The war has naturally given a tremendous impetus to Military and Naval publications. These abound, and deal very particularly with such subjects as the possibilities of a German Invasion, Military Tactics, Mobilisation, Voluntary Service, Equipment, and the like. The War Office, Past and Present is dealt with by Captain Owen Wheeler (Methuen), and Messrs. Hodder & Stoughton publish a series of studies of the British, French, Russian and German Armies "From Within."
Much attention is given to Aerial Reconnaissance, as in Brigadier-General Henderson's book (Murray), and in Mr. Ledeboer's translation of Commandant Duchene's Flight without Formulæ (Longmans). The Despatches of Sir John French are published by Messrs. Chapman & Hall.
Many books are written about the Navy. Two historical studies call for notice: The Navy Under the Early Stuarts, by C. D. Penn (The Faith Press, Leighton Buzzard and Manchester), and The Old Scots Navy, from 1689-1710, edited for the Navy Records Society by J. Grant, LL.B. The conditions of modern Naval warfare are treated of by many experts both as regards the use of such different units as the Torpedo-Boat, the Cruiser or the Battleship. The Naval Battle is discussed by Lieutenant A. Baudry, assisted by Captain G. Laur (of the French Army), and with an Introduction by Admiral Sir Reginald N. Custance, G.C.B. (Hugh Rees).
Opportunities of Travel have necessarily been curtailed since the war began, but up till then a good deal of adventure, chiefly in the South American Continent, has been recorded. The Upper Reaches of the Amazon, by J. F. Woodroffe (Methuen), The Amazing Argentine, by John Foster Fraser (Cassell), Bolivia, Its People and Its Resources, by P. Wallé, translated by B. Miall (Fisher Unwin),—these volumes alone would suffice to show the marked trend of adventurous interest, nor is Tropical Africa overlooked, as witness Captain Stigand's book on Administration there (Methuen), then Canada is emphasised as The Land of Open Doors in a work by Mr. J. Burgon Bickersteth, with a Foreword by Earl Grey (Wells Gardner); Mr. Hamilton Fyfe gives us The Real Mexico (Heinemann) and Mr. Lowes Dickinson publishes Appearances, being interesting Notes of his Experiences as the holder of the Albert Kahn Travelling Fellowship (Dent).
It is an interesting coincidence, if nothing more, that a year unhappily marked by the destruction of so many foreign churches of priceless medieval design—Rheims Cathedral, for instance—should have been especially noticeable for its publications on Architecture. First we gladly welcome Cathedrals and Cloisters of Northern France, with illustrations from original photographs, by Elise Whitlock Rose and Vida Hunt Francis (Putnams); equally welcome is Mr. Loisel's fine illustrated monograph, La Cathédrale de Rouen (Laurens), which includes a list of the succeeding architects who have worked upon it from 1214 to the present day. Here too perhaps ought to be mentioned Mr. A. J. de Havilland's Storied Windows (Blackwood)—a study of old church glass, from the twelfth century to the Renaissance, especially in France.
Coming to our own beloved shrines, we read with delight the Dean of Gloucester's Secrets of a Great Cathedral (Dent), and appropriately comes Mr. Bumpus's Guide to Gothic Architecture (Werner Laurie). To set the seal upon all Mr. Geoffrey Scott presents—through Messrs. Constable—his Architecture of Humanism, a brilliant and original work by a gifted author. Some attention has also been given to Domestic Architecture, and particularly to that of the Georgian Period both in England and Ireland. The Count de Soissons enquires into The Æsthetic Purpose of Byzantine Architecture (Murray & Evendon), and Dr. Coomaraswamy continues his studies of Indian Architecture, which (Part VII.) is issued by Messrs. Luzac.
The Art publications of the year are largely devoted to Decorative Design, and to the Reproduction of Medieval Illumination and Embroidery, as, for example, The Book of Kells, described by Sir Edward Sullivan, and illustrated in colour by The Studio Press, or again, The Book of the Bayeux Tapestry, issued by Messrs. Chatto & Windus, in coloured facsimile, with an Introduction from Mr. Hilaire Belloc. In this connexion the sumptuous volumes of Messrs. Batsford's Library of Decorative Art, being an illustrated survey of English Decoration, Tapestry and Furniture during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, should be noticed, as also a volume on Grinling Gibbons and the Woodwork of his Age—1648-1720, by H. Avray Tipping (Newnes). Turning to the study of Art in Painting, many collectors will follow with keen interest Dr. A. P. Laurie's researches into The Pigments of the Old Masters (Macmillan), an attempt to ascertain the age of pictures by scientific microscopic investigation, which will earn the gratitude of all genuine art-lovers and collectors. The Studio publishes reproductions of The Landscapes of Corot, the Text being contributed by Mr. Croal Thomson, and we give a most hearty welcome to Art in Flanders, by Mr. Max Roose, the learned Director of the Plantin Moretus Museum at Antwerp (Heinemann).
Here too might be mentioned the Catalogue of Italian Book Illustrations and Early Printing prepared by Mr. A. W. Pollard from the Collection of Mr. C. W. Dyson Perrins, and printed by Mr. Quaritch.
The year has not been great in Poetic Drama. The writers to whom we are already indebted for previous good things continue to provide for us. In this way we have two plays from Mr. Rabindranath Tagore, Chitra (The India Society, the Chiswick Press and Macmillan) and The King of the Dark Chamber (Macmillan). Lady Gregory writes about Our Irish Theatre (Putnam), and perhaps the most arresting play of the year is Mr. Zangwill's The Melting Pot (Heinemann). We also welcome Five Plays from Lord Dunsany (Grant Richards) and Mr. John Drinkwater's Rebellion (Nutt). Mr. Galsworthy publishes Three Plays with Messrs. Duckworth, who are also responsible for the issue of a Second Series of Bjornstjerne Bjornson's Plays, translated, as before, by Mr. E. Bjorkman. Mr. Martin Seeker continues his edition of Hauptmann's Dramatic Works edited by Mr. Ludwig Lewisohn.
Poetry is with us always, and the year is not exceptional for any outstanding inspiration. Mr. Elkin Mathews is, as usual, to the fore in this department of Literature. He publishes Mr. Gibson's Thoroughfares and Borderlands, the Cubist Poems of Mr. Max Weber, Sailor Town, delightfully fresh Sea Songs and Ballads, by Miss Fox-Smith, Moorland Sanctuary and Other Poems, by a new singer—Mr. R. H. Law—and also the collection of Mr. Binyon's fine war-poems, styled The Winnowing Fan. The war has indeed animated the writers of patriotic verse, and Messrs. Chatto and Windus publish a collection of Poems of the Great War—sold for the benefit of the Prince of Wales' Fund—also Mr. Lane prints Songs and Sonnets for England in War Time. Needless to say, the best known modern poets are among the contributors to these volumes. The Poetry Bookshop offers Mr. Maurice Hewlett's Sing-Songs of the War, and also issues Mr. Harold Monro's Children of Love. Some New Poems by Robert Browning and Mrs. Browning are edited by Sir Frederick Kenyon (Smith Elder), and Mr. Thomas Hardy gives us Satires of Circumstance (Macmillan). From Mr. Masefield we have Philip the King and Other Poems (Heinemann), and we welcome more poems from Miss Rose Macaulay: The Two Blind Countries (Sidgwick and Jackson).
The year has had two startling poetic sensations: the discovery of a fragment of Sappho, and of Alcæus, already noticed, and of two hitherto unpublished Sonnets of Keats. Deeply interesting, yet weakly characteristic of him as these are, it cannot be said that their publication adds any further lustre to a reputation which in the great genius of sonnet-writing can scarcely be enhanced.
Looking back on the year that has passed we are particularly grateful for two literary gifts we have received: the Address of Mr. Balfour to the British Association on May 8 last, and Mr. Frazer's completed edition of his great life-work, The Golden Bough (Macmillan).
With the output of the year's Fiction it is absolutely impossible to cope in this brief article. One of the fascinating literary articles of the year has been Mr. Henry James' critique upon The Younger Generation, issued in The Times' Literary Supplement for March and April.
Alice Law.
A total eclipse of the sun took place on August 21, but owing to the war the observations were much interfered with, the expeditions to Riga and Kieff having to be abandoned. The Greenwich party obtained good results at Minsk, as also the Royal Astronomical Society's party at Hormosand (Sweden). The prominences were numerous and active, and took fantastic forms; the corona was of a slightly modified minimum type, and the solar plexus was very pronounced. In London, 65 per cent. of the surface was obscured, as against 92 per cent. in 1912. The eclipse was one of a long series which began in 1211, and will end in 1986. There will be no total eclipse during the present year, the next two dates being February, 1916, and June, 1918.
The dearth of sunspots, which had not been so marked for over a century, came to an end late in March, when a spot about 25,000 miles in diameter appeared on the N.E. limb, and became doubled shortly afterwards. From August 13 to August 25 a spot was visible to the naked eye.
Dr. St. John, using the 60 feet spectrograph on Mount Wilson, finds that vapours rush outwards radially from the interior of a spot, while the motion of chromospheric matter is inwards.
A transit of Mercury took place on November 7, and lasted about four hours. It was well observed, but was not expected to yield results of importance. The last transit occurred in 1907, the next two are due in 1924 and 1927.
The very small ninth satellite of Jupiter, of the nineteenth magnitude, was photographed for the first time, on July 21, by Mr. Seth B. Robinson. Its orbit is elliptical, and its motion retrograde, with a period of about three years.
Several of the satellites of Saturn have been shown to have equal periods of rotation and revolution, like our moon.
The Astronomer Royal, Dr. F. W. Dyson, lecturing at the Royal Institution, on April 24, said that the solar system was near the middle of a finite group of stars, the limiting distances of which were from 1,000 to 10,000 parsecs. (By "parsec" is meant a parallax of one second, corresponding to a distance equal to 206,265 times that of the sun.) About 88 per cent. of the stars brighter than 10.5 magnitude are from 20,000,000 to 150,000,000 times as far off as the sun, and of these 90 to 95 per cent, are intrinsically brighter, 87 per cent. being fifty times as bright, or more. Red stars are very distant; yellow stars, on the whole, are nearest, and the distance increases as the colour changes to blue or orange. The thinning out in the number of stars at very remote distances is conspicuous.
Professor E. W. Brown, addressing the Cosmical Physics section of the British Association, spoke of his work on the motion of the moon, which had occupied him for twenty years. All gravitational forces have been taken account of, and the improved tables will be made use of in the Nautical Almanac for 1919, the intermediate issues having already been printed. A few residual corrections remain, the origin of which may be due to electrical or other forces.
A selenium photometer for determining stellar magnitudes, devised by Mr. Joel Stebbins, and improved by Rosenberg of Tübingen, enables a magnitude to be determined within about 1-500th, after a couple of minutes' exposure, using a 5-inch refractor. By the ordinary method the process is very much more tedious and less accurate.
The Canadian reflector of 72-inch aperture will be ready in about two years, and will be erected on a hill seven miles north of Victoria, B.C. It is designed for spectrographic work and for photographing star-clusters and nebulæ. Its focal length of 30 feet can be increased to 108 feet by a Cassegrainian combination.
The first comet of the year (1914 a) was discovered on March 29, by Kritzinger, in Ophiuchus; the second (1914 b) by Zlatinsky, on May 15, in Perseus, and the third (1914 c) by Neujmin, on June 29. The thirty-third return of Encke's comet was observed in November; its perihelion is now nine days later than if the motion had continued as in 1848.
An aerolite, one of the largest ever known to have fallen in Great Britain, descended in a field at Appley Bridge, near Wigan, on October 13. The weight of the two principal fragments was 28 lb. 13 oz., and it measured a little over 9 inches in each dimension. It was composed of olivine 63.43 per cent., enstatite 31.5 per cent., pyrites and metallic matter 5.07 per cent., and showed traces of superficial fusion, but presented no exceptional features apart from its size.
C. L. B.
The gases expelled from the volcano of Kilauea, unmixed with air, have been collected on the spot, and examined by Day and Shepherd, who found them to consist chiefly of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, sulphuretted hydrogen, hydrochloric acid, and, of course, water vapour. No argon or other rare gases could be detected.
Mr. A. Brun, who has had the hardihood to descend about 1,000 feet into the crater of Vesuvius, found at that level a floor in which was an aperture some 200 feet deep, from which issued gases, steam, and other concomitants of volcanic action. His results are published in a monograph (1914) wherein he assigns to water vapour a less important part than had hitherto been ascribed to it. Mr. F. Burlingham, on the same occasion, took kinematograph pictures of the interior of the crater, which were exhibited in London early in the year.
At the British Association meeting in Australia a human skull was exhibited which had been found about thirty years previously in a cave near Warwick (north of the Darling range), but not till recently carefully examined. It was associated with Pleistocene animal remains, though the fauna of Australia has changed more rapidly than in most other countries, and the period must not be put too far back. The skull was of a more primitive type than even the Piltdown specimen (A.R., 1913, p. 55), the anterior width being greatest at the level of the nose, and the summit was peak-shaped instead of dome-shaped. Moreover, the facial angle was hardly 45 degrees, instead of being a right angle or more, and the upper canine teeth were disproportionately large, and conical. The race to which it belonged is supposed to have migrated from Western Asia, and to have died out before giving rise to any of the savage tribes inhabiting the continent since the historic period.
Mr. A. D. Hall, of the Development Commission, referred in the Agricultural Section of the Association to the large waste areas on the earth which might be made productive by drainage, manuring, tillage, or other treatment without excessive expenditure. Many of these occur in populous countries, and many more in remoter or uncivilised districts.
The occurrence of coal in Arctic regions is no new discovery, and for eight or nine years it has been exported from Spitzbergen, the amount in 1913 being some 40,000 tons. The coal is of tertiary age, and is of good quality for steam-raising purposes. It is found conveniently near the surface, close to Advent Bay, and the absence of liquid water, of dust and fire-damp, eliminates the ordinary risks of coal-mining. It is a problem still unsolved by geologists how the warm climate necessary for the vegetation of a carboniferous epoch could have been brought about, either in Spitzbergen or the high southern latitudes in which Sir Douglas Mawson (see "The Home of the Blizzard," 1914) discovered samples. Astronomical and geographical changes have both been invoked, but without furnishing a satisfactory demonstration.
Attention has recently been called to the great marble deposits in Spitzbergen, which yield stones of varied and often new colours, and suitable for building or ornamental purposes. As in the case of coal the situation of the quarries—in King's Bay and elsewhere—leaves nothing to be desired from the exporter's point of view.
C. L. B.
A gift of 24,000l. from Sir James Caird to Sir Ernest Shackleton's expedition across the Antarctic placed the enterprise on a sure footing and enabled the leader and his staff to proceed rapidly with their preparations. By July the members of the expedition were chosen; Mr. Frank Wild is second in command of the Weddell Sea party, Lieut. F. A. Worsley is in navigating command of the Endurance on the voyage from London to Buenos Ayres and the Weddell Sea, and Lieutenant A. Mackintosh is leader of the party which sails in the Aurora for the Ross Sea area.
The Endurance left Plymouth for the Antarctic on August 8, and Sir Ernest Shackleton followed from Liverpool on September 19 to overtake her in South America, leaving Buenos Ayres for South Georgia on October 27. It is now intended that the Endurance shall winter in the Antarctic in latitude 77° 30' S.; if this point is reached early enough the trans-Antarctic journey can be begun this season, and in that case Sir Ernest hopes to meet the Ross Sea party in April, 1915, but, if not, then in March, 1916. Wireless telegraphic apparatus is to be installed so that communication can be kept up with the rest of the world.
At the base in the Weddell Sea area the party is to divide into three divisions; the main one under Sir Ernest Shackleton will proceed on the trans-Antarctic journey of 1,700 miles to meet the Ross Sea party; a westerly division will explore the continuation of the Victoria Mountains; and an easterly division will investigate Enderby Land.
The Ross Sea party will send out a division over the Barrier Ice which will follow the route up Beardmore Glacier to meet the leader of the expedition and his comrades. It is intended on the land journeys to use motor sledges and an aeroplane with truncated wings, as well as dogs of which there are one hundred.
Sir Douglas Mawson has communicated to the Royal Geographical Society a complete account of his voyage to Antarctica and his journey inland, the region investigated lying due south of Australia between longitude 90° and 150° east. The expedition sailed from Hobart on December 2, 1911, in the Aurora and made for Macquerie Island, a rocky structure twenty miles long by three and a half broad, where a party was left for purposes of research. Here a wireless telegraph station was established, and by its means communication was kept up with the main contingent in Antarctica and with Australia. On January 6, 1912, an ice tongue of immense size was sighted projecting from continental land, where, after some difficulty, a harbour was found near Cape Denison, and by January 19 a house was erected and the stores had been transferred thither. On this part of the coast the gales blowing from the land seem to be almost continuous and greatly add to the danger of navigation; for example, at Adelie Land, the average wind velocity is fifty miles an hour, average hourly velocities of 100 miles an hour were common, and ninety miles an hour for twenty-four hours has been recorded.
Three inland journeys were undertaken in an easterly direction, the longest being under the leadership of Dr. Mawson; it was on this journey that Lieutenant Ninnis was killed by falling into a crevasse and Dr. Mertz died from exposure, while the leader himself, left alone to struggle to the base, would have succumbed but for the fortunate discovery of a store of provisions. A fourth exploring party was led by Mr. Bage in a southerly direction over the plateau, and a fifth was conducted by Mr. Bickerton over the high lands towards the West. Seven members of the expedition remained on Adelie Land for a second year, and finally Adelaide was reached on February 26, 1914.
A new Anglo-Swedish expedition is under consideration to explore thoroughly the part of the Antarctic continent due south of South America. It will be under the leadership of Professor Nordenskjold.
Dr. Steffansson sailed more than a year ago on the Karluk for the western part of the Northern Archipelago, but the vessel, after being caught in the ice in lat. 70° 47' N., long. 150° 7' W., was wrecked on January 11, 1914, through the ice unexpectedly breaking up. Captain Bartlett and eight others were rescued from Wrangel Island by the U.S. Government ship Bear, but eleven members of the expedition, including most of the scientific staff, have been lost. Dr. Steffansson, who had left the Karluk before she was wrecked, travelled northwards until open water was reached; thence in pursuit of his journey he thought he might be driven by wind and currents on to Banks Island, and in that event he would await help there. Whalers who have touched at the island have, however, seen no trace of him and his three companions.
Dr. Bruce returned in September from Spitzbergen, where he has been engaged in hydrographical and other research work.
Mr. Jonas Lied sailed in July for Northern Siberia with the intention of opening up a commercial route over the sea with that country. The venture has been partly successful, but the expedition had to return earlier than expected and a larger one has now been organised.
The Norwegian explorer Sverdrup has been endeavouring to trace the fate of more than one Russian expedition in the polar area north of Europe and Asia.
No news is yet to hand of Professor Macmillan's expedition for the exploration of the region north of Grant Land.
A report on the recent work of Sir A. Stein in Central Asia has been received. Crossing the Tarim he reached Niya where he discovered in a sand-buried settlement documents in the Indian language. Evidence of Chinese occupation and Chinese trade were discovered in the course of his travels, copper coins, arrow-heads and relics of the silk trade being among the articles found. He is now proceeding to Kan-su for further work of exploration.
Dr. Filippi has been engaged in scientific work in Baltistan in Northern Kashmir, his winter base being Skardu, the capital, which is situated at an altitude of nearly 8,000 feet. Observations for establishing longitudinal data have been carried on here and at Dehra Dun, and gravimetrical work was accomplished at Wozul Hardu at an elevation of 14,000 feet.
Captain F. M. Bailey has returned from the exploration of the Tsangpo or Upper Brahmaputra River, having mapped its course for 380 miles. He has discovered a mountain named Gyala Peri, the altitude of which is 24,460 feet, and he has traced the upper waters of the Subansiri, a river which rises north of the Himalayas and breaks through them.
Captains Pemberton and Trenchard have continued their travels in the region of the Plains of Assam; Mr. Kingdon Ward has attempted to penetrate South-East Tibet from China, but had to return on account of political difficulties; and Dr. Legendre is undertaking a new journey to Western China.
In Sumatra Mr. Boden Kloss has made a journey to Mount Indrapura, a volcano with an active crater and the highest point in that country. ex-President Roosevelt, in conjunction with Colonel Rondon, has made an expedition in Brazil down the Rio Duvida, the personnel of the expedition including Mr. Kermit Roosevelt, two biologists, an engineer and a surgeon. After four days' progress along the river cataracts were met with, and the next sixty miles took forty-two days to accomplish. The last cataract was passed about latitude 10° 50' S., and in latitude 5° 20' S. the river joins the Madeira. This is the most important tributary of the Madeira below the junction of the Beni and Mamoré, but hitherto it has not been mapped and the expedition has accomplished a remarkable piece of work.
An account has been published by Dr. Rose, an experienced traveller, of his journeys in the region of the sources of the Uaupeo River as far as the Rio Negro, his object being mainly topographical.
A report of the travels of Dr. Fritz Jaeger in German East Africa has been issued, and is interesting, as it gives a concise account of the Great Rift Valley of East Africa in which is included Lakes Magadi, Manyara, and Balangda.
The French travellers M. Rohan Chabot and Captain Grimaud have returned after exploring the region of Mossamedes and examining the cataracts of Middle Kunene, the journey being continued to the western basin of the Upper Zambesi. Commander Tilho has explored the region around Lake Tehad, and Dr. Abdul Ghani, a member of a Turkish mission, has given an account of the Jarabub oasis in Northern Africa which he had visited.
Miss Lowthian Bell has accomplished an enterprising journey to the south and south-east of Damascus, finally reaching Shammar, and has obtained interesting archæological results; and Captain Shakespear, British Resident at Koweit, has travelled the country from the Persian Gulf to Suez, along a route seldom trodden by Europeans.
J. R. A.
Some changes have been introduced in the arrangements and work of the Meteorological Office in consequence of an increased grant received from the Treasury. In the reports the Scottish National data are now to be included, so that one publication will contain the whole data of the British Isles; additional instrumental equipment is to be provided at Kew; a weather station is to be established at Falmouth; and several junior professional assistants are to be added to the staff.
Recently published accounts of balloon ascents show that the mean height of the stratosphere is 10 kilometres, the temperature being -54.5° C., the temperature at the maximum height of 14.7 kilometres being -52° C. The average temperature of the air column between 1 and 9 kilometres is -21° C.
Dr. Walker, in the memoirs of the Indian Meteorological Department, emphasises the necessity for the correlation between two quantities to be a high one if it is to express the probability of a physical relation; chance may give a correlation factor which when carefully interpreted has no physical meaning.
In Terrestrial Magnetism reports appear of the work done by the Carnegie in her second cruise round the world. It is stated that along the Gulf Stream to Hammerfest the deviation of the compass west of true north is greater in general, by as much as 1° to 2°, than that given by British and American charts. The potential gradient is much the same over the sea as over the land, but the radio-activity is smaller, and the specific conductivity greater, on water than on land.
At Eskdalemuir Observatory electrical observations of the atmosphere have not been taken over any long period, but what have been recorded differ considerably from the results at Kew. In the north the conditions are much more disturbed than in the south, especially in the summer, the mean potential gradient being higher at Kew than at Eskdalemuir. At the latter station the number of ions between summer and winter is small and uncertain.
Messrs. Stewart and Jörgensen have made observations of the potential gradient of the atmosphere in the industrial district around Leeds, and they find it is exceptionally large, a result attributable to the gases poured into the air from the numerous furnaces in the vicinity.
The relation of annual drainage yield to rainfall has been discussed by D. Halton Thomson, who shows that a rainfall, over say twenty years, of a given frequency produces a yield of the same frequency, and that a simple formula can be obtained connecting these quantities. Thus at Sheffield the yield is equal to the rainfall minus fourteen inches, the evaporation of fourteen inches being quite constant whatever the rainfall. This constancy of evaporation does not hold at all places, for at Torquay the evaporation varies to a small degree with the amount of the rainfall.
An unexpected and curious see-saw between the rainfall of Havana and of the South-West of England and South Wales has been discovered by Mr. A. H. Brown in the course of a study of Cuban rainfall. In Havana during May to October there is a wet season, and an excess of rainfall in this season is very generally associated with a deficient rainfall at the beginning of the next year in the parts of England mentioned; on the other hand a deficiency at Havana is the precursor of excess in the south-westerly parts of England and Wales.
A paper on "Canadian Weather Forecasting," by Mr. B. C. Webber, has been issued by the Meteorological Office of Canada. It covers the period 1874-1904 and supplies a quantity of statistical information on percentages of low pressure areas causing storms, the directions in which depressions move, etc. On the Great Lakes November is the stormiest month, but on the Gulf of St. Lawrence storms are most frequent in January and February. Since January, 1912, the Canadian Meteorological Office has issued a daily meteorological chart of the northern hemisphere, but the advance of forecasting has not been very rapid and further progress will probably not be made until more detailed information of the upper air, especially of the stratosphere, is obtainable, as it is now recognised that the character of the ground weather is much influenced by the condition of this layer of air.
Professor W. R. Blair observes that up to 1½ kilometres above the earth's surface the same type of daily variation of weather elements is found as at ground level, but above this height a second maximum appears after midnight, the time of which alters with increasing altitude.
An interesting paper in Himmel und Erde, by Professor G. Hellmann, deals with superstitions relating to weather, and under the head of character and causes of the weather he reminds us of the prevalence of the belief in equinoctial gales, although the evidence of careful observers is not in favour of stormy winds at the equinoxes. Sayings in relation to the colour of the sky in the morning and evening are not without some measure of truth in predicting the weather, but prognostications of the weather from the moon, although persistently found, have very little to support them when tested by reliable observations. Lastly, the making of weather, for example the firing of cannon to produce rain, or the warding off of thunder by the ringing of church bells, still in vogue in parts of Switzerland, is a superstition which dies hard, although completely discredited by science.
Dr. A. E. Douglass has published an account of his investigations on tree growth in relation to rainfall, and from an examination of the growth of rings in trees, involving 10,000 observations, he concludes that definite rainfall information in the past can be obtained from the mode of growth of trees. The average age of the trees examined was 348 years.
Upper air investigations are likely to suffer from the advent of the war. International days were fixed to the end of the year but not after, and meetings of International Committees will probably be suspended. The Manchester station has been closed since the beginning of the year and the station at Pyrton Hill ceased to be available in the spring, but its work is now being carried on at Benson six miles W.S.W. of Pyrton Hill.
In all parts of the British Isles the mean temperature of the year was in excess by as much as 2° in the East and North-East of England and the Midland counties, and by about 1° in other parts of the country. The high temperature of 90° in the shade was touched in the South of England and the lowest temperature of the year, namely 7°, occurred in the East of Scotland. The rainfall was greatest in the North of Scotland, where it reached 49.31 inches, and least in the North-East of England, the fall there being 24.82 inches; in most parts of England and in the south of Ireland the amount was decidedly above the average. Sunshine was normal.
The Terrestrial Magnetic Elements at Greenwich for the year 1913 were:—
| Declination | 15° 15.2´ west. |
| Dip | 66° 50.5´. |
| Horizontal Force | 0.1851 C.G.S. units. |
J. R. A.
The constitution of the atom continues to be a subject of experimental inquiry. According to Sir Ernest Rutherford's views on the scattering of [Greek: a]α-rays the atom consists of a central nucleus of positive electricity around which one or more electrons revolve. Mathematicians have objected that such a system is not stable, but N. Bohr has evaded this difficulty by introducing Planck's theory of a quantum of energy, which states that energy is not emitted continuously but in discrete atomic quantities. For the simple atoms of hydrogen and helium Bohr's theory gives some remarkably accurate representations of certain properties of these elements; especially in relation to the spectral lines. Van der Broek contends that the nuclear positive charge is exactly equal to the atomic number, and certain experiments by Moseley on the x-ray spectra of the elements are regarded as confirmatory of this.
The quantum hypothesis of Professor Planck, referred to above, which regards energy as transferable in definite units and not continuously, is being applied to several physical problems with some measure of success. For example, Professor Nernst has recently investigated the specific beats of the solid elements at very low temperatures and by the application of a formula due to Debye, involving the quantum hypothesis, a very good agreement between theory and experiment is obtained. An excellent review of this work and the bearing of the quantum hypothesis on such different subjects as photo-electricity, the line spectra of the elements, and radiation generally, has been written by Mr. J. H. Jeans and published by the Physical Society of London. Mr. Jeans inclines to the view that the classical Newtonian Mechanics must be revised to meet the conditions which the quantum hypothesis have called forth.
Professor Millikan has attempted direct proof of a cardinal feature of this hypothesis, namely the direct proportionality between the frequency and the energy of radiation, by showing experimentally that the energy of the electrons ejected from metals by the action of light is proportional to the frequency of the light vibrations.
An important discovery has been made by J. Stark that hydrogen in a state of luminescence when subjected to an electric field has its spectral lines resolved into three or more components, an effect analogous to the Zeeman effect in which the spectral lines are resolved into components by the action of a magnetic field. The effect has been observed independently by Lo Surdo whilst working on the positive rays in a vacuum tube. The two outer components of an electrically resolved line are polarised at right angles to the remainder, the separation of the components being proportional to the field intensity and increasing with decreasing wave length. The electric effect is not the same in all its details as the magnetic effect and is not always quite easily interpreted, but the discovery puts a new means in the hands of the physicist for the investigation of the structure of the atom.
Messrs. Kaye and Higgins have continued their researches on the emission of electricity from substances at temperatures of 2000° to 2500° C. from which currents, generally of negative electricity, are obtained of a density as much as 1 to 2 ampères per sq. cm. Boiling brass, however, emits a positive current of 0.5 ampères per sq. cm. The subject is of considerable interest in connection with the problem of the electric and magnetic state of the sun. These experiments, however, are not altogether in agreement with Professor Richardson's view that the emission of thermions from hot bodies is a kind of evaporation of electrons following a law like that of liquid evaporation under rise of temperature.
A most interesting experiment has been carried out by Professor K. Onnes as a branch of his low temperature researches. A coil of lead was constructed and cooled to within a few degrees of absolute zero at which temperature its resistance is 2 × 10-10 of what it is at normal temperature, consequently an induced current when started persists after the inducing electromotive force is withdrawn, as there is no appreciable resistance and therefore no dissipation of energy into heat. In this way it has been possible to realise the conception of electric currents continuously circulating round atoms, which was first introduced by Ampère to account for magnetism.
Professor Jean Perrin in a recent course of lectures has explained his striking and beautiful experiments on the movement of small particles suspended in liquids. When an emulsion of such particles is dilute the laws which are applicable to gases are obeyed, but when the emulsion is concentrated van der Waal's law for dense vapours then holds good, and in this way these important laws of the behaviour of invisible molecules can be ocularly demonstrated.
Hiromu Takagi has examined the change of magnetic properties of magnetite with rise of temperature and is unable to confirm the sudden changes of susceptibility which were said to occur at definite points above the critical temperature. These changes Professor Weiss claimed as one proof of the existence of an elementary indivisible unit of magnetism, which he named the magneton, and the evidence for this unit must therefore rest upon other experiments.
The very large intrinsic field of a magnet required by the kinetic theory of magnetism receives some confirmation by the application of an experiment, by Hurmuzescu, on the electromotive force developed in a cell consisting of two identical pieces of soft iron in dilute acetic acid, one of which is strongly magnetised. Calculation then shows that if the electromotive force arises from an intrinsic field, such a field must have a magnitude of the same order as is required by the theory.
Electrification can be produced by the splashing of water, a subject which has received a good deal of attention as it has a bearing on the origin of atmospheric electricity. Mr. J. J. Nolan has found from his experiments that the charge is of positive sign and inversely proportional to the radius of the drops, and he deduces the result that the charge is proportional to the new surface formed as the water breaks up, and that the magnitude of the charge produced per unit area of water surface is 2.7 × 10-3 electrostatic units.
An interesting example of how pure science is beneficial to industry is afforded by Professor Bone's experiments on surface combustion. It has been a popular lecture experiment for a long time past to exhibit the combination of combustible gases below the flame temperature when they are in contact with solids, and it is in this way possible to keep a solid incandescent by flameless combustion. Applying this result Professor Bone has constructed a boiler in which the water is heated by the metal tubes within it being raised to a high temperature by flameless combustion, and such a boiler has a very high efficiency. A trial on a large scale gave an efficiency of 92.7 per cent.
The work of the National Physical Laboratory has been extended to include a new department for the testing of radium preparations and for certifying the strength of radio-active preparations. This department is under the superintendence of Dr. Kaye.
The death of Professor John Henry Poynting in March last is a loss to English science. His name will always be associated with the theorem on the transference of energy in the electro-magnetic field which he was the first to enunciate.
J. R. A.
The constitution of the atom is one of the chief problems in physical chemistry at the present time, and evidence is accumulating that the atomic weight of an element is not, as was once thought, a natural constant, like the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, but a quantity which can fluctuate within certain limits. Thus, according to Professor Soddy, radium F, on losing an atom of helium, has its atomic weight reduced from 210 to 206, and then becomes chemically indistinguishable from lead. Thorium C (212), in the same manner, yields another form of lead with the atomic weight 208, and radium C (214) a third form with the atomic weight 210. A species of lead from Ceylon, whose atomic weight is slightly different from that of ordinary lead, lends colour to these assertions, though it cannot be supposed that all the lead in nature is derived from radio-active metals of higher atomic weight.
The subject of catalysis is assuming a greater commercial importance than heretofore, it having been discovered that hydrocarbons are enabled by this means to take up additional atoms of hydrogen, and form oils, while certain oils can be hardened into fats. Thus acetylene can be changed into complex products similar to and even identical with petroleum, and according to Professor Sabatier of Toulouse, it is even possible to imitate the Galician, North American, Rumanian and Caucasian oils at will, by varying the conditions. It is not likely that this will be done on a sufficient scale to compete with these types in the market, though a considerable industry has sprung up of late, founded on a variety of the same process. Oleic acid, for example, can be made to take up two atoms of hydrogen, and becomes converted into stearic acid; fish oils lose their smell and are turned into a hard odourless tallow. In France, the United States, and Germany, large quantities of butter substitutes and lard substitutes are made in this way. The hydrogenation is effected by spraying the oil, and compressing it with hydrogen in the presence of nickel, under suitable degrees of temperature and pressure.
Thoria is a powerful catalyst, and can change organic acids to ketones, while titanium dioxide causes certain of the fatty acids to turn into aldehydes.
At the British Association meeting Professor E. Goldstein gave an address to the chemical section on the influence of the kathode rays on the colour of metallic salts. Sodium chloride is turned brown by this agency; potassium bromide a deep blue; sodium fluoride rose-colour, lithium chloride bright yellow, and so on. The effect is very rapid, and endures for a long time if the salt is kept dark and cold, but disappears more or less quickly under ordinary conditions. It is supposed to be due to decomposition, and both the metal and the acid radicle are concerned in the result. Similar effects have been obtained by Giesel, and also by Kreutz, who found that rock-salt, heated in the vapour of sodium or potassium, also became coloured. The changes so produced are more permanent than those produced by the kathode rays, though if the latter be allowed to act for a sufficiently long time there is less discrepancy in the results. It is interesting to note that ordinary acetic acid shows no colour change, while chloracetic acid is turned yellow, and chloral a bright yellow. Substances so acted on are sometimes phosphorescent, and the effect is due to ultra-violet rays excited by stoppage of the beta and x-rays. The therapeutic effects of kathode and x-ray treatment are no doubt dependent in some degree on these changes, and it may be possible to discover which rays are hurtful, and to cut them off.
The chemical world has been affected by the war in various ways. Thus the supply of potash from Stassfurt has ceased; saccharine, synthetic drugs, and glass apparatus are no longer procurable from Germany, and, most important of all, the dyeing industry is deprived of its mainstay, the aniline colours. With regard to the last, a scheme is under consideration by the Government to establish the manufacture of dyes in this country—which should have been its home after Perkin's discoveries—but the problem is fraught with many difficulties.
Sir James Dewar has recently been studying the composition of air from various sources with reference to rare gases contained in it, and finds that the breath expired by different individuals contains 23-52 parts per million of gases uncondensable at 20° absolute. From 2 to 20 or 30 per cent of this is hydrogen, the amount varying with the time of day and other conditions. In ordinary city air there are, in 1,000,000 parts, about 2.6 of hydrogen, and 22½ of mingled helium and neon; country air contains 22.8 of the former and .5 of the latter. With regard to permeability, helium easily passes through highly heated quartz, a power not possessed by hydrogen, though it passes easily through hot platinum. Oxygen permeates more quickly through a rubber film than hydrogen, and hydrogen than nitrogen. The occlusion of gases, the permeability of metals and the ubiquity of hydrogen add to the difficulty of these investigations, all rubber connections and greased stopcocks having to be discarded.
C. L. B.
The year has seen the publication of a considerable amount of research of a detailed and specialised character, but it does not appear to have been marked by contributions of immediate general interest or of outstanding importance.
At the meeting of the British Association in Australia, the Presidential address, by Professor Bower of Glasgow, dealt partly with the history of Australian Botany from Joseph Banks, who sailed with Captain Cook in 1770, to the present day; and partly with special Australian plants on which Bower himself has worked, especially with Phylloglossum, a very primitive Lycopod, and Tmesipteris, a link between living Lycopods and fossils of the group Sphenophyllales; and other primitive Australian forms. Numerous other papers dealt with the Australian flora, etc.
Professor Lang has published the first of a series of communications describing the structure of the Quillwort, Isoetes. This is a curious plant, a distant relation of the Clubmosses (Lycopods), all of whose immediate relations appear to be extinct. This investigation of a familiar but little understood plant promises to provide a thorough explanation of its construction and a sound basis for a comparison of the stock of Isoetes with the Stigmarian bases of the fossil tree-Lycopods, whose morphology has long been a puzzle to fossil botanists.
Miss E. M. Berridge's recent account of the anatomy of the Fagaceæ (Beech family) is of much interest. Her observations lead her to the conclusion that the Amentiferæ (catkin-bearing trees) are not primitive, but derived from plants with large flowers. She finds the Fagaceæ connected by various links with the Rosaceæ.
Several American botanists have published investigations on the stem anatomy of flowering-plants, in which they have attempted to trace the changes that have occurred during evolution, and from which they conclude as others have done from more general considerations, that the tree-habit is relatively primitive in flowering-plants.
Our knowledge of fossil seeds has been augmented by two important contributions. One comes from Dr. Wieland of America, whose researches in wonderfully rich material have added so much to our information on the Bennettitales; he describes yet another type of complex inflorescence, helping to build up our conceptions of the evolution of the flower. The other, by Salisbury, is a most careful and detailed account of some new fossil species of Trigonocarpon, old seeds from the Coal measures which make one realise more profoundly how complex were plant organs even in those days.
Professor Bottomley has carried a step farther his investigations on the fertilising influence of "bacterised peat," i.e. peat acted upon by the bacteria of ordinary soil. In a paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society on "Some Accessory Factors in Plant Growth and Nutrition," he traces the increased growth of plants supplied with this fertiliser to certain organic substances of unknown nature present only in minute proportions, yet enabling the plants to make use of a larger amount of the food available in the soil. From quantitative cultural experiments he infers that wheat seedlings are able to form a certain limited amount of these substances during germination, from material present in the grain, but that after a time their rate of growth falls off considerably unless further supplies are available from without. These substances are obtained from ordinary soil, but are more plentiful in "bacterised peat" (though not in ordinary peat), so that their presence is due to bacterial activity. Professor Bottomley draws an interesting parallel with the substances that have been found necessary by Dr. Hopkins and others, likewise in minute proportions, for the growth of young animals. The diseases of beri-beri and scurvy have been traced to the lack of similar substances when the diet consists of polished rice or lacks green vegetables and fruit.
In a series of experiments Mr. F. Kidd has thrown new light on the conditions which lead to dormancy of the embryo in ripe seeds, and which must be removed if germination is to take place. Maturation involves a cessation, or at least a retardation, of the growth of the embryo, and this is shown to be the result of the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the tissues, which acts as a mild anæsthetic. In the soil, carbon dioxide is frequently present in considerable amount, especially where manure and other organic matter is being decomposed, or in the deeper layers, and under such conditions the anæsthesis tends to be prolonged and germination delayed. During maturation the accumulation of carbon dioxide is due to the seed-coat becoming impermeable to it. If the seed-coat is removed the embryos, for instance, of peas can readily be induced to continue their growth without any period of rest.
Dr. W. Brenchley, working at Rothamsted with a view to the understanding of the peculiarities of certain natural soils, has found that zinc and arsenic have no stimulative effect on the growth of pea or wheat seedlings, but are toxic even in very minute proportions—a few parts per million—while boron has a small stimulating effect on growth when in very minute proportions, though it also becomes toxic when less diluted.
Knight and Priestley have begun an attempt to analyse the beneficial influence of an electrical discharge on the growth of crops, by examining its influence on the different functions of plants. Beginning with respiration, they find that an electric discharge has no appreciable effect on the rate of respiration until it is powerful enough to raise the temperature appreciably and that then the whole effect is attributable to the rise in temperature.
Professor Ewart of Melbourne has published an impressive account of researches on oxidation by organic and inorganic catalysts. He has studied the nature of the activity of enzymes responsible for oxidation in the Apple, Lemon, Maize, Parsnip, Beetroot, etc., and in view of his results controverts the generally accepted views, first promulgated by Chodat and Bach, that oxidising elements belong to several classes, differing in chemical value and their mode of action.
M. G. T.
Professor Arthur Dendy, President of the Zoological section of the British Association, which this year met in Australia, took as the subject of his address "Progressive Evolution and the Origin of Species." Darwin and Wallace established the main principle of evolution, but at the present time there is still great diversity of opinion among expert biologists as to the means by which organic evolution has been effected. Darwin and Wallace held that species originate under the influence of "natural selection"—the selection by nature of fit variations. Later, De Vries brought forward the view that species arise by sudden "mutations" or sports, and thus not by gradual changes, and the well-known Mendelian Professor Lotsy holds that all species originate by crossing. At present, it is mainly due to the impetus gained by the introduction of experimental methods that there exists so much difference of opinion. Professor Dendy's address was an endeavour to take a general survey of the situation.
A theory of organic evolution should account for the following principal groups of facts: (1) "that on the whole evolution has taken place in a progressive manner along definite and divergent lines; (2) that individual animals and plants are more or less precisely adapted in their organisation and in their behaviour to the conditions under which they live; (3) that evolution has resulted in the existence on the earth to-day of a vast number of more or less well-defined groups of animals and plants which we call species."
Professor Dendy seeks to explain the fact that organisms throughout nature show a slow progression by the "law of the accumulation of surplus energy." From Jennings's work on the "Behaviour of the Lower Organisms" one is led to the conclusion that the lower animals learn by experience to make the appropriate response to stimuli without having to pass through the long process of trial and error. They are thus able to perform a given action with less expenditure of energy. The same is true for higher animals, and the power of profiting by experience is apparently a fundamental property of living protoplasm. Jennings speaks of this property or principle as the "law of the readier resolution of physiological states after repetition," and this law probably lies at the root of progressive evolution. As a corollary to the principle enunciated by Jennings, the "law of the accumulation of surplus energy" would follow. In the organism or in the egg cell, the oftener the process of absorbing food-material is repeated, the easier does the process become, and thus the organism tends to accumulate surplus energy in excess of its own needs. Professor Dendy lays emphasis on a progressive accumulation of potential energy by succeeding generations of animals and plants—each generation having a slightly greater amount than the previous one—and that by means of this cumulative energy, structural progressive changes are evolved, or in other words there is progressive evolution. He holds that there takes place in nature in the stricter sense something similar to that which seems to occur in human life, when certain families rise in general well-being and prosperity through the gradual accumulation of capital in successive generations, and in virtue of this handed-on capital each later generation starts with an advantage over the previous one.
Professor Dendy also holds that the law of recapitulation, which may be stated thus, that the life-history of the individual is a recapitulation of the life-history of the race, is a logical necessity if evolution has taken place. Leaving out, for the present, the complication introduced by the union of two germ cells of separate sexes, the behaviour of the germ cell during development is conditioned by two factors, namely its own constitution and its environment. It is now accepted that the living matter of the germ cell is continuous from generation to generation, and given the same environment, the germ cell should develop in a similar manner in succeeding generations, but with a difference arising from the "law of the accumulation of surplus energy." The organism developing from the germ cell will have a greater capacity for responding to stimuli—it will be a slightly more capable and efficient being in each successive generation. The organism must repeat in its life-history the stages passed through by its ancestors, because at every stage there is an almost identical organism exposed to the same environment, but there will be an acceleration in the individual life-history owing to the cumulative storing of potential energy.
As in human life, however, an organism really inherits from its parents two things, namely, living protoplasm with potential energy and an appropriate environment. When we say that an organism inherits a particular character from its parents, we really mean a special feature which is handed on if the appropriate environment is also present to bring out that character. The inheritance of the environment is as important as the living protoplasm, for in each life-history an animal is capturing and assimilating from the environment handed down to it from its parent.
The response which an animal makes to its environment is probably not merely purely mechanical, for Jennings has pointed out that in the case of the lower organisms, the response to stimuli is to a large extent purposive, namely that the organism has the inherent capacity of selecting those modes of response which are best for its own well-being. Those responses to stimuli may result in change of structure, and thus the evolution of the body will be adaptive and follow along definite lines. One has, however, to remember that while the germ cell may be slightly different in successive generations, the environment is also changing in these generations.
In trying to understand evolution and the doctrine of recapitulation by the individual of the life-history of the race one must proceed slowly and by single steps, for there is no difficulty in understanding how any particular stage is related to the corresponding stage in the previous generation, but the whole series of changes is simply the sum of successive terms.
Space does not permit a complete review of Professor Dendy's contribution. Its most important part seems to be the "law of the accumulation of surplus energy." The complications introduced into the problem by the union of two cells of different sexes Professor Dendy regards as less important than is generally held, as the parents must have been alike in main respects or they could not have interbred. He also recognises the very important recent work on "mutation" and "hybridisation" from the point of view of heredity, but regards the unit characters arising by mutation and interchanged by hybridisation as chance characters due to chance modifications of the germ-plasm, and having comparatively little influence upon the general course of evolution. The characters inherited in the Mendelian manner are apparently non-adaptive, and with no particular value in the struggle for existence. Probably the nucleus of Professor Dendy's position may be found in the following quotation: "Surely that much-abused philosopher, Lamarck, was not far from the truth when he said, 'the production of a new organ in an animal body results from a new requirement which continues to make itself felt, and from a new movement which this requirement begets and maintains.' Is not this merely another way of saying that the individual makes adaptive responses to environmental stimuli?" As a counteractive to the foregoing, however, the reader may be referred to Professor Bateson's "Problems of Genetics," in which he writes: "When ... we contemplate the problem of Evolution at large, the hope at the present time of constructing even a mental picture of that process grows weak almost to the point of vanishing."
J. S. T.
In the history of art in England the year 1914 will be remembered chiefly as a period of trouble, unrest, and disappointment. To the picture lover the first disappointment of the year was the failure of the Royal Academy to hold the exhibition of Old Masters which had been arranged for January; a disappointment caused, not as some imagined by the difficulty of obtaining works, but solely by the death in the preceding autumn of Sir Frederick Eaton, the Secretary to the Royal Academy, who had been chiefly responsible for the organisation of the Winter Exhibitions almost from their commencement. The endeavours of enthusiastic supporters of the woman's suffrage movement to call public attention to their propaganda by attacking works of art resulted in serious damage to pictures in various galleries, several of which were closed for a time wholly or in part (pp. 71, 112). At the National Gallery the most serious case was the injury to the famous Velasquez, the "Venus and Cupid." This picture, which had been given an unfortunate prominence two or three years earlier by a ridiculous agitation about a supposed signature which proved to be imaginary, was now the victim of a more serious attack. Early in March a woman named Richardson broke the glass in front of the picture with a hatchet and managed to slash the canvas several times before she could be arrested. The outrages at the National Gallery caused the partial closing of the exhibition for some time, and the normal conditions had not been resumed when the war broke out and still further disarranged affairs at Trafalgar Square.
The German threats of attacks on London by airships called attention to the possible injury to the nation's pictures in such a case, and Sir Claude Phillips was especially prominent in urging that protection should be given to them. Numbers of the best works were removed accordingly to places of safety, and during the winter the Foreign side of the National Gallery was occupied mainly by second-rate pictures, and each room was disfigured by one or more huge bins of galvanized iron, filled with sand. At the Victoria and Albert Museum special precautions were taken with a view of protecting the Raphael Cartoons and certain other famous works of art.
At the Summer Exhibition of the Royal Academy the Hanging Committee for oil paintings was composed of Mr. David Murray, Mr. Seymour Lucas, Mr. W. W. Ouless, Mr. S. J. Solomon, Mr. H. H. La Thangue, and Mr. Lionel Smythe; the last named of whom also arranged the watercolours, which for the first time were placed in the Tenth and Eleventh Galleries. Another new departure in Academy hanging was the arrangement of the Fourth Gallery by Mr. H. H. La Thangue, who allowed no pictures to be "skied," and did not overcrowd the lower lines. The result was eminently satisfactory, but it is to be feared that Mr. La Thangue's example will not be followed extensively unless the wall space at the Academy is largely increased. During the season several pictures were attacked by women, and Sir Hubert von Herkomer's portrait of the Duke of Wellington; Mr. Sargent's portrait of Mr. Henry James, the novelist; and Mr. Clausen's study of the nude, "Primavera," were all injured. Mr. Henry James, whose portrait by Mr. Sargent was one of the most discussed pictures in the exhibition, was also the subject of another portrait of great interest, a bust in marble by Mr. F. Derwent Wood. This bust was a commission from Mr. Sargent, who, however, surrendered it to the Chantrey Trustees, by whom it was purchased for 100l. A marble statue "Dawn," by Mr. C. L. Hartwell (1,100l.), was also bought by the Trustees; and two pictures, Mr. F. Cadogan Cowper's "Lucretia Borgia reigns in the Vatican in the absence of the Pope" (1,500l.); and Mr. Maurice Greiffenhagen's "Women by a Lake" (420l.). The general sales at the Academy were fairly numerous although not up to the level of some recent years. The King, when he paid his first visit to the exhibition, purchased Mr. B. W. Leader's landscape, "The River Llugwy, near Bettws-y-Coed" (150l.); and the other pictures sold included "The Annunciation," by Mr. J. W. Waterhouse; "The Little Archer" (400l.), by Mr. Charles Sims; "The Silent Woods" (350l.), by Sir Ernest Waterlow; "A Farm Loggia, Veneto," and "A Riva on the Grand Canal, Venice," by Mr. Henry Woods; "Primavera" (250l.), by Mr. George Clausen; "Noon, Equihen, France," and "To the Sea: Equihen, Pas de Calais, France," by Mr. Hughes-Stanton; "A Greek Water Carrier in Egypt" (250l.), by Sir W. B. Richmond; "And step from glowing heat to welcome depths of shade" (300l.), by Mr. Reginald Vicat-Cole; "Where Aspens Quiver," by Mr. Lionel P. Smythe; "Eternal Eve" (500l.), by Mr. Gabriel Nicolet; "Rag-time, Rio Mendicante, Venice" (250l.), by Mr. David Murray; "Dawn and the Shepherd" (200l.), by Mr. George Wetherbee; "The Silver Strand" (630l.), by Mr. Julius Olsson; "A Winter Morning" (350l.), by Mr. Harry W. Adams; "The Toast is England—Lord Nelson handing the loving cup to Benjamin West, R.A." (500l.), by Mr. Fred Roe; "Room at James Pryde's" (300l.), by Mr. Oswald Birley; "The Meadow Pool" (105l.), by Sir Alfred East; and "Napoleon's last Inspection of his Army" (315l.), by Mr. J. P. Beadle. It is curious that the largest picture exhibited in the Royal Academy at the time England declared war upon Germany was the portrait group by the late Sir Hubert von Herkomer of "The Managers and Directors of the firm of Fried, Krupp, Essen, Germany."
The exhibitions held in the earlier part of the year, before the declaration of war, included those of pictures by artists of the Venetian School, at the Burlington Fine Arts Club; of Old Masters and of the work of Mr. John Lavery, both at the Grosvenor Gallery; and of paintings or drawings by M. Steinlen, Sir Alfred East, Mr. H. H. La Thangue, and Mr. L. Campbell Taylor at the Leicester Galleries. An exhibition of Italian studies by Sir William Richmond was held at the Fine Art Society's gallery. The famous portrait by Millais of Mrs. Heugh, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1873, and afterwards sent to America, was shown in the spring at the International Society's exhibition, to which it was lent by Mr. Edmund Davis. A loan exhibition of examples of modern French art was held at Grosvenor House by permission of the Duke of Westminster. It was of singular interest, but, unfortunately, was opened too late in the season to attract the attention it deserved.
One of these exhibitions, that of Old Masters at the Grosvenor Gallery, was organised to raise funds for the purchase of modern pictures for the nation. It was so successful that the committee was enabled to purchase works by Mr. W. Orpen, Mr. Oliver Hall, Mr. H. Muhrman, Mr. A. McEvoy, Mr. W. W. Russell, Mrs. Mary Davis, Mr. John Lavery, and Mr. Gerald F. Kelly; all of which were presented to the Tate Gallery in July. A noble gift of some twenty examples of his art was made by M. Auguste Rodin to the Victoria and Albert Museum in November. The London Museum, admirably arranged in its permanent home at Stafford House, was opened in the summer; and other events of interest in the year were the unveiling of the Royal Academy memorial to Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (designed by Sir George Frampton) at his birthplace in Holland, and of a memorial to the late Sir William Orchardson in St. Paul's Cathedral. An important new departure was made at the Victoria and Albert Museum, where the "sixpenny" days were finally abolished and free admission given to the public throughout the week. In the summer plans were made, for the consideration of Mr. Asquith, for a proposed Ministry of Fine Arts; and a non-party and unofficial committee was formed of members of the House of Lords and House of Commons for the purpose of noting and examining questions connected with the acquisition of pictures for the nation and other matters relating to the arts.
The outbreak of the war was from every point of view disastrous to artists and picture dealers. The sale of pictures was brought temporarily almost to a standstill; the opening of some exhibitions was postponed indefinitely, and that of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters abandoned for the year. In these conditions, when artists were suffering severely themselves, it is to their credit that they made great and successful efforts to aid the funds of the war charities. For the Artists' War Fund they contributed more than four hundred paintings, pieces of sculpture and prints which were distributed by lot to subscribers. Mr. Sigismund Goetze defrayed the cost of collection and distribution; and Messrs. Dicksee lent their gallery free of charge; and the honorary treasurers and secretary, Mr. O. Wynne Apperley, Mr. Louis Ginnett and Mr. Martin Hardie, were therefore enabled to hand over the entire receipts, amounting to 2,615l., to the Prince of Wales's National Relief Fund. The Royal Academy called a meeting of the Presidents of the principal art societies to arrange an exhibition of pictures to be sold for the same purpose, and also lent several of its galleries to the United Arts Force whose members practised military exercises in the courtyard of Burlington House.
In the auction room the season was uneventful even before hostilities commenced and later there was so little doing that Messrs. Christie did not reopen their rooms in the autumn, according to custom. The Grenfell sale was the most important. It included the portrait by Titian for which the collector paid 30,000l. a few years earlier, and now, under the hammer, realised £13,650. Other pictures sold in the spring and summer included a Peter de Hoogh (at Messrs. Robinson & Fisher's) for 8,200 guineas; a Gainsborough landscape, 7,000 guineas, and a portrait of a lady in white by the same artist which fetched a similar price; and a portrait by Lawrence, 5,600 guineas. The price paid for the de Hoogh was a record; and another auction room record was made when Valentine Green's mezzotint of Sir Joshua's portrait of Lady Betty Delmé was sold from the Northwick collection for 1,750 guineas.
W. T. Whitley.
The drama of the year 1914 falls, like every kindred subject, into two sharply defined parts: the first, seven months of normal conditions; the second, five months of conditions not only abnormal but absolutely unparalleled. It is difficult to believe that any branch of art can have suffered more severely than the drama during these later months. No doubt, in times to come, this European war will furnish material for innumerable plays, good, bad, and indifferent; it will be treated, dramatically, from every point of view, as long as the world lasts; but while we are actually engaged in the struggle the chief incidents inseparable from a "war-play" are almost too poignant to be reproduced; artistic values are lost sight of in an overpoweringly painful impression. On the other hand, the average "drawing-room play"—to say nothing of the "problem play"—has been reduced to triviality by the readjustment of the public sense of proportion; domestic quarrels and social theories are shorn of their interest. Lastly, apart from sentimental or intellectual considerations, the darkening of the streets at night, and the all-pervading need for the reduction of personal expenses, have had disastrous results. There is reason to hope that the lowest ebb has now been reached, and that, even if the war should be prolonged, public tension cannot be kept always at the extreme pitch of the past autumn; but for the moment, the post of dramatic critic can be little more than a sinecure.
To deal first with those plays which enjoyed ordinary chances of success or failure, the year up to August had presented no very striking features. Perhaps the greatest promise of novelty was offered by Sir Herbert Tree's production of "Pygmalion," a new play by Bernard Shaw (His Majesty's, April 11). The prospect of seeing Sir Herbert Tree and Mrs. Patrick Campbell in first-rate comedy parts was inspiriting; but, frankly, it must be owned that the work was not of Mr. Shaw's best, and that the splendour of His Majesty's is less suited to his methods than the intimacy of the Court or the Little Theatre. The author may possibly have felt that the subtle effects of "Candida," or of "John Bull's Other Island," would be lost in so much space; what is certain is that in "Pygmalion" the humour is far more obvious—one might almost say crude—than in the earlier plays. Sir Herbert Tree as the "professor of phonetics" who undertakes the education of a Cockney flower-girl, and Mrs. Patrick Campbell as his pupil, did full justice to their parts, each proving once again a gift of comedy too often neglected. Mr. Edmund Gurney, as a London dustman—father of the flower-girl—was the chief vehicle of Mr. Shaw's opinions, and expressed himself effectively, though at inordinate length.