The Presidential Address for 1932: The Culture of Pliocene Man

1932 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Reid Moir
Keyword(s):  
Financial Support ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
Field Museum ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
Scientific World ◽  
Medical Museum ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Generous Financial Support ◽  
Considerable Body

It is now close upon twenty-five years since the first flints from beneath the Red Crag of Suffolk—and claimed to have been flaked by man—were placed before the scientific world. During the period of time which has elapsed since 1907, a great deal of careful excavation, carried out by means of generous financial support given by the Royal Society, the Percy Sladen Fund, the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, the Field Museum of Chicago and other Institutions, has been undertaken, and in consequence, a very considerable body of knowledge regarding the archaeological, and other contents of the Suffolk Bone Bed, has been accumulated.I propose, therefore, to take as the subject of my Presidential Address, “The Culture of Pliocene Man;” to place before you the evidence which makes it possible to use such a title in describing the sub-Red Crag artefacts, and to draw your attention to certain remarkable facts and conclusions relating to these specimens which must now be faced and considered. But it is necessary, first of all, to give a brief account of the Red Crag and the Suffolk Bone Bed (sometimes also called the Detritus Bed or the Nodule Bed) which underlies it, and in which the relics of man have been found.

Hierogamy in the Aztec Ritual

1999 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 111-132
Author(s):  
Justyna Olko
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Sexual Intercourse ◽  
Old World ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
Religious Significance ◽  
Basic Meaning ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Considerable Body ◽  
Mesoamerican Studies

"It is generally known that hierogamy or the ritual of sacred marriage was present in some cultures of the Old World. There, its most basic meaning was to regenerate vegetation and thus ensure fertility and abundance for the community. Little attention has been paid to the subject in Mesoamerican studies and, although we possess a considerable body of knowledge on Aztec feasts and ritual, none of the rites described in the sixteenth century sources or extant in the codices has been labeled by scholars as hierogamy. The aim of this paper is to show that what we deal with in Mesoamerica isalso a kind of hierogamy, which l understand as marriage between two gods or their earthly representatives, often accompanied by ritual sexual intercourse, usually of a special purpose and of religious significance."

Part I. General Introduction

1965 ◽  
Vol 249 (759) ◽  
pp. 259-271 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Volcanic Activity ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Volcanic Eruption ◽  
Financial Support ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Geological Survey ◽  
General Introduction ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Generous Financial Support

Tristan da Cunha and the three neighbouring islands of Inaccessible, Nightingale and Gough support a unique flora and fauna, poor in numbers of species but rich in endemics. Many of the endemics occur throughout the archipelago while others, some of great peculiarity, such as the flightless birds, are confined to single islands. Knowledge of the environmental conditions which have prevailed during the evolution of such a biota is very much to be desired. It is in this respect that examination of the damage caused by the volcanic eruption which began on Tristan da Gunha during October 1961 is most important. There are over thirty secondary eruptive centres which form very fresh, prominent features of the topography of Tristan. It is highly probable that the biota has suffered from volcanic activity many times in ways similar to, if not more severe than, those which occurred during 1961 and 1962. Soon after the eruption started, the Royal Society began to organize an expedition to study the new volcano, to make a geological survey of the Tristan archipelago and to investigate the effects of the eruption on the vegetation and fauna. Details of the history of the Expedition and the geological results are given by Baker, Gass, Harris & Le Maitre (1964). The inclusion of a botanist (J. H. Dickson) and a zoologist (D. E. Baird) was made possible by the generous financial support given to the project by the Trustees of the World Wildlife Fund.

scholarly journals IV. The structure and development of the stem in the pteridophyta and gymnosperms

1903 ◽  
Vol 195 (207-213) ◽  
pp. 119-146 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Higher Plants ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
Developmental Studies ◽  
Preliminary Account ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Woody Growth ◽  
Striking Contrast ◽  
Important Indication

A comparison of the taxonomic criteria employed for the higher animals and the higher plants respectively results in a striking contrast. Abundant use is made of skeletal characteristics in the classification of the Vertebrata, while such features are employed to a comparatively insignificant extent in the systematic grouping of the Vasculares. The value of the osseous skeleton of the higher animals in determining their affinities has been recognised since the beginning of the last century. It is only comparatively recently, on the other hand, that the fibro-vascular skeleton of the Vasculares has been discriminatingly used for phylogenetic purposes. The Brongniartian school of palæobotanists considered the possession of secondary woody growth to be an important indication of phænogamous relationship, and on this ground grouped the Calamites and Sigillarians with the Gymnosperms. A study of the very characteristic primary wood, as well as other less-important features in these two orders, led Williamson and his successors to put the Calamites with the Equisetales and the Sigillarians with the Lycopodiales. These conclusions have been fully confirmed by the subsequent discovery of typical heterospory in the two groups. The above examples will serve to illustrate the value of the primary fibrovascular skeleton from the phylogenetic standpoint. Palæobotanists have thus led the way in the proper taxonomic use of the fibrovascular skeleton; but from the very nature of their material they have not been able to any extent to use development as a phylogenetic key. Developmental studies which have been so fruitful in zoology have been almost entirely neglected by the Botanist in the case of the sporophyte of the various groups of the Vasculares. Here, again, we owe to a Palæohotanist the suggestion of the necessity of cultivating this field (D. H. Scott, ‘Presidential Address, Section K, Brit. Assoc.,’ 1896). A preliminary account of the writer's investigations on the development of the sporophyte was read by Professor Ramsay Wright at the May meeting of the Royal Society of Canada, 1896 (“A Theory of the Morphology of Stelar Structures,” ‘Proceedings of the Royal Society of Canada,' p. 106). A further abstract was published in 1897 (‘Report Brit. Assoc., Toronto,' 1897). On account of the extent of the subject and the difficulty of securing material of fossilized and tropical forms, it has been necessary to publish the work in parts. The first of these appeared in 1899, and was devoted to the Equisetaceæ (‘Boston Nat. Hist. Memoirs.' vol. 5, No. 5). The second, published in 1900, dealt with the Angiosperms (“Morphology of Central Cylinder in the Angiosperms,” ‘Canadian Inst. Trans.,' vol. 6).

scholarly journals XIV. Preliminary notice of additional researches on the cinchona alkaloids.—Part III

1859 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 316-321
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Rotatory Power ◽  
Molecular Rotation ◽  
Cinchona Alkaloids ◽  
Scientific World ◽  
The Subject

Since the author had the honour of presenting to the Royal Society his paper entitled “Researches on the Cinchona Alkaloids,” Parts I. and II., he has been much occupied with a continuation of the subject, and he has arrived at important results, which, although in an unfinished state, he hastens to lay before the scientific world, in order to assure himself of the priority of discovery. Having had occasion to make some experiments upon the rotatory power of the β -quinidin mentioned in the first part of his paper, he arrived at the conclusion that some other feebly dextro-gyrate alkaloid accompanied it, and of a more soluble and less crystallizable character. Consequently, on its further purification by frequent recrystallization from alcohol, the quinidin was obtained perfectly pure; it then had the molecular rotation assigned to it by Pasteur, namely 250°·75. Two examinations have given the following elements:—

Concluding remarks

1977 ◽  
Vol 278 (961) ◽  
pp. 435-436 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Central Nervous System ◽  
Nervous System ◽  
Peripheral Nervous System ◽  
Genetic Influences ◽  
Developmental Problems ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
The Central Nervous System ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Considerable Body ◽  
The Brain

The discussion has shown that plasticity in the nervous system is now a topic that is actively investigated by physiologists and psychologists. When I gave the Ferrier Lecture on the subject 25 years ago it was little understood and what was known was mostly about the peripheral nervous system. We now also have a considerable body of knowledge about plasticity in the central nervous system, even in mammals, which is welcome both for its importance in medicine and for our understanding of the fundamental problems of neuroscience. The brain depends upon different channels responding to different items of information, so the key to understanding it is to find out how the channels become connected. The conference has shown that, as in all developmental problems, heredity and environment both play their part. Every aspect of the brain is ‘doubly dependent’, on genetic influences from within and environmental ones from outside. The capacity to respond during development is presumably itself programmed in the genome. Keating showed how adaptive changes are needed in Xenopus to make the receptors and the nervous system keep pace with the changing pattern of behaviour.

The Historia Piscium (1686)

2000 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Kusukawa
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Financial Support ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
John Ray ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Francis Willughby ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Made In

In 1686, just as Newton was preparing for the publication of the Principia , the Historia Piscium was being printed under the auspices of The Royal Society. The Historia Piscium was a work begun by Francis Willughby (1635–1672, F.R.S. 1663), completed by John Ray (1627–1705, F.R.S. 1667) and brought into print with the financial support of The Royal Society. The text and illustrations of the Historia Piscium reflect the 17th-century origins of the enterprise: Ray's quest to recover the knowledge and language lost in the Fall, and The Royal Society's support for establishing a reformed natural history of fish through publication. Ray's biblical belief in the corruption of human language and knowledge led him to reform natural history through ‘characteristic marks’. He sought to define, classify and depict fishes through their external features, which when matched up, would yield the same nature, and thus allow humans to identify and give a name to a fish. The Royal Society helped Ray's task by confirming the validity or uselessness of a given author on the subject, suggesting other authorities and sources for illustrations, organizing the printing, checking the corrections and paying for the cost of the printing. Subscriptions were sought for the illustrations and the inscriptions of subscribers reflect the Society's concern to promote its institutional identity and its supporters. Some Fellows of the Society also helped Ray with identities and classification of fishes, and changes were made in response to suggestions and objections of other Fellows. Without the intellectual and financial support of the Society, especially Pepys, Lister and Robinson, the Historia Piscium would not have been published in the way that it was. Despite the subscription, however, the Historia Piscium was a costly venture, largely due to its lavish illustrations, and the subsequent flop of sales of the book meant that The Royal Society faced serious financial problems. This is perhaps the main reason why it could not meet the cost of publishing Newton's Principia .

In Pursuit of a New Paradigm (Presidential Address)

1991 ◽  
Vol 30 (4I) ◽  
pp. 337-365
Author(s):  
Syed Nawab Haider Naqvi
Keyword(s):  
Development Economics ◽  
Publishing Industry ◽  
Time Series Data ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Full Length ◽  
Good News ◽  
Series Data ◽  
Economic Knowledge ◽  
The Subject

After 40 years of its birth, development economics has come to be widely accepted - without universal acclaim. In sharp contrast to some pessimistic evaluations of the subject, the academic community has granted it the right to a separate existence. But the recognition has not come easy. From the first full-length evaluation of the discipline by Chenery (1965), in which he looks at it as a variation on the classical theme of comparative advantage, to Stem's (1989) sympathetic review of the contributions that the discipline has made to the state of economic knowledge, development economics has experienced many a vicissitude - both the laurels of glory and the "arrows of outrageous fortune". But, finally, it has become an industry in its own right, of which not only social profitability but also 'private' profitability appears to be strictly positive: the publishing industry continues to patronize it and publish full-length books on the subject. Four decades of development experience, the production of massive cross-country and time-series data about a large number of development variables, the construction of large macro-economic models and fast-running computers, and the application of mathematical methods, have all combined to lay the foundations of a theoretically rigorous and policy-relevant development paradigm, which is gradually replacing the old one. All this is good news for development economists, who can now afford not only bread but also some butter for their daily parsnips .

scholarly journals XIV. On the absorption of gases by solids

1881 ◽  
Vol 32 (212-215) ◽  
pp. 407-408
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Hydraulic Press ◽  
Careful Examination ◽  
Solid Matter ◽  
Chemical Action ◽  
High Pressure And Temperature ◽  
Solid Iron ◽  
Series Of Experiments ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Very High

During the progress of the investigations which I have from time to time had the honour of bringing under the notice of the Royal Society, I have again and again noticed the apparent disappearance of gases inclosed in vessels of various materials when the disappearance could not be accounted for upon the assumption of ordinary leakage. After a careful examination of the subject I found that the solids absorbed or dissolved the gases, giving rise to a striking example of the fixation of a gas in a solid without chemical action. In carrying out that most troublesome investigation, the crystalline separation of carbon from its compounds, the tubes used for experiment have been in nine cases out of ten found to be empty on opening them, and in most cases a careful testing by hydraulic press showed no leakage. The gases seemed to go through the solid iron, although it was 2 inches thick. A series of experiments with various linings were tried. The tube was electro-plated with copper, silver, and gold, but with no greater success. Siliceous linings were tried fusible enamels and glass—but still the' tubes refused to hold the contents. Out of thirty-four experiments made since my last results were published, only four contained any liquid or condensed gaseous matter after the furnacing. I became convinced that the solid matter at the very high pressure and temperature used must be pervious to gases.

scholarly journals Alan F. Williams: an Appreciation

1993 ◽  
Vol 342 (1299) ◽  
pp. 4-5
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Untimely Death ◽  
The Subject

The papers in this symposium form the proceeding of the Royal Society’s Discussion Meeting held in March 1993. As co-organizers and editors, we trust that we have put together a timely, enterprising and enlightening volume which provides a fitting tribute to Alan Williams. It was Alan who first promoted to the Royal Society the subject of CD4 as a topic for one of the Society’s Discussion Meetings and who agreed to be cast in the role of organizer. After Alan’s untimely death, as coorganizers we were given the choice of proceeding with the meeting or not, and it was decided to proceed as a memorial to Alan. We are certain that it was exactly what Alan would have wanted us to do.

scholarly journals Address of the President Sir Robert Robinson, at the anniversary meeting, 1 December 1947

1947 ◽  
Vol 135 (878) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Living Cell ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Scientific Discipline ◽  
New Science ◽  
Scientific World ◽  
Intimate Association ◽  
Scientific Life

The names that have just been recounted include those of many outstanding personalities in the scientific world and it would not be fitting to attempt even brief appreciations of their manifold services on this occasion. An exception must, however, be made when we mourn such giants as two of the deceased Fellows. Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins, O. M., was elected a Fellow of the Society in 1905; he delivered the Croonian Lecture in 1915, was Royal Medallist in 1918 and Copley Medallist in 1926. He was President of the Society from 1930 to 1935. Such are the bare facts, and though we are proud of his intimate association with the Royal Society, we do not now think of a Lecturer, a Medallist, or even of a President. Our memory dwells rather on the lovable qualities and magnanimous spirit of a devoted teacher and leader, and on the influence of his generous help to others as well as of his personal achievements during almost seventy years of scientific life. He was early imbued with the conviction that the chemistry of the living cell was his subject, that it was not only of transcendent importance, but also that it was ripe for development. He dedicated himself to the quest and embarked with enthusiasm on a pioneering voyage of discovery. The outcome of his courage and industry was the foundation of a new scientific discipline, if not of a new science. He was the father of modern schools of biochemistry and was the greatest biochemist of his generation.

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