No.
4491 November 26, 1955 NATURE 1009
argument as to whether some form of international and sent by air to the West African Cacao Research
organiution for co-ordinating the work of national Institute, Gold Coast, and to the Departments of
associations for the advancement of science and the Agriculture in Malaya, Ceylon and Fiji, and, with
national associations of science writers should be set the exception of a consignment sent to Malaya, are
up. Finally, however, a recommendation was adopted reported to be growing successfully in their new
to the effect that it was undesirable at the present environments. Material of Theobroma and the related
moment to establish an international organization genus Herrania, collected in Colombia in 1952 and
for these purposes, but that Unesco should consider sent to Kew via Trinidad, is now on its way to West
the possibility of forming a consultative committee Africa for the use of plant-breeders there. Various
to further co-operation between the various national banana and cotton collections are also under sur-
associations if this should prove necessary. veillance in the Quarantine House.
Although the Conference produced no definite or A further service to countries of the British
positive conclusions, it was nevertheless valuable in Commonwealth consists in obtaining plants of
showing that the problems of popularizing science potential value. For example, young plants of
vary greatly from country to country, and in bringing ipecacuanha (Oephaeli8 ipecacuanha Rich.) have been
people together with similar interests from many sent to the Departments of Agriculture in Nigeria,
countries. T. A. MARGERISON British Honduras and Malaya for local trials.
Work of a rather different kind consists of research
on the systematic anatomy of the Monocotyledons ;
notes on this important and extensive undertaking
ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW have appeared from time to time in these columns.
Arrangements for the publication of this work in
REVIEW of all aspects of the work of the three volumes, of which the first will deal with the
A Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, during 1954, is
presented in the Kew Bulletin, No. 1, 1955. The
Gramineae, have now been made with the Clarendon
Press, Oxford. A large number of routine inquiries,
past year has been one of sustained progress, but relating to miscellaneous botanical materials, in-
various problems of accommodation remain acute- cluding timbers, archreological specimens, and rubbed
for example, the Palm House, the Herbarium and and powdered herbs, have been dealt with in the
Library-and are receiving close attention. The J odrell Laboratory during the year. Among the more
main activities of the Gardens, however, are being unusual samples were nylon bobbins examined on
maintained with unimpaired vigour. It is impossible behalf of the Board of Customs and Excise, twigs of
to touch on more than a few of these in this short alleged apple trees, most of which proved to be plum
article, but some idea of the nature and volume of suckers, submitted by the laboratory at New Scotland
the problems handled may be indicated by some Yard, and unsatisfactory pick handles which were
selected references. Thus, the specimens received for found not to have been made of the timber that had
the Herbarium, excluding those prepared at Kew been specified.
from living material, amounted to 55,994 ; some The report also deals in some detail with the pro-
9,166 sheets were received on loan; 5,652 were sent gress that has been made in the preparation of the
on loan ; 16,424 sheets were distributed as dupli- several regional floras, and with other taxonomic
cates; and, in all, some 47,780 sheets were mounted studies, and the cultural work in the different sections
(excluding algae, lichens, fungi and bryophyta, and of the Gardens is appropriately reviewed. A compre-
specimens received already mounted). No fewer than hensive list of publications and a staff list conclude
4,077 botanists paid visits during 1954, many of these this interesting and important publication.
being from overseas, attending the Eighth Inter-
national Botanical Congress at Paris. Here, too,
reference may be made to the fact that 2,635
inquiries and plant consignments were dealt with OPINIONS AND SOCIAL PRESSURE
during the year.
As in previous years, important activities were the
identification of economic plant products and the
W HAT _is the effect of the opinions of others on
our own ? How strong is the urge towards
social conformity ? An American psychologist,
supplying of information on economic plants : for Solomon E. Asch, has approached these questions by
example, cinnamon, groundnuts, sesamum, raffia, means of unusual experiments. These, and his find-
balsa, senna, sansevieria, capers, opium poppy, aloes, ings, have been described in the November issue of
patchouli, pepper, ginger, vanilla and cardamoms. Scientific American, which contains a number of
In relation to the present high prices of tea and other articles of outstanding interest as follows :
coffee, various inquiries as to the possibility of "Trenches of the Pacific", by R. L. Fisher and R.
growing these crops in new areas received con- Revelle; "Synthetic Diamonds", by P. W. Bridg-
sideration. man; "Radiation and Human Mutation", by H.J.
For many years the Gardens have rendered an Muller; "'Empty' Space", by H. C. van de Hulst;
important service to scientific agriculture by main- "What makes Leaves Fall ?", by W. P. Jacobs;
taining the Quarantine House, the function of which "Etruscan :\fotallurgy", by A. N. Modora; "Too
is to prevent the spread of diseases and pests during Many Deer", by A. S. Leopold*.
the transference of economic plants from one part of Dr. Asch's investigations were guided by certain
the world to another. Thus, at the present time, underlying assumptions, which to-day are common
varieties of cacao from the Imperial College of currency and account for much that is thought and
Tropical Agriculture, Trinidad, have occupied most said about the operations of propaganda and public
of the available space during the year, these being opinion. The assumptions are that people submit
the most promising of the Imperial College selections uncritically and painlessly to external manipulations
of Trinidad trees and some Amazonian forasteros by suggestion or prestige, and that any given idea or
originally collected on the Upper Amazon. Rooted • Scientific American, 193 (November 1955), 2 West 45th Street,
cuttings from these plants have been suitably packed New York. 50 cents.
© 1955 Nature Publishing Group
1010 NATURE November 26, 1955 voL. 176
value can be 'sold' or 'unsold' without reference to the time. The performances of individuals in this
its merits. Asch has described his experiments as experiment tend to be highly consistent. Those who
follows. strike out on the path of independence do not, as a
A group of seven to nine young men, all college rule, succumb to the majority even over an extended
students, are assembled in a classroom for a "psycho- series of trials, while those who choose the path of
logical experiment" in visual judgment. The experi- compliance are unable to free themselves as the
menter informs them that they will be comparing ordeal is prolonged.
the lengths of lines. He shows two large white cards. The reasons for the startling individual differences
On one is a single vertical black line-the standard have not yet been investigated in detail. At this
length of which is to be matched. On the other card point only some tentative generalizations from talks
are three vertical lines of various lengths. The with the subjects, each of whom was interviewed at
subjects are to choose the one that is of the same the end of the experiment, can be reported. Among
length as the line on the other card. One of the the independent individuals were many who held
three actually is of the same length ; the other two fast because of staunch confidence in their own
are substantially different, the difference ranging judgment. The most significant fact about them was
from three-quarters of an inch to an inch and three- not absence of responsiveness to the majority but a
quarters. capacity to recover from doubt and to re-establish
The subjects announce their answers in the order in their equilibrium.
which t,hey have been seated in the room, and on the Many of the individuals suspected that the majority
first round every person chooses the same matching were 'sheep' following the first responder, or that the
line. Then a second set of cards is exposed ; again majority were victims of an optical illusion ; never-
the group is unanimous. The members appear ready theless, these suspicions failed to free them at the
to endure politely another boring experiment. On moment of decision. More disquieting were the
the third trial there is an unexpected disturbance. reactions of subjects who construed their difference
One person near the end of the group disagrees with from the majority as a sign of some general defi-
all the others in his selection of the matching line. ciency in themselves. which at all costs they must
He looks surprised, indeed incredulous, about the hide.
disagreement. On the following trial he disagrees Which aspect of the influence of a majority is more
again, while the others remain unanimous in their important-the size of the majority or its unanimity ?
choice. The dissenter becomes more and more The experiment was modified to examine this
worried and hesitant as the disagreement continues question. In one series the size of the opposition was
in succeeding trials ; he may pause before announcing varied from one to fifteen persons. The results
his answer and speak in a low voice, or he may smile showed a clear trend. When a subject was con-
in an embarrassed way. fronted with only a single individual who contra-
What the dissenter does not know is that all the dicted his answers, he was swayed little : he con-
other members of the group were instructed by the tinued to answer independently and correctly in
experimenter beforehand to give incorrect answers in nearly all trials. When the opposition was increased
unanimity at certain points. The single individual to two, the pressure became substantial : minority
who is not a party to this pre-arrangement is the subjects now accepted the wrong answer 13 ·6 per
focal subject of the experiment. He is placed in a cent of the time. Under the pressure of a majority
position in which, while he is actually giving the of three, the subjects' errors jumped to 31 ·8 per cent.
correct answers, he finds himself unexpectedly in a But further increases in the size of the majority
minority of one, opposed by a unanimous and apparently did not increase the weight of the pressure
arbitrary majority with respect to a clear and simple substantially. Clearly the size of the opposition is
fact. Upon him are brought to bear two opposed important only up to a point.
forces : the evidence of his senses and the unanimous Disturbance of the majority's unanimity had a
opinion of a group of his peers. Also, he must declare striking effect. In this experiment the subject was
his judgments in public, before a majority which has given the support of a truthful partner--either
also stated its position publicly. another individual who did not know of the pre-
The instructed majority occasionally reports cor- arranged agreement among the rest of the group, or
rectly in order to reduce the possibility that the a person who was instructed to give correct answers
naive subject will suspect collusion against him. throughout.
There are eighteen trials in each series, and on twelve The presence of a supporting partner depleted the
of these the majority responds erroneously. majority of much of its power. Its pressure on
How do people respond to group pressure in this the dissenting individual was reduced to one-fourth.
situation ? First, there are the statistical results of a Most interesting were the reactions to the partner.
series in which a total of 123 subjects from three Generally the feeling toward him was one of warmth
institutions of higher learning were placed in the and closeness ; he was credited with inspiring
minority situation described above. confidence.
Of the 123 put to the test, a considerable per- Was the partner's effect a consequence of his
centage yielded to the majority. Whereas in ordinary dissent, or was it related to his accuracy ? There was
circumstances individuals matching the lines will now introduced into the experimental group a person
make mistakes less than 1 per cent of the time, who was instructed to dissent from the majority but
under group pressure the minority subjects swung to also to disagree with the subject.
acceptance of the misleading majority's wrong judg- Again the results are clear. When a moderate
ments in 36 ·8 per cent of the selections. dissenter is present, the effect of the majority on the
Individuals differed in response. At one extreme subject decreases by approximately one-third, and
about one-quarter of the subjects were completely extremes of yielding disappear. Moreover, most of
independent and never agreed with tho erroneous the errors the subjects make are moderate. To this
judgments of the majority. At the other extreme. extent the subjects broke away from the majority
some individuals wont with the majority nearly all even while bending to it.
© 1955 Nature Publishing Group
No. 4491 November 26, 1955 NATURE lOll
On the other hand, when the dissenter always chose science . Among the publications issued by the
the line that was more flagrantly different from the Brussels Institute during the past eight years there
standard, the results were of quite a different kind. can be counted 1,334 new zoological species. These
The extremist dissenter produced a remarkable freeing are headed by 561 Coleoptera. From the material
of the subjects ; their errors dropped to only 9 p er collected by the Institute's scientific missions, sixty
cent. Furthermore, all the errors were of the moderate n ew botanical species have also been described.
variety. It was concluded that dissent per se increased Recently, an important exploration and inventory
independence and moderated the errors that occurred, have b een made in the National Park of the Garamba,
and that the direction of dissent exerted consistent which lies along the north-west ern section of the
effects. Congo-Nile Divide bordering the Nilotic Sudan. The
Garamba is situated on the confines of two great
bio-geographic areas, the Guinean and the Sudanic.
This recent exploration has b een working on a plan
SCIENTIFIC EXPLORATION OF differing from its predecessors in the other park
THE BELGIAN AFRICAN reserves. The latter were v irtually confined to the
collection of zoological and botanical specimens. The
NATIONAL PARK OF THE Garamba expedition's programme set out to determine
all the characteristics of the biological environment,
GARAMBA including climate and soil, and then to study the
distribution of animals and plants in relation to these
By DR. TRACY PHILIPPS conditions. The insect collection alone of the expedi-
tion amounts to some 1,500,000 specimens. The
number is considerable in view of the sum of the
T EN years before the Second World War, King
Albert of the. Belgians founded the Belgian
African National Parks and the National Parks
work entailed in the preparation of this fragile and
perishable material, which cannot be ready for study
Institute in Brussels for their scientific study ; his before 1956. It will have cost five years in mounting,
scientific adviser was Dr. Victor van Straelen, who in the ecological recording of all the conditions sur-
was until 1954 director of the Royal Institute of rounding each specimen, and in labelling.
Natural Sciences. Dr. van Straelen is president of Competent study of collections of this magnitude,
the National Parks Institute, where he ~arries out essential for serious knowledge of flora and of fauna,
with foresight and energy the founder's purpose, and present great difficulties due to lack of specialists in
to whom the preliminary report of the Garamba various branches of zoology. Thus, several families of
expedition is dedicated by its members. Nominated insects collected in the Albert National Park (between
by the King of the B elgians as British member of the Lakes Kivn and Albert, and including Mount
the Institute, I have for my five-year term taken Ruwenzori) during the exploration of 1933-35 have
part in the scientific administration of the Belgian not y et been examined for lack of available specialists.
African National Parks ; the continuing British The size of the collections from the Belgian African
members are the Hon. Sir Evelyn Baring, Lord National Parks often constitutes a big problem for
William Percy and Lord Willingdon. the scientist who has to examine them. Thus, an
The conservation of natural resources, including American specialist has found himself charged with
the recording of their inter-relation, is the more the examination of 170,000 specimens of Chloropidae,
static of the lnstitute's two main objectives. In the a little fly of which the larvre of some species live in
realm of the natural sciences, the InstitutE,'s more grass thatch or as parasites on non-vertebrate
dynamic part is for the improving of natural know- animals.
ledge of how to reconstitute Nature's ill-used or It is difficult as yet to appreciate the full value of
over-used forces, and how t o re-deploy them by the results of the recent exploration of the Garamba
new methods towards "delivering mankind from R eserve. A complete abstract of the observations
the bondage of ignorance" of himself and his and collections will first be essential to allow of any
surroundings. general conclusion. The botanical specimens being
No organization offers better opportunity than the studied show very numerous species new to the
B elgian African National Parks for uninhibited Congo, and one family new to science. The zoo-
observation of natural surroundings, of what grows logical collections from the Garamba include 46,776
there and of what lives there, inter-related and vertebrates, of which 2,914 are mammals, 3,122
influenced by the total envirornnent. These reserves birds, 4,641 fish, 34,511 frogs, 1,588 reptiles, and a
were most carefully chosen at the conjunction of number of albino bats. One bio-geographical dis-
great zoological and botanical zones, and of the covery has, however, been made. It has long been
meeting places of three main atmospheric currents. observed that there is considerable similarity between
Botanically, the Garamba R eserve lies within Engler's the fish in the basins of the Nile and of the Congo,
Sudanic province, which extends roughly from the without there being any obvious present physical
Senegal River to the foot of the Ethiopian plateau. connexion. The Garamba expedition has now found,
The lnstitute's programme aims at establishing a on the northern border of the R eserve, a marsh
scientific inventory of the fauna and flora of the situated in a gap in the north-western section of the
reserves of which the Government has confided to it Congo-Nile divide; this marsh overflows in the rainy
the administration. Thanks to the work already done season both southward to the Congo towards the
on this plan, it can be said that the areas occupied Atlantic and simultaneously northward into the
by the Institute's four national parks between the Mediterranean basin through the Nile.
Sudan and Rhodesia have become scientifically the H enri de Saeger, who organized and led the
best-known part of the African tropics. Only the Garamba exploration, feels that there is good reason
most careful and systematic exploration enabled these for believing that the results will be found to
results to be reached, and elements of remarkable have brought to science an exceptionally rich con-
interest to be placed at the disposal of organized tribution.
© 1955 Nature Publishing Group
