ACADEMICIAN N. I. VAVILOV AND THE GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF THE USSR

Academician N. I. Vavilov (1887-1943) served as president of the Geographical Society of the USSR from 1931 to 1940. A distinguished plant breeder, geneticist, explorer for wild ancestors of cultivated plants, and geographer, he traveled widely and reported regularly to the Society on his explorations and discoveries. Together with Yu. N. Shokal'skiy, then the honorary president, he brought many new initiatives to the activities of the Society. They arranged for the transfer of the Society from the People's Comissariat of Education of the RSFSR to the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. The First All-Union Congress of Geographers of the USSR was held in 1933, participation in international congresses was arranged, international co-operation was sponsored, membership was increased sharply, sections and commissions were established or revived, a series of public lectures was organized, a lecture hall was opened, and the scientific archives were enriched. Vavilov was especially interested in the work of the Section on History of Geographical Knowledge and participated actively in special issues of Izvestiya of the Society and in commemorative meetings at the Society devoted to individual geographers who had made particularly significant contributions to geographical knowledge (translated by Chauncy D. Harris, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637-1583).     

THE GEOGRAPHICAL THINKING OF N.I. VAVILOV

Much has been published recently about Academician N.I. Vavilov, a seminal scientist with broad horizons. This article is limited to his geographical contributions and interests. His early study of agriculture in Afghanistan revealed his keen powers of field observation and his deep geographic orientation. This work won him the Przheval'skiy Gold Medal of the Geographical Society. He organized a network of experimental stations across the broad and diverse expanses of the Soviet Union to test the geographical limits of crops. He carried out numerous studies of mountain agriculture in many parts of the globe, noting that the isolation and the patchwork of critical environmental conditions in mountains favored the divergence of species, forms, and types of the wild ancestors of cultivated plants. This led to his trail-blazing identification and field investigation of hearths (centers) of origin of cultivated plants, of their diffusion, of areas of ancient agriculture, and to formulation of principles of geographical variability. This work has been continued in recent years by others. Vavilov had close connections with geography, with several geographers, and with the Geographical Society of the USSR (translated by Andrew R. Bond).     

Popular geographies and scholarly geographies in provincial France: the Société Normande de Géographie, 1879–1937

Geographical societies were established in many provincial cities of France during the final quarter of the nineteenth century. Through lectures and publications, these organizations promoted popular geographies at a time when academic geography was in its infancy. The Geographical Society of Normandy was founded at Rouen in 1879 and survived for six decades. Unlike some of its counterparts, it did not provide commercial information after its early years nor did it receive funding from the local chamber of commerce. Its annual Bulletins presented aspects of popular geography at the time and elucidated views held by explorers, colonial administrators and other contributors. Tales of expeditions to distant lands were reported enthusiastically, but assessments of opportunities for European settlement were not always optimistic. European affairs rose to prominence in the life of the Society in the years surrounding World War I. Its popular geographies conveyed in public lectures continued to enjoy success but contacts with academic geographers were intermittent. Largely forgotten geographical societies, such as that in Normandy, played a significant role in raising knowledge of the world before geography became firmly established as a university discipline.     

From the Arctic and Antarctic to ‘the back parts of Mull’: The life and career of William Gordon Burn Murdoch (1862–1939)

Published and archival sources are examined to elucidate the career of William Gordon Burn Murdoch, artist, bag‐piper, explorer, geographer, hunter, Scottish nationalist, traveller, whaler and writer. Burn Murdoch's diverse contributions to geography are discussed, as are the roles he played in the Royal Scottish Geographical Society and other Scottish scientific and literary societies. A preliminary list of his extant original works of art is included.     

Das Reisen ist des Chemikers Lust - auf den Spuren Robert Bunsens. Zu Robert Wilhelm Bunsens 100. Todestag

The article deals with an aspect of the famous German chemist Robert Bunsen which has not been of much notice so far: his journeys. During his stay in Heidelberg (from 1852 on) Bunsen journeyed up to four months a year. Up to the age of seventy-eight, he travelled twice almost every year either in spring or autumn when there were no lectures at the university. He made his journeys for reasons of pleasure and in need of rest from teaching and research. In the 19th century such frequency of travelling was quite unusual even for a bachelor like Bunsen. Beeing an enthusiastic wayfarer Bunsen also travelled far away often, so for example to Italy twelve times (even to Sicily), four times to Scotland and England, and twice to Mallorca. - Bunsen's first nine week journey to Italy in 1843 disappointed him as to its scientific outcome. This journey was a turning-point since he had travelled before for scientific purposes only, beginning with the postdoctoral trip which Bunsen took 1831/32 (sponsored by his sovereign, the king of Hannover) to Berlin, Paris and Vienna for education and information matters. The article sets this journey as well as subsequent travels focusing on science (information, professional communication, experimental team-work) in the framework of continuing academic training. In the end of the 18th and in the 19th century such journeys for further academic education were mainly done at public expense by chemists and geologists as well as by mining and steel scientists to prepare and qualify themselves as either university professors or administrators for mining metallurgical industry. All these various forms of travelling (postdoctoral educational travels at public expense, scientific journeys, meetings for experimental team-work, expeditions, and recreational trips) served the communication within the scientific community. No one who wanted to belong to this community was able to escape such form of communication.     

The first neurological research center: Turner's Lane Hospital during the American Civil War

In March 1805, Franz Joseph Gall left Vienna to start what has become known as his cranioscopic tour. He traveled through Germany, Denmark, and The Netherlands. In this article, we will describe his visit to The Netherlands in greater detail, as it has not yet received due attention. Gall was eager to go to Amsterdam because he was interested in the large collection of skulls of Petrus Camper. Gall presented a series of lectures, reports of which can be found in a local newspaper and in a few books, published at that time. We will summarize this material. We will first outline developments in the area of physiognomy, in particular in The Netherlands, and what the Dutch knew about Gall's doctrine prior to his arrival. We will then present a reconstruction of the contents of the lectures. Finally, we will discuss the reception of his ideas in the scientific community.     

Gall's visit to The Netherlands

In March 1805, Franz Joseph Gall left Vienna to start what has become known as his cranioscopic tour. He traveled through Germany, Denmark, and The Netherlands. In this article, we will describe his visit to The Netherlands in greater detail, as it has not yet received due attention. Gall was eager to go to Amsterdam because he was interested in the large collection of skulls of Petrus Camper. Gall presented a series of lectures, reports of which can be found in a local newspaper and in a few books, published at that time. We will summarize this material. We will first outline developments in the area of physiognomy, in particular in The Netherlands, and what the Dutch knew about Gall's doctrine prior to his arrival. We will then present a reconstruction of the contents of the lectures. Finally, we will discuss the reception of his ideas in the scientific community.     

Harold Laski's International Functionalism: A Socialist Challenge to Federalism

Harold Laski argued for international functionalism from his distinctive socialist perspective. He opposed the existing international system based on the principle of state sovereignty. He also criticised the international federalism proposed as an alternative to the existing system. Although Laski began to devise and present his functionalist case in the 1920s, the circumstances of the following decade led him to adopt and adapt some Marxist ideas and to place less emphasis on functionalism. During and after the Second World War he reconsidered the possibilities for international functional organisation. Although fragmented and undeveloped, his functionalist theory was innovative. By the end of the 1940s he had expressed it in a variety of publications as he reflected on the international conditions of that decade. Unlike what is probably the most well-known functionalist case of the early to mid-twentieth century – that of David Mitrany – Laski's argument bears affinities with the later neofunctionalist theorists. Laski's functionalism was underpinned by the critique of sovereignty which made his political philosophy distinctive. Reasons can be detected for the changes in his attitude to and emphasis on functionalism.     

‘A Shop Window Where You Can Choose the Goods You Like’

This article examines the Finnish industrial and trade fairs held in the Soviet Union in the context of Finnish–Soviet trade and scientific–technical cooperation in the 1950s and 1960s. While primarily focused on fairs, it also discusses different activities that accompanied them, such as lectures, visits, and negotiations between Finnish traders and Soviet officials and specialists. This study illustrates how such first-hand contact played an important role in Finnish–Soviet communications. First, they helped Finnish producers showcase their goods and technologies directly to Soviet buyers in various ministries and organizations. Second, these contacts included diverse activities such as face-to-face contacts, lectures, and seminars, being a means of technology transfer from Finland to the USSR . Finally, although they were commercial interactions without explicit ideological purposes – like many international exhibitions of the last century – Finnish fairs demonstrated a technological gap between Finland and the USSR.     

The international political thought of Martin Wight

The different responses in Great Britain and the United States to Martin Wight as a thinker of international relations reveal something about the contrasting academic cultures of the two countries. Wight was pre‐eminently an ‘arts’ man, regarding history and philosophy as essential prerequisites for understanding the world. Above all he was concerned with the moral dimension in politics, whether domestic or international. His pacifism in the Second World War, curiously linked to his profound sense of realism, reflected deep religious convictions; indeed theology, and particularly eschatology, underlay much of his thinking. His career centres upon first Chatham House and Nuffield College, Oxford, then the London School of Economics and Political Science, and finally the University of Sussex. His lectures at the LSE on international theory achieved legendary fame, but he did not publish much in his lifetime. The appearance since 1977 of four notable posthumous works has enhanced his already high reputation, as has the increasing scholarly interest in the ‘English School’, of which he is now seen as a founding father. Ian Hall's book is a brilliant piece of analysis in which Wight's theological world view—which was not obtrusive in his teaching and writing—is investigated with a sureness that is probably rare among scholars in the international relations field.     

A PORTRAIT OF WALTER MORRISON (1836–1921) TREASURER OF THE PALESTINE EXPLORATION FUND FOR 54 YEARS,RADICAL REFORMER AND SECRET PHILANTHROPIST

Abstract

Walter Morrison (1836–1921) was the treasurer of the Palestine Exploration Fund for 54 years. He was also a major benefactor, funding expeditions, purchasing drawings for the collection, and giving the PEF their house in Hinde Street, Marylebone. This article draws on material from the Morrison archive to provide a fuller picture of Walter, millionaire, radical politician, generous philanthropist, scholar and landowner. His interest in the Bible Lands, Byzantine and the Near East was formed at Balliol where he was taught by the charismatic Benjamin Jowett; his passion for Yorkshire was formed after he inherited the estate of Malham in Yorkshire; his belief in co-operation, parliamentary reform, and religious toleration informed his contribution to the House of Commons and his choice of friends. His obituary in The Times summed him up perfectly, a “man of simple personal tastes [with] an acute sense of the responsibilities of wealth”.     

The boundary dispute between Chile and Argentina

In November 1920, James Young Simpson, Professor of Natural Science in New College, Edinburgh and Trinity College, Glasgow, was invited by the governments of Latvia and Lithuania to chair a commission which would settle the disputed border between the two newly‐independent states. Upon his return to Edinburgh in May 1921, Simpson deposited the papers and final report on the commission's decision with the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, of which he was an active member. This article will explain why and how Simpson came to be involved in diplomatic decisions so remote from his home life and work, and will analyse the significance of the results of Simpson's efforts on the arbitration commission.     

A journey to Mars: John Dewey’s lectures and inquiry in China

ABSTRACT

Instead of the framework of influence–acceptance commonly used in previous studies, the author uses new sources to reexamine John Dewey’s visit to China from the perspective of interactive experience. This study presents Dewey’s lectures in China as the result of interrelationships among a variety of elements – Columbia University, different hosts and audiences, the media, all levels of the Chinese government, the domestic situation in the United States, the international situation, and Dewey’s expectations and work – against the general background of China’s New Culture Movement and new educational reforms. Dewey’s speeches on democracy, science, and new education were remarkably successful in the first year of his visit to China, but began to meet with resistance from some students beginning in June 1920. Because of the Red Scare in the United States, Dewey had to stay in China. In the second year of his visit, he gave warmly welcomed lectures on the same topics in Jiangxi, Fujian, and Guangdong Provinces. With a deeper understanding of China, Dewey not only identified himself with reform plans but also began to pay more attention to China’s economic problems. His inquiry into the problems confronting China is a good example of what he advocated in his lectures: seeing democracy, science, and new education as a way of thinking and carrying out actions and making intellectual choices while moving forward.     

Pavlov and Cajal: Two different pathways to a Nobel Prize

Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936) and Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852–1934) were two contemporary scientists who not only had a great impact on Russian and Spanish science but also on the international stage. Both shared several common features in their life and work, yet they followed fundamentally different paths during their training as scientists. While Pavlov received his laboratory training under the guidance of Ilya Tsion (1843–1912), Cajal did not receive any formal training within a particular laboratory nor did he have a mentor in the traditional sense, rather he was mainly self-taught, although he was supported by key figures like Maestre de San Juan (1828–1890) and Luis Simarro (1851–1921). In this article, we compare the scientific training of these two Nobel Prize laureates and the influences they received during their scientific lives.     

试论章太炎先生与《庄子》研究

章太炎是我国近代史上名的民主革命家、思想家,又是一位享有盛誉的国学大师。他和《庄子》一书早有接触,并在二十余岁时“育其辞,理其训沾,求其义旨”。在流亡日本期间,除了忙于政事之外,他还致力于研究并为留日青年学生讲授《庄子》先后撰成了《庄子解帮》和《齐物论释》等论。特别是在《齐物论释》中,他纳入了西方哲学和佛教思想解释《庄子》,力图以此表述自己的哲学观点。由于时代的局限和章太炎自身存在的问题,无疑他建立起来的哲学体系在理论上存在着严重的缺陷。不过,他研究《庄子》的活动富于新意,给人予启迪。从批判和继承的观点来看,似应给予积极的、实事求是的评价。     

‘Miserable San Damian—But What Treasures!’: The Life of Aleš Hrdlička's Peruvian Collection

This article examines the lives of artefacts collected by physical anthropologist Ale? Hrdli?ka during his expeditions to Peru. In 1910 and 1913, Hrdli?ka travelled to the Andean nation to gather materials that could shed light on the peopling of the Americas, health and disease in pre-Columbian societies, and the purported racial ‘types' of the region. The study focuses on cultural artefacts the scientist acquired, beginning with these materials’ collection as specimens meant to reveal the racial prehistory of the Andes, and continuing with their classification, display, and exchange as museum objects at the Smithsonian Institution. My analysis of Hrdli?ka's Peruvian collection draws attention not only to how scientific representations of Peru and the Andes have shifted over time, but also to the way in which a focus on museum objects can elucidate changing notions about the cultural agency of prehistoric populations and their present-day descendants.     

李旭旦先生的学术思想和贡献及其他——纪念李旭旦先生诞辰100周年

李旭旦先生是人文地理学家、区域地理学家和地理教育家,毕生致力于地理教育和科学研究,培养了几代地理学人才,桃李满天下。他才思敏捷,知识渊博,治学严谨、执着,有较高的学术造诣。学术上他强调人地协调论和统一地理学,提倡区域研究,致力于地理教育理论的建设,创办《地理知识》杂志,曾任德国《GeoJournal》杂志编委,主编《人文地理学》(中国大百科全书分册)、《人文地理学论丛》、《人文地理学概说》,提出白龙江是我国西部南北地理分界线的科学论断,主张把解决现实问题作为人文地理学的主攻方向,重视野外调查,晚年他提出复兴人文地理学的倡议,把我国人文地理学的发展推向一个新的阶段。他是我国现代人文地理学的奠基人。     

Luis Simarro Lacabra [1851–1921]: From Golgi to Cajal Through Simarro,via Ranvier

Knowledge of cerebral structure and function in its modern form can be traced to the neurone doctrine based largely on the work of Santiago Ramón y Cajal [1852–1934] and his lifelong exploitation of the Golgi method. Cajal openly acknowledged his debt to the neuropsychiatrist Luis Simarro Lacabra [1851–1921] who introduced him to the method in 1887, and recalled that the sight of the silver-impregnated nerve cells was the turning point which led him to abandon general anatomy and concentrate on neurohistology. Simarro, who dissipated his free time in trying to improve not only the scientific but also the political world around him, was able to produce exciting Golgi preparations of the cerebral cortex after he returned from voluntary exile in Paris from 1880 to 1885. Certainly it was there that he learned the methods of experimental histology from Louis-Antoine Ranvier [1835–1922] whose laboratory exercises, in the guise of lectures, he attended assiduously.     

H.G. Wells and the New Liberalism

This article offers a new interpretation of H.G. Wells's politicalthought in the Edwardian period and beyond. Scholars have emphasisedhis socialism at the expense of his commitment to liberalism,and have misread his novel The New Machiavelli as an anti-Liberaltract. Wells spent much effort in the pre-1914 period in thequest for a ‘new Liberalism’, and did not believethat socialists should compete directly with the Liberal Partyfor votes. It was this latter conviction that lay behind hismuch misunderstood dispute with the Fabian Society. His politicalsupport for Churchill was one sign of his belief in the compatibilityof liberalism and socialism, in which he was far from uniqueat the time. He also engaged, somewhat idiosyncratically, withthe ‘servile state’ concept of Hilaire Belloc. Althoughhe did not articulate his Liberal identity with complete consistency,he did so with increasing intensity as the First World War approached.This helps explain why key New Liberal politicians includingChurchill, Lloyd George and Masterman responded to his ideassympathetically. The extent of engagement between Wells andthe ‘New Liberalism’ was such that he deserves tobe considered alongside Green, Ritchie, Hobson and Hobhouseas one of its prophets.