Reporter 7/7/99: Congregation of the Regent House on 29 June 1999

A Congregation of the Regent House was held this day at 11.15 a.m. The Chancellor was present.

Processions formed in the Schools Arcade at 11.10 a.m., passed round the Senate-House Yard, and entered the Senate-House by the South Door and the East Door.

Music was performed at the Congregation by the Choirs of King's College and St John's College, and by the King's Trumpeters.

Emeritus Fellow of Darwin College, Honorary Fellow of Fitzwilliam College, formerly Head of the Division of Protein and Nucleic Acid Chemistry, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge

Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Philosophy in the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main

Emeritus Professor of Architecture, Emeritus Fellow of Pembroke College, Honorary Fellow of Corpus Christi College and of Churchill College

The Orator delivered the following speeches when presenting to The Chancellor the recipients of Honorary Degrees:

QUALEM uirum hodie commendo et qualem ante biennio binos talis uiros eiusdem populi principes raro fortasse contigerit ut idem collaudarit orator.

huius uiri memorari tempora poterant cum pro concilio ecclesiarum ab epistulis factus, cum prouinciae praefectus, cum Nobeliano praemio pacis ornatus est; reputemus potius quid sit ab eo diligentiae et laboris exspectandum cui tanta mandentur munera, et qua spe, qua patientia sua, quo amore et approbatione praesertim iuniorum hic agat. omnia deo commendat precibus: hinc et a familia fiducia uiresque sunt omnes.

Pastor sum, aiebat; in forum descendere nolo. sed eis prohibitis qui pro parte suorum acturi fuissent, uix alius supererat qui domi foris oraret obsecraret, ut de omni rei publicae ratione quaereret is qui Christum confiteretur istane quadrari cum hoc posset, ut et deum ames et idem uicinum; nam non pro uno sese confiteri Christum quemquam. suauis autem est et uehementer saepe utilis iocus et facetiae;¹ in periculo qui risu utatur fortis sit ualde necesse est. fortiter hic rem gessit et strenue.

uirum reuerendissimum praesento uobis, eundemque quam maxime amandum, Capitis Ciuitatis Archiepiscopum Emeritum, Collegi Dominae Franciscae Sidney Sussex honoris causa Socium,

DESMOND MPILO TUTU

IT falls to very few to present honoris causa both of a pair of men such as have been Archbishop and President of one and the same people. Let us begin the praise of Desmond Tutu propitiously, my Muse, with a hat: a hat once raised in Sophiatown. Young Desmond was walking with his mother, and she was greeted in the street by a white man, a priest, who raised his hat to her. Such a greeting from a white man was amazing. Then came a time of sickness; the boy lay long abed, but he was regularly visited and cheered by that same priest, Father Trevor Huddleston. What model the older man was to the youth is best left to our guest to say: he found his own vocation in that pattern of conviction and discipline.

One could record the high points in his career: secretaryship to the South African Council of Churches, election as bishop and archbishop, the award of the Nobel Peace Prize. It may be better to ponder the long laborious diligence which is the prerequisite for such honours, the passionate, patient hope of the man and the affectionate support he has enjoyed, especially among the young. All that he does he commends to God in prayer; that and his family are the source of his confidence and power.

'I am a pastor,' he would say, 'not a politician.' But the politicians who should have argued their people's cause were all shut up: who else was there to plead and pray, both in South Africa and outside? 'A Christian must ask of any political system,' he used to say, 'how it squares up to Christ's summary of the law, of loving God and loving one's neighbour.' And 'Christianity can never be a merely personal matter.' And then there is his sweet sense of fun, something long known for its virtue in oratory. It takes a brave man to make jokes in the face of danger. This is a brave man, and a true model of the Church Militant.

DESMOND MPILO TUTU,

hic uir a patria, copiosa lataque regione, cum patre puer ipse in exiguam fugit insulam. ibi patre mox mortuo, ludo et litteris cum foro commercioque permutatis domum seruare incepit.

qui probiter patienter prudenter negotiatus adeo egit prospere ut uix credi narrationi rerum tam constanter auctarum possit. primum enim floribus manu faciendis institit, deinde cum uidisset quanto terra in angustiis loci staret iugera emere coepit, tum societate maxima pretio occupata tam sapienter ex illo tempore rem gerit ut negotia iam cum plurimis per orbem terrarum habeat. multum effecit praeterea quo commodius a nostris traderetur ad Seras insulae imperium.

in uita, ait, uiator es nec datur reditus; ego si quid insigne uel reliquero uel interim tribuo, contentus moriar. nec deest mehercle quod tribuit: domus scholas academias aedificatas, ualetudinaria palaestras stadia exstructa, pontes et uias munitas, quorum omnium partem multo maximam ciuibus antiqua pietate dat suis, sed nobis quoque pro re medica insignissimo subuenit beneficio. principis eius fit laudibus dignus qui alternis commeatibus orientem occidentemque conectit ut quae ferunt quaeque expetunt² utrique cognoscant Hippocratae. mouet hunc denique idem qui saepe celebratur a poetis amor patriae:

uirum liberalissimum munificentissimumque praesento uobis, Pacis Iustitiarium, Excellentissimi Ordinis Imperi Britannici Commendatorem, Societatum Cheung Kong et Hutchison Whampoa praesidem,

LI KA-SHING

IN one brief, precisely drawn image Vergil captured the pathos of a family in flight, when 'little Iulus entwined his fingers in his father's, and followed behind with stumbling steps.' Li Ka-Shing was twelve years old when he fled his native province with his father, exchanging a broad and fertile mainland for the confines of an island. At the death of his father three years later he left school and went out to work in order to keep the family in being.

Since then honesty, patience and good judgment have brought ever increasing reward. A tale of success like his verges on the incredible. He first took charge of a firm making artificial flowers. Then, seeing the value of land in a very constricted environment, he started to invest in it. Then came the acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa Limited, an event of great importance in itself and the foundation of what is now a worldwide multi-national business. He has also done much to assist the successful return of Hong Kong to Chinese government.

'In life,' he says, 'one is but a passer-by, and you only go round once. If I can leave something meaningful behind or make a contribution to mankind during my lifetime, I will die content.' That contribution is vast: houses, schools and universities, hospitals and sports facilities, roads and bridges. Almost all of it is given, in accord with traditional piety, for the welfare of his countrymen, but a notable donation has also been made to our Faculty of Clinical Medicine; it may well prompt fruitful exchange of our different medical practices. Above all, love of country is strong in him; it is a love much celebrated by his country's poets.

LI KA-SHING, C.B.E., J.P.,

¹ Night Thoughts, by Li Bai (Li Po).
Before my bed the bright moon shines,
and it seemed like frost on the ground.
I raise my head to the bright moonlight,
and lower it, thinking of home.

uae miseris! quid uero in hoc quidem saeculo non ipsi ante oculos per tabulas repraesentatum conspeximus, plebem uel olim Belgarum cum plaustris in luto uel nunc Illyricorum in montium asperitatibus longo ordine inopia summa laborantem? conspeximus, inquam, sed passi perpauci sumus. multitudo tamen eorum qui fame bello ui patriam deserere coguntur semper augetur, quorum pars maior pauper ad pauperes effugit, nec sufficere potest hospitium.

iam paene L sunt anni ex quo primum rerum tam difficilium curam accipiendam censuere Gentes Consociatae, iam XXX ex quo primum haec femina officium inter eas suscepit. doctrina studio constantia se semper adeo commendabat ut offici alicuius summi capax uideretur esse: numquid cuiquam difficilius mandari poterat quam cura ista miserrimorum? sed optime et de cohorte paucissima quam ducit est merita et de eis quotquot sunt quibus opem ferre conatur: illos iubet exacte et diligenter munus efficere, hos ubicumque uagantur ipsa appropinquat, utrosque hortatur fouet sustinet. laboris dubitandum est an umquam sit finis; sed non magis dignus is labor qui fiat quam digna haec quae tanto consilio tantisque uiribus faciendum curat.

feminam admirabilem praesento uobis, a Gentibus Consociatis Summam Refugientibus Praepositam,

SADAKO OGATA

BY the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.

and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

Pity the refugee! What pictures of their sufferings have we not seen in this century - the people of Flanders over eighty years ago toiling through the mud with their carts, and now the people of Kosovo trudging across rough mountainside, stripped of all they possessed! We have seen these things, but very few of us have suffered them. Yet the mass of those forced out of their countries by famine or war or violence grows and grows, and for the most part it is the poor who flee to the poor, whose hospitality cannot suffice.

It is now nearly fifty years since the United Nations first accepted the burden of this desperately difficult problem, and it is thirty years since this lady first took on a role with the United Nations. Her scholarship, her care and her determination made her always a likely candidate for some high office in the organisation; it is hard to think of a trust more demanding than care of the world's most miserable. She has earned the strongest approbation nevertheless both from her own slender team of workers and from all those she seeks to help. Of her team she demands the highest standards; the refugees she visits herself wherever they may be; she shares with both her gifts of encouragement, support and hope. It must be doubtful if such work will ever end; but the worth of the work to be done is no greater than the worth of the lady who sees it done with such thoughtfulness and such energy.

SADAKO OGATA,

AD morbos defendendos corporis humani prima acies in sanguine instructa est. ibi elementorum quae contraria appellantur multa milia per insidias hostibus aliud alia ui resistunt; est ubi apte inuadentibus accommodata sunt tela, est ubi frustra: res diu casu uidebatur geri. sed ut elementa contraria morbos, ita illa uestigat hic uir. primo in patria educatus, deinde apud nos, tum rursus in patria - sed illinc ui fugatus insidet iam XXXV amplius annos in Elaboratorio Biologiae Molecularis, lauru frequentissima praemiisque cumulatus.

dicitur ingenium eius in uia quasi diuinanda insistere qua quid una prospere procedat aliquando. quaerebatur ratio elementa contraria extra corpus creandi; sed enim cellulae in quibus ea crescebant non in tubulo uitreo munere fungi poterant. eis tamen cellulis quae cancro cessere, quibus Graece nomen est μυέλωμα, durities inesse idonea est uisa. consilium igitur cepit hic uir quo cum his coniunctis cellulis albis e liene muris exceptis una ex duabus naturis conflata¹ pareretur. o rem gratissimam: eis quae erant confusae potestas optata erat tradita, ut et se procrearent in aeternum et uim suam quaeque haberet corporis defendendi!

quae res, et in illa ui corporis humani peruestiganda et in parandis morborum remediis utilissima, Nobelianum est merita praemium. sed altius semper inquirunt Democriti nostri: corpora illa tam numero et genere multiplicia, cum e cellulis tanto minus uariatis creentur, qua ratione tam diuersa pariuntur? iam temptare hic uidetur ipsius arcana naturae.

uirum praesento uobis tam deditum in arte quam clarum, inter uiros Honoratissimos Comitem, Doctorem in Philosophia, Regiae Societatis Sodalem, Collegi de Fitzwilliam honoris causa Socium, Collegi Darwiniani Socium Emeritum, pro Concilio Rei Medicae Inuestigandae quondam inter principes,

CAESAREM MILSTEIN

THE body's front line of battle against disease is drawn up in the blood. Antibodies, as we call them, in hundreds and thousands, all with different powers, lurk in ambush for the foe; sometimes their weapons are well matched to the invaders, sometimes not. For long it seemed a matter of chance. But those antibodies have their own pursuers, among them Dr Milstein. He began his studies in his native Argentina, and then came to Cambridge. His return to Argentina was ended by a military coup. Ever since then he has worked for the Medical Research Council here, and he is the recipient of many medals and prizes.

Dr Milstein's great skill, it is said, is that 'he has a feel for choosing the one line of enquiry which will eventually deliver the goods.' For instance, there was a problem in making antibodies artificially: the cells responsible for producing them could not be made to function in a test tube. But certain cancer cells, called myelomas, seemed to be sturdy enough. The plan was to fuse white cells taken from mouse spleen with the cancerous cells. Goods delivered: each successfully fused cell had the power of the one cell to reproduce itself without variation and the antibody specificity of the other!

That is the discovery, useful both in further investigation of the human immune system and in the pharmaceutical industry, which won the Nobel prize. True scientists press on, however. Antibodies, which are myriad in number and sort, are secreted from cells of limited variety: what is the power that brings forth such diversity? So he goes on, searching the secrets of creation itself.

I present to you a man as devoted to his field of study as he is distinguished in it,

CÉSAR MILSTEIN, C.H., PH.D., F.R.S.,

Honorary Fellow of Fitzwilliam College, Emeritus Fellow of Darwin College, formerly Head of the Division of Protein and Nucleic Acid Chemistry in the M.R.C. Laboratory of Molecular Biology

ERANT olim, ut fortasse quis a puero recordetur, ualuae quae nuncupantur, quibus ad auris uoces quamuis procul emissae transferrentur. nunc sunt transistores ut dicuntur, inauditum atque insolens uerbum quod non tamen fugio.¹ eis est materies silicea natura in formam crystallinam magnae integritatis educta, deinde in segmenta diuisa, tum coriis alio alius generis operta sed partim rursus detecta. segmentis nomen est assula: iniecta ui electrifera, nuntii innumerabiles summa celeritate perturbatione nulla mitti possunt. potestas earum ut semper augetur, ita minuitur magnitudo: iam partes interiores una luminis unda diuiduntur.

L iam sunt anni post primam ornatam assulis machinam computatricem. ut Romani imperium dicuntur L modo annis instituisse suum, ita eodem tempore iam dominantur in nostram rem assulae, quo tempore cursum et euentum earum animaduertit hic uir. primum rerum natura et materia eruditus, unde interiores partis qua facultate cuiusque rei quoque ordine disponerentur cognouerat, mox in assulis uersabatur ea constantia eo pretio ea multitudine fabricandis ut in promptu uenum irent. tum legem illam clarissimam fabricationis edidit: transistorum quos in assulam insereres numerum quotannis duplicari; qua lege, paulum modo emendata, ex eo tempore gubernatur tota res forensis assularum.

futura quis audeat dicere? apte ostendit hic uir, in essedo fabricando si res ritu assularum processisset, fore ut in urbem eo usus puncto temporis, non horis, aduenires, et redires usus altero: nam maiore pretio staret essedi mansio quam emptio.

uirum praesento uobis tam prudentem quam doctum, Societatis Intel inter Conditores et Praesidem Emeritum,

GORDON MOORE

ONCE upon a time, as some may remember from their childhood, there were things called valves. They brought within earshot sounds made far away. Now we have transistors, a portmanteau word, from transfer and resistor. They are made with silicon, which is grown into crystals of great purity, cut into slices, and covered with layers of various materials, then partly stripped away again. The slices are called chips; add an electric circuit, and countless messages can be imparted at enormous speed with no confusion. The chip's capacity has grown in inverse proportion to its size: in its inner organisation we already use measures of one wavelength of light.

It is now fifty years since the first computer was equipped with chips. Polybius observed that the Romans established their empire in the space of fifty years: in the same space of time the chip has established its dominion with us, and its progress through this period has been the special interest of Dr Moore. He took his doctorate in both Chemistry and Physics; hence his knowledge of the potential in materials like silicon. Soon he turned his attention to the engineering of chips. A mass commercial future for them depended upon the quantity that could be made both cheaply and reliably. Then came Moore's Law: the number of transistors that a chip can take doubles every year. That law, recently revised, has governed the making and marketing of chips ever since.

It would be a bold man who looked far ahead. As Dr Moore has neatly pointed out, if the design and manufacture of cars had gone ahead as fast as that of chips, you would drive to London in seconds, not hours, and you would come back in a different car, because parking the first would be more expensive than buying a second.

GORDON MOORE,

IN litteris fabulisque uersatur haec femina. ei qui ita scribat duas porrigit figuras:

ex illo cognoscatis artem scribendi ab ipsa et penitus intelligi - est uero cum subtilis ueterum iudex¹ tum utilis recentiorum - et assidue exerceri. immo inter primos est nostrorum qui litteras profitentur: numquis libros illos ignorat quibus Virgo in Hortulo nomen est, Vita Suspensa, Possessio? hunc iam praemiis cumulatum non modo ad hoc finxit aeuum sed etiam est praeteriti saeculi mores linguam numeros imitata; nam persona poetae introducta uersus quoque eius arte mirabili creauit. fierine potest ut ipsa aliquando uates esse tamquam Durotrix ille uideatur?

quae quidem ut quasi genium quendam in se colit locorum rerum nominum curiosissimum, ita uoluntati fortunaeque dat locum. qualis ipsa sit eam proxime ut opinor sub persona uideritis aut Stephaniae, quam uis quaedam inuasisse dicitur accuratius contemplandi, aut inuestigatricis illius fabularum (itane sese dissimulat?) quae fontem originemque narrandi uersibus his docebat:

docebat tum genium quendam, qui captus in alabastro - sed longius ipse digredior fabula captus.

Praesento uobis Baccalauream in Artibus, Excellentissimi Ordinis Imperi Britannici Dominam Commendatricem, Regiae Litterarum Societatis Sodalem, Collegi Newnhamensis honoris causa Sociam,

ANTONIAM SUSANNAM BYATT

THE business of our next guest is literature. She offers us two metaphors for writing novels. 'One is of feathers - being preened, until the various threads, with their tiny hooks and eyes, have been aligned and the surface is united and glossy and gleaming. The other is of a fishing net, with links of various sizes, in which icons are caught in the mesh and drawn up into consciousness - they come up through the dark, gleaming like ghosts or fish or sparks, and are held together by the links.'¹

Clearly the art of writing is something she understands intimately - she has done fine work on Iris Murdoch, and on Wordsworth and Coleridge - and also something she practises with devotion herself. She is one of our foremost literary figures, best known for her novels Virgin in the Garden, Still Life and Possession. Possession has won prizes; it offers in a context of contemporary life a recreation of times past with their own due patterns of behaviour and speech, and even with their own poetry: for in creating a poet she has also written his verse, a remarkable achievement. Perhaps a Hardian transformation is upon us.

She has a huge respect for the detail of place and thing and word - for the 'solid objects and quiddities' of the English language; she acknowledges too more accidental literary promptings. There is much of her, in my view, in the character of Stephanie, who 'suffered from an excess of exact imagination;' or read The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye, a short story about a lady narratologist (faint disguise) who tries to explain her business by quoting

She was explaining herself to a djinn, who, caught in a perfume bottle - but I digress, caught in the mesh of story.

ANTONIA SUSAN BYATT, D.B.E., B.A., F.R.S.L.,

¹ Memory and the Making of Fiction, in Memory edd. Patricia Fara and Karalyn Patterson.

IUSTUS, ait propheta, in sua fide uiuet. iustum uirum hunc esse e fide apparet; fidem si quaeritis, rationi qua praediti natura sint homines affirmandae et arguendae cognoritis eum totum deditum, idque eis temporibus cum spretam uel detortam uel dubitatam praesertim in patria uidebat. dignum eum esse qui inter eos habeatur agnoscimus qui quasi lumen scientiae quoddam attulerunt ad naturam et mores societatis humanae accurate perfecteque penetrandos; quorum inter Germanos maior exstitisse uidetur numerus quam usquam alibi ex quo primum erupit apud Graecos philosophandi studium.

at qua norma ualet mos? quo fit iure facinus iustum? itane effici potest ut ratione potius usi quam ui uiuamus inter nos? talia secum iamdudum reputans hic uir breui quidem sic fortasse respondeat, ingenio quo quid inter nos communicare possimus eo inhaerere rationem, adeoque praeualere posse meliorem ratiocinationem ut consensio fiat. sed uia longa reputandi et multiplex est, nec iam in omnibus partibus munita: sed si quis uult sequi, pro mansionibus ut ita dicam et deuersoriis libros inueniet, quorum duos praecipue, de consilio communiter agendi et de perpetua ratione sapientium conscriptos, qui legerit percurrat.

multae uariaeque necesse est in opere tanto suppeditent doctrinae, quibus si quando dubitatum est rectene hic pro consuetudine cuiusque utatur, quid mirum? multo magis hoc praestat, quod inter scopulos illecebrasque dubitantium clauum rectum tenet¹ seruatque rationem. adhuc uisus procul, et apparebit in finem et non mentietur.

uirum summae humanitatis praesento uobis, Sociologiae et Philosophiae in Vniuersitate Johann Wolfgang Goethe Francofurtensi ad Moenum Professorem Emeritum,

JÜRGEN HABERMAS

'THE just man shall live by his faith,' says the prophet.¹ The justice of this man is plain from his faith, and his faith is in the essential rationality of man. He has devoted all his life to asserting it and arguing it, even though he has lived in a period when, particularly in his own country, reason has been variously despised, distorted or doubted. We count him among the thinkers of the Enlightenment, who have sought full and careful analysis of the nature and morality of human society. The German contribution to the Enlightenment is perhaps, in number and quality of thinkers, matched only by that of ancient Greece in the dawn of philosophy.

But what makes a norm valid? What makes an action just? Is it possible to fashion a way of living together based on reason rather than force? Professor Habermas has been pondering such questions for half a century. A short answer might be that reason is inherent in our human capacity to communicate with each other: a superior argument can have power to achieve consensus. The path of analysis has been long and complex, however, and is not yet fully prepared; but its waystages are there for followers in the shape of his books, chief among which we note The Theory of Communicative Action and The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity: 'he who reads may run.'¹

So great an undertaking must draw on many different disciplines. It will be no surprise to hear that this man's interpretations of them are sometimes disputed; far more important, amid siren voices of scepticism, is his steadfast championing of reason. 'The vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie.'¹

JÜRGEN HABERMAS,

Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Philosophy in the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main

GEORGIO tertio eius nominis rege mortuo bibliothecam Museo Britannico ea condicione legatam tradidit filius ut a populo inspici posset. nouam Britannicam librorum aedem cum hic uir parabat condiciones erant innumerabiles et ab ipso ad opus apte et eleganter exstruendum et ab aliis impositae, sed regia illa princeps fuit. nam libros eius in aede media spectare licet in turri uitrea conditos rubro giluo nigro colore spinarum auroque tenuissimo refulgere. totum est artis summae consilium, opus summae patientiae.

sermonis egestate praecisus hoc a uobis peto, ut ipsi cum exteriores tum interiores partis uisum eatis. nullum magnificentius hoc saeculo dicitur aedificatum aedificium. omittite insciorum conuicia, sordes senatus si potestis despicite, inuenite potius monumentum aere ligno lapide uitro latere exactum quo nullum aptius ad munus est, nullum amplius spatiis formaque concinnius. eius fortasse misereat qui proxime sancti Pancrati mansionem aedificet, sed etiam ad istam uicinitatem congruenter facit.

'in usu ratio.' sic dixit uir sapiens quem citare hic solet. quibus usus est bibliothecae laudes gratesque agunt. sed ex uno tamen eoque tam multiplici difficilique opere famam laudesque tantas mereri paene mirum esset, nisi mereretur uir non modo in arte exercenda profitenda illustranda tam promptus sed etiam pictura philosophiaque recentiore tam eruditus. Bibliothecae Britannicae nimirum dicetur a posteris auctor: maturitatis opus est. est et amoris opus; iam enim architectum citare oportet quem admiratur ante omnis: 'fenestram cum parabis finge prospectantem' is ait 'puellam tuam.'

Praesento uobis Equitem Auratum, Magistrum in Artibus, Architecturae Professorem Emeritum, Collegi Pembrochiani Socium Emeritum, Collegiorum Corporis Christi et Churchilliani honoris causa Socium,

COLIN ALEXANDRUM ST JOHN WILSON

IN 1823 George IV handed over to the British Museum the library bequeathed it by his father on condition that the public should be able to see it. The building of the new British Library was subject to countless conditions, some of the architect's own making to satisfy criteria of good design, and some imposed by others, but George III's will came first. You may see the royal collection at the heart of the building kept safe in a tower of glass, the bindings resplendent in red, cream and black, and gleaming with gold-leaf. The whole design is a piece of the highest art, its achievement a piece of the highest determination.

Words will not suffice. You need to go and see it, inside as well as outside. People are calling it our greatest building of the century. Forget the jibes of the ignorant, overlook if you can the meanness of governments, and find instead a monument of brick, bronze, glass, stone and wood all directed to their purposes with admirable judgment, all shaping space with beauty. To build beside St Pancras was no small challenge, and yet even that juxtaposition is brought off with tact.

'The meaning lies with the use,' said Wittgenstein, and Sir Colin accepts that doctrine. The Library's users are loud in gratitude. It may seem remarkable that a single building, especially one of such complexity and toil as this, should have won its author the extensive praise that it has; but then, this architect is a remarkable man. His skill in practice, in profession and in discussion of his art is well matched by his knowledge of contemporary painting and thought. He will be remembered of course as the architect of the British Library: it is the work of his maturity. It is also a work of love. In the words of the architect whom he most admires, Alvar Aalto: 'When you are designing a window, imagine your girl-friend looking out of it.'

Sir COLIN ALEXANDER St JOHN WILSON, M.A., R.A.,

Emeritus Professor of Architecture, Emeritus Fellow of Pembroke College, Honorary Fellow of Corpus Christi and Churchill Colleges

DICITUR Socrates, acutissimus homo, pedes inuestigauisse quot suos saltare posset pulex. non modo quot saltet sed etiam qua machinatione cognouit haec femina: ostendit enim inesse cruribus uim maximam saltandi sed altera subueniri ui, ab apparatu alarum (quae iam ipsae omnino desunt) tradita quo potentior fiat impetus surgendi et ascensus ocior; quam uim in arcu laterum esse congestam. nempe si cui crura et apparatus is esset qui pulici, surgere ad summam tabellariorum posse turrem, idque triciens miliens sine intermissione.

haec se ipsa docuit et multa alia eius modi, domi potius quam in academia. nam et auunculo, cuius uitam alacri pietate conscripsit, et patri naturae studium simile fuit, illi maiorum animalium, huic pulicum; quorum genere uario et frequenti ab eo collecto Museoque Britannico legato indicem haec sex omnino libris edidit.

si more uidetur praeterito rem agere, caue te fallas: non enim modo partibus uelut exploratoris actis multa in praetorium refert omni philosophorum acumine perscrutanda, sed ipsa nouissimam secuta uiam indagatur quo pacto et consuetudine animalium plantarumque genera diuersa in una consocientur terra: cur non pariat cuniculi pulex nisi hospite praegnante, uel cur creato in herbis ne deuorentur ueneno bestiolae tamen ingesto inuicem tueantur sese.

pulex an pedis uter praestet non referre opinatum uirum doctum haec refellit, argumentationibus sapienter elaboratis eleganterque conscriptis. quale interim domi familiaribus et propinquis hospitium, id iam horti papilionibus ex copia naturae sicut antiquae Cereris uice functa largitur.

feminam honorabilem praesento uobis, sermone lepido benignoque ingenio, Excellentissimi Ordinis Imperi Britannici Commendatricem, Regiae Societatis Sodalem,

MIRIAM LVDOVICAM ROTHSCHILD

THE distance a flea can jump, measured in flea feet, is a question said to have interested that sharp-minded man Socrates. This lady knows not only the answer but also the means: most of a flea's saltatory power resides in its legs; but a secondary source of energy is derived, as she has shown, from the residual wing apparatus (fleas no longer have actual wings), which increases the power and accelerates take-off. The energy is stored in the pleural arch. A man equipped as a flea could jump the Post Office tower, and he could do it thirty thousand times without a break.

Miriam Rothschild has been in these researches, as in much else, essentially self-educated; she learnt at home, and never went to university. Family sufficed. Both her uncle, whose biography she has written in loving and lively fashion, and her father had an interest in natural history. Uncle collected large animals; father collected fleas, a collection of great size and variety which he left to the British Museum. The six-volume catalogue is his daughter's contribution.

Natural history may seem a rather outdated activity. Far from it. Not only is there still plenty to do in the field anyway, observing what to bring back to base for detailed investigation, but Dr Rothschild is as good a scientist as a naturalist; she has been engaged on a topic of great contemporary interest, the close relationship of certain plants and animals in shared territories. How, for instance, is procreation in the rabbit flea linked to procreation in its host? How do insects which feed on plants with a toxin in them meant to ward off predators use that very toxin to protect themselves in turn?

'Sir,' said Dr Johnson, 'there is no settling the point of precedency between a louse and a flea.' We refute him thus, with the shrewdness of this lady's research and the elegance of its expression. Her house at Ashton Wold is well known for its hospitality to family, friends and neighbours; its garden is now a sanctuary for butterflies, and there she presides like some Ceres of old, mistress of nature's bounty.

MIRIAM LOUISA ROTHSCHILD, C.B.E., F.R.S.,