"FIELD-WORK" WITH THE BRITISH

IN

ASSOCIATION IN AUSTRALIA.

N connection with the recent visit of the British Association to Australia, in addition to presidential addresses and evening discourses and the more formal sectional proceedings, all of which have now been fully recorded in NATURE, much good scientific work, especially in connection with the natural history sciences, was carried out by means of special meetings, expeditions, and discussions of a more or less informal character, kindly and wisely arranged by the local men of science for particular groups of the over-seas party. Moreover, on the visits paid to university laboratories, museums, and other institutions by many of the party, problems for investigation were pointed out, and plans for future research and cooperation were suggested, of value to hosts and guests alike; and it is not improbable that some of these informal conferences may have as great an effect upon the advancement of science in Australia as any of the more public meetings of the Association.

It is impossible to enumerate all the opportunities for useful work thus given to the visiting men of science, but a few of the leading occasions that were made by the Australian naturalists for bringing biologists and geologists into direct contact with the problems of wild nature may be here | briefly indicated. Some of these informal expeditions and discussions, it may be added, led to the appointment of Australian research committees, to which grants were given by the British Association Committee of Recommendations meeting at Sydney on August 25.

The week or more spent by members of the "Advance Party" in Western Australia was almost wholly devoted to work in the field, both on land and water, and Prof. Dakin, one of the local secretaries and leader of the zoological excursions to the Yallingup Caves and Mundaring Weir and a dredging expedition on the Swan River, has already given some account of this field-work in NATURE for September 24. But in addition to these larger parties, groups of zoologists and others were taken on occasions to visit points of interest on the Darling Range and elsewhere, where Peripatus (Peripatoides gilesii, Spencer) and other rare and interesting organisms were to be found. Of scarcely less interest to zoologists and anthropologists were the discussions which resulted from visits to the collections at the Perth Museum under the direction of Mr. B. H. Woodward and Mr. Alexander, and to those at the University made by Prof. Dakin on his recent visit to the Abrolhos Archipelago (the subject of a communication to Section D at Sydney). Throughout the visit to Western Australia, although no formal sectional meetings were held, the conferences with local men of science at the University, the Museum, and in the field, dealt largely with questions of local research, and may confidently be expected to result in further investigations.

During the time of the Adelaide meeting a party

of geologists and chemists visited the celebrated Broken Hill mines and the smelting works at Port Pirie for the purpose of studying the occurrence of the ores and the methods employed in working and smelting. Another party of geologists, led by Mr. W. Howchin, the discoverer of the local evidences of glaciation, at the same time visited the Sturt River to examine the Cambrian glacial beds, and also explored the Permo-Carboniferous glacial beds and the Archæocyathine lime-stones of Hallett's Cove, and finally the granitic rocks of the southern sea-coast in the neighbourhood of Victor Harbour. Several small bands of zoologists made observing and collecting trips from Adelaide to Lake Alexandrina, Victor Harbour on the coast, the Mount Lofty Range, and elsewhere, at all of which localities objects of interest were seen and material collected which may lead to research in the future.

One of the most interesting excursions from

Adelaide was that arranged for the anthropologists, by Prof. Stirling, to Milang, on Lake Alexandrina, for the purpose of inspecting a number of men, women, and children from the Mission Station, including some full-blooded aborigines. These gave displays of dancing, boomerangthrowing, hut-building, and basket-making, and some of the British Association party collected information in regard to cat's-cradle games and native genealogies.

Interesting botanical excursions were arranged from Adelaide by Prof. T. G. B. Osborn, one to study the Salicornia scrub and the mangrove swamps of the coastal region, one to various localities on the Mount Lofty Range to see the fern gullies and the scrub of the higher regions, and a third to Mannum, on the Murray River-all of ecological interest.

At Melbourne the time and attention of overseas members were naturally more fully taken up

The

with the formal programme of sectional meetings and addresses in the city, but during the weekend various opportunities were made for exploring the natural history of the neighbourhood. geologists were taken to Macedon to examine the alkaline igneous rocks, and to Bacchus Marsh for the Permo-Carboniferous glacial tills lying upon striated surfaces of still older rocks. Other groups of geologists were taken to Ballarat and to Bendigo. Parties of zoologists and botanists under the guidance of Prof. Ewart and others, were taken through fine scenery to various points of interest, such as Marysville, Emerald, the National Park at Wilson's Promontory, Warburton and Cement Creek, to see the celebrated bigtree country and the tree-fern gullies. But here, again, it must be remarked that a large number of smaller trips were made by experts for special purposes under private guidance, resulting in consultations between the local scientific men and their European guests.

From Sydney there were excursions of very general scientific interest to the Blue Mountains, which afforded the geologists the opportunity of studying the leading features of the geological structure of New South Wales and of the remarkable elevation, which this, in common with many other parts of the continent, experienced in Tertiary or Post-Tertiary times. These excursions were also extended to the Jenolan Caves, which are typical, but very magnificent, examples of stalactitic caves in limestone of

their contained plankton by modern oceanographical methods will be undertaken at an early date. Another outcome of informal conversations was the resolution, brought before the Committee of Recommendations for adoption by the Council of the Association, welcoming the project to convert a portion of Kangaroo Island in Southern Australia into a Government reserve for the protection of the fast-disappearing native land fauna.

From Sydney a number of smaller informal excursions were arranged by Prof. Lawson for the purpose of studying the botany of the Port Jackson neighbourhood, including the National Park. Another important botanical excursion, under the guidance of Mr. J. H. Maiden, visited the Bulli Pass and the Burrinjuck Dam, passing through interesting country and a rich fern vegetation.

Queensland, like Western and South Australia, was felt to be a centre for work in the field rather than for sectional meetings and dis

Silurian age. Amongst other interesting features were seen the remains of an aboriginal skeleton in one cave and of a wallaby's bones in another embedded in the stalagmitic floor. Other geological excursions to West Maitland and Newcastle gave an opportunity of examining the productive coal measures of the colony. The Blue Mountains and Jenolan expeditions were, however, of interest also to zoologists and botanists, who were enabled to study in their native haunts such rare and interesting forms as Peripatus and land Planarians, and to see many of the characteristic birds and insects of the country. Other excursions from Sydney were naturally rather of a marine biological character. Prof. Haswell and Dr. S. J. Johnston organised a collecting party, which visited various parts of Port Jackson in a steam launch in order to explore the wonderfully rich invertebrate fauna exposed at low tide. Another opportunity was given by Prof. Haswell to a small party of zoologists to collect choice material from one of the islands in the harbour.

In connection with the marine fauna the question of more fully exploring the Australian fisheries was under consideration at several centres, and it seems probable that a more thorough investigation of the coastal waters and

cussions. The expeditions from Brisbane included the gold and copper mines of Mount Morgan and the Gympie gold field, and, also for geologists, those to the Glass-house Mountains, a series of Trachytic volcanic necks rising abruptly from the plain (see Fig. 3), and to Ipswich to examine the Trias-Jura coal measures and associated volcanic rocks. Zoologists, along with botanists, were given interesting opportunities of seeing and collecting the characteristic plants and animals both from cultivated and wild country on the expeditions to Nambour, the Blackall Range and the Maroochy River, Cleveland, Bribie Island in Moreton Bay, and on the expedition to Dr. Jean White's Prickly Pear experimental station at Dulacca. The field-work organised in connection with the section of Agriculture has already been noticed, in NATURE for November 19.

A good deal of research, definitely planned in relation to the Australian meeting, and resulting

in some cases in papers or addresses before the sections, was carried on during the voyage out by some members of the "Advance Party." On the blue-funnel liner Ascanius Prof. G. W. Duffield made observations on the variation in the force of gravity over the floor of the ocean, and Prof. W. A. Herdman examined and preserved samples of the plankton from the surface waters running continuously through fine nets, day and night, between Liverpool and Fremantle. Both these researches were very materially promoted by the managers of the Blue Funnel Line, who most generously fitted up a special laboratory for each of these purposes, and gave great assistance on board and other facilities for carrying on the scientific work. Some other researches were also carried out on other routes, and on the return voyages. Preliminary accounts of these investigations were given at the Australian meetings, but

FIG. 3.-One of the "Glass-house" mountains of Queensland named by Capt. Cook in 1770, visited by the British Association in 1914. further results, both from the work on board ship and from some of the field work in Australia, may confidently be expected in the future.

W. A. H.

THE HEALTH OF THE EXPEDITIONARY FORCE.

WE may well be thankful that the news from

the Front continues to report favourably of the general health of our men. It need scarcely be said that the labour of housing and treating so many severely wounded is colossal; and we know, all of us, that the proportion of heavily infected wounds is unhappily and inevitably high. Indeed, the wonder is, that every wound is not heavily infected: for we may be sure that no clothes, no hands, no skin, can be clean in

action : we must not talk of "clean wounds," where complete cleanliness is impossible: we must only say that some wounds healed well, in spite of the conditions under which they were made.

The urgency and the frequency of the heavily infected wounds have brought all men to recognise the abiding rightness of "Listerism." There was a popular notion that "antiseptics" had been abandoned for "aseptics"; that the surgeons merely sterilised their instruments, dressings, etc., by heat, and no longer needed to use carbolic acid and other antiseptic substances; and, for a great part of the work of surgery, this popular opinion had reason. The set and formal operations, done after due preparation under conditions chosen for the patient's safety and convenience, have come to be more aseptic than antiseptic in their method-so far as it can be excusable to put the two words against each other. But, even over these formal exercises of surgery, there is room for some individualism; and the entire disuse of antiseptic agents is neither possible nor to be desired. Now, across the fine-drawn details of surgical practice in peace, and all the nicely calculated less and more of the antiseptic method and the aseptic method at this or that quiet hospital, comes the overwhelming rush of legions of gunshot wounds, many of them frightfully extensive, many left for days without sufficient treatment, and all of them more or less heavily infected.

The surface of the soil, cultivated and manured to the very utmost of its capacities, is loaded with bacteria of all sorts. Among them, are those of gangrene and of lockjaw. It is a hard fact, that the earth which our men are defending is one of their enemies: dug-up for trenches, ploughed-up by artillery fire, churned-up into mud, it provides "infective material" alike for the just and the unjust. Against these evils, Army surgeons are employing the full strength of "Listerism." Iodine, that excellent antiseptic, used in French surgery long before Lister, is coming into its own again; and the use of carbolic acid and of spirit is general and resolute. Of course, regard must be observed to the time which is lost between the infliction of the wound and the first systematic dressing of the wound; he is fortunate, who receives thorough treatment within 24 hours. Happily, against tetanus, our surgeons have the tetanus-antitoxin: it is a second line of defence, beyond the use of antiseptics. It can scarcely be reckoned on to cure tetanus, once the infection has flared up. But it can be reckoned on, with full confidence, to prevent the flaring up.

On the medical side of news from the Front, a matter of great interest is the occurrence of typhoid in the Belgian army. We may be sure that the fever is not limited to that army; and we may be fairly sure that there will be, before long, many more cases. It is, of course, the mild unsuspected cases. and the carrier cases, which are the danger. Something would be gained, if only the soldier would cover up his excrement, after the rule ordained by Moses; but he will not

The protective treatment against typhoid has, on the whole, met with very little opposition, and none of real authority. Certain statements of disastrous results have been inquired into, and have been found not true. Not that no ill-effects have ever followed; but these are rare. The main fact, that the protective treatment is indeed protective, has been proved past all possibility of the least shade of doubt.

That old scourge of armies and of jails-typhus fever--has long ceased to trouble our country; probably most doctors now in practice have never seen a case of typhus. It may appear, some day, a most unwelcome visitor, in the western theatre of the war. It is conveyed by body-lice. It is said to be endemic in Silesia. It may find its way westward or a trace of it, amid the desolation and wreckage of Belgian villages, may flare up into widespread trouble. Happily, the vigilance, the incessant zeal, of all branches of the Army Medical Service, and of all the many societies working at the Front for the welfare of the Army, will continue to bring forth good fruit. It is not possible, with such splendid organisation, such generous devotion, that any grave outbreak of infection should pass neglected; and, when the medical and surgical history of the present war comes to be written, it will be a fine record of good work accomplished on a grand scale. STEPHEN PAGET.

1

THINKING ANIMALS. 1

ABOUT ten years ago it became known that

"Clever Hans," an Arab stallion owned by a Herr von Osten in Berlin, was able to answer arithmetical and other questions, tapping out the reply with his fore-foot. Notoriety led to heated controversy, and the appointment of committees to investigate. The second of these, under Prof. Stumpf, resulted in Pfungst's book, explaining everything in terms of signals consisting in slight movements made unconsciously by some person present knowing the answer. This seemed to have solved the problem finally until the appearance of Krall's book in 1912. The author, a wealthy jeweller of Elberfeld and friend of von Osten's, had after the latter's death continued to experiment, obtaining results which, he claimed, refuted Pfungst's explanation. This claim found 1 (1) "Das Pferd des Herrn v. Osten (Der kluge Hans)." By O. Pfungst. (Leipzig: J. A. Barth, 1907.)

(2) "Denkende Tiere." By K. Krall. (Leipzig: W. Engelmann, 1912.) (3) "Ueber den dermaligen Stand des Krallismus." By Prof. H. Dexter. Reprint from Lotos. Prague, vol. Ixii., 1914.

(4) "Gibt es denkende Tiere?" By Dr. S. v. Máday. Pp. x+451. (Leipzig: W. Engelmann, 1914.)

(5) "Das Problem der Elberfelder Pferde und die Telepathie." By Prof. H. v. Buttel-Reepen. Naturwissenschaftliche Wochenschrift, 1914, No. 13. (6)

Meine Erfuhrungen mit den denkenden Pferden." By Prof. H. v. Buttel-Reepen. Naturwissenschaftliche Wochenschrift, 1914, No. 16. (7) "Eine Kritik der Leistungen der Elberfelder denkenden Pferde.' By Prof. C. Schröder. Naturwissenschaftliche Wochenschrift, 1914. Nos. 21, 22.

support in a report signed by the zoologists, Kraemer, Sarasin, and Ziegler, asserting that signalling was excluded since correct answers were given even when none of the human participants was visible to the animal. The opinions expressed on Krall's book vary from that of Prof. Dexler"a shameful blot on German literature," to that of Prof. Ostwald, who foresees that it will "as clearly mark the beginning of a new chapter in the doctrine of man's place in nature as Darwin's chief work did in its day."

As to the problem itself, a definitive solution could result only from a free and impartial testing of the animals; as it is one can only indicate probabilities. Intentional deceit is almost certainly too simplicist an explanation, and is in any case inadequate. On the other hand, the probability of obtaining correct answers by chance has been underestimated in view of the number of unsuccessful attempts and the greater frequency with which certain numbers occur. Very much must be allowed for this and other weaknesses of testimony, the demonstration of which has been one of the successes of applied psychology, but which, as every newspaper now shows, are seldom given weight in practice. They particularly affect some at least of the would-be crucial tests. Nevertheless much remains, of which the following main explanations have been offered.

66

The answers are evidence of mathematical intelligence. This, although a highly developed number-sense" has been found in persons of low general ability, and even in the feeble-minded, conflicts with all that we know from other sources about the animal mind. Detailed scrutiny of Krall's account of his teaching shows that the problem often could not have been understood from his exposition. Again, the correcting of a single false figure is done quickly and certainly,

as might be expected if signals were being given, since these would be facilitated by concentration of the signaller's attention; if the errors are mistakes of calculation it is odd. Finally, the inability of the animals to prove their understanding by action, compared with their eloquence in the language of taps, is extremely suspicious.

The answers are due to memory. The horse's memory is, no doubt, excellent for some things, and the theory has advantages, but also serious difficulties. To associate eight taps with one symbol and nine with another, the horse must be able to distinguish the two series. But it seems probable that animals cannot distinguish numbers beyond four or five. Rothe trained his dog to come only at the fifth whistle-but this only if the whistles were at regular intervals: his horse would take four lumps of sugar in preference to three, but confused four and five. Again, the horse's eye, while very sensitive to movement, is probably unsuited to the clear perception of complex visual forms such as written numbers, and, as a matter of fact, the animals seem to attend to the questioner more than to the blackboard. Finally, the mistakes in cube root, etc., questions strongly suggest the use of tips.

The animals are responding to unconscious signals. Krall claims to have refuted this by "ignorant" experiments, but these are relatively few and seem all to have some weak spot. Thus Mackenzie reports that Rolf, the Mannheim dog, described a picture on a card held so that the holder could not see it; unfortunately, the picture was a red and blue cross, and there is reason to think that dogs are nearly colour-blind. Nevertheless, the fair number of "peep-hole" experiments and the case of the blind horse, Berto, seem to stamp as inadequate Pfungst's theory of visually perceived movements. Yet no other one mode of signal seems sufficient for all cases, while Hacker did actually get answers by moving his foot. Again, it is unlikely that the many individuals who have obtained answers should all make precisely the same unconscious movements. These difficulties disappear if we suppose the animals not to be blindly reacting to one specific stimulus, but to be interpreting more or less intelligently a general type of unconscious emotional or ideomotor expression-movement, variation of respiration, etc.—possibly always complex and varying with the individual and occasion. Both horses and dogs are notoriously sensitive to shades of emotional expression, and recent work by the Pawlow school indicates that dogs can hear sounds so faint as the beating of the heart. It is true, any theory of unconscious signalling presents difficulties. Units, tens, etc., are tapped with different feet; the spelling of verbal answers is phonetic, and spontaneous utterances are recorded, including a letter dictated by Rolf! Can the subconscious be credited with so much? The solution, if it ever comes, can scarcely fail to illuminate, if not the animal mind, at least that of man. C. S.

AT

THE REV. SIR JOHN TWISDEN. This great age of nearly ninety, Sir John F. Twisden, whose death was announced last week, had survived most of his time, the generation of William Thomson and Todhunter, who could give a detailed account of his life and work, very valuable in its day.

The Times of December 8 describes the curious revival of the dormant baronetage, taken up by Sir John late in life, but his retirement from the Professorship of Mathematics at the Staff College must have taken place much earlier than 1885, as a consequence of the Cardwell scheme, which had decreed that mathematics was no longer of any use to a Staff Officer.

How Napoleon would smile if he could hear it! The sequel has proved that the economy was fatal to efficiency, when we consider the costly blunders of the Staff in South Africa; and here we are engaged in a war the greatest in the history of the world, and it is a Mathematical War.

After one old-fashioned battle in the open, both sides have dug in, and the war has become a vast siege, where all arms, horse, foot, and dragoons, are turned into garrison gunners, as I predicted in

these columns nearly thirty years ago. the war for which we were not prepared.

This was

Artillery science is our great requirement. Cavalry work is turned over to the motorist, to scour the country and round up the picturesque old-fashioned Uhlan. In South Africa we see how De Wet, the redoubtable cavalry leader, is run down ignominiously by motor-cars. It had not dawned on our military intelligence to compare by a slight mathematical calculation the available energy, in foot-pounds or ton-miles, of a gallon of petroleum against the equivalent weight of oats. But here was a specimen of the sort of education given by Twisden to the Staff College in his excellent "Practical Mechanics,' a book too little known, but containing what Maxwell called the gentlemanly knowledge of the subject, which no Staff Officer should be without. The first chapter of it is a liberal education in elementary gumption, cleverly disguised in what appears a very simple question of no apparent difficulty, always, however, strong enough to unhorse the unwary.

This elementary instruction is being acquired by the junior ranks at the front at a vast expense, and the young officer can say, in the words of Hamlet, "I once did hold it, as our seniors do, a baseness to be scientific, and laboured much how to forget all learning; but now it did me yeoman's service. G. GREENHill.

NOTES.

THE Hunterian Oration of the Royal College of Surgeons of England will be delivered by the president -Sir Watson Cheyne-on February 15, but the customary dinner in the evening will not be held.

WE regret to see the announcement, in the Proceedings of the Chemical Society, that Dr. C. R. Crymble, of University College, London, who was a fellow of the society, was killed in action on November 20.

WE learn from the Times that Prof. A. Van Geuchten, who was professor of systematic anatomy and neuro-pathology at Louvain University, has died suddenly at Cambridge, where he was receiving hospitality as a refugee.

PROF. C. S. SHERRINGTON, Fullerian professor of physiology at the Royal Institution, will deliver a

course of six lectures at the institution on muscle in the service of nerve, on Tuesdays in January and February next.

THE President of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries has appointed Mr. E. J. Cheney, lately one of the assistant secretaries of the department, to the office of chief agricultural adviser to the Board, and Mr. F. L. C. Floud to be an assistant secretary of the department.

PROF. T. A. JAGGAR, director of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, and a group of his assistants, had a narrow escape of their lives during a recent ascent of Mauna Loa. The volcano had become active, discharging large quantities of lava. The scientific