, as 
the sales of electricity cannot be controlled. ‘There is, however, an 
elastic amount of product, for the coal on the boundary line may be either 
used in the station or given a cleaning process, and a greater quantity 
will be available at a small increase in the price. The figure of five 
shillings will include much coal that now has almost no value, so it will 
also cover a fair proportion of coal of a higher value. 

The daily variation in the load curve requires no great storage, but 
the Saturday and Sunday demand must draw from a store, if the colliery 
raises coal on five days a week, as is usual. The seasonal variations 
will, to some extent, balance, for though the domestic load is less, the 
domestic coal demand is also less, and the waste coal corresponding to 
this will be reduced. But seasonal and trade fluctuations can be adjusted 
by altering the amount of boundary line coal. 

The general scheme should permit of using the waste coal from as 
many pits as possible, including even small isolated mines, for they 
assist in supplying the grid at points otherwise unprovided for, and 
reduce the distance of transmission. What the lower limit of economical 
pit station will be need not be elaborately discussed, for the isolated pits 
provide only a small part of the total coal, and their exclusion does not 
materially affect the available supply. As their small stations will have 
a larger cost of interest on plant, they will be advantageously allowed 
to run at full load, putting all their excess power into the grid. The 
wages costs will be little more than their present figure for boiler and 
steam engine attendants. In each case it will not be difficult to determine 
whether to include them as supplying stations, or to supply them from the 
grid and discard all coal that is quite unsaleable, or finally to leave them 
to use their waste coal as at present. The quantity and quality of the 
available coal, and the position of the pit, as regards other pits and as 
regards neighbouring consumers, will be the deciding factors. 

The greater part of the coal raised comes from pits which can be 


G.—ENGINEERING 149 


grouped together, and it is becoming more the custom to bring the coal to 
a central point for cleaning, which will facilitate the use of the waste coal. 
If the figure of 10 per cent. is taken as a working hypothesis, then a 
station of 100,000 kw., working on a load factor of 0-4, will use per 
day some 700 tons of waste coal, and will require a total output from the 
cleaning plant of 9,000 tons per day over the working week. This is 
not an exceptional quantity, and any additional advantage in grouping 
will tend to increase the custom. 

The scheme will evidently provide an important amount of cheap fuel, 
and will permit of power stations of a size that ensures a low figure for 
cost of plant and running costs, so that the low price of the fuel is not 
offset by any increase in cost in other directions. It is true that the 
stations will not be placed in the towns, and to that extent distribution costs 
are increased ; but, on the other hand, land is cheaper, and it is being 
found that a station consuming many hundred tons of coal a day will 
compel the use of expensive remedies against sulphur and dust, so the 
advantages of an urban site will be sensibly diminished. Moreover, 
most of the large towns are not far from coal mines, and the cost of 
transmission will be very small. With pit-head stations of the 100,000 kw. 
size the economy is easily determined, for all working costs other than fuel 
will be practically the same as those of existing stations, if the latter 
were designed and built to-day. 

There will be doubtless a good many stations of smaller size, in which 
there will be some increase in the capital cost per kilowatt and in wages. 
But down to a size of 30,000 or even 20,000 kw. the influence will 
be slight. Coupled by the grid or other lines to neighbouring stations, 
they will not resemble the existing stations of this size, but will contain 
perhaps two generating sets of 10,000 kw. and boilers to correspond, 
so that the present figures of increase of cost per kw. with decreasing 
size will not apply. It will be economical to put all necessary spare plant 
into the large stations, and the equipment of these smaller stations can 
be simplified. Their cost of production will therefore be little different 
from that of the larger stations, and will be substantially lower than 
the best of present-day large stations. 

An actual example will show what can be done in a pit-head station 
equipped with efficient modern plant and run with economy on very 
low-grade fuel. It is only 4,000 kw. in two sets, working at a load factor 
of 0:7. The coal used contains 40 per cent. of ash and moisture, a 
very remnant of fuel, and is given in the colliery accounts a rather 
exaggerated value of 3s. per ton, corresponding in calorific value to a good 
steam coal at 4s. 6d. The consumption corresponds to 1-5 lb. of steam 
coal per unit delivered, notwithstanding the small size of the sets and 
the absence of a supply of water for condensing purposes, and the whole 
cost of fuel, wages, maintenance, and supervision, with interest and 
depreciation at 9-5 per cent., is not more than 0-137 pence per unit 
delivered. It will be shown below that the usual cost for the largest 
stations to-day, on the same charge for interest and depreciation but with 
normal coal, is at this load factor 0-185 pence, so that even small stations, 
suitably designed, can be usefully brought into the scheme. This 
particular station corresponds closely to what is proposed for isolated 


150 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


pits, for it works in conjunction with the supply company of the area, 
delivering its excess power into the mains, and relying on the mains for 
unusual overloads or possible breakdowns. 


CONDENSING WATER. 


An argument that has frequently been brought against the pit-head 
station is that there is little likelihood of a sufficiency of cooling water 
for the condensation of exhaust steam, in order to produce the high 
vacuum that the turbine can make use of. The cooling tower provides 
water that is still a little warm, and the condenser pressure is 1°5 lb. 
instead of 0-5 lb. But the gain in efficiency due to the high vacuum 
is often exaggerated by failure to apply comparable conditions and to 
take recent improvements into account. For a given turbine taking 
a given amount of steam and suitably modified in the final stage, a 
reduction in back pressure adds a definite amount of power. Also a 
rise in the initial pressure, again with suitable design, gives a definite 
increase of power for the same steam. Hence the effect of the improved 
vacuum is large if the initial pressure is low, but it becomes less and 
less as the boiler pressure is raised, and with 350 lb. initial pressure the 
actual loss of power due to a back pressure of 1-5 lb. instead of 0-5 lb. 
is theoretically only 5 per cent., and in practice the full expansion of the 
whole of the steam to 0-5 Ib. is not economical, so that the actual saving 
in fuel is barely 4 per cent. This is certainly not sufficient to condemn 
a plan which can offer other advantages. The case of Hams Hall station, 
in Birmingham, is of interest on this point. It has 30,000 kw. generating 
sets, working at a load factor of 0-32, and consumes the equivalent of 
1-35 lb. of good steam coal per unit delivered, attaining an overall thermal 
efficiency of 23-34 per cent. on the units generated. Though it works 
entirely on cooling towers, and the turbines are not of the largest size, 
its economy can hardly be improved upon. It may be claimed that 
the absence of cooling water can be definitely disregarded as a disability 
in the use of pit-head stations. 


INDUSTRIAL STEAM. 


Another source of cheap power may be found in the proper utilisation 
of industrial steam. Many industries need low-pressure steam in their 
processes, and use boilers working at a pressure of 50 lb. or less. There 
is no difficulty in producing steam at 350 lb., superheating it, and passing 
it through steam turbines, to exhaust at the required low pressure, and 
the steam so delivered is in all respects as good as that produced directly 
from boilers, as it does not come into contact with lubricating oil. The 
thermal efficiency of the turbine is 100 per cent., less the small radiation 
losses and bearing friction, for the rejected heat of the exhaust steam is 
used for the other purposes, and all steam friction loss is retained as heat 
in the steam. As compared with the coal used in the boilers to produce 
the low-pressure steam, taking into account the cooling and running 
losses of the turbine set, the extra boiler losses due to the higher 
temperature, and the higher pressure of the feed pumps, the additional 
coal works out at 0-4 lb. per unit delivered. The additional capital 
charges are also low, for there is no condensing plant, the turbines are 


G.—ENGINEERING 151 


cheaper, the boiler plant requires a different and rather more expensive 
type of boiler, but not a larger output of steam, much of the subsidiary 
plant is the same as before the change, coal-handling plant being larger, 
water supply and handling are unchanged, boiler-house staff is little 
increased, and engine-room staff and plant are the only complete additions. 
The result is that capital costs for the additional plant are, overall, not 
more than half of those for the complete plant in a corresponding supply 
station, additional repairs, wages, and management also one-half, and 
coal not more than one-third of that in the best supply station. Hence 
even a small station of this kind can operate at a very low figure, little 
more than o-1 pence per unit, and the works in question will obtain 
their own mechanical power at this very favourable price. The only 
difficulty in the plan at present is in the utilisation of the surplus power. 
The works require a supply of steam depending on their processes, and 
if this is to pass through the turbines, the electrical output is fixed not 
by the consumers but by the process steam. An isolated plant cannot 
cope with two independent and variable loads, except by complex by-pass 
contrivances, steam accumulators, additional plant for evenings and 
Sundays and so forth, entailing so much extra cost and loss that the 
advantages: are dissipated. On a large scale the method is highly 
economical, and is well exhibited in the Billingham works of Imperial 
Chemical Industries. If, however, the factory electric station is con- 
nected to the grid, even a small one may put in all its spare output, no 
matter how irregular that may be, provided that consumers are not too 
far away, and that it can supply the energy at a price which will benefit 
all parties. 

How much power can be obtained from this source it would be 
laborious to ascertain. Each factory would require separate consideration, 
and the cost of altering existing boiler plants would be important. But 
the change can be introduced gradually, new factories or renewal of 
plant affording opportunities, until all suitable factories are absorbed 
into the scheme. By that time the increased demand will easily take up 
all the power without disturbing the other sources. 

Other possible sources of cheap electric energy are coke ovens and blast 
furnaces, both of which produce combustible gas. The coke-oven gas 
has a high calorific value, and will command a better price if distributed 
as town gas. The proposal to transmit town gas at high pressure to 
considerable distances, if it prove successful, will allow of the direct use 
of very large quantities of gas, if of high calorific value. It is not worth 
while to transmit the low-grade gas from blast furnaces, just as it does 
not pay to carry low-grade coal, and the gas may therefore drive electric 
plant, and all power in excess of works requirements can be put into the 
electric mains. This has been in operation at the North-Eastern Supply 
Company for many years, and while no great amount of power can be 
expected from this source, all cheap electricity at distributed points is 
helpful. The stations would operate like the small pit-head and the 
process steam stations, the output being controlled by the supply of 
gas and not by the consumer, so as to avoid the storage of gas. 

Two large consumers of coal are probable in the near future, the 
one being the proposed petrol factory, the other the low-temperature 


152 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


carbonisation process. But neither is likely to provide low-grade coal. 
While only high-grade coal is used for actual hydrogenation, there is 
consumed a large quantity for heating purposes, and this may be of 
very low grade, if the works are near the pits, so at present there does 
not seem likelihood of the new industry providing power for the grid. 
The production of low-temperature carbonisation fuel provides a good 
gas as an additional product, which should be distributed as suggested 
above. While a fairly good coal with low sulphur and ash content is 


FIG. 1 


. £60 HYDRO-ELECTRIC 

. £40 ” 

+ £30 " ” 

. £20 a ” 

. STEAM STATION 
» PITS HEAD 

. £50 HYD. EL. & RESERVOIR 


Vans 
Py 


COST OF UNIT 


if 
me 
= 
= 
= 
& 


(aT 8 
EG eae 


LOAD FACTOR 


required for actual conversion, there is here also an additional amount used 
for heating, which can be low grade, and if the works are near to the 
pits, they will absorb all the refuse coal belonging to the coal that is 
coked. While this industry should have an important future, if properly 
organised, it does not seem likely to come into the electric supply scheme. 

The items in the cost of a unit have of recent years been codified 
and separated into parts dependent on the load factor and those that are 
independent, together with the influence of the size of the station. The 
costs for a normal station of 100,000 kw. and for a pit-head station of the 
same size are here given, assuming certain conditions. The capital 


G.—ENGINEERING 153 


expended on the plant is, one quarter 43 per cent. debentures, one quarter 
54 per cent. preference shares, and one half ordinary shares expected to 
pay 7 per cent., or 6 per cent. all over. Depreciation and reserve are 
34 per cent. The cost per kw. of the normal station is £14 per kw., 
and of the pit-head station £15. Coal is 13s. per ton at 11,500 B.Th.U., 
and waste coal is 5s. at 10,000 B.Th.U. Salaries, wages, repairs, main- 
tenance, and stores are the same for both, and are at the average rates for 
this size of station. All charges for rates and taxes, office expenses, and 
other general expenses are omitted. 

The curves are shown in Fig. 1. At all load factors the reduction in 


cost at the pit-head station is about one-twentieth of a penny per unit. 


While this reduction does not look impressive when compared to the 
usual charges for lighting, it makes a substantial difference to the cost of 
the unit for domestic heating, which is now down to 0-5 pence in some 
places ; and it will be shown that any lowering of cost of production is 
followed by a decrease in cost of distribution, so that there will be a 
beneficial improvement on the first economy. 

[More recent figures of steam station costs show reductions in wages 
and repairs amounting to some o-or pence per unit, varying very little 
with the load factor. This correction lowers the curves for both normal 
and pit-head stations equally, so the saving due to the pit-head station 


_ is not altered.] 


: 


| 
| 


WATER POWER. 


In England there is at present no question of electric supply of any 
magnitude from water power. The Severn scheme is receding into the 
background, as the cost of generation from coal goes steadily down. 
When the Association met in Edinburgh in 1921, this Section devoted 
some attention to water power, and no one ventured to prophesy so great 
a change in every item in the cost of production from coal as has actually 
taken place. 

The chief part of the cost of water power lies in the civil engineering work, 
for the water turbines, now reduced in cost and improved in efficiency, 
are financially an unimportant part. There is a dead weight of capital 
expended on permanent works, and their very permanence is against 
them. Repayment charges may be put low, but they remain while the 
rival steam stations are installing cheaper, larger, and more efficient 
machines, and reducing fuel, wages, and capital charges. In Scotland 
these years have seen the planning of several ambitious schemes, some of 
which have been undertaken and are nearing completion. As engineering 
work they are well conceived and in every way excellent, but already their 
expected production costs are being hard pressed by their rivals, and the 
end is not yet. This paper shows that substantial reductions are quite 
feasible, in addition to the gradual reductions that have gone on steadily 
and show no signs of ceasing. In the Highlands and everywhere north 
of the industrial belt from Glasgow to Fife, excepting the large towns on 
the east coast, the hydro-electric station is in a strong position, for its 
foot is on its native heath. But in the Lowlands and in coast towns 
obtaining sea-borne coal, in the author’s opinion it is fighting a losing 
battle. 

The cost of a hydro-electric scheme cannot be given a single figure 


154 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


per kw., depending only on the size. Even the actual station plant 
varies in cost according to the head of water, while the pipe lines, lades, 
and reservoirs may have a wide range, so that each proposed scheme 
must be considered individually for capital expenditure. Station wages 
are small, as the machinery is simple, but the upkeep of the hydraulic 
works is usually a substantial item, and one which depends largely on the 
results of natural phenomena, which cannot be foretold. The load 
factor introduces complications, differing with different types of layout. 

For comparison with steam stations, all wages, salaries, and main- 
tenance, i.e. all running costs, are taken at 14s. 6d. per kw. per annum, 
the load factor having very little effect. The corresponding figure for 
the steam stations described above is 18s. at a load factor of 0-7, and 
15s. 8d. at load factor 0-4. Or the cost per unit for the hydro-electric 
station at load factor 0-4 is 0-05 pence. Capital charges are 6 per cent. 
as before, and depreciation and reserve are put at 2-5 per cent., instead 
of 3-5. All rates, taxes, etc., are omitted as before. The curves for 
varying load factor, worked out for a range of capital costs per kw. 
from {60 to £20, are shown in Fig. 1. The power is taken as that which 
the station has normally sufficient water to supply continuously, and the 
actual annual output falls below this if the load factor is less than unity, 
due to variable demand or to shortage of water. 

At the usual load factor of 0-4, the scheme is limited to £32 per kw., 
if it is to equal the normal steam station, and to £25, if it is to compete 
with the pit-head station, disregarding all question of transmission. 
A cheap design is one in which the river is diverted into a channel or 
tunnel, and after some distance sufficient head is obtained above the 
river bed. No storage is attempted, and during periods of low water 
the output falls off and must be supplemented from a neighbouring 
steam station. Its use corresponds to what has been suggested for small 
pit-head ‘stations. The Clyde Valley stations are of this character, and 
at their cost of £27 per kw. they compare favourably with the normal 
steam station if the load factor exceeds 0-3, but they require a load factor 
of nearly 0:6 to reach the pit-head station cost. The load factor in this 
case is really the river factor, which varies between a wet and a dry year, 
but they are certainly more economical than the normal steam station. 

For stations with reservoirs the cost usually rises considerably, 
although that at Kinlochleven has exceptionally low cost and large 
storage. But such stations may be used in a different way. The daily 
fluctuations in load make no appreciable difference to a reservoir, and 
if the pipe line to the turbines is short, the extra cost of increasing the 
power of the station is small, for it only means larger pipes and larger 
turbine sets, which are cheap machines, so the cost per kw. of station 
power may be much reduced. The annual output is not increased, as 
that is limited by the water supply, but the station can operate more 
economically at low load factors, and it becomes a good peak load station. 
The cost curve is much altered in character, and an arbitrary example 
is given for comparison. The cost is divided into two parts, £36 being 
constant for all load factors as representing the reservoirs and collecting 
lades, and being calculated on the power at unity load factor, as determined 
by the annual quantity of water. Station and pipe cost at this power is 


G.—ENGINEERING 155 


£14 per kw., and this is recalculated for each load factor, the station 
wages and maintenance also being adjusted. ‘The curve is much flatter, 
and from 0-5 downwards its costs are lower than the pit-head station. 
Although at unity load factor the cost per kw. is £50, this reduces to 
£23 at 0-3 and to £18-5 at o-21 load factor. 

The stations of the Galloway scheme are to be mostly of this type, 
but the costs, when analysed in this way, are considerably larger, in 
fact 50 per cent. larger. The estimates given by the promoters in the 
parliamentary inquiry bring out the cost per kw. at £27 at a load 
factor of 0-21, at which it was proposed the stations should work, and 
the cost per unit on the above basis of calculation comes up to 0 +34 pence, 
which is also the figure estimated by the promoters. The pit-head 
figure is 0°32 pence, so that in its own area and for peak loads there is 
little difference, though with higher load factors the pit-head station 
rapidly gains. ‘The neighbourhood is, however, quite unable to absorb 
the 100,000 kw., which it is proposed to develop, on peak load or even 
as acomplete load. It has been suggested that power can be transmitted 
to Carlisle, which is 50 miles away, and this, as will be shown below, 
will add 0-022 pence to the cost, if the load factor is 0-21. This brings 
the total to 0-36 pence, nearly the cost for a normal steam station. As 
Carlisle has a coalfield on each side of it, the advantage of the trans- 
mitted power becomes rather illusory, and the grid will not be greatly 
helped by the scheme, except in Galloway and Wigtownshire. 

It might be imagined that with cost curves of different shape a happy 
apportionment of loads would yield a lower combined cost. It will be 
found, however, that little difference is made if the average load factor 
is not below 0-4, for the steam station curves are becoming flatter, and 
the reduction in their cost is absorbed by the higher cost of the peak 
load station. Each case must be worked out for itself, as no general 
rule can be given, and there are too many variables to allow of a 
mathematical determination of the conditions for a minumum cost, but 
in most cases the effect is disappointing, and the more so the higher the 
load factor of the system. 


Cost oF ‘TRANSMISSION. 


The position of generating stations brings in the cost of transmission. 
In the coal areas the numerous sources of supply will on the whole reduce 
transmission costs, but the supply of power to outside areas depends 
chiefly on the cost of electric transmission, as compared with other 
methods. 

The cost of long-distance transmission of electric energy has been 
much reduced by increased voltage, and by reduced cost of transformers 
and transforming substations. It is considerably influenced by load 
factor, for capital charges and wages are constant, while line losses are 
much reduced on low load factors. For any distance of importance the 
grid at 132,000 volts will be the usual means, and the cost of transmission 
Over 100 miles is shown in Fig. 2 for the various generating stations, the 
difference being caused by the respective costs of the power wasted in 
the line. The conditions assumed are—interest at 3? per cent., repayment 
in thirty years, and annual upkeep at £20 per mile, which makes a total 


156 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


capital and maintenance charge of 6-75 per cent. ‘There is 10 per cent. 
drop on full load at power factor 0-8 in the line and transformer windings 
at each end, and core losses are 1-25 per cent. At unity load factor 
the energy loss is directly subtracted from the station output, and must 
be charged at the cost of production, as given in Fig. 1. For lower 
load factors the exact figure to be allowed is not more than this, and is 
probably slightly less, but as the loss is small, the unity load factor value 
for the units loss has been taken all through for the coal stations and for 


FIG. 2. 100 MILE TRANSMISSION 


A. HYDRO-ELECTRIC WITH RESERVOIR 
STEAM STATION 
. PIT HEAD & HYDRO-ELECTRIC 
. GALLOWAY 50 MILES 
PIT HEAD 40 MILES 


B 


iS 
= 
= 
= 


= 


IN= PE NGE 


COST 


ie 

coon 
pao 
Saaoas 
aaa 


LOAD FACTOR 


the £40 hydro-electric station without reservoir. But the station working 
on a reservoir has only a certain amount of energy per annum to sell, 
and the wasted energy is charged at the value for the load factor, which 
increases the cost at low load factors. Below 0-6 there is little difference 
between them. There isa definite minimum at about 0-6, which can be 
shifted to a lower load factor by increasing the load and line loss, if this 
does not cause regulation troubles. There is also shown the cost of 
transmission over 50 miles from the Galloway stations, and the cost over 
40 miles from a pit-head station, which was the distance taken above 
as in the neighbourhood. 

These costs may be compared with the cost of rail and of sea carriage 
of raw coal. Rail transport is in general one penny per ton mile plus 


G.—ENGINEERING 157 


sixpence for end charges and waggons, or 8s. 10d. for 100 miles. Allowing 
1-3 lb. per unit the cost is 0-061 pence, which is three times the cost of 
electrical transmission at a load factor of 0-4, so the coal waggon cannot 
compete with the grid. For shorter distances the proportion is slightly 
different, but always much larger. Carriage by sea is cheaper for long 
distances, if both pits and generating stations are conveniently situated. 
From Newcastle or Fife to London, for favourably placed pits, the 
cost is at present about 4s. per ton, so that electrical transmission from 
the nearest existing pits to London, 120 miles, will cost very nearly as 
much as carriage by sea to stations on the Thames banks, and only the 
cheapness of waste coal will give an advantage. Shipping freight charges 
are low at present, and a rise will make electric transmission economical 
to London, apart from the use of cheaper coal. Hence transmission 
from the pit-head stations may be safely undertaken, even if the amount 
of waste coal available should not suffice for the whole load, and if the 
Lincolnshire coal materialises, there will be plenty, some of it at a shorter 
distance. 
RATES AND TAXES. 


In the foregoing calculations of costs, the item of local rates has been 
omitted, for rates vary in different districts, and a general figure is not 
possible. The present charge for rates on electric supply stations is very 
high, and they have not come under the recent reduction of rates on 
machinery. Roughly, the item of rates on the generating plant alone 
amounts to about 0-06 pence per unit, considerably more than wages and 
salaries, and more than half the cost of coal. It is a tax or contribution 
towards local expenditure, which has grown to dimensions far greater 
than the early years of its operation seemed to indicate. While generating 
costs have gone down, taxes have gone up, and this charge is not generally 
realised, except by the engineer who is trying to reduce costs, but it 
amounts to nearly {100,000 per annum for a 100,000 kw. station. Now 
and again a few thousand pounds of credit balance in the year’s working 
of a station belonging to a town council is handed over ‘ for the relief of 
the rates,’ and often there is much protest that this is obtained at the expense 
of the consumer. The far larger sum quietly extracted as rates is not 
called in question. While the theory and practice of rating, as applied 
to factories and public utility companies and services, cannot be discussed 
here, it may be permissible to claim that the position of electricity and gas 
supply and railways has become anomalous. The supply mains are also 
assessed for rates, so that the total rate charge to the consumer is often as 
much aso «1 pence, while the selling price for domestic heating is 0-5 pence 
orlittlemore. Without demanding the complete abolition of rates on these 
public industries, we may reasonably claim some substantial reduction, 
such as one-half, amounting in our case to 0-05 pence per unit. If to 
this is added the equal sum which the cheap fuel of the pit-head station 
can achieve, a total reduction of 0-1 pence is obtained. ‘The importance 
of this will now be discussed. 


FuTURE CONSUMPTION. 


The cost given in Fig. 1 for generation in large steam stations is 0-25 
pence per unit at the usual load factor of o-4, while the selling price is at 


158 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


least 0:5 for domestic heating, power being 0-75 to 1-0, and lighting 
threepence to sixpence. Local rates account for some of this difference, 
but distribution and office expenses are the chief part. Both are nearly 
constant expenses for a given maximum demand, and are directly reduced 
by a high load factor. The mains do not wear out faster if they carry 
current for more hours a day, nor does it cost more to read a larger 
number of units on the meter, nor to make out a larger bill. Also the 
cost is decreased by a greater density of load over an area. More con- 
sumers per mile of low-tension cable merely mean more feeding points 
and larger high-tension mains or a higher tension, and to obtain a more 
nearly universal demand and a larger demand per house is simply a matter 
of reduction of selling price, while they will themselves help greatly to 
reduce the cost further, if the process can once be started. 

The historically first use of electric energy—electric lighting—is now 
so general where a supply is available, that no great increase will be 
obtained by a reduction in price, and enlargement of areas of supply 
means country districts with sparse population. Motive power in factories 
is now supplied to the extent of one-half from electric mains, and a con- 
siderable part of the other half is electric drive from private plant, where 
industrial steam is required and a steam generator is easily added. These 
may come into the general scheme, but will not greatly increase the 
public demand. The old shop engine is rapidly disappearing, and the 
process will not be much accelerated by cheaper electricity, as in the great 
majority of cases the electric drive from a public supply already costs less 
than the shop engine. 

There remain as comparatively little developed directions for new 
demand the fields of domestic heating of all kinds and electrification of 
railways. In these a successful competition with other methods depends 
largely on cost. Electric cooking, hot water supply, and house warming 
must be brought down to a figure not greatly exceeding that involved in 
the consumption of raw coal, if anything like a general adoption is to be 
brought about. A figure of one halfpenny begins to be persuasive, but 
above that the added convenience does not outweigh the cost in the view 
of most people, and even that figure only meets the competition of gas 
on equal terms, if the price of gas is eightpence per therm, and there are 
signs that this may be reduced. The possible demand is enormous, for 
the present consumption of domestic fuel is some forty million tons per 
annum, more than three times the whole of the coal used in electric 
supply for all purposes. Owing to the large losses of energy in the steam 
engine, with boiler losses and transmission, at the best only 20 per cent. 
of the total heat in the coal burnt is delivered to the consumer. The 
domestic fireplace has a rather better efficiency, but it is not used so 
economically, so on the whole the amount of coal used will be much the 
same. ‘The station uses a cheaper fuel, but loses on the cost of distribu- 
tion. As domestic heating yields a high load factor, and offers scope for 
a high density factor, it will help greatly in lowering distribution costs. 

The railways offer a large, though not so large a field. This was 
explored by Lord Weir’s committee of 1931, and the finding was 
favourable. But it was not universally accepted in its entirety, and the 
margin of advantage claimed was obtained by economies of doubtful 


G.—ENGINEERING 159 


character. The price of electric energy was taken at 0-5 pence per unit, 
and at that figure the electric power came out at little less than the cost 
of present methods. Since then locomotive designers have not been 
idle, and coal consumption has been reduced in the latest patterns, so that 
a substantial reduction on the halfpenny will be required. This should 
be quite possible, for the price that was assumed was on the safe side and 
could be reduced to-day, since distribution costs in bulk to the railway 
line will be less than to individual householders, and the further reduc- 
tions indicated in this paper will bring the question to a practical proposi- 
tion. ‘The complete electrification was estimated to require a consump- 
tion of 5,400 million units, but probably a good many branch lines would 
not be electrified, and a total of 4,000 million may suffice. It is not a great 
addition to the total load, which was close on 16,000 millions last year, 
but it is a desirable increase, as it will have a good load factor and can be 
easily provided, for railways and population go together. 

There are signs that a low price will bring in large consumers in the 
metallurgical industries. The use of electric furnaces is rapidly increasing, 
and below 0-5 pence the private plant has little chance of competing, if 
complete reliability is to be ensured. The possible magnitude of this 
load it would be futile to estimate, but it will be considerable and will 
have an excellent load factor. 

From the foregoing it is evident that the electric supply industry can 
be put on the road to a substantial and even to a great increase, and that 
the new business will materially improve the load factor and reduce costs 


_ of distribution. The use of cheap fuel and an alleviation of the burden 


_ of rates will give the initial stimulus that is needed, and the great increase 


will automatically recoup the apparent loss to the rate fund of the local 


- authorities. 


These prospective new consumers will reduce the amount of waste 
coal that will be available, for house coal and railway coal are high-grade 
fuel, from which a good supply of low-grade coal has been screened off. 
If they are taken out of the class of raw coal consumers, and put into the 
class which uses electricity, the effect will be twofold. But there is little 
chance of a wholesale complete electrification of dwelling-houses, and a 
complete cessation of the use of raw coal for any purpose. And under 
most circumstances it will be cheaper to use the coal at the pits than to 
carry it to supply stations at a distance, even though some of the coal is 
of good quality. There are many possibilities in the future, such as 
petrol and tar extraction and gas production, but for all of them it is 
preferable to avoid carriage of raw coal, so the pit-head electric station 
will always be in the right place, able to work in with the other processes, 
so long as coal continues to be our main source of power, and that is a 
long time. 


CONCLUSION. 


To sum up the main theme, the grid and the branch lines should 
Operate not only as distributors of power to the consumer, wherever he 
may live, but also as collectors of power wherever it may be obtained, 
and like all successful middlemen, it should buy in the cheapest market 
and put the consumer into connection with the nearest producer, whether 


160 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


small or large. ‘The small producer, in other goods as well as electricity, 
may show very low costs of production, but fail to find a steady market. 
The grid can offer such a market, and while it has no warehouse or other 
means of storage, it can harmonise the consumer and producer by varying 
the output of the large stations, which will work on the principle of 
keeping up the pressure at distribution centres, and the current will flow 
naturally to where it is demanded. The stations will gradually be placed 
where their costs are lowest, and the pit-heads and coal-cleaning floors 
will be their natural sites for the greater part of this country. The 
economies thus made possible will attract consumers that are at present 
in doubt, and a great increase will ensue. 

The process of introducing these new supplies need not be sudden or 
simultaneous at all parts, nor need the existing stations be hastily dis- 
carded. What is required is a policy of making all extensions of power 
at pit-head stations, and allowing a natural development of this policy 
as is found good. The closing down of the present small stations, and 
the normal rate of growth, will give opportunity for a large-scale trial in 
a few years, and commencing with the most suitable places, the process 
can be steadily continued. Every improvement in methods of trans- 
mission will place the pit-head station in a stronger position for the supply 
to large towns. 

The question of the ownership of these large pit-head stations will 
require consideration. Several solutions are possible, but for all of 
them it is essential that there shall be co-operation between the producers 
of coal and the producers of electricity. ‘The one party must be assured 
of a steady sale of their cheap fuel, that they may be willing to remodel 
their business to suit the new outlet ; the other party must be assured of 
a steady low price, that they may not be exploited after they have given 
hostages by large expenditure on the new stations. It seems a suitable 
case for a central control, as without guarantees neither party would be 
wise to commit themselves, though the advantages to both seem fairly 
certain and considerable. A proposal of such wholesale common action 
would have seemed impracticable ten years ago; but we are becoming 
used to Central Boards, and the Coal Board and the Electricity Board 
are already in being for the purpose. 

To the owners of large generating stations these proposals may appear 
rather alarming. The supply companies in whose areas are coal-pits 
will be able to put their new stations at the pits and reap the full advantage, 
and they constitute the majority. The others will have the choice of 
importing a bulk supply, if it is cheaper than their own product. The 
case of the large cities in the coal areas, which have their own stations 
but no pits in the city area, presents some difficulty. Sooner or later 
their stations may be outclassed by foreign imports. But it must be 
recognised that there is nothing permanent in engineering, least of all in 
electrical engineering, and a fitting motto for the supply industry may be 
taken from In Memoriam : 


* Our little systems have their day ; 
They have their day and cease to be.’ 


SECTION H.—ANTHROPOLOGY 


THE USE AND ORIGIN OF YERBA 
MATE 
ADDRESS BY 


CAPT a) 4 JOY Cle Oeb.E... 
PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 


Infusions from vegetable products are common throughout the world, 
but the particular infusion with which this paper deals is that procured 
from the leaves and shoots of the Ilex paraguayensis, a shrub indigenous 
to Paraguay and to southern Brazil. After a process of drying, aided by 
fire, hot water is poured on the broken or powdered leaf, and the infusion 
is imbibed through a tube of silver or of native bambu. From the 
centre of its origin it spread rapidly, like all valuable food products, to 
Argentina, Chile and Peru, and, especially since the war, when many 
South American contingents were engaged, it has become more familiar 
in Europe than formerly. 

__ The particular virtue of the drink is that it contains little or no tannin, 
combines favourably with a meat diet, and can be repeatedly refreshed 
by hot water without deleterious effects. In South America, especially 
amongst the Gaucho class, it used to take the place of fruit and vegetables, 
for it is an antiscorbutic of considerable value. Thousands of tons are 
used in South America annually. 

_ Mixed with cold water, it provides a very refreshing beverage, but the 
normal method of taking the drink isin the hot infusion. When lukewarm 
‘it is regarded as a violent aperient. Two appliances are used, the maté, 
a gourd or silver cup in which the decoction is prepared, and a tube, the 
bombilla, through which the infusion is drunk. 

_ The word for the receptacle (maté) became transferred to the leaf and 
the drink; both are now generally known under that name, especially 
in Europe. 

_ The first mention of the drink in published literature occurs in a book 
y Nicolas Duran, a Jesuit missionary in Paraguay in the early seventeenth 
century. Duran travelled through the province of Guaira and visited 

the Jesuit missions at Villa Rica, San Xavier, Loreto and San Ignacio ; 

all these regions were, at that time, centres of yerba maté preparation and 

of distribution. 

Translated from the Latin, Duran writes as follows : 

‘The most severe labour to which the Indians are put consists in being 

‘Sent by their masters to Maracaiu, to collect the foliage of certain trees 

| Owing in the mountains and forests. These trees, not unlike laurels, but 

. 


: 


G 


162 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


of a brighter green, flourish especially in moist and swampy woods. The 
leaves, after being parched in a fire, are pounded in mortars, and, when 
reduced to dust, are packed in cases, and carried many miles on the backs 
of the Indians. On account of the unhealthiness of the climate, and 
the scarcity of food, which their poverty-stricken masters cannot provide, 
these unhappy Indians are forced to subsist on snakes, grubs and spiders. 
And so, worn out by contagious diseases and famine, they die. It is a 
pitiable picture, for, in return for their labour, all they receive when 
they return from this slavery is a beggarly two yards of cloth. Some 
even go home empty-handed, because the Spaniards themselves are 
extremely poor. The Spaniards sell the powder of this herb (which they 
call ‘‘ Herb” par excellence) to traders who come hither (Guaira), or 
rather exchange it for necessaries. And it often happens that 2,000 lbs. 
of this powder is given for a suit of common cloth, or 500 lbs. for a hat. 
Spaniards and Indians of both sexes drink this powder, mixed with hot 
water, once or twice daily, which proves a most efficacious emetic. So 
much are they slaves of this habit, that they will barter shirt, trousers or 
bedding for it. An instance is known where a woman stripped her hut 
of its roofing in order to buy this herb. They say too that their strength 
fails, and that they cannot live, if they are deprived of its use. The 
Indians take it at daybreak and at frequent intervals during the day. It 
has come to be such a vice in these provinces that all the inhabitants of 
the River Plate, Tucuman and Chile make use of it. So that in Potosi, 
and throughout Peru, 1 lb. of this herb is sold for four golden crowns. 
This herb makes men gluttons, slaves to their bellies, and renders them 
averse to work of any kind. And its efficacy appears to lie more in the 
imagination of him who uses it than its own inherent virtue.’ 

By the middle of the seventeenth century, Nicolas del Techo (du Toict), 
who became Superior of the Province of Paraguay, as a Jesuit missionary, 
writes of the use of the drink as follows : 

‘In Paraguay, for a long time, sugar and cotton, both produced in 
small quantities, were the chief wealth, till the leaves of a certain tree, 
growing in marshy grounds, commonly called the Herb of Paraguay, 
began to be in esteem. These leaves they dry in the fire and reduce to 
powder ; then, mixing with hot water, the Spaniards and Indians, both 
men and women, drink of it several times a day ; and, vomiting it up 
with all they have eaten, they find it creates an appetite. Many things 
are reported concerning this powder or herb ; for they say if you cannot 
sleep, it will compose you to it; if you are lethargick, it drives away 
sleep; if you are hungry it satisfies; if your meat does not digest, it 
causes an appetite ; it refreshes after weariness and drives away melancholy 
and several diseases. ‘Those who once use themselves to it cannot easily 
leave it, for they affirm, their strength leaves them when they want it and 
can’t live long : and so great slaves are they to this slender diet, that they 
will almost sell themselves rather than want wherewithal to purchase it. 
The wiser sort (tho’, moderately used, it strengthens and brings other 
advantages) will hardly ever make use of it ; and, if immoderately used, 
it causes drunkenness and breeds distempers, as too much wine does. 
Yet this vice has not only overrun Paraguay, but Tucuman, Chile and 


H.—ANTHROPOLOGY 163 


Peru. And is near coming over into Europe; this Herb of Paraguay 
being valued amongst the precious commodities of America. At first 
the Spaniards were well pleas’d with their cotton garments and liquor 
made of honey. But afterwards, trade enhancing the value of this herb, 
covetousness and luxury encreas’d, to feed both which the Indians began 
to be enslav’d to make this powder. Labour made their numbers 
decrease, and that made the Spaniards poor again ; to show us that very 
often the same methods we take to gather wealth serve to impoverish us.’ 

The two quotations given above are couched in rather harsh terms in 
regard to the excessive use of the ilex; but the same could be written 
of tea, or any infusion, or of alcoholic drinks if taken in excess. However, 
Southey, writing in 1817, avers that over-indulgence has been known to 
result in almost total mental aberration, lasting over many days; and 
the danger of serious infection, owing to the use of a common bombilla, 
which passes from lip to lip, is emphasised by many writers. Demersay 
adds that the constant imbibing of hot matzé, alternating with draughts of 
cold water, is bad for the teeth, and suggests that the use of a silver 
bombilla, which can become unbearably hot, may cause cancer in the lip. 

As regards the properties of the ilex, which have won for it so wide- 
spread a popularity, authorities are not quite in accord. Christy (1880) 
states that the leaf contains ‘ the same active property as tea or coffee, in 
a proportion (nearly 2 per cent.)intermediate between the two; a volatile 
oil; 16 per cent. of an astringent principle ; and about to per cent. of a 
nutritious gluten, only a portion of which is dissolved in the infusion. 
He states further that the full benefit of the leaf is only obtained when 
it is chewed. 

The Handbook of Paraguay (1894) gives the analysis as 0-45 caffeine, 
20-88 caffeo-tannic acid, an aromatic oil, gluten, and a proportion of 
theine. However, we may conclude that the action of the infusion 
would be that of a cardiac and a nutritive, while the relatively small 
proportion of tannin would render it more digestible than tea. It is, 
perhaps, a little strange that the earliest authors who record its use, 
Duran (1626-27), Leon Pinelo (1636) and del Techo (1649-72), quote 
it primarily as an emetic. 

To leave aside for the moment the question of the actual discovery 
of the properties of yerba maté, the initial exploitation of the ‘ tea’ was 
undoubtedly due to the Jesuit missionaries. ‘The first Jesuit reservation 
was founded in 1609, the last in 1760, and the Jesuits were expelled in 
1774. ‘The missionaries encouraged the use of the leaf among their 
Indians, to whom it was served out with other rations; and Endlicher 
and Martius state that this was done to wean the natives from over- 
indulgence in fermented drinks. But there is no doubt that the revenues 
derived from the trade in the leaf became indispensable to these self- 
supporting communities, whose establishment is one of the most remark- 
able developments in the world’s history. On the expulsion of the 
Jesuits their mission houses and lands became Crown property, and the 
maté industry had become so prosperous that, in 1807, the profits derived 
from it were reckoned at £100,000 annually. 

Long before this, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the leaf 


164 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


had become an article of trade to the western provinces of Argentina, 
to Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. The chief collecting 
region was the Maracayu district. Asuncién was the outlying depot, 
whence the produce was sent by river to Santa Fé, on the Parana, the 
chief depét for external trade. Frézier (1712-14) writes that the ordinary 
route was from Santa Fé to Jujuy in the Argentine by wagon and thence 
to Potosi in Bolivia by mule-back. Chile, according to Juan and Ulloa 
(1740-44), was supplied direct from Buenos Aires, and passed supplies 
on to Peru. 

The most vivid and detailed account of what had developed into a well- 
organised industry was given by the Robertsons in the first half of the 
nineteenth century. Then, the chief collecting regions, the montes, 
or woods where the ilex flourished, were near Villa Real, about one 
hundred and fifty miles up river from Asuncién. The work of collecting 
was lucrative, but so arduous that it was usually performed by newcomers 
and men in debt. These concessionaires were financed or ‘ grub-staked ’ 
by merchants of Asuncién, who expected repayment in the form of yerba. 

Each concessionaire hired twenty to fifty workers, and the difficult 
journey through untracked forest to the ilex groves (yerbales) ended when 
a promising locality was reached ; here camping-ground was prepared for 
a stay of six months or so, with huts for the personnel and corrals for the 
mules and oxen. The tatacua, a space some six feet square of hard-beaten 
earth, with a post at each corner, was made ready for the preliminary 
curing of the leaf, a simple process of scorching the masses of verdure 
over burning logs. 

Nearby the barbacua was prepared, an arch of boughs supported on 
trestles; upon this arch the ilex leaves, now readily separated from 
large twigs and boughs, were placed for the secondary drying. ‘The fire 
built below the arch was carefully tended to prevent the leaves from 
burning, and to ensure complete drying; and when the process was 
complete the barbacua and the ashes of the fire were removed, the ground 
swept and beaten smooth, and the dried ilex leaves placed on it, and 
pounded with wooden mallets. 

The powdered or broken leaf was then packed tightly into sacks made 
from freshly flayed bulls’ hides (serones), sewn up and left to dry. Each 
seron weighed 200 to 220 lbs. when dry. A similar process is employed 
to-day. 

The origin of the practice of infusing the leaves of the ilex is very 
obscure. The earliest mention of the drink I have quoted above from 
Nicholas Duran (1626-27). By that time, as the extract shows, the 
beverage had spread far and wide through South America. But there 
is no account of its discovery. Pinelo, writing in 1636, refers to an 
author, Robles Cornejo, where he says a full account of the herb is given. 
Cornejo’s work, Examen de los Simples Medicinales, dated 1617, must 
contain the first reference to the drink. But the book existed only in 
manuscript and, though mentioned in Cejador y Franca’s Historia de la 
Lengua y Literatura Castellana, has absolutely disappeared. 

So far, evidence would seem to show that the drink wasa native discovery, 
developed by the Jesuits ; but a study of the early history of the country 


H.—ANTHROPOLOGY 165 


provides another aspect. The Rio de la Plata was discovered by Juan 
Diaz de Solis in 1516. In 1534 an expedition was sent from Spain 
under Pedro de Mendoza to make permanent occupation of the country 
to the north. With him sailed one Ulrich Schmidt, or Schmiedel, as 
he was called by the Spaniards, a Bavarian agent of merchants in Seville. 
He ascended the Parana and Paraguay with the pioneer expeditions and 
made many journeys of exploration through the heart of the Guarani 
country, finally making a cross-country journey of some hundred and thirty 
miles from the upper Parana to Sio Vicente; after this he returned to 
Europe after an absence of nearly twenty years. His reminiscences are 
remarkable from several points of view, and perhaps especially for the 
accuracy of his memory and the almost incredible vileness of his ortho- 
graphy in dealing with Spanish and Indian words. His narrative is of 
great importance to anthropology, because it is the report of a pioneer 
and an observer. Whatever he may have forgotten, his mind is extra- 
ordinarily clear on the food question. He writes in detail what he had to 
drink and eat and where, day by day. Naturally, food was very impor- 
tant, and these European expeditions, living on the country, were often on 
the verge of starvation. For days they had to pass through unoccupied 
country, and their minds were naturally focussed on the food quest. 
Schmidt tells how the Carios make ‘ wine’ of Mandepore (manioc) and 
of honey; the Mbaia and Payagua, of ‘fenugreek’; the Guyacuru, of 
the algarroba bean. But in none of his copious food notes does he ever 
make mention in his twenty years’ experience of the use of the ilex leaf, 
either chewed or infused. 

During the period of Schmidt’s residence in Paraguay, Cabeza de Vaca 
was sent to the country as Adelantado. From Sao Francisco, in the far 
south of Brazil, where he landed, he made a remarkable overland journey 
to the newly founded settlement of Asuncién, passing through the heart 
of the country where the ilex grew naturally. In the course of his three 
years’ residence he made several journeys northward. His narrative 
(1555) is full of details of considerable ethnographical importance and, 
though he pays less attention to local foodstuffs than Schmidt, the 
precarious nature of his supplies led him to record much useful informa- 
tion on this subject. Yet in his account there is no mention of the ilex. 

Between 1569 and 1574 Nicolas Monardes published a work entitled 
Las cosas que se traen de nuestras Indias occidentales, translated into English 
in 1580 under the far more attractive title Foyfull Newes of the New-found 
World. He gives an extended and delightful description of the properties 
of coca, tobacco and many other American products, but there is no 
mention of yerba mateé. 

Diaz de Guzman (1612) gives a descriptive account of practically the 
whole region occupied by the Spanish east of the Andes in his Historia 
Argentina (Paraguay did not become a separate province until 1620), but 
there is no mention in his pages of the ‘ Herb of Paraguay.’ Thus the 
first reference to the use of the ilex leaf does not occur in literature until 
more than ninety years after Schmidt entered the country, eighty-five 
years after Cabeza de Vaca passed through the forests which later became 

the principal source of supply, and more than half a century after 


166 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


Monardes had published his series of monographs on the economic 
contribution made by the newly discovered Americas to the Old World. 
The lost MS. of Cornejo might supply the information as to the origin 
of the commercial use of the ‘herb.’ But the inference is, on the 
evidence, that the leaf was not in general use by the natives prior to the 
establishment of the Jesuit missions, except, perhaps, for chewing. 

The native name of the dried leaf gives little help. In the Guarani 
dialect the principal varieties were known as Caamini and Caaguazu 
(in Brazil, Congonha). 

The tree itself was known as Caa, which simply means a tree, a generic 
term, and it is easy to produce parallels from other native dialects that 
no plant of importance is mentioned except by a specific name. The 
implication is that, as far as the natives were concerned, the ilex was 
merely a tree. 

It has been suggested that the word Caa bears some relation to the 
Chinese C’ha, meaning tea in the Pekinese, Mandarin and Cantonese 
dialects. ‘Tea was first brought to Europe by the Dutch in the early 
seventeenth century from Bantam, whither it had been imported by 
Chinese merchants from Amoy, where it was called Té. The Portuguese 
found it in Macao, under the name C’ha, a little later. The first mention 
of tea in Western literature is in Maffei’s Historica Indica, published in 
1558. It is not inconceivable that the Jesuits of the period, looking for 
a substitute for tea, by then introduced into southern Europe, also 
introduced the Chinese word, which was mis-pronounced by the natives. 

The subsequent development of the Yerbales, or ilex plantations, is 
a matter of history. ‘The economic importance of the leaf, combined 
with the fact that it grew in the less accessible regions (swampy mountain 
valleys), soon led to the inception of attempts to bring it under cultivation. 
Rodero gives the account of the first attempt. 

Young trees were brought from Maracayu to the mission communities 
along the Parana river, but did not flourish. Experiments in raising 
seedlings were also a failure. The eventual success is recorded by 
Dobrizhoffer (1749), who reports that the seed of the ilex is covered with 
a thick coating of gluten which prevents germination. In the wild state, 
this gluten is removed by passage through the bodies of certain birds, 
principally the South American pheasant (Jacu). This gluten was 
eventually removed by careful washing and the seed sown deep in ground 
drenched with water. The young seedlings were planted out in deep 
trenches under thatched shelters. Yet, even after these precautions, the 
cultivated plants never attained the size of those growing under natural 
conditions. However, the Handbook of Paraguay (1894) states that the 
Jesuit attempts were so successful that at Santiago (Paraguay) there once 
existed a grove of 20,000 trees. On the expulsion of the Jesuits these 
plantations disappeared, and only in recent years have successful yerbales 
been established in the Misiones territory of North-eastern Argentina. 

The ilex tree remained without any name assigned by international 
botanists until the nineteenth century ; and it was by a curious piece of 
bad luck that the famous French botanist, Dr. Bonpland, was prevented 
from having the honour of classifying yerba maté. Bonpland went, in 


H.—ANTHROPOLOGY 167 


the year 1820, up-river from Buenos Aires to Paraguay, with the object 
of obtaining specimens of the plant; but Paraguay, always isolated, was 
under the dictatorship of that extraordinary individual José Gaspar 
Francia, whose policy put a fence round the little country. Bonpland 
was placed under a kind of arrest, detained for many years, and while he 
was still practically a prisoner of Francia’s, yerba maté had been seen 
by Saint Hilaire in South Brazil, in the Curityba region, identified as a 
member of the ilex family, and named by him Ilex paraguariensis. 
Saint Hilaire afterwards changed the name to Ilex maté ; but meanwhile, 
in 1824, A. B. Lambert, the distinguished English botanist, described 
the tree, illustrated it, and gave it the name I/ex paraguayensis, by which 
it is now usually known. 

The subject with which I have been dealing may seem, at first sight, 
to be a little removed from the activities of the Section. But I would 
suggest that the study of Ethno-botany is of the highest importance. 
The rapid spread of stimulants, narcotics and food plants throughout the 
world has a direct bearing on culture-diffusion. 

But trouble arises from the fact that valuable food plants spread so 
rapidly that their origin becomes obscured. Especially cereals. Maize, 
to give one instance, indigenous to America and unknown in the Old 
World before Columbus, became the staple food of half Africa within a 
century of the discovery, spreading from tribe to tribe, far beyond 
European exploration. In Europe it penetrated to the Levant, and became 
known in France as blé de Turquie. In Germany it was called tiirkische 
Weisen. In England it was called guinea corn, because it came to us 
from West Africa. 

I suggest that there is a splendid opportunity for a young man, trained 
in botany, to undertake the revision of that fine work The Origin of 
Cultivated Plants, written by Alphonse de Candolle. The last edition 
of this was published in 1909, but the Preface, written in 1882, is a model 
of sympathetic guidance to those who follow. Much has been dis- 
covered since de Candolle’s day, and a new edition is badly needed. 
It is in the hope that some of the younger men may take up the task that 
I have chosen this subject for my address. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 


1535-53- ULRICH SCHMIDT (SCHMIEDEL), A True and Agyveeable Description of 
some Indian Lands. (Hakluyt Society, vol. Ixxxj, The Conquest of La Plata, 
ed. by L. L. Dominguez, London, 1891.) 

1541-44. ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE Vaca, Commentaries, in the same volume as 
the preceding. 

1569-74. Nicoras MonarpEs, Joyfull Newes out of the New-found World 
(London, 1580) ; a translation by John Frampton of Las cosas que se traen 
de nuestvas Indias Occidentales. (Seville, 1569-74.) 

1612. Rui Diaz DE GuzmaNn, ‘ Historia Argentina, in P. de Angelis’ Collection 
de Obras y Documentos, vol. i. (Buenos Aires, 1836.) 

?1617. ANTONIO DE RoBLES CORNEJO, Examen le los simples Medicinales 
(MS. 

a? Nicotaus DuRAN, Litterae Annuae Provinciae Paraquariae Societatis 
Jesu. (Antwerp, 1636.) 


168 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


1636. ANTONIO DE LEON PINELO, Question Moral si el Chocolate quebranta el 
ayuno Eclesiastico. (Madrid, 1636.) 

1649-80. NiIcoLaus DEL TECHO (pu Tort), Historia Provinciae Paraquariae 
Societatis Jesu. (Liége, 1637.) (English translation in Churchill’s Collection 
of Voyages, vol.iv. London, 1732.) 

1692. ANTHONY SEpp, ‘Account of a Voyage from Spain to Paraquaria.’ 
(Churchill’s Collection of Voyages, vol. iv. London, 1732.) 

I71I-14. FLORENTIN DE BourGEs (quoted by Bouchet) in Lettres edifiantes et 
cuvieuses, Tome vilj. (Paris, 1781.) 

1712-14. M. FRE&zIER, Rélation du Voyage de la Mer du Stid. (Paris, 1732.) 

1720. CApTaIn BertaGcH, ‘A Voyage round the World. (London, 1728.) 
(Reprinted in Pinkerton’s Voyages, vol. xiv.) 

1729. Vat, in Lettres edifiantes et cuvienses, Tome ix. (Paris, 1781.) 

C. 1734. GASPARD Ropero, ‘ Mémoire apologetique,’ in Lettres edifiantes et 
curieuses, Tome ix. (Paris, 1781.) 

1740-44. JORJE JUAN and ANTONIO DE ULLoa, Voyage to South America. 
Translated by J. Adams. (London, 1807.) 

1740-46. JOHN Byron, Narrative. (London, 1785.) 

1749-67. MAarTIN DoBRIZHOFFER, Historia de Abiponibus. (Vienna, 1783.) 
(English translation by Sara Coléridge. London, 1822.) 

1757. F. XAVIER DE CHARLEVOIX, Histoive du Paraguay. (Paris, 1757.) 

1772-76. Cosm& BuENo, El Conocimiento de los Tiempos. (Lima, 1772-76.) 

1781-1801. FELIx DE Azara, Voyages dans l’Amérique meridionale. (Paris, 
1809.) 

1807. S. H. Witcocke, History of the Vice-voyalty of Buenos Aives. (London, 
1807. 

1811-30. J. P. and W. P. RoBertson, Letters on Paraguay. (London, 1838.) 

1817. RopBert SoutHEY, History of Brazil. (London, 1817.) 

1816-22. A. DE St. HiraireE, ‘ Apercu d’un Voyage dans l’Intérieur du Brésil.’ 
(Mémoires du Mus. d’Hist. Nat., Tome ix. Paris, 1822.) 

1817-20. ENDLICHER and Martius, Flora Braziliensis. (Vienna, 1840-1906.) 

1820-21. PETER SCHMIDTMEYER, Tvavels into Chile. (London, 1824.) 

1824. A. B. Lampert, A Description of the Genus Pinus. (London, 1824.) 

1842. StrRW. J. Hooker, ‘Some Account of the Paraguay Tea.’ (London Journal 
of Botany, vol. i, 1842.) 

1857. D. P. Kipper and J. C. FretcuHer, Brazil and the Brazilians. (Phila- 
delphia, 1857.) 

1860. L. A. Demersay, Histoive physique, économique et politique du Paraguay. 
(Paris, 1860.) 

1878. T. P. Bicc-WitTHER, Pioneering in South Brazil. (London, 1878.) 

1879. A. T. DE ROCHEBRUNE, ‘ Récherches d’ethnographie botanique sur la 
flore des sépultures péruviennes d’Ancon. (Actes Soc. Linnéenne de Bordeaux, 
Tome xxxiij, 1879.) 

1880. THomAs CuHrRisty, New Commercial Plants. (London, 188c.) 

1886. H.SEMLER, Die Tropische Agrikultur. (Wismar, 1886.) 

1894. Handbook to Paraguay (Bureau of the American Republics, Bulletin 
No. 54, 1892, revised to. October 15, 1894), including Appendix B, Report 
of Consul Baker. (Washington, 1894.) 

1g0r. R. v. FISCHER-TRUENFELD, ‘ Paraguaythee.’ (Deutsch Rundschau f. 
Geographie u. Statistik, xxiij 15. Wien, rgor.) 

1git. A. HALE, Bulletin of the Panamerican Union, vol. xxxij.  (1911.) 

1913. PABLO HERNANDEZ, Organisacién Social de las Doctyinas Guaranies. 
(Barcelona, 1913.) 


SECTION I.—PHYSIOLOGY. 


NORMAL AND ABNORMAL COLOUR 
VISION 


ADDRESS BY 
PROF... H..E..ROAF, M.D., D.Sc., 
PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 


Tue choice of a subject for a Presidential Address is a difficult matter. 
In this case, however, the following consideration seemed of importance 
in making the crucial choice. 

Recently attention has been drawn to the number of accidents caused 
by mechanically propelled vehicles. The use of coloured signals may 
lead to difficulties for drivers with defective colour vision. History 
seems to be repeating itself with reference to the use of coloured lights. 
At one time it was claimed that no railway or marine disaster had been 
shown to be due to defective colour vision—which is not surprising, as 
the individuals concerned were never examined after the accident to see 
if they had normal colour vision. 

One person with defective colour vision (hypochromat) has advised 
me not to say that coloured traffic lights cause any difficulty, as he can 
recognise them quite easily. On the other hand, I have heard that some 
drivers with defective colour vision do experience difficulty. Until the 
colour vision of persons who seem to disregard the coloured lights is 
tested, we do not know to what extent coloured lights constitute a difficulty 
to motor drivers with defective colour vision. In any case the remedy 
is simple, as a difference in shape of the coloured lights would be sufficient 
to prevent mistakes. It is true that the relative positions of the lights and 
other data may help in the recognition of the colour, so that the problem 
is not so serious as in the case of railway and marine services. 

It is not my intention to give a detailed documentary description of 
recent work, as those interested will find references to many papers in 
some of the reviews of the subject.t 

The aim of this address is to discuss three aspects of the Physiology of 
Colour Vision. The first aspect is the validity of the trichromatic 
hypothesis. There may not be many new things to be said, but a 
restatement of the arguments is useful as showing to what extent the 


1 H. Piéron, Bull. Soc. d’Ophthal. de Paris, p. 1 (1930). H.E. Roaf, Physiol. 
Rev., 18, p. 43 (1933). 
G2 


170 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


hypothesis can be relied upon. The second aspect is the nature of the 
departures from normal colour vision of those with defective colour 
vision. The third aspect is a brief consideration of some theoretical 
views on the nature of colour-perceiving mechanisms. 


‘“Wuy is CoLour VISION OF IMPORTANCE IN PHYSIOLOGY ? 


All measurements depend upon perceptions ; many are concerned with 
visual perceptions, and some are based upon the perception of colour. 
Therefore the study of special sense physiology should be of interest to 
all branches of science. Colour is an attribute of vision ; therefore any 
views as to the perception of light by the eye must involve a consideration 
of the phenomena of colour. As colour sensation is interpreted in the 
brain, the study of colour vision involves not only the action of light on 
the retina, but also the transmission of impulses through the various 
layers of the retina and through the optic nerve, and the interpretation of 
the impulses in the brain. Some of these problems are common to other 
parts of the nervous system : therefore a thorough knowledge of colour 
vision may illuminate other sensory processes. 

As the retina is merely an outgrowth from the brain, and the optic 
nerve a tract of the central nervous system, the function of the layers of 
the retina and of the optic nerve should correspond with other parts of 
the nervous system. Therefore, the distinctive problem in the physiology 
of colour vision is to discover how light affects the retina and produces 
nerve impulses. On the other hand, it is difficult to separate experi- 
mentally those activities due to stimulation of the retina from the activities 
of the various layers of the retina or the central nervous system. 


STATEMENT OF THE:PROBLEM INVOLVED IN THE CONSIDERATION OF 
CoLourR VISION. 


The real problem that one has to consider in special sense physiology is 
how the threshold of stimulation can be lowered for certain stimuli, but 
left high for others. The nature and action of the receptors determine 
what stimuli will most easily give rise to nerve impulses in certain nerve 
fibres. The number of varieties of receptors depends upon the data 
which must be presented to the cerebrum for the proper perception of 
sensory stimuli. 

The first difficulty is to decide whether a single nerve fibre can convey 
impulses corresponding to more than one sensory datum. ‘This problem 
was mentioned by Prof. Adrian in his address last year, and although the 
thesis cannot be definitely proved, the evidence seems to indicate that a 
single nerve fibre cannot convey more than one kind of impulse.2 The 
velocity of transmission and other characteristics may vary from fibre to 
fibre, but it has not been shown that one fibre can convey different types 
of impulse. ; 

If the above assumption is a legitimate one, we must endeavour to 


2 E. D. Adrian, British Association Report, p. 163 (1933). 


I.—PHYSIOLOGY 171 


reduce the sensory data to the lowest possible number, as the simplest 
mechanism is that requiring the fewest possible components. 

All perceptions can be analysed into qualities of sensation—i.e. we can 
distinguish between sensations of light, sensations of sound, etc. ‘These 
qualities can each be subdivided into different attributes of sensation, or 
subqualities. Some of these subqualities are common to all exteroceptive 
systems. 

The subqualities of vision are perception of form or shape, perception 
of movement, recognition of differences in intensity, and discrimination 
of colour. Before we can attempt to distinguish the minimal data which 
must be presented to the cerebrum, an analysis of colour must be made. 


WHAT IS MEANT IN THIS ADDRESS BY COLOUR? 


We can define colour as one of the psychological accompaniments of 
vision. The physicist defines radiation in terms of wave-lengths, but he 
should speak of colour only as a means of avoiding circumlocution. 
When we say ‘ red’ light we use the term ‘ red’ in quotation marks to 
stand for light which gives rise to the sensation of red in the normal 
person. In many cases no difficulty results from the use of such terms, 
but in a description such as this one we must be clear that there is a 
difference between the two uses of the words red, green, etc_—namely, the 
stimulating radiation and the sensation. 

Colours are visible in the spectrum, and we can recognise certain colours, 
which seem unitary and distinct from all others, namely, red, yellow, 
green, and blue. There are, however, other unitary sensations which 
must be considered, namely, white and black : these cannot be produced 
by stimulation with any one region of the spectrum. ‘These two sensa- 
tions are sometimes described as belonging to the colourless sensations, 
but psychologically one cannot separate them from a discussion on 
colour. 

Thus we find that certain colours are related to definite regions of the 
spectrum, but there are other sensations which do not correspond to any 
_ single group of wave-lengths : the latter are the purples, white, and black. 
All colours can be represented by fusion of lights from several regions 
of the spectrum, and the minimum number of regions is three. This 
physical relation is generally considered of paramount importance in the 
discussion of colour vision. 

In 1802 Young postulated that there were three sensory mechanisms, 
because all colours could be reproduced by a combination of three regions 
of the spectrum. ‘There has always seemed some difficulty in recon- 
ciling this view with the psychological standpoint that there are six distinct 
kinds of visual colour sensation, namely, red, yellow, green, blue, white, 
and black. In the discussion of this problem some of these simple 
psychological effects can be shown to be built up from other sensory 
processes. The discussion of the sensation of yellow occupies an 
important place, but before we deal with the sensation of yellow it is 
simpler to consider the sensations of white and of black. 


3 T. Young, Phil. Trans., 92, p. 12 (1802). 


172 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


Sensation of white cannot be produced by any single unitary physical 
stimulation. It requires the simultaneous action of light from more than 
one region of the spectrum. ‘This seems to me a fundamental considera- 
tion, because if a simple sensation like white can be produced only by a 
heterogeneous stimulation, it is possible for a simple sensation like yellow 
to be the result of a heterogeneous stimulation. The sensation of white 
can be produced by stimulation by light from the whole of the spectrum, 
or from three or from two selected regions. There is no fixed standard 
of white. A white surface is one that reflects all visible wave-lengths 
well and equally. In order to define a ‘ white ’ light a standard is taken 
of the radiation of a perfect radiator at 4800° K. or other specified tempera- 
ture.4_ When a white sensation is produced by light from two regions of 
the spectrum, the separate sensations produced by these radiations are 
said to be complementary, and this phenomenon will be referred to later. 

Black sensation cannot be produced by any combination of radiations. 
It is always the result of a relative deficiency of stimulation. A black 
surface is one that does not reflect any visible wave-length to an appre- 
ciable extent. ‘To produce a black effect with spectral lights a brighter 
light must shine, alongside them. ‘Thus, a red produced by wave-length 
of about 6500 A. looks brown when a bright yellow produced by wave- 
length of about 5900 A. shines alongside of it. 

The transition between white and black through grey depends upon 
the relative amount of illumination. ‘There must, however, be the right 
mixture of wave-lengths, otherwise the grey will be tinted with the 
colour sensation produced by those wave-lengths which are in excess. 

We are now in a position to consider the phenomenon of yellow. 
Yellow is a unitary sensation which can be produced by a single group of 
wave-lengths or by two groups, one each on the ‘ red ’ and ‘ green ’ sides 
of the ‘ yellow’ region. If we are to believe that three types of sensory 
mechanism are sufficient to account for colour vision, one of the four 
colours red, yellow, green, and blue must be due to a stimulation of at 
least two of the other ones. For several reasons, yellow has been chosen 
as the heterogeneous one. 

_To my mind there is no more difficulty in considering yellow as due 
to stimulation of two types of receptors than to consider white as due to 
stimulation of more than one type. Experimental evidence supports this 
view. Macdougall,> Rochat,® and others have shown that a ‘red’ 
stimulus to one eye and a ‘ green’ to the other will give a sensation of 
yellow. This result is obtained even with lights from the spectrum. 
The fact has been demonstrated by Hecht,’ but his method is not such a 
satisfactory proof as that obtained by other methods—e.g. a ‘ red’ glass 
over one eye and a ‘ green’ one over the other, or two definite wave- 
lengths of the spectrum each presented to one eye. 

Central summation of this type shows that the sensation is built up in 
the nervous system beyond the optic chiasma, as neither eye need be 


4 W. D. Wright, Proc. Roy. Soc., B, 115, p. 49 (1934). 

5 W. Macdougall, Mind. X.N.S., pp. 52, 210 and 347 (1901). 
° G. F. Rochat, Arch. néerl. de Physiol., 10, p. 448 (1925). 

* S. Hecht, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. Wash., 14, p. 237 (1928). 


I.—PHYSIOLOGY 173 


stimulated by the ‘ yellow ’ of the spectrum. ‘The red and green sensa- 
tions are lost, but their disappearance cannot be due to processes in the 
layers of the retina. As Macdougall points out, the alternative suggested 
by Hering that his four-dimensional system is cerebral rather than retinal 
deprives his hypothesis of its special value as a theory of colour vision. 
Hering’s theory then becomes part of a general problem of how afferent 
stimuli are combined to produce perceptions, which is too complex a 
matter to be discussed here.® 

As the unitary sensations yellow, white, and black can be built up from 
stimuli associated with other sensations, itis possible to reduce the number 
of data for colour perception to three. 

The object of the above discussion is to show that there is no real 
objection to the trichromatic explanation of colour vision proposed by 
Thomas Young. 


CoLour CONTRAST. 


In many observations on colour, contrast phenomena occur. ‘These 
effects are always related to complementary colours. When, for example, 
one looks at a grey surface surrounded by a colour, the grey is tinted with 
the colour complementary to that used. This phenomenon is called 
simultaneous contrast or spatial induction. There does not seem to be 
any reasonable explanation of this effect except on a psychological basis. 

To say that the inducing colour lowers the threshold of surrounding 
areas is purely hypothetical, and the evidence is in favour of the threshold 
being raised in surrounding areas. This effect of one area of the retina 
on another is part of the problem of adaptation to light.® 

When a grey surface is viewed alongside a coloured surface, the light 
coming from the grey surface contains less of the dominant wave-length 
characteristic of the coloured surface than that coming from the coloured 
surface itself. 

The grey surface is less coloured with the inducing colour, and as there 
is no fixed standard for white (or grey), it appears tinged with the com- 
plementary colour. Objectively it has a greater proportion of the com- 
plementary colour than the other surface.1° 

Successive contrast or temporal induction is produced by looking at a 
coloured surface and then at a grey one. The grey surface under appro- 
priate conditions appears tinged with the colour complementary to the 
inducing one. This is easily explained by the process of adaptation 
whereby the frequency of impulses falls off rapidly during stimulation of 
the receptors. On looking at a neutral surface the impulses initiated in 
those end-organs which were stimulated by the inducing colour will be 


( 8 J. H. Parsons, Introduction to the Theory of Perception, Camb. Univ. Press 
1927). 
® H. E. Roaf, Proc. Roy. Soc., B, 110, p. 448 (1932). W. D. Stiles and B. H. 
Crawford, Proc. Roy. Soc., B, 118, p. 496 (1933). W.D. Wright, Proc. Roy. Soc., 
B, 115, p. 49 (1934). a 
0 F. W. Edridge-Green, Physiology of Vision (G. Bell & Son), pp. 232-234 
(1920). 


174 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


fewer than those from the end-organs which were not previously stimu- 
lated; hence the more frequent impulses from the previously less 
stimulated receptors will produce the sensation of the colour comple- 
mentary to the inducing one. 


DEFECTIVE COLOUR VISION. 


Abnormal colour vision may be congenital or acquired. It is not my 
intention to discuss certain defects in colour vision due to disease—e.g. 
tobacco amblyopia. 

Defective colour vision is a condition in which the persons affected 
make mistakes in matching colours. Any explanation of the nature of 
colour vision must be able to explain how certain colours are mistaken. 
The usual form of defective colour vision is congenital, and does not alter 
during life. This is what is generally understood when speaking of 
defective colour vision. 'The defect seems to consist in a decrease in the 
ability to distinguish ‘ red’ from ‘ green,’ and the subjects distinguish 
fewer colours than the normal (euchromat) ; hence they may be spoken 
of as hypochromats. It is very difficult to compare the sensations of such 
cases with those of a normal person, but they are frequently described 
as having blue-yellow vision. Another way of expressing the fact is to 
say that in the spectrum they distinguish blue from not blue, whereas the 
normal person subdivides the not blue into red and green. As ‘ yellow’ 
occupies the region between ‘ red’ and ‘ green,’ the defect is most notice- 
able in the ‘ yellow’ region of the spectrum, especially in the milder 
degrees of the defect. 

Part of the evidence for these statements is that analysis of the mistakes 
made by hypochromats are all explained by a failure to distinguish red 
from green! Further evidence is furnished by observations on colour 
discrimination. 

By measuring the difference in wave-length necessary to cause a differ- 
ence in colour, it is found that normal people have two main maxima of 
discrimination where a difference in colour is recognised for a minimal 
change in wave-length. These maxima of discrimination probably 
indicate where there is a most rapid change in the ratio of stimulation of 
two different types of receptor organs. The hypochromat shows only 
one maximum of discrimination, thus suggesting that he has only two 
types of receptor organs. 

In extreme degrees of this defect the whole range of colours can be 
reproduced for these people by fusion of light from two regions of the 
spectrum. 

The normal maxima are in the ‘ yellow’ and ‘ blue-green’ of the 
spectrum, whilst the hypochromat has only one maximum, that in the 
‘blue-green.’ It appears as if the distinction on each side of the yellow 
had been diminished or lost : hence the failure to distinguish ‘ red ’ from 
‘ green,’ and the whole not blue portion of the spectrum appears more or 
less of one colour. The bearing of this on any theory of vision is that 


ll H. E. Roaf, Quart. Journ. Exp. Physiol., 14, p. 151 (1924). A. B. Follows, 
in the press (1934). H. E. Roaf, in the press (1934). 


I.—PHYSIOLOGY 175 


we must be able to explain how the distinction between red and green can 
disappear, yet without marked decrease in the visibility of any portion of 
the spectrum. The threshold for light is not necessarily altered, and it is 
possible for hypochromats to see clearly through a filter which allows 
only the red end of the spectrum to pass through. In fact a hypochromat 
who cannot see red geraniums amongst the green leaves can distinguish 
the flowers as light objects against a dark background when looking through 
a red glass filter. 


ANOMALOUS 'TRICHROMATISM. 


In 1881 Lord Rayleigh described a condition known as anomalous 
trichromatism, which is characterised by the fact that various people 
require different proportions of ‘red’ and ‘ green’ to match a fixed 
‘yellow ’ but there seems to be no defect in the recognition of colours. 
This condition has been considered by some people to be the basis of a 
division of hypochromats into two groups, and that there are a series of 
cases ranging from normal vision to complete red-green confusion.” 

Up to the present there has been no satisfactory explanation of the 
condition of anomalous trichromatism, and I am now investigating this 
condition. The explanation may be that the radiation corresponding to 


the sodium flame (5896 A.) looks orange to some and greenish to others. 
If the fixed ‘ yellow ’ looks orange, the appearance suggests that the red 
sensation is relatively more stimulated by the ‘ yellow’ light, and more 
‘red’ would be required in the mixture to make the match, whilst if the 
fixed ‘ yellow’ looks greenish, more ‘ green’ would be required. It is 
not yet known whether a similar phenomenon is shown in matching a 
fixed ‘ blue-green’ with a mixture of ‘ blue’ and ‘ green.’ That some 
such explanation is possible is shown by Gothlin,!* who finds that different 
people do not mark out the same region of the spectrum as yellow. The 
maxima of discrimination mentioned previously are also found to be at 
different wave-lengths for various individuals. 

The sensation of yellow seems to be a crucial problem, as it may be 
recognised at different wave-lengths of radiation, and if it is seen over a 
wide range of wave-lengths the subject has defective colour vision. 


MEANS OF STIMULATION BY LIGHT. 


Stimulation of the retina is due to a photochemical action. That is, the 
radiant energy is absorbed and converted into some other form of energy. 
Joly has ascribed the effect to a photoelectric process, meaning that 
electrons are given off as the result of the radiation. It is difficult to see 
in what way this differs from a photochemical action, as electronic changes 
in organic material accompany chemical change. One cannot compare 


12 A. Guttmann, Zeit. f. Psychol. d. Zinnesorgane, Abt. 2, 42, pp. 24 and 250 
(1908) ; ibid., Abt. 2, 48, pp. 146, 199 and 255 (1909). 

13 G, Fr. Gothlin, Journ. Physiol., 57, p. 181 (1923). 

14 QO. Steindler, Sitzungsber. d. Akad. Wiss. Wien, 115, 2a, p. 39 (1906). H. 
Laurens and F. W. Hamilton, Amer. Journ. Physiol., 65, p. 547 (1923). 


176 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


these changes with those produced in photoelectric cells. Furthermore, 
it is known that there is a chemical substance in the retina which is 
bleached by light. It would be a remarkable circumstance if this photo- 
chemical change were entirely divorced from the function of vision. 
Hecht has published a series of papers on the photochemical action of 
light on living organisms, and it has been shown that the data for dark 
adaptation are best explained on the basis of a bimolecular chemical 
change. The analytical factors in sensation are generally considered to 
be specialised receptor organs which receive the stimuli and cause nerve 
impulses. ‘These receptors act by having a low threshold to some mani- 
festations of energy while maintaining a high threshold to others. It 
is for this reason that receptors are of such importance in the physiology 
of the nervous system. 


‘THEORIES OF COLOUR VISION. 


If it is legitimate to regard all colour perceptions as being synthesised 
from three sensory mechanisms, we can return to the consideration of 
visual perceptions (p. 170.) 

Perceptions of form may be regarded as related to the optical patterns 
produced in both uniocular and binocular vision ; therefore they are 
related to the anatomical connections between areas of the retina and of 
the cerebrum. 

Perceptions of movement depend upon the presentation of successive 
patterns, such, for example, as shown by the cinematograph. 

Recognition of intensity differences is ascribed to the frequency with 
which impulses reach the central nervous system. ‘Therefore we have 
to consider how the three subqualities underlying colour vision can be 
conveyed by the optic nerves. If we could prove that different types of 
nerve impulse could pass up the same nerve, we could say that a single 
nerve fibre could serve for all colour perceptions, but if we must limit 
each nerve fibre to one type of impulse, then we must look for separate 
nerve fibres for each of the three colour sensation processes. In other 
words, of the six properties of vision we can relate three of them—form, 
movement, and intensity—to anatomical, temporal, and frequency relations 
respectively. The other three, namely colours, must be related to different 
groups of nerve fibres. It is possible to imagine frequency relations 
giving rise to colour sensations, but we would then have to abandon the 
experimental relation between frequency and intensity. 

The maximum frequency at which nerve impulses can pass up a nerve 
fibre is of the order 400 per second, whilst the frequency of light waves 
is from 400 to 750 billions per second. It seems difficult to imagine a 
relationship between such disproportionate frequencies. 

The relation between receptor organs in the retina and nerve fibres in 
the optic nerve is complicated by the synapses in the layers of the retina 
(Granit has been investigating these problems!*). If vision depends 


16 E. D. Adrian, British Association Report, p. 163 (1933). 
16 R. Granit, Arch. of Ophthal., 6, p. 104 (1931). 


I.—PHYSIOLOGY 177 


upon the presence of three types of receptors, it is difficult to see how the 
nerve fibres corresponding to the different sensations can be reduced to 
less than three groups, nor can one imagine how fewer than three types 
of receptors can give rise to three groups of nerve impulses. ‘This is a 
general problem as to what extent simplification or complexity can be 
introduced between receptor organs and the interpreting mechanism in 
the brain. It seems to me that the trichromatic hypothesis implies, as 
stated by Young, the presence of three types of receptors linked with 
three groups of nerve fibres in the optic nerves. 

The tentative conclusion is that, in order to explain the phenomena of 
colour vision, it is necessary to have three groups of nerve fibres passing 
to the brain—one group giving rise to sensation A, a second to sensation 
B, and a third to sensation C. We must discover what wave-lengths 
stimulate A, B, and C respectively, what sensations are produced by 
stimulation of one of these alone, and what is the effect of stimulating 
more than one of these, either to the same degree for each or to different 
ratios of response. Stimulation of the receptors may correspond to 
definite wave-length groups, but there may be a certain amount of 
rearrangement in the retinal synapses. It does not seem probable that 
the number of types of receptors or groups of nerve fibres can be reduced 
below three if frequency of the impulses is to be related to intensity of 
stimulation and if only one kind of impulse can pass up each fibre. It is 
like the solution of simultaneous equations: the number of equations 
must be at least equal to the number of unknowns to be found. That 
seems to be the essence of the trichromatic hypothesis as suggested by 
Young. 

Helmholtz introduced the view that the differentiation is due to the 
presence of three photo-active substances which are acted on by the long, 
medium, and short wave-lengths of the visible spectrum respectively. 
The range of radiation which affects these three substances overlaps so 
that, for example, some rays affect all three of these substances. Up 
to the present there is no definite evidence for the presence of three 
photo-active substances, only one photo-active substance, rhodopsin or 
visual purple, has been found. Apart from this fact the view of three 
photochemical substances such as postulated by Helmholtz does not agree 
with the experimental evidence. For instance, in order to explain 
hypochromatism, it is not assumed that one photo-active substance is 
absent but that the range of activity has shifted so that the one substance 
is activated by the range which was formerly active on the two separate 
substances. It does not seem likely that such a chemical transformation 
would occur. 

Hecht has attempted to modify the Helmholtz view by assuming the 
presence of three substances activated by practically the same range of 
radiant energy. The dissimilarities in Hecht’s curves seem to me to be 
too small to explain the differences in colour sensations. Such views as 
those of Hering are untenable so long as we cling to the idea that a single 
nerve fibre can conduct only one type of impulse. Further, the sensation 
of yellow can be produced by the fusion of impulses from the two eyes: 
hence it is not due to the neutralisation of ‘red’ and ‘ green’ in the 


178 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


retina with a residual yellow effect due to both these ranges of radiation 
stimulating a yellow sensation-producing mechanism. Burridge’s state- 
ment that there is an increase or decrease in rhythmical activity does not 
indicate how colour sensations are produced. 

Edridge-Green describes a theory which is quite different from all 
others. He says that the rods do not cause visual sensations, their only 
activity being to produce visual purple. Visual purple is passed into 
solution and, when decomposed by light, acts upon and produces stimula- 
tion of the cones. He seems to regard each cone and each nerve fibre as 
capable of giving rise to a number of different colour sensations ; this 
suggestion requires a modification of the view that a single nerve fibre 
can conduct only one type of impulse. 

Another suggestion is that put forward by Schultz (1866),1” namely, 
that there is one photochemical substance but different coloured filters to 
distinguish the various regions of the visible spectrum. Such filters have 
been found in amphibia, reptiles, birds and marsupials, but have not been 
found in other mammals. The coloured filters in the birds’ retinz 
would explain the type of colour vision found in man. For instance, by 
reducing the intensity of red pigment in the red filters the various degrees 
of hypochromatic vision would be produced, but in a single human eye 
examined by me no such filters could be seen. 

My own work leads me to suppose that the types of receptors which 
are stimulated by visible radiation are as follow :— 

The first type of receptor is one which is stimulated by all parts of the 
visible spectrum and gives rise to a sensation of violet 18 when stimulated 
strongly by itself.19 

The evidence for the first part of the above statement is the same 
as that which caused Hering to speak of a white-black substance and 
von Kries to describe a bluish-white sensation as due to stimulation 
of the receptors for achromatic scotopic vision: these usually being 
regarded as the rods. 

The evidence for the second part of the above statement is first of all that 
a narrow beam of any wave-length when shining slightly eccentrically gives 
rise to a violet sensation. ‘This has been called secondary excitation, 
implying that the sensation is due to stimulation of receptors by nerve 
impulses passing along fibres of the optic nerve. It is unlikely that such 
stimulation would occur, and if so, why should the sensation produced be 


17 M. Schultz, Arch. f. Mikr. Anat., 2, p. 255 (1866). 

18 Tt is with some hesitation that one states that violet is due to stimulation of 
a single receptor, as psychologically it suggests a mixture of blue with a little 
red. If violet is the sensation corresponding to stimulation of one type of 
receptor, we must regard the unitary sensation of blue as due to stimulation of 
the receptors for green and violet. It may be that blue is the sensation due to 
stimulation of the single receptor, and that violet is the result of stimulation of 
the receptors which give rise to blue and to red sensations. This matter must be 
left in abeyance, but the use of the term ‘ violet receptor’ is to be understood to 
mean either the receptor for violet or blue, owing to the fact that fatigue to ‘ red ’ 
causes violet to appear more blue. Wright believes that the single receptor gives 
rise to a sensation of blue. 

19 W. O. Sivén, Shand. Arch. f. Physiol., 17, p. 306 (1905). 


I.—PHYSIOLOGY 179 


violet ? On the whole, it seems simpler to interpret it as stimulation of 
rods by any wave-length. Furthermore, diseases involving the rods lead 
to night blindness or raising the threshold of achromatic scotopic vision. 
If this threshold is sufficiently raised then there is loss of vision for violet, 
so that the distinction between green and blue is lost.2® This defect is 
a true violet blindness, because it is accompanied by a raised threshold 
for the short wave-length end of the spectrum. Finally, adaptation to 
light conditions is accompanied by a special raising of the threshold to 
the short wave-length end of the spectrum. Therefore, although the 
point is not proved, there is much evidence in favour of violet vision being 
a function of the rods. 

The second type of receptor is one which is concerned with the not 
blue aspect of vision of the hypochromat. ‘These may be cones of which 
there need be only one variety for the hypochromat. 

The third type of receptor would be functional in normal vision, and 
it seems as if this second variety of cone were one that distinguishes red 
from not red, and according to the activity of this variety the stages 
between normal vision and complete red-green confusion can be 
bridged. 

Therefore, normal vision may be due to a receptor which gives rise to 
a red sensation, one which gives rise to a blue sensation and one which 
gives rise to a not blue, not red sensation which, of course, corresponds 
to green sensation. ‘The actual wave-lengths of radiation that stimulate 
the several receptors are not known. The real difference between various 
hypotheses is the extent and region of the spectrum which stimulates the 
end-organs. 

In the Young-Helmholtz hypothesis the type of receptor responsible 
for the sensation of red is stimulated by almost the whole of the spectrum, 
but most strongly by the long wave-length end. ‘The receptors for green 
are stimulated by almost the whole spectrum, but most strongly by the 
mid-region. And those for blue are stimulated by a large extent of 
the spectrum, but most strongly by the short wave-length end. é 

“ Red’ light of longer wave-length than 6200 Avis supposed to stimulate 
the red receptor only, whilst shorter wave-lengths will stimulate the red 
receptor to decreasing degrees, but the other receptors to increasing 
extent, hence the change of colour with wave-length. 


RELATION OF WAVE-LENGTH DIFFERENCES TO COLOUR DISCRIMINATION. 


The change of colour is probably most noticeable when the change in 
ratio of stimulation of the receptors is most marked—e.g. yellow sensation 
might correspond to a sudden decrease in frequency of impulses from 
the receptors for red, a sudden increase in impulses from the receptors 
for green, or a rapid decrease of the former and rapid increase of the latter. 
This assumption is one reason for the great interest in the maxima of 
discrimination in the spectrum. 


20 H. Kollner, Die Stévungen des Farhensinnes (S. Karger, Berlin, 1912). 


180 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


Interpretation of the relations between receptors and incident light is 
not yet attained. Sensation curves merely express the results of matching 
regions of the spectrum with three groups of wave-lengths. As Wright 
remarks,”! ‘ The physiological mechanism by which such an effect could 
be produced cannot be visualised very readily, but it would apparently 
necessitate the assumption that all three fundamental responses have 
some quality in common, so that one response could produce a sub- 
tractive effect on another. ‘This quality must probably be in the nature 
of an inherent ‘‘ whiteness,” and it is on an assumption of this sort that 
saturation differences might be explained.’ 

This view has much in common with the belief of Hering and von 
Kries that there is an underlying white sensation to all stimuli. 

It is possible that monochromatic regions of the spectrum may stimulate 
all three types of receptors to constant ratios—e.g. the extreme ‘ red’ 
end of the spectrum may stimulate all three types to equal degrees or any 
ratio such as 3:2:1. ‘Therefore, the monochromatic ‘ red’ at the end 
of the spectrum may correspond to stimulation of the three types of 
receptors, and not only of one, as represented in Wright’s curve. A 
high degree of discrimination, as in the ‘ yellow,’ would correspond to a 
rapid change in the ratio of stimulation. Therefore, (a) the red sensation 
is rapidly falling off, (6) the green sensation is rapidly increasing, or 
(c) the red is decreasing and green increasing rapidly about 5800 A. 
Similarly a change in the ratio of stimulation is taking place rapidly 
about 4900 Ne 

It is difficult to know how to test these assumptions. The phenomena 
of binocular rivalry, etc., indicate that nerve impulses may be suppressed 
before they produce consciousness: hence sensations may not always 
correspond to the algebraical sum of nerve impulses—e.g. an object seems 
darker when a semi-transparent screen is placed in front of one eye than 
if the one eye is entirely obscured. 


CONDITIONS NECESSARY FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF THE SPECIFIC STIMULI 
FOR VISUAL RECEPTORS. 


For the purpose of finding out what range of wave-lengths is effective on 
the different receptors, weak stimuli must be employed. The eye must be 
in a condition of dark adaptation, because any other state is accompanied 
by stimuli which make the results more difficult to interpret. ‘ White’ 
light should never be used, as it stimulates all receptors; therefore 
specific relations between receptors and stimulus are upset. 

With stronger stimuli a wider range of radiation will become effective 
in stimulating the end-organs ; in fact, with strong illumination it is known 
that the purity of the sensation diminishes, thus showing that weak 
illumination is better for the purpose of differentiating the relation of 
receptors to different wave-lengths of radiation. 

The effect of one group of wave-lengths on the sensitivity of the same 


21 W. D. Wright, Proc. Roy. Soc., B, 115, pp. 69-70 (1934). 


I.—PHYSIOLOGY 181 


area of the retina to another group, is probably the only method of com- 
paring the stimulating actions of these groups on the same receptors. 
If different receptors are acted upon, one light should not affect the 
sensitivity to another, but if the same receptors are concerned, 
then interference will take place according to the Weber-Fechner 
relationship. 

Experiments of the above nature suggest that long wave-lengths of 
visible radiation stimulate all receptors to an appreciable degree, whilst 
the shorter ones act mainly on one only. 

As a result of my own experiments I am led to believe that the ranges of 
wave-length which stimulate the various receptors correspond to the 
effects to be expected from the coloured globules found in the birds’ 
retine. No such colour filters have been found in the eyes of mammals 
higher than the group of marsupials. It may be that photo-active 
substances are the means of selection. 

The three types of receptors would be : (1) Those corresponding to the 
red globules which would be stimulated by the long wave-length end of 
the spectrum, with a marked falling off in effect about 5800 A. As no 
filter is absolutely opaque, it is probable, especially with bright lights, 
that some stimulation of these occurs by wave-lengths to the extreme 
short wave-length end of the spectrum. These receptors would be 
absent or the pigment in the filter reduced in the various degrees of 
hypochromatism. (2) Those corresponding to the yellow globules which 
would be stimulated by long and intermediate wave-lengths, with a 
marked falling off in effect about 4900 A. Some stimulation might also 
be produced by shorter wave-lengths. (3) Those corresponding to the 
pale greenish globules which could be stimulated by the whole of the 
visible spectrum. ‘ Red’ light would thus stimulate all three receptors. 
‘Green’ light would stimulate mainly two. ‘ Violet’ light would 
stimulate mainly one. 


SUMMARY. 


Colour vision is probably dependent upon three types of receptor 
organs. In some persons the activity of one of these types is reduced or 
absent, giving rise to varying degrees of defective colour vision. 

Discrimination curves suggest that the change in ratio of stimulation 
occurs rapidly at wave-lengths about 5800 A. and 4900 A. Hypochromats 
do not possess the maximum near 5800 A.; hence their dichromatic 
vision depends upon two types of receptors with marked change in ratio 
of stimulation by wave-lengths about 4900 A. 

The normal person differs, therefore, from the hypochromat in that 
the former is better able to distinguish wave-lengths of radiation longer 
than 5800 A. from shorter ones. The defect does not appear to be a mere 
absence of one type of receptor leaving a portion of the spectrum unrepre- 
sented, but it seems as if the red discrimination of the euchromat were 
superimposed on a background of something else. In the absence of 
discrimination of ‘ red’ the background might be classed as yellow, but 


182 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


when discrimination of ‘red’ is present the sensation of yellow is 
aroused by a region of the spectrum which separates that giving a red 
sensation from that which gives another colour, namely, green. 

The deficiency is always characterised by a spreading out of the 
portion of the spectrum which gives rise to a sensation of yellow until, 
in severe cases, the whole of the spectrum from 4900 A. to the extreme 
‘red’ end is distinguished only by characters such as brightness or 
decrease in blueness. 


SECTION J.—PSYCHOLOGY. 


PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 


ADDRESS BY 
SHEPHERD DAWSON, M.A., D.Sc., 
PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 


Sociat problems are partly material and partly mental. Every society 
consists of interdependent personalities whose harmonious co-operation 
is necessary for the general well-being, and the really serious problems of 
life concern this co-operation. Very great progress has been made in 
the solution of the material problems: the physical and biological sciences 
have given increased control over material resources ; the energy values 
of foods have been determined, the amounts required for different kinds 
of work have been calculated, and preventive and remedial measures have 
been devised by medical science which are improving national health 
and lengthening life. 

Very much less attention has been given to the study of the mental 
aspects of social welfare, perhaps because every man finds it difficult to 
persuade himself that his conduct and thought can be studied as physical 
and biological phenomena are studied, resenting the suggestion that 
anyone but himself can know what he is going to do or what he is able to 
do, and yet with a strange inconsistency not hesitating to claim for himself 
such knowledge regarding others, or perhaps it is because the conditions 
that affect human thought and behaviour are so extremely complex that 
they make the understanding of a chemical reaction a trivial matter as 
compared with that of a bit of human behaviour. Nevertheless, for a 
proper understanding of the numerous problems that arise from life in a 
community, such as those of supply and demand, labour and capital, law 
and order, hygiene, housing, transport, education, the conflict of traditions 
and ideals, and local and international rivalries, the study of mind is just 
as important as is that of matter. The solutions to these problems are 
to be found ultimately in the forces that move men to action, in their 
inherited tendencies, in their acquired habits, in the mentality of the 
groups to which they belong, and in their relationships to those groups. 

Most men with any experience of the world know this, but it rarely 
occurs to them that these matters are amenable to scientific treatment : 
they rely on their own intuitions, seldom doubting their truth, preferring 
_ persuasion to proof. If opinion is to give place to knowledge, scientific 
method is just as necessary here as it is in chemistry, physics or biology, 
for it is just a deliberate effort to get a clear understanding of things by 


184 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


making systematic observations under conditions which others can repeat, 
by inventing explanations, and by testing these explanations thoroughly 
and impersonally. 

An appreciation of this need for objectivity was doubtless in Fechner’s 
mind when he dreamed of measuring sensory experiences and making 
psychology as mathematical as the physical sciences : it certainly underlies 
the activities of the experimental and statistical psychologists. Fechner’s 
hopes have not been realised. Psychology has had to develop methods 
suitable to the solution of its own problems, and these have not been the . 
classical methods of the physical sciences: they are more like those of 
the biological sciences. They are essentially systematic methods of 
describing and analysing the experiences and bodily activities of representa- 
tive samples of the population under specified conditions. This is the 
logic of psychological inquiry : it is a slow, laborious business, not nearly 
so exhilarating nor so impressive as the invention of sweeping generalisa- 
tions supported only by rhetoric and casual observation; but it is necessary, 
and, in the end, satisfying. 

Though the need for objectivity is recognised in the experimental 
laboratory, where information is laboriously collected and analysed, and 
where theories are thoroughly tested, it has not been so clearly recognised 
in the treatment of the psychological aspects of social problems. The 
social psychologist seems to be drawn to those branches of his subject 
which are the most obscure and the least amenable to objective co-opera- 
tive testing and to those methods of inquiry which are the least exact : 
he maintains, for example, that the departmént of psychology that is of 
first importance for the social sciences is that which deals with instinctive 
impulses, and for his knowledge of these impulses he relies largely on 
casual observation. ‘There has been much speculation regarding the 
number and nature of the innate human tendencies and their operation 
in social life, and there are fascinating theories regarding the ways in 
which individual personal experience affects behaviour. Unfortunately, 
much of this lacks the precision and objectivity which science demands ; 
it is in the old philosophical tradition, being characterised by wide 
generalisations based on casual observation, subtle analyses and fine dis- 
tinctions that are often merely verbal ; it is not based on that controlled 
and repeatable observation which makes science. It is none the less useful, 
for it provides working hypotheses and it is perhaps inevitable ; but it has 
to be tested : so long as its main support is general impression and opinion, 
no matter how respectable, it is not science. 

Much of the text-book psychology of behaviour falls into this category. 
Casual observation suggests that there are forms of behaviour which are 
common to all the members of a species, unlearned and grounded in 
inherited structure and disposition, and, as McDougall, Drever, Bartlett 
and others have shown so clearly, such innate dispositions explain much 
of human behaviour ; but we still lack methods of assessing the strengths 
of these tendencies: few people doubt that there is an innate tendency 
to remove more or less violently obstacles to one’s activities and that it 
varies in strength from one person to another and from one race to another, 
but until satisfactory objective methods of assessing it have been devised, 


J.—PSYCHOLOGY 185 


comparisons between individuals and between peoples as to the strengths 
of these tendencies will remain difficult and unreliable. 

Such methods will probably be devised in the course of time: as 
regards the temperamental traits, which are believed to be important for 
social life, some crude beginnings have already been made with the so- 
called rating scales. Certain qualities of mind, such as impulsiveness, 
steadiness, and cheerfulness, are selected and each person under investiga- 
tion is rated in respect of each trait on, say, a five-point scale, that is, he is 
put into the first, second, third, fourth, or fifth class, the classes being 
chosen so that in a representative sample of the population the numbers in 
them will form a distribution that is approximately normal. ‘The success 
of this method obviously depends on the sagacity and experience of the 
examiner: it gives a partially controlled subjective estimate which is 
probably accurate enough for some purposes and very much better than 
a haphazard uncontrolled judgment, but is somewhat unreliable when 
estimates by different people are pooled or compared, as anyone can dis- 
cover for himself by getting estimates made in this way by different 
observers on the same group of people. The method is promising: it 
would be completely successful if the estimates were based on adequate 
descriptions of systematic direct observations of behaviour. 

While it is true that racial inborn tendencies to activity, such as aggres- 
siveness and curiosity, are of great social importance, it is equally true, 
and perhaps more important for practical life, that these tendencies, as 
they appear in man, are ill-defined as regards both the stimuli which excite 
them and the actions in which they issue, and that they are easily directed : 
this is important for social life because it is an essential condition of 
educability. It is in this respect that human innate tendencies differ 
from those of the lower animals. After all, a human community 7s different 
from a mere animal herd ; even an undisciplined, brutal and stupid mob 
is not quite so stupid as a herd of animals. With rare exceptions all the 
members of an animal herd appear to feel and act in the same way : they 
hunt or browse together, apparently enjoying one another’s society and 
protection, but there appears to be very little co-operation between them : 
for this there is needed diversity of ability as well as a common purpose, 
and it is just this which distinguishes a human group from most non- 
human groups, with the possible exception of such groups as those of ants 
and bees, which, however, are physiologically so far removed from us 
that it is futile to attempt to compare their mentality with our own. A 
typical human group is not the squad on the parade ground where every 
man is expected to make the same movement at exactly the same time, 
but rather an army in action where each man’s work is different from that 
of his neighbour, but all are interdependent and working for a common 
purpose. A human community, in fact, implies variety of ability and 
effort, organisation, and an appreciation, more or less clear, of relationship 
_ to the group, and its success depends very largely on its intelligent use of 
its resources. 

Social problems can be approached either from the point of view of the 
individual or from that of the group to which he belongs. Neither approach 
can be consistently maintained to the exclusion of the other, for the 


186 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


problems of the individual are the problems of society and vice versa : 
a man is not independent of his fellows ; his social environment is part of 
himself ; his thoughts, feelings and desires vary with his environment ; 
he is socially a chameleon, and any account of him which fails to consider 
his environment is as distorted as is an account of society itself which fails 
to consider the variety of aptitudes, motives, knowledge, manners and 
customs of its members. A social group is a complex structure which 
contains within itself other groups and sub-groups, professional, economic, 
linguistic, etc., whose harmonious co-operation is necessary for the welfare 
of the whole. The big social problem is the dual one of fitting the 
individual into the group and fitting the group to the individual. This is 
essentially an educational problem, one for education in the widest sense 
of the word ; it concerns the home, the school, the university, the press, 
and the broadcasting and other publicity agencies. Its solution demands 
some knowledge of the natural endowment of the individual, his impulses 
and intellectual capacities, and of methods of making the most of them ; 
and this in its turn implies the need for and the use of methods of assessing 
human endowment and achievement. 

I wish to consider especially the scientific assessment of natural capacity 
and some of the problems connected with it, therefore, it is necessary to 
keep clearly in mind the distinction between ability and capacity. Ability is 
actual, capacity is potential. Ability is measured by what can be done here 
and now ; capacity can usually be estimated by what can be done after a 
course of training. Knowledge and skill at games are forms of ability ; 
they depend on certain natural capacities and on upbringing. All 
examinations are tests of ability. 

The satisfactory measurement of ability is always difficult on account 
of the adaptability of the human organism. ‘The measurement of the 
efficiency of an engine is by comparison a very trivial affair. Even the 
best of examinations gives a somewhat blurred estimate of human mental 
ability. 

The measurement of ability is difficult enough, but the estimation of the 
parts played by native capacity and upbringing respectively in determining 
such ability is very much more so. Innate qualities do not exist im vacuo : 
they exist with reference to certain external conditions and they must be 
diagnosed and measured in relation to these conditions. Every test is 
directly a test of ability, and can be a test of capacity only indirectly. 
Where training has no effect on the expression of a capacity, then a test 
of ability is a test of capacity ; but few, if any, capacities are unaffected 
by training. If opportunities and incentives are so widely scattered that 
they are available for everybody, or if similar training has been given to 
all, then differences in performance indicate differences in capacity ; but 
where the essential training and environmental conditions vary, inferences 
regarding capacity can be made with much less certainty. It is difficult 
to convince oneself regarding the uniformity of external conditions and easy 
to blunder : for example, it is sometimes supposed that mental differences 
between children of the same parents are due solely to genetic differences, 
but some of them are certainly due to variations in the family environment : 
the health and age of the mother are not the same at the birth of each child 


J.—PSYCHOLOGY 187 


(unless they be twins) ; families move from easy to difficult circumstances 
and vice versa ; parents become more experienced, or more indulgent, in 
the management of their children ; school-fellows vary ; and the children 
themselves vary in their relationships to one another and to the rest of the 
world. The conditions of the experimental chemical laboratory cannot 
be exactly reproduced in the study of human and social phenomena ; we 
have to be content with approximations to these conditions. 

It is necessary to stress these considerations of method, for psychologists 
have hitherto been more concerned to distinguish and measure different 
kinds of ability which seem to be dependent on native capacity than to 
prove their innate basis. An example may make this clear. Itisacommon 
belief that people differ in respect of mechanical ability, that some have 
little difficulty in understanding the working of a motor car, a dynamo, 
a clock or other piece of mechanism, and that others find these things 
unintelligible ; it is also commonly believed that these differences are 
due to differences in natural capacity. Now, the first thing that must 
be done is to find whether there is actually a positive correlation between 
ability to solve one kind of mechanical problem and ability to solve 
other kinds, for until such a correlation has been established, it is 
futile to talk about mechanical ability. This is the kind of problem on 
which much effort has been spent, especially in this country : but after 
a correlation has been established, it is still necessary to find to what extent 
this ability is the expression of a specific inborn capacity. This more 
difficult problem is usually attacked by using test situations so novel that 
there is little probability of one examinee having any advantage over 
another through familiarity with the situation, or by using problems such 
as occur so often that it can be presumed that inability to solve them is due 
ultimately to innate incapacity. In practice, the difficulty, once it has 
been recognised, is probably not so great as may appear, for the opportuni- 
ties of and the need for exercising most of one’s native capacities are in 
fact numerous ; a person who fails to pass a properly designed and pro- 
perly conducted test of colour blindness is almost certainly colour-blind. 

All kinds of capacities are being investigated with varying success, and 
it may be possible some day to evaluate mental characters with some 
approximation to the accuracy with which physical characters can be 
assessed. What is needed is more extensive and more co-operative work. 
Most progress has been made in the evaluation of intellect by the so-called 
intelligence tests, largely under the pressure of educational needs. 

Intelligence tests, as developed by Binet, were simply tests of educabi- 
lity, methods of picking out those children who are incapable of profiting 
from the education provided in the ordinary primary school. They have 
done more than this, for they have provided a method of distinguishing 
all degrees of general capacity. In principle they are just a refinement of 
a very common method of estimating native brightness. Binet put to 
children questions about topics which were likely to come within their 
everyday experience; he found what average children of different ages 
could do and was able to arrange his questions in a scale of increasing 
difficulty ; then he assumed that those who picked up the necessary 
information or acquired the necessary skill or showed the necessary 


188 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


intellectual grasp of a problem at an earlier age than the average child 
were bright or intelligent, and that those who were slow in doing so were 
dull ; and subsequent inquiry has shown that his assumption was well 
grounded. ‘The danger here lies in variations of opportunity and training. 
Obviously, a child who has not had the opportunity of using the current 
coinage, or of buying and selling (or playing at buying and selling), or of 
learning to read and write, is at a disadvantage when he is put through 
certain of the Binet tests. This danger, however, is not so serious as it 
appears at first sight, for the social environment of children living in 
civilised communities differs very little in so far as it affects the results of 
the tests, and most of the tests have been chosen so as to minimise the 
influence of the environmental factor. ‘These tests have been analysed 
and improved, and Spearman claims to have shown that they measure a 
central common factor which is intellectual in nature and which, to be 
non-committal and to avoid the ambiguities of everyday speech, he calls, 
not intelligence, but ‘ g.’ 

Mental tests have been used so extensively and in connection with so 
many problems that they have yielded information of social significance. 
They have been been applied more or less carefully, and in forms more or 
less satisfactory, to children of all ages, races and grades of society, and 
the results obtained raise some hope of getting reliable information 
regarding the distribution of intellect in the population as a whole and in 
the various professional, social and economic strata, and regarding its 
connection with fertility, disease, environment, and other conditions : 
they suggest too that at last we may have here a method of getting reliable 
information which will throw light on the puzzling problems of mental 
inheritance. 

Repeated application of these tests to the same children suggests that 
mental development, as measured by the tests, proceeds along lines 
analogous to those of physical development and that it reaches its maturity 
about the age of adolescence, as do stature and other physical characters. 
The rate of development is expressed by the ratio of the level reached by 
the individual to that reached by the average of his age—for example, a boy 
of age ten years who has reached only the level of the average nine-year-old 
is said to have an intelligence-ratio (mental-ratio or intelligence-quotient) 
of nine-tenths or go per cent. This figure seems to measure some innate 
capacity or capacities, for, though it varies from one person to another, yet it 
remains fairly constant for each individual and appears to be little affected 
by external circumstances. Even serious and long-continued spells of 

illness appear to affect it very little: it is only ailments producing pro- 
gressive deterioration of the central nervous system, especially of the 
brain, such as encephalitis lethargica and some forms of epilepsy, that 
reduce it. Absence from school may interfere with a child’s education 
and so promote social inefficiency without affecting his intelligence-ratio. 

Changes in social and physical environment have very little effect in 
modifying this ratio unless they be very great. Residence in an institution 
does not appear to make the ratios more alike than they were on admission, 
and children who have never seen their parents, but have been reared 
in the same homes, show the same differences of intellect as do their 


J.—PSYCHOLOGY 189 


parents. It is very hard to find the necessary data to decide this question 
of the effect of environment. In Glasgow about 300 children were tested 
at the time of their removal from slum houses to a rehousing area, 
and again about eighteen months later. It had been intended to allow 
an interval of two or three years to elapse between the examinations, 
but so many of the children—about 20 per cent.—left their new homes, 
that the interval had to be shortened. The ages of the children varied 
from five to nine years, an age at which they might be expected to react 
quickly to the new and improved environment. At the second test they 
did on the whole show a just appreciable improvement, their average ratio 
was raised from 90-6 to g2-1. A control group that did not move from 
their slum homes showed no such improvement, The result of this 
investigation is cheering for those who are trying to improve the external 
amenities of life ; but the improvement is so small that it suggests that 
any improvement in the social virtues that is to attend the initiation of 
social welfare schemes may have to rely on the formation of new habits 
of thought, feeling and action, habits that will have to be learned, rather 
than on any improvement in intelligence. 

Here, in the interest of scientific accuracy, a word of caution is necessary. 
While the constancy of the intelligence-ratio raises a presumption that 
this ratio is determined by genetic constitution, it may, however, to some 
extent be partly determined by other conditions, ante-natal, natal, or 
post-natal: birth accidents are certainly responsible for some cases of 
dullness and defect. There are, however, several considerations which 
suggest that in most cases the ratio does measure something that is innate, 
for example, this theory gives the readiest explanation of the fact that 
the correlation between the ratios of identical twins is higher than that 
between fraternal twins. 

As might have been expected, the average intelligence of the children 
of men engaged in professional and skilled occupations is higher than that 
of the children of unskilled workers ; but more interesting and more 
significant for social problems is the fact that the variability within the 
different occupations is so great that there is much overlapping, in other 
words, high-grade intellect is not the exclusive property of any social class 
or professional grade. When more extensive inquiries have been made, 
it should be possible to estimate with fair accuracy the actual distribution 
of intellect in the different social and professional groups. 

Perhaps more important still is the information regarding the distribu- 
tion of intellect through the whole population. Various estimates have 
been made, but the most interesting for Scotsmen is one based on an 
investigation conducted in June 1932, by the Scottish Council for Research 
in Education with the assistance of education officers, teachers and others, 
in which a group test was given to practically the whole of the school 
population in Scotland born in the year 1921 and so of age 10} to 114 
years, 87,498 in all. 

group test such as had to be used in this inquiry suffers from certain 
obvious disadvantages, the chief of which is that those who are tested 
must be able to read with understanding, and any weakness in this direc- 
tion must affect their replies, but, as all parents are by law compelled to 


190 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


make provision for the education of their children at age five, and most 
children begin to go to school at or about that age, any serious backward- 
ness in this direction probably indicates some intellectual deficiency. 
If we assume that the average child can read sufficiently well at age nine, 
then this test, so far as the reading difficulty goes, was suitable for about 
go per cent. of the age-group that was examined. Another difficulty 
arises from the fact that one set of questions must be given to suit all levels 
of mental development from mental age nine upwards. A few of out- 
standing ability may not have taken the test, others may not have been 
examined fully enough to show all their ability, and none of those so 
markedly defective as to be certified for institutional care were examined : 
the findings regarding those at the extreme ends of the intellectual scale 
are, therefore, somewhat uncertain. Still, the general significance of the 
inquiry is quite clear. 

The average agreed with previous estimates, but the dispersion proved 
to be greater than had previously been supposed—in other words, there 
were more who were dull and more who were bright: about half the 
population examined had mental ratios between 89 and 111 (instead of 

_ between gi and gg, as was previously supposed), and it was estimated 
that in the whole population between 14 and 3 per cent. fell below the 
70 line, that is, below the line which is commonly supposed to mark the 
boundary between mental defect and normality. The average of the boys 
was the same as that of the girls, but their dispersion was greater, that is, 
there were amongst them more who were very bright and more who were 
dull. This distribution has important implications, of which I shall con- 
sider only one, and that very briefly—namely, its bearing on the rate at 
which boys and girls leave school after completing the work of the primary 
school. ° 

In Scotland about 44 per cent. of the children of age twelve embark 
on a secondary school course ; of these 70 per cent. begin the second year 
work, 43 per cent. the third, 22 per cent. the fourth, 15 per cent. the fifth, 
and g per cent. the sixth. Of those who pass to the ‘ Advanced Divisions ’ 
only 14 per cent. enter on a third-year course. ‘These educational casual- 
ties are due to many causes ; some fall out for economic reasons, others 
find—or think they find—a better preparation for the serious business of 
life elsewhere (and these include some of the brightest), but probably 
most drop out because school seems to be a testing-ground rather than a 
training-ground, a means of picking out the brightest. ‘This suggestion 
finds some support in the fact that it is the duller pupils who drop out 
first, the very pupils who are most in need of training. It has been 
estimated that a boy or girl must have an intelligence-ratio of 115 or over to 
profit without undue strain from a secondary school education ; this may 
be an over-estimate, but there can be little doubt that the average secondary 
school curriculum is unsuitable for the boys and girls whose ratios fall 
below the mean, that is, for half the school population. The bulk of the 
population are of average or nearly average intelligence—about 68 per 
cent. have mental ratios between 84 and 116—and it seems reasonable to 
ask whether a national system of post-primary education should not give 
first consideration to these rather than to the 16 per cent. at the upper end 


J.—PSYCHOLOGY I9I 


of the scale who have the intellect and temperament that fit them for 
professional and administrative work. 

There is no ground for suggesting that the enormous casualty list of 
the post-primary schools is due to poor teaching : indeed, there is distinct 
evidence that teachers are often attempting the impossible and coming 
very near to achieving it. ‘The fault seemsto lie rather in the nature of the 
curriculum, which, though suitable for the upper 20 per cent., is obviously 
quite unsuitable for the middle 60 per cent. It would be interesting to 
know what proportion of the men who sit on Education Committees, men 
who have earned the confidence and respect of their fellow-citizens, can 
pass, or have ever been able to pass, the ordinary School Leaving Certificate 
examination. 

It may be suggested that the mental development of the duller elements 
of the population ceases at the age of twelve or thirteen and that, therefore, 
they have learned all they can learn by that age, whereas the mental develop- 
ment of their more brilliant fellows continues for several years longer. 
This suggestion is probably incorrect. We know that intellect develops 
more slowly in the dull, so that they fall farther and farther behind, but there 
is some ground for thinking that it reaches its maturity at about the same 
age. Further, the suggestion that the dull child has learned all he can 
learn by the age of twelve or thirteen implies a certain confusion of thought. 
Whatever may be the age at which maturity of intellect is reached, and 
whatever may be the level of development reached, it is certain that learn- 
ing does not cease at that age: it can continue until senile decay sets in. 
The age at which maturity is reached has little or nothing to do with the 
age at which training must cease. 

The open school door is a well-established tradition in Scotland : here 
the gifted child has ample opportunities of developing his talents ;_ but 
the practice of pushing all children along the same scholastic course 
studded with hurdles which must be jumped, under penalty of being left 
behind, is one which could be improved upon. As the intelligence-ratio 
seems largely to determine scholastic success, and as it remains approxi- 
mately constant, at any rate during school life, and can be determined early, 
it should be possible to organise education on a basis of natural capacity. 
The early ascertainment of capacity and the provision of courses suitable 
_ for different grades of intellect would do something towards solving the 
problem of the backward child, who is often backward because he has not 
those aptitudes which are needed for success under the existing scholastic 
regime : he struggles to keep up, but ultimately, finding this too much 
for him, he gives up the race, sits by the wayside, and does not use even 
those gifts which he has. It would also make for health and peace of 
mind, for we have sooner or later to learn our limitations, and much 
mischief can be done by assuming that a boy has aptitudes which he does 
not possess. Experience in psychological clinics has brought this out all 
too clearly, for it has shown that many perversities of conduct are due 
solely to social misfits : the dull child of able parents who cannot live up 
to the expectations of his family may run wild, and one who cannot find 
a place in society to suit his talents and training is a potential source of 
mischief. A good deal of distress could be avoided by discovering a 


192 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


boy’s capacities, general and specific, during his school career, and 
especially when he is about to undertake the serious business of choosing 
a profession. 

Mental tests offer an objective method of approach to the investigation 
of similarities and differences between races and between one generation 
and another, and perhaps also to the very difficult problems of mental 
inheritance. Racial differences have been investigated in countries like 
America and South Africa, where racial problems occupy men’s minds. 
In Great Britain, where these problems are not so acute, little attention 
has been given to the subject : there have been some comparisons of Jews 
and Gentiles, of urban and rural populations, and of bilingual and uni- 
lingual communities. In America the testing of a whole army has been 
followed by numerous studies of the mentality of the races, white, black, 
yellow and brown, that constitute the American population. The general 
finding is that the Nordic races are superior to the Mediterranean in test 
performances, and the white to the coloured ; but it should be remembered 
that it is very doubtful whether the mentality of the European races can 
be estimated at all correctly from the samples, some of them very small, 
of their representatives in the U.S.A. Racial psychology will begin to 
stand on a firm basis when the scope of these inquiries has been extended 
and observations have been made on thoroughly representative samples. 
It is a pity that the lead given by Rivers, McDougall and Myers in their 
investigation into the sensitivity of the Murray Islanders and their suscep- 
tibility to illusions has not been followed more energetically. 

These objective methods of investigating mental traits will also provide 
reliable information regarding the problem of the differential birth-rate. 
It has been shown repeatedly that the least efficient members of the com- 
munity have on the whole the biggest families, and this has caused some 
concern, for it suggests a dilution of our intellectual stock-in-trade. 
What is needed is exact information about the intellect of parents, the 
number of births per family, the number of children who survive to 
establish families of their own, and their mental status, but there is very 
little of this. What little there is points to the need for further investiga- 
tion, for it suggests that the casualties are higher among dull children, but 
that the losses are more than made good by the greater number of births, 
and that the problem is not so serious as some have maintained, but 
sufficiently serious to make this and other problems of mental inheritance 
worthy of investigation. 

The study of mental inheritance has suffered sadly from a readiness to 
take over the crude concepts of everyday life: it has been concerned 
mainly with marked abnormalities—mental defect and insanity—and this, 
too, has hampered the study of the subject, for there is widespread 
opinion that these deficiencies and ailments are morally reprehensible— 
an opinion which is rarely expressed openly, but is enshrined in everyday 
speech and conduct. We have outgrown the practice of jeering at physical 
ailments and deficiencies, we care for the maimed, the sick, the deaf and the 
blind; but dullness of intellect and mental disease are looked at askance, 
though the dullard has no more reason to be ashamed of his dullness than 
the genius has to be vain about his brilliance, both being apparently 


SS 


J.—_PSYCHOLOGY 193 


matters of inheritance: moral judgments should concern only the use 
that is made of one’s talents. 

One serious difficulty in the study of mental inheritance has been that 
of defining and measuring accurately the characters under investigation : 
for example, mental defect can be, and is, defined in several ways, legally, 
clinically, psychologically, etc. In the legal sense it is a social concept, 
for according to the law the feeble-minded are ‘ persons in whose case 
there exists from birth or from an early age mental defectiveness so pro- 
nounced that they require care, supervision, and control for their own 
protection or for the protection of others; or, in the case of children, 
that they, by reason of such defectiveness, appear to be permanently 
incapable of receiving proper benefit from the instruction in ordinary 
schools.’ However satisfactory this may be as a legal definition, it is 
useless both biologically and psychologically, for in the absence of any 
definition of mental defectiveness or arrested mental development, it 
means just inability to look after oneself and one’s affairs without proper 
supervision, Obviously, inability to look after one’s affairs depends 
very largely on the nature of those affairs, and so on one’s social and 
physical environment, and since life is easier in some circumstances than 
in others, a man may be feeble-minded in one environment and not in 
another. If social environment becomes more complex and makes higher 
and higher demands on natural capacity, then, unless that capacity 
improves, the proportion of feeble-minded must increase. Some think 
that feeble-mindedness is increasing, and that this is due to differential 
birth-rate, but it is equally possible that the cause lies in the increasing 
complexity of civilised life : intellects that could live happily in a simpler 
environment may be finding the complexities of modern civilisation too 
much for them: there can be little doubt that to-day bigger demands 
are being made on children in the ‘ ordinary schools’ than were made on 
them fifty years ago. 

The influence on this social attitude is reflected also in the way in which 
mental defect, mental disease, criminality, pauperism, infantile mortality, 
and all kinds of organic disease are thrown together in serious investiga- 
tions which purport to be investigations into mental defect, but actually 
are nothing more than inquiries into social inefficiency. It is possible 
that various traits that make for social inefficiency are associated in the 
same stock and may be the result of some common inherent weakness, 
but in the interests of clear thinking they should be kept apart until their 
causal relationships have been determined: a mind diseased may yet be 
capable of brilliant thought, and not all criminals are mentally defective. 

The clinical varieties of mental deficiency which medical men meet, 
mongolism, cretinism, microcephaly, hydrocephaly, etc., are distinguished 
by anatomical rather than by either social or psychological characters. 
Psychologically, mental deficiency is usually defined in relation to per- 
formance at intelligence tests: the legally mental defective usually has 
an intelligence-ratio below seventy, so this figure is often taken as marking 
the line that separates the mental defective from the normal. This is an 
arbitrary method of defining mental deficiency ; it has the merit of pre- 
cision, but it is a precision which may be misleading when we begin to 

H 


194 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


investigate its genetic basis, for it is possible that feeble-mindedness may 
be due to one or more of a large number of genetic factors ; there may be 
different forms of feeble-mindedness which are not distinguishable by 
means of intelligence-ratios. 

In investigations into the inheritance of intellect much reliance has been 
placed on rough-and-ready estimates based largely on social and professional 
success. In so far as such estimates are sound, these inquiries show that 
there is a correlation between the intelligence of parent and that of child, 
that bright parents have a higher proportion of bright children and that 
defective parents have a bigger proportion of defective children than do 
normal parents, but they have also shown that normal, even brilliant 
parents sometimes have defective children, that defective parents some- 
times have normal children, and they suggest that the mental deficiency 
of children of either bright or dull parents may be due either to external 
causes or to defective inheritance. The main facts have probably been 
made out, but the details are lacking, and will not be available until exact 
measurements have been made of the mental traits of parents and their 
children under conditions in which social opportunities and encourage- 
ments are equal for all. 

The theories of genetic inheritance which have proved so fruitful in 
the investigation of the physical characters of plants and the lower animals 
have been shown to apply also to human anatomical and physiological 
characters, such as the colour of the skin, stature, and susceptibility to 
disease, and it is probable that they apply also to mental characters ; if 
they do, then it is important that the characters should be distinguished 
and the manner of their inheritance traced out. The difficulties are great 
and for the most part obvious ; one is the difficulty of controlling environ- 
mental factors (the most humane method of overcoming this difficulty is 
to improve the conditions of life so as to give all a chance); another 
difficulty is that of finding really satisfactory tests for adults ; but perhaps 
the greatest of all is that of isolating and defining simple mental characters. 
Fortunately the last of these is a difficulty which we can hope soon to 
overcome, for the search for unitary mental traits has been proceeding 
vigorously, and there is now some prospect of diagnosing and measuring 
them, and so putting the study of genetic basis of mental traits on a sound 
footing. This will demand the co-operation on a big scale, not only of 
psychologists, but also of biologists, statisticians, teachers, medical men, 
and others, in which respect the study of mental inheritance resembles 
that of most other social problems. 


SECTION K.—BOTANY. 


SOME ASPECTS OF FOREST BIOLOGY 


ADDRESS BY 
PROF. A. W. BORTHWICK, O.BE., 
PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 


THE forest with its associated flora and fauna is a highly complex and 
delicately balanced community. In it we find an abundance of material 
upon which much of our prosperity depends. Perhaps the best proof 
of this statement is that the consumption of forest products and the 
destruction of forests is increasing at a rate which, in well-informed 
quarters, gives rise to serious apprehension as to the ability of the forests 
to withstand increasing and continued unscientific exploitation. 

The first users of the forest cared little for its timber. It was used 
principally for shelter and the chase. Later on, as population and settle- 
ment increased, wood was required for housing and fuel. In those early 
times whatever wood was handy and whatever trees seemed suitable to 
supply any requirement were utilised without any thought as to reproduc- 
tion and maintenance of supplies. Thus began the system of forestry 
which at the present day, under more organised methods, is known as the 
selection forest. In the selection forest only trees of a certain diameter 
may be removed, the number and volume of the trees to be felled annually 
or periodically being regulated by measurements of rate of growth in the 
forest. The regeneration is a natural one. Seedlings in due course take 
_ possession of the spots from which the mature trees have been removed. 
We have thus all ages and kinds of trees in irregular mixture singly, or in 
very small groups, scattered throughout the forest. This system preserves, 
more closely than any other, the conditions which prevail in and characterise 
the primeval forest. It has many advantages, but the main disadvantage 
is that the volume, and perhaps the quality of the timber as a whole, is 
not so high as that which can be obtained under more artificial systems 
of forestry. It is here that the main problems in regard to success or 
failure arise. When man interferes too much with Nature, she inevitably 
replies by countering his efforts, unless they comply within certain limits 
to natural laws. ‘The endeavour to grow pure forests of trees on wide 
areas, in dense, uniform, even-aged masses, irrespective of changes in soil 
conditions and climate, is not in accordance with natural laws. In 
converting the virgin forest or the selection forest into the modern 
artificial forest, the principal aim was to secure uniformity, and that branch 
of forestry known as forest management came into existence. The 
Principal aim in forest management was to obtain the highest yield in the 
Shortest time. For the sake of ease in regularity of yield or utilisation, 


196 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


the forest was subdivided into working units called compartments, and 
for the sake of uniformity in working, these compartments were made 
as large as possible, with little or no regard to local variations in soil, 
climate and exposure. To a large extent the laws which govern tree 
growth and the possibilities of silviculture were ignored in favour of 
artificial formula. ‘This trend in forest management naturally led to a 
preference for pure stands—that is, large timber stands of the same species. 
The variation in species and age differences which characterise the 
primeval forest disappeared on its conversion into artificial forest, and 
much of the naturally associated flora and fauna was destroyed. It was 
easy enough to get so far, but difficulties arose when the questions of 
sustained permanent yield, conservation of soil fertility, and the repro- 
duction of this kind of artificial forest came to be faced. It is here that 
the inseparable connection between botany and forestry becomes all- 
important, and I hope to be able to show, by a brief reference to certain 
factors which govern tree growth, how important is the study of botany, 
especially plant physiology, ecology, anatomy, and plant geography, to the 
forester. In the northern hemisphere, from the subtropics to the Arctic 
and alpine limits of forest growth, certain well-defined climatic forest 
zones can be recognised. I here adopt Prof. Mayr’s subdivisions : 
the tropical forest zone, the Palmetum ; the subtropical zone of the 
evergreen oaks and the laurels, the Lauretum ; the temperate warm zone 
of the deciduous broad-leaved forest, warmer half, the Castanetum ; the 
temperate warm zone of the deciduous broad-leaved forest, cooler half, 
the Fagetum ; the temperate cool region of the spruces, silver firs and 
larches, the Picetum, the Abietum or the Laricetum ; finally, the cold 
region of dwarf trees and scrub, the Alpinetum or the Polaretum, Each 
tree has a certain natural range of geographical distribution. By ‘ tree’ is 
meant anything not less than 25 to 30 ft. in height. It has a cold limit, 
a warm limit, and between these an intermediate or optimum region of dis- 
tribution. ‘The factors which make up climate—e.g. such as temperature, 
aqueous precipitations, relative moisture of the atmosphere, and light 
intensity—vary from the optimum to the’cold-and-warm-range limits of 
each species, and the trees react accordingly. ‘The optimum region is 
where the general balance in climatic factors is the most favourable, but 
deficiency in any one growth factor may be made good or compensated 
for by the more favourable condition of other growth factors. It happens, 
however, that as a general rule, ultimate height growth, diameter incre- 
ment, volume production, form of bole, crown balance and development, 
seed production, and ease and certainty in establishment and after care 
are less troublesome and less costly in the optimum than elsewhere. In 
the southern or warmer climate, rate of growth is, to begin with, quicker 
than in the optimum, but it falls off sooner and, about middle age, rate of 
growth falls behind that of the optimum. Hence to obtain the best 
results in the cultivation of any species we must study its growth and 
habit and form throughout its entire range of natural distribution. This 
brings us now to the question: Is there such a thing as acclimatisation, 
or do trees possess the property of adapting themselves to climatic con- 
ditions which are new or different from any climate within their natural 


K.—BOTANY 197 


geographical limits? This is a question of considerable scientific and 
economic importance, and concerns both the botanist and the forester. 
A complete survey of the form, habit, and growth of a tree within the 
limits of its natural range shows undoubtedly that each species can 
and does react to different environmental conditions, but opinion is by 
no means unanimous that these external conditions can bring about 
permanent change of an hereditary character. Late and early frosts are 
very troublesome and do much damage in the nursery, young regenera- 
tions and newly planted areas. Attempts have been made to obtain frost- 
resistant trees by collecting seed from the higher and colder elevations 
in the mountains, or from the northern and colder limits, but all such 
attempts have not yet solved the problem as far as frost-hardiness is 
concerned. A short consideration of the behaviour of young plants 
transferred from a colder to a warmer climate, and vice versa, may serve 
to bring out some points of interest in this connection. The four seasons 
vary in relative duration and climatic character according to latitude and 
elevation. This determines the length of the active period of vegetation. 
The critical seasons are spring and autumn. A certain amount of heat 
acting for a certain time is required to awaken the plant into vegetative 
activity, while the fall in temperature at the end of the vegetative season 
controls the rapidity and completeness of ripening and preparation for 
the resting season in winter. As regards the length of the active period 
of vegetation, the controlling factor seems to be the average temperature 
during that period. Further investigation concerning the commencement 
of vegetation and meteorological data are required, but as far as available 
information exists it would seem that each species of tree has an average 
temperature-constant which is necessary during its seasonal vegetative 
period. This period of average temperature is longer or shorter according 
as the tree is on itssouthern or northern limit. The effect of climate merely 
lengthens or shortens the period of vegetative activity, but the specific 
average constant of the tree is in no way altered. This has been called 
the vegetation therm by Prof. H. Mayr, who states that 14° C. is the 
constant for the larch, and probably also for the spruce. If such a figure 
could be fixed for all trees its value would be great, but this investigation 
necessitates further meteorological data and phenological observation. 
To return now to the question of the transference of a living tree from a 
warmer to a colder climate, or from a sheltered nursery to bare exposed 
planting ground. The chances are that if the transference takes place in 
autumn, the plant will suffer from early and winter frost. The plant 
has ripened off and prepared or attuned itself during the previous summer 
for the approaching winter conditions in general balance with the warmer 
climate, and it is not prepared for the earlier and more rigorous winter of 
the colder climate. On the other hand, if the transference takes place in 
spring after the winter resting period in its accustomed warmer climate, 
it has all the growing period in front of it, in which to adjust itself to the 
new conditions of the changed colder climate. This cannot be called 
acclimatisation, since the changes in the plant itself are not constitutional 
and hereditary. The tree will react to changed climatic conditions 
within its natural limits of distribution, but that is all. Ifa tree could be 


198 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


got to grow normally up to full maturity, and to produce fertile seed, in 
a climate warmer or colder than that of any climate in which it is found 
within its natural range of distribution, then and then only it would seem 
that we could speak of acclimatisation. Trees have a certain amount 
of plasticity and can alter their form, rate of growth, and stature to a 
surprising extent in response to external growth factors, but such reaction 
changes are not permanent and hereditary. Trees vary in their demands 
for light : some are more tolerant of shade than others ; nevertheless, all 
trees will show definite symptoms of want of light if grown in too dense 
shade. Small scanty leaves and needles, thin attenuated twigs, small 
buds, a gradual flattening and broadening of the crown, as well as certain 
internal anatomical changes, are some of the symptoms. In a dense 
forest, trees may pass their lives in varying degrees of overshading and yet 
we find that individuals, or their seedlings if any, are always ready to 
respond by normal growth to increased light intensity. There is no trace 
here of reaction changes to light becoming permanent and hereditary. 
Again trees, some at least, can grow in a fairly wide range of soils, but in 
no case, however gradual the transition, can we induce the deep-sinking 
tap-rooted oak to grow normally in shallow soil. Nor by the reverse 
process can we get the shallow-rooting spruce to form a deeper root 
system by cultivating it on deep soils. In these and other cases, the 
results would be very valuable, but all the tree does is to temporarily 
react in growth and habit according to variations in the soil. 

In forestry the long period which must elapse between the establish- 
ment of a crop and its final harvesting at maturity makes it imperative 
that we should use every endeavour to secure the best types of trees 
suitable for the concrete conditions of the localities in which they are to 
be grown. If a wrong species is chosen at the start—that is, a species 
unsuited to the soil or climate—and in mixed woods, if a wrong combina- 
tion of species is adopted in their formation, then no amount of skill, care, 
and attention on the part of the forester can remedy the defect or make 
full use of the productivity or growth factors of the locality. In cultivating 
his crops the forester must always keep in mind that the ultimate success 
of his efforts is determined by rate of growth combined with the useful- 
ness and volume of the timber produced. This again brings him into 
close contact with the botanist. Among species of trees, apart from 
varieties and sports or mutations, no two individuals are absolutely 
identical, in spite of all outward resemblance. There are differences in 
rate of growth ; commencement and duration and finish up of seasonal 
vegetation ; flower, fruit and seed production. All these may vary in 
time from a few days up to as much as oneor twoweeks. These differences 
may occur in all soils and in all climates. In both the artificial and the 
primeval forest it can be detected among trees of the same species, growing 
side by side on the same soil and sprung from seed of the same parent 
tree. Individuals from the same seed may show differences in stem 
quality, branch formation and crown balance, due to some internal 
impulse, which is independent of soil or climate. Some individuals 
produce straight cylindrical stems, others bent, twisted and crooked 
stems ; some have an inherent tendency to fork and produce double 


K.—BOTANY 199 


leaders—accident to the end bud of a leading shoot may cause double 
leaders, but that is a different thing ; in some the branches ascend at an 
acute angle, in others they tend to spread horizontally at right angles. 
Forking ‘eaders and spreading branches result in defective crown forma- 
tion. Another individual defect is the tendency to produce water shoots 
or epicormic twigs. Unfortunately this individuality does not seem to 
be hereditary, otherwise we could with greater certainty avoid such in 
selecting our growing stocks, but even if this were possible we would 
still have to face the fact that defect in stem, branch and crown and rate 
of growth is not due to individuality alone. Although the characteristic 
individuality remains constant throughout the life of each single tree, it 
does not follow that its seedlings will all possess the same characteristics : 
each seedling will have inherited an individuality, but not necessarily the 
same as that of the parent tree. Nevertheless, rate of growth and 
tendency to late or early vegetation become apparent early in the life of 
the seedling. It is then that the first choice can be made in the selection 
of growing stock. But no matter how perfect the young tree may be, it 
is still subject to the influence of external growth factors, and climate, 
soil and silvicultural treatment can influence its form and growth. A plant 
with individual tendency to slow growth in the colder limits of its dis- 
tribution will be stimulated to more rapid growth in the warmer climate ; 
and, on the other hand, a rapid-growing individual of the warmer climate, 
if transferred to the colder climate, will suffer check to its rate of growth, 
and individuals of normal growth will show the same tendency. Keeping 
these facts in mind, it is easy to see how readily false conclusions may be 
drawn in regard to the actual and relative rate of growth of different 
species. In a community of trees of different species growing on the 
same soil and in the same climate, some may be in their optimum, while 
others may be on the colder or warmer limits of their natural habitats, 
and the soil may suit some species better than others. If such an experi- 
mental plot were established by planting, allowance would have to be 
made for the time taken by different species to get over the check stage 
and to become completely established in their new quarters. Some 
species are quicker to re-establish themselves than others. That is, they 
are more easy to transplant. Then again, trees are not uniform in their 
rate of growth at all ages. We must, therefore, be careful in coming to 
conclusions regarding the growth behaviour of trees. We must seek the 
aid of plant physiology and plant geography if we wish to arrive at reliable 
and useful conclusions. Climate is after all the main controlling factor, 
and each country must collect its own data. Hitherto, in forestry, we 
have had to rely too much on data applicable to the continent of Europe. 
But with a well-selected series of representative sample plots established 
throughout Britain by the Forestry Commission, the arrears of our 
knowledge in this respect are being made good rapidly. 

Let us now consider the importance of these fundamental biological 
facts to silviculture. For convenience let us divide the life of the forest 
into three stages: the juvenile stage, the pole or stage of most rapid 
height growth, and the adult or tree stage ; and, in order not to obscure 
the main points by unnecessary detail, let us assume that the trees have 


200 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


been artificially planted. In all recent plantations there is bound to be 
competition by weed and grass growth ; it may be also woody scrub, stool 
shoots, or interloping and unwanted light-seeded invaders. Cleaning and 
weeding must not be delayed. Careful tending of the young tries should 
begin early. Too often plantations are left to look after themselves 
until they are supposed to have arrived at the thinning stage, when they 
may yield something in the way of returns for the cost of thinning. But 
by this time irreparable damage may have been already done to the grow- 
ing crops. Not only is weeding and cleaning necessary during this period, 
but now is the time to remove and replace trees of inferior growth habit, 
which they begin to show at this early stage. ‘Trees which naturally tend 
to fork cannot be improved by pruning off one of the leaders : forking will 
be repeated later on, as this natural individual tendency persists throughout 
the life of the tree. ‘The same thing applies to all trees with faulty stem 
and crown formation. Among all species, but more especially among 
broad-leaved trees and in particular the beech, it is these heavy-branched, 
spreading-crowned, short-stemmed trees which may forge ahead and 
become predominant in the mature stand at the cost, it may be, of smaller 
but better-formed and more valuable trees. Therefore by the timely 
removal of such individuals, so-called wolf trees, much future trouble, 
cost and loss will be avoided. A certain amount of thinning may be 
advisable before the pole stage is reached, but such operations should be 
confined to completely suppressed, back-going and dead trees and aggres- 
sive, malformed wolf trees. For various species under average conditions 
the period of the pole stage falls between the twentieth and the fortieth 
year. This should be the time of greatest density in the life of the stand. 
The trees have reached the stage of their most rapid annual growth in 
height, and this is further stimulated by the density of the stand, which 
also leads to lateral branch suppression and the cleaning of the stems. 
The density must not be too great, otherwise the trees are liable to become 
too long and attenuated to carry their own weight. It is here the skill of 
the forester is put to the test. Now is the time, and indeed the best 
opportunity, during the whole life of the stand to encourage length, form 
and cleanness of stem. Growth in height is dependent upon crown 
room and light ; and cleanness of stem is dependent upon crown density 
and shade. ‘These two opposing conditions must be so balanced that 
the one will not defeat the object of the other. The thinnings during this 
period will depend upon the planting distance originally adopted and the 
amount of care and attention which has been given to the young growth 
until the branches meet and establish cover or canopy when the thickest 
stage is reached. The maintenance of pole stage density is prolonged 
until the side branches have been killed off, by side shade, up to the 
desired height on the stem. Subsequent drying, decay and fall is merely 
a matter of time. Up to this stage, which will occupy as a general rule 
the first half of the rotation, the main endeavour is to secure a good 
growing stock of tall, straight, clean-stemmed trees. In the second half 
of the rotation, which we have called the tree stage or adult stage, the 
problem in tending should resolve itself into obtaining the greatest 
volume production and quality of timber by encouragement and control 


K.—BOTANY 201 


_ of diameter increment. 'The quality of timber depends to a large extent 
upon uniformity in breadth of the year rings and the texture and fibre of 
the wood. ‘This can only be obtained if the growth of the tree itself is 
uniform and sustained. Hence in this latter half of the rotation attention 
must be directed to the crowns and roots of the trees. A gradual removal 
of certain trees and opening up of the canopy gives the crowns of the 
remaining trees more light and room to expand, and this means increased 
food production. These cuttings may be called ‘light increment cut- 
tings,’ in contradistinction to ‘ thinnings,’ from which they differ in regard 
to their influence on the biology of the stand. The more open growth 
under light increment treatment means fewer trees at maturity, say 
160 per acre, but individually they are of greater volume and collectively 
of not less volume than would have been produced by a larger number 
of trees in closely crowded crown competition. The more open stand 
necessitates the retention of some kind of undergrowth or, more commonly, 
underplanting for soil cover and preservation. ‘l'his method has been suc- 
cessfully practised in Denmark in the case of beech, oak, pine and spruce. 
Under the old system of dense canopy preservation, the intermediate 
yield in thinnings was about 25 per cent. of the final yield. Under the 
light increment treatment the thinnings may amount to 20 per cent. and 
the light increment cuttings to 50 per cent. of the final yield. ‘That means 
in the latter case we have 75 per cent. against 25 per cent. in the former ; 
and if we assume, as we are entitled to, that the value of the material 
removed in light increment cuttings is greater per unit of measurement 
than that of thinnings, and at the same time if we keep in mind the fact 
that the volume of the final yield is the same in both cases, with the 
balance in favour of quality in the case of light increment treatment, it 
will be seen that the treatment increases the yield per acre by well over 
50 percent, ‘The material removed by the light increment cuttings, from 
the fiftieth year onwards, would be clean grown and straight, and would 
yield all sizes required for telegraph poles, for which the demand has 
always been high. ‘The trees of the final crop would easily be of sleeper 
size—that is the most all-round useful and valuable size for mature timber. 
If this can be done in Denmark, why should it not be possible in our 
equally favourable if not more favourable climatic and soil conditions ? 

All the problems which arise in regard to the care and treatment of 
young, middle-aged and maturing stands of trees, are subjects of the 
study of stand biology, and that system of silviculture which makes the 
fullest use of the external factors of growth, in combination and individ- 
ually, will achieve the best results in the end. The old system of preserving 
dense, uniform, unbroken canopy was unnatural and made it impossible 
to utilise to its full advantage the important growth factor, light. 

In the primeval forest, loss and replacement is constantly going on. As 
each veteran disappears it is replaced by hundreds of seedlings which 
strive and struggle among themselves and against surrounding hindrances 
to reach the light. The struggle is a prolonged one, and many seedlings 
and saplings are killed off in the process. Still, Nature works cheaply if 
slowly, and if we can make use of the free gift she offers in the way of 
natural regeneration, it would be an obvious gain. Nature has produced 

H 2 


202, SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


and maintains the forest for her own purposes. On the other hand, man 
exploits the forest for his comfort and wellbeing, but if he oversteps 
certain limits in his treatment of the forest for the sake of extra gain or 
profit to himself, Nature revolts, with the result that man defeats his 
own ends. 

If we are to make use of Nature’s free gifts, in the natural regeneration 
of the forest, we must study the natural biological laws under which the 
process can take place. As we have seen, Nature works slowly but surely 
in her conservation of the primeval forest, irrespective of what the utility 
and value of the species may be to man. Man’s idea is to grow certain 
species only in massed, even-aged assemblages, in order to obtain the 
maximum amount of timber of the kind, size and quality he wants, and 
if he expects Nature to help in the quick and certain regeneration of these 
artificial woods, at the end of what he considers the most advantageous 
age or rotation, he must make certain provisions in accordance with 
natural laws. ‘This can be done by appropriate silvicultural treatment. 
The trees must be of a suitable seed-producing age, the forest floor must 
be in a suitable condition for the reception and germination of the seed, 
and the conditions of light, moisture and temperature must be suitable 
for the future growth and development of the seedlings. These three 
things are of fundamental importance. In most of the mature and 
maturing woods which have been treated under the strict artificial rules 
of so-called forest management, the question of quick and certain natural 
regeneration often presents insurmountable difficulties. At the time 
required by the working plan the trees may not be in a suitable condition 
for flowering and seeding ; the forest floor, under light demanders, may 
be long past the best conditions for the reception and germination of seed, 
owing to weed growth, and under shade bearers an over-abundance of 
humus, especially raw humus, is equally unfavourable. Many years are 
required to bring the trees and the forest floor into a suitable condition 
for natural regeneration, and if this is attempted over a whole compartment 
simultaneously, the result is seldom satisfactory. In dense-canopied, 
even-aged stands a series of preliminary fellings, called preparatory 
fellings, must be gradually carried out to allow more light and room for 
the selected seed trees, in as even distribution throughout the stand as 
possible, and also gradually to prepare those trees for their more isolated 
conditions and resistance to wind. Under shade bearers this opening 
up of the canopy leads to the disintegration of over-abundant humus by 
allowing more direct access of precipitations and light, and also by increased 
aeration due to the freer circulation of the air. Under light demanders 
it means costly artificial surface and soil preparation. In either case, 
when the soil is in its most suitable condition a further felling is made 
either immediately before or during a seed year, if one should happen to 
occur at the right time ; if not, it means delay and the soil gets past its 
best condition for seed germination. Even if a seed year should occur at 
the right time, there are many climatic and weather conditions which may 
prevent complete and uniform regeneration over the whole area: only 
patches of seedlings may occur here and there. This means waiting for 
a second seed year, which may be five or ten years hence, meantime 


K.—BOTANY 203 


further deterioration in soil conditions and risk of storm damage to the 
seed trees which were isolated so late in life. ‘The only alternative in 
such cases is to complete the process by clear cutting and artificial planting, 
and this is what generally occurs. If, as sometimes happens, by good 
luck the regeneration is sufficiently complete to provide a new crop, 
then the old trees are gradually removed in a series of falls, called the 
final fellings. But the whole process known as the uniform or compart- 
mental system is slow, uncertain and risky. 'To lessen the risks of failure 
and loss by opening up large areas at one time, numerous modifications 
have been introduced into the practice of forestry. ‘The underlying idea 
was to confine natural regeneration to smaller areas, in the shape of groups 
or strips, with peripheral extensions of these as they became regenerated. 
By selecting the shape, breadth, line and direction and sequence in time 
of the strips, a considerable amount of success has been achieved. Strips 
or groups may be clear felled or a certain number of trees may be left 
to provide seed and to protect the young seedlings. In the former case, 
protection is supplied by the adjacent stand of mature trees, and seeding 
takes place from the side. Various and numerous combinations of the 
uniform, group and strip methods have been tried, with more or less 
success, under certain favourable locality conditions. 

The main trouble is that in the past the woods have not been managed 
with a view to natural regeneration; under light increment treatment, 
the more open canopy and crown room enables the trees to respond almost 
immediately to the influence of the seed felling. The under planting 
which has kept the soil in a favourable condition for seed reception can 
be dealt with easily, and after the seedlings have appeared, the old trees 
may be removed at one felling instead of gradual removal over a protracted 
series of years, as a certain amount of undergrowth can be left to provide 
shelter and protection to the young trees. 

The biology of the large pure stands of timber must obviously differ 
from that of large mixed stands, consisting of two or more species, as 
generally prevail in the primeval forest. ‘To establish artificially or to 
regenerate naturally a mixed stand of timber which will have the desired 
ratio of species at maturity, involves much labour and cost, and the attempt 
is not always certain of success, except perhaps under the selection method 
of treatment. To get over the difficulties associated with single stem 
mixture, other forms have been tried, such as planting the different species 
in alternate rows, bands, strips, clumps and groups, but still this does not 
quite solve the problem. It is all right for the trees in the centre of the 
group or strip, but those on either side at the contact margins are apt to 
become bent and branchy ; further, each of these numerous units requires 
individual attention, and this is not compatible with economic manage- 
ment. It is possible with certain light-demanding and shade-bearing trees 
to form mixtures in which the crowns of the light demanders form a kind 
of upper storey, with those of the shade bearers beneath; but such 

_mixtures are very difficult to bring through the pole stage of growth 
unless the light demander happens to find itself in its optimum conditions. 

The problem may now be stated : How are we to manage and develop 
our woods so that the demands for different species of timber, sorts and 


204. SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


sizes of the highest quality possible, may be met, and adequate provision 
made for the regeneration of these woods, without loss of time and with- 
out deterioration to the productive capacity of the soil, and at the same 
time make as full use as possible of all growth factors, without interfering 
too much with the natural laws of forest growth? This is a big and im- 
portant question, and in my humble opinion the solution suggested by 
Prof. Heinrich Mayr of Munich seems to fulfil all these requirements. 
His suggestion was to compromise between the economic objects of man, 
the user, and the natural laws which govern the designs of Nature, the 
producer. He suggested that the forest should be made up of small 
compartments, 1 to 8 acres, each compartment to consist of one species. 
These small pure compartments would be scattered as much as possible, 
so that adjacent compartments would differ in age and species. We 
would thus have a forest of mixed small compartments differing in age 
and species. Due attention would be given to assigning each species 
to its most suitable soil and exposure. Where conditions were such 
that only one species would grow satisfactorily, owing to physiographical 
conditions, such as in the mountains, pure sand, wet soils, cold climate, 
the compartments may be larger, about 14 acres, if desired, and the 
same species may adjoin each other, but the age difference between 
adjoining compartments should be varied. The present division of the 
forest into large compartments need not be done away with, but each 
large compartment should be subdivided into sub-compartments—small 
compartments—which would become permanent units of management. 
Each small compartment treated from its earliest stages with a view to 
natural regeneration would, under later light increment treatment, always 
be in such a condition that natural regeneration could be imitated without 
long and costly preparation. ‘The process could be completed within 
five years, and the risks of failure would be small compared with those of 
large contiguous areas, where ecological and biological conditions vary. 
In the small stand, the more open stand of the trees under the light 
increment treatment and the shelter afforded by adjacent stands would 
eliminate the necessity of the risky and lengthy preparatory fellings— 
a seeding felling and one final felling would suffice. ‘Thus, as Prof. Mayr 
claims, natural regeneration could be made easier, speedier, and safer. 
The danger and risks from wind, fire, insect and fungus epidemics would 
be lessened ; the varied demands for different kinds, sorts and sizes of 
timber could be more easily met. ‘The forest community as a whole 
would approximate that of the primeval or natural forest, and the 
productivity of the soil would at least be preserved, if not improved. 

To turn now to another aspect of the forest as a living community of 
plants and animals. The forest is perennial, and less subject to seasonal 
changes than other forms of massed vegetation. ‘The tree stems raise 
their crowns of branches, twigs and leafy canopy high above the forest 
floor, and this hasa marked influence on the light, temperature and moisture 
conditions within the forest. Light is subdued, but temperature and 
moisture are both increased, and this, combined with a relatively still 
atmosphere, render the conditions within and under the crowns of the 
trees quite different from those of open country. Under the leafy canopy 


K.—BOTANY 205 


the soil surface vegetation consists mainly of shade-loving shrubs, herbs, 
ferns and mosses. The leaf fall from the trees and the general organic 
remains, along with that of the undergrowth, produce a soil covering of 
disintegrating organic matter, generally referred to as the humus layer. 
This layer acts like a mulch and ameliorates and conserves soil moisture 
and temperature. The tree roots penetrate more deeply into the sub- 
stratum than most forms of other vegetation, this increasing its aeration, 
permeability, and water-holding capacity. Although it has not been 
definitely decided whether forests increase the rainfall or not, it can be 
claimed with every justification that the forest is of great importance as 
a conservator of water and as an equaliser in the drainage of the land. 
Where no forests exist in the upland or collecting regions of watersheds, 
the rain falls unhindered, beating the surface hard or eroding it down to 
the bare rock. ‘There is nothing to check the downward rush of water, 
which collects into mountain torrents which gush unbridled into the 
main rivers and streams, causing them to become swollen and flooded. 
These in turn race through the fertile valleys to their outlets, tearing down 
and overflowing their banks. The damage done by severe and sudden 
floods to roads, bridges, agricultural crops and stock, including human 
habitations, is well-nigh incalculable. Nor does the matter end there : 
millions of tons of valuable soil is washed away in these turbulent floods, 
and deposited as barriers in the river beds or in the sea at the river bar. 
Harbours and docks at the outlet of our main rivers become silted up 
with mud and debris: this in turn—apart from the loss of soil—involves 
costly dredging operations to keep the navigation channels clear. 

Where forest exists in the upland districts or collecting ground of the 
water, rivers are more uniform in their flow, year in year out, and carry 
much less silt and debris. ‘The crowns of the trees break the force of the 
falling rain ; the humus layer on the forest floor has an enormous water- 
absorbing capacity, and when saturated it allows the water to percolate 
slowly into the deeper loosened layers of mineral soil, from which in turn 
it gradually finds its way into springs and watercourses. Further, the 
influence of the forest is such that the melting of snow is more gradual 
and water is slowly absorbed and held, thus again avoiding floods. The 
forest regulates the off-flow of water after heavy rains or melting snow. 
This water is fed into springs and watercourses more gradually throughout 
the year, thus preventing floods at one season and equally serious drought 
at another. As regards the influence of the forest in lessening the 
destructive effects of cloudbursts, we have it on the authority of Fernow 
that : ‘ The Forest litter, the moss-covered leaf-strewn ground, is capable 
of absorbing water at the rate of 40,000,000 to 50,000,000 cubic feet per 
square mile in 10 minutes, water whose progress is delayed by some 
12-15 hours after the first effects of a heavy freshet have passed.’ I do 
not claim that afforestation or forest conservation in the high ground and 
valley slopes will entirely prevent floods and drought, but what the 
forester is doing or leaves undone in the remote hinterland will go a long 
way to check or ameliorate the evil effects of both. I have referred to 
these facts because the biological influence of the forest is so important 
and widespread in regard to drainage and water supplies. 


206 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


As a form of vegetation which rises high above the surface of the ground, 
the value of the forest in breaking and tempering the effects of the cold 
winds has long been recognised and appreciated by the agriculturist. 
An adjacent sheltering strip or even clump of trees exercises a marked 
influence on farm crops and pasture lands ; stock also thrive better in the 
shelter afforded. The trees afford shelter and at the same time exercise 
a very marked influence on the rate of evaporation of moisture from the 
surrounding area ; this influence, in lessening the surface velocity of the 
wind and rendering it more moist, may be noted up to between 300 and 
400 ft. from the trees, but the distance varies with the height of the 
trees. In spring the pasture is earlier and more abundant, while in the 
autumn it remains longer green. ‘The question of a reasonable balance 
between forest and grazing land is one of considerable biological and 
economic importance. 

In the time available it is obviously only possible to refer to a few 
aspects of forest biology. I would have liked to say more about the 
importance of plant geography, but probably enough has been said to 
indicate how important this branch of botany is to forestry. Plant 
physiology and ecology are also of the highest service in the applied 
science of forestry. Plant anatomy is likewise of great value in wood 
technology, timber identification, seasoning, testing and preservation, 
which are all very materially helped by a knowledge of wood anatomy. 
It is needless to say that without the help of the botanical systematist 
the forester would frequently find himself in serious difficulties, while 
the mycologist is equally indispensable. 

Many biological problems of first-class importance in silviculture 
have still to be tackled, and it is to botany that the forester must look for 
their ultimate successful solution. 


SECTION L.—EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE. 


SCIENCE AT THE UNIVERSITIES: 
SOME PROBLEMS OF THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 


ADDRESS BY 
H., b. LIZARD, C.B., ERS... 
PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 


Tuis section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science 
rejoices in the impressive title of ‘ Educational Science.’ To judge from 
its past proceedings the range of its interests is so prodigious as to 
daunt one like myself, who neither pretends to be an educational expert 
nor belongs to the large body of enthusiastic amateurs who hold such 
pronounced and varied views on the education of other people’s children. 
The only way in which I can hope to justify my selection this year as 
President of the Section, an honour that I deeply appreciate, is to devote 
most of my address to matters of which I have first-hand knowledge and 
experience. If I occasionally appear to be too didactic, please attribute 
this only to my desire not to be long-winded ; while if, in speaking of 
Universities that I know best, I make remarks that are not applicable to 
Scottish Universities, please forgive the ignorance of a Sassenach. 

We have lived, and are living, in times of absorbing interest. I was 
at a public school at a time when to take an interest in science was held to 
be a sign that you were not quite a gentleman. At my school there were 
‘ close’ scholarships to Oxford and Cambridge, but I was soon given to 
understand that these were not available for boys on the science side. 
They were made so available soon after I left, at about the time when 
baths were first installed in college—an interesting coincidence of sanity and 
sanitation. It does not seem so very long ago to me ; yet the changes that 
have taken place since then are so profound that it is now considered quite 
respectable to be a scientist, even at a public school. I wonder if any 
generation will ever see such far-reaching changes as we have seen in so 
short a space of time! When I reflect that our better conditions of life, 
better health, greater opportunities for interesting and useful work and 
recreation, have been mainly brought about directly or indirectly as the 
result of scientific education and research, I wonder that some distinguished 
men have fallen into a gentle melancholy with advancing years, and tend to 
dwell in public and in private rather on the mistakes than on the achieve- 
ments of this brilliant age. Mistakes there must be when progress is 
rapid. One difference between these and other times within living 
memory is that a few years of madness have revealed weak spots in the 
structure of civilisation that would otherwise have been discovered only 


208 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


after many years of slower progress ; just as a motor race shows up in a 
few hours unsuspected defects in the mechanism of a car. The economic 
foundations of industry and trade have not suddenly become unstable and 
weak : they always were so, but we did not observe it. The gold standard 
has not suddenly become imperfect ; its imperfections have been made 
obvious. Human nature has not changed for the worse ; but we are all 
more conscious of the deficiencies of others than we are in placid times. 
I think we should do well to emulate the robust spirit of the practical 
engineer, who after a partial failure spends little time in wondering whether 
his work is really worth while, but uses his experience to make a better 
article. 

The great practical achievements of science have naturally brought 
about a change of attitude on the part of the general public towards 
scientific education and research. Everyone believes in scientific research, 
without knowing quite what it means. Thirty years ago a member of 
Parliament advocating the need for scientific research would as likely as 
not have emptied the House: to-day I should be inclined to say of the 
House of Commons that it is not sufficiently critical of expenditure on 
research, because its faith is greater than its understanding. A scientific 
man need no longer spend tedious hours in advocating the value of a 
general scientific education, because he has many convinced and influential 
supporters who themselves never had any scientific education. ‘The chief 
problem now is to define what we mean by ‘a general scientific education,’ 
and on that there is little agreement. Should it include biology, and if so, 
of what kind, and to what extent? How miuch laboratory work should 
be done? How is it possible, in a few years, to give a boy some insight 
into the beauties and wonders of the physical and biological sciences, 
some real conception of law and order in the universe, some true apprecia- 
tion of scientific method, without running the risk of leaving him with a 
mere smattering of uninspiring knowledge? I do not propose to offer 
any advice on these important matters to schoolmasters, because I 
honestly believe it would be of little value to them. Further, I do not 
think the questions can be finally answered by discussion, but by 
experiment ; and I am content with the thought that the experiment is 
being tried in different ways in a number of schools, by enthusiastic 
science masters, who meet every year to exchange views and experiences 
and to keep their own knowledge up to date. After all we must remember 
that the teaching of science at schools has not centuries of experience 
behind it, and we must expect imperfections. Classical education has a 
much longer history. The value of the Classics lies not so much in the 
intrinsic merits of Latin and Greek, nor in the importance of the opinions 
and work of people who lived in a primitive state of society thousands of 
years ago, and who, in the words of an old friend of mine, “ had access to 
so little information,’ as in the way it is taught ; and the way it is taught 
is the result of hundreds of years of ruthless experiment on unhappy boys ! 
Science masters, who are intensely self-critical, so much so that they 
invite, and get, the criticism of others, must often envy the calm con- 
fidence of their classical colleagues, who teach admirably a subject that is, 
to all intents and purposes, a closed book, while they, on the other hand, 


L.—EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE 209 


have constantly to be adapting their instruction to the advance of know- 
ledge. They can take heart from the thought that theirs is a living sub- 
ject, which will assuredly become the basis of all good education as time 
goes on. I cannot imagine the Classics being widely taught in 500 years’ 
time, and I cannot imagine a time when science will not be taught. A 
young child is naturally scientifically minded : he makes experiments ; 
he wants to know ‘ why’; it is only as he grows older that he gradually 
loses his eager curiosity, because his parents, in their ignorance, are 
unable to satisfy him. But the inability of parents to provide reasonable 
answers to the simplest questions of children is gradually disappearing 
as the result of better education and the provision of better and more 
accessible scientific and technical literature; every year the chance 
becomes greater that the inquiring minds of children will be stimulated 
and not stifled. No scientific man desires to see scientific education 
pushed to the neglect of literary studies ; all of us recognise that a properly 
balanced diet for the mind is as important as for the body: what we do 
think is that science, well taught, can supply all that is best in the classical 
tradition ; can ‘ teach accuracy and exactness ; can give a discipline in 
clear thinking ; can teach boys to recognise differences in things which 
seem alike ; can brace with its difficulties minds that are not afraid of 
difficulties ; can inspire with its beauty minds not insensitive to beauty ’"— 
to quote the recent words of the Headmaster of Rugby in praise of 
Greek. 

The general growth in the teaching of science at secondary schools has 
naturally been accompanied by a great increase in the number of students 
of science at universities. There are now about 50,000 students in the 
universities of Great Britain, half of whom are studying some form of 
natural science. This growth has been only made possible by the pro- 
vision of public money ; all universities in this country are now dependent 
on the taxpayer and ratepayer. The State alone provides annually for 
university education a sum nearly ten times as great as was provided 
before the war ; and local government bodies, in addition to their direct 
contributions, find large sums for maintenance allowances to students. 
The student of science has to be provided with laboratories, where he 
consumes power, heat, light, and expensive material. He is in conse- 
quence the most costly of university students : I estimate that the public 
expend, in one way or another, nearly £200 a year on each student of science, 
with the possible exception of students at Oxford and Cambridge, who 
are more richly endowed from private sources. 

This public expenditure has laid additional responsibilities on the 
teaching and administrative staffs of universities. Most of us are now in 
the position of Public Trustees; we have to examine our expenditure 
more scrupulously than we should if we were not (indirectly) responsible 
to the public, and we have continually to ask ourselves whether additional 
expenditure can be justified. There was a time when it was feared that 
the autonomy of universities would disappear if the State provided a large 
measure of financial support ; that this fear no longer exists is due to 
the work of the University Grants Committee. I shall have reason to 
base some of my subsequent remarks on extracts from the reports of the 


210 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


University Grants Committee ; at this point, however, I should like to 
say a few words about its general influence. 

There will be general agreement that the establishment of the Univer- 
sity Grants Committee was an event of first-class importance. So far as 
I know, it has no counterpart in any country. By a stroke of administra- 
tive genius, most of the fears with which universities naturally regard any 
suspicion of interference by Government departments were dissipated. 
Everything that has happened since has strengthened the relations between 
the Committee and the universities. We read the reports of the Com- 
mittee with profit, look forward to the visits of its members with pleasure, 
and welcome their criticisms and advice. We find ourselves masters in our 
own houses ; untrammelled by political influence; trusted guardians of 
public money. Weareso used to this happy state of affairs that it needs a 
convulsion in a foreign country to make us realise our good fortune. 
Universities owe a great debt to all the distinguished members of the Com- 
mittee, and especially to the two Chairmen and to the late Secretary, Mr. 
A.H. Kidd. 'The sudden death this year of Sir Walter Buchanan Riddell 
came as a great shock to many of us. ‘That deeply loved and trusted man, 
Sir William McCormick, set a standard difficult for others to live up to ; 
but when Sir Walter Buchanan Riddell, who was the first Secretary to 
the Committee, was appointed to succeed him, everyone felt that the 
happiest choice had been made. The few years that have passed since 
his appointment have been all too short for the full exercise of his con- 
structive influence, though long enough for universities to realise that in 
him they had a worthy successor to Sir William McCormick. Mr. A. H. 
Kidd, who died a year ago, was an old friend and contemporary of mine 
at Oxford. He was a man of rare distinction of mind and charm of 
character, who was prevented only by continuous ill-health from reaching 
one of the highest positions in the Civil Service. He used his great powers, 
quietly and unostentatiously, to promote university education. I feel 
sure that I shall be forgiven for digressing a little from my subject in 
order to express, very briefly, our gratitude for the work of these men. 

I have already referred to the high cost of teaching science at universi- 
ties. I find it useful to look at problems of education from a financial 
point of view: it clears my mind, without, I hope, clearing it altogether 
or destroying my ideals. ‘Take the position of the public schools as an 
example. ‘There is much criticism of the public schools. We hear that 
they do not win a fair proportion of scholarships at the universities in 
comparison with grant-aided secondary schools ; that their hold over the 
higher division of the Civil Service is disappearing ; that altogether they 
are behind the times. Consider, however, their financial position. Most 
of them get no grant from public funds : they have to rely on endowment 
income (often small) and on the fees paid by parents. Many of them 
doubtless have their financial anxieties ; but at least they are solvent. It 
is indeed remarkable that through these years of serious industrial de- 
pression the public schools have remained full to overflowing ; tens of 
thousands of parents have thought it worth while to sacrifice a large part 
of their income, or to diminish their capital, in order to give their boys the 
benefit of a public school education. It may be said that their action is 


L.—EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE 211 


partly dictated by snobbery, and partly by the feeling that the market 
value of a man is increased if he is known to have been educated at a 
public school. Snobbery doubtless has some influence, but surely very 
little ; and if the market value of a public school boy is on the average 
higher than that of boys educated at grant-aided secondary schools, 
it is not merely because of the reputation of his school, but because he 
learnt something there that he could not get elsewhere. The obvious 
answer of the public schools to all general criticism is that it is not com- 
pulsory for anyone to send their boys to them. So long as they perform 
a useful function they will continue to exist and to be solvent ; when they 
cease to provide a better all-round education than other schools they will 
die a natural death. 

There was a time when some universities were in the same happy posi- 
tion as the public schools. As self-supporting institutions they could go 
their own autocratic way, impervious to outside criticism. They took 
special measures to encourage the influx of students of outstanding 
ability ; and as for the rest, the chief conditions of entry to a college were 
that they should be capable of paying highly for the privilege, and of 
passing a very elementary examination—often waived for men of noble 
birth or athletic renown. ‘Those were the days when a headmaster is 
reported to have advised parents to send their sons to Oxford or Cam- 
bridge on the grounds that they would there make a number of very 
desirable acquaintances, and be kept out of mischief during a dangerous 
period of their lives. 

The chief advantage of this complete independence was that it en- 
couraged individuality in teachers and students ; the chief disadvantage 
of the many reforms that have taken place since then, resulting finally in 
financial dependence, is that they tend to discourage individuality. Is any 
university school of physics or chemistry, for instance, noticeably different 
from any other? In London we do our best to encourage individuality 
by having different final examinations for certain degrees in different 
colleges ; at the Imperial College the B.Sc. degree of London is awarded on 
the results of college examinations in which outside examiners take part. 
The advantage of this is that it is not necessary to bring our syllabuses 
and methods of teaching exactly into line with those of other London 
colleges. There is, however, a strong but fortunately not a majority 
body of opinion in the university in favour of common examinations, 
chiefly on the grounds that they are easier and cheaper to organise. [hope 
it will be long before our measure of independence disappears. I would 
go so far as to say that individuality, which should be a natural growth 
in universities, needs to be deliberately encouraged in these days of 
committee rule. Any step taken to discourage it is a step downwards. 

Oxford and Cambridge still have considerable freedom of action, partly 
because of their old traditions, but mainly, I think, because of the financial 
independence of the colleges. I do not know how far the ancient univer- 
sities of Scotland preserve their own complete independence, but, in spite 
of apparent autonomy, the newer universities of England have not quite 
the same measure of freedom as Oxford and Cambridge. Their income 
can normally only just cover their expenditure, for if the margin were 


212 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


great, it would mean that they were receiving too much from the public. 
The close budgeting that is necessary inevitably restricts freedom of 
action. For instance, if the number of students be reduced, the loss in 
fee income may convert a slight surplus into a deficit for some years, as it 
is impossible to reduce expenditure on staff and equipment correspond- 
ingly quickly. On the other hand, the immediate effect of increasing the 
number is to make the balance sheet look healthier: until a strong case 
can be made for more expenditure on staff and buildings, which eventually 
results in increased cost to the public. It is unfortunate that there is 
quite a strong financial incentive to increase the number of students at 
universities ; it looks so well on paper. Yet I feel that the time has come 
when we ought seriously to consider whether a further increase can really 
be justified. ‘The public, I take it, is not interested in the individual ; if 
the taxpayer thinks at all about his contribution to university education— 
and I do not suppose he does, as it is so trifling compared with other 
public calls upon his income—he must come to the conclusion that the 
object of his contribution is to help students who will subsequently be of 
more value to the nation if they spend three or more years of a sheltered 
existence at a university, than if they were obliged to earn their living on 
leaving school. Where shall we draw the line ? 

There are many students who occasion no misgiving. ‘They are those 
who are capable of teaching themselves, given the opportunity. To them, 
and ideally to all, the attitude of the university should be this: We give 
you here the opportunity of learning, if you wish to, from masters of their 
subjects ; we give-you access to well-equipped libraries and laboratories ; 
and opportunities for learning from each other. We help you to help 
yourselves. What use you make of these opportunities depends upon 
yourselves. If we find you do not, or cannot, make good use of them, 
you shall go, and make room for others. Broadly speaking, I believe that 
is the right attitude. In such an atmosphere, learning, individuality, and 
self-reliance flourish ; and public expenditure is worth while. Judged 
from this standpoint, I have little hesitation in saying that universities are 
too full. As a result the tendency is towards over-organisation, too little 
latitude, and too much spoon-feeding. The more distinguished the 
teacher, the more he is tempted away from teaching and research : his 
presence is required on committees. In London we elderly gentlemen 
even organise students’ athletics ; and official debates take place on such 
important questions as the site and finance of a university boat club for 
women. ‘The wider we fling open the doors to a university, the more 
will such organisation be necessary, and the worse will be the conditions 
for the best teachers and students. 

There is another, more practical, way of looking at this question of 
numbers. Do graduates find any difficulty in getting suitable employment 
at the end of their university career? Perhaps it is hardly fair to attempt 
to draw a definite conclusion from experience during the last few years ; 
but it does form some guide to policy. ‘The majority of students of the 
Imperial College enter some branch of industry; and most of them, even 
in these difficult times, have succeeded in finding posts within six months 
of leaving the college. Whether they are all suitable posts for university 


L.—EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE 213 


graduates, I doubt ; many of them could equally well and perhaps better 
be filled by students from technical schools. I do not think this is an 
experience confined to the Imperial College ; indeed, to judge from in- 
formation I have had from other sources, I should say that we had been 
on the whole more fortunate than other similar institutions. 

Different branches of industry seem to hold different views about the 
value of a university education in science. Compare, for example, the 
present position of the university chemist with that of the engineer. The 
chemical industry calls out for university graduates ; every year you will 
find leading representatives of the prominent firms in the universities, 
looking for recruits. It is not demanded of the recruit that he should 
possess a large stock of practical knowledge ; it is expected of him that he 
should have high scientific qualifications, and that he should have shown 
aptitude for independent work. The attitude of the engineering industry 
seems different. In some branches of the engineering industry the 
university graduate is as welcome as he is in most branches of the chemical 
industry ; but in many he seems to be regarded as a misfit. One pro- 
minent manufacturer, the creator of a great industry, who has lived most 
of his life near a university, has been known to boast that he employs no 
university graduates. Many employers seem to expect of an engineering 
graduate a degree of acquaintance with practice that they have no right 
to expect ; for we do not pretend to teach at universities what can be 
better learned at the works. Finally my experience is that too many 
engineering graduates find themselves in blind alleys from which they 
have little opportunity to escape. 

Where does the fault lie ?. With the employers or with the universities ? 
I think there are faults on both sides: let me leave the faults of the em- 
ployers for others to discuss, and for time to correct, and deal with some 
of the problems of university schools of engineering. 

Engineering is a branch of technology. The object of a university 
school of technology is to seek to advance and apply scientific knowledge 
for practical purposes. Many people at universities still think there is 
something derogatory about this; they would prefer that instruction 
and research had no relation to the practical needs of mankind, forgetting 
perhaps that most if not all university education started with a practical 
aim in view, or we should have had no schools of law or medicine. 

Let me quote from the report of the University Grants Committee for 
1921: ‘ There is nothing in the nature of technology which makes it 
necessarily unsuited to the methods and spirit of university work. . . . 
The very fact that this alliance [between science and industry] is intimate, 
and the border line between pure and applied science difficult to define, 
involves serious difficulties for the universities. Wecannot ignore a certain 
tendency to lay an exaggerated emphasis on utilitarian applications in 


1 In his Presidential Address to Section B in 1913 Prof. W. P. Wynne said :— 
‘ Once again the cry has been raised in the press that chemists trained in our 
Universities are of little value in industrial pursuits ; they are too academic ; 
they are not worth their wage—little as that often is, whether judged by a 
labourer’s hire or the cost of a University training.’ Evidently some progress 
has been made ! 


214 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


some technological departments. . . . It would be in the worst interests 
of industry itself if the study of scientific problems were to be approached 
by the universities from the point of view of immediate material advantage. 
. . . We believe it to be urgently necessary, therefore, to define more 
closely the aim of university courses in engineering and technology, and to 
differentiate such courses from work properly assignable to technical 
colleges.’ 

With these views and criticisms, I heartily agree: what is more to the 
point, perhaps, is that they have, I feel sure, the approval of many univer- 
sity professors of engineering, who would say that their aim is to teach 
principles, not practice ; to train the mind without neglecting the training 
of the hand ; and to send out ultimately from the university resourceful 
men whose education and outlook enable them to attack with confidence 
the new problems that are perpetually arising in the engineering world. 
A university school of engineering should be primarily a school of what is 
now called classical physics, the principles of which are illustrated in 
lecture room and laboratory by examples and problems which have a 
special bearing on engineering. To a less extent it should be a school of 
mathematics and chemistry. I think we are inclined, at universities, to 
value too highly mathematical ability in an engineer. Many students 
have obtained first-class engineering degrees mainly through their mathe- 
matical ability ; but such students do not necessarily become first-class 
engineers, and some of the most original and distinguished engineers are 
poor mathematicians: one of whom I can think had to be content with 
a pass degree at his university. 

I am inclined to think that there are too many students of engineering 
at universities. ‘There are many young men who have a practical flair, 
but who cannot respond to the kind of teaching that I believe to be appro- 
priate to the university. Their presence at the university, where everyone 
wishes to do their best for them, inevitably encourages the introduction 
of practical instruction of a kind more suited to technical schools. The 
university school is then trying to fulfil two functions, and runs the risk 
of failing to fulfil either well. Such men often have qualities which will 
carry them far in the engineering profession, which is large and varied 
enough to provide opportunities for men of very different types, but they 
are really out of place at universities, and would be well advised to take 
advantage of some of the excellent schemes now in operation for combined 
training at works and technical schools. 

The same is true, I suggest, of other branches of technology. The chief 
aim of a university department of technology should be to produce the 
leaders of the profession. ‘The best education for potential leaders is not 
the same as the best education for the rank and file. It cannot be expected 
that all university graduates will become leaders ; but at least we ought 
to look for, and develop, the qualities of leadership. ‘This we cannot do 
if we fall into the temptation of mass production. 

Highly specialised schools of science at universities present somewhat 
different problems. How many students, for example, should one 
encourage to study subjects such as mining geology, biochemistry, plant 
biology, entomology, when the demand for such specialists may be small 


L—EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE 215 


and fluctuating? Take the biological subjects as typical. Two years 
ago there was published the report of a strong committee appointed by 
the Government to advise on the education and supply of biologists. 
Their first two conclusions were : 

(1) There is a substantial and growing demand from Government 
Departments for biologists for service in this country and in the colonies, 
and there is a small but probably growing demand for biologists from con- 
cerns engaged in agricultural production overseas and in industry in this 
country. 

(2) It is not possible to state this demand in precise arithmetical terms, 
but the supply of candidates for biological posts is not equal to the present 
demand, and even in those branches where the supply is sufficient in 
quantity it is deficient in quality. 

Whatever evidence in support of these conclusions existed when the 
Committee started its inquiry in 1930, I think it safe to say that even 
before the report was published these conclusions were falsified by events. 
The fact is that some ten to fifteen years ago there was a sudden demand 
for biologists to meet the needs of new and of rapidly expanding research 
organisations at home and in other parts of the Empire. Highly trained 
biologists of all kinds were sought for, and naturally could not be found 
in sufficient numbers, for universities cannot suddenly increase the rate 
of production of first-class specialists. Some of the new organisations 
made the mistake, therefore, of accepting less able and less highly trained 
men, which is bad for the individuals concerned and for the organisations ; 
for, if a first-class man is really needed, it is better to wait until one is 
available than to make shift with a second-class man, who runs the serious 
risk of having his livelihood taken away from him later on. 

Then came the world depression, and far from there being an increased 
demand for ‘ industrial ’ biologists in recent years, there has been a con- 
traction. ‘This is a serious state of affairs for universities. It would be a 
fatal policy to encourage young men of good ability to spend long years in 
specialised study, only to find at the end that there was no demand for 
their services, or that what little demand there was offered inadequate 
prospects for the future. It is a far better policy deliberately to keep the 
supply somewhat short of the demand ; the world will not appreciably 
suffer if any particular application of science to industry and agriculture 
develops rather more slowly than the enthusiast could wish, and there are 
few spectacles more distressing than that of the highly educated specialist 
who is unemployed through no fault of his own, and whose training and 
interests do not fit him for other work. At the Imperial College we have 
ample room and equipment for more students of plant biology, plant 
biochemistry, industrial entomology and similar subjects ; but we do not 
intend to fill the room until we can be more certain of the future. The 
lessons of the last few years teach us that public statements about the 
shortage of specialists in any branch of science and technology are apt to 
have an unfortunate effect in schools and in universities ; for they may 
be out of date before a normal period of advanced training is finished. 

It is of interest to examine a little further the Committee’s belief that 
the supply of biologists at universities is lacking in quality as well as in 


216 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


quantity, which they attribute to the neglect of biology as a subject of 
study in schools. While sympathising with their views, which are shared 
by many people, I think it cannot be denied that whereas a biologist must 
have an adequate knowledge of physics and chemistry, it is not necessary 
for a physicist or chemist to have a knowledge of biology ; and if one con- 
siders the position from a cultural rather than from a practical point of 
view, it would be fair to say that the boys who need least to study 
biology as a cultural subject at schools are those who are going to study 
it at a university. The only point that remains, then, is that if biology 
were taught more widely in schools it is possible that here and there a boy 
‘ may experience from biology a pull which he had hitherto failed to secure 
from his special subject.’ For my part I feel confident that directly there 
is an assurance of reasonable careers in biology, suitable candidates will be 
forthcoming, and education at schools and in the universities will develop 
on sound lines. Lack of teaching of biology at schools has not led to a 
shortage of doctors. How, then, can it be mainly responsible for a shortage 
of other biologists? It needs no inspired prophet to foresee a great 
development some day of the biological sciences: the work of pioneers 
to-day makes that sufficiently obvious. The next generation may live 
to see a development comparable with that of the physical sciences, and 
their applications, in the last thirty years ; but the time is not yet ripe. 
Until it is, our duty at universities is to keep our biological departments 
moderate in size, but high in quality. 

There is another consideration that one has to bear in mind in deciding 
how many students to encourage to specialise on any branch of science or 
technology. If the call for such specialists is small, it is clearly necessary 
to take into account what is being done at other universities. Universities 
are very human bodies ; if one institution makes a success of any particular 
new department, others will find a strong case to develop along similar 
lines. A little competition is healthy ; but the multiplication of specialised 
departments in different universities and colleges can easily be carried too 
far, resulting in an unnecessary waste of money. ‘There are, for example, 
ten university schools of mining in Great Britain. This number can hardly 
be justified either by the demand for mining engineers at home, where 
there is little or no metalliferous mining, or by the demand overseas. In 
Germany, where there is a large metalliferous, as well as a large coal 
mining industry, there are only five schools of mining engineering of 
university rank. I feel that if the number of students were divided among 
fewer institutions the results would be better and the expenditure less. I 
do not suppose for a moment that anyone is likely to agree with me to the 
extent of abolishing any existing department, but I think we should learn 
a lesson from the past, and keep competition and local patriotism within 
reasonable bounds. 

I have thought it worth while to put these practical considerations 
before you, although they are not exhaustive and do not lead to any 
definite conclusion on the problem of the size of university departments of 
science and technology. In the end the optimum size is a matter of judg- 
ment ; my judgment, for what it is worth, is that on the whole there is 
no strong case for increasing the numbers of students of science and 


L.—_EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE 217 


technology at universities. In thirty years’ time this statement may look 
ridiculous, but one cannot foresee events so far ahead. Rather than any 
marked expansion in numbers should take place during the next five years, 
I should prefer to concentrate on giving the better man a better chance 
than he has now; to improve the quality rather than to increase the 
quantity. 


It is commonly said of students of science that their general education 
is weak. The remarks of the committee on the education and supply of 
biologists may be taken as representative of a large body of critics, for 
they were based on the views of many witnesses. 

“Among boys taking science as their special line of study there is too 
great concentration on science to the neglect of other subjects. Our 
witnesses view with anxiety the prospect of a growing race of illiterate 
scientists unable to express themselves adequately or intelligently in their 
own language, and ignorant alike of history and of the forces other than 
the chemical and physical which make the world in which they live.’ 

There is undoubtedly much force behind these criticisms ; and yet 
I think the poor student of science is apt to be maligned. The great 
growth of knowledge in nearly every department of learning inevitably 
means that we all become more and more ignorant of each other’s special 
interests ; can it justly be argued that the young scientist who has little 
or no knowledge of history is more ignorant than the young historian who 
has no knowledge of science? Do we not, perhaps, tend to exaggerate 
the virtues of a general education, forgetting that many of the greatest 
men have had no education worth speaking of ? I remind myself fre- 
quently, and particularly on this occasion, of the fate of Mr. Joseph 
Finsbury, of whom it is written that ‘a taste for general information, 
not promptly checked, had soon begun to sap his manhood. There is 
no passion more debilitating to the mind,’ the author adds, ‘ unless, 
perhaps, it be that itch of public speaking which it not infrequently 
accompanies or begets.’ And if you know the book you will remember 
that one of Mr. Joseph’s lectures ‘ to the great heart of the people’ was 
entitled ‘ Education: its Aims, Objects, Purposes and Desirability.’ I 
dare not continue the quotation. 

At the Imperial College I have colleagues who have had over twenty- 
five years of experience of successions of boys from secondary schools. 
They say, without hesitation, that the standard of general education has 
increased steadily throughout that period. Iam newer to the work ; and 
when I reflect that so many of the present generation of secondary school- 
boys who find their way to universities come from the poorest homes, 
I think the standard of general education is to be praised rather than 
decried. I think also that the man who has ideas of his own, and a capacity 
for doing something really well, is more useful and more interesting, even 
though he may be unable to express himself adequately in his own language, 
than one who is merely capable of describing other people’s work and ideas 
in elegant English. When all these allowances are made, however, there 
is undoubtedly room for improvement. There are many scientific men 


218 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


who write beautiful English ; and yet I suppose there is no gap in his 
equipment that the average scientific man deplores more in after-life than 
his difficulty in writing and speaking his own language well. I say this 
feelingly, as to me writing is a forced labour, and I am never satisfied with 
the result ; but with practice one can acquire a certain proficiency, and 
with the example of T’. H. Huxley as an inspiration no one need altogether 
despair. My complaint of many young students of science to-day is not 
so much that they do not write clearly and concisely as that they do not 
seem to want to, which indicates insufficient practice and instruction at 
school to acquire a taste. Again, I should agree with the Committee that 
“a competent knowledge of one modern language (French or German, 
the latter in particular) is, quite apart from its cultural value, an essential 
element in the equipment of the adequately trained scientist.’ Much 
of the best scientific literature is written in German, and if a scientist 
cannot read German scientific papers, he is severely handicapped. At the 
Imperial College we found it necessary many years ago to institute special 
classes in German. It should not be necessary. 

The schoolmaster is, however, in a quandary. There is a limited 
number of hours in the day, and if he taught all the subjects that he is 
advised to teach to all the boys—for everyone naturally thinks that his own 
special subject should form part of a liberal education—he would only 
succeed in producing a race of smatterers. He has to choose a happy mean 
between teaching more and more about less and less, or less and less 
about more and more; and he not unjustly complains that during the 
last year of a clever boy’s life at school he is hampered in his choice by 
the regulations and practice of universities. Schoolmasters at grant-aided 
secondary schools are in a special difficulty, for most of their pupils are 
not able to proceed to a university unless they win entrance scholarships. 
If university authorities complain that students are lacking in general 
education, it is for them to do their best, by altering the conditions of 
entry, or the standard of scholarships, to help schoolmasters to remedy the 
defects. I propose, therefore, to discuss briefly what changes are desirable. 
I shall base my remarks on the regulations of London University, and my 
own college in particular, but I think the regulations of other universities 
are sufficiently similar to make the discussion of general interest. 

The first university examination is the Matriculation examination. A 
matriculation examination, I take it, was originally intended to be an 
examination the successful passing of which entitled a candidate to be 
admitted to the privileges of a university. The London University 
Matriculation examination has long ceased to be anything of the sort— 
at any rate, so far as students of science are concerned. It would seem 
more appropriate to regard it as an examination which entitles successful 
candidates to be admitted to the privilege of becoming bank clerks. 
Certainly few university schools of science will admit a student at the 
normal age of eighteen on the strength of his having passed the Matricula- 
tion examination ; some further proof of his proficiency is required. At 
the Imperial College we have a special entrance examination which mainly 
consists of papers in mathematics and science, but includes papers 
in English and a choice of foreign languages ; but I cannot say that a 


L.—EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE 219 


candidate is refused admittance if he fails to do well in the English and 
Language papers, but does well in the other subjects. 

The next university examination is the Intermediate examination. 
The original object of such an examination was to test the progress of a 
student in his special subject of study at a university, after he had given 
evidence of a sufficient general education at the normal age of entry. In 
fact, if we agree that a university is a place where students learn to teach 
themselves, under the guidance of distinguished teachers, instead of 
learning under the strict discipline of school, the main object of an inter- 
mediate examination should be to test a student’s capacity to teach him- 
self, and therefore to satisfy the authorities that he is fit to proceed with 
a course of study leading to a degree. Nowadays, as the Matriculation 
examination or its equivalent is passed by most intending students at the 
age of fifteen or sixteen, their remaining years at school are devoted to the 
special subjects of the Intermediate which many of them pass before they 
enter the university. ‘They are encouraged to do so by university authori- 
ties. It saves us trouble, and gives the student time to acquire a larger 
stock of specialised knowledge in his undergraduate career. The next 
obvious step will be to take the degree examinations at schools, leaving 
the universities free to concentrate on postgraduate work ! 

While these changes have been taking place in school curricula, the 
standard of science entrance scholarships at universities has steadily 
risen ; and as most science scholarships go to boys who intend to study 
physics or chemistry at the university, the schools are encouraged—some 
would even say forced—against their will, to concentrate their advanced 
teaching on physics and chemistry. It is true that only a small proportion 
of the boys at any particular school intend to compete for scholarships, but it 
is impossible to segregate such boys altogether, and the standard of scholar- 
ship examinations, therefore, sets the pace for the higher school forms. 

The object of a scholarship examination is to discover the boys of 
greatest promise, not the boys who have been most successfully crammed. 
I think that schoolmasters are inclined to attach too much importance to 
the character of the papers set, and to give too little credit to the examiners 
for intelligence. It is not always the boys who get the highest marks who 
win the scholarships, and it is not so very difficult for an intelligent 
examiner to distinguish between an active and a congested brain. At 
the same time, I do agree with the criticism that the papers set are usually 
_ too difficult. There is too great an element of luck about a hard paper ; 
and first-rate ability in a candidate is shown more by the way he answers 
a question than by his knowledge of detail. I remember giving practical 
effect to these opinions when I examined in the Final Honour School of 
Chemistry at Oxford fourteen years ago. One of the two papers I set in 
physical chemistry was so apparently easy, that I feel sure that a more 
cheerful group of candidates never sat in the Examination Schools. I am 
confident, too, that there never was an occasion when an examiner found 
it easier to distinguish between the relative merits of different candidates. 
The first-class man answered the questions briefly, accurately, and to the 
point ; the second-class man wrote pages of irrelevant matter, to impress 
the examiner ; and the third-class man made elementary mistakes. 


220 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


It is not so easy as it may seem, however, to change the standard of 
scholarship examinations, and thereby to encourage a broader education. 
About a year ago we decided to review our policy at the Imperial College. 
Students come to the College with science scholarships from many 
sources ; but the chief sources are the Board of Education, who award 
Royal Scholarships tenable only at the College as well as State scholar- 
ships tenable at any university in England and Wales ; the London County 
Council; and the College itself. For the past five years our scholarship 
examinations have been held in January at the suggestion of a group of 
headmasters of public schools, who advised that by doing so we should 
attract better candidates. We have not found this borne out by results ; 
we have not had enough good candidates in any year since the change to 
justify us in awarding the full number of scholarships ; and many of the 
better candidates have subsequently competed for and gained Royal 
Scholarships or State Scholarships which are higher in value. Our general 
experience leads us to believe that very few, if any, students of first-rate 
ability, who have specialised in science at school, are prevented from going 
to a university for lack of financial assistance. On the other hand, we 
believe that no scholarships are deliberately made available to assist able 
students who have not specialised in science at school to study science at a 
university. We have therefore decided to make the experiment of chang- 
ing the character of our January scholarship examination. We propose 
to set papers in General Science and Mathematics of quite a low standard, 
together with papers of a higher standard in History, Foreign Languages 
and English. The details are not yet settled; but headmasters and head- 
mistresses were notified of the change this year, and their criticism and 
co-operation were invited. The scheme has had a mixed reception. 
We have received many encouraging, but many critical letters. Much 
of the criticism can be summed up by the phrase, actually used—‘ It 
would not suit my Sixth, and I should not alter my Sixth to suit it.’ Now 
schoolmasters cannot haveit both ways ; they cannot say, on the one hand, 
that they are forced to specialise unduly at schools by the standard set by 
examiners for science scholarships, and, on the other hand, that they do not 
propose to make any change if university authorities listen to their 
criticisms. We intend to go on with the experiment, without any great 
hopes of the result ; someone must make a start, and the most unpromising 
experiments have often given surprisingly good results. At the same time, 
I fully realise that what one particular college does cannot solve the diffi- 
culties of the schools. If it is really the general view that the school 
education of a student of science is too narrow, then the best practical 
step is to reform the University Matriculation examination, and make 
it appropriate to the normal age of entry. If one of the larger universities 
did this, the effect would be considerable. If it is not considered worth 
while, then criticism of the general education of the science student loses 
most of its point. 


I have put before you some problems of the present ; I want now, before 
I conclude, to touch briefly on a problem of the future. 


L.—EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE 221 


All university education in science and technology is designed primarily 
to produce teachers or professional scientists or technicians. Most 
engineering students intend to become practising engineers; most 
chemists who do not enter the teaching profession become research 
chemists or chemical engineers ; most students of biology become doctors 
or professional biologists. A few graduates in science break adrift, and 
turn with success to other occupations : to the law, for example, to general 
administration, or even to literature! Of His Majesty’s present Ministers, 
one took a degree in biology at a Scottish university, and another a degree 
in chemistry at an English university. But these are rare exceptions ; 
most science graduates are specialists skilled in a particular branch of 
science, and ignorant of other branches. A hundred years ago it was not 
difficult for a scientific man to follow in detail the work of others ; now it is 
as much as a specialist can do to keep abreast of the progress of knowledge 
in the particular field in which he is interested. No one studies science 
at a university as a general education, as men study classics, philosophy, 
and history ; indeed no one can, for no university supplies the oppor- 
tunity. ‘Modern Greats’ at Oxford includes the study of history, 
economics, philosophy and ‘ the structure of modern society,’ but not of 
science ! 

During the present century there has been a struggle to secure a wider 
recognition of the value of scientific study and research, not only for the 
advancement of knowledge, but for the progress of civilisation. Now 
that this recognition is widespread ; now that we all see plainly the great 
influence of scientific discovery on social developments; now that 
specialised departments of science are flourishing at universities ; surely 
an effort should be made to provide for men who have no desire to become 
specialists, but who wish to study the broad principles and applications 
of science, for their own education, and as the best preparation for after- 
life in many spheres of human activity. The place of the specialist in 
industry and in the machinery of Government is assured. Large estab- 
lishments have grown up, mushroom-like, to meet the demand for industrial 
research. Biological research is also gaining recognition, but more 
slowly, for public opinion has not yet been educated to the point of realis- 
ing that, in the long run, it would be fatal to attach more value to industrial 
research than to applied biology. With all this increase of scientific 
activity, there has arisen an urgent need for skilled administrators and 
men in public life who have a real knowledge of the principles and methods 
of science ; not the kind of knowledge that is derived from conversation, 
listening to broadcast talks, and reading popular books, however good 
these may be, but that which is gained by serious study. We cannot 
complain that there are few such men among the present generation ; 
it is a great thing that there has been a change of attitude of mind. But 
unless something is done, there will be no greater number in the next 
generation. 

Is the time ripe for action on the part of the universities? I think it is. 
The great accession of knowledge in all branches of science may often 
seem bewildering ; but its effect has been to make the main principles 
clearer, and easier to teach, for a connecting thread runs through them. 


222 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


The foundations of science have been laid ; they will be strengthened in 
the future, but it is unlikely that they will be rebuilt. The structure that 
is built on them grows ever more coherent ; it can be studied as a whole, 
without examining in great detail any of its parts. The subjects of the 
university school I have in mind will include the study of the foundations 
and philosophical background of science ; of its history ; of the history 
of social development ; of the applications of science to industry, agricul- 
ture and medicine ; of problems of population and health—and the like. 
The student will learn that law and order in the universe is not a faith 
but a reality; and that science is ‘ nothing but trained and organised 
common sense.’ He will learn too, I hope, to acquire the spirit of that 
unprejudiced search for truth which is the basis of all fruitful scientific 
inquiry. 

These are but vague suggestions ; the practical thing to do is to make 
a start ; and the best way to make a start is to select the right man to direct 
such a school—and there are men available—to put him in the right 
environment, and to give him the opportunity to work out his own ideas. 
That good would result I have not the slightest doubt. 


SECTION M.—AGRICULTURE. 


SCIENTIFIG PROGRESS AND _ ECO- 
NOMIC PLANNING IN RELATION 
TOAGRICULTUREAND RURALLIFE 


ADDRESS BY 
PROF. J. A. S. WATSON, M.A., 
PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 


Ever since the beginnings of civilisation the rate of improvement in 
agricultural technique has controlled and conditioned, to a considerable 
degree, the progress of the human race. This progress has been of two 
kinds—on the one hand an increase of numbers, and on the other a rise 
in the standard of life. 

At certain times and places better farming has meant no more than the 
possibility of a given level of subsistence for an increasing number of 
people. Indeed, where the available land has been limited, where condi- 
tions of climate and the like have favoured the increase of population 
and where the progress of agriculture has been relatively slow, we find all 
the essential features of that rather gloomy picture of man’s economic 
destiny which Malthus conceived as normal. Broadly speaking, this has 
been the state of things, in China, during many centuries. Conditions 
among the Western nations have, however, become more and more unlike 
those that Malthus presupposed. He assumed that populations tend to 
increase in geometric progression, whereas in many countries population 
is already, or is rapidly tending to become, static. He assumed that the 
additional land, brought under cultivation in order to meet man’s growing 
necessities, would be inferior in some respect to that already farmed ; 
but at present the tendency upon the whole is for farm land to go out of 
cultivation. Malthus could foresee no more than a slow and dwindling 
rate of increase in the productivity of the soil, each successive increment 
being obtained at the cost of a progressively greater amount of human 
toil; but recent additions to scientific knowledge have been enough to- 
outweigh the effects of the economists’ law of diminishing returns ; our 
increasing output of food is being secured with less and less toil, instead 
of more and more. The main result of the most recent agricultural pro- 
gress in the more advanced countries has been then to set free, for activities 
other than food production, an increasing proportion of the population, 
with, as a secondary consequence, the possibility of an unprecedented 
rise in standards of life. 

Before, however, we attempt to analyse the present situation of our 


224 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


industry, or try to predict its future, it may be well to cast our eyes back 
over some of the main stages in its evolution. This is the easier to do 
because on each of the main steps of the ladder some part of the human race 
has been left standing—providing a living relic of what was once perhaps 
the most advanced type of economic life. 

We have indeed—in Australia, in Ceylon, in Africa and elsewhere (and 
often under conditions quite favourable to agriculture)—remnants of 
those peoples who refused to become either tillers of the soil like Cain, 
or keepers of sheep like Abel. With them—women and children as well 
as men—life consists of an unremitting food-quest. Their dietary in- 
cludes articles like grass seeds, insect grubs, mice and snakes, yet they 
are often reduced to hunger and famine. They must wander over wide 
areas to secure their meagre fare and they have neither time nor energy 
to spare for the arts of civilisation. It is worth noting that their funda- 
mental disability is a lack neither of intelligence nor of manual dexterity, 
but of foresight. ‘They cannot see beyond their immediate necessities. 
They will work for a daily wage but not for a yearly harvest. The Bush- 
ment of South-West Africa, for example, can be trained to become capable 
herdsmen, but they never become independent stock-farmers because 
they cannot resist the temptation to kill when they are hungry. 

When men first began clearly to anticipate their material needs, and to 
plan ahead in order that these might be supplied, they naturally strove to 
bring under control those species of plants or animals on which, in their 
earlier unplanned economy, they had been accustomed to rely. ‘Thus 
the big-game hunters of the Asiatic plains became, in course of genera- 
tions, nomadic herdsmen. In the flood valleys of the Nile and Euphrates 
unaided nature solved what has elsewhere been the chief problem of the 
cultivator—the maintenance of the fertility of the soil—and there the 
greatest of our early civilisations were founded upon an assured supply of 
corn. But the herdsmen who have become nothing more have con- 
demned themselves to a very limited and an insecure existence. They 
may build up immense capital in the form of live stock, but they still 
live in tents and subsist entirely on meat and milk or, like the Massai, 
on blood and milk; and a drought or an epidemic of stock disease may 
reduce them, in a few weeks, from a state of plenty to one of famine. 

Again the cultivators who have clung to plant life alone as a means of 
sustenance maintain, except in specially favourable localities, but an in- 
conclusive war with nature. On the one hand, the maintenance of soil 
fertility without animal manure has been usually, until the recent intro- 
duction of other fertilisers, a nearly insoluble problem; hence land, 
becoming exhausted after a few years of tillage, has had to be again 
abandoned until such time as natural processes should restore its fertility. 
The periodic clearing of new areas, added to the routine operations of 
tillage and both carried out by means of primitive hand tools, give a very 
real meaning to the curse of Cain. Finally, a purely vegetable diet, 
often restricted to one or two specially productive plants, may be not 
only monotonous but seriously deficient in nutritive value. 

The contriving of a system of mixed farming, embracing both plants 
and animals, was a remarkable stage in the progress of civilisation. It 


M.—AGRICULTURE 225 


has been surmised that it came about through the conquest of the cultivator 
peoples of Egypt and Mesopotamia by herdsmen peoples from the north- 
east. The combination did many things. It made possible the applica- 
tion of animal power to the soil. It enabled permanent agriculture to 
replace shifting cultivation. It provided at once greater abundance, more 
variety and greater security in the food supply. It enabled men to fix 
their abodes and thus made worth while the building of permanent 
dwellings and the accumulating of household goods. It set free human 
energy for the arts of civilisation. In short, it enabled the men who 
devised it to inherit the earth. 

But life for these innovators became not only fuller but also more 
complicated. Man had to organise the food supply not only of his family 
but also of his beasts, and to this end he had to bring under cultivation 
new species of plants and invent new methods of fodder conservation. 
As the mixed farmers spread over the world they had continually to 
exercise their ingenuity in adapting their system to the varying natural 
conditions of their new homes. 

This system was improved and modified during ancient and medieval 
times without undergoing any fundamental change. There was a minor 
hiving off of other industries from farming and a consequent growth of 
trade; there were some temporary experiments in the mass production 
of food, especially by the Romans and by means of slave labour. But up 
till the time of the industrial revolution the typical citizen of the civilised 
world was the family farmer, looking to his own land to supply the bulk 
of his material needs and producing but little for sale. He remains to-day 
the typical citizen of many great and populous countries, and his class is 
easily the most numerous in the world. 

But the eighteenth century saw the beginnings of another great change. 
Primarily this had little to do with the business of growing food or other 
farm produce. It concerned what had hitherto been but minor industries, 
occupying the time of the farmer and his wife in winter evenings or 
employing a few village craftsmen—industries like the spinning of 
yarn and the weaving of cloth, the fashioning of ploughshares and of cart 
wheels. The successful application of mechanical power to these 
manufacturers meant their removal to convenient sources of power 
and, therefore, their removal from the farm. The separation of agriculture 
from other industries meant an increase in the exchange of goods, and 
this necessitated, in turn, the provision of improved means of transport 
and a great increase in the supply of money and credit. 

The agricultural changes which accompanied the industrial revolution 
were changes of organisation rather than of technique. There was 
(with the possible exception of Meikle’s threshing machine) no new 
agricultural invention comparable to the spinning mule, the power loom, 
the new blast furnace or the steamship. The successful application of 
mechanical power to the soil was not to be achieved for another hundred 
years. But farmers had to replan their industry with their eyes upon a 
market rather than upon their own personal requirements. This favoured 
a degree of specialisation in production that had hitherto been impossible. 
It favoured a larger type of enterprise and led to the engrossing of farms. 

I 


226 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


Because of the disappearance of the old fill-time home industries it 
necessitated a replanning of farm work. It required, of course, the 
investment of fresh capital, and thus gave the whip hand, within the 
industry, to those individuals with capital to command. 

The revolution was not carried through without a good deal of hardship 
to individuals—some of which, according to modern standards, amounted 
to grave social injustice. ‘The enclosures of the old open-field villages 
of the English Midlands and the Highland clearances need only be 
mentioned in this connection. 

Indeed, there have been difficulties and hardships associated with all 
the major steps of progress that we have traced. Each departure from 
tradition required a fresh effort of will and made a new demand for 
courage and enterprise. At every stage there were people who thought 
that things were very well as they had been; but these people have 
always been wrong. No reasonable interpretation of history can leave us in 
doubt that each great step in economic evolution has been amply justified. 
It is not only that a higher level of material prosperity has been attained, 
but that, upon the whole, this material prosperity has been turned by 
men to good account. No reasonable person would wish to return to 
the life of the Australian aborigine, the nomad or the African cultivator 
upon his patch of maize and yams. Many people feel, indeed, a strong 
if rather sentimental attraction towards the old peasant way of life. This 
is easy to understand, for most of us are removed but a generation or 
two from peasant homes. In truth, the modern business farm suffers, 
in some ways, by comparison with the peasant holding; but only, as 
I believe, because we have not as yet fully succeeded in translating the 
economic advantages of the former into social good. ‘The broad lesson 
of history, as I see it, is that we must take our courage in both hands 
and face the task that we now see before us. 

For some of the origins of our present agricultural problem we must 
go back to the seventies of last century, which marked the end of what 
has been called the golden age of British farming. At that time, in 
those countries where agriculture had been separated from the other 
industries, the division of national incomes between the two classes was 
favourable to the agriculturist—he got fair value, in terms of manu- 
factured goods and services, for his labour and enterprise. It is true, 
indeed, that where the agricultural class was divided into landlords, 
tenants and labourers there was, according to modern standards, a very 
inequitable division, as between rent, profit and wages, of the net gains 
from farming; but this inequity was by no means peculiar to farming. 

Since the seventies the productive capacity of agriculture has constantly 
tended to increase more rapidly than the demand for agricultural produce. 
The one check in the process was caused by the Great War, but this has 
already been more than made good. The result has been that, except 
during the period from 1917 till 1921, when the boot was certainly on 
the other leg, agriculturists have failed to secure a due reward for their 
increasing efficiency. 

The rise in the output of world agriculture has been made possible, 
firstly, by a vast increase in the area of available land, and in supplies of 


M.—AGRICULTURE 227 


the farmer’s other primary raw materials. The process of expansion 
began with the opening up of the North American prairie for corn 
growing, following the building of railways and the invention of the 
binder. At first it was confidently predicted that the flood of corn 
would be only temporary, since a few years of ‘ prairie farming’ must 
exhaust the most fertile soil in the world. But the prairie soil was found 
to be different stuff from that of Western Europe, and its exhaustion 
proved to be a vain hope, or a groundless fear, according to the point 
of view. Moreover, one new country after another went through the 
process of agricultural development, and the problem of transport was 
solved not only for corn and wool, but also for meat, dairy produce, fruit 
and, indeed, for every commodity except the most bulky or the extremely 
perishable. But it is not only transport developments that have thrown 
open new fields to the farmer. Irrigation schemes and dry-farming 
technique have added great areas of what was formerly desert. Plant 
breeders, by producing quick-maturing strains of plants, have extended 
the northern limits of cultivation by a belt that embraces hundreds of 
millions of acres. The growing control of human and animal disease 
is creating the possibility of settlement and agricultural development 
over vast areas of the tropics which, as yet, have been hardly touched. 
Thus the old fear of overpopulation, which has coloured so much of 
past economic thought, has been removed to a distance that now seems 
incalculably far. 

Apart from land, the most important of the farmer’s primary raw 
materials are fertilisers, and here it is enough to say there can be no 
anxiety about future supplies. The crisis in connection with the supply 
of nitrogen, which seemed thirty years ago to be approaching fast, has 
been completely averted. Nitrogen is now available to the farmer, in 
infinite quantity, at less than half its pre-war price. 

The other cause of the growing abundance of agricultural produce 
has been, of course, the application of the rapidly increasing body of 
scientific knowledge to the business of plant and animal production. 
I do not propose to weary you with a catalogue of recent advances in 
agricultural science, or to show how these have been translated by the 
farmer into improvements in practice. Two or three examples must 
suffice. ‘The latest report on the Agricultural Output of England and 
Wales shows that (through the application of the sciences of genetics 
and nutrition) the average output of eggs, per bird, increased by 20 per 
cent. in six years. ‘The use of the tractor and the combine harvester 
enables a reduction, in the labour cost of corn production, of more 
than 50 per cent. The output of meat, per acre of grassland, has been 
increased, at Cockle Park and on much similar land elsewhere, by more 
than roo per cent., through the use of what was once a worthless by- 
product of our steel industry. A simple and cheap remedy has been 
found, almost the other day, for the ‘ rot’ in sheep which has often in 
the past killed a million sheep and more in a single year. And so on— 
more farm land and more fertilisers, more machines and more science, all 
leading to the same result of cheaper, easier and more abundant production. 

I am not suggesting that overproduction is the sole cause of the 


228 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


present crisis in world agriculture. Indeed, the immediate cause is the 
fall in the general price level following the contraction of currency. But 
a tremendous fall in prices, due to the same cause, occurred at the end 
of the Napoleonic wars without causing the general ruination of agri- 
culturists. The severity of the present crisis has been due, as I see 
the matter, to the preceding long period of inadequate returns in agri- 
culture, which left the industry with depleted capital and a burden of 
debt, and therefore unfit to withstand a period of general economic 
disorganisation. If the significance of rapid agricultural progress had 
been realised in time, and if nations had been prepared to accept its logical 
consequences, there might have been no necessity to-day to devise any 
revolutionary economic plan for the industry. For instance, it might 
have been foreseen that the cheap producer in the new countries must 
displace the dear producer in the old, and that as Canadian prairie was 
broken up, Midland clays must go down to grass. But no country was 
prepared to accept either a decline in the number of its agriculturists 
or a reduction of its home output of food. Rural depopulation was 
viewed with widespread alarm, and the extensification of farming was 
regarded as an evil implying almost moral turpitude on the part of the 
farmer. Again it might have been seen that, the world’s requirements 
of bread being amply met, some of the surplus energies of farmers might 
have been diverted to the production of more interesting commodities 
like fruit or chickens or tobacco. But States, when they intervened at 
all, did so in the opposite sense—encouraging the production of the 
old necessaries and discouraging the expansion of consumption of 
luxuries. Such ideas die hard. It is still considered a meritorious thing 
to employ an agricultural labourer, but there is no particular feeling 
about the employment of barbers, haberdashers or electricians. It is 
somehow more honourable to plough a field than to let it lie in grass. 
It is a nobler thing to grow wheat (even if nobody wants to eat it) than 
peaches or strawberries. These notions are a legacy from the time 
when the world was hungry of necessity, and when people lived healthily 
in the country but died quickly in the towns. We must realise that 
these conditions have ceased to be. There is a superabundant organ- 
isation for food production, and there is no difficulty about breeding 
up a good and healthy human stock in the modern city. It seems to 
me that there is no argument for keeping unnecessary workers in agri- 
culture or for driving people back to the land. 

During the past few years there has been a rapidly growing realisation, 
in one country after another, that the farmer’s economic lot was becoming 
unendurable, and a mass of different expedients have been devised, 
either by governments themselves or with their sanction and approval, 
to ensure something like a fair price for agricultural commodities. These 
measures are based on a wide variety of principles, and some are open to 
obvious criticism. For example, we have compulsory restriction of 
output; monetary compensations by the State for restrictions voluntarily 
made; even plans for the destruction of produce which is judged to 
be in excess of demand. We have direct State subsidies designed to 
make good the difference between cost of production and market price 


M.—AGRICULTURE 229 


the fixing of internal prices by the State, combined with State control 
of imports and exports; export subsidies; tariffs designed to raise 
prices to a desired level; restriction of imports, with or without tariffs, 
intended to adjust supply to demand. The list is by no means complete. 
Some of these measures, indeed, are not so much rational means to assist 
agriculture as the weapons of economic warfare, in which apparently one 
of the objects of strategy is to force upon the enemy more food than 
he can eat. 

It is perhaps necessary then to restate the fundamental (and essentially 
very simple) ideas upon which any real scheme of economic planning 
must be based. In the first place, successful planning necessitates the 
accurate prediction of demand and implies an undertaking, on the part 
of producers, to deliver the quantity of goods required. In the second 
place, it involves the fixing of a price for the commodity in question which 
will allow the producer a reasonable, and no more than a reasonable, — 
reward, and only provided that (1) his technical methods and general 
management are reasonably efficient, and (2) the natural conditions and 
economic situation of his farm are reasonably favourable to the production 
of the said commodity. 

That the translation of these ideas into practice must be a hard task 
is obvious. Demand is not static, but is subject both to long-term changes 
and to temporary fluctuations, due in part to causes that are some of them 
accidental and some of them obscure. Planning must anticipate an 
increase of consumption demand, and indeed endeavour to stimulate it. 
Again, agricultural production is still subject to the accident of drought, 
epidemic disease and so forth. The determination of farming costs on 
which, under a planned economy, prices must be based is beset with 
rather special difficulties. Some people feel that these objections to 
planning are insuperable, and that the system presupposes a measure 
of understanding between one producer and another, between exporting 
and importing countries and between producer and consumer, that is 
quite beyond the bounds of reasonable expectation. Indeed, if the 
crisis had been less urgent, the institution of our marketing schemes 
should have been preceded by a period of research, experiment and 
education. 

One must protest most strongly against any notion that economic plan- 
ning is a panacea for all our ills or is any substitute for education and 
research. The main lesson of the Russian plan for agriculture is not, as I 
see it, that the basic ideas behind it were wrong—lI believe they are essen- 
tially right—but that their translation into practice necessitated an increase 
of scientific knowledge and technical skill, and a change of economic 
and social outlook that could not be attained at the rate which the plan 
contemplated. There is a risk, I believe, that we shall fall into the 
same error and suffer some of the same consequences. Another danger 
inherent in planning is that it may be used primarily to further narrow 
national ends, thus becoming only another weapon in the armoury of 
economic war. It is easy to see how it might be used, in this country, 
with the chief objects of increasing our agricultural area merely at the 
expense of that of other countries ; of increasing our home production 


230 . SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


of food merely by causing a reduction elsewhere ; of finding jobs for our 
unemployed by throwing overseas producers out of work. It is, of course, 
true that scientific and industrial progress is making countries, in some 
respects, less dependent one upon another. Italy, by developing her 
water power, has reduced her need of our coal ; we, by building Billingham 
Works, have lessened our requirements for Chilean nitrate. Some 
increase of self-sufficiency is the inevitable consequence of progress. 
But itis still true that civilised countries depend largely—for the abundance, 
variety and security of their food supplies, as well as for many other 
material blessings—upon a free and large international exchange of 
goods. World trade has shrunk because our monetary system has been 
unequal to the task of maintaining its flow. People are idle because 
they cannot exchange, one with another, the things which they might 
produce. Mere one-sided restrictions on trade can form no part of 
any sane plan. International trade agreements, indeed, are an essential 
part of any scheme. 

Supposing that the marketing schemes succeed in restoring a level 
of moderate profitability to agriculture, there will still remain the con- 
siderable task of reconditioning our farms. Apart from the period of 
two or three years at the end of the war there has been no business 
inducement, for more than half a century, to put fresh capital into farming, 
Many of our existing buildings were planned at a time when wages 
were at less than a third of the present rates, and therefore with little 
regard to economy of labour. Some farms are of an uneconomic size 
in relation to modern kinds of equipment. . There are heavy arrears in 
the matter of plant and machinery renewals, of drainage and liming. 
There is also, in many cases, a heavy burden of debt. 

In some countries the problem of farmer indebtedness is so acute 
that it has been thought expedient for the State to intervene, e.g. by 
prohibiting mortgage foreclosures, by proclaiming moratoria on mortgage 
interest, or by making or guaranteeing loans at specially low rates of 
interest. These measures have become necessary because the long- 
continued underpayment of agriculturists has led to the severe depletion 
of agricultural capital, but in themselves they can provide no permanent 
solution of the farmer’s economic problem, which is one of prices. It 
would seem that the recapitalisation of the industry could be most 
quickly brought about by the deliberate raising of prices, for a short 
period, somewhat above the ‘ fair’ level as previously defined. The 
profits made would undoubtedly be largely reinvested in farming, and 
new capital would be attracted. Moreover, after a long period of under- 
payment, a short period of over-payment is no more than the farmer’s due. 

Reorganisation presents the greatest difficulties in the case of those 
branches of the industry which, so far as can be foreseen, must suffer 
a permanent reduction of demand for their products. A case in point 
is the production of oats which has been from immemorial times one of 
the main departments of farming in this part of Britain. ‘The general 
rise in the standard of living is causing a general decline in the use of 
oats for human food, and the substitution of mechanical for horse trans- 
port is gradually killing the alternative market. For other purposes, 


M.—AGRICULTURE 231 


such as cattle feeding, or the manufacture of starch, etc., there are many 
competing commodities, such as maize, which are less costly to produce. 
The case of the northern farmer has a good deal in common with that 
of the Lancashire cotton spinner—both are suffering from the general 
depression, but also from a special decline in demand for their particular 
products. The permanent solution must be gradually to replace the 
oat crop by some other; and State assistance to this end would be of 
greater ultimate benefit to the industry than a subsidy or other device to 
make oat growing again profitable. 

Let me conclude by trying to draw a picture of the changes in farming 
and in rural life that would be both desirable and possible in a world 
where the principle of a fair price was permanently established, and where 
agriculturists would fairly share the benefits from any future improvement 
in their efficiency as producers. I cannot, as I have already said, foresee 
any large increase in the numbers of people employed on British farms, 
or any large schemes of land reclamation which would add materially 
to our agricultural area. ‘These things can be achieved only at a real 
and considerable cost to the consumer, for they would imply a displace- 
ment of cheap production overseas by relatively dear production at home. 

What one can foresee is the rapid spread of a variety of measures of 
reorganisation calculated to increase the output per unit of labour. 
Seventy years ago the rent of the land was usually, and by far, the largest 
single item of the farmer’s expenditure ; ordinary farm land might pay 
a rent of three pounds an acre, while wages were ten shillings a week ; 
the landlord’s share of the net output might easily be twice that of labour. 
Hence the chief objective in farming was economy of land—high output 
_ per acre. Now that land is abundant and rent a comparatively small 

_ fraction of expenditure, the chief object must be economy of labour. 

There is indeed already a growing tendency to fit the land and the 
capital to the man rather than the man and capital to the land. This is 
implied in the use of the word unit, which is becoming so common, for 
example, in relation to pig, dairy and poultry enterprises. The unit is 
a department designed with the primary end of providing the optimum 
amount of work for a whole-time skilled specialist, with or without a 
limited amount of less skilled or partially trained labour. The man 
is equipped with a labour-saving device whenever this will make possible 
an economic increase in his output, and his functions become, to an 
ever-increasing extent, mental in character. 

This kind of change must obviously tend towards an increase in the 
size of individual departments on the farm—one thinks, for example, of 
one-man units of 300 pigs or 2,000 head of poultry, or of two-men dairy 
units of sixty or seventy cows—and hence it must often imply either an 
increase in the size of the farm or, alternatively, some degree of simplifi- 
cation and specialisation of its organisation. ‘This simplification, together 
with a growing tendency to delegate management to heads of departments, 
may be expected to reduce management as well as labour costs. Moreover 
a great part of the function of management in the past has been marketing, 
and the development of the marketing schemes may be expected greatly 
to reduce this side of the work. A ‘ clean-boot’ farmer on three or 


232 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 


four hundred acres of ordinary land will no longer be able to justify 
his existence. 

The carrying out of this kind of reorganisation demands a new standard 
both of general and of technical education in the farm worker. Indeed, 
the provision of short courses of instruction for specialist workers—in 
pig-keeping, milk production, tractor work and the like—is an urgent 
need. The cash value of skill and knowledge must grow with the 
increasing responsibility of the worker. 

I well know that the whole idea of ‘ factory farming ’—the growth 
of machinery and the specialisation of labour—is repugnant to many 
people. The variety of occupations on the one-man mixed farm, the 
pride of individual ownership and so forth are held to compensate for 
unconscionable hours of labour and small returns. But I have never 
been able to see that inhuman personal relationships need necessarily 
go with specialised occupations, short hours and high wages. Indeed 
I believe that, on the factory farm, it is possible to cultivate a kind of 
team spirit which is essentially a finer thing than the rather narrow 
independence of the small-holder. In any case, the greatest obstacles to 
a richer and fuller country life have always been poverty and lack of 
leisure. If we can remove these obstacles we shall have done much. 


REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, 
Etc. 


SEISMOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS. 


Thirty-ninth Report of Committee (Dr. F. J. W. WuippLe, Chairman; 
Mr. J. J. SHaw, C.B.E., Secretary ; Prof. P. G. H. BosweELt, O.B.E., 
F.R.S., Dr. C. VERNON Boys, F.R.S., Sir F. W. Dyson, K.B.E., 
F.R.S., Dr. Witrrep Hatt, Dr. H. Jerrreys, F.R.S., Sir H. Lams, 
F.R.S., Mr. A. W. Lee, Prof. H. M. MacponaLp, F.R.S., Prof. E. 
A. Ming, M.B.E., F.R.S., Mr. R. D. OLpHam, F.R.S., Prof. H. H. 
PiaskeETT, Prof. H. C. Plummer, F.R.S., Prof. A. O. RANKINE, O.B.E., 
F.R.S., Rev. J. P. Rowranp, S.J., Mr. D. H. Sapier, Prof. R. A. 
Sampson, F.R.S., Mr. F. J. Scrasz, Dr. H. Suaw, Sir FRANK E. 
SmiTH, K.C.B., C.B.E., Sec.R.S., Dr. R. STONELEY, Mr. E. TiLtort- 
SON, Sir G. T. Waxker, C.S.I., F.R.S.). 


Organisation —The first care of this Committee has for many years been 
the maintenance of the International Seismological Summary, and it was 
with great satisfaction that the Committee learned in the autumn of 1933 
that the University of Oxford had agreed to house and pay part of the 
operating expenses of the I.S.S. for such time as the remaining costs of 
the Summary were met from sources outside the University. The Com- 
mittee decided that the balance in the general account on June 30, 1933, 
should be transferred to the Observatory. A sum of £75 received under 
the terms of the will of the late Dr. J. Crombie was transferred at the same 
time. Further, the grant of £100 from the Caird Fund of the British 
Association was allotted to the Observatory. 

The financial arrangements for the International Seismological Summary 
were the subject of much discussion at the Lisbon meeting of the Seismo- 
logical Association of the International Union for Geodesy and Geophysics. 
A special grant equivalent to £150 was made by the Association and the 
need for additional assistance was brought to the notice of the Union. 
The Bureau of the Union is now fully aware of the situation and it is hoped 
will be able to give liberal assistance. To provide, however, for the work 
of the next two years up to the next meeting of the Union the help of the 
British Association is required. The Committee is allotting £100 from the 
Gray-Milne Fund and submits an application for a like sum from the 
Association, i.e., for grants of £50 for two years. 

In 1933 the honorary degree of M.A. was conferred by the University 
of Oxford on Miss E. F. Bellamy in recognition of her valuable services to 
Astronomy and Seismology. Congratulations will be offered by seismo- 
logists in all parts of the world, who have good reason to appreciate the 
efficiency of the staff of the University Observatory. 

Travel times of earthquake waves—The work summarised by Messrs. 
Jeffreys and Bullen in the last Report on the travel times of earthquake 
Waves was communicated by Dr. Jeffreys to the International Seismological 
Association and will be published shortly by the Association, part of the 

K 


234 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 


cost being borne by this Committee. At the request of Prof. Plaskett the 
Committee considered the question what tables should be used in the 
International Summary for 1930 and subsequent years and recommended 
the adoption of the new Jeffreys-Bullen Tables. It is anticipated. that the 
utility of the Summary will be greatly increased, not only by higher accuracy 
in the determination of epicentres but also by the facilities for comparing 
the times of passage of waves from an individual earthquake with the 
standard times. 

It may be recalled that Prof. Turner regarded the accumulation of material 
for providing standard tables as one of the objects of the Summary and that 
in his last Presidential Address to the International Seismological Associa- 
tion he expressed the hope that new tables would be available for use in 
the 1930 Summary. 

Mr. J. S. Hughes has kindly prepared the following statement as to the 
present state of work on the Summary. 

International Seismological Summary.—The preparation of the third 
quarter of 1930 is well in hand. Delay has been inevitable owing to the 
necessity of awaiting the decision of the Seismology section of the Inter- 
national Geophysical and Geodetic Union at Lisbon, and from other 
causes, but at present the work is going forward at a satisfactory rate, in 
spite of the increasing number of observing stations now sending to Oxford. 

Beginning with 1930, certain modifications have been introduced. ‘The 
arrangement of the printing has been slightly altered in the interest of 
clarity and the method of making determinations has been revised so as to 
depend almost entirely on the P phases when these are available. ‘Through- 
out the work the new tables by Dr. Jeffreys and Mr. Bullen have been used. 
These are a revised form of Dr. Jeffreys’s earlier work, ‘ Tables of the 
Times of Transmission of the P and S waves of Earthquakes,’ 1932. 

The Introduction to the Summary for the year 1930 contains an account 
of the alterations made and also the Bullen-Jeffreys travel-times for all 
the phases tabulated. These are P, S, PP, SS, PcP, ScS, PS, PKP, PKS, 
SKS, PKP,, SKKS, SKSP. Residuals for the phases P, PcP, PKP, 
PKP, and S, ScS, SKS, SKKS may now appear in the columns headed 
‘ O—C’ (observed minus calculated) instead of just P, PKP and S, SKS. 

The Constants of Seismological Observatories. As a preliminary to the 
work on the travel times of seismic waves Mr. K. E. Bullen calculated the 
constants of about 350 seismological observatories. ‘These constants are 
used as Cartesian co-ordinates but are actually the direction cosines of the 
vertical at each point. The table of constants has been published by the 
British Association during the year. , 

The importance of the distinction between Cartesian Co-ordinates and 
direction cosines has recently been emphasised by the discussion in a 
paper by B. Gutenburg and C. F. Richter of the “ Advantages of using 
geocentric latitude in calculating distances.’ It may be that the time is 
approaching when the spheroidal form of the earth will have to be taken 
into account in estimating all the distances used in detailed seismological 
investigations. 

Seismographs—The Milne-Shaw seismographs belonging to the British 
Association have remained in operation at Oxford, Edinburgh, Perth (West 
Australia) and Cape ‘Town. 

The seismograph which had been in operation at the Royal Observatory, 
Cape Town, was transferred in 1931 to the University a few miles away, 
the new site being much less subject to change of level and to disturbance 
by wind. Prof. Alexander Brown, who had accepted the custody of this 
instrument was impressed by the need for records of both horizontal com- 


SEISMOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS 235 


ponents of the earth’s motion, and during his visit to England in the autumn 
of 1933 it was arranged that, in view of the importance of the station, a 
second seismograph should be provided by the Committee. This instru- 
ment was supplied in May of this year. 

The attention of the Committee has been called to the desirability of a 
seismograph record in the island of Jersey, which is situated in a region 
where small earthquakes have been comparatively frequent in recent years. 
It was hoped that arrangements could be made for the installation at St. 
Louis Observatory, Jersey, of a Mainka Seismograph placed at the disposal 
of the Committee by Dr. Crombie’s executors, but this has not proved 
practicable. The Committee is indebted, however, to the governing body 
of St. Louis Observatory, Jersey, for the consideration given to this matter. 

The Science Museum at South Kensington possesses an excellent collection 
of seismographs. A valuable addition to the collection is to be made shortly, 
a seismograph which will be kept in operation in view of the public. ‘The 
records of this instrument will be on smoked paper, and there will be an 
alarm bell to give audible warning when an earthquake is being recorded. 
Mr. J. J. Shaw is providing this installation and expects to have it in 
operation during the autumn. 

At Kew Observatory, where three Galitzin seismographs are in operation, 
an additional instrument has been taken into use. ‘This is a reproduction of 
the Wood-Anderson torsion seismograph which has proved of great value 
in America for the study of near earthquakes. The special feature of this 
seismograph is the minute moving system. It was suggested in 1913 by 
G. W. Walker that a seismograph might be made to go in atumbler. This 
ideal has almost been reached in the Wood-Anderson seismograph ; the 
base of the case containing the moving system is only 5 ins. square and the 
height 124 ins. The efficiency of the instrument may be judged by the 
fact that it recorded, on January 1, 1934, an earthquake near Biarritz which 
was not shown on the Galitzin records. 

The Great Earthquake in India——Amongst the earthquakes of the year, 
by far the most important is the one which occurred on January 15, 1934, 
in the north of India near the frontier between the Province of Bihar and 
the Native State of Nepal. To judge by the distance at which this earth- 
quake was felt, about 1,000 miles, it was one of the greatest on record. In 
the central area about 140 miles long and 90 miles wide, twelve towns with 
populations from 10,000 to 60,000 were completely wrecked, and there 
was great destruction of property over an area as large as Great Britain. 
In the circumstances it is remarkable that the estimated death roll in 
Bihar did not much exceed 7,000. This is attributed to the majority of 
the population living in low-roofed mud huts which, even when they collapsed, 
caused little injury. Large tracts of agricultural land were ruined by the 
coarse sand ejected from fissures and blowholes in the surface. 

The following graphic account of his experiences during the earthquake 
was written by Dr. V. D. Wyborn at Ord, 25 miles south of Darjeeling : 

“ About 2.30 P.M. a sudden trembling of the ground started, accompanied 
by a rumble as of distant thunder. Trembling was steady for about 3 
minutes. Character of a rhythmic vibration about 2 beats per second (very 
much resembling that felt in a motor launch having a very vibratory or 
loose bearing petrol engine). The brick and steel reinforced house shook 
and rocked visibly and appeared as if it would collapse. Bottles shook and 
fell. Walls cracked and plaster fell. Walls collapsed in other places. 
Children were thrown off their feet. My sensation in the open garden was 
that of giddiness, sickness and insecure foothold as on board ship, with a 
vibratory motion from the ground as well as a heaving or wave up and 


236 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 


down feeling. After 3 minutes of this, gradual subsidence occurred for 
24 to 1 minute, and then calm. (A very slight tremor occurred again at 
about 3.35 P.M., duration about to secs. or less.) One expected the earth 
to give way, but no cracks are visible. ‘The lines of the building resembled 
a jerky shaking outline. The house appeared to sway and rattle itself to 
pieces the whole time. (I liken it to a rough-haired dog shaking itself.) 
People say they remember nothing like it. Several brick buildings a mile 
and more away are damaged also. 

‘The rumbling appeared to come from south-west but may have been 
house noises or the galvanised iron roof and only apparent the first half 
minute I was in the house. I watched proceedings a safe distance out of 
doors. One felt giddy 15 minutes afterwards and there may have been a 
gentle wave motion of the earth after the 3 minute tremor.’ 

British Earthquakes—There was no considerable earthquake in the 
British Isles during the year, but small disturbances, some of which may 
have been due to the collapse of old workings in mines, were reported by 
the newspapers as occurring on the following dates : 


1933, October 28. Nottingham. 

1934, February 10. Roslin, near Edinburgh. 

1934, March 17. Coasts of the Bristol Channel. 
1934, April 23. Elvington, near Dover. 

1934, June 8. Dufftown, Banffshire. 

1934, August 16. Dingwall and Cromarty. 


Earthquake Prediction. 


It has always been the desire of seismologists to be able to give warning 
of earthquakes. A letter from the Director of the Observatory at Manila, 
communicated by Mr. F. Hope-Jones, suggests a new line of research. 
The Observatory has been equipped with a synchronome ‘ Shortt’ Free 
Pendulum, of the same construction as the Standard Siderial Pendulum at 
Greenwich. This type of pendulum has a variation of not more than 
about three seconds per annum. The Director’s letter contains the 
following passage : 

‘ Another interesting feature which I have noticed in your Synchronome 
(and also to a slight extent in the two Rieflers which I have) is the sensi- 
bility to a tilt in the land. On more than ten occasions some three or four 
days before a local earthquake the rate of the clock has changed very abruptly, 
varying as much as a tenth of a second within twenty-four hours, and then 
suddenly assuming a very slight rate which it keeps until the ’quake comes. 
After the ’quake the clock generally resumes its old rate, or one very near 
to it. ‘There may be other explanations for this strange performance, but 
it may also prove to be a helpful hint in the apparently impossible solution 
of a method of predicting earthquakes of tectonic origin.’ 

Periodicity of Earthquakes —The question whether earthquakes are more 
likely when the moon is in one position or another is frequently asked. 
An answer is to be found in a paper by Dr. C. Davison in the Philosophical 
Magazine for April 1934, ‘The Lunar Periodicity of Earthquakes.’ The 
earthquakes included in a number of catalogues have been investigated. 
The frequency of earthquakes tends in some cases to a maximum at the 
times of new and full moon but in other cases to a minimum. In the 
former category are such earthquakes in Japan as have their foci under the 
land, but Japanese earthquakes with foci under the sea are least frequent at 

“new and full moon, as are the volcanic earthquakes of Honolulu. In the 
catalogues including earthquakes in all localities the minimum frequency is 


MATHEMATICAL TABLES 237 


at new and full moon. ‘This may be because the majority of world-shaking 
earthquakes have epicentres under the oceans. The figures involved in 
these comparisons are such as to imply that the chance of an earthquake in 
a favourable part of the month is of the order 25 per cent. greater than the 
chance in an unfavourable part. Since the publication of his paper Dr. 
Davison has made the remarkable discovery that the focal depth of earth- 
quakes in Japan is subject to a fortnightly period, the maximum depth 
occurring at the times of new and full moon. 

Accounts.—The General Account of the Committee has been closed, the 
balance having been transferred to the University Observatory, Oxford. 
The grant of £100 from the Caird Fund was allotted to the Observatory. 

The income of the Gray-Milne Fund has not recovered, the dividends 
due from the Canadian Pacific Railway having failed again. ‘The principal 
call on the fund was on account of the new seismograph for Cape Town. 


Gray-Milne Trust Account. 


dhs Se Senne ae Sheed 
Brought forward . - 374 17. 9 Miss Bellamy See 
Trust Income . - 46 14 10 rium) . 20°70o 
Bank Interest f : 1 17 o Milne Library . Bur AeeG 
Fire Insurance ; O15 0 
Printing ‘ Constants ’ 7a OMG 
Seismograph . : 80 © Oo 
Legal Expenses FLO 
Secretarial Expenses . Oo II o 
Carried forward 2G 4 LOT 
£423 9 7 £423 9 7 


Reappointment.—The Committee asks for reappointment, for the con- 
firmation of the grant of £100 from the Caird Fund, and for a special grant of 
£50 for the maintenance of the International Seismological Summary. 


MATHEMATICAL TABLES. 


Report of Committee on Calculation of Mathematical Tables (Prof. E. H. 
NEVILLE, Chairman; Prof. A. LopcGe, Vice-Chairman; Dr. L. J. 
ComriE, Secretary; Dr. J. R. Arrey, Prof. R. A. FisHer, Dr. J. 
HENpeErSON, Dr. E. L. INce, Dr. J. O. IRwin, Dr. J. C. P. Mriter, 
Mr. F. Roppins, Mr. D. H. Sapter, Dr. A. J. THompson, Dr. J. F. 
Tocuer and Dr. J. WisHarrT). 


General activity —Seven meetings of the Committee have been held in 
London. 

Dr. E. S. Pearson, who found that he was unable, owing to pressure 
of other duties, to participate in the Committee’s activities, resigned in 
November. 

The grant of £100 has been expended as follows :— 


Calculations connected with the Bessel functions 
Yo; Y,, Thole Ko and K, . 3 : ‘ 3 - 95 © O 
Secretarial and miscellaneous expenses . - 2 a0 Bisel te 


238 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 


Cunningham Bequest—(a) The first volume printed under this Bequest, 
namely the Committee’s Volume III, containing Prof. L. E. Dickson’s 
Minimum Decompositions into Fifth Powers, was published in September 1933. 

(b) Volume IV, prepared by Dr. E. L. Ince and entitled Cycles of Reduced 
Ideals in Quadratic Fields, was published in August. 

(c) Volume V, containing the prime factors of all numbers from 1 to 
100,000, is now in the press, and should be available before the end of 1934. 

Since the publication of the last Report, it was learned that Prof. J. 
Peters, of Berlin, had completed in 1930 the manuscript of a table similar 
in all respects to the table that the Committee had undertaken. Prof. 
Peters: kindly offered to place his manuscript at the disposal of the 
Committee ; this offer was gratefully accepted. The table has thus been 
computed in triplicate. 

(d) The 6-register National machine was delivered in August 1933, and 
has proved to be the most powerful aid to table-making yet known. 

(e) The Brunsviga-Dupla, purchased in 1930, has been exchanged for a 
Brunsviga 20, of capacity 12 x II x 20. 

Bessel functions —The publication of these tables, in two volumes, is now 
assured. A grant of £50 was made by the Royal Society, and a. sum of {100 
was voted by the Council. Arrangements have been made with the 
Cambridge University Press for the subsidised publication of Volume VI, 
containing the four principal functions of order o and 1, namely 


(1) F(x) and F,(x) to 10 decimals for 
x = 0-000(0-001)16-000(0-01)25-00. 
(2) Y,(x) and Y,(x) to 8 decimals for x = 0-00(0-01)25-00. 
(3) My, No, My and N, to 8 decimals for 
x = 25-00(0-1)50-0(1)100(10)1000 
for use with the equations 
Fo(x) = My sin x + Ny cos x 
F(x) = N, sin x — VM, cos x 
Y,(x) = No sin x — M) cos x 
Y,(x) = —M, sin x — N, cos x 
(4) p(x) and I,(x) to 8 decimals for x = 0-000(0-001)5-000. 
(5) K,(x) and K,(x) to 8 decimals for x = 0-.00(0-01)5-00. 
(6) e*I,(x), e-*I,(x), e*Ko(x) and e*K,(x) to 8 decimals for 
Xx = 5-00(0-01)10-00(0-1)20-0. 
(7) Auxiliary functions for the interpolation of Y,(x), Yi(x), Ko(x) and 
K,(x) when «x is small, i.e. less than 0-50. 


The copy for this volume, which will contain about 300 pages, is practi- 
cally complete, and composition will be put in hand shortly. 

The second volume, for which much calculation remains to be done, will 
contain functions of fractional order and of order higher than 1, zeros of 
various functions, the Airy integral, the Kelvin functions ber, bei, ker, kei, 
and other allied functions. 

The issue of Nature for 1934 March 17 contained a historical account of 
the Committee’s activity since 1888 in the calculation of Bessel functions, 
and of the financial difficulties that have impeded publication. The 
article, after referring to the possibility of the Committee’s work merely 
resting in manuscript in a fire-proof safe, concludes ‘It ought to be sufficient, 
by directing attention to this possibility, to ensure that funds will be pro- 
vided to . . . make available the result of so many years of voluntary work 
on behalf of mathematical students and others.’ 


MATHEMATICAL TABLES—INLAND WATER SURVEY 239 


Airy integral——The calculation of this integral has been begun. The 
tabular values will be included in the second volume of Bessel functions. 

Confluent hypergeometric functions—11-decimal values of the functions 
M(«, 2,10) and N(«, 2, 10) for «=0-0( —o-.2)—11-0 have been computed by 
Dr. A. J. Thompson, and communicated to Dr. R. Stoneley. These 
functions are defined by 


o a(a+1) x2 a(a+r)(a+2) x% 
M(a, y,x*)=1 +-—%x% + + 
keep) y  yviy+r1)2! y(y+1)(y+2) 3! 
Raion) Beg |e I BITS -4) 
Nea, 7,2) =2x(Z Y ys ree (isla Geass § besa ste 


Sale of Volumes I-V.—Arrangements have been made with the Cambridge 
University Press to sell, on commission, the Committee’s Volumes I-V. 

Reappointment—The Committee desires reappointment, with a grant 
for general purposes of £100. 


INLAND WATER SURVEY. 


Second Report of Committee appointed to inquire into the position of Inland 
Water Survey in the British Isles and the possible organisation and con- 
trol of such a survey by central authority (Vice-Adml. Sir H. P. 
Douctas, K.C.B., C.M.G., Chairman; Lt.-Col. E. Goip, D.S.O., 
F.R.S., Vice-Chairman; Capt. W. N. McCuean, Secretary; Mr. 
E. G. Bituam, Dr. Brysson CUNNINGHAM, Prof. C. B. Fawcett, 
Dr. A. Fercuson, Dr. Ezer GriFFITHS, F.R.S., Mr. W. 'T. HaLcrow, 
Mr. T. Suirtey Hawkins, O.B.E., Mr. W. J. M. Menziss, Dr. A. 
Parker, Mr. D. Ronatp, Capt. J..C. A. RosEVEARE, Dr. BERNARD 
SmiTH, F.R.S., Mr. C. CLremesua Smitu, Mr. F. O. STANFORD, 
O.B.E., Brig. H. St. J. L. Wintersotuam, C.M.G., D.S.O., Capt. 
J. G. WitHycomse, Dr. 5S. W. WooLpRIDGE). 


THE Committee records with deep regret the death of Capt. J. G. Withy- 
combe, whose services on the Committee were of great value. 


I. This Committee was appointed after the meeting of the British Associa- 
tion held at York in September 1932, on the recommendations of Section A 
(Mathematical and Physical Sciences), Section E (Geography), and 
Section G (Engineering), and was re-appointed in October 1933, with the 
same terms of reference. 

On page 9 of the Committee’s first report, presented in September 1933, 
its conclusions and recommendations are set out as follows : 

“(i) That, with regard to the first part of the Committee’s reference, the 
position of Inland Water Survey in the British Isles is far from satisfactory, 
and that a systematic survey of the water resources of Great Britain is 
urgently required ; and, 

‘ (ii) That, with regard to the second part of the Committee’s reference, 
the survey, to be of maximum utility, should be conducted by a central 
organisation, preferably under a Government department, independent 
of any interest in the administration, control or use of water. 

“The Committee have given further consideration to steps by which the 
work of the survey could be most expeditiously begun. ‘They have formed 


240 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 


the opinion that it would not be feasible, in the first instance, under present 
conditions, to move for the immediate establishment of an organisation to 
be financed by public funds, but rather that a beginning should be made in 
a comparatively small way, financed by subscriptions from individuals and 
bodies interested, with the prospect of being ultimately incorporated in a 
Government department. 

‘With this in view the Committee have approached the Council of the 
Institution of Civil Engineers and have been gratified to learn that the 
Council were prepared, if they are so requested by the British Association, 
to appoint a committee to investigate the feasibility of carrying out the 
objects outlined in this Report on a self-supporting basis.’ 


II. In pursuance of these recommendations the British Association com- 
municated with the Institution of Civil Engineers, inviting them to carry 
the inquiry further. In response to this invitation the Institution appointed 
a committee ‘ to investigate the feasibility of carrying out on a self-supporting 
basis the objects outlined in the Report on Inland Water Survey.’ 


III. On June 8, 1934, this Committee was invited by the Committee of 
the Institution to co-operate in the formation of a small joint sub-Com- 
mittee, consisting of three members from this Committee and three members 
from the Institution of Civil Engineers Committee, with a view to advancing 
the inquiry. It was considered that this action would be of advantage and 
the invitation was accordingly accepted. 


IV. During the past year the Committee has reviewed the conclusions 
and recommendations contained in its first Report in the light of the improved 
financial position of the country and of the greater general interest in the 
subject as the result of the difficulties experienced during the exceptionally 
dry weather conditions. It was felt that the time was now opportune for 
the collection and correlation of data on inland water resources to be under- 
taken by some appropriate Government department, preferably one inde- 
pendent of any interest in the administrative control or use of water. ‘The 
Committee therefore took steps to bring the matter to the notice of the 
Government through the agency of the joint sub-Committee mentioned in 
para. III. above. 


V. In June 1934 a letter and memorandum, signed by the Presidents of 
the British Asscciation and Institution of Civil Engineers, were submitted 
to the Prime Minister, and on July 17 a deputation was received by the 
Minister of Health. A statement on the result of the deputation to the 
Government (together with acopy of the letter and memorandum) is included 
in the appended report of the joint sub-Committee to the two main Com- 
mittees. It will be noted that the Minister of Health stated that the sugges- 
tions put forward by the deputation would receive the most careful con- 
sideration of the Government. 


VI. The Committee has noted with satisfaction that the Committee of 
Scottish Health Services has, in its Interim Report, 1934,! on Water Supplies, 
recommended that : 

“(1) A technical survey of the water resources and supplies of Scotland 
should be undertaken at once. 

“(2) A comprehensive inquiry should be held into the whole question of 
water supplies with the object of securing a more economical and more 
effective use of resources.’ 

It is also satisfactory to note that during the past year progress has been 
made by a number of undertakings in the establishment of further and 
improved gauging stations. 


1 H.M. Stationery Office. 49/9999. 1934. Price 1d, 


—_—_ 


INLAND WATER SURVEY 241 


VII. The Committee recommends that, in order to continue its work 
with a view to achieving the objects outlined in the report of 1933, it be 
re-appointed for another year with a grant of £100. 

The Report of the joint sub-Committee is appended (A). 


A. 
INLAND WATER SURVEY. 


JomnT SusB-CoMMITTEE OF BRITISH ASSOCIATION AND INSTITUTION 
OF CiviL ENGINEERS COMMITTEES. 
July 25, 1934. 
Joint Committee's Report to Main Committees. 


Resulting from the meetings of the Institution of Civil Engineers Com- 
mittee on June 8 and of the Research Committee of the British Association 
on June 11, a joint sub-Committee was formed to discuss ‘ which Govern- 
ment department or departments should be approached in the matter, and 
the best method of approach.’ 

Mr. W. J. E. Binnie, Mr. T. E. Hawksley and Capt. W. N. McClean 
were appointed by the former Committee and Vice-Adml. Sir Percy Douglas, 
Dr. Brysson Cunningham and Mr. W. T.. Halcrow by the latter Committee. 

The Joint Committee held its first meeting on June 13; all members 
were present and Vice-Adml. Sir Percy Douglas was unanimously elected 
Chairman. 

It was agreed that the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research was 
the right department to approach, and the Committee recommended that a 
deputation wait on the Prime Minister with a Memorandum presenting the 
case for the organisation of Inland Water Survey under the auspices of the 
above-named department. 

The second meeting of the Joint Committee was held on Monday, June 18, 
and all members were present. 

The draft Memorandum prepared by Dr. Brysson Cunningham, at the 
request of the Committee, was considered, amended, and approved. 

The Memorandum was then submitted to Sir James Jeans, President of 
the British Association, and to Sir Henry Maybury, President of the Institu- 
tion of Civil Engineers ; the Committee requesting their consideration as 
to whether the Prime Minister should be invited to receive a deputation 
forthwith. 

The two Presidents agreed to present the Memorandum, a copy of which 
is attached together with the letter accompanying it. (See B, below.) 

The Deputation met Sir Hilton Young, Minister of Health, on July 17, 
and the official report which was given in The Times of July 18 reads as 
follows : 


“WATER RESOURCES 
‘SUGGESTED NATIONAL SURVEY. 


‘Sir Hilton Young, the Minister of Health, who was accompanied by 
representatives of the various Departments concerned, received a deputa- 
tion yesterday from the British Association and the Institution of Civil 
Engineers. 

“The deputation was introduced, in the unavoidable absence of Sir 
James Jeans, by Sir Henry Maybury, and there were present Sir Percy 
Douglas, Sir Richard Redmayne, Prof. P. G. H. Boswell, Capt. W. N. 
McClean, Dr. Jefftott, and Dr. O. J. R. Howarth. 


K 2 


242 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 


‘The purpose of the deputation was to invite the Government to give 
favourable consideration to the institution of a complete and systematic 
survey of the water resources of the country, a subject on which a Committee 
of the British Association has recently published a report. 

‘ The deputation suggested that the existing records both of surface water, 
including river run-off, and of underground supplies were very incomplete. 
They urged that systematic records comparable with those of rainfall were 
much to be desired, and that a national survey was necessary in order to 
obtain statistics of this nature. 

‘Sir Hilton Young, in reply, thanked the British Association and the 
Institution of Civil Engineers for the consideration which had been given 
to the matter and for the suggestions which had been made, and said that 
these suggestions would receive the most careful consideration of the Govern- 
ment. Sources of information were available through the Ministry of 
Health, the Geological Survey, and the Catchment Boards. It was for 
consideration whether the progress which was to be desired in the collection 
of statistics could not best be achieved by improving the existing means of 
gauging the flow of rivers and by improvements in the method of collecting 
and presenting returns.’ 


The joint sub-Committee await with interest the result of the Govern- 
ment’s careful consideration of the matter. 


Tue Rr. Hon. J. Ramsay Macponatp, P.C., M.P., F.R.S. 
Prime Minister, 
10 Downing Street, S.W. 1. June 23, 1934. 


‘Str,—We beg leave to submit herewith a memorandum on the subject 
of an Inland Water Survey, which is the outcome of the work of Committees 
of the British Association and the Institution of Civil Engineers during the 
past two years. In the belief that this is a matter of national urgency, we 
venture to ask whether you would be so good as to receive us and some of 
our colleagues as a deputation to discuss the matter further. 

We are, Sir, 
Your Obedient Servants, 
J. H. JEANs, 
President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. 
HENRY MAyBury, 
President of the Institution of Civil Engineers. 


To THE Ricnt Hon. J. Ramsay Macpona.p, P.C., M.P., F.R.S., 
Prime Minister. 


Memorandum on Inland Water Survey. 


Si1r,—The situation created by the present unprecedented shortage of 
water in the country and the emergency measures which have had to be 
taken in consequence impels us to lay before you a cognate matter of no less 
vital importance which has been a source of concern for many years past to 
responsible officials and those engaged in connection with water undertak- 


INLAND WATER SURVEY 243 


ings and all others interested in the flow of rivers and streams. This is the 
pressing need for a complete and systematic investigation of the water 
resources of the country carried out under auspices of an unquestionably 
impartial and disinterested character. 

The call for a national Inland Water Survey dates back for many years. 
It can be traced as far as the time of the eminent engineer Telford, who, in 
1834, prepared a report on the Means of Supplying the Metropolis with 
Pure Water. During the century which has elapsed since then, it has been 
repeated on numerous occasions in the proceedings of scientific and technical 
societies and in reports presented to the Government by various commis- 
sions of inquiry. Of late, it has become so widespread and insistent that 
in September 1932, at the instance of a number of engineers and scientists, 
the British Association appointed a representative committee of professional 
men and departmental officials to inquire into the whole matter and to 
consider the possible organisation and control of such a survey by central 
authority. 

This committee made a careful investigation extending over many months 
into all the available sources of information, and in the end drew up a Report 
which was presented to the British Association in September last. The 
Report, a copy of which is appended, sets out the urgent representations 
which have been made from time to time during the past fifty years for a 
thorough examination and an efficient control of the national water resources, 
in accordance with the practice of other leading countries, which it is shown 
have instituted and maintain organisations for investigating, conserving and 
allocating their own supplies. By way of exemplification, it is only necessary 
to quote the following brief but emphatic statement from the Final Report 
(1921), of the Water Power Resources Committee of the Board of Trade : 

“We find that the difficulty in fairly allocating the natural sources of 
water is becoming greater year by year in England and Wales, and the evidence 
we have heard proves beyond doubt the urgent necessity in the national 
interests of some measure of control of all water, both underground and 
surface, in order that the available supplies may be impartially reviewed and 
allocated, and may be made to suffice for all purposes in the future. In 
consequence of the increase of population, the improvement in conditions 
of life and the growing requirements of industry, the demand for water is 
steadily increasing, and the problem of meeting future needs is giving rise 
to anxiety in many parts of England and Wales.’ 

To this it may be added that the recently issued (1934) Report of the 
Committee on Scottish Health Services appointed by the Secretary of State 
for Scotland affirms, with equal conviction, cause for similar anxiety in 
' Scotland, and urges that ‘a technical survey of the water resources and 
supplies of Scotland should be undertaken at once.’ 

Justifiably impressed by the overwhelming weight of evidence, the British 
Association Committee came unanimously to the following conclusions : 


(1) That a systematic survey of the water resources of Great Britain is 
urgently required, and 

(2) That the Survey, in order to be of maximum utility, should be con- 
ducted by a central organisation, preferably under a Government 
department, independent of any interest in the administration, 
control or use of water. 


After consideration of various alternatives, it was decided to recommend 
that a beginning be made in a comparatively small way financed by sub- 
scriptions from individuals and bodies interested, with the prospect of being 
ultimately incorporated in a Government department. 


244 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 


Accordingly the British Association, having adopted the Committee’s 
Report, invited the Council of the Institution of Civil Engineers to take the 
matter up, and they, in turn, appointed a Committee for the purpose of 
ascertaining whether it was feasible to carry out a scheme on a self-supporting 
basis. In view of the adverse replies received with regard to finance as a 
result of an appeal to the Catchment Boards and other authorities for technical 
and financial support, this has been found to be impracticable. 

The experience of the present drought has brought home to the public 
mind the vital importance of conserving the national water resources. 
Both the British Association Committee and the Committee of the Institu- 
tion of Civil Engineers now feel not only that they have every justification 
for so doing, but that the time is eminently opportune and propitious for 
an appeal to the Government to take action and to set up an organisation 
to undertake a comprehensive inland water survey. 

We suggest that effect might be given to this recommendation through 
the agency of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research by the 
appointment of a special board, with a headquarters staff, to deal with the 
collection, collation and technical direction of water measurements and 
gaugings throughout the country. The records of water undertakings, 
river conservancies and catchment boards, as well as readings due to private 
enterprise, could be drawn upon for the supply of data, and further observa- 
tions and measurements made as may be found necessary. 

The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, comprising as it 
does such related branches of work as the Geological Survey and Water 
Pollution Research, seems to us particularly adapted for scientific investiga- 
tion of this kind, and we are greatly influenced by the consideration that it is 
entirely independent of interest in the use and control of water, a qualifica- 
tion which we hold to be of the highest importance. 

It is not necessary at this stage to discuss in detail the system of organisa- 
tion for the proposed department, but in outline it might consist of an 
unpaid board with a salaried staff. Voluntary assistance by competent 
persons might be available in various parts of the country, as in the case of 
the British Rainfall Organisation. The department would undertake the 
publication of records at a suitable charge which should materially assist 
towards the cost of the survey. 

Before the most effective use can be made of the country’s water resources 
it is imperative that the fullest information be available respecting the 
quantity and locality of supplies, and for this purpose a thorough and 
impartial survey is essential. 

We respectfully urge, therefore, that His Majesty’s Government will give 
our recommendation their immediate and favourable consideration, in view 
of the important national interests which are involved. 

We are, Sir, 
Your Obedient Servants, 
J. H. JEANs, 
President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. 


HENRY MAYBuRY, 
President of the Institution of Civil Engineers. 


At the Aberdeen Meeting, on the recommendation of Sections A 
(Mathematical and Physical Sciences), C (Geology), E (Geography), and 


ZOOLOGICAL RECORD 245 


G (Engineering), the following resolution was forwarded by the General 
Committee to the Council for consideration and, if desirable, for action : 


That the British Association awaits with great interest the result of the 
careful consideration which His Majesty’s Government has promised to 
give to the question of an Inland Water Survey, and trusts that the 
Government will be favourable to the establishment of an organised 
survey of the water resources of the country on a scientific basis. 


ZOOLOGICAL RECORD. 


Report of Committee appointed to co-operate with other Sections interested, 
and with the Zoological Society, for the purpose of obtaining support 
for the ‘Zoological Record’ (Sir SipNeEy. Harmer, K.B.E., F.R.S., 
Chairman; Dr. W. 'T. Caiman, F.R.S., Secretary; Prof. E. S. 
GoopricH, F.R.S., Prof. D. M. 5. Watson, F.R.S.). 


THE grant of £50 was paid over to the Zoological Society on June 2, 1934, 
as a contribution towards the cost of preparing and publishing Volume 
LXIX of the Zoological Record for 1932. ‘The statement of the ‘ Record 
Fund ’ given in the report of the Council of the Zoological Society for 1933 
shows that the balance in hand had again increased slightly, from 
£2,286 15s. 4d. to £2,317 18s. 2d. ‘The loss on Volume LXIX is given as 
£1,055 16s. 6d., against which has to be set £246 7s. 11d. received from 
sales of back volumes, leaving a net deficit of £809 8s. 7d. This is met by 
contributions of £500 from the Zoological Society, £200 from the Trustees 
of the British Museum, and smaller sums from other contributing societies. 
It is clear that the Zoological Record could not be carried on without such 
help, and it is, therefore, most important that the support of the British 
Association should be continued. The Committee accordingly asks for 
reappointment, with the renewal of the grant of £50. 


246 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 


HUMAN GEOGRAPHY OF TROPICAL AFRICA. 


Report of Committee appointed to inquire into the present state of knowledge 
of the Human Geography of Tropical Africa and to make recommenda- 
tions for furtherance and development (Prof. P. M. Roxsy, Chairman ; 
Prof. A. G. Ocitvis, O.B.E., Secretary; Mr. S. J. K. Baxer, 
Prof. C. B. Fawcett, Prof. H. J. FLeureE, Dr. A. GeppEs, Mr. E. B. 
Happon, Mr. R. H. Kinvic, Mr. J. McFariane, Col. M. N. 
MacLeop, D.S.O., M.C., Prof. J. L. Myres, F.B.A., Dr. R. A. 
PeLyaM, Mr. R. U. Sayce, Rev. E. W. Smitn). 


In the Report for 1932-33, which summarised the past activities of the 
Committee, it was pointed out that the Government of Northern Rhodesia 
had responded to the request for answers to the questionnaire in respect of 
most of the Districts of the Protectorate. Two further reports have been 
received, making a total of thirty, while only two are now outstanding. 

During the past year it has been decided that the Committee should 
undertake the compilation of a small volume based upon these reports and 
comprising an account of the Social Geography of Northern Rhodesia. 
Considerable progress has been made towards this end by the Secretary, 
and a forecast of part of the content of the work is indicated in the Presidential 
Address to Section E (Geography) for the present year. At the same time 
the Committee felt that the original reports themselves constitute valuable 
documents which should be preserved and be made available to facilitate 
other research work in the fields of geography and anthropology. ‘At its 
request, a special grant of £5 was made by the Council to enable the 
Committee to copy the originals by the photostat process on a reduced 
scale. But unfortunately this grant has been found to cover only half of 
the cost of copying. The Committee is therefore including a like sum in 
its present application, to complete the work. 

Contact has now been established with other bodies interested in its 
work and mentioned in its previous Report, and there is every prospect of 
close co-operation. 

The visit of Mr. S. J. K. Baker to East Africa has already borne some 
fruit by his publication of a paper interpreting the population map of 
Uganda (in the Uganda Journal, 1934) ; while Mr. Baker has also prepared 
a general population map of East Africa based upon all available material. 
The Committee has decided to approach the various Governments with a 
view to obtaining more detailed material for the compilation of population 
density maps of all the British territories. 

In the past year the paper by Messrs. E. A. Leakey and N. V. Rounce 
on the Kasulu District of Tanganyika has been published in Geography 
(1933). 

The Committee has spent £3 6s. 2d. of its grant of £5, while a profit 
from sales of the pamphlet amounting to £1 5s. 3d. has been handed to the 
General Treasurer. 

The Committee asks for reappointment with the addition of Mr. W. 
Fitzgerald, and applies for a grant of £25 for the following purposes : (a) to 
complete the photostat copying of the Northern Rhodesia reports ; (6) to 
cover expenses to be incurred in preparation of the work on the Social 
Geography of Northern Rhodesia with a view to publication ; (c) for the 
purchase and distribution of separate copies of articles communicated to 
societies for publication ; and (d) for secretarial expenses during 1934-35. 


: 


EARTH PRESSURES 247 


EARTH PRESSURES. 


Ninth Interim Report of Committee on Earth Pressures (Mr. F. E, 
WENTWORTH-SHIELDS, O.B.E., Chairman; Dr. J. S. Owens, Secre- 
tary; Prof. G. Coox, Mr. T. E. N. Farcuer, Prof. A. R. Futton, 
Prof. F. C. Lea, Prof. R. V. SOUTHWELL, F.R.S., Dr. R. E. STRADLING, 
Dr. W. N. Tuomas, Mr. E. G. WaLksr, Mr. J. S.. WiLson). 


SINCE their last report, the Committee have learnt with deep regret that, 
owing to serious illness, Prof. Jenkin has been obliged to abandon the work 
in which he and they have been so keenly interested. 

The Committee would like to place on record their very high apprecia- 
tion of the great value and importance of Prof. Jenkin’s contribution ‘to 
the solution of earth pressure problems. 

The Committee have received a report from Prof. Jenkin, in which he 
summarises his general conclusions at the stage when he was obliged to 
discontinue his researches. He also emphasises the practical importance 
of the subject, and the desirability of completing the investigation. The 
report is attached. 

The Committee have also before them a report from the Research 
Station, written by Mr. D. B. Smith, B.A., which is an account of his 
collaboration with Prof. Jenkin on the experimental work on Kaolin, which 
has been carried out at the Research Station since 1932. 

This work is not complete, but the Committee hope it will be published, 
either by the Association or elsewhere, because it contains very valuable 


_ information and also because it will give most useful guidance to future 


investigators. 

Although, if Prof. Jenkin had been able to continue his work, he would 
doubtless have made some further experiments on these lines, he has 
expressed the view that this particular field of investigation will not yield 
much further result. 

Nevertheless, Dr. Stradling is anxious that the Committee should continue 
to keep in touch with the work connected with earth pressures which is 
being carried out at Garston. 

The Committee too are anxious to do so, because they realise that this 
work will assist the solution of those earth pressure problems which are its 
chief interest. 

They therefore ask to be reappointed. 


THe MECHANICS OF GRANULAR MATERIAL 


BY 
C. F. JENKIN, C.B.E., F.R.S. 


Preface. 


The writer has been working at the theory of the mechanics of granular 
material for many years ; his researches have now been brought to an end 
by failing health. This paper summarises the general conclusions at which 
he has arrived, and may be of some use to those who follow ; it does not 
pretend to be a scientific paper, for no proofs of the statements it contains 
are given. 


248 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 


Introduction. 


So far as the writer is aware there has never been any thorough investiga- 
tion into the mechanics of granular material. The importance of the 
subject may be indicated by giving a list of some of the subjects for which 
a theory of the mechanics of granular material is wanted. 


1. Foundations (bearing pressures of soil). 

2. Retaining walls, dock walls, etc. (horizontal earth pressures). 
3. Earthworks (railway cuttings and embankments). 

4. Landslides and their prevention. 

(Items 1-4 have been entered without qualia tee since clay 
and other cohesive soils have now been shown to be granular 
materials (see p. 249).) 

5. Cement, mortar and concrete (grading, ramming and measuring 
workability). 

6. Roads (foundations, ballast, ramming and rolling both foundations and 
concrete and surface material). 

7. Silos, bins and hoppers for storing grain, coal, road-metal, etc. Design 
of the buildings and design of the valves and chutes for controlling 
the outflow. 


Dry Granular Material. 


The two physical properties of granular material on which their remark- 
able mechanical properties mainly depend are their compactability and 
dilatancy. 

Compactability denotes the most widely known property of granular 
material, namely, that its specific volume depends on the closeness of the 
packing of the grains. How to produce closest packing is unknown, and 
the primitive methods of ramming and shaking! are still used, though - 
anyone who has experimented with them knows how uncertain their results 
are. Specific volume and closeness of packing are often measured by the 
‘ percentage of voids,’ the term ‘ void ’ being used to denote the spaces not 
occupied by the solid grains; the spaces are still called ‘ voids’ when 
partly or completely filled with water. 

Dilatancy denotes the converse property of all granular material (except 
when very loosely packed) of expanding in volume when its shape is changed, 
i.e. when it undergoes shear strain. 

Dilatancy has been discussed by the writer in his paper on ‘ The Pressure 
Exerted by Granular Material,’ Proceedings Royal Society, vol. 131, 1931, 
p. 53. Dilatancy causes granular materials to move in jerks instead of 
uniformly ; a familiar example is the alternate building up and collapse 
of the cone of sand in the bottom of an hour-glass. The cyclic movement 
of sand slipping down against a retaining wall is described in the writer’s 
paper on ‘ The Pressure on Retaining Walls,’ Proceedings Institution of Civil 
Engineers, vol. 234, 1931-32, Part 2, p. 103. This cyclic motion provided 
the clue to the theory of pressures on retaining walls given in that paper, 
which the writer believes to be the first paper to take account of the actual 
behaviour of granular material. 

The importance of dilatancy has been further emphasised by the writer’s 
recent discovery that clay exhibits this phenomenon. He has been working 
for the past eighteen months exclusively on the mechanics of plastic China 
clay and has tested it in compression, tension, simple shear, shear plus 
end compression, and in compression plus hydraulic pressure, besides 


1 Cf. ‘Good measure, pressed down, and shaken together’ (St. Luke vi. 38). 


EARTH PRESSURES 249 


making many special tests. All these tests indicate that China clay behaves 
as avery fine wet granular material (for definition, see p. 250) ; that is tosay, 
exhibits compactability and dilatancy and cohesion due to the water content. 
As dry, wet and moist sand (as defined later) all exhibit the same phenomena, 
it is probable that all soils exhibit the fundamental properties of granular 
materials. 


Cohesive Granular Material. 


The cohesive materials here discussed are only the granular materials 
rendered cohesive by the presence of water or other liquid; all soils, 
including clay, except when baked dry, come under this definition, also 
freshly mixed cement, mortar, and probably concrete and plaster, before 
they set. Tar-macadam and such road materials are included. 

Just as the old theories of the mechanics of dry granular material, such 
as Rankine’s, are necessarily imperfect because they neglect the effects of 
compactability and dilatation, so the old theories of cohesive granular material, 
arrived at by endowing such dry granular material with a shear strength, ' 
are also imperfect and may lead to very erroneous results. The writer 
has come to the conclusion that there are certainly two (possibly more) 
different types of cohesive granular material of common occurrence which 
possess quite different properties ; they may be called : 


1. Moist granular material, and 
2. Wet granular material. 


1. Moist Granular Materials —The common example of this type is damp 
(not saturated) sand. It has been much studied in agricultural research. 
Each grain is wet and where they touch a little disc of water forms, bounded 
by an annular meniscus. ‘The surface tension on this meniscus exerts 
a small force, drawing the grains together. ‘The magnitude of the forces 
and their dependence on the size of the grain and the amount of water is 
discussed in Fisher’s papers, ‘On the Capillary Forces in an Ideal Soil’ 
(Fournal Agricultural Science, 1926, pp. 492-503 ; 1928, pp. 406-410). The 
“voids ’"—i.e. spaces between the grains—are filled partly by air and partly 
by water. Ifthe quantity of water is sufficient to fill the voids, thus excluding 
air, the meniscuses disappear and the conditions entirely change. If the 
water dries up the meniscuses disappear and the conditions change to those 
of ordinary dry granular material, except when the material sets solid, which 
is notably the case when there is very fine granular material present—i.e. 
colloidal material—which ‘ glues ’ the grains together. 

Compactability —Moist granular material is compactable, like dry granular 
material. During compaction the percentage of voids decreases and more 
points of contact arise, so that the cohesive forces change. As the packing 
gets still closer a state may be reached when the voids are entirely filled 
with water, and cohesion will disappear. ‘The material then ceases to be 
moist granular material. 

Dilatancy.—Moist granular material exhibits dilatancy just as dry granular 
material does. During dilatation the number of meniscuses is reduced and 
the cohesive forces change. Saturated granular material may be converted 
into moist material by dilatation, the free water being sucked into the voids, 
followed by air. This phenomenon was described by Osborne Reynolds 
in his original paper.” 

An admirable material for experiments on this type of granular material 
may be made by stirring a few drops of olive oil into a beaker-full of the 
minute spherical beads known as ‘ glistening dew ’ (vide Proceedings Royal 


2 Videvol. 2 of Osborne Reynolds’ Scientific Papers, Cambridge University Press. 


250 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 


Society, loc. cit.). The oil quickly coats every bead and provides the 
minute discs and meniscuses at every point of contact. Oil is preferable 
to water, which dries up too quickly. By varying the size of the beads 
and the nature of the liquid the properties can be varied. "The writer has 
experimented with this material, but has made very few mechanical tests 
on it. ‘The mechanical properties of moist granular material await 
investigation. 

2. Wet Granular Material_—Only extremely fine granular materials form 
stable masses when saturated with water, and it is only with these that we 
are here concerned. Saturated gravel or sand (except the finest) slumps 
down and the water drains off ; we are not concerned with such substances. 
Coarse granular material under water behaves like dry material (see the 
writer’s Institution of Civil Engineers paper, Joc. cit.). 

Very fine granular material, such as China clay powder, when stirred up 
with water only settles very slowly. If the sediment is removed from the 
water, more water drains off, but the mass remains saturated throughout. 
If the sediment is put into a filter press more water may be extruded, and 
the material remaining is a more or less plastic mass held together by the 
negative water pressure or ‘ suction’ of the water in the ‘ voids. It 
possesses resistance to deformation (shear strength), which is due to the 
friction between the grains held together by the suction.? The suction or 
negative water pressure would draw in air but for the layer of water on the 
surface of the mass ; the suction draws this surface layer of water into each 
space between the surface grains, forming innumerable minute meniscuses 
which support the suction. 

Compactability—Wet granular material, as defined above, is almost 
incompressible, since it is made up of solids and water ; but if the water is 
allowed to escape (as, for instance, in a filter press), it is just as compactable 
as dry granular material, and any type of ‘ working,’ as before, facilitates 
the packing of the grains. A slight alternating torsion produced by rotating 
the piston of the press backwards and forwards through a small angle is 
effective, but how to produce the closest packing’ is not known. The 
unwanted extrusion of water from clay due to unexpected compaction is 
liable to interfere with all tests or methods of preparing test-pieces which 
are carried out in closed vessels. ‘The sudden appearance of drops of water 
oozing out through the joints of the apparatus is a most familiar sight, and 
sets a limit to the range of many tests. Extrusion of water from a free 
surface never takes place. 

The permeability of ultra fine-grained material is very small, so that the 
water can only escape slowly, and time is required for compaction. 

Dilatancy occurs in wet granular material, as defined above, just as in dry 
granular material, but its results are different because the volume of wet 
material cannot expand (the minute elastic expansion and the minute 
expansion permitted by the increased depth of the surface meniscuses may 
be. neglected at present). 

When wet granular material is sheared the incipient dilatation causes a 
rapid rise in the suction. The rise in the suction involves an increasing 
compressive stress which has two effects : firstly, it increases the friction 
between the grains and consequently the resistance to shear ; secondly, it 
begins to compact the mass. ‘The combined result of the dilatation and 
this compaction is that the volume remains almost constant while the suction 
and shear strength rise. This action continues till one or other of two 4 

3 Molecular forces probably also have an appreciable effect. 


4 A third condition appears to limit the strain in tensile tests on clay, but 
too few tests have been made to determine what happens with certainty, 


EARTH PRESSURES 251 


conditions supervenes : (i) either the suction reaches the maximum value 
which the surface meniscuses can bear, in which case they break and air 
enters the mass ; as the shear strength can get no greater the mass fractures, 
the air enters the plane of fracture and the break looks like a break in stone ; 
or (ii) the dilatation reaches its full value, the suction ceases to rise and the 
strength also ceases to increase ; the mass then yields freely in shear ; it is 
not broken intwo. Both types of failure have been produced experimentally 
in compression test-pieces ; the first is typical of non-plastic materials and 
the second of plastic materials, such as clay. 

At first sight the conception of simultaneous dilatation and compaction 
may appear paradoxical and unnecessary, but further consideration leads to 
the conclusion that it is the obvious way of accounting for the observed 
facts that the suction rises and the strength increases while the volumes 
cannot change. An interesting comparison may be made with the experi- 
ment quoted on p. 54 of the author’s Royal Society paper (Joc. cit.), in which 
an attempt was made to shear dry sand in a closed vessel; dilatation 
prevented any motion till the sand crushed under a very large stress (the 
sand in that experiment had been closely packed so that further compaction— 
except by crushing—was impossible). 

This brief outline of what happens when wet granular material is sheared 
leaves out of account many factors which probably play important parts. 
The shape of the grains, and possibly their mechanical deformation, is 
believed to be important in determining the plasticity of clay. Again, the 
grains in clay are so small that forces which may be called molecular or 
electric must play an important part. What the relative importance of the 
different factors may be has not yet been determined ; all that the writer 
claims is that China clay has been proved to exhibit compactability and 
dilatancy and must be classed as a wet granular material, whatever other 
properties it may have. The fact that China clay turned out to exhibit 
dilatancy, contrary to expectation, was the reason that the whole series of 
researches just completed at the Building Research Station turned ‘out to 
be inconclusive. 


Conclusion. 


Now that the finest ground sand and the much finer China clay have 
been ‘proved to exhibit compactability and dilatancy the writer has no 
longer any doubt that cements, plasters, mortars and concretes will all be 
found to exhibit the characteristic properties of granular materials, and 
that when mixed with water they will be found to belong to the classes of 
moist or wet granular materials as defined above. 


It would be difficult to name any fundamental research that has such a 
close connection with buildings and roads as the investigation of the 
mechanics of granular material. The writer hopes that the work may be 
successfully completed at the Building Research Station. 


252 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 


STRESSES IN OVERSTRAINED MATERIALS. 


Interim Report of Committee on Stresses in Overstrained Materials (Sir 
Henry Fow ter, K.B.E., Chairman ; Dr. J. G. Docuerty, Secretary ; 
Prof. G. Cook, Prof. B. P. Haicu, Mr. J. S. Witson). 


THE Committee finds that the programme of investigation outlined in 
previous reports has proceeded more slowly than was anticipated, and no 
extended report is possible this year. Prof. Cook has published a paper 
on ‘ The Stresses in Thick-walled Cylinders of Mild Steel overstrained 
by Internal Pressure ’ in the Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical 
Engineers, and Prof. Haigh is presenting to Section G a paper recom- 
mending the more general specification and use in design of the Lower 
Yield Point of mild steel, which bears directly on the work of the Com- 
mittee. This is not put forward as a report, but will be referred to when, 
as is hoped, the Committee presents a full report next year. 
The Committee asks to be reappointed for another year. 


THE REDUCTION OF NOISE. 


Report of Committee, with terms of reference stated below (Sir HENRY 
Fow.er, K.B.E., Chairman; Wing-Commander T, R. Cave- 
BRowWNE-CaveE, C.B.E., Secretary; Mr. R. S. Capon, Dr. A. H. 
Davis, Prof. G. W. O. Hows, Mr. E. S. SHRaPNELL-SMITH, C.B.E.). 


THE Committee was set up to review the knowledge at present available for 
the reduction of noise and the nuisances to the abatement of which this 
knowledge could best be applied. 

Sir Henry Fowler, K.B.E., was appointed Chairman, Wing-Commander 
Cave-Browne-Cave, C.B.E., Hon. Secretary, Mr. Capon and Prof. Howe 
were appointed members, and to these Dr. Davis and Mr. Shrapnell-Smith 
were added later. 

A grant of {10 was made to cover correspondence, and at the beginning 
of May 1934, the Association, finding that there was a balance of £24 out- 
standing in one of their other accounts, allotted it to the work which was 
being done for the Committee on the reduction of exhaust noise. 

The Chairman wrote to The Times on September 30, 1933, inviting 
reasoned opinions from members of the public as to the noises which caused 
them most discomfort and inconvenience. 

A very large number of replies to that letter were received and analysed. 
They led definitely to the conclusion that the sources which caused most 
annoyance and inconvenience were inadequately silenced motor bicycles 
and cars, then motor horns, other road transport noises, and finally aircraft. 

No other noise caused half the complaint levelled against the last of this 
first group (aircraft). 

The Committee realised that the Air Ministry was doing everything 
possible to reduce the noise of aircraft as heard by passengers and also by 
persons on the ground. 

The Committee, therefore, decided first to devote their attention to the 
general problem of exhaust noise of motor bicycles and sports cars. They 
also decided to invite Messrs. Lucas, a firm who make a great variety of 


THE REDUCTION OF NOISE 253 


electric motor horns and other devices for giving the audible warning of 
approach specified in the Act, to prepare a paper examining the character- 
istics which render such a signal effective as well as those which cause it 
to be offensive. 

This paper will be read by Mr. E. O. Turner, and a demonstration of 
various sound signals will be given. 

Wing-Commander Cave suggested that in order to produce a general 
decrease in exhaust noise it was necessary not only to determine the principles 
on which better silencers should be based, but to outline an organisation 
whereby these principles could be given general practical effect. He pro- 
posed that the Committee should work towards the objective of enabling 
an authority to be set up to which manufacturers could submit new types of 
motor vehicle to be tested for a certificate of approved silence. 

For this purpose it would be necessary to determine a satisfactory instru- 
ment for measuring the noise produced by the vehicle and to specify the 
conditions under which tests should be made. 

It would also be necessary to indicate to this authority what should be 
accepted as a reasonable standard to which vehicles must conform. For 
this latter purpose he proposed to undertake some preliminary tests upon 
the silencers of motor bicycle engines. 

He was able to obtain the advice of the Motor Cycle Manufacturers and 
Traders Union as to the requirements which a silencer must meet. He 
then made some preliminary experiments’ to determine which general 
principles of noise reduction were the most effective. The results of these 
preliminary tests were encouraging, but the subsequent experimental work, 
carried out at the University College, Southampton, was only rendered 
possible by a donation of £50 made by Lord Wakefield to him for that 
purpose. 

A number of designers visited Southampton, and considered the pre- 
liminary results so far satisfactory that they selected and sent to Southampton 
a 2-stroke and 4-stroke bicycle, each of normal type, as sold to the public. 

Wing-Commander Cave’s work and the conclusions which he has reached 
will be described in his own paper and demonstrated in trials on the road. 
They indicate that it is now quite possible to effect a great reduction of 
exhaust noise by the use of a silencer which results in a small increase of 
horse-power rather than a decrease when compared with that attained with 
the silencers as now commercially sold. 

The Committee wishes to express its great appreciation of the assistance 
rendered by the Motor Cycle Manufacturers and Traders Union in discussing 
the problem and then supplying Wing-Commander Cave-Browne-Cave 
with the two bicycles and every incidental detail he required. 

Dr. Davis, of the National Physical Laboratory, agreed to undertake a 
critical review of various instruments and methods available for measuring 
noise, with particular reference to the question of testing noises of a given 
type, e.g. exhaust noises. His conclusions will be given in his paper and 
suggest that, if agreement can be reached as to the conditions under which 
a test could be made, it is within the scope of suitable noise meters, which 
do not depend upon personal judgment, to determine satisfactorily whether 
the noise of a unit submitted for test does or does not exceed that of a 
standard noise of the same kind agreed to be the maximum acceptable 
under a regulation. 

The whole of the money allotted to the Committee has been spent, and 
if the full cost taken by University College, Southampton, were included, 
there would be considerable over-expenditure, even with Lord Wakefield’s 
generous donation. 


254 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 


The Committee prefers to wait until it has heard the discussion on these 
three papers before it makes any definite recommendation as to further 
work which should be undertaken. 


DERBYSHIRE CAVES. 


Twelfth Interim Report of Committee appointed to co-operate with a 
Committee of the Royal Anthropological Institute in the exploration of 
caves in the Derbyshire district (Mr. M. C. Burkitt, Chairman ; 
Dr. R. V. Favei1, Secretary ; Mr. A. LEsLie ARMSTRONG, Prof. H. J. 
FLevureE, Miss D. A. E. Garron, Dr. J. WILFRID pees © Prof. L.S. 
PALMER, Mr. H. J. E. PEaKe). 


No new excavation work has been undertaken by the Committee during 

the current year, but the excavation of the Pin Hole Cave, Creswell Crags, 

has been steadily advanced by Mr. Leslie Armstrong, F.S.A., and it is 

anticipated that this work will be completed during the coming autumn. 
The following reports have been submitted. 


REPORT ON EXCAVATIONS IN THE PIN HOLE Cave, CRESWELL CRAGsS. 
By A. Lrs_1E ARMSTRONG, F.S.A. 


Subsequently to the presentation of my last report, the section in the rear 
of the main chamber, then under examination, .was completely excavated 
to the base level just prior to the Leicester Meeting of the Association, 
thereby enabling the complete stratification of the cave deposits, 17 ft. 
in thickness, to be exposed for examination by Section H during the visit 
to the cave on September 9, 1933. After inspecting the section the Chair- 
man and members of the Committee present agreed that the excavation 
of a further portion of the rear passage was desirable before closing down 
the work, and that ultimately a typical section of the deposits, similar to 
that exposed on this occasion, should be permanently preserved. |The 
examination of an additional 15 ft. was therefore commenced during 
October 1933, and, at the time of writing, one-third of this length has 
been excavated to the base level, a total depth of 18 ft. ; a further one-third 
down to the 12-ft. level ; and the remainder to the depth of 6 ft. ‘Though 
the width of this portion of the cave nowhere exceeds 5 ft., and in places is 
only 2 ft., progress has been slow and the work somewhat laborious: on 
account of the layer of hard crystalline stalagmite, 9 in. to 12 in. in thickness, 
which crowned the deposit, and the numerous slabs and masses of fallen 
limestone which were cemented into it. Jumbled rocks, of large size, 
have also been unusually numerous within the cave earth and, in places, 
completely blocked the passage. ‘The stratification, however, has been 
well defined throughout, and the two layers of fallen slabs which through- 
out the cave have so consistently separated the Mousterian (1) and (2) and 
Mousterian (2) and (3) levels have been equally well marked in this portion 
also. Having regard to the fact that the presence of so many fallen blocks 
must have always rendered this part of the cave unsuitable for occupation, 
it was anticipated that artifacts would be few, but that the chance of dis- 
covering human remains was promising. Unfortunately, the latter has not 
been realised, but artifacts, in all levels, have been more numerous than 
was expected. A cavity in the upper surface of the stalagmite, filled with 
slightly brecciated black earth, yielded pins of medieval type and a small 
Saxon brooch, in bronze, of cruciform pattern. A sherd of Iron Age 


DERBYSHIRE CAVES 255 


pottery occurred in a similar cavity. The upper cave-earth yielded several 
artifacts of flint, including a fine battered-back knife from the Font Robert 
level, tools of limestone, and pieces of worked bone and reindeer antler. 

Fish scales and portions of a large egg, probably duck, occurred in the 
same level, also pot boilers of stone and fragments of charcoal around 
a possible, but not well-defined, hearth. 

Tools of quartzite, crystalline stalagmite and limestone, similar to 
specimens previously found, have occurred in each of the three Mousterian 
levels. ‘Two finds of special interest have been made in the 12-ft. layer, 
Mousterian (2) in age. The first of these is a bone tool 2 in. long, roughly 
triangular i in form, with a base } in. wide, cut into the form of two prongs, 
each 1 in. long. The second appears to be a bone “‘ bull roarer.”’ It is 
34 in. long, % in. wide, and of pointed oval form, perforated near one end 
and having an extreme thickness of about # in. 

In comparison with other portions of the cave, animal remains have 
been less numerous, and no additions have been made to the fauna already 
recorded. During the spring a number of flies were collected, infested 
with fungi. These I submitted to Mr. T. Petch, F.R.M.S., who has 
kindly supplied the accompanying report, from which it will be observed 
that the specimens include new species of fungi and others of special interest. 
A report by Dr. J. W. Jackson, on the remains of small mammals, etc., 
collected, is also attached. 

I anticipate that the excavation will be completed early in the coming 
autumn, and I propose to leave an entire cross-section of the deposit exposed 
to view. This will form the most complete and representative stratified 
section of the Upper and Lower Palzolithic cave deposits of Britain, and 
it is earnestly hoped the Committee will take the necessary steps to preserve 
it intact as a British type section, adequately protected against unauthorised 
interference. 

Future Work.—An unexpected opportunity has presented itself for the 
immediate excavation of the Boat House Cave, on the southern side of the 
gorge and at its eastern extremity, through the draining of the lake which 
has hitherto occupied the bed of the gorge and prevented any examination 
of this cave. 

It will be necessary to undertake the work without undue delay. A trial 
section has yielded promising indications and proved that the deposits are 
entirely undisturbed. 

I propose, subject to the sanction of the Duke of Portland, to commence 
this work immediately upon the completion of the Pin Hole excavations. 


REPORT ON FUNGI OCCURRING ON FLIES COLLECTED IN THE PIN HOLE CAVE. 
By T. Petcu, B.A., B.Sc. 


Five species of fungi have been identified on the flies collected by 
Mr. Leslie Armstrong in Pin Hole Cave. These are: 

(1) Hirsutella, new species, parasitic on Blepharoptera. 

(2) Stilbella Kervillet (Quel.) Lingelsh., parasitic on the Hirsutella. 

(3) Spicaria (Isaria) farinosa (Holms) Fr., parasitic on gnats. 

(4) Sporotrichum Isarie Petch, parasitic on Spicaria (Isaria) farinosa. 

(5) Beauveria Bassiana (Bals.) Vuill., parasitic on a fly. 

Hirsutella sp. nov.—This fungus first forms discontinuous brown patches 
of mycelium on the body of the insect, and subsequently, erect fuscous 
clave, up to 8 mm. long and 0-2 mm. diameter. In this condition the 
fungus is fertile and identifiable. 

Very frequently, however, the Hirsutella develops into long hair-like 


256 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 


strands, 8 cm. or more long, frequently branched. In that state the strands 
are usually sterile. A similar phenomenon occurs in the case of the common 
tropical Hirsutella on Hymenoptera, Hirsutella Saussurei, in which small 
clave, a few millimetres long, are fertile, but the conspicuous long black 
clave, 5 cm. or rnore long, are sterile. Several of these abnormal sterile 
forms of the new British species have been collected by Mr. Armstrong, 
but they could not be identified until the smaller fertile form was found. 
There is also a specimen in the Herbarium of the British Museum (Natural 
History), a fly (Blepharoptera serrata Fabr.) bearing long sterile hair-like 
clave, collected ‘in a stalactite cave,’ Yealhampton, Devon, June 1906, 
which can now be assigned to the new British species of Hirsutella. 

Only one normal unparasitised specimen of this Hirsutella occurs in 
Mr. Armstrong’s collections. 7 

Stilbella Kervillet (Quel.) Lingelsh—This species was described by 
Quelet from specimens, apparently parasitic on flies (Blepharoptera), found 
in caves in France. It has since been found in caves elsewhere on the 
Continent. Mr. Armstrong’s specimens, first found in the Creswell Caves 
in 1923 and recorded by Mr. F. A. Mason in Journal of Botany, August 
1931, pp. 205-207, were the first to be found in Britain. More recently 
several examples have been collected by Mr. Armstrong in Pin Hole Cave. 

Quelet described his species as having a simple white stalk and a yellow 
globose head, but with brown mycelium on the body of the insect, an un- 
usual difference in colour. Mr. Armstrong’s first specimens agreed with 
Quelet’s description, but in the examples from Pin Hole Cave many were 
apparently branched, up to twenty Stilbella fructifications occurring as 
short lateral branches of a long central stalk. On examination it was found 
that the central stem was really a Hirsutella clave, and that the brown 
mycelium on the insect was Hirsutella mycelium, bearing typical Hirsutella 
conidiophores and conidial clusters. 

Thus Mr. Armstrong’s specimens demonstrate that Stilbella Kervillei 
is not parasitic on insects, as was supposed, but is parasitic on another 
fungus, a Hirsutella, the latter being entomogenous. 

As far as is known, neither Stilbella Kervillei nor the Hirsutella have been 
found except in caves. 

Spicaria (Isaria) farinosa (Holms) Fr.—The large majority of the speci- 
mens from Pin Hole Cave consists of gnats, each enveloped in a greyish 
loose ball of mycelium. ‘This mycelium bears a scanty growth of Spicaria 
conidiophores. On taking this into culture, the fungus proved to be 
Spicaria (Isaria) farinosa, the common Isaria of Lepidoptera in this country. 

Sporotrichum Isarie Petch.—Some of the balls of mycelium on the gnats 
are pale brown. ‘This colour is due to the growth on them of another fungus, 
Sporotrichum Isarie, which is parasitic on Spicaria (Isaria) farinosa. This 
fungus has been found previously in Yorkshire, Norfolk and Sussex. 

Beauveria Bassiana (Bals.) Vuill—This common entomogenous fungus 
was found on one fly from Pin Hole Cave. It is generally distributed 
throughout the world, and is the cause of the disease of silkworms known as 
Muscardine. 


THE RODENT REMAINS FROM THE PIN HOLE Cave. 


By J. Witrrip Jackson, D.Sc., F.G.S. 


The rodent remains obtained by Mr. A. Leslie Armstrong, F.S.A., 
from the section excavated during 1933-34 readily fall into two main 
groups, a lower and an upper, according to the levels from which they 
come. ‘Those submitted from the Lower Rodent-level, viz. 10 ft. to 


DISTRIBUTION OF BRONZE AGE IMPLEMENTS ~— 257 


13 ft., comprise the following species: Lemmus lemmus (L.) (very 
abundant), Dicrostonyx henseli Hinton (common), Microtus ratticeps (K. & 
Bl.) (one jaw at 11-12 ft.), M. anglicus Hinton (a few jaws), M. arvalis 
(Pall.) group (a few jaws), Arvicola abbotti Hinton (three jaws), and Apodemus 
flavicollis (Melch.) (= lewisi Newt.) (few jaws and’skulls). The remains of 
Red Grouse (Lagopus scoticus Lath.) occurred at 10 ft., and those of 
Ptarmigan (Lagopus mutus Mont.) at 9 ft. 6 in. Rodent remains from the 
Upper Rodent-level, viz. 2 ft. to 5 ft., are as follows : Lemmus lemmus (L.) 
(few), Dicrostonyx henseli Hinton (common), Microtus anglicus Hinton 
(common), M. arvalis (Pall.) group (common), Arvicola abbotti Hinton (one 
jaw), Apodemus sylvaticus (L.) and A. flavicollis (Melch.) (common), 
Evotomys glareolus (Schr.) (five jaws), and Muscardinus avellanarius (L.) 
(two jaws). The remains of Red Grouse and Ptarmigan also occurred at 
these levels. 

In addition to the two main levels, I have identified some rodent remains 
from 8 ft., as follows : Lemmus lemmus (L.) (two jaws), Dicrostonyx henseli 
Hinton (one skull), D. gulielmi (Sanford) (one skull), and Arvicola abbotti 
Hinton (one skull) ; also Red Grouse and Ptarmigan at 7 ft. 

Among the remains of larger animals are those of Woolly Rhinoceros 
(2-11 ft.), Reindeer (6 in—16 ft.), Horse (1-14 ft.), Bison (1-12 ft.), Giant 
Deer (9-12 ft.), Mammoth (6 in.-14 ft.), Hyzna (1-17 ft.), Lion (8-13 ft.), 
Bear (2 forms) (1 ft. 6 in—15 ft.), and Alpine Hare (2-7 ft.). 

The Dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius) does not appear to have been 
previously recorded from British caves, though I possess unrecorded jaws 
from the Late Pleistocene cave-earth at Dog Holes Cave, North Lancashire. 
On the Continent several forms of Dormice have been recorded from the 
‘ Upper Rodent ’ layer (Magdalenian) of the Schweizersbild Cave. 

According to Mr. Armstrong, who has based his conclusions on the 
physical evidence and on the human artifacts, the levels 10 to 13 ft. 
(Lower Rodent-layers) antedate the first phase of the Maximum Glaciation 
of Britain (Mousterian). The level 8 ft. is placed immediately before the 
second phase of this glaciation, and the levels 2 ft. to 5 ft. (Upper Rodent- 
layers) are later than the second phase and earlier than the Magdalenian 
cold phase. Judging from the material submitted, the Arctic rodents 
were more numerous when the Lower Rodent-layers were being deposited 
and became scarcer at later stages. 


DISTRIBUTION OF BRONZE AGE IMPLEMENTS. 


Report of Committee appointed to report on the Distribution of Bronze Age 
Implements (Prof. J. L. Myres, O.B.E., F.B.A., Chairman; Mr. 
H. J. E. Peake, Secretary; Mr. A. Lestiz ArMsTRONG, Mr. H. 
Batrour, F.R.S., Mr. L. H. DupLey Buxton, Prof. V. GorDON 
Cuitpg, Mr.O.G.S.CrawrorD, Prof. H. J. FLeure, Dr. Cyrit Fox). 


IN accordance with the Committee’s recommendation in its report last year 
(Report Brit. Assn., 1933 (Leicester), pp. 300-1), the Council has authorised 
the deposit of the completed catalogue (which has hitherto been entrusted 
to the Society of Antiquaries) in the British Museum ; the trustees have 
undertaken the custody and maintenance of the catalogue by the staff of 
the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities; and the whole 
catalogue and other records of the Committee have accordingly been trans- 
ferred to the British Museum. 


258 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 


The Committee has therefore now only to report the completion of a few 
remaining record cards by Miss M. Anderson, and the record of a few 
recent accessions to certain museums, and finds in private hands. 

On the conclusion of its task the Committee desires to express its apprecia- 
tion of the long and devoted labours of its secretary, Mr. H. J. E. Peake, 
to whose foresight and persistence the initiation and achievement of this 
permanent addition to archzological equipment were due. The close 
attention, the wide knowledge, and the tact, which such an enterprise 
entails can best be appreciated by those who have had some part in it, and 
will be long and widely recognised. 


KENT’S CAVERN, TORQUAY. 


Report of Committee appointed to co-operate with the Torquay Natural 
History Society in investigating Kent’s Cavern (Sir A. Keitu, F.R.S., 
Chairman ; Prof. J. L. Myrss, O.B.E., F.B.A., Secretary ; Mr. M.C. 
BurkITT, Dr. R. V. Favett, Miss D. A. E. Garrop, Mr. A. D. 
LACAILLE). 


TuE following report has been received from the excavators, for the season 
1933-34 : 

‘'The excavation of Kent’s Cavern was resumed on October 30, 1933, 
and continued weekly, in the “ vestibule,”’ up to May 28, 1934. 

‘This work has opened up an area of about 160 sq. ft. of floor space, 
nearly one-half of which is directly under the British Association’s site of 
the “‘ Black Band,” a hearth of Magdalenian times, worked by William 
Pengelly between 1865 and 1880. The greatest depth to which excavation 
has been carried this season is 10 ft. 6 in. below the general floor surface— 
i.e. about 16 ft. below the old stalagmitic floor. 

“Large fallen blocks of limestone have prevented rapid exploration, as 
blasting by explosives in the Cavern is objected to by the proprietors as 
causing annoyance and inconvenience to visitors, and the rocks have to be 
exposed and broken up by hand labour. Under and between these blocks 
of stone were found remains of large animals, many of them coated with a 
deposit of stalagmite and sometimes embedded in a very hard mixture of 
stalagmite and cave earth. 

‘The remains of animals usually found in the Cavern were present in 
good number, including those of horse, rhinoceros, deer, Irish deer, bear, 
fox, ox, badger, pine marten, and mammoth. 

‘ Some of the most interesting finds this season were : three foot bones of 
deer, all articulating ; three vertebre of a large animal (? rhinoceros) in 
their proper anatomical relations, found embedded in stalagmitic material ; 
a first phalanx of a human finger, found 2 ft. below the floor level ; eight 
flint implements ; a flint core, 3 in. by 2 in. by 2} in., found at a depth of 
13 ft. 6 in. below the original floor level ; small tines of deer, probably used 
as borers, and a quartzite pounder. 

“Our thanks are again due to the proprietors of the Cavern, Messrs. 
Powe and Son, for their continued assistance.’ 

(Signed) FREDERICK BEYNON, ARTHUR H. OGILVIE. 


The Committee asks to be reappointed, with a further grant to meet the 
expense of unskilled labour to remove sifted earth from the excavation. 


KENT’S CAVERN, TORQUAY—AINU OF JAPAN 259 


AINU OF JAPAN. 


Report of Committee, appointed to carry out research among the Ainu of 
Japan, on work done by Dr. N. Gordon Munro in Yezxo between Novem- 
ber 1933 and May 1934 (Prof. C. G. SeLicman, F.R.S., Chairman ; 
Mrs. C. G. SELIGMAN, Secretary ; Dr. H. S. Harrison, Capt. T. A. 
Joyce, O.B.E., Rt. Hon. Lord Racran). 


Havinc travelled over a considerable part of Yezo, Dr. Munro finds that 
among the Ainu at the present day there are differences in belief and ritual 
in different parts of the island. ‘Two factors are probably concerned in 
these differences, one ancient, the other modern. (1) In the old days 
tribal conflicts were common ; the Ainu do not seem to have been united 
under any central authority, and there was no general priesthood to establish 
a canon of belief or ritual. (2) The modern factor is brought about by 
the clash of culture between Ainu and Japanese, with the consequent 
change in the old mode of life of the majority of Ainu communities. 
Hunting on land being practically a thing of the past, the Ainu depend 
more than ever upon the river and sea for sustenance. No longer can they 
barter skins for necessities or luxuries, but are compelled to eke out a living 
by attending to horses, doing odd jobs and a little field cultivation, in which 
the women play a prominent part. Ainu shopkeepers are extremely rare, 
and carpenters, blacksmiths and suchlike are almost unknown. They 
have no opportunity to learn, and if they did the Ainu communities are 
mostly too poor to support them. Ainu psychology, too, is characteristic of 
a primitive folk in transition from unsettled occupations to those that de- 
mand patient application. A Japanese servant will usually stick to his or 
her work until finished, but ‘ my experience with several Ainu servants is 
that they are not interested in domestic work.’ 

Considering these two factors together, it is perhaps remarkable that there 
should be as much resemblance as there is between the Ainu of one region 
and another. Possibly the strict exogamy developed in ancient times 
favoured the general levelling of ideas and customs throughout the Ainu 
country. 

In spite of the decay of the old mode of life among the Ainu, there are 
still a fair number of pure-blooded elders (ekashi) among the Ainu of the 
Saru district, much of the following information being due to an old ekashi 
of 80 years, and an accomplished ritual dancer, who does not drink, is as 
bright as a man of 40. 


SoOcIAL ORGANISATION. 


Inheritance and authority are patrilineal and marriage patrilocal, at least 
many inquiries north and south yielded only this answer. Descent, how- 
ever, is strictly matrilineal, and exogamy is or was rigidly enforced. The 
Rev. Dr. Batchelor has stated (Ainu Life and Lore, p. 15) that the family 
tie was stronger on the mother’s side and that the brother of the mother was 
looked upon as the real head of the family. Dr. Munro’s inquiries of at 
- least a dozen ekashi in the Hokkaido, in various places, failed to obtain 
more confirmation than that the mother’s brother had a voice, though not 
a decisive choice, in the selection of a husband for the daughter. In 
Saghalin, he was informed by two ekashi who had lived there, the mother’s 
brother has still some authority over her children, and it is hoped to learn 
more about this by local investigation. Dr. Batchelor has also stated that 


260 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 


totemism existed, but the instances given scarcely seem supported by 
sufficient evidence, though there seems reason to believe that the Ainu are 
totemic. The fortunate discovery by Dr. Munro of a secret girdle worn 
by all Ainu women which no man is allowed to see, has provided a clue to 
positive knowledge of clan organisation and perhaps acceptable evidence 
for totemism. 

While discussing magical measures against epidemic invasion, an ekashi, 
Rennuikesh, said that women, by waving their girdles, could restrain pakkoro 
kamui (demons of pestilence), conflagrations, and even tidal waves. He 
called these girdles upsoro tush, bosom or secret cord, and further inquiry 
revealed the fact that although he had never seen one it was stated in upash- 
koma (sacred traditions) that each kind of girdle was the gift of a special 
Ramuti (god, spirit), whence its magic potency. ‘I then recalled that when 
my house was burnt out last year a distant group of women, dimly lighted by 
the blazing house, were waving their arms to chase the wen kamut from the 
village. Suspecting that they were then waving their girdles, I found that 
every Ainu woman here wears one. Cordial relations established through 
medical treatment of children and urgent cases, combined with gentle 
persuasion, gradually elicited frank information. I even obtained two speci- 
mens and had copies made in my house singly by women, and these were 
compared with a sufficient number of originals to make sure that they were 
faithful copies. To make a long story short, my investigation in this 
direction has been verified by genealogical records containing over 250 
names. ‘These genealogies, selected from a total of over 400 names because 
they contain some infringements of the still operative prohibitions against 
incestuous marriage, have been sent to Prof. Seligman, who taught me the 
application of the genealogical method in elucidating social relations.’ 

Before stating the main conclusions derived from these genealogies, some 
further information concerning the girdle must be given.. The usual and 
more polite term for this is wpsoro kut, ‘ secret belt or girdle.’ In ancient 
traditions it is called a-eshimukep, or honourable (esteemed, revered) hidden 
thing. Each Ainu woman cherishes the belief that the length of cord is an 
invariable measure of identity given by a particular deity to a remote 
ancestress. Comparative measurements, however, show some difference 
between the lengths of cord attributed to one kamui. This is only what 
one would expect, seeing that an arm’s length is the standard. Ainu 
women, too, do not discuss their kut between each other, and rarely see 
another kut outside of the family. Their confidence, therefore, is unabated, 
all emphatically declaring that the length and pattern are completely identical. 
The varieties examined up to date are attributed to : (1) Kamui Fuchi, who 
is generally recognised as authorising other Ramui to bestow it; (2) Kim- 
un kamui, a female bear, who, taking human form, married an Ainu ; 
(3) Horokei kamui, wolf—female, of course, like the others ; (4) Rep-un kamut, 
in all probability a grampus, chief sea deity, whose sister married an Ainu ; 
(5) Isepo-kamui, the hare, given tentatively as insufficiently investigated. 
Others heard of, but not seen, are the fox and deer. 

Dr. Munro arrives at the following conclusions, combining the criterion 
of the upsoro kut with results obtained by the genealogical method. He 
considers these two lines of evidence so mutually confirmatory as to render 
his conclusions quite definite. 

(1) It was forbidden to marry anyone of the same upsoro kut, the objective 
criterion of the clan. For those daring to infringe this prohibition the 
penalty was formerly death. Later it was mitigated to a fine, with com- 
pulsory alteration in the kut, apparently by reducing the number of folds © 
in the cord, i.e., shortening the length of the distinctive line. Now, under 


AINU OF JAPAN 261 


Japanese law, marriages occasionally occur, but are disapproved by relatives 
and members of the village and regarded as bringing ill-luck not only to 
the parties concerned but perhaps to the community. 

(2) Formerly the levirate was a general custom, signified by a special 
name, matraie or matraire, ‘ wife-uplifting,’ confined to this custom. Owing 
to poverty, more independence of women in tilling fields, and perhaps 
prevalent alcoholism of men, the levirate is no longer in vogue. 

(3) Two brothers might not marry two sisters—they were one flesh in 
the bond of the kut. Strict injunction against it is pronounced in the 
sacred traditions. In a genealogical list of upwards of 250 names there 
were five cases of such union. Though permissible in Japanese law, 
these cases of double marriage of brothers and sisters were a scandal in 
their villages. 

(4) The sororate was forbidden. 

(5) Marriage with a deceased wife’s sister is said to have been forbidden 
formerly ; it is now unpopular. 

(6) Parallel cousins when children of two brothers could marry, but not 
the children of two sisters. 

(7) Cross-cousins could marry, unless, as might possibly happen, their 
mothers had the same upsoro kut, say of the wolf clan. In this district, 
however, cousin marriage is not conspicuous. In 98 marriages of the 
total genealogical list prepared, only two cases of such marriage occurred, 
both cross-cousins. 

(8) Uncles could not marry their nieces, nor aunts their nephews. 

The upsoro kut has been prominently treated here because it is the one 
criterion whereby the Ainu decide all questions of marriage. Clan kinship 
does not in fact imply unadulterated lineage. During the last fifty years or 
more, the Ainu have adopted poor Japanese children, girls taking the kut of 
their new mothers. This is not because the Ainu are infertile. Rather, 
it appears, it is because they have been impressed with the idea that the 
Japanese are so much superior. Orphan Ainu girls, too, when adopted into 
another family take the kut of their new mother, after due solicitation and 
offering to Kamui Fuchi, to whom pertains authority in such matters. 


RELIGION. 


On first acquaintance there seemed to be considerable difference between 
the religious beliefs and rites of north and south. There is the same 
fundamental generalisation of ramat, conceived either as spirit personality 
or (less definitely) as purposive potency. Everything is inter-penetrated 
by vamat in some degree : whether quiescent or quick, whether acting from 
spontaneous impulse or subservient to more personal ramat known as kamui 
can usually be decided by what it does. ‘The word kamui, however (ka, 
above, over), is applied not only to the supernatural but to anything extra- 
ordinary or superb, Ramat and kamui express the quintessence of Ainu 
religion, while the ekashi, or elder, is at once priest and shaman. 

All Hokkaido Ainu employ the same means in soliciting and gaining the 
goodwill of the kamui, viz., innono-itak, or sacred talk, mainly invocation, 
achikka, libations, shinurappa, when offering to the dead, and—most 
important—inau. In the southern districts about twenty varieties of inau 
(sacred wands), the description of which would occupy much space, were 
examined and photographed. One noteworthy point is that for each kind 
of kamui a definite number of one or more kinds of imau are prescribed. 
In this respect there is little difference in any of the southern kotan (villages) 
visited. Though the northern kotan are less familiar, there seems to be a 
little more difference in the numbers allotted, while the inau themselves are 


262 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 


notably different. At Nibutani, Piratori, Mukwa, and Shiraoi, it is possible 
to tell at a glance what kamui are betokened by the number, kind, and position 
of inau at the inau-san shrine. 

The inmau, which may perhaps on occasion take the place of living 
sacrifice, appear to be especially associated with the ramat of Ainu ancestors. 
For defence against certain kinds of wen kamui (evil spirits), they are mobilised 
in companies of six, each with its chief, sapane guru, armed with a sword, 
represented by a slip of wood. Among many kinds of trees selected for 
inau, the willow, as a tree of life, is prominent. Shutu inau are made of 
willow when stuck in the corners of the hearth, sacred to Kamui Fuchi, 
divine ancestress and deity of the home fire, through whom all communica- 
tions with the dead are made. 

Besides the domestic kamui are ‘those without,’ the good—i.e. useful— 
deities of the zmau-san or outer shrine, or altar. Here we encounter much 
difference between those of north and south, and some difference between 
those of different villages. 

In some of the northern villages it was rather surprising to find that the 
sacred (ceremonial) window, rorun puyara, at the head of the hearth is not 
oriented invariably towards the east, as in southern districts, but faces the 
direction of current in a river, the assumed source of a food supply. As 
if to compensate for inattention to the rising sun, there is more regular 
worship of the sun at the zmau-san, inau-shelf or fence, the family altar 
everywhere situated outside the sacred window, whence the ramat of bene- 
ficent kamui communicates with Kamui Fuchi at the hearth and gives help 
and comfort to the inmates. } 

Amongst various interesting magico-religious expedients already fading 
away, mention should be made of the bull-roarer, recorded by Dr. Munro 
at Shiraoi fifteen years ago. 

Finally—lest. this report grow over-long—it should be mentioned that 
Dr. Munro took from dictation about 70 or 80 innono-itak, for which the 
word ‘ prayer’ seems not inappropriate. Most of the imnono-itak are as 
logical, on the given premises, as the prayers of higher religions, and as apt 
to vary as the latter do outside of a prayer-book. 


BLOOD GROUPING. 


Report of Committee appointed to investigate blood groups among the Tibetans 
(Prof. H. J. FLeure, Chairman; Prof. R. Ruccies Gates, F.R.S., 
Secretary ; Dr. J. H. Hutton, C.1.E., Mr. R. U. Sayce). 


DuRING the past year arrangements were made for obtaining blood groups 
of Tibetans. A small quantity of serum was sent from England for testing 
the serum produced by the Haffkine Institute in Bombay, India. A 
quantity of tested serum was then sent from India to the Medical Officer 
at a hospital in Gyantse, Tibet, but the results have not yet been received. 
A few results have been received, together with photographs, of tests 
made on Eskimos by a Canadian expedition to Pond’s Inlet, Baffin Land, 
in 1931. These are of greatest interest in showing that the blood groups 
confirm the evidence of crossing with Europeans obtained from the photo- 
graphs. Serum sufficient for testing 200 has been sent to the Canadian 
Government Expedition which recently sailed from Montreal for Hudson 
Bay to study the inland Eskimos in the tundra region west of Hudson Bay. 


PEN DINAS HILL FORT, CARDIGANSHIRE 263 


These people were considered by Rasmusson to represent the most primitive 
Eskimos, and unlike many of the coastal Eskimos they have had very little 
contact with civilised peoples. When opportunity arises through some 
expedition it is hoped to be able to obtain the blood groups of the Congo 
Pigmies, because their blood grouping should throw definite light on the 
relationship of the pigmies to the negroes. 


PEN DINAS HILL FORT, CARDIGANSHIRE. 


Report of Committee appointed to co-operate with the Pen Dinas Excavation 
Committee in the excavation of Pen Dinas Hill Fort, Cardiganshire 
(Dr. Cyrit Fox, Chairman; Mr. V. E. NasH-WILLiaMs, Secretary ; 
Prof. V. Gorpon CHILDE, Prof. C. DARYLL Forpg, Rt. Hon. Lord 
Racian, Dr. R. E. M. WHEELER). 


THE second season of archzological work on Pen Dinas, an Iron Age Hill 
Fort half a mile south of Aberystwyth, Cardiganshire, began on August 6 
last, and will be concluded on or about September15. ‘The funds available, 
including the British Association’s grant of £25, are being expended almost 
entirely on labour, since the equipment has been obtained by loan from 
various bodies and individuals. Eight workmen are being regularly employed 
at a wage of 35s. per week, so that the British Association grant has covered the 
cost of nearly two of the four working weeks that are almost completed. 

The southern area of the main fortress is being investigated this year. 
It has been found that the eastern ramparts formerly curved round to en- 
close the main (or southern) fortified area on the north, and a strong walled 
bank, originally some 12 ft. high, was fronted by a 7-ft. ditch and counter- 
scarp bank. 

At a later date the greater part of a lower lying plateau to the north was 
fortified by bank and ditch on a rather smaller scale and linked to the main 
fortress. At about this time a gap was driven through the main defences 
to give access to this area. On the lower rubble of the breached walls and 
over the filled ditch an incurved entrance, with a triple series of gate-posts, 
was constructed. 'This formed an inner gate to the fortress, which had to 
be reached by an outer entrance through the lower fortification of the 
northern extension. ‘This outer entrance was as first constructed a wide 
(40-ft.) gap, with semicircular walling, possibly an open driveway for 
livestock. At a later period, however, this gap was narrowed to 14 ft. by 
extending the bank and walling from either side, and post holes suitable for 
heavy swing gates and a bridge were set up at the corners. 

A rectangular guard-house or dwelling-house, delimited by post holes, a 
packed earth floor, and slab hearth, has been found immediately within and 
to the south of this later outer gate. Finally, a third period of construction 
has been found at this gate in which the bank was heightened and extended 
on the outer side to the south. ‘This extension covered the old ditch, anda 
second rock-cut ditch was in consequence constructed further east. 

Numerous flint flakes as well as iron and bronze fragments have been 
found, but no pottery has so far been discovered. 


264 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 


VOCATIONAL TESTS AND ABILITIES. 


Report of Committee appointed to develop tests of the routine manual factor 
in mechanical ability (Dr. C. S. Myers, C.B.E., F.R.S., Chairman ; 
Dr. G. H. Mies, Secretary; Prof. C. Burt, Dr. F. M. EARLE, 
Dr. Lt. Wynn JONES, Bro. 1. ti. PEAR): 


Work has progressed along the following lines as laid down in last year’s 
(final) report of the Committee appointed to inquire into the factors involved 
in mechanical ability : 

(1) The development of new manual tests with a view to simplifying and 
improving the measurement of the manual factor in assembly work. 

(2) The devising of new methods of administering the tests of mechanical 
aptitude, with a similar aim in view. 

(3) The development of easier tests of mechanical aptitude with a view 
to its measurement in elementary school children. 

(4) The devising of new tests of mechanical aptitude with a view to the 
further analysis of the mechanical factor. 

Data have been collected from the top two classes of an elementary school 
and from six forms of a junior technical school. Its statistical analysis is 
in progress. 

It is hoped that the Association will continue to support the work along 
the lines suggested in Part III of this report,-by renewing, and if possible 
increasing, its financial grant. 


J. THE POSITION AT THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR. 


The results reported to the Association up to the beginning of the year 
may be briefly stated as follows : 


(a) The factors involved in assembling work.—Ability at the assembling 
operations investigated depends on two or more of the following factors, 
according to the particular operation : 

(1) A small general factor (‘ intelligence ’), which is more evident in the 
mechanical assembling tests, and in the more complex of the routine assem- 
bling operations, and which tends to disappear from the less complex routine 
assembling operations and from simple tests of manual dexterity. 

(2) A ‘ mechanical ’ factor, identified with the ‘ m ’ factor in non-manual 
tests of mechanical aptitude, which is most conspicuous in the mechanical 
assembling tests, which tends to enter to a small extent into the more com- 
plex of the routine assembling operations, and which tends to disappear 
from the simpler of these operations. 

(3) A ‘manual’ factor, which enters most conspicuously into the more 
complex of the routine assembling operations, to an obvious, though less, 
extent into the less complex of these operations and into the simple manual 
tests, and which tends to disappear, as a group factor, from the mechanical 
assembling tests. 

(4) A factor specific to each operation, which plays a larger part in the 
simpler operations, and diminishes in importance as the operation becomes 
more complex. 

(b) The measurement of the factors—(1) The mechanical factor is best 
measured by the non-manual tests of mechanical aptitude. Of the mechani- 
cal assembling tests, the more difficult ones provide the better measure. 


VOCATIONAL TESTS AND ABILITIES 265 


(2) The manual factor is best measured by the more complex of the 
routine assembling tests. ‘The measures afforded by the simpler manual 
tests are largely specific in character. 

(c) The reliability of the tests——The reliability of the vatious measures 
employed in the research was investigated in detail. ‘The coefficients were 
found to be generally high. Where the manual tests were concerned, 
reliability was found to depend upon the number of repetitions of the 
operation constituting the measure of ability rather than on the length and 
complexity of the operation ; and was found to be independent of the stage 
of practice attained by the group measured. ‘The routine assembling tests 
were found to predict the ability to which a subject would attain, after 
practice, to about the same degree of accuracy as they measured his present 
ability (0*’7-0°9). 

(d) The transfer effects of practice and of training —An extensive investiga- 
tion into the effects of (i) practice, and (ii) training, was also carried out. 
It showed that the effects of uninstructed practice at any one of the routine 
assembling operations failed to transfer to any of the other operations, 
whereas a course of training, involving exercises based on one of the routine 
operations produced effects which transferred to each of the other operations. 


II. Tue Past YEAR. 


Work during the past year has progressed along the following lines : 

(a) Further statistical analysis of the data.—The saturation of the various 
groups of tests with their respective factors has now been determined as 
follows, from data obtained from sixty elementary schoolboys : 


Two non-manual mechanical aptitude tests v. the mechanical factor (m), 
080, 0:71 ; together, 0°83. 
Ditto v. the general factor, 0-39, 0°36; together, 0-40. 
Three mechanical assembling tests v. mechanical factor, 0°39, 0°63, 0°51 5 
together, 0°73. 
Ditto v. general factor, 0°13, 0°42, 0°23 ; together, 0°31. 
Five more complex routine assembling tests v. manual factor, 0° 56, 0°65, 
0°48, 0°37, 0°61 ; together, 0°80. 
Ditto v. general factor, 0°35, 0°14, 0°27, 0°25, 0°16 ; together, 0°34. 

Four less complex stripping tests v. manual factor, 0°26, 0:61, 0°32, 

0°33; together, 0-60. 
Ditto v. general factor, 0-23, 0°09, 0°30, 0°20; together, 0°32. 

Similar determinations, with very similar results, have been made from 
data obtained from thirty-six elementary school-girls. 

(b) Development of new tests ——It was decided last year to concentrate on 
methods of measuring the group factors which the data had disclosed. ‘To 
this end, the following new tests have been devised : 

(1) Non-manual tests of mechanical aptitude.—Diagram booklets have 
been prepared for use in conjunction with the ‘ models ’ type of mechanical 
test, so that the subject’s response may now be obtained in the ‘ selective ’ 
manner. 

Two new sets of easier models have been devised and constructed for use 
in the upper classes of elementary schools. ‘These also involve the use of 
a specially prepared booklet. 

(2) Tests of the manual factor.—Six new manual tests, of the routine type, 
involving assembling and stripping, have been constructed. These involve 
various methods of winding and unwinding string from nails and of thread- 
ing string through beads and through eyes screwed into a board. They 

L 


266 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 


aim at increasing the saturation of the test with the manual factor by in- 
creasing the number of repetitions of the operation possible within a given 
time, and at simplifying the administration of the test and reducing random 
errors. 

(3) Paper-folding tests.—Two new tests of the paper-folding and cutting 
type have been devised with a view to the further analysis of the mechanical 
factor, and the possible provision of a more direct method of measuring it. 

(c) Collection of further data.—The new tests have been given to the top 
two classes of a boys’ elementary school, and six forms of a junior technical 
school. These subjects have taken, in addition, the ‘ inventive’ forms of 
the mechanical aptitude tests, and four of the routine manual assembling 
tests which were employed in the work reported last year; also tests of 
general intelligence. 

The statistical analysis of these very extensive data is still in progress. 
Reliability coefficients have now been calculated for most of the tests, and 
indicate high reliability. This, and the keenness shown by the boys in 
doing the tests, suggests their suitability as tests of specific ability. The 
necessary inter-correlational studies for determining how far the factors 
in these new tests are the same as those found in the data formerly collected, 
and how far they may be ‘ saturated ” with such factors, are still in progress. 
From the point of view of scoring, and ease of administering, the new tests 
are a very great improvement over the older ones. 


III]. Future Work. 


It will be evident from Part II of this report that the most pressing thing 
now is to complete the analysis of the data that have been collected during 
the past year. The results thereby obtained may be expected to shed 
important light on the practical measurement of the ‘ mechanical’ and the 
“manual ’ factors. It may also extend our knowledge of these factors, 
and possibly disclose other important vocational ‘ abilities ’ associated with 
the new ‘ mechanical’ and ‘ manual’ tests, as well as throw light on the 
general principles of test construction. 

When this aspect of the work is completed, there are many other fruitful 
lines of research opened up by the results reported by this Committee last 
year. In particular, the extension of the methods of training employed in 
the ‘ training’ experiment would appear to lend themselves to valuable 
extension to many other forms of manual skill. 

It is hoped that the Association will render the continuance of this work 
possible by renewing, and if possible increasing, its financial grant. 


ANATOMY OF 'TIMBER-PRODUCING TREES. 


Report of Committee on the Anatomy of Timber-producing Trees (Prof. H.S. 
Hoven, Chairman ; Dr. HELEN Bancrort, Secretary ; Prof. J. H. 
PrigsTLeY, D.S.O.). 


Two papers on the structure of the monotoid timbers—‘ The wood anatomy 
of representative members of the Monotoidex’ and ‘ New material of 
Monotes Kerstingit Gilg from the Gold Coast "—have been completed and 
accepted for publication in the American Journal of Botany and the Kew 
Bulletin, respectively. 


FOSSIL PLANTS—EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH 267 


The investigations show that 


(1) So far as wood anatomy is concerned, the Monotoidez are a very 
coherent and somewhat circumscribed group. 

(2) The wood anatomy of the group indicates a much closer affinity to the 
Dipterocarpacez than to the Tiliaceze or any other group. 

(3) The structure and properties of monotoid timbers are such that their 
cultivation for economic purposes cannot be advocated, although 
the timbers may be useful on a small scale locally. 


Detailed investigations of new monotoid material are in progress; and 
work has been commenced on the systematic anatomy of the genus Ulmus, 
in order to throw some light on the problem of the identity and relation- 
ships of the British Elms. 

The Committee asks for reappointment, with a further grant of £10. 


FOSSIL PLANTS AT FORT GREY. 


Final Report of Committee on Fossil Plants at Fort Grey, near East London 
(Dr. A. W. Rocers, F.R.S., Chairman; Prof. R. S. Apamson, 
Secretary ; Prof. A. C. S—warp, F.R.S.). 


THE investigations undertaken by the Committee have now been completed. 
The results have been published in a paper in the Annals of the South 
African Museum (vol. xxxi, pt. 1, p. 67, 1933). A set of the specimens 
collected has been deposited in the South African Museum at Cape Town. 

The Committee desire to express their appreciation of the assistance 
granted towards the work. They do not ask to be reappointed. 


EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH. 


Report of Committee appointed to consider and report on the possibility of 
the Section undertaking more definite work in promoting educational 
research (Dr. W. W. VauGHAN, Chairman; Miss HELEN Masters, 
Secretary; Mr. E. B. R, Reynotps, Mr. N. F. SHEPParRD). 


THE Committee met in January. Dr. W. W. Vaughan, Miss H. Masters, 
and Mr. N. F. Sheppard were present. 

The meeting decided that individual members should get in touch with 
other bodies interested in educational research. This has in many cases 
been done. 

The general nature of the problem was discussed, and notes made thereon. 

Prof. Hamley was proposed for co-option : he has been approached and 
has accepted. 

The Committee considers that its activities are reflected in the programme 
of the 1934 meeting. 


268 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 


QUANTITATIVE ESTIMATES OF SENSORY EVENTS. 


Second Interim Report of Committee appointed to consider and report upon 
the possibility of Quantitative Estimates of Sensory Events (Prof. A. 
Fercuson, Chairman; Dr. C. S. Myers, C.B.E., F.R.S., Vice- 
Chairman; Mr. R. J. Bartiett, Secretary ; Dr. H. BANtsTrER, Prof. 
F. C. Bartiett, F.R.S., Dr. Wm. Brown, Dr. N. R. CAMPBELL, 
Dr. S. Dawson, Prof. J. DrEver, Mr. J. Gurtp, Dr. R. A. Houston, 
Dr. J.C. Irwin, Dr. G. W.C. Kaye, Dr. S.J. F. Puitport, Dr. L. F. 
RICHARDSON, F.R.S., Dr. J. H. SHaxsy, Mr. T. Smiru, Dr. R. H. 
TuHou.ess, Dr. W. S. Tucker). 


(1) Experimental investigation of matters at issue and research into the 
records of previous work have been continued by or under the supervision 
of members of the Committee. 

(2) Theoretical discussion of the problem has been continued by means of 
reports from members of the Committee. ‘These reports have been multi- 
plied by the kind assistance of the British Psychological Society and have 
been circulated to all members of the Committee. 

(3) Critical comments on certain of these reports have still to come in. 
It is hoped that they will be received by the autumn of this year, when the 
Committee will meet to discuss various aspects of the problem disclosed 
in the documents received, with a view to drawing up a final report. 

(4) ‘The Committee asks to be reappointed without grant. 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS. 


(For reference to the publication elsewhere of communications entered in the 
following lists of transactions, see end of volume, preceding appendix.) 


SECTION A. 
MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 


Thursday, September 6. 


Discussion on The ionosphere (10.0) :— 
Prof. E. V. APPLETON, F.R.S.—Introduction. 


In the absence of data derived from measurements in situ, such as are 
possible for the lower strata of the atmosphere, information concerning the 
nature of the ionosphere (80 km. and above) is derived from ground obserya- 
tions on (1) terrestrial magnetism, (2) luminous manifestations such as the 
aurorz, meteorites, etc., and (3) wireless wave exploration. Although the 
first indications of pronounced upper-atmospheric ionisation came from (1), 
the prosecution of (3) has proved, on the whole, the most fruitful. Wireless 
methods possess the marked advantage in that an exploration can be made at 
any time and it is not necessary to wait for natural sequences or irregularities. 

Wireless exploration consists in projecting waves (usually) vertically 
upwards and noting the characteristics of the returned energy. The 
quantities measurable are (a) the time of flight on the up and down journey, 
(6) the polarisation and phase changes, and (c) the intensity of the returned 
waves. Each type of measurement has been made to yield information. 
From measurements of (a) at different wave-lengths the somewhat compli- 
cated structure of the ionosphere has been broadly worked out and its tem- 
poral variations studied. From (6) conclusive evidence has been derived 
that free electrons exist throughout the whole of the ionosphere and are 
active electrical agents in causing the deviation of the waves ; while from (c) 
the frictional effect of air pressure on the free electrons may be estimated. 

Regular features—The ionosphere is divided into two main divisions, 
Region E at an equivalent height of 100 km. and Region F at an equivalent 
height of 230 km. and above. In both regions the ionisation is replenished 
daily at a rate dependent on solar altitude, and during the night steadily 
decreases. (During the day a lower ‘shelf’ is also formed on the main 
Region F.) The diurnal and seasonal variations are such as can be explained 
by assuming solar ultra-violet light as the ionising agency and recombination 
of electrons and ions as the dissipative influence. 

Irregular features —(a) There is often formed a thin reflecting sheet of 
ionisation about the height of Region E. This may occur by day or night, 
Possible influences to be discussed in connection with the origin of this 
“Abnormal Region E’ are : 


270 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—A. 


(1) Extraneous ionising agencies (e.g. solar corpuscles and terrestrial 
thunderstorms). 

(2) Horizontal motion of ionisation from more densely ionised regions by 
winds or diffusion. (The coefficient of lateral diffusion may be shown 
to be a maximum at about 100 km.) 

(3) Readjustment of ionisation already present due to tidal or thermal 
influence, bringing about a sharper gradient of refractive index at a 
particular level and thus giving rise to quasi-reflection as distinct from 
the normal deviating process. 


(6) The maximum ionisation content in Region F is often found to 
increase during the night. Possible influences to be considered are : 


(1) A nocturnal ionising agency. 
(2) Readjustment of ionisation distribution due to cooling and shrinkage 
of the atmosphere causing an increased electron concentration. 


(c) Very occasionally there are found subsidiary regions of ionisation 
(1) between Regions E and F, and (2) above the main Region F. These 
have been noted at both the Slough Radio Research Station and at the Halley- 
Stewart Laboratory, Hampstead. 

Freak wireless transmissions —A careful watch was now being kept each 
day on what might be called the weather conditions in the ionosphere. 
Such work was being carried out at the Slough Radio Research Station and 
at the Halley-Stewart Laboratory at Hampstead. As often happened in 
the study of geophysical phenomena, abnormal events proved of special 
interest and importance. Both of the ionised regions were found to exhibit, 
occasionally, increases of ionisation even at night, when ultra-violet light 
from the sun could not possibly be reaching the upper atmosphere. 

In 1930, during some experiments carried out at King’s College, London, 
curious increases of ionisation were noted in the lower of the two regions 
(the so-called Kennelly-Heaviside Layer). There appeared to be some 
influence maintaining and even increasing the ionisation which normally 
decreased during the night. The same effect had since been noticed in 
different parts of the world. He wished to put forward the theory that this 
abnormal ionisation, which he had found gave almost mirror-like reflection 
of the waves, might be responsible for the freak transmissions which had 
been noted from time to time in long-distance transmission. 

It had also been found that there was a fairly definite limit in the short 
wave-length range below which one could get only a quasi-optical range. 
Waves shorter than the limiting value (8 to 10 m.) usually pierce the 
ionosphere and leave the earth altogether. But calculation showed that 
under the abnormal conditions mentioned, which appeared to be connected 
in some way with both thunderstorms and magnetic storms, the limiting 
wave-length should be less than its usual value. 


Mr. J. A. RATCLIFFE. 


Collisions between electrons and neutral molecules cause absorption of 
a wave travelling through the ionosphere. From observation of the 
resultant absorption deductions may be made about the frequency of 
collision of the electrons. 

Calculation shows that a region of absorption may be situated below the 
region of deviation of the wave, the extent of the absorbing region being 
determined by the height distribution of the electron collisional frequency. 
‘There is no need to postulate a lower ‘ layer’ of ionisation to explain this 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—A. 271 


region of absorption. ‘The existence of such an absorbing region is required 
to explain the absorption observed at different distances from a transmitter. 

Absorption of a wave near the top of its trajectory is related to the group 
retardation there, and from a comparison of the observed magnitudes of 
these quantities we deduce that the collisional frequency in the F region is 
about 5 X 10° per second, and in the E region is about 2 < 104 per second. 
The extra group retardation of the ordinary wave on a wave-length of 
60 m. in the day-time perhaps explains why Eckersley ? found it to be 
weaker than the extraordinary wave. 

To explain some unexpected results it has been suggested * that absorption 
determines the greatest frequency which may be reflected from the F region 
at midday in summer, whereas in winter the maximum electron density 
determines this critical frequency. If this is the case, then the temperature 
of the F region at a summer midday must be considerably greater than that 
at a winter midday. 

Automatic records have been taken showing how the height of reflection 
of wireless waves of a fixed frequency varies with the time of day. These 
records show the occurrence of intermittent reflections from a height of 
about 105 km.—that is, below the ordinary E region. Such reflections 
may occur by night or by day. They are presumably due to some ‘abnormal’ 
source of ionisation. A statistical analysis indicates that they are probably 
related to the occurrence of (a) magnetic storms, and (6) thunderstorms. 
The opportunity of observing on a series of different frequencies in rapid 
succession occurred recently, during a thunder shower. During the 
shower wave-lengths down to 45 m. were reflected (partially) from a 
height of 105 km., whereas half an hour before and a quarter of an hour 
afterwards there were no reflections from regions below 250 km. (F region) 
on any wave-length shorter than 75 m. It appears as though the thunder 
shower had produced ionisation at a height of about 105 km. 


Mr. R. NatsmitH.—The polar ionosphere. 


It has been shown by Appleton that the main ionising agency for the 
E and F regions of the ionosphere in temperate latitudes is the ultra-violet 
light from the sun. 

It has also been suggested by Chapman that charged particles emitted 
from the sun may produce ionisation in the upper atmosphere, and the 
phenomenon of the aurora appears to confirm this theory. 

Observations made by the British Wireless Expedition during the second 
International Polar Year are examined with regard to these two theories. 
The first of these theories is examined with reference to the whole year’s 
observations, but more particularly under the special condition existing in 
the Polar regions in the winter when no ultra-violet light from the sun is 
reaching the earth, and in the summer during the period of the midnight 
sun. 

The maximum ionisation effects of charged particles are to be expected 
in northern latitudes. This theory is also examined with reference to the 
year’s observations, but more particularly during periods of magnetic 
disturbance. 

There is at present no unanimity of opinion on the relative importance of 
these two influences, but the present series of observations appear to indicate 
that both are necessary. 


1 Proc. Roy. Soc., A, 115, 291 (1927). 2 [bid., A, 141, 710 (1933). 
§ Proc. I.R.E., 22, 499 (1934). 


272 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—A. 


Prof. R. H. Fowter, O.B.E., F.R.S., and Mr. G. B. B. M. SuTHERLAND.— 
The specific heats of simple gases at high temperatures (11.30). 


When, some seven or eight years:ago, analysis of the quantum states of 
simple molecules had advanced sufficiently far to be applied with confidence 
to the calculation of the specific heats of the simple gases, it was found, to 
the surprise of almost everyone concerned, that the accepted values at high 
temperatures were in striking disagreement with the theory. The disagree- 
ment begins to make itself felt, for example, for oxygen and nitrogen just 
above room temperatures. This discrepancy has since then been much 
studied from two points of view—first, to re-examine the specific heats 
by new methods and to see if they could be brought into agreement with 
theory ; and, secondly, to understand the meaning of the older measure- 
ments, which cannot be dismissed as being merely in error. Both these 
studies have now been successful. The discrepancy between theory and 
the older observations has been shown to be due to the very slow inter- 
change of vibrational energy in rather rigid molecules such as oxygen and 
nitrogen with the translational and rotational energy. 


Mr. J. M. Stacc.—The British Polar Year Expedition to Fort Rae, 
N.W. Canada, 1932-33 (11.55). 


Throughout the thirteen months ending August 31, 1933, upwards of 
forty countries co-operated in a world-wide organisation for intensive 
observations in meteorology and such allied fields of investigation as terres- 
trial magnetism, aurora and atmospheric electricity. During this period 
probably over sixty special stations and expeditions, many of them in high 
northern latitudes, participated in the general programme. As part of 
Britain’s share in this International Polar Year an expedition of six men 
was sent to reoccupy the station at Fort Rae on the Great Slave Lake, 
N.W. Canada, held half a century ago by the First Polar Year Party. 

The objects of the expedition included the collection of complete and 
continuous observations of the main meteorological elements both on the 
surface and into the stratosphere, procuring continuous records of the varia- 
tions in the earth’s magnetic field, and gathering as much information as 
possible about auroral phenomena in that part of Canada. Photographs of 
aurora from two base stations, so that its position in space could be deter- 
mined, were specially wanted. Measurements were also to be made of the 
various elements of the atmospheric electrical field near the surface at 
Fort Rae. 

To attain these objects in the somewhat extreme conditions of N.W. 
Canada special methods and safeguards had to be employed. 

The photography of aurora called for a means of continuous communica- 
tion over the 25 km. separating the main base and substation ; 4,700 simul- 
taneous pairs of photographs were taken, of which 75 per cent. are probably 
suitable for measurement. 

The reduction of the data brought home by the expedition is now in 
an advanced stage of preparation. But the work of adequate discussion 
and co-ordination with the data for all the other Polar Year stations will be 
a matter of several years. 


Prof. G. W. O. Howe.—The rotating field of a cylindrical bar magnet—a 
perennial chimera (12.25). 


From time to time the question is raised : Does the magnetic field of a 
cylindrical bar magnet rotate with the magnet ? This question is meaning- 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—A. 273 


less ; the misconception which gives rise to it is due to the lines of force 
being endowed with a physical reality for which there is no justification. 
When the bar magnet rotates the electrons within it move relatively to one 
another through magnetised space and thus experience forces, but no 
meaning can be attached to the movement or non-movement of the magnetic 
condition of space which undergoes no change in magnitude or direction. 
The statement recently made by Prof. Cramp, that Faraday’s description of 
an experiment was lacking in detail because ‘ he omitted the possibility of 
the e.m.f. being produced by a rotating magnetic flux cutting the stationary 
parts of the circuit,’ is unfair to Faraday, who could hardly be expected to 
foresee that such a queer misconception would subsequently arise. Prof. 
Cramp admits after making about fifty (!) experiments that they are incon- 
clusive, as indeed they must be since they were designed to answer a 
meaningless question. Lines of force and tubes of magnetic induction are 
mathematical fictions: there is nothing material about them, nor do they 
represent discontinuities in space, which could be earmarked in order to 
detect their movement. Their number is a mere convention. 


Friday, September 7. 


PRESIDENTIAL AppREsS by Prof. H. M. Macponatp, O.B.E., F.R.S., on 
Theories of Light (10.0). (See p. 19.) 


Dr. F. W. Aston, F.R.S.—The roll-call of the isotopes (11.0). 


The word ‘ isotopes’ was first used by Soddy to indicate atoms having 
identical chemical properties but different mass which he discovered among 
the products of radioactivity. Their presence in ordinary stable elements 
was definitely proved later by the mass-spectrograph. Of recent years the 
word has altered its meaning and is now used to designate any atomic 
species. By the study of mass-spectra, supplemented in a few cases by that 
of optical spectra, the analysis of the common elements may now be regarded 
as fairly complete. The main isotopic constituents are known for all but 
four—palladium, iridium, platinum and gold. The accuracy of the data 
varies in a wide degree from element to element, the analysis being easiest 
technically for the inert gases, and most difficult for the rare earths and noble 
elements. Disregarding those of radioactive period less than one million 
years, the total number of isotopes now known is well over 240, about three 
per element. The isotopic complexity of elements of odd atomic number 
shows a remarkable regularity. Excepting hydrogen, none of these has 
more than two isotopes. On the other hand, elements of even atomic 
number may be much more complex, tin having as many as eleven isotopes, 
and it is an interesting speculation whether or not the number may be 
extended indefinitely by increasing the delicacy of the methods of detection. 


Discussion on The structure of alloys (11.30) :— 
Prof. W. L. Brace, O.B.E., F.R.S.—Introduction. 


We may conveniently define an alloy by two characteristics The first 
is the arrangement of the positions occupied by its metal atoms. A different 
geometrical pattern of the atomic sites characterises each phase of the alloy 
system, and is the essential feature which remains constant in a single-phase 
region although the composition of the phase may vary over a wide range. 
The second is the distribution of the atoms of each kind in a binary or 


L2 


274 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—A. 


more complex alloy amongst the phase sites. This distribution varies of 
necessity as the composition varies, and may often be altered by thermal 
treatment although the phase remains the same. 

Recent developments have indicated the possibility of discovering an 
adequate theoretical basis for the explanation of both characteristics. 
Broadly speaking, the first depends upon the interaction between metal 
atoms and free electrons, the second upon the relative potential energies of 
the ordered and disordered distribution of atoms amongst the sites. 


Prof. G. I. Taytor, F.R.S.—A theory of plasticity in crystals. 


In many metallic crystals the most remarkable features of plastic dis- 
tortion are : 
(1) its geometrical nature, the strain consisting of a shear parallel to 
a crystal plane ; 
(2) the rapid increase with increasing plastic strain in the stress necessary 
for plastic flow. 


A theory is developed which accounts for both these phenomena as 
consequences of the production and subsequent migration, under the 
influence of molecular agitation, of a special type of singularity in the 
structure to which the name ‘ dislocation ’ is given. 

Reasons are given for believing that dislocations can migrate through the 
crystal at a temperature far lower than that necessary for the interchanges 
which occur when a metal is annealed or when an alloy changes from one 
phase to another. 

In a perfect crystal structure a single dislocation might migrate freely, 
but the presence of other dislocations, each of which is surrounded by 
a field of elastic stress, will prevent the free migration of dislocations unless 
the shear stress externally applied is greater than that due to the integrated 
effect of all neighbouring dislocations. ‘The stress necessary for plastic 
strain, now considered as due to migrating dislocations, therefore depends 
on the number of dislocations. A relationship is also found between 
plastic strain and the number of dislocations, so that the plastic stress- 
strain relationship is deduced theoretically. 


Dr. H. Jones.— Applications of the modern electron theory of metals. 


The electrical resistance of pure metals with reference to their place in 
the periodic table was discussed, and it was shown how the observed 
resistance of alloys leads to a better understanding of the resistance of pure 
metals. 

The form of the Brillouin zones for a number of crystal structures 
associated with well-known metals and alloys was described and illustrated. 
The significance of the form of these zones in relation to the structure was 
considered with particular reference to the case of bismuth, and alloys 
possessing the characteristic y and « structures. From these considerations 
it was shown to be possible to find a theoretical basis for the well-known 
Hume-Rothery electronic rules. 


Mr. A. J. BRADLEY.—Atomic arrangement in alloys. 


The application of X-ray analysis to the study of alloys has yielded a 
great amount of fresh information impossible to be obtained by the older 
methods of metallography. ‘The problem of differentiating between alloy 
phases and of determining phase boundaries has become much simpler, 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS .—A. 275 


while in many instances X-ray work has shown the presence of phases 
difficult to identify by other methods. 

Each phase has a characteristic structure which in its salient features 
is the same for all alloys belonging to the phase, but a more detailed study 
shows that there are continuous structural changes on varying either com- 
position or temperature. Recent improvements in technique have made 
it possible to follow the changes in lattice dimensions to an accuracy of 
I part in 50,000. Detailed changes in atomic arrangement, e.g. the 
formation of superlattices, may be followed quantitatively by means of 
X-ray intensity measurements. The results of all such investigations are 
found to fit in with the data obtained from measurements of magnetism, 
electrical conductivity and other physical properties. 


Prof. G. P. THomson, F.R.S. 


AFTERNOON. 
Visit to Natural Philosophy Department, Marischal College. 


Monday, September 10. 


Jomnt Discussion with Section B (Chemistry, g.v.) on The preparation 
and properties of heavy hydrogen (10.0). 


AFTERNOON, 
Visit to Braemar for unveiling of memorial to Johann von Lamont. 


Tuesday, September 11. 
Symposium on Telescopes (10.0) :— 


Mr. C. Younc.—The 74-inch reflecting telescope of the David Dunlop 
Observatory, Toronto University, Canada. 


The equatorial mounting of the telescope is of the modified English 
or composite type, in which the tube is carried to one side of the polar axis. 
This axis is built up of steel castings with forged steel pivots mounted in 
self-aligning ball bearings. 

The driving circle is a steel casting with bronze rim, 8 ft. diameter, cut 
with 960 teeth. 

The forged steel declination axis weighs over 3 tons and is mounted in 
ball bearings. 

The tube comprises three parts : 


(a) The centre portion, a steel casting about 7 ft. diameter. 

(b) The upper, or lattice, portion constructed of duralumin ‘ I’ beams, 
with diagonal tension rods of duralumin. 

(c) The mirror cell. 


In the lower part of (a) an iris diaphragm is fitted allowing for a range of 
aperture from 12 to 74 in. 

The driving clock comprises a crossed arm friction governor driven by 
a weight which is automatically kept wound up by an electric motor. The 
clock drives on to a gear plate incorporating a ‘ Grubb’ type seconds 
control. 


276 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—A. 


All the motions of the telescope, viz. quick setting, guiding and clamping 
in both R.A. and declination, also focusing of the Cassegrain mirror, are 
electrically operated. 

The main mirror, now being worked at Newcastle-on-Tyne, is of a 
special Pyrex glass, 76 in. diameter by 12 in. thick and focal length of 
30 ft. 

The Cassegrain mirror gives an equivalent focus of 108 ft. 

The dome, which has a diameter. of 61 ft. with an opening 15 ft. wide, 
is fitted with motor-driven shutters and wind screens, and carries an elec- 
trically operated observing carriage for use at the Newtonian focus. 

The dome is mounted on a circular steel building 24 ft. high. 


Mr. W. M. H. Greaves.—The new 36-inch reflector at the Royal 
Observatory, Greenwich. 


Mr. C. R. Burcu.—On null systems for testing concave telescope 
MuUrvrors. 


Zonal tests on concave specula have neither the accuracy nor the speed 
of null tests. The most delicate test—Prof. Zernike’s phase-contrast 
test—is essentially a null test. We need a method of null testing paraboloids 
without using a full-size flat, and methods of null testing mirror curves 
other than conic sections—e.g. the Ritchey-Chrétien curve. The asphericity 
of a 36-in. paraboloid of F/4 can be compensated with one 9-in. concave 
spherical mirror, one 13-in. convex mirror aspherical by only } wave-length, 
and one 3-in. flat. For an F/6 paraboloid, both compensating mirrors may 
be spherical. Asphericities up to a few wave-lengths may be compensated 
by a figured transmission plate, checked with an optical flat—in this check 
the transmission errors are seen multiplied by 4. ‘The figured plate may 
conveniently be 1 in. diameter: the star is decentred so that the light 
passes through it once only, and the consequent astigmatism is annulled 
by two plane-parallel plates placed with equal and opposite obliquities to 
the central ray. By placing the figured plate at different distances from the 
star, a range of paraboloids can be tested. 


Mr. N. R. CAMPBELL and Mr. C. C. Paterson, O.B.E.—Photoelectricity, 
art and politics : an historical study (11.30). 


(Ordered by the General Committee to be printed in extenso. See p. 445.) 


Wednesday, September 12. 


Dr. W. H. McCrea.—Observable relations in relativity (10.0). 


The formulation of an invariant which represents ‘ spatial distance,’ as 
measured by some prescribed experiment, in the space-time of general 
relativity has been studied by E. T. Whittaker and others. Also E. A. 
Milne has emphasised the importance of interpreting any given space-time 
in terms of the ‘ world-pictures ’ of an observer belonging to it. In this 
paper it is shown how the apparent size, brightness, etc., of nebule in certain 
models of the ‘ expanding universe ’ can be calculated by fairly elementary 
methods. Thence one obtains, for example, the number of nebule in a 
given range of apparent magnitude, and the relation between apparent 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—A, A*. 277 


magnitude and red-shift, which represent the type of relation which can be 
tested by observation. 


Mr. H. G. Howe._i.—Recent applications of spectroscopy (10.30). 


Now that the importance of the presence of small amounts of metallic 
impurities in alloys has been recognised, the practice of quantitative 
spectrum analysis is receiving much attention. The internal standard 
method involving a determination of intensity ratios is considered to be the 
most accurate, although for higher percentages of impurity the Barrett twin- 
spark method is preferable. 

The intensity ratio can be measured conveniently by using a rotating 
logarithmic disc. 

The biologist and medical research worker are using the spectrograph to 
determine the influence of minute traces of metals in the blood and spinal 
fluid, in plants and living organisms. 

Absorption spectrophotometry is providing much useful data about the 
equilibrium of certain chemical reactions which cannot be obtained by 
chemical methods. 

Absorption measurements have been of great importance in work on 
such obscure organic compounds as the vitamins. The spectra of hamo- 
globin and its related compounds are being extensively studied with a view 
to correlate changes in spectra with changes in chemical constitution. 

It has been reported that the absorption spectrum of the plasma of the 
blood of normal rats is different from that of those suffering from cancer, 


and that marked changes take place in the absorption curves at the approach 
of death. 


DEMONSTRATIONS (continuously for the period of the meeting) :— 


Mr. C. R. BurcH.—Prof. Zernike’s phase contrast test. 


An F/6 paraboloid is shown, the test being made null with the aid of a 
figured compensator. The errors of spherical aberration, coma, and 
astigmatism can be shown by changing the adjustments: zonal error can 
be shown by inserting a figured ‘ error-plate.’ 


Mr. L. H. J. Puitiips.—Prof. Zernike’s phase contrast method of 
microscopic illumination. 


The apparatus for this demonstration was kindly lent by Prof. Zernike. 


DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS (A*). 
(Prof. E. T. Wuirraker, F.R.S., in the chair.) 


Thursday, September 6. 
Discussion on The electronic theory of metals (10.0) :— 
Prof. R. H. Fowier, F.R.S.—The quantum theory of metals. 


General introduction. Electron distribution laws ; the Fermi function. 
Thermionic work function and photoelectric threshold of an ideal metal. 
The free path phenomena; Sommerfeld’s elementary discussion for an 


278 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—A*. 


ideal metal; conductivity ; thermoelectric phenomena; the transverse 

effects in a magnetic field. Meaning of the sign of the Hall coefficient. 
Next stages in the elaboration of the theory. Electron states in a periodic 

field of force. Brillouin’s zones. Metals as insulators and semiconductors. 


Prof. C. G. Darwin, F.R.S.—The quantum theory of the free path 
(10.50). 

The formal free path of Sommerfeld’s theory is replaced by a properly 
calculated free path by studying the interaction between the electron waves 
of an ideal metal and the elastic waves (thermal agitation) of the ionic lattice. 
Bloch’s integral equation for the distribution function. 


Dr. H. Jones and Prof. N. F. Motr.—Further developments of the 
theory (11.20). 


The form of the Brillouin zones for a number of crystal structures asso- 
ciated with well-known metals and alloys is discussed and illustrated. ‘The 
significance of the form of these zones in relation to the structure is described 
with particular reference to the case of bismuth, and alloys possessing the 
characteristic y and « structures. From these considerations a theoretical 
basis is found for the well-known Hume-Rothery electronic rules. The 
nature of the X-ray emission bands of metals discovered by O’Bryan and 
Skinner is discussed in the light of the Bloch theory. This leads to an 
examination of the optical transition probabilities from the conduction levels 
of the metal to the deep-lying K or L levels. A brief account of the optical 
properties of the alkali metals, including Zener’s explanation of Wood’s 
recent experiments, is given. 

Finally, the electrical resistance of pure metals with reference to their 
place in the periodic table is discussed, and it is shown how the observed 
resistance of alloys leads to a better understanding of the resistance of pure 
metals. 


Prof. G. P. THomson, F.R.S. 


Friday, September 7. 
Discussion on Unified field-theories in physics (11.0) : 


Prof. E. T. WuitTaker, F.R.S.—The problem and some recent pro- 
posals for its solution. 


The problem to be solved. The earlier theories of Weyl, Eddington, 
Einstein, and Kaluza-Klein, compared with the more recent developments 
by Einstein-Mayer, Veblen, and Schouten-van Dantzig. Introduction of 
the fifth coordinate. Interpretation of the coordinates (i) in five- 
dimensional space, (ii) in four-dimensional space-time. Geodesics as 
world-lines of charged and uncharged particles. Interpretation of curva- 
ture. Deduction of the field-equations of gravitation and electricity. 


Dr. W. H. McCrea.—Unified field-theories and the quantum theory 
(11.50). 

The formulation of Dirac’s wave equation in projective relativity ; the 

physical significance of the result. Discussion of the general a priori 

possibility of including quantum theory in existing unified field-theories. 


SECTIONAL 'TRANSACTIONS —A*. 279 


Alternative possibility of obtaining unified theory of gravitation and 
electromagnetism by treating them as statistical properties of systems 
obeying a quantum theory. 


Dr. J. H. C. WuiTEHEaD.—Projective relativity (12.10). 


Generalised projective geometry, according to this presentation, depends 
upon the idea of a geometric object determined by sets of components and 
a transformation law. Whereas in affine geometry a geometric object 
(e.g. a scalar function or a contravariant vector) has one set of components 
in each coordinate system, a projective invariant has an infinity of sets of 
components. The transformation from one set of components to another 
in the same coordinate system can be explained in terms of a geometrical 
process analogous to projection in classical projective geometry. This 
explanation involves the use of an additional variable and, as when using 
homogeneous coordinates in the classical projective geometry of 7 dimen- 
sions, the formalism is that of (x + 1)-dimensional affine geometry. 

The power of this treatment is largely due to the closeness with which the 
formalism copies the (n + 1)-dimensional affine and Riemannian theories. 
In particular this applies to projective relativity, and if the ideas referred to 
above can be elucidated it should not be necessary to introduce a great deal 
of formal detail in the discussion of relativity. It will probably seem best 
to concentrate the formal work into a derivation of the equations of motion 
of a charged particle. ‘Taking for granted the formule which are obtained 
by the standard methods of Riemannian geometry, this should involve only 
a short calculation in the course of which many of the special features of the 
theory will be underlined. 


Monday, September 10. 


Prof. J. A. CaRROLL.— Some applications of Fourier transforms (10.0). 


(1) The equation 

+1 
oe) — a| I(z + Bt)g(t)dt : : oer er) 

i 6 
regarded as an integral equation for I(z), can be solved ‘ operationally’ by 
regarding z as an operator, and on writing down the equation of which (1) is 
the operational equivalent (image equation) and rearranging the terms, 
the operational form of the rearranged equation is the solution of (1), 


namely— 
ioe) 


Iu) = zi) "ote | aa O(2)\dz dx. « (2) 


2m 


where c is a suitably chosen path, and 
+1 +1 


t= | g(t)dt, G(x) =a| e-Ptx o(t)dt. 
a 
—1I —1I 
This enables the validity of solution of (1) by the elementary method of 
Taylor expansion of J(z +- Pt) and reversion of the series obtained to be 
tested. 
Solution of the form (2) is troublesome to use when O(z) is known 


numerically for real values of the argument only. If g(t) is assumed known, 


280 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS .—A*. 


it is possible to regard (1) as an equation for 8, inasmuchas (1) is only possible 
Gf, e.g., I(x) is everywhere > 0) for a unique value of 8, given O(z). 
By forming the Fourier transforms of both sides of (1) it is possible from 
examination of the zeros of the periodogram to find 8, and by a second 
Fourier transformation to compute J(z). For example, if g(t) is +/(1 — ?”), 
on) 

the transform | O(#) cos ut dt must vanish whenever uB is one of the zeros 
— 00 

of F;(x) ; hence, since u is known at these zeros, B is determined. 


(2) If the probability of a quantity having a magnitude between x and 
x -+ dx is f(«)dx in one ‘ measurement,’ the probability of asum s to s + ds 
from m measurements is f;,(s)ds, where 


(02) 


Firs) = | n—z (s + t)f(t)dt. 
Co 


The computation of f,(s), in successive steps, is very laborious, but if the 
transform g(u) of f(x) be constructed, 


I 


Co 
g(u) = ESI F(t) cos ut dt, 


—oo 
taking f(—t) = f(t), then f,,(s) is obtained rapidly and simply as 
on) 
{/(2n) } na g"(u) cos ut du. 
—0o 


In illustration the method is applied to the probability of a given score 
after a given number of rubbers at contract bridge. 

Incidentally the method offers a convenient proof of the theorem that the 
distribution function for errors the result of a large number of small errors 
tends to the Gaussian law as the number of independent sources of error 
tends to infinity. 


Dr. W. L. Marr.—Desargues configurations from a quintic curve (10.50). 


If P is a point such that the lines joining P to five fixed points are tangents 
to a cubic curve at these five points, the locus of P is a quintic touching the 
conic of the five points at these points and passing through the other fifteen 
points of intersection of the lines joining them. ‘The quintic can, however, 
be defined uniquely, and more simply, by these contacts and incidences, 
instead of as a locus. 

If six points are given on a conic, there are ten points P such that the 
lines joining P to the six points touch a cubic at these points. The ten 
points can be found as the relevant intersections of two quintics, but they 
can be shown independently to form the 103103 configuration arising in 
Desargues’ theorem on perspective triangles, whence it follows that six 
quintics associated with six points on a conic have ten common points form- 
ing a Desargues configuration. If P is one of these ten points, three other 
of the points are on the polar of P for the conic. ‘This result enables us to 
construct the configuration from one of the quintics and one of the ten 
points, and we find that the point can be chosen arbitrarily on the quintic— 
that is, that one quintic is the source of a single infinity of the 10,103 
configurations. 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—A™*. 281 


Mr. E. A. MaxweLit.—Some examples in the theory of surfaces (11.10). 


The paper gives an illustration by example of certain general properties 
of surfaces. 

Denote by F*7(°C")? a surface of order 30, having as o-fold curve the 
rational quartic °C‘ (of order four and genus zero). ‘The canonical surfaces, 
defined in similar notation by F°%¢-4(°C*)¢-!, are invariant for birational 
transformation. Now the curve °C* lies on a unique quadric 9, meeting 
the two systems of generators in three points and one point respectively ; 
each ‘ three ’-generator necessarily lies on a canonical surface, which there- 
fore degenerates into 9, together with a variable part. ‘The curve of inter- 
section of © with F°¢ is Noether-exceptional (i.e. a fixed part of every canonical 
surface), and, in fact, consists of 20 straight lines, generators of 9. In 
accordance with general theory, these may each be transformed to a simple 
point of a birationally equivalent surface : 

The cubic surfaces through the curve °C* may be represented by the 
prime sections of a threefold locus V,°[6] of order five in six dimensions. 
The points of °C? correspond to the generators of a rational ruled surface 
R?° of order ten on V; the ‘three’-generators of » correspond to the points 
of aconic c. ‘The given surface corresponds to the surface of intersection 
of V by a primal of order o ; this latter meets c in 20 points, each of which 
corresponds to a Noether-exceptional curve. 

Similar results are given for the surface F%°(?C*)*, the only other surface 
of this type. 


Sir A. S. Eppincton, F.R.S.—Theory of electric charge and mass (11.45). 


The following principles (amongst others) are employed in the theory : 


(1) Indistinguishability.—A system of two particles No. 1 and No. 2 is 
described dynamically by giving as a function of the time the probability 
distribution of two sets of coordinates, q, g’, together with an interchange 
variable 9 such that cos?0 is the probability that the particle at g is No. 1 
When the particles are regarded as distinguishable (and always distin- 
guished without uncertainty) 9 is constrained to be zero. ‘The Coulomb 
energy of electrons and protons is the momentum conjugate to 0. 

(2) Metrical Tensor.—The tensor g,, giving the metric of macroscopic 
space must arise out of the fundamental conceptions of wave mechanics, 
and not as an extraneous datum. It is the energy tensor of the @ priori or 
standard probability distribution of the particles. Since this distribution 
itself provides the metric of the space in which it is represented, the space 
automatically appears as uniform and isotropic. 

(3) Idealisation—The most elementary equations of quantum theory 
which contain the definitions of charge and mass refer to highly idealised 
conditions. Formally the ideal uniform conditions prevail throughout the 
universe, since if the momentum of a particle is prescribed, its position 
in the universe is entirely unknown. ‘The equations therefore apply strictly 
to spherical space and to hyperspherical phase-space. 

(4) Curvature—Mass must arise out of curvature of space-time in 
- quantum theory as it does in relativity theory. Curvature (by rendering 
space finite) limits the possible uncertainty of position, and therefore gives 
a minimum uncertainty and corresponding minimum expectation value of 
momentum. 

(5) Comparison Distribution.—Observationally the effect of mass is mani- 
fested in the study of the combined probability distribution of a particle 
and a physical reference body, but mathematically mass is defined as a 


282 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—A*, Aft. 


coefficient in the simple probability distribution of the particle. 'The values 
of the masses of the proton and electron are determined by this substitution 
of a simple probability distribution for a double probability distribution. 


DEPARTMENT OF COSMICAL PHYSICS (Af). 
(Sir Frank Dyson, F.R.S., in the chair.) 


Friday, September 7. 


Prof. E. A. Mitne, M.B.E., F.R.S.—A popular account of the significance 
of absorption lines in stellar spectra (11.0). 


Dr. T. Dunnam.—The new Condé spectrograph of the Mount Wilson 
Observatory (11.25). 


Prof. O. Struve.— Spectrophotometric investigations at the Yerkes 
Observatory (11.50). 


Prof. J. A. CarroLit.—Accuracy of measurement in spectrophotometry 


(iZs15): 

(1) Instrumental.—The effect of finite resolving power, etc., due to all 
causes may be represented as spreading a monochromatic source into 
a spectrum of intensity distribution K(T), T being the ‘ reduced’ wave- 
length. Thus a true distribution J(T) is observed as O(T) where 

+00 


O(T) = | I(T + t)K(ddt. 


The practical solution and use of this equation is discussed, by the aid of 
Fourier transformation theory. 

(2) Photographic—(a) The ability of a photographic plate to detect 
small changes in intensity distribution over a given region on the plate is 
discussed, and a quantity termed the ‘ Discriminating Power ’ of the plate 
is defined and shown to be a useful criterion, analogous to Resolving Power 
in optical theory, whereby the performance of the plate used under specified 
conditions may be calculated. 

(b) Certain irregularities on a scale large compared to plate grain size 
are noticed and discussed in connection with variation of film thickness, 
measured optically by interference methods. 

(c) An estimate of limiting accuracy under optimum conditions. 


Mr. E. G. WiLL1ams.—Spectroscopic differences between giant and dwarf 
early type stars (12.40). 


The present procedure for determining absolute magnitudes by the 
spectroscopic method is unsatisfactory for the B and O type stars. It 
requires considerable modification and, until this has been effected, the 
intensity of the interstellar line of calcium is as good a criterion of distance 
as any, provided this intensity is measured spectrophotometrically. 

A number of typical early type stars has been selected for study. Their 
spectra show sharp lines and are free from such disturbing influences as 
axial rotation and the presence of emission lines. The stars have been 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—Aft; A, G. 283 


divided into high and low luminosity groups (giants and dwarfs) by the 
interstellar line criterion. 

It is found that the intensity of both the hydrogen and helium lines is, in 
each subtype, greater for the dwarfs than for the giants, whereas the ionised 
lines of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, magnesium, and silicon are relatively 
stronger in the giants. ‘The effect for hydrogen is so marked, from type 
BO to A, that it could be used for absolute magnitude determination provided 
the exact subtype of the star was measurable. This problem of exact 
classification is complicated by the fact that no line studied is free from 
luminosity effect. Ratios of line intensity for atoms of widely different 
excitation potential present the most hopeful solution of the problem, but 
any adopted method, though based on photometric measures, should be 
capable of adaptation for estimates of type and luminosity by the usual 
visual inspection. 


REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON SEISMOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS. . 
Miss E. F. BeLttamy. 


JOINT SESSIONS (SECTIONS A, G) ON TECHNICAL PHYSICS. 


Thursday, September 6. 
(Dr. Ezer GrirFiTus, F.R.S., in the chair.) 


Mr. R. S. WuippLe.—A note on some of the difficulties of measuring the 
temperature of molten steel (10.0). 


The problem of measuring the temperature of molten steel either in the 
furnace or in the ladle is one of great importance to the steel manufacturer. 
It is, however, one of great difficulty. 

The committee appointed by the Iron and Steel Institute to study the 
heterogeneity of steel ingots formed a sub-committee to study the tempera- 
ture measurement side of the problem of ingot casting. This committee 
has devoted a great deal of time to the study of the problem. 

The temperature of the steel in a Siemens furnace is approximately 
1630° C., and the difficulty of inserting a pyrometer into the molten metal 
through the open door is almost insuperable. ‘The tube protecting the 
thermo-elements must also be robust and non-porous, as the only elements 
that may be safely used at the present time for temperatures as high as 
1600° C. belong to the platinum group. ‘The committee decided that at the 
present time the problem could only be solved by the use of optical pyro- 
meters, and that those of the disappearing filament type gave the most 
consistent results. Discrepancies in the results obtained showed that a 
careful study of the details of the pyrometers was necessary, and as a result 
exhaustive tests were made on the coloured and neutral glasses of the 
instruments. With the introduction of new glasses and other modifications 
a considerable improvement has been made in the performance of these 
pyrometers. The readings obtained give the apparent temperature of the 
steel; a correction must be applied to convert the readings to true 
temperatures. 

The position cannot be regarded as satisfactory because there are so 
many factors involved in the determination of the temperature of molten 
steel by means of optical pyrometers, and this necessitates a considerable 
amount of skill when making the observations. 


284 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—A, G. 


Mr. R. GrirFitHs.—Some problems in the measurement of temperature in 
steelworks. 


With the increasing need for closer control over the temperature in the 
manufacture of steel and its products the development of special forms of 
pyrometers has become necessary. For example, in rolling-mill practice 
the time required for taking an observation is a determining factor. Experi- 
ments are described which have been carried out with the object of pro- 
ducing a pyrometer to satisfy the requirements. 


Mr. B. Lioyp-Evans and Mr. 5.5. Warts.—A contribution to the study 
of flame temperatures in a petrol engine. 


It has been recognised for many years that the calculated maximum 
explosion pressure in an internal combustion engine is far greater than the 
measured pressure. ‘The basis of this calculation is, that both pressure and 
temperature rise instantaneously when the piston is in its uppermost position, 
termed the T.D.C. (top dead centre). 

The authors have attacked the problem from the point of view of the 
temperatures produced, using the spectral line reversal system, developed 
recently by Dr. Ezer Griffiths and J. H. Awbery. 

In general, the tests showed that at the particular point considered in 
the engine, the temperature bore little relation to the pressure, this result 
being almost independent of the brand of petrol used. ‘The maximum 
temperature on any given temperature/crank angle curve was of the order 
of 2100° C. and lasted over a much longer period of time than did the 
maximum pressure. It was also seen that combustion as denoted by 
tongues of flame lasted down to at least crank angle positions of 70° to go° 
after T.D.C. 


As, however, the extinction of visible flame is not necessarily a criterion 


, V : 
of the end of combustion, curves of “a Were plotted against crank angle. 


Had T been the average temperature in the cylinder at the moment con- 


sidered, then = should have been constant. This was far from the case, 


and, in view of the turbulence in the cylinder, it can only be concluded that 
combustion was still proceeding. 


Dr. MArGarET FISHENDEN.—Radiation from non-luminous gases. 


As their temperature increases, radiation plays a more and more important 
part in the heat transfer from non-luminous gases containing water vapour 
or carbon dioxide. Methods of determining the radiation and convection 
from hot flue gases passing through a tube of internal diameter Io in. are 
described. 


Mr. E. G. Herspert.—Periodic hardness fluctuations induced in metals by 
mechanical, thermal and magnetic disturbance. 


A brief account is given of the experimental stages which led to the dis- 
covery of periodic fluctuations. 

Typical results are given, in which periodic hardness changes were set 
up in pure metals, nickel, iron and gold, by mechanical, thermal and magnetic 
disturbances, and the fluctuations were stabilised by application of a magnetic 


field. 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—A, G. 285 


The fluctuations appear to be electromagnetic, and may be allied to other 
known forms of electromagnetic oscillation. 

Description of a new method by which the fluctuations are autographically 
recorded, and correlated with changes in the elastic properties of metals. 

These records indicate that the modulus of elasticity of metals is not a 
stable but a fluctuating property, the fluctuations being periodic in character, 
and capable of being induced by magnetic disturbances, including the action 
of stray fields. 


Mr. O. A. SaunpEerS.—Convection in gases at high pressures. 


Theoretical considerations show how the effect of pressure on natural 
convection in gases may be related to that of linear size. ‘The heat losses 
from large surfaces in gases at atmospheric pressure can therefore be deduced 
from small scale experiments at high pressures. Some experimental results 
are discussed. 


Mr. H. ve B. Knicut.—Industrial application of Thyratrons, with special 
reference to the control of resistance welding. 


The Thyratron is a gaseous discharge device through which current 
flows in the form of an arc and in which the current flow can be controlled 
by means of a control electrode or grid. A large range of such devices is 
available, with ratings varying from a fraction of an ampere to 100 amperes 
or more. These currents can be controlled with a negligible amount of 
controlling energy ; and, especially in high voltage circuits, the Thyratron 
provides an easy means of controlling considerable power. 

Particular reference is made to the application of the Thyratron in con- 
nection with resistance welding. In modern resistance welding applica- 
tions some metals can only be welded satisfactorily if the welding current 
is of very short duration. In addition, modern production methods require 
very high-speed operation with precision and reproducibility. ‘These 
features are practically impossible to obtain when electromagnetic relays 
and contactors are employed to control the welding current ; but they are 
easily obtainable by the use of the Thyratron. 

A single impulse Thyratron-controlled spot--welder for pedal operation 
will be described and demonstrated. 


Mr. L. J. Davies and Mr. J. H. MitcHeLt,.—Resonance radiations in 
electric discharge lamps. 


This paper aims at showing the importance of the phenomena of resonance 
radiations in connection with the nature of the light output from various 
types of electric discharge lamps. 

The resonance and general emission spectra, together with other physical 
properties on various elements, are discussed with a view to their possible 
utilisation in discharge lamps ; in particular resonance phenomena for the 
cases of mercury and sodium are dealt with in detail. 


Mr. H. R. Rurr.—The commercial production and utilisation of ultra-violet 
radiation. 

The large scale utilisation of ultra-violet radiation for such purposes as 
artificial lighting, manufacture of special chemicals and sterilisation of 
food-stuffs, utensils, and the water of swimming baths is assuming a rapidly 
increasing importance. 


286 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—A, G. 


This paper describes methods for the industrial production of ultra- 
violet radiation and some typical applications, and discusses also methods 
of rating such sources to enable the user to evaluate their worth for any 
particular purpose. 


Mr. L. J. Davies and Mr. R. Maxtep.—Some aspects of modern road 
illumination. 


This paper deals with the application of light for the provision, on high- 
ways at night time, of a visibility sufficient for the requirements of modern 
traffic conditions. 

The optics connected with the process of seeing and distinguishing 
objects on artificially illuminated roadways are discussed. Light can be 
applied from moving vehicles or from stationary lighting points, and, for 
economical and other reasons, a mixture of the two methods, adjusted 
according to the traffic burden of the road, is a reasonable solution. 

Some possible lines of development are suggested. 


Monday, September 10. 
(Sir James HENDERSON in the chair.) 


Dr. Ezer GrirFitTHs, F.R.S.—Research on heat transmission and its relation 
to industry. 


In the design of structures involving the conservation of heat or cold, 
data as to thermal conductivity play an important part, and this is illustrated 
by consideration of typical cases which include buildings, furnaces and 
ships. 

Measurements have been made on a variety of heat-insulating materials, 
and data are given for pumice concrete, aerated concrete, aluminium-faced 
asbestos paper, compressed fibre boards, etc. 

In the second part of the paper consideration is given to the question of 
the basic laws of the transfer of heat between gases and solids, and to the 
application of the data obtained to the design of batteries for the heating 
or cooling of air. 

When heated pipes are arranged in bank formation the second layer 
loses in an air stream more heat than the first, whether in square or 
in diagonal formation. In square formation the third layer loses the same 
as the second, whilst in diagonal formation there is an increased loss in 
the third layer over the second. After the third the coefficient is constant. 

The effect of fins fitted to the pipe in increasing the heat transfer is 
considered and data given. 


Dr. J. SmaLL.—Thermal conditions round a hot circular cylinder in a stream 
of fluid. 

An experimental study of the variation in the rate of heat transmission 
from point to point round the surface of a heated cylinder in an air stream 
is made by means of an indicator built into the surface. When the cylinder 
is heated only in the region of the indicator a minimum value is recorded 
at the upstream generator as well as at generators which are about 90° of 
angle from the front. This minimum at the front is not obtained in ex- 
periments on a uniformly heated cylinder. The results are analysed and 
compared with those of other experimenters. 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—A, G. 287 


The equation for the temperature distribution in a perfect fluid flowing 

‘ V dé : @6 

past a heated body is Vug?0 = > “de The usual assumption that dp 
26 

is negligible as compared with doa implies an indefinite rate of heat flow at 


the upstream generator of the cylinder. A solution which does not involve 
this assumption is obtained by a method of successive approximations based 
on an application of Taylor’s Theorem. Constant temperature lines are 
drawn in the «, 6 field. 

Measurements of temperature of the air by means of a platinum resistance 
wire stretched parallel to a generator of a metal cylinder (heated internally 
by steam) and placed at different distances from its surface, show the 
characteristic spreading of the isotherms towards the sides of the stream 
beyond an angle of 90° from the upstream generator. 

Careful experiments in which the average rate of heat transmission from 
the surface is measured yield values higher than those obtained by most 
other observers, but closely agree with the recent results of Griffiths and 
Awbery. 


Mr. A. H. Doucias.—Modern building materials with a view to thermal 
insulation of buildings. 


During the last quarter-century, economic pressure, coupled with the 
increasing use of steel and reinforced concrete frameworks, has led to the 
cutting down of thicknesses of traditional building materials, such as brick, 
stone, slate and timber, in the building of walls, floors and roofs, resulting 
in an undesirable lowering of their overall heat and sound insulating qualities. 

Considerations of cost preclude any return to traditional methods, so 
that a solution must be found, (a) by new methods of design, such as 
various forms of cavity wall, based on more accurate knowledge of thermal 
phenomena ; (4) by the introduction of highly insulating non-structural 
materials for use in conjunction with the traditional structural elements ; 
(c) by the development of new forms of structural unit of substantially 
greater insulation value than the existing range, for use either alone or in 
conjunction with the latter. ‘The above methods may of course be used 
either alone or in suitable combination. 

Much valuable work has been done during the past decade in regard to 
(6), for special uses such as refrigeration chambers, but cost has hitherto 
prevented its application to the wider field of general building practice. 

Increasing attention has been paid lately to (c) in an effort to avoid extra 
cost by a wider combination of functions in the material used. Such 
materials, in association with suitable kinds of tensile reinforcement, are 
found to approximate in many ways to the traditional timber element, 
without sharing its disadvantages in regard to fire, movement and rot. In 
fact they might aptly be described as forms of ‘ mineral timber,’ and inter- 
esting results have already been secured by following out this line of thought. 


Mr. A. Linpsay Forster.—Glass silk as an insulator for heat and sound. 


Mr. F. C. Jonansen.—Problems of refrigerated railway transport. 


The relatively short duration of the journeys affects in several ways the 
economics of refrigerated railway transport in Great Britain. For example, 
the cold absorbed by the vehicle on loading and lost on discharging are 
an important proportion of the total refrigeration, and hence low thermal 


288 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS .—A, G. 


capacity, as well as low conductivity, is a desirable quality of insulated 
vehicles. ‘The low density of appropriate insulators is also advantageous 
from the standpoint of haulage costs, but adequate endurance and retention 
of thermal properties affects the choice of material. Other good features 
aimed at in the vehicles are air-tightness, size and dimensions to accommo- 
date full loads, and ease of cleansing. With mechanically refrigerated vans, 
thermal capacity is less important since pre-cooling is easy. But mechanical 
refrigeration involves a large unit, and is economical only for long-distance 
regular traffic. For small vehicles, in random service, refrigeration by 
solid CO, is generally very convenient, but immersion in the sublimed gas 
affects certain food products detrimentally. If, on this account, the gas is 
led into the insulation space, the choice of a suitable insulating material is 
affected. 


Mr. A. F. Durron.—The equivalent temperature of a room and its 
measurement. 


The traditional method of determining the temperature of a room is by 
means of a thermometer, and until recently neither the cooling effect of 
draughts nor the influence of the temperature of the walls has been fully 
appreciated. Although in terms of our sensations we say, ‘ It is colder now 
that the sun has gone in,’ or ‘ Come round the corner ; it will be warmer 
out of the wind,’ there has been’ no scale of temperature to enable us to 
express how much colder or how much warmer. 

The temperature of an environment with air and walls at different degrees 
is not easily specified. From the point of view of human comfort it is the 
rate at which heat is lost by the body which seems to be important. ‘The 
equivalent temperature of an environment has been defined as that tempera- 
ture of a uniform enclosure in which, in still air, a sizable black body at 
75° F. would lose heat at the same rate as in the environment. This scale 
of temperature does not extend above 75° F. At high temperatures changes 
in the humidity cease to be immaterial so far as heat losses from the body 
are concerned ; the environment, moreover, is warmer than necessary for 
comfort. 

In 1929 an instrument was constructed for recording equivalent tempera- 
ture. This instrument, which is called a eupatheoscope, was designed for 
use in researches on heating and ventilation. It is somewhat cumbrous and 
the need has now been felt for a simpler instrument for general use. It has 
been found that the equivalent temperature of an environment can be com- 
puted from the rates of cooling of two large-bulbed thermometers heated 
to 75° F., one of the thermometers having a silvered bulb. 

To simplify the computation a special face has been fitted to an ordinary 
stop-watch, which enables the equivalent temperature to be evaluated from 
the cooling times by the mere addition of two numbers. 


Mr. T. C. Ancus.—Physical tests of the properties of clothing based on 
physiological standards. 


In a research intended to provide a simple method for determining the 
heat-retaining properties of clothing materials, it became apparent that the 
value of results may be small if the physical test conditions depart too far 
from the physiological state and environment of the clothed human body 
in cool air. 

The insulating properties of a cloth are measured by determining the 
amount by which a covering of the cloth will prevent the cooling of the 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—A, G. 289 


surface of a partial insulator covering a heated body. In other words, the 
cloth sample is placed over an artificial ‘skin’ covering a warm. artificial 
“human body’ in the form of a heated water container, and the temperature 
variations at points underneath the clothing and on the surface of this 
artificial ‘ skin’ are measured. 

It is found that the ‘ skin’ temperature rises when clothing is placed over 
it, the rise in temperature being measured by differential thermopiles. 

From this we calculate variations of heat retention as percentages of 
complete insulation, having independently developed the method of calcula- 
tion previously used by Barker. 

The advantage of this experimental method is that the effects due to 
variation in the tension by which the samples are stretched can be examined, 
also variations due to changes in wind velocity. 


Mr. G. P. Crowpen.—The use of bright metallic surfaces for increasing 
human comfort in the tropics. 


A comfortable, clothed, sedentary individual produces some 400 B.Th.U. 
per hour by reason of the chemical changes associated with living processes, 
circulation, respiration and glandular activity. In still air at 60° F. and 
50 per cent. humidity, roughly 45 per cent. of this heat is lost by radiation. 
At 80° F. loss by radiation is approximately halved, while under tropical 
conditions a gain of heat by radiation from the surroundings necessitates 
increased loss by evaporation of sweat to keep the body temperature normal. 

Human comfort in the tropics can be increased by any means of reducing 
heat gain by radiation. ‘The well-known physical properties of high 
reflectivity and low emissivity for radiant heat possessed by bright metallic 
surfaces can be made use of for this purpose. It has been shown that if 
an air space of 1 in. is divided medially by a layer of bright metallic air- 
proof material, known as reinforced aluminium foil, the passage of heat 
across the space is as effectively hindered as if 1 in. of cork or 13 in. of brick 
were used. ‘This insulation has been used in tropical helmets, galvanised 
iron hutments and tents, and laboratory and field tests have proved its 
value for increasing human comfort. 


Mr. S. G. Barker.—The interpretation of physical data regarding textiles 
in terms of bodily comfort. 


The analysis of the figures obtained for a large variety of fabrics made 
from different textile materials indicates that fabric structure and thickness 
is of paramount importance. 

The paper is extended to the question of hygienic coverings during 
sleeping and the manufacture of beds and bedding. 

Physical data are quoted in support of the arguments put forward, and 
definite inferences are drawn regarding ideal conditions from the physicist’s 
point of view for realising bodily comfort. 


Dr. M. C. Marsu.—The interchange of heat as affecting clothing material. 


The paper is a review of the heat interchange processes which occur when 
fabrics are used as thermal insulators under the conditions normally obtain- 
ing in clothing. Fabrics in general have a rough surface owing to the 
method of their construction, and the effect of this on heat interchange is 
first considered and shown to be of primary importance. 

When a large number of results is available, the general effects of air 
permeability and the ability to transmit radiation can be determined. In 


290 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—A, G; B. 


this way it is possible to show that in the case of the less permeable fabrics 
there is an interchange of heat between the material of the fabric and the 
air stream which flows through the interstices. 


Mr. A. BatLey and Mr. W. F. Cope.—Heat transmission in pipes of square 
and rectangular section. 


The paper describes experiments carried out at the National Physical 
Laboratory. The conclusion is drawn that such pipes behave in a similar 
manner to circular pipes of the same hydraulic diameter. 


SECTION B.—CHEMISTRY. 


Thursday, September 6. 


PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS by Prof. T. M. Lowry, C.B.E., F.R.S., on 
Physical methods in chemistry (10.0). (See p. 29.) 


Dr. R. G. J. Fraser.—Applications of molecular rays to chemical problems 
(Tihs). 


The Method of Molecular Rays—Modern vacuum technique allows the 
production of beams of neutral molecules, moving with thermal velocities 
in vacuo. Hence molecular properties can be studied directly, without 
the necessity for statistical arguments. 

Applications of the method more immediately touching chemical problems 
are : 

Dissociation.—If a non-magnetic diatomic molecule dissociates into mag- 
netic atoms, and a mixed molecular-atomic beam is sent through an in- 
homogeneous magnetic field, the atoms suffer deflection, the molecules are 
unaffected. ‘Thus the atoms and molecules can be physically separated, and 
their relative numbers determined. 

Molecular cross-sections—The weakening of a beam of molecules on 
traversing a vapour determines their mean free path and collision area Q. 
Methods have been devised which permit extrapolation to beams of negligible 
width. Hence Q values are obtained which are independent of the geometry 
of the apparatus. 5 

Dipole moments.—The deviation of a beam in an inhomogeneous electric 
field determines the molecular dipole moment up. The dipole moment is 
measured outright, at a single temperature. Hence a possible dependence 
of u. on temperature is readily established. 

Free radicals —A molecular ray is collision free; hence the primary 


products of chemical reactions can be isolated in the beam and examined by 
special methods. 


Dr. H. De LaszLo.—Determination of molecular structure by electron- 
diffraction (11.35). 


The technique of obtaining photographic records of the scattering of fast 
electron beams by vapours and gases has been simplified and perfected in 
the following way. 

(a) The interference pattern of the vapour of any substance that will 
vaporise im vacuo up to 1000° C. without decomposition can be photo- 
graphed by means of a small oven, equipped with an original type of 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS .—B. 291 


vaporising nozzle. This permits the investigation of a great variety of 
molecules which could not have been measured by the older methods. 

(6) This nozzle, either in conjunction with the oven or by itself when 
using substances with a high vapour pressure at room temperature, coupled 
with the use of Ilford X-ray emulsions, enables one to record many more 
interference maxima than had previously been possible. 

(c) These new high order maxima are particularly sensitive to changes 
in chemical structure. Hence we can now make an accurate determination 
of interatomic distances and the molecular architecture of many substances 
whose spatial configuration has hitherto been unknown. 

(d) The high (sin 0/2)/A values of the maxima that are now available 
permit the use of a simplified method of calculating the theoretical scattering 
curves, with which the experimental results are compared, with a conse- 
quent saving in time. 

These technical improvements have turned the electron-diffraction 
method into a quick, reliable, and accurate tool for the determination of 
chemical structure in the vapour phase. It should now be possible to clear 
up most of those debatable points in chemistry where a knowledge of the 
spatial structure is essential. 


Mr. S. F. Boys.—The origin of optical rotatory power (12.0). 


Measurements on the refractive indices, etc., of pure compounds have 
led to the view that the atoms in a molecule are polarised under the action 
of the electric field of a light wave. The polarisation constants of particular 
elements are well known, and are tabulated under the name of refractivities. 

If an asymmetric molecule is examined and the atoms are assumed to 
have the usual polarisibilities, it is possible to calculate the complete optical 
properties of the liquid composed of such molecules. If the liquid only 
contains one of the two enantiomorphs, the calculation shows that, in 
general, the liquid must rotate the plane of polarisation of a transmitted 
light wave. 

The predicted values of the optical rotatory powers of certain simple 
compounds, e.g. amyl alcohol, have been found, and these agree with the 
experimental values. 

The calculation makes it possible to state the conditions which determine 
whether a given simple molecule is dextrorotatory or levorotatory. This 
relation can be used in the reverse sense and it is possible to determine the 
absolute configuration of some optically active compounds. 


Mr. E. Eastwoop and Dr. C. P. SNow.—Opftical properties of conjugated 
compounds : (a) The absorption spectrum of acrolein (12.40). 


Unlike the saturated aliphatic aldehydes, which give very complex band 
spectra, acrolein, CH,=CH—CH=O, gives a band spectrum in which 
the rotational structure is as sharp as in the diatomic gases. This structure, 
however, presents the unique anomaly that the moment of inertia deduced 
for the ground state of the molecule, instead of being constant throughout, is 
different for each vibrational band. 


Dr. C. B. ALtsopp.—Optical properties of conjugated compounds : (b) The 
origin of optical exaltation in conjugated hydrocarbons (12.45). 


Contrary to the prediction of Briihl, but in confirmation of observa- 
tions by Willstatter, the conjugation of two double bonds in 1 : 3-cyclo- 


292 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—B. 


H H 
Cara 
hexadiene, HCY Ncu, produces no optical exaltation in the 
Ce 
H, Hy; 


visible spectrum, although the molecular refraction Mp of 2 : 4-hexadiene, 
CH; —CH =CH —CH =CH —CH,, is 1-65 units higher than that observed 
in diallyl, CH,=CH—CH,—CH,—CH=CHgz, where the two double 
bonds are isolated from one another by three single bonds. Exaltation is 
observed, however, at wave-lengths in the vicinity of a strong ultra-violet 
absorption band which is characteristic of the conjugated system. The 
magnitude of the optical exaltation will depend on the position and intensity 
of this absorption band, which may be influenced by many factors. It is 
suggested that one of these factors may be the relative orientation of the 
conjugated double bonds, which can take up a parallel configuration, 


\ 


C—C ,, in open-chain compounds, but are held in an inclined con- 


figuration, Ne de in ring compounds. 


AFTERNOON. 
Visit to Stoneywood Paper Works of Messrs. A. Pirie & Sons, Ltd. 


Friday, September 7. 
Discussion on Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) (10.0) :— 
Prof. A. Harpen, F.R.S.—History of vitamin C. 


It was recognised as early as 1734 that scurvy was due to the lack of fresh 
vegetable food and could be cured by the supply of this. In 1907 scurvy 
was ‘ brought into the laboratory’? by Holst and Frélich, who, using the 
guinea-pig, made a rough and mainly qualitative survey of the antiscorbutic 
potency of foodstuffs and studied the effects of heat and preservation on this 
property. Fiirst, in the same laboratory, also found that in leguminous seeds 
antiscorbutic potency arose during germination. Strictly quantitative obser- 
vations soon followed, first in England and then more generally, and it was 
found that the antiscorbutic vitamin, as it was now called, was very un- 
equally distributed among vegetables and fruits, etc. Studying the physical 
and chemical properties of the vitamin, Zilva, of the Lister Institute (1924 
and onwards), succeeded in concentrating it about 200 times and found that 
the preparations always had strong reducing properties. Removal of the 
reducing power by titration with indophenol did not inactivate the prepara- 
tion, but this soon became inactive on keeping. This behaviour was inter- 
preted as being due to the presence of a reducing principle which exerted 
a protective influence on the vitamin. In 1932 Tillmans and Hirsch con- 
firmed these facts, but showed that the oxidation by indophenol was 
reversible and that the facts were consistent with the conception that the 
vitamin itself had reducing properties. They further suggested that it 
might be identical with the strongly reducing hexuronic acid found in the 
adrenals and in many vegetable juices by Szent-Gyérgyi (1928). The 
discovery by the latter (1932) that this acid, henceforward to be known as 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—B. 293 


ascorbic acid, had powerful antiscorbutic properties soon led to a general 
agreement that ascorbic acid was vitamin C. The easy preparation of this 
substance in quantity from paprica provided material for the determination 
of its constitution at the University of Birmingham (March 1933), and this 
was rapidly followed by the synthesis of the acid (August 1933) both in 
Birmingham and in Switzerland and the demonstration of the full anti- 
scorbutic potency of the synthetic substance. 


Prof. A. Szent-GyOrey1.—Isolation of ascorbic acid and its identity 
with vitamin C : physiological properties and clinical uses. 


There seems to be no cell life in higher organisms without ascorbic acid. 
The exact biological réle played by this substance is, however, unknown. 
The most characteristic chemical feature of ascorbic acid is its high reducing 
power and the reversible nature of its oxidation. There is little doubt 
that the biological function of this substance is connected with this reaction. 

In spite of its simple chemical structure /-ascorbic acid is a highly specific 
substance. Closely related substances with the same reducing power (for 
example, its stereoisomers) are unable to replace it in biological reactions. 

Not all animals are dependent on their food for ascorbic acid. All 
animals of our climate are capable of synthesising it. The inability of man 
to produce it pleads for his tropical origin. 

Ascorbic acid having become available for medicine only very recently, 
its medical applications are not yet sufficiently settled. The first clinical 
medical experiments, however, have revealed some very striking and un- 
expected effects. Ascorbic acid seems to be able to cure in a very striking 
manner several diseases against which medicine was helpless, such as 
purpura hemorrhagica, Werlhoff’s disease, certain forms of hemorrhagica 
nephritis and hemophilia, pyorrhea, etc. This is the more striking since 
these pathological conditions have not been thought to be connected with 
lack of vitamin. These curative effects suggest that humanity is suffering 
much more gravely from a lack of vitamin C than has hitherto been supposed. 

Also the major part of pathologic pigmentations can be made to disappear 
by ascorbic acid. So, for instance, patients with Addison’s disease can be 
bleached out again by the use of this substance. 

Summarising, we thus see that, in the short space of time of two years, 
the mysterious vitamin C has been identified, its chemical structure deter- 
mined, its synthesis effected. It has also been made available for industry 
and medicine, and its medical value ascertained. It is pleasant to note that 
this unparalleled advance is due entirely to the closest and friendliest 
international collaboration. 


Dr. E. L. Hirst, F.R.S.—The chemical properties and structure of 
ascorbic acid. 


Insight into the chemical structure of ascorbic acid originated from a study 
of its oxidation products. The first (reversible) stage terminates with the 
formation of an «-diketo-acid (III), which on more drastic oxidation gives 
rise to oxalic acid and /-threonic acid (IV), the constitution of the latter 
being proved by its transformation into d-tartaric acid (V). The stereo- 
chemical relationships and the main features of the structure of ascorbic 
acid were thus elucidated. Further advance became possible with the 
discovery that the first oxidation product at the moment of its formation 
is not the acid (III) but a lactone (II) which subsequently hydrolyses to 
the free acid. It followed from this observation that ascorbic was not 


294 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—B. 


a carboxylic acid but owed its acidic character to the presence of an enolic 
hydroxyl group. At this stage of the investigation (March 1933) sufficient 
chemical and crystallographic evidence had accumulated to support the 
proposal of the structural formula (I). 


HO OH O O O O COOH 
hy Sate iia Wade vie | 
=o C=C C= COOH 
a \n H 
co CO rere) COOH COOH 
Wes val ye | | 
H—¢2£o aig = RE! gree @ | + H—C—OH HO H—C— OH H-C—o 
| | | i | > 
HO HO—C—H HO—C—H HOCH mead 
| 
CH,OH CH,OH CH,OH CH,OH COOH 
(1) (II) (III) (IV) (Vv) 


It remained only to decide whether a y-(1 : 4) or a 8-(1: 5) lactone ring 
was present, and in April 1933 a clear decision in favour of the y-lactone 
structure was obtained from investigations on the tetramethyl ether of ascorbic 
acid. 'Thissubstance gives on degradative oxidation a dimethyl /-threonic acid 
which has the free hydroxyl group in the «-position. The presence of 
a y-lactone in ascorbic acid (I) was therefore definitely established. Con- 
firmation of these views was then provided by the synthesis of ascorbic 
acid from /-xylosone. : 

The chemical and physical properties of ascorbic acid are considered in 
relation to its molecular structure. 


Mr. E. Gorpon Cox.—Crystallographic contributions to the study of 
ascorbic acid. 


The unusual chemical properties of ascorbic acid are such that at an early 
stage in the study of its constitution it was possible to suggest two or three 
spatial formule, any one of which, however, could only be finally estab- 
lished or eliminated by much time-consuming study. Any additional 
experimental method which could be used to discriminate between the 
possibilities was therefore of great value. Whilst it is usually very difficult 
to prove the correctness of a given structure by the use of X-rays, it is often 
relatively easy to eliminate suggested alternatives. ‘This was found to be 
so in the present case. Of the constitutional formulz proposed only one 
was found to fit the observed optical and X-ray data. In a relatively short 
time this formula was established by chemical methods as correct. During 
this latter stage of the work, X-ray methods were again found to be of use 
in determining molecular weights and identifying degradation products, 
especially in cases where the yield was very small, or where melting point was 
uncertain. 

The next step, that of synthesis, was also assisted by crystallographic 
methods. In the early stages work was naturally on a small scale, with 
correspondingly small yields ; X-rays and microscopic examination were 
used to identify products and thus to prevent waste of time and material on 
syntheses under unfavourable conditions. 

More detailed crystallographic work on ascorbic acid and related com- 
pounds has been carried out in order to determine as far as possible some of 
the finer details of the structure. 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—B. 295 


Dr. T. REICHSTEIN.—Investigations in the field of ascorbic acid and 
related substances. 


The first effort of Reichstein, Griissner and Oppenauer in the field of 
ascorbic acid is not the only example of synthetic studies which, though 
based on incorrect suppositions, have turned out successfully. At the time 
when we began our work the incorrect furoid formula of Micheel and Kraft 
had just appeared. Being myself a furan specialist, this formula stimulated 
my curiosity, and work was commenced on the following lines : 

(1) Attempts were made to find models containing an endiol group, and 
the probable influence of ring structure was studied. 

(2) Efforts were made to synthesise substances analogous to ascorbic acid 
(3-keto-sugar acids) and also ascorbic acid itself. 

Two methods were developed: (a) I attempted a rearrangement of 
2-keto-acids (osonic acids), while (b) my collaborator, R. Oppenauer, 
proposed the treatment of osones with hydrocyanic acid. Positive results 
were first obtained from the latter. The former was the more difficult, 
since the appropriate 2-keto-acid was not available, and the necessary 
conditions to induce it to enolise were not quite those expected. 

(i) Osone-HC'N Method.—This was developed independently in Birming- 
ham and Ziirich with successful results. 

(ii) Transformation of 2-keto-acid—The results of H. Ohle and of Maurer 
and Schiedt on the enolisation of 2-keto-d-gluconic acid appeared while we 
were engaged on the preparation of 2-keto-/-gulonic acid (/-gulosonic acid), 
the correct formula of ascorbic acid having meanwhile been established by the 
Birmingham investigators. Details of these results are given. 

(3) Reductic acid will be described as a simple analogue of ascorbic acid, 
and the y-lactone formula will be discussed. 

(4) Attempts have been made to correlate configuration and antiscorbutic 
properties. 


Prof. W. N. Hawortn, F.R.S.—Synthesis of ascorbic acid and its 
analogues. 


The experimental methods which have been applied at Birmingham for 
the synthesis of d- and /-ascorbic acid may be summarised as follows : 

(1) Addition of hydrogen cyanide (reagents potassium cyanide and calcium 
chloride) to /-xylosone. Yield, 70 per cent. (The method of direct addi- 
tion of liquid hydrogen cyanide was published independently and almost 
simultaneously by Dr. Reichstein.) 

(2) Oxidation of gulosone direct to 2-keto-gulonic acid, followed by 
isomerisation by the method of Ohle (Z. Angew. Chem., 1933, 46, 399) 
and of Maurer (Ber., 1933, 66, 1054). 

(3) Direct oxidation of sorbose to 2-keto-gulonic acid followed by iso- 
merisation. 

In addition, the same methods have led to the synthesis of seven isomers 
or analogues of the natural vitamin. The fact that arabinosone by the 
potassium cyanide method gave the same product as that of Ohle and Maurer 
(isomerisation of a 2-keto-gluconic acid) showed that either a 2- or a 3-keto- 
hexonic acid could isomerise to the same ascorbic acid type. 

The synthetic /-ascorbic acid (I) has the same physiological activity as 
the natural product (Haworth, Hirst and Zilva). Of the isomers and 
analogues obtained so far only the d-arabo-ascorbic acid (II) shows activity 
which is in the least comparable. 


296 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—B. 


HO OH HO OH 
\ x Semi 
C=C C=C 
KS NY 
CO CO 
A 
H2AC6 HGLG 
as resid i H—C—OH = 
| | 
CH,OH CH,OH 


(1) (II) 


It will be seen that the above configurations (projection formulz) are 
identical with respect to the stereochemical arrangement of groups attached 
to the ring and differ only by the reversal of one OH-group in the side 
chain. If this principle holds we should expect also the following, which 
are in course of preparation, to show some physiological activity : /-gulo- 
ascorbic acid and also the /-galacto-, d-allo- and d-erythro-ascorbic acids. 


AFTERNOON. 


Visit to the Laboratories of the Fishery Board for Scotland and of the 
Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Torry. 


Monday, September 10. 


Jomnt Discussion with Section A (Mathematical and Physical Sciences) 
on The physical and chemical properties of heavy hydrogen (10.0) :— 


Prof. E. K. Riweat, M.B.E., F.R.S.—Introduction. 


Dr. A. FarKas.—Some properties of heavy hydrogen. 


A micromethod has been developed based on the different thermal con- 
ductivity of light and heavy hydrogen. One can estimate by this method 
the relative amount of the molecular species H,, HD and D, and of their 
ortho- and para-modifications in 2-3:10°3 c.cm. of gas (N.T.P.). The 
reaction between H, and D, proceeds in the gas phase above 500-600" C. 
according to both an atomic and a molecular mechanism, but can be catalysed 
at much lower temperatures. The equilibrium constant of this reaction is 
about 4 and nearly independent of temperature. It is shown that when 
H, and D, diffuse through a fine nozzle a separation occurs on account of 
their different molecular velocities. On the other hand, the different rate 
of diffusion through palladium is due to a different heat of activation for 
this process caused by the difference in the zero point energies of light and 
heavy hydrogen. In collaboration with Dr. Harteck it was shown that, 
similarly to the case of ordinary hydrogen, the ortho-para-conversion occurs 
also with D,. From kinetic and equilibrium measurements we can deduce 
the following information concerning the D-nucleus: (a) The Bose- 
Einstein statistics are applicable; (6) the nuclear spin = 2/2; (c) the 
magnetic momentum = 0:5 nuclear magneton. 


Mr. H. W. Metvitte.—Heavy hydrogen : its bearing on problems in 
chemical kinetics in gaseous systems. 


In the investigation of the kinetic behaviour of heavy hydrogen compared 
with that of light hydrogen, the types of reaction may be divided into three 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS .—B. 297 


classes: (1) Reactions of the free atoms ; (2) reactions of the molecules ; 
(3) catalytic reactions in which a compound of hydrogen is the intermediate 
product effecting hydrogenation. 

In each of these cases, there are three factors which may cause the velocity 
of reaction of hydrogen to be greater than diplogen : (a) a collision factor, 
the maximum ratio being V2: 1; (6) the contribution of zero point energy 
to the energy of activation of the reaction ; and (c) the quantum mechanical 
leakage of the atoms or molecules through potential barriers, where these 
exist. 

As examples of the first class there are the mercury photosensitised 
hydrogenations of oxygen, nitrous oxide, ethylene and carbon monoxide, 
and the reduction of copper oxide. In the second class there are the 
hydrogen-chlorine and hydrogen-bromine reactions. In the third class, the 
hydrogenation of oxygen, nitrous oxide, and ethylene on a nickel surface, 
the diffusion of hydrogen through palladium, the reduction of copper 
oxide and the establishment of the equilibrium H, + D, = 2HD. 

The separation of the two isotopes does not occur in every one of these 
reactions, but in those cases where it is effected, the difference in velocities 
can, in general, be explained by the collision and zero point energy factors. 


Mr. G. B. B. M. SurHertanp.—The importance of heavy hydrogen 
in molecular physics. 


One of the outstanding problems in present-day molecular physics is 
that of determining the exact nature of the force field which exists between 
the various atoms of a polyatomic molecule. It may be approached in 
two ways. From our knowledge of the electronic structure of the separate 
atoms, we may, by using the methods of quantum mechanics, attempt to 
compute the interatomic force field. ‘The mathematical difficulties are, 
however, so great that this method is necessarily limited to a very few of 
the simplest molecules. Alternatively we may relate the constants deter- 
mining the force field to the fundamental vibration frequencies of the mole- 
cule, as determined from infra-red and Raman spectra. It happens, how- 
ever, that in general there are more arbitrary constants in the potential 
function than there are frequencies by which to determine them, so that 
one has to make some special assumption regarding the nature of the force 
field in order to reduce the number of arbitrary constants to be less than, 
or equal to, the number of fundamental frequencies. The importance of 
the new isotope lies in the fact that (for molecules containing hydrogen) 
We may replace a hydrogen atom by a diplogen one and so obtain a new set 
of frequencies which are still however related to the same set of force con- 
stants. It is therefore possible to obtain the force constants in the most 
general type of potential function without making those specific and rather 
doubtful assumptions which have hitherto been necessary. 

The structure of water and of ice has long been a matter of controversy 
in molecular physics. The advent of heavy water with its characteristically 
different physical properties should prove a touchstone whereby any theory 
of the structure of ordinary water and ice may stand or fall, since any com- 
plete theory of the structure of ordinary should enable one to predict the 
properties of the heavy water. 


Dr. L. Farkas.—Some chemical reactions of heavy hydrogen. 


The interaction D, + H,O takes place in the gas phase above 500°) Cy 
the mechanism being in principle similar to that of the H, + D, reaction. 
From catalytic experiments we have found that the equilibrium constant 

M 


298 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—B. 


of the reaction HO + HD = HOD + Hyg is 3°8 at 20° and 1-8 at 100° C. 
It is pointed out that this equilibrium reaction may play an important réle 
in the electrolytic separation of the hydrogen isotopes. ‘The same applies 
also to the separation observed in dissolving metals in water or in acids in 
presence of heavy water. In the case of the photochemical hydrogen- 
chlorine reaction it is shown that the heavy hydrogen reacts slower than the 
light, since its activation energy for the first step of this chain reaction is 
larger owing to its smaller zero-point energy. In collaboration with Prof. 
Rideal we have found that in the catalytic interaction of heavy hydrogen and 
ethylene two reactions take place simultaneously but independently: the 
addition of hydrogen and the exchange of hydrogen. With Mr. Yudkin 
we have investigated the enzymatic decomposition of sodium formate in 
presence of heavy water by B. coli. The hydrogen evolved is in equilibrium 
with the water, and also the interaction H,O + HD = HOD + H, is 
readily catalysed by the bacteria. 


Mr. C. StracHan.—Adsorption of gaseous tsotopes. 


The possible energy states of an atom or molecule adsorbed on the surface 
of a solid have been considered by the methods of wave mechanics. ‘The 
solid is treated as in the theory of specific heats developed by Born, Debye 
and others. The adatom is supposed held by forces giving a potential 
energy which varies somewhat as shown with distance from the surface. 


Potential 
Energy 


Distance from surface ————> 


Under the influence of the heat motion of the solid the adatom can take 
up states of different energy in this potential energy trough and can perhaps 
evaporate from the surface. 

A knowledge of heat of adsorption, difference of zero-point energy for 
isotopes, and results from adsorption isothermals can give quantitative 
information about the parameters involved in the description of the above 
potential energy curve. The analysis then allows the evaluation of: 
(1) Average time intervals between transitions of adatoms from ‘ bound ’ 
states to states when surface migration is possible, (2) probability of evapora- 
tion, and (3) length of life of adatom in ‘ migratory’ state, together with 
their dependence on temperature and the differences of behaviour of isotopes. 
In particular, results are obtained for hydrogen (H and D) adsorbed on 


; 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—B. 299 


copper and palladium, and conclusions are drawn about the mechanism of 
evaporation of hydrogen from a state of adsorption in atomic form. 

More recently a discussion of dissociation and recombination of molecules 
at a crystal surface is being developed. 


AFTERNOON. 
Visit to Macaulay Institute for Soil Research, Craigiebuckler,. 


Tuesday, September 11. 


Jotnt Discussion with Section M (Agriculture) on The chemistry of 
milk (Section B room, 10.0) :— 


Prof. H. D. Kay.—Introduction. 


Dr. J. F. Tocurer.—(a) The composition of milk and the present 
regulations (10.15). 


The proportions of the constituents of milk are known to vary widely 
from sample to sample even in the case of bulked milk. In 1925 the author 
described the form of variation for each constituent. In the case of fat and 
solids-not-fat percentages, it was shown that many cases occurred where 
the values fell below the prescribed presumptive limits under the regula- 
tions. ‘These regulations were made at a time when no accurate knowledge 
existed of the observed minimum limits in the case of herds. Legal enact- 
ments, however, should follow scientific knowledge, not precede it. One 
of the difficulties encountered is a method of detecting ‘ watering.’ Many 
cases have occurred where genuine milk has been held to be watered. An 
equation has been found from which it is possible to detect watering within 
certain limits, which can be used in conjunction with the observed freezing 
point. The results will be published at an early date together with the 
freezing point results obtained from the same samples. 


(b) Variations in the freezing point of milk. 


It has been found by various workers that there is very little variation in 
the freezing point of milk, even if samples are taken from individual cows. 


_ It is the least variable of all the physical characters, the coefficient of variation 


being approximately 1-5 as against 4°5 for refractive index and 5 for specific 
gravity. On account of its low variability the freezing point of milk has 
been frequently used as a criterion of ‘ watering.’ No general agreement 
has, however, been reached as to the actual range of values in genuine 
samples. Different results have been obtained from the same sample, due 
chiefly to the practice of placing alcohol between the freezing tube and the 
ether flask. In one case the alcohol is removed after cooling, while in the 
other it is retained. Much more constant and accurate results are obtained 
by removing the alcohol, which is useful only to promote rapid cooling. 
The author, in 1925, showed that, in the absence of alcohol, the values 
varied from — 050° C. to — 0°56° C. in fresh samples from individual 
cows. Certain workers hold that if the freezing point of a sample is greater 
than — 0°52° C., water has been added. Before, however, one can estimate 
whether watering has taken place one must know the number of cows whose 
milk has been bulked. Variation in bulked samples is naturally greater 
than in samples from one cow. Values of — 0:50° C. have been obtained 


300 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—B. 


from the bulked fresh milk of a herd. On that account it would be difficult 
to say whether milk has been watered if values in the neighbourhood of 
— 050° C. were obtained. The author has found the form of the freezing 
point curve for moderately concentrated aqueous solutions of non-electro- 
lytes. The results obtained from the use of this curve have been applied 
in order to get the best approximation to the true freezing point of milk. 


Dr. W. L. Davies.—Chemical composition of abnormal milk (10.40). 


Milk may be defined as abnormal when its contents of fat, casein and/or 
lactose fall outside certain expected ranges or when it shows abnormality 
of behaviour towards rennin or heat, or abnormal buffer value. 

The following table 1 gives the expected levels of composition of normal 
cow’s milk and the composition of milk which must be considered abnormal, 
for comparison :— 


Values in percentage of weight of the fresh milk. 


Normal Milk. Abnormal Milk. 
——ao_un———~. 
Range. Average. 
Fat, per cent. . : 2°8-5°5 3°6 Usually low. 
Lactose, percent. . 4°0-5°2 4°9 <4°2 
Chlorine (Cl), per cent. 0°045-0°150 0°'095 >0°I50 
Total nitrogen . .  0°46-0°54 0°50 Variable. 
Percentage of total nitrogen. : 
Protein nitrogen : 92-96 94 fHigh in retained milk, 
| otherwise low (85-91). 
Casein ss , 74-81 76 Less than 74. 
Albumin _,, ; II-I3 12 { Both or either, ‘high and 
Globulin _,, : 5-7 6 \ variable. 


Tes {Low in retained milk, 
Non-protein nitrogen 5-7 6 | otherwise high (9-15). 


On the assumption that abnormal milk = true milk fraction (containing 
casein N = 76 per cent. of total nitrogen) + diluting fraction, the nitrogen 
distribution and chlorine content of the diluting fraction has been calculated.” 
The fraction closely approaches blood or lymph serum or cedema fluid in 
composition ; this points to abnormality as being due to inefficiency in the 
secretory process in the elaboration of casein from the nitrogenous com- 
pounds of the blood and in secreting lactose. 

Abnormality in buffer value in the acid range, in the balance of acidic 
and basic constituents, in the distribution of ionic and non-ionic metallic 
radicles (Ca), in the amounts of the various forms of casein present and in 
the amount of heat-coagulable protein, is reflected by abnormality in rennet 
action, in ‘ curd tension ’ and in heat stability at temperatures above 100° C. 


Discussion (11.0). 
Dr. K. LinperstrgM-Lanc.—Some chemical and physical properties 


of casein (11.20). 


Casein (caseinogen), the phosphor protein in milk, is a mixture of two or 
more substances. By treatment with acid alcohol it may be divided into 


1 Davies, J. Dairy Res., 1933, 4, 142. 2 Ibid., 1933, 4, 273- 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—B. 301 


several fractions that differ in chemical composition, especially in their 
content of phosphorus. Mixing the fractions in their original proportions 
gives the original casein with its characteristic physical and chemical 
properties. 

Investigations of the solubility of casein in acids and bases show its 
complex nature. The solubility is, under constant conditions, a function 
of the amount of casein present as precipitate, and the dissolved substances 
differ in chemical compositions from the precipitate. 

The fact that casein is a mixture makes investigations of its chemical 
structure difficult. Due to its high content of phosphorus and the 
importance of this to nutrition problems, the mode of combination of this 
element has been the subject for elaborate studies. Experiments show that 
the phosphorus in casein is present as phosphoric acid and—at least partly 
—bound to serine by an ester linkage. As the phosphorus content of the 
different fractions of casein is different, this problem is of importance to 
the explanation of the above-named physical properties. 


Prof. T. P. Hitp1rcu.—The chemical nature of the glycerides of milk- 
fat (11.50). 

The methods available for the rapid characterisation and routine analysis 
of milk-fats are insufficient to give detailed information as to the fatty acids 
and glycerides present therein. The present knowledge of milk-fat acids 
and glycerides and of the procedures adopted in their study are briefly 
summarised. ‘The available data permit some comparisons to be made 
between the milk-fats of cows and of other animals, and also suggest some 
of the ways in which the milk-fat components may be varied as a result of 
change in the diet of the animal, in its age, or in certain other factors. 

Certain acids (e.g. butyric, caproic, palmitic, stearic, oleic) are present in 
important proportions in milk-fats, whilst others (some of which may be 
peculiar to milk-fats) are present in minute proportions. ‘The recent 
work of Brown and others on some of the latter acids is described. 

There is at the moment some uncertainty as to the presence of linoleic 
or other polyethenoid acids of the C,, series in butter fat, and this subject is 
discussed in the light of recent work. 


Dr. S. K. Kon.—The vitamins of milk (12.10). 


A study of the vitamin content of milk produced under conditions typical 
of the South of England practice has been in progress for the last three years 
at the National Institute for Research in Dairying, Reading. Biological 
tests have demonstrated marked seasonal variations in the total vitamin A 
activity and in the vitamin D content of milk. Physical measurements show 
a similar fluctuation in the carotene content. ‘The concentrations of the 
vitamin B complex, vitamin B, and vitamin B, appear to be constant through- 
out the year and are not affected by the season. ‘The amounts of vitamin A, 
B, and D present in milk at different seasons of the year are given in terms 
of the respective International Standards. 

It has been shown in joint work with Drs. Moore and Dann of Cambridge 
that the SbCl, test for vitamin A cannot be applied directly to butter owing 
to the presence in the latter of an inhibitor showing seasonal variation. The 
inhibitor is removed by saponification. The total vitamin A activities of 
Shorthorn and Guernsey butters produced under identical conditions of 
feeding and management are equal. On the other hand, Shorthorn butter 
contains more vitamin A and less carotene than a corresponding Guernsey 


302 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—B, C. 


butter. A biological estimation of the vitamin A activity of such butters 
coupled with physical measurement of their carotene and vitamin A content 
permits of a calculation of the vitamin A activities of carotene and of vitamin 
A sensu stricto (joint work with Mr. A. E. Gillam of Manchester). 

When the chemical test for vitamin C (using the 2-6-dichlorophenol- 
indophenol reagent) is applied to bottled milk, marked day to day variations 
are noticed in the concentration of the reducing factor. These are due to 
the action of light transmitted through glass bottles. Vitamin C in milk 
is either rapidly destroyed by visible light or else it undergoes reversible 
oxidation, the product reacting no more with the vitamin C reagent. 

The vitamin D activity of butters is to a large extent lost after saponifica- 
tion, under conditions in which the antirachitic factors of cod-liver oil 
and irradiated ergosterol are unaffected (experiments on rats). The loss 
in activity is more marked in autumn and winter butters than in summer 
butters. 

Butter contains at least two factors of differing chemical stability, which 
are antirachitic for the rat. 


Discussion (12.30). (Dr. N. C. Wricur.) 


SECTION C.—GEOLOGY. 


Thursday, September 6. 
THE GEOLOGY OF THE ABERDEEN DiIsTRICT (10.0) :— 


Prof. A. W. Giss.—Solid geology. 
Dr. A. BREMNER.—Surface geology. 


Mr. C. B. Bisset, Dr. S. BucHan, Miss Jean E. ImMuay, and Mr. J. A. 
RoBBIE.—On some granites of Aberdeenshire (11.15). 


It has hitherto been assumed that the grey granites of Aberdeen are of 
Older or pre-Torridonian age, while the red granites of Hill of Fare and 
Bennachie are Younger or Caledonian. 

It is now suggested that the majority of the Aberdeenshire granite masses 
are of Caledonian age. ‘Two divisions are recognised—an Earlier and a 
Later. 

In the Earlier Caledonian group are the Skene complex, the Aberdeen, 
Garrol and Cairnshee granites. ‘This group contains a series of rocks, 
which show a graded transition from a spheniferous quartz-mica-diorite 
through hornblende-granite and porphyritic biotite-granite to grey, two- 
mica, microcline-granite. A transition between the Skene and Aberdeen- 
shire granites takes place by diminution of porphyritic character, alteration 
of phenocrysts from perthite to microcline, appearance of muscovite and 
change of colour from red to grey. Mr. Bisset has recorded that the evidence 
points to variation of rock-type being due to differentiation. 

The Hill of Fare, Bennachie and Peterhead granites make up the Later 
group. ‘This consists mainly of coarse, non-porphyritic, more acid, red, 
biotite-granites. Within the mass there is also variation. Coarse granite, 
rich in heavy minerals, has been intruded before finer, more acid granite 
in which the heavier minerals are scarce. Dr. Buchan notes that a grano- 
diorite locally developed is due to interaction of granite and country-rock, 
while grey granites arise from reaction between red granite and mica-schists. 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—C. 303 


Dr. STEVENSON BucHan.—The petrology of the Peterhead and Cairngall 
granites (11.45). 


Two groups of granites, Cairngall and Peterhead, are recognised in the 
mass hitherto known as the Peterhead granite. 

The Cairngall granite is a grey, porphyritic and slightly foliated rock. 
The Peterhead granite is a composite intrusion of red soda-granites (albite 
granites), of which three varieties are found. ‘The earliest of these is a 
coarse-grained type, rich in heavy minerals and containing abundant 
inclusions. This variety, coming in contact with the metamorphic rocks, 
has developed locally a granodiorite characterised by idiomorphic horn- 
blende and orthite. A finer-grained, more acid granite has been forced 
into the centre of the coarse type and was followed by the intrusion of dike- 
like microgranites. 

The most prominent joints and faults trend a few degrees west of north, 
which is the direction of most of the microgranite dikes, or a few degrees 
north of east, which is the direction of porphyrite and felsite dikes. 

The contact between granite and country-rock may be sharp, with no 
chilling or modification of the granite. Elsewhere a hybrid rock may inter- 
vene to form a perfect transition. 

No ores have been found in the granite, and there is little evidence of 
tourmalinisation. A small amount of tourmaline occurs in pegmatites in 
the metamorphic rocks near the contact. 

There is an aureole of metamorphism around the granites. 

The granites were intruded towards the end of the Silurian or very early 
in the Old Red Sandstone period. 


Mr. J. V. Harrison and Mr. N. L. Fatcon.—The effect of gravity on 
rocks in weathered simple folds : a factor in tectonics (12.15). 


In parts of South-West Persia the rocks were thrown into large simple 
anticlinal folds during the Alpine orogeny Later, these rocks, comprising 
massive limestones separated and succeeded by considerable thicknesses 
of incompetent strata, were subjected to differential erosion, which has 
unroofed the limestones and removed their support in places. The action 
of gravity upon the folded rigid rocks has produced strikingly abnormal 
large-scale structures, varying according to the attitude of the limestones. 
The structures include cascading dips, overturned flaps on the edges of 
the synclines, large recumbent folds, slip-faulted blocks, ‘ roof-and-wall ’ 
folds, etc. Similar features are liable to have been formed in the Laramide, 
Hercynian and Caledonian Revolutions—whenever, in fact, orogenesis had 
thrown the rocks of the earth’s crust into folds of large amplitude. Bailey 
has produced evidence of rare structures caused by steep topography in 
submarine earthquake zones, and Jefferies has indicated the fundamental 
instability of towering piles of rock and their inherent tendency to flatten 
under the influence of gravity. The evidence examined by the authors 
shows that this process tends to occur when the surface relief is of the order 
of 2,000 ft. or more in limestone fold-mountains. Formerly such structures 
have been imputed to the action of tangential or rotational forces only. 


AFTERNOON. 


Excursion to Rubislaw Quarry, Garlogie, Gask Quarry, Dunecht, 
€astle Fraser, Craigearn, Kemnay Quarry, Craigmyle and Blackburn. 
Leaders: Mr. J. K. ALLAN and assistants. 


304 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—C. 


Friday, September 7. 


PRESIDENTIAL AppRESS by Prof. W. T. Gorpon on Plant life and the 
philosophy of geology (10.0). (See p. 49.) 


Discussion on The age of the Moine and Dalradian formations (11.0). 
Prof. H. H. Reap.—Introduction. 


In connection with the age-problems of the Moine Series, four different 
opinions are held :” 

(a) The Moine Series includes Lower Palzozoic rocks and received its 
metamorphic character during the Caledonian orogeny. 

(b) The Moine Series is the equivalent of the Torridonian and was 
metamorphosed in post-Cambrian times. 

(c) The Moine Series is post-Lewisian but pre-Torridonian, and its 
metamorphism is pre-Torridonian in age. 

(d) The Moine Series and its metamorphism are Lewisian in age. 


The bearing on these views of new evidence from Sutherland and else- 
where is indicated. Resemblances between Torridonian and Moine rocks 
adjacent to the post-Cambrian dislocations are due to metamorphic con- 
vergence, and indicate neither that the Moine general metamorphism is of 
post-Cambrian date nor that the Moine Series is the equivalent of the 
Torridonian. The relations and affinities of the Ben Loyal alkali-syenite of 
North Sutherland show that the general Moine metamorphism is earlier than 
the post-Cambrian movements—a conclusion confirmed by the examina- 
tion of the belt of low-grade metamorphism in the Moine Series near the 
great post-Cambrian dislocations. ‘The two metamorphisms of the Moine 
rocks may be both of Caledonian date or they may be separated by a great 
interval of time. 

In Central Sutherland, the Moine Series is invaded by metamorphosed 
ultrabasic and basic intrusions that are identical with the pre-Torridonian 
intrusions in the Lewisian Gneiss of the unmoved foreland. ‘This suggests 
that the Moine Series and its metamorphism are of pre-Torridonian date. 
Further, in that district, the Hornblendic Rocks of Durcha Type, which are 
of Lewisian facies, form an integral part of the Moine Series, and the three 
rock-groups—Moine Series, Rocks of Lewisian Type and Hornblendic 
Rocks of Durcha Type—are there one and indivisible. But the evidence 
for the inlier-character of the Lewisian Rocks of Ross-shire has still to be 
reckoned with, and the conclusion that the Moines may be of Lewisian age 
cannot be advanced till this evidence has been re-examined in full. 

Few data are available concerning age-relations in the Dalradian Series. 
The correlation of the Struan Flags with the Moines is accepted and leads 
to the conclusion that the Moines and Dalradian are transitional. ‘There 
are, however, many views opposed to this conclusion. The ‘ Lennoxian ’ 
of Gregory has no existence in North-East Scotland. With regard to the 
relations between metamorphism and folding in the Dalradian area, it is 
considered that no conclusions can be reached till detailed field and petro- 
graphical work has been done. 


Prof. E. B. Battey, M.C., F.R.S. 


The straight bedding of most of the Moine rocks shows that these are not, 
in the main, merely metamorphosed equivalents of the Applecross Group 
of the Torridonian, as the latter are intensely current-bedded arkoses. But 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS .—C. 305 


metamorphosed current-bedded arkoses are found among the Moines of 
Ardnamurchan. 

The retrogressive metamorphism of the Moines near the Moine Thrust 
did not carry the implication of a Pre-Cambrian age for the main Moine 
crystallisation, in the opinion of Peach, and the speaker agrees with this 
view. 

While Read’s interpretation of the Tarskavaig Moines, as being unusually 
highly metamorphosed Torridonian rocks, is consistent with Teall’s view, 
Clough was equally certain that they are unusually lowly metamorphosed 
Moines. 

Near Loch Borolan sheared sills, apparently belonging to the Assynt 
complex, are found on both sides of the Moine Thrust, which suggests that 
some of the sills were intruded after the Moine Flags had moved into the’ 
district. ‘Thus the intrusion of the Assynt complex cannot have entirely 
preceded the thrust movements. 

The appinite suite, referred to by Dr. Phemister, has been shown by 
Wright, in Colonsay, to be of intermediate age in relation to two suites of 
movements, both of which are presumably referable to the Moine Thrust 
series. 


Dr. R. CAMPBELL. 


Dr. GERTRUDE L. ELLes, M.B.E. 


In the extreme south-west of the area, the Tayvallich Boulder Bed contains 
boulders of Moine types of rock. The boulders of alkali-rich igneous 
rocks come in above, also a great series of highly metamorphosed schists and 
gneisses, closely resembling those of Islay. Quartzite boulders are also 
found, and the evidence of these included rocks points strongly to the 
conclusion that the Moines must be pre-Dalradian. 


Prof. P. E. Eskoia. 


The Moinian and Dalradian bear little resemblance to the metamorphosed 
Cambrian-Silurian of Scandinavia, but in both Sweden and Finland the 
Jotnian Sandstones are similar in every respect to the Torridonian, and 
almost certainly of the same age. In eastern and northern Finland the 
Karelian Zone of metamorphic rocks stands in the same relation to the 
Jotnian as the metamorphosed Cambro-Silurian of Scandinavia to the 
O.R.S. The Karelian Zone is closely comparable with the Dalradian, and 
includes quartzites, slates, mica-schists and limestones, cut by numerous 
sills and dykes of basic intrusives. Dr. Mikkola has recently mapped in the 
eastern and western parts of central Lapland sedimentary formations 
much like the Moinian, and probably older than the Karelian lying between 
the two areas. The plutonic intrusives in the Karelian are, however, 
Pre-Cambrian, and even Pre-Rapakivi in age, while those in the Scottish 
Highlands are Caledonian. It is consistent with the theory of geosynclines 
and recurrent periods of orogeny to suppose that sediments of similar 
lithological types may well have been deposited between the close of the 
Karelian and the Caledonian orogeny, as during the next older Pre-Cambrian 
orogenic period, i.e. up to the close of the Karelian. In Scandinavia the 
Eocambrian Sparagmite Group perhaps correlates with parts of the Dalradian, 
and it may be significant that the tillite of Varangerfjord, formerly regarded 
as Ordovician, has been recently shown by Holtedahl to be Eocambrian. 
The Boulder Bed at Schiehallion, with its interesting pebbles, is very like 

M 2 


306 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—C. 


the Varangerfjord tillite, Summarily, the Moinian and Dalradian forma- 
tions would appear to be Caledonian in the wide sense, including sediments 
of Eocambrian age, and possibly still older Post-Karelian rocks. 


Prof. H. VON ECKERMANN. 


In Sweden, recent work has divided the Pre-Cambrian into five great 
groups : 

1. The Leptites, being the oldest known volcanic and sedimentary rocks, 
cut by the oldest known granites. 

2. Archzan sediments, phyllites and quartzites, proved through mapping 
in the Loos area to rest unconformably on the old leptite-granite surface. 

3. Late-Archzan, consisting of plutonic and volcanic rocks, followed by 
later sediments. 

4. Pre-Jotnian Series, also largely igneous, with their graded erosion 
products. 

5. Sub-Jotnian Series, porphyries, porphyrites and rapakivi granites, 
followed by the Jotnian red sandstones and shales. 

Each of these groups is separated from the next by an unconformity and 
well-developed conglomerates. Above the Jotnian sandstones come the 
Eocambrian Sparagmite, followed by the Cambro-Silurian and non-fossili- 
ferous sandstones of probably Devonian age. The Sparagmite locally shows 
a marked resemblance to parts of the Moines, but the speaker believes the 
Moines are absent from Sweden, with the possible exception of some 
granulites near the Finnish border, mentioned by Eskola. Similarly, the 
Torridonian rocks are similar in their mode of occurrence to the Jotnian 
sandstones, but look younger. The only part of the Highlands which 
closely corresponds with any part of Sweden is the area of the Lewisian, 
which is closely similar to the great gneiss area of south-western Sweden. 
These the speaker regards as highly metamorphosed equivalents of 
Groups 1 and 2 above. 

As a satisfactory correlation between Sweden and Finland has not yet 
been reached, and as there are still many points of difference in regard to 
the correlation of Sweden and Norway, it is at present very risky to attempt 
to correlate Sweden with the British Isles. 


Dr. M. Maccrecor. 


The alkaline sills, presumably of post-Cambrian age, which occur east 
of the Moine Thrust, are sheared in agreement with the country rocks. 
This fact has been used as an argument for the post-Cambrian age of the 
metamorphism, but no evidence that the sills were intruded into unaltered 
sediments has been put forward, and the shearing must be regarded as due 
to the thrusting movements that produced the mylonites. 

The speaker agrees that the ‘ rocks of Lewisian type’ in central Suther- 
landshire are an integral part of the Moines, and that certain of the rock 
types in the former can be matched in the Lewisian of the foreland ; but 
as an assemblage the rocks of the Lewisian of Sutherlandshire do not 
resemble the banded and often sheared orthogneisses of the foreland. 

Strong evidence that the Moines rest unconformably upon the Lewisian 
has been obtained by the detailed survey of Ross-shire and Inverness-shire. 
Here the Lewisian contains graphite-schists and calcareous rocks of various 
kinds that are absent from the neighbouring Moines. The fact that the 
stratigraphical relation between the Moines and the Lewisian of Ross 
and Inverness is different from that between the Moines and the ‘ rocks of 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—C. 307 


Lewisian type’ in central Sutherland is a formidable obstacle to the view 
that Lewisian rocks of the two areas are identical. If the very strong 
evidence of the inliers is accepted, the Moines must be younger than the 
Lewisian. 

Transitional types between the Moines and Dalradians have been described 
from several localities, and elsewhere the line of separation between them 
is a structural break; thus the age of the Moines cannot be considered 
separately from the age of the Dalradians. Much more work on the genesis 
and history of the schists and on the time-relations of the various intrusions 
and injection complexes is necessary before the problem may be solved. 


Dr. J. PHEMISTER. 


Prior to the intrusion of the Carn Chuinneag complex the Moine sedi- 
ments were gently folded along east-west axes, and had possibly been 
already intruded by basic sills, in pre-Caledonian times. The Carn 
Chuinneag complex caused thermal metamorphism of the Moine sediments, 
which, in early Caledonian times, were folded isoclinally along N.N.E. to 
S.S.E. axes, and were metamorphosed into schists and granulites. Reference 
of these events to early Caledonian times is based on the argument that, 
if the Caledonian earth-movements were not responsible for the isoclinal 
folding, they had no effect in northern Scotland other than the production 
of the great overthrusts, and minor folding ; also that no parallel system 
of folding is known in the Pre-Cambrian of N.W. Scotland, except a 
very early Archzan folding of a broad, gentle type, seen in places in the 
Lewisian gneiss. The next episode was of considerable duration, and was 
mainly later than the folding, though still of early Caledonian date. To 
this episode belong the regional concordant granitic intrusions. 

In late Caledonian times the Ben Loyal syenite, the Ach’uaine Hybrid 
and Appinite Suites were intruded. 

The thrust dislocations and the minor folding and rodding along N.W. 
to S.E. axes followed ; while finally the great granitic and granodioritic 
stocks were injected, possibly continuing into Lower O.R.S. times. 

Prof. Read’s argument for the pre-Torridonian age of the Moine meta- 
morphism is considered invalid because his petrographic comparisons of 
gneisses in the Moine and Lewisian formations are drawn between rocks 
possessing different geological histories. 


Prof. C. E. TiLtey. 


AFTERNOON. 


Excursion to Methlick, Tanglanford Bridge, Ythanbank, Auchedly 
Bridge, Tarves, Craigie, Rocks of Balmedie Quarry, Belhelvie Village 
and ‘Tarbothill. Leaders: Prof. A. W. Gres and Prof. H. H. Reap. 


Saturday, September 8. 


Excursion to Potarch, Birse, Dinnet, Deecastle, Inchmarnoch, Dinnet 
Bridge, Mill of Dinnet, Ferrar, Dinnet Village, Burn o’ Vat, Ordie, Dinnet 
and Aboyne. Leader: Prof. H. H. Reap. 


Sunday, September 9. 


Excursion to Stonehaven Harbour, Dunnottar Castle, Burn of Benholm. 
Leader: Dr. R. CAMPBELL. 


308 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—C. 


Monday, September 10. 
Discussion on Underground water supply (10.0) :— 
Prof. W. S. Boutton.—Introduction. 
(Ordered by the General Committee to be printed in extenso. See p. 456.) 


Prof. P. G. H. Boswe.u, O.B.E., F.R.S. 


The speaker desires to emphasise, as Prof. Boulton has done, the fre- 
quently urged necessity for a national survey of water resources, including 
the systematic recording of underground water-levels and flow from springs. 
The need for a survey and proper recording of both underground and 
overground supplies has been repeatedly recommended; it was so as 
recently as last year by the Inland Water Survey Committee of the British 
Association (a joint committee of Sections A, E, and G) and was the raison 
d’étre of a deputation from the Association and the Institution of Civil 
Engineers to the Ministry of Health in July of this year (v. the Committee’s 
Report). In order that such a survey of possible underground resources 
may be rendered effective, it is imperative that there should be compulsory 
registration of all wells and boreholes of more than too ft. in depth, just as 
similar shafts and borings in connection with mining operations are regis- 
tered under the Mining Industry Act. The only addition to the data 
which Prof. Boulton regards as essential for the proper understanding of 
the problem, that occurs to the speaker, is the recording of the depression 
of water-level in each borehole in various rock-formations in relation to 
the varying amounts of water pumped. Among the many practical ques- 
tions on which the survey would throw light are the serious and persistent 
fall of underground water-level and (to take a topical example) the considera- 
tion of the most effective and least expensive methods of dealing with local 
shortage of supplies resulting from drought conditions. 

The investigation of underground water is not concerned only with its 
recovery for domestic and industrial consumption (a steadily increasing 
demand). As is well known, it is necessary for the effective disposal, as a 
temporary or a permanent measure, of undesirable supplies, and for the 
safe and economic prosecution of large-scale engineering undertakings. 


Sir A. E. Kitson, C.M.G., C.B.E. 


Before the Conference of Corresponding Societies the speaker urged that 
compulsory registration with the Government should be made of all boring 
and. well-sinking operations below too ft., as is the law at present in 
relation to similar operations for minerals. The tabulation of informa- 
tion respecting the nature of the strata passed through during boring and 
well-sinking is highly desirable, but it is not legally compulsory. These 
operations for water afford excellent opportunities of obtaining valuable 
information, and full advantage should be taken of such opportunities. 

Although the people operating the plants are not geologists, they can 
give information of value, leaving the geologists to furnish the details of the 
strata. The Geological Survey of Great Britain can supplement such 
information, but only if they are notified of the operations. ‘There are, 
besides, numbers of amateur as well as professional geologists dispersed- 
through the country, who may be depended upon to assist in such work. 
Further, the members of Corresponding Societies can also give assistance 
by notifying the Geological Survey of such operations in their districts. 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—C. 309 


Co-operation and co-ordination in this manner will give valuable informa- 
tion, at present obtainable in only a few cases, and so be of much economic 
value to the country. 

It is important to get evidence of the character of the hidden Chalk in 
the London basin, more particularly with regard to the function of the 
joints and fractures, which may divert the water falling in the Chilterns 
to the surface as springs, or may give rise to local storage-basins underground. 

With regard to additions to supplies of water in the London basin, the 
speaker suggested continuous diversion into boreholes in the Chalk at 
suitable places of small portions of the streams flowing in the valleys, after 
the water had been sterilised. Such refilling of the basin would counteract 
the tendency to draw polluted Thames water into it, to the great detriment 
to health, but a very real danger owing to the greatly lowered level of the 
water under London. 


Prof. W. G. FEARNSIDES, F.R.S. 


The underground water problem as it affects the industrial regions of 
W. Yorkshire and the S.E. Pennine area is discussed. "The importance of 
joints in the Carboniferous and older rocks for water storage within the 
formations, and for conducting unfiltered water to particular borings, shafts 
and wells, is stressed. ‘The influence of rock composition and rock texture, 
more especially inter-grain porosity, on the water-bearing properties of 
the newer geological formations, is noted, and the author refers to the 
distribution of geological structures and their effects upon the disposition of 
wells and troublesome waters in the coal mines of the exposed coalfield area. 
Reference is made to the special precautions taken when sinking shafts 
through the Magnesian Limestone and Trias which lie above the Coal 
Measures in the concealed portion of the field that is now being developed. 
The composition of the water obtained from certain of the Bunter wells of 
the Midlands, more particularly those which must be increasingly exploited 
as the Doncaster coalfield and its industries expand, is discussed. 


Prof. G. HIcKLING. 
Mr. L. H. Tonks. 


Dr. S. W. Woo.LpRIDGE. 


The marked variations of rainfall which have occurred in the past, and 
which will certainly recur in the future, enforce the urgency of a systematic 
investigation of underground water resources. ‘The great drain on water 
supplies during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has occurred during 
a period of generally high rainfall, not to be regarded as representing 
average conditions. Even though underground water cannot, in the long 
view, be regarded as an alternative to a water grid fed from the wetter west, 
it will: always be capable of affording supplementary supplies. But the 
exploitation of these latter will demand a much more detailed knowledge 
of regional hydro-geology than can be gathered from existing data. Some- 
thing more than the useful records of the Water Supply Memoirs of the 
Geological Survey is required. These are largely records of past attempts, 
successful or unsuccessful, to find water. For vast areas of country there 
is practically no hydro-geological information of any kind available. These 
blanks can be filled only by deliberate investigation carried out concurrently 
with a greatly accelerated 6-in. primary geological survey. The sinking 


310 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—C. 


of exploratory narrow-gauge borings at selected critical stations should 
prove both feasible and profitable in the course of such work. 


AFTERNOON. 


Excursion to Insch, Auchenbrodie, Den of Wraes and Wardhouse. 
Leader: Prof. H. H. Reap. 


Tuesday, September 11. 


Mr. K. P. OaKtey.—Pearl-like bodies in certain Silurian Polyzoa (10.0). 


Spheroidal bodies bearing a remarkable resemblance to minute pearls, 
on account of their opalescent lustre and fine concentrically laminated 
structure, occur in the zocecia of Ceramoporoid Polyzoa from the Wen- 
lockian beds of Cardiff, Dudley, etc. 

They were interpreted by Etheridge and Foord as chalcedonic infillings 
of mural-pores, and by Dr. Bassler as extraneous silicified ooliths. ‘Their 
true nature as internal calculi, probably formed during the lifetime of the 
polyzoa, was hinted at many years ago by Prof. Sollas. 

Detailed investigation has shown that these spheroliths are composed of 
calcium carbo-phosphate (dahllite) deposited from solution in thin concentric 
layers round nuclei. Their occurrence in the zoccial tubes, completely 
sealed in by the continuous diaphragms and unaccompanied by detrital 
material, makes it evident that they were formed in situ. Their restriction 
to the members of one or two closely related genéra is indicative of a control 
effected by the anomalous biochemical nature of the body-fluids of these 
particular forms. It is suggested that the spheroliths are analogous to 
urinary calculi, and that essential factors in their formation were practical 
absence of ‘ buffering ’ in the body-fluids and a substantial rise in their pH 
value during the degeneration of the polypides. ‘The conditions postulated 
have been reproduced experimentally and comparable results obtained. 


Dr. A. RatstricK.—The microspores of Carboniferous coals (10.25). 


By the use of solvents, the microspores of coal-forming plants have been 
extracted from coal in quantities sufficient to allow of statistical treatment. 
Over forty different varieties of microspore are recognised, and an attempt 
has been made to study their distribution through the coal seams of both 
lower and upper Carboniferous age, in Northumberland and Durham. 
Their use for the correlation of coal seams has been tested over a wide area 
and a large number of seams, with encouraging results. 

Several problems of theoretical interest, relating to the coal-measure 
floras, are suggested by this study. 


Mr. D. J. ScourrreLp.—The animal remains in the Rhynie Chert (11.0). 


So far, all the animal remains found in this Middle Old Red Sandstone 
chert belong, with one or two doubtful exceptions, to the Arthropoda, of 
which three classes are represented definitely, viz. Crustacea, Arachnida 
and Insecta, while the Myriapoda are doubtfully represented by a single 
specimen the true nature of which has still to be determined. ‘The single 
species Lepidocaris rhyniensis Scourfield represents the Crustacea, but is 
placed in a new order, viz. Lipostraca. ‘The Arachnids are represented by 
Protacarus crani Hirst, belonging to the order Acari; by a single specimen 
of Palzocteniza crassipes Hirst, thought to be one of the Aranez ; and by 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS .—C. 311 


two genera and a number of species belonging to the Anthracomarti. ‘These 
are grouped into a new family, Palzocharinide, and comprise Pal@o- 
charinoides hornei Hirst, Paleocharinus scourfieldi Hirst, P. rhyniensis Hirst, 
P. calmani Hirst, P. kidstoni Hirst, and a dozen other forms not specifically 
named. A supposed Eurypterid, Heterocrania rhyniensis Hirst and Maulik, 
is represented by fragmentary remains, and was apparently of very small 
size. The class Insecta is definitely represented by forms of Collembola, 
named Rhyniella precursor by Hirst and Maulik, who have also figured the 
jaws of another insect in the larval form, which Tillyard has named Rhynio- 
gnatha hirsti. 


Dr. B. H. Knicut.—The economic uses of some Aberdeen granites (11.30). 


These granites are widely used in building and in road-making, and the 
paper describes a recent application of the Rosiwal method of mineralogical 
analysis whereby the suitability or otherwise of any particular type for such 
uses can be determined. The acid plutonic igneous rocks are shown to 
possess certain structural and textural features which materially affect this 
question, one of the most important of which is the prevalence of fissuring, 
usually only discernible by microscopic means, but clearly visible by stain- 
ing methods, which is peculiar to this class of rocks only. A colorimetric 
test applicable to the class has been worked out, and the method of measuring 
the amount of fissuring present is described. Possible explanations as to 
the cause of the fissuring are discussed, comparisons between the amount 
of fissuring present in the commoner Aberdeen granites and those from other 
localities are made, and the paper concludes with a short appendix describing 
the method of impregnation and staining of the specimens and slides. 


Prof. W. N. Benson.—The Ordovician rocks of New Zealand (12.0). 


Fossiliferous Ordovician argillite associated with greywacke and quartzite 
occur in the north-western and south-western extremities of the South 
Island. Field studies by several workers, and palzontological investiga- 
tions, chiefly by Keble, have resulted in the quadrupling during the last 
decade of the list of known fossils (now over 130 species), and of distinct 
faunal associations. ‘The development of graptolites is similar to that in 
Victoria.. In the Lower Ordovician rocks have been found in regular 
stratigraphic succession eight faunal associations comparable with those 
occurring within the Lancefieldian, Bendigonian and Castlemainian Series 
of Victoria, which Dr. Elles considers the equivalent of the Dichograptus 
and D. extensus zones of the Skiddaw Slates. The higher Ordovician beds, 
among which is some limestone, are approximately equivalent to the Gis- 
bornian Series of Victoria, or the Llandeilian of Britain. 'There is a richly 
fossiliferous lower assemblage, and two scanty higher assemblages. A 
Protospongia, a few phyllocarids and brachiopods described by Chapman, 
and two trilobites described by Reed, mostly of Lower Ordovician age, 
complete the known fauna. The passage from the normal sediments into 
crystalline schists has been traced in petrographic detail. 


Prof. W. N. Benson.—The Devonian period in Australia (12.30). 

The paper briefly summarises the character and distribution of the various 
formations of this age throughout Australia, indicating their paleaogeographic 
significance. 

AFTERNOON. 

Excursion to Bay of Nigg, Cove Quarry, Bothiebriggs, Cammachmore, 

Shielhill, Tarbothill and Blackdog. Leader: Dr. A. BREMNER. 


312 SECTIONAL 'TRANSACTIONS.—C. 


Wednesday, September 12. 


Mr. A. T. J. Dottar—The petrology of certain dike rocks of high 
magnetic susceptibility (10.0). 


In 1933 relatively large magnetic anomalies were detected while making 
traverses above basaltic and doleritic dikes hidden beneath an overburden 
of 9 in. to 10 ft. of soil on Lundy, Bristol Channel. 

Samples of these dikes were collected and examined petrographically 
by the author, while the magnetic mass-susceptibilities (i.e. the respective 
magnetic susceptibilities per unit volume—measures of the magnetising 
effects of particular magnetic fields upon specimens placed in them—divided 
by the respective densities of the specimens ; both sets of quantities being 
expressed in appropriate units) of (a) small rectangular bars of square 
cross-section, cut from these rocks, and (b) powdered samples of the same, 
were determined by Prof. E. Herroun, using a modified Curie balance and 
magnetic fields of suitable strengths. 

The numerical values so obtained prove to be related in an interesting 
manner to (a) the kinds, proportions and distributions of iron-bearing 
minerals in the dikes, especially magnetite, hematite and ilmenite ; (0) states 
of weathering in the rocks; (c) magmatic differentiation, including the 
sorting of iron-rich minerals by convection currents ; (d) directional mag- 
netic properties acquired in the earth’s magnetic field, or as a result of 
conducted lightning discharges ; (e) data obtained from magnetic measure- 
ments made with the vertical magnetic force variometer. 

The unusually high value of 4230 X 10-°c.g.s.u. for the magnetic volume- 
susceptibility of a sample from dike’ No. 21, East Side, Lundy, using a 
magnetic field-strength of 78 c.g.s.u. in the measuring instrument, is 
especially noteworthy in relation to the character and content of its iron- 
bearing constituents. 


Mr. S. J. Tomxererr.—The British Carboniferous-Permian igneous province 
(10.30). 

Statistical methods are applied to the study of the late Paleozoic igneous 
rocks, mainly in the midland valley of Scotland and the Borders. The 
material comprises 254 chemical analyses (recorded and unrecorded) and 
126 modal analyses (including 80 new analyses). 

According to relative age the rocks are divided into the following series : 

1. Alkalic series —Olivine-basalts, Mugearites, 'Trachyandesites, 
Trachytes, Felsites. Mainly lavas of Lower Carboniferous age. 

2. Peralkalic series—Picrites, Picro-teschenites, Teschenites (Theral- 
ites), Lugarites, with a transitional series of Basanites, Crinanites, Essexites. 
Late Carboniferous or early Permian intrusives. 

3. Calc-alkalic series —Quartz-dolerites with segregation veins. Prob- 
ably early Permian intrusives. 

The modal analyses refer mainly to the olivine-basalts, which, although 
forming a continuous series, can be subdivided into three groups according 
to the relative proportions of pyroxene and feldspar (olivine and iron ores 
do not show any significant variation) : 


(1) Pyroxene-rich group—Hillhouse and Craiglockhart types. 
(2) Intermediate group—Dalmeny and Dunsapie types. 
(3) Feldspar-rich group—Jedburgh and Markle types. 


The first group grades into the Basanites (including monchiquites, etc.}, 
while the third group passes into a more acid and amore alkaline group of 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—C. 313 


Mugearites. The differentiation series proceeds to the Trachytes, which 
apparently split into a more alkaline group of Phonolitic trachytes and a 
more acid group of Felsites. 

The major portion of the alkalic series can be interpreted as a result of 
crystallisation’ differentiation from a basaltic parent magma. The end- 
products (Phonolitic trachytes and Felsites) are probably due to the migra- 
tion (convection) of alkalies and volatiles. 

The members of the peralkalic series have resulted from an early gravita- 
tional differentiation (olivine sinking) together with the squeezing out of 
the residual liquid at the last stage of solidification (segregation veins of 
lugarite, analcite-syenite, etc.). 

The members of the calc-alkalic series are entirely due to the squeezing 
out of the residual liquid. 

The origin of the three principal series is explained by the migration of 
alkalies and volatiles in the primary basaltic magma, which itself is the 
source of the first series. "The upward migration of alkalies and volatiles 
probably occurred at the end of the volcanic period in consequence of the 
relief of pressure. The concentration of alkalies and volatiles in the upper 
zone of the magmatic reservoir gave rise to the peralkalic sub-magma, while 
the lower de-alkalinised zone produced the late calc-alkalic sub-magma. 


Dr. F. Waker. —A limestone-diorite contact near Dorback Lodge, Inverness- 
shire (11.0). 


The granite mass of Dorback to the north of the Braes of Abernethy 
exhibits a well-marked dioritic facies towards its eastern margin. This 
relatively basic rock is associated with a thick band of limestone which has 
apparently been caught up in the magma. While there is no evidence of 
extensive assimilation, a well-exposed contact in a stream section shows 
some interesting phenomena on a small scale. 

Analyses show that the diorite becomes richer in iron oxides, lime and 
potash towards the contact, while under the microscope hornblende is 
seen to give way to green diopsidic pyroxene. The limestone is richer 
in iron oxides and magnesia towards the margin, and this increase in 
ferro-magnesian content is accompanied by a greater development of lime- 
silicate minerals. 

The contact aureole of the granite contains some unusual mineral 
assemblages of which the most notable is a cordierite anthophyllite rock. 


Dr. R. Campse_t and Dr. I. M. Rosertson.—Glacial and interglacial 
deposits at Benholm, Kincardineshire (11.30). 


Near the farm of Upper Birnie, over 200 ft. O.D., and 13 miles from the 
sea, the drift deposits in the Burn of Benholm show the following succession : 
(a) Gravel, (b) Red boulder-clay, (c) Interglacial gravel, sand and peat, 
(d) Black shelly boulder-clay, with, at one point, stratified shelly sand and 
gravel intervening between the boulder-clay and the country rock. 

The shelly boulder-clay contains numerous arctic shells, usually broken 
and striated ; the boulders include chalk and other Mesozoic limestones, 
chalk flints, jet, etc. The included boulders indicate transport from the 
north-east. ; 

The interglacial sands and gravels are sometimes contorted. The peat, 
which has a maximum thickness of about 15 cm., shows several well-defined 
changes in structure and composition. The lower layers merging into the 
lower boulder-clay are black and well decomposed, and contain much silt. 


314 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS .—C. 


This, combined with the fact that they contain nymphza pollen, would 
indicate a marshy land surface. From this point upwards there are various 
alternating layers of dark and lighter coloured material, most of which is 
well humified. There is a sharp line of demarcation between the peat and 
the upper boulder-clay. 

The pollen analyses show that the chief tree species present are Pinus 
and Betula, the lower layers containing from 60 to 80 per cent. of the former 
and from 25 to 35 per cent. of the latter. In the upper layers the position 
is reversed, the Betula rising to over 60 per cent., while the Pinus falls to 
under 20 per cent. Alnus and Quercus occur throughout the profile, and 
in the upper layers Ulmus and Corylus are also found. ‘The marked change 
in the Pinus and Betula figures about half-way up the section accompanies 
a change in the character of the peat, and would seem to indicate a marked 
change of climate. 

The frequency of the pollen is low in all cases. 

The upper, red, boulder-clay is the bottom moraine of the ‘ Strathmore ’ 
ice-sheet which, at this locality, had a north-easterly movement ; the over- 
lying gravels are fluvio-glacial and were deposited during the retreat of 
this second ice-sheet. 


Mr. M. B. Cotswortu.—The glacial cause of changing climates (12.0). 


Since the present author’s paper on changing climates at the meeting in 
1906, so much more information concerning changes of climate has been 
gathered in Alaska, Canada, Western Asia, West Africa and other countries, 
that it seems advisable that the evidence of geologists, climatologists and 
government surveyors should be co-ordinated by a Research Committee 
appointed by the British Association to consider and report upon this world- 
wide subject, which has developed beyond the scope of individual research. 

Official photographs are produced showing that great glaciers in 
Alaska have been melted back at the rate of about half a mile per year. 
The Sahara Desert has been drifting southwards across the Nigerian 
boundary. The Dead Sea has been dried up so far by evaporation that 
Jericho is now many miles north of the river Jordan’s outfall into the Dead 
Sea. 

Palestine has become more arid, as have all the countries northward to 
the Siberian Railway. Similar changes are progressing in South Africa 
and Australia. 

From such indications the writer forms the opinion that the gravitational 
weight of the increasing Ice-cap in Greenland, Baffin Land, etc., indicates 
that the Glacial Period is continuous and that its variations during many 
thousands of years dry up vast areas while other parts are increasingly 
watered and renewed by the very slow but ever varying changes of climate. 


Dr. C. A. Mattey.—A 50-ft. platform in North Wales. (‘Taken as read.) 


An account is given of a 50-ft. platform or terrace which is well developed 
on the Lleyn Peninsula (Carnarvonshire) around Pwllheli, Llanbedrog, 
Abersoch, Llanengan, Afon Wen, etc. A similar feature is believed to be 
present at both ends of the Menai Straits and at Llandudno. 

Its inner margin stands at about 50 to 56 ft. O.D. and it slopes gently 
seaward. It consists largely of gravels and sands with much glacial material ; 
no organisms or artifacts have been found in it. Its age is discussed with 
reference to the glacial history of the Lleyn Peninsula and its relation to 
the glacial overflow channels of that area. In part the terrace abuts against 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—C, D. 315 


sands and gravels laid down during an episode of Glacial retreat, and it 
seems probable that the platform was formed during a later episode of that 
retreat. 


SECTION D.—ZOOLOGY. 


Thursday, September 6. 


PRESIDENTIAL Appress by Dr. E. S. Russett, O.B.E., on The study of 
behaviour (10.0). (See p. 83.) 


Dr. D. S. MacLacan.—Cycles in insect epidemics (11.0). 


Dr. A. E. Cameron.—The biology of the Scottish Tabanide (11.30). 


Three genera of Tabanide occur in Scotland—Tabanus, Hematopota 
and Chrysops. 'The little-known life histories of these flies have been in- 
vestigated on account of their economic importance and in the hope that 
light might be thrown on the taxonomy of the group. 

Hematopota pluvialis, the Cleg, is the most prevalent species. Its larva 
has been hatched and reared. The larva is carnivorous and cannibalistic. 
Experiments on the peculiar organ of Graber, which is present in the 
posterior part of the abdomen of the larva, indicate that its function is the 
perception of vibrations. Such a function must be of great use to the 
larva in its natural environment in the soil. 

Adults of this species were induced to pair and lay eggs in the laboratory. 
The eggs were laid in masses of about one hundred and fifty, on leaves of 
grass or on the sides of the glass jar in which the flies were living. Oviposition 
followed a blood meal at an interval of ten days. A second oviposition 
may follow a second blood meal, but the second egg-mass is usually smaller. 

The life histories of several other species have been investigated. Some 
of these species are pests in the straths and glens of the Highlands and 
along the shores of lochs. These species lay egg-masses, which vary in 
form with the species. The larve of most species will feed on meat, but 
that of Chrysops relicta refused this diet. In this species the life history 
may last two years. 


Dr. J. F. G. WHEELER.—Drift-bottle work round Bermuda and its connection 
with the flora and fauna of the surrounding waters (12.0). 


The Bermudas lie in lat. 32° 19’ N. and long. 64° 49’ W. within the 
western border of the Sargasso Sea. Interest in the tides and currents of 
the islands was stimulated by one of the Governors, and a paper was pub- 
lished in 1844 based upon the reports of pilots and sea captains, but the 
results are confused. 

It is known in Bermuda that the Sea Bottle (Halicystis) is washed up on 
the south shore beaches from May to July, and it has been found that in 
the winter the Sargasso weed fauna is much sparser than it is in summer, 
some species of fishes and flatworms being entirely absent. The direction 
of drift of thirty-seven bottles recovered out of 530 liberated during two 
years suggests that during the winter the surface drift is from the north, and 
during the summer from the south-west. Halicystis lives in the Sargasso 
weed and is brought in bythe summer drift, which also brings large numbers 


316 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—D. 


of animals, while the winter drift carries old weed to the islands from which 
the animals have to a great extent disappeared. 


REPORTS OF RESEARCH COMMITTEES (12.45). 
AFTERNOON. 
Dr. S. M. Manton.—Peripatus (2.15). 


Dr. D. S. Rartr.—Fishing intensity and stock replenishment in the haddock 
(2.45). 


Investigations into the factors governing fecundity in North Sea haddock 
have shown that, in fish of the same age, egg production is proportional 
to a power of length slightly greater than the cube, while in fish of the same 
length the older the specimen the greater the number of eggs produced, 
the difference being most noticeable in two-year-olds as compared with 
three-year-olds. At the age of two, moreover, only about ro per cent. of the 
females and 60 per cent. of the males of a year class mature. At three 
about 75 per cent. of the females and 95 per cent. of the males are spawners, 
and it is not till the age of five in males and six in females that all surviving 
members of a brood have ripened. 

Such is the efficiency of the modern trawl that haddock come under its 
influence when they are about eighteen months old. Only a negligible 
percentage escapes capture to reach large size. "The brunt of stock replenish- 
ment falls upon small fish of two and three years of age, for which task they 
are of greatly inferior capabilities. } 


Dr. Henry Woop.—The relationship between the herring caught on the 
Scottish drift-net grounds and those caught by trawl on the Fladen 


ground (3.15). 


The herring population in Scottish waters is made up of at least two 
distinct race components, spring spawners and autumn spawners, which 
differ not only in their spawning times, but also to some extent in their 
distribution. Morphologically they are distinguishable from each other 
by differences in the numbers of vertebrz and keeled scales. The first 
shoals which appear on the drift-net grounds in May and June in search of 
food are mixed, containing varying proportions of the two components. 
About mid-July a redistribution of the shoals takes place. Maturing autumn . 
spawners migrate to coastal areas and spawn in August and September. 
At the same time a large concentration of herring takes place on the Fladen 
ground, where spawning does not take place. These two communities, 
which incorporate closely allied components, remain apart throughout the 
rest of the drift-net fishery, so that the results of the trawl fishery for 
herring on the Fladen ground have no effect on the drift-net catches until 
the following May and June, when the shoals in quest of food are due to 
return again to grounds which lie within range of the drifter fleets. 


Dr. S. G. Gippons.—Copepods with reference to herring fishery problems 
(3.45). : 

Introductory remarks on the group. Food value owing to oil. Copepods 

form main food of the herring in Scottish waters in’summer and, of all 


Copepods, Calanus is by far most abundant. Study of Calanus therefore 
useful and necessary, and the possibility at once arises of correlating plankton 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—D. cg 


and herring shoals. The life history of Calanus is complex, and length of 
life of various stages still open to doubt. 

Important above all is the movement of the swarms of Calanus, for they 
are far from being regularly distributed in the sea and depend for their 
movements upon currents of the ocean. It is now established that there is 
a spring influx of Calanus into the North Sea and a small winter population 
in that area. Data give some idea of the intensity of the influx (1933 data 
from Explorer). 

In spite of the small size of this animal some idea of its importance as 
food may be gathered when it is realised that the oil available from these 
crustacea alone in the N.E. Atlantic in spring would, if it could all be col- 
lected, have to be reckoned in millions of tons weight per month. 


Friday, September 7. 


Prof. J. VersLuys.—The distribution of marine animals and the history of 
the continents (10.0). 


If, trying to reconstruct the history of the continents, we look for indica- 
tions given by the distribution of marine animals, we must consider such 
groups as can be presumed to be conservative in their distribution. This con- 
servatism may be expected when the means of distribution are very limited, 
as in deep-sea corals, for instance, in the family of Primnoids, Gorgonacea, 
living on the continental slope. A southern fauna of Primnoids may 
clearly be distinguished from a circumtropical one, and the mixing is very 
limited, though the oceans are now in open communication, with continuous 
coastlines. This is in accordance with Wegener’s theory, that presumes 
the southern Atlantic to be of rather recent origin. 

The southern fauna is found on the coastal slope of the southern part 
of South America, on the southern coast of Australia and near some inter- 
mediate islands—but not on the coast of South Africa. This is not in 
accordance with present conditions, but again fits in with Wegener’s theory. 
Wegener assumes that Australia and South America were formerly lying 
much closer together as parts of one continent. The present distribution 
of southern forms on so widely separated coasts has been caused by the 
splitting up of this continent. 


Prof. A. REICHENSPERGER.—Probability of species-transformation in South 
American Myrmecophiles (11.0). 


Mr. G. E. H. Foxon.—Functional adaptation in crustacean larve (11.30). 


In the Decapod crustacea there is a primitive scheme of development, 
variations of which are found in different groups. These variations are 
seen to be intimately related to function. This primitive scheme consists 
firstly of naupliar stages where the head appendages are the swimming 
organs ; these stages are followed by those in which the thoracic appendages 
are the swimming organs, and then finally the pleopods take on this function. 
In most Decapoda the nauplius is suppressed : this means that the stage in 
which the thoracic appendages are natatory is not already committed to 
forward movement. Movement is found to take place in directions other 
than forwards, and this is correlated with the existence of the respiratory 
current which flows from behind forwards. Movement in directions other 
than forwards makes functional continuity between the stages in which 
the thoracic appendages are natatory and those in which the pleopods 
subserve this function impossible. ‘ Metamorphosis ’ between these stages 


318 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—D. 


is the result. Among the Stomatopoda, however, in Lysiosquilla the 
swimming function is seen to be passed gradually from the thoracic ap- 
pendages to the pleopods. It is suggested that this orderliness of develop- 
ment is due to the absence of a respiratory current in the Stomatopoda. 


Mr. A. G. Lownpes.—The movement of ostracod spermatozoa as shown by 
the cinematograph film (12.0). 


Fresh-water ostracods possess both relatively and absolutely the largest 
sperms known throughout the animal kingdom. ‘Their length may be as 
much as ten times the length of the adult male. 

If these sperms are taken from the male they show no sign of movement, 
but if they are taken from the spermatheca of the female they are highly 
motile. 

While the spermatogenesis has been worked out in a few species, no 
nucleus has been found in the adult sperms, and there is strong evidence 
that the sperms are now functionless. 

The sperms have been filmed under varying powers of the microscope 
and the nature of the movement examined. 

The survival of these functionless sperms, and especially the survival of 
a very long spermathecal duct in genera and species in which males have 
long ceased to occur, presents an interesting problem from a genetical point 
of view. It is hoped that this point will be discussed. 


Dr. H. Sanpon.—Pseudopodial structure and movements in Foraminifera 
(12.30). 

The pseudopodia of Foraminifera have been studied from three points 
of view: (1) In relation to the life processes (especially feeding and 
locomotion) of the Foraminifera themselves, (2) in connection with the 
interrelationships of the different orders of Rhizopoda (the separation of 
which is based largely on pseudopodial form), and (3) in connection with 
more general problems of protoplasmic structure and movement. 

Commonly even the finest pseudopodial thread contains two oppositely 
moving streams of granules, the velocities of which are independent of the 
thickness of the thread. A relatively tough moving ‘ skin’ is also present 
on whose properties depends the selection (i.e. adhesion or non-adhesion) 
of food and other foreign objects. The exact location of the other moving 
parts and the existence of an axial rod are more doubtful. The proto- 
plasmic movements are independent of the existence of a free pseudopodial 
tip or of contact of the pseudopodium with a substratum, and are therefore 
not dependent on any gradient in surface tension, etc. Analogy with the 
known structure of an amceban pseudopodium is of only very limited 
application. Some preliminary experiments on the effects of chemical 
and other stimuli seem to open up a promising method of studying the 
physical conditions which confer the necessary stability on these fine fluid 
threads. 


AFTERNOON. 
Prof. W. C. O. Hitt.—The affinities of the Lorisoids (2.15). 


Definition of the Lorisoids to include Slender and Slow Lorises, Galagos 
and Pottos. Characters which all these have in common. Characters in 
which they resemble the Lemuroids. Characters in common with Tarsioids. 
General status therefore intermediate. Position of Cheirogaleus. Relation 
of Loris to the remaining Lorisoids and to Tarsius. General appearance 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—D. 319 


and mode of life. Specialised characters. Primitive characters. Geo- 
graphical and geological factors. Inferences. Own views on the classifica- 
tion of the Primates arising from above study. i 


Mr. D. R. R. Burt.—The correlation between climatic factors and the 
distribution of the geographical races of some Ceylon mammals (2.45). 


The different factors, temperature, relative humidity, light, altitude, 
etc., which constitute the climate in different regions of Ceylon are discussed. 
On the basis of these factors the Island is divided into three distinct zones : 
low-country dry zone, low-country wet zone, and the central hill zone 
which is also wet. ‘The geographical races of different mammalian species 
are considered and their morphological differences are correlated to the 
different climatic factors. 

There is a relation between external temperature and the internal tem- 
perature of an animal, its metabolic rate, its body size, and the ratio of the 
length of its appendages to the length of its body. The differences in the 
morphological characters of different geographical races are attributed to 
the efficiency of the temperature-regulating mechanism of the organism 
under different climatic conditions. Humidity, light and altitude modify 
the effect of external temperature on the body, the greatest effect being that 
of humidity, which accentuates the effect of temperature, preventing heat- 
loss when the external temperature is high and the main process of the heat- 
regulating system is heat-loss, and increasing heat-loss when the external 
temperature is low. 


Prof. G. D. Hate CarpPENTER.—Protective colouration in insects with 
special reference to mimicry (3.15). 


Saturday, September 8. 
Excursion to Upper Donside. 


Sunday, September 9. 
Visit to the Fishery Board for Scotland’s Research 5.8. Explorer. 


Monday, September 10. 


Joint Symposium with Section K (Botany) on Biological problems of 
fresh water (10.0) :— 


Prof. F. E. Fritscu, F.R.S.—The origins of plankton. 


Dr. W. H. PearsaLt.—The causes of algal abundance. 


Algal abundance under natural conditions appears to be primarily related 
to the oxidation of organic matter in the water, and, indirectly, to floods 
which may increase the supply of products of oxidation. Examples from 
streams, lakes and laboratory cultures suggest, however, that algal abundance 
does not only depend on the presence of an adequate supply of certain 
dissolved salts. It appears also to depend upon the balance between 
certain nutritive materials such as, for example, the ratio between the 
concentrations of nitrates and phosphates or between the nitrogen supply 


320 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—D. 


and carbohydrate production. ‘The anomaly apparently exists that a water 
may have adequate supplies of nutritive salts and yet a comparatively small 
algal flora. 


Mr. J. T. SauNDERS.— Temperature observations and water movements 
in lakes. 


Mr. F. T. K. PENrELow.—The food of some freshwater fishes. 


Dr. B. Barnes.—The biology of aquatic fungt. 


Freshwater fungi belong chiefly to the Archimycetes and Oomycetes ; 
species of Zygomycetes and of Ascomycetes are few, and Basidiomycetes 
seem to be unrepresented. 

Our knowledge of the biology of aquatic fungi is scanty, based on inci- 
dental observations. No one seems to have studied the fungal population 
of a piece of water over a period of years. 

The Archimycetes are mostly parasites, attacking other fungi, alge and 
animals. Some are saprophytes, and it is possible that the virulence of 
the parasitic species has been over-stressed. ‘The Oomycetes are mostly 
saprophytes, some having a remarkable tolerance of bacterial associates. 
Oomycetes appear to be most abundant in the colder parts of the year, 
but since vegetable debris gathered in summer has yielded good fungal 
growth after a few days at low temperatures, it seems likely that some 
mycelium persists throughout the year. 

So far as can be judged, fungi are not normally prominent members of 
the aquatic population. As, however, they grow and multiply rapidly, special 
conditions may induce mass occurrence, such as is well known in Lepto- 
mitus in contaminated water. 


AFTERNOON. 
Discussion on The inheritance of productivity (2.15) :— 


Mr. Joun HammMonp.—Meat. 


Introduction —Almost all the characters of any importance for meat are 
dependent for their full expression on nutrition. The mutations which 
occur are nearly all recessive and consist of defects or fancy points. Com- 
mercial qualities are formed by the accumulation of small variations 
developed in response to the environment, and exist in varying degrees of 
fixity. Evolution of the gene has to be considered as well as mutation of 
the gene. These principles are illustrated by the evolution of the horse 
and by reciprocal Shire-Shetland crosses. 

Cattle (beef and veal).—Selection for beef conformation is only effective 
under nutritional conditions which develop the characters. The directive 
influence of man’s selection is shown by a comparison of age changes in the 
conformation of breeds of different origin bred for the same purpose. Large 
mutations (Doppellender calves for veal) play no part in the evolution of 
beef cattle. Body fat colour requires a definite environment of food supply 
before selection can be made for the genetic factors concerned. 

Sheep (mutton and lamb).—The proportions of bone, muscle and fat in 
different breeds and crosses are developmental characters which depend 
on nutrition. Crosses between these ‘ developed ’ types of different levels 
give intermediates which do not segregate sharply as do those of a mutation 
(Ancon sheep). 

Pigs (bacon, pork and lard).—Local feed conditions have supplied the 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—D. 321 


environment in which the different types have been developed. Maize has 
developed the lard type in Hungary and America; skim milk and cereals 
the bacon type in Denmark ; and skim milk and meat meal the pork type 
in New Zealand. 

Conclusions —Since the genetic characters concerned are so dependent 
for their expression on nutrition, and are mostly of a ‘ developmental ’ char- 
acter, the best means of directive improvement is selection (by progeny 
tests) in an environment which stimulates the development of the character 
in question. The further development of these commercial qualities in 
our animal depends, like ‘ civilisation qualities ’ in man, on the creation of 
a better environment for the development of the characters concerned. 


Mr. A. D. BucHanan SmitH.—Milk. 


It is presumed that the purpose of this discussion is to determine whether 
the science of genetics can offer reasonable help to the livestock producer. 
If so, then by what means ? 

Genetical experiment in respect of milk is easier than in the case of meat, 
since the former is more amenable to measurement, both of quantity and 
quality. As regards milk, there are two main difficulties. The first is to 
discriminate between those factors which affect the productivity of the 
animal and are not of genetic origin. ‘The difficulty of doing so is one of 
the rocks upon which many experiments have foundered. To overcome 
this, the method now being adopted in the United States and at Edinburgh 
is to maintain a herd of dairy cattle under a uniform system of management 
over as long a period of years as possible. Thus, although the production 
of one generation takes place years after the production of the ancestral 
generation with which it is to be compared, the comparison may be 
considered to be reasonably straightforward. 

Actually the science is not so much concerned with the determination of 
the number of genetic factors involved, but rather with an analysis of the 
lactation curve of individual animals under standard environment. (Animals 
giving similar yields may do so in spite of different genetic constitutions.) 
It is of fundamental importance to understand the action and reaction with 
each other of the various characters and components of milk. Deliberate 
research of this nature will discover whether abnormal modes of inheritance 
are operating, such as sex linkage and combinations of genes which act as 
inhibitors of yield. The possibility that economic production may actually 
be best obtained when genes are in a heterozygous state is discussed, as 
also whether certain combinations of characters, desirable from the stand- 
point of the practical breeder, are genetically possible. 

The principal difficulty of the disentanglement of genetic factors can now 
be overcome by means of the experimental herd with controlled environ- 
ment. This leads to the next difficulty, that the analysis may reveal so 
many genetic factors interacting with each other as to make the synthesis of 
the problem almost an impossibility as regards practical application. 

Simple selection is discussed, and the work of Winter with maize is 
quoted, as well as the observations of ‘ Student’ and Fisher. Owing to 
the immense amount of time involved, a similar improvement in productivity 
cannot be expected in our dairy cattle. Selection has great value on 
unimproved stock, but as the quality rises, the rate of improvement 
decreases rapidly. The ‘ progeny test’ is discussed as the logical refine- 
ment of existing methods of selection. The conclusion is drawn that 
without fundamental knowledge the rate of improvement is bound to 
get slower. 


322 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—D. 


The demands of the market are not stable. Without fundamental 
knowledge concerning the inheritance of the various characteristics of the 
lactation it will not be possible to keep pace with market fluctuations by 
simple selection with, or without, the progeny test. 

Finally, productivity depends on close interrelation of control of disease 
with nutrition and genetics. Improved methods of feeding put new stresses 
on the machine, which can only be made by the adjustment of the hereditary 
constitutions of the animals. Experiments conducted by the writer with 
pigs are quoted to show how it is possible for the interior economy of an 
animal to be modified to suit nutritional requirements. 


Dr. A. W. GREENWOOD.—Eggs. 


(1) Selection methods practised along the right lines tend to increase 
productivity particularly in unimproved stock, but progress is slow in 
improved stocks because of the inability of the breeder to control heredity. 

(2) It has been shown that the desirable qualities to select for are inherited 
and their mode of transmission from parent to offspring determined. 

(3) Such knowledge need not necessarily affect selective breeding 
practice because of the present inability to distinguish between hetero- 
and homozygous forms of these genes. 

(4) The application of genetical knowledge to breeding requires either 
a method of distinguishing these forms by their production records, or else 
an accessible technique whereby the genetical constitution of an animal 
may be accurately determined. With this knowledge at his disposal, the 
fixation of desirable characters in a flock can be.easily made. 

(5) The field of work of the geneticist covers not only the mode of trans- 
mission of characters under optimum conditions but also the effect of 
variations in the environment on the resultant expression of gene action. 
For this it is essential to deal with animals of known genetic constitution. 

(6) The final phase in the genetical analysis concerns the relation between 
the gene and the mechanism by which the end result—the character—is 
produced. The possibility of the control of heredity through the control 
of physiological processes is foreshadowed. 


Dr. J. E. Nicuoits.—Wool. 


The interrelations of the fleece attributes differ according to breed, to 
locality, etc. The fleece has to be an adequate covering for the sheep and 
also a saleable product. The wool fibres have usually been considered in 
genetic studies, being the most amenable to analysis among the several 
products of skin metabolism which make up the raw fleece. Studies on 
fineness, length, etc., tend to show that multiple factors are involved, but 
environmental effects are so profound that recognition of the optimal 
states of the various fleece characters, in relation to biological or economic 
conditions, is important. 

In practice, cases are frequently found of selection being most readily 
achieved in specific environments. These are discussed, and attention is 
called to the importance of studying the circumstances which favour selection 
of productive capacities in respect of the main fleece characters. 


Dr. J. L. Lusu. 


Visit to Marine Laboratory of the Fishery Board for Scotland and 
to the Research Station of the Department of Scientific and Industrial 
Research, Torry. 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—D. 323 


Tuesday, September 11. 


Joint Discussion with Section J (Psychology) on The interpretation 
of animal behaviour (Section D room, 10.0) :— 


Prof. J. A. BIERENS DE Haan. 


The interpretation of animal behaviour forms the foundation of animal 
psychology, and is of fundamental importance for it, as it is decisive for 
one’s attitude towards this science, and may even lead one to reject it as 
impossible. ‘There are three main tendencies with regard to this interpreta- 
tion: (a) the physiological or analytical one, which attempts to analyse 
the actions of animals into as complete a number of reflexes as possible. 
This is not very satisfactory, as it gives us only a number of parts, while 
the bond that links them is lacking, and it would also give a very unsatis- 
factory interpretation of our own behaviour. (5) The synthetical interpre- 
tation, in which we may again distinguish two tendencies : firstly, a tendency 
for interpretation only in terms of objectively perceptible phenomena 
(stimulus and response), and, secondly, one in which are taken into account 
subjective or psychical phenomena. If the latter is possible with animals, 
it will satisfy us better than the other, as we know in our own case that an 
interpretation that does not take such phenomena into account neglects 
some fundamental elements that govern our behaviour. Therefore we will 
accept the objective interpretation only when the other one is proved to be 
impossible. ‘That may be the case: (i) when subjective phenomena do not 
occur in animals, or (ii) when they do occur, but are not recognisable by us. 
To settle the first point the seven marks of behaviour of MacDougall are 
used as a criterion. ‘Testing the activities of animals by means of these 
seven marks, it may be shown that even in the Protozoa real ‘ behaviour ’ 
as an expression of subjective phenomena exists. As to the question 
whether these subjective phenomena are sufficiently knowable it is argued 
that everybody, even the behaviorist, uses them in the practical interpreta- 
tion of the behaviour of animals, so that it would be inconsistent not to do 
it in the laboratory. The objection that with the lower animals the analogies 
between their attitudes and our own diminish, so that with them the 
difficulty becomes greater, is rejected with the remark that we do not 
interpret the behaviour in subjective phenomena by observing these attitudes, 
but by imagining ourselves to be the animal, by a ‘ transferred introspection,’ 
and by the result of special experiments directed to special questions 
(discrimination, understanding, etc.). So we are fully within our right in 
interpreting the behaviour of animals in terms of subjective phenomena. 

Another question is: Why do we want to interpret the behaviour of 
animals? It might be done for practical reasons, or for a better under- 
standing of our own nature. Yet the chief value of our interpretation of 
animal behaviour lies in the fact that it brings the material for the science 
of animal psychology, that has as its object those subjective phenomena, 
and as its aim the knowledge of their psychical constitutions. Further : 
the interpretation of the behaviour of animals and the building up of this 
science of animal psychology, although both psychologists and biologists 
may work together, must for the greater part be done by biologists, as the 
interest of the psychologist will be confined to the higher animals, where 
some resemblance to the human mind may be expected, while for the 
biologist all animals have equal rights as subjects of his study. Therefore 
the interest of biologists must be awakened in the study of this aspect of 
animal life. 


324 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—D. 


Dr. S. ZUCKERMAN. 


Mr. Rex KNIGHT. 


Two questions are frequently confused: (i) What mental experiences 
do animals possess? (ii) What are the causes of animal actions? ‘These 
questions are distinct, for it is possible that animals do have mental ex- 
periences and yet that these experiences do not affect their actions. A 
similar theory is widely held even with regard to human beings. 

In considering the first question, it seems plausible, by analogy from our- 
selves, to ascribe mental processes to some animals ; but the precariousness 
of the inference is shown by two facts. First, many animal actions, which, 
considered in isolation, seem to indicate rational foresight, turn out, on 
examination of their context, to be instances of instinct or acquired habit ; 
secondly, decerebrate and spinal preparations can perform many actions 
which, when performed by normal animals, are frequently taken as evidence 
of mental activity. 

The second question—What are the causes of animal actions ?>—can be 
more definitely answered. By controlled observation we can examine 
separately the antecedents of any particular action, and so discover which 
of them are severally necessary and jointly sufficient to produce the action. 
Scientific inquiries of this kind afford no justification for the view that 
. some animal actions cannot be the effects of non-mental causes. 


Prof. W. McDouaa tt, F.R.S. 
Dr. H. O. BULL. 


Dr. F. DarLinc. 


Observational work is being carried out upon a herd of Scottish Red 
Deer, which species is a particularly suitable subject for such work because 
it is a large animal living above ground, it is extremely sensitive to changes 
in environment, it has a well-developed community life, and a year forms 
a definite unit of time in its social life. 

Work upon such a species is likely to be fruitful in interpreting certain 
lines of animal behaviour, (a) because animals in the wild state seem to 
react differently on different occasions to similar sets of circumstances, 
which must mean that there are variables present of which we are, as yet, 
unaware; (b) because laboratory experiments on animal behaviour as 
pointers towards interpretation should only be conducted after a consider- 
able knowledge has been gained of the animal’s behaviour in freedom ; and 
(c) because, as most animals are in some measure gregarious, their behaviour 
as individuals and as members of a group cannot be divorced, and there is 
much to be learnt about community life of which the individual life is only 
a part. Among the many aspects of the deer’s life observed are the three 
territorial seasons and their sharply differentiated characteristics, meteoro- 
logical factors, biological factors, relation of the sexes to one another and 
the different behaviour of the sexes in the social structure of the community 
during the different seasons of the year. 


AFTERNOON. 
Discussion on The currents of the sea and their biological importance 
(2.15) :— 
Dryj. B., Tarr 


The sea itself constitutes the environment of marine life, and the study 
of this relationship is one of the chief purposes underlying the collection of 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—D. 325 


physical and chemical data pertaining to sea water in situ. The most 
fundamental property of the sea is its constant and more or less complex 
motion, to which all questions concerning the sea itself, or its inhabitants, 
must sooner or later be referred. 

Horizontal movements, or currents, particularly those in the upper sea 
layers, are the most obvious and, generally speaking, are of the first import- 
ance from a biological point of view. ‘Their measurement in the northern 
North Sea by the drift-bottle method has produced some striking results, 
both in regard to direction and velocity. ‘These results have proved of 
value in the interpretation of adolescent and adult fish migrations in this 
region. Biologically they are significant also from the standpoint of plankton 
and young fish movements. 


Dr. J. N. CarRuTHERS.—Certain fishery applications of the results of 
researches on marine currents carried out from the Lowestoft 
Fisheries Laboratory. 


An account was given of continuous current measuring observations 
carried out from the Varne lightship in Dover Straits. From this moored 
vessel a current-meter has been employed for eight years, and data regarding 
the water exchange between English Channel and North Sea have been 
amassed over that period. The varying water movements there observed, 
when balanced out over a term of years, have effected the same overall 
transport of water as would have been accomplished by a very slow river 
flowing at the rate of about 31 miles a day from the English Channel to 
the North Sea. Under certain circumstances the current flows the other 
way. Following winds quicken it and head winds impede it. A play of 
such wind conditions over the North Sea at large as would be expected to 
pool up the Southern Bight (and north-westerly wind conditions are well 
known to do this) can most effectively hold up and reverse the current. 

The results of the last three years are of especial interest, for, instead of 
the residual current heading boldly into the North Sea (as it most frequently 
had done in the previous three years) it has displayed less and less easting 
with the passage of time. During 1933 the current headed about half a 
point west of north. 

Such long-enduring modifications of the current are held to be analogous 
in a way to the short-lived modifications produced by wind influence. 
The inferred cause in their case, however, is an oceanic pulse—an accession 
of strength on the part of the parent supply stream which flows in from the 
ocean round the north of Scotland. This causes an extra strong southward 
urge of waters through the North Sea—with the results observed in 1933 
particularly. 

The Dover Straits current attains its strongest and weakest rates of flow 
half a year later than does the current entering the North Sea round the 
north of Scotland, but a quarter-year later than the current in the Cromer 
Knoll region. 

These facts are interpreted to indicate that the Dover Straits current 
waxes and wanes through the year in a sort of buffer relationship with the 
current from the north—that there exists a sort of see-saw conflict between 
the two. 

The vagaries of the Dover Straits currents, on the strength of the findings 
mentioned, are held to serve as pointers to major modifications of the currents 
in the northern and middle reaches of the North Sea half a year earlier. 

The results obtained from the current measurements in question have 
been applied to various problems of fishery interest. Among problems of 


326 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—D. 


immediate local concern (i.e. germane to the southern North Sea) there are 
the questions of good and bad survival years for the plaice and for the herring 
of the great East Anglian Autumn Fishery. ‘The latter originate from vast 
annual spawnings in the eastern end of the Channel. It seems that good 
fortune has attended the broods of both fish when, during the egg and/or 
fry stages, the current issuing from Dover Straits has been most average 
in point both of strength and direction. This accords with the supposition 
that good augury for a plaice brood exists when the products of the spawning 
are transported to the continental coastal shallows—the so-called young 
plaice nursery grounds. 

Other problems calling for the application of the Varne light-vessel current 
data in their local role are concerned with the intermingling of two types of 
herring through the straits, and with the outcome of the Belgian Spent 
Herring Fishery. ‘This latter is carried out upon fish supposedly enfeebled 
by the operation of spawning in the eastern Channel. 

Applied at a distance as it were, on the strength of the facts set out above, 
the Dover Straits current data enable something to be said about good and 
poor haddock years. ‘The haddock fluctuates very closely (though oppositely) 
with the herring, and seems, when in the egg and fry stage, to have experi- 
enced the best survival conditions when we should judge the waters to have 
been most strongly urged towards the south. 

The year-class fluctuations of the cod have been studied side by side with 
meteorological data, and it appears that the best augury for a brood obtains 
in those spawning seasons during which winds from the half-compass 
centred on N.E. have been at a maximum—a finding which accords well 
with what was inferred in the case of the haddock from the Varne current 
data. 


Prof. A. C. Harpy. 


Mr. E. R. GUNTHER. 


Two comparisons are chosen to illustrate the importance of vertical 
currents to biology. ‘The first between the Labrador Current, which flows 
over the rich fishing-grounds of the Newfoundland Banks, and the Falkland 
Current, which flows over the less rich grounds of the Patagonian Shelf. 
These two are analogous currents, since they are both regarded as compen- 
sating for the eastward deflections of the Gulf Stream and of the Brazil 
Current. But they are not homologous, since the Labrador Current has an 
arctic origin and is consequently rich in nutrient salts which are brought to 
the surface through the agency of vertical currents induced by melting ice ; 
and the Falkland Current, having its origin in the water of the West Wind 
Drift, is not of antarctic origin and consequently is less rich in nutrient 
salts. 

The second comparison is between the oceanography of the Patagonian 
Shelf on the East Coast of South America and that of the Humboldt or 
Peru Current on the West Coast. Conditions on the Patagonian Shelf are 
such that the Falkland Current converges with the coast and the water 
circulates in a more or less closed system, and consequently there is a limited 
tendency towards upwelling. On the West Coast, on the other hand, the 
work of the Royal Research Ship William Scoresby has demonstrated the 
presence of a divergence line along the coast whereby upwelling of cool water 
rich in nutrient salts from the lower layers is induced: To this is attributed 
the outstanding richness in the marine fauna for which the West Coast is 
notorious. 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—D, E. 927. 


Correlations are given between southerly and easterly winds and the 
divergence from the coast of the surface water leading to the upwelling of 
cool water ; the subsidence of the latter upon a failure or a change of wind. 
Correlations are also given between the plankton and the nutrient salts, 
and between the phytoplankton and the zooplankton and the animals of 
economic importance. 


SECTION E.—GEOGRAPHY. 


Thursday, September 6. 


PRESIDENTIAL AppRESS by Prof. A. G. Ocitviz, O.B.E., on Co-operative 
research in geography ; with an African example (10.0). (See p. 99.) 


Lt.-Col. A. B. CLoucn, O.B.E., M.C._—The geographical considerations in 
the delimitation of international boundaries (with special reference to 
the Northern Rhodesia-Belgian Congo Boundary) (11.15). 


Boundary ‘delimitation’ is the work of the political administrator, 
* demarcation ’ that of the commissioner and surveyor. Necessity for basing 
treaty decisions on trustworthy facts and geographical knowledge. 
Difficulties in past due to lack of geographical knowledge on part of treaty 
makers. Various sorts of national and artificial boundaries—e.g. rivers, 
watersheds, mountain ranges, meridians, parallels, etc.; their virtues and 
failings, and some classical examples. 

History of boundaries in Central Africa. The partitioning of Africa 
among European powers. General geographical and climatic character- 
istics in Northern Rhodesia. Treaty definition of boundary between 
Northern Rhodesia and Belgian Congo dividing the boundary into five 
main sections. 

First demarcation by Commission in 1911-14, and what they accom- 
plished. Post-war mineral development and its repercussions. Necessity 
for more intensive boundary demarcation. 

New Commission commenced work 1927 along the watershed section. 
Necessity for re-triangulation : its execution, and difficulties due to climatic 
and topographical causes. Location of watershed, erection of beacons and 
boundary traverses. 

Geographical considerations affecting the Mpanta meridian, River 
Luapula and Lake Mweru sections. Point of doubt and discussions 
regarding the straight-line section between Lakes Mweru and Tanganyika. 
Necessity for remapping this section. Establishment of co-ordinates of 
boundary pillars: drawing up of plans and keeping open the boundary 
cutting. Encroachments over the boundary and their adjustment. 


Mr. J. McFartane.—The basins of the Dee and the Don (12.0). 


Mr. J. S. Tooms.—The northern valleys of Angus (12.30). 


The transverse, immature and intensely glaciated valleys of northern 
Angus, deeply cut in the gently rolling surface of the Grampian peneplain, 
and separated from each other by a series of tapering, asymmetrical spurs, 
carry excellent pastures on their drift-covered slopes, while the natural 
vegetation is peculiarly suited to game. In spite of climatic uncertainty 


328 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—E. 


and danger from flooding, the elevated valley floor areas of alluvial accumula- 
tion carry a modification of the large-scale mixed farming of Strathmore, 
founded on security of land tenure, suitable rotations, sound drainage 
method, and easy access to markets. Small-holdings are few, and farms 
generally exceed 300 acres. Cereal cultivation is confined to the alluvium, 
and oats, the dominant crop, is grown to an elevation of 850 ft. Agri- 
cultural vicissitudes of the last decade have been responsible for a marked 
increase in head of stock, sheep having increased by 50,000. Inability to 
grow barley economically has been responsible for a two-thirds decrease 
in the area under that crop. ‘The oats, turnips, and potatoes acreage has 
remained steady, while permanent grass has shown a substantial increase. 
Development of stock-raising at the expense of arable agriculture has led 
to recent depopulation, the people having moved from the valleys to the 
Highland margin farming districts. Nevertheless, the present density, 
g per square mile, is high for an upland area. 

The etymology alone bears evidence of former Celtic influence in this 
region. The present population is of well-mixed origin, and is largely 
derived from capable Strathmore farming stock introduced when this area 
was under ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and later. 


' AFTERNOON. 


Excursion around Aberdeen. 


Friday, September 7. 


Lord Provost HENRY ALEXANDER.—The Aberdeen planning scheme (9.45). 


The Aberdeen and District Joint Town Planning Scheme, which received 
the final approval of the Department of Health for Scotland on March 17, 
1933, and which has therefore been in operation for a year and a half, covers 
an area of 96:96 square miles and is the largest scheme of the kind so far 
carried out in Scotland. It comprises land lying within the city of Aberdeen 
and within the adjoining counties of Aberdeenshire and Kincardineshire, 
and it was prepared by a Joint Committee set up with statutory powers 
under the Town Planning (Scotland) Act, 1925. This committee, which 
began work in 1928, acted throughout in close consultation with all inter- 
ested parties, and, thanks to the enlightened support of the landowners of 
the region, it was able to carry its proposals with comparatively few modi- 
fications. ‘The scheme includes a complete system of radial and ring roads, 
zoning and density provisions, and ample reservations of land for recrea- 
tional and amenity purposes. In particular, the landscape features of the 
sea-coast and river valleys have been safeguarded. Similarly, the economic 
interests of the region have been secured by the reservation of industrial 
areas. 


Mr. J. CruicksHaNK.—The Aberdeen Foint Town-Planning Scheme : 
landward section (10.25). 


The region round. the city of Aberdeen lends itself admirably to the 
purposes of town planning, for it is favoured by natural assets which are 
but rarely found. 

In the first place the area takes the form of a horse-shoe with a chain of 
hills which form a natural outer border or rim. In the second place there 
is the sea-coast, with sandy beaches or bold cliffs. Lastly, there are its 
two rivers, the Dee and Don, and their lower tributaries. 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS .—E. 329 


The horse-shoe or fan-shaped formation lends itself readily to a series 
of ring roads. ‘These ring roads would afford shorter distances for traffic 
and they would relieve the congestion in overcrowded streets in or near 
the city, while they would help internal development along their routes. 

In regard to zoning, and to the number of dwelling-houses per acre, 
certain districts have been placed as low as two to the acre (where this is 
the number that these districts have already set for themselves), while 
eight to the acre may be taken as a fair average. The number may rise to 
sixteen and even as high as twenty-four in industrial areas. 

Open spaces have been carefully studied and are expected to keep pace 
with the progress of building developments. Where a landowner sets 
aside part of an area for an open space he may build on the remainder at a 
correspondingly greater rate of density in the number of houses. 

Amenity has been kept in view by listing objects of historic interest or 
of unusual scenic value or archeological note. Experience already gained 
goes to show that the communities concerned stand to gain materially by 
the operations of town planning. 


Discussion on Planning (11.0). 


Dr. CATHERINE P. SNopGRass.—Agricultural distributions in Aberdeenshire 
and Kincardine (11.40). 


The contrast between the agriculture of the lowlands north and south 
of the Highland boundary is illustrated. In southern Kincardine the farm- 
ing system resembles that of the rest of Strathmore, the emphasis being on 
cash-cropping (grain and potatoes) with associated cattle-feeding and sub- 
sidiary stock rearing. In Aberdeenshire and northern Kincardine the main 
concern is cattle rearing and feeding, and the most characteristic feature of 
the agricultural distributions is their uniformity, the sharp contrasts which 
occur in many parts of Scotland with variations in physical conditions 
being, with few exceptions, absent. This uniformity can be attributed 
(1) to the physical conditions which set limits to the possible variations 
from the prevailing type ; (2) to the distance from large centres of popula- 
tion, which practically confines dairying and commercial potato production 
to the Aberdeen neighbourhood ; and (3) to the great influence of tradition. 
The crops best suited to this region can only be effectively marketed by 
adopting some form of stock farming, and the existing system, with its 
overwhelming emphasis on beef production, subsidiary pig and poultry 
tearing and almost complete exclusion of sheep (a feature rapidly altering 
during the present decade), has gradually evolved in response to changing 
economic conditions. 


Major M. Hotine.—National maps as backgrounds (12.0). 


Consideration of the work of the early geographers and surveyors. Value 
of a map as providing an environment or landscape for demonstration and 
explanation of many subjects of interest. Advantages of illustration by 
map over mete statistical tabulation. 

Early Ordnance Survey maps were on copper. Everything to be shown 
had to be engraved and incorporated on the map itself. Photo-mechanical 
process of map reproduction, its genesis, and how it made possible the use 
of overprints for showing special information. Collection of information 
by Directors-General of the Survey, with special reference to details of 


1 Read by Mr. S. J. K. Baker. 


330 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—E. 


archeological and historical importance. Growing tendency for men of 
history and science to show distribution and evidence upon maps : increase 
of knowledge and growing interest of general public in scientific and historical 
subjects demands more room and clearer illustration ; hence gradual develop- 
ment from using very small scale maps or sketches in periodicals and 
professional papers to the use of larger scale national maps for the purpose. 

The national cartographic institutes well equipped for such work. All 
necessary material available in many forms and cartographic experience 
available to ensure best use of material. ‘These institutions have advantage 
also of getting in touch with colleagues of other nations if the theme be 
international. How the Ordnance Survey organises research into and 
collection of old plans, maps and other such material. Research into the 
past through the medium of air photography. 

Examples of national maps as backgrounds: Physical Map of Great 
Britain (1/M); Land Utilisation (1-in.); Population (1/M); Neolithic 
Wessex (4-in.) ; Roman Britain (1/M); Celtic Fields (1/25,000). 


AFTERNOON. 
Mr. W. SmitH.—A preliminary study of the rainfall of China (2.0). 


The paper is an analysis of the rainfall data, in the form of 35-year averages 
and corrected to a 30-day month, for some eighteen stations. These are 
distributed along the China Coast and the Yang-tze Valley, and they provide 
a framework of ‘ normals’ to which the short period data in the interstices 
will later be related. The 35-year period taken, 1895 to 1929, is shown to 
be one complete rainfall cycle. 

Certain rainfall provinces are distinguished and their seasonal distribution 
of rainfall analysed. The rainfall seasons distinguished are three : 


1. A winter monsoon from October to February or March. Rains are 
scanty in North China (% in. per month) but not inconsiderable elsewhere, 
and greatest in the lower Yang-tze Valley (2 in. per month). 

2. A pre-summer monsoon season from March or April until the beginning 
of the summer monsoon (June in the Yang-tze Valley and South China, 
July in North China). Rains are still low in North China (1 in. per month), 
but elsewhere considerable (4 in. per month and over), increasing rapidly 
in April and May. 

3. A summer monsoon from June or July to September. The front of 
the monsoon is usually the period of maximum precipitation, and the rains 
fall away month by month from this peak. Along the South China Coast, 
however, they increase again in August and September. 

In conclusion an attempt is made to relate the results of this analysis to 
the atmospheric circulation of the Far East, and to construct a rationale of the 
rainfall seasons distinguished. 


Mr. P. R. Crowe.—Rainfall probability, with special reference to the High 
Plains region of U.S.A. (2.30). 


The traditional method of summarising monthly rainfall data has been 
by means of the arithmetic average, and the recent history of geography 
points to increasing dependence upon data arrived at in this fashion. The 
fundamental faults of this system are: (1) that the average is influenced 
too greatly by occasional very high records, (2) that the inherent variability 
of rainfall is obscured, and (3) that hence we have no indication of the range 
within which differences between averages must be regarded as insignificant 
or fortuitous. 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS .—E. 331 


A new method is outlined which obviates these difficulties by utilising 
median and quartile values. Since mathematical proof of its assumptions 
is not easy, it is applied experimentally to a large continental area along a 
zone of climatic transition. ‘The High Plains and the neighbouring Rocky 
Mountain Piedmont are thus found to fall into five clearly defined rainfall 
regions : 

(1) The Southern Type with the major rainfall season between April and 
October inclusive, e.g. Dodge City. 

(2) The Central Region with rains increasing in April still, but declining 
rapidly in September, e.g. North Platte. 

(3) The Northern Region with May and June as the only two really rainy 
months, e.g. Miles City. 

(4) The Laramie Region with light spring rains decreasing rapidly in 
June, e.g. Denver. 

(5) The New Mexico Region with late summer rains bursting abruptly 
in July, e.g. Santa Fé. 

The two latter regions thus differ widely from each other, and the contrast 
between Denver and Colorado Springs is very marked despite the absence 
of physical barriers. ‘The only feature common to the far west is the low 
rainfall expectation for June. The extension of this feature eastwards 
towards the Plains proper produces a transitional zone within which 
drought is often very serious. Other transitions towards the western 
deserts and the humid east are also observable in some of the 73 charts 
studied, but the major regions are clear and logical in outline. 

Some correlations with crop belts are observable, yet the regions outlined 
are capable of both definition and subdivision on the basis of criteria 
yielded by precipitation data alone. 


Discussion on previous communications (3.0). 


Prof. E. G. R. TayLtor.—Perfidious Albion : climate and character in the 
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (3.15). 


The attitude of the average educated man towards racial character in 
this period is summarised in a poem translated from the French in 1603, 
when a Scottish succeeded a Tudor monarch : 


“O see! How full of wonders strange is Nature ! 
Sith in each Climate, not alone in Stature, 
Strength, colour, hair, but that men differ do 
Both in their Humours and their Manners too. 
The Northern man is fair, the Southern foul ; 
That’s white, this black, that smiles and this doth scowl. 
Th’one’s blithe and frolick, th’other dull and froward, 
Th’one’s full of courage, th’other a fearful coward !’ 


Dr. H. C. Darspy.—~Some ideas of climate and weather in the later Middle 
Ages (3.45). 

From A.D. 1100 on to the close of the Middle Ages, contemporary ideas 
upon meteorology and climatology were drawn from three sources: 
(1) Traditional scholarship, the foundations of which had been laid in the 
works of Pliny, Solinus and St. Isidore of Seville. (2) Those Arabic texts 
which were now becoming known to the West and which, in turn, were 
revealing the scientific treatises of Aristotle. (3) Direct observation of 


332 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—E. 


storms and other natural phenomena, which were being recorded and noted 
by chroniclers and travellers. 

Prominent among the thinkers of the time were William of Conches, 
Robert Grosseteste and Gervase of Tilbury. They, and others with them, 
dealt not only withthe elements of meteorology (wind, temperature and preci- 
pitation), but also with the climatic differences (both zonal and topographical) 
that were reported to exist upon the surface of the globe. Nor did some 
writers neglect the influence of climate upon man. In estimating their 
achievements in this branch of science two facts have to be remembered : 
(a) that the men of the Middle Ages were essentially country folk, and 
(b) that they may have reasoned within limited premises, but it cannot be 
denied that they reasoned well. 


Discussion on previous communications (4.15). 


Saturday, September 8. 


Excursion to Tarvis, Inverurie, Alford, Kildrummy, Loch Kinord, 
Aboyne, Coull, Slack and Loch Skene. 


Sunday, September 9. 


Excursion to Inverurie, Kildrummy, Dinnet, Burn o’ Vat, Banchory. 


Monday, September 10. 


Prof. W. W. Jervis——Social geography of Greenland (10.0). 


Greenland provides an excellent field for the study of social geography. 
It is unique in that the contacts between the Eskimos and white peoples 
have in the main been carefully controlled and the development of certain 
changes can, therefore, be studied systematically. ‘The results of the 
introduction of new materials and new weapons are obvious. Light calico 
and canvas tents, easily packed and light to carry, are being introduced at 
the expense of the native skin tents, despite their greater inability to keep 
out rain and to keep in heat. The importation of wood is reflected in the 
building of wooden houses on Danish models to replace native huts. Rifles 
and shot-guns are being increasingly used, sometimes with disastrous 
results. The former are found more in North Greenland than in South 
Greenland, where the harpoon remains the partner of the kayak and where 
the shot-gun is adapted for bird shooting. This, however, is fortunately 
not the whole story in Greenland. Since the later part of the eighteenth 
century, relief has always been granted to natives in economic distress. 
Since the middle of the nineteenth century, the Danish Government has 
adopted the policy of paying the Eskimo a fixed price for his products. 
From the money obtained from the sale of Greenland products in European 
markets, a sum equivalent to one-fifth of what the native has already been 
paid for his products is set aside and applied to ‘ the development of native 
culture and the uplifting of their condition.’ Some of this is distributed 
to the Kommuneraad and to the Sysselraad, and grants can be made for 
educational and medical services. Further, relief can be granted. Thus 
if a hunter is forced in an emergency to eat his dogs, he can be compensated. 
Again, a bonus can be declared, and the administration of this bonus has 
certain geographical implications which are discussed in the paper. 


~~ =~  — 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—E. 333 


Organisation of this kind is developing a sense of personal possessions and 
is tending to group the people in larger settlements. ‘These and other 
results are briefly discussed. 


Prof. F. DrseENHamM.—An Eskimo kayak voyage to Aberdeen (10.30). 


In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries there were several 
occasions on which Eskimo in kayaks were observed by the islanders off 
the Orkneys. In one case, an Eskimo reached Aberdeen, where he was 
either driven ashore or captured at sea. He died after a few days, and his 
kayak and hunting equipment are now in the Museum in the Department of 
Anatomy at Marischal College. 

The evidence for these voyages is analysed and the route and methods 
employed in making the voyages are suggested. The evidence is too slight 
to allow of more than a vague suggestion as to the reasons for Eskimo coming 
to the East in this way. 

The seaworthiness of the kayak is an important point in the evidence, 
and this is illustrated by films of Eskimo and Englishmen using the kayak 
both in East Greenland and on an English river. 


Discussion on previous communications (11.0). 


Dr. Evspet W. Mitne.—Irrigation in Norway (11.20). 


The mountains and glaciers of the Jostedal, Jotunheim and Hardanger 
groups cause precipitation from the moisture-bearing westerly winds, so 
that a marked rain-shadow area covers the valleys of Upper Gudbrandsdalen 
and Inner Sognefiord. Within this area the period March to mid-July has 
very low precipitation, whilst summer temperatures are high in the valleys, 
owing to their depth, narrowness and rocky walls, so that evaporation is 
great. On the lighter and more porous soils, especially where these occur 
on steep slopes, crops cannot be grown without irrigation. In the eastern 
part of the area the farmland lies above the larger streams, and water must 
be led from plateau streams and glaciers by long, carefully adjusted canals. 
In the western part of the area sources are more accessible, but the farmland 
is so flat as to introduce difficulties. Distribution is by a network of small 
canals and runnels, adjusted to the slope, soil and crop of the fields to be 
irrigated, and a technique of irrigation designed to minimise the risk of soil 
erosion has been developed. 

Irrigation is normally stopped in July, but in regions with very unfavour- 
able conditions of soil and climate it is continued throughout the growing 
season. 


Mr. S.J. K. Baker.—The social geography of Western Uganda (11.40). 


The western highlands of Uganda present a complex environment which 
has in the past proved attractive both to the cultivator and to the pastoralist. 
Apart from the numerically negligible pygmy people there are two main 
elements in the population of this region. In the first instance a Bantu 
population established itself in the land and its members gained their 
livelihood mainly by the cultivation of the soil. More recently a strongly 
“Hamitic ’ element has entered and, with a different regional experience 
behind it, has seized upon the pastoral potentialities of the extensive grass- 
lands. The pastoralists appear to have been accepted as overlords by the 
earlier inhabitants, and there has thus arisen an order of society in which 
a Bantu peasantry is dominated by a pastoralist aristocracy. 


334 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—E. 


In Ankole physical conditions have allowed the incomers to maintain 
their old way of life unimpaired, and the two elements have, to their mutual 
detriment, remained racially and socially distinct. Farther north, in Toro 
and Bunyoro, with a physical character less favourable to the pastoral 
mode of life, the invaders have been unable so completely to preserve their 
identity, and a greater degree of fusion between the two elements has taken 
place. It is of some significance in this connection to notice that the 
kingdom of Bunyoro has achieved a higher order of social and political 
cohesion than its neighbour Ankole, though the achievements of Buganda 
have not been equalled in any of the western kingdoms. 


Mr. W. Focc.—Villages and sugs in the High Atlas mountains of Morocco 
(12.10). 


Discussion on previous communications (12.30). 


AFTERNOON. 


Mr. J. N. L. Baker— Distribution of population in India according to the 
census of I93I (2.30). 


Dr. A. Geppes.—Bengal : aspects of its human geography (3.0). 


Upon the rice plain of Bengal the phenomena of race and culture still 
show affinities with those preserved in the tracts of hill country around it. 
These phenomena have, further, been influenced by (a) the local conditions 
of environment, affecting the mode of life there ; (6) natural routes both 
by river and by land, especially over the flood-free Old Alluvium ; (c) posi- 
tions and sites favouring the rise of major settlements. While local 
conditions have influenced the distribution of tribes and lower castes, 
routes show marked relationship to the distribution of higher castes and of 
religious sects. Re-reading of physical and historic data seems to show 
that the western arm of the Ganges (Bhagirathi-Hughli) was important less 
because of the volume of its waters (as generally believed) than because of 
its position, the Padma (or E. Ganges) having long flowed E.S.E. and not 
being a ‘ new’ river, as is sometimes assumed. ‘The movement of rivers is 
important to-day as in the past. It is now generally recognised that an 
abundant flow of river water is necessary to good crop production and 
peasant prosperity (with fish as protein food), and also to freedom from 
severe malaria and its associated high mortality. 


Discussion on previous communications (3.30). 


Tuesday, September 11. 
Prof. W. N. Benson.—Land forms in S.E. New Zealand (10.0). 


A series of younger sediments rest on the planed surface of ancient sedi- 
ments and schists. A newer peneplain cuts with gentle obliquity across the 
younger sediments. Over part of its surface it has been covered by a thick 
and varied series of lava-sheets. Crust-folding occurring before, and during, 
the eruptions culminated after the volcanic activity ceased and was accom- 
panied by faulting, the movements being continued into recent times. The 
present drainage system, partly antecedent to the folding, and partly conse- 
quent on the dislocated surface, has been modified by drowning. ‘There 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS .—E. 335 


are minor effects attributable to recent uplift. The accordance between 
structure and topography is illustrated by several dissected block-diagrams. 


Prof. G. B. Barsour.—Physiography of Fehol, N. China (10.45). 


Prof. C. B. Fawcetr.—The relations between the advance of science (in 
geography) and the life of the community (11.30). 


(1) The end of the nineteenth century saw the practical completion of 
major exploration of the earth, and geographers were able to turn their 
attention to the systematisation of their knowledge, and the search for 
general principles. So the twentieth century has been marked by the 
rise of regional geography. MHerbertson’s essay on The Major Natural 
Regions, published in 1908, is a chief landmark. 

Geographical work has been aided by several practical improvements, 
among which the International 1: 1,000,000 map is prominent. It was 
begun about 1911 and is still far from complete, but it is an important 
result of systematic co-operative work, and it has stirnulated both research 
in, and applications of, geography. 

(2) The advance in detailed knowledge has helped to bring into use, or 
extend the use of, many materials which were not before known, or were 
known only in small quantities. "The increased evidence of the inter- 
dependence of all the phenomena with which geography deals has done 
much to aid the trend towards a systematic planning for the human utilisa- 
tion of the earth’s resources, and to develop a mental attitude favourable 
towards synthesis and co-operation as a necessary advance from the extreme 
specialisation and competition of the nineteenth century. 

(3) Fuller knowledge, and action based on it, could in many cases have 
prevented waste of human and material resources. Familiar examples 
are: (a) the lack of maps for the South African War, and for other purposes ; 
(6) the inadequate knowledge of tidal and other movements in the sea waters 
which reduced the efficiency of fisheries and of navigation ; (c) the lack of 
accurate knowledge of our freshwater resources which might have been of 
great value in this year’s drought. In such cases the defect has been rather 
a failure to apply, and where necessary to extend, existing knowledge than 
entire absence of knowledge. 

(4) The developments of means of communication such as the auto- 
mobile and the airplane, particularly the former and the roads due to it, 
have modified nearly all aspects of land transport, and so the localisation of 
industries and the distribution of population. These are also vitally 
affected by the fact that within the present century public authorities have 
become responsible, to a large extent, for housing. 


Prof. G. B. Barsour.—Colour film of Crater Lake (12.30). 


AFTERNOON. 
Excursion to Feughside. 


Wednesday, September 12. 
Mr. A. C. O’DELL.—Population changes in Aberdeenshire from the Union to 
the present time (9.30). 


The purpose of this communication is to trace how far population changes 
are a reflex of the physical environment. The List of Pollable Persons 


336 ' SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—E. 


within the County of Aberdeen, 1696, is the earliest record and gives un- 
usually full information. From the data in this record maps have been 
prepared showing trades and the density and distribution of population 
a decade before the Union. The MSS. records in the National Library of 
Scotland for 1750 and 1755 and the 1793-99 list in the Statistical Account 
have been utilised, while for the period 1801-1931 the official decennial 
returns have been used. Data given in the Statistical Accounts, various 
MSS. and printed reports and parish histories have been used to augment 
the eighteenth-century material. 

The investigation shows that the highland parishes now have a scantietr 
population than in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This decrease 
is due as much to the higher scale of living as to the action of landlords. 
The areas of better agriculture show a peak in the middle of last century, 
followed by a decline, which, however, fails to bring the total below the 
1696 level. Urban centres such as Fraserburgh and Peterhead show a 
stupendous growth in the last two centuries, followed by an almost negligible 
decrease. ‘This may indicate that the saturation point of population has 
been reached with the present known means of subsistence fully developed. 


Mr. F. H. W. Green.—The distribution of settlements in the Moray Firth 
lowlands (9.50). 


The lowland coast of the Moray Firth is an area which is markedly 
distinct from the rest of Scotland in respect of its climate, and this, together 
with its remarkably well-defined topographic limits, suggests it as an obvious 
natural region. An attempt was therefore made to compare it in some 
detail with the other lowlands of the east coast, and, more especially, an 
analysis was made of its internal unity. 

A study of the distribution of settlements is perhaps the readiest way 
of approaching the problem. The settlements are of three main types : 


(1) Fishing settlements, of which several sorts may be distinguished. 
All the fishing activities, however, with the exception of the salmon fisheries, 
give rise to settlements which have remarkably little connection with the 
interior. ‘ Dual towns,’ such as Nairn or Cullen, emphasise the truth of 
this point especially well. 

(2) Market towns. Although such a town as Inverness occupies what 
is for more than one purpose an obvious site, some of the other regional 
centres do not show in their siting so clear a relationship to the factors of 
their physical environment. 

(3) Isolated agricultural settlements, which, though of several types, 
show a marked absence of nucleated villages. ‘The farming in the region, 
though varied, is predominantly arable, and reasons are advanced to explain 
the very even distribution of settlement within the limits of cultivation. 
A study of the latter, especially of the upper limit, forms a subject of con- 
siderable interest in itself, and an attempt has been made to understand the 
factors underlying the variations within the area. 


Mr. K. H. Huccins.—Geographical distribution of the early iron-smelting 
industry of Scotland (10.10). 


Of 40 ironworks in the midland valley, 10 were built prior to 1802 to 
smelt clayband ore with coke, the remaining 30 between 1825 and 1865 to 
smelt blackband ore with raw coal. Only 17 survived until 1921. 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—E. 337 


Relatively stable periods were : 


(1) 1795-1825 ; 1806, 24 furnaces ; 17 in blast ; output 22,800 tons. 
(2) 1860-1880 ; 1865, 181 furnaces; 141 in blast ; output 1,160,000 
tons. 
(3) 1903-1913; 1913, 103 furnaces; 87 in blast; output 1,3'70,000 tons. 
Great contrast between the scattered distribution in 1806, when cheaply 
mined coal, usually near the outcrop, was the dominant factor and sufficient 
clayband ore was easily obtained, and the marked concentration in 1865, 
when the location of the furnaces was dominated by blackband ores which 
occurred very locally in the Coal Measures and in the Limestone Coal Group. 
Coatbridge, with outcrops of blackband and splint, had the chief concentra- 
tion, 61 furnaces. Furnaces were also built on all the riewer discoveries : 
on the margin of the Ayrshire coalfield, near the Forth, and west of Glasgow. 
After 1880 home ore was subordinate to imported hematite. Fuel supply 
and relation to steelworks became important. Works closed in the east of 
Scotland, but continued in Ayrshire. Newly developed deeper parts of the 
Lanarkshire coalfield attracted steelworks and supplied splint to Coatbridge 
to smelt iron for them. 


Mr. A. E. Smattes.—The Lead Dales of the Northern Pennines (10.30). 


Lead-mining activity has given distinctive features to the dales of the 
northern Pennines, between the Stainmore Saddle and the Tyne Corridor, 
in addition to the obvious imprint it has left upon the landscape. 

The miners have usually been small-scale farmers also, with the result 
that the pastoral dales farming is of a rather intensive type, with cattle- 
keeping on small-holdings a strongly marked feature. 

The generally high situation of the mines (due to geological factors), 
together with the dual occupation of the miner-farmer, have contributed to 
extend the zone of cultivation and settlement to remarkably -high altitudes 
in these dales, and lead-mining has not obscured the dispersed pattern of 
the pastoral settlement. 

The decline in lead-mining since the ’seventies has been offset only to 
a small degree by development of production of associated minerals, and 
of quarrying. There has been a resultant large and general decrease in 
population, but these dales show a population ‘ residue’ from the lead- 
mining days. 

Although forming a distinctive group, the Lead Dales are not characterised 
by unity of life. This lack of unity is related to the divergent drainage. 
The dale-communities are segregated from each other, and life is orientated 
outwards. The seclusion of the dales is being broken down by the develop- 
ment of communications, which is linking each of them more closely with 
the more important regions outside. : 


Miss FLorENcE C. MiLLer.—Population changes in Wessex in the twentieth 
century (10.50). 


Geologically the area is divided broadly into Chalk and Tertiaries. The 
chalk shows decreases of population with exceptional areas of increase. 
The tertiaries show increases with exceptional areas of decrease. Actually the 
total population affected by decreases is less than that affected by increases. 

An important relation is that between population changes and migration. 
The excess of births over deaths is general. Migration takes place from 
the chalk. It takes place to the tertiaries. It takes place from the Isle of 
Wight. Population migrates from the chalk on account of changes in 


N2 


338 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—E, F. 


farming methods. It migrates from the tertiaries on account of losses in 
intensive cultivation. 

Increases in population are usually connected with good communications, 
residential development, permanent military establishments, outgrowth 
from large towns. 


Discussion on previous communications (11.10). 


SECTION F.—ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND 
STATISTICS. 


Thursday, September 6. 


Dr. H. Hamitton.—The changing organisation of the Scottish fare 
industry, 1880-1914 (10.0). 


The economic organisation of the Scottish fishing industry was funda- 
mentally changed in the thirty years before the Great War. Hitherto 
fishing had been widely dispersed all round the coasts of Scotland, and white 
fishing and herring fishing, the two main branches of the industry to-day, 
were undifferentiated, the same boats and the same fishermen taking part 
in both. With the introduction of the steam trawler in 1882 white fishing 
quickly became a highly organised and capitalistic industry, with Aberdeen 
as the greatest fishing port of Scotland. ‘The change in the organisation of 
the herring industry came slightly later and was of a different order. The 
greater mobility of the steam drifter resulted in the amalgamation of the 
various herring fishings into one continuous one extending over nine 
months of the year, while the landing and curing of the catch came to be 
concentrated at a relatively small number of ports which had suitable 
harbour accommodation. Further, the joint-stock method was not favoured, 
and the fishermen continued to own the vessels and the nets as they had done 
in the days of the sailing craft, but the greater cost of the steam vessels made 
it necessary for them to borrow from the banks, from curers, fish salesmen 
and other merchants, who thus came to exercise considerable control over 
the industry. 


Mr. W. H. Marwicx.—The economic development of Victorian Scotland 
(11.0). 


Between 1837 and 1901 Scotland passed from a virtually self-contained 
national economy ‘to an almost regional subordination to that of Great 
Britain. As its basis, the textiles gave place to the heavy constructional 
industries, dependent mainly on export. Trading relations were main- 
tained with the Baltic and North America, and extended to the Orient, 
Africa and South America. 

Scottish economic expansion had been late and rapid ; hence features of 
a paternalist society, fostered by geographical conditions and religious 
teaching, survived from the agricultural regime, notably in the conduct 
of mining and in social provision at many works and factories. ‘These were 
gradually superseded by state intervention. 

Individual enterprise was further modified by the prevalence of partner- 
ships, often ephemeral and sometimes involving complicated interrela- 
tionships. With the enactment of limited liability, joint-stock companies 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS .—F. 339 


became common, both in the transformation of old businesses and the 
establishment of new ones. The world-wide tendency to combination 
was especially illustrated in banking and railways, both highly competitive 
at the outset. The financing of industry was facilitated by the foundation 
of stock exchanges and the introduction of investment trusts. Labour 
organisation was weak, while charitable associations had some influence in 
modifying social conditions. 


Mr. E. D. McCaLLtum.—Recent economic changes in Scotland (12.0). 


The object of this paper is to describe some of the more important 
economic changes which have taken place in Scotland in the post-war period. 
In the first place, changes in the size of population and in the age, sex, 
regional and industrial distribution of the population are considered. 
Secondly, an account is given of changes in the volume of employment and 
unemployment in Scottish industries and services since the war. Thirdly, 
changes in the industrial structure of Scotland are examined. Information 
on this topic is derived mainly from statistical tables provided by the 
Ministry of Labour, showing the industrial distribution of persons insured 
under the Unemployment Insurance Acts in Scotland for the years 1923-32 
and the number of these persons recorded as unemployed. Finally, a brief 
account is given of changes in the industrial and agricultural output of 
Scotland and in the volume of Scottish export trade. 


Friday, September 7. 


PRESIDENTIAL Appress by Mr. H. M. Hatisworty, C.B.E., on The future 
of rail transport (10.0). (See p. 119.) 


Prof. W. F. Bruck.—Risk and its significance in modern economy (11.30). 


A. Three types of economic organisation: I. Ideal type of liberal econo- 
mics (with markets. Unit based on individual enterprise). II. Ideal type 
of ‘ domination’ of economic sphere; purely socialist planned economy 
(without markets. Unit based on Department of Public Administration). 
III. Transition between I and II (limited market economics with limited 
private enterprise and ‘ invasions ’ by control of the State, public bodies and 
big business). 

Practical application—Type II does not exist, even in Russia. Type I 
dominant in Britain, 1850-1914. Type III is present type of world economy. 

History of development.—(a) First industrial revolution; (6) second 
industrial revolution (industrialisation of agrarian and overseas countries 
and other changes). 

Risk and spreading of risk in these historical periods —Union of functions 
in the capitalist entrepreneur. ‘Then division of labour transferred risk and 
other functions of entrepreneur formerly his prerogatives to other institutions 
and persons. Progressive impersonalisation of undertakings (cartelisation, 
trustification, invasion of public control). 

German history as example.—Since 1700 pronounced progressive state- 
socialism, interrupted only by very short semi-liberal period. After war 
most important trades (industries, transport, banking) largely controlled by 
state or big business. In contrast to liberal nations, greater part of economic 
functions transferred to Public Administration. Publicly controlled capital 
makes State chief bearer of capital risk. At the same time, State-socialist 
State grows in Germany into a ‘ Sozialstaat’ (state as moral trustee of its 


340 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS .—F. 


citizens in contrast to authoritarian State, ‘Obrigkeitsstaat’). Social risk, 
a new development of State-socialist Sozialstaat, runs parallel to capital 
risk, both growing especially in second industrial revolution with non- 
adjusted supply and demand in time of enormously increased productive 
capacity by rationalisation. Historical sketch shows progressive sensitive- 
ness towards trade cycle. 

B. How to manage a semi-planned economy of type III.— Methods of 
corporate systems based on partial exclusion of market economy ; complete 
exclusion impossible in States of Western culture. Therefore must have 
a construction serving the transitional stage, i.e. both planned as well as 
liberal economy. Application of German mixed public and private enter- 
prise side by side with private enterprise and purely public administration 
with departmental units. Description of this mixed enterprise (history, 
successes, economic and legal construction, functions and rational adapta- 
tion to them). The three types of special risk-transference, two personal, 
the modern cost accountant and the applier of trade cycle forecasts, and 
one impersonal, the risk spreading compensation-machinery of German 
cartel type. 


Monday, September 10. 


Miss E. F. STEVENSON.—Economic anomalies of unemployment relief (10.0). 


While work is the only satisfactory form of unemployment relief, the 
provision of work is difficult, particularly in periods of depression. Similar 
difficulties arise in all forms of Public Assistance ; and it is therefore ad- 
visable to consider what are the general economic principles of public 
assistance, how far they are applicable in the case of unemployment, and 
whether changes in organisation may be expected to remove the existing 
anomalies. 

The whole question may be regarded as a problem of the use of economic 
resources and of the distribution of the national dividend, and is obscured 
by viewing it as a problem of administration of relief. 


Discussion on Economic planning (10.45). 
Prof. D. H. Maccrecor, M.C. 


Prof. A. Gray. 
Prof. W. F. Bruck. 


Sir Josian Stamp, G.B.E. 


Tuesday, September 11. 


Mr. J. K. EastHam.—The tin control scheme: a study in regulated 
marketing (10.0). 


The purpose of this paper is to discuss some of the major problems of 
restriction of supplies of raw materials in the light of recent developments 
in the tin industry. The capital structure and technical conditions of 
the tin industry are briefly reviewed, and an attempt is made to estimate 
the relative importance of technical costs and the capitalisation of the 
concern in determining the attitude of the individual producer to restriction. 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—F, F*. 341 


The following problems are then discussed : 


(a) The efficacy of restriction of supply as a remedy for cyclical 
depression. 

(b) Speculation and the amplitude of price fluctuations. 

(c) Centralised stock holding as a technique of price manipulation. 


Prof. F. W. Ocitvie.—The significance of international trade accounts (11.0). 


Mr. S. Rowson.—The value of remittances abroad for cinematograph films 
(12.0). 


Wednesday, September 12. 


Mr. R. B. Bryce.—The wheat situation and state control (10.0). 


The paper deals first with the present statistical wheat position and the 
trends and events leading up to it. ‘This brings out the economic problem 
involved in the low returns to the growers, relative to their former returns 
and to those of other producers. ‘This in turn has brought about, in places, 
severe social problems with political repercussions. 

The analysis is then made of some factors in the supply of and demand 
for wheat which lie behind the great relative fall in its price. The structure 
of both production and marketing is related to this as well—with special 
reference to possibilities of governmental control. The influence of the 
general economic depression is also treated. 

On the basis of this analysis an examination is made of several of the many 
Government attempts to improve the position of the wheat growers. Com- 
parisons are made between the schemes of various countries, and these are 
related to national agricultural policies. Finally the attempts at inter- 
national control or agreement are considered and the possibilities of their 
success discussed. 


DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL CO-OPERATION (F*). 


Thursday, September 6. 


AFTERNOON. 
Discussion on The need for a technique of economic change (3.0). 


Sir Josrau Stamp, G.B.E. 


Under conditions of increasing population existing aggregate supply may 
go on without quick contraction, even though individual demand is partly 
redirected into new channels (e.g. less bread per person, but more persons 
wanting it). Supplies of new products may be provided by additional 
workers without calling on existing producers to change their occupations, 
and avoiding the overcrowding of those occupations by new workers and, 
therefore, no dynamic force has so far existed for transference for unemploy- 
ment caused by technical change, and the need for a technique has not 
been seriously considered. But as populations get stationary, and as 
technical change becomes more rapid, vested interest in workers’ special 
skill becomes more in. danger. Apart from increasing real income, every 


342 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—F*. 


new demand in spending an existing income means a less demand for old 
products, and problems of unemployment through displacement become 
more frequent. ‘T'wo cases are distinguished : (a) innovation which enables 
old products to be supplied more easily, and thus frees purchasing power 
and workers simultaneously for new objects, and (}) innovation causing 
rival satisfactions in use (radios versus pianos) or later sources of supply 
slightly cheaper. ‘The latter case is the more acute. Under a planned 
society, the consumer can never get his own way and whim to the old extent, 
and the transfer could be made gradually, protecting old producers (i.e. 
skill and capital) from immediate extinction. Under an individualistic 
society, several palliatives are possible for examination : 


(1) State-aided transfer of labour. 

(2) Graduated protection from foreign competition. 

(3) Common aid to obsolescent industry or districts. 

(4) Compulsory special funds and additions to competitive costs, towards 
obsolescence, from new industries. 

(5) A ‘ contracting ’ industries’ tribunal. 


It is often only possible in retrospect to distinguish between depression 
and displacement. Sudden death and healthy bankruptcies are alone 
consistent with a highly individualistic society, but the new conditions make 
some modification essential. Displacement of labour has a human and 
social appeal, but over-rapid destruction of capital is also a social evil, if it 
undermines one of the essential conditions, security, in which alone capital 
would voluntarily come into existence. 


Mr. N. F. Hatt. 


The demand for a technique of economic change arises from an instinctive 
feeling that the economic system does not sufficiently rapidly avail itself of 
the new knowledge placed at its disposal by scientific research, and that 
consequently society in its r6le of consumer is deprived of benefits to which 
its growing knowledge and command of natural resources entitles it. 

The need for a technique of economic change is generally admitted, the 
difficulty is to discover the nature of the economic problem to which rapid 
developments in scientific knowledge give rise. The first part of the paper, 
therefore, reviews the general principles of economic theory with the 
object of isolating the obstacle to change. This obstacle is found in the 
increasing degree of specialisation both of men and capital equipment 
which technological change requires. ‘This specialisation acts cumulatively 
as an obstacle to further change. It does so by increasing the zone of ‘ un- 
certainty ” as a constituent element in the economic system. 

The second part of the paper discusses the technique necessary to over- 
come this ‘ uncertainty ’; its bearing upon changes in prices and output of . 
capital goods, and through these upon the general level of economic activity 
and employment. The paper concludes with a discussion of the bearing 
of changes in the zone of uncertainty upon monetary and investment policy. 


Mr. KENNETH Linpsay, M.P. 


Large-scale production, specialisation, speed of mechanisation are 
producing new social phenomena. The distressed area dependent on an 
old economy; the derelict villages dependent on a single industry ; the 
new estate. 

Areas of administration for utility and social services ; transport, electri- 
city, water, gas, town planning; housing, hospitals, education, relief, 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS .—F*. 343 


The strain on local government, need for new areas. Age-groups must be 
studied by industries and localities. 

Where to live and where to work. How far can planning of social services 
anticipate economic changes? A national survey wanted. 


Friday, September 7. 
AFTERNOON, 
Discussion on Education for business management in Scotland (3.0). 


Dr. H. Hamitton.—Education for commerce in Aberdeen University. 


A Department of Commerce was instituted in Aberdeen University in 
1919, its purpose being to meet the needs of those preparing for careers in 
commerce and administration by providing opportunities for the study of 
subjects cognate to their future pursuits. The essential basis of such a 
course consists of economic subjects—political economy, organisation of 
. industry and commerce, banking, currency and foreign exchange, and 
these—together with accounting and business methods, mercantile law, 
geography, statistics, industrial psychology and a modern foreign language— 
are compulsory for all candidates. The curriculum includes at least two 
other subjects chosen from a wide selection, thus giving the student the 
opportunity to specialise in foreign languages, in scientific subjects, or in 
advanced economics. 

Down to 1933, 117 students had graduated, and the occupations repre- 
sented offer an interesting study. In that year the representation was as 
follows: business, 43; chartered accountants and accountants, 21 ; 
teachers, 19; banks, insurance and telephone companies, 7; law, 3; 
Inland Revenue, 2 ; secretarial work, 2; railways, 2. Of the total number 
of graduates about 35 were abroad, mainly in Africa, India and the Far 
East ; about 28 in England, chiefly in London ; and about 50 in Scotland, 
a number of whom were training for accountancy, for law, teaching or 
medicine. 


Mr. Garnet WILSON.—The Dundee School of Economics and Commerce. 


Monday, September 10. 
AFTERNOON. 


Discussion on Visual methods for the presentation of statistical and 
other data for the use of business executives (3.0). 


Mr. A. G. H. Dent.—Graphic methods for business executives. 


Graphic and other visual methods of analysing and of presenting business 
data have developed in industry because they have definite advantages 
compared with pure figures. These advantages may be summed up as 
easiness to prepare, wide scope, great condensing power, and compre- 
hensiveness ; the capacity to show long period trends, relationships between 
various series, and characteristic variations, such as seasonal and cyclic 
fluctuations. Combined with statistical methods, graphic technique en- 
ables numerous problems in management to be shown clearly and vividly, 
and provides a valuable analysis of conditions. 


344. SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS .—F*. 


The chief divisions of visual methods are : 

(1) Charts, graphs and diagrams ; 

(2) Models, mechanical devices and maps ; 

(3) Special systems ; 

(4) Symbols. 

The most commonly used line charts are the plain arithmetic chart, its 
companion, the ratio chart, the Z chart, incorporating the moving annual 
total, and the Gantt chart. The more vivid types such as bar, circle, 
mirror bar, square, etc., are now well known. Maps are used for such 
work as the sales control of a large territory, subdivided into branch office 
areas. Models are generally produced for some special problem, to 
illustrate the operation of several conditions. Special systems, usually 
consisting of signal devices, including coloured discs, tabs, etc., have been 
marketed by several firms for such uses as sales management, operative and 
credit control. Symbols are of more general application and appear 
commonly in propaganda matters, and to simplify numerical facts, as in the 
Neurath technique. 

All these methods have their particular fields of application, and have 
passed through the stage of being regarded as an interesting novelty into 
the condition of useful aids to business executives. 

The application of such methods must always be justified by their superior 
utility to previous methods, and for this reason they require close study 
before use in any given circumstances. 


Mr. Marx Barr. 


Tuesday, September 11. 


OINT Discussion with Section L (Educational Science, g.v.) on The 
4 
planning of a national policy of technical education and industrial 
recruitment (Section L room) (10.0). 


Wednesday, September 12: 


Discussion on The use of the experimental method in the field of 
* Industrial Relations ’ (11.0). 


M. H. DusrevuiL.—Autonomous groups in industry. 


If the industrial concern has not yet reached that state of harmonious 
unity that nature has realised among living beings, the reason is because 
we obstinately seek to push life into it by means of uniform regulations 
which take into account neither the peculiarities of its technological groups 
nor of the existing differences between the individuals of whom the groups 
are composed. Like a living being, the business is nevertheless constituted 
of a congeries of differentiated organs responsible for distinct functions such 
as are performed by the human organs that assure the continuity of our 
existence. That is why human industry, which has already had recourse 
to so many different branches of science, must pursue this progress further 
by applying the laws of a new science for the organisation of its internal 
life. Drawing inspiration from the life of organic beings as revealed by 
the science of biology, industrial organisation will learn the value not 
only of the division of functions but also of their autonomy. ‘ Industrial 
Relations ’ at bottom are not, or at least ought not to be, different in nature 
from organic relations. 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—F*. 345 


The question, then, is not really one of resolving its conflicts so much as 
to prevent their occurrence by means of a convenient circulation of the 
forces which should be capable of combination instead of opposition. If, 
then, we cease to regard the business as a bloc for which there could only 
be an en bloc solution, we can, by directing our attention successively 
upon its subdivisions only, proceed with smaller risk along lines of experi- 
mental research. For example, profit-sharing applied to the total personnel 
of a business is a form of en bloc attempt at the solution of the problem 
of remuneration of labour. If we reduce this problem to the dimensions 
of a technological group, we also reduce the extent of the difficulty: it 
becomes a question of resolving the problem of digestion by means of the 
stomach, and that of respiration, by the lungs. Then we shall begin to 
build a business in the image of those organic beings that nature has evolved. 
The imitation of natural organisms should lead to the subdivision of 
businesses into autonomous groups. 


Prof. F. MEYENBERG.—Improvements in industrial relations arising 
from the intervention of the management consultant. 


The process of ‘ division of labour’ that is economically necessary in 
every industrial concern is liable to give rise to various forms of internal 
friction which, whether traceable mainly to material facts or to personalities, 
must be removed, or at least diminished, by those responsible for 
organisation. 

For this task the independent management consultant is often better 
placed than an employee of the concern in that : 

(1) Being free from preoccupation with day-to-day detail he can give his 
whole time to questions of organisation. 

(2) Being free from departmental bias he can envisage the harmonious 
organisation of the concern as a whole. 

(3) Through his experience in investigating different branches of industry 
he recognises the underlying principles common to all, and thus is less 
prone to overrate non-essential details. 

(4) He is free from that workshop blindness which so often results 
from a man’s having worked many years in the same factory. 

If the best possible results are to be obtained the following requirements 
must be fulfilled : 

(1) On the part of the management consultant—He must have long 
acquaintance with the theory and, more important still, of the practice of 
the main managerial functions such as purchasing and selling, storage and 
transport, production, methods of payment of personnel, cost-accounting, 
book-keeping, inspection and finance. He must possess a high degree of 
discretion, tact and knowledge of human nature if he is to gain influence by 
consultation rather than by command. Apart from his work as a consultant 
he must be entirely independent and disinterested, both materially and 
morally. 

(2) On the part of the directors of the concern.—They must give the 
consultant free access to all the facts of the business and require their 
employees to do likewise. Criticism, even when adverse, of measures 
taken by the managing director must be regarded as in the interests of the 
concern as a whole so long as it is offered in an objective and inoffensive 
manner. The managing director, however, must never forget that he 
alone is responsible for the success of the business, and should therefore 
follow the consultant’s advice only if he is personally convinced that it 
points in the right direction. 


346 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS .—F*, G. 


A general description was given of the development of such consulting 
work, with illustrations of the practical application of the foregoing ideas. 


Mr. R. J. Macxay.—Some experiments in readjustment of relations 
between finance-capital, management and operative labour. 


It has been found possible, without recourse to special legislation or 
state-wide revolutionary change, to make small-scale yet significant experi- 
ments in readjustment of relationship as between ownership, management 
and operation in business concerns. Limitations of profit-sharing and 
co-partnership as conventionally understood. Possibilities and limitations 
qua opportunities of reward of a reversal of the customary relationships 
between working personnel of all grades on the one hand, and absentee 
ownership on the other. A case for the subdivision of sizeable businesses 
into relatively independent responsible groups of working personnel, and 
its bearing upon suggested wider utilisation of biological laboratory technique 
for vocational selection, guidance and placement of existing and potential 
industrial personnel of all qualities. A plea for further experimentation. 


SECTION G.—ENGINEERING. 
Thursday, September 6. 


(Note.—For joint session, Sections A, G, this day, on Technical Physics, 
see entries following Section A, pp. 283 seq.) 


PRESIDENTIAL ApprEss by Prof. F. G. Batty on Sources of cheap electric 
power (10.0). (See p. 145.) 


Mr. W. T. Hatcrow.—Scottish hydro-electric stations (11.15). 


The first part of the paper deals briefly with the water power resources 
of the British Isles as a whole. Mention is made of the work carried out 
by the Water Power Resources Committee and the effects upon develop- 
ment of that Committee’s report. 

The author refers to the many difficulties with which the promoters have 
to contend in obtaining sanction by Act of Parliament for the construction 
of large schemes, the promotion costs of which amount to large sums of 
money, and then goes on to describe and give examples of the three main 
types of developments in Scotland ; namely, (1) those working on a fully 
regulated flow at a constant load ; (2) those on a fully regulated flow but 
working on a varying load and used for general purposes ; and (3) those 
with a partially regulated flow, having little or no storage and worked in 
conjunction with steam stations. 

In the last part of the paper the author discusses the relative advantages 
of steam and water power stations and points out that the cost per unit 
generated at a large water power station is, contrary to general belief, con- 
siderably less than that of a steam station of similar capacity and load 
factor. 

The paper is accompanied by a map of Scotland indicating the positions 
of the various schemes. 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS .—G. 34:7 


Mr. F. S. ANDERSON.—Granite and granite quarrying (12.15). 


Nowhere in the whole of Great Britain is there such a large granite area 
as in North-east Scotland, and Aberdeen has been regarded as the chief 
centre of the granite trade in this country for over two centuries. Systematic 
quarrying was first started in this area about 1720, but until the end of the 
eighteenth century the methods of quarrying and hewing the rock were 
very crude indeed. In Aberdeenshire quarries the quality of the rock 
improves with the depth, and the best rock is found in masses separated 
from each other by bars of inferior material. "The paper gives a brief 
history of the development of the granite industry, and an outline of the 
method of quarrying, manipulating, crushing and screening granite at 
Rubislaw Quarry, which, opened 159 years ago, is now 370 ft. deep. 

Granite is the most durable rock substance quarried and worked by man. 
Its uses and purposes are numerous and varied, and the author discusses 
those purposes for which the durability, strength and beauty of granite 
make it pre-eminently suitable. 


AFTERNOON. 
Visit to Rubislaw Quarry. 


Friday, September 7. 


Mr. R. W. ALLEN, C.B.E.—The application of Diesel engines to trawlers 
and their operating gear (10.0). 


The British fishing industry has encountered difficult times in recent 
years. ‘The fishing grounds round Great Britain have been overfished, 
and there has been greatly increased competition from subsidised foreign 
fishing fleets. ‘Tariffs and other manifestations of the trend towards national 
self-sufficiency have added to the difficulties of the industry. 

It has been evident for some time that greater radius of action, and in- 
creased speed to and from the fishing grounds, at least so far as the larger 
vessels are concerned, are essential if there is to be a renewal of prosperity 
in the industry. The Diesel trawler meets these and other requirements 
of propulsion and winch operation very satisfactorily. 

In this paper the lines along which Diesel trawler development has 
already taken place, and is likely to continue in the near future, are discussed 
and summarised. ‘The various types and sizes of trawlers are dealt with 
broadly under four headings, the characteristics and requirements peculiar 
to each class being examined from the point of view of Diesel propulsion. 
The probability that speed-reduction gear will be adopted in future, per- 
mitting a high engine speed with a relatively slow propeller speed, is dis- 
cussed ; whilst reference is also made to the possibilities of Diesel-electric 
development for large trawlers. 


Prof. C. H. Lanner, C.B.E., and Dr. E. W. Smitu, C.B.E—The collection 
and distribution of gas in bulk (11.0). 


Distributory systems developed in other countries. Distributory systems 
within the gas industry in more highly populated areas in Great Britain, 
including London, Birmingham, South Yorkshire and Manchester. Facts 
influencing cost of distribution. Engineering problems. High- versus 
low-pressure. Zoning of gas distributory systems in highly populated 
areas. Influence of location on demand vis-a-vis sources of coal, with 


348 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—G. 


special reference to waterways and railway systems. Comparison between 
distribution problems of gas and electrical industries. Effect of tariffs on 
distribution policy. Bearing of zoning on utilisation of coke-oven gas. 
Factors governing cost of gas. Capital charges per therm. Availability 
of coal supplies. Effects of costs and qualities of coals. 

It is suggested that the subject merits a closer and more comprehensive 
examination, having for its object the ultimate zoning of the gas industry 
into several areas, each of which will be co-ordinated as regards the gas 
distributory systems. 

In the view of the authors such co-ordination does not necessarily entail 
financial absorption. It appears that the lessons of the development of 
the electrical industry are not applicable to the co-ordinated distribution 
problems of the gas industry, but that nevertheless an equally comprehensive 
treatment of the gas industry should be undertaken. 


Mr. James ABet and Mr. J. Ducuip.—Paper-making (11.30). 


Since the last visit of the Association to Aberdeen forty-nine years ago, 
advancement in the papermaking industry has been very marked. There 
are five paper mills on the outskirts of the city, and as in other industries 
it has been found beneficial to bring the steam boiler and power plant 
up to date. The perfection of the ‘ pass-out’ steam turbine, which enables 
the papermaker to withdraw the necessary process steam required, has 
definitely displaced the old steam engine, and the use of steam boilers working 
at different steam pressures is now no longer necessary. 

In the beater room, the Hollander continues to be the most popular type 
of beater, although there have been many attemipts to produce a substitute. 
The electrical sectional drive on the papermaking machine has been largely 
responsible for the success of the modern high speed machine running at 
800 to 1,000 ft. per minute. The advancement in design on the making 
machine has been largely brought about by the production of rigid frames 
and rolls of greater length, the introduction of the suction couch roll and 
multiple press rolls. For fine mills the adoption of the centrifugal system 
of separating heavy and light particles of foreign matter from the pulp is 
worthy of note, and improvements have been made in strainers, backwater 
systems, suction boxes, etc. Amongst recent innovations, the application 
of the vacuum principle of drying the paper deserves attention. 

Even with the present perfection of the making machine, there are many 
problems remaining for the imaginative engineer. 


AFTERNOON. 


Visit to Telford Exhibition, Gordon’s College : opening of exhibition 
by Sir Alexander Gibb, G.B.E., C.B. 


Monday, September 10. 
(Note.—For joint session, Sections A, G, this day, on Technical Physics, 
see entries following Section A, pp. 286 seq.) 
THE RepucTION oF NOISE :— 


Sir Henry Fow ier, K.B.E—Summary of Report of Committee on 
Reduction of Noise (10.0). 


The Chairman wrote to the Times inviting reasoned opinions from 
members of the public as to the noises which caused them most discomfort 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—G. 349 


and inconvenience. A very large number of replies were received and 
analysed. ‘They led definitely to the conclusion that the worst offenders 
were inadequately silenced motor bicycles and sports cars, then motor 
horns, then other road transport noises, and then aircraft. 

The Committee decided to concentrate upon the reduction of exhaust 
noise of motor bicycles, but they have also arranged that a paper on the 
effectiveness and offensiveness of motor horns shall be read by a representa- 
tive of Messrs. Lucas. 

In order to assist in the establishment of an authority to which types of 
motor vehicle could be submitted for test of approved silence, Dr. Davis, 
of the National Physical Laboratory, has investigated which instrument 
is most suitable for determining whether the exhaust noise of a vehicle 
exceeds a specified maximum, and Wing-Commander Cave-Browne-Cave, 
at University College, Southampton, has carried out experimental work 
in conjunction with the Motor Cycle Manufacturers to determine how much 
reduction of exhaust noise can reasonably be effected without loss of power. 

A grant of £10 was made for correspondence, but the work at South- 
ampton was rendered possible only by a donation of £50 from Lord Wakefield 
to University College for that purpose. A supplementary grant of £24 by 
the British Association was made in May, 1934. 

The Committee considered that very satisfactory progress has been made, 
but defer their recommendation for further action until they have heard 
the discussion upon the three papers which have been arranged. 

A demonstration was given in the afternoon*by motor bicycles as sold 
and as fitted with silencers based on the work at Southampton. There 
was also a demonstration of various types of motor horn. 


Wing-Commander T. R. Cave-Brown-Cave, C.B.E.—The reduction 
of motor bicycle exhaust notse (10:10). 


The nature of exhaust noise is reviewed and the principles of certain 
types of silencer are examined. 

Preliminary tests were made to determine the most satisfactory type for 
the suppression of noise with the minimum loss of power. 

These having proved encouraging, arrangements were made with the 
Motor Cycle Manufacturers to lend to University College, Southampton, 
one representative machine of the 4-stroke type and one of the 2-stroke 
type. 

These machines were installed so that the power could be accurately 
measured and the influence of alternative types of silencer determined. 

As a result of this work, a silencer has been evolved for each type which 
produces a great reduction of exhaust noise and gives a small increase rather 
than a decrease of power as compared with the exhaust silencers as sold. 

Performance curves of the engines with various types of silencers are 
given, together with details of the silencers and the principles on which they 
are based. 


Dr. A. H. Davis.—The measurement of noise (11.0). 


The paper reviews the bases and practice of noise measurement by means 
of aural and objective instruments. 

In aural measurements different observers agree within limits, but it 
appears to be necessary to average the results of several observers in order 
to get a typical result with precision. 

Objective instruments giving a meter reading corresponding to the 
average aural judgment are obviously desirable. ‘Their theoretical foundation 


350 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—G. 


is not wholly rigorous. Nevertheless there are ways of overcoming the 
more serious of the difficulties, and objective meters have been used suc- 
cessfully for measuring moderate and loud sounds of very varied char- 
acter. ‘The meters are often more reliable than individual observers in 
assessing the average judgment. The difficulties are minimised and the 
apparatus is simplified if the sounds concerned are of similar character 
’ and of the same order of loudness. A test within these limits will determine 
whether noise of a given kind or from a given type of machine exceeds the 
loudness specified as the maximum permissible, and appears to be within 
the scope of objective noise meters, subject possibly—in present conditions 
—to preliminary test and adjustment of the meter for the type of noise 
concerned. 


Mr. E. O. TurNER.—Motor horns—effective and offensive (11.50). 


It is endeavoured to examine by what means motor horns may be rendered 
less offensive to road users without reducing their effectiveness. 

The chief types of horns which have been in wide use are reviewed. 
Non-electric types are first mentioned. Electric horns and oscillograms of 
their sounds are then considered. ‘They are shown to be most effective 
when resonance is obtained between the fundamental or a harmonic of the 
sound source (generally a vibrating diaphragm) and an additional vibrator, 
resonance chamber, or air column. 

A tentative conclusion is drawn that the least offensive signal should be 
strictly periodic and complex in wave shape, avoiding both pure tone on 
the one hand and an undue number and amplitude of non-harmonic over- 
tones on the other.. 

The advantage gained by care in the choice of position and method of 
mounting on the car is referred to, and other means of reducing offensive- 
ness are considered : the use of staccato signals and the elimination of horns 
having comparatively long starting and stopping periods, and optional soft 
and loud signals for town and country use. 

Reference is made to regulations and by-laws regarding warning signals 
in force in other countries, and to other traffic regulations likely to affect the 
use of horns. 


AFTERNOON. 


Excursion to Bridge of Dee for demonstration of noise reduction. 


Tuesday, September 11. 


Prof. Sir James B. HENDERSON.—Development of invention as a stimulus to 
economic recovery (10.0). 


The history of industrial progress shows that it has been due in large 
measure to a combination of inventors with scientific vision, with promoters 
having capital and economic vision. Since the war this type of combination 
has been greatly reduced, and the only type of invention which has been in 
demand has been one which will further reduce employment by saving 
costs of production. 

Industrial research, which has been greatly stimulated, is looking after 
the industry of ten or more years ahead, whereas quick recovery is to be 
found in the development of inventions lying dormant in our patent records. 
This important branch of our industry requires urgent stimulus. At 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—G. 351 


present it is much easier to find fifty thousand pounds for the commercial 
working of an invention which has been developed to the commercial stage 
than it is to find five thousand for its development. 

Development of inventions is definitely outside the purview of the 
research associations and requires propaganda to educate a new generation 
of capitalists to act as promoters, and to bring them in touch with inventors. 
Some steps have already been taken in this direction, but many more are 
wanted. It may be thought that the development of inventions is one of the 
functions of industry, but the history of invention and the experience of 
many inventors proves the contrary, with perhaps the one exception of 
inventions which will reduce the costs of production. All of these tend to 
increase unemployment, at least temporarily. 


Mr. H. Hatyam and Prof. R. V. SouTHWELL, F.R.S.—Researches in impact 
testing (11.0). 


Investigations relating to the testing of materials by impact were described 
(informally) at the York meeting (1932). A new type of machine was 
employed, and a new method for applying the impulsive loading. The 
results were satisfactory both as regards consistency and as showing that 
the energy absorbed in fracture satisfies fairly simple dimensional laws. 

The present paper describes a later model of the same machine, designed 
to test specimens of half the size used previously, and embodying several 
modifications which experience has shown to be desirable. ‘The results 
of recent work relate to— 


(1) the detection of ‘ notch-brittleness ’ ; 

(2) the ‘ age embrittlement’ of mild steel at room temperatures ; 

(3) dimensional aspects of the test, as revealed by tests on two sizes of 
specimen, loaded both slowly and fast. 


Some tentative conclusions from dimensional theory are advanced, and 
the paper ends with an account of recent experiments which show that 
notch-brittleness can be detected by static tests in bending, although in 
a tensile test the faulty material behaves like sound material, whether the 
specimen be of the ordinary type or notched. ‘The practical implications 
of this last result are discussed. 


RePorT OF INLAND WATER SURVEY COMMITTEE (11.45). 


Capt. W. N. McCiean.—The flow of the river Dee (12.0). 


The author describes how the gauging of the river Dee has been in- 
augurated with the object of giving a practical example at this meeting of 
how river survey may be carried out. 

Central and local co-operation has resulted in the projected installation 
of four water level recorders at sites about 20 miles apart along the river 
and in facilities for flow gauging at Cairnton. The apparatus and the 
surveyors are on the site, and an actual illustration of the flow gauging will 
be given on the site at Cairnton during the afternoon of September 11. 

Low flow measurements were made by the Corporation of Aberdeen last 
autumn, and some surface velocities were measured by floats during the 
April floods of this year. During the coming autumn and winter it is 
hoped to complete the flow gaugings for all stages of the river at Cairnton 
and, should opportunity be presented, at other sites where water level 
recorders have been established. 

The amenities, use and control of the river, with special reference to 


352 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—G. 


fishery and water supply, are referred to; and it is indicated how the 
knowledge of rainfall, flows and water levels will be a guarantee against 
developments which would be harmful to the amenities and legitimate use 
of the river and its water. 

The general scope of the water survey is outlined by a map of the catch- 
ment areas showing rainfall and physical characteristics. 

The methods of keeping records are outlined and the results, arrived at 
from these records, are illustrated by the diagram of a long and intense 
flood on the Inverness-shire Garry—the diagram showing clearly the 
correlation of rainfall, run-off and storage during the passage of the flood, 
and the important correlation of run-off and storage during the following 
dry period. ‘The flow gauging methods are briefly referred to, and the 
great value of systematic water level records at permanent and temporary 
stations is emphasised. 


AFTERNOON. 


Excursion to Banchory, Cairnton and Wood End House for river- 
gauging demonstration 


Wednesday, September 12. 
REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON STRESSES IN OVERSTRAINED MATERIALS (10.0). 


Prof. B. P. Haicu.—The lower yield point .in mild steel : measurement, 
specification and application in design (10.10). 


It is generally believed that considerable reductions in the weights of 
plates and rolled sections used in mild steel structures may be justified by 
accumulated advances in constructional technique, and particularly by the 
more general adoption of welding in lieu of riveting. As ameans to this end, 
affording a more reliable basis for the estimation of the actual strength of 
structures, the more general use of the so-called ‘lower’ yield point is 
recommended in lieu of the ultimate tensile strength. 

A few tests are described, and references are made to others, to show how 
the ‘ lower’ yield point is readily measured in mild steel, after plastic strain 
has commenced under a load that may be considerably greater. It is shown 
that the lower yield point value is more consistently reliable than the higher 
value more commonly quoted. 

A draft specification is submitted for consideration with a view to adoption 
by the standardising Institutions. It is suggested that this specification 
should be standardised for the use of those who may desire to use it, although 
it should not at present be substituted to replace the current specification 
of the higher yield point. 

Tests on welded joints in beams, and on welded high-pressure penstocks 
for the development of water power, are described in detail to show how the 
results observed in practice may be precalculated in a reliable manner and 
in exceedingly simple ways by using the lower yield point as a basis of 
calculation in lieu of the less reliable bases provided by the ultimate tensile 
strength or the limit of proportionality of the materials used. 


Mr. R. T. Mepp.—Aerial cableways (11.0). 


Definition. Origin of cableways in Aberdeen granite quarries and 
historical development. General consideration of the carrying capacity 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—G, H. 353 


of wire ropes and of the sags of ropes and spans employed. Effect of 
stretch of ropes. Functions, range and limitations of cableways. 
Descriptions of the different types of cableway and their applications to 
and suitability for different uses and situations. Particulars of some special 
types and a more detailed description of two or three particular installations. 


Dr. R. H. Evans and Mr. J. ‘THomLinson.—Shear stress distribution 
in reinforced concrete beams (11.10). 


The paper describes measurements of strain with the object of determining 
the distribution of shear stress in both plain and reinforced concrete beams. 
The strains have been measured in three directions with extensometers 
having a gauge-length of one inch. Reference is also made to the hori- 
zontal and vertical stress conditions and to the position of the neutral axis. 

The results show that concentrated loads have considerable influence upon 
the general stress conditions, the shear stress being a maximum not at the 
neutral axis, but at some point between the axis and the loading point. 
The characteristic shape of the graphs obtained can also be explained in 
terms of the radial stresses produced by concentrated loads. ‘The observed 
shear stresses in sound concrete beams are often somewhat less than those 
estimated and increase very rapidly with the appearance of cracks in the 
concrete. In that portion of the beam situated above cracks the shear 
stresses are found to be considerably higher than those calculated. Observa- 
tions are also made regarding the variation of the stresses induced in both 
the vertical and inclined reinforcing rods for shear. 


REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON EARTH PRESSURES. 


REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON ELECTRICAL TERMS AND DEFINITIONS. 


SECTION H.—ANTHROPOLOGY.! 


Thursday, September 6. 


Mrs. M. M. Has_uck.—The flattening of Albanian heads and the evolution 
of European cradles (10.0). 


The conspicuous flatness of Albanian heads at the back has long puzzled 
_ anthropologists. Other Balkan races say it is artificial, produced by strap- 
_ ping babies to boards, but Albanians deny this, and foreign investigators 
have always found Albanian babies in cradles equipped with an ordinary 
pillow and mattress. In 1931, however, accident enabled me to solve at 
least part of the riddle. In certain well-defined areas Albanian babies 
are really strapped at birth on a rough board—not to flatten their heads, 
however, but only with the superstitious purpose of making their hold on 
life as firm as the board or the practical purpose of making their bodies 
easier to handle. As the majority are left only a single day on the board 
before being transferred to a proper cradle, there seems no time for the 
skull to be seriously affected. Besides, heads are flatter in South Albania 
_ where no boards are used than in North Albania where they are. 

Various derivatives of the board exist up and down the country, and when 
these preliminary cradles are set beside the varieties of cradle proper, one 


1 In the absence of the President owing to indisposition, the chair of this 
Section was taken by the Rt. Hon. Lord Raglan, Vice-President. 


354. SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—H. 


sees how European cradles evolved in the course of ages from boards. 
Only two stages in this evolution appear to be missing in present Albanian 
practice. 

Specimens of existing stages were on view at the lecture. 


Miss E. Dora Eartoy.—The health cult of an African tribe, with special 
reference to child life (11.0). 


Under the auspices of the Save the Children Fund this investigation was 
undertaken during the winter of 1932-33 in the Liberian Hinterland and in 
Sierra Leone. References are also made to studies among VaLenge children 
of Portuguese East Africa. Health is of paramount importance to an 
African, and its quest often supersedes that of food. 

Health forms the main subject of prayers to ancestral spirits, hence it 
belongs to the domain of religion. Children, forming indispensable links 
in the chain of dead and living, are from birth guarded from hostile in- 
fluences by various rites, votive offerings and medicines. ‘The author has 
studied the ‘ sacrifices’ or votive offerings to the spirits for safeguarding 
the child’s health ; and plants used in medicine, the botanical determina- 
tions having been made by the Department of Botany of the British Museum. 

The tribes studied are the Kisi and Gbande tribes of Liberia, the Mendi 
of the Sierra Leone Protectorate, the people of Freetown, and the VaLenge 
of Portuguese East Africa. Brief references are made to special diseases 
and ailments of child life, with some tentative constructive criticism. 

A description is given of a ‘ sick town’ or hospital settlement in the 
Liberian hinterland, frequented by little-known tribes. 


Capt. R. S. Rattray, C.B.E—The future of anthropology in Africa or 
elsewhere (12.0). 


Is this science, which the European has built up around African and other 
races under the name of Anthropology, destined in the future to be regarded 
by the subjects of these scientific investigations as just so much interesting 
archeological data concerning their own dead past ? 

Alternatively : Will these peoples come to recognise anthropology as 
something which has been a living vital factor in shaping their own destinies ? 

The answer to these questions would seem largely to depend on two 
things : 

(a) Whether the European can, before it is too late, enlist the whole- 
hearted interest and co-operation, in his anthropological experiments, 
of the more highly educated members of such communities ; 

(6) Ability and understanding to discriminate—among the mass of data 
which we have now accumulated—between what is, and what is not, 
vital for the attainment of the object which we have in view. 

This object may perhaps be defined as the retention of the particular 

genius and individuality of the races concerned. ~ 


AFTERNOON. 


Mr. J. H. Driserc.—African ancestor worship : a new view (2.0). 


It is maintained that the attitude of Africans towards their dead does not 
involve a religious cult and that the relationship between the living and 
the dead is entirely a secular one. There is abundant evidence that for 
two generations after death the dead continue to function within the 
organisation of the tribe without any substantial change in social estimation. 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—H. 355 


Their theory of the soul and of reincarnation, which may take two forms 
dependent on the social pattern of the community and originating in two 
distinct types of cross-cousin marriage, partly determines the attitude 
towards the dead, which is elaborated also by a teleological concept of 
Elysium which is not necessarily at variance with the theory of reincarnation. 
It is shown that the evolution of hero-cults and divinities is an exceptional 
feature of the ancestral organisation, emphasising its secular character 
rather than pointing to a supposedly religious basis. This view necessitates 
a revision of the terminology descriptive of the African attitude towards 
the dead. 


Dr. B. S. Guna.—The racial types in the population of India (3.0). 


The paper embodies the results of the special anthropometric inquiries 
carried out in 1930-34 on behalf of the last census operations of India, 
during which the greater part of the country was visited and measurements 
were taken on nearly 4,000 individuals. The anthropometric data were 
statistically analysed by means of Prof. Karl Pearson’s Coefficient of Racial 
Likeness, and the results obtained disclose the absence of marked morpho- 
logical differences between the Brahmins and the upper caste population, 
whose basic element appears to be Mediterranean, and over which have 
superimposed (a) an Alpine-Armenoid strain in Western India and Bengal, 
probably entering India at a very early period, as the recent skeletal finds 
at Harappa would appear to indicate, and (6) a proto-Nordic element with 
the Aryan invasion of North-Western India. 

The aboriginal tribes show a definite negrito strain whose remnants are 
still to be found among the Kadars of the Perambicullum Hills of Cochin. 
The Mongoloid influence is conspicuous in the territories bordering on the 
Himalayas and the hills along the eastern frontiers of India. 


Prof. Acnes C. L. DonoHucu.—Social sanctions and social restraints in 
native African society (4.0). 


Friday, September 7. 


Dr. J. F. Tocuer.—The services of Francis Galton and his school to physical 
anthropology and eugenics (10.0). 


Francis Galton, a frequent contributor to the proceedings of the British 
Association, was -President of Section H in Aberdeen in 1885. In his 
Presidential Address he proved, by the principle of correlation which he 
had then recently discovered, that heredity could be quantitatively measured, 
using stature as an illustration. He concluded by saying: ‘ When heredity 
shall have become much better and more generally understood than now 
I can believe that we shall look upon a neglect to conserve any valuable 
form of family type as a wrongful waste of opportunity. The appearance 
of each new natural peculiarity is a faltering step in the upward journey of 
evolution over which, in outward appearance, the whole living world is 
blindly blundering and stumbling, but whose general direction man has the 
intelligence dimly to discern and whose progress he has power to facilitate.’ 
By inventing the calculation of correlation, so fully developed by Pearson 
and his school, Galton placed anthropology upon a sound scientific basis. 
Galton is the Faraday and Pearson the Clerk Maxwell of anthropology. 
Since Galton’s day a large mass of data bearing upon man’s physical and 
psychical characters has been submitted to statistical analysis with fruitful 


356 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS .—H. 


results. In Scotland the mixed character of the population has been demon- 
strated by these quantitative methods now in common use in anthro- 
pometry. It is well known that Galton founded the science of national 
eugenics. He demonstrated that mental and moral as well as physical 
characters were inherited and therefore that humanity was capable of 
improvement through conscious selection. In striking contrast to some 
attempts at race improvement to-day, he held that no hasty or ill-considered 
method can be thrust on any community. Race improvement in Britain 
has been helped by legislation and by the effect of public opinion, particu- 
larly with regard to social conditions and material well-being. The im- 
provement has arisen through recognition of the fact that environment 
is a factor in life. But Galton and Pearson have shown that nature is a more 
powerful factor than nurture. Institutes and societies for race improve- 
ment have been established in America and on the Continent, including 
Russia. Galton defined eugenics as ‘ the science of those social agencies 
which influence mentally and physically the racial qualities of future 
generations.’ Until we know more fully than we know to-day what those 
influencing agencies are, we can do little to eliminate the cave dweller pro- 
pensities in man which are so rampant in Europe to-day. Galton looked 
forward to the day when conscious selection for race betterment would be 
sanctioned by the State, supported by public opinion. One has only to 
study the Annals of Eugenics and other publications of the Galton Laboratory, 
and the great work of Pearson and of Fisher, his successor, to see that 
progress has been made in our knowledge of man’s past and without 
conscious selection, his likely future. Material has been provided which 
should be studied by those at the helm of the State. 


Dr. J. GRaHAM CALLANDER.—Prehistoric archeology in the North-east of 
Scotland (11.0). 


The north-eastern part of Scotland occupied by the counties of Aberdeen, 
Banff and Kincardine is particularly rich in monuments and other remains 
of prehistoric man. In spite of this, and although many extensive collec- 
tions of relics have been gathered from the area, its antiquities, with the 
exception of two or three classes, have never been systematically described, 
and no sustained excavations of the monuments have been carried out and 
published as have been done in some parts of England. Proof of the occupa- 
tion of the district by Neolithic man is to be found in the relics left and in 
a few long cairns erected by him. Many Bronze Age monuments survive ; 
numerous graves containing pottery have been brought to light, and a fair 
representation of weapons, tools and ornaments of the period have been 
recorded. ‘The district is famous for its stone circles, that with the recum- 
bent stone being confined to this part; more than two hundred have been 
found in Aberdeenshire alone. ‘There seems to have been at least one early 
crannog in Loch Kinord. Earth-houses can be seen in the valleys of the 
Don and Dee, being very numerous in the neighbourhood of Kildrummy. 
Good examples of hill forts exist on the Barmekin of Echt, the Hill of Barra 
and the Mither Tap of Bennachie. Of vitrified forts, two of the finest are 
located on the Hill of Dunnydeer and the Tap o’ Noth. 


Miss Artsa Nico: Smitu.—Material culture as an introduction to social 
culture (11.30). 


Material culture is a valuable approach to the individual and social life 
of a people, and therefore is of great practical value to the fieldworker. 


Sse” SS 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—H. 357 


Costume for this purpose is especially instructive. This is examined under 
four headings—ordinary, festive, special, and ritual—and is preceded by 
a brief sketch of the islands and their inhabitants. Ordinary attire is a 
guide to the character of individuals and a gauge to the environmental 
conditions of the group. Special occasions have special costume. In 
secular festivities the esthetic sense of the individual finds expression, and 
on ritual occasions that of the society as a whole. Costume is intimately 
connected with marriage and widowhood. Ritual costume contributes 
profoundly to religious sentiment and has useful sociological functions. 


Mr. K. H. Jacxson.—The Gaelic Shanachies and some of their lore (12.0). 


The seanachai, anglicised ‘ shanachy,’ is the centre of folk-culture, the 
village entertainer, preserver of local traditions and beliefs and teller of 
folk-tales, in the Gaelic districts of Ireland and Scotland ; he has a large 
repertoire of folk-tales of all kinds, many of which have been distributed 
throughout Gaeldom bytravelling people and handed down bythe shanachies. 

Beliefs in the supernatural preserved by the shanachies : the malevolent 
hag (cailleach), not a witch; the evil spirit (sprid); the enchanted seals 
which speak ; the mermaid, piast, Ion craots, leprechaun, etc. 

Fairy beliefs: an early type is the sidhe-people or Tvatha Dé Danann, 
living apart in burial-mounds but engaging in love affairs with mortals ; 
a modern tale of this kind. They are now mostly prophetic visitants, 
whence the modern ‘ banshee.’ The early belief in Tir na nOg, ‘ the Land 
of the Young,’ and the theme of the wonder-voyage thither; modern 
survivals. The daoine maithe, fairies of the ordinary European type. 
Suggested explanation: Tir na nOg is the celtic otherworld, and the daoine 
maithe and sidhe-people are perhaps pre-celtic ancestor-spirits, the second 
evolved from the first. But the sédhe-people seem to include certain celtic 
gods. How far all these beings are really believed in by the folk. 


AFTERNOON. 


Prof. V. GorpDoN CHILpE.—The arrival of the Celts in Scotland (2.0). 


At Old Keig (Aberdeenshire), Covesea (Morayshire) and Jarlshof (Shet- 
land) flat-rimmed pottery resembling English Hallstatt wares has been 
found associated with Late Bronze Age objects of Britannico-Hibernian 
type. In Shetland an earth-house was connected with this complex. It 
is due to new settlers, though these were undoubtedly mixed with the 
older native populations. ‘These Late Bronze Age invaders are the only 
people to whom the Celtic name of Orkney can be attributed as early as the 
fifth century B.c. Their pottery is allied in a general way to that of 
All Cannings Cross in Wiltshire and Scarborough in Yorkshire, and recurs 
in the Western Isles and in NorthIreland. The precise origin of the invaders 
cannot be determined. But if there were Picts in Ireland speaking a Celtic 
language, this culture common to the Far North, Aberdeenshire and North 
Ireland has a good claim to be called Pictish. ‘To it may belong, besides 
the earth-house, also stone cups with handles, which have a different 
distribution to the broch relics. 

A contingent of cognate people mixed with other elements from York- 
shire may have reinforced the Bronze Age population of the Lowlands and 
been responsible for the first settlements on Traprain Law and other hill-top 
towns. Their pottery is rather more closely allied to that from Heathery 
Burn Cave, Co. Durham, and Eston Nab, near Middlesbrough, than to the 
pure Scarborough Hallstatt, but such Hallstatt elements may be admitted. 


358 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS .—H. 


The transition to the Iron Age was gradual here. The parade objects from 
the Lowlands belong stylistically to the Arras school of Yorkshire and must 
have been the property of chieftains derived from the Parisii who settled 
there. Whether such chieftains led the Late Bronze Age contingent to 
Traprain Law or arrived later is still uncertain. 

La Tene Celts coming direct from the continent across the North Sea 
and landing round the mouth of the Tay and on the Moray Firth must 
be responsible for the erection of Gallic and vitrified forts which have no 
parallel in England. They introduced a fully fledged iron industry and 
were the only people in Scotland to preserve the Celtic fashion of wearing 
safety-pins. They arrived with a culture still in the La Téne I stage and 
therefore before 200 B.c. The Gallic forts and most vitrified forts (Dun- 
troon, Dunagoil, Finavon) were abandoned before the Roman period. 

The little stone forts of Galloway, Bute and Argyll as well as the galleried 
duns and brochs constitute a group distinguished by their fine masonry 
from the earth-houses and Bronze Age villages. All are so small that they 
cannot have been villages or tribal refuges, but rather the castles of a chieftain 
with his retainers. ‘Their distribution, agreeing significantly with that of the 
“neolithic ’ chambered cairns, indicates a colonising movement (doubtless 
in several waves) up the west coasts. The brochs and contemporary 
dwellings of the subject population (group 1) and caves in the castle-area 
of Galloway and Bute have yielded a series of relics distinctive of the 
Glastonbury complex of south-west England. And the architecture of the 
castles has its nearest parallels in Cornwall. The castle-lords would then 
be Brythonic Celts arriving from that quarter. ‘They must have superseded 
the chiefs of group 3 in Bute and Argyll and subjugated group 1 in the Far 
North, but not in Aberdeenshire. 

The crannogs have yielded no relics distinctive of the Glastonbury com- 
plex, and cannot therefore be connected directly with the crannogs of 
Somerset. But pile-dwellings had been established in Yorkshire by 
Hallstatt folk. And a remarkable bridle-bit from Lochlee is an early 
derivative of the Arras bits. 'The crannogs must therefore have been built 
by refugees from Yorkshire who arrived before a.D. 1oo—how much is 
uncertain. 


Rev. Dr. A. B. Scorr.—The historical sequence of peoples, culture, and 
characteristics in Scotland from 400 B.C. to A.D. 950 (2.45). 


The correct historical sequence of the Celtic peoples, culture, social 
habits, and political organisations in what is now Scotland. The trend of 
the Celtic migrants generally, and the trend in the British Isles. The Celts 
who crossed to Ireland by way of Britain. ‘Those who settled in Ireland 
direct from the continent of Europe. The mass-divisions of the Celts 
(1) in Britain, (2) in Ireland; and their locations. The first emigration 
of Iro-British Celts towards what is now Scotland. Where they settled. 
The social and political effect of their coming. The transportation of 
southern British Celts into what is now Scotland by the imperial Romans. 
The counter-movement when imperial Roman power was withdrawn. 
The Iro-Gaelic and Iro-Dalriad thrust in Argyll. The arrival of the 
Christian religion. "The peoples who received and spread Christian culture. 
uae. prgodsafanies of the leading Christian teachers in what is now 

cotland. 


Mr. A. O. CurLE.—Prehistoric Shetland—the excavations at Farlshof (3.30). 
Mr. ALEX. KEILLER.—The Megalithic monuments of the North-east (4.0). 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—H. 359 


Saturday, September 8. 


Excursion to Barmekin of Echt, Sunhoney Stone Circle, and Midmar. 


Monday, September 10. 


PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS by Capt. T. A. Joyce on The use and origin of 
Yerba Maté (10.0). (See p. 161.)2 


Mr. A. Lestre ArRMsTRONG.—The excavation of two Bronze Age burial 
cairns and associated urn-fields at Grappenhall in the Mersey valley, 
N. Cheshire (10.45). 


These cairns appear to have been erected upon a dry sandy heath. Subse- 
quent climatic changes caused the deposition of wind-borne sand over 
a wide area which, at this point, raised the general surface level 3 ft. and 
entirely buried the cairns. Consequently they were preserved intact until 
revealed by chance in 1930. Recent acquisition of the site for building 
enabled a complete examination to be made of both cairns and a large part 
of their surroundings. Each contained a primary cist burial of cremated 
remains, early Middle Bronze Age in date, and secondary burials of crema- 
tions of late Middle Bronze Age date. A small decorated vessel, suggesting 
a hybrid form of food-vessel and beaker, and a richly decorated food-vessel, 
were associated with the primary burials, also leaf and kite-shaped flint 

_arrow-heads. A tri-partite urn enclosed a secondary burial. Excavations 

outside the cairns revealed in each case an associated urn-field which 

_ yielded three tri-partite urns of latest Middle Bronze Age type and numerous 
deposits of cremated remains. 

The early pottery exhibits marked Irish influences, and a study of the 
Bronze Age antiquities of the locality provides evidence indicating that 
Warrington was the port on the Mersey through which trade passed between 
Ireland and the Bronze Age settlements of Derbyshire ; also, but in lesser 

degree, with Yorkshire and the Midlands. The apparent trade routes with 
these areas were described and discussed. 


Rt. Hon. Lord RacLan.—The cult of animals (11.30). 


The religio-sociological aspect of animals, as distinct from the purely 
“utilitarian, may be discussed under eight heads: (1) Totemism. (2) 
Talking animals. (3) The ceremonial wearing of horns, skins, etc. (4) 
_Lycanthropy. (5) Gods in animal form. (6) Animal sacrifices. (7) 
‘Animals as omens. (8) Animals as emblems and symbols. 

In all these cases there are human and animal alternatives : (1) Linked 
clans. (2) The talking animal identified with a man. (3) The wearing of 
human masks, scalps, etc. (4) Human shape-changing. (5) Gods with 
both human and animal forms. (6) Human sacrifices. (7) Human beings 
asomens. (8) Female figures, etc., as emblems and symbols. 
_ We find, however, that real people are never identified with real animals. 
Even small children do not believe that real animals can talk. The were- 
wolf is a magic wolf, never a real wolf. Wee find further that in all the eight 
classes mentioned above there are substitutes which are neither human 


* A model of this stone circle, by Mr. John A. Gentles, together with some 
Aberdeen palzoliths, was exhibited in Marischal College during the meeting. 
2 In the absence of the President, the address was read by Prof. H. J. Fleure. 


360 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—H. 


nor animal: (1) Atree or cloud as totem. (2) Talking insects and flowers. 
(3) People disguised as trees, e.g. Jack-in-the-Green. (4) People changed 
into a flower or a pillar of salt. (5) Gods in stone, etc. (6) A cake or cup 
of wine as a sacrifice. (7) Dice or sticks as omens. (8) A cross or a star 
as an emblem or symbol. 

It would seem that all these phenomena are connected, and are the result 
of a long and complex process of symbolisation—that is to say, the provision 
of ritually effective substitutes. This is the work of religious philosophers, 
and has filtered down to children and savages, whose symbolism, whether 
conscious or unconscious, merely reflects the conventional symbolism of 
their group. 

AFTERNOON. 


Mr. K. P. CuatropapHyay.—The Chadak festival in Bengal (2.0). 


The Chadak puja or festival is celebrated at the end of the Bengali new 
year, in Bengal. It is also found in the Dravidian-speaking tracts of South 
India. No detailed description of the ceremonial has, however, been so 
far available in print. This defect is remedied by the present paper. 

A detailed knowledge of the festival is important from the point of view 
of analysis of Indian social organisation and culture. It represents a 
survival from the pre-Vedic culture in which there was a definite belief in 
resurrection of the dead person. ‘The friends and relatives helped to bring 
back the dead to life and joyfully hailed his return with song and dance. 
The Chadak festival as it is found now can be traced to the older beliefs 
only through the parallel festivals of Manda parab in Chotanagpore, and 
the worship of Dharma or Dharmaraja in Bengal and South India. 

A detailed description of the different parts of the ceremonies was given, 
and the reasons for not discussing their significance at this stage were noted. 


Mrs. H. W. Etcee.—The Megalithic cult of the eastern moorlands of York- 
shire (3.0). 

In this region Megalithic structures comprise the following types : 
(1) Monoliths. (2) Rows or Alignments. (3) Parapets or Stockades. 
(4) Circles. (5) Ovals. (6) Triangles. 

They are associated with barrows and cairns, mostly of Mid-Bronze Age, 
and there is no evidence that any are earlier than the Early Bronze Age. 
The Triangles, or groups of three stones, are a type hitherto unrecognised. — 
That Megaliths were fertility symbols is to be seen in the prevailing belief — 
of the moorland farmers in the efficacy of rubbing-stones, and in the male © 
and female stone gate-posts of their fields. 


Prof. T. F. McILwraitu.—The influence of mythology upon the culture of 
the coastal Indians of British Columbia (4.0). 


Tuesday, September 11. 


Mr. James Cooper CLARK.—An Aztec manuscript known as the Collection of 
Mendoza (10.0). 


The Aztec manuscript known as ‘ the Collection of Mendoza’ is preserved 
in the Bodleian Library and was compiled in 1549 by order of Don Antonio 
de Mendoza, first Viceroy of New Spain, with the intention of conveying 
to His Majesty Charles V some idea, from native sources, of the history, 
manners, and customs of the Indians of his lately acquired possession. 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS .—H. 361 


The manuscript consists of seventy-one folio pages and is divided into 
three parts: the first, beginning with the traditional settlement of the 
Mexicans on the shores of Lake Tetzcuco, contains a list, length of reign, 
and conquests of the nine successive lords of ‘Tenochtitlan ; the second is 
a copy of the Tribute Roll of Motecugoma Xocoyotl, whose authority ended 
with the coming of Cortés in 1519 ; while the third part illustrates the life 
of the Indian from the cradle to the grave. 

The Viceroy employed a native artist who used his own colours of yellow 
ochre, indigo, and cochineal, with, of course, their eo ees He was 
supplied with European-made paper. 

The vessel conveying this document to Europe was captured by a French 
frigate and so, instead of being handed to Charles V of Spain, it was delivered 
to Henry II of France. Int 553 it came into the possession of André Thevet, 
the French king’s cosmographer, who sold it to Richard Hakluyt for twenty 
French crowns, and he, dying, left all his books and manuscripts to Samuel 
Purchas the Elder, who included the Mendoza MS. in his 1625 edition of 
Hakluytus Posthumus ; from Purchas it passed to John Selden, who, in 
turn, bequeathed his books to the Bodleian Library. 


Prof. W. C. O. Hitt.—The physical anthropology of the existing Veddahs 
of Ceylon (11.0). 


Definition of Veddahs ; present range, status and numbers ; reasons for 
disappearance ; effects of miscegenation ; probable fate. Changes since 
the visits of the Sarasins and Seligmans. 

General appearance of the typical Veddah of to-day. Misleading state- 
ments of the older writers. New material for study. ‘The living Veddahs. 
Results of studies on recent skeletons. Recovery of two complete cadavers. 

Morphological characters. External characters. Stature; skin; hair; 
facial characters ; limb-proportions ; flat-feet; foot-prints. Skeletal char- 
acters ; skull ; spine ; comparison with Sinhalese and Tamil. Characters 
of soft parts; brain, brain-weight; interesting anomalies so far discovered. 
Relative frequence of similar anomalies in Sinhalese and Tamil bodies. 

Summary ; affinities of the Veddahs to Indian jungle-tribes, Negritoes 
and Australians. - 


Rey. Canon J. A. MacCuLtocu.—Folk-lore and archaic magic in the 
Scottish witch trials (12.0). 


The foundation of all witchcraft, ancient and modern, savage and 
civilised, is the old and universal belief in maleficium, working through magic 
or with the aid of spirits. In its narrower sense, maleficium was believed 
to be exercised in many different ways—destroying life, causing disease or 
madness, taking the substance of crops, milk, etc. In later times the witch 
was often merely a person learned in traditional methods of healing, more 
or less magical, and all harmless. Yet this was counted as maleficium, 
because she was believed to have been instructed by the devil, as examples 
prove. 

The witch flight, nocturnal assemblies, homage to Satan, etc., may be 
regarded partly as imaginative elements, partly as the creation of current 
beliefs, folk-lore, and gossip, codified into a system in the fourteenth century. 

In Scottish witchcraft, as depicted in the trials, maleficium is the main 
fact which emerges. Now it was exercised according to the methods of 
archaic and universal magic. Now it was merely more or less harmless 
traditional folk-lore. Or it was connected with spirit and fairy lore. 

oO 


362 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—H, I. 


Examples of (1) archaic magic; (2) traditional folk-lore; (3) fairy 
beliefs. 

The Scottish witch was a repository of all kinds of beliefs, which leading 
questions at the trials occasionally made into a diabolical system. She was 
probably imaginative. Under suffering or torture she would confess to 
anything suggested to her. There is no real historic evidence for a witch- 
cult in Scotland. 


SECTION. I.—PHYSIOLOGY. 


Thursday, September 6. 


Symposium on Some recent advances in the physiology and pathology of 
the blood (10.0) :— 


Prof. J. Barcrort, C.B.E., F.R.S.—Respiratory function of blood in 
the foetus. 


The foetus presents the problem of an organism which is outgrowing its 
organisation for supply. This is true, among other things, of the supply of 
oxygen. The blood emerging from the uterus becomes progressively 
darker throughout pregnancy, which means a continuous drop in the 
pressure at which the oxygen is presented to the foetal blood in the placenta. 

The problem which confronts the organism is that of providing a sufh- 
cient pressure gradient between the maternal and fcetal blood. The solu- 
tion lies in a divergence of the dissociation curve of each blood from the 
normal. ‘That of the mother is displaced ‘ to the right’ and that of the 
foetus ‘ to the left ’—thus creating a gap, so that over a great part of the 
curve the feetal blood at a given oxygen pressure is about 25 per cent. more 
saturated than the maternal. The shift in the maternal curve is due to 
increased pH, that in the fcetal curve to a specific difference in the hemo- 
globin. 

The pressure at which the oxygen leaves the placenta in most animals 
is low ; it is further reduced before reaching the fcetal arteries by admixture 
of the umbilical blood with that from other veins. Consequently the 
embryo exists under anoxzemic conditions. 


Prof. L. S. P. Davipson.—WNutrition in relation to anemia. 


Within the past ten years an unparalleled advance in knowledge regarding 
the relationship of diet to blood formation has occurred, which has been the 
means of eliminating certain forms of anemia completely, of bringing 
under therapeutic control others which were incurable, and of directing 
attention to forms of anemia which had escaped notice. Previous to 1926 
the cause of pernicious anemia was unknown and treatment was so un- 
satisfactory that every patient died. ‘To-day we know that the essential 
cause lies in a failure of gastric secretion, so that the patient is unable to 
obtain from his food a principle which is essential for normal blood forma- 
tion. By the administration of liver, or extracts made therefrom, a sufferer 
from pernicious anzemia can now lead a nermal life. 

Of greater economic importance, in view of its extraordinary frequency, 
is the group of nutritional anzemias due to iron deficiency. Approximately 
50 per cent. of infants and adult women of the poorest classes are anzemic. 
The causes of this deficiency are now understood and accordingly can be 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS —I. 363 


corrected. ‘The principal factors are (1) pregnancy and loss of blood at 
the periods, leading to increased demands for iron ; and (2) an iron-poor 
diet which fails to maintain adequate reserves to meet such eventualities. 
Dieto-therapy and the administration of iron-salts rapidly and cheaply 
cause a remarkable improvement in health, with a corresponding gain in 
economic efficiency and resistance to disease. 


Dr. F. J. W. Roucuton.—Recent work on carbon dioxide transport. 


Since 1928 there have been two new developments in the problem of 
carbon dioxide transport by the blood : 

(1) It has been found that the red blood corpuscles (but not the plasma) 
contain large amounts of a powerful enzyme, carbonic anhydrase, which 
catalyses both phases of the reversible reaction, H,CO, = CO, + H,O. 

(2) Small amounts of carbon dioxide have been shown to combine 
directly with the hemoglobin of the blood to form compounds probably 
of a carbamino type, e.g. HbNH, + CO, =HbNHCOOH (hemoglobo- 
carbamic acid), and possibly of some other type as well. The tendency to 
form carbamic compounds is far more marked in the case of reduced 
hzmoglobin than in oxyhemoglobin. 

These two discoveries mean that our previous views require some 
resetting. An attempt will be made to give an up-to-date picture of the 
operations which confront the CO, molecule from the earliest stage, i.e. its 
liberation in the course of metabolism, right up to the final stage, viz. that 
of liberation into the expired air. 


Dr. G. A. MILLikan.—Recent work on the hemoglobins. 


The family of the hemoglobins is becoming daily more diverse. Dif- 
ferent animals may possess hemoglobins with molecular weights ranging 
all the way from 17,000 (Chironomus) to several million (Arenicola). And 
even in the blood of a single animal, there is now evidence that there may 
be two or more hemoglobins differing from each other in iso-electric points 
or in resistivity to denaturation. Recent spectroscopic work shows, more- 
over, that the hemoglobin inside the corpuscle may differ markedly from 
that of laked blood. Finally, kinetic experiments show that there may be 
large differences in the reactive properties of hemoglobin depending upon 
whether it has very recently been oxygenated or reduced. 

Muscle hemoglobin has been shown to possess an oxygen dissociation 
curve of the simple hyperbolic type, interpretable on the classical Hiifner 
theory. For pigments showing the commoner sigmoid curves, new kinetic 
evidence, as well as the older molecular weight data, overwhelmingly favours 
the “ step-by-step ’ intermediate compound hypothesis as against the ‘ all-at- 
once ’ theory. 


AFTERNOON. 
Visit to the Rowett Research Institute. 


Friday, September 7. 


Jomnt Symposium with Section M (Agriculture) on Nutrition in relation 
to disease (10.0) :— 
Dr. J. B. Orr, D.S.O., F.R.S. 


_ Ashort non-technical account is given of the broad principles of nutrition 
in relation to disease which have been established in the Jast twenty-five 


364 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS .—I. 


years. The bearing of this recently acquired knowledge on public health 
and on the elimination of disease of farm animals is discussed. 

Reference is made to the results of some recent investigations which 
indicate that nutrition as determined by diet is now probably the most 
important factor affecting the health of the community. 

It is suggested that the present generally accepted standards of health 
are too low. If the necessary measures could be taken to ensure that every 
member of the community had a diet which was fully adequate for health, 
the next generation would be of better physique and free from much of the 
disease and indefinite ill-health which afflict the present generation. 


Prof. J. J. R. Macteop, F.R.S. 


The time-honoured belief that health is closely linked with diet, and that 
improvement of the state of bodily nutrition, by dietary control, is an 
important factor in the treatment of disease, has received ample support by 
recent research. Vitamins and minerals, no less than calories and protein 
units, are essential in the diet, and various definite diseases have been 
shown to be the result of deficiencies in the former. Since most of these 
deficiency diseases occur in the lower animals as well as in man, it has been 
possible to determine the exact nature of the deficiencies responsible for 
their occurrence, but the problem awaiting investigation is to determine 
to what extent more general diseases in man may be similarly related. 
There is evidence to show that diabetes, anemia and goitre are nutritional 
diseases, and it is probable that other types of illness are due to faulty 
dietetic habits. But much careful work, in which both laboratory workers 
and doctors collaborate, will have to be done before these problems can be 
solved. That such investigations will be of benefit to mankind is evidenced 
by the discoveries which have been made during recent years in the field of 
animal nutrition. 


Dr. May MELLANBY. 


Dental decay (caries) is almost universal in civilised countries. 

Carefully controlled investigations on man and animals during the past 
fifteen years have resulted in a new outlook in dental science. 

Faulty nutrition, especially in early life, is the cause of defective structure, 
this in turn predisposing towards caries. ‘Teeth are commonly imperfectly 
formed, hence the high incidence of decay; in a microscopical examina- 
tion of 1,500 milk teeth, 93 per cent. of those very defective were decayed as 
compared with 20 per cent. of the perfect. 

For good structure diet of mother during pregnancy and lactation, and 
of child after weaning, must include abundant calcium and phosphorus 
(of which teeth are largely composed), and the specific calcifying-factor, 
vitamin D (egg-yolk, cod-liver oil, milk, etc.). Cereals contain anti- 
calcifying toxamins ; their consumption should be limited. 

Vitamin D helps to prevent and to arrest caries even in imperfect teeth 
(Sheffield and Birmingham investigations). 

Beautiful teeth almost caries-free found in :— 


(1) Eskimos ; vitamin D from blubber. 

(2) Natives of tropics; vitamin D through exposure of whole body, 
especially while young, to ultra-violet rays of the sun. Breast- 
feeding is prolonged. 4 


When these peoples adopt the diet and clothing of civilisation their teeth 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS. —I. 365 


deteriorate rapidly, vide Eskimos of trading stations, negroes in New York. 
Heredity is therefore not a fundamental factor. 

The incidence of pyorrheea is reduced by giving abundant vitamin A 
(liver oil, green vegetables, etc.), especially during development. 


Prof. S. J. CowELL. 


Malnutrition in the sense of faulty feeding leads to disease, and disease 
leads to malnutrition in the sense of the production of a state of imperfect 
nutrition. It is therefore often difficult to decide how far wrong feeding is 
responsible for any observed case of poor physical development or lack of 
bodily fitness. Faulty diets lead to disease in a variety of ways. In some 
instances a deficiency of definite inorganic or organic substance in the food 
may cause a recognisable train of symptoms which may be cleared up by 
making good the deficiency. But similar deficiencies exerting their effects 
in early life may lead to faulty development of tissues which cannot sub- 
sequently be restored to their perfect state, thus predisposing to disease in 
later life. Other diseases may arise from some inherent or acquired in- 
capacity of the body to deal in the normal way with essential food factors 
actually supplied in the diet. When it is remembered that foods in common 
use may be sources of positively harmful substances as well as be deficient 
in beneficial substances, it is obvious that the construction of ideal diets 
requires greater knowledge than is available at the present time. 


Dr. H. H. Green.—wNutrition in relation to diseases of the larger 
domesticated animals. 


Amongst the economically important domesticated animals vitamin 
deficiency diseases are rare, even in animals in which they can be produced 
experimentally. In pigs reared under intensive conditions disorders 
arising from deficiency of vitamins A and D have been reported, but no 
avitaminosis has yet been reported in grazing animals however poor the 
pasture. 

On the other hand, mineral deficiencies are of enormous economic im- 
portance throughout the world, and on millions of acres of grazing land 
throughout the Empire the mineral content of the pasture, most commonly 
the phosphorus content, is the limiting factor in stock raising. Aphos- 
phorosis of cattle and sheep is a recognised syndrome somewhere in every 
continent, although it may vary in its manifestations from severe osteo- 
malacia and rickets, through reduced fertility occasioned by protective 
cessation of ovulation, down to slow development and poor economic 
returns in relation to the food supply apparently available. Indirectly 
linked to nutritional deficiency may come diseases of quite unexpected 
immediate origin, e.g. acute botulism in cattle displaying the osteophagia 
characteristic of aphosphorosis. 

Deficiencies of phosphorus, calcium, iodine, iron and copper in various 
parts of the world are discussed. 

Special attention is drawn to the different physiological reactions of 
different species of animal to the same type of dietary deficiency, and to 
the different etiology of diseases which present the same pathological 
picture. Thus the bovine develops rickets and osteomalacia on certain 
types of phosphorus deficient pasture upon which the equine remains 
apparently healthy. ‘The equine develops osteodystrophia fibrosa upon a 
calcium-phosphorus ratio which only induces slight osteoporosis in the bovine 
(CaO : P,O;, 1:3). The pathological picture of extreme aphosphorosis 
in the bovine is the same as D-avitaminosis in the human subject and in 


366 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS .—I. 


the pet dog. The pathological picture of hyperphosphorosis in the 
horse is similar to that of Recklinghausen’s disease in man, a disease in 
which parathyroid dysfunction plays a part. Cattle, sheep and horses 
remain in good health for years on a ration which would bring a guinea- 
pig down with scurvy ina month. Weaned cattle are relatively independent 
of external supplies of all the known vitamins, and can grow to healthy 
maturity on a ration which would at once induce growth failure and. various 
avitaminoses in laboratory animals. Disabling disorders of horses may 
occur on a type of mineral imbalance which the human subject seems able 
to tolerate. 

Health or disease is thus not only a question of the composition of the 
ration, but also of the species of animal; perhaps also of the number of 
generations over which the ration is fed. 


Dr. D. Ropertson.—The association of nutrition and helminth in- 
festations. 


Experiments bearing on the influence of the plane of nutrition on the 
helminth infestations of animals which have been carried out in different 
parts of the world are discussed and the possibility of reducing losses from 
parasitic disease by suitable feeding are considered. 

Evidence that the degree of parasitic infestation in lambs has a direct 
bearing on the nutritional state of the animal, which has been obtained as 
a result of a survey which is in progress in Scotland, is reported. 

Experiments carried out at the Rowett Institute on the effect of nutrition 
on the susceptibility of sheep to worm invasion are described, and the 
total evidence that the nutritional condition of an animal is closely related 
to its susceptibility to helminthic infections is summarised. 


Discussion. (Dr. H. E. Macee; Prof. T. H. EasTerrietp; Dr. 
Scott RoBertson; Dr. Ivy MackeENnziE; Rt. Hon. W. ELLIorT, 
P.C., M.P.; Sir F. GowLanp Hopkins, Pres. R.S.) 


Monday, September 10. 


Mr. T. W. Apams and Dr. E. P. Poutton.—A new study of heat pro- 
duction in man (10.0). 


It has been shown that the heat output in man cannot be correctly calcu- 
lated by multiplying the oxygen by a factor depending on the oxygen.and 
the respiratory quotient. Consequently the R.Q. does not indicate the 
proportion of carbohydrate and fat being burnt [Proc. Roy. Soc. Med., 26, 
1591 (1933)]. Thealternative theory is advanced that under basal (standard) 
conditions the carbon dioxide measures the amounts of carbohydrate and 
fat burnt in a fixed proportion at an R.Q. of about 0-8, and that a rise or 
fall in R.Q. means a partial reduction or oxidation of fat or carbohydrate. 
The proof of this theory depends on— 


(a) greater constancy of carbon dioxide than oxygen ; 

(6) high correlation of carbon dioxide and heat ; 

(c) if oxygen represents combustion, it is difficult on theoretical grounds 
to see how carbon dioxide can result from a partial reduction of 
carbohydrate ; 

(d) the correlation of oxygen and heat is not so satisfactory, since the 
theoretical limits of variation of oxygen are smaller. 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—I. 367 


On this theory the following conclusions are drawn : 


(r) In fasting subjects pure fat is burnt. 

(2) Mild exercise tends to the greater burning of carbohydrate. 

(3) Fever may tend to the greater burning of carbohydrate. 

(4) If carbon dioxide, taken as a measure of basal metabolism, is com- 
pared with body weight, there is a definite change in direction of 
the curve between two and four years. A similar change occurs 
at this age period in the relation of height and weight. 

(5) Basal metabolism (CO,) depends on the weight and very little on the 
height of the individual. 

(6) In obese and thin subjects the relation, basal metabolism : weight, 
is not far removed from the normal ; fasting lowers the metabolism 
more than the weight. 

(7) The low specific dynamic action of carbohydrate compared with 
protein is due to heat absorption resulting from partial reduction 
towards fat. 


Dr. Marie C. Stopes.—Some points in the technique of contraception 
depending on temperature (10.25). 


Records of temperatures of the cervix uteri as contrasted with oral and 
anal temperatures considered ; the function of grease in contraceptive 
technique ; difficulty of practical problems raised by the narrow margin 
between cervical and atmospheric temperatures at certain times and 
localities ; unsatisfactory nature of current attempts at solution due to 
ignoring the essential melting points involved ; cumbrousness of some 
current devices, e.g. transit in vacuum flasks ; a simple but effective vehicle 
devised ; further desiderata discussed. 


PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS by Prof. H. E. Roar on Normal and abnormal 
colour vision (10.45). (See p. 169.) 


Dr. F. W. EpripGe-GreeEn, C.B.E.—The theory of vision (12.15). 


It has been proved that the cones of the retina are the percipient elements 
for vision, and direct stimulation by light has been assumed without any 
evidence. Direct stimulation of the colourless transparent cones is against 
all photochemical laws, as no effect can be produced by light unless it is 
absorbed. Stimulation of the cones takes place through the photochemical 
decomposition of the liquid surrounding them, sensitised by the visual 
purple. The rods are not percipient elements but control the visual purple. 
This theory explains every known fact of vision, including numerous facts 
inexplicable on any other view. 


Dr. Ivy Macxenzie.—The physiological basis of visual sensation (12.35). 


The function of the anatomical substratum of human vision may be con- 
sidered from the point of view of physics or of biology or of psychology. 
Physical considerations predominate in the analysis of events in front of 
the retina; psychological interpretation plays a large part in the events 
behind the arez striate, while the processes between the retine and aree 
striate lend themselves to anatomical and physiological observation. The 
visual pathways between the retine and arez striate comprise the basis 
of visual sensation as distinct from perception. ‘This neural compendium 
is of bilaterally symmetrical conformation, and a knowledge of its constituent 
parts provides the main standard of reference in localisation of brain disease, 


368 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS .—I. 


In lower vertebrates its bilateral symmetry is related to the symmetrical 
character of somatic movement. The tendency to right-handedness in 
the human subject reveals a difference between the right and left sides of 
the brain in respect of participation in visual reaction—but only when 
vision is concerned with perceptual reactions. 


AFTERNOON. 


Prof. Joun Tait and Dr. W. J. McNaLty.—Some features of the physiology 
of the frog’s utricular macule (2.45). 


Two types of operation, each extralabyrinthine, have been used. Firstly, 
the nerve twig of supply to each utricular macula has been divided without 
damage to the nervous connections of any of the other receptors. Secondly, 
the nerves to all the labyrinthine receptors except the utricular maculz 
have been put out of commission. 

The first kind of operation produces little conspicuous disability. Not 
only can the frog crawl, leap and swim, but it retains its body-righting 
reaction as well. The main disabilities are incapacity to land properly 
after free fall from a height, absence of compensatory adjustments of the 
(blinded) animal to slow tilt of the substratum, and a fine head tremor that 
accompanies all movement. 

A frog subjected to the second type of operation shows grave disorder. 
During any attempted movement it is subject to distressing bodily pendula- 
tion of a massive kind. ‘The animal retains its compensatory reactions to 
slow tilt. By quick tilt, on the other hand, it is at once impelled to execute 
an active movement of an opposite kind, whereby its balance is more than 
ever imperilled. 

Analysis indicates that the utricular otoconia are not simple weights that 
slip in a downhill direction on tilt of the head, but that they resemble buoys 
in being heavier at one end than the other. By means of a model one may 
show how such a conception of their structure fits all the available facts. 


Prof. JoHN Ta1t.—Evolution of voice in vertebrates (3.15). 


In terrestrial vertebrates intercommunication by means of sound involves 
(on the productor side) the respiratory apparatus with its supply of air. 
We tend to think of the emitted vocal signals as being air-conveyed, but 
fishes use water as the medium of communication. So does a frog, whose 
croaking apparatus is designed more for under-water than for above-water 
transmission. ‘The croak of the frog, best studied with a hydrophone, 
involves no loss of its contained air. Its mouth-sacs are amplifiers. The 
nasal sacs situated on the front of the skull of a whale are presumably 
similar amplifiers for an animal signalling below water with a self-contained 
volume of air. 

It is suggested that in its early origin the air-bladder of fishes subserved 
vocal as much as respiratory requirements. It happens for physical reasons 
that an enclosed volume of air, thrown into vibration by any means, is an 
excellent mechanism for production of low-pitched sounds. Having 
gulped air, certain early fishes apparently ‘ experimented’ along these 
lines. Eventually a special pocket, the air-bladder, developed in close 
relation with the motor apparatus of respiration. This view is based on 
the frequency with which different kinds of fishes, e.g. Cypriniformes, 
Dipnoi, not to mention others, have a sound-producing air-bladder. 
Terrestrial vertebrates came of an aquatic stock possessed of a vocal 


air-bladder. 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS .—I. 369 


Prof. J. A. MacWixu1am, F.R.S.—The regulation of the heart-beat and 
blood pressure, with special reference to the effects of posture (3.45). 


Postural effects on the circulatory system are related to : 


(1) Attitude, per se. 
(2) Tonic muscular contraction involved. 
(3) Stretching and compression of certain muscles. 


Quite different mechanisms are concerned in the pulse-rate differences 
in standing, sitting and lying—the carotid sinus reflex on changing from 
sitting to lying, and the positions of the thighs in standing and sitting. 
The buffer nerves and especially the carotid sinus reflex play a very 
important part. This reflex varies greatly in responsiveness from time to 
time and with motor effort, emotion, etc. ; several other vascular reflexes 
are closely associated, but some others are not. Heart rate and blood 
pressure do not necessarily show parallelism with the carotid sinus reflex ; 
there are other factors influencing the control by the central nervous system, 
including impulses from the lower limbs, skin, abdominal viscera, etc., 
apparently independent of the buffer nerve mechanism. Afferent impulses 
from the vascular circuit in the lower limbs are important. Several postural 
vascular responses, absent while the trunk is horizontal, become operative 
when the upper end of the body is raised 30° or more from the horizontal 
plane. Great changes in blood pressure result from strong, extensive, 
tonic muscular contraction, as in standing with the knees bent, also during 
some dreams with emotional disturbance, sense of motor effort, night- 
mare, etc. 


Col. C. J. Bonn, C.M.G.—The ‘ Arneth’ count (4.15). 


In this communication evidence was presented to show that increase in 
the number of nucleus lobes in the polymorph leucocyte is dependent on 
the activity previously exercised, rather than on the age of the cell. This 
activity can be stimulated in various ways: (1) by incubating blood in a 
glass cell at body temperature ; (2) by allowing the leucocytes, so incubated, 
to return to the rounded-up resting condition ; and (3) by re-incubation of 
the same cell. Under such conditions it will be found that the cells in the 
incubated and re-incubated slides will show, on the average, a higher 
number of lobes per cell than the cells in the film obtained direct from the 
blood stream or in the resting condition. The living pus cell may be 
regarded as a cell which has exercised much activity. It has emigrated 
through the capillary wall, it has wandered through the tissues, or on to 
the surface of amucous membrane or wound. It may have ingested disease 
organisms or pigment particles such as carmine or indigo during incubation. 
It is, therefore, of interest to find that living active pus cells contain a larger 
number of lobes per cell than the white polymorph blood cells obtained 
from the blood stream of the same individual. 

The results of these incubation and feeding experiments were shown in 
graph form by charts illustrating the number of lobes in 100 cells in the 
case of blood films, incubated blood, resting cells, and re-incubated cells, 
from the same individual; also charts showing the relative increase in 
number of nuclei in pus cells, as against polymorphs from the blood stream, 
and also in cases of macrocytic or pernicious anemia. The suggestion was 
made that the increase in number of lobes per cell in the latter case was 
associated with the increased work and activity exercised by the smaller 
leucocyte and polymorph population in such cases. 


370 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS .—I. 


Tuesday, September 11. 
SyMposiuM on Food preservation (10.0) :— 


Mr. A. LuMuey and Mr. J. PiquE—Some problems arising in the 
preservation of fish as food. 


Broadly there are five ways of preserving fish: dry salt curing, wet salt 
curing or pickling, smoke curing, canning, and refrigeration. The first 
three appear to have been practised since time immemorial, the fourth for 
little more than one hundred years, while refrigeration is a modern develop- 
ment, though there is some evidence of the employment of cold by the 
ancients. 

‘To-day each method of preservation has its concomitant group of problems 
to many of which scientific research is being applied. Those associated 
with the three types of curing and with canning are briefly referred to. 

The authors then deal with refrigeration, distinguishing between modes 
and applications. In conclusion, possibilities of certain applications are 
considered from a commercial standpoint. 


Dr. T. Moran, Dr. G. A. Reay and Dr. E. C. SmitH.—Temperature 
and the post-mortem changes in muscle proteins. 


Control of temperature is probably the most powerful weapon available 
in the technology of food preservation. In the case of spoilage by micro- 
organisms this is a commonplace, but in the matter of the maintenance 
of the fresh quality of the material the effects dué to temperature of storage 
are more subtle. However, recent research on fish and meat has led to a 
much clearer understanding of the changes in appearance, tenderness, 
texture and flavour which these foods undergo during storage at different 
temperatures. Many of the changes that take place can be related to 
alteration in the state of the proteins. 

A brief account is given of the nature of the proteins in muscle and their 
solubility relations under different conditions.- These results are discussed 
in relation to the fundamental problem of the ‘ life-death ’ change as well 
as the practical problems of the successful chilling, freezing, curing and 
storage of dead animal tissues. 


Dr. F. Kipp and Dr. C. West.—The storage and transport of fresh 
fruits. 


The large scale on which operations in the storage and transport of fresh 
fruits are conducted in modern practice. Types of scientific problems which 
arise. 

Problems with regard to wastage. Types of disease causing wastage and 
some recent advances in the study of their origin, development and control. 

Problems connected with the control of temperature and other conditions 
in bulk storage. Economic compulsion towards larger and larger units 
and closer packing ; biological necessity for even conditions of temperature 
and ventilation throughout. 

Problems connected with study of the growth, maturity and senescence 
of fruits. Recent advances in the analysis of the ontogenetic sequence in 
terms of respiratory activity and molecular components of the system in 
the case of the apple. Factors affecting the rate and character of this 
sequence after the fruit is gathered. Successful application of recent 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—I, J. 371 


discoveries to commercial storage practice, in obtaining longer storage life 
and better quality; gas storage. The control of the composition of the 
storage atmosphere ; providing a fruit store with ‘ lungs.’ 


Dr. C. H. Lea and Dr. J. A. Lovern.—On certain aspects of the 
biochemistry of animal fats. 


The development of an unpleasant odour or flavour in the fat frequently 
determines the storage life of a foodstuff. 

Keeping quality in a fat is determined by its composition and storage 
environment. The factors influencing composition have been studied 
particularly with regard to fish oils. The type of fat deposited is shown to 
depend upon the diet, the environment (salt water or fresh), and sometimes 
the species. 

In the species so far studied the mobilisation of depot fat appears to be 
a non-selective process, but fat is selectively transferred to the developing 
gonads. Further, the theory of desaturation in the liver, which has been 
advanced in the case of mammals, is not supported from results from fish. 

Recent work has led to a clearer distinction between the parts played by 
the action of tissue enzymes, by micro-organisms, by atmospheric oxida- 
tion, and by the absorption of foreign odours in promoting deterioration of 
fats. 

Low temperatures, reduced atmospheric humidity or the presence of 
carbon dioxide retard tainting of fats by micro-organisms. 

Oxidation can be followed quantitatively by determination of peroxide 
oxygen or of aldehyde oxidation products, the former method serving also 
as the basis of a method for estimating susceptibility. The oxidation of 
fats is accelerated by light and retarded by antioxidants. 

Some practical applications of recent discoveries. 


SECTION J.—PSYCHOLOGY. 
Thursday, September 6. 


Mr. D. Kennepy-FrRaseR.—The immature reaction to number of older 
feeble-minded boys (10.0). 


A group inventory test of addition, subtraction and multiplication applied 
to older feeble-minded boys aged thirteen to sixteen revealed that they were 
slower, less accurate, more subject to typical errors and more prone to use 
primitive methods than normal boys of the same or a younger age. Finger- 
counting was especially noticeable. An individual diagnostic test exposing 
m rows of n discs (3 X 5, 4 X 6, 5 X 7,3 X 4,3 * 3) demonstrated the 
immaturity of the boys’ reactions. A total of 1,000 reactions made by 
200 boys gave only 289 multiplicative reactions of the form m x_n and 
423 additive types m + m + m, while as many as 288 were of the primitive 
form of counting by units. It is further clear that even where a boy appears 
to succeed in an ordinary class exercise, an individual diagnostic test may 
reveal faulty modes of reaction. 


Dr. M. E. BickersteTH.—Bilingualism (10.45). 


Gaelic is the home language of children living in the sparsely populated 
districts of the Western Highlands and Islands, and they enter school 


372 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—J. 


knowing no word of English. The present investigation was undertaken 
with the object of discovering the influence of bilingualism on the thought 
processes of children of Primary School age. Mental tests have been given 
in isolated schools in the Western Highlands and Islands over a period of ten 
years. A group of children has also been retested with the Drever-Collins 
Performance Scale, and the results correlated with those of the 1932 Scottish 
Mental Survey of Intelligence. Significant factors influencing the results of 
intelligence tests are ; (1) The conditions of extreme isolation under which 
the children grow up ; some of the side schools visited for the purpose of 
the investigation can only be reached by boat, and in favourable weather. 
(2) The influence, on a young child’s mental and emotional development, 
of a second language, acquired before the power of expression in the mother 
tongue has become effective. 


Mr. R. J. BaRTLETT.—Association tests with psychotic patients (11.30). 


Tests in free and controlled association were given to 29 psychotic and 
14 normal subjects. 

The psychotic records vary from an approximation to normal records 
to those in which words were replaced by phrases the links between which 
it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to surmise. 

With linked free associates large median differences between psychotic 
and normal records were obtained. In controlled associates the median 
differences varied from a small amount that is not statistically significant 
in the case of writing ‘ words beginning with S ’ to a difference 11-5 times 
its probable error for writing ‘ opposites.’ In the first part of a test re- 
sembling Jung’s, association times varied from a record with interquartile 
range 1°2-1°8 sec. and longest time of 2-2 sec. to’ one with interquartile 
range of 8-5—16-2 sec. and longest time 53:2 sec. In the second and third 
parts of the test yet longer times and considerable variation in recovery 
ability were registered. 

Small but significant correlations between physicians’ estimates and test 
scores were obtained, and it is hoped that the work may develop into tests 
of value in the treatment of patients in securing (1) for the physician, 
additional contact with the patient’s mental difficulties, and (2) for the 
patient, a renewed contact with his rational past. 


Prof. D. Katz.—(i) Dissolution of the family in hens (12.15). 
(ii) Localisation of sound by dogs. 


AFTERNOON. 


(Section meeting in two divisions.) 


Division t. 
Discussion on Perseveration (2.0) :— 


Dr. LL. Wynn Jones.— Introduction. 


Manifestations of perseveration may be classified in various ways, e.g. 
as affective, conative, ideational, sensory, or motor aspects of mentality. 
The study of the interrelation between these forms of perseveration has not 
received adequate attention. 

Investigators agree in finding evidence for a common factor in the motor 
tests which may, therefore, serve the important function of supplying 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—J. 373 


reference values. Thus sensory tests such as Wiersma’s colours test and 
ideational tests such as Miiller’s memory test may be studied by means of 
the tetrad criterion, and the results could be analysed in the light of 
Spearman’s Law of Inertia. 

Experience with the motor tests shows that the following factors need 
attention : (1) The lack of self-control, a factor whose relation to persevera- 
tion is not definitely known. (2) The relation of general mental ability to 
the activities operative in each test must be ascertained. (3) Differences in 
speed of writing may affect the measure of perseveration which has been 
adopted. (4) Consequently there is the need of choosing for each test a 
function of maximum potency as measure of perseveration. (5) Lack of 
standardised tests. It is further suggested by a preliminary investigation 
with siblings as subjects that it may thus be possible to determine whether 
any of the alleged manifestations of perseveration are subject to hereditary 
influences. 


Dr. W. STEPHENSON. 


Dr. P. E. Vernon.—Perseveration tests and the concept of levels in 
temperament testing. 


‘Temperament is generally conceived as an organised system of general 
traits and instinctive drives, a kind of hierarchy in which the ‘ lower level ’ 
specific activities subserve the ‘ higher level’ functions. An individual’s 
higher traits are best revealed in situations which are to him meaningful 
and important ; hence a study of his lower-level sensory and motor processes 
tells us very little about him that is significant. ‘This point of view is fully 
borne out by a large body of experimental evidence from the results of various 
tests representative of different psychological levels. Perseveration tests 
seem to be akin to other simple sensory and motor tests which, while highly 
accurate and objective, are extremely specific (i.e. their intercorrelations 
with one another are very small), have little meaning for the individual 
subject, and show very poor predictive validity in respect of any higher-level 
trait. 


Rey. Dr. J. Leycester KinG, S.J.—The relation between perseveration 
and complex-synthesis. 


Theissen (1924) and Ewald (1929) established the existence of individual 
differences in what has been called ‘ complex-span.’ Individuals with wide 
complex-span are able to group many single elements into a new complex 
mental whole, while those with narrow complex-span are only successful 
in building up small mental complexes. <A review of these facts in the light 
of Lindworsky’s theory of mental resonance led to the prediction that narrow 
complex-span should correlate positively with high perseveration. 

An experimental research undertaken in confirmation of this prediction 
showed that a correlation does in fact exist between complex-span and 
motor-perseveration as determined by writing tests. 

Furthermore, the experimental results provided interesting indications 
as to the conditions under which perseveration may either favour or hinder 
the learning process. When entirely new material is to be learnt, weak 
perseverators are more successful than strong perseverators ; when, however, 
the material to be learnt was composed of elements already learnt in a dif- 
ferent order or combination, strong perseverators were found to be more 
successful than weak. 


374 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—J. 


Failure was experienced with certain P-tests which had proved successful 
in the hands of other investigators. These tests are criticised from the 
point of view of technique. 


Division 2. 
Mr. H. Binns.—A measure of tactile sense (2.0). 


A measure which, it is suggested, is of universal application, required 
a person to place six wool tops, a continuous band of combed fibres in an 
untwisted form about an inch thick, in order of softness, by touch alone, 
five times. The whole surface of both hands is stimulated by subtle differ- 
ences, muscular action being reduced to a minimum. 

The samples were selected by practical men and the grading was confirmed 
by physical tests. The average grading of 15 persons with some trade 
experience, 15 untrained adults and 10 children show the same grading for 
fineness of fibre by sight and for softness by handle ; the correlation between 
sight and touch being perfect. 

From this criterion individuals vary considerably. ‘The results indicate 
that innate tactile ability in children and the combined results of natural 
ability and experience in adults may be registered. Sensory and manipula- 
tive ability should be capable of separation by degrees of differences and 
not included under general terms such as ‘ touch’ and ‘ handwork.’ 


Mr. L. I. Hunr.—A _ study of fatigue and practice in a purely manual 
process (2.45). 


In many small groups of workers it is important for the management to 
know whether any workers are showing such signs of fatigue as to justify 
the introduction of rest pauses, with the consequent trouble of ensuring 
that they are properly used and not abused ; yet for economic reasons it is 
impossible to spend much time on such a study. 

In a recent investigation this difficulty of keeping costs low was overcome 
by getting the workers to keep special records, which were used for calcula- 
tions ; and, in spite of the apparent unreliability of the data, very good 
curves of performance were obtained. This result gives to the study 
considerable general interest to works managers, since it proves that a study 
of fatigue-effects in small groups can be made successfully at very small 
cost, provided that the whole-hearted co-operation of the workers has been 
obtained. 

It was found that only one or two workers revealed symptoms of excessive 
fatigue, and that these could be cured without introducing rest pauses ; 
and further, that the loss through inexperience of any particular kind of 
work was negligible compared with the effects of the workers’ views on 
monotony and boredom. 


Mr. M. M. Lewis.—The extension of meaning in children’s earliest words 
(3.30). 

The tendency of children to extend the application of their words has 
been very frequently observed, the stock example being that given by 
Romanes of a child who, having learnt the word quack for a duck, applied it 
to the figure of an eagle on a coin and then to coins in general. ‘This has 
commonly been regarded as a kind of primitive generalisation ; Stern, for 
instance, stresses the fact that the various situations to which a word is 
applied are, as a rule, objectively and affectively similar. 


SECTIONAL 'TRANSACTIONS.—J. 375 


Emphasis on these features of the process leads to too narrow a view. 
As Dewey has pointed out, the functional similarity of the various situations 
also plays an important part. But there is yet another factor: the place 
of the word itself in the child’s activity. He uses language as a means of 
dealing with his environment in a declaratory or a manipulative fashion. 

From personal observation and the published records of children the 
author shows that these instrumental functions of language are of great 
importance in determining the extended application of the child’s words. 
A complete account of this process must therefore consider the following 
factors : (i) the objective, affective and functional similarities of the various 
situations ; (ii) the declaratory and manipulative uses of language. 


(Full Section Meeting.) 


Dr. Rosa Katz.—Social contact of children speaking different languages 
(4-15). 

There exists a great number of factors influencing social contact between 
children speaking different languages. (1) The structure of the children’s 
community (kindergarten, family, companionship in the streets). (2) Age. 
A young child does not realise the fact that his comrade speaks another 
language. (3) If there exists a rule regulating the community the children 
only need a minimum of words. (4) Social milieu. Children of the lower 
classes apparently do not realise that their comrades speak another language. 
(5) For children to understand one another it is important that their 
languages should be akin. (6) The understanding of the children is in- 
fluenced by their knowledge or ignorance of the fact that they have different 
languages. (7) Some children make use of gesture language. There seems 
to exist a special ability for using gesture language. 


Friday, September 7. 


PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS by Dr. SHEPHERD Dawson on Psychology and 
social problems (10.0). (See p. 183.) 


Prof. G, A. JAEDERHOLM.—The development of conversation in early 
childhood (11.0). 


Dr. W. Brown.—Sleep and hypnosis (12.0). 


A comparison of the hypnotic state with that of natural sleep reveals 
deep-going differences as well as superficial resemblances. Tendon- 
reflexes diminish with the onset of sleep and eventually disappear, but are 
retained in all stages of hypnosis. Voluntary reactions to a given signal 
can occur in hypnosis, but not in sleep. But hypnosis can pass into sleep, 
and sleep into hypnosis, and mental dissociation with amnesia can occur in 
both conditions. Both states may be therapeutically recuperative, and 
both involve increased susceptibility to suggestion. 

Mediumistic trance and cataleptic stupor show close similarities to the 
hypnotic state. Sleep is linked up with other manifestations of these 
states in the phenomenon of dreaming. 

Measurement of the psycho-galvanic reactions in these various states 
throws further light on their psycho-physiological resemblances and 
differences. 


376 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—J. 


AFTERNOON. 
(Section meeting in two divisions.) 


Division 1. 
Miss G. B. Dopps.—The learning of French in a Scottish school (2.0). 


Language, essentially speech, is acquired in a situation, i.e. an actual 
experience, and practised as a skill, in the situation to which it belongs. 
Thus the direct association is formed between the word and the idea. 
Simple plays in French, on gramophone records, provide the French 
situation, and, acted in class, afford the necessary practice in speech. 

Illustrations from the classroom indicate that language thus acquired 
recurs spontaneously for self-expression when required in a similar situation. 

Lessons and exercises are based on the phrases and sentences already 
memorised and acquired by ear and imitation. 


Dr. W. Brown.—The theory of two factors versus the sampling theory of 
mental ability (2.45). 


According to the two-factor theory of Prof. C. Spearman, the abilities 
measured by suitably chosen mental tests are divisible into two factors each, 
one being common to all (the general factor, g), while the other is in each 
case specific and independent (the specific factor, s). 

According to the sampling theory of Prof. Godfrey Thomson, any one 
mental ability is due to the operation of a certain set of factors, another 
ability to another set, and so on ; and these sets may overlap in any manner. 

In a joint research with Dr. W. Stephenson 19 non-overlapping mental 
tests were applied to a homogeneous group of 300 boys, aged 10 to 104 years, 
giving 171 correlation coefficients, of which one was later omitted for definite 
psychological reasons. Tetrad differences (of the form 7473, — 11312), 
to the number of 22,712, were calculated from these 170 coefficients after 
they had been corrected by partialling out a ‘ verbal factor’ involved in 
some of the tests. 

The observed frequency-distribution of tetrad differences was then 
compared with the theoretical distributions (Type Ila Pearson curves) to be 
expected on the assumptions of the two theories, respectively, and was 
found to approximate very closely to the two-factor theory. 

There were difficulties in determining the most probable or suitable 
standard-deviation for the sampling theory curve, but the observed values 
of 7 (0°413) and o, (0:087) were the fundamentally important facts to be 
taken into account here. 


Dr.5S.J. F. PHitporr.—Conventional measures of fatigue and their meaning 
(3-30). 
Division 2. 
Miss J. A. WaLEs.—A description of the methods of vocational guidance used 
in Berlin (2.0). © 


After a short introduction the paper gives a brief description of the 
educational system of Berlin and notes the chief points of difference from the 
London system. It outlines the arrangements whereby trade talks are 
given by the Ministry of Labour vocational advisers to children about to 
leave school, and explains the organisation of the juvenile departments of 
the Employment Exchanges where individual advice is given and cases of 
difficulty are referred to the special Medical Officer if the difficulty is one 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS .—J. 377 


of health, or to the psychological department if there is doubt as to vocational 
aptitude. The tests used in the psychological laboratory are very briefly 
touched on. Comparison is made with London methods of state vocational 
guidance, and finally a few points of interest which have emerged during the 
present Nazi régime are noted. 


The NationaL INsTITUTE OF INDUSTRIAL PsycHoLoGy.—Results of a 
vocational guidance experiment in Fife (2.45). 


An experiment, financed largely by the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust, 
was conducted for the National Institute by Dr. F. M. Earle, assisted by 
Mr. J. Kilgour and Miss J. Donald. Children, 472 in number, attending 
urban and rural schools in Fife were examined psychologically during session 
1928-29, when the majority were of age 11 or 12. They were re-examined 
at approximately yearly intervals during the subsequent period of school 
attendance. The 378 pupils who had left school by the summer of 1932 
were ‘ followed up’ in their occupations. ‘The town children were on the 
whole superior to the country children in abstract tests but inferior in 
practical tests. 

The correlations of the results of successive applications of the same 
tests vary considerably, the verbal intelligence tests having the highest 
consistency during the age period under review ; and the figures shed light 
on the question of the age at which vocational studies should begin. 

The ‘ follow-up ’ studies yield tentative estimates of the minimal qualifi- 
cations necessary for various kinds of work. The results of the experiment 
would appear to have important bearings on educational practice as well as 
on vocational guidance. 


Mr. C. A. OaKLEY.—Some recent surveys in connection with vocational 
guidance (3.30). 

The ultimate aim in vocational guidance is that every child when leaving 
school should receive advice on the choice of his vocation by psychological 
and other methods. Increasing attention has been given in recent years to 
the establishment of careers masters and mistresses in schools to deal 
with what may be described as the ‘ normal ’ cases. 

Equipping these advisers with the necessary information for carrying out 
this work is therefore a matter of immediate importance, and early in 1933 
two surveys were undertaken as part of a larger scheme. ‘The first survey 
covered all the vocations secondary school children are likely to enter, 
beginning with accountancy and ending with wholesale selling. The chief 
governing or organising professional body was selected in the case of each 
vocation. Altogether there were between seventy and eighty of the bodies. 
The secretaries, education directors or other officers were visited, and as the 
result of many discussions an occupation survey has been prepared in which, 
among other matters dealt with, information about the necessary abilities 
and other qualities is set out in systematic form. 

The second survey was made with the intention of finding out what 
psychological tests for children over eleven years old are at present being 
used in Great Britain. 


Mr. A. Ropcer.—The results of a Borstal experiment tn vocational 
guidance (4.15). 


Four hundred ‘new’ Borstal boys were examined by the National 
Institute of Industrial Psychology at the Wormwood Scrubs Boys’ Prison, 


378 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—J. 


the collecting-centre for the various Borstal institutions. Recommendations 
were drawn up for each boy, but these were forwarded to the institutions only 
for alternate boys. 'The remainder formed a control group, and were 
allocated to their work-parties by their housemasters in the usual way. 
Of those who were put into parties judged suitable for them by the National 
Institute, 69°5 per cent. were successful. Of those who were put into 
parties judged suitable for them by their housemasters, 45:6 per cent. 
were successful. This difference is statistically significant. A survey of 
the National Institute’s ‘ failures ’ shows clearly the importance of the part 
which should be played in vocational guidance by the study of temperament. 


Monday, September 10. 


Dr. L. S. PENRosE.—The inheritance of mental ability (10.0). 


The intelligence of persons related in various degrees to mentally defective 
patients was ascertained. All the individuals concerned were tested by 
standard intelligence tests. For purposes of comparison a method of 
obtaining a mental ratio had to be evolved, which was valid for all ages, 
juvenile and adult. 

The following results were obtained from the investigation : 

(1) The mean intelligence of the relatives is higher than the mean intelli- 
gence of the defectives themselves and is reasonably close to the expected 
value inferred from the law of ancestral regression. 

(2) There is no direct correlation between mentality of patient and 
mentality of relative. 

It is concluded from (1) that multifactorial hereditary influence plays a 
large part in determining intelligence. On the other hand, it is concluded 
from (2) that there exist variations in intelligence, of considerable magni- 
tude, which are due to non-genetic causes. 

The problem of the relative importance of environment and heredity in 
determining mental ability can be further studied by comparing half sibs 
with the children of patients’ full sibs. 


Joint Discussion with Section L (Education, q. v.) on Some aspects 
of psychological and child guidance clinics (11.0). 


AFTERNOON. 


(Section meeting in two divisions.) 


Division 1. 


Dr. R. W. Pickrorp.—The group psychology of the Barbizon painters (2.0). 


The Barbizon painters formed a group with a definite life-history in the 
middle of the nineteenth century. ‘The exhibition of English naturalistic 
landscape paintings in Paris stimulated a latent reaction against the hardened 
classical tradition. ‘This reaction, including the Barbizon movement, was 
an expression of the increasingly bourgeois public. Corot, the first of the 
Barbizon painters, was but mildly reactive, and retained classical affinities. 
Rousseau and Millet followed, reacting violently. Other members were 
non-classical from the start. After somewhat independent reactions, these 
painters formed a group. ‘They were intimately interested in Barbizon and 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS .—J. 379 


the forest of Fontainebleau. They met with academic opposition, and 
their success depended on bourgeois political advances after 1830. Their 
tradition died because other developments of painting attracted good men, 
and because it became a sentimental convention. ‘The relations of members 
were mainly of comradeship, and the principal members were strikingly 
independent. Corot, the leader, held the position by his comradely qualities, 
ability to express the spirit of the times, and outstanding genius. ‘The 
group was an integral system, a framework necessary to the activities of its 
members, and maintained itself by expressing tendencies and fulfilling needs 
of the community. 


Dr. G. G. NetLt Wricut.—The psychological description and classification 
of forms of social maladjustment (2.45). 


A formal analysis of the possible types of social maladjustment may have 
practical value in relation to problems of (a) the socially maladjusted indi- 
vidual, and (b) large scale social and political maladjustments. Such an 
analysis is most readily carried out by examining maladjusted personal 
relations : for it is necessary, and in the case of the relations between two 
persons it is possible, to take into account the relevant mental states and 
structures of both minds and to allow full weight to both points of view. 

Two persons may be said to be maladjusted to one another when their 
common mental frame is so organised as to hinder the normal expression 
and development of their personalities in relation to one another. Such 
hindrance may result from (a) a primary concord with opposition in respect 
of intensity, frequency or duration ; (b) a primary concord with opposition 
of other tendencies, e.g. an appetitive concord with a co-operative opposi- 
tion and vice versa ; (c) a primary concord with oppositions arising out of 
differences of intelligence or relevant knowledge or experience. 

Such obstructed interactions admit of various degrees of adjustment 
through ‘ trial and error’ and other-conscious processes : but such adjust- 
ment may be hindered by (a) the development of anger as a result of instances 
of the original opposition, and (b) the development of ideational structures 
in which the nature of the opposition is misconceived. 


Mr. J. Drever, jun.—Insight and opinion (3.30). 


Controversy has tended to influence the determination of criteria for 
insightful behaviour in such a way that extrinsic features have been unduly 
emphasised. Suddenness is a case in point. Experiments have been 
devised which seem to show that insight need not appear suddenly. The 
earlier stages have not been detected by the Gestalt experimental technique, 
but if they can be demonstrated, a study of them should throw some light 
on the psychological conditions of insight. Opinion and guesswork may 
cover these stages and are thus relevant to the psychology of learning. 


Division 2. 


Dr. R. B. Carrett.—The place of the practising psychologist in the educa- 
tional system (2.45). 


The psychologist, as an integral part of the local education service, is 
a long overdue necessity in modern education. His functions, though 
numerous, cannot yet be delimited, but must be decided by the experience 
and experiment of the next few years. 


380 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—J. 


His main value to the system is as a psycho-therapist, treating difficult, 
neurotic and delinquent children who are far more numerous and much 
more neglected than is commonly supposed. He is also needed to grade 
normal children, to select defective children and those with special educa- 
tional disabilities. Thirdly, his services are required in designing schemes 
of vocational guidance. Fourthly, experience shows that the psychologist’s 
evidence will be sought in a great variety of matters pertaining to curriculum 
and school organisation. 

Among the unforeseen consequences ‘of such a ramification of function 
is the necessity that arises for training a nucleus of teachers in routine 
mental testing. 

The plan of organising the psychologist with an assistant and a trained 
social worker in a Psychological Clinic within the school system (after the 
pattern proposed by Professor Burt) compares very favourably with the 
American pattern of Child Guidance Clinic, both with regard to the effective 
treatment of large numbers of children and from the broader standpoint 
of furthering research. The university training of the psychologist, how- 
ever, is not yet adapted adequately to the needs of the practising psychologist. 

The education authorities that realise what extensive services the psycholo- 
gist can offer in the improvement of educational technique are still in a 
minority. 


Dr. O. A. OzsER.—Some psychological aspects of laissez-faire in education : 
the cult of pure reason (3.30). 


Psychologically, the doctrine that children should be allowed free 
expression for all their impulses is preferable to the older methods of severe 
discipline, provided it is not carried to extremes. Unfortunately many 
logical and psychological fallacies, such as the confusion between repression 
and inhibition and the psychology of habit, underlie the practical applica- 
tions of this doctrine in modern schools. Of these fallacies the most 
interesting are “ Retrospective Idealism ’ and the ‘ Transcendental Idealism 
of Pure Reason.’ The former involves lack of training in responsibility, 
and lecturing instead of teaching the technique of acquiring knowledge. 
The latter leads to the attempt to force children under all circumstances to 
adopt a reasonable attitude. But the effort to formulate impulses in logical 
terms is often exhausting for the child, particularly during the negative 
phases of puberty. ‘The teacher who adopts the purely reasonable attitude 
furthermore forces the child’s aggressive impulses to recoil upon itself. 
Finally, this attitude implies a lack of insight into the psychology of types. 
That is, the teacher attempts to enforce disintegrate adult modes of response 
on integrate youth. What is needed is greater insight into the positive 
psychological value of leadership and the necessity of insisting on action 
once reasons have been given. 


Tuesday, September 11. 


Joint Discussion with Section D (Zoology, g.v.) on The interpreta- 
tion of animal behaviour (10.0). 


AFTERNOON. 
Dr. B. P. WiesNer.—Analysis of the maternal drives in the rat (2.0). 


Maternal behaviour in the rat cannot be reduced to a simple motivating 
factor since dissociation of the components is observed. The constituent 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.--J, K. 381 


(partial) drives show independent variation with respect to structure, in- 
tensity and object. To regard ‘ drives’—even constituent drives (Partial- 
Triebe)—as determined units of motivation is fallacious. 

Since structure, intensity and object of any ‘ drive’ vary, they must be 
analysed separately. In the case of the retrieving drive, analysis shows that 
its structure can only be defined in very general terms, implying foresight 
and insight. The intensity of the drive varies widely and without clear 
correlation with structure ; it can be measured: because there appears to 
exist a functional relationship between intensity and the range of ‘ objects’ 
towards which the drive is directed. Mother rats, impelled by a strong 
retrieving drive, will carry to the nest, kittens, chicks, ducklings, young 
rabbits, etc., but they may refuse rats smaller but older than the rabbits 
they accept. The decisive property of the ‘ object ’ seems to be its age. 

The maternal drives awaken, as a rule, towards the end of pregnancy or 
after parturition. An analysis of the physiological mechanisms involved 
shows that the ovaries are not directly, if at all, involved. But the anterior 
lobe of the pituitary appears to be engaged in the induction of maternal 
behaviour ; many virgin rats exhibit maternal behaviour after having been 
treated with anterior lobe extracts. 


Prof. D. Katz.— Some problems of the psychology of needs (3.0). 


The study of needs seems to be one of the most important tasks of modern 
psychology. One should first try to obtain a general view of the whole 
range of needs (vital, social, artistic, religious, etc.). When we have got 
this, two other tasks remain to be undertaken. The objects which serve 
the satisfaction of needs must be pointed out and the methods by which 
needs are satisfied must be investigated. The different needs all reveal the 
same fundamental laws. No other need offers, from the point of view of 
content and method, such a profitable object of investigation as the satis- 
faction of hunger. In dealing with the satisfaction of hunger we can show 
some of the fundamental laws of needs. The laws of satisfaction of hunger 
reveal the dynamic relations of all needs, how they are influenced by inner 
and outer factors, and by historical factors which to some extent are rational 
and to some other extent irrational. The concept of need may in some 
fields be more helpful than the concept of instinct, particularly in such 
cases where we meet an amazing plasticity in the adaptation of the behaviour 
to unusual conditions. 


SECTION K.—BOTANY. 


Thursday, September 6. 
PRESIDENTIAL ApprEss by Prof. A. W. Bortuwick, O.B.E., on Some 
aspects of forest biology (10.0). (See p. 195.) 
Mr. J. Ramssottom, O.B.E.—Fungi and forestry (11.0). 
Mr. J. BrYAN.—The preservation and preparation of timbers for industrial 
purposes (12.0). 


The importance of a thorough knowledge of the behaviour of wood in 
order to utilise it to the best advantage is stressed. 


382 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—K. 


The seasoning of wood is described and the various methods of seasoning 
and the moisture content requirements for different purposes. 

Under certain conditions wood is subject to decay—probably one of its 
major defects when used for industrial purposes. Methods of preservation 
are described. In certain cases these may consist of details of construction. 
The most important methods are, however, treatment with toxic chemicals. 
The different types of chemicals and the methods of applying are described 
for the different industrial purposes for which wood is used. 


AFTERNOON. 
Prof. W. SEIrRiz.—The structure of protoplasm (2.15). 


Mr. T. A. Oxtey.—The influence of light and temperature on growth (3.0). 


Lemna minor has been grown under carefully controlled conditions of 
light and temperature, the temperatures ranging from 10° to 35° C. and the 
light intensities from 80 foot-candles to 1,600 foot-candles. Growth rate, 
dry weight per frond, and area per frond have been measured under each 
of the forty-eight sets of conditions. From the results obtained the inter- 
action of light and temperature on plant growth has been analysed and 
conclusions drawn which may be applicable to green plants generally. 
Notably, evidence has been obtained to show that light does not control 
growth solely, or even chiefly, by limiting the amount of assimilate formed, 
but that there is some photochemical reaction other than assimilation which 
controls growth. 


Dr. R. E. Cuapman.—The absorption of water vapour by the aerial parts of 
Egyptian desert plants (3.30). 


The experiments described in this paper indicate that some plants of the 
Egyptian desert can, in an atmosphere of high humidity, increase in weight 
(presumably by the absorption of water vapour by their aerial organs). In 
the Egyptian desert, owing to the great difference between day and night 
temperatures, it is often found that during the night the air humidity 
approaches saturation even in summer, and hence may be the source of an 
appreciable part of the plant’s water supply in plants like Reaumuria histella, 
which have salt crystals on their leaves. ‘These crystals apparently form 
part of the mechanism of absorption of water vapour, as without them the 
plants do not increase in weight in atmospheres of high humidity. 

In this way about one-sixth of the plant’s loss by transpiration may be 
replaced by absorption of water vapour at night. 


Mr. W. A. CLarK.—The effects of carbon monoxide on tomato plants and 
potato tubers (4.0). 


Tomato plants subjected to a 2 per cent. concentration of carbon monoxide 
gas in a moist chamber produce stem-borne roots. The anatomy of such 
roots is dealt with. 

Halved potato tubers were treated in a similar manner to the tomato 
plants. The gas first caused proliferation of the lenticels, but later, pro- 
liferation takes place freely from the tissues underlying the periderm. 
Abnormal development of the shoots also occurs, the bases of the shoots 
becoming swollen and covered with proliferating lenticels. 'The gas also 
hinders cork meristem formation at the cut surface. 

No roots were induced from mature tubers, but in the case of entire 
potato plants subjected to the gas, roots appear to arise from the daughter 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—K. 383 


tubers in association with the buds. Proliferation takes place in the parent 
tuber from the cells beneath the periderm (which in places is ruptured) and 
the lenticels of the daughter tubers also proliferate. 

’ 


Friday, September 7. 


Dr. KATHLEEN BLACKBURN and Mr. J. WILKINSON.—A preliminary report 
on a cytological method of distinguishing Salix alba var. ceerulea from 
closely related species, varieties and hybrids (10.0). 


Since great difficulty has been found on ordinary morphological grounds 
in distinguishing the true cricket-bat willow (Salix alba var. caerulea) from 
spurious forms, chiefly hybrids between Salix alba and S. fragilis, the 
possibility of using the chromosome characters is being explored. ‘The 
root tip cells of Salix alba, S. fragilis, and crosses between these species, 
all show seventy-six chromosomes. These are all very small, but certain 
characteristic pairs found in SS. alba, including the bat willows, are absent in 
S. fragilis. In undoubted hybrids the characteristic chromosomes occur 
singly. Other small differences help in distinguishing S. alba from 
S. fragilis. "Typical S. alba differs from S. alba var. cerulea in having four 
instead of two chromosomes with satellites ; this is an uncertain character, 
since it is always possible for a satellite to be present but not visible. Since 
the major difficulty in the field seems to lie in distinguishing the alba- 
fragilis hybrids from the true bat willow, it is fortunate that it is just here 
that the chromosome studies afford most help. 


Dr. J. K. SpeaRING.—Cell structure of the Blue-Green Alge (10.20). 


The present investigation of the structure of the Cyanophycean cell 
emphasises the homology of the so-called ‘ central body ’ with the nucleus 
of higher plants. ‘This conclusion is based upon its structure, its behaviour 
during cell-division, and upon micro-chemical work. In Oscillatoria tenuis 
proper chromosomes are formed and apparently divide normally, although 
the appearances produced are unusual. In other related species nuclear 
division is essentially similar. In no case has a nuclear membrane been 
observed ; but in Stigonema mamillosum one or more nucleolus-like bodies 
are found in each cell of the older parts of the thallus. In some species 
the nucleus never reaches a resting stage during periods of active growth— 
the chromosomes persisting throughout the interphase. In other cases 
a well-marked reticulum characterises this stage. ‘The small size of the 
nuclei, the absence of a nuclear membrane and the presence of other sub- 
stances which stain like chromatin have been responsible for much of the 
confusion concerning the cytology of these plants. 


Dr. J. CALDWELL.— Some aspects of virus diseases in plants (10.40). 


A large number of experiments have been carried out with what have 
been shown to be two strains of the same virus, viz. the ‘ green’ and 
* yellow ’ strains of the virus of yellow mosaic of tomato (Johnson’s Tobacco 
virus No. 6). It has been found that the ‘ green’ strain has a protective 
action on plants and induces immunity against the ‘ yellow’ strain in the 
tomato plant. This and other observations have led to the conclusion that 
the differences in symptom picture presented by virus diseased plants under 
different environmental conditions may to some extent be due to the 
existence of strains in the virus causing the disease. 

The effect of one virus on another in plants has been investigated in some 


384 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—K. 


detail, and evidence has been obtained which shows that three possible 
interactions may take place—the presence of the first virus may (a) affect 
(often making more severe) the symptoms induced by the second virus, 
(b) prevent the appearance of symptoms characteristic of the second virus, 
which nevertheless multiplies in the tissues, or (c) prevent the multiplication 
of the second virus in the tissues. 


Dr. Mary J. F. Grecor.—A disease of Bracken and other ferns caused by 
Cortictum anceps (11.5). 


Corticium anceps is a vigorous parasite of Bracken in moist, shady situations. 
It has once been found attacking Male Fern, and infection experiments 
indicate that the Prickly Shield Fern is also to some extent susceptible. 
The disease occurs almost exclusively upon the frond of the Bracken and 
has never been seen to extend more than a few inches down the petiole ; 
it does not attack the rhizome. The fungus creeps over the lower surface 
of the pinnz and rachis and at first remains entirely superficial. Soon, 
however, penetration of the host is effected, mainly by means of infection 
cushions, though individual hyphz often enter through the stomata. ‘The 
external mycelium continues to spread and ultimately forms a whitish 
felt-like covering over the lower surface of the frond. ‘The infected tissues 
become brown and brittle, and in severe cases the pinne break off, leaving 
only the bare discoloured rachis. In the later stages of the disease sclerotia 
and basidia are developed upon the superficial mycelium. The parasite 
grows readily in culture and forms typical sclerotia, but no basidia. The 
basidiospores germinate in culture by means of a germ tube, but when 
germinating in situ on the hymenium they sometimes form secondary spores. 


Dr. Epitu P. Smira.—The ecology of the island of South Rona (11.35). 


South Rona lies between Skye and the mainland; it is about 44 by 
14 miles, and reaches a height of 404 ft. There are steep cliffs on the east 
side and two large inlets (Big Harbour and Dry Harbour) on the west side. 
The island consists of worn Lewisian gneiss, in a series of rocky ridges and 
valleys running north-west to south-east. ‘There are few streams, and 
only two small bodies of water: one of these was newly recorded. The 
vegetation is sparse, of moorland type mainly, merging into cotton-grass 
bog on upland valleys, and marsh (salt and fresh) on west coast. East cliffs 
are topped with bracken-invaded pasture. No natural woodland except 
scrub birch and willow, but remains of Pinus sylvestris wood in a peat bog, 
and a submerged forest (mainly alder and birch) were located at Dry 
Harbour. Once supported a population of 159; present population, 3. 
The abandoned arable had become a pure society of Juncus communis. 
A ‘ sea-weed farm’ (to supply manure for fields) was located at one of the 
deserted villages. Slight differences in the content of the moor flora on 
tertiary intrusions were noted. 


Dr. Oxtve D. Dicxinson.—The distribution of certain constituents of the 
flora of Bas-Languedoc (12.5). 


A study has been made of 140 species in Bas-Languedoc showing dis- 
jointed distribution, which appears impossible of explanation by dissemina- 
tion under existing conditions. ‘The majority are distributed throughout 
the Mediterranean basin, including the islands of the Mediterranean Sea ; 
and all are species of clearly defined—often very isolated—systematic 
position indicating their ancient character. 


= <— = 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—K. 385 


The species occur in colonies having certain features in common, i.e. : 

(1) They occur chiefly in the southern part of Bas-Languedoc, in warm, 
sheltered valleys, and on southern slopes. 

(2) They occur in the early stages of plant succession, and not where the 
climatic climax has developed. 

(3) They are in places difficult of access to man and thus protected from 
destructive effects of cultivation. 

(4) They are, with rare exceptions, on pre-quaternary substrata. 

We know from fossil records that the pliocene flora of the neighbourhood 
was similar to that of the present day, but richer in thermophile species. 
The characteristics of the colonies, and other features of distribution of our 
species, suggest survival. ‘The colonies would appear to represent remnants 
of a more thermophile tertiary flora which, in a few favoured places, has 
been able to survive vicissitudes of climate during the quaternary epoch. 


AFTERNOON. 
Visit to Macaulay Research Institute. 


Saturday, September 8. 


Excursion to Dinnet Moor. 


Sunday, September 9. 


Excursion to St. Cyrus. 


Monday, September 10. 


Joint Discussion with Section D (Zoology, ¢.v.) on Biological problems 
of fresh water (10.0). 


AFTERNOON. 


Prof. J. H. PriestLey.—Vessel differentiation in Angiosperms (2.30). 


The ‘ strip method’ of studying cambial activity makes it possible to 
follow the course of one individual vessel for a comparatively long distance 
in microscopic preparations. A study of vessel differentiation by this 
method directs attention to the rapidity of expansion of the vessel segments 
and of the perforation of the more or less transverse cross walls. ‘These 
processes take place when the wall of the future vessel is very thin. Vessel 
segments have been separated by maceration in this stage, as extremely 
thin-walled elements without signs of pitting. 

By plasmolysis under suitable conditions it has been possible to show 
the presence of protoplasts in the segments of the vessels, after expansion 
and after the cross walls are perforated. In many vessels sheets of pectin 
are present, across the region of perforation, after the cellulose cross walls 
have perforated. © 

The study of vessel differentiation and vessel structure continues to 
emphasise the distinction between ring porous and diffuse porous hardwood 
types. 


386 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—K. 


Dr. G. Bonp.—The influence of illumination on the development of the 
Casparian strip (3.0). 

Observations made by Priestley and his collaborators on a small number 
of plants suggest that the deposition of Casparian strips in the shoot of these 
plants is influenced by illumination. This matter has been further investi- 
gated in members of the Leguminosz. The above authors’ statements 
have been confirmed and extended to a number of related types, all of the 
sub-division Viciee. In the normal shoot of these plants a primary 
endodermis is present in the basal internodes only, while in the etiolated 
shoot the endodermal cylinder extends up to shortly behind the apex, and 
probably develops continually behind the latter. It is suggested that in 
these plants, although the shoot is potentially endodermis-forming, the 
secretion of the Casparian strip by the endodermal protoplast is suppressed 
by illumination. The reason for the development of the basal endodermis 
under normal conditions is as yet uncertain. 

A less marked response to etiolation was obtained with the other types 
investigated, although certain species displayed a definite approach to the 
Viciee group. 


Dr. S. WitL1aMs.—Regeneration in the Lycopodiales (3.30). 


Regeneration of various organs has been observed in all the genera of the 
Lycopodiales. ‘The author has experimentally induced regeneration in 
Selaginella grandis, Lycopodium Selago and Isoetes lacustris. Such pheno- 
mena will be described from the point of view of their bearing on various 
morphological problems and their relation to the intrinsic problems of 
regeneration only briefly mentioned. In Selaginella grandis regeneration 
of the shoot can be induced by removing the stem apices ; in these circum- 
stances rhizophore rudiments become transformed into leafy shoots. In 
other species regeneration of roots from decapitated rhizophores has been 
recorded. Such results have a bearing on the interpretation of the rhizo- 
phore. In Lycopodium Selago various types of regenerative growths have 
been induced on the stems and leaves of young plants grown from bulbils. 
The facts relating to these have a bearing on various problems such as 
the nature of the normal bulbils, the significance of the protocorm and the 
factors underlying vascular tissue formation. Similar adventitious growths 
have been recorded by Holloway and Goebel for other species of Lyco- 
podium. Osborn has described regenerative growths from isolated leaves 
of Phylloglossum which show features of interest for comparison with 
those described for Lycopodium spp. 


Prof. R. J. D. Granam.—The work of L. B. Stewart (4.0). 


It was Laurence Baxter Stewart’s brilliant work on vegetative propaga- 
tion by means of cuttings which attracted most attention. His success was 
achieved through careful observation and ingenious experiment. 

Results attained may be summarised as relating to: 

(1) Selection of Cutting—Determined by character of plant (1912), 
position of severing cut (1912) and season (1927). 

(2) Preparation and Insertion of Cutting —Blanching (1923), treatment 
for resin and latex (1912), retention of leaves (1912). 

(3) Creation of Environment.—Control of rooting medium (1912), aeration 
(1912), acidity (1922), water supply (1912), temperature (1912), disease. 

(4) Special Features—Response of cutting (1912), paring of callus (1912), 
cuttings without buds (stem internode, leaf, root), plants with horizontal 
branching (1927), inverted stem cutting (1927). 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS .—K. 387 


Tuesday, September 11. 


Joint Discussion with Section M (Agriculture, g.v.) on Soil and 
ecological studies in relation to forestry and grazing (10.0). 


Alternative programme for Members not attending the above discussion :— 


Prof. J. Doyie.—Pollination in the conifers, particularly in the 
Abietinee (10.0). 


In conifers the pollination-drop mechanism is much the commonest, 
occurring in the Cupressinex, Callitrinee, Sequoiinee, Taxinez, and 
probably most of the Podocarpinee except Saxegothea, in which the pollen 
germinates on the scale. Germination of the pollen on the scale is also 
now well known as characteristic of the Araucarines. 'The Abietinean 
mechanisms are, however, much more varied. Some of these have been 
briefly referred to previously, but have since been more fully examined and 
- other genera dealt with. In Tsuga the pollen falls on the scales, the long 
- tubes growing like fungal hyphz to the ovules in a manner similar to that 
of the Araucarinee. In Cedrus the pollen, caught by a micropilar flap 
in the autumn, is held there till spring, when the nucellus, rather stigmatic 
at the apex, grows up to make contact with the pollen im situ. The 
mechanism in Pinus, paralleled apparently in Picea and to some extent in 
Abies, is associated with an exudation of fluid.. The micropyle in Pinus 
is extended into two long narrow arms, to which pollen readily adheres. 
At night fluid is secreted, filling the micropilar tube, but in most species 
this fluid is to be found rarely, if at all, in the day period, being reabsorbed 
in the early morning hours. On reaching the level of the arms the fluid 
is drawn out as a film by surface tension up to about half their length. 
The pollen grains, being easily wetted, are quickly drawn into the fluid. 
Immediately after the pollen has been so drawn in, the fluid is reabsorbed 
by the ovule, the pollen being lodged on the nucellus, and the whole micro- 
pyle becoming dry internally within five or, at most,ten minutes. The wings 
on the pollen facilitate its neat lodging on the nucellus. Dichogamy seems 
characteristic of certain species. Picea orientalis appears to be interestingly 
intermediate between the normal Pinus-Picea type and the Larix-Pseudo- 
tsuga type with the large stigmatic swelling of the micropyle edge. 

There are thus in the Abietinez at least four main types of pollination 
mechanism, with additional variations in these. 


Prof. T. M. Harris.—The reproductive organs of the fossil Ginkgoales 
(10.40). 

The only reproductive organs which have been referred to the fossil 
Ginkgoales are a few resembling those of Ginkgo biloba, and none of these 
have been investigated in detail. Comparison of the cuticles of all the 
isolated fructifications and leaves in the lower Jurassic flora of Greenland 
has, however, provided reasons for referring to the Ginkgoales certain 
reproductive organs which differ greatly from those of G. biloba; among 
the male organs Bernettia, hitherto regarded as the female cone of a Cycad, 
and Leptostrobus, hitherto regarded as the female cone of a conifer ; among 
female organs Staphidiophora, a new genus with the appearance of a bunch 
of currants. The bearing of these fossils on Gymnosperm morphology is 
discussed. 


388 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—K. 


Dr. Marcaret Benson.—Hallé’s new technique for the study of in- 
crusted plant remains on primary rocks (11.20). 


Details are given on pp. 4 and 5 of Hallé’s treatise, On the Structure 
of certain Fossil Spore-bearing Organs believed to belong to Pteridosperms, 
Stockholm (1933). Many of his microtome sections were sent to the Geo- 
logical Survey Museum, London, and with his approval were entrusted to the 
author for further study. 


Calathiops (Geeppert) has recently been demonstrated to be ovular and 
not synangial by three distinct lines of research : 

C. Telovulum (Telangium, Kidston), because it gives rise ontogenetically 
to a Calymmatotheca and contains embryo-sacs. 

C. Pterispermo strobus, by ocular demonstration. New specimen, P. 
Bernhardti, Gothan. 


C. Schuetzia 
C. Whittleseya | because they produce female spores. 


Hallé’s slides allow of the high power of the microscope. They reveal 
that the general structure of all the bodies he deals with is similar. What 
have been regarded as 4-spores are either epidermal cells freed from their 
superincumbent cuticle and from non-cuticularised cells, or some few are 
embryo-sacs. The true 9-spores, triradiate and minute, are sheathed in 
the epidermis of the cupules and nucellus of the young ovules. 

These results throw light on Hospermatopteris and many other types. 

Completely cuticularised, triradiate 9-spores of the same size as their 
contemporary pollen grains, now demonstrated in Lower Carboniferous 
ovules, are new to science, and confirm Boyd Thomson’s view that a seed 
is not a megasporangium. : 


Dr. 'T. Jounson.—The leaf beds of Ardtun, Canna and Skye (11.50). 


Forbes in 1851, Starkie Gardner in 1887, Seward and Holttum in 1924 
called attention, by description and illustration, to the interesting Eocene 
flora at Ardtun in the Isle of Mull. In the present paper an account is 
given of certain, mostly unnamed, collections from Ardtun, as well as from 
Canna and Skye, preserved in various institutions, viz. : The Glasgow City 
Museum (and Art Galleries); the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh ; 
the Hunterian Museum (University of Glasgow); the Geological Division, 
University of Edinburgh ; as well as Mr. J. A. Inglis’s specimens from a 
new locality in Skye. Half the collection made by Gardner in 1887, by 
the aid of a Government grant, was sent to Inveraray and is still, spite of 
all the author’s efforts, not available for examination. The examination 
of this Hebridean flora supports the view of the origin of the flora from an 
earlier circumpolar flora which radiated southwards. 'The volcanic activities 
which gave us Staffa with Fingal’s Cave, and the Giant’s Causeway, followed 
by the Ice Age, destroyed many types, like Onoclea and Libocedrus, still 
thriving in N. America (Atlantic side more especially) and E Asia, or like 
Sequoia (Pacific N. America) and Ginkgo (E. Asia) in one region only. 
Certain forms, such as Cupressus, Platanus and Quercus, had already migrated 
further southwards and are now to be found in S.E. Europe or the Near 
East. Others like Podocarpus and Araucaria had gone still further afield. 
A detailed exploration of the fossil sites in Canna and Skye would be amply 
repaid. ‘The flora, so far revealed, strengthens the view of the former 
existence of a land-bridge between Greenland and Britain. 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—K, K*. 389 


AFTERNOON. 
Demonstration of exhibits in the Botany Laboratory (2.30). 


SEMI-PopuLar Lecture by Prof. V. H. Blackman, F.R.S., on Botanical 
work on the cold storage of fruits and vegetables (5.0). 


DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRY (K*). 


Thursday, September 6. 
JomnT PROGRAMME with Section K (Botany, q.v.). 


AFTERNOON. 


Excursion to Fetteresso by permission of Major Duff. 


Friday, September 7. 


Mr. Henry P. Hutcuinson.—General willow cultivation (10.0). 


Willows, for economic reasons, may be conveniently classified in two 
groups—viz. the group comprising species which are suitable for basket- 
making purposes, and the group comprising species capable of producing 
timber. Certain species serve both purposes, but generally the former 
attain the size of shrubs or bushes, while the latter become timber trees of 
considerable magnitude. 

The cultivation of basket willows involves considerations of soil condi- 
tions, such as its state of natural fertility, and particularly its water supply. 
The degree of suitability of varieties to certain types of soil is important, 

_ and in the management of an established crop the recognition and apprecia- 
_ tion of ecological factors are important economic determinants in the 
_ financial results attending the cultivation of the crop. 

The research work on pests—insect and fungal—which has been carried 
_ out at Long Ashton has given valuable results in enabling control to be 
_ effected. 

_ The factors affecting quality in the production of willow timber have been 
_ extensively investigated on the lines of propagation from seed and by 
_ vegetative methods. 

4 


t Dr. J. Burtr Davy.—Occurrence of male trees of Salix alba, var. caerulea 
(11.0). 


| The opinion is widespread that there is no male of Salix alba var. 
caerulea Smith. Buyers of first-class bat-timber reject (or give a lower 
: price for) trees known to be males, and growers do not knowingly plant 
a male ‘setts.’ In East Anglia the writer has found staminate trees which 
& _ clearly belong to this variety, having similar characters of inflorescence, 
leaf, bark and branching. Smith did not himself say that the staminate 
_ sex was unknown, and in 1829 a male specimen was figured in Salictum 
Woburnense, a book produced by the authority of the Duke of Bedford, who 
was in close touch with Smith, by whom, probably, the plates were seen. 
No evidence has been produced, as far as we are aware, to indicate that 


390 _ SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—K*. 


good or bad quality of timber is associated with sex; it is certain that 
bat-willow timber of poor quality is obtained from both female and male 
trees, but we lack evidence as to the quality of timber produced by 
well-grown male trees. This is an important point, for several of the 
phenomenally vigorous seedlings being grown from seed obtained by the 
author in 1932 prove to be males. 


Dr. R. Macracan Gorrie.—Forest Research Institute at Dehra Dun, 
India (11.25). 


A forest school was founded in 1878, but it was not until 1906 that research 
workers were appointed to deal with Indian silvicultural and forest utilisa- 
tion problems. Over 100,000 square miles of forest in India and 150,000 in 
Burma are under the Forest Department, apart from large areas under Indian 
States and private ownership, and the annual revenue has been as much as 
£3,000,000 in India and £2,000,000 in Burma. It is now obvious that any 
further increase must depend upon extensive research. A fine new institute 
was built and opened by Lord Irwin in 1929. In the grounds are several 
hundred acres of demonstration forest, arboretum, fruticetum, nurseries, 
and a minor forest products garden. The main building houses the offices 
and laboratories of silviculture, botany, entomology, and forest economy, 
and each of these branches has a large museum hall arranged to show the 
activities they are engaged in. These are increasingly visited by the public 
and by organised parties of students, soldiers and excursionists. Under 
separate roofs are the chemical laboratory, insectary, sawmill, pulp and paper 
plant, and wood workshops, and there is good accommodation for the 
whole staff of some 30 gazetted officers and 300 assistants, artisans, clerks 
and subordinates. Some of the problems dealt with by each branch were 
described and illustrated by 16-mm. films. 


AFTERNOON. 


Excursion in city and neighbourhood in connection with amenity tree 
planting. 


Saturday, September 8. 
Excursion to Ballogie by permission of Col. J. R. Nicol, O.B.E. 


Sunday, September 9. 


Excursion to Durris Estates. 


Monday, September 10. 


T'REE-PLANTING IN TOWNS AND THEIR NEIGHBOURHOOD, WITH SPECIAL 
REFERENCE TO GENERAL AMENITY PLANTING (Section K room, 10.0) :— 


Lord Provost HENRY ALEXANDER.—Town planning with reference to 
general amenity planning. 


The preservation of trees and woodlands as promoting general amenity 
is an important feature of town and country planning and is now recognised 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—K*. 391 


in legislation. An account is given of the Aberdeen and District Joint 
Town Planning Scheme, 1933, which covers an area of some 96 square 
miles and under which arrangements have been made for the protection of 
landscape features along river valleys and upon hills and other commanding 
points. ‘The Local Authority is empowered to establish a register of trees 
upon which it may place trees or groups of trees which, in its opinion, should 
be preserved. In various agreements, which have been effected with pro- 
prietors, it is provided that the owner, while at liberty to fell ripe timber in 
the course of good forestry, shall not do so in a manner to impair the wooded 
amenity and aspect of the area. This scheme was carried through under 
the Act of 1925, but the Act of 1932 takes the principle of re-planting a stage 
_ farther and empowers a local authority to put areas of woodland on the 
register and to insist upon re-planting in accordance with good forestry, 
_ subject to appeal to the Forestry Commissioners. 


Sir JoHN StirLtInc Maxwe.., Bt.—Tree-planting in towns and 
neighbourhood. 


Major S. StraNG STEEL.—Roadside planting. 


Attention is drawn to the importance of public parks for rest, recreation 
and education. The species of tree and shrub most suitable for planting 
are discussed. ‘The points in connection with planting trees on roads and 
near farms for general amenity purposes are considered. How planting 
may be done most economically and with the greatest possibility of success 

is discussed fully. The scheme drawn up by the Royal Scottish Forestry 
Society for helping and advising in amenity planting is outlined. 


natural woodlands. 


, 
Mr. W. Datimore.—Amenity planting and the preservation of 
Attention is directed to the necessity for preserving trees if the fair 
“appearance of the countryside is to be maintained. Amenity trees are 
discussed as definitely apart from trees grown for commercial purposes, 
and after a general discussion of the question special attention is paid to 
garden and park trees, field and hedgerow trees, shelter and amenity planta- 
tions, woodlands open to the public, roadside trees, trees on commons and 


aeeeriands, trees in national parks, and those in natural woodlands. 


» 


Mr. W. B. CirarK.—Town trees and shrubs. 


(1) Features which influence the beautifying of cities, and the importance 
_ of trees towards this end. 
(2) A new appreciation of trees, etc., by property owners, those possessing 
gardens, etc., and the transformation of ordinary and drab surroundings. 
(3) The important relationship of trees to public parks, particularly in 
the raising of moral and educational standards of the community. 
; (4) The rapid advance of Town Planning Schemes towards the ideal 
city. 
(5) Difficulties which have to be contended with in the process of tree- 
planting. 
(6) Typical examples of avoidable tree destructior: and the devastation 
thus caused. 
(7) Effect of artificial light on tree development. 
(8) Utility of trees in relation to bird life. 


392 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—K*, L. 


(9) Selecting trees for planting. 
(10) The vital importance of tree-pruning. 


Discussion. 


Col. J. D. SUTHERLAND, C.B.E.— Summation. 


AFTERNOON. 


Mr. J. C. Grasste.—Demonstration of timber testing and laboratory practice 
for forest engineering students (2.15). (In the Engineering Department 
of the University, Marischal College.) 


Tuesday, September 11. 


Jomnt Discuss1on with Section M (Agriculture, g.v.) on The applica- 
tion of soil and ecological studies to the problems of land utilisation for 
forestry and grazing (10.0). 


DEMONSTRATION. 
(Continuously for the period of the meeting) :— 


The preservation of timber, by the British Wood Preserving 
Association in laboratories adjacent to the meeting room. 


SECTION L.—EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE. 


Thursday, September 6. 


PRESIDENTIAL AppreEss by Mr. H. T. Tizarp, C.B., F.R.S., on Science 
at the Universities : Problems of the present and future (10.0). (See 


Pp. 207.) 


RESEARCH IN EDUCATION :— 


Dr. N. T. WaLker.—Recent developments in educational research 
(11.0). 


The paper surveys, within the limits of time assigned, some of the results 
of recent scientific research in education. Special attention is given to the 
work of the Scottish Council for Research in Education, and, in particular, 
the results of the Council’s survey of the intelligence of Scottish children 
are discussed. In connection with research on the problem of the reliability 
of examinations, reference is made to a recent Aberdeen experiment. 
Mention is made of investigations into one of the fundamental problems in 
educational theory, namely, the relative importance of nature and nurture 
in individual development. These inquiries include the novel experiment 
conducted by Prof. and Mrs. Kellogg, which consisted in ‘ adopting’ a 
female chimpanzee of seven and a half months and bringing her up along 
with their infant son for a period of nine months. 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—L. 393 


Mr. F. W. Reece.—Intelligence testing of secondary school boys at the 
Liverpool Institute (11.30). 


Since 1924 a series of intelligence tests has been applied to the whole 
school, and a record of each boy’s score kept. Altogether the school has 
been tested seven times, and the last four occasions have been at intervals 
of two years. Use has been made of the results for promotions, and for 
grading purposes within a block of forms, but they have never been the sole 
and seldom even the deciding factor. ‘The main object in view when the 
tests were put together was to obtain good results in the age groups 11-14, 
so that, using the results in conjunction with the ordinary examinations, 
promoted boys, and especially new boys, in these groups might be as 
correctly placed and graded as possible. 

In addition to this original purpose, the scores have since been used 
for a variety of purposes. For instance, as a basis of comparison between 
fee-payers and scholarship boys. In this case they indicate in general 
a marked superiority of scholars over fee-payers throughout their school 
careers. Roughly the norms of the fee-payers are equal to the norms of 
scholars who are three years younger. On the results of these tests it may 
fairly be concluded that the number of scholars admitted might be greatly 
increased without there being any likelihood that the general level of intelli- 
gence of the scholars would not still be higher than that of the fee-payers. 

A record has also been kept of the post-school successes of those boys 
who have proceeded to universities, and a comparison made between the 
academic honours gained by them and their intelligence quotients when 
at school. The number of boys considered is not large enough to lead to 
any definite conclusions, but some points of general interest are noted. 


Mr. D. N. Howarp.—The relative merits of the laboratory (practical) 
and demonstrative methods of teaching science (12.0). 


This investigation constituted an inquiry into the relative values of the 
‘laboratory ’ (practical) and ‘ demonstration ’ methods of teaching science. 
In the ‘ demonstration’? method the teacher performed all experimental 
work, in the ‘ laboratory ’ method the pupils did so. 

For comparison three pairs of parallel groups were employed, each two 
groups of a pair being approximately equal in mental, scholastic and 
scientific ability. After preliminary tests one group of each pair was taught 
exclusively by one method for eight months. Final tests enabled differ- 
ences between mean scores to be obtained representing the measures of 
relative progress. Mathematical treatment was adopted to measure the 
reliability of the tests and the probable errors of the differences of means 
upon which the findings were based. 

Summary of findings : 

(1) In the development of those characteristics termed generally 
‘scientific ability ’ neither method establishes definite superiority 
with pupils of all types. 

(2) For pupils who are mentally bright and who have had previous 
systematic training the ‘ demonstration’ method produces the 
better results. 

(3) The‘ laboratory ’ method is consistently better for dull or untrained 


pupils. 


Discussion. (Mr. J. L. Hottanp; Miss M. Younc; Prof. J. J. 
Finpiay ; Miss G. B. Dopps.) 
P 


304 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—L. 


Friday, September 7. 


Tue DEVELOPMENT OF Post-PRIMARY EDUCATION DURING THE PRESENT 
CENTURY :— 


Mr. F. R. G. Duckwortu, M.B.E.—The actual development in 
England from the passing of the Act of 1902 (10.0). 


Since it is impossible in the short time at the lecturer’s disposal to give 
a full account of the development of all types of post-primary schools in 
the last thirty years, attention is, in the main, concentrated upon secondary 
schools, but not without reference, at appropriate places, to central schools, 
senior elementary schools, junior technical schools and trade schools. 
Particular points are: the selection of pupils ; the growth in numbers of 
pupils ; progress in the design of school buildings and in equipment ; the 
stafing of the schools ; curriculum, organisation and examinations ; state 
and municipal control. 

It is suggested that on the whole the trend of development has been 
from control to freedom and from an attempt to impose the school on the 
child to an attempt to fit the school to the child—a process hindered on the 
one side by difficulties in finance and administration, and on the other by 
philosophic doubts peculiar to our age. 


Mr. W. W. McKecunie.—The actual development in Scotland from 
the passing of the Act of 1902 (10.30). 
(a) Local Authorities. 

Act 1872. The parish was the administrative area, and the local 
authority was the School Board. 

Act 1918. 947 School Boards make way for 38 ad hoc Education 
Authorities, one for each county, and one for each of the 
five large burghs. 

Act 1929. Abolishes the ad hoc Authority and transfers administration 
to 35 bodies—31 County Councils and the Town Councils 
of large burghs. 


(b) The Compulsory Period. 


Igol. Compulsory period of education extended to 14 (therefore 
1903 Supplementary Courses). 
1918. Age to be raised to 15 for all pupils, and compulsory 


Continuation Class instruction to be provided up to 18, on 
an appointed day. ‘These provisions not yet operative. 
(c) The Range of Education. 
1898. The administration of Science and Art grants transferred 
from the Directory of the Science and Art Department to 
the Scottish Education Department. 


(d) 1902. Royal Commission on Physical Education. Development 
of physical education. 
Act 1908. Medical inspection a duty. School Boards have also duty 
to see that scholars are fed and clothed. 
Act 1913. Provided for medical treatment. 


(e) Code 1902. Provision for education of physically and mentally defective 
children. 
Act 1906. Education of Defective Children (Scotland) Act. 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—L. 395 


Act 1908. Increases powers for dealing with defectives. 

Act 1913. Mental Deficiency and Lunacy (Scotland) Act converts 
powers into duties. 

Code 1923. Provision for backward children. 


(f) 1903. Employment of Children Act. 
1904. Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act. 
1908. Children Act. 
1908. Power to maintain agencies for employment. 
1918. Extension of these powers. 
1932. Children and Young Persons Act. 


(g) The 1918 Act. 

(1) Transferred the voluntary schools to the local authori- 
ties, with safeguards. (2) Charged each local authority 
with the provision of primary and secondary education. 
(3) Introduced power of facilitating attendance at Secondary 
Schools, Universities and Central Institutions by means 
of bursaries and maintenance allowances. (4) Minimum 
National Scales of Salaries. (5) Library provision. 
(6) Nursery Schools. 


(h) Secondary education. Size of classes. School buildings. 


Dr. CyriL Norwoop.—The developments which might have been 
expected to meet the requirements of the majority of present-day 


pupils (11.0). 


Sir Jostan Stamp, G.B.E.—The developments required from the world 
and economic point of view (11.30). 


Discussion. (Mr. H. T. Tizarp, C.B., F.R.S.; Dr. W. W. 
VaucHaNn, M.V.O.; Sir RicHarp Grecory, Bt., F.R.S.) 


AFTERNOON. 
Visit to Hilton School. 


Monday, September 10. 
Mepicat Aspects OF EDUCATION :— 


Col. C. J. Bonn, C.M.G—The physiological and psychological 
development of the child and the adolescent, and the claims thereby 
made on education (10.0). 


Introduction —Education in regard to the environment. 
The environment of civilised mankind to-day may be divided into— 


(1) The world of matter and natural forces. 
(2) The world of life, more especially human life in its individual and 
collective aspects. 


We may call (1) the External and (2) the Internal or human environment. 
Education and Training for Life-——There are three important spheres of 
life in which education, regarded as a training for life, has so far failed to 


396 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—L. 


equip the young citizen. These are: (1) sex, marriage, and parenthood ; 
(2) citizenship ; and (3). vocation or occupation. ‘These are considered in 
detail. 

The place of biological instruction in the school curriculum. 

The relation of biology to chemistry and physics. 

Biology from the cultural point of view and as a mental discipline. 

Education and the right use of leisure. 

Education, knowledge and conduct. 

‘Modern education requires developing and extending on biological lines 

if it is to enable the young citizen to fully adapt himself to the wider environ- 
ment which civilised life on its human side provides to-day. 


Discussion. (Dr. R. B. CarTEL..) (10.30.) 


Joint SEssION with Section J (Psychology) on Psychological and child 
guidance clinics :— 


Prof. J. DREvER.—The organisation of psychological clinics (11.0). 


Dr. D. R. MacCatman.—The psychiatric aspect of child guidance 
(11.20). 


The task of a child guidance clinic is to encourage the better handling of 
children in general and to provide clinical care for a more highly selected 
group of cases rather than to accept the responsibility for the study and 
treatment of all children presenting behaviour problems. Any approach 
to the solving of personality problems must bé based on an extensive under- 
standing of the individual and on a dynamic and genetic interpretation of 
behaviour. The work of clinics must therefore be grounded on a knowledge 
of the polygenetic factors which lead to any abnormal behaviour. ‘The 
clinic should be so staffed that it can deal with a wide range of educational, 
social and individual problems, and the task of synthesising the approach 
to each case has been delegated to the psychiatrist because his professional 
equipment ensures the most consistent orientation to the total organism. 

While clinics should practise child guidance as an art, just as the physician 
practises the art of medicine—eclectically and with common sense— 
individual clinics must differ widely in their methods of treatment. Some 
are concerned with an attempt by various direct methods to alleviate the 
emotional stresses within the child ; others are more interested in treatment 
which involves relief from physical disorders ; while others again are more 
hopeful of indirect manipulation of the environment. Such clinics, how- 
ever, are more than therapeutic agencies, for they gain a place in social 
evolution because they synthesise the most promising approaches to the 
problems of behaviour and personality in childhood. 


Mr. Rex Knicut.—Child guidance in Aberdeen (11.40). 


The Aberdeen Child Guidance Clinic, which deals, not with mental 
defectives, but with ‘ difficult’ children, was founded in April 1932 by the 
University Lecturers in Psychology and Education, and later its services 
were enriched by the co-operation of a pediatrician, nominated by the local 
branch of the British Medical Association, and of a psychiatrist and a social 
worker, nominated by the Medical Officer of Health. Nearly 100 children 
have been brought to the clinic, either directly by parents or on the recom- 
mendation of teachers or doctors. 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—L. 397 


The causes of their difficulties can be grouped under three main heads— 
physical, intellectual, and temperamental—and there has been abundant 
evidence of the profound, though indirect, influence that these exert on 
a child’s thought and behaviour. It is well known that physical conditions 
can affect mind and character ; but it must also be recognised that intel- 
lectual dullness does not result only in scholastic backwardness, but often 
in temperamental difficulties and misbehaviour, and, similarly, that tem- 
peramental factors can hinder intellectual growth. ‘There have also been 
interesting indications of the way in which a child’s family-situation affects 
its character, and ample proof of the fact that, in bringing up children, good 
intentions are not enough. 


Dr. Mary M. MacTaccart.—Some clinical aspects of problems in 
learning (12.0). 


(1) Descriptive cases illustrating difficulty in learning one or more of the 
fundamental subjects of school instruction. 

(2) Their treatment and results of treatment. 

(3) A few generalisations regarding problems in learning : (a) significance 
of chance factors in failure; (6) the emotional effect of failure becoming 


the cause of increased and continued failure ; (c) first essentials in remedial 
teaching. 


Discussion. (Dr. C. W. Krumins; Dr. R. B. CaTTeLy.) (12.20.) 


Tuesday, September 11. 


OINT SESSION with Department F* (Industrial Co-operation) on The 
P P 
planning of a national policy of technical education and industrial 
recruitment :— 


Mr. J. W. BispHam.—An administrative view (10.0). 


The adoption of a system of half-time compulsory day continuation schools 
up to the age of 18 would be more convenient to industry than the method 
of the Education Act of 1918, which required in effect only about 8 hours 
per week of school attendance. 

The setting up of these schools could be undertaken progressively over 
several years and would not be in substitution for, but additional to the 
raising of the school-leaving age to 15 at an appropriate time. ‘The two 
projects could be combined with a large consequent reduction in both 
juvenile and adult unemployment. 

Industry also needs trained recruits from a planned system of schools 
which will include junior technical and senior technical schools in addition 
to the better-known system of secondary schools and university courses. 
The ideal planning of technical courses pre-supposes an exploration, by 
those responsible for education, of local industries —the formation of 
advisory committees and a full and effective liaison between those repre- 
senting education and those representing industry. Lack of such liaison 
in the past had led to much waste of effort and to regrettable ignorance on 
each side of the resources available on the other. 


398 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—L. 


Mr. A. P. M. Fiemine, C.B.E.—The problem in a large centralised 
industry (10.25). 


The planning of a policy of technical education, whereby the demand 
and supply are qualitatively and quantitatively correlated, involves a con- 
sideration of economic and social conditions, which at the present time are 
in a state of flux. In these circumstances it is necessary therefore to con- 
sider the matter from fundamental principles. 

An ideal system of co-ordinating demand and supply of technical workers 
in industry would take into account such factors as numerical requirements 
of every type of worker, changes in the types of production and variations 
in forms of industrial organisation likely to affect the numbers and types of 
personnel, international policies in regard to shortening hours of labour, 
the introduction of entirely new forms of industry, considerations such as 
alteration of the school leaving age, the age of retirement, etc. Could these 
conditions be evaluated accurately, then it might be possible to assess in 
advance the number and types of technical workers required and to plan 
their pre-industrial education, technical training and practical experience. 
The difficulties of such planning are obvious, and at best it is only possible 
to discern the general trend of industrial requirements and be sensitive to 
variations in demand and supply which can never be completely synchronous. 

The paper indicates how a large engineering organisation representative 
of every type of industrial and commercial activity—research, technical 
design, production, sales and finance—attempts with the co-operation of the 
educational institutions to effect a planned system of co-ordinating demand 
and supply, having in mind the influence of the trend of development in 
types of engineering plant and apparatus, types and methods of production 
and markets for well-established and, as weil, entirely new engineering 
products. 


Mr. G. W. THomson.—The condition of technical education in Scotland 
from the industrial point of view ; the requirements and how they 
have been met (10.50). 


National planning of technical education is ahead of distributive planning 
of means of life. Attitude to technical education is governed by regard 
for industrial efficiency or the workers’ welfare. 

Technical educational facilities are ample for purely industrial require- 
ments, but efficiency to which they lead raises acute problems in rendering 
labour superfluous. Lack of industrial opportunity discourages technical 
application. 

‘Technical education, when not closely related to actual works, leads to 
entrance of pupils into specialised channels, and technical starvation in 
other directions. 

Apprenticeship training is unsatisfactory and insufficient working time 
is allowed by employers for study. Tired students cannot benefit from 
class work. Vocational selection leads to problem of industrial discards. 

Danger of excessive text-book training leads to inability to think and 
lack of initiative. Standardisation at work has bad mental effects on 
pupils. 

Old apparatus in college laboratories and teachers lacking acquaintance- 
ship with modern work unsatisfactory. 

Evil effects of exclusive vocational training to be deplored. A claim is 
made to an important place for English in technical curriculum. 


7 1 Read by Major J. W. Buckley. 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—L, M. 399 . 


Technical training should not be divorced from cultural values, and 
danger of too narrow vocational selection in stratifying industrial society 
should be kept in view. 


Mr. W. Rintout, O.B.E.—Technical education as applied to the 
training of industrial chemists (11.15). 


In dealing with the matter of training, the question arises ‘ Can a man be 
moulded into a shape like putty, or is he a diamond which requires the 
cutting of facets ?’ 

The author inclines to the latter view. It is possible for a man with 
a good memory to go right through, within reason, a prescribed industrial 
or academic course. The real question is, ‘ How much use is he after- 
wards?’ In this country we always seek for a compromise. ‘The paper 
attempts to deal with this. 


Discussion. (Mr. G. A. Ropinson; Dr. C. S. Myers, C.B.E., 
F.R.S.; Mr. R. D. Epmonp ; Principal J. CAMERON SMAIL, 
©.B.E.)’’ Grado.) 


SECTION M.—AGRICULTURE. 


Thursday, September 6. 
Discussion on Cattle rearing and feeding (10.0) :— 
Mr. J. S. Grant.—Calf rearing or bringing out of pedigree stock. 


Mr. M. Macxie.—The fattening of store cattle (10.20). 


An account is given of (1) the usual method of feeding in Aberdeenshire, 
(2) experiments in winter feeding, and (3) experiments in summer feeding. 


Dr. E. 5. Arcu1BaLD.—Canadian experiments on cattle rearing and 
feeding (10.40). 

Investigations into improved methods for rearing and feeding beef and 
dairy cattle have been in progress in certain parts of older Canada for 
forty-five years. 

During this period both human and cattle populations doubled in numbers, 
but the opening of new agricultural areas necessitated extensive preliminary 
experiments as to best means for using native feeds, feeds which might be 
most economically introduced, by-products of manufacture, and other 
supplements, with associated problems of breeding, health relationship, and 
market requirements. 

Present experiments with beef cattle deal largely with economic problems 
of production and finishing. A few representative investigations are : 

(1) A study of age to finish in relation to modern demand for smaller 
cuts. 

(2) Pasture and range improvements, including also mineral deficiencies, 
utilising surplus and low grade wheat, coarse grains, and potatoes in finishing 
for better quality beef at lower costs. 


400 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—M. 


(3) The economics of breeding, rearing, and finishing baby beef in rela- 
tion to two-year-old beef. 

(4) During recent years experiments more fundamental in nature have 
been undertaken, including : 

(5) Digestion studies of Canadian feeds as to the effect of plane of nutri- 
tion, association upon digestibility, age and digestibility, digestibility of 
grains as affected by roughages, and feeds as affecting meat flavour. 


Prof. R. RaE.— Systems of rearing and feeding for the production of 
young beef (11.10). 

The animals for the investigation were calves, the progeny of cross-bred 
Galloway cows mated with a pedigree white Shorthorn bull. All calves 
were weighed at birth, at weaning and at date of sale or slaughter. The 
direct costs of production for each group of animals fattened were ascer- 
tained and are expressed both as cost per head and cost per cwt. live weight. 

Five groups of calves were obtained over a period of three years. In all 
groups the calves suckled their dams for approximately six months, but 
thereafter the system adopted varied for the various groups. Spring-born 
calves were housed in the autumn and sold fat in the beginning of the 
following June at an age of 14 months. Summer-born calves were wintered 
cheaply after weaning, turned out to grass in spring, housed from September, 
and sold fat at Christmas at an average age of 18 months. One group was 
sold as forward stores at 10 months old. The last group, March-born 
calves, were wintered cheaply, but without allowing condition to be lost, 
and then turned out to grass in the spring. ‘They were sold fat off the grass 
during summer at an age of 16-17 months. 

The paper is concerned with a description of the systems of rearing and 
feeding adopted and a discussion of the results. 


Mr. H. J. Pace, M.B.E., and Dr. S. J. Watson.—Fodder conserva- 
tion and tts place on the farm (11.30). 


Hay-making is the method of conservation in general use. The losses 
involved are surprisingly high, up to 50 per cent. of the starch equivalent 
in the fresh grass being lost as a result of respiration, mechanical losses in 
the field and fermentation in the stack, and even under ideal conditions the 
loss may be 33 per cent. ‘The loss of digestible protein is of a similar order. 
Artificial drying is the ideal method of conservation, the retention of protein 
being almost complete, whilst that of starch equivalent does not fall far 
behind. ‘The losses involved in silage-making when properly carried out 
are less than is the case with hay, but with badly made silage, especially 
in the stack, they may equal or even exceed the losses in hay-making. Under 
British conditions the addition of mineral acids does not appear to give a 
marked reduction in the loss of starch equivalent, in comparison with ordinary 
or molasses silage, made with equal care, but it prevents the break-down of 
protein which is characteristic of ordinary methods of making silage and 
makes the control of the fermentation more certain. 

Artificially dried grass and well-made silage retain the carotinoid pig- 
ments of the fresh crop in a large measure. This is particularly true of 
dried grass and A.I.V. fodder. 

The inclusion of carotene-rich foods of this type in the ration of the dairy 
cow results in the production of a milk with a fat of high yellow colour 
reminiscent of that of pasture-fed cows. ‘This yellow colour is a function 
of the carotene content and is correlated with the vitamin A content of the 
milk, 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—M. 401 


The fat in the milk of different breeds of cows varies in regard to the 
depth of colour produced on the same ration, though for any one breed 
there is still a correlation between colour or carotene content and vitamin A 
potency. 

If practical and economic methods of drying or ensiling (or both) can be 
developed, this should open up the possibility of feeding stock in winter, 
for production as well as for maintenance, mainly on home-produced 
foodstuffs. ‘The way in which such processes could be embodied in the 
ordinary management of grassland is discussed. 


Discussion (11.50). 


AFTERNOON. 
Visit to the Macaulay Institute for Soil Research, Craigiebuckler. 


Friday, September 7. 


Joint Symposium with Section I (Physiology, g.v.) on Nutrition in 
relation to disease (10.0). 


AFTERNOON. 


Visit to the Craibstone Experimental Farm, North of Scotland College of 
Agriculture. 


Pusiic Lecrure by Prof. J. A. S. Watson on Science and the animal 
industry (3.30). 


Saturday, September 8. 
Excursion to Collynie, Cruden Bay, Port Erroll and Grandhome. 


Monday, September 10. 


PRESIDENTIAL Appress by Prof. J. A. S. Watson on Scientific progress and 
economic planning in relation to agriculture and rural life (10.0). (See 


H. 223.) 


Sir A. D. Hatt, K.C.B., F.R.S.—The planning of agricultural production 
(10.50). 

The competition set up by intensive nationalism has destroyed the 
economic position of the British farmer. Hence the nation has abandoned 
its old policy of Free Trade and has adopted various measures for the pro- 
tection of agriculture. At the same time it is recognised that internal 
competition alone, in which imports play but a small part, may be equally 
destructive of the stability of the industry, checking enterprise and that 
development of production which is needed by the nation. This is the 
case for a planned agriculture which aims at organising the farming com- 
munity and the dependent processing and distributive trades, in order to 
extend and cheapen the output from our own land. ‘The Marketing Boards 
that have been set up for the various commodities, in virtue of their mono- 
poly, can direct the production along the lines that are most economic and 

P 2 


402 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—M. 


best suited to the requirements of the consumer. But it is an implied condi- 
tion of this monopoly that while it ensures adequate returns to the farmers 
it will call for a corresponding response from them by the adoption of 
improved methods. With milk, for example, it will be possible to improve 
the quality and cleanliness and to eliminate the risks of the dissemination of 
bovine tuberculosis and other diseases. With meat, again, proper organisa- 
tion should be able to grade up the quality of British meat by better methods 
of slaughter and management to put it before the public in the excellent 
condition that characterises much of the imported meat. While the best 
grades of British meat are pre-eminent, a large proportion of the output has 
latterly been unsaleable. Ultimately the planning will require a considera- 
tion of the relative claims to development of the various products of the 
farmer. At the best Britain can only produce a proportion of the food it 
consumes, and a selection should be made in favour of those products best 
suited to our climate and soil and calling for labour and skill—milk and live 
stock products, vegetables and fruit, for example, as compared with the 
cheap wheat and sugar. At the same time, even for such products con- 
sideration has to be given to the specific capacities of particular areas. ‘The 
new organisation presents many difficulties, only to be overcome by a process 
of trial and error. 


Mr. A. McCattum.—The diffusion of scientific knowledge to the farmer in 
Scotland (11.20). 


More than two hundred years ago the problem of diffusing knowledge 
to Scottish farmers was exercising the minds of progressive landlords and 
others. Many landed gentlemen demonstrated new methods on their own 
holdings. The Society of Improvers, formed in 1723, acted as a pool of 
farming knowledge and as an advisory body. A later association stimulated 
improvement by the offer of various premiums. At the end of the eighteenth 
century the Highland Society took the lead in promoting agricultural 
improvement by premiums, exhibitions and publications, and by fostering 
agricultural education and helping the establishment of the Chair of Agri- 
culture at Edinburgh. 

The rise of instructional centres at Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow 
was consequent on the distinctive characters of the farming in the three 
provinces. 

The predominant feature of Scottish farming being animal husbandry, 
the main lines of research undertaken deal with nutrition, breeding, diseases, 
ae milk production, but soils and plant-breeding have provision made for 
them. 

In the curriculum of general education more time should be found for 
the study of biology. 

Only a small proportion of the farming community can be directly affected 
by central teaching, and for the majority the important part of the organisa- 
tion is the county staff. 


Prof. W. G. S. Apams.—Better living : the community movement in the 
countryside (11.40). 


Discussion on Science and rural life (12.0). 


AFTERNOON. 
Visit to the Rowett Research Institute, Bucksburn. 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—M. 403 


Tuesday, September 11. 


JornT Discussion with Section B (Chemistry, qg.v.) on The chemistry of 
milk (10.0). 


Joint Discussion with Section K (Botany) and Department K* 
(Forestry) on Soil and ecological studies in relation to forestry and 
grazing (10.0) :— 


Dr. W. G. Occ.—/Introduction. 


About four-fifths of the total surface of Scotland consists of uncultivated 
ground. Much of this land on account of altitude and steepness of slope is 
unsuitable for cultivation, but great areas are not being used at present to 
the best advantage. More could be done in the utilisation of such land for 
forestry and grazing purposes, and in recent years increasing attention has 
been given to this work particularly by the Forestry Commission. It is 
important that the improvements should be carried out along the best lines 
and two aims should be kept in view : 

(1) The use of the land for the purpose for which it is best suited. 

(2) The improvement of the land by various methods of treatment at an 
economical cost. 

The soil investigator and the ecologist can render useful assistance in 
attaining these objects. It has been found that a study of the soil profile 
and the vegetation often gives the necessary clues to solving the problems 
encountered. The appearance of the various soil layers gives indications 
as to drainage conditions and fertility. The occurrence of hard pan has a 
direct bearing on the uses to which a soil can be put; and a close con- 
nection has been found between the natural vegetation and the soil type. 


Dr. A. S. Watt.—The ecologist and land utilisation (10.10). 


Dr. A. Muir.—Forest soils (10.30). 


Under the prevailing climatic conditions the predominant feature ofthe 
soil-forming processes is a leaching of mineral substances from the upper 
soil layers, with the subsequent precipitation of some of these in the lower 
layers, the others being completely removed from the soil in the drainage 
water. Where the soil parent material is poor in basic substances, the 
effect of this leaching soon becomes apparent in the upper layers. Such 
soils are known as podzolised soils, their characteristic feature being the 
presence of an ashy grey layer underlying the layer cf organic residues. 
When the soil parent material is rich in bases the effects of leaching are not 
so apparent, and the soil profile is of a more or less uniform colour, This 
same characteristic is often a feature of soils on steep hill slopes. The 
precipitation of the leached substances, especially iron and alumina, leads 
to the formation of a very compact and cemented layer, which sometimes is 
so hard that roots and water fail to pass through. When this happens, 
fundamental changes take place in the soil profile. ‘The layers above the 
hard pan become water-logged ; the lack of air gives rise to reduction pro- 
cesses, and the soil becomes invaded by an inferior type of vegetation. When 
this happens, peat formation sets in. In many soils a high ground water 
level may have the same effect. 

When the soil has already borne a good forest crop, probably very little 


404. SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—M. 


treatment is necessary. Old drains may require cleaning, but the soil is 
usually in good condition. 

In land which has not already carried a forest crop, wide variations of 
soil type are to be found, and it is in this case that a study of soil conditions 
from the genetic standpoint may prove very useful. 

On steep slopes drainage is usually sufficiently good to preclude the cutting 
of drains, but in regions of high rainfall peat formation sets in very quickly, 
with the result that some draining is often necessary. 

On the flatter ground draining is usually an essential operation, and in 
some cases the only one necessary. In other cases even draining is not 
sufficient, and the application of some manure is necessary to prevent the 
young plants from going into check. 

When a hard pan is present it is desirable but not always possible to break 
it. This may be done by deep ploughing. When the pan cannot be 
reached by the plough, ordinary ploughing may give rise to sufficient 
aeration so that the pan becomes soft enough to allow the tree roots to pass. 


Dr. G. K. Fraser.—Peats and peaty soils (10.50). 


True peat soils in Britain belong to two main groups: (i) Topographical 
or Basin Peats, which develop in areas of high ground water or of free 
stagnant water ; (ii) Climatic Peats, which are alpine in Britain as a whole 
but form the normal soils under the high rainfall of the north and west of 
Scotland, the organic soil forming above not only high ground water profiles 
such as gley, but also on drier profiles such as sand podzols. 

In Scotland, the climax vegetation of these. types is characterised by a 
mixture of Scirpus cespitosus and Calluna vulgaris, with a moss layer in which 
the Sphagna Acutifolia group predominates. This climax is reached in 
the east of Scotland as a rule only on ancient peats of early post-glacial 
origin, but under the high rainfall of the west it develops on moderately 
shallow peat of recent origin. 

Although very poor in available nutrients, the chief disability of these 
peats is insufficient aeration. The peat of the west of Scotland is less 
tractable than that of the east, since it is more highly dispersed and more 
plastic, and therefore less easily drained and less easily penetrated by 
manures. It therefore requires either very intense or very prolonged 
measures of amelioration for its improvement. 


Mr. E. WYLLIE FENTON.—Some aspects of the influence of grazing on 
vegetation (11.10). 


There are few acres of vegetation in Britain which are not affected by the 
grazing factor. When grassland or arable land is left derelict—and no 
grazing occurs—it sooner or later reverts to wood, scrub, or heath. The 
nature and extent of grazing definitely affects the vegetation. Of all animals 
probably goats are the most destructive as far as scrub or woodland is 
concerned. Among wild animals, deer and rabbits are the most destructive, 
but damage by mice, squirrels, birds, caterpillars and grubs must not be 
forgotten. 

The indirect influence of grazing is very important, such as burning moors 
and rough grazings, since under such conditions regeneration of trees is 
practically impossible. The replacing of cattle by sheep on many of the 
hill grazings of Scotland has much to do with the spread and increase of 
bracken. The indiscriminate destruction of the original vegetation has 


SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—M. 405 


often had deplorable results. Damage by grazing of various kinds often 
leads to diseases which may prove far more serious. 

The balance of nature is often upset, and there is still much to be learned 
concerning this problem. The obtaining of further information of the 


relationship of plants and animals offers a good field for the advancement 
of knowledge. 


Discussion. (Sir JoHn Russet, F.R.S.) (11.30.) 


CONFERENCE OF DELEGATES OF 
CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES 


Tue Conference was held at Marischal College, Aberdeen, on Sep- 
tember 6 and 11, under the Presidency of Col. Sir Henry Lyons, D.Sc., 
F.R.S., and was attended by 44 delegates representing 49 societies, in 
addition to a large audience. 


Thursday, September 6. 
ADDRESS ON 


SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES AND MUSEUMS 


By Cou. Str Henry G. Lyons, D.Sc., F.R.S., 
President of the Conference. 


Tue field of scientific activity covered by the Societies which are represented 
here to-day is so wide that an address on almost any subject might be con- 
sidered to be appropriate to their interests ; and in fact, when I look at 
those that have been delivered of late years, I can discover no definite trend 
in them, other than the desire to contribute to the advancement of the 
knowledge of science and its applications. And this is as it should be ; we 
should address our colleagues on those subjects of which we have personal 
knowledge and can speak from practical experience. 

For the last twenty years I have been occupied not so much with any 
particular branch of science as with making available to others scientific 
and technical information of various kinds ; and that by display and exhibi- 
tion rather than by writing. In this task it has been brought home to me 
very vividly the need that there is for fuller organisation in this field, how 
large are the resources which are in existence and how real the difficulties 
which workers may experience in gaining access to them. ‘The problem, 
which is familiar to every student of any branch of knowledge—that the piece 
of information for which A is seeking is often a commonplace to B, but 
there is no connecting agency to bring them together—still remains for the 
great majority but very imperfectly solved. Bibliographies have multiplied 
and are multiplying in every subject, until they now form an important 
section in a library of any size; efficient and rapid handling of them is 
becoming a specialised side of the librarian’s work. 

At the same time steady progress is being made in several directions, and 
in none do I see more hopeful prospect than in the co-operation of the three 
classes of institution which have already done so much to this end—I refer 
to the scientific society, the library and the museum. Each of these has 
its own special mode of distributing information—by discussion, by books 
and other publications and by display—and they offer much to the scientific 
student and worker who does not perhaps always utilise them to the full 
extent, or who may not know the assistance that they can render to his 
special needs. 


CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES 407 


One reason that suggested itself for taking this subject for my address 
to-day, is that many firms in technical industry at the present time are 
employing to an increasing extent scientifically trained men in their research 
departments, to whom a ready access to current technical literature is all- 
important, and it is hardly to be expected that this is to be found to hand 
everywhere, nor is it worth while to accumulate technical periodical litera- 
ture which may be but rarely required. 

Again, discussion on scientific and technical subjects, which is readily 
obtainable in London and in the large cities, may be less easy to arrange for 
elsewhere. It is not only with workers in the same field that such discussion 
may be fertile in results ; in other lines of investigation methods evolved 
for other purposes may often be usefully taken over and adopted. 

Dr. George Hale of Mount Wilson Observatory, California, during his 
presidency of the International Council of Scientific Unions, has drawn 
attention to many cases within his own experience when instruments and 
methods which were perfectly familiar to workers in one branch of science 
were wholly unused by investigators in other fields, and gave as an illustra- 
tion a case at Mount Wilson Observatory in which the range of the 1o0-inch 
telescope has recently been increased 50 per cent. by the adoption in its 
spectrographs of a new type of photographic objective, developed on the 
principle of a microscope objective by Mr. Rayton of the Bausch and 
Lomb Optical Company. This has made possible the measurement of 
the enormous velocities of the extremely remote spiral nebulz which have 
been used in recent discussions on the Expansion of the Universe. 

More recently the British Scientific Instruments Research Association 
has made further suggestions which are expected to increase very consider- 
ably the anticipated efficiency of the 200-inch telescope which is now under 
construction. 

He emphasises the point that such helpful suggestions may come from 
the most unexpected quarters; and there is no reason why similar con- 
sultative co-operation by the workers of a single locality in various fields of 
science may not be quite as helpful to them as it is anticipated that it will 
be in the international field. 

In recent years much has been done to improve and to extend the influence 
of local museums, and in this movement no one has done more than Sir 
Henry Miers ; as a result many of them now exercise a valuable influence 
in many fields. In the past they have in many cases received their main 
support and encouragement from those who were interested in Archeology 
and Natural History, and Science and Technology could only find place in 
the larger institutions. But now many of them are giving much attention 
to the representation of the technical industries which have been established 
in their vicinity and to the display of the scientific principles on which they 
are based. Such institutions are exceptionally favourably situated for 
securing those early examples illustrating the path of development which 
has been followed in arriving at the efficiency of to-day, and which are 
becoming scarcer every year. 

In this direction steady advance is being made, and we may note with 
special interest the opening six weeks ago of the Municipal Museum of 
Science and Industry at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where the scientific and 
industrial advances which have been made in this district will be illustrated, 
and future progress recorded. The existence of an active and influential 
body, the North-East Coast Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders, to 
assist and guide its efforts is a guarantee that its development will be rapid 
and that it will be of real value and interest to all who are engaged in scientific 
and technical work in the North of England. 


408 CONFERENCE OF DELEGATES 


Museums can hardly assist the research worker to the same extent that 
societies and libraries can, since museum display must confine itself mainly 
to providing an informative exhibit of what has been attained in this branch 
of science or in that industry ; but the growing practice of arranging tempo- 
rary exhibitions to illustrate a special activity or achievement may be expected 
to provide matter of interest to him, and should also enlist his interest 
and resourcefulness in making such exhibitions both interesting and repre- 
sentative of the latest advances in the subject. 

Archeology and natural history take a prominent place in the activities 
of many local societies, but there seems to be no reason why those who 
have so restricted their interest should not also co-operate with their museum 
in representing not only local trades but also those modern industries which 
are growing rapidly around them. In bringing such technical processes 
and products to the notice of the public, the modern museum has a task of 
great importance and one with which it is specially competent to deal. 
Even though the subject may present difficulties and the processes may be 
complicated, it is quite possible to make them fully intelligible to visitors ; 
and if such an exhibit is understood the visitor is at once interested. The 
experience gained at the Science Museum, London, during the past ten or 
twelve years has shown very clearly that trouble taken to make scientific 
exhibits intelligible is well spent, for once they are understood they arouse 
a keen interest in the minds of visitors, which is far more effective in in- 
ducing others to come in their turn than any form of advertising which can 
be planned. 

But however attractive an exhibit may be, it will sooner or later become 
too familiar to arrest the visitor’s attention, and the museum which is the 
most visited is that which the public regard as usually having something 
new for them to see. Here the members of a society may assist the curator 
by their suggestions, as well as by arousing the interest of those who may be 
in a position to contribute objects of special technical interest. 

Among libraries co-operation has already advanced far, and through the 
National Central Library local libraries can obtain for their readers access 
to far wider and more specialised collections of material than can be found 
at any one place out of London. Here scientific workers, and especially 
those who are engaged in research work for industrial purposes, are in a 
somewhat special position, for often they require published material not so 
much for lengthy study as to look through in order to see what is being done 
in some special branch elsewhere and in other countries ; a reference given 
in a technical journal may have to be followed up ; while not infrequently 
time is of considerable importance and everyone cannot expect to have at his 
elbow a technical library equipped to provide both foreign and home 
publications on a large scale. But now, through the facilities provided by 
the National Central Library and by the Science Library at the Science 
Museum, London, where there is one of the largest collections of periodical 
scientific and technical literature in existence, he can obtain on loan what 
he requires for a sufficient time to enable him to see what it contains of 
importance for his purpose. In this way, not only may the costly duplication 
of published material be avoided, but also needless waste of time in follow- 
ing up a line of investigation which has already been worked out elsewhere 
may be prevented. The rich bibliographical equipment at these libraries 
also enables them to indicate where recent information on various subjects 
in many lands may have appeared, and inquiries of this kind are readily 
answered so far as the resources of the institution allow. 

The access to published subject matter in the field of pure and applied 
science is to-day fairly easy to all, though this is not so generally realised 


CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES 409 


as it should be. The Report of the Advisory Council of the Science 
Museum, London, which has just been published, states that issues of books, 
etc., from the Science Library to external readers during 1933 exceeded 
16,000, an increase of 3,000 on the previous year ; but this seems to be a very 
small drain on its resources when we learn that the number of current 
scientific and technical periodicals which are being regularly received there 
is 8,696, while the stock of the library now numbers some 230,000 volumes, 
dealing with almost every branch of science and technology except medicine. 
The card-index to subjects contains now nearly two million references. 
Here, at any rate, is an inexhaustible source of information for the investi- 
gator in industrial research, of which he can with profit make use to a far 
greater extent than has hitherto been the case. 

It would seem, therefore, that in most cases there should not be any 
great difficulty in facilitating the acquisition of information needed by 
scientific workers in any part of this country if local resources are utilised, 
and the necessary enthusiasm is forthcoming. ‘The technical matters which 
research workers may wish to discuss will not always be attractive to some 
of the members of the scientific society concerned, but perhaps special 
meetings for this purpose could be arranged. Some thirty years ago meet- 
ings of this kind at a small scientific society, Cairo, where technical libraries 
were then non-existent, proved to be of the greatest value to its members, 
who at them exchanged views, acquired information over a much wider 
field than that in which their own activity lay, and brought out many pieces 
of information which otherwise would never have come to light, and which 
later developed into scientific records of permanent value. 

However, reliable and well-planned accounts of the direction in which 
modern science is advancing are always acceptable and can be made to be 
extremely interesting, even to those who may have no special knowledge of 
the subject. 

The larger part that science is playing and must increasingly play in 
industrial progress, as well as that understanding of the relations between 
the advance of science and the life of the community which this meeting 
of the Association is specially emphasising, provides for scientific societies 
throughout the country a wide and fertile field of endeavour, and in this 
task they will find that both their museums and their public libraries will be 
able to render most valuable assistance, each in its own sphere. 


Prof. P. G. H. Boswett, O.B.E., F.R.S.—Town and country planning 
schemes in relation to sites of scientific importance. 


Under the Town and Country Planning Act, 1932, a local authority or 
joint committee must obtain the approval of the Minister of Health to a 
resolution deciding to prepare a scheme. Among the objects of such a 
planning scheme, as cited in Section 1 of the Act, are ‘ preserving existing 
buildings or other objects of architectural, historic and artistic interest and 
places of natural interest or beauty, and generally of protecting existing 
amenities whether in urban or rural portions of the area.’ Arrangements 
have now been made under which the Ministry of Health is systematically 
notifying the British Association of the areas in which planning schemes 
are proposed. The Association is well fitted by its aims and constitution, 
and by its liaison with its Corresponding Societies, to make representations 
when necessary to the Ministry and to appropriate local authorities or joint 
committees for the preservation of sites or objects of exceptional scientific 
interest—botanical, zoological, geological, birthplaces or domiciles of 


410 CONFERENCE OF DELEGATES 


scientific worthies, and so forth. Obviously, the Association must rely 
largely on its Corresponding Societies for information as to sites or objects 
which may be endangered. Suggestions are therefore invited from the 
Delegates as to the best method of procedure for obtaining information as 
to sites, etc., which should be preserved. 


Sir ALBerT E. Kitson, C.M.G., C.B.E—The necessity of recording 
well-sinkings and borings for water. 


The supply of information respecting the nature of strata found during 
boring operations, and the bearing of such on water supplies, is admittedly 
highly desirable. But registration of such information is not legally 
compulsory. 

Boring operations for water afford excellent opportunities to obtain this 
information, and it is advisable to do so. It has been urged that people 
actually operating the boring plants are not geologists, and so cannot give 
particulars of value. This is erroneous ; they can give the main results, 
leaving the details of strata to be supplied by geologists. 

The Geological Survey of Great Britain has done and is doing most 
valuable work in this as in all other sections of geology and can supplement 
such information. ‘The numerous activities of this and other kinds in this 
country, as for instance those of the recent drought, afford good opportunities 
in this direction, but it is only possible for the Geological Survey to arrange 
for visits to boring operations if informed of them. ‘There are, besides, 
large numbers of devoted non-professional geologists, widely dispersed 
throughout this country, who can safely be depended upon to assist in the 
matter. Further, the members of Corresponding Societies can also assist 
by notifying the Geological Survey of any such operations in their districts. 

Co-operation and co-ordination in this manner will give valuable in- 
formation—at present only obtainable in some cases—and be of great 
economic value to us. 


Tuesday, September 11. 


AFTERNOON (2.0). 
Prof. F. G. Batty.—National Parks for Scotland. 


A National Park in Scotland should contain some 200 square miles of 
mountain and moorland, glens and woods, lochs and rivers, with a dry 
climate. The primary object is to provide holiday ground among the hills, 
available to the public all over and at all times. Accommodation at low 
cost should be provided by huts, boarding houses, and camping grounds, 
that many classes of people who at present cannot afford a Highland 
holiday might enjoy a week or two. The Park should be under the control 
of a trust, rather than a government department, local representatives keep- 
ing in touch with the management. The area should be easily accessible 
from the towns, but not so near as to permit of day trips, which would 
introduce difficulties of control. ‘The expense of running the Park, some 
£5,000 a year, should be provided by the burghs and the Treasury. The 
Park would function also as a reserve for wild fauna, but under control by 
the wardens as to birds and beasts of prey, and suitable numbers of deer. 
The Cairngorm massif is suggested as fulfilling the requirements most 
nearly. 


ae 


CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES 4Il 


NATIONAL PARKS 
By P. THomsen, M.A. 


The paper which I am to have the honour of reading to you will deal with 
the question of National Parks in Scotland as part of the larger question 
of National Parks in Britain; in my opinion no other treatment can be 
satisfactory. Further, all my conclusions will rest on the assumption that 
contact with beauty, on a large scale, such as Nature, untouched by man, 
can alone supply, is of the greatest importance for the development of 
the highest human qualities. If this be granted, as I think it will, it follows 
that we have no right to deprive posterity of the means of such contact, 
but that natural beauty, the slow growth of thousands of years of geological 
and botanic action, must be jealously guarded as an irreplaceable national 
asset. It follows, in short, that we must set aside areas, to be called National 
Parks, in which the preservation of natural beauty and its free enjoyment 
by all as a matter of right, shall be the dominating principle of adminis- 
tration. 

If the need of such action be admitted, it will also be admitted that there 
is need of haste. The forces which, in the name of progress, tend to the 
destruction of natural beauty, are relentless, and, thanks to the enormous 


concentrations of capital which they can now command, work with ever- 


increasing speed and power. And if practical difficulties debar us from 
the immediate execution of our whole plans, we can at least see to it that 
these plans are ample enough to bear some relation to the importance of 
their object and the greatness of the nation for which they are designed, 
and that machinery which will ensure their ultimate accomplishment is 
brought into being. 

Such plans I shall endeavour to lay Bufore you. 


EXTENT OF NATIONAL PARKS. 


The method by which National Parks should be secured, and the 
machinery for their development and administration depend largely on 
their extent. Before proceeding to these other matters therefore, it is 
necessary to decide, at least tentatively, what is the total area of National 
Park land which Britain should endeavour ultimately to possess. 

The principal factor to be considered is the magnitude of the population 
which the National Parks are intended to serve. Looking to other countries 
in which a National Park policy has been long established and approved, 
we find as follows :— 


1. U.S.A. (1932): 
Area of National Parks (not including 


State Parks or Forest Reserves) . . 20,247 sq. miles. 
Population . é : 126 millions. 
Park land per million inhabitants 5 : 161 sq. miles. 
2. Canada: 
Area of National Parks ve including : 
Provincial Parks) : . . 12,000 sq. miles. 
Population . ; f 10 millions. 


Park land per million inhabitants . . 1,200 sq. miles. 


412 CONFERENCE OF DELEGATES 
3. New Zealand : 


Area of National Parks 4 : . 4,500 sq. miles. 
Population . ‘ ; 13 millions. 
Park land per million inhabitants : . 3,000 sq. miles. 


It is admitted that Canada and New Zealand are still in the infancy of 
their development; yet such an increase in population as would bring 
their Park allowance down to the U.S. figure, is not reasonably in sight. 
In the case of the U.S. itself, while the population is undoubtedly still 
increasing, so is the area of the National Parks, and that at a more rapid 
rate than the population, the details being these :— 


Increase 1920-1930. Increase 1920-1932. 
U.S. Population 16 per cent. 19 per cent. (estimated). 
U.S. National Park 27 per cent. 53 per cent. 


There is therefore no good reason for anticipating any fall in the Park 
allowance figure already given for the U.S.A. 

4. The State of New York, considered as a separate political entity, 
offers, however, the closest possible parallel to Great Britain. Its area, 
its population, and the density of its population, though smaller, are all 
of the same order of magnitude as those of Great Britain. It has one very 
large city, and generally is highly urbanised, 84 per cent. of its inhabitants 
being classed as urban. Its inhabitants have the same rights in the National 
Parks proper as other U.S. citizens, but, in addition, it owns and administers 
State Parks with a total area of about 3,700 sq. miles, which for a population 
of 123 millions, gives for each million inhabitants an area of 295 Sq. miles. 

If we take the lowest of all these figures, namely that pertaining to the 
whole U.S., 161 sq. miles per million inhabitants, as the minimum which 
an enlightened regard for the claims of posterity can allow us to contem- 
plate as our ultimate objective, we should have for Britain’s 45 million 
inhabitants a total area of 7,245 sq. miles. The policy of the present 
generation might be restricted to a figure of, say, 


6,000 sq. miles. 


It may be noted that this is 7 3 of the whole area of Britain ; the State Parks 
of New York State extend ib zz of the whole area of that State. 


OBJECTIONS. 


The Report of the Committee on National Parks (1931) objects to 
comparisons with the United States on the ground that Britain is ‘ small, 
densely populated and highly developed, and has relatively little land which 
is not already put to some economic or productive use.’ These objections 
do not seem to be well founded. The size of a country is in itself quite 
irrelevant to the issue, except in so far as it affects accessibility ; and in 
that respect it tells in favour of the smaller country. Again, its high density 
of population is all in favour of a large reservation for Britain ; the greater 
the density the more completely urbanised will the general aspect of the 
country be, and the greater will be the need of the population for occasional 
contact with Nature in its pristine beauty. The relatively smaller area in 
Britain not already devoted to productive use is relevant only if it involves 
an absolute lack of areas of sufficient size and natural beauty to serve as 
National Parks, and to that point we shall now address ourselves. 


CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES 413 


AVAILABILITY OF AREAS. 


For the purposes of National Parks Britain must be considered as a 
single unit. There are no obstacles to travel between England, Wales 
and Scotland. The Scottish Highlands are as accessible from the Midland 
towns as are the South Downs or the New Forest or Dartmoor. The 
distance even from London to Fort Augustus is to-day of no great conse- 
quence, and will become negligible with the improved transport and greater 
leisure of succeeding ages. It is therefore reasonable to suppose that in 
selecting the sites of the National Parks, political boundaries will be ignored, 
and attention given only to the sublimity or beauty of the scenery, to its 
untouched condition, to the ease with which it may be acquired, and, 
finally, to as nearly as possible an even geographical distribution of the Park 
land throughout the kingdom. On this basis it may be fairly assumed that 
of the 6,000 sq. miles which we have claimed, 2,000 sq. miles will be allotted 
to Scotland, and 4,000 sq. miles to England and Wales. 

Now, in Scotland, the area under permanent grass, rough grazing, moors 
and forests extends to 23,800 sq. miles, including over 5,000 sq. miles of 
deer forest and grouse moor. In Scotland therefore there will be no 
difficulty in securing the stipulated 2,000 sq. miles. 

In England and Wales the problem is rather more difficult. It is true 
that the area under permanent grass, moors and forests amounts to 
30,300 sq. miles, but much of this land lacks the beauty which is the first 
requisite of a National Park. It is, however, quite consistent with our 
original premises to include in our National Park System land already 
partially or even fully developed, so long as further development, if any, 
is nationally controlled solely in the interests of amenity. On this basis 
the Lake District might yield about 700 sq. miles. In the stricter sense, 
implying actual possession, the Peak might yield about 200 sq. miles of 
National Park, and the Yorkshire moors anything between 400 and 800 sq. 
miles. If we add to these some considerable part of the English Commons 
(in so far as not already included) which themselves extend to 2,500sq. miles, 
the Forest of Dean, the New Forest, Snowdonia and other parts of Wales, 
parts of the South Downs, the Cotswolds, the Malvern Hills and of the 
thirty other regions which were brought to the notice of the Committee 
on National Parks, it will be abundantly clear that there is still room in 
England and Wales for a system of National Parks extending to 4,000 sq. 
miles, and that too without any material interference with the economic 
life of the country. I adhere therefore to my original figure of 6,000 sq. miles, 
being 2,000 sq. miles in Scotland and 4,000 sq. miles in England and Wales. 


ADMINISTRATION. 


The control or acquisition, development and protection of so great 
an area is obviously an undertaking too great for local authorities, either 
singly or in combination, and still more so for semi-private bodies such 
as the National Trusts. It will be necessary to constitute by Act of 
Parliament a new Government Department which may be called the 
National Park Commission. For reasons which will appear presently, its 
permanent head should be the chief commissioner for Crown Lands ; other 
members, possibly to the number of 8 or 10, shall hold office for five years ; 
two shall be appointed by the Government of the day, and the rest shall 
be nominated by suitable English, Scottish and Welsh Associations 
designated in the Act. 


414 CONFERENCE OF DELEGATES 


PROCEDURE. 


The Commission shall be empowered by the Act which brings it into 
being, to hold surveys, and thereafter, subject to Parliamentary approval, 
to schedule lands for preservation as National Parks. Lands so scheduled 
shall become subject to the jurisdiction of the Commission in three 
progressive stages. 

1. The first stage shall aim merely at the preservation of the status quo. 
There shall be no interference with sporting rights, nor with agriculture 
as existing at the time when the area was scheduled. Right of access 
shall remain as it was. But the Commission shall hold, and if need be 
exercise, a simple veto on all developments which would, in their opinion, 
affect the beauty of the area. Thus the cutting of timber, especialiy old 
timber, the damming of rivers and lochs for hydro-electric or other purposes, 
the diversion of roads, and the initiation of industrial activities of a dis- 
figuring nature, shall be prohibited. Except possibly in connection with 
the conservation of timber, no compensation shall at this stage be payable 
to the proprietors of the scheduled area. 

2. The second stage shall be the stage of limited access, i.e., access by 
certain routes and at certain seasons. With a view of such access the 
Commission shall have power, after adequate notice, to construct new 
roads, to build and maintain rest houses, to organise camping sites. 
Compensation may now become payable to the proprietor. It may, in 
whole or part, take the form of payment of maintenance costs, and relief 
from local and national taxation including death duties. The amount 
of compensation shall be settled by methods to be prescribed in the Act. 

3. The third stage shall be full possession following upon purchase. 
Any sums previously paid by way of compensation shall be reckoned as 
part of the purchase price. 


Some of the advantages of such procedure are both great and obvious. 

1. It would be possible to give immediate protection of a simple kind 
to a verv large area. 

2. If industrial development or other defacement within a scheduled 
area should be proposed, the onus of proof would rest upon the proposers, 
i.e., they would require to prove that the economic gain to the Nation 
arising out of their proposals outweighed the loss arising out of the 
destruction of amenity, in such a degree as to justify Parliament in over- 
riding the decision of the Commission. 

3. The defence against such encroachment would be undertaken by the 
Commission backed by the whole wealth of the Treasury. At present it 
is left to local Authorities, whose views may be warped by local financial 
stringency, and to those individuals (and those only) who have local 
proprietory interests. The legal expenses are heavy and irrecoverable. 
The tendency obviously is for opponents to yield to financial intimidation 
and to withdraw their opposition. ‘The case of the Nation then goes by 
default. With the Commission in charge of the defence no such situation 
could arise. 

FINANCE. 


If the action of the Commission were to be limited to the first of the 
three stages set forth above, i.e., to scheduling lands for preservation in 
their existing condition, no great annual outlays would be required. It is 
obvious, however, that preservation without ultimate access would be 
inconsistent with our whole conception of a National Park, and as soon as 
the question of increased access arises, the question of compensation and 
finally of purchase price, arises with it. 


CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES 415 


How much, then, would it be reasonable to expect that the British 
Nation, acting through its Government, should set aside annually with 
a view to securing the benefits of a National Park system to its own posterity 
during the illimitable future ? The answer will not affect our decision as 
to the area which would be reasonably sufficient, but it will affect the time 
which must elapse before that area can be brought into full usefulness. 

It is admittedly difficult to fix a definite figure for expenditure in a new 
enterprise. ‘The Parliamentary Committee of 1931 hesitated between a 
Government expenditure of £10,000 and £100,000 per annum, with a 
leaning towards the higher figure. The wide divergence between these 
two figures seems to indicate that neither was founded upon a reasoned 
basis. Perhaps the best that can be done is once more to endeavour to 
profit by the experience of other countries in which the enterprise is no 
longer new, studying their figures with suitable modifications for economic 
differences. 

You will, I fear, not tolerate the Canadian practice in this matter. In 
the financial year 1932-33 Canada expended $1,100,000 on her National 
Parks. According to reputable statistics the national wealth of Britain 
is about 44 times that of Canada. On the Canadian standard, therefore, 
we should be prepared to spend $5,000,000, say £1,000,000 annually for 
National Park purposes. 

Personally, I think that for a nation with an annual income of £3/4,000 
million, this expenditure would be not unreasonable. But I fear that even 
in this meeting I should find little support for such views. 

Let us turn therefore to the United States. 

The United States has had over sixty years of experience of National 
Parks. During this period there have been trying times, and several 
changes of government; but public opinion has never wavered in its 
support of National Parks. The annual appropriations by Congress for 
their maintenance and development have risen from $784,567 in 1917, 
when the Parks were taken over from the several States by the Federal 
Government, to $10,640,620 in 1933. The total for these seventeen years is 
$72,304,000. ‘This by no means represents the whole cost of their National 
Parks to the American people; many millions of dollars have been 
subscribed for Park purposes by private individuals and by the State 
_ Legislatures ; but it does represent the whole cash contribution of the 
Central U.S. Government to the Parks during these seventeen years, and it 
is Government contributions with which we are at present concerned. The 
average annual outlay has been $4,253,000, equivalent at par exchange 
to £880,000. 

This figure also must be modified to allow for economic differences. 
At least two different sets of figures with authoritative support point to 
the conclusion that the total wealth of Britain is about one-third of that of 
the United States. American experience suggests therefore that for 
Britain an average expenditure of £300,000 per annum would not be 
excessive. ‘This is very nearly the sum originally allowed to the Forestry 
Commission—another new State enterprise having many points of affinity 
with a National Park Service. On the strength of that precedent, coupled 
with the analogies already adduced, I hold that we should claim for our 
National Park Service, provision equal to that originally made for our 
National Forest Service, namely an annual grant of £350,000. 

To bring this claim into true perspective within the national economy 
it is desirable to recall such facts as these :— 

1. Since the War the beet sugar industry has received grants totalling 
over £40 million. 


416 CONFERENCE OF DELEGATES 


2. Certain shipping concerns have recently been promised a grant of 
£9% million to enable them to engage in a highly speculative undertaking. 

3. The nation spends nationally and locally over £100 million per annum 
on Education. National Parks may well be regarded as a means of education 
in the widest sense of the word, and the suggested grant would be equivalent to 
the addition of less than a penny to every pound already spent on Education. 

4. The proposed grant is the yield of less than half a farthing in the 
standard rate of Income Tax. The recent budget has reduced the standard 
rate by sixpence. 

Moreover there will be considerable returns to set against the expenditure. 
Much of it will be incurred in road-making, in drainage and other improve- 
ments within the selected areas, and will thus, by the provision of new 
useful work, help to save the Unemployment Fund. The rest, used for 
compensation or purchase, will be represented by an increased area of Crown 
Lands. 

Nor must it be forgotten, that, while the chief object of the National 
Parks will be to promote the physical and spiritual well-being of our own 
people, they would also incidentally be a great attraction to tourists. 
According to a recent analysis by Professor Ogilvie, on balancing the 
amount spent by foreign tourists in Britain against the amount spent by 
British tourists abroad, there is a net loss to Britain of £10 million annually. 
It is not reasonably open to doubt that, with a good system of British 
National Parks in actual operation, that loss would be considerably reduced. 

From every point of view therefore the expenditure of £350,000 a year 
is easily justifiable. 


SOURCE OF THE MONEY. 


Economically it matters not at all what is the immediate source of this 
money. But politically it may matter very considerably. I suggest that 
the minimum of political opposition would be encountered if the proposed 
grant for the National Park Service came directly out of the surplus accruing 
annually from existing Crown Lands. For many years this surplus has 
amounted to over £1,000,000; in each of the last two years it was 
£1,250,000 ; hitherto it has simply been paid into the Treasury for general 
purposes. Nothing could be more appropriate than that part of it, at 
least, should be used for extending the area of the Crown Lands. The | 
Act which brings the National Park system into being should therefore 
provide that the Commissioners of Crown Lands shall, out of their annual 
profits, pay an agreed sum (such as £350,000) into a special fund to be 
used by the National Park Commission for the purposes of the Act. 
Unexpended sums to be accumulated in the Fund, and not to be attachable 
by the Treasury for other purposes. 

Lands purchased by the Commission should be vested in the Crown but 
administered by the Commission. 

The Chief Commissioner of Crown Lands should be Chairman of the 
National Parks Commission. 

The Commission should also have borrowing powers on the security 
of their annual grant. 


RESULTS. 


On the assumption that one-third of the proposed annual income of 
the Commission is earmarked for Scotland, and that, on average, one-third 
of this sum is used for administrative expenses and for development, there 
will remain about £80,000 annually for the purpose of land purchase in 
Scotland. Several independent lines of evidence lead to the conclusion 


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CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES 417 


that land of the nature which would be required for National Parks can 
be purchased in Scotland for £1 or 25s. per acre—say 30s. an acre at most 
or £1,000 per sq. mile. At this price the 2,000 sq. miles which has been 
suggested as a suitable allocation of National Park to Scotland would be 
acquired in twenty-five years. It might include the Glen Affric, Glen 
Cannich, Glen Strathfarrar region, with an extention across the Glencarron 
Road to Loch Coulin and Loch Maree; the region between Invergarry 
and Loch Hourn; the Cairngorms ; some part of the Trossachs, and an 
area in Central Perthshire, perhaps around Glen Lyon. 

In England and Wales, where land is dearer, progress by purchase would 
be less rapid. On the other hand, however, there are in England large 
areas of common lands (estimated at 2,500 sq. miles) and of Crown Lands 
(including the New Forest and the Forest of Dean), much of which would 
probably be selected for Park purposes, and would entail either a very 
low purchase price or none at all. Private generosity also might be relied 
on for substantial aid in extending the area in actual possession and full 
use. With an annual Government expenditure of about £160,000 on land 
purchase to supplement the areas derived from these sources, and with all 
the land that is ultimately desired receiving protection until such time 
as the Nation is ready to purchase it, there can be no doubt that in England 
and Wales, as in Scotland, we should, twenty-five years hence, possess or 
control a system of National Parks of which we need not be ashamed in 
face of our posterity. And the question is not: whether we can—our 
resources. both in money and in land are ample for the purpose; the 
question is only : whether we will. 


Mr. A. FARQUHARSON.—Population maps, their preparation and significance. 


Mr. Farquharson exhibited and described a series of maps he had pre- 
pared of various districts indicating the distribution and density of 
population in urban and industrial areas. He described various methods 
of preparation and dealt at length with the purpose and value of such maps 
for sociological study. 

Prof. Fawcett (Sec. Population Map Committee) speaking in support 
of the subject indicated that he would welcome the assistance of Corre- 
sponding Societies in the preparation of such maps of their respective areas, 
and invited those societies willing to assist to communicate with him— 
Prof. C. B. Fawcett, University College, London, W.C. 1—for information 
and advice. 


The Conference considered and supported the following recommenda- 
tion received from Section E (Geography) :— 


REVISION OF ORDNANCE SURVEY MAPS. 


The delay in revision of Ordnance Survey Maps is of long standing, and 


_ has been repeatedly brought to the notice of the Association, and by the 


Association to the Government, but without appreciable result. 

The cumulative delay results in needless expenditure of large sums by 
local authorities and private enterprises in the construction of unofficial 
maps to replace useless sheets, and has been recently the subject of vigorous 
comments in the Press. The principal grievance is that the geographical 
features of large areas formerly rural, are being transformed for various 
urban purposes. But the Ordnance Survey is under administrative control 


418 CONFERENCE OF DELEGATES 


of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, which is not concerned in urban 
development nor with the reorganisation of transport to meet urban and 
industrial conditions. 


RECOMMENDATION. 


The Committee of the Geographical Section therefore invites the 
Committees of all Sections interested in the provision of accurate modern 
maps on which to plot the distributions with which they are respectively 
concerned to support a fresh and vigorous appeal to the Lord President 
of the Council, and to the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, to 
take such measures as may ensure the provision of ample funds to carry 
out a far-sighted policy of map revision in the general interest of the 
community. 


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BRITISH ASSOCIATION REPORT 1934 


Stir WILLIAM BaTE Harpy, F.R.S. 


To face page 419.]} 


EVENING DISCOURSES. 


FIRST EVENING DISCOURSE 
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1934. 


TRANSPORT AND STORAGE OF FOOD 


BY 
SIR FRANK SMITH, K.C.B., C.B.E., Sec. R.S. 


(Being a Memorial Lecture for Sir William Hardy, F.R.S., 
late President of the Association). 


INTRODUCTION. 


Ir is a privilege which I greatly esteem to deliver the Hardy Memorial 
Lecture, an occasion which for me is fragrant with the memories of him 
whose life we commemorate ; an occasion, too, which is shot with sorrow 
and regret. Had Providence seen fit, Sir William Hardy would have 
presided over this meeting of the British Association, and I know he would 
have addressed you on the subject of research in foodstuffs. It is a subject 
of which he was the foremost research worker in the world, and he was an 
incomparable exponent of it. He had command of vivid, robust English 
which enlivened and adorned all his addresses, and he had a crusading 
enthusiasm which invested the most intricate scientific problem with a 
romantic glow which never failed to stir his audience. 

To an assembly such as this, it would be superfluous to extol Sir William 
Hardy’s services to science; but I may, perhaps, be permitted to pay a 
brief tribute to him as a colleague. 

William Bate Hardy was of a type which is rare at any time. ‘That he 
was a born leader all who knew him will acknowledge, and he led, as all 
true leaders do, by inspiring his colleagues with something of his own 
enthusiasm, by communicating to them glimpses of his own transcendent 
vision. He drove himself hard—too hard, alas !—and he could also drive 
his colleagues ; but when he did, he drove them with sympathy and under- 
standing, and such was the affection he inspired, that to expend oneself in 
the tasks he set was a labour of love. Hardy’s greatest characteristic was 
his zest for life ; living was, to him, a thrilling experience ; he lived with 
all his might, and he savoured and appreciated and enjoyed everything that 
life offered him. I can never think of him without recalling those great 
figures of our literature that he himself loved so deeply—Chaucer, Shake- 
speare, Fielding, Dickens. He, like them, was passionately in love with 
life ; he had no fear of it, and he lived with a full-blooded gusto far beyond 
the range of most men. 

He was a great student of social history, and he saw the importance, as 
few men did, of having more knowledge of the food which we import in 
such great quantities. He was not concerned with the production of food, 


420 EVENING DISCOURSES 


but he knew the history of food production exceedingly well, and he had a 
great admiration for those scientists and engineers who have succeeded in 
increasing our food-supplies to such an extent that fear of scarcity has been 
banished for hundreds of years to come. He often referred to the gloomy 
prognostications of Malthus, roo years ago, that the world could not produce 
enough food to feed its growing population, and to the Presidential Address 
of Sir William Crookes to this Association when he uttered his famous 
warning: ‘England and all civilised nations stand in deadly peril of not 
having enough to eat—as mouths multiply, food resources dwindle.’ You 
will remember that Crookes was not concerned with food preservation, but 
was alarmed at the rapidly diminishing supply of natural fertilisers. To-day, 
the world is no longer dependent on such fertilisers. Science has shown us 
how to make them synthetically, and the supply is not only ample but more 
than ample. Indeed, our manufacturing chemists are seeking new markets 
and new uses, for the potential supply is greater than the demand. In 
this country alone, Imperial Chemical Industries can produce two hundred 
thousand tons of fixed nitrogen per annum, equal to about one million tons 
of sulphate of ammonia, and no doubt they would like to make more. 


THE PROBLEM TO-DAY. 


Since the days of Sir William Crookes, it is obvious that the problem has 
changed. ‘The question is no longer ‘How can we produce enough food ?’ 
but ‘ Where shall the food be produced, at home or overseas?’ If a con- 
siderable part is to be grown overseas, and all of it cannot be grown at home, 
then transport and storage are factors of great importance. 

When, seventeen years ago, Sir William Hardy decided to devote the 
remaining years of his life to the study of foodstuffs, he was attracted by 
both the scientific and the economic aspects of the problem. In imagination 
I can see him then looking up the Board of Trade returns, and noting that, 
even in those days of war, we were importing hundreds of millions of pounds 
worth of food. Just think of it : about three-quarters of a million pounds 
of money in this country is spent on an average every day on food brought 
from overseas. During 1932 imported meat alone was valued at over 
78 million pounds ; of eggs we imported about two thousand millions, and 
of apples—if we reckon three to four apples to the pound—we imported 
about three thousand millions. Of the lamb we imported, seven million 
pounds worth came from New Zealand, yet seventy years ago no one in 
this country had tasted lamb from New Zealand. The reason is simple : 
it could not be transported and remain fit as food. ‘To-day we can eat and 
enjoy New Zealand lamb, thanks to a great discovery and the engineers 
who developed the results. I refer to the making of cold by means of heat. 
We in this country owe much to the refrigerating engineer, who in turn owes 
his basic knowledge to Rumford, Carnot, Joule, Kelvin and other scientific 
workers. Hardy, however, was far from content; he was not satisfied 
merely to know that refrigeration preserved food: he wanted to know 
exactly what happened to the food when cold was applied to it. 

Another problem which was always uppermost in Hardy’s mind was 
that of waste. Of the vast quantity of food which we import and the food 
which we produce ourselves, how much goes to waste, and how much of 
this waste might be avoided if only we had more knowledge of the nature 
of foodstuffs ? ‘To Hardy, research on food was not only of vast scientific 
interest : he was fully conscious that it might lead to economic results of 
great importance. 


eS 


TRANSPORT AND STORAGE OF FOOD 421 


NaTuRAL ICE AS A PRESERVATIVE. 


Cold, which according to modern knowledge is the best of all preservatives, 
does not appear to have been used in ancient times, although snow and ice 
were used in cellars for cooling wine. Perhaps the earliest recorded experi- 
ment in the use of cold as a preservative is that of Francis Bacon who, in 
1626, stuffed a fowl with snow and found the method answered ‘ excellently 
well.’ He died a few days later, but his death does not appear to have been 
in any way connected with the stuffed fowl. 

The use of cold as a preservative no doubt arose by man observing that 
in cold climates such foods as meat lasted longer than in warmer ones, and 
the delay in its development was probably due to the difficulties of trans- 
porting natural ice. With the improved means of transport available at 
the commencement of the nineteenth century, we find Wenham Lake ice 
being imported from America, and when, later, the trade was transferred 
to Norway, Lake Oppergard was renamed Lake Wenham to preserve the 
trade name. Sir William Hardy, who loved the sea and everything con- 
nected with it, was fond of telling how he remembered lake ice being brought 
to this country in sailing vessels, and how he watched the ships discharge 
ice alongside a type of smack long since vanished, which brought cod back 
alive in a ‘ well,’ the ship’s “ well’ being open to the sea by holes bored in 
the ship’s bottom. 


MEAT ARRIVES FROM AUSTRALIA. 


The success of cold as a preservative, limited though it was in application 
owing to the relatively small supply of natural ice in summer-time, and 
ignorant though we were of the cause of preservation, led to a bold experi- 
ment being made in 1860. It must be remembered that during the previous 
half-century the rapid expansion of the population of this country was 
creating a good deal of anxiety for our food-supplies, especially meat, and 
had given rise to a trade with North America, and later with South America, 
in live cattle. It was obvious that the transport of live cattle over long 
distances was not a convenient solution of the problem, and Australia and 
New Zealand, with an ever-increasing surplus of sheep, were too far away 
for transport of these animals to be undertaken with ease and profit. So it 
was that in 1860 an experimental cargo of meat was shipped by James 
Harrison from Australia with natural ice to keep it cold, but, as many 
expected, the ice failed to last the voyage, and the meat had to be jettisoned. 
But the experiment attracted much attention, and it is not surprising to 
learn that a few years later natural ice was successfully used for shipping 
meat on the much shorter voyage from North America. 


ENGINEER’S ICE. 


The failure of James Harrison stimulated engineers to build refrigerating 
machinery for ships, and in 1877 the first cargo of meat to be shipped and 
preserved by ‘ engineer’s ice’ was landed from Australia by the steamer 
Sirathleven, a Bell-Coleman refrigerating machine being employed. 

Five years later—that is, in 1882—the sailing ship Dunedin of the Shaw, 
Savill and Albion Line, fitted with a machine of the same make, made the 
voyage from Port Chalmers, New Zealand, to London in 98 days, and 
landed five thousand carcasses of frozen mutton which fetched 6d. per Ib. 
Thus it was that the transport of meat from Australia and New Zealand 
began, and the beginning of the story is but fifty-seven years ago. In 1865 


422 EVENING DISCOURSES 


our imports of fresh or slightly salted meat were 45,000 cwt. ; in 1932 over 
30 million cwt. were imported, thanks largely to refrigeration. 

To-day practically all the cold used for preserving food is artificially 
produced, and the achievement of the refrigerating engineer during the 
past fifty years can only be described as prodigious. Here are a few facts 
to illustrate the advances which have been made. Whereas sixty years ago 
there was no refrigerating machine and no cold storage provided in ships, 
to-day the refrigerated space used in bringing foodstuffs overseas to this 
country alone amounts to not less than 100 million cubic feet, equivalent 
to a floating cold store 20 ft. high, 50 ft. wide and 20 miles long. 
The capacity of the public cold stores in Great Britain amounts to about 
half of this, while our annual output of artificial ice is one and a quarter 
million tons, of which the fishing industry uses three-quarters of a million 
tons. 


REFRIGERATED IMPORTS. 


What do these ships and stores and ice do forus ? Here, in round figures, 
are some of the main items which the ships brought us in 1932 : 


Meat . 2 , F : . 1,500,000 tons 
Fruit . : : : 500,006" & 
Butter and cheese - : L 2 MS O0s0007F 
Eggs in shell ¢ 4 ; . 480 millions 
Fish . ‘ f : ‘ : 69,000 tons 


So much for quantity, impressive enough in itself, but not, perhaps, so 
impressive as the way in which mechanical refrigeration has enabled this 
country to obtain its food from the four corners of the earth. Not fewer 
than thirty countries contribute to our food-supply by the help of refrigera- 
tion, and it may truly be said that the food which we eat is now practi- 
cally independent of the seasons. Apples are now obtainable in excellent 
condition, and at prices within the means of the bulk of the population, the 
whole year round. North America supplements our home-grown crop 
and carries us through till April, when Australia and New Zealand take up 
the task and supply us till our own season comes round again. South 
Africa refreshes us with her oranges and grape-fruits throughout the summer, 
and at Christmas graces our tables with her peaches, pears, nectarines and 
plums. 

Before artificial refrigeration came, the population was obliged to depend 
for its food, other than relatively imperishable products, such as cereals, 
upon an area within a radius of a few hours’ journey. As the density of 
the population increased, these areas became less and less able to furnish 
the necessary supplies, and had such conditions persisted, the dietary of the 
population must have suffered severely. As it is, refrigeration has had 
the effect of rendering dense populations less and less dependent upon 
adjacent agricultural areas for their food. But for refrigeration, the density 
of the population found in Great Britain could hardly have been possible. 

Such was the kind of knowledge that was available to Hardy when he 
commenced his work in 1917. ‘The risé and achievements of the refri- 
gerating engineer were apparent to him, and he realised all that they meant 
politically and socially. He was fond of pointing to a coster’s barrow piled 
with fruit in winter-time, and summing up the situation in such words as 
‘ Science and the Engineer. Fruit for the poorest all the year round!’ 

But, as I have already stated, a survey from the outside did not satisfy 
Hardy. He deemed it essential to find out why refrigeration preserved 
food ; this was not possible without more knowledge of the nature of food 


TRANSPORT AND STORAGE OF FOOD 423 


itself. He found, as he expected, that the development of food preservation 
had been lop-sided—a lop-sidedness which reflected to some extent the 
difference in the rates of development of the physical and biological sciences. 
On the physical side the science of refrigeration had grown at a rapid rate, 
but on the biological side the advance had been slow. Hardy once remarked 
that the position was as if we were aware of the functioning of an internal 
combustion engine without any knowledge of internal actions and with 
little knowledge of its moving parts. How could we hope to make such 
an engine function more efficiently without some knowledge of how it 
worked ? 

Clearly it was essential to know more of the biological side of food. The 
proper order of things was for the biologist to formulate the conditions 
required for the satisfactory storage of the varied biological material which 
forms our food-supply, and for the engineer to provide the conditions. 
And so in recent years there has been a large expansion in biological research 
on foodstuffs, and to-day the biologist is beginning to frame the specifica- 
tions which the engineer must attempt to realise in practice. On the 
methods of storage of the three types of perishable food, meat, fish and fruit, 
the work of Hardy has had considerable effect. I propose to consider the 
dead foodstuffs, viz. meat and fish, first, since in some respects their storage 
presents a simpler problem. 


Meat. 


Autolysis.—Take meat. It is dead. The problem is to prevent any undesir- 
able changes. If there are agencies promoting changes, they must be resisted 
or slowed down to a point beyond which their effect becomes negligible. 
In meat, changes of two types have been discovered. First, there are the 
changes brought about by the enzymes naturally present in the tissues— 
in other words, by autolysis. Experiments show that such changes are 
dependent on the temperature. At the freezing-point of water the changes 
are slowed down so that they are negligible for a period of six months, while 
at —10° C. they appear to be completely inhibited. Cold, therefore, may be 
employed to control changes due to the enzymes. 

Micro-organisms.—The second type of change in meat is due, not to any- 
thing inherent in the meat, but to micro-organisms, chiefly moulds and 
bacteria. Withthe occurrence of death animal tissues become a rich medium 
for the growth of micro-organisms. The changes in the meat produced by 
these organisms are not only unsightly, but there is alteration of the colour of 
both lean and fat, and tainting results through the production of substances 
of unpleasant odour and taste which diffuse into the flesh. The problem is 
to prevent or reduce the magnitude of these changes. Examination of the 
flesh of animals shows it to be normally sterile, and if perfect asepsis could 
be maintained in the slaughter-house, the store and shop, micro-organisms 
would not be a cause of deterioration. 

The rate of change due to micro-organic contamination has been measured, 
and meat is found to be unsaleable when the bacterial population reaches 
a density of 30 million organisms per square centimetre. The time interval 
needed to reach this critical density depends, as would be expected, on the 
initial contamination. For instance, at a temperature of o° C. and 
100 per cent. humidity, the critical density is attained in 7 days on the cut 
surface of lean meat if the initial bacterial load is 100,000 per square centi- 
metre. If, however, the initial load is only 10 per square centimetre, the 
critical density is not reached for 18 days—in other words, the ‘ edible life ’ 
of the meat is more than doubled. Clearly it is of extreme importance to 


424 EVENING DISCOURSES 


reduce this bacterial contamination to a minimum, and while perfect 
asepsis is impossible, every possible precaution should be taken to keep the 
contamination at a low level. 

There should, indeed, be prominently displayed, in all places where 
foodstuffs are handled, Florence Nightingale’s maxim, ‘ Cleanliness is the 
only real disinfectant.’ 

Effect of Cold.—Fortunately, experiments show that the growth of these 
micro-organisms can be controlled by cold, the growth ceasing altogether at 
a temperature of — 7° C. Storage for very long periods is therefore possible. 
However, from slaughter-house to consumer meat cannot be kept con- 
tinuously at — 7° C., and the necessity for scrupulous cleanliness in the 
handling of foodstuffs is still essential: nothing else can make so great 
a contribution to success in their storage and transport. 

It thus appears that refrigeration forms the fundamental means whereby 
meat may be successfully stored and transported. ‘The freezing-point of 
meat is approximately —1° C., and if autolysis and the growth of micro- 
organisms were the only considerations involved, freezing at a temperature 
below about — 10° C. would be an ideal method of preservation. At this 
temperature fresh meat will remain wholesome for a year or more, but 
bacon deteriorates more rapidly through oxidative changes in the fat. 

The problem of storing meat appears then to be solved, the application 
of cold at — 10° C. being the solution. Unfortunately, however, freezing 
itself produces changes which damage the meat to some extent, and though 
the damage may only be in appearance and is negligible in mutton, lamb and 
pork, it is considered by the trade to render freezing, as distinct from 
chilling, an unsatisfactory process for beef. 

Drip.—tLet us consider what happens to meat when it is frozen. One effect 
of freezing is similar to that of drying ; both remove water, but whereas in 
drying the water is entirely removed, in freezing it remains in the tissue in 
the form of ice, and is thus free to be reabsorbed when the tissues are thawed. 
The proportion of water frozen out of the tissues depends on the tempera- 
ture. In the case of muscle it is about 17 per cent. at a temperature of 
—1°C.,and about 98 percent. ata temperature of — 20°C. The ice is in the 
form of crystals, and the size of the crystals depends, not on the temperature 
alone, but more particularly on the rate of freezing. When meat is frozen 
slowly, the bulk of the ice is formed between the muscle-fibres and the 
crystals are large ; such crystals have a disruptive effect upon the fibres, 
and the result is that when the meat is thawed the water is not entirely 
reabsorbed but partly drains away, carrying with it dissolved protein, salts 
and pigments. ‘This is unsatisfactory. But as the rate of freezing is 
increased, less and less ice is formed between the muscle-fibres and more 
and more within them, and the size of the ice crystals is also diminished. 
The result is that when meat is frozen at a rapid rate, since there is more 
moisture reabsorbed on thawing, the ‘ drip,’ as it is called, is less when the 
meat is thawed. It should therefore be possible, by increasing the rate of 
freezing, to form the whole of the ice within the muscle-fibres and none 
between them, and in such case there would be no ‘ drip ’ at all on thawing. 
This reasoning is perfectly sound, but the requisite rate of freezing is so 
high that it is unattainable in pieces of meat thicker than about 24 in., 
and quick freezing is therefore applicable only to small cuts, such as chops 
and steaks. Moreover, not only must the rate of freezing be high, but the 
temperature of storage must also be maintained at a far lower, and therefore 
more expensive, level than is usual, for it is a well-known physical fact that, 
even when small ice crystals are formed, they tend to grow at the expense 
of their fellows, and the rate at which they grow increases with the 


TRANSPORT AND STORAGE OF FOOD 425 


temperature. It has been found that if the advantages of quick freezing 
are to be retained, the meat must be stored at a temperature not higher 
than — 20°C. 

Chilling —The fact that freezing is an unsatisfactory process for beef has 
led to alternative methods of storage being explored. As is well known, 
much of our beef comes from foreign countries, and it may be asked how it is 
that it is brought here so successfully. As the ideal method appears to be 
storage at a temperature not higher than about — 10° C., the question arises, 
“Is imported beef stored at this low temperature ?’ The answer is that the 
bulk of such meat is not frozen : it is only chilled—i.e. the meat is cooled 
only to temperatures at which little or no ice is formed in it. The tempera- 
ture employed is about —1°C. At this level, as already stated, the growth 
of micro-organisms, while retarded, is not arrested, and I have already 
pointed out that, were the bacterial contamination initially high, the meat 
would become unfit for food after a week or so. At this point I would 
like to pay tribute to the importers of chilled beef to Great Britain, for the 
normal life of such beef is five weeks or more, a success which is largely 
due to the admirable control that has been established over the conditions 
from the slaughter-house in South America through the whole chain of 
transport to the retail butcher here. In other words, the detrimental 
effect of micro-organisms has been fully realised, and the greatest care is 
taken to keep such contamination at the minimum. 

It is clear that, even if the greatest precautions were taken, since the 
normal life of chilled beef at — 1° C. is only about five weeks, export of chilled 
beef from Australia and New Zealand is not, or rather was not, a feasible 
proposition. ‘This fact, and the desirability of increasing the life of chilled 

_ beef, led to researches being made with a view to finding other means than 
low temperature of controlling the growth of micro-organisms. ‘To some 
_ extent the growth can be controlled by regulating the humidity of the ship’s 
_ hold, for the lower the humidity the slower the rate of growth. If, however, 
the humidity is very low, the loss of weight by evaporation from the meat is 
considerable, and there is thus a strict economic limit to the extent to which 
the humidity can be lowered. How much this question of loss of weight 
means will be gathered from the statement that if the present loss of weight 
in New Zealand mutton and lamb could be reduced by one-quarter, it 
would be worth £100,000 a year to the industry. It was desirable therefore 
to look in other directions than controlled humidity, and within the last 
few years research has discovered still another means of controlling bacterial 
growth. 
__ Gas-storage.—It so happens that the most important micro-organisms 
attacking meat, both bacteria and moulds, are specially susceptible to carbon 
dioxide, and that, at temperatures in the region of the freezing-point, a con- 
_ centration of 10 to 20 per cent. of this gas so delays their growth as to double 
e life of the beef. While the mode of action of carbon dioxide is not yet 
lear, it may be due to the consequent change produced in the hydrogen-ion 
ncentration—i.e. in the acidity of the meat. On the other hand, there is 
some evidence that the carbon dioxide acts directly on the micro-organisms 
by depressing their respiratory activity. Further research will clear up 
these points. It will no doubt be asked why the concentration of carbon 
dioxide should not be still further increased, so as to retard even more, 
‘or possibly to inhibit, the growth of micro-organisms. Unfortunately, 
however, at higher concentrations the carbon dioxide has adverse effects in 
other directions, which I will now describe. 
__Bloom.—Most people know what is meant when meat is said to have a good 
“bloom ’: it constitutes that bright, attractive appearance of freshly killed 


Q 


426 EVENING DISCOURSES 


meat. ‘ Bloom,’ like beauty, is but skin deep, but it is not less highly 
valued. Loss of ‘ bloom,’ though without any nutritive significance, may, 
for instance, reduce the wholesale price of frozen lamb by as much as 3d. 
per lb. ‘Bloom’ is found to depend on two things: first, an adequate 
supply of the red pigment of blood and muscle, hemoglobin, and secondly, 
the translucency of the layer of superficial connective tissue and fat through 
which this pigment is seen. ‘ Bloom’ will therefore be impaired if either 
of these two conditions is below standard. Let us first consider the layer 
of connective tissue and fat. If its normal translucency is to be retained, 
absorption of water must be avoided, and so must excessive drying. In 
storage, absorption of water may readily take place when the cold carcass 
is exposed to a warm, humid atmosphere from which moisture may be de- 
posited on it. Turning to the second factor, the red pigment, hemoglobin, 
the intensity of the colour depends both on the concentration of the pigment 
and on the depth of the layer of muscle from which the light is reflected. 
Up to a certain point drying increases the colour by increasing both the 
concentration of the pigment and the translucency of the tissue, but if drying 
is allowed to persist beyond a certain point, it results in the formation of 
minute air-pockets, which, like a lot of minute air-globules in a piece of 
glass, scatter the light falling upon them and decrease the depth of the 
reflecting layer. At times this takes place to such an extent that the 
muscle appears a greyish yellow colour instead of red. Further, when the 
meat is exposed to air, oxidation takes place and changes the red hemo- 
globin into the dirty brown methemoglobin, but the rate at which the 
oxidation takes place depends on the pressure of oxygen, being greatest in 
comparatively low pressures. Moreover, decrease in the hydrogen-ion 
concentration also increases the rate at which methemoglobin is formed. 
Now, if carbon dioxide is added to the air of a beef store, both the hydrogen- 
ion concentration and the pressure of oxygen will be lower in the stored 
meat than if it was stored in air alone. High concentrations of carbon 
dioxide therefore produce rapid discoloration, but, fortunately, for concentra- 
tions up to 20 per cent. the increase in the rate of formation of methemo- 
globin is negligible. It is clear, however, that such high concentrations of 
carbon dioxide as to inhibit completely the growth of micro-organisms are 
not admissible. 

Application —What about application? Thestory I have told you of carbon 
dioxide results in the main from experiments carried out in the laboratories 
of the Low Temperature Research Station at Cambridge under Sir William 
Hardy’s direction. It appears clear that beef, with the aid of refrigeration 
plus the aid of carbon dioxide, can be maintained in first-rate condition, 
although only chilled, sufficiently long to carry it for 13,000 miles—that 
is, from one side of the world to the other. And to-day this is being 
done. The laboratory experiments have been fully verified by large-scale 


experiments at sea, and the historic shipments of meat under refrigeration — 


in the nineteenth century had their counterpart last year when a shipment 
of beef was made from New Zealand in the Port Fairy of the Commonwealth 
and Dominion Line. It was the first consignment of chilled beef to be 
carried overseas in gas-storage. It was strikingly successful, and similar 
shipments of chilled beef, though at present small, are now regularly made 
from Australia and New Zealand, while arrangements for the rapid develop- 
ment of the trade are being made by the great meat interests and the shipping 
companies. In the journal ‘ Food’ for July last a description is given of 
the twin-screw motor ship Port Chalmers, owned by the Commonwealth 
and Dominion Line, the first vessel to be specially built with gas-tight 
compariments suitable for the gas-storage of chilled beef. This vessel left 


a 


TRANSPORT AND STORAGE OF FOOD 427 


London on her maiden voyage to New Zealand last January. Carbon 
dioxide for the chilled beef is carried in 160 steel bottles. 


FIsH. 


Let me now turn to that other great section of our animal food, fish. 
Fish is of special interest to Aberdeen, not only because Aberdeen is a great 
fishing port, but also because it was chosen by Hardy as the site of the 
Torry Research Station, the only institution in Great Britain that is devoted 
to research on the storage and transport of fish. A modest institution 
maybe, but the value of research does not depend on bricks and mortar. 

Many here will no doubt have read the recent report of the Sea-Fish 
Commission on the Herring Industry. At the outset that report states 
that ‘the article [that is, the herring] is highly perishable, making short 
voyages and immediate landing at the ports imperative,’ and in a footnote 
appears the statement: “ Herring caught more than 24 hours before landing 
are known in the trade as “‘ overdays,” and are of inferior quality.’ 

Obviously in the problem of storage of fish, with the knowledge that a 
herring twenty-four hours old is an ‘ overday ’ of inferior quality, Hardy had 
a subject after his own heart, for he loved a difficult task, and he loved it 
even more if it were associated with the sea. 

Fish, as food, is like meat: it is dead, and it was not surprising to find 
that the two main causes of deterioration in fish are the same as those 
operating in the case of meat, namely, autolysis and the action of micro- 
organisms. Of these ¢auses the second is by far the more important, the 
predominant organisms being bacteria. 

Smoking and Drying —As is well known, one of the earliest methods of 
preserving fish is that of smoking, which has been developed by the fishing 
industry itself on the basis of long experience. Fish are still smoked to-day 
as in olden times, over smouldering fires of sawdust, and it is not surprising 
that the scientific man, accustomed to controls in most of his work, looks at 
the process and wonders why it has never been put ona scientific basis. The 
final condition of the fish must depend not only on the antiseptic substances 
in the smoke, but on the range of temperature, the percentage humidity of the 
drying atmosphere, and on the rate of change of temperature and of humidity. 
At first there appears to be an absolute want of control of any of these factors, 
and, in fact, there are no mechanical controls such as we are accustomed 
to in modern industrial processes ; the one control is the human one, the 
smoker himself, who alters the position of the fish relative to the fires, 
adjusts the damping, and makes other small changes. The process in some 
measure must be at the mercy of the weather, and control of the cure is 
limited to the extent to which craftsmanship—and all of us admire the crafts- 
manship of both fisherman and curer—can overcome the inefficiency of the 
plant. In this process of drying and smoking, water is withdrawn and the 
action of the enzymes, that is, autolysis, is very much slowed down. 'The 
smoke, in addition to being a method of drying, also acts as a preservative 
by virtue of the antiseptic substances, such as formaldehydes and cresols, 
which it contains. 

Here, clearly, is a wide and interesting field for research if the process is to 
be brought completely under control. The problem was tackled here in 
Aberdeen at the Torry Research Station, and I am glad to say that sub- 
stantial progress has been made : in fact, it is not going too far to say that 
the framework of a method giving adequate control has been erected. In 
the experimental work the variables were isolated as much as possible. 
The experiments on temperature showed that a rise from 70° F. to 90° F. 


428 EVENING DISCOURSES 


over a period of 3 hours produces a good, pale colour with haddocks. If the 
deeper colour of the Finnan cure is required, the temperature should be 
maintained at about 80° F. for a further 2 hours. During the process the 
fish naturally loses water, and it is clear that the final result must depend on 
the rate at which the water is lost—i.e. it will depend on the humidity and 
the rate of displacement of the air. Experiments have shown that increase 
in the velocity of the air beyond ro ft. a second has little effect, but up to 
that speed the loss of water by the fish increases with the air-speed, provided, 
of course, that the air is not already saturated with moisture. ‘That brings 
me to the third variable, humidity. The important point here is the 
capacity of the air to take up water. In practice it is found that, for a rise 
in temperature from 70° to 90° F., a relative humidity of about 50 per cent. 
gives the best results, producing a satisfactory cure, and at the same time 
keeping the loss of Weight down to the minimum, namely, about 25 per cent. 
for the fully cured fish. 

Knowing the best conditions, controls of temperature, humidity and 
movement of the air are very easy problems for the physicist, and the 
summed result is complete control of the drying of the fish. Control of 
the smoke, which is responsible for the antiseptic substances, has been 
achieved by separating the two processes of drying and smoking. ‘The 
drying kiln is heated by controllable methods such as gas-burners or 
electrical heaters, and the smoke is made in a box external to the kiln. 
Burning sawdust is used, and the rate of burning is governed by a small 
electric blower, the smoke being piped to the kiln through a conditioning 
tank in which its temperature is lowered to about 60° F. At this tempera- 
ture the smoke is fully saturated with moisture, but as the kiln is at a higher 
temperature, the percentage humidity drops to the required degree on 
entering the kiln. ‘To produce the even smoking of the fish, the experi- 
mental kiln at Torry was fitted with fans to ensure even circulation of the 
smoke, first in one direction and then in the opposite. With such an 
experimental plant it was a simple matter to produce any desired cure with 
certainty ; no matter what the external atmospheric conditions might be, 
it was easy to secure the evenness of cure, brilliance of colour, cleanliness, 
and excellence of flavour on which the quality of the finished product 
depends. Moreover, ‘ droppers’ were avoided, ‘droppers’ being the 
softened fish which fall off the hooks. 

It may be thought that the expense of such a plant would render it 
uncommercial, but I believe this is not the case. ‘The improvement and 
consistency in the product, and economies in other ways, are considerable, 
and I am glad to say that commercial kilns are being developed with success 
on these lines. 

Salting —Another old process of preservation is salting, and it is of special 
importance to the herring fishing industry, for about one-half of the catch is 
treated by this process. 

The common salting process is the ‘ hard’ cure in which the finished 
product contains about 15 per cent. by weight of salt, as against 0-2-0°3 
per cent. in the fresh fish. It is essential to keep the concentration of 
salt high if the fish is to be kept in good condition for a reasonable period 
of time at normal temperatures. Unfortunately, the export trade in the 
‘ hard ’-cured fish has seriously diminished, and at home the ‘ hard ’-cured 
fish makes no strong appeal to the consumer’s palate, being both too salt 
and too desiccated. In 1932, the last year for which figures are available, 
the export trade was only some 4 million hundredweights, as against over 
64 millions in 1913. With these facts in mind, research has been 
carried out with the object of relating palatability and keeping quality with 


TRANSPORT AND STORAGE OF FOOD 429 


the amount of salt used, and of determining to what extent the preservative 
action of salt might be reinforced by cold storage. This work is only in 
the preliminary stages, but already it is clear that fish with the authentic 
rich, cured flavour can be produced with a much smaller concentration of 
salt in it, viz. 5 per cent., a level at which only some ro per cent. of the 
water has been extracted. Moreover, when the herring are cooked without 
previous steeping, they are almost as soft as fresh herring. It was found 
that, with this smaller percentage of salt, herring would not keep more than 
a few days at normal temperatures, but if chilled at 0° C. they remain fresh 
for about a fortnight, and are fresh for three months or more if stored at 
—6° C. What the commercial possibilities along these lines may be I do 
not know, but the idea of combining salting and chilling, as the meat trade 
is combining chilling and gas-storage, certainly seems worth exploration, 
and might do much to assist in restoring the salt-cured herring to favour 
in the home market. 

Chilling —Obviously, if there is a method of preserving fish which adds 
nothing to it, extracts nothing from it, and does not alter its properties, such 
a method should be the most satisfactory. In other words, if chilling or 
freezing alone can be made to give satisfactory results, such methods are 
probably best. Before dealing with this aspect of the subject, I propose to 
describe very briefly what has happened in the sea-fishing industry during 
the last century. 

Until about 100 years ago, sea fishing was confined to a number of 
comparatively small local centres, for the absence of any artificial means of 
preservation, coupled with the slowness of transport, strictly limited the 
supply of fish to inland markets. Then came a rapid development. The 
railways made speedy transport possible. The steam trawler, and steam 
for hauling gear, increased the power of the fishing fleet, and the use of 
artificial ice for storage added four or five days to the ‘ life’ of the catch. 
The fresh fish supplied to the inland markets was consequently much 
more palatable than before, and inland markets rapidly developed. They 
developed, in fact, to such an extent that home waters became unable to 
cope with the demands, except in the case of herrings. Consequently, 
larger fishing vessels were built, having a much greater range than the 
previous ones, and the fishing-grounds of the Faroes, Iceland and the 
Eastern Atlantic were exploited. White fish, such as cod, haddock and 
plaice, became the main catch, and steam trawling became the chief method 
of catching. ‘The development has been such that at the present time 
there are about 1,600 steam trawlers fishing from our ports, and last year 
they landed nearly seven hundred thousand tons of white fish, having a 
value of some 12% million pounds. 

Such was the situation in 1929 when, with Hardy at the helm, the Torry 
Research Station was established. There was, on the one hand, a good 
market for really fresh fish, and, on the other hand, far too large a pro- 
portion of stale fish was being landed. It was clear to Hardy that, as 
practised, stowage in crushed ice, in other words, the chilling of fish, good 
though it was, was not fulfilling all requirements. The principles dis- 
covered in the experiments on meat pointed to a possible solution of the 
problem. Research showed that stowage in crushed ice adequately delays 
autolysis, but it does not lower the temperature sufficiently to cope with 
the bacterial growth. Consequently, as with meat, if stowage at chilled 
temperatures was to be brought to its full effectiveness, every possible step 
must be taken to minimise bacterial contamination during gutting, stowing, 
and all subsequent handling of the fish. While Hardy realised that nothing 
approaching complete asepsis is possible under the conditions of commercial 


430 EVENING DISCOURSES 


fishing, he pointed out that much can be done, and in certain directions is 
now being done, to improve matters. The effort is well worth while. 
Stowage in crushed ice under ordinary commercial conditions keeps fish 
fresh for not more than six or seven days, but if reasonable steps are taken 
to reduce the bacterial contamination, this period can be extended to ten 
or twelve days: in other words, the edible life can be practically doubled. 
It is concluded that twelve days may be taken as the limit to the ‘ life’ of 
clean, chilled fish. 

Freezing. —Now, in a comparatively small country like ours, the interval 
between the landing of fish and its consumption is not usually very great, 
and the question arises, For what proportion of the trawling industry will 
a twelve days’ limit suffice? It will certainly suffice for the fish which is 
landed from trawlers making trips not exceeding fourteen days, and these 
account for about two-thirds of the total landings of white fish. 

But about one-third of the fish landed is from trawlers making trips of 
over fourteen days’ duration. A typical voyage is to the fishing grounds 
off Iceland, taking say twenty-four days, of which fourteen will be occupied 
in steaming to and from the fishing grounds. In such a case the earliest 
caught fish landed by such vessels will be some seventeen days old on 
landing, and the latest caught fish will be some seven days old. It is clear, 
therefore, that the mere chilling of clean fish is not sufficient for these 
long-distance trawlers. More effective methods than stowage in crushed 
ice are necessary. 

As with meat, freezing offers a possible solution. Early experiments 
showed, however, that the ordinary freezing of fish in cold air did not yield 
a satisfactory product. The appearance of the fish was bad, and there was 
a considerable amount of ‘ drip’; moreover, the fish was dry, and when 
cooked it was woolly and tasteless. It was clear that the rate of freezing, 
which we saw was so important in the case of meat, was too slow. Attention 
was therefore turned to more rapid freezing in cold brine. At first even 
the results of this brine-freezing were disappointing, but research was able 
to track down the cause, and eventually a product, practically indistinguish- 
able from freshly caught fish, was obtained by freezing in brine at a tempera- 
ture not higherthan—20° C. Itisnotuntilthis low temperature is reached— 
a temperature, incidentally, at which the growth of bacteria is completely 
arrested—that a sufficiently rapid rate of freezing results. ‘To preserve the 
high quality, the minute ice crystals formed must not be allowed to grow too 
large and disintegrate the fish, and this necessitates storing the frozen 
product at the same low temperature. If that be done, fish can be stored 
for three months, and on thawing it has been found as good to look atand to eat 
as if it had just come out of the sea. After three months some change has 
been found in the laboratory, but the rate of change is so slow that it has 
no commercial significance for at least another three months, and it is now 
certain that fish can be stored in first-rate condition for at least six months. 

In practice, the catch should be frozen at sea as soon as possible after it 
comes over the side. I fully realise that the cost of installing the necessary 
plant and operating it is substantial, but I do seriously suggest that this 
extra cost would be more than met by the saving in depreciation of fish at 
present stowed in ice for periods over which we know full well that ice is 
powerless to prevent the fish from becoming stale. For the present, it is 
not essential that the long-distance trawler should carry a larger plant than 
is required to deal with one-third of its catch. 

It is exceedingly satisfactory to me, in drawing these remarks on fish to 
a conclusion, to refer to the boldest and most remarkable developments 
the sea-fishing industry has ever witnessed. I refer to the enterprise which 


TRANSPORT AND STORAGE OF FOOD 431 


has fitted a ten-thousand-ton vessel, the Arctic Queen, owned by Messrs. 
Hellyer Bros. of Hull, as a floating factory for dealing with that valuable 
fish, the halibut. Brine-freezing is the basis of the enterprise. This great 
vessel is fitted with plant for brine-freezing, and can store at —20° C. no 
less than four thousand tons of halibut at the rate of seventy tons a day. 
In May she goes as far afield as the Davis Straits, off the coast of Greenland, 
where the fish are caught, and at the end of the season, in October, she 
returns to Hull, and there acts as a floating cold store, discharging her fish 
according to the needs of the market. If such a factory ship could transfer 
her fish to cold stores ashore on her return to this country at the end of the 
Greenland season, there are possibilities, which cannot be ignored, of her 
fishing throughout the winter in warmer waters. Up to the present, how- 
ever, there has been no suitable cold storage available ashore, but two stores, 
able to maintain a temperature of — 20° C., have just been constructed at 
Grimsby and Fleetwood. 

In addition to her main task of brine-freezing and storing halibut, the 
Arctic Queen freezes and saits a certain amount of cod, manufactures cod- 
liver oil, and freezes and stores the halibut livers, which yield oil far richer 
medicinally than that of the cod, but which demand a different process of 
extraction, and one not so suitable for operation at sea. She is, therefore, 
truly a floating factory. It is worthy of remark that there are now several 
other factory ships at work on like principles. 


, FRUIT. 


I now pass to fruit, leaving the world of the dead for that of the living. 
Fruit is alive, and must be preserved alive. It cannot be frozen, because 
freezing kills it. 

When Hardy and those associated with him commenced their research 
on fruit, they started in the belief that an intensive study of one fruit would 
reveal facts applicable to all, and the fruit chosen for the first experiments 
was the apple. They realised afterwards that they were far too optimistic, 
for even one type of fruit like the apple reveals idiosyncrasies to the point 
of absurdity. Nevertheless, a concentrated study of a single fruit like the 
apple was undoubtedly wise, and this evening I propose to deal with the 
apple only. 

I suppose that we eat more apples than any other kind of fruit. In 1932 
we imported over 8 million hundredweights of apples, of which Australia 
and New Zealand sent us over 2 million hundredweights, and Canada over 
13 millions. Exactly how many apples are grown in this country I do not 
know, but if we assume that we grow an amount equal to that imported we 
consume about 6,000 million apples every year if we take three to four apples 
to the pound. 

Of oranges we imported over 9 million hundredweights in 1932, and of 
bananas over 17 million bunches. While these latter fruits have been 
studied to some extent and researches are being continued, we have much 
more scientific knowledge of the apple. Moreover, the story of the apple 
is Hardy’s own story, and it is so full of interest, and the results of the 
investigation are so far-reaching, that a Memorial Lecture to Hardy would 
be incomplete without it. 

The Life of the Apple —As with man, there are many ages in the life of 
the apple, and like man the apple breathes in oxygen and exhales carbon 
dioxide and water. It breathes out other substances in minute quantities, 
but the principal products of the apple’s combustion system are carbon 
dioxide and water. 


432 EVENING DISCOURSES 


Clearly, it was desirable to get as much information as possible about the 
rate of respiration of the apple, and so experiments were made in which 
apples were enclosed in small chambers through which air was passed in a 
steady stream in order that the rate of breathing of the apples could be 
measured. ‘The purity of the air was known, and the quantity of carbon 
dioxide given off by the apples was measured in the ordinary way. The 
results are given in the diagram. ‘The curve starts in May when the apple 
sets; from May to September inclusive, the normal apple lives on the 
tree, and as it grows it becomes less acid ‘and changes its colour, while its 
seeds come nearer to maturity. 

It will be observed that in the early stages respiration is rapid, but the 
rate falls until, as maturity is approached, it is but one-tenth of the starting 


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RESPIRATORY ACTIVITY 


JUNE JULY AUC. SEPT. OCT. NOV. DEC. JAN. FEB. 


value. Then, corresponding to the point B on the curve, there comes a 
sudden critical change in the life of the apple—a change which is called 
the climacteric. ‘The rate of respiration is rapidly doubled, flavour and 
aroma are developed, and the apple attains maturity at C. Thereafter the 
rate of respiration slowly subsides until the fruit dies, death itself being 
marked by a short-lived rise preceding the final collapse. Instead of there 
being seven ages as in man, in the life of the apple there appear to be four 
ages. 

Under natural conditions the history of the apple would end at B, and 
at this point a wild apple would fall, the function of the apple as an organ 
of the tree being merely to provide the seeds with cover whilst they are 
ripening. From B onwards the store-keeper, the salesman and the con- 
sumer are keenly interested in the apple. In the curve the period B—D is 
about three months ; the problem is to prolong it to six months or more. 

You will not be surprised to hear that the research worker found the 
apple, like most living matter, to react in an extremely complex way to any 


TRANSPORT AND STORAGE OF FOOD 433 


attempt to control its life-history. English apples want to go their own 
way, live normally for a few months and no more. When the process of 
ripening is retarded by cooling or in some other way, the chemical changes 
are apt not only to be slowed down, but to depart somewhat from the 
normal; abnormal products may then be formed, which, among other 
things, alter the flavour of the apple. Now, no one would wish to purchase 
a long-stored English Cox’s Orange Pippin, which possessed the flavour of 
a very inferior variety, on the score that the apple was good. Clearly, it is 
not sufficient merely to keep an apple so that it is good as food ; the storage 
must be such that the product is both palatable and as near as possible in 
all its properties to those of fresh, unstored fruit. 

Since the changes which take place in the apple are, broadly speaking, 
chemical changes, the fact that cold prolongs the life of an apple is not 
surprising, for most chemical changes go on more slowly the lower the 
temperature. Let us consider the question of temperature first. 

Effect of Temperature —It has long been known that the life of apples is 
prolonged by storage in cold rooms with appropriate ventilation, and natur- 
ally the first researches aimed at obtaining data connecting the life of the 
apple with the temperature of the air in which the apple lived. 

Roughly speaking, an average apple respires about five times as fast at 
a temperature of 70° F. as it does at 35° F. The explanation of the preserva- 
tive effect of cold is apparent ; the lower the temperature, the less does the 
apple lose its substance, and the longer is its probable life. I have already 
mentioned that the apple must not be frozen or it is killed; provided, 
however, that the apple is not killed, it appears that the lower the tempera- 
ture the longer is the life of the fruit. 

But there are other factors. Apples vary in their tolerance of cold. It 
is well known that for about nine months of the year our table apples are from 
overseas, yet some of these are gathered at the same time as our own, The 
difference is that many of the overseas apples can be successfully stored in 
cold chambers for much longer periods than English apples: for instance, 
English apples do not do so well in cold storage as those from N.W. America, 
where the climatic conditions, higher temperature, lower humidity, and 
abundant sunshine appear to confer greater tolerance. But apart from 
differences of this kind, due to large differences in the conditions of the 
growth of the fruit, varieties in the same country, even in a small country 
like ours, differ very much in their tolerance of cold. For instance, re- 
ducing the temperature from 37° to 34° F. may lengthen the storage life of 
one variety of apple by, say, 25 per cent., but it may actually shorten that 
of another variety by the same amount. In the latter case life is ended, not 
as it normally is, by fungal rotting, but by physiological disorder directly 
caused by the cold and known as ‘ low-temperature breakdown.’ 

Let me refer to the figure again. The two parts BC and CD are two 
stages in the life of the apple, and the reaction of the apple during the BC 
part of its life is different from that of the CD portion. In the case of 
Bramley’s Seedlings, the fruit is peculiarly susceptible to internal break- 
down when subjected to cold during the BC portion of its life, but for 
the CD portion it is only slightly susceptible to internal breakdown, but in- 
creasingly liable to attack by fungi. ‘These two types of disease are of very 
considerable commercial importance, and it was necessary to determine 
experimentally the optimum temperature of storage. ‘This has been done. 
It is of interest to note that severe injury to the skin of an apple, as by cutting 
it in half, is followed by an increased output of carbon dioxide. 

Effect of the Atmosphere.—Since the apple is alive, taking in oxygen and 
giving out carbon dioxide, it appears safe to conclude that the composition 


Q2 


434 EVENING DISCOURSES 


of the atmosphere surrounding the apple must affect the storage life. If 
there is no oxygen present, the apple must die, and if there is an excess of 
oxygen it will live at a more rapid rate. An increase in the percentage of 
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere should, in general, retard the changes 
taking place in the apple, since carbon dioxide is the principal product of 
these changes. The experiments made by Hardy and those associated 
with him fully confirmed these conclusions, and as a result of their re- 
searches a new method of storing apples, known as ‘ gas-storage,’ has been 
developed. 

The relation of respiration to the supply of oxygen is somewhat complex. 
Supernormal amounts of oxygen in the atmosphere accelerate the occurrence 
of the climacteric, while subnormal amounts delay it. If the oxygen in the 
air, normally 21 per cent., is reduced to 5 per cent., respiration is minimal, 
the climacteric is definitely retarded and the magnitude is also greatly re- 
duced. Moreover, in the later stages, oxygen appears to have a definite 
toxic action, and the maintenance of a subnormal concentration correspond- 
ingly prolongs the life of the fruit. 

The effect of carbon dioxide is most important. It has no great effect 
on respiration in the pre-climacteric state, it markedly delays the onset of 
the climacteric, and in the post-climacteric state it depresses the rate of 
respiration. ‘There is, however, a definite limit to the amount of carbon 
dioxide which apples can tolerate. If this limit is exceeded, a physiological 
disease known as brown-heart is produced. This disease was the cause 
of serious losses in shipments of apples from Australia and New Zealand 
before its cause was known. ; 

There are therefore two simple methods of prolonging the life of apples : 
the application of cold—but it must not be too cold or the apple will break 
down and die; and gas-storage—but there must not be too much carbon 
dioxide or brown-heart will result and the apples will perish. Clearly, a 
combination of the two is the best solution, and such a combination is the 
basis of the recently developed method of gas-storage. There is, how- 
ever, an interesting relationship between the permissible amount of carbon 
dioxide and the temperature : carbon dioxide reduces tolerance of cold, so 
that in its presence low-temperature breakdown occurs at temperatures 
which would otherwise be safe; while the lower the temperature, the 
smaller is the concentration of carbon dioxide that will produce brown- 
heart. 

Application of Gas-storage.—I now come to application. I have already 
said that English apples are not very tolerant of cold. While certain varieties 
may be kept for six months at a normal cold-storage temperature of, say, 
34° F., wastage from low-temperature breakdown occurs rapidly on removal 
from store—a serious matter, since, from a commercial point of view, 
an apple must keep in good condition for at least three weeks after 
removal from store to permit of marketing. Gas-storage has solved the 
difficulty. 

I give as an example that most important cooking apple, the Bramley’s 
Seedling. It was found that at a temperature of 41° F., well above the 
freezing-point, and with the oxygen in the atmosphere at ro per cent. and 
the carbon dioxide also at 10 per cent., Bramley’s Seedling apples could be 
kept in first-rate condition for twelve months, and, moreover, would retain 
their condition on removal from store for a period long enough to permit 
of marketing through the usual channels. This discovery, the work of 
Hardy and those associated with him, opened a new era in the storage of 
English apples, and one of which English growers were not slow to take 
advantage. ‘The discovery is but a few years old, but to-day there are no 


TRANSPORT AND STORAGE OF FOOD 435 


fewer than thirty-two gas stores in this country, with a total capacity of 
7,000 tons, and the rate at which they are being erected is rapidly increasing. 
Further, while buyers were naturally sceptical of gas-stored fruit on its 
first appearance, it now commands a definite preference over ordinary 
cold-stored fruit. 

The question ‘ Is the process expensive ?’ is often asked. The answer 

‘No,’ for it so happens that these conditions of 10 per cent. of oxygen 
and 10 per cent. of carbon dioxide are easily obtained in practice. Ordinary 
air contains 21 per cent. of oxygen, and apples will, if enclosed in a gas- 
tight store, soon use up half the oxygen, i.e. ro per cent., and in doing so 
produce the 10 per cent. of carbon dioxide required. When that stage is 
reached, all that is necessary is to maintain it, which is effected by admitting 
fresh air in regulated quantities through simple ventilation. 

But as different varieties of apples differ in their tolerance of temperature, 
so they differ in their tolerance of abnormal atmospheres, and it is necessary 
to determine the proper atmosphere for each variety by carefully controlled 
trials. This is naturally a slow undertaking, but twelve varieties, including 
English Cox’s Orange Pippin, have now been covered. Soon it should be 
possible to obtain this latter variety, which I think is the finest apple in the 
world, at any time of the year. 

Inhibiting Effect of Vapour.—One other point. I was careful to remark 
that the principal products of respiration of the apple were carbon dioxide 
and water. ‘There are, however, other emanations, some of which are in 
minute quantities and have remarkable properties. For instance, if an 
attempt is made to sprout potatoes in air which has passed over apples, the 
growth is inhibited; peas and other seedlings are affected in the same way. 
On the other hand, the emanation actually accelerates the ripening of 
bananas and tomatoes. Whether the phenomenon will prove to be of great 
biological interest we do not know, but it has a commercial interest. The 
emanation from a ripe apple tends to hasten the ripening of young apples, 
and results in a colony of apples, as has long been known, ripening at about 
the same time. 

Large-scale Experiments.—This lecture is necessarily incomplete. It is, 
indeed, little more than a ‘ motorist’s glimpse’ of a large town as he 
bustles through it. 

The experiments I have mentioned may have been pictured by you as 
small-scale experiments in a laboratory, and, indeed, the majority have been 
of that type. But control of temperature, carbon dioxide, and humidity, 
easy though they may be in a laboratory, are much more difficult in a great 
store, such as the hold of a ship. For a cargo of fruit generates heat, gives 
off moisture, and consumes oxygen and produces carbon dioxide. The heat, 
moisture and gas produced by the cargo must be removed, the gas by 
ventilation, and the heat and moisture by the refrigerating plant ; the im- 
portance of the scale of operation is obvious when we remember that the 
larger the cargo, the smaller, relatively, is the surface. Moreover, we are 
dealing with a case where a difference in temperature of half a degree, one 
per cent. more or less of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and a difference 
of humidity represented by a mere cupful of water, may turn success to 
failure. 

Special attention is given to these scale effects and other problems con- 
nected with the transport of fruit at sea in an experimental ship’s hold at 
the Ditton Laboratory in Kent. This experimental hold, the only thing of 
its kind in existence, has a capacity of 120 tons. Such a hold is an ex- 
pensive piece of apparatus, but the results obtained are of great value, and 
I venture to think it has already more than paid for itself. 


436 EVENING DISCOURSES 


CONCLUSION. 


The result of Hardy’s work is with us to-day. It can be seen in the 
great ships which carry meat and fruit to our shores, in our cold stores, in 
the commercial gas stores for apples and in the fish markets. If Hardy 
were with us to-night, he would, I know, in his characteristic manner, give 
all the credit of his achievements to those who worked with him ; to those 
brilliant men he collected together at Cambridge, at Torry, at Ditton, and 
to others at the National Physical Laboratory. And last, but not least, he 
would have thanked those who helped and advised him as members of the 
Food Investigation Board. But certain it is that all these would be the 
first to agree that the credit is Hardy’s. He was at the helm, and it was he, 
more than all the others, who was responsible for the planning and develop- 
ment of the work, a task which gave full scope for the exercise of his remark- 
able powers. Truly Hardy was a great man; we shall not see his like 
again. 


EXPLORATION OF THE MINERAL WORLD BY X-RAYS 437 


SECOND EVENING DISCOURSE. 


Mownpay, SEPTEMBER 10, 1934. 


THE EXPLORATION OF THE MINERAL 
WORLD BY X-RAYS 


BY 
PROF. W. L. BRAGG, F.R.S. 


(1) THE mineral world has supplied us with many of the most beautiful 
examples of crystal structure. Crystals grow best when the growth takes 
place in very constant conditions and very slowly, and these conditions are 
fulfilled in nature in a way that cannot be rivalled in the laboratory. The 
beauty of natural crystalline forms has always attracted attention, and some 
of the rare and durable varieties have been prized, as jewel stones, as the 
most valuable of all natural objects. 

Crystalline arrangenient is not confined, however, to such well-developed 
specimens as are displayed in mineral collections. Ruskin, in his Ethics of 
the Dust, draws his moral from the exquisite patterns which would be revealed 
if we could magnify up sufficiently any speck of dirt. The Ethics of the 
Dust is a series of lectures in which the theme is based upon the varieties of 
mineral species and the ordered arrangement of the atoms which compose 
them. Ruskin pictured his listeners gifted with a power of vision which 
enabled them to see the arrangement, and made a series of guesses about its 
nature. Now that this power of vision has become a reality, and we are 
able to study crystal patterns by means of X-rays, it is remarkable to see 
how close to the truth his imagination, unhampered by scientific caution, 
often led him. 

The present is a suitable time to review our knowledge of the structure 
of the mineral world, because all the main types of minerals have been 
analysed. ‘The existence of any well-crystallised mineral has always been 
a challenge to those whose research is the analysis of crystals by X-rays. 
Nature provides us with such excellent material on which to exercise our 
technique. The first crystals to be analysed were minerals, rock salt, 
diamond, fluor, blende, pyrites and calcite. For twenty years the enquiry 
has been pursued, and with the recent analysis of the felspars it may be 
claimed that the main survey has been completed. There are, of course, 
many fascinating points of detail still to be investigated, but we can sum- 
marise the general laws which govern the different structures composing 
the solid crust of the earth. 

(2) We may first enquire how it is that we are able to speak of minerals 
as a limited class of chemical compounds. The number of compounds that 
can be formed from the chemical elements is endless. Yet the number of 
mineral species is restricted, and if we except the rare kinds which are found 
in odd corners where very special conditions have existed, the number is 
quite small. It must be admitted that part of the interest in mineralogy 
has been the interest of the collector. The fun of making a collection 
would be spoilt if nature kept on producing endless new varieties of minerals, 


438 EVENING DISCOURSES 


just as the fun of postage stamp collecting of our boyhood has been spoilt 
for our children by the vast numbers of issues in which countries now 
indulge. 

The minerals are limited in number because they are the last survivors 
of the wear and tear of ages. ‘They represent matter in the ultimate state 
of equilibrium. ‘They have sunk into so deep a pit of low potential energy 
that no chemical change can tempt them to desert it. 

This state of lowest potential energy is one of order and not of disorder. 
A crystal is more stable than a jumble of atoms. The perfect geometrical 
arrangement of a crystal represents matter in its most dead and inert form, 
from which nothing further in the way of change can be expected, just as 
the various utopian schemes of society which have been put forward from 
time to time represent the most dull state in which it is possible to conceive 
living. 

The world we are to study, then, is to be ruled by the laws of geometry. 
We will speak of tetrahedra, octahedra, angles, faces and edges. ‘To appre- 
ciate this world, we must be like the Greek geometers who were ravished by 


Other eee 
PTY 
4 
Ca K Na Mg 
Oxygen 50 % Silicon 26% Aluminium 8% Tron 4% 
Calcium 3 % Potassium 2°75 % Sodium 275% Magnesium 2 % 


Total 98 % 


Fic. 1.—Relative abundance of common elements. 


the beauty of the symmetrical solid figures. In no other science do these 
geometrical figures play so important a part, they are peculiar to crystal- 
lography. Though all crystals are based on geometrical patterns, the 
simplest regular geometrical forms are of outstanding importance in 
mineralogy just because minerals are so extremely inert. ‘The condition 
for low potential energy imposes upon their configurations certain geo- 
metrical requirements, which are broken by the ephemeral compounds we 
prepare in the laboratory. 

(3) Eight elements compose 98 per cent. of the earth’s solid crust. In 
our broad survey, we will neglect all the other elements, most of which only 
occur in odd cracks here or there where we laboriously search for them. 
The common elements are oxygen, silicon, aluminium, iron, calcium, 
potassium, sodium, and magnesium. Their proportions are shown in 
Fig. 1. 

The bulk of the crust is oxygen. Not only is it the commonest element, 
but also it takes up the most room. The rocks are made of oxygen atoms 
cemented together by silicon, aluminium, and a few other elements. Accord- 
ing to the way in which they build up structures with oxygen, these elements 
are divided into three classes, to which we will have frequent occasion to 
refer. 

(a) Elements forming the centre of a tetrahedral group. Four oxygen 
atoms are grouped together at the corners of a tetrahedron, and the element 


EXPLORATION OF THE MINERAL WORLD BY X-RAYS 439 


is situated at the centre. All the silicon is in this situation, and by far the 
greater part of the aluminium. 

(b) Elements forming the centre of an octahedral group. Six oxygen 
atoms are grouped at the corners of an octahedron, with the element at the 
centre. This is the characteristic situation for magnesium and iron, and 
also for the remainder of the aluminium. Aluminium is peculiar in that it 
can play a double role, generally grouping itself with silicon, but sometimes 
behaving like the metals iron and magnesium. 

(c) The bulky elements sodium, calcium, and potassium. These elements 
are too large to be placed in tetrahedral or octahedral groups. ‘They are 
accommodated in large, often irregular, holes in the structure. 


ofl 
= 
Most Al. a) 


K 
Ca, Na 
Covities in Oxygen 
8% Lattice 50% 


Fig. 2.—Association of common elements with oxygen in mineral structures. 


The types of group are illustrated in Fig. 2. The tetrahedral and octa- 
hedral groups are the fundamental units of pattern, the stitches of which 
the mineral fabric is composed. All the common minerals, however com- 
plex their patterns, are a framework of these tetrahedral and octahedral 
groups. It must be realised that the groups are not distinct units, for there 
are not enough oxygens for each central atom to have its complete group 
belonging to it alone. The oxygen atoms of one group also form part of 
the next. It is very convenient to use the tetrahedra and octahedra in 
describing the structures, but it must be remembered that these units have 
common corners, edges, or even faces, because an oxygen atom of one also 
belongs to another. In this way the whole structure is knitted together. 

(4) The common minerals are divided into certain large groups, and in 
making his classification the mineralogist has in the past been guided by 
physical properties and form rather than by chemical constitution. A study 
of the structure of minerals has amply justified this allegiance. It is now 
seen that the basis of the classification is a kind of skeleton of the mineral 
structure, composed of the linked tetrahedral groups. These links are 
stronger than the octahedral links, and very much stronger than the links of 


440 EVENING DISCOURSES 


the bulky elements Ca, Na, K. The tetrahedral framework is the hardest 
part of the mineral, its skeleton, and it has the chief influence in deciding the 
form of the structure. 

The relative abundarice of the most common minerals is shown in Fig. 3. 
The minerals are quartz, felspar, mica, pyroxenes and amphiboles. The 
basic ferro-magnesium silicates such as olivine may also be included. ‘These 
great natural divisions of minerals have strikingly different physical charac- 
teristics, and are built up as follows : 

(a) Olivine (Mg, Fe)SiO,. The SiO, tetrahedra are not linked directly 
to each other, only by intermediate octahedral groups round Mg or Fe. 
(Fig. 4a.) 

(b) Pyroxenes and Amphiboles. MgCa(SiO;)2, Mg;Ca2(Si,O1;)(OH)>. 
The tetrahedral groups are linked into endless chains by stringing them 
together corner to corner. These chains are held together sideways by 
magnesium and iron octahedra. (Fig. 4b.) 

(c) Micas. K(Al,, Mg,)(AlSi;0,.)(OH):. The tetrahedral groups, 


Felspar 60% 


Mica Other Minerals 
_ Amphibole 
Felspar Quartz Mica Pyroxene Olivine 
Density 2°75-2°55 2°65 2°86 3°3-3'1 3°4 


(Cp. Blende 4, Pyrites 5:1, Copper Pyrites 4:2) 


Fic. 3.—Relative abundance and densities of common minerals. 


containing both Si and Al, are linked into endless sheets. These sheets lie 
on each other like the leaves of a book, and are bound together in various 
ways. (Fig. 4c.) 

(d) Felspars. KAISi,0,, NaAISi,0,, CaAl,Si,0,. The tetrahedra form 
a framework in three dimensions, each tetrahedron being linked by every 
corner to another. ‘The framework has the composition (Al, Si)O,. The 
bulky ions K, Na, Ca are in open spaces within it. (Fig. 4d.) 

(e) Quartz. SiO,. This is a structure composed entirely of tetrahedra 
containing Si, linked everywhere corner to corner. 

Typical structures are shown in a diagrammatic way in Fig. 4. 

The type of structure corresponds to the composition of the mineral, 
in particular to the ratio of the first group of elements (those inside 
tetrahedra) to the available oxygen. For instance, if there are four oxygens 
or more to every silicon we have separate SiO, groups. If there are only 
two oxygens to every silicon, the tetrahedra must share every corner in 
order that each Si may have four oxygens around it, and the structure of 


quartz is the result. The intermediate types of linking represent inter- 
mediate ratios : 


(a) SiO, Separate SiO, groups Olivine 

(6) SiO; Single chains Pyroxenes 
Si,04, Double chains Amphiboles 

(c) (Si,Al),O; Sheets Mica 

(d) (Si, ANO, Networks Felspar 


(e) SiO, Networks Quartz 


EXPLORATION OF THE MINERAL WORLD BY X-RAYS 441 


(5) We may now consider some properties conferred upon the minerals 
by these characteristic forms of grouping. 


Olivine 
Separate Groups 


(a) 


Felspar 


Three-climensional 
Mica, Sheets Network 


(c) (¢) 


Fic. 4.—The arrangement of the (Si, Al)—O tetrahedra in the common minerals. 
Tetrahedra are silhouetted in black. 


(a) Olivine.—In olivine the separate SiO, tetrahedra are linked together 
by Fe and Mg octahedra. It is geometrically possible to do this in an 
extremely compact way, without wasting any space. The mineral is also 
very uniform in texture, since there are no exceptionally strong bonds 


442 EVENING DISCOURSES 


in one direction rather than another. Hence we have a heavy compact 
mineral of a glassy texture. 

(6) Pyroxenes and amphiboles —These are composed of strings of tetra- 
hedra, linked side by side by the Fe and Mg octahedra. As is to be expected, 


, a@.Pyroxene Cleavage 


= OI b.Amphibole Cleavage. 


Fic. 5.—The cleavage of pyroxenes and amphiboles. 


they are all fibrous in nature, splitting very easily along the chains but not 
across them. Asbestos is a well-known example of such a mineral. Asbestos 
fibres are most remarkable. One can tie an overhand knot in a fibre and 
pull it tight without breaking it, just as one can with a cotton thread. 
Familiarity lessens our surprise, but it is really extraordinary that a knot 
can be tied in a stone with such ease. This property arises from the very 


BRITISH ASSOCIATION REPORT 1934 


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EXPLORATION OF THE MINERAL WORLD BY X-RAYS 443 


strong bonds in the tetrahedral groups, and the relatively weak links which 
bind the chains together. 

These minerals are divided into two great classes, the pyroxenes and 
amphiboles. They are distinguished by their cleavage. ‘Fhe cleavages 
cross each other at about 90° in the pyroxenes, and 56° in the amphiboles. 
The reason for this difference was discovered by Warren, and his explanation 
is illustrated in Fig. 5. 

All pyroxenes are based on single chains of tetrahedra, all amphiboles 
on double chains, two chains being linked side by side to form a kind of 
tape. In the figure, we are looking at the chains end on, and it will be seen 
that the amphibole chains have a much more oblong cross-section. ‘The 
consequence is that the cleavage cracks, in avoiding cutting the chains, 
cross each other more obliquely in the amphiboles. 

(c) Mica.—Sheets of mica cleave with extreme ease. A sheet can be 
split again and again into thinner lamelle in an apparently endless way. 

The model of mica which I have here shows its structure, first analysed 
by Pauling. The main feature is a series of sheets of tetrahedra, each 
tetrahedron being linked by three corners to neighbours to form a hexagonal 
network. ‘Two such sheets are then linked together by Al, Mg, or Fe 
octahedra to form a composite sheet. It is these double sheets which are 
so immensely strong, and enable mica to be cleaved so easily, because 
each is only fastened to its neighbours on either side by the weak attractions 
of potassium atoms lying between them. 

The perfection of the mica cleavage is a truly remarkable phenomenon. 
It runs along the plane where the potassium atoms are situated, and may 
run for a centimetre or more without deviating from this plane by a single 
atom. We can show this, as Friedel first pointed out, by growing crystals 
of (NH,)I on the mica. The ammonium atoms in NH,I happen to have 
precisely the same arrangement as the K atoms in mica, both in shape and 
scale. In consequence, the NH,lI crystals all grow in parallel orientation 
on the mica. The grain of the pattern in. successive molecular sheets of 
mica points alternately to right and left of its symmetry plane, hence the 
little crystals of NH,I also point to right or to left depending on which 
type of sheet forms the top surface of the mica. If they all point the 
same way, the top sheet must be the same all over the surface. Fig. 6 
shows a mica surface in two steps, all the crystals pointing one way on 
one side and in the reverse direction on the other. 

The ‘grain’ is less marked in micas (biotite, phlogopite) with the 
formula K(Mg, Fe);(AISi;0,))(OH)., than in micas (muscovite) with the 
formula KAI,(A1Si,0,))(OH),; hence in the former case the NH,I crystals 
point indifferently in either direction. 

The mica-like sheets form the basis also of the clay minerals. ‘These 
are single sheets of tetrahedra with an active side of vertices and an inactive 
side of bases. ‘The clay minerals are little hexagonal spangles, a kind of 
mineral ‘ leaf-mould’ formed by the breakdown of other rocks. ‘Their 
curious chemical and physical properties, so important to the soil, are the 
result of their platy character. 

(d) Felspar——This is the most important mineral of the earth’s crust. 
We are familiar with it as a main constituent of granite. It is composed 
of Si and Al tetrahedra linked by every corner in every direction, a three- 
dimensioned latticework of tetrahedra. ‘The bulky atoms Na, K, Ca are 
immeshed in its interstices. 

We may only refer here to two of its interesting properties. In the 
first place, if we make a structure of tetrahedra linked by all their corners 
in this way, it is geometrically impossible to fit octahedra on to it. In 


444 EVENING DISCOURSES 


consequence, magnesium and iron, which are characteristically in octahedral 
groups of oxygen atoms, are excluded from the felspar structures. We 
never find these metals in felspar. 

In the second place, the felspars are divided into two great families. 
The more symmetrical orthoclase, KAISi,;Og, is typical of the one family, 
and the less symmetrical albite and anorthite, NaAlSis;0, and CaAl,Si.O,, 
of the other. ‘The difference is simply a question of the size of the large 
cation. Potassium is so large that when inserted into the framework it 
holds it distended into the symmetrical form, whereas the smaller Na or 
Ca allow it to sag over into a lop-sided unsymmetrical shape. This explana- 
tion is due to Taylor, who first analysed the felspars. 

(6) Finally, I wish to refer to another broad feature of minerals, their 
densities. 

The densities again depend to a large extent upon considerations of 
geometry. If we pack isolated tetrahedra together with octahedra, as in 
olivine, space can be utilised in a most economic way. It is geometrically 
possible to arrange the structure so that a maximum number of oxygen 
atoms, with their concomitant cations, are included in a given volume. 
On the other hand, building up a structure by attaching tetrahedra corner 
to corner is most wasteful as regards volume. It produces an expanded 
structure containing large open spaces. 

In consequence we find that olivine is the heaviest, and felspar and 
quartz are the lightest, of the common minerals, others being intermediate. 
The greater the extent of the tetrahedral linking, the lighter the structure, 
as the following list shows : 


Density. 
Olivine . : ; 4 j x13 a 
Pyroxene, amphibole : : > Qa serL 
Mica. : ‘ : . amp2r85 
Quartz . ; ‘ : 3 Lt xis 
Felspar . . é ; : »  2°75-2°55 


The fact is, of course, that the earth’s crust is mostly composed of these 
minerals, with felspar and quartz predominant, just because they are the 
lightest and so float to the top. The light felspars float on the heavier 
ferro-magnesian silicates, and these in turn probably on metallic sulphides 
and metals which are much denser. Geometry is again triumphant. The 
fortunate existence of a raft of rock on which life is possible is seen to be 
a result of the geometrical properties of tetrahedra and octahedra. 


PHOTOELECTRICITY, ART AND 
Peo Les. AN FS TORTCAT  STUpy 


BY 
N. R. CAMPBELL anp C. C. PATERSON, O.B.E. 


(Ordered by the General Committee to be printed in extenso.) 


UNTIL a few years ago any speaker addressing the general public at the 
meetings of the British Association for the Advancement of Science regarded 
it as one of his chief duties to plead that science should play a larger part in 
the affairs of the nation. But of late a new note has been evident in our 
discourses. We have all come to realise that science may be abused as well 
as used, and that some of the evils of our present state to which our thoughts 
are most constantly directed arise from that abuse. Whether we discuss 
war or unemployment, we cannot ignore the social effects of our increasing 
scientific knowledge. We are not quite so sure that science is the unmixed 
blessing that we once believed it to be. 

Some bold spirits have no qualms. They conduct a vigorous counter- 
attack and urge that such evils as have arisen are due to a half-hearted use 
of science. If we were only consistent and would hand over the conduct 
of all our affairs to the charge of fully instructed scientists and engineers 
all our difficulties would vanish. We may readily admit that there are large 
regions of immense social import that lie barren for lack of public interest, 
and that there are still those who think that ignorance of science is the first 
qualification of the statesman and the administrator. While such things 
remain, the work of this Association will never be done. Nevertheless 
many of us feel that there is another side to the question, and should be 
happier if our champions were readier to distinguish between the value of 
science and the merits of scientists. 

For if the value of science is stated quite impersonally, it becomes clear 
that the problem is not one with which scientists, as such, have any concern. 
In its application to practical affairs, scientific knowledge is merely a means 
whereby man may fulfil his desires. Its results will depend on the nature 
of those desires. In determining them scientists have, and should have, 
no greater influence than any other body of citizens ; they are not actually 
united in their social and political aims, and, if they were, their special 
interests might not coincide with the good of the whole community. The 
business of scientists is to provide the means ; the determination of ends 
belongs to the political institutions of the state. 

But this assumes that science is not more likely to provide means for 
bad ends than for good. Those who regard all material satisfactions as 
bad would no doubt dispute that ; but they are all either monks or million- 
aires, and our words will not reach them. However, the assumption may 
also be denied for a rather subtler reason, which demands our attention. 
It might be urged that science favours the bad rather than the good, because 
the changes that it induces are sudden and unexpected. Communities, 
like individuals, need time to think; if presented with an unexpected 
situation, they act by instinct, which is always self-regarding, and not by 


446 PHOTOELECTRICITY, ART AND POLITICS 


reason. If only the stream of invention and discovery could be slowed 
down, so that the community had time to accustom itself to each new power 
before it was presented with the next, it would be far less likely to abuse 
them. Hence we get pleas for a scientific truce, during which no more 
advances in knowledge should be made. The objection to such a plan is, 
of course, that it is impracticable ; its execution demands a greater, not a 
less, unity and consistency of purpose than some less drastic method of 
control. Prohibition is of all regulations the most difficult to enforce. 
Even if it is true that the suddenness of science is the main source of 
our troubles, it does not follow that a speed limit is the proper remedy. 
A better plan may be to exercise a greater foresight. 

We do not pretend for a moment that it is easy to foresee the direction 
that discovery and invention are likely to take even in the immediate future. 
One of the chief duties of an industrial research laboratory is to assist in 
such forecasts, and we are very conscious how easy it is to make mistakes. 
But, on the other hand, it is not quite so difficult as the public are often led 
to believe. Novelty has its own attractiveness; and people with new 
devices to sell always use the romantic appeal of the great invention springing 
suddenly from the brain of a single genius. But most inventions hailed 
with a blare of trumpets as the latest epoch-making marvel are not matters 
for sentiment. Either they are comparatively trivial modifications of old 
devices, which any well-informed engineer has long known to be inevitable ; 
or they are incomplete suggestions, thrust into prominence long before 
they are due, vanishing from the public memory as quickly and as suddenly 
as they appeared. 

All inventions that influence greatly the course of history have themselves 
a history behind them. And the histories of many inventions have much 
in common. If we want to guard ourselves against surprise in the future, 
we should study the past and apply its lessons. If is for this reason that 
we have been asked to invite your attention to-day to the history of one 
particular invention or discovery. We are not sure that its lessons are 
very obvious ; perhaps we are not in a position to see tham ; the engineer 
himself may not be able to see the wood for the trees and must leave it to 
the trained historian to draw conclusions. We shall try simply to tell the 
story, and shall make only the simplest and most obvious reflections. 

There are several reasons for choosing the photoelectric cell as an 
example. The first is that the history is exceptionally long and complicated. 
That statement may surprise those of you who have just heard of photo- 
electric cells and regard them as one of the marvellous products of the last 
few years. Nevertheless it is true. We shall have to start our history 
sixty years ago, and shall find that the development of cells themselves, as 
distinct from their accessories, was almost complete forty years ago. No 
better example could be offered of how the general public are misled by 
those who are so busy making history that they have no time to read it. 

The second reason is that the results of the applications of photoelectricity 
hitherto have been comparatively trivial. "They have not aided the struggle 
against disease and poverty ; and on the other hand they have not provided 
weapons for war or displaced large quantities of labour. In discussing 
them our passions will not be aroused, and we can consider with detachment 
their potential, and perhaps their future, effects, which might have been or. 
may be considerable. 

And now what are photoelectric cells ? As their name implies they are 
devices for turning light into electricity ; or more accurately, devices in 
which the incidence of light produces or changes an electric current flowing 
in some circuit. We are not going to discuss their action in detail ; for 


— 


AN HISTORICAL STUDY 447 


scientific explanations are irrelevant to our theme. But we must make two 
points clear. The existence of photoelectric cells is no accident ; it arises 
from the most fundamental properties of light and electricity. In the view 
of modern physics light is no longer a discrete agency separable from its 
origins and its effects. To say that light is issuing from a source A and 
falling on a body B is merely a loose way of saying that electrical changes in 
A establish a certain probability that similar electrical changes will occur in 
B. Ina very real sense all actions of light are photoelectric ; the question 
is not how the light that we see can be used to produce electricity ; it is 
rather how the electrical changes that are the primary effect of light come to 
produce vision. Although the sequence of discovery still seems to us 
irregular, we can see now that any prolonged study of light must have led 
to the discovery of photoelectricity, and that by the end of the eighteenth 
century it was already inevitable. 

Again, although all photoelectric effects are in essence the same, super- 
ficially they are different. At the present time four different kinds of 
photoelectric cells are generally distinguished : conductive cells, emission 
cells, voltaic cells, rectifier cells. Each kind has its own advantages and 
limitations ; but to these we shall not often refer; in many fields the 
different kinds are mutually replaceable, at least in principle. Photo-voltaic 
cells are the oldest; the phenomenon that they use was discovered by 
Becquerel in 1839. But the discovery had no practical consequences at the 
time ; and the use that was made of it much later (but then only temporarily) 
was not really based on the original discovery. On the other hand rectifier 
cells were discovered as lately as 1926, when all the principles underlying 
modern applications were already established. They are of very great 
importance, and make some applications much easier ; but they arrived 
too late to affect the main course of photoelectric history, which was 
determined by the discoveries of conductive and emission cells. 

Conductive cells were discovered by Willoughby Smith in 1873. In 
connection with work on telegraph cables, he was seeking a substance of 
high electrical resistance. He thought he had found what he wanted in the 
element selenium, a relatively rare substance resembling sulphur, which 
had been known for many years, but little investigated. However, he found 
that the resistance was very variable, and he soon tracked down the variations 
to changing illuminaton. Selenium when illuminated decreased in resist- 
ance ; the greater the incident light, the greater the current that flowed in 
the circuit containing the selenium resistance. 

The practical implications were realised immediately; and by 1880 
invention was in full swing. In fact the volume of the Electrician for 
1880-1881 devotes a larger proportion of its space to photoelectricity than 
any other volume we have examined. Let us consider what was the state 
of the electrical art at that time. 

The chief industrial use of electricity was still in communication. The 
Electrician gives in each number the prices of telegraph shares, but of no 
others. And there is great excitement over the legal action between the 
Post Office and telephone companies, in which Mr. Justice Stephen decided, 
in the face of expert opinion, that a telephone was a telegraph within the 
meaning of the Act. (Most of the experts are, of course, long dead ; but 
Dr. Fleming, in the guise of Sir Ambrose, is still with us ; we wonder if 
he remembers supporting Stokes in his declaration that there is nothing in 
common between the two instruments and asserting that a telephone was 
nothing but a complicated kind of speaking trumpet!) Of course there 
were other interests; for the foundations of most branches of electrical 
engineering were laid between 1873 and 1880. Arc lamps were actually 


448 PHOTOELECTRICITY, ART AND POLITICS 


being used and incandescent lamps were just becoming practical. But the 
public were apparently more interested in watching the furious dispute 
between Edison and Swan over the priority of their inventions of the in- 
candescent lamp than in considering the worth of what they had invented. 
Communication was the real field of practical electricity. 

It was no accident, therefore, that the first photoelectric cells were a 
bye-product of telegraphy ; but the natural result was that the first thoughts 
for their use were all in the same field. In 1880 the leading inventors are 
Graham Bell with his photophone and Shelford Bidwell, Senlecq and others 
with their systems of telectroscopy, telephotography and the rest. The 
photophone is one of those inventions which are made regularly every few 
years, and as regularly forgotten. The idea is to cause sound to vary a 
beam of light in accordance with its vibrations ; to throw the varying beam 
of light on a photoelectric cell, so as to produce there corresponding varia- 
tions in an electric current ; and to reconvert these variations of current 
into sound by means of a telephone. The scheme is quite practicable, but 
its value was not obvious. It might be used to transmit sounds between 
stations that can be connected by a beam of light, but not by a pair of wires ; 
in other words it would give wireless telephony, restricted to people who 
can see each other ; it might be possible, for instance, between neighbouring 
ships at sea. But even to-day this plan is difficult to carry out except in 
favourable circumstances—and then there are usually better alternatives. 
The other use, also foreseen from the start, is to help the blind. Here the 
first stage is omitted ; the variations in light turned into sounds are not 
those arising from sounds, but such variations as normal people see ;_ they 
are turned into sounds only for the purpose of.those who cannot see. Such 
schemes excited the enthusiasm of Fournier d’Albe some thirty years later ; 
he hoped by this means to enable blind people to read an ordinary page of 
print. A beam of light scans the lines of print and produces sounds in a 
telephone as it passes from black to white and vice-versa ; these sounds are 
determined by the shape of the letter, so that by training the letters can be 
recognised by the sounds. The instrument developed on these lines by 
Barr and Stroud from the ideas of Fournier d’Albe really worked ; but 
alas ! it has proved too cumbrous and expensive to give blind people much 
assistance. 

The other great scheme of the seventies, telectroscopy or telephotography, 
is what we now call picture-telegraphy and take as a matter of course when 
we read our newspapers. Forty years had to elapse before it became really 
practicable ; but the problem was conceived quite clearly and accurately in 
these early days ; methods of scanning and synchronisation, which are still 
the clues to success, were carefully discussed. In some respects the men of 
that time were curiously modern ; for instance they thought of the Kerr 
cell for modulating the light at the receiving end ; most people probably 
regard that as an essentially modern instrument. Indeed they went further 
and envisaged television, realising its possibilities and some of its difficulties. 
Television differs, of course, from picture-telegraphy in that the image has 
to be produced visibly at the receiving end simultaneously with its trans- 
mission and not after an interval during which a picture is produced. 
Ayrton in a lecture on ‘ Seeing by Electricity ’ laid down in 1880 some sound 
principles which workers of our own day have sometimes forgotten, though 
he admitted that they could not immediately be converted into practice. 

The great obstacle to progress in those days was the absence of any method 
of amplifying currents such as we now derive from the thermionic valve. 
Indeed the mere idea of amplification was absent. The last relics of the 
old difference between frictional and galvanic electricity do not seem to have 


AN HISTORICAL STUDY 449 


disappeared completely ; the essential identity between currents from all 
sources and from all magnitudes does not seem to have been duly appre- 
ciated. Thus nobody seems to have seen that the large currents of low 
frequency required for synchronisation might be transmitted by the same 
channel as the small currents of high frequency obtained from the photo- 
electric cell. The point that we want to make is that men’s vision was 
limited in both directions by the general outlook of their time. They saw 
very clearly the possibilities of photoelectricity for communication, because 
their thoughts naturally tended in that direction ; but they failed to appre- 
ciate what further elements were required to turn possibility into reality, 
and therefore could not look in the right direction for those elements. 
Meanwhile they failed to think of applications which were wholly or quite 
within their grasp. 

We turn now to the second kind of cell, the emission cell. "The funda- 
mental fact here is that light falling on metals causes them to emit a current 
of electricity, in the form of a stream of electrons ; this can be collected, 
made to pass round an exterior circuit and produce there any electrical 
effect desired. Here we may note a difference between the two kinds of 
cell that may appear at first sight to be important. In the photo-conductive 
cell the energy of the current has to be derived from a battery or some source 
other than the light ; in the emission cell it can be derived from the light 
itself. The emission cell therefore affords in principle the possibility of 
converting sunlight directly into electric power without passing it through 
our present wasteful intermediate stages, such as the growing of vegetation 
which we subsequently burn, or the raising of water to fall and fill rivers. 
But actually nothing has been achieved in that direction even to-day. The 
difficulty is one of mere size. With a cell of given area, we cannot produce 
more power than falls on that area from direct sunlight in the most favourable 
conditions. ‘The amount of power incident on one square yard of the earth’s 
surface in the most favourable conditions is never more than one kilowatt ; 
the average received in our climate is not more than one hundredth of that 
amount. If you work out a sum of proportion you will find that to collect 
the electrical power used in this country, an area at least as large as London 
would have to be covered with photoelectric cells ; and even if we drew our 
power from cloudless regions the cells would occupy the area of a large town. 
Now photoelectric cells are somewhat delicate instruments ; and although 
they need no longer be enclosed in a vacuum, like emission cells, it is quite 
impracticable to make cells of that size. If we tried to use many cells of the 
kind now made, we should require about 5,000 million of them; each 
costs several shillings at least ; and then we should waste most of our power 
in connecting them. No; when we have to harness natural forces, we are 
still forced to resort to nature’s crude and wasteful, but effective, machinery. 

But that is a mere aside ; we must continue the story. The history of 
emission cells, like that of conductive cells, begins with an accident. Hertz 
in 1887, when working on electromagnetic waves, found that the incidence 
of ultra-violet light on a spark gap made it easier for a spark to pass across it. 
Hallwachs in the next year found that the change was due to a current 
flowing from the metal of the gap under the action of the light. He thus 
established the fundamental fact, although of course he did not know that 
the current was carried by a stream of electrons, for electrons were not then 
known ; the effect on which emission cells depend was therefore called the 
Hallwachs effect. But the real parents of emission cells are Elster and 
Geitel who started their work in 1889, and by 1894 had developed the cells 
to a state that remained substantially unchanged for more than thirty years. 

Hallwachs had worked with ordinary metals and had found his effect only 


450 PHOTOELECTRICITY, ART AND POLITICS 


with ultra-violet light. Elster and Geitel showed that visible light would 
produce the same effect in the ‘ alkali ’ metals, sodium and potassium, which 
can exist in the metallic state only if preserved from contact with the air. 
They devised methods of handling the metals in a vacuum—for all our 
modern vacuum technique is long subsequent to their work ; they investi- 
gated with great care the relation between light and current with a practical 
purpose that we shall notice later, and they invented the ‘ gasfilled ’ cell, 
in which the primary photoelectric current is amplified by passing through 
an inert gas. Their work was magnificent; how magnificent only those 
know who, after a generation, have tried to follow in their path. Even 
the last ten years, when interest has been world-wide and inspired by 
vastly fuller knowledge, have added only a few inessential details to their 
achievement. 

And yet it remained almost unnoticed. Unlike the far less thorough 
work of Willoughby Smith and his immediate successors, it produced no 
spate of invention. It was quite unnoticed by engineers. For thirty years 
engineers, if they thought about photoelectricity at all, thought of it in 
terms of the selenium cell ; and even to-day many partially informed people 
imagine that all photoelectric cells contain selenium. There was perhaps 
some excuse. For the currents obtainable from emission cells are markedly 
smaller than those obtainable from conductive cells ; and it was the smallness 
of even these currents which stood in the way of their application. But the 
real reason was one of atmosphere. 

Elster and Geitel were physicists, not engineers. Their cells were born 
in the atmosphere of ‘ pure science "—an unfortunate term, but there is 
none better. And as the seventies were the great period of electrical 
engineering, so the nineties were the great period of pure science. Modern 
physics, a wholly new science, was born in that decade. It is usually dated 
from RG6ntgen’s discovery of X-rays in 1895, which led to the study of the 
electrical properties of gases, to the discovery of the electron, to radio- 
activity, and to all of that vast field of new facts concerning the interior of 
the atoms which finally led in our own day to the revolutionary theories by 
which alone they can be explained. In that great advance the Hallwachs 
effect has played an essential part. [he facts on which emission cells rely 
were probably the most powerful arguments for rejecting the mechanical 
theories of the older physics and for accepting the bewildering ideas of 
quantum theories. The theoretical implications of this branch of photo- 
electricity completely overshadowed its practical potentialities ; emission 
cells were regarded as laboratory curiosities, productive of nothing but a 
welter of contradictory philosophies, no concern of a self-respecting engineer! 

Ten years ago, fifty years after the dawn of photoelectricity, its sun had 
apparently set. Photoelectric cells were being used to some small extent 
in laboratories and observatories ; but elsewhere, although interest in it 
had never really ceased, its prospects were very dim. Photoelectricity had 
appeared before the world was ready for it. Inventors had lost heart 
because they had tried to run before they could walk, and because they had 
failed to keep abreast of knowledge outside their immediate view. 

And then the unexpected happened, as it always does. In 1926 talking 
films were issued from Hollywood. They took a little longer to reach 
England. ‘The first joke about them we have found in Punch—that invalu- 
able record of our social history—occurs at the end of 1928 ; it is difficult to 
realise how recent they are. Now there was nothing new in the idea of 
associating sound with the moving picture; it had been proposed and 
actually achieved in quite the early days. For the technical means were 
already to hand in the gramophone, which, of course, antedates the moving 


AN HISTORICAL STUDY 451 


picture. Any well-informed engineer, trying to forecast the course of 
invention in 1920, might have foretold that the sound film would come ; 
but he would probably not have guessed that photoelectric cells would play 
any part in it ; he would probably have looked to the gramophone to provide 
the sound. 

However, there was another possibility in the oft-invented and oft- 
forgotten photophone. That you will remember is an instrument for con- 
verting variations of light into sound by means of photoelectric cells. If it 
were to be used for this purpose, the sound to be reproduced had to be 
recorded in the form of potential variations of light. Now this problem 
had actually been studied in the early days of the photophone ; methods had 
been devised for recording the vibrations of sound in the form of cyclical 
variations of density in a photographic plate, so that when the plate was 
passed across a beam of light, the light would vary in accordance with the 
sound vibrations. We will not stop to explain how this is done ; there are 
several methods ; and the remarkable thing is that all of them were invented 
in principle round about 1880. But they were greatly developed in the 
first ten years of this century for the purpose of studying sound. Accord- 
ingly methods of recording sound in a form from which it might be repro- 
duced by the photophone were already available. 

By the early twenties several people had seen that here was an alternative 
to the gramophone for associating sound with the talking picture. Perhaps 
the most energetic was de Forest, whose name will always be associated 
with the audion, the first thermionic amplifier. By 1923 he had really 
succeeded in printing on the same film with a moving picture a sound 
record which produced recognisable sounds; but the reproduction was 
definitely not as good as that of the contemporary gramophone. 

So it was not lack of technical development which delayed so long the 
coming of the sound film, or any great technical advance that finally pro- 
duced it. It was—to speak frankly—the artistic ineptitude of the magnates 
of Hollywood. The cinema was past its first youth. Its technique had 
lost its wonder even for the half-civilised races, and more sophisticated 
patrons were grumbling at the poverty of imagination displayed by those 
who controlled so wonderful an instrument. Hollywood saw that some- 
thing had to be done to stimulate a flagging demand ; they decided to appeal 
to the lower rather than to the higher instinct of mankind, to drown criticism 
in the clamorous excitement of a new ‘ stunt’ rather than to satisfy it by a 
belated appeal to intelligence. They would introduce a yet cruder realism ; 
they would reunite sound and sight which the cinema had divorced. The 
public should have the thrill of talking pictures ! 

They began with gramophone records—sound-on-disc, as it is called. 
And if technical excellence had been the sole consideration, they might long 
have kept to them. It is only quite recently that the alternative sound-on- 
film has equalled and even surpassed the best gramophone record. We 
must insist on that, because those who do not like sound films must not 
blame photoelectric cells for their deficiencies. If you think they are 
worse than silent films—for this is the only question—if you think that the 
art of Walt Disney is a poor substitute for that of Charlie Chaplin, you must 
remember that the change might have and probably would have occurred, 
if photoelectricity had never been heard of. Perhaps we might not have 
had the ‘ Home Talkies ’ with which we are now threatened ; but public 
talkies we should have certainly had. That is important, because we are 
apt to forget when we are discussing history that the same effect may arise 
from quite different causes, and that abolishing the immediate cause does 
not always mean abolishing the actual effect. 


452 PHOTOELECTRICITY, ART AND POLITICS 


However, actually sound-on-disc began soon to be replaced by sound-on- 
film, and to-day is almost completely obsolete. Sound-on-film means that 
there is printed on the film, alongside the picture, a strip of transmission 
varying with the vibration of the recorded sound. Light from the pro- 
jector—usually a subsidiary projector—passes through this strip and falls 
on a photoelectric cell, the varying current for which is fed through ampli- 
fiers to a loudspeaker The reasons why sound-on-films has replaced 
sound-on-disc are two. First, that recording sound-on-film is a photo- 
graphic process ; motion picture engineers knew all about photography, 
but they did not know about the highly specialised art of making gramophone 
records. But the second is even more important. When sound-on-disc 
is used, the record is on two separate objects, which is inconvenient for 
many purposes ; when sound-on-film is used, it is all on one, and there is 
no fear of the two parts of the record becoming dissociated in any way. 

Here we are going to leave for a moment actual history for imaginary, 
and point out to you what great and curiously indirect effects might have 
flowed from small causes. It is the advantage of sound-on-film that the 
record is a single object. But that is not an unmixed blessing in an inter- 
national industry. The same picture will do in all countries, but not the 
same sound; language differences have to be taken into account. Now 
suppose that the Hollywood magnates had been far-sighted visionaries or 
even tyrants, consistently intent only on their own advantage—perhaps 
that is more likely and equally effective ; and suppose they had said ‘ we 
are going to have none of this silly Tower of Babel business. If people 
want to see our films, they’ve got to learn our language. We’ll make it 
easy for them and use some simplified form of English or perhaps even 
Esperanto.’ Don’t you think they might probably have got away with it 
and imposed upon all the earth an international language ? Remember how 
the idioms of Hollywood have permeated our speech and how many of us, 
in a short five years, have become almost bilingual, speaking American but 
still reading English. Perhaps you are not quite sure whether the conse- 
quences would have been good or bad; but there is no doubt that they 
would have been extremely important and have had enormous political and 
social repercussions. The whole history of mankind might have been 
unforeseeably influenced by some long-neglected laboratory toy exploited 
at last for some entirely irrational purpose. 

Now let us return to fact. There is another aspect of this unexpected 
development of photoelectricity. Photoelectric cells produced the sound 
film ; but the sound film also produced photoelectric cells by creating a 
demand for them. Hitherto cells had been made in ones or twos by labora- 
tory workers ; now they were demanded in thousands ; it became worth 
the while of large industrial concerns to manufacture them and to apply to 
the problem their vast experience in similar fields. The emission cells 
received particular attention, for these had many advantages over con- 
ductive cells for talking pictures; and the problems they presented were 
similar to those of incandescent lamps and thermionic valves which had 
been for years the main concern of industrial research organisations. Ina 
very short time the first considerable advance had been made since the days 
of Elster and Geitel, thirty-five years before ; the sensitivity of emission cells 
was increased greatly, and sensitivity—the current due to a given amount 
of light—was still important in spite of our new powers of amplification. 

But such improvements alone would not have extended greatly the field 
of photoelectric applications ; the obstacle to extension was not lack of 
technical power, but simply ignorance on the part of those who might use 
it. Once photoelectric cells became the concern of the large electrical 


.? a 


AN HISTORICAL STUDY 453 


firms, they were brought to the attention of all electricians. Slowly they 
began to be regarded, not as curiosities arousing the enthusiasm of a few 
specialists, but as normal tools at the disposal of the normal engineer for 
any purpose to which they might be adapted. ‘The end of that stage has 
not quite been reached ; there is still a group of enthusiasts whose one idea 
is to find some use for photoelectricity even when alternative methods are 
obviously preferable ; and another group of the unconverted who regard 
them as unproved novelties. But the intermediate group is steadily gaining 
ground ; at last originality and sound judgment are at work together. And 
that—mind you—is largely due to talking films ! 

Let us then inquire soberly and in the light of our present knowledge, 
what is the proper field of photoelectricity. ‘The advertiser loves to descant 
on the marvels of the electric eye ; and that phrase, which can hardly have 
escaped your attention, suggests that the proper function of the photo- 
electric cell is to replace vision. Now that is quite wrong. The eye may 
be physiologically the equivalent of a vast assembly of photoelectric cells 
connected to an inconceivably complicated automatic telephone exchange 
located in the brain. But any practicable combination of cells and accessories 
share with the eye only one common power, that of distinguishing light from 
darkness. The cell lacks altogether the power of the eye to appreciate 
directly form and colour, and on that appreciation most of the uses of vision 
depend. On the other hand the cell possesses powers that the eye lacks ; 
it can detect much smaller variations in illumination and much more rapid 
variations. 

The first of these powers makes photoelectric cells valuable measuring 
instruments. 'Uhat has been realised from the start. Wernher von Siemens 
made a selenium photometer in 1875 ; Elster and Geitel studied measure- 
ment with great care and insight. (Measurement is amuch more complicated 
matter than most people suppose.) But, except in astronomical observa- 
tories, where the great sensitivity of the cell to small amounts of light was 
valued, photoelectric photometry was not practised seriously before the 
war. Since then its use has spread at an increasing rate. It is often more 
convenient than visual observation ; its convenience has been enhanced 
greatly by the appearance of the rectifier photoelectric cell within the last 
five years. For instance, photographic exposure meters using such cells 
are now on sale for general use. But the quality on which we want rather 
to insist is its accuracy. The importance of accurate measurement in 
industry is not generally understood. ‘Thus, since the usual purpose of 
light is to enable us to see, it is not immediately obvious why any measuring 
instrument more accurate than the eye is necessary or desirable. The 
answer is that variations in quality too small to affect appreciably the 
finished product provide a most valuable clue to defects in manufacture 
which, if they are unchecked, will lead to waste. It does not matter much 
to you whether one lamp that you buy gives one per cent. more or less light 
than another; but it is by keeping track of such small differences that 
manufacturers have steadily improved the quality and diminished the cost 
of lamps by eliminating waste. Here is a function of science that in uni- 
formly beneficial. Even in our mad world, where we try to rectify economic 
disasters by destroying valuable products such as coffee and rubber, waste— 
the expenditure of human energy in achieving undesired results—is surely 
an unmixed evil. The elimination of waste is one of the least spectacular 
achievements of science, and one of which the general public seldom hear ; 
but it is one of the most useful. Here photoelectric cells have much to 
their credit. 

Another potential advantage of photoelectric over visual measurement 


454 PHOTOELECTRICITY, ART AND POLITICS 


is its speed. This advantage has been realised to some extent; but the 
extent has been greatly exaggerated. When photoelectricity is mentioned 
in the popular press one of the things that always turns up is a machine 
for sorting cigars and coffee beans according to their colour. That is, of 
course, very high speed measurement. Now sorting machines of this kind 
can undoubtedly be made; a beautiful example made by Mr. Horsfield 
was shown a little time ago in the Exhibition at the Science Museum. But 
they are emphatically not yet general; we have never yet been able to 
hear of one in regular use. The difficulty is that the qualities that should 
determine sorting in these cases, although simple enough to the eye, are 
intricate combinations of form and colour that mislead any less complex 
instrument. Developments in this direction are quite probable; but at 
present it is yet another direction in which enthusiasm has outrun discretion. 

The speed of action characteristic of photoelectric cells can be utilised 
only when little else is demanded. Use of it-is made, of course, in sound 
films ; for the cell has then to follow light vibrating with the frequency of 
sound, that is to say, thousands of times a second. Even greater demands 
on it are made in television. Perhaps you have been expecting us to say 
much on this subject, which is so topical ; but it is not of great interest from 
our present standpoint ; its implications, so far as they can be foreseen, 
have long been obvious to all, and are not very different from those of 
picture telegraphy, which has actually been achieved. The idea of tele- 
vision was in the minds of the earliest inventors ; and, as I have said, they 
formulated its problems quite correctly. For the last fifteen years at least 
all the fundamental problems have been solved in principle ; it has been 
clear that the attainment of television of almost any desired degree of 
excellence has been simply a question of expense. We must not appear to 
belittle the work of those who have achieved so much in this field ; if an 
engineer is one who can do for a shilling what any fool could do for a pound, 
then they have truly proved themselves engineers. Perhaps the most 
useful remark we can make is this ‘The long period of delay, while it has 
been doubtful whether the public would be attracted by such television as 
can be provided for the price they might be expected to pay, has given us 
an opportunity of controlling its developments such as rarely occurs. If all 
inventions were subject to similar delays, the control of the social effects of 
science would be much easier. As you know, a Committee is at work 
deciding how, if at all, television is to start. We hope they will not confine 
their attention to its start. When it starts, and if it succeeds at all, it is sure 
to develop in directions that we cannot at present foresee. The control of 
science, if it is to be effective, must be continuous and ever active. Let 
us hope that this exceptionally favourable chance will not be missed. 

The speed of photoelectric cells is also utilised in some other directions. 
Thus they are widely used in timing races, specially on greyhound tracks. 
Perhaps this is not an application that will appeal to you ; but after all, if 
greyhound races are to be timed at all, they may as well be timed rightly. 
Another possible application in the same direction may appeal to some of 
you still less. If a speed limit is imposed by the new Road Traffic Act, 
photoelectric cells might well be used to make it effective. The old system 
of timing over long distances by fallible constables armed with manual 
stop-watches is obsolete ; there would be no difficulty to-day in timing a car 
over a distance of 15 or 20 feet without possibility of human error and with 
all the accuracy required. 

The last class of applications, immensely varied, does not use either of 
the powers in which the cell surpasses the eye ; it uses merely the common 
power of distinguishing light from darkness. The only difference is then 


AN HISTORICAL STUDY 455 


that the response of the cell is automatic and does not require the interven- 
tion of a human will. Many of these applications were quite feasible in the 
earliest days of photoelectricity ; for relays, which are a necessary element 
of the apparatus, were used in telegraphy. But the attention of inventors 
was so concentrated on the marvellous that they missed the obvious ; the 
earliest reference we have found to any of these simple applications is well 
within the present century ; but it is possible that earlier suggestions were 
made. Serious attempts to exploit these applications only began with the 
formation of Radiovisor Ltd. in 1928. 

‘Two suggestions that constantly recur are to turn on public lighting when 
dusk falls and to detect burglars by their passage across a beam of light. 
But for the first purpose a time switch is really more effective ; and burglars 
are, alas! rather more intelligent than inventors imagine. But some later 
suggestions have proved practicable ; here are a few: The detection of 
black smoke issuing from a chimney, speeding up an escalator when a 
passenger steps on it, detecting pin-holes in metal sheet for motor-car 
radiators, stopping paper-making machinery when the paper tears, counting 
objects of any kind as they pass down a conveyor, making sure that every 
packet of cigarettes contains its card, preventing vehicles from attempting 
to pass under a bridge too low for them, guiding cloth past a knife by which 
it is to be cut. Photoelectrically all these applications are the same ; the 
object to be detected either interrupts or releases a beam of light passing 
across its path; they differ only in the consequences that result from that 
interruption or release; the securing of the necessary consequences is 
merely a matter of ordinary electrical engineering. There are usually other 
methods of achieving the same end ; the cell could usually be replaced by 
a mechanical contact. 

These comparatively dull and trifling applications of photoelectricity are 
of especial interest from the point of view from which we started ; for they 
are the most likely to produce one of the main evils that is now laid to the 
charge of science. Here we have a direct replacement of man by the 
machine ; the replacement sometimes saves waste because machines are 
less irregular, but its object is usually economic ; the machine is cheaper 
and more profitable. Of course there is good as well as evil; to sit in 
darkness watching for holes in an endless strip of brass is not an ideal way 
for a lad or girl to spend the working day ; it is tolerable only because the 
alternative of no work at all, and no pay, is even worse. In dealing with 
this problem scientific foresight i is not required ; the means to replace all 
forms of drudgery by machine operation already exist ; the future has little 
new for us here ; the sole question is whether we can devise a better alter- 
native to drudgery and thus justify the use of the means that lie to our hand. 
That is a political question, concerning which science may provide the 
facts, but can never provide the decision. 

And so our tale ends, very inconclusively and unromantically, as all 
scientific tales must. For science achieves its purpose only when it becomes 
so commonplace that it is taken for granted and becomes part of everyday 
thought and practice. The ultimate aim of science is always to be uninter- 
esting. We hope we have not been too scientific. 


OPENING OF DISCUSSION 
IN SEcTION C (GEOLOGY) 


ON 
UNDERGROUND WATER SUPPLY 


By PROF. W. S. BOULTON. 


(Ordered by the General Committee to be printed in extenso.) 


THE serious drought which has afflicted this country, in common with many 
others abroad, for more than a year, causing intense anxiety in many 
quarters as to the sufficiency and proper distribution of our water supplies, 
may have helped to provoke the present discussion. But, apart from our 
immediate water shortage in many parts of the country, some of us have 
long felt that this question of underground water, falling as it does primarily 
within the domain of the geologist, should interest the Geological Section of 
the British Association. 

The Committee on Inland Water Survey, inaugurated at the York Meeting 
two years ago, had for its main object the organisation of a water survey of 
the country, and, although its terms of reference include underground water, 
I gather from the constitution of the Committee, and from its report issued 
at the Leicester Meeting last year, that its work will be confined for the most 
part to surface water, thus coming within the scope of the engineer and the 
geographer, and to a less extent the geologist. We learn, indeed, from this 
report that the Council of the Institution of Civil Engineers ‘ will be 
prepared, if they are so requested by the British Association, to appoint a 
Committee to investigate the feasibility of carrying out the objects outlined 
in the Report.’ 

On July 19 last, a deputation from the British Association and the Institu- 
tion of Civil Engineers met the Minister of Health, and invited the Govern- 
ment to give favourable consideration to the institution of a complete and 
systematic survey of the water resources of the country. We shall await 
with interest the Government decision. 

It would appear likely, however, that such a water survey, if carried out 
under the auspices of the Ministry of Health or by the Institution of Civil 
Engineers, will be primarily concerned with surface water, and in any case 
is likely to leave a wide unexplored field for observation, record and study 
which can only be adequately undertaken by geologists. 

Underground water can be divided for our present purposes into two 
categories : first, meteoric water, which is supplied directly from the rainfall, 
and percolates from the surface through the rocks ; and second, what has 
been termed plutonic, magmatic or juvenile water, normally deep-seated and 
more or less hot, with a notable absence of chlorine, which characterises 
meteoric water, but with other characteristic constituents like boric acid. 
With plutonic water we may class the so-called connate water, originally 
stored in sedimentary rocks. I propose to confine this discussion to 
meteoric water. 


UNDERGROUND WATER SUPPLY 457 


In our text-books it is frequently stated that rain water follows one of 
three courses—it is evaporated and absorbed by vegetation, it runs over the 
surface to the sea, or it percolates below ground. And this is followed by 
the statement that the surface run-off is determined by measuring the dis- 
charge of rivers. But a little consideration shows that, neglecting the small 
fraction which may flow directly into the coastal strip, the total river dis- 
charge gauged near the river mouths measures the surface run-off, plus 
the percolation which emerges at the surface in springs and seepages, to 
find its way into rivers and the sea. So that river discharge, subtracted 
from rainfall, gives the loss which is evaporated and absorbed by vegetation. 

With regard to the surface, the water stored in lakes and reservoirs may 
be regarded as more or less permanent, but not absolutely stationary, the 
inflow from surface streams and springs, together with that supplied directly 
by rain, being balanced by their outflowing streams, and by evaporation 
from their surfaces. 

In like manner the underground storage in the rocks may be thought of 
as more or less permanent, though not stagnant, the replenishment from 
percolation balancing the natural outflow in springs and seepages, together 
with that which may be artificially pumped to the surface. But in the 
ultimate analysis, it is the replenishment by rainfall of both surface and 
underground storage which balances the total run-off, plus absorption and 
evaporation loss. 

Since our concern is with underground water, it is evident that it would 
be of value to determine, if possible, the fraction of the rainfall in any area 
which replenishes the underground reservoir, and emerges at the surface 
in natural springs and seepages, or is available for pumped water supplies. 

As regards rainfall, we are fortunate in having available records all over 
the country, mainly through the work of the British Rainfall Organisation, 
which collects, analyses, and publishes every year the gaugings of some 5,000 
observers. Assomeof these records go back for seventy-five years and even 
longer, we are able to abstract from them, though as yet imperfectly, the 
long and short cycles of wet and dry years. With more complete records 
and a better understanding of the incidence, and possibly the causes, of these 
cycles, we may some day be in a position to anticipate and make provision 
for these periods of excessive rainfall and drought. 

When we turn to the records of river gaugings, we have to confess that we 
in this country have been sadly negligent in the past, and far behind the 
United States, for example. The Inland Water Survey Committee, already 
referred to, is seeking to make good this deficiency, but obviously it will 
take many years of systematic work before the data we so badly need are 
available. 

How then is it possible to estimate the quantity of underground water 
which is available for use in any area? What fraction of the rainfall nor- 
mally percolates downwards from the surface to replenish the under- 
ground reservoir ? 

If, in any watershed or basin, we know the total run-off, which includes 
percolation, then of course this figure, subtracted from the rainfall, will give 
us the loss by evaporation. And it so happens that in this country this 
loss, arrived at by difference, is practically the same as the figure we get 
by measuring the loss from artificially constructed evaporation tanks. But 
then we do not know the fraction of the total run-off which is due to 
percolation. 

It is the practice of water engineers to assume an evaporation loss, which 
in this country varies widely. It may be as low as 10 or 11 in. of rainfall 
in northern hilly districts, and perhaps as high as 18 or 19 in. in the south 


R 


458 UNDERGROUND WATER SUPPLY 


of England. The remainder is taken as run-off, of which a certain fraction 
emerges at the surface after percolating into the ground. This percolation 
fraction will obviously vary greatly in different districts, according to the 
permeability of the rocks, the existence of fissures, the nature of the surface, 
the general topography, and so forth. In practice it is usual to base one’s 
estimate upon experience of the quantities of underground water which 
can be pumped in a given area without lowering the general water-table. 

Percolation Gauges.—A direct and apparently simple method of deter- 
mining the percolation at any place is to use a Percolation Gauge, such as 
those designed by Baldwin Lathom at Croydon, or those at Rothamsted. 
The results obtained from these gauges are useful for agricultural purposes, 
but for measuring the total fraction of rain which percolates to depth in the 
rocks they have their limitations. Without entering into detail, it is obvious 
that because of their shallow depth—s5 ft. at most—there must be some 
evaporation loss after percolation, and their surface cannot be regarded as 
a true replica of the average natural surface of the district. A more serious 
defect, in my opinion, is that the permeability of the rocks, apart from 
joints and fissures, diminishes with depth, for most rocks are more per- 
meable near outcrop than at a depth of,-say, one or two hundred feet. The 
consequence is that some of the percolated water at shallow depths finds 
ready exit to the surface at low-lying places, without a chance to sink to the 
main water-table, which may be much deeper. 

Very few determinations of the permeability of rocks at depth have been 
made. I have recently estimated the permeability of some samples of 
water-bearing sandstones in the Birmingham district, and the results are 
rather surprising. 

In a deep boring through Bunter sandstone, seven sample cores, at 
depths varying from 300 to 750 ft., were selected for porosity and per- 
meability tests, and it was found that the porosity, or percentage of pore- 
space, varied from 13-2 per cent. to 30-3 per cent. The permeability, 
or flow of water in gallons per square foot in 24 hours, varied still more, 
namely, from 0-05 to 17-4. Although the constant head of water under 
the conditions of the experiment was here small, viz. 6 in., the results for 
the different samples are strictly comparable. ‘They serve to show that 
Bunter sandstones in the same boring may vary greatly in their capacity to 
transmit water, and therefore to yield their supplies to wells and boreholes. 

In another set of experiments on a Keele sandstone, varying from 20 to 
40 ft. thick, and underlying impervious marls, samples were taken from 
cores at a depth of about 100 ft. in many different boreholes, and also from 
the same sandstone near outcrop. Here, again, the porosities varied from 
3°58 per cent. to 20-3 per cent., and the permeability in the direction of 
bedding, i.e. perpendicular to the cores, was astonishingly small, but 
distinctly higher near outcrop. In the latter experiments I had the means 
of estimating almost exactly the amount of water which this bed of sand- 
stone was transmitting from a reservoir, and the conclusion was inevitable 
that practically all the water passing through the sandstone was moving in 
joints and fissures. And yet the rock is a medium-grained sandstone with 
fair porosity, and would be described as a water-bearing rock. 

That porosity has no necessary relation to permeability is well known. 
Chalk may have a porosity of nearly 50 per cent., and yet wells and borings 
in it may yield no water unless there are fissures or bands of flint. This is 
also true to some extent of other porous rocks, such as sandstone. 

It would be all to the good to have a large number of such measurements 
of porosity and permeability of samples taken from known water-bearing 
strata at different depths, and not to rely on a figure, taken maybe from a 


UNDERGROUND WATER SUPPLY 459 


text-book, and based upon a single determination, and without reference to 
the position from which the sample was taken. 

But it is clear that systematic observation and experiment on the 
larger scale are required if we wish to estimate our underground water 
resources. 

There is much misconception of this problem in the mind of the general 
public, not to mention those whose business it is to recover and utilise 
underground water supplies. In recent months I have read numerous 
letters and special articles in the public press urging that we have under- 
ground in this country an inexhaustible supply of water. Instances are 
cited where a powerful spring or a large pumping station is yielding several 
million gallons of water a day, and, from a few such isolated cases in different 
parts of the country, it is argued that, if you bore down deep enough almost 
anywhere, there is the water in similar amounts asking to be pumped to 
the surface. 

I recently heard a very able and suggestive paper read before water 
engineers, in which the author advocated the extraction of underground 
water from comparatively shallow wells and boreholes in rural areas, 
utilising the power from the electric grid, in preference to the distribution 
of water from a regional source. ‘The vast extent of underground storage’ 
was a phrase used. 

Two important things must be borne in mind in this connection. First, 
if the underground water storage is drawn upon, as in times of prolonged 
drought, in excess of percolation from rainfall—if, in other words, the wells 
are continuously overpumped—it necessarily follows that the water-table is 
thereby continuously lowered while this excess lasts, thus depleting or 
drying up the shallower wells, and increasing the depth and cost of pumping 
the deeper wells. Not only so, but surface supplies from springs and streams 
are also depleted, to the detriment of lowland surface water supplies, canals, 
fisheries, agriculture, power stations, etc. Some folk have suggested that 
a national or regional scheme should be adopted, whereby the underground 
reservoirs are left practically intact, and their natural overflow allowed to 
feed surface springs and streams, and that the flood waters in upland 
regions collected in large reservoirs could be distributed by a widely spread 
system of pipe-lines, or ‘ grid,’ and so give an adequate supply to the whole 
community. As regards quantity, such a scheme does not seem ambitious, 
seeing that it has been calculated that the present domestic supply in the 
British Isles does not amount to more than about 1 per cent. of the total 
rainfall. But I must not be tempted to pursue this further, or even to out- 
line the difficulties as to cost, vested interests, and so forth, inherent in 
suchascheme. It is a matter of public policy and does not directly concern 
us here and now. 

It is well known that even in times of normal rainfall there are areas in 
and around some of our big cities, like London, where the underground 
water level is slowly and continuously falling, due to overpumping. One 
of the questions which call for investigation is that of these overpumped 
areas. The widespread impervious mackintosh of streets and houses 
aggravates the problem, by diminishing the natural percolation. 

In the second place, we geologists know well enough that large stretches 
of country are underlain by impervious and non-water-bearing rocks, such 
as the Keuper Marls of the English Midlands, and the Jurassic clay belts 
of the south and east of England. Borings through this impervious cover 
to depths, it may be, of many hundreds of feet may fail to tap water of 
potable quality. 

The underground storage is not inexhaustible, and there are many areas 

R 2 


460 UNDERGROUND WATER SUPPLY 


where it is hopeless to expect a fair supply of potable water at moderate 
depths. 

I suggest that what is urgently needed is that regions with well-defined 
physiographical, formational or tectonic limits should be selected for hydro- 
logical study. For water supply purposes it has generally been the custom to 
choose county boundaries as the defined limits, as in the case of the Water 
Supply Memoirs of the Geological Survey. For administrative purposes there 
is good reason for adopting these county boundaries, especially now that 
the county councils have some control in financing and administering 
rural areas in the matter of water supply. But for the purposes we are now 
considering it is preferable to adopt natural unit areas, such as a river 
basin or watershed, or a tectonic structure like the Hampshire Basin, or 
a formation unit like the Chalk or the Bunter, or, perhaps better still, a 
specific water-bearing formation in some watershed or unit geological 
structure. 

The quantities of underground water which are pumped for long and short 
periods in the whole areas so defined should be estimated, and the rainfall 
statistics of the region recorded for the same periods, together with the 
surface conditions, including topography, cultural features, built-up areas, 
and so forth. In addition to quantities of water pumped at individual 
stations, we want details of static and pumping levels, and the effect of 
pumping at any one station upon neighbouring wells, streams, etc. 

In such a defined region continuous records of water levels in wells should 
be kept, and if possible springs and streams gauged systematically. During 
the progress of such work it would be possible to express graphically the 
hydrological conditions. But I would stress the necessity in all such 
correlations of taking practically simultaneous records—for example, of the 
water-table. When we realise that the well levels in the Chalk country, 
for instance, may vary seasonally as much as 150 ft. or even more, we can 
understand the necessity of correlating data and expressing the facts as they 
are at a given time. 

I am well aware that useful work of this nature has already been done in 
a few isolated areas, and I gratefully pay tribute to such valuable contribu- 
tions as those of Mr. D. Halton Thomson on the hydrological conditions 
of the Chalk of West Sussex, and the more general hydro-geology of the 
Chalk of England by Mr. R. C. S. Walters, and others. Their work should 
be an incentive to geologists interested in this branch of our science. I am 
convinced that the systematic collection and correlation of hydro-geological 
data at present available, together with new ascertainable data, would 
prove of the greatest value, both as a contribution to pure science and for 
the full and proper utilisation of our water resources. Work of this nature 
could best be done by geologists with an intimate knowledge of the areas 
selected for study. 

In the past many records have been published which are more than 
imperfect and faulty—they are positively misleading. It is not to be ex- 
pected that a boring foreman or well-sinker should correctly name the strata 
passed through ; it is not always insisted that cores are properly laid out 
and marked ; water levels are stated without surety that they are true rest 
levels, and quantities given as pumped may be the initial yield, and not the 
constant yield after equilibrium has been established. 

The composition of underground water is a subject of sufficient importance 
to warrant separate treatment. Apart from organic purity, which is essential 
in all potable water supplies, there are limits of mineral content beyond 
which water is unfit for general domestic or industrial use. I know of little 
work so far done in preparing graphs and charts showing the geographical 


UNDERGROUND WATER SUPPLY 461 


or geological distribution of waters of different ‘ hardness.’ And there are 
many cases of waters of abnormal composition which, if recorded and 
investigated, might yield results of scientific or industrial value. 

Organisation of Research —What should be the aim in organising research 
in our underground water supplies, in collecting existing data, correlating 
them, and making them available for the scientific inquirer, and for 
engineers and others with a view to their maximum public utility ? 

The Ministry of Health, in association with engineering institutions, 
are at the present time alive to the necessity of some action. Regional 
Advisory Committees have already been formed in some parts of the 
country to collect information as to water resources and requirements in 
their respective areas. But these committees are devoid of statutory 
authority, they are not financed, and for the time being they can do little 
more than to explore the ground to be dealt with later. Moreover, they are 
dealing almost exclusively with surface supplies. 

Perhaps the ideal plan would be for a central or Government Department 
of Hydrology, including hydro-geology, to undertake, apart from administra- 
tive duties, some of the research work I have outlined here. The Depart- 
ment of Scientific and Industrial Research at once suggests itself in this 
connection. Others may think that the Geological Survey is the appro- 
priate body. In the United States the Geological Survey has always 
included water supply and irrigation as an important part of its functions, 
and its water supply publications have been of great service to engineers, 
agriculturists and geologists, not only in the United States, but all over the 
world. But if the Geological Survey of Great Britain undertook this work 
it would mean a considerable reorganisation and addition to the staff, and 
a largely increased grant from Government. For many years past the 
Geological Survey has published county Water Supply Memoirs—some 
twenty-six up to the present time—which have proved of great service to 
engineers, public authorities and others. We owe a debt of gratitude to 
the late Mr. Whitaker for his enthusiasm and industry in compiling many 
of these memoirs. 

At the same time it must be admitted that the material in these publica- 
tions, with some notable exceptions, is mainly a compilation of existing 
records from many sources, some of them ancient and unchecked, and 
necessarily incomplete. The Geological Survey has also in its possession 
many thousands of records of wells and borings, many of which can be 
consulted by those interested in water questions. 

Again, a mass of hydrological data has been collected by the Ministry of 
Health, partly with a view to some possible future scheme of co- -ordinating 
or grouping water authorities into water boards. This material is only 
available for official purposes, and in any case it would require, I imagine, 
much sifting and interpreting before it could be made available for further 
scientific inquiry or public use. Nor, so far as I know, does it include the 
kind of observation, recording and research on underground water to which 
I have referred. 

The question I want now to put before you is this: What can we do, 
_ what can this Section of the Association do, to stimulate investigation along 
some of the lines I have indicated ? Can we encourage individuals or groups, 
with the requisite geological knowledge and enthusiasm, to collect and record 
existing data relating to underground water supply, and where possible to 
extend these data, and to interpret and publish the results ? Is this the time 
to form a Committee with objects ancillary to, but distinct from, those of the 
recently formed Committee on Inland Water Survey ? 

The idea is not altogether novel, for Committees of the British Association, 


462 UNDERGROUND WATER SUPPLY 


inaugurated more than twenty years ago, did sound pioneer work in this 
field. A Committee on underground circulation in the New Red Sandstone 
and Permian was started in 1874, the scope of which was extended in 1881 
to the permeable formations of England and Wales. Dr. Howarth, the 
Secretary of the Association, has kindly supplied me with a note on the work 
of this Committee, as published in the Annual Reports of the Association 
down to 1895, when the Committee lapsed. The moving spirits in this 
work were De Rance and Whitaker, and a great mass of information was 
collected during those twenty years. ‘Towards the end of that period, 
De Rance made a digest of all the previous reports, but up to now the 
whereabouts of this summary has not been traced. Some of the records 
of this Committee have been subsequently incorporated in the Water 
Supply Memoirs of the Geological Survey, and others extensively used by 
water authorities and experts. 

Another Committee on the ‘movements of underground waters in 
north-west Yorkshire ’ worked in conjunction with the Yorkshire Geological 
and Polytechnic Society, and published its last report in 1905. 

Whatever be the outcome of the conferences now being held by various 
engineering societies and the Ministry, prompted at the moment by the 
shortage of water due to the drought, there will remain the urgent need of 
investigation and patient research on underground water, and the accumula- 
tion of properly sifted data and records, published in such a form and with 
such authority that they can be utilised for further inquiry, and made 
available ultimately for the public good, whether through regional bodies 
or a central authority. Are we in a position to help forward this work ? 


REFERENCES TO PUBLICATION OF 
COMMUNICATIONS TO THE SECTIONS 


AND OTHER REFERENCES SUPPLIED BY AUTHORS. 


The titles of discussions, or the names of readers of papers in the Sections 
(pp. 269-405), as to which publication notes have been supplied, are given 
below in alphabetical order under each Section. 

References indicated by ‘ cf.’ are to appropriate works quoted by the 
authors of papers, not to the papers themselves. 

General reference may be made to the issues of Nature (weekly) during 
and subsequent to the meeting. 


SECTION A. 


Bragg, Prof. W. L.—Cf. Proc. Roy. Soc., A, 145 (1934). 

Howe, Prof. G. W. O.—Electrician, 118, p. 329, Sept. 14 (1934). 
Howell, H. G.—Proc. Univ. Durham Phil. Soc., 9, pt. 3. 

McCrea, Dr. W. H.—Expected to appear in Zeitschr. fiir Astrophys. 


Naismith, R.—Cf. Nature, 182, p. 340 (1933) ; ibid., 188, pp. 57, 66 
(1934) ; paper to appear in Proc. Roy. Soc. 


Ratcliffe, J. A——Cf. Proc. Phys. Soc., 46, p. 107 (1934). 


Thomson, Prof. G. P.—Cf. Phil. Mag., Ser. 7, 16, p. 961, Nov. (1933) ; 
Proc. Roy. Soc., A, 140 (1933). 


Young, C.—Times, Sept. 13 (1934) ; cf. Proc. Fun. Inst. Engs., 42, pt. 11, 
Aug. (1932). 
DEPARTMENT A*. 


Marr, Dr. W. L.—Cf. Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc., 21, 599 (1923) ; Journ. 
Lond. Math. Soc., 1, 86-93 (1926) ; ibid., 5, 193-195 (1930). 


DEPARTMENT At. 


Williams, E. G.—Pubns. of Astron. Soc. of Pacific, Oct. (1934) ; to appear 
in extended form in Astrophys. Fourn. (1935) ; cf. Ann. Solar Phys. Observ., 
Cambridge, 2, pt. 2 (1932). 


JornT SEssIONS ON TECHNICAL Puysics, AG. 
A general report of the transactions in these sessions appeared in 
Engineering, 188, 3589, Oct. 26 (1934). 
Angus, T. C—Expected to appear in Journ. Textile Inst., Nov. or Dec. 
(1934). 
Crowden, G. P.—Engineering, 188, p. 395, Oct. 12 (1934). 


464 REFERENCES TO PUBLICATIONS, ETC. 


Davies, L. J——On ‘ Road Illumination,’ Electrician, p. 390, Sept. 28 
(1934). 

Douglas, A. H.—Engineering, 188, 3591, p. 513, Nov. 9 (1934). 

Dufton, A. F.—Cf. Building Res. Tech. Paper, no. 13 (1932); Journ. 
Hygiene, 33, 3, p. 349 (1933); wbid., 33, 4, p. 474 (1933); Journ. Inst. 
Heating & Ventilating Engs., 2, 18, p. 256 (1934). 

Fishenden, Dr. Margaret.—Engineering, 188, 3590, p. 479, Nov. 2 
(1934). 

Herbert, E. G.—WMachinist, Sept. 22 (1934); Engineer, 158, 4108, 
Pp. 332, Oct. 5 (1934) ; Metallurgia, Sept. (1934) ; to appear in Engineering, 
cf. Proc. Roy. Soc., A, 180, p. 514 (1931); Metallurgia, 4, pp. 9 and 47 
(1931) ; zbid., 5, p. 13 (1931-2) ; ibid., 6, p. 120 (1932) ; ibid., Nov. (1933) ; 
Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng., 124, p. 645. 

Johansen, F. C.—Engineering, 188, 3585, p. 330, Sept. 28 (1934). 

Knight, H. de B.—Electrician, p. 390, Sept. 28 (1934) ; Engineer, 158, 
4108, p. 332, Oct. 5 (1934). 

Lloyd-Evans, B.—Engineer, 158, 4108, p. 332, Oct. 5 (1934); to appear 
in Engineering. 

Marsh, Dr. M. C.—Abridged version in Yorks. Post, Sept. 14 (1934) ; 
cf. Proc. Phys. Soc., 42, p. 570 (1930) ; ibid., 45, p. 414 (1933). 

Maxted, P.—Electrician, p. 390, Sept. 28 (1934). 

Ruff, H. R.—Electrician, p. 390, Sept. 28 (1934). 

Saunders, O. A.—Engineering, 188, 3589, pp. 436, 446, Oct. 26 (1934). 

Small, Dr. J—To appear in Phil. Mag. 

Watts, S. S.—Engineer, 158, 4108, p. 332, Oct. 5 (1934) ; to appear in 
Engineering. 

Whipple, R. S.—Electrician, p. 360, Sept. 21 (1934); summary in 
Engineering, 188, 3592, p. 541, Nov. 16 (1934). 


SECTION B. 


Ascorbic acid (vitamin C), discussion.—Nature, 184, 3393, p. 724, 
Nov. 10 (1934). 

Chemistry of milk, discussion Chem. Age, p. 230 (Sept. 15); Nature, 
184, 3391, p. 669, Oct. 27 (1934). 

Allsopp, Dr. C. B—Expected to form pt. VIII of a series in Proc. Roy. Soc. 
of which other parts are :—I—188, 26 (1931) ; II1—188, 36 (1931) ; III— 
188, 48 (1931) ; IV—148, 618 (1934) ; V—146, 300 (1934) ; VI—146, 313 
(1934). 

Boys, S. F.—Cf. Proc. Roy. Soc., A, 144, pp. 655, 675 (1934). 

Cox, E. G.—Expected to appear in extended form in Fourn. Chem. Soc. ; 
cf. Nature, Aug. 6 (1932) ; ibid., 888 (1932) ; ibid., 181, 402. 

Davies, Dr. W. L.—Cf. Analyst, 57, 79 (1932) ; Fourn. Dairy Res., 4, 
142 (1933) ; ibid., 4, 273 (1933) ; Nature, 184, 3391, p. 669, Oct. 27 (1934). 

de Laszlo, Dr. H—Cf. Proc. Roy. Soc., A, 146, 662 ; Comptes Rendues 
de l’ Acad. des Sciences, 198, 2235 ; Nature, 184, 63. 

Eastwood, E.—To appear in Proc. Roy. Soc. ; cf. Nature, 188, 908 (1934). 


REFERENCES TO PUBLICATIONS, ETC. 465 


Haworth, Prof. W. N,—WNature, 184, 3393, p. 724, Nov. 10 (1934); cf. 
Nature, 24 (1933); Journ. Soc. Chem. Ind., 52, pp. 482 and 645 (1933) ; 
Fourn. Chem. Soc., 1419 (1933); tbid., 62 (1934); Helv. Chim. Acta, 17, 
520 (1934) ; Fourn. Chem. Soc., 1155 (1934) ; ibid., 1192 (1934). 

Hilditch, Prof. T. P—Chem. Age, p. 230, Sept. 15; cf. Analyst, 54, 75 
(1929) ; Biochem. Fourn., 24, 1098 (1930) ; ibid., 25, 507 (1931) ; ibid., 27, 
889 (1933) ; tbid., 28, 779 (1934) ; Nature, 184, 3391, p. 670, Oct. 27 (1934). 

Hirst, Dr. E. L.—Cf. Nature, 888 (1932) ; ourn. Soc. Chem. Ind., 52, 
221 (1933); Nature, 181, 402; ibid., 181, p. 617 (1933); ibid., Aug. 6 
(1932) ; Fourn. Soc. Chem. Ind., 52, p. 645 (1933) ; Journ. Chem. Soc., 1270 
(1933) ; Biochem. Fourn., 27, 4, p. 1271 (1933); Journ. Chem. Soc., 1419 
(1933) ; ibid., 1564 (1933); ibid., 62 (1934); Helv. Chim. Acta, 17, 520 
(1934) ; Journ. Chem. Soc., 1155 (1934); tbid., 1192 (1934); ibid., 1556 
(1934) ; Nature, 184, 3393, p. 724, Nov. 10 (1934). 

Kay, Prof. H. D—WNature, 184, 3391, p. 669. Oct. 27 (1934). 

Kon, Dr. S. K.— Nature, 184, 3391, p. 670, Oct. 27 (1934) ; expected to 
be published in extenso in near future ; cf. Biochem. Fourn., 27, 1302 (1933) ; 
ibid., 28, 111 (1934); ibid., 28, 121 (1934); Journ. Soc. Chem. Indust., 
52, 844 (1933) ; Biochem. Fourn., 27, 1189 (1933) ; Nature, 182, 64 (1933) ; 
tbid., 182, 446 (1933) ; ibid., 184, 536 (1934) ; Ann. Reports, Nat. Inst. Res. 
Dairying (1932 and 1933); further papers to appear in Biochem. Fourn. 

Linderstrom-Lang, Dr. K.—Nature, 184, 3391, p. 669, Oct. 27 (1934) ; 
cf. Compt. Rend. du Lab. Carlsberg, 16, 1 (1925) ; Zeitschr. physiol. Chem., 
176, 76 (1928) ; Compt. Rend. du Lab. Carlsberg, 17, 9 (1929) ; ibid., 19, 
10 (1933) ; Zettschr. physiol. Chem., 206, 85 (1932). 

Reichstein, Dr. T.—Nature, 184, 3393, p. 724, Nov. 10 (1934); cf. 
Nature, 182, 280 (1933); Helv. Chim. Acta, 16, 561 (1933); ibid., 
16, 1019 (1933); ibid., 17, 311 (1934); ibid., 17, 510 (1934); ibid., 17, 
753 (1934) ; tbid., 17, 996 (1934) ; ibid., 17, 1003 (1934). 

Snow, Dr. C. P.—To appear in Proc. Roy. Soc.; cf. Nature, 188, 908 
(1934). 

Sutherland, G. B. B. M.—Cf. Nature, 184, 3394, p. 775, Nov. 17 (1934). 

Szent-Gyérgyi, Prof. A.—Nature, 184, 3393, p. 724, Nov. 10 (1934); 
cf. ibid., 24 (1933). 


Tocher, Dr. J. F—Nature, 184, 3391, p. 669, Oct. 27 (1934). 


SECTION C. 


Moinian and Dalradian formations, discussion—To appear in abridged 
form in Nature. 

Underground water supply, discussion—WNature, 184, 3391, p. 652, 
Oct. 27 (1934). 

Benson, Prof. W. N.—On ‘ Devonian rocks of Australia,’ to appear in 
extended form in Sir Edgeworth David’s ‘ Geology of Australian Common- 
wealth’; cf. Records Geol. Survey New S. Wales, 10, p. 83 (1922). 

On ‘ Ordovician rocks of New Zealand,’ expected to appear in Trans. Roy. 
Soc., New Zealand ; cf. Trans. N. Zealand Inst., 68, p. 400 (1933). 


Bisset, C. B—Cf. Trans. Edin. Geol. Soc., 18, p. 72 (1934). 
Bremner, Dr. A.—Trans. Edin. Geol. Soc., 18, pt. 1, p. 17 (1934). 


466 REFERENCES TO PUBLICATIONS, ETC. 


Buchan, Dr. S.—On ‘ Aberdeenshire granites,’ cf. Trans. Edin. Geol. 
Soc., 18, p. 72 (1934). 

On ‘ Peterhead and Cairngall granites,’ cf. Trans. Edin. Geol. Soc., 12, 
P- 323 (1932). 


Campbell, Dr. R.—Trans. Edin. Geol. Soc., 18, p. 176 (1934). 
Gibb, Prof. A. W.—Aberdeen Press & Fourn., Sept. 7 (1934). 
Imlay, Miss J. E——Cf. Trans. Edin. Geol. Soc., 18, p. 72 (1934). 


Knight, Dr. B. H— Quarry and Roadmaking, Oct. (1934) ; in extended 
form in Quarry Managers’ JFourn., Oct. (1934); cf. Journ. Inst. Municipal 


and County Engs., Jan. (1927) ; ibid., Jan. (1934) ; Surveyor, Aug. (1933) ; 
Journ. Inst. San. Engs., Nov. (1933). 


Oakley, K. P.—Proc. Roy. Soc., B, 116, p. 296 (1934). 


Read, Prof. H. H.—Geol. Mag., p. 302 (1934); to appear in abridged 
form in Nature. 


Robbie, J. A.—Cf. Trans. Edin. Geol. Soc., 18, p. 72 (1934). 
Robertson, Dr. I. M.—Trans. Edin. Geol. Soc., 18, p. 176 (1934). 
Scourfield, D. J—Cf. Phil. Trans., B, 214, p. 153 (1926). 

von Eckermann, Prof. H.—Geologiska Féreningens Férhandlingar, 56. 


SECTION D. 


Inheritance of productivity, discussion.—To appear in Empire Fourn. Exp. 
Agric. 


Cameron, Dr. A. E.—Aberdeen Press & Fourn., Sept. 6 (1934); cf. 
Bull. Ent. Res., 17, p. 1 (1926) ; Nature, 126, p. 601 (1930) ; ibid., 180, 
p. 94 (1932) ; Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., 58, pt. 1, p. 211 (1934). 


Fritsch, Prof. F. E.—Cf. fourn. Ecology, 19, p. 244 (1931). 
Greenwood, Dr. A. W.—To appear in Empire Journ. Exp. Agric. 


Hammond, J.—To appear in Empire Journ. Exp. Agric. ; cf.‘ Growth and 


Development of Mutton Qualities in the Sheep ’ (Hammond and Appleton) 
Edinburgh (1932). 


Hardy, Prof. A. C_—Cf. ‘ Plankton of South Georgia Whaling Grounds,’ 
pt. 5, Discovery Reports, 10. 


Lush, Dr. J. L—To appear in Empire Journ. Exp. Agric. 
MacLagan, Dr. D. S.—Expected to appear in ¥ourn. Animal Ecol. 
Nichols, Dr. J. E—To appear in Empire Fourn. Exp. Agric. 


Pentelow, F. T. K.—Cf. Fourn. Animal Ecol., 1, 2, Nov. (1932) ; ‘ Survey 
of R. Tees ’ (Technical Paper of Water Polln. Res. Bd.). 


Raitt, Dr. D. S.—Fishing News, Sept. 7 (1934) ; summary in Aberdeen 
Press & Journ., p. 5, Sept. 7 (1934); cf. Fisheries of Scot., Sci. Invest., no. 1 
(1932). 


Reichensperger, Prof. Dr. A—Expected to appear in Zeitschr. fiir wis- 
sensch. Zoologie. 


Sandon, Dr. H.—Cf. Nature, 188, p. 761, May 19 (1934). 


ee 


REFERENCES TO PUBLICATIONS, ETC. 467 


Smith, A. D. Buchanan.—Scottish Farmer, p. 1379, Oct. 13 (1934) ; 


North Brit. Agriculturalist, Sept. 13 (1934); to appear in Empire Journ. 
Exp. Agric. 


Versluys, Prof. J —Nature, 184, 3392, p. 706, Nov. 3 (1934). 


Wood, Dr. H.—Aberdeen Press & Fourn., p. 5, Sept. 7 (1934); Fishing 
News, p. 7, Sept. 8 (1934) ; ibid., Sept. 10 (1934). 


Zuckerman, Dr. S.—Expected to appear in Science Progress or Character 
and Personality. 
: SECTION E. 


Benson, Prof. W. N.—To be embodied in memoir yet to be published. 


Crowe, P. R.—May appear in Geog. Review (New York) ; cf. Scot. Geog. 
Mag., March (1933). 


Darby, Dr. H. C—Cf. Scot. Geog. Mag., 49, p. 323, Nov. (1933). 
Fogg, W.—To appear in Scot. Geog. Mag.; cf. Geography, 17, (1932). 


Geddes, Dr. A——Cf. Geography, 15, pt. 3, Sept. (1929) ; ‘ Au Pays de 
Tagore ’ (Geddes, Paris, 1927). 


Smailes, A. E—May appear in Geography. 


Snodgrass, Dr. Catherine P—Cf. Scot. Geog. Mag., 48, Nov. (1932) ; 
ibid., 49, Jan. (1933). 


Taylor, Prof. E. G. R—Lecture Recorder, 4, 3, p. 64, Oct. (1934). 


SECTION F. 


Economic planning, discussion.—Summary in Nature, 184, 3387, p. 503, 
Sept. 29 (1934). 

Bruck, Prof. W. F.—WNature, 1384, 3387, p. 503, Sept. 29 (1934) ; Times, 
Sept. 10 (1934); cf. ‘Road to Planned Economy ’” (Bruck), O.U. Press 
(1934). 

Gray, Prof. A.—Nature, 184, 3387, p. 503, Sept. 29 (1934). 

Hamilton, Dr. H.—Aberdeen Press & Fourn., p. 5, Sept. 7 (1934). 

Macgregor, Prof. D. H.—Nature, 184, 3387, p. 503, Sept. 29 (1934). 

Rowson, S.—¥ourn. Roy. Statist. Soc., 97, pt. 4 (1934). 

Stamp, Sir J. C—WNature, 184, 3387, p. 503, Sept. 29 (1934). 


DEPARTMENT F*. 


Experimental method in industrial relations, discussion.—WNature, 184, 
3392, p. 707, Nov. 3 (1934). 

Dent, A. G. H.—To appear in Accountant ; to appear in abridged form 
in Industry Illustrated. 

Dubreuil, H.— Labour Management, Nov. (1934); Industry Illustrated, 
Dec. (1934) ; in summary in Nature, 184, 3392, p. 707, Nov. 3 (1934); 
Lecture Recorder, 4, 3, p. 68, Oct. (1934). 

Hall, N. F.—Jndustry Illustrated, Nov. (1934); Nature, 184, 3389, 
P- 579, Oct. 13 (1934). 

Lindsay, K.—Jndustry Illustrated, Oct. (1934). 


468 REFERENCES TO PUBLICATIONS, ETC. 


Mackay, R. J.—Industry Illustrated, Dec. (1934) ; in summary in Nature, 
184, 3392, p. 707, Nov. 3 (1934). 

Meyenberg, Prof. F —Nature, 184, 3392, p. 707, Nov. 3 (1934). 

Stamp, Sir Josiah C.—Industry Illustrated, Oct. (1934); Colliery Guardian, 
P. 505, Sept. 14 (1934). 

Wilson, Garnet.— Scot. Educ. Fourn., p. 1169, Sept. 14 (1934). 


SECTION G. 


A general report of the transactions of this section, together with full 
reports of individual papers as noted below, appeared in Engineering, 184, 
3582, Sept. 7 (1934), et seqq. 

Reduction of noise, discussion.— Engineering, 188, 3584, pp. 310, 314, 316, 
Sept. 21 (1934) ; ibid., 188, 3589, p. 451, Oct. 26 (1034) ; in summary in 
Nature, 184, 3390, p. "663, Oct. 20 (1934) ; Engineer, 158, 4106, p. 278, 
Sept. 21 (1934). 

Abel, J.— Engineering, 188, 3584, pp. 310 and 314, Sept. 21 (1934). 


Allen, R. W.—Engineering, 188, 3587, p. 398, Oct. 12 (1934) ; Engineer, 
158, 4106, p. 277, Sept. 21 (1934). 

Anderson, F. S.—Quarry Managers’ Fourn., Oct. (1934) ; Monumental- 
Architect. Stone Fourn., Oct. (1934); summary in Engineering, Sept. 14 
(1934) ; Engineer, 158, 4105, p. 257, Sept. 14 (1934). 

Cave-Browne-Cave, Wing-Cmdr. T. R.—Engineering, 188, 3584, pp. 310 
and 316, Sept. 21 (1934); Nature, 184, 3390, p. 633, Oct. 20 (1934) ; 
Engineer, 158, 4106, p. 279, Sept. 21 (1934). 


Davis, Dr. A. H.—Nature, 184, 3390, Oct. 20 (1934) ; Engineering, 188, 
3584, p. 310, Sept. 21 (1934), and subsequently ; Engineer, 158, 4106, 
p. 279, Sept. 21 (1934); cf. chap. 15, ‘ Modern Acoustics ’ (Bell & Sons, 
1934); Roy. Aeronaut. Soc. Reprint, no. 59; Fourn. Phys. Soc., p. 82 
(1931) ; Nature, 125, p. 48 (1930). 

Duguid, J.—Engineering, 188, 3584, pp. 310 and 314, Sept. 21 (1934). 

Evans, Dr. R. H.—Engineer, 158, 4108, p. 331, Oct. 5 (1931). 

Fowler, Sir H— Engineering, 188, 3584, p. 310, Sept. 21 (1934) ; Engineer, 
158, 4106, p. 278, Sept. 21 (1934). 

Haigh, Prof. B. P—Engineer, 158, 4108, p. 330, Oct. 5 (1934) ; Engineer- 
ing, 188, 3586, p. 364, Oct. 5 (1934) ; tbid., 188, 3590, p. 461, Nov. 2 (1934) . 
and subsequently ; cf. report of B.A. Committee on Stresses in Over- 
strained Materials (1932). 


Halcrow, W. T.—Engineering, 188, 3583, p. 288, Sept. 14 (1934) ; Elec- 
trician, p. 359, Sept. 21 (1934); Water & Water Eng., Nov. (1934); in 
part in Engineer, 158, 4105, p. 256, Sept. 14 (1934); cf. ‘ Scottish Water 
Powers ’ (paper to Barcelona meeting World Power Conf., 1929) ; ‘ Water 
Power Developments in Gt. Brit. & Ireland ’ (paper to World Eng. Cong., 
Tokyo, 1930) ; ‘ Water Power Resources of Brit. Isles,’ Journ. C.U. Eng. & 
Aeronaut. Soc., 1932. 


Hallam, H.—Engineer, 158, 4108, p. 331, Oct. 5 (1934); to appear in 
Engineering. 

Henderson, Sir J. B.— Engineering, 188, 3585, pp. 335 and 337, Sept. 28 
(1934) ; Engineer, 158, 4107, p. 307, Sept. 28 (1934). 


REFERENCES TO PUBLICATIONS, ETC. 469 


Lander, Prof. C. H.—Engineering, 188, 3586, p. 369, Oct. 5 (1934) ; ibid. 
188, 3588, p.423, Oct. 19 (1934); Engineer, 158, 4106, p.269, Sept. 21 (1934). 

McClean, Capt. W. N.—Engineering, 188, 3585, pp. 336 and 338, Sept. 28 
(1934) ; Engineer, 158, 4107, p. 308, Sept. 28 (1934) ; Water & Water Eng., 
Nov. (1934); cf. Trans. Inst. Water Engs., 82 (1927); ibid., 38 (1933) 5 
Geog. Fourn., 76, July (1930) ; ‘ Quart. Reports and Records of River Flow, 
Rivers Garry and Moriston, 1929-31’ (River Flow Records, Parliament 
Mansions, S.W. 1). 

Medd, R. T.—Engineering, 188, 3586, p. 365, Oct. 5 (1934) ; Engineer, 
158, 4108, p. 331, Oct. 5 (1934). 

Smith, Dr. E. W.—Engineering, 188, 3586, p. 369, Oct. 5 (1934) ; tid., 
188, 3588, p. 423, Oct. 19 (1934) ; Engineer, 158, 4106, p. 269, Sept. 21 
(1934). 

Southwell, Prof. R. V.—Engineer, 158, 4108, p. 331, Oct. 5 (1934); to 
appear in Engineering. 

Thomlinson, J.—Engineer, 158, 4108, p. 331, Oct. 5 (1934). 

Turner, E. O.—Engineering, 188, 3584, p. 310, Sept. 21 (1934); «id., 
188, 3589, p. 451, Oct. 26 (1934); Nature, 184, 3390, p. 633, Oct. 20 
(1934) ; Engineer, 158, 4106, p. 279, Sept. 21 (1934). 


SEcTION H. 


Callander, Dr. J. G.—Deeside Field, no. 6 (1934). 

Childe, Prof. V. Gordon.—To appear in extended form in ‘ Prehistory 
of Scotland ’ (Childe), Kegan Paul (1935). 

Curle, A. O.—Cf. Proc. Soc. Antiquaries of Scotland. 

Driberg, J. H—To appear in extended form in Journ. African Soc. 

Earthy, Miss E. D.—Cf. ‘ VaLenge Women ’ (Earthy), O.U.P. (1933) 3 
Man., Oct. (1934). 

Hasluck, Mrs. M. M.—To appear in extended form in Man (mid-1935). 

Hill, Prof. W. C. O.—Cf. Nature, Dec. (1932). Further detailed accounts 
expected to appear in Ceylon Fourn. Science. 

Keiller, A—Reprinted by Morven Inst. Archzol. Res. (1934). 


MacCulloch, Rev. Canon J. A~—In summary in Lecture Recorder, 4, 4, 
p. 90, Nov. (1934) ; expected to be embodied in book yet to be published ; 
cf. ‘ Medieval Faith and Fable ’ (MacCulloch), Harrap (1932) ; Folk-Lore, 
32, 227. 

Raglan, Rt. Hon. Lord.—S. Wales Argus, Sept. 10 (1934). 

Scott, Rev. Dr. A. B.—Cf. ‘ Rise and Relations of Church of Scotland ’ 
(Scott), Andrew Elliot, Edin.; ‘Pictish Nation, People and Church = 
(Scott), Foulis, Edin. 


Tocher, Dr. J. F—Aberdeen Press & Fourn., p. 4, Sept. 8 (1934). 


SEecTION I. 


Food preservation, symposium.—In summary in Nature, 184, 3395, 
p. 798, Nov. 24 (1934). 

Nutrition in relation to disease, discussion. Nature, 184, 3389, p. 557, 
Oct. 13 (1934). 


470 REFERENCES TO PUBLICATIONS, ETC. 


Physiology and pathology of blood, discussion —Nature, 184, 3392, 
p. 705, Nov. 3 (1934). 

Adams, T. W.—Expected to appear in Guy’s Hosp. Reports and in book 
form ; cf. Journ. Physiol. Soc.,'77. 

Barcroft, Prof. J.—Nature, 184, 3392, p. 705, Nov. 3 (1934). 

Cowell, Prof. S. J.— Nature, 184, 3389, p. 557, Oct. 13 (1934). 

Davidson, Prof. L. S. P.—WNature, 184, 3392, p. 705, Nov. 3 (1934). 

Easterfield, T. H.—Cf. Fourn. Agric. Sci., 19, pt. 3, July 22 (1929). 

Edridge-Green, Dr. F. W.—Cf. ‘ Physiology of Vision ’ (Edridge-Green, 
1920) ; ‘ Science and Pseudo-Science ’ (Edridge-Green, 1933) ; Post-Grad. 
Med. Fourn. (1934). 

Green, Dr. H. H.—Nature, 184, 3389, p. 557, Oct. 13 (1934). 

Kidd, Dr. F.—In summary in Nature, 184, 3395, p. 798, Nov. 24 (1934). 

Lovern, Dr. J. A-—In summary in Nature, 184, 3395, p. 799, Nov. 24 
(1934). 

Macleod, Prof. J. J. R.—Nature, 184, 3389, p. 557, Oct. 13 (1934). 

MacWilliam, Prof. J. A.—Expected to appear in extended form in Quart. 
Journ. Exp. Physiol., and Brit. Med. fourn. ; cf. Quart. Journ. Exp. Physiol., 
28, p. 1 (1933). 

Mellanby, Dr. May.—Nature, 184, 3389, p. 557, Oct. 13 (1934); cf. 
No. 191, Special Report Series (Medical Research Council, London, 1934). 

Millikan, Dr. G. A.—Nature, 184, 3392, p. 706, Nov. 3 (1934). 

Moran, Dr. T.—In summary in Nature, 184, 3395, p. 798, Nov. 24 
(1934). 

Orr, Dr. J. B— Nature, 184, 3389, p. 557, Oct. 13 (1934). 

Poulton, Dr. E. P—Expected to appear in Guy’s Hosp. Reports and in 
book form ; cf. Fourn. Physiol. Soc., 77 ; Fourn. Roy. Soc. Med., 25, Jan. 
(1932) ; ibid., 26, Oct. (1933). 

Reay, Dr. G. A.—In summary in Nature, 184, 3395, p. 798, Nov. 24 
(1934). 

Robertson, Dr. D.—Nature, 184, 3389, p. 557, Oct. 13 (1934). 

Roughton, Dr. F. J. W.—Nature, 184, 3392, p. 705, Nov. 3 (1934). 

Smith, Dr. E. C—In summary in Nature, 184, 3395, p. 798, Nov. 24 
(1934). 

West, Dr. C.—In summary in Nature, 184, 3395, p. 798, Nov. 24 (1934). 


SECTION J. 


Binns, H.—Cf. Journ. Text. Inst., 25, no. 21 (1934) ; Proc. VIIth Internat. 
Cong. Psych., Oxford (1923) ; Pract. Educ. & School Crafts, 21, 233, 234, 
235 (1924); Wool Record & Textile World, July 30 (1925) ; Brit. Journ. 
Psych., 16, pt. 3 (1926) ; Fourn. Text. Inst., 28, no. 28 (1932) ; ibid., 25, 
no. 5 (1934) ; zbid., 25, no. 11 (1934). 

Dodds, Miss G. B.—Cf. ‘ Legons Vivantes ’ (Dodds), Gregg Publ. Co. 

Katz, Prof. D.—Acta Psychologica, 1 (Martinus Nijhoff, Holland, 1934); 
in summary in Nature, 184, 3393, p. 744, Nov. 10 (1934). 


REFERENCES TO PUBLICATIONS, ETC. 471 


Katz, Dr. Rosa.—Cf. Zeitschr. fiir Kinderforschung, 42 (1933) ; ‘ Gesprache 
mit Kindern ’ (Katz, Berlin, 1928). 


King, Rev. Dr. J. Leycester—In extended form in, Archiv fiir gesamte 
Psych. (Leipzig), 92, p. 423 (1934). 

Oakley, C. A.—Expected to appear in Human Factor. 

Oeser, Dr. O—Expected to appear in Brit. Journ. Educ. Psych. 


Penrose, Dr. L. S.—Expected to appear in General Report Res. Dept. Roy. 
East. Counties’ Inst. (1935) ; cf. Special Schools Fourn. (1933); Brit. Med. 
Fourn., Jan. 6 (1934) ; Eugenics Rev., July (1934); Brit. fourn. Psych., 24, 
July (1933); ‘ Mental Defect’ (Penrose), Sidgwick & Jackson (1933) ; 
“Influence of Heredity on Disease ’ (Penrose), H. K. Lewis (1934). 


Pickford, Dr. R. W.—To be embodied in book yet to be published. 


Vernon, Dr. P. E.—Cf. ‘ Yearbook of Education for 1935,’ Evans Bros. 
(1935). 

Wales, Miss J. A——To appear in Human Factor. 

Wiesner, Dr. B. P—In summary in Nature, 184, 3393, p. 745, Nov. 10 
(1934). 

SECTION K. 

Benson, Dr. Margaret.—Cf. Proc. Linnean Soc. Lond., 146, pt. 1, p. 38 
Ges ; Ann. Bot., July (1934) ; ibid., Jan. (1935) ; New Phytologist, 1 
1935). 

Blackburn, Dr. Kathleen——Cf Forestry, 8, no. 1 (1934). 

Bond, Dr. G.—To appear in Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. 

Bryan, J —Timber Trades Fourn., 180, 3028, p. 680, Sept. 8 (1934). 

Caldwell, Dr. J —To appear in Proc. Roy. Soc., B. 


Dickinson, Dr. Olive D.—In extended form as ‘Communication 31, 
Station Internat. Geobot. Medit. et Alpine, Montpellier ’ (1934). 


Doyle, Prof. J—Expected to appear in Proc. Roy. Dublin Soc. 
Graham, Prof. R. J. D—Trans. & Proc. Bot. Soc. Edin., 81, pt. 3, p. 450. 
Gregor, Dr. Mary J. F.—May appear in extended form in Phytopatho- 
logische Zeitschr.; cf. Ann. Mycologici, 80, p. 463 (1932). 
” T. A.—Expected to appear in extended form in Ann. Bot., April 
1935). 


Priestley, Prof. J. H—Expected to appear in Proc. Leeds Phil. & Lit. Soc., 
Sci. Section. 


Seifriz, Prof. W.—Cf. American Naturalist, 68, p. 410 (1929); Proto- 
plasma, 21, p. 129 (1934); further matter to appear in Journ. Rheology 
(1935). 

Smith, Dr. Edith P.—In extended form in Scottish Naturalist, Nov.- 
Dec. (1934). 

Wilkinson, J.—Cf. Forestry, 8, no. 1 (1934). 


DEPARTMENT K*. 


_ Dallimore, W.—Gardener’s Chronicle, Nov. 10 (1934) and subsequently ; 
to appear in Quart. Journ. Forestry ; expected to appear in Scot. For. Journ. ; 
in summary in Lecture Recorder, 4, 5, Dec. (1934). 


Gorrie, Dr. R. McL.—Timber Trades Journ., p. 753, Sept. 15 (1934). 


472 REFERENCES TO PUBLICATIONS, ETC. 


Hutchinson, H. P.—To appear in Roy. Scot. Forestry Journ. ; cf. Annual 
Report, Long Ashton Res. Station (1922, 1923, 1924, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929, 
1930, 1931, 1932, 1933) ; fourn. Ministry Agric., July (1929) ; Quart. Journ. 
Forestry, April (1933) ; Journ. Nat. Fedn. Women’s Insts.; Nature, Feb. 8 
(1930); ‘Economic survey of Somerset Willow Growing Industry’ 
(Hutchinson), Univ. Bristol. 


Stirling-Maxwell, Sir John.—To appear in Trans. Roy. Scot. Forestry 
Soc. ; in summary in Lecture Recorder, 4, 5, Dec. (1934). 


SECTION L. 


Development of post-primary education, discussion.—Yourn. Educ., 66, 
783, p. 649, Oct. (1934) ; Times Educ. Suppt., Sept. 15 (1934). 

Technical education and industrial recruitment, discussion.—Yourn. 
Educ., 66, 784, p. 688, Nov. 1 (1934) ; Nature, 184, 3395, p. 819, Nov. 24 
(1934). 

Bispham, J. W.—Yourn. Educ., 66, 784, p. 688, Nov. 1 (1934); Nature, 
134, 3395, p. 819, Nov. 24 (1934). 

Bond, Col. C. J.—Printed privately. 

Duckworth, F. R. G.—Education, Sept. 21 (1934) ; summary in Journ. 
Educ., 66, 783, p. 649, Oct. (1934). 

Fleming, A. P. M.—Industry Illustrated, Oct. (1934) ; summary in Journ. 
Educ., 66, 784, p. 688, Nov. 1 (1934) ; Nature, 184, 3395, p. 819, Nov. 24 
(1934). ; 

McKechnie, W. W.—fourn. Educ., 66, 783, p. 651, Oct. (1934). 

MacTaggart, Dr. Mary M.—To appear in Teachers of the Blind (Coll. of 
Teachers for Blind). 


Norwood, Dr. C.—Education, p. 228, Sept. 14 (1934); South Eastern 
Gazette, Sept. 25 seqq. (1934) ; summaries in Journ. Educ., 66, 783, p. 650, 
Oct. (1934); Times Educ. Suppt., Sept. 15 (1934); Lecture Recorder, 4, 
5, Dec. (1934). 

Rintoul, W.—Chemistry & Industry, p. 868, Oct. 9 (1934) ; Oil & Colour 
Trades Fourn., p. 719, Sept. 14 (1934) ; summaries in Industrial Chemist, 
p. 369, Oct. (1934) ; Fourn. Educ., 66, 784, p. 688, Nov. 1 (1934) ; Nature, 
134, 3395, p. 819, Nov. 24 (1934). 

Stamp, Sir J. C_—¥ourn. Educ., 66, 783, p. 649, Oct. (1934) ; Times Educ. 
Suppt., Sept. 15 (1934). 

Thomson, G. W.—fourn. Educ., 66, 784, p. 688, Nov. 1 (1934) ; Nature, 
134, 3395, p. 819, Nov. 24 (1934). 

Walker, Dr. N. T.—In summary in Lecture Recorder, 4, 5, Dec. (1934). 


SEcTIon M. 


Cattle rearing and feeding, discussion.—Aberdeen Press & Fourn., p. 7, 
Sept. 7 (1934). 

Archibald, Dr. E. S.—Aberdeen Press & Fourn., p.'7, Sept. 7 (1934). 

Fenton, E. W.—Cf. Agric. Progress, 4 (1927); Trans. & Proc. Torquay 
Nat. Hist. Soc. (1925-6) ; ibid. (1931-2) ; Fourn. Ecol., 19 (1931); Scot. 
Geog. Mag., 49 (1933) ; Journ. Ecol., 22 (1934). 


Grant, J. S— Aberdeen Press & Fourn., p. 7, Sept. 7 (1934). 


REFERENCES TO PUBLICATIONS, ETC. 473 


Hall, Sir A. D.—WNineteenth Century and After, p. 426, Oct. (1934) ; 
in summary in Lecture Recorder, 4, 5, Dec. (1934). 

McCallum, A.— Scot. Journ. Agric., Oct. (1934). 

Mackie, M.—Aberdeen Press & Fourn., p. 7, Sept. 7 (1934). 

Muir, Dr. A.—Cf. Forestry, 8, p. 25 (1934). 

Page, H. J—Aberdeen Press & Fourn., Sept. 7 (1934); cf. Fourn. Roy. 
Agric. Soc. England, 95 (1934). 

Rae, Prof. R—¥ourn. Ministry Agric., N. Ireland, 4, 1933 ; summary in 
Aberdeen Press & Fourn., p. 7, Sept. 7 (1934). 

Watson, Dr. S. J — Aberdeen Press & Fourn., Sept. 7 (1934); cf. Journ. 
Roy. Agric. Soc. England, 95 (1934). 


'BFEB 1935 


X 


APPENDIX 


A 
SCIENTIFIC SURVEY 
OF 


ABERDEEN 


AND DISTRICT 


PREPARED FOR 
THE ABERDEEN MEETING 


“ie es 


BY VARIOUS AUTHORS 


CONTENTS. 


I.—Aberdeen in its Regional Setting. By Lord Provost HENRY exG 
INTEEXANIDER: © fis e/ais elec) el aveiene vs) a 0%. 0. steele 0) atest ahaegete tyres 3 
I].—Geography of the North-East. By J. MCFARLANE ...... 5 
III.—Geology. By Prof. A. W. Gisp and Dr. A. BREMNER .... 12 
IV.—Animal Life of North-East Scotland. By Prof. J. RITCHIE 20 
V.—The Flora of the North-East. By A. MacGRrecor ...... 26 
VI.—Forestry. By Prof. A. W. BORTHWICK.......0.-2++-0+++ 34 
VII.—Climate of Aberdeenshire. By G.A.CLARKE .......... 42 
VIll.— Education. By J. DAWSON .... 22. fic eee ee eee 49 


IX.—Architecture in Aberdeen: A Survey. By Dr. W. KELLY = 57 
Pictish Symbolism and the Sculptured Stones of North- 


East Scotland. By Dr. W.D. SIMPSON ............ 66 
X.—Prehistoric Archeology in Aberdeen District. By Prof. 
UV VAMEREIDD) sas laladel ©, disyeriece’ = leis) sous < ste Leaehte Pe eRe eae 68 
XI.—Agriculture in the North-East. By Dr. J. F.'TOCHER .... 77 
XII.—Agriculture in Aberdeenshire in the Olden Days. By J. D. 
WWIEBSTER, Janae o cloisiocise o svtssact, «sce ke [nlisheetee ai ue een 82 
XIII.—The Soils of the North-East of Scotland. By Prof. J. 
EEENDRICK 2.0 os 3 crete Boisi ss oS oe siete ale lekerelel aeeneete 84 
XIV.—The Fishing Industry. By Dr. R. 5S. CLarK ............ 86 
XV.—Paper-Making in Aberdeen and District. By J. Cruick- 
SHANK? mice. yates bs cE AASE GAGs AB OD os oe cietenenererala gl 
XVI.—Aberdeen Granite Industry. By W. D. EssLEMONT ...... 96 
XVII.—The Trade of Aberdeen. By J.S.YuULE .............. 100 


XVIII.—Scientists of the North-East of Scotland. By G. M. FRasER 
ATG My Ga HIUETP esis eretees o).0 aks /scoe tate) stele «ray tenon 106 


A SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF 
ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


I. 
ABERDEEN INITS REGIONAL SETTING 


BY 
HENRY ALEXANDER, M.A., 
LORD PROVOST OF ABERDEEN. 


Tue North-east of Scotland, projecting, as it does, into the North Sea, and 
cut off from the south by the Grampian range of mountains, possesses a 
definite regional character which is reflected in the history and develop- 
ment of the district and in the attributes and interests of its people. The 
City of Aberdeen, with a population of 167,258 (census of 1931), is the 
largest centre of population in the region, the next largest town being 
Peterhead (population 12,545). As a manufacturing town, as a seaport 
with shipping connections and extensive fisheries, as a business centre for 
the agricultural and stock-feeding industries of the region, and not least as 
the seat of a university and other educational institutions, Aberdeen has 
varied and notable activities, while its isolation from all the other large cities 
of Scotland has contributed to its importance and emphasised its distinc- 
tiveness. 

The three counties which are generally regarded as forming the North- 
east—Aberdeen (population, excluding City of Aberdeen, 133,178), 
Banff (population 54,907) and Kincardine (population 39,865)—are 
similar in character, with this qualification : that the southern portion of 
Kincardine tends to incline physically and economically to Angus and the 
northern midlands of Scotland. ‘This distinction also accords with the 
dialectal boundary, marked out by Dr. William Grant in The Scottish 
National Dictionary, between South-Northern Scots and Mid-Northern 
Scots. 

While the region of which Aberdeen is the chief town is primarily 
defined in this Survey as the North-east of Scotland, it is only right to 
say that the city is closely associated educationally and commercially with 


4 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


the whole of the North of Scotland, including the Hebrides and the 
Orkney and Shetland Islands. The University of Aberdeen has always 
drawn a considerable proportion of its students from Inverness-shire and 
Ross-shire, and this connection is further exemplified in the Aberdeen 
and North of Scotland College of Agriculture and in the Aberdeen Pro- 
vincial Committee for the Training of Teachers, both of which institutions, 
located in Aberdeen, have the North of Scotland, from Kincardine to 
Shetland, as their field. The shipping association between Aberdeen 
and Shetland is very close and the commercial links are further emphasised 
by the fact that the great herring fleets of the Aberdeenshire and Banff- 
shire ports, such as Peterhead, Fraserburgh, Macduff and Buckie, proceed 
to the Shetland fishing in the early summer before undertaking the July 
and August fishing at their home ports. 

The barrier of the Grampians, which begins on the sea coast immediately 
south of Aberdeen in a low range and which rises through various inter- 
vening heights to mountains as high as Lochnagar (3,786 ft.), has been 
an important factor in contributing to the distinctiveness of the North-east. 
It was known as The Month, from the Gaelic monadh, a heath—a term 
_ which still remains in certain place-names—and, though the effect of this 
barrier is now diminished under modern means of communication, it is 
still strong enough to influence the economic and cultural life of the region. 

On its western border the region shades imperceptibly into Moray and 
Nairn and the Highlands, while it has also to be remembered that the 
higher uplands of Aberdeenshire and Banffshire, where the Gaelic speech 
still lingers, fall within what is known as the Highland Line and partake 
in their physical structure of the Highlands rather than the Lowlands. It 
isimpossible to enter here into the details of racial origins—a fuller discussion 
of which, as of other points, will be found in subsequent pages—but it is 
reasonably correct to say that, while ethnically there is a large Celtic 
element in the population of the North-east, the region belongs culturally: 
to the Anglo-Saxon Lowlands with a Norse or Danish strain along the 
coast. 

The trading community at the mouth of the river Dee, which formed 
in time the town of Aberdeen, seems to have been, from the earliest 
historical days, English-speaking. What became known as Old Aberdeen 
was the burgh which grew up round the cathedral founded on the banks of 
the Don on the site of the missionary church traditionally ascribed to 
St. Machar, a disciple of Columba. The establishment of a university 
by Bishop Elphinstone in 1494 increased the academic as well as the 
ecclesiastical importance of Old Aberdeen, and the burgh, though now 
merged municipally in Aberdeen, still retains in its buildings and environs 
a distinct old-world aspect. While Old Aberdeen had its University and 
King’s College, Aberdeen had its University and Marischal College, 
founded in 1593, and it was not until 1860 that the two universities were 
fused in one. ‘The existence side by side for two and a half centuries of 
two separate and rival universities, while not without its absurd features, 
reflected in a sense the consuming passion for education which marks out 
the people of the North-east even in Scotland, and the influence of which 
is to be seen in so many directions in their aims and outlook. 


ABERDEEN IN ITS REGIONAL SETTING 5 


The conditions of life have never been easy in the North-east. By the 
labour of successive generations and with infinite toil the farm lands have 
been won from the moorland and waste ; to-day in the higher lying parts 
of the region, as in other parts of Scotland, fields which had fifty or a 
hundred years ago been brought under the plough, are now, owing to 
changed economic conditions, reverting to moorland. ‘The climate is 
dry, the average rainfall being about 30 in. per annum, but it cannot 
be described as genial. Rather is it rigorous and bracing, and this and 
the absence of great natural wealth in the district have produced a strong, 
hardy race of people, enured to toil and accustomed to self-denial, but full 
of resource and resolute for progress. The qualities supposed to be 
typical of Scotsmen are to be found raised to the mth degree in the people 
of the North-east. They are a folk reserved and shy and lacking perhaps 
in the outward graces of life, but it would be a complete mistake to think 
that they are wanting in imagination or in artistic appreciation, for in the 
past the countryside was rich in ballad lore, and to-day, in the movement 
for community drama and acting which is such a happy feature of rural 
life, the North-east sends forward a larger number of competing teams in 
proportion to its population than any other part of Scotland. 

While the North-east cannot boast any writer of the class of Burns, Scott, 
or Carlyle, it can claim an exceptionally large roll of men of high compe- 
tence and ability, particularly in the field of science and medicine. 
Prof. James Ritchie, in a paper on ‘'The Genius of the Aberdonian ’ 
(Aberdeen University Review, vol. xv, pp. 193-205), describes the mentality 
of the Aberdonian as ‘ a bent for minute, detailed work ; for accuracy in 
the small things.’ This has found expression in scientific work, and 
especially in the practical application of scientific knowledge, and in a 
subsequent article an account is given of leading names in this field. At 
the same time it is only right to say that in other walks of life—in 
classical study, in letters and in art—names not a few might be cited 
which evidence the all-round capacity of the people. 


IL. 
GEOGRAPHY OF THE NORTH-EAST 


BY 
JOHN McFARLANE, M.A., M.Com. 


A visitor to Aberdeen, taken to Rubislaw Quarry on the western margin 
of the city and shown the surrounding country from the height of a small 
eminence there, might at first be surprised to learn that, if he were to 
proceed due west from where he stood, it would be necessary for him 


6 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


to cross North America, Asia, and part of Europe before he came to, 
or passed to the south of, a town as large as that which lay at his feet. 
Only when he reached the shores of the Baltic would he find Leningrad, 
Stockholm, and a few other towns lying in or beyond the latitude of 
Aberdeen, and equalling or surpassing it in importance. 

This almost unique position attained by Aberdeen naturally directs 
attention to the region in which it lies. If our visitor turned to the south 
he would, on looking across the valley of the Dee, see in the near distance 
the last spurs of the Grampians, the southern limits of the region of which 
Aberdeen is, if not the centre, at least the capital. ‘The attractive force 
of the city rapidly decreases to the south of that gap which lies between 
the hills and the sea, and by which road and railway alike leave for the 
south. It is to the north and west that the true hinterland of Aberdeen 
is to be found, and the city, lying just to the north of what may be termed 
the Stonehaven Gap, is by good fortune situated where it can best serve 
the varied interests of that hinterland. Nevertheless an explanation of 
Aberdeen in terms of its environment is by no means as simple as might 
at first sight appear. 

Within the area under consideration several well-marked physical 
regions may be recognised. ‘The high massifs of Lochnagar and the 
Cairngorms in the south-west are replaced farther east by the lower 
valleys of the Dee and the Don, while to the north of the Don lies the 
well-worn peneplain which includes Buchan and some of the lands 
adjacent to it. In the north, that part of the Highlands which lies beyond 
the Cairngorms and is drained by the Deveron and the Spey falls away 
to the lowlands bordering the Moray Firth. But on the whole these 
regions possess few geographical advantages. It was only with difficulty 
that even the most suitable areas could be made fit for cultivation. The 
glaciated lands had first of all to be cleared of their boulders, the ground 
drained, and the peat-mosses reduced in size. Moreover, the soils which 
are the product of the glacial period have not yet undergone complete 
chemical weathering, and, though not infertile, are seldom. rich; the 
climate, as will be seen later, is somewhat harsh, and the mineral 
wealth, apart from granite, is inconsiderable. The economic activities of 
the people are mainly concerned with agriculture, except along the coasts, 
where various towns and villages have become the local centres of one of 
the chief fishing areas in the country. 

DerstpE.—The Dee for a great part of its course flows between the 
great granitic massifs of Lochnagar and Mount Battock in the south and 
the Cairngorms with their eastern extensions in the north. Its valley 
which runs from west to east is in that respect anomalous, as most High- 
land valleys run either from north-west to south-east or from north-east 
to south-west, and may be a tectonic hollow produced by the upwelling 
of the granitic masses to the north and south. From its source high on 
the slopes of Braeriach, the Dee falls nearly 2,000 ft. to reach the Linn of 
Dee. During this part of its course it flows through wild and uninhabited 
highland country, but below the Linn it enters an alluvial flat, the fertility 
of which may have contributed to the growth of Braemar, though the 
precise position of that village was fixed at the meeting place of two 


GEOGRAPHY OF THE NORTH-EAST 7 


routes across the Mounth. ‘To-day it owes its prosperity to its nearness 
to the Cairngorm country, Braeriach, Cairn Toul, and Ben Muichdhui— 
all over 4,000 ft.—being easily accessible from it. 

Below Braemar the valley of the Dee again becomes contracted and 
remains so until below Balmoral. It then gradually opens out to the 
alluvial plain on the edge of which Ballater stands. ‘This plain was once 
occupied by the ice-sheet, and the Pass of Ballater, through which the old 
Deeside road formerly went, is mainly due to glacial erosion. Ballater 
itself is the terminus of the Deeside railway and is a typical Highland 
summer resort. 

After Ballater the valley of the Dee opens out as the hills recede. Some 
of the more interesting features of its basin as far as Banchory may be 
noted. Loch Kinord, the site of old lake dwellings, lies to the north of 
the river and is believed to owe its origin to a mass of ice left stranded 
during the retreat of the valley glacier. The Muir of Dinnet, which was 
built up by outwash gravels from the glacier, is, when the heather is in 
bloom, one of the most beautiful spots on Deeside. ‘The old lake basin 
of Tarland has been drained and converted into good agricultural land, 
but the similar basin of Auchlossan, farther to the east, is again under 
water. ‘The erosion basin of the lower Feugh (which rises in the Mount 
Battock massif and joins the Dee at Banchory) shows abundant evidence 
of glaciation—severed spurs at Castle Hill, the esker at the Feughside Inn, 
kettle holes at Bogarn, and moraines in various places. 

Banchory, on a southward facing slope protected from cold northerly 
winds by the Hill of Fare, and at the junction of various hill routes with’ 
the main Deeside road, grew up as a market town, but has developed into 
a residential and health resort. Lower down, the basin of the Dee con- 
tracts as it becomes wedged in between the last outliers of the Grampians 
and the Dee-Don watershed. The river terraces which lie along the 
north side of the Dee for the last few miles of its course provide admirable 
sites for a long line of suburban residences. 

The economic resources of the whole region just described are limited. 
Agriculture is the chief pursuit of the inhabitants. To the west of 
Ballater sheep-rearing comes first in importance; to the east, arable 
farming becomes more general, oats and turnips are the principal crops, 
and cattle to some extent replace sheep. Below Banchory barley is a not 
unimportant crop. ‘There is little industrial life. Saw-milling at various 
places, paper-making at Culter and quarrying at Rubislaw about exhaust 
the list. Summer holiday traffic is an important source of income to 
the whole valley. 

Donsipe.—The basin of the Don falls into several well-marked divisions. 
In the north there is a highland region divided into two parts—an eastern 
and a western—by the Kildrummy basin. ‘The western consists of the 
Cabrach massif and the eastern of the Correen-Bennachie range. To 
the south of the Don another belt of upland country which forms the 
watershed between the Dee and the Don is more complicated ; in the 
west it contains the great conical mass of Morven, and in the east the long 
drawn-out Hill of Fare. The valley of the Don which lies between 
differs in various respects from that of the Dee. One of its most 


8 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


characteristic features is the alternation of close gorge and open reach which 
becomes well marked near Towie, and exercises a considerable influence 
upon the distribution of population. ‘The Towie and Kildrummy basins, 
which have been excavated out of the Old Red Sandstone, form the first 
regions suitable for settlement as we come downstream apart from the 
alluvial strips along the river and its tributaries. ‘The Kildrummy basin is 
of special interest as it provided a lowland through which passed the road 
from the western passes of the Mounth to the north by way of Huntly. 
On this important strategic route, and in a relatively fertile district, rose 
Kildrummy Castle, the largest castle in the north of Scotland. The 
Alford basin is more extensive and even more distinctive. The river 
enters and leaves it by water gaps over 1,000 ft. deep, and only at one 
other point are the surrounding uplands much below 1,000 ft. The 
basin, in the formation of which glacial erosion has played a large part, 
contains a considerable amount of good agricultural land. Lower down, 
the Don passes through the Kemnay and Kintore basins, which are, how- 
ever, less decided in character than those already mentioned. 

An important point of difference between the Dee and the Don is that 
while the Dee is well graded the Don has been rejuvenated, not by 
uplift but as a result of glacial action. The ice streaming across its valley 
filled it with gravels and boulder clay, and when the river returned 
it found itself forced in places on to harder rock, with the result that its 
gradient was changed. Hence water power is more abundant in the valley 
of the Don than in that of the Dee. On the whole, too, the valley of the 
Don is the more fertile. The fluvio-glacial soils which occupy consider- 
able areas in the valley of the Dee absorb water easily and the region often 
suffers from drought. For this reason it has been said that one day’s rain 
will do for the Don what it takes two days’ rain to do for the Dee. That 
the agricultural importance of the lower Don was considerable even in 
prehistoric times is indicated by the stone circles, which are more numerous, 
especially near Inverurie, than in other parts of the county ; the numerous 
castles of medieval times bear witness to the same fact. 

Among the more important settlements in the basin of the Don the 
following may be noted. Alford is situated in the fertile Howe of Alford, 
nearby the ford which crosses the Don, and in the central part of the 
basin ; it is only a small village, but it forms an admirable market place 
for the surrounding district, and gains by the fact that it is the terminus 
of the Donside railway. Kemnay was merely a hamlet until the opening 
of the granite quarries in the neighbourhood. Kintore is situated just 
above the remains of a great fluvio-glacial fan which must have stretched 
far across the Don valley, and just below the low ground near the river ; 
it has been a Royal burgh since the days of William the Lion. Inverurie 
is situated at the confluence of the Don and the Urie at a point where 
routes to the north must cross the Don. ‘The town is built partly on the 
lowest slopes of another great fluvio-glacial fan which must at one time 
have almost blocked the Don. The Bass of Inverurie, a severed spur of 
this fan, most of which has been destroyed, may have given the town 
some importance in early times ; in medieval days it was the site of a 
feudal castle. The modern importance of Inverurie dates from the 


GEOGRAPHY OF THE NORTH-EAST 9 


beginning of thenineteenth century, when a canal, now disused, enabled it 
to become the centre of an agricultural area. 

Although agriculture is even more important than in the preceding 
region it does not predominate over all other industries to the same extent. 
Granite is worked on an extensive scale, the largest quarry being at Kemnay 
just above Kintore. There are a number of others in this region (some 
of which are no longer worked), but it may be noted that nearly all of 
importance are to be found near the edges of the granitic mass. 

The Don, as already indicated, is an important source of water power. 
During the last seven miles of its course it falls 100 ft.—at one place the 
rate of fall is 27 ft. per mile—and it is to the power thus provided that 
the original establishment of mills and factories in the Don valley is due. 
In this part of its course also, the river fortunately does not flow in a 
continuous narrow gorge; in the process of cutting down its bed, 
it has cut on alternate sides flat haughs which provide excellent sites 
for the erection of factories. Even to-day when steam-driven engines 
provide most of the power required, the river is utilised for the 
generation of hydro-electric power ; in addition water from the river is 
used in various manufacturing processes. Among other industries which 
started here in the eighteenth century that of cotton was at first one of 
the most promising; it was unable, however, to contend against the 
economic organisation of the Lancashire industry and the attempt had to 
beabandoned. At the present time the manufactures of paper and woollen 
goods are by far the most important. 

Bucuan.—Buchan, which is generally regarded as being bounded on 
the west by the Deveron and on the south by the Ythan, has a well-marked 
individuality. It may be described as a low-lying peneplain of ancient 
rock, and except in a few places it does not exceed 500 ft. above sea-level, 
while a large area in the north-east and east is below 250 ft. In the south 
the most important heights are those which separate the basins of the 
Ugie and the Ythan ; in the north the Windyhead and Braclemore Hills 
rise to over 700 ft. The granites and schists along the coast have weathered 
into many picturesque formations. 

The soil varies in character and fertility, but for the most part consists 
of boulder clay. Partly because of the absence of trees over considerable 
areas, the country presents a somewhat bleak appearance, and indeed it 


_ was not till the eighteenth century that a real attempt was made to clear 


from its surface the glacial boulders with which it was strewn, and to 


_ drain the bogs which were relics of the Ice Age. 


Cattle raising is an important pursuit and the whole agricultural economy 
of the region is based upon it. Over four-fifths of the land is either 


cultivated or under grass, oats, turnips and swedes, and rotation grasses 


being the principal crops. The uniformity of practice throughout the 


whole area is well illustrated by some recent figures: ‘ of the nineteen 


parishes in the area under consideration all but two devote from 11 to 


13 per cent. of the farmed area to turnips and swedes, all but two have 


between one-third and one-fourth of the same area under oats, and in all 
but one the percentage of rotation grass varies from 40 to 50 per cent., 
in most cases lying between 43 and 47.’ For this type of farming the 


1o SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


country is well suited, as climatic conditions are particularly favourable 
to the cultivation of turnips, and only to a slightly less extent so for the 
cultivation of oats. 

As a result of these agricultural conditions the distribution of population 
throughout Buchan is on the whole remarkably uniform away from the 
coast. The hilly districts naturally have fewer inhabitants; on the other 
hand, there are no large towns, only villages, such as Strichen, Maud, New 
Pitsligo and Old Deer, which serve as agricultural centres. On the coast 
there are many smaller villages which engage in line fishing, now decreasing 
in importance, but the two towns of importance are Peterhead and Fraser- 
burgh. ‘The former was in the earlier part of the nineteenth century the 
chief whaling port in the north of Scotland, but like Fraserburgh its main 
interests are now in the herring fisheries. Fraserburgh formerly provided 
an interesting case of transhumance. At the beginning of the season, which 
lasted for about three months, fishermen collected from all quarters, 
bringing with them not only their boats and tackle, but their wives, 
children, and even some of their domestic furniture. ‘This practice, 
however, appears almost to have passed away as a result of the introduc- 
tion of steam drifters and motor boats. 

DEVERON TO SPEY.—To the west of the Deveron and upper Ythan the 
land lying north of the hills which border Strathbogie is merely a con- 
tinuation of the Buchan peneplain, and, though somewhat higher, seldom 
much exceeds 7oo ft. Farther to the west the lowland becomes more 
contracted as the Highland hills advance to the north. The Deveron 
itself rises in the wild recesses of the Cabrach and flows through the region 
in a series of west to east and south to north stretches, the result of various 
captures which have taken place in the past. The greater part of the 
surface is covered with boulder clay, the character of which varies with 
the underlying rocks. 

In the eastern part of the region economic conditions are not very dis- 
similar from those of the Buchan peneplain ; nevertheless the warmer 
climate of the coast of the Moray Firth is beginning to make its influence 
felt, and barley and sugar beet are among the crops grown. Farther 
west, in the region which contains much of the hill country of Banffshire, 
the cultivated land occupies less than one-half of the total area, and of it 
a larger proportion than usual is under grass. The upper part of the 
Deveron basin is one of the most isolated areas in the whole of the North- 
east, partly due to the trend of its river valleys preventing easy communica- 
tion with Aberdeen which would otherwise have proved its most profitable 
market. Along the coast there are a number of fishing towns the exact 
position of some of which have been described in Memoir 86 of the 
Geological Survey: ‘ The harbours of Findochty and Portnockie are con- 
structed in breached anticlines, Cullen harbour lies in the shelter of 
Cullen Bay and Sandend in Sandend Bay ; Portsoy uses a cleft in the 
igneous rocks ; Whitehills is protected from the east by the promontory 
of Knock Head ; Banff and Macduff lie on opposite sides of Banff Bay at 
the mouth of the River Deveron.’ Another point of interest with regard 
to the larger of the coastal towns, not only in the district immediately 
under consideration but from Stonehaven northwards, is that the section 


GEOGRAPHY OF THE NORTH-EAST II 


of the town actually engaged in fishing is always built on a lower level— 
often a low raised beach—than the remainder. This of course was 
necessitated by the need of easy access to the sea, but it led to a segregation 
by the fishing folk which has had important social results. 

The chief inland towns of the region are Turriff, Huntly and Keith. 
All are route centres and because of this have become agricultural market 
towns. 

ABERDEEN.—Having surveyed the region of which Aberdeen is the 
capital, we now turn to that capital itself. To its growth land and sea 
have alike contributed. Placed just north of the most easterly of all the 
passes across the Mounth, and between the mouths of the Dee and the 
Don, it also lies at the apex of the Buchan plain which constitutes the most 
fertile part of its hinterland. The original settlement may have been at 
the mouth of the Don (whence the name Aberdon which in the local 
dialect became Aberdeen), but the mouth of the Dee offered a useful 
harbour while that of the Don did not. ‘The town at the mouth of the 
Dee may or may not have originated as a Teutonic settlement ; at any rate 
about 1180, when it received a charter, it was a trading centre and port, 
while the Church of St. Nicholas, the patron saint of traders, is of even 
earlier date. For centuries Aberdeen was mainly dependent upon its 
hinterland, the products of which—wool, hides, furs and salmon—were 
exported to the Continent. Later on Flemish weavers introduced the 
woollen industry, and in the seventeenth century town and country were 
alike engaged in the manufacture of cloth, just as in the eighteenth century 
they were in that of hosiery. With the Industrial Revolution domestic 
industries became of less importance, and Aberdeen, far from coal, was 
at a disadvantage, though some compensation was found in the water 
power of the lower Don, and the paper-making and woollen industries 
established there have persisted. For a short period in the middle of 
the nineteenth century Aberdeen became noted for the building of 
wooden ships, such as some of the China clippers, but the most important 
feature of modern times has been the development of the fishing industry 
with all the subsidiary industries connected therewith—fish-curing, 
marine engineering and shipbuilding. Aberdeen now takes third place 
among the fishing ports of Great Britain. 

The growth of Aberdeen during the nineteenth century is indicated by 
the fact that the population increased from 27,000 at the beginning of the 
century to 153,000 at the close, and is now over 167,000, 


12 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


III. 
GEOLOGY 


GEOLOGICAL boundaries ignore the limits of counties and parishes ; but 
for present purposes it will be convenient to treat the Aberdeen area as 
comprising, mainly, the counties of Elgin, Banff, Aberdeen and Kincardine. 
The bed-rock within this area, while adequately exposed, is widely 
blanketed by sheets of glacial drift and incoherent deposits of recent 
date. The geology, therefore, falls naturally into two divisions : 


I. The foundation rocks, or SOLID GEOLOGY ; 
II. The overlying loose deposits, or SURFACE GEOLOGY. 


With the latter may be included a consideration of the agencies that 
have moulded relief and influenced scenery. 


I, SOLID GEOLOGY. 


BY 
Pror. A. W. GIBB, M.A., D.Sc., F.R.S.E. 


The most notable structural feature is the line of fracture known as 
the Highland Fault, which, cutting across Scotland from west to east, strikes 
the coast-line near Stonehaven and divides the district under consideration 
into two sharply contrasted geological areas. South of the fault lie 
normal sediments of Old Red Sandstone and younger age ; north of it, 
and sweeping westwards towards the Spey valley, lie masses of more 
ancient crystalline rocks. These older rocks are in places overlain by 
undenuded fragments of younger systems. The several formations may 
be briefly considered in order of age. 

A. Pre-CaMBRIAN.—The oldest rocks and the most widespread are 
metamorphic rocks. Of the three groups of rocks, of indefinite age, 
that occupy the greater part of Scotland between the Caledonian Canal 
and the Highland Fault—the Moines, the Dalradians and the small 
group sometimes called Lennoxians—those of the North-east are usually 
regarded as Dalradians. ‘That is to say, they are the same rocks as 
those of the Central Highlands of Scotland. They have the same 
N.E.-S.W. trend and, lithologically, they have a general resemblance 
to the typical groups of Perthshire. They are now gneisses, mica- 
schists, quartzites, slates, etc., but they were once normal sediments, 
sandstones, clays, limestones; they contain also abundant igneous 
intrusions. Even in their metamorphosed condition they frequently 
retain their old bedding planes and other features characteristic of 
sediments. One significant feature they lack: they have been searched 


GEOLOGY 13 


in vain for fossils—searched so diligently, that probably now those who 
know them best would be most surprised to find recognisable organisms 
in them. Yet many of them seem less altered than rocks that in other 
formations are very fossiliferous. ‘There is no reasonable doubt that 
they are older than the earliest fossil-bearing groups—that is, they are 
pre-Palzozoic in age. 

They have a wide distribution in the North-east. Inland exposures 
are often obscured by surface drifts, but along the coast, from Cullen 
in the north to Stonehaven in the south, they are exposed in a section 
over seventy miles long. On the shore of the Moray Firth, from west 
of Cullen to Gamrie Bay, the rocks are laid bare, with few gaps, for some 
twenty-five miles. This section has been frequently described, the most 
detailed account being that of Prof. H. H. Read, who re-surveyed the 
ground recently for the Geological Survey. One of the interesting facts 
that emerge is that the Moray Firth group falls into two series, the 
western (known as the Keith Division) showing a higher grade of meta- 
morphism than the eastern (the Banff Division). ‘The two are separated 
from one another east of Portsoy by a definite structural break, known 
as the ‘ Boyne line.’ While the Keith division is generally accepted 
as a northerly extension of the Perthshire series, the Banff division appears 
to be unrepresented in Perthshire, perhaps even anywhere in Scotland, 
unless it may correspond in a measure to the Loch Awe group (S.W. 
Highlands). 

The metamorphic series is continued eastwards along the coast through 
Fraserburgh to Peterhead and thence southwards to Aberdeen, but the 
continuity is interrupted by blown sand-drifts and igneous intrusions. 
South of Aberdeen, these rocks build a continuous coast-line for fifteen 
miles—a fine section, though frequently inaccessible from land owing to 
the precipitous character of the cliffs. It consists of coarse gneisses, 
mica-schists, hornblende-schists, quartzose chlorite-schists and other 
types, interleaved with granite injections, penetrated by pegmatite dykes 
and felsite sills, by dolerite dykes and some amygdaloidal rocks, and 

carrying, in some belts, minerals of high-grade metamorphism like 

Sillimanite and Staurolite. The metamorphics terminate abruptly 

against the Highland Fault just north of Stonehaven. 

__ The rocks of the coast sections can be followed inland, still maintaining 

‘ the same general strike as the coast series, and with the same trend as 
their supposed equivalents in Forfarshire and Perthshire—from which, 
however, they are almost severed by the intrusive masses of the Grampian 
Granites. 

The Dalradian age of these rocks is not admitted by all: the more 
westerly members of the Keith group have been sometimes regarded as 
belonging to the Moines ; certain members of the Banff group have been 

correlated with the Lennoxians ; and by some, the whole sequence from 

Peterhead to Muchalls (Stonehaven) has, again, been referred to the 

group of the Moines. 

: The age, the metamorphism, the structural relations, the stratigraphical 
_ Sequence of these rocks are all still very obscure: their full elucidation 
promises to be another battle-ground of Scottish geology. 


14 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


The metamorphics have been broken into time and again by igneous 
rocks which occupy a very considerable extent of the exposed surface of 
the area. The later igneous intrusions are dominantly acid—granites 
and their allies ; but there are also basic types—picrites, gabbros, norites 
and other varieties. ‘These latter are more restricted in distribution 
than the granites, occurring as isolated masses in upper Deeside, Donside, 
and especially in central and eastern Aberdeenshire (Belhelvie, Haddo, 
Maud, Insch, Huntly and elsewhere). The intrusions, acid and basic 
alike, are manifestly of different ages, and while much diversity of opinion 
exists as to the date of intrusion, and while no criterion is yet known by 
which the age in every particular case may be definitely established, the 
igneous rocks may be roughly grouped into an ‘ older’ and a ‘ younger ’ 
series. ‘The older are represented by an intrusion or series of successive 
intrusions antedating or accompanying the earth-movements that foliated 
the metamorphics; the younger by an intrusion or a succession of 
separate intrusions later on the whole than the folding movements. 
The granites show a great variety of types, not fully explained, though 
the variation may be due, in part, to incorporation of the material into 
which they were intruded. Contamination of igneous masses by the 
assimilation of pre-existing rock is most clearly exemplified in the case 
of the basic intrusions. The phenomena have been worked out in detail 
about Huntly and eastern Aberdeenshire by Prof. Read, and the area 
has become the most instructive in Britain for the study of this aspect of 
igneous activity. 

B. PaL#ozoic.—Of the ordinary piecone systems that form the 
geological ground-work of most other parts of Britain, the North-east of 
Scotland shows scarcely a trace. Perhaps it is all the more remarkable, 
therefore, that actual traces of most of them do exist—Cambrian, 
Silurian (?), Old Red Sandstone, Permian, Trias, Jurassic, Cretaceous 
and even Tertiary deposits have all been recognised. Most of these are 
of small size, many of them are not even proved to be in situ; but they 
are of considerable theoretical interest. 

Slaty rocks of Cambrian (or Ordovician) age, scantily fossiliferous and 
associated with pillow-lavas and radiolarian cherts, are exposed on the 
coast a mile north of Stonehaven, where they are faulted against the 
metamorphics along the ‘ Highland Border.’ 

They are succeeded southwards by a thick series of Downtonian 
(Upper Silurian ?) sediments, also fossiliferous, which merge imperceptibly 
into the normal Old Red Sandstone just opposite the town of Stonehaven. 
This section has been described in detail by Dr. Campbell of Edinburgh 
and rivals in interest the section along the Moray Firth already mentioned. 
Southwards from Stonehaven, the Lower Old Red Sandstone forms many 
miles of the coast, where massive conglomerates and interbedded lavas 
are sculptured into rugged cliffs that make a beautiful coast-section, 
scenically as well as geologically. Inland they form an open fold, the 
‘ Strathmore Syncline,’ which expresses itself superficially as the ‘ Howe 
of the Mearns.’ 

But the Old Red Sandstone appears to have covered at one time the 
whole of the North-east of Scotland, for remnants of the formation are 


GEOLOGY 15 


abundantly found in the crystalline area north of the Highland Fault. 
It is quite frequently exposed in artificial openings within Aberdeen 
itself. In the Geological Museum of the University there is a core taken 
from a deep boring driven at Sandilands Chemical Works, in the centre 
of the town, which went 600 ft. through Old Red Sandstone conglomerate 
without reaching the underlying granite. Another familiar town section 
is the right bank of the river Don, between the old and new bridges, 
which is a high cliff of Old Red Sandstone. Outliers of a larger size 
occur between Turriff and Gamrie Bay, along Strathbogie (the Rhynie 
area), in the Elgin district, at Tomintoul and elsewhere. The Gamrie 
section is well known for its abundant fish fauna, proving its Middle Old 
Red Sandstone age. ‘The Rhynie patch, now famous for its plant remains, 
is usually regarded, though less certainly, as of Middle Old Red age. 
Fossils, such as Eurypterids, are occasionally found in the sandstone 
quarry and may yet establish more definitely the horizon. The Old Red 
beds of Moray Firth localities have yielded many fossils, as, for example, 
the fish-bed of the Tynet Burn near Fochabers. 

C. Mesozoic.—At Elgin the interest of the Old Red Sandstone has 
been overshadowed by Permo-Triassic (or ‘ New Red ’) deposits, which 
have a total extent of some nine miles. Their reptilian remains were 
exhaustively described by Huxley and others about 1860. Many new 
forms have been found since that time. 

Some fifty years ago a most unexpected mass of clay, crowded with 
Jurassic fossils (of Kimmeridge age), was exposed at Plaidy in central 


_ Aberdeenshire. The clay rests on boulder-clay and is no doubt ice- 


carried from the Moray Firth area. A similar Jurassic clay, full of 
Ammonites, is found on the coast at Blackpots, near Banff. 

The remnants of the Cretaceous system are even more suggestive. 
Over a ridge of high ground in East Aberdeenshire, from near Ellon to 
Sterling Hill, south of Peterhead, great numbers of rolled flints can be 
picked up off the fields. They are full of Upper Chalk fossils. Collections 
of these are kept in Aberdeen University and the British Museum. In 
the same neighbourhood, at Moreseat in the parish of Cruden, there is 
known an extensive deposit of ‘ Greensand ’ several hundred yards long 
and 30 ft. thick, crowded with fossil casts of Lower Cretaceous 
(and perhaps Upper Jurassic) age. Pebbles of White Chalk itself are 
not uncommon in Aberdeenshire clays, and though Chalk has nowhere 
been found 7m situ it has been dredged from the sea-floor off F raserburgh, 
and trawlers frequently bring up large flints from the bed of the North 
Sea. And finally, a large collection of Cretaceous (Neocomian) fossils 
from gravel-pits near Fraserburgh was described last year in the Geological 
Magazine by Cumming and Bate, who regard the deposits as ice-carried 
from the Moray Firth district. The White Chalk pebbles found in 
Aberdeenshire, as pointed out some years ago by William Hill, are 


_ lithologically unlike other British and foreign chalks, and may represent 


4 


: 


higher zones of the Chalk, not known elsewhere, laid down on the extreme 
northerly shallow-water margin of the old Chalk Sea. 

D. Trrtrary.—Even of Tertiary times there are tattered fragments 
known. Some curious mounds called the Kippet Hills—near Collieston, 


16 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


about twenty miles north of Aberdeen—have been found to contain 
ice-worn Pliocene shells ; and near Fyvie (at Windyhills) and Turriff 
(at Delgaty) in central Aberdeenshire, as also along the high ridge eastward 
from Ellon, there occur considerable spreads of post-Cretaceous gravels 
(with flints derived from the Chalk), They are not river-gravels, they 
cannot be shown to be glacial, and are referred (with some hesitation) to 
the Pliocene. Rocks of Pliocene age (Coralline Crag) are known, probably 
in situ, on the floor of the sea east of the Orkneys. 

Fragmentary as these deposits are, they are yet eloquent of the changes 
that the North-east of Scotland has seen since Old Red Sandstone times. 

The history of the North-east becomes more detailed and consecutive 
again as Tertiary time merges into the Quaternary, which is dealt with 
in the article that follows. 


II. SURFACE GEOLOGY. 


BY 
ALEX. BREMNER, M.A., D.Sc., F.R.S.E. 


A. DEVELOPMENT OF RIveR SysTEM.—The theory of Mackinder, 
adopted for Scotland by Peach and Horne, that Scottish rivers originated 
on a peneplain, elevated in Early to Mid-Tertiary times and tilted towards 
the south-east, requires modification. North of the latitude of Inverness 
the original drainage lines did run north-west and south-east ; elsewhere 
in Scotland they followed west to east lines, e.g. the through-valleys west 
of the Great Glen, the Leven-Blackwater-Tummel, Earn, Forth (according 
to Cadell), Tweed, and the Solway-Tyne river. The peneplain, which 
included most of the British area, was warped during elevation (particularly 
along old lines of weakness) and its slope varied from one region to 
another ; at later dates, too, there occurred slight movements both of 
subsidence and elevation, e.g. the uplift that rejuvenated the lower Spey. 

In the area under discussion the older rocks of the tilted peneplain 
must have been largely swathed in a mantle of Middle Old Red Sandstone, 
with probably younger rocks including some deposits of Cretaceous age : 
the widely distributed outliers of Old Red are very suggestive. The 
Tertiary drainage lines were therefore established on an east-sloping 
surface mainly of Old Red Sandstone. 

Rivers in course of time cut through the weak, unmetamorphosed 
sedimentary cover and became superimposed on the more resistant, 
metamorphic Highland Schists which the valleys marking the older lines 
of drainage now cross regardless of structure. 

Of older lines of drainage the most evident are (1) the well-marked, 
winding hollow, roughly parallel to the Moray Firth coast and extending 
from north of Binn of Cullen to Boyndie Bay ; (2) the transverse valley 
running from Mulben (Rosarie Burn) by Keith to Rothiemay (Isla) and 
Turriff (Deveron) and thence in a gentle S-bend by the Idoch Water 
and Ugie to near Peterhead ; (3) the hollow passing from Cabrach by 


GEOLOGY 17 


Rhynie and between the Correen-Bennachie and the Foudland ridges 
through the wind-gap at Oldmeldrum to the lower Ythan; (4) the 
valley of the Don ; (5) the valley of the Dee. 

In course of time the present drainage system has been evolved by 
(a) development of subsequents on the sedimentary fillings of pre-Old 
Red valleys in the schist floor ; (b) adjustment of streams to the structure 
of the schists laid bare by removal of the sedimentary cover, e.g. capture 
of streams flowing at higher levels by tributaries working back from 
others that had cut their beds lower, these depredations usually being 
favoured by belts of weak rocks or weak rock-structures (shatter-belts 
along fault-lines, etc.). 

Of such adjustments in times geologically recent but in all cases pre- 
glacial there are many instances. The annexation of the Tarf drainage 
area by the Tilt ought to be regarded as the classical example of river 
capture in the British Isles : it would indeed be difficult to find a clearer 
or more striking case anywhere. Map-study reveals self-evident cases 
-of beheading at earlier dates of the primeval arf. 

The capture of the upper Geldie by the Feshie has often been cited 
as an obvious case of river capture, which it is; but it is commonly 
stated to be of recent (i.e. post-glacial) date. That is not so. Capture 
was pre-glacial, and glacial erosion followed by glacial deposition has so 
altered the contours about the elbow of capture that absolutely none of 
the marks of recent capture are to be recognised. 

In the complicated history of the Spey one point only can be noted. 
Above Grantown the gradient of the river is low ; from Grantown to the 
sea there is an almost uniform fall of 16 ft. per mile. In this part 
of its course the river has been rejuvenated and here we find the charac- 
teristic mark of rejuvenation—an inner, narrow, young valley incised in 
the floor of an outer, wide, old valley. The inner valley is deepest in 
the vicinity of Knockando, and the axis of uplift must cross the river there, 
not at Grantown as usually stated. 

B. GLaciaTION.—Within most of our area the distribution of erratics 
from the outcrops of all rocks yielding readily identifiable boulders shows 
that the direction of ice-movement varied widely at different periods 
of the Ice Age. For example, boulders from the Huntly basic rocks 
have been transported towards all points of the compass between N. 50° W. 
round by E. to S. 20° E. The diorite of Netherley (on Burn of Rothes) 
has been carried in similar but still more widely divergent directions. 

From this wide dispersal one infers the action of more than one ice- 
sheet, an inference confirmed by study of striz and boulder clays. At 
least three ice-sheets have successively traversed the area. Hence it is 
to-be expected that the drift series will be complicated and difficult to 
interpret. ‘Three characteristic drifts, however, can be identified with 
certainty, though between the Findhorn and the North Esk only four 
open sections show all three in direct superposition and only two show 
three superposed boulder clays. 

(1) First Ice-sheet—The transport of erratics, the direction of striz, 
and the character and contents of the ground moraine clearly prove that 
the ice traversed our region roughly from N.W. to S.E. This was no 

B 


18 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


mere local movement, for striz pointing between S. and S.E. are found 
from Elgin by Fraserburgh, Huntly and Fyvie to a point three and a half 
miles north of the Firth of Tay. Erratics from the N.W. are found 
as far south as Stonehaven and probably as far as Gourdon and Johns- 
haven: they include Cambrian ‘ pipe rock ’ and Torridonian sandstone, 
Elgin sandstone and Huntly rocks. Sutherlandshire granites (e.g. Rogart 
granite) have been transported to Elgin. 

(2) Second Ice-sheet—The coastal strip from Stonehaven to beyond 
Peterhead was traversed from S.S.W. by ice which brought with it a 
copious red bottom moraine, formed by the grinding up of the soft 
red shales of the Strathmore syncline, and erratics from the Old Red 
shales, sandstones, conglomerates and lavas. 

Stria, erratics and boulder clays prove that ice with which the 
‘Strathmore Ice’ coalesced moved northward towards the whole south 
coast of the Moray Firth from Fraserburgh to Inverness. 

The paths of both these ice-sheets were abnormal—not such as ice 
able to move out freely from the Scottish centres of accumulation would 
have chosen ; and this holds true even if those centres were not the same 
for both, as was very probably the case. ‘The Scottish ice was evidently 
compelled to turn south-east and south in the one case and north and 
finally north-west (across Caithness) in the other by the presence of 
Scandinavian ice in the bed of the North Sea. It is inconceivable that 
while Scandinavian ice continued to occupy the North Sea there could 
be in North-east Scotland a deviation from the earlier movement from 
the north-west to the later movement from the south without very extensive 
deglaciation. At two places peat and peaty material caught up in the 
red ground moraine of the Strathmore Ice give indication of an inter- 
glacial period of mild climate, and of the probably complete disappearance 
of the ice before the advent of the Second Ice-sheet. In the Burn of 
Benholm the red boulder clay enclosing peat rests on the dark shelly 
boulder clay discussed below. 

Scandinavian Ice in Scotland (?)—In recent years quite a number of 
easily recognisable Scandinavian erratics (rhomb porphyries, laurvikites) 
have been found in North-east Scotland, particularly at Bay of Nigg 
(14 boulders) : one was discovered nine miles inland. 

A dark shelly boulder clay occurs at a number of localities in Aberdeen 
and Kincardine. No Scandinavian boulders have yet been found in it, 
but the fact that it contains numerous shells, most in fragments and many 
striated, shows that the ice of which it formed the ground moraine must 
have traversed the sea-floor. This shelly clay seems to be the lowest 
and oldest of all the glacial deposits in the districts where it is found. 
If the Scandinavian ice did not actually bring in the shelly clay, its pressure 
offshore forced in upon the land from the north-eastward part of the 
native ice that had previously passed over the bed of the North Sea. The 
aggregation of boulders at Bay of Nigg suggests that there the Scandinavian 
ice must have invaded or closely approached our shores. 

(3) Third Ice-sheet—Mers de glace from the Northern Highlands and 
from the region east and west of the Great Glen converged on the head of, 
and moved eastward along, the Moray Firth. From Elgin onward the 


GEOLOGY 19 


ice tended to shoulder in upon the land. This local movement from 
north-west and north is very well marked in the hollow connecting the 
Deveron and Ythan basins from Banff to Fyvie. The Banffshire Hills, 
the Cairngorms and the Central Highlands all contributed their quota 
to the Third Ice-sheet. 

The position of the ice-front at the maximum of this glaciation has not 
yet been traced in every district. From near Fraserburgh to the Ythan 
the ice failed to reach the coast. From the Ythan to Aberdeen its front 
lay out to sea, but it struck the land again at Bay of Nigg. From that 
point to near Cortachy its position can be traced with some precision : 
it nowhere transgressed the Highland Boundary Fault except for short 
distances on the Bervie Water, North Esk and West Water. At Cortachy 
and beyond the ice seems to have spread across Strathmore and the 
southern Sidlaws. 

C. Sorts—Only in disconnected and very restricted areas can a 
sedentary soil be seen. In many cases where there appears to be a transition 
from solid rock to soil, the latter is found to contain some admixture of 
ice-carried erratic material. Soils are preponderatingly glacial or travelled. 
In the area covered by the Strathmore drift, especially round Ellon and 
Port Errol, one fancies that the underlying rock must be Old Red shales, 
sandstones and conglomerates; but this is exceptional, and there is 
usually in every travelled soil a large proportion of local material. ‘There 
is much peat both at high and low levels. 

D. Scenery.—With few exceptions hills under 2,000 ft. exhibit the 
flowing contours characteristic of glacial wear. From certain favourable 
view-points the hills of Banffshire and of Lower Deeside and North 
Kincardineshire look like the ground-swell of an ocean congealed after 
some prodigious storm: only rarely a craggy summit breaks the general 
monotony. 

The fine scenic features of the Cairngorm and Lochnagar granite 
massifs are the direct results of glaciation—corries, corrie lakes, U-valleys, 
glen lakes (some now silted up), lateral and terminal moraines. 

Most of the beauty spots in our river valleys are found where the 
streams, diverted from their pre-glacial courses through the infilling of 
these by drift, now flow in post-glacial rock-gorges, e.g. Brig 0’ Balgownie, 
Bridge of Alvah, Poldhulie Bridge (Strathdon). In this way the Don 
in the last ten miles of its course has been five times compelled to entrench 
itself in rock. 

The lower Findhorn, which like the lower Spey has an abnormally 
steep gradient, has excavated in granite, schist and Old Red Sandstone 
a series of picturesque gorges, the ultimate cause of which may be 
rejuvenation by the same uplift that affected the lower Spey. 

The major part of the coast-line of the four counties is rock-bound 
with fine and varied cliff scenery. It is interesting to note the contrast 
between the minutely fretted line of cliffs cut in schists with the more 
regular wall-like appearance of those cut in granite and in Old Red 
conglomerates and lavas. More Head of Gamrie (schist) rises steeply 
to a height of almost 500 ft. 


20 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


IV. 


ANIMAL LIFE OF NORTH-EAST 
SCOTLAND 


BY 
Pror. JAMES RITCHIE, M.A., D.Sc. 


THE CHARACTER OF THE District—On December 2, some years ago, 
three guns out shooting for the day in Aberdeenshire are reported to 
have killed the following twenty-two kinds of animals : pheasant, partridge, 
woodcock, snipe, mallard, golden eye, pochard, tufted duck, ring-dove, 
brown hare, rabbit, curlew, golden plover, green plover, dunlin, little 
stint, purple sandpiper, turnstone, redshank, moorhen, water rail and 
coot. That typifies the character of the fauna (as well as of the human 
population)—the district may not produce many record bags, but it 
affords good mixed shooting. And the reason is a simple one, that 
within a limited area there is presented the utmost diversity of environ- 
ment; from muddy estuaries, frequented during the winter by many 
ducks and waders from Arctic regions, and shore-cliffs and sand-dunes 
tenanted by multitudes of breeding birds during the summer, to some 
of the highest mountains in the kingdom ; from the bare flat lands of 
Buchan to the primeval pine forests of upper Deeside. So that just as 
the district is a multum in parvo of scenic diversity, so the fauna represents 
a compendium of the fauna of the country as a whole. Nevertheless the 
North-east has some interests of its own. 

DEESIDE, THE Kry To THE NortH.—The north of Scotland is isolated 
from the south country by the Grampian Range and the mountains of 
northern Perthshire and south-western Inverness-shire, a barrier sufficient 
to check the spread of most low-country animals. But the barrier is 
breached by several passes which debouch upon the Dee valley, and it 
may be circumvented by way of the low land bordering the North Sea 
to the south of Aberdeen. By these passes every invading army of men 
has endeavoured to penetrate to the north, and by these passes the post- 
glacial animals, which already tenanted the first-inhabited lands to the 
south, must have pushed forward to occupy the north lands, left 
uninhabited upon the retreat of the ice-sheets. Since, from these far-off 
days till now, the coastwise and low-valley routes have offered the easiest 
and indeed the only available passage for most animals, it is within close 
mark of the truth to say that the ancestors of almost all the animals 
(excluding aerial forms) that now exist or have existed in northern Scotland 
ste at one time or other have found their way thither across the waters 
of Dee. 


In the earliest days of colonisation, in a late inter-glacial or in the 


— 


ANIMAL LIFE OF NORTH-EAST SCOTLAND 21 


post-glacial period, the most impressive of the migrants—for there is no 
indication that the mammoth or the giant fallow-deer ever reached these 
northern parts—included reindeer (of which we recently found fragments 
of more than goo antlers in a cave in Sutherland), the elk, largest of 
existing deer, the huge ancestors of modern red deer, and the great 
extinct ox, Bos primigenius. By these routes passed the lemming and 
the mountain hare, and the beaver may have found its way to the river 
Ness ; thus came the bear, the lynx, the arctic fox and the wolf, hard on 
the track of the grass-eaters. 

Most of these early explorers of northern Scotland have long since 
disappeared ; we know of their presence only from bones recovered 
from the peat-mosses or from the kitchen middens of early human settle- 
ments, rarely from vaguetradition. But it is characteristic of the wildness 
of the district that some of them lingered on long after they had become 
extinct in the south. In the underground ‘ eird-houses ’ at Kildrummy 
on Donside have been found the bones of a small horse, a reminder 
that ‘ wild horses ’ once roamed the forests, for even in 1507 it is recorded 
that a herd inhabited the Forest of Birse, though the chances are that 
they were the wild progeny of a primitive domesticated breed. Wolves 
were the last of the great carnivores to be exterminated. In r1o10 
King Malcolm III, on his return from the victory at Mortlach in Moray, 
is said to have been attacked by an enormous wolf in the Forest of Stocket, 
the site of which is now within the north-western boundary of Aberdeen 
city. Ata much later date the plaint of John Taylor, the Water Poet of 
London, gives a vivid impression of the wildness of the country and its 
tenants, when in 1618, during a visit to ‘ the goode Lord Erskine ’ at the 
“ Brea of Marr’ (Braemar), he relates: ‘ I was the space of twelve days 
before I saw either house, corn-field, or habitation for any creature, but 
deer, wild horses, wolves, and such like creatures, which made me doubt 
that I should never have seen a house again.’ Before the seventeenth 
century had closed, however, the wolves had all but disappeared : in the 
north-east one was slain in Kirkmichael Parish in Banffshire in 1644 ; 
but persistent tradition relates that so late as 1743 the final survivor of 
the wolves of Great Britain was tracked and destroyed, after it had killed 
two children, in the wild hills between the rivers Findhorn and Spey. 

The disappearance of the wolves is symptomatic of many, but not of 
all the changes which have made the present-day fauna of the district 
what it is ; and an analysis of the changes may afford a better understanding 
of the composition of the animal life of the district than could a catalogue 
of species. 

SECULAR CHANGES AND A ReLicT Fauna.—During the millennia which 
have passed since the ice-covering of the Glacial Age disappeared, the 
climate has been constantly changing. Its vagaries are revealed in any 
deep peat-bog, where successive layers of peat show, in the composition 
of their plant remains, the alternation of drier and moister periods, and 
from the oldest layers to the most recent, an amelioration of climate 
from Arctic and sub-Arctic to the temperate conditions of to-day. ‘The 
Arctic period had a fauna of its own, of which Aberdeenshire contains 
some marine relics in its glacial clays, but although the Arctic fauna 


22 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


which first peopled the uncovered face of the land has left few remains 
in the North-east, it may be assumed that the creatures whose bones we 
found recently in ‘the north of Scotland—the reindeer, a great bear, lynx, 
arctic fox, lemming, mountain hare, ptarmigan, and others—were typical 
members of the first post-glacial fauna of the district. 

That arctic association of animals has gone with the climate which 
brought it, but it has left an interesting relict fauna now confined, in 
our area, to the Grampian mountains: the Scottish mountain hare 
(Lepus timidus scoticus), the Scottish ptarmigan (Lagopus mutus millaist), 
each of which assumes a white coat in winter, and the snow-bunting 
(Plectrophenax nivalis), the first family party of which in Britain was 
seen in the Cairngorms by MacGillivray in 1830, and which breeds only 
on the high mountains. Perhaps the stoat (Mustela erminea) is also a 
relict of the same fauna, for its winter change to white, which suggests 
an arctic habit, takes place regularly and completely only in the northern 
and higher part of its range in Britain. 

The change of climate acted directly upon the inhabitants, repressing 
some, encouraging others, but its most evident effects have taken place 
indirectly, through the modifications it induced in vegetation, and in 
particular upon woodland. 

REDUCTION OF Forest LAND AND ITs ErFEcTs.—Peat-bogs throughout 
the district reveal the presence at one time of a great pine forest which 
covered the low-lying country and is represented in the Grampians up 
to a height of 2,400 ft. above sea-level, far above the present-day pine 
limit. A moist period followed its greatest development, when the 
recent beds of peat were formed and swamped much of what had been 
forest land. A good example was the peat-forest in the parish of Logie 
Coldstone, where dense masses of trees were found at a depth of to ft. 
in peat over an area of 100 acres, and where the trees seemed to have been 
blown over, for the trunks lay all in one direction, the effect of a gale 
playing upon woodland already sapped of its strength because of the 
marsh developing about its roots. 

In later times man contributed to the disappearance of the woodland,' 
but even in the fourteenth century Aberdeenshire had at least eight 
great ‘ forests,’ one of which was granted by King Robert the Bruce in 
1324 to the Earl Marischal, a forerunner of the founder of Marischal 
College. Together nature and man have reduced the woods of the area 
to less than a tithe of their former extent, and so another great change 
has been imposed upon the character of the fauna. The red deer 
(Cervus elaphus), a woodland animal which in former days left its bones 
in peat-bogs throughout the low ground of the district, has been driven 
to the bleak and barren hills, and the relative poverty of food in its new 
habitat has been reflected in smaller size of body and less luxuriant 
antlers. Many denizens of the woods have become scarce or have been 
banished : the disappearance of the wolf has already been referred to ; 
the wild cat (Felis silvestris), so common a century and a half ago that 
44 were killed between 1776 and 1785 about Braemar, has gone, the last 


1 An account of the factors which made for the destruction of Scottish forests 
will be found in the writer’s Influence of Man upon Animal Life in Scotland. 


ANIMAL LIFE OF NORTH-EAST SCOTLAND 23 


on Donside having been killed at Alford in 1862, and on Deeside in Glen 
Tanar about 1875; the polecat or foumart (Mustela putorius), 30 of 
which were killed in 1863-64 by one keeper on a single Donside estate, 
has been absent from Aberdeenshire since about 1890 ; the pine-marten 
(Martes martes), having made last appearances in the low-lying part of 
the district, at Ellon in 1874 and in Fyvie in 1894 (probably as a wanderer 
from a distance), is extinct in the area, except perhaps in the woods of 
upper Strathdee. 

It may be said that the disappearance of these creatures was due solely 
to the deliberate attacks made upon them by man and had no connection 
with the reduction of woodland ; but the woods were their natural feeding 
ground and breeding ground, and about the same period woodland 
creatures against which man showed no special enmity were also dwindling 
in numbers or disappearing. Of the red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris), 
the capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) and the great spotted woodpecker 
(Dryobates major), early records within this district are scanty, but there is 
evidence here or in the neighbouring parts of Scotland that they became 
extinct respectively about the beginning of the nineteenth century, 
about 1770, and about 1840-50. 

These are some of the extreme changes ; we may take it that many 
lesser fluctuations and migrations followed upon each alteration in the 
amount and distribution of woodland. 

THE PRESENT-DAY FAUNA LARGELY MOULDED BY AGRICULTURE.— 
Agriculture abetted changing climate in reducing the forests, for forest 
was turned into sheep pasture, and so agriculture shares in the responsibility 
for the changes just mentioned. But, besides, agriculture played an active 
part in the deliberate destruction of the beasts and birds which threatened 
the safety of the farmers’ stock. Some of the beasts of prey we have 
already referred to ; few are left, but destruction still goes on. In 1930, 
on upper Donside and Deeside, 89 foxes and 113 fox cubs were killed. 

The larger birds of prey have suffered severely: between 1776 and 
1786 seventy eagles were killed in five Deeside parishes ; now, in spite 
of protective laws, only a few pairs of golden eagles (Aguila chrysaétus) 
nest in the Grampians. In 1859, according to Dr. Adams of Banchory, 
the white-tailed eagle (Haliaétus albicilla) was certainly not so rare as 
the golden eagle ; now it is extinct in Scotland, though its memory lingers 
in this district in several ‘ Erne Heughs ’ and ‘ Erne Craigs,’ which indicate 
its former nesting sites upon the coast cliffs. In MacGillivray’s time, 
about the middle of last century, the kite or glead (Milvus milvus) was 
still ‘not very uncommon in the upper tracts [of Deeside],’ though it 
made up part of the 2,520 ‘ small hawks and kites ’ killed in five Deeside 
parishes in 1776-86; but it also is extinct, for none has been seen 
since 18go. 

Destruction is by no means confined to birds of prey: during 1930 
the ‘ agricultural pests ’ reported killed to the Aberdeen County Council 
included 64,925 rooks and 3,563 eggs and 601 nests destroyed, 7,442 
wood-pigeons as well as nests and eggs destroyed, 1,992 house-sparrows 
and 704 eggs, 1,108 starlings, 897 gulls and 145 eggs, 1,494 brown hares 
and 175 squirrels. 


24 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


In another way agriculture has diminished and modified the fauna, 
for one of its most characteristic operations is the draining of the land ; 
and the reduction of swamps and marshes, and, with the finer applica- 
tions of draining and cultivation, even of the pools which once gathered 
and remained for weeks at a time upon arable land, has banished the 
habitats of many aquatic creatures. A striking illustration is afforded 
by the disappearance of the disease of ague in Aberdeenshire. Throughout 
the county ague was very prevalent during the eighteenth century, and 
after reaching a climax in the ’eighties, the number of serious cases fell 
off until by the middle of the nineteenth century the disease, as 
endemic, had all but disappeared. ‘The majority of the ague cases were 
malarious, and the carriers of the infecting organism were mosquitoes 
which bred in ponds and pools. It is more than a coincidence that the 
decline of ague in Aberdeenshire corresponded with the period of 
agricultural activity which began towards the end of the eighteenth 
century, and was associated with drainage and the treatment of the 
land with lime, and so with the destruction of the breeding places of 
mosquitoes. 

While agriculture was moulding the fauna in a negative sense by 
cutting off old-established denizens, it was also exercising a profound 
influence in increasing the numbers and range of other members of the 
fauna. The growing of cultivated crops for the sustenance of man and 
his domesticated stock, offered new food supplies to multitudes of wild 
creatures, so that encouragement was given to the multiplication of 
vegetarians amongst mammals, such as rabbits, hares, field-mice and 
voles, to seed-eating birds, such as sparrows and other finches, to the 
multitudes of insects which feed upon the roots, stems, foliage and seed 
of farm crops. Indeed it may be said that the farmer creates his own 
farm pests, and that, so long as his cultivation is successful, he is committed 
(short of extermination) to an endless warfare against a section of the 
native fauna which he has enlarged far beyond its natural or aboriginal 
proportions. 

A secondary result was the increase of the creatures which feed upon 
the farm pests. A single example will illustrate the trend. Previous to 
1850 the starling (Sturnus vulgaris) was only a non-breeding migrant in 
Aberdeenshire, and a rare one at that ; since the ’sixties it has bred in 
increasing numbers, so that now it is abundant everywhere and remains 
all the year round ; even within the boundaries of Aberdeen it has become 
a nuisance because of the roosting colonies of thousands which destroy 
shrubberies by their weight and their excrement. Now examination 
of the food of starlings caught in Aberdeenshire shows that they subsist 
largely upon the ‘ leather-jacket ’ larvae of ‘ daddy-long-legs ’ (Tipulids), 
and beetles abundant in grass land ; so that in particular the laying down 
of pasture has been an incentive to the increase of starlings, and the 
phenomenal increase of starlings throughout Scotland in recent years 
has coincided with the transference of much arable land to pasture. 

Some ADDITIONS TO THE NaTIvE FauNA OF ABERDEENSHIRE.—In 
considering additions to the native fauna I am not thinking of those rare 
individuals which figure largely in local lists, but which are no more 


ANIMAL LIFE OF NORTH-EAST SCOTLAND 25 


than accidental wanderers with no chance of establishing themselves : 
such as the tropical loggerhead turtle (Thalassochelys caretta), which was 
found alive and sprightly in the salmon nets at Pennan in 1861, or the 
purple heron (Ardea purpurea) shot at Donmouth in 1872, the glossy 
ibis (Plegadis falcinellus) from Fraserburgh, or the American kill-deer 
plover (Charadrius vociferus) from Peterhead, all of which may be seen 
in the Natural History Museum of Aberdeen University, and there are 
many others. The real additions are creatures which, having been 
introduced, have become or threaten to become an integral part of the 
fauna of the district. 

Some of these alien animals have been deliberately introduced and set 
free for commercial purposes or for sport. Such include the common 
rabbit, a native of south-eastern Europe, the first colony of which was 
established by the city fathers in the ‘ cunicularium de Abirdene’ on the 
links south of Donmouth and was flourishing in the sixteenth century. 
In the woods are pheasants from Asia, and, reintroduced after the native 
stock had disappeared, the red squirrel, which made its reappearance, 
from the south, in the Dee valley about 1855 and by 1875 had reached 
the north coast of Aberdeenshire, and the capercaillie, which first appeared 
on Dee in 1878 and by 1897 had reached the Deveron. The American 
musk-rat (Ondatra zibethica), a dangerous introduction, appeared on 
the banks of the Bervie in 1931, but seems since to have been exterminated 
in the district. 

Many other now well-established creatures have been brought un- 
wittingly to the district by commerce. The old black rat (Epimys rattus), 
originally brought by shipping from the East, occurred throughout 
Aberdeenshire until almost the middle of the nineteenth century (and 
occasionally individuals still crop up in the city), but even then it was 
being rapidly replaced by the brown rat (Epimys norvegicus) which reached 
Scotland in the first half of the eighteenth century, and the original 
home of which is also in Asia. Asia has given us the common cock- 
roach of our houses, America a small red house-ant (Monomorium), the 
Douglas fir chalcid (Megastigmus), which destroys a goodly proportion 
of the seed of Douglas fir on Deeside, the American blight of our apple- 
trees, and the American meal worm in our porridge. From Europe 
have come the Mediterranean flour moth (Ephestia), some of the wood 
wasps (Sirex) and timber-beetles of our woods, the Hessian fly, destroyer 
of wheat crops, and the bed-bug, a gift of commerce to new markets. 

But commerce has taken away as well as given. The sea-ports of the 
north-east of Scotland were for a time the mainstay of the whaling industry 
in Britain. Whaling companies were formed in Aberdeen before the 
close of the eighteenth century; in 1822 Peterhead with 16 whaling 
ships and Aberdeen with 14 followed Hull (40) in order of numbers, but 
by 1853 Peterhead, Fraserburgh, Banff and Aberdeen contributed 35 of 
the British whaling and sealing fleet of 55 vessels ; in 1857, 42 out of 55. 
Whale-fishing from Aberdeen reached its zenith in 1823, when the 
14 vessels captured 180 whales in the Greenland Sea and Davis Straits, 
but the captures declined and the loss of ships discouraged effort. In 
the Aberdeen Journal of October 13, 1830, we read: ‘ It is our painful 


26 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


duty to-day to have to record most disastrous intelligence from the Davis 
Straits Whale Fishery. ‘The number of ships this season was ninety-one, 
eighteen of which have been totally lost, many damaged besides ; and 
the whole fleet have scarcely captured as many whales as would make 
up four good cargoes. . . . Seventy-five ships have been lost at the 
Northern Whale Fishery since the year 1819, when they first attempted 
to cross Davis Straits.’ (And now trawling vessels from our ports pay 
regular visits to the one-time dangerous whaling grounds of the North.) 

These disasters and the falling off of the numbers of whales and seals 
finally brought this fishing to an end; from 1844 to 1865, ten vessels in 
all were employed from Aberdeen, and of these five were lost; the 
last solitary whaling ship sailed from the port in 1865. 


Thus the fauna, influenced now mainly by man and his doings, keeps 
changing, cut down and impoverished in some respects, in other ways 
added to in numbers and in kind, but never the same for two successive 
decades. It is a duty of the new natural history to trace in their detail 
and to interpret these fluctuations, of which we have given here but the 
crudest outline. 


V. 
THE FLORA OF THE NORTH-EAST 


BY 
ALEX. MacGREGOR, M.A. 


ABERDEEN spells granite, and the granitic soil of the North-east cannot 
boast of a rich flora. Our waysides and woodlands lack that wealth of 
striking flowers which favour a limestone soil and lend decorative effect 
to the lanes and hedgerows of southern England. It is true that nowhere 
in the south can be found a feast of beauty, such as the Dinnet Moor 
presents in July when the glory of the bell heather is the joy of the Nature 
lover and the despair of the artist. But the beauty of the bell heather is 
short-lived, and even the August brilliance of the higher moors soon fades 
to the uniform brown which is characteristic of heath for the greater part 
of the year. Nevertheless, the North-east has its compensations. When 
the wild flowers of the south are fading, and the grass of the Downs is 
withered, our countryside presents a freshness and a fairness which is a 
delight to holiday-makers seeking the quiet of rural haunts. Further, 
there are few areas which offer a greater variety of surface, from the land 
tilled by the labour of many hands to the wilds untouched by the hand of 
man, and none a greater variety of altitudes from the sea-level to the 


THE FLORA OF THE NORTH-EAST 27 


summits of the Cairngorms—the highest mountain massif in our island. 
Such diversity bespeaks a flora which, if not particularly rich in the 
number of species, is at least exceedingly interesting and highly instructive. 

EXTENT oF SuRvEY.—The area under review is roughly a parallelogram 
bounded on the north and east by the sea ; on the west by the Findhorn ; 
and on the south by the North Esk. The parallelogram includes the 
counties of Aberdeen, Banff, Kincardine and Moray—a total surface of 
approximately 3,300 square miles. On taking a general view of the 
geology of this tract, we find that igneous rocks, of which granite is by far 
the most common, predominate. In fact the granite of Aberdeenshire, 
Banff, and the northern third of Kincardine occupies a greater area than 
it does in any other part of similar extent in the British Isles. This 
extensive granite mass is flanked on either side by sandstone—the Trias 
and Old Red Sandstone of Morayshire and the Old Red of Kincardine. 

Normally a very intimate connection exists between the flora of a 
particular region and the nature of its basic rocks, but for a large propor- 
tion of the lower levels of the North-east it does not seem possible to trace 
any definite relation between the rock masses and the vegetation on the 
soil which covers them. This is because the lower hills and moors, and 
what is now agricultural land, became the dumping ground for the débris 
left by retreating glaciers at the close of the Ice Age. Boulder clay of 
various kinds, mixed with erratic blocks of granite and gneiss, covers the 
natural rock to a considerable depth. ‘The soil, therefore, except in the 
alluvial deposits, is not of great fertility. In spite of inferior soil, a way- 
ward climate and a northern latitude, agriculturists have transformed this 
bleak and boulder-strewn wilderness into the finest farm-land in Europe. 
During the process the native flora of these lower levels was greatly reduced, 
and is now chiefly confined to the exposed seaboard, the woods, the peat- 
bogs, the sheltered river valleys, or the higher levels where agriculture is 
impossible. 

BoranicaL Recorps.—The earliest records relating to the plants of the 
North-east are contained in the still extant MSS. (1765-70) of Dr. David 
Skene, a correspondent of Linnzus. ‘Towards the close of the eighteenth 
century the study of botany received such a stimulus that we find the 
nineteenth opening with quite a school of zealous investigators in the area. 
The year 1836 must have been its annus mirabilis, for that one year pro- 
duced (1) Part I of Dr. Murray’s Northern Flora, (2) Dr. Dickie’s Flora 
Aberdonensis, and (3) Surgeon Cow’s Flora of Aberdeen, the last printed 
but never published. Next came (4) Dr. Gordon’s Collectanea to the 
Flora of Moray (1839); (5) Paul H. Macgillivray’s Flora of Aberdeen 
(1853); (6) Prof. William MacGillivray’s Natural History of Deestde— 
issued posthumously by order of Queen Victoria ; and (7) Prof. Dickie’s 
Botanist’s Guide to the Counties of Aberdeen, Banff and Kincardine (1860). 
The present century brought (8) Prof. Trail’s ora of Buchan (1901) ; 
(9) Prof. Craib’s Flora of Banffshire (1912) ; and (10) Prof. Trail’s Flora 
of the City Parish of Aberdeen, published (1923) as a memorial volume. 
Articles on flowering plants, galls, fungi, mosses, etc-—some of which 
have also been published in pamphlet form—have from time to time 
appeared in the Scottish Naturalist, Annals of Scottish Natural History, 


28 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


The Deeside Field, and in the Transactions of various societies. For the 
last twenty years of his life Prof. Trail had been compiling the results of 
personal investigation into the distribution of plants over a wide area in 
the north of Scotland, and all interested in botanical research will regret 
that he did not live to publish what would have been an invaluable con- 
tribution to scientific study. The regret is all the deeper because no Flora 
of Aberdeenshire has been issued since the appearance in 1860 of his 
predecessor’s Botanist’s Guide, and because the probability is that no 
single botanist will ever gain that intimate knowledge of the flora of the 
North-east which fifty years of field-work enabled Prof. ‘Trail to possess. 

Tue Sea Coast.—No part of our seaboard has a greater reputation 
as a botanical resort than ‘ the cliffs of St. Cyrus.’ The volcanic rocks of 
that neighbourhood decompose into a light warm soil extremely favourable 
to the growth of a number of plants which here reach their northern limit 
or are rarely found north of Bervie. The cliffs and the close turf below 
them provide Viola hirta, Silene nutans, Dianthus deltoides, Hypericum 
perforatum, Astragalus danicus, A. glycyphyllos, Vicia lutea, Lathyrus 
sylvestris, Trifolium striatum, Campanula glomerata, Lamium hybridum, and 
many other interesting plants. Den Finella, in the same neighbourhood, is 
also worthy of a visit. ‘Though inferior to St. Cyrus in number and variety 
of species, the rocks of Muchalls have, in addition to many commoner 
plants, several very local ones such as Valerianella olitoria, Mertensia 
maritima and Artemisia maritima. 

From Aberdeen to the Sands of Forvie north of the Ythan the coast- 
line is flat and consists of sand-dunes with their characteristic flora, about 
which we may add that ‘ Viola Curtisii is the most common pansy there, 
though not recorded for the East Coast of Scotland until 1885.’ (Trail 
Memorial Volume.) North of the Ythan a large granitic mass at Peter- 
head covers an area of 46 square miles and forms the rocky coast-line for 
several miles. Thrust like a knotted shoulder in the teeth of the north- 
east winds, these rocks support but a scanty vegetation. ‘The Bullers 
of Buchan, however, shelter Sedum roseum, and those facing the Moray 
Firth at Aberdour and Gamrie yield Saxifraga oppositifolia and several 
rare Hieracia. From ‘Troup Head to the mouth of the Spey rocky head- 
lands and curving bays lined by fixed sand-dunes alternate with an almost 
uniform regularity, and present few features of botanical interest. 

Immediately west of the mouth of the Spey lies a marshy area called 
the Leen of Garmouth, which the Rev. George Birnie, B.D., of Speymouth, 
considers the richest floral tract of a square mile he has ever traversed. 
From it he has gathered about 400 species, among which are an unusual 
proportion of comparatively rare plants such as: Ranunculus sceleratus, 
Teesdahia nudicaulis, Ornithopus perpusillus, Ginanthe crocata, O. fistulosa 
and Salicornia europea. Specially noteworthy is the occurrence on the 
adjoining shingle of Fasione montana—its only station on the east coast of 
Scotland. Observed there in 1830 by the Rev. Dr. Gordon of Birnie, Moray- 
shire’s most distinguished naturalist, it is more than maintaining its ground. 
On the coast between Lossiemouth and Burghead grow Scilla verna, 
Ligusticum scoticum, Astragalus glycyphyllos (very rare for this latitude), 
A. danicus, Carduus tenuiflorus and Euphrasia curta var. glabrescens. 


a> . 


THE FLORA OF THE NORTH-EAST 29 


Tue CuLBIN SaNnps.—From the mouth of the river Findhorn the Culbin 
Sands—perhaps the most extraordinary physical phenomenon in Scotland 
—extend westward for more than six miles with a width varying from 
one to almost two miles. Here great accumulations of inblown sand 
have been piled up into enormous mounds, some over 100 ft. in height. 
These larger sand-hills, which are entirely destitute of vegetation, are 
continually on the move as the prevailing westerly winds drive the fine 
surface sand farther and farther east. But between these barren hills 
and the sea, and in an ancient bed of the Findhorn, which formerly 
discharged into the Firth three miles west of its present mouth, lie shallow 
lochs and moist hollows where a vegetation of intense interest to the 
ecologist exists. Since the estate of Culbin—once the ‘ Granary of 
Moray ’—was overwhelmed by drifting sand in 1694, man’s interference 
had, until recently, effected little change in the vegetation. Now, how- 
ever, the Forestry Commissioners, who have charge of the Culbin Sands 
area, are endeavouring to fix the barren dunes, by planting several hundred 
acres with Ammophila arenaria, in addition to planting Corsican pine and 
other conifers on the dunes as well as in the hollows. If, by sustained 
effort, the Commissioners succeed where hitherto individual efforts have 
failed, many of the rarer plants will in time disappear and the flora will 
lose much of its individual character and present attraction. 

Fortunately a very thorough ecological survey—the only one undertaken 
in the North-east, so far as we are aware—was made in 1923 by Mr. E.1.A. 
Stewart and Dr. Donald Patton of Glasgow. The results, the value of 
which will increase with the years, were published in the Transactions of 
the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, vol. xxix, and in the Botanical 
Exchange Club Report for 1923. ‘The value of the survey is greatly 
enhanced by reference to the important part which certain cryptogams, 
mentioned by name, play in the fixation of the sand. ‘These mosses and 
lichens not only occupy open spaces on the Ammophila-topped mounds, 
but by their closely interwoven shoots act as effective sand-binders. 
During their investigations Messrs. Stewart and Patton discovered in an 
artificial dam Hottonia palustris, a plant new to Scotland. ‘To their 
published list of 250 phanerogams at least 15 fall to be added along witha 
fourth fern, Botrychium Lunaria. In the list no fewer than nine species of 
orchids occur, including Goodyera repens, growing practically at sea-level, 
and one of the rarest of the orchid family—Coralorrhiza trifida—dis- 
covered as a new county record in 1910. ‘Though at low tide the mouth 
of the Findhorn is only a few yards wide, yet there is a striking contrast 
between the flora of the right bank and that of the Culbin Sands area on 
the left. Suffice it here to say that some 30-40 species grow on the right 
side which have not been recorded for the corresponding area on the left. 
Of these the more important are Thalictrum dunense, Ranunculus Baudotii, 
Sisymbrium Sophia, Malva rotundifolha, Ligusticum scoticum, Carduus 
tenutflorus, Erythrea littoralis, Volvus Soldanella, Elymus arenaria. 

DersipE.—As the Trail Memorial Volume includes comparative 
information on the distribution of plants in the seven parishes adjacent 
to the city parish, no further reference need be made to the flora of the 
immediate neighbourhood of Aberdeen. Turning inland we note that 


30 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


though a considerable part of Deeside is floored by gneisses and schists, 
the Dee drains a more extensive area of granite than any other British 
river. For the most part the soil of Deeside is light and sandy, and better 
suited to sylviculture than to agriculture, while that of the moors and hills 
is more favourable to the growth of heather than of grass. One version 
of a familiar couplet-— 


‘The River Dee for fish and tree, 
The River Don for horn and corn,’ 


pithily expresses the greater agricultural richness of the valley of the Don. 
The Dee valley, particularly the upper portion, is well wooded, but 
except for the Ballochbuie Forest on the Balmoral Estate, and the giant 
pines which still survive in Glen Lui and Glen Quoich, the woods are all 
plantations or have grown from seed naturally sown by planted trees. 
Extensive felling of timber, during and since the war years, has led to a 
great increase of secondary moorland, and a marked difference on the 
plant life of these areas. Fortunately all but a few of our characteristic 
woodland flowers thrive on heath and either survive there or in patches 
of standing timber, whence they subsequently spread to new plantations. 

The most interesting of our Deeside woodland plants are the Pyrolas and 
three species which are often associated—Linnea borealis, Trientalis euro- 
peus and Goodyera repens. The Goodyera—as much a lover of old pine- 
woods as the Crested ‘Tit—seldom survives the removal of overhead cover, 
and has thus a more limited range than the others. Repeated search has 
failed to locate it west of Ballochbuie Forest or at a higher elevation than 
about 1,000 ft. Of the wintergreens, Pyrola secunda, P. media and 
P. minor are widely diffused, though the first is seldom found in the lower 
parts of the valley. A new station for Moneses grandiflora (1931), the 
first for the Braemar district, is probably the only one in the North-east 
outside Morayshire where this rare and beautiful wintergreen is still 
growing. 

The limestones of Braemar account for the richer flora at the base of 
Morrone, where birch and poplar replace pine-woods. ‘There the botanist 
will find plants characteristic of moor, marsh and meadow as well as 
woodland. He will further recapture spring even after midsummer, for 
Orchis mascula, Anemone nemorosa and Caltha palustris may be found in 
flower in July, while the variety minor of the last mentioned lights up the 
higher rills evenin August. ‘The flowering of Ranunculus ficaria at 2,500 ft. 
on the southern slope of Little Craigandal (late July 1928) is worthy of 
note not because it was a new record for Braemar, but because the eleva- 
tion is 2,000 ft. above the highest of Dickie’s records. In Morrone 
woods along with three wintergreens grow Trollius europaeus, Arabis hirsuta, 
Vicia sylvatica, Sanicula europea, Habenaria conopsea, H. albida, H. viridis 
and Listera ovata, while Malaxis paludosa, Listera cordata, Orchis incarnata 
and Tofieldia palustris grow on the adjoining moors. 

THE CaIRNGORMS AND LOcCHNAGAR.—Since George Don, that pioneer 
discoverer of our Alpine flora, first explored ‘ with a botanical eye the lofty 
mountains of Cairngorm and the great hills of that neighbourhood ’ in 
1801-2, Braemar has year after year been the Mecca of distinguished 


THE FLORA OF THE NORTH-EAST 31 


botanists from far and near. ‘Two of the three districts richest in our 
rarest Alpines lie within comparatively easy access—the Cairngorms them- 
selves, and the Lochnagar group of mountains with the hills and glens 
lying on the Aberdeenshire-Angus border. Though neither is so rich 
as Breadalbane, both areas offer great possibilities because of their wider 
range of extent and altitude, and because they have been much less 
thoroughly searched. The Cairngorms alone cover an area of about 
300 square miles, and extend for miles as a great elevated plateau of granite 
having a mean elevation of 3,800 ft. On the summit of this plateau and 
in the corries which gash its flanks, particularly those facing north or 
north-east, grow the hardiest of our Alpine gems. As, with a few excep- 
tions, all these are found growing within the Arctic Circle they are strictly 
* Arctic-alpine.’ 

The flora of the mountains consists of three different groups of plants : 
(1) Those which are of universal range (from the sea-level to the 
summits of the highest mountains), like Empetrum nigrum and Vac- 
cinium myrtillus ; (2) those which inhabit our rocky coasts and the 
high corries but not intermediate localities, like Sedum roseum and 
Saxifraga oppositifolia ; (3) those which normally grow above 1,000 ft., 
including a few which do not descend below high levels, like Juncus 
trifidus (above 2,200 ft.) and Luzula arcuata (above 3,700 ft.). Among 
the first group are many plants like Alchemilla and Euphrasia, of which all 
the mountain forms were formerly classified under the trivial name of 
vulgaris or officinalis. As the result of more critical study, and of com- 
parison with continental species, many upland forms now rank as species 
or sub-species. Though it is difficult to explain why, it is well known 
that certain corries and localities like Glen Callater, with its adjoining 
Corrie Kander, and Little Craigandal are far richer in Alpine species than 
others which seem equally well suited for them. A rocky slope on Little 
Craigandal lying at an elevation of 2,400-2,800 ft., where Prof. Balfour 
discovered Astragalus alpinus in 1842, is richer than any similar area north 
of the Dee. 

In Volume I of the Cairngorm Club Fournal Prof. Trail gave a list of 
‘The Flowering Plants and Fern Allies of the Cairngorms,’ which con- 
_ tains all those likely to be met with apart from critical species recently 
discovered. In the Annals of Scottish Natural History for 1908-9-10 
_ Mr. Frederick N. Williams discusses ‘ The High Alpine Flora of Britain ’ 
found at or over 1,000 metres (3,280 ft.), but it is necessary to explain 
that as he deals with all species recorded for that zone of altitude, he 
includes many species of universal range and not considered strictly 
Alpine. As an example of how species of the British type decrease with 
altitude we may note that on the summit of the Coyles of Muick (1,956) 
we find 12 out of a total of 19 ; on Mount Keen (3,077) 3 out of 8; while 
on Ben Macdhui (4,296) all seven—<Silene acaulis, Saxifraga stellaris, Salix 
herbacea, Luzula spicata, L. arcuata, Carex rigida, Festuca vivipara—are 
of the Highland type. Among the rarer Alpines of the Cairngorms are 
Sagina alpina, S. Boydii, Saxifraga nivalis, S. rivularis, S. cespitosa, 
many Hieracia, and several rushes, sedges and grasses. In addition to 
these Salix lanata and S. reticulata grow in Glen Callater and Corrie 


32 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


Kander, while Lactuca alpina, the Sonchus ceruleus discovered by Don 
in 1801, is perhaps the most striking Alpine from Lochnagar itself. 

Donsipe.—As we have already hinted, the valley of the Don consists 
largely of arable land, and its flora will thus be of less interest and variety 
than that of Deeside. There are areas, however, like Scotston Moor, 
Paradise Woods, Monymusk, the Howe of Alford and the higher levels 
of Corgarff which furnish a number of local plants. On Scotston Moor, 
which lies about two miles north of the Old Bridge of Dee, grow Parnassia 
palustris, Sedum villosum, Drosera anglica, Pyrola media, P. minor, 
Utricularia minor, U. intermedia, etc., with a patch of Linnea borealis in 
an adjoining wood. An almost forgotten botanist of the North-east, 
Prof. James Beattie, of Marischal College, a nephew of the poet Beattie, 
was in 1795 the first discoverer for Britain of Linnea, which he recorded 
for ‘ Inglismadie, Mearnsshire ’ (Kincardine). 

From Corgarff, Upper Strathdon, are recorded Rubus saxatilis, 
R. Chamemorus, Alchemilla alpina, Sedum villosum, Crepis paludosa, 
Guaphalium supinum, Arctostaphylos alpina, Pyrola secunda. 

In his Flora of Buchan Prof. Trail includes all the parishes between 
the Ythan and the Deveron, and as all the records are based on his per- 
sonal observations, there is little need for further reference to an area so 
thoroughly and so authoritatively examined. A few of the rarer or more 
local species are Ranunculus sceleratus, Cochlearia danica and C. green- 
landica (Slains), Stellaria nemorum (Alvah), Sagina ciliata (very local), 
Rosa hibernica (rare), Saxifraga hypnoides, Galiuum Mollugo, Hieracium 
Schmidt’, H. rigidum, H. corymbosum (scarce and very local). 

BANFFSHIRE.—Lhe two extremes of Banffshire—the coastal area and 
the upland section culminating in the Cairngorms—have already been 
dealt with, and as its Flora (1912) is comparatively recent, the middle 
portion, which is mainly agricultural, requires little comment. ‘Two 
names intimately connected with the botany of the area, however, deserve 
special mention in addition to that of the late Prof. Craib, viz. Thomas 
Edward, the Banffshire naturalist, many of whose records of the rarer 
species are referred to in the Flora ; and Mr. John Yeats, M.A., for many 
years Secretary of the Banffshire Field Club. The latter crowned a long 
career as a field botanist by finding, when over 80 years of age, the ex- 
tremely rare Saxifraga Hirculus. 

Banffshire has no main river valley to itself, as it shares the Deveron 
with Aberdeenshire, and the lower Spey with Morayshire, though it can 
lay full claim to the Avon, the chief tributary of the Spey. The high 
ground near the confluence of these two rivers culminates in that fine 
isolated hill, Ben Rinnes, on whose upper slopes occur such Alpines as 
Loiseleuria procumbens, Rubus Chamemorus, Saxifraga stellaris, Epilobium 
anagallidifolium, Gnaphalium supinum, Salix herbacea. 

MoraysuHirE.—Geologically Morayshire falls into two divisions—a 
plain in the north of Old Red Sandstone and Trias, overlaid with glacial 
deposits, and a hilly region in the south composed of metamorphic rock, 
chiefly schists. ‘The seaboard plain, known as the ‘ Laich of Moray,’ is 
famous for the mildness of its climate and the richness of its alluvium. 
With a low rainfall—at Forres occasionally under 20 in.—and a high 


THE FLORA OF THE NORTH-EAST 33 


maximum of sunshine, it presents a marked contrast to the corresponding 
area east of Spey. As few of the Morayshire hills rise above 2,000 ft., its 
Alpines are limited to those grown from seed washed down the river 
valleys. By way of compensation the flora of the ‘ Laich’ contains several 
species seldom found north of the southern counties of Scotland, and 
includes some 57 not recorded in the Flora of Banffshire. 

As the death of Dr. Gordon precluded the publication of a contem- 
plated second edition of his Collectanea, it is of interest to report that a 
Flora of Morayshire containing almost 1,000 species has been compiled 
under the auspices of the Moray Field Club, with its former secretary, 
Mr. J. J. Burgess, M.A., as editor.1 His collaborators are Rev. George 
Birnie, B.D., Speymouth, who contributes a chapter on Mosses, and 
Mr. Peter Leslie, M.A., B.Sc., formerly Lecturer on Forestry in Aberdeen 
University, who is responsible for Conifers, Fungi and Alge. Mr. Birnie 
had previously issued a Catalogue of Mosses for Vice-County 95, and the 
late Dr. Keith, Forres, several lists of local Fungi, but as little else dealing 
with the botany of Moray has been published in permanent form, the new 
volume should prove a welcome addition to the number of county Floras. 
It is hoped that the new Flora, for which the Prime Minister has written 
a foreword, will be published this year. 

Some of the rarer species found in that part of the Spey valley within 
Morayshire are Pyrola secunda, P. media, Carex aquatilis (Grantown) ; 
Arabis hirsuta, Agrimonia Eupatoria, Pimpinella Saxifraga, Galium boreale 
(Craigellachie) ; Linnea borealis, Ulex minor, Impatiens parviflora, 
Atropa Belladonna, Listera ovata, and the rarest of the wintergreens, 
Moneses grandiflora (Fochabers). Found there and near Brodie Castle 
(1792) for the first time in Britain, it still survives in three or four localities. 

Though entirely a Morayshire river, the Lossie has few places of 
botanical interest apart from Loch Spynie and the neighbourhood of 
Elgin. The area farther west is drained by the Findhorn. Unrivalled 
for the beauty of its scenery, that part of its valley which extends for 
seven or eight miles from the point where the river crosses the county 
boundary is the paradise of the artist and the nature lover. Nowhere in 
the county are the flowers so massive, their bloom so delicate, and their 
foliage so rich as on the banks of the Findhorn. Cothall, with its belt of 
limestone, and the woods adjoining, have long been known for such 
interesting plants as Geranium sanguineum, Saxifraga aizoides (at Sluie 
for 100 years), Agrimonia Eupatoria, Circea alpina, Sanicula europea, 
Eupatoria cannibinum, Carlina vulgaris, Lithospermum officinale, Neottia 
nidus-avis, Carex pendula, Melica uniflora, Equisetum hyemale. The 
Greshop Woods lower down yield Sisymbrium Sophia, Stellaria nemorum, 
Malva sylvestris, Adoxa Moschatellina, Echium vulgare, while across the 
river in Dyke Monotropa Hypopitys has twice been found in the beech 
- woods. 

Enough has been written to prove that the flora of Moray contains many 
species seldom found north of the Border counties of Scotland, and that 
the ‘ Laich of Moray ’ has a rich soil and a favoured climate. If emphasis 
were needed, we can point for confirmation to Elgin Cathedral and other 

1 Mr. Burgess died (February 28, 1934) since the above was written. 
c 


34 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


ecclesiastical buildings, now, alas, in ruins, for the monks of old had a 
keen eye for fertile lands as well as for rural beauty. At Elgin, Pluscarden, 
Spynie Palace, Kinloss Abbey or elsewhere Chelidonium majus, Hyocyamus 
niger, Atropa Belladonna, Marrubium vulgare and Ballota nigra survive as 
reminders of the monks’ healing art and as relics of their herbal gardens. 


VI. 
FORESTRY 


BY 
Pror. A. W. BORTHWICK, O.B.E., D.Sc., F.R.S.E. 


Forestry in the North and North-east of Scotland covers a wide and 
diversified area. The geological conditions, mountains, lochs and 
rivers, have given rise to very varied types of soil which change, mingle 
and separate over comparatively small areas. ‘The three northern 
counties stretch from sea to sea, and indeed, leaving out county boundaries, 
so does the whole area under consideration. It therefore embraces 
climatic conditions typical of the east and west coasts. Exposure, 
elevation, climate and soil may therefore be expected each to play its 
part in the development and types of forest to be found in this region. 
From historical accounts and the existing scattered remains of the original 
forest, as well as of the roots and trunks of trees, especially the Scots 
pine, in peat mosses, it is suggested that the Sylva Caledoniz at some 
time extended from the Moor of Rannoch in the west on the confines of 
the shires of Perth, Argyll and Inverness, eastward to the remaining 
woods of Mar at the sources of the Dee and the Don, in West Aberdeen- 
shire, and thence down the ridge on the northern part of the county of 
Mearns, which forms the southern boundary of the river Dee. Farther _ 
to the north, the remains of the primeval pine forest in the peat indicate 
that it extended much nearer to the sea, covering the low lands of 
Aberdeen and Moray. Along the shores of the Moray Firth no remains 
exist at the present day above ground on the slopes of the mountains 
facing the sea ; but in the massive Cairngorm mountains extensive remains 
are found in the glens and valleys of the river Spey and its tributaries. 
Other accounts say that all the territory north of the Forth and Clyde 
was covered by a vast forest, the forest of the Caledonii. The name 
‘Caledonii’ means ‘the people of the coverts,’ and applied to the 
inhabitants of the forest rather than to the territory which it occupied. 
In later days the term was applied in a general way to the whole of 
Scotland. The native forest was not entirely composed of pine, but 
contained an admixture of oak, birch, willow, alder, hazel and others. 


FORESTRY 35 


The early destruction of the forest began in the time of the Romans. 
It was found to be impossible to drive out the inhabitants without 
destroying the forest, which was their natural fortress. The destruction 
of the forest and the felling of trees to make roads was therefore carried 
out on a large scale, to reach the inhabitants in their sylvan retreats. 
It is said that the Roman General Severus lost no fewer than about 
50,000 men in destroying the forests and endeavouring to overcome the 
physical barriers of the country. Historians seem to differ in opinion 
as to the presence or absence of extensive forests in the days of old, but 
surely we can rely on the numerous remains of large trees so commonly 
found all over the territory of the ancient Sylva Caledoniz as definite and 
satisfactory proof of the vast extent of the natural primeval forest. 

The work of forest destruction was not confined to military operations 
alone. In feudal times the population was led to believe that the 
growth of timber was an obstacle to the production of food, and wanton 
destruction of the’forest was carried to excess. ‘The barons of the time 
seem to have placed no restraint on this work of desolation, and by the 
fourteenth century Scotland was mostly devoid of timber except in the 
remote glens and other inaccessible places. 

The bleak and desolate condition of the country began to engage 
attention in the time of James I, who forbade the cutting down of trees. 
In 1457 the parliament of James II enacted that the king charge the 
tenants of all his freeholds both spiritual and temporal, that they plant 
woods and trees and make hedges and sow broom. In 1503 the 
parliament of James IV enacted that ‘every Lord and Laird, make 
them to have parks with deer, stanks, cunningares (rabbit warrens), 
dowcotts (dove-cots), orchards and hedges and plant-at least one acre of 
wood.’ In 1535 the above is ratified by the parliament of James V, 
and in addition, every man having ‘an hundred pounds land, of new 
extent,’ is required to plant three acres and to make hedges and haining, 
and ‘ that the tenants of every merk of land plant a tree.’ In 1668, in 
the reign of Charles II, further laws were enacted regarding the planting 
and tending of oak and other trees. 

In this connection it may be of interest to recall that in 1616, after 
one of these numerous insurrections fomented by the Macdonalds, Lords 
of the Isles, the leading island chiefs were bound over at Edinburgh 
amongst other things to build ‘ civil and comlie’ houses and to repair 
those that were decayed and to have ‘ police and planting about them.’ 
It is perhaps interesting to speculate as to what might have been, had 
the warlike western chiefs succeeded in conquering and overrunning the 
North-east of Scotland in 1411, led by Donald, Lord of the Isles, who 
claimed the Earldom of Ross. His claim was refuted by the Duke of 
Albany, who informed the chief that if he wanted Ross he must fight 
for it. Donald’s reply was to come east with a large army of Highlanders. 
He overran and ravished all Moray, and then set out south, with the in- 
tention of sacking and burning Aberdeen. At Harlaw, twenty miles north 
of Aberdeen, he was met by the Earl of Mar with a small but well- 
disciplined force of armoured burgesses. Donald and his army descended 
on them like a mountain torrent, but the wild charges and rushing waves 


36 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


of the impetuous islanders made small impression on the feudal force in 
armour, and after an all-day fight Donald had to retire to the Highlands. 
At this remarkable battle the menace and power of the western chiefs 
was forever broken as far as the North-east was concerned. Had Donald 
succeeded in overcoming and subduing Ross and the North-east, the 
enactments of James I and his successors for the planting of woods and 
trees might never have been made. Thus Aberdeen can claim its share 
for the part it played in early history of forestry development. 

The percentage of woodland area in the North-east of Scotland, 
especially in the counties of Elgin, Aberdeen and Kincardine, is, along 
with the four counties in the South-east of England and Monmouth, the 
highest for Great Britain. The three Scottish counties mentioned, and 
including Banff, show a percentage of felled woods well above the average 
for the rest of the country. ‘This indicates that with the area of standing 
woods, together with that which was felled principally during the 
war, a very high proportion of land is under afforestation in the North- 
east of Scotland. 

The climate in the north, with few exceptions, is sufficiently mild, 
contrary to what is generally supposed, to admit of the cultivation of a 
surprising number of exotic species of trees and the production of really 
fine hardwood timber. 

There are many extensive wooded estates in the North and North-east 
of Scotland, but the space we are allowed will only permit of a short 
reference to a few. ‘The valleys of the Dee and Don and the Spey, each 
with its tributaries and side glens, are richly clothed with woods and 
forest which have long been famous for the excellence of their timber. 
For miles along the lower valley of the Dee the road passes through many 
small residential estates with well-laid-out shelter belts, and parks with 
single or massed groups of ornamental trees and shrubs and well-kept 
avenues and hedges. These greatly enhance the natural beauty of the 
valley. Interesting examples of trees and woods are to be seen at 
Hazelhead, Countesswells and Craibstone, all within a short distance of 
the town. Farther afield in the upper valley of the Dee, on the Hill of 
Fare and in the woods of Craigmyle and Learney, pine and larch cover 
extensive ranges of hills and slopes. In the districts of Aboyne, 
Glentanar, Ballogie, Balfour and Finzean, the Scots pine and the larch 
grow particularly well. These and neighbouring estates can not only 
show coniferous forests of the highest economic quality, but also hard- 
woods of fine growth and form. The Ballater district has also long 
been famed for its woods and forests. ‘The Royal estate of Balmoral is 
a model for both arboriculturalists and sylviculturalists. The woods 
and plantations have been laid out and tended with the highest skill and 
all that is best in forest management. The Castle is situated on the 
right bank of the river, and the policies extend from below the Manse of 
Crathie right up to the old primeval forest of Ballochbuie. Steep rocky 
slopes on each side of the river have been clothed, since Balmoral became 
a Royal residence, with plantations of forest trees of many kinds, 
indigenous and exotic. ‘The plantations of various ages and species 
mingle harmoniously among themselves and with their surroundings 


FORESTRY 37 


and form a fine background of wooded slopes which rise in the direction 
of ‘Dark Lochnagar.’ The old forest of Ballochbuie contains many 
grand and picturesque trees of the finest type of Scots pine. Their 
clean, straight, cylindrical stems of great girth contain timber of the 
highest quality. From the Ballochbuie forest, in earlier times, came 
many trees for shipbuilding and other purposes for which large-sized 
timber of the finest quality was required. 

On the Glentanar estate, the old forest of that name covers an extensive 
area, rising high on the slopes of the glen or the valley of the Tanar and 
its tributaries. Birkhall, Glenmuick and Abergeldie are also well- 
wooded properties. The policies and woods of Invercauld, on the left 
bank of the river, contain some fine examples of hardwoods and coniferous 
plantations. Natural woods of oak, birch, rowan, alder, aspen and others, 
so typical of many parts of.the valley and associated with artificial woods 
of pine and larch, on the Mar estate, continue tree growth from the Linn 
of Dee to the wooded part of the old primeval forest of Mar. 

A striking feature in many parts in the upper valley of the Dee is the 
high elevation at which good timber can be grown. The Kirktown of 
Braemar stands at an elevation of about 1,000 ft. above sea-level, but 
the timber line extends many hundred feet beyond that elevation. On 
the Mar estate good larch over 100 years old has been grown at 1,900 ft., 
which is far above the timber line for most of the country. 

For several miles above the picturesque Brig of Balgownie the river 
Don is flanked with finely wooded slopes, which terminate in the 
ornamental grounds of Seaton House. Among the wooded properties 
near Aberdeen, Parkhill is outstanding. On this estate, the luxuriant 
vigour and growth of the younger plantations, and the fine form and 
development of the older trees, bear testimony to the suitability of soil 
and climate and to the care and skill which has been given to their 
management. A more pastoral type of country intervenes until Kintore 
is reached, where woods and plantations again prevail. Among the 
more important wooded estates higher up the valley are Monymusk 
and Castle Forbes. In the extensive plantations of Monymusk the 
Scots pine, larch and spruce predominate. ‘The old Garden of Paradise 
contains a rich store of arboreal treasures. Along with the fine old 
larches, contemporaneous, it is said, with those planted at Dunkeld in 
1743, are fine specimens of pine, spruce, silver fir and yew, together with 
splendid individual trees of oak, beech, ash, elm, sycamore and other 
hardwoods. The Castle Forbes woodlands are extensive, thriving and 
well managed. On Kildrummy there are some extensive plantations 
of Scots pine and larch and Douglas fir of good quality. At Strathdon, 
the head of the valley, there are interesting woods and plantations on 
Castle Newe, Edinglassie and Candacraig. 

To the south of Aberdeen, the estates of Durris, Drumtochty, Fetter- 
cairn, Fetteresso and others bear eloquent testimony to what can be 
done successfully in this part of the country under good forestry 
Management. 

The celebrated forest of Glenmore surrounds Loch Morlich, which 
is the source of the Durie, a tributary of the Spey, which drains Rothie- 


38 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


murchus and Abernethy. Except on the west, the forest is sheltered on 
all sides by lofty mountains. The trees, as the history of the forest 
shows, have always been of fine growth, and the timber line extends 
up the mountain sides from 1,100 ft. to 1,400 ft. In the statistical 
account of Scotland it is recorded that the Duke of Gordon sold his 
fir woods at Glenmore in the Barony of Kincardine for £10,000 sterling 
to an English company. ‘The activities and busy scenes associated with 
the felling and floating of the timber down the Spey, and the ship- 
building at Speymount which sprang into existence, are vividly described 
by the older writers. ‘The inscription on a memorial plank cut from a 
tree of the forest at that time and which still stands in the entrance hall 
of Gordon Castle, gives clearly an idea of the magnitude of the 
enterprise. 

The inscription is as follows: ‘In the year 1783, William Osborne, 
Esqr., Merchant of Hull, purchased from the Duke of Gordon, the 
Forest of Glenmore, the whole of which he cut down in the space of 
22 year, and built during that time, where never vessel was built before, 
47 sail of ships of upwards of 19,000 tons burthen. The largest of them 
of 1000 tons and three others but little inferior in size, one now in the 
service of His Majesty and the Honble. East India Company. This 
undertaking was completed at the expense (for labour only) of about 
£70,000. ‘To His Grace, the Duke of Gordon, this plank is offered as a 
specimen of the growth of one of the trees in the above forest, by His 
Grace’s most obt. servt., W. Osborne, Hull, Sept. 26th, 1806.’ 

Various accounts show that the forest began to regenerate itself naturally 
after the trees had been cut down, and in 1914 a new crop of a fine type 
of Scots pine of the best quality had matured. A crop of inestimable 
value to the country at that time. 

There are extensive forests in the glens and valleys of the river Spey 
and its confluents. Scots pine and larch are of specially good growth 
and form in this part of Scotland. Natural regeneration is the out- 
standing feature in forestry management in Strathspey. Enclosure at 
the right time and the cessation of grazing is followed by an abundant 
appearance of natural seedlings among the heather. The Seafield, 
Rothiemurchus, Orton and other estates are famed for the magnificence 
of the Scots pine, which grows and flourishes in extensive forests, in 
this its apparent optimum locality. Altyre, Darnaway and Gordon Castle 
are noted for the excellence of,the Scots pine and other timbers produced 
in their well-managed woods. 

The county of Ross presents a great variety of surface ; mountain, 
glen, river, loch and moor make up a general landscape of exceeding 
charm and grandeur. Many tracts of fine arable land and pasture occur 
throughout the county. With one or two exceptions no large continuous 
wooded areas exist, but numerous small woods, shelter belts and clumps 
of trees abound, near and around mansion houses and farm steadings. 
Hardwoods and Conifers of many kinds thrive well. The peninsula of 
the Black Isle, bounded by the Moray, the Beauly and the Cromarty 
Firths, presented at one time, we are told, a bleak and dreary landscape, 
heath-covered and so lacking in pasture that it was said a goat could 


FORESTRY 39 


not live over fiveacres on it. Many woods, shelter belts, strips and clumps 
of trees now exist which afford considerable shelter to dwellings, arable 
lands, stock and pasture. 

The Novar estates, for the extent and quality of their woodlands and 
their excellent management, are easily the best in Ross-shire and indeed 
stand high among the woodland estates of Britain. ‘That part of the 
county known as Easter Ross, which comprises the lower lying districts 
along the shores of the Cromarty Firth, was at one time of little value 
as it contained many small lochs, bogs and swamps. Drainage and land 
reclamation, together with extensive planting, have combined to ameliorate 
the climate and to convert this relative waste into a land of green fields, 
flourishing woods and pleasing landscapes. 

Wester Ross is mainly a region of mountain and sheep grazings, and 
natural woods of birch mingled with the remnants of some fine old 
primeval pine. Nevertheless, many plantations of Scots pine and larch 
have been established with success on many estates in this part of the 
country. Some of these are of considerable extent, as on the Gairloch 
and Braemore estates, where Scots pine, larch, spruce and other conifers 
have grown well. The Braemore woods were planted round about 
the year 1870, and yielded much valuable material during the war. 

In the Hebridean Islands shelter and soil are the main problems. 
There are, however, many fine grown trees, woods and plantations of 
different kinds which show that these difficulties can be overcome by 
skill and perseverance. 

RESEARCH.—One of the biggest problems at the present time in forestry 
is how to deal successfully with the large tracts of peat areas and difficult 
planting ground in the Highlands and elsewhere. 

Much valuable knowledge has been gained by the investigations and 
experimental work carried out since 1892 by Sir John Stirling Maxwell 
at Corrour, in the south-east of Inverness-shire. The plantations lie 
around the north-east half of Loch Ossian and are all above the 1,250 ft. 
contour. ‘The first plantations were confined to parts which were not 
supposed to require drainage. Theresults were not altogether satisfactory. 
Nevertheless, close observation and study of these plantations provided 
useful and promising lines for further experiments in methods of planting, 
choice of suitable species, age and size of plants to use, planting distances, 
the use of pioneer and nurse species for the more delicate but valuable 
kinds of trees, methods of after-care and tending. Since 1925 more 
intensive experiments have been laid down in order to find out whether 
it is possible to convert poor moorland soils into forest at this altitude in 
Scotland. These plantations have proved to be of immense value and 
encouragement to all workers engaged in the scientific investigations of 
peat, and in due course further results of fundamental value cannot fail to 
emerge. 

The special methods of the fixation and planting of shifting sand dunes, 
so important in many places in the Empire and in different countries, 
can be seen and studied in detail at Culbin on the Moray Firth. 

Epucation.—The Forestry Department of the University of Aberdeen 
provides a full course in Forestry training, leading up to the degree of 


40 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


B.Sc. in Forestry. Special courses are also provided for apprentice 
foresters, agricultural graduands and those who intend to qualify for 
general plantation work. 

SocreTies.—A branch of the Royal Scottish Forestry Society was 
instituted in Aberdeen in 1906, and has contributed to the advancement 
of forestry by holding regular meetings for the reading of papers by 
eminent foresters ; discussions on forestry subjects and visits to forestry 
estates have marked the activities of the branch. 

The Moray and Nairn Forestry Society, formed in 1923, is sustained 
and conducted by purely local enterprise and enthusiasm, and has done 
much to promote the development of scientific and practical forestry 
in the Elgin and Forres districts. 

Farther north, there is the Inverness branch of the Royal Scottish 
Forestry Society. Among the many useful functions it has served is 
the promotion of practical competitions in wood-craft. This has been 
an outstanding feature. 

SETTLEMENT ScHemMES.—The following facts will indicate what the 
Forestry Commissioners have already done and what they will accomplish 
in future in maintaining and increasing the forest area and forest 
industries, which are so intimately bound up with the development and 
prosperity of the North of Scotland. 

The Forestry Commissioners have created 30 new Forest Workers’ 
Holdings on the extensive forests of the Great Glen in Inverness-shire 
and a further 10 on adjacent estates. ‘There are 182 persons resident 
on these settlements. The holders themselves are guaranteed employment 
for six months in the year on the forest areas. In practice, the amount 
of work available has permitted their employment for periods considerably 
in excess of sixmonths. So far as can be ascertained, the number of people 
regularly employed on these estates by the Commission is five or six 
times the number employed when the lands were in private ownership. 
The stock owned by the 40 holders is valued at £977. 

On the estates of The Bin and Clashindarroch, in the Huntly district, 
20 holdings have been formed, housing 87 persons, including 22 employees. 
The holders’ stock is valued at £552. A further 17 holdings have been 
made on the Culbin Forest and on Newton Farm in the Forres-Elgin 
district, where a large forest nursery is in course of development. Here 
the total residents number 76, of whom 22 are employed by the Com- 
mission. Other less important settlements have been created in the 
Aberdeen University area, as at the Forest of Deer, Drumtochty, Scoot- 
more, Teindland and other places. 

Tue Timer INDusTRY OF ABERDEEN.—The timber trade in Aberdeen 
is one of the most important trades in the city. 

Aberdeen, being situated on the east coast, and being very accessible 
for shipping from the Continent, is the port for the importation of timber 
for the North of Scotland. The average annual importation into 
Aberdeen of foreign timber by sea (i.e. through the Customs) in 1932 
and 1933 was about 3,000,000 cubic ft. of timber. ‘The actual importation 
in 1933 was 2,358,654 cubic ft. (up to the end of November 1933), and 
the sources were : Norway, 122,050 cubic ft. ; Finland, 541,650 cubic ft. ; 


FORESTRY 41 


Sweden, 292,850 cubic ft.; Latvia, 91,100 cubic ft.; Russia, 1,188,150 
cubic ft. ; Germany, 89,828 cubic ft. ; France, 3,550 cubic ft. ; America, 
24,250 cubic ft. ; Canada, 2,976 cubic ft.; Burma, 250 cubic ft. This 
makes a total of 2,358,654 cubic ft. 

The Customs’ figures for sea-borne imports during 1933, however, 
do not necessarily indicate the actual consumption of timber during that 
period. ‘There was a large carry forward of stocks from 1932, and a 
certain quantity of foreign timber also arrives by road and rail, and 
although no statistics are available, home-grown timber still bulks largely 
in the annual consumption. The quantity required for the building 
trades, principally during the year 1933, amounted to 78,000 loads or 
about 4,000,000 cubic ft. 

The city is well supplied with sawmills. These mills are equipped 
with up-to-date wood-working machinery, and are kept fully employed 
in the rehandling, resawing and dressing of this timber for distribution 
mainly to the building trades in the city and over the whole of the North 
of Scotland, including Orkney and Shetland. 

For the box-making industry, Aberdeen imported during 1933, 
5,000 fathoms or about 1,100,000 cubic ft. of round timber. The greater 
part of this timber is used in the manufacture of all kinds of fish boxes, 
packing cases, for home and export trade ; herring barrels, etc., in the 
many excellently equipped factories. These manufactures are well 
known over the whole of Britain. Forty to fifty years ago, 100,000 
fish boxes were used annually ; by 1924 the number had increased to 
4,000,000. At the present day 12 cubic ft. of wood is required per ton 
of fish boxed. 

It is not possible to say how much home timber is used for this purpose, 
but one firm alone in the box-making trade requires 300,000 cubic ft. 
of round and sawn home timber per annum. It is confidently believed 
that better organisation of marketing facilities would lead to a larger 
consumption of home timber. 

It is interesting to examine the sources of the sea-borne imports which 
make up the Customs’ figures. In the total given above the bulk of the 
importation was red wood and white wood (pine and spruce), and it 
will be seen that the bulk of it came from Russia; birch and maple came 
from Canada; hardwoods from Germany ; poles from Sweden ; _laths 
from Norway ; chestnut from France ; firewood from Sweden ; flooring 
and planed goods from Norway and Sweden; red wood mainly from 
Russia and Finland ; teak from Burma ; staves from Norway and Sweden ; 
deals, battens and boards from America, but the bulk from Europe. 
In the same period in 1933 most other ports in Great Britain exceeded 
the figures for 1932 in timber importations except Aberdeen. This 
was due largely to the box and barrel trade being depressed. In the 
autumn of 1933 Aberdeen box-makers, through a representative of the 
box-making firms who visited Newfoundland, were able to fix up contracts 


on what were regarded as favourable terms, for about 5,000 fathoms of 
timber. This action is of importance for several sound reasons, not the 


least among which is that Canada, invoking the Ottawa agreement, has 
been pressing this country to put an embargo on Russian timber. ‘The 


42 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


Aberdeen box-makers have thus acted on their own accord, without 
waiting for Government pressure, and it is to be generally hoped that 
the new source of supply will be found to meet their needs. 

In connection with the home timber industry, Aberdeen is well to the 
fore, being situated within economic distance of the finest timber-growing 
districts in Britain, viz. Deeside, Donside and Speyside. In these 
districts about thirty sawmills are continually employed producing boarding 
for box-making and staves and heading for barrel-making. ‘They also 
produce large quantities of timber for the mining industry, railway sleepers 
and fencing for the railway companies, and for general work. ‘The total 
output from these mills during the past twelve months (in 1933) amounted 
to approximately 2,350,000 cubic ft. 


Vil. 


THE CLIMATE OF ABERDEENSHIRE 


BY 
G. AUBOURNE CLARKE, F.R.Mer.Soc. 


GENERAL CONDITIONS.—From the climatic point of view the county of 
Aberdeenshire is somewhat peculiarly placed. Its western extremity 
lies in the central highlands of Scotland where large areas of the ground 
rise above the 2,000-ft. level, while the relatively low land of its north- 
eastern extremity is washed both on the north and on the east by the 
waters of the North Sea. Considerable differences in climate throughout 
the county are therefore naturally to be expected. 

Meteorological data over considerable periods are available for the 
valley of the river Dee, from Aberdeen Observatory on the sea coast at 
the mouth of the river and from Balmoral and Braemar on the high ground 
at its upper reaches ; also from Logie Coldstone which occupies a some- 
what sheltered position farther down the river than Balmoral. In addi- 
tion there are statistics of rainfall and sunshine from Crathes, a station 
which, though actually lying in the neighbouring county of Kincardine, 
is situated on the north side of the river Dee about half way between 
Aberdeen and Logie Coldstone ; and also rainfall data from Ellon and. 
New Deer in the north-eastern part of the county. ‘These stations are 
shown in the accompanying sketch map. 


THE CLIMATE OF ABERDEENSHIRE 43 


The statistics given in this article have been supplied by permission 
of the Director of the Meterological Office. 


NEW DEER 
Ay . e 
tet 397 ft 


ELLON 


(oo ft 


: LOGIE COLOSTONE SBR EES 
oove 608 fr L6fy 


yu ~ = = 
' BALMORAL —~_/KCer De - uF 
" Th sei ie taal ae CRATHES 
: G30 fr : 140 ft 
Be BRAEMAR 

120 ff: Mean, Kees 


sae, 


ABERDEENSHIRE—Showing Meteorological Stations and their heights 
above M.S.L. 


'TEMPERATURE.— lable I shows the temperatures recorded at Aberdeen, 


Logie Coldstone, and Braemar during the period 1901-30. For each of 
_ these stations there are given the mean maximum and minimum tempera- 


tures and also the mid-temperatures for each month and for the year. 


Finally there is shown the mean daily range for each month and for 


ql 
‘ 


the year. 

The table shows clearly the differences in the climate of the sea-coast 
and that of the higher regions inland. For example, at Aberdeen the 
June maximum is 58-7° F., while at Logie Coldstone it is 61-7° F., and 
at Braemar, despite a height of 1,120 ft., it reaches 60°6° F. The corre-_ 
sponding minimum temperatures are 47°0°, 441° and 42-2° F., Aberdeen 
having thus much warmer nights. The daily ranges for this month are 
11°7° F. at Aberdeen, 17:6° F. at Logie Coldstone and 18-4° F. at 
Braemar. 

‘The table also shows that at the inland stations the winter temperature 
is much lower than at Aberdeen, while the daily range is nevertheless 
larger. The annual range of monthly temperature at Aberdeen is 17°5° F. 
and at the other two stations it is 20-1° F. 

It is interesting in this respect to note that if the averages over the 
period 1881-1915 are employed instead of those over 1901~30, the mean 


44 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


S.br | o.1r | €.21 | 1-¥r | €.o1 | 6-S1 | S21 | ¥egr | ¥-Lr | S.S1 
6.SE | 9-62 | ¥-1€ | 6.9£ | €.1b | €.SH | o.gh | Z.zb | S.LE | S.2€ 
Duey lates: | -LE | Get | S.6P tS | 2.48 |\eatS | 2 ok |-0k 
v.08 | 9-0h | L.€v | 0-18 | g-L$ | z.19 | $.£9 | 9.09 | 6.48 | 0. QF | 
o-vr | ¥.o1 | S.1r | g-€1 | 6.$1 | ¥.S1 | €.92 | g-Lr'| Q-gr | 6.Sr | 
£LE | OLE ence: | P-gF | rE | eeZy-| 1.9) | 14h | 2.68) 6.€€ 
L.vy | z.o€ | 6.g€ | €.Sh | r-18 | 6.68 | €.98 | 6.28.) 9.Lh | 6.14 
£.18 | v.1v | L.vb | z.zS | 0.68 | 9-29 | ¥.¥9 | L-19 | 0-98 | Q-6F | 
DHOr | 9.4 -|=9-9<|\59:0..| £.1r | r.1ng ear | Zgn | &. 16.01 
baat? |S SE |-ocLe: | L-2h | 69h] £.08 | 2.08, |.0.2h | bck |°L.2E| 
€.ov | ¥.6€ | 6.1b | g- Lh | S.zS | 6.55 | €.98 | 6.25 | 0.Qh | 1-€F 
£.18 | €.€h.| 2-97 | S.2S | z.gS | b.19 | 6.19 | 2-95 | 9. £9 | 9-9QF | 
"reaX_| ‘da¢[ | “AON | “3990 | 3dag| ‘sny | Ajnf{ | ounf | Ae | pudy 


Z£I 
9.62 
F.9f 
0. €V 


o.£1 
L.1€ 
z-QE 
L.th 


| +.6 
g- St 


£.oV 
o.S+t 


“IBTAT 


Q-II | g-o1 asuey Apieq uray 
L.gz | $.6z ; “UIT, UBoTAy 
g-FE | 9-v& ainqyesodua T, Pry 
S.oF | 1-0F : “XB, UROTAT 
uvavag 
I-11 | $.o1 asuvy Ajieq uroyy 
g-of | 1-1€ ; “UIT, “URITAT 
€.g€ | €.9€ ainqe1oduia J, “pry 
6.1+ | 9-14 ; “XBJAT URI 
ANOLSATOD AINO'T 
€-g | 0-8 osuvy Apieq uroyy 
g- FE | g- ve : “UIT, URITAT 
6.gf | g-gt sinjyesoduia J, “Pry 
1-€b | g-2P ‘ *XB]\[ URITAT 
Nagqugay 
‘qoq) “uel 


‘of-1061 aolmag 
‘YT, ‘GUNLvaddNa[—] ATV], 


— 


THE CLIMATE OF ABERDEENSHIRE 45 


July value for Aberdeen is 56-7° F. and that for January 37-8° F. instead 
of 56-3° F. and 38-8° F. respectively ; a fact which bears out the general 
impression that our winters have been milder of late years. Corrobora- 
tion is forthcoming from Braemar, whose earlier values were 54:8° F. 
and 34°3° F. as compared with 54-7° F. and 34-6° F. in the later period. 

Some extreme temperature values might be of interest. At Aberdeen 
the highest temperature so far recorded was 86° F. on July 16, 1876, and 
the lowest was 4° F. on January 18, 1881. At Braemar a temperature of 
— 12° F. was experienced on February 8, 1895, during a prolonged spell 
of frost. 

RAINFALL.—The incidence of rainfall throughout the county, as 
tabulated in Table II, shows some points of interest. As is usual in our 
islands, the rainfall of the first half of the year is definitely less than that 
of the second half; Aberdeen, for example, receiving 12} ins. from 
January to June as compared with 17 ins. from July to December. 


TasLe IJ.—RaINFALL. PERIOD 1881-1915 


3 as} 4 = = 
Sd | S78 ag | ane 
Height in ft. 
= aie MSI. 46 145 608 930 | 1,120 100 397 
In In In. In. In. In In. 
January Bio iemioa | 2°er | 2-70\) Scng | Sage eae 
February 2°O8 |) 254.) 2°08 | 2-60) 2989 | 2'aor il eae 
March 2-41 || 260 |; 2°60 |%2-S65) 2-98\-| 24201 aene 
April . E-G7 o2"OG. | .2°Or Pe2"t5e) 2697 |: Taga a cg 
May . 23a hoses2 | 2°49 .[ e238"): S-B8 | 2t28ei) sare 
June . Dye ee PEO) 5) | (Ee FOw). 1-06 |. Tal aiew 
July . 2288s iB Qge) 2°90) |, Sr 55o uv @-H7o |\2r82ndegre6 
August 2°74 | 3°03. | 3°17 | 3°03 | 3°42 | 2°75 | 2796 
pemtember /: |) 2°22: |, 22360); 2°33»), 2°40 2-SL. |rars4hiange 
October 3°00.) 3504). 3°24 13760...) 3.99O, 13°20) Lg" So 
November .| 2°95 | 3°34 | 3°07 | 3°69 | 3°84 | 2°93 | 3°37 
MeeeMNeh ))..3°22...|.3*60 |. 2°82, |. 3°38. 3* 50ly | 32 Wide Shae 
Year. =. | 29°49 | 33°13. | 30°92 [33°04 [35°38 | 29°78 | 32°34 


In the table the variation of the rainfall from month to month throughout 
the year shows the same broad features at all stations; April and June 


_ being dry months in the first half of the year, and September a dry month 


in the second half. One minor point of interest is that at Aberdeen, 


46 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


Crathes and Ellon, December is somewhat wetter than November, while 
at the three westerly stations November is the wetter of the two, and at 
New Deer both months have practically the same precipitation. 

The annual rainfall is less along the coast than it is inland, ranging 
from 29-5 ins. at Aberdeen to 35-4 ins. at Braemar. Logie Coldstone, 
probably on account of its sheltered position, receives rather less rain 
than might be expected from its height above sea-level. 

Aberdeen lies just within the 30-in. isohyet which runs down the east 
coast of Scotland, but there have been occasions on which that value has 
been departed from considerably. In 1872 Aberdeen experienced its 
wettest year, when 44 ins. were recorded, while the driest year was 1921 
with only 17 ins. The wettest month so far recorded was December 1876 
with nearly 9 ins., and the driest was March 1929 with only one-fifth of 
aninch. The heaviest fall in 24 hrs. was 2-8 ins. on November 7, 1873. 

SuNSHINE.—Sunshine records are available for Aberdeen Observatory 
and are set forth in Table III. 


TasLe II[J.—SuNSHINE AT ABERDEEN. PERIOD 1881-1915 


H Per Per 
ours t Hours aig 
Month. per oe ; Month per ae 
By Possible : Day. Possible 
January 1°55 21 August . oot Bee a2 
February 2°59 28 September el Anas 32 
March otis 4 32 October . ial SEO 30 
April . 5°27 a7 November i), BGR 23 
May . 6:03 32 December Sah Leo 17 
June . 6-13 35 : 
July 5°53 30 Year : il Sho er : 


Aberdeen lies within the sunny strip running along the east coast of 
Scotland ; April and May, each with 37 per cent. of the possible sunshine, 
are the months with clearest skies. In April 1906 the unusually high 
value of 56 per cent. of possible sunshine was recorded, and in September 
of the same year the figure was 53 percent. Contrasted with this bright- 
ness, December 1903 had only 34 per cent. of the possible. 

Records taken at Crathes over the same period show a yearly average 
of 3-65 hrs. of sunshine per day, or 30 per cent. of the possible, thus closely 
approaching the figures for Aberdeen. 

At Braemar a sunshine recorder has been in use since 1929, but its 
exposure was at first unsatisfactory and a considerable amount of sunshine 
was cut off by buildings and trees in the neighbourhood, so that a direct 
comparison with Aberdeen values is not possible. But over the period 


THE CLIMATE OF ABERDEENSHIRE 47 


1929 to 1933 Braemar had an average duration of 2:90 hrs. per day 
compared with 3-67 at Aberdeen. 

SNOWFALL.—T able IV gives the average number of days in each month 
upon which snow falls and also the number of days on which the ground 
remains covered with snow. 


Taste [V.—NuMBER OF Days OF SNOW AND SNOW LYING 


ABERDEEN | BALMORAL BRAEMAR 

Month, Snow | Snow See Snow one iv Snow 
1881— | Lying eee Lying a at Lying 

1933. | 1912-33 1912-33 | poyn a3 | 1912-33 

January a5 2:6 7°6 13°9 8-7 17°6 
February 6:8 2B 5 oa 12°T 705 £2°5 
March 7:6 2:6 8:0 II‘O 8 +4 | 
April a5 O"4 5°3 $7 6-0 4°4 
May 0:8 fo) Eg o°4 2-0 0-6 
June fo) Oo a3 fo) fe) fe) 
July fe) fo) o'l fo) fe) fo) 
August ) fe) o'l fe) fo) fe) 
September Oe fo) 0-2 fe) 0'2 o'l 
October Een: 0°3 1°8 LZ 2H Fah | 
November 370 DA 4°2 6-0 4°7 6-2 
December 5:3 2°8 6°5 FEMS pg T2877 
Meat... Pall ee a 0 E2°9 42°4 59°9 47°1 68°5 


There is a progressive increase in the number of days of snowfall from 
_ Aberdeen westwards to Braemar, but a still more significant increase in 
_ the number of days of snow lying, Braemar having more than five times 
__ as many as Aberdeen—due of course to the much lower winter temperature 


in Table V. 

The relative humidity of the atmosphere at Aberdeen is shown in the 
first column ; its most interesting feature is the small difference between 
the summer and winter values, indicating relatively dry air even in winter— 
resulting from the situation of Aberdeen on the sea-coast. 

The statistics of thunder at the three stations show that Braemar is less 
liable to thunderstorms than are Balmoral and Aberdeen. 

At Aberdeen hail falls on the average on sixteen days in the year, one- 


at Braemar. 
MiscELLANEOUS PHENOMENA.—Some farther interesting data are given 
5 
half of these days occurs in the three months March, April and May. 


aah 


48 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


At Balmoral there is night frost on the ground on two-fifths of the days 
of the year ; it may occur in every month—even in July. 

Winds at Aberdeen blow chiefly from directions in the south-west and 
north-west quadrants, and are least frequent in the north-east quadrant. 
Gales are relatively infrequent and blow chiefly from the west and south- 
west ; those from east and south-east tend to endure for a longer time 
when they do occur. A sea-breeze effect is often felt during fine summer 
weather. 


TaBLeE V.—MIsSCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA 


ABERDEEN | BatmoraL __ |BRAEMAR 

Month mictae hk of Days of No. of Days of Dak i 

Per cent pee) a Ground |/Thunder 

881— | 1881— | r914- 

1886— ort Frost | 1914- 
1910 oe nQxS 1933 1933 
January. 80°3 fe) I°9 fo) 23°3 fo) 
February . 79°2 fe) rer o'r 20:7 ) 
March : 78-8 fe) 3°2 fe) At fo) 
April . aU Be oo 6-2 2°8 O73 ¥7°3° |) eRe 
May . ; 78:8 0-7 2°0 1-0 9:0 0°9 
June . : 78°2 E> 4 0-4 o°8 2°8 0°7 
July . 4 78 °3 2°O Sak Sha pean a 1°6 Beg 
August : 79°2 I°5 Or! 1°6 0'9 bare) 
September . 80°5 0-4 0°2 0-2 5°2 fo) 
Octeber ., 82°3 orl [*2 0:2 Io'l fo) 
November . 82-1 ovr 2 0-2 17°6 fo) 
December . Senn ov! Ea 0:3 | -2is§ 0°3 
Year ‘ 79°8 6:4 15°9 6 Biial iil 4°4 


Fog is much more common during the summer half of the year than 
during the winter, and occurs chiefly in the early summer with south-east 
winds. On the average there are seventeen days with fog in each year at 
Aberdeen. 

In addition to the above selected stations there are about 30 others 
for which rainfall data are available. 


EDUCATION 49 


VIII. 
EDUCATION 


BY 
JAMES DAWSON, D.S.O., M.A., 
DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION, ABERDEEN. 


Tue first reference to schools in Aberdeen was made in the Statutes of 
the Church of date 1256. A school in Inverness was referred to in a 
Deed of 1316, and schools in connection with Elgin Cathedral and 
St. Magnus Cathedral, Lerwick, were mentioned early in history. The 
Town Councils of these and other burghs seem to have given early 
support to church schools established for the purpose of giving instruction 
in Latin and music, and gradually to have assumed their control. The 
Aberdeen Grammar School is, for instance, a direct successor of the 
early church school, and we find that the ‘ Sang’ School of the city, 
known to exist prior to 1370, was for centuries carried on by the Town 
Council. The burghs in the course of time provided schools for the 
teaching of subjects other than Latin and music, and they also sanctioned 
the opening of private schools, but only if the subjects of instruction 
proposed were not those for the teaching of which they themselves had 
already made provision. The establishment of schools for elementary 
education in the larger centres of population grew with the extension of 
the church or through the benevolence of private citizens and trusts. 

In John Knox’s First Book of Discipline (1560-61) there was outlined 
a scheme of education which aimed at establishing all grades of seminaries 
from parish schools to universities, and at making education compulsory 
for all and free to the poor. For various reasons the plan was only 
very imperfectly realised. An Order in Council of 1616 ordained the 
erection of a school in every parish, and the movement was supported 
by Acts of Parliament passed in 1633, 1646, 1669 and 1803. The 
development of parish schools in the counties of Aberdeen, Banff and 
Moray was greatly assisted by the operation of the Dick Bequest, which 
since 1833 has ensured the settlement of a man of sound education— 
practically always a university graduate—in every parish school. The 
Trust still continues its grants. Some very good work was done in the 
parish schools, and many ‘a lad o’ pairts’ went straight from his parish 
school to the university, where, supported by a bursary gained in com- 
petition, he found himself on the way to a useful career. 

The object of the Education (Scotland) Act, 1872, was to ensure 
that the means of procuring efficient education for their children might 
be furnished and made available for the whole people of Scotland. This 
Act and the Act of 1918 are really only the modern expression of the 


ideals contained in the First Book of Discipline. 
D 


50 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


Education in Scotland was administered by Parish School Boards 
from 1872 till 1918, when the county (four scheduled burghs excepted) 
became the administrative unit. ‘The education authorities elected under 
the 1918 Act were ad hoc bodies, but under the Local Government 
(Scotland) Act of 1929 the functions of the education authorities were, 
in 1930, transferred to the County and City Councils. 

The north-eastern and northern districts of Scotland are particularly 
fortunate in the number and value of their benefactions, and the facilities 
thereby provided for attendance at secondary schools and universities 
are probably unequalled in any other district. Reference will be made 
later to university bursaries, but it may be here mentioned that there is 
available from trust funds alone over £4,500 per annum for bursaries to 
pupils attending secondary schools in the city of Aberdeen. 

The two foundations of the ‘ University and King’s College of 
Aberdeen ’ and ‘ Marischal College and University of Aberdeen’ were 
on September 15, 1860, united under the title of the ‘ University of 
Aberdeen.’ What was the origin of the colleges thus amalgamated ? 
In the case of the first mentioned—King’s College—we have to go back 
to the year 1494, when King James IV, at the request of William 
Elphinstone, Bishop of Aberdeen, obtained a Papal Bull sanctioning the 
establishment of a college in Old Aberdeen for giving instruction in 
theology, in civil and canon law, in medicine, in the liberal arts, and 
also in any other lawful faculty. It may be remarked that this is the 
first mentioned provision in Great Britain for the teaching of medical 
science. The second of the two colleges mentioned—Marischal College— 
was founded in New Aberdeen in 1593 by Earl Marischal, who was at 
the time Lord-Lieutenant of the North. The college was intended to 
be a place where the youth of the Royal Burgh might obtain ‘an 
honourable, liberal, and Christian education and training.’ His intention 
having been previously communicated to the magistrates of the city, 
they purchased the buildings and land of the Franciscan friars on the 
east side of Broadgate, and presented the property to the Earl for the site 
of his college buildings—an early indication of the close association of 
Town and Gown. These two colleges, both of them exercising university 
rights and privileges in buildings only about a mile apart, co-existed for 
over 260 years as independent and rival institutions. It would appear 
that students from the city and its immediate neighbourhood attended, 
as a rule, Marischal College, and that King’s College drew its students 
from the northern districts. As might be expected, there were constant 
conflicts between the students of the two colleges, as well as jealousies 
among the masters. 

At the fusion in 1860, numerous rearrangements and adjustments 
were necessary, and these affected not only the staff but also the distri- 
bution of the classes between the two buildings. ‘The present arrangement 
is, generally speaking, for most of the classes in the Faculty of Arts and 
the classes in the Faculty of Divinity to be conducted in the King’s College 
buildings, while the classes in the Faculties of Medicine, Law and 
Science meet in Marischal College. In session 1933-34 there were 
1,270 students in attendance, of whom 362 were women. They were 


EDUCATION 51 


distributed among the various faculties and departments as follows : 
Arts, 509; Science, 198; Medicine, 455; Law, 46; Divinity, 37; 
Commerce, 23; Education, 2. It is on account of the magnificent 
endowments connected with the University that no one, however humble 
or however poor, need go without the advantages of higher education. 
Bursaries are available in all the faculties, but they are especially valuable 
and numerous in the Faculty of Arts, in which there are 265 bursaries 
of an aggregate annual value of over £7,000. The bursaries are mostly 
competitive, largely unrestricted, and usually open to women as well 
as to men. 

The chapel and the Crown Tower alone remain of the original buildings 
at King’s College. Near the west door of the chapel is an inscription 
giving 2nd April 1500 as the date when the masons began to build under 
the auspices of King James IV, here described as ‘ Invictissimus’! In 
the chapel is an elaborate and richly carved screen which has few equals 
in Great Britain. Other interesting features are the tomb of the founder 


‘in the main chapel and his memorial with recumbent figure in the ante- 


chapel. Of the original buildings at Marischal College practically nothing 
remains except the stone with the famous inscription, ‘ Thay haif said ; 
quhat say thay ; lat thame say,’ which is still preserved in the vestibule 
under the Mitchell Tower. The front extension of Marischal College, 
which has been described as a ‘ poem in stone,’ was inaugurated in 1906 
by King Edward VII. 

The University has for generations carried on a great work for the 
educational enlightenment and progress of the North of Scotland, and it 
has contributed to the world many men who have rendered distinguished 
service to civilisation and science, and who have brought fame to them- 
selves and honour to their Alma Mater. 

Aberdeen has always stood for education as a factor of the highest 
importance in the lives of the citizens, and it has made liberal provision 
for the achievement of its educational ideals. ‘The schools under the 
administration of the Town Council may be classified as follows : 


Average enrolment 


Number. (approximate). 
Secondary ; ; ; 3 2,500 
Primary . : : : 26 20,000 
Intermediate. : : 7 5,000 
ppecial . , : : 2 250 


It has already been stated that there is on record a reference to the 
schools of Aberdeen in 1256. The history of the Grammar School, 
which had its origin in the church schools referred to, is wonderfully 
complete, and it is interesting to note that there is an unbroken record 
of the succession of Rectors from 1479. The school was for ages regarded 
as exclusively a day school for classical education in preparation for the 
University. The instruction was given wholly in Latin, the use of 
English by teachers and pupils being forbidden. ‘The original Grammar 
School stood on the ground in Schoolhill now occupied by Gray’s School 
of Art. We learn that in 1527 the masters of the Grammar School 


52 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


complained that the school was about to fall down, and that the Master 
of Kirk Work was ordered to ‘mend’ it. In 1623 a new school was 
built, but the buildings familiar to the last generation were erected in 
1757. ‘They were vacated in 1862, just six hundred years after the school’s 
first definite mention in history. ‘The present buildings in Skene Street 
were occupied in 1863, but substantial additions have been required 
from time to time to meet the demands for admission. ‘The enrolment 
last session was 793, 438 being in the secondary department. ‘There is 
in the main building a fine assembly hall, recently overhauled and re- 
decorated. A sports field of nearly 12 acres provides excellent facilities 
for organised games, which are a compulsory part of the school curriculum. 
Among the distinguished sons of the school may be mentioned Lord 
Byron, who entered in January 1795, and, as he says in a letter, ‘ threaded 
all the classes to the fourth.’ A statue of Lord Byron stands in front 
of the school. 

An English School situated in Little Belmont Street was, in 1874, 
transferred by the Town Council to the first School Board. It had then 
in attendance only 60 pupils of both sexes, but after reorganisation it 
was successful as a Girls’ Academy and became known as the High 
School for Girls. In 1881 the school was recognised as a Higher Class 
public school, and it was removed in 1893 to the present buildings in 
Albyn Place. ‘These were extended in 1904 and additional accommodation 
was obtained in 1919. Anewplay field of nearly 12 acres with a handsome 
pavilion is now ready for use by the school. The school provides an 
efficient training in academic subjects to the Leaving Certificate stage, 
but it also affords full opportunities for the study of non-academic subjects, 
permitting specialisation in music, art and domestic science. The 
pupils in attendance in session 1933-34 numbered 895, of whom 
418 were in the secondary department. 

The Central Secondary School was opened in May 1894 as an 
‘ex-standard’ school, but it is now conducted under the Secondary 
School Regulations, and provides five-year courses for both boys and 
girls, leading to presentation for the leaving certificate of the Scottish 
Education Department. The enrolment in session 1933-34 was 811. 
There is no primary department attached to the school, admission to 
which is granted only after a satisfactory appearance in an entrance 
examination. No fees are charged at any stage, and free books are 
supplied till pupils reach the age of fourteen years. The Central 
Secondary School is also the recognised Intermediate Centre for pupils 
who wish to follow a general or literary course, the other intermediate 
courses being provided in various schools throughout the city. Since 
1929 there has been carried on in the school a one-year Commercial 
Course for the preparation for office work of girls who have obtained the 
Day School Certificate (Higher) in this school or in any intermediate 
school. The buildings in Little Belmont Street, vacated by the pupils 
of the High School for Girls in 1893, provided sufficient accommodation 
at the opening, but these were extended in 1896, and the new section in 
Schoolhill was opened in 1905. 

In 1921 the Education Authority, having previously revised the schemes 


EDUCATION 53 


of work for pupils up to twelve years of age, devised courses of post- 
primary instruction which differed in kind rather than degree from the 
early stages of a secondary course, the new courses making their special 
appeal to pupils of different tastes and different, though not inferior, 
capabilities. ‘The Education Authority further realised that full benefit 
of the instruction to be provided in these new courses, largely practical 
and extending over three years, could best be got from centralisation. 
The city was accordingly divided into five areas, and a school in each was 
selected as an intermediate centre. To those selected schools pupils 
from the primary schools of the district are transferred at about the 
age of twelve on passing a control examination held twice yearly. The 
schools may thus be described as ‘ Central Selective’ in terms of the 
Hadow Report. Reorganisation was carried through in three stages 
during the years 1922, 1923 and 1924. A redistribution of the city 
population made the provision of additional schools of this type necessary 
in outlying districts, and two others have been opened recently, one in 
1927 and the other in 1932. All these intermediate schools, which 
provide for both boys and girls, are staffed by specialists—men for boys 
and women for girls. Books and stationery are supplied free, and 
sports facilities provided. Every endeavour is made to make this 
important stage of school life as effective, attractive and profitable as 
possible. 

The city is fortunate in its facilities for organised games. All the 
senior and intermediate pupils, numbering over 12,000, attend a play 
field for games once a week. Three special grounds, totalling 24 acres 
and supplemented by the public parks and Town Links, provide the 
necessary accommodation. Arrangements are also made in season for 
the playing outwith school hours of football, hockey, cricket and 
netball, and for the practice of field athletics. A pond attached to the 
Middle School provides facilities for instruction in swimming. 

Art appreciation and picture study is fostered in city schools by the 
circulation of twenty-seven sets of reproductions of famous pictures, each 
set remaining in primary schools for six months at a time, and in inter- 
mediate and secondary schools for twelve months. An essay scheme, 
supported by the award of prizes and certificates, is carried on in con- 
nection with the collection. 

The Authority also carry out their statutory duties with regard to the 
medical inspection and treatment of school children, and provide central 
clinics for teeth, eye, and ear, nose and throat work. A bath-house con- 
taining twenty-four spray baths with the necessary dressing accommodation 
was erected in 1927, and arrangements are made for the attendance 
thereat of senior pupils from schools in its district. The total attendances 
of pupils during school hours average 28,000 per annum. 

A ‘ Parents’ Day ’ is held in each primary and intermediate school at 
least once every two years, an occasion when the schools are thrown open 
for inspection and the opportunity offered to all interested to acquire at 
first hand some knowledge of school conditions and working arrangements. 
Further association with the home arises out of the evening Play Centres 
scheme which was instituted in 1918. There are now 10 schools utilised 


54 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


for this purpose, providing accommodation for 2,200 pupils nightly three 
times per week. 

While provision is made for the education of the normal child, the 
needs of the child who is unable to benefit by attendance at an ordinary 
school are not overlooked. The Education Authority make special 
provision for the education and training of mentally and physically 
defective children, deaf mutes, and the blind. 

Robert Gordon’s College, a secondary school for boys, is administered 
by Governors under powers granted them in 188r, and is a development 
from Robert Gordon’s Hospital, a benevolent educational institution 
opened in 1750. By a Deed executed in 1729, Robert Gordon, formerly 
a merchant in Danzig, mortified his whole substance and effects for the 
building of an hospital, and for the maintenance, aliment, entertainment 
and education of young boys whose parents were poor and indigent. 
The original hospital buildings form the central block of the present 
school. The Provisional Order of 1881 provided for the conversion of 
the hospital buildings into a College or Day School, the foundation in 
future to be designated ‘ Robert Gordon’s College in Aberdeen.’ The 
college quickly gained the confidence of town and county, and by 
August 1884 it had a full complement of 600 boys. With modifications 
to meet the changing conditions, the college, which is very well endowed 
with foundations and bursaries, is still carried on under the original 
powers. In February 1934 the enrolment was 999, of whom 289 were 
in the primary department and 710 in the secondary department. 
A play field of 12 acres provides adequate recreational facilities, and 
the amenities of the college were enhanced in 1930 by the opening of a 
handsome assembly hall. 

By the Provisional Order of 1881 the Governors of Robert Gordon’s 
College were empowered to carry on day or evening classes for boys, 
girls and adult persons. Evening classes were begun in the college 
in 1882, and have been carried on continuously ever since, the 
instruction being since 1902 of a special or advanced nature. The 
Provisional Order of 1881 also permitted the Governors, by agreement 
with the directors of the Mechanics Institute, to amalgamate the Institute 
(founded in 1824) with the college, and such an amalgamation took 
place in 1884, when the whole educational work, including what was 
known as the Aberdeen School of Art, was transferred to the college. 
A further Provisional Order obtained in 1909 contained the following 
provision: ‘The Governors shall establish in the city a College of 
Technical Instruction for the city and for the North of Scotland, to be 
called Robert Gordon’s Technical College.’ Thus came to be created 
the local technical college, now recognised by the Scottish Education 
Department as a Central Institution. The schools at present consti- 
tuting the technical college are: (1) Engineering, (2) Chemistry and 
Pharmacy, (3) Art and Crafts, (4) Domestic Science, (5) Navigation. In 
the case of the School of Engineering there is co-operation with the 
university authorities in the provision of classes for the B.Sc. in 
Engineering at the university and for the Diploma of the Technical 
College. The number of students who attended day classes in the 


EDUCATION 55 


college last session was 855 ; at the evening classes the enrolment was 942. 
Plans for the erection of permanent buildings in the grounds of Robert 
Gordon’s College were approved in 1914, but operations were delayed 
by the War and other circumstances until the beginning of 1925, when 
a commencement was made with the erection of the main building and 
the extension of Gray’s School of Art. ‘These were completed in 1929, 
and the various schools, well housed and staffed, and supplied with 
up-to-date equipment, are in every way fitted to fulfil their purpose. 

Reference to the facilities provided for agricultural education will be 
found elsewhere in this publication, but some other special establishments 
require mention here. 

A Church of Scotland Training College for Teachers established in 
1873, and a similar Free Church Institution dating from 1875, were 
amalgamated in 1907 and placed under the control of a Provincial 
Committee consisting of representatives of education authorities, 
university, churches and teachers. New buildings planned in 1912 
were not, owing to the intervention of the War, fully occupied till 1922. 
Hostels to accommodate 115 women students were opened in 1927. 
The training of all classes of teachers, except specialists for Physical 
Training and Music, is undertaken, 54 male students and 241 female 
students being in attendance during session 1933-34. It may be 
recalled that Sir John Adams, the noted educationalist, was Principal of 
the Free Church College from 1890 till 1898. 

The Divinity Hall, Aberdeen, was opened in 1850 for the training of 
students for service in the Free Church of Scotland. Since the Church 
Union in 1929, working arrangements with the Faculty of Divinity at 
the University have been in operation, and negotiations for amalgamation 
are now proceeding. 

St. Mary’s College, Blairs, near Aberdeen, is a national Catholic 
secondary school devoted solely to the education of students in training 
for the Catholic priesthood in Scotland. After qualification, the students 
proceed to colleges for higher ecclesiastical studies in Glasgow, or on the 
Continent. There are at present over 100 students in residence at the 
college. 

The Sutherland Technical School, Golspie, erected in 1903, was looked 
on at the time as an interesting educational experiment. It is a residential 
school providing accommodation for 50 boys drawn from the families 
of fishermen and crofters in outlying districts of the county and giving 
them a three years’ course of education and training for trades and out- 
door occupations. It was managed by Governors till 1922, when it was 
taken over by the County Education Authority. 

Broadly speaking, the scheme of instruction in continuation classes in 
Aberdeen City may be divided into four sections: (1) Classes for the 
completion of general elementary education; (2) Classes and courses 
for specialised instruction for various occupations—industrial, commertial, 
professional ; (3) Domestic classes and courses; (4) Auxiliary classes, 
such as vocal music and physical training. With the exception of the 
industrial courses, the Education Authority are responsible for the whole 
of the training up to the final stages. In the industrial courses the 


56 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


work is carried on by the Authority till the end of the second year, on 
the successful completion of which the pupils join the third-year classes 
carried on in the Technical College. "There has been a steady extension 
in the number and diversity of the classes offered in the schools, and 
every call for cultural education as well as every desire for technical 
instruction has been met, so far as the demand for these has justified 
action being taken. Classes in economics, public finance, public 
administration, organisation of industry, motor maintenance, wireless 
theory, general salesmanship, window-dressing and gardening, and 
courses for butchers, paper-makers, motor engineers, confectioners and 
bakers are among the many additions to the evening classes scheme within 
recent years. On the completion in 1924 of the system of intermediate 
schools for post-primary pupils, it was considered that these were the 
appropriate centres in which to conduct the evening classes for the 
respective districts. Such an arrangement enabled the instruction 
provided in the evening schools to be carried out as far as possible under 
the same conditions in respect of environment, syllabus and teachers 
as obtained in the day school, thus admitting of the very closest continuity 
between the two sections of the pupils’ school life. In addition to these 
arrangements special classes of a varied nature are conducted in other 
city schools. A very close connection has been developed between the 
evening classes and industry, as evidenced by the setting up of advisory 
committees for various trades and occupations. These committees 
consist of equal numbers of employers and operatives, and are intended 
to advise on curricula, to visit classes, to make recommendations for the 
appointment of teachers of practical subjects, and generally to represent 
the various industries in the management of the classes. At present 
there are sixteen such committees acting in the direction indicated. An 
official was appointed by the School Board in 1912 to take charge of 
this department of their activities. The present organiser, who provides 
the necessary link between the Education Authority and the Ministry of 
Labour with regard to the placing of juveniles in suitable employment, 
is also in charge of an Appointments Bureau which deals with secondary 
school pupils and employment. ‘The enrolment at classes carried on 
by the Education Authority in session 1933-34 was 7,566; at the 
classes held in the Technical College there were in attendance 942 students. 

In this short sketch it has not been found possible to present more 
than an outline of some local educational activities, with a few historical 
notes. It is to be hoped that the article will prove of sufficient interest to 
some readers to encourage them to make inquiry for fuller information. 


ARCHITECTURE IN ABERDEEN: A SURVEY 57 


IX. 


ARCHITECTURE IN ABERDEEN: 
A SURVEY 


BY 
WILLIAM KELLY, A.R.S.A., LL.D. 


Materiats.—Medieval buildings in Aberdeen and the adjacent district 
are few and of no outstanding importance, but they are not without 
interest. The local granite, including in the term other similar rocks and 
surface boulders, has at all periods been used for rubble-walling ; but, 
except for a short period in the fifteenth century, every cementarius in 
Aberdeen was a master-mason of freestone, shaping and cutting free- 
stone only in the exercise of his craft. Sandstone, practically the only 
kind of freestone used in the locality, was quarried at a few spots in the 
county, principally near Kildrummy ; but the main supplies were brought 
to Aberdeen by sea, considerable quantities coming from Covesea in 
Morayshire. 

After the short period above referred to, when granite took the place 
of freestone, it was not until the great era of castle-building in the six- 
teenth and seventeenth centuries that the local master-masons again used 
granite as a material for dressed work, shaping of it a group of castles, the 
most characteristic of all Aberdeenshire buildings. 

The quarrying of granite on a large scale and its adoption for the pur- 
poses of mason-craft in Aberdeen—well-nigh to the complete exclusion of 
other materials—are comparatively recent developments which began 
in the eighteenth and came to maturity only in the nineteenth century. 

Aberdeen is notable not only for its granite, but also—in Scotland at 
least—for its late-Gothic ecclesiastical woodwork, the remnant partly of 
importations from Flanders and partly of works by local carpenters, done 
in the first quarter of the sixteenth century. 

Other unusual items of architectural interest are the sculptured stone 
Sacrament-houses, which are peculiar in Great Britain to the eastern part 
of Scotland, from St. Andrews to Pluscarden in Moray. Those at 
Kinkell, Kintore and Auchindoir in Aberdeenshire, and at Deskford and 
Cullen in Banffshire, are excellent examples ; they all belong to the latest 
phase of Gothic and the first half of the sixteenth century. 

Aberdeen possesses a number of interesting examples of the architec- 
tural and decorative use of lead, dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth 
centuries. The fleche of King’s College Chapel, the small spires of the 
_ Tolbooth and Gordon’s College, and the unique cast-lead traceried eaves- 
apron on the north transept of St. Nicholas’ Church may be noted. 


58 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


Norman Work.—The two great medieval churches—St. Machar’s 
(the cathedral of the ancient diocese of Aberdeen) and St. Nicholas’ (the 
Burgh Church)—were originally complete Norman edifices. At St. 
Machar’s scarcely a worked stone of that period remains—none 7m situ. 
At St. Nicholas’, some early Norman building may be seen in the tran- 
septs; and at the crossing, Transitional work of fine character has 
escaped the changes and chances of seven centuries; the noteworthy 
capital of the south-west pier seems to be of French derivation, possibly 
through Canterbury. 

The only other Norman masonry in the county is at Monymusk 
Church, if a ruined fragment at Peterhead may be disregarded. 

Earty EnciisH Work.—The small ruined Chapel of Cowie, near 
Stonehaven (consecrated May 22, 1276), has a simple, well-proportioned 
gable with three lancet-lights. This is the only remaining example near 
Aberdeen of the pure and graceful style of the thirteenth century. Good 
Early English work occurs also at Kildrummy Castle and at Auchindoir 
Church. The ruined church of Kincardine o’Neil, which was one of the 
largest in the medieval diocese, shows some interesting advanced Early 
English work. Built early in the fourteenth century, the lateness of the 
development of style in the North is apparent. 

DecoraTED Work.—After the middle of the fourteenth century (c. 1366) 
a mew crossing, transepts and nave were planned for the Cathedral of 
Aberdeen, which at that time had a Norman nave and an Early English 
choir. The existing western piers at the crossing, their extension upwards 
—above the capitals—in tas-de-charge, the carved capitals which show 
natural knife-cut branches and wavy leafage and good animal and figure 
sculpture, along with some adjacent masonry, executed in the highest 
style of Decorated Gothic, are apparently all that was accomplished before 
this effort ended abruptly. 

Tue GRANITE INTERREGNUM.—It was not until after Bishop Henry de 
Lichtoun was translated from Moray to Aberdeen, in 1422, that the re- 
building of St. Machar’s was resumed and the present nave and west front 
built of granite. The earliest granite ashlar in Aberdeen is that outside 
the north wall of the north transept. Lichtoun’s work, which must be 
dated between 1423 and 1440, bears unmistakable marks of his direction : 
it was he who decreed that the west end of the cathedral should have two 
steeples, and that the west doorway should resemble that of Elgin, the 
Cathedral of Moray. Whether it was that freestone or that masons of 
freestone could not be procured at that juncture is not known. The 
mason whom Lichtoun employed was clearly no accomplished master, 
expert in the style of the day ; but it is equally clear that he could handle 
granite—probably he had done so hitherto as a castle-builder. For he 
raised two strongly buttressed fortress-towers, boldly machicolated (for 
use, if need be) with pathways behind battlemented parapets (since 
lowered) ; and for the rest, he could—and did—hark back to Norman 
forms and simplify mouldings to rough rounds and channels. But more : 
he contrived to build a great west window of seven very tall round-headed 
lights in a row, having sturdily built mullions between the lights—a 
window this, different from anything done before or since, and to be taken 


ARCHITECTURE IN ABERDEEN: A SURVEY 59 


as a fifteenth century Scottish equivalent in granite of an English 
Perpendicular end-window. 

At some date before 1437 the Lady Elizabeth Gordon, ‘ heir of Huntly 
and Strathbogie,’ built in connection with St. Nicholas’ a new chapel, 
where she was buried in 1438. ‘This chapel, ‘ our Lady’s pity vault,’ 
placed east of the old Norman choir on ground that sloped rapidly down, 
was planned as the first instalment of a new choir; so that when the 
extended new choir was built some forty or fifty years later, the chapel 
became an undercroft. Built entirely of granite, it consists of a nave-bay 
with north and south aisles, and an apsidal sanctuary-bay, all vaulted 
with ribbed cross-vaulting. The low bowed lines of the arches of St. 
Mary’s—low of necessity, because of the choir above—are singularly 
effective ; especially noticeable is the treatment of the diagonal rib-arches 
which spring from corbels set lower than the capitals of the piers from 
which the main arches rise. 

From its style, the work must be attributed to a man having a better 
knowledge of normal Gothic forms than the mason of St. Machar’s 
possessed. 

With the completion of these two works the medieval use of granite 
masonry came to an end. 

Late Gotuic.—When, in the last quarter of the fifteenth century, 
the choir of St. Nicholas’ was rebuilt, the work was done in sandstone by 
‘masons of the lodge —latterly under Maistre Johne Gray. Apparently, 
to allow of the material for the choir being conveniently raised, the 
granite vaulting of St. Mary’s, or part of it, was taken down ; but when 
the work was reinstated, it was carried out in freestone. ‘The corbels and 
the diagonal ribs of the nave-bay, the ridge ribs, the bosses and keystones 
are of sandstone. ‘The corbels, bosses and keystones are carved, as are 
the wall-rib stops—one in the form of a small nude figure. 

The choir of St. Nicholas’ was pulled down in 1835, when the present 
(granite) East Church was built. 

King’s College Chapel, Old Aberdeen, begun on April 2, 1500, was by 
the end of 1506 so far advanced that the oak roof was ready for its lead 
covering. ‘The most arresting feature of the chapel is the crown-steeple, 
one of two ancient examples left in Scotland; the other soars over 
St. Giles’ and the old town of Edinburgh. 

The eight-armed crown of St. Giles’ is a little older than the four- 
armed crown of King’s. St. Giles’ tower is 29 ft. square, whereas King’s 
measures 28 ft. 3 in. by 24 ft. ro in., the larger dimension being on the 
west and east sides. The very great thickness of its south wall shows that 
the tower was begun as a square of nearly 25 ft. ; afterwards the plan was 
made oblong, presumably in order that the crown steeple should appear 
from the west about as large as St. Giles’. Viewed from the north or the 
south, or nearly so, the steeple is much finer than it is as seen from the 
east or the west. ‘The similarity of the details of the two crowns makes it 
almost certain that the master-mason of the chapel was from the Lothians, 
and that he knew and possibly had worked at St. Giles’ steeple. But the 
original character of the Aberdeen steeple in large measure was lost 
when the upper part was rebuilt by a local mason after the crown had been 


60 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


overthrown in a great storm of wind (February 7, 1633). George 
Thomson, the master-mason, used freestone ; but his lantern and upper 
‘imperial’ crown are frankly provincial-Scottish, Caroline Renaissance, 
in place of the original Gothic spirelet over the junction of the four great 
ribs. 

The general style of the College Chapel is Late-Scottish-Gothic, a 
style to be seen most perfectly in the Lothians. The east end shows the 
Scottish liking for apses of three or five sides. The nave was separated 
from the choir and sanctuary by a rood loft and screen, which divided 
the chapel into two nearly equal parts ; but about 1870 the loft was moved 
westwards, reducing the nave to an ante-chapel. The width of the chapel 
and of the nave of St. Machar’s is the same (29 ft.) ; the chapel bays are — 
20 ft. long, as compared with 17 ft. bays at St. Machar’s. This large 
dimension gave scope for the series of great windows on the north side. 
It is remarkable that the style of these windows—at least of the tracery— 
should approximate to the ‘ Decorated’ that England had given up a 
century and a half earlier. ‘The stone carving in the chapel too is very 
much in the‘ Decorated’ manner. While the windows are‘ curvilinear’ 
and ‘ flowing ’ in character, the proportion of the cusped trefoil heads of 
the lights is peculiar ; and the pointed window arches are really four- 
centred, although instead of being ‘ depressed ’ arches they are the reverse. 
The partiality shown for unusually large centre mullions which run up 
to the head of the arch is not easy of satisfactory explanation. The 
buttress system might be supposed to indicate stone cross-vaulting ; but 
at that time vaults built in Scotland were usually pointed barrel vaults, 
upon the surface of which purely ornamental stone ribs appeared. These 
stone barrel vaults were barbarous and ponderous, and very detrimental to 
good lighting. Bishop Elphinstone, at his College Chapel (as at the 
choir of St. Nicholas’) adopted a ceiling that in effect is a very low 
wooden barrel vault. On the north wall outside there may be seen 
parts of five of the twelve Consecration Crosses. Inside the chapel two 
of the pre-Reformation black-marble altar slabs have been preserved, 
owing to their having been used as grave slabs for university officials 
who died respectively in 1593 and 1601. 

The twin freestone spires of St. Machar’s were built on Bishop Lichtoun’s 
granite towers in Bishop Dunbar’s time (1518-32) ; and probably the 
battlements were altered and reduced in height at the same time. In the 
south transept are two elaborate wall-tombs, arched and canopied. 
Bishop Dunbar’s, the earlier, may have been built before his death (1532). 

The bridge over the Dee at Ruthrieston, a ribbed structure of seven 
nearly semicircular arches, was built (c. 1520-27) for Bishop Dunbar and 
under his clerical Master of the Works, ‘ Maister Alexander Galloway, 
Persoun of Kynkell,’ by Thomas Franche, master-mason, the son of a 
master-mason, John Franche, who died at Linlithgow in 1489. Thomas 
Franche was engaged on the Bridge of Dee and the rebuilding of the south 
transept of St. Machar’s, and probably jon the other work built for the 
Bishop, from about 1520 until 1530—possibly later. He is found at 
Linlithgow as the King’s master-mason in 1535, and in the same capacity 


at Falkland in 1537-38. 


ee ——— ee 


ARCHITECTURE IN ABERDEEN: A SURVEY 61 


There can be no doubt that to Thomas Franche the design and execution 
of the architectural work of his period in Aberdeen must be attributed : 
that is to say, Thomas Franche was what we now should call the ‘ archi- 
tect ’ of these works. 

The carved oak stalls of King’s College Chapel are its greatest treasure. 
Without doubt a large part of the stall work, including all the canopy 
work, is Flemish. The extraordinary number and variety of the traceried 
patterns is without a parallel in this country, while the craftsmanship is 
remarkable for vigour and freedom. It will be observed that in the 
repairs made last century a number of the traceried canopy units have 
been pieced together, one smaller and slightly mutilated traceried 
pattern above another of the same being required to fill a whole panel. 
Apparently these smaller traceried heads originally belonged to the 
panelled stall-backs which have all been renewed in plain panelling. 
The present loft for the organ and choir retains three high canopies, an 
ambo, and some other parts of the original rood loft, besides the screen 
and door. 

While the greater part of the carved-oak work was brought from 
Flanders, there is reason to believe that much of the heavier and simpler 
work may have been done by local wrights. The Council Register of the 
Burgh records some works on which a certain John Fendour was engaged ; 
in 1495 he was paid ‘ for the making of the ruff and tymmir of the queyr’ 
of St. Nicholas’; in 1507 he entered into an agreement to build thirty- 
four stalls, ‘with the spiris and the chanslar dur’ in the same choir. 
Some parts of Fendour’s canopies, and other pieces of his carving from 
St. Nicholas’, may be seen in the National Museum of Antiquities in 
Edinburgh ; and other pieces of his work are in St. Mary’s Chapel and 
elsewhere in Aberdeen. A study of these proves that while the stall 
canopies of St. Nicholas’ somewhat resembled those of King’s they were 
distinctly different, but that much of the simpler work at both churches 
was identical. It may safely be concluded that John Fendour was 
employed on the stalls of the College Chapel. And possibly he was 
responsible for the ceiling there ; for from what we know of Fendour’s 
ceiling of St. Nicholas’ choir it must have closely resembled the ceiling of 
the College Chapel, a very large part of which is ancient, including all the 
carved bosses and much of the traceried eaves-fringe. The effective 
black-line painted close to the ceiling ribs and foliaged cross-arms is a 
restoration of the original treatment. 

Another work by John Fendour for Bishop Elphinstone was the 
“tymmer werk’ of the great central steeple of St. Machar’s, a lead- 
covered spire that was destroyed during the Reformation troubles. The 
contract with ‘ Johnne Findour wrycht ’ is dated April 18, 1511. 

The latest Gothic ceiling in Aberdeen is that of St. Machar’s, done in 
Bishop Dunbar’s time. It is of oak, fixed to the underside of the level 
roof-ties which are placed at about 4 ft. above the eaves ; so that a deep 
frieze, leaning slightly inwards, runs round the church between the eaves 
and the level ceiling. The frieze is divided into panels—three to each 
ceiling compartment—by a series of crocketted pinnacles, and decorated 


_ with traceried fringes and a continuous black-letter inscription. The 


62 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


flat ceiling is divided into sixty-eight compartments by moulded ribs, 
and each compartment again into four severies by subordinate diagonal 
ribs having bosses at the intersections and foliaged cross-arms. At the 
crossings of the main ribs forty-eight heraldic shields are marshalled in 
three lines from east to west. The centre row begins with the reigning 
Pope (Leo X, 1513-21) and continues with the Archbishops and Bishops 
of Scotland ; the northern row begins with the Emperor (Charles V) and 
continues with Kings ; and the southern row with the King of Scotland 
(James V), followed by Scottish nobles. The ceiling, which was probably 
devised by Alexander Galloway, dates from the early years of the second 
decade of the sixteenth century. Referring to it, William Orem, Town 
Clerk of Old Aberdeen, writing early in the eighteenth century, says, 
‘James Winter, an Angus man, was architect of the timber work and 
ceiling of said church.’ Although Winter is a surname not unknown in 
Angus, it is possible that Findour should be substituted for Winter. 
Findour, or Fendour, may be a name of French origin (? Fendeur). 

An example of local carved-oak heraldic work, rather later than the 
ceiling of St. Machar’s, forms the front of the chancellor’s desk in the 
Mitchell Hall, Marischal College. - 

The oak pulpit in King’s College Chapel bears the arms (twice) of 
Bishop William Stewart (1533-45), but only the carved panels (or most 
of them) are ancient ; they were parts of a decayed old pulpit, at one time 
in St. Machar’s, incorporated in this much-altered version of the original, 
known to us from James Logan’s careful drawing. 

A Flemish Gothic chair, very richly traceried, and a valuable collection 
of Aberdeen carved chairs and other furniture of the seventeenth century, 
the property of the Incorporated T'rades, are housed in Trinity Hall. 
Much interesting carved woodwork of the seventeenth century, from the 
old west and east churches of St. Nicholas, is to be seen in St. Mary’s 
Chapel. 

CasTLE-BUILDING.—Kildrummy Castle, a work of national rather than 
of provincial importance, having been exhaustively treated in Dr. W. 
Douglas Simpson’s monograph, needs only to be here mentioned as the 
oldest and the greatest of Aberdeenshire castles. 

The other castles of the district are so numerous and diverse and in 
such various states that in this survey it seems best to concentrate on one 
or two typical examples in good repair. 

The oldest and the most interesting castle near Aberdeen, fit for occu- 
pation and still partly occupied, is the Tower of Drum, roughly 40} by 
514 by 70 ft. high to the top of the battlements. ‘The walls are 12 ft. 
thick at the bottom and 8 ft. at the height of 50 ft. Built of roughly 
concreted granite rubble, with its four corners well rounded, the tower 
contains three storeys, each being vaulted with a pointed barrel vault. 
On the top is the battlemented stage, with its pathway surrounding the 
garret—a house measuring 28 by 40 ft. ‘The battlemented parapet walls 
are high and thick, battered, and oversailing a little. ‘The small corbel 
course under the parapet is the only moulding on the tower. No machi- 
colation occurs, except at a latrine, corbelled out from the pathway. ‘The 
planning and construction are archaic, but carried out with high efficiency 


ARCHITECTURE IN ABERDEEN : A SURVEY 63 


by a master of his craft. ‘The use of sandstone is confined to the winding- 
stair steps and the jambs and arch of a fireplace, distinctly Early English 
in style. 

It is impossible definitely to fix the date of Drum Castle. The Forest 
of Drum, one of the royal forests, was erected into a free barony for 
William de Irvin in 1324, and it is believed that the castle existed before 
that date. Richard Cementarius, the King’s master-mason, was in 1272 
alderman of Aberdeen—the earliest recorded name in the line of alder- 
men and provosts—and survived until about 1294. His work inthe North 
of Scotland could hardly have been confined to the castle of Aberdeen ; 
and circumstances connected with him suggest that he may have been 
engaged on the old Bridge of Don, which was built from bishop’s revenues 
in the time of Bishop Chein (1285-1328). An elevation of the bridge is 
very like the cross-section of the third storey of Drum Castle ; and although 
the building of the bridge was interrupted, and not finished until long 
after Richard’s death (and when done, it was credited to King Robert 
the Bruce rather than to Chein), it is probable that Richard Cementarius 
built Drum Castle and began the Bridge of Don. It is true that Drum 
Castle might have been built by Bruce after 1314 and before 1324 ; but a 
date before the death of Alexander III in 1286 seems on the whole to be 
more probable. In any case, the tower of Drum, if only in virtue of its 
material, seems to represent an Aberdeenshire type which influenced the 
technique of our later castles. 

The transference of much wealth from the Church to the lairds was the 

occasion of a great activity in house-building that culminated about 1620, 
and did not quite die away until the end of the seventeenth century. 
Whether again it was of necessity or not, these new Aberdeenshire castles 
were built by local masons, of granite, unless where a sandstone quarry 
was near. Among the most notable examples are Craigievar, Crathes, 
Midmar, Castle Fraser, and Drum. The manner of building, the 
architectural detail and decorative elements are common to all; but 
almost every castle shows distinctive and individual character. That 
the ground-plans are so various is the root cause, each type of plan 
leading to its own characteristic masses and groupings. The simple 
oblong plan developed into L plans of various kinds ; later, under the 
influence of planning for defence by firearms, the stepped plan was 
invented, in which either two or three blocks were joined together on a 
diagonal line, i.e. en échelon. Craigievar and Crathes show different 
modifications of the L type ; Midmar and Castle Fraser are of the three- 
stepped type ; while the House of Drum (1619), connected to the ancient 
_ tower by a short wing is, with excellent judgment, planned as a long and 
comparatively low block between a pair of small square blocks which 
_ project forwards and are tacked on to the main block, ‘ corner to corner,’ 
as in the stepped plan. 
_ Midmar and Castle Fraser were built by members of a local family of 
_ masons named Bel. Castle Fraser, which perhaps is the most representa- 
tive of the group, was signed by I. Bel, master-mason, 1617, just when it 
was nearly finished, as first designed. 

Common to all these castles is the battering of the rubble walls, some- 


64 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


times with a suggestion of entasis ; the free and occasionally fanciful use 
of corbelling, the units of which hardly vary in profile ; and the corner 
‘ rounds,’ or turrets, from which shot could be directed ‘ alongst the walls.’ 
These ‘ rounds’ are seldom quite circular on plan, but slightly oval or in 
a succession of planes ; they project very little over the corner of the 
supporting walls, and are carried up leaning backwards towards the 
parent body. It would almost seem as if the walls and turrets had been 
modelled rather than built, so sensitively are the planes adjusted to each 
other. Both at Midmar and Castle Fraser one of the end blocks is circular 
and carried up higher than the others ; its staircase turret is taken still 
higher, and finished with an ogee roof, a stang and weathervane. 

The dead forms of medieval machicolation corbelling and battlements 
were adapted at Castle Fraser to serve other uses : the medieval machi- 
colation corbels have shrunk into a purely decorative corbel table or 
cornice, whose architectural use is to tie the three blocks together, jump- 
ing down and up again to embrace the turrets. 

The pseudo-parapet is found right under the eaves of the roof, the 
pseudo-embrasures forming windows, which are carried up into the roof 
as stone dormers. But many of the smaller castles are quite free from such 
vestigial marks : they fulfil in the most direct way all structural and other 
needs, under a due sense of the nature of granite and an instinct for fine 
form. 

Freestone on the walls of Castle Fraser is confined to heraldic panels ; 
and its use elsewhere in granite castles does not go beyond such small 
things as gargoyles and bits of carving. 

THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY IN ABERDEEN.—In the town of Aberdeen 
during this period stone dressings for buildings continued generally to 
be of freestone, and towards the end of the century much competent 
work in freestone cutting was produced—tombs and monuments, heraldic 
shields and cartouches, and the hexagonal Market Cross (1686), designed 
and built by John Montgomery, a mason from Rayne in Aberdeenshire. 

Provost Sir George Skene’s house in the Guestrow, with fine plaster 
ceilings, woodwork, ironwork, and decorative painting, is about the last 
town-house of the period left in Aberdeen. 

Tue EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.—The eighteenth century saw the building 
of Gordon’s Hospital (it is said, from plans by William Adam) ; and, on 
the site of the Middle-Pointed nave of St. Nicholas’, the present West 
Church (1755), in stately Roman style, carried out in freestone from 
Fife, above a granite plinth, from plans by the architect James Gibbs, an 
Aberdeen man born and bred. 

Shortly after ‘ the Forty-five,’ granite ashlar houses began to appear in 
Gilcomston, then a suburb, and in the town; dates in the fifties and 
sixties, still to be seen, show when and where the development took place. 

A gateway to St. Paul’s, Gallowgate, designed in a rather homely but 
interesting Classic manner, shows that the art of masonry in granite was not 
entirely neglected at the time when the West Church was new. 

About 1772, after a disastrous fire at King’s College, parts of the south 
wall of the chapel and of the east wall of the steeple were faced with 
excellent granite ashlar, whose ‘ cherry-cocked ’ pointing still remains 


ARCHITECTURE IN ABERDEEN: A SURVEY 65 


intact. About the same time two manses for professors were built of 
granite, in College Bounds. ‘These works and the older houses in Maris- 
chal Street which was formed in 1767 mark the beginnings of modern 
granite masonry in Aberdeen. 

Duff House and Haddo House, works by William Adam of Maryburgh, 
father of Robert Adam, were carried out in the Renaissance tradition, 
with freestone dressings; Duff House especially may be considered 
extraneous. Cairness House in Buchan, built of granite towards the end 
of the century (1799) from designs by James Playfair, a London Scot, 
and said (c.1810) by Dr. Skene Keith to be ‘ the largest and the best house 
belonging to any private gentleman in the county,’ shows originality and 
much refinement, with some not unpleasant touches of eccentricity; Cairness 
seems to have had some effect on the development of Classic in the North. 

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.—In Aberdeen itself, the Bank on the south 
side of Castle Street (1801) was designed by James Burn of Haddington, 
and built of granite in the Classic style of which Chambers was the last 
great exponent. 

The building of Union Bridge over the Denburn, originally entirely a 
granite structure which was finished c. 1805, opened the way to the 
expansion of Aberdeen westwards. The granite house of Mr. Milne of 
Crimonmogate—now the Royal Northern Club—was the first to be built 
west of the bridge and the earliest architectural work of John Smith 
(1781-1852). 

That Aberdeen during the course of the nineteenth century came to 
be familiarly known as ‘the Granite City’ is owing, firstly, to the enter- 
prise of those who quarried the material, of whom John Gibb, civil 
engineer and quarrymaster, was chief ; and secondly, to two architect 
sons of Aberdeen, the earliest regular practitioners of architecture resident 
in Aberdeen—John Smith, already mentioned, and Archibald Simpson 
(1790-1847), whose taste, skill and scholarship in the adaptation of Classic 
forms (the vogue of their time was Grecian) to modern uses, in buildings 
carried out in hard crystalline granite, was as remarkable as their success 
in training a school of craftsmen unrivalled for the accuracy and beauty 
of their work. Among John Smith’s works were the North Church in 
King Street (1830) ; the screen to St. Nicholas’ Churchyard in Union 
Street (1830), and Prof. Hamilton’s monument, adjacent (1833); and 
‘The Town’s Schools ’ in Little Belmont Street (1841). Among Archi- 
bald Simpson’s works were the Assembly Rooms (1820), now the front 
part of the Music Hall Buildings ; the older part of the Royal Infirmary 
(1838) ; the North of Scotland Bank in Castle Street (1842); and the 
Market in Market Street (1842). 

‘Gothic’ in the hands of these pioneers of modern granite building 
fared but poorly. It has happened, however, that Simpson’s Marischal 
College (1838-42) lies behind the fagade of the New Buildings by 
Alexander Marshall Mackenzie (1848-1933), whose handling of Kemnay 
granite in “ Perpendicular Gothic ’ is as attractive as the ‘ Gothic’ of a 
hundred years ago is dull. 

The architecture of Aberdeen between then and now must speak for 
itself, 

E 


66 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


PICTISH SYMBOLISM AND THE SCULPTURED STONES OF 
NORTH-EAST SCOTLAND. 


BY 
W. Dovuctas Simpson, M.A., D.Litt. 


UNDOUBTEDLY the most distinctive subject of archzeological study that 
the North-east of Scotland offers is its mysterious Pictish symbolism. 

In not a few respects the Picts were a remarkable race: most of all in 
the unique development of symbolic art which characterised their sculp- 
tured monuments during the period of the Celtic church. Under a set 
of influences and with an evolutionary origin alike wholly unknown to 
us, there was then developed among the Picts of the North-east a highly 
elaborated, rigidly conventional and extremely artistic code of symbolism, 
to the meaning of which no key has yet been discovered. ‘This symbolism 
is marked by two significant characteristics. Firstly, save for a few 
stray ‘ outliers,’ it is entirely confined to the districts known to have been 
inhabited by the Picts; and within these limits it is overwhelmingly a 
product of the eastern lowlands. Secondly, the forms of the symbols 
wherever they are found, from the Shetlands to Galloway, and from 
Aberdeenshire to the Outer Isles, are so highly standardised that it is 
clear we have to deal with a fully articulated, well-understood and wide- 
spread system of ideographic art, the invention of which must be accounted 
an astonishing manifestation of the Pictish genius. 

Comparative study of these monuments shows that they fall into three 
classes, and it has been found possible approximately to delimit the 
chronological horizon of each class. 

Class I (before a.D. 800): Unshapen and undressed monoliths with 
incised symbols only. Of these, fifty-four examples are known in the 
district between the Dee and the Spey—well-nigh half the total number 
of this class recorded in Scotland. 

Class II (about a.D. 800-1000): Slabs roughly tooled and shaped, 
bearing in addition to the symbols a cross of Celtic pattern, and often 
elaborate figure groups ; the sculpture now being in relief, and the symbols 
and cross alike enriched with more or less complex ornamentation in the 
school of Celtic art. This class is represented in our district by seven 
examples, two of which have ogam inscriptions. 

Class III (from about A.D. 1000 to the extinction of native Celtic art 
by the Anglo-Norman infiltration in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries) : 
Slabs in which the symbols have now disappeared, so that there remains 
only the Celtic cross, carved in relief and often sumptuously decorated. 
At least sixteen examples occur in our district. It is not always possible 
to say whether certain plain crosses belong to the Celtic period or later. 

Whether the symbols were in their origin pagan or Christian is dis- 
puted. All that can be said meantime is that the associations of the — 
symbols, where determinable, are always Christian. Stones of Class I | 
occur again and again at known early Celtic church sites; and even 


ARCHITECTURE IN ABERDEEN: A SURVEY 67 


where they have no such association, we must remember that on the spot 
may once have been a primitive chapel, all knowledge of which may have 
perished. One case, however, occurs where symbols are incised on one 
of a group of two standing stones assignable probably to the Bronze 
Age: but here the symbols may be secondary. It is at all events clear 
that the symbolism was capable in its entirety of bearing a Christian 
meaning, as is shown by its association with the cross on the monuments 
of Class II. The symbols have also been found inscribed on objects of 
metal and bone, and rudely carved on natural rock surfaces. In no 
authentic case has one of the symbol stones been found in connection 
with a burial. 

Equally mysterious is the sudden way in which this symbolism blossoms 
forth as a fully developed and highly elaborate art. Even in Class I 
stones the symbols appear as a mature, systematic and determinate 
hieroglyphic corpus, which must surely have had a long evolutionary 
history behind it. But of its more primitive stages nothing is known. 
It is a mistake to imagine that the rude representations of the symbols 
cut or scratched on the walls of certain caves represent such an earlier 
stage of development, for the symbols on the monuments are clearly the 
work of skilled carvers trained in the conventions of their art, whereas 
those found in the caves are the amateur graffiti of hermits. 

The distribution of these monuments in their three classes presents 
some interesting problems. By far the greatest number of Class I occur 
in Aberdeenshire, and specially in the Lower Garioch, so as to suggest 
that the symbolic art may perhaps have originated in this area. When we 
pass into Class II the focus shifts southward into Angus. This may be 
due to the fact that the soft sandstones below the Highland boundary 
fault are more suited for the elaborately carved stones of this class than 
are the intractable granites and schists of the Mearns and Aberdeenshire. 

The names commonly given to the symbols are merely convenient 
labels. It seems hard to believe that the ‘ mirror’ and ‘ comb’ symbols 
can represent anything else than these articles, whatever their symbolical 
import. On the other hand, it is impossible to say what the so-called 
‘elephant,’ the ‘ double-disc and Z rod,’ the ‘ crescent and V rod,’ or 
the ‘ two-legged rectangle ’ are intended to portray. The animal forms 
suggest affinities with the early Christian Bestiaries. About fifty different 
symbol forms are known, and the way in which various combinations 
recur is significant. 


68 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


X. 


PREHISTORIC ARCHAOLOGY IN 
ABERDEEN DISTRICT 


BY 
R, W. REID, M.D., LL.D., F.R.CS., 


EMERITUS REGIUS PROFESSOR OF ANATOMY AND HON. CURATOR 
ANTHROPOLOGICAL MUSEUM, UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. 


TueE following account refers to the part of the North-east of Scotland 
composed roughly of the counties of Aberdeen, Banff and Kincardine. 

In that area there is no evidence that can be definitely associated with 
Paleolithic man, but in it, however, there are traces from which an idea 
may be arrived at of the physical appearances, habits and culture of the 
people inhabiting it during the late Mesolithic and the subsequent Neo- 
lithic period, which is ‘‘ generally believed to have ended in this country 
about 2000 B.c., and during the Bronze Age, which extended probably from 
about 2000 B.C. to 500 B.c.”’ It must be understood, however, that these 
periods, which are largely cultural, are not sharply separated from one 
another, but overlap to a considerable extent. ‘The traces are chiefly 
interments and artifacts which have been found scattered irregularly in 
the soil. 

Meso.itHic AGE.—As regards the Mesolithic Age, the only traces 
which are found of the inhabitants are small finely chipped implements 
of flint about ? in. long and known, because of their small size, as ‘ pigmy’” 
flints. ‘These have been found in fields near old river terraces in Banchory 
Ternan on Deeside in Kincardineshire. ‘Their use is a mystery, but it 
has been conjectured that they were hafted to serve as knives, employed 
as teeth for saws, or used as gravers, borers, etc. 

NEOLITHIC AGE.—In the Neolithic Age, no traces of man beyond his 
artifacts have been found, unless it should prove that certain long cairns 
found at Longmanhill, N.B. Gamrie, Banffshire ; Balnagowan, Aboyne ; 
Newhills, Aberdeenshire; and Gourdon, Kincardineshire, belong 
to this age. These include pottery, implements in flint and stone, 
characterised by their fine shape and careful finish, which pass into the 
succeeding Early Bronze Age. The vessel from Craig, Auchindoir, 
Aberdeenshire, in the Anthropological Museum at Marischal College, 
is a good example of the pottery of the age. In addition to this vessel 
the only remains of such Neolithic pottery as yet recorded from this 
district are fragments of urns from Knapperty Hillock, from Finnercy, 
Echt, and from Ferniebrae, Chapel of Garioch, all in Aberdeenshire. 

Bronze AGE.— Short stone cist interments—It is when the Bronze Age 
is reached that evidences of man and his works become abundant. The 
most interesting of these are the short cist interments, concerning which 


PREHISTORIC ARCH/EOLOGY IN ABERDEEN DISTRICT 69 


it has to be noted that they contain the earliest human skeletal remains 
that have yet been found in the district. ‘These are distributed irregu- 
larly, but sometimes they are in groups, as in the parishes of Dunnottar 
and Kinneff in Kincardineshire. In the majority of cases no mounds 
or monuments or external marks indicate their situations. In some 
instances, however, they have been found in mounds of earth or sandy 
gravel, or covered by cairns of stones, and in one case within a stone 
circle at Crichie, Aberdeenshire. 

In the Aberdeen University Anthropological Museum there is a collec- 
tion of the contents of cists, individually displayed. Besides these, there 
are three cists, one of which is placed in the Anatomical Department, 
mounted to show the manner in which they were constructed as well as 
their contents in their position as found. These may be taken as fair 
examples of the Bronze Age burials in the district. 

The cists in which the remains were found were roughly rectangular, 
the inside measurements being on an average about 3 ft. 8 in. long, 
2 ft. broad and 1 ft. 8 in. deep. They lay from 6 in. to 2 ft. below the 
surface of the ground, and the walls and roofs were formed of rough, 
flattened stones similar to those in the vicinity. The roofs consisted 
of one main flat stone, but occasionally there were several, as in a cist 
found in Kinneff in Kincardineshire and now in the Aberdeen University 
Anthropological Museum. ‘The roof of this cist is also of interest as it 
consists of many slabs arranged in three layers, the under surface of one 
of these stones bearing rude sculpturing and evidence of atmospheric 
weathering before the stone was used to form the roof of the cist. Another 
of these roofing stones shows an artificial perforation countersunk on 
both sides. 

The floors of the cists were formed either of the gravelly stratum upon 
which the cists stood, or were paved by small, water-worn stones or by 
a thin layer of clay into which pebbles had been inserted. 

As regards their orientation when recorded, the long axes were directed 
from west to east, from south-west to north-east or from south to north, 
and it is interesting to observe that the skeletons were found in a crouching 
position with the knees bent, the thighs directed towards the front of the 
trunk, and the head of the skeleton usually lying in the north or north-east 
end of the cist. 

From an examination of 48 skeletons, a few of which were from other 
parts of Scotland, 31 were male and 17 were female. ‘The average age 
of the males was about 50 years and that of the females about 40 years, 
and it is observable, therefore, that, for some reason or other, the lives 
of their owners had been comparatively short. The males were short 
in stature, on the average about 5 ft. 5 in., and the females about 5 ft. 1 in. 
As regards cranial capacity, the male skull showed an average of 1,438cc., 
the female 1,368 cc., and when compared with the average capacity of the 
skulls of modern Europeans (1,500 cc.), both were considerably less. 
The skulls of these people were broad, but not very much so. Their 
foreheads were full and the brow ridges not particularly raised. ‘Their 
faces were broad and short, the sockets for the eyeballs narrowed from 
above downwards, the noses wide, the jaws projecting no farther forward 


70 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


than they do in present-day inhabitants, the cheek bones fairly prominent, 
and the teeth healthy but in most cases worn down, in all probability by 
the use of coarse and gritty food. 

The bones, especially those of the limbs, showed that, while of low 
stature, the people had been active and muscular, and it is interesting to 
observe that the remains of their lower extremities presented appearances 
which are visible in the inferior races of mankind of to-day, whose lower 
limbs are shaped in order to allow of firm grasping and rapid barefooted 
movements. Some of these remains also suggest the idea that the 
individual may have assumed a squatting position when at rest, and may 
have walked with the knees somewhat bent. With the exception of a few 
traces of the effects of rheumatism in one spine, the remains of the skeletons 
in the Museum showed no signs of disease or injury. 

The origin of these people is veiled in obscurity. It is considered that 
the type migrated from Central Europe, bringing with them to Great 
Britain their beaker-shaped pottery and a knowledge of copper. ‘This 
view that the type came from Central Europe is corroborated by the 
close resemblance between it and that of the Czechs and Rumanians, as 
shown by an anthropometric comparison of their skeletal remains. 

In addition to the skeleton, short cists in most cases contained rude 
vessels of clay usually spoken of as urns. As a rule one vessel was con- 
tained in a cist, but sometimes two or, very rarely, three were present. 

From their shapes they are ordinarily described as drinking cups or 
beakers, and food vessels. They are composed of coarse clay mixed with 
sharp, sandy, gritty material, and each one exhibits the effects of the action 
of fire. They are of a brownish colour which varies in shade according 
to the clay which had been used. ‘They are ornamented by incised lines, 
cordoned and maggot-shaped designs, usually in such a way as to form 
herring-bone and other angular patterns. The ornamentation exists 
upon the outside of the vessels, rarely on the edges of the lips, and still 
more rarely upon the inner surfaces of the lips. ‘‘ Each drinking cup has 
a slightly constricted neck, an expanded mouth, and a bulging body, 
and varies from about 5 to 8 in. in height, its breadth being always less 
than its height. The food vessel is usually not so high as the drinking 
cup. It has no constricted neck or expanded mouth and is more or less 
globular in shape.”” Nothing beyond a small quantity of sand, which had 
no doubt gained admission by accident, was found in any of these vessels. 
As to their purpose it can merely be suggested that they contained food 
or other nourishment for the deceased, and this suggestion would point 
to a belief in existence after death. 

Beside the skeleton from a cist found at Clinterty, Aberdeenshire, 
displayed in the University Museum, there lay an axe in mica schist, 
five scrapers in flint, two barbed arrow-heads in flint, a crystal of topaz, 
a pointed and perforated bone implement, and an imperfect ring in bone 
which was perforated in such a way that it had probably been used as an 
amulet. A short cist at Tullochvenus, Aberdeenshire, contained in addi- 
tion to an urn and burnt bones a tanged razor blade in bronze which is now 
in the University Museum. There have been described as found in 
other cists objects such as bronze rings, horn spoon or ladle, piece of 


PREHISTORIC ARCH/EOLOGY IN ABERDEEN DISTRICT 71 


ox-hide, a polished stone hammer, bones of boar, etc. Small pieces of 
charcoal have sometimes been found both in the cists and in the soil 
surrounding them, and since the bones in the cists had not been cremated, 
it is probable that fire was used in the funeral rites of those people. 

The method of interment by inhumation did not cease abruptly, but 
gradually merged into burial after cremation. A cist was exposed at 
Fyvie, Aberdeenshire, which contained an urn of the drinking-cup type, 
along with ashes of bones lying loosely on the floor of the cist and not 
inside the urn. Another cist, now in the University Museum, was found 
at Auchlin, Aberdour, Aberdeenshire, in which human skeletal remains 
were found which had been subjected to the action of fire, along with the 
remains of a child’s skeleton which had not been burned, and pieces of 
charcoal. 

Cremation or cinerary urns are of a larger size than those usually found 
in short stone cists. They are unglazed, made of a coarser pottery and 
badly fired. In most cases their shape is that of two truncated cones united 
at their bases—the cone which enters into the formation of the mouth 
forming the smaller part of the urn. ‘The ornamentation, which is mostly 
confined to the upper part of the urn, consists of horizontal and wavy 
ridges ; discs and bosses; horizontal, vertical and oblique lines; and 
circular indentations about a quarter of an inch in diameter which are to 
be found in the neighbourhood of the mouth. From their appearances 
they are classified as overhanging rim urns, cordoned urns, and encrusted 
urns, examples of which, found in Aberdeenshire, are to be seen in the 
Anthropological Museum at Marischal College, Aberdeen. 

This class of pottery has been found in many parts of the district and 
in various situations. Sometimes the urn is merely placed in a cavity of 
the ground without any indication on the surface of its presence. In 
other cases the interment was within the area of a standing stone circle, 
or sometimes under a cairn. The usage as regards the calcined bones 
varies. At one time the urn is inverted over them, at another it is placed 
on its base and contains them with a flat stone laid over the mouth. Along 
with the bones there frequently occur ornaments in gold and other 
substances, as well as implements and weapons in bronze or stone. 

Associated with the burning of the dead and sometimes placed within 
cinerary urns are the diminutive and ornamented vessels known as 
‘incense cups.’ The name is, however, purely conjectural. The only 
example from this district, which is now in the University Anthropological 
Museum, is not of the perforated variety, but shows a loop supposed to 
be for suspension. It was discovered on the surface of the ground on 
the Hill of Keir, Skene, Aberdeenshire, with an ammonite inside it and 
a flint arrow-head near by. 

Stone circles—Perhaps none of the archzological remains which the 
district yields are so well known as the circles of upright stones which are 
commonly called standing stone circles or Druid circles. They consist 
of upright monoliths which vary in number and are arranged in a circular 
manner. 

The simple circle, the most common form, may be divided into two 
classes according as it does, or does not, possess a ‘ recumbent’ stone, 


72 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


This prominent block, which may weigh several tons, is placed between 
two large upright monoliths, and lies in the southern arc, opposite 
the northern aspect of the circle. The stones composing the circle 
diminish in size from the monoliths supporting the recumbent 
stone to those in the opposite arc of the circle. A remarkable fact in 
connection with this is that the recumbent stone is peculiar to the circles 
in Aberdeenshire and immediate neighbourhood. Other circles have 
within them one or two concentric circles, the stones of which are smaller 
in size. 

Sometimes a causeway or an avenue of large stones arranged in two 
parallel rows is found leading to or from the circle. An example of the 
latter is seen at Crichie, Aberdeenshire. 

The diameter of a standing stone circle varies from to ft. to more 
than roo ft., and the size of the stones has a wide range of variation. 
Some are no more than 2 ft. above ground, while the largest may be 
more than 10 ft. The individual stones are rough undressed boulders 
from the rock of the neighbourhood, orare ice-borne erratics. Inscriptions 
are totally absent from them, but ‘ cup markings’ are common. On one 
of the stones of a circle at Nether Corskie, Echt, Aberdeenshire, the well- 
known symbols of a mirror case, mirror and comb occur, which symbols 
are found elsewhere in abundance on stones not belonging to circles. 
It seems better to assign these Corskie sculpturings to a later date than the 
circle itself. 

There are approximately 145 sites of stone circles in Aberdeenshire 
alone. Examples of circles in a good state of preservation may be men- 
tioned at Sunhoney, with another near it in the Midmar graveyard ; at 
Dyce; and at Auquhorthies near Inverurie—all in Aberdeenshire A 
stone which is to be seen at the junction of Langstane Place and Dee 
Street on the left-hand side of Union Street, Aberdeen, is believed to 
have formed part of a circle. 

Upon looking at the district as a whole, the circles are mostly to be 
found in the river valleys, particularly in that of the Don, where no fewer 
than 52 sites are known, a fact which indicates that the weight of the 
population existed there owing to the superior fertility of the soil. 

Many theories have been advanced as to the origin and significance of 
these antiquities. It is, however, an ascertained fact that they were used 
for sepulchral purposes, as incinerated human remains of the Bronze 
Age period have been found within them. Apart from this, any use 
assigned to them is somewhat conjectural. 

Besides these circles of standing stones there are also examples of 
solitary monoliths concerning which there is no record of their having 
formed part of a circle, and which from their position are unlikely to have 
done so. Some of these are of great height. 

Cup-marked stones —The practice of inscribing small cups or hollows, 
or groups of them, on stones, which is familiar all over the British Isles, 
is also a well-represented feature of the prehistoric archeology here. 
These depressions vary in size from about 2 to 3 in. in diameter and in 
depth from $to1in. Insome cases the cup is surrounded by a concentric 
ring, rarely by two. In this district these markings occur most frequently 


PREHISTORIC ARCH/EOLOGY IN ABERDEEN DISTRICT 73 


on stones which form part of stone circles, being especially present on 
the recumbent stone or stones near it. They are found also on solitary 
standing stones, boulders and rock surfaces. 

No explanation of what was intended by these markings seems to have 
been able to secure general acceptance. 

A cup-marked boulder which was found a short distance from the site 
of the cist at Kinneff described on p. 69 may be seen in the Museum. 

Cairns —These structures are of all sizes, from about ro ft. in diameter 
up to about roo ft.. The great majority are circular and the height of the 
pile varies from 1 to 2 ft. to about as high as 40 ft. As to their position 
it has been noted that they are more commonly found at or above 700 ft. 
above sea-level than below. 

Compared with these circular cairns, long cairns are much fewer in 
number, but from the records available regarding them it is unsafe to 
assign them to any particular age, as none of them seem to have been 
examined by excavation. Examples of these long cairns are seen at 
Gourdon, Kincardineshire ; Newhills, Aberdeenshire ; Longmanhill, 
Gamrie, Banffshire. 

Considerable uncertainty attaches also to those of circular shape. It 
has of course been definitely ascertained in many cases that human 
interments took place within them in the Bronze Age, but others have 
often been found to yield nothing. It is not necessary to suppose that 
they always served the same purpose. Some may have been beacons or 
memorials of events, etc. 

No enumeration of cairns is available for the whole district, but general 
inspection shows that they are present more or less everywhere. Cromar 
district in upper Deeside, measuring about eight miles from east to west 
and six miles from north to south, most of it being more than 600 ft. above 
sea-level, has been particularly examined, and many hundreds have been 
recorded. 

Hut circles—These are commonly found in the neighbourhood of 
cairns, or definitely associated with them. They consist of loose stones, 
rather larger in size than those used in cairns, the rings rising as a rule 
not more than 2 ft. above the present ground surface. The diameter is 
often about 12 to 20 ft. In most cases the natural ground forms the 
floor of the circle, but sometimes a paved surface is present. 

The general appearance of these structures, along with the fact that 
they often occur in clusters and that there has been discovered within 
them such objects as flint arrow-heads, stone discs, charcoal and ashes, 
suggests that they are the remains of prehistoric habitations. 

In the Kinnord and Dinnet area of Aberdeenshire many examples of 
these circles, along with other prehistoric remains, can be seen. A group 
of eight circles exists at Skene’s Wood, Fintray, Aberdeenshire. 

Sporadic finds —Besides the artifacts mentioned as occurring in graves 
or associated with other structures, by far the greater number of such 
objects are single ‘ finds ’ casually picked up on the surface of the ground. 

As regards implements in flint, arrow-heads of various forms—leaf, 
lozenge, barbed and tanged—have been found abundantly. ‘They were 
used not only in Neolithic times, but since no bronze arrow-head has ever 


74. SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


been found in Scotland, it may be inferred that they continued in use 
during the age of bronze. 

Other objects in flint are scrapers, saws, knives, amulets, fabricators, 
cores, etc. ‘The exceptional abundance of these objects in the North-east 
is to be explained by the fact that in Buchan in Aberdeenshire there is an 
extensive area, stretching inland from near Boddam for about ten miles, 
in which natural flints are plentifully found. 

Prehistoric flint workshops have been located at the seaside at Menie, 
Belhelvie, about seven miles north of Aberdeen, and farther north at 
Forvie sands near the mouth of the river Ythan, whose existence is sug- 
gested by quantities of flakes, cores and waste products, together with 
hammers, anvil stones and unfinished flint implements, having been found 
there. 

Implements in stone comprise axe-heads, hammers, cups, smoothing 
stones, amulets, whetstones, perforated discs, anvils, querns, stone lamps, 
socket stones, sinkers, whorls, mortars, etc. As in the case of flint arrow- 
heads, all artifacts in stone do not necessarily belong to Neolithic times, 
but some extended to a later period and any particular specimen has to 
be considered as to dating upon its own merits. The ornamented stone 
balls, which are believed to be peculiar to Scotland, and whose use and 
date are conjectural, are well represented in the district. The artistic 
merit of some of the more highly finished of this type of ball suggest a 
date not long before or even within the historic period. 

Objects of bronze found in the district are leaf-shaped swords, scab- 
bards, dagger-blades, spear-heads, and different varieties of flat, flanged 
and socketed axe-heads, bronze harness mountings, sickles, etc. 

Objects of personal adornment are not infrequent. They are com- 
monly armlets of elaborate design, sometimes with enamels inset. In 
this connection beads may be mentioned, which though not of bronze 
are articles of adornment. ‘They are made of many varieties of stone and 
of paste, the latter decorated with the same spiral design which is found 
on the bronze amulets. 

Specimens of most of the objects referred to in this section are to be 
seen in the University Museum. 

Iron Ace.—Earth houses—These structures are found sporadically 
from Berwickshire to Shetland, especially in the east, but here they occur 
more plentifully. In the parishes of Auchindoir and Kildrummy, Aber- 
deenshire, a group of about fifty have been recorded in recent times within 
an area of two square miles. Again, not far off, in the Cromar area, no 
fewer than seven have been noted. 

The typical Scottish earth house, in the older vernacular ‘ yerd hoose,’ 
is invisible from the surface of the ground, though the roof is within a 
foot or two of it. This is how they appear when discovered to-day, 
but when in use the entrance leading into the chamber was of course 
exposed. ‘The underground tunnel has walls made of undressed stones, 
without mortar, which converge as they rise and support the massive flat 
stones laid across them to form the roof. One or two specimens have been 
found with perpendicular walls, from which, and from the absence of the 
roofing stones, a wooden roof can be inferred. The entrance is narrow 


PREHISTORIC ARCH/EOLOGY IN ABERDEEN DISTRICT 75 


and the passage leads downwards in a sloping fashion to the floor of the 
chamber. ‘The latter is always more or less curved and increases in height 
and width towards the far end. There are often side chambers, or 
‘ambries,’ leading off from the main tunnel. A common length for the 
whole chamber is about 50 ft., greatest breadth about 6 to 8 ft., and 
height 5 or 6 ft., sometimes more. The floor is usually earthen, but in 
one case, at Buchaam, Strathdon, Aberdeenshire, it is paved over the whole 
area and not merely at the entrance, as is sometimes found, and a well- 
built stone drain, 10 in. square, leads from it. Smoke holes in the roof 
have been observed in a few. 

An approximate date for these structures can be arrived at from a 
consideration of the contents that have been recovered from them. ‘These 
include objects in bronze, especially articles of ornament ; bronze needles ; 
objects in iron, being subject to oxidisation, have mostly disappeared, but 
the presence of such articles has been definitely ascertained in many 
cases ; rude pottery, but also some wheel-made ; querns ; bones of the 
domestic animals ; horns of deer ; staves of wood. It is evident from 
this that the earth houses were used and inhabited in the Iron Age, and 
there is direct proof that the date can be brought down as low as the early 
centuries of our era. Some of the bronze ornaments referred to above 
are particularly fine examples of late Celtic art. ‘They occurred in earth 
houses in the parish of Coull, Aberdeenshire, and at Castle Newe, Strath- 
don, in the same county. ‘The latter also yielded a coin of the Emperor 
Nerva (A.D. 96-98) which supplies an authentic date. But the question 
of how early these constructions came into use is harder to determine ; 
probably the late Bronze Age is the earliest date that could be assigned. 

It is most likely that hut habitations of a less permanent character were 
erected over or near these houses. In two cases in this district indica- 
tions of this arrangement still remain, viz. at Loch Kinnord, Aberdeen- 
shire, and at Milton of Whitehouse, four miles north of the loch. In both 
of these cases there are stone pavements close to the entrance which show 
early hearths with charcoal remains, and on which burnt bones, part of a 
quern and an angular piece of iron were found. 

Good examples of the earth houses of this district may be seen at Muirs 
of Kildrummy, near Kildrummy Castle; near Glenkindie House ; 
Buchaam, Strathdon ; at Culsh, Tarland, and at Migvie, west of Tarland— 
all in Aberdeenshire. 

Lake dwellings —Associated chronologically with the earth houses are 
the crannogs or lake dwellings of Scotland; they yield the same kind 
of relics and belong to the Iron Age. Some are shown, from the archzo- 
logical material discovered in them, to have been in occupation in the 
early centuries of our era. The method of constructing these places of 
security has been ascertained, when from drainage or other causes the 
lochs in which they were situated became dry and they could be syste- 
matically examined. ‘The procedure was as follows. On the surface of 
the water a raft was constructed composed of logs mortised together, on 
which stones and earth and branches were piled, with beams as the work 
proceeded, and thus, as the added material gradually accumulated, the 
whole mass finally grounded. The result of such a plan of building has 


76 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


been that islands in Scottish lochs which have to-day every appearance of 
being natural have turned out on better investigation to be wholly arti- 
ficial, or true crannogs. 

In this north-eastern district crannogs are necessarily scarce since lochs 
are few, except among the mountains; but one, or possibly two, are still 
existent, and another is on record. ‘The last, in the Loch of Leys, Ban- 
chory in Kincardineshire, was examined when the loch was turned into 
dry land in the middle of last century. It measured about 65 yards in 
length and 30 in breadth. Kitchen vessels of bronze, a mill stone, antlers 
and bones of a red deer of great size, a small canoe of oak, and a boat 
about g ft. long were found. The other crannog site is Loch Kinnord. 
Two islands can be seen there, the larger one being about 100 yards in 
length by 70 in breadth and the smaller 25 yards in diameter. The latter 
is certainly wholly artificial, being formed of an arrangement of piles, 
beams and stones. ‘The larger island has not been definitely ascertained 
to have been originally a crannog, but certain significant facts could be 
mentioned connected with it which indicate that it wasso. Three canoes 
were recovered from the bottom of the loch at various times during last 
century, while a fourth is still submerged near the smaller island. ‘They 
are formed out of single logs of oak, and are 22, 29 and 30 ft. long. The 
breadth of the larger two is about 3 ft. A bronze jug, 103 in. high, with 
handle and spout, and similar to the one from Loch of Leys crannog, was 
found, and also a bronze spear-head, with a portion of the oak shaft 
remaining in the socket, 124 in. long, which is in the University Museum. 

Hill forts —The essential features of such early places of defence are 
their situation on the top of a hill, and the presence of a space, varying in 
size, enclosed by a circular rampart made of stone or by a concentric 
series of ramparts, with intervening trenches. In those called vitrified 
hill forts, parts of the stone walls show evidence of the action of fire, but 
the process by which vitrification was achieved is not altogether understood. 

Many examples of these exist in the district, and particular mention 
may be made of a few as specially worthy of attention. The sites are: 
the hill of Bennachie, Barrahill not far off, the Barmekin of Echt, the Tap 
o’ Noth, Dunnydeer near Insch (with remains of a later medieval castle 
in the interior), the last two being vitrified. 

Chronologically these forts belong to the same period as earth houses 
and crannogs. 


AGRICULTURE IN THE NORTH-EAST TT. 


XI. 
AGRICULTURE IN THE NORTH-EAST 


BY 
pe LOCHER, Disc, 0.6. 


GENERAL Review.—Aberdeen occupies a unique position among the 
counties of Scotland from the point of view of agriculture. The county 
has the highest acreage under cultivation of all Scottish counties, and also 
the highest acreage in each of the following crops, namely : oats, turnips 
and rotational grasses. It has the greatest number of horses, cattle 
and pigs of any county in Scotland. Of the total 621,000 acres in use 
for agricultural purposes 49 per cent. is in rotational grass, 29 per cent. 
in corn crops (oats, 28 per cent.), 12 per cent. in turnips, 8} per cent. in 
permanent grass, 1} per cent. in potatoes and } per cent. in other crops. 
It is also the county of small holdings. Over 58 per cent. are holdings 
of 50acresandless. Only 1-4 percent.are over 300 acres. The following 
table shows the number of tenants with holdings of various sizes. 


Table 
Acres Number Tenants 
Above Under of tenants per cent. 
r 15 35543 34°61 
15 50 2,435 23°79 
50 100 25245 21°93 
100 150 1,004 9°81 
150 300 867 - 8-46 
300 143 1°40 
10,237 100*00 


Aberdeenshire has 570,000 acres arable land, of which 170,000 are in 
oats, 75,000 in turnips, and 300,600 in rotational grass. Perth is second 
in oats with 58,000 acres, and Angus second in turnips with 28,000 acres. 
The latest available figures show over 23,600 horses and over 173,000 
head of cattle in the county of Aberdeen, or 16 and 14 per cent., respectively, 
of the numbers for Scotland. Although there are over 400,000 sheep in 
the county, Aberdeen occupies only the sixth place as a sheep county. 
Feeding and breeding are characteristic of Aberdeenshire. ‘Turnips, 
straw and ensilage (augmented where necessary by concentrated feeding 
stuffs such as linseed and cotton cake) are used for feeding and preparing 
cattle for the market. Over a million tons of turnips are produced and 


78 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


consumed annually by the live stock of the county. Oats and turnips 
are grown for live stock. Hay and oats are the principal feeding stuffs for 
horses. ‘The 8,000 farmers with holdings of 100 acres and under do most 
of the work of the farm themselves. Those ‘ eident ’ hard-working men 
are the backbone of the county. 

There are 620 registered dairy farmers in Aberdeenshire owning about 
10,800 cows. During 1933 the Milk Agency, voluntarily organised prior 
to the 1931 Marketing Act, handled 54 million gallons, of which 12 million 
gallons were surplus to the liquid needs of the city of Aberdeen. In 
order to encourage an increase in the consumption of milk an advertising 
scheme was started by the Agency and others. The result of this scheme 
was very satisfactory. There was an increase in consumption to the 
extent of over 200,000 gallons when compared with the previous year. 
This is an encouragement to the scheme of advertising throughout the 
whole country. Since milk is of primary importance to the health of 
infants and the young generally an increase in the consumption of liquid 
milk in the North-east would contribute to an increase in the health of 
the community. 

THE BEGINNINGS OF INTENSIVE CULTIVATION.—The particular type of 
cultivation and its intensive character arose through the efforts of men 
like Sir Archibald Grant of Monymusk, Udny of Udny, Barclay of Ury, 
and the Earl of Erroll. These landowners and others encouraged 
thorough cultivation of the soil. They brought from the south farm 
hands familiar with the new methods to educate their tenants in the 
new methods. Land was reclaimed first by the landowner and then by 
the farmer. Grasses were sown and turnips introduced throughout the 
whole of the North-east. 

The writer had the privilege, in 1889, of recording the efforts of several 
generations of Aberdeenshire farmers in reclaiming land for cultivation, 
efforts which are typical of the industry of the whole of the north-eastern 
farming community as the result of Jethro Tull’s book, which appeared 
just two hundred years ago. 

THE MAKING OF AN ABERDEENSHIRE HoLDING.—The farm in question, 
Atherb, Maud, was reclaimed by John Milne’s ancestors from 1783 
onwards. At the end of the eighteenth century the rent paid for 56 acres 
was £5, of which 20 acres were reclaimed, the remainder being heather, 
broom and whins. Little produce was sold off the croft. The chief 
source of revenue was the money earned by the women spinning lint. 
The only kind of purchased manure which was applied to the land was 
limestone. By 1841 the rent was £25. Economy had to be severely 
practised. Tea was indulged in only on Sunday morning. Tobacco 
was a luxury not to be thought of. When oatmeal got scarce before 
harvest, the household had to fall back on potatoes. Phosphates in the 
shape of crushed bones was first applied to the land in 1838. Guano 
was applied for oats on new land in 1846 and proved a great boon to the 
tenant. In 1856, a threshing mill—a great factor in the making of 
Aberdeenshire tenant farmers—was installed in Atherb. The total rent 
paid from 1783 to 1878 was £1,640. The landowner paid only £16 on 
repairs during that period. And all the time the land was reclaimed, and 


AGRICULTURE IN THE NORTH-EAST 79 


the soil improved by the application of manures, the total sum expended 
from 1885 to 1899 being £1,444. ‘This is one example among thousands 
of tenant farmers ‘ tyauvin’’ to make a livelihood, morning, noon and 
even night. Of such stuff is the north-eastern farmer made. 

Earty Recorpinc.—A sidelight on the interest in records taken by 
farmers in the North-east was recently provided by Dr. C. W. Sleigh 
in a paper! in which he gave extracts from a journal written between 
1793 and 1797. ‘This journal contained barometric and thermometric 
records and records of the names and the work of farm hands, the rate 
of pay, the horses and oxen employed, the hoeing of turnips, pulling and 
threshing lint, live stock and grain disposed of and many other details, 
including the most important of all entries, namely, money received 
and money paid. A farmers’ club existed in Aberdeenshire in 1758. 
Papers were read by its members giving the results of experiments. This 
club was therefore the precursor of the North of Scotland College of 
Agriculture, which was instituted in 1904. 

THE NorTH OF SCOTLAND COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE.—The first 
provision for Agricultural Instruction in the North of Scotland was a 
bequest in 1790 by Sir William Fordyce for lectures in chemistry, natural 
history and agriculture at Marischal College. The bequest became 
effective in 1840 after the expiry of a life-rent, and thereafter a course 
of twelve lectures was delivered each year. In 1892 the Fordyce 
Foundation was merged with other university trusts, and the University 
of Aberdeen became responsible for the lectures. 

To provide for further development, the North of Scotland College 
of Agriculture was established in 1904 and became responsible for the 
Agricultural Department in Marischal College, one of the colleges of 
the University of Aberdeen. 

The former lecturers, who were under the Joint Committee and were 
taken over by the College, were Mr. R. B. Greig (now Sir Robert Greig, 
late Secretary of the Department of Agriculture for Scotland), Fordyce 
Lecturer ; Mr. James Hendrick (now Professor of Agriculture in the 
University), Lecturer in Agricultural Chemistry ; the late Mr. J. M. 
Young, Lecturer in Veterinary Hygiene ; and the late Prof. J. W. H. 
Trail, Lecturer in Agricultural Botany and Agricultural Zoology. At 
the present time, the staff of the College has increased to a total of sixty- 
three full-time officials, including organisers and instructresses resident 
in all the counties of the North of Scotland. There are in addition a 
number of part-time lecturers. 

The nett expenditure of the College in its first year amounted to about 
£5,000. It now stands at about £28,000. 

In 1911 arrangements were made for the purchase of the estate of 
Craibstone, situated about five miles from Aberdeen, in order to establish 
an experimental farm which is largely taken advantage of by the farming 
community. In addition to the College Farm, a School of Rural Domestic 
Economy, opened in 1923, is accommodated on the estate, while there is 
also a large forest demonstration area where a great variety of trees 
has been planted. 


1 Transactions of the Buchan Field Club, 1931, vol. xiv, pp. 63-77. 


80 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


Tue Rowettr RESEARCH INSTITUTE.—The scheme for the promotion 
of scientific research, adopted by the Development Commission in 1912, 
made provision for the establishment of one or more institutes to carry 
out research in each of the main branches of agricultural science. The 
Rowett Research Institute had its origin in this scheme as one of the 
two institutes for the study of animal nutrition, the other, the senior 
institute, being established in connection with Cambridge University in 
1912. The governing body of the Rowett Institute was constituted in 
1913. It consists of ten members, four appointed by the Court of 
Aberdeen University, four by the North of Scotland College of Agri- 
culture, and two jointly by both bodies. Work was begun in April 1914, 
the use of laboratories and other accommodation being granted by the 
University and the College of Agriculture until the buildings required 
for the Institute could be erected. Dr. J. B. Orr was appointed in 1914 
to take charge of the work on animal nutrition, while joint work with the 
College of Agriculture and the University was also undertaken on soils 
and draining and Isle of Wight Bee Disease under the supervision of 
Prof. James Hendrick and Dr. John Rennie respectively. On the 
outbreak of war, the main research work and the arrangements being 
made for the development of the Institute were suspended, the subsidiary 
work on soils and bee diseases being carried out by the College of Agri- 
culture and the University on a modified scale. After work had been 
resumed in 1919 in a building erected for the purpose on the Craibstone 
estate belonging to the College of Agriculture, proposals were submitted 
by the governing body to the Development Commission for the further 
development of the Institute. The proposals included the provision 
of (1) central buildings with laboratories, animal houses, and other 
accommodation required for research in animal nutrition; (2) an 
experimental stock farm ; (3) a library and a statistical department. 

In 1920 Mr. John Quiller Rowett provided money to purchase 41 acres 
of land on which there was a suitable site for the central buildings, and 
gave in addition {£10,000 for capital expenditure. The building was 
begun in February 1921, and opened by H.M. Queen Mary on 
September 12, 1922. 

As soon as the scientific research work of the Institute had been organised 
arrangements were made for the development of the experimental stock 
farm. In 1922 a croft was leased and the buildings altered for animal 
experiments. In 1925 Mr. J. Duthie Webster made a gift of £10,000 
(afterwards increased to £12,000) for the purpose of establishing the 
Duthie Experimental Stock Farm as a memorial to his uncle, the late 
William Duthie of Collynie. The farm extends to about 600 acres, 
with hill pasture in addition, and has departments for dairy cows, beef 
cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry. The east wing of the first floor of the 
central buildings was planned for a library and a part of the annual income 
of the Institute was devoted to the purchase of books and journals. In 
1923 Mr. Walter A. Reid, C.A., LL.D., gifted £5,000 to endow the 
library. Grants were also received from the Carnegie Trust and the 
Department of Agriculture for Scotland for books and equipment, and 
the library and statistical department were established. Arising from 


AGRICULTURE IN THE NORTH-EAST 81 


the Imperial Agricultural Conference in 1927 the Imperial Bureau of 
Animal Nutrition was established within the Reid Library in 1929. It is 
a clearing house for information and links together the work on animal 
nutrition which is going on in various laboratories and experimental farms 
throughout the Empire. It provides opportunities for exchange of ideas, 
for comparison and correlation of results, and for personal contacts 
between workers at home and abroad. In 1931 there was issued from 
the Reid Library the first number of the journal Nutrition Abstracts and 
Reviews. This journal is published quarterly and is issued under the 
joint direction of the Imperial Agricultural Bureaux Council, the Medical 
Research Council and the Reid Library. In addition to the journal 
there have been published from the Reid Library 205 memoirs on the 
various activities carried out at the Institute. A number of books on 
other subjects of general interest have also been issued. In 1932 
Strathcona House was opened. It is a residence for workers and visitors 
to the Institute and is the headquarters of a social club open to research 
workers and others engaged in higher teaching, research and education. 
The number on the staff of the Institute and Imperial Bureau is about 
twenty-five, including the heads of the biochemistry, physiology and 
animal husbandry and the overseas workers and scholars. 

THe Macauray InstTITUTE FoR Sot ResearcH.—The Macaulay 
Institute for Soil Research, which is situated at Craigiebuckler on the 
boundary of the city, was established in 1930 through the generosity of 
Mr. T. B. Macaulay, the President of the Sun Life Assurance Company 
of Canada, whose ancestors came from the Island of Lewis. The 
Institute consists of a large mansion house in which laboratories have 
been fitted up, greenhouses, a large walled experimental garden and 
nearly 50 acres of land. In addition to the Director (Dr. W. G. Ogg) 
and the Secretary (Miss Bowman), there are seven members of the 
technical staff, consisting of a soil geologist, specialists for advisory work 
among farmers, moorland work, soil surveys and drainage analysis, a 
technical assistant and a part-time advisory officer who lectures during 
the winter months. The Institute owns 147 acres of peat land on Arnish 
Moor, near Stornoway, where field experiments are being conducted to 
ascertain the best methods of improving peat land. Joint work at the 
Institute is in progress with the Geological Survey, the Forestry Com- 
mission, the Forestry Department of Aberdeen University, the Animal 
Diseases Research Association, the North of Scotland College of Agri- 
culture and the East of Scotland College of Agriculture. 


82 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


XII. 


AGRICULTURE IN ABERDEENSHIRE 
IN THE OLDEN DAYS 


BY 
DUTHIE WEBSTER (COLLYNIE). 


In times past in Scotland the roads were fixed by the good fords over 
the rivers. On this account Aberdeenshire was for long particularly 
inaccessible. ‘Three rivers cross Aberdeenshire to the sea. The Dee, 
Don and Ythan isolated the east portion from the south prior to the 
erection of the ‘ Brig o’ Balgownie ’ some 800 years ago. Cattle going 
south had to ford the Ythan at Tangland, the Don at Thanestane, and 
the Dee at Kincardine O’Neil, on their way south by the Cairn o’ Mount. 
Droves of cattle went south over these fords from Aikey Fair to the 
famous Falkirk Tryst. Several thousands in one drove are reported to 
have passed through Tarves on their way south. ‘These were stirks or 
cattle to feed, as, until the turnip was introduced about 1750, cattle 
could not be fattened in Aberdeenshire. Stirks were reared here and 
went south to England to be fattened. So even the famed roast beef of 
old England had a little of Scotland in it. Oats were grown in small 
quantities, a thin crop of poor quality on the in-field, hardly enough to 
provide meal for the population, not to speak of feed for cattle. What 
did our forbears do without potatoes or tea? Potatoes first appeared 
in some parts of Scotland about the time of the Union. It was then a land 
of small holdings, held under improving leases which bound the tenant 
to do everything, build his houses, drain his land, and reclaim all he 
could from the surrounding heather. His rent was small, mostly in 
‘kind,’ a few hens, some peats, some labour, and a little money. The 
living was a bare one, the tenants were often on the edge of starvation 
in winter. ‘The chief articles of food were oatmeal, kail and red cabbage, 
a little beef and fish. One is not surprised to learn that in these days 
Scotsmen emigrated in great numbers. There were many small estates, 
and each had a meal mill where tenants were bound to meal their oats. 
Oatmeal, the food of the townsman, was the chief article sold by the 
farmer. After the Bridge of Don was built, meal was carted to Aberdeen 
from all over the county. While the farmer supplied the meal to the 
town, his wife washed, carded and spun wool to make worsted for stockings. 
Stocking merchants traversed the county with a pack selling their goods in 
exchange for stockings. In the Tarves district a common meeting place 
was at Raitshill, a small ale-house on the T'arves-Aberdeen road where the 
wives went with their stockings to meet the merchant, and no doubt got 


AGRICULTURE IN ABERDEENSHIRE IN OLDEN DAYS 83 


a little hot ale. A standing joke was that the nearest road to every place 
was past (bye) Raitshill. 

The twelve-oxen plough (the ‘ twal ousen ploo ’) was in common use 
on the heather land. My grandfather (Wm. Duthie’s father) doubled 
the cultivated acreage of Collynie by reclaiming on his farm. People 
who could afford it rode on horseback. Most people walked on foot. 
My grandfather thought nothing of walking into Aberdeen eighteen 
miles on business and walking back again the same day. He remem- 
bered the first gig ever seen in Tarves—a gig owned by Wm. Hay, Shethin. 
I saw the first motor car. 

The original cattle in the North-east seem to have been coloured 
horned animals in appearance somewhat like the present Highland type. 
These cattle were improved by crossing of cattle imported from Holland 
and by crossing with Roman white cattle. England, the more settled 
country with its fine climate, took the lead. The origin of the hornless 
(hummel) type of cattle appears to be unknown. In 1827 the intro- 
duction of what is now known as the Shorthorn type by Mr. Barclay of 
Ury did much to improve the cattle of the North-east. Barclay was a 
Quaker, and the Cruickshanks (of like persuasion) took up Shorthorn 
breeding at Sittyton, producing a type suitable for our northern climate 
and conditions. Associated with the name of ‘ Duthie’ the type is now 
known all over the world. In recent years a demand for milk has brought 
the Ayrshire and Friesian prominently into notice. Several herds of 
these are now in Aberdeenshire, in addition to many herds of dairy 
Shorthorns. ‘The hen has at last come to her own, and receives now 
on most farms the attention as to feed and breeding she deserves, with 
resultant profit to all. The pig just holds his own, that is about all. 
Sheep, however, have in recent years been the mainstay of the farmer. 
Pure-bred flocks of all the breeds exist, but the cross-bred is the 
commonest in Aberdeenshire. 

Aberdeenshire has never been a place for light-legged breeds of horses. 
The heavy horse has always been bred, and despite motor-trackage, a 
sound heavy lorry horse is still in demand. The mating of live stock 
is carried on with great skill in the North. Recent scientific investigations 
on feeding and nurture have added much to our previous knowledge and 
experience. ‘The treatment and cure of animal diseases has not kept 
pace with the need, but no doubt that will come in time. 

The old-fashioned cheese-press is still in existence, and sometimes 
used. [he up-to-date factory cheese has, however, largely displaced 
the home-made article. Farm tools have changed but little, except that 
the self-binder and the oil engine are now universal. ‘The oil-drawn 
tractor has made its appearance, and efforts to improve the farm cart 
are now being made. No farmer now keeps a pony. All have motor 
cars and most farm servants have motor-bicycles. Few farm houses 
lack a water supply, and most have a hot water circulation and bathroom. 
Many have electric light, both in the steading and in the house. Wages 
are high, profits are low, but comforts and conveniences are great. The 
hardships of our forefathers are forgotten and also, alas, many of their 
principles. 


84 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


XIII. 


THE SOILS OF THE NORTH-EAST 
OF SCOTLAND 


BY 
Pror. JAMES HENDRICK, B.Sc. (Lond.), F.1.C. 


THE soils of the North-east of Scotland have been formed almost entirely 
from debris left behind when the ice melted at the end of the glacial 
epoch. The whole surface of the country had been planed down by the 
ice and nearly all the loose material swept away. When the ice melted, 
it left masses of broken rock of every degree of fineness, and these 
were sorted out to a certain extent and distributed by the water 
produced by the melting ice. ‘The underlying rocks from which this 
debris was derived are generally hard, crystalline, igneous and meta- 
morphic rocks such as granite and crystalline schists. In limited parts of 
the area there are ancient sedimentary rocks such as the Old Red Sand- 
stone of the Mearns and Moray. ‘The glacial deposits, from which the 
soils have been formed, are generally closely related to the underlying 
rocks, and hence in the Old Red Sandstone districts the soils have been 
largely derived from Old Red Sandstone, while in granite districts the 
soils are largely derived from granite. In the neighbourhood of Insch, 
where the underlying rock changes from a basic crystalline rock to slate, 
a corresponding change is almost immediately found in the soil. 

The soils are, generally speaking, very variable in depth and quality. 
In many places the bare rock smoothed by ice action has been left at or 
near the surface. In such cases the soils are poor and thin. Poor or 
worthless soils are also found where the masses of boulders which have 
been left by the ice form boulder-strewn areas with patches of thin soil. 
In other areas deeper deposits of finer materials have weathered down to 
form good fertile soil. Large parts of the area under natural conditions 
were covered with peat more or less thick. Much of the peat has been 
removed and the land reclaimed. In other cases where the peaty or 
moorish layer was thin the land has been reclaimed without removing 
the peat, consequently there are considerable areas of poor peaty and 
moorish soil throughout the district. 

In all parts of this area the rainfall exceeds the evaporation, so that 
soluble materials cannot accumulate in the soil ; also there is little lime- 
stone found in the North-east of Scotland and the soils are almost 
invariably acid in reaction. The acidity varies greatly from very acid 
moorish and peaty soils to soils which are only slightly acid, but even on 
basic rocks, the soils are more or less acid. The more fertile soils are of 
moderate acidity only, generally about 5:5 to 6:5 pH. The principal 


THE SOILS OF THE NORTH-EAST OF SCOTLAND 85 


crops grown in the district—oats, turnips, potatoes and grass—are those 
which are suited to soils of moderate acidity. Barley and sugar beet 
are not so well adapted to the district and can be grown successfully 
only on soils of low acidity or on those which have been well limed. 

It is characteristic of the soils of this area, and especially of those 
derived from granite and other crystalline rocks, that they contain felspars, 
mica and other crystalline minerals often in a very fine state of division, 
which are either unweathered or in a very imperfectly weathered condition. 
These silicates contain large stores of potash, lime, soda and magnesia, 
and the presence of these supplies of bases combined in insoluble silicates 
helps to maintain the fertility and condition of the soil by gradually yielding 
up bases during weathering, which not only supply food directly to 
crops, but by neutralising acids prevent the soil becoming more acid 
than it is. Such soils often contain considerable supplies of phosphate 
also, derived’ originally from the presence of apatite in the crystalline 
rocks from which they have been formed. These soils, formed from 
crystalline igneous and metamorphic rocks, are often of high natural 
fertility, especially when well drained, for they contain a good supply of 
potash, lime and other bases, and are also naturally well supplied with 
phosphoric acid. As shown below, they are also generally well supplied 
with humus and nitrogen. Though in many cases they have not been 
limed for long periods, or have received very little lime, they are not so 
acid as might be expected. For the same reason, even when they show 
considerable acidity, applications of lime often produce little effect, for 
they are already well supplied with lime and other bases in the form of 
compound silicates which are sufficiently reactive to supply bases for most 
of the needs of the soil. 

As the surface of the country, before it was reclaimed, was largely 
covered by moorland and peat the soils are generally well supplied with 
organic matter and contain a fair supply of nitrogen. The minerals 
forming the soil generally contain iron, often in considerable amount, 
and the formation of iron pan, due to the solution of iron in the presence 
of organic matter and its redeposition lower down, where it binds 
together other materials, is very common. ‘The presence of such a pan 
from a few inches to a foot or two below the surface often interferes 
seriously with the fertility and value of the soil by preventing drainage 
and aeration and by limiting the depth to which plant roots can penetrate. 
When the pan can be broken up, the fertility of the soil is often con- 
siderably improved. 


86 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


XIV. 
THE FISHING INDUSTRY 


BY 
R. S. CLARK, M.A., D.Sc. 


Tue fishing industry of Great Britain occupies an important position in 
the national economy, but only those living in the immediate neighbour- 
hood of the ports or in close proximity to the highways of traffic are able 
to appreciate the extent of its ramifications, and its vital importance as a 
source of food supply, as an employer of labour and as a nursery for 
seamen. This perhaps is not surprising in view of the fact that little 
more than fifty years have passed since the introduction of the two great 
factors in modern fishery development—steam power to fishing vessels 
and the otter trawl as a means of capture. A fish market at any of the 
great ports on a day of average landings offers a fine opportunity of gaining 
a first-hand impression of modern fisheries, and British Association visitors 
are recommended to pay an early morning visit to the fish market of 
Aberdeen, which is Scotland’s premier trawling port. The North-east 
area possesses also the seasonal herring centres and distinctive ports of 
Fraserburgh and Peterhead. 

Aberdeen Fish Market is a wonderful sight when at 8 a.M. auctioning 
of the catches begins. The landings are made chiefly by steam trawlers 
and liners which moor alongside the quay, and here any weekday practi- 
cally throughout the year there are displayed most of the commercial fish 
species used as food in this country. Cod and haddock form the mainstay 
of the landings, while saithe (Black Jacks), whiting, ling, skate, lemon 
soles, witches, plaice, megrim, halibut, turbot and dabs, as well as other 
species, are represented. Within recent years, and partly as a result of 
the seasonal dearth of fish supplies from the nearer fishing grounds, local 
skippers have mastered the art of trawling for herring, a pelagic fish, 
and increased landings of this species, the capture of which by trawl was 
developed by Germany, are being made by our own vessels during the 
autumn months from the deeper water area of the northern North Sea. 

Since the introduction of steam vessels in 1882, and of the otter trawl 
in 1895, Aberdeen’s progress as a fishery centre has been interrupted 
only by the war, and although the field of operations has had to be extended 
to keep up the supplies, the total landings in any one year since the begin- 
ning of the century have seldom been less in value at the first sale than a 
million pounds sterling and have actually reached, as in the year 1920, 
the phenomenal value of three millions. 

Whence comes this vast supply of food? ‘The port of Aberdeen is 
admirably situated geographically as a base for working the productive 


THE FISHING INDUSTRY 87 


fishing grounds of the northern North Sea and adjacent waters, and there 
are excellent facilities for the disposal and distribution of the catches. 
It is outwith the scope of this article to discuss the causes of the central- 
isation of trawling at Aberdeen, but undoubtedly the foresight, ability 
and enterprise of the early local pioneers played a significant part, as well 
as the improved methods for fishing in deeper water and on rougher 
ground which followed the application of steam power to fishing vessels. 

Notwithstanding the number of vessels fishing in the North Sea, 
supplies from this area gradually became inadequate to meet the demand, 
and by degrees the operations of trawlers and liners radiated outwards from 
the northern gateways of the North Sea to the Butt of Lewis, to the west 
coast of Scotland, to Faroe, Iceland and Greenland, to Bear Island, the 
Barents Sea and the north-western coast of Norway. Foreign vessels 
working these distant grounds landed large quantities at Aberdeen in the 
years prior to the war. During the war these operations naturally ceased, 
but activities were renewed not long after the suspension of hostilities, 
and in 1925 foreign landings at Aberdeen amounted to more than one 
million cwts., valued at over half a million pounds sterling. Since that 
year the foreign landings have greatly declined, and in 1932 they fell below 
the figure for 1913. ‘The bulk of the landings are made by German 
trawlers and are effected mainly in the spring months when cod are 
specially plentiful in Icelandic waters. ‘The German vessels call irregu- 
larly at other times of the year, but these visits are now largely for the 
purpose of landing livers and liver oils extracted on board, for which 
better prices are apparently obtainable than at their home ports. 

A new development in the prosecution of Scottish fisheries took place 
in 1921 with the introduction of the Danish seine net. This method, 
adopted by small inshore motor boats as well as by steam and motor 
drifters between herring fishing seasons, can only be used on smooth 
ground, but has nevertheless proved so successful as to become an estab- 
lished feature of our national fisheries. 

Mention must also be made of the considerable fishery for salmon 
prosecuted by means of bag and fly nets along the coast, by sweep nets in 
river tidal waters and by rod and line. For many years the rental value 
of the Dee fishings has been the highest of any river in Scotland, and in 
1932 amounted to £30,797. ‘The fishings on the coast adjacent to Aber- 
deen and at the mouth of the harbour and the sweep net fishings for a 
short distance up the river are owned by the Harbour Commissioners, and 
in the same year a total of 19,940 salmon weighing nearly 1,290 cwts. and 
valued at £14,038 was sold at the fish market during the netting season 
which lasts from February to August. 

There can be no doubt that the Aberdeen of to-day owes much to the 
City and Port authorities who in the early years were quick to realise 
the potentialities of the port as a great fishery centre. Many years before 
the introduction of steam trawling, improvement of the harbour had 
been in progress. The North Pier had been constructed and the various 
quays forming tidal and non-tidal basins had been built or planned. 
The river Dee had been diverted and its channel widened and deepened, 
thus enabling a large tract of land to be reclaimed and occupied later by 


88 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


streets, and by offices, factories and yards connected with the fishing 
industry. The building of Victoria Bridge made available a large and 
conveniently situated area south of the river soon to be utilised for more 
commercial buildings as well as for houses for the growing population. 
Until the eighties of last century a small fish market existed at the foot of 
Market Street, but because of its inconvenient situation and inadequate 
size this soon had to be abandoned. Though the landing wharf and 
market on the north side of the Albert Dock—a tidal basin, 22-9 acres in 
area—were not ready for use until 1889, events have proved that the time 
spent in careful planning and carrying out the extensive works these plans 
entailed was well worth while. The regular use by the Harbour Com- 
missioners of modern dredging plant to remove the silt, sand and shingle 
deposited in the navigation channel by sea and river has enabled fishing 
vessels to enter or leave the Albert Basin at practically any state of the 
tide. Compared with the fish market to-day the building opened in 
1889 was small, being only 500 ft. long and 40 ft. in width. It was so 
situated, however, that extension was a comparatively simple matter, and 
from time to time, as the needs of the industry for more market space 
became clamant, additions and improvements have been made. The 
present market, occupying an area of 16,119 square yards, is nearly half a 
mile in length, with a breadth for the greater part of 52 ft., and almost 
fulfils the dream of one early noted pioneer who ‘ trusted that he might 
live to see the market right round the Albert Basin.’ The market floor 
is 2 to 3 ft. above street level, while wide doorways on the street frontages 
facilitate the rapid transference of the fish to the processing yards and 
factories. An abundantsupply of water and a large staff of men, employees 
of the town, ensure the thorough cleansing each day of the extensive 
concrete floor. ‘The provision of the new market, the steadily increasing 
landings and the method adopted of auctioning the catches resulted in 
an influx of buyers who, as a class, have never ceased to seek and utilise 
new and more efficient ways of treating and marketing the prime products 
of the sea. Village methods of curing were first adopted, and rapid 
improvements in technique soon made Aberdeen ‘ finnans,’ ‘ pales ’ and 
*‘smokies ’ renowned and appreciated in all parts of the world. The 
most noteworthy advance in recent years, and one which has done much 
to popularise fish as a table delicacy, has been the development of filleting, 
which has provided the consumer with a boneless product either in the 
fresh or cured condition. The opening up of the Iceland grounds 
principally by German trawlers provided ample material for a great 
export business in hard dried, salted cod and saithe, and raised Aberdeen 
to the position of Britain’s leading centre for this trade. 

Space permits of only brief mention of the many subsidiary industries 
brought into existence. The local manufacture of great quantities of ice, 
about 120,000 tons annually, for the preservation of the catches, the 
shipping and handling of coal, shipbuilding, engineering and repairing 
establishments, including three pontoon docks, the growing use of motor 
transport, box and barrel making, the manufacture of bye-products—fish 
meals, fertilisers, glue, and fish liver oils of proved medicinal value—and 
the packaging and daily despatch of the processed fish by rail and road 


THE FISHING INDUSTRY 89 


to the densely populated areas in the south, all provide employment for 
thousands of men and women. 

Since the war the industry has been faced with tremendous difficulties, 
chiefly on account of the high cost of production, the relatively lower 
price of fish and the loss of foreign markets, but owners and fishermen 
with characteristic fortitude and tenacity have stemmed the tide and there 
are signs that the industry is slowly but surely regaining its former pros- 
perity. ‘The introduction of the seine net and improvements in the otter 
trawl have added to the supplies, while new engineering developments 
have helped to reduce the running costs. Experiments on better handling 
of the fish at sea and more scientific methods of preservation have resulted 
in improved quality of fish and higher prices. Attempts are being made 
at sea to utilise the waste products and to render oils from the fresh 
livers in a raw state for further refinery ashore. 

On the shore side of the industry progress has kept pace with the 
changes occurring in the character of the material. The intensity with 
which fishing has been prosecuted and the relative scarcity of large sizes 
have resulted in fish of small size, principally haddock, being brought to 
market in much greater quantities than in earlier years. This develop- 
ment presented the fishery scientist and administrator as well as the fish 
merchant with difficult problems, but the introduction of ‘ block-filleting ’ 
has enabled the latter to utilise these small fish and to offer the consumer 
a cheap, attractive and wholesome food. ‘The use of machinery in the 
preparation of both white fish and herring is still in its infancy and is 
likely to extend greatly in the future. Motor transport is receiving 
greater attention and advertising of fishery products has greatly increased, 
much to the benefit of the industry. Aberdeen is not lagging behind in 
any of these activities. 

Aberdeen is no longer an active herring fishing centre, but on account 
of the importance of this branch of the industry to the North-east of 
Scotland and the town’s connection with it, some reference to this section 
will not be inappropriate. In the early days when the Government 
endeavoured to encourage the herring fishery by means of a bounty the 
boats at the two creeks, Footdee and Torry, were too small to participate 
in the fishery. Not until the seventies, when the herring curing industry 
was in a prosperous condition, did the Aberdeen fleet begin to increase 
steadily, and in the early eighties the port had become one of the important 
herring fishing centres. While the great bulk of the catch was cured for 
the Continental markets, considerable quantities were sold fresh, con- 
verted into kippers, or preserved in tins for export. Decline set in with 
the appearance in 1899 of the steam drifter, which brought grounds at a 
considerable distance from Fraserburgh and Peterhead within the daily 
range of the fleets fishing from these ports. It became unnecessary, 
therefore, and uneconomic to transport curing stock and personnel to the 
more southerly ports in the vicinity of which shoals are later in appearing. 
At the same time the growth of Aberdeen as a trawling centre resulted 
in competition for berthing and curing facilities, and the seasonal drift-net 
fishery had little chance of survival. 

The history of the counties of Aberdeen and Banff in their relation to 


go SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


the origin and development of the herring fishing may not include such 
stirring events as are associated with the period when Holland and Great 
Britain were contending for supremacy in the same field, but since the 
system of Government bounties ended, progress in marketing has kept pace 
with new developments in the means of capture of this pelagic species, 
which has been and is of such importance to Scotland. 

The vessels employed under the Government bounty system were of 
considerable size and capacity, but those owned subsequently at the 
northern ports confined their operations to their own shores and did not 
exceed 33 to 40 ft. in length. Their range at sea was consequently a 
limited one and the outlet for their catch was of a very circumscribed 
character. With the gradual expansion of markets on the Continent of 
Europe, however, demand was gradually stimulated, and the price obtain- 
able improved. 

Coincident with the upward trend of demand there was corresponding 
pressure for the extension of catching power, which was met by the build- 
ing of larger boats with extended sea scope. ‘This continued until sailing 
boats 65 ft. long, with ample sea range and capable of landing large 
quantities of herring, were quite common. 

The next change was that inaugurated by the advent of the steam 
drifter, and it exercised a profound influence upon the fortunes of the 
industry. The catching power, speed and range of the fleet were so 
materially augmented that herrings caught within a radius of 100 miles 
of a port might be landed daily. In the development accompanying the 
employment of these vessels the counties of Aberdeen and Banff occupied 
a prominent place. 

Meantime a further change is engaging the attention of those inter- 
ested in the type of motive power and craft best adapted for the economic 
capture of herrings. Already vessels fitted with the Diesel engine are in 
service, and the results of their operations clearly establish a balance in 
their favour in respect of running costs. Against this, the protagonists 
of steam maintain that the life of the Diesel craft cannot possibly be more 
than half that of a steamer, and that superiority of the steam drifter in 
contending with adverse weather conditions is also an important factor 
in its favour. 

The nets used for the capture of herrings have shared in the general 
advance by periodic adaptation to the needs of the industry. Cotton has 
replaced hemp as the material from which nets are fashioned, and the 
stretch of nets now put in the water by the fleet of drifters has multiplied 
the catching power enormously. The length of net in use to-day is 
55 yards, while the depth is about 15 yards, and anything up to 100 nets 
are shot at one time. 

The application of steam to the propulsion of the vessels was accom- 
panied by equally effective improvements in the equipment for handling 
gear and discharging the catch, and all contributed to increased catches 
and quicker landings. 

Only very small proportions of the herrings landed at Scottish ports 
are consumed in this country in the fresh state or in the form of kippers. 
Unfortunately for the industry, especially at the present time, pickled 


THE FISHING INDUSTRY gI 


herrings do not appeal to British taste and the greater part of the catches, 
pickled and packed in barrels, is exported. In the last decade of the 
nineteenth century Scotland’s production of cured herrings ranged between 
900,000 and 1,000,000 barrels, to which total the counties of Aberdeen 
and Banff contributed no less than half, Fraserburgh being the pre- 
dominant producer, with Peterhead a good second. In1913 the total cure 
in Scotland was 1,285,000 barrels, but the trade has passed through severe 
Vicissitudes since the war and in 1932 the cure fell to 560,000 barrels. 
With the passing of the wave of economic depression which has so greatly 
affected trade generally, the industry will no doubt recover much of the 
lost ground. 

An account of the fisheries of Aberdeen and district would be incom- 
plete without some reference to the two Government fishery research 
institutions. The senior of these is the Laboratory of the Fishery Board 
for Scotland, situated in Wood Street, Torry, which is the headquarters 
of sea-fishery research for Scotland. ‘The staff at that station is concerned 
with research into fish up to the time when they are caught, and from 
that point the story is taken up by the research station of the Department 
of Scientific and Industrial Research, also situated at Torry, which deals 
with problems of preservation and subsequent treatment of the fish. 

The writer wishes to express his thanks to those who so willingly 
assisted in the preparation of this article and particularly to Mr. George 
Hall and Mr. Eric Wilson for the active part taken in its compilation. 


XV. 


PAPER-MAKING IN ABERDEEN AND 
DISTRICT 


BY 
JAMES CRUICKSHANK. 


GENERAL.—Paper-making has for long been one of the most important 
industries associated with the district round Aberdeen, but because of 
the comparatively wide distances that separate the various factories, this 
importance is not often realised by visitors, and is apt to be overlooked 
by Aberdonians themselves. 

One learns from old almanacs that a paper mill existed near the city 
as far back as 1696, but it is not till the middle of the following century 
that sure ground is entered upon, since which time the industry has 
been marked by steady progress and continuous growth. Some mills 
have meantime passed out, but others have arisen to take their place, 


92 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


and to-day the manufacture stands at a higher level than at any previous 
time in local history. 

At first sight it may appear singular that paper-making should have 
taken root and flourished in the North of Scotland, so far from the leading 
centres of consumption. ‘This was largely due to the introduction of 
machinery in place of the slower hand-made process, which resulted in 
supplies far in excess of local demand and led manufacturers to seek 
new outlets, at first in the home market and gradually by export to other 
countries. A ready means of transit was found in the trading vessels 
which sailed from Aberdeen to many quarters, and the coming of steamers 
and railways did much to improve these facilities. Another important 
factor was that bulky raw materials could similarly be brought in at low 
tates. With advantages like these it was possible to land paper from 
Aberdeen at leading ports such as London at lower freight charges than 
were obtainable at many inland centres of the industry. 

Then again Aberdeen is finely served by its two rivers, the Dee and 
Don, and their lower tributaries, which afford an ample supply of water 
specially suited for paper-making, and provide, at the same time, a 
certain amount of power. 

Lastly, there being few other outlets for employment near the various 
mills, a type of skilled worker began to arise, as fathers were followed 
by their sons, with the result that excellence in quality early became 
a noted feature of Aberdeen paper. 

It should also be emphasised that, while the mill-owners have all 
along shown enterprise in searching out new processes, they have, at 
the same time, displayed much spirit in handling and developing trade, 
as may be gathered from the following short review of the various works, 
which number five in all. 

CuLTeR Mi_tts—Cutter MILts Paper Co., Ltp.—The Culter Mills, 
which are situated about eight miles from Aberdeen on the Culter Burn 
and near the river Dee, were founded in 1750. ‘They deserve priority 
of place because they were the first of the local group to be formed, and 
also because they were the first to set up a paper-making machine, known 
as a Fourdrinier, from the name of the firm which first introduced 
machinery for the making of paper. 

An advertisement early in 1751 makes clear that the founder was 
‘ Bartholomew Smith, Paper-maker from England (a native of Middlesex), 
who has set agoing on the Burn of Culter a Paper-mill where he can 
serve the country in paper fine and coarse, and gives notice that he buys 
rags of all kinds of flax and hemp, by the stone weight.’ The choice of 
site was fortunate, for it lies in a sheltered position amid attractive 
surroundings, while a plentiful supply of pure water is obtainable from 
the Culter Burn, which has its main source in the natural reservoir of 
the Loch of Skene. At his death, some seven years later, we learn that 
he had built up an improving business, to which his son Richard succeeded, 
who was to hold the reins for the long period till 1803. 

A local historian writing about 1790 has placed on record that about 
this period superfine paper and paper for notes to the Aberdeen Bank 
were amongst the articles being produced, and that the writer had himself 


PAPER-MAKING IN ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 93 


used the fine post paper, made by the mill, which was equal in quality to 
any he had ever seen. It is elsewhere stated that the mill made use of the 
whitest of rags which required no bleaching. Lewis Smith succeeded 
to the business on the death of his father Richard, and, amid the difficulties 
of the times, carried it on till his death in 1819, when the long family 
connection ceased. For the next half-century there were various changes 
of ownership, with, however, no backward tendency, till in 1865 the 
Culter Mills Paper Company, Limited, was formed. In the intervening 
years the mill has been completely remodelled, and the number of modern 
making machines now stands at four, while a large coating plant has 
been installed, besides other new departments. 

Esparto writings, together with rag and wood-pulp papers, are the 
leading productions in a wide variety of types, and, in addition to an 
extensive home trade, a large export connection has been built up. 

During a period of over half a century the leader in these activities 
and developments has been Mr. J. L. Geddes, with whom for a number 
of years have been associated his sons, Mr. J. Fraser Geddes and 
Colonel G. P. Geddes, D.S.O. 

STONEYwoop Works—ALEx. Pirie & Sons, Ltp.—Stoneywood Works 
were founded in 1770 under the following circumstances: James Moir 
of Stoneywood had taken a prominent part in the rebellion of 1745, and, 
as a result, had to remain an exile in Sweden for sixteen years. Being at 
last allowed to return home, he found his estate in great disorder and 
endeavoured to redeem his affairs by promoting a number of different 
projects. Not many of these succeeded, but one was to have a far- 
reaching influence, viz. the lease by him of an island on the Don for 
setting up a paper mill. The lease was to John Boyle, bookseller, and 
Richard Hyde, dyer ; but within three years both had sold their shares 
to Alexander Smith, a chirurgeon-barber in Aberdeen. The daughter 
of this Alexander Smith married Patrick Pirie, merchant in Aberdeen, 
and through this union the connection of the Pirie family with paper- 
making was begun, a connection that is to-day maintained by members 
of the fifth generation of Piries. 

For the first quarter of a century the mill was only of moderate size, 
as an inventory made in 1796 shows that there were two vats ; the stock 
was some 500 reams of paper (all of the coarser grade), the raw materials 
20 tons, the value of the whole £500, and the number of employees 16 ; 
while the clientéle was purely a local one. About the year 1800, shortly 
after Mr. Alexander Pirie had succeeded, the white paper trade was 
taken up, which marks the beginning of the now famous ‘ Pirie ’ water- 
mark, examples of that time being still preserved. The hand-made process 
continued in use till 1822, when Mr. Pirie laid down his first paper- 
making machine; but he had the misfortune to see the mill almost 
swept away and the machinery badly damaged in the historic flood of 
1829. Nothing daunted, he restored the buildings and installed two 
machines, mostly for Writings and Printings. In 1848 large extensions 
took place, and in the main building the disused belfry of old Marischal 
College was erected, where it still remains. 

About 1856 the firm bought the neighbouring print mills at Woodside, 


94 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


which were thenceforth used for the preparation of rags. About the 
same time, Union Works, Aberdeen, were acquired for the making of 
envelopes. Both works are still being used for these respective purposes. 

Meantime the main works at Stoneywood continued to grow, and 
almost each decade saw the installation of an additional machine. The 
discovery of the paper potentialities of esparto grass and, later, the 
introduction of wood-pulp gave new impetus to the output, although 
rags continued to be the main basis in the extensive range of qualities. 

Messrs. Pirie were not slow to recognise the value of International 
Exhibitions, and they gained medals at Paris, Philadelphia, Sydney, 
Melbourne, etc. 

The number of making machines in operation to-day is eight, enabling 
the mill to rank as one of the largest in the kingdom. The qualities 
manufactured consist of tub-sized rag papers, esparto grass and wood- 
pulp papers, coated papers and numerous specialties. 

In 1922 the Company was affiliated with that of Messrs. Wiggins, 
Teape & Co., Ltd., and it is now one of the leading partners in the 
large combine which has since been established. Captain J. S. Allan, 
F.I.C., Director of Alex. Pirie & Sons, Ltd., and Wiggins, Teape & Co., 
is in charge of the works. 

Muciemoss Worxs—C. Davipson & Sons, Ltp.—The founder of 
Mugiemoss Works was Mr. Charles Davidson, and the business has 
since been carried on by his descendants, down to the fifth generation. 
Early in life his connection with paper-making began, as partner in 
1796 of a mill about two miles higher up the river Don; but, after a 
number of years, he branched off on his own account, and finally estab- 
lished his paper mill at Mugiemoss in 1821. The site offered a good 
many advantages, as about this point the river makes a considerable 
fall, and the Bucks burn joins the river near by. 

For the first few years he confined himself to papers made by hand, 
but in 1827 he decided to erect a machine of his own devising, after 
the type of the ‘ Fourdrinier,’ and thereafter the production increased 
rapidly. But two years later he was to share in the disastrous flood that 
had affected so many of his neighbours, the buildings were destroyed 
and the stock carried away. He set himself without hesitation to retrieve 
the loss and in a short time was at work again on a larger scale than before. 

After the death of Mr. Davidson, his sons, who in 1831 had been 
assumed as partners, continued the work of their father, and in 1844 
erected a second machine. They too suffered misfortune, this time by 
a fire in 1854 which destroyed a large part of the mill, but it was soon 
rebuilt and continued to grow. 

The Mugiemoss Mills to-day concentrate on kraft and sulphite 
Wrapping papers, and they specialise in cedar felt, roofing felt and 
creped papers. They also devote much attention to the making of 
paper bags. 

There are three making machines in operation and there are also 
extensive printing and lithographic works. 

The present Managing Director is Colonel T. Davidson, D.S.O., with 
whom is now joined his son, Mr. D. P. Davidson. 


PAPER-MAKING IN ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 95 


INVERURIE Mrtts—THomas Tait & Sons, Ltp.—Inverurie Mills are 
situated on the river Don, about fourteen miles from Aberdeen, and 
were established in 1860 by Mr. Thomas ‘Tait, whose descendants to 
the fourth generation are still in control. 

They occupy a suitable position near the river, and not far from the 
intake of the former Aberdeenshire Canal. The canal was closed in 
1853 to make way for the railway which was opened in the following 
year, and the uppermost section of the disused waterway came in con- 
veniently as a medium for providing driving power to the new paper mill. 

The possibilities of esparto grass, grown in Spain and North Africa, 
came under the notice of paper-makers about this time, and this was 
doubtless one of the inducements to laying down the mill at Inverurie. 
At any rate, it was with esparto grass that the mill started off, being the 
first mill in the North to use it, and this has continued to be the material 
by which the mill has mainly stood. An interesting reminder of these 
early days is preserved at the works in the shape of a primitive boiler 
for treating the grass. 

When the mill started off the excise duty on paper was still operative 
(£14 14s. per ton), and it is of interest to observe in the works a 
document, dated April 23, 1860, licensing the firm to make paper, subject 
to the payment of the usual duty—a burden that was removed from the 
industry in the year following. 

In 1886 the firm laid down an additional machine to the one already 
in use, and installed a plant for manufacturing wood-pulp from the log 
by the sulphite process, and although this was an untried venture in the 
North, it continued to be highly successful. In 1910 this process was 
brought under the Chemical Acts, requiring the payment of special 
taxes, and it then became possible to bring in wood-pulp from abroad on 
a cheaper basis. Consequently this branch of the firm’s works had to 
be discontinued in 1915. 

As already indicated, the product of the mills is essentially finest esparto 
papers, specially those suitable for typewriting and duplicating. ‘The 
firm export a considerable proportion of this output. 

The Managing Director is Mr. Thomas Tait, assisted by his son, 
Mr. William Tait, C.A., and Mr. J. Leslie Tait is Secretary. 

DonsipE Mitts—DonsipE PapeR Company, LtTp.—Donside Mills 
occupy a position two miles up the river Don, approximately on the site 
of the early mill which, as already stated, was in existence in 1696. In 
1888 Mr. John Shand resumed paper-making by converting a meal mill 
for the manufacture of brown wrappings, and he was followed in 1893 
by Messrs. John Leng & Co., Dundee, who changed the name from 
Gordon’s Mills to its present designation. 

The Donside Company is thus the youngest member of the local 
group of paper mills, but in the past forty years it has amply justified 
its existence. For situation it is specially favoured, lying as it does on 
low ground by the river amid striking scenery. Near at hand are the 
cruives or dykes, below which, on the morning when the spring salmon 
fishing opens, hundreds of fish are caught by nets between midnight 
and dawn, while in the immediate foreground are two of the most noted 


96 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


historical sights of Aberdeen, the Brig 0’ Balgownie and St. Machar’s 
Cathedral. 

The class of paper manufactured in the two huge fast-running machines 
is chiefly newsprint, of which the mill is the largest producer in Scotland. 
The Company is now incorporated in the Inveresk group of mills, 

A leading figure in the history of the Company has been Sir Frederick 
E. R. Becker, whose son-in-law, Major W. G. Moore, is now in charge 
of the mill. 

Sratistics.—To conclude this survey of paper-making in Aberdeen, 
the significance of the place it holds may be inferred from the following 
figures, which, however, are merely a rough estimate : 


Capital employed . } j ; . £2,000,000 
Number of machines : : ; eke °) 
Annual output . ; : ; . 60,000 tons 
Value of output per annun E : . £2,000,000 
Persons employed . t : ; - 3,500 
Wages, etc., disbursed per annu j . £400,000 
XVI. 
ABERDEEN GRANITE INDUSTRY 
BY 


W. D. ESSLEMONT, M.A., B.L. 


Ons of the most important industries of the City and County of Aberdeen 
is the quarrying and manipulation of granite. An inexhaustible supply 
of granite of unsurpassed durability and beauty forms the chief source 
of mineral wealth of the district. 

Many quarries have from time to time been worked in the district. 
In the vicinity of the city the principal quarries at present in operation 
include Rubislaw, Sclattie and Persley, which yield a grey stone. 
Peterhead granite, quarried in the immediate neighbourhood of that 
town, is mostly of a red colour. In the upper reaches of the Don are 
situated Kemnay, Tom’s Forest and Corennie quarries; the typical 
colour of their granites is grey, with the exception of the Corennie stone, 
which is mostly pink. Rubislaw and Kemnay quarries are the two largest 
in the United Kingdom. 

Aberdeenshire granite has been used for building material for more 
than 300 years, the blocks strewn about the surface being utilised for this 
purpose in the earlier days, but quarrying in the modern sense was not 
begun till the middle of the eighteenth century, and it was a long time 
before methods were devised to secure a plentiful supply of stone. 


ABERDEEN GRANITE INDUSTRY 97 


As long ago as 1764 the characteristic qualities of Aberdeen granite 
attracted the attention of engineers and surveyors and it was specified 
by the contractors for paving the streets of London. We learn from 
Kennedy’s Annals of Aberdeen, published in 1818, that quarrying opera- 
tions for this purpose were commenced on ‘ the rocks on the sea coast 
of the lands of Torrie’ and the stones were transported to London. 
A stone trade, for supplying the demands of London, was thus established 
in Aberdeen and carried on for many years and was ‘ productive of 
advantage not only to the town and the county, but to the shipping 
belonging to the port. .The landed proprietors availed themselves of the 
demand for stones, and got rents for their quarries far beyond their 
utmost expectations. But independent of this circumstance, these 
undertakings employed a number of poor labourers, and brought many 
people from the north, who found constant work at these quarries.’ 
Between 1780 and 1790 as many as 600 men were employed in the 
Aberdeen quarries. For the year ending July 1, 1821, the quantity of 
granite stones exported was 41,000 tons, the value of which was upwards 
of £40,000. 

From an agricultural survey of Aberdeenshire by Dr. James Anderson, 
published in 1794, containing a valuable chapter on the minerals of the 
county, one gathers that the pick and wedge were then the principal 
tools used in quarrying. For ordinary mason work the stones were 
used with very little dressing, but for the fronts of houses and finer 
works they were usually smoothed so as to form what is called ashlar 
work. ‘There are still several old buildings and erections in the city and 
neighbourhood, for which all the stones were quarried and dressed by 
the old-fashioned scabbling pick and the lighter dressing pick: e.g. the 
nave and west front of St. Machar’s Cathedral ; the chapel of St. Mary 
under the East Kirk of St. Nicholas ; the granite monument erected by 
the Town Council in 1637 in a field near Pitmedden to the memory of 
Mr. Duncan Liddell, an eminent scholar of his day ; and Union Bridge, 
the keystone of which was driven in 1803. 

Although, in the early years of the nineteenth century, granite had 
‘brought gold to Aberdeen,’ the tools then used both for quarrying and 
dressing the stone were similar to those used by the Egyptians three 
thousand years before. 

About 1795 machinery was first employed in quarrying granite. By 
this means Aberdeen supplied granite in large blocks for constructing 
the Admiralty docks at Portsmouth and other similar undertakings. 
For several years the machinery was very crude and little progress was 
made until the introduction of steam power. 

In quarrying Aberdeenshire granite great difficulties had to be overcome. 
Almost invariably the granite lies beneath a covering of hard boulder 
clay of varying thickness and rock of an inferior quality, the quality of 
‘ the stone usually improving with the depth. The removal of the over- 
burden is not only unremunerative but costly. The quarry as it is 
developed assumes the form of a conical pit with a small floor. The 
granite is removed by boring and blasting and all quarried materials have 
to be hoisted to the surface. 

G 


98 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


The quarrying of granite was revolutionised by the introduction of 
steam power. The pioneer of the new era was the late Mr. John Fyfe, 
the lessee of Kemnay quarry. About the year 1870 Mr. Fyfe invented 
the steam derrick crane. In 1873 he designed and erected at Kemnay 
the first modern cableway or ‘ blondin’ in this country. In subsequent 
years important improvements have been effected in the cableway. The 
successful commercial working of the Aberdeenshire quarries owing to 
their great depth and steepness would be impossible at present without 
cranes and cableways. 

The modern mechanical equipment of the quarries has reached a very 
high standard of efficiency. Pneumatic drills are used for boring the 
holes necessary for ‘ plugging’ and splitting the stones. At Rubislaw 
may be seen the most powerful of quarry ‘ blondins,’ erected in 1928 and 
capable of raising a weight of 20 tons from the bottom of the quarry, 
which has a depth of over 350 ft. 

The total output of the Aberdeenshire quarries in 1932 was over 
402,000 tons. 

The uses and purposes which the quarried granite serves are numerous 
and varied. In the modern quarry practically all waste is eliminated. 
The best quality of granite is used for monumental and architectural 
purposes, and the dressing and polishing of stones for these purposes is 
a separate and special department of the trade. Blocks of somewhat 
inferior quality are used for ordinary building work. Large stones of 
great durability are used in engineering and dock works. Medium-sized 
stones are cut for sills and lintels. Other products are paving setts, 
rubble stone, road metal and crushed granite. ‘The waste debris of the 
quarries, when crushed into gravel, makes an excellent surface dressing 
for walks and garden paths. Great quantities of the waste after being 
ground into fine powder and mixed with cement are used in the manu- 
facture of adamant blocks for paving. 

In Aberdeen and district granite is the material almost universally used 
for building purposes, probably 75 per cent. of the houses in Aberdeen 
being built of the grey granite of Rubislaw. Most of the principal public 
buildings erected in the city within the last sixty or seventy years are 
built of Kemnay granite. Among the most notable of these are Marischal 
College, the Post Office and the Northern Assurance Buildings. Persley 
granite is represented by the War Memorial in Schoolhill and the recently 
erected building of the Commercial Bank of Scotland. 

While Aberdeen granite has been known in the market for upwards 
of a century and a half as a material for paving, harbour works and 
building, the specialty for which in later years Aberdeen has become 
best known is the manufacture of granite for decorative, ornamental and 
monumental purposes. The origin and early development of this 
branch of the industry are mainly due to the shrewdness and perseverance 
of Mr. Alexander Macdonald, who started business in a small way in ° 
Aberdeen about 1820. ‘The published accounts of the polished Egyptian 
granite sent to the British Museum in London by Belzoni, the traveller, 
directed Mr. Macdonald’s attention to the possibility of polishing 
Aberdeenshire granite. He experimented at the outset on a limited 


= 


ABERDEEN GRANITE INDUSTRY 99 


scale, the work at first being done by hand, and then by a wheel driven 
by two men. Finally by the use of steam power he was successful in 
obtaining the results which he desired. He found a ready market for 
the new product. The first example of a monument in polished granite 
sent to London from Aberdeen is believed to be one erected in Kensal 
Green Cemetery in 1832. In 1834 Mr. Macdonald assumed as a 
partner Mr. William Leslie, the builder of the North Church in King 
Street, Aberdeen, and !later Lord Provost of Aberdeen and Laird of 
Nethermuir. 

When Mr. Macdonald began to polish granite by machinery, other 
mechanical appliances in the trade were almost unknown. Vast strides 
have been made since then by the introduction of machinery for sawing, 
boring and turning of granite and other miscellaneous purposes. 

Under the firm of Macdonald & Leslie the business grew and many 
productions in public and cemetery monuments, architectural and 
decorative work were turned out. Notable examples of the firm’s work 
are the columns in St. George’s Hall, Liverpool ; Dunrobin Castle ; 
the two fountains and balustrade in Trafalgar Square, London; the 
granite statues of the Duke of Gordon in Castle Street, and of Priest 
Gordon in Constitution Street, Aberdeen, and of Sir Charles James 
Napier at Portsmouth ; the obelisk in Peterhead granite 72 ft. high, 
mostly polished, erected in Marischal College quadrangle in memory of 
Sir James McGrigor, Bart., and some years ago removed to the Duthie 
Park. Fine work was also sent to Australia, India, and other remote 
parts of the globe. Mr. Leslie retired from the firm in 1853 and the 
business was carried on by Mr. Macdonald till his death in 1860. 

In addition to the business founded by Mr. Macdonald other works 
of the kind grew up around it. There are at present over fifty firms 
engaged in this work in the city. Some firms confine themselves almost 
entirely to monumental work, while the larger firms, in addition to monu- 
ments, execute the finer class of building work. In the yards of the latter 
firms granite is dressed and polished in connection with the erection of 
important public and private buildings and business premises throughout 
the country, the fronts of such buildings being frequently constructed 
of dressed and polished granite of artistic design. 

The trade in monumental and architectural work grew to such pro- 
portions that the local supply of granite was found to be inadequate to 
meet the demand. Imports of rough granite from abroad commenced 
in 1884. Blacks and rich reds from Sweden and Finland and sparkling 
Labradorites from Norway all in the rough state have since then been 
imported into Aberdeen, where they are manufactured. These foreign 
granites afford a greater variety of colour and are in considerable demand 
in this country. In 1909 as much as 27,308 tons were imported in this 
way. In 1933 these imports amounted to 15,489 tons. ‘The imported 
granites are used solely for monumental and architectural purposes. 

For some years Aberdeen had a very large export trade in granite 
memorials. In 1896 America took £55,452 worth of finished stones. 
Unfortunately the export trade in these monumental stones has seriously 
declined owing to prohibitive tariffs. The trade with the United States 


100 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


has dwindled to a negligible quantity, although a fair export trade is 
still done with Canada. 

This branch of the industry has in recent years had to face considerable 
vicissitudes. Besides the loss of export trade as above mentioned the 
industry has since the war been faced with foreign competition in the 
home market. Since 1921 Germany and other foreign countries have 
exported granite monuments to the United Kingdom in large quantities. 
Before 1921 there were no foreign imports of the manufactured article. 
A slight amelioration was granted to the home manufacturer by the 
imposition of a duty of 15 per cent. in April 1932, and an additional 
5 per cent. in June 1934. 

Many representatives of the granite industry have taken a prominent 
part in the public life of the city in the capacity of magistrates, town 
councillors, and members of other public boards and otherwise. ‘Two 
of their number have in recent years held the office of Lord Provost of 
the City, namely, the late Sir James Taggart, K.B.E., LL.D., from 
1914 to 1919, and Mr. James Rust, LL.D., from 1929 to 1932. 


XVII. 
THE TRADE OF ABERDEEN 


BY 
JOHN S. YULE, 
SECRETARY, ABERDEEN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, 


ABERDEEN has been a royal burgh since the time of David I. (A.D. 1080- 
1153). This early Aberdeen was a purely trading town, and it is significant 
that the very first royal charter, granted to the burgh by William the Lion 
(1171-85), is a charter of trade granting to his burgesses of Aberdeen 
their free hanse (or freedom of mercantile co-operation). 

The population of Aberdeen in the reign of William the Lion, although 
small, as we would now think, was really remarkably large, taking the 
whole population of Scotland into account. In the thirteenth century 
the population would be under 2,000, but by the end of the fourteenth 
century it was, in the matter of population, first among the towns of 
Scotland. In a notable letter, still extant, sent by Sir William Wallace, 
the Hero of Scotland, and Sir Andrew Moray, his colleague in the regency, 
in 1297 to the two chief Hanseatic trading towns Lubeck and Hamburg, 
it is seen that Scottish traders carried on business all over eastern and 
western Prussia, and in the old towns of Flanders the itinerant Scottish 
traders were well known. ‘These traders were also known in Russia 
and Poland, while in Sweden the activities of the Scottish traders aroused 


THE TRADE OF ABERDEEN IOI 


the keenest hostility among the native merchants. In France, partly 
through the Franco-Scottish Alliance, which lasted from the reign of 
John Baliol in 1295 to the Reformation, Scotsmen were everywhere— 
students, professors in the universities, mercenaries in the French armies 
and traders in the towns and country districts. As regards the nature 
of the trade carried on by these merchants, Parson Gordon, writing in 
1661, says: ‘ Many of the citizens of Aberdeen trade in merchandize. 
The commodityes and staple wair which they carie out for the most pairt 
are salmond, coarse woolen-cloath called playding, linning cloth, stockines, 
skins, hydes, and all that the country yields.’ The staple fish export 
from Aberdeen in these days was salmon, and records show that the 
army of Edward I of England was partly fed on dried fish from Aberdeen, 
the fish referred to being, it is thought, river fish, salmon and grilse, as 
no sea fish was then exported; but authorities differ as to this. The 
earliest information regarding shipbuilding in Aberdeen is of date 1606, 
when a barque, christened the Bon-Accord, was built of timber from the 
.woods of Drum. The Scottish traders of this time had a representative 
in the Low Countries, Andrew Halyburton of Middleburg, and his 
business ledger, which is still preserved, shows that among those who 
exported through Halyburton were various Provosts and well-known 
business men of Aberdeen, notably Bishop William Elphinstone, who 
was then engaged in building the new King’s College of Aberdeen. 
Elphinstone’s exports consisted of wool, salmon and trout. His imports 
were carts, wheelbarrows and gunpowder, cloths, spices and comfits 
for the table. At this time the chief exports consisted of plaiding and 
woolskins. As regards the inland trade of Aberdeen in the fourteenth 
century Aberdeen stood actually as the commercial capital of Scotland, 
and it was not until after 1350 that Edinburgh, now the capital of 
Scotland, took the first place. In the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries the trade and population of Aberdeen languished, but in the 
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries there was an amazing recovery, 
and the middle of the last century may well be classed as the golden days 
of Aberdeen prosperity, when a large number of important commercial 
undertakings were founded, such as the Aberdeen, the North and the 
Town and County Banks, the Northern and Scottish Provincial Insurance 
Companies, followed later on by the Scottish Employers’ Insurance 
Company. Then the trading companies, the Lime Co., the Commercial 
Co., the Northern Agricultural Co., and other commercial concerns 
were founded. At the same time shipping in Aberdeen progressed 
exceedingly and the Aberdeen clipper became world-famous. 


MoperRN ABERDEEN INDUSTRIES. 

Other than Agriculture, Fishing, Granite-working and Paper-making, 
which are dealt with separately, the following are the main industries : 

Box AND BarrEL Makinc.—This industry is a comparatively recent 
one in Aberdeen, but with the growth of the fishing industry, the manu- 
facture of boxes and barrels has grown to a great extent. In Aberdeen 
there are some of the most progressive and efficient concerns in the 
country, where one can see the process of manufacture from the round 


102 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


tree to the finished article. The products of some of the Aberdeen 
box and barrel factories can be seen from Land’s End to John o’ Groats. 

CABINET-MAKING AND UPHOLSTERY.—The cabinet-making and uphols- 
tery trade in Aberdeen has always been of considerable importance to 
the town. Before the days of mass production, practically all the furniture 
required in the district was made in local workshops, and even with the 
influx of factory-made goods, there are many people who still prefer 
the home-made article. The various firms in Aberdeen have always 
kept themselves up to date, and it is very often remarked by visitors to 
the city that they see more artistic displays of furniture in Aberdeen 
shops than in almost any other town. 

Recently Messrs. J. & A. Ogilvie, one of the leading manufacturers 
of upholstery in the city, have made considerable developments in the 
manufacture of seating and all classes of furnishings for theatres, cinemas, 
etc., and this promises to be a thriving trade. 

The local firms are faced with great competition from mass-production 
factories from the south, but they seem to be holding their own very well, 
and the number of cabinet-makers and upholsterers in Aberdeen has 
remained very steady for a considerable time past. Messrs. Galloway 
& Sykes, Ltd., another of the leading manufacturers, have added con- 
siderably to their factory and warehouse and have also built extensive new 
premises in Justice Mill Lane, and manufacture all classes of domestic, 
warehouse and office furniture and furnishings. 

CaRDBOARD Boxes.—The cardboard box ‘industry in Aberdeen is 
perhaps not so well known as it might be. Generally when local box- 
makers are asked to quote they can more than hold their own with south 
competition. Besides rigid and fancy boxes manufactured in Aberdeen 
all manner of collapsible boxes, corrugated containers, as well as cartons 
and skillets, are now produced by local firms. This has been made 
possible by the fine spirit shown by numbers of local buyers to purchase 
locally in order to help and stimulate local trade. 

CHEMICALS AND FERTILISERS.— Aberdeen being the centre for a large and 
important agricultural district, superphosphate and other chemical fertilisers 
are manufactured toa very considerable extent by several firms. Sandilands 
Chemical Works, belonging to John Miller & Co. (Aberdeen), Ltd., 
were commenced in 1848, and cover an area of about nine acres. Coal- 
tar products and sulphate of ammonia are manufactured from the residual 
products of various gas works in the district, their main source of supply 
being the Aberdeen Corporation Gas Works. ‘They also make sulphuric 
acid, as well as superphosphate and other fertilisers. In 1929 this 
company, together with other large companies manufacturing fertilisers 
and feeding stuffs all over Scotland, were merged in Scottish Agricultural 
Industries, Ltd., which is an associated company of Imperial Chemical 
Industries, Ltd. The other local companies of Scottish Agricultural 
Industries, Ltd. are John Milne & Co. Ltd., whose works are at Dyce 
in the neighbourhood of Aberdeen, and who also manufacture sulphuric 
acid and fertilisers; the Aberdeen Commercial Co., Ltd., a very old- 
established company who are large manufacturers of fertilisers and 
feeding stuffs, as well as extensive dealers in grain ; and Barclay Ross & 


THE TRADE OF ABERDEEN 103 


Hutchison, Ltd., agricultural seed growers and dealers and manufacturers 
of agricultural implements. 

Other companies in Aberdeen manufacturing and dealing in all sorts 
of agricultural products are the Aberdeen Lime Co., Ltd., Northern 
Agricultural Co., Ltd., and North-Eastern Agricultural Co-operative 
Society, Ltd. 

ComB-MAKING.—For many years Aberdeen has been the centre of 
the comb-making industry in Great Britain. In fact the works of the 
Aberdeen Combworks Co., Ltd. are the largest in the world engaged in 
the manufacture of combs. The works have been in existence for over 
100 years, and cover an area of about eight acres, about 300 hands being 
employed making combs of every description and other articles, including 
ladies’ fancy combs, hair slides, pins, shoehorns, spoons, drinking cups, 
paper knives, toothpicks, nail cleaners, serviette rings, scoops, spatulas, 
tobacco boxes, etc., from horn, and from the Company’s own non- 
inflammable substitute, which they call ‘ Keronyx.’ The Company also 
supply their non-inflammable ‘ Keronyx’ to button-makers and knife- 
handle manufacturers, and for electrical fittings, this material being an 
excellent insulator. It is also used for many other purposes. 

ENGINEERING.—In recent years the engineering trade in Aberdeen has 
developed appreciably, making the district a more recognised engineering 
centre. Several of the best known and more important firms have 
improved and added greatly to their manufacturing facilities and are 
in a position to deal with a much larger volume of trade. Local require- 
ments afford a considerable measure of employment in the case of some 
firms, but the fulfilment of orders coming from other parts of the country, 
the Dominions, the Colonies and abroad, forms much the larger pro- 
portion of the output from most shops. The productions of engineering 
and shipbuilding firms in Aberdeen and district are of a varied character, 
among the better known being the following: shipbuilding, particularly 
for the fishing industry, dredgers and barges, marine engines, marine 
and land boilers ; cranes, conveyors and elevators, aerial cableways and 
ropeways and all other types of handling machinery ; Diesel engines, 
gas and oil engines, power transmission machinery, air compressors and 
pneumatic machinery, granite and stone working machinery ; coffee 
manufacturing, rice mill and agricultural machinery; brewing and 
distillery plant, also castings of iron and non-ferrous metals for all 
purposes. 

Fiax.—At the head of the local textile industries may be placed the 
flax-spinning industry, carried on at Broadford Works by Messrs. 
Richards, Ltd. ‘The works have been in existence since 1808, but the 
present company was formed in 1898. The history of the present company 
has been marked by great developments in trade and a corresponding 
expansion of the works. The name of Richards, Ltd. is known the 
world over and their products have the reputation of which not only the 
Company itself but also the City of Aberdeen have just cause to be 
proud. Until 1904 Aberdeen could also boast of having a noted cotton 
mill in the city. The ‘ Bannermill’ that year, after running for eighty 
years, had to close down, and about the same time Hadden’s Woollen 


104 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


Mills, in the Green, which had a long history of over a century, also 
closed its doors. Although by the closing of the Bannermill the cotton 
industry has been lost to Aberdeen, the closing of Hadden’s mills had 
no such bad result, as the woollen industry has continued to develop 
in Aberdeen and adjoining shire. 

Hipes, SKINS AND TaLLow.—As the centre of a large agricultural 
district Aberdeen has one or two large concerns dealing in hides, skins 
and tallow which give employment to a large number of men. 

Hostery.—The hosiery trade of Scotland began in Aberdeen, with 
which the African Company (1695) contracted for woollen stockings, 
and at the time when Pennant wrote (1771), 69,333 dozen pairs of stockings 
were yearly produced in the city, these being worth about thirty shillings 
per dozen, and being chiefly exported to Holland for dispersion thence - 
through Germany. Aberdeen is now one of the chief centres in Scotland 
for the manufacture of hosiery, and over half a dozen firms manufacture 
hosiery, outerwear, underwear, and knitted woollen gloves. Although, 
like other branches of industry, they have felt the effect of the trade slump, 
business is now picking up again, and most of the mills report they are 
again working full time. 

Paint.—In this particular industry Aberdeen can boast of at least 
one firm which can claim an unbroken record of more than 100 years. 
The result of that long period of unabated effort is that paints and 
enamels manufactured by Messrs. Farquhar & Gill, Ltd., under the good 
brand of ‘ Bon-Accord,’ are to be found in most of the world’s best 
markets, and to-day there is no brand which can show a reputation for 
quality superior to that passing under our good city’s name of ‘ Bon- 
Accord.’ 

SHIPBUILDING.—Shipbuilding was carried on in Aberdeen as early as 
the fifteenth century. In the days of the wooden ship the Aberdeen 
clipper won for itself a wide repute, and after the turn over to iron, 
steel and steam, the city kept to the front with the construction of 
passenger and cargo liners and vessels for overseas trade. 

To-day, howbeit the big passenger liners and the larger cargo vessels 
have outgrown the capacity of the port, the three Aberdeen shipyards 
worthily uphold the tradition of the past for the building of good ships, 
and examples of their craftsmanship are to be found in all the seven seas. 
In spite of the adverse conditions shipbuilders everywhere have experienced 
since about 1921, the trio of local builders have kept the flag flying and 
secured a fair share of the work available. In addition to vessels for 
British owners, vessels have been built at Aberdeen in recent years for 
Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, France, Spain and Belgium. 

Opportunity has not been lost during lean times to tighten up and 
perfect organisations with the determination of being able to compete 
in all markets open and to secure a full quota of work when demand 
again arises, as sooner or later it must. Building berths are suitable 
for vessels up to 350 ft. in length ; high-class passenger and cargo vessels, 
self-trimming colliers, suction and grab dredgers, coasting vessels, yachts, 
tugs and barges, are types representative of the production of Aberdeen 
shipbuilders. 


THE TRADE OF ABERDEEN 105 


A speciality is made of the building of trawlers, and other types of 
fishing vessels are also constructed. Of trawlers, the first was built as 
long ago as 1884, and since then hundreds have been constructed and 
outfitted, and there are few important fishing ports of the world in which 
Aberdeen-built trawlers have not operated or in which their reputation 
for sturdy construction and good sea qualities are not known. 

Allied to shipbuilding at Aberdeen is marine engineering, all three 
“aan constructing both engines and boilers for the steam-driven vessels 

ult. 

Ship and machinery repairing is also carried on. There are three 
pontoon docks, the largest 310 ft. long with a lifting power of 5,350 tons, 
owned by the Harbour Commissioners; also three private slipways suitable 
for smaller vessels, and the facilities available are thoroughly modern and 
adequate to the general size of vessel using the port. 

As good examples of the recent work of Aberdeen yards in the building 
of ships may be taken the R.M.S. St. Sunniva, a yacht-like passenger 
vessel, built by Hall, Russell & Co., Ltd., in 1931 for the North of 
Scotland and Orkney and Shetland Steam Navigation Co., Ltd., which 
is frequently seen in the port ; the large suction dredger Foremost Scot, 
built in 1929 by Alex. Hall & Co., Ltd., for the James Dredging Towage 
and Transport Co., Ltd.; and the Kini, a 230 ft. timber-carrying vessel, 
built in 1930 by John Lewis & Sons, Ltd., for the Union Steamship Co. 
of New Zealand, Ltd. 

Soap.—Aberdeen has always enjoyed a large soap-making trade. At 
the local works of Messrs. Ogston & Tennant, Ltd., one of the oldest 
established soap manufacturers in the country, all kinds of soaps are 
made—household soaps, soft soap, toilet soap, soap flakes, textile and 
laundry soaps, etc. 

Woo.Lens.—At the head of the woollen trade of Aberdeen stands pre- 
eminently the great firm of J. & J. Crombie, Ltd. By gradually adding 
to buildings as their business extended, their works at Grandholm now 
cover many acres, and their factory alone is twice the size of any other 
in the woollen trade in Scotland. The speciality of this important firm 
is the manufacture of high-class overcoatings, and their goods are world- 
renowned. 


The writer begs to acknowledge with thanks his indebtedness to G. M. 
Fraser, Esq., Aberdeen Public Library, for valuable information supplied 
regarding the historical survey of ancient Aberdeen trade and industry and 
to leading firms in Aberdeen and district for the information regarding 
modern Aberdeen industries. 


106 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


XVIII. 


SCIENTISTS OF THE NORTH-EAST 
OF SCOTLAND 
A.—PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY, GEOLOGY, BOTANY, MEDICINE 


BY 
G. M. FRASER (City Liprarian). 


INTRopUCToRY.—It will not be a surprise to anyone to find that in the 
multitude of eminent persons produced in this part of the country in the 
past five hundred years persons of intellect rather than persons of 
imagination have largely predominated. To some extent comparative 
poverty, which necessitates action, and severity of climate, which affects 
temperament, encouraged the development of the more useful qualities 
in the population, and of those who have reached the height of even 
moderate fame most have represented the arts of civilisation rather than 
the graces of literary excellence in either poetry or prose. Although 
Aberdeen gave to Scotland an early and great poet in John Barbour, our 
authority on the Bruce period, he flourished as an historical poet, who 
not only steadily keeps in touch with actual affairs, giving little evidence 
of emotional fancy, but derives his entire virtue from that characteristic 
quality in his work. And then the circumstance of geographical isolation 
in this corner of the land for centuries induced a habit of independent 
thought that gave direction, if not altitude, to mental effort in all regions of 
professional achievement. Even in the realm of philosophy, the onesystem 
of abstract thought which, in Thomas Reid, originated in the north-east of 
Scotland, is universally characterised as the Philosophy of Common Sense. 
As we shall see presently, the Aberdeen region produces men of science 
in profusion. ‘Teachers, theologians, journalists, competent men of 
business, and travellers abound, but only in rare cases does the district 
throw off men of high creative power. In the speculations of all of them 
the practical categories are dominant. In the following list of eminent 
men of science who have been connected or associated with Aberdeen, 
only outstanding cases have been selected, and the number had to be 
limited. 
PHYSICS. 


Arnott, Dr. Nett.—Born in 1788, Neil Arnott was a graduate, M.A., 
of Marischal College and University, Aberdeen, and obtained the diploma 
of the College of Surgeons, London, in 1811. He was a popular lecturer | 
in London on chemistry and natural philosophy, and in 1827 he published 
the first volume of his Physics. ‘ It was received with a burst of unani- 
mous commendation such as has never been given to any scientific work 
before or since.’ (Alexander Bain, 1875.) In 1859 Neil Arnott was 


SCIENTISTS OF THE NORTH-EAST OF SCOTLAND 107 


present at the meeting of the British Association in Aberdeen, the guest 
of Lord Provost Webster—afterwards M.P. for the city—at whose 
instance the Association visited Aberdeen. Neil Arnott became a wealthy 
man, and made endowments in all the four Scottish Universities. 


Forses, Prof. James Davip.—He was born in Edinburgh, 1809, his 
father being Sir William Forbes, Bart., of Pitsligo, Aberdeenshire, friend 
and trustee of Sir Walter Scott. His mother was Williamina Belches, 
known as Scott’s first love. Forbes, who became Principal of the United 
College of St. Andrews in 1859, acquired eminence from his remarkable 
studies on climate, glaciation, etc. In 1831 he co-operated with his 
friend Sir David Brewster in the foundation of the British Association. 
He was offered the Presidency of the Association in 1864, but owing to 
the state of his health he was obliged to decline. 


ForsyTH, Rev. ALEXANDER JoHN, LL.D.—Rev. Dr. Forsyth is now 
well remembered as the inventor of the percussion lock, and as having 
been the first to substitute fulminate for flint as a means of igniting the 
charge of gunpowder. He was the son of Rev. James Forsyth, Manse 
of Belhelvie near Aberdeen, and was born at the Manse of Belhelvie in 
December 1768. He succeeded his father in the charge of Belhelvie, 
1791. His invention of the percussion lock has been acknowledged as 
of the highest national importance, and a remarkable commemoration of 
his work was the unveiling, five years ago, of a tablet to his memory in 
the ‘Tower of London, where Dr. Forsyth carried out experiments on his 
invention in 1806, and the unveiling of a replica of the Tower of London 
tablet in King’s College, Aberdeen, in 1931. 


Hamitton, Prof. RoBert.—Hamilton, who was a son of Gavin 
Hamilton, a well-known bookseller and publisher in Edinburgh, was 
appointed to the chair of Natural Philosophy in Marischal College, 
Aberdeen, 1779, but in 1817 was appointed to the chair of Mathematics. 
His most distinctive public service was his exposure of the unsoundness 
of the management of the British National Debt, published in his 
Inquiry, 1813, second edition 1818, which led to a revolution in the 
national financial system. 

Tuomson, Prof. Daviv.—David Thomson, born in Leghorn, 1817, 
the son of a Scottish merchant, was a graduate of Glasgow and Cambridge. 
He was Professor of Natural Philosophy in the reconstituted University 
of Aberdeen, 1860, and although his published work is limited to the 
article ‘ Acoustics’ in the Encyclopedia Britannica, he was of great 
practical use in connection with the movement for university extension 
and reform. 


Watt, JAMes.—The interest of Aberdeen in this illustrious mechanical 
genius rests on the probability that his grandfather, Thomas Watt, was 
for a time a farmer in Aberdeenshire, and that Watt’s earlier forbears 
sprang from the Aberdeenshire soil. It is pointed out that Thomas Watt, 
farmer at Kintore, Aberdeenshire, is the Thomas Watt who appears as 
a teacher of mathematics and navigation in Greenock, whose younger 
son, James Watt, dealer in nautical instruments and stores, was the father 
of the inventor. 


108 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


CHEMISTRY. 

Brown, Prof. J. CampBeLL.—The son of an auctioneer in Aberdeen, 
and, after graduation, assistant to the Professor of Chemistry in Marischal 
College, 1864, Brown went to Liverpool School of Medicine as lecturer 
on Experimental Science and Toxicology. He was one of the foremost 
spirits in promoting the scheme for a University College in Liverpool. 
When this was accomplished he was appointed to the chair of Chemistry 
in the new college. He was an authority on the latent heat of vaporisation 
of liquids. 

MacxkalLe, MatrHew.—This was a very early apothecary in Aberdeen. 
He was also a writer of books of some quality. His earliest known work 
is The Diversitie of Salts and Spirits maintained, published in Aberdeen, 
1683. For the printing of this book, John Forbes, the Town’s Printer, 
was reprimanded by the Town Council in respect that the work reflected 
on other physicians and chirurgeons in the burgh. 


GEOLOGY. 


CRUICKSHANK, ALEXANDER.—The accomplishments of this man, 
although he was deformed and paralysed from birth, were little short 
of marvellous. He was the son of Prof. Cruickshank, of the chair of 
Mathematics in Marischal College and University. Having graduated 
with ‘ honourable distinction ’ at the University in 1840—bracketed equal 
with Alexander Bain, afterwards Professor, and Rector of the University— 
he devoted himself to study, geology and meteorology taking first place 
in his cultured interest. He was made LL.D. in 1882. 


Lonemuir, Rev. JoHN.—This many-sided man, an accomplished 
geologist, did his most important work in lexicography. In revising 
Jamieson’s Scottish Dictionary he produced a work that was more 
valuable than the original, and corrected Jamieson on the sources of the 
dialect speech of Scotland in a fundamental sense. He was an LL.D. of 
King’s College, 1859, and was one of the Secretaries of the Geology 
Section of the British Association in connection with the visit of the 
Association to Aberdeen in 1859. 


Miter, HucH.—It does not appear that Hugh Miller ever actually 
visited Aberdeen, although on two occasions he passed it on his way to 
Leith by the ‘ smack,’ but his celebrity attaches rather to the whole north 
of Scotland. He was in contact with Prof. Fleming, the geologist, of 
Aberdeen, and doubtless owed something to the association. ‘The bust 
in the National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, is by William Brodie, an 
Aberdeen sculptor. 

MirTcHELL, James, LL.D.—He was a graduate of King’s College and 
University, Aberdeen, and in London wrote much on the sciences, 
including geology. His most remarkable production was the compilation 
The Scotsman’s Library, 1825, a singular collection of out-of-the-way 
facts, all carefully indexed. 

NicoL, Prof. James.—Nicol, a Peebles-shire man, was Assistant 
Secretary to the Geological Society, London, 1847 to 1849, when he went 


SCIENTISTS OF THE NORTH-EAST OF SCOTLAND tog 


to Cork as Professor of Geology. In 1853 he was appointed to the chair 
of Natural History in Aberdeen. His distinctive contribution to the 
literature of his subject was the share he contributed, through papers to 
the Journal of the Geological Society, in solving the problem of the 
parallel ‘ roads ’ of Glen Roy. 


Borany. 


Beattiz, Prof. James——He was a nephew of Prof. James Beattie, of 
The Minstrel, with whom he is generally confused. He became Professor 
of Civil and Natural History in Marischal College, 1788, his uncle being 
Professor of Moral Philosophy and Logic in the same college. 


Brown, Rogert, D.C.L.—A native of Montrose, and a student of 
Marischal College, he devoted a large part of his life to exploring the 
vegetable world of New Holland and Van Dieman’s Land. He was 
Librarian to the Linnean Society, also to Sir Joseph Banks, and latterly 
Keeper of the Botanical Collections of the British Museum. 


Davipson, Rev. GrorcE, LL.D.—Born 1825, he was a native of 
Crathie, opposite Balmoral Castle, and was minister of Logie Coldstone, 
between the Dee and the Don, for nearly half a century. His chief 
interest, apart from parochial duties, was microscopic botany, and in 
the course of his investigations in his own locality he discovered kiesselguhr 
deposits in the district of Cromar that were afterwards largely used in 
the manufacture of dynamite. 


Dickigz, Prof. GzorGE.—Dickie has been familiar to generations of 
botanists in the north-east of Scotland through his Botanist’s Guide to 
the district, 1860, his Flora Aberdonensis, 1838, and other publications 
bearing on the plant life of the north-east of Scotland. He was the first 
Professor of Botany in the reconstituted University of Aberdeen, 1860. 


ForsyTH, WiLLIAM.—Bred as a gardener at Oldmeldrum, Aberdeen- 
shire, Forsyth went to London, 1763, and found employment in the 
Apothecaries’ Garden at Chelsea. He became Head, and was afterwards 
Superintendent of the Royal Gardens of St. James’s and Kensington. 
He had the remarkable distinction of receiving the thanks of both Houses 
of Parliament for his treatment of diseased trees. 


Kine, Sir Grorce.—George King was raised in a literary atmosphere 
in respect that his family were engaged in the bookselling business in 
Aberdeen. He graduated M.B. at Marischal College, 1865, and presently 
went to India, where he did his life’s work. On the discovery of his 
botanical attainments he was made Acting Superintendent of the 
Saharanpur Botanical Gardens, 1868; subsequently he was transferred 
to the Forestry Department of the North-West Provinces, and afterwards, 
1871, he was made Director of the Botanical Survey of India. The 
Royal Botanical Gardens at Calcutta were planted by him, and during 
his period of office productions of the nurseries of economic and other 
useful plants that he established were distributed to all parts of the 
world. He received from his own university the honorary degree of 
LL.D. in 1883, and his knighthood in 1886. 


110 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


Low, GrorcE.—He was born in 1747, near Brechin, and in the 
Orkneys he devoted most of his life to observation and investigation of 
the natural history of the Northern Isles. He was with Sir Joseph Banks 
when Banks visited the Orkneys in 1772, and was also in correspondence 
with Thomas Pennant, whose correspondence with Gilbert White at the 
time was to result in the Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne. 


MacGittivray, Prof. WiLL1aM.—MacGillivray has taken his place as 
distinctively the greatest naturalist that the North of Scotland has produced. 
He graduated at King’s College, M.A., in 1815, and made some effort 
afterwards to take up medicine, but abandoned it for natural science. 
He became, in 1831, the Servitor of the Museum of the Royal College of 
Surgeons, Edinburgh, but resigned this post in 1841, when to his great 
happiness he was appointed to the chair of Natural History in Marischal 
College and University. MacGillivray, as a Professor, embarked on 
many undertakings besides the delivery of his lectures—in making 
collections for the use of his students, in descriptive works on natural 
history and, greatest of all, his History of British Birds. His last completed 
work before his death in 1852 was The Natural History of Deeside, the 
manuscript of which was printed by command of Queen Victoria and 
was presented by the Prince Consort to individual recipients. In 
November 1900 a brass memorial tablet was unveiled in the Natural 
History Classroom, Marischal College, and was delivered to the custody 
of Prof. (afterwards Sir) J. Arthur ‘Thomson, MacGillivray’s successor in 
the chair of Natural History. Another form of commemoration was the 
provision of a granite monument of artistic design placed at MacGillivray’s 
grave in New Calton Burying Ground, Edinburgh. 


Morrison, Ropert.—This early botanist was born in Aberdeen, 1620, 
and graduated M.A. and Ph.D., 1638. He took the degree of M.D. at 
Angers. While in France he was introduced to Charles II, and at the 
Restoration accompanied the King to England, and was made King’s 
Physician, King’s Botanist and Superintendent of the Royal Gardens. 


MEDICINE. 


ABERCROMBIE, JOHN.—Dr. Abercrombie was a son of the minister of 
the East Church in Aberdeen, born 1780. He took his medical course 
at Edinburgh University, and settled down there as a practising physician. 
He was first physician to the King, George III, in Scotland, a dignity 
always conferred on the most distinguished doctor of his time in Scotland. 
Among his distinguished patients was Sir Walter Scott, whom he advised 
to stop writing if he did not wish to kill himself. In 1835 he was elected 
Rector—usually styled Lord Rector—of Marischal College and University, 
and again in 1836 and 1837. 


ARBUTHNOT, JOHN.—It is amusing to think that the designation ‘ John 
Bull,’ as typical of the Englishman, is due to the humour of an Aberdonian. 
Dr. John Arbuthnot, a graduate in Arts of Marischal College and Univer- 
sity, 1681, and the first recorded M.D. of St. Andrews, 1696, published, 
in 1712, the first part of his celebrated satire, The History of fohn Bull, 
and from that day the symbolic expression, as applied to an Englishman, 


———— 


SCIENTISTS OF THE NORTH-EAST OF ‘SCOTLAND 111 


was fixed. While in practice in London, and physician to Queen Anne, 
Arbuthnot was the familiar associate of Pope, Swift, the poet Gay, 
Matthew Prior, and other literary celebrities of his time. 


BANNERMAN, DonaLp.—In the time of David II, King of Scotland, 
1324-1371, Donald Bannerman, an Aberdonian, was physician to the 
King. Little is known about Dr. Bannerman except that he was of the 
well-known local family, still represented by the Bannermans of Elsick, 


and that he received grants of property from the King in the northern 
suburb of Aberdeen. 


BarcLay, WILLIAM.—This scholarly physician was born about 1 570, 
and although he travelled—and doubtless practised—extensively through- 
out Europe for about thirty years he never lost affection for Aberdeen. In 
a poetic tribute to the Well of Spa, Aberdeen, constructed by another 
eminent Aberdonian, George Jamesone, the first British portrait painter 
of repute, Barclay declares its waters to be equal to the Spa of Liége. 


Buack, Patrick.—Born at Aberdeen in 1813, Dr. Patrick Black, noted 
physician of St. Bartholomew’s, was a son of Col. Patrick Black of the 
Bengal Cavalry. He graduated M.D. at Oxford in 1836, and was elected 
Assistant Physician to St. Bartholomew’s in 1842, Warden of its College 
in 1851, Physician to the Hospital, and, later, Lecturer on Medicine to 
the school. 


C1arK, Sir ANDREW, Bart——He was born, the son of a country doctor, 
at St. Fergus, Aberdeenshire, 1826. His mother died at his birth, and 
his father when the boy was seven years old. Educated at the Academy, 
Dundee, he became apprentice to a Dundee practitioner, but afterwards 
studied as an extra-academical student at Edinburgh, and took the 
diploma of member of the Royal College of Surgeons, England. By his 
good fortune in becoming acquainted with Mrs. Gladstone, in connection 
with the London Hospital, where he was physician, Clark became the 
medical attendant and personal friend of Mr. Gladstone, and many other 
patients of celebrity. In 1883 he was created a baronet, and F.R.S. in 
1885. He was elected President of the Royal College of Physicians in 
1888, and held that office till his death, 1893. 


Crark, Sir James, Bart—Born at Cullen, 1788, Banffshire, and a 
graduate, M.A., of Aberdeen University, Clark became in London 
probably the most fashionable physician of his time. The King of the 
Belgians—whom Clark had met on the Continent—was a patient of his, 
also the Duchess of Kent, mother of Princess Victoria, and when Victoria 
became Queen, Clark became the greatly trusted royal physician. He 
was made a baronet in 1838. His son, the late Sir John F. Clark, Bart., 
of Tillypronie, on Deeside, was also a personal friend of Queen Victoria. 
It was through the advice of Sir James Clark that the Queen and the 
Prince Consort purchased the property of Balmoral, on Deeside, as a 
summer residence for the royal family. 


Cumyne, JaMes.—This was the first known medical officer of Aberdeen. 
He was brought to the burgh about 1503, as the magistrates, on October 20 
in that year, agreed to pay him a retaining fee of ten marks yearly, and, 


112, SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


later on, one-half of the net fishings at the fords of Dee, on condition that 
he should ‘ mak personale residence within the said burghe, and cum 
and vesy tham that beis seik, and schow tham his medicin.’ As Cumyne 
is designated ‘ Master ’ he was evidently a University graduate. He was 
made Professor of Medicine, the first, at King’s College—known at first 
as the College of St. Mary. He is believed to have assisted Hector Boece, 
first Principal of the College, in the composition of his History of 
Scotland. Cumyne died about 1522. 


Dun, Patrick.—Dr. Patrick Dun practised as a physician in Aberdeen 
with great success, and was Principal of Marischal College from 1621 to 
1649. He was a wealthy man, and open-handed. One of his benefac- 
tions was 2000 merks to Marischal College for repair of damage caused 
by a fire in 1639. 


FarQuuHar, Sir WALTER.—This eminent London surgeon, whose story 
is told by Dr. James Mitchell, in his singular collection The Scotsman’s 
Library, came from Peterhead. He became a student at King’s College 
and University, and was befriended particularly by Prof. John Gregory. 
He settled in London as an apothecary, and made a fortune. He 
became physician to the celebrated Duchess of Gordon, and through 
this connection Farquhar became associated, as a physician and otherwise, 
with persons of the highest rank in England and Scotland. He died in 
1820. Sir Walter was a generous man. Among other benefactions to 
the Abesdeen Medico-Chirurgical Society he presented to it, in 1815, 
the portrait of Harvey, which he had received from Lord Besborough, 
the most valuable portrait in the Society’s possession. 


ForpYcEe, GEORGE.—He was born in 1736, son of a small proprietor 
at Aberdeen, and graduated M.A. at Marischal College and University 
at the age of fourteen. In London, for thirty years, he taught Chemistry, 
Materia Medica, and Practice of Physic, carrying on at the same time the 

ractice of a physician. He was admitted a Licentiate of the College of 
Pilate! was chosen physician to St. Thomas’s Hospital, F.R.S. in 
1776, Fellow of the College of Physicians, 1787, and between 1771 and 
1802 he published about a dozen treatises on medical and chemical sub- 
jects. More remarkable than all, perhaps, was his being elected a member 
of the Club organised by Dr. Johnson, whose playful antipathy to Scots- 
men was noted, and who may have had Fordyce, if not Boswell also, in 
view when he framed the fifth rule of the Club that ‘ every member present 
at the Club shall spend at least sixpence.’ Fordyce died in 1802, an 
esteemed and eminent man. 


Forpyce, Sir Witt1amM.—The portrait, by Angelica Kaufmann, of 
Sir William Fordyce, founder of the Fordyce Chair in Agriculture in 
Aberdeen University, used to be considered the most valuable of the 
old pictures in Marischal College. He was a graduate of Marischal 
College, who, after serving in the continental wars of the eighteenth 
century, settled in London and developed a large and lucrative practice. 
He was F.R.S., was knighted, and was three times honoured by his old 
University in being elected Rector, in 1790, 1791, and 1792. 


i 


SCIENTISTS OF THE NORTH-EAST OF SCOTLAND 113 


Fraser, Sir ALEXANDER.—The physician to Charles the Second, 
Fraser was of the ancient family of Frasers of Durris. He was markedly 
royalist in his views, a member of the Church of England, and when he 
accompanied Charles to Scotland in 1650 he proved particularly obnoxious 
to the Covenanters of his native country. He and others of his fellowship 
were described in September of that year as ‘ profaine, scandalous, and 
malignant,’ but he may have been a very estimable gentleman for all that. 


Grecory, JoHN.—The Gregories are dealt with appropriately under 
Mathematics, but mention ought to be made here of Dr. John Gregory, 
one of the most distinguished members of an illustrious family. He was 
born at Aberdeen in 1724, the youngest of three children of James 
Gregory, Professor of Medicine at King’s College and University, and 
grandson of the great mathematician. He himself occupied the chair of 
Medicine from 1755-6 to 1766 when he succeeded Rutherford in 
Edinburgh, being also appointed First Physician to the King in Scotland. 
From 1745 to 1747 he was a student at Leyden, where a fellow-student 
was ‘ Jupiter ’ Carlyle of Inveresk, in whose entertaining autobiography, 
edited by John Hill Burton, many interesting things are told of John 
Gregory. 

Harvey, WILLIAM.—But for the constraint of alphabetical order the 
name of this benefactor of the human race would have appeared at the 
top of all these lists of men of science. Before 1931 it would not have 
been possible to have included in a list of persons connected with 
Aberdeen, without doubt, the name of William Harvey. In that year, 
however, Dr. W. Clark Souter of this city, by most assiduous research in 
Aberdeen and elsewhere, established beyond uncertainty that William 
Harvey visited Aberdeen in August 1641—while on a visit with the King, 
Charles I, to Edinburgh—and that on August 20 he received the honour 
of being made a free burgess of the city, the most distinguished name in 
the burgess roll. Dr. Clark Souter’s monograph, Dr. William Harvey 
and Aberdeen, reprinted from the Aberdeen University Review of Novem- 
ber 1931, is one of the small books that, if it has not made history, in this 
respect has established it. 


Jounston, ArTHUR.—Dr. Arthur Johnston, born 1587 at Caskieben, 
Aberdeenshire (now Keith Hall, seat of the Earl of Kintore), is said to be 
the only physician who ever served poetry with his prescriptions. But he 
was a notable poet, in Latin particularly, whose competency in this respect 
was said to be superior even to that of George Buchanan. Arthur 
Johnston became a student of King’s College—Rector in 1637—but his 
medical course was taken abroad, and he had the degree of M.D. from the 
University of Padua, 1610. He travelled subsequently in Germany, 
Denmark, Holland, and France, where he settled, and devoted himself 
largely to the cultivation of his remarkable aptitude for Latin verse. 


McGricor, Sir James.—This distinguished army surgeon, whose 
impressive statue in bronze may be seen in the grounds of the Royal 
Army Medical College, London, was really the founder of the British 
Army Medical Service as known since the period of Wellington. James 
McGrigor, born in Strathspey, 1771, was a medical graduate of Marischal 

H 


114 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


College, and while still undergoing his medical course he founded the 
Aberdeen Medico-Chirurgical Society, 1789, and was himself its first 
secretary. In his after life he became distinguished as Director-General 
of the Army Medical Service. His public honours in London and 
Edinburgh were bewildering. In Aberdeen McGrigor is commemorated 
by a portrait in the Medical Society’s Rooms, King Street, by Andrew 
Geddes, A.R.A., a friend of Wilkie, and the leading etcher of his time ; 
by a portrait in Marischal College by William Dyce, R.A., a fellow- 
townsman of McGrigor and a graduate of the same College and University ; 
and by the great granite obelisk in the Duthie Park, provided by relatives, 
which stood in the quadrangle of Marischal College from 1860 till the 
summer of 1906, when it was removed to the Duthie Park to make way for 
the new front portion of the Marischal College building, inaugurated by 
the King in the autumn of that year. 


Moreson, ‘THomMas.—Dr. Thomas Moreson seems to have practised 
abroad, and a volume of his on the transmutation of metals was printed 
at Frankfort in 1593, while another of his publications—very rare—on 
the Popedom was published in Edinburgh in 1594. He was a corre- 
spondent of Bacon and other notable public persons of the period. 


Morison, THoMas.—A native and graduate of Aberdeen, Dr. Thomas 
Morison was the discoverer of Strathpeffer Spa. His father, Morison 
of Elsick, in Kincardineshire, was Provost of Aberdeen, 1744-45, when 
the burgh was taken possession of by the rebellious Jacobites. His 
brother was Rev. George Morison, D.D., minister of Banchory Devenick, 
near Aberdeen, who put up the notable suspension bridge over the Dee 
near his church, still in constant use. Dr. Thomas Morison inherited 
Elsick, also the property of Disblair, near Aberdeen. In the pump room 
at Strathpeffer may still be seen the fine portrait of Dr. ‘Thomas Morison, 
provided by public subscription, 1724, by the place that he originated 
and made permanently notable. 


SKENE, GILBERT.—Dr. Gilbert Skene was the first of a long line of 
Skenes, medical practitioners in Aberdeen. He was appointed to the 
chair of Medicine in King’s College in 1556, almost immediately after 
the Reformation. In 1568 Dr. Skene published ‘ Ane breve descriptioun 
of the Pest, quairin the causis, signis, and sum speciall preservatioun and 
cure thairof ar contenit, set furth be Maister Gilbert Skene, Doctour in 
Medicine. Imprintit at Edinburgh be Robert Lekpreok.’ 


B.—MATHEMATICIANS AND ASTRONOMERS 


BY 
GEORGE PHILIP, M.A., D.Sc. 


THE north-east of Scotland shared with the rest of the country in the 
intellectual revival that accompanied the Reformation, but it may cause 
some surprise to learn that there was no department of learning in which 


SCIENTISTS OF THE NORTH-EAST OF SCOTLAND 115 


greater advances were made than in mathematics. Until the end of the 
sixteenth century Scotland contributed nothing to the progress of the 
science, and the history of mathematics is entirely wanting in the name of 
even one man born north of the Borders before the middle of that century. 
Indeed, Britain as a whole lagged far behind other European countries, 
like France, Germany, and Italy, in her attachment to mathematical 
learning. It is therefore all the more surprising to find that in the period 
immediately succeeding the Reformation Scotland produced several 
mathematicians who won a European reputation. ‘The name of John 
Napier of Merchiston, the discoverer of logarithms, comes readily to one’s 
mind in this connection. The rudiments of the subject, a little arithmetic, 
Euclid’s Elements, conic sections and astronomy on the Ptolemaic system 
were taught in the universities in a mild fashion, but those who wished 
to take up the study of the subject with some earnestness found it necessary 
to attend centres of learning on the Continent, mainly in France,Germany, 
and Holland. 


LippEL, DuNncan.—One of the earliest of such scholars was Duncan 
Liddel, a native of Aberdeen, who was born in 1561. At the age of 
eighteen he went abroad to Danzig, but on learning that Dr. John Craig 
taught mathematics at Frankfurt-on-the-Oder he went there, and a close 
friendship was thereafter formed between the two Scotsmen, which had 
a determining influence on Liddel’s career. Craig, it may be remem- 
bered, figures in the controversy over the priority of discovery of loga- 
rithms. He was personally acquainted with Tycho Brahe and Kepler, 
and also with John Napier, and it is generally accepted that it was through 
Craig that Kepler first learned of Napier’s achievement. Liddel took up 
the study of mathematics and astronomy at Breslau under Wittichius, 
one of the ablest of Tycho’s pupils ; and later he went to Rostock as a 
teacher of mathematics. It is claimed for Liddel that he was the first 
man in Germany to teach Copernican astronomy. He visited Tycho 
at Hveen in June 1587, but, as was the case with Kepler and others, the 
Danish astronomer conceived the idea that Liddel was taking credit to 
himself for some of his discoveries, a charge indignantly denied by Liddel. 
About 1590, attracted by the reputation of the newly established University 
of Helmstadt in Brunswick, Liddel took up his residence in that town, 
where he was appointed to the Chair of Mathematics. At this period 
it was by no means unusual for men to combine the teaching of mathe- 
matics with the practice of medicine. Liddel took the degree of Doctor 
of Medicine in Helmstadt in 1596, and for several years he carried on both 
professions. But in the course of a few years he acquired a large and 
lucrative practice among the principal families in Brunswick, and by his 
teaching and his writings he became the chief support of the Medical 
School at Helmstadt. In 1603 he resigned the Chair of Mathematics, 
and confined himself entirely to the teaching and practice of medicine. 
At this time the German universities, like our own, were passing through 
a very troubled period, and Liddel, advised it is thought by Dr. John 
Craig, determined to return to Scotland. He settled in Aberdeen and 
died there in 1613. 


116 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


Part of his considerable wealth was bequeathed by Liddel for the 
foundation of a Chair of Mathematics at Marischal College, and part was 
left to the magistrates of Aberdeen for the education of poor scholars 
belonging to the city. His grave in the old Church of St. Nicholas is 
marked by a large tablet of brass, erected to his memory by the magistrates. 
As far as is known Liddel left no mathematical writings, but several MSS. 
on medical subjects written by him are now in possession of the University 
of Aberdeen. A Life of Liddel was written by Prof. Stuart of Aberdeen. 


ANDERSON, ALEXANDER.—From the mathematician’s point of view, 
Alexander Anderson was a more distinguished Aberdeen product than 
Dr. Liddel. By an unpardonable oversight or neglect he was never 
sufficiently well known in his native country, and he is now all but for- 
gotten. But Anderson was undoubtedly a big man in his day and was 
highly esteemed by his contemporaries on the Continent. Details of his 
life are scanty. In his writings he describes himself sometimes as ‘ Scotus’ 
and sometimes as ‘ Aberdonensis,’ and from this, as also from our know- 
ledge of his blood-relations, we may safely assume that he was a native of 
the Aberdeen district. But his birthplace cannot be definitely located. 
He was a first cousin of David Anderson of Finshaugh—from the versa- 
tility of his talents nicknamed ‘ Davie Do A’thing —whose daughter 
was the mother of James Gregory, the first of a distinguished line of 
mathematicians, of whom we shall have to speak later on. The date of 
Alexander Anderson’s birth is fixed by the inscription on a print in the 
Bibliotheque Nationale, which is as follows: ‘ Alexander Andersonus 
Scotus Anno Aetat XXXV Salut MDCXVII.’ From this it appears 
that he was born in 1582. As nothing is known of him after 1619 we 
may assume that he died about that time. 

We are quite in the dark as to Anderson’s early training in mathematics. 
There is no record of his attendance as a student either in Aberdeen or 
Paris, and the probability is that, like other young Scotsmen of that time, 
he pursued his studies in Holland or in Germany. At any rate the earliest 
definite information we possess regarding him is derived from the title- 
page of his first booklet, Supplementum Apollonii Redivivi, which was 
published in Paris in 1612. In the brief biographical notices that have 
appeared regarding him it is stated that he was a professor of mathe- 
matics in Paris, but it must not be understood that he ever held an official 
position in Paris. It can only mean that he taught mathematics privately, 
although in the prefaces to his many writings Anderson never alludes to 
teaching either in the university or in a private capacity. But he does 
refer on one or two occasions to the scanty returns he received for his 
labours. One blessing for which he is thankful, however, he does record, 
and that is that fate permitted him to live in a kindly climate and not ‘ on 
the shores of Britain where the bitter north wind blows.’ 

In the prefaces to his writings we occasionally get glimpses of his 
character, and from these we can gather that he was of a generous and 
peaceful disposition, possessing none of the jealous feeling which seems to 
have actuated some of his contemporaries towards their mathematical 
rivals. In the appendix to the De Aequationum Emendatione he writes 


SCIENTISTS OF THE NORTH-EAST OF SCOTLAND 117 


with reference to those who accuse him of plagiarising from Vieta ‘ that 
it is not the part of a peaceful mind to seek praise for itself by injuring 
the name of others . . . and if any praise comes to me from this, and if 
you think that it has been taken from you, you should attempt to restore 
the loss, if you can do anything worthy of the light.’ He is here addressing 
those who ‘ earnestly pursue the study of Mathematics.’ 

Anderson’s claim for recognition as a mathematician rests largely but 
not entirely on the work he did in preparing Vieta’s writings for publica- 
tion. This was no light task, as Vieta, not a professional mathematician 
but a state official, had little time for preparing his writings for publica- 
tion, with the result that his note-books, in which he jotted down his con- 
clusions, either with very incomplete proofs or none at all, were apt to be 
unintelligible even to a trained mathematician. After his death in 1603 
his MSS. remained untouched for several years and were in danger of 
being lost, until Anderson was invited to prepare them for publication. 
It was not, however, until 1646 that the Elzevir Press published Vieta’s 
collected writings under the supervision of Van Schooten, the Dutch 
mathematician. But the publishers put on record that they had the 
privilege of using the MSS. prepared by Anderson. The selection of 
Anderson as editor of Vieta’s writings is ample testimony to the high 
place he held among his contemporaries as a competent mathematician, 
and when we reflect upon the importance of the discoveries of the great 
French mathematician, we are not asking too much in claiming for 
Anderson a share of the distinction that by right falls to the ‘ father of 
modern Algebra.’ 

The most elaborate of Anderson’s writings De Aequationum Recognitione 
et Emendatione deals with Vieta’s treatment of equations. Owing to the 
use of many terms, now long obsolete, it is very difficult to read. Like 
all scientific treatises of the time it is, of course, written in Latin. In the 
appendix he shows that the problem of trisecting an angle may be made to 
depend on the solution of a certain cubic, and he gives a very neat geo- 
metrical proof that the cubic must have three roots. Throughout his 
writings Anderson gave many examples of the use of algebraic geometry, 
and, indeed, in some respects, he anticipated Descartes who lived shortly 
after him. He had much in common with Ghetaldo, a contemporary 
writer whose influence in establishing the principles of analytical geometry 
is now being recognised. Anderson was in advance of his time when he 
wrote ‘that all the circumstances of a problem in analysis should be 
deducible from the consideration of equations.’ It has to be kept in 
mind that symbolic algebra was only coming into use in Anderson’s 
day. 

But Anderson was well versed in all the questions that agitated the 
mathematical world during the end of the sixteenth and the early years of 
the seventeenth century. He wrote on Maxima and Minima, on the 
Quadrature of the Circle, on Determinate Section where his attempts to 
restore the lost books of Apollonius called for commendation from Robert 
Simson, and on Diophantine Analysis. Oneof his most extensive writings 
is On Angular Sections, which deals with the trigonometry of multiple and 
sub-multiple angles. Many of the propositions were previously given 


118 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


by Vieta, but Anderson supplied the proofs and gave additional theorems. 
One of the propositions deals with the problem propounded by Van 
Roomen, a Dutch mathematician, to Vieta, in which it is required to solve 
a certain equation of the forty-fifth degree. Vieta solved it in a few 
minutes, having recognised from the coefficients occurring in it that it 
merely involved the division of an angle into forty-five equal parts. 

Anderson wrote seven pamphlets or tracts, all between the years 1612 
and 1619. He was apparently his own publisher, and in one of his pre- 
faces he tells that many copies of his books were still on his hands. 
Probably they never got into circulation, a fact which may account for the 
extreme scarcity of his writings now. It is doubtful if there are half a 
dozen complete sets of his writings in Great Britain to-day, and no 
complete account of them has as yet appeared in our language. 


Tue Grecory Famiry—This family occupied an unusually dis 
tinguished place in the history of science in Scotland. In the course of 
three generations no fewer than sixteen members of the family occupied 
chairs in British universities, their allegiance being divided between 
mathematics and medicine. For almost a century they practically 
monopolised the teaching of these subjects in Scotland. The only parallel 
that exists in the history of mathematics is that of the Bernouillis in 
Switzerland and Germany. The first and probably the ablest of the 
Gregories, James Gregory, was the son of the Rev. John Gregory, minister 
of the parish of Drumoak in Aberdeenshire, and he was born at Aberdeen 
in 1638. His mathematical ability may have been inherited from his 
mother’s people, she, as has already been stated, being one of the Anderson 
family, of which Alexander Anderson was a member. 

James Gregory studied at Marischal College, and soon gave evidence of 
great inventive and mathematical skill. At the early age of twenty-four, 
he published his Optica Promota, in which he showed that a reflecting 
telescope could be constructed, which would be a considerable improve- 
ment over the hitherto employed Galilean type. At that time the 
University of Padua was at the height of its fame, and, attracted by the 
brilliance of its teaching, Gregory spent several years there, and published 
the first of his geometrical writings, Vera Circuliet Hyperbolae Quadratura, 
during his residence at the Italian University. In this tract he showed 
from geometrical considerations that the area between the asymptotes of 
a hyperbola and the curve could be expressed as a convergent series and 
also as a logarithm, thus establishing the first logarithmic expansion. It 
will come as a surprise to many persons, even to mathematicians, to hear 
that the logarithmic series was known for some years before Newton made 
known the binomial expansion. At this time Gregory produced original 
papers on the quadrature of curves, and on the inverse method of tangents 
or the integral calculus, as we would now call it, which attracted the 
attention of Newton, Huygens, Wallis, and other leading mathematicians 
of the period. In 1668 he followed up his previous activities by publishing 
his Exercitationes Geometricae, which firmly established his reputation as 
one of the foremost mathematicians in the country. On the Chair of 
Mathematics at St Andrews becoming vacant in this year, Gregory was 


SCIENTISTS OF THE NORTH-EAST OF SCOTLAND 119 


elected to it, and he remained there for six years until his appointment to 
a similar chair in Edinburgh University. But his tenure only lasted for 
one year. In October 1675, while showing the satellites of Jupiter 
through a telescope to some of his pupils, he was suddenly struck with 
blindness and died a few days afterwards at the early age of thirty-seven. 
Nowadays his name is chiefly remembered in connection with the series 
for expressing the inverse tangent of an angle in terms of the angle, a 
series which readily gives a value for. But his whole work on series and 
on quadrature of curves largely paved the way for Newton’s method of 
fluxions and, if for no other reason, he is justly entitled to a place among 
the hierarchy of mathematicians. 

In 1669 Gregory married Mary, the daughter of George Jamieson, the 
celebrated painter, the Vandyck of Scotland. His son, also James by 
name, held the Chair of Medicine in Aberdeen, and his son again was 
the famous Dr. John Gregory who helped to establish the fame of 
Edinburgh School of Medicine. But scientific ability was not confined 
to the family of the first James Gregory. His brother, David Gregory 
of Kinnairdy in Aberdeenshire, a successful merchant who commenced 
his commercial life in Holland, had the unique distinction of seeing three 
of his sons occupying Chairs of Mathematics in three British Universities. 
His eldest son David was born in Aberdeen in 1661 and was educated 
at Aberdeen and Edinburgh. It is said that he was led to the serious 
study of mathematics by carefully perusing his uncle’s papers which came 
into his hands. When only twenty-three years of age, he was appointed 
Professor of Mathematics at Edinburgh University, and he soon attracted 
the attention of scientists throughout the country by the ability and zeal 
which he showed in teaching the newly published Newtonian principles. 
When Dr. Bernard, the Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford 
resigned, Gregory was appointed to succeed him, his candidature being 
strongly supported by Sir Isaac Newton and Flamsteed, the Astronomer 
Royal. In 1702 his Astronomiae Physicae et Geometricae Elementa was 
published. This is reckoned as his greatest work, and was esteemed by 
Newton as an excellent explanation and defence of his philosophy. In 
the prosecution of a scheme which was initiated by Bernard for preparing 
editions of the works of the great Greek mathematicians, Gregory under- 
took to do Euclid’s works, and in 1703 his Euclidis quae supersunt omnia 
appeared. Until the issue of Heiberg and Menge’s edition (1883-88) 
this was still the only complete edition of Euclid. Along with Halley, 
who was at that time his colleague as Professor of Geometry at Oxford, 
Gregory had begun to prepare an edition of Apollonius, but he had not 
gone far in this undertaking when he died in 1710, and Halley was left 
to complete the work. Of David Gregory’s other writings the most 
interesting is a small book on Practical Geometry, which was afterwards 
translated into English by Maclaurin and published in 1745. 

James, the second son of David Gregory of Kinnairdy, succeeded David 
in the Mathematical Chair in Edinburgh University, and Charles, the 
third son, was appointed Professor of Mathematics in St. Andrews in 
1707. He held the chair until 1739, when he was succeeded by his son, 
David Gregory, who lived until 1763. 


120 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


Macravrin, CoLin.—The purely Celtic part of Scotland has not been 
so productive of mathematicians as the sister island, Ireland, has been, 
but one outstanding man at least has come from the Gaelic-speaking west, 
namely, Colin Maclaurin. He was born in 1698 in Glendaruel, the 
Argyllshire parish in which his father was minister. At an age when boys 
nowadays are only in the primary school, Maclaurin enrolled as a student 
in Glasgow University, where in due course he took his degree of Master 
of Arts. His great precocity attracted the attention of Robert Simson, 
the Professor of Mathematics, whose name should be well known in Scot- 
land as the editor of the Euclid on which so many generations of Scotsmen 
were reared. It was Maclaurin’s intention to study for the Church, and 
with that in view he read privately at home for a year or two. But during 
this period his taste for mathematics still further developed, and on a 
vacancy occurring in the Chair of Mathematics in Marischal College 
in 1717, he was induced to become an applicant. In those days 
vacancies in professorships in Aberdeen were filled by competition, 
and in this instance the examination lasted over a period of ten days. 
In spite of his extreme youth—he was only nineteen years of age— 
Maclaurin was successful, one of the competitors being Alex. Malcolm, 
a well-known teacher in Aberdeen. During his tenure of the chair, the 
study of mathematics in Marischal College was greatly stimulated, and, 
as was subsequently the case when Maclaurin went to Edinburgh, it 
almost became fashionable to be reckoned as a member of the mathematical 
class at the University. Visits to London in 1719 and 1721 brought him 
into contact with Newton, and he was elected a member of the Royal 
Society. From that time onwards a steady stream of papers from his pen 
appeared in the Transactions of the Society which readily established his 
reputation as a mathematician, and gained for him the friendship and 
esteem of Newton, Clarke and other leaders of the scientific world of the 
day. Maclaurin’s earliest writings dealt with the geometry of higher 
plane curves, a subject which he attacked from a point of view that would 
now be described as projective. In 1725 he became Professor of Mathe- 
matics in Edinburgh University, and held the appointment till his death 
in 1746. His greatest work is his F/uxions, a two-volume lecture. 


MatcoLtmM, ALEXANDER.—Alexander Malcolm deserves mention as 
author of a treatise on Arithmetic, published in London in 1730, and 
described by De Morgan as ‘ one of the most extensive and erudite books 
of the eighteenth century.’ He was held in great esteem in Aberdeen as 
a teacher of mathematics, and besides the above compendious work was 
author of A Treatise on Arithmetic and Book-keeping in the Italian Method, 
published in 1718, and Treatise on Music in 1721. 


TraIL, WILLIAM.—William Trail, a student both of Marischal College 
and Glasgow University, held the Chair of Mathematics in the former 
from 1766 to 1779, when he resigned on his appointment as Chancellor of 
the Bishopric of Down and Connor in Ireland. He was the author of 
Elements of Algebra for the Use of Schools and Universities, published 
anonymously in 1778, and of a Life of Robert Simson, under whom he 
studied mathematics in Glasgow. 


SCIENTISTS OF THE NORTH-EAST OF SCOTLAND 121 


FERGUSON, JAMES.—A century ago probably no scientific man was 
better known, by name at least, among all classes in Great Britain, than 
James Ferguson, and no books were to be found more frequently than 
his on the bookshelves, both of professional scientists and of artisans. 
He wrote and lectured on astronomy, mechanics, optics, and electricity, 
and the rapidity with which new editions of his books had to be prepared 
can bear comparison with the career of many of the ‘ best sellers ’ of the 
present day. His Astronomy explained upon Sir Isaac Newton’s Principles, 
first published in 1756, went through five editions in sixteen years ; his 
Lectures on Select Subjects in Mechanics through four editions in twelve 
years ; and An Easy Introduction to Astronomy for Young Gentlemen and 
Ladies through three editions in four years. The first of these 
books went through no fewer than thirteen editions, the last appearing 
in 1821. 

James Ferguson was born in 1710 in the parish of Rothiemay in Banff- 
shire, his parents being of the cottar class. Owing to the poverty of his 
home he received only three months’ actual teaching, and that was received 
in Keith Grammar School. At an early age he was employed as a shep- 
herd and before he was out of his teens he had made a reputation for skill 
in mending clocks and watches, and also in making portraits of local 
celebrities. During his leisure hours as a shepherd he began to study 
the movements of the heavenly bodies, and among his earliest mechanical 
inventions were instruments for representing the positions and move- 
ments of the moon and the stars. His talent for portrait painting attracted 
the attention of several persons of importance in the north-east of Scotland, 
and at their instigation he was persuaded to take up his residence in 
Edinburgh where he might get instruction from competent masters. 
But lack of means prevented Ferguson from taking full advantage of the 
opportunities thus offered to him, and after a period of residence in 
Edinburgh and Inverness, he determined to remove to London, where 
he hoped to find a wider outlet for his portrait painting and his mechanical 
inventions. For several years he carried on both activities, but his 
ambition was to be able to earn his living by lecturing on natural philosophy. 
In 1761 the King granted him an annuity of £50, and in 1763 he was 
elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He gave courses of lectures, not 
only in London but in Cambridge, Bristol, Bath, and Liverpool, and so 
popular did they become that he was invited to pay several return visits 
to these cities. As a result his financial circumstances were greatly 
improved. The success of his lectures was largely due to his ingenuity 
in devising mechanical illustrations of the principles he wished to teach, 
his astronomical clocks, orreries, planetaria, etc., becoming famous 
throughout the whole country. 

Ferguson, although a popular lecturer, was in no sense a ‘ quack.’ 
Among the leading scientific men of the day he was highly esteemed, 
by none more so than Sir David Brewster, who edited the later editions 
of several of his books. The great diffusion of scientific knowledge 
among the mechanics of this country, which led to the establishing of 
institutes and technical colleges about the middle of last century, was 
largely due to the influence of Ferguson’s writings. He died in London 


122 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 


in 1776. His youngest son John studied medicine in Aberdeen from 
1773 to 1777, but, as far as is known, neither he nor any other member of 
Ferguson’s family achieved distinction in any walk of life. 


CLERK MAXWELL, JAMES.—Maxwell’s association with Aberdeen dates 
from 1856, when as a young Cambridge graduate he was appointed to 
the Chair of Natural Philosophy in Marischal College, a position he held 
until the fusion of the two colleges in 1860. 


Lamont, JoHN.—As the wonderful career of Johann von Lamont is 
being made the subject of a separate paper nothing more of a biographical 
nature need be said here than that, born in Braemar in 1805, and starting 
life as a schoolboy in the tiny hamlet of Inverey, this remarkable man 
eventually became a Professor of Astronomy in Munich Observatory in 
1852, and died in 1879, full of academic honours and one of the foremost 
astronomers in Europe. 

In the domain of pure astronomy Lamont’s name is chiefly associated 
with observations on the satellites of Uranus, the main object of which 
was to find their elongation so as to determine the mass of the planet. 
In the course of his investigations in 1837 he observed the most distant 
of the six satellites, the only verification hitherto obtained of Sir William 
Herschel’s observations regarding the existence of satellites other than 
those discovered by him in 1787. But Lamont’s most extensive work 
was in the department of terrestrial magnetism, where he was one of the 
pioneers and one of the most enthusiastic investigators. ‘The connection 
between sun-spot periods and magnetic disturbances is one of his dis- 
coveries. In 1840 it was determined to form an international scheme for 
magnetic observations, and Lamont’s previous experience and organising 
ability proved invaluable in putting the project into working order. He 
himself devoted great attention to the surveys of Northern Germany and 
South-West Europe, the results of which are embodied in two extensive 
memoirs. In addition to these, he was the author of very many papers 
on terrestrial magnetism and astronomy contributed to scientific societies 
in Britain and in Germany. 


GiLL, Sir Davip.—This celebrated astronomer was born in Aberdeen 
on June 12, 1843. His father was the head of a firm of watchmakers 
which had their headquarters in Aberdeen for several generations. 
David Gill received his school education at Dollar Academy, later pro- 
ceeding to Aberdeen University. He read mathematics with David 
Rennet, the renowned Aberdeen teacher, the ‘ extramural professor ’ 
who has several wranglers to his credit. In natural philosophy Gill 
attended the lectures of Prof. David Thomson at King’s College and of 
Prof. Clerk Maxwell at Marischal. The latter a few years afterwards 
referred to Gill as one of.the ablest students he had through his hands in 
Aberdeen. After a year spent at Besangon in learning the art of clock- 
making, he returned to Aberdeen to take an active part in the conduct 
of the family business, his sense of duty to his father and the family 
causing him to sacrifice his natural inclination towards science and 
astronomy. But he did not regret the time so spent. The workshop 
practice he gained in his youth gave him skill in devising astronomical 


= ltl 


SCIENTISTS OF THE NORTH-EAST OF SCOTLAND 123 


instruments that was of inestimable advantage to him in later life. An 
invitation, however, from Lord Lindsay to Gill to become the super- 
intendent of the newly established private observatory at Dunecht in 
Aberdeenshire proved too strong, and after a few years in business he 
severed his connection with his father’s firm. An expedition to Mauritius 
in 1874~75 to observe the transit of Venus brought Gill’s organising 
ability and observing skill to the notice of the astronomical world, and it 
became clear that his services could not be retained for long at Dunecht. 
In 1877 he led an expedition to Ascension to observe the opposition of 
Mars, the object of which was to obtain the necessary information for 
making an accurate determination of the sun’s distance. Gill’s work with 
his heliometer in this expedition excited the admiration of astronomers 
all over the world. In 1879 he was appointed His Majesty’s Astronomer 
at the Cape of Good Hope, and it was there he built up his international 
reputation as an astronomer of distinction. During his period as Director 
he transformed the badly equipped observatory into a magnificent 
institution with the finest observing instruments in the world. In 1907, 
the year of his Presidency of the British Association, he retired and 
devoted himself to astronomical work and to the task of completing his 
book, The History and Description of the Cape Observatory. He died 


on January 24, 1914, and was buried in Old Machar Churchyard, 
Aberdeen, 


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INDEX 


References to addresses, reports, and papers printed in extended form are given 


in italics. 


* Indicates that the title only of a communication is given. 


When a page reference to a paper is given in italics, it is to a note of its 
publication elsewhere, or to a note of other publications by the author 


on the same subject. 


References preceded by the abbreviation Appdx. will be found in the appendix 


immediately preceding this index. 


ABEL, J., Papermaking, 348, 468. 

Aberdeen, architecture, by Dr. W. 
Kelly, Appdx. 57. 

Aberdeen, child guidance in, by R. 
Knight, 396. 

Aberdeen, education, by J. Dawson, 
Appdx. 49. 

Aberdeen, Eskimo kayak voyage, by 
Prof. F. Debenham, 333. 

Aberdeen, regional setting, by Lord 
Provost H. Alexander, Appdx. 3. 

Aberdeen, trade, by J. S. Yule, 
Appdx. roo. 

Aberdeen and district, scientific sur- 
vey, Appdx. 1. 

Aberdeen district, geology, by Prof. 
A. W. Gibb, Dr. A. Bremner, 
302*, 465, 466, Appdx. 12. 

Aberdeen district, papermaking, by 
J. Cruickshank, Appdx. 91. 

Aberdeen district, prehistoric arche- 
ology, by Prof. R. W. Reid, Appdx. 
68. 


Aberdeen granite industry, by W. D. 
Esslemont, Appdx. 96. 

Aberdeen granites, economic uses, 
by Dr. B. H. Knight, 311, 466. 
Aberdeen joint town - planning 
scheme, by J. Cruickshank, 328. 

Aberdeen meeting, narrative, xvi. 

Aberdeen planning scheme, by Lord 
Provost H. Alexander, 328. 

Aberdeen University, education for 
commerce, by Dr. H. Hamilton, 
343- 

Aberdeenshire, agricultural distribu- 
tions, by Dr. Catherine P. 
Snodgrass, 329, 467. 


Aberdeenshire, agriculture in olden 
days, by J. D. Webster, Appdx. 
8 


a! 

Aberdeenshire, climate, by G. A. 
Clarke, Appdx. 42. 

Aberdeenshire, population changes, 
by A. C. O’Dell, 335. 

Aberdeenshire granites, by C. B. 
Bisset, Dr. S. Buchan, Miss J. E. 
Imlay, and J. A. Robbie, 302, 465. 

Abietinez, pollination in, by Prof. 
J. Doyle, 387, 471. 

Acrolein, absorption spectrum, by 
E. Eastwood and Dr. C. P. Snow, 
291, 464. 

Apams, 'T. W., Heat production in 
man, 366, 470. 

Apams, Prof. W. G. S., Community 
movement in countryside, 402. 
Aerial cableways, by R. T. Medd, 

352, 469. 

Africa, future of anthropology in, by 
Capt. R. S. Rattray, 354. 

Africa, report on human geography of 
tropical, 246. 

African ancestor worship, by J. H. 
Driberg, 354, 469. 

African society, social sanctions and 
restraint in, by Prof. Agnes C. L. 
Donohugh, 355”. 

African tribe, health cult and child 
life, by Miss E. D. Earthy, 354, 
469. 

Agricultural distributions in Aber- 
deenshire and Kincardine, by 
Dr. Catherine P. Snodgrass, 329, 
467. 

Agricultural production, planning, 
by Sir A. D. Hall, 401, 473. 


Ss 


126 


Agriculture in Aberdeenshire in olden 
goes by J. D. Webster, Appdx. 


), ee in North-East, 
J. F. Tocher, Appdx. 77. 

Agriculture in ’yelation to scientific 
progress and economic planning, by 
Prof. J. S. Watson, 223, 
401*. 
Ainu of Japan, report on, 259. 
Albanian heads, flattening of, by 
Mrs. M. M. Hasluck, 353, 469. 
Albion, perfidious, climate and 
character, by Prof. E. G. R. 
Taylor, 331, 467. 

ALEXANDER, Lord Provost H., Aber- 
deen in its regional setting, Appdx. 


by Dr. 


Bi 

—— Aberdeen planning scheme, 
328. 

—— Town planning and general 
amenity planning, 390. 

Algz, cell structure of blue-green, 
by Dr. J. K. Spearing, 383. 

Algal abundance, causes, by Dr. 
W.H. Pearsall, 319. 

ALLEN, R. W., Diesel engines in 
trawlers, 347, 468. 

Alloys, structure, discussion by Prof. 
W. L. Bragg, Prof. G. I. Taylor, 
Dr. H. Jones, A. J. Bradley, 
Prof. G. P. Thomson, 273, 463. 

Autsopp, Dr.C.B., Origin of optical 
exaltation in conjugated hydro- 
carbons, 291, 464. 

Amenity planting of trees, discus- 
sion by Lord Provost H. Alex- 
ander, Sir J. Stirling-Maxwell, 
Maj. S. S. Steel, W. Dallimore, 
W. B. Clark, Col. J. D. Suther- 
land, 390, 471, 472. 

Anzmia, nutrition in relation to, 
by Prof. L. S. P. Davidson, 362, 
470. 

Ancestor worship, African, by J. H. 
Driberg, 354, 469. 

ANDERSON, F. S., Granite 
granite quarrying, 347, 468. 

Angiosperms, vessel differentiation 
in, by Prof. J. H. Priestley, 385, 
471. 

Angus, northern valleys, by J. S. 
Thoms, 327. 

Ancus, T.C., Properties of clothing, 
288, 463. 


and 


INDEX 


Animal behaviour, interpretation, 
discussion by Prof. J. A. B. de 
Haan, Dr. S. Zuckerman, R. 
Knight, Prof. W. McDougall, 
Dr. H. O. Bull, Dr. F. Darling, 
323, 380*, 467. 

Animal industry and science, by 
Prof. J. A. S. Watson, 401*. 

Animal life of north-east Scotland, 
by Prof. J. Ritchie, Appdx. 20. 

Animals, cult of, by Rt. Hon. Lord 
Raglan, 359, 469. 

Annual meetings, table, xii. 

Anthropology, future of, by Capt. 
R.S. Rattray, 354. 

APPLETON, Prof. E. V., Ionosphere, 
269. 

Archeology, prehistoric, in Aberdeen 
district, by Prof. R. W. Reid, 
Appdx. 68. 

Archeology, prehistoric, in N.E. 
Scotland, by Dr. J. G. Callander, 
356, 469. 

ARCHIBALD, Dr. E. S., Canadian 
experiments on cattle rearing and 
feeding, 399, 472. 

Architecture in Aberdeen, by Dr. W. 
Kelly, Appdx. 57. 

Ardtun leaf beds, by Dr. T. Johnson, 


388. 
ARMSTRONG, A. L., Excavation of 
Bronze Age burial cairns at 


Grappenhall, 359. 

Arneth count, by Col. C. J. Bond, 
369. 

Ascorbic acid, discussion by Prof. 
A. Harden, Prof. A. Szent- 
Gyérgyi, Dr. E. L. Hirst, E. 
Gordon Cox, Dr. T. Reichstein, 
Prof. W. N. Haworth, 292, 464, 
465. 

Association tests with psychotic 
patients, by R. J. Bartlett, 372. 
Aston, Dr. F. W., Roll-call of 

isotopes, 273. 

Australia, Devonian period, by 

Prof. W. N. Benson, 311, 465. 


BaiLtey, A., Heat transmission in 
pipes of rectangular section, 290. 

Battey, Prof. E. B., Age of Moine 
and Dalradian formations, 304, 
465. 


INDEX 


BalLy, Prof. F. G., National parks 
for Scotland, 410. 


145, 340*. 
Baker, J. N. L., Population dis- 
tribution in India in 1931, 334*. 


W. Uganda, 333. 

Barbizon painters, group psychology, 
by Dr. R. W. Pickford, 378, 
471. 

Bargour, Prof. G. B., Colour film of 
Crater Lake, 335*. 

Physiography of Jehol, N. 
China, 335*. 

BarcrorT, Prof. J., Respiratory 
function of blood in feetus, 362, 
479. 

Barker, S. G., Interpretation of 
physical data regarding textiles, 
289. 

Barnes, Dr. B., Biology of aquatic 
fungi, 320. 

Barr, M., Visual methods for 


presentation of statistical data, 
* 


BaRTLETT, R. J., Association tests 
with psychotic patients, 372. 

Bas-Languedoc, flora of, by Dr. 
Olive D. Dickinson, 384, 471. 

Beef, production of young, by Prof. 
R. Rae, 400, 473. 

Behaviour, interpretation of animal, 
discussion by Prof. J. A. B. de 
Haan, Dr. S. Zuckerman, R. 
Knight, Prof. W. McDougall, Dr. 
H. O. Bull, Dr. F. Darling, 323, 
380*, 467. 

Behaviour, study of, by Dr. E. S. 
Russell, 83, 315*. 

Be.ttamy, Miss E. F., Seismological 
investigations, 283*. 

Bengal, Chadak festival in, by K. P. 
Chattopadhyay, 360. 

Bengal, human geography, by Dr. 
A. Geddes, 334, 467. 

Benholm, glacial and _ interglacial 
deposits, by Dr. R. Campbell and 
Dr. I. M. Robertson, 313, 466. 

Benson, Dr. MarcareT, Hallé’s new 
technique for study of incrusted 
plant remains on primary rocks, 
388, 471. 

Benson, Prof. W. N., Devonian 
period in Australia, 311, 465. 


, Sources of cheap electric power, 


127 


BENSON, Prof. W. N., Land forms 
in S.E. New Zealand, 334, 
tel 

Ordovician rocks of New 


Zealand, 211, 465. 


| Bermuda, drift-bottle work around, 
Baker, S. J. K., Social geography of | 


by Dr. J. F. G. Wheeler, 315. 

BICKERSTETH, Dr. M. E., Bilingual- 
ISIN 37 

Bilingualism, by Dr. M. E. Bicker- 
steth, 371. 

Binns, H., Measure of tactile sense, 
374, 479. 

Biochemistry of animal fats, by Dr. 
C. H. Lea and Dr. J. A. Lovern, 
371, 479. 

Biological problems of fresh water, 
discussion by Prof. F. E. Fritsch, 
Dr. W.H. Pearsall, J.T. Saunders, 
F.'T. K. Pentelow, Dr. B. Barnes, 
319, 385*, 466. ’ 

Biology, forest, by Prof. A. W. 
Borthwick, 195, 381*. 

BisPpHAM, J. W., Technical educa- 
tion and industrial recruitment, 
397, 472. 

BisseT, C. B., Aberdeenshire granites, 
302, 465. 

BLACKBURN, Dr. KATHLEEN, Cyto- 
logical method of distinguishing 
Salix alba, var. caerulea, from 
closely related species, 383, 477. 

BLackMAN, Prof. V. H., Botanical 
work on cold storage of fruits and 
vegetables, 389*. 

Blood, physiology and pathology of, 
discussion by Prof. J. Barcroft, 
Prof; l.-S. P: Davidson, Dr. 
F. J. W. Roughton, Dr. G. A. 
Millikan, 362, 470. 

Blood grouping, report on, 262. 

Blood pressure, regulation by pos- 
ture, by Prof. J. A. MacWilliam, 
369, 470. 

Bonp, Col. C. J., Arneth count, 369. 

Physiological and _ psycholo- 
gical development of child and 
adolescent, and claims thereby 
made on education, 395, 472. 

Bono, Dr. G., Influence of illu- 
mination on development of Cas- 
parian strip, 386, 471. 

Borings for water, necessity of 
recording, by Sir A. E. Kitson, 
410. 


128 


Borstal experiment in vocational 
guidance, by A. Rodger, 377. 

BorTHwIck, Prof. A. W., Forestry 
of Aberdeen district, Appdx. 34. 

Some aspects of forest biology, 
195, 381*. 
BoswELL, Prof. P. G. H., Town and 
country planning, 409. 
Underground water 
308, 465. 

Bouton, Prof. W. S., Underground 
water supply, 308*, 456, 465. 

Boundaries, international, geogra- 
phical considerations in delimita- 
tion, by Lt.-Col. A. B. Clough, 
327. 

Boys, S. F., Origin of optical 
rotatory power, 291, 464. 

Bracken, disease caused by Corti- 
cium anceps, by Dr. Mary J. F. 
Gregor, 384, 471. 


supply, 


BrapLey, A. J., Atomic arrange- | 


ment in alloys, 274. 

Brace, Prof. W. L., Exploration of 
mineral world by X-rays, 437- 

Structure of alloys, 273, 463. 

BREMNER, Dr. A., Geology of Aber- 
deen district, Appdx. 12. 

Surface geology of Aberdeen 
district, 302*, 465. 

British Carboniferous-Permian ig- 
neous province, by S. J. Tom- 
keieff, 312. 

British Columbia, influence of myth- 
ology on culture of coastal Indians 
of, by Prof. T. F. Mcllwraith, 
360%. 

Bronze Age burial cairns at Grap- 
penhall, by A. L. Armstrong, 359. 

Bronze Age implements, report on, 


Baie 
Brown, Dr. W., Sleep and hyp- 
nosis, 375- 


Two-factor theory versus sam- 
pling theory of mental ability, 


370. 

Bruck, Prof. W. F., Economic 
planning, 340*, 467. 

Risk in modern economy, 339, 
467. 

BryaAN, J., Preservation and pre- 
paration of timbers for industrial 
purposes, 381, 471. 

Bryce, R. B., Wheat situation and 
state control, 341. 


INDEX 


Bucuan, Dr. S., Aberdeenshire 

granites, 302, 466. 

Petrology of Peterhead and 
Cairngall granites, 303, 466. 

Butt, Dr. H. O., Interpretation of 
animal behaviour, 324*. 

Burcu, C. R., Null systems for 
testing concave telescope mirrors, 
276. 

Prof. Zernike’s phase contrast 
test, 277. 

BurkITT, M. C., on Derbyshire caves, 
254. 

Burt, D. R. R., Climatic factors in 
distribution of Ceylon mammals, 
319. 

Business executives, graphic methods 
for, by A. G. H. Dent, 343, 467. 
Business management, education for, 
in Scotland, discussion by Dr. H. 

Hamilton, G. Wilson, 343, 468. 


Cableways, aerial, by R. T. Medd, 
352, 469. 

Cairngall and Peterhead granites, by 
Dr. S: Buchan, 303, 466. 

CALDWELL, Dr. J., Virus diseases in 
plants, 383, 471. 

Calf rearing, by J. S. Grant, 399*, 
472. 

CALLANDER, Dr. J. G., Prehistoric 
archeology in N.E. of Scotland, 
356, 469. 

CamMERON, Dr. A. E., Biology of 
Scottish Tabanide, 315, 466. 

CAMPBELL, N. R., Photoelectricity, 
art and politics, 276*, 445. 

CAMPBELL, Dr. R., Age of Moine 
and Dalradian formations, 305*, 
465. 

Glacial deposits at Benholm, 
313, 466. 

Canadian experiments on cattle 
rearing and feeding, by Dr. E. S. 
Archibald, 399, 472. 

Canna leaf beds, by Dr. T. Johnson, 
388. 

Carbon dioxide transport, by Dr. 
F. J. W. Roughton, 363, 470. 

Carboniferous coals, microspores in, 
by Dr. A. Raistrick, 310. 

Carbon monoxide, effect on tomato 
plants and potato tubers, by 
W. A. Clark, 382. 


INDEX 


CARPENTER, Prof. G. D. HALE, Pro- 

tective colouration in_ insects, 
19*. 

CarRROLL, Prof. J. A., Accuracy of 
measurement in  spectrophoto- 
metry, 282. 

Applications of Fourier trans- 
forms, 279. 

CARRUTHERS, Dr. J. N., Fishery 
applications of marine current 
research at Lowestoft Fisheries 
Laboratory, 325. 

Casein, chemical and physical pro- 
perties, by Dr. K. Linderstrem- 
Lang, 300, 465. 

Casparian strip, influence of illu- 


mination on development of, by 


Dr. G. Bond, 386, 471. 

CaTTELL, Dr. R. B., Medical aspects 
of education, 396*. 

Practising psychologist in edu- 

cational system, 379. 

Psychological and child guid- 
ance clinics, 397*. 

Cattle rearing and feeding, discus- 
sion by J. S. Grant, M. Mackie, 
Dr. E. S. Archibald, Prof. R. 
Rae, H. J. Page and Dr. S. J. 
Watson, 399, 472, 473. 

CavE-BROWNE-CavVE, Wing-Cmdr. 
T.R., Reduction of motor bicycle 
exhaust noise, 349, 468. 

Celts, arrival in Scotland, by Prof. 
V. G. Childe, 357, 469. 

Ceylon, anthropology of Veddahs of, 
by Prof. W. C. O. Hill, 361, 469. 

Ceylon mammals, climatic factors in 
distribution, by D.R.R. Burt, 319. 

Chadak festival in Bengal, by K. P. 
Chattopadhyay, 360. 

CuapmaNn, Dr. R. E., Absorption of 
water vapour by aerial parts of 
Egyptian desert plants, 382. 

CuatTTopapHyay, K. P., Chadak 
festival in Bengal, 360. 

Chemical problems and molecular 
rays, by Dr. R. G. J. Fraser, 290. 

Chemistry, physical methods, by Prof. 
T.M. Lowry, 29, 290*. 

Chemistry of milk, discussion by 
Prof. H. D. Kay, Dr. J. F. Tocher, 
Dr. W. L. Davies, Dr. K. Linder- 
strgm-Lang, Prof. T. P. Hilditch, 
Dr. S. K. Kon, Dr. N. C. Wright, 
299, 403*, 464, 465. 


129 


Chemists, technical education of 
industrial, by W. Rintoul, 399, 
472. 

CuiLtpe, Prof. V. G., Arrival of 
Celts in Scotland, 357, 469. 

Child guidance and psychological 
clinics, discussion by Prof. 
Drever, Dr. D. R. MacCalman, 
R. Knight, Dr. Mary M. Mac- 
Taggart, Dr. C. W. Kimmins, 
Dr. R. B. Cattell, 3’78*, 396, 472. 

China, rainfall, by W. Smith, 330. 

Cinematograph films, remittances 
abroad for, by S. Rowson, 341*, 
467. 

CuarK, J. C., Aztec manuscript 
known as Collection of Mendoza, 
360. 

Crark, Dr. R. S., Fishing industry, 
Appdx. 86. 

Crark, W. A., Effect of carbon 
monoxide on tomato plants and 
potato tubers, 382. 

CrarK, W. B., Town trees and 
shrubs, 391. 

CuarKE, G. A., Climate of Aberdeen- 
shire, Appdx. 42. 

Climate and character in sixteenth 
century, by Prof. E. G. R. Taylor, 
331, 467. 

Climate in later Middle Ages, by 
Dr. H. C. Darby, 331, 467. 

Climate of Aberdeenshire, by G. A. 
Clarke, Appdx. 42. 

Climates, glacial cause of change, 
by M. B. Cotsworth, 314. 7 

Climatic factors in distribution of 
Ceylon mammals, by D. R. R. 
Burt, 319. 

Clothing, physical tests of properties, 
by T. C. Angus, 288, 463. 

Clothing material, interchange of 
heat, by Dr. M. C. Marsh, 289, 


464. . . 
CuLoucu, Lt.-Col. A. B., Delimita- 
tion of international boundaries, 


327. 

Cold storage of fruits and vegetables, 
botanical work, by Prof. V. H. 
Blackman, 389*. 

Colour vision, normal and abnormal, 
by Prof. H. E. Roaf, 169, 367*. 
Community movement in country- 
side, by Prof. W. G. S. Adams, 

402. 


130 


Complex-synthesis and persevera- 
tion, by Rev. Dr. J. L. King, 373, 
471. 

Concrete beams, shear stress dis- 
tribution in reinforced, by Dr. 
R. H. Evans and J. Thomlinson, 
353, 468, 469. 

Condé spectrograph at Mt. Wilson 
Observatory, by Dr. T. Dunham, 
Zoo 

Conifers, pollination in, by Prof. 
J. Doyle , 387, 471. 

Continents, history, and distribu- 
tion of marine animals, by Prof. J. 
Versluys, 317, 467. 

Contraception, technique depending 
on temperatures, by Dr. Marie C. 
Stopes, 367. 

Convection in gases at high pressures, 
by D. A. Saunders, 285, 464. 

Conversation, development in early 
childhood, by Prof. G. A. 
Jaederholm, 375*. 

Corr, W. F., Heat transmission in 
pipes of rectangular section, 290. 
Copepods and herring fishery 
problems, by Dr. S. G. Gibbons, 

316. 

Corresponding Societies, conference of 
delegates, 406. 

Corticium anceps as cause of disease 
of Bracken, by Dr. Mary J. F. 
Gregor, 384, 471. 

CotswortH, M. B., Glacial cause of 
changing climates, 314. 

* Council, report 1933-4, xviii. 

Council and Officers, v. 

CowELL, Prof. S. J., Nutrition in 
relation to disease, 365, 470. 

Cox, E. Gorpon, Crystallographic 
studies of ascorbic acid, 294, 464. 

Crater lake, colour film, by Prof. 
G. B. Barbour, 335*. 

CROWDEN, G. P., Use of bright 
metallic surfaces for increasing 
human comfort in tropics, 289, 463. 

Crowe, P. R., Rainfall probability 
in High Plains regions of U.S.A., 
330, 467. 

CRUICKSHANK, J., Aberdeen joint 
town planning scheme, 328. 

Papermaking in Aberdeen dis- 
trict, Appdx. 91. 

Crustacean larve, functional adapta- 
tion, by G. E. H. Foxon, 317. 


INDEX 


Crystals, plasticity in, by Prof. G. I. 
Taylor, 274. 

Culture, material, as introduction to 
social culture, by Miss A. N. 
Smith, 356. 

Cure, A. O., Prehistoric Shetland, 
Jarlshof excavations, 358*, 469. 


DaLLimorE, W., Amenity planting 
and preservation of natural wood- 
lands, 391, 471. 

Dalradian and Moine formations, 
age of, discussion by Prof. H. H. 
Read, Prof. E. B. Bailey, Dr. R. 
Campbell, Dr. Gertrude Elles, 
Prof. P. E. Eskola, Prof. H. von 
Eckerman, Dr. M. Macgregor, 
Dr. J. Phemister, Prof. C. E. 
Tilley, 304, 465, 466. 

Darsy, Dr. H. C., Climate in later 
Middle Ages, 331, 467. : 
Darinc, Dr. F., Interpretation of 

animal behaviour, 324. 

Darwin, Prof. C. G., Quantum 
theory of free, path, 278. 

Davinson, Prof. L. S. P., Nutrition 
in relation to anemia, 362, 470. 

Davigs, L.. J., Resonance radiations 
in electric discharge lamps, 285. 

Road illumination, 286, 464. 

Davies, Dr. W. L., Chemical com- 
position of abnormal milk, 300, 
464. 

Davis, Dr. A. H., Measurement of 
noise, 349, 468. 

Davy, Dr. J. Burtt, Occurrence of 
male trees of Salix: alba, var. 
caerulea, 389. 

Dawson, J., Education in Aberdeen, 
Appdx. 49. 

Dawson, Dr. S., Psychology and 
social problems, 183, 375*. 

DEBENHAM, Prof. F., Eskimo kayak 
voyage to Aberdeen, 333. 

Dee, flow of, by Capt. W. N. 
McClean, 351, 469. 

Dee and Don, basins, by J. Mc- 
Farlane, 327*. 

DE Haan, Prof. J. A. B., Interpreta- 
tion of animal behaviour, 323. 

Dehra Dun, Forest Research In- 
stitute, by Dr. R. McL. Gorrie, 
390, 471. 


INDEX 


pE LaszL_o, Dr. H., Determination 
of molecular structure by electron 
diffraction, 290, 464. 

Demonstrative and laboratory me- 
thods of teaching science, relative 
merits, by D. N. Howard, 393. 

Dent, A. G. H., Graphic methods 
for business executives, 343, 467. 

Derbyshire caves, report on, 254. 

Desargues configurations from quin- 
tic curve, by Dr. W. L. Marr, 280, 
463. 

Devonian period in Australia, by 
Prof. W. N. Benson, 311, 465. 
Dickinson, Dr. OLtve D., Flora of 

Bas-Languedoc, 384, 471. 

Diesel engines in trawlers, by R. W. 
Allen, 347, 468. 

Diffusion of scientific knowledge to 
farmer in Scotland, by A. 
McCallum, 402, 473. 

Dike rocks of high magnetic sus- 
ceptibility, by A. T. J. Dollar, 
312. 

Disease and nutrition, discussion by 
ee ae 2 ae i Ss ee 
Macleod, Dr. May Mellanby, 
Prof. S. J. Cowell, Dr. H. H. 
Green, Dr. D. Robertson, Dr. 
H. E. Magee, Prof. T. H. Easter- 
field, Dr. Scott Robertson, Dr. 
Ivy Mackenzie, Rt. Hon. W. 
Elliot, Sir F. G. Hopkins, 363, 
401*, 469, 470. 

Dopps, Miss G. B., Learning French 
in Scottish school, 376, 470. 

Research in education, 393*. 

Dogs, localisation of sound by, by 
Prof. D. Katz, 372*, 470. 

Dotiar, A. T. J., Dike rocks of 
high magnetic susceptibility, 312. 

Don and Dee, basins, by J. Mc- 
Farlane, 327*. 

DonouucH, Prof. Acnes C. L., 
Social sanctions and restraints in 
native African society, 355*. 

Dove tas, A. H., Thermal insulation 
of buildings, 287, 464. 

Douetas, Vice-Adml. Sir H. P., on 
Inland water survey, 239. 

Doyte, Prof. J., Pollination in the 
conifers, particularly Abietinez, 
387, 471. 

Drever, Prof. J., Organisation of 
psychological clinics, 396*. 


131 


DreEVER, J.,jun., Insight and opinion, 
379. 

Driperc, J. H., African ancestor 
worship, 354, 469. 

DusreEvIL, H., Autonomous groups 
in industry, 344, 467. 

DucxwortH, F. R. G., Develop- 
ment of post-primary education 
in England from Act of 1902, 394, 
472. 

Durton, A. F., Equivalent tempera- 
ture of room, 288, 464. 

Ducu1, J., Papermaking, 348, 468. 

Dundee School of Economics and 
Commerce, by G. Wilson, 343*, 
468. 

DunuaM, Dr. T., Condé spectro- 
graph of Mt. Wilson Observatory, 
282*. 


Earth pressures, report on, 247, 353*- 

Eartuy, Miss E. D., Health cult of 
an African tribe, 354, 469. 

EASTERFIELD, Prof. T. H., Nutrition 
and disease, 366*, 470. 

EastuaM, J. K., Tin control scheme, 


340. 

Eastwoop, E., Absorption spectrum 
of acrolein, 291, 464. 

Ecological and soil studies in rela- 
tion to forestry and grazing, dis- 
cussion by Dr. W. G. Ogg, Dr. 
A. S. Watt, Dr. A. Muir, Dr. 
G. K. Fraser, E. Wyllie Fenton, 
Sir John Russell, 387*, 403, 472, 
473. 

Ecology of island of S. Rona, by 
Dr. Edith P. Smith, 384, 4717. 

Economic change, need for tech- 
nique of, discussion by Sir 
Josiah Stamp, N. F. Hall, K. 
Lindsay, 341, 467, 468. 

Economic planning, discussion by 
Prof. D. H. Macgregor, Prof. A. 
Gray, Prof. W. F. Bruck, Sir 
Josiah Stamp, 340*, 467. 

Economic planning and agriculture, 
by Prof. J. A. S. Watson, 223, 
4o1*. 

Eppincron, Sir A. S., Theory of 
electric charge and mass, 281. 

Epmonp, R. D., Technical educa- 
tion and industrial recruitment, 


399%. 


132 


EDRIDGE-GREEN, Dr. F. W., Theory 
of vision, 367, 470. 

Education medical aspects, dis- 
cussion by Col. C. J. Bond, Dr. 
R. B. Cattell, 395, 472. 

Educational research, discussion by 
Dr. N. T. Walker, F. W. Reece, 
D. N. Howard, J. L. Holland, 
Miss M. Young, Prof. J. J. 
Findlay, Miss G. B. Dodds, 392, 
472. 

Educational research, report on, 267. 

Educational system, practising psy- 
chologist in, by Dr. R. B. Cattell, 


379- 

Education in Aberdeen, by J. Daw- 
son, Appdx. 49. 

Eggs, inheritance of productivity, 
by Dr. A. W. Greenwood, 322, 
466. 

Egyptian desert plants, absorption 
of water vapour by aerial parts of, 
by Dr. R. E. Chapman, 382. 

Electrical terms and _ definitions, 
report on, 353*. 

Electric charge and mass, by Sir 
A. S. Eddington, 281. 

Electric power, sources of cheap, by 
Prof. F. G. Baily, 145, 346*. 

Electron diffraction and molecular 
structure, by Dr. H. de Laszlo, 
290, 464. 

Electron theory of metals, applica- 
tions, by Dr. H. Jones, 274. 

Electronic theory of metals, dis- 
cussion by Prof. R. H. Fowler, 
Prof. C. G. Darwin, Dr. H. Jones 
and Prof. N. F. Mott, Prof. G. P. 
Thomson, 277, 463. 

Eucee, Mrs. H. W., Megalithic cult 
of eastern moorlands of Yorkshire, 
360. 

ELies, Dr. GERTRUDE L., Age of 
Moine and Dalradian formations, 
305, 465. 

ELLiot, Rt. Hon. W., Nutrition and 
disease, 366*. 

Eskimo kayak voyage to Aberdeen, 
by Prof. F. Debenham, 333. 

Eskoxa, Prof. P. E., Age of Moine 
and Dalradian formations, 305, 
465. P 

EssLEMONT, W. D., Aberdeen granite 
industry, Appdx. 96. 


INDEX 


Eugenics, services of Francis Galton 
to, by Dr. J. F. Tocher, 355, 469. 

European cradles, evolution of, by 
Mrs. M. M. Hasluck, 353, 469. 

Evans, Dr. R. H., Shear stress dis- 
tributions in reinforced concrete 
beams, 353, 468. 

Extension of meaning in children’s 
earliest words, by M. M. Lewis, 
374: 


Fatcon, N. L., Effect of gravity on 
rocks in weathered simple folds, 
303. 

Family in hens, dissolution of, by 
Prof. D. Katz, 372*, 470. 

Farkas, Dr. A., Heavy hydrogen, 
296. 

Farkas, Dr. L., Chemical reactions 
of heavy hydrogen, 297. 

FARQUHARSON, A., Population maps, 
417. 

Fatigue, conventional measures, by 
Dr. S.J. F. Philpott, 376*. 

Fatigue and practice in manual 
process, by L. I. Hunt, 374. 

Fats, biochemistry of animal, by Dr. 
C. H. Lea and Dr. J. A. Lovern, 
371, 470. 

Fawcett, Prof. C. B., Geography 
and the community, 335. 

FEARNSIDES, Prof. W. G., Under- 
ground water supply, 309, 465. 

Feeble-minded boys, immature re- 
action to number, by D. Kennedy- 
Fraser, 371. 

FENTON, E. WYLLIE, Influence of 
grazing on vegetation, 404, 472. 
FERGUSON, Prof. A., on Quantitative 
estimates of sensory events, 268. 
FINDLAY, Prof. J. J., Research in 

education, 393*. 

Fish, preservation as food, by A. 
Lumley and J. Piqué, 370. 

FISHENDEN, Dr. MARGARET, Radia- 


tion from non-luminous gases, 
284, 464. 
Fishes, food of freshwater, by 


F. T. K. Pentelow, 320%, 466. 
Fishing industry, by Dr. R. S. Clark, 
Appdx. 86. 
Fishing industry in Scotland, 1880-— 
1914, by Dr. H. Hamilton, 338, 
467. 


INDEX 


Flame temperatures in petrol engine, 
by B. Lloyd-Evans and S. 
Watts, 284, 464. 

Fireminc, A. P. M., Technical 
education and industrial recruit- 
ment in large centralised industry, 
398, 472. 

Fieure, Prof. H. J., 
grouping, 262. 

Flora of North-East, by A. Mac- 
Gregor, Appdx. 26. 

Fodder conservation on farm, by 
H. J. Page and Dr. S. J. Watson, 
400, 473. 

Feetus, respiratory function of blood 
in, by Prof. J. Barcroft, 362, 470. 

Focc, W., Villages and suqs in 
High Atlas mountains, 334*, 467. 

Food, storage and transport of, by 
Sir Frank Smith, 419. 

Food preservation, symposium by 
A. Lumley and J. Piqué; Dr. T. 
Moran, Dr. G. A. Reay and Dr. 
E. C. Smith; Dr. F. Kidd and 
Dr. C. West; Dr. C. H. Lea and 
Dr. J. A. Lovern, 370, 469, 470. 

Forest biology, some aspects, by Prof. 
A. W. Borthwick, 195, 381*. 

Forest Research Institute, Dehra 
Dun, by Dr. R. McL. Gorrie, 
390, 471. 

Forestry and fungi, by J. Rams- 
bottom, 381*. 

Forestry and grazing in relation to 
ecological and soil studies, dis- 
cussion by Dr. W. G. Ogg, Dr. 
A. S. Watt, Dr. A. Muir, Dr. 
G. K. Fraser, E. Wyllie Fenton, 
Sir John Russell, 387*, 403, 472, 


on Blood 


473. 
Forestry of Aberdeen district, by 
Prof. A. W. Borthwick, Appdx. 


Forminifera, pseudopodial structure 
and movements, by Dr. H. 
Sandon, 318, 466. 

Forster, A. L., Glass silk as 
insulator for heat and sound, 287. 

Fort Grey, report on fossil plants, 267. 

Fort Rae, Polar Year Expedition, by 
J. M. Stagg, 272. 

Fourier transforms, applications, by 
Prof. J. A. Carroll, 279. 

Fow ter, Sir H., on Reduction of 
noise, 252, 348, 468. 


| Foxon, 


133 


Fow er, Sir H., on Stresses in over- 
strained materials, 252. 

Fow.er, Prof. R. H., Quantum 
theory of metals, 277. 

Specific heats of simple gases 
at high temperatures, 272. 

Fox, Dr. C., on Pen Dinas hill fort, 
263. 

G. E. H., Functional 

adaptation in crustacean larve, 
B07. 

Fraser, Dr. G. K., Peats and peaty 
soils, 404. 

Fraser, G. M., Scientists of north- 
east of Scotland, Appdx. 106. 

Fraser, R. J. G., Applications of 
molecular rays to chemical 
problems, 290. 

French, learning of, in Scottish 
school, by Miss G. B. Dodds, 376, 
470. 

Fresh water, biological problems, dis- 
cussion by Prof. F. E. Fritsch, 
Dr. W.H. Pearsall, J.T. Saunders, 
F. T. K. Pentelow, Dr. B. Barnes, 
319, 385*, 466. 

FritscH, Prof. F. E., Origins of 
plankton, 319*, 466. 

Frog’s utricular maculae, physio- 
logy, by Prof. J. Tait and Dr. 
W. J. McNally, 368. 

Fruits, botanical work on cold 
storage, by Prof. V. H. Blackman, 
389%. 

Fruits, storage and transport of 
fresh, by Dr. F. Kidd and Dr. C. 
West, 370, 470. 

Functional adaptation in crustacean 
larve, by G. E. H. Foxon, 317. 
Fungi, biology of aquatic, by Dr. 

B. Barnes, 320. 

Fungi and forestry, by J. Rams- 
bottom, 381*. 

Fungi on flies in Pin Hole Cave, by 
T. Petch, 255. 


Galton, Francis, services to physical 
anthropology and eugenics, by 
Dr. J. F. Tocher, 355, 469. 

Gas in bulk, collection and distribu- 
tion, by Prof. C. H. Lander and 
Dr. E. W. Smith, 347, 469. 

Geppes, Dr. A., Human geography 
of Bengal, 334, 467. 

$2 


134 


General Treasurer’s Account, xxviii. 

GENTLES, J. A., Sunhoney stone 
circle, 359*. 

Geography, co-operative research in, 
by Prof. A. G. Ogilvie, 99, 327*. 

Geography and the community, by 
Prof. C. B. Fawcett, 335. 

Geography of North-East, by J. 
McFarlane, Appdx. 5. 

Geology, plant life and philosophy of, 
by Prof. W. T. Gordon, 49, 304*. 

Geology of Aberdeen district, by Prof. 
A. W. Gibb and Dr. A. Bremner, 

302*, 465, 466, Appdx. 12. 

Gips, Prof. A. W., Geology of 
Aberdeen district, Appdx. 12. 

Solid geology of Aberdeen 
district, 302*, 466. 

Grispons, Dr. S. G., Copepods and 
herring fishery problems, 316. 

Ginkgoales, reproductive organs of 
fossil, by Prof. T. M. Harris, 387. 

Glacial and interglacial deposits at 
Benholm, by Dr. R. Campbell 
and Dr. I. M. Robertson, 313, 
466. 

Glacial cause of changing climates, 
by M. B. Cotsworth, 314. 

Glass silk as insulator for heat and 
sound; by A. L. Forster, 287. 

Gorpon, Prof. W. T., Plant life and 
philosophy of geology, 49, 304*. 

GorrigE, Dr. R. McL., Forest Re- 
search Institute, Dehra Dun, 390, 


471. 

GraHaM, Prof. R. J. D., Work of 
L. B. Stewart, 386, 4712. 

Granite and granite quarrying, by 
F.S. Anderson, 347, 468. 

Granite industry, Aberdeen, by W. D. 
Esslemont, Appdx. 96. 

Granites, economic uses of Aber- 
deen, by Dr. B. H. Knight, 311, 
466, 

Granites of Aberdeenshire, by C. B. 
Bisset, Dr. S. Buchan, Miss J. E. 
Imlay, and J. A. Robbie, 302, 465. 

GrantT, J.S., Calf rearing, 399*, 472. 

Granular material, mechanics of, by 
Prof. C. F. Jenkin, 247. 

Graphic methods for business execu- 
tives, by A. G. H. Dent, 343, 467. 

Grappenhall, excavation of Bronze 
Age burial cairns, by A. L. Arm- 
strong, 359. 


INDEX 


GrassiE, J. C., Timber testing and 
laboratory practice for forest 
engineering students, 392*. 

Gravity, effect on rocks in weathered 
simple folds, by J. V. Harrison 
and N. L. Falcon, 303. 

Gray, Prof. A., Economic planning, 
340*, 467. 

Grazing and forestry in relation to 
ecological and soil studies, dis- 
cussion by Dr. W. G. Ogg, Dr. 
A.S. Watt, Dr. A. Muir, Dr.G.K. 
Fraser, E. Wyllie Fenton, Sir John 
Russell, 387*, 403, 472, 473. 

Greaves, W. M. H., 36-inch re- 
flector at Royal Observatory, 
Greenwich, 276*. 

GREEN, F. H. W., Distribution of 
settlements in Moray Firth low- 
lands, 336. 

GREEN, Dr. H. H., Nutrition in 
relation to diseases of larger 
domesticated animals, 365, 470. 

Greenland, social geography, by 
Prof. W. W. Jervis, 332. 

GREENWOOD, Dr. A. W., Inheritance 
of productivity in eggs, 322, 466. 

Grecor, Dr. Mary J. F., Disease of 
Bracken caused by Corticium 
anceps, 384, 471. 

GreEGorRY, Sir R., Development of 
post-primary education during 
present century, 395*. 

GRIFFITHS, Dr. Ezer, Heat trans- 
mission in relation to industry, 
286. 

GRIFFITHS, R., Problems in measure- 
ment of temperature in steelworks, 
284. 

Growth, influence of light and tem- 
perature upon, by T. A. Oxley, 
382, 471. 

Guna, Dr. B. S., Racial types in 
India, 355. 

GUNTHER, E. R., Biological im- 
portance of sea currents, 326. 


Haddock, fishing intensity and stock 


replenishment, by Dr. D. S. 
Raitt, 316, 466. 
Hemoglobins, by Dr. G. A. 


Millikan, 363, 470. 
HaicH, Prof. B. P., Lower yield 
point in mild steel, 352, 468. 


INDEX 


135 


Hatcrow, W. T., Scottish hydro- | Heavy hydrogen, preparation and 


electric stations, 346, 468. 
Hatt, Sir A. D., Planning of agri- 
cultural production, 401, 473. 
Hau, N. F., Need for technique of 
economic change, 342, 467. 


Hatiam, H., Impact testing, 351, | 


468. 

Hallé’s new technique for study of 
incrusted plant remains on pri- 
mary rocks, by Dr. 
Benson, 388, 471. 

HALtswortu, H. M., Future of rail 
transport, 119, 339*. 

Hamitton, Dr. H., Education for 
commerce in Aberdeen Univer- 
sity, 343. 

Scottish fishing industry 1880— 
1914, 338, 467. 

HAMMonp, J., Inheritance of pro- 
ductivity in meat, 320, 466. 

HarpeNn, Prof. A., History of Vita- 
min C, 292, 464. 

Harpy, Prof. A. C., Biological im- 
portance of sea currents, 326%, 
466. 

Harpy, Sir WILLIAM Bate, facing 


419. 

—— Memorial lecture, by Sir Frank 
Smith, 419. 

Harmer, Sir S., on Zoological 
Record, 245. 


Harris, Prof. T. M., Reproductive 
organs of fossil Ginkgoales, 387. 
Harrison, J. V., Effect of gravity 
on rocks in weathered simple 

folds, 303. 

Hastuck, Mrs. M. M., Flattening of 
Albanian heads and evolution of 
European cradles, 353, 469. 

HawortH, Prof. W. N., Synthesis 
of ascorbic acid and analogues, 
295, 465. 

Heart-beat, regulation by posture, 


by Prof. J. A. MacWilliam, 369, | 393. 
| Howe, Prof. G. W. O., Rotating 


470. 


Heat production in man, by T. W. | 


Adams and Dr. E. 
366, 470. 

Heat transmission in pipes of rect- 
angular section, by A. Bailey and 
W. F. Cope, 290. 

Heat transmission in relation to 
industry, by Dr. Ezer Griffiths, 
286. 


P. Poulton, 


Margaret | 


properties, discussion by Prof. 
E. K. Rideal, Dr. A. Farkas, 
H. W. Melville, G. B. B. M. 
Sutherland, Dr. L. Farkas, C. 
Strachan, 275*, 296, 465. 

HENDERSON, Sir J. B., Development 
of invention as stimulus to eco- 
nomic recovery, 350, 468. 

HENpRICK, Prof. J., Soils of north- 
east of Scotland, Appdx. 84. 

Hens, dissolution of family in, by 
Prof. D. Katz, 372*, 470. 

HERBERT, E. G., Periodic hardness 
fluctuations induced in metals, 
284, 464. 

Herring caught on drift-net and 
Fladen grounds, by Dr. H. Wood, 
316, 467. 

Herring fishery problems and cope- 
pods, by Dr. S. G. Gibbons, 316. 

Hick.inc, Prof. G., Underground 
water supply, 309*, 465. 

Hivpitcu, Prof. T. P., Chemical 
nature of glycerides of milk-fat, 
301, 465. 

Hix, Prof. W. C. O., Affinities of 
Lorisoids, 318. 

Physical anthropology 
Veddahs of Ceylon, 361, 469. 

Hirst, Dr. E. L., Chemical pro- 
perties and structure of ascorbic 
acid, 293, 465. 

Hoven, Prof. H. S., on Anatomy 
of timber-producing trees, 266. 

HOo.L.ianp, J. L., Research in educa- 
tion, 393*. 

Hopkins, Sir F. G., Nutrition and 
disease, 366*. 

HotTine, Maj. M., National maps 
as backgrounds, 329. 

Howarp, D. N., Relative merits of 
laboratory and demonstrative 
methods teaching science, 


of 


of 


field of cylindrical bar magnet, 
272, 463. 

Howe ut, H. G., Recent applications 
of spectroscopy, 277, 463. 

Huccins, K. H., Geographical 
distribution of early iron-smelting 
industry of Scotland, 336. 

Hunt, L. I., Fatigue and practice 
in manual process, 374. 


136 


HutTcuinson, H. P., General willow 
cultivation, 389, 472. 

Hydro-electric stations, Scottish, 
by W. T. Halcrow, 346, 468. 

Hypnosis and sleep, by Dr. W. 
Brown, 375. 


Imiay, Miss J. E., Aberdeenshire 
granites, 302, 466. 

Impact testing, by H. Hallam and 
Prof. R. V. Southwell, 351, 468, 
469. 

India, population distribution, 1931, 
by J. N. L. Baker, 334*. 

India, racial types, by Dr. B. S. 
Guha, 355. 

Industrial recruitment and technical 
education, discussion by J. W. 
Bispham, A. P. M. Fleming, 
G. W. Thomson, W. Rintoul, 
G. A. Robinson, Dr. C. S. Myers, 


R. D. Edmond, Princ. J. C. 
Smail, 344*, 397,472. 
Industrial relations, experimental 


method in, discussion by j 
Dubreuil, Prof. F. Meyenberg, 
R. J. Mackay, 344, 467, 468. 

Industry, autonomous groups in, 
by H. Dubreuil, 344, 467. 

Inheritance of productivity, dis- 
cussion by J. Hammond, A. D. B. 
Smith, Dr. A. W. Greenwood, 
Dr. J. E. Nichols, Dr. J. L. Lush, 
320, 466, 467. 

Inland water survey, report on, 239, 
a5n7: 

Insect epidemics, cycles, by Dr. 
D.S. MacLagan, 315*, 466. 

Insects, protective colouration, by 
Prof. G. D. Hale Carpenter, 
319*. 

Insight and opinion, by J. Drever, 
jun., 379. 

Intelligence testing of secondary 
school boys at Liverpool Institute, 
by F. W. Reece, 393. 

International trade accounts, by 
Prof. F. W. Ogilvie, 341*. 

Invention, development of, as 
stimulus to economic recovery, 
by Sir J. B. Henderson, 350, 468. 

Ionosphere, discussion by Prof. 
E. V. Appleton, J. A. Ratcliffe, 
R. Naismith, 269, 463. 


INDEX 


Iron-smelting, early geographical 
distribution in Scotland, by K. H. 
Huggins, 336. 

Irrigation in Norway, by Dr. Elspet 
W. Milne, 333. 

Isotopes, adsorption of gaseous, by 
C. Strachan, 298. 

Isotopes, roll-call of, by Dr. F. W. 
Aston, 273. 


Jackson, Dr. J. W., on Rodent 
remains from Pin Hole Cave, 256. 

Jackson, K. H., Gaelic Shanachies, 
as 

JAEDERHOLM, Prof. G. A., Conver- 
sation in early childhood, 375*. 

Jarlshof, excavations, by A. O. 
Curle, 358*, 469. 

JEANS, Sir J. H., New world-picture 
of modern physics, 1. 

Jehol, physiography, by Prof. G. B. 
Barbour, 335*. 

JENKIN, Prof. C. F., on Mechanics of 
granular material, 247. 

Jervis, Prof. W. W., Social geo- 
graphy of Greenland, 332. 

JOHANSEN, F. C., Refrigerated rail- 
way transport, 287, 464. 

Jounson, Dr. T., Leaf beds of 
Ardtun, Canna and Skye, 388. 

Jones, Dr. H., Applications of 
electron theory of metals, 274. 

Electronic theory of metals, 
278. 

Jones, Dr. LL. Wynn, Persevera- 
tion, 372. 

Joyce, Capt. T. A., Use and origin 
of Yerba Maté, 161, 359*. 


Katz, Prof. D., Dissolution of 
family in hens, 372*, 470. 

Localisation of sound by dogs, 

372*, 470. 

Psychology of needs, 381, 470. 

Katz, Dr. Rosa, Social contact of 
children speaking different lan- 
guages, 375, 471. 

Kay, Prof. H. D., Chemistry of 
milk, 299*, 465. 

KEILLER, A., Megalithic monu- 
ments of North-East, 358*, 469. 

KEITH, Sir A.,on Kent’s Cavern, 258. 


INDEX 


Keiity, Dr. 


W., Architecture in 
Aberdeen, Appdx. 57. 
KENNEDY-FRASER, D., Immature 
reaction to number of older 


feeble-minded boys, 371. 
Kent’s Cavern, report on, 258. 


Kipp, Dr. F., Storage and transport | 


of fresh fruits, 370, 470. 
Krumins, Dr. C. W., Psychological 
and child guidance clinics, 397*. 
Kincardine, agricultural distribu- 

tions, by Dr. Catherine P. Snod- 
grass, 329, 467. 
Kine, Rev. Dr. J. L., Perseveration 
and complex-synthesis, 373, 471. 
Kitson, Sir A. E., Necessity of 
recording well-sinkings, &c., 410. 
Underground water supply, 
308, 465. 


137 


Light, theories of, by Prof. H. M. 
Macdonald, 19, 273*. 

Limestone-diorite contact near Dor- 
back Lodge, by Dr. F. Walker, 313. 

LINDERSTR@M-LANG, Dr. K., Chemi- 
cal and physical properties of 
casein, 300, 465. 


| Linpsay, K., Need for technique of 


Knicut, Dr. B. H., Economic uses | 


of Aberdeen granites, 311, 466. 
Kwicut, H. pe B., Thyratrons and 
resistance welding, 285, 464. 
Knicut, R., Child guidance 

Aberdeen, 396. 
Interpretation of animal be- 
haviour, 324. 
Kon, Dr. S. K., Vitamins of milk, 
301, 465. 


Laboratory and demonstrative 
methods of teaching science, rela- 
tive merits, by D. N. Howard, 


393. : 
Lakes, temperature observations and 
water movements, by J. T. 


Saunders, 320*. 

Land utilisation and ecologist, by 
Dr. A. S. Watt, 403*. 

Lanpber, Prof. C. H., Gas in bulk, 
347, 469. . 

Languages, social contact of children 
speaking different, by Dr. Rosa 
Katz, 375, 471. 


in | 
| Lowry, 


Lea, Dr. C. H., Biochemistry of | 


animal fats, 371. 

Lead Dales of N. Pennines, by A. E. 
Smailes, 337, 467. 

Learning, clinical aspects of prob- 
lems in, by Dr. Mary M. 
MacTaggart, 397, 472. 

Lewis, M. M., Extension of mean- 
ing in children’s earliest words, 


374- 


economic change, 342, 467. 

Liverpool Institute, intelligence 
testing of secondary school boys 
at, by F. W. Reece, 393. 


| Litoyp-Evans, B., Flame tempera- 


tures in a petrol engine, 284, 464. 

Lorisoids, affinities, of, by Prof. 
W.C. O. Hill, 318. 

LoverN, Dr. J. A., Biochemistry of 
animal fats, 371, 470. 

Lowestoft Fisheries _ Laboratory, 
fishery applications of marine 
current research, by Dr. J. N. 
Carruthers, 325. 

Lownpes, A. G., Movement of 
ostracod spermatozoa, 318. 

Prof. T. M., Physical 
methods in chemistry, 29, 290*. 

LuMLtey, A., Preservation of fish as 
food, 370. 

LusH, Dr. J. L., Inheritance of 
productivity, 322*, 466. 

Lycopodiales, regeneration in, by 
Dr. S. Williams, 386. 

Lyons, Col. Sir H. G., Scientific 
societies and museums, 406. 


McCatuium, A., Diffusion of scien- 
tific knowiedge to farmer in Scot- 
land, 402, 473. 

McCatium, E. D., Recent economic 
changes in Scotland, 339. 

MacCatnan, Dr. D. R., Psychiatric 
aspect of child guidance, 396. 

McCieEan, Capt. W. N., Flow of 
river Dee, 351, 469. 

McCrea, Dr. W. H., Observable 
relations in relativity, 276, 463. 
Unified field-theories and the 

quantum theory, 278. 

MacCu.ttocu, Rev. Canon J. 
Scottish witch trials, 361, 469. 

MacpbonaLp, Prof. H. M., Theories 
of Light, 19, 273*. 

McDouea.t, Prof. W., Interpreta- 
tion of animal behaviour, 324*. 


AS 


138 
McFar.ang, J., Basins of Dee and 
Don, 327*. 
Geography of North - East, 
Appdx. 5. 


MacGrecor, A., Flora of North- 
East, Appdx. 26. 

Maccrecor, Prof. D. H., Economic 
planning, 340*, 467. 

Maccrecor, Dr. M., Age of Moine 
and Dalradian formations, 306, 
465. 

MclItwraity, Prof. T. F., Influence 
of mythology on culture of 
coastal Indians of British Colum- 
bia, 360*. 

Mackay, R. J., Readjustment of 
relations between finance-capital, 
management and labour, 346, 468. 

McKecuniz, W. W., Development 
of post-primary education in Scot- 
land from Act of 1902, 394, 472. 

MackenzigE, Dr. Ivy, Nutrition and 
disease, 366*. 

Physiological basis of visual 
sensation, 367. 

Macxkiz, M., Fattening of store 

cattle, 399, 473. 

MacLacan, Dr. D. S., Cycles in 

insect epidemics, 315*, 466. 

Mac.eop, Prof. J. J. R., Nutrition 

in relation to disease, 364, 470. 

McNa ty, Dr. W. J., Physiology of 

frog’s utricular macule, 368. 

MacTaccart, Dr. Mary M., 
Clinical aspects of problems in 
learning, 397, 472. 

MacWii1am, Prof. J. A., Regula- 
tion of heart-beat and blood 
pressure by posture, 369, 470. 

Maceg, Dr. H. E., Nutrition and 
disease, 366*. 

Management consultant and in- 
dustrial relations, by Prof. F. 
Meyenberg, 345, 468. 

Manton, Dr. S.M.., Peripatus, 316*. 

Manual process, fatigue and prac- 
tice, by L. I. Hunt, 374. 

Maps, national, as backgrounds, by 
Maj. M. Hotine, 329. 

Marine animals, distribution and 
history of continents, by Prof. J. 
Versluys, 317, 467. 

Marr, Dr. W. L., Desargues con- 
figurations from quintic curve, 
280, 463. 


INDEX 


Marsu, Dr. M. C., Interchange of 
heat as affecting clothing material, 
289, 464. 

Marwick, W. H., Economic de- 
velopment of Victorian Scotland, 
338. 

Mass and electric charge, by Sir 
A.S. Eddington, 281. 

Maternal drives in the rat, by Dr. 
B. P. Wiesner, 380, 471. 

Mathematical tables, report on, 237. 

Mat ey, Dr. C. A., 50-ft. platform 
in N. Wales, 314. 

MaxTED, R., Road illumination, 286, 
464. 

MaxweELu, E. A., Theory of sur- 
faces, 281. 

Meat, inheritance of productivity, 
by J. Hammond, 320, 466. 

Mepp, R. T., Aerial cableways, 352, 
469. 

Medical aspects of education, dis- 

cussion by Col. C. J. Bond, Dr. 

R. B. Cattell, 395, 472. 

Megalithic cult of eastern moorlands 

of Yorkshire, by Mrs. H. W. 

Elgee, 360. 

Megalithic monuments of North- 

East, by A. Keiller, 358*, 469. 

MELLANBY, Dr. May, Nutrition in 

relation to disease, 364, 470. 

MELVILLE, H. W., Heavy hydrogen 

and chemical kinetics, 296. 

Mendoza, Collection of, by J. C. 

Clark, 360. 

Mental ability, inheritance, by Dr. 

L. S. Penrose, 378, 471. 

Mental ability, two-factor theory 

versus sampling theory, by Dr. W. 

Brown, 376. 

MEYENBERG, Prof. F., Management 

consultant and industrial relations, 

345, 468. 

Milk, chemistry of, discussion by 
Prof. H. D. Kay, Dr. J. F. 
Tocher, Dr. W. L. Davies, Dr. K. 
Linderstr@m-Lang, Prof. T. P. 
Hilditch, Dr.S. K. Kon, Dr. N.C. 
Wright, 299, 403*, 464, 465. 

Milk, inheritance of productivity, 
by A. D. B. Smith, 321, 467. 

Miter, Miss F. C., Population 
changes in Wessex in twentieth 
century, 337. 


INDEX 


MILuIKaN, Dr. G. A., Hemoglobins, 
363, 470. 

Ming, Prof. E. A., Significance of 
absorption lines of stellar spectra, 
282*. 

Mine, Dr. Exsper W., Irrigation 
in Norway, 333. 


Mineral world, exploration by X-rays, | 


by Prof. W. L. Bragg, 437. 

MITcHELL, J. H., Resonance radia- 
tions in electric discharge lamps, 
285. 

Moine and Dalradian formations, 
age of, discussion by Prof. H. H. 
Read, Prof. E. B. Bailey, Dr. R. 
Campbell, Dr. Gertrude Elles, 
Prof. P. E. Eskola, Prof. H. von 
Eckerman, Dr. M. Macgregor, 
Dr. J. Phemister, Prof. C. E. 
Tilley, 307, 465, 466. 

Molecular rays and chemical prob- 
lems, by Dr. R. G. J. Fraser, 
290. 

Molecular structure and electron 
diffraction, by Dr. H. de Laszlo, 
290, 464. 

Moran, Dr. T., Temperature and 
post-mortem changes in muscle 
proteins, 370, 470. 

Moray Firth lowlands, distribution 
of settlements, by F. H. W. Green, 
336. 

Morocco, villages and suqs in High 
Atlas mountains, by W. Fogg, 
334*, 467. 

Motor bicycle exhaust, reduction of 
noise, by Wing-Cmdr. T. R. 
Cave-Browne-Cave, 349, 468. 

Motor horns, effective and offensive, 
by E. O. Turner, 350, 468. 

Morr, Prof. N. F., Electronic theory 
of metals, 278. 

Murr, Dr. A., Forest soils, 403, 473. 

Muscle proteins, temperature and 
post-mortem changes in, by Dr. 
T. Moran, Dr. G. A. Reay and 
Dr. E. C. Smith, 370, 470. 

Museums and scientific societies, by 
Col. Sir H. G. Lyons, 406. 

Myers, Dr. C. S., on Vocational 
tests, 264. 

Technical education and in- 
dustrial recruitment, 399*. 

Myeres, Prof. J. L., on Bronze Age 
implements, 257. 


139 


Myrmecophiles, species-transforma- 
tion in South American, by Prof. 
A. Reichensperger, 317*, 466. 

Mythology, influence on culture 
of coastal Indians of British 
Columbia, by Prof. T. F. Mcll- 
wraith, 360*. 


NAItsMITH, R., Ionosphere, 271, 463. 

Narrative of meeting, xvi. 

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF INDUSTRIAL 
PsycHoLocy, Vocational guidance 
experiment in Fife, 377. 

National parks, by P. Thomsen, 411. 

National parks for Scotland, by 
Prof. F. G. Baily, 410. 

Needs, psychology of, by Prof. D. 
Katz, 381, 470. 

NEVILLE, Prof. E. H., on Mathe- 
matical tables, 237. 

New Zealand, land forms in S.E., by 
Prof. W. N. Benson, 334, 467. 
New Zealand, Ordovician rocks, by 
Prof. W. N. Benson, 311, 465. 
NicuHots, Dr. J. E., Inheritance of 

productivity, wool, 322, 466. 

Noise reduction, discussion by Sir 
H. Fowler, Wing-Cmdr. Cave- 
Browne-Cave, Dr. A. H. Davis, 
E. O. Turner, 348, 468, 469. 

Noise reduction, report on, 252, 348*. 

Norway, irrigation, by Dr. Elspet 
W. Milne, 333. 

Norwoop, Dr. C., Developments in 
post-primary education to meet 
requirements of present - day 
pupils, 395*, 472. 

Null systems for testing concave 
telescope mirrors, by C. R. 
Burch, 276. 

Number, immature reaction to, by 
older feeble-minded boys, by 
D. Kennedy-Fraser, 371. 

Nutrition and disease, discussion by 
Dr. J. B. Orr, Prof. J. J. R. Mac- 
leod, Dr. May Mellanby, Prof. 
S. J. Cowell, Dr. H. H. Green. 
Dr. D. Robertson, Dr. H. E, 
Magee, Prof. T. H. Easterfield, 
Dr. Scott Robertson, Dr. Ivy 
Mackenzie, Rt. Hon. W. Elliot, 
Sir F. G. Hopkins, 363, 401*, 
469, 470. 

Nutrition in relation to anemia, by 
Prof. L. S. P. Davidson, 362, 470. 


140 


Oak.eEy, C. A., Vocational guidance 
surveys, 377, 471. 

OakLeY, K. P., Pearl- like bodies in 
certain Silurian Polyzoa, 310, 466. 
O’DeLL, A. C., Population changes 

in Aberdeenshire, 335. 

OrseR, Dr. O. A., Psychological 
aspects of ‘ laissez-faire ’ in educa- 
tion, 380, 471. 

Officers and Council, v. 

Oac, Dr. W. G., Soil and ecological 
studies in relation to forestry and 
grazing, 403. 

Ocitviz, Prof. A. G., Co-operative 
research in geography, 99, 327*. 
Ocitviz, Prof. F. W., International 

trade accounts, 341*. 

Opinion and insight, by J. Drever, 
jun., 379. 

Optical exaltation, origin in con- 
jugated hydrocarbons, by Dr. 
C. B. Allsopp, 291, 464. 

Ordovician rocks of New Zealand, 
by Prof. W. N. Benson, 311, 465. 

Orr, Dr. J. B., Nutrition in relation 
to disease, 363, 470. 

Ostracod spermatozoa, movement 
of, by A. G. Lowndes, 318. 

Ox ey, T. A., Influence of light and 
temperature on growth, 382, 471. 


PacE, H. J., Fodder conservation on 
farm, 400, 473. 

Papermaking, by J. 
Duguid, 348, 468. 

Papermaking in Aberdeen district, by 
J. Cruickshank, Appdx., 91. 

PaTERSON, C. C., Photoelectricity, 
art and politics, 276*, 445. 

PEARSALL, Dr. W. H., Causes of 
algal abundance, 319. 

Peats and peaty soils, by Dr. G. K. 
Fraser, 404. 

Pen Dinas hill fort, report on, 263. 

PENROSE, Dr. L. S., Inheritance of 
mental ability, 378, 472. 

PENTELOW, F. 'T. K., Food of some 
freshwater fishes, 320*, 466. 

Periodic hardness fluctuations in- 
duced in metals, by E. G. Herbert, 
284, 464. 

Peripatus, by Dr. S. M. Manton, 
316*. 


Abel and J. 


INDEX 


Perseveration, discussion, by Dr. 
Ll. W. Jones, Dr. W. Stephenson, 
Dr. P. E. Vernon, Rev. Dr. J. L. 
King, 372, 471. 

Petcu, T., on Fungi on flies in Pin 
Hole Cave, 255. 

Peterhead and Cairngall granites, by 
Dr. S. Buchan, 303, 466. 

Petrol engine, flame temperatures 
in, by B. Lloyd-Evans and S. S. 
Watts, 284, 464. 

Petrology of dike rocks of high 
magnetic susceptibility, by A. T. J. 
Dollar, 312. 

PHEMISTER, Dr. J., Age of Moine 
and Dalradian formations, 307,465. 

Puiuip, Dr. G., Scientists of north- 
east of Scotland, Appdx. 106. 

Puituipes, L. H. J., Prof. Zernike’s 
phase contrast method of micro- 
scopic illumination, 277. 

Puitpott, Dr. S. J. F., Conven- 
tional measures of fatigue, 376*. 

Photoelectricity, art and politics, by 
N. R. Campbell and C. C. Pater- 
son, 276*, 445. 

Physical methods in chemistry, by 
Prof. T. M. Lowry, 29, 290*. 

Physics, new world-picture of modern, 
by Sir J. H. Jeans, 1. 

Physiological and psychological de- 
velopment of child and adolescent 
and claims made on education, 
by Col. C. J. Bond, 395, 472. 

PickForD, Dr. R. W., Group psycho- 
logy of Barbizon painters, 378, 471. 

Pictish symbolism and_ sculptured 
stones of north-east Scotland, by 
Dr. W. D. Simpson, Appdx. 66. 

Pin Hole Cave, fungi on flies in, by 
T. Petch, 255. 

Pin Hole Cave, rodent remains from, 
by Dr. J. W. Jackson, 256. 

PiquE, J., Preservation of fish as 
food, 370. 

Plankton, origins of, by Prof. F. E. 
Fritsch, 319*, 466. 

Planning, economic, discussion by 
Prof. D. H. Macgregor, Prof. A. 
Gray, Prof. W. F. Bruck, Sir 
Josiah Stamp, 340%, 467. 

Planning of agricultural production, 
by Sir A. D. Hall, 401, 473. 

Plant life and philosophy of geology 
by Prof. W. T. Gordon, 49, 304* 


INDEX 


Polar Year Expedition to Fort Rae, 
by J. M. Stagg, 272. 

Pollination in conifers, by Prof. J. 
Doyle, 387, 471. 

Population changes in Aberdeen- 
shire, by A. C. O’Dell, 335. 

Population changes in Wessex in 
twentieth century, by Miss F. C. 
Miller, 337. 

Population distribution in India, 
1931, by J. N. L. Baker, 334*. 
Population maps, by A. Farquharson, 

417. 

Post-primary education, develop- 
ment during present century, 
discussion by F. R. G. Duck- 
worth, W. W. McKechnie, Dr. C. 
Norwood, Sir J. C. Stamp, H. T. 
Tizard, Dr. W. W. Vaughan, Sir 
R. Gregory, 394, 472. 

Posture, regulation of heart-beat and 
blood pressure by, by Prof. J. A. 
MacWilliam, 369, 470. 

Potato tubers, effect of carbon 
monoxide on, by W. A. Clark, 382. 

Poutton, Dr. E. P., Heat produc- 
tion in man, 366, 470. 

Practice and fatigue in manual pro- 
cess, by L. I. Hunt, 374. 


PRIESTLEY, Prof. J. H., Vessel 
differentiation in Angiosperms, 
385, 471. 


Productivity, inheritance, discussion 
by J. Hammond, A. D. B. Smith, 
Dr. A. W. Greenwood, Dr. J. E. 
Nichols, Dr. J. L. Lush, 320, 
466, 467. 

Projective relativity, by Dr. J. H.C. 
Whitehead, 279 

Protective colouration in _ insects 
with special reference to mimicry, 
by Prof G. D. Hale Carpenter, 
319. 

Protoplasm, structure, by Prof. W. 
Seifriz, 382*, 471. 

Pseudopodial structure in Formini- 
fera, by Dr. H. Sandon, 318, 466. 

Psychiatric aspect of child guidance, 
by Dr. D. R. MacCalman, 396. 

Psychological and child guidance 
clinics, discussion by Prof. J. 
Drever, Dr. D. R. MacCalman, 
R. Knight, Dr. Mary M. Mac- 
Taggart, Dr. C. W. Kimmins, 
Dr. R. B. Cattell, 378*, 396, 472. 


141 


Psychological and _ physiological 
development of child and adoles- 
cent, and claims made on educa- 
tion, by Col. C. J. Bond, 395, 
472. 

Psychological aspects of ‘ laissez- 
faire ’ in education, by Dr. O. A. 
Oeser, 380, 471. 

Psychologist, place in educational 
system, by Dr. R. B. Cattell, 379. 

Psychology and social problems, by 
Dr. S. Dawson, 183, 375*. 

Psychology of needs, by Prof. D. 
Katz, 381, 470. 

Psychotic patients, association tests, 
by R. J. Bartlett, 372. 

Publication, references to, 463. 


Quantum theory of free path, by 
Prof. C. G. Darwin, 278. 

Quantum theory of metals, by Prof. 
R. H. Fowler, 277. 


Radiation from non-luminous gases, 
by Dr. Margaret Fishenden, 284, 
464. 

Rag, Prof. R., Systems of rearing and 
feeding for production of young 
beef, 400, 473. 

Racuan, Rt. Hon. Lord, Cult of 
animals, 359, 469. 

Rail transport, future, by H. M. 
Hallsworth, 119, 339*- 

Railway transport, refrigerated, by 
F. C. Johansen, 287, 464. 

Rainfall of China, by W. Smith, 
330. 

Rainfall probability in High Plains 
region of U.S.A., by P. R. Crowe, 
330, 467. 

Ralstrick, Dr. A., Microspores of 
Carboniferous coals, 310. 

Raitt, Dr. D. S., Fishing intensity 
and stock replenishment in had- 
dock, 316, 466. 

RAMSBOTTOM, J., Fungi and forestry, 
38x*. 

Rat, maternal drives in, by Dr. B. P. 
Wiesner, 380, 471. 

RaTcLiFFE, J. A., Ionosphere, 270, 
463. 

Rattray, Capt., R. S., Future of 
anthropology in Africa or else- 
where, 354. 


142 


Reap, Prof. H. H., Age of Moine and 
Dalradian formations, 304, 466. 
Readjustment of relations between 
finance-capital, management and 
labour, by R. J. Mackay, 346, 468. 

Reay, Dr. G. A., Temperature and 
post-mortem changes in muscle 
proteins, 370, 470. 

ReEEcE, F. W., Intelligence testing of 
secondary school boys at Liverpool 
Institute, 393. 

Refrigerated railway transport, by 
F. C. Johansen, 287, 464. 

REICHENSPERGER, Prof. A., Species- 
transformation in South American 
Myrmecophiles, 317*, 466. 

REICHSTEIN, Dr. T., Ascorbic acid 
and related substances, 295, 465. 


Reip, Prof. R. Prehistoric 
archaeology in Aberdeen district, 
Appdx. 68. 


Relativity, observable relations, by 
Dr. W. H. McCrea, 276, 463. 

Relativity, projective, by Dr. J. H.C. 
Whitehead, 279. 

Research Committees, x1. 

Research in education, discussion by 
Dr. N. T. Walker, F. W. Reece, 
D. N. Howard, J. L. Holland, 
Miss M. Young, Prof. J. J. Find- 
lay, Miss G. B. Dodds, 392, 472. 

Resolutions and Recommendations, 
xlvi, 417. 

Resonance radiations in electric dis- 
charge lamps, by L. J. Davies and 
J. H. Mitchell, 285. 

Rhynie Chert, animal remains in, 
by D. J. Scourfield, 310, 466. 

RIDEAL, Prof. E. K., Heavy hydrogen, 
.296*. 

Rintoul, W., Technical education of 
industrial chemists, 399, 472. 

Risk, significance in modern eco- 
nomy, by Prof. W. F. Bruck, 339, 
467. 

Ritcure, Prof. J., Animal life of 
north-east Scotland, Appdx. 20. 
Road illumination, by L. J. Davies 

and R. Maxted, 286, 464. 

Roadside planting, by Maj. S. 
Strang Steel, 391. 

Roar, Prof. H. E., Normal and 
abnormal colour vision, 169, 367*. 
RossiE, J. A.,Aberdeenshire granites, 

302, 466. 


INDEX 


ROBERTSON, Dr. D., Nutrition and 
helminth infestations, 366, 470. 
ROBERTSON, Dr. I. M., Glacial de- 

posits at Benholm, 313, 466. 

ROBERTSON, Dr. Scott, Nutrition 
and disease, 366*. 

Rosinson, G. A., Technical educa- 
tion and industrial recruitment, 
399%. 

Rodent remains from Pin Hole Cave, 
by Dr. J. W. Jackson, 256. 

Ropcer, A., Borstal experiment in 
vocational guidance, 377. 

Rocers, Dr. A. W., on Fossil plants 
at Fort Grey, 267. 

Rotating field of cylindrical bar 
magnet, by Prof. G. W. O. Howe, 
272, 463. 

Rotatory power, origin of optical, by 
S. F. Boys, 291, 464. 

Roucuton, Dr. F. J. W., Carbon 
dioxide transport, 363, 470. 

Routine manual factor, report on, 264. 

Rowson, S., Remittances abroad for 
cinematograph films, 341*, 467. 

Roxsy, Prof. P. M., on Human 
geography of tropical Africa, 246. 

Rurr, H. R., Commercial produc- 
tion of ultra-violet radiation, 285, 
464. 

Rural life in relation to scientific 
progress and economic planning, by 
Prof. J. A. S. Watson, 223, 401*. 

RussELL, Dr. E. S., Study of be- 
haviour, 83, 315*. 

RUSSELL, Sir JOHN, Soil and ecolo- 
gical studies in relation to forestry 
and grazing, 405*. 


Salix alba, var. caerulea, cytological 
method of distinguishing from 
closely related species, by Dr. 
Kathleen Blackburn and J. Wil- 
kinson, 383, 472. 

Salix alba, var. caerulea, occurrence 
of male trees, by Dr. J. Burtt 
Davy, 389. 

SANDON, Dr. H., Pseudopodial struc- 
ture and movements in Formini- 
fera, 318, 466. 

SAUNDERS, J. T., Temperature ob- 
servations and water movements 
in lakes, 320*. 


INDEX 


SAUNDERS, O. A., Convection in 
gases at high pressures, 285, 
464. 

Science and animal industry, by 
Prof. J. A. S. Watson, 4o1*. 

Science and rural life, discussion by 
Prof. J. A. S. Watson, Sir A. D. 
Hall, A. McCallum, Prof. W.G.S. 
Adams, 401, 473. 

Science at Universities, by H. T. 
Tizard, 207, 392*. 

Scientific progress and economic plan- 
ning in relation to agriculture and 
rural life, by Prof. J. A. S. 
Watson, 223, 401*. 

Scientific societies and museums, by 
Col. Sir H. G. Lyons, 406. 

Scientists of north-east of Scotland, by 
G. M. Fraser and Dr. G. Philip, 
Appdx. 106. 

Scotland, arrival of Celts in, by 
Prof. V. G. Childe, 357, 469. 

Scotland, development of post- 
primary education in, from Act of 
1902, by W. W. McKechnie, 394, 
472. 

Scotland, diffusion of scientific 
knowledge to farmer in, by A. 
McCallum, 402, 473. 

Scotland, economic development of 
Victorian, by W. H. Marwick, 
338. 

Scotland, education for business 
management, discussion by Dr. 
H. Hamilton, G. Wilson, 343, 
468. 

Scotland, geographical distribution 
of early iron smelting industry, 
by K. H. Huggins, 336. 

Scotland, national parks, by Prof. 
F. G. Baily, 410. 

Scotland, prehistoric archzology in 
N.E., by Dr. J. G. Callander, 
356, 469. 

Scotland, recent economic changes, 
by E. D. McCallum, 339. 

Scotland, scientists of north-east, by 
G. M. Fraser and Dr. G. Philip, 
Appdx. 106. 

Scotland, sequence of peoples, 
culture and characteristics in, 
400 B.C. to A.D. 950, by Rev. Dr. 
A. B. Scott, 358, 469. 

Scotland, soils of north-east, by Prof. 
J. Hendrick, Appdx. 84. 


143 


Scotland, technical education from 
industrial point of view, by G. W. 
Thomson, 398, 472. 

Scott, Rev. Dr. A. B., Historical 
sequence of peoples, culture and 
characteristics in Scotland, 400 B.c. 
to A.D. 950, 358, 469. 

Scottish fishing industry, 1880-1914, 
by Dr. H. Hamilton, 338, 467. 

Scottish hydro-electric stations, by 
W. T. Halcrow, 346, 468. 

Scottish school, learning of French 
in, by Miss G. B. Dodds, 376, 470. 

Scottish witch trials, by Rev. Canon 
J. A. MacCulloch, 361, 469. 

ScourFIELD, D. J., Animal remains 
in Rhynie Chert, 310, 466. 

Sea currents, biological importance, 
discussion by Dr. J. B. Tait, Dr. 
J. N. Carruthers, Prof. A. C. 
Hardy, E. R. Gunther, 324, 466. 

Sectional Officers, ix. 

SEIFRIZ, Prof. W., Structure of 
protoplasm, 382*, 472. 

Seismological investigations, by Miss 
E. F. Bellamy, 283*. 

Seismological investigations, report on, 
233, 283*. 

SELIGMAN, Prof. C. G., on Ainu of 
Japan, 259. 

Sensory events, report on quantitative 
estimates of, 268. 


Shanachies, Gaelic, by K. H. 
Jackson, 357. 
Shetland, prehistoric, by A. O. 


Curle, 358*, 469. 

Silurian Polyzoa, pearl-like bodies 
in, by K. P. Oakley, 310, 466. 

Stimpson, Dr. W. D., Pictish symbo- 
lism and sculptured stones of north- 
east Scotland, Appdx. 66. 

Skye leaf beds, by Dr. T. Johnson, 
388. 

Sleep and hypnosis, by Dr. W. 
Brown, 375. 

SMAIL, Princ. J. CAMERON, Technical 
education and industrial recruit- 
ment, 399*. 

SmalLes, A. E., Lead Dales of N. 
Pennines, 337, 467. 

SMALL, Dr. J., Thermal conditions 
round hot circular cylinder in 
stream of fluid, 286, 464. 

SmitH, A. D. B., Inheritance of 
productivity, milk, 321, 467. 


144 


SmitH, MissA.N., Material culture as 
introduction to social culture, 356. 

SmiTH, Dr. E. C., Temperature and 
post-mortem changes in muscle 
proteins, 370, 470. 

SmiTH, Dr. EpitH P., Ecology of 
island of S. Rona, 384, 471. 

SmiTH, Dr. E. W., Gas in bulk, 347, 
469. 

SMITH, Sir FRANK, Transport and 
storage of food, 419. 

SmiTH, W., Rainfall of China, 330. 

Snoperass, Dr. CATHERINE P., 
Agricultural distributions in Aber- 
deenshire, 329, 467. 

Snow, Dr. C. P., Absorption spec- 
trum of acrolein, 291, 465. 

Social contact of children speaking 
different languages, by Dr. Rosa 
Katz, 375, 471. 

Social maladjustment, psychological 
description and classification of 
forms of, by Dr. G. G. N. 
Wright, 379. 

Social problems and psychology, by 
Dr. S. Dawson, 183, 375*. 

Social sanctions and restraints in 
native African society, by Prof. 
Agnes C. L. Donohugh, 355*. 

Soil and ecological studies in rela- 
tion to forestry and grazing, dis- 
cussion by Dr. W. G. Ogg, Dr. 
A.S. Watt, Dr. A. Muir, Dr. G. K. 
Fraser, E. Wyllie Fenton, Sir 
John Russell, 387*, 403, 472, 473. 

Soils of north-east of Scotland, by 
Prof. J. Hendrick, Appdx. 84. 

South Rona, ecology of, by Dr. 
Edith P. Smith, 384, 4717. 

SOUTHWELL, Prof. R. V., Impact 
testing, 351, 469. 

SPEARING, Dr. J. K., Cell structure 
of Blue-Green Algz, 383. 

Specific heats of simple gases at high 
temperatures, by Prof. R. H. 
Fowler and G. B. B. M. Suther- 
land, 272. 

Spectrophotometric investigations at 
Yerkes Observatory, by Prof. O. 
Struve, 282*. 

Spectrophotometry, 
measurement, by 
Carroll, 282. 

Spectroscopic differences, early type 
stars, by E. G. Williams, 282, 463. 


accuracy of 


Prof. J. A. 


INDEX 


Spectroscopy, recent applications, 
by H. G. Howell, 277, 463. 

Stacc, J. M., British Polar Year 
Expedition to Fort Rae, 272. 

Stamp, Sir J. C., Developments of 
post-primary education required 
from world and economic point of 
view, 395*, 472. 

Economic planning, 340*, 467. 

Need for technique of econo- 
mic change, 341, 468. 

Statistical data, visual methods of 
presentation, discussion by A. G. 
H. Dent, M. Barr, 343, 467. 

STEEL, Maj. S. Stranc, Roadside 
planting, 391. 

Stellar spectra, significance of ab- 
sorption lines, by Prof. E. A. 
Milne, 282. 

STEPHENSON, Dr. W., Perseveration, 
373". 

STEVENSON, Miss E. F., Economic 
anomalies of unemployment re- 
lief, 340. 

Stewart, L. B., work of, by Prof. 
R. J. D. Graham, 386, 477. 

STIRLING-MAXWELL, Sir JOHN, Tree 
planting in towns and neighbour- 
hood, 391*, 472. 

Stopes, Dr. Marie C., Technique 
of contraception depending on 
temperatures, 367. 

Store cattle, fattening, by M. Mackie, 
399, 473. 

STRACHAN, C., Adsorption of gaseous 
isotopes, 298. 

Stress, shear, in reinforced concrete 
beams, by Dr. R. H. Evans and 
J. Thomlinson, 353, 468, 469. 

Stresses in overstrained materials, 
report on, 252, 352*. 

STRUVE, Prof. O., Spectrophoto- 
metric observations at Yerkes 
Observatory, 282*. 

Sunhoney stone circle, by J. A. 
Gentles, 359*. 

Sugs and villages in High Atlas moun- 
tains, by W. Fogg, 334, 467. 

Surfaces, examples in theory of, by 
E. A. Maxwell, 281. 

SUTHERLAND, G. B. B. M., Heavy 
hydrogen and molecular physics, 
297, 465. 

Specific heats of simple gases 

at high temperatures, 272. 


INDEX 


SUTHERLAND, Col. J. D., Tree plant- 
ing in towns and neighbourhood, 
392. 

SzeNT-Gy6reyI, Prof. A., Isolation 
of ascorbic acid and identification 
with Vitamin C, 293, 465. 


Tabanidz, biology of Scottish, by 
Dr. A. E. Cameron, 315*, 466. 
Tactile sense, measure, by H. Binns, 

374, 470. 

Tait, Prof. J., Evolution of voice in 
vertebrates, 368. 

Physiology of frog’s utricular 
macule, 368. 

Tait, Dr. J. B., Currents of sea, 
biological importance, 324. 

Tay tor, Prof. E. G. R., Perfidious 
Albion, 331, 467. 

Taytor, Prof. G. I., Plasticity in 
crystals, 274. 

Technical education and industrial 
recruitment, discussion by J. W. 
Bispham, A. P. M. Fleming, 
G. W. Thomson, W. Rintoul, 
G. A. Robinson, Dr. C. S. Myers, 
Re D: ¢+Edmond, ' Princ. “J.—C. 
Smail, 344*, 397, 472. 

Telescopes, symposium, by C. 
Young, W. M. H. Greaves, C. R. 
Burch, 275, 463. 

Temperament testing and persevera- 
tion tests, by Dr. P. E. Vernon, 
373, 471. 

Temperature, equivalent of room, 
by A. F. Dufton, 288, 464. 

Temperature, problems of measure- 
ment in steelworks, by R. Griffiths, 
284. 

Temperature of molten steel, diffi- 
culties in measurement, by R. S. 
Whipple, 283, 464. 

Textiles, interpretation of physical 
data in terms of bodily comfort, 
by S. G. Barker, 289. 

Thermal conditions round hot 
circular cylinder in stream of 
fluid, by Dr. J. Small, 286, 464. 

Thermal insulation of buildings, by 
A. H. Douglas, 287, 464. 

THOMLINSON, J., Shear stress dis- 
tribution in reinforced concrete 
beams, 353, 469. 


145 


Tuoms, J. S., Northern valleys of 
Angus, 327. 

THOMSEN, P., National parks, 411. 

TuHomson, Prof. G. P., Electronic 
theory of metals, 278*, 463. 

Structure of alloys, 275*, 463. 

THomson, G. W., Technical educa- 
tion in Scotland from industrial 
point of view, 398, 472. 

Thyratrons and resistance welding, 
by H. de B. Knight, 285, 464. 

Tittey, Prof. C. E., Age of Moine 
and Dalradian formations, 307, 
465. 

Timber-producing 
anatomy, 266. 

Timbers, preservation and prepara- 
tion for industrial purposes, by 
J. Bryan, 381, 472. 

Timber testing and _ laboratory 
practice for forest engineering 
students, by J. C. Grassie, 392. 

Tin control scheme, by J. K. 
Eastham, 340. 

Tizarp, H. T., Development of 
post-primary education during 
present century, 395*. 

Science at Universities, 
392*. 

Tocuer, Dr. J. F., Agriculture in 
North-East, Appdx. 77. 

Milk, composition and present 

regulations, 299, 465. 

Milk, variations in freezing 

point, 299, 465. 

Services of Francis Galton to 
physical anthropology and eu- 
genics, 355, 469. 

Tomato plants, effect of carbon 
monoxide on, by W. A. Clark, 
382. 

ToMKEIEFF, S. J., British Carboni- 
ferous-Permian igneous province 
R526 

Tonks, L. H., Underground water 
supply, 309*, 465. 

Town and country planning, by 
Prof. P. G. H. Boswell, 409. 

Town planning and general amenity 
planning, by Lord Provost H. 
Alexander, 390. 

Town trees and shrubs, by W. B. 
Clark, 391. 

Trawlers, Diesel engined, by R. W. 
Allen, 347, 468. 


trees, report on 


207, 


146 


Tree-planting in towns and neigh- 
bourhood, discussion by Lord 
Provost H. Alexander, Sir J. 
Stirling-Maxwell, Maj. S. S. 
Steel, W. Dallimore, W. B. Clark, 
Col. J. D. Sutherland, 390, 471, 
472. 

Tropics, use of bright metallic 
surfaces for increasing human 
comfort in, by G. P. Crowden, 
289, 463. 

Turner, E. O., Motor horns, 
effective and offensive, 350, 469. 


Uganda, social geography of western, 
by S.J. K. Baker, 333. 

Ultra-violet radiation, commercial 
production, by H. R. Ruff, 285, 
464. 

Underground water supply, by Prof. 
W.S. Boulton, 456. 

Underground water supply, dis- 
cussion by Prof. W. S. Boulton, 
Prof. P. G. H. Boswell, Sir A. E. 
Kitson, Prof. W. G. Fearnsides, 
Prof. G. Hickling, L. H. Tonks, 
Dr. S. W. Wooldridge, 308, 465. 

Unemployment relief, economic 
anomalies, by Miss E. F. Steven- 
son, 340. 

Unified field-theories in physics, 
discussion by Prof. E. T. Whit- 
taker, Dr. W. H. McCrea, Dr.J.H. 
C. Whitehead, 278. 

Universities, science at, 


by HH. - T. 
Tizard, 207, 392*. 


VaucuHan, Dr. W. W., Development 
of post-primary education during 
present century, 395*. 

on Educational research, 267. 

Veddahs of Ceylon, anthropology, 
by Prof. W. C. O. Hill, 361, 469. 

Vegetables, botanical work on cold 
storage, by Prof. V. H. Blackman, 
389%. 

Vegetation, influence of grazing 
upon, by E. Wyllie Fenton, 404, 
472. 

VERNON, Dr. P. E., Perseveration 
tests and concept of levels in 
temperament testing, 373, 471. 


INDEX 


VersLuys, Prof. J., Distribution of 
marine animals and history of 
continents, 317, 467. 

Virus diseases in plants, by Dr. J. 
Caldwell, 383, 472. 

Vision, theory of, by Dr. 
Edridge-Green, 367, 470. 

Visual methods for presentation of 
statistical data, discussion by 
A.G.H. Dent, M. Barr, 343, 467. 

Visual sensation, physiological basis, 
by Dr. Ivy Mackenzie, 367. 

Vitamin C, discussion by Prof. A. 
Harden, Prof. A. Szent-Gy6érgyi, 
Dr. E. L. Hirst, E. Gordon Cox, 
Dr. T. Reichstein, Prof. W. N. 
Haworth, 292, 464, 465. 

Vitamins of milk, by Dr. S. K. Kon, 
301, 465. 

Vocational guidance, Borstal experi- 
ment, by A. Rodger, 377. 

Vocational guidance experiment in 
Fife, by the National Institute of 
Industrial Psychology, 377. 

Vocational guidance methods in 
Berlin, by Miss J. A. Wales, 376, 
471. 

Vocational guidance surveys, by 
C. A. Oakley, 377, 472. 

Vocational tests, report on, 264. 

Voice in vertebrates, evolution, by 
Prof. J. Tait, 368. 

von EcCKERMAN, Prof. H., Age of 
Moine and Dalradian formations, 
306, 465, 466. 


F. W. 


Watsts, Miss J. A., Vocational 
guidance methods in Berlin, 376, 
471. 

Wales, s5o0-ft. platform in N., by 
Dr. C. A. Matley, 314. 

Watxer, Dr. F., Limestone-diorite 
contact near Dorback Lodge, 313. 

Wa txer, Dr. N. T., Recent develop- 
ments in educational research, 
392, 472. 

Water, underground supply, by Prof. 
W.S. Boulton, 456. 

Water, underground supply, dis- 
cussion by Prof. W. S. Boulton, 
Prof. P. G. H. Boswell, Sir A. E. 
Kitson, Prof. W. G. Fearnsides, 
Prof. G. Hickling, L. H. Tonks, 
Dr. S. W. Wooldridge, 308, 465. 


INDEX 


Watson, Prof. J. A. S., Science and 
the animal industry, 401*. 


Scientific progress and economic 


planning in relation to agriculture | 


and rural life, 223, 401*. 

Watson, Dr. S. J., Fodder con- 
servation on farm, 400, 473. 

Watt, Dr. A. S., Ecologist and land 
utilisation, 403*. 

Watts, S. S., Flame temperatures 
in a petrol engine, 284, 464. 

WEBSTER, J. .. Agriculture in 
Aberdeenshire in olden days, Appdx. 
82. 


Well-sinkings, necessity of recording, | 


by Sir A. E. Kitson, 410. 


WENTWORTH-SHIELDS, F. E., on 
Earth pressures, 247. 
Wessex, population changes in 


twentieth century, by Miss F. C. 
Miller, 337. 

West, Dr. C., Storage and transport 
of fresh fruits, 370, 470. 

Wheat situation and state control, 
by R. B. Bryce, 341. 

WHEELER, Dr. J. F. G., Drift-bottle 
work round Bermuda, 315. 

WHIPPLE, Dr. F. J. W., on Seismo- 
logical investigations, 233. 

Whipple, R. S., Difficulties in 
measuring temperature of molten 
steel, 283, 464. 

WHITEHEAD, Dr. J. H. C., Projective 
relativity, 279. 

Wuittaker, Prof. E. T., Unified 
field-theories in physics, 278. 

Wiesner, Dr. B. P., Maternal drives 
in the rat, 380, 471. 

WILKINSON, J., Cytological method 
of distinguishing Salix alba, var. 


caerulea, from closely related 
species, 383, 471. 
Wituiams, E. G., Spectroscopic 


differences, early type stars, 282, 
463. 

Wituiams, Dr. S., Regeneration in 
Lycopodiales, 386. 

Willow cultivation, by H. P. Hutch- 
inson, 389, 472. 


147 


Witson, G., Dundee School of 
Economics and Commerce, 343*, 
468. 

Witch trials, Scottish, by Rev. 
meee J. A. MacCulloch, 361, 
409. 

Woop, Dr. H., Herring caught on 
drift-net and Fladen grounds, 316, 
467. 

Wool, inheritance of productivity, 
by Dr. J. E. Nichols, 322, 466. 
Woo.pripGE, Dr. S. W., Under- 
ground water supply, 309, 465. 
Wricut, Dr. G. G. NEILL, Psycho- 
logical description and classifica- 
tion of forms of social maladjust- 

ment, 379. 

Wricut, Dr. N. C., Chemistry of 

milk, 302*. 


X-ray exploration of mineral world, 
by Prof. W. L. Bragg, 437. 


Yerba Maté, use and origin, by Capt. 
T.A. Joyce, 161, 359*. 

Yield point, lower, in mild steel, by 
Prof. B. P. Haigh, 352, 468. 

Yorkshire, Megalithic cult of eastern 
moorlands, by Mrs. H. W. Elgee, 
360. 

Younec, C., 74-inch reflecting tele- 
scope of David Dunlap Observa- 
tory, 275, 463. 

Younc, Miss M., Research in educa- 
TON, S085. 

Yue, J. S., Trade of Aberdeen, 
Appdx. too. 


Zernike’s phase contrast method of 
microscopic illumination, by L.H. 
J. Phillips, 277. 

Zernike’s phase contrast test, by 
C; Ry Butch,,277. 

Zoological Record, report on, 245. 

ZUCKERMAN, Dr. S., Interpretation 
of animal behaviour, 324*, 467. 


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